Chapter 556

The white-haired elder.

The elders I had met so far had all been white-haired, and that man was not all that different.

A sharp build, with a somewhat murderous-looking face.

Since he was called an elder, he was surely an absolute master.

But.

Why is he glaring at me like that?

He was glaring at me. Openly, at that. I did not know whether he had something to say, or whether he simply hated me.

Probably the latter.

Given what I represent.

The Sword Immortal’s inheritor. With that title alone, I was no different from a criminal here. Since he had been the one who brought down the Demonic Cult, it was only natural.

I did not particularly see that as a problem. What more was there to say if they hated me?

Only.

But is there any need to stare that openly?

The other elders at least seemed to pretend they were not doing it. That man did not even bother with that.

Seeing that, I asked Woo Young Jin beside me.

“What kind of elder is that elder?”

“......Shut up.”

Woo Young Jin showed an attitude that said not to talk to him. No, couldn’t he at least tell me that much? He must have brought the information anyway.

Just as I was thinking of asking again—

“He is the First Elder.”

“......Oh.”

The First Elder. I could hear that he was someone at the very top.

“......So stop asking. He is currently the highest-ranking person in the Holy Cult.”

The highest-ranking being in the Holy Cult. The Young Cult Leader had not appeared, and the First Elder had. This was unexpected.

No matter what, I had thought the Young Cult Leader should be the first one to appear.

Well, that might just be this man’s opinion.

Others might say the Young Cult Leader ranked higher, but this side did not seem to be on good terms with the Young Cult Leader.

It might not be true.

I stopped asking there for the moment and looked at the old man called the First Elder. Before long, he stepped onto the platform and began looking down at us.

“Good to see you.”

A low voice lightly wrapped around the surroundings. It did not seem as if much inner qi had gone into it, but it was a powerful voice.

“I offer my thanks to the stars of the Cult who have taken part in this training as well. There may be some changes in the situation...... but that does not mean the Holy Cult’s will has changed.”

Oho?

At the elder’s words, I narrowed my eyes.

The changed anomaly likely referred to us. And when he said after that that the Holy Cult’s will had not changed—

Does that mean they will still keep a wall raised against the orthodox faction?

It was not something to say to people who had come for an agreement and a covenant. In other words, the First Elder’s will differed from the Young Cult Leader’s.

Put another way.

This could be a little dangerous.

It meant the situation was somewhat dangerous from our side as well. One of the Demonic Cult’s power holders did not like us very much.

Hmm.

Would this become a problem in its own way? The thought crossed my mind, but—

I’ll see when the time comes.

I would think about it later and focus on the present. Just as I was watching him—

“I am the First Elder of the Holy Cult. My name is Gye Mun.”

Gye Mun.

The First Elder’s name was Gye Mun. Did that mean I now knew four of the elders? Though I had never met the Second Elder directly.

Hmm.

As I stared intently at Gye Mun, his gaze turned toward me again this time.

Our eyes met for a few seconds. Then—

Tingle.

Gye Mun glared at me again. Those were vicious eyes. Why did he keep doing that?

As I was wondering—

“Please focus on this training.”

Gye Mun turned his gaze away as if nothing had happened and began speaking again.

“If there is a decent child in this training, I am even thinking of taking one in.”

“......!”

At those words, they began to tremble with emotion. Fighting spirit began to well up from the Holy Cult younger-generation prodigies who had only been tense until then.

Is that sentence that important?

I tilted my head and looked to the side. Woo Young Jin, too, was biting his lip and steeling his fighting spirit.

“I hope there will be good results.”

With that, Gye Mun disappeared. He vanished after leaving only those few words, but it seemed that was enough.

Look at these kids.

Their reactions were something else. The heat in their eyes was no joke.

It was to the point that they could have been sent straight to war like this.

It seemed becoming an elder’s disciple held considerable meaning.

As I was thinking that—

“Hey.”

“Mm?”

Woo Young Jin called me.

“What is it?”

“......Take it.”

He pulled a letter from his chest. Ah, this must be the information.

I accepted it and grinned.

“Thank you.”

“......Instead, I have one request.”

“What is it?”

“Do this training with me too.”

“Hmm?”

I tilted my head. What was this about?

“Can we do this one together too?”

“Yes.”

“That’s interesting. I thought it would be every man for himself, but they keep making us form something like groups.”

“To be precise, it is not a group.”

“Then?”

“This time, the opponent is an instructor, and cooperation is allowed. That is all.”

“......Mm?”

The opponent was an instructor? At those words, I narrowed my eyes. We had to fight an instructor?

“But why do that with me?”

“I think it will be necessary. Why? Do you dislike it?”

“No. I don’t dislike it. We agreed to use each other, didn’t we?”

When I smirked, Woo Young Jin clicked his tongue. It seemed his pride had been slightly wounded.

That was not something I needed to care about, so I ignored it for now.

Anything worked for me.

After all.

What I planned to use this side for was not “information.”

*****

I checked the information Woo Young Jin had given me. As I had requested, information about the elders and factions was written down.

I skimmed it slightly, folded it, and put it into my chest.

It was not because memorizing it all had taken almost no time.

I know all of this anyway.

It was information I already knew. I had more than enough people who could give me information; did he think I would not know this?

Even so, there was one reason I had wanted to receive it.

Would this bastard actually—

I wanted to see whether he would try some trick on me.

That was why I had looked at it.

Fortunately, it seems that was not it.

It was not some dogshit move. He had handed over something proper. With this, I gave him a not-bad evaluation for now.

And.

As for the other thing......

He wanted us to be in the same team. What I had seen in Woo Young Jin’s eyes was ambition and desire. He wanted to catch the First Elder’s eye.

What puzzled me was—

Isn’t this guy a fighter type?

What did a fighter-type martial artist like Woo Young Jin plan to do by becoming the First Elder’s disciple?

From the look of him, Gye Mun is a swordsman.

Black-Iron Demon Sword.

That was Gye Mun’s title. Had they said he was a martial artist on the same level as the Sword Demon, who had been one of the former Eight Demons?

Considering that the previous generation of the Eight Demons had been overwhelmingly high-level, in truth, elders and Eight Demons could be seen as equal.

But not now, I suppose.

I could tell by looking at the state of the Severing Demon and the Great Demon. They could not compare to the previous Eight Demons.

It meant the Holy Cult’s level had weakened.

At least, that was how I saw it.

It’s good to gather information like this, but.

I looked around. It was the same forest where the previous training had been held. The cliff there. From around that point, I looked down.

A certain area of Xinjiang was visible below. After checking it, I swept my hair back.

When am I supposed to find that?

The Young Cult Leader’s request. In other words, meeting Yoo Cheongil’s master. I wanted to make that my goal, but—

It isn’t easy to get away from the Holy Cult.

There were things I had to do here, so I could not easily make any moves.

It was unfortunate. If there were one more break, I would like to roam around.

That too......

With eyes watching me, it would not be easy. It was a complete mess. I had to create a situation somehow.

Just as I was reminding myself of that—

“What are you doing?”

Woo Young Jin asked.

“Are you not going?”

“I am.”

We had met as soon as the training started. That was because we had said we would form an alliance.

Since I had met Woo Young Jin, it was time to move.

“Hmm.”

The name of this training was......

Master Hunt.

They said it was training meant to determine how far one could resist against an absolute figure.

I wondered what kind of dogshit training that was, but apparently it had been born because of Yoo Cheongil.

Was it a training method created by the Demonic Cultists who had been dying against that monster-like man?

......I understand.

Then, well, that made sense.

[Pathetic beyond words.]

The Heavenly Demon expressed considerable dissatisfaction after hearing that, but there was nothing that man could do.

If you’re dead, you should just stay quiet.

In any case. Training with an instructor meant that cooperation, combat, or methods of escape against them would be scored.

“What are we going to do?”

“Combat, of course.”

Woo Young Jin wanted to choose combat. A battle with an instructor, huh.

“You mean we fight while cooperating, right?”

“Yes.”

“But is it all right to choose me for that?”

He was saying he would join hands with an orthodox martial artist and fight an instructor. I wondered if that was allowed.

At my words, Woo Young Jin’s face twisted slightly as he said,

“This is the best option.”

“......Aha.”

“You seem less filthy than the others.”

“What do you mean, not clean, just less filthy?”

That felt a little unpleasant. The words made me let out a hollow laugh, but I did not point it out further.

“Are the two of us the only ones doing it? What about the others?”

“There is no need to lose more points.”

“Mm.”

Did that mean too much cooperation was no good either? Well, I more or less understood.

“Then we’re going to look for an instructor like this.”

“The instructors will be searching for us from the start too, but it will be best for us to search as well.”

“Mm.”

That made sense.

So I moved with Woo Young Jin. As we were moving, I asked something I was curious about.

“By the way.”

“What?”

“You are a fighter type, so what do you want to do by becoming the Black-Iron Demon Sword’s disciple?”

“.......”

At my words, Woo Young Jin paused for a moment.

“It’s not as if you’re going to learn martial arts all over again.”

“......I suppose not.”

Unless he emptied his dantian and cultivated from the start again, it should have no meaning.

I wondered why he was trying so hard to become a disciple.

“The First Elder has never taken a disciple until now.”

“Oh, is that so?”

“Yes. And though there are families he pushes, even that is not absolute support. But becoming his disciple means—”

“You gain the First Elder’s support?”

“That’s right.”

“You would rise highest among the Heavenly Demon candidates.”

“There are already those who are disciples of elders, but no one is the First Elder’s disciple. The meaning would be powerful. In addition—”

“Because the First Elder does not support the Young Cult Leader?”

“.......”

Woo Young Jin looked at me with startled eyes.

“How did you—”

“I just more or less guessed.”

There had been information, and there was such a thing as intuition too. I see. So that was why?

But if he became a disciple, what would he learn if not martial arts?

I did not quite understand that part.

“......Then the First Elder is.......”

Just as I was about to ask more—

“Why are you calling me?”

“......”

“......!”

A voice came from beside us.

I turned my head. There stood—

“This training was not made so you could stand around chatting, was it?”

The First Elder, Black-Iron Demon Sword Gye Mun.

That old man was standing there.

“Especially when the prey are even barking loud enough to be heard.”

His sword was hanging low as he spoke.