Chapter 9
"Welcome to the Dark Demon Well, you trash of the Divine Cult."
The grand greeting immediately caused the entire chamber to stir.
Most people who ended up in the Dark Demon Well had spent their lives ignoring rules and refusing to bend to others.
There were criminals.
Troublemakers.
People dragged here precisely because they refused to listen.
Naturally...
The reaction was immediate.
"What did he just call us?"
"Trash? He called us trash?"
"Hah. Ridiculous."
"And what does that make them?"
"This is why those Inner Sect bastards are unbearable."
"What? It's you Outer Sect bastards getting the rest of us called trash!"
"What was that? You want to fight?"
The atmosphere became dangerous almost instantly.
Everyone started throwing threats and insults.
This was a battle for control.
The instructors wanted to establish dominance.
The trainees wanted to resist it.
What happened now would decide who controlled the atmosphere of the Dark Demon Well.
Exactly the same.
The same thing happened in the modern world.
When people entered special operations units, many arrived with enormous pride.
The first thing the instructors did...
Was break that pride.
The man's vulgar greeting had clearly been part of that process.
"SHUT YOUR MOUTHS!"
BOOOOM!
The contest ended instantly.
The man's voice, filled with deep internal energy, slammed through the Dark Demon Well once again.
Every argument disappeared.
Anyone who had studied martial arts could understand.
The internal energy contained in that voice was anything but ordinary.
Transcendent Realm.
At minimum...
He was an experienced Transcendent Realm expert.
To release that much internal energy without changing posture or expression...
Someone below that level couldn't do it.
The warriors beside him too...
They weren't weak either.
Their presence alone was dangerous.
"From the moment you entered the Dark Demon Well, every one of you became trash of the Divine Cult."
"Forget your name."
"Forget your position."
"Forget your origin."
"If anyone disagrees..."
The man smiled.
"Step forward and prove it."
"Prove that you are not trash."
"If you can, I will gladly take back my words."
The warriors beside him suddenly released killing intent.
The arrogant mood among the trainees collapsed instantly.
No one stepped forward.
They had already been overwhelmed.
"Now your faces finally look somewhat acceptable."
"As I said, I welcome even trash like you."
"My name is Jo Gyun."
"I am the Commander of the Dark Demon Corps responsible for the Dark Demon Well."
He looked around forty.
His body appeared lean.
But the scars visible across his skin told enough stories about the life he had lived.
After Jo Gyun's short introduction...
More members of the Dark Demon Corps appeared on the elevated platform.
Every one of them wore black cloaks.
Their eyes remained hidden.
They looked almost emotionless.
"You all already know this place is called the furnace that remakes people into Demonic Warriors."
"You may be trash now."
"But if you overcome this place..."
"You will become proud Demonic Warriors of the Divine Cult!"
"Rank!"
"Honor!"
"Wealth!"
"Martial arts!"
"You can obtain all of it!"
Jo Gyun's voice rose.
"The Sacred Moon gives only one command."
Then he shouted.
"SURVIVE!"
"If you do, the Sacred Moon will guide you!"
He raised one hand.
"The Sacred Moon Manifests in the Heavens!"
"Ten Thousand Heavens Bring Light!"
"Ten Thousand Heavens Bring Light!"
"Ten Thousand Heavens Bring Light!"
THUD! THUD! THUD!
At Jo Gyun's call...
The members of the Dark Demon Corps stomped the ground and shouted together.
Their overwhelming presence created a strangely majestic scene.
Before they even realized it...
Many of the trainees also began shouting.
"Ten Thousand Heavens Bring Light!"
That was how crowds worked.
And there were few institutions better at using crowd psychology than the military...
Or religions like this.
"Huh. They certainly know how to crush everyone's spirit from the beginning. Don't you agree?"
Of course...
There were still people who remained calm enough to simply observe.
A voice quietly came from beside me.
It belonged to the large martial artist standing in the same line.
"Wouldn't that be necessary to establish order?"
"Hahaha. Is that how you see it?"
The man speaking to me wore clothing somewhat similar to the Dark Demon Corps.
The main difference was the color.
His long robe was dark navy.
The cloth could even wrap around his head, making his face difficult to see.
One thing was obvious.
He stood nearly a full head taller than most people nearby.
"With this many people, don't they need at least this much theater to keep everyone under control?"
"Then I suppose the Third Young Master did not fall for that theater. Hahaha. Impressive."
"You... know me?"
There was friendliness in his voice.
But the fact that he immediately recognized me naturally made me cautious.
At least three people inside this Dark Demon Well might have entered specifically to kill me.
In that situation...
A friendly approach was exactly what I had to be most careful about.
That was something I had learned long ago.
Assassinations and covert operations rarely began with obvious killing intent.
They usually began with kindness.
"How could I fail to recognize the Third Young Master of the Divine Cult? Hahaha. Ah, forgive me. I should introduce myself."
The man turned fully toward me.
He extended a hand.
"My name is Ma Hapji."
"I am also known by the title..."
"The Black-Faced Wanderer."
My eyes first went to his extended hand.
Just as his title suggested...
His skin was dark.
Southeast Asian?
Southern Barbarian?
I slowly raised my gaze toward his face.
Then...
Uh...
I froze.
The face was familiar.
Almost comforting in a strange way.
Yet it also caused my instincts to immediately scream enemy.
Ma Hapji had deep-set eyes and a sharp nose.
His skin was dark enough to match his title.
But the feature that caught my attention most...
Was his beard.
It was thick.
Curly.
And extremely full.
Combined with his heavy eyebrows and deep eyes...
He looked incredibly familiar.
I stared at him for a long time.
I had seen faces like this far too often.
For a moment...
I had to remind myself which religion I currently belonged to.
This is the Sacred Moon Divine Cult... right?
Because the man's appearance was exactly like the Middle Eastern Muslims I had encountered throughout my previous life.
Fortunately...
No matter how many times I thought about it...
The Heavenly Demon Divine Cult and Sacred Moon Divine Cult were definitely not Islam.
"Why are you staring at me like that? Do you perhaps think I have poison on my hand?"
"Ah. No. Brother Ma. It's good to meet you."
"I hope we get along well. Let us overcome this Dark Demon Well together. Hahaha."
I wasn't trying to be racist.
It was simply that, during my military and mercenary career...
I had very often encountered people with that appearance as enemies.
So I was surprised.
Seeing someone who looked exactly like that...
Belonging to an entirely different religion...
Was strangely confusing.
Shaking his hand made it even more awkward.
Could he be a spy...?
Probably not.
Apparently, Islam also existed in this region during this era.
Here, people sometimes called it the Hui religion.
Still...
I had difficulty abandoning the suspicion.
It was simply hard for me to imagine someone who looked like this following another religion.
"Please treat me well."
"To think I would stand beside the Third Young Master from the very beginning. I feel much safer already."
"I... feel the same."
I had somehow been thrown into another world.
I joined a fanatical religious militant organization.
And the first friend I made there looked Arab.
Actually...
