Chapter 164: God is Great (1)

As time passed, I gradually adapted to the changes.

Of course, I mean I got used to the schedule, not the actual activities themselves.

"It seems you've built up some resistance to paralysis poison now, so let's try something new."

I don’t know which one is worse.

Instructor Eun Ryeo casually offering new poisons like it was nothing, or the disciples eagerly gulping them down without a second thought.

Even worse...

“Keok… Keo-heok…”

Some idiots would fail to neutralize the poison and end up paralyzed or having seizures.

And watching these same morons come back the next day for another dose was enough to make my head spin.

Of course, if anyone else heard me complaining, they'd think I was being ridiculous.

After all, I was always the first one to neutralize the poisons.

What started as tiny fragments of paralysis pills grew bigger each day. After a few days, I was swallowing half a pill whole.

While some initiates struggled with the increased concentration of toxins, I always expelled the poison in no time.

In a way, you could chalk it up to the wonders of obsessive-compulsive disorder.

'That shit was inside my body?'

The thought alone made me sick, so I'd pour every ounce of energy into purging it from my system.

Anyway, after several days of paralysis poison training, we moved on to sampling new toxins.

"Qi Dispersing Poison becomes nearly impossible to counter with your own internal energy once it spreads through your body. However, it's not immediately life-threatening, so first you'll experience its effects firsthand, then learn to suppress it before it can spread."

While training with the Qi Dispersing Poison, a thought also occurred to me. If the demonic energy of the Soul-Stealing Heartless Sword disappeared, wouldn't the side effects also disappear?

The answer? Complete opposite.

Like withdrawal symptoms, the Soul-Stealing Heartless Sword started acting up when I couldn't handle demonic energy anymore.

We also sampled minute amounts of serious poisons that could dissolve organs, skin, and bones. We even tried aphrodisiacs.

The group aphrodisiac session was particularly bizarre, though nothing actually happened.

"Hehehe... ugh..."

The moment someone showed signs of succumbing to the effects, Instructor Eun Ryeo would knock them out cold.

We experienced all sorts of poisons beyond that.

Not just ingested ones, but those absorbed through skin or breathing.

In an environment that felt as if we had become subjects in a mad scientist’s biological experiment, I started to understand how 'poison' worked in this world.

'Basically, anything harmful to the body counts as poison.'

They just called it all "poison," but each type contained completely different energies.

That's why Instructor Eun Ryeo first had us experience direct poisoning.

Various energies entered and left our bodies through food and tea. It was even the same with respiration. The key was to sense and expel only the harmful energies from among the countless energies that would enter and exit the body throughout one’s life.

'On the flip side, if you don't recognize something as poison, you could be slowly exposed without even knowing.'

Like Third Brother's Black Bean Tea, or the sulfur and mercury that those of Eight Trigrams Hall loved to handle.

Unless it obviously wrecked your body quickly, it'd be hard to recognize as poison if it worked subtly over years or affected your mind instead of causing direct illness.

***

While Il-mok was spending his days fighting a bloody battle with poisons, a subtle change was occurring in the Meditation Club.

The number of disciples in the club was slowly decreasing each day.

The reason the new cadets had flocked to the Meditation Club was entirely because of Il-mok.

'I'll get close to the Eighth Young Master through the club!'

'I wonder what the famous Eighth Young Master is like in the club?’

'There must be a reason he joined the Meditation Club. Maybe he's seeking enlightenment through meditation.'

The fantasies of those who had joined the club with such thoughts were shattered in their entirety within a few days.

"Snooooore."

Thanks to Il-mok's habit of sitting cross-legged and falling into deep sleep the moment club time started.

At first, everyone was in denial.

'S-snoring?'

'I must have heard wrong...'

Then came the self-delusion.

'R-right, Father said it's important to rest well when not in combat during missions.'

‘He is not sleeping! He is so deep in meditation that it only looks like he’s sleeping. He's seeking enlightenment!'

But self-delusion only lasts so long.

One by one, they began accepting the truth.

The genius Il-mok might actually be an incredibly lazy bastard.

And around that time, fellow disciples from other clubs started tempting them away.

"Bwahaha! You should join the Bodybuilding Club! External training is crucial for martial arts! As warriors of the Divine Cult, shouldn't we cultivate our bodies too?"

Deung Ak, who'd caught Dokgo Pae's eye and joined the Bodybuilding Club, preached the importance of muscles.

"As followers of the Divine Cult, nothing is more important than doctrine."

It goes without saying that the Doctrine Research Club was popular.

“To think that I can portray the great achievements of the Heavenly Demon through my own acting. What a truly wonderful thing!”

Surprisingly, a few new students showed interest in the Theater Club.

Of course, thanks to the new students joining, there was now one senior female student who felt her breath catch in her throat every time she went to that clearing.

And so, around twenty days had passed. Only five students now remained in the Meditation Club.

Before Il-mok and Instructor Chu Il-hwan arrived, Choi Woong and his buddies casually asked Cheon Su-ryong, the only junior still remaining.

"Don't you want to transfer to another club, junior?"

"We hate to say this, but we're stuck here against our will."

"It’s because of Young Master Il-mok."

The three of them couldn’t bring themselves to say that the moment they quit, they would receive an ‘education’ from Il-mok. It was too embarrassing a story to tell a junior.

Cheon Su-ryong nodded at their words.

"I'm also staying because of Young Master Il-mok."

While all of his peers had realized the truth about Il-mok and left, he said, "I will definitely spar with Young Master Il-mok again. That's why I'm staying in this club."

Cheon Su-ryong's faith remained unshaken after having his skull cracked and patched up over the "Truth about the Eighth Young Master."

This was because the divine grappling techniques he had displayed that day still flickered in his mind.

How could a master who could perform such grappling techniques truly be lazy?

Moreover, the Eighth Young Master was supposedly a swordsman. Considering a sword specialist displayed such hand techniques, it made even less sense.

That was the conclusion the brain-patched Cheon Su-ryong came to.

He had reached a state where he could not see the truth even when it was right before his eyes, and simply accepted what he wanted to believe. As is common for those who believe in a false truth, Cheon Su-ryong spoke with his eyes glittering brightly.

'...He wants to spar with Young Master Il-mok again?'

'After what happened at the tournament?'

The trio looked at Cheon Su-ryong like he was insane.

***

To the west beyond the Tianshan Mountains. On the grasslands of a region known in the Central Plains as the Outer Lands. In a place where people who appeared to be nomads had formed a settlement, a certain man dismounted his horse with urgent movements and entered the largest tent.

"Khan!"

The chieftain, Mukhtar Khan, who'd been praying to his one true god, calmly finished his devotions and rose despite his subordinate's urgency.

The man, realizing he'd interrupted the Khan's important time, fell to his knees with an ashen face.

"Rise."

“I-I have committed a crime worthy of death.”

"Enough. If you've truly come with important matters, won't God forgive you?"

At Mukhtar Khan's words, the man gulped.

Interpreting the Khan's words backwards meant he'd die if the information wasn't important.

But though nervous, the man was confident.

He was certain both the Khan and their God would forgive him for information of this caliber.

"There have been changes among the infidels entrenched in Tianshan to the southeast."

"Changes?"

"Their patrols around Tianshan have decreased significantly, and instead, it is said that the majority of the infidels are now moving throughout the Xinjiang region.”

"...Their guard has weakened. Did you discover why?"

"Yes, Khan! I heard it's because of the Heavenly Demon's last disciple, the one those infidels worship as a god!"

Mukhtar Khan paused briefly at the name Heavenly Demon, then calmly asked as if nothing had happened.

"The Heavenly Demon's last disciple? What has he done?"

"The infidels are pouring all their efforts into handling something that the last disciple proposed."

“Hmm. It seems that this last disciple is quite an outstanding fellow.”

At Mukhtar Khan's words, mockery crossed his subordinate's lips.

"It's because they're foolish infidels. I heard he's just a whelp who hasn't even graduated from their training institution yet."

“You mean that place with the strange name, the Hall of the Demonic Way?”

"Yes. I have heard that the reason for the recent change in their movements is because that last disciple preached what he had realized during his first practical training.”

"First field training..."

Mukhtar Khan made a curious expression as he recalled what he knew about the infidels.

"Then this last disciple will go on several more field training?"

"Yes, Khan."

"Hmm... If the entire heretic group moved on a young disciple's single suggestion, the Heavenly Demon must cherish this last disciple greatly."

“What is there to say? To be played by a greenhorn who is not even twenty years old, the infidels are truly foolish beyond measure.”

Unfazed by his subordinate’s mockery of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult and the Heavenly Demon, Mukhtar Khan stroked his beard as he organized his thoughts.

No matter how much he mulled it over, he reached the conclusion that there could be no better opportunity than this.

"Tell the warriors to prepare for a Holy War."

Though Mukhtar Khan called it a Holy War, he had no intention of fighting the entire Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.

About thirty years ago, when he was just a whelp barely recognized as a warrior, he had witnessed with his own eyes the might of the being those infidels worshipped as god.

The might of the Heavenly Demon.

It was a truly surreal sight

Not just because his father and brothers were torn apart like mosquitoes with each casual gesture from the Heavenly Demon.

It felt like witnessing a god, not a human, wielding power forbidden to mortals.

That day, God's rest came to Mukhtar Khan's clan who had hidden in the Tianshan Mountains for pillaging.

The impartial rest called death.

Among those massacred that day, only a handful survived and escaped.

Mukhtar Khan barely survived, but that day's events remained etched in his mind.

A god, yes, but one who led everyone to death.

The existence of that Evil God gnawed at his spirit as if he were cursed.

Mukhtar Khan, who was wasting away day by day because of that curse, had a very special experience one day. He came into contact with the doctrines of a Western religion that had begun to spread in the region where he lived several decades ago.

Originally, Mukhtar Khan had believed in the Tngri like other nomads. But after encountering their teachings, he escaped the memory of the Evil God.

He was freed from the curse.

From that day, Mukhtar Khan was reborn. He was reborn as a warrior who served a god greater than the Evil God.

As a warrior of the one true god, Mukhtar Khan continued his holy war at the forefront of spreading God's word.

And now, after several decades have passed, he had become the Khan of a tribe no less large than the one his father had led in the past.

'This too is God's will.'

God must have given him this opportunity. An opportunity for revenge.

Of course, they were merely God's warriors, not God Himself. They couldn't dare oppose the Evil God directly.

So his target wasn't the Heavenly Demon.

“Let’s see if tears of blood flow from the Evil God’s eyes as well.”

Just as he himself had shed tears of blood while fleeing to survive as his parents and brothers were annihilated that day, he would make tears of blood flow from the Evil God’s eyes by killing his most cherished youngest disciple, just as he had lost his family.

He didn't care how many tribal warriors died in the process.

This was a Holy War.

A god who shed tears of blood was no god, so this was a Holy War to prove that only his God was the one true God in this world.