Chapter 32: Chapter 32
Jang I-seo offered silent thanks to his predecessor.
To think the place he’d stumbled into by chance was this filled with treasure. Was this a dream or reality?
But it was too early to get carried away.
‘Heh.’
Laughter kept bubbling up from within, but that was just instinct. It wasn’t time to laugh out loud yet. He needed to investigate. He’d sensed it earlier. Someone managed this place.
‘But everything the Demonic Cult bastards own is mine. Heh.’
Jang I-seo wore a lecherous smile. Anyway, he now knew the entrance for certain. Next, he needed to find an exit.
‘Left, right? Which way?’
Jang I-seo flattened himself against the floor and examined it. His sharp vision caught countless scattered grains of sand like a painting.
As expected. This place was definitely inhabited.
‘The dirt scattered about means someone tracked it in from outside. And the dirt decreases the further in you go. Which means the exit connecting outside is up ahead.’
Senses sharpened, Jang I-seo moved forward without hesitation. At the next fork, he decisively turned right.
A path appeared with red carpet and glass display cases holding ornaments lined up in rows.
‘This place is…’
An immaculately organized corridor. What on earth was this place?
As Jang I-seo stood dazed.
PING-!
From the dark end of the distant corridor, a concealed weapon flew with a sharp ring at unbelievable speed. And not just any weapon. One made of formless wind!
THUD! WHIRL!
With a piercing sound, Jang I-seo’s body spun like a top and dropped to the floor.
He caught himself with one hand, barely landing in a low crouch. A small hole had been pierced through the fluttering hem of his robe.
“You dodged?”
Jang I-seo snapped his head up at the unfamiliar voice ahead. And realized. He had set foot where he absolutely should not have.
“An entertaining child.”
A demonic beauty who examined his finger, the one that had shot the finger wind, and then Jang I-seo in turn, drawing a curve on his crimson lips.
‘Heavenly… Demon…!’
The Heavenly Demon Jin U-gwang. Indeed. This was the Heavenly Demon Palace. He had walked into the fires of hell with his own two feet.
*
Nineteen years had passed since the era of peace began.
But in Jang I-seo’s mind, the Heavenly Demon remained the greatest traitor under heaven and the worst figure in history.
The reasons were innumerable. Countless clans and sects had been annihilated or forced to seal their doors by his hand.
But that was the righteous sects’ perspective. From Jang I-seo’s standpoint alone, there were just three.
First, thirty years ago, the Ten-Year War, where the Righteous, Unorthodox, and Demonic factions had torn at each other savagely, began with Jin U-gwang’s invasion of the Central Plains.
The death toll from that war, including innocent civilians and government warriors, reached the tens of thousands.
And Jang I-seo had been orphaned by that war.
Second was the cursed Gudok lodged in his heart.
Originally, it had been a symbol of the destroyed Blood Cult. The one who revived it was the Demonic Cult’s Sixth Elder, the Poison-Born Demon Physician. Naturally, on the Heavenly Demon Jin U-gwang’s orders.
Of course, there was no direct connection to Jang I-seo. But if the Gudok hadn’t been revived then, Jegal Sang would never have brought it to save him.
Furthermore, the Gudok now embedded in his heart was a modified version that even the Sixth Elder couldn’t detect, altered by the Hidden Pavilion.
How could he not harbor resentment?
Third and last. He had witnessed it firsthand.
The sight of Jin U-gwang not only absorbing the internal energy of dozens of spies captured by the Counter-Espionage Division using the Star-Absorbing Demonic Art, but also stripping their very life force through bizarre sorcery.
At the time, Jang I-seo was a low-ranking subordinate tasked with incinerating the bones of spies reduced to skeletons in an instant.
That was when he intuited it. This bastard was a genuine demon.
But,
“You dodged?”
To think he would meet him like this. And of all things, as a rat who sneaked in and got caught by the owner.
What to do. Fight? Or…
“An entertaining child.”
Jang I-seo froze like ice, then the moment the voice reached him again, he threw himself flat in full prostration.
“Supreme Heavenly Demon! All demons bow! This humble one, Seventh Young Master’s Adjutant Jang I-seo, greets the Cult Leader!”
Fight my ass. If the Heavenly Demon put even a fraction of his power into it, instant death. Charging in would be suicide. Jang I-seo swallowed dry and waited.
And in the meantime, prepared for the worst.
‘Distance between the Heavenly Demon and me is roughly ten paces. Probability of hitting him with White Thunder from here? Less than one in ten. To raise it to at least three in ten, I’d need to close to within three paces.’
Countless defeat scenarios played out in Jang I-seo’s mind. But the Cult Leader’s reaction was casual enough to make those calculations feel absurd.
“So you’re the benefactor Mao spoke of.”
“Excuse me…?”
“Rise.”
“Ah…”
Jang I-seo slowly rose, bewildered. He carefully studied Jin U-gwang.
A white-haired man whose beauty still lived up to the title of peerless under heaven. But who knew he could smile like that?
Unlike the figure in his memories, the face was impossibly gentle. Moreover, what was it. His eyes appeared brimming with emptiness. Like a man who had achieved everything and held no remaining attachments.
“What. Do you find me curious?”
“M-my apologies.”
Jang I-seo hastily prostrated himself. He’d stared too openly. The moment he lowered his head.
‘Gah!’
He nearly screamed and rolled sideways. Because of the shadow on the floor beneath his lowered gaze.
When had he moved? Jin U-gwang, who had been ten paces ahead, stood directly behind him. Radiating a chilling aura, he seized Jang I-seo’s wrist and took his pulse.
“Your senses are serviceable, but the qi accumulated in your dantian is turbid and pathetically light.”
Why did he have to hear this from the Heavenly Demon of all people? Jang I-seo’s brow creased with inexplicable shame.
But,
“It must have been difficult. Your mind had already passed the summit and was heading toward the next mountain range, but your body couldn’t keep up. How frustrating that must have been.”
Jang I-seo doubted his ears. What were these? These gentle, tender words. Was this really the Heavenly Demon Jin U-gwang?
To receive comfort about his own body for the first time in his life, and from the Heavenly Demon no less.
Jin U-gwang returned Jang I-seo’s hand to its original position and released it. Hands clasped behind his back, he walked forward and continued.
“My child owes you a debt. As a father, I can’t simply let that pass. Tell me what you want.”
THUMP! His mind snapped sharp. What was this situation? Was the Heavenly Demon offering to give him whatever he desired?
Thump, thump.
Breathing quickened. Blood ran hot. To say greed didn’t stir would be an outright lie.
But,
“I have none.”
Jang I-seo answered firmly. He was a spy. The opponent was the Heavenly Demon Jin U-gwang. Reaching carelessly would get him killed without a trace.
“Truly none?”
Jin U-gwang asked, eyes wide with apparent surprise. Jang I-seo met his gaze clearly and nodded.
“Yes. None.”
“Is that so… Then die.”
What?! FWOOSH- A virulent killing intent erupted from the Heavenly Demon’s body. Jang I-seo shouted in panic.
“Why all of a sudden…”
“Because I don’t spare those who want nothing.”
What kind of highway robbery was this? Killing someone because they wanted nothing? And his face was still bright and cheerful.
“Do you know why?”
“I have absolutely no idea.”
“Those who want nothing lack for nothing. So they don’t bend easily. They never truly follow. Even if they bow their heads now, they’ll rise again at any moment and drive a blade into your back. So I don’t let them live. This cult is ruled by one supreme. My body alone is everything.”
Was he seriously saying that? Jang I-seo protested his innocence in disbelief.
“I will never betray the Cult Leader or this cult!”
Because he’d never believed in the first place. But Jin U-gwang’s worldview was more rigidly his own than expected.
“Anyone can speak convincingly.”
“Then how would you have me prove it?”
“If you have nothing you want, we simply need to create something you want. Then it becomes remarkably simple, doesn’t it? For instance, if you’re sick, you’ll want to be cured. If something precious like family appears and then vanishes, you’ll want it back.”
His incomprehensible way of thinking left Jang I-seo speechless, jaw hanging open. How was this different from telling him to produce a family to use as hostage?
But right at that moment. Jin U-gwang spoke with eyes full of mischief.
“But you have no need for any of that.”
“What do you mean…”
“You already have something you want from me.”
Jang I-seo ducked his head low, hiding his turbulent thoughts. But Jin U-gwang’s next words forced his head back up.
“Nine-Orifice Body.”
“Gah!”
Jang I-seo’s eyes bulged as if ready to pop out. A first. Other than the Martial Alliance elder, the Life-and-Death Divine Physician Wi Ja-ryang, no one had ever named his condition so directly.
“Nine holes in your dantian. Even with the greatest cultivation method in history, you’d never surpass first-rate. Take Ten-Thousand-Year Fleeceflower Root or Void-Clear Stone Milk for a hundred days, and not a handful of internal energy would accumulate. It all leaks away.”
“Which must have made it all the harder. Accumulation is the product of effort, yet no matter how hard you tried, nothing accumulated.”
As Jang I-seo gasped with his mouth hanging open, Jin U-gwang asked again with a mischievous expression.
“Surprised?”
Jang I-seo gathered his courage and answered.
“Yes. I am.”
Honestly, it was a shock. Not because he knew about the Nine-Orifice Body, but because the being known as the Heavenly Demon was so fundamentally different from what he’d imagined.
Erudite. Capable of mischief. Capable of smiling. Even capable of comfort.
This was a profoundly human side utterly unlike the demon he remembered.
VWOOM!
While Jang I-seo’s focus was blurred, an uncontrollable demonic aura erupted from Jin U-gwang’s body.
KYUAAAAH-!
Dark energy flowed over his shoulders like heat shimmer, casting eerie shadows. An overwhelming presence, as if poised to crush the world beneath its heel.
This was the majesty of the greatest under heaven!
As Jang I-seo watched, utterly entranced, Jin U-gwang offered a cold smile and extended his hand forward. Dark demonic qi surged forth like heat shimmer, writhing like thousands of venomous snakes.
“This is my gift to you.”
And THRUST! It flew forward and plunged into Jang I-seo’s lower abdomen like a dagger. Demonic aura seeped in ceaselessly.
“Kagh!”
Pain beyond the ability to breathe followed. The whites of both eyes turned black. Not only that. Every blood vessel transformed to black, as if dark blood coursed through them.
This was the result of the Heavenly Demon’s demonic aura entering his dantian and churning through his meridians.
Why on earth?
At the incomprehensible act, Jang I-seo clung to his last thread of reason and glared at him.
Then Jin U-gwang, still wearing that gentle smile, spoke thus.
“Homework. Find the clue to curing your body. Though, of course, you won’t have much time.”
Thud. With those final words, Jang I-seo lost consciousness.
After a while, his blackened, swollen blood vessels gradually settled and returned to normal.
Jin U-gwang observed this and muttered.
“A child with the Nine-Orifice Body… If all nine holes were sealed, one could look down upon the world. But even a god couldn’t accomplish that. I’d thought there was no child left in Cheonsan worth my interest.”
His lips stretched into a long curve, like a child who’d found a new toy.
But in contrast to his innocent expression, his next words were truly chilling.
“If you fail to find the clue, your body will not last a month before death claims you. This is punishment for sneaking in uninvited.”
He surveyed the dark expanse ahead and called out.
[Come and take him.]
A moment later.
Mao, who had been waiting outside the Heavenly Demon Palace doors for his internal energy to recover, came sprinting over, recoiled in shock, then hoisted Jang I-seo onto his back and vanished.
Jin U-gwang watched the two disappear with keen interest, then turned away.
Eagerly awaiting the day they would return and bring amusement to his tedious existence.