Chapter 117: Radiant Sword Tomb-3
Chapter 117: Radiant Sword Tomb-3
Meanwhile, Seonwoo Jin, who had been running for a long while after choosing the left path, sensed that the presence following him from behind was no longer detectable and slowed his pace.
He then whispered to Dang Yeo-eun.
"Lady Dang, I think they went the opposite way. There's no need to rush."
"Ah, yes."
The two, having stopped walking, could now afford to look around at their leisure.
The inside of the cave was a circular passageway built by stacking large bricks.
It appeared to have been constructed with great care, as the precisely interlocked bricks were connected with almost no gaps.
Furthermore, despite being deep inside a cave, the two could easily identify their surroundings with their own eyes.
This was because a faint green light was flowing throughout the cave.
Gazing at the green-glowing night luminous pearls embedded irregularly in the ceiling along the passageway, Dang Yeo-eun spoke with wonder.
"I've never seen so many night luminous pearls before. Even if I took all the night luminous pearls in the Tang Family, it wouldn't be this many, would it?"
To this, Seonwoo Jin answered with a bitter smile.
"So those are night luminous pearls. I've only heard of them, and this is the first time I've actually seen one. I heard they're incredibly expensive, and to use them instead of torches... it's a bit disheartening. Well, at least there's no need to light any torches."
He then carefully observed the arrangement of the night luminous pearls and the characters inscribed on the surrounding stones before speaking again.
"Lady Dang, doesn't it seem like the energy that's trying to invade our heart-soul bonds is coming from over there?"
"Huh? From those night luminous pearls?"
Upon hearing Seonwoo Jin's words, Dang Yeo-eun focused her mind for a moment and examined the energy that was relentlessly attempting to invade her heart-soul bond.
Then, just as Seonwoo Jin had said, she could feel that the energy was coming from the direction of the night luminous pearls and the characters inscribed around them.
She spoke with a surprised face.
"So it is! It's really coming from over there!"
Seonwoo Jin looked at the night luminous pearls embedded along the passageway stretching out ahead.
Perhaps this passageway itself was a gigantic formation designed to drive people mad.
He suddenly swallowed hard and murmured.
"What in the world did this Gwanggeom fellow want? Why would he make such a massive formation...?"
He could not understand why he had turned the place where he left his legacy relic into such an enormous trap.
And not even a trap to test one's skills, but one that drove people insane.
But there was no way to know the reason right now.
The two decided to keep advancing forward for the time being.
The passageway continued to look the same for a very long while.
A passage of the same shape, stretching endlessly ahead.
At first, they carefully scrutinized it for other traps, but besides the strange energy constantly trying to break through the wall of the Great Calm Mind Technique, no other traps appeared.
Dang Yeo-eun asked with a curious look.
"Why does the path only continue forward? The absence of other traps actually makes me more uneasy."
To that, Seonwoo Jin shook his head and answered.
"It doesn't seem like it's just forward."
"Pardon?"
"The path is curving ever so slightly to the side. Exactly as if it's drawing a large circle."
At those words, Dang Yeo-eun, who had examined the forward passageway closely, nodded and said.
"Oh, looking closely, it really is like that. It's slightly curved. But, does that have any great significance?"
At Dang Yeo-eun's question, Seonwoo Jin slightly furrowed his brow and answered.
"If this really is a circular passageway and it continues to connect in this way, then probably..."
At that moment, Seonwoo Jin could sense someone's presence fiercely approaching from far ahead.
Seonwoo Jin hurriedly spoke to Dang Yeo-eun via telepathic sound transmission.
- Lady Dang, someone is running from up ahead!
- Huh? From ahead? Who?
- Probably... Mak Woo-jeon. If this circular passage theory is correct.
- What?! What does that, ah!
Dang Yeo-eun understood Seonwoo Jin's meaning in an instant.
It meant that because the passageway was circular, even if they went in opposite directions, they would eventually meet.
So it seemed Mak Woo-jeon, who had run off in the opposite direction, had appeared ahead of them.
Even after understanding that fact, however, Dang Yeo-eun still had unanswered questions.
If Seonwoo Jin was right, didn't that mean the fork from earlier was simply the opposite direction of a circle and held no meaning at all?
If this passageway was just a path bored through in a circle, then why in the world had Gwanggeom made this place?
Seonwoo Jin was also thinking along similar lines.
But that wasn't what was important right now.
Seonwoo Jin pushed those thoughts aside for later and began to worry first about what to do now.
He quickly surveyed his surroundings and racked his brain.
'This isn't good. Even if Lady Dang and I combine our strength, we can't face Mak Woo-jeon head-on. Besides, seeing how he punched right through Ga Yoo-ak earlier, his madness state might have raised his martial prowess even higher. The environment is disadvantageous, too. It'll be hard to fight using my specialty, the illusion sword or movement techniques, in such a narrow passage.'
The situation was unfavorable.
Seonwoo Jin bit his lip and looked at Dang Yeo-eun.
If he were alone, he could at least hide using his stealth technique, but with Dang Yeo-eun, that too was impossible.
'There's no other choice.'
That was when it happened.
Suddenly, a massive tremor from up ahead shook the walls of the passageway and swept over the two of them.
Woooooong!
It was a colossal tremor that shook the cave as if an earthquake had struck.
"This is?!"
The huge tremor pushing through the walls — Seonwoo Jin was able to recognize what it was immediately.
"Oh no!"
Gritting his teeth, Seonwoo Jin hurriedly rushed at Dang Yeo-eun, covered her ears with both hands, and pulled her into his embrace.
It was an action taken in a split second, the moment the tremor struck.
Thereupon, Dang Yeo-eun's face, suddenly held in Seonwoo Jin's arms, turned bright red.
"Yo, young master?!"
But right at that moment, a massive tidal wave of sound assaulted them.
- Kraaaahhh!
It was a gigantic roar that resonated thunderously throughout the passageway.
The roar let out by Mak Woo-jeon had been amplified inside the cave and swept over Seonwoo Jin and Dang Yeo-eun like a storm.
"Aarghhh!"
Dang Yeo-eun had no choice but to scream at the waves of the massive sound attack that pounded violently against her body.
It was a formidable sound attack to the point where she could feel pain on her skin. Even so, she had managed to endure because Seonwoo Jin had covered her ears and shielded her body; if she had been caught off guard, all her eardrums would have burst.
The tidal wave of the sound attack that had engulfed them pounded their entire bodies for a brief moment before passing.
Then Dang Yeo-eun hurriedly pulled herself out of Seonwoo Jin's arms and looked at him.
If he had used his hands to cover her ears and wrapped his body around hers, didn't that mean Seonwoo Jin himself had taken that sound attack in a defenseless state?
Having endured that massive sound attack without even covering his own ears, there was no way he was unharmed.
"Young master!"
Dang Yeo-eun called out to him, her eyes brimming with tears.
But fortunately, the Seonwoo Jin reflected in Dang Yeo-eun's eyes appeared to be completely fine.
He looked a little pale, but he was still looking at Dang Yeo-eun with a smiling face.
Seonwoo Jin smiled gently and spoke to Dang Yeo-eun.
"Don't worry, Lady Dang. I blocked my ears with internal energy, and since I've trained in external arts, ordinary shocks don't affect me."
And he immediately continued in a hurried tone.
"More importantly, Mak Woo-jeon is coming. Judging by that sound attack just now, it seems certain that his madness state has elevated his martial prowess beyond what it was before. We must flee quickly."
At those words, Dang Yeo-eun nodded.
"Yes! I understand! Let's go quickly!"
But Seonwoo Jin shook his head and spoke again.
"No. We'll be too late if we flee together. His speed is faster than yours, Lady Dang, so he'll catch up soon. So you go on ahead first. I'll stall him for a bit and then flee."
To this, Dang Yeo-eun cried out as if it were unthinkable.
"We can't do that!"
But Seonwoo Jin smiled with a confident expression and reassured her.
"Don't worry, my lady. I'll run away immediately if it gets dangerous. You know my movement technique, don't you? He'll never be able to catch me."
"B-But!"
"Now, there's no time. First, run as fast as you can and get back to the place where we entered. I'll follow soon."
Just then, the sound of Mak Woo-jeon's footsteps running from afar began to reach the ears of Dang Yeo-eun, who had been about to say something again.
Tadatatadak!
Seonwoo Jin was right.
Now, there truly was no time.
"Go on! Quickly!"
Seonwoo Jin gently pushed her in the opposite direction.
Then Dang Yeo-eun, whose body drifted up and flew back, looked at Seonwoo Jin once more with tear-filled eyes and, leaving a single sentence behind, immediately began to run.
"Please, please be careful, young master!"
Seonwoo Jin watched Dang Yeo-eun's receding figure for a moment.
Then he coughed up the blood he had been holding back.
"Cough!"
Chwaaak!
Red blood, about a bowlful, spilled onto the cave floor.
"Urgh!"
His earlier claim to Dang Yeo-eun that he was completely fine had been a lie.
Seonwoo Jin's body was currently afflicted with internal injuries, to the point where he couldn't even move properly.
When the passageway had shaken earlier as if an earthquake had struck, he had known beforehand that a sound wave would soon wash over them. It was because he knew that sound travels faster through solid ground than through air.
That was why, the moment he felt the tremor coming through the cave wall, he had been able to realize that a huge sound would follow.
But for that very same reason, he had never imagined that his own body would be so vulnerable to the sound wave attack.
Who would have thought that his solidly trained body would instead transmit the vibration into his insides more easily?
So even though he had shielded her with his body, he had ended up sustaining greater damage than Dang Yeo-eun, who had not trained her body.
Seonwoo Jin smiled bitterly and muttered.
"Damn it, what do I do now?"
Tadatadadadak!
The sound of Mak Woo-jeon's running footsteps was getting closer and closer.
***
Mak Woo-jeon, whose vivid red glow in his eyes was clearly visible even under the faint green light, was running madly through the passageway.
Inside his head, no memories or rational judgment remained at all.
Only one thing remained vividly: his rage towards the Blue-Red Twin Swords, blazing and boiling fiercely.
But no matter how much he ran, he couldn't see those bastards.
Inside the heart of Mak Woo-jeon, who could not find them, only rage steadily accumulated.
Like a volcano just before eruption.
Some time later, after a long run without sight of the bastards, Mak Woo-jeon, ultimately unable to contain his fury, channeled all his martial power into the surging rage and released it as a roar.
"Kraaaahhh!"
As he stopped in place and howled like a lion, his roar surged through the passageway as a massive tidal wave.
And a moment later, it seemed something like a woman's scream reached the sharpened ears of Mak Woo-jeon.
It was a faint sound, as if coming from very far away, but Mak Woo-jeon could definitely hear it.
There was something up ahead.
"Grrrrrrh!"
Mak Woo-jeon snarled like a beast once more and began to sprint towards the front.
Like a predator chasing its prey, his gaze was focused solely forward.
He could not afford to lose them again.
At the same moment, Seonwoo Jin, who had been listening to the terrifying momentum of the approaching Mak Woo-jeon, finally clung to the ceiling like a spider.
Judging by the force of the charging man and the state of his own body, he had concluded that a direct confrontation would be reckless by any measure.
The only thing he could do was stealth.
But because it was a narrow and simple circular passageway, there was no suitable place to hide.
So Seonwoo Jin decided to cling right next to the stone where a night luminous pearl was embedded.
As the saying goes, the light doesn't reach the base of the lamp; right next to the light source, the only place with the slightest shadow in the confined passage, that was his sole hope.
'I hope this works.'
With an uneasy heart, Seonwoo Jin listened to the sound of Mak Woo-jeon drawing nearer and nearer.
Tadatadadada!
Though he was now confident in his own stealth technique, there was no guarantee it would work against a master with over ninety years of internal energy.
Besides, wasn't this environment far from suitable for stealth?
Even the slightest careful scrutiny from the man seemed like it would expose him easily.
And if that happened, it would likely be the end of him.
Tadatadadadak!
Now he could see the man's figure with his naked eyes.
The man was charging fiercely like a predator eyeing its prey, his red glare blazing.
Gulp!
And a moment later, the man shot past right below Seonwoo Jin's head.
Tudatadadadadak!
Seonwoo Jin let out a deep sigh of relief inwardly.
It seemed he hadn't been discovered, after all.
It was a relief.
He was just about to prepare his next move.
Suddenly, the man stopped running and came to an abrupt halt.
Screech!
Simultaneously, Seonwoo Jin's heart sank with a thud.
The man stood still in place and flared his nostrils.
"Sniff sniff!"
It was a posture as if he had smelled something.
Seeing that, Seonwoo Jin's mind went blank.
The smell of blood!
It seemed the man had detected the scent of the blood he'd coughed up earlier.
Like a beast, the man lowered his nose to the ground, sniffing, and turned his body back towards the rear.
It was the spot where he'd vomited blood earlier.
Seonwoo Jin's heart was pounding relentlessly as he watched this.
Then suddenly, the man raised his head.
It was a direction where, if he just lifted his head, his eyes might meet Seonwoo Jin's.
His heart felt like it was going to burst.
'Shit!'