Chapter 204 – Who Are You (7)

The first thing that came into view was an old Chinese-style inner chamber.

And several people in black robes standing at the front. Their faces covered with hoods, except for a few, their faces couldn’t be recognized.

However, he could tell some were not Chinese but Westerners (Europeans).

When one of the Westerners waved his hand in the air, he could understand their words that he couldn’t comprehend before.

“Sorcery?”

Sun-woo felt puzzled by the words coming from his own mouth. It wasn’t his voice.

‘A dream?’

Watching the situation like watching a movie in a dazed state, Sun-woo briefly savored the thoughts rising in his head, then focused again on the scene visible before his eyes.

“Sorcery? Hmm, it’s called magic. Not very different from sorcery.”

The Westerner in the center chuckled and answered his words.

“But why would Westerners visit this shabby place?”

A question flowed from the mouth of the protagonist Sun-woo was dreaming of.

“What business could you have with a boastful Taoist barely making a day’s living?”

Even while speaking, he was drawing hand seals with one hand hidden behind his back.

Though it was sorcery nearly extinct with little remaining, unlike what people knew, it was enough to catch the opponent off guard.

If he used it carelessly and got caught by those guys, he’d be a dead man on the spot, but with immediate danger, he couldn’t not prepare.

But he couldn’t activate the sorcery.

“Sorcerer Myeonggyeol. The high priest of the Blood Cult and the last descendant of the Blood Cult, correct?”

The most secret thing to hide came from the opponent’s mouth, but his mind went blank because of the book held in the person next to him’s hand.

The Blood Cult’s supreme and pure scripture and sorcery book made from human skin with text written in human blood. The Blood Scripture was there.

“How could you guys have this? I thought the old Mingjiao leader burned it…”

He only stared at the Blood Scripture without caring about the secret he’d hidden all his life.

At his words, the person holding the book threw back his hood.

When the hood was thrown back, a magnanimous middle-aged man’s face was revealed.

“Good heavens. No way… Sword Demon?”

A handsome middle-aged man with silver hair and a long sword scar carved on his cheek, as far as he knew, could only be the Sword Demon, the second-in-command of the Demonic Cult.

“Well, I thought so too, but it was actually hidden deep in the Cult. And everyone forgot that thing existed, and I found it while searching for anything useful.”

The man called Sword Demon threw the book made of human skin toward him.

Sun-woo, no, sorcerer Myeonggyeol hurriedly caught the book and looked at the people lined up in front with a cautious expression.

“What on earth do you want from me?”

Myeonggyeol knew very well there was no reason to hand over such a precious item to him without any reason.

But he had nothing left.

Only the position of Blood Cult high priest passed down through a single lineage remained. There was no way the Demonic Cult’s second-in-command and magic-wielding Westerners would need anything from such a person.

“What we want isn’t anything special. We just want you to use that book to revive the Blood Cult again.”

“Don’t tell me, you’re planning to swallow the Cult using the Blood Cult?”

“Well, taking over the Cult isn’t bad, but there’s something more important.”

The Sword Demon held out a pill toward him.

“Don’t tell me it’s poison? To prevent betrayal?”

“Well, it’s not poison, but preventing betrayal is similar. It’s something to make you the same existence as us. Well, still experimenting though…”

At the Sword Demon’s words, Myeonggyeol made an absurd expression, but ultimately had to accept the pill.

Whether becoming a consumable or bait, the Blood Scripture and the Blood Cult’s revival was his and his sect’s lifelong wish.

“Welcome.”

Seeing Myeonggyeol swallow the pill, the Sword Demon smiled freshly.

Myeonggyeol could see a red light briefly flashing through the Sword Demon’s eyes.

‘Ah! Not a dream but a memory?’

Being ejected from Myeonggyeol’s body, Sun-woo could awaken his slightly dazed consciousness.

But he still couldn’t tell why he was viewing such memories or what situation this was. He dove into another person’s memory again.

***

Sun-woo continued swimming through memories.

A space ability user’s memory crossing multiple worlds. And a mercenary ability user’s memory of diligently firing guns, etc. Continuously experiencing various people’s memories, at some point he could realize the current situation.

‘Ah, I was eaten by the Demon Lord.’

The moment he realized that. Sun-woo could escape from the memories.

A feeling like being buried in sticky jelly. Internal energy barely moved, and mana and mental power showed almost no response.

Sun-woo could barely open his eyes that wouldn’t open.

The first sight he saw upon opening his eyes was a corpse with only bones remaining, gradually melting while wrapped in slime.

‘Is this inside the Demon Lord’s belly?’

The entire world seemed covered in jelly. Or like entering inside a sea made of jelly.

However, thanks to corpses and plants floating around melting, it definitely wasn’t beautiful scenery.

‘Rather than inside the belly, just inside the Demon Lord.’

Sun-woo recalled the wriggling giant flesh mass.

However, unexpectedly, inside here was quite bright. Because there were jellies emitting light here and there.

‘Flesh burning because there’s no demonic energy.’

Thanks to that, the bright view was good, but at that rate, the Demon Lord didn’t seem likely to die soon.

‘But why am I alive?’

Sun-woo, whose mind barely became intact, came to doubt being alive.

Sun-woo tried forcibly moving his body.

Raising even his eyelids felt difficult, and raising his drooping hand before his eyes felt like pulling up a hand bound in thousand-pound chains.

Thanks to considerable time spent, Sun-woo could check his hand.

‘Was it demonic energy?’

Sun-woo’s hand floating in jelly was surrounded by a murky membrane tinged with red energy.

‘Fortunately, it seems I wrapped my body in demonic energy the moment I was eaten.’

Thanks to that, unlike others, Sun-woo could survive inside the Demon Lord’s body.

But it wasn’t entirely good.

The demonic energy protecting Sun-woo was insanely draining his internal energy.

The internal energy, mana, and mental power inside his body now couldn’t move not because they were immobilized, but because the demonic energy was sucking all energy, leaving no room for other energies to move.

Moreover, regrettably, the demonic energy’s consumption was faster than his internal energy recovery speed. Seeing he felt his body tingling little by little, the demonic energy wrapping his body would certainly disappear before long.

‘Ha, even with martial arts reaching the boundary of enlightenment, barely enduring inside the Demon Lord’s body was all I could do?’

Sun-woo couldn’t help but feel deflated. He thought he was the strongest among humans in his own way, but such confidence was merely useless arrogance before the Demon Lord.

The pain gradually intensified, and he vividly felt the internal energy in his dantian being depleted.

He couldn’t die like this. Sun-woo desperately recalled methods he could use.

‘All martial arts blocked, skills blocked, moving is difficult too. The bracers aren’t responding, summoning impossible, can’t request from Summoners either…’

Sun-woo could realize only one thing remained. His cell phone. The items in the inventory inside it.

And among the items, what he could use now was the <Demon God’s Core>.

Sun-woo recalled the Demon God’s Core and smiled bitterly.

Though placed in inventory, it was an item he quite avoided. Though they said the demonic energy was removed, it was an item the Demon God left while disappearing. He couldn’t know what would happen if he used it.

‘I keep facing these situations.’

Though he moved trying to find a safe path in his own way, each time he ended up taking dangerous paths.

‘Well, I should be grateful for surviving and growing this far while living as a summoner with extreme survival rates.’

If he hadn’t gained abilities different from others, he’d certainly have died long ago. Though he didn’t know why he was given such special abilities, as long as there was opportunity, he had no intention of stopping.

Sun-woo again forcibly moved his hand and took out his phone from his pants pocket.

As he always thought, the phone never broke or left his body in any situation.

Even now, the phone was showing the inventory window before his eyes.

Sun-woo took out the Demon God’s Core from inventory. The Demon God’s Core revealing itself before Sun-woo’s eyes shone brightly, and the flesh masses wrapping Sun-woo’s body surged as if meeting an earthquake.

[No way! That is!]

A scream-like sound rang throughout the world like thunder, but Sun-woo quickly sucked the Demon God’s Core into his mouth.

“Krgh!”

Seems he ate flesh masses together while sucking in the Demon God’s Core.

Starting from his mouth through the esophagus to the stomach, Sun-woo opened his eyes wide in pain of his insides burning and screamed a soundless scream.

[How, how did this happen? Did I sense wrong? That can’t be!]

The Demon Lord’s voice continued echoing, but Sun-woo engulfed in pain couldn’t hear that voice.

Fortunately, the pain didn’t last long. The moment the Demon God’s Core melted in his stomach, the burning pain disappeared, and Sun-woo’s body stopped as is.

Blood flowing in veins, heart, breathing, and internal energy and mana, and even the demonic energy flowing on his skin.

Sun-woo’s body completely stopped.

And the flesh masses trying to devour his body flowed leisurely along his body. As if they didn’t know he was there.

The moment his body stopped. Sun-woo was conversing with someone in his head.

“Unexpected. A completely unexpected opponent?”

Inside an empty white background, Sun-woo and another man stood facing each other.

The man looked at Sun-woo and stroked his chin with a troubled expression.

“Are you the Demon God?”

An opponent who suddenly appeared after eating the Demon God’s Core. Sun-woo had no choice but to suspect the opponent was the Demon God.

“Not the Demon God. Just see it as a residual thought, trace, ghost, something like that.”

At his words, Sun-woo breathed a sigh of relief. Seemed soul-stealing things seen in novels wouldn’t happen.

“Well, even the original wouldn’t try to steal. No wait. If it’s the original whose taste went crazy from demonic energy, maybe it could.”

Seemed he could tell Sun-woo’s thoughts, probably because it was inside his mind.

“Then what business made you appear?”

At Sun-woo’s cautious question, the man made a lukewarm expression.

“Well, to check if you’re a suitable person to accept the ability. If you’re someone who can be used, etc.”

Sun-woo sweated coldly inside. As expected, didn’t seem like a beautiful god giving gifts to the weak.

“If mental power is weak, brainwash-like and pass magical power to a useful Demon Lord. Or raise as a human to strike the gods watered down on your side… That was the thought.”

The Demon God’s thought sighed.

“You who ate the core are a completely wrong opponent. Martial arts reaching enlightenment boundary plus powerful mind, and considerable sorcery power too… The bigger problem is the demonic energy flew away so I came to my senses.”

According to his continuing words, originally the Demon God’s Core was made as a kind of booby trap.

It aroused desire in the discoverer to make them eat it, and with that, created a giant enemy opposing gods or played a role in widely opening the demon realm’s gate.

But regrettably, Yeonhwa purified the core, so the remaining residual thought changed.

“Well, would it be close to my early appearance when using demonic energy and divine power simultaneously? Anyway, I have no particular intention to do anything to you. Doesn’t seem like your side will easily fall for it either.”

“Then why did you show this appearance?”

“Killing time.”

“What?”

Sun-woo’s expression changed remarkably.

“Properly absorbing the core takes time, right? I who have nothing to do meanwhile am spending time with you, that’s the story.”

The Demon God’s thought soon smiled at Sun-woo.

“And it’s finished now. Nice to meet you. My successor.”

***

Sun-woo who had stopped inside the Demon God’s body opened his eyes.