NOVEL NEXT Chapter 31
Spending time in the Demon Cult, you inevitably hear various stories, but it’s not just tales from the western regions.
– Have you heard of “Journey to the West”?
Once, there was a deceased boy who brought a book with him.
– There’s this monk named Tripitaka, and it seems the yokai are after the Shaolin Temple’s monks. They say if they eat a monk with strong magical power, they can gain immortality!
While I’m not from the Shaolin Temple, the narrative of the book “Journey to the West” indeed carries such a plot.
Immortality.
The yokai had every reason to target them, and indeed, Tripitaka faced countless attacks from yokai.
Some female yokai not only aimed to simply devour Tripitaka but also sought his essence, claiming that if they drained the stored energy from someone who had long refrained from indulging in pleasures, they could quickly turn into an immortal being.
That tale sprang to mind.
Just as the yokai devoured Tripitaka’s physical form to attain immortality.
Perhaps my body could also exert some influence over martial artists or even ordinary people.
If I wish, it shall come true.
Devour my flesh and blood, and grant me my deepest desires.
Even if that goes against common sense, even if it defies the natural order.
“Ha.”
I’ve certainly come to realize something.
“It seems my body has become the elixir of immortality.”
Through various experiments, I’ve come to understand this.
Yu Giyeon may never open her eyes again, but thanks to that, I’ve become more aware.
“I have become an existence that deviates from the conventional martial world. Perhaps I am… no longer human.”
“That can’t be true.”
Mo Yongseol declares as she cuddles closer to me.
“When you get this close, my heart races, and blood runs red in my veins.”
“The color of blood may be red, but what that blood holds is anything but ordinary.”
I pricked the tip of my finger.
Isn’t it true that when someone is nauseous, pricking a finger to draw blood can alleviate that feeling?
The droplet of blood from that moment would naturally disappear, but I aimed to make it fall precisely into Yu Gwain’s mouth.
Drip.
As soon as the blood dropped into Yu Gwain’s mouth, his body began to change with eerie sounds.
The one who had been bisected by the Sword Saint until now.
A person whose blood vessels were already severely damaged beyond control.
“Look, there’s a miracle happening.”
Swoosh.
A wonder was unfolding before him.
“This isn’t a cure or a revival. Something… is happening. Right now, that’s the only way I can express it.”
Turn back time?
Bring back his past self?
Does the lingering spirit of that deceased body wish to ‘revive’ in a ‘complete form’?
“To phrase it in the best way I can, if you wish to go back to before your death, it’s akin to returning to that moment. Just the body.”
“……”
Mo Yongseol’s expression hardened as she watched Yu Gwain’s body slowly regenerate.
“When is that moment? If the body thinks instinctively, it would naturally conjure the most ‘complete state’ of itself.”
Everyone cannot help but follow suit.
“The complete state that the body remembers. Before being murdered.”
If someone were to witness the resurrection of a being they killed, which had consumed even a drop of their blood, they wouldn’t just be shocked—they’d instinctively reach for their sword at their waist.
“It seems Yu Gwain will transform back to the state he was in before he entered this room.”
“Physician. Once we confirm his revival, I’ll kill him immediately.”
After all, he wasn’t just any dead person—he had schemes in mind for me.
“I’ll make it so that just as Yu Giyeon ‘gave up,’ so too will Yu Gwain.”
“…Hmm.”
As Mo Yongseol focused on Yu Gwain, I turned my gaze to the side.
Yu Giyeon lay asleep.
No longer the headless corpse from before, but rather with a serene face, as if someone who had succumbed to a heart attack was merely in a peaceful slumber.
That was her wish.
In the process of dying and being revived countless times, Yu Giyeon had given up on living.
She longed to simply be in a ‘dead state.’
Desperate enough to desire death to the extent of giving up life, she succumbed and died, even with my blood holding her.
Perhaps as time passes, she might change her mind and awaken again.
So I tried dropping another droplet of blood after around a quarter of an hour, but Yu Giyeon did not wake again.
Having died several times in her coffin, she realized through her struggles that she could not come back to life and chose to die instead.
We made her that way.
If we wish for a wish to come true, we can control the ‘direction’ of that wish appropriately, thereby causing the phenomenon we desire.
Yu Gwain would be similar.
“Ugh, ugh…!”
Yu Gwain slowly opened his eyes and uttered a sound.
Being far more skilled than Yu Giyeon, he quickly released some of his blood essence and began to speak.
“W-What…!”
“That’s the question I want to ask.”
“I-I am certain…!”
“You died.”
“……!!”
Yu Gwain’s eyes spun wildly.
“W-Wait a moment…! Let’s talk!”
Even someone who had made a foolish plan seems to start thinking clearly once they’ve died and come back.
“I-I mean…!”
“If you don’t want to completely die, answer my question truthfully. If there’s even a bit of a lie, you will die again.”
“…….”
“And you won’t awaken ever again.”
Permanent death.
Even after experiencing death once, the idea of entering a state incapable of thought would make anyone fear the prospect of dying again.
“I’ll ask just one. Just one thing.”
Just like with Yu Giyeon, I pointed the needle at him.
“What does the Demon Cult mean to you, that you would pull such tricks against the Mo Yong Family?”
“…….”
“What has the Demon Cult done for you?”
“That is….”
As Yu Gwain frowned in response—
“…Huh?”
He suddenly paused, speaking in a voice filled with confusion.
“Why… am I…?”
And then his eyes began to shake violently, as if he couldn’t grasp the unbelievable situation unfolding.
“I… I belong to the Demon Cult…”
The moment he tried to say something, Swish!
Mo Yongseol swiftly swung her sword and severed Yu Gwain’s neck.
“Lady?”
“Get down!”
She then tossed her sword aside and lunged at me, covering me as if shielding me from a thunderbolt.
And.
Whoosh!!
Yu Gwain’s body suddenly caught fire.
This wasn’t an ordinary flame but a ‘crimson flame.’
Without a doubt, it was an abnormal, unnatural blaze.
Flames mixed with dark magic, it wouldn’t be surprising to call it “Demonic Fire.”
“…….”
The fire didn’t explode; instead, it began to burn Yu Gwain’s body from within, crackling gently, while I comforted Mo Yongseol, holding her close.
“It’s alright. You’re not hurt. Thankfully, because you killed him, it didn’t ‘explode.'”
“‘Explode…?'”
“Yes.”
What we have here is dark magic.
Among dark magic, it’s the most malevolent kind.
“Yu Gwain, and Yu Giyeon. I was wondering why they had such warped minds, but it seems they were victims of the Heavenly Demon.”
Even though the Heavenly Demon was defeated by the Sword Saint, the martial arts that allow him to remain at the pinnacle of the Demon Cult persist.
“The Black Sun Cult.”
In the Demon Cult, they refer to it as ‘The Black Sun.’
“It seems they were affected by the possession spell.”
There was a reason why their intelligence was lacking.
“Probably the one who cast that possession spell is… just one person.”
A tightness in my chest.
A lonely feeling stirs something within me that holds dark magic.
“The Heavenly Demon.”
The Heavenly Demon placed a possession spell on Yu Gwain and Yu Giyeon.
“By making them loyal to him, he lowered their intelligence to his level.”
* * *
[Meanwhile, in the Demon Cult.]
A luxurious room.
A wide space filled with expensive fabrics and adornments imported from the western regions.
In the center of the room, there sat a woman—the Grand Princess of the Demon Cult—crosslegged on an opulently large bed.
“…….”
With a wave of her hand, she dispelled the black flames that had erupted from her palm and turned to face the wall.
Maps of the Central Plains sprawled across the entire wall, and the Grand Princess bit her lower lip, gazing towards the far eastern region, the Yodong Fortress, which was directly opposite of the Demon Cult’s location in Xinjung.
“…If I could grow stronger just a bit faster.”
The Grand Princess reached her hand to her head.
Somewhere in her hair, a dark reddish energy began to flicker, but it quickly extinguished and repeated.
“…….”
In a flash, the Grand Princess, drenched in sweat, forced herself to rise and headed somewhere.
Inside a jewelry box, filled with all sorts of ornate accessories, she opened a distinct wooden box.
“…….”
Inside was an ornament carved in the shape of a butterfly.
It wasn’t crafted by any skilled artisan nor was it touched by a practitioner’s delicate hands; rather, it bore stains that looked like blood had splattered on the wood during the carving process, leaving dark red stains.
“……I swear.”
The Grand Princess clasped it tightly with both hands against her chest and bowed her head.
“I will place you back in the position you rightfully deserve. So please, wait a little longer. And….”
Crack.
“Next to you, it won’t be that woman but me—”
Knock knock knock.
At the sound from outside, the Grand Princess placed the wooden ornament back in the box, wiped the sweat from her brow, and stood up.
“What is it?”
“Lady Grand Princess!”
The Demon Sage rushed in with a flustered face.
“What has the Heavenly Demon… done?”
“…He’s run away!”
“?”
The Grand Princess tilted her head.
“???”