Myriad Immortals Return to Origin
We were supposed to stay in the rear, but with our numbers cut in half, even the outer disciples had no choice but to be thrown onto the front lines.
And for two days straight, we fought the Ghost Soul Sect.
Today started at dawn again.
The Ghost Soul Sect pushed forward with spirits leading the charge. Their numbers had swollen since the day before. Two days of fighting had taught me one thing: the Ghost Soul Sect thrived on attrition. Kill one spirit and another took its place; they even dragged in the souls of our own dead. The longer it dragged on, the worse our odds became.
If this goes on forever, we’re the ones who lose.
At least the talismans issued by Taeheo Temple gave us some breathing room against the spirits. We could barely channel spiritual energy properly, but slap a talisman on a weapon and our strikes actually landed.
And today, Seo Ran finally stepped in herself after watching from behind the lines.
No warning, no announcement. One moment the middle of the front was empty; the next, a flash of purple hair appeared. She lifted one hand, and every spirit inside her radius simply shattered.
So that’s Gold Core level.
The thought that I might reach that realm someday made my heart hammer.
On the Ghost Soul side, the sorcerers frantically poured out more spirits.
Seo Ran’s lips moved, murmuring something under her breath, and the air itself changed. Pressure crashed down like a physical weight.
Is she casting a technique?
Every spirit froze at once. They thrashed, wailed, then shrank in place and winked out one by one. The spirits were extinguishing themselves.
At Seo Ran’s signal, the inner disciples centered on Wang O took the vanguard, outer disciples backing them up. Off to the side, Taeheo Temple’s Taoists in fluttering white robes unleashed their own arts.
I cut down a Ghost Soul fighter who charged me like an idiot.
Lucky for us, we’re only facing their weaklings.
These guys sat at the bottom of the Ghost Soul Sect’s hierarchy; almost none of them had properly cultivated spiritual energy. Roughly the same level as the Poison Cave trials.
Beside me, Dan Ha swung her sword and shouted,
“So Ryeong, get it together!”
“Uuu… I’m scared… I’m gonna die… I’m gonna die…”
I glanced at So Ryeong trembling next to us and thought,
That girl is seriously useless for anything except that fuckable body of hers.
She’d been like this since day one of the fighting. Naturally she was a liability, so Wang O had sent her to the rear with an irritated look on his face—until today, when she got one last chance.
If she can’t fight properly this time either, she’ll be kicked out of the Red Blood Sect… or just die.
The Red Blood Sect wasn’t merciful enough to coddle the weak. In a place where people grew stronger through blood, anyone who couldn’t fight was dead weight.
Another Ghost Soul bastard came sprinting straight at us.
“Die!”
A worm who couldn’t even control a single spirit had plastered himself with talismans and was making a suicide charge. Not that the “suicide” part was all that dangerous. All he had in his hands were a couple of low-grade Blaze Talismans; just keep an eye on those and he was fine.
What a pain.
I was about to step in and cut him down when something blurred past my side.
So Ryeong.
She kicked the charging man’s legs out from under him, scrambled on top of him, and—with a cold little smile—ripped his arm clean off so he couldn’t detonate anything.
“Die die die…!”
Her eyes had lost all focus. This wasn’t the timid, cowardly girl I knew.
“Has she completely lost it?”
“S-So Ryeong?”
She snapped the man’s neck. Even after he was dead she didn’t stop—clawing at his face with her nails, bared teeth lunging for his throat.
Dan Ha grabbed her arm in a hurry.
“So Ryeong, calm down!”
“You die too!”
The second So Ryeong saw Dan Ha she attacked. A dagger had somehow appeared in her hand; it was seriously dangerous.
I seized Dan Ha’s collar and yanked her back.
So Ryeong’s dagger sliced empty air. Her eyes had fully rolled back.
“Die… I have to kill them all…!”
I stared at her and muttered in disbelief,
“This bitch… she didn’t survive by hiding after all.”
Come to think of it, no matter how freely the Red Blood Sect scooped people up, they would never take in a pure coward who couldn’t fight at all.
Why she was going berserk right this second, though, I had no idea.
“Sniff sniff.”
She suddenly started snuffling like a dog and came right up to me. Then she shoved her face toward my crotch.
“What’s gotten into So Ryeong all of a sudden?”
“Hell if I know.”
Enemies were pouring in from every direction and the whole situation felt one second away from going completely sideways; my nerves were already frayed raw.
Please let my gut feeling be wrong…
First priority was calming this crazy little brat down.
“Sniff sniff… delicious smell…”
“Kid, I don’t know why you’re sniffing there, but how about coming back to your senses already?”
She’d always hated being called a kid. The word must have set her off, because she lunged at me.
The dagger stabbed in fast. She was better at hand-to-hand than I’d expected.
I twisted aside and caught her wrist.
“Eek!”
So Ryeong screeched and clawed for my face with her free hand. I snatched that one too, twisted both arms behind her back, and slammed her face-first into the dirt.
“Let gooo…!”
“Shut up, you little shit.”
Thud.
I gave the back of her neck a light chop the way they do in movies. Luckily her body went limp.
“Lee Seo-jun… what do we do now?”
Dan Ha looked down at the unconscious So Ryeong. Her question carried layers: what to do with So Ryeong, how to get out of this mess, and even the rebellion I’d told her about earlier.
“You remember what I said?”
“…Is a rebellion really going to break out?”
“I’d rather it didn’t either, but you never know. If things go south, take So Ryeong and run straight to the place I told you about.”
“And you?”
I had my own business to handle, but she didn’t need to know the details.
“I’ll follow right after.”
“…Okay.”
Farther off I could see Sa Yeo-myeong, Sect Leader of the Ghost Soul Sect, facing off against Seo Ran. Once those two really went at it, everything within dozens of jang would get wiped out.
Time to pull back.
More Ghost Soul fighters were already swarming toward us.
So Ryeong was out cold. Dan Ha alone couldn’t protect her and fight at the same time.
“Dan Ha.”
“Yeah.”
“From now on, take So Ryeong and quietly slip to the rear.”
“What about you?”
“If we all pull out at once, the Ghost Soul Sect will chase us immediately. Someone has to stay and hold them off. Might as well be me.”
Dan Ha stared at me for a second, then closed her mouth. She didn’t ask anything else; she just started hoisting So Ryeong onto her back.
“I’ll just drop So Ryeong somewhere safe and come right back, so be careful.”
With that she turned and left.
I nicked my fingertip with the sword. Blood welled up and ran across the back of my hand.
These ones first.
I flicked the blood across the ground in front of the three Ghost Soul fighters charging me.
Then I stood still and waited for them to get close.
“You’ve got some nerve thinking you can take us alone!”
“I’ll harvest your soul for you!”
They possessed themselves with spirits and rushed in. The moment their feet hit the blood I’d scattered, I activated Blood Art.
The blood on the ground linked to the blood still dripping from my finger like threads of silk; crimson blood-silk instantly coiled around their ankles.
“W-what the hell is this…!”
Their feet locked and their charge stuttered. I didn’t waste the opening.
My iron sword flashed toward the nearest man’s throat.
“Guh…!”
While the other two reeled, I finished the next one just as fast.
“Aaaagh!”
The last one thrashed trying to snap the blood-silk, lost his balance, and pitched forward. I stepped on his back and took his head.
Blood Art is more useful than I thought.
Unfortunately it had burned through half the spiritual energy in my dantian in a heartbeat. Expanding this premature-ejaculation-level reserve of energy was priority one.
“Not bad for a greenhorn.”
A voice suddenly spoke behind me. I spun and swung, but only cut empty air.
“Quick on the uptake, too.”
Standing behind me was a middle-aged man in a black martial robe that was half shredded. A spirit bound tightly in iron chains floated at his side.
I’m fucked.
One look told me he was way out of my league. I edged backward one careful step at a time.
“Strong survival instincts as well.”
The man smiled lazily and took a single step closer.
Can I even run…?
His gaze raked over my entire body. Greed swam in those eyes—the look of a predator sizing up prey.
I flicked the blood from my blade and muttered,
“…Today’s really gonna suck.”
“No need to worry. From this moment on, you won’t feel any fatigue at all.”
He drew a black bone tablet hung with a little bell from his sleeve and slowly shook it, giving an order to the spirit beside him.
“Devour that one’s soul.”
Kieeeeeek!
The spirit dragged its chains and lunged. Its form was hazy, but the ghostly energy pouring off it made my skin crawl.
I rolled sideways on pure instinct.
A huge, jagged maw snapped shut on the spot where I’d been standing. The ground cratered; stone chips flew.
Holy shit…
Cold sweat slid down my spine.
It came again, this time whipping the long chain wrapped around its body and smashing me across the torso.
I raised my sword to block, but the talisman burned to ash and vanished. The chain passed straight through the blade and slammed into my chest.
My body flew, tumbling across the dirt. One hit—just one—and I clearly heard my ribs crack.
“Fuck…”
I looked at the sword. The talisman was gone without a trace. That meant I had no way to hurt this damned spirit.
They said if you can’t use spiritual energy, there’s no way to kill a spirit.
Right now, aside from Blood Art, I barely knew how to circulate spiritual energy at all. Against that spirit I was essentially helpless.
Of course I’d have to get spotted by a bastard like this and have a shitty day.
“Come now, give up and become feed like a good boy.”
The man shook the bone tablet once more.
The spirit dragged its chains and rose again.
Its hazy form swelled larger; the maw yawned wide.
I dragged the last dregs of spiritual energy into my fingertips and turned the blood on the ground into blood-silk again.
This is the real last shot.
The blood-silk shot out and wrapped the spirit’s body.
It flinched for half a second—then tore the threads apart like paper.
Kieeeeeek—!
The spirit’s jaws were lunging for my head when—
—BOOM!
A giant figure dropped from the sky, crushing the spirit flat. Dust exploded outward.
“W-what…?”
Even the man controlling the spirit staggered back, face pale with shock.
As the dust settled, the figure that emerged was Wang Tae-ho, coated head to toe in blood.
He casually kicked the remains of the spirit on the ground and rolled his shoulders like he was just warming up.
This bastard… why the hell is he showing up here?
I quietly edged farther back.
The spirit-controller shouted in panic,
“W-Wang Tae-ho! What do you think you’re doing? Why my spirit…!”
Wang Tae-ho licked his lips with a long tongue and looked at the man.
“Heart.”
“What…?”
“Hand over your heart.”