Chapter 142: That Day
Two people hung limply from Goeong's hands.
One look was enough to tell they were No Hyeonmyeong and Gongya Dok.
When my gaze landed on them, Goeong smiled brightly and raised both arms high.
“Look! I caught the bad people! Goeong punished them! I made sure they won't think bad thoughts again!”
...This went way beyond simply punishing them.
No Hyeonmyeong and Gongya Dok were...
literally beaten into bloody lumps.
Their faces were so swollen that their original features were almost impossible to recognize.
Their noses and mouths were split and crushed.
If not for their clothes, even I might not have recognized them immediately.
Wait... are they actually dead?
Just as that thought crossed my mind...
I saw the lips of the two men, whom I'd assumed were dead, move faintly.
It looked like they were trying to say something.
Huh? What is it?
I quickly moved closer to their faces.
Then barely audible voices began leaking from their mouths.
“...S-Sor...ry....”
“W-We... refl...ect... we'll nev...er sin... again....”
Apparently every tooth in their mouths had been broken, because even their pronunciation was a complete mess.
Still...
I understood the general meaning.
They were saying they'd properly reflected on their actions.
I slowly raised my head.
Goeong was staring at me like a child waiting to be praised.
“How was it? Goeong did well, right? My friend Mujin!”
"..."
I was too dumbfounded to answer for a moment.
But at the same time...
another thought crossed my mind.
He's seriously a monster.
The Ten Demons were people who made countless famous masters of the martial world tremble just by hearing their names.
Yet Goeong had reduced two of them to this state through nothing but a beating.
And apparently even got a sincere confession of repentance out of them as a bonus.
Now I understood why the Ten Demons had watched Goeong's every move so carefully even after Dokgo Jinak had become mentally impaired.
He's strong.
Unbelievably strong.
He'd chased down two fleeing Ten Demons by himself and dragged them back like this.
After completely destroying them.
That fact alone was enough to give me a rough idea of just how powerful Goeong truly was.
I could also understand why Moyong Cheonhwi had never confronted the Demonic Cult head-on while Dokgo Jinak was still alive.
He must've hated the idea of fighting Dokgo Jinak.
Moyong Cheonhwi was a bastard who treated other people's lives as worthless...
while obsessively protecting his own.
If he'd launched the conquest of the Demonic Cult while Dokgo Jinak was alive, then in the end...
he would've had to step forward personally to deal with him.
Moyong Cheonhwi must have wanted to avoid that situation.
Dokgo Jinak.
Moyong Cheonhwi.
I still couldn't say for certain which of the two was stronger.
But at least one thing was clear.
Even Moyong Cheonhwi couldn't treat Dokgo Jinak lightly.
Just as I was briefly weighing the strength of those two men in my mind—
“Cult Leader! Are you unharmed?!”
Overlord Saber Ghost Demon Muk Jincheol rushed forward and dropped to one knee before Goeong.
“I should have punished these filthy traitors first...”
His voice broke with emotion.
“Kugh... I can only apologize!”
Tears even gathered in Muk Jincheol's eyes as he repented.
Truly befitting the greatest Cult Leader fanatic in the Demonic Cult.
Unfortunately...
the person he worshipped didn't seem particularly impressed by that loyalty.
Goeong stared blankly at Muk Jincheol with wide eyes.
“What?”
He tilted his head.
“Who are you?”
Muk Jincheol froze.
“C-Cult Leader...?”
“Why are you crying in front of me?”
Goeong frowned.
“It feels weird.”
Muk Jincheol's face stiffened in panic.
He hurriedly wiped away the tears pooling in his eyes.
“C-Cult Leader! My apologies! I showed you something disgraceful!”
“Stop doing that.”
Goeong's expression turned uncomfortable.
“You're strange.”
Watching from the side...
the whole thing was honestly hilarious.
Muk Jincheol had risked his life to crush the traitors and even knelt before the Cult Leader...
but Goeong didn't even know who he was.
Muk Jincheol himself was utterly serious.
From the outside, though, it was hard not to laugh.
I considered watching the two of them a little longer...
but decided against it.
It was time to finish things properly.
I stepped between them and spoke.
“Are all the forces that plotted rebellion against the Cult Leader dealt with now?”
Muk Jincheol rose.
He looked between Sa Eumryeong's corpse sprawled across the floor and No Hyeonmyeong and Gongya Dok hanging from Goeong's hands.
Then he slowly nodded.
“Sa Eumryeong, the leader of the rebellion, is dead.”
His gaze shifted toward the battered pair.
“And with No Hyeonmyeong and Gongya Dok reduced to that state...”
He let out a breath.
“I don't think there's anything left to worry about.”
“That's fortunate.”
I glanced toward Goeong.
“Then for the time being, we shouldn't have to worry about Goe... no, the Cult Leader's safety.”
Muk Jincheol didn't answer immediately.
Instead...
he quietly stared at my face.
Then he suddenly bowed his head toward me.
“Thank you, Heavenly Demon's Kindred Spirit.”
His sudden gratitude surprised me.
“Thank me?”
I frowned slightly.
“What do you mean?”
“No matter what anyone says, the reason we were able to eliminate all these traitors at once is largely thanks to you.”
Muk Jincheol paused.
Then continued.
“And if we're being precise...”
He looked at me calmly.
“the Cult Leader was able to end his confinement in the Heavenly Forbidden Prison because of you as well.”
His gaze was different from before.
I could feel genuine gratitude in it.
Overlord Saber Ghost Demon....
My first impression of Muk Jincheol had been terrible.
I'd thought he was nothing more than a brutal demonic martial artist who only knew how to cut people's heads off.
But after dealing with him several times...
my opinion had changed.
Muk Jincheol understood duty and gratitude.
It was just that the standard for all of it began and ended with one person.
The Cult Leader.
If he hadn't been born into the Demonic Cult, maybe we could've become pretty decent friends.
Of course, judging by appearances, there was a significant age gap between us.
But if I included my actual age from before the regression...
I wasn't exactly young either.
A faint smile appeared on my lips.
“It seems a little early to thank me.”
Muk Jincheol looked confused.
“Early?”
“What do you mean?”
I looked toward Goeong.
“We still have something left to do.”
Muk Jincheol blinked.
“Something left?”
I spoke calmly.
“We need to fulfill the Cult Leader's final message.”
Muk Jincheol's eyebrows twitched sharply.
For a moment, he looked down in thought.
Then suddenly raised his head.
“Don't tell me...?!”
I nodded.
Then quietly told him what I'd been thinking.
The moment they heard me...
both Muk Jincheol and Yeom Yuhwa's faces filled with intense excitement and anticipation.
A full week had passed since Sa Eumryeong's rebellion was suppressed.
During that time...
Muk Jincheol and Yeom Yuhwa purged every remaining rebel force inside the Demonic Cult.
Though honestly...
calling it a purge was almost an exaggeration.
Sa Eumryeong, the leader of the rebellion, had died by my hand.
No Hyeonmyeong and Gongya Dok had been captured and beaten half to death by Goeong.
Once three rebellious members of the Ten Demons fell in succession...
there was no way their subordinates would continue resisting.
One by one, they surrendered on their own.
They begged for their lives and even swore loyalty.
Even the other Ten Demon factions that had been weighing whether to side with Sa Eumryeong completely abandoned the idea.
The reason was simple.
The moment word spread that No Hyeonmyeong and Gongya Dok had been destroyed by Goeong...
everyone tucked their tails between their legs.
Whether Dokgo Jinak had become an idiot or not...
the Heavenly Demon was still the Heavenly Demon.
This incident had engraved that fact into the entire Demonic Cult once again.
And during that week...
I hadn't been sitting around doing nothing either.
I continuously tried to learn what was happening outside the Demonic Cult.
Of course...
I couldn't personally leave.
Even though I'd gained the status of Heavenly Demon's Kindred Spirit, I was still an outsider.
So in the end...
I had to settle for receiving news indirectly through Yeom Yuhwa and Muk Jincheol.
And in the process...
I learned something both surprising and frustrating.
What the hell?
They have this little information about the martial world?
To outsiders, the Demonic Cult was considered an invader constantly seeking opportunities to swallow the martial world.
Naturally...
I'd assumed there would be at least one official organization inside the cult dedicated to gathering intelligence on the martial world.
There wasn't.
Not even one.
No official intelligence network.
No organization responsible for tracking the movements of the martial world.
No system of any kind.
What was even stranger was that the members of the Demonic Cult themselves didn't seem particularly interested in the martial world.
Even Muk Jincheol, who could practically be considered the leader among the Ten Demons, knew almost nothing about recent events.
The only major thing he knew was that the Dragon-Phoenix Awakening Tournament had recently been held again after a long absence.
That was the extent of their interest.
When I kept asking about the outside world...
all he did was say he'd send some subordinates out to investigate.
How can this be?
Weren't the Demonic Cult bastards supposed to be using every dirty trick they could to conquer the martial world?
The Demonic Cult had launched campaigns against the martial world multiple times in the past.
They'd even planted spies inside righteous factions and stirred up chaos more than once.
Yet there was no organization inside the Demonic Cult responsible for gathering information on the martial world?
It made no sense.
When I continued expressing my confusion...
Muk Jincheol gave me an even more ridiculous answer.
“It has been a very long time since the followers of the Divine Cult gave up any desire to rule the martial world.”
I stared at him.
“Then what were all those past campaigns against the martial world?”
Muk Jincheol shook his head.
“As far as I know, they had nothing to do with conquering the martial world.”
I frowned.
“The Heavenly Demon isn't trying to conquer the martial world?”
“The Heavenly Demon has no interest in the martial world whatsoever.”
"..."
I stared at him.
“Then what were those campaigns for?”
Muk Jincheol slowly shook his head.
“Only the Heavenly Demon knows that reason.”
His voice was firm.
“And the followers of the Divine Cult merely obey the Heavenly Demon's will.”
"..."
The Heavenly Demon's will?
But hadn't he just said the Heavenly Demon had no interest in the martial world?
I asked Yeom Yuhwa the same thing.
Her answer was more or less identical to Muk Jincheol's.
It was frustrating.
Still...
I couldn't spend all my time obsessing over that mystery.
There was something more urgent I needed to handle right now.
So as I sat in the quarters prepared for me inside the Heavenly Demon Palace, organizing my plans—
Knock. Knock. Knock.
Someone knocked on my door.
A moment later, it opened.
“Heavenly Demon's Kindred Spirit.”
Yeom Yuhwa entered and bowed.
Then she spoke the words I'd been waiting for.
“Today is the day.”
I nodded.
Yes.
Today.
The day when what I'd told Muk Jincheol and Yeom Yuhwa one week ago would finally be put into action.
We have to restore the Sacred Flame.
The day had finally come...
for the flame of the Sacred Flame to burn once more within the Heavenly Demon Palace.
