Chapter 284: Heavenly Demon’s Son-in-Law

The men and women positioned in front of the entrance did not move immediately.

Victor had given his name, but that only seemed to make the situation stranger. Some of the younger disciples had probably never heard of him, while the older ones exchanged quick glances, trying to connect that hooded Vampire to the information circulating among the continent’s great powers.

The man with the saber was the first to analyze him more carefully.

The aura Victor had released moments earlier was not normal. It did not carry only the cold and heavy nature of Vampires. There were other things mixed into it, some so different from one another that they should not have been able to coexist inside the same body without causing some kind of collapse.

The bigger problem was that Victor showed no difficulty whatsoever keeping them under control.

"Victor Valentine..." The man repeated the name while narrowing his eyes and keeping one hand near the weapon’s hilt. "You claim you came to meet Miss Rakshasa?"

Victor immediately noticed how carefully he had phrased the question.

"That’s exactly what I said." Victor replied while putting one hand back into his pocket, already beginning to lose interest in that reception.

A woman standing a little farther back leaned to the side and analyzed the fangs that became subtly visible when Victor spoke.

"He really is a Vampire." She commented quietly while keeping her eyes on him, apparently uncomfortable with the presence of someone from that race so far from his territory.

Victor heard her.

He also noticed other whispers beginning.

Some were trying to guess his strength.

Others questioned how he had found the entrance.

A third group seemed much more interested in the way he had mentioned Rakshasa by name, without a title or any form of formal respect.

Victor let out a sigh.

"I’m really not in the mood for this." Victor commented while looking toward the staircase behind them and deciding he had no intention of spending the next twenty minutes being interrogated by guards.

In the next instant, he disappeared.

The man with the saber widened his eyes.

A brief gust passed through the group.

By the time everyone managed to turn their heads, Victor was already on the other side, several meters higher on the staircase, calmly walking with his hands in his pockets.

"How..." The woman let the word escape while trying to understand at what moment he had passed between all of them.

The older man reacted differently.

His eyes narrowed.

He knew that movement.

Not exactly the version Victor had used, but the foundation.

The almost nonexistent contact with the ground, the displacement happening before the body seemed to follow the movement and the way his presence disappeared for a fraction of a second were characteristics of a technique taught only to high-level disciples within the Cult itself.

"Heavenly Shadow Step..." The man murmured while an expression of disbelief slowly appeared on his face.

Victor stopped.

He looked over his shoulder.

"That’s what it’s called?" Victor asked while seeming genuinely curious, because Rakshasa had never shown much concern about explaining the names of every technique she shoved into his head.

The man became even more serious.

"Who taught you that?" He asked while finally gripping the saber’s hilt, not exactly to attack, but because that question had become much more important.

Victor tilted his head slightly.

"Who do you think?" Victor replied while a small smile appeared beneath the hood.

That practically confirmed the answer.

The disciples became even more tense.

Victor observed all of them for a few seconds and decided to end this quickly.

"Look, I don’t want to cause trouble." Victor said while stepping down one stair again and opening his arms slightly, trying to appear more cooperative than he actually was. "Especially because my father-in-law will probably complain if I kill everyone at the entrance of his Cult."

The silence was immediate.

Several expressions changed at the same time.

"Father-in-law?" One of the men repeated while looking at Victor as if he was certain he had heard incorrectly.

Victor ignored the reaction.

"So let’s make this easier for everyone." Victor continued while pointing toward the staircase. "Put those things away and someone guide me to the Heavenly Demon."

The man with the saber stared at him.

Victor could practically see the internal conflict.

Allowing a stranger to climb without authorization was absurd.

Trying to stop that stranger after seeing him use an advanced technique from the Cult also seemed like an unintelligent decision.

Before anyone had to choose, a deep voice traveled through the entire passage.

"Let him come up." Yu Jin Cheon spoke from somewhere far above, but the voice reached the entrance with absolute clarity, carried by enough energy to make every disciple straighten their posture in the same instant.

Victor raised his head.

A smile appeared immediately.

"Hey, old man. Long time no see." Victor replied toward the mountain while speaking with the same naturalness he would have used if Yu Jin Cheon were standing two meters away from him.

The people around him froze.

The man with the saber closed his eyes for a second.

The woman who had identified Victor as a Vampire simply stared at his back.

No one there seemed prepared to hear someone call the Heavenly Demon an old man.

Victor noticed.

He found it amusing.

His eyes moved across the group until they stopped on a young woman wearing black robes with red details. She stood slightly apart from the others and seemed to have a sufficiently high level to know how to reach the inner areas without turning it into a pilgrimage lasting several hours.

Victor pointed at her.

"Sweetie, can you guide me to the old man?" Victor asked while making a small gesture for her to approach.

The woman stared at him for several seconds.

Then pointed at herself.

"M-me?" She asked while the confidence she had displayed only moments earlier completely disappeared.

Victor nodded.

"You." Victor replied while waiting patiently.

She looked at the older man.

He closed his eyes and made a small movement with his head.

The woman took a deep breath.

"All right. This way." She replied while taking the lead and beginning to climb the staircase.

Victor followed without hurry.

The disciples opened a path.

Some continued staring at him until he disappeared around the first curves of the mountain.

Fafnir remained silent for several minutes.

Ever since they entered that territory, she had been observing the people much more carefully than she let on. It was not only the disciples at the entrance. The higher they climbed, the more individuals appeared training on open platforms, moving between the buildings or simply meditating near the mountain walls.

Finally, she decided to ask.

"How did humans evolve so much?" Fafnir questioned while observing an apparently ordinary man sitting on a rock, but whose internal energy was far greater than what should exist within someone of that race.

Victor turned his face slightly.

"What do you mean?" Victor asked while continuing to follow the woman guiding them.

Fafnir discreetly pointed toward several disciples training farther below.

"They have too much energy." Fafnir replied while frowning. "They’re still humans. I can feel that. But some of them possess reserves that, in my era, would’ve been absurd for someone of that species."

Victor understood where the confusion came from.

"Cultivation." Victor explained while putting his hands back into his pockets. "They use techniques to improve the body, the energy channels and especially their ability to absorb Mana from the environment."

Fafnir paid even more attention.

"So they modify their own bodies to assimilate more energy?" Fafnir asked while her eyes moved across a group of young people repeating the same sequence of movements on a platform.

"More or less." Victor replied while trying to summarize something Rakshasa had taken quite a while to teach him. "Depending on the technique, they refine the body, strengthen the soul, enlarge the core, improve circulation and gradually break through limits. The better the method, the more efficient the absorption becomes."

Fafnir remained silent for several seconds.

That really seemed to have caught her attention.

"Interesting." Fafnir commented while looking again at the humans scattered across the mountain. "When I still wandered the world, I never saw humans doing this in this way."

Victor smiled.

"I promised new things, didn’t I?" Victor asked while noticing her curious expression.

Fafnir looked at him.

"You did." She replied while trying to maintain an indifferent tone, although she continued examining everything like someone who had just discovered a new collection of possibilities.

Victor let out a small laugh.

The climb continued.

The hidden entrance at the foot of the mountain had given an impression of isolation, but the interior of the Cult was practically a vertical city. Buildings occupied different levels of the slopes, connected by staircases, stone bridges and narrow paths. There were training courtyards in almost every open area, as well as large halls partially built into the mountain itself.

The higher they climbed, the fewer disciples there were.

At the same time, the presences became stronger.

Victor noticed it effortlessly.

The younger ones remained in the lower areas.

The veterans and masters seemed to occupy the upper levels.

The woman guiding him also became more formal as they advanced.

"We’re approaching the Heavenly Hall." She explained while pointing toward an enormous structure ahead, surrounded by black stone pillars and two statues depicting warriors holding curved blades.

Victor observed the entrance.

"He’s inside?" Victor asked while already clearly sensing Yu Jin Cheon’s presence.

"Yes." The woman replied while slowing down. "The Lord is gathered with several elders and division leaders."

Victor nodded.

"Perfect." Victor replied while continuing to walk without showing any concern about the existence of a meeting.

The woman almost tried to stop him.

Almost.

Then she remembered who had personally authorized his entry and decided that it was no longer her responsibility.

Shortly afterward, Victor reached the doors of the hall.

They were enormous, made of dark wood reinforced with metal and marked by ancient symbols. Two guards immediately became alert when they saw him approaching, but the woman made a small signal before they could speak.

The doors opened.

Victor entered.

The hall really was vast.

Dozens of people occupied the place.

Some remained seated in rows along the sides, while others stood near large tables covered with maps and documents. Practically all of them possessed an aura strong enough to be considered monsters in any ordinary region.

Victor recognized that.

And ignored all of them.

His eyes found Yu Jin Cheon almost immediately.

The Heavenly Demon was seated in the main position near the center of the hall, wearing the same tiredly serious expression Victor remembered.

Victor smiled.

He crossed the hall.

Several people followed every step with their eyes.

Others frowned when they noticed the stranger did not bow, did not slow down and did not seem to acknowledge the authority of anyone present.

Victor reached Yu Jin Cheon.

He pulled over a nearby chair.

Sat beside him.

"So, where’s my woman?" Victor asked while making himself comfortable as if he were in his own home and looking directly at the Heavenly Demon.

The entire hall fell silent.

Yu Jin Cheon looked at him.

Victor calmly waited for the answer.

The first to react was a robust man sitting several places away.

"How dare you speak to the Heavenly Lord that way?!" The man shouted while slamming one hand against the table and beginning to stand.

Another presence exploded almost immediately.

"Show respect!" An older woman ordered while sending heavy pressure toward Victor.

More voices began to rise.

Victor remained seated.

Yu Jin Cheon did not even have time to open his mouth.

Victor slowly turned his face.

His eyes swept across the hall.

His aura left his body without warning.

Not all of it.

It did not need to.

Vampiric pressure swept through the room while Black Ice appeared subtly on the floor around his chair. Small bolts of lightning ran along his arms and the sides of the table, and a strange temperature filled the environment when White Fire began manifesting as small sparks over his shoulders.

The voices died.

Victor observed every person who had spoken.

"If you don’t shut your mouths, I’ll kill all of you." Victor warned while his expression remained far too calm for someone making a threat of that magnitude.

Some of the elders immediately became furious.

Others noticed something far more important.

Yu Jin Cheon still had not done anything.

Victor leaned back slightly in the chair.

"The adults are talking." Victor added while looking back at the Heavenly Demon, as if everyone else in the hall had ceased to exist.

The silence that followed was much heavier than the previous one.

Yu Jin Cheon stared at Victor for several seconds.

Then ran a hand over his face.

"Can’t you enter anywhere normally?" Yu Jin Cheon asked while letting out a deep sigh.

Victor grinned.

"I can." Victor replied while resting one arm on the table. "I just don’t see the fun in it."