Shadows of the Immortal Realm
Darkness blanketed the pitch-black void.
Bizarre pupils flickered into existence, floating in the empty air.
—Finally. Those Chinese bastards detonated the Ascension Fragrance project.
A muddy voice. Another pupil answered with a sly, curling smile.
—We got lucky. We kept goading them to set it off midway, yet they held out so carefully until now.
—I heard some SSS-class from Korea barged in. Could that one be a comrade of ours?
Silence stretched for a moment. The pupil that had been gathering information cooled to ice.
—The cultivators stationed near Beijing have all vanished as a group. High probability it was that Kang Hanul.
—Not an ally, then.
—Either way, it is excellent news for us right now. The dimensional veil is thinning, and the gate to the Immortal Realm is about to open.
—No. It is already as good as open.
Voices thick with certainty crossed one another. Greedy wills flooded the subspace until it felt ready to burst.
—Let us forge more elixirs with greater zeal. Cultivate and raise our realms.
—For our world.
—The roles in China and Korea remain critical. Fortune favor us.
The meeting ended. The separated space woven from immortal arts scattered like mist, revealing a penthouse in Gangnam, Seoul.
A man rose to his feet. Second son of the Iljin Group and president of Iljin Pharmaceuticals—Seomun Gyeol. His family was known as solid businessmen of Japanese origin. More precisely, they were Zainichi Koreans, descendants of a chaebol line that had built its fortune and then advanced into Korea.
Beside him an old man in a Daoist robe sat cross-legged. A cultivator from the Immortal Realm—his master, Myojin.
Seomun Gyeol had originally been neither a returnee nor an awakener. From childhood he had suffered a vicious chronic illness: the rare condition known as mana sensitivity. Even the sparse mana drifting in the air had been too much for his body; he had coughed blood constantly.
Only after meeting Myojin did he learn it was no disease at all. It was a heavenly constitution perfectly optimized for cultivation—the Myriad Spirits Control Body. The pain had simply been reverse-flowing energy that had nowhere to go because he had never known a proper circulation method.
Once he began learning cultivation under Myojin, his realm climbed vertically. He consumed elixirs refined from ground human flesh and pushed efficiency to the absolute limit. Yet the scarcity of immortal energy on this land had frozen his progress at the upper stage of Qi Condensation.
Now everything had changed. A dimensional fissure had opened.
It was only a slight gap, and it had torn open far away in Beijing, China, while he sat here in Seoul. Even so, the immortal energy already pouring into the atmosphere was on an entirely different scale from before.
“Do you feel it?”
“Yes, Master. It feels as though every meridian in my body is being forced open.”
“The barrier has loosened. Energy that never existed here is flooding in explosively.”
A cruel smile touched Myojin’s lips. Seomun Gyeol’s constitution was no longer a curse; it had become a vast black hole that drank immortal energy without end.
“Prepare yourself. Your realm will soar soon enough.”
Kang Hanul returned to the director’s office of the Hunter Special Affairs Bureau. Neatly organized stacks of documents already waited on the desk.
“Did you finish what I ordered?”
Lilith inclined her head and held out two separate bundles of profile files. The left-hand pile rose like a mountain. The right-hand pile held fewer than ten sheets.
“These are the ones who betrayed the organization in one way or another. The other side kept their loyalty to the end.”
Fewer than ten fingers’ worth of men who had not sold out. Pathetic. Hanul leafed through the short list one name at a time. A familiar one caught his eye.
Park Dojin / Former Police Officer
The same low-ranking agent who had once staggered in under a mountain of paperwork.
“I already sent the traitors to Hatchery.”
“Good.”
Lilith flipped through her pad and continued the report.
“New gates have appeared in the aftermath of Beijing—from Manchuria down through the northern Korean peninsula and even into the West Sea.”
She projected a map into the air. Crimson dots were steadily creeping south.
“We should regard it as spreading from the epicenter. They are drawing closer to Seoul.”
At that moment the large mirror hanging on one wall of the office rippled like water. Its surface blurred, and a grotesque communication line connected.
“Master! I found it out~yong!”
Hatchery’s bright, excited voice burst from the other side of the glass. Inside the mirror she was peeling off blood-soaked gloves and grinning from ear to ear.
“They’re kidnapping people, they say~yong. They snatch ordinary civilians too, but they especially sweep up anyone with mana or any awakeners.”
“Anything else?”
“Sorry~yong. Their brains popped, so I couldn’t read any more!”
Kidnappings. This was no ordinary human-trafficking ring. Hanul turned his gaze to Lilith.
“Exactly the same tricks cultivators use when they refine elixirs. The same disgusting methods I grew sick of seeing in the Immortal Realm.”
“If they have been goading China with talk of Ascension Fragrance for so long, similar disappearances must have been happening in Korea as well.”
Lilith shook her head at his observation.
“I have already reviewed and memorized every investigation file in the Special Affairs Bureau. There is nothing of the sort.”
“Isn’t the complete absence itself strange? It means they have already reached inside the Bureau.”
“I share Master’s assessment.”
The rot ran deeper than expected. Hanul looked back at Hatchery through the mirror.
“Hatchery. Those Special Affairs Bureau traitors I sent you earlier?”
“Yes! Super fresh~yong!”
“Dig through their brains as well. See if anything matches the disappearances or the deleted records Lilith mentioned.”
“Got it~yong! I’ll dig up way more useful stuff than that ajumma ever could!”
Crimson killing intent flickered in Lilith’s eyes. Invisible sparks leapt between them, a clear spark of rivalry.
“Watch that mouth, Hatchery. I am only letting it slide because Master is present.”
“Heheh, jealousy is bad for the body~yong!”
Hanul flicked a hand and crushed both of their auras flat.
“If you have time to bicker, bring me information instead.”
Lilith bowed at the waist and melted into shadow. Hatchery giggled and vanished from the mirror as well.
Park Dojin had long since forgotten what sleep felt like. He had joined the Hunter Special Affairs Bureau for one reason only: to find his missing older sister, Park Seojin.
She had been an upright awakener, a Bureau agent who chased justice until the day she simply evaporated without a trace. At the time Dojin had still been an ordinary police officer; despair nearly crushed him. While he fought tooth and nail after her final clue, he himself awakened.
Even after becoming an agent the investigation never stopped. By day he was a diligent low-rank officer. By night he lived as a solitary hunter. He poured his meager salary into underworld informants and clawed his way this far on the scraps they sold him.
And today.
In a decaying underground shopping arcade in Jongno, damp air clung to everything. An old man in a wheelchair appeared through the gloom. He rustled a greasy scrap of paper and pressed it into Dojin’s hand.
“This time it’s truly dangerous. For the sake of every deal we’ve ever made, do not get involved yourself.”
The note listed the movements of a grotesque kidnapping team. Awakeners. Civilians with high latent awakening potential. Even children with unusual constitutions—all scooped up without discrimination.
“Tonight, then.”
“Yes. A large-scale operation in the abandoned factory district of Guro-gu.”
Worry clouded the old man’s eyes. The enemy was meticulous and powerful enough to slip past every national agency. Park Dojin clenched the note and rose.
“Thank you. But this is something I have to do myself.”
Certainty burned in him that his sister’s disappearance was tied to this group. He walked away without a second of hesitation.
He flagged a taxi and arrived at the outer edge of the Guro-gu factory complex. Pulling his cap low, he kept his body hidden behind the car window. Only desolate wind moved between rusted iron gates and shattered glass.
The stakeout began. His heartbeat thundered through the silent lot. As the time written on the note drew near, veins stood out on the back of his hand. This was the only remaining thread that might lead to his sister.
In the distance two black vans glided in without a whisper of engine noise. Doors opened; men in dust-proof suits moved with practiced speed. They began hauling limp, clearly sedated people as though they were nothing more than cargo.
Park Dojin held his breath and raised his binoculars. The face of the man directing the entire operation filled the lenses. In that instant Dojin’s breath stopped cold.
……Han Seungwoo?
An impossible figure. His missing sister’s former lover—the man he had almost called brother-in-law, the one who had once promised marriage. He too had been a Special Affairs Bureau agent.
Yet a few months before Seojin vanished he had suddenly left the organization, claiming a major guild had scouted him. Even then the transfer had been far too abrupt and secretive. Could he actually be connected to the kidnapping team? Looking back, even while dating Seojin he had often taken mysterious calls and disappeared. Had he approached her on purpose from the very beginning?
That very second—
Clang—!
Searchlights across the entire factory complex blazed to life, shattering the silence. Blinding white beams slammed straight into the bushes where Park Dojin had hidden. Beyond the searing light came Han Seungwoo’s sly laughter.
“We already knew, so come on out, Park Dojin. Hahahaha!”
Dojin clenched his teeth and stood. There was no longer any point in hiding. He walked straight into the light.
“I knew you were digging into us a long time ago.”
Han Seungwoo strolled closer, looking Dojin up and down. Greed glittered in his eyes, the look of a man appraising livestock.
“Since your sister was an awakener I hoped maybe you had awakened too. Just as I expected. Excellent material.”
Park Dojin’s voice shook.
“Just one question. Did you… kidnap my sister as well?”
“Yeah. What of it?”
“Where is she now? Is she even still alive?!”
Han Seungwoo merely shrugged.
“You’ll be heading there soon enough yourself, so stop fretting. You can check with your own eyes once you arrive.”
At a single gesture from Han Seungwoo the men in dust-proof suits drew their weapons as one. Distorted attacks laced with immortal energy poured toward Park Dojin. He fought with everything he had, but the numbers were overwhelming.
Thud!
A dull impact drove Dojin’s body backward. Behind him stood a dead-end wall. Han Seungwoo’s cold blade was already rushing for his throat when—
Kwaaaang—!
A black shadow plummeted from the sky and slammed into the ground. The explosive shockwave sent Han Seungwoo and every member of the kidnapping team flying backward like dry leaves. Through the thick cloud of dust the hem of a black coat became visible.
“Di… Director?”
Beside Hanul a shadow rippled, and Lilith stepped out. She smoothed her clothes with elegant precision and spoke.
“I found the information rather faster than Hatchery, it seems.”
Park Dojin spat a mouthful of bloody saliva and stared at her in a daze.
“Even the Chief Secretary…?”
Hanul gave the fallen Park Dojin a brief glance, then looked at Lilith.
“Heal him.”
“Yes, Director.”
Lilith extended a hand; a gentle wave of mana wrapped around Park Dojin’s wounds. As the pain receded he forced himself upright.
“Kgh… Director. This matter… I have to settle it with my own hands.”
Hanul read the raw desperation in the young man’s eyes and spoke in a low voice.
“Don’t worry. Me handling it will be far more certain than you trying to resolve it alone.”
He began walking slowly toward Han Seungwoo. With every step the concrete floor cracked open in spiderweb patterns.
“Besides, this is not a personal affair. It is also the business of the Special Affairs Bureau.”
Behind Kang Hanul, a colossal flame of the abyss roared to life.