Kidnapping
I crossed the lands of the unorthodox Murim with Ungyeol—Yiryeong’s junior sister.
She clearly took an immediate dislike to me. At every opportunity, she shot me a sharp, hostile glance, and unlike Yiryeong, who had matched her pace to mine, she even used lightness skill to race ahead.
Before long, the distance between us widened and widened, until I was left far behind, unable to keep up for lack of internal energy.
When I finally had to stop and lean against a tree to catch my breath, unable to go on, she came back and said, “Lady Yiryeong was not someone who’d ever be tied down by trash like you.”
Yiryeong. That was the name Ungyeol had used for her the last time.
“Yiryeong?” I asked. “You mean Yiryeong, right?”
“Yes. That was the name Sister used before she joined the Emei Sect.”
Ungyeol seemed to think for a moment, then went on, “If she told you that much, it means she saw something in you. Then prove you were worth stealing a year of Sister’s life.”
To her, was I just dead weight clinging to Yiryeong’s ankle?
Maybe that was true. As infuriating as it was, complaining here would only smear Yiryeong’s name.
“...Let’s go. We’ve got a long way to travel.”
There was no time to rest. The longer I stood still, the more Yiryeong’s choice would become meaningless.
After that, we really did keep moving without a break. Ungyeol did slow down a little, but she never waited for me, and I had no intention of asking for such consideration anyway.
That was how we passed through Guangxi and headed for Sichuan, where the Emei Sect stood—until she suddenly stopped and closed her eyes.
“Ungyeol?”
She didn’t answer, but not long after, a strange unease crept over me as well.
The mountains were too quiet.
Only then did Ungyeol open her eyes.
“Run. Don’t look back. As fast as you can.”
I did as she said, but after a short while I was blocked by a black wall that appeared ahead of me.
No, not a wall. I had only mistaken it for one because of its size. It was a human body.
The moment that thought struck me, I met its eyes.
Those red eyes looked utterly insane, yet the pressure it gave off was greater than Yiryeong’s.
I’d thought I’d grown a great deal over the year I spent with Yiryeong, but no matter what I did to this man, it felt like I wouldn’t even be able to leave a scratch.
As I froze under that overwhelming difference in power, a pure-white sword flashed past my side.
I knew that sword.
It had exactly the same form as the Emei Sect technique Yiryeong had once shown me.
Just before Ungyeol’s sword could pierce the man’s body, his inner energy surged outward, like something that had taken on the shape of disaster itself.
The black-red maelstrom that swept out made it hard to keep my senses.
“Cough... You bastard, you’re a demonic practitioner!”
As if suffering internal injuries, Ungyeol spat blood.
The first demonic art I had ever seen was hideous beyond belief. To think he could cripple a first-class warrior simply by releasing demonic energy.
From the center of the black storm, I saw a demon with a crimson glare oozing from its eyes.
The thing swung a fist at Ungyeol as she charged again. Its arm, which seemed to draw in demonic energy, distorted the space around it.
“...You won’t die. The child can’t be caught in this.”
Then there was a deafening boom, as though a thunderclap bomb had exploded, and my consciousness went hazy.
Ungyeol came to herself to the sound of rain pounding on her ears.
Where was the child?
The boy her senior sister had asked her to bring was nowhere in sight. Instead, only her own right arm—torn to pieces—rolled uselessly on the ground.
“No... this can’t be happening. Please...”
Moments later, a scream tore through the entire mountain.
Regaining her reason in the depths of despair, Ungyeol slowly took stock of the situation.
That demon—it didn’t seem to be at the Transcendence realm, but it was certainly no ordinary Peak expert. It was probably on the verge of Transcendence.
There were lunatics in Murim who occasionally practiced demonic arts, but there were no demonic practitioners who had reached the Peak realm or beyond. Every one of them had gone mad from demonic energy surging all the way into their marrow and died without ever crossing that wall.
But the people of the Sungmu Cult had found a way to cultivate demonic arts while keeping their sanity. Because they retained their reason, they could attain insight and rise to the Peak.
Thus, from Peak and above, it was common knowledge in Murim that such experts came from the Sungmu Cult.
Which meant the demonic practitioner who had attacked her could only signify one thing.
The worst possible scenario—one she didn’t even want to imagine.
After driving Murim to the brink of destruction, the demonic cult that had been silent for nearly a hundred years was beginning to move again.
I have to tell the Murim Alliance.
The man’s target had been the child Yiryeong had entrusted to her. Had there really been something special about him?
With no answer to be found no matter how long she thought, she focused on regulating her internal injuries.
She needed to inform them as fast as possible, but a letter couldn’t be trusted. She would have to go to Henan herself.
I opened my eyes in a vast sealed chamber.
“Where... am I?”
My last memory was collapsing from the aftermath of that absurd fist technique.
What had become of Ungyeol? I didn’t want to see Yiryeong sad, so I hoped she was still alive.
When I looked around, I saw hundreds of boys and girls, all muttering among themselves as if they were in the same situation as I was.
There had to be a reason they had kidnapped so many children.
But before I could think any further, a voice rang out.
“Begin.”
That single word carried so much internal energy that it felt as though my head would split just from hearing it. The voice was arrogant, as if to say that those unqualified had better not even think of listening.
When I looked up, there was definitely someone above us, but the chamber was too dark to make them out.
As I circulated my meager internal energy through my body to drive away the headache, an ominous force began to pour in from all directions.
By the time the chamber had been filled nearly to bursting with demonic energy, multiple voices overlapped and began chanting a mantra.
It was hard enough to breathe already because of the demonic energy; the more I listened, the more it felt as though my sanity was being torn out of my body.
The suffering was unbearable. I clamped my hands over my ears, but the sound only pounded harder through my entire body.
I wondered if I’d be able to escape this agony if I ripped my ears off, and I actually grabbed at them hard enough to draw blood.
Just as I was on the verge of going mad, a cool, refreshing breeze caressed me.
As I basked in that relief, I came to my senses at once, realizing that fresh air had no business existing in a chamber like this.
This wasn’t fresh air at all, but the demonic energy flooding the space from every direction. That black-red force was being drawn into every corner of my body.
It made no sense, but once the demonic energy entered me, it felt strangely comforting, as though I were being held in Yiryeong’s arms.
That addictive comfort felt wrong, so I rejected it—and the world turned upside down. With the dizzying sensation of falling toward the sky, I reached out to steady myself, yet my body remained firmly attached to the ground.
Once I settled into a cross-legged seat and quietly examined my body from within, I found that the acupuncture points that should have extended outward from the deepest part of me had been inverted.
My body was directly defying the natural order heaven had granted it.
The ominous force I had accepted with my whole body had not been welcomed, nor had I guided it, yet it still crawled along my twisted meridians and into my dantian.
I tried to resist with the internal energy I had built through Clear Lotus Art, but the endless flow of demonic energy simply devoured it all as though it were laughably insignificant, then coiled itself deep in my belly.
Just as I was trembling at that horrifying sense of wrongness, masked figures came in and dragged us out.
Outside the chamber, a number of caves branched out like an ant nest.
Fifty people to each of seven tunnels. As we were led along, the entrance behind us was soon sealed shut.
When I looked around, I saw the word Maryeongwan carved large into one of the walls.
To train the demonic.
“Listen up!”
An old man with a stooped back and a body supported by a cane shouted.
From his frail frame I felt almost nothing at all, yet his voice thundered through the entire cave.
“I can see that some of you have already caught on, but this is the demonic sect. Its proper name is the Sungmu Cult, though I don’t care what you call it.”
The old man struck the ground with his cane.
“For a long time, this cult has been watching you. We scattered our people across the Central Plains to search for talented ones. You should be proud! The fact that you’re here means you’ve been selected.”
So that was why the children were so calm even in a situation like this. They had only brought in the ones who could handle it—children with quick judgment and exceptional martial talent, despite their age.
“You remember the great ritual from just now, don’t you? None of you can ever go back to how things were before. Just looking at the demonic energy clinging to you, righteous and unorthodox sects alike will try to kill you on sight. So don’t waste time on pointless thoughts—find a way to survive here.”
That was impossible. I had to go back if I was going to keep my promise to Yiryeong.
There had to be a way. Right, there was no way there wasn’t some martial art for concealing demonic energy. And if necessary, I’d smash the dantian contaminated by demonic energy just to make it to her.
“If you grow into useful talent for this cult, we’ll grant you whatever you desire. I guarantee it—everyone will bow to you.”
That was it. If I reached a position like that, obtaining the martial art I needed would be nothing.
“As you may have noticed, there are three hundred more in the same situation as you outside this Maryeongwan. So go on—twist yourselves into knots if you like.”
The old man stopped walking.
“Ah, right. I nearly forgot to tell you something. The talent this cult needs is only one.”
He smiled.
He was smiling as he told us that everyone but one would die.
Watching the corners of his mouth curl upward as though this were all a delightful game, I thought of Yiryeong’s bright smile.
I had made a promise to her. We would meet again ten years later.
Everything else vanished from my mind.
If I couldn’t see Yiryeong again, then my life meant nothing anyway.
Yes. If they only wanted one person, I would become that one person.
If I had to, I’d kill every last one of the three hundred, or more.
I would return to Yiryeong, who was waiting for me, no matter what.
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