Chapter 277
Chapter 277
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 76
>Chapter Title: Blood Star (3)
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Before long, Mok Kyung-un and Dan Baek-ha, known as the Blood Star of the Blood Cult, were walking side by side through the cave passage.
The agitated demeanor from moments ago had vanished, and Dan Baek-ha, having regained her composure, spoke to Mok Kyung-un.
“You said we only need to abduct one person, right?”
“Yes.”
“Keep your promise without fail.”
“Of course. Once we abduct that one person, I’ll ensure you meet the master who taught me the lightness skill.”
“Hmph.”
At Mok Kyung-un’s words, Dan Baek-ha crossed her arms, snorting derisively as if she couldn’t trust him.
It made sense. Earlier, her emotions had flared up, revealing a moment of weakness, but she still couldn’t fully believe this guy.
For some reason, nothing he said felt genuine.
Even his smile—she couldn’t tell if it was real emotion or not.
In all her long years, she’d never encountered someone like him.
As they walked through the passage, Dan Baek-ha furrowed her brow and said,
“You... the skin around your jaw?”
It looked wrinkled and peeling.
Mok Kyung-un touched the area, then let out a soft sigh.
Whether it was from the earlier scuffle or a lack of ointment he carried, the human skin mask around his jaw was peeling.
With that, Mok Kyung-un
*Stretch!*
pulled at the skin in front of her.
Normal skin had elasticity, but this stretched in an unnatural way.
Seeing this, Dan Baek-ha narrowed her eyes and said,
“Human skin mask?”
“Yes. It seemed the safest way to sneak in here.”
“So that’s not your real face.”
“Correct.”
At those words, Dan Baek-ha clicked her tongue as if she’d suspected as much.
No wonder his martial arts were so advanced and his mental fortitude so exceptional for someone who didn’t even look thirty.
There was probably an even older face hidden beneath that one.
Then Mok Kyung-un spoke up.
“May I ask you something as well?”
“What?”
“I’ve heard that those from the Blood Cult call the old martial world the Ancient Martial Forest. Just how many years have you been imprisoned here?”
“Ancient Martial Forest?”
Dan Baek-ha tilted her head slightly.
It was a term she’d never heard before.
So she asked,
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Just what it sounds like. The martial world of old, right? I’ve heard the level of martial arts back then was far superior to now.”
“Of old? Ah...”
At his words, a strangely bitter look crossed Dan Baek-ha’s eyes.
Was she recalling some painful past?
As he wondered inwardly, she said,
“It’s been so long since I was trapped here that I’ve lost all sense of time. I can’t even tell if it’s been decades or centuries. But if the Ancient Martial Forest you speak of refers to the golden age of martial learning, then yes, that would be accurate. Though everything changed after ‘That One’ ascended, generation after generation.”
“Ascended?”
“...You don’t even know what feather transformation and immortal ascension means?”
“Feather transformation and immortal ascension?”
Mok Kyung-un’s eyes narrowed.
Feather transformation and immortal ascension (羽化登仙)—literally, it meant attaining enlightenment in the Dao, becoming an immortal, and ascending to the heavens.
It could be interpreted in various ways.
Some said a great Daoist’s passing was ascension, while others meant truly realizing the Dao and entering the immortal realm.
The ascension Cheongryeong had taught Mok Kyung-un could also refer to martial artists achieving enlightenment in the martial way and entering the immortal realm.
‘Ascension...’
Someone who had spoken more deeply about this concept came to mind.
More precisely, it was the being called Three-Eyes, less human than a monster itself.
Suddenly, he recalled what it had said before vanishing.
[Divine beasts? They can’t exist in this mortal world to begin with. Once demonic power reaches that realm, it defies the natural order.]
[Natural order?]
[You don’t know what the natural order is?]
[What is it?]
[The natural order sustains this world. Well, it’s hard for humans to comprehend.]
[You’re being vague.]
[The natural order is the natural order. Once you step beyond that realm, the natural order forces you across the boundary.]
[Across the boundary?]
[Yes. Ascension follows the same principle. Humans accumulate enlightenments, shed their mortal shells, and cross the boundary due to the natural order—that’s what they call ascension.]
As he recalled this, a glint appeared in Mok Kyung-un’s eyes.
‘Did it actually happen?’
Both Three-Eyes and Cheongryeong had spoken of it as almost legendary.
As if it were nearly impossible to achieve.
Yet the ‘That One’ Dan Baek-ha mentioned—how extraordinary must they have been to cross to the other side of the boundary due to the natural order?
One thing was certain: for the monstrous Immaemangryang, only reaching divine beast level allowed crossing that boundary. So this ‘That One’ surpassed even the spirit beasts called the Six Demons, approaching divine beast status.
Curiosity piqued, Mok Kyung-un asked,
“Who exactly is this ‘That One’ who ascended?”
“That One?”
At the question, she looked at Mok Kyung-un with a strange gaze.
Then she cut him off curtly.
“That’s not something you’re ready to hear yet.”
“Huh?”
“I haven’t met your master yet. You understand what that means, right?”
“Ah, I see.”
It meant she didn’t trust him.
He wasn’t one to get overly excited about anything beyond revenge, but he was inwardly disappointed not to learn who this ‘That One’ was.
Then she said to Mok Kyung-un,
“If your master truly knows your true worth as you claim, you’ll find out in due time. No need to be impatient.”
“...I suppose so. Then may I ask one more thing?”
“One more?”
“Yes.”
“Do you think I’ll answer?”
“That’s up to you. I’m just curious, that’s all.”
“Just curious?”
“Yes. Earlier, you said they kept you from eating anything for decades to force your mouth open—is that true?”
The Dan Baek-ha he’d encountered didn’t seem like a liar.
For someone who claimed to have gone without food for decades to endure, her physical condition showed no signs of it.
She even looked like she was still in her twenties.
Moreover, piecing together things she’d let slip along the way, she seemed less like an ordinary human and more like someone close to eternal youth and immortality.
She eyed Mok Kyung-un suspiciously and spoke.
“Why? Are you interested in longevity or eternal life too?”
Mok Kyung-un answered without the slightest hesitation.
“Not really.”
“What?”
“What good does chasing that bring?”
“Good? Isn’t eternal life a gain in itself?”
“Is it really?”
“......”
“An endlessly persisting life sounds more like a curse, doesn’t it?”
‘!!!!!’
At Mok Kyung-un’s retort, Dan Baek-ha’s eyes trembled.
With it, a distant memory from long ago flashed through her mind.
A city in Yoneong Province reduced to ruins amid countless corpses.
Blood-soaked Dan Baek-ha stared in shock as her severed arm regrew.
[Wh... what is this?]
She’d thought once severed, it would never heal.
No, regrowing an arm was impossible to begin with.
As she marveled, an elderly man with a pale, scholarly face approached, clicking his tongue.
[Did you drink that?]
“Elder? ...You mean that stuff?”
“It was the blood of a spirit beast.”
“Blood... you mean that monster’s blood?”
“Indeed.”
“Ah!”
Her pupils shook at his words.
Come to think of it, when she’d beheaded that thunder-spewing monster, she’d accidentally ingested the spurting blood.
Afterward, her body had burned in agony, and she’d lost consciousness.
She said,
[...I think so. Did that heal my arm?]
“Likely.”
“Then for the other wounded...”
“Don’t even think it.”
“Wh-why? If they drink that monster’s blood, their bodies...”
“Nine times out of ten—no, ninety-nine out of a hundred—they won’t survive and die.”
“Die? What do you mean—”
“Most who accidentally—or mistakenly—drank spirit beast blood didn’t make it.”
With that, the elder pointed to those charred black around the spirit beast, all dead.
They had all burst their blood vessels in death throes.
‘!?’
“Spirit beast blood isn’t something ordinary humans can endure.”
“Wh... why did I...?”
“Looks like you had heaven’s luck on your side.”
“Heaven’s luck...”
Was she truly fortunate?
To her dazed self, the elder patted her shoulder and said,
“Whether this becomes true heaven’s luck or poison, only time will tell—but if it’s your fate, accept it.”
“Poison? What do you mean?”
Stroking his goatee with pity, the elder said,
“An ancient lost text from the Classic of Mountains and Seas states that those who consume the blood or essence of spirit beasts bearing the five elements’ power attain eternal youth and immortality.”
“Eternal youth and immortality?”
“Indeed. You likely have a high chance as well.”
“But why call it poison? Isn’t it a blessing?”
“Blessing? Heh heh heh.”
The elder let out a hearty, enigmatic laugh.
As she puzzled, he sobered and said,
“Living long isn’t a blessing. It’s closer to a curse.”
“A curse?”
“Yes, a curse. Why do you think that immortal-like one left behind blood heirs like you and ascended?”
“......Why?”
“Because they couldn’t bear watching loved ones leave one by one.”
“......”
“In a way, it might have been the wise choice.”
Back then, she’d half-understood but not fully grasped the elder’s words.
She’d simply seen eternal life as a blessing.
But after living through the ages, she now fully comprehended their meaning.
‘...This guy.’
Dan Baek-ha inwardly clicked her tongue as she regarded Mok Kyung-un.
A kid who’d never lived longevity or suffered its consequences, yet spouting the exact words that old senior had told her.
Without her given mission, she might have ended this harsh life somehow herself.
So she said to Mok Kyung-un,
“You... do you say that knowing something, or just guessing?”
“Who knows. Living alone forever while everyone around you dies doesn’t seem all that great.”
“......”
At Mok Kyung-un’s response, she let out a sigh.
She felt utterly foolish.
He treated it as obvious without ever experiencing it.
After a long sigh, she said to Mok Kyung-un,
“Truly wise. You’re right. This isn’t a blessing—it’s a curse through and through. If I hadn’t gained eternal life, I wouldn’t have suffered like th—”
She flinched!
Dan Baek-ha stopped mid-sentence and looked somewhere.
It was the right fork at the cave’s junction.
Coincidentally, Mok Kyung-un had already glanced there before she did.
‘What’s this?’
*Roooaaar!*
From the darkness poured immense killing intent and a thick, malevolent aura.
Along with it, someone—or something—was approaching them.
*Thud, thud!*
At the footsteps, Dan Baek-ha said to Mok Kyung-un,
“......Not an ordinary foe. Can you sense it?”
“Indeed.”
Staring warily, the figure soon entered the torchlight’s reach.
It was none other than
“Joo Un-hyang?”
Disciple Joo Un-hyang.
But Joo Un-hyang’s state was far from normal.
Not only did her eyes emit a bizarre glow, but the malevolent aura emanating from her entire body had erased even her originally pure and righteous innate true energy.
What had happened? Then Dan Baek-ha spotted the peculiar sword in Joo Un-hyang’s hand and couldn’t hide her shock.
“How is that sword here?”
At her words, Mok Kyung-un’s gaze shifted there too.
Veiled by the evil aura, but immense demonic power emanated from the blade.
“Do you know it?”
To the puzzled Mok Kyung-un, she warned in a lowered tone,
“It’s the demonic sword Fear Slaughter, belonging to the Old Demon Master.”
‘!!!!!!’