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

Looking down at the Gansu army cheering wildly below him, Il-mok opened his mouth with a composed tone.

"You've traveled a long road to get here. Good work."

Though his tone was gentle, the internal energy laced within made it ring out clearly to every one of the fifty thousand soldiers.

"YEAAAAHHH!!!"

Just hearing his voice seemed to be enough to send them into a frenzy.

The Gansu soldiers raised their weapons in unison and erupted into thunderous cheers so deafening that it felt like the very walls of Xi'an were shaking from the sheer force.

It was a completely different reaction from the one he'd gotten the day before, when he'd given a similar speech to Xi'an's thirty thousand soldiers along the same stretch of wall.

After commending the troops for their efforts, Il-mok moved on to address the coming battle against the Central Military Command.

"We will stop those who bend to the will of a corrupt eunuch, and we will protect the people of Xi'an!!"

The moment he finished, the fanatics erupted all over again.

Il-mok took in the scene for a brief moment, then turned and descended from the wall using Sky Walk.

The generals stepped forward after him to calm the soldiers down, and the army filed into Xi'an. The fifty thousand Gansu soldiers moved off to their assigned billets to rest and regroup.

As the fifty thousand Gansu troops settled into their quarters to unpack and rest, a few curious local guards from the Xi'an garrison slipped into the camp to see who they were dealing with.

"Ahem. Hey there. We’re local boys from Tongchuan County. Where did you guys march in from?”

A few of the soldiers who'd been resting in disciplined formation answered.

"Lanzhou, for me."

"Same here."

"I'm from Qinghai."

The answers came from all over the map. Of the fifty thousand, thirty thousand were original Gansu soldiers, and the remaining twenty thousand were troops absorbed from Qinghai. On top of that, a separate division of about three thousand nomadic steppe cavalry was stationed in a clearing nearby.

Hearing how insanely diverse this army was, the local Shaanxi guards felt their brains short-circuiting.

"So... just how impressive is this Il-mok fellow that you're all going this crazy over him?"

The moment one of the Shaanxi soldiers blurted that out, every nearby Gansu soldier turned to look at him at once.

Under that collective stare, the man unconsciously swallowed a dry lump in his throat and took a step back.

The viscous madness swirling in their eyes was simply overwhelming.

“Mind your tongue, boy.”

"How dare you speak his name and deeds so carelessly."

With the man having backed off from their warning, another Shaanxi soldier stepped in and phrased it more carefully.

"Please forgive the rudeness. He only asked because we were curious about the man we'll be serving from now on."

Perhaps because he'd phrased it with considerably more respect, the Gansu soldiers all broke into wide grins.

“Where do we even start? His glorious miracles are beyond human words.”

“If our Lord commands, 'Let there be light,' the sky literally splits and fills the world with brilliance.”

"And that light, my friend, is a light that destroys evil."

"Absolutely! He can even bring the dead back to life!"

Voices shouted from every direction at once, and the Shaanxi soldiers who'd come to visit felt their heads spinning.

‘Did they all... eat something bad? All fifty thousand of them?’

One of the Shaanxi soldiers who'd been listening in silence finally couldn't hold back.

“Uh... guys. Listening to you, it sounds like this Il-mok fellow is a literal god.”

Rather than take offense, the fanatics lit up like he'd just given the right answer.

"Now you're getting it!"

"Any war fought with him at our side is a war we cannot lose. It's no different from fighting alongside a god!"

Just then, a sharp-looking Gansu soldier cut in loudly.

"Hey! Watch your mouths, you idiots! How can you call the Young Master a god when we have the Cult Leader above him? Lord Il-mok is not a god, he's an Envoy of God!"

The stickler clearly enjoyed drawing sharp distinctions. After correcting his buddies, he turned his focus on the local Shaanxi soldiers.

"So tell me, what kind of man is the Cult Leader? We've only ever laid eyes on Lord Il-mok ourselves, so we're genuinely curious."

As if his words had been a signal, all the Gansu soldiers turned to stare at the Shaanxi men in unison, and the Shaanxi soldiers felt dizzy all over again.

‘W-well, the Cult Leader's martial arts were certainly impressive.’

‘B-but not to the insane degree these lunatics are going on about.’

He could fly through the sky, and when he moved, his presence alone would cause those around him to collapse.

Cult Leader Wi Jin-hak was a master on a truly astounding level. But creating light from nothing and controlling the life and death of humans as he pleased?

There is no way something that outlandish could ever exist in this world.

***

Several hours after the Gansu Army entered Xi'an, soldiers from both forces were mingling everywhere, swapping stories and trading rumors. Naturally, word of Il-mok's mythic deeds as the Left Guardian began spreading through the Shaanxi ranks.

The problem was that those deeds were so outlandish that the vibe in the camp became extremely awkward.

"Those Gansu guys... No matter how you look at it, they're not right in the head."

"Right? They start chanting those creepy songs every time there's a five-minute break!”

Plenty of Shaanxi soldiers could only shake their heads at the exaggerated tales. On the bright side, the morale that had been buried in the mud had at least ticked up a little.

"Well, crazy or not, their morale is through the roof. They must have been winning nonstop."

"From what I've heard, they started in Gansu, crushed the Western Military Command and the Qinghai forces, and absorbed them all. At the very least, they'll be a huge help in the battles ahead."

Ultimately, the Shaanxi soldiers decided to just be glad the reinforcements had arrived.

As for the insane talk, the Shaanxi soldiers chalked it up to soldiers exaggerating their victories to make themselves sound better and left it at that.

Meanwhile, as rumors of Il-mok’s 'miracles' and his followers' fanaticism spread like wildfire through Xi'an, a high-level war council was meeting inside the captured Shaanxi Provincial Military Command’s office.

The meeting was presided over by the newly appointed Left and Right Guardians of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.

"Fortunately, the morale among the existing troops stationed here in Xi'an has started to recover," Cheon-ryang reported.

A collective sigh of relief swept through the war council.

They weren't fools.

They'd already picked up on the uneasy atmosphere that had been brewing among the troops and had been constantly racking their brain for solutions ever since Wi Jin-hak had left two days ago to keep the army from falling apart.

It had gotten to the point where someone suggested finding a few soldiers who were stirring up trouble and publicly beheading them as a warning.

And then, the resident musclehead offered a solution so brainless that they might as well start disbanding the army.

"Bwahahahahaha! Who cares about morale? Morale takes care of itself once you start smashing the enemy's skulls in! Don't sweat it, boys! I'll lead the charge from the front, cut off the enemy commander's head myself, and that'll do wonders for morale!"

This was the solution proposed by none other than Dokgo Ryong.

Had they been forced to fight without first restoring morale, things would have surely proceeded exactly as Dokgo Ryong had suggested, so it was indeed a great relief that things didn’t develop into that situation. 

Cheon Ryang shuddered at the thought of that grim scenario and quietly glanced over at Il-mok.

‘But what on earth did he do to turn the Gansu soldiers into that kind of elite force in such a short time?’

Cheon Ryang had left for Xi'an before the Gansu Army's battle against the Western Military Command, so he hadn't witnessed Il-mok's exploits firsthand.

At that moment, Il-mok scanned the room and spoke.

"Then let's get to what matters. How are we going to defend Shaanxi?"

The first to speak in response was the general who had been accompanying Il-mok on behalf of the Gansu Provincial Military Commander who had departed for Sichuan.

He was the Vice Provincial Military Commander of Gansu, a junior Rank 2 official, and had been with Il-mok since the Gansu army's march into Qinghai.

“These two locations are strategic strongpoints that we must defend at all costs.”

He pointed at the military map laid out on the table. The two places his finger landed on were labeled Ankang and Hanzhong.

"Let's start with Ankang. To the north, it connects directly to Xi'an, the provincial capital of Shaanxi. To the east, it connects toward Mount Wudang where the Cult Leader is heading.”

He traced the supply lines on the map, highlighting the routes branching from Ankang.

“If you move west from Ankang, you reach Hanzhong.”

He circled Hanzhong on the map for emphasis.

"Hanzhong isn't just a critical junction connecting Sichuan and Gansu. It's a basin with a favorable climate, making it a breadbasket region on par with Sichuan itself. If the war drags on, it'll be a vital source of grain to sustain our armies."

Everyone present nodded as the explanation sank in.

Even Il-mok, who hadn't accumulated much in the way of military knowledge given that he'd been a civil servant in his past life, found it easy enough to follow. And the fact that even his past-life self had still heard the name "Hanzhong" more than a few times said everything about just how strategically significant it was.

"Then we'll use those two locations as our bases and fight a defensive war from there."

"Correct, my lord."

After that, the meeting got into full swing. They discussed how to integrate the original Shaanxi troops with the newly arrived Gansu army into new combined units. They debated how many soldiers to allocate to Ankang and Hanzhong, and which commanders would be responsible for holding each position.

"Bah! All this talking is giving me a headache! Just send me wherever the fighting starts first! Or wherever it's going to be the most intense! I'll kill more enemy commanders than anyone and bring the Divine Cult a crushing victory!"

Clearly having no patience for complicated discussions, Dokgo Ryong bellowed that out with conviction and stormed right out of the hall.

"Ahem. Apologies, everyone. The Right Guardian just has a short temper, that's all. His abilities as a vanguard are beyond question, so don't let it bother you."

After Il-mok smoothed things over and calmed the people inside, the meeting moved on.

***

By the time the hours-long council finally wrapped up, the night sky was pitch black.

Il-mok dragged his weary body out of the hall and wanted to collapse into his bed, but fate had other plans for him.

"Young Master Il-mok, or I suppose I should call you Left Guardian now. Do you have a moment?”

Hwangbo Ak had stopped him.

"Is something wrong?"

"There's something I need to speak with you about privately."

Thinking it was probably some complaint about troop assignments, Il-mok agreed without hesitation. But when they reached a secluded pavilion, Hwangbo Ak glanced warily at the beautiful maids standing right behind Il-mok.

"My apologies, but would it be possible for just the two of us?"

"Of course."

Il-mok nodded and told the maids to wait outside before stepping in.

"So, what did you want to speak to me about privately?"

Hwangbo Ak hesitated for a moment, then met Il-mok's eyes with a serious expression.

"As far as I know, you haven't taken a wife yet, Left Guardian. Have you ever given marriage any thought?"

It was so far from anything Il-mok had expected that his first thought was that the man was joking. But Hwangbo Ak's expression told him otherwise.

Before coming to find Il-mok tonight, Hwangbo Ak had already had a long talk with his youngest daughter about this discussion.

He had laid out two choices for her: either choose Cult Leader Wi Jin-hak or Young Master Il-mok.

And the one his daughter had chosen was Il-mok, the Left Guardian.

Il-mok took a moment to think over how to respond before he finally spoke. "It's not that marriage hasn't crossed my mind. But this isn't the right time."

"Not the right time? What do you mean by that?"

"We're in the middle of a war. I don't want to make an irresponsible move like planning a wedding when none of us know if we'll even survive tomorrow.”

"But the Cult Leader married the daughter of the Zhuge Family, did he not?"

"The Cult Leader's situation is different. That marriage is as much about cementing an alliance as it is about anything else."

Hwangbo Ak let out a frustrated breath and steadied himself.

"Then would you not do the same for the sake of an alliance and marry into the Hwangbo Family?"

“If it’s truly for the sake of the alliance, wouldn't it make way more sense for your daughter to marry the Cult Leader instead?”

"..."

Il-mok asked it like he genuinely didn't understand, and Hwangbo Ak found himself at a complete loss for words.

He couldn't exactly blurt out, ‘I want to marry my daughter to you because you’re highly likely to be the next supreme ruler of the Cult, and I want to lock down my future with you early!’

 That would be political suicide.

Hwangbo Ak might look like a muscle-for-brain bear, but he was actually a shrewd politician inside.

He knew better than to make such a reckless gamble, especially during a war where stirring up internal power struggles could easily ruin their entire campaign.

He was still trying to figure out how to press his case when Il-mok beat him to it.

“Since I believe I have given a sufficient answer regarding marriage, I shall take my leave now.”

Il-mok gave a brief cupped fist salute and stepped out first.

The maids who had been waiting a short distance away came forward to meet him.

"Did things go well?" Hyeokryeon Seon-ah asked with obvious curiosity.

"Yeah. It was about some matters between the Hwangbo Family and our Divine Cult. Seems like it's sorted out for now."

He looked over at his maids one by one, before letting his gaze linger on Jin Hayeon.

‘Marriage, huh...’

In truth, he didn’t have to play verbal chess with Hwangbo Ak to reject him.

All he had to do was say there was already a woman he had in mind for after the war. But the words just wouldn't come out.

It wasn't because he was having second thoughts about his vow to Jin Hayeon.

‘Are you kidding me? There is no way in hell I’m going to trigger a classic death flag. Absolutely not!’

Blame it on his modern memories, but he knew exactly what happened to characters in movies and web novels who said things like:

“Once this war is over and I return home, I’m going to propose to her.”

The moment those cursed words crossed his lips, he was 100% convinced he’d die a cursed death in the very next battle.

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