Chapter 171: Running Rampant (5)

Hating someone was no easy thing.

Hatred ate away at the heart of the one who carried it.

That was why those who resolved upon revenge in childhood usually ended up living miserable lives.

Once they had sacrificed even themselves to their vengeance......

all that remained afterward was a mad sense of satisfaction.

People said revenge felt empty once it was achieved.

Who had come up with that?

Those who truly achieved their revenge did not think so.

The problem was something else......

It was difficult to find anything in life as exhilarating as vengeance fulfilled.

Those who spent ten or twenty years pouring everything they had into revenge, burning themselves down to achieve it—

often broke afterward because they could never experience that same kind of “stimulation” again.

Those who achieved revenge often ended up ruined.

But emptiness was not the reason.

And Seon Byeok-il knew that better than anyone.

“Something must have happened at your sect.”

Ak Jupae murmured quietly.

Seon Byeok-il gave a faint laugh and dusted off his hands.

Then he spoke.

“It is nothing you need concern yourself with. More importantly, Flame-Saber Lord, this will be your residence from now on.”

“......What?”

“The entire house and garden are yours. You have entered the early stage of the Transformation Realm, so you are entitled to this much.”

The Demonic Cult followed the rule of the strong.

It did not matter whether that strength had been gained through Demonic Energy or by some other means.

Ak Jupae was one of the martial world’s few early-stage Transformation Realm masters.

And now he was a member of the Demonic Cult.

Whether he sincerely accepted that fact or not.

“......Interesting.”

“Surely it cannot seem that strange. You should already be accustomed to it.”

“To what?”

“Living in a world where you are judged by the strength you possess.”

Ak Jupae had once been the Lord of the Heaven-Net Platform.

The reason he had risen to such an important position within the great Martial Alliance......

was, naturally, the formidable martial arts that had carried him into the Transformation Realm.

Remembering that, Ak Jupae frowned in displeasure.

“The Alliance is different from you bastards.”

“Yes, it is. We do not execute people merely for saying something irreverent about the Heavenly Demon.”

“......You do not kill them?”

“No. We merely hold a proper Life-or-Death Duel.”

Ak Jupae stared at him, dumbfounded.

How was that any different from killing them?

Apparently recognizing the absurdity of his own words, Seon Byeok-il chuckled and elaborated.

“You wish to say that anyone who enters a Life-or-Death Duel with the Heavenly Demon will die anyway?”

“......That too. But your Heavenly Demon is already gone, is he not?”

Everyone had seen it.

They had watched the Sword Sovereign descend carrying the Heavenly Demon’s severed head.

Of course, questions still remained.

Ak Jupae also knew about the Little Heavenly Demon, whose body had been cut into pieces and sealed away.

“......Do not make me say it twice.”

At that moment, Seon Byeok-il’s entire presence changed.

Ak Jupae felt Demonic Energy racing through the man’s body.

Killing intent erupted with such force that every hair on Ak Jupae’s body stood on end......

A dark pressure so tangible it could be felt against the skin, produced by Demonic Energy circulating in a heaven-defying flow.

“The Heavenly Demon lives.”

“......Then I suppose he does.”

For a moment, Ak Jupae was overwhelmed by Seon Byeok-il’s presence.

There was no helping it.

The man standing before him might have been smaller than Ak Jupae......

but he was a predator containing a waterfall of Demonic Energy.

“Now then, follow me.”

“May I ask where we are going?”

“To what you want. There is a clue.”

Ak Jupae’s eyes immediately blazed.

At the same moment, the Demonic Energy buried deep within his dantian began to stir.

Responding to his hatred and resentment, it devoured his internal energy and swelled.

Ak Jupae let it.

Someone had killed his only son.

And whoever it was could not possibly have been unaware whose son he was.

His son was the only person to whom Ak Jupae had passed down the Flame-Dragon Saber Canon.

Whoever had done it......

must have touched his son because they believed they could defeat Ak Jupae as well.

Then he needed greater power.

Even if that power was Demonic Energy.

“......Is that really true?”

“I am not in the habit of making empty promises, Flame-Saber Lord.”

Seon Byeok-il opened the gate in the fence and pointed upward.

Only then did Ak Jupae properly look upon the peaks of the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains.

Countless people lived below his current elevation.

Like grains of sand.

Like ants.

But others dwelled on peaks even higher than this one.

And among them, the most conspicuous......

was naturally the highest of all.

Myriad Demons Peak.

“From here, we will climb Myriad Demons Peak. The headquarters of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult stands at its summit.”

“......The clue is inside the headquarters?”

“More precisely, in the underground archive beneath it. There, we found a martial art whose sword path resembles the swordsmanship that killed your son.”

Ak Jupae narrowed his eyes.

Then he stopped behind Seon Byeok-il, who had already begun walking.

Distance naturally opened between the two masters.

“......A martial art known to the Demonic Cult?”

“It is not a martial art of the Demonic Cult. More precisely, it is not one we know or possess.”

“Then how can you say you found it? Are you mocking me?”

“To explain...... A very long time ago, some Demonic Humans were cut down by a similar sword path. We found the records from that time.”

Seon Byeok-il slowly turned around.

He looked at Ak Jupae, who had leveled his saber at him, and sighed.

“Listen, Flame-Saber Lord.”

“Speak.”

“Do you truly think you could even scratch me?”

At first glance, the statement was arrogant to the point of madness.

But the Flame-Saber Lord knew it was neither a joke nor mere conceit.

Besides, Ak Jupae himself was nowhere near his usual condition.

He could not properly control his Demonic Energy, and his internal energy was slowly being eaten away by it.

“......How old are these records?”

“We do not know exactly. At least three or four hundred years, I would say.”

“......Ha. You expect me to believe a martial art that old could still be passed down to this day without anyone knowing of it?”

“Are there not as many strange masters and hidden eccentrics in the martial world as grains of sand?”

He had a point.

The Flame-Saber Lord slowly lowered the tip of his weapon and slung the enormous Flame-Dragon Saber across his back.

“Do not point that saber at my back again. Understood?”

With that warning, Seon Byeok-il turned away without waiting for an answer and resumed walking.

Ak Jupae let out a short, incredulous laugh and followed him.

Myriad Demons Peak was tall and treacherous.

Even more so than Mount Hua or Wudang Mountain.

Mount Hua and Wudang were already difficult to climb for anyone who was not a martial artist capable of freely wielding internal energy.

And they had built Daoist temples atop them?

To an ordinary man, it would look as though some lunatic had decided to construct buildings in the most ridiculous place imaginable.

But Myriad Demons Peak went even further.

Some of its buildings had been constructed directly against sheer cliffs.

Somehow, they had driven pillars straight into the faces of the precipices and used them as foundations.

Perhaps because of that, Myriad Demons Peak had an exceptionally bizarre silhouette.

Buildings seemed to grow outward in both directions from the jagged peaks......

creating a thoroughly grotesque sight.

“They actually managed to build all that......”

“Let us simply call it a demonstration of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult’s resources.”

Apparently not displeased by the remark, Seon Byeok-il answered with something halfway between a joke and a boast.

The two began their ascent of Myriad Demons Peak.

Fortunately, there was scarcely such a thing as an unclimbable mountain to a Transformation Realm master.

They were beings who could launch themselves into the sky with a single motion of their feet.

They had barely taken a few steps before the grand entrance of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult’s headquarters came into view.

What was astonishing......

was that the doors were not made of wood.

They were slabs of Blacksteel.

“......Is this not a waste of money?”

“If that much money is enough to establish authority, I would call it cheap.”

A wall could simply be scaled, so even an enormous gate was not especially useful as a defensive measure.

But few things could rival one when it came to projecting majesty.

Seon Byeok-il pointed toward the plaque bearing the name Heavenly Demon Divine Cult in magnificent calligraphy.

“The First Heavenly Demon wrote that himself.”

Perhaps because Demonic Energy had already seeped into his body......

Ak Jupae could feel against his skin just how dense and dangerous the Demonic Energy embedded in that plaque was.

And along with it......

a strange, horrifying, deeply unpleasant sense of kinship.

Proof that he had become one of the Demonic Cult.

“......Disgusting.”

“You should watch your tongue once we are inside. The Right Luminary Guardian is not as gentle as I am.”

Despite Seon Byeok-il’s warning, Ak Jupae did not appear to take it particularly seriously.

More precisely, he had taken it seriously but pretended otherwise.

He knew pride meant little at this point, yet the habits of the life he had lived still whispered that fearing a Demonic Cult bastard would be humiliating.

Seon Byeok-il led the way, and Ak Jupae followed him into the headquarters.

Inside were countless Demonic Humans.

Every last one of them had the eyes of someone decidedly abnormal.

Enough to make Seon Byeok-il seem almost sane by comparison.

“......Does accepting Demonic Energy make everyone end up like that?”

“Not necessarily. But when some newcomer suddenly appears who might take their place in the hierarchy, they all tend to look like that.”

“......I see.”

Ak Jupae could not yet properly control Demonic Energy.

Nor had all his internal energy been consumed by it.

But he was still a Transformation Realm master.

And the Left and Right Luminary Guardians had already shown everyone more than enough of what kind of might a Transformation Realm master could wield after fully accepting Demonic Energy.