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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Simzy
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Lee Rowoon, surrounded by blood-colored mist.
Kang Hangcheol, Kang Eun-ha, and Han Do-baek, too.
Even Elder Il, who belatedly revealed himself from the Blood Demon Hall.
“…….”
They were merely staring blankly at Lee Rowoon’s back.
They saw it with their own eyes, but could not comprehend what had just happened.
Who was Hyeol Soo-baek?
He was the first in several generations to inherit the Blood Demon Art and reach its pinnacle.
The future of the Blood Cult was at stake, and he was considered the best expert within the Blood Cult.
But Hyeol Soo-baek lost without being able to do anything.
“…….”
Moreover, that final moment.
‘Oh Blood Demon.’
Rather, he acknowledged Lee Rowoon and fell while smiling.
“…Am I dreaming?”
Kang Hangcheol muttered to himself.
He had brought Lee Rowoon to the Blood King’s Castle.
But he had never anticipated this kind of result.
“Miss, no, oh Divine Maiden.”
He knew that the current Blood Cult had no future.
The elders of the Blood Cult had thought that everything would end when Hyeol Soo-baek completed the Blood Demon God.
‘My current power is beyond Two Hands-!’
Therefore, they had no choice but to say those words.
They knew nothing.
They had become stagnant and rotten, unable to even accept the changed world.
Two Hands?
Kang Hangcheol was unsure if Hyeol Soo-baek could even reach that point even if he completed the Blood Demon God.
That was why he sided with Lee Rowoon.
Kang Eun-ha’s choice was also a choice, but it also contained Kang Hangcheol’s will.
‘The current Blood Cult must change.’
Even though it was obvious that Lee Rowoon and themselves would lose, he hoped that their sacrifice would allow the Blood Cult to open its eyes anew.
If the Divine Maiden’s choice was right….
‘I did think there might be a miracle.’
But that was, quite literally, a miracle.
Something that humans could not achieve, the realm of the divine.
Kang Hangcheol looked at Lee Rowoon.
“So that was it.”
It was a miracle.
“He is the true Blood Demon. Left Guardian.”
Kang Eun-ha, with a stern face, said while looking at Lee Rowoon’s back.
She did not resemble her usual granddaughter-like self.
“The Blood Demon is…”
“I know.”
Kang Hangcheol said, suppressing the overflowing emotion.
“He is the god of the Blood Cult.”
A god who can perform miracles.
Step.
Lee Rowoon, who had not been moving, took a step
.
Step.
Following his movement, Kang Hangcheol and Kang Eun-ha followed behind.
Step.
Han Do-baek, who had been collapsed, struggled to get up and followed behind them.
Step.
Elder Il, the Blood Sword Unit members, and the Blood Sword Captain followed behind them.
Steadily.
Lee Rowoon stopped.
It was the end of the incredibly high staircase leading into the Blood Demon Hall.
“……”
A suffocating silence hung below the staircase.
The Black Sword Unit, the Dark Blood Unit, the Blood Sword Unit that had been fighting them, as well as the warriors and Blood Cult members within the Blood Demon Palace.
Before they knew it, all the Blood Cult members in the Blood King’s Castle had gathered below the staircase.
“Tsk.”
Lee Rowoon clicked his tongue while looking at them.
They were, in fact, people who had nothing to do with him.
Rather, the residents of Eun were no different from enemies to Lee Rowoon, who had been a resident of Earth.
‘They are pitiful things.’
But the voice of the Martial King kept echoing in his head.
At first, he would have thought that he would have no connection with them.
Because the masters tried to prevent further destruction by containing the chaos within themselves and killing or sealing themselves.
However, those masters’ thoughts had changed without him realizing it.
‘Live on.’
The masters sacrificed themselves, giving him another chance once again.
A chance that was not even needed.
Just as he had learned about the masters during the hundred years, the masters had also learned about him.
So, it must have been from then.
‘When you return, take care of those pitiful things.’
That was when they had spoken about giving them more power.
Even entrusting a pet puppy would have been more sincere than that.
But they probably didn’t want to burden him.
And they probably wanted him to take care of it himself.
It was them.
They were one pillar that the Martial King had left behind.
Though they were wretched and ruined things.
“Long live the Blood Demon! May the Blood Demon be revered!”
“Long live the Blood Demon-!”
“May the Blood Demon be revered-!”
Those who were wailing while rubbing their whole bodies against the ground were the things the master had left behind.
They were the ones who had waited and waited for thousands of years, while the master had been away from them.
‘They are pitiful ones.’
So, he couldn’t just watch and do nothing, could he?
They were broken and burned out after waiting for too long.
Just as he had done at the corpse disposal site of the Hwasan Guild, they were all burned-out ashes.
But just as he had ignited the embers of revenge, they must have been barely living, igniting the embers of waiting for the Blood Demon.
‘I should show them.’
Giving some reward for their waiting would be the reward that he, as the master’s disciple, could give
.
Whoosh-!
The blood droplets emitted from Lee Rowoon’s body spread out, creating a denser mist.
‘Bl, Blood Demon !’
Kang Eun-ha’s voice, when she had shouted while looking at Hyeol Soo-baek using Reverse Blood, came to his mind.
They had been waiting for only that, saying it was the completion of the Blood Demon for a long time, but Lee Rowoon knew nothing about it.
However, he found the answer in Kang Eun-ha’s reaction.
‘True Blood.’
The final stage of the Blood Demon Divine Art.
What happens when one reaches the end and operates the Blood Demon Divine Art with full power.
Trickle.
Blood tears flowed from both of Lee Rowoon’s eyes.
“Lo, Long live the Blood Demon-!”
The blood tears flowed down, tracing patterns on his body and arms, which had been torn in the battle with Hyeol Soo-baek.
“Lo, Blood Demon….”
The mist grew even denser.
It seemed to be forming a certain shape.
“May the Blood Demon be revereeddd!”
Blood Shura.
The blood-colored demon was the true identity of the Blood Demon that the Blood Cult members had been waiting for so long.
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“Long live the Blood Demon! May the Blood Demon be revered!”
The surviving Elder Il and the Left Guardians were trembling, prostrating their whole bodies.
It was not fear.
Emotions like awe and admiration.
“I told you not to do that.”
As Lee Rowoon said irritably, Kang Hangcheol trembled even more violently.
“W, we cannot do that! At the arrival of the true Blood Demon God, we must lower our humble bodies….”
“Ha. I’m telling you, I’m the Blood Demon.”
“That’s why…!”
“Are you saying you’re the Blood Demon?”
“……”
Lee Rowoon took a step forward, irritated.
“Isn’t it a religion? You say the Blood Demon is a god.”
“That is the proper way to put it.”
“Then, is it okay to defy a god when they speak?”
Flustered.
As if they had never even considered such a thing, not only Kang Hangcheol, but also Elder Il, who had been exuding a heavy atmosphere, trembled.
“However, the law is….”
“What is the law?”
“It is the word the Blood Demon told the Blood Cultists to uphold.”
Kang Eun-ha, only she, as the Divine Maiden, rose to her feet, approached Lee Rowoon, and spoke.
“Therefore, it is a rule that must be upheld more than anything else and is above all else.”
“Really?”
Lee Rowoon smiled, looking at Kang Eun-ha as if he found it amusing.
“But I’m the Blood Demon?”
“……That’s….”
“Then the words I speak are the law?”
“Y, yes… yes, they are.”
Lee Rowoon spoke again.
“Get up.”
Thump!
Fortunately, this time, all those who had been prostrating themselves rose to their feet.
It was because they realized that if they continued to act stubborn, now that Lee Rowoon had spoken about the law, it would rather be a sin.
“Useless things come later. This…”
Lee Rowoon was standing in front of the collapsed Hyeol Soo-baek.
The guy whose blood and inner energy had been sucked dry by the Blood Demon Absorption Art.
Just as he had said he would save him, Lee Rowoon saved him.
His chest rising and falling slightly was proof of that, but….
“Tsk.”
Hyeol Soo-baek, even if he was alive, was no longer truly living.
‘To have seen that.’
While fighting with the Blood Demon Absorption Art, a part of his soul had permeated into him.
Originally, the Blood Demon Art did not have such a function, but the Blood Demon God Art, especially the Blood Demon God Art that Martial King had re-established, had the property of absorbing even souls depending on the situation.
That was why the permeated soul had seen what it shouldn’t have seen.
Lee Rowoon’s deepest abyss, the chaos that was settled within it.
“What a waste. I was even trying to find the Cheon bastards.”
“Ch, Cheon Clan, you mean….”
They wouldn’t know.
“Hey. He is not the youngest son of the Blood Cult Leader.”
“……! How could that be….!”
Lee Rowoon brought his index finger to the forehead of the fallen Hyeol Soo-baek.
Crack! Cracking!
At that moment, an unsettling and gruesome noise echoed from Hyeol Soo-baek’s entire body.
His bones were twisting.
The skin repeatedly expanded and contracted.
“This is…!”
Kang Hangcheol, with his vast experience, couldn’t possibly fail to recognize what it was.
“The Disguise Technique!”
In other words, it was called disguise.
Like the human skin mask that Kang Eun-ha had worn on their first meeting.
However, in the world of Eun, the Disguise Technique had a completely different meaning.
It was a type of martial art that could make one become a completely different person.
“That’s impossible! If he had used the Disguise Technique, there’s no way we wouldn’t have noticed!
Especially since even the previous Blood Cult Leader didn’t have any indication….”
Kang Hangcheol was right.
A warrior’s Disguise Technique required inner energy.
Unless it was a Disguise Technique performed after reaching the Heavenly Realm or Transcendent Demon realm, most Disguise Techniques were noticeable to the eyes of an expert.
There would be a strange sense of incongruity felt in the skin, and because it deviated from the original skeletal structure, there would also be a strange sense of incongruity felt in the bones.
Hyeol Soo-baek had been using the Disguise Technique since childhood, and on top of that, he had not been discovered until now.
That was impossible, as Kang Hangcheol had stated.
“It’s possible.”
Except for one thing.
“There is a martial art that allows you to change your body at will.”
“……!”
Their pupils widened as if they had realized something.
“Heavenly Demon….”
“Heavenly Demon Art. Or, is that side also Heavenly Demon Art?”
Even at Lee Rowoon’s words, they were so shocked that they remained silent with blank faces.
“Well, we’ll talk about that later.”
Lee Rowoon said, looking at the Divine Maiden, Kang Eun-ha.
“The Ten Thousand Blood Pits. Is it still there? Considering how the Blood Art is continuing, it can’t possibly not be there.”
“Y, yes, it is.”
Kang Eun-ha said, belatedly regaining her senses.
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The Blood Demon Palace, the Blood Demon Hall.
There was a passage leading to the basement in the place where only the Blood Demon could reside.
Stairs leading down to an endless basement, with luminous pearls embedded in the walls.
Luminous pearls, said to be more valuable than gold of the same size, so the fact that the collapsing Blood Cult hadn’t sold them yet meant that this place was that important to the Blood Cult….
‘There’s no way.’
The reason they hadn’t sold the luminous pearls yet was simple.
‘They wouldn’t make any money.’
The fact that luminous pearls were worth the same as gold of the same size was something that was true in Eun.
The world’s destruction, and invasion.
In Eun, torches or luminous pearls were the only things that could provide light, but it wasn’t the case anymore.
Thinking simply, one could buy a magic lamp for just a few hundred thousand won.
Anyway, Lee Rowoon was going down the stairs with Kang Eun-ha.
Still, there was something different.
‘Full of inner energy.’
The space was filled with high-purity energy.
Of course, from the perspective of a righteous Cult, it would be nothing more than sticky demonic energy, but if you were a member of the Blood Cult, just being here would give you the feeling that your whole body was being purified.
“We have arrived.”
Lee Rowoon nodded at Kang Eun-ha’s words.
A wide cavern.
Inside it was a pond.
One might ask what’s so special about a pond inside a cavern.
But what if that pond.
Splash.
Was a pond entirely made of blood? Isn’t that quite mysterious?
Blood rots.
But due to the advantage of being in a cave and the special secret art passed down in the Blood Cult, this place would always keep that pond fresh.
“This is the Ten Thousand Blood Pits.”
A pond said to be made by gathering the blood of ten thousand people.
But in reality, it was a place where the blood of more people than that had gathered.
“Blood Cult members receive the blessing of the Blood Demon at birth. Also, they are taught the Blood Art from around the time they take their first steps. The blood gathered in the Ten Thousand Blood Pits is….”
“It must be the blood collected from all the Blood Cult members that exist in the Blood King’s Castle.”
“That is correct.”
The blood of all Blood Cult members.
“Originally, it is the rule that the officially inaugurated Blood Cult Leader must come here and receive the blessing, but the Blood Demon- no, the Blood Demon God is qualified.”
Originally, when one becomes the Blood Cult Leader, they come here, sprinkle their blood, and announce that they have become the Blood Cult Leader.
It was a ritual that the Blood Cult had because it had a religious aspect.
But that ritual brings nothing.
Even if the Blood Cult Leader, no, the Blood Demon, sprinkles their blood on the Ten Thousand Blood Pits, nothing would change.
“Divine Maiden.”
Lee Rowoon was turning to look at Kang Eun-ha, smiling.
“Do you know why the Blood Demon is called the god of the Blood Cult members?”
“That is….”
She could recite what was written in the scriptures of the Blood Cult.
But what Lee Rowoon was talking about right now wouldn’t be something like that.
“Didn’t you say it earlier? To control the Blood Art….”
“You still don’t know what that means.”
Lee Rowoon slowly approached the Ten Thousand Blood Pits, smiling, and said.
“I’ll show you. Why the Blood Demon is your god.”
And that would be the second gift given to the Blood Cult members who had overcome the long wait.
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