Chapter 567

Gye Mun began moving, and I followed him.

I wondered what to do with Freak Demon, but leaving him behind as he was would be absurd.

After all—

I had deliberately revealed that Freak Demon was on my side.

I could not leave him there.

So he accompanied us.

To begin with, I had no idea where we were going.

I did not ask.

Asking, “Where are we going?” here felt like something I should not do.

I had to maintain the image I had established as much as possible.

This is taking more energy than I expected. Is this all right?

Black hair and red eye-light.

The form I had changed into by applying demonic qi was somewhat difficult to maintain for long.

The Heavenly Demon’s power had made the image of my body a little more stable, but—

Demonic qi is still demonic qi.

It was still difficult to keep it going for long.

The amount of energy it consumed was not ordinary either.

It is draining away just from maintaining it.

This was not easy.

It had been the same when I used the Heavenly Demon Divine Arts, but it was a little too much for simply maintaining it to be this exhausting.

And yet I cannot even show that I am tired.

In other words, this was an absurd situation.

I forced back the sigh that was about to come out and followed Gye Mun.

He was entering the interior of a Holy Cult building.

At that moment, Freak Demon’s movements stopped.

—I will see you later, My Sky.

Along with the voice transmission, his presence vanished.

Where had he suddenly gone?

While I was wondering, Gye Mun, who was walking ahead, spoke.

“Inside, there are other elders and figures of similar standing. There may also be several beings capable of noticing Freak Demon.”

“So you sent him away?”

“Yes.”

“I understand.”

I nodded at those words.

He was right.

As long as the other elders were in the Holy Cult, it would be strange for Freak Demon to be following us like this.

If there was one thing I found questionable here—

Why are all the Eight Demons following the Young Cult Leader?

The elder circle seemed to have formed factions or, at least, did not appear to be blindly following the Young Cult Leader.

In comparison, the Eight Demons were different.

All of them were following the Young Cult Leader. ℯℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

That was strange.

The Eight Demons are symbolic figures too. Did the Young Cult Leader win over all of them?

Considering that the elder circle had not done that—

No, it is not that they did not.

They could not.

That possibility was higher.

Then what was the reason they could not?

As I held that question—

“Erase your presence.”

Gye Mun spoke to me.

Hearing that, I used my energy.

I blocked off my presence and removed the flow of my energy.

As soon as I tried it, Gye Mun handed something to me.

A mask?

“Your appearance stands out. Make sure you cannot be seen.”

I accepted it and put it on.

What was this place?

What kind of place is this?

It did not look particularly special.

It was a space lined with ordinary buildings.

Gye Mun stepped into it.

Inside, other martial artists of the Holy Cult were present, and the moment they saw Gye Mun, they hurried to show respect.

Compared to them, Gye Mun did not spare them the slightest glance.

He simply moved forward in silence.

Then—

“We greet the elder.”

Only after reaching the far end did his steps stop.

At the same time, he took something from his chest.

A seal?

It was an object that looked like some kind of seal.

What was he going to do with that?

And on top of that—

There is spiritual energy in it.

Spiritual energy had soaked into the object.

That meant it was not just some ordinary object.

It was not a simple seal.

He took it out and held it to the door.

RATTLE—! CLACK!

I heard the sound of a mechanism moving in the door.

As I watched that—

“......Elder.”

The one guarding the door looked at me and spoke to Gye Mun.

“Outsiders are......”

“He is one of mine, so pay it no mind.”

“However—”

“That is an order.”

“......Understood.”

At the firm words, he shut his mouth.

It seemed there was nothing more he could say after being told it was an order.

The martial artist stepped aside, and Gye Mun entered through the open door.

It seemed I had to follow him.

Seeing that, I entered as well.

The inside was dim, but ever since I had opened my Moon Eye, something like that had no meaning.

I saw stairs.

We slowly descended them.

They were quite deep.

How far down were we going?

Actually, was it all right to come to such a deserted place in the first place?

I wonder if he is just going to kill me at this rate.

That anxiety surfaced as well.

I swallowed dryly and kept descending.

Then—

Stop.

Just before we finished descending, Gye Mun stopped.

There were still more stairs below, so why had he stopped here?

No way.

Is he really doing it here?

Was he about to kill me?

Just as tension rose in that alarming situation—

“Wait.”

As Gye Mun spoke, he ran his hand over the wall.

Not long after—

Rrrrk.

The wall sank inward.

The moment he pressed it, it slid right in.

Then—

RUMBLE—!!!

The wall moved, and an entrance formed.

No way.

Even this was a mechanism?

I did not see it with Moon Eye.

There had been things I could see from time to time, but this time, there was nothing like that.

Why had they put two mechanisms here?

What on earth were they hiding?

My questions only deepened.

As I was looking at it, Gye Mun moved first again.

Just as I was about to follow him in—

WOOOOONG—!

“......!”

My body froze.

This is—

My body trembled.

It was an enormous energy.

It was not simple inner qi.

Spiritual energy......

It was spiritual energy.

And there was a dense spread of energy at least on the level of a higher god.

I looked behind me with startled eyes.

They had sealed spiritual energy of this magnitude behind a single doorway?

I swallowed my shock as I looked at the mechanism’s entrance.

How on earth?

What had they used to block something that would be difficult to stop even with ordinary spells or talismans?

It was a moment even I could not understand.

“Why are you not coming?”

“......I’m coming.”

Gye Mun called as if urging me.

Hearing that, I followed.

I felt pressure that could not even be compared to what I had felt before.

The same went for my tension.

What exactly was here for me to feel such spiritual energy?

A higher god.

It was spiritual energy from something above even that.

I did not feel malice.

Rather—

It is too pure.

A pure, even purer energy.

Usually, this was the kind of pure spiritual energy one might expect from children who died young.

But what is with this amount?

It was like Mount Tai.

Despite being pure, what should have been small was far too vast.

Vast enough to inspire awe.

[It does not seem to have been moved.]

At the Heavenly Demon’s words, I sensed that he knew something.

It meant something existed within the Holy Cult.

Before long, we reached the bottom of the stairs.

And there—

“......Huh.”

There was an ancient tree.

A massive, vast ancient tree receiving light from some unknown source.

Divine Tree.

It was unmistakably a Divine Tree.

The only tree capable of emitting this much spiritual energy was a Divine Tree.

And even accounting for that—

What is this overwhelming energy?

It was an energy that made my breathing feel distorted just by looking at it.

Something like this......

In my past life, I have seen......

I had seen it.

It was not that I had not.

However, that had not been an ancient tree.

It had truly been a god.

In other words, to possess this much energy, something really had to be a god.

A god taking the form of an ancient tree.

True to the name, an existence closer to a Divine Tree than anything else was here.

“What is this?”

“As you can see, a tree.”

Gye Mun spoke as if it were nothing.

“A massive ancient tree and source that the Cult has possessed for a very long time.”

“.......”

“It seems you have not heard about this.”

Where would I have heard that something like this existed beneath the Holy Cult?

There had been a Divine Tree in what seemed to be Yoo Cheongil’s snack storage or whatever, and even that had made me wonder why something like that was there.

Surprisingly, one was here too.

And it was far larger.

“Why did you bring me here?”

Even at a glance, it was extraordinary.

It had been blocked off so that not just anyone could see it, and the entrance had even been sealed with a double mechanism.

“For confirmation.”

“Confirmation?”

That was when Gye Mun slowly placed his hand on his waist.

It seemed he was about to grab his sword.

What was this?

Was “confirmation” a metaphor for cutting off my head?

For that, I did not feel any killing intent.

Shrrrng.

His sword finally came free.

“Draw.”

“.......”

At those words, I also drew the Divine Sword.

If there was a problem, I trusted that the Heavenly Demon would have told me already.

Gye Mun flicked his sword toward my drawn sword.

It seemed to mean I should bring mine out as well.

I took my stance.

And then—

CLANG—!!!

“......!”

Gye Mun came at me in an instant and struck my sword.

Because I had strength in my hand, I did not drop it.

More precisely, it seemed he had used only enough pressure to keep me from dropping it.

WOOOOOOOOONG.

At the same time, a sword cry rang out.

The impact that entered the Divine Sword released a sword cry.

And following that sword cry—

Sssssss—!

The Divine Tree suddenly shook.

What?

Spiritual energy scattered from the Divine Tree.

It was not simply shaking.

The spiritual energy contained within the Divine Tree began flowing out.

Immediately after that—

SAAAAAA—!!!

The energy began being sucked into the Divine Sword.

What was this......?

Throb!

“......!”

Pain came.

All at once, I felt sudden agony.

I felt like I was about to drop the sword.

My blood vessels stood on end, and my breathing clogged.

What the......!

[Seize the energy.]

The Heavenly Demon intervened.

The moment I heard those words, I seized the things flowing in.

I felt them wrap around my body.

Wong. Wong. Wong.

The Divine Sword continued resonating.

“......Hah......”

Gye Mun reacted when he saw that.

“......It truly is that person’s sword.”

It seemed he had confirmed something with this.

Confirmation was all well and good, but—

Damn it—

It hurt like hell.

The spiritual energy that had burst out of the Divine Tree made it hard to even stay conscious.

It was different from inner qi in its very quality.

The concentration is too thick......

The concentration of spiritual energy surpassed my imagination.

If a concentration of this level entered all at once, even my vessel was bound to be strained.

I’m going insane.

I wanted to somehow pretend I was fine, but the pain was one thing, and the issue of the spiritual energy was another.

What should I do with this?

As I clenched my lip and barely endured—

“Hey.”

Gye Mun looked at me and approached.

It was a situation where, if things went wrong, it might show that I was in pain.

Just as I was struggling to endure somehow—

Chime.

What?

I heard the sound of a bell from somewhere.

Chime. Chime. Chime.

The shaking of the Divine Tree.

And at the same time, the chiming sound of bells.

As if responding, the Divine Tree’s movement slowed.

Before long, the pain that had been coming into me gradually stopped as well.

“.......”

My gaze turned forward.

The bell sound tickling my ears felt somehow familiar.

Step.

What came next was the sound of footsteps.

Footsteps came from somewhere, and someone was approaching from far away.

Step.

What emerged from the shadowed space was a pure white foot.

What appeared after that was a woman holding bells.

“.......”

Her face could not be seen clearly because of the veil covering her eyes.

The woman who had suddenly appeared looked at me and Gye Mun, then spoke.

“A guest has come.”

“.......”

“The elder has brought someone precious.”

“......It has been a long time, Dancer.”

Dancer.

At those words, I focused on the woman.

......Wow.

I could not see.

Nothing.

In other words—

She is similar to me.

It also meant she possessed spiritual abilities on my level.