Chapter 801: One Must Eat, Even if the Celestial Killer Star Arrives

TL: FoodieMonster007

Ga Ye felt relieved. Geom Mugeuk had voiced exactly what she wanted to shout at the Darkness Palace Lord.

He could have cursed even more if he wished. If she had her way, she would have urged him to keep going until the Darkness Palace Lord opened the door, stepped out, and bowed his head in apology.

"Don't hold back so much just because you're a Saintess."

The intention behind Geom Mugeuk's sweet words was too clear.

"No matter what you say, I won't take your side." Ga Ye added a feigned sigh. "Besides, you saw it. The Darkness Palace Lord didn't open the door even when you tried to kill me. I have no use to you."

Well, her words were one thing, but she still believed in the Darkness Palace Lord. He likely had not opened the door because he knew Geom Mugeuk would not actually strike the killing blow.

She added, "I know how good you are at deceiving people, so don't waste your breath with pointless words."

Geom Mugeuk smiled. "That's right. With that art of deception, I made the two coolest people from your side my own. I wonder what our Ak-hyung is doing right now. I hope he is not getting picked on at the academy because I'm not there. Ak-hyung, you have to hang in there!"

Ga Ye stared at him. How can he say something like that now?

She felt she could not understand this Young Cult Leader with common sense.

However, Geom Mugeuk had mentioned the traitors for a reason.

"If Ak-hyung or Young Lady Cha were in your situation," he explained, "the Darkness Palace Lord would have opened the door and come out."

Ga Ye bit her lip. "It's useless to try to drive a wedge between us. That door won't open because of a provocation."

Even so, Geom Mugeuk's attempt dug deep.

"The Darkness Palace Lord appeared before me twice. Both times, he was only an illusion. Even so, he sent you out here alone. You could have been killed by me or the Demon Supremes."

Ga Ye's chest tightened. Anger boiled up even though she knew he was trying to create a rift. It struck harder because she had once been abandoned by the Black Elder.

"When we first met, you said it yourself that a prophecy would not be granted to someone like me."

"That was because you were being so shameless. I thought you would at least apologize to the Thousand Flower Palace Chairwoman. Something like 'I'm sorry, I had no choice but to summon you here', you know?"

"Is a simple phrase like that really so important?"

"That one phrase can change everything. Missing the chance to say it can lead to a lifetime of regret."

Ga Ye shook her head. She had never looked at it that way. "She was already summoned, so what meaning would an apology have?"

"That's not the reason you did not apologize."

"……" Ga Ye shuddered. Geom Mugeuk's words hit her like a blade.

"Be honest. You did not even think of apologizing. Now that you hear my words, you are thinking should I have said it. If so, that means the Darkness Palace Lord raised you that way. You said I'm good at deception. You should say that to the Darkness Palace Lord first."

Ga Ye could not refute anything.

Geom Mugeuk pressed on with cold precision. "You have become not the Saintess of the Saintess Palace, but a handmaiden of the Darkness Palace. That is probably why the prophecy was given to the Thousand Flower Palace Chairwoman after she left the palace."

"Shut up!" Ga Ye shouted, her voice raw.

Truth was always a blade. It could defend or destroy.

For her, it cut deep.

"Fine. I still have no intention of apologizing. I will never take your side, even if I die."

"I'm not doing this to make you my ally."

Ga Ye's eyes widened in surprise. "Then why are you doing this to me? Why did you act so friendly?"

Geom Mugeuk looked toward the door again. "I'm using you to open that door. You're the key that can open it."

His blunt honesty stunned Ga Ye. Curiosity flickered beneath her shock. How did he plan to open it?

"If I ask you one question, that door will open."

What question can do that?

Geom Mugeuk looked her straight in the eye. "The six powers contained in that orb, how do I use them?"

Ga Ye flinched.

Geom Mugeuk smiled victoriously. Her reaction betrayed everything. "I could ask another question too. Tell me what kind of person the master of the Celestial Killer Star is. Tell me their story and abilities. Tell me where they are and what they will do. If you answer, I'll let you live."

"……" Ga Ye did not respond.

"The best way to get revenge on the Darkness Palace Lord who abandoned you is to tell me the truth."

SSSSHHH!

Suddenly, the dark mist around the door scattered, and the door opened.

"Didn't I tell you? You are the key."

Ga Ye's expression turned cold. The Darkness Palace Lord had opened the door because he feared she would reveal his secrets.

She would not speak, no matter the torture, yet he had not even waited until she lost a finger.

This is how little he trusts my willpower? What does he take me for?

She understood now. The Darkness Palace Lord did not trust her at all.

She raged, "The door is open, so I'm useless now, right? Go on, kill me. Kill me! Then you two big shots can fight until you both drop dead. I'll watch and see which one of you reaches hell first."

She felt miserable. Abandoned by the heavens. Abandoned by the Darkness Palace Lord. And now she was even useless to Geom Mugeuk.

However, Geom Mugeuk watched her with the same calm gaze. He did not rush toward the open door even though it might close again.

If Ga Ye had been in his place, she would have cut her down and rushed in, but Geom Mugeuk kept looking at her.

"Now that you have screamed your lungs out, has your anger subsided a bit?"

Geom Mugeuk's words drained the tension from her. After making her that furious, how could he say something like that?

"Just looking at your face makes my blood boil so much I feel like I'm going crazy."

"Then stop looking and go."

Ga Ye flinched. "You're letting me live?"

"Doesn't a Saintess's life belong not to man but to the heavens?" Geom Mugeuk turned away as if he truly meant to spare her.

Ga Ye shouted after him, "Tell me the real reason you're letting me live."

Geom Mugeuk remembered the Saintess from three hundred years ago. The woman who had delivered the prophecy to him.

Did you know your Saintess Palace would end up like this?

"Consider it help from your ancestors."

Leaving behind those cryptic words, Geom Mugeuk walked toward the door.

Ga Ye, watching him, did not leave. She ran up and walked side by side with him. "I'm still not done being angry."

Geom Mugeuk nodded and mumbled to himself, "Maybe she knew it would end like this long ago…"

The two of them entered the room where the Darkness Palace Lord was.

Five men stood on the streets of the Demon Village until sunset.

"We don't know when the Celestial Killer Star will arrive, so let's wait comfortably inside the tavern until he does. There's no need to waste our strength on the street before the fight even begins, is there?" the Heavenly Wind Cult Leader suggested.

Geom Woojin readily nodded. Just as the Heavenly Wind Cult Leader said, there was no way of knowing if the Celestial Killer Star would come today, tomorrow, a month from now, or never at all.

Nevertheless, he had lit the demonic signal fire and brought them out because of his son. He felt the wheels of fate turning with his son's departure from the cult.

They entered the Alluring Inn. Because Jo Cheonbae had vacated the tavern in a hurry, the inside was still a mess.

The four demonic masters moved. This was a space for the Demonic Cult Leader. They could not have him stay in such a messy place.

"It looks like this place needs some cleaning," the Heavenly Wind Cult Leader said playfully. "Who's the youngest one here? The youngest should clean up."

Everyone smiled faintly at his joke about finding the youngest. Thanks to him, the atmosphere was pleasant.

The Heavenly Wind Cult Leader glanced at the Poison King. He had naturally assumed the Poison King would be the youngest.

However, an unexpected person stepped forward and revealed the truth.

"I am the youngest," the Sword King confessed.

"You're the youngest?"

"I'm two years younger than the Poison King."

The Heavenly Wind Cult Leader's eyes widened in shock. "I'd believe it if you said he was your son!"

"If we're going by that logic…" The Sword King's voice trailed off. He could not bring himself to say that the Poison King must look like the Heavenly Wind Cult Leader's grandson.

"But how do you know you're the youngest?"

"I know the ages of everyone here."

The Sword King's words were a sudden reminder that he had once been their enemy.

"I'll clean up here, so please go up to the second floor. Even if the Celestial Killer Star comes, we still have to eat."

They could not just leave the Cult Leader standing there, so the Fist Demon and the Poison King escorted Geom Woojin to the second floor.

The Heavenly Wind Cult Leader stayed on the first floor with the Sword King, who was the most approachable and easiest to talk to. He also felt a bit sorry for making him work by bringing up the topic of who was youngest.

Fortunately, the second floor was clean. Geom Woojin sat in the seat Geom Mugeuk always took, and the Fist Demon sat across from him.

The Poison King sat separately at a nearby table. Knowing the Cult Leader disliked poison arts, he deliberately chose an inconspicuous spot.

The Fist Demon asked Geom Woojin, "Are you comfortable? Please let me know if you need anything."

"I'm fine."

The Fist Demon nodded. He could sense that the Cult Leader was enjoying the tension on the eve of this decisive battle. "It's been a while since we've been in an atmosphere like this."

"Yes, it has."

Others might not know, but the Fist Demon knew. He knew how much this Cult Leader enjoyed fighting his enemies.

Geom Woojin was a man who would gladly stay up for days and nights for the chance to fight a strong opponent. He was a man who had crossed the Central Plains from end to end without rest.

Freed from the burden of his authority, the Cult Leader became a completely different person.

Everyone would probably be shocked. The Cult Leader has a side like that? They would all think something along those lines.

Just then, the Heavenly Wind Cult Leader's voice drifted up from the first floor. Unable to hold back, he was already critiquing the Sword King's work.

"You would have made a good waiter. Your skill with a cleaning rag is extraordinary."

It could have sounded offensive, but the Sword King did not mind at all. In truth, with his shabby clothes, ponytail, and bare feet, if not for the sword at his hip, he looked exactly like an old waiter.

"I've actually thought about opening an inn someday."

"It suits you, it really does. How about an inn where anyone who starts a fight has to forfeit their life? We'll spread rumors that it's the safest inn in all of murim. What should we name it?"

GRUMBLE…

As the excited Heavenly Wind Cult Leader chattered on, his stomach rumbled.

"All this talking must have made me hungry already. I wonder how many meals the Young Cult Leader eats in a day?"

"I'll make something simple to eat."

"Would you?"

Just then, the Fist Demon came down to the first floor. "I'll do it. I need to prepare a meal for the Cult Leader anyway."

They wondered if he was stopping them from touching the food because of a lack of trust, but that was not the reason.

From the second floor, Geom Woojin said something unexpected. "That man used to cook quite a bit in his younger days."

When Geom Woojin and the Fist Demon roamed the Central Plains in their youth, they often cooked for themselves. Geom Woojin's own cooking skills were learned during that time.

The Sword King and the Heavenly Wind Cult Leader stared at the Fist Demon in surprise.

He cooks with those big hands?

The large kitchen knife in his hand looked like a small paring knife.

It was a rare sight.

While the Fist Demon chopped carrots in the kitchen, the Sword King wiped the tables with a rag, and the Heavenly Wind Cult Leader watched them from his chair.

If someone were to paint this scene, the title of the painting would be this: Waiting for the Celestial Killer Star.

Of course, it would be a painting no one would believe.

With the three of them downstairs, only Geom Woojin and the Poison King remained on the second floor.

An awkward silence fell, but Geom Woojin had once visited the Thousand Poisons Forest to help the Poison King with his poison concoctions.

Geom Woojin was the first to speak, remarking, "Your poison pouch looks different than usual."

The Poison King, who had been lost in his own world while staring blankly out the window, instantly returned to reality. "This is my war pouch."

Geom Woojin shook his head calmly. "This war is not your war."

The Poison King lowered his head slightly. He thought the Cult Leader was saying it because he disliked poison arts, but that was not it.

"The war to protect Mugeuk is your war."

"!" The Poison King raised his head, shocked. The Cult Leader's words were in preparation for losing this fight.

The Fist Demon's chopping stopped, and the Sword King's wiping paused. The Heavenly Wind Cult Leader's head naturally turned toward the second floor.

Geom Woojin asked, "How will you protect Mugeuk from an enemy my martial arts cannot affect?"

The Cult Leader and the Poison King locked gazes. Geom Woojin was asking the ultimate weapon of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult, 'When I am dead, how will you protect Mugeuk?'

The Poison King thought for a moment. "I will protect him by making a threat that only I can make."

"What kind of threat? If they are skilled enough to kill me, they might have already reached the state of Myriad Poison Immunity."

The Poison King gave an unexpected answer. "It is not a threat to poison him."

"Then what is it?"

"After I go into hiding, I will send a letter to the bastard."s The Poison King recited the threat. "If you kill the Young Cult Leader, I will poison every person in the world so you have nothing to rule. The murim you conquer will be desolate."

The end of the world. It was the most vicious threat in existence, that only the Poison King could make.

Everyone fell silent. They knew the Poison King could really do it.

"But such a thing will not happen," the Poison King added. Considering how little he normally talked to Geom Woojin, this was ten years of words spoken at once.

Because the Cult Leader will never lose to the Celestial Killer Star.

Geom Woojin expected those words, yet the Poison King's reason for thinking this way was different from the Sword King.

"I do not believe the Young Cult Leader was born to create a balance with the Celestial Killer Star. Saying that would be an understatement. The Young Cult Leader is far too outstanding and brilliant for a mere Celestial Killer Star to be his equal," the Poison King said.

"Then why do you think Mugeuk was born?"

The Poison King answered sincerely, "I believe the Young Cult Leader was born to create a balance with you, Cult Leader."

Shock rippled through Geom Woojin and the three people below. None of them had imagined the Poison King thought that way, that he would believe Geom Mugeuk was born to stop his own father.

"To me, you, Cult Leader, are much more frightening than the Celestial Killer Star. That is why I fear the Young Cult Leader the most."