I Became the Mad Demon in a Novel - Chapter 20

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: DereKimchi

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ I Became the Mad Demon in a Novel ◈

Chapter 20: The Well

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All right, let’s think about the Mad Demon as written in Mad Heaven Records.

First, the three toughest Demonic Young Masters were naturally the Mad Demon’s enemies.

The Mad Demon was also on bad terms with the Ghost Elder Court (鬼老院), the Demonic Cult’s council of elders.

Then there were the Venerables of Mingled Demon Hall (混魔殿), with bitter hatred on both sides.

Of course, the Mad Demon wasn’t popular with the young cultists at the Demonic Studies Office either.

Oh, and the heads of the Five Great Demonic Clans hated the Mad Demon too.

Basically, everyone from the Demonic Cult’s highest-ranking Venerables to its lowly cultists on the outskirts hated the Mad Demon.

Why?

Because the Mad Demon was the Demonic Cult’s biggest piece of shit.

Yesterday, someone’s son lost an arm. Today, someone’s disciple lost their head.

The reason? There wasn’t one.

The Mad Demon was the kind of person who went nuts and started lopping off heads whenever boredom struck.

The fact that Revered One Hall stood in the remotest corner of the Outer Palace said it all. This was a place of exile, cut off from the mainstream.

Shhk, shhk.

Just look at them.

Once the terrifying Bloodstrife Night began, enemies would come pouring in from every direction, yet those bastards were sharpening their blades.

Watching them grin and twitch with excitement as they sharpened their weapons gave me goosebumps.

‘Good grief. They really are the Mad Demon’s lackeys.’

Lang Bai already looked half out of their mind.

“If it’s a Night-Sky Battle (夜空戰), everyone will have to move in groups. Isn’t that better for us?”

“Heh, right. No idiot would deploy a massive force in the dead of night when you can’t tell friend from foe. As long as it isn’t a war of attrition, we’ve got a chance. I’ll kill every last one of those sons of bitches.”

“Whew, I’m shaking, big brother.”

“My heart’s already pounding too. Hehehe!”

Had the thought of spilling blood soaked their brains in dopamine?

Of course, things would be different if I were an ordinary martial expert like them.

As a modern person well versed in fighting dirty, I could kite my enemies and chip away at them, cutting down every bastard I wanted to beat the shit out of.

But unless my life was on the line, I didn’t want to hold Silent Aeon Demon Soul.

The original, insane Mad Demon might have gone wild-eyed and flicked their tongue like those bastards.

But I wasn’t insane.

I was a modern person with perfectly sound mental health.

“Put your swords away, you little shits.”

“...Pardon?”

I stared toward Tongue’s Delight Hall in the distance.

“If we hole up for just one day, they’ll stab each other and thin themselves out. Why would I join that shitshow? Am I an idiot?”

“Hole up? Where do you mean?”

I looked at Que Biao and clicked my tongue.

“Tsk, tsk. Don’t you remember the well? It hasn’t even been a month.”

“Ah!”

It was a bug in the setting that I had discovered, and the only hidden route into the Heavenly Demon Tomb.

The most reliable place in the Demonic Cult. For me right now, it was a sweet little safe zone.

“We just have to grit our teeth and hide there for one day. So put all your swords away.”

Conflict flickered in Que Biao’s eyes.

Dopamine and estrogen seemed to be clashing violently inside their head.

“However...”

“Yeah, what was it? The brave Ten Armies of the Mad Demon? What good is pride when your heads could get cut off without anyone even noticing? What if one of them dies? Will you take responsibility?”

My threat shut Que Biao up.

The others, who had been fiddling with their swords, also lost some of their enthusiasm.

They weren’t afraid of death. The thought of losing a comrade was what made their courage shrink.

Even for those bastards, losing a comrade who was like a brother was the most terrifying thing they could imagine.

Soon, they scattered with their shoulders slumped.

Now came the important part.

The best outcome would be for the Blood Lord to die tomorrow night, but...

It bothered me that he had kept his mouth shut until the very end.

I couldn’t shake the feeling that the bastard was pulling the strings.

Even when you got introduced to women at a club, the guy who made a big show of trying to make them laugh always ended up going home alone.

The one who always scored was the “handsome” friend who quietly sipped his drink in the corner.

In the original novel, the Blood Lord was a sly bastard who always profited from other people’s fights that way.

The Blood Lord (血君).

The Demonic Young Master famous for being the most vicious and petty of them all.

He would try to use this Bloodstrife Night to get rid of me, a thorn in his side, while taking out his older brother, the Fierce Lord, at the same time.

He had probably stayed silent because he didn’t want to reveal the calculations going on inside his head.

The Blood Lord was a fairly well-known character. Maybe the gallery had some information about him?

I promptly opened it.

Title: Have the Demonic Cult bastards lost it? lololol

This is gonna be so fucking good!! SEXX!!!

The Demonic Cult bastards are already insane, and now they’re getting rid of the law, their last safety net? lmaoooo

Wait, though, didn’t Bloodstrife Night never happen in the original? lol

Anyway, niiice! Time to watch it all burn!

└This fucker’s running his mouth because it’s not his problem. Ha...

└It’s just gonna be Demonic Cult bastards stabbing each other in the guts. Why should I care?????

└I’m enjoying it too lolol. Not my problem lmaoooo

└You guys don’t know the original very well, do you? Do you even know how the Demonic Cult changed after the one and only Bloodstrife Night??

└They entered the greatest golden age in their history. That’s when the Demonic Cult unified the martial world.

└Yeah, if you think this will weaken the Demonic Cult, your brain’s made of noodles. Their power’s definitely gonna gather in one place.

└Once all that brutal competition ends with one guy taking everything, the Demonic Cult bastards always turn toward the Central Plains.... It’s their instinct and tradition.....

└Yeah, basically, the orthodox faction could be fucked too.

└Well, I’m not in the orthodox faction either. As long as it’s not me~~~

└Idiot lol. You think the unorthodox factions will be safe once the Demonic Cult swallows orthodox territory?

└All I gotta do is sell ice. Wheeheehee.

└Oh, it’s that bastard who’s always trolling with ice arts. Keep up the hard work.

Not a single one of the usual shitposts or bait posts was in sight.

The gallery was on fire with talk of Bloodstrife Night.

But then...

One post caught my eye.

It had hundreds of comments.

What made it unusual was that it also had nearly a thousand downvotes.

That was definitely rare.

‘What’s this?’

I clicked the post as if drawn to it.

Title: You in the Demonic Cult. Read this.

Do you really think you can handle the consequences of this??

I don’t know what kind of bastard you are, but if you keep ignoring the chapters like this, I will find you and kill you.

I don’t care who you are.

This isn’t an empty threat.

└“I will find you,” this guy says lmaoooo

└Who do you think you are?

└Can you really wipe out the entire Demonic Cult by yourself? Are you the protagonist, Han Yubaek???

└What’s a chapter, though?

└Sounds like dusty veteran talk to me??

└Seeing them go on about “chapters,” it probably has something to do with the original?

└Is this bastard actually a big name?

└You lying bastards.... You’re nowhere to be seen normally, but the second something happens, you come out acting tough. Sons of bitches.

└You big-name fucks! Stop keeping all the good stuff to yourselves and share some information or money! You think there are only one or two Gallers living like shit here?!

└That’s right! I wanna quit being a waiter too! Fuck, at least give me a tip!

└Take me as your disciple!!!

└Newbies, over here! We’ve got a huge name here!

Half the comments were insults. The other half were begging.

Hmm. Who was this bastard, anyway?

No matter how I looked at it, this seemed like a warning aimed at me.

My temper flared.

└Try catching me, then lol

My comment was soon buried under the endless flood of begging.

But who was this person, really?

Judging by how they were losing their shit over a Demonic Cult event, they were probably on the River North Alliance’s side.

Could it be that bastard, the Northern Emperor (北帝)?

No. That wasn’t it.

It probably wasn’t just one person.

The so-called original-story guardians the Swordwood Lord had feared so much.

But they dared act this tough against the Mad Demon, someone on par with Han Yubaek?

It felt awkward to say this myself, but I was a character on an entirely different level from the Swordwood Lord.

Those bastards were hiding behind the scenes and playing politics too.

I gave a snort and searched for the Blood Lord.

I scrolled through the results for quite a while, but nothing stood out.

He had been mentioned a few times, but the information was even more shallow than what I already knew.

‘Hmm, fair enough. The Blood Lord only starts causing serious trouble after the middle of the story.’

Being a skip freak suddenly felt miserable.

It would be easier to deal with him if I knew what kind of schemes he pulled from the middle onward.

Still, whatever.

The fact that he would come hunting me tomorrow night with fire in his eyes wouldn’t change.

‘Yeah, well, I’m gonna hole up in the Heavenly Demon Tomb.’

I was bored. Maybe I should go scout it out in advance.

With that, I headed for Tongue’s Delight Hall with only Que Biao.

After a long walk down the winding path, it really hit me again that I was the Demonic Cult’s outcast.

Those rotten bastards. I knew they hated the Mad Demon, but I hadn’t realized they had stuck me this far away.

Once we passed the Demonic Sect Palace (魔宗闕), Tongue’s Delight Hall came into view.

To be honest, I had felt uneasy all this time.

Cook Huang had blown himself up using the Violent Annihilation Nine Nether Art.

My single remark had gotten someone killed who had opened a path for me.

I had heard that the Venerables were full of complaints because of it.

I was also a little disappointed that I had never gotten to taste Cook Huang’s cooking.

Just then, the acrid smell of dust drifted across my nose.

“Huh? What’s that smell?”

It was the distinctive raw smell of shattered stone.

The moment I rounded the last corner, I froze.

The flower bed Cook Huang must have tended with such care was gone.

So was my very own “bug entrance,” which should have been beside it.

“Wh-what the hell? Where’s the well?”

“Ch-Chuk-ang!”

The sight before me was devastating.

The rough stone rim had been smashed to pieces as if someone had struck it with an enormous hammer.

The stones around the well, which had been smooth just a few days earlier, lay scattered in crushed, mangled pieces.

Someone had clearly buried my precious well.

There was no doubt that they had deliberately sealed this secret passage for good.

“F-fuck! Which bastard did this?!”

A shortcut even the author had left alone as a mistake in the setting.

I should have been the only person who knew this bugged well connected to the Heavenly Demon Tomb.

No, more importantly, what were we supposed to do now?

My mind went blank, and I started to panic.

I had really put all my faith in this one well. What the hell was this...?

“Ha.”

A headache came crashing over me. I clutched my temples and sank to the ground.

Get a grip, Mad Demon.

If I kept sitting here with my brain switched off, both my people and I would meet a gruesome end.

“Que Biao.”

Que Biao crouched down with a tense expression and leaned their face close to mine.

“Take three of the Ten Armies and head up to the spire on Blood Shadow Path right now. You’re sleeping there tonight.”

“Pardon...?”

“You’ll be able to see everything from there!”

“What? But Blood Shadow Path is normally closed...”

“Shut up and do as I say. Unless they climb over Thunderclap Wall, the trouble will definitely start at Mingled Demon Hall. You understand?”

Wait.

Why could I suddenly picture the Demonic Cult’s terrain so clearly?

“Forget about the bastards hiding in ambush here and there. Focus entirely on their main force. Come down when I give the signal. I’ll draw their attention, and you’ll cut off their rear. Got it?”

“As you command!”

Que Biao stared at me for a moment with determination in their eyes, then leaped away and vanished into an alley.

I stared blankly at the spot where they had disappeared.

What was that?

Blood Shadow Path (血影路)? Thunderclap Wall (雷音壁)?

I had read up to chapter 206, and I couldn’t remember those place names appearing anywhere.

No, I didn’t even know the Demonic Cult’s detailed layout in the first place.

Yet those key locations had just spilled out of my mouth as if I were reciting roads I had walked thousands of times.

It was a strange phenomenon. Even as I spoke, I couldn’t understand what was happening.

-It will surely be there, inside your head.

As my heart pounded like a ship’s horn, the Divine Maiden’s words came back to me.

Where the enemies would appear. Which chokepoint was most vulnerable. Where to place an ambush to cut off their rear in one stroke.