novelraw Chapter 18
Chapter 18
Chapter 18:7. The Ten-Thousand Mountain Range (1)It was not only Hyeok Jang-ho and Hyeok Mun-ha who had climbed Tianshan.
Behind them were more than ten cult members.
The Heavenly Demon Cult had three major corps.
The Demon Martial Corps—those who leaned more heavily toward martial arts.
The Inscription Martial Corps—those who revered formation and discipline.
The Cult Corps—those more devoted to the Heavenly Demon Cult's doctrine than to martial arts.
But in truth, there was 1 more. That was the Shadow Strike Corps, made up of a select few of 10.
They carried out covert operations befitting their name, and today they had followed Hyeok Jang-ho and Hyeok Mun-ha.
Hyeok Jang-ho issued his orders.
"Mun-ha, take the Shadow Strike Corps and quickly go put out the fires."
"Yes!"
Hyeok Mun-ha disappeared with the Shadow Strike Corps in a flash of nimble movement.
Jang Hap-jung turned his gaze toward Hyeok Jang-ho rather than the others.
"Judging by your attire, you must be a cult member."
"I am called Hyeok Jang-ho. And you are from the Forest Bandits?"
"That's right. I am Jang Hap-jung, Strike Squad captain. Once today's business is settled, I am set to receive the title of Forest Three Wraiths from the Great King."
And Jang Hap-jung smiled with an air of smug satisfaction. He had seemed expressionless before, but now it was striking—a long scar ran beneath his chin.
"Have you come to stop my Strike Squad's tactics?"
"Tactics? From where I'm standing, it looks like nothing more than setting things on fire… I find it rather cowardly."
"Hmph. Think what you will. You won't be stopping it."
Jang Hap-jung strode toward Jang-ho, a Shaking Mountain Broadsword—a kind of broadsword—gripped in one hand.
Jang-ho had no sword on him at the moment.
"Did you truly think your lot could stop our Forest Bandits? Think about the difference in numbers. Hundreds against thousands. A tenfold gap."
"You simply have more heads."
"Ha! I'll cut out that insolent tongue of yours first."
In that instant, Jang Hap-jung swung the Shaking Mountain Broadsword at Hyeok Jang-ho without hesitation.
Hyeok Jang-ho never took his eyes off the blade as it fell toward him.
And just as the edge was about to reach the top of his head—
Crack!
He raised his hand and caught the blade between his fingers.
"What?!"
"I said you simply have more heads."
The sword did not move.
Jang Hap-jung tried to wrench it free with all his strength, but to no avail.
How could this be—the Shaking Mountain Broadsword was so heavy that even a grown man of considerable strength needed both hands to swing it.
Hyeok Jang-ho grinned.
"I haven't reached the 1st Stage of the Heavenly Demon Divine Art yet."
"Urk, what?"
"But I've made the judgment that I can put someone like you flat on the ground well enough."
"Let go of this right now—!"
Whoosh—
Thwoom!
Jang Hap-jung was sent flying from Hyeok Jang-ho's kick and crashed to the ground. Clang! He lost his grip on the heavy Shaking Mountain Broadsword.
Thud! Jang Hap-jung slammed into a wall and coughed up blood.
"Kck! Wh-what in the—!"
"You said Forest Three Wraiths? A pity, but you won't be rising to any such position. By now, our Jeong-min will have slit the Great Forest King's throat."
"Nonsense…! It seems you don't know who our Great Forest King is."
"I don't. And I won't need to."
Hyeok Jang-ho drew close to Jang Hap-jung. He spread his hand wide and drove it into Jang Hap-jung's face.
Demon Palm Piercer!
Smack!
No demonic energy was channeled into it, but the power was more than enough.
Jang Hap-jung's head dropped, and from behind him came the sounds of Forest Bandits screaming.
And one by one, the flames across the area began to die down.
Mun-ha has done well.
"Uh—hk. Urgh."
Jang Hap-jung, on the verge of losing consciousness, forced himself back to awareness.
He looked up at Hyeok Jang-ho.
"How… how can a mere youth possess such strength…"
"I am not a mere youth."
To Jang Hap-jung, who was already losing his senses, Hyeok Jang-ho let fall a faint smile as he spoke.
"What is strong is the Heavenly Demon Cult in its entirety."
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.
.
The Forest Bandits retreated, and the Heavenly Demon Cult's members returned.
Hyeok Seol-hwa tended to the wounded. The remaining household members wrapped bandages and brought medicine.
"……"
Jeong-min looked over the rooms where the patients lay.
Those severely injured numbered over 100. Adding those with minor injuries, it was the entirety of the cult members.
He quietly closed the door and stepped out into the courtyard.
White cloth was being draped over those who had not survived the battle against the Forest Bandits.
Hyeok Jang-ho and Hyeok Mun-ha could be seen trembling.
"If only we had arrived a little sooner."
"Damn it."
In addition to the cult members who had fought directly, the household servants who had remained inside had also suffered.
The number of dead exceeded 50.
Even so, the fact that the damage was limited to this extent is entirely thanks to Grandfather and the elders.
Had it not been for Heavenly Demon Hyeok Je-un, the two elders, and the other notable elders, the casualties would have been far greater.
While Jeong-min was fighting the Great Forest King, Hyeok Je-un and the elders had held back the thousands of Forest Bandits on their own.
It was because of them that the damage had been contained to this degree.
Even so.
Jeong-min approached each of the fallen one by one, placed a hand upon their heads, and prayed for their passage to paradise.
And he swallowed down the rising tide of fury within him.
The Heavenly Demon Cult is still weak.
Enemies lurked on all sides, yet their strength was lacking.
And so strength had to be built.
But separate from building strength—he would not allow his people to be harmed again.
"It's Young Master Jeong-min."
"Young Master Jeong-min."
Just then, the cult members caught sight of Jeong-min.
Seeing the moisture at the corners of his eyes, they too reddened at the rims of their own without exception.
They murmured among themselves for a moment, then clasped each other's hands tightly and called out in unison.
"We are alive because of you, Young Master Jeong-min!"
"Thank you!"
"We truly… thank you!!"
Jeong-min turned to look at them.
Among them were Hyeok Jang-ho and Hyeok Mun-ha, who harbored no envy toward their younger brother's exploits.
And there too were his grandfather and his mother.
I tend to those who have survived.
That is what I must do.
Jeong-min answered them with a smile that was quietly somber.
There was only 1 person who watched it all with gritted teeth and a look of contempt.
That was Bang-rip alone.
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.
.
Returning to his room, Jeong-min sat down cross-legged.
It was not to train the Heavenly Demon Divine Art.
Huu.
Only after breaking into a drenching sweat did Jeong-min uncross his legs.
The Demon Vein had run rampant again just a moment ago. Already the 3rd time today alone.
What is it that you want from me?
Jeong-min felt as though the Demon Vein was trying to speak to him.
Was it nothing more than a simple misreading? And if it wasn't…
"Demon Vein."
It did not answer his call.
Just a misreading after all.
It was then.
Knock, knock—
"Jeong-min. Have you retired to your bedchamber?"
His grandfather's voice.
Jeong-min lifted his head and looked at the shadow leaning into the moonlight.
"Not yet."
"Then come out for a moment."
Jeong-min did as he was told.
Telling him he had been trying to commune with the Demon Vein late into the night felt like it would invite needless misunderstanding, so Jeong-min played the part of someone who had been on the verge of sleep.
"What brings you at this hour?"
"Follow me."
Hyeok Je-un took the lead.
Jeong-min followed directly behind Hyeok Je-un toward his quarters.
Why has he called for me? At this hour of the night.
As Jeong-min was thinking this—
Hyeok Je-un sat down and produced a single document, extending it toward him.
"A short while ago, a message from Potala Palace's Ajung Mak-sang arrived by carrier eagle. He sends his congratulations on the victory against the Forest Bandits, and his apologies for failing to lend aid in time."
"Ah. I see."
As expected. Just as I had heard—cowardly lot.
Potala Palace had made excuses claiming the alliance document had not yet reached the Dalai Lama, and on those grounds had not aided the Heavenly Demon Cult during the Forest Bandit battle despite the alliance being in place.
Jeong-min gave a nod. Was this what he had been called for?
He was thinking just that when Hyeok Je-un suddenly rose from his seat, retrieved something hanging on the wall, and extended it toward Jeong-min.
"Take it."
"This is…?"
Jeong-min accepted it quietly.
What Heavenly Demon Hyeok Je-un had gifted Jeong-min was—
This is the Heavenly Ascent Sword.
None other than the Heavenly Demon's sword, the Heavenly Ascent Sword.
The Heavenly Ascent Sword.
A sword passed down through every successive Heavenly Demon—so sacred that it was not actually used in combat and was ordinarily kept as a symbol alone.
The blade is magnificent. It is a blue-steel long sword forged from white-refined steel.
The white blade carried itself as though it had never once been touched by a drop of blood, and yet it bore the bearing of something that had countless lives resting upon its back.
Jeong-min saw a path through slaughter in the blade of the Heavenly Ascent Sword.
"I am giving it to you."
"……! To me, you say?"
Naturally it was a finer sword than any Jeong-min had wielded back when he was Muyeong in his past life.
No—could it even be called simply a fine sword and left at that?
It was the supreme blade that Hyeok Je-un had not even drawn during the Forest Bandit battle. No sword Jeong-min would ever wield from this point forward would surpass it.
I have never seen so noble a sword even in my past life.
Ah—there was 1.
The blue-robed warrior who had killed him in his past life, Gwan Tae-ho of the Eagle Eye Six Swords.
The 6 swords that man carried had likewise been supreme blades.
Even so, they were nothing to be compared with this Heavenly Ascent Sword.
"This… ahem, how is it that you would give this to me."
Try as he might to appear composed, there was nothing to be done about his voice trembling of its own accord.
Heavenly Demon Hyeok Je-un smiled warmly.
"Jang-ho and Mun-ha have both agreed. What you accomplished this time is worth that much. Was it not also you who protected the Heavenly Demon Cult?"
There was a flaw in those words.
It was true that Jeong-min had killed the Great Forest King Heo Do-yun. That had pushed the front line back.
But in truth, had it not been for Hyeok Je-un and the other elders, the situation of Jeong-min and Heo Do-yun facing each other one-on-one would never have come about.
It was only possible because everyone held their ground.
For that reason, to say Jeong-min had protected the Heavenly Demon Cult was a statement that didn't hold together.
"My 2 brothers agreed…"
Above all, the fact that Hyeok Jang-ho and Hyeok Mun-ha had given their approval was what astonished him.
In his past life as Muyeong, the families he had witnessed were busy envying and despising one another.
At times he had even seen a father try to kill his own son. He had wondered why they had bothered to sire children at all—but back in those days as Muyeong, bound by the Seal, he hadn't had the mind to think that far.
Blood kin driving swords into one another, close relatives poisoning each other to death.
Such things were the everyday life Muyeong had witnessed in his past life.
And yet—
And yet my 2 brothers permitted me to inherit this sword.
The Heavenly Ascent Sword carried symbolic weight, and approval would not have come lightly.
Jeong-min was grateful for the boundless generosity of Hyeok Jang-ho and Hyeok Mun-ha.
"Thank you, Grandfather. I will make good use of it."
"Very well."
Jeong-min tried the sword at his hip. It was light as though a feather had been fastened there.
He could not stop the smile from forming.
"Jeong-min."
At his grandfather's call, Jeong-min composed his expression again.
"Yes, Grandfather. No… Cult Leader."
"What is your goal at present?"
At present, he meant.
Jeong-min answered without a moment's pause.
"The Blood Cult."
The Qinghai Escort Bureau had been eliminated.
The Forest Bandit captain had been cut down. They would not be marching on them for some time.
An alliance had been forged with Potala Palace through the Western Alliance.
Then what remained?
Only the Blood Cult.
The Blood Cult was an insidious and obscure organization situated deep within the Ten-Thousand Mountain Range to the north of even Xinjiang.
One might wonder whether it truly had to be dealt with now—but—
However, when I ultimately choose to head south into the Central Plains, the one thing that will remain a hindrance to the end is the Blood Cult.
If the Blood Cult were to descend as the Heavenly Demon Cult moved south, the ruler of Xinjiang might well change.
Of course, with Heavenly Demon Hyeok Je-un present, it would not be so easy—but all risk factors had to be eliminated before moving forward.
"The Blood Cult."
Heavenly Demon Hyeok Je-un turned the words over.
"You intend to destroy the Blood Cult and be done with it?"
"That would be the inferior plan."
"And the superior plan?"
As though he had been waiting for exactly this, Jeong-min spoke.
"I will invite them to join the Western Alliance."