Chapter 20
Chapter 20:
7.1. A Vessel for God (1)
Jeong-min untied the sack he had set down on the floor.
What emerged from within made the Blood Cult villagers take half a step back.
"This is……"
Some villagers rubbed the red blotches on their own skin.
Some kept their eyes fixed on what had been revealed from inside the sack.
A rumor.
According to a story Jeong-min had heard back when he was Muyeong in his past life.
The people of this village.
"I have no interest in a troublesome fight. I'll give you this, so let me have a private audience with the Blood Cult Leader."
The villagers gulped.
So it was as he had expected.
The Blood Cult villagers, they…… eat corpses!
What Jeong-min had pulled out was none other than the corpse of that bandit who had met his end at the hands of the Blood Wolves in the Ten Thousand Mountain Range.
Devourers of the dead—and so, the Blood Cult!
It was easy to understand why they lived surrounded by the Ten Thousand Mountain Range.
"Well, how about it? Sound good?"
It was a brazen proposal from Jeong-min.
.
.
.
He had been told to kneel and wait, but Jeong-min refused.
They said both his hands had to be bound behind his back for a private audience with the Blood Cult Leader—that too he refused.
And so, Jeong-min ended up sitting cross-legged instead of kneeling, and only once he had a man flanking each side of him—the 2 who served as the Blood Cult Leader's personal guards—was he finally permitted to speak.
Just sitting here feels awkward.
Jeong-min was waiting by the door ahead of his audience with the Blood Cult Leader.
Beyond these paper-screen doors was the Blood Cult Leader.
And to either side of Jeong-min sat 2 men.
"Ahem."
"Keh-luk, keh-luk."
1 clearing his throat awkwardly, the other coughing.
They were the Blood Cult Leader's closest aides—Blood Shadow Death Demon Wi Un-heo, and Poison Hand Blood Seong Ju-gwan, respectively.
The 2 were strikingly opposite in appearance. Wi Un-heo had a skeletal frame and kept his eyes squeezed shut, while Seong Ju-gwan was heavyset with wide, alert eyes.
And both, like the Blood Cult villagers, had red blotches on their skin. Slightly smaller ones.
Seong Ju-gwan munched noisily on a candy and struck up a conversation.
"To think the one who requested a private audience with our Leader is the young lord of the Heavenly Demon Cult. Remarkable. I've never been to Tianshan myself—is the scenery better than the Ten Thousand Mountain Range?"
He didn't bother responding.
Then this time Wi Un-heo, leaning against his hooked-blade spear, muttered something.
"The Leader has granted permission, so we'll watch and see. But if you ramble on with pointless drivel, I'll carve you into 12 pieces."
Oh dear, how terrifying.
With that attitude, what kind of conversation was even possible?
He considered introducing himself, but Jeong-min decided to just twitch his brow and stare straight ahead.
How much longer did he wait like that?
Just as a chill seemed to pass through the air, the paper-screen doors finally slid open on both sides with a rumbling sound.
"Enter."
The Blood Cult Leader's voice.
An equally chilling voice. Just hearing it sent a shiver down the spine.
Jeong-min rose from his cross-legged position and stepped past the paper-screen doors.
Wi Un-heo and Seong Ju-gwan watched from behind as Jeong-min entered—but he stopped.
"What are you doing? Go in."
"……"
Go in? Into here?
He wasn't unaware that this was stepping into the throat of the enemy. Walking into the belly of the beast was no cause for concern to Jeong-min.
It was just.
The floor is absolutely drenched in blood.
The space where he was to meet with the Blood Cult Leader had a floor soaked entirely in blood.
At first he thought perhaps they had simply laid down red silk—but no. This was blood.
The stench of blood is overwhelming. Goes without saying for a Blood Cult.
Jeong-min was thinking as much when the Blood Cult Leader's voice came again.
A colder voice than before.
"Come in without stepping on it. I dislike footprints being left."
How is one supposed to avoid stepping on it when the whole floor is blood? Fly in like a bird? Take to the air on a sword?
Jeong-min thought as much for a moment, but soon stepped forward with a composed expression.
Thud—thud—
With each step Jeong-min took, the demonic energy wrapped around his feet pushed the blood aside.
Like oil and water that cannot mix, the blood did not touch his feet—it was repelled away.
Splash—splash—
With every step, it was as if a wave were being pushed back.
Jeong-min walked on like that, striding steadily forward until he stood directly before the Leader, then folded his legs and sat cross-legged.
The Blood Cult Leader sat up high on a throne atop a raised dais.
"Clever."
"I imagine no one can make it in here like this. How do you receive reports?"
"Hearing with the ears is sufficient. Everyone speaks to me from beyond the paper-screen doors without looking at me."
The Blood Cult Leader's voice was dead, as though drifting from beyond the underworld.
Jeong-min looked up. The room was so dim he couldn't make anything out properly.
Not the Leader's face, not anything in the room.
Then the Leader's faint, listless voice continued.
"Would you light a candle?"
He waited for his eyes to adjust to the darkness and looked carefully—there were candles placed before the Blood Cult Leader's dais.
Jeong-min struck a match from the box beside the candlestick and brought flame to the candle, and only then did the room become faintly, dimly visible.
"……"
Jeong-min and the Blood Cult Leader faced each other in the grey dark.
He felt nothing in particular. This was Jeong-min's first time seeing the Blood Cult Leader, yet he was not surprised.
Jeong-min walked back and sat down in his original spot.
The Blood Cult Leader.
This person was Blood Cult Leader Gyeong Ga-ryeong.
She was.
"The darkness is a little brighter now."
A woman with no eyes.
.
.
.
Nothing but a blood-red robe worn loose over bare skin, its front left open.
Yet despite seeing the appearance of Blood Cult Leader Gyeong Ga-ryeong, Jeong-min felt no base desire whatsoever.
Only, looking at her—where both eyes had been gouged as if mauled by a blade, with dozens of scars layered over the sockets—was quite difficult to endure.
Though of course, that applied to an ordinary person.
"I thank you for granting this private audience today, Vessel of God Gyeong Ga-ryeong."
"I was uncertain at first, but hearing it several times now I can say for certain—you are a child."
In his past life, Jeong-min had seen many in far worse condition than her.
He would not be frightened by something of this degree.
Gyeong Ga-ryeong laughed softly as if she found it unexpected.
"Those who face me, young or old, show 1 of 2 reactions."
"The first would be to be frightened by my appearance."
"The second would be to look down on me for being a woman in the position of Leader."
Heh, hearing the second reason, Jeong-min laughed along.
Who in the world would dare look down on the Vessel of God Gyeong Ga-ryeong?
If she were someone who could be looked down upon, she never would have earned a title as grand as Vessel of God—a vessel that holds divinity itself.
"The former I understand. My state must be frightful enough for that."
"Except for the eyes, you are an unrivalled beauty."
"But the latter I tear apart without mercy. All the blood on the floor belongs to them."
"There must have been quite a few."
"You belong to neither. Would you have a cup of tea?"
"Anything would be fine, as long as it isn't blood."
Wi Un-heo brought out 2 teacups.
He kept murmuring something through his dry lips.
"To dare with our Leader……. If you speak out of turn, I won't let it slide."
Whether he meant to be heard, or was just talking to himself.
It was unsettling and prickly.
Wi Un-heo left the room again, and Jeong-min looked up at Gyeong Ga-ryeong.
Looking at her now, unlike the many other Blood Cult people he had seen since arriving here, Gyeong Ga-ryeong had no red blotches on her skin.
The blotches. What they truly were must be……
"Drink. It is red tea. I mention it in case you mistake the color for blood."
"I trust there is no poison in it."
Sip—quite a decent flavor.
Vessel of God Gyeong Ga-ryeong. In truth, Jeong-min didn't know much about her.
Back when he had been Muyeong in his past life, there was almost never a reason to come all the way out here to the Ten Thousand Mountain Range.
Only 1 thing was certain—that she was a martial artist of near-peak mastery.
And that is precisely why, if she joined the Western Alliance and lent her strength to the Heavenly Demon Cult, she would be more than sufficient as a bulwark against the Martial Alliance.
Jeong-min thought as much and looked up at Gyeong Ga-ryeong once more.
He hoped it would come to that, but on the off chance she refused, he might have to face Gyeong Ga-ryeong here and now.
In that case, certain defeat. As things stood, Jeong-min had absolutely no way to beat Gyeong Ga-ryeong.
Form an alliance, or die.
1 of the 2.
"Leader Gyeong."
"Speak."
Tap—Jeong-min set his teacup down.
And spoke with resolute conviction.
"I will be direct. Let us form an alliance with our Heavenly Demon Cult."
"An alliance?"
"That is correct."
Jeong-min produced a sworn agreement from within his robe.
A sworn agreement bearing the handprint of Heavenly Demon Cult Leader Hyeok Je-un.
"We have already formed an alliance called the Western Alliance with the Potala Palace in Xizang. If the Blood Cult also joins, there could be nothing finer."
"What purpose does this alliance serve?"
"The Martial Alliance will soon strike Xinjiang. This is an alliance for a shield."
"I see."
Gyeong Ga-ryeong nodded surprisingly readily.
But the answer that came was not the one he had hoped for.
"However, they will not cross the Ten Thousand Mountain Range of Mangyuan Prefecture and reach our Blood Cult's territory. This is no concern of ours."
Hmm.
That was also a fair point.
Even back in his past life when Jeong-min had been Muyeong, no one had ever made the journey all the way to this land of Mangyuan Prefecture.
There had been 2 reasons. It was too far away, and there was no particular need to swallow the Blood Cult.
But I need the alliance.
This was an alliance needed purely for the Heavenly Demon Cult.
Gyeong Ga-ryeong waved her hand.
"The Blood Cult has not been invaded by outside forces since the attack 50 years ago. For all the time you spent to come here, that was all empty talk. You may return now."
She was attacked 50 years ago?
He was curious, but this wasn't the time to ask.
"You truly will not do it? The Western Alliance?"
"That's what I said. Wi Un-heo and Seong Ju-gwan will guide you out."
Gyeong Ga-ryeong truly made to rise from her seat with those words.
Haah, Jeong-min heaved a long sigh, then laid out the one argument he had been holding in reserve.
Yes—the offer she could not refuse.
"Azure Sky Shattering Spindle."
Still.
Gyeong Ga-ryeong froze mid-step at the words from Jeong-min's mouth.
Her head slowly turned back toward Jeong-min.
"What did you just say?"
"You remember it. You couldn't possibly not."
"……"
Gyeong Ga-ryeong walked steadily toward Jeong-min. She had told him not to step on it—yet she was treading through the blood herself with bare feet, splashing with every step.
Then she reached down and grabbed Jeong-min's nape with one hand, hoisting him clean into the air.
"—!"
"How do you know of that? Tell me truthfully, or I'll tear out your tongue."
The sheer strength of it!
Jeong-min concluded once again that he could not face Gyeong Ga-ryeong in a fight.
Of course, if he pushed the force written in the 3rd Stage of the Heavenly Demon Divine Art to its limit alongside the Nameless Sword Art, he could perhaps match her.
It simply isn't worth it.
If they fought, one of them would die and the other would lose half of themselves.
Why would he do something so foolish?
In the stifling silence as his breath began to cut short, Jeong-min tapped her forearm to signal his discomfort—and Gyeong Ga-ryeong released him.
"Koff, ugh."
"Answer me properly. How do you know of it?"
"Are you planning to kill me? Dead men can't speak."
"Speak before I fashion you into a wooden puppet and turn you into a reanimated corpse!"
Whoooosh!
The Blood Cult Leader stamped her foot and wrapped her internal energy around her body.
The chill grew even sharper—then a taste of blood filled his mouth and strength began draining from his entire body.
Near-peak mastery? Nonsense. This is simply peak mastery.
So this was the legendary internal energy of Blood Cult Leader Gyeong Ga-ryeong—Blood Eye Crimson Mark.
It was greater even than the rumors from his past life. Not quite at the level of Heavenly Demon Hyeok Je-un, but overwhelming nonetheless.
More than enough to protect a single village.
And if so, all the more reason that her strength was needed.
"Is that what matters to you? What matters is something else entirely. The fact that Azure Sky Shattering Spindle is a high-ranking member of the Martial Alliance."
"……! What?"
Azure Sky Shattering Spindle.
That was a man's title.
A man that Gyeong Ga-ryeong despised enough to tremble with rage.
And a man that Jeong-min—who had been Muyeong in his past life—also loathed enough to grind his teeth.
"Well then—are you feeling a little more inclined to talk now?"