Chapter 90: A Visitor from the Empire (2)
Chapter 90: A Visitor from the Empire (2)
At the doorsteps of the Cult of the Heavenly Demon, an old man caused a fuss, wanting to meet the leader.
This was a strange event that had never happened in the history of the Cult.
For this reason, none of the demonic practitioners left even after the regular meeting had concluded.
Rather, they were waiting.
The Heavenly Demon was not a being that anyone could simply request to meet.
What kind of man would dare ask to meet the god of the Cult? How dare you make such a fuss in order to get what you want!
If the Heavenly Demon wanted to meet you, then he would meet you. If he didn’t, how dare you disgrace us with your presence!
After hearing the news, the followers of the Cult could not help but show hostility towards this blasphemous man.
Sitting on his throne, Woon-seong calmly closed his eyes.
In order to silence the commotion, Sang In-hyo had been dispatched. By now, he had already reported the circumstances.
“Sage of Earth and Sky.”
Also known as the ‘Mysterious Old Man of Scattering Age’.
I never met him, but I’ve heard of him several times. A high level martial artist comparable to my previous Spear Master Sect master.
If so, he should easily be one of the top 20 martial artists in Zhongyuan.
He’s also famous for his personality.
“An oddball who lives an exceptionally free life… I guess the rumors were true. Only an old freak would start such a fuss at the doorsteps of our Cult.”
No, how many people would have found the entrance to the Cult in the first place?
No sane person would do that.
The entrance to the Heavenly Mountain was concealed by special formations, which was why the cultivators nearby had been immediately alerted of an intruder.
Woon-seong’s musings about the Sage’s weird personality slowly disappeared.
Only one thought remained.
“Why does the messenger of King Jinseong want to meet me?” Woon-seong could not help but ask himself.
Woon-seong did not particularly care how the Sage had broken in.
More importantly, King Jinseong was a relative of the Emperor.
As the ‘Sage of Earth and Sky’, or as the messenger of King Jinseong, there was no reason for the old man to come.
While small altercations here and there were inevitable, despite the vigilance of both sides, each group tended to leave the other alone.
That was true of the Martial Alliance and the Emperor’s government.
The Cult was no exception.
The Demonic wished to conquer the Central Plains, but they did not wish for the mobilization of thousands of imperial troops.
No matter how grand a dream was, the price of war was steep.
Therefore, even if there was a war, the battlefield only contained Murim.
The Cult of the Heavenly Demon had a policy of protecting ordinary civilians. This was not just propaganda to spread their doctrines, but a move to gain public support.
Thus, in the view of the Emperor and government officials, the Demonic Cult would not be different from any other martial sect or religious group.
But now, the messenger of King Jinseong had arrived.
Why?
As Woon-seong continued to think, the Sage approached from the entrance.
Looking at him, Woon-seong briefly nodded to himself, “Let’s hear it.”
“Haha. This is my first time in the Demonic Cult. So this is what the Divine Palace looks like.”
The rumors of Sage Do Jin-myung being a bit insane were not unfounded.
Just as he had proven them true by making a commotion at the entrance, his personality did not change even after stepping foot into the palace.
Seeing that, the Demonic Kings and Great Demons gathered revealed their infuriated expressions. Some of them could not help but growl, cursing him under their breaths.
The Sage ignored them with a single snort.
However, there were also those who he could not ignore, no matter what names he called them.
The Demonic Masters…, mumbled Do Jin-myung.
The Sage stopped walking once he got to the center of the palace.
The Demonic Masters flanked the sides of the throne.
If the Sage continued to walk forward, he would eventually reach the throne of the young man who was the new Heavenly Demon.
But to do that, the Sage would have to cross the Demonic Masters.
As mainly Absolute-realm masters, the Demonic Masters wielded fame and strength equivalent to his own.
With eight of them present, their strength was terrifying.
The Sage of Earth and Sky stopped walking forward.
He had come as the messenger of King Jinseong, not to fight some demonic cultivators.
Seeing that he had stopped walking, the demonic cultivators relaxed slightly. As long as he made a passable greeting to their leader, then their impressions of him would not be trash.
Thanks to that, Do Jin-myung was able to safely walk before Woon-seong and lowered his head slightly in greeting.
Although the Sage had come as the King’s messenger and the man before him was much younger, said young man was the Heavenly Demon.
A minimum of courtesy was required.
Moreover, Do Jin-myung had come as a messenger not as the ‘Sage of Earth and Sky’.
There was a need to help the Leader save face.
And he really didn’t have any bad intentions.
“I present myself to the Leader of the Demonic Cult.”
Seeing the calculated greeting, Woon-seong immediately got to the point after lightly nodding his head.
It wasn’t like he and the Sage were friends anyways, why should they exchange pleasantries?
“What is the messenger of King Jinseong doing in our Cult?”
Do Jin-myung trembled slightly, not thinking that the Heavenly Demon would get to business so quickly.
Of course, the panic was only for a moment.
He cleared his throat.
“Ahem. Before we get to the point…”
The Sage looked around.
There were eight Demonic Masters.
The fifty Demonic Kings and then the hundreds of Great Demons.
Within the Divine Palace, there were more than three hundred people.
Even though the Sage had confidence in his skills, there were just too many people.
“I wish to speak in private…”
The story was not appropriate to be told in front of so many people.
Regardless of the distance, the demonic practitioners were still capable of hearing his words.
The Demonic Masters glared at the Sage, but the decision was for the Heavenly Demon to make.
And soon…
“Everyone except the Sage and the Strategist, leave. I will conclude the regular meeting.”
Woon-seong had made his decision.
After all the people had left, the interior of the palace was quiet.
There was only Woon-seong, Sang Gwan-chuk, and the Sage.
So that’s the Flower of the Dark Night, the direct guards of the leader… I see…, the Sage noticed.
“They are taught to never hear or speak of anything. So, do not worry about them.”
Loyalty towards only the Heavenly Demon was taught to the Dark Flower candidates from a young age. Thus, all Dark Flowers had infinite trust and loyalty towards whoever sat upon the Heavenly Demon’s throne.
The Sage glanced at the young man in front of him.
So this man is the Heavenly Demon. I feel a wall that I cannot possibly fathom.
I never found the Demonic Kings of the Cult to be a huge threat… But I’m feeling such a wall from a young man who is probably barely in his twenties. When was the last time I felt such a feeling…
Suddenly, a name popped into his mind. A feeling almost forgotten had been remembered.
It’s almost like… The ‘Twin Stars’?!
I felt a similar sensation when I met those two.
Of course, I can’t possibly measure who is more powerful…
In a vague sense, it seemed that the Twin Stars were probably stronger.
However, this young man had to be viewed differently. Sometimes, age and potential were more important than absolute strength.
This man is barely in his twenties. Even the Twin Stars must never have achieved such a feat.
Maybe Bodhidharma [1], the Founder of the Shaolin, or Zhang Sanfeng [2], the Legend of the Wudang Sect, might have been like this.
That’s why the Sage started to speak.
“I heard that the Cult was blessed with a new leader, but I never imagined him to be such a young man.”
Woon-seong’s response was blunt.
“I assume you haven’t come this far to speak such trivial words.”
Woon-seong had many questions revolving around his mind right now, beginning with why the Sage was here in the first place.
Maybe it was the significance of the message, or maybe it was Woon-seong’s sharp voice, but the Sage got to the point.
“I am here to ask the Demonic Cult for cooperation.”
“You want to cooperate with our Cult? Is that a request from King Jinseong?”
It was the Senior Strategist who responded.
So this man is Sang Gwan-chuk, the Senior Strategist of the Cult. The Sage had heard rumors about the man. Considering the weight of the matter, it makes sense that he is here.
“That is correct.”
The Sage pulled a scroll out of his sleeves. It was the very scroll he had shown to Sang In-hyo.
“This is a message written by King Jinseong himself.”
The scroll was handed to the Strategist.
Sang Gwan-chuk glanced at Woon-seong. It was an unspoken question asking whether he could read it first.
Woon-seong nodded.
Without hesitating anymore, the Strategist unfurled the scroll and quickly read the contents.
As his eyes scanned the words, he paled.
Finally, having read everything, he shouted, “Are you suggesting that we commit treason? What do you mean ‘drag down the Emperor’?”
Ignoring the Strategist’s outburst, the Sage began to explain.
“Amongst the tricks of the Cult of the Inverted Sky, there is one which snatches the body of others. I don’t know how many times I’ve reconsidered presenting this fact to King Jinseong. I may be known to be somewhat eccentric, but can I easily tell him the the Emperor, his own brother, is an imposter? And after I finally made the difficult decision to tell him, this is what he said: Those words… Are you sure of them?”
Could Do Jin-myung be responsible for the consequences of those words?
What could Do Jin-myung do when asked that?
“So I have presented all the records and evidence against the Cult of the Inverted Sky I had gathered until then. King Jinseong carefully examined the records for days and nights. And he finally came to a conclusion. The conclusion is that a human-possessing art does indeed exist in the Cult of the Inverted Sky and that the sky above the Imperial Palace holds an ominous star, representing the Cult of the Inverted Sky.”
But that was not all.
Then the question arose: Had the Inverted Sky really possessed the Emperor’s body?
It took six months of observation to figure out.
King Jinseong risked his life to travel in and out of the castle, personally interacting with the emperor and court officials.
“During those six months, King Jinseong became confident that the current emperor is not his brother.
The appearance of the two was the same, but they were completely different beings.
The old man took a breath.
“But there is even more.”
While King Jinseong was observing the emperor, Do Jin-myung researched the Cult of the Inverted Sky.
Very secretly, since he did not want to get caught by the Inverted Sky.
“As a result, I have found at that the Cult of the Inverted Sky was conspiring not only in the Imperial Court, but also within Murim.”
At these words, Woon-seong’s eyes widened marginally from shock.
“The Cult of the Inverted Sky has already planted deep roots within the Martial Alliance of Zhongyuan… To the point that it’s hard to say that Zhongyuan truly belongs to the Martial Alliance. Would you believe it if I said that many important figures of the Martial Alliance are part of the Cult of the Inverted Sky?”
Woon-seong did not answer.
If the Sage had asked anyone else, they probably would not have believed those words so easily. Woon-seong, as the survivor of the framed Spear Master Sect, could.
Still, he remained silent.
Do Jin-myung ground his teeth in frustration. From the first time he heard of the Cult of the Inverted Sky, he disliked them. Those people were different from the Cult of the Heavenly Demon. Unlike the arguably noble Demonic Cult, the Inverted Sky were willing to slaughter the innocent without hesitation.
What would happen to the world if those lunatics took hold of not only the Imperial Court but also Kangho?
What should be done then?
King Jinseong and Do Jin-myung pondered over this matter for a long time before reaching a conclusion.
They needed to get help from somewhere else.
The Sage kept speaking.
“The problem of the Imperial Court must be taken care of by King Jinseong, a member of the Imperial Court. The problems within Murim should be solved by borrowing the assistance of another martial group.”
With that conclusion, there was only one option.
“The Cult of the Heavenly Demon, the only independent martial group that can possibly go up against the Martial Alliance.”
In order to succeed, King Jinseong had to combine forces with the Demonic Cult.
“That way we purge the vile forces of the Cult of the Inverted Sky from Zhongyuan, and drag down the despicable body snatcher who sits on the throne of the empire!”
That was the reason why ‘Sage of Earth and Sky’ Do Jin-myung had travelled all the way to the Heavenly Mountains.
The Sage of Earth and Sky had finished explaining his reasoning.
And what about Woon-seong who had listened to the entire thing?
The new Heavenly Demon said,
“And why should we do that?”
[1] Bodhidharma is credited as the founder of the martial arts at the Shaolin Temple in the Henan Province.
[2] Zhang Sanfeng was a legendary Chinese Taoist who invented Tai chi and supposedly achieved immortality.