Chapter 237 : Using the Fake to Confuse the Real (4)
Chapter 237: Using the Fake to Confuse the Real (4)
Prostration.
With his head lowered and his body pressed flat to the ground, Naeng Cheon-hwi did not notice it.
At this moment, Sewoon was wearing a faint smile.
‘Fanatics. I never imagined they would fall for it this easily.’
What Sewoon saw through the Eye of Spectral Perception was Naeng Cheon-hwi’s emotions, completely engulfed in madness.
Fear and reverence—every single one of those emotions stemmed from only one thing.
The terror that the ‘Heavenly Demon’ who had reappeared before their eyes might abandon them once again and disappear.
‘Just as the Blood Cult worships the Blood Demon as a god, the Demonic Cult worships the Heavenly Demon as a god.’
The Demonic Cult had waited endlessly and tirelessly for the Heavenly Demon who had vanished without explanation.
Although Sewoon’s inner thoughts as he saw through all of this were nothing more than amusement,
the expression on his face was colder and more solemn than ever.
Slowly—acting as though he were something other than human.
“Raise your head, descendant of the Naeng clan.”
“……Y-yes… yes…!!”
Naeng Cheon-hwi trembled violently as he pushed himself up from the ground on his knees.
Even so, he did not dare lift his face.
His complexion had gone completely pale, like a sheet of white paper drained of all blood.
Yet it was not because he feared death for having shown disrespect to the Heavenly Demon.
‘I must never—never let this slip away. I cannot allow the master, once again disappointed, to abandon us…!!’
Qi surged through Naeng Cheon-hwi’s entire body to the point where his meridians felt twisted.
“I… I shall guide you…!”
Though his lips quivered uncontrollably, his voice was filled with desperation staked on his very life.
“There are… there are other servants who have been waiting for the same master as I… They have gathered elsewhere…! I—I shall lead the way, so please… please do not leave us again…!”
“Servants, you say.”
The corners of Sewoon’s eyes curved slightly.
‘As expected, it wasn’t just this one. This Fake Treasure Map scheme… the entire remnants of the Demonic Cult were involved.
A plan of enormous scale.’
A vivid, chilling light rose within Sewoon’s eyes.
If that was the case, the scheme he intended to continue would work perfectly.
Sewoon replied in a voice laced with coldness and scorn.
“The servants who tried to lure me here and kill me?”
“No!! Absolutely not!! Never, never, my master—!!”
Thud!
Boom!!
Naeng Cheon-hwi turned pale with shock at Sewoon’s words and slammed his forehead into the ground with such force that blood spilled.
It was not an expression of anger, but one of repentance.
Watching that sight, Sewoon realized that the first step of his scheme had succeeded.
‘First, make them believe my identity as the Heavenly Demon… then make them lower their heads of their own accord.’
That was right. Sewoon’s plan was not limited to Naeng Cheon-hwi alone, but to deceive every single remaining member of the Demonic Cult into believing that he was the Heavenly Demon’s reincarnation—or his successor.
And once everything succeeded, in the end…
Ssssh.
Sewoon slowly extended his hand.
An invisible force seized Naeng Cheon-hwi’s entire body as he repeatedly slammed his head down as though to end his own life.
Naeng Cheon-hwi’s eyes widened as if they would burst.
“…!!”
Just as when the ultimate level of psychokinesis had been used earlier, the Heavenly Demon was now controlling his very flesh.
Naeng Cheon-hwi’s muddled mind, on the brink of losing consciousness, snapped back to clarity as though doused in icy water.
He clung desperately to his sanity.
There was only one thought in his mind now.
‘I will never—never let this go!’
His own life meant nothing to him.
With tears of blood streaming down his face, he prostrated himself once more.
“Khugh… M-my master…! Please, I beg you… forgive these servants who dared fail to recognize you… just this once…!”
“…….”
Sewoon remained silent for a moment.
With the great axe resting on his shoulder, he calmly surveyed the surrounding scenery before finally speaking.
“Gather all the sinners and return to me.”
“…!!”
Naeng Cheon-hwi’s body trembled violently as he barely lifted his head.
“They dared to test me. I shall pass judgment then.”
“Heavenly Demon, Eternal for a Thousand Ages—!! I shall obey your august command—!!”
After bowing repeatedly in fervent worship, Naeng Cheon-hwi seemed to realize something and cautiously added a question.
“T-then… shall I summon all the servants here?”
“That…”
Just then—
Presences could be felt approaching from afar.
Thud! Thud-thud!
Footsteps rushing up from the base of the mountain echoed closer and closer.
“There he is!! We found him!!”
“Seize the treasure map!!”
“Grab him! Kill him if you have to and take it!!”
“Kill him!!”
Martial artists consumed by madness—orthodox and unorthodox alike—came surging in, spewing killing intent.
Watching them, Sewoon clicked his tongue.
“Tsk. Because of you lot, such mayfly-like creatures have multiplied. How could I possibly call them here?”
“M-my master, I shall step in—!!”
As a horrified Naeng Cheon-hwi was about to move,
Sewoon lightly raised his fingertip and pointed into the empty air in the direction where the enemies were charging.
“You have thrown away your eyes.”
Then he slowly lowered his hand.
At the same time—
Saaaaah!
Chwaaaah!
Trees and grass, stone and soil.
And even wind and air.
Everything began to freeze white.
From the foot of the mountain to its ridgeline, frost descended in an instant, transforming into pure white snow.
And all the enemies standing on that land, breathing in the air—
“!!”
“……!”
Could not even let out screams of shock or groans of agony.
Crack-crack-crack!
They froze in place, their movements halted completely.
The ground, the trees—and even their blood and flesh—everything was frozen into white.
In a single moment, the entire mountain’s scenery transformed into a pure-white frozen hell.
Saaaaaah—.
A surging wave of Absolute Cold Energy.
‘This… this is the power of the exalted Demon God…!’
From one eye of Naeng Cheonhwi, who was watching that majestic spectacle, a single tear slid down.
Sewoon, with nothing more than a tiny wisp of energy at his fingertips, had frozen the entire surrounding terrain beyond the mountain ridgeline in an instant.
“Wait for me.”
Leaving behind just that single sentence,
he vanished from the spot like smoke.
‘Ah… ah.’
That immense afterimage quietly lingered over the frozen mountain.
“What is Elder Naeng’s condition.”
A low, contemplative voice flowed over the frozen ridgeline of Mount Chuak.
The Grand Protector of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult, Skyward Spear Demon Buk Ri-seung, stood atop the frost-laced snow.
Behind him, the elders of the Demonic Cult and dozens of elite personal guards were lined up in silence.
“We are devoting ourselves to treatment, however… it appears that a full recovery will take time.”
“…Hmm.”
As the physician clad in pitch-black robes spoke cautiously, Buk Ri-seung silently nodded.
Swoosh.
Buk Ri-seung slowly turned his gaze to the side.
Below his line of sight spread a bizarre vast snowy landscape that blanketed the entire mountain.
It was a scene utterly incompatible with the season of Scorching Summer, when the blazing sun above scorched and heated the land.
‘…What in the world is this.’
A trace of bewilderment surfaced on Buk Ri-seung’s face.
All of this had begun half a watch—about an hour—ago.
—The Divine Demon has… the Divine Demon has reappeared…!
The image of Elder Naeng Cheonhwi returning, drenched in blood and wearing the face of a madman, rose in his mind.
Having departed to lure Tang Sewoon, the Head of the Heavenly Suppression Platform, with a Fake Treasure Map, he had returned half-insane.
“Are you certain there was no influence from sorcery.”
“…Yes. We verified it repeatedly, dozens of times.”
At first, it seemed possible that he had fallen victim to sorcery that bound or confused the mind.
The claims had been utterly unbelievable.
But—
‘…The trace of energy left in Naeng Cheonhwi’s body was unmistakably the master’s.’
The aura left behind on the ancient tree of the forbidden grounds—the energy of the Faint Silver Heavenly Demon.
In other words, the power of the Heavenly Demon had, astonishingly, seeped even if only faintly into Naeng Cheonhwi’s body.
The moment he confirmed this, Buk Ri-seung had left the hidden base and rushed straight to Mount Chuak.
And he had witnessed it with his own eyes.
‘…I did not see it wrong.’
The instant he beheld the surrounding scenery, even his heart felt as though it had frozen solid.
A pure white snowy landscape. The entire ridgeline had been twisted and frozen over.
Ssss.
Buk Ri-seung savored the lingering aftertaste of demonic qi that evoked Chaos itself.
‘Truly destructive.’
It was an overwhelming presence—enough to make even him, standing at the extreme of the Manifestation Realm, feel every hair on his body stand on end.
Just then.
The elders of the Demonic Cult approached cautiously and spoke in lowered voices.
“…Grand Protector, should we not disperse our forces and search for him immediately.”
“No. There is no need.”
“…Pardon?”
At Buk Ri-seung’s firm response, the elders blinked in confusion.
…Could it be that he intended to abandon the pursuit altogether?
Contrary to their concern—
“He already told us the way to reach him, and then left.”
“Yes? Th-What do you mean by that?”
Buk Ri-seung turned his body and looked toward the snowy expanse.
A cruel and horrific sight, as though the Frozen Ice Hell governed by the King of the Underworld had manifested in the mortal realm.
But this was not a mere impulsive release of power meant as a simple threat.
Saaaa!
At that moment, demonic qi at the extreme of the Manifestation Realm surged into Buk Ri-seung’s eyes.
Within his pupils, which filled like a black sea, the surrounding scenery was being interpreted entirely differently.
The traces of Absolute Cold Energy spread across the area had not been accidental.
The flow of demonic qi and the residual energy channels, minutely yet exquisitely etched into the snowfield—
‘An intangible map engraved with demonic qi.’
The trajectories of energy had been carved like a single painted scroll.
The opponent knew that he would see this sight and decipher it, and was indicating a location.
Buk Ri-seung’s thoughts grew tangled.
What, exactly, was the opponent’s intent?
‘…Is he intending to use our own scheme against us?’
In truth, that possibility seemed even more likely.
Just as the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult had laid countless inescapable traps using a Fake Treasure Map and waited,
the opponent might well be employing the exact same stratagem.
If so, this would be stepping into the enemy’s jaws of his own accord.
It was temptation that must never be accepted.
But—
After finishing all his deliberation, Buk Ri-seung let his gaze blaze with icy light and spoke.
“From this moment onward, all plans are changed.”
“…!!”
The inner-hall elders held their breath and awaited his command.
Buk Ri-seung slowly turned and looked at them all.
His fists were clenched tightly.
Whether that intangible map was truth or falsehood did not matter.
Even if it was a trap that would cost him his life, he had to verify the authenticity of the master’s traces—the first found in countless years.
“The entire force of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult, without a single deserter—”
His voice rang out cold as ice.
“From now on, advance with the full army to the final coordinate of the Treasure Map.”
“!!”
Thud—!
At that moment, everyone dropped to one knee and rendered their respects.
“We obey your command!!”
Buk Ri-seung silently looked down at them, then turned his body and once more took in the snowy landscape.
As he did, he recalled Tang Sewoon, the Clan Head of the Sichuan Tang Clan.
‘If all that you have done is false…’
Tang Sewoon.
And everything belonging to the Sichuan Tang Clan—
‘Will be reduced to ashes and erased by the hands of our Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.’
In Buk Ri-seung’s eyes, an icy chill flickered—one colder than even the snow-covered landscape before him.