Chapter 259
Chapter 259
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 259
>Chapter Title: Kill Each Other (1)
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Thud.
Right after the corpse riddled with holes throughout its body collapsed.
“Cough.”
Il-mok spat out a mouthful of dark red blood.
“Haa.”
Though he had suffered severe internal injuries, relief came first.
Thanks to expelling all his blood energy at the end, he no longer had the strength left to rampage.
He had taken internal injuries, but it seemed he wouldn't fall into demonic deviation.
Looking down at the gruesome corpse of the Flying Dragon Branch Master, Il-mok soon thrust his Ascending Heaven Sword forward with an indifferent expression.
As the Ascending Heaven Sword embedded in the Flying Dragon Branch Master's corpse began to absorb his blood, Il-mok let go of the hilt.
Absorbing blood energy in his current state risked truly falling into demonic deviation.
While the Flying Dragon Branch Master's corpse, drained of blood by the Ascending Heaven Sword, withered and twisted.
Il-mok sat cross-legged right there and began qi circulation and breath adjustment.
It wasn't to heal his internal injuries with meditative breathing. Recovering from injuries this severe would take at least half a day of qi circulation and breath adjustment. The situation didn't allow for that now.
After about thirty minutes of qi circulation and breath adjustment to recover the bare minimum of inner strength, Il-mok opened his eyes to see the corpse had withered like a mummy.
‘Still, the revenge succeeded.’
That was his first thought upon seeing the wretched corpse.
However, he hadn't embedded the Ascending Heaven Sword in the Flying Dragon Branch Master's body out of vengeance.
‘He's the only one who knew the sword's abilities, so anyone else seeing it will think the Blood Cult did it.’
It was for sowing discord, not revenge.
“Phew. We'll just stick to moderate proselytizing and live quietly, so you lot can fry and devour each other or drop dead for all we care.”
Il-mok pulled the Ascending Heaven Sword from the mummy.
It felt just like a mosquito withdrawing its proboscis after sucking its fill of blood.
“Tch.”
As blood energy tried to burrow into his body along the hilt, Il-mok swung the sword through the air to shake off the blood energy clinging to it.
Incidentally, it also overlaid traces of the battle between him and the Flying Dragon Branch Master.
After tidying up just enough, Il-mok headed toward the center of the altar.
“It has to be around here somewhere.”
Even with the Third Elder dead, blood energy was still flowing toward this place.
It meant the formation laid across the entirety of White Crane Mountain was still active.
Approaching near the Third Elder's corpse, Il-mok soon discovered an eerie object overflowing with ghostly energy.
‘Is this it?’
He yanked out the iron plaque surging with ghostly energy and blood energy, and suddenly the flow of energy felt from all directions twisted.
The flow of blood energy gathering toward the altar's center vanished as well.
Just as Il-mok sighed in relief, thinking the energy flow across White Crane Mountain had finally returned to normal.
Boom!
“Whoa.”
A heavy thud echoed from behind.
It was the spot where the corpse with the talisman on its forehead had burst out earlier.
Il-mok glanced back and saw a deep pit in the center with a hole bored through it.
“A tunnel?”
One possibility came to mind, and Il-mok cautiously approached.
Below the hole was some kind of cavity.
“No way….”
Il-mok leaped into the hole, and upon landing, his eyes fell on a pile of bones.
The term "white bones" felt inadequate; they were already decayed and weathering into dust.
And in front of that pile of bones were words written in dark red ink.
[Disciple. If you are a descendant of the Divine Cult come to find me, I am grateful yet sorry. Sorry to the followers who lost their lives due to my foolishness, and truly impressed by you survivors who made it back here…]
Il-mok let out a hollow laugh.
‘To think this really was the Heavenly Demon's Secret Cave.’
This seemed to be the end of that cave where the orthodox martial artists had been at each other's throats.
However, there were no spirit medicines or insights from rumors. No divine swords or treasures of gold and silver.
[Disciple. If you are not a warrior of the Divine Cult, then coming all this way was a fool's errand, how laughable. Hahaha. Did you think this old man would leave an opportunity that might fall into the hands of those vile hypocrites here? Filthy scum. Daring to set such despicable traps…]
Unlike the kind words at first to descendants of the Divine Cult, the end was filled only with curses and mockery toward the orthodox factions.
‘Split personality, alright. Definitely a Demonic Cult member.’
Nodding with a convinced expression, Il-mok soon stripped off his upper garment.
The fanatics of the Divine Cult most desired the corpse of the Blood Tower Heavenly Demon anyway, so he planned to take those bones.
His clothes were already stained with blood and sweat and reduced to rags, so he intended to use the garment as a wrapping cloth as well.
Just as he bundled the decayed bone pile and wrapped it in his martial robe, he sensed presences from deep in the cave.
‘The formation must have fully unraveled.’
Grabbing the bundle, Il-mok unleashed his lightness skill and exited through the hole he had entered.
Then Il-mok picked up the mask that had been blown away by the Third Elder.
The mask had rolled near the sprawled body of Chu-gae.
“Hmm.”
Il-mok glanced down at Chu-gae for a moment before turning away.
Chu-gae was still alive. Though in quite serious condition.
‘Well, no need to kill him.’
He had received various help from the Beggars' Sect, and besides, Chu-gae knew nothing of the Ascending Heaven Sword.
Nor could he tend to his injuries; his own nose was already three feet under.
Moreover, aiding a severely injured orthodox warrior with demonic arts would only worsen his condition.
Putting aside his interest in Chu-gae, Il-mok unleashed his lightness skill and left the area.
Il-mok headed toward the entrance of the Heavenly Demon's Secret Cave, where he had left his companions trapped in the Illusory Dream Formation.
No sooner had he arrived than Hyeok-ryeon Seon-a greeted him.
“Brother!”
“Are you back to your senses?”
“I had a scary nightmare….”
She gripped Il-mok's clothes tightly, as if she would never let him go.
The problem was that Il-mok was only wearing pants.
“Ahem. Don't worry.”
Instead of offering his pants, Il-mok extended his hand, grasping Hyeok-ryeon Seon-a's.
Meanwhile, three women approached Il-mok.
Dam-bin, Jeong-hyeon, and Joo Seo-yeon. All three looked a bit pale, as if they had internal injuries, but they were conscious.
“Young Master, what in the world happened?”
Dam-bin asked as the representative, but instead of answering, Il-mok looked elsewhere.
“It'll take a while to explain, so let's talk after we get back. First, we need to support those two.”
The two Il-mok mentioned were Jin Ha-yeon and Goo Yang-moon.
‘As expected, the closer to Extreme Demon, the more dangerous such formations.’
Until transcending Extreme Demon, higher realms only deepened mental instability, making them vulnerable to mental attack spells.
At Il-mok's instruction, the group approached to support the two.
“Cough.”
Right then, Jin Ha-yeon spat blood and opened her eyes.
Her face already pale, it turned ashen blue after vomiting a large amount of blood.
“Her condition seems serious, so we'll just carry her out.”
“Understood!”
Jin Ha-yeon, just escaped from demonic deviation, looked confused, but there was no time for explanations.
“I'll explain back at the village, so for now, let Team Leader Dam-bin carry you.”
Jin Ha-yeon seemed about to say something but gave up and closed her mouth.
And so, with Jin Ha-yeon carried on Team Leader Dam-bin's back, Goo Yang-moon on Joo Seo-yeon's back, and Il-mok on Hyeok-ryeon Seon-a's back, they began moving.
Il-mok's injuries were severe too, leaving him no choice.
Jeong-hyeon was the only one not carried by anyone. Fresh from a nightmare, contact might trigger a seizure.
The one with the sourest expression was Joo Seo-yeon, probably because she had to carry Goo Yang-moon of all people.
“Ha-yeon… why….”
Each time nonsense spilled from Goo Yang-moon on her back, Joo Seo-yeon's face crumpled further.
In response, a deep sigh unlike her escaped from Jin Ha-yeon on Dam-bin's back.
Whether from Goo Yang-moon's pathetic state or her own, it was unclear.
As the nightmare-stricken group moved on with varied reactions.
Il-mok, carried by Hyeok-ryeon Seon-a, felt a strange unease.
‘But why did the Blood Cult leave this behind?’
He understood using the Blood Tower Heavenly Demon's secret cave as a trap, but not leaving the bones or inscription.
They couldn't have kindly anticipated the Demonic Cult retrieving the body.
Il-mok imagined the Blood Cult's plan succeeding and soon grasped their intent.
‘You sneaky bastards. You planned to frame us!’
With such an inscription at the cave's end, anyone would mistake it for a trap prepared by the Blood Tower Heavenly Demon before death or by the Demonic Cult.
Realizing this, a sinister smile crept onto Il-mok's lips.
‘Serves you right, you dogs.’
With their plan foiled, now the Blood Cult would be hunted by the Martial Alliance.
* * *
A short while after Il-mok left the altar.
Flash!
An elder in Qingcheng Sect robes emerged from the small hole at the altar's center.
His body was covered in wounds, his face flushed red with rage, and his eyelids swollen red as if from tears.
He was a Qingcheng Sect elder who had entered the Heavenly Demon's Secret Cave with disciples.
After passing forks and traps, battling greed-blinded warriors for a long time.
Suddenly, strange energy flows arose around the cave, and nightmares engulfed them.
Unimaginably horrific nightmares, but as a master who had cultivated Daoist arts for decades, he didn't succumb easily.
Reciting Daoist incantations inwardly and circulating serene inner strength to repel the nightmare for a long while.
The Qingcheng elder barely escaped the nightmare.
But before his eyes unfolded a hellscape beyond nightmares.
“Die, you demons!”
“Kaaack!”
Disciples fooled by nightmares swung swords at each other.
He had escaped, but the disciples hadn't.
Most were already dead.
Even his sword was stained with blood.
In overcoming the nightmare, he had unknowingly slain one of his disciples.
“Aa…. Aaa….”
Realizing this, the elder's face drained white. Demonic deviation struck, absent even in the nightmare.
“Cough.”
But he boldly spat dead blood and advanced toward the disciples.
Lest they all die while he was confused.
Subduing nightmare-trapped disciples and blocking their blades for a long while.
The strange energy flow returned, and the nightmare-tormented disciples froze.
Their entranced eyes soon cleared, then darkened with turbidity.
Like the elder, they realized their deeds.
“Ha! (Shout)!!”
Bracing for internal injuries, the elder unleashed a lion's roar infused with serene energy.
Saving the surviving disciples from demonic deviation's brink, the elder shouted.
“Follow me.”
Retrieving the dead disciples' bodies here would have to wait.
Assigning them that could drive them all to madness and deviation.
Leading the few survivors onward, the elder soon reached the cave's end.
Nothing was there. Just dark red writing.
“Damn Demonic Cult bastards….”
Reading the Blood Tower Heavenly Demon's curses and mockery, the Qingcheng elder concluded it was all a Demonic Cult trap.
To pursue the enemy, he leaped toward the hole above the cavity.
“…….”
Frowning at the total chaos, the Qingcheng elder couldn't grasp the situation.
Surveying the area littered with over a dozen corpses, he sensed a survivor.
Someone he knew.
“Elder Chu-gae?”
Noticing Chu-gae's dire state, the Qingcheng elder pressed palm against the old beggar's back and began qi circulation and breath adjustment.
Qingcheng disciples who had followed him out encircled him protectively.
After about fifteen minutes.
“Cough.”
Elder Chu-gae spat blood once and regained consciousness.
‘I'm alive.’
The excruciating pain throughout his body confirmed it.
Though his meridians were twisted and dantian shattered.
Then, a familiar voice came from behind.
“Elder Chu-gae.”
“Urgh. It's Daoist Qingmu.”
“What exactly happened here?”
To his question, Chu-gae answered through the pain.
“It was all a Blood Cult trap….”
“Blood Cult? Not the Demonic Cult, but the Blood Cult's doing?”
As Daoist Qingmu asked with murderous eyes, Chu-gae nodded.