Chapter 215
Chapter 215
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 215
>Chapter Title: Cavity (6)
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As an ominous energy erupted from the altar at the center, Il-mok swiftly formed a sword barrier to block it.
Whiiing.
The energy clashed against Il-mok's sword barrier and dissipated, but what he had neutralized was only a tiny fraction.
The same went for the others.
Jin Ha-yeon's ice arts, Gu Yang-mun's saber arts, and so on. Portions of the energy colliding with their various martial techniques vanished, but the vast majority merely grazed past them and spread out in all directions.
The energy that scattered in every direction mingled with the spiritual aura of Cavity Mountain, forming a massive prison.
Il-mok was no expert in sorcery, but his keen energy sense allowed him to instinctively realize the truth.
‘There is no Gate of Life.’
A formation with no escape route. Of course, that much was understandable.
For a formation meant to trap someone, the absence of an exit was only logical.
The contradiction Il-mok sensed was something else entirely.
‘What in the world are they thinking?’
Because Gui Gok-ja, the very one who had trapped them in this formation, was locked inside it as well.
Standing right at the center of the formation, on the altar no less.
At that moment, a bizarre change occurred within the formation, where gloomy energy roiled.
The unnaturally flowing streams of energy condensed into one, instantly taking on a certain shape.
The shape of a human.
No, it was human in form, yet grotesquely distorted somehow.
Limbs twisted at impossible angles, or bodies dripping with blood from every inch.
“Blood! My blooood~!!”
“Send us to paradise!!”
These bizarre entities that suddenly burst from thin air screamed like the damned as they charged at Il-mok and his group.
‘Illusions?’
That suspicion arose first, but he dared not test it.
The concentration of malevolent energy permeating the entire formation was far too dense. A formation born from such energy wouldn't end with mere illusions.
Clang!
Il-mok blocked the attack of an unidentified monster shrouded in bloody energy, then used fluid footwork to deflect its arm before slashing clean through its neck.
“Kkiiiiaaaak!!”
The monster shrieked grotesquely as its head came off, a fountain of blood spraying from its mouth.
No, it was a red energy that resembled blood.
Clang!!
“Ugh.”
Il-mok barely blocked the bloody energy. As if that outburst had been its final resistance, the monster scattered into the air like a mirage.
But the situation hadn't improved at all.
While Il-mok dealt with one monster, the formation's viscous energy coalesced to birth new ones.
“Be careful, Ha-yeon!”
Slower than Il-mok but having successfully felled one monster, Gu Yang-mun blocked a pincer attack from two more that lunged from both sides and shouted.
“Shut up.”
Jin Ha-yeon coolly replied as she used her ice arts to fend off the monsters' assault.
The women at the rear weren't faring much better.
With their numbers swelling, Joo Seo-yeon frantically unleashed her already erratic spear techniques, her head spinning from the sheer frenzy.
“Eek!”
Hyeok-ryeon Seon-a tangled with two monsters, fighting as one. Since both she and the monsters wielded bloody energy, it almost looked from afar like the formation-summoned beasts were battling each other.
Amid the monsters spawning from all directions.
“Eek!”
When one popped up right in front of her, Jeong-hyeon paled in terror and loosed an arrow at it.
Thuck!
Thanks to the monster twisting at the last second, the arrow lodged in its shoulder instead of its head.
“Kkiaaaak!!”
Ignoring the arrow in its shoulder entirely, the monster charged at Jeong-hyeon.
The rear was in even greater peril than the front three.
“Haat!”
At the sight of monsters endlessly emerging, Dam Bin swung her twin hands in rapid succession.
Countless threads poured from her sleeves, undulating like waves to the dance of her fingers as they surged toward the monsters.
Pabababak!
Crisp sounds rang out in quick succession, and more than half the threads she unleashed pierced through the monsters' bodies.
But as expected of monsters, even with what would fell humans—instant hits to meridians or vitals—they kept trying to move.
At their resistance, a chilling smile crept across Dam Bin's face.
At the same moment, she gripped the sprawling threads tightly with both hands and yanked her arms back viciously.
Kwajijijik!
The threads embedded in the monsters whipped around at once, slicing through their bodies like blades.
“Kkieeeek!!”
The monsters, torn to shreds, wailed in agony as they vanished, but just as many new ones sprang forth.
“Blood!! Give me back my blooood~!!”
Thanks to the monsters' screams, a certain suspicion dawned on Il-mok.
‘Could these be the vengeful spirits offered as sacrifices here?’
But deducing that changed little.
Affected by the formation, the spirits weren't targeting the sorcerers who had reduced them to this state—instead, they obeyed the sorcerers' commands.
No, not the sorcerers.
Crack.
“Grrgh….”
Even the surviving sorcerers were being pierced by the spirits' attacks.
The blood flowing from their wounds was reabsorbed into the altar, fueling the formation's malevolent energy further.
The one being spared by the spirits was just a single person.
Gui Gok-ja, standing at the altar's center.
Dam Bin, with senses as sharp as Il-mok's, noticed it too. Despite having just executed a major technique, she boldly shot a single thread at Gui Gok-ja.
The thread, which had traveled a great distance, shimmered with a sharpness akin to sword energy.
Clang!!
But the thread she fired produced a grating friction sound and went limp.
“Heh heh heh heh. You think that pathetic trick can pierce my Ink Blood Iron Medallion?”
By now, Gui Gok-ja had thrust forward a pitch-black medallion, and bloody energy swirled around it, enveloping him.
A protective treasure crafted by Gui Gok-ja, who prized his own safety above all. Forged from the life force in the blood of countless humans sacrificed here.
No, it had been created and reinforced back at Ghost Valley Mountain, where he had conducted human offerings before.
“You lot will never escape this Death Spirit Blood Ghost Array.”
Il-mok frowned at Gui Gok-ja's curse-like shout.
‘Damn it.’
He realized this wouldn't be easily resolved.
‘He plans to hold out with that medallion until the spirits devour us.’
Il-mok's sharp senses had picked up on it. The spirits couldn't spawn infinitely.
When Dam Bin took out several at once, the malevolent energy in the formation had slightly diminished.
But the reduction was negligible, and it was quickly replenished as other sorcerers died and bled.
It didn't even require death—just wounds and flowing blood fed the formation anew.
The malevolent energy swirling within was still overflowing, so waiting it out until it depleted was a fool's gamble.
Il-mok, grasping the situation swiftly, issued orders.
“Team Leader Dam Bin! Protect the team members from the rear! Lady Jin, Young Master Gu Yang, provide cover!”
With that shout, Il-mok bisected the monster shrieking in his face and launched himself toward Gui Gok-ja.
He had decided to target Gui Gok-ja directly instead of enduring until the formation's energy ran dry.
Il-mok swung his sword in relentless flows, embodying the essence of swift swordplay to the utmost. The vengeful spirits blocking his path were shredded into pieces in an instant.
Blasting through in a flash, Il-mok unleashed his lightness skill and closed in right before Gui Gok-ja.
“Haaaap!”
With a shout, he swung with full power, sword force already coalescing on his blade.
Boom!!!
Il-mok's sword force clashed against the bloody energy barrier, unleashing a thunderous roar.
But Il-mok's expression as he swung wasn't good.
Incredibly, the bloody energy Gui Gok-ja had conjured didn't vanish upon impact with the sword force.
It merely cracked and shook unsteadily.
Even those cracks vanished swiftly.
Energy flowing from Gui Gok-ja's body was sucked into the medallion, swiftly repairing the fissures.
Like a tug-of-war, Il-mok's sword force and the medallion's bloody barrier pushed against each other for a moment.
“Kkieeeek!”
“Blood! Hand over the blooood!!”
By now, the Death Spirit Blood Ghost Array had materialized new spirits that began charging at Il-mok.
But Il-mok didn't divert his sword path to strike at them.
He simply kept clashing silently against the bloody energy.
Because he trusted Jin Ha-yeon and Gu Yang-mun to handle them.
Slash!
Thud!
Gu Yang-mun's swift saber and Jin Ha-yeon's yin energy flew toward the spirits attacking Il-mok. The two landed via lightness skill and took positions to Il-mok's left and right from behind.
“Fine swordwork, Ha-yeon!”
“Shut up.”
Jin Ha-yeon gave a curt reply to Gu Yang-mun's inane praise, her calm gaze fixed ahead.
Behind her, Il-mok's sword force and Gui Gok-ja's bloody barrier struggled in a contest of power, producing explosion after explosion, but she ignored what was at her back.
‘If it's Young Master Il-mok, he'll handle it somehow.’
He was the one she trusted next to the Heavenly Demon, her object of faith.
His occasional laziness was a slight concern, but his skill and talent were beyond doubt.
But as a maidservant, leaving everything to her master wasn't right.
‘My role is to help Young Master focus entirely.’
Following her serene mindset, the yin energy dormant in her dantian raced through her meridians toward her palms.
“Kkieeek!!”
Even as spirits with blood streaming from all seven orifices and grotesquely twisted bodies charged at her.
She merely pressed her palms together, condensing the energy flowing from her dantian.
And the moment the nearest spirit swung its blood-infused claws at her.
Craaaack.
With a peculiar sound, her palms, pressed together like in prayer, parted.
Craaack.
In a place unfit for such unearthly wails, a beautiful dance unfolded.
To her slow yet ceaseless dance, countless ice flowers bloomed from her palms into the air.
In the formation roiling with crimson energy, the malevolent moonlight filtering through blood-red clouds clashed with the pure white snowflakes, taking on an eerie hue.
“Kkieeek….”
The spirits touched by the ice flowers from her Bare Hand Demon Art froze over, shrieking.
Jin Ha-yeon, who had created a thorny path of ice flowers that none daring to raise claws at her master could cross, exhaled a cold sigh laced with yin energy.
“Hoo.”
Right beside her came a sullen voice.
“Ahem. C-Could've warned me a bit, Ha-yeon.”
It was Gu Yang-mun, who had nearly frozen alongside the spirits.
He had barely survived by wildly swinging his swift saber to bat away the few ice flowers headed his way.
At Gu Yang-mun's grumbling, Jin Ha-yeon clicked her tongue lightly.
“Tsk.”