Chapter 251
Chapter 251
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 251
>Chapter Title: Nightmare (1)
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Somewhere in Baekhak Mountain. A dense thicket far removed from the Heavenly Demon's Secret Cave.
A middle-aged man pushed through the bushes with a bizarre gait, and before long, the foliage thinned to reveal a wide clearing.
At its center stood a massive altar. Two elders sat nearby, while several people hurried about various spots in the clearing.
The man who had reached the spot hidden by a formation rushed toward the altar, dropped to one knee, and paid his respects.
“I’ve come to see the elders.”
The elders seemed uninterested in the man’s courtesy. The stocky one among them asked,
“How’s the situation outside?”
“By my reckoning alone, over a thousand people have entered Baekhak Mountain so far.”
“The Tang Clan, Qingcheng, and Emei?”
“…No additional ones beyond the initial entrants.”
As the subordinate bowed his head in report, the elder lightly clicked his tongue.
“They’re as cautious as ever. Not stepping up even for something like this.”
The combined number of Tang Clan, Emei, and Qingcheng martial artists who had entered Baekhak Mountain fell just short of one hundred fifty.
Each sect had dispatched around forty or fifty members. The clan heads or sect leaders—the most renowned masters—hadn’t made an appearance.
“Compared to their numbers, it’s barely a tenth at best.”
The stocky elder spoke with a look of regret, and the old man beside him added in a soothing tone,
“But they weren’t riffraff, were they? They sent elites of their own, so in terms of combat strength, it’s more like two or three tenths.”
The old man ended with a sinister smile.
“And besides, we’ll get to watch the rest die with our own eyes, won’t we? Fifth Elder.”
“Hahaha. Third Elder has the right of it! If they’d all fallen into this trap and perished, it would’ve been a shame instead.”
The old man laughed heartily before turning to gaze at the altar behind him.
“Once that’s complete, sweeping Sichuan will be child’s play.”
“Not just Sichuan.”
The gaunt old man called Third Elder nodded and continued,
“With over a thousand martial artists gathered, it’s about time we made preparations.”
A grand ritual that would demand the blood of thousands of commoners. But they had prepared a trap aimed solely at martial artists.
“It’s time to begin the vengeance we’ve nurtured for decades in hiding.”
As Third Elder spoke with a venomous glint in his eyes, Fifth Elder rose to his feet and replied,
“Focus on the grand ritual. If need be, I’ll step forward myself.”
* * *
Baekhak Mountain’s foothills.
Figures clad in black uniforms mingled with ragged beggars as they ascended the slopes using lightness skill.
“Phew. I can’t help worrying if the bloodshed has already broken out.”
Beggar Clan elder Chu-gae, his sash knotted eight times, muttered anxiously. Bi-ryong Pavilion Master Jeong Yeong replied in a reassuring tone,
“Don’t worry. We’re not that late yet.”
“…I hope you’re right.”
Chu-gae’s response trailed off.
He wasn’t staring outright, but he couldn’t conceal his lingering unease.
When the Martial Alliance’s Bi-ryong Pavilion had agreed to intervene at Rear Division Head Hu-gae’s request, he’d assumed things would proceed smoothly.
Yet once they’d actually reached Sichuan, Pavilion Master Jeong Yeong’s demeanor felt subtly off.
They’d set out to uncover traces of the Blood Cult, only for their efforts to yield empty results time and again.
‘Was the Bi-ryong Pavilion Master always this sloppy?’
As doubts mounted about Jeong Yeong and his pavilion, rumors of the Heavenly Demon’s Secret Cave reached their ears.
Chu-gae had insisted on seeking out Jang Bo-do immediately, but Jeong Yeong saw it differently.
“Charge headlong into a potential Blood Cult trap? We need to trace the rumors to their source, not hunt for the cave itself.”
It had sounded reasonable enough, so they’d pursued the origin of the rumors.
But things had gone subtly astray multiple times once more. Failing to track it down, they’d arrived at Baekhak Mountain belatedly like this.
Chu-gae couldn’t help feeling uneasy as a result, while Jeong Yeong inwardly swallowed his own regrets.
‘My apologies, Chief Strategist. Dragging this out any longer looks too risky.’
He wasn’t concerned about bloodshed erupting due to his own delays.
Rather, he worried they’d arrive too soon—before any real bloodshed—and the Beggar Clan would shut it all down prematurely.
* * *
Near the entrance to the Heavenly Demon’s Secret Cave.
Slash!
After felling three assassin squad members in quick succession, Il-mok launched himself straight at the Tang Clan elder.
“Urk.”
Tang Cheol-jin, who’d been pressing Hwang Bo-yeon, let out a groan at the unexpected interruption and fell back.
Even as a surprise attack, it was a ferocious thrust difficult to parry easily. Tang Cheol-jin scowled and bellowed,
“Who the hell are you people!”
The battlefield intruders numbered more than just the one who’d slashed at him.
Five or six others in matching masks swarmed in, striking at the assassin squad.
“Have you never heard of the Maitreya Divine Cult?”
The masked man who’d attacked him asked with a mocking sneer. Tang Cheol-jin scoffed in response,
“Some no-name sect I’ve never heard of.”
Il-mok nearly burst out laughing at the reply.
The very scum who’d targeted Pyeongnyang-hyeon didn’t even know who its lord was.
‘Are all the Seven Great Clans this arrogant?’
The image overlapped with Paeng Ji-gwang, now reduced to a corpse.
But Il-mok soon realized it was a misconception. Not everyone was like Paeng Ji-gwang or that elder.
“From here on, the Maitreya Divine Cult will handle these vermin. Withdraw at once.”
Il-mok bellowed that to Hwang Bo-yeon, who’d faced Tang Cheol-jin until moments ago.
Whoosh!
While Il-mok shouted, Tang Cheol-jin—who’d been biding his moment—unleashed his poison claw in a flash.
Clang!
“Trying that tired old trick.”
Il-mok parried it effortlessly and sneered. Veins bulged on Tang Cheol-jin’s forehead.
Then a shout rang out from behind, and veins throbbed on Il-mok’s forehead as well.
“How can we abandon our lifesaver and just leave!”
“We’ll fight alongside you to punish the villainous Tang Clan!”
Shouts from Hwang Bo-yeon and Yun-baek Dojang.
With Il-mok and the Maitreya Divine Cult experts joining the fray, they apparently had the spare breath to yell.
Of course, to Il-mok, it was utterly unwelcome drivel.
Nor was it solely because their goal was to let these people survive and return, sowing discord within the orthodox faction.
‘You lot need to scram so we can cut loose!’
With orthodox faction juniors lingering, they couldn’t unleash their demonic arts freely.
Il-mok and his comrades were all holding back their demonic arts, unable to fight at full strength.
For Il-mok himself, the Soul-Stealing Heartless Sword didn’t scream “demonic” overtly, so it hardly mattered.
But Hyeok-ryeon Seon-a and Jin Ha-yeon had to suppress their inner energy to the utmost. They could scarcely employ the Bare Hand Demon Art’s阴寒之气 or the Blood Fox Crimson Claw Art’s blood-red hand qi, reduced to barely handling one or two Tang Clan fighters each.
Thud!
Dam Bin’s case was even worse—thread arts were so rare that she fought solely with Golden Crow Hand Technique against the Tang Clan martial artists, forgoing her threads entirely.
The silver lining: as a master beyond Extreme Demon, she wouldn’t struggle against Tang Clan fighters even without them.
Gu Yang-mun and Ju Seo-yeon likewise stuck to basic sword and short spear forms, not daring to unleash major techniques.
Swoooosh!
At least Jeong-hyeon remained in their initial hiding spot, providing archery support to keep them afloat.
If things dragged on like this, their only choices would be to abandon pretense and reveal themselves—or die.
Clang!
Clang!
Il-mok drove back the Tang Clan elder with a flurry of swift strikes, then bellowed anew at the juniors.
“At your level, you’re nothing but a hindrance—go home!”
“!!!”
The orthodox faction juniors who’d been battling alongside the Maitreya Divine Cult twisted their faces. First came shock at the unexpected words, swiftly turning to fury.
Somehow, those expressions felt familiar. Il-mok shouted again,
“If that bruises your pride, then go home, hone your skills, and come back!”
Only after yelling it did he recall once uttering something similar in the past.
Back when Ala’s fanatics had attacked. He’d said nearly the same thing to persuade the Dokgo-pae lot.
But these weren’t Dokgo-pae, unfortunately.
“Don’t worry about us!”
“How can we abandon our lifesaver!”
“We’ll fight to the bitter end—even unto death!”
Uselessly noble hindrances.
‘Damn it.’
As Il-mok swallowed a curse, Tang Cheol-jin—pushed back—roared,
“How long do you intend to sit back and watch!!”
For a Tang Clan elder to call for aid against some unheard-of trash was humiliating beyond measure.
But this wasn’t the moment to nurse his pride.
The foes were stronger than anticipated to boot.
‘That bizarre sword makes it impossible to trade blows freely.’
His poison-infused claw felt like it’d snap clean off at the merest graze.
And the more pressing crisis was,
“Kill those bastards right now!”
The nightmarish future awaiting the Tang Clan if those orthodox juniors escaped alive.
At his furious command, even those who’d been spreading poison at the Heavenly Demon’s Secret Cave entrance withdrew their toxins and moved to join the battle.
If this kept up, they’d either perish—or be forced to massacre the orthodox juniors too.
In the midst of the desperation, a crucial piece of information flashed through Il-mok’s mind.
“Gwon-bong! You plan to let your little sister die too!”
Dam Bin had casually let slip after their last encounter: the veiled woman was likely Hwang Bo-se-hee, one of murim’s Five Blossoms.
At Il-mok’s shout, cracks formed in Hwang Bo-yeon’s resolute expression, as if she’d stake her life to fight on.
She whipped her head around toward her sister.
Myeong-hwan Dojang, Je-gal Eun-yeong, and a handful of masked figures guarded her, but anyone could see the peril of the situation.
‘…In the end, am I just another hypocrite?’
She couldn’t prioritize fighting injustice over protecting her sister.
Her resolve set, Hwang Bo-yeon ground her teeth, spun on her heel, and charged toward Hwang Bo-se-hee.
She smashed a Tang Clan martial artist who’d been hurling hidden weapons, clearing an escape route as she bellowed,
“I swear it on my name and my life! Should we meet again alive, I’ll grant any request you make—once without fail!”
Yun-baek Dojang, sensing her intent to flee, leaped to her aid and shouted,
“I am Yun-baek of Wudang! Should we meet again, I too shall grant any request without fail!”
As the pair carved open a path, Myeong-hwan Dojang and Je-gal Eun-yeong covered the rear. Together with Hwang Bo-se-hee, they began withdrawing from the battlefield.
Il-mok, left solo against the Tang Clan elder, wore a smile tinged with something off-kilter at their declarations.
‘Curious, that. I wonder if those promises will hold once our Heavenly Demon Divine Cult is laid bare.’
Well, that was a matter for another day.
And to reach that day, they first had to survive this one.
Slash!!
Il-mok’s swing severed Tang Cheol-jin’s left arm. A bizarre fluid—green mingled with crimson—sprayed forth.
Unlike before, the cut came all too easily. Demonic energy now rippled palpably along Il-mok’s blade.
The time had come to fight not as an incarnation of Maitreya, but as the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult’s Eighth Young Master.