Chapter 186: Infiltrating the Martial Emperor's Tomb-2
Chapter 186: Infiltrating the Martial Emperor's Tomb-2
The moment Seonwoo Jin's party entered the inner chamber, they looked around with horrified eyes.
Inside the massive stone chamber lay countless stone beds.
And upon them, nearly a hundred people lay as if dead.
That was right.
They lay as if they were dead.
Judging by the complete absence of any presence or breathing, they certainly appeared to be dead.
Yet they didn't look like corpses either.
Because there was not a single trace of decay on any of the people lying there.
Suddenly, the words the demon heads had spoken earlier flashed through Seonwoo Jin's mind.
'...The workshop?'
And in that instant, Seonwoo Jin realized the true nature of these figures.
'Good heavens! All of them... were being made into demons.'
That was right.
This place called the workshop was where demons were being manufactured.
These were all clearly people in the process of being turned into demons.
Seonwoo Jin looked around at the people again with horrified eyes.
All of them appeared to be martial artists—men and women, young and old alike—lying as if dead, utterly unaware of their own fates.
It was an unbearably gruesome situation.
But having thought that far, Seonwoo Jin resolved to pull himself together.
Now was the time to focus on the situation at hand.
He quickly sent a telepathic transmission to his comrades.
-Five demon heads are approaching from the rear. We will ambush them right beside the door and each take one out simultaneously. There are no other demon heads nearby, so focus on swift elimination rather than remaining silent.
At this, five people and one beast raised their thumbs, then scattered to the left, right, and above the stone chamber door, concealing themselves.
A moment later, the demon heads approached the stone chamber.
"See? There's nothing here. I told you we should just go."
"We've come all this way, we should at least check inside the workshop. But where have all the workers gone?"
They were just saying that as they stepped into the stone chamber. In that moment, something suddenly poured down from their left, right, and above their heads in an instant.
Shiiiiik!
"!"
"Uhk?!"
Shaaak! Puhwaak! Puuk! Kwajik! Udeudeuk!
When Seonwoo Jin's sword became a ray of light and drew a thin line across one man's throat, one demon head's skull was sent flying into the air—thwok!—by Bi Sa-yeong's blade as he shot past like a gale.
That was not all.
Simultaneously, Jeung Chil's throwing weapon pierced through a demon head's carotid artery, Seonwoo Jin's single fist crushed another's skull, and Ya Un-hyang's whip coiled around a throat like a serpent, shattering the cervical spine.
Every kill was far too swift and perfect.
Only the one killed by Ya Un-hyang's whip had even been able to let out a final death scream.
As they all fell, Seonwoo Jin raised his palm to halt the party for a moment, then focused his mind, preparing for any possible movement from other demon heads.
"Hold position."
But even when he concentrated, the surroundings were clear.
At least within his detection range, there was no movement whatsoever.
Only then did Seonwoo Jin let out a sigh of relief and speak quietly.
"Good work, everyone."
At his words, the others were able to release their own sighs of relief as well.
"Hoo, that was nerve-wracking."
"Aigu, what kind of hardship is this at my age."
"...My heart is pounding."
As Bi Sa-yeong, Jeung Chil, and Ya Un-hyang muttered as if drained of strength, only Seol Pung—who possessed senses similar to Seonwoo Jin's—merely smiled faintly, gazing at Seonwoo Jin as if in encouragement.
***
Seonwoo Jin and his party briefly examined the people lying on the stone beds.
They were able to confirm that these were definitely deceased.
The cold corpses had undergone some kind of treatment, lying there unrotten and looking as if they might rise at any moment.
Moreover, these were not the only corpses.
Seol Pung, who had been inspecting a corner of the stone chamber, suddenly called out to Seonwoo Jin.
"Jin, come and look at this."
What Seol Pung had discovered was a passageway leading underground.
And in that underground space, far more than inside the stone chamber—hundreds upon hundreds of corpses—were piled up, similarly treated to prevent decay.
They were likely all people reported to have died during the Emperor's Tomb Blood Incident.
"Good heavens...."
"They all seem to be martial artists, so it appears they are all corpses being prepared to become drink-demons or iron demons."
Since most liver-demons and owl-demons were made from the corpses of the Miao tribe, that seemed a reasonable deduction.
Thus, if all of them became iron demons, it meant that hundreds of iron demons could emerge in the future.
Even just imagining it was horrifying.
That was when it happened.
One of the party members looking around the stone chamber discovered the face of someone he knew among those corpses.
That party member was none other than Bi Sa-yeong.
Bi Sa-yeong suddenly stared at a corpse laid out on a stone bed and muttered, his face drained white.
"...M-Master?"
At that, the others also looked at him in shock.
Bi Sa-yeong was reaching out with a trembling hand toward a middle-aged man who lay as if sleeping.
He was Bi Sa-yeong's master.
The very master who had taken in Bi Sa-yeong, an orphan in his childhood, and raised him like a parent.
Although a long time had passed, he could recognize his master's face—unchanged in the slightest—at a single glance.
With his trembling hand, Bi Sa-yeong traced the cold, hardened face and body of his master, and in the end, he buried his head deeply into his master's chest.
His entire body shook pitifully.
The party watched him in silence with sympathetic eyes.
They could not afford to waste much time here, but no one could bring themselves to say that.
The first to speak at that moment was Ya Un-hyang.
She addressed Bi Sa-yeong.
"Sahyeong, we must go avenge our master."
At that, Bi Sa-yeong, who had buried his face in his master's chest, slowly raised his head.
His eyes were shot through with blood-red veins.
He looked at Seonwoo Jin with those reddened eyes and spoke.
"Jin, let's destroy this place. No matter what."
Seonwoo Jin nodded firmly and answered.
"Absolutely."
At his affirmation, Bi Sa-yeong gritted his teeth and rose to his feet.
"Then let's go. We have to rescue our comrades."
With resolute eyes, Bi Sa-yeong began to move, taking the lead toward the outside of the stone chamber once more.
It was time to enter the inner section of the Muhwangchong and rescue their comrades.
***
"Here, eat up."
The woman, Na Shin's Blood Demon, entered the stone chamber carrying food to give to Na Seo-yu and Sak Mu-heun.
Since their first meeting, she had been spending most of her time beside Na Seo-yu and Sak Mu-heun.
Whether it was because she felt a kinship, knowing they would soon share her own fate, or because she had originally possessed a kind nature, she tended to the two with great attentiveness and warmth.
Na Seo-yu greeted her with a dark expression.
"Thank you. We'll eat well."
"Thank me? We're friends."
After saying that, the woman placed food into the mouths of Na Seo-yu and Sak Mu-heun, who had once again shut his eyes tightly.
"I've always wondered, isn't it uncomfortable keeping your eyes shut so tightly like that?"
"It is fine. Less uncomfortable than keeping them open."
"How strange. You could just look, it seems rather foolish."
"If it bothers you, miss, there is also the option of putting on some clothes."
"Clothes? Ugh, too troublesome. And wouldn't it be unfair? All you have to do is open your eyes, but I'd have to go as far as making and wearing these things called clothes."
She continued the wordplay with Sak Mu-heun with an expression of delight.
From what he had observed so far, she had quite a playful personality, thoroughly enjoying this kind of verbal sparring with the two of them.
After briefly bickering with Sak Mu-heun, she suddenly spoke with a joyful smile.
"Ah! I wish Father Shi Ma would hurry back. Then I wouldn't just play with you in words, we could move together, too."
At her words, the faces of Na Seo-yu and Sak Mu-heun darkened even further.
It was because they knew full well that the Shi Ma she spoke of referred to the White-faced Corpse Demon Gu Woo-jeol, one of the Five Demons of the Blood Cult, and that her words meant that once he returned, he would promptly turn them into Blood Demon fighters just like her.
Sak Mu-heun abruptly spoke to her.
"We can still move together even now. If you would just release our pressure points, that is."
But she shook her head with a laugh, as if the idea was utterly absurd.
"Come on, I told you that's not allowed before. Father Hwanma already said you'd say that. He told me never to release them, and that if I did, you'd try to run away."
At times, the woman seemed to have an incredibly free-spirited and playful personality, yet she always displayed a contradictory side as well, adhering utterly and completely to the instructions of Hwanma or Shi Ma.
Na Seo-yu was in the process of guessing that this must be a mental restriction placed upon her.
Na Seo-yu had once asked her before if she wasn't curious about what kind of person she originally was in the past.
At that, she had seemed to think about it blankly for a moment, then suddenly writhed in pain as if her head was splitting open.
And shortly after, when the pain subsided, she had displayed a complete forgetting of Na Seo-yu's question itself.
Thus, it was undoubtedly a mental restriction.
Since that time, Na Seo-yu had felt too sorry for the woman who looked after them so attentively, and she had not had the heart to ask any more difficult questions.
But now, it seemed she could no longer afford that luxury.
Because if the White-faced Corpse Demon truly returned, it would be the end of everything.
Na Seo-yu steeled her resolve and broached the subject with her.
"My lady, the truth is, we don't want to become Blood Demon fighters like you."
Upon hearing that, her eyes widened and she asked back.
"Huh? Why not? Don't you want to play with me?"
"No. That's not it, it's because we don't want to end up like you. Just look at yourself. Think about your white energetic force. You were never a cultist. Everyone who learns the Blood Cult's martial arts ends up using red energetic force."
The woman repeated Na Seo-yu's words in a daze.
"Red... colored energetic force?"
"Yes. Your energetic force is a brilliant white. That's proof you were once an orthodox faction member like us. An orthodox faction member fighting against the Blood Demon. Think carefully. You weren't originally this kind of person."
At that, she, who had worn a blank expression for a moment, suddenly clutched her head.
"Aaaargh! My head!"
It was the same reaction as last time.
But even while watching her agonized state, Na Seo-yu did not stop this time.
She continued to press her.
"This right now, too. See, your head hurts when I ask about your past, doesn't it? All of this is unquestionably the mental restriction they placed on you. Think carefully. You were originally an orthodox faction member. Not a tool of the Blood Demon, but an orthodox faction member who fought against the Blood Demon. Please, try to remember."
"Aaaaaargh!"
Na Seo-yu was hoping that the continued questioning, by causing her such pain, might ultimately shatter the restriction.
But the situation did not flow as she wished.
"Aaaaaaaargh!"
It was because the woman, who had been clutching her head and screaming, could bear it no longer and bolted out of the stone chamber.
It was a terrifying speed nearly matching that of a transcendent peak master.
"So...!"
Na Seo-yu could no longer find her voice at the sight of the woman's form vanishing in an instant.
Silence immediately descended.
A moment later, Na Seo-yu asked weakly.
"Brother Sak, was I wrong to do that?"
At that, Sak Mu-heun let out a sigh and answered.
"No. We're in a situation where we must try anything, so you did well. It's just that... thanks to this, the fence that had been protecting us all this time has disappeared."
"........"
She could not say a single word in response to his statement.
Na Seo-yu's very reason for feeling so uneasy was precisely that.
All this time, that Blood Demon woman had always stuck right by their side and prevented other demon heads from approaching.
Because of that, the two of them had been able to avoid any incidents until now.
But the action Na Seo-yu had just taken had resulted in her tearing that fence down with her own hands.
Na Seo-yu prayed fervently that the woman would return before anything untoward happened.
'Please...'
But the world did not flow at all according to Na Seo-yu's wishes.
Voices came drifting in from outside the stone chamber.
"Did you see that bitch just pass by?"
"I saw her. She was clutching her head like a madwoman and running towards Lord Hwanma. I wonder what happened?"
"Hehehehe, of course something happened. Something like the wench inside the stone chamber being left alone, that's what."
"Heuhuhuhu, indeed."
Na Seo-yu's heart dropped with a lurch.
It was the voices of those demon heads from before.
The demon heads who had seemed to be at the transcendent peak had come back to the front of the stone chamber.
'No! Please!'
Na Seo-yu prayed desperately that they would not come in.
But contrary to her desperate wish, they came right into the stone chamber.
Then they spoke to Na Seo-yu.
"Pretty thing, have you been well all this time?"
"Heuhuhuhuh! Gu-ga and Ju-ga have no luck. To be out in the middle section at a time like this, of all times. Heuhuhuhuh!"
"Which makes it all the better. We can enjoy ourselves more, can't we? Heuhuhuh!"
At their greedy voices, Na Seo-yu forced out words filled with despair.
"No..."
***
At the same moment, Seonwoo Jin's group was once again in the stone chamber, cautiously passing through the long, straight corridor they had failed to cross earlier.
'So far, I haven't sensed any distinct presences. Now, if I take a right at that four-way passage, then left again, and then right again...'
If No Je-eok's information was correct, there was an entrance there that would allow one into the inner section.
Of course, he had also mentioned that there were guards stationed at the entrance to the inner section as well.
But there was no choice there.
Seonwoo Jin was already resolved that if they got that far, he would have no choice but to cause a commotion.
'If I could lure the guards away, that would be best, but if that's impossible, then by handling them swiftly...'
Thinking this, Seonwoo Jin quickly exited the straight corridor and turned right.
And it was just as he prepared to turn left again at a crossroads not far from there.
He abruptly halted his steps.
Then he immediately raised his palm, stopping his companions.
His urgent telepathic transmission reached his comrades.
- Halt! There are six peak-level masters and... two transcendent peak masters at what appears to be the entrance to the inner section.
At that transmission, the companions could only wear expressions of utter shock.
They had finally encountered transcendent peak masters.
And, of all places, it was right at the sole entrance leading into the inner section.
With tense expressions, they awaited Seonwoo Jin's instructions.
But Seonwoo Jin was just as flustered as they were.
'Damn it, it'll be impossible to handle transcendent peak masters silently... What should I do?'
It was undeniably a difficult situation.