Chapter 111: The Pursuit Team
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 111: The Pursuit Team
Tiring—
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“Ah, are you awake?”
My head was spinning as if I'd just woken up from anesthesia. Through my blurry vision, my eyes met Yoo Sowol's.
I slowly looked around. No matter how I saw it, this was the "room where you can't leave without having sex.”
“How long was I out?”
“I don't think it was very long. You were already collapsed when I returned to the room, but even considering that, it was probably only about fifteen minutes.”
Fifteen minutes or so really wasn't long.
The depraved monk was nowhere to be found, as if he'd truly entered Nirvana in that time.
'Is he really gone this time?'
I felt a slight, strange sense of disappointment. It was odd. We hadn't known each other long enough to form any real attachment.
The answer to that question was close by.
Vwoom— I could feel the depraved monk's presence in the energy dormant within my dantian. It was the energy of Vajra, embracing all of creation, yet never breaking.
We had met for only a very short time, but in a way, he was my master. The thought crossed my mind that I should visit his grave someday, if I had the time.
Though I had no idea if he even had a gravestone.
'...My energy is much more stable than before I passed out.'
That wasn't all. In a corner of my mind, knowledge I had never seen before had taken root.
They were letters and images I was seeing for the first time, yet it felt as if I had seen, read, and repeated them tens of thousands of times over several decades.
It was about the Formless Vajra Art (無相金剛訣), the martial art of Vajra Divine Monk. Although what I was currently permitted was only a tiny fraction of a book that spanned hundreds of pages, I wasn't too worried.
I was certain that I would come to know everything one day. All I needed now was time.
Clap—
As I lightly brought my palms together, a golden wave of energy pulsed.
It was internal energy, a formless power different in nature from magic. I wondered what Cheon Yeo-hwa would say if she saw this.
“Orabeoni, this is...”
“...Ah.”
I had been so focused on the essence of the Formless Vajra Art that I'd completely forgotten I was resting my head on Yoo Sowol's lap. A thousand thoughts raced through my mind.
Should I just play dumb and move on? Or should I fuck her on the bed again until she couldn't think straight? But it didn't take long to calculate that neither option would be very effective.
“...That's right. The Formless Vajra Art. I got it in that room, along with the Prajna Divine Pill.”
It wasn't that I didn't trust Yoo Sowol, but it was obvious which side she would choose if she had to weigh me, someone she'd known for less than a week, against the sect she'd spent her entire life with.
In the worst-case scenario, I might have to flee with Cheon Yeo-hwa.
But her reaction was different from what I expected.
“Congratulations!”
“...What?”
“I knew you could do it, Orabeoni. I believed in you.”
There was no other emotion visible on Yoo Sowol's face. She was purely congratulating me.
The girl, who looked as happy as when I'd taken her virginity, suddenly wore the expression of a detective manga protagonist.
“Orabeoni, don't you think too many people have gathered for this investigation? It's especially rare for the sect elders to gather in one place. My master, for instance, leaves the mountain maybe once every ten years, if that.”
“Isn't that because of the rumor that Vajra Divine Monk spent his final years here?”
Yoo Sowol shook her head. When I tried to sit up, she held my head and laid it back down on her thigh.
“If it were his tomb, perhaps, but for the elders to come in person just for a rumor that he spent his final years here is truly unprecedented. Unless, of course, it was something on the level of the Shadowless Divine Thief's secret vault.”
So the Shadowless Divine Thief exists in this world too?
I'd gained some unexpected information.
“So it wasn't just a rumor?”
“No, but I don't think my sect or the people from Zhongnan Sect knew. I only happened to overhear the people from Shaolin talking. I don't know how the rumor you heard started to spread, but the truth is a little different. The people from Shaolin said that Vajra Divine Monk's 'provision' was left somewhere here.”
Yoo Sowol's gaze shifted to my right hand. The golden energy that repels evil, the Vajra Qi (金剛氣).
I also took out the wooden box containing the Prajna Divine Pill from my inventory.
“By 'provision,' you must mean this, right?”
“Ah...”
Her eyes glazed over as she stared at the Vajra Qi.
“But will this be okay? The Mount Hua Sect must have come here seeking various interests, and the Formless Vajra Art is a Shaolin martial art.”
“It's fine.”
Yoo Sowol smiled brightly and stroked my head. It felt strange, like being petted by a younger sister.
“A provision is meant to go to the person he acknowledged, after all. I'm sure it's because he acknowledged us that you and I were able to come this far.”
“...”
I turned my head away from Yoo Sowol, who was overestimating Vajra Divine Monk. I couldn't bring myself to tell her that he had created the "room where you can't leave without having sex" because he regretted living his life as a virgin loner.
“Thanks.”
“It's only natural.”
We got up and quickly prepared to leave. As much as I wanted to spend more intimate time with her, we were pressed for time, as the Mount Hua Sect might be looking for her.
Thanks to a staircase that had appeared on the left wall of the room, we were spared the trouble of finding a way up.
We followed the sunlight streaming through a small gap in the distance and climbed the stairs.
Rumble—
At the top of the stairs, I pressed what looked like a switch, and the ceiling opened, allowing us to emerge onto the surface.
We came out into a small pavilion in a corner of the old temple.
Yoo Sowol ran to me and threw herself into my arms. She rubbed her face against my chest for a long while before finally pulling away.
“I'll see you later.”
Peck. Yoo Sowol stood on her tiptoes, lightly pressed her lips to my cheek, and then ran out of the pavilion. I watched her retreating back for a moment before heading toward the entrance myself.
“First, I need to recast Phantom Shifter... huh?”
The moment I cautiously stirred my magic, I noticed that the illusion, the Hallucination spell I had created by Cheon Yeo-hwa's side, had vanished.
Because I passed out? No, that wasn't it. I had designed the illusion to last for two or three hours even if I lost consciousness.
BOOM!
I immediately kicked off the ground and launched myself forward.
'...Someone destroyed the illusion.'
At the heart of an illusion is a core of magic. If it's destroyed, the illusion dissipates shortly after.
Cheon Yeo-hwa wouldn't have done such a thing, which left only one possible explanation.
“Fuck!”
I had never forgotten that Cheon Yeo-hwa was being pursued by the Heavenly Demonic Cult.
But I had let my guard down, reassured by the fact that we were moving with the major powers of the Orthodox Faction—Mount Hua, Zhongnan Sect, and Shaolin. I thought it would be fine to be away for three or four hours.
I might be paying the price for that complacency right now.
Lightning coursed through my magic circuits.
[Extreme Speed]
I ran like a bolt of lightning.
In the distance, I could see the entrance to the old temple. The coppery scent of blood rode the wind and pricked my nose.
Thud!
As soon as I landed, I scanned my surroundings. Familiar faces were strewn across the ground as corpses. They were the third-generation disciples from the various sects.
Thankfully, Cheon Yeo-hwa was not among them.
“Cough, hack...!”
A cough came from the pile of bodies.
“Hey, get a grip!”
The man's condition was critical. He had lost too much blood, and his intestines were spilling out.
“...Tsk.”
I pulled a bottle of Holy Water and a health potion from my inventory and fed them to the man. He was the last witness. I needed to hear anything, no matter how trivial.
Fortunately, the man's complexion improved slightly.
“Ugh... where...”
“What happened here?! Tell me, quickly!”
“Wh-who are you...?”
“There's no time, just talk!”
“I-it was...”
The man stammered and rambled, but I was able to pick out the important keywords: ambush, battle, and escape.
Piecing it together, a group of assassins had appeared out of nowhere and massacred the third-generation disciples. Cheon Yeo-hwa had stepped up and fought her best against them, but was ultimately outnumbered and fled into the forest.
“Which way did she go?”
“Th-that way... Please, please, get revenge...”
With those words, the man passed out. His condition hadn't worsened. Since he'd taken both Holy Water and a potion after roughly stuffing his intestines back in, most of his wounds would probably be healed after a good nap.
Leaving the man behind, I hurried into the forest.
My speed was incomparably faster than before, but the sense of urgency filling my mind didn't subside in the slightest.
I needed to be faster.
I didn't want to live with irreversible regret.
I accelerated the element of lightning to the point of overloading my magic circuits, but that alone wasn't enough to achieve a speed that transcended my limits.
My desperation was becoming a poison. I wasn't internally injured, but my exhausted body, already strained from absorbing the Vajra Qi from the depraved monk, began to scream.
But I couldn't stop, nor could I slow down.
Just as I was wringing out every last drop of energy and pushing myself to the brink, the Vajra Qi (金剛氣) in my dantian suddenly awakened and enveloped my entire body.
My body felt significantly lighter. Pushing off the ground, kicking off branches—it was as if I had become a completely different person from moments before.
It wasn't just about running fast. It was as if my entire body had been freed from that obsession and had regained its liberty.
Formless Vajra Art (無相金剛訣), Formless Electric Body (無相電身).
It was as if I were running as a golden thunderbolt. It was a strange sensation, completely different from 'Extreme Speed.'
Whatever it was, this wasn't the time to be picky. I dashed through the densely packed trees, sometimes like the flowing wind, sometimes like a bolt of lightning.
Simultaneously, I extended my magic detection to its maximum range, blanketing the surrounding area.
I raised all my senses to their peak, focusing so as not to miss a single detail. After about a minute, maybe two, I found a familiar energy.
I immediately changed direction and ran.
No matter what anyone said, this was definitely Cheon Yeo-hwa's energy.
But the dozens of auras surrounding hers urged my feet to move even faster.
Just as I felt I was about to run out of breath, I saw her through the trees, fighting a group of figures clad in black.
Clang! Claaang!
Hearing the clash of cold weapons, I kicked off a branch and leaped into the treetops in a single bound. In a large clearing, I could see the men in black pressing Cheon Yeo-hwa.
“...Those sons of bitches.”
As if responding to my surging emotions, my mana circle spewed out magic, and my magic circuits grew hot.
I wove the spell formula, constructed the magic circle, and completed the spell.
[Arrow of Flame]
Numerous magic circles embroidered the air.
From the dozens of magic circles, countless arrows wreathed in flame surged toward the enemy.
The men in black, noticing the magic too late, swung their swords to block the arrows, but they couldn't stop them all.
The arrows pierced through them without discrimination—foreheads, hearts, abdomens, thighs—but the number of remaining men in black was still considerable.
I took Gilenium out of my inventory and descended to the ground.
“Don't panic! Even if he's a master who uses strange arts, he's only one man! Form the Slaughtering Attack Formation (斬殺擊陣)!”
The men in black, who had been panicking at the sight of their comrades being burned to death (焚死) beside them, moved in perfect unison at the command of the man who appeared to be their leader, forming a battle formation.
'I can feel a strange flow of energy. Is it a formation that amplifies each other's energy and covers their weaknesses?'
But it didn't matter. Whether they gathered or scattered, they were all going to die here. And I had no intention of fighting on the enemy's terms.
Just in time, my magic was complete.
“Forming up against a mage? Is this some new suicide method?”
A massive magic circle appeared beneath their feet. Magic condensed, and the surrounding temperature shot up in an instant.
Even if they had never seen magic before, after seeing the fire arrows that had just flown from the sky, there was no way they wouldn't understand.
“...Dammit, break the Combined Attack Formation and get out of here now!”
Sensing something was wrong, the enemies tried to break away, but the intertwined energies from their formation couldn't be easily unraveled.
They coughed up blood as they barely managed to release their energies and tried to flee, but it was already too late.
A colossal flame erupted and exploded.
[Burn Flare]
KWAAAAANG!!!!