Chapter 816: The Demonic Cult Leader Might Be Able to Do It, but the Martial Alliance Leader Probably Can’t
Geom Woojin sensed it instinctively.
That something dwelling within Hwa Moogi’s body would influence the outcome of today’s battle.
There was a reason he was trying to analyze his opponent as calmly as possible.
Did that Heavenly Killing Star come here without knowing that he had achieved the great completion of the Nine Calamities Demon Art? No, that couldn’t be. He was someone who had even come knowing that a message had been left on the second floor of the Flowing Wind Tavern.
Even so, the fact that the opponent was acting so relaxed meant that he had prepared something in some way.
‘What did you prepare to counter the Nine Calamities Demon Art?’
Before the real fight began, he had to find the answer to that question.
Suddenly, Hwa Moogi burst out laughing like a madman. When the laughter abruptly stopped, he had returned to his original state.
“Friend? At our age, what kind of nonsense is this talk about friendship?”
Jin Paecheon looked at Hwa Moogi with a bewildered expression. Just moments ago, it had truly felt like advice from a senior of the Righteous Faction.
He had felt the earnestness of someone who had been ruined after associating with the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult and the Unorthodox Alliance, telling him not to go through what he himself had experienced.
But the Hwa Moogi standing before him now felt completely different from before.
“Alliance Leader Jin, you’re lonely right now.”
Hwa Moogi calmly pressed into Jin Paecheon’s heart.
“When you look down from a high mountain, beasts and people alike all live crowded together. They all live on your mountain, but what about you? There’s no one there, right? You’ve spent your whole life blazing brightly under the sun, so there isn’t even a single cloud you can exchange a word with.”
Hwa Moogi knew Jin Paecheon’s past life very well.
“But no matter how lonely you are, can you really make a dark cloud filled with thunder your friend? The torrential rain pouring from that cloud will sweep away everything living on your mountain.”
Despite his young age, he spoke as well as an old man. It almost made one think he had truly undergone rejuvenation.
In any case, because Hwa Moogi spoke so well, the things he had said earlier now looked like nothing more than an act meant to mock Jin Paecheon.
That line about loneliness.
Normally, it would have deeply pierced Jin Paecheon’s heart. After all, his relationship with Geom Woojin had been something that should never have been formed in the first place.
Jin Paecheon glanced at Geom Woojin. Geom Woojin was calmly watching Hwa Moogi.
Seeing his face, the voice transmission he had received earlier suddenly came to mind.
—Let’s be friends just for today.
Those words became a shield for him. At least for today, Hwa Moogi’s words could not pierce him.
He had come here for his grandson, but still—so what if he became friends with the Demonic Cult Leader for a day?
“Looks like you have to be this crazy to become a Heavenly Killing Star.”
The one who stepped forward was the Cult Leader of the Heavenly Wind Cult. He provoked Hwa Moogi in Jin Paecheon’s stead.
“And you? Do you even have any friends?”
For a moment, Hwa Moogi couldn’t say anything.
“Yeah, I figured you wouldn’t. Someone who doesn’t even have a single friend is criticizing others? Me? I have one.”
Hwa Moogi’s target shifted from Jin Paecheon to the Cult Leader of the Heavenly Wind Cult.
“I heard you even threw away your position as Cult Leader just to make that one friend?”
“Looks like you didn’t hear it properly. Not just the position of Cult Leader—I threw away my divine relic and my pride too.”
The Cult Leader of the Heavenly Wind Cult added pleasantly.
“But in return I’m living a much more interesting life. If I’d stayed in the outer regions, I wouldn’t even be able to watch such an interesting spectacle.”
He showed no fear at all. Normally, he was the one responsible for silly remarks, but when the enemy appeared, he stepped forward first.
Hwa Moogi brought up what the Cult Leader of the Heavenly Wind Cult had said earlier.
“You said if the Young Cult Leader loses his father, he’ll turn that wound into armor and become an even better Cult Leader, didn’t you?”
It was what he had said to Geom Woojin earlier.
Hwa Moogi walked over and flung the tavern window wide open. Far away, the smoke of Demonic Flames rising from the main division of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult could be seen.
“I’ll kill every one of you here. And after that, I’ll kill everyone over there too. Those who’ve learned martial arts and those who haven’t—every last one of them. I won’t leave a single living thing alive. Not even a dog.”
A faint killing intent spread from his body. It was not the kind of killing intent they had experienced before. It was unfamiliar, yet intense. There was a sense of promise within it.
This killing intent meant: I will absolutely keep this promise.
Hwa Moogi looked this way and grinned.
“If the entire cult disappears, he won’t be able to become a good Cult Leader, will he?”
It was an arrogant declaration that he would annihilate the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult by himself.
Before the regression, he had only killed all the members of the Heavenly Demon Pavilion. But now he intended to kill the entire Heavenly Demon Divine Cult. With the regression of Geom Mugeuk, Hwa Moogi’s fate had also changed.
Yet despite the declaration that his main division would be annihilated, Geom Woojin showed no reaction. He simply watched Hwa Moogi’s every move in silence.
Beside him, the Fist Demon King felt that Geom Woojin was different from usual.
What appeared in Geom Woojin now was not silent anger. He had even set aside anger itself.
‘Cult Leader… what exactly are you looking at right now?’
Hwa Moogi’s arrogance did not stop with the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.
His gaze shifted toward Jin Paecheon.
“Next, I’ll go to the Martial Alliance and kill all those Righteous Faction bastards there.”
The faint killing intent finally turned toward Baek Jagang.
“You’re last.”
It was the moment when perhaps the most arrogant threat in the history of the martial world was spoken—he would annihilate the righteous, the unorthodox, and the demonic alike.
Hwa Moogi looked back at the Cult Leader of the Heavenly Wind Cult and said,
“Cult Leader of the Heavenly Wind Cult, because you wagged your tongue carelessly, even your subordinates will die.”
He placed responsibility for their deaths on the Cult Leader of the Heavenly Wind Cult.
The Cult Leader of the Heavenly Wind Cult wanted to wag his tongue even more, but the lives at stake were the martial artists of the Martial Alliance and the Unorthodox Alliance, so he could not bring himself to say anything.
Truly, Hwa Moogi was an unpredictable person. One moment he smiled brightly as if he were carefree, and the next he sincerely threatened to massacre countless lives.
At that moment, someone behind them spoke.
“He came here to kill everyone from the beginning, so don’t pay attention to what he says.”
If the Cult Leader of the Heavenly Wind Cult had stepped forward for Jin Paecheon, the one who stepped forward for him was Baek Jagang.
“The Martial Alliance Leader over there says he came because of a friend. Then what about you, Leader of the Unorthodox Alliance? Why did you come?”
At Hwa Moogi’s question, Baek Jagang answered leisurely.
“I came to see what the Heavenly Killing Star looks like.”
“And now that you’ve seen me?”
“You’re younger than I expected. And you talk more than you look like you would. Ah, though you might actually be old. Seeing how much you talk.”
“Isn’t this a once-in-a-lifetime enjoyable occasion?”
It sounded like he meant he would toy with them as much as he liked before killing them.
Just as he had done with Jin Paecheon, Hwa Moogi provoked Baek Jagang as well.
“If the martial artists of the unorthodox faction see you standing between the Righteous Faction and the Demonic Cult, watching both sides’ reactions, what do you think they’ll say?”
Baek Jagang’s response was different from Jin Paecheon’s.
“What would they say? They’d say, ‘He’s carefully reading the situation to survive! Well done! Keep it up!’ That’s the kind of people I recruit.”
Baek Jagang was never someone who felt inferior about things like that. That was precisely why Bih Sa-in liked that side of him.
Baek Jagang did not wish to be the sun, nor did he wish to become darkness.
He lived with his feet on the ground, like the wind.
That was the unorthodox path Baek Jagang dreamed of.
“Don’t expect something grand just because someone is a Cult Leader or an Alliance Leader. Just like you, Heavenly Killing Star, aren’t anything grand.”
Geom Woojin and Jin Paecheon saw a new side of Baek Jagang. He had never said such things before, so today was the first time they realized he had this side to him.
Especially Jin Paecheon. Seeing Baek Jagang like that made him reflect on himself. He might not be able to say things so freely, but they were both alliance leaders, and he realized he had been living too rigidly.
Would it be acceptable for the Martial Alliance Leader to say something like this? What would others think if he said such things? Would his words harm the honor of the righteous martial world?
He realized how many constraints he had bound himself with.
Thinking about it now, when he was young, he had truly been a free man.
At some point, he realized he had stopped living as Jin Paecheon and had only been living as the Martial Alliance Leader.
In that vast Alliance Leader’s Hall of the Martial Alliance, he had never once felt the emotions he had experienced over the past few days in this narrow tavern.
He truly felt it had been worth coming here.
Meanwhile, Hwa Moogi seemed to like Baek Jagang’s answer and burst into bright laughter.
“The unorthodox faction I’ve seen were all gloomy and hard to read. But you’re refreshingly straightforward!”
“You’re also different from the Heavenly Killing Star I imagined.”
“What kind of Heavenly Killing Star did you imagine?”
Curiosity flashed across Hwa Moogi’s face.
“A Heavenly Killing Star doesn’t run around recklessly declaring that he’ll kill everyone just because he was born with that fate. A Heavenly Killing Star is someone who fails to adapt to the world, gets pushed aside in relationships, and inevitably brings about a Blood Calamity. But you don’t seem to have any wounds at all. You look more like a simple mass murderer who never even tried to live properly.”
Baek Jagang’s provocation was sharp.
Even so, Hwa Moogi looked even more delighted.
“Oh, you’re even smart! I like you.”
Hwa Moogi stared at Baek Jagang for a moment before suddenly saying,
“Should I spare you today?”
It was spoken with complete certainty that everyone else would obviously die.
Baek Jagang nodded.
“I always welcome words like that.”
Hwa Moogi strode over toward Baek Jagang.
A taut tension instantly formed between them, and Baek Jagang’s eyes narrowed further.
Passing the distance where one could kill the other with a single strike, Hwa Moogi actually stood right beside him.
As if they had become friends, the two of them looked together at Jin Paecheon.
“What do you think about that Martial Alliance Leader? That hypocritical sense of justice that says he wants to be friends with the Demonic Cult Leader while still protecting the righteousness of the martial world.”
Baek Jagang’s gaze turned to Jin Paecheon. Jin Paecheon said nothing and simply listened to their conversation.
Then unexpected words came from Baek Jagang’s mouth.
“The Demonic Cult Leader might be able to do it, but the Martial Alliance Leader probably can’t.”
It was the first time Baek Jagang had ever revealed his honest thoughts to Jin Paecheon.
“You can’t do bad things. You have to help complete strangers. Even knowing you’ll die, you must sacrifice yourself for chivalry and goodwill. Isn’t it a path you can barely walk even if you force yourself to be hypocritical? It’s a path I couldn’t walk even if I pretended a hundred times, a thousand times.”
Baek Jagang slowly looked at Hwa Moogi beside him and asked,
“Honestly, you can’t walk that path either, can you?”
Hwa Moogi’s bright smile twisted into something strange.
“That’s disappointing. I thought you and I were on the same wavelength.”
Their gazes tangled in the air. Tension flowed between them. Because they stood so close, it felt as if something could happen at any moment.
“Didn’t you say earlier? That the righteous, the unorthodox, and the demonic you knew weren’t like this.”
When he had read the writing on the wall on the second floor, Hwa Moogi had definitely said that.
“As you can see, this is an exceptional situation. If you want to pretend to be friendly, go do it over there.”
Of course, no kind words came from Hwa Moogi’s mouth.
“By ‘exceptional situation,’ do you mean getting swept up in the chaos caused by that young cult leader?”
Baek Jagang struck directly into his mind.
“You’re afraid of the Young Cult Leader.”
For a moment, Hwa Moogi’s expression froze.
“You’re trying to kill the Cult Leader over there to wound the Young Cult Leader because you’re afraid of him, aren’t you?”
Baek Jagang asked while staring into his eyes. Baek Jagang’s eyes were small, but deep and dark like an abyss.
“Why are you afraid of the Young Cult Leader?”
Right at that moment—
Swaaaaaa!
A crimson energy burst violently from Hwa Moogi’s eyes.
It was an overwhelming killing intent. Such a powerful killing intent had never been felt before. It had surpassed the limits of what a human could produce.
An ordinary expert would lose his life from this killing intent alone.
At once, everyone there released their Protective Energy.
“You filthy bastard of the unorthodox rabble!”
Hwa Moogi, who had been laughing off things off even in anger, suddenly changed terrifyingly.
“Lower your eyes before I gouge out those tiny eyeballs of yours!”
This time, he showed a completely different side—rough and violent.
Hwa Moogi hurled insults.
“A back-alley unorthodox rat who should be selling liquor dares wag his tongue in front of me? You people who don’t even have the guts to become true evil are more pathetic than those righteous dogs!”
It looked as if he might draw his sword and fight Baek Jagang at any moment.
The tension between them stretched so tightly it seemed ready to snap, yet it did not break.
Everyone assumed Hwa Moogi was simply mocking Baek Jagang again. After all, he had shown so many different crazy sides already.
But there was one exception.
Geom Woojin had been watching only Hwa Moogi’s eyes the entire time.
For a fleeting instant, demonic energy flickered again. It was so brief that almost no one could have noticed it unless it was him.
It was like noticing that a soul had changed for just a split second.
‘There’s a demonic practitioner inside that body too!’
Geom Woojin realized that the righteous expert he had sensed earlier was not the only one inside Hwa Moogi.
And judging by what Hwa Moogi had said earlier about the unorthodox faction, he knew being different—
‘That body contains the souls of the demonic, the righteous, and the unorthodox.’
It was something utterly unbelievable, yet when he thought about it again, perhaps such recklessness was only possible because he was a Heavenly Killing Star.
‘Are there really only three souls?’
Even Geom Woojin had never experienced a case where multiple souls resided within a single body.
Then there was one thing he had to confirm.
Geom Woojin sent a voice transmission to the Fist Demon King.
—Hit him once.
The Fist Demon King had been waiting for exactly that command.
Whoooong!
The Fist Demon King’s fist shot toward Hwa Moogi’s face.
Hwa Moogi, who had been looking at Baek Jagang, twisted his body slightly and reached his hand backward, blocking the punch.
The fist struck his palm.
Baaang!
The shockwave from the collision spread violently in all directions. Chopstick containers and empty cups from other tables flew off and rolled across the floor.
Hwa Moogi did not move a single step.
The Fist Demon King had not thrown the punch with full strength, but it was still not something that could be blocked this easily.
“A Demon Supreme dares throw a punch at me?”
Just as Hwa Moogi turned with a terrifying glare—
Wham!
Without hesitation, the Fist Demon King’s second punch struck his face first.
Puhk!
Judging from his earlier display, he could have avoided it.
But Hwa Moogi deliberately took the hit.
His head snapped back so violently it seemed like it might detach, then slowly came back forward.
Yet despite the powerful blow, there wasn’t even a small scratch on his face. His Protective Energy was immense.
“Not as painful as the rumors said.”
At Hwa Moogi’s provocation, the Fist Demon King’s terrifying face turned cold.
But he quietly stepped back. The Cult Leader’s order had been to hit him once, not to fight a life-and-death battle.
Geom Woojin watched Hwa Moogi, who had already returned to his original demeanor.
There were two things Geom Woojin had discovered.
The personalities inside him burst out occasionally, but they could not act entirely according to their own will. Otherwise, the demonic practitioner earlier would have gone completely berserk.
Geom Woojin recalled what that demonic practitioner had said.
—A Demon Supreme dares to throw a punch at me?
Dares? If a demonic practitioner could say “dares” to a Demon Supreme…
‘One of the past Heavenly Demons is inside him!’
He did not know whether it was the immediate predecessor, the one before that, or someone from far earlier—but there was definitely a Demonic Cult Leader inside him.
Which meant—
He now had the answer to his earlier question.
What did you prepare to counter the Nine Calamities Demon Art?
‘He can use the Nine Calamities Demon Art too!’