Pudeudeuk-
In the night jungle, an unknown bird took flight.
The Evil Cult’s main headquarters.
It could be seen from the window of a building carved into the cliff.
Il-oh.
He was a servant and attendant who stayed by Heuk-am’s side and assisted him.
He had been at Heuk-am’s side ever since he was young.
Probably since he was a boy who did not even have facial hair yet.
Il-oh was the son of a bandit. The bandit chief’s son, at that.
That didn’t an he was treated well. His mother was a woman the bandit chief had kidnapped.
He heard she had originally been a young lady of fairly noble birth, but there was no way to know.
Because his drunken father had beaten his mother to death.
Il-oh had no choice but to live as a bandit underling.
His hatred for his father ran deep, but there was nothing he could do.
He lived that powerless life, until one day a turning point ca suddenly.
To do banditry in the Central Plains, you had to have a good eye, but they did not.
They picked the wrong target, a warrior walking the road alone.
He tore all the bandits apart with his bare hands and killed them.
It did not take long for dozens of bandits to beco lumps of flesh.
There was only one reason Il-oh survived on the spot.
In the midst of it, he stabbed the fleeing chief in the back.
Heuk-am, the warrior who wiped out the bandit den, asked Il-oh if he would co with him.
So Il-oh took his little sister’s hand and followed him.
It was truly an unremarkable story.
It was also the kind of convenient tale you would only see in a cheap novel.
But either way, for Il-oh as a person, it was clearly salvation.
In exchange for throwing himself into the Evil Cult, his little sister could live a proper life.
Heuk-am gave Il-oh, who guarded his side, quite a generous stipend.
Il-oh had no use for money, so he sent it all to his little sister living in Nanjing.
He exchanged letters with his little sister from ti to ti.
She seed to be living while running a decent business.
They had hardly been able to et since then, but Il-oh was satisfied, at least, that his sister was living well.
But…
The Evil Cult’s plan.
Heuk-am’s plan.
He never imagined it would be sothing like that.
Il-oh’s happiness, and his sister’s happiness, were fleeting anyway.
If it was all going to disappear.
It was depressing. But did that an Il-oh decided to betray Heuk-am’s will?
No, it did not.
His life and his sister’s life were luck given as a bonus anyway.
Originally, it was a life that would have ended with him dying like a dog in a bandit den, or rotting to death in so prison.
Il-oh decided to fulfill his duty to the end.
Yes, things like brewing tea, for example.
At the foot of Mount Heng, Heuk-am had ordered him not to brew tea anymore.
But after coming here to Namman, he sought tea again.
Il-oh thought he understood the reason.
“It’s Il-oh.”
Il-oh announced himself before Heuk-am’s quarters.
On the tray in his hands was sothing closer to a bowl than a teacup.
He went inside without waiting for a reply.
The first thing he sensed was a tallic stench that seed to stab at his nose.
“I have brewed cold tea.”
Il-oh spoke to his lord in a slightly trembling voice.
Heuk-am was sitting there.
Heuk-am, who had grown so huge he could be called a giant, had changed once again.
“…Co here.”
The hand he held out was covered in shaggy fur.
Il-oh lowered his gaze. In place of human feet were dark hooves.
He could not hand over the cup without looking, so he raised his eyes again.
Heuk-am’s face ca into view.
Not a trace remained of the face that had once been fairly handso.
What stood before him was a monster with copper horns.
A monster that did not look human, with vicious teeth jutting out.
Heuk-am grabbed the cup and downed it in one gulp.
After taking on that form, he felt an unending thirst.
Il-oh stared at the sight blankly.
His lord was strong. Too strong.
Probably stronger than anyone in the Evil Cult right now.
No heavenly god would be able to defeat the current Heuk-am.
Even that supposedly strong Erlang True Lord, even the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, even Crown Prince Nezha.
Even if they ca at him all at once, surely…
“Shall I brew more tea?”
Il-oh asked carefully.
Heuk-am waved a hand and dismissed it.
Then Il-oh stood still, not knowing what to do, or whether he should leave.
Heuk-am quietly watched Il-oh like that.
His servant, eyes lowered, did not know his lord was looking at him.
Heuk-am thought quietly.
‘Weak.’
It was the thought that ca whenever he looked at Il-oh, no, whenever he looked at humans like him.
Every single one of them was unbearably weak.
At tis, there were martial n who overca such weakness and reached a realm.
Heuk-am, who had repeated reincarnations since that distant past, enjoyed crossing hands with such martial n.
He wanted to find possibility.
The possibility still left in humans.
But now, all of that was useless.
Was it nothing but amusent. It must have been.
Taking in a foolish boy nad Il-oh and his little sister had only been amusent as well.
But he had used them longer than expected.
Heuk-am was a king. A king was soone who led and commanded countless people.
It was natural for subjects to follow a king, so there was no need to grant compensation.
But the current Heuk-am was not a king.
As soone who was not a king, he could not use people without giving anything in return.
Heuk-am’s ntal state had beco more unstable than before.
He beca violent easily, and craved blood.
What he truly wanted to drink was not tea, but blood.
He had grown more capricious lately.
That sudden decision also stemd from that ntal state.
“You have served for a long ti.”
“But I have never given you compensation. Is there sothing you want?”
“That is far too undeserved, my lord. Did you not save , and let my little sister live like a person?”
Il-oh bowed deeply.
That respectful attitude was clearly sincere.
“How long has it been since you last t your little sister?”
“…Eleven years.”
“That is a long ti.”
Heuk-am paused for a mont before speaking.
“Go.”
“Go to Nanjing to et your little sister.”
“What are you saying. I ant to serve you to the end!”
Il-oh’s voice rose slightly.
It was rude, but Heuk-am didn’t care.
“I no longer need you.”
Il-oh’s pupils trembled.
Brewing tea was his duty?
Pathetic beyond words.
Because he could do nothing else, he brewed tea at least.
Il-oh’s martial arts were ordinary, and he couldn’t even use Power Borrowing.
Ever since Heuk-am no longer needed to eat or drink, even that value disappeared.
“Leave, right now.”
“If you depart for Nanjing imdiately, you should have about a week to stay there.”
A chance to spend the end of the world with his only remaining blood relative.
Il-oh’s throat bobbed.
“Go!”
Heuk-am suddenly roared.
Il-oh’s complexion drained pale.
He staggered back.
Then, with a trembling body, he bowed deeply.
Then he left Heuk-am’s quarters as if his soul had been drained from him.
No matter how ager Il-oh’s abilities were, he should at least be able to protect himself.
He would obey Heuk-am’s order and leave this place imdiately.
Having sent his servant away like that, Heuk-am remained silent.
Unlike the Cult Leader, Gwi-ryeong, and Mang-hon, Heuk-am no longer had a role.
All he had to do was wait, then crush any intruders who might co.
Heuk-am, who had been lowering his head, lifted his gaze.
A single insect was flying around.
Heuk-am’s face twisted sharply, and he shouted soone’s na.
“Docheol!”
Docheol (饕餮).
It was the na of a legendary monster called one of the Four Ferocious Beasts, along with Gonggi, Do-ol, and Hon-don.
Had such a monster existed in the Evil Cult’s main headquarters.
The insect that took Heuk-am’s fury shattered and fell, but soon ichor and insects poured down from a crack in the ceiling.
They imdiately took the shape of a person.
Heuk-am didn’t look human either, but that writhing form truly looked like a monster.
“Stop calling by that old na. I have used the na Mang-hon for thousands of years already.”
The monster called Docheol was none other than Mang-hon, one of the Cardinals.
One of the Four Ferocious Beasts passed down in legend was Mang-hon’s true identity.
“So you had nothing better to do than spy on .”
“You seem to be the one with nothing to do. If the Cult Leader learns of this, he will not forgive it. Letting a cultist out at a ti like this.”
“That Il-oh is my servant. Do not dare chatter about it.”
Mang-hon snickered.
“Don’t talk so big. It only makes you look more pathetic.”
Heuk-am rose from his seat.
Only then did Mang-hon shift back a little.
“I did not co to fight, so I will only deliver my ssage. The heavenly ons are strange. Within a few days, you may have reason to move.”
“If that happens, I will handle it.”
“Hmph. I hope so.”
Mang-hon’s body scattered like wind.
Having beco a swarm of countless insects, he could move freely anywhere.
Passing through the narrow bars, Mang-hon returned to his quarters in an instant.
Taking human form again, he called soone.
“Seventeen Spirits.”
Then several silhouettes rose out of the darkness.
The Seventeen Spirits (十七靈), Mang-hon’s limbs, newly created to replace the Hidden Silver Ghosts he had discarded long ago.
“Heuk-am’s slave will be leaving the main headquarters. Find him, and kill him.”
As he said that, Mang-hon gave a rancid smile.
“How dare he pretend to be human on his own. Handle it cleanly and bury it. Before you kill him, inspect carefully what might be attached to him, so that bastard Heuk-am doesn’t notice.”
Even two Seventeen Spirits together could kill a transcendent master.
Catching and killing Il-oh as he left alone would be easier than plucking ripe persimmons.
Four Seventeen Spirits vanished as if they lted away.
“You’re leaving when it gets light?”
A cultist standing guard said to Il-oh.
A cultist with his face wrapped in bandages.
Beyond the ragged bandages, skin like snake scales could be seen.
He was probably soone who had borrowed Power Borrowing from a snake yokai.
“No… I’m leaving, now. Right now.”
Il-oh, still pale-faced, said that.
There was no one who didn’t know he was Heuk-am’s servant.
Nor was there anyone who would stop him if he said he was leaving on Heuk-am’s orders.
“Do as you like.”
The guard had not truly been trying to stop Il-oh, either.
Il-oh stumbled as he walked.
His eyes were not clear like usual.
Leaving Heuk-am was half his own will, and the other half due to a Word of Command.
He would go back.
He would leave Namman and go to Nanjing.
There, he would et his little sister, who would be living an ordinary life, and spend the end of the world together with her.
Those thoughts filled Il-oh’s head.
Walking the night jungle alone looked like madness, but for a warrior familiar with the terrain, it was possible.
Il-oh pushed through the brush and moved forward.
A torch was in his left hand, and in his right he held a short machete suited for a jungle like this.
Chwaak, chwak.
It had originally been a path, but in only a few days, the brush had grown so thick he could not pass without using the blade.
Il-oh, cutting a path with a vacant expression, stopped short.
The darkness ahead. He had seen sothing within it.
“…There.”
Was it a wild beast?
Il-oh thrust the torch toward that direction, but he could see nothing.
He was quietly staring into the darkness.
For a mont, Il-oh almost dropped the torch.
From beyond that deep darkness, a person’s fierce glare flashed.
And a cold hand covered Il-oh’s mouth.
“Who are you?”
A voice colder than that hand’s temperature, like ice.
Il-oh flinched.
The one who had subdued him was Yi-gang.
“…Are you an Evil Cultist?”
“Why did he co out loaded down with baggage like that?”
From within the darkness, the Azure Forest disciples slowly revealed themselves.
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