Chapter 89: Stranded in Winter (3)
Chapter 89: Stranded in Winter (3)
The Sixth Heaven Esoteric Buddhism has no interest in the Central Plains' martial world. To be more precise, it would be more accurate to say they have no intention of expanding there.
The Tianshan Mountains, which they occupy, are located at the heart of the Western Regions' Silk Road, and the area surrounding Tianshan isn't even Han Chinese territory. They are closer to a foreign sect that remains almost entirely untouched by the influence of Han nations.
Simply by maintaining their cities with the vast desert as their backyard, they can claim the enormous wealth of the Silk Road. In truth, a city ruled by the most powerful figure in the vicinity becomes an attractive stopover for anyone.
Thus, the Sixth Heaven Esoteric Buddhism feels no need to attempt an incursion into the Central Plains.
However, because there are more than enough Han Chinese eyeing their wealth and power, they make sure to plant plenty of spies within the Han territories of the Central Plains.
Some of these spies disguised themselves by establishing sects within the Orthodox Faction.
Others formed small gangs under the banner of the Black Path Demonic Alliance.
And some live as commoners, running merchant guilds or escort agencies.
Among them were those under the Black Path Demonic Alliance.
Battle Ghost Yeom A-seon and Little Monster Jeong Ryang-in had recently received a special secret order from the Supreme Master.
—Kill every woman who approaches the youngest young master of the Hebei Peng Family, Peng Hyeon-hwi.
They had no idea what kind of command this was, but it’s worth noting that they faced many hurdles just moving to carry it out.
"Wait, he went to Beijing?"
"Already?"
Since they were disguised as Black Path martial artists, it wasn't difficult to obtain information that the youngest of the Peng Family was in Tianjin. They arrived in Tianjin, spent several days gathering intel, only to hear that Peng Hyeon-hwi had already left.
"Wait, he went back to the Peng Family?"
"Already?"
And when they arrived in Beijing, they heard he had already returned to the family estate. Since they couldn't exactly hop over the walls of the Great Hebei Peng Family, they had to lie in wait near the Peng Family district for a long time.
When Peng Hyeon-hwi showed no sign of stepping outside the gate no matter how long they waited, they took a risk and approached the Peng Family's servants to get information.
"No!! He went back to Tianjin!!"
"ALREADY!!"
At this point, they began to wonder if they should be cutting off Peng Hyeon-hwi's legs instead of the women approaching him as they headed back to Tianjin.
After scouring the vast city of Tianjin like they were hunting rats, the conclusion they reached was...
"That! Son! Of! A! He took a boat!"
"ALREADY!!!"
He had boarded a ship bound for Nanjing the very day he arrived.
Though they ground their teeth hard enough to shatter them, the Supreme Master's command was the most important thing under heaven.
These two loyal Peak Realm masters immediately sprinted along the Grand Canal starting from Tianjin Port, using their Lightness Arts.
Finally.
By sprinting alone, they managed to close the several-day gap.
"Isn't that the Heavenly Roar Fist?"
"Is that boat... the one the Peng Family brat is supposed to be on?"
They witnessed the ship being smashed to pieces right before their eyes.
"Tsk. You stay hidden here for now and try to recover the body."
"And you?"
"I saw a few people escaping over there; they might still be alive. I'll search that way. Once that old man, the Fist King, leaves, search the area and report to the Supreme Master."
"Tsk. Contact me if anything happens."
"Right. I'll send a letter to the safe house in twenty days."
The two sworn brothers scattered.
Battle Ghost Yeom A-seon began searching the wreckage of the inn-ship on the Grand Canal, looking for even a corpse of Peng Hyeon-hwi.
Little Monster Jeong Ryang-in began scouring the vicinity, following the tracks of those who had escaped.
About two days had passed.
"What's going on now?"
Jeong Ryang-in realized that every path leading from this area to other urban centers was closed.
Not in a physical sense, but in a spiritual one.
—Kee-hee-hee-hee—.
"This is the sorcery of the Ghost Gate Meridian."
He tore a talisman off a narrow path at the foot of the mountain and burned it. The minor ghosts wailing around him vanished instantly.
"A sorcery that can only be maintained for three days at most. Were they targeting Peng Hyeon-hwi? There's no other reason for this."
They smashed the ship Peng Hyeon-hwi was on, and since he might have escaped, they sealed off the entire surrounding area with sorcery—it made sense.
Martial artists below the Peak Realm wouldn't be able to escape this level of sorcery easily, and Peng Hyeon-hwi's level was known to be First-Rate.
Achieving First-Rate at that age was certainly not insignificant, but First-Rate was still just First-Rate.
To kill such a person, they caused a disturbance of this scale? And even the Fist King, one of the Four Great Orthodox Clans' masters, personally stepped in to handle it?
The Grand Canal was certainly a territory where the Dragon Slaying Alliance held sway, but it remained a piece of the Ming Imperial Court's infrastructure.
Even if the head of the Jinzhou Eon Family personally attacked such a place, wouldn't he be inevitably offending the Imperial Court?
"Are they preparing for a sect war? Has the Jinzhou Eon Family joined hands with the Ghost Gate Meridian?"
The fact that the Jinzhou Eon Family and the Jongri Family had clashed with the Murong Family in Tianjin had not yet spread through the Martial World.
The fact that a direct descendant of the Murong Family was on that ship was a Murong Family secret.
Even the Fist King, Eon Do-cheon, didn't know that Peng Hyeon-hwi had been caught in his fist strike. (Though he would have enjoyed it more if he had known.)
Regardless, based on the limits of the information Little Monster Jeong Ryang-in could gather at the scene, this was his best conclusion.
"I'll have to report this to the Supreme Master."
Jeong Ryang-in furrowed his brows and removed a few more talismans left on the mountain path. He couldn't dismantle the entire sorcery, but he figured he could at least leave a gap for Peng Hyeon-hwi to survive if he happened to approach this direction.
"A-A-Achoo!"
Murong Cheong walked while clinging to my back, shivering. Half of it was from the cold, and the other half was from fear. She had only just recovered her condition, and we had both been on empty stomachs for a while.
They say a person can survive three hours without warmth and three days without food.
For a martial artist, the time they can endure is actually a bit shorter. Even if they can endure the cold by circulating internal energy, unless they've mastered something like the Turtle Breathing Art, a martial artist's caloric consumption cannot be maintained without a fairly high-calorie diet.
In other words, both she and I were reaching our physical limits. Especially in the middle of this horror attraction where ghosts were flying around and corpses were dangling from trees.
"Why does this happen every time I set out into the world?"
"H-hiccup! Me too. It's the same for me. And in every journey into the Martial World, I've been entangled with y-you. This is largely your fault."
"Honestly, besides the time in Shanxi, it was more like I got entangled with you in Qinghe County."
"Sniff!"
"Don't sniffle. It's gross."
The girl really lacks a sense of hygiene.
At my words, Murong Cheong gave my back a sharp smack. Fortunately, she seemed to be feeling a bit better than before. Just a moment ago, she had fainted standing up the moment she saw a ghost's face, but now she was just ignoring them.
We kept talking to each other as we moved. If one of us stopped talking for even a moment, we forced ourselves to chatter on.
"In L-Liaoning, this is how we do it. If you're stranded in the f-freezing winter, your companion must keep talking to you. Y-you have to keep talking too. Not just me."
So she says.
It seemed like a good idea for several reasons, so I played along. We could keep each other's spirits up, and in Murong Cheong's case, it helped her forget her fear.
After some time had passed, I came to a sudden halt, and Murong Cheong's forehead bumped into my back with a soft thud.
"Ack, what? What is it all of a sudden?"
"Shh."
"You're scaring m-me...!"
Murong Cheong clung to my back, trembling. Regardless, I stood still and slowly glared into the darkness beyond the forest path.
We were wandering the same space over and over. In other words, we were trapped in a formation. It was no use trying to find anything unusual while moving. In fact, this entire mountain path was unusual.
How could a place where ghostly wails echoed, apparitions moved at the edge of your vision, and trees with the same corpse hanging from them appeared repeatedly be normal?
I didn't even know much about formations. They were considered "miscellaneous arts," so my family didn't teach them.
However, suddenly, I felt a burning sensation at the back of my head.
"Look at that."
"What—Hieeeek!! It's a g-g-ghost!! You crazy Peng Family Black Path scoundrel! Why would you make me look at a g-ghost—!"
"No, look closely. I'm serious."
"Uuuugh... h-hic... if it's nothing special, you're really going to die!"
Clinging tightly to my arm, Murong Cheong barely managed to lift her eyes and glare into the bushes beside the mountain path.
An apparition with flickering red eyes was smiling at her.
Seeing that, the top of my head began to itch. A stifling feeling, a sense of being suppressed somewhere...
Shring.
I drew my blade while Murong Cheong was still attached to me. As I walked toward the apparition with sword in hand, Murong Cheong's face turned pale. Despite that, she didn't let go of my arm or run away.
She stared at my face for a moment, then sighed and drew her own sword.
"You're not running?"
"Where would I go and leave you behind? And if you've been possessed by a minor ghost, someone needs to be here to stop you. So, w-hic, what is that thing?"
"It's suspicious, but it's just a hunch."
I walked toward the apparition with the flickering red eyes and swung my blade.
Naturally, there was no sensation beyond cutting through a shadow. There was no feeling of the blade making contact. The ghostly figure, now right in front of me, grinned at me.
At that moment, the heat at the top of my head vanished. A sensation of refreshing clarity washed over me. A feeling that absolutely did not fit this situation.
"It was a fake."
"Pardon?"
I ignored Murong Cheong's question. I pulled my left arm free from her grasp and, with my gauntleted hand, reached out and grabbed the apparition by the throat.
It felt like running my hand through a cold stream. Just as I thought I couldn't catch anything—
Crack!
A thin branch snapped under my hand.
—Kee-hee-hee-hee...
With a faint laugh, the shadow of the ghostly figure scattered.
I looked at Murong Cheong while holding a red lantern with a talisman attached to it.
"Found it. The formation."
"H-how...? How did you know?"
"Hunch."
After crushing the red lantern with a crunch, I turned my gaze.
I could see the red eyes of other apparitions embedded all throughout the bushes.
"Walking along the path was a mistake from the start. It's too obvious."
"And they put ghosts all outside the path so we wouldn't even think of escaping elsewhere."
"It's even more effective when you hang a human corpse right there. It makes you feel like you'll die if you leave the path. At least staying on the path makes it look safe since the ghosts don't attack."
"Is this the work of the Mount Mao Sect? I heard most sorcerers who command ghosts are from Mount Mao."
"No. To my eyes, this is the Ghost Gate Meridian."
Heavenly Roar Fist Eon Do-cheon ambushed us to prevent the Murong Family from participating in the Dragon-Phoenix Gathering.
Before that, the Jinzhou Eon Family had joined hands with the Jongri Family.
The Jongri Family is one of the Ten Great Sects of the Black Dao belonging to the Chongqing Ten Thousand Ghosts Alliance.
And since the other sects belonging to the Ten Thousand Ghosts Alliance include the Ten Thousand Swords Hall and the Ghost Gate Meridian—
"If we assume the Jinzhou Eon Family joined hands with the Ghost Gate Meridian through the Jongri Family, it's not that strange."
"Then this must be a kind of Heaven-Slaying Net."
"Yeah, their intention is likely to cleanly erase any remnants who survived the ambush and escaped. Any master strong enough to break through this would have been hunted down and killed by that old man Eon Do-cheon, and any other survivors would freeze to death inside this formation."
Before I knew it, Murong Cheong had forgotten her fear. With a grim face, she had drawn a thin rapier in each hand.
"How much longer can you hold out?"
"Who knows."
We had found an escape route, but as is usually the case with formations, escaping is more dangerous than being inside.
If that spot was the only 'Life Gate' of the formation, it stood to reason they wouldn't have left it unguarded.
How strong would a sorcerer be who could set up and maintain a formation of this scale? Well, I wasn't sure since I wasn't well-versed in miscellaneous arts, but they certainly wouldn't be some village shaman.
Murong Cheong saw my expression, smirked, and said, "I don't know how much longer I can hold out, but at the very least, I won't let you die alone."
"Well, that's certainly encouraging."
I meant it.
Murong Cheong and I continued walking through the forest, constantly talking to each other. This time, we didn't ignore or avoid the ghosts; we broke them one by one, disrupting the axes of the formation.
And finally.
In the darkest hour of dawn, just before sunrise, we found the final axis of the formation.
"At this point, I'm confident I could eat plain noodles boiled in water and find them delicious."
"I want to take a bath in hot water first. Why are there no bathtubs in Central Plains inns? It is difficult to understand the barbaric and unhygienic customs of the Han people who neglect washing their bodies."
"They usually aren't in common inns."
I once reflected that in medieval China, almost everything already existed, so there was nothing for me to do. It's a society where umbrellas, soap, and gunpowder are already sufficiently distributed, so it can't be helped.
But there is one thing even medieval China lacks: a water and sewage system. In truth, except for Rome, no place in this era has such a thing, so it's not medieval China's fault.
The problem is that I don't know how to build a water system either. As I've said repeatedly, I'm a liberal arts graduate who failed to find a job after majoring in Political Science and Diplomacy.
Regardless, in an urban inn without running water, taking a leisurely bath is quite difficult. Especially for a young lady of a noble family.
"Anyway, let's get out of here. A village shouldn't be too far away."
I said, placing my hand on a fairly large wooden tower that looked like it had been built recently. It was covered in talismans, and the ghostly wails echoing around it were a bit unsettling.
It looked like some trigger item for summoning a boss monster.
Rip.
It didn't take long to tear off the talismans and smash it with a punch. As expected, the chilling energy in the air dissipated significantly, and the forest began to brighten.
The snowfall slowly subsided. It wasn't that the formation itself had manipulated the weather to summon wind and rain, but rather that the day was clearing as the sun rose. Anyway.
"Alright, let's push through just a bit more. Okay?"
When I turned around after saying that, Murong Cheong was staring somewhere with a stiff expression.
"What's wrong?"
"Something is coming."
"What?"
Since there might be side effects to smashing a sinister-looking ritual object, I had kept Murong Cheong behind me just in case. I also needed her to stand guard while I dismantled the formation.
Therefore, I was the only one whose senses had been dulled by the energy flowing out of that ritual object. When I turned my gaze toward where Murong Cheong was looking, something was definitely approaching at a fast pace.
A Taoist in a deep blue robe, with a face so pale it looked blue, was approaching by leaping from tree to tree.
"Yeah, I figured it was going too smoothly."
"I'm not confident in dealing with sorcerers."
"I'm confident on that front, so it's fine. Stay back."
I walked in front of Murong Cheong and rested my blade on my shoulder. Seeing this, the Taoist stopped on a tree branch a short distance away and looked down at me.
"So you're the mongrel who's been going around breaking the ritual arrays in this area."
"...?"
The middle-aged Taoist frowned as he looked down at me.
"Hmm... your internal energy doesn't look like much, so you must be a practitioner. Are you from the Mount Mao Sect?"
"...??"
"Are you going to play dumb?"
The Taoist leaped down lightly to the ground, a talisman held in his palm.
"With your level, you shouldn't be able to dismantle my ritual arrays. I already know everything, so don't act coy. Why is the Mount Mao Sect interfering with our business? No, how did you even find out?"
"There's, uh, been a misunderstanding."
No, wait.
As a righteous and upright scholar, I was about to correct the misunderstanding, but I quickly changed my mind.
If he's misunderstood, isn't that better for me?
I cleared my throat and slowly tilted my head. I spoke in the most plausible tone possible, lowering my voice.
"Why has the Ghost Gate Meridian joined hands with the Fist King? Do you not know that the Martial Alliance will designate the Jinzhou Eon Family as a public enemy?"
"Ha. The Martial Alliance. What can those lazy pigs do? The Fist King has gladly agreed to join forces with the Ten Thousand Ghosts Alliance. Aren't you lot also here hoping for a piece of the pie?"
"Do you dare insult my sect?"
"Does the Mount Mao Sect have any dignity left to insult?"
Okay. It wasn't just a temporary technical cooperation between Eon Do-cheon and the Jongri Family. He was trying to bring the entire Jinzhou Eon Family into the Black Path Demonic Alliance?
And if they join the Chongqing Ten Thousand Ghosts Alliance faction...
'Another seat will be added to the Five Tyrants of the Unorthodox Path.'
Among the Five Tyrants of the Fifteen Armies of the World, two belong to the Ten Thousand Ghosts Alliance faction.
Sword Demon Sa Mun-hyeok of the Ten Thousand Swords Hall, and Divine Spear Baek Won-gyeol, the Lord of the Ghost Gate Meridian.
If the Fist King—Eon Do-cheon—joins them, it wouldn't be a far-fetched dream for the Chongqing Ten Thousand Ghosts Alliance to become the largest of the three major factions of the Black Path.
No matter how much people prayed for the Jinzhou Eon Family's downfall, it was once a great sect included among the Five Great Clans. Furthermore, Eon Do-cheon is a master who can be counted on one hand even in the Orthodox Faction.
'If the Fist King joins hands with the Chongqing Ten Thousand Ghosts Alliance, the Martial Alliance will definitely issue an execution order.'
From the Martial Alliance's perspective, they would be angrier at the Jinzhou Eon Family—who sucked up Orthodox resources only to suddenly fall into the Black Path—than at someone who was a villain from the start.
Furthermore, considering the Murong Family's political maneuvering, there's no way to stop the Jinzhou Eon Family's destruction.
Thinking that far, the situation felt a bit strange. Why did the Fist King appear and act personally? Even while bearing the burden of causing such a large-scale incident?
'Even if Murong Jeon and Murong Cheong had died there, it would have only bought them time.'
The moment their deaths were confirmed, the Murong Family would stop at nothing. Since the Fist King appeared here, the Murong Family's maritime fleet can enter Jiangnan without any interference.
Then, they would advance from Jiangnan along the Yangtze River to Wuchang without any obstacles. Everything would be over within a month at most.
One month.
If we had moved according to plan, the time needed until the Jinzhou Eon Family was denounced at the Martial Alliance gathering in Wuchang was ten days. In other words, by attacking us, the Fist King had only bought twenty days at most.
It's a predetermined destruction. The Fist King's best option would have been to immediately lead his family to the Martial Alliance gathering to beg for forgiveness, or to flee and hide somewhere with his kin. That was the only way to preserve the family line.
Instead, he acted openly.
Twenty days.
Is there a way to reverse the situation within that time?
"What are you thinking so hard about?"
"Ah? Sorry. I had something to think about for a second. Where were we?"
"Truly absurd. It seems the Mount Mao Sect is doomed as well. Has your influence declined so much that you'd dispatch a fledgling like you?"
Our talkative friend smiled thinly and gripped his talisman.
"Enough. I'll just capture and kill you, then ask your soul."
"Why do you have to say such scary things?"
I scraped together the remaining internal energy in my Dantian and smiled back.
"You'll be quite embarrassed if you die instead."
"Where do you get such confidence...?"
Crackle.
I raised my gauntleted left hand and placed it over my heart.
I stiffened my fingers and struck five acupoints on my chest simultaneously.
Crackle, zap—
I channeled the gathered internal energy into my Middle Dantian.
The energy that surged through the Middle Dantian headed straight for my right arm and immediately flowed into the blade.
Suppressing the agonizing pain of my acupoints burning, I stood my ground.
"Astral Energy...?!"
Hearing Murong Cheong's stifled scream behind me, the pain seemed to fade just a little.
“An Astral Energy Skill...?! No, that’s impossible. All I could sense from you was... How could someone your age possibly be in the Peak Realm...?”
I took a step toward my confused Taoist friend.
“Peek-a-boo.”
I raised my saber and—
“A saber, a gauntlet, and a technique that manipulates lightning... The Hebei Peng Family!! How the hell are the Pengs here?!”
“Confucius always said one shouldn’t speak of the supernatural.”
I brought the blade crashing down.