Chapter 10
Chapter 10
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 10
Chapter Title: Previous Generation
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The whistling stopped, and what followed was an endless silence.
The man referred to as big brother gritted his teeth.
When the whistling had been sounding, he had desperately wished for it to end even a moment sooner, but now that it had finally ceased, an overwhelming anxiety crashed over him alongside the silence.
At this rate, someone might snap and do something rash.
His subordinates beside him were already rolling their eyes wildly, clutching their weapons with trembling hands that shook uncontrollably.
He gathered strength in his lower abdomen once more and cleared his throat.
“If you have business with us…”
Clang— one of his subordinates dropped his blade, and it rolled across the ground.
He whipped around in alarm, but let out a brief sigh of relief.
The one who had dropped his weapon had merely been startled by his voice.
‘Damn it.’ He hurriedly wiped the cold sweat trickling down his forehead.
Their group was seasoned in every dirty trade imaginable—kidnapping, human trafficking, contract killings—with experience in every shadowy corner, and they had built a solid reputation accordingly.
The biggest reason they had carved out a place in this underworld was their unwavering effort to avoid any ties with martial artists.
They never even showed their faces in matters involving them, not even slightly.
That was their survival secret—his survival secret.
After confirming that the subordinate had shakily picked up his weapon again, he continued.
“If you have business with us, would you kindly show yourself?”
He felt his clasped hands trembling despite his best efforts to appear polite.
He had never faced an enemy like this, though he had encountered martial artists several times before.
Even seeing the black path martial artists in their own organization strutting around with their oozing killing intent had chilled him to the bone.
But nothing had ever filled him with such horrific tension as this.
Was this what it felt like to confront a martial artist directly? Or,
Was it not that at all, but rather that they were now facing something fundamentally different?
“......!”
His thoughts shattered.
A shadowy figure emerged from the far end of the alley.
The leisurely, swaying gait exuded an eerie sense of ease.
It seemed clad in scholar’s robes, but the thick darkness obscured any clear view of its features.
No one cared about its appearance, though.
“G-G-Ghost God?!”
There was a term: ghostfire.
It originally referred to the floating orbs of flame from goblin tales, but it also meant eyes filled with resentment.
They had seen such eyes often.
When snatching children from mothers, killing lovers before their beloved’s eyes, “disposing” of women with strong backers.
But those were mere metaphors.
Never.
‘It doesn’t mean flames actually blazing in the eye sockets!’
His subordinates screamed and collapsed to the ground.
He tried to hold on somehow.
But when ‘it’ sauntered closer, baring its teeth in a wide grin as it looked at them,
He pissed himself standing up.
“Hahaha. So, this is where you were.”
Its mouth was filled with jagged, beastly fangs.
“You smell delicious.”
* * *
“Hm?”
Yeon So-hyeon opened his eyes and tilted his head.
He remembered leaving the inn, but after that, he had caught a delicious scent…
He sat up and looked around.
“……An underground tomb?”
The space, illuminated only by faint rays of light filtering down from an unfathomably high ceiling, was packed with stone coffins.
Aaaand in each lidless coffin lay a corpse, each in varying states of decay.
And…
“Uwaaaah…”
“Uwaaaah…!”
Those corpses were writhing and wailing.
Yeon So-hyeon wandered casually between the coffins, poking at the corpses with evident curiosity.
“Hmm…”
Such composure.
“As expected, you’re undoubtedly the inheritor of the Earth Immortal True Heaven Scripture. Heh heh.”
Even the sudden voice from behind didn’t startle Yeon So-hyeon much.
It was beyond mere courage.
Madness, perhaps, if one had to name it.
“Your voice sounds like it has mold growing in your throat, elder.”
Turning revealed an old man.
A ragged figure draped in filthy tatters so worn it was impossible to tell what garment it had once been.
The old man threw his head back at Yeon So-hyeon’s words and burst into mad laughter.
“Spot on!”
The old man’s cackling mouth was rotted and twisted, and sure enough, his throat was choked with unidentifiable mold.
But even at such a grotesque sight, Yeon So-hyeon merely clicked his tongue lightly.
“If you don’t take care of your oral hygiene, of course your teeth won’t last.”
The old man collapsed to his knees at the response, pounding the floor in another fit of laughter.
“The more I see, the