Chapter 9
Chapter 9
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 009
Chapter Title: Fish Fall from the Purgatory Sky
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The underground passage hadn't completely collapsed.
In An Young-hee's eyes, traces of Death Qi left by the Yanbian sorcerers were visible.
They had dealt a fatal blow here and then retreated.
This wasn't the act of someone seeking revenge.
His hypothesis gained more credibility.
An Young-hee passed through the collapsed underground passage, smashing anything that blocked his path.
As he crushed debris and pressed forward, he thought.
'No wonder it felt off on my body. Yeah, the flow doesn't suit me.'
He had been mimicking Yoo Shin-hwa's flow exactly.
But that was a flow tailored to Yoo Shin-hwa's body.
An Young-hee's body had its own flow that fit him.
He readjusted the Death Qi.
This body was a mass of Death Qi.
By adjusting the Death Qi that formed his flesh, the shape of his body would change too.
Muscles throughout his body tightened densely. His bones grew denser and more flexible.
Swinging a fist through the air, his speed was at least twice as fast as before.
'There are still parts to optimize further, but for now, this'll do.'
He put strength into his legs and channeled Death Qi through his muscles.
An Young-hee's body shot forward like it was skimming the ground, flying through the passage.
Up ahead, the sound of rocks breaking rang out.
Yoo Shin-hwa was holding off the Yanbian sorcerers alone.
Black smoke poured from wounds all over his body, and as Death Qi leaked out, his physical form was crumbling.
The Purgatory Disaster was still ongoing. If the spell broke, he could die.
An Young-hee owed Yoo Shin-hwa one.
And charging ahead despite the humiliation—that act had left quite an impression.
'What are you scheming?'
He could use something like martial arts now, but An Young-hee was still the underdog.
Fighting the Yanbian sorcerers in this state?
He wouldn't lose helplessly, but victory wasn't guaranteed either.
If an ally was in crisis, he had to save them.
An Young-hee pressed his palms together in prayer.
After posting anonymously on the chat board, when people learned he was a total newbie to Purgatory, a few kind souls shared some mantras useful even for beginner sorcerers—ones that unleashed power just by reciting them.
The Heart Sutra mantra was one of them.
He lowered his clasped hands.
An intangible energy enveloped them.
But this wasn't the end.
The Prajnaparamita required chanting it three times to complete.
"Who goes there!"
A Yanbian sorcerer shouted.
Ignoring him, the final mantra.
"Gate gate, paragate, parasamgate, bodhi svaha."
⟨ Sacred Flame ⟩
Whoosh.
A white flame blazed up from his hands.
"A warrior using Sacred Flame! Raise a wall!"
There were five Yanbian sorcerers.
They pulled out black envelopes and tossed them.
Ghosts of all shapes and sizes burst from the envelopes—over a hundred of them—all baring their killing intent toward An Young-hee.
An Young-hee had entered Purgatory just two days ago.
He should have been terrified by ghosts approaching with murderous intent, but strangely, he wasn't scared at all.
The MacArthur Shrine Maiden puffing on a cigar as she approached had been dozens of times more horrifying.
"... Uncle. You're a martial artist?"
"Just started learning."
"This isn't the time for jokes."
"I'm not joking."
"For real, then?"
Yoo Shin-hwa forgot his pain in sheer astonishment.
The most he could have shown as teaching material for martial arts basics was his own movements.
And he'd learned from that, applied it in real combat, and made it all the way here?
"You wanna chat right now?"
The Yanbian sorcerers were fleeing into the distance.
Ghosts blocked the way thoroughly; they couldn't chase recklessly.
"Yanbian's full of guys who handle spirits. They deal with the voices of the dead a lot because of vested interests. And those bastards are stronger in Purgatory than in the living world."
He didn't need to explain the reason.
Ghosts were the dead, after all—they'd be stronger in the realm of the dead.
"But do we really need to chase them?"
It was a fair point.
The civil servants were busy handling the disaster.
If the attackers on City Hall backed off, they'd welcome it with open arms.
Not An Young-hee.
Those guys had already traded on Kim Cheol-su's name, and they'd keep doing it.
All of it posed a threat to him.
"You were here the whole time?"
"Who was?"
Yoo Shin-hwa shot back with an indignant look.
His conscience pricked at exploiting the kid's sense of justice.
"Martial arts has great synergy against ghosts."
"Isn't it usually the opposite?"
"Just remember one thing when using martial arts: distance. Get in close, and the martial artist wins every time."
Every time Yoo Shin-hwa lunged with fists or feet, the ghosts he touched vanished without a trace.
Yoo Shin-hwa and An Young-hee pursued the Yanbian sorcerers.
Their speed far outpaced the enemy.
They clashed with the sorcerers, only to be blocked again by walls of ghosts they summoned—a process that repeated several times.
The underground passage had become a burrow. He'd seen the Yanbian sorcerers using ghosts to dig tunnels in real time.
"Haa... haa..."
"You okay?"
"I'm good."
Yoo Shin-hwa's body was noticeably fainter than before.
"I'm serious. I get stronger the more cornered I am."
It wasn't bravado.
In fact, the martial arts he displayed grew fiercer with every fight.
As they ran through the burrow, An Young-hee asked.
"Is Sacred Flame rare?"
"Flame you can summon with the Heart Sutra? Rare? There is true Sacred Flame, but any purifying fire gets called that. Still, maintaining it on your body in Purgatory? That's no small feat."
An Young-hee caught the odd glint in Yoo Shin-hwa's eyes and realized his mistake.
Using Sacred Flame with a body made of Death Qi was insane—suicidal, even. Yet he'd done it without a second thought.
'... Is it this body's power?'
Something to ponder later. Diving deep into this with Yoo Shin-hwa wouldn't end well.
An Young-hee quickly changed the subject.
"No countermeasures? At this rate, it'll never end."
The Yanbian sorcerers weren't fleeing because they were weak.
They were retreating after achieving their goal.
They avoided fighting because their sorcery had poor matchup against martial artists—it took too long to kill.
But if they went all-in for a mutual kill, Yoo Shin-hwa would die for sure.
'Me... not sure, but I don't think I'd die. My instincts feel off.'
He could vividly picture Yoo Shin-hwa's death, but not his own as An Young-hee.
His danger sense was broken.
That's why he was pulling this reckless pursuit.
Yoo Shin-hwa said.
"If we surface, we'll probably win."
"Into that mess?"
Where seafood rained down, storms raged, and tornadoes sucked up buildings?
The Purgatory Disaster hadn't ended.
Running underground, they could feel the vibrations of things crashing into the asphalt above.
"Just avoid touching the fish. And we've got the skill to swat it all away."
"If half-assed newbies like us can, those guys sure as hell can too."
"No. Those are ghosts freed from the cycle of souls. In Purgatory, the pull of reincarnation constantly drags at them. If they touch even a bit of fish in that state, they'll drop right back to where they came from."
Breaking through the ceiling would be Yoo Shin-hwa's job.
It wasn't a deep burrow.
Just enough to dodge the external disaster.
Maybe two meters from ceiling to surface.
Yoo Shin-hwa and An Young-hee caught up to the Yanbian sorcerers.
One sorcerer, looking utterly fed up, said.
"Enough already! You can't beat us. If you really wanna die, we'll kill you here. Get ready. Better to end it slow than drag some weird tail behind us!"
Black envelopes spewed walls of ghosts, and the five sorcerers began chanting incantations in unison.
White liquid dripped from their souls.
Each droplet merged into one massive ghost, which passed through the wall and burrowed underground.
"Ready yet?"
"Good to go."
Yoo Shin-hwa, who had been hiding behind An Young-hee, stepped forward.
Black smoke billowed from his body, and the foot he planted forward gouged the floor.
A massive white hand suddenly erupted from the ground.
The hand tried to crush An Young-hee and Yoo Shin-hwa.
Yoo Shin-hwa ignored it and fixed his eyes on the ceiling.
"Coiling Dragon Ascends to Heaven."
Yoo Shin-hwa leaped and struck the ceiling.
Rumble.
The ceiling crumbled, and rainwater pooled on the surface above poured in.
The hand that had tried to seize them desperately burrowed back underground.
Dodging falling seafood without even looking, Yoo Shin-hwa said.
"You know what happens when a sewer that's gone unmaintained for over twenty years gets a hole punched in it?"
The water pouring from the hole rapidly increased, and the hole itself widened quickly.
The water was mixed with all sorts of seafood.
The torrent surged toward the ghost wall.
The ghosts withstood the water, but touching the fish swimming within turned them to black smoke and made them vanish.
Yoo Shin-hwa taunted the Yanbian sorcerers.
"Die together? Hurry up and make an escape route."
"... Crazy bastard."
A Yanbian sorcerer formed hand seals. A fist burst from the ground and smashed the ceiling spectacularly before turning to black smoke and vanishing.
It wasn't the whole massive ghost—just one arm sacrificed for a quick retreat.
The dirt-walled burrow looked ready to collapse any second.
The Yanbian sorcerers, bound together with strange ropes, escaped first, and An Young-hee prepared to follow.
Thud.
Yoo Shin-hwa collapsed.
No black smoke rose from his fading body anymore, and even touching fish left him unscathed.
"What're you doing."
"Using martial arts with this body is insane to begin with. It's about wielding Death Qi accepted by the soul. Even basic moves are risky, but I went and used an advanced technique. Fuck. Never even had sex and now I'm done for."
"Sex is what you think of at the end? You're middle school, aren't you?"
"High school, asshole. High schoolers can crave sex too. Don't uncles like money and women?"
An Young-hee fell silent.
Catching the Yanbian sorcerers was for his own safety.
Yoo Shin-hwa had just tagged along, used a life-risking technique, and now lay dying.
In a fading voice, Yoo Shin-hwa said.
"My true name is Myth. The myth of Yoo Shin-hwa. I wanted to live and die like heroes in myths—meet tons of pretty girls, have sex..."
Like Kim Cheol-su, Yoo Shin-hwa's true name matched his real one.
Now he understood what he meant by getting stronger when cornered.
Heroes grew endlessly stronger in crises, and there were only two endings.
Overcome the crisis and emerge even stronger.
Or die.
"Ah, I wanna have sex!"
"Quit yapping about sex like a perv."
An Young-hee supported Yoo Shin-hwa with his arm and pulled him up.
"I told you I'm fine?"
"We'll figure something out at City Hall. And true name Myth, yet you wanna be a hero? Might as well live and die like a god."
"Crazy. You even know what 'god' means?"
"Nope."
The water reached their waists.
It was a current that would sweep them away even with martial arts, but An Young-hee felt no resistance.
He bent his legs and jumped.
An Young-hee emerged from the burrow with Yoo Shin-hwa.
They were near a tornado.
A building ripped from the ground nearby, and raindrops carried by gale-force winds pelted their skin like needles.
Falling among it all, the seafood was deadlier than hail.
The Yanbian sorcerers, pouring all their spells into defense against the disaster, glared at An Young-hee while unable to flee.
Their summoned ghosts scattered in the rain, blew away in the wind, vanished in the seafood.
An Young-hee arrived under their massive paper umbrella without interference.
"This monster..."
He smashed the head of the sorcerer who opened his mouth. The sorcerer flew out from under the umbrella and vanished upon hitting a fallen fish.
"What was that guy planning after resurrection?"
The Yanbian sorcerers' eyes widened.
"Answer."
No one spoke.
An Young-hee grabbed a nearby sorcerer's collar and hurled him outside.
The guy got crushed by a shark falling from the sky and disappeared.
An Young-hee shook water from his hands and said.
"Answer."