Chapter 665
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 665
Chapter Title: What the Hell Is This?
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A heavy silence descended.
Ha Mu-baek's curt mutter had cut off Yeon Baek-woo's words.
It was because of that one word.
Demonic Cult.
Though it was a mere whisper, everyone present could hear it crystal clear.
His voice carried internal energy.
Yeon Gong-hu, Yeon Ha-min, and Jin Na-yeon jumped in shock.
Even Yeon Baek-pung, who had just been steadying himself, looked back and forth between Ha Mu-baek and Yeon Baek-woo in astonishment.
He recalled how he'd been called a mere pawn moments ago.
"That's why I stuck my nose in. Now that the Demonic Cult's involved, this isn't just the Yeon Clan's problem anymore. I'm not even sure if claiming it's an internal affair would fly with something this filthy and depraved."
Ha Mu-baek spoke nonchalantly, as if he were merely doing his duty.
"W-What do you...?"
Yeon Baek-woo's voice trembled slightly.
"Don't play dumb. That demonic energy of yours is wriggling away in your dantian."
He'd kept it thoroughly hidden until now, since there'd been no need to circulate his energy.
He'd thought he was masking it perfectly, circulating only the Yeon Clan's internal energy.
But Ha Mu-baek had spotted even that faint movement of demonic qi.
Ha Mu-baek's gaze shifted to Yeon Baek-pung.
"Most folks drown in lust and go blind to it. Yeon Baek-ryang was the same."
Yeon Baek-pung tilted his head slightly at the sudden mention of his deceased brother's name.
But Yeon Baek-woo's eyes twitched violently.
"Yeon Baek-ryang was your handiwork too, wasn't he?"
Ha Mu-baek stared straight at Yeon Baek-woo as he asked.
"What nonsense! Demonic Cult out of nowhere! Demonic energy! What kind of insane accusation is this?!"
Yeon Baek-woo bellowed in fury.
To Yeon Ha-min, it looked like a futile struggle.
Ha Mu-baek moved.
Swoosh.
Yeon Baek-pung flinched as Ha Mu-baek appeared before him in an instant.
Thud.
Ha Mu-baek's hand plunged straight into Yeon Baek-pung's dantian.
"Gaaahhhh!!!"
A scream of excruciating agony erupted from Yeon Baek-pung's mouth.
Ha Mu-baek's hand stirred inside the dantian, seized something, and yanked it out.
Writhing in Ha Mu-baek's grip.
Black Demon Latent Blood Gu.
A signature poison of the Demonic Cult. It burrows into the host's dantian, slowly devouring their internal energy as it grows.
It also stimulates the host's desires, feasting on their innate essence in those moments of weakness.
It was exactly like the one that had been in Yeon Baek-ryang's dantian.
The difference was its size.
The one from Yeon Baek-ryang had been like a black thread-snake. This was more like a black thread-worm.
Naturally, it had consumed far less innate essence and expelled far less energy.
Yet the energy Yeon Baek-pung had unleashed was tremendous.
This Black Demon Latent Blood Gu seemed to be no ordinary specimen.
A faint red glow shimmered amid the black.
True Black Demon Latent Blood Gu was pitch black.
Yeon Baek-ryang's had been.
"Looks like someone tampered with it in the meantime. For something that just hatched from its egg to be this big already."
Indeed.
The moment Ha Mu-baek had sensed the Demonic Cult's trace.
That was precisely when this Black Demon Latent Blood Gu had broken out of its egg.
While dormant as an egg in the dantian, even Ha Mu-baek couldn't have detected it.
"Ugh... uuuugh..."
Yeon Baek-pung groaned amid the pain of his torn dantian and the horror of that grotesque thing pulled from his body.
And at the same time.
The lust in his eyes began to fade.
"W-What the hell is that thing?"
Yeon Gong-hu pointed at Ha Mu-baek's hand and asked.
"This is a Black Demon Latent Blood Gu. Though it seems like a slightly different breed."
Yeon Gong-hu's eyes shook violently at Ha Mu-baek's answer.
He'd heard of its infamous reputation before.
"Yeon Baek-ryang had one in his dantian too."
It was after Yeon Gong-hu had left for the Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest.
Of course, he'd learned of it through reports from Dongju Mountain.
The Yeon Clan had been turned upside down back then.
A rigorous audit had been launched to root out Demonic Cult spies, but no traces were found.
"What the hell is this? Looks like Black Demon Latent Blood Gu, but it's oddly different."
Ha Mu-baek looked at Yeon Baek-woo and asked.
"Looks like you fed its egg to your brother."
At Ha Mu-baek's words, all eyes naturally turned to Yeon Baek-woo.
Gazes demanding confirmation if it was true.
Yeon Baek-woo, who had been feigning shock, slowly backed away.
And then.
"Kuhahaha! Kuhahahahaha!!"
He burst into mad laughter.
"Tsk tsk. The rice was almost cooked, but who would've thought that wench Yeon Ha-min would come back. She should've just stayed gone after I helped her escape the clan."
Everyone's eyes widened at Yeon Baek-woo's words.
It was as good as admitting his ties to the Demonic Cult and feeding that grotesque worm's egg to Yeon Baek-pung.
"So that's why..."
Yeon Gong-hu finally understood why no traces of the spy had been found back then.
Because Yeon Baek-woo had been in charge of the investigation.
It had been doomed from the start.
Like asking the culprit to catch himself.
"What do you mean by that?"
At that moment, Yeon Ha-min asked Yeon Baek-woo sharply.
She already saw him as an enemy.
"No matter how hard Gong-hu and Baek-jin tried, did you think the Yeon Clan was that easy to escape? I pulled strings to let you slip out safely. After all that help, you should've just lived quietly far away instead of coming back to ruin everything."
His words carried a subtle undercurrent of rage.
At that, Yeon Gong-hu recalled those razor-thin moments of luck from back then.
He'd thought it was fortune, but Yeon Baek-woo had intervened.
"Why...?"
Unable to fathom the reason, Yeon Gong-hu muttered.
"Because of the Black Demon Latent Blood Gu, obviously."
Ha Mu-baek stated matter-of-factly.
It stimulated and inflamed the host's desires—and struck when the host lost reason, devouring their innate essence.
So it needed to stoke those desires into a frenzy.
Intense obsession and desperate longing, for instance.
To that end, Yeon Baek-woo had secretly ensured Yeon Ha-min's escape to inflame Yeon Baek-ryang's obsession and desperation.
"Right you are. I needed to drive that lunatic Yeon Baek-ryang even madder."
Having revealed his true colors, Yeon Baek-woo spoke coldly.
There was no respect for his brothers in his tone.
"I originally planned to let the Black Demon Latent Blood Gu rampage and kill him, but thanks to you, I had to finish him off early. A bit of a hassle, but oh well."
Yeon Baek-woo smirked at Ha Mu-baek.
The Black Demon Latent Blood Gu was meant to trigger potential, not rampage and kill the host.
Which meant the one implanted in Yeon Baek-ryang wasn't pure either.
"Looks like you tampered with the one in Yeon Baek-ryang too."
"Naturally. The Black Demon Latent Blood Gu is meant for life-or-death awakenings. Totally different purpose from what I fed those two lunatics. The one in Yeon Baek-ryang was just a light tweak for testing."
"You mad bastard."
He called his brothers lunatics, but Yeon Baek-woo—who'd injected them with mutant gu—was the real madman.
"You asked, so I'll answer. Consider it payback for helping me take out Yeon Baek-ryang early. That one's Black Demon Lust Blood Gu."
The name alone hinted at what it was.
"It grows by feeding on the host's lustful desires. Once the devoured lust hits critical mass, it hatches."
"So it devoured innate essence even in egg form, explaining that power?"
Lust.
Carnal desire, lechery.
One of humanity's most primal urges, tied directly to innate essence.
Growing on lust meant absorbing the connected innate essence through it.
"Quick on the uptake."
Yeon Baek-woo smirked.
"Did you modify it yourself?"
Yeon Baek-woo nodded at Ha Mu-baek's question.
"Eh, a hobby of sorts."
He shrugged casually.
"You mad bastard."
Ha Mu-baek repeated himself, and not without reason.
This was Yeon Baek-woo.
Not the one altered by the Soul Devouring Great Law—this was the real, unaltered Yeon Baek-woo.
He'd become a Demonic Cultist of his own will.
The heir of the Hubei Yeon Clan—one of the Five Great Families—and the clan head's fourth son, no less.
"Annoying. I hate being lumped in with those lunatics."
Yeon Baek-woo sneered contemptuously at Yeon Baek-pung.
At his brother's gaze, Yeon Baek-pung forgot his pain in a surge of rage.
He'd been played by his own brother's schemes, after all.
"Sh-Shut your mouth! Isn't it all because of your vile plot?! You put that monster in me, so of course I ended up with those insane desires...!"
Yeon Baek-pung knew now.
How mad his desires had been.
With the Black Demon Lust Blood Gu gone, his mind felt clear.
Yeon Baek-woo scoffed openly at Yeon Baek-pung's outburst.
A blatant sneer.
"Neither Black Demon Latent Blood Gu nor Black Demon Lust Blood Gu creates desires from nothing. That madness was all yours."
Yeon Baek-pung's face flushed crimson at Yeon Baek-woo's words.
"It just shifted from your upper dantian to the Lust Blood Gu. That's why you're sane now."
Ha Mu-baek had ripped out the Black Demon Lust Blood Gu, taking the desire with it.
Allowing normal thought.
Realizing how ugly, vicious, and filthy his desires had been—that's why his face burned.
"Interesting."
Ha Mu-baek chuckled.
"So why are you so damn crazy?"
Yeon Baek-woo scowled at the question lobbed his way.
"I told you, it's offensive. I'm perfectly normal."
"Madmen never admit they're mad."
Ha Mu-baek's smile deepened.
"If the guy feeding his brothers gu like that is 'normal,' then who the hell in this world do we call mad?"
"Guys like him."
Yeon Baek-woo pointed shamelessly at Yeon Baek-pung in response.
"The ones who lust after their own nieces and sisters-in-law."
"And you?"
"I just cleared away the obstacles in my way."
"Obstacles?"
"Anything blocking me from taking the clan."
"What good is seizing the clan as a Demonic Cultist?"
Yeon Baek-woo nodded emphatically at Ha Mu-baek's question.
"Exactly. It'd mean nothing. To make it count, I need full control of the Yeon Clan. A Demonic Cultist could never be clan head. Not in the Hubei Yeon Clan, one of the Five Great Families."
His expression twisted uglier as he spoke.
"That's why you two ruined everything. Yeon Ha-min. Ha Mu-baek."
His hate-filled glare turned on the pair.
"Bullshit. If you'd stayed quiet when we showed up, none of this would've happened. Didn't you just stoke Yeon Baek-pung's filthy urges even more? You're the one who blew it all up."
"Hmph. Jin Na-yeon slipping out is different from Yeon Ha-min. Unlike Yeon Baek-ryang, that guy's just an acting young clan head—he'd seethe inside but couldn't do shit."
There was a gulf between young clan head and acting young clan head.
He oversaw clan affairs internally but had no external authority.
So Yeon Baek-woo had gone all-in to block Jin Na-yeon's departure.
Confident he could hide his demonic qi, as always.
He figured he'd cut and run again.
But Ha Mu-baek had sensed it instantly.
Where the hell did a monster like that come from?
Ha Mu-baek chuckled at his words.
"You dumb bastard. For a son of Yeon Ja-kyeong, you don't know your old man at all."
Yeon Baek-woo's eyebrow twitched.
"What?"
"Yeon Ja-kyeong's already suspected you two."
Ha Mu-baek stated firmly, glancing around briefly.
New presences had appeared from three directions.
Watchers monitoring this place.
Presences he'd felt a few times as Hocheon Corps Leader.
Yeon Ja-kyeong's secret agents.
Their swift arrival to observe silently meant he'd long harbored suspicions.
And their access to hidden vantage points—without the sons' knowledge—meant Yeon Ja-kyeong had granted his subordinates immense authority.
"And that old fox used my visit to the clan to his advantage."
Ha Mu-baek muttered irritably.
That explained why Yeon Ja-kyeong always ruled in favor of Jin Na-yeon and Yeon Ha-min whenever Yeon Baek-pung sought his opinion.
To provoke Yeon Baek-pung into revealing his tail.
Dragging Yeon Ha-min in, forcing Ha Mu-baek's hand.
With the Demonic Cult tangled in, he'd bet Ha Mu-baek would handle it.
"Ha?"
Yeon Baek-woo, openly unleashing his demonic qi and energy, sensed the watchers too.
He let out a disbelieving scoff.
"I see. So it's Yeon Ja-kyeong after all... heh."
He didn't even call him 'father.'
The moment he'd turned Demonic Cultist, he'd severed all blood ties.
"Well, fine. Since it's come to this."
Yeon Baek-woo's eyes gleamed fiercely.