Chapter 280
Chapter 280
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 77
>Chapter Title: Sacred Flame Spirit Lord (2)
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“The doctrine of our cult reveres the sacred flames while upholding righteousness and purging evil.”
“And?”
“But no matter how I look at it, you embody evil itself.”
With those words, the Sacred Flame Spirit Lord stared coldly from within the Golden Prison.
Mok Kyung-un smirked at the old woman.
“Evil, huh? Could be.”
“Could be? Upholding good and shunning evil is a constant test for every follower of our cult, the very pillar that sustains us…”
“Cut the outdated nonsense. Who decides what’s good and what’s evil?”
“What?”
Her eyes narrowed at his words.
Who decides the standards of good and evil?
What an absurd question.
“Why pose such a righteous and obvious query? Do you not even discern right from wrong?”
“Who decides what’s right and wrong?”
“Hah… Are you trying to debate me now?”
“More like, it’s ridiculous how you take it for granted.”
“Take what for granted?”
“Yeah.”
“Aren’t right and wrong, good and evil, ultimately defined by people?”
“What?”
“The ones who set those standards were people, weren’t they?”
“…”
She couldn’t outright deny it.
After all, those standards were set by ancestors long ago, passed down as customs and principles.
The Fire Worship Cult’s doctrines were no different.
They simply followed what had been handed down from the Kingdom of Pasa.
But if they delved into fundamentals like this, it would never end.
“What are you getting at? Do you want to reject standards set by others? Think you can?”
“Why say it like that?”
“There are things the majority deems right, and things the minority does.”
“So?”
“The world ultimately moves toward what the majority sees as right. Principles tilt the same way, by the will of the many.”
“So good and evil, right and wrong are dictated by the majority’s opinion, and minorities must obey?”
“I can’t give you that answer. You must convince yourself. But know that the majority’s decisions came after much deliberation, conflict, and trial and error.”
“Ah, I see.”
She believed true enlightenment came from personal conviction.
No amount of lecturing or indoctrination mattered without self-acceptance.
Mok Kyung-un smiled faintly at her.
“Then the Fire Worship Cult must be absolute evil, something that absolutely shouldn’t exist in this world.”
“What? What did you just…”
“You said it yourself. Minorities must follow the majority’s view.”
“That’s…”
“The Fire Worship Cult and its doctrines are rejected by the vast majority of the Central Plains folk. Shouldn’t they naturally be denied?”
“…”
She had no response to that.
She’d been outmaneuvered.
She’d tried to reform him with doctrine against the evil she sensed, but only exposed flaws in her own words.
‘…Cunning brat.’
Raising counterarguments for the cult here would just loop into contradicting herself.
She clicked her tongue.
“It’s been a while since I’ve tried dissuading someone with words like this.”
“Has it?”
“But thanks to you, things are clearer now.”
“Clearer? What?”
“I can no longer be certain that you, who question our cult’s teachings, truly belong to it.”
Doubt filled her eyes.
Seeing this, Mok Kyung-un figured he’d provoked her just enough.
He wanted more info from her, but time was short, and raising her guard further might complicate the escape.
“Oh dear. I must not have earned your trust, Sacred Flame Spirit Lord. How about this, then?”
He pulled something from his bosom.
It was none other than—
“What’s that?”
The ring that Dark Clan Lord Hwan Ya-seon had given him.
He’d said it proved one’s status as a follower.
Mok Kyung-un showed the token, then clasped his hands crossed like a prayer, bowed deeply in formal greeting.
“A follower of the Fire Worship Cult pays respects to the Sacred Flame Spirit Lord.”
Her eyes, filled with suspicion moments ago, now clouded with confusion.
‘How does he have this?’
It was a token only a Cult Father—one of the cult’s highest ranks—could possess.
There weren’t many Cult Fathers even in the Fire Worship Cult.
She asked,
“Who gave you this?”
He looked too young for twenties; it couldn’t be his own.
She assumed he’d received it from someone.
“My master.”
“Your master? Tell me his name and title.”
Hwan Ya-seon had instructed that, if meeting other followers, he should omit his surname.
It was one inherited from the previous Dark Clan Lord, apparently.
Mok Kyung-un said,
“Ya-seon.”
“Cult Father Ya-seon!”
Her voice rose excitedly for the first time.
He watched closely.
He’d guessed Dark Clan Lord Hwan Ya-seon held high rank, but seeing the near-second-in-command Sacred Flame Spirit Lord react like this confirmed it.
“Sent by Cult Father Ya-seon? Where is he now?”
“Do you know of the Heaven-Earth Society?”
“The Heaven-Earth Society? One of the largest groups in the martial world. As if I wouldn’t know. So Cult Father Ya-seon is still there?”
Her reaction let Mok Kyung-un infer Hwan Ya-seon had stayed in the Heaven-Earth Society far longer than expected.
Then she said,
“To think Cult Father Ya-seon survived and still wields such influence—truly the cult’s great fortune.”
‘…’
His eyes turned odd.
Could she really foresee the future?
If so, she should’ve predicted the Dark Clan Lord’s survival or other curiosities, but it made no sense.
Just as his doubts deepened—
-Rumble rumble rumble!
Vibrations surged from the floor, shaking the entire cavern.
The intensity dwarfed his clash with Blood Ghost Cult’s Blood Star Ni Baek-ha.
“Huh?”
It shook so violently the Sacred Flame Spirit Lord gripped the bars to steady herself.
‘What’s this?’
Mok Kyung-un pressed a hand to the floor in puzzlement.
Soon, the shaking subsided.
Unclear what caused it.
As he wondered, she said,
“Let’s get out first. If we don’t hurry, we’ll be in trouble.”
“You know why?”
“Not exactly. But this is the first time the whole cavern’s shaken like this.”
“First time, but it’s shaken before, just not this bad?”
At his question, she recalled something.
“Not to this degree, but whenever it trembled even slightly like a quake, the Golden Guards here would rush out… Ah, not all. The one in charge of the Underground Golden Prison stayed inside, sealing the door.”
“Even when it shook?”
“Yes.”
“He told me to remember this shaking. Said escaping the Infinite Golden Prison alive is utterly impossible.”
“Impossible?”
Mok Kyung-un stroked his chin.
From his experience, escape wasn’t that impossible.
It’d make anyone’s claims ring hollow.
So perhaps some hidden mechanism?
He lifted his hand from the floor.
“Let’s go out first. We’ll see if it’s truly impossible as you say.”
“…Cult Father Ya-seon is always cautious, yet you brim with confidence.”
“I prefer action over worry. Could you step back a bit?”
“Step back?”
“Hard to cut the bars if you’re clinging to them.”
“Ah!”
She backed up five paces.
Mok Kyung-un gripped his sword formula and lightly slashed the bars.
-Swish!
She’d thought maybe he wielded a dead man’s sword, but barehanded? Puzzlement showed.
Could fingers alone sever iron bars…?
-Snap!
The bars where his sword formula passed fell away cleanly.
She swallowed dryly, smacking her lips.
He looked under twenty, yet cut iron barehanded—a true master. Shocking.
‘Disciple of Cult Father Ya-seon, and his skills are exceptional.’
Even Ya-seon might not match this.
Once limbs and restraints were cleared, she stepped out of the Golden Prison.
“…We’re not fully out yet, but thank you.”
She expressed gratitude.
Mok Kyung-un shrugged lightly.
Just then—
-Rumble rumble rumble!
The Underground Golden Prison shook violently again, like an earthquake.
Worse than before.
Cavern walls cracked; eerie pressure accompanied the tremors.
Mok Kyung-un, hand on the floor, frowned.
‘So that’s it.’
-Rumble rumble rumble!
The Sacred Flame Spirit Lord clutched the wall, staggering.
“Wh-what’s happening?”
He replied incredulously.
“The ground below must’ve collapsed completely. Even our layer’s dropping.”
‘!?’
The instability and pressure stemmed from that.
New to Mok Kyung-un, he clicked his tongue.
Infinite Golden Prison, huh? Never imagined a whole layer collapsing.
* * *
-Rumble rumble rumble!
“Th-this…”
At the passage from Underground Golden Prison’s third layer to Infinite Golden Prison.
Six Thousand Commander Im Gyu-wol of the Death Line Division stared despairingly at the collapsed path.
He’d feared it, but the final trap had activated.
“Damn it!”
He couldn’t hold back his roar.
Too many prisoners had escaped, so he’d rushed fearing the final mechanism—too late.
-Rumble rumble rumble!
The pressure made standing impossible; the layer was plummeting due to the ground below giving way.
He knew it dropped nearly a li.
The void left behind filled instantly, making ascent impossible.
-Crack!
Shouldn’t have come down.
Without Guard Captain Muk Seom’s pressure, this wouldn’t have happened.
Grinding his teeth in agony, Im Gyu-wol snapped to.
‘No time for this.’
Stay still, and die.
With the final trap triggered, survival meant uniting everyone’s strength.
Prisoners and Golden Guards alike—every hand digging upward was key.
And the final trap wasn’t over.
Per intel on the Underground Golden Prison, after falling, hidden cells would open, releasing 36 bronze automatons to slaughter escapees indiscriminately.
-Tat tat tat tat!
Im Gyu-wol dashed inward.
‘If they want to live, they’ll cooperate.’
* * *
Mok Kyung-un said to Blood Ghost Cult’s Blood Star Ni Baek-ha, amazed.
“Hoo. You subdued her alive?”
He’d expected Ju Un-hyang, ensnared by the demon sword Fearslayer, to die fighting her.
Lucky break?
Pale-faced, Ju Un-hyang lay unconscious before Ni Baek-ha, who leaned against the wall.
Fearslayer was half-buried nearby, quivering faintly despite being demonic.
Ni Baek-ha spoke irritably.
“Forget saving this wretch—now what?”
“What do you mean?”
“You pretending not to know? If we’d just left without you, this wouldn’t have happened.”
Her anger was simple.
She’d sensed the layer dropping too.
“Trying to save that old crone, and now we’re trapped to die.”
“Old crone?”
The Sacred Flame Spirit Lord scowled at the term.
Who was this woman calling her that?
“Old” and “young” together was nonsense anyway.
But given the dire situation, probably a slip in anger.
Mok Kyung-un approached the embedded Fearslayer.
Ni Baek-ha stopped him.
“Hey. Stop.”
“Hm?”
“I barely pried it from her, and now you grab it? What for?”
Even the weaker foe had been a hassle.
If this transcendent one got ensnared by the demon sword’s malice, disaster.
She warned him off.
Mok Kyung-un shrugged.
“Too good to leave behind.”
“Too good? You say that now? When clawing dirt upward might not even work…”
She stared, baffled.
He pulled something from his bosom, slipped it on index and middle fingers, then rotated his hand in a circle.
What the hell in this mess—
-Sssshhhh!
Smoke billowed from thin air; space rippled, forming an entrance.
Everyone gaped in shock.
What sorcery was this?
‘!!!!!’