Chapter 36
Chapter 36
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 36
Chapter Title: Blood Demon
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"What did I do wrong to end up with a body like this overnight...?"
"..."
"Losing everything I had... all alone in this world..."
I had no hobby of eavesdropping on someone else's sleep-talk, but now that it had reached my ears, I couldn't just ignore it.
-Tremble tremble
My hands began to shake, and cold sweat broke out.
Overnight. This body. Alone.
It overlapped with him—Dan Yuseong—in far too many ways. Hearing those words in such a situation naturally brought one scene to mind.
[Master. Have you come?]
'Haa... haa...'
I wanted to deny it, but the circumstances all too clearly pointed to him being the same person as Dan Yuseong.
I just couldn't peek under that hat, but my conviction was nearly a hundred percent.
No matter how vast the Central Plains were, how could things align like this?
I'd searched so desperately for that child, but now I couldn't even feel joy.
'What... what should I do...?'
My original plan had been to drop to my knees and apologize the moment I found him.
To confess that I was that child's master.
That I was the master who had taught the child who ruined your life.
I'd thought it was the obvious thing to do before repaying any debts.
A sinner who committed wrong must apologize to their victim.
But...
'Haa... haa...'
Now, I was afraid.
Afraid that when I revealed my identity, the attitude of the man who had shown me such pure goodwill would change.
No, it was only natural that it would.
This wasn't some ordinary crime.
I had shattered a martial artist's dantian.
I'd turned him into a body more precious than life itself, yet one that could hardly be called living after the destruction.
All at that young age, the prime of his life.
If he hadn't met that master of his, I couldn't even imagine the horrors he'd endured all this time.
And the hardships before meeting his master, too.
'Kgh...'
I'd steeled myself for this, but imagining him cursing me still hurt.
Picturing him directing hatred toward me tore at my heart.
The thought that I might never again see the man who had shown me such pure kindness felt like something inside me crumbling away.
We'd only met a few days ago, but somehow, he'd already carved a deep place in my heart.
In that moment, a fleeting thought crossed my mind.
'Should I hide it?'
He didn't know who I was, after all.
He didn't know I was the Sword Empress. Or that I was So-yeon's master.
If I tried to conceal it, I could hide it forever.
As long as I didn't confess first, he'd never figure it out.
And the instant that brief notion passed through my mind—
"Urk...!"
Nausea surged up.
It didn't actually come up as vomit, but it was that repulsive.
To myself, for even thinking it.
'How dare I think something like that...'
Hide my identity?
Just to stay by his side?
To keep basking in the feelings he directed at me?
Was that something a Daoist, a human, a sinner guilty before him could even consider?
"Hahk... hahk..."
My churning emotions made my inner energy spiral out of control.
If I didn't calm them soon, it could lead to qi deviation—a dangerous state—but I couldn't settle my feelings at all.
"How dare I..."
They say people reveal their wicked nature when pushed to the brink.
I'd always thought that was just an excuse from villains.
Even if one's nature was evil, they should control and restrain it themselves.
But... but...
"Ahh..."
Did I even have the right to scorn them? The right to judge them?
Was I a hypocrite who couldn't even control such base desires, harboring such repulsive thoughts?
What had my life been all this time?
-Crack
I heard the sound of a crack forming in the mind I'd thought unbreakable.
This was dangerous enough that qi deviation could truly descend.
And at that moment—
"Mm..."
-Squeeze
The strength left my hand, and his, which had fallen away, grabbed mine again.
More than grabbing—he pulled my arm toward him with both hands.
"Wha—"
It wasn't much force, but with my mind already crumbling psychologically, I was drawn in, my body leaning against his bed.
-Squeeze
"Ehehehe..."
Now he was fully hugging my arm.
"Master, that tickles... hehe..."
'...'
As if entranced, I reached out, slipped my hand under his hat, and stroked his hair.
Mysteriously, though his face was completely hidden, soft hair felt just right there, as if it belonged.
"Eehee..."
A playful, childlike reaction followed.
-Stroke stroke
I silently kept petting his head, then pinched his hat with my fingers.
There was faint resistance, but if I wanted to lift it, I could.
He was sleeping deeply now—maybe I could sneak a peek at his face and put it back, and he'd never know.
"...Sigh."
I placed my hand back on his head instead.
There must be his own reasons for keeping it covered.
Forcing it on someone like that would be rude without their consent.
'First... let's head to An-hui.'
I'll check that suspicious man there first.
If it's not him... then I'll ask then.
If he turns out to be Dan Yuseong after all...
...I'll atone for the rest of my life.
The Murim Alliance claimed victory in the war against the Blood Cult, successfully eradicating not just their cult leader but every last remnant.
That was their official story.
But though they couldn't say it outright, most knew the real reason the Blood Cult fell.
They had provoked the Heavenly Demon.
In truth, the Demonic Cult—and the Heavenly Demon—had always harbored ambitions toward the Central Plains. It wasn't a day or two; historically, whenever things quieted, news would spread of Demonic Cult spies caught or demonic cultists committing massacres.
But rumors spread decades ago that the Demonic Cult had changed.
Rumors that the new one who ascended after tearing apart the previous Heavenly Demon showed no interest in the Central Plains.
Not just the Demonic Cult had spies planted; the Murim Alliance heard too. But they weren't the type to simply believe it.
They figured it was some wicked ploy and invested more in their spies. Then one day, all their plants in the Demonic Cult vanished, and a warning arrived.
[Do not meddle in our affairs. I shall do the same.]
No sender was listed, but they knew immediately who wrote it.
They weren't about to trust a mere warning note, but just then, the Blood Cult began its full activities, forcing them to pour all efforts into confronting it.
Eventually, full war broke out. In the final battle where retreat was impossible, the righteous faction's masters fell one by one, and even the evil faction's experts—who'd formed a hasty alliance—sensed the power gap and fled for their lives.
In that moment of crisis, she appeared.
[Are you the one called Blood Demon?]
All those Blood Cultists,
The Blood Cult's powerhouses that even skilled masters struggled against,
And their cult leader, who had shown superiority even against the Sword Empress and Thunder Sword, the righteous faction's top experts.
Before her, they were no more than pups before a tiger.
She single-handedly crushed three thousand Blood Cultists,
Broke through their Combined Blood Formation laid by over a hundred experts alone,
Shattered the cult leader's boasted sorcery, and without a single wound on her body, erased him from the world—not a drop of blood left, literally annihilated.
Strength beyond common sense.
"Absolute Master" fell short. One hesitated to even call her human—a transcendent being.
No matter how vast the Central Plains, they could never harbor such a woman.
"Aaah!"
Remnants of the Blood Cult—said to have been annihilated by the Heavenly Demon—were prostrating repeatedly before an altar in some deep basement on the Central Plains' outskirts.
"The time has finally come!"
The woman standing before the altar spoke with an ecstatic expression.
The previous cult leader's daughter, now the Blood Cult's Saintess.
"Our predecessor met a horrific end at the hands of heretics nineteen years ago! The moment we've awaited has arrived at last!"
""""Ooooooh!!!!""""
Eyes dyed red, faces clearly lost to reason.
If asked, all would be called Blood Cultists without fail.
"Why did our cult fall? Why did we, with the power to turn those righteous hypocrites into piles of gore, have to flee?!"
""""Because we were weak!!""""
"Yes!! We were weak!! Our predecessor couldn't fully receive Lord Blood Demon's power into his body!! That's why we lost!!"
She insulted her own father with her own mouth, committing utter filial impiety, but to them, such things meant nothing.
"And so we realized! No matter how humans strive, they remain human! Foolish mortals scrambling for the provisions Lord Blood Demon left behind! To truly drown this world in blood, we must not receive his power into our bodies—we must summon Lord Blood Demon himself to this land!!!"
-Boom!!!
The fanatic saintess spread her arms toward the altar.
"Come!! Lord Blood Demon!! Descend upon this land once more!!!"
Ever since their defeat, they'd gathered sacrifices for the altar.
9,999 hearts from all manner of humans and beasts.
That was what the saintess had discovered was needed to summon Blood Demon.
-Humm!
Unfortunately, their ritual and altar weren't flawed—the altar absorbed the hearts and blood, spewing ominous energy.
-Hummm!!!
The energy grew, spreading through the entire underground space, emitting sounds like it would explode any second—
-Kwaaaang!!!!
The altar exploded, and a figure appeared in its place.
"Ugh... where is this...?"
Jet-black hair, vertical slit pupils in red eyes. A handsome man in a black cloak clutched his head and collapsed there.
"I was definitely done in by that whore of a goddess..."
"Aaaaaah!!! Lord Blood Demon!!!!"
"Vampire...? I am a vampire, but... ugh..."
His skin was extremely pale as he muttered words incomprehensible to Central Plains folk.
Though clutching his head, he looked at the babbling saintess before him and opened his mouth to grasp the situation.
"Come here and bare your neck."
"Yes!! At once!!"
She obeyed so easily, even gladly, baring her neck as if honored. He felt puzzlement but prioritized understanding.
-Crunch
Sharp fangs pierced the saintess's slender neck effortlessly, and she wore an ecstatic expression, unfazed by pain.
-Gulp
"Hm... quite tasty."
"Haa... haa... thank you..."
Having read her memories through her blood, the man spoke.
Legion of the Undying, Third Legion Commander.
Vampire Lord Barushutain opened his mouth.
"I need corpses."
This force wasn't enough.
He needed more subordinates.
His kin, the vampires he'd fought alongside.