Chapter 331
Chapter 331
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 331
>Chapter Title: Shadow (6)
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The last high monk, who had been holding a woman hostage, collapsed. A hole was pierced through his forehead.
“Eek!”
The woman he had held hostage finally let out a belated scream.
While the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult warriors soothed her, the most skilled among them turned his head to gaze in a certain direction.
The direction from which the arrow had flown.
He hadn’t missed it. In the final moment, the way the arrow’s path had veered off.
‘Controlling an arrow with qi….’
This was a grave misunderstanding.
Techniques that could be called qi-controlled sword or qi-controlled arrow required a considerable degree of mastery even after reaching the Profound Realm.
In that sense, the third stage Il-mok had suggested might seem like absurd advice, but he had told her this.
- Qi is based on the same principle, after all.
Even those who had just entered the early stages of Superlative could form sword aura, albeit only after immense concentration, unlike those in the Profound Realm.
The closer one got to the Profound Realm, the faster they could form sword aura and the more powerful it became.
Similarly, freely manipulating an arrow’s movement with qi would only be possible after entering the Profound Realm.
- But just slightly altering its path for an instant is enough. After all, the beginning is what matters.
The goal Il-mok had set for Jeong-hyeon wasn’t complete qi-controlled arrow. It was merely a fleeting change.
Just like what she had accomplished right now.
* * *
While the maids and warriors scattered throughout the western district to eliminate the remnants of the Captivation Palace.
Even the Captivation Palace, which should have grown quieter with their departure, was bustling quite busily.
The reinforcements from Gansu Province weren’t limited to those ten warriors.
There were people moving back and forth between the Captivation Palace’s library all day, scribbling on papers.
They were the ones who had handled doctrinal education in Gansu Province.
When they first arrived at the Captivation Palace, Il-mok had welcomed them with a bright smile.
“I’ve been waiting for you all, practically dying of anticipation.”
After the enthusiastic reception, Il-mok instructed them on their tasks ahead.
“First, read through the scriptures here. Find those that align with our Divine Cult’s doctrines and transform them into the doctrines of the Maitreya Cult.”
Il-mok pointed to the Captivation Palace’s vast library as he spoke to those who had conducted doctrinal education in Gansu.
‘W-We rode without rest for ten, twenty days….’
‘Ooooh, Lord of Ten Thousand Demons.’
‘Please have mercy on us poor souls.’
Those who received the orders felt the world go dark before their eyes.
And now, several days later.
Having accepted reality, they were endlessly analyzing the Captivation Palace’s scriptures, their eyes sunken with dark circles.
Those moving busily weren’t the only ones.
In the wide open space at the center of the Captivation Palace, about a dozen people had gathered, playing various instruments.
They were the ones from Gansu Province who proselytized through music and theater.
At times, they played gentle, soothing melodies; at others, hymns; and sometimes, they performed operas.
Some of the women staying at the Captivation Palace would shed tears in their rooms when they played sad tunes, and gather to watch when hymns or operas were performed.
While they soothed the wounded women through art.
In another part of the Captivation Palace, others were treating the wounded women.
“Wounds of the body aren’t the only wounds. Wounds of the heart are wounds too.”
They were the women who had worked as healers in Gansu. Especially, those from Pingliang County who had experience treating victims poisoned by aphrodisiacs formed the core.
Though these women suffered pains entirely different from drug addiction, at least the healers from Pingliang County properly understood that illnesses of the mind were illnesses as well.
“Don’t blame yourselves. This isn’t something that happened because you did anything wrong.”
“We too were sold into human trafficking and worked as prostitutes in the Central Plains.”
“The Maitreya Cult saved us like that and taught us letters and medicine, allowing us to become healers.”
The proselytizers and former healers moved with true diligence, and thanks to them, the women’s wounds could be healed, little by little.
It was truly a bizarre sight.
The musicians—and most of the healers—were originally not part of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.
Even if they were now operating under the name of the Maitreya Cult in the western district, there were people from the main headquarters here, and considering more reinforcements would come from the headquarters later, it was quite a risky endeavor.
Yet Il-mok had called them as reinforcements because he had something to rely on.
Years after the Maitreya Cult spread through Gansu Province.
Only to those with fervent faith in the Maitreya Cult was its great secret quietly revealed: its true name, the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.
These were people whose faith hadn’t wavered even after hearing the Maitreya Cult’s true name.
Thus, as they immersed themselves in treating the women and analyzing the Captivation Palace scriptures, time flew by, and after about half a month.
This time, reinforcements from the main headquarters arrived.
Around twenty warriors, plus about a dozen from the proselytization and purification divisions.
Now that they had at least the minimum necessary personnel, Il-mok gathered all the women at the Captivation Palace.
“I apologize for the delay. Now, I’ll send you back to your hometowns in order.”
Since they still lacked manpower to send them all at once, Il-mok decided to start with those whose hometowns were closest to the Captivation Palace.
While explaining the order of return, a young girl timidly raised her hand.
“Um….”
“Speak freely.”
Gathering her courage at Il-mok’s words, she asked her question.
“Do we have to go back home for sure?”
“If you don’t wish to return home, what do you plan to do?”
“My family has many mouths to feed already, so if I go back, it’ll be harder for them to make ends meet…. If it’s not too shameless, could I stay here?”
At her question, a few women nodded in agreement or looked at Il-mok.
After a moment’s thought, Il-mok answered her.
“If anyone wants to continue staying here, speak freely. However, you must visit your hometowns first. If you don’t send word or just a letter, your families will worry, won’t they?”
“Ah….”
“Th-Thank you!”
“Th-Then I’ll stay here too!”
Some women exclaimed in admiration, while others expressed the same intent as her.
In the end, whether they planned to stay or not, all the women would first return to their hometowns.
Afterward, a few warriors periodically left the Captivation Palace with the women.
Each time they escorted the women to new villages, the warriors felt complex emotions.
One was bitterness.
The sight of the women abducted by the Esoteric Buddhist monks embracing their parents in tears filled their vision.
“Mother! Father!”
“Oh, my daughter!!”
“I’m sorry, truly sorry….”
In such moments, they couldn’t help thinking how much better it would have been if they had come to the western district a little sooner.
And paradoxically, a sense of fulfillment also visited them.
“These people saved me.”
“Oh, thank you so much. Truly, thank you.”
“I’ll repay this grace somehow, great hero.”
It was a moment to reaffirm that the reason they endured the horrific side effects to cultivate demonic arts was precisely for this sense of fulfillment.
Each time, the warriors composed their emotions and replied with calm expressions.
“All this was accomplished by the incarnation of Maitreya.”
“We merely follow his will.”
The warriors who returned the women to their hometowns came back to the Captivation Palace, but the healers, musicians, and doctrinal educators remained there.
The healers tended to the women who returned home or treated villagers.
The musicians interspersed hymns among various melodies.
Those who studied the Captivation Palace scriptures taught the people there.
They propagated the Maitreya Cult’s doctrines by adapting the original Captivation Palace teachings.
They gladly affirmed those among the Captivation Palace doctrines not deemed ‘evil’ by the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.
“Heh heh heh. If both parties are happy, how could indulgence in pleasures be an ugly act?”
Conversely, those that could be called ‘evil’ in the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult’s doctrines, they addressed using the common enemy.
“Seeking pleasure in this life is no sin. But trampling others’ pleasure for your own is a sin. Just like the fallen Esoteric monks of the Captivation Palace.”
As they had in Gansu Province, they periodically held sermons to spread the Maitreya Cult.
And as in Gansu Province, they taught letters to the villagers.
To gradually erase the dark shadow of the Captivation Palace that lingered heavily over the western district.
* * *
Beijing. Forbidden City.
In the heart of what could be called the heart of the Han Empire, two eunuchs conversed with grave expressions.
“Have you tracked the tail?”
At the question of the elderly eunuch with hands clasped behind his back, the eunuch kneeling on the floor replied.
“Yes, Grand Eunuch.”
“Then, what happened to the one whose tail was tracked?”
“…I must apologize in my report, but we lost them.”
No sooner had the eunuch finished speaking than a terrifying aura emanated from the one called Grand Eunuch.
Sensing the danger, the eunuch hurriedly added.
“H-However, we were able to identify who tracked the tail.”
“Depending on how heavy that name weighs, I’ll decide how to deal with you.”
“It was the Demonic Shadow Pavilion Leader.”
At the eunuch’s reply, the Grand Eunuch furrowed his brow.
At that slight change, the prostrated eunuch felt a chill run down his spine, but he swallowed a sigh of relief inwardly at the Grand Eunuch’s following words.
“If it’s the Shadow Pavilion Leader, it seems they climbed up through the Silver Moon Merchant Group.”
“This lowly one has ascertained the same.”
“Tch. Greed breeds disaster. What of the Silver Moon Merchant Group?”
“No notable changes so far.”
“Abandon it.”
“…Then, what of the funds ledger?”
Silver Moon Merchant Group. Originally, it was a slush fund secretly created by the Eastern Depot and the eunuchs.
The pretext was that moving with imperial funds inevitably risked exposure.
In reality, most of the money siphoned through the Silver Moon Merchant Group went into the pockets of high-ranking eunuchs and Eastern Depot tails.
The connection to the spies planted in the Demonic Cult was merely an unavoidable byproduct of exchanging information and goods from the Black Turbaned Horse Carriages and the Western Regions.
Even after the spies were purged from the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult, they maintained the Silver Moon Merchant Group for its original purpose.
They had no desire to discard a slush fund that filled their pockets.
“Tch. You ask the obvious. Prepare a new merchant group.”
“I shall follow Your Excellency’s will.”
After the saluting eunuch departed, the Grand Eunuch turned to gaze at the table.
On the table he looked at was a vast map unfurled.
“The Demonic Cult has caught on.”
It was a map marking the Demonic Cult in Xinjiang and the massive factions across the Central Plains.
“It seems we need to shake things up a bit, by force if necessary.”
Muttering to himself, he moved the pieces on the map this way and that for a moment before his hand paused.
“Wait. If the Shadow Pavilion Leader moved, that means the old monster has caught on too, yet he’s been quiet this whole time.”
As the Grand Eunuch recalled the old monster called the Heavenly Demon, his expression suddenly turned serious.
“Could he be secretly hiding even here in the Forbidden City?”
The thought that the Heavenly Demon might be plotting to assassinate the Emperor made the Grand Eunuch shout urgently.
“Issue an utmost alert to the Eastern Depot and Imperial Guard! Not even an ant cub must enter the Forbidden City!!”
Yet for some reason.
Even as he prepared for an assault from a transcendent master treated as a god, a confident smile hung on the Grand Eunuch’s lips.
‘Heh heh heh. To come here of your own accord to die—truly grateful.’
As if he was confident he could kill the Heavenly Demon, at least near the Forbidden City.