WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: DereKimchi
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ I Became the Mad Demon in a Novel ◈
Chapter 22: Sowing Discord
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The Blood Lord, Cheon Woo-jin, was biting his lip.
Until now, none of his schemes or calculations had ever failed.
He had persuaded his father to bring the Mad Demon to ruin.
After years of careful preparation, he had become an adopted son of the Mad Blood Sword Clan.
And yesterday, he had persuaded the heads of the Five Great Demonic Clans to hand over even their authority tokens.
Everything had been perfect.
The Venerables always followed their greed, and nothing was impossible with the rank of a Demonic Young Master.
Now, if he could just remove the delicate Divine Maiden before him, the groundwork for his grand plan would be complete.
And yet.
‘Why the hell is that monster here?’
Yuk Jin-gwang should have been tied down by the enormous force at Mingled Demon Hall.
Once the Mad Demon fell under the madness of Silent Aeon Demon Soul and began spilling blood, he could never stop killing.
A broken man, always soaked in madness.
The Mad Demon’s insanity would not fade until he had wiped out every living thing around him.
How many martial units had they lost to that monster?
Cheon Woo-jin had been certain he understood the Mad Demon better than anyone.
“Heh. Right. Now the pieces are finally coming together. I’m just a monster who quiets down as long as he gets a regular taste of blood. Yeah, from your side, the Divine Maiden must be the biggest fucking pain.”
Cheon Woo-jin was even more bewildered.
He was saying that about himself?
“Bringing all three of you was a nice touch, too. Make it unclear who actually took the Divine Maiden’s head... Right, the cult can’t throw away all its Demonic Young Masters. Ha! What a brilliant little scheme. You really are the best, Blood Lord!”
The Mad Demon thrust up a thumb.
Watching him, Cheon Woo-jin felt even more dazed.
What was this? Was he dreaming?
That monster was clearly holding Silent Aeon Demon Soul.
It was already hard to believe he could remain rational while being consumed by the Demon Calamity. How could he speak so normally?
A confusion beyond words sent chills crawling over Cheon Woo-jin’s skin.
“But here’s the thing. Say you use this crazy night to get around the law. What about the ordinary cultists? Can a Demonic Young Master who destroyed the Sacred Fire Altar really become the Divine Demon? Have you got some other plan?”
Yuk Jin-gwang, no, the Mad Demon, glanced at the Fierce Lord.
“Our most revered Divine Demon, now. Do you think he left the Divine Maiden alone because he’s weaker than you? The Divine Maiden must be a thorn in our Cult Leader’s side, too.”
“You bastard...!”
“What? Am I wrong? Even our Cult Leader could only try to tie the Divine Maiden down as a wife or concubine. He couldn’t kill her.”
The Divine Maiden’s delicate eyebrows trembled.
“I think you lot have bitten off more than you can chew.”
“Shut your mouth, Mad Demon.”
As the Fierce Lord’s chilling voice rang out, the Venerables waiting outside Ten Thousand Demons Hall rushed toward the altar.
Blood-Evil Blade, Ghost-Spirit Demon, Flame-Poison Asura, Red Mist Killer...
Some of the most renowned Venerables in the Divine Cult appeared, trailing sinister demonic energy.
They immediately spread out around the three Demonic Young Masters, forming a dense curtain of demonic energy.
Dull streams of demonic hardened qi stretched out like a net, numbing their opponent’s five senses.
It was a killing formation designed to face a single supreme master.
Yet even as he faced the enormous power of the Dark Heaven Demon Wall, the Mad Demon wore a sinister smile.
The Blood Lord naturally expected a battle to begin at any moment.
“But Fierce Lord, are you sure you’re okay with this?”
“What do you mean?”
“Come on. This whole plan came out of your little brother’s head. Doesn’t that bother you? What happens after you get rid of the Divine Maiden? Are you ready for whatever sneaky shit he’ll pull next?”
The Fierce Lord laughed.
“What a pathetic attempt to provoke me.”
“No, no. I’m not provoking you. I’m talking about reality. Who’s going to lose their shit first if you kill the Divine Maiden? The Demon Elder. And who’s that old fossil cozying up to right now?”
The Demon Elder.
The previous Divine Demon’s personal bodyguard.
A terrifying old monster who held tremendous influence among the elders.
At present, the Demon Elder was in contact with the Blood Lord’s side.
“Still can’t picture it? That sneaky Blood Lord bastard will obviously start whining, ‘Actually, my big brother killed the Divine Maiden!’ Then what happens if he gets the Demon Elder involved? Can you handle that old fossil stirring up the elders?”
The Fierce Lord, Cheon Woo-gang, wavered ever so slightly.
Once the poisonous weed of distrust took root, its growth could not be controlled.
The Blood Lord, who had been listening in silence, could bear it no longer. He hastily shook his head.
“Brother, I have absolutely no intention of doing that.”
But then.
“You’d have to be a fucking idiot to take that at face value. Who are we talking about here, huh? This bastard gave up the precious divine blood of the Nine Heavens Demon Clan to become an adopted son of my clan. Swallowing up the Five Great Demonic Clans matters more to him than preserving his divine blood. Ha! I’ll give him points for persistence.”
The Fierce Lord, eldest son of the demonic martial world.
He revered the Nine Heavens Demon Clan more than anyone else in the family and placed great importance on the sanctity of its bloodline.
That Mad Demon bastard was attacking that exact point.
“B-Brother! You mustn’t let that madman’s wicked tongue fool you!”
Suddenly, the Mad Demon turned toward the Evil Lord with a sly grin.
“And Evil Lord, are you seriously birdbrained? You’re not even in their weight class. Do you really think there’s anything for you to gain in this shitshow?”
“What...?”
“Once that Blood Lord bastard swallows up his own big brother, he’ll crush you through sheer size. Seriously, what have you got? Martial units? Elders? Money? Apart from a few friends, all you’ve got is a pair of balls. Good grief. Are you brave or just stupid?”
The Evil Lord’s gaze slowly slid toward his older brothers.
It felt as though his blood had turned cold.
Even on the way here, he had questioned countless times whether this was the right choice.
The words came from the insane Mad Demon, but not one of them was wrong.
“And most importantly.”
Whoooooosh!
The Mad Demon’s Silent Aeon Demon Soul began to tremble.
Then frost filled with the power of extreme yin spread in every direction, as though it would freeze the very air.
“W-Wind-Snow Demon Calamity River! Dodge!”
Cr-r-r-rack!
The dull curtain of demonic energy forming the Dark Heaven Demon Wall tore apart like paper.
Blood-Evil Blade and Ghost-Spirit Demon were the first to cough up blood and tumble backward under the impact.
Rrrrrumble!
The three Demonic Young Masters immediately pushed their Heavenly Demon Divine Art to its limit.
The floor split open as pitch-black demonic energy swirled.
The essence of the demonic power they had cultivated throughout their lives rose to meet the Mad Demon’s beam of light.
Kraaaa-boom!
White frost and jet-black demonic energy collided head-on.
The tremendous shock wave shook the whole of Ten Thousand Demons Hall.
The Fierce Lord barely swallowed back a mouthful of blood and clenched his teeth.
‘That fucking monster...!’
That pure white frost was completely different in nature from qi arts.
It was spiritual energy, a crystallization of pure power formed from the spiritual power of Silent Aeon Demon Soul.
The sensation coming through his fingertips was not the recoil of qi clashing against qi.
It followed strange paths, breaking through layer after layer of hardened qi and twisting inward however it pleased.
Every time he faced it, he felt as though every system and principle of martial arts he knew was crumbling.
“This crazy Mad Demon is here now. What exactly do you think you can do?”
The Mad Demon smiled coldly through half-lidded eyes.
Trying to bring down the Mad Demon in a single night had been a foolish idea.
That was why tonight’s plan had never included facing him in the first place.
Things might have been different on open ground where they could deploy a large army.
But beneath the darkness of a moonlit night, the Mad Demon alone was invincible.
Step, step.
The Mad Demon strolled over and stood in front of the Divine Maiden.
At last, the Fierce Lord let out the words he had barely been holding back.
“You find the Divine Maiden just as troublesome as we do. Why are you going out of your way to stop this?”
“We’re siblings now.”
“...What?”
The Divine Maiden was his younger sibling?
What kind of fucking...
“A blood alliance. A blood alliance! Don’t you get it?”
The Fierce Lord felt as if explosives had gone off inside his head.
An alliance between the Chuk-ang and the Divine Maiden?
How did that make any sense?
Ten Thousand Demons Hall had heaped every kind of criticism and curse upon the Mad Demon, the Divine Cult’s resident thug.
He had been certain their hatred for him was at least as great as his own, if not greater.
‘He’s different.’
The Mad Demon had never been someone who used his tongue to sow crude discord.
On top of that, Yuk Jin-gwang was holding Silent Aeon Demon Soul right now.
Yet he had stopped killing and was doing nothing but dragging their ugly distrust into the open.
It was not simply that he had changed. He seemed like a completely different person.
“We’re calling off the plan.”
“B-Brother.”
The Fierce Lord shot the Blood Lord a fierce glare.
“If you want to keep going, do it alone. I’m out.”
“Brother, we’re already riding a tiger we can’t dismount. No matter how monstrous he is, he can’t block every attack from the Venerables. Even if we suffer considerable losses, we must deal with the Divine Maiden tonight. If we miss this chance, there won’t be another.”
“A chance?”
“We’ve already openly declared our hostility toward Ten Thousand Demons Hall. Are you saying we should simply withdraw without gaining anything?”
One corner of the Fierce Lord’s mouth rose in a dry smile.
This was a crisis, not a chance.
Now that the Mad Demon had changed, no, now that he had declared a blood alliance with the Divine Maiden, they had to start every plan over from scratch.
“We’re leaving!”
In the end, the Fierce Lord left the altar with the Venerables loyal to him.
The Blood Lord bit his lip until it bled.
The Mad Demon gave him an infuriating grin.
“Want to kill the Divine Maiden that badly?”
The Blood Lord and the Evil Lord glared at him as though they wanted him dead.
In the end, they, too, had no choice but to retreat from the altar with their Venerables.
As the tension broke, Granny Divine Feather could no longer remain upright and collapsed.
Still crouching on the ground, the Divine Maiden gazed at the Mad Demon with a tearful face.
“Brother...”
“Yeah.”
The Mad Demon was looking up at the sky, the corners of his mouth still raised.
He was no longer the Mad Demon he had once been.
“This is more fun than I expected.”
The chill of the Demon Calamity Snow Domain broke apart in the bright moonlight and drifted through the air.
Watching that wondrous sight, the Divine Maiden smiled brightly.
“You sound like a gamer who’s just here for the fun.”
He grinned.
“A total blast.”
* * *
Corpses lay piled like mountains at every turn along the road to Mingled Demon Hall.
“Wow.”
Once I released the Demon Calamity Snow Domain, my sanity returned.
Torn-off limbs and spilled guts gleamed in the cold moonlight.
The sharp stink of blood soon made my stomach churn.
“Ugh, you crazy bastards. How many people did you cut up?”
Splash.
What was this water? I looked down and found a pool of blood.
Ugh. Gross.
At last, I reached the front courtyard of Mingled Demon Hall.
Not a single building was intact.
The doors and pillars that had looked so splendid earlier were now sticking out of dead cultists at every angle.
And at the center of that hellish scene, those bastards were catching their breath.
“I’m gonna piss myself. Don’t tell me you killed them all?”
Que Biao sat on a pile of collapsed stone, drenched in blood.
Their left arm hung limp, and the front of their long robe had been shredded, exposing the flesh beneath.
Only then did the other members of the Ten Armies emerge from the darkness like ghosts.
Lang Bai staggered forward on a leg that had been cut halfway through.
The youngest, Tie Zhen, was covering one eye with his hand as blood kept pouring out.
They were all a mess.
“Hmm.”
Then I let out a chuckle.
These were the same bastards who had run 1,000 kilometers through the grass after the people from Hundred Snakes Valley had beaten them to rags.
I had achieved my goal anyway. Rub a little medicine on them, and they would be back to full strength.
It didn’t matter if mid and bot got crushed, as long as I won top.[1]
I was the Mad Demon.
Footnotes:
[1] Top, mid, and bot (bottom) are lanes in multiplayer online battle arena games.
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