Qimen Dunjia Sorcery (3)
Having pierced through Jegal Hyeok's Heaven and Earth Present Condition Formation amid the revenant horde, Seo Baek entered the passageway carved into the clearing.
The tunnel started off straight as an arrow, but as time wore on, it branched out like a tangled spiderweb.
A labyrinth of passages that mimicked a maze.
Yet Seo Baek remained unflustered.
He could precisely track his direction—north, south, east, or west—in his mind even as he moved.
He had two destinations in mind.
One was the lion statue exit.
Wang Yi Sam and Yu So Un were likely heading there along the voice conduit. Once above ground, he could link up with them.
The other was Jegal Hyeok's chamber.
The revenant lair lay beneath the Jegal Clan estate.
Such a secret hideaway was bound to connect to Jegal Hyeok's room via some entrance.
Which one first?
Seo Baek decided without hesitation.
Jegal Hyeok's chamber.
The lion statue lay due south, but Seo Baek veered toward where he guessed Jegal Hyeok's room would be.
Then trouble arose.
From the pitch-black tunnel came the sound of footsteps.
Not just footsteps—growls rumbled from bestial throats as well.
Grrrrowl...
The blood-starved cries of revenants.
For reasons unknown, the revenants were hunting Seo Baek.
But even this failed to rattle him.
I figured as much.
When he'd broken through the Heaven and Earth Present Condition Formation, Seo Baek had already anticipated Jegal Hyeok's next move.
Jegal Hyeok wouldn't know his exact position, but he'd guess he'd entered the tunnels.
Thus, he'd mobilized every revenant with sorcery to pursue him.
He might even have herded Seo Baek into the passages on purpose.
The tunnels were a tiger's maw, a trap laid for the unwary.
But it didn't matter.
Smoking out the tiger from its den and fighting it out front wasn't Seo Baek's style.
His plan: charge straight into the lair and end it.
Cast your spells and set your traps to your heart's content.
If no revenants lurked nearby, he'd have taunted Jegal Hyeok outright.
I'll dismantle every one.
The revenants' growls drew nearer.
Suddenly, one lunged from the darkness.
It shuffled in the clearing earlier, but now it thrashed its arms wildly through the air.
Seo Baek had invoked the Shika Heart Method, halting his breath—so Jegal Hyeok had unleashed sorcery to make it grab blindly.
The revenant growled from its throat and drooled like a starving wild dog.
A sight that would freeze any companion in terror, not just send them fleeing.
Yet Seo Baek advanced toward it.
Wang Yi Sam would've gaped, convinced his junior had finally lost his mind.
Whoosh.
Seo Baek slipped past the revenant's flailing arms with ease, diving into its embrace. Before it could seize him, he footworked sideways in a fluid slide.
Shhht.
Like a ghost, he passed right through and emerged behind it.
The footwork he'd employed was basic enough for any famed sect's master.
But the composure to charge a rotting revenant head-on? Even peak experts wouldn't dare mimic it lightly.
Seo Baek executed the perilous lightness skill effortlessly.
But his true target was something else.
Is this your scheme?
In his hand clutched a tattered, crumpled sheet of paper.
A talisman crafted by Jegal Hyeok, peeled from the revenant's chest moments ago.
Sure enough, the revenant froze briefly, then staggered back into the shadows.
Freed from the sorcery upon the talisman's removal, it had reverted to a mindless blood ghost.
My hunch was right.
Talismans to control revenants.
This confirmed Jegal Hyeok had delved into the Black Wolf Secret Book and weaponized it into talismans.
He'd noticed during the formation breach: every revenant bore one on its chest.
Yet he'd bided his time deliberately.
Stripping them in the clearing risked alerting Jegal Hyeok, who might then swarm them all at once.
In these narrow tunnels, however, revenants advanced single-file.
Even if spotted, encirclement by the horde was impossible—a flawless counter-strategy!
Success secured, Seo Baek hurled himself at the revenants without pause. As they shuffled in line, seeking him, he stripped their talismans one by one.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh.
Their wild arm-swings were mere wooden dummies to him.
In moments, he'd peeled talismans from over a dozen nearby.
Now freed blood ghosts tangled with talisman-bound ones, blocking paths in a chaotic snarl.
Your intentions are clearer than my own palm.
Having pierced and unraveled Jegal Hyeok's schemes, Seo Baek left the writhing mass behind and vanished into the gloom.
How far had he traveled?
The tangled passages simplified, branches fading until it stretched straight once more.
The end was near.
Seo Baek hastened silently, alert as ever.
He'd thwarted every trick, but one snag remained.
The Shika Heart Method's time limit.
How much time left?
He'd plummeted into the lair roughly half a shichen ago.
His master taught that in dire peril, one could sustain it for that span.
Beyond that: risk of qi deviation.
To peer through the abyss at revenants nonstop, his limit loomed.
Some margin, but not enough.
Straight tunnel—no ambush threats.
Yet he couldn't drop the method.
Who knew what sorcery Jegal Hyeok might unleash next, or what mechanisms stirred below?
He could hold breath idly for a cup of tea's time sans inner power.
But without neigong, only external arts against revenants—no Shika Sword Technique.
Hurry.
Long fallen underground, yet his mental map pinpointed his position flawlessly.
Soon, he slowed.
The imagined map placed Jegal Hyeok's chamber directly overhead.
And there: the narrow tunnel widened into a broad clearing.
I've arrived.
This was likely the lair's heart.
Seo Baek scanned left and right for the secret door to Jegal Hyeok's room.
Finding it was simple.
Sealed walls all around—save one narrow passage opposite.
Obviously the exit.
There.
Then a silhouette emerged smoothly from the tunnel.
Revenant? Or Jegal clansman?
As it stepped into view, its wretched form screamed revenant.
No living soul looked that ragged.
Matted, wild hair. Tattered robes beggars would shun. Leather shoes split to expose toes.
Its robe hung in shreds, half its torso bare.
Seo Baek waited for it to exit fully, planning to slip behind.
But its plodding approach stirred a memory.
Thud... thud... thud...
What...?
The doubt cleared as it fully emerged.
Its face was a dead ringer for someone.
Jegal Clan's second young master: Jegal Hyeok.
...!
First-time visitor to the clan, yet Seo Baek knew instantly.
A revenant mirroring Jegal Hyeok's features.
No—the second son's spitting image.
This disheveled revenant was Jegal Myeong-jae, the reclusive family head whose martial world whispers had gone silent.
So that's it.
Jegal Myeong-jae hadn't secluded for cultivation.
He'd become a revenant, doomed to wander the estate's depths.
Seo Baek had suspected from the start: no mere revenant den, but a vault for Jegal secrets.
Vindicated.
Imprisoned alive, then turned? Or confined below like the rest?
Doesn't matter.
Whether Jegal Hyeok betrayed kin or devoured the martial world, Seo Baek cared not.
Just another sin.
Jegal Hyeok's sole atonement: death.
Peel the talisman, then sever the neck.
Once head of a Five Great Clans powerhouse. A clean beheading befitted martial respect.
But as he lunged, something halted him—uncharacteristically.
...!
No ordinary talisman clung to Jegal Myeong-jae.
Talismans peeled off easily, dozens or hundreds.
This was indelible.
His torso crawled with tattooed talismans, red ink needle-etched skin-to-skin, no bare flesh spared.
An unpeelable, unburnable talisman.
The one Yu So Un had warned Wang Yi Sam about: a tattoo.
Paste a drawn talisman on a revenant, and sorcery activates.
Tattoo it directly into flesh?
No removal possible—eternal puppetry.
Yu So Un had foreseen Jegal Hyeok employing it, spotting the needles on his desk.
A layman might puzzle over sewing needles on a scholar's table.
But Yu So Un recognized tattoo needles instantly.
Tattooing demanded time and toil. Not many, but at least one revenant bore them, Jegal Hyeok's thrall.
Perhaps the strongest...
Wang Yi Sam, panting as he ran, asked Yu So Un,
"So how do we drop a tattooed revenant?"
"No special way. Sever the neck, eradicate the blood thread worm."
Beheading alone was tough—sorcery-bound, irremovable talisman? Worst of the worst!
Yet Wang Yi Sam grinned.
"That'll be a breeze."
"A breeze?"
"Yep. Talismans? Who cares? Beheading revenants is what the kid does best!"
Yu So Un cracked a rare smile at the bullseye retort.
True enough.
Traps or sorcery—slash through it all.
The true king's path of the martial world!
At last, the passage ended at a ceiling hatch to the surface.
Yu So Un and Wang Yi Sam pried open the lid-like door and ascended.