Chapter 37: Chapter 37
“The Heavenly Demon never taught his martial arts to anyone. That’s why everyone hungers for the Young Cult Leader position. Then why on earth did he transmit his internal energy to me? Is he telling me to become Young Cult Leader?”
Hah. Preposterous. Utterly absurd. To a mere underling. Absolutely impossible.
Then was it to watch him slowly go mad and die?
Being the Heavenly Demon, it wasn’t entirely impossible. Amusement was a shit excuse but a plausible one. But he had no reason to do that to a subordinate. He was his own child’s adjutant, wasn’t he?
Which left only one thing.
‘Homework. Find the clue to curing your body.’
The Nine-Orifice Body.
The miraculous method to cure this cursed body was hidden within the Heavenly Demon’s virulent demonic arts.
Therefore…
Find a way to live, and it was the opportunity of a lifetime. Fail, and he was dead.
“Huu…”
Jang I-seo felt the chill along his spine and exhaled deeply.
He understood his current condition well enough, but how it connected to a cure for the Nine-Orifice Body completely eluded him.
‘What’s different between the old me and the current me?’
First, the impure internal energy accumulated through crude cultivation methods and assorted weeds was gone.
It was demonic aura, yes, but it was the Heavenly Demon’s internal energy. Flawless, without a trace of turbidity. In terms of purity, it could rival the divine monks of Shaolin.
And one more thing.
‘A new property has emerged that didn’t exist before.’
He hadn’t noticed this precisely until he activated the Thunder Circulation Method. But seeing the lightning qi turn black confirmed it.
His current internal energy definitely possessed an attribute.
The attribute of Demonic.
“Flawless Demonic internal energy…”
Still no insight. No. The very concept of a cure was foreign.
During his training days at the Hidden Pavilion, he’d once asked the elder, the Life-and-Death Divine Physician Wi Ja-ryang, about treatments.
The old man had replied:
‘A cure? None exist. It would be easier to raise the dead. Furthermore, the Nine-Orifice Body is a measure imposed by the fair and impartial heavens to maintain balance in the mortal world. Therefore, one must neither lament nor resent it. To do so is to defy heaven’s will.’
Honestly, at the time, rebellion had flared in his heart. He’d sworn he would find a cure someday.
But over the course of his life, he’d realized the Life-and-Death Divine Physician was right at least a hundred times over.
The holes in his dantian.
Easy to say. But had anyone ever seen their physical form?
The dantian was a universe, a vessel within the body that could neither be touched nor seen, existing like mist. Something you could only confirm existed by feeling it through internal energy.
How were you supposed to patch that?
If it were flesh, you could at least stitch it with thread.
“But how does the Heavenly Demon know a cure that even the Life-and-Death Divine Physician doesn’t?”
Another question. But did it matter? A quack’s rambling became gospel truth when spoken by the Heavenly Demon. That was the kind of being he was.
“Hanging onto an unsolvable puzzle won’t change anything. Take it slow. There’s still a month. And the pressing matter isn’t that. Settling outstanding debts comes first.”
Jang I-seo’s eyes narrowed. Three characters surfaced in his mind.
The Slaughterhouse.
These weren’t people who’d let things end nicely if this side stayed quiet. And he had no intention of leaving obstacles to his mission in place.
Jang I-seo rose from his seat. He opened the door and stepped out of the annex. Mao lay face-down in the passage like a corpse.
His lips curved up. He’d somehow managed to get inside. From the look of him, he’d been beaten thoroughly unconscious.
Still, no need to worry.
Mao possessed the Heaven-Yang Body with flawless extreme yang internal energy. In terms of pure physical health, he ranked within the top three in the entire Demonic Cult.
‘Right. One step at a time.’
Jang I-seo drilled an approving gaze into the back of his head, then silently crossed the passage and disappeared outside.
Mao, waking later.
“My stomach. Need to poop.”
Clutching his cramping lower abdomen, he barely managed to sit up. Stumbling forward like a walking corpse, he looked like a zombie.
But he was the Seventh Young Master under heaven. He couldn’t just relieve himself anywhere.
With every ounce of strength, he headed for the latrine. And just as he reached the final stretch.
“Wh-what is this…?!”
KUNG! Jegal Gwi-ryong’s second masterpiece.
One hundred and eight wooden guardian arms bearing the faces of the Four Heavenly Kings, lined up in rows along both sides of the narrow passage.
Brush against a single arm and the mechanism would rotate like a gear, triggering the next, until all one hundred and eight terra-cotta soldiers launched a indiscriminate assault.
If you want to fight, then fight.
He’d met the Path of One Hundred and Eight Afflictions.
“You bastards-! Hwaaaah!”
Crises always struck at the most desperate moments.
Mao’s suffering began today.
*
Chiseonru, established as Wolha Village’s premier inn.
Despite the relatively early hour, Moonlight Lake teemed with crowds. Chiseonru’s lanterns glowed radiantly.
And on the eighth floor, which every guest hoped to visit at least once, he sat as always.
The true owner of Chiseonru.
Jang I-seo pored over the ledgers with the gravity of studying martial arts manuals.
“Closing for a few days didn’t hurt as much as expected. Good work.”
“Yes. As a token of gratitude to everyone who visited, I served each guest a cup of Nu’er Hong.”
“Nu’er Hong?!”
Jang I-seo’s face registered an alarm. Understandable. Nu’er Hong was the most expensive spirit on the menu. For a money demon like Jang I-seo, it was tantamount to a knife in the gut.
But Jang I-seo wasn’t just any money demon. He was a clever money demon.
“A cup of Nu’er Hong… Not so potent that it leaves you reeling, with a fine fruit aroma that whets the palate. No one could stop at one cup. Moreover, the high price means bottles just accumulate in the storehouse. The loss stings, but for goodwill, it’s an excellent choice. Well done.”
“You flatter me.”
Chwi Hong-ran ducked her head, smiling shyly. Jang I-seo closed the ledger with the brightest smile he’d worn all day.
Truly, the daughter of the Murong clan, brilliant beyond measure.
A talent of this caliber deserved better than being confined to a mere inn.
Glug, glug.
Chwi Hong-ran filled a cup on the lavishly prepared drink table. Jang I-seo took it and studied her sideways.
Behind her gentle smile, worry lingered. Probably because of the expression he’d worn at the Seventh Small Palace earlier.
“I went to the Heavenly Demon Palace.”
Jang I-seo got straight to the point. Chwi Hong-ran’s eyes went wide, and she nodded with an expression of deep emotion. Ready to listen.
He explained everything in detail, from his Nine-Orifice Body condition to how the Heavenly Demon Jin U-gwang had transmitted demonic aura into him and tasked him with finding a cure. Omitting only the part about dying imminently, he walked her through it step by step.
Drinking and eating between explanations, time passed quickly.
Half a shi went by.
Chwi Hong-ran’s eyes were red.
“With that body all this time… you accomplished all of that…”
“Accomplished, nothing. I just hoarded money. And I’m fine. You know that.”
“Master…”
Jang I-seo hadn’t mentioned the Thunder Circulation Method, but she was a daughter of a renowned martial family in the Central Plains. She already knew he possessed ability far beyond what was publicly known.
Which made it all the more devastating. To think he’d been living with the cruel heavenly punishment of holes in his dantian.
She’d thought she knew him well. She still knew so little. And that made it sadder.
Seeing her looking as though a single touch would unleash a flood of tears, Jang I-seo hammed it up.
“I’m not dying. Don’t worry. Anyone watching would think I’m on my last legs.”
“It is dangerous, isn’t it. If something happens to you, Master, I…”
“Who’s going anywhere? And even if something does happen to me, you’ll definitely go home someday. Go back and live well.”
The era of peace had dawned, but for a cult member without rank or authority to leave Cheonsan without permission was a strict violation of cult doctrine. The moment she stepped out, the Counter-Espionage Division would hunt her down and wipe out her clan.
So there was no way to send Hong-ran out right now. But someday, he wanted to return her to her family’s embrace.
However,
“Master… You’re in a lot of pain, aren’t you?”
Chwi Hong-ran hadn’t listened to a word he’d said and struck at his blind spot. As expected, sharp. Jang I-seo eventually nodded.
“…Yes, that’s right. If I don’t find an answer within a month, the demonic aura will drive me mad and kill me.”
Her tears fell, rolling down her cheeks. Jang I-seo shook his head vigorously and drained his cup.
Chwi Hong-ran sniffed once, wiped her tears with her sleeve, and glared with bloodshot eyes as if declaring she wouldn’t cry anymore.
She knew full well that crying would only burden him. And besides, she trusted him more than anyone.
“You’ll be fine.”
“Of course. That man doesn’t say things idly. And I’ll find the answer.”
That man, surely he meant the Heavenly Demon? Pfft. Chwi Hong-ran burst out laughing at the brazen phrasing. Then she answered firmly.
“Yes!”
Jang I-seo also grinned and nodded.
“Now, that’s that. There’s something I’ll need you to do soon.”
“Whatever you ask, I’ll see it done.”
Chwi Hong-ran squeezed her eyes shut to scatter the remaining tears and answered with a voice full of resolve.
Reliable as always. Worth more than ten men.
Jang I-seo grinned.
“Guess we need another feast.”
And a big one at that.
* * *
The eastern edge of Cheonsan.
Here, the terrain was comparatively flat and the temperature lower. This was the Horse Ground, where the Demonic Cult bred its famous warhorses.
The characters meant “Running Horses.” The name came from the belief that only by galloping endlessly across vast, fenceless hills could legendary horses be born.
The family that had managed these grounds for generations was the Maeng family, one of the Demonic Cult’s three great noble houses.
The current Maeng family was more powerful than ever. Their elite Maeng Armor Ghost Horse Cavalry was at peak morale, and the family head had mastered their hereditary martial art, the Great Shattering Spear Technique.
That wasn’t all. Two of the family head’s nieces and nephews had been adopted by the Cult Leader. The Fifth Young Lady Maeng Won-won and the youngest son, the Sixth Young Master Maeng Hwi.
Both had achieved the honor of adoption before even reaching the age of fifteen.
And all of this, public consensus held, was due to the near-perfectionist nature of the family head, the Third Elder. The Divine Spear Demon, Maeng Cheol-yong.
A family in which everything was complete.
It definitely was. No. It had to be.
Absolutely.
“Uncle! I’m heading out!”
A girl atop a white stallion waved with a bright smile from the Horse Grounds.
Her name was Maeng Won-won.
Only sixteen years old, but she had caught the Cult Leader’s eye early and become his fifth adopted daughter.