Holy Idol [EN]: Chapter 443

◈ 443. Blood Cult and Demonic Cult

If I can somehow get out of the newbie ranks, I might have a chance to earn money.

If I get a chance to earn money, I’ll naturally have a chance to leave this place.

If I leave this place, I can find Great Priest too…….

Just then, Yungcheon, a newbie colleague who lived in the room next to Mullu in the same building, came running over like he was flying and called out, “Samae!” [Samae is a term of endearment for a junior female martial artist.]

“What is it?”

Mullu erased her troubled expression and answered dryly. Yungcheon, who had come excitedly, pouted, feeling hurt.

“Call me Saje too! Call me comfortably! Why do you always keep your distance from me?” [Saje is a term of endearment for a junior male martial artist.]

“I don’t want to be comfortable with you.”

“Samae, are you shy around strangers?”

“I’m very particular about ideologies.”

Yungcheon laughed it off cheerfully.

“Haha, I don’t know what you’re talking about! More importantly, Samae, I have exciting news!”

“What is it?”

“The newbies have a chance to increase their rank.”

Mullu responded indifferently, but when she heard the word ‘rank increase,’ her ears perked up, and she quickly turned her head.

“Really?”

If her rank increased, she could earn money, end group living, go outside, and find Great Priest.

For Mullu, it was like a drop of spring water in the desert.

“How so?”

“They’re allowing applicants to take a first test. If you pass, you pass.”

“Where? When can we apply?”

“Oh, from now? I saw them setting up the place to receive applications earlier.”

“Where is it?”

Even as she asked, Mullu’s body was already moving forward.

Fortunately, she seemed to be going in the right direction, as Yungcheon followed closely behind, asking.

“Oh? Are you going to do it?”

“Of course.”

“Samae, you’re full of ambition. Saje is touched.”

As Yungcheon followed with a grin, Mullu pushed his head to the side and asked.

“Aren’t you going to do it?”

“The first skill verification is relative evaluation. So, only really crazy people or really strong people go out.”

“So, aren’t you going to do it?”

“No, I’m going to do it.”

Mullu wondered if Yungcheon was challenging because he was crazy or because he was strong, but she didn’t intend to become close with him, so she didn’t ask further.

However, Yungcheon seemed to have endless questions for Mullu and kept flapping his lips.

“But wouldn’t it be better for Samae not to do it?”

“I am very strong.”

“Really? I didn’t know since I haven’t seen it. No, but it’s not about being strong, what I mean is… Samae is a bit… dim.”

Mullu had never heard the word ‘dim’ in her life.

But she knew why that chatterbox was calling her dim.

To avoid revealing her lack of basic knowledge here, she mostly kept her mouth shut and watched the situation intently whenever there was a word she didn’t know or something she didn’t understand.

Yungcheon continued to chatter.

“So, I’m a little worried, Samae. Samae. How about Samae applying for the second round? The first round is going out without knowing the relative skills, so everyone usually goes out in the second round.”

Mullu didn’t argue that there was no need, but instead, she just walked straight ahead and asked.

“Where do I apply?”

“Ah, it’s here, but…….”

Yungcheon pointed somewhere with his finger. Even though she was just walking straight ahead, he didn’t stop her.

It was exactly in the direction Mullu was walking in a straight line.

Mullu quickened her pace, and Yungcheon, genuinely worried, followed closely, constantly glancing at Mullu.

As they walked straight ahead, there were three makeshift desks on a stall-like area.

Each desk had a person sitting, and newbies were lined up, filling out applications.

Behind the people receiving applications, an unusually large person was standing with his arms crossed, glaring fiercely at the people submitting applications.

However, as Yungcheon said, there weren’t many applicants, so when Mullu strode over and stood in line, most of the people there glanced at Mullu and turned their heads.

The person receiving applications in the center also raised his head indifferently once when a new person appeared, then lowered it again.

But unlike the others who checked the new applicant once and lost interest, the person sitting at the center desk widened his eyes and looked up again.

Then, after confirming Mullu, he hurriedly lowered his gaze.

His heart was pounding, and he gripped his brush tightly.

‘Green hair. Long spear. The woman the Leader mentioned.’

He was Johoo, an informant infiltrated from the Murim Alliance [a righteous martial arts alliance].

A few weeks ago. The Leader had listed several characteristics of people, asking, ‘Are there any people like this?’ Among them was ‘a woman with green hair and a long spear.’

When Johoo replied, ‘There is,’ the Leader sent a message to ‘keep an eye on her.’

So, he was surprised when the person the Leader told him to watch out for suddenly appeared, saying she would take the first test.

As Yungcheon said, most of the newbies who came forward for the first test were either those the Blood Cult executives had been watching since they joined, or strong individuals they had actively recruited.

Some clueless, unexpected people would join in and take the test, but those people were naturally filtered out during the test, and in the end, only those who had been watched in advance passed the first test.

But among those clueless newbies was the green-haired woman the Leader had told him to watch.

Others weren’t Murim Alliance spies like Johoo, so they seemed to think the green-haired woman was just another clueless newbie, but Johoo, who knew the truth, was curious.

Why would the Leader tell me to watch that woman?

She doesn’t seem that strong on the outside.

Still, the Leader told me to watch her, and she boldly applied for the first round, so she must be confident in her skills to some extent.

There must be something there.

Besides, that newbie guy who’s always with that woman.

That unique guy with only the tips of his hair white and the rest black. If his background check wasn’t wrong, he was definitely ‘Accomplice’ Yungcheon.

A guy with a bad reputation who never misses out on bad things and always gets involved.

‘It’s not a good combination.’

Johoo swallowed hard, feeling nervous without realizing it.

The Blood Cult’s Vice Leader, who was watching this from behind, hit Johoo on the back of the head.

“What are you doing? Not doing it properly? They’re waiting in front! Why are you just looking down?”

“I’m doing it! I’m doing it!”

Johoo shouted with a mix of annoyance and roughly wrote the name of the person in front of him, causing the newbie to step aside, bewildered.

Regardless, Johoo nervously waited for the green-haired woman to approach, and when Mullu came forward, he asked too bluntly.

“Name.”

“Mullu.”

“Water price?” [Johoo mistakenly used the literal translation of Mullu’s name, which sounds like asking for the price of water.]

“I am not familiar with market prices.”

“?”

But once he started talking to her, the green-haired woman seemed a bit dim after all.

As if thinking the same thing, Yungcheon was also muttering from behind, “I knew it.”

“No, I’m asking if your last name is ‘Mool’ [Water in Korean].”

Johoo explained again, feeling a little relieved, and Mullu said, “Ah,” as if she finally understood.

“Mullu is my name. I abandoned my last name on the day I joined the cult.”

However, as soon as his tension was relieved, Johoo was hit hard on the back by the Vice Leader standing behind him.

“Good resolve! Amazing!”

The Vice Leader, who had been watching all along, wondering if there were any new recruits with grit, was moved by Mullu’s answer, feeling that she finally had it.

Mullu had abandoned her last name when she went to the Redrin Temple, but she didn’t bother to correct him and just stood there expressionlessly.

Johoo struggled to reach behind to rub his aching back, which had been hit by a hand as big as a pot lid, and cursed the Vice Leader for his bad manners.

Meanwhile, the Vice Leader came forward and this time hit Mullu on the shoulder, cheering.

“Green hair, your resolve is truly good. I’ll be expecting great things!”

“I will.”

“In that sense, say something! What is your will as a Blood Cult member?”

“Exterminate the heretics.”

“Great! Good!”

The Vice Leader was moved for the second time and gave a thumbs up.

On the other hand, Johoo, who had been relieved by Mullu’s dim answer, tensed up again and swallowed hard.

‘Exterminate the heretics? She’s a scary woman. Very aggressive. Is her ideology that everything that isn’t the Blood Cult must be exterminated?’

Johoo recalled the second request the Murim Alliance Leader had conveyed.

Keep a close eye on whether a handsome man with blonde hair and the name ‘Rembrary’ approaches the green-haired woman.

That man is the mastermind who infiltrated the green-haired woman into the Blood Cult.

‘If the green-haired woman is like that, then what kind of person is the mastermind behind her? Where is that blonde guy now? Did he also infiltrate here? I haven’t heard anything about a blonde guy…… but he could have cut his hair and come.’

* * *

The blonde guy Johoo was thinking about was now on his way to the Demonic Cult.

And behind Rembrary, Duran, whom Rembrary had personally designated and brought along, was following, trembling.

Originally, the Demonic Cult was only going to take Rembrary, but because Rembrary had set several conditions and said he would take Duran as well, Duran was forced to follow without knowing why.

But Duran wasn’t the only one who didn’t like Duran joining.

“Once we pass those trees, there will soon be a formation that hides the entrance…….”

Grand Master Yeon Seung-kyung was explaining, having almost arrived at the Demonic Cult, but stopped talking and turned his head sharply, annoyed by Duran’s constant sobbing from behind.

Duran hid behind Rembrary at the gaze, and Grand Master Yeon Seung-kyung couldn’t hold back any longer and coldly sneered.

“I don’t know why you insisted on bringing that crybaby.”

He had been crying for almost an hour, so he was starting to get annoyed.

Duran, who hadn’t wanted to come, felt wronged and looked even more upset, which made Grand Master Yeon Seung-kyung even angrier, and he gritted his teeth.

“I’m not going to eat you. Stop crying and follow me. Please shut up for even a moment.”

Duran was even more frightened by that and clung to Rembrary, and Yeon Seung-kyung was dumbfounded and finally asked Rembrary outright.

“Why did you want to bring that guy? He doesn’t seem like he’ll be of any help at all?”

“Ah, didn’t I tell you?”

The Demonic Cult people who were moving together were also tired of Duran’s crying, so they turned to Rembrary, wondering if there was a reason.

Rembrary smiled gently and pointed to the dance teacher and Duran alternately with his finger.

“These two are close.”

The eyes of the dance teacher and Duran turned as big as chestnuts at the same time.

“Why are you manipulating other people’s friendship, you bastard?!”

The dance teacher was furious and cursed, and Duran was also flustered and denied it.

“I, I’m seeing that person for the first time, Rembrary.”

Still, Rembrary just smiled gently, so the dance teacher got angry and kicked a stone at his feet for no reason.

He had come to realize that Rembrary originally talked like that on the way here.

He was angry because it seemed like he was talking nonsense to him in particular.

Meanwhile. The group arrived in front of a fog.

The fog started from a tree so big that three people couldn’t wrap their arms around it, and when Rembrary naturally tried to enter it, Yeon Seung-kyung called out, “Wait.”

Rembrary stopped and turned around, and Duran, who was clinging to Rembrary and following him, also stopped and turned around.

Yeon Seung-kyung, who had been trying to say this all along but had failed, sighed and finally began to explain.

“This fog is made with a formation to block intruders. If you go inside, you’ll spin around and return to the same spot.”

“So, everyone knows that the Demonic Cult is in the Ten Castle, but they don’t know the location.”

“That’s right. So, be careful. If you pass the midpoint and get lost, you won’t return to the same spot, but you’ll fall into an illusion.”

“Illusion?”

“An illusion where you face your inner fears.”

Rembrary just laughed because he didn’t have anything like that at all, and Duran panicked because he could think of more than twenty things.

Yeon Seung-kyung looked back and forth at the two artists with different complexions, sighed, and held out his hand.

“The other cult members know how to come on their own, so you two grab me and follow me.”

Then Rembrary grabbed Duran’s hand, who seemed most likely to get lost, and gave it to Yeon Seung-kyung, and Duran screamed and was horrified.

Yeon Seung-kyung, with an even bigger headache, roughly grabbed Duran’s arm and strode inside.