Chapter 138
Chapter 138
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 138
Chapter Title: The Depths of the Breeding Grounds
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How old was the breeding farm?
Peng Yeonhwa wasn't entirely sure. In the study of the deep underground breeding farm, there were ancient books worn from handling, reeking of mustiness. The ancient texts that recorded the farm's history had all been torn to shreds.
It was the work of her brother.
Peng Yeonhwa recalled eight years ago. Back when she was still just a child. A time when she had never suspected the darkness lurking in the Peng Clan, nor harbored any real doubts about their "mother."
She had been only twelve years old. Suddenly, Hohan had gone berserk and slaughtered everyone in the Peng Clan.
It was deep in the night. What woke Peng Yeonhwa, blissfully asleep and unaware of the world, was not screams, but the stench of blood.
Even now, she could vividly remember it. The screams that followed after she caught the smell of blood. Her brother's name, mixed in like a wail of despair.
Young as she was, Peng Yeonhwa instinctively knew what was happening that night.
It was unbelievable, yet real. Corpses littered the blood-soaked corridors. Peng Yeonhwa swallowed her vomit and ran. Undeniable reality lay before her eyes, but up to that moment, she couldn't bring herself to believe it.
She wanted clearer confirmation, prayed that her thoughts were wrong.
They weren't. In the patriarch's chambers, her father lay dead. Her brother—her beloved brother, called the Silver White Tiger. The pride of the Peng Clan, praised by the world—was chewing on their father's flesh, drenched in blood.
"Why?" she screamed. She wanted to flee, but instead rushed forward. Her father's face, smiling and telling her to sleep well just before bed, was torn to pieces, unrecognizable.
In that moment, had she truly wanted to kill her brother?
No. She had simply snapped. The young Peng Yeonhwa couldn't fully accept that horrific reality.
Rather than thinking of avenging by killing her brother, she simply didn't know what to do.
If she had charged at him intent on killing him...
The outcome wouldn't have changed. There was an insurmountable gap between the siblings. She was subdued in an instant.
And then she heard it.
"The Peng Clan has beast cages underground."
"I'm back."
Peng Yeonhwa murmured in a small voice.
The underground breeding farm was as vast as a training ground. It carried the inherent dampness of being underground, along with an indescribable ominousness and a foul stench that ventilation couldn't dispel.
It was empty now, but eight years ago, it hadn't been. When Peng Yeonhwa had been forcibly dragged here by her brother's hand. Just as he said, this underground was filled with beast cages.
Over centuries, the Peng Clan had refined breeds of superior beastkin. Among various beastkin, the ones the Peng Clan "selected" were tiger beastkin.
The Peng Clan's Five Tiger Swordsmanship mimicked the movements of tigers, and the emblem symbolizing the clan was also a tiger. As the saying "Mountain Heroes" implied, tigers were kings among beasts.
They were born hunters and predators, majestic and beautiful.
But that wasn't enough. Tiger beastkin were rare. There were too few to use as breeding stock.
Even after countless efforts to successfully mate them and produce superior beastkin, the results were unsatisfactory.
So the Peng Clan chose to refine the breed itself. It didn't matter if it took generations. This horrific breeding farm had endured for centuries for one sole purpose.
To create monsters.
Peng Yeonhwa looked around with dead eyes. Nothing remained here now. But eight years ago, this place teemed with beasts.
They were neither human nor beastkin. They were the culmination of the Peng Clan's forbidden research accumulated over centuries.
Beastkin with beastkin, beastkin with beasts, beastkin with humans, superior beastkin with humans, superior beastkin with beasts, superior beastkin with beastkin.
They mated in every conceivable way.
Sometimes siblings of the same generation, sometimes mothers with sons, fathers with daughters. Refining the species itself took centuries.
The ambition to create monsters had stripped away the moral compasses of the Peng Clan's researchers. They ignored blood ties or species.
"Was Peng Moonhyeok really our father?"
Pointing at the beasts howling in their cages, her brother had asked.
"Our real father might still be in there. Or he might have died long ago. And perhaps our mother is in there too."
Peng Yeonhwa couldn't hold back and vomited.
"Want to go look?"
Peng Yeonhwa pressed her lips tight and walked on. The iron-barred cages from eight years ago were gone now.
"Hwa. You're my little sister, and I've never doubted that. But look at this sight. Are we truly siblings?"
Please, brother.
Not even knowing what she was pleading for, Peng Yeonhwa sobbed. She prayed the reality before her was just a nightmare.
But the blood smell, the stench of beast musk and excrement—it was so overpowering it made her mind reel. The sounds of beasts gnawing at bars, clawing the floor, and howling were crystal clear.
She couldn't bear to believe that this horrific hell existed beneath the Peng Clan where she'd grown up.
"Even if our parents were different, I still see you as my sister. We—born like this—are undoubtedly siblings."
Her brother's voice sounded as gentle as ever.
After those words, her brother shattered the iron bars right before Peng Yeonhwa's eyes. He slaughtered all the rampaging beasts in front of her.
He had said their "real" parents might be among them, but there was no hesitation in his actions.
"These are beasts."
Not human, not beastkin. Nor had they become true monsters. They were half-formed beasts.
"Even after birthing us, they weren't satisfied. They wanted even greater monsters. If they'd been content with us, none of this would have happened."
Her brother muttered as if genuinely regretful. He grabbed the wrist of Peng Yeonhwa, who had collapsed in mental haze, and pulled her forward.
"Our history remains here. Do you want to see it?"
When they reached the study. That's what her brother asked. Peng Yeonhwa shook her head, gasping. She didn't want to know.
"I see."
Right before her eyes, the books in the study were shredded. Peng Yeonhwa watched with hollow eyes. The history of centuries of dedicated breeding vanished just like that.
"The Peng Clan's signature martial art is the Five Tiger Swordsmanship."
"But the art we learned isn't the Five Tiger Swordsmanship—it's the Fierce Tiger Swordsmanship. Just as the Peng Clan spent centuries creating us, the Fierce Tiger Swordsmanship was crafted over centuries for ones like us."
"Do you know how much effort went into perfecting it?"
Her brother was as kind as always. Patiently, step by step, without rushing, he explained to Peng Yeonhwa.
Things she never wanted to know. He broke them down simply, so his young sister could understand.
"There's a thing called gu poison. It's a method poison sects use to create the deadliest toxins, but it also refers to certain sorceries. The Fierce Tiger Swordsmanship is a martial art born from such gu."
The deepest part of the breeding farm.
There was a firmly sealed iron door. The moment she saw it, Peng Yeonhwa felt an indescribable terror and screamed.
She didn't know what lay behind that iron door, but something deep within her existence feared it profoundly.
"They locked the unsatisfactory, monster-like beasts in there. Then made them fight each other. In the end, the strongest, the best fighter survives. They tested breeding those survivors to produce monsters, and if it failed, back into the chamber they went."
That's how they toiled for centuries.
"Here."
Dragging the screaming Peng Yeonhwa to the iron door, her brother opened it.
"These are our founders."
Beyond the iron door, the stench and ominous aura surpassed anywhere else in the breeding farm.
The floor, walls, and ceiling were covered in clear marks of claws slashing, fists pounding, teeth gnashing.
In the center, countless "bones" lay tangled. Not just one or two. Bones of beasts that killed, devoured, and ultimately died.
"......Hoo."
Peng Yeonhwa steadied her ragged breathing. Every time she entered the breeding farm beneath the ancestral hall, it vividly revived the horrors of eight years ago.
The farm was now empty, devoid of corpses or any traces from back then, but Peng Yeonhwa's mind recreated that tragedy more vividly and horrifically than ever.
It had taken a long time after being left alone in the Peng Clan to even enter the breeding farm. She simply couldn't shake off the terror.
At the same time, her hatred for her brother grew, and her guilt as the sole survivor of the Peng Clan deepened.
To truly confront it. To coat her terror with hatred, at fifteen she had entered the breeding farm of her own will.
Amid vomiting and screams, her hatred sharpened.
But that iron door...
It still repulsed and horrified her. Her instincts feared it. Beyond that door were the survivors of the gu—her direct ancestors, her forebears.
"I have to go."
Peng Yeonhwa forced strength into her hesitant legs. She consciously steeled her mind against the paralyzing fear.
The Unshakable Heart Technique eased her terror. At the same time, a fierce longing drove her forward.
She had returned to this horrific place for a reason.
Peng Yeonhwa steadied her breath before the iron door. Then slowly opened it. An unpleasant, ominous energy still swirled inside. Lips pressed tight, she stepped in.
"Will you come with me?"
Eight years ago.
To that question, Peng Yeonhwa gave no answer. She merely glared at her brother with eyes full of hatred and despair.
"Then stay here."
"Stay and try to understand this place."
"Then maybe someday you can kill me."
"If revenge is what you want."
Peng Yeonhwa surveyed the inside of the iron door with sunken eyes. The traces etched densely into the walls. All those traces converged into the completed martial art: the Fierce Tiger Swordsmanship.
Peng Yeonhwa hadn't mastered the entirety of the Fierce Tiger Swordsmanship. She only knew its early stages.
It couldn't be helped. As Peng Yeonwoo and Peng Yeonhwa were born, the Fierce Tiger Swordsmanship was being finalized for them.
The latter stages of this horrific art were meant to be forged with new gu during the siblings' growth.
Even if not left as manuals. The latter stages lingered here as traces. She had known this for a few years, but back then, Peng Yeonhwa couldn't comprehend the Fierce Tiger Swordsmanship's latter stages. No—she couldn't comprehend them.
When she followed the wall traces with her eyes and moved her body accordingly. The deeply ingrained fear shattered her reason. And her hatred for her brother drove her instincts berserk.
"But now..."
Peng Yeonhwa slowly closed the iron door.
A precaution, in case she lost control and rampaged. It had happened several times before. Fortunately, the berserk didn't last long, but there was no guarantee this time.
In the pitch-black darkness, Peng Yeonhwa's eyes gleamed yellow. Slowly, she began performing the Fierce Tiger Swordsmanship in the dark. Past the forms she had mastered, she traced the wall etchings with her eyes.
Imagining how those traces were made, she moved her arms, legs, her entire body. At some point, her breathing grew rapid, her heart pounding as if to burst.
And then.
She saw—and heard—what she shouldn't.
Recalling the Unshakable Heart Technique, Peng Yeonhwa maintained her reason and gripped herself tight to avoid being swallowed by instinct and rampaging.
Before she knew it, her body had become a monster's. Not just hers.
The monster's eyes saw and felt the resentful spirits of those who had died as gu in this place.
"Illusions that don't exist."
Yet they had clearly existed.
The beasts that died over centuries inside this iron door were clawing the walls, killing each other. Peng Yeonhwa mimicked their movements in the midst.
"I..."
Her breathing grew even more ragged.
"I need this."
She craved power. She had felt it keenly last year—how woefully inadequate she was.
She had rampaged helplessly against Hohan's fangs, been powerless before the Poison Blood Demon, and failed to surpass Dang Seona at the Righteous Heaven Tournament.
The Poison Blood Demon's words resurfaced.
"It's been seven years since I spat blood. Seven years since that damn monster Hohan! To a brat like you!"
Recalling that shout. Peng Yeonhwa firmly anchored her body as it tried to escape reason.
"Hohan made the Poison Blood Demon spit blood seven years ago."
Peng Yeonhwa's eyes flashed.
She finally confronted what she had long avoided out of fear.
Before returning to the Heavenly Academy, she resolved to shut herself in here and become the gu.