The members of the sect on the ship were conversing.
Just looking at their eyes told me that their thoughts had changed. The blood hair, blood eyes and the sword dyed in blood
-Quite amazing.
‘Just a sight.’
This was more like a show.
Wasn’t this more effective for me to show it once than maintaining it constantly? Baek Ryeon-ha opened her voice in a trembling tone.
“…Blood Heavenly Great Change!”
This was the first step to transforming into a Blood Demon. And even within that were certain levels of unique things and techniques which would affect the body and turn it red.
Maybe even eyebrows.
“How… how could the Young Master learn them?”
Han Baek-ha spoke to me in disbelief, and I told them the truth.
“I learned it from the Blood Demon Sword.”
“From the sword?”
This wasn’t a lie either.
Of course, to speak in detail it was because of the will of the Blood Demon I absorbed that such a thing was possible but that would only increase their confusion.
Looking at their trembling throats, they were all talking by using qi. Hae Ack-chun stepped ahead and spoke.
“You won’t believe it even after seeing that? Even after the fact that the divine treasure had chosen him.”
According to the law of the sect, among the one running for successors, the one chosen by the sword, their sacred Blood Demon Sword, would be called the Blood Demon.
Hae Ack-chun was hinting at that possibility.
“This is impossible. Isn’t the young master the son from the Ikyang So family? Then how can he be chosen by the Blood Demon Sword?”
At the words of Han Baek-ha, Hae Ack-chun looked at me asking for my permission to reveal my personal information.
So I decided to speak.
“I too managed to find my identity when I was dispatched for the mission at Ikyang So.”
“What?”
“…The lord of the Ikyang So family is not my biological father.”
‘…!?’
Han Baek-ha frowned.
“What do you mean? You were adopted?”
“My mother had been accepted in the Ikyang So family as a concubine. And this jade plaque was one left by my mother.”
“What can that…”
“The proof of inheriting the blood of Blood Demon, the symbol of the Flying Moon Family.”
Hae Ack-chun interrupted Han Baek-ha as he added.
Upon hearing that Seo Kalma’s eyes widened in surprise, it looked like he understood the current situation.
“…Hae hyung. Is that true?”
“Huh! Yes.”
Hae Ack-chun looked at me and I took out the plaque from the sleeve and seeing this Seo Kalma was taken aback.
“How can…”
“Second Elder. What does that plaque represent?”
“The plaque of the sect.”
As Hae Ack-chun said, it was something that only a few in the Blood Sect were privy to, and Han Baek-ha didn’t seem to know of this.
“I don’t understand?”
“That jade plaque is inherited by the successor of the Flying Moon Family…”
Han Baek-ha was interrupted by Baek Ryeon-ha’s words.
“It is a family line which directly comes from the blood of the sect’s founder.”
At those words, Han Baek-ha was shocked.
It was sad that there existed only a single child to the main sect leader, but Baek Ryeon-ha seemed to know about it.
Possessing the blood of Blood Demon meant to possess the right to lead.
“Lady…”
Seo Kalma called her in a shaken voice. Being selected by the sword wasn’t enough and now being a direct inheritor of the blood seemed to have shaken his belief.
However, unlike Hae Ack-chun he would be in a situation where he wasn’t sure on what to do as the woman he swore allegiance to was right in front of him.
-This is quite complicated. What if we get into a fight?
Then it would be the worst.
In other words, a bloody fight would erupt on the river. And I turned to Baek Ryeon-ha.
Everything depended on her choices and if she acknowledged me as the Blood Demon then everything would change and if she didn’t, then a war was bound to happen.
“Wait, everyone listen!”
Han Baek-ha stepped ahead and looked at Fourth Blood Star and Hae Ack-chun.
“This so called family perished in the great war against the Murim due to the internal fighting among the Dual Martial troops”
‘This…’
This was something I happened to have heard in the Lower District sect’s branch in Mangok-ri.
Actually, I was curious as to what happened there, and I asked them to get me information.
“Isn’t that something everyone here knows? At that time, the fact that anything related to our sect over there was killed and destroyed.”
Fourth Blood Star was glaring at her.
“Is it that the Sixth Blood Star doesn’t believe in the selection of the Blood Demon Sword and the plaque being displayed too?”
“I don’t mean that…”
Han Baek-ha looked at me and asked, “Does the young master know if his father was the one to inherit the blood or his mother?”
“No.”
Han Baek-ha smiled at my words.
“That statement means that we don’t know if he is a direct descendant or not.”
At her words, Hae Ack-chun urged her with a stern face.
“Are you doubting the sword’s choice?”
“Not doubting. In a way, Lady Baek Hye-hyang too inherited the blood, but doesn’t everyone know that she isn’t from the direct descendant line?”
“So what is the problem?”
“The reason we chose our allegiance to Lady Baek Ryeon-ha was because of her legitimacy here. She is the one who inherited the blood of the former Blood Demon. Why did the Fourth Blood Star select Lady baek Hye-hyang then?”
At that, Do Jang-ho added.
“Because of her talent.”
Baek Hye-hyang had the talent to be the Blood Demon.
And it was said even Hae Ack-chun would agree to it.
Even though Baek Ryeon-ha had legitimacy, her opponent had a horrifying growth rate.
Blood ties were important, but strength was something to value too.
It was because the person who symbolized the Blood Sect had to have the strength to revive it.
“Bloody Hand Witch. Do you want to say now that he, no, Blood Demon is less talented than Lady Baek Hye-hyang!”
“It isn’t that small of a reason.”
“What!”
Intense energy rose from Hae Ack-chun, who was ready to fight.
Han Baek-ha waved her hands which were stained in red.
“Come at me!”
“I am not done speaking yet.”
“What is there to speak more!”
“If we interpret the law, the words of the Elder are right. Who would have imagined something like this would happen? It is a situation that even the great man of the past hadn’t predicted.”
“What?”
“The law must have been created to minimize the quarrel between successors. It means that the family which went away from the sect and those joined into another faction were never considered.”
What she said was that before considering me as Blood Demon, it was impossible to recognize my family as direct descendants.
Bang!
Hae Ack-chun took a step ahead.
“Even shit needs to be talked about in limitation. In the end, you will say that a sub-family of the First Leader is not qualified….”
“Hae hyung. There is truth to her words.”
At that time, Seo Kalma intervened.
“What?”
“The sect helped the sub-family which got kicked out by the Royal family during the subjugation of Murim. But did you forget their choice? They gave up on joining the sect back then too.”
Hae Ack-chun frowned as he didn’t expect this.
And Han Baek-ha continued.
“Then I am sure. If the previous leaders and Elders acknowledged them as being of the same bloodline, they would have helped the sub-family which had trouble with the Dual Martial Troops.”
“Ha!”
Hae Ack-chun was shocked at which she only continued.
“This is no emotionally driven statement. Are you going to acknowledge something that even the former Sect Elders didn’t?”
She looked at Hae Ack-chun proudly.
She was clever and thorough and if we pushed this way, it would be like Hae Ack-chun ignoring the previous Sect Leader’s rulings.
-They are desperate.
‘We need to stop them.’
If the law was followed then Baek Ryeon-ha was at a disadvantage as I got chosen by the Blood Demon Sword.
So in a way, the interpretation of status and previous Sect Leader’s thoughts were now clashing with one another.
Han Baek-ha then told me.
“Such a pity. If the sect had a smooth relationship with your family then maybe your blood family would have still been safe.”
Her words made me feel cold.
-Is she playing with words?
Right.
This was what it seemed like.
To overcome their situation of losing power she was saying that the former Sect Leaders abandoned my family and let them go extinct.
-I feel like killing her.
Right
An obvious attempt to alienate me, and it wasn’t without effect.
It would make people assume that if the Blood Sect helped then I would be safe in the family’s place.
If that happened maybe I wouldn’t have had to live such a miserable life like I did under that fake father.
-You are not going to fall for her words right?
‘I am not an idiot.’
But there was one thing she didn’t know. Having lived as a spy, I never trusted the words of anyone right away.
It was because no one could be trusted so I smiled, and told her.
“It would have been nice if that happened but as far as I knew, when a problem arose in the Dual Martial troops, didn’t the sect also engage in its battle with the Murim Alliance at the same time? You must have been so busy dealing with those people, so how could you even part with forces to help us?”
“That…”
“And it is quite questionable if the family had difficulty holding onto its life and entered the protection of Dual Martial forces while pretending to break away from the Blood Sect when the subjugation broke out.”
“Didn’t the Second Elder say so? They abandoned the…”
“Sixth Blood Star. Even now, when I say that I inherited the blood of the family which belonged to the First Leader, you speak about legitimacy and fail to recognize me as the successor. Then what about this? Would you accept it if another direct descendant of his blood returns back to the sect?”
At this, she went speechless. On the other hand, Hae Ack-chun smiled.
Do Jang-ho suddenly spoke.
“Sixth Blood Star, you asked me why I chose to follow Lady Baek Hye-hyang, right?”
“…Yes.”
“It is the same reason why I accept lord So as the Blood Demon.”
“Uh?”
He winked at me and added.
“Did you think that I changed my mind due to the rules of the sect? It was because I think Blood Demon has higher talent than Baek Hye-hyang.”
“Higher talent?”
She looked frowning to which he smiled and continued.
“In just a year and a couple months, with a body which was originally broken, he acquired the ability to surpass me. How can such a naturally talented man be lower in talent than Lady Baek Hye-hyang?”
Not just Han Baek-ha but even Seo Kalma was shocked by his words.
“Not possible! That guy just hit Master level so how can he surpass you who is at Super Master level?”
“He didn’t even touch it for over a month.”
I could understand why they reacted in this way.
They couldn’t even properly know the speed of my growth since I always had hidden my true skills and power. In addition, in the Ikyang So family, I gained so many things.
And then after numerous fights with the most skilled warriors. Even without absorbing the techniques inside Blood Demon Sword, I was sure that my strength had grown at a greater proportion.
Hae Ack-chun smiled.
“Keke, if you don’t believe it, why don’t you fight?”
“Huh?”
“Bloody Hand Witch, want to try?”
Her expression turned cold at his words.
She tried to step ahead but someone blocked her
“My Lady?”
It was Baek Ryeon-ha who stopped here and stepped ahead.
“I will do it.”
“My lady! How…”
“How can I let you fight the Blood Demon?”
Baek Ryeon-ha stepped ahead. And with gentle movements jumped onto our ship.
Baek Ryeon-ha then added.
“It seems like the relationship between us two runs quite deep. I never dreamed of us doing something like this.”
“I apologize.”
I did feel bad for her as I blocked her dreams. But then even I had things I was supposed to do.
“Surely we will know that”
“What?”
“Who is the real Blood Demon?”
“Through this fight?”
“…I do not want to turn this into a war between us again. Isn’t the young master feeling the same?”
“We think the same.”
“Then, it will be decided with this fight. If you win, all of us will come under the young master.”
“And if I lose, it will be the opposite.”
“A neat way which doesn’t hurt either side. You agree?”
“I do.”
When I was done, Baek Ryeon-ha shouted to the people to hear.
“Everyone heard it? This fight decides everything now. We do not forgive anyone who will disrespect that!”
“Yes!!”
All the people on the side of her ship shouted at the same time. As expected, she was someone with dignity.
At this, I too raised my sword and shouted.
“If I lose, we will go under the care of Lady Baek Ryeon-ha. No disagreement.”
“Yes!!”
This side was nice too.
“All agree?”
I asked Do Jang-ho, and all the leading people nodded in agreement.
And so the two of us moved to fight.
This was the fight which would decide the position of Blood Demon and she took her stance.
“Do your best. It will be different once I start using everything.”
It was a warning.
Wanting to show the full extent of her skills and to this, I nodded without answering.
Do jang-ho was in the middle and raised his hand.
“Start!”
As soon as the words fell, she approached me unfolding her splendid footwork.
And I slowly unsheathed the sword as I took my stance. And then, gathering the qi, I moved to her. Like a hawk–
‘…?!’
Baek Ryeon-ha’s eyes shone at my movements.
This was what she had taught me. She taught me as a condition in the past, but it was different, a change for the sake of the sword.
‘Blood Guard Sword Heaven.’
Chaaak!
A red line was drawn in a circle and wrapped around the body of Baek Ryeon-ha, making her shocked.
But it was too late.
Her body soared high into the sky regardless of her will.
Pak!
I placed the tip of my sword on her neck as she tried to balance when the effect failed.
Silence descended over everyone as the results arrived in one move.
“How…”
As she was trying to find out how, I replied.
“Now I am the Blood Demon.”
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