Reincarnation of the Blood Demon - Chapter 27

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Blood Demon Resurrection
Chapter 27
I’ve Left the Blood Sect
‘It wasn’t Yuk Chang-ro. It was the Huanhun Sect.’

Jeok Un-hui’s brow furrowed at this unexpected turn of events.
There were too many pieces that didn’t fit if he simply assumed Yuk Chang-ro had drawn the Huanhun Sect into this.
‘Yuk Chang-ro backs the Second Prince. The Huanhun Sect leader is close to Dae Gong-ja.’

Beyond that, relations between Yuk Chang-ro’s faction and the Huanhun Sect had never been good.

‘They’re in direct competition over their respective fields.’

The Ghost Soul Pavilion, led by Yuk Chang-ro—also known as Mong Yeom—specialized in Ghost Arts and Curse Arts, commanding the dead as though they were limbs. The Huanhun Sect, by contrast, primarily dealt in Formation Magic and Illusion Arts.
At first glance they might seem interchangeable, but that very similarity made the rivalry fiercer.

‘Bladesmasters spend their days crossing swords with each other. Why should these sorcerers be any different?’

In a place like the Blood Sect, where Dark Magic held sway, turf wars between sorcerers could only be brutal.
But what troubled him was……

‘So where does Dae Gong-ja fit into all this?’

Jeok Un-hui’s expression darkened as he conjured the face of his half-brother from memory.
Dae Gong-ja was known for his exceptional loyalty to the Sect Leader.
That made direct involvement seem unlikely—but one could never be certain.

‘What if Dae Gong-ja knew everything and simply turned a blind eye to the Huanhun Sect?’

A hypocrite who played loyal to his father in public while secretly joining hands with his rival Yuk Chang-ro and indulging in Dark Magic.

‘Or Yuk Chang-ro seized control of the Huanhun Sect’s leadership without Dae Gong-ja even knowing.’

From the circumstances, the latter seemed more likely.
After all, Ghost Arts—which dealt in commanding corpses and thirsting for blood—required far more living souls than the Huanhun Sect’s specialties of Formation Magic and Illusion Arts ever could.
Either way, the truth was vile and nauseating.
Jeok Un-hui glanced sideways at Heuk Seo.

‘Now I understand why that bastard swaggered out so confidently.’

Even if the worst came to pass, the Huanhun Sect leader—a major power in the Blood Sect—could surely cover for him.

‘Or so he hoped, at least.’

Why would a sect of the Huanhun Sect’s stature protect small-time bandits like Nokrim?
They would have been better off cutting off the tail entirely.
Reading the mood of the Blood Sect members, Heuk Seo swallowed hard and opened his mouth.
“I know how to contact the Huanhun Sect.”
“So?”
“If you’ll leave it to me, I can make this all disappear. I’ll disband the squad and make it look like we fled—then the Huanhun Sect won’t be able to object.”
He spoke with an obsequious air, but reverse the logic and he could just as easily inform the Huanhun Sect and drive them all into a corner.
There was no missing the subtext: you’ll have to keep me alive, whatever happens.
Jeok Un-hui laughed dryly.
“Well, well. Our leader’s quite useful, isn’t he? Knows the sect well.”
“I’ve been rolling around Gamsuk long enough. Hah……”

Heuk Seo, taking that laughter as a sign of hope, tried to laugh along—awkwardly—but those who had dealt with Jeok Un-hui before merely clicked their tongues.
‘Speaking without being asked to……’
The blade sang.
Jeok Un-hui drew the sword he had sheathed moments before, and Heuk Seo’s smile collapsed.
“So someone as well-informed as you dares draw a blade on me?”
“Wait, hold on—”
Before Heuk Seo could finish, the sword flashed through the air.
Thunk!
His left hand severed clean at the wrist.
“Ahhhhh!!”
Ignoring Heuk Seo’s screams, Jeok Un-hui turned to Ma Hyeol-jin with cold precision. “Get everything out of this bastard. Everything he knows.”
“Yes, understood.”
Jeok Un-hui wiped the blood from his blade and turned toward the inner quarters, as though the matter no longer concerned him.
Ma Hyeol-jin approached Heuk Seo, who sat trembling with his severed wrist clenched tight.
“Tch. Why did you have to do that to yourself?”
As Ma Hyeol-jin gently pressed a Blood Meridian point to stanch the wound, Heuk Seo’s eyes flickered with desperate hope.
“Please… save me…”
In that moment, Heuk Seo’s fingers tightened their grip.
Ma Hyeol-jin smiled, eyes gleaming—a Blood Sect member through and through, after all, bound by the same inexorable nature.
“One finger for every lie you tell me.”
* * *
“What’s all this racket?”
The bandit guarding the inner quarters grumbled.

“Of all the days to throw a feast, it has to be my watch.”

Of course, the situation outside was nothing like what he imagined.
From inside, the sounds barely carried—only what seemed like raucous laughter and chatter.
The irritated bandit turned his head irritably.
Swish.
At the sweep of his gaze—cold as a serpent’s—the women caged behind the iron bars flinched and pressed themselves against the wall.
Then came his rough voice, tinged with regret.
“If only you weren’t merchandise…”
The women understood well enough what that left unsaid, and they bowed their heads in terror.
The bandit’s gaze moved elsewhere in the prison.
More iron cages stood there.
People of all ages and types were confined in separate cages—a display of goods sorted by category.
Whenever the bandit’s eyes fell upon them, the captives squeezed their eyes shut in fear.
“Worthless dogs.”
The bandit’s ugly face twisted into a cruel grin, as if he relished their terror.
He was about to mutter something more when—
Crash!
The door burst open.
“What—what is this!”
Before the panicked bandit could even draw his weapon, a blade slick with blood split his skull clean open.
Thunk!
“Useless bastard.”
Jeok Un-hui kicked the corpse aside casually and turned to face the cages.
The captives flinched instinctively.
‘Are they… are they here to save us?’
It seemed that way, but his manner was so savage they couldn’t be certain.
Then Jeok Un-hui smiled gently, as if to reassure them.
“Rest easy. I’m from the Blood Sect.”

* * *

After distributing modest sums of money to all those who had been held captive and sending them on their way, Ma Hyeol-jin forced the interrogated Heuk Seo to his knees.
“Tell me everything.”
Having endured much in such a short time, Heuk Seo’s vacant eyes grew clearer as he began to speak haltingly.
“All the people held in the inner quarters were merchandise for trade with the Huanhun Sect.”
“There were many of them. Where did you get them from?”
“Some from the Black Moon Sect, others from the Black Market. And some we captured ourselves.”
“Why go through so much trouble with the trading?”

“It was the Huanhun Sect’s requirement. We’d scrape together people from here and there and hand them over, and the Huanhun Sect would pay a higher price for them.”
I could roughly guess what those Huanhun Sect bastards were thinking.
‘They must have found it risky to deal directly.’
At this point, who would care, but human trafficking was a capital crime even within the Blood Sect.
The Black Moon Sect was just a minor faction in Namhwa Prefecture, so no one paid them attention, but if a major sect like the Huanhun Sect stepped forward, it was bound to draw eyes.
Because of the Crown Prince, who would eat out of the Sect Leader’s hand without question, they likely found it burdensome to operate openly.

‘And Yuk Chang-ro would’ve been in the same position. That’s why he brought the Huanhun Sect in.’
In any case, the solution the troubled Huanhun Sect had found was Nokrim.
They let external scrutiny fall on Nokrim instead, while securing people through backchannels.

‘Subcontracting, subcontracting, subcontracting.’

Yuk Chang-ro to the Huanhun Sect, the Huanhun Sect to Nokrim. And Nokrim in turn sourcing sacrificial offerings from the Black Moon Sect and other forces.
With so many middlemen, the costs had ballooned considerably, but for the Huanhun Sect and Yuk Chang-ro, that sum was hardly a concern.
Jeok Un-hui suppressed his displeasure and asked.
“How long have you been dealing with them? How did you hand over the people?”
“A little over three months. Every month on a set day, at a set location, we handed over twenty people.”
“That’s quite a lot.”
It was unlikely that Nokrim was the only faction playing this role.
If you counted the entire sect, the numbers would be incomparable.
How many people in total had been sacrificed?

‘Infuriating.’
As Jeok Un-hui regarded Heuk Seo with quiet eyes, Heuk Seo muttered vacantly.
“……The Huanhun Sect promised that if I just kept my mouth shut, they’d give me a high position……. Who even are you to do this to me…….”
“A position?”
Jeok Un-hui smiled faintly and replied.
“The only position you’ll ever hold is at the side of the King of Hell.”
“……!”
That chilling tone. Only then did Heuk Seo snap back to his senses, jerking his head up abruptly.
His instinct, belatedly roused, screamed in horror.
“P-please spare me!”
But his prayer went unanswered—Jeok Un-hui’s blade flashed.
Slice.
“Wh—?”
A line appeared across Heuk Seo’s neck.
Bewildered, he reached toward it without thinking.
“Ah, no—”
His head, suddenly weakened, pitched forward.
Thud.
Jeok Un-hui didn’t spare a glance at the fallen corpse, turning instead to Ma Hyeol-jin.
His eyes had grown ice-cold.
“Was there any other information we needed?”
Ma Hyeol-jin answered in a subdued voice.
“……No, that was everything. The rest would be inconsequential details.”
Ma Hyeol-jin, who had interrogated Heuk Seo first, already knew all the information.
The reason he’d had Heuk Seo testify rather than relying solely on Ma Hyeol-jin was for cross-verification.
Because of this, Jeok Un-hui had killed Heuk Seo without hesitation, but the atmosphere surrounding him now struck Ma Hyeol-jin—who prided himself on having grown accustomed to his ways—as sufficiently menacing.
It was different from the spontaneous, light manner usually displayed: a layer of coldness had settled in, far more ruthless.
It reminded him of…….
‘Is he angry?’
Yes, he looked angry—genuinely angry.

“You said Huanhun Sect.”

Jeok Un-hui murmured something under his breath, as if to himself.
Ma Hyeol-jin swallowed hard, watching him.
‘What’s he planning now……? Surely not—?’
An ominous thought suddenly crossed Ma Hyeol-jin’s mind, but he quickly shook his head to dispel it.
​
‘No matter how mad he is, there’s no way he’d….’
​
Touching the Huanhun Sect was not something that could be resolved by mere impulse.
Yet even as Ma Hyeol-jin’s unease grew, his face twisting with discomfort.
Jeok Un-hui, turning his back as though the business was done, issued an order.
​
“Leave some of the squad members behind to tidy things up. We’ll be using this place from now on.”
“Pardon? You mean this location, sir?”
“It’s got perfect conditions for training. How much longer do you plan to live, flailing about with pathetic martial arts?”
​
The military strength of Namhwa Prefecture was woefully inadequate compared to other factions within the Blood Sect.
Having already crushed the Nokrim gang that had grated on his nerves, Jeok Un-hui was now planning to put the entire squad through intensive hell training in the coming days.
​
“And one more thing—the fact that Heungryong Mountain Stronghold has been eliminated must not be exposed to the outside world. Make it look like the bandits are still active, camouflage it in plain sight.”
​
This was to cloud the eyes of the backing forces, to keep them from realizing that something had gone wrong with the Nokrim.
Ma Hyeol-jin, grasping the meaning at once, nodded immediately.
​
“Understood, sir. I’ll make sure the remaining men keep their mouths shut.”
“Good. You understand the gist without me spelling everything out.”
“You’re too kind, sir. And what about you, sir?”
​
To Ma Hyeol-jin’s question, Jeok Un-hui answered briefly.
​
“I need to go see my father.”
With the success of his first mission, it was now time for him to seek out the Sect Leader on his own initiative.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————