The Demonic Supreme Sword Novel - Chapter 66

Chapter 66
## Chapter 66: The Supreme Blade of the Unholy Path (1)

—

“Move faster. Word is the situation is looking grim.”

Kang Po had briefly exited the Yunseong Noodle Shop, but he sprinted back inside with a look of pure desperation.

“Grim? Does that mean the blades are already clashing?”

Chu Sam spoke through a mouth filled with a massive, fist-sized dumpling.

“Hard to say. The rumors are conflicting; some claim the blood is flowing, others say they’re still facing off.”

Mo In-hong, pausing to rinse his mouth with a splash of tea, shifted his gaze toward the exit.

“Let’s get going. If we linger here any longer, we’ll be staring at corpses by the time we arrive.”

“He’s right. We didn’t travel this entire distance just to miss the main event.”

Jang Geol bolted upright, snatching his weapon from the table.

Following Jang Geol’s lead, the rest of the Nanjing Five Heroes stood as one, checking their gear. Their sudden movement triggered a chain reaction, as several other martial artists nearby also abandoned their meals in a frantic hurry.

“I’m going to crush every last one of them!”

Kang Po gave a ferocious roar and kicked the shop’s door wide, storming out into the street.

The ground floor of the Yunseong Noodle Shop, which had been overflowing with patrons since sunrise, became a ghost town in seconds once the Nanjing Five Heroes departed. The only individuals remaining were Sima Geon and Cheol Woo. Tucked away in a quiet corner, they continued to use their chopsticks with rhythmic indifference.

“Look at them go. Pathetic. They’re sprinting toward their own funerals and they don’t even realize it.”

Cheol Woo tossed a clean chicken bone onto the floor and stood up, wandering over to the table recently vacated by the Nanjing Five Heroes. With a practiced sneakiness, he swiped a stray dumpling from Chu Sam’s abandoned plate.

“It’s time to move, Boss. For the sake of the kid, we can’t sit by while those thugs tear the Living Immortal Medical House apart.”

Cheol Woo crammed the dumpling into his cheek and immediately reached for a buckwheat pancake that was nearly as large.

“Fine, let’s go.”

Sima Geon drained the last of his Hanghwa wine and rose to his feet.

“This stuff is incredible. That brat Thunderbolt would lose his mind over these buckwheat pancakes. It’s perfect—once we find him, we should bring him back here for a drink before we move on.”

Cheol Woo took a massive bite of the pancake as they walked toward the exit, a look of genuine pleasure on his face. Regardless of the danger ahead, the prospect of seeing his subordinates again after such a long absence brought a rare smile to his lips.

The various groups of warriors, the Nanjing Five Heroes among them, left the Yunseong Noodle Shop and reached the gates of the Living Immortal Medical House roughly two hours later. They threw themselves into the chaos immediately. However, Sima Geon and Cheol Woo came to a halt.

“Boss, those aren’t our people.”

Cheol Woo’s expression turned into one of utter confusion.

The forces currently dismantling the defenders of the Living Immortal Medical House and the local heroes were quite clearly the Loyalty Demon Division. Furthermore, the warriors dressed in robes of a deep, visceral crimson belonged to the Blood Demon Division, a unit created just before Sima Geon and Cheol Woo had severed ties with the Heavenly Demon Cult.

“I see that. I was certain it would be the Divine Demon Division.”

Sima Geon tilted his head, equally perplexed.

When the initial whispers reached them that the Heavenly Demon Cult was hunting down traitors, they hadn’t considered the Divine Demon Division as the culprits. Knowing their pride, it was hard to imagine them playing the role of obedient lapdogs.

However, recent reports suggested the pursuers were the Cult’s most elite force. This led Sima Geon and Cheol Woo to believe the Divine Demon Division had been deployed, as they were undeniably the supreme power within the cult’s hierarchy.

“Those rumors were absolute garbage. Who is claiming the Loyalty Demon Division is the top tier? They’re a joke compared to our unit.”

Cheol Woo, his excitement at a reunion now replaced by bitter annoyance, spat his words.

“Watch your tongue. Baek Sa-do would take offense to that. The Loyalty Demon Division is competent enough. Very few in our ranks could actually go toe-to-toe with Baek Sa-do or that old fox Buk Su-gon.”

“Maybe, but if you look at the units as a whole…”

Cheol Woo snorted, but his voice died in his throat as his eyes locked onto something in the distance.

“What is it?”

“Isn’t that Thunderbolt over there?”

“What?”

Sima Geon’s head snapped around, following Cheol Woo’s pointed finger.

“It is, isn’t it? Unless I’ve gone blind, that is definitely Thunderbolt.”

“It’s him,” Sima Geon confirmed, his voice dropping an octave.

“They claimed the target was a rebel. And that rebel is Thunderbolt? What kind of insane lie is this? And why is that moron wobbling around like he’s drunk?”

As Cheol Woo cursed and prepared to leap into the fray—

“I am Thunderbolt of the Divine Demon Division!”

A roar erupted from Thunderbolt as he hoisted his blade, a sound that rippled across the entire field of battle. Cheol Woo, who had been on the verge of intervening, let out a dry chuckle instead.

“The kid is on death’s door, but he can still scream with the best of them. Right, Boss?”

“…”

Sima Geon didn’t answer. Feeling the sudden weight of his companion’s silence, Cheol Woo shut his mouth.

Following the conclusion of Hwang Jin’s internal struggle, the Living Immortal Medical House and their allies began to pull back, yielding to the demands of the Heavenly Demon Cult and Thunderbolt.

Sima Geon, who had been watching like a hawk, chose his moment the second Thunderbolt’s final desperate attack missed and Ma Gong-ho moved in for the execution.

◇◇◇◆◇◇◇

“How dare you interfere!”

Ma Gong-ho’s features were contorted with fury as he looked at the sword vibrating in the earth. Had his instincts been even a second slower, that blade would have been buried in his chest.

Ma Gong-ho directed a lethal stare toward the defenders.

“You feign a retreat only to strike from the shadows?”

The members of the Living Immortal Medical House trembled under the weight of Ma Gong-ho’s killing intent, fearing a sudden slaughter. Most looked to Hwang Jin for guidance, but he was busy scanning the crowd of heroes behind them.

Amidst the panic, the Black-Clothed Venerable and Nangong Kyung—along with a few other high-level masters—had already pinpointed the source.

A soft wind began to blow.

It wasn’t a violent storm or a gale that shook the foundations of the world. It was a mere breeze. And yet, it thrummed with a spiritual pressure so dense that it demanded the attention of every soul present.

No words were needed. Every eye turned toward the man walking calmly through the center of the battlefield. The massive, intimidating figure trailing behind him was almost ignored in favor of the leader.

Sima Geon moved with a slow, deliberate pace, his sheer presence acting like a vacuum that sucked the air out of the area.

‘Is that… the leader of the Divine Demon Division?’

The Black-Clothed Venerable felt a tremor in his hands. He had recognized Sima Geon instantly.

In their plan to seize the Heavenly Demon Cult alongside Gwan Ung, the single greatest obstacle had always been Sima Geon.

Gwan Ung, ever the egoist, had claimed he could best Sima Geon in combat, but very few of his conspirators actually believed him. Sima Geon’s history during the cult’s rise to power was the stuff of nightmares and legends.

Then, Sima Geon—a man who could have held the world in his hands—simply walked away from everything, solving their problem for them.

When Cheol Woo, a man almost as terrifying as Sima Geon, left with him, it felt as though fate itself was rewarding the rebellion.

‘If those two had remained at the head of the Divine Demon Division, we could never have usurped the throne. It would have been an impossible task. The current Leader only managed to consolidate power because Sima Geon was gone. So why is he standing here now!’

The Black-Clothed Venerable’s knuckles turned white.

He had felt a nagging sense of dread for a while now. That dark intuition that had haunted him since the start of the cult’s internal purge had finally taken a physical form—and it was the exact nightmare he had hoped to avoid.

“L-Leader…”

Buk Su-gon, the Deputy Leader of the Loyalty Demon Division, stepped toward Baek Sa-do O Ryu with a look of disbelief. Even in the cool air, sweat began to pour down his face from the sheer stress of the man’s aura.

“It’s the Divine Demon Division Leader. And he’s brought that lunatic Diamond Yaksha with him.”

Buk Su-gon flinched when Cheol Woo caught his eye and gave him a mocking, casual wave.

“I see them,” O Ryu replied, his eyes narrowing as he watched Sima Geon approach.

“What is the plan?”

“We follow our instructions, I suppose.”

O Ryu tried to sound firm, but the underlying tremor in his voice gave him away.

“You don’t actually intend to fight those monsters, do you?”

“…”

“Damn it all!”

Buk Su-gon bit his lip until it bled, turning to look at his troops.

The green recruits of the Loyalty Demon Division and the members of the Blood Demon Division—who only knew Sima Geon and Cheol Woo through stories—didn’t quite grasp the danger. However, the veterans who had served alongside them looked like they were staring into the abyss.

“Miss, those are the men you spoke of.”

Gok Ja-yu, his face a mask of dried blood from a nasty gash on his head, spoke with wide, stunned eyes.

“It appears so,” Hwang Yeong replied, pushing her sweaty hair out of her face. The blood matted in her locks was proof of how hard she had fought this day.

‘I knew they were powerful, but I didn’t realize they were legends of this magnitude.’

Gok Ja-yu and Yu Sa-ha were high-level experts from the Receiving Chamber, and Hwang Yeong was stronger than both. She was the only one who truly understood the level of mastery required for the strike Sima Geon had just used to drive Ma Gong-ho back.

“I wonder if they are here to help us or him,” Gok Ja-yu mused.

“It’s obviously him. If they wanted to save the Medical House, they wouldn’t wait until the fighting had stopped to pick a fight with the Cult,” Yu Sa-ha replied sharply. Despite their time together in Soho, he still felt a deep-seated hatred for anything related to the cult.

Sima Geon, ignoring the hundreds of eyes on him, stopped in front of Thunderbolt.

“L-Leader…”

Thunderbolt rubbed his eyes, convinced he was hallucinating. He tried to stand to greet his superior, but his legs gave out and he slumped back down.

“Sit. What the hell happened to you?”

“I am ashamed to be seen like this.”

“Can you move?”

“I’m… holding together.”

Thunderbolt tried to put on a brave face, but Sima Geon wasn’t fooled.

“Don’t lie to me. I saw you earlier—your blade work was pathetic. You looked like a dying bug.”

Thunderbolt managed a weak grin at the insult.

“That’s because it was me. Anyone else would have been a corpse hours ago.”

“Shut up. You couldn’t even handle one loser and let yourself get humiliated?”

Cheol Woo had walked up and, despite his obvious concern, put on a face of pure disgust as he shouted. His voice was booming, ensuring everyone on the battlefield heard his mockery.

“Y-Your words are insulting!”

Ma Gong-ho’s face twitched, his hand shaking as he tried to keep his temper in check.

“You want to see what a real insult looks like?” Cheol Woo sneered at him.

“Enough,” Sima Geon said, quieting Cheol Woo with a glance before turning back to Thunderbolt.

“I heard there was a revolt.”

“There was.”

“The Divine Demon Division?”

“Never.” Thunderbolt shook his head with conviction.

“And the others?”

Thunderbolt’s expression darkened, and Sima Geon’s aura became suffocatingly heavy.

“Don’t tell me they’re all dead,” Cheol Woo interjected, unable to stay silent.

“Almost everyone who didn’t go with you or the deputy leader has been purged. Most of them died just to give me an opening to escape.”

“You didn’t just tuck your tail and run, did you?”

Thunderbolt looked at Cheol Woo with utter disbelief at the question.

“You’re still as thick-headed as ever.”

“What did you say?”

“Look at the state of me. How can you ask such a stupid question? I’m offended.”

Thunderbolt, though he looked ready to faint, sparked with his old fire. Cheol Woo rubbed the back of his neck, looking slightly guilty.

“I mean, you said you escaped. I just thought…”

“I had a task to finish. You think I’d run away for fun? Use your brain.”

“Maybe you should start using yours?”

As Cheol Woo reached out to grab him by the collar, Thunderbolt fumbled through his clothes and pulled out a small bundle wrapped in fine silk.

“The Leader told me to give this to you.”

Sima Geon looked at the object for a long moment, then shook his head.

“Later. Just sleep for now.”

Sima Geon extended his hand, and Thunderbolt’s fallen blade leaped from the dirt into his palm, guided by an invisible force.

He gripped the hilt and turned to face the enemy.

“A-Are you declaring open war on the Heavenly Demon Cult?” Ma Gong-ho stammered, taking an involuntary step backward.

“I don’t care who sits on the throne of the Heavenly Demon Cult. But the Divine Demon Division belongs to me.”

Sima Geon’s cold, arrogant gaze swept over Ma Gong-ho and the entire army of cultists standing behind him.