Chapter 330
Chapter 330
-----------------------------------------------------------------
>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 330
>Chapter Title: Shadow (5)
>-----------------------------------------------------------------
While jotting down tasks to handle inside the hall once reinforcements arrived, Il-mok soon rose to his feet and stepped out of the hall.
Over a month had passed since taking control of Potala Palace. In many ways, the atmosphere there had changed.
The biggest difference, above all, was that every trace of the bewitching fragrance enveloping the entire palace had completely vanished.
The thick bloody scent that had permeated Potala Palace was also entirely gone. All the blood splattered across the floors and buildings had been wiped clean, leaving behind a truly serene ambiance.
Here and there in the ancient temple, women could be seen wandering sporadically.
As Il-mok walked along wearing his mask, the women paid their respects to him.
“We pay respects to the Incarnation of Maitreya.”
All these women were those rescued from Potala Palace.
Perhaps because they had spent a month together, the fear in their eyes when looking at Il-mok had considerably faded.
“Just hold on a little longer. Once the reinforcements arrive, I’ll send you all back to your hometowns.”
Il-mok added this with a gentle smile.
It was something he had already mentioned when he first rescued them.
With only twelve attackers raiding Potala Palace, protecting over a hundred women while sending them home hadn’t been feasible.
With remnants of Potala Palace still lurking throughout the Western Region, sending the women back home recklessly would only breed another disaster.
The women smiled softly in response.
“We are already deeply grateful just for being saved.”
They had already seen with their own eyes why they couldn’t be sent home right away.
Over the past month, there had been three instances of Esoteric Sect monks who had gone out to abduct women returning.
Those Esoteric Sect monks had lost their lives to Il-mok and his subordinates, and the young women they had brought back were now staying here together.
‘Reinforcements need to arrive soon so we can sweep away the remaining remnants.’
Il-mok knew remnants were still out there.
He had information from the women here, and for the last half month or so, no new Esoteric Sect monks had returned to Potala Palace.
It seemed rumors of Potala Palace’s fall had begun spreading across the Western Region.
The problem was that it was obvious what horrific deeds those Esoteric Sect monks who heard the rumors and gave up returning would be committing throughout the Western Region.
At that moment, a sharp whistle pierced the air from far away.
Il-mok headed toward the source of the sound.
In a remote corner of Potala Palace, in a training ground few people visited, a woman stood holding a massive bow.
As Jeong-hyeon drew and released the bowstring again, the arrow left her hand with a whistling sound.
Il-mok nodded in satisfaction as he observed the arrow flying at tremendous speed.
‘Jeong Sojeo might escape Extreme Demon soon as well.’
At that moment, Jeong-hyeon, who had been immersed in archery practice, sensed something and lowered her bow, turning her head toward Il-mok.
Spotting Il-mok in his mask, she startled and bowed her head.
“Y-Young Master!”
Jeong-hyeon’s face, bowed low, had turned bright red once more.
It had been over a month since she started reading the book Jin Ha-yeon had gifted her.
She still hadn’t recovered from that shock.
* * *
A few days later.
Visitors arrived at Potala Palace—reinforcements from Gansu.
Most were there for doctrinal education or proselytizing, with only ten warriors among them.
Il-mok swallowed a sigh inwardly as he looked at the warriors.
‘…No helping it.’
The Heavenly Demon Divine Cult was currently suffering a severe manpower shortage, so ten was better than nothing.
He had already requested additional personnel from the main headquarters, so more people would likely arrive after a few more days.
Even then, he suspected the warriors would number around ten to twenty at most.
However, with so few people, they couldn’t delay the cleanup.
“You all must now team up with the warriors who were here and patrol the Western Region to eliminate Potala Palace’s remnants.”
It was time to clean up the trash they had left behind.
After roughly assigning personnel, Il-mok issued orders to both the newly arrived warriors and those already present.
“Young Master, there is one thing I wish to say.”
Very unusually, Jin Ha-yeon stepped forward to oppose Il-mok’s orders.
“Rather than lumping all the maidservants into one team, it would be better to divide them across several teams.”
As their leader, she knew all too well.
How much of a mess the maidservants could be when Il-mok wasn’t around.
‘If they’re grouped together, they’ll tarnish the Young Master’s reputation. As his servant, I absolutely cannot allow that.’
The problem was that Il-mok was unaware of this.
“Is there any reason to split up those who’ve trained together for so long?”
When Il-mok asked with a puzzled expression, Jin Ha-yeon quickly replied.
“Don’t they already have experience living in the Western Region first?”
Was it because she had escaped Extreme Demon and emotions were budding? Or because her long-served master was Il-mok?
“So, mixing the maidservants and Hyeok-ryeon clan warriors with the new arrivals seems more efficient.”
She merely spouted an excuse she made up on the spot with an expressionless face.
* * *
A few days later.
After traveling the Western Region’s barren wastelands for several days with four Heavenly Demon Divine Cult warriors, Jeong-hyeon arrived at a village called South Wood Forest.
The place exuded a somehow rigid atmosphere.
Having experienced such atmospheres multiple times with Il-mok, Jeong-hyeon cautiously spoke up.
“Th-there seems to be s-something.”
Though she extremely disliked taking the lead, she mustered her courage.
‘D-during the time I stall, the w-women might suffer even greater harm.’
If Potala Palace remnants were here, they needed to be eliminated as quickly as possible.
She took the lead, guiding the group.
Thanks to operating the Ghostly Spirit Divine Bow to analyze countless traces within the village and even eavesdrop on the villagers’ whispers, she easily located the target.
The place Jeong-hyeon led the group to featured a fairly large hall in the village.
As they neared the hall, a faint bewitching fragrance wafting from inside stimulated her nose.
Certain now, she turned to the group and said.
“It’s th-there.”
The four warriors with her nodded in admiration.
“As expected of the maidservant of the famed genius Eighth Young Master.”
“Impressive skill.”
Unsure where to put herself amid their praise, Jeong-hyeon bowed her head deeply and said.
“W-we need to enter qu-quickly.”
The warriors, knowing what might be happening inside, grew serious and cautiously approached the hall.
They crept up to the wall, exchanged glances, nodded, and leaped over it in unison.
“Do you know where this is!!”
An Esoteric Sect monk’s shout echoed from inside, followed by screams and the clash of metal ringing out one after another.
Whoosh!
From atop the opposite hall’s roof, Jeong-hyeon loosed an arrow at the Esoteric Sect monk.
Qi infused her short arrow.
Crunch!
As the monk thrust out his vajra to block it, his head exploded.
It was the fruit of the training Il-mok had advised.
* * *
When successfully escaping Extreme Demon, demonic cultivators could reach a level akin to the super first-rate in Central Plains martial arts.
And in the Central Plains, the benchmark for super first-rate was true qi.
But this was only accurate for close-range weapons like swords, blades, spears, or bare-handed arts.
Infusing true qi into a sword in one’s hand was worlds apart from infusing it into an arrow flying dozens of paces away.
So how should archers gauge super first-rate? Furthermore, how could they transcend it to the divine realm?
Through his own experience and Dan-bin’s example, Il-mok had found his own answer.
Dan-bin had also escaped Extreme Demon, but she didn’t wield true qi. For arts using dozens of threads, true qi was nearly a waste of internal energy.
Instead of condensing qi, she had developed herself toward finer control.
Thus, Il-mok advised Jeong-hyeon.
- Each time you loose an arrow, try infusing it with qi.
- Use the Ghostly Spirit Divine Bow’s exceptional senses to keep the qi infused on the arrow from dispersing after it leaves the string.
- If you can maintain the qi all the way to the arrow’s maximum range, then next, use that qi to maneuver the arrow.
When he gave this three-stage advice, Jeong-hyeon, already at Extreme Demon, easily surpassed the first stage.
She succeeded about halfway on the second.
The qi on the arrow gradually dispersed as it flew.
And now, the qi remained coated on her arrows from start to finish.
* * *
Even at this moment, Jeong-hyeon recalled that advice as she unleashed arrows.
Crunch!
Each qi-infused short arrow felled Esoteric Sect monks like autumn leaves in the wind.
With the cult warriors’ efforts added, the monks were swept away in an instant.
Perhaps realizing survival was impossible this way.
“Stop at once!”
A high monk emerged from the hall, bellowing.
“The moment any of you so much as twitch a finger, I’ll kill this wench.”
He held his vajra to the throat of a woman whose pressure points he had sealed.
As the cult warriors hesitated, pondering their next move.
Jeong-hyeon readied a flat arrow instead of a short one, aiming at the Esoteric Sect monk.
‘This chance before he notices.’
One of the flat arrow’s greatest strengths was its specialization in sniping and assassination. With the high monk’s gaze on the warriors, now was the moment to strike him down.
‘Only one shot.’
A mistake could embed an arrow in the hostage woman.
Pushing the Ghostly Spirit Divine Bow to its limit, her concentration peaked, making even the distant wind’s flow feel vividly on her skin.
The high monk’s bellowing voice slowed, and time’s flow twisted bizarrely.
Twang.
The qi-coated arrow left her hand, flying toward the high monk.
Whistle.
The sound lagged behind the arrow.
“!!!”
The startled high monk’s slow head-turn entered Jeong-hyeon’s sight.
‘No!!’
Her arrow hadn’t even reached him yet.
Better than she’d anticipated, the high monk twisted his body, yanking the hostage toward him.
In the slowed world, the arrow’s image in the woman’s eyes grew larger by the second.
‘If Young Master were here, this wouldn’t have happened….’
Jeong-hyeon regretted underestimating the high monk and loosing too hastily.
Perhaps sensing her life hung by a thread. Though the arrow was too fast for eyes to follow, the woman’s expression changed.
Thanks to maxing the Ghostly Spirit Divine Bow, Jeong-hyeon sensed the faint emotion in that slow, subtle shift.
Despair. Grievance. And a faint sense of liberation.
Reading the emotion in that expression, Jeong-hyeon realized.
This wasn’t the time for regret.
She sought to realize Il-mok’s final advice.
- If you can maintain the qi all the way to the arrow’s maximum range, then next, use that qi to maneuver the arrow.
The advice she had practiced endlessly but never succeeded at even once.
‘Please!!’
She pleaded desperately toward her own arrow, as if to the gods.
‘Curve! Curve damn it!!’
Despite her desperate cry, the arrow in the woman’s eyes only grew larger, the emotion on her face deepening.
‘Curve, please!!’
And as Jeong-hyeon’s earnest wish peaked, a sensation like the world halting washed over her.
The arrow that left her hand felt still caught on it.
Nudge.
Lightly nudging that caught arrow, excruciating pain like her brain burning engulfed her.
Yet amid the pain, Jeong-hyeon drew a radiant smile.
In the vastly slowed world, her arrow’s path had veered slightly into view.
As her peak concentration shattered and the world resumed its speed.
Crunch!!
With the sound of something pierced, Jeong-hyeon collapsed like a shed shell.