Chapter 192
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 192
Chapter Title: The Heavenly Demon Whispered Through Starlight (3)
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The speed at which information spread across the Central Plains was remarkably fast.
Unlike the old days when communication was limited to messenger pigeons, the martial world of today had Murim Talk and even galleries.
No matter where a rumor started, it spread throughout the entire Central Plains in an instant, and debates over its truth or falsehood quickly erupted.
Naturally.
The first signs of change appeared in—
Why are the Demonic Cult guys so quiet lately? Did they all crash and burn as a group?
Weren't they the ones always going paaaang lololol noooong lolol while sexually harassing their own cult leader?
No surprise worship sightings lately, so it feels kinda empty;;
Maybe I'm not really from Wudang... maybe I've always loved the Demonic Cult...?
What kinda new herbivore bullshit is this?
Demonic Cult guys are in Xi'an yy
???? Why the hell are they in Xi'an?
Not even a month ago lol, saw 'em from afar. Leader was seriously stacked, started rooting for Demonic World Domination on the spot.
The Heavenly Demon whispered that anyone who speaks ill of the Leader or Sub-Leader will fall into hellfire. We have all repented.
For real?
What kinda concept is this? Heavenly Demon actually real?
Nah, they found one breathing at the Heavenly Demon Tomb on that peninsula next door.
—The gallery.
In a way, it was only natural.
Whenever they got bored, they'd grab a passing righteous faction gonik by the hair and beat them to death.
It was the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult's secret organization, the Special Intelligence Unit, that had been posting troll threads like "Honestly, among the Three Great Sword Gates, Mount Hua is the strongest yy" on the streams to stir up gang fights.
Of course, they never forgot to upload photos capturing the Leader's graceful form to incidentally show their devotion.
- Do not profane your leader by allowing the unspecified masses to utter his name.
The Heavenly Demon had whispered through starlight, issuing a blanket ban on all such activities.
The result?
The Central Plains Martial World Gallery had become remarkably clean.
Any martial artist using the gallery could easily infer that something had happened within the Demonic Cult.
"There were suspicious movements near Heavenly Mountain, and it seems like there's definitely trouble brewing inside the cult."
"The current Leader is still confirmed to be staying in Xi'an, but the Sub-Leader's whereabouts are unknown. Perhaps internal strife over power."
"There's a rumor that the Heavenly Demon has returned, but we need to verify that more thoroughly."
The Murim Alliance's intelligence division was abuzz with similar debates.
Of course, even though the Demonic Cult's recent actions had mostly been friendly toward the righteous factions, it was hard to shake off the lingering unease when looking at the bigger picture.
"Have they abandoned their two-faced wildfire tactics...?"
A few years since Cheon Yuri had ascended as Leader weren't enough to completely erase the deep-seated enmity between the righteous and demonic factions.
And then.
Not just the gallery—another place where information had been steadily accumulating saw a new change.
Most people would tilt their heads wondering if such a page even existed, but the Martial Wiki did indeed have a "Heavenly Demon" entry.
Of course, purely in terms of content, it was classified as a stub with under 450 characters.
On a page that had seen virtually no edits.
Third Great Heavenly Demon: Heavenly Peter
A very simple single line had been added, along with a blurry photo that looked like it was taken from afar.
Regular users would think some idle Demonic Cult nuts had lost their minds waiting for the Heavenly Demon, and who the hell names him Peter when he's from the Central Plains?
"Hm...?"
Unlike the rigid righteous factions, she was a flexible thinker from the unorthodox schools, with a hobby of browsing and editing the Martial Wiki.
Seo Dohee had just subdued the 693rd vandal blocking her rightful edits when she stumbled upon that page.
And then.
Along with the distant shot of the man in the photo.
The small figure beside him.
...And finally, the blurry shape of the puppy the girl was hugging.
"...Geum Sihyeon...?"
She couldn't help recalling the man who perfectly matched the intersection of those three elements she'd already observed.
It had been a full week since I'd been treated like an evil god worshipped by these uninvited cult fanatics.
In that time, I hadn't really done anything noteworthy as the Heavenly Demon.
At best, getting beaten under the guise of training befitting a Heavenly Demon by Elder Jang Il-gyeom.
Grandma had educated me the same way, beating knowledge into my body, and now I finally understood where that teaching method came from.
Otherwise, about two days ago, I'd put on a Heavenly Demon show in front of all the cultists and delivered one round of my second plagiarized poem speech.
The rest of the time, I'd been holed up in the Leader's quarters.
Not that I'd been doing any Leader duties.
"Yeah. Do it."
"Nah. No."
"Snack... gone?"
"Eh. Table it."
Unlike a true cult where the Heavenly Demon doubles as Leader, the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult had a proper separation of church and state.
So I just had to quietly watch as Sub-Leader Cheon Luri handled the cult's affairs with her carefree mews.
Whether her doubled vocabulary from those two syllables had boosted her processing skills, or she'd just been slacking off as mascot in the student council.
Luri's administrative abilities were surprisingly decent.
Simple decisions on the spot.
Tough ones tossed straight to Cheon Yuri.
A shining example of iron rice bowl bureaucracy!
Of course, her posture as Leader proxy making those weighty calls was a bit sloppy.
"Mmm..."
"Eep."
"Quuung..."
She was stuck to my body like chewing gum, wafting a sweet scent, while tightly hugging a puppy in her arms.
Divine Maiden above the Heavenly Demon, divine beast above the Divine Maiden.
A triple stack like that.
Good thing her legs perfectly blocked any view of the Leader's face, hiding this mess.
Anyone else seeing it would peg me as a total perv.
Click—
"Photo... bad."
"Eep."
As if reading my mind, this crafty little beast snapped a photo of the scene anyway.
But the peace didn't last.
The Seventh Elder of the cult, Seok Chung-myeong—my first victim in the Heavenly Peter show—came rushing in panting, prostrating himself before the Leader's quarters and shouting.
"Sub-Leader! The fox demon we locked in the Thunder Prison—"
Wasn't it supposed to be ironclad, impossible for anyone to escape?
.
.
.
The moment I stepped into the Thunder Prison, I instantly understood what had happened.
"Argh, what a shit-stirrer."
"Luri's been good lately."
"Not you."
I'd clearly seen her livestreaming from the Ten Thousand Great Mountains just yesterday with my own eyes.
What were the limits of jiangshi arts?
Watching Hong Soon-deok—the ultimate shit-stirrer I knew—her jiangshi hopping all over the Thunder Prison made my head spin.
Well...
"Kyao— so fragrant."
Jiangshi arts were completely subordinate to the Northern Bright Divine Art from the start.
Unless it had power on par with Hong Soon-deok's main body, just touching those jiangshi made them crumble to powder.
Stepping inside.
"Ugh, look at all this fur flying."
The "human anchor force"... Ho Yeonhwa, was it? Anyway, her cell was empty except for fur.
"...Her belongings?"
"F-Fortunately, they're safely stored in the Secret Pavilion...!"
The Thunder Prison warden—an old elder guy—was trembling, face pale like his head might roll any second.
Well...
Hong Soon-deok was a natural disaster.
"There was negligence in management, but how can we blame a single individual? It's my oversight. Handle the cleanup properly."
"H-Huh...! Your wisdom...!"
Leaving the elder who bowed deeply and started directing the cultists in a massive cleanup, I strode with dignity through the now-familiar Heavenly Demon Divine Cult halls.
Destination: the Secret Pavilion.
"Heavenly Demon, have you arrived?"
Receiving the Secret Pavilion master's grand bow, I entered and sat for a moment.
"Here are the analysis results on apostate Ho Yeonhwa's smartphone."
A neatly organized stack of documents was placed in my hand.
Let's see.
What had our Itachi human anchor been up to?
Skimming past the Murim Talk chats with zero regard for privacy, I flipped straight to the summary page.
"Heh."
A groan escaped me involuntarily.
Well, I'd expected Blood Cult ties, but her being a Yao Demon? That was a surprise.
And moreover.
"How reliable is this?"
"Considering the events when that impostor briefly stayed with us... It's fragmentary, but we can take it as mostly accurate."
The Blood Cult's shit-stirring scale was bigger than I'd imagined.
Well, if you nitpick, I was originally some barbarian from far-off Joseon soil, and I had no intention of spouting outdated nonsense like barbarians can't be warriors.
But scheming Mongolia to shake the entire north? That wasn't the plan of any sane mind.
And from the details, their preparations there seemed already complete.
"If I may humbly suggest... might it benefit the cult to let that plan proceed?"
Probably.
If I were truly the Demonic Cult's Heavenly Demon, it would make sense.
Not lifting a finger while the righteous martial world exhausted itself would be the perfect opportunity.
No exaggeration.
Just show up late to the bloodbath and reap the fisherman's benefits.
But.
"...Time to prepare to leave the cult."
Geum Sihyeon couldn't do that.
Judging from the confirmed plan.
Their most immediate target was the Moyong Family.
Moyong Taek and Moyong Seol's home clan.