Chapter 187: Maitreya Luminous Cult (3)

The Red Serpent Gang's boss's eyes widened like saucers at the intruder's cocky response.

"B-backing? What kind of backing are you—"

He couldn't even finish his sentence.

Clang!

The wrathful-masked man had already lunged forward with his sword, and the Red Serpent Gang boss was scrambling just to block the first strike.

He barely managed to swing his saber and deflect the initial attack, but his stance crumbled completely.

Through his wavering vision, he saw the intruder's sword coming at him slowly.

But somehow, even though the enemy's sword looked sluggish, he couldn't block it.

It wasn't that Il-mok's sword had slowed down. Time itself seemed to crawl when death was staring you in the face.

"Gkk..."

His heart pierced clean through, the Red Serpent Gang’s boss collapsed to the ground with a choked gasp.

***

Shortly after Il-mok stormed into the Red Serpent Gang estate, people began gathering around the estate.

Some of them had been at that meeting on the mountainside near Gulang County earlier.

"Are you out of your damn mind? Do you have any idea what place that is?”

"Well, since he made such a big claim, we should at least see it with our own eyes."

"You seriously believe what that guy said?"

They weren't exactly rushing in with complete confidence.

A few driven by curiosity or faint hope had taken the lead in following Il-mok, while others—trying to stop them or seeking comfort in numbers—tagged along with nervous uncertainty.

They crept closer to the Red Serpent Gang estate under the moonlight, while carefully keeping their distance out of fear. That's when they noticed something bizarre.

“Th-that over there. Isn’t that the gate to the manor?”

"The gate's been split in half?"

Only then did they realize the Red Serpent Gang's gate had been cleaved apart and lay scattered on the ground with two corpses sprawled in front of the broken gate.

Right at that moment—

"AAAAHHHHH!"

"P-please, spare me..."

Screams and desperate pleas for mercy echoed from inside the compound.

"Eek!"

Watching nervously from a distance, the people of Gulang County turned pale and staggered backward.

But the commotion died down as quickly as it had started.

"......"

The ashen-faced residents looked at each other.

“D-don’t tell me… he killed all of them?”

"Should we go inside and check?"

"Hey, you idiot! What if that masked guy got taken down instead?"

The funny thing was that not a single one of them was worried about the Red Serpent Gang thugs.

That's how deep the townspeople's hatred for the Red Serpent Gang ran.

As they stood there, unsure what to do and glancing nervously at each other—

Step. Step.

Faint footsteps reached their ears.

The residents stared at the Red Serpent Gang's entrance with tense faces.

Soon, two figures emerged through the wide-open gate.

One was a man wearing a wrathful mask, and the other was a girl too young to be really called a young woman.

The girl Il-mok had rescued felt uneasy seeing people gathered at the Red Serpent Gang entrance.

Most were faces she recognized. After all, she was also a resident of Gulang County.

Maybe it was seeing familiar faces that finally loosened her tongue. The girl who had been frozen stiff finally spoke up.

“G-Great Hero. M-may I a-ask you just one thing?”

"Go ahead."

Hearing the masked man's response, the girl asked hesitantly.

"W-who are you?"

What she saw next was absolutely bizarre.

Behind that angry mask, the man's lips were curved upward in a pleasant smile.

"I am the incarnation of Maitreya."

"The incarnation of... Maitreya?"

As the girl blinked in confusion at this unimaginable answer, the masked man had already vanished without a trace.

Instead, others rushed forward to fill the empty space.

"Cheong-ah! Are you okay?"

"What happened in there?"

The residents who'd come to the Red Serpent Gang bombarded the girl with questions.

The girl who'd been dragged to the Red Serpent Gang for unfortunate reasons had just become an unwitting witness to a religious event.

***

Using stealth techniques to hide himself, Il-mok made his way to the Gulang County branch of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.

"Whew."

Sighing lightly, Il-mok stripped off his sweat and blood-stained clothes and submerged himself in a pre-prepared bath.

As he washed himself in the still-warm water, he muttered to himself with relief.

"That was close."

He wasn't talking about the fight at the Red Serpent Gang.

Trying to move in stealth while covered in blood and sweat had nearly triggered his hygiene obsession. Just because he was starting to break free from the Extremity didn't mean the side effects had disappeared completely.

After thoroughly cleaning himself and putting on fresh clothes, Il-mok sensed people entering the branch.

"Did you bring everything?" Il-mok asked the group of people dressed in black.

They were his lunatic group.

They had used stealth techniques to sneak into the Red Serpent Gang compound while Il-mok raised hell inside.

In response to Il-mok's question, they each held out what they'd gathered.

Gold and silver coins, jewelry, ledgers, and other valuables filled their hands.

Their mission had been to steal the account books the Red Serpent Gang bastards had kept and whatever money they'd greedily hoarded.

Ju Seo-yeon and Baek Cheon were left to monitor the crowd's mood.

The Red Serpent Gang wasn't that big, so five people were plenty. Plus, those two weren't exactly suited for this kind of work.

‘At least I hope they don't cause any trouble.’

An airhead and an attention-whore weren't exactly great for covert operations.

The odd one out was Hyeokryeon Seon-ah.

Il-mok's original plan was to leave her at the gathering since he had assumed he wasn’t familiar with stealth techniques due to her limited training and education.

But who would have known that Hyeokryeon Seon-ah could use stealth skills and insisted on coming along.

‘Must've learned it from her family.’

Il-mok figured it was nothing special, considering that Jeong Hyeon had also been well-versed in concealment arts before his admission to the Hall of the Demonic Way.

Il-mok addressed those holding out books and treasure.

“Hand these over to the Gulang County Branch Leader. Instruct him to send one-tenth to the main headquarters, leave one-tenth here as operational funds, and for the rest, check the ledgers and return appropriate portions to people who were robbed."

“As you command!”

"Oh, and tell the Branch Leader to look into something called the Heavenly Orchid Society."

"The Heavenly Orchid  Society?"

"That's right. The Red Serpent Gang boss mentioned them before he died. Said the Heavenly Orchid  Society was their backing."

"We'll have the Branch Leader investigate, and we'll gather information separately as well."

Responding to Il-mok's orders, Dam Bin directed the group to organize the money and documents in one place.

***

After the Red Serpent Gang fell overnight...

"Did you hear that story?"

"About the Maitreya Luminous Cult?"

Word of the Maitreya Luminous Cult began spreading through Gulang County.

"Come on, you don't actually believe that nonsense, do you?"

"Hey, you stubborn fool. I saw it with my own eyes that night. That Incarnation of Maitreya swept away those Red Serpent Gang scumbags."

People talk about the Divine Cult’s doctrines even without being goaded by the cult’s warrior. And of course, the cult’s warrior didn’t waste this opportunity.

"Maitreya is definitely protecting our Gulang County!"

“Believe! Blessings will come to those who believe!”

The most enthusiastic among them was Baek Cheon. That being said, he wasn't causing a commotion by gathering people like he usually did.

Instead, whenever one of the martial artists from the Gulang County branch subtly spread a rumor about the Maitreya Luminous Cult to the villagers—

"Is that really true?!"

"Wow. If that story's real, then calling him the Incarnation of Maitreya isn't strange at all!"

—Baek Cheon would act like he was hearing it for the first time, using exaggerated acting to sway people.

He'd fallen for Il-mok's smooth talk.

"Performing on stage isn't the only kind of acting. Only when you can weave acting into daily life can you truly be called a master of the craft."

Deeply moved by Il-mok's advice, Baek Cheon threw himself into missionary work with this new approach.

And the mastermind behind this cult fever sweeping Gulang County was leisurely focusing on his training at the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult branch.

After Il-mok finished his internal energy cultivation and lowered his sword, Jin Hayeon who had been waiting alone to guard him threw a question.

"Young Master, I have something I'd like to ask."

"Go ahead."

"Was there a particular reason you personally took action against the Red Serpent Gang?"

While it might have seemed like concern for her charge taking on dangerous work on the surface, Jin Hayeon's question carried a deeper meaning.

'I do not doubt that the Young Master is a genius, but he's not usually one to take initiative.’

As someone who had been with Il-mok since his early days in the cult, she knew very well that Il-mok was quite lazy, contrary to his reputation.

"There are several reasons, but first... aren't they pitiful?"

"???"

Jin Hayeon looked confused by Il-mok's words.

"The people of Gulang County. Based on what I heard from the Branch Leader, they've been suffering a lot under the Red Serpent Gang."

Even with Il-mok's explanation, Jin Hayeon still looked puzzled.

It wasn't because she'd lost empathy from practicing the White Hand Demonic Art. Separate from empathy, she'd been indoctrinated through doctrine to save people.

It was just that...

“I was not aware that you were someone who'd go out of his way to handle troublesome matters just because others were suffering, Young Master."

It seemed strange for Il-mok to talk about compassion.

Of course, Il-mok also found it just as absurd that she questioned him about this.

'Just because she's a psychopath, does she see me as one too?'

Sensing some misunderstanding about himself, Il-mok shrugged and answered nonchalantly.

“And why would I not have sympathy?”

“It is just that you have always seemed rather indifferent to others.”

"I act indifferent precisely because I have compassion."

"???"

“If you go around getting involved and helping everyone here and there, it'd be too bothersome and exhausting. When I hear sad stories, I want to help, so I just choose not to listen in the first place."

"......"

Jin Hayeon could only make a bewildered expression at Il-mok's twisted logic.

But regardless of her feelings, Il-mok was speaking sincerely.

As he had once told the Heavenly Demon at Peach Blossom Ridge, Il-mok believed that even hypocrisy was a form of goodness. His choice to become a social welfare civil servant had similar reasoning.

Il-mok wanted to perform good deeds and help people in need in moderation. He wanted to arrive at work on time and leave work on time. He only wanted to help those who needed social services during his designated work hours.

He had no intention of doing good deeds to the point of exhaustion or burning himself out. He just wanted to perform small-scale, ordinary citizen-level good deeds, not saint-like acts.

Il-mok's reasons for getting involved this time followed the same logic.

In addition to pitying the people of Gulang County...

"Another reason was to hide my identity."

To avoid getting constantly dragged into work.

“Is that why you used the mask?”

"Exactly. In religious faith, mystique is important."

Though he packaged it nicely...

“For the sake of that mystique, I plan to wear the mask and step forward only when there are major issues in the future.”

He intended to use "mystique" as an excuse to dump all the trivial matters on others.