Star Instructor, Master Baek

TL: FoodieMonster007

"KEUAAAK!"

Startled by the ear-splitting scream, a flock of mountain birds took flight all at once.

Trembling like an aspen leaf in the wind, the Erudite Sage stared at Baek Suryong as if he had seen a ghost. "Y-You, you, how did you…" he wheezed, his face ashen.

Baek Suryong's crimson eyes were flickering like the fires of hell, and his hair was slowly turning red.

There was only one martial art in the world with that side effect.

"T-The Heaven Defying Divine Art…!"

"The Myriad Demons Nightmare Formation, you say? I feel like I've eaten a whole bunch of miracle herbs," Baek Suryong remarked, looking positively refreshed.

He gazed at the darkness behind the Erudite Sage. As he channeled the Heaven Defying Divine Art, the darkness writhed violently as if reacting to him.

Baek Suryong glared at the Erudite Sage, his Blood Demon Eyes blazing crimson in the darkness. "Now, shall we talk again?"

"C-Could you be… cough!"

As he spoke, blood suddenly began to flow from the Erudite Sage's eyes, nose, and mouth, and the stench of urine wafted from his lower body.

The sight of Baek Suryong's reddened eyes and hair had triggered a primal fear within him, causing him to lose control of his bodily functions.

"Eww… You're quite a handful." Frowning, Baek Suryong reached out to seal the Erudite Sage's acupoints.

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If left like this, the Erudite Sage would bleed to death. Not that he cared whether the Erudite Sage lived or died, but there were still things he needed to hear from the old man.

TAP! TAP! TAP!

After sealing the acupoints and stemming the bleeding, Baek Suryong examined the Erudite Sage's condition.

He won't last long.

The combination of his previous injuries, the side effects of his failed sorcery, and the mental shock of facing the Blood Demon Eyes had irreparably damaged the Erudite Sage's body.

The Erudite Sage, barely regaining consciousness, looked up at Baek Suryong with a corpse-like face. "My Lord… is that you?"

Baek Suryong stared at the Erudite Sage silently, but inwardly, he was greatly flustered.

What? Isn't he a Blood Cult Elder? Even if I've mastered the Heaven Defying Divine Art, the Blood Demon's martial art… No, wait. Has he never met the current Blood Demon?

It was hard to believe, but that seemed like the only reasonable explanation for the Erudite Sage's strange reaction. No matter how he looked at it, that face wasn't lying.

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Also, the Smiling Grim Reaper, the captain of the Ghost Blood Unit, had shown a similar reaction when he saw the Blood Demon Eyes.

Still, he hadn't expected such a reaction from an Elder.

Well, if he's misunderstanding it all by himself, then I should take advantage of it, right?

Baek Suryong decided to pretend to be the Blood Demon.

FWOOSH!

Baek Suryong's red hair billowed wildly, and a terrifying aura spread out in all directions.

THUD!

Stomping his foot, Baek Suryong spoke authoritatively, "How impertinent. Before I start questioning you, state your name and affiliation."

The Erudite Sage immediately prostrated himself on the ground, seemingly convinced that Baek Suryong was the Blood Demon.

"P-Please forgive me," he stammered. "I am the Bloody Spirit, the chief disciple of the former Eighth Elder, the Ghostly Spirit, and I have now inherited his position."

The Ghostly Spirit had been a master of both martial arts and sorcery. Although relatively weak among the Elders in terms of martial arts alone, his mysterious sorcery more than compensated for this weakness, transforming him into a formidable monster. Baek Suryong had guessed as much when he witnessed the Ghostly Spirit shaking a shaman's bell and controlling ghouls.

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The Bloody Spirit looked up at Baek Suryong with an awestruck expression, his mind seemingly unhinged by the mental shock. "It is my greatest honor to meet your esteemed self. Hail the Blood Demon! In blood shall we reign supreme…!"

"I don't remember allowing you to raise your head," Baek Suryong said coldly, pressing his foot down on the back of the Bloody Spirit's head.

His face crushed against the ground, the Bloody Spirit trembled as he pleaded, "I-I have committed a grave sin. Please, forgive me just this once…"

Baek Suryong deliberately cultivated an atmosphere of fear, aiming to prevent the Bloody Spirit from thinking too hard. With the old man's intelligence, the moment he had some leeway to consider the situation carefully, he would most definitely notice some inconsistencies and start getting suspicious.

He had to pressure him with his aura and extract as much information as possible before that happened.

"Eighth Elder. Why did you attack the Namgung Clan?"

"The First Apostle told me to annihilate the Namgung Clan and bring him the Soulless that the Yin Yang Demon Lord created…"

Baek Suryong's eyebrows twitched at the unfamiliar title.

What's an Apostle?

There was no such position in the old Blood Cult. Back then, the elders reported directly to the Blood Demon, but since an Apostle had given the Bloody Spirit orders, their position was clearly higher than an elder.

It must be a new position created in the last fifty years. Well, they probably needed to restructure the organization to adapt to their circumstances after the Cult's downfall.

"I was also told to preserve the bodies of Namgung Jaehak and Namgung Cheon as much as possible and hand them over…"

"To turn them into blood jiangshi?"

"I-I think so."

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The Blood Cult's secret manual contained a jiangshi manufacturing method for making blood jiangshi. Since the more powerful the corpse used in the process, the more powerful the resulting blood jiangshi, if Namgung Jaehak and Namgung Cheon were used as ingredients, they would become monstrous beings that even transcendental masters would find difficult to defeat.

Nodding, Baek Suryong moved on to the next topic. "Were you planning to return to the Cult immediately with the ghouls and corpses?"

"…I don't know the location of the main headquarters, so I was planning to take them to our branch. The Apostle was supposed to come pick the ghouls up later…"

Baek Suryong frowned. He's an elder, yet he doesn't know the exact location of the Cult? He also couldn't answer much about the Cult's current operations and plans…

He began to suspect the Bloody Spirit was merely a figurehead, a pawn to be used and discarded.

A clandestine cell system.1 So that's how the Blood Cult was able to grow while evading the Murim Alliance's pursuit.

Seeing Baek Suryong's silent disappointment, the Bloody Spirit muttered defensively, "The Fifth Elder knows more than I do. He frequently goes in and out of the main headquarters…"

The previous Fifth Elder was the Yin Yang Demon Lord, and according to the Bloody Spirit, the Night Emperor, who was among the children who escaped from the Namgung Ancestral Shrine cave, had inherited his master's position.

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"But… Why are you getting in our way, my Lord…?"

"I did not permit you to ask questions."

"…I apologize."

Baek Suryong sighed inwardly. There was a subtle shift in the Bloody Spirit's tone.

He's starting to suspect my identity.

Fortunately, the Heaven Defying Divine made it difficult for the Bloody Spirit to openly doubt Baek Suryong.

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Baek Suryong's gaze shifted to the Myriad Demons Nightmare Formation.

"What's in there?"

"A sacred relic left by the former Cult Leader."

"…A sacred relic? What is it?"

"Do you really know nothing?"

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Hostility seeped into the Bloody Spirit's voice, and his gaze, once downcast, now met Baek Suryong's with wide-eyed intensity.

Baek Suryong grinned and glared back at the old man. This charade had run its course, and there was no benefit in maintaining the pretense any longer.

"Your gaze is insolent, and don't you know anything else?" he taunted playfully.

Realizing that he had been deceived, the Bloody Spirit's face alternately flushed red and blue. "You! You're not the Cult Leader!"

"Of course not."

"How did you learn the Heaven Defying Divine Art?"

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"I stole it!" Baek Suryong declared proudly. There was no reason to lie to an old man who was about to die soon.

"You bastard!" the Bloody Spirit screamed, springing up and attacking Baek Suryong.

His speed was incredibly fast for someone on the verge of death, but it wasn't enough to threaten Baek Suryong.

SWOOSH!

Baek Suryong dodged the attack with a simple tilt of his head and reached out to grab the Bloody Spirit's neck.

Suspended in mid-air, the Bloody Spirit choked, "Ugh!"

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"Don't make that wronged expression, it's disgusting. Considering what you've done here, the innocent lives you must have harmed while experimenting with the Ghostly Spirit's sorcery, you shouldn't be doing that," Baek Suryong said coldly.

The Bloody Spirit's eyes widened. "W-Who the hell are you…!"

"I may not be the Blood Demon, but I was once a member of the Blood Cult. And now…" A terrifying killing intent erupted from Baek Suryong's eyes. "I intend to finish what I couldn't fifty years ago."

"Mmph!!"

The Blood Cult had vanished from the murim fifty years ago. Most martial artists believed the orthodox sects had launched a surprise attack and destroyed them, but the truth was different.

"The prisoners have escaped!"

Memories of the events that took place fifty years ago flooded the Bloody Spirit's mind.

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On that fateful day, five absolute masters had escaped from prison and unleashed a massacre upon the Blood Cult. Half of the cultists had been wiped out trying to repel them, and even the elders could only delay the inevitable against those formidable martial gods.

For some reason, even though they looked completely different, the face of the red-haired man who led them overlapped with Baek Suryong's.

"Y-You, you, could you be…! B-But he was definitely dead…!"

Baek Suryong leaned closer to the Bloody Spirit and whispered into his ear, "When you go to hell and meet your old comrades, tell them I'll be sending the rest of your friends down there soon, so don't feel too lonely, okay?"

"No! S-Spare me…!"

CRACK!

Baek Suryong snapped the Bloody Spirit's neck, tossed his corpse aside carelessly, and stepped into the Myriad Demons Nightmare Formation.

SSSSSSSS…

The darkness within the formation parted as Baek Suryong entered, revealing a path forward. The air throbbed with demonic qi, thick enough to suffocate most weaker martial artists, but for him, a master of the Heaven Defying Divine Art, it was a source of power, invigorating him and amplifying his strength.

The Blood Demon's sacred relic… I wonder what it is?

Baek Suryong's mind swirled with speculations about the identity of the sacred relic as he advanced deeper into the formation. Due to the rising feeling of invincibility that was coursing through him, he wasn't worried about any hidden traps.

GRRRR…

The Soulless who were guarding the inside of the formation approached Baek Suryong one by one. Their eyes were completely black, and a terrible demonic qi emanated from their bodies.

"…Too late."

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Baek Suryong sighed softly and swung his sword so swiftly that the ghouls couldn't even react.

THUD! THUD! THUD!

The ghouls, their necks severed, collapsed to the ground.

Baek Suryong shook his head. The ghouls within the formation were so saturated with demonic qi that they were beyond saving. Even after the formation was dispelled, their lives would only be filled with endless suffering.

"May you be born in a better place in your next life."

He offered a brief prayer for the unjustly deceased, knowing that it was all he could do.

A moment later, Baek Suryong reached the center of the formation.

WOOOOO…

An altar as tall as a man was erected there, and around it, intricate spells and formulas were drawn in blood like a spider's web. The sacred relic left by the Blood Demon rested at the center of the altar, emitting a tremendous amount of demonic qi.

Baek Suryong frowned. "This… is the sacred relic?"

The relic reacted to the Heaven Defying Divine Art and floated up into the air.

Translator's Note: That's all for this week!

1. Clandestine cell system (cellular organization): A method for organizing a group of people, such as spies, mercenaries, or terrorists, to make it harder for hostile groups to catch them. In a cell structure, each cell consists of a relatively small number of people who know little to no information concerning the organization beyond their cell. This limits the harm that can be done to the organization as a whole by any individual cell member defecting, being a mole, being surveilled, or giving up information after being apprehended and interrogated. ↩

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