At the bottom of a deep ravine.

Thick vegetation grew on the cliff above, and in the darkness where not even a ray of sunlight penetrated, footsteps echoed from somewhere.

-Thud! Thud!

The footsteps continued forward for a while before stopping somewhere.

About twenty jang away from where the footsteps stopped, there stood a building illuminated by torches.

The building had red cloth hanging on it, making it look like a shrine. Strangely, hundreds of tombstones were planted around it.

The tombstones were densely engraved with red letters, and the way they were arranged resembled a battle formation.

This alone seemed quite unusual, but around thirty diviners were guarding the shrine with utmost vigilance, forming hand seals.

At that moment, the door of the shrine opened and someone walked out.

It was a middle-aged diviner who emerged with a serious expression on his face, as if something had happened. He looked into the darkness outside the shrine with wary eyes.

Seeing his demeanor, the diviners maintaining their hand seals and guarding their positions looked at him curiously.

“Moon-level Diviner Yook. What’s the matter?”

One of the diviners asked about the reason.

The middle-aged diviner called Moon-level Diviner Yook swallowed dryly and opened his mouth.

“Did no one else feel that chilling demonic energy just now?”

“Demonic energy?”

At this question, the diviners looked at each other and tilted their heads.

None of them had felt any tremendous demonic energy.

Seeing the diviners’ reactions, Moon-level Diviner Yook wondered if he had overreacted.

But then,

-Drip!

Beads of sweat had formed on his forehead.

‘What’s this?’

It felt unusually hot.

The ravine was normally quite chilly since light barely reached it, so what was going on?

“Aren’t you all feeling ho…?”

At that moment, Moon-level Diviner Yook’s eyes widened. For good reason,

“Heh…”

“Huh…”

The diviners had suddenly become dazed, with unfocused eyes and drool dripping from their mouths.

Sensing something ominous, Moon-level Diviner Yook hurriedly tried to form a hand seal.

-Clack! Clack! Clack!

But at that very moment,

-Whoosh!

A sound like something spinning rapidly and causing friction was heard.

As he wondered what it could be, he saw two wheels blazing with crimson flames in his field of vision.

‘D-damn it…’

-Whoosh!

Before he could even deploy his divi-ation technique.

A wave of devastating flames spewed from the two fiercely spinning wheels, engulfing everything around and burning it all to ashes.

Soon, nothing remained around the shrine but scorched traces.

Footsteps continued in that place.

-Thud thud!

The footsteps stopped again somewhere, which was right in the middle of the burnt remains of the shrine.

In the center stood a large stone statue, but its form was too grotesque to be called human.

This was because it had the shape of an ox with one of its horns broken off.

-Swish!

In front of this grotesque statue, someone caressed it while muttering in a voice filled with killing intent.

“Father…

***

[This body burns in the flames of purification, with no attachment to life or death. Eliminating evil for the sake of good and illuminating the light, joy and sorrow all remain as mere dust. How pitiful are the worried sentient beings.]

A year had passed since the establishment of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.

In this year, which could be considered long or short depending on one’s perspective, the doctrine of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult had spread throughout the Central Plains and was beginning to gradually influence not only martial artists but also civilians.

Despite its predecessor being considered an evil organization like the Heaven and Earth Society and being rejected by the country like the Fire Faith Order, the reason it could achieve this much was largely due to the influence of the Heavenly Demon, the cult’s founder and first leader.

The Heavenly Demon, who had saved not only martial artists but all people from a great calamity, was revered as a hero despite treading the path of demons.

As a result, even righteous martial artists were joining the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult in increasing numbers day by day, out of reverence for him and to pursue pure martial arts.

‘Thanks to that, I was able to enter so easily.’

A young man with a neat appearance clicked his tongue as he looked at the outer wall of the inner city of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.

He was able to enter easily thanks to the cult’s doctrine of accepting anyone regardless of status or background, as long as they left their previous affiliations behind.

‘It’s surprisingly anticlimactic how easy it was.’

The reason for the young man’s reaction was simple.

His name was Dan Yak.

He was a member of Silent Strides^[1], the spy unit of the Righteous Alliance, and had been deployed to check the expanding Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.

Just a year ago, the martial arts world had maintained a delicate balance between the three major forces: the Righteous Alliance, the Heaven and Earth Society, and the Four Evils Alliance. But now the situation had changed.

The Righteous Alliance had weakened as they were being checked by the imperial court due to their relationship completely breaking down over incidents like the beheading of envoys, including those from the Peng family of Hebei. On the other hand, the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult was enjoying unprecedented power.

‘The Greatest Under Heaven… the Heavenly Demon.’

Inside that inner city was the Heavenly Demon, the leader of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult, who could be considered the pinnacle of the current martial arts world.

He was said to be the undisputed greatest swordsman under heaven.

According to those who had participated in the legendary war between the righteous and unorthodox sects a year ago, his might was said to be enough to split heaven and earth. But Dan Yak had been undergoing training as a spy at that time and hadn’t seen it himself.

Honestly, he thought that the Heavenly Demon must have tremendous sword skills to be spoken of in such terms.

However, he felt that “splitting heaven and earth” was too much of an exaggeration.

‘…Well, I’ll find out when I see it myself.’

Just how strong he really was.

The infiltration into the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult was successful.

He had heard that they would receive training at a place called the Corpse Blood Valley, and be assigned positions based on their performance there.

The goal was to be placed in either the Cult Leader’s Palace or the Elder Hall in the inner city.

Although he was a spy, his aim was to return in triumph by making definite achievements.

‘As they’re at the height of their power, they must be at their most arrogant now… If I seize this opportunity well, I should be able to make significant achievements…’

-Thud thud!

At that moment, he saw someone walking up to the platform.

Dan Yak’s eyes lit up when he saw him.

He immediately recognized who it was, having memorized information about most of the important figures in the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult before coming.

‘The Seventh Elder of the Flying Ghost Clan, Hwan Ya-seon.’

He had heard that in the former Heaven and Earth Society, he was the leader of Shadow Clan, which handled spies and information.

But suddenly, Dan Yak felt something was strange.

According to his information, the one in charge of the Corpse Blood Valley was supposed to be Lee Ji-yeom, the Sixth Elder of the Crimson Flame Clan.

So why was the leader of the Flying Ghost Clan here…

“Hohoho. From now on, those whose names I call out should step to the left.”

‘!?’

“Ah ah, students, there’s no need to be too surprised. It’s nothing major, just a process of weeding out the rat bastards.”

-Shing! Shing! Shing!

As soon as those words ended, the warriors of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult surrounding the plaza all drew their weapons at once.

Seeing their actions, Dan Yak’s expression froze.

Although he had been trained to maintain his composure as much as possible, Hwan Ya-seon’s gaze was directed precisely at him.

And his lips were forming the words,

‘Yes, it’s you.’

Dan Yak’s face instantly turned pale.

Was it he who had been arrogant, not this place?

***

The Seventh Elder Hwan Ya-seon, who had rooted out the spies, shook his head as he left the outer city’s trainee grounds and headed towards the inner city.

It was becoming increasingly difficult to weed out spies compared to the time of the Heaven and Earth Society.

Of course, they were still catching over 90% of them, but as the scale of the cult grew, it might become harder to manage.

‘Perhaps we should pause expanding our forces for now.’

They hadn’t been controlling admissions due to emphasizing the cult’s doctrine, but it was becoming too much.

He would have to raise this issue at the next general meeting.

With that thought, the Seventh Elder Hwan Ya-seon entered the inner city and immediately headed towards the Cult Leader’s Palace.

The reason for going to the Cult Leader’s Palace was simple.

It was to check if He had returned.

‘Where did He go this time?’

Since the Holy Maiden became pregnant, the Cult Leader had been away from the Cult Leader’s Palace more often than staying there.

Because of this, reports would sometimes pile up, which was quite troublesome.

As Hwan Ya-seon entered the Cult Leader’s Palace building with a bitter taste in his mouth, he saw someone walking out, leaning on a snake-headed staff.

It was the Grand Guardian, Guyang Sa-oh of the Eight Poison Snake Staff.

“Grand Guardian Guyang.”

“Oh, if it isn’t the Seventh Elder?”

-Swish!

The two lightly bowed to each other and clasped their hands in greeting.

After exchanging greetings, Hwan Ya-seon nodded towards the Cult Leader’s Palace and said,

“It seems you weren’t able to have an audience again.”

“Hehehe. That’s right. It feels like I spend fewer days closely assisting than befits my title of Grand Guardian.”

“Hohoho. You should look at it positively. In a way, the current position of Guardian is almost honorary, so you might be more comfortable physically.”

Guyang Sa-oh smiled at Hwan Ya-seon’s words.

Who in the world could threaten the Cult Leader, who was called the Greatest Under Heaven?

It was true.

Suddenly, Grand Guardian Guyang Sa-oh’s gaze turned to the scrolls in both of Hwan Ya-seon’s hands.

As they expanded their influence and increased their scale, the workload was growing exponentially.

On the other hand, his duty was to assist the Cult Leader, so when the Cult Leader was away, he truly had nothing to do.

“I’m getting to the point where I feel guilty towards the Elders for being too comfortable.”

“Ohoho. If that’s the case, why don’t you stay in the cult a bit longer to assist the Cult Leader?”

Grand Guardian Guyang Sa-oh gave no answer.

To this, Hwan Ya-seon spoke in a regretful tone.

“It seems your decision remains unchanged.”

“I’m sorry. The Cult Leader has graciously cherished me, but how much longer can this old man live? I just want to return to the Western Regions’ White Pagoda Mountain and spend my remaining years with my family.”

Grand Guardian Guyang Sa-oh was waiting for the Cult Leader’s approval for his retirement.

Of course, Hwan Ya-seon and several other Elders were urging him to stay a bit longer to maintain the cult’s strength, but it seemed he had already made up his mind firmly.

“Since you put it that way, there’s nothing we can do. But there are still 4 years left until the personnel appointment period. Have you thought about who will succeed you?”

The Heavenly Demon Divine Cult conducts personnel appointments every 5 years.

It was planned to be based on a thorough verification of martial prowess through martial arts competitions and past achievements.

However, in cases where a position becomes vacant like this, it was decided that the predecessor would choose a successor, which would then be finalized through the Elder Council’s meeting or the Cult Leader’s approval.

“I was thinking of asking the Vice Guardian to succeed me.”

“The Vice Guardian… Indeed, he is more than qualified.”

Vice Guardian Ma Ra-hyeon.

In just one year, his abilities had greatly developed, and in terms of pure martial arts skills, he had already reached a level surpassing the Grand Guardian. Everyone assumed he would naturally become the Grand Guardian after 5 years.

“Come to think of it, the Vice Guardian probably doesn’t know yet.”

Vice Guardian Ma Ra-hyeon is currently away.

Officially, it was announced as a vacation, but in reality, he knew that the Vice Guardian had left to find his father’s enemy, whom he learned about from the Holy Fire Priestess.

He said he would resolve it and return within three months, but a little over two months had passed.

He would return to the cult before long.

As Grand Guardian Guyang Sa-oh and Seventh Elder Hwan Ya-seon were engaged in casual conversation in front of the Cult Leader’s Palace,

-Whoosh!

At that moment, crimson smoke gathered in front of them, forming a gateway.

Then someone leapt out from inside.

That someone was none other than Yeo Surin, the diviner from the Harmonious Immortal Pavilion.

“Diviner Yeo?”

As the two were puzzled by her sudden appearance, Yeo Surin asked them in an urgent tone.

“Where is the Cult Leader?”

“The Cult Leader is currently away. What urgent matter brings you here like this…”

“There’s no time to explain. Right now! Right now! We need to find the Cult Leader!”

‘!?’

What could have happened to make her act like this?

Through the gateway of crimson smoke she had ridden through, they could see numerous charred corpses strewn about.