Chapter 232

Carts filled the sprawling clearing from end to end.

The smell of medicinal herbs hung thick in the air.

A man held a perfumed handkerchief over his nose and laughed.

“Those Sichuan Divine Cult bastards are pretty capable, aren’t they?”

“More than capable. They seem to be genuinely good at getting things done.”

“Kehehe. True. Demon-Brain must have had a reason for making an exception and taking humans under their wing.”

“All of these herbs are top grade. Demon-Brain will be extremely pleased when we present them.”

At the thought of pleasing Demon-Brain, the man’s expression brightened.

“You think so? Well, top-grade herbs should let us produce even better demonic beasts. Good! Contact Demon-Brain Divine Demon immediately and report that we have obtained a large supply of top-grade medicinal herbs.”

“Understood.”

The man glanced toward the people standing behind them.

“Are those the Sichuan Divine Cult people?”

“Yes. I thought you might want to reward them, so I told them to wait.... Shall I just send them away?”

“A reward....”

The man considered it for a moment.

“We’re short on manpower right now, aren’t we?”

“Yes.”

“And we’ll need people to move all those carts to the demonic-beast production site.”

“Are you thinking of making them do it?”

“Why not?”

“If things go badly, they may be captured and turned into demonic beasts themselves.”

“Wouldn’t that be an honor? Didn’t they say they worship White Horse Heaven? They’d be becoming official members of the White Horse Heaven they worship. What greater reward could there be?”

“You are absolutely right. Then I will have them transport the herbs to the demonic-beast production site.”

The man nodded.

He stretched and yawned.

“Ah, I’m bored.... If Demon-Brain hadn’t ordered us to stay out of sight, I could have gone myself and blown them all away....”

“You’ll have your chance soon.”

The man nodded and waved her away.

The woman immediately approached the Sichuan Divine Cult martial artists and handed out pills.

“This is your reward for a job well done. Take them here and now.”

“What are these?”

“Thousand-Herb Pills. They are such exceptional spirit pills that I would confidently compare them to Shaolin’s Small Restoration Pill. So go on. Take them.”

The Sichuan Divine Cult martial artists all glanced toward one particular man.

Noticing this, the woman assumed he was their actual leader and addressed him.

“If you do not want them, I will simply take them back.”

“No. We’ll accept them gratefully. May I distribute them to my men myself?”

“Go ahead.”

The leader handed out the pills, and the Sichuan Divine Cult martial artists broke into broad smiles before swallowing them in one gulp.

The woman smiled.

“I’ll stand guard. Circulate your qi and meditate.”

Once again, the leader nodded.

The others immediately sat cross-legged and began circulating their qi.

A short while later, they rose with astonished expressions.

“Whoa!”

“My inner power increased by a ton!”

“My dantian feels completely full!”

The woman smiled at their delight.

“You see? What did I tell you? I said they were spirit pills comparable to the Small Restoration Pill.”

“Thank you.”

“Yes. Continue performing well, and you will receive fitting rewards like this in the future. Work hard.”

“Yes!”

Satisfied by their thunderous response, the woman produced a rolled piece of leather and held it out.

“Take those medicinal herbs to the location marked on this map.”

The leader accepted the map and gave a faint grin.

“So this is where you produce the demonic beasts?”

“What?”

The woman stared at him, dumbfounded by his sudden change in attitude.

“To think the headquarters of the herb merchants’ alliance was actually White Horse Heaven. Is there anywhere you people haven’t reached?”

Something was wrong.

Realizing it from the leader’s tone, the woman swiftly pulled a whistle from her clothes and blew.

TWEEEEET—

“What? Why are you suddenly blowing a whistle?”

“Why... why aren’t any of you reacting?”

The woman stared in confusion at the leader and the Sichuan Divine Cult martial artists.

“Of course we aren’t. I swapped your pills out for different ones.”

“What? Wh-When? I didn’t even see you move!”

“There’s a saying in gambling houses. The hand is faster than the eye. My hands just happen to be much faster than most people’s.”

He had swapped the pills while simultaneously sending a voice transmission to the Sichuan Divine Cult martial artists.

Those are pills I made.

That was why the Sichuan Divine Cult martial artists had all smiled so brightly without even realizing it.

The leader was none other than Jeok Wigang.

He had come here disguised as a member of the Sichuan Divine Cult.

Wigang waved the map in his hand.

“Thanks. You’ve made finding the demonic-beast production site much easier for me.”

“You bastard! I’ll kill you!”

CRACK—

The woman’s fingernails suddenly lengthened, and she slashed them at °• N ?? v ?? l i g h t •° Wigang.

KAKAKAK—

She raked at him as though she meant to shred him to pieces.

“Urgh!”

Instead, her nails were mangled.

“Wh-What the...?”

Wigang was not even looking at her.

His gaze was fixed on the man sitting farther away.

“You’re Demon-Slayer class, and that guy sitting over there is... Calamity Demon class?”

Exactly right.

“Who the hell are you?”

Wigang answered the woman’s question by sending her flying without a word.

THUD!

CRASH-CRASH-CRASH—

She flew backward, slammed into the ground, and went limp.

The seated man’s eyes widened.

He immediately realized this was no ordinary opponent.

But then he smiled.

“Impressive. Even I can’t take Hongmong down in a single blow....”

Wigang slowly walked toward him.

Tap.

It felt as though he had walked into an invisible wall.

The man laughed and slowly rose to his feet.

“Kehehe. You are now trapped inside the Formless Prison I created.”

“Really? Doesn’t seem like much.”

“For now. Soon, you’ll be crushed until you beg me to spare your life. I enjoy watching my prey suffer slowly before they die.”

“Is that so?”

“Be crushed to death. Slowly.”

“Isn’t this a little too slow? At this rate, I won’t even notice the crushing until sometime next month.”

The man snorted at Wigang’s provocation and lowered one hand from above.

“Before that, what’s your epithet?”

“Curious about my epithet? Fine. Remember it well before you die. I am the Azure Lock Divine Demon.”

After answering, he increased the pressure.

GRRRRK—

Wigang’s feet slowly sank into the ground.

Yet rather than looking distressed, he simply stared at the man blankly.

“Wh-What?”

Why wasn’t he suffering?

The Azure Lock Divine Demon increased the pressure even further.

GRRRRK—

Wigang sank all the way to his knees.

Still, he merely stood there staring as though nothing were happening.

Something about that gaze sent a chill down the man’s spine.

“Is this all you can do?”

The dismissive tone twisted the Azure Lock Divine Demon’s face.

“You bastard! I don’t care about seeing you suffer anymore! Just die!”

The Azure Lock Divine Demon clenched both hands as though wringing out a wet rag.

Wigang should have been crushed until he burst like an overripe persimmon.

Instead, he casually pulled his buried legs out of the ground and climbed back up.

“Huh?”

Then he raised his hands as though gripping the invisible wall.

No way.

Surely not.

The instant unease seized the Azure Lock Divine Demon—

RRRIP—

With the sound of something being torn apart, Wigang simply walked out.

“Th-That’s impossible....”

A human being had ripped the Formless Prison apart with his bare hands.

“D-Don’t come any closer!”

The Azure Lock Divine Demon rapidly crossed his hands several times before thrusting them toward Wigang.

“Azure Binding Crush!”

BOOOOM—

With a heavy impact, the ground around Wigang sank.

But it still could not stop him from walking forward.

“Wh-What the hell is that monster?”

Nothing he did could halt Wigang’s steps.

“Damn it. It’s been a long time since I had to attack someone directly.”

The Azure Lock Divine Demon was just about to launch himself at Wigang when—

Grab.

“Wh-When did you—?”

Wigang had seized him by the collar in an instant.

“Can I just follow the map you gave me, or do I need some kind of token to get inside?”

“You think I’d tell you—”

SMACK!

“Gah!”

“I know. You’re not going to tell me that easily.”

WHAM!

“And giving in too quickly would hurt your pride.”

THUD! THUD!

“Wouldn’t look very good either, right?”

Wigang spoke as though he completely understood while relentlessly beating the Azure Lock Divine Demon.

“W-Wai—”

SLAP!

“Kehk!”

The Azure Lock Divine Demon tried to speak, but Wigang never gave him the chance.

It hurt.

It hurt so much.

When was the last time anyone had beaten him this painfully?

He wanted it to stop.

He wanted to talk.

But Wigang would not give him an opportunity.

As the blows kept coming, the Azure Lock Divine Demon secretly gathered his power.

He waited for a single opening.

Then, for the briefest instant, a gap appeared between Wigang’s punches.

Now!

The Azure Lock Divine Demon seized that priceless opportunity and gave it everything he had.

“I’ll tell you everything! I’ll tell you everything, so please stop hitting me!”

“Oh! Ready to talk now?”

The Azure Lock Divine Demon nodded frantically.

“That’s a shame. I was just starting to enjoy how my fist felt.”

The regret on Wigang’s face as he looked at his fist was completely sincere.

“Talk.”

“Y-You need a token. An authorization document stamped with my personal seal!”

“Really? Where’s the seal?”

“I-In my room.”

“Let’s go.”

“Yes!”

******

As the Azure Lock Divine Demon headed toward his room, he watched for an opportunity.

The power he had gathered earlier remained ready to unleash at any moment.

His plan was simple.

The instant Wigang looked away during the walk, he would unleash his full lightness arts and escape.

Then Wigang turned his head to look around the building.

Now!

BOOM!

The Azure Lock Divine Demon released every ounce of strength and shot forward, the floor beneath him collapsing from the force.

He stared straight ahead and ran with everything he had.

“Please! Please!”

He fled desperately.

Then—

“Why are you in such a hurry?”

A perfectly clear voice sounded beside him.

The Azure Lock Divine Demon turned his head.

Wigang was there, grinning at him.

His gaze dropped lower.

Wigang’s legs were not even moving.

“Magic?”

“Oh? You know about magic?”

The Azure Lock Divine Demon stopped dead.

This man could use magic, just like Demon-Brain Divine Demon.

There was no escaping him with lightness arts.

“What’s wrong? Keep going.”

He did not want to die.

The Azure Lock Divine Demon had been hanging his head, but suddenly snapped it up again and smiled with shameless servility.

“Hehe! N-No, of course not. I was only going to prepare some wine and food myself in case you were thirsty.”

“Oh, is that what it was?”

“Yes. I have some medicinal wine brewed from a thousand different herbs. The flavor is absolutely incredible.”

“Oh? Now that sounds interesting.”

“It’s right over there.”

There really was a storehouse in the direction he pointed.

Anyone could tell he had obviously been trying to escape, yet by astonishing coincidence there really was a storehouse just below that spot.

Wigang watched the Azure Lock Divine Demon repeatedly steal glances at him and smirked.

“Fine. Let’s have a taste.”

******

“This is pretty good.”

“Hehe! Is it? When you leave, please take everything in the storehouse with you. I can always brew more.”

Wigang grinned.

“You brewed it?”

“Yes.”

“Then I should just take you with me.”

“What?”

“You said you made it yourself. Why go through the trouble of hauling all that wine away? We can drink everything here with the others, and then I’ll take you instead.”

Oh, no.

He had merely answered the question without thinking.

He had dug his own grave.

As the Azure Lock Divine Demon’s face crumpled, Wigang asked,

“Was stockpiling all those medicinal herbs your idea?”

“No. It was Demon-Brain Divine Demon’s order.”

“Ha.... I figured. Do you know where Demon-Brain Divine Demon is?”

The Azure Lock Divine Demon shook his head.

“I don’t. Demon-Brain Divine Demon has several different identities....”

“I see.”

Wigang looked at him.

“I’m going to the demonic-beast production site now, and I’m going to smash the place to pieces.”