Definitely strong non-con and dub-con vibes and scenes. Dom ML is like a total as*hole (he like hits the MC and not in the fun way) and MC is a slightly naive but proud masochistic Sub. MC is not a soft victim but.... there are moments when I am like run idiot you're gonna die lol. Also there's no safeword or any kind of true consent but MC loves it to some degree. However from what I can see there are no romancing of this treatment. Hopefully it becomes more sweet.

Decades ago, a particularly evil cult called the Blood Cult split off from the foremost demonic cult in that world. Seemingly defeated, it was actually working in secret, kidnapping, brainwashing, and/or sacrificing people and weakening or corrupting their potential enemies. They're now becoming more active and the ML, along with those working with him, have been trying to stop their operations and destroy the cult.

We're told in the ML's POV that the only way he got real s*xual satisfaction prior to the MC was by torturing his enemies and it's heavily implied that was also s*xual torture. He is also clearly experienced at the various types of "play" he does with the MC.

MC specifically makes an agreement with the ML to treat him "basely" aka continue what he had been doing aka torture him no matter how much he fights/protests. BUT there's absolutely no way for the MC to stop him, and even though he gets off on all of it we very much see from his POV that he DOES want it to stop at points, so there's no real consent to any of it. And also the MC is VERY naive and inexperienced at the point when they make that agreement and the sort of stuff the ML does to him is really f*cked up.

Early on there's little signs of possessiveness (for example, he dislikes the MC showing any attention to others for their looks or anything like that and the MC on his own tends to wear a veil when he's out to avoid attention and the ML is very on top of making sure he's in it), but towards the latter part of the first 100 chapters it really starts to come out.

He confines the MC at one point where he's the only one he gets to see (though that's technically for his own good) and thinks about doing it again at various moments. During the confinement, he controls everything the MC wears, eats, and when he eats, and the MC gets punished into submission over it. He continues to choose everything the MC wears after that, too, and seems to keep some control over his eating.

He punishes the MC for any damage he gets to his body without the ML's permission. He dislikes when others give the MC anything and even if they're good to have protective objects and stuff he doesn't let him keep them and forged a sword for the MC with his own hands.

For security purposes the MC requests that the ML basically puts the equivalent of a tracker on him so the ML can always find him and if the ML had creamed his pants at that moment it would not have been surprising. He's also constantly gnawing on the only mark left by others on the MC as if to cover it up with his own marks. And so on and so on.

We learn early on that the MC was ab*sed by his mother when he was a small child, his obsession with beauty is because she instilled it in him, and his phobia of bugs also comes from her. We then learn that the MC was chosen by the cult to be a sacrifice, and they like their sacrifices to be beautiful, which is why the obsession was instilled in him, and that the cult puts mind controlling bugs into parents so they will put mind controlling bugs into their children in order to raise them as those perfect sacrifices.

The mother actually didn't give him the bug, even though she marked him as a sacrifice. She apparently ate both bugs, something that should have killed her, and then seems to have given him the phobia of bugs on purpose presumably to make it harder for him to be given a mind control bug. The technique she gave him was from the cult, though, and makes him susceptible to the cult's other forms of mind control, but he can mostly resist that.

Both of them are "stars, " supposedly destined to be opponents. The ML is a mu*derous and violent star, which supposedly explains why he kills people in such horrific ways that even his allies tend to fear him, and last time the star appeared supposedly the one to kill him was the MC's star. Sometimes the ML seems to lose himself to the star's supposed influence, but the last time he did it the MC was there and the MC's instinctive submission seemed to appeal to him, so not sure what's going to happen there. I think it's also possible that the ML is one of the demons mentioned or possibly connected to a spirit animal or something, though, and the star thing is just convenient.

The original cult used symbolism of the sun and moon, specifically the full moon, but after getting kicked out the Blood Cult worships just the sun and uses symbols of things like crescent moons as "weaker" moons. All of the characters are mostly tied into SOME sort of moon symbolism, including the MC, of course, whose very nickname and sect include "moon" in them.

The one recurring character working with the ML is VERY CLEARLY a member of the original cult and probably very high up.

I'm on chapter 179 and we just had the prologue scene, not quite what I was expecting from the setup, but I'm glad it wasn't like how things ended or something.

Happy ending! Though there's some big angst during/around the plot climax.

ML was possessed by the dark god of the Blood Cult back when he was kidnapped as a kid and has been struggling with it more and more this whole time, not just the Star he started out as.

ML was resigning himself to giving in and "joining" the Blood Cult so he can kill off all of them, knowing there were many hidden members he'd never otherwise get to, and then, preferably, either die by MC's hands or in a mu*der/su*cide sort of deal. He "captures" and r*pes the MC during that period, pretending to be completely under the influence of the "god", so MC will hate him enough to kill him.

MC frees the ML from possession, but suffers a great deal and has a long recuperation period being taken care of by ML. ML lets him go finish other business, but makes it clear that MC belongs to him first and foremost. MC spends a year with his dying mother, returns to his sect for a bit, and then starts working for the Martial Arts Alliance and living in a house with the ML nearby. Both of them are basically known as heroes, though everyone still fears ML.

Having not accomplished anything of note he can attribute to himself, he's basically been banished by the Demon Cult and stays in the area instead of returning home. He possibly has something going on with Hwan-hong.

Raises spirit animals and plans to recreate her sect. Possibly has something going on with Wi Je-ho.

While cleared of any wrongdoing and having his teacher and fellow students freed from the mind control insects, he doesn't return to his sect permanently and instead becomes a traveling monk, as he has lived in the secular world too long.

Freed and mostly in a good state of mind, dies from the strain to her body after about two years and is buried next to her lover back at his sect despite him having been a Taoist cultivator.

• MC's parents/how they got together/how they got separated/how MC's mom ended up the way she was (a few chapters)
• Post-ending with MC getting amnesia all the way back to before the beginning of the novel, while tied to a bed... you can just guess how much enjoyment ML gets out of having him for the first time again lmao (most of the chapters)
• Two chapters of a sweet little dream that's sort of an "everyone lived/no one died" thing with MC as a child and his parents taking him to an event where he meets young ML and ML's mom.

Of course various types of torture, breath play (multple ways), blood play (a lot of licking MC's blood in particular), absolutely massive amounts of the MC being f*cked until unconscious and the ML still going, exhibitionism (though no one actually sees), piss play (just once, but also a ton of descriptions about bodily fluids all over the place), extreme penetration (with hentai style belly bulge from a d*ck sometimes), "feeding" liquid through the an*s (once in detail and another time off page, and threats to do it with food, too), lots of different drugs used and especially inside the an*s (like one that causes extreme itchiness), and at least two times when the ML r*pes the MC without the MC knowing his identity and two times where the MC thinks he's ACTUALLY being tortured..