Chapter 178: The Weight of Karma (4)

The reconstruction of the Blood Cult.

I readily accepted my younger sister’s proposal, but honestly, now that the time had come, I had no idea how we were supposed to rebuild the Blood Cult.

“Don’t worry. My child will inherit the position of the cult’s next Saintess.”

Leaving aside the issue of whether the Blood Saintess bloodline, supposedly severed, could really continue within a single generation.

How were we supposed to rebuild the Blood Cult with just the two of us?

While I was lost in such worries, Jeok Hawol, sounding as if she were intoxicated by something, proposed a ridiculous plan.

“We’ll break the seal of the Blood Divine Shrine and show the Central Plains the great power of our cult. Then, surely many will flock to us, seeking to submit.”

“…….”

I realized that the sense of incongruity I felt from my sister was growing stronger.

She was never a child who would think solely in terms of power.

“I’ve prepared everything perfectly. I even found someone to help.”

“……Who?”

The moment she finished speaking, someone wearing a mask appeared behind her as if by illusion.

“Greetings.”

“……!”

A sorcerer. One far stronger than even my sister.

Though not quite the monstrous being I had once seen, he was still an opponent I could not possibly handle in my current state.

“You seem quite wary. But there’s no need to worry so much.”

“Who are you?”

The masked young man introduced himself politely.

“My name is Hwan Pyeong. I’m one of the candidates for the successor of the Heavenly Reverence Hwan Clan.”

“Heavenly Reverence Hwan Clan!”

Once counted alongside the Blood Cult and Mosan Sect as the three great powers of sorcery, but now, with the Mosan Sect secluded and the Blood Cult fallen, it was effectively the greatest sect of sorcery in the world.

I asked in a somewhat timid voice.

“…Why would a direct descendant of the Hwan Clan help us?”

I didn’t know much about the structure of the Demonic Cult, but I at least knew enough to realize he was not someone who should be involved in matters like this.

Hwan Pyeong’s face, hidden behind the mask, seemed to smile faintly.

“I have my reasons. To rise higher, I need to achieve merit.”

“……Higher?”

Since he was a candidate for successor, at most he would become either the Young Master or the Clan Leader.

Helping us escape would be counted as a meritorious deed?

“You don’t need to ponder so seriously. I am your unconditional ally.”

Hwan Pyeong spoke gently, reassuring us, but for some reason, I could not shake off the ominous feeling he gave me.

In any case.

The moment I accepted Jeok Hawol’s proposal, the plan for escaping the Demonic Cult had begun.

The operation was carried out on a night fifteen days later.

The crescent moon was shrouded by clouds, making the night sky dim, but it was excellent weather for an escape.

Though I felt sorry toward So Munyak, who had cared for me, I willingly fled the So Clan and joined my sister.

However, even as we escaped, I could not stop chewing over a question that had arisen in my mind.

‘Even if we run away from here, that person will surely know the location of the main base…’

Moreover, the original location of the Blood Cult’s main base had become completely buried and uninhabitable.

Even if we went there, there would be nothing we could do.

Yet Jeok Hawol didn’t seem concerned about that at all.

It was as if she were possessed, treating leaving the Demonic Cult as her sole mission.

Hwan Pyeong, the Young Master candidate from the Hwan Clan, knew all the hidden paths of the Ten Thousand Great Mountains.

Thanks to his assistance, the two sisters managed to escape safely from the Ten Thousand Great Mountains.

“This child is my daughter.”

When we reunited, Jeok Hawol was cradling a tiny girl who looked like she had just begun to walk, fast asleep in her arms.

Jeok Hawol looked at the child with eyes full of love.

I tilted my head and asked,

“I thought I heard you had given birth to another daughter recently…?”

“No.”

“Huh?”

“That’s not my child. It didn’t come from my womb… it’s just a monster.”

“…….”

Chills!

A shiver ran down my spine.

The Jeok Hawol I knew would never have spoken like that.

She had always been the kind of woman whose benevolence toward even the humblest life would have made the title of ‘saintess’ more fitting than ‘Saintess.’

Yet here she was, uttering such cold, heartless words!

As I stood there, too shocked to speak, Hwan Pyeong, beside us, commented with a tone of regret.

“Mm, unfortunately, we weren’t able to bring Miss Yura along. The surveillance from the Guardian Court was too strict.”

Hwan Pyeong muttered to himself words with unclear meanings, like, “If only we could have brought her, everything would have been easier,” and, “Hmm, we’ll have to overthrow the Guardian Court someday….”

“Anyway, we have a long way to go. Let’s keep moving.”

As he said, the distance from the Ten Thousand Great Mountains to the Blood Cult’s main base was over two thousand li.

By now—no, perhaps even already—the Demonic Cult would have heard about our escape.

“Yeah, you’re right….”

Now that the die had been cast, all I could do was protect my sister and niece to the best of my ability.

***

As I had expected, the Heavenly Demon Cult moved swiftly upon hearing about our escape.

The current Cult Leader and Grandmaster of the Demonic Path, Cheon Myeongjo, immediately selected elite warriors from the Cheon Clan and entrusted them to Ma Seonghwan, the new Head of the Blood Dragon Demonic Clan.

Cheon Myeongjo gave Ma Seonghwan a command, thrusting forward a token engraved with the Heavenly Demon Emblem.

“You may kill the others if necessary. But you must absolutely capture the child alive.”

Because he had not yet mastered the Heavenly Demonic Divine Art, the emblem did not react to the Cult Leader’s internal energy.

Nevertheless, that didn’t mean his authority as Cult Leader was diminished.

Ma Seonghwan lifted his head slightly and asked.

“…You mean it’s acceptable to kill the Little Madam?”

“I said I don’t care, Sword Demon.”

At the Cult Leader Cheon Myeongjo’s firm declaration, the young Ma Seonghwan had no choice but to accept the order.

Thus, when he left the Heavenly Demon Pavilion—

So Munyak, once a peer from another of the Six Great Demonic Clans, approached him.

“Clan Leader Ma, please take me with you.”

“What of the Young Cult Leader? Why are you alone?”

“The Young Cult Leader rushed off somewhere the moment she heard about the Little Madam. From what I heard, she was shouting about killing someone.”

“…Killing?”

“I don’t know the exact details. Also… I quit being a bodyguard a while ago. I’m no longer part of the Guardian Court.”

“You quit?”

“I realized that if I wanted to protect my people, it would be better to rise to a position where I have everyone beneath me, rather than guarding just one person.”

Ma Seonghwan blinked for a moment.

He had never expected that the murderous spirit of the So Clan, who was even colder and quieter than himself, would say such a thing.

“…Surprising, that you would say such words.”

“Will you accept me?”

Ma Seonghwan nodded. There was no reason to refuse.

“It’s better to have even one more capable person. However, since you’re no longer part of the Guardian Court, you won’t be officially listed among the pursuit squad.”

“I don’t mind. I’m not doing this to earn merit.”

Thus, the pursuit squad unofficially included So Munyak, who would later become known as the Murder Demon.

***

‘…So that’s how it happened.’

I succeeded in reading most of Jeok Rua’s memories.

Ma Seonghwan’s pursuit squad eventually managed to catch up to Jeok Rua and Jeok Hawol.

And just as recorded in the Heavenly Demon Chronicles, Jeok Hawol ended up dying at Ma Seonghwan’s sword.

Honestly, it was inevitable.

Not only was Jeok Hawol poorly trained in martial arts, but she also had a newborn baby she should never have overexerted herself with.

No matter how fast they moved, covering a mere one or two hundred li a day would have been their limit.

Jeok Rua and Jeok Hawol were caught by Ma Seonghwan’s pursuit squad exactly four days after escaping the Ten Thousand Great Mountains, near Shaanxi Province.

And… the one who had aided their escape, Hwan Pyeong, right before encountering Ma Seonghwan—

– Hmm, looks like this is as far as we go.

—with those words, struck both women on the back of the head and vanished.

No, he didn’t just flee.

Hwan Pyeong had spent the entire escape period subjecting Jeok Rua to vicious brainwashing.

An abnormal hostility toward her sister’s second daughter, Cheon Yura.

A burning desire for revenge against the current Cult Leader and the Heavenly Demon Cult.

And an insatiable thirst for power, yearning for a high position within the Heaven-Defying Society.

Jeok Rua, who had been born into the Blood Cult yet had been a person of deep emotion and rugged loyalty.

The reason she turned into such a twisted revenant over twenty years was all due to the brainwashing planted at that time.

‘Only Murder Demon was pitiful in the end.’

Having uncovered most of the truth, I found myself sympathizing with Murder Demon So Munyak.

The man who had seemed like a mad serial killer in my mind had, in truth, been yet another victim whose life had been ruined by the Heaven-Defying Society’s schemes!

“I hereby end the Battle of Karma.”

The moment I spoke aloud, the world, which had been colored gray, returned to its original state.

“Keugh! Krrrrk!”

And before my eyes, Jeok Rua was still weeping bitter tears, writhing in agony.

“I’m sorry.”

Her life had been nothing but a series of misfortunes, constantly manipulated by others.

But even so, the duty I had to fulfill remained unchanged.

Although the memories related to the Grand Heavenly Lord were still too tainted with malice to read—

From Jeok Rua’s memories, I had managed to find the true culprit I must eliminate from the Heavenly Demon Cult.

“Phantom Demon.”

The Heavenly Reverence Hwan Clan Leader, Phantom Demon Hwan Pyeong.

No, the Fourth Heavenly Lord of the Heaven-Defying Society, Hwan Pyeong.

He was the true root of corruption that had been rotting the Heavenly Demon Cult like a worm since my previous life.

***

“Someone has glimpsed my fate.”

Someone spoke from within the deep darkness.

That ‘someone’ was a boy.

“For things to have gone this wrong… It hasn’t happened since that clash with him. Has another singularity that twists causality appeared?”

The boy, seated cross-legged in a meditation hall, turned his gaze.

At the end of that gaze was a young man kneeling quietly in respect.

“It seems you must go to the Demonic Cult.”

“…Wasn’t the ‘Plan’ already scrapped?”

Doubt arose from the young man.

A question.

Originally, no one who knew the boy would ever dare to question him.

However, this young man was one of the few exceptions who could get away with such disrespect.

The boy chuckled softly.

“The plan was scrapped because of the incompetence of your predecessors. But the need to keep an ‘eye’ remains unchanged.”

“The Second and Fourth Heavenly Lords are already there. If it’s them…”

The young man’s words were ruthlessly cut off by the boy.

“The Fourth Heavenly Lord will be too busy carrying out the proposal he submitted. As for the Second Heavenly Lord… he was never one to listen, no matter what anyone said.”

When mentioning the ‘Second Heavenly Lord,’ a trace of irritation slipped into the boy’s tone.

“If that’s not the issue, do you perhaps not want to give up playing at being a righteous warrior among the orthodox sects, Heavenly Divine Dragon?”

“That’s not it.”

The young man slowly shook his head.

“I just wonder if I’ll be able to tolerate their temper. From what I hear, their personality isn’t exactly the best…”

“You pleased even my temper. You’ll do fine over there.”

“…….”

A perfect rebuttal… though it left quite a bitter feeling.

The young man pouted slightly, but the boy was firm.

“Go. I’ve already informed our collaborator, so they’ll prepare a suitable position for you. Watch over the ‘success’ and, if the situation becomes unfavorable, retrieve the ‘failure’ and return.”

In the end, the young man had no choice but to accept the order.

“I, First Order, accept the command of the Grand Heavenly Lord.”

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