The Seal Soars into the Sky
Seong-il had been hiding in the shadows, but the moment he saw the seal he unconsciously rushed forward. He snatched it up and let out a bloodcurdling scream.
"It's an ambush!!!!!"
The instant the words left his mouth, Seong-il clutched the seal and bolted like a madman.
"You bastard!!"
The Xuanwu Hall Master charged after him in a frenzy.
"Where do you think you're going!"
Hyemyeong spun around and poured inner energy into his fingertips, launching a claw technique at the Xuanwu Hall Master who was chasing Seong-il. The monk's hand sliced through the air like a razor toward the man's back. But at that exact moment, a demonic cultist beside Hyemyeong swung a vicious blade at him.
"Hyemyeong! Dodge!"
At his senior brother's desperate shout, Hyemyeong activated the Naryeotagon movement art, rolling across the ground to evade the sword. Even while tumbling through the air, he never lost focus. His fingers lashed out and ripped into the Xuanwu Hall Master's thigh.
"Ugh! You damn bald bastard!"
"Benefactor! Run!!"
The Xuanwu Hall Master's thigh had a chunk of flesh torn away by Hyemyeong's claw strike, blood dripping steadily. Yet he clenched his teeth, limped forward, and used light-body movement to charge at Seong-il.
This is fucking bad!!
The moment the Xuanwu Hall Master approached with a face like a vengeful demon, Seong-il's complexion turned deathly pale and he sprinted for his life.
I should've just asked them to teach me their movement technique!
Swallowing the regret that came too late, Seong-il ran with everything he had. Fortunately, the lessons in inner energy circulation he'd received from Eun-wol and Saekma had already pushed his stamina beyond human limits. Thanks to that, he managed to stay just ahead of the Xuanwu Hall Master, whose injured leg made his light-body technique clumsy and awkward.
He's closing the distance!
Seong-il was running with no special techniques, while the Xuanwu Hall Master—despite his wound—was using high-level qinggong. The gap between them slowly narrowed.
"Enemy attack! It's an ambush!!"
Seong-il kept screaming at the top of his lungs as he fled, but strangely, no reinforcements arrived.
What the hell? Why isn't anyone coming to help?
Seong-il felt something was deeply wrong. Still, he pushed the thought aside to focus on surviving the immediate crisis and kept running with all his strength.
If this keeps up, I'll get caught eventually!
Realizing that, he glanced back.
Only the Hall Master is chasing me? In that case…
A plan shot through his mind like lightning. Gritting his teeth, Seong-il sprinted into the sealed training hall where he had practiced martial arts with the Alliance Leader for the past several days.
Once inside, he quickly pulled the object from his pocket and tossed it into the shadows of the training ground. Then he moved to a corner and waited for the Xuanwu Hall Master.
"Well, well. The little rat has been driven into a corner. What shall we do about this?"
Why does that bastard look like that?
His face was flushed crimson as if it would burst, the whites of his eyes completely bloodshot, and his muscles kept swelling and sinking in unnatural pulses. The Xuanwu Hall Master had transformed into something half-monstrous.
His complexion… it looks like his blood is literally boiling. Could it be the Blood Sect? No… that might be too much of a leap.
While Seong-il’s mind raced through countless possibilities in mere seconds, the Xuanwu Hall Master slowly approached, blood still flowing from his thigh.
Seong-il shouted at him.
"Don't come any closer! You fucking Blood Sect lackey!"
"?!"
The sudden mention of the Blood Sect made the Xuanwu Hall Master flinch hard. He quickly regained his composure and yelled back.
"How dare you speak such insolence to a follower of the Heavenly Demon Sacred Cult!"
But Seong-il had caught the momentary crack in the man’s expression and pressed the attack.
"Heavenly Demon Sacred Cult my ass! Did you really think I wouldn’t know you’re the Blood Demon’s subordinate pretending to be the Chief Guardian of the Demonic Cult?"
The Xuanwu Hall Master’s face filled with genuine shock. He was so rattled that he couldn’t even maintain his mask anymore as he answered.
"H-how dare you spout such nonsense…!"
Huh? This guy’s panicking. So he really is a spy?!
Deciding to go all-in, Seong-il started hurling every piece of information he had at the man.
"Hmph! Your true organization is the remnant of the Blood Sect that was annihilated by the Martial Alliance during the Great Blood Calamity twenty years ago, right? When the Blood Sect fell, the Blood Demon used the Blood God’s power to perform sorcery, stole the body of a Demonic Cult Guardian, and fled with the dead Cult Leader’s only blood relative. Did you think we wouldn’t know?"
"...."
Seong-il had recited the hidden history with perfect accuracy. The Xuanwu Hall Master stopped moving, his expression freezing solid as he spoke.
"You… How exactly do you know these things?"
Perfect. It’s working!
To buy time, Seong-il poured out every secret he knew.
"Hmph. What, did you think you could hide it forever? Starting with the Chief Guardian. All of you have been pretending to be loyal servants to the young Cult Leader you rescued as a child, slowly devouring the Demonic Cult from within to resurrect the Blood Sect. On top of that, you used the Blood Soul Great Method to brainwash her from a young age and turned her into a puppet. Want more? The young Cult Leader possesses the Heavenly Yin Physique. You plan to use her to reach the peak of martial arts and then offer her as a sacrifice to the Blood God. Now that you’ve gathered enough strength, you’ve finally crawled out into the open. Am I wrong?"
The Xuanwu Hall Master stared at Seong-il with an icy expression. When he finally spoke, his voice had completely changed.
"Hehe… This Lord believed he had hidden everything perfectly for twenty years. How does a mere brat who looks barely past twenty know all these secrets?"
Huh…? His voice is totally different now.
The sudden shift in tone and the arrogant use of "This Lord" left Seong-il stunned. The possessed Hall Master continued.
"Sigh… Lately everything I touch seems cursed by demons. First the sacrifice I planned to use disappears…"
"Then I barely manage to mentally dominate one of the Alliance’s Hall Masters with the Blood Soul Great Method and attempt to seize the seal, only to be blocked by some kid. And that same kid knows every one of This Lord’s secrets and plans…?"
A vicious aura erupted from his body.
"So I ask you, brat. What exactly are you?"
"..."
"Answer. Do so and I will kill you without pain."
The sound of boiling liquid came from his body as steam rose from his skin.
What the hell…? Is his blood actually boiling?
"You refuse to answer? Very well… Then I will extract the answers I want myself."
The Xuanwu Hall Master advanced on Seong-il, radiating murderous intent. Seong-il hurled the seal toward the far wall and shouted.
"Instead of wasting time tormenting me, shouldn’t you grab that seal and run?"
"It’s already too late."
"?!"
"While you were screaming your lungs out, the Martial Alliance’s warriors have long since surrounded this entire area. Even This Lord cannot break through such an encirclement while carrying the seal."
"...!"
"I used the precious Blood Essence bestowed by the Blood God to deploy the Bewitching Soul Formation and infiltrate perfectly… yet because of you that golden opportunity has been wasted. Don’t you think you should pay the price?"
"...?"
"So speak. How you learned the truth. And who else knows it. Do so and I will grant you a clean death."
Blood Soul…? Bewitching Soul Formation?
Seong-il finally understood why no reinforcements had arrived despite all his screaming.
A diversion. They sent their main force to set fires and pretend to invade, drawing the Martial Alliance’s strongest fighters outside and weakening the defense. Then they used the pre-conditioned pawn to steal the seal. The Bewitching Soul Formation was just to stop any reinforcements from arriving. Clever.
Having roughly pieced the situation together, Seong-il asked.
"So there’s really no one here but you and me?"
"Well… you could say that’s half true. The formation’s range is shrinking with time, but it is still centered on me."
"I see. Fine, I’ll answer you. But first, you admit that everything I said was true, right?"
"Kuhahaha. You were just throwing out random guesses?"
Seong-il shook his head.
"No. I know it all accurately. I just wanted to hear it directly from the person involved. It has a different flavor that way."
"Hear it directly? Not ‘let me hear’? Are your words tangling because death is near? A few good hits should straighten your tongue, so don’t worry."
The Xuanwu Hall Master moved. His hand turned crimson and began emitting steam as his palm technique shot forward with terrifying speed.
The murderous sight nearly made Seong-il piss himself, but he clenched his teeth and answered.
"What are you talking about, idiot? I spoke perfectly clearly."
"...?"
The moment the words left his mouth, a horrifying killing intent and pitch-black aura exploded from behind the Xuanwu Hall Master.
Black Killing Demon Palm — a palm strike that condenses all the negative energy of the world and inner qi into a corrupting black force that rots anything it touches.
"!"
Shocked by the vicious presence at his back, the Xuanwu Hall Master spun around.
"It’s already too late, you fucker."
Eun-wol’s face was twisted like a wrathful demon as she thrust her palm forward, black energy swirling around her hand. The Xuanwu Hall Master panicked at the overwhelming, tyrannical force and released red energy from his body, wrapping it around his arms to block.
Crack!
The grotesque sound that followed could not possibly have come from a simple palm strike.
"Kyaaaaack!!"
The Xuanwu Hall Master had tried to stop Eun-wol’s Black Killing Demon Palm with both hands. Yet his arms and the red protective energy were completely crushed and pierced through as if they were paper.
"Keuuuugh…"
He fell to his knees, vomiting blood. The arm and chest that had taken the direct hit instantly turned pitch black, rotting away and releasing a foul stench.
"Even though I already heard the truth from the young master, hearing it straight from your mouth still feels freshly fucked."
Eun-wol’s face was twisted like a god of death as she slowly walked forward. Vicious black energy still roiled around her hand. The moment she drew near, Seong-il felt pure instinctive terror.
Th-that’s the true power of the Black Killing Demon Palm!
Ignoring the frozen Seong-il, Eun-wol spoke to the kneeling man.
"You bastard. Are you one of the Chief Guardian’s limbs? Where is that son of a bitch?"
The Xuanwu Hall Master laughed loudly.
"No! Look who it is! Isn’t this our beloved young Cult Leader? After serving you for twenty years, you don’t even recognize this old servant? How disappointing!"
"…You bastard. You’re the Chief Guardian?"
"Kuhahaha… We were so worried when you disappeared from Pokso Temple. Yet here we meet again. Young Cult Leader."
Blood poured from every hole in his body as the Chief Guardian spoke.
"Truly… If I had known you were here, I would have come personally with my true body. To think the lost sacrifice for the Blood Ritual is right before me. Hehe…"
"You fucking bastard…"
"Kuhuhuhu… If I had come in my real body instead of borrowing another through the Blood Soul Great Method, I could have turned you back into a perfect puppet. This is quite the dilemma."
Unable to endure the mockery any longer, Eun-wol unleashed the Black Killing Demon Palm once more and blew the Chief Guardian’s head clean off. She then turned to Seong-il.
"Huu… Huu… Young Master. Are you all right?"
"Huh? Uh, yeah…"
But the moment the Chief Guardian died, Seong-il felt a strange shift begin to ripple through the surroundings.
"This… the illusion is breaking, isn’t it?"
"!!"
Normally he might have brushed off the odd feeling, but after hearing the Chief Guardian’s confession, he already knew the entire area was under the Bewitching Soul Formation. He instinctively understood the strange sensation was the formation collapsing.
Retrieving hidden items… Black Ball and Seal secured.
"Eun-wol! Can you knock me unconscious within half a quarter-hour?"
"…Why?"
"No time to explain! Can you do it or not?"
"If I seal your blood points, it’s possible."
Seong-il’s face lit up with relief.
"Then do it right now! Hurry!"
Though clearly confused, Eun-wol silently pressed his acupoints.
"It’s done."
The moment she spoke, Seong-il’s body grew heavy. Fighting the overwhelming drowsiness, he used the retrieved Black Ball to capture Eun-wol. He then stored the ball back inside his inventory, closed it with the activation phrase, and naturally collapsed into unconsciousness.