Chapter 7 : The Demonic Cult
Chapter 7: The Demonic Cult
"Young Master, is your body alright?"
The event for the Day of the Great Birth of the Heavenly Demon had transformed into a testing ground for the Young Cult Leader candidates.
The subsequent proceedings were a field of politics.
The Patriarchs of the Seven Great Demonic Sects flocked to the respective candidates they supported, and naturally, the only person to approach Dan Woojin was his guard, Jang Cheol.
"I am fine."
Jang Cheol seemed worried because there was not a single intact spot on his clothes.
"You truly went through a lot of trouble. To think you came back alive from the Demonic Cave, do you know how much I worried!"
Dan Woojin let out a smirk at the sight of Jang Cheol examining every nook and cranny of his body.
"Was it not that you hoped I would die?"
"What?"
As he trained in the Demonic Cave, a thought kept occurring to him.
The original Seventh Young Master, Dan Woojin, had lost his life in the Demonic Cave.
It was something that would have certainly happened if Am Yeong had not entered Dan Woojin's body.
Could this bastard really have been unaware of that?
'Jang Cheol the guard was the one who assisted Dan Woojin from the closest distance.'
If it was him, he would have been able to judge clearly whether Dan Woojin would come out of the Demonic Cave alive or dead.
"I think you and I need to have a little talk."
The Heavenly Demon Dan Cheonwoo said he would grasp the capabilities possessed by the Young Cult Leaders.
Unlike his other siblings, the current Dan Woojin had nothing that could be called a power base.
At most, Jang Cheol the guard was everything.
But could he truly trust Jang Cheol?
He had never seen Jang Cheol during the days he operated as Am Yeong.
That meant.
'He did not survive in this harsh Heavenly Demon Cult and died.'
Why did even Jang Cheol the guard, who lost his lord, end up dead?
The answer came with just a little thought.
'Killing to silence the mouth.'
He was clearly silenced.
Who, and for what reason, silenced Jang Cheol?
'I will know once I check.'
Dan Woojin intended to leave the banquet hall as if he had no further business.
"Woojin!"
Seeing that, the Eldest Young Master Dan Cheolwoo called out and approached Dan Woojin quickly.
Dan Woojin bowed his head upon seeing Dan Cheolwoo.
"I am sorry, big brother. I would like to catch up with you next time."
"......I understand."
It might have been rude language to the Eldest Young Master, but meeting Dan Cheolwoo now was a loss.
In this place where there were many eyes watching, Dan Woojin had to be thoroughly excluded.
To get revenge on the Murim Alliance, he had to remain thoroughly hidden in the back.
And Dan Woojin knew that method all too well.
'Leaping through the shadows.'
Dan Woojin intended to shake the Heavenly Demon Cult thoroughly from behind.
"What is the point of passing the Demonic Cave first. No one supports the Seventh Young Master."
Several voices clicking their tongues were heard behind Dan Woojin as he led Jang Cheol out.
Dan Woojin ignored all those voices and went outside the banquet hall.
* * *
Jang Cheol began to roll his eyes while following Dan Woojin.
'To think the Seventh Young Master would actually return alive.'
Jang Cheol, who took on the guard duty for the Seventh Young Master, thought his choice was not wrong until the Seventh Young Master entered seclusion.
This was because if the Seventh Young Master met his death upon entering seclusion, he too could step down from his position as the Seventh Young Master's guard.
If the Seventh Young Master died due to an unexpected accident, Jang Cheol could also leave his guard post and strive to grab a line that could earn more money.
'The plan has completely gone awry.'
The reason Jang Cheol joined the Heavenly Demon Cult was purely because of money.
He volunteered for the Seventh Young Master's guard duty because the pay was high compared to the work involved.
Jang Cheol, who was born in Xinjiang, lost his family, and lived alone, was a person who thought money was the best.
Jang Cheol, who worked hard at whatever it was as long as it made money, received a proposal from the Strategist Sima Yi to take charge of the Seventh Young Master's guard duty.
At first, he tried to refuse.
Money was good, but one had to be alive to earn and spend it, did they not?
As someone who lived off the Cult's salary, he knew all too well what kind of state one would end up in if they got involved with the Heavenly Demon's son.
However,
'Ten gold coins.'
Because the Strategist offered an amount too large to refuse, he got caught like this.
Since it was work he did for money, he thought he should just do as much as he was paid.
The Seventh Young Master was more of an idiot than Jang Cheol thought.
Dan Woojin's daily routine was to stay shut in his room muttering "mother" and shedding tears without any intention of learning martial arts, or occasionally coming out to walk the marketplace only to be beaten by thugs.
The thugs who beat Dan Woojin probably did not even know the person they hit was the son of the Cult Leader.
Dan Woojin was broken to the point where he could not be seen as the son of the Cult Leader, who was like the sky of the Cult.
He heard the circumstances briefly from Sama Yi, but it was still pathetic.
The thought of serving such a lord did not occur to him at all.
For now, as he was a guard, he simply attended to the Seventh Young Master.
There were almost no people who sought out the Seventh Young Master.
Because with the exception of the Eldest Young Master Dan Cheolwoo, no one gave attention to the Seventh Young Master, who was no different from a cripple.
However, that also changed as the Day of the Great Birth of the Heavenly Demon approached.
'Did you say you are Jang Cheol.'
One day, Jang Cheol could not help but fall for a sweet proposal from a woman who approached him.
'I will give you a gold ingot. If by any chance the Seventh Young Master tries to learn martial arts, monitor him thoroughly so that he cannot do so.'
Learn martial arts?
That Seventh Young Master?
Jang Cheol thought there was no way that would happen, but the woman seemed to think otherwise.
At the woman's will to eliminate even a one-in-a-million chance, Jang Cheol felt a sting in his conscience but accepted the proposal.
Even though he knew it was obvious the Seventh Young Master would die if he entered the Demonic Cave without being able to learn martial arts.
Because like Sama Yi's proposal, the woman's proposal was also an amount too large to refuse.
Now he intended to leave the Cult and go out to the Murim world once the Seventh Young Master, who entered the Demonic Cave, came out as a cold corpse.
But the Seventh Young Master, whom he expected to die, returned alive.
Moreover, he returned as a completely different person.
"Young Master...... where are you going?"
Jang Cheol, who was following Dan Woojin as he held a heavy atmosphere, spoke up.
"We have arrived."
The place Dan Woojin brought Jang Cheol was a training ground located within the Heavenly Demon Cult, far away from the banquet hall.
"What brings you to the training ground......"
"That is obviously because I came to have a deep conversation with you."
Dan Woojin stepped up onto the training platform and faced Jang Cheol.
"From now on, it will be better for you to speak honestly."
"I have not known what you have been talking about for a while now!"
"Do I look like an idiot to you?"
"......"
He could not bring himself to say that he thought he was an idiot.
Because the Dan Woojin before entering the Demonic Cave and the Dan Woojin after coming out of the Demonic Cave were completely different people.
"Young Master, I truly do not know what you are talking about. If there is something I have done wrong, I will correct it promptly, so please tell me."
"Did you not think I would die if I entered seclusion?"
Jang Cheol, who observed the Seventh Young Master Dan Woojin from the closest distance, was indeed able to expect it.
However, he could not answer like that.
"How could I......"
Jang Cheol denied it to the end.
"I told you to answer honestly. Because I have no need for a guard who blabs about my every move to others."
"......Are you doubting me now?"
"What if I am?"
"Wait, how could the Young Master doubt me! Every time the Young Master stayed shut in his room and did not come out, it was this Jang Cheol who worried for the Young Master and helped with everything the Young Master needed!"
* * *
Accusing the innocent while being the guilty one.
It was a method of getting angry instead when driven into a corner.
It was a move Jang Cheol had used on the Seventh Young Master regularly.
If it were the Seventh Young Master from before seclusion, he would have tucked his tail here.
But Dan Woojin was no longer the Seventh Young Master of the past.
"Jang Cheol."
Flinch.
Dan Woojin stared at Jang Cheol with dry eyes.
The moment he met those eyes, Jang Cheol felt as if he were being stripped naked.
"Whose person are you?"
What Dan Woojin wanted was one thing.
A confession.
Hiccup.
A hiccup he never used to have leaked out from Jang Cheol's mouth.
"Is it my elder brother? Older sister? Or is it the side of the Seven Great Demonic Sects?"
"......Instead of answering, I would like to ask you. Are you truly the Young Master I knew?"
"I am."
"Have you lived all this time hiding such a temperament?"
"Why? Is it strange because a guy who lived as quiet as a dead mouse suddenly questions you?"
"That is......"
"One way or another, I was destined to die, so I plan to struggle even now. To do that, identifying allies and enemies is the first step."
Ally or enemy. Dan Woojin was testing Jang Cheol.
If he was an ally, he would live, and if he was an enemy, he would die.
"I will ask one last time. Are you an enemy? Or an ally?"
"It seems the Young Master has misunderstood something."
As Jang Cheol denied it to the end.
Dan Woojin wore a chilling smile.
Because while thinking about Jang Cheol, he remembered what Jang Cheol used to be called in the past.
"Gold Demon, Jang Cheol."
Shudder.
"How does the Young Master know that nickname......"
"Did you think I would not know?"
Dying for money and living for money.
Jang Cheol, who was stripped of his guard position after the Seventh Young Master died, would do anything that made money until he disappeared at some point.
He probably lived crazy for money and was killed by someone.
Swoosh—
Trailing a red glow from his eyes, the Seventh Young Master Dan Woojin disappeared in an instant.
"What......"
The place where Dan Woojin reappeared was behind Jang Cheol.
Press—
"Gugh!"
"I have no intention of keeping a bastard who has many things to hide."
When did he move behind him?
"Y-Young Master!"
"Farewell."
It’s over.
He could not move his body because his pressure points were suppressed, but he felt murderous intent.
At this rate, he would truly die!
"S-Save me, Young Master! I am sorry! I will tell you everything!!"
Pause.
The finger that touched exactly on a vital point stopped.
Goosebumps rose all over his body.
At the fact that the Seventh Young Master, whom he wondered if he had ever even killed a person, tried to strike a vital point without hesitation, the moment Jang Cheol tried to move his mouth quickly.
"Gold Demon, Jang Cheol."
"Yes? Yes!"
"You are my first sacrifice."
Press—
"Kugh—"
He pressed the vital point without hesitation.
Soul Killing Finger.
The finger that killed even the soul dug into Jang Cheol's vital point.
Dan Woojin smiled at the sight of Jang Cheol dying with his eyes rolled back.
Wriggle—
Subsequently, he saw Jang Cheol's soul rising up.
Soul Killing Demonic Sword First Sword, Soul Killing Wind and Clouds.
Slice—
As he cut the soul with the sword he wore at his waist,
Whoosh!
The severed soul permeated into Dan Woojin's Dantian.
It was filling up.
Inner Qi that did not exist even as much as a fingernail began to fill up.
The internal power that began to fill the Dantian expanded the vessel.
"This feeling, it has been a long time."
The feeling of the small Dantian growing larger.
The feeling of becoming stronger felt good no matter when he felt it.
— That bastard, he killed a comrade he was training with!
— Am Yeong, I clearly told you that killing moves would not be allowed.
— The opponent deployed a killing move first. I have no intention of leaving someone who tries to harm me alive. And, is it not natural logic that the weak die?
The words he heard when he first entered the Black Shadow Army and killed a member echoed in his ears.
Supremacy of the Strong.
A world where it was natural for the weak to die.
This was the Demonic Cult.