Chapter 145
Having Siyeon approach them covertly was intentional staging.
The plan was to show the people of Eun Siyeon's skills and, at the same time, give them tanghulu as a gift.
‘It’s like a welcome drink. Welcome tanghulu.’
According to a psychology short-form video I’d seen recently, consuming sugar causes the brain to release dopamine, making people more positive.
I felt happy when I ate tanghulu too, so it seemed true.
Though I was a vampire, not a human.
In any case, it was the perfect strategy: showing off our martial power and winning their favor in one go.
Why are you pointing it at his neck, Siyeon?
‘Whew. You’d never guess she used to be an assassin.’
Siyeon still wasn’t accustomed to etiquette.
As her master, I would just have to teach her properly.
I let out a soft sigh.
‘Still, I did startle him, so I guess it worked?’
Judging from Ha Mudan’s stiff face, the display of skill had certainly made an impression.
I decided to let it pass and continued watching the tour route through my mosquito familiar’s eyes.
Next up after Siyeon was Sera.
Sera did not even need an elaborate stage.
She happened to be teaching the basics of swordsmanship to several congregants at one side of the training ground.
“Now, just lower your stance a little more…. Ah, like that!”
Sera had been correcting their postures one by one in her usual cautious, gentle manner when she lightly grasped her sword, as though to demonstrate.
“So… like this….”
She gave the air a smooth slash with her sword.
Shraaash—!
A crescent-shaped red slash shot out and cleaved the training dummy standing in the distance cleanly in two.
It was the demonic sword’s active skill, [Blood Qi Release].
“……!”
The martial artists from Eun who happened to be passing by stopped in unison.
“This is our Main Cult’s Left Protector, Lady Red Blood Sword Ghost.”
Tian Ryuyeon introduced her with a beaming smile.
“Sword qi…….”
Ha Mudan muttered blankly.
‘Sera’s doing a great job, too.’
I nodded in satisfaction.
The tour route led to the animal-raising area.
“This is where the Blood Cult raises its spirit beasts.”
“Spirit beasts?”
This was a place I had specifically instructed Tian Ryuyeon to arrange like an animal enclosure.
There were two enclosures, one large and one small.
“Grrr!”
The baby dragon Dark was inside the small enclosure, while a pink Blood Golem was inside the large one.
(ㅇㅅㅇ)
The golem simply sat there in a squat, its face vacant.
When the people of Eun arrived, Lili, who had been assigned the role of temporary zookeeper, timed it perfectly and fed the beasts.
It was raw meat dripping with blood.
“Dark! Say ah~!”
“Graaah!”
“Golem, you eat plenty too!”
“Kkyu?”
Lili was having fun playing zookeeper,
Dark was happy because he could eat blood and meat,
and the golem did not seem to have a thought in its head.
It was a peaceful scene that satisfied everyone, but Eun’s party had frozen in place, unable even to approach.
“They are the Blood Cult’s spirit beasts, the Little Black Dragon (小黑龍) and the Blood Golem (血傀儡). It seems Lady Mad Blood Demon Craftsman is feeding them.”
At Tian Ryuyeon’s explanation, Ha Mudan pointed at the Blood Golem with blank eyes.
“That… pinkish-red, soft-looking monster is a spirit beast too?”
“Ah. It is both a puppet and a spirit beast that the Blood Demon Lord personally molded and created. Haha.”
“……”
It seemed that, to people of the murim, a Western-style dragon and a jelly golem were quite the culture shock.
The tour proceeded smoothly, and at last they reached the Blood Cult’s rear garden.
While the previous areas had been somewhat bustling, the rear garden was extremely quiet.
Beneath the pavilion at its center,
Namgung Yeonhee sat neatly in the lotus position.
A thin mist of blood, the Blood Mist (血霧), spread around her.
Sssurp—.
Whenever she inhaled, the Blood Mist lying around her was gently drawn in through her nose and mouth,
and when she exhaled, it spread gently outward again.
‘Ohhh. So that’s the Blood Demon Divine Art’s qi circulation and breathing exercise?’
It was my first time seeing it in person, too.
Curious, I opened the Blood Grace interface and checked her status window.
[Mystery - Blood Demon Divine Art (血魔神功) (Beginner)]
[Proficiency: 1%]
‘Oh? It went up a little!’
So it did increase even without spending anything.
I guess buying her the starter package was worth it.
The people of Eun came to an abrupt halt the moment they saw Namgung Yeonhee.
As though he had been waiting for this, Tian Ryuyeon naturally added an explanation from beside her.
“This is Lady Namgung Yeonhee, the Sword Flower, who has entered the Main Cult. She is currently cultivating the Blood Demon Divine Art, which she learned directly from the Blood Demon Lord.”
“……!”
Ha Mudan’s eyes flew wide open.
When I used [Emotion Eye] to look at his thoughts,
[Status: Deeply shocked that the Sword Flower of the Namgung Family is training in the Blood Cult]
‘Hehe. Good. It looks like our renown is spreading nicely.’
I had heard that, in martial-arts novels, people did not usually show off their training.
But since the Blood Demon Divine Art was impossible to imitate even if one wanted to, I had deliberately made it public to boost our achievements.
We had finished showing off my servants, demonstrated that the Blood Cult was operating properly, and even confirmed Namgung Yeonhee’s presence, so….
All that remained was today’s main event.
“Soon, there will be a blessing ceremony personally conducted by the Blood Demon Lord in the main hall. Would you care to observe it with us?”
At Tian Ryuyeon’s invitation, Ha Mudan nodded.
“If it is a ceremony presided over by the Blood Demon Lord herself… Very well. I shall watch.”
‘Now, this is something I have to go out and show them myself.’
I got up from the bed.
At last, it was my turn to make an appearance.
***
A short while later, in the Blood Cult’s main hall.
Countless congregants were kneeling.
“We pay our respects before the Blood Lord!”
On the dais toward which their gazes were directed,
there stood a silver-haired, red-eyed Blood Demon wearing a splendid crown and a qipao.
Yes, me. Me.
I declared in a haughty voice.
“Hehe…. To those who believe in and follow This One, This One shall bestow Her grace.”
Flash—!
Red symbols were simultaneously inscribed on the congregants’ foreheads.
It was the [Blood Army] effect of the Red Crown.
As I watched the congregants’ stats shoot up in the system display, I snuck a glance at the dumbfounded expressions of the people of Eun watching from below.
‘Hehe, those are some excellent reactions.’
This alone was enough to spread our renown.
But then, the Red Crown’s other ability suddenly came to mind.
The Lord’s Edict.
It was an active skill that revealed the crown’s ‘true form’ and granted a large-scale battle buff.
Wasn’t a grand stage like this the perfect place to test that function?
‘Hmm. Since the Demonic Cult’s press corps has come all this way, should I show them one more service?’
Without delay, I activated [Lord’s Edict].
Click.
***
Ha Mudan, head of Eun, was barely holding on to his fraying sanity.
The martial prowess displayed by Red Moon Blood Princess, Dark Shadow Assassin, and Red Blood Sword Ghost.
The bizarre spirit beasts whose identities he could not make out.
And the sight of the orthodox faction’s Sword Flower opening red eyes and cultivating the Blood Demon Divine Art, to top it all off….
He had experienced countless strange events and brutal battlefields as an assassin of the Demonic Cult, but he had never been this shocked.
And then the Blood Demon herself finally appeared.
She looked exactly like a young child, yet her speech and bearing radiated lofty dignity.
And then came what happened the moment she made a single gesture.
Red energy simultaneously infused the ordinary congregants, and he could feel their presence grow far stronger.
‘This is impossible….’
Ha Mudan could not contain his shock.
Had she injected internal energy into this many people and made them stronger?
Had she raised the energy of so many people all at once?
He could not even begin to imagine how powerful one had to be to make such a thing possible.
But his astonishment did not end there.
Fwoooosh—!
The Red Crown atop the Blood Demon’s head began emitting a dazzling radiance.
And the crown’s form changed.
It became a ring bristling with sharp spikes, rising into the air above the Blood Demon’s head.
Even the already-strengthened presence of the congregants grew stronger once more.
“Blood Demon…!”
“Long live the Blood Lord!”
“The Blood Demon descends! Blood rules the world!”
The congregants erupted into thunderous chants, overcome with emotion.
And at that moment.
‘Th-that is!’
Ha Mudan’s eyes widened until they looked ready to pop out.
Ssssss—.
The tips of the Blood Demon’s feet, which stood on the dais, were slowly rising into the air!
The Blood Demon rose slowly.
Higher, higher still.
‘……Stepping on Empty Air (虛空踏步)?’
It was a legendary qinggong technique that only masters who had reached the pinnacle of martial arts could perform.
There was no other way to explain it.
Before long, the Blood Demon had risen to the highest point.
With her eyes closed and both arms outstretched, she simply floated there as serenely as the moon in the sky.
Above her head, the spiked ring shone,
while countless congregants cheered and bowed frenziedly.
At the sight of that mad spectacle, every hair on Ha Mudan’s body stood on end, and his fingertips began to tremble.
The thought he had held when he first set foot in the Blood Cult.
‘Are these people useful enough for the Demonic Cult to exploit?’
He realized how arrogant and laughable that thought had been.
‘This is the Blood Cult, and this is the Blood Demon…!’
There was only one thought filling his mind now.
‘I must report this fact to the Heavens at once!’
***
And at that very moment.
‘Aaaaargh! Why am I floating in midair?! Nobody said anything about this…! I’m scared—I feel like I’m going to throw up…!’
The great Blood Cult’s leader, Blood Demon Yujin, was thinking exactly that.