Chapter 218
Chapter 218
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 218
>Chapter Title: Dog Child (1)
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Having decided to take a day’s rest here, the group exited the formation and headed toward the fake Gongdongpa’s main hall.
Of course, these were fake Gongdongpa members, but the main hall was in reasonably good shape.
When they had first arrived, after Dan Bin cleared away the bodies of the Taoists he’d assassinated, Il-mok had slept in the cleanest hall available.
Naturally, after bathing thoroughly and changing clothes.
Aside from the times they performed human sacrifices here, they must have stayed in the place, because spare clothes and water for bathing had thankfully been left behind.
How long had it been since he’d collapsed into a deep sleep, oblivious to the passage of time?
“Yawn.”
Il-mok stretched languidly as he woke and stepped out of the hall to find the sun already high in the sky.
Thanks to the solid sleep, the headache caused by breaking through the blood barrier had subsided considerably.
“Did you cough, Young Master?”
“A-are you feeling b-better?”
Guyang Mun and Jeong Hyeon were there to greet him as he woke.
“I feel refreshed enough. How about you two?”
“We took turns guarding in groups of two or three, so we got some rest.”
“Th-the others are sl-sleeping for now.”
Il-mok nodded at their answers and sat cross-legged.
“Then it’s about time to wake up and prepare. I’ll circulate my qi and adjust my breathing while the others rouse themselves.”
About an hour and a half later, Il-mok—who had postponed qi circulation and breath adjustment the night before due to his headache and internal injuries—opened his eyes, his dantian’s inner energy somewhat restored. The others had all woken up as well.
After roughly filling their stomachs with what had been left in the fake Gongdongpa hall,
“Young Master. While standing guard and searching the hall and bodies, we found these additional items.”
Dan Bin handed Il-mok the things the group had gathered.
Mostly minor talismans and such, but a few books were mixed in.
“Are these related to sorcery by any chance?”
Jin Ha-yeon answered Il-mok’s question.
“I skimmed them. They’re nothing like the Blood Charm Record. There’s some sorcery stuff, but if I had to describe it, it’s more like journals written by Gui-gu-zi’s disciples.”
Il-mok pocketed the books for now, then reentered the formation with the group.
Their first stop was the cave.
The cave filled with countless child corpses.
“We’ll need to dig some graves so we can bury them.”
At Il-mok’s command, the group began digging into the ground without hesitation.
All peak-level experts, they infused their inner energy and dug pits deep enough for a body in moments.
As the group busily dug dozens of graves,
Il-mok, tormented by his hygiene obsession, unfolded the journal he’d grabbed earlier instead of digging with his bare hands.
‘There might be clues about the Blood Sect, so I should check it out first.’
As he began reading with that in mind, it was indeed like a journal, just as Jin Ha-yeon had said.
It detailed the things this Taoist had done.
Learning sorcery from Gui-gu-zi and practicing it. Tricking the commoners of Pyeongryang County into becoming sacrifices. Managing the ghostflower pollen growing in the fields, and so on.
As he quickly skimmed the various entries,
“Hmm?”
Il-mok paused at one section.
‘Does it really matter?’
As he pondered how to use this unexpected information,
Dan Bin’s voice snapped him back.
“Young Master. We’ve made about a hundred graves first.”
Il-mok closed the book and nodded.
“Then we should start carrying the child corpses out of the cave one by one and burying them.”
With that, Il-mok took a deep breath and stepped forward.
‘For now, I’ll do what I can.’
He wrapped his arms in cloth he’d brought beforehand, then began extracting the child corpses from the cave with the group and placing them in the graves.
- You madman! Don’t you know about corpse poison?!
- Germs! Do you have any idea how many germs are swarming on those bodies?!
Fighting the hysterics in the back of his mind.
No matter that his symptoms had weakened since transcending Extreme Demon and his realm had risen, he was still closer to Extreme Demon than Transcending Demon.
Naturally, hauling corpses while ignoring his hygiene obsession demanded extreme endurance from Il-mok.
‘Shut up!!’
But Il-mok inwardly yelled at the symptoms as he carried on.
It was for honoring their souls—how could he avoid it just because it was filthy?
He’d left the digging to the others precisely so he could move the bodies himself.
If his hygiene obsession had flared up while digging dirt, he probably couldn’t have touched them at all.
By the time Il-mok had carried five bodies to graves,
Hyeok-ryeon Seon-a, the first to notice the cold sweat on his body, grabbed him.
“Brother. Leave this to us and rest.”
“This is for honoring the souls of those unjustly killed. I should lend a hand, even if just a little.”
At Il-mok’s response, the others—who finally grasped the situation—spoke up.
“Young Master personally executed the ringleader who innocently slaughtered them. They’ll understand it’s due to your condition.”
“That’s right, Young Master. According to our Divine Cult’s teachings, slaying villains who torment commoners and bringing peace to the masses is the most important duty, isn’t it?”
Dan Bin and Jin Ha-yeon tried to persuade him logically.
“R-resting is f-fine...”
Jeong Hyeon mumbled alone, buried under the others’ voices.
“Hahaha. If Young Master overexerts and falls into demonic deviation, rampaging out of control, we couldn’t handle it.”
“I’m fine! If Young Master falls into demonic deviation, I’ll burn my body to protect him!”
“Oh! That’s a method, Ju So-jeo! If it comes to that, Ha-yeon and...”
“Don’t say disgusting things, Senior Guyang.”
Guyang Mun and Ju Seo-yeon alternated their deranged remarks.
But realizing they were all worried about him in their own ways, Il-mok finally stepped back, watching the group bury the bodies as he bowed his head slightly.
‘I doubt this will fully appease their resentment, but I hope it brings you some peace.’
How long after the group dug graves amid Il-mok’s silent prayer?
Absurdly, they found over a hundred graves weren’t enough as they pulled out the child corpses crammed in the cave.
They dug more graves, kept extracting bodies, and eventually buried every last one.
After making a whopping 127 mounds,
Il-mok and the group clasped hands together and prayed for their departed souls.
Perhaps because everyone stood in silent tribute, an eerie quiet enveloped the area, and an inexplicable gentle breeze softly swept through, washing away the silence.
And right after the breeze caressed the graves and departed,
A faint noise came from afar.
Recognizing it as human voices, the group opened their eyes and exchanged glances.
“Could be more of Gui-gu-zi’s disciples returning.”
With cold expressions, they nodded and swiftly headed outside the formation.
But upon reaching the Gongdongpa hall, an unexpected scene unfolded.
The visitors to the Gongdongpa hall were ordinary commoners.
“P-pleeease~!!”
“S-send us to paradise, Taoist masters!!”
To be precise, ones poisoned by the pollen.
Their appearances were indescribable. It wasn’t just that the pollen had wrecked their bodies.
Pyeongryang County, the closest to Gongdong Mountain, was dozens of li away.
On horseback or with lightness skill or shrinking steps, it’d take half to one hour, but ordinary commoners needed at least half a day.
Plus climbing Gongdong Mountain’s treacherous terrain, so they’d walked the whole half day to get here.
Their clothes were caked in dirt, and scratches dotted their faces and bodies from scrapes or falls along the way.
They’d trekked this far distance in that state. All for that pollen.
As the group looked to Il-mok for what to do, he sighed once and gave orders.
“First, seal their pulse and pressure points to subdue them. Force some water and food into them. Then seal their blood points to put them to sleep.”
They couldn’t just hand over pollen because they begged for it.
As the group subdued the commoners, Il-mok gathered his thoughts and spoke again.
“Ju So-jeo and Guyang So-hyeop, stay here and subdue any new arrivals the same way. The rest of us return to the formation to destroy that field.”
Guyang Mun and Ju Seo-yeon didn’t look thrilled at being left behind, but Il-mok ignored it.
On his way back to the formation,
“Hm?”
Il-mok tilted his head at a strange sight.
What he saw was the demonic sword Guyang Mun had given him yesterday.
The one he’d left aside because touching it felt iffy.
‘Did I misfeel it yesterday because I was unwell? The ghostly energy seems reduced.’
But it was still a demonic sword.
Il-mok soon lost interest and entered the formation with the group.
They first moved to a nearby stream.
They scooped water into jars and ladles brought from the Gongdongpa hall, then headed to the field.
The field blooming profusely with ghostflowers.
Dan Bin used a fire starter from his sleeve to ignite one side of the field.
Fueled by the wind, the fire spread across the field.
Il-mok watched and formed hand seals whenever it threatened to jump to where the flowers grew or other brush.
Ruuush.
Using the only spell he knew, the dew conjuration, to extinguish flames as needed. The group doused any stray fires with jars and ladles.
Jin Ha-yeon used the chill of Bare Hand Demon Art to suppress some.
While Il-mok and Jin Ha-yeon bought time, the others refilled water and doused more.
The fire would die out once there was nothing left to burn. They just prevented it from spreading outward as they burned the field.
After about an hour of battling the blaze,
The spot where the fire had fully died was now an ashen fire-field of cinders.
After cleaning up the field, they exited the formation and returned to the hall.
Three more commoners had arrived at Gongdong Mountain in that hour.
After a brief look at those subdued by Guyang Mun and Ju Seo-yeon, now sleeping sprawled out,
“It seems Pyeongryang County’s state is far from normal.”
Il-mok decided that since it was too late to return to Nanzhou anyway, they’d rest there and check on the county.
The group began packing, and as Il-mok examined the items left by Gui-gu-zi and his disciples, he checked the neglected demonic sword and tilted his head again.
“Hm?”
Its ghostly energy had diminished further. Now it was questionable to even call it demonic.
“Why?”
Puzzled, Il-mok picked up the demonic sword and left the Gongdongpa hall with the group.
Carrying the sleeping commoners with sealed blood points.
After traveling with lightness skill, they reentered Pyeongryang County.
“Haa...”
The village exuded an even more anxious, listless air than before.
As Il-mok sighed at the bitter sight, a strange sensation made him look down at his thigh.
The demonic sword at his waist vibrated faintly during travel. As if weeping.
Naturally, Il-mok thought of the sword’s changes.
‘After performing the funeral rites for the bodies, the ghostly energy lessened. And after burning that field.’
From that, he reached an uncertain hypothesis.
“...You want me to resolve the resentment?”
Many of the victims slain by this sword must have been from this village. So the survivors were likely family, friends, or acquaintances of the sacrificed.
Perhaps the lingering spirits’ final grudge was worry for them.
As if responding to Il-mok’s murmur, the sword let out a fierce cry.
Woooooong!
Il-mok gazed at it briefly, then soothed it.
“It’s impossible for just us right now. We lack manpower. So wait a little longer.”
With that, Il-mok turned his head toward a certain direction.
Where Nanzhou lay.
* * *
After resting in Pyeongryang County, Il-mok and the group rode through the whole next morning and arrived at Nanzhou’s Heavenly Demon Divine Cult branch in the afternoon.
The Nanzhou Branch Leader greeted Il-mok, returning after four days away, with a bow.
“Young Master! The Beggars’ Sect’s rear guard has arrived!”
Along with the unexpected news.