Chapter 322: You Did Not Fail

TL: FoodieMonster007

A ferocious aura erupted from Jo Baekta's body.

The words "our Cult does not permit your war" didn't anger Jo Baekta much. He had expected them. However, the command to wash his face was an unspeakable insult that wounded his pride.

You think you're that strong?

Ghostly wails echoed all around, pressing down on Geom Mugeuk with demonic energy. It was the Great Calamity Demonic Art, an art Jo Baekta had not yet fully mastered.

The Heavenly Demon Defense Art activated, protecting Geom Mugeuk's body. As Geom Mugeuk stood there comfortably, Jo Baekta drew out even more of his inner arts.

Are you really that strong!

He was indeed that strong. Unfazed by the demonic energy, Geom Mugeuk strode confidently toward Jo Baekta.

"What's causing all this commotion? This isn't some back-alley brawl over a brothel. What gives you the right to talk about unifying the Outer Regions and dream of conquering the murim?"

Geom Mugeuk walked right up to Jo Baekta.

"I doubt those distracting patterns on your face will lead you to victory in war."

Resolve flashed in Jo Baekta's eyes as he revealed another one of his cards. A crimson energy flowed from his eyes and merged with the demonic energy he had already released.

In that instant, Geom Mugeuk knew.

That energy is not the Great Calamity Demonic Art!

The crimson energy engulfed Geom Mugeuk, and his surroundings changed. He was no longer standing in the Cult Leader's hall.

The walls and floor undulated as if alive. The space felt familiar, like the inside of a beast's entrails. It was the same kind of space Hwan Yeo, the woman from the garden, had created.

But this space felt different from Hwan Yeo's. The color and shape were not the same. He could feel both the energy of the Great Calamity Demonic Art and Hwan Yeo's energy.

The two martial arts have merged!

The combined energy was even more powerful. The Illusion King must have been the one who enabled the two martial arts to merge.

Jo Baekta seemed different, not because of soul-stealing techniques, but because the merging of two powerful martial arts had affected his personality. The Illusion King's persuasion and brainwashing must have contributed to that.

The Illusion King gave him his own martial arts to make him stronger? Not a chance. If it worked like that, he would've just stolen Jo Baekta's martial arts and absorbed them himself.

The end of this combined martial art is death.

Geom Mugeuk was certain. The Illusion King had proven in his past life that he acted only for himself.

The Infinite Length Wall stood at the front of the space. A face protruded from it.

Someone poked their face out from the other side.

"Young Cult Leader, did you ask me to show you?" Jo Baekta's face emerged from behind the thin membrane, his voice echoing bizarrely.

"I probably can't kill you, since you've learned the Nine Calamities Demonic Art, but I can trap you in here forever."

His confidence in unifying the murim came from this powerful martial art, which he believed could imprison even the Young Cult Leader of the Demonic Cult.

I can guess his final card. If the Illusion King gave him his martial arts, he must also believe the Illusion King will help him. The Illusion King helping with this combined art? Now his excitement and confidence make sense.

"What martial art is this?" Geom Mugeuk asked.

Jo Baekta answered confidently, "The Angcheon Hyeolryeong Art!"

Geom Mugeuk could feel an energy powerful enough to justify his confidence. However, it was no different from taking Gwangpok, the unstable inner arts amplifier the Evil Alliance had previously sold.

"Don't you know that growing stronger this way always comes with a price?"

Jo Baekta laughed. His expression, visible on the undulating membrane, showed no anxiety.

"Isn't the price for you all to pay? You who've grown complacent, trusting only in the Nine Calamities Demonic Art! How is it? Have you seen enough of my abilities now?"

Geom Mugeuk gave no answer. As he was lost in thought, Jo Baekta asked him, "What are you thinking so hard about?"

How can I get him to tell me about the Illusion King?

"I was wondering how I could get out of here."

As Geom Mugeuk drew the Black Demon Sword, Jo Baekta sneered. "The membrane looks thin, so you think it'll tear easily?"

Shaking the membrane with a relaxed laugh, Jo Baekta had no way of knowing what Geom Mugeuk saw.

Geom Mugeuk had activated the Bloodeye Holy Water and the Divine Eye Technique. He saw a bluish line in the membrane, a path that would allow him to break through.

Of course, not all solutions were this easy. Some illusions and evil arts could only be solved by overcoming life-or-death risks, like his past fight with the Soul-Stealing Demon Supreme.

However, the method to cut the membrane of the Infinite Length Wall was clearly visible to Geom Mugeuk's eyes.

"……"

The Black Demon Sword cut lightly through the air.

"……"

The membrane tore like cloth. Jo Baekta, who had been pressing his face against it, plunged his head through the opening. He stared in astonishment, his eyes wide. Geom Mugeuk had slashed the membrane without leaving a single scratch on his face.

"……"

Geom Mugeuk thrust his hand through the tear, grabbed Jo Baekta by the collar, and pulled him inside. Jo Baekta was dragged into the space.

Geom Mugeuk looked down at him as he lay collapsed on the floor. "You said I could never leave here?" he said coldly. "Are you confident enough to spend the rest of your life with me?"

Jo Baekta reflexively dispelled the space. For a moment, it seemed they were returning to the Cult Leader's hall as the space vanished.

SHHH.

They returned to the space they were originally in.

"!"

Jo Baekta was startled. He had recited the incantation and returned to the Cult Leader's hall, but something had dragged him back into the space. He recited the incantation again. The walls and floor only undulated and quaked, but the space did not disappear.

Something is wrong!

He was inwardly flustered. He had never failed to exit this space before. His gaze turned to the torn wall.

Is it because of that?

He looked around. The space was similar to the one he had created, but the color and feeling were different.

Tearing that thing changed something!

An unknown foreboding made Jo Baekta's heart sink.

"Calm down and try again," Geom Mugeuk said.

Jo Baekta tried again, but the space still did not disappear. He ran to the Infinite Length Wall and tried to exit through the spot Geom Mugeuk had torn. A new membrane had formed behind the torn one. He injected his qi into the membrane, but it only stretched uselessly.

Jo Baekta turned to Geom Mugeuk and shouted, "You try tearing that wall again."

Geom Mugeuk drew his sword and struck the membrane. It did not tear. Whether he stabbed or slashed, the membrane only stretched and rippled.

"How did you tear it before?"

"I don't know either," Geom Mugeuk replied. "I got angry seeing your mocking face, so I tore it. Does someone have to stick their face through from that side for it to be torn?"

Jo Baekta did not answer. He did not know either.

"We'll be able to get out somehow," Geom Mugeuk said. "Surely we won't be stuck, right?"

Unlike the relaxed Geom Mugeuk, Jo Baekta's fear grew steadily.

That carefree man doesn't know how terrifying this place is. If we can't dispel the space, we'll starve to death.

"Are your inner arts being consumed?" Geom Mugeuk asked.

Jo Baekta checked his inner arts, then shook his head.

Geom Mugeuk leaned against the wall and sat down with a thud. "That's a relief, at least. If not, we would've died from our innate true qi being depleted. Rest and try again."

Geom Mugeuk is right. Getting agitated won't solve anything.

Jo Baekta calmly examined the wall. The squirming movement of the entrail-like wall was subsiding, and its color gradually darkened. The wall was dying.

"Did you really think there would be no side effects from merging another demonic art with a great one like the Great Calamity Demonic Art?" Geom Mugeuk asked.

He had. Jo Baekta had believed there would be no side effects because there hadn't been any until now. He sat down and began to circulate his qi, intending to calm his mind, replenish his inner arts, and try again.

When he opened his eyes after one cycle, Geom Mugeuk was examining the wall. Jo Baekta calmly recited the incantation again, but it was still a failure.

At that very moment.

DRIIIP.

Blood began to stream down from all the walls. The blood flowed without stopping, as if announcing their imminent death.

Startled, Jo Baekta looked around and fell into despair. "There's nowhere for the blood to drain."

Blood pooled on the floor. If it kept rising, he would eventually drown.

Drowning to death in the blood of my own illusion? With the Young Cult Leader of the Demonic Cult?

Jo Baekta stood there blankly for a moment, finding the situation too absurd. Then, a fierce hostility surged within him. He gathered his qi, and a crimson energy formed in his hands.

"This is all your fault!" Jo Baekta extended his hands to unleash his enhanced qi at Geom Mugeuk.

But Geom Mugeuk was faster. He rushed forward with the Shadow Step and threw a punch.

THWACK!

Struck in the chest, Jo Baekta flew back, hit the wall, and collapsed.

Geom Mugeuk grabbed him as he lay submerged in blood, raised him up, and suppressed his inner arts. The blood had already risen to their knees.

"Why is it my fault? It's your fault for running your mouth about unifying the Outer Regions when you can't even dispel something you created."

Geom Mugeuk mercilessly struck the back of Jo Baekta's head. "This is from your Master! After your Master met you, he came back and said, 'Ugh, I should have smacked that crazy bastard on the back of the head.'"

Jo Baekta gritted his teeth. He was furious, but this was not the time for fighting. The blood was rising quickly. He felt terror as he watched it, the first time he had ever feared death.

Geom Mugeuk provoked him. "If your Master passed down the Cult Leader position to you, you should've thought about protecting it. What can you do when you can't even protect the good fortune given to you!"

"Good fortune? What good fortune?" The words were like a taboo to him.

"I was always the one who was supposed to inherit the Cult Leader position!"

"Isn't it better that you inherited it earlier?"

"Better? I wasn't ready to become the Cult Leader back then. It was a position I should've inherited after I had trained more and mastered the Great Calamity Demonic Art, but Master just threw the position at me and left."

The things he had buried deep in his heart burst out.

"He told me not to worry because many people followed him. Don't make me laugh! Those people follow Master, not me. Why doesn't he get that? Why doesn't he know that what they say in front of Master is different from what they say in front of me!"

The blood had now risen to their chests.

"Do you know what I was like after Master left? Every single day was like sitting on a cushion of thorns. I worried if someone was after my position. If they were looking down on me. I couldn't even sleep properly for fear of being assassinated, and then what? He says that while everyone else might say that, I shouldn't? How can he say that when he doesn't even know how I've lived."

Geom Mugeuk could tell. The childishness he sometimes sensed from Jo Baekta stemmed from resentment toward his master. He should have endured and overcome by reframing 'because of' as 'thanks to', but he had not.

"He was the only one who truly understood me."

The Illusion King must have squeezed into the cracks of his resentment, anger, and fear. Jo Baekta wanted to say that man was a hundred times better than his damn Master.

"He said he was the last descendant of the Blood Cult."

That was not wrong. After the Illusion King and Hwan Yeo, the martial arts of the Blood Cult had not appeared again.

"He said he was trying to live quietly, but his mind changed when he saw me being abandoned by Master and ascending to the Cult Leader position."

The Illusion King must have pretended to be his greatest source of strength when he was weakest. He must have melted Jo Baekta's heart by teaching him the demonic art of the Blood Cult.

Jo Baekta looked at his reflection in the blood that had now risen to his chest. He suddenly used the blood as a mirror and began to draw the final pattern on his face. It was Punghwa, one of the three patterns, drawn on the face of a dead person. Of course, it did not draw well with blood.

"I wanted to go to the battlefield with the Cheonhwa he drew for me."

The moment he heard those words, Geom Mugeuk knew. "Was that person the painter in the Cult Leader's hall?"

As if he thought this was the end, Jo Baekta nodded. "He was the one who taught me how to draw the facial patterns."

The Illusion King's hiding place was finally revealed.

"He was the one who taught me how I should live, how great of a person I am." The blood had now risen to just below their chins.

Is this how I die?

Jo Baekta's eyes suddenly met Geom Mugeuk's. An inexplicable joy was nestled in Geom Mugeuk's clear, deep eyes.

"What are you so happy about that you're smiling? What's so great that you're acting all high and mighty until the very end?"

"If it were the usual me, I would've boasted a lot, but I've held back a lot today."

The words that followed were even more incomprehensible.

"Your attempt to dispel the space did not fail. I simply succeeded."

"What?"

"Come to think of it, I'll be your junior disciple in here."

"What nonsense are you talking about?"

"He only passed it down to me, so you wouldn't know." The blood had risen to their faces, and they had to stand on their tiptoes to talk. "There's a gesture your Master always makes whenever he opens and closes this space."

Geom Mugeuk raised his hand high out of the blood.

Jo Baekta instinctively felt that something was wrong, but the thought was brief. The blood rose above both of their faces.

Just as they were sinking into the blood, Geom Mugeuk's extended fingers snapped.