Chapter 163
Chapter 163
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 163
Chapter Title: Hundreds of Years Ago
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Hundreds of years ago.
This island, now the domain of the Black Forest, was home not only to the Annanai but to others as well.
Those guided here by the Divine Maiden and the Sea Dragon were in no different a plight from the Annanai. They keenly felt that there were no gods or Buddhas in this world, and that the will of heaven offered no protection to humanity.
That marked the beginning of the Blood Cult.
“We named it the Blood Cult because heaven sheds no blood. As demons rose to power, countless deaths blossomed across the world, and blood flowed in equal measure. To ensure that spilled blood would not be forgotten. And as a bitter self-mockery that we recognized heaven’s error through its ceaseless flow, we called ourselves the Blood Cult.”
On this island, cut off from the martial world, those led by the Divine Maiden set forth on the grand undertaking to right the warped heavenly principles through human benevolence.
No promise of when it might come to pass—even if it lay in a future reachable only after eternal eons. An arrangement to never forget, and one day achieve salvation through human strength rather than heaven’s grace.
That was the Chain.
“But after the Immovable Buddha sank into the ocean depths alongside the Sea Dragon for the sake of the Chain. That was when the fissures began. The greatest reason it was inevitable was that the Divine Maiden had vanished.”
“……Is that Divine Maiden the Eternal Divine Maiden?”
“I don’t know.”
The White Yak Witch narrowed her eyes.
“I know her only as the ‘Divine Maiden.’ Whether that Divine Maiden from hundreds of years ago is the Eternal Divine Maiden, I cannot say. Perhaps the Divine Maiden is the Eternal Divine Maiden.”
Could that be true? Wi Seongcheon wondered. The Eternal Divine Maiden was passed down generation after generation through the pure bloodline of the Jang Clan, the world’s sole oracle capable of foretelling the birth of Heavenly Humans.
In essence, she was the guide to the ‘heavenly principles’ that the Blood Cult denounced as flawed.
She stood in direct opposition to the Blood Cult’s Divine Maiden.
“Be that as it may. The early Blood Cult was united in purpose, pursuing the Chain for their grand undertaking and the complete eradication of demons. But once the Immovable Buddha and the Sea Dragon sank into the sea, and even their central pillar, the Divine Maiden, vanished, things started to falter.”
The legacy failed to carry on properly.
“The Blood Cult splintered. When? Why? Even I don’t know the details. What I do know is that the Heavenly Flower Sect broke away from the Blood Cult.”
“What is the Blood Gate?”
Wi Seongcheon forcibly steadied his reeling mind. Tales from so long ago refused to feel real.
The confusion rivaled what he’d felt upon first hearing his father was named Dokgo. The only reason he didn’t dismiss it as drivel was the experiences he himself had witnessed.
The Sea Dragon’s tomb on the ocean floor. The Annanai, transformed into a murloc, awaiting the Chain’s successor. The tombstone at the bottom of the Blood Palace pond.
“A sect that gained independence from the Blood Cult. It lacked power.”
The White Yak Witch chuckled lowly.
“It’s been nearly a century now. Over those long years, the Blood Cult’s legacy grew muddled, yet there were still those who sought to preserve its lineage. They named it the Blood Gate because, as time wore on, doubt crept into the doctrines. They believed the Chain could never truly be forged, that heaven’s will could not be overturned.”
The Blood Gate had not arisen on the island. Descendants gripped by skepticism toward the doctrines established the Blood Gate sect amid the unorthodox martial world. The White Yak Witch had been born into that Blood Gate.
“But they never severed ties with the Blood Cult. As the Blood Gate’s heir, I heard such tales from childhood onward. Should the successor who inherits the Chain—the apostle of the doctrine—appear, we must serve as lord and guardian protector.”
In that manner, the Blood Gate sought to uphold the Blood Cult’s lineage.
Yet the Blood Gate was annihilated.
“It happened while I was still a child. The assault came without warning, and the scant few Blood Gate disciples perished shielding me.”
“……Who annihilated the Blood Gate?”
“The Shura Blood Cult.”
The White Yak Witch bared her teeth in a grin.
“Though the Heavenly Flower Sect and Blood Gate branched from the Blood Cult, the Blood Cult itself did not vanish. It endured as a denomination on this island. But even in its persistence, the Blood Cult was far from unified.”
Lurking within the Blood Cult was the Shura Blood Cult.
“They preached that to correct the heavenly principles with human benevolence, one must become a Shura who discards such benevolence. And indeed, they committed acts that forsook it.”
“What acts?”
“You have them right beside you.”
The White Yak Witch chuckled. But Wi Seongcheon, failing to grasp her meaning, merely cocked his head.
“The Pang Clan’s Hoah and Howan.”
At those abrupt words, Wi Seongcheon’s face drained of color. A chill seeped into his chest as he clenched his fists tight.
“The breeding of beastkin hybrids the Pang Clan pursued across centuries. Where do you suppose a martial clan like the Pang Clan acquired the mastery of evil arts to bring that about?”
Back then, the Pang Clan yearned for superhumans to exalt their house.
They explored myriad paths to forge geniuses, settling on beastkin hybrids as the most promising.
Beastkin were born with physical prowess far surpassing humans, yet their constitutions barred them from martial arts.
A beastkin hybrid born of human and beastkin, however, could wield both transcendent flesh and martial prowess—precisely the superhumans the Pang Clan craved.
The issue lay in how beastkin hybrids rarely manifested as hoped.
Enter the alliance of Shura Blood Cult and Pang Clan. With Pang backing, the Shura Blood Cult gathered tiger beastkin in their stead.
In truth, the Shura Blood Cult ran the experiments. Thus, the Pang Clan’s inhuman trials on living subjects remained hidden from the world.
Over centuries, Howan and Hoah came into being.
“The covert Shura Blood Cult seized the Blood Cult at one point. They shattered the Conversion Stele safeguarded on this island. Then they hunted down the Blood Gate and wiped it out. The Heavenly Flower Sect got lucky. They had split from the Blood Cult ages prior, and no records of them lingered in the Blood Cult. Only the Blood Gate leaders knew of the Heavenly Flower Sect. Only my fathers.”
That account stirred inevitable doubts in Wi Seongcheon. The Heavenly Flower Sect deriving from the Blood Gate made sense, but why had no records of it survived even there.
“You’ve got that unconvinced look.”
“It’s difficult to fathom. The Blood Cult knew nothing of the Heavenly Flower Sect, yet the Blood Gate did—that much I can grasp. But why?”
“There must’ve been cause to purge the records upon the Heavenly Flower Sect’s departure.”
The White Yak Witch smirked.
“It’s beyond my knowledge. In any case, I survived the Blood Gate. I honed its martial arts. Once I’d built some confidence, I came to this island seeking vengeance, only to find it littered with corpses.”
There, the White Yak Witch.
“Little one. Do you believe in ghosts?”
He nearly answered no. But Wi Seongcheon recalled the Annanai, murloc-turned, who had imprinted her dying thoughts.
“……I believe they exist.”
“Correct. Ghosts do exist. I encountered one here on the island.”
The Blood Cult Lord.
His body lay in tatters, a gruesome ruin. Long dead, with only his spirit remaining, the ghost recounted the island’s saga to the White Yak Witch.
“It was inevitable in time. Unlike the Blood Cult, shut away prattling of the Chain, the Shura Blood Cult had long pursued ventures—like consorting with the Pang Clan. At last, they tired of the Blood Cult’s dithering and revolted.”
Countless cultists perished. The rebel Shura Blood Cult sought even to demolish the Blood Cult’s Conversion Stele, but the dying Lord embraced its shattered remnants and plunged into the pond.
“In death, he left a curse and haunted the island as a ghost. He bade me await the doctrine’s apostle over vengeance. To become one link in the Chain.”
That was the very tale the White Yak Witch had heard endlessly from her father in childhood.
A profound void settled over the White Yak Witch.
She had come for revenge, yet the Shura Blood Cult no longer dwelt here.
“The Blood Cult Lord’s words were no concern of mine. I sought retribution for the Blood Gate, not the Blood Cult.”
But the Shura Blood Cult eluded her.
“I needed an outlet for my rage.”
So she rampaged. The tempests the Black Demon King unleashed upon the unorthodox martial world furnished an ideal playground. Yet once she joined the Ten Heroes and earned her moniker of White Yak Witch.
The White Yak Witch took root on this island.
Uncertain what to do next. No—the path was clear, but from where to even begin?
Evidently, the Shura Blood Cult regretted failing to destroy the Conversion Stele. Spies from the Shura Blood Cult visited repeatedly. She slew them one by one at first, prying for their lair, but yielding no answers, only deepened her emptiness.
Killing them proved unnecessary anyway. Those spies who hurled themselves into the pond resurfaced nevermore, bound by the Blood Cult Lord’s curse.
“When the Black Demon King sought to reorganize the Black Forest, I suggested this island.”
A ploy to gauge the Shura Blood Cult’s reaction, yet no further spies came.
“The final contact was nine years back.”
Not to destroy the Conversion Stele.
“He sought to win me over. That’s when I learned of the ties between the Pang Clan and Shura Blood Cult.”
The Shura Blood Cult claimed Howan knew no gratitude for his making, only savagery. They urged setting aside old trifling grudges to chase the grand cause of world-overthrow together.
“I ripped off his limbs and cast him into the pond. That marked the end. Living too long sours everything to irritation.”
Thus.
The White Yak Witch did nothing. Truth be told, her grudge against the Shura Blood Cult had all but faded. She could stoke it anew if willed, but time’s passage was inexorable.
“Then rumors of you reached me.”
Heavenly Flower Sect.
A twinge of resentment stirred. The Blood Gate, born of the Blood Cult like them, had fallen to the Shura Blood Cult—why then did the Heavenly Flower Sect endure unscathed?
The White Yak Witch knew the Heavenly Flower Sect leaders were bound generationally by prohibitions curbing their actions.
Yet this upstart kid from the Heavenly Flower Sect, bandying recent rumors, acted unbound, at liberty.
“Hearing you’d come to the Black Forest, I waited. Harboring faint hopes of perhaps.”
“……Hopes?”
“That the Heavenly Flower Sect rumor-monger who burst forth so suddenly might be the doctrine’s apostle—drummed into my ears since girlhood.”
The White Yak Witch fell silent a moment, then laughed.
“It came to pass as hoped. You entered the pond and emerged alive, cleansing the curse of the fallen Blood Cult Lord. Thus, you are the doctrine’s apostle……. And I, as my fathers and the Lord’s spirit foretold, have become one link in the Chain.”
She chuckled, yet mirth never touched the White Yak Witch’s eyes.
“It sits ill with me.”
“……I can’t claim to grasp your full tale, White Yak Witch. I’ve heard nothing of the Blood Cult.”
“Yet you are factually the apostle guided by the Chain.”
“It wasn’t by choice.”
Was the North Sea Ice Palace tied to the Blood Cult too? The thought was inescapable. Its lord remained vanished. Palace aside, the lord surely linked to the Blood Cult—one of the ‘Chain’ the Annanai had named.
“Your intentions are irrelevant.”
The White Yak Witch murmured.
“Once zeal for vengeance waned. The Chain became my self-imposed fetter. A fine pretext besides. I’d wished never to confront it before my end, yet fate delivered you.”
“What do you seek from me?”
“Do as you will.”
The White Yak Witch’s lips quirked upward.
“You’ve brought fine diversion to my dreary existence. Thus, I’ll trail the Chain. Though I’ll not name you lord.”
Wi Seongcheon stood speechless, lips working soundlessly.