So? Did Someone Force You to Become the Heavenly Demon?

When dawn broke, the martial artists of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult melted into the shadowy corners of Lanzhou in Gansu Province.

Every operative carried a single slip of paper bearing a name. 

Each of them had been given a single sheet of paper, and on each sheet was written the name of a person.

For the highest-ranking targets, elite masters like Il-mok, Jin Hayeon, and Baek Un-hak personally took the field. And the name on Il-mok's slip belonged to none other than the Surveillance Commissioner, a Senior Rank 3 official who reigned over the Provincial Surveillance Commission Office and controlled the region's laws and punishments.

From what the Left Commissioner and the Provincial Military Commander had shared, the man was little more than the Supreme Eunuch’s lapdog from the very beginning.

He was the sort of parasite who twisted the law and handed out sentences solely to satisfy the eunuchs' whims.

Il-mok breached the master bedroom of the Surveillance Commissioner’s estate without breaking a sweat and found the man was sleeping soundly.

Staring down at the official snoring with an armful of women, Il-mok clicked his tongue in quiet disgust.

He approached without making the slightest sound, then dispatched him simply by pressing a finger to a fatal acupoint.

He left the sleeping women untouched.

After all, there was no way to know just yet if the Commissioner had dragged those women into his bed by force, or if they had crawled in willingly just for a taste of power.

All across Lanzhou, similar silent executions were carried out in a matter of hours.

And the moment dawn broke, a fierce storm swept through Lanzhou.

The soldiers of the Provincial Military Commission began rummaging through every corner of Lanzhou with the help of the constables from the Surveillance Commission Office and the Left Commission Office.

And every single estate they kicked the doors down on just happened to be a place the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult had paid a quiet visit to the night before.

"My lord!!"

"Please wake up, my lord!!"

Wives and servants were left screaming and shaking corpses that would never wake up, entirely unprepared for the armed forces swarming into their manors and courtyards.

"Confiscate every last piece of property belonging to these corrupt officials who have plundered the people!"

The soldiers and constables tore through the estates and halls without restraint.

Some watched in terror or stepped quietly aside to look on, but others drew their weapons and resisted.

"You insolent dogs! Do you know whose presence you stand in?!"

It didn't end well for them.

"Tch."

Blending right alongside the regular soldiers, the martial artists of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult cut down the resisting guards without breaking a sweat.

Considering the highest authorities in the province had sanctioned this raid together, trying to fight back was nothing short of suicide.

Take the Surveillance Commission Office for example.

Even though Il-mok had just assassinated their top boss, Cheon Ryang had already bought off one of the Vice Commissioners to seize control of the department and entrusted him with full authority over the office.

On top of that, every heavyweight official who could have mounted a resistance was conveniently sent to the afterlife the night before, so the entire operation was a landslide win for Il-mok’s side.

In just four hours or so, the spring cleaning of Lanzhou was practically wrapped up. 

The low-ranking grunts at the bottom of the bureaucratic ladder didn't even know what hit them; they just kept their heads down and followed the crazy orders barking down from the top.

As for the upper-crust politicians and mid-level bureaucrats, roughly thirty percent had been swept away in a single day.

About fifty percent had firmly thrown in their lot with the Left Commissioner and the Provincial Military Commander, and the remaining twenty percent or so were closer to neutral to pose a threat.

In any case, all that was left was to bust open the vaults of the dead and strip them bare. 

Oddly enough, the troops didn't take the plundered gold to the state treasury; they hauled every last coin to a specific private manor.

It was the place that had once been the temple of the Maitreya Luminous Cult, but was now called the branch office of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.

Il-mok was watching the whole spectacle from the building's window.

"Young Master."

Il-mok turned his head and looked at the maids.

"Do you really trust the Left Commissioner?"

As if he already knew what she was getting at, Il-mok answered with a question of his own.

"Is this about the people he chose?"

"Yes, Young Master. We’ve been taking turns keeping an eye on him. Just like you predicted, he brought in a good mix of clean politicians and officials who secretly hate the Emperor. But he didn't stop there; he also made sure to keep a solid chunk of his own cronies in positions of power."

As if to back up her words, the three other maids nodded and looked at Il-mok.

"It is just as Squad Leader Jin says, Young Master!"

"A-and isn't that old man a-already famous for being g-greedy for p-power?"

"Just say the word, Young Master, and I'll go fetch his head right now."

Il-mok knew full well what they were worried about, so he answered with a gentle smile.

"I'm not sure if any of you have ever heard this saying, but fish can't survive in water that's too clear." 

Jin Hayeon's eyes widened slightly.

"Does that mean you knew he would pull this, and gave him the power to draft the list regardless?"

Il-mok nodded and patiently elaborated, "As our Divine Cult's doctrine itself teaches that every human being harbors greed. Of course, our doctrine commands that this greed be suppressed without exception, but even the most devout among our believers struggle to do so. So how much harder is it then for ordinary people?”

"It would be all the more difficult, I imagine."

"Exactly. That is why I entrusted this work to Cheon Ryang. He’s aware of his humanity and aware of his limits. He knows how to indulge in a fitting amount of greed and he is precisely the sort of man who can handle a mix of rebellious-spirited people, upright officials, and corrupt ones all at once. As long as his greed stays within reasonable limits and he only takes his fair cut, I'm perfectly happy to look the other way."

"B-but what if he gets greedy, and s-starts coveting w-what belongs to o-others? W-what's your plan then?"

Jeong Hyeon's stuttering question hit the nail right on the head, and Il-mok's warm smile vanished.

"Then we obviously need to cut him down. But not immediately.”

"???"

Seeing the confusion on his maids' faces, Il-mok elaborated. 

"Think of it this way. The man is the first official to surrender to us. To the officials in Gansu, he is a kind of symbol. If we executed someone like that the moment his usefulness ran out, who would ever accept our offer of surrender afterward?"

If no one ever surrendered, it meant their enemies would fight to the death at every single turn.

The Heavenly Demon Divine Cult was undeniably powerful, but having to crush suicide-level resistance in every battle would eventually bleed them dry.

"At the very least, we'd need a just cause to execute someone like him. I'll only put him on the chopping block if his greed goes completely out of bounds."

Even though he was telling that to the maids, Il-mok was turning over a different thought in his mind.

'Though I doubt anything like that will happen at least until the war is over.'

It wasn't just about needing an excuse or squeezing the guy for his usefulness.

'The old man is just too sharp for his own good.'

Maybe it was because he had spent decades surviving in a cutthroat political arena where reading the room meant life or death, while the man is undeniably greedy, he also knows how to read the bigger picture.

What's more, the man was much hungrier for power and promotions than he was for gold or women.

Now that he had already boarded the same ship as a traitor, he wasn't about to sabotage it by quietly lining his own pockets before they even won. 

He wasn't stupid enough to forget that if the rebellion failed, the ship would go down and drag him to the bottom of the abyss.

After reassuring his maids, Il-mok turned his head once more and gazed out the window.

At the temple where staggering amounts of wealth were piling up in real time.

"Hehehe.”

To be fair, if we talk about greed for wealth, Il-mok was starting to look greedier than even Cheon Ryang.

But unlike a corrupt politician, Il-mok wasn't planning on hoarding a single coin for himself.

'Time to put that cash to good use and get this operation off the ground.'

To Il-mok, that fortune was just fuel for the next phase of his grand design. It was nothing more than funds for the upcoming war and for stabilizing the rear.

As if the universe itself was reading his mind, a letter arrived from Pingliang County the next morning.

It was a letter sent by Baek Cheon.

***

Just a few days earlier, the men of the Baek Family had set out to tackle the mission Il-mok had handed them.

Baek Un-hak, his eldest son, and his youngest son headed to the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult's branch office in Lanzhou, where they began composing new songs and plays to pass down to women who had formerly been courtesans.

Baek Cheon, on the other hand, took a different route.

Following Il-mok's orders, he traveled to Pingliang County, resurrected the Hall of Arts, and invited every calligrapher and painter he could find for a very special art contest.

Just as Il-mok had predicted, the moment the artists realized they were being asked to draw anti-imperial propaganda, people started dropping out in droves.

"Ahem. My apologies, but I simply cannot bring myself to write anything of the sort."

"C-can we please go home now?"

But there were plenty of others who happily picked up their brushes, sneering at the ones running away. 

"Bah. What a bunch of cowards!"

"Don't act innocent! I've heard you lot complaining about the Emperor over drinks plenty of times!"

These were folks who were either hardcore believers of the Maitreya Luminous Cult or simply sick and tired of the current regime.

They poured the resentment that had piled up over their lifetimes into their arts and practically bled it onto the paper through their calligraphy and paintings.

The stories Baek Cheon gave them were just the spark.

What struck closer to home than the tale of the Imperial Family massacring thousands of innocent commoners in Guizhou Province were the injustices they themselves had endured all their lives.

One after another came writings and paintings steeped in the bitterness and emotion that had soaked into their very lives, and Baek Cheon gladly handed out cash rewards to those who created the works.

"Alright! Hurry up and ship these arts to Lanzhou!" 

And they had just now arrived in Il-mok's hands.

Il-mok took one look at them and handed the stack straight to the Baek Family trio.

And immediately afterward, the Baek Family men began copying those works.

Every single one, purely by hand.

"I-is it really true that just by copying these drawings and writings, you'll give us rice and food?"

"Hahaha. Of course it is! We of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult never speak empty words!"

To back up his boasting, Baek Un-hak pointed to a literal mountain of riches piled up in the corner of the courtyard. 

Following Baek Un-hak's gesture, the women, children, and old men who looked at that mountain of wealth immediately grabbed brushes and began copying the propaganda as if their lives depended on it.

Back when they were still called the Maitreya Luminous Cult, they had spent years teaching local peasants to read, and as a result, they had a massive pool of literate workers ready to go.

On top of that, former courtesans or folks who just painted for fun could earn a tidy sum by imitating the master painters' works.

Seeing their neighbors get rich quickly, the rest of the workers practically lost their minds with jealousy. 

"That settles it. As soon as we get home today, we're practicing our drawing." 

"Look at this handwriting, it's awful. No, this won't do. Starting today, I'd better put in some extra calligraphy practice!"

Without anyone forcing them, the people who had taken part in the work began going home each night and practicing their strokes until their hands cramped.

Thanks to all their hard work, countless propaganda flyers and posters were produced, and Il-mok issued a new set of instructions to the three Baek men.

"For now, please spread these posters and flyers throughout all of Gansu.

"Hm? But Gansu Province is already our territory; is there really any need to show these posters and flyers to them?"

"Lanzhou's manpower alone is nowhere near enough to scatter these throughout the entire Central Plains. We need to spread our Cult's doctrine far and wide along with these, and entrust this same task to the believers in other regions as well."

"Ha! So you're turning the entirety of Gansu into a massive printing press!"

When Baek Un-hak reacted with admiration, Il-mok shook his head.

"Not just Gansu. Once we've flooded Gansu to multiply our production base, we're going to expand this operation to every single territory that follows the Cult’s doctrines."

Xinjiang, Sichuan, Qinghai, and even Tibet.

"By infecting all those regions, we'll multiply our output thousands of times over. Once we hit those numbers, we’ll step into our next phase and scatter the propaganda to the entire Central Plains by any means necessary."

Simply put, Il-mok was weaponizing the viral fanaticism of a cult and fusing it with an MLM scheme.

***

Meanwhile, right as the propaganda machine was hitting maximum overdrive in Lanzhou, Il-mok received yet another letter.

This one had flown in all the way from Shaanxi Province.

It was a letter from Wi Jin-hak, who had set out to destroy Mount Hua and Zhongnan.

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