Chapter 36
Chapter 36
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 36
Chapter Title: Part 11: Underworld Demonic Path (3)
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“This makes eleven.”
For some inexplicable reason, Dark Heaven Venerable’s voice rang out with crystal clarity from afar.
Seeing him bring Geumju’s heart to his lips, Se-ah turned her head away.
Crunch. A gruesome sound seemed to echo.
In that instant, everything before her eyes was dyed a vivid crimson.
And the world changed.
* * *
“Gyo! If you can hear me, answer!”
Her throat cracked from thirst as Se-ah cried out once more.
“Is there no one here?!”
Her voice splintered harshly.
Forcing down a dry swallow brought the metallic tang of blood rising from her gullet.
Screaming while stumbling around in this state of utter dehydration had torn her throat raw.
She wanted to unleash a torrent of curses, but the pain was so bad she couldn’t even swear.
“Haa.”
She collapsed right there where she stood.
Look ahead or behind—endless alleyways stretched on forever.
Gazing up at the sky revealed no sun, moon, stars, or clouds—just an endless expanse of blood-red heavens.
‘How long have I been trapped in this place?’
A day? Two? At least three hadn’t passed yet.
If three days had gone by, she’d be dead from complete dehydration by now.
She wanted to apply every survival trick she’d ever learned, but in this hellscape, none of them meant a damn thing.
Every direction she looked offered nothing but ruins: row after row of crumbling buildings lining the alleys.
She’d even climbed the tallest ones for a better view, but everywhere her eyes reached was the same desolate scene.
By now, she was certain of her predicament.
‘This is a formation.’
A vicious one at that—one she’d never even heard of before.
It was leagues beyond any formation she knew.
‘What else could it be.’
All she could do was cling to a shred of hope and keep pressing forward.
She walked again, and again.
Where had all her subordinates gone?
Were they safe?
Gyo... with his internal energy, he was probably faring better than her.
Where were Dark Heaven Venerable and Eldest Young Master Yeon So-hyeon?
Would that monster of a man perhaps show up to rescue her?
Countless thoughts flickered through her mind, then faded away.
Hope turned to anxiety, anxiety to despair.
She could walk no more.
At some point, she realized she’d collapsed face-down on the ground and couldn’t get up.
‘Am I going to die like this?’
The thought of dying here filled her with a profound sense of injustice.
‘So much I still wanted to do...’
Endless regrets scattered one by one through her mind.
And in the end, what remained was...
Her sister—the only blood kin she had left in this world.
Jeong-a. She wanted to see her one more time.
‘We never even properly made up...’
She hated herself for all the harsh words she’d flung at her.
“Jeong-a...”
If only she could see her one last time.
“Did you call me, sister?”
A woman was gazing down at her.
Porcelain skin, full crimson lips—a beauty so striking it would spark envy even in another woman.
“Jeong-a?!”
Se-ah jolted upright in shock.
Then she was shocked again at how effortlessly she’d risen.
“Huh? What...?”
Jeong-a smiled at her, a smile that eased her heart.
“You’re okay now. This barrier is just that kind of barrier, after all.”
“Barrier?”
Jeong-a nodded.
“Yeah, they call formations like this barriers.”
“But how are you...”
That was when Se-ah noticed something off about Jeong-a.
“Jeong-a! Your eyes...?!”
Jeong-a’s irises had always been pale, but never golden.
And her pupils—they were vertical slits, like a snake’s.
“No need to worry. It’s nothing.”
Jeong-a gave an awkward laugh and seized Se-ah’s hand.
“Come on, sister. Hold on tight.”
“Wait, hold on a second...!”
Clutching Se-ah’s hand, Jeong-a charged straight at a crumbling ruined wall.
No—it only looked that way. She passed right through it effortlessly.
Cold air flooded her lungs, sending shivers through her body.
Se-ah opened her eyes to find herself back on the very street she’d been on before the barrier trapped her.
“Jeong-a, how did you...?”
Jeong-a kept a firm grip on her hand, refusing to let go.
“We’re not fully out of its range yet.”
With no choice, Se-ah had to follow along, holding her sister’s hand.
“By the way, what about Gyo? And the others?”
“You were the last one, sister. No need to worry.”
Jeong-a strode forward confidently, reassuring her sister.
“You rescued everyone? You said barrier, right? It started right when Geumju bit the dust?”
Jeong-a answered each of Se-ah’s frantic questions patiently, one by one.
“Yes, I gathered everyone else in a safe place. Yes, it’s called a barrier. No, she didn’t die.”
“What...?”
As they walked, Jeong-a glanced back with a smile.
“Master’s tracking her down right now, so let’s hurry before we’re too late.”
Se-ah cried out as she was pulled along.
“Wait, why are we going there? If Geumju’s alive, it’s dangerous! What if we run into her first...?!”
Jeong-a stopped dead in her tracks.
“Jeong-a?”
Looking at her sister, Jeong-a spoke.
“Didn’t you have something you wanted to say to him, sister?”
Her voice carried a strangely firm conviction.
“I...”
Those glowing golden eyes seemed to pierce right through her soul.
“...You’re right. I want to speak with Eldest Young Master.”
Jeong-a beamed.
“Then let’s get going.”
Jeong-a’s brisk steps resumed.
Unlike before, when Se-ah had been dragged along reluctantly, this time she matched her sister’s pace.
“But you do know where Eldest Young Master is, right?”
“Yes.”
Jeong-a answered casually.
“I can see everything now.”
* * *
Black Bone Faction headquarters.
“Oh, he’s coming!”
A ghost strolled in with a leisurely gait.
No one moved to stop Dark Heaven Venerable as he entered, white mask gleaming.
Everyone had witnessed their main forces getting butchered wholesale.
The only reason they remained was the barrier from Geumju’s ritual—it had sealed off all escape.
“G-Ghost! It’s a demon!”
“Uwaaaah!!”
His mere approach scattered the remaining Black Bone forces like grains of sand.
“It’s Dark Heaven Venerable! He’s going to kill us all!”
Some even screamed his name, to them a harbinger of death.
“D-Don’t run! I’ll behead anyone who flees!”
The officer’s shouts scattered into the void.
In an instant, only mid-level officers were left dazed in the vast courtyard.
Leisurely, Dark Heaven Venerable approached one.
“D-Don’t come closer!”
Those were his final words.
So-hyeon trampled him with the Thousand Jin Drop technique.
Bones shattered, muscles tore.
Blood sprayed in his wake with every step.
Dark Heaven Venerable whistled.
That familiar tune.
A haunting, mournful melody wrapped around the Black Bone lair plunged into chaos.
No one could flee.
Wherever he went, red footprints trailed him.
He followed the scent without hesitation.
At last, he reached the massive underground cavern beneath headquarters.
His steps halted.
“...I’ve been waiting.”
Geumju’s chief steward stood before him.
His voice was hollow, yet somehow relieved.
He bowed his head to the white mask reflecting an eerie gleam.
For some reason, he’d long been certain this moment would come.
“Geumju escaped through a secret passage in that small room over there. Hidden by mechanisms, but...”
He answered an unasked question.
“Well, it doesn’t matter to you anyway.”
Dark Heaven Venerable gazed past him.
“This is...”
Behind the steward, the vast cavern was filled wall-to-wall with corpses.
“Geumju ordered all those without combat ability locked in here.”
After she’d left to confront Dark Heaven Venerable, the steward had rushed back.
What greeted him was a scene of total slaughter—everything in sight dead.
Children, girls, boys, men, women, maids, servants—all slain.
The cavern floor was crusted with entrails and blood spilling from ruptured bellies, forming ominous patterns.
Traces of a grand ritual.
The agony of the process was etched in their final expressions and contortions.
Not one had their eyes closed.
“That’s when I knew something was deeply, profoundly wrong.”
Yeon So-hyeon’s gaze shifted to a corner.
There, corpses lay neatly arranged, one by one.
An elder had been tending them right up until his arrival.
“What use is it now, with everyone dead.”
“None.”
The steward knelt where he stood and quietly closed his eyes.
Born in the slums, scraping by in back alleys for over sixty years.
He’d seen horrors aplenty, committed countless atrocities with his own hands.
Feeling remorse now?
No.
To survive, he’d aided and abetted evil.
That excuse let him overlook greater evils, commit even worse ones.
This final act...
‘Just this old man’s little whim.’
Thud.
A head rolled across the floor, faint relieved smile intact.
“.......”
Dark Heaven Venerable’s gaze lingered on the smile, then on the pain-twisted faces of the ritual victims.
Hundreds of them.
Who to blame?
Their weak births?
The environments that made other paths impossible?
Growing up in places where struggling to live meant harming others?
The countless such places, the innumerable such souls in Luoyang?
The glittering city heart across from it, ablaze even at night?
The world that hailed such cities as great metropolises?
If you must curse, curse the unkind heavens and earth.
“And hate me.”
Curse the Swordless One who sought to stay pure,
Who turned from the world, composing poems and playing instruments with idle hands.
He thought no deeper.
The Swordless One, Yeon So-hyeon, might have.
But he was Dark Heaven Venerable now.
Not a philosopher, but an executioner.
He simply whistled.
The tune remained beautiful. And poignant.
In a place devoid of life,
The melody echoed softly for no one’s ears.
For whom did that tune echo so mournfully through the cavern?
He resumed walking.
Blood still stained his steps.
It seemed it would never dry, ceaselessly reddening his footprints.
Beneath the white mask, a droplet glistened.
That tear was scorching hot.