Chapter 99 - The Source of the Bloody Scent
The bloody scent carried on the wind grew thicker by the moment.
Dokbi rose slowly, gripping her sword. Hongcheong pulled her face veil back over her tense expression.
Shwaaaaa—
It was an eerie wind. As if infused with someone's intent, the breeze that had blown in from one direction soon swirled in a circle around their campsite.
"Family Head."
Hong's eyes gleamed as she seized her sword hilt. Dokbi drew her blade with a srrrring— in preparation for the approaching assault. The air grew heavier, the acrid stench stabbing at their noses. Dokbi and Hongcheong circulated their inner energy, scanning their surroundings warily. Then, a faint voice drifted from within the wind.
[Who... are you...]
"……!"
"……!"
Everyone's eyes widened as they turned to Jin Muhon. It was a small, gloomy voice. To most ears, it sounded like a chilling wail from the underworld, sending shivers down the spine. But to Jin Muhon's ears, it rang differently—like a strained telepathic transmission squeezed out with the last dregs of strength.
Standing with hands clasped behind his back, Jin Muhon spoke.
"Travelers passing through."
[Travelers passing through? Impossible.]
Jin Muhon made no reply. After a moment of silence, the gloomy voice returned, riding the wind.
[This is no place for you. Pack up and leave at once.]
Jin Muhon smirked and answered.
"Night's already deep. Where would you have us go?"
[Insolent fool. Last warning. Get out now. Or you'll get caught up in it too.]
"Caught up in what?"
This time, the wind fell silent in response to Jin Muhon's question.
Kiiiiii—
Instead, a massive dead tree came crashing down toward the campsite with a grotesque screech.
"Gasp!"
"Ah! Dodge it!"
Dokbi and Hongcheong leaped back in haste.
BOOM!!
The tree trunk smothered the campfire. A deafening roar erupted, and clouds of choking dust billowed up. Sparks flew in all directions, scattering like fireworks into the darkness.
[No time... Hurry... and leave...]
The wind died down. The gloomy voice fell silent once more.
"Family Head! Are you all right?!"
"What in the world was that?!"
Dokbi and Hongcheong rushed to Jin Muhon's side. He stood unmoved, gazing at the western sky. A patch of it rippled black as if inked over. Stars crowded thickly around the edges, making it look like a colossal black hole.
"We'll rest for tonight."
"Family Head, what if that thing attacks again?"
"No trouble tonight. Rest while you can."
With that, Jin Muhon retrieved his bedding, flung far aside, and lay down. But Hongcheong's worry only deepened at his words.
'Does that mean there will be trouble tomorrow...?'
Hongcheong's gaze turned to the western sky. The starlit sea seemed especially ominous tonight.
The next day.
After an early morning meal, the group flew westward on lightfoot skill, following the direction the wind had come from the night before. Jin Muhon glanced sidelong at Hongcheong and noted the dark circles under her eyes.
"Couldn't sleep properly."
Not pushing to full speed, Hongcheong was able to reply while keeping pace.
"After something like that, how could I sleep soundly?"
"Exactly. I couldn't get a wink."
Jin Muhon smirked and called out to Dokbi, who raced ahead.
"You pull an all-nighter too?"
"I stood watch."
Dokbi turned her head slightly as she answered. Jin Muhon nodded and fixed his gaze forward. Others might not see it, but far in the distance, black rain poured from the sky. No—more precisely, black energy surged upward from the earth toward the heavens.
'This doesn't bode well.'
Jin Muhon looked up. The pitch-black hole in the sky greedily devoured the rising vital energy from the ground.
"Hurry."
Whoosh!
Jin Muhon kicked off the ground and shot forward.
"Ah! Family Head!"
"Let's go!"
Dokbi and Hongcheong poured energy into their lightfoot skills.
About an hour's flight later, Jin Muhon halted his lightfoot skill.
"Hm..."
He stood still, surveying the surroundings. His brows furrowed involuntarily. The endless horizon looked the same, but the grassland that should have been blanketed in green lay withered and yellow. Jin Muhon pinched a dried blade of grass clinging to the ground with his fingertips.
Crumble.
The lifeless leaf powdered like sand.
Crack. Crack. Crack.
He took slow steps forward. The grotesque crunch of dry leaves underfoot echoed strangely.
"That must be it."
Far off, a low hill entered Jin Muhon's view. As he drew nearer, he saw the earth blackened and dead. That place was likely the epicenter of this calamity.
"Huff! Huff! Family Head!"
"Y-You're here?!"
A good while later, Hongcheong and Dokbi arrived almost simultaneously. Jin Muhon turned to Dokbi with mild surprise. Hongcheong's arts were no trifles, yet Dokbi—who hadn't properly mastered lightfoot—hadn't fallen far behind. Of course, all three faces were flushed red from the exertion.
Shwaaaaa—
Then, wind blew from the hill. Hongcheong pinched her nose and grimaced.
"Ugh! What is that smell?"
Jin Muhon narrowed his eyes, peering ahead.
"Doesn't look like an ordinary hill."
"Pardon? What do you—"
"You'll see when we get there."
After giving the group a moment to catch their breath, Jin Muhon kicked off again into lightfoot skill. Their breathing had just steadied when their faces paled.
"Again?"
While Hong blinked in surprise, Cheong shot forward first.
"Together!"
Dokbi and Hong hurried after.
Woooong—woooong—
"……!"
"……!"
As Jin Muhon had said, it was no mere hill. Hongcheong clamped her nose and mouth, speechless at the horror before her. Swarms of tens of thousands of flies buzzed like thunderclouds. Rotting corpses lay strewn about. What had looked like a hill from afar was a mound of thousands of piled bodies.
"Urk!"
"Bleurgh!"
Hongcheong dry-heaved. Dokbi just blinked dazedly.
'Vile.'
Even Jin Muhon, veteran of countless Demonic Cult atrocities, had never seen a scene like this. Who—and for what purpose—had done such a thing? He stepped forward slowly, scrutinizing the corpses.
'Different factions, different times of death.'
The more he examined, the deeper the mystery grew. A massive war might explain it, but the corpses' attire and decay varied wildly. Jin Muhon looked up.
Whoooosh—
A pitch-black hole gaped in the sky overhead.
'Devouring the vital energy.'
Writhing. Writhing.
Then, the "hill" began to twitch faintly.
"……?"
Jin Muhon narrowed his eyes and turned toward it.
'No special aura... Hm?'
Suddenly, a foul deathly energy condensed deep within the mound. Jin Muhon leaped back to the group's position.
"Prepare yourselves."
"Prepare for what?"
BOOM!!
With a thunderous crack like a drum burst, dozens of corpses atop the mound shot skyward. Putrid limbs flew in all directions. Hongcheong's face drained white at the gruesome sight—but what followed was even more horrific.
—Grraaaaaah!!
"M-Monster!"
"That's—!"
Thud! Thud!
A massive monster emerged from the mound. Its head dwarfed an adult man's by two or three sizes, its bulk bear-like. But more terrifying than its size was its nature: rotting, burst corpses grotesquely fused together, moving as one living thing.
"Hah!"
Splat! Splat! Splat!
And it wasn't alone. As if awaiting them, mounds burst open everywhere, monsters lumbering out. One had a human head fused to its foot; another dangled an elongated arm from between its legs.
Then, the gloomy voice echoed from behind the monsters—the same one that had warned them via wind the night before.
"Huh? Who's that?"
"Over there!"
Cheong pointed behind the monsters and shouted. All eyes followed. There sat a man in lotus position, his appearance utterly ragged.
"Could... he be controlling the monsters?"
"Hm... Doesn't look capable in that state."
Thud! Thud! Thud!
While Hongcheong tilted her head at the man, the monsters lumbered toward them with heavy footfalls. Dokbi and Hongcheong drew their swords in haste.
"They're coming!"
"That sluggish movement? No worry. Don't fear!"
Hongcheong assessed and responded instantly—likely ingrained from Okhwa Palace training.
"Huh?"
"Oh?"
But in an instant, the monsters grunted, struggling to lift legs stuck fast to the ground.
The man's urgent voice rang in their heads. Jin Muhon smirked softly and murmured.
"Dokbi."
"Yes!"
Dokbi bowed her head and stepped forward. Soon, blood-red sword qi blazed along her slender blade.
"Deal with them."
"Understood!"
Flash!
Dokbi charged without hesitation. Each step splattered mud-like flesh in all directions.
"Haaaah!!"
Her red sword qi cleaved the monster's neck.
—Grraaaaaah!!
Even headless, it bellowed. No surprise, with human heads embedded all over its body.
Splatter! Splatter! Splaaatter!
Dokbi's sword showed no mercy before the abomination. Soon, one monster disintegrated with a splat— rotten flesh and blood showering her body. Heartened by that mad bladework, Hongcheong steeled herself.
"Let's go!"
"Right!"
Hongcheong split left and right to engage.
"Haaaah! Die!"
Whoosh!
Hong's yang arts set the monsters ablaze.
Cracklecrack!
Cheong silently froze them with her ice arts.
Splatter! Splatter! Splaaatter!
Meanwhile, Dokbi swung her demonic sword wildly, dismantling the monsters effortlessly despite their dramatic entrance.
The man in lotus position blinked in shock from his seated pose.
Squelch. Squelch. Squelch.
Jin Muhon waded calmly through the corpse bog toward the man. The man's startled gaze fixed on him.
The man's speech had slipped into formality without thinking. Jin Muhon glanced at the ground. The blood-soaked earth bubbled fiercely.
"Even blood becomes water."
Jin Muhon opened his upper dantian and unleashed Heaven Earth Infinite.
Woooong—
The aura commanding water energy rippled outward like waves.
"Gah!"
The man jolted to his feet in shock.
Splaaaash!!
The pooled rotten blood surged skyward all at once.
—Grrrrrr.
The blood coalesced into a massive blood dragon.
The man stared up in horror at the blood dragon glaring down at him, dumbfounded.