Chapter 145

I took one step, then another toward the exit.
Light from the outside world gradually poured in, making my eyes, accustomed to the darkness of the No-Return Cave, scream in protest.

I rubbed my eyes and forced myself to stand straight.
By the end, I had been so drained that I was practically crawling on all fours, but I couldn’t do that anymore.
Im Yeon and the guards were surely waiting outside the exit. Crawling out in front of them would look far too pathetic.

“Ooooooh!”
“The first person is out!”

The moment I passed through the exit, thunderous cheers rained down around me.
Far more people had gathered outside than I expected.
The entire crowd was staring at me.

“It’s Seventh Young Lord!”
“I knew it would be him!”

Amid the cheers, I heard a familiar voice.

“Young Lord!”

It was Im Yeon, Ak Mu-jin, and the others.
They were pushing their way through the crowd toward me.
Behind them, I could see the other guards and members of the Longevity Ten.

Seeing them filled a corner of my heart with warmth.
I already knew it, but it still felt good to have people waiting for me whenever I went somewhere.

“Young Lord, are you all right?!”

Im Yeon rushed over breathlessly and looked me over.
Ak Mu-jin arrived right behind her and tried to support me by the arm.

“I’m fine. Perfectly fine.”
“Perfectly fine?! You do not look fine at all!”

Im Yeon raised her voice.
She looked ready to faint at the sight of the linen binding my ribs, my clothes torn in several places, and the wounds beneath them.
A laugh suddenly escaped me.
Even my birth mother probably wouldn’t have worried about me this much.

“Young Lord, how about going to Ink-Needle Hall? No, you must go. I will have the carriage prepared immediately.”
“I told you, I’m fine.”

I shook my head and looked around.
A considerable number of people were still cheering as they watched me.

‘Yeah. This is what I wanted.’

They had expectations of me, and I had delivered exactly what they wanted.
The more this happened, the higher my standing would rise. And that would improve my chances of smoothing over the incident I would eventually cause in pursuit of a fortuitous event.

‘There are quite a few people who aren’t happy to see me, though.’

Contrary to the overall mood, I could see a few people wearing miserable expressions.
Some clutched their heads and wailed, others grumbled while digging through their money pouches, and still others handed something over to people wearing triumphant smiles. Apparently, they had lost bets involving me.

‘Now this is justice.’

My smile grew even more satisfied.
They couldn’t even bother cheering me on, and instead gambled on me getting screwed?

Then my gaze stopped in one place.
The Elder Council Lord stood in a particularly conspicuous spot among the crowd.
His face was bright red, his mouth hanging open and the corners of his eyes twitching.

‘Did he want me dead that badly?’

The ones who had attacked me inside the No-Return Cave were from the Radiant Moon Jin Family and Demon Bell Geuk Family, but there was no way the Elder Council Lord hadn’t had his fingers in it.
And now I had emerged alive and was the first one out. He looked ready to go mad with frustration.

I deliberately waved at the Elder Council Lord.
With the brightest smile I could manage.
His face twisted even further.

There was another familiar face beside him.
Chief Steward Lee of the Radiant Moon Jin Family.
I had seen him a few times in my previous life.
He was a bastard who constantly engaged in dirty schemes before meeting a miserable end.
And of all people, he had been beaten to death by the eldest daughter of his own Radiant Moon Jin Family, my Second Senior Sister.

‘So that bastard was involved in this too.’

Apparently, he was part of what had allowed Jin Si-myeong to run wild inside the No-Return Cave.

‘I’ll remember him.’

I looked away.

“Guard Im.”
“Yes, Young Lord.”
“Prepare a carriage.”
“Ah, are you going to Ink-Needle Hall?”
“I’m going to the Ten Thousand Demons Hall.”

Im Yeon’s eyes widened.

“The Ten Thousand Demons Hall? But your condition, Young Lord…….”
“It’s not going to kill me, so I can get treated later.”

But Jin Hwa-un was different.
If I wanted to get him and Yuk Ja-heung out quickly, I needed to see the Heavenly Demon.

“……Understood. I will prepare it immediately.”

Im Yeon looked as though she wanted to say more, but after seeing my expression, she closed her mouth.
A short while later, the carriage arrived.
I waved to the people gathered there once more before climbing aboard.
As the carriage began moving, I heard someone cry out miserably behind me.

“My five hundred taeels!”

I chuckled.
Apparently, someone had lost a fortune because of me.
Satisfied, I crossed my arms and closed my eyes.
I had no idea who it was, but what an idiot.
Who bets five hundred taels?

The carriage picked up speed.
The cheers gradually faded into the distance.

The Heavenly Demon sat cross-legged in the Ten Thousand Demons Hall training ground.
He was so utterly still that even the air itself seemed to have submitted to him.
When I entered the training ground, he opened his eyes, looked me over, and the first thing he said was,

“You returned alive.”

He was as indifferent as ever.
There was neither surprise nor joy in his tone.
I replied sarcastically.

“Yes. All thanks to you, Master.”
“I see.”
“For the record, that was sarcasm.”
“Was it?”

I was dumbfounded.
Wasn’t that reaction a little weak after I explicitly told him I was mocking him?

“Your little games went too far this time.”
“What games?”
“Where do I even start?”

I had thought about it while making my way through all those traps.
There had been far too many suspicious things about this trip into the No-Return Cave.
The Heavenly Demon’s scheming had been written all over it.
So I needed to address that first.
That would make it easier to get what I actually wanted.

I slowly began.

“There were problems from the very start. Until last year, there were barely one or two entrants, but this year there were twenty. Why do you think that was?”

The Heavenly Demon silently watched me, as though telling me to continue.

“The Radiant Moon Jin Family, the Demon Bell Geuk Family, and the Elder Council Lord apparently joined forces to kill me. There they were, all gathered together inside, planning my murder. Worse, Jin Si-myeong knew all the passages used by the maintenance workers. And when I looked into how that happened, apparently they had brought the administrator over to their side?”

Information about the No-Return Cave administrator had never leaked even once in hundreds of years.
And now, not only had his identity leaked, but he had been recruited too? He had sold off all the information about the inside of the No-Return Cave? This year, of all times?
It made no sense.
Did anyone really think the Seven Demonic Houses had never tried recruiting an administrator before?
I certainly didn’t.

“An even bigger problem was that one of the entrants was the Nightflower Valley Lord’s disciple. He entered under a false identity and tried to kill me. You receive reports on every major affair inside and outside the Cult from the Demon Eye Pavilion, so surely you didn’t somehow miss the Nightflower Valley Lord’s disciple infiltrating the Cult?”
“Of course I knew.”

The Heavenly Demon admitted it readily, as though wondering why that was even a problem.
Right. I knew it.
None of this could have happened unless the Heavenly Demon had either permitted it or ordered it himself.

“Aren’t you being a little too nasty? I seriously almost died this time. Have you ever been trapped inside a collapsing illusory formation array?”

I challenged him with full confidence.

“I have collapsed many.”
“Well, yes, I suppose you have, but-”

I was momentarily at a loss for words.
Because the Heavenly Demon really did seem like someone who would have done exactly that.

‘Focus. I can’t let the Heavenly Demon derail me.’

I quickly continued.

“That’s not the point. The point is that you put your disciple in mortal danger.”
“And did you not gain advancement from it?”

Once again, I had no immediate response.
He was obviously talking about Death-Line Step reaching the fourth stage.
He really was uncanny.
All I had shown him was the way I walked, yet he had already discerned my progress in Death-Line Step.

Without changing his expression, the Heavenly Demon said,

“You seem to be mistaken. I did not send you inside to rest. It was for training.”
“Of course it was.”

Right. I knew he would say that.
He had told me from the beginning that he was sending me into the No-Return Cave to train the Six Extremes Demon King Step.
It wasn’t as though I had truly come here to protest to the Heavenly Demon.
I was simply laying the groundwork before bringing up my real business.

“I think you’re the one misunderstanding something, Master.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m not here to protest. I’m not here to complain either.”
“Then what?”
“I’m saying we should compromise.”

I added,

“I endured what you made me do and pulled it off. Doesn’t that mean you should give a little too?”

One corner of the Heavenly Demon’s mouth curled upward.

“What do you want?”
“Close the No-Return Cave.”
“Why?”
“There are people I need to get out.”
“Who?”
“For one, the Nightflower Valley Lord’s disciple.”

The Heavenly Demon’s eyebrow moved ever so slightly.

“Did you not say he tried to kill you?”
“I let him live. I need him.”

I didn’t explain why.
The Heavenly Demon didn’t ask further.
He merely spoke into the empty air.

“Do so.”

There was no visible listener, but I knew.
The Heavenly Demon’s order had been delivered.
Before long, the No-Return Cave would be closed, and Yuk Ja-heung and Jin Hwa-un would be able to come out.

The Heavenly Demon asked,

“Did you find the No-Return Blood?”

I pulled a small jade bottle from my robe and showed it to him.

“Do you know what impressed me all over again? Just how thoroughly you managed to toy with your own disciple.”

The No-Return Blood had been sitting neatly on a stone table right in front of the exit.
There had been absolutely no need to wander around inside searching for it.
The Heavenly Demon answered just as calmly as before.

“Did I not say it had not been retrieved?”

Technically, he was right.
Back when those who passed the No-Return Cave were given elixirs, this must have been the final one left behind.
Still, couldn’t he have just told me that much?!

“Thank you so much, Master. Since I’m already so grateful, let me ask one more favor. Give me one of your unused flasks.”
“Are you going to sell it again?”

I smiled.

“This time, it’s a gift.”

Several days passed.
The backlash from the Pain-Cutting Pills was worse than I expected.
My body hurt, but my mind suffered far more.
After the medicine wore off, I began feeling strangely restless.
Whenever I sat still, thoughts of the Pain-Cutting Pills surfaced.
A powerful urge to swallow several more immediately kept washing over me.
I practically stormed into Ink-Needle Hall, but Ju Ok-hwa firmly threw me out.
She said I would become addicted if I kept this up.

‘I thought I was going insane.’

Fortunately, it gradually eased with time. Otherwise, I might have snuck into Ink-Needle Hall and stolen some myself.

Meanwhile, various pieces of news reached me.
Apparently, the Radiant Moon Jin Family was in an uproar.
Not a single one of Jin Si-myeong and the collateral members who entered the No-Return Cave had come back alive.
Their reputation as one of the Seven Demonic Houses must have taken a terrible blow.
Worse, once they had drawn their blade, they should have killed me, yet they had failed even at that.
They had plenty to worry about.

The Demon Bell Geuk Family was in somewhat better shape.
The warriors who hadn’t run into me had survived.

Either way, neither family could make a public issue of it.
Doing so would expose their assassination attempt.

Perhaps because of his experience in the No-Return Cave, Yuk Ja-heung’s confidence had gone straight to his head.
Even so, he kept dropping by, acting pointlessly surly for a while, then leaving.
Apparently, he still felt guilty and wanted to apologize, but couldn’t bring himself to say the words.

I hadn’t wanted an apology in the first place, so I handed him the flask I had received from the Heavenly Demon.

-How much is this one?
-Free.
-……What?
-I said it’s free. A gift for a valued customer.

Yuk Ja-heung’s mouth opened so wide it looked ready to split.
Not because he was happy.

-Is something wrong with your head? Did your brain get wrinkles or something?

Apparently, he thought I had gone insane.
I almost told him brains were supposed to have wrinkles, but kept it to myself.
Thrilled, Yuk Ja-heung wore a flask on each side of his waist, then added another one on the left.
With two, he had looked like a pathetic drunkard. With three, he somehow looked more like an eccentric.
An eccentric who wasn’t quite right in the head.

Jin Hwa-un was being treated at Ink-Needle Hall.
His life had been hanging by a thread when they brought him out of the No-Return Cave, but Ju Ok-hwa saved him.
I would have to visit him soon.
We had a lot to discuss.

And with that, the long No-Return Cave incident came safely to an end.
On the day even the symptoms of addiction finally disappeared, I slept well for the first time in a while.
A major incident had passed, so I relaxed, thinking things would surely stay quiet for a while.
But when I woke up, an enormous crisis had erupted that made the No-Return Cave incident look insignificant by comparison.

[Proclamation]
The false Heavenly Demon, Seol Yu-won, is being consumed by demonic qi.
Before long, he will lose his reason, become a demonic fiend, and destroy the Divine Cult.
In the name of Heaven Rebelling, we sever the old heavens!

Notices describing a future that only I knew were plastered all throughout the Cult.