WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: DereKimchi
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ I Became the Mad Demon in a Novel ◈
Chapter 13: Setting
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Title: Emergency! All Demonic Cult Stans, Read This!
I’m a Demonic Cult stan who usually doesn’t post in the gallery, but there’s a fucking bizarre rumor going around right now.
They say the Heavenly Demon emerged from closed-door cultivation. Is that for real????
I’m so mentally wrecked I can’t focus on anything...
Fuck, I was backing the Fierce Lord and raking in completion coins. What kind of bolt from the blue is this????
└I’m a Demonic Cult stan too, and I heard that rumor....
└Is it real? No, how could that be possible???? Has the original story collapsed?
└I put all my money and everything else into the Fierce Lord too. I think I’m completely fucked now.
└Holy shit. Those Demon Lords who acted like bosses because their daddy was gone are all going to be smashing their heads into the floor now, huh?
└Wouldn’t the orthodox factions be fucked too? If this happens, power can’t help but shift toward the Seven Seats.
└Yep. If it’s true, this is the start of a balance collapse.
Title: Is That Heavenly Demon News for Real??
I can’t go into detail, but I’m currently hiding out around the River North Alliance. Is that rumor about the Heavenly Demon appearing actually true?
No, seriously, how does that make any sense??
This is way too severe a break from canon.
└Honestly, I have no idea how things will go from here.
└He went into closed-door cultivation because he tied with the Sword Hero and got insanely pissed off, so won’t Mount Hua Sect be screwed first?
└Can the Sword Hero beat the Heavenly Demon?
└Early in Mad Heaven Records, it was mentioned that the Sword Hero was the only master capable of facing the Heavenly Demon.
└Yeah. Mount Hua Sect’s Violet Haze Divine Art is naturally the Heavenly Demon Divine Art’s ultimate counter.
Title: Fuuuuuck! A Demon Muster Edict Is Out! (Live)
The Demonic Cult is in total chaos right now, holy shit.
A provisional Demon Muster Edict has been announced in the Heavenly Demon’s name.
└? What’s a Demon Muster Edict?
└Jesus, you’ve lived here this long and still don’t know Chinese characters? It means, “Demon soldiers, gather!” The Heavenly Demon issued a summons. Demon Muster Edict, as in “gather demons”!
└My advance condolences to the Demonic Cult stans.
└Holy shit, so it must be real.
└Whenever anyone brings up the Demonic Cult, the post gets downvoted to hell and buried. There were this many Demonic Cult stans?
└Not every post in the gallery tells the whole story. There are tons of deceptive bastards lurking.
└There are also plenty of dusty veterans who forgot the gallery even existed lol.
I closed the gallery with a blank expression.
Posts seemed to be appearing at least ten times as fast as usual.
There were people constantly relaying news from the Demonic Cult, people debating, people lamenting, and people newly punching numbers into their calculators.
It was complete pandemonium.
The Gallers had been greedily sucking up completion coins from a predictable narrative unfolding according to the original.
Dumping a huge pile of Heavenly Demon shit on those guys who had been living the sweet life felt refreshing enough to send me flying.
A cliché only tastes good when you give it a fresh twist. Damn right.
“...Jin-gwang.”
Que Biao’s voice suddenly came from behind me.
I turned around and looked at them.
Their eyes were still shaking wildly, unable to find their way.
“What now?”
“The Blood Lord’s subordinates are making unusual moves.”
Tie Zhen, the youngest who had been listening, added, “Brother, the Outer Hall members have suddenly vanished too. It’s obvious they intend to join up with the Fierce Lord’s followers.”
“Is that so?”
The Demon Lords who had snarled at each other like water and oil were joining forces.
If the Fierce Lord and the Blood Lord had truly joined hands, half the Demonic Cult had fallen into their grip.
Any Galler who knew the original would probably be horrified to hear it.
“Brother, will this really be all right? I... I’m so scared.”
Tie Zhen was looking fearfully at the Heavenly Demon, who sat with his chin propped on his hand in apparent indifference.
Of course, I was scared shitless too.
The great Heavenly Demon who had returned from closed-door cultivation was actually a dead corpse?
The instant that became known, these guys and I would become unfilial Demonic Cult followers who had defiled the Divine Demon’s remains.
We’d surely be saddled with every crime imaginable and executed like dogs.
But well.
“Guys. Are we the only ones whose hearts are clenched tight right now?”
The three Demon Lords had taken considerable risks while the Heavenly Demon was absent.
The Blood Lord especially had even drawn in the Five Great Demonic Clans, whose principle had been neutrality for centuries.
They had clearly crossed the line.
Could that bastard have dared ignore the Demonic Clan Pact unless they regarded the Heavenly Demon as someone who simply did not exist?
But the stakes of that gamble had now become their own life.
I was desperately curious what expression the Blood Lord would be wearing.
“It’s already been two days. Why the hell isn’t the Divine Maiden coming?”
“She must have many things to prepare, since she is receiving the Divine Demon after so long.”
“Damn it.”
The Divine Maiden.
If the Heavenly Demon was the sun and father of the Demonic Cult, she was its moon and mother.
She was the one who embraced the sorrows and griefs of the cult’s followers.
Of course, as a Galler, I didn’t think her ability to communicate directly with gods was real.
The problem was that most Demonic Cult followers believed it was.
Her political power was insignificant, but her authority was considerable. Her consent was required to formally activate the Demon Muster Edict. Damn it.
I had thought the Heavenly Demon could do whatever he pleased, but the Demonic Cult was surprisingly complex and organized.
Then, from beneath the stairs of Revered One Hall in the distance, a black shadow rushed toward us.
It was Lang Bai.
“The Divine Maiden has arrived!”
Oh? She’d finally come?
Speak of the devil.
“Bring her in quickly.”
“As you command!”
Had it been around ten minutes?
I watched the Divine Maiden closely as she slowly appeared from the top of the stairs.
‘Hm.’
Her clothes alone left me speechless.
A jet-black court robe, as if darkness itself had been cut and tailored into clothing.
But her face was even more astonishing.
Was this what a dark elf from a fantasy setting would look like in real life?
Jade-white skin in perfect contrast with her black court robe.
Proudly upturned eyes and lethal lips.
Even the faint, intoxicating fragrance drifting from her.
She was violently beautiful, a perfect goddess in every sense.
She was genuinely glowing. Glowing.
Jingle.
The sound of the silver bell hanging from the Divine Maiden’s chest snapped me back to my senses.
Holy shit. So this was what it meant to be captivated by someone’s beauty.
I had never imagined that the Demonic Cult’s Divine Maiden, whom I had only read about in writing, would be this beautiful.
“We greet the Divine Maiden!”
“The Divine Cult Rules All Under Heaven; Ten Thousand Demons Bow in Reverence!”
The Ten Armies of the Mad Demon respectfully performed their formal bows.
But the Divine Maiden did not even look at them.
A strange aura flowed from her bewitching eyes.
Then she slowly turned her head.
The moment she saw the Heavenly Demon seated in the grand tutor's chair, she collapsed into a prostration.
“Heaven of Ten Thousand Demons, exalted form of the Great Light, I offer my wholehearted reverence.”
The instant her clear voice rang out, cold sweat streamed down my back.
What if this woman was truly mystical enough to sense a person’s soul?
Then she would eventually discover that the Heavenly Demon was nothing but a lump of flesh.
If that happened, the only option left would be to have one grand blade dance with the Silent Aeon Demon Soul.
I had already steeled myself.
I glanced to the side.
Que Biao was already looking tensely at the Heavenly Demon’s corpse.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
Damn it, had my heartbeat always been this loud?
Then.
After staring at the Heavenly Demon’s indifferent face for a long while, the Divine Maiden began to smile faintly.
“Tianlang. Have you finally carved away the human heart? You always believed it was only right for it to be worn away to nothing... Surely this woman should congratulate you?”
Tianlang?
As far as I knew, that was a Chinese-style way of calling someone “older brother.”
What was this? Had the two of them been in that sort of relationship?
But they looked like they had a huge age gap.
“You endured such barren years and achieved such supreme merit. I offer you congratulations and respect. But...”
The Divine Maiden smiled mournfully.
“Why will Tianlang not leave even the smallest trace of a warm smile in this tender heart?”
Yes! Yes!
The Divine Maiden clearly believed the Heavenly Demon was alive too.
She was taking the Heavenly Demon’s silence not as death, but as the result of asceticism that had severed human emotions and anguish.
That was Demon Transcendence!
It was about time to start spinning my tale.
“Divine Maiden, you misunderstand. The Divine Demon has simply not yet fully consolidated the realm of Demon Transcendence.”
The Divine Maiden’s eyes immediately filled with sorrow.
“Did he overexert himself?”
“For the time being, speaking is somewhat difficult for him. He is undergoing the final gateway, casting off the shell of humanity and ascending to the pinnacle of true demonhood.”
“Ah.”
A strange light gathered in the Divine Maiden’s alluring eyes.
“How does the Chuk-ang know such a thing...?”
I smiled brightly and delivered the prepared line.
“For some reason, after emerging from seclusion, the Divine Demon came to see me first. And he is conveying his honored will to this body alone.”
“How...?”
“At times, the Divine Demon’s voice rings inside my head.”
“Mind-Speech of Luminous Wisdom!”
Once she began believing the Heavenly Demon was alive, she would be unable to escape the setting I had laid out.
The Divine Maiden’s gaze deepened.
“Then this woman has no choice but to consent to the Demon Muster Edict.”
I smiled without speaking.
As long as my mouth spoke for the Heavenly Demon’s will, the Divine Maiden had no grounds to refuse the edict.
“The current situation of our cult is serious. The Demon Lords, cornered at a dead end, could go berserk at any moment. Does the Divine Demon fully understand this?”
“He does.”
“...Ah.”
The Divine Maiden slowly swept her profound gaze over the great hall.
Que Biao and Lang Bai flinched when her cool eyes fell on them.
Then she looked directly at me again.
“I request a private audience.”
“Pardon?”
“After a private audience with you, I will make a firm decision regarding this matter.”
I had created such a perfect setting. What else did she need to confirm now?
Left with no choice, I signaled toward Que Biao and Lang Bai.
“Everyone, move far away.”
“As you command.”
The moment they moved away, I recoiled in shock.
The Divine Maiden had suddenly approached the Heavenly Demon’s corpse.
“What are you doing right now...!”
“Shh.”
The Divine Maiden’s intoxicating scent brushed past my nose and faded away.
She had suddenly walked up to the grand tutor's chair, leaving me unable to react.
But then.
“Hup.”
What the hell was she doing?
The Divine Maiden abruptly began behaving as though the sacred laws of the Demonic Cult meant nothing to her.
She had already sat sideways beside the Heavenly Demon’s knee.
Then, toward the Heavenly Demon’s face, still propped on one hand, she thrust her own face forward.
“Hm.”
...Was she insane?
Without the slightest hesitation, the Divine Maiden began tugging the Heavenly Demon’s beard this way and that.
Her eyes glittered without pause.
They were less the eyes of a priestess of a god and more like those of some crazed fan.
If Que Biao or Lang Bai had seen this, they might have fainted on the spot.
The guide of the Sacred Fire was personally stretching and pulling the beard of the god she served.
“No matter how I look at it, this seems like a brain-dead sort of state. Am I right?”
Huh?
My brain froze.
“Did you fight the Heavenly Demon and win or something? This setup is seriously insane. Does that mean you’re taking over the whole Demonic Cult, brother?”
I was so dumbfounded that I could not even laugh.
“Who are you...?”
The Divine Maiden spun around and grinned.
“It’s me, brother. I told you we’d meet again in due time.”
“Ah.”
She was that bastard who had so kindly lectured me about the Demonic Cult in the gallery.
Another dusty veteran of the world of Mad Heaven Records. No, this one was a fossil.
Looking at the Divine Maiden’s face, brimming with anticipation and energy, I finally laughed.
“Good to meet you, Return Seeker.”
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