Chapter 463
Chapter 463
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 119
>Chapter Title: Karma Retribution (1)
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No one could see it.
While this left even Death Ritual staring in bewilderment, along with everyone else, only in Jung-soon's two pupils was the figure of someone standing clearly reflected.
That someone was a young girl with half her hair turned white as snow, her entire body bound in iron chains.
‘G-Gyu So-ha?’
Gyu So-ha.
She was the spirit servant who had reached the Azure Spirit realm and belonged to Mok Kyung-un.
How had she, the one who always referred to herself as the young master or a man, arrived here ahead of them?
And why was she not possessing a body, but in her original soul state?
It was due to Mok Kyung-un's will.
* * *
Just a few hours earlier, around sunset.
Gyu So-ha, possessing the body of Seo Hye-in—the leader of the Ultimate Leisure Unit under the Four Mountains of the Five Mountains Society, which fell under the second disciple of the Assembly Leader, Jang Nung-ak—was leading a force of hundreds of experts while escorting Ho-chan, who was possessed by Wi So-yeon, on their way back to the Assembly.
They would have arrived sooner, but clashes with the pursuers from the Secret Meeting and detours to evade them had delayed their return.
Now, however, they were just a few hours away.
At that moment, Mok Kyung-un's will transmitted into her mind.
-Gyu So-ha. Where are you right now?
-Master!
-Are you at the Assembly?
-No. We took a detour because those bastards were tailing us, so it took some time.
-I see. Then it's too late.
-What?
-They're after the Sea Slayer King sealed in the secret vault of Bloodletter Valley. The wooden box...
-Master! We're almost there. We'll reach the Assembly in less than half a day. So let me retrieve the wooden box...
-No, it needs to be done urgently. Leave it to the Demon Monk and focus on your mission.
-Master? Master!
No matter how much she called, Mok Kyung-un did not respond.
Gyu So-ha pouted in disappointment, but just then, as they neared the Assembly, another force awaited them.
It was none other than the troops led by Bloodletter Valley Lord Yi Ji-yeom.
[Oh?]
[Is that Ultimate Leisure Unit Leader Seo Hye-in? The Lord sent me. From now on, the escort unit is under my command.]
The ever-cautious Mok Kyung-un had sent Bloodletter Valley Lord Yi Ji-yeom ahead as a precaution.
Thanks to their arrival, she thought it was perfect, handed things over to Yi Ji-yeom, and separated from the flesh body to return first in her original soul state.
* * *
‘H-How?’
Gwi Jung-soon, one of the Five Tigers called the Assembly's top later-generation talent and grand leader of the Spear Demon Squad.
He could not hide his shock at Gyu So-ha's flickering figure before his eyes.
The memory was as vivid as if it had happened just the day before.
He had been overjoyed at being chosen and awakening his hidden talents when, from somewhere, he heard a voice calling for him.
[Jung-soon! Jung-soon! Where are you? If you're alive, answer me!]
It was that bitch's voice.
Had she really come down to this cliff looking for him?
As a strange feeling stirred, his master's voice rang in his ear.
[An opportunity has come.]
In that instant, the subtle emotions that had captured him vanished, replaced by a deep-seated killing intent surging in his chest.
Seized by that intense murderous urge, he sneaked up behind Gyu So-ha and smashed a sharp rock into the back of her head.
-Thud!
[Agh!]
Gyu So-ha gasped and turned her head.
Her eyes looked at him with a mix of shock and disappointment.
[Y-You... How...]
Don't look at me with those eyes.
This is all your own doing.
-Thud!
[Agh!]
Jung-soon brought the rock down on her glaring face.
Seeing her eyes sink in with agony made his lips split into a grin.
Feeling her pain filled him with ecstasy.
[St-Stop.]
[You damn bitch. Stop what? If you just die, everything's resolved.]
[You... You...]
[Acting all superior, pitying me every time because you had everything...]
[I... I... never...]
[You were just born before me, that's all.]
With those words, Jung-soon madly smashed the rock into her face.
She had screamed in pain at first, but by the time her face was nearly pulverized, she made no more sounds.
Finally, the damn bitch was dead.
Even after confirming Gyu So-ha had breathed her last, his rage unsatisfied, he kept smashing her face.
But what was this now?
-Slither...
Before his eyes flickered that figure with half-white hair, body bound in iron chains—it was unmistakably Gyu So-ha.
Her snow-white hair and chained body looked eerie, but more than that, seeing the dead girl shimmering before him left Jung-soon bewildered.
‘W-What the hell is this?’
A chill that raised goosebumps, this spine-tingling ghostly aura.
Had she become a vengeful ghost after death?
He involuntarily stepped back when his father, Shadow Spear King Gwi Jong-sin, grabbed his shoulder and asked.
“What's wrong?”
“Can you not see it?”
“See what? What are you talking about?”
“What?”
The retainers around them also reacted as if they had no idea.
“Young heir?”
“What's gotten into you?”
Could it be they couldn't see the thing right in front of them?
Gyu So-ha was glaring at him like she wanted to kill him, and they couldn't see it?
Then his father, Shadow Spear King Gwi Jong-sin, pointed toward where the ghostly aura emanated and asked.
“You mean over there? What exactly do you see?”
“Th-That’s...”
Jung-soon couldn't bring himself to answer.
How could he say that Gyu So-ha, whom he'd killed with his own hands, was standing there?
“Whew.”
Seeming to think it couldn't go on, Shadow Spear King Gwi Jong-sin approached the source of the ghostly aura, drew his signature weapon—the famed spear Cold Guard—and thrust it with concentrated true energy at its tip.
-Shunk!
The moment the spear thrust forward,
-Swish!
Gyu So-ha leaped back, escaping the trajectory.
Even a soul like an original spirit could take some damage from an elite expert's energy, so she widened the distance.
However, this made Jung-soon, who had momentarily feared the vengeful ghost, snap to his senses.
‘She dodged?’
Why would a dead ghost dodge an attack?
Was it not what he thought?
-Snap!
Jung-soon reached for the spear on his back.
He didn't know how it had reappeared before him, but it clearly harbored malice toward him.
The silver lining was that no one else could see it.
‘Whether ghost or whatever, I have to deal with it.’
His father, Shadow Spear King Gwi Jong-sin, only knew Gyu So-ha had died in an unfortunate accident during the Bloodletter Valley trial.
Thanks to that, he had naturally become the young heir.
He didn't know why that thing had appeared now, but he couldn't let it cause a scene.
He had been startled momentarily, thinking the dead girl had returned, but he was no longer the same.
Now, he was the top later-generation talent with the title of Five Tigers, an expert at the pinnacle of the transcendent realm, peering beyond the wall.
With the techniques his master had taught him, he could wield even greater power.
None of the Five Tigers could match him.
Judging by her youthful appearance, she hadn't changed, so did she intend to exact revenge on him like this?
‘Hmph!’
If physical attacks worked, he'd kill her again.
Just as Jung-soon was about to launch himself at Gyu So-ha,
She extended her palm toward him and muttered an incomprehensible incantation.
-Ghost Intent Domain. Chain Immortal Prison.
-Flash!
What?
The instant that thought crossed his mind,
-Clangclangclangclangclang!
Iron chains suddenly burst from the intact ground, surging upward.
Jung-soon, lunging to attack Gyu So-ha, startled by the chains erupting from below, executed a lightness skill to dodge them.
-Clangclang!
Yet the risen chains slithered toward him like living things.
Jung-soon unleashed powerful spear forms to block the chains.
-Clangclangclangclangclangclang!
Had the damn bitch learned some sorcery?
He couldn't fathom what was happening.
As he fended off the chains, sensing crisis from their endless assault, he hurriedly shouted.
“Father! Help me—!?”
At that moment, Jung-soon's pupils trembled.
His father and the three retainers had vanished before he knew it.
Wondering where they had gone, he saw chains—far more numerous than before—surging like hundreds of snakes.
‘...Damn it.’
There were too many; he didn't know how to block them.
But his worries didn't last long.
Looking at the onrushing chains, he became convinced of one thing.
This many chains couldn't possibly be in Bloodletter Valley's secret vault.
Which meant this was surely an illusion.
‘Trying to fool my eyes? You think I'll fall for it so easily?’
-Thud!
Jung-soon planted his spear shaft into the ground and closed his eyes.
He focused his energy perception.
‘It's fake. Fake.’
It was merely deceiving his sight and five senses.
If it was just an illusion, it could never harm him.
Yes, never...
-Clangclangclangclang!
He felt countless chains wrapping around his body.
Jung-soon circulated true energy through his body and repeated inwardly.
‘Illusion. Illusion. Illusion. If I concentrate my mind...’
But then,
-Creeeak!
Not one, but hundreds of chains wrapped and tightened around him, drawing a scream of agony.
“Guhhh!”
What was this?
His eyes were closed, and he was convincing himself there was nothing.
Yet the sensation of the chains constricting his body was vividly clear.
Jung-soon finally unleashed rebounding protective energy throughout his body, trying to shake off the chains.
But,
-Creeeak!
“Gah!”
The chains tightened even harder, feeling like his body would burst.
He had raised Ten Stars Internal Energy, so how could mere illusory chains constrict stronger?
Then a voice rang in his ear.
-Does this feel like an illusion?
“Huh?”
Startled, Jung-soon jerked his head sideways and yelled.
“You... you bitch, what are you? Why in her form...”
-Her? From your tone, I can tell exactly how you viewed me.
“You...”
Jung-soon's face twisted.
This familiar tone and speech.
Even after over fifteen years, it was unforgettable, etched in his mind.
“...Impossible. You're dead.”
-Yet here I am before you.
With that, Gyu So-ha made a slight fist-clenching motion.
The chains around Jung-soon tightened further.
-Creeeak!
“Gack!”
The pressure was so intense that Jung-soon's face twitched, blood soon spurting from his mouth.
Despite his suffering, Gyu So-ha showed no satisfaction.
She hadn't yet inflicted true pain on him.
-To writhe in pain from this much. Pathetic.
“Gack. You... damn bitch! You're... fake. Gyu... Gyu So-ha... is dead.”
Amid the agony, fearing his father and retainers might be watching, he tried to avoid slips.
But,
-Yes, I died. So now, taste the pain I endured after death.
“What?”
-You coveted what I had. So you must share the suffering too.
-Snap!
Gyu So-ha snapped her fingers, and darkness enveloped everything.
Then, the surroundings changed in an instant.
It had clearly been the secret vault, but now it was the bottom of a cliffside abyss.
The moment he saw it, Jung-soon's eyes shook wildly.
‘This is...’
That place.
The bottom of Bloodletter Valley's cliff.
The place his master called Solitude.
And where he had killed Gyu So-ha.
What in the world was happening?
“You bitch... What did you do? How did you bring me here?”
Jung-soon's shout echoed everywhere.
“What? Where did she go?”
Gyu So-ha, who had been beside him moments ago, was gone.
Where had she vanished to?
He wondered in confusion when,
-Slither...
An unbelievable sight unfolded.
Before his eyes, grotesque forms began appearing from all around—horrific apparitions without a single intact part. They were true vengeful spirits.
Even he, at the transcendent realm, couldn't help but feel a chill down his spine at the horde of monstrosities.
Panicking at their approach, he tried to break free of the chains,
-Crush!
“Guhhh.”
The constricting chains didn't budge.
In his struggling, he unluckily toppled backward.
-Thud!
On the ground, he frantically tried to escape.
But the spirits had already reached him.
‘Gasp!’
The arriving spirits madly clung to him, burrowing into exposed flesh.
-Chomp! Crunch!
-Munch munch!
“Gaaaah! Let go! Let me gooo! Don't bite! Aaaagh!”
Jung-soon thrashed his head and twisted his body to shake them off.
But the more he did,
-Feed me. Let us eat you.
-Die! Die!
-Why... must we be here...
-Save us! Give us your body.
-Die already.
The more they swarmed him madly.
As they tore at his face and dug into his flesh, pain gave way to overwhelming terror and despair flooding his mind, tormenting him.
“Gaaaah!”
The agony was maddening.
Was he really going to die like this?
Then, his eyes caught Gyu So-ha watching him with a chilling smile, genuinely delighted by his suffering.
‘You bitch... Are you really trying to get revenge on me? You dare... dare to...?’
His pain and rage reaching their peak, he could no longer hold back and unleashed the hidden forbidden technique.
It was the Explosive Acupoint Art his master had taught him—a method that exponentially boosted all internal energy at the cost of depleting his vital essence.
-Crashcrashcrash!
His power surged over twofold in an instant, shattering the immovable chains into fragments.
The spirits gnawing and clinging to him were flung away.
-Flash!
Jung-soon then lunged and seized Gyu So-ha.
He brutally gripped her neck with both hands and slammed her to the ground.
-Gack!
“You damn bitch! How dare a wretch like you try revenge on me!”
-Gack gack! Stop... Stop...
“Stop? Stop? Hahaha!”
Gazing at her suffering, Jung-soon burst into mad laughter.
He thought she was a spirit, but apparently not.
A dead person wouldn't choke in pain.
Jung-soon squeezed her neck harder, sneering with a crazed face.
“I don't know how you survived with your face smashed, but you're as stupid as ever, So-ha.”
-Gack! You! You!
Her face paled as breath failed her.
Mocking her dying visage, Jung-soon said.
“Why so resentful? You tried for revenge, but failed miserably and are dying by my hands again.”
No sooner had he spoken,
A smile crept onto Gyu So-ha's lips, even as she seemed on the verge of death.
‘!?’
Smiling?
In that instant,
A cold, sharp sensation pierced his neck.
It was a spear blade.
‘Th-This... This is...’
Not just any spear—it was his father Shadow Spear King Gwi Jong-sin's signature weapon, the famed spear Cold Guard.
As he panicked and tried to look up, his father's killing-intent-laden voice shook his heart.
“Say that again... what you just said.”
[End of Chapter 119: Karma Retribution (1)]