Chapter 181
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 181
Chapter Title: This is what I mean?
Ha Seol-ran hurried out of the Graceful Dragon Dormitory toward the instructors' quarters.
The night was thick with darkness, but it didn't matter.
Her big brother would surely sense her presence and be heading this way.
And since she could feel his presence too, it was only natural for someone on his level, whose realm was beyond even guessing.
As she made her way to the instructors' quarters, a familiar shadow caught her eye.
"What brings you out so late at night?"
"Big brother!"
It was just as she expected.
In the darkest spot along the path to the instructors' quarters.
Ha Mu-baek was waiting there.
"I felt something strange while practicing presence detection."
Ha Seol-ran said urgently.
Ha Mu-baek nodded at her words.
As expected of Seol-ran.
He always kept his senses spread across the entirety of Muchang, so he'd noticed right away.
But it was still too much for Ha Seol-ran.
Her sensing range was as wide as his or even beyond, but she lacked the capacity to process all that incoming information.
So she usually kept it minimized, expanding only when needed.
She only extended it across all of Muchang during training.
And that's when she'd detected the suspicious movement.
"People whose presences I felt for the first time today near Un-roe's house are gathering. They feel like martial artists."
Ha Mu-baek stroked Ha Seol-ran's head.
"You sensed it well. I was already keeping an eye on it myself."
Ha Seol-ran looked up at him with pleading eyes.
The meaning in those eyes was obvious.
Ha Mu-baek nodded lightly.
"Time to go check it out."
Relief washed over Ha Seol-ran's face.
Ha Mu-baek gave his sister one warm smile before launching himself into motion.
In an instant, his figure vanished into the darkness.
Around twenty people had gathered near Dan Mok Un-roe's house.
They'd come separately, disguised as ordinary passersby.
Before long, they donned black masks and night clothes.
The deep darkness concealed them, allowing them to surround the house.
"One woman and one young child. Just the two of them."
The apparent leader whispered in a low voice.
"Our targets are both. Take them alive and get out of Muchang."
Nineteen pairs of eyes gleamed coldly at the order. One of them spoke up.
"Just keep them breathing?"
"They need to be able to talk and answer questions. Looks like there's something to find out."
The leader's response.
"Then..."
He didn't finish, but everyone knew what he meant.
The leader nodded casually.
"If you finish quick and have time left, do what you want."
A new emotion flickered in their cold eyes.
Lust.
Their lips curled into smirks.
As they began to creep toward the wall...
"I'd like to know what you think doesn't matter."
A stranger's voice rang out from among them.
"This is what I mean?"
The young man lifted the glass vial before his eyes and asked in a languid voice.
"Yes, Cult Leader."
The old man before him bowed at the waist.
"Soul-Bewitching Poison, huh..."
The one called Cult Leader eyed the vial with deep skepticism.
He couldn't believe what the Sixth Elder had told him about this Soul-Bewitching Poison.
If such a poison existed, they wouldn't have lost the last war, and his grandfather wouldn't have met such an end.
Gae Se-aak, grandson of the previous Blood Cult Leader Gae Hong-cheon and the cult's sole remaining blood heir.
Hiding in a place where no one could survive, this poison failed to pique his interest.
The Ten Elders researching the Divine Annihilation Art seemed as good as dead too.
Honestly, Gae Se-aak had no interest in reviving the Blood Cult.
Reading the complexity in Gae Se-aak's gaze...
The old man before him—one of the Blood Cult's Ten Elders, the First Elder—spoke up.
"The Soul-Bewitching Poison was the secret among secrets of the Blood God's arts. A lost art from well before the last war. With it alone, the Blood Cult would never have suffered such a devastating defeat."
Gae Se-aak's gaze shifted from the vial to the First Elder.
"According to the Sixth Elder, it's about half complete. Why not test it?"
At the First Elder's words, Gae Se-aak rose from his chair.
"Let's do that. Lead the way."
Gae Se-aak stepped forward.
The First Elder followed respectfully behind.
A passage like a labyrinth, lit only by torches and luminous pearls, without a single ray of light.
Their destination: the thunder prison.
Not just those in Righteous Heaven Alliance Demon-Sealing Corps uniforms, but people in all sorts of attire were imprisoned there.
The guards eyed them coldly, but upon seeing Gae Se-aak, they threw themselves to the ground.
"We see the Cult Leader! Blood God descends, Blood God rules the world!"
Gae Se-aak raised a hand lightly.
At the First Elder's command, several guards dragged four prisoners out.
The place they brought them to...
A massive arena.
The ceiling here was sealed with rock, lit only by torches.
They herded the four into the arena, and the First Elder took the vial from Gae Se-aak.
"Hold your breath, Cult Leader."
The First Elder entered the arena, uncorked the vial, and sprinkled the Soul-Bewitching Poison on the four.
Then he retreated swiftly.
The four inhaled the poison.
They'd already lost the will to live, their eyes devoid of focus.
But after inhaling, they changed.
Their eyes regained light, turned feral, then filled with desperate craving.
And they lunged at each other.
What followed was a gruesome scene.
Gae Se-aak frowned and shook his head.
As he headed back to his quarters, leaving the fallen arena behind, he muttered softly.
"If the incomplete Soul-Bewitching Poison does that much... a completed one surely wouldn't have let us lose so easily."
Hearing the mutter...
The First Elder said.
"The world would have been under the Blood Cult's feet. And we could have ushered in the true reign of the Blood God."
His words rang with conviction.
'Blood God rules the world...'
When the four surviving Blood Cult Elders had brought him here, he hadn't even understood why.
Back then, as the Cult Leader's grandson and Vice Leader's son, he'd lived in luxury.
He'd been nothing but an ignorant boy.
Then one day, his world shattered.
Since that day, he'd grown up in hell, day by day.
'Why do I have to live like this in a place like this?'
All because his grandfather had been the Blood Cult Leader.
The four elders had brainwashed him endlessly: he must accomplish the great task of reviving the cult.
Truth be told, he didn't care.
What happened to the Blood Cult didn't matter.
When it fell, he was still just a child, young enough.
He was simply annoyed and angry at having to hide away like this.
The First Elder said the only way out was to revive the cult.
So he'd gone along with what the four elders wanted.
He'd always doubted: if the Blood God they worshipped really existed, would they be skulking around here like this?
But now...
Gae Se-aak's thoughts shifted a little.
If this poison could be perfected, it might not be impossible.
He felt a spark of interest.
And perhaps he could pay back the one who'd thrown him into this hell.
'Ha Mu-baek.'
A man he'd never even seen.
But a name he'd heard from the First Elder until his ears bled.
His enemy, and the Blood Cult's enemy.
Maybe he could exact brutal revenge on that bastard.
The sudden question.
Shocked that someone had slipped in among them, the twenty assailants scattered in all directions.
The lone man left standing.
Ha Mu-baek.
He casually scanned the twenty men.
Eyes activated with the Infinite Bright Wheel Eye.
Examining the origins of their internal energy, Ha Mu-baek furrowed his brow.
"What the hell are you bastards?"
It couldn't be helped.
It wasn't the Blood Cult's blood arts.
But it wasn't normal martial arts either.
Not righteous sect arts, not evil sect arts.
That left only blood arts or demonic arts, but it was neither.
Martial artists cultivating some utterly unknown internal energy.
That's why they were suspicious.
He'd encountered something similar recently.
"Demonic Cult?"
Ha Mu-baek's question.
No reaction.
They scanned their surroundings.
Fight this intruder? Stick to the original plan? Or flee?
The leader's mind raced.
He recalled the commander's warning before entering Muchang.
'If you encounter Ha Mu-baek, scatter and flee no matter what.'
And the portrait he'd been shown.
The man before him matched the face perfectly.
"Blood Cult?"
Another question.
Still no response.
Instead...
The leader's mouth opened.
"It's a trap! Engage!"
With that, he launched himself.
At Ha Mu-baek.
He drew his twin swords, aiming for Ha Mu-baek's throat and swinging.
Ha Mu-baek dodged effortlessly.
In that gap, the remaining nineteen scattered.
In nineteen different directions.
The leader charging Ha Mu-baek was bait.
"This bastard's trying something clever..."
Ha Mu-baek's words cut off.
He'd noticed the state of the man charging him.
Of the twin swords flying at him, only one was aimed his way.
The other had pierced the attacker's own right chest.
He rushed to the man and pried open his mouth.
He'd bitten a poison pill; his mouth was already black.
The attack had drawn Ha Mu-baek's eyes once.
The nineteen tried to escape, drawing his eyes again.
In that moment, the leader took his own life.
Without a hint of hesitation.
Ha Mu-baek stared incredulously at the man collapsing limply before him.
Already dead.
It had been ages since the last war that he'd seen a situation like this.
Groups using such desperate tactics: only two.
Demonic Cult and Blood Cult. Blood Cult and Demonic Cult.
"Something's definitely going down in Muchang."
Judging escape impossible, they chose suicide.
And Dan Mok Un-roe's household seemed tangled in it.
Since that's who they'd gathered to target.
"First, the ones who got away."
Nineteen directions.
Even for Ha Mu-baek, rounding them all up would take time.
Besides, he could predict the outcome of the chase.
Still, he had to try.
Ha Mu-baek spread his senses to the maximum and shot forward at full speed.
Brilliant Light Thousand-Mile Dash.
It had been a fight of split seconds, so he unleashed his lightness skill at maximum velocity.
Moments later...
Ha Mu-baek gave a wry smile and muttered.
"Lost them."
A low hill outside Muchang to the northwest.
A corpse lay before Ha Mu-baek's eyes.
This one had gone the farthest, the last one.
In the end, Ha Mu-baek had let all nineteen slip away.
No—he'd caught up, but they'd already suicided by then.
Not a single one captured in that fleeting clash.
He still didn't know their identity.
Blood Cult or Demonic Cult.
Definitely one of the two, but which one?
And why target Dan Mok Un-roe's house?
"Gotta ask the old man."
These weren't low-level fighters.
They'd evaded the Beggar Clan and gathered near her house.
Why would fighters of this caliber target her home?
Thunderclap Beggar probably knew.
With a light kick off the ground, Ha Mu-baek's figure vanished.