Chapter 47: Being Weak Wasn’t an Option
Although his face was filled with lingering regret at the Cult Leader’s order, Iron Demon accepted it without a second word.
“By your command!”
Iron Demon sprang to his feet, cupped his fists in salute, and left the Elders’ Council Hall. The elders watching his retreating figure were filled with worry.
It was because they thought that they themselves might be next.
Immediately after Iron Demon’s expulsion, an order came down in the name of the Vice Cult Leader of the Demonic Cult: the positions of squad leader were revoked from the five squad leaders of the Chief Elder’s Chamber.
In other words, Iron Demon and the five squad leaders of the Chief Elder’s Chamber were instantly reduced to ordinary martial warriors.
That was when a problem arose.
Every martial warrior of the Bright Cult belonged to a specific unit. But Iron Demon and the former squad leaders under him suddenly had nowhere to belong.
When this matter was reported by the Strategist, Yul Han obtained the Cult Leader’s permission and assigned them to his own residence.
Perhaps because the Vice Cult Leader had not possessed a single direct subordinate until now, the Cult Leader welcomed this measure quite favorably.
Within the Bright Cult, the head of an organization bore responsibility for the training and development of those under them.
It was not quite the role of a master, but rather that of a senior expert who stood one step ahead, doubling as a kind of training instructor.
In other words, for the Vice Cult Leader to take subordinates meant that he would personally be responsible for their training.
To put it plainly, it meant that people would now receive training from the undisputed, practical Number One under Heaven.
Naturally, their future growth was something to be looked forward to. Once they grew stronger, they would become nothing less than the Bright Cult’s blade.
As this story spread within the Bright Cult, the situation changed dramatically. Elders threw away their books. Poison Demon, who had been in the middle of training, sprawled out and slept together with his squad leaders.
They had resolved to be cast down.
For a master of the Vice Cult Leader’s caliber, even a single remark could be called a fortuitous encounter. But what if he personally oversaw one’s training?
If it meant becoming stronger, the martial warriors of the Bright Cult were always ready to throw away even an elder’s position to a dog.
Joy spread across the faces of Iron Demon and the five former squad leaders who had been dejected until now.
The Thirteen Bloods came running.
They persistently asked whether they, too, would be trained, since they were also under the Vice Cult Leader’s command.
As events veered off in a direction he had never anticipated, Yul Han was left dumbfounded.
Still, he could not afford to collapse the moment his plan had begun. With that, Yul Han led the joy-filled Iron Demon and the five former squad leaders up to the training grounds.
Since it concerned them as well, the Thirteen Bloods rushed over as well, followed by the elders, including Poison Demon.
And that day, they saw it. Iron Demon and the five former squad leaders fleeing in all directions like jumping grasshoppers to avoid the Vice Cult Leader’s Half-Moon Asura Slash.
It began with the words that the best training was real combat. What followed was less training and more like a hunt—a desperate struggle for survival.
Iron Demon was caught by the residual force of a grazing Half-Moon Asura Slash and suffered massive internal injuries. As for the former squad leaders, who were far weaker than him, there was no need to describe their condition.
It got so bad that the physician and master in charge of treatment at the Fifth Elder’s Chamber sent an emergency dispatch to Cheonghae, summoning a squad-leader-level physician and master from an inn there.
The Thirteen Bloods fled before that “training(?)” even fully ended. They absolutely did not want to be next.
The elders were no different. They made a huge commotion pretending to look for the books they had thrown away.
As for Poison Demon, he lined up his squad leaders and entered a training regimen far harsher than before.
All of this happened because of what the Vice Cult Leader had said to Iron Demon as he was being carried away.
<Let’s do it again tomorrow at the same time. That kind of scratch will heal if you just crush some herbs and apply them, won’t it? If you whine over that, you deserve to die.>
Becoming stronger only had meaning if one stayed alive. Being beaten to death during training—not even in battle with an enemy—was something that even the martial warriors of the Bright Cult, obsessed with improving their martial arts, never truly desired.
A frenzy of studying once again swept through the Bright Cult.
And so, the Bright Cult, which now devoted itself to training in order to survive, welcomed back the Profound Demon and the squad leaders of the Second Elder’s Chamber.
However, their expressions were grim. Seeing this, the squad leader of the gate guards at the fortress’s main gate sent a mental voice transmission to his acquaintance, who was one of the Second Elder’s Chamber squad leaders.
-Why, what’s wrong?
-There were casualties.
-What are you talking about? The Second Elder and the five of you are all fine.
-Not us. Eight from the merchant group fell to their deaths, and three froze to death.
More than a hundred people from Golden Flower Manor had set out together, determined to cross the Heavenly Mountains. Losing eleven out of that many was not, strictly speaking, enormous damage. The Heavenly Mountains were that brutal a place.
Even so, no one could say that aloud. The Vice Cult Leader’s test condition had been that there be no loss of life.
And honestly, the Profound Demon and all five squad leaders of the Second Elder’s Chamber had been deployed.
Most people believed that with that level of force, even the treacherous Heavenly Mountains could be crossed safely.
This was not baseless speculation. There was not a single martial warrior of the Bright Cult who, during their days as trainees in the Training Hall, had not undergone the survival test of being abandoned alone in the Heavenly Mountains and forced to return alive.
Ah! Except for specially recruited veterans.
In any case, it had been judged doable based on such experience. In the end, that meant it was either a mistake on the part of the Profound Demon and the Second Elder’s Chamber squad leaders, or a failure in preparation.
That was why all one could do was look on with pity at the acquaintance entering with drooping shoulders.
After all, training worse than death awaited them.
When the returning Profound Demon saw, in turn, Poison Demon with murderous venom blazing in his eyes, the squad leaders of the Third Elder’s Chamber, and Iron Demon and the former Chief Elder’s Chamber squad leaders being carried away unconscious and battered beyond recognition, he felt an inexplicable chill run through him.
At the elders’ council held that day, the Profound Demon lost his elder position just like Iron Demon. His squad leaders fared no differently.
And the next day, the Profound Demon was beside Iron Demon as he was being carried away. The two of them had tried to block an attack together and were beaten senseless, covered in blood.
That day, a dispatch was finally sent to summon the Poison Demon, who was said to rival Hua Tuo and Bian Que.
Leaving behind the two blood-soaked former elders, Poison Demon—whose murderous intent had truly ignited—and the five squad leaders of the Third Elder’s Chamber departed for Golden Flower Manor.
It was also the right time for the bi-monthly trade run that Yul Han had promised Golden Flower Manor.
Kunlun Sect was watching the movements of the Bright Cult with the help of the Beggars’ Sect. Of course, if they were exposed as Beggars’ Sect members in the Cheonghae Region or Xinjiang, they would never make it out alive, so the quantity and quality of information were markedly inferior.
Due to the regional characteristics where the influence of the Demonic Path was overwhelming, the vast majority of beggars in the Cheonghae Region and Xinjiang had no connection to the Beggars’ Sect.
Even so, they were able to grasp the general situation. Faced with the information thus gathered, Shin Jijinren, the Kunlun Sect Master, could not stop his head from tilting to the side.
“Medical…… aid? Volunteer work? The Bright Cult?”
That was not all.
“And they’re…… not asking for compensation?”
It was unlike any course of action the Bright Cult had shown until now. Moreover—
“They’re serious? They’re truly serious about this…… ha.”
The bitter smile at Shin Jijinren’s lips stiffened because of the next item.
“The Bright Cult’s proselytization is spreading like wildfire! Hm…….”
It might have been news other sects would have scoffed at, but not Kunlun Sect.
Nearly thirty percent of Kunlun Sect’s finances were sustained by donations gathered bit by bit from Taoist believers living in the Cheonghae Region—ordinary people who believed in and followed Taoism.
If anything were to go wrong with that, Kunlun Sect, already impoverished, could be driven into a grave situation.
Shin Jijinren abruptly rose from his seat, left the Sect Master’s residence, and headed toward the Doryangwon (Dao Illumination Court), which was responsible for Kunlun Sect’s proselytization.
There, Shin Jijinren encountered Taoist priests wearing deeply troubled expressions.
Not priests who cultivated martial arts or spells, but those who purely studied Taoist doctrine.
“What has everyone so unsettled?”
The Taoist priests, who had been engrossed in discussion without even realizing he had entered, hurriedly stood at the Sect Master’s words.
“You’ve come, Sect Master.”
Shin Jijinren asked the flustered deputy head of the Doryangwon.
“Where has the head gone?”
“He descended the mountain briefly to confirm something.”
Seeing the deputy head’s awkward expression, Shin Jijinren asked,
“Is something going on?”
Even as he asked, Shin Jijinren hoped his worries were unfounded. However—
“It’s that…… reports we can scarcely believe have been continuously coming in from disciples engaged in proselytization…….”
“What kind of reports?”
“Well, that is…….”
As the deputy head hesitated, unable to answer readily, Shin Jijinren’s cold voice cut in.
“Must I invoke the authority of the Sect Master to get an answer!”
“N-No, that is not it…… In truth, it is said that people abandoning Taoism and moving over to the Bright Cult are appearing in droves…….”
Realizing that what he had feared was indeed happening, Shin Jijinren squeezed his eyes shut for a moment before asking,
“Are there many?”
“They have not been accurately compiled yet…… That is why the head personally went to confirm it.”
At the deputy head’s reply, Shin Jijinren said,
“When the head returns, tell him to come see me immediately.”
“Yes, Sect Master.”
As he turned away from the respectfully answering deputy head, Shin Jijinren’s face was filled with worry.
Since people worthy of being called “those of the Vice Cult Leader’s quarters” had come into existence, this was the first time only the Vice Cult Leader came out to the training grounds.
It was because the Poison Demon, who had rushed over after receiving an urgent dispatch, diagnosed that Iron Demon and the Profound Demon absolutely required stabilization.
He even warned that unless ten squad leaders immediately halted training and received intensive treatment, their energy centers might shatter.
For a master-level expert, having one’s energy center shattered was no different from a death sentence, so even the Vice Cult Leader had no choice but to accept excluding them from training.
Of course, they still had to endure the Vice Cult Leader’s assessment of “being weak.”
To a Bright Cult member, being called weak was humiliation.
Naturally, Yul Han had thrown out those words intentionally. And in truth, the ones he wanted to be shocked by them were not so much the parties themselves as all the other Bright Cult members.
In short, it meant that just because their training suspension had been accepted, they should not take failing the test lightly.
As expected, upon hearing this, Iron Demon and the Profound Demon brushed aside the Poison Demon’s objections and left the infirmary.
They were Five Demons; remaining lying down after hearing something tantamount to humiliation was not an option.
What was unfortunate was that the two who set out like that collapsed unconscious before they had gone far from the infirmary.
After days of enduring the Vice Cult Leader’s Force Energy far beyond what they could handle, their energy channels and blood vessels had been severely damaged.
That news soon spread throughout the entire Bright Cult.
Naturally, it reached the Vice Cult Leader’s ears as well, but Yul Han continued his training as if nothing were different.
Seeing the Vice Cult Leader like that, people clicked their tongues. Even after driving two of the Five Demons to the brink of ruin, he showed no sign of wavering.
Of course, no one criticized him. In the Bright Cult, being weak was a sin.
Accordingly, the fever for study among the elders, hall masters, and squad leaders did not diminish.
Those who sought to climb a little higher at this opportunity were the same.
In fact, their fervor burned even hotter. If elders, hall masters, or squad leaders fell, their affiliations would be stripped—but that was not the case for them.
In other words, even if they shouted their “challenge” to the Vice Cult Leader’s test and failed, they still had an organization to return to.
It meant they would not be forced into training that was no different from standing on the edge of death as subordinates under the Vice Cult Leader.
Naturally, their motivation could not help but blaze fiercely.
It was around dusk, as the sun was sinking low, that a group of people arrived at the Bright Cult.