Let’s Go Catch Those Wudang Bastards! (3)
Heo Sanja wiped his face with his sleeve.
Thick sweat mixed with blood and stained the pure white cloth a dark, muddy red.
Damn it.
The curse slipped out before he could stop it.
Before him lay half-rotted corpses, sprawled across the ground. The dead who had been unable to return to the heavens at last found their peace.
For one who walked the Dao, granting rest to the wandering dead was only right. And yet Heo Sanja could not feel proud of himself.
The situation was far too dire for him to feel pleased merely because he had done his duty as a Daoist priest.
Having fought them himself, he knew exactly how monstrous the jiangshi were.
Their bodies were as hard as steel, enough to deflect blades, and when they were finally cut apart, poisonous black blood sprayed everywhere.
Had the passage not been so narrow, they might have been easier to deal with. But the location itself was terrible, and clearing out those jiangshi had cost them a frightening amount of strength and will.
And on top of that—
"Are you all right?"
"...Yes, Elder."
Jin Hyeon nodded, clutching one arm. When Heo Sanja saw it, he let out a quiet sigh.
"Let me see it."
"I'm fine."
"Take your hand away."
When Jin Hyeon reluctantly lowered his arm, Heo Sanja tore back his sleeve and examined the wound.
Corpse poison?
The skin torn by the jiangshi's claws had turned a sickly violet. He had been poisoned by corpse toxin.
Ordinary corpse poison would eventually be cleansed by Jin Hyeon's own body, but this was clearly no ordinary toxin. It had come from that grotesque monster's body; there was no telling how vicious it was.
If left untreated, he might lose the use of his arm. Worse, if the poison spread to his heart, it could even threaten his life.
Heo Sanja seized Jin Hyeon's arm and pushed his qi into it at once.
"E-Elder..."
"Quiet!"
Jin Hyeon pressed his lips shut. Once qi had begun to enter his body, he could not speak carelessly.
He shouldn't waste his vital energy on me.
There was no telling what lay ahead. There might be even more dreadful things than what they had already faced. With no time to recover qi through breathing exercises, every ounce of energy had to be conserved.
And yet Heo Sanja was using his qi to heal a mere injury. Jin Hyeon wanted to stop him, but the treatment had already begun.
After a long while of pouring his qi into the wound, black poison finally surged back out of Jin Hyeon's flesh. The violet tint slowly faded from his arm, returning it to its natural color.
"There."
"...Elder, how could you..."
Before Jin Hyeon could finish, Heo Sanja seemed to guess what he was about to say and hardened his face.
"It is true that securing the Sword Tomb's divine weapons and elixirs is important, but how could that possibly compare to a disciple's arm? Speak no more nonsense."
His expression was stern.
"And I am not so weak that this little thing will break me."
Jin Hyeon's jaw tightened.
He was not so ignorant as to not understand how much energy and mental strain it took to draw poison from another's body with qi.
But in this situation, there was only one answer he could give.
"I understand, Elder."
Heo Sanja gave a small, grave nod and looked ahead.
"How vile..."
Just looking at the jiangshi strewn across the floor made his skin crawl.
If Wudang had not taken the lead and forced a path through, the casualties would have multiplied beyond measure.
Of course, the ones trailing behind them did not care about any of that labor. They were doing everything they could to grab onto Wudang's ankles and drag them down.
Animals.
Heo Sanja bit his lip hard.
No matter how much this place was like a pit of malice where only those intoxicated by greed entered, shouldn't they at least have the sense to read the room before throwing around their stupidity?
Jin Hyeon seemed to feel the same and spoke in a low voice.
"Elder, I truly can't understand. How can they be so treacherous?"
"Do not waver."
"But..."
"It is only natural. Why do you seek the Dao?"
"..."
Heo Sanja spoke without a flicker of hesitation.
"You seek the Dao because the Dao does not exist in this mortal world. That is why you struggle and think and strive to reach it, is it not? If ordinary people could embody the Dao and live by it, if they would simply uphold what should be upheld, then temples and doctrines would be meaningless at best. It is precisely because they do not that we keep striving, again and again, even now."
Jin Hyeon lowered his head as if to etch the words into his bones and quietly recited his Daoist salutation.
"Your mind wavers because the Dao within you is not yet complete. Steady your heart and find your center."
"Yes, Elder."
Heo Sanja gave a low nod.
And that's true of me as well.
He had spoken as though he were above it all, but perhaps the one who despised those men most was Heo Sanja himself.
"How is the rear?"
"We are still holding them back, but... it is difficult."
"...Leave them and move forward."
"Shouldn't we go help them?"
"What difference will it make if we go back now? Unless we put every last one of them down and make sure they can't move, all we'll do is waste time. Better to seize what we came for as quickly as possible and then help them."
Mu Ping, who had been standing nearby, voiced his agreement with Heo Sanja.
"I think the same. Even if we go back now, it'll only waste time."
"Good."
Heo Sanja narrowed his eyes slightly.
He hadn't told his disciples, but the reason he was hurrying so desperately was because of something else entirely.
An unbelievably cold killing aura.
In the middle of the battle, he had felt an overwhelming surge of energy from far behind them.
He did not know who had released that aura, but if someone with that kind of power joined the chaos behind them, it would become a factor impossible to ignore.
Heo Sanja had no intention of allowing that variable.
If they turned back under some halfhearted pretense of helping the others and the owner of that aura burst into the fray, no one could predict where matters would go from there.
A few sacrifices are acceptable.
If that animalistic rabble got their hands on the Honwon Dan, the consequences were obvious. Heo Sanja could not allow that situation to stand.
Whether Wudang grew stronger was a secondary matter. First, he had to make sure the Honwon Dan never fell into their hands.
A look of iron resolve settled on Heo Sanja's face.
He truly believed the end of this vile tomb was close at hand. A thing like jiangshi was not so easy to create. It was hard to imagine there being anything else waiting beyond them.
"Hurry!"
"Yes!"
Then it happened.
"Senior Brother! Senior Brother! We can't hold them any longer!"
A great shout rang out from behind them.
"Damn it!"
Heo Sanja cursed under his breath.
"Forget holding them back! Join us! Follow after me!"
"Yes!"
Before the answer had even finished echoing, Heo Sanja unleashed his lightness skill and shot forward. If Heo Gong gathered the disciples and brought them after him, that would be enough. Then He, at the very least, had to get there first and seize the Honwon Dan.
Jin Hyeon and the other disciples hurried after him.
The dark cavern flashed by in an instant. Even Heo Sanja, who had seen much of the world, felt a chill in his chest as they raced through the lightless tunnel.
What in the world was the purpose of building something like this?
Yakseon had been known as the kindest of the kind. The number of patients he had cured in his life was beyond counting, and so too were the warriors whose lives had been saved by his elixirs.
That was why his name had echoed across the world, why even two hundred years later people still praised him without end.
And yet his tomb was filled with nothing but malice. Remembering the legends of Yakseon's character, one could almost begin to wonder whether this really was the Sword Tomb at all.
We'll know when we get there.
All of these questions would be answered the moment they reached the end of the Sword Tomb.
"Senior Brother! The others are chasing us from behind!"
Heo Gong had apparently reorganized the line and followed after them.
"Ignore them! Increase your speed."
"But..."
"Didn't I say ignore them? We don't know what's ahead, so we can't waste any more strength here!"
"Yes!"
Heo Sanja's mind was a tangle of thoughts.
If he had been in perfect condition, he might have made a different choice. But continuing to fight repeated battles in this darkness where not even proper light reached them, all while leading his disciples onward, was no easy task.
Every moment of it was gnawing away at his mind and body without respite.
If we linger in this place any longer, my heart demon may come for me. We have to get out as fast as possible.
"Stop!"
"Hahahaha! Look at the Wudang rats fleeing with their tails between their legs! Do you really think that means you'll get out of here alive?"
"Chase them! Chase them! Don't let those bastards get the divine weapons!"
The enemies' cackling laughter rolled through the cave like thunder.
Heo Sanja clenched his teeth and drove his lightness skill harder.
"Senior Brother! There!"
"Good!"
There it was.
The end of the cavern. At last, a bright light was visible. Not the dim glow they had seen until now, but a brilliant blaze altogether different from anything before it. Heo Sanja's face lit up as he shouted.
"Gather yourselves, disciples! We're almost at the end!"
"Yes!"
His hand tightened around the hilt of his sword without his even realizing it.
No matter how grueling everything had been until now, none of that mattered anymore.
As long as they could obtain the formula for the Honwon Dan...
They can have the divine weapons for all I care.
What he wanted was only one thing: the method of making the Honwon Dan.
He did not care who took the divine weapons. Those things would only become the seeds of discord. In the long run, they might even do more harm than good.
Fwoosh.
At last, when they reached the end of the cavern, blinding light flooded Heo Sanja's vision. But the moment his eyes adjusted, the sight before him made him reel in shock.
"T-This is...?"
A cliff.
A massive cliff stood before them. The brilliant light came pouring down from somewhere above it.
A gap?
It was not the light of a night pearl or any such thing. Somehow, light was streaming in through a crack in the high ceiling. There must have been another passage besides the entrance they had used to force their way in.
Then... where is the Honwon Dan?
If this was the end, then where on earth was the Honwon Dan supposed to be...?
"There!"
Heo Sanja's sharp eyes caught sight of a bulging recess halfway up the cliff face.
That fits.
If this was the final chamber of the Sword Tomb, then the place where that light entered would be the exit. And if someone had left behind something meant for future generations, then it had to be there, halfway up that cliff face.
"Climb! We have to climb the cliff!"
"It's too steep!"
The cliff rose almost straight up, seeming to deny any human approach. It was far too high to leap with lightness skill alone.
"Climb it if you have to crawl! Right now!"
"Yes!"
At Heo Sanja's command, the Wudang disciples rushed to the cliff face in unison. Without delay, they began clawing their way upward.
Soon after, those who had arrived behind them poured out of the cavern in a flood.
"W-What?"
"There! The Wudang bastards are climbing the cliff! Follow them!"
"Don't let those guys get the divine weapons!"
Men driven mad by greed reddened their eyes and scrambled up the cliff. It looked like a scene from hell itself.
And at that moment—
Goooooooom!
From the cavern they had just passed through, a terrifying aura began to erupt. Bursting through the dark tunnel, a group was rapidly closing in at astonishing speed.