So? Did Someone Force You to Become the Heavenly Demon?

Chapter 257: Vendetta (4)

Third Elder realized his Grand Ritual had completely fallen apart.

Although he had already infused about half of the necessary energy into the corpse, it was useless since the ritual remained incomplete. The body itself was somewhat complete, but he hadn't implanted the intelligence needed to wield its power, nor had he carved in the soul imprint that would make it follow commands.

Since he couldn't complete the ritual even if he forced in the remaining energy anyway, Third Elder decided to try a different approach.

Vruummm.

He gathered the remaining Blood Qi that hadn’t been plundered from him yet and began casting his spells without caring about the consequences anymore.

As spells more powerful than before raged across the battlefield, the Flying Dragon Pavilion Lord was busy running around like a horse with its tail on fire.

Unlike Il-mok, he couldn't absorb Blood Qi to replenish his energy indefinitely.

On the flip side, Il-mok had to endure the barrage of spells so he could continue sucking in the Blood Qi,

'I will deal with that one first.'

The Third Elder realized the guy sucking up the Blood Qi was too tough to kill quickly, so he decided to take out the other one first.

And the moment Third Elder's spell focused just a bit more on the Flying Dragon Pavilion Lord—

Il-mok suddenly jammed the Ascension Sword into a chokepoint to absorb the maximum amount of Blood Qi, then—

Pat!

He unleashed his lightness skill to the limit to launch a surprise attack straight at the Third Elder.

The massive amount of Blood Qi flowing into Il-mok's body through the Ascension Sword raced through his meridians.

Maybe because it wasn't his energy, or maybe because it came from other people's blood, a strange burning pain surged inside as he channeled the energy,

Even so, Il-mok ignored the pain and pushed his lightness skill to the limit again to close the distance and arrive close to the Third Elder’s face in an instant.

A powerful Blood Qi barrier predictably blocked Third Elder's front, but—

"HAAAAA!!"

Drawing on his experience of smashing through Ghost Valley Master's barrier before, Il-mok unleashed a blast of Force Qi imbued with the principle of strength.

BOOOM!!!

As Il-mok’s Force Qi, rippling with crimson energy, collided with the Blood Qi barrier, a deafening roar erupted, and the barrier shattered into smithereens.

The third elder didn't panic.

He formed hand seals and cast a wind spell just like he did with the Flying Dragon Pavilion Lord.

A fierce gale exceeding a typhoon's strength blasted toward Il-mok.

As the wind pushed Il-mok's body back, the mask he'd been wearing got caught up in the gale and flew off.

When the mask came off and revealed Il-mok's face, Third Elder's eyes widened.

Not because he recognized the face.

Not because the face was so young compared to his level of martial prowess.

"How could... another's soul..."

Maybe because he was a Blood Cult Elder who dealt with ghosts and blood, he noticed something weird the moment he saw Il-mok’s face.

But the Third Elder couldn't finish his sentence.

"Cough..."

Before he knew it, a long gash had appeared in his side.

Having already seen the Flying Dragon Pavilion Lord get blown back by Third Elder's technique, the moment he broke the barrier, he used the Traceless Soul-Slicing Sword to fire an invisible blade.

Thanks to that, though he was blown backward by Third Elder's spell, he'd already accomplished his goal.

As blood and organs tried to spill out through the sharply cut wound in his side, Third Elder hurriedly clutched the injury with his left hand.

At the same time, he pulled out some kind of talisman from his sleeve with his right hand. Like a final act of desperation, the surrounding Blood Qi immediately converged to that talisman.

Just as Il-mok and the Flying Dragon Pavilion Lord braced themselves for a final struggle—

Pat!

The Third Elder suddenly twisted his body and threw the talisman backward.

"!?"

Confusion filled the eyes of Il-mok and the Flying Dragon Pavilion Lord at this unexpected turn of events.

BANG!

With a massive explosion, the center of the altar burst apart and a human figure shot up into the air.

It’s a figure with a talisman stuck to its forehead.

"A jiangshi?"

An ominous aura rippled from the corpse that had practically demolished the altar as it revealed itself. It possessed a terrifying presence that surpassed even the old man killed by Beggar Chaser and the Flying Dragon Pavilion Lord.

'Dammit. Just one problem after another.'

As Il-mok swallowed his curses internally and prepared for the fight to come—

BOOM!!!

With another explosive, the corpse with the talisman on its forehead moved at incredible speed toward empty space.

"!?"

As Il-mok and the Flying Dragon Pavilion Lord were thrown off by another unexpected development—

BOOM!

BOOM!

Multiple explosions erupted as that jiangshi fled with a terrifying momentum.

BOOM!

It smashed through giant rocks and trees like they weren't even there.

Il-mok briefly considered chasing the jiangshi before quickly giving up.

He realized that the speed at which the Jiangshi ran was so absurdly fast that it was already too late to pursue it.

Right then, a weak laughter came from the wreckage of the altar.

"Kekeke..."

It was the Third Elder.

His face already drained of all color, but he still laughed.

"I might have failed, but you bastards won't escape unscathed either. That thing will become the scythe that will drag you all to hell..."

Slash!

Before he could finish his curse, Il-mok cut his head off with a beam of Sword Qi.

"Where do you get off spouting such unlucky bullshit?"

After dealing with the Third Elder, Il-mok turned his head to look at the Flying Dragon Pavilion Lord.

"You've worked hard."

Il-mok approached him and clasped his hands in a martial salute.

The Flying Dragon Pavilion Lord's face appeared indifferent on the surface, but his mind was anything but calm.

'Just what the hell is the Maitreya Luminous Cult's true identity?'

When he first heard about the Maitreya Luminous Cult from Little Tiger Beggar, he didn't care.

The Murim Alliance already has a whole country to worry about and has no time to worry about some small-time sects causing trouble in the backwater of Gansu Province.

But today, his thinking had completely changed.

And it wasn't simply because of this guy's skills.

'A sword that absorbs Blood Qi…'

After fighting next to him and watching him work, the Flying Dragon Pavilion Lord finally figured it out.

This man's sword wasn't one imbued with the energy to destroy evil.

Rather, it was closer to a demonic sword or a cursed blade.

And that wasn't all.

He didn’t know if it was because of that sword or the aftereffects of using Blood Qi, but he sensed some eeriness to this man’s martial arts.

And then there was his face.

Compared to the absurd level of mastery he'd shown, the face was way too young.

He looked to be around twenty years old at most.

'That level of mastery at twenty? Plus that ominous aura I've been sensing all along... Don’t tell me!?'

If there was one crazy genius around that age, the Flying Dragon Pavilion Lord only knew one person who fit the description.

The figure he had been monitoring most closely until the Blood Cult emerged.

The youngest disciple of the Heavenly Demon.

'Those retards got the facial description completely wrong!!'

He was furious at his spies in Xinjiang who were supposed to be gathering intel on the Eighth Young Master.

He’d sent his best subordinates, and this was the garbage they gave him?

He could forgive the nose or mouth being a little off. But the eyes were wrong. Way wrong.

How the hell could anyone look at those eyes and describe them as intelligent, brimming with heroic spirit?

'Tsk. Those cultists must've fooled them. Being fanatics, they would obviously exaggerate his appearance to praise their object of admiration. And they couldn't even account for that.'

Jeong Yeong swore he’d punish them later, but he was still pissed.

'That moron, the Little Tiger Beggar. How could he not spot a Demonic Cultist right in front of his face!'

The main reason Jeong Yeong hadn't suspected the Maitreya Luminous Cult was that Little Tiger Beggar had personally confirmed that they were Orthodox people.

Jeong Yeong decided that both the beggars and his own men were useless idiots. But knowing the truth about the Maitreya Luminous Cult left him with one problem.

Should he kill this guy now, or should he pretend he didn't know and let it slide?

And the judgment Jeong Yeong reached was the latter.

‘I’ll return to the Alliance first. Then I'll expose both the Blood Cult's massacre and reveal who the Maitreya Luminous Cult really is.'

If the Demonic Cult and the Blood Cult were both active, the martial arts world would have no choice but to unite.

And they would unite under the Murim Alliance.

Having quickly calculated up to that point, Jeong Yeong returned Il-mok's martial salute and pretended to know nothing.

"You've worked hard as well."

The moment he clasped his hands—

Slash!

The Demonic Cult's Eighth Young Master’s sword flew at his throat.

* * *

Il-mok's surprise attack on the Flying Dragon Pavilion Lord wasn't an impulsive choice.

He'd been considering it ever since he'd confirmed that Beggar Chaser had passed out.

The guy was an enemy who needed to die from the start anyway, and having shown him the Ascension Sword absorbing Blood Qi, there was no way he could just let him go.

And now that even his face had been exposed, there was absolutely no way he could let him live.

Approaching the Flying Dragon Pavilion Lord and showing respect with a martial salute was also for that purpose.

To induce a moment of carelessness and then launch a surprise attack.

But lo and behold.

As if he'd anticipated it, the Flying Dragon Pavilion Lord showed no sign of panic whatsoever as he twisted his body and dodged the attack.

He even deflected Il-mok's follow-up strike with his sword, which he'd drawn again in an instant, and stepped back.

After surviving the sneak attack, the Flying Dragon Pavilion Lord spat some bullshit.

"A dirty trick, just what I'd expect from a dog of the Demonic Cult!"

"???"

How the hell did this bastard figure that out?

Feeling puzzled, Il-mok swung his sword while pretending ignorance and playing dumb.

"What the hell are you babbling about?"

"Hmph. Did you think I wouldn't recognize you just because you fooled the fanatics into spreading a fake facial description?"

"Fake description?"

While exchanging blows with the Flying Dragon Pavilion Lord, something random suddenly came to his mind.

He remembered the composite sketch of an incredibly handsome man that the Little Tiger Beggar had shown him in the past, claiming it was a lecher being pursued by the Murim Alliance.

'These motherfuckers?!'

Only then did Il-mok realize that the face in that description was his own, and his expression crumpled.

'I haven't even had a girlfriend yet, and they call me a sex fiend!'

That was just one more reason to kill the Flying Dragon Pavilion Lord.

Seeing Il-mok’s twisted face, the Flying Dragon Pavilion Lord misunderstood the meaning and sneered.

"Hah. I don't know how you tricked that idiot from the Beggars’ Gang, but you can't fool me!"

As Il-mok was pushed back a step by the Flying Dragon Pavilion Lord's sword strike, Il-mok's eyes widened.

He'd belatedly realized something very important.

If this man returned to the Murim Alliance and revealed that he was the Demonic Cult's Eighth Young Master, there would be questioning with the Beggars’ Gang side.

And in that process, even the words Il-mok had blurted out to escape danger would inevitably spread as well.

The fact that he indirectly called his Master a son of a bitch would be well-known.

If that fact spread widely and reached even the main headquarters in Xinjiang?

'...I'll die either at Master's hands or at the fanatics' hands.'

To prevent that, he absolutely had to kill this bastard.

Having thought that far, Il-mok's expression instantly returned to calm.

"For the sake of avenging Uncle Tae-hyeon, I absolutely won't let you live."

When Il-mok pointed his sword at him and spoke, Jeong Yeong furrowed his brows.

"Uncle Tae-hyeon?"

Seeing his attitude of knowing nothing, Il-mok asked again.

"Three and a half years ago. The inn owner you murdered just to catch my Master. Ring a bell?"

Only then did the Flying Dragon Pavilion Lord remember the incident from three and a half years ago and open his mouth.

"That was just a small sacrifice for the greater good. He died for the peace of the world, so he should be happy about it in the afterlife."

Il-mok looked disgusted at his twisted logic and the Flying Dragon Pavilion Lord added with a disgusting smile.

"Come to think of it, they said there was an errand boy at that place. So you were that errand boy. Tsk. To think you groveled for your life so pathetically that you joined the Demonic Cult. That Tae-hyeon guy must be rolling in his grave."

Il-mok’s face went ice cold at the insult.

"Fine. Let's see if you still think it's a 'sacrifice for the greater good' when you're the one dying."