Chapter 48: Thirteen Bloods Mobilization Order
As I wiped the sweat from my face with the towel that Flashing Light Blood handed me, I asked while watching the people entering the Cult Leader’s residence from afar.
“Those are faces I don’t recognize. Who are they?”
Flashing Light Blood turned his head to follow my gaze and replied.
“The Guardian of the Faith and the elders of the Guardian Division.”
“The Guardian of the Faith?”
“You must not remember well since it’s been so long since you last saw him. Well, it’s been twenty years since that man last entered the main stronghold.”
“Twenty years is an incredibly long time.”
“Yes. Since the Cult Leader treated him like a criminal, he cut off contact long ago. Well, the Cult Leader…”
From Flashing Light Blood’s words that followed, I realized why the Guardian of the Faith and the Guardian Division had been scorned by the Cult Leader, and I was more than a little shocked.
I realized that the White Horse War had broken out immediately after I died in my previous life. And that, in that battle, the Demonic Path had been pushed back.
While I was enveloped in a strange, hard-to-understand feeling—both glad and uneasy—Cold Blade Blood approached me before I knew it.
“Have you finished your training, Vice Cult Leader of the Demonic Cult?”
“Ah! Yes. I’ve finished.”
“Then are you planning to return to your residence?”
“I think so. I need to wash up as well.”
At my answer, Cold Blade Blood spoke cautiously.
“Perhaps you should wait a bit before going.”
“Why? Is there some problem?”
“The Guardian Division riffraff have come and are making a disturbance. With the rumors going around these days, it seems likely they’ll come looking for you, Vice Cult Leader.”
“The Guardian Division is looking for me?”
“Yes. Normally they’d be quietly proselytizing like dead mice, but now they’ve suddenly barged into the main stronghold and are making a fuss.”
As Cold Blade Blood grumbled in displeasure, Flashing Light Blood asked him.
“So why did they come?”
“They say children have been disappearing in the Cheonghae Region lately.”
“Children?”
“Yeah.”
As Cold Blade Blood answered, he flicked his eyes as if pointing at something. Watching him, Flashing Light Blood let out an exclamation.
“Ah! That’s right. This year makes it thirty years, so it’s time.”
“Exactly.”
Unlike the two of them, who seemed to know exactly what this meant, I had no idea what they were talking about.
But more than my curiosity, I couldn’t overlook their matter-of-fact reaction to children disappearing.
“Cold Blade Blood.”
“Yes, Vice Cult Leader.”
“Do you think they’ll be able to get what they want from the Cult Leader?”
“They won’t. The Cult Leader looks upon the Guardian of the Faith and the Guardian Division as worse than passing dogs.”
“I see. Then when the Guardian of the Faith comes out, bring him to my residence.”
Leaving those words behind, I departed the training grounds. Cold Blade Blood and Flashing Light Blood stared at me with shocked expressions.
But only for a moment. Sensing that the Vice Cult Leader was about to stir up trouble again, Flashing Light Blood quickly followed after me, who was already far ahead, while Cold Blade Blood scratched the back of his head and headed toward the Cult Leader’s residence.
He was going to wait for the Guardian of the Faith, who was bound to come out after being harshly reprimanded.
After arriving at my residence and washing up lightly, I found Flashing Light Blood waiting for me.
“You look like you have a lot to say.”
“Well… are you perhaps planning to get involved in the matter of the children?”
“It sounds like you think I shouldn’t.”
“It’s not that it absolutely can’t be done… but how about pretending you don’t know?”
“Why should I do that?”
“Because it’s the Unsealing Training period.”
“Unsealing Training…?”
“Yes. As you know, Vice Cult Leader, once every generation—once every thirty years—for half a year, training in the Forbidden Demon Art is permitted. It’s a tradition of our Bright Cult.”
Forbidden Demon Art.
The term ‘forbidden’ meant that it was a demonic art under prohibition. Even within the Demonic Path, where demonic arts were practiced, this was a martial art whose training was forbidden—one could easily imagine just how horrific it was.
But they were talking about children going missing, and suddenly the Forbidden Demon Art…?
“Don’t tell me!”
“Before long, not only young boys and girls, but also many virgins will disappear. Brutal killings without reason will occur everywhere as well.”
In an instant, countless stories I had heard in my previous life surfaced in my mind.
Taking the vital essence of young boys and girls for the sake of training demonic arts, capturing virgins to steal their pure yin energy and killing them, slaughtering innocent people under the pretense of mastering Extreme Slaughter…
I had forgotten.
Because they showed childlike innocence, because I felt a familial bond with them, I had completely forgotten who they truly were.
As I stood there flustered, Cold Blade Blood’s voice reached my ears.
“Vice Cult Leader. I’ve brought the Guardian of the Faith.”
At his voice, I hastily regained my composure and replied.
“Let him in.”
At my permission, Cold Blade Blood entered together with a white-haired old man.
“The Guardian of the Faith greets the Vice Cult Leader.”
As the old man respectfully clasped his fists, I returned the gesture and offered my greeting in kind.
The Guardian of the Faith, who received my return salute, was not the only one who failed to hide his shock—Cold Blade Blood and Flashing Light Blood, who were watching, wore the same expressions.
Judging by their reactions, I sensed that something had gone wrong, but I deliberately chose to ignore it.
If I showed confusion here, it would only seem stranger.
“Please, have a seat.”
I gestured toward an empty chair. The Guardian of the Faith once again respectfully clasped his fists toward me, the Vice Cult Leader of the Demonic Cult seated opposite him, and then took his seat.
When I shifted my gaze from the Guardian of the Faith to Cold Blade Blood, he understood my meaning and answered quickly.
“It went as expected. The Cult Leader has declared it ‘forbidden.’”
At Cold Blade Blood’s reply, which placed particular emphasis on the word ‘forbidden,’ I nodded and looked back at the Guardian of the Faith.
“You came looking for me anyway, so I told them to send you here. You must have something to say, so speak.”
Rather than exposing my ignorance by asking questions outright, I chose to listen to his words and fill in the gaps that way.
The Guardian of the Faith stared at me silently with conflicted eyes before finally opening his mouth.
“I know how you view me, the Guardian Division, and the believers… but please help us, Vice Cult Leader of the Demonic Cult.”
“What exactly are you asking me to help with?”
“Please stop the refinement of the Forbidden Demon Art.”
“It is a tradition of the Bright Cult. You are not someone who would be unaware of that, so why ask for it to be stopped?”
Suppressing my own thoughts, I asked calmly. The Guardian of the Faith replied.
“In the past, the refinement of the Forbidden Demon Art took place in the lands of the Hundred Paths. But now, it is being carried out openly not somewhere else, but right in our own front yard.”
“Is there a difference?”
Facing the killing intent that seeped thickly from my cold question, the Guardian of the Faith forced himself to continue.
“The way the people of the Cheonghae Region look at the Bright Cult has been changing lately. It’s because word has spread that we are a place of benevolence that treats the sick without taking money.”
“So you mean they see it as a good place simply because treatment is free?”
At my cold voice, which made the question sound almost mocking, the Guardian of the Faith hurriedly shook his head.
“No. Cheonghae has always been a land of harsh people—scarce resources and little wealth. The lives of those who live there are harsh. It is also a place where even having money does not guarantee treatment.”
“Why would someone with money be unable to receive treatment?”
“Because there are too few physicians, and medicinal ingredients are scarce.”
I found his answer difficult to immediately understand.
Resources naturally flow from places of abundance to places of scarcity. The same applies to professions—they flow toward places with many who seek them.
The reason is simple. Scarcity is more profitable than abundance.
‘Then why…?’
My question was answered by Cold Blade Blood’s muttering.
“Damn Hundred Paths bastards. It’s all their doing. Those merchant groups too. They say they don’t distinguish between the Demonic Path and the Hundred Paths, but in reality they distribute resources in pitiful amounts. Honestly, whenever I think about it, Golden Flower Manor or whatever, I just want to—!”
He cut himself off when Flashing Light Blood jabbed him in the side. Cold Blade Blood immediately shut his mouth.
The matter involving Golden Flower Manor had been orchestrated by the Vice Cult Leader of the Demonic Cult himself. Because of that, Cold Blade Blood turned pale and could only bow his head.
“I—I apologize. I have a bad habit of letting my mouth move faster than my thoughts…”
I had no intention of blaming Cold Blade Blood. The amount of information I gained because of it was not insignificant.
And that wasn’t what mattered right now.
“So they viewed it favorably because treatment was provided?”
“There were countless cases where people who could have lived died because they couldn’t receive treatment. In such circumstances, when physicians of the Bright Cult extended a hand… to them, the Bright Cult was heaven itself, no different from a savior.”
“And then children started disappearing.”
“Yes. The atmosphere is being shaken in an instant. So please—”
At the Guardian of the Faith’s words, I asked coldly.
“So you’re saying you didn’t come because you pity the children who are disappearing, but because it’s regrettable that proselytization is losing momentum.”
“Wh—what? Th-that is…”
“Isn’t that the case?”
“It’s not wrong. To be honest, this is an opportunity that comes once every few decades, and missing it would be a foolish thing to do…”
At his answer, my gaze shifted to Cold Blade Blood.
“Cold Blade Blood was right. It would have been better not to meet you. All that’s happened is that my ears have been dirtied. Take him away.”
At my command, Cold Blade Blood roughly dragged out the Guardian of the Faith, who was flustered.
If the Guardian of the Faith was of elder rank, then the Thirteen Bloods were no different. That meant there was nothing to fear.
Even as he was being dragged away, the Guardian of the Faith shouted, asking why Poison Demon had been ordered to treat patients if this was how things would turn out.
Cold Blade Blood clamped a hand over his mouth and hauled him far away from my residence.
After the Guardian of the Faith was dragged out, I closed my eyes.
In the heavy silence that settled as a result, Flashing Light Blood watched me with an anxious expression.
He feared that I might burst out at any moment and run wild, severing the Guardian of the Faith’s head.
Within the Bright Cult, the Guardian of the Faith was a presence like chicken ribs—awkward to discard yet troublesome—but the mental reliance that martial artists placed on him was immense.
Most truly believed the Bright Cult doctrine that said one who dies goes to the side of the Heavenly Demon and lives in peace.
Even Cold Blade Blood, who regarded the Guardian of the Faith as little more than trash, did not doubt that doctrine.
The one who cultivated and enforced that doctrine was the Guardian of the Faith himself. Cutting off his head would be a direct challenge to the Bright Cult’s teachings.
No one could predict the repercussions that would bring.
That was precisely why the Cult Leader had only driven him away and never laid a hand on him.
That was why Flashing Light Blood feared that I, unable to contain my anger, might kill the Guardian of the Faith.
Yet at that point, Flashing Light Blood tilted his head slightly.
‘Anger? Why? At which part?’
As he calmly retraced the situation from moments ago, Flashing Light Blood was forced to gape when he pinpointed exactly where my anger had been directed.
<So you’re saying you didn’t come because you pity the children who are disappearing, but because it’s regrettable that proselytization is losing momentum.>
In other words, I was enraged that the Guardian of the Faith did not feel pure sorrow over the disappearance of the children.
‘But why?’
It was something Flashing Light Blood could not understand.
From the perspective of someone within the Bright Cult like him, just as the Guardian of the Faith had said, the disruption of proselytization was far more important than children disappearing.
As Flashing Light Blood watched me with confusion, I finished my thoughts and opened my eyes.
“Thirteen Bloods. Is what you said before—that you would receive my command—still valid?”
Though he was afraid of what I meant by that, Flashing Light Blood answered without hesitation.
“Yes, Vice Cult Leader of the Demonic Cult. The Thirteen Bloods will follow your command.”
At his reply, a chilling smile crept onto my lips.
Feeling an inexplicable shiver at that sight, Flashing Light Blood heard my order fall.
“I issue a mobilization order to the Thirteen Bloods. All members, arm yourselves and assemble immediately.”
“We obey!”
As Flashing Light Blood bowed his head, fear and resolve were hopelessly tangled in his voice.