The Demon of the Demonic Cult

It was a disaster. Seol Ah-heon, forced to his knees, lowered his head deeply.

Until he had cautiously stepped out of the cave and begun to move, he had felt a fair amount of confidence. It was because his physical abilities had grown explosively.

Seol Ah-heon could jump like a basketball player and run as fast as a track athlete. Even after moving like that, he didn’t feel exhausted.

‘I’ll just run far, far away like this and hide in some remote mountain.’

To do that, every second counted. Seol Ah-heon moved in a hurry.

However, there was something he didn’t know: that Bing So-yu had set up a formation around the cave, and that he had run right out of its protection.

It was a natural progression that the demons, sensing Seol Ah-heon’s presence, swarmed him like a cloud of bees.

Facing the crisis, Seol Ah-heon fought back for the time being. His only source of confidence was the Soul-Snow Divine Pill, but nothing felt more reliable than that.

‘Agh!’

However, there was something Seol Ah-heon hadn’t considered.

The reason a newborn baby cannot run isn’t just because their leg muscles aren’t developed, but because they aren’t used to the act of running.

What use was it if his internal energy had increased tremendously? Seol Ah-heon, who had no idea how to utilize it, was in a state no different from a newborn as a martial artist. No matter how much he swung his sword according to the habits ingrained in the body, there was a limit.

To make matters worse, the demons he encountered this time were stronger than the assassins from the night before. Seol Ah-heon was captured before he could even endure five exchanges.

‘What do I do….’

Seol Ah-heon bit his lower lip hard. Begging for his life wouldn’t work. No one would come to help him, and at this point, fighting back was naturally impossible.

The situation was too grim. He couldn’t even hope for the possession to be undone. His original body was surely long dead. Even if he returned to Earth, he would only end up wandering as a ghost.

‘If I’m going to die this quickly, why on earth was I reincarnated….’

He resented a God he didn’t even believe in. He thought he’d been given a second chance, but it seemed he’d just been given a second death. Though his life was still hanging by a thread for now….

‘…Wait. Why did they keep me alive?’

A question suddenly popped into his head.

Seol Ah-heon had braced himself to be brutally murdered the instant he was caught by the demons. Yet, they had only suppressed him and forced him to his knees. While it was possible they kept him alive for more extreme torture, for some reason, that didn’t seem to be the vibe. Perhaps, maybe….

‘Is there a reason they can’t kill me?’

He wanted to believe that. Only then would there be room to negotiate with his life as collateral.

Now that a glimmer of hope for survival appeared, he became desperate. Just as he was fiercely brainstorming what use he might have—

Darkness fell over his head. It was a darkness deep enough for Seol Ah-heon to notice even with his gaze lowered.

When he instinctively tried to lift his head, a demon pressed down on it. Seol Ah-heon groaned as his forehead struck the dirt floor.

‘…Something is coming.’

The fine hairs all over his body stood on end. He knew instinctively. The person appearing now was more powerful than anyone he had encountered since his reincarnation. If that weren’t the case, his knees wouldn’t be trembling just from sensing a presence.

For a moment, a clear laugh rang out and then abruptly stopped. Then came a voice as cold as frost.

“I came to catch the little rat who stole my things, and yet.”

Seol Ah-heon froze like a deer hearing a lion’s roar. It was due to the powerful internal energy carried in that voice, though he didn’t know such technicalities. He was simply terrified.

“Indeed, would a rat ever leave its loot alone? It is the instinct of a lower creature to gorge itself without knowing it is poison.”

‘I’ve been caught…!’

The man seemed to know perfectly well that he had consumed the Soul-Snow Divine Pill. How, and just who was this man…? Seol Ah-heon thought with great difficulty through his stiffened mind.

For one, he was undoubtedly a member of the Demonic Cult. Among them, he seemed to hold a considerably high rank.

“…Ack!”

His train of thought was cut off as someone grabbed his hair and yanked it without warning.

Seol Ah-heon was forced to look up. The high sky entered his vision. And floating in the center of it was a man.

He hadn’t misseen it. The man was floating in the air, his long silver hair flowing down to his waist fluttering. He appeared completely unrestrained by gravity.

‘Baek Geon-ha…!’

Seol Ah-heon recognized him at a glance. No matter how vast the Central Plains were, there was only one man in the high ranks of the Demonic Cult who possessed such high-level martial arts and silver hair.

The Heaven-Destroying Sword Demon, Baek Geon-ha.

He was the final boss of <The Chronicles of Mount Hua> and the protagonist’s greatest enemy.

How much had he shuddered at Baek Geon-ha’s cruelty while reading the novel? While everyone in the Demonic Cult was twisted, Baek Geon-ha was a standout madman among them.

After all, he was the one who staged a rebellion to seize the position of the Heavenly Demon, the leader of the Demonic Cult.

That process was said to be so fierce and gruesome that it drew criticism not only from the Righteous and Unorthodox Factions but even from within the Demonic Cult itself.

Judging by the fact that “Seol Ah-heon” was alive, it must still be the very beginning of the story. So, while it was an event that hadn’t happened yet at this stage, it didn’t mean the person would change. The man before his eyes was a born psychopath.

Seol Ah-heon looked up at Baek Geon-ha while trembling with vague dread. It might have been his imagination, but those red lips seemed to curve slightly into an arc.

“I have recovered it, so we return.”

“As you command!”

At Baek Geon-ha’s order, someone struck Seol Ah-heon’s pressure points. His consciousness cut out right then and there.

***********************************

His consciousness, which had sunk as if submerged in a deep lake, slowly drifted to the surface.

Regaining partial awareness, Seol Ah-heon sighed quietly.

‘How long has it been since I passed out and woke up, only to pass out again….’

Seol Ah-heon wiggled his fingers as a test. They moved well according to his will. Although the head that had been struck a while ago (though he didn’t know how much time had passed) throbbed, nothing else hurt.

“Wake up.”

A monotonous voice commanded. No matter how dazed he was, there was no way he could fail to recognize whose voice that was.

He felt like he’d rather just faint. In fact, his consciousness seemed to blur again the moment he recognized Baek Geon-ha’s presence. But he was more afraid of what would happen if he disobeyed the command.

Eventually, Seol Ah-heon cautiously opened his eyes.

Bright light pierced his eyes. Because the surroundings were so bright, he actually couldn’t see well. It seemed they hadn’t put a blindfold on him.

It was the same for his wrists and ankles. He had expected to be wearing handcuffs and shackles, but surprisingly, there were no restraints on him at all.

‘Is he telling me to try and run if I want to?’

His eyes, slowly adjusting to the light, began to see objects.

This place was a vast pavilion. The mountain peaks visible through the wide-open windows were rugged and steep, yet the room was incredibly luxurious. The contrast was unfittingly fitting.

However, it wasn’t the time to be leisurely admiring the interior design. It was because of the man sitting right in front of him, resting his chin on his hand.

Baek Geon-ha was as beautiful as a specter. It was a face that reached the pinnacle of beauty, but the feeling was subtly different from a “flowery gentleman” or a “dashing hero.” Rather, words like “femme fatale” or “homme fatale” seemed more appropriate.

At the same time, he looked like a master who ruled the world. The pressure radiating from Baek Geon-ha was that intense.

‘A man who feels like a mix of a powerful ruler and his favorite consort….’

To summarize in one word: bizarre.

Being stared at intently by such a man made him feel as if he were being stripped naked down to his very soul.

“…….”

Cold sweat trickled down his spine. He would have preferred it if the man had at least cursed at him, but he couldn’t tell at all what he was thinking as he gazed at him with those pitch-black eyes. That made it even scarier.

Would it be better for him to step forward first and beg for forgiveness?

Just as he was racking his brain on how to increase his chances of survival even a little, Baek Geon-ha spoke.

“Say, don’t spirit beasts have internal cores?”

“That is correct.”

The man standing beside him answered. Baek Geon-ha asked, his gaze still fixed on Seol Ah-heon.

“Even if it’s a spirit beast, it’s ultimately an animal, isn’t it?”

“Yes. Spirit beasts that have lived for a long time are bound to develop internal cores in their bodies. Even so, an animal is an animal. As the Young Cult Leader said, a spirit beast is ultimately an animal.”

“Can humans also be considered animals?”

“If you are asking for my opinion, then yes, I believe so. If you interpret the word ‘animal’ literally, it means ‘all things that move.’ Humans fall into that category, so they can be seen as animals.”

Leaving Seol Ah-heon aside like an object, the master and servant exchanged questions and answers. His chest felt chilled by an unknown sense of dread.

“Then, since a human is also an animal, they might possess an internal core as well?”

Baek Geon-ha’s eyes crinkled slightly. The moment a cold light flashed in his eyes, which seemed to be smiling, Seol Ah-heon realized what he was planning to do. The reason he hadn’t killed him at once, could it be….

“I shall have to slit that rat’s belly and take the core.”

It was as he expected. Terrified, Seol Ah-heon shook his head frantically.

“N-no! Even if you slit my belly, there’s no such thing as an internal core in me…!”

It wasn’t an excuse; truly, in all the martial arts novels he had read in his life, he had never seen a setting where humans had internal cores. Of course, the world is vast, so such a novel might exist somewhere, but it certainly wasn’t <The Chronicles of Mount Hua>.