Chapter 33. Begging for Punishment (2)
“H, have you been doing well?”
“Yes.”
“How is your body?”
“Fine.”
Wow.
This was suffocating.
I would rather have her scream at me.
Why was she so quiet?
Was this the calm before the storm?
“Sorry I could not come here immediately after returning.”
“The Military Strategy Department kept questioning me about various things...”
“I know.”
“...Are you very angry?”
“Why would I be angry?”
“All I did was spend every night crying while my husband hovered between life and death.”
Hmm.
Apparently, she had heard the full details of the mission.
Did the Right Envoy tell her?
Damn.
I could not take this anymore.
At this rate, I might suffocate to death.
Time for a direct attack.
“I’m sorry.”
“I know the situation forced me into it, but I nearly died and left you and our child behind.”
The man lowered his head.
The woman quietly watched him for a long time.
Then she seemed about to speak, but held herself back.
Instead, she gently embraced him.
“You came back alive.”
“That is enough.”
“I truly mean it.”
Emotion rose inside me so strongly that I could not describe it.
Her warm embrace asked nothing.
It demanded nothing.
It simply wrapped around me and accepted me.
“Of course, the fact that you nearly died for people you barely knew is frustrating enough to drive me insane.”
“But it was still something you chose to do.”
“So I understand.”
“...”
“From now on, do not apologize.”
“Just come back alive.”
“Understood?”
I remembered my childhood.
The days when I begged, stole, and picked up rotten food from the street simply to avoid starving to death.
An orphan abandoned with nothing more than one torn piece of cloth.
A rat in the shape of a human who would drink filthy water if necessary to survive.
That was what I had been.
I grew up inside a bottomless pit where failing to struggle meant dying miserably.
Whenever I looked toward the bright world outside, anger rose inside me.
The smiling boys and girls walking through bright markets while holding their parents' hands had looked unbearably hateful.
Yet inside Wolyeong's warm embrace, the resentment I had carried for thirty years melted like snow.
“Come on.”
“Let us eat.”
“We were supposed to be having dinner.”
Wolyeong quietly wiped the corner of her eye with her sleeve and returned to her seat.
Then she picked up her spoon.
After finishing our meal, Wolyeong checked my pulse.
Her eyes immediately widened.
“My heavens.”
“You truly underwent Body Reformation...”
“If Won Kang had not fed me the Spirit Returning Demon Pill, I would have died.”
“My injuries were even worse than when I was trapped in the Martial Alliance's Heavenly Net.”
“How did you endure the pain of the Spirit Returning Demon Pill?”
“Throughout the history of our Cult, fewer than five people, including Father, have managed to endure it.”
“Master taught me a special art.”
I explained the Divine Art of Painlessness.
Wolyeong nodded with interest.
“That is no ordinary secret art.”
“Our Cult also possesses several arts capable of blocking pain.”
“However, none of them work against the pain created by the Spirit Returning Demon Pill.”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
“Unlike ordinary secret arts, your Divine Art of Painlessness may use the upper dantian, where spiritual energy resides.”
Hmm.
That was certainly possible.
After all, Master had personally created the Divine Art of Painlessness.
“This Master created the technique personally.”
“Naturally, its effect is incredible.”
“You dare doubt a Master as great as the heavens?”
“Your training is doubled today.”
Ah.
That brought back memories.
Third Senior Brother once questioned whether the Divine Art of Painlessness really worked.
Master punished him terribly for it.
“Regardless of the process, this was an unexpected gain.”
“Body Reformation caused by the Spirit Returning Demon Pill transforms the body into one far more suitable for demonic arts.”
“That explains it.”
“Even the nature of my true energy has completely changed.”
The nature of true energy depended on the heart art being practiced and the path through which energy circulated.
Someone practicing ice arts developed cold true energy.
Someone practicing flame arts developed hot true energy.
That was why someone who wanted to practice demonic arts first needed to transform their true energy into demonic energy using a Demonic Cult heart art.
Normally, this was an extremely difficult, delicate, and time-consuming process.
I might even have needed to abandon a portion of the true energy I had cultivated over the years.
But thanks to the Spirit Returning Demon Pill, all of my existing true energy transformed completely into demonic energy in only seven days and nights.
It was an incredible fortuitous encounter.
“Then what remains is...”
“Creating a new demonic art based on the martial arts of the Three-No Sect.”
To become Prince Consort of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult, I had to learn high-level demonic arts and continue raising my realm.
This was a place where only the strong survived.
But there was no reason to abandon my original martial arts.
The martial arts of the Three-No Sect had been created by the greatest assassin under heaven.
I needed to combine Master's martial arts with demonic arts and transform them into martial arts unique to me.
That was definitely the path that could lead me to the position of Prince Consort.
“This actually works perfectly.”
“It matches the reward for my latest mission.”
“What do you mean?”
“The Black Blood Unit Leader promised me entry into the Strong Demon Library and an elixir.”
“If I find a few good manuals there and combine them with the Three-No Sect's martial arts...”
“Only the Strong Demon Library?”
“That makes no sense!”
“At the very least, you need the Brocade Demon Library if you want to find anything useful!”
“That may be true, but is the Brocade Demon Library not reserved for Demon Venerables, Demonic Clan Heads, and their disciples?”
“I am only a Demon Soldier.”
“How am I supposed to enter...”
Wolyeong shook her head as though the idea were ridiculous.
“Husband, do nothing.”
“Uncle Right and I will handle that part.”
Wolyeong suddenly turned toward the door and smiled.
“You will help, right, Uncle Right?”
“Haha.”
“Naturally.”
At Wolyeong's words, the Right Envoy quietly opened the door.
How long had that man been outside?
“You actually survived.”
“Once Young Miss heard you had awakened, she swore she would beat you into bloody paste...”
“Uncle Right.”
“When did I ever say something like that?”
“Hoho.”
“Ahem!”
“I, I must be losing my memory with age.”
There was so much killing intent inside Wolyeong's laughter that I decided not to investigate the truth.
“Anyway, I am glad you survived.”
“You need to go directly to the Demon God Palace tomorrow morning.”
“The Demon God Palace?”
“Yes.”
“Brother Cheon summoned you.”
No matter how many times I heard the Right Envoy call the Cult Leader Brother Cheon, I could not get used to it.
“Why?”
