Chapter 161
Chapter 161: End of Act 1 (4), New Beginning - New Murim (2)
I lost.
I died.
However, the whisper remains.
[Kill them. Kill them all.]
***
Thud! Crash!
"Ugh, ughaaagh."
Boulders larger than a person's height piled up in the gorge. The massive stones were so large that dozens of slaves had to pull them with ropes to barely move them. Their backs were drenched in sweat, and their palms bled from rope burns.
One laborer who couldn't dodge in time was crushed to death by a stone, but no one cared. The overseers said even dragging out the corpse was a waste of time and simply buried it beneath the stone. Anyway, countless slaves died in this place. Such things had already become routine.
Kong Na-chu looked down at the scene from a large pavilion built atop a cliff on one side of the gorge but his eyes held no emotion whatsoever. It was not different from observing ants at work.
Rustle.
At that moment, a shadow secretly appeared behind him. It was Old Uncle.
Kong Na-chu spoke without turning around.
"Old Uncle."
"Speak, Palace Lord."
"Did that child leave safely?"
"Yes, Palace Lord."
"Did you confirm it with your own eyes?"
"No."
"Then how can you be so certain?"
"I went to that place."
"That place?"
"The site where the Murim Alliance stood."
"What was it like there?"
"Aside from frozen wasteland and hundreds of corpses buried there, it has disappeared from the earth's surface."
"Are you certain?"
"Yes, Palace Lord."
"I see. It's unfortunate for that child, but it's what's best for the world. Isn't that so?"
"......"
Old Uncle couldn't answer. To him, Yeon Yeong-ha was an object of terror, but on the other hand, she was also his lord and an object of pity. A pitiful being born with the fate of a monster.
"If you don't think so, it can't be helped. Either way, your true lord is me."
"......Yes, Palace Lord."
"The world needed to fall once anyway. It had already rotted to the core. I merely borrowed the hands and feet of a monster to strangle the world's neck and trip its feet to bring it down."
"......"
"Besides, didn't I remove that monster from the world as well? From what you've told me, there was another monster at that place, making what I did even more beneficial for this world."
"Yes, Palace Lord. That is so."
Thud, Aaaagh!
Along with Old Uncle's response, another slave was crushed by a stone and became a lonely soul. But Kong Na-chu's eyes didn't waver in the slightest.
After watching the Ten Thousand meters Great Wall for about an hour more, Kong Na-chu turned around.
"I have a place to visit briefly, so wait here."
Kong Na-chu disappeared from that place while hearing Old Uncle's response.
The place he headed to was the Nine-Layer Prison temporarily installed here. In these times when every bit of manpower was precious, this prison was the very first structure built in this location. At first, the masters of Hall of Gathering Evil thought it would imprison masters who had surrendered from Heavenly Demon Castle.
But in reality, this prison was designed for only one person and wasn't even someone from Heavenly Demon Castle's side. Only Kong Na-chu knew his identity, and he hadn't revealed it to anyone.
Step, step.
Kong Na-chu walked without stopping until he passed through eight prison gates. As he appeared, the jailers moved busily and opened doors in sync with his movements.
Various mechanical devices were installed between the eight prison gates, but they posed no problem for Kong Na-chu. Because he was the designer of those mechanisms.
It took a full hour just for him to pass through the eight prison gates—that's how large the Nine-Layer Prison's scale was.
Rumble.
At the end, Kong Na-chu finally arrived at the end of the Nine-Layer Prison. There was one massive iron door. It seemed easily nine meters tall and the width also easily exceeded three meters. What was even more tremendous was that its thickness was also over two inches and its material wasn't ordinary iron but Cold Iron.
There were no jailers there. This was a space only he could enter and exit. The entry formation pattern engraved here was also installed directly by him.
Grrrrrrrrrr.......
Kong Na-chu opened the iron door using the door-opening method known only to him. With a tremendous sound, the center of the iron door split and opened backward.
Kong Na-chu stepped inside.
The inside of the iron door was naturally an extension of the prison.
It was dark and gloomy, but judging by how Kong Na-chu's footsteps faintly spread and returned, it was a considerably wide and precisely sealed space.
Step, step.
He walked fearlessly into the dark space with his hands clasped behind his back. And soon reached its end again.
"Heh heh heh. Why have you come again?"
A rough, gravelly voice—like speaking with a handful of sand in one's mouth—greeted Kong Na-chu. The man who had been stuck in the underground cavity beneath Heavenly Evil Tower in Yunnan was bound in the same wretched state as before. This massive Nine-Layer Prison had been created specifically for this one man.
Kong Na-chu unclasped his hands and bowed his head to him before raising it.
"I schemed for the world."
"Heh heh heh. This is scheming for the world? The one who supposedly held the world in his hands is holed up in this remote frontier?"
"I merely schemed for the world; that world is not yet in a usable state. It will need time for purification. It's not yet in a state to receive the teachings of the Cult."
"Purification? Is it purification for the land to become uninhabitable by humans?"
"That is correct. Only when all current humans are gone can the world transform into one where proper humans can live again."
Kong Na-chu was unwavering. His faith had no tremor.
Fire blazed to the heavens in the Cult Leader's glaring eyes.
"But tell me, did you confirm it?"
"What do you mean?"
"Yeong-ha—that child's death. Whether that child truly died."
"Didn't you say before, Cult Leader? The subject of the incomplete Eight Desolations Heaven-Defying Great Method would die while expelling all energy through the eighty-four thousand pores."
"That's exactly it! I'm asking if you confirmed it with your own eyes!"
"I didn't confirm it directly. However, the one who accompanied that child said they clearly confirmed it."
"Are you certain?"
"Yes."
Kong Na-chu trusted Old Uncle. Old Uncle was someone who couldn't lie to him. It was fated that way and he had never broken it even once.
"A blessing in disguise."
Even while vaguely sensing that humanity in the Central Plains was on the verge of near extinction, the strange man used the word "blessing." That's how terrifying the existence called Yeon Yeong-ha—no, the Extreme Yin Star of Heavenly Calamity—was. To him and to the world.
"Help me."
"With what?"
"We must protect the sacred land until the world is purified."
"Heh heh heh. What will you do if I say I can't?"
"......What can I do to the Cult Leader? I can only keep you quietly confined here."
"Then just quietly confine me. Don't bother with useless tricks. I answer your questions obediently only when it's something you already know or when it has no effect on the Cult's survival or demise. You already know that, don't you?"
"......"
Kong Na-chu's and the strange man's eyes met for a long while.
At some point, Kong Na-chu let out a deep sigh once and turned around to exit the prison.
The strange man, left alone, muttered while his eyes glowed in the darkness.
"Did Yeong-ha—that child—truly die? So easily? If that's truly the case, it would be a blessing in disguise...... Sacrificing to Heaven Illusion God Blood Wave Motion Desolation......"
The Lord's Prayer of the Sacrificial Illusion Blood Cult left the Central Plains and now spread widely through a remote region of Xinjiang.
***
.....
....
...
..
.
I had lost consciousness for a while.
Perhaps I had been in a state of death.
I couldn't be certain. The boundary of consciousness was ambiguous and I couldn't even tell the flow of time. It felt like slowly rising to the surface after sinking into deep water.
Like a panorama, the fight with 'him' came to mind.
I had no reason, but instinct must have left the memory.
Truly horrific yet intense, and somehow nostalgic memories. Those moments that were strangely beautiful even amid the feast of blood and slaughter. The sparks created when our swords clashed, the extreme ecstasy felt at death's boundary.
'Is he still there?'
I raised my head.
My neck was stiff and my whole body ached. The pain was of course naturally welcome. Not because I was alive. It was because of some anticipation.
Drip, drop drop.
'Rain?'
It was raining. Cold raindrops flowed down my face. That sensation touching my skin reminded me this was reality. Even in my memories there was rain, perhaps snow, or maybe even hail. Anyway, something was falling from the sky.
It seemed like a very long time had passed, but was it still the same as then?
My gaze turned forward.
'He' wasn't there. If I had regressed one day, he should be there, but he wasn't. However, 'something' was there.
Something in his place. A faint lingering trace in the air, invisible marks proving his existence. It was a subtle energy that ordinary people wouldn't feel, but to me it was too clear.
I twisted the corner of my lips so subtly and faintly that even I didn't notice.
I confirmed that he was alive, and the thought that I might be able to meet him again came to mind. This time, I would be able to have a proper fight. In my complete form, not dominated by Heavenly Calamity Energy, I would be able to face him.
"I'm still alive. I wish you would prove it to me one more time."
***
She too.......
Survived.
Now it's a new beginning.
[Kill them. Kill them all.]
She is a being who must kill someone forever unless she dies.
Unless someone stops her.
Her name is Yeon Yeong-ha.