The Blood Blade Cult loomed before them crimson banners fluttering in the wind, the air thick with iron and incense.
Mae-Bi and Jin knelt at the edge of the pavilion.
They hadn't been told to kneel.
They just knew better than to stand.
At the top of the pavilion steps sat the First Lord of the Blood Blade Division — Hyeolgeom Gunju — shrouded in layers of black and red robes, his face obscured behind a silk veil that covered everything above his mouth.
Only his lips were visible and even they hadn't moved once.
The air was still.
Too still.
They had been kneeling for three hours.
Mae-Bi didn't shift. Didn't tremble. Didn't breathe too loudly.
He kept his head low, eyes on the floor.
And his thoughts spinning.
I killed Cho Gwan.
Not out of vengeance.
Not out of ambition.
But because it was necessary.
To survive in this cult, one had to rise or be buried under the boots of those who did.
And to rise, one had to lead.
Within the Blood Blade, each team was divided into six squads from the elite First Division down to the Sixth, made up of boys and girls barely old enough to hold a blade. Mae-Bi belonged to the Fifth.
Cho Gwan had led it.
Now, Cho Gwan was gone.
And Mae-Bi intended to take his place.
But not before dodging the blade of suspicion.
Just before they arrived at the pavilion, Mae-Bi had slipped the stolen pill the one Hyeon Mu-Yeon died protecting into his mouth and swallowed it whole.
[System concealment in effect. Qi surge masked. Pill absorption delayed and fragmented.]
He trusted the system to keep him hidden.
But Hyeolgeom Gunju… was not a man easily fooled.
A figure descended the steps.
It was the First Squad Leader, Baek Mu-Gi clad in dark robes and mask carve and shape of Asura.
He stopped in front of them.
Still no words.
"Where is Cho Gwan?"
Jin tensed beside him.
Mae-Bi spoke first, voice calm.
"Cho Gwan retrieved the artifact and departed ahead of us. He said he would report directly to the pavilion."
"Three hours ago?" the squad leader said, voice tight.
"Yes," Mae-Bi replied. "He left before we finished clearing the site."
The silence that followed stretched like a blade being drawn.
No lie.
No betrayal.
Just enough truth to keep the centipede in my chest from bursting.
The squad leader stared at them.
Then turned to a lesser handler at the side of the pavilion.
"Search every road between here and the border. Find Cho Gwan. Or find what's left of him."
"Yes, sir."
The footsteps vanished.
Mae-Bi remained still.
They won't find him.
He'd seen to that.
A corpse burned to nothing. A grave made of dust and silence.
But still he knew what this was.
A test.
They would kneel here until Cho Gwan was found.
Which meant: they would kneel forever.
Night had fallen.
The wind grew colder.
The moon cast pale light across the courtyard where Mae-Bi and Jin still knelt, their bodies aching, legs numb from hours of silence.
Then—
A voice broke the darkness.
Calm. Deep. Inevitable.
"It seems someone… ran off with my pill."
The words came from the figure seated above Hyeolgeom Gunju, the Lord of the Blood Blade Branch.
His voice wasn't loud.
It didn't need to be.
The killing intent it carried was monstrous a storm wrapped in silk.
Jin's breath caught in his throat.
Beside him, Mae-Bi's body locked.
Even Baek Mu-Gi, the First Squad Leader a man known for executing traitors barehanded was trembling. Cold sweat dripped from his jawline.
Mae-Bi couldn't breathe.
It felt like his lungs were being crushed. His ribs threatened to snap under invisible weight. His hands shook, fingers curling inward involuntarily.
His skin itched. His bones felt like they were twisting.
His heart pounded so hard he thought it might rupture on its own.
So this… is just the pressure of a branch lord?
How would it feel to kneel before the Heavenly Demon himself…?
Would my body just disintegrate?
Pain surged through him white-hot, unbearable.
It was as if something was gnawing on his nerves from the inside.
Then—
[Warning: External spiritual pressure exceeding host threshold.]
[Activating emergency barrier.]
A thin film of translucent energy formed around his body the system's doing.
But it wasn't enough.
His vision blurred. His teeth clenched so tightly they nearly cracked.
I'm going to pass out…
[Request detected: Increase barrier strength by 20%?]
"Yes," he whispered in his mind, barely coherent. "Do it. Now."
[Confirmed. Reinforcement applied.]
The pressure lightened slightly.
It still felt like kneeling under a collapsing mountain.
But he could breathe.
Barely.
He lowered his head further, pressing his forehead to the stone to hide the tremors in his eyes.
Jin beside him was silent, but Mae-Bi could see his fingers digging into the dirt, white-knuckled.
One wrong word, Mae-Bi thought, and everyone kneeling here dies.
Hyeolgeom Gunju said nothing more.
But his presence lingered like a blade hung inches from every throat in the room.
Baek Mu-Gi fell to his knees, his voice trembling as he bowed his head low.
"My lord… please forgive our failure. I will overturn every stone, search every shadow. I will find Cho Gwan myself if I must."
Up on the pavilion steps, Hyeolgeom Gunju didn't move.
But his voice—when it came—was calm and razor-sharp.
"And yet… my pill remains missing."
A pause. A breath.
"Now that I think about it, Cho Gwan was handpicked. Loyal. Obedient. Not the type to run with a stolen artifact. Unless…"
Silence stretched like a blade.
"…Someone killed him."
Mae-Bi, still kneeling with his forehead to the ground, felt his blood freeze.
It was as if a pair of invisible eyes were boring into his soul — ancient, merciless.
He couldn't lift his head.
He didn't need to. He felt it.
Hyeolgeom Gunju is staring at me.
Baek Mu-Gi turned.
His gaze was colder now as he looked at the two kneeling figures.
"You two," he said quietly. "Did you see your squad leader Cho Gwan?"
Mae-Bi and Jin both shook their heads.
But the real test was coming.
Baek Mu-Gi's voice dropped low.
"Now, you will swear."
He stepped forward, his hand resting on the hilt of his blade.
"You will swear with the centipede in your heart. And with the name of the Heavenly Demon on your lips. If you lie—"
His smile was thin.
"You know what happens."
Mae-Bi's heart slammed in his chest.
This is it.If I lie, I die. If I tell the truth, I die. Unless…
Baek Mu-Gi turned to Jin first.
"You. Go."
Jin swallowed hard.
"I swear," he said, voice steady, "with the name of the Heavenly Demon… I did not see Squad Leader Cho Gwan after he left the mission."
His Blood Eyes lit faintly red standard for a cultivation-level truth response.
Nothing happened.
He was clean.
Baek Mu-Gi nodded. "Good. Step aside."
Then he turned to Mae-Bi.
"You."
Mae-Bi slowly raised his head.His lips parted, dry as dust.
Careful. Word by word. One mistake and the centipede will eat my heart.
He inhaled.
Then spoke carefully.
"I swear… with the name of the Heavenly Demon…"
A pause.
"…that I did not see Cho Gwan die with my own eyes."
Baek Mu-Gi's gaze sharpened.
Mae-Bi's heartbeat slammed in his chest.
But the centipede didn't move.
Because it was true.
He hadn't seen Cho Gwan die. Not directly.
He stabbed him from behind.
Cho's face had turned in horror but Mae-Bi had looked away before the life fully left his eyes. He had felt him die.
But he never saw it.
And the centipede, bound to spiritual truth accepted it.
The room held its breath.
Baek Mu-Gi studied him.
Then finally nodded.
"Good."
Mae-Bi bowed his head again, eyes cold with silent victory.
[System Notification: Hidden Stat – "Mental Fortitude" has increased.]
[Unique Trait Gained: Serpent's Tongue – Tier 1 | You instinctively know how to bend truth without triggering spiritual detection.]