Book 12: Chapter 14: Exodus

Part 14 Exodus

In the darkness without a single point of light.

“Ugh…!”

The corpses that fell from the fleeing bizarre entity scattered into pieces in all directions.

Nevertheless those who had offered their lives to the Cult through sorcery were writhing, throbbing, and screaming even in a crushed, broken, shattered, and distorted state.

“Uuuuh…!”

However that bizarre sight did not last very long.

Aaaaa-.

Ooooo-.

Chilling wails of ghosts were heard and from the Dark Venerable's shadow, which was clear even in the darkness, snow-white hands popped out and grabbed and dragged the pieces that could neither live nor die.

“Aaargh!”

“Kyaaa!”

The pieces screamed and struggled to escape the grasp but it was useless.

Resistance was meaningless.

As if being dragged into an abyss, the pieces were pulled into the floor, followed by a brief silence.

And.

Crunch.

Rip.

The sound of bones and flesh twisting and being torn apart echoed.

From every mouth of the abyss where the pieces had been dragged, black, dead blood gushed up and splattered.

The cavity of the deepest layer was filled with the sounds of the things that had fallen from the bizarre entity being eaten.

It was the Dark Venerable's authority, and the banquet of the Scripture of Controlling Darkness and Shaking the Heavens.

Would a living hell look like this?

While that cruel sound crossed over the wall and echoed clearly even into the connecting passage, the question Geum-jil opened his mouth to ask was even out of place.

“Do you know what kind of space this deepest layer is for?”

“Regarding the purpose of constructing this underground drainage system and Hwangho, the public knows it like this.”

He raised an obese arm dripping with rotten fat and pointed in all directions.

“To manage the water control of Luoyang, which is closely related to the Yellow River, and to maintain the water level of the East-West Grand Canal constant.”

However in reality, that was merely a secondary function.

It was merely a trick to hide the true purpose.

The Dark Venerable, Yeon So-hyeon, knew that fact very well.

“…It was the last struggle of the collapsing previous dynasty.”

Prosperity must fall.

In time in history, every dynasty, every order, faces a period of corruption and decline.

And that was an inevitable result even for the previous dynasty, which was the predecessor of the State of Zhongyuan.

“You know it exactly…!”

Agreeing like that, Geum-jil coughed and spat out a handful of black blood.

The piece that had fallen from the colony was gradually dying off.

“Hundreds of years ago, the last king of the previous dynasty who was on this land was possessed by a mad Daoist.”

Even in the midst of that the story of hundreds of years ago began from Geum-jil's mouth.

“He came to believe that if a massive lake were created in this thousand-year-old ancient capital of Luoyang, which was the capital of numerous dynasties, the earth qi would gather together to form a dragon vein, and by doing so, the declining national fortune of the country would be restored.”

“…….”

The eyes of Yeon So-hyeon, from which ghost fire bloomed, narrowed.

“Thus, tens of thousands of slaves were mobilized for the construction.”

Geum-jil stared into the void with his yellowed, spoiled eyeballs and continued.

“But soon, the Emperor realized that he could not carry out a grand construction unprecedented in history with a mere tens of thousands.”

Why was it?

Geum-jil's words carried an atmosphere like the testimony of someone who had directly lived through that era.

“But it did not matter. It was an era when citizens fell into slavery day after day.”

Geum-jil smiled and continued speaking even while spilling pitch-black blood.

“If tens of thousands were not enough, they dragged tens of thousands more. If even that was not enough, they dragged another tens of thousands.”

From afar the screams of the things that had been forming the bizarre entity and fell off, dying while being eaten, sounded like the screams of the slaves who had been dragged here hundreds of years ago to dig and dig the underground.

“And in the midst of that, the Cult was born in this terrible underground.”

“……!”

Beneath the white mask, Yeon So-hyeon's eyebrows twitched.

“The Cult is beside those who suffer, beside those who are abandoned. Therefore, the birth of the Cult was an inevitability and destiny.”

What Geum-jil was speaking of now was the history of the Demonic Cult that even Yeon So-hyeon did not know and the hidden truth of how the Demonic Cult started in the past.

Of course, so far, it was merely Geum-jil's one-sided claim, Yeon So-hyeon chuckled at those words.

“With the emergence of the Cult, our ancestors could maintain minimum dignity in this underground.”

“Did they also go mad with resentment back then, making living people neither live nor die, and uniting with one mind and purpose to destroy the world just to protect that thing called ‘dignity’?”

Growl.

As if keeping pace with Yeon So-hyeon's words, the demonic qi of the Scripture of Controlling Darkness and Shaking the Heavens let out a growl.

“No.”

However unexpectedly, Geum-jil reacted calmly to Yeon So-hyeon's mockery.

“It was not so.”

“You must have also heard of the Fairy Cult and the Medicine Fairy, right?”

What was the reason the story of the Fairy Cult and Yeon So-hyeon's mother, Yak So-yu, was coming out now?

“…….”

Yeon So-hyeon did not bother to answer.

There was no need to speak of things that might reveal his identity to Geum-jil.

“Our ancestors also did not start differently from them.”

However Geum-jil did not care and continued what he had to say.

“Just as the Fairy Cult had the Medicine Fairy, our ancestors had a Holy Maiden.”

Geum-jil's voice grew distant.

“Our ancestors followed the Holy Maiden's teachings. The less poor helped the poorer. The less sick helped the sicker.”

Those words were terribly human.

“…….”

“The dynasty of that time treated slaves as less than livestock, but our ancestors could be human within the doctrine.”

A shocking story, to the point that it was utterly unbelievable that it was about the current Demonic Cult.

How much of it was the truth, and how much was a lie?

Yeon So-hyeon's eyes narrowed even further.

“In the end, at that time,” even while receiving that doubt-filled gaze, and even in the process of his long-rotted body collapsing, Geum-jil did not stop speaking.

“In total, people reaching one million were mobilized. But completing Hwangho and the underground drainage system was impossible.”

That part agreed with the history Yeon So-hyeon knew.

“To mobilize slaves for such a large-scale construction in a twisted, rotting, and collapsing nation—it was a mad plan from the very beginning.”

The previous dynasty, which pushed ahead with the construction unreasonably, fell like that.

Whether the previous dynasty met its destined fate sooner due to the unreasonable construction or whether earth qi and essence gathered even a little in the unfinished pit, prolonging the lifespan of that terrible era even a bit, it could not be known now.

“The newly established dynasty promised a new era and moved the capital from Luoyang to the current Imperial Capital.”

The new dynasty that was, the current dynasty of the State of Zhongyuan, declared its ambition to end that terrible era and also abolished slavery.

“We cheered in this underground! Although countless people lost their lives in this underground…!”

His voice trembled.

“Those who survived, our ancestors, blessed and celebrated that day!”

Geum-jil's body, which sat down with his obese form and reached out toward the void, trembled.

“They thought that faithful devotion and good faith in humanity had finally borne fruit!”

Hearing up to that point, Yeon So-hyeon tightly closed his eyes beneath the mask.

He could already guess the next part of the story even without listening.

Even its conclusion.

“But!”

A twisted laughter burst from Geum-jil's mouth.

“Our ancestors never left this underground! They never saw the sunlight again!”

The previous dynasty fell, but though the new dynasty was established, the construction did not end.

It continued.

And from Geum-jil's mouth came the name of the family that Yeon So-hyeon had exactly guessed.

“The Yeon Family of Luoyang!”

That was the name referring to the Luoyang Sword Family in the past.

“There was no liberation! The bastards did not set our ancestors free!”

At the past atrocities committed by the family, Yeon So-hyeon gritted his teeth.

“Instead, saying our ancestors were not slaves, they handed them contracts promising wages to be paid later!”

Geum-jil wailed, spitting black blood.

“A contract that was merely a scrap of paper, meaningless to our ancestors who would eventually end their lives in the underground without seeing the sunlight!”

His yellowed, spoiled eyeballs were dyed jet-black by the burning demonic qi.

“Because they were a founding contributor family of the new nation, the State of Zhongyuan, our ancestors' protests were meaningless, and their shouts were hollow!”

Had the predation of the Scripture of Controlling Darkness and Shaking the Heavens finished?

Before he knew it, the screams echoing in the passage stopped.

“When our ancestors did not stop resisting, the Yeon Family systematically and collectively suppressed our Cult!”

But still Yeon So-hyeon could hear screams filled with grief and despair throughout this entire underground space.

“Calling our Cult the Demonic Cult, they drove us as a religious group that deceived the people in times of chaos!”

That was generation after generation and again, through generation after generation, the shout of the resentful spirits captured in the bond of resentment that had lasted for that long period of hundreds of years.

“…….”

Yeon So-hyeon could tell that the history Geum-jil bared was the truth, within the shouts of the resentful spirits told by the Scripture of Controlling Darkness and Shaking the Heavens.

“Among our ancestors, there were also many who escaped this hell somehow!”

However even after leaving the underground, hell continued, outside of Luoyang, beyond North China, passing Yizhou, and even to beyond the border.

“But they could not even return to their hometowns due to the suppression across the entire State of Zhongyuan, and had to flee constantly!”

Still, their hell did not end.

“At that time when the State of Zhongyuan had just been founded and was only in chaos…! Inevitably, as our Cult's influence grew day by day, ultimately, a hunt targeting our Cult began!”

During the time of great chaos when one dynasty fell and a new dynasty was established countless people became martial artists to protect themselves, and became people of the martial world.

The Nine Great Sects grew incomparably strong and to turn their bloating power outward, the new Imperial Court needed a common enemy.

That was the beginning of the Demonic Cult hunt and that was the beginning of the Martial Alliance.

“Thus, we decided.”

Geum-jil spilled a laughter full of resentment.

“If they want the Demonic Cult that much, we will become the Demonic Cult.”

The remaining demonic qi in Geum-jil's body boiled and bubbled up.

“So we searched and searched for a way. A way for us to become the true Demonic Cult…! A means to bring an end to this hellish world and open a new world…!”

And eventually, decades ago someone of the Demonic Cult, who was driven into a corner, must have found a way.

A way to contact an 'entity' of some outer universe.

“…Decades ago.”

Yeon So-hyeon, who was keeping silent, opened his mouth.

“Was the mass suicide of that day when the Demonic Cult fell a ritual ceremony?”

“Yes!”

That was referring to that mass suicide witnessed by the vanguard of the Martial Alliance, which had pushed the Demonic Cult's forces to the entrance of the Hundred Thousand Mountains.

It referred to that incident where thousands of Cultists were found as corpses overnight.

“It was the day of the great contract. We, all of us, were sacrifices, and at the same time, it was the day we received baptism!”

Madness.

Demonic qi.

Endless hatred grown in the soil created by obsession with resentment and power.

“With that day as the starting point, our Demonic Cult was reborn as the true Demonic Cult!”

Geum-jil shouted to Yeon So-hyeon with a vocal volume unbelievable for a collapsing person.

“O Dark Venerable, our grand ritual has already begun!”

Even while spitting jet-black blood, even while his limbs collapsed Geum-jil shouted.

“Now, no one can stop it! All Cultists across the State of Zhongyuan who were waiting for the time of prophecy will respond!”

“…….”

Yeon So-hyeon was not surprised.

He already knew from his memories before regression.

The Demonic Cult's rampage in Luoyang was merely the signal flare announcing the time of chaos and confusion that would visit the entire Central Plains afterward.

“If there is one regrettable thing, it is that with my own hands directly…!”

Geum-jil raised an arm that was already broken to pieces, losing its shape, and gestured as if gripping the void.

“That I could not avenge our ancestors' resentment on that hateful Luoyang Sword Family, which was the beginning of all this history…!”

Even after hearing that history of resentment and hatred, the Dark Venerable firmly shook his head.

“Do not feel regret.”

“Not only you, but no one of that Demonic Cult will be able to overthrow the Luoyang Sword Family, and furthermore, you will not be able to achieve your cherished wish either.”

“I know it! You will block us just like now!”

White hands popped out from the shadow and grabbed Geum-jil.

“But!”

His gaze turned toward Yeon So-hyeon for the last time.

“Remember and remember again, O Dark Venerable…!”

He laughed even while being dragged in by the hands of the Scripture of Controlling Darkness and Shaking the Heavens.

And at the same time, he cried.

“Our Cultists whom you will kill and devour countlessly in the future…!”

Crunch, chew.

“We whom you call demons…!”

Even while being chewed and disappearing, Geum-jil's shout did not cease.

“Were the weakest people, were the good ones who believed in humans the most, and were those who desperately needed help the most…!”

After a moment all those terrible sounds that echoed underground disappeared, and only the Dark Venerable, dripping the demonic qi of the Scripture of Controlling Darkness and Shaking the Heavens, remained in that space.

“…….”

Feeling the rotten wind passing through the passage, he raised his gaze and looked at the ceiling.

The weakest people sometimes become the most evil.

No matter what Geum-jil babbled, no matter what origin the Demonic Cult possessed Yeon So-hyeon, the Eldest Young Master of the Luoyang Sword Family, the Dark Venerable, does not stop.

Nor does he hesitate.

The demon that devours demons.

The evil that destroys evil.

For becoming a demon and becoming evil like that was the path he had chosen himself.