By Zephyria 
HF 41
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* * *
Had he been dreaming while awake?
Ho-yeon had no choice but to deny everything he had experienced and seen.
Mu Seong-pyeong, Han Hee-ryeong, the Right Guardian, the Left Guardian—just how many people had deceived him without his knowledge? But if the Cult Leader was determined to deceive him, could he really say they were at fault? Still, he thought he had become quite close with Han Hee-ryeong; it would have been nice if he had given him even a subtle hint.
Ho-yeon shook his head mentally, as he couldn’t actually move it. Then again, they hadn’t known each other for that long. He likely couldn’t bring himself to betray a Cult Leader to whom he had sworn loyalty.
Why on earth did Mu-gyeong not call himself the Cult Leader and instead lie, saying he was Young Master Lee of the Demonic Shadow Martial House? Even when he rescued him from the Blood Cult, it would have been sufficient to reveal his identity then.
‘Could he have suspected the Ice Palace?’
Perhaps he suspected that Ho-yeon wasn’t the Palace Master’s child, or he didn’t believe the fact that he didn’t possess the extreme yin constitution, so he kept him close to investigate. He was a miser if there ever was one. To think a man in the position of Cult Leader would use such petty tricks…
“So, I think it would be great if you just withered away and died after a while. What do you think?”
It was as if he had shoved his own head into the Heavenly Demon’s maw and begged to be eaten.
“Try it. If you can even get out.”
Of course. Since he had personally confessed his escape plan to the Cult Leader, all exits were bound to be blocked. He thought his interior was composed only of solid eternal snow, but now, lava was bubbling and boiling within him. Had he ever felt such a sense of betrayal in his life?
Long ago, when he was trapped beneath the eternal snow mountains, he had torn at his chest countless times over the unfair deaths of his kin, but because surviving was so grueling, he had selfishly focused only on survival. After leaving that place, his remaining life had felt empty because there was no one left to avenge.
However, he was able to fill that void with the children of Eumbyeol Hall. Perhaps he found solace by projecting the children who died of cold and hunger in the underground onto the orphans of Eumbyeol Hall. It was for the first time that Ho-yeon had opened his heart to someone who wasn’t a child.
That was how much he had trusted Mu-gyeong…
He couldn’t just stand by and watch as Mu-gyeong was ignored by his family, and he had even given him silver, fearing he wouldn’t be able to hold his head high anywhere due to a lack of money. When he didn’t return for several days, how anxious had he been, worrying that some misfortune had befallen him?
All of it was a deception.
Ho-yeon gnashed his teeth inwardly as he was carried away lying in the carriage. Because Mu-gyeong had suppressed the Amun acupoint on the nape of his neck, he couldn’t move a single finger. Perhaps as a grain-sized mercy, he was allowed to move his eyes. Alone in the carriage, Ho-yeon’s eyes darted around frantically before he finally closed his eyelids.
Invincible Divine Cult! Ten Thousand Demons Submit!
Advent of the Heavenly Demon! Ten Thousand Demons Submit!
The overwhelming shouts of the cultists still echoed in his ears. Everyone was swept up in madness at the sight of the Cult Leader slaughtering the members of the Blood Cult with unbelievable martial prowess. It was almost chilling to see the cultists worshiping the Heavenly Demon even while drenched in blood.
In that place where everyone lay flat on the ground, the only ones standing were Mu-gyeong and Ho-yeon. Even as he looked at him, Ho-yeon couldn’t regain his composure, unable to believe it. Ho-yeon clamped his lips shut. He pressed them so tightly that the mole beneath his lip seemed to tremble.
When Mu-gyeong began to walk toward the empty throne of the Hall of Ten Thousand Demons, Ho-yeon instinctively stepped backward. However, since he was being held in the man’s arms, he didn’t actually move a single step.
Ho-yeon realized that when a person suffers too great a shock, their thinking freezes. He immediately reached out his hand to push him away. Even though it was obvious that he couldn’t escape anywhere within the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains to avoid Mu-gyeong’s reach, his body moved on its own. Immediately, the central acupoint on the nape of his neck was struck, and as his entire body ceased to obey his will, the strength left his legs.
Mu-gyeong caught and held Ho-yeon as he began to collapse, his white hair fluttering. Holding him just like that, he walked toward his throne. Because even his mute acupoint had been suppressed, Ho-yeon could not utter a single word.
His stride was slow as usual, but his movement technique created the illusion that the ground was folding. Ho-yeon wasn’t sure if he could keep his body intact against Cheon Mu-gyeong even if he awakened his entire dantian right now. He hadn’t even seen the hand that reached out to press his acupoint.
Ho-yeon intuitively felt that Mu-gyeong had not revealed all of his martial prowess when dealing with the Blood Cultists. Furthermore, if he were to clash with him, the resulting war between the Ice Palace and the Demon Sect might spread uncontrollably. He was in a desperate situation, as every expert of the Demon Sect might try to kill him for daring to challenge the authority of the Cult Leader.
Passing the seats of the elders, which had been wrecked by thunderclap bombs, Mu-gyeong ascended to the top of the Hall of Ten Thousand Demons and suddenly set Ho-yeon down on the throne. The black dragon enveloping the entire throne descended from the backrest and coiled around the armrests.
“This is my seat.”
Slumped loosely against the armrest, Ho-yeon glared up at Mu-gyeong with his eyes.
“It seems you don’t like it very much.”
If only he could open his mouth, Ho-yeon felt like screaming that he was a wicked bastard. The reason he had looked for Mu-gyeong’s “seat” was because he believed he was Young Master Lee of the Demonic Shadow Martial House and thought he was being ignored by his family.
Mu-gyeong looked down at Ho-yeon expressionlessly with his sharp, blue-gray eyes. He glared with such intensity that it seemed as if blue flames were dancing in his eyes. With his massive frame standing with his back to the throne, Mu-gyeong faced the cultists, all of whom were bowing their heads.
“Listen. The price for disturbing the order of the Demonic Path and invading this cult is nothing but the total annihilation of the clan. Do not allow a single drop of dead blood to remain breathing upon this earth. Until their seed is dried up, the sword of this cult shall never return to its scabbard, and that is the only mercy this seat shall show.”
Mu-gyeong’s low, spreading voice carried profound internal power. While the ordinary cultists learned that the wretched Blood Cult still existed, they all believed without doubt in the Heavenly Demon who ordered its complete eradication.
A man like the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains—no, a man who was the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains himself—stood tall.
Why hadn’t he known until now? He was certain that the man was no ordinary person, but he had simply regarded him as a lazy genius with immense talent. If he had said he was an ordinary cultist rather than Young Master Lee of the Demonic Shadow Martial House, Ho-yeon might have suspected him deeply at least once. But because he was the young master of the most prominent family in the Demon Sect, everyone understood his eccentricities, which is why things had come to this.
Once again, the madness-fueled collective bowing of the cultists began, shaking the very axis of the earth.
“Right Guardian.”
At the Cult Leader’s call, one of those prostrate on the ground raised his head. The man who had placed a beast mask on the floor was Mu-gyeong’s servant, holding a fan in one hand. However, he was not actually a servant, but the Right Guardian, Il Gang-gun.
To think that a member of the leadership, who had entrusted his entire safety to Mu-gyeong and had argued that he must be brought from the Ice Palace, had even played the part of a servant—Ho-yeon was beyond appalled; he was suffocating.
Il Gang-gun looked at Ho-yeon, sitting motionless on the throne, with a face of shock. However, since everyone else was bowing on the floor, no one else witnessed Ho-yeon’s state. Only one young child, whose curiosity outweighed his awe for the Cult Leader, stole a glance at the scene. But his head was quickly pushed back down by his parents’ hands.
“Congratulations on emerging from your closed-door cultivation.”
How could the leadership of the Demon Sect speak lies as facts without so much as a blink? Once again held by Mu-gyeong, Ho-yeon attempted to release his acupoints by any means possible before being loaded into the carriage prepared by the Right Guardian, but he failed time and again.
Meanwhile, the horse pulling the massive carriage was a single animal, ornately decorated in black silk—it was Tae-pyeong, whose whites of the eyes were prominent. Tae-pyeong was snorting unpleasantly, but upon recognizing Ho-yeon, he stopped the frantic front-hoof kicking he had been doing to escape the carriage.
Thus, Ho-yeon was being transported somewhere in the carriage.
‘Should I just pretend to be dead?’
No, the timing was inappropriate, so that would actually be a losing move. He had already exposed his own ambition to escape the Demon Sect by faking his death.
Calling him ugly… calling the Cult Leader ugly…
Recalling Mu-gyeong’s nonchalant words, Ho-yeon gnashed his teeth, though he couldn’t actually move them. Still, the fact that he wasn’t the Palace Master’s child hadn’t been discovered yet, and Mu-gyeong knew he didn’t have the extreme yin constitution.
But was it true that he had the nine yang severed meridian? He showed no symptoms of meridians being blocked due to yang energy. The only strange things were the intense fire energy that seemed to contain lava and the dense inscriptions covering one of his arms.
Ho-yeon tensed up as he felt the carriage, which had been running for a long time, finally come to a stop. Even so, he kept his eyes tightly shut. After a while, the carriage door opened. Ho-yeon remained with his eyes closed.
Someone suddenly scooped him up, and from the heat of the body and the shape of the firm muscles, he knew it was Mu-gyeong. Ho-yeon was carried to another location, and when he finally peeked his eyes open, it was surprisingly not the place he expected.
He wondered if it was the Heavenly Demon Palace where he resided, but this was a place he had never seen before. Looking at the courtyard and the quarters, it resembled a detached palace of the Demonic Shadow Martial House, but from here, the Demon Sect headquarters were visible.
And Mu-gyeong was not in his usual simple light armor.
The long robe he wore was woven from jet-black heavenly silk, containing a darkness that seemed to absorb all surrounding light. The dragon embroidery on his forearm looked as if it were actually moving, like the scales of a living black dragon. Whoever the craftsman was, the black dragon embroidery possessed an overwhelming demonic energy that felt as if it would tear through the silk at any moment.
Mu-gyeong pressed the back of Ho-yeon’s neck with his large hand to release the acupoints. Simultaneously, Ho-yeon opened his long-stifled mouth.
“The letter… did it really get sent?”
Far from being malicious, it was a question filled with rationality. In the right arm of Mu-gyeong, who was holding him, an immense fire energy surged once again.
“The letter saying you died?”
Ho-yeon, held in Mu-gyeong’s embrace, tightly gripped the man’s collar.