Chapter 270: Heaven-Reversing Ghost Soul Great Technique-1
Chapter 270: Heaven-Reversing Ghost Soul Great Technique-1
Diancang Mountain, Yunnan Province.
Hae Cheong-yeon, who had been continuing her training alone in that den of the Blood Cult, received a summons from the Blood Demon one dusky evening.
Hae Cheong-yeon asked Guyueumma Ji Gi-eum, a man whose presence could not be sensed at all even though he stood right before her eyes.
"He called for me?"
"Yes. He said there is something he absolutely wishes to show you, Sojeo."
Though his expression and even his face were impossible to see as it was drawn deep under the Blood Wind Robe, Ji Gi-eum's attitude was deeply reverent.
To an outsider, it would have seemed like a servant making a request of his master.
But because he had spoken as if earnestly advising her, Hae Cheong-yeon knew very well that it did not mean she could refuse.
She answered with an expressionless face.
"I understand. Let us go."
And she began to walk slowly.
It was an intentional move to stall for time, but Ji Gi-eum made no comment about it.
Hae Cheong-yeon suddenly asked him, though she could not feel his presence at all and he was surely behind her.
"What on earth is this thing he wants to show me? Do you happen to know, Guyueumma?"
A voice then came from behind where there was no presence at all.
It was a voice as if coming from the empty air.
"I dare not answer."
Hae Cheong-yeon silently kept walking.
But contrary to her expressionless face, the inside of her heart was in a very complicated state.
Though the Blood Demon had come to find her before, this was the first time he had summoned her separately like this.
'What's going on? Could it be he's already trying to execute that so-called Great Ritual?'
The thought arose that the reason for this summons might be to make the Yeokcheon Blood Demon possess her.
No, if it was not for that reason, no other reason came to mind.
Her lips were growing parched.
'What should I do?'
Hae Cheong-yeon's plan had been to heighten her martial prowess and escape from the Blood Cult's masses before the Great Ritual was enacted.
But as she could tell from watching Guyueumma, whom her senses could not even grasp, it was still impossible at her current level of skill.
If she attempted a clumsy escape now, it would only serve to heighten their wariness.
'Must I simply pray that it's not because of the Great Ritual, or that the Great Ritual fails?'
Hae Cheong-yeon clenched her molars tight behind an expressionless face.
This situation, where she had to blindly hope for luck because her own power fell short, was simply too pathetic.
A short while later, she arrived at the mid-slope of Diancang Mountain.
And immediately upon arriving there, she could not help but widen her eyes at the sight that struck them.
"Uuugh!"
A young girl who looked not yet ten years old was held in the Blood Demon's hand.
As if her acupoints were sealed, she could neither move her body nor speak, but her eyes alone were struggling with such terrible intensity.
The emotion brimming in those eyes was horrific terror.
But the Blood Demon did not care in the slightest what kind of look the child gave him.
He merely chanted an incantation under his breath and plunged one hand into the child's chest.
Puuk!
The child's eyes enlarged drastically as if they would pop out.
And soon, the light vanished from those eyes.
It was at the very moment the Blood Demon tore out the child's heart.
Puhwak!
The Blood Demon tossed the child's corpse aside, then let the blood flowing from the heart drip onto the altar placed before him as he continued muttering the incantation.
Around him, as if such acts had been repeated countless times, the corpses of more girls than one could count were scattered about.
It was a scene so terrible that it made her feel fortunate she had come slowly.
Suddenly, Hae Cheong-yeon's eyes shifted toward the altar placed before the Blood Demon.
A single person was lying on that altar.
Though their form was unidentifiable as they were entirely covered in blood and scraps of hearts, judging by their frame, they seemed to be a man.
Watching the ritual already in progress and the fleshly body of the man lying on the altar, Hae Cheong-yeon could draw a single conclusion.
'At the very least, it seems this is not a ritual for making the Yeokcheon Blood Demon possess me.'
And though the affair was not her own, she felt a fleeting moment of relief.
It was a very brief relief.
But the emotion that followed immediately after that relief was a deep disillusionment with herself.
'To feel relieved simply because it's not my own affair, even while looking at such a ghastly sight. You are truly the worst, Hae Cheong-yeon.'
Though she was not even possessed by the Yeokcheon Blood Demon yet, it already felt as if she was becoming a monster.
No, perhaps she had already become one.
A monster that sucked human blood to raise its internal energy...
Hae Cheong-yeon shook her head, shaking off the increasingly darkening thoughts, and looked back at the Blood Demon.
The Blood Demon, as if that child had been the last, stopped his incantation and turned to look at the people.
He opened his mouth with a beaming smile.
It was an expression that looked utterly serene, even though he had slaughtered dozens of young children moments before.
"Before I knew it, all the spectators have gathered. Today's affair concerns both the Jegal Advisor and Lady Hae, so I especially wanted to show you."
At his words, Hae Cheong-yeon, startled, looked to her side.
There, where her gaze had turned, Jegal Ji-gang was also looking at her with equally surprised eyes.
"Jegal... Uncle? How are you...?!"
"Cheong-yeon, you... were alive?"
She had known some people had already arrived, but she had never imagined they would be there for each other.
It was because the ritual the Blood Demon was performing was so intense.
Then, the Blood Demon spoke again to the two who were staring at each other with astonished expressions.
"This ritual I am conducting today is precisely the Reverse Heaven Soul Return Great Technique. It is the Great Ritual that will soon be performed upon Lady Hae with the materials you will gather, Jegal Advisor."
At those words, Hae Cheong-yeon and Jegal Ji-gang spoke to each other with even more shocked faces.
"Gather... materials?"
"You mean to perform this on you, Cheong-yeon?"
Hae Cheong-yeon could immediately grasp the meaning of the Blood Demon's words.
The materials clearly referred to the young children the Blood Demon had just killed.
Moreover, judging by the quantity of blood pooled like a swamp around the altar and the size of the hearts glimpsed here and there, it seemed those children were not the only materials.
But if the Blood Demon's words were true, that meant Jegal Ji-gang was the one who gathered all those things.
Hae Cheong-yeon spoke to Jegal Ji-gang, her voice laced with contempt.
"Jegal Uncle... no, you. I thought you had fallen to the bottom, but it turns out you had dug right into the dirt. How could you do such a thing..."
At that, Jegal Ji-gang turned his face away from her with an uncomfortable expression.
And he protested to the Blood Demon.
"This goes against the agreement. You, Blood Demon, clearly said you would eliminate that child..."
The Blood Demon then answered with a beaming smile.
"Do not worry. That is exactly what will happen. On that very day when you, Jegal Advisor, finish gathering all the materials."
They were deeply meaningful words.
At his words, Jegal Ji-gang swallowed hard, and Hae Cheong-yeon gritted her teeth.
The Blood Demon turned his gaze toward the man lying on the altar and continued speaking.
"This child lying here now was my unworthy disciple. Though he foolishly lost his life in a trivial matter. I intend to use the Reverse Heaven Soul Return Great Technique from now on to return this child's soul to his fleshly body. Since this child's caliber cannot compare to the Yeokcheon Blood Demon's, it was easy to gather the materials."
At those words, Jegal Ji-gang frowned and asked.
"So you are saying... you intend to resurrect someone who is dead?"
To his question, the Blood Demon gave a beaming smile.
"Indeed. It seems you, Jegal Advisor, find it as unbelievable as Lady Hae. Truthfully, I too still find it hard to believe. That is why I summoned you two. So that we may confirm it together."
Having said that, the Blood Demon turned his head again to gaze upon the corpse of Gu Yu-sang lying on the altar.
His body, slain near the Seonwoo family when he had once plotted to take Guizhou Castle, was currently refined into a Blood Demon Person.
So if his soul truly returned and he came back to life, he would be able to wield a power far greater than in the past.
Since a Blood Demon Person made from those at the initial stage of peak could face a transcendent peak, perhaps he might even gain the martial power of the Thirty-six Stars of the World Level.
"Dorak seula muko..."
The Blood Demon, concentrating his spirit, began to execute the remainder of the ritual.
And shortly after, at the very moment his incantation finally ended, the Blood Demon could feel that something had drastically changed.
'The air...'
The air surrounding him had suddenly become damp and heavy.
It was as if something was filling the vicinity in place of the air.
That was not all.
Bubble, bubble, bubble!
The Blood Demon shifted his gaze around the altar.
There, he could see the swamp of blood pooled around the altar boiling and bubbling.
Since no heat was felt at all, it did not seem the temperature had risen to cause the boiling.
It was without a doubt the effect of the Great Ritual.
"Hoooh."
With a cry of admiration, the Blood Demon's eyes flashed as he looked around.
His eyes were gleaming with excitement and anticipation.
The same was true for the people who had been watching around him and looking about with surprised eyes.
In particular, Hae Cheong-yeon's face, who had believed it impossible to resurrect the dead, had turned very pale.
'No way...'
It was that moment.
The blood that had been boiling began to suddenly creep up the sides of the altar, slowly crawling inch by inch.
It was a sight as if the blood that had been thinly flowing down was now defying gravity, possessing viscosity like living mud.
"Ooooh!"
At that astonishing sight, the people let out exclamations.
The blood that had climbed onto the altar finally reached Gu Yu-sang's corpse and began to envelop him.
Like a spider making a cocoon from its web, the viscous blood was thickly wrapping around him.
Those watching that sight had to unconsciously swallow hard.
It was a bizarre spectacle, something that would only come from a legend—and a very horrific one at that.
How much time passed?
Gu Yu-sang's body was now trapped within a thick cocoon of congealed blood.
A cocoon of ghastly form, created thickly by the viscous blood that had surrounded it.
And after a moment, that cocoon began to move.
No, it began to expand.
At the terrifyingly swelling shape of the cocoon, Hae Cheong-yeon had to unknowingly furrow her brow.
But the cocoon, which had been slowly swelling as if about to burst at any moment, slowly subsided again.
And the subsided cocoon expanded again.
Subsided and expanded, expanded and subsided again.
Someone who saw the sight murmured vacantly.
"That... could it be breathing?"
It was.
It was as if it were breathing.
As if it were truly alive, beating slowly like a heart, the cocoon itself was breathing.
The Blood Demon burst out in involuntary admiration.
"Ooooh!"
It was that moment.
The blood that had been viscously encasing Gu Yu-sang suddenly collapsed and streamed down.
It appeared as if the viscosity had vanished in an instant, returning to its original thin liquid state.
Then, Gu Yu-sang's fleshly body was naturally revealed from within the cocoon as the blood washed off.
His appearance was exactly the same as before.
But those who had been watching the scene with their nerves completely focused could realize that his appearance had changed from before.
Gu Yu-sang... was breathing.
The Blood Demon murmured vacantly.
"Yu-sang..."
It was that moment.
The blood-soaked body suddenly opened its eyes.
And roared with a voice brimming with hatred.
"Seonwoo Ji-in! You bastard!"
It was the moment Gu Yu-sang, who had died entangled in Seonwoo Jin's schemes, had returned from death.