Chapter 316 : The Passage of Time (5)
Chapter 316: The Passage of Time (5)
"Is that the list of those Deung Bi had under his command?"
The Heavenly Demon pointed to a single document that the Law Enforcement Hall Master had placed on the floor.
"I have written down every person I can remember, along with the deeds they carried out under Deung Bi's orders."
Having said this, the Law Enforcement Hall Master pressed his forehead to the floor in a deep bow before the Heavenly Demon.
The Heavenly Demon gazed down at him with an impassive expression for a moment, then spoke.
"Your crimes are grave. But this seat has proclaimed the law of confession, and I cannot break the covenant I made with myself. Your punishment shall be the destruction of your martial arts in lieu of death."
"Lord of Ten Thousand Demons, I beg you to kill this sinner."
The Law Enforcement Hall Master meant it sincerely.
He was an old man who had spent his entire life revering martial prowess. He genuinely believed that becoming a cripple stripped of his martial arts was worse than death.
But the Heavenly Demon had no intention of granting his wish.
"Do you dare give orders to this seat?"
"I w-would never presume such a thing, Lord of Ten Thousand Demons."
"Then survive and pay the remainder of your debt. The cult grows ceaselessly, yet we lack people. You will survive and serve the cult until the day you die."
"...I shall follow the will of the Supreme One."
The Law Enforcement Hall Master pressed his forehead to the floor once more. When he raised his head, the Heavenly Demon extended an index finger toward him.
The energy that shot from his fingertip bored precisely into the Law Enforcement Hall Master's dantian.
CRACK!!
With a sound only he could hear, the Law Enforcement Hall Master's dantian shattered into pieces.
The instant the excruciating pain hit, the Law Enforcement Hall Master convulsed on the floor, foaming blood at the mouth and letting out a grotesque moan.
"Gkhrk..."
The Heavenly Demon watched him thrash for a moment, then issued a command to the Hidden Guard Pavilion Lord.
"Send him to the medical wing and leave him in the Demonic Physician's care."
"I shall follow the will of the Supreme One."
Two warriors entered the Heavenly Demon Palace, carrying out the unconscious Law Enforcement Hall Master.
Silence settled over the hall once more. Then the Heavenly Demon spoke.
"The rats within the cult must be rooted out. All of you will cooperate fully in this matter."
"By your command!!"
Everyone assembled in the Heavenly Demon Palace bowed in unison.
Sensing that a bloodbath was about to sweep through the cult for the first time in a long while, they filed out with grim faces.
With everyone gone, only the Heavenly Demon and the Hidden Guard Pavilion Lord remained. The hall felt desolate.
The Heavenly Demon had quietly raised his head and was staring up at the ceiling.
He was thinking of his disciples.
Not just Wi Jin-hak and Il-mok who would lead the cult after he was gone.
He was thinking of the Fourth Disciple, reported to have died after falling into an Orthodox Faction trap. The Fifth Disciple, reported to have died from Qi Deviation.
The Law Enforcement Hall Master's confession had revealed the truth hidden behind their deaths.
Despite being revered as the Heavenly Demon, he hadn't known the truth behind his own disciples' deaths.
Death was an ever-present companion for those who practiced martial arts, and even more so in the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult, where they cultivated Demonic Arts and worshipped martial prowess.
It was so commonplace that he'd let it pass without even a shred of suspicion.
'...I shall carry all of the cult's sins with me when I depart.'
That was why the Heavenly Demon intended to conduct this purge of blood.
'So that you may make the cult into something even greater.'
After he departed with all of those sins, he hoped that his disciples could build the cult into something finer with their own hands.
Standing faithfully behind him, the Hidden Guard Pavilion Lord forced himself to look away, desperately trying not to look at the Heavenly Demon staring up at the ceiling.
'...My Lord.'
He was terrified that he might accidentally look at the supreme ruler with pity in his eyes.
Because in just a few short minutes, the Heavenly Demon looked as if he had aged another decade.
* * *
From that day forward, a grim atmosphere hung over the cult for some time.
The operation to root out those who had been colluding with the Central Plains progressed swiftly, followed by merciless interrogations.
The Law Enforcement Hall Master's confession played a pivotal role.
When the Hidden Guard Pavilion was conducting its covert investigation earlier, a lot of time had already passed, and progress had been slow on many fronts.
But now there was clear evidence, pulling a whole string of traitors out of the woodwork was only a matter of time.
And the violent upheaval that swept through the cult didn't end with internal discipline alone.
The Law Enforcement Hall Master's seat was now vacant, and the Heavenly Demon appointed Ouyang Pae, Family Head of the Ouyang Family, to fill it.
Stripped of his martial arts, the former Hall Master stayed on as an advisorby the Heavenly Demon's order, basically doing desk work and helping Ouyang Pae learn the ropes.
It was incredibly rare for a Family Head of one of the Five Great Demonic Families to be appointed as the head of a major institution.
There was an element of honoring the Five Great Families, but the concern had always been that giving a family patriarch an institutional leadership role would grant them unnecessarily broad authority.
But the Heavenly Demon was decisive. And while it was unusual, it wasn't without precedent.
Just a few months earlier, a precedent had already been set.
"Hahaha. Welcome, Young Master Il-mok."
When Il-mok visited the newly established Missionary Hall (宣敎院), Baek Un-hak greeted him warmly.
Baek Un-hak was now simultaneously the Family Head of the Baek Family and the Missionary Hall Master.
The changes at the Missionary Hall didn't end with Baek Un-hak.
A few months after the Missionary Hall's establishment, several foreign devotees with exceptional language skills led by James had begun throwing themselves into the hall's operations in earnest.
Thanks to them, the original staff could finally breathe a little easier.
"What brings you to summon me at a time like this, Missionary Hall Master?"
"Hahaha. What does the timing matter? Neither you nor I has ever committed or plotted anything treasonous."
Baek Un-hak answered with confidence and got straight to the point.
"The truth is, I've been thinking of implementing a few initiatives at the Missionary Hall, and I wanted to ask whether you think they're worthwhile before I proceed. With everything else going on right now, I'd rather have things organized before reporting directly to the Supreme One."
Il-mok got a peculiar feeling from this.
'...Does he think that if I say it's fine, Master will accept it too?'
It felt like watching a new hire ask their mentor to review a report before submitting it to the team leader.
Except this "newbie" was an old man.
While Il-mok was mulling over this impression, Baek Un-hak spoke with an excited expression.
"First, I'd like to add music and acting to the missionary training curriculum."
"What kind of bull... I mean, what do you mean by that?"
Il-mok almost blurted out "bullshit."
"Hahaha. You're as humble as ever! It was thanks to your guidance that my Baek Cheon found his enlightenment and set off for the Central Plains. The real reason I agreed to take the Missionary Hall Master position was actually this. I wanted to set an example for my son and spread the greatness of the cult far and wide."
"...You're saying you want to proselytize through theater and song like the way Young Lord Baek Cheon is doing in the Central Plains?"
"Exactly that. Hahaha. We're going to translate all the plays and songs my Baek Cheon wrote into foreign languages and have them echoing in every corner of the globe!"
Talk about a family of attention seekers; the apple really didn't fall far from the tree.
It was the kind of proposal that made you want to laugh, but Il-mok nodded.
"From a missionary standpoint, it's an excellent strategy."
Translating Baek Cheon's plays and songs. Teaching those plays and songs to future missionaries. The workload would double at least.
'Well, it's not my problem.'
From Il-mok's perspective, it was none of his concern.
"You think so too?"
Baek Un-hak beamed and muttered to himself.
"Hehehe. Before long, the songs my Baek Cheon created will echo across the entire world."
He looked exactly like a supervillain plotting world domination.
"Ahem."
Finally snapping out of his delusion, Baek Un-hak cleared his throat and glanced to the side.
There sat Jong-ri Chu, who had been staring into empty space and muttering to himself this whole time.
"The second matter would be better explained by the Sixth Young Master, who's in charge of it since he's the one in charge."
It was pretty obvious Baek Un-hak's brain was completely entirely occupied with spreading theaters and hymns.
"Sixth Young Master. Sixth Young Master. Snap out of it."
After Baek Un-hak called his name several times, Jong-ri Chu finally came to his senses and looked at Il-mok and Baek Un-hak.
"Tell Young Master Il-mok about the matter you raised."
Jong-ri Chu laid out the second proposal point by point. His rambling delivery made Il-mok's head spin at times, but in the end it boiled down to this:
"So you're saying we should teach Demonic Arts to the foreign devotees?"
Teaching Demonic Arts to people they'd promised to release after just five years of service bordered on insanity.
But there was reasoning behind it.
"That's right. To be precise, only those who have pledged to stay beyond the five years."
Among those who had been sold as slaves, some had no desire to return home.
Not that many among the white slaves, but over ninety percent of the black slaves and nearly half the nomads felt this way.
Most of the black and nomadic slaves had come from tribes that no longer existed.
Their tribes had been utterly destroyed in battle, and returning home meant living a life no different from slavery.
For them, the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult, which provided food and shelter and didn't abuse them despite their slave status, was simply the better option.
'Teaching Demonic Arts to foreigners...'
Normally, the younger you start learning martial arts, the better. And the majority of those sold as slaves were adults.
From a normal standpoint, it was highly inefficient. But the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult didn't use normal martial arts in the first place. Demonic Arts does indeed give the user a whole load of issues, but the growth rate was ridiculously fast.
Meaning there was a real possibility of reaching a meaningful level even if you started as an adult.
"As long as we can prevent the worst case of them banding together and betraying us, it would undoubtedly be a great asset to the cult."
"The question is how to prevent such a scenario before it happens."
The three of them continued discussing preventive measures after that.
As they exchanged various opinions, Il-mok let his mind wander to what the future might look like if this policy were implemented.
He imagined a terrifying global army of diverse fanatics, all singing the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult's hymns as they spread across the globe.
‘...Is it just me, or does this sound insanely dangerous?'
Struck by the ominous realization that he might be accidentally endangering the entire planet, Il-mok smoothly opted to just deny reality.
'Ahem. That's a problem for the distant future. Yeah, definitely.'
* * *
Several months later, the bloodbath that had seemed like it would rage through the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult without end gradually subsided.
And at the conclusion of the violent purge, the Heavenly Demon obtained a critical piece of information.
Silver Moon Trading Company (銀月商團).
The Heavenly Demon stared intently at the four characters written on the document in his hand.
"This is the trading company that was dealing with Deung Bi?"
"It is, Lord of Ten Thousand Demons."
The Hidden Guard Pavilion Lord naturally expected the Heavenly Demon to order their immediate punishment.
But the command that left the Heavenly Demon's mouth was unexpected.
"Send word to my Third and the Dark Shadow Pavilion Master in the Central Plains. Tell them to investigate the Silver Moon Trading Company thoroughly."
"...Is something troubling you about this?"
"No matter how large a trading company may be, a trading company is still just a trading company. Don't you find it strange that a mere trading company tried to manipulate our cult? No matter how I think about it, the trading company is the body. Not the head."