I Lost (2)
In any case...
The group successfully entered the next chamber.
As far as Han Cheong-un knew, the hidden cavern of the Shadowless Divine Thief was rigged with three traps.
The first was the Illusion Killing Array.
The second was the mechanical trap formation.
And waiting for them after passing those two was...
"Jiangshi."
"Jiangshi?"
Tang Jin gasped in shock at Han Cheong-un's words.
In contrast...
"Ah, jiangshi," Baek Su-ah murmured.
"Yep, jiangshi," Han Cheong-un agreed.
The two of them were entirely too calm.
In fact, beyond mere composure, their voices carried a distinct note of relief.
Tang Jin frowned, looking between them. "Are you two going to be alright? Aren't you taking jiangshi a bit too lightly?"
Jiangshi.
Originally, they were not malevolent entities.
The origin of the art lay with a genius Daoist sorcerer who took pity on the soldiers who died tragic deaths on the northern front. He created the spell to return their bodies to their hometowns.
By raising them through the power of sorcery, he allowed them to walk back to their ancestral lands on their own, thereby soothing their restless spirits.
It had begun as an act of pure compassion.
However, things changed once it was discovered that these raised corpses were far stronger than they had been in life.
Countless Daoists and sorcerers began researching the art of corpse-refining to satisfy their own selfish desires.
They amplified the grudges of the deceased, instilling them with hatred and hostility toward the living, and even laced their bodies with deadly poisons.
Some went so far as to turn deceased martial arts masters into combat-ready jiangshi, preserving their formidable techniques.
Because these refined corpses were vastly more powerful and threatening than they had been in life, sorcerers specializing in the art once threw the Jianghu into utter chaos.
Eventually, the Wulin—both the Orthodox and Unorthodox factions alike—declared the art of jiangshi refinement to be a heretical, demonic practice. Anyone caught researching or creating them was branded a public enemy of the martial world.
That was how dangerous and powerful jiangshi were. And yet...
"Don't worry," Baek Su-ah said coolly. "There is probably no one in the world better suited to dealing with jiangshi than him."
"True enough," Han Cheong-un agreed, looking perfectly relaxed.
Tang Jin found their nonchalance both baffling and unsettling.
Are they... just bluffing?
But Han Cheong-un was hardly the type to put on empty bravado.
Tang Jin's doubts and worries were resolved the moment they stepped into the next room and the jiangshi began to pour out.
The chamber they arrived in was the largest stone hall they had encountered so far.
Twice the size of the room containing the mechanical traps, it was lined with dozens of stone coffins.
And as soon as the group stepped inside...
"Urrgh... uuuuugh..."
"Kh-kh-kh... krrr..."
Perhaps catching the scent of the living, the heavy stone lids began to slide open, and jiangshi rose one by one.
"Mmm..."
Tang Jin tensed. He had heard of jiangshi, but this was his first time seeing them in the flesh. And now that he was face-to-face with them...
They really are different. Completely different.
Just facing them sent a chill down his spine. The realization that he was confronting things that belonged to the realm of death, rather than living humans, triggered an instinctive revulsion and dread.
If even a trained martial artist felt this way, an ordinary person would likely collapse in terror at the mere sight of them.
"Fuuu..."
Tang Jin took a long, slow breath to steady his nerves and regulate his energy, only to feel a tug from behind.
"What are you doing? Come over here," Baek Su-ah said.
"Huh?"
"What do you mean, what am I doing?" Tang Jin asked, bewildered.
"Aren't we... supposed to fight?"
"...Ah."
Baek Su-ah suddenly remembered. Unlike herself and Han Cheong-un, Tang Jin had no memories of the past life.
She let out a soft sigh.
"Don't worry about it. We can just leave the jiangshi to him."
"What?"
"You'll see. Just step back."
As Baek Su-ah pulled Tang Jin back, Han Cheong-un stepped forward with a relaxed stride, his spear in hand.
"Alright, let's see if I've still got it."
The moment Han Cheong-un took a step forward...
"Grrr... krr..."
"Uuuu..."
The jiangshi flinched and began to retreat.
Seeing their reaction, Han Cheong-un remarked casually, "Good. At least it doesn't look like there's a controller pulling their strings from behind."
Ordinary jiangshi instinctively feared him. However, if a necromancer was actively controlling them, they would attack regardless. Therefore...
"What a relief. You guys are definitely wild jiangshi."
Against wild jiangshi, he was absolutely invincible.
As Han Cheong-un slowly advanced, spear in hand, the jiangshi reacted in a bizarre way.
"Grrr... krrr?!"
"Uuuuugh..."
They scattered in all directions, scrambling to get away from him.
Han Cheong-un gave chase, striking them down one by one.
"Don't make this tedious. Let's wrap this up quickly."
"Krrrwaaaaargh!"
Thwip!
Han Cheong-un's spear pierced cleanly through a jiangshi's back.
He hadn't even coated the blade in qi, yet his spear slid into the corpse as easily as if it were soft tofu.
The moment the blow landed, the jiangshi shrieked.
"Uuuuuurrrgh!"
It thrashed wildly, its body rapidly losing strength.
It was as if the curse and lingering grudges animating the corpse were draining away, leaving it completely powerless.
Han Cheong-un kept his spear pinned down until the jiangshi stopped moving entirely. Once it lay still, he pulled the weapon free.
"Next."
He moved on to the next one, repeating the process.
Watching from a distance, Tang Jin's jaw dropped.
"Aren't jiangshi supposed to be monsters driven by pure malice, fighting on even if their heads are cut off?" Tang Jin stammered.
"Normally, yes," Baek Su-ah replied.
"And I thought their skin was supposed to be tougher than iron, impervious to anything but the strikes of a high-level master..."
"Normally, yes."
"Then why is that happening?"
Tang Jin could hardly believe his eyes. The scene unfolding before him could only be described by one word.
Natural enemy.
That was the only fitting term.
The jiangshi were terrified of Han Cheong-un, fleeing in panic without even attempting to fight back, while Han Cheong-un casually hunted them down.
Seeing him ruthlessly dismantle them like this made the undead look almost pitiful.
"Haha! Let me see those backs, you bastards! Show me your backs!" Han Cheong-un laughed as he chased them down.
Are we sure we're the good guys here? Tang Jin wondered. Is this really a righteous deed?
But putting that aside...
"How is he doing that?"
"We don't know either," Baek Su-ah said.
"You don't know?"
"No. We suspect it has something to do with the strange ability the Leader... I mean, he acquired after what happened on the northern front."
"..."
"Evil things, corrupted things... none of them can exert any power against him."
"Is that so?"
"In the first place, the Annihilation Squad was formed during the Second Great War of Orthodox and Unorthodox Factions precisely because of his constitution."
The Second Great War of Orthodox and Unorthodox Factions.
That was the conflict where Gwiryeongdosa began to make his move in earnest. The Sado-palmun unleashed the jiangshi they had been secretly refining to attack the Orthodox faction.
The threat of these mass-deployed undead quickly pushed the Orthodox forces into a corner.
Iron Jiangshi and Poison Jiangshi were incredibly formidable, and even elder-level masters could not face Blood Jiangshi or Heavenly Demon Jiangshi alone. And yet...
Han Cheong-un was inexplicably strong against them.
The jiangshi fled from him in terror, and his strikes tore through their iron-hard flesh with ease.
His ability to effortlessly defeat the undead provided the Orthodox faction with a crucial opportunity to counterattack. Soon, calls grew to form a specialized vanguard unit centered around him.
Thus, the eleventh vanguard unit of the Wulin Alliance was born: the Annihilation Squad.
"We don't know the reason behind his constitution," Baek Su-ah continued. "But it is undeniable that he is their natural enemy."
"I see. That explains it..."
Tang Jin nodded. If he possessed such an absolute elemental advantage, his relaxed attitude made perfect sense. But then, something didn't add up.
"But I heard that when the Sect Leader was imprisoned in the dungeon, the final blow was dealt by a Heavenly Demon Jiangshi... How did that happen?"
"...What did you say?" Baek Su-ah asked, her voice dropping.
"Ah, I mean, I heard the one who finally killed the Sect Leader was a Heavenly Demon Jiangshi. Does his ability not work against a jiangshi of that caliber?"
"No, that's not what I'm asking."
Baek Su-ah turned a freezing gaze upon Tang Jin.
"He was imprisoned in a dungeon? What do you mean by that?"
"Huh? You didn't hear?"
"Hear what?"
Baek Su-ah was a regressor, just like Han Cheong-un. Because of this, Han Cheong-un hadn't felt the need to explain the past to her the way he had with Tang Jin. Which meant...
"Didn't he die after losing the final battle? Are you saying he was captured by the Sado-palmun?"
There was a truth she was entirely unaware of.
Tang Jin scratched his head. "The full story is long, but to put it briefly..."
He gave her a quick summary.
Han Cheong-un had won that battle.
However, he was ambushed by Cheongheo Jinin, who had become the Alliance Leader, and was subsequently locked away in the Wulin Alliance's deepest dungeon for over a decade.
And in his final moments, a mysterious Heavenly Demon Jiangshi had appeared and killed him.
That was the gist of what Tang Jin shared.
Baek Su-ah stared at him, her face blank with shock. "That... that makes no sense."
"That's what I was told."
"It's impossible! No matter how bad his relationship with the Alliance Leader was, an ambush? Do you know how many prominent figures of the Orthodox faction were there? Even our Mount Hua elders were among the Alliance's council!"
"..."
"And you're saying they all conspired to betray the Leader and lock him in a dungeon? Do you honestly think that makes sense?!"
Baek Su-ah protested fiercely.
Tang Jin let out a deep sigh at her outburst.
"To be honest, unlike you, I don't remember the past. I have no choice but to believe what the Sect Leader told me."
"..."
"But even I know one thing for certain."
"..."
"He is not the kind of person who would lie to deceive me."
"..."
"Am I wrong? Is my judgment of character so poor that I'm being fooled?"
Baek Su-ah's brow furrowed.
She knew it too.
She knew Tang Jin was right.
She was absolutely certain of Han Cheong-un's character.
He went through... something like that?
A shudder ran through her entire body.
He had saved the Orthodox Wulin.
He had saved the Jianghu.
He had saved the world.
And his reward was a horrific betrayal and years of hellish torment.
How... how could this even be explained?
How could he still want to fight after suffering such treatment?
Why? How was he capable of that?
Suddenly, a memory flashed through her mind.
"Apologizing now won't undo that miserable failure."
"I already sacrificed my life once for justice, following your orders. Isn't it shameless of you to ask for it a second time?"
"Get out. And never show your face in front of me again."
What in the world did I say to him...?
Her body began to tremble.
Her knees shook, and her body temperature plummeted.
She hadn't meant those words. It was a lie, a desperate attempt to push him away so she could remain by her master's side. But...
How must it have sounded to him?
A man who had been betrayed by the Wulin Alliance, endured a hellish imprisonment, and returned through the miracle of regression.
And right in front of him, the one companion who should have understood everything had denied and condemned his entire life.
How could I... how could I do that...
Nausea welled up in her throat.
She felt so disgusted and loathsome that she could barely stand it.
Tang Jin looked at her, his voice cold. "What's wrong? You didn't know?"
"..."
"Good for you, then. Since you spoke without knowing anything, you don't need to feel guilty."
"..."
"Even if those words completely invalidated the Sect Leader's entire life and achievements... and even if the one who said them was a companion he once trusted and relied on..."
"Ah... ah..."
"You didn't know."
"..."
"So it's fine, right?"
She couldn't breathe.
Every single one of Tang Jin's words was a dagger, carving her to pieces.
Perhaps it would have been better if she were selfish enough to feel no guilt, but...
"I... I..."
Baek Su-ah wasn't that kind of person. She was paralyzed by a crushing weight of guilt and self-loathing.
Just as she was about to break down...
"What are you guys doing?"
Han Cheong-un's voice reached her ears. He had already finished off all the jiangshi and walked back over.
Tang Jin replied calmly, "Just having a casual chat about how the world works."
Han Cheong-un looked at Baek Su-ah. Seeing her pale face, he let out a soft sigh.
"Doesn't look like it."
"..."
"What were you talking about?"
"Does it matter?" Tang Jin deflected. "Anyway, is everything cleared here?"
"If my memory serves me right, yes," Han Cheong-un said, shrugging.
He pointed toward an open doorway on the far side of the room, which had unlocked once the last jiangshi fell.
"Go on in."
"Me first?" Tang Jin asked.
"Yeah."
"Why?"
"Just because."
"..."
Tang Jin gave him a sour look, but Han Cheong-un merely stared back with a bright, persistent grin.
Ultimately, Tang Jin let out a quiet sigh and walked ahead. Once Tang Jin had passed through the doorway...
Tap.
Han Cheong-un tapped Baek Su-ah's shoulder.
Just resting his hand there, he could feel her trembling.
Han Cheong-un gave her a wry smile.
"Don't let it get to you."
"L-Leader... I..."
"I know. I know you didn't mean it."
"..."
"So don't worry about it."
Han Cheong-un smiled at her, telling her it was alright.
To Baek Su-ah, who was drowning in a hell of self-loathing, that smile and those words were a lifeline.
"Haah... haah..."
Slowly, she began to breathe again.
Her trembling subsided.
And from the depths of her heart, a certain emotion began to swell once more...
Ah... Again... In the end, it's happening again.
She thought she had suppressed these feelings.
Having been given a second chance, she believed she could put her past feelings behind her and live a completely new life. But...
"Let's go," Han Cheong-un said.
It was no use.
In the end, she had fallen right back into it.
"Yes, Young Master Han."