The Grandson of the Heavenly Demon

Chapter 25

Chapter 259. Lover (2)There was no need to turn around to know who owned that familiar voice.

As Jeong-min turned his head, he caught sight of Red Dragon No Gang-sak's face twisting in sharp surprise.

"V-Vessel of God……!"

At that moment, something peculiar happened.

Because Jeong-min had yet to release the Demonic Energy Hardening from his sword, a sinister demonic energy was still radiating from his entire body.

—Grrrrr!

The Molten Blood Wolf, which had been on the verge of death just moments ago, suddenly bolted toward Vessel of God Gyeong Ga-ryeong and pressed close to her side, standing guard.

"Ugh."

Hearing the wolf's howl, Gyeong Ga-ryeong flinched back in fear born of her phobia—but she was startled to find the Molten Blood Wolf not attacking her, only pacing around nearby. She knew, even without sight.

Jeong-min, too, was somewhat surprised.

…I see.

The one who had controlled the Blood Wolves was No Gang-sak.

The reason was partly to keep Vessel of God Gyeong Ga-ryeong from leaving Mangyuan Prefecture—but beneath that,

It was also a means of protecting Ga-ryeong.

Without a single word, Gyeong Ga-ryeong understood all of it.

She did not turn to No Gang-sak and demand to know why he had been away for over a decade.

She simply understood everything.

Hesitant but resolute, she drew close to the Molten Blood Wolf and sat beside it.

She could not see with her own eyes the blood-soaked state the creature was in—but the life force she felt from it was faint and fragile.

"Thank you. You can sleep now."

As Gyeong Ga-ryeong stroked it with a warm hand, the Molten Blood Wolf blinked several times before collapsing in place.

As for Jeong-min—

Well, that's roughly the end of it.

He released the Demonic Energy Hardening.

Gyeong Ga-ryeong approached No Gang-sak. The 2 of them asked nothing of each other—they simply held one another in silence.

Watching that, Jeong-min lingered briefly in memory.

Lover.

Not long after Muyeong had been put to use as a blade for the Orthodox Faction—

He had not been under the Crooked-Nose Taoist's curse from the very start. The Madness Curse and the Seal had come somewhat later.

In those early days, when he was still no more than a low-ranked assassin, Muyeong had something called human connection.

And among those connections—there had been someone he loved.

Whether "lover" is quite the right word for her is debatable.

More like a woman he had kept close to his heart.

But from the repeated Seals, his mind had deteriorated—and now he had forgotten both her name and her face entirely.

Even if he met her again, he likely would not recognize her.

Someone who might have been my lover.

Now that he had returned to the past, it would be a lie to say he felt no desire to meet her again.

But he could not even remember who she was—there was no way to find her across this vast land of the central plains.

A bitter taste in my mouth.

Jeong-min felt inexplicably hollow, being alone like this.

.

.

.

Gyeong Ga-ryeong pressed her blood-stamped thumbprint and extended it to Jeong-min.

Jeong-min rose and received it with both hands, checking its contents.

"I, too, hereby confirm my alliance with the Western Alliance, Hyeok Jeong-min. From this point on, our Blood Cult stands with the Heavenly Demon Cult."

"Confirmed. Let us do well together."

This was Gyeong Ga-ryeong's quarters. No Gang-sak was receiving treatment for the wounds Jeong-min had inflicted—they ran deep.

Gyeong Ga-ryeong did not seem particularly inclined to hold that against Jeong-min. It had been her own instructions to begin with.

"Now that I am free to move about this Ten Thousand Mountain Range, should you need strength at any time, reach out through Wi Un-heo."

Jeong-min glanced back at Wi Un-heo and Seong Ju-gwan standing watch outside the quarters.

Wi Un-heo still had his eyes closed, muttering words under his breath.

"How dare he, with our Cult Leader. Wretched little brat."

He's saying that loud enough to be heard, isn't he? Or does he think I can't hear?

Gyeong Ga-ryeong, whose hearing was sharper than Jeong-min's, ignored it as if she heard nothing and continued.

"And… as promised, the head of Azure Sky Shattering Spindle is mine."

"Of course."

You're not thinking of ending things here, are you?

Jeong-min still had one more thing to collect from Gyeong Ga-ryeong.

"Now then—tell me how to resolve the Descending Evil God."

"……."

Gyeong Ga-ryeong let out a long sigh.

On Wi Un-heo and Seong Ju-gwan as well, the red marks remained.

The endemic disease of Mangyuan Prefecture—its name was Blood Sky Evil.

"Do you know why the Blood Cult eats people?"

"Who knows. A superiority complex?"

"What nonsense……"

In the distant past, the Blood Sky Evil—a curse handed down by the Descending Evil God—drove those afflicted to die in excruciating agony.

To slow its progression, one had to consume an uninfected person.

"The people of the Blood Cult do not eat because they want to. They do so because it is the only way to slow the disease's progression. Even so, they never kill directly to eat. At most, they consume the corpses of bandits who have died wandering the Ten Thousand Mountain Range."

"Mm."

It was not the most comfortable thing to hear, so Jeong-min simply received the words quietly.

There must be a reason she is telling him all this.

"But it is only a delay—it does not amount to a fundamental cure."

"Yet you, the Blood Cult Leader, bear no marks."

No Gang-sak had none either.

That meant a cure existed.

Gyeong Ga-ryeong nodded.

"Because the Blood Sky Evil has been suppressed. It has not disappeared. It has been sealed beneath the skin."

"Oh. Simple enough."

"It is not simple. 9 out of 10 who suppress the Blood Sky Evil die."

"Then the remaining 1 in 10 survives."

"……That you receive that so optimistically. How peculiar."

Jeong-min shrugged, and Gyeong Ga-ryeong let out a sigh.

She gestured to Wi Un-heo, and Wi Un-heo briefly departed somewhere.

In the meantime, Gyeong Ga-ryeong continued.

"That affliction of yours called the Demon Vein—its nature does not seem altogether different from the Blood Sky Evil. Though… unlike the Blood Sky Evil, it is strangely……"

"……Strangely?"

Even after that, there was silence for a long while—and Jeong-min waited.

Gyeong Ga-ryeong finally spoke.

"It is as though it moves of its own will."

Jeong-min had felt as much himself.

The Demon Vein was likely not the exact same affliction as the Blood Sky Evil. If it were, there would be no reason why it passed down to some and not others.

If anything, they probably shared the same root—by the logic that all streams return to one.

"In any case, you made a promise—it is time to make good on it."

She had said it was about sealing it beneath the skin. That meant suppression.

Gyeong Ga-ryeong had said "suppressed"—not "accepted."

Though, to be fair, Gyeong Ga-ryeong had only said she would reveal a method to suppress the Blood Sky Evil.

But I—I want to make everything the Demon Vein holds my own power.

Perhaps that was still too much to hope for.

Just then, Wi Un-heo returned. He gave Gyeong Ga-ryeong a small signal—a clearing of his throat—and she nodded.

"Follow me."

Following Gyeong Ga-ryeong, they arrived at a chamber housing a strange altar.

In the center of the room sat a reclining statue—shaped, oddly enough, like a chair.

"Sit."

"Ah."

I'm sitting here, then. 

Without a word, Jeong-min settled onto the head of the statue.

Rip!

Gyeong Ga-ryeong tore at her own forearm with her fingernails. Blood ran freely—but she showed no sign of pain.

"As you asked, I will seal your Demon Vein. You are all right with that?"

"Get on with it."

"You could die."

Jeong-min shook his head.

"I won't die over something like this."

"…Fine. Then. I have clearly given you warning."

Whoooosh!

A fierce wind suddenly swept through the altar chamber.

The eye of the storm that gathered it all—was Gyeong Ga-ryeong's left hand.

Blood dripping from it in steady drops, Gyeong Ga-ryeong thrust that left hand out with resolve.

Stab!

She drove it into Jeong-min's abdomen.

".....!"

For one instant, Jeong-min thought his stomach had been punched clean through.

But Gyeong Ga-ryeong had no killing intent. He realized soon enough it was an illusion.

And before long—

"Urk—"

Jeong-min convulsed with an uncontrollable urge to retch.

"Bleuugh‼"

He vomited everything inside him forward. His body, wrung dry without a drop of water remaining, began to wither as though death itself were whispering to him.

Crack! Craaack!

Crrrrrunch!

The sound of every bone in his body shattering and twisting rang out.

Each joint was reassembled—and the small Demon Vein that had dwelt in Jeong-min's left hand slowly began to fade.

The Demon Vein is retreating beneath the skin.

Even as his mind grew hazy, Jeong-min saw that clearly.

The thought crossed his mind that he might die just like this if he was not careful. But Jeong-min barely caught hold of his drifting consciousness.

If I lose consciousness here, I die.

He knew it by instinct.

Having seized his inner awareness, Jeong-min gripped his scattering mind and barely managed to right himself.

His bones were still twisting—but he tried to hold them steady by circulating his demonic energy through his breath.

Demon Accumulation.

Huuuu—

Jeong-min exhaled deeply, observed his own body, and concentrated energy into his dantian.

The energies cycling through him soon restored stability to his body.

Crunch— 

Crack—

And at last.

Silence arrived.

"……."

"……."

Neither Gyeong Ga-ryeong nor Jeong-min spoke.

After a long exhale, Jeong-min opened his eyes wide.

And then—

"Ugh."

Ptoo!

He spat out the small remaining impurity lingering inside his body.

Jeong-min became aware that something akin to internal energy had formed just below his dantian.

This was surely—

The Demon Vein.

The Demon Vein had been bound within his body.

How strange.

Jeong-min felt a sudden coolness at the Baihui acupoint at the crown of his head.

A clear, unobstructed vital energy flooded through his entire body—as demonic energy simultaneously flowed outward.

Bang!

Jeong-min achieved the 4th Stage of the Heavenly Demon Divine Art.

"Wow. What."

"You… your energy has grown far more formidable."

Gyeong Ga-ryeong noticed it as well.

It was already astonishing that merely sealing the Demon Vein within his body had brought him to the 4th Stage of the Heavenly Demon Divine Art—but beyond that, there had been no rampage from the Demon Vein either.

Jeong-min, who had nearly died from the Demon Vein running rampant every time he advanced a stage.

"Remarkable."

"To me, it is you who are more so. Until now, the only one to have successfully suppressed the Blood Sky Evil was Red Dragon……"

And she's telling me this now?

Red Dragon and lover, she had said—the way they both saved the important things for later was exactly alike.

Gyeong Ga-ryeong spoke.

"It is, in the end, only a seal. Yet you wish to truly accept that Demon Vein as your own power."

"……Have I ever told you that?"

"I deduced it. If you truly wish to fully unleash that Demon Vein……"

Gyeong Ga-ryeong paused, then continued.

"Seek out a man called Instructor Yeom in Hubei."

"Instructor Yeom? Who is that?"

"I do not know the details either. It is only what was passed down to me from the previous generation."

Hubei. That is quite far.

But it was a place he had to go regardless.

Because—

The man is in Hubei.

The head of the Wudang Sect, residing in Hubei.

The one who had placed the Madness Curse on Muyeong in his past life—the man who always had "Namo Amitabha" on his lips.

The Crooked-Nose Taoist. That man was in Hubei.

"I will keep it in mind."

After that, Jeong-min crossed back through the Ten Thousand Mountain Range without incident.

Everything he needed had been secured. The Demon Vein had been subdued for the time being, and the written pledge of the Blood Cult's commitment to the Western Alliance had been obtained.

Now it is time to return to the Heavenly Demon Cult.

And to begin, in earnest, the confrontation against the Martial Alliance.

How?

How else. I must take part in "it," naturally.

Around this period, "it" would begin.

Ever since his return, Jeong-min had kept a thorough grasp of the schedule surrounding it.

And—

"It" will become the opening move to strike the Martial Alliance.

.

.

.

Jeong-min's journey to the Blood Cult had taken roughly a fortnight.

In that time, various things had happened within the Heavenly Demon Cult.

Among them was the story of the Heavenly Demon Cult's live-in son-in-law, Bang-rip.

"Huu. Damn it."

Bang-rip could barely control his trembling hands.

But even so, he had to do it.

With his own hands, by himself.

That's right—can't you do it? I am none other than Wily Fox Swordsman Bang-rip.

The message he had received from Martial Alliance's Gwan Tae-ho was none other than this:

[Kill Hyeok Seol-hwa with your own hand and sever the bloodline of the Hyeok family.]

It was a command to kill his own wife—with his own hands.