WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: DereKimchi
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◈ I Became the Mad Demon in a Novel ◈
Chapter 12: S-Rank Web Novel Cover
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Black shadows arrived one after another at the bottom of the narrow well shaft.
The Ten Armies of the Mad Demon froze as if struck by lightning.
Their faces rigid, they all began trembling at once.
No, that was beyond trembling. Weren't they outright convulsing?
As expected, they threw themselves into full prostration and began smashing their foreheads against the ground.
“Ahhh! Divine Demon!”
“Th-this lowly servant beholds the godly countenance of the World-Destroyer!”
“Th-the Divine Cult Rules All Under Heaven; Ten Thousand Demons Bow in Reverence!”
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The sound of heads striking the floor echoed grotesquely.
Watching them bash their heads like fanatics drove home the weight of the Heavenly Demon's name.
Just how terrifying had the Heavenly Demon been for these hardened men to shake like that?
“Still, no matter how I look at it, it seems alive.”
I'd inspected the Heavenly Demon for more than ten minutes while maintaining the Demon Calamity Snow Domain.
The conclusion was certain. The Heavenly Demon's body was definitely a corpse.
Que Biao cautiously raised their head to look at me.
“...What do you mean by that?”
“It's dead. It died a long time ago.”
A million question marks appeared in Que Biao's eyes.
Right. To them, this person was a living god. Of course they couldn't believe it.
Then I had no choice but to show them.
I climbed onto the massive stone throne and casually poked the Heavenly Demon's face.
“Gasp! How dare you commit such sacrilege...!”
“If the Divine Demon were alive, it wouldn't tolerate this.”
Smack.
The light slap rang sharply through the underground cavern.
Overwhelmed by terror, they all rolled their eyes back.
“Hmm.”
Honestly, it was a mystery to me too.
This warmth. This skin.
No matter how I looked at it, it didn't seem like a dead body. It felt vivid and alive.
Above all, it constantly radiated thick, sticky demonic energy like some kind of luminous object.
If not for the Demon Calamity Snow Domain, I would've thought it was merely sleeping.
It was like an exquisitely crafted figure that even reproduced a person's body heat and scent.
If this was due to the realm the Heavenly Demon had attained in life, then the Heavenly Demon Divine Art really was terrifying.
“Ha.”
Either way, this was why the Heavenly Demon never emerged from Demon-Shedding Seclusion until the end.
The Heavenly Demon had died, leaving behind such a fresh body.
Had the Demon Lords desperately craved the selection of this ghost without knowing that?
I'd only read a little over two hundred chapters, but even that was enough to show me that the Demonic Cult was hell.
With the absolute being meant to make important decisions absent, the Venerables had clawed at one another, each insisting they were right.
With the Heavenly Demon gone, every assertion had ceased to be a decision and become an “interpretation.”
The greatest dogfight imaginable, all over what the Heavenly Demon would supposedly have done.
Then Que Biao suddenly opened their mouth like someone possessed.
“Chuk-ang, has the Divine Demon truly passed on?”
“Be quiet for a moment. I'm thinking.”
I sat crookedly on the left side of the stone throne and rested my chin on my hand.
This was roughly the four-hundred-chapter mark.
There was probably just one reason the three Demon Lords, those vicious bastards, had stayed somewhat in line until now.
Fear that the godlike Heavenly Demon would someday finish seclusion and descend upon them.
But what if word got out that the Heavenly Demon was dead?
The Demonic Cult would instantly turn into a free-for-all among monsters.
The thought alone made my temples throb.
Then.
Thud!
Something else fell heavily to the ground.
The last person to arrive beneath the Heavenly Demon Tomb was the youngest, Tie Zhen.
But they had something slung over their back like a bundle.
“What? Cook Huang?”
A white-haired elder was clinging to Tie Zhen's back, rubbing sleep from their dazed eyes and looking around.
It was definitely Cook Huang.
“There was no suitable place to imprison them, so I brought them along.”
“Ah, damn it.”
This was bound to become the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult's greatest secret.
And now this white-haired elder knew too.
I felt irritation rising.
“D-Divine Demon!”
Cook Huang crawled frantically across the floor, heedless of their knees breaking.
Then, trembling violently, they twisted their own arm.
Crack!
“This lowly and feeble servant offers vital blood in honor of the eternal Great Light...!”
Drops of blood gushed from torn veins and wet the cold cavern floor.
But Cook Huang shook as if lost in ecstasy.
What the hell? They saw the Heavenly Demon and immediately twisted their own arm to offer fresh blood?
“O Sacred Fire of eternity! O sacred marrow of the Demonic Sect! Please behold the desperate heart of this lowly servant...”
Was this what a religious fanatic looked like?
Seeing one of the Demonic Cult's crazed believers in person made goosebumps rise all over my body.
Wait.
They didn't recognize the Heavenly Demon's death at all?
It wasn't just Cook Huang.
If I hadn't told them, even the Ten Armies of the Mad Demon would have served the Heavenly Demon as a living god until the very end.
Then an idea struck me like lightning.
‘Cao Cao!’
Cao Cao had been able to seize supremacy over the realm because he held the Emperor captive.
Though dead, what if this Heavenly Demon's corpse, more lifelike than a living person, was mine?
Couldn't I become another Mengde, commanding the feudal lords with the Emperor's seal?
If I controlled the Heavenly Demon's words as I pleased, wouldn't that effectively make me the Heavenly Demon?
‘Oh.’
To the people of the Hundred Thousand Mountains, the Heavenly Demon was simply a god.
As long as that overwhelming demonic energy and those piercing eyes remained, this corpse could reign forever as the immortal god of the Demonic Cult.
And if I monopolized the voice of that god?
Even if only in name, I would be the medium representing the Great Light and the Sacred Fire, the Chuk-ang.
‘This situation is way too sweet.’
Let's test it out.
“You there, Cook Huang.”
Cook Huang, whose eyes had gone completely unfocused, slowly raised their head.
“Judging by how you twisted your arm, you've learned at least a few useful martial arts. Don't you understand what it means for someone like you to open your mouth in the middle of a great rite?”
In martial arts fiction, speaking during breath regulation was considered a shortcut to qi deviation.
Yet this person had continued begging for the Heavenly Demon's response.
As expected, Cook Huang's pupils began to shake like a storm.
“Th-this lowly servant dared without even realizing...”
“So the Divine Demon has ordered that you be punished.”
“W-what do you mean by that?”
“It means that I, the Chuk-ang of the Divine Cult, am now receiving the Divine Demon's words.”
At my cold words, Cook Huang's body froze like a stone statue.
“The Divine Demon clearly said that the stench of your lowly blood was revolting. You have interfered with the state of Demon Transcendence that the Divine Demon seeks.”
A bizarre ash-gray color spread through Cook Huang's unfocused eyes.
“Ugh! Ughhh!”
Cook Huang suddenly began sobbing like a mad person.
“This lowly servant's blood has dared to defile the Demonic Sect's sacred ground...!”
In an instant, blood began streaming from every opening in Cook Huang's body.
What was that?
Were they committing suicide?
I hurriedly dropped my solemn act and looked at the Ten Armies of the Mad Demon beside me.
“Hey! Stop them!”
Que Biao moved like lightning.
After examining Cook Huang with fierce eyes, Que Biao quietly shook their head.
“It is the Violent Annihilation Nine Nether Art. They have already died.”
Ah, damn it.
Even if they were a crazed fanatic, how did they commit suicide over one sentence?
A cold silence descended over the underground cavern.
One word from me had become a god's wrath and denied a person's very existence.
Only now did I fully understand why the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult was called a cult.
“Ha...”
The Heavenly Demon Divine Cult's MasterChef was dead, so things were bound to become pretty chaotic.
Still, I had confirmed the effect perfectly.
I immediately rose and looked at Que Biao.
“Que Biao. Come here and carry this out. Tie Zhen, undo that bundle and cover this face.”
While their unfocused eyes wavered, I shouted sharply.
“At a time like this, shouldn't you hurry up and attend to the Divine Demon?”
“How could lowly servants dare touch the Divine Demon's sacred body...”
“Que Biao. You're the terrifying leader of the Ten Armies of the Mad Demon. Are you saying we leave it like this? Just abandon it here? Should I carry it when I don't even have internal energy?”
In the end, they hurried onto the stone throne and began to collect the Heavenly Demon's corpse.
Once they turned the bundle inside out and covered it, the Heavenly Demon looked like a ghost in a sack.
After confirming that the Heavenly Demon was strapped to Que Biao's back, I carefully climbed down from the stone throne.
“If word gets out that the Divine Demon is dead, this cult is fucked. Once we're out of the well, run using your peak lightness arts. You can do that, right?”
“But where are we going?”
“What's the safest, most reliable place for us?”
Que Biao thought for a moment before answering.
“Revered One Hall.”
Ah, right. I remembered.
The Mad Demon's residence.
“Then go there. Remember. Once we're up there, run like your lives depend on it.”
“Yes, sir!”
* * *
The instant my feet touched the cold floor of Revered One Hall, the breath I'd been holding burst out all at once.
“Phew...”
When I looked back, the Ten Armies, including Que Biao, were in terrible shape.
Their faces were pale, and they kept gasping for breath.
Climbing up the well backward while carrying both the Heavenly Demon and me must have consumed a great deal of stamina.
But the moment they emerged from the well, they had literally “flown.”
Their peak lightness arts were no joke.
The wind pressure tore at my eardrums, forcing me to bury my face in Tie Zhen's back. I couldn't even open my eyes properly.
We had arrived after a mad dash that tested the limits of the human body.
“Uh, is everyone all right?”
Que Biao's face was deathly pale.
They had carried the god of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult on their back. Que Biao was probably not in their right mind anymore.
I looked at their silent face for a moment, then snickered and walked ahead.
The highest point in the hall.
I stopped beside the Mad Demon's grand tutor's chair, the symbol of Revered One Hall.
“What are you all standing around for? Hurry up and seat the Divine Demon here.”
Unable to hold back, Que Biao tilted their head.
“Why would you seat the Divine Demon's remains in a chair for the living?”
“That's right. A soul-pacifying rite to soothe the Divine Demon's spirit must come first.”
Yeah, no. I had no intention of doing that.
“I said, put it in the chair, you bastards.”
When I glared at them, Que Biao finally clenched their teeth and carefully seated the Heavenly Demon in the chair.
I immediately untied the bundle covering the Heavenly Demon's face.
“Ugh.”
Even knowing it was a corpse, I couldn't get used to it.
At the Heavenly Demon's terrifying gaze, they trembled and collapsed face-first again.
“Now, this looks more dignified.”
I positioned one of the Heavenly Demon's arms to support its chin at an angle.
The other arm rested naturally on the chair's armrest.
I lowered the eyelids slightly, leaving them half-open.
And like the strongest man's man in the Demonic Cult, I spread the legs boldly apart.
I stepped back and took a mental snapshot.
An S-Rank web novel cover stood before me.
‘Heh. Yeah. This is the Heavenly Demon.’
Overwhelming charisma.
The pressure filling Revered One Hall was far more intense than it had been in that damp underground cavern.
The Heavenly Demon sat at an angle, chin resting on one hand, half-lidded eyes staring straight ahead.
Most importantly, thick demonic energy poured from its entire body.
No one would think this was a corpse.
It was the living Heavenly Demon itself.
“What is this...?”
I smirked at Que Biao, who was trembling on the floor.
“The Chuk-ang's authority? I'll drop that for now. What do you think? Doesn't our Divine Demon look truly alive?”
Que Biao began shaking.
“Jin-gwang... you can't possibly...”
I grinned.
“Blood Lord. Where's that bastard now?”
Footnotes:
Cao Cao was a historical warlord associated with controlling the emperor to command the feudal lords.
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