Chapter 214
Chapter 214
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 214
>Chapter Title: Cave Mansion (5)
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From Pyeongryang County, Cave Mansion Mountain was close enough that its silhouette was visible right away. Of course, that was only in terms of distances within the Central Plains.
Il-mok and his group deployed lightness skills for about the time it takes to eat a meal before reaching the base of Cave Mansion Mountain.
At the mountain's entrance, they took turns standing guard while circulating their qi and adjusting their breathing to recover their internal energy. Then they entered Cave Mansion Mountain.
The group followed a path marked by signs of human passage and began ascending. Even though they had not climbed far, the mountain's mystical energy started to make itself felt.
Shortly after reaching about halfway up the mountain along the trail.
"I'll be back."
Dam Bin, who had been leading the way, said this and then vanished into the darkness using stealth techniques.
About the time it takes to burn one incense stick later, she returned.
Under her guidance, the group resumed climbing Cave Mansion Mountain. Before long, a gate pillar inscribed with the words [Cave Mansion Sect] came into view.
Just as the villains had claimed to be disciples of the Cave Mansion Sect, they had firmly planted themselves midway up Cave Mansion Mountain.
In front of that gate pillar lay a Taoist sprawled on the ground, fast asleep.
Dam Bin passed the Taoist without a care and headed toward the Cave Mansion Sect grounds. The rest of the group followed her lead.
It was only as they passed beside the sleeping Taoist that they noticed the small hole pierced through his body and the blood trickling from it.
This was the result of Dam Bin's prior work.
"How many were there?"
At Il-mok's question, Dam Bin replied with a bewitching smile.
"There were three more inside, Young Master."
The other three had likely departed for the afterlife without even realizing they were dead.
It was strange. The Cave Mansion Sect grounds contained over ten halls. For just four—no, even including the Taoists seen in Pyeongryang County, only eight men—it was far too vast a space.
But Il-mok and his group felt no particular sense of incongruity.
After all, it matched the stories they had heard from torturing the Taoists back in Pyeongryang County.
Without delay, they passed through the Cave Mansion Sect halls and entered the thicket behind them.
They crossed the lush undergrowth emanating mystical energy for a short while. Then a dead end appeared.
It was a cliff.
Whiiiiiing!
They gazed for a moment at the cliff where eerie winds howled like wailing ghosts.
Dam Bin leaped forward without hesitation. Her falling body disappeared into the abyss below the cliff.
Despite the horrifying sight, the group did not waver. One after another, they hurled themselves toward the cliff.
Pat.
Right after Il-mok, the last one, leaped toward the cliff.
Surprisingly, the cliff that had filled Il-mok's vision vanished without a trace. The ghostly wails and chilling winds that had carried an inexplicable gloom also disappeared.
The cliff, the dense thicket, the ghostly wails, and the winds—all of it was an illusion created by the formation array set up by the cultists masquerading as the Cave Mansion Sect.
The villains had hidden this site used for human sacrifices behind a formation array, all while pretending outwardly to be upstanding Cave Mansion Sect Taoists.
"This is where the real danger begins. Stay sharp."
Il-mok said this as he eyed the dense thicket unfolding before them.
'These mad bastards—how many people have they killed?'
Though called a sacred mountain, Cave Mansion Mountain brimmed with阴森 energy and baleful auras.
Hyeok-ryeon Seon-a and the rest of the limited group had all graduated from the Demonic Path Academy, so they had received training in formations.
More precisely, they had learned how to deal with them.
And through the temporary instructor dispatched from the Eight Trigrams Hall, they knew full well.
That walking into a trap laid by sorcerers or Taoists was tantamount to suicide.
The fortunate part was that Il-mok and his group had entered with some preparations.
After capturing and torturing four Taoists and even using pollen to interrogate them, they had obtained information on the formation array laid here.
There had to be a safe path used by the Taoists to bring in the commoners they used as sacrifices, and Il-mok and his group now moved along that path.
Whiiiiiing.
The most experienced Dam Bin took point at the vanguard, while Il-mok brought up the rear, watching the group for any contingencies.
It was not that he had taken the rear to make others handle the dangerous work.
With his keenest qi sense, he was guarding against mishaps from behind.
"Jeong So-jeo. Be careful."
Jeong-hyeon, advancing right in front of Il-mok, flinched at his warning and bowed her head.
"S-Sorry."
"No need to tense up so much. No matter how thick the阴森 energy and baleful auras are, as long as we stick to the safe path, there shouldn't be any problems."
Il-mok said this to reassure her, but Jeong-hyeon was not stiff from this place's baleful aura.
Because it was a dangerous spot riddled with formations, the group was moving in tight formation, leaving her rigid.
'At least the training from last time is helping.'
The training she recalled was the Jade-Faced Young Master operation.
Surrounded by women multiple times while disguised as a man.
Having weathered crises of Demonic Deviation and heart demons several times, she had grown somewhat accustomed to being near people.
Meaning, her face was pale and cold sweat dripped down, but she no longer fainted.
After that, Il-mok continued watching from the rear to ensure no one strayed from the safe path or misplaced a foot.
"Ju So-jeo. Focus."
"Seon-a. Be careful."
While Il-mok minded the group from the rear.
At the vanguard, Dam Bin advanced along the safe path based on the information from the Taoists.
Even under the pressure of walking on thin ice—where one misstep could trap them in the formation—she calmly led the group.
The moment she took the final step as relayed by the Taoists.
The dense thicket that had filled every direction moments ago, along with the baleful aura and ghostly wails that had gnawed at their minds, vanished without a trace.
"Hm? You're back sooner than expected."
At that moment, someone addressed her.
It was one of Ghost Valley Hermit's disciples.
He mistook Dam Bin for a comrade.
Partly because she had reached here unaffected by the formation, but mostly due to her attire.
For contingencies, she and three others in the group had stripped Taoist robes from the enemy.
Of course, Il-mok, with his severe compulsions, could not wear someone else's clothes—let alone ones splattered with blood.
The Taoist, who had momentarily mistaken the dark-clad Dam Bin for a fellow in the dim light, soon furrowed his brow.
He belatedly noticed her aura differed from his fellow Taoists.
"What the—"
The Taoist opened his mouth, perhaps to call his comrades.
"Guhk..."
Before his words could finish, Dam Bin's black thread pierced his throat and heart.
A refreshing smile spread across Dam Bin's face as she swiftly dispatched the Taoist.
"Whew. This suits me much better."
Even for a veteran like her, leading the group through the formation was a heavy burden.
Assassinating someone like this fit her nature far better.
After clearing the guard at the entrance, she quickly stepped aside. The group began emerging from the formation one by one.
Il-mok, the last to exit, spotted the Taoist skewered by threads and collapsed ahead. He immediately grasped the situation.
"If we delay, the enemy might catch on. We strike now."
Passing the corpse Dam Bin had handled, they soon beheld a bizarre scene.
At the center stood something like an altar engraved with grotesque patterns, surrounded by about a dozen Taoists.
While their fellows had gone to Pyeongryang County to procure sacrifices, these had been preparing the human tribute ritual here.
Among them, Il-mok's eyes chilled upon spotting an old Taoist clutching a sharp sword about three feet long at the altar's center.
'That must be the Ghost Valley Hermit.'
The master and leader of the Taoists committing atrocities here.
The Ghost Valley Hermit spotted Il-mok and his group as well, and he furrowed his brow.
"Tch. What a pity. Fly larvae showing up already."
The old Taoist pointed his human sacrifice sword at Il-mok and his group and issued a command.
"Clear them out."
At his order, the Taoists immediately formed hand seals or drew talismans and ritual tools from their sleeves.
Pat!
At the same time, Il-mok and his group unleashed lightness skills and charged toward the Taoists.
Il-mok swung his sword through the air, sending sword qi arcing from his blade toward the foremost Taoist.
The startled Taoist thrust forward a talisman while chanting a spell. The talisman stiffened and spread, forming a qi barrier.
Boom!
The sword qi collided with the qi barrier, canceling each other out.
Swaaaa!
Then, an arrow loosed by Jeong-hyeon grazed past her comrades and flew toward the Taoist.
Clang!
The arrow lodged straight into the forehead of the Taoist who had created the qi barrier.
"Guhk..."
Right after the frontmost Taoist perished so pointlessly.
"Die!"
With furious cries from the enraged Taoists, a barrage of multicolored sorceries targeted Il-mok and his group.
Bundles of talismans inscribed with blood-red script transformed into fiery birds and flew at them. Swinging staffs of blackened wood stained crimson summoned lightning bolts.
Against their grotesque sorceries, Il-mok generated sword qi and swept his sword in a grand arc to form a sword barrier.
Jin Ha-yeon, charging beside him, infused her twin palms with阴寒 qi and swung them in a wide circle to erect an ice wall.
"Haaah!"
Gu Yang-mun executed crisp fast swordplay, slashing down the fiery birds heading his way in succession.
The three at the front blocked most of the sorceries, but a few slipped past toward the rear.
They targeted Jeong-hyeon, who had just shot the Taoist dead.
"Haat!"
But Hyeok-ryeon Seon-a and Ju Seo-yeon, positioned around Jeong-hyeon, urgently swung their twin palms and spear to block the attacks.
Swaaaa!
Meanwhile, Jeong-hyeon nocked another arrow and loosed it, piercing another Taoist's heart.
On top of that.
Crack.
A black thread from Dam Bin had already pierced another Taoist's vital acupoint.
Thanks to Jeong-hyeon and Dam Bin's cover, Il-mok, Jin Ha-yeon, and Gu Yang-mun could plunge toward the Taoists far more easily.
Crack!
As disciples collapsed dying one after another right before him, the Ghost Valley Hermit scowled once more.
It was not a face grieving his disciples' deaths.
'Tch. They were useful ones.'
He merely felt annoyed at needing to raise new slaves for menial tasks.
"Useless vermin, at least departing after one final use."
Amid his dying disciples, the Ghost Valley Hermit muttered something incomprehensible and thrust the ritual sword in his hand.
Toward the heart of a disciple at his side.
Crack.
Struck by the unexpected blow from behind, the disciple collapsed with a face full of bewilderment.
Blood gushing from his pierced heart began soaking the altar's center.
The Ghost Valley Hermit then jammed the bloodied ritual sword into the altar's core while chanting a spell.
"Blood Urgent Command!"
At that instant, the altar began absorbing the blood on the sword and from the disciple's heart.
The Ghost Valley Hermit had secretly prepared this contingency formation, deceiving even his own disciples.
Not yet perfectly complete, it could not activate with just one disciple's blood, but he did not care.
After all, the bleeding would not end with the one he had stabbed.
Blood from the disciples slain by Il-mok and his group also flowed into the altar's engravings.
No—the altar sucked in the blood greedily, as if it were a living beast.
"Insane."
The moment Il-mok involuntarily cursed at the grotesque sight.
Kwaaaaa!!
A massive, ominous crimson energy filled every direction, swallowing them whole.