Day 25: Erasing Bihwa Gate
That little girl was the intruder?
What on earth was going on here?
Wh-what were they supposed to do?
The cultivators belonging to Bihwa Gate murmured among themselves. A sudden, intense shock had rocked Bihwa Gate to its foundations, shattering the formation array installed at Baengnokdam. And the figure that revealed itself immediately afterward was none other than this ridiculously young girl.
How were they supposed to handle this? Was she really an enemy? Should they kill her? Or merely subdue her?
In the midst of that confusion, while the cultivators still hesitated to move—
“My name is Cheon Seo-ah. I’ve come here today to kill every last one of you and erase Bihwa Gate from existence.”
…!
The instant words like “kill” and “erase” left Cheon Seo-ah’s mouth, fury and killing intent flared in the cultivators’ eyes. Just as a few hot-tempered young cultivators were about to charge her—
“May I ask why you are targeting us?”
An old man stepped forward as he spoke. The surrounding cultivators quickly bowed their heads. That old man was none other than the current Gate Master of Bihwa Gate, and…
“Golden Core, is it?”
…a cultivator who had achieved the Golden Core stage.
Meanwhile the old man flinched hard and stiffened his expression at the fact that Cheon Seo-ah had seen through his realm at a single glance. To his eyes she appeared to be nothing more than an ordinary person who had never cultivated any arts at all. Yet this girl who looked like a mere commoner had pierced his realm. That could only mean one thing.
She’s a cultivator of a higher realm than I am! Nascent Soul? No… she might even be at Soul Transformation.
Cold sweat was already streaming down the old man’s back. A cultivator must never be judged by outward appearance alone. No matter how young she looked, the possibility that she was an ancient monster who had lived for hundreds of years could not be dismissed.
Thus the old man spoke again, his voice stiff and taut with tension.
“I do not know which senior you may be, but why do you say you will erase our Bihwa Gate?”
“Hm? Isn’t that obvious? You people are an orthodox sect. Whereas I…”
Woom—.
Trailing off, Cheon Seo-ah raised her hand. Thick demonic qi was seeping from it, and the old man’s eyes bulged at the sight.
Could it be… that was—!
“Demonic qi?”
Which meant the monster standing before him was a practitioner who had cultivated Demonic Cultivation Arts!
The situation had gone completely sideways. He had been trying to talk his way out of the crisis somehow, only for the opponent to turn out to be a demonic cultivator. At this rate Bihwa Gate would vanish from the face of the Earth without a trace. In that case, better to…
“Everyone, run!”
Whoosh—!
Raising golden flames, the old man roared and charged at Cheon Seo-ah. He had no idea how long he could hold out, but he intended to burn his own life to buy time for Bihwa Gate’s young disciples to escape. Just one. If even a single disciple survived, the lineage of Bihwa Gate would not be severed. Furthermore—
To think there was another demonic cultivator who had learned Demonic Cultivation Arts besides those nine!
He had to inform the Ascending Gate of Cheon Seo-ah’s existence.
“You bastard—! Burn to death—!”
Whoosh—!
Crash!
Leaping hundreds of meters in a single step, the old man arrived instantly before Cheon Seo-ah and swung both palms. His dual palms, wreathed in golden flames, slammed into her abdomen without the slightest hesitation, but…
“Wh-what—!”
The old man staggered back in panic. At the spot on Cheon Seo-ah’s abdomen where his palms had struck, something like a turtle’s shell formed of eerie demonic qi had taken shape.
What kind of art was that?
The thought flashed through his mind for an instant before he erased it. The arts the opponent practiced were Demonic Cultivation Arts to begin with. It was not something he could unravel just by thinking about it. Right now he simply had to—
Buy even a little more time—!
With that resolve the old man desperately drew up his spiritual energy.
Whoosh—!
The golden flames that had been confined to his dual palms swelled larger still. Before long he was swallowed by the golden flames and transformed into a giant of fire. His appearance resembled Surtr, the fire giant of Norse mythology.
Perhaps.
“The myths spread across Earth might all have been based on cultivators.”
Of course the possibility did not seem particularly high.
Meanwhile the old man, now a fire giant, roared at Cheon Seo-ah, who stood leisurely before him.
Whoosh!
The fire giant began to move. The moment its both hands swept through the air, a wave of golden flames surged toward Cheon Seo-ah.
“Interesting.”
Sizzle—.
Cheon Seo-ah spoke with a faint smile. At the same time the wave of golden flames the giant had created instantly died away.
“Then is it my turn now?”
A chill ran down his spine.
Those dead eyes that held not a trace of emotion. The moment they locked onto him, the fire giant—no, the old man who had become the fire giant—felt a bone-chilling terror. At the same time—
Whoosh—.
Her facing palms parted, and black flames bloomed between them. Cheon Seo-ah played with those black flames as if toying with them, gesturing this way and that, then fixed her left hand in midair and drew her right hand back as though pulling a bowstring. The black flames that had been flickering freely in the air took the shape of an arrow.
“I somehow feel like I have to say this line.”
Cheon Seo-ah smiled and whispered.
“Puga—.”
That casually uttered word melted into the air and vanished.
Thud—!
The fire giant clutched its chest and dropped to its knees. The black flame arrow Cheon Seo-ah had playfully created had, in the blink of an eye, leaped across space and pierced straight through his heart.
Cough, cough—.
Already returned from the fire giant to the form of a withered elder, the old man glared at Cheon Seo-ah with eyes that were steadily losing their vitality and spoke.
“Keuh—, don’t think you’ve won with this. By now the disciples of Bihwa Gate will have informed the world of your existence… cough—!”
Even as he spat blood repeatedly, the old man wore a victor’s smile. Indeed, there was no longer anyone left inside Bihwa Gate. But that did not mean the disciples of Bihwa Gate had escaped this place. As if to prove it—
“Ah, are you talking about these people?”
Rip—.
When Cheon Seo-ah drew a line through the air, space tore open. Beyond the torn space another world unfolded—a horrific world of dead black earth, black sky, and a black sun. At the same time—
“What…!”
The old man’s eyes trembled violently. The disciples of Bihwa Gate whom he had risked his life to let escape were, without a single exception, thrashing about in agony after falling into that black world.
Cheon Seo-ah spoke to the old man, whose gaze remained fixed on the torn space with eyes that were losing their light.
“It’s simple. Designation and separation. And transfer. I just lightly used those three concepts.”
“Just what are you…”
Thud—.
At Cheon Seo-ah’s explanation the old man’s head drooped lifelessly as he muttered in disbelief. Even a Golden Core cultivator, having lost his heart—and with Cheon Seo-ah’s demonic qi spreading through his entire body from that wound—it was a miracle that he had clung to life this long.
Cheon Seo-ah looked down at the old man’s corpse and said,
“It’s a bit of a waste that I blew up the heart. Still, the corpse of a cultivator who achieved Golden Core should make for decent materials.”
That aside.
“I wonder how I should smash this place to properly warn the Ascending Gate.”
Restoring the torn space, Cheon Seo-ah looked around the vast Bihwa Gate and let out a deep sigh.
Clack—.
“Y-you’ve come out, young lady.”
Late at night. Having finished dealing with Bihwa Gate, Cheon Seo-ah returned home and stepped out of her room, whereupon Shin Dae-jin offered an awkward greeting.
“So you’re on duty today, I see.”
“Yes, that’s right.”
At Cheon Seo-ah’s question, Shin Dae-jin nodded with an awkward smile. Honestly speaking, he still found Cheon Seo-ah uncomfortable. Partly because her identity was unknown. But the biggest reason was, after all…
Those eyes are still spine-chilling.
Those dead eyes that held no emotion whatsoever. Sometimes emotions would settle into those eyes, but they provoked the same unpleasant feeling as a machine imitating human emotions. What was that called again?
The uncanny valley, I think.
As Shin Dae-jin stared blankly at Cheon Seo-ah thinking that—
“By the way, I’m hungry. Could you cook me a pack of ramen?”
“Ramen, you say? Why on earth…”
“I just suddenly felt like eating ramen after a long time.”
Even though it was late, a single word from Cheon Seo-ah would bring a top-tier chef running to prepare the finest dishes. Yet she still said she wanted ramen. Shin Dae-jin could not understand it, but he obediently headed for the kitchen.
“Ah, and where did that Chilgeomje kid go?”
“Th-the master waited for you to come out of your room, then returned to the company. H-he said the bug he’d been waiting for had finally been caught.”
“Is that so.”
Nodding at Shin Dae-jin’s answer, Cheon Seo-ah soon said,
“What are you doing? Hurry up and cook the ramen.”
“I-I’m sorry!”
—to Shin Dae-jin, who was still staring blankly at her.