The Search (2)

“You little...!”

Crash!

Kicking through the filthy water streaming along the underground sewer, the man lunged forward.

Channeling spiritual power into his legs, he leapt up and went straight for Cheon Woo-jin's upper body.

The man swung a fist brimming with spiritual power, but it tore through empty air. Cheon Woo-jin had already shifted elsewhere — positioned so that he would be standing at the man's back the moment his feet ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠touched down.

“Hup...!”

His rear had been taken. Realizing it, the man desperately twisted his body around.

But Cheon Woo-jin's palm was faster than he was, driving toward the back of his skull.

Crack!

A burst of thunder qi crashed into the man's occiput.

“Gaaah...!”

He thrashed and struggled, but with electricity coursing through his brain there was nothing he could do.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

Splash!

In the end, the man collapsed face-first into the foul water.

Blood was streaming from his ears and nose, but he wasn't dead. With proper treatment, he would recover without any lingering damage.

"......."

Cheon Woo-jin left the man where he lay and started to press forward.

Then, almost at once, he sensed another presence.

“I heard a commotion, so I poked my head out to see.”

A man with a large scar across his face emerged from deeper within. Despite his fearsome appearance, his voice was remarkably calm.

Lee Jin-gang. Cheon Woo-jin had seen this man before in the game.

If he remembered correctly, he was one of the core disciples of the Corpse Ghost Extreme Jade Gate.

“He's beyond what a mere guard can handle. I'll deal with him myself.”

Before Cheon Woo-jin could get a single word out, a spine-chilling energy erupted into the air.

Yin qi, black as soot, came surging toward him.

It was the curse art of the Black Curse Extreme Prison Art that Lee Jin-gang had mastered.

It wouldn't cause any physical destruction, but if he took that thing head-on, his meridian flow would be thrown into disarray and he would lose the ability to properly wield his spirit qi.

It was similar to the poison of the Manyabinggung's Six Poison Sects — except that poison primarily afflicted the body, while curses attacked the spiritual aspect of their victim.

A light curse could be purified with the power of the Purple Heaven Seal Formation, but Lee Jin-gang was a Great Circle Foundation Establishment expert, so Cheon Woo-jin would need a different approach.

And yet...

This looks like...

Cheon Woo-jin calmly observed Lee Jin-gang's curse art from within the spiritual domain of his Body of the Dark True Abyss.

This was the first time since reaching Foundation Establishment that he had been attacked by a curse technique.

But watching it from inside his spiritual domain like this... the structure of the formations composing the curse, the wavelength of its spiritual power — all of it felt strikingly familiar.

It shares a great deal with the Black Shadow Technique and Black Thunder.

A curse was, in the end, the power of yin qi.

For Cheon Woo-jin, who wielded the water-attribute spirit qi of yin-within-yin, there was no force more familiar to him.

It took a different form from the arts he normally used — but that was merely a difference in the structure of the spirit qi itself.

If he so chose, he believed he could interfere directly with the formation.

"......."

Cheon Woo-jin stood perfectly still, staring down the curse.

Then he released his water-attribute spirit qi.

“Wh-what are you doing?”

Lee Jin-gang's eyes went wide with bewilderment. To him, it must have looked as though Cheon Woo-jin was simply accepting the curse without a shred of defense.

But Cheon Woo-jin was at that very moment spreading his water qi outward like a spider's web, weaving it deep into the curse's energy.

Once he had it in his grasp, all he had to do was agitate the spiritual structure composing the curse... and its weak points would come apart.

Pop!

A sound like a small detonation rang out, and the curse's energy scattered.

The art that had looked like soot-black smoke truly became nothing but smoke, dissipating into the air in every direction.

“My... ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠my curse art...”

Lee Jin-gang couldn't even finish the sentence.

He seemed unable to process what had happened before his eyes — so much so that fear was beginning to creep into his expression.

“Ugh...!”

Even as he trembled, Lee Jin-gang raised both hands.

He had to stop this unidentified intruder. That sense of duty seemed to be what held his terror in check.

Black curses burst forth from Lee Jin-gang's body.

Where before it had merely resembled black smoke, this time it came like a barrage of black shells.

Anyone could see at a glance that these curses were far more potent than the last.

Even so.

Watching the curse shells fly toward him, Cheon Woo-jin extended his hand forward once more.

Only the shape is different.

The instant his fingers sank into the black curse, he seized and tore at its spiritual structure, the way one would rip wiring out of a machine.

He had plunged his hand in directly in order to grasp and feel the structure more certainly.

It was indeed sturdier than before, but since the underlying principle was the same, he was able to destroy the formation using the very same method as before.

If I keep practicing this, it'll become far easier to deal with the arts of other cultivators.

Without ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠meaning to, Lee Jin-gang had just handed Cheon Woo-jin a brand-new training regimen.

With two arts neutralized in succession, Lee Jin-gang stared at Cheon Woo-jin with a hollow, dumbfounded expression.

“Wh-what in the world are you...?”

“So you've finally decided to talk.”

That other one had been the same — no interest in hearing a word Cheon Woo-jin had to say, just attacking outright.

“I did not come here to harm your sect.”

“What did you say?”

“I only wish to meet your Sect Master, Wi Ju-seon.”

"...!"

Wi Ju-seon. The Sect Master of the Corpse Ghost Extreme Jade Gate — and someone with a close relationship to Seo Seol-ryeong.

Cheon Woo-jin had come here simply to meet her.

“Are you acquainted with the Sect Master?”

“Not directly, but we know of each other through mutual connections.”

"......."

Lee Jin-gang fell silent for a moment.

“If that's true, you would have visited through the proper entrance and stated your business. Why did you sneak into a place like this, so far out of the way?”

“I don't know where the proper entrance is.”

"......."

“Then hang up a sign next time.”

The Corpse Ghost Extreme Jade Gate was, by its nature, a secretive organization.

No one was going to put up a plaque announcing that this was its main gate.

Those who regularly came and went would know where the entrances were, but for Cheon Woo-jin, visiting for the first time, there had been no choice but to approach this way.

“Even if that's the truth, I can't just escort a total stranger to wherever the Sect Master is.”

Lee Jin-gang's attitude had softened considerably.

“I'll need to ask the Sect Master first, you understand.”

“That would be wise.”

“Though... what name should I give when I tell her who's asking?”

In response to Lee Jin-gang's question, Cheon Woo-jin answered in a cool, level voice.

“Tell her it's a regular customer of the fortune teller's shop that gets no customers, on the 2nd Layer. She'll understand.”

Before long, Cheon Woo-jin was escorted to the Sect Master's Hall, located in the deepest reaches of the underground sewer.

Despite being carved out of a filthy subterranean waterway, the hall was remarkably imposing.

“Do not meet the eyes of the jiangshi.”

Lee Jin-gang gave the warning, cautioning him about the jiangshi guarding the hall's entrance.

As the hardened jiang (殭) in its name suggested, a jiangshi was a corpse that did not rot and decay, but remained preserved in a rigid, hardened state.

It was a far more powerful entity than the corpse ghosts he had encountered earlier — but for that very reason, creating one was exceedingly difficult.

“Sect Master, I've brought him.”

“Send him in.”

A cold voice rang out from within the hall, and Lee Jin-gang gestured for him to hurry inside.

As Cheon Woo-jin stepped into the Sect Master's Hall, he saw a dark-skinned woman seated in a chair.

She was Wi Ju-seon, the Sect Master of the Corpse Ghost Extreme Jade Gate.

Born with the Spirit-Controlling Talent, an innate gift specialized in commanding the dead, she was also a prodigy who had reached the Great Circle of Core Formation before even turning three hundred.

“So you're Cheon Woo-jin?”

Wi Ju-seon spoke his name outright, without preamble.

Leaning back in her chair, she continued with a faint smile on her lips.

“I've known that Seo Seol-ryeong has been introducing a newcomer named Cheon Woo-jin here and there these past few months. I didn't expect him to climb up to the 6th Layer already, though.”

It seemed there was no need to introduce himself.

“What brings you today? Did Seo Seol-ryeong send you on an errand?”

“I'm the one looking for Seo Seol-ryeong.”

“What do you mean?”

Cheon Woo-jin explained that Seo Seol-ryeong had left the 2nd Layer and appeared to have ascended to the 6th.

As she listened, Wi Ju-seon touched her fingers to her lips, visibly taken aback.

“This is the first I'm hearing of it. Seo Seol-ryeong, climbing to the 6th Layer...”

“Then you don't know her whereabouts either, Sect Master.”

Disappointing, perhaps, but not unexpected.

It wasn't as though Seo Seol-ryeong would come rushing to visit Wi Ju-seon the moment she set foot on the 6th Layer.

“Sect Master — if Seo Seol-ryeong were to come up to the 6th Layer, where do you think she would go?”

"......."

Wi Ju-seon pressed a finger against her lips and sank into thought.

“Cheon Woo-jin, how much do you know about Seo Seol-ryeong?”

“What do you mean?”

“It's difficult to judge whether I should speak to you of her circumstances. I don't know how close the two of you truly are.”

"......."

In truth, Cheon Woo-jin didn't know all that much about Seo Seol-ryeong either.

Even after coming to this world, they had only ever worked together; they had never spoken of anything personal.

At a moment like this, there was exactly one thing Cheon Woo-jin could say.

“Only that she is one of the Goya True People, from Mount Makgoya.”

“She told you where she comes from?”

Surprise crossed Wi Ju-seon's face.

“Then she truly trusted you a great deal. Even I only learned of it after knowing her closely for ten years.”

"......."

In fact, it wasn't something Seo Seol-ryeong had told him — he knew it from the information displayed in her status window — but Cheon Woo-jin simply kept his mouth shut.

“In that case...”

Wi Ju-seon, who had been about to say something, closed her mouth again.

“My apologies. I'll need to think this over a little.”

“Think it over?”

“I understand that you and Seo Seol-ryeong are close. But I'm not sure it's right for me to speak of things even she has chosen not to tell you.”

"......."

It was a fair point.

Wi Ju-seon was more tight-lipped than her appearance suggested.

“Still, if you and Seo Seol-ryeong have crossed paths without meeting, I would like to help you find each other again. Can you wait a few days? I'll make inquiries about her myself. It's possible she may even come here looking for me.”

“Understood.”

Cheon Woo-jin nodded.

“Though... may I ask one more thing?”

“What would that be?”

“There is a man named Jongri Un who, at the auction house on the 4th Layer, stole a certain mystic art treasure and has since vanished.”

Finding Seo Seol-ryeong was important — but he needed to gather information on this matter as well.

“He seems to be hiding out on the 6th Layer. Have there been any sightings of a suspicious individual in the underground sewers or this general area?”

"......."

But Wi Ju-seon's reaction was strange.

Her expression was far graver than it had been when he'd mentioned Seo Seol-ryeong's disappearance.

“The stolen treasure — could it be a relic of the Yin Soul Ghost Bone Palace?”

“It is.”

So there was something she had noticed.

“The Ghost Soul Demon Banner. A mystic art treasure said to be capable of wielding power on the level of the Soul Formation realm.”

"......."

Wi Ju-seon's expression hardened even further.

“Cheon Woo-jin, can you wait here a moment?”

“What do you mean?”

“There's something I need to verify. I'll be right back.”

With those words, Wi Ju-seon rose from her seat.

And as she stepped out of the Sect Master's Hall, she spoke in a grave voice.

“It may be... connected to Seo Seol-ryeong's coming to the 6th Layer.”

Two matters he had assumed were entirely separate.

Now, a thread tying them together had begun to come into view.