Luoyang Sword Clan, Third Young Master’s Faction Camp. Military Strategy Bureau, Reception Room.
“Grand Strategist. I assure you.”
The oil lamp flame flickered uneasily, casting the shadows of those in the reception room into a macabre dance, like demons swirling.
“They… the Demonic Cult…” The raspy voice of the old man seated opposite Grand Strategist Sima sounded like the incantation of a shaman chanting a curse. “…are definitely, undoubtedly, present here in Luoyang.”
Behind the old man, his warriors stood, ceaselessly murmuring mantras.
“Om—”
“Om—”
Amidst the low hum of the warriors’ chants, the old man’s voice sounded jarringly raw. “Their headquarters is in the very heart, the deepest core of Luoyang.” The old man’s bony hand spread open with the cracking sound of knuckles. “They must be in Luoyang’s underground Grand Waterway.”
“Om—”
“Om—”
The sounds the warriors chanted were clearly mantras, akin to ritual prayers, yet the low tones, resonating disharmoniously at slightly different pitches, sounded only ominous. The strategists of the Third Young Master’s Military Strategy Bureau, standing behind Grand Strategist Sima, swallowed dryly, gripped by an unknown tension.
“Haaa…”
However, Grand Strategist Sima, the one actually listening, looked thoroughly unimpressed. “…Corps Leader. I am utterly sick of that story.” Grand Strategist Sima let out a long sigh and rubbed his face. “For heaven’s sake, how long ago was it that the Demonic Cult in the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains was destroyed? Why are you still going on and on about it?”
At that, the previously tense strategists exchanged glances and shrugged. It had been decades since the Demonic Cult of the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains was subjugated, and decades since the Martial Righteous Alliance, having lost its ultimate enemy, collapsed in the aftermath.
But the old man, called Corps Leader by Grand Strategist Sima, shook his head resolutely. “What collapsed was the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains, not the Demonic Cult.” As the old man shook his head, the numerous earrings dangling from his ears swayed, adding a metallic rustle to the air. Soul Jade, Pure Silver, White Gold, Ghost Iron… they were all talismanic earrings made from materials believed among the common folk to ward off misfortune and repel evil spirits. “Their remnants… perhaps even key figures including the High Priest… must still be alive, waiting for the time of resurrection…!” The raspy voice of the man called Corps Leader gradually grew louder.
“Om—–”
“Om—–”
Correspondingly, the warriors’ chanting intensified. The strategists frowned, the low frequencies scratching at their ears and pressing down on their minds. “They will surely rise from the Grand Waterway, set Luoyang ablaze, and—”
“Enough!” Rarely losing his temper, Grand Strategist Sima snapped. “Thanks to the Corps Leader insisting on those ridiculous rumors, have you forgotten that the main clan formed a special investigation team years ago and concluded the investigation?!” Grand Strategist Sima slammed the documents on the table, spittle flying from his mouth.
“This right here is the investigation report from back then! Surely the Corps Leader knows! No, you must know!” Grand Strategist Sima pointed a finger at the old man called Corps Leader. “This investigation was conducted under the strict supervision of you people, the Demon Subjugation and Heresy Annihilation Corps!”
At those words, the Corps Leader of the Demon Subjugation and Heresy Annihilation Corps fell silent, but Grand Strategist Sima pressed him harder. “Look! Look at this document properly again!” Grand Strategist Sima roughly flipped through the investigation report. “From the shallowest sewers to the underground aquifers rumored among the public to be the deep layer of the Demon…!” Each page turned revealed maps detailing complex structures. “All of it, everything! It’s all in these maps made at the time, isn’t it?!”
After a long silence, the Corps Leader of the Demon Subjugation and Heresy Annihilation Corps slowly opened his mouth. “…The enemy… the Demonic Cult has masters of delusion and illusion. This, too, is merely the result of being deceived—”
“Those ‘masters’ are all dead, aren’t they?! They croaked!” Grand Strategist Sima couldn’t hold back and shot up from his seat. “That day! The day the Demonic Cult was destroyed!” His face flushed crimson as he roared, “Both of us were part of the subjugation force’s vanguard! We both saw it clearly that day, didn’t we?!”
Grand Strategist Sima pointed towards the window.
“Those bastards driven back to the entrance of the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains, without exception, all chose ‘mass suicide’!”
The horrors of that day vividly resurfaced in Grand Strategist Sima’s eyes. Corpses, corpses, and more corpses. Children, elderly, women, Demonics… every cultist was dead.
Thousands of bodies lay scattered.
That scene.
“In that insane place, filled with corpses! Our vanguard personally confirmed the bodies of the Cult Leader and all the key figures of the Demonic Cult, didn’t we?!” Though countless battles had occurred on the path to the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains, ultimately, the final great battle imagined by the orthodox martial artists never happened. “You and I were there, Corps Leader!” Grand Strategist Sima’s shout towards his old friend and comrade-in-arms was almost pleading. “Don’t you remember?!”
Perhaps his desperation reached him. “…Yes. We were.” The Corps Leader of the Demon Subjugation and Heresy Annihilation Corps, now aged just as much as Grand Strategist Sima, slowly nodded.
“Finally, you remember—!” The Corps Leader cut off Grand Strategist Sima, whose face had brightened. “As I said, they are masters of delusion and illusion. Not only that, their horrific rituals twist the human sou and—”
“Rituals and ceremonies…?!” Grand Strategist Sima tore at his hair. “There were many such stories at the time, but weren’t they all just rumors spread by gossips?!” From beginning to end, the main force of the Demonic Cult had always been the Demonics, who practiced Demonic Arts—powerful but side-effect-ridden ‘martial arts’. “When they started getting pushed back on the front lines, they brought out Demonic Arts riddled with even more horrific side effects and shortcuts, but,” Grand Strategist Sima’s voice rang through the reception room, “those were still just martial arts!”
The Corps Leader of the Demon Subjugation and Heresy Annihilation Corps shook his head. “No, that’s not right. The Demonic Qi harbored by the Demonics who newly appeared in the very late stages of the war was—”
“And is that why you still go around setting fires anywhere and everywhere in the name of purification?!” At Grand Strategist Sima’s words, the warriors standing behind the Corps Leader flinched. “Do you even know how many of Luoyang’s citizens your warriors have burned alive?! Wasn’t it you people who set fire to Valley of Sins a few days ago?!”
The Corps Leader showed no expression, but Grand Strategist Sima’s sharp eyes didn’t miss the warriors’ flinch. “…So, it was you.” Grand Strategist Sima covered his face with his hands. “Please, get a grip. How could the honorable Demon Subjugation and Heresy Annihilation Corps become…”
At the mention of honor, the Corps Leader, who had maintained a blank face, sharpened his aura. “Honor?” For a moment, the room felt filled with blades. “Does our lord, the Third Young Master… even know the meaning of honor?”
“What is that supposed to…”
The Corps Leader’s voice turned chilling. “To redevelop Luoyang’s underdeveloped areas… his direct subordinates use our Demon Subjugation and Heresy Annihilation Corps’s name as an excuse to set fire to slums and kill the poor. I am aware of this.”
This time, the strategists of the Military Strategy Bureau flinched.
“And what about the trainee warriors murdering slum dwellers, framing them as Demonic Cultists, just to build up merits?” The warriors’ gazes towards the strategists turned sharp as drawn swords. “We, the Demon Subjugation and Heresy Annihilation Corps, at least purify those deeply ‘suspicious’. We do not act out of selfish desire.”
The Demonic Cult deceived the poor for the sake of faith. The Demon Subjugation and Heresy Annihilation Corps burned suspicious poor people alive for the sake of conviction. And someone else used their names to slaughter the poor for the sake of ambition.
“…Now, that’s enough.” Grand Strategist Sima shook his head and gestured weakly towards the exit. “Please leave.”
“…Grand Strategist. The Demonic Cult is a grave matter.”
“Corps Leader.” Grand Strategist Sima slumped back into his seat. “Do you even know how urgently things are moving in Luoyang, in this Luoyang Sword Clan right now? I’ll listen to your ‘grave matter’ another time, Corps Leader. Please leave now.”
The Corps Leader of the Demon Subjugation and Heresy Annihilation Corps slowly pushed his old body up. “…Thank you for your precious time, Grand Strategist.”
“…I won’t see you out, Corps Leader. Take care.”
“Om—”
The mantras flowing from the mouths of the warriors following the Corps Leader gradually faded into the distance.
“…Hiiiik?!” Personnel from the Military Strategy Bureau, encountering them in the corridor, startled and cleared the path. Some even fled far away at the mere sight of them.
“Om—-”
If one suddenly encountered warriors draped in various sewn-on talismans, their bodies covered in superstitious tattoos meant to ward off demons…
“Om—-”
If one suddenly encountered people in a corridor who went around burning slum dwellers alive, swept up in collective madness…
It was a natural reaction.
They left, and even the ominous sound of their chanting was no longer audible, but the strategists standing behind Grand Strategist Sima couldn’t find words, only watching his expression. The Demon Subjugation and Heresy Annihilation Corps. The unit that always took the vanguard in battles against the Demonic Cult, the ones who stood at the forefront wherever the Demonic Cult festered in the Central Plains…
“…How did they become such a group.” Once again, Grand Strategist Sima sighed deeply and gestured to his subordinates. “…Now, let’s move on. Where were we in the report?”
“Ah, yes.”
This was no time to pay attention to the nonsense of a group that had forgotten its past glory and fallen. It was far too breathless a night.
“Information has come in that after the Agency was hit like that, the Yeon clansmen are holding a secret meeting somewhere in the main clan residence. And…”
And the end of this night was still nowhere in sight.
***
Valley of Sins. Grand Waterway.
Slosh, splash.
Inside the pitch-dark sewer. The sound of running through sewage echoed loudly, reverberating through the narrow passage.
“Heok, heok.”
The bald executive from the Five Dragons Branch was running, unarmed, bare-handed, through the Grand Waterway. His one-eyed colleague was nowhere to be seen. He had been beheaded in a single stroke by Tang Baek, who was cleaning up the mid-stream. If the pirate mercenaries had arrived just a little later, he too would have had his head collected, just like his colleague.
“Keok, heo-eok.”
But as his internal energy began to deplete, the effects of the Tang family’s tactical poison weapon, Faceless Lifeless Poison, started to manifest. Breathing became increasingly difficult.
“Keo-eok, keok—.”
Finally, forcing himself to draw upon his dwindling internal energy, he tripped over his own feet and tumbled to the ground. With a thud sound, he plunged headfirst into the sewage. Startled, he tried to scramble up. It wasn’t the filth of the sewer, where all manner of disgusting things collected, that he feared, but the possibility that the Tang family’s poison, which had been spread earlier, might have dissolved into the water.
“Heo-eok…!”
Indeed, swarms of rats, killed by the poison, floated downstream in the sewage. But once caught in the sewage’s strong current, he was helplessly sucked into a vortex. Thrashing his arms and legs, trying not to swallow the foul water, he only felt the carcasses of rats brush against his fingertips. With his internal energy already hitting rock bottom, all he could do was be swept helplessly downstream.
‘Can’t die here like this…!’
Did the heavens hear his desperate plea? Before his fading breath gave out, he felt his body become buoyant, then swish, he fell into what felt like a deep pool.
‘F-Fuck…!’
Barely managing to crawl out, he wanted to unleash a torrent of curses, but from his throat, swollen and constricted by the poison’s action, only a wheezing sound emerged.
Swish, swish.
The sound of air struggling through the narrow passage was loud.
He shook his head violently. Ever since crawling out of the sewage, an unknown singing… murmuring… the sound of wailing… laughter… the voices of men, women, old, and young echoed in his ears, filling the space around him.
‘Wh-What the fuck…!’
He threw his head back and rubbed his eyes. His eyes, already bloodshot with burst capillaries and swollen shut by blisters, could barely see, but he was certain… he was looking at red flames flickering in the center of a huge cavern, and the figures of people clad in black robes slowly circling around it.
‘H-Has the poison reached my brain…?‘
Completely overcome by the poison, he no longer had the strength to distinguish illusion from reality. Nor the means.
“Gack, gack.”
Barely having crawled onto dry land, he felt his consciousness slowly fading and pressed his head to the ground. He didn’t realize that the sewage he had fallen into was thick, red blood water, that all the sewage flowing into the cavern was blood water, or that his own body was covered in blood.
“The Star of Heavenly Slaughter in the Center of Heaven has returned to its rightful place.”
An elated voice reached his ears.
“The thousand-year capital is soaked in blood and flesh, and hundreds, thousands of deaths flow through the valley. That is our offering and our sustenance.”
It sounded like dozens of people speaking the same words, yet also like the booming voice of a single person.
“The promised day in the prophecy has approached.”
That voice commanded.
“Activate the Cult’s grand formation. By it, the enemy’s castle walls shall crumble, and their gates shall rot.”
One thing was certain. That voice was profoundly twisted and horrifyingly profane.
“The Grand Ritual has begun.”