Chapter 154
Chapter 154
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 154
Chapter Title: What Should I Do? (1)
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After chasing Guo Sahong out of the living world, I led the corpse puppets into the ancestral hall.
- What a mess.
The hall we entered was a disaster, just as Master had said.
"Yes. Total chaos."
The coffin lids were scattered everywhere because the corpse puppets had kicked them open haphazardly.
Some had even flown toward the spirit tablets at the front, leaving the fallen tablets strewn about.
Shards from colliding lids and the resulting dust blanketed the floor.
And yet, the culprit who caused all this had fled to the afterlife.
"If I'd known it'd be like this, I should've made him clean up before killing him."
Regretfully, I smacked the head of the lead corpse puppet I'd dubbed Number One.
"Couldn't you have come out quietly?!"
Thwack!!!
At my words, Number One tilted its head.
Kraa?
It tried to quiet its thumping footsteps—thud, thud—in its own way.
It must have taken my words to mean "jump more quietly."
"Well, it's not like you lot are at fault."
With a sigh, I gave the corpse puppets a proper order.
"Find your own coffin lids and get back in!"
The Corpse Manipulation Technique was originally devised to send corpses from distant battlefields back to their hometowns.
Due to their nature, corpse puppets couldn't move during the day when the sun was up, and there was no space to store dozens or hundreds of bodies in broad daylight.
Thus, they typically carried their own coffins, so this time they understood my command perfectly and moved accordingly.
Kraa!
As the corpse puppets began following my orders,
the scattered lids were cleared away, and the dust dispersed from their thudding steps.
"Hm?"
I spotted dried brown stains on the now-visible floor of the hall.
"Not long ago."
I hadn't noticed earlier, soaked in Guo Sahong's blood as I was.
Come to think of it, a fishy metallic scent lingered in the hall.
Shedding blood in an ancestral hall was taboo.
The Diamond Corpse I wielded had its skin and bones reinforced with various herbs, hot sand, and extreme yin chill, unrelated to blood.
'I thought it was just a throwaway line to boost his survival odds. But something really happened?'
With a hunch, I touched the bloodstain.
Master posed a question toward me.
- What are you trying to do?
'Trying to contact the death soul.'
- Even without a corpse?
'It needs some conditions. Simply put... grudging deaths work. Someone killed by a bastard like Guo Sahong in a place like this should qualify.'
Unlike a high-grade soul like Master's, death souls typically only wail with their most intense pre-death thoughts, so probing like this usually just wasted inner energy.
But if the one who left this stain was sacrificed for a blood corpse puppet, their wail and grudge would be intense.
'Blood corpse puppets are made horrifically.'
Blood corpse puppets required steeping them in human blood.
Not just any blood—pure blood laced with grudge was essential.
Pure blood came from young boys and girls.
'To gather enough blood infused with grudge for the steeping...'
You had to slowly drain it from living people until they died.
The method was inevitably gruesome.
Having answered Master's question, I cut off the inner energy I'd been supplying to the puppets that had found their coffins.
Then, focusing on the bloodstain, I drew inner energy from my upper dantian and uttered a spirit incantation.
"O departed soul, heed my call."
At the summons, a bluish flame—corpse fire, or goblin light—erupted in the air.
"Money?"
The flame was too small, and it demanded silver taels, as if it had a grudge over money stolen by Guo Sahong.
"Wrong one?"
As I shouted "Dismissed!" to scatter it,
I noticed the flame flickering oddly.
"Master, isn't the corpse fire subtly wavering toward the floor?"
- Indeed it is.
"It's natural for it to flicker toward the door with the draft, but toward the floor..."
- There's space beneath the floor.
I and Master immediately scoured the hall.
"The floor stones are slate—too much effort to smash. Better find the mechanism to open it."
Soon, I spotted another anomaly.
"That spirit tablet is odd too. Lids flew that way, toppling the others, but that one's intact?"
- Of course a wooden tablet wouldn't master Thousand-Jin Drop. Suspicious indeed.
"Eh, strictly speaking, things like Master exist, so objects mastering it aren't impossible."
- ?
'?'
Anyway, I approached the suspicious tablet, gauged its mechanism,
and pulled as hypothesized.
Click-
Rumble!
Groooan! Groooaaaan!
The stone slab beneath me shook, then sank along its grain, transforming into stairs to the underground.
"...!"
I led two puppets whose coffins were smashed and couldn't re-enter, descending the stairs immediately.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ The stairwell had night pearls embedded at intervals, so no extra light was needed.
Thanks to them, the walls revealed murals of Li Clan luminaries: Qin’s Li Xin, Han’s Li Guang, Tang Emperor Taizong Li Shimin.
No traps.
- Seems the Li Clan made this.
"Yeah? Probably for storing tablets and scrolls if the mountain burns."
From the murals, Master and I deduced the underground space was built by the Li Clan, not the cult.
But demonic hands had touched it too.
"This iron-tang leaking from inside is probably Guo Sahong's doing."
Something was there—the fishy blood scent thickened as we advanced.
Edging forward cautiously,
a precisely fitted iron door appeared.
Screeech-
Pushing it open revealed a spacious chamber, blood stench assaulting the nose, and a single jade coffin.
- That coffin's the source.
"So the rampaging blood corpse puppets rumor was false."
One coffin meant one puppet, lid intact—no rampage.
"...Then only the 'under research' part was true?"
Still wary, I cautiously opened the jade coffin.
"As expected, incomplete."
No rampage, as anticipated.
Rampage required a certain completion stage.
"Absorption only at thirty percent."
Ears and eyes sealed with wax, steeped in blood—far from finished.
Confirming that, I drew a magic circle on the basement floor with Regret.
Shh- Shh-
Swish swish-
Sheathing Regret at my waist,
I bowed twice deeply to the jade coffin.
Watching from my waist, Master asked,
- What are you doing?
"If it were complete, I'd hand it to the Murim Alliance or Professor Yeonghwan. But unfinished—it'll rot without fresh grudge blood. I can't supply that or return it to the cult."
- So?
'Can't let those sacrifices die in vain by rotting it. I'll absorb it. Paying respects first.'
- ...Absorb that?
'Yep. Watch.'
Answering Master and finishing the bows, I drew inner energy from my upper dantian into my palms,
pressed them together prayer-like, then parted.
Hummm-
A black yin pearl formed in my hands.
I tossed it atop the jade coffin and spoke.
"Go to a good place."
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ Meanwhile, thick blood stench wafted from the Li estate too.
Jeonghyeon, arriving with Jegal Seolji and Eon Yong-myeong, felt his heart sink at the forcibly opened gates and lined corpses.
Clang! Clang!! Clangclangclang!!!
But weapon clashes from within sparked paradoxical hope, spurring him inside.
Crossing the threshold, familiar faces appeared.
Swoooosh!
Boom! Boom! Kaboomblooey!!!
No Sam fiercely exchanged palm strikes with Old Madman, who led troops from the ancestral graves.
Swoosh!
Whoosh!
Woo Soreung blocked black-clad soldiers from interfering with No Sam and Old Madman's duel with her signature footwork and swift sword.
Behind, on the bridge to the inner garden—mandatory path—Deokgeun of the Shaanxi Branch and Cheon Jangho fought desperately.
'Professor first!'
Jeonghyeon exchanged glances with Jegal Seolji and Eon Yong-myeong,
then attacked Old Madman together.
Caught off-guard, Old Madman retracted his palm and retreated.
"Disciples of the old beggar?"
With a breather, No Sam spoke.
"Where's the Eon punk? Why only you?"
"......"
Jeonghyeon choked on words,
as did Eon Yong-myeong, mumbling.
Jegal Seolji bluntly reported from the graves.
"Another demon at the graves. Peak transcendent-level master. Mid-joint assault, a corpse puppet emerged from the hall."
"Joint assault? I told you and Shaanxi Golden Peng Elder to retreat if dangerous?!"
"We'll take punishment gladly. Anyway, must aid Yong-un. He claimed solo hold with perfect Corpse Puppet Theory score..."
Then.
As Jegal continued,
Old Madman sneered.
"Heh. Perfect Corpse Puppet Theory?"
A firework shot from beyond Deokgeun and Cheon Jangho toward the inner garden.
Phiew! Boom!!!
No Sam ground his teeth.
"...Dying to rush there, but as you see, no spare energy. Eon sent you for reason. Confident, and thinks defending estate priority."
Air grew heavy, but No Sam pressed rapidly,
pointing to the firework origin.
"Go there now. That's Gold Chief Steward's emergency signal."
The trio gravely nodded,
hurrying toward it.
In the arrived garden, Gold Chief Steward battled two beast-like freaks from Jinseong Fortress.
Kraa!
Kraaaah!!!
Jeonghyeon sword-stepped at the one targeting Gold Chief Steward's back.
Chasing Jeonghyeon, Eon Yong-myeong and Jegal Seolji thrust fist and sword.
Boom!!!
Gold Chief Steward swung wide, freed.
Boom!!!!!
The freaks flew left and right, embedding in walls.
Catching breath, Gold Chief Steward spoke.
"Knew Professor's side risky, but if I died here, guests and Estate Lord in rear garden endangered—no martial arts folk. Had to signal. Thanks—breather. All safe."
"All" excluded lone Eon Yong-un at graves.
Before topic shift, Jegal spoke.
"Yes. We'll take left one; you right."
"Careful. Killed one, chased other—met both. Neither easy. As yesterday, early barrages near sword aura."
Watching,
Jeonghyeon recalled Jegal's teary eyes en route.
'Jegal's boiling inside yet handles coldly.'
Then what can I do?
'No—what should I do.'
This moment.
Thick haze coiled around Jeonghyeon's gripped Songmun Sword.