The black-haired old man being dragged along by Jeok Wigang tried everything he could think of to break free.
Nothing worked.
In the end, exhausted, he simply let himself be dragged along with the look of a man who had given up on everything.
“You can take me wherever you want. You won’t get a single answer out of me.”
Jeok Wigang smirked at his defiant shout.
“And how do you know what I’m planning to do?”
“Isn’t it obvious? You’re going to torture me! Go ahead! No matter what you do, no torture will ever break me!”
“Sure. Keep that attitude.”
The black-haired old man glared at Jeok Wigang.
He would never give this man the answers he wanted.
Then Jeok Wigang placed a hand on his head.
So it finally begins.
The old man clenched his teeth, preparing himself to endure the pain.
But instead of pain, a refreshing sensation washed through his mind.
Almost as though cool, clear water were rinsing the inside of his head.
What is this?
Some new kind of torture?
While he was still wondering, Jeok Wigang removed his hand and grinned.
“Why are you abducting the promising young disciples of the Five Great Families?”
The black-haired old man was dumbfounded.
Had this bastard not heard a word he said?
He was about to tell him he could ask a ghost for the answer when—
“We intend to capture not only the promising young disciples of the Five Great Families, but also those of the Nine Sects and One Gang, the Eight Gates of Dark Heaven, and every other reputable mid-sized sect we can find.”
The black-haired old man jolted in horror.
His mouth was moving on its own.
Completely against his will, secrets he absolutely must never reveal were pouring freely from his lips.
“Mmph! Mmmph!”
As soon as the answer ended, his mouth snapped tightly shut.
No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t open it again.
“Why?”
“The promising young disciples are the future of the Central Plains. If they all disappear, the Central Plains loses its future as well. That will make conquering the Central Plains much easier for us.”
“So this is White Horse Heaven’s doing after all?”
“Yes.”
“From what I heard earlier, the five of you are called the Five Directions Divine Demons. Where are the other two?”
“They are waiting outside the village in case something unexpected happens.”
“Was capturing the promising young disciples an order, or something you decided to do yourselves?”
“An order.”
“Who gave it?”
“The Demon-Brain Divine Demon.”
“Demon-Brain Divine Demon? What position does he hold in White Horse Heaven?”
“He is one of White Horse Heaven’s Ten Heavenly Demon Stars and oversees all matters, great and small, within White Horse Heaven.”
“So he’s the second-in-command?”
“Yes.”
“The other demons from White Horse Heaven didn’t know anything about its upper ranks. Why do you?”
“It isn’t that the other demons never knew. The Demon-Brain Divine Demon deliberately erased their memories. He was concerned that information about White Horse Heaven might leak, so before sending them into the Central Plains, he removed most of their memories concerning White Horse Heaven.”
“He erased their memories?”
“Yes. Most of the demons currently active in the martial world probably remember only fragments of important information concerning White Horse Heaven. They also won’t clearly remember demons ranked above them. It was another measure intended to prevent information about White Horse Heaven from leaking.”
So that’s why they barely knew anything about the people above them.
“He did more than erase memories. He also implanted objectives into their subconscious minds and made them act to fulfill those objectives.”
“Then what about the Four Divine Demons? Did the Demon-Brain Divine Demon implant an order in their subconscious to attack the Central Plains too?”
“Most likely. Having the Four Divine Demons attack the Central Plains was probably intended to measure the Central Plains’ strength.”
That was surprising.
“Then the Demon-Brain Divine Demon was already here while the Four Divine Demons were rampaging through the Central Plains?”
“Yes.”
“Where is he now?”
“I don’t know.”
“What?”
“We only receive orders and act on them... We have no way of knowing where he is.”
That was troublesome.
It meant he could be hidden among the people of the Central Plains.
Finding him would be like searching for a needle in the Great Desert.
“Then are the other demons also moving according to objectives implanted in their subconscious?”
“Yes.”
“Then when they made their reports, those reports weren’t crossing dimensions into the demon realm. They were going to the Demon-Brain Divine Demon.”
“That is correct.”
“Is the dimensional gate still open?”
“As far as I know, it is closed.”
“How many promising young disciples have you captured so far?”
“None. We only just began.”
“Why did you target these four first?”
“We happened to see them gathered together, and then they conveniently moved to an isolated area on their own. We couldn’t pass up the opportunity, so we followed them.”
“What were you planning to do after taking them? Kill them?”
“No. The Demon-Brain Divine Demon said he would brainwash the Central Plains’ promising young disciples and make them attack their own people. Few parents would have the heart to attack their own children, so it would inflict severe damage on our enemies. And even if the promising young disciples died in the process, the Central Plains would still lose its future. Either outcome would deal them a devastating blow.”
“Is there any way to contact the Demon-Brain Divine Demon?”
“No. We simply wait until he sends an order.”
“How do the orders arrive?”
“An animal carrying a message from the Demon-Brain Divine Demon appears without warning and delivers the order.”
“An animal? It talks?”
“Yes. Once it finishes delivering the message, it explodes and dies on the spot, so we don’t even know how the message was implanted.”
That was fascinating.
Jeok Wigang wanted to see it for himself.
He looked at the black-haired old man.
“Which Divine Demon are you?”
“The Black-Origin Divine Demon.”
“Then the other two are the Red-Origin Divine Demon and White-Origin Divine Demon?”
“Yes.”
Simple bunch.
“Have you ever met the Demon-Brain Divine Demon in person?”
“No, I hav— Ghhhh!”
The Black-Origin Divine Demon suddenly began convulsing in agony.
“Th-this... I didn’t say any of this... of my own will... This isn’t... fair...”
WHUMP—
His head exploded.
SPLATTER—
At that moment, a bird swooped down and fixed its eyes on Jeok Wigang.
Then it began to speak.
[You... I remember your face... You will... pay dearly... for interfering... with my work...]
WHUMP—
The bird exploded the instant it finished speaking.
Jeok Wigang immediately knew that the speaker had been the Demon-Brain Divine Demon.
He now understood exactly how the man delivered his orders as well.
Jeok Wigang scratched his head.
Far more demons from White Horse Heaven seemed to have entered the Central Plains than he had expected, and they were already carrying out schemes under the direction of the Demon-Brain Divine Demon.
The Four Divine Demons themselves had merely been some of the pieces he had moved.
Jeok Wigang looked down at the Black-Origin Divine Demon’s headless corpse.
The Demon-Brain Divine Demon had just blown apart the head of a subordinate following his orders without even being present.
Could he do the same thing to the Four Divine Demons?
“Hmm...”
Jeok Wigang’s expression grew grave.
As he stared at the Black-Origin Divine Demon’s corpse, he found himself imagining the Four Divine Demons lying there instead.
He shook his head and examined the body.
How did he make his head explode?
Jeok Wigang began inspecting the corpse carefully.
He heightened his vision and searched through what remained of the man’s head.
Then something resembling an insect shell caught his eye.
He carefully picked it up and examined it.
“Gu poison?”
That was probably the cause.
“I’d better go check them immediately.”
Whatever problems they might cause him, they were still his younger brothers.
He had no intention of letting them die such pointless deaths.
The moment Kang Mujin saw Jeok Wigang, he asked whether he could take the promising young disciples to the True Martial Sect.
“Do whatever you want.”
“Understood.”
Once he had Jeok Wigang’s permission, Kang Mujin broke into a broad smile.
He was delighted that he would be able to keep teaching Zhuge Hyeon—the disciple he had personally acknowledged—without reservation.
“More importantly, you four. Come with me.”
The Four Divine Demons exchanged puzzled looks at Jeok Wigang’s serious expression.
“Did something happen?”
Without answering, Jeok Wigang led them somewhere private.
“Any of you ever heard the title Demon-Brain Divine Demon? Or remember someone by that name?”
All four shook their heads.
“I’ve never heard that title before.”
Their expressions made it clear they truly had no idea.
“Tell me everything you remember about White Horse Heaven.”
The four began describing the scenes and places they remembered from White Horse Heaven.
“Do you remember exactly how White Horse Heaven is laid out?”
“Of course.”
“No. Don’t give me the general picture. Try to remember every detail.”
“Well...”
“Huh? What the hell? I can’t really remember.”
“It’s been so long that things must’ve gotten hazy.”
“I can remember bits and pieces... but when I try to dig into the details like you said, Elder Brother... it feels like everything’s hidden behind fog.”
“Do you still feel like you need to test the strength of the martial world?”
“What? What are you talking about? That urge disappeared completely after we lost to the Heavenly Martial Emperor... sir.”
So it must have been set to end once they were defeated by someone.
“After you lost... did you feel compelled to go anywhere?”
“Not really. I think the only thing on my mind was that I needed to send a report as quickly as possible.”
“All of you, gather around. I need to check something.”
At Jeok Wigang’s instruction, the Four Divine Demons clustered together.
“Let the flow of qi reveal its clarity. Trace the blood vessels to their end. Manifest the five organs. Diagnose the six bowels. Respond to poison qi. Reveal the wounded places.”
The Four Divine Demons looked startled when Jeok Wigang suddenly stared intently at them and recited a mantra.
But they knew perfectly well that he would never harm them, so they remained still.
“Hmm. Nothing.”
There was no gu poison inside any of the Four Divine Demons.
Apparently, the Demon-Brain Divine Demon only implanted gu poison in people he controlled directly.
Then again, if he had already erased their memories, perhaps there had been no need to implant gu poison as well.
“What’s going on?”
“I was checking whether there was gu poison inside you.”
“Gu poison? Why would you suddenly check for that?”
Jeok Wigang told them everything that had happened with the Black-Origin Divine Demon.
“What? So you’re saying this Demon-Brain Divine Demon was the one controlling us?”
“Yes. You don’t remember him, but you were faithfully carrying out his orders at a subconscious level.”
“No way...”
“So that’s why our memories of White Horse Heaven were so hazy...”
“And here I thought we just had terrible memories.”
The Four Divine Demons looked genuinely shaken.
Of course they did.
They had believed they had been acting according to their own wills, only to discover that all of it had been someone else’s manipulation.
“Then what about the demons we do remember? I thought we only remembered the lower-ranked ones... but now that I think about it, I can’t remember every lower-ranked demon either.”
“They were probably the ones you were closest to, the ones you hated, or the ones you personally fought.”
“Then I suppose we have to assume White Horse Heaven has already begun operating in the Central Plains.”
“Yes. We need to find out who the Demon-Brain Divine Demon is, where he is, and what he’s planning as quickly as possible.”
“If he’s hiding among people from the Central Plains or ordinary civilians, we’ll never find him.”
“Then we need to make the Central Plains as strong as possible so they can’t move recklessly.”
“Do you think the sects of the Central Plains will cooperate that easily?”
“We’ll make them cooperate. I... think I’m going to take the seat of Lord of Heavenly Martial Castle.”
“What? All of a sudden?”
The position with the greatest influence in the Central Plains.
That was the Lord of Heavenly Martial Castle.
Ordinarily, it was a seat Jeok Wigang would never have accepted.
But circumstances had changed.
There was no time to leisurely visit sect after sect, persuade them to cooperate, and slowly build their strength.
The enemy was already inside the Central Plains, already putting its schemes into motion.
And one of those schemes had nearly succeeded.
They had escaped disaster through sheer luck.
“The enemy is already moving. We don’t have time to wander around placating sects one by one. Get word to the Sichuan Divine Cult immediately and have them begin operating as actively as possible. You four will need to move accordingly too.”
“Us too?”
“Yes. Having the genuine Four Divine Demons show themselves will be more convincing, won’t it? The Demon-Brain Divine Demon is bound to make a move somehow. First, we wrap things up here as quickly as possible and return to the True Martial Sect.”
“Yes!”

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