Chapter 334 : Dawn (3)
Chapter 334: Dawn (3)
A few days later.
Il-mok made his way to the massive arena at the main headquarters with his maids in tow.
Today was the day the succession tournament to select the next Cult Leader was scheduled to be held there.
"Welcome, youngest."
When he arrived, his Third Brother Seo Wan-pyeong greeted him warmly. Beside him stood the Dark Shadow Pavilion Lord as well.
"Greetings, Third Brother. Greetings, Dark Shadow Pavilion Lord."
Il-mok turned his head and looked to the side, where his Sixth Brother Jong-ri Chu and the Missionary Hall Master Baek Un-hak were standing together.
‘Wait a second.’
Sensing something off, Il-mok swept his gaze around the area and quickly realized that every major figure in the Demonic Cult had gathered here.
The Corps Leaders of each combat division. The participants waiting at the center of the large arena for the tournament, along with the Left and Right Guardians. There are also the heads of every institution within the Divine Cult and the Family Heads of the Five Great Demonic Families.
After confirming who was present, Il-mok understood.
‘So this is why the Demonic Cult plunged into a dark age the second the Heavenly Demon ascends.’
When his Master passed away, it had taken nearly a full month for the Ascension Ceremony to finally conclude.
After that, several more days were wasted conducting the preliminary screenings for the succession war, and only today was the actual fighting finally scheduled to begin. And the tournament itself wasn't going to wrap up in a single day either.
In other words, it meant that the entire central government of the Demonic Cult had essentially shut down and ceased all major operations during this entire period.
Sure, the ordinary cult members in each division were probably still handling their duties, but without their leaders present, anything urgent or important simply couldn't get dealt with.
And on top of that...
‘...If the Cult Leader keeps failing to become the next Heavenly Demon and gets replaced over and over again, all the foundations Master built will crumble completely.’
When you consider that the Cult Leader could be replaced at any time, it makes a lot more sense why the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult ended up going through dark ages.
It might've been fine when the cult was buried deep in Xinjiang and had nowhere else to be, but doing things this way in the current Central Plains situation?
That was nothing short of insane.
‘Tch. Traditions are fine and all, but you have to know when to follow them. What the hell are these people doing? It's not like they're lazy civil servants clocking out for a month-long holiday.'
While Il-mok stood there with a sour look on his face over the cult's sorry state of affairs, Seo Wan-pyeong turned toward the center of the training ground, "Who do you think has the best shot, youngest? Personally, I'd want our Eldest Brother to take the seat, but that's just my feelings talking."
Prompted by his brother's question, Il-mok also turned his gaze toward the center of the massive arena.
Standing out there were six individuals, each taking their positions while keeping a cautious distance from one another.
First were the Left and Right Guardians, the official referees in charge of overseeing the succession war.
Then came the Family Head of the Dokgo Family, Dokgo Ryong.
After that is his Eldest Brother, Wi Jin-hak.
And finally, the Hall Master of the Demonic Way, Yeom Ga-hwi, and the Family Head Ouyang Pae.
Out of the entire Cult, only a grand total of four demonic practitioners had actually stepped up to participate in the brutal succession war.
It was a paltry number compared to the grand name of the Cult Leader succession war, but there was a slight backstory to this.
Mainly, the incredibly trivial fact that three of the supreme masters actually qualified to fight for the throne had already been brutally executed for trying to assassinate Il-mok.
The former Law Enforcement Hall Master, the former Divine Guardian, and of course, the former Chief Elder.
Moreover, because old monsters like Hyeokryeon Cheon-gang and Baek Un-hak had lost interest in the throne, the participant count had ended up at a measly four.
Scanning the four lone participants, Il-mok finally answered Seo Wan-pyeong's question. "Personal bias aside, I also genuinely hope Eldest Brother inherits Master's throne. But as long as whoever ends up in the Cult Leader's seat is competent, I don't think it really matters."
What he really hoped was that whatever weird bastard got the seat didn't go and throw away everything his Master had built.
For example, someone like that crazy old geezer right over there.
"Bwahahaha!"
Il-mok watched Dokgo Ryong laughing obnoxiously off to one side of the training ground and felt a wave of unease wash over him.
The way the man laughed, the way he looked, the entire vibe he gave off was exactly the same as Dokgo Pae.
While Il-mok was slowly shaking his head, something changed in the arena, signaling that preparations were complete.
Wi Jin-hak and Ouyang Pae stepped aside, leaving only the Left and Right Guardians, Dokgo Ryong, and Yeom Ga-hwi in the arena.
Apparently, the reason Dokgo Ryong had been laughing was due to the joy of getting to fight first.
The moment Wi Jin-hak and Ouyang Pae stepped back, the Left Guardian channeled his internal energy into his voice and shouted out to the crowd:
"We will now begin the life-or-death duels to select the next Cult Leader!"
Before the echo of his shout had even faded, Dokgo Ryong swung his greatsword and charged straight at Yeom Ga-hwi.
Boom!!!
Deadly Sword Force was already violently surging across the blade of Dokgo Ryong's greatsword as he rushed in with a speed bordering on a shameless sneak attack.
The Cult Leader succession tournament was exactly as the Left Guardian had called it.
A life-or-death duel.
There was no rule saying you had to kill your opponent, but there was equally no rule saying you couldn't.
Fully embracing that bloody regulation, both Dokgo Ryong and Yeom Ga-hwi immediately began trading lethal strikes with the aim of killing.
Boom!!!
Yeom Ga-hwi's Shura Blood Fist moved so fast that its afterimages formed a shadow of a three-headed and six-armed demon hurling his six fists all at once.
And shattering those afterimages one by one with brutal Sword Force was Dokgo Ryong's Nine Swords of Dokgo.
'Hmm. I never really noticed it back when I was still attending the Hall of the Demonic Way, but Hall Master Yeom is incredibly seasoned.'
Il-mok was reading the flow of their exchange without any difficulty.
By expertly weaving Qi into his blindingly fast punches to create solid afterimages, Yeom Ga-hwi was deliberately avoiding any direct, physical clashes against Dokgo Ryong's greatsword.
The six demonic arms that Dokgo Ryong kept shattering with his sword were actually nothing more than phantom fists made entirely of condensed Qi.
An actual direct collision between fist and greatsword had yet to happen, and in Il-mok's estimation, it was because Yeom Ga-hwi would lose a raw power contest if it came to that.
Yeom Ga-hwi was skilled at covering his weaknesses while playing to his strengths, but Dokgo Ryong was no different when it came to experience.
Dokgo Ryong was squeezing every advantage out of his style to its absolute limit.
He only bothered defending against attacks that targeted his vitals and used those deflections to steadily back Yeom Ga-hwi into a corner.
But his movements didn't just end with simple blocking.
He was simultaneously executing flawless offense and defense in a single breath.
He would violently deflect the deadly Qi flying at his vitals, and then immediately use the residual momentum of his swing to brutally target the Hall Master.
And he wasn't doing it like some brainless brute going straight for the kill.
He was herding Yeom Ga-hwi bit by bit, slowly cutting off every possible escape route.
Yeom Ga-hwi tried to counter this by weaving feints in with his real strikes, trying to threaten Dokgo Ryong and force him to back off.
"Bwahaha! That's a pretty obvious trick!"
But Dokgo Ryong wasn't falling for any of it.
‘...I wonder if this is what Dokgo Pae will look like when he's grown.’
The way he charged in laughing like a madman wasn't any different from Dokgo Pae, but his skills and meticulousness were way above the reckless hatchling.
It’s to the point that comparing them would've been an insult to Dokgo Ryong.
'Well, outwardly they look like the exact same brand of crazy.'
Because he was only blocking the attacks that could've dealt fatal damage while pressing Yeom Ga-hwi harder, Dokgo Ryong's appearance had become wretched.
His hair was wildly disheveled, his robes were shredded and torn in a dozen places, and thick blood could be seen openly flowing from his countless shallow wounds.
And through all of that, he kept bursting into unhinged laughter, which made him look like a full-blown lunatic to anyone watching.
Yeom Ga-hwi, on the other hand, showed the composure befitting of a martial master.
Even as he was slowly being pushed onto the back foot, not a trace of panic crossed his face.
Because of that contrast, a good number of the spectators actually had the wrong read on the fight and thought Yeom Ga-hwi had the upper hand.
The ones who actually understood what was happening numbered fewer than ten, Il-mok included.
After a long stretch of Dokgo Ryong absorbing minor injuries to keep the pressure on, he deflected one of Yeom Ga-hwi's fast strikes and stepped forward.
The moment he did, Il-mok felt it instinctively.
‘Cornered.’
As if to confirm his prediction, it was the first time since the duel began that Dokgo Ryong's greatsword and Yeom Ga-hwi's right fist met in a head-on collision.
Boom!!!
Yeom Ga-hwi was sent flying a full 3 meters backward from a single exchange, and blood had already gathered at the corner of his mouth.
He quickly steadied himself and tried to launch another punch, but Dokgo Ryong's greatsword was already at his throat.
"Move even a little, and I'll take your head."
"...I concede defeat."
In reply to Dokgo Ryong's warning, Yeom Ga-hwi spat out a mouthful of blood.
"Damn it."
That curse wasn't from the defeated Yeom Ga-hwi.
When Il-mok glanced over, he saw Baek Un-hak staring at the training ground with a face that looked like he'd just bitten into something rotten.
As if he had heard that voice just as Il-mok did, Dokgo Ryong turned his head and made a contemptuous look toward Baek Un-hak.
The two held each other's gaze in a brief but heavy clash of pressure.
After just a short moment of that, the Right Guardian expressionlessly stepped between them and said, "Since we need to proceed with the next death match immediately, how about you head to the infirmary to get patched up?
The Right Guardian's intervention quickly smoothed over what had been on the verge of becoming an ugly situation.
That was why the Left and Right Guardians had stayed in the arena as overseers, even though the nature of a life-or-death duel meant they had no actual reason to intervene mid-fight.
They weren't there to prevent deaths during the duel itself; they were there to prevent anyone from interfering in the duel or to stop bystanders from getting hurt by the fallout.
Once Dokgo Ryong and Yeom Ga-hwi had headed off to the medical quarters, the second duel began.
Wi Jin-hak versus Ouyang Pae.
Il-mok was fairly familiar with the martial arts of both fighters.
Wi Jin-hak's Raging Demon Sword Art went without saying.
He'd once come close to getting sent to the afterlife by that very Demonic Art after all.
Of course, because Wi Jin-hak's martial realm had significantly deepened since that fateful encounter, the destructive power and precision of his sword were on a completely different level now.
As for Ouyang Pae's Phantom Flash Demonic Saber, Il-mok had seen it used by members of the Ouyang Family and Ouyang Hyeok before, so he had a decent sense of how it worked.
Watching the two familiar martial arts clash against each other, Il-mok thought to himself.
‘Oddly similar pattern.’
The Phantom Flash Demonic Saber prioritized speed and rapid consecutive strikes.
The Raging Demon Sword Art harnessed Yang Qi to deliver explosive force.
It was a stylistic matchup that naturally mirrored the exact same dynamic as the Shura Blood Fist and the Nine Swords of Dokgo from the previous bout.
However, it was only similar on the surface.
The fine details of how the fight unfolded were completely different.
For one thing, Wi Jin-hak wasn't swinging his sword around laughing like a maniac the way Dokgo Ryong had been.
"Ha!"
The intense Yang Qi released along the arc of Wi Jin-hak's greatsword didn't concentrate into a single point.
Instead, it fanned out broadly to press on Ouyang Pae from all directions.
In response, Ouyang Pae used the Phantom Flash Demonic Saber to unleash rapid strikes in every direction to punch holes through that spreading tide of Yang Qi to keep himself from being overwhelmed.
Just as he had during the previous duel, Il-mok found himself completely absorbed in this one before he knew it.
He tracked the flow of the fight and picked apart the true intent behind every technique they used.
A seemingly trivial half-step.
A subtle shift in stance.
The direction of an eye movement.
Even the smallest fluctuations in the flow of Qis that the two fighters were generating.
All of it was laced with layers of feints and genuine intent mixed together, and not a single feint was executed carelessly.
Completely engrossed in the breathtaking duel, Il-mok constantly ran simulations in his head, actively imagining exactly how he would counter and survive every time they exchanged a blow.
Just like he did during the first match, he spent a long time dissecting their martial arts and finding perfect solutions to their techniques.
And as he casually analyzed the fierce duel of monsters whom he wouldn't have even dared to look in the eye just a few short years ago, a thought surfaced from somewhere in the back of his mind.
‘I think I could actually take them.’
It was a profound realization that the current him was now more than strong enough to stand on that stage and fight them himself.