Day 24: A Warning to Bihwa Gate
"Young lady! Are you all right?"
"Ah, I'm fine."
Right after dealing with the three cultivators, Cheon Seo-ah slipped out of KKB Arena without anyone noticing and returned home.
Chilgeomje was already waiting there. He couldn't lift his head, crushed by the news that villains had stormed the tournament venue whose tickets he himself had secured for her.
"I am truly sorry. I never imagined something like that would happen."
His voice was barely more than a whisper as he apologized once more. Seo-ah took in his dejected figure, a gentle smile softening her lips as she reached out and stroked his hair.
"I'm really fine. More importantly, there's something I'd like to ask you."
"What is it?"
"Have you ever heard the word 'cultivator'?"
"Culti… vator…, you say?"
Chilgeomje tilted his head, clearly not understanding her question. Cultivator. It was a word he was hearing for the first time. Seo-ah changed the direction of her inquiry.
"Then what about that madwoman we met last time? Which organization does she belong to?"
"That bi—! Ahem. As far as I know, she operates as a mercenary."
A mercenary? Someone who takes money to handle whatever job they're hired for—basically a problem-solver for hire? This time it was Seo-ah who tilted her head in confusion.
"She's quite a famous mercenary in the underworld. Infiltration, intelligence gathering, and the assassination of key figures are her specialties."
"I see."
Seo-ah nodded as she answered. In that case, the three cultivators who had goaded those villains into attacking KKB Arena might also be working as a kind of mercenary. It made perfect sense. For cultivators, mercenary work would be far more practical than playing hero. They could gather useful materials for pill refining, and they could avoid unnecessary government interference.
"Thank you for the answer."
"Not at all. Anything I know, I should tell you without hesitation. By the way…"
Chilgeomje's voice trailed off as his gaze settled steadily on the space behind Seo-ah. A translucent something hovered there. Ordinary people—even those who had awakened supernatural abilities—would never have been able to perceive it. But Chilgeomje, who cultivated the Seven Desires Demonic God Art that Seo-ah herself had bestowed upon him, could see it clearly: the translucent forms writhing behind her, shapes that looked exactly like humans thrashing in endless agony.
Seo-ah offered a small smile when she realized he had noticed the three cultivators' souls she was carrying.
"Looks like you've made some progress of your own."
In her eyes, Chilgeomje's realm sat somewhere between Core Formation and Golden Core. With just a little push, he would be able to form a golden core and step fully into the Golden Core stage. Not that his exact cultivation level was the important thing right now.
"More importantly, would you mind giving me a little time alone?"
"Ah… yes. Of course."
The moment she asked to be left alone, Chilgeomje's expression wilted all over again.
"Hmm. They didn't have anything particularly important."
Leaving Chilgeomje behind, Seo-ah entered her room and began sifting through the memories clinging to the souls of the three cultivators she had killed. She found nothing especially useful. It wasn't because seals had been placed on their souls. Their positions simply hadn't been high enough for them to know anything that truly mattered. Thinking about it, that was only natural. Cultivators who had barely stepped into Qi Condensation could never have been placed where important secrets were shared.
That didn't mean the harvest was completely empty, though.
First, the three she had killed belonged to an orthodox cultivation coalition called the Ascending Gate. Even after ability users had emerged into the public eye, these people still lurked in the shadows, and their goal was singular. Just as their name suggested, they sought to "ascend" and return to their original world. They also knew that the nine villains of the Illuminati practiced cultivation arts—specifically, Demonic Cultivation Arts. In other words, the attack on KKB Arena using villains had been planned after a spy reported that Chilgeomje had purchased tickets to the Valiant tournament.
Of course…
"An orthodox sect would never tolerate practitioners of Demonic Cultivation Arts."
Seo-ah nodded to herself as she murmured the words. Orthodox sects and demonic sects. Orthodox arts and demonic arts. The two could never coexist. Exactly when the two sides had begun trying to murder each other at every opportunity was something even Seo-ah didn't know; the grudge stretched back into an unfathomably distant past.
As for other useful information—
"There's a place called Bihwa Gate on Jeju Island."
Bihwa Gate. One of the many orthodox sects that made up the Ascending Gate. According to the memories clinging to the half-melted souls, Bihwa Gate primarily cultivated fire-based arts. It also held the position of overseeing every cultivator active in Korea, which was why the name Bihwa Gate had been burned so deeply into the three disciples' memories. She hadn't reached the true core yet, but she had at least found a path that led toward it.
What remained now was simple.
"Honestly, the feud between orthodox and demonic sects isn't any of my business. Your little war with those poor children isn't something I need to care about either. But,"
Those "poor children" were the ones to whom she herself had casually handed the tiny gift of Demonic Cultivation Arts. And there was more.
"Whether they meant to or not, they dragged me into their affairs. A little warning shouldn't be out of line, don't you think?"
The moment the words left her lips, Seo-ah took a single step forward.
Kiiing—
Space warped around her. In the next instant she was standing in a clear blue sky dotted with pure white clouds. Far below, the massive island of Jeju rose from the southern sea of Korea—an island that was essentially Mount Halla itself. Because the mountain had been born from volcanic eruption, even a mid-ocean island like this was relatively rich in fire-element spiritual veins. Compared to a true cultivation world the veins were pitifully thin, of course, but for Earth's cultivators they ranked among the few precious spiritual arteries left.
"If I had my way, I'd just erase the entire island."
But that would drag countless innocent people into the disaster. Had this been an ordinary cultivation world, Seo-ah would have wiped Jeju off the map without a second thought. This, however, was Earth. At least while she was on Earth, she preferred not to cause too much trouble.
So…
"Where exactly is Bihwa Gate?"
For now, she would simply erase Bihwa Gate. With that decision settled, Seo-ah looked down at Mount Halla beneath her feet.
Kiiing—
A gloomy darkness began to seep from her dead black eyes as they fixed on the mountain. At the same time—
"Found it."
She smiled faintly and took another step. The scenery around her shifted in a rush. One moment she had been floating in the open sky; the next she stood before Baekrokdam, the crater lake at the summit of Mount Halla.
"Quite a sloppy formation."
Seo-ah spoke while gazing at the lake. Bihwa Gate was nestled inside Mount Halla, and Baekrokdam served as its entrance. Of course they had veiled the entrance with a formation so ordinary people would never notice—but that formation could not hide from her eyes.
"Let's see."
Standing before Baekrokdam, she curled her small, dainty hand into a fist. One by one her delicate fingers folded shut. The moment the fist was fully clenched—
Kung—
A strange, overwhelming pressure crushed the surroundings.
"Off you go."
The tiny fist swung toward Baekrokdam. It looked no different from a child's clumsy punch, yet the phenomenon it produced was anything but light. With a deep kuung, space itself bent and twisted. Vision warped along with it, and just as the distortion reached its peak—
Jjeong—!
Something shattered. The formation Bihwa Gate had laid over Baekrokdam exploded into fragments and collapsed. With the formation gone, the true entrance was revealed. The water that had formed the little crater lake vanished without a trace, leaving only an endless staircase descending into the earth.
"Well then, shall we?"
Step. Step. Step.
Smiling lightly, Seo-ah descended the stairs without the slightest hesitation.
Meanwhile, Bihwa Gate, nestled deep in the heart of Mount Halla, had erupted into chaos.
"W-what is going on?!"
"The formation over Baekrokdam has been destroyed!"
A middle-aged man's shout was answered in a panic by a somewhat younger-looking youth.
"What do you mean…?"
The middle-aged man's face twisted. The formation over Baekrokdam, destroyed? What kind of nonsense was that? It wasn't the sort of thing one could simply smash because one felt like it. The formation twisted space itself into such a tangled knot that even a nuclear bomb would leave it unharmed—one of Bihwa Gate's absolute defensive treasures. Yet the thunderous roar from above and the shockwave that had shaken the entire sect made the claim all too believable. Which left only one question: who had dared to invade Bihwa Gate?
"Who is it?! Who dares attack Bihwa Gate?! Those vermin who practice Demonic Cultivation Arts?!"
"N-no, sir!"
"Then who in the world is it?!"
The middle-aged man roared. The nine figures known to the public as the most vicious villains who had founded the Illuminati were not ability users at all, but demonic cultivators who practiced Demonic Cultivation Arts. The Ascending Gate had discovered this truth and was throwing every resource into killing them; the nine, for their part, knew full well that the Ascending Gate wanted their heads. That was why the middle-aged man assumed the attacker must be one of those nine. Bihwa Gate was, after all, one of the orthodox sects that formed the Ascending Gate.
While Bihwa Gate's disciples scrambled in panic, preparing for the sudden assault, a new sound reached them.
Step. Step. Step.
Beyond the massive outer gate that connected Baekrokdam to the sect—the only passage linking Bihwa Gate to the outside world—light footsteps echoed. Every disciple who had been rushing about froze mid-stride and swallowed hard, eyes fixed on the gate.
Who was it? Who had dared to attack Bihwa Gate?
The question burned in every pair of eyes the instant—
Kwaang!
The gate exploded inward with a deafening crash. Through the wreckage stepped a single girl—Cheon Seo-ah.
"A… little girl…?"
One of the younger disciples muttered the words without thinking. Seo-ah swept her gaze across the blank-faced disciples of Bihwa Gate—the cultivators staring at her—and smiled brightly.
"Hello."