Chapter 118
Chapter 118
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 118
Chapter Title: Vicious
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"So this is the place."
Byeok Taesan muttered, looking down at a vast estate from a rather high hill.
This estate was built some distance away from Yichang.
From the hill, he could see the inside of the estate clearly, but strangely, there wasn't a single person moving about.
No, not a single person was visible.
"A formation, perhaps."
It made no sense for an estate this large to have no one walking around.
Moreover, it was so meticulously managed that not a single dirty corner could be seen.
The true nature of that place was concealed by a formation.
This wasn't just a guess based on its appearance. He could faintly feel the unique power of a formation.
It would likely become more certain as he got closer.
The structure of the estate was very simple. There were no tall pavilions, no wide training grounds or ponds.
There was just a wall inside the estate dividing the inner court, and within that inner court was a single small building.
But that couldn't be the estate's true form.
Byeok Taesan descended from the hill and slowly approached the estate.
Byeok Taesan's senses gradually extended toward the estate's surroundings.
It was a truly exceptional formation.
His senses couldn't penetrate the formation and were continuously repelled.
It seemed he would have to go inside to check properly.
Byeok Taesan headed for the estate without hesitation. He soon arrived at the main gate.
Even after getting so close, he still couldn't send his senses inside.
All he could do was scan the exterior of the estate.
There was no one outside the estate.
As the estate stood alone in an empty field, there was no one approaching or passing by.
And Byeok Taesan knew that even discovering this estate was no easy task.
The estate's very existence was concealed by the formation laid out around it.
The reason Byeok Taesan could see it was because of his extraordinary senses.
Perhaps they trusted the formation's power too much, as there was no one guarding the main gate.
Naturally, the gate was locked.
Byeok Taesan pushed the gate lightly with his hand.
The latch on the gate clicked open, and the gate swung open smoothly.
Through the open gate, a pitch-black darkness was visible.
It was as if the entrance was veiled by a curtain of darkness.
Byeok Taesan found it fascinating that his senses could be blocked to this extent.
But he wasn't afraid.
He touched the darkness. A peculiar flow of energy could be felt.
When he pushed his hand deep inside, his senses, starting from his hand, expanded dramatically.
Byeok Taesan stepped into the darkness.
The interior of the estate was completely different from what he had seen from the hill.
There were numerous pavilions, each surrounded by a low wall.
The sense-blocking formation was also active inside, but it could no longer restrict Byeok Taesan's senses.
Once he was inside, the resistance of the energy that scattered his senses weakened significantly.
Of course, this was only possible because he was Byeok Taesan. Anyone else would have likely felt extremely frustrated.
Byeok Taesan strode deeper inside.
But all the pavilions were empty. There was no one moving about.
Byeok Taesan tilted his head.
This defied common sense.
How much money, time, and effort must have gone into building such a massive estate?
Furthermore, the level of the formation installed in this estate was astounding.
It was no match for the Heavenly Sky Formation, but if asked to think of a superior formation, nothing else came to mind.
No matter that it was from the outside, blocking Byeok Taesan's senses was no easy feat.
The formation here had done just that.
To properly set up a formation of this level, at least someone like the Illusion Demon would have had to be involved.
But could they build such an estate and then abandon it so casually?
With that thought, Byeok Taesan went deeper inside.
The deeper he went, the thicker the smell of blood became.
It wasn't just the smell of blood.
This was the scent of blood imbued in spiritual energy.
Anyone other than Byeok Taesan would not have been able to smell the blood at all.
This was not a scent that could be detected by the sense of smell. It required a different sense, one not of the physical body.
"Vicious."
Byeok Taesan muttered, shaking his head.
To exude such a strong smell of blood, just how many people's blood must have been drawn?
For the scent of blood to be imbued in spiritual energy meant that the essence of blood had been extracted and infused into it.
Seeing it reek of blood this strongly, they must have drawn blood from an enormous number of people.
"And yet, the one who reeks of this smell isn't here."
That meant this was merely the lingering scent.
How vicious indeed.
Byeok Taesan went deeper inside. But no matter how far he went, he felt no sign of human presence.
This vast estate was completely empty.
Where could they all have gone?
This was the place Go Jungwang had come to whenever he needed to report something, receive orders, or make a request.
It was a remnant of memory, a dreg from Go Jungwang's experiences embedded in his soul, which had flowed out as it was burned by the Soul-Devouring Demonic Arts.
The strongest lingering thought in Go Jungwang's memory was of a long, dark corridor, and at its end, a large room with walls completely filled with black gourds.
What Byeok Taesan was looking for was a pavilion that might have a corridor of that length.
Most of the pavilions weren't very large, so it seemed unlikely they would have such a corridor.
Byeok Taesan headed toward the place where the smell of blood was thickest.
Perhaps that bastard would be there.
Following the scent, he soon arrived in front of a large pavilion.
Entering the pavilion, Byeok Taesan saw the long corridor from Go Jungwang's memory.
It was a dark and gloomy corridor.
The entire estate had a formation that clouded the senses, but it was even more severe in this pavilion.
There seemed to be a large room at the end of the corridor, but he couldn't confirm it with his senses.
The corner of Byeok Taesan's mouth lifted slightly.
"Interesting."
Byeok Taesan stepped into the corridor. And he strode forward.
Upon entering the room at the end of the corridor, he saw a person standing inside.
Byeok Taesan paid the person no mind and looked around.
Shelves lined all four walls, and on them were rows of gourds.
After a quick scan of the gourds filling the walls, Byeok Taesan frowned.
"Wood?"
They were all gourds carved from wood.
In Go Jungwang's memory, they were definitely black gourds.
"Well, no matter."
Byeok Taesan turned his gaze back to the man standing in the middle of the room.
He was a young man. Guessing his age, he looked to be in his mid-twenties.
The peculiar thing was his eyes.
He had red eyes, but no pupils.
It was as if red glass beads had been embedded in place of eyeballs. It looked incredibly ominous and bizarre.
"The reek of blood is overwhelming."
The room was filled with the smell of blood.
But this smell of blood was also a lingering scent. The one who truly reeked of blood was not here.
The man just stood there silently, even as Byeok Taesan spoke.
Byeok Taesan stared at the man for a moment, then tilted his head slightly.
"He's definitely alive, but..."
The man was clearly alive. But for some reason, he didn't seem like just an ordinary living person.
He wasn't a Half-Jiangshi. Nor was he like the Three Mad Blood Demons, who had other people's souls attached to them.
Unlike them, his soul was properly settled.
He was a man with his own soul in his own body.
And yet, something felt strange. He felt a profound sense of unease, but he couldn't quite grasp its source.
Curiosity flickered in Byeok Taesan's eyes.
"Say something. What are you?"
The man's red eyeballs swiveled. Though he couldn't confirm it visually, it was clear the man had turned his gaze toward Byeok Taesan.
The man slowly opened his mouth.
"And what, pray tell, are you?"
Byeok Taesan's eyes widened. This was quite surprising. He wouldn't have noticed if the man hadn't spoken.
Without answering, Byeok Taesan looked around. He sharpened his senses to their utmost and expanded them as far as possible.
As expected, there was no way they would have constructed such a massive formation just to cloud one's senses.
The true purpose of this formation was something else entirely.
Clouding the senses was merely a side effect.
He couldn't grasp the formation precisely, but he could roughly figure out how it moved energy to produce its effect.
"I asked what you are."
The man spoke again. A thick stench of blood gushed from his body.
"You're not asking because you really don't know, are you?"
"I know you are Byeok Taesan. But that is not all you are."
"Let me know your name as well."
"Hyeokryeon Bigwang."
"Hyeokryeon?"
Byeok Taesan frowned. A corner of his mind tingled.
At that moment, the flow of energy in the surroundings changed drastically. And the flow of spiritual energy changed as well.
The formation had begun to operate in a new way.
Sensing the swirling flow of energy from all directions, Byeok Taesan immediately understood how the formation was trying to function.
This was the characteristic flow of a formation that creates illusions.
If you know, stopping it is simple.
Byeok Taesan twisted the energy flowing around him here and there. That alone distorted the overall flow, and the energy began to run wild.
It wasn't something just anyone could do, but if one could, it was a simple way to halt the activation of any formation.
There were probably only about ten people in the world who could do this.
And even among them, those who could do it perfectly at any given moment, like Byeok Taesan, could be counted on one hand.
A bluish mist began to spread across the floor.
It was a mist containing a hallucinogenic poison, designed to make one easily fall for the illusion.
Naturally, it wouldn't work on Byeok Taesan, who had mastered the Soul-Devouring Demonic Arts.
Byeok Taesan watched the energy rampaging in all directions and looked at the man standing before him.
The man spoke in a regretful tone.
"I wanted to have a more in-depth conversation. A pity."
Speaking in such a tone with a completely expressionless face was also bizarre.
Right now, Hyeokryeon Bigwang was using that man from a distant location.
Even if the formation had activated just now, the situation Hyeokryeon Bigwang desired probably wouldn't have occurred.
But Byeok Taesan didn't bother to point that out.
"But are you planning to just keep hiding like that?"
"I'll have to watch the situation a bit longer before deciding."
With those words, something connecting him to the man was severed.
Byeok Taesan clearly caught the moment of severance.
The man's eyeballs snapped around. Then, in the center of the red orbs, deep, blood-colored pupils appeared.
"Still, that's much better than before."
Without pupils, he looked truly bizarre, but with them, he now just looked like a rather peculiar person.
"Grrrrr."
The man growled like a beast.
"Well, an ordinary person would have had a hard time withstanding that connection."
Letting another's soul inside you is an extremely dangerous act.
It seemed they had shattered the man's consciousness to endure it.
The man began to move slowly.
He thought the man would move like a beast, but that wasn't the case. His movements were incredibly restrained.
His consciousness was shattered, but it seemed the martial arts engraved in his instincts remained.
Byeok Taesan thought this, too, was worth contemplating.
It is by accumulating such small things that the power to break through walls is condensed.
The man raised his palm toward Byeok Taesan. The surrounding energy rapidly gathered in his palm.
It was one of the formation's effects.
He was already strong, but with the formation's help, he would become several times stronger and more difficult to deal with.
The corner of Byeok Taesan's mouth lifted slightly.
"Well now, will this be a little more interesting?"
In an instant, the energy condensed in the man's palm poured out as countless blades of ki.
Each of the ki blades, flying in to surround him from all sides, was forged from immensely compressed energy.
Byeok Taesan walked lightly.
He clearly felt the blades passing perilously by his ear, grazing his neck, slicing vertically between his arm and side, and speeding past his leg.
He had merely swayed his body slightly as he walked, yet the incoming blades seemed to dodge him on their own.
If his opponent had been a sane person, he would have been greatly surprised and wavered, even if just a little.
But his opponent was closer to a beast.
"Kuaaaang!"
He roared like a true beast and charged.
The energy condensed and condensed, then took a distinct form, wrapping around the man's body.
Reaching Byeok Taesan in an instant, the man wildly threw punches and kicks.
These were not random attacks. They were incredibly precise, looking several moves ahead.
Even when he threw a punch, he calculated his opponent's dodge or block and continued each attack based on the next move, and the one after that.
An average opponent would have been caught up in it and eventually cornered.
But his opponent was Byeok Taesan.
The corner of Byeok Taesan's mouth curved up further. While blocking and deflecting the opponent's attacks, Byeok Taesan also began to lay his own groundwork.
He could have just crushed him with brute force in an instant, but fighting a battle of wits with moderate strength had its own flavor.
Fists and feet tangled in a dizzying flurry.
But none of them made direct contact.
Every time their fists and feet were about to collide, Byeok Taesan added a slight spin to deflect them all.
It was a method of twisting the enemy's point of impact, creating small cracks in their calculations.
And the man, caught up in this, finally showed an opening.
All his energy condensed into his fist. Judging that there was no way out, he had resorted to a move of mutual destruction.
An utterly satisfied smile formed on Byeok Taesan's lips.
And he threw his own fist toward the man's incoming one.
He didn't need to meet it head-on, but having won the battle of wits, he now decided to crush him with power.
To experience two things in one fight, how satisfying.
A deafening crash echoed.
The moment Byeok Taesan's fist touched the man's, the energy the man had gathered in his fist was crushed, flowing back to engulf him instead.
A wet splattering sound followed.
Crushed without a single piece of flesh remaining, the man turned into a pool of blood and scattered across the floor.
Byeok Taesan stood still, glanced down at the floor, then raised his head to look somewhere.
It was the direction where the severed connection had disappeared just before the man turned into a beast.
Byeok Taesan's eyes glinted sharply.