Chapter 70
Chapter 70
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 20
>Chapter Title: The Array's Secret (1)
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The room's walls were covered in talismans and filled with countless ritual implements.
A white-haired Taoist, meditating with his eyes closed amid candles arranged in the five elemental directions, suddenly opened his eyes.
'!?'
His pupils trembled.
The sharp-featured white-haired Taoist couldn't hide his bewilderment.
'No way.'
Seized by an ominous feeling, the white-haired Taoist rose from his seat.
He exited the room and walked down the corridor.
That sensation just now was the backlash from a spell he had cast being broken.
But that was impossible.
'Even if the spirit gu was completed, it couldn't break this pavilion master's incantation.'
Soon, the white-haired Taoist stopped before a door.
The Taoist opened it.
His expression hardened as he did.
On the floor inside the room was an array that resembled a barrier formation, and within it stood a thick jar plastered with talismans, bound by iron chains.
However,
-Tremble!
The white-haired elder's beard shook violently, as if rage were surging through him.
And for good reason—the talisman affixed to the candle had been torn away, and the iron chains were snapped.
The elder approached and grasped the broken chains with trembling hands.
Then, closing his eyes, he chanted a spell.
"Bound spirits, return to the void, homeless ghosts, heed my urgent command."
-Rattle!
The iron chains shook fiercely.
'What in the world happened? Show me the cause.'
-Slither...
An image formed in the closed-eyed elder's mind.
It depicted countless vengeful spirits devouring one another, mutating in the process.
On the day the Blood River Ritual was performed, he checked this periodically—two or three times a day—to ensure no issues.
It had been fine just moments ago.
So what had happened?
At that instant, he saw something pitch-black approaching the nearly completed spirit gu.
"Homeless ghosts, heed my urgent command!"
'Show yourself. What is it?'
He needed to know what variable had intervened.
As he poured more energy into the incantation,
-Crack!
Blood suddenly streamed from the elder's left eye, and the shattered chains in his grasp crumbled entirely into dust, scattering away.
The elder staggered back.
'........'
What was that just now?
Something ferocious, shrouded in the aura of death, had interfered with the spirit gu on the verge of completion.
It was no spectral entity like a vengeful spirit.
If not,
'Had an evil spirit breached the cliff's talisman barrier?'
The elder wiped the bloody tears from his eye with his sleeve.
To shatter the cliff's talismans and interfere with a vengeful spirit so mutated and elevated in rank—though incomplete—would surpass even a monster beast.
'Could it be a demon beast or magic beast?'
No.
It hadn't reached magic beast level.
If it had, he would have sensed it immediately, distance be damned.
A magic beast appearing here would have caused massive casualties, even in a martial society.
-Grind!
Yet even if it wasn't that level, he couldn't contain his fury.
Fifteen years of painstaking effort to slowly cultivate the spirit gu had been ruined in an instant.
-Bang!
The elder flung open the door and stormed out through the corridor and beyond the building.
There, kneeling, was someone.
It was Sorcerer Jo Ui-gong.
Seeing the elder emerge, Jo Ui-gong looked up with a beaming face.
"Master—no, Pavilion Master!"
The sharp-featured white-haired elder was In Seo-ok, pavilion master of Origin Kill Pavilion, which provided talisman consultations to the Heaven and Earth Society.
He was also Jo Ui-gong's master and one of the mere fourteen talisman masters who had reached the pinnacle of the art across all sects.
Excluding the Six Divine Talisman Masters—apex of the Divine Sun-Moon Subtle Arts—no one could match him in talisman mastery.
"Pavilion Master, will you report this to the Society Head?"
Jo Ui-gong's question drew a grim shake of the head from Pavilion Master In Seo-ok.
Disappointment washed over Jo Ui-gong.
Among all the talents he'd seen, that boy was the best.
That's why he'd planned to beg the pavilion master to pull him from the Blood River Ritual somehow.
But it wasn't a change of heart.
'Ahh...'
Then In Seo-ok spoke.
"That's not the issue right now."
"...What do you mean?"
"A high-rank evil spirit has thrown sand in the fully cooked rice."
"No way..."
"This pavilion master's Spirit God Gu Poison Technique has been broken."
'!!!!!'
Sorcerer Jo Ui-gong was stunned.
The Spirit God Gu Poison Technique—wasn't that what his master, Pavilion Master In Seo-ok, had labored over for fifteen whole years?
"How could such a thing happen? Even an evil spirit couldn't breach your—Master, no, Pavilion Master's—barrier..."
"It must be beyond demon beast level."
"A demon beast!"
An evil spirit surpassing the ranks of ferocious and monster beasts.
Even a monster beast required talisman master level to confront, but a demon beast could challenge even titled Moon Talisman Sorcerers, depending on the specimen.
'Wait—the cliff valley where the Spirit God Gu Poison Technique is active...'
It bordered the Blood River Ritual site.
Even if the technique hadn't been broken, a demon beast in those mountains would be a crisis they couldn't ignore.
Pavilion Master In Seo-ok clicked his tongue.
"Gather talismans and ritual implements at once. Prepare to head to the Blood River Ritual site."
Hearing his master's order, Sorcerer Jo Ui-gong inwardly rejoiced.
Though the master was displeased about the broken technique, this could serve as pretext to halt the ritual's trials.
* * *
Mok Kyung-un absorbed the lingering death auras here and entered reverse circulation cultivation.
Watching this, Gyu So-ha—newly made food spirit—glinted with curiosity in her eyes.
For her ghost eyes clearly saw Mok Kyung-un's energy not circulating normally, but in reverse.
And not with vital or life energy, but death aura.
'Is the master truly a living human?'
She'd wondered that all along.
It was bizarre how a human could assimilate such immense death aura and remain unscathed.
Gyu So-ha glanced sideways.
Cheong-ryeong lounged on a large rock, leisurely puffing her pipe.
Gyu So-ha cautiously approached and spoke.
-Ahem. Um...
-Um? Hmph! You were supposed to call me elder...
She trailed off, staring at So-ha before scoffing.
-Just call me sis.
Be it green spirit or whatever, being called "elder" by this young girl felt awkward.
Though "sis" was a stretch given their age and power gap.
But,
-I, the...
-The what? Call me young master again, you impudent thing.
-I am a man...
-........Keep babbling nonsense and I'll erase you, food spirit or not.
-No, I really am...
Cheong-ryeong raised her pipe threateningly.
Gyu So-ha squeezed her eyes shut and raised both hands.
Her half-white hair was odd, but she looked no older than fifteen—a girl to anyone.
-Don't loiter before me. Tsk! One more word about being a man or whatever, and I'm done sparing you.
Cheong-ryeong clicked her tongue and waved her off dismissively.
In the end, Gyu So-ha got neither answers nor satisfaction.
At that moment, Mok Kyung-un finished absorbing the energy and opened his eyes.
"Hoo."
-All absorbed?
"Yes. Gathering the remnants gave a decent amount."
Pulling in all the death aura left on the cliff equated to at least fifty deaths' worth.
Far more efficient than hunting across the mountain.
'Not bad—the energy's stabilized.'
Cheong-ryeong inwardly marveled at Mok Kyung-un.
He'd fully converted that vast death aura into his own through cultivation.
His middle and lower dantian rivaled peak mastery, verging on the extreme realm in internal energy terms.
'Unbelievable.'
The progression was utterly chaotic.
With scant training or insight, he couldn't wield sword aura or explosive force, yet his energy depth reached the extreme of peak.
Thanks to the bizarre intricacies of the Eight Forms of Shatter Thought.
'...Extreme peak energy doubled over. But the middle dantian must breach its wall, so its potential is unknown.'
Even she couldn't gauge Mok Kyung-un's exact level now.
She was curious, though.
Just how many experts could this kid handle?
Then Mok Kyung-un asked.
"How much time has passed?"
-Uh... Master, how long you've been here...
-If you're asking till dawn, less than half a shichen remains. At most three ke.'
Cheong-ryeong cut in before Gyu So-ha could finish.
Mok Kyung-un glanced at the night sky.
Indeed, the pitch black had faded to pale navy.
"Hmm."
He'd lingered here longer than planned.
No loss, though.
He'd harvested far more death aura than killing flag-hunting boys, and gained a powerful green spirit to boot.
But time was running critically short.
Mok Kyung-un smacked his lips.
"Shame."
-What is?
"Planned to leave seven, but three ke won't cut it."
Cheong-ryeong tsked at his words.
Always such outlandish ideas.
His goal had been more death aura, but apparently culling numbers was part of it too.
Clicking her tongue, she said,
-Worry about finding the flag and squadmates first.
Just the flag was one thing, but they needed the half-scroll of sword arts on it.
Bad luck, and they might snag only duplicate flags.
Plus squadmates worth accepting.
They had to hurry.
Then Mok Kyung-un drew something from his robes.
-Busy as you are, what now?
"Need to reinsert it."
What he held was the needle from the Forbidden Gate Lock he'd removed from his spine's acupoint.
Without it, suspicions would arise.
-I can do that.
"Pardon?"
-Swish!
Before he could finish, Cheong-ryeong flicked her hand lightly.
The needles flew from his palm, embedding simultaneously into the spine's energy gates.
-Pfbt! Pfbt!
"Hngh."
Removing them hurt, but insertion was agony too.
One at a time was bad enough; all at once made even pain-tolerant Mok Kyung-un gasp aloud.
Smiling smugly, Cheong-ryeong said,
-Removal needs tools, but this much I can handle. Still, you...
Her gaze drifted to his chest.
The middle dantian area.
Unlike the lower dantian, scattered and severed by the gates, the middle dantian still pulsed with life.
* * *
One ke later,
Mok Kyung-un spotted a squad holding a flag.
Exactly eight members, with the flag defended twice—their surroundings littered with nine boys' corpses.
One boy recognized him and smirked.
"Hey. Sell your squadmates already? Roaming solo?"
"Puhahaha!"
"Right?"
His squadmates all snickered.
Dawn neared, and they were sure solo Mok Kyung-un couldn't handle them.
Amid the laughter, the provoking boy waved him off.
"We're full squad. Scram."
"Full up, huh."
"Deaf or what? Get lost. Oh, right—with dawn two ke away, good luck finding a squad to take y—"
-Thwack!
"Gahk!"
-Thud!
Mid-sentence, the boy collapsed.
Mok Kyung-un was in a throwing stance; a stone embedded dead-center in the boy's face.
Instant death.
"Wh-what the..."
"No energy, how?"
The squadmates couldn't hide their shock.
Who'd imagine killing a squadmate with a mere pebble?
Mok Kyung-un curled his lip mockingly.
"Oops... looks like you have an open spot now."