Chapter 460
Chapter 460
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 118
>Chapter Title: Approaching Omen (1)
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Reverse Command of the Eight Human Divine Generals Technique.
It was a form of sorcery that utilized the Eight Human Talismans to manipulate spirits.
Master this technique well, and before a soul fully scattered to the heavens and earth, one could artificially—more precisely, through incantation—create a resentful spirit.
However, this required one major prerequisite.
The victim had to harbor intense resentment before death.
The possibility had certainly existed.
The Ghost Sword harbored fierce anger toward Mok Gan and his unwavering loyalty, fulfilling the conditions for resentment. Yet in the end, a single word from his daughter, Chun-chu, dissolved it all in an instant.
One could tell just by looking at the peaceful expression on his face as he breathed his last.
"Why... did you stop?"
At Cheong-ryeong's question, Mok Kyung-un replied with a faint exhale.
"Because he couldn't become a resentful spirit."
'...You've changed so much, child.'
Cheong-ryeong felt a strange mix of emotions at Mok Kyung-un's response.
He, who once felt nothing but rage as a resentful spirit himself.
Now, he was even empathizing to some degree with others' feelings.
The old him would have beheaded Chun-chu to stoke the Ghost Sword's fury for his own goals.
But now, he had let the man go.
The once emotionless being was gradually becoming more human.
However,
[The Moon Vein's secret manual said it could persuade the Incarnation. What does that mean? Cut the nonsense and tell me quickly!]
[Ryu... So-moon and you... You are... Lian...]
What the hell did that mean?
Those final words from the Ghost Sword kept circling in her mind.
Having been with Mok Kyung-un for so long, she had shared most of his experiences.
Thus, while her feelings toward Mok Kyung-un grew, so did her doubts about his origins.
The unknown entity within him, the Incarnation from the Baihwa Cult's prophecy.
And,
[You... really... lost your core... and became... human...? Is that... true?]
"Did you hear it from the Ghost Sword?"
"Become human... Human... Heh heh heh. I hate it. I truly hate you. No, I loathe you. An exile cast out by your clan, devolving into a human out of spite. I can see your vile intentions.]
What did Mok Gan's words mean?
He spoke as if Mok Kyung-un had once been a being beyond humanity, now turned human.
Her mind grew increasingly tangled.
At first, she dismissed it as coincidence.
But at some point, she realized her path and Mok Kyung-un's were intertwining more and more.
What was it?
She denied it vehemently, insisting it couldn't be, yet someone kept coming to mind.
She knew he wasn't ordinary either.
But death had turned him into a resentful spirit, leaving her ignorant of the truth.
[Ryu... So-moon and you... You are... Lian...]
Could those have been the words the Ghost Sword tried to say at the end...?
It was then.
"Young Master Mok."
Jin Ye-rin called out softly to Mok Kyung-un, who had been staring blankly at the dead Ghost Sword and Chun-chu weeping in his arms.
Turning his head, he saw her face flushed red.
Her eyes were moist, suggesting she had teared up watching the father and daughter.
Having lost her own father, she felt a shared sorrow.
"Ahem. In the end, you didn't learn anything from him?"
Her throat choked, so she cleared it with a cough before whispering.
Mok Kyung-un shook his head at her question.
He hadn't gotten answers to the few things he truly wanted to ask.
At his response, Jin Ye-rin spoke in a troubled tone.
"It's not a good outcome, then. We stopped his clone from accessing the forbidden incantation, but we still don't know where his main body is..."
"What did you just say?"
"Pardon?"
"Before mentioning his main body."
"I said we stopped the forbidden incantation from reaching his hands."
At her words, Mok Kyung-un furrowed his brow and soon asked,
"Aside from the forbidden incantation scroll Evil Heart Master gave me, did he memorize the incantation itself?"
"...Yes."
Because she had been captured, Evil Heart Master had taught them the incantation to rescue her.
And in the end, she sacrificed herself for it.
Overcome with emotion again, Jin Ye-rin opened her mouth, her eyes reddening.
"But one clone here died by your hand, and Cheol Su-ryeon sealed the other two with her formation, so in the end, Mok Gan's main body..."
"No. They share intent."
"Pardon?"
-Tap tap!
Mok Kyung-un tapped his temple with his finger as he answered.
"They share memories with the clones. In the end, the forbidden incantation reached Mok Gan's main body."
Mok Kyung-un clicked his tongue as he spoke.
But it was hard to blame anyone.
Had he not been drawn into the Death Episode of the Pasa Eight Forms' dead scroll, he might not have reached the realm of Supreme and Supreme Sword by now, which could have been dangerous.
In the end, he had gained one thing and lost another.
The silver lining was that all the bastard obtained was a single incantation formula.
'Fortunately, Cheong-ryeong and Wi So-yeon are here with me.'
If either had fallen into his hands, it would have been trouble, but since he had also taken Wi So-yeon—who held Cheong-ryeong's soul—in the middle, the incantation posed no issue.
Unaware of this, Jin Ye-rin spoke in bewilderment.
"Then we can't afford to linger."
"But still..."
"You didn't see what I sent via Master Dan-baek, did you?"
"Dan-baek?"
"Ah, you didn't. If the incantation reaches Mok Gan, the Secret Society's leader, they'll unleash a catastrophe on a scale incomparable to last time."
At her words, Mok Kyung-un asked puzzledly,
"What's the connection between the incantation and a catastrophe?"
Mok Gan sought the incantation because of the Heavenly Vein Vessel in the body he coveted—his own.
Hadn't the bastard, in endless madness, forcibly bound her soul to prevent proper reincarnation just to claim her?
As if to answer his doubt, Jin Ye-rin drew a diagram on the ground with sharp energy.
-Scrape scrape scrape!
What she drew was a map of the entire Central Plains.
Wondering why, he watched as she pointed to five spots along the edge.
One in the north, one each in the northeast and northwest, and one each in the southeast and southwest.
Finally, she inscribed what looked like an incantation formula in the center.
'!?'
The moment he saw it, light gleamed in Mok Kyung-un's eyes.
'This is...'
He recognized this formula.
In the Heavenly Assembly's Corpse Blood Valley second trial, while claiming the flag, he had faced the rampaging Yi-mae-mang-ryang beast, Gal-geo.
Later, in the barrier scrolls and research texts held by the three-eyed Jo Tae-cheong, he found similar spells to enrage Yi-mae-mang-ryang.
But this spell had one flaw: amplifying yin energy in the atmosphere to drive their murderous nature berserk consumed an unimaginable amount of curse power.
And once the curse power depleted, the rampage ended.
'To cast a spell on this massive scale would require transcendent curse power. Is securing that much realistically possible?'
The spell's range was far too vast.
A sorcery enveloping the entire Central Plains—this was beyond imagination.
For this scale, it might require countless curse artifacts filled with power, and thousands—no, tens of thousands—of sorcerers exhausting all their curse power and vital energy.
Yet amid the completed formation's true pattern, Jin Ye-rin marked a few special points.
One was near the Sacheon Tang Clan, another pointed precisely at the Heavenly Assembly.
What did the others indicate?
Mok Kyung-un asked,
"What are those?"
"I don't know. It marked these four points and said the incantation was needed here."
"The incantation is needed here?"
The Heavenly Assembly made sense, as that was where Wi So-yeon was.
But the other three?
No pattern, scattered randomly.
"Is that all?"
"Ah! And below the spots needing the incantation, it said 'Six Demons.'"
'!!!!!'
At her words, one of Mok Kyung-un's eyebrows shot up.
To him, Cheong-ryeong spoke in a meaningful tone.
-Child... Do you not remember the events at the Heavenly Assembly? One of the Six Demons, the Sea-Slaying King, is there.
Among the grotesque Yi-mae-mang-ryang, there were ranks.
These ranks divided into ferocious beasts, monstrous beasts, demonic beasts, fiendish beasts, and spirit beasts.
The pinnacle rank was spirit beasts, and among them, six neared divine beast status.
The Yi-mae-mang-ryang called them the Six Demons or Six Demon Kings.
Each of these Six Demons was a being deemed a calamity.
And in the Heavenly Assembly's Corpse Blood Valley annex, one such Six Demon, the Sea-Slaying King Gu-hwan-cheon-gu, was sealed.
* * *
At the same time.
Looking down revealed an endless abyss like a bottomless pit.
Just beyond the barrier near the cliff, countless Yi-mae-mang-ryang corpses overflowed, and amid them stood a muscular young man, covered in green and black blood, barely holding on.
"Haa... haa..."
The young man was Yu Mu-jin of the Yu Clan, guardians of this place.
As he caught his breath from exhaustion, the Yi-mae-mang-ryang, paused in fear, began creeping forward again.
'...So many.'
With his father Yu Mu-jeok, he had slain nearly a thousand—no, thousands.
Despite this slaughter, uncountable numbers still surged endlessly, wearing down even him, who rarely tired.
Then, an enormous roar echoed from behind.
-Kwaaaang! Kwaaaang!
Each boom shook the earth like an earthquake.
Glancing back worriedly, Yu Mu-jin's face darkened.
His father had rushed there upon hearing the entity's roar while blocking Yi-mae-mang-ryang at the formation's entrance.
'Too soon.'
It hadn't been long since his father subdued it, yet it awoke.
Now periodic, it was cause for grave concern.
Normally no issue, but his father was also exhausted from battling these hordes alongside him.
-Kwaaaaaang!
-Kraaaaaargh!
Then, with another boom came the entity's roar reaching even here.
The paused Yi-mae-mang-ryang, emboldened like soldiers by their general's cry, bellowed and charged.
-Kraaaargh!
-Kekekekekeke!
-Kakakakakaka!
As the horde surged with renewed vigor, Yu Mu-jin turned the dial on the energy ring on his right arm.
-Kiririririk!
-Shoooooo!
Fully wound, white steam rose from his body, his skin turning black.
Exhausted or not, failing to stop them would expose what his clan guarded.
Yu Mu-jin clenched his fist to swing.
But then,
-Ugh!
"Kuh."
Had he overexerted?
Agonizing pain stabbed his unhealed heart, making him clutch his chest and stagger.
Seizing the moment, high-rank demonic and fiendish beasts among the Yi-mae-mang-ryang attacked simultaneously.
-Kraaaaaargh!
-Kaaaaaaa!
'Damn it!'
Enduring the heart pain, Yu Mu-jin swung at them.
Immense wind pressure from his fist engulfed the charging demonic and fiendish beasts.
-Kwakwakwakwa!
He thought he repelled them, but one fiendish beast burst through the dust, grabbed him, and charged madly at the cliff wall.
-Kwarrrrrr!
"Grraaagh!"
Yu Mu-jin slammed into the wall, still pushed back relentlessly.
In that gap, a black shadow shot toward the now-open formation entrance where Yu Mu-jin had been pushed from.
* * *
"Huu... huu..."
Sweat-soaked Yu Mu-jeok gripped a pointed wooden stake inscribed with red script, steadying his breath as he peered into the abyss-like chasm below.
-Kurrrr rumble!
'Troubling.'
Had his power fallen short? The blue glow below wasn't weakening—it was growing stronger.
This could lead to the worst scenario.
-Grip!
"Huu."
Taking a deep breath, Yu Mu-jeok's body heated black, steam rising from him.
Gathering his strength, he hurled the red-script stake into the chasm.
-Paaaaang!
Piercing air layers, the stake went.
Ripples surged in its wake.
But before it could reach,
-Kraaaaaaaaaoooo!
Blue light flared wildly with a roar, unleashing a storm-like gale from the chasm in reverse.
The stake disintegrated before contact.
-Passsssh!
'Damn!'
Yu Mu-jeok's expression hardened.
The seal might truly break at this rate.
Then,
"Indeed, even the Yu Clan are mere humans. No match for sheer numbers, it seems."
-Flinch!
At the voice behind, Yu Mu-jeok whipped around.
Ten paces ahead stood a figure in a bamboo hat, hands behind back.
Exhausted as he was, how had he not noticed approach from this distance?
Shocked, his son Yu Mu-jin flashed in his mind.
'Mu-jin.'
Had the boy fallen?
-Shing!
As he faltered, the bamboo-hatted figure drew his waist sword, sneering as he approached.
"You've worked hard all this time. Now, why not release the Great Power King?"