Chapter 36
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 36
“Demon Ghost Butcher.”
“Demon Ghost Shredder.”
“First, put the head down.”
Pi Ga-ram, Seol Ryeong, and Hong Won-seo spoke one after another.
Ise neatly placed the dripping head of the Six Virtues Guard in front of its torso before pulling the Twin Sickle Spirit Domain Uprising from his back and retrieving it.
Seeing the weapon, Hong Won-seo’s eyes sparkled.
“That Qi Spear… was it forged by the Hall Master?”
“You recognized it right away. Is it that obvious?”
“That Vermilion Bird emblem is the seal of Jucheon Pavilion, the predecessor of Vermilion Bird Hall.”
Hong Won-seo lightly tapped the round medallion at her waist.
“The one I received is a defensive Dharma artifact. I suppose she didn’t want me to die.”
A defensive Dharma artifact. Unquestionably rare even among other Dharma artifacts, they always commanded an exorbitant price. It was a gift that clearly showed Hall Master Hong Mi-hui’s affection for her descendant.
Hong Won-seo calmly glanced at Seol Ryeong and Pi Ga-ram. By revealing information about her own treasure first, she clearly intended to make the other two feel comfortable sharing as well. Prying into an ally’s Dharma artifacts was a grave breach of etiquette, but it was a different matter entirely for companions you trusted with your back.
Pi Ga-ram produced a small metal cylinder from his sleeve.
“This Dharma artifact allows for the quick and powerful deployment of formations. I haven’t mastered many yet, but I’m focusing on those useful for defense or escape.”
Seol Ryeong pulled a small pouch from her robes, an apologetic look on her face.
“Mine is a treasure related to crafting Dharma artifacts, so it’s useless in battle. Sorry.”
“There’s nothing to apologize for.”
Nodding briefly, Ise shifted the conversation.
“Hong Won-seo, you handle the purification.”
“Me? But I didn’t really do anything.”
“We’ll factor it into the division of spoils and mission rewards, so go ahead.”
“Alright. Thank you, then.”
Without further protest, Hong Won-seo pulled out her Purification Rod. She knelt before the body and, without hesitation, began to recite the incantations of the Exorcism Mantra.
As he watched her, Ise’s mind turned to other matters.
This entire region was the territory of Ghost-Guarding Temple.
Yet a demonic cultivator from the Cheolyang Lightning Sect, Death Wind Black Tigers, and even a Six Virtues Guard had appeared. There were far too many demonic entities gathered here.
Was it coincidence, or was it fate?
After stowing the corpse of the Six Virtues Guard into his Demon Ghost Sealing Scroll, Ise cast a glance toward the eastern ridge—in the direction of Ghost-Guarding Temple.
I hope nothing has happened to her.
Mongryeon was one of the continent’s most powerful experts. While it was natural for a disciple to worry about his master, this felt like a cat worrying about a tiger.
Tearing his gaze away, Ise ordered the search to resume.
With Pi Ga-ram taking the lead, the four of them pushed deeper into the forest.
The Death Wind Black Tigers had made no effort to hide their tracks; the trail was blatant and obvious.
In fact, it was almost too obvious.
“Seol Ryeong, what about your heavenly reading? Is it still ominous?”
At Ise’s question, Seol Ryeong stared blankly at the sky for a moment before turning back to her companions.
“Yeah. It still points to extreme calamity.”
At the grim divination, Ise brought the group to a halt. Although he couldn’t sense it himself, Seol Ryeong was well known among the initiate disciples for being a surprisingly accurate fortune-teller.
“The Shaman section of the manual didn’t mention anything about heavenly secrets or divination. Did you learn a separate technique?”
“Huh? Ah, this… it has nothing to do with my discipline. It’s not a spell, either. It’s just part of my constitution, I guess. Besides, I heard most cultivators can read basic heavenly secrets once they reach a certain realm.”
“How accurate is it?”
“...Well, fifty-fifty? Either it happens, or it doesn’t.”
“Sounds like a quack to me.”
Seol Ryeong giggled at Ise’s teasing remark.
However, remembering the incident with the rogue cultivator Kim Si-won, he couldn’t take her words lightly.
“Let’s slow down. Move with caution.”
Ise adjusted their pace. Seol Ryeong’s warning and their current situation kept colliding in his mind, ringing alarm bells.
Finally, they found traces of Yeom Bo.
Though he had been missing for a long time, a strong stench of blood still saturated the air.
“There was a battle here,” Pi Ga-ram said crisply.
The ground was gouged, tree bark bore deep claw marks, and blood was sprayed across a wide area.
“He was cornered by two Death Wind Black Tigers. He tried to flee, but his escape was cut off…”
Pi Ga-ram stepped forward slowly, then paused.
“He fell here.”
“Where’s the body…?” Seol Ryeong trailed off, looking around.
While Pi Ga-ram searched the surroundings, Hong Won-seo sprinkled a strange powder on the ground. A trail of blood that had soaked into the earth and vanished revealed itself once more.
And at the end of that trail, not far away, Yeom Bo’s body had been dumped amidst tall weeds.
Or rather, what was left of it. Only a single head sat there.
It was severely mutilated, with chunks of flesh torn away as if scavenged by wild birds.
All four of them stopped in their tracks.
The other disciples turned deathly pale. It wasn’t their first time seeing a corpse, but the sickening revulsion of seeing a mutilated, decomposing part of a fellow disciple was far worse than they could have imagined.
“I’ll… perform the examination.”
Despite it all, Hong Won-seo covered her nose and mouth with a cloth and stepped forward to do her job, retrieving the remains.
Kneeling, she inspected the area around the head, first checking the severed neck, then pulling a scrap of a Great Martial Dao uniform collar from where it was stuck to the nape.
After slowly and thoroughly checking the condition of the remains, she carefully wrapped Yeom Bo’s head in a white cloth taken from her robes.
“He was definitely killed by Death Wind Black Tigers. The bite and claw marks match, and there are no other tracks. The head… was detached after death.”
A moment later, she added, “However, this isn’t what’s left after a beast has fed.”
“What do you mean?”
“It wasn’t left behind after being eaten; it was torn off deliberately. The cut is too clean. If it were ripped off during a feeding, the flesh would be jagged, but this was severed in a single, powerful stroke. They probably discarded it because it wasn’t an edible part.”
“There are no signs of feeding nearby,” Pi Ga-ram confirmed, scanning the surroundings.
Seol Ryeong asked in a trembling voice, “Why take the body? If their goal was to feed, they could have done it here.”
“There’s blood, but no signs of feeding. That means they moved the body whole.”
“A reason to take the body… a reason…”
While the other three sank into thought, Ise quietly examined the surrounding tracks.
Noticing his expression, Seol Ryeong asked, “What do you think, Ise?”
“I have an idea.”
Ise paused briefly before speaking.
“In the wild, Death Wind Black Tigers don’t raise their offspring. Once cubs are born, they abandon them and migrate.”
“Yeah. You explained that earlier.”
“What if they aren’t in the wild?”
This was something he had suspected ever since learning there were two Death Wind Black Tigers. Though uncommon, they certainly existed on the continent—demonic cultivators known as Demonic Beast Tamers.
The three turned their gazes toward Ise.
“If the Cheolyang Lightning Sect demonic cultivator that Senior Kwak Chan is hunting is a Demonic Beast Tamer, and if he tamed two adult Death Wind Black Tigers while raising their cubs…”
Ise pointed to the spot where Yeom Bo’s head had rested.
“They took the body to where the cubs are. To feed them.”
A brief silence descended.
Ise reached a swift conclusion. It was just a theory, but when multiple pieces of evidence pointed to the same conclusion, it became a high-probability threat.
“Seol Ryeong, send a Messenger Talisman to the outpost with our position.”
“Got it.”
“We’re abandoning the recovery of the body. This is enough for the investigation. We’ll leave the rest to Senior Kwak Chan and fall back.”
Ise turned sharply, leaving no room for argument.
At that exact instant, however, his Dokkaebi Sense shrieked. A sensation of dread pierced through him, shooting from the crown of his head down his spine.
“…Looks like we’re already too late.”
Ise looked toward the northwest. Beyond a distant mountain ridge, atop a cliff peak, a man in a dark Daoist robe stood looking down at them.
His face couldn’t be seen, but the wicked aura surging from his body was more than enough to reveal his identity. To a mortal, he would have been an unidentifiable speck at that distance, but through Ise’s Spirit Eye, he was clear as day.
A Dharma Flower Dantian that existed not as meridians, but as a single vessel.
A Foundation Establishment demonic cultivator.
None of them lacked talent, so everyone realized the truth in an instant.
“Looks like the Six Virtues Guard was a tamed beast as well,” Ise muttered in self-reproach, bringing the situation into focus for everyone.
The Six Virtues Guard that had attacked them was under the demonic cultivator’s control. The moment they were spotted by the beast, the danger had already begun.
The man atop the cliff slowly raised one hand.
Crack! Sparks of lightning flickered at his fingertips. It was no small spark. A sphere of lightning qi condensed over his palm, growing larger as it crackled and sheared through the air.
An overwhelming Dharma power, so intimidating it made every hair on their bodies stand on end.
If that hits us, we die.
There was no time to think.
“Run!”
The moment Ise yelled, all four kicked off the ground simultaneously.
Taking the lead with his Dokkaebi Footwork, Ise picked the fastest route while the other three followed right behind him. Even as tree branches whipped across their faces and rocks crumbled underfoot, they didn’t slow down for a second.
They didn’t need to look back to know.
The lightning qi was growing larger and larger. The fact that he hadn’t launched it yet meant he was gathering an immense amount of Dharma power.
Can we escape?
Impossible. Though he had never experienced the power of a Foundation Establishment cultivator, the very fact that the enemy was preparing a spell instead of giving chase was proof of his confidence—confidence that a single attack could hunt them down as they fled.
If I plant the Twin Sickle Spirit Domain Uprising to seal his demonic energy, can I block it?
He wasn’t sure. He had never tested whether sealing demonic energy could nullify a spell that was already cast. If he was unlucky, he would just end up taking the hit head-on.
Still, he had to block it at least once. Only then would they have a chance at what came next—whether it was to flee or to hide.
The instant Ise drew the Twin Sickle Spirit Domain Uprising from his back, his Dokkaebi Sense shrieked once more.
It’s coming!
The aura of death pressed in right against them.
Ise plunged the Qi Spear into the ground and whirled around, placing the Black Iron Shield squarely in front of him.
A massive wave of lightning, like a surging calamity, flashed toward them.
Time seemed to stretch out endlessly. A bolt of lightning flying horizontally instead of striking down from the sky was a rare sight indeed.
Crack!
Just as he steeled himself to block the spell, even at the cost of his life, a spherical mass of spiritual energy enveloped the four of them.
It was a translucent sphere. The spiritual energy patterns flowing across its surface were familiar: the Vermilion Bird seal. Hall Master Hong Mi-hui’s treasure had activated.
The lightning collided with the sphere.
BOOM!
With an ear-splitting roar, the lightning struck the surface of the sphere and spread along its contours like a web. The earth shook; surrounding trees burned away into nothing or were torn up by the roots and sent flying by the shockwave.
The sphere held.
As expected of Vermilion Bird Hall Master Hong Mi-hui. A treasure wielded by a Qi Refining cultivator had blocked a blow from a Foundation Establishment expert.
Inside the cracked defensive barrier, the four sat sprawled on the ground, staring at one another.
Hong Won-seo spoke, releasing her grip on the medallion at her waist. Her face was deathly pale, her hands trembling violently.
“…Once used, it takes a full day to recharge.”
At those words, Ise looked up toward the cliff.
Sparks of lightning were already blooming again at the demonic cultivator’s fingertips. A second attack was taking shape.
Without a word, all four bolted at the exact same time.