Chapter 228
Chapter 228
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 228
Chapter Title: Mountain of the Cultivators (2)
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Arhat.
A group of ascetics called Nahans for short.
The meaning behind that name was far from insignificant.
The ultimate ideal any ascetic could hope to reach.
A title bestowed upon those who honed their pure skills to perfect enlightenment.
No one knew exactly where or how it had originated.
But one thing was certain.
'They stand in opposition to the demons.'
The Arhats were a group at the complete opposite end of the spectrum from demons.
Demons despised that name with a passion.
And Park Chan-woo had heard about the "First Arhat" before.
'The Pandarian King I met in the Temple of Death. He mistook me for the First Heavenly Demon.'
Heavenly Demon!
One of the former masters of the Demon-Sealing God and the First Arhat.
Charpham harbored deep-seated rage toward the Heavenly Demon.
Probably because the Heavenly Demon had sealed away Charpham, who was an outer god.
And in the Temple of Death, the Pandarian King had said the last survivor of Pandaria was on the "Mountain of the Cultivators."
-The last survivor of Pandaria awaits on the Mountain of the Cultivators, where the Arhats gather. Please pass along a single message: "You were right."
With those words, the Pandarian King handed Park Chan-woo the "Radiant Sage's Stone" and vanished on his own.
'I didn't expect to arrive here so soon.'
Who could have guessed the "Land of the Golden Sun" was the Mountain of the Cultivators?
If this was truly where the Arhats gathered, then humanity's first approach was at hand.
Park Chan-woo slowly scanned his surroundings.
'The deepest part.'
It was a place like a pitch-black cave.
A foul, cloying humidity permeated the air.
It hardly deserved to be called a mountain.
There wasn't even a hint of life, let alone any sign of human presence.
It felt like somewhere far below the mountain, in a spot no one ever sought out.
Shuuuung-
Suddenly, a streak of blue light shot from his pocket, illuminating the center of the cave.
'The Radiant Sage's Stone is showing the way.'
He took the Sage's Stone out of his inventory.
The beam of light grew even brighter.
The Sage's Stone had been crafted from the Pandarian King's "Jewel of Wisdom."
The Jewel of Wisdom was a treasure of insight that could read all things in the universe—a repository every demon coveted.
Infused with the Pandarian King's essence and soul, it was surely guiding him to the "last survivor."
Park Chan-woo slowly followed the light deeper into the dark cave.
The cave seemed endless.
No matter how far he walked—and walked—it felt like he was going in circles, trapped in the same spot.
The scenery kept repeating endlessly.
But little by little, as he passed certain sections, tiny things began to change—one, two at a time.
He'd return to the same spot, but now there was a new scratch on the cave wall that hadn't been there before.
Or a pebble's position had shifted slightly.
Changes so subtle that unless you memorized every detail precisely, you'd miss them entirely.
And all these changes pointed to one conclusion.
'A kind of wandering barrier... a labyrinth.'
A wandering maze designed to make anyone who entered roam eternally.
But he was certain he was on the right path.
The Sage's Stone couldn't possibly be leading him astray.
There had to be some kind of pattern to escape.
'Bigger than any wandering maze I've experienced.'
But the problem was its scale.
He had encountered "wandering mazes" a few times in past created Abysses, but nothing on this level.
He had been walking for hours upon hours, yet he kept looping through the same areas.
Hours in name only—he couldn't even track the flow of time accurately anymore.
An ordinary person would have lost their mind long ago.
'The way the same spots keep repeating... this place is vicious.'
Just to be safe, the marks he'd carved into the walls kept reappearing cyclically.
And not just that.
As he passed the same section again, a new change appeared—one he hadn't seen before.
Words were etched into the wall, ones he hadn't carved.
Now faded, but clearly written in blood, filling the wall.
—Save me
—Please let me out of here!
—Why did you lock me in this place?
—Let me out let me out let me out let me out let me out let me out let me out let me out let me out let me out let me out let me out let me out let me out let me out let me out let me out let me out let me out let me out let me out let me out
...Madness incarnate.
Only then did he realize.
'A prison.'
This cave was a prison crafted to instill despair in those trapped inside.
But who made it, and for what purpose?
Mountain of the Cultivators.
Why would ascetics with transcendent minds create such a vicious place?
He passed through the madness-filled section.
After a certain distance, the same spot reappeared.
But the words etched there were different.
—Do you think you can keep me locked up forever!
—I'll smash everything. I'll kill them all.
—Divine Technique completion is at hand! I'll blow this entire cave to oblivion and become the true supreme being!
Seemed like a different person from the one who wrote the previous words.
And it wasn't just the writing that had changed.
A skull lay slumped against the wall.
The author of those words, perhaps?
With its head smashed, it looked like the owner had despaired, thrashed about, then bashed their own skull against the wall to end it all.
"Divine Technique."
A tattered book lay at the skeleton's waist.
A book titled only with those two words.
He pulled it out and opened it. Pages upon pages detailed martial arts.
"...Impressive."
Even at a glance, it was martial arts of an extraordinary caliber.
Raw insights and studies on the martial way, preserved as-is.
He could tell just how mighty its creator had been without ever meeting them.
In fact, it felt like he already had.
...The handwriting matched. Probably this skeleton.
He pored over the book intently for a long while.
Then.
Just from reading the book, his stats had increased.
If simply reading it did this much, how great a change would come from fully comprehending it?
But when he reached the end, the final page was blank.
'Not complete?'
Had they died before finishing it?
What a shame.
It felt like only the final page would tie it all together.
Everything before was mere preparation for that last page.
Without reading the whole thing, grasping the full context was impossible.
He slowly closed the book.
In that instant.
Swipe.
Swipe. Swipe.
"......"
The title "Divine Technique" faded away.
And new words appeared above it.
—Even if completed, you can't escape.
Bloody letters steeped in resentment.
That seemed to be why they'd given up on completion.
Right on the verge, they'd realized escape was impossible even then—and abandoned it all.
Park Chan-woo's expression hardened.
For a being capable of compiling martial arts of this level into a book to give up...
This prison was no joke.
The insights left behind reached levels even his past self couldn't achieve.
Profound and subtle realms he hadn't touched yet.
'Meaning the one who built this maze is even more extraordinary.'
A flicker of doubt arose.
Was he truly on the right path?
Could he rely on the Radiant Sage's Jewel to find the exit?
He shook his head to dismiss it.
There were no other options right now.
He pocketed the book and pressed on to the next area.
"What a vicious hell this is."
Chronos clicked his tongue.
Even he, who commanded evil spirits, found the cave's cruelty excessive.
"Each section is roughly a thousand steps. We've passed over 5,000 already. Excluding repeats, that's nearly 2,000 unique areas. To reach the single correct path, you'd have to surpass nearly infinite possibilities."
A mad cave.
It twisted and tangled like an ant colony.
Designed so once trapped, escape was impossible.
"The creator of this cave is no genius."
Chronos tsked.
It was filled only with malice.
No way to force through or break out.
His sense of time had long vanished.
But it wasn't entirely fruitless.
'Some seriously skilled people got trapped here.'
Of course, they were all dead now.
Instead, Park Chan-woo had encountered their martial arts legacies.
Sometimes on walls, sometimes in books, sometimes carved into their own bones.
Like secret manuals, perhaps.
He'd found nine skeletons so far, and encountering their martial arts felt like an awakening.
But he couldn't accept them easily.
They all shared one trait.
'All demonic arts.'
Contents on handling sinister, demonic powers.
Studies unfit for the Arhats' name.
Were they locked here for touching forbidden powers during cultivation?
Yet their realms seemed far more advanced despite imprisonment.
Just seeing their secret manuals made unseen truths visible.
And though born from demonic arts, at deeper levels, they felt purely transcendent.
Park Chan-woo shrugged and kept walking.
In the next section, the "tenth" skeleton appeared.
'Not a skeleton...'
Emaciated without a scrap of flesh.
It looked no different from a skeleton.
'......Alive.'
The first one.
A living person.
"Be careful."
Chronos warned cautiously.
But he sensed nothing.
Alive in the barest sense.
A breathing corpse.
No reaction even as he approached.
The old man stared at the floor, head bowed low.
His eyes held no light.
As if he'd forsaken and despaired of everything long ago.
Only one thing: a worn ring on his finger.
'Heavenly Demon?'
......The characters "Heavenly Demon" engraved on the ring.
It made no sense.
One of the former owners of the Demon-Sealing God's chalice.
The very one who sealed the dimensional encounter Charpham, the monster who could hunt outer gods bursting from great rifts!
...Could that Heavenly Demon be this old man?