Chapter 213: New Responsibilities
Chapter 212 – New Responsibilities
Although the Great Martial Arena was located in the center of the Heavenly Demon Cult, currently, it was oddly serving as a boundary.
Looking up, there was the Heaven-Obeying Faction, and looking down, the Heaven-Rebelling Faction resided.
I set foot into the place I had glared at as a provocation while fighting on the Great Martial Arena.
Well, strictly speaking, it was not my first visit.
On the first day I came to the Heavenly Demon Cult, I had passed this path when I smashed the head of the fake Heavenly Demon, Yi Gang-cheon.
Walking that path again, my feelings were somewhat fresh.
Unlike when I had passed by thoughtlessly on the first day, various things came into view now.
‘Should I say it’s worn……? The traces of time remain just as they are.’
The interior of the Heaven-Obeying Faction felt as though the parts touched by Master Heavenly Demon had been preserved exactly as they were.
This would be out of the question for ordinary buildings, but it was possible because more than half of the spaces were carved out of stone, forming a structure close to a cave.
It was enough to draw admiration. It felt as if the spirit of valuing history and tradition was alive in itself.
From their obsession with power, I had thought they were lumps of desire steeped in greed, absorbed in wealth, honor, and pleasure, but they seemed closer to a group of stubborn old men full of elitism, stagnant to an answerless degree.
Which one was worse I would have to judge as I went along.
This was because the reality before my eyes was the priority right now.
As I entered the Heaven-Obeying Faction territory where history (?) and tradition (?) could be felt, something strange came into view.
A person standing in a path where a somewhat chilly air flowed.
A young man who seemed slightly older than me turned his head toward me, and his appearance was extremely bizarre.
It was difficult to call his movement normal, as he moved while snapping his body joints like a broken gear.
Following this, an appearance that further fueled the bizarreness ensued.
[Look at that guy’s eyes.]
“He must have been a mantis in his past life.”
The left and right eyeballs moved separately.
Eyeballs moving randomly were disgusting in themselves.
Not that it was scary, but it was the kind of thing I would rather not get involved with.
It was only regrettable that it was an unavoidable situation.
“……It seems he is going to attack.”
The separately moving eyeballs found their place.
A focused gaze stretched straight toward me.
A naturally disgusting presence surged.
‘Were the ones I swept away with the Blood Net Gang Lines these kinds of fellows?’
It was probably the correct answer.
Moreover, this fellow was not alone.
“Kaaaaack!”
At the guy’s scream uttering a primal sound, a disgusting presence gathered around.
They poured out like a swarm of bees whose hive was attacked.
In proportion, the disgust grew stronger.
I had to leap into that place, which was full of dirty and repulsive things, with a sober mind.
Master Heavenly Demon’s feelings, who was said to have drunk enough to be wasted, were naturally understood.
However, I could not turn away either.
I narrowed the distance with the fellow in a single step.
Peogeok!
I crushed the head of the fellow, who could not even react, with a single blow.
‘I’ve definitely become faster.’
It was a different kind of sensation from when I deployed the Blood Net Gang Lines.
It was worthwhile wandering around the Cheonsan Mountains every night.
Since it was an expedient relying on the power of elixirs rather than training, it was not something to boast about, but it was certainly effective for short-term growth.
‘Hmm?’
While I was temporarily assessing my growth, a movement of disgusting things gathering as if surrounding prey and blocking the retreat path was felt.
The moment I broke through the formation surrounding the area, they moved fluidly and enclosed me, instantly putting me in a surrounded position in the middle of the enemy camp.
‘Look at this?’
Was it an instinctive movement?
For something like that, it was far too systematic. It would be difficult for even reasonably trained elites to be so orderly.
Let alone with this number of people!
It felt as if they were hands and feet following a single brain.
Sensing that they had cornered me, the enemies rushed in fiercely from all directions.
‘I’ll parry this part and……’
I parried one of the pouring attacks, opening a path of survival.
I contained the subtlety of the Wuji Palm in a strike that required immense power.
Kwadeuk!!
The arm of the demon who clashed with me bent windingly like a piece of taffy.
“Hmm?”
What surprised me was what followed.
Even though his arm was shattered, he pressed in with his body just like that and aimed at my neck with a spear hand.
He had moved by reacting precisely to my movements.
The reaction speed was considerable.
‘If I block, I’ll be cornered.’
If I end up blocking the opponent’s attack, the impact accumulates in the body, creating rigidity.
Let alone an attack like this that carried all of the body’s weight, the rigidity would be even greater.
If I blocked clumsily, they would rush in persistently from all directions.
This was because it was as good as a siege network having already formed around me.
‘These guys’ reactions are fast compared to their skill. As if they were specialized in this sort of thing.’
By clashing hands with them, I could roughly grasp their skill.
The reaction speed of these fellows was superior compared to their general skill. It was at least two stages higher.
It was a level where, if I dealt with it clumsily, I might show an embarrassing sight in front of everyone watching.
‘A bit more seriously……’
Chwaaaak!
The moment I was about to get serious out of a sense of crisis (?) that I must never show an embarrassing sight, a bloody wind swept around.
Decapitated corpses were mass-produced in an instant.
“We will join you.”
It was the Heavenly Demon’s Personal Guards.
In one fell swoop, they swept away the out-of-mind rising stars of the Heavenly Demon Cult who were surrounding me.
They intervened at just the right time.
‘This changes the story.’
The space that had been a bed of thorns until a moment ago was cleanly cleared out.
As the Heavenly Demon’s Personal Guards ran wild, my range of movement also grew.
Now that there was no worry of being surrounded, there would be no problem even if I charged more aggressively.
“Tear them apart like this!”
“Understood!”
The Heavenly Demon’s Personal Guards, along with roars, tore the siege surrounding me to shreds.
Advancing forward through the path thus created, I struck down anything that entered my range.
I crushed with the Wuji Palm, shattered with the Wuji Fist, and split with the Wuji Kick.
The movement trying to swallow me collapsed in an instant.
“This is good?”
“It is also the first time we have felt our coordination match like this!”
It seemed this strange sense of unity I felt was not felt by me alone.
As if they were made that way from the beginning, the Heavenly Demon Divine Art and the martial arts of the Heavenly Demon’s Personal Guards coordinated perfectly.
Although they were merely moving and fighting together, as if they were deploying a combined strike formation, they meshed with each other to increase their power.
Perhaps because in the case of the fake Heavenly Demon, Yi Gang-mu, they had never heightened their sense of unity to this extent, everyone had surprised faces.
‘Is this why they are the Heavenly Demon’s Personal Guards?’
I had learned something unexpected.
‘Why did Master Heavenly Demon not tell me…… Ah, it must not have been created by Master Heavenly Demon.’
Master Heavenly Demon was someone who had abandoned the Heavenly Demon Divine Art and completed the Heavenly Demon Hand of No Tribulation in the first place.
There was no way he would have created such a martial art based on the Heavenly Demon Divine Art.
Moreover, considering the direction pursued by the Heavenly Demon Hand of No Tribulation, it was even more out of the question that the Heavenly Demon’s Personal Guards were created by Master Heavenly Demon.
It was highly likely they were created by later generations who wanted to try something based on the Heavenly Demon Divine Art.
‘If it were Master Heavenly Demon…… he probably wouldn’t like them, right?’
Though they were so loyal, no matter how much I thought about it, they were not the type Master Heavenly Demon would like.
This was because the humans (?) Master Heavenly Demon liked were free spirits who threw character and everything else to the wind and lived freely based on outstanding talent.
Thinking of the shock they would receive when they went to the Underworld later and saw Master Heavenly Demon carrying a dung basket, tears blurred my vision.
‘I should treat them well. Really.’
Watching the Heavenly Demon’s Personal Guards actively clearing the surroundings, I quietly made a vow.
‘That aside…… is it only…… the rising stars?’
As I found the leeway to examine the surroundings, a strange sense of incongruity was felt.
Although it was true that I had killed quite a few Demonic General-level experts at the Great Martial Arena, there was no way that was the entirety of the Heaven-Obeying Faction’s forces.
Above all, the fact that those running wild madly here were only young rising stars caught my eye.
It was clear that while the Great Martial Arena had been quiet for a while, something had broken out inside the Heaven-Obeying Faction.
“What on earth did these crazy bastards do?”
They were not Living Jiangshi. If those were monsters that did not know pain, these guys just ran wild like madmen.
Should I call them beasts that had learned martial arts?
There was the form of martial realm in their movements, but the sensation was raw wilderness itself.
Yet, they were bizarrely orderly.
It was as if someone had done something evil inside their heads.
Well, since they were bastards who used gu parasites without hesitation, what wouldn’t they be capable of doing?
“Yi Hwa.”
“Yes.”
“Has the Heavenly Demon Cult ever accepted the forces of the Blood Cult?”
“No.”
“……Is that so?”
That was unexpected. In fact, ever since the incident at the Mount Hua Sect, I had been making such an assumption inwardly.
But Yi Hwa asserted that there was none.
Yi Hwa inherited the lineage of the magic practitioners in the Heavenly Demon Cult.
Although there might not be a complete lack of sinister arts among them that the Orthodox Path could not accept, it probably meant their roots were different from those of the Blood Cult.
If so, the answer was only one.
“What about the possibility of the Blood Cult having infiltrated?”
“……It exists. This is because the Divine Maiden is excluded from the power structure. Of course, I keep my ears wide open, but it is not easy to grasp the detailed parts where the leadership moves directly.”
If the Heaven-Obeying Faction, which was extremely wary of the Heaven-Entering Divine Demonic Sovereign, had secretly accepted them without others knowing, then this situation would also be explained.
The bloody affairs occurring inside the Heaven-Obeying Faction.
The urgency of using the rising stars, who could be called the future of the Heavenly Demon Cult, as discardable pawns.
The other experts who did not step forward despite such a situation.
All these things warned that the situation was turning urgent.
Above all, there was a separate serious point.
‘At least two stages higher……’
What if this were applied not to a warrior at the level of a rising star, but to a Demonic King-level or Demonic Emperor-level expert?
“Umm……”
Suddenly, a chilling cold ran down my spine.
“If the Heaven-Obeying Faction secretly accepted the Blood Cult, where would they have placed them?”
“……There is a place that comes to mind.”
Having reached a similar conclusion as me, Yi Hwa hardened her face and quickened her pace.
***
“The situation is flowing interestingly. A Heavenly Demon Cult where demons fallen into demonic nature and the monsters we created run wild……”
A person who could not be distinguished as a woman or a man by outward appearance.
The sorcerer, clad all over in a sinister air that seemed capable of making one’s mind faint just by looking, smiled with satisfaction.
Talk that would make a sane demon of the Heavenly Demon Cult shed tears of blood and sob flowed calmly from the sorcerer’s mouth.
The man beside such a sorcerer focused on the letter held in his hand, seemingly having no particular interest.
Soon, the man burst into a broad laugh.
“Hahahaha!”
As if it were a rare occurrence, the sorcerer showed curiosity.
“What is the content that makes you laugh so?”
“It says they will wipe out the Namgung Clan soon.”
“Which means……”
“The Great War between Orthodox and Unorthodox. It is written so in the letter. Retrieve the Heavenly Demon Cult and advance into the Central Plains.”
“Ah……”
The smile drawn on the lips of the sinister sorcerer changed.
A different emotion from the smile that had mocked the destruction of the Heavenly Demon Cult a moment ago.
It was joy.
It was a pleasure that only someone with the fruits of long efforts before their eyes could enjoy.
“Finally, the time has come. There is no longer a need to live hidden in a miserable way.”
Those who had lived hidden in the shadows despite having power.
“It was truly long.”
The owner of the Blood Cult, the Blood Demon, who looked arrogant, also looked up at the sky with a faint expression coming to mind.
In their appearance, speaking as if they had already placed the world in their hands, confidence that everything would go as intended was filled.