Salt of the Second Volume
The deep sea of Anryongdo beneath Jeonryong Palace in the Wijyeong Sea area of the Goryeok Realm.
Yeoyun, a Nascent Soul-level yao beast of mixed human and sea dragon descent, took a deep breath.
“Huu… damn it.”
Having already undergone the ordeal of burning as a yao beast, she could now shape her upper and lower body into fully human forms.
She trembled as she gazed at the sea dragon statue before her.
Her head was spinning.
She no longer counted how many times she had done this.
*But I have to.*
Yeoyun bit her lip tightly while remembering the village she had burned in her past life under the ghost sect’s command.
*Smack!*
She poured her own blood onto the sea dragon statue.
The statue absorbed her blood and life force.
A flame of light entered the eyes of the sea dragon statue.
*[Please state your request.]*
“More power…! Grant me power!”
*[Acknowledged.]*
Immediately after, a jet of crimson-black qi surged from the sea dragon statue and flowed into Yeoyun’s body.
She absorbed the crimson-black blood demon qi.
Her pupils turned pitch black, and her irises blazed crimson red.
Her realm, once at the initial stage of Nascent Soul, shot straight up to the middle stage.
*[Offer more blood sacrifice. I shall grant you even greater power.]*
“…I cannot do that.”
*[Acknowledged.]*
Yeoyun closed her eyes tightly.
She had been training in the Abyss Realm for a hundred years now, searching for a way to rescue her parents.
By offering blood and lifespan to the sea dragon statue, she had received powerful power and a surge in her realm.
Of course, the sea dragon statue had never desired only that.
“Blood sacrifice is not required. I shall fulfill your command. Please state your command.”
The sea dragon statue occasionally gave her missions.
Most were to destroy the Mugeuk Sect or ambush its key figures.
After completing such missions, the sea dragon statue would treat her as though she had offered blood sacrifice and bestow upon her greater power.
Yeoyun had never refused these missions, so she had completed them with joy and achieved rapid realm advances over the past hundred years.
*If I can rise just a little more in realm… I can break through the ghost spirits guarding Jeonryong Palace and rescue my parents who are laboring in the center!*
“Grant me a mission!”
And at that moment.
The sea dragon statue, which had been silent for a moment, erupted with red light.
A massive torrent of qi poured into Yeoyun’s body.
“Eh, eh?”
While she was still dazed, her realm was forcibly and wildly inflated.
*Kugugu-gugugu!*
Yeoyun’s realm, which had been at the middle stage of Nascent Soul, shot up all the way to the great completion stage.
The forced rise in realm caused her very Nascent Soul to tremble and her lifespan to be cut short, yet she laughed instead.
*Even this realm is enough…*
The day to rescue my parents is near!
And to her delight, a voice came from the sea dragon statue.
*[I have granted you a domain. Go at once to the Anryong Sea area and perform the technique I will teach you. In doing so, I shall bestow upon you the gift of a thousand-person army.]*
“T-thank you!”
Yeoyun prostrated herself fully before the sea dragon statue, then, intoxicated by the qi, staggered away toward the entrance leading up to the sea surface from Anryongdo.
*Clunk, clunk…*
*Ko-hak!*
Yeoyun coughed.
Blood mingled with her cough.
*Probably… I won’t live long.*
The price of a sudden, drastic rise in realm was the massive shortening of her lifespan.
*But it’s all right… As long as I can… rescue my parents…*
Her long-awaited goal was now before her.
She staggered, passed through a massive cave, and headed toward the entrance to the sea surface from Anryongdo.
The walls of the cave she had passed through were covered in murals.
A crimson-black giant was depicted fighting a dragon.
In the subsequent mural, the crimson-black giant had its head severed by an axe-like object, yet for some reason the dragon’s head was also severed at the same time.
The mural was absurdly illogical.
It was clear that the dragon had sliced the crimson-black giant’s neck with an axe, but suddenly the axe had pierced the dragon’s neck as well, and the dragon had died with its head severed while still on the ground.
Despite having had part of its body chopped off by the crimson-black giant, it had not died and had reached out to the dragon, placing something in its hand.
From the crimson-black giant had then emerged a small worm-like creature.
A black worm.
The black worm created another worm identical to itself and hurled it somewhere.
In a location depicting countless sea waves, the black worm that resembled it had taken root, scattering tiny fragments downward into the sea.
Beneath the sea lay countless stars, moons, suns, human fingers and thighs, the horns of some beast, liver, body parts, or even the heads of someone—everything was scattered there.
The mural ended there.
Yeoyun passed through the continuing cave and ascended to the sea surface.
* * *
“…In any case, your father will soon regain his senses.”
Yuk Yo’s words continued.
“He values himself so greatly. Moreover, he possesses a sane self outside, so if he merges the sane self outside with the self here, he will instantly recover his true identity.”
My face turned cold.
“…Just cut off its neck, right?”
Whether the thing regains its senses or not, if it stays close to the ground, I have more than enough resolve to slice its neck.
“I don’t know if that will work, though…”
“…What? You mean there’s some trick you’re hiding?”
“…Yes. I’m sorry, but this is all I know, so I can tell you no more.”
“It’s fine. I’ll do what I can. By the way, is it all right?”
“What is?”
“I will kill your father.”
Upon hearing those words, Yuk Yo’s expression turned bitter, then quickly hardened.
“Please kill him.”
“….”
“He betrayed… my brothers and sisters… my mother… this world. If I do not kill him, I would feel guilty for every life he has deceived or taken.”
“…I understand. So from today, I will seize Bongrae Kingdom using rough methods and seize the throne. I must seize the throne first to resist him. Is that all right?”
“If you do not kill the royal family, it is fine.”
“Understood.”
I nodded and turned to Seo Ran.
“Care for Yuk Yo.”
“Yes, for now follow me.”
Seo Ran took Yuk Yo and headed to the Nobu House—the best residence in Taeul Village.
I fell into thought.
*Yuk Rin… So he’s also learning Takhon Mancheon?*
I didn’t feel that way.
I hadn’t sensed the insidious, endless malice that had infected me during Seo Hyul’s Takhon Mancheon.
Originally, I hadn’t thought Yuk Rin would be capable of the kind of mental dissection torture that Seo Hyul was.
It was then that I thought about the connection between Yuk Rin and Seo Hyul.
“…Kya-aaah!!!”
A scream rang out.
“…?”
Startled, I rushed to Nobu Dae-gam’s house and saw a shocking scene.
A sea of blood!
The Nobu Dae-gam’s residence had become a sea of blood.
And in the residence, Yeon-wi sat in the main hall with an empty gaze, gripping a kitchen knife.
Blood dripped from the kitchen knife.
I looked at Yeon-wi and asked.
“…What is the meaning of this?”
“…Seo Eun-hyun.”
She said it in a hollow voice.
“…You have recovered your memories.”
“Yeah.”
I looked around the Nobu Dae-gam’s residence.
An unusually intense stench of blood came from the inner chambers.
In one corner, Yeon-jin sat with dazed eyes, unable to speak, overwhelmed by shock.
“So what is this farce?”
“Ah… If I stay here any longer, I might go mad in reality. So I adjusted the situation to be similar to reality.”
She looked at me with somber eyes and smiled thinly.
The Yeon-wi who had teased me with “Hehe~” while flirting with a single word of apology from Nobu Dae-gam, the woman of the Nobu house, was gone.
What stood here was a monster who had gouged out the eyes of a fiancé and piled up forty thousand years of resentment.
“It was a too-sweet dream. But humans cannot live in dreams. Neither can we. If we are lost in dreams, we only go mad.”
“…Even so, you didn’t have to go this far. Yeon-jin is still…”
“What is the problem? Yeon-jin will wake up soon enough. And you…”
A heavy weight settled in my chest as I heard Yeon-wi’s next words.
“…You want me to wake from my dream and then commit suicide in reality?”
“….”
I could not speak while gazing into Yeon-wi’s hollow eyes.
However, Yuk Yo, who had been behind me, burst into tears and roared.
“T-this is some kind of madness! These… these people are my citizens!”
Yeon-wi glanced at Yuk Yo as if she were spouting nonsense, and I spoke the truth to Yuk Yo in a heavy voice.
Then Yeon-wi spat out.
“Don’t spout nonsense. You’ve gone mad, you eel bitch… This world is nothing but a world inside an illusion formation. You have been brainwashed by your father.”
“No, no! These are my citizens! They are not just illusions! You are the ones who are illusions!”
“Don’t say crazy things. Is this real? That we are fake? Delusional! My forty thousand years! You say it’s fake!? Say one more word and I’ll tear out your tongue.”
Yeon-wi stood up, brandishing the kitchen knife.
Though she lacked any prayer technique, her forty thousand years of combat experience was more than enough to carry out what she had said.
Yeon-wi, who had previously been casually messing around beside us, was gone.
The essence of the monster before me was revealed.
I drew my sword at the spot and slashed at Yeon-wi’s kitchen knife.
*Ding!*
Her kitchen knife was sliced clean through and stuck in the wall.
“Enough!”
My killing intent neutralized hers.
However, Seo Ran’s words caused Yeon-wi’s eyes to roll back.
“P-please calm down. You could think both of us are real. For example… perhaps your other possibility…”
“…You are now…”
*Crack… crack…*
Blood vessels burst in Yeon-wi’s eyes.
“…You call this your other possibility…?”
She clenched her fists.
Her nails dug into her flesh, and blood flowed from her hands.
“The life I led in my other possibility… facing Heon-won, raising children normally, rising first in the morning to prepare his breakfast, managing servants, helping with his work, eating lunch together, sharing meals with my son, handing my son to Heon-won, welcoming visiting relatives, following Heon-won’s words and receiving occasional scolding while looking gloomy, laughing like a parasite when praised or apologized to, eating dinner heartily at night, lighting a warm fire, putting my son to bed, and then facing Heon-won again… is that my other possibility…?”
“….”
*Crack… crack…*
Yeon-wi gritted her teeth. Blood dripped from her gums.
“Yes. So if you call this world such a possibility, who summoned us here and created this world? Who called us here and showed us this possibility? Why me? Why more wretchedly? Don’t laugh… If this world is real… this world is the evil itself that perfectly mocks me! Say it again! Is this world an illusion or the malice that relentlessly pursues us?”
Yuk Yo tried to say something, and Yeon-wi rushed toward her as if she were about to gouge out her eyeballs.
“Stop it!!!”
I shouted loudly and swung my sword.
*Whoosh!*
The neck of the dragon was severed in one stroke.
I spat killing intent and declared.
“As the successor who inherited the secret art of Yang Su-jin, founder of Geumsincheonroemun, and the leader of the Mugeuk Sect, I order you, Yeon-wi, the military advisor of the Mugeuk Sect and disciple of Geumsincheonroemun, to take Yeon-jin outside and face the wall!”
My killing intent caused Yeon-wi to suppress hers and depart with a dazed expression, leading Yeon-jin, who seemed to have suffered a stroke, outside.
I told Yuk Yo as well.
“Yuk Yo, princess of Bongrae Kingdom, I order you as the yao king who holds you hostage. Do not provoke Yeon-wi. Do not force your thoughts upon her.”
“…Understood.”
I spoke with solemnity, quickly settled the situation, instructed Seo Ran to ensure Yeon-wi and Yuk Yo did not meet, and rushed urgently toward Jeon Myeong-hoon’s house.
*Yeon-wi having regained her consciousness… perhaps Jeon Myeong-hoon has as well.*
I wondered if Jeon Myeong-hoon was doing the same as Yeon-wi, and my feet moved swiftly.
The distant house of Jeon Myeong-hoon came into view.
An ominous premonition arose.
“Jeon Myeong-hoon!”
Inside the house, the stench of blood wafted out.