Chapter 148
Chapter 148
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Translator: True Detective
Chapter: 148
Chapter Title: Zhuge's Darkness
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It was light.
A light that brightly illuminated the dark, blood-scented cave.
“What…!”
Yong Hwi tried to say something upon seeing the crescent moon-shaped light flying in to illuminate the cave, but the light had already closed in right before him.
The light sliced through the bodies of the five Yinsha enforcers who had been restraining Geun-young with effortless ease.
-Pfshk!
The Yinsha enforcers' upper and lower bodies separated, and they perished in an instant.
Everyone who witnessed it froze in place in shock.
And in that moment, a hazy figure burst out from the dark passageway.
-Boom!
The figure shot in like an arrow, reaching right in front of Geun-young, and mercilessly cut down the other remaining Yinsha enforcers around him.
“D-Dodge!”
Yong Hwi belatedly shouted the order to evade, but his cry came too late, and the blade swung by the figure was far too swift.
As a result, in a mere few breaths' time, most of the Yinsha enforcers collapsed, spraying blood.
A scene so unbelievable even after seeing it with one's own eyes.
The figure who had displayed such astonishing prowess stood before Geun-young.
“Can you stand?”
“…Young Master Goon.”
The figure—Ja-seong—stood with his back to Geun-young as if to protect her, while keeping the surviving Yinsha enforcers and Yong Hwi in check.
Freed from her restraints, Geun-young stared up at him in a daze, unable to even think of standing.
How is he here?
*
I glanced sideways at Zhuge Geun-young behind me while pointing my sword at the deranged old man and the surviving black-masked men.
I thought she might be injured since she wasn't getting up right away despite being stunned, but fortunately, she soon rose to her feet.
Zhuge Geun-young, wearing an uncharacteristically bewildered expression, stammered her question.
“Y-Y-Young Master Goon. How did you get here…?”
“Ah…. Well, explaining it would take a while…. Let's talk later.”
The situation was too urgent to chatter on about every little detail of what had happened.
She seemed to realize it belatedly herself, nodding without further comment.
She picked up her sword rolling on the ground and stood beside me.
Unlike us, poised for battle, the enemies' reaction was sluggish.
To be precise, the deranged old man whom Zhuge Geun-young had called the Elder Council Leader was acting strangely.
His wide-open eyes shook wildly as if an earthquake had struck within them.
He looked as though he had received an enormously shocking blow.
“Th-That just now….”
The old man, who had been babbling madly in a different sense until now, suddenly uttered something completely unexpected.
“…Sword Qi Wounds Man.”
“…What?”
What did that old man just say?
I widened my eyes in surprise, but he shook his head as if denying what he had seen.
“N-No, that can't be. There's no way anyone who can wield that power described in the forbidden scrolls could still remain…!”
The old man's muttering eyes suddenly turned downward.
Toward the corpses of the black-masked men whose upper and lower bodies had been severed by my Surpassing Heaven Crescent.
Deaths that proved what he had seen was no illusion.
After a long moment of confusion, the old man finally posed a hesitant question.
“Th-That just now… was it Sword Qi Wounds Man?”
“…….”
There was no mockery in his voice, laced with doubt and turmoil.
That only made it feel even stranger.
-Sword qi? Sword aura? Puahaha! To think someone actually believes that nonsense for real!
I recalled the cruel words of that vile monk from long ago, who had ruthlessly crushed a child's innocent dreams.
At the root of those words lay the world's 'common sense' that sword qi was nothing more than a fabrication from folktales.
Yet this old man's tone suggested he had known of sword qi's existence for a long time.
With a mix of slight confusion and anticipation, I slowly opened my mouth.
“…And if it was?”
“Huh….”
A probing response, feigned as if testing his suspicions.
Upon hearing it, an exclamation leaked from between his white beard.
And that exclamation soon turned into mad laughter laced with frenzy.
“Heh, hehehehe… uhahahahaha—!”
Laughter that reverberated loudly through the cave.
Perhaps annoyed by the sound, beastly roars erupted from between the numerous prison bars.
“Kuhahaak!”
“Kyaaak!”
Yet the faces smashed against the narrow bars were unmistakably human.
As I frowned upon seeing with my own eyes those who had fallen to beastly states while retaining human form, the old man's laughter abruptly cut off.
Then, a gaze filled with ecstasy turned toward me.
“Kuh, kuhehe…! Just as the great task nears completion, a wielder of Sword Qi Wounds Man appears. The heavens are aiding our Zhuge Clan.”
“…What nonsense is that?”
An answer contrary to his expectations.
Irritated, I snapped back, but instead, the old man unleashed a barrage of questions.
“Who are you? A disciple from some mysterious sect hidden deep in the mountains all these years? What is your sect's name?”
“.......”
“No, even if you told me, I wouldn't know. No records would remain. Otherwise, you couldn't have survived unnoticed until now.”
He was drumming and piping all by himself.
I furrowed my brow at his absurdity of asking and answering his own questions.
But the very next question that flew at me made my narrowed eyes widen.
“Do you perhaps know others? Like Thousand-Jin Hammer, or Samadhi True Fire?”
Thousand-Jin Hammer, Samadhi True Fire.
Words I hadn't expected to hear from anyone else's mouth.
How does he even know about those?
Wasn't this some fake martial world that dismissed sword qi and lightness skills as nonsense?
Dumbfounded and speechless in confusion, the old man started babbling to himself again.
“'Blood Jade' stands on the verge of completion, and now the lost supreme realms of martial arts from ages past reemerge. This is heaven's mandate that the Zhuge Clan shall rise!”
“…Blood Jade?”
I narrowed my eyes at the ominous term and stared at the old man.
“Now, hand over the secrets of Sword Qi Wounds Man obediently. Do so, and I'll spare your life.”
But the old man, lost in his own world, only spouted nonsense with a gleeful expression.
I let out a hollow chuckle and asked.
“…So, you're saying you'll let me live if I hand over how to use sword qi?”
“Normally, an outsider entering this place would warrant killing you and erasing all traces, but I hold your abilities in high regard and shall show special mercy.”
Oblivious or not to my coldly chilling gaze, the old man blabbered on with a smug look.
As expected of a madman, he seemed utterly incapable of grasping reality.
“You don't seem to understand the situation. Most of your underlings are already down. Think you can stop me with the ones left?”
Only seven black-masked men remained now.
On my own, I could cut them all down in a few breaths.
“Worry about your own neck before babbling about supreme clans under heaven or heavenly mandates.”
I had overheard Zhuge Geun-young's conversation with him while crossing the cave passageway using the ground-listening technique.
Just the fact that he had used healthy people—even his own kin—as test subjects for demonic arts made him deserving of death a hundred times over.
“Kuhuhuhu….”
But far from being intimidated by my threat, the old man smirked.
“Stop him. With your lives.”
He ordered his men to their deaths and fled alone.
“…Huh?”
I stared in bewilderment at the old man's retreating back as he bolted without a glance, toward the opposite side of the passageway I'd entered—deeper into the cave.
Right after, the surviving black-masked men blocked the path like a wall.
They obeyed the old man's command with fanatical loyalty.
Even as they were cut by my sword, they didn't scream once, following orders like puppets rather than humans.
Of course, that didn't mean I'd go easy on them.
Puppets or whatever, they were just as guilty for aiding the mad old man in his atrocities.
Without a moment's hesitation, I swung my sword, and soon enough, the seven remaining black-masked men joined their comrades on the ground.
The cave floor, now slick and sticky with blood, grew even thicker with the metallic stench.
Perhaps because of it, the roars from the imprisoned people in the cells intensified.
“Kraaak!”
“Kya aaah—!”
Frowning at the echoing cries, I turned to Zhuge Geun-young.
“I'm going after that old man right now. What about you, Branch Head?”
“I'll follow. My sibling is probably in there too. I can't leave without them.”
Her immediate, resolute response.
I nodded, and together with Zhuge Geun-young, we pursued the old man deeper inside.
*
Abandoning his surviving Yinsha enforcers as pawns to throw at Ja-seong, Yong Hwi fled.
A tittering laugh leaked from his lips as he ran down the dark passageway.
“Kuh, kuhehe…!”
His face beamed like a child's, heedless of his usual dignity.
In truth, he felt as if he might float away.
‘Sword Qi Wounds Man…! The long-lost supreme realm of martial arts has reappeared.’
In the Zhuge Clan's library lay forbidden scrolls hidden away for ages.
They contained secret histories unknown to the current martial world.
Long ago, in the ancient martial world where warriors soared through the skies and unleashed sword qi, dominating unrivaled.
The scrolls detailed in full the downfall of that ancient martial world.
‘After the fall, sword qi devolved into mere fiction in street novels.’
But that ended today.
He would obtain the secrets of Sword Qi Wounds Man from that unknown youth and pass them on to the one who would claim the Blood Jade.
‘Thus, the Zhuge Clan shall stand tall as the supreme clan of the world…!’
“Uhahaha—!”
A radiant future seemed to draw near before his eyes.
Unable to hold back, Yong Hwi burst into laughter once more.
Just then, as he reached the end of the passageway and entered a new chamber, dozens of shadowy figures appeared before him.