Emperor’s Sword [EN]: Chapter 23

24. I Will Take You as My Subordinate.

“Mad Demon Lord, is that why you’ve remained here?”

“It’s not entirely the reason, but even if I went out, it’s obvious I’d just run into more trouble… so I was planning to bury my bones here.”

“There seems to be a bigger reason… am I wrong?”

“Actually… I needed time to sort myself out. This investigation room was only allowed for the successive grand masters and their descendants. There was a time when I was confident that I was the strongest. That pride was shattered here. Compared to the martial arts of the Heavenly Demon Ancestor, mine was too shallow. So, I suppressed my boiling anger and stayed here. By mastering the martial arts of the successive grand masters based on the Heavenly Demon Ancestor’s martial arts, I was able to rise from the Extreme Demon Realm to the Transcendental Demon Realm, and only then did I feel confident in taking control of the Heavenly Demon Sect. It was then that I read the Heavenly Demon Ancestor’s writings and began to doubt my own martial arts. I realized how insignificant what I possessed was. I trained really hard. For 50 years here, I devoted myself solely to martial arts, but for some reason, I couldn’t reach the peak of the Transcendental Demon Realm.”

“So… you intend to stay here?”

“I don’t know. Everything that was valuable and meaningful to me has disappeared. I can’t find interest in anything…”

“I will give you that meaning.”

“Huh?”

“I need you. I need your abilities. Please help me.”

“Y-Your Excellency…”

“My dream is to build a martial arts empire based on the power of the Heavenly Demon Sect. I want to become the absolute strongest. It’s not about wanting to dominate. Honestly, I’m not interested in that. It’s something no one has ever done before, so I want to challenge it. Of course, my intentions may not be right. But… I just want to try and achieve it. So, what do you say? Will you follow me?”

Pachaen was dreaming. It was a dream that was impossible to achieve, which made it all the more desperate. It was a dream that had become the reason for his life, and he didn’t have the courage to face the world without it, which was why he was so obsessed.

The Mad Demon Lord was hesitating. A man full of youthful vigor and ambition! A man who had reached the Transcendental Demon Realm at a young age! The Heavenly Demon Sovereign, who had completely inherited the Heavenly Demon Ancestor’s legacy, was asking him for help. He had thought of himself as useless… but he needed him. Pachaen’s face was sincere. The Mad Demon Lord could feel it.

“…Alright. I will assist Your Excellency to the best of my ability in achieving that dream.”

“Thank you!”

Pachaen grasped the Mad Demon Lord’s hands. The grip was filled with the burning passion of a man.

This was the investigation room of the Heavenly Demon Vault.

★ No one knew that there had been a huge change within the Heavenly Demon Sect in the past few days. People’s attention was focused on the upcoming duel between the Blood Demon and the Red Yang Demon. It was a major event that would determine the fate of the Heavenly Demon Sect, but regardless of that, there was a man who was busy outside of people’s attention. Two young men were strolling through the plum blossom forest. One was so handsome that he stood out anywhere, and the other was a man in his early thirties with a cold expression. The handsome young man spoke to the man in his thirties.

“Mad Demon Lord! How is it? It must feel new to be out in the fresh air after 50 years…”

“Indeed, Your Excellency! Even after all this time, this place remains the same.”

“How did you feel when you saw the Supreme Elder and the Left and Right Protectors surprised? Do you still hold any grudges?”

“No, I’ve forgotten everything. It was all my fault anyway… Your Excellency! How does it feel to wear the Heavenly Demon Ring?”

“I don’t feel anything special… it’s just a rather unique-looking ring.”

Pachaen was wearing a ring on his right hand. It was a ring made of dark, glossy black steel. There was nothing particularly special about it except for the Asura [a powerful, often malevolent, demigod in Buddhist and Hindu mythology] engraved on the surface of the ring. However, his thoughts had to be quickly corrected after hearing the Heavenly Demon’s explanation. According to the Heavenly Demon, if you inject qi [life force or energy] into the ring and throw it, it becomes a powerful hidden weapon that can destroy anything, and it can pierce through even the strongest protective qi like paper. It also has the mystical ability to be impervious to water and fire, and if you are poisoned, you can bite it and circulate your qi to quickly detoxify. Of course, he hadn’t had a chance to test it yet, so he couldn’t believe everything, but it was clear that it wasn’t an ordinary ring.

“Your Excellency! Where are you going now?”

“I’m on my way to capture 12 hunting dogs!”

“Huh?… What do you mean…”

“Haha… you’ll see when we get there.”

The plum blossom forest stretched out long, and the small path twisted and turned along the ridge. The fragrance of the unknown wildflowers blooming around them was so refreshing. After crossing a low ridge, a hut could be seen in the distance, and a stream flowed coolly in front of it. Several people were out in the yard in front of the hut, drinking. Most of them looked to be in their late twenties to mid-thirties. As Pachaen and the Mad Demon Lord approached, their gazes focused on the two of them.

There were five of them. Their impressions were so unique and intense that it seemed impossible to forget them even after just a glance. Pachaen recalled the Supreme Elder’s words.

(My lord! They are the most outstanding among the later generation disciples. They are the ones who will put our sect on a solid foundation in the future. The Red Yang Demon has tried to persuade them several times, but they are only interested in martial arts, so he has not succeeded. If you can get them, they will be of great help in the future.

The 12 are close friends and call each other brothers. They have no interest in the political issues within the sect, but they are almost fanatical about martial arts. They have unique and eccentric personalities, but they are steadfast, and once you win their hearts, they will not change. Four of them use the surname Bukgung, three are Gu Yang, two are Damdae, and three are Yayul. To get them, it is important to show them that you are stronger than them, but you must first move their hearts.)

’12 Demonic Young Masters! I need you. I need strong and young masters of your caliber. If I have to go through it hundreds of times to get you, I will not hesitate.’

“Gentlemen! You seem to be drinking, would you mind if we joined you?”

It was Pachaen who spoke. The five young men looked at him with an absurd expression. It was no exaggeration to say that there were almost no core masters in the Heavenly Demon Sect that they didn’t know.

Originally, the Heavenly Demon Sect had a strict hierarchy when there was a sect leader. All members of the sect were required to join the organization when they turned 18 and were given a position according to their abilities. However, after the Protector and Elder system, less than half of the total Heavenly Demon Sect members were part of the organization. The organization consisted of the direct forces of the four Demon Lords, the four pillars of the Heavenly Demon Sect, and the organization led by the four Demon Queens. The members of these eight numbered a little over 6,000. In addition, there were forces directly under the Elder Council and the Protector Council, but they were not permanent organizations and were formed in case of emergency. The four Demon Queens only had a few subordinates, so it was not even an organization. For this reason, there was no overall fixed hierarchy, but one of the biggest traditions of the Heavenly Demon Sect was to revere strength. Therefore, among the later generation disciples, only a handful of people dared to speak informally to the 12 Demonic Young Masters or the four Demon Queens, who were the best masters. But now, strangers who were completely unknown were asking to join them, so they were dumbfounded. One of the five offered a seat.

“Sit there.”

“Haha, thank you. But it seems like there’s one seat short…”

“So what?”

“I think it would be polite if one of you gentlemen gave up your seat? It seems to me that it’s the proper way to treat a guest…”

“Heh heh, who are you guys? You must know who we are… who sent you to do this? You’re strangers… if you’ve come to pick a fight, do it properly.”

The one who spoke was a man as handsome as Pachaen.

‘That must be the Jade Kirin.’

“Pick a fight? Sir… what are you talking about? I didn’t come here to pick a fight with you.”

At Pachaen’s informal tone, the faces of the people in the room quickly changed. He looked to be only about twenty years old, but even the youngest of them, the Jade Kirin, was 28 years old. Moreover, even the four Demon Lords and the four Demon Queens did not treat them so casually. Among them, the eldest, the Ghost Wolf, stared at Pachaen with a gloomy gaze.

“Then what did you come for?”

‘Oh, look at this? I thought they would have attacked me right away, but they are more patient than I thought.’

“I came to take you as my subordinates.”

They looked at each other’s faces. And then, a burst of laughter.

“Hahahaha, what a funny guy.”

“Puhahahaha.”

“Hehehehe.”

The Jade Kirin stared at Pachaen, still smiling, and gently warned him.

“Little boy! Go back and drink more of your mother’s milk! Children shouldn’t try to play with adults. Got it? Huh? Oh, good boy, our baby!”

“Puhahahaha.”

“Hahahaha.”

“Pfft. Your jokes are childish. But I don’t understand how you guys are called the 12 Demonic Young Masters. If you have eyes but can’t see, you should give them to the dogs.”

“What! What did you say? This guy…”

Only then did a murderous aura rise on their faces. However, none of them made a move. They felt ashamed to engage with someone like Pachaen. They were confident that they were easily within the top 40 in the Heavenly Demon Sect in terms of pure martial arts skills. But this absurd guy showed no signs of having mastered any advanced martial arts. A martial artist who has mastered martial arts will naturally emit a certain aura, and it is used to gauge the opponent’s level. Advanced masters, depending on the martial arts they have mastered, emit a sharp aura like a blade. Especially when mastering the ultimate demonic arts, it is impossible to completely hide the demonic energy. When one reaches the Extreme Demon Realm, it can be controlled and reduced to a considerable extent, but it cannot be completely hidden. But the opponent had no demonic energy, nor even the slightest hint of an aura, so he clearly seemed to be an amateur. But he was acting so presumptuously towards them, which was absurd. Within the Heavenly Demon Sect, it was forbidden to kill an opponent in any way other than a duel. Of course, killings sometimes occurred, but they were mostly accidental.

Tap.

“Now, pour me a drink here.”

Pachaen slammed an empty cup on the table and said boldly.

‘Heh heh, Your Excellency has decided to provoke them. Oh, poor guys! All of you, try to attack him. Can you even hurt a hair on His Excellency’s head? How can those guys… well, I guess I was like that at that age too?’

A huge, pot-bellied man with a dark face was blushing and raising a hand as big as a pot lid. There was a hand controlling it, and it belonged to a man with many scars on his face.

“Brother, wait a moment.”

‘The first giant must be the Black-Faced Divine Hand, and the one who stopped him must be the Asura Sword Demon.’

“Alright. I’ll pour you a drink! Drink it and disappear!”

The Asura Sword Demon grabbed the liquor bottle. He held it without lifting it. It was at that moment.

The liquor flowed from the bottle and into the cup Pachaen was holding.

Clang!

It was the sound of the cup breaking, unable to withstand the pressure from the liquor.

‘Ho! Impressive, breaking a steel cup with a liquor pot. But it didn’t cause any shock to the surroundings…’

Indeed. He had imbued the liquor with internal energy and shattered the steel cup, but Pachaen’s hand holding the cup was fine, and no shock was transmitted. Moreover, the liquor was still in the shape of a cup in Pachaen’s hand.

“Hahaha, thank you. Since I’ve received the drink, I must drink it! It would be against the rules of etiquette to drink without a cup, so I have no choice.”

Swish, swish, swish.

The broken pieces of steel were once again enveloping the liquor. Samadhi True Fire [a powerful, mystical flame] rose from Pachaen’s hand, and the bright blue flames quickly reformed the broken cup into one piece. Even with the heat that melted and reshaped the steel, there was no change in the liquor. How could this be explained? The Asura Sword Demon’s move was astonishing, but Pachaen’s technique was beyond their imagination.

“Who… are you?”

It was the voice of Guirang, the oldest of the five. His eyes, already narrow, were wide open, but to Pachaen, they looked the same.

“Didn’t I say? I came to make you my subordinates…”

They were tense, and they were even slowly getting up from their seats.

“Listen well. I will return in an hour. In the meantime, I want all twelve Demonic Disciples to gather here. Tell everyone…”

With those words, Pachaen turned away. Even as he simply disappeared, they couldn’t stop him.

“Listen carefully! Do not take the Supreme One’s words lightly! He still has goodwill towards you, but that could change at any moment. He is not someone you can dare to fathom… As the Supreme One said, I expect all twelve of you to be gathered here in an hour. If you disobey…”

Tsutsutsutsutsu.

Something pure white shot out from the Mad Demon Lord’s hand and turned the table between them into dust.

“White… White Jade Demonic Strength?”

Swish, swish, swish.

His body vanished.

No one spoke first. The first to break the silence was Guirang.

“It was definitely White Jade Demonic Strength. And of the highest level… Just that person from before… He’s at least not weaker than the Four Demon Lords. Who is he? Are there such masters among those we don’t know?”

“Brother Guirang! What should we do?”

“For now… let’s discuss it with the Eldest Brother!”

Then, the Black-Faced Divine Hand flared up and shouted.

“Why bother the Eldest Brother with such a trivial matter? Let’s just ignore it.”

“You madman! Didn’t you see his eyes? Even his subordinate was at least at the Extreme Demonic Realm. And you’re saying we should just ignore this?”

“Yes. It seems like something we twelve brothers should handle together after telling the Eldest Brother.”

It was the first time the Deathly Maitreya had spoken. True to his nickname, he was bald like a monk and had a unique black tiger tattoo on his head. Guirang continued.

“I’ll discuss it with the Eldest Brother… You guys contact the other brothers. Let’s meet here before an hour passes.”

“Understood.”

Swoosh.

Swish, swish, swish.

Each of them was displaying their best lightness techniques [a martial art focused on speed and agility]. Like ripples from a stone suddenly thrown into a quiet lake, it was shaking their hearts.

★ Pachaen and the Mad Demon Lord returned from the plum blossom forest and headed towards a secluded lake. The only lake in the Heavenly Demon Sect was called the Demonic Well Lake. Just by seeing the character ‘Demon’ attached to the names, one could tell how much these Heavenly Demon Sect members revered the demonic.

“Mad Demon Lord! Do you not have a family?”

Pachaen said, sitting on the bank of the lake.

“…Family!… It’s been a long time since I’ve heard that word.”

…

Pachaen did not understand the true meaning of his words.

“There is no one in the world without a family. But here in the Heavenly Demon Sect, the concept of family itself does not exist.”

“…What do you mean?”

“It would be helpful for the Supreme One to know this in advance. There are a total of five surnames within the sect. The Danmok clan is as good as extinct, and only the remaining four surnames exist. As a result, even those with the same surname or close relatives share love with each other. However, they do not make lifelong promises or get married. Therefore, there are mothers but no fathers. So, if they know who the father is, they take the father’s surname, but if they don’t know, they take the mother’s surname. Children are educated and trained together until the age of 15. This is done entirely by the protectors and elders. From the time the baby is weaned, they are separated from their mother’s arms. From then on, 15 years of hellish training continues. And when they leave the training center at the age of 16, they are finally given a name. They become human. But by then, the child is already a demon. A child who has grown up knowing that martial arts training is everything becomes a desirable Heavenly Demon Sect member who devotes their entire life to martial arts. Only when the child receives a name for the first time do they find out which surname their father has. But that’s it. They have no way of knowing who their father or mother is. The information about that child is already destroyed by then. Even if the child’s mother sees them, she cannot know if it is her son… That is why there is no family in the Heavenly Demon Sect. But there is an exception. It is the Danmok family. Only the Danmok family does not go through such a process. And they never married other surnames. They married among themselves and had children… Before the 7th Great Demonic War, the number of Danmok family members was about 1/10th of the total. It was a considerable number. But now, out of 20,000 Heavenly Demon Sect members, there are only three Danmok family members. If they had married the other four surnames, they might not have become extinct. But they were too arrogant, and they were like untouchable beings to the general Heavenly Demon Sect members.”

“Hmm… such a thing happened… What is your name?”

“My name is Damdae Chugwang. Funny, isn’t it? All the names are funny. They are just names given casually, so if you’re lucky, you might get a name that sounds like a name, but most of them are not very good to call. There is a certain rule for giving names. Based on the year of admission to the training center, the generation character changes every 20 years. For example, my surname is Damdae, and I use the ‘Chu’ generation character. Since I am 137 years old, all the Damdae family members over 120 years old use the ‘Chu’ generation character. The White-Faced Demon King and the Evil-Repelling Divine Lord, who are currently elders, use the same ‘Chu’ generation character.”

According to him, each surname has 7 generation characters, and they are used in rotation every 20 years. Bukgung uses Dong, Han, Gang, Seong, Ju, Sa, and Gun; Damdae uses Chu, Woo, Kyung, Jo, Myung, Moo, and Mang; and Guyang uses Jin, Cheon, Gong, Hu, Bin, Rang, and Ho. Yayul uses Man, Young, Pyo, Young, Jung, Hon, and Gi. In Yayul, the ‘Young’ of those over 60 and the ‘Young’ of those over 100 were similar in actual notation, causing confusion, and those in Guyang who used ‘Rang’ from 20-39 years old had many complaints.

“So, by hearing each other’s names, you can roughly guess their age. It seems that the former leadership decided this, and it has been passed down for over 1000 years without any change, which is truly amazing.”

“It’s truly a convenience-oriented idea. The Heavenly Demon Sect is a place where individuals are thoroughly ignored, and the organization is prioritized. I heard that all positions are determined by the level of martial arts… What about the issue of master and disciple?”

“In fact, there is no such thing as a master-disciple relationship. Generally, most people have neither a master nor a disciple. After laying the foundation of martial arts until the age of 15, they must then practice their martial arts on their own.

To gain a higher position, they must become stronger, so each of them undergoes grueling training.

Of course, there are cases where they take on disciples, but that is a very small minority… Most of them train with the secret manuals in the Martial Arts Room, the first room of the Heavenly Demon Secret Vault, and the Cheokcheon Martial Repository of the Elder Council. Also, because the level of secret manuals that can be viewed is limited at each stage of martial arts, it is difficult for a master to emerge who surpasses the ranks. It does happen occasionally, but it is a very small minority, and naturally, the organization is formed according to the ranks, so everything goes smoothly.”

“Then the current Four Demon Lords are your nephews?”

“That’s right. The oldest of the current Four Demon Lords is Blood Demon Damdae Uri. He is a child who has called me uncle since long ago. There was a time when I had him as my direct subordinate.”

“Anyway, the Heavenly Demon Sect is an amazing organization. They are united by blood ties, and their skills are outstanding because they judge everything solely by martial arts. Moreover, they have even severed human emotions, so who would dare to stand against the Heavenly Demon Sect? I cannot deny that they have the power to fight against the entire martial world…”

“That’s right. Nevertheless, they have lost all seven previous wars against the martial world, so the potential of the martial world is also great.”

“It’s not because the Heavenly Demon Sect is weak, but because the method was wrong. Watch. The world I aim for will be different. The martial world will be under the control of the Heavenly Demon Sect without even realizing it… Now, let’s go. Let’s see if those guys have gathered…”

——————————————

To be continued.

As I have mentioned before, I will omit the Chinese character notation for words that have appeared more than once. I have omitted them because most of the words have already appeared several times, so please understand.

And I believe that you all know the words that are frequently used in martial arts novels.

I am focusing on uploading every day, so there are many awkward sentences.

I am wondering whether to fix them all at once or little by little.

Thank you for your encouragement. I am satisfied if you enjoy reading it. There are people who ask about the upload time, and I upload it after midnight. Most of the time, it is uploaded before 1 AM. On Mondays, it is not uploaded in the early morning (1.1). Maybe it will be uploaded in the afternoon? This is my guess. I started without any backup, so it’s very hard right now. But a promise is a promise… Then, goodbye… *bows*

Title: [Serial] Emperor’s Sword 25. Attack All at Once! Related Materials: None [59473]

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-Emperor’s Sword-