Chapter 286
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 286
Chapter Title: Take It With You
A graceful figure descended elegantly from the sheer cliff.
It was Woo Moon Ga-yul.
She kicked off the cliff wall lightly and floated down slowly and effortlessly.
Once she reached the bottom, she gazed toward one particular spot.
The main headquarters of the Saha-ryeon.
It was a majestic structure.
The fact that such a vast space existed midway up the treacherous Hyeong Mountain was miraculous in itself.
And building a fortress of that scale in such a rugged place was an extraordinary feat.
However.
That wasn't where she was headed now.
'Hubei Province's Mokran Mountain.'
The place where her daughter's last traces lingered.
She had to go there.
Just as she was about to kick off toward the path leading down from Hyeong Mountain...
"Are you just going to leave like that?"
A voice came from beside her.
Woo Moon Ga-yul halted her step.
She turned toward the source of the voice.
There stood Gong Ya Jang-cheon, looking at Woo Moon Ga-yul with eyes full of regret.
"Greetings, Father."
Woo Moon Ga-yul bowed deeply with utmost respect.
"I'm sorry."
There was nothing else he could say.
His foolish son had caused this kind-hearted woman's heart to fester and rot.
Woo Moon Ga-yul simply offered a faint smile.
That was, until that incident occurred.
Gong Ya Jeong-mun had been the ideal husband to her.
But.
After that horrific scene that day, she must have needed an excuse to avoid facing it—some time to herself.
That was what Woo Moon Ga-yul thought.
She just hadn't expected that time to stretch on for so long.
"Is the young master still..."
Gong Ya Jang-cheon nodded at Woo Moon Ga-yul's words.
"Yes. He's still holed up in secluded training."
Gong Ya Jeong-mun only emerged once every few days.
Even upon hearing news of his daughter's disappearance, he devoted himself silently to his cultivation.
What he was pursuing was...
The sight his wife had shown him that day.
He couldn't possibly end his seclusion until he surpassed it.
All while oblivious to the fact that his wife, Woo Moon Ga-yul, was growing even stronger.
"Then, do you know about Yeon-a?"
"I've heard the news. I plan to go find her myself soon."
Gong Ya Jang-cheon replied, his aura surging as if he might shatter the door to the seclusion chamber.
"I will bring Yeon-a back before you emerge, Father."
Woo Moon Ga-yul declared with resolute determination.
Gong Ya Jang-cheon nodded.
"Take it with you."
What he held out was a curved wooden bow.
Woo Moon Ga-yul recognized it instantly.
"It's a horned bow from the Eastern regions. I retrieved it from the Saha-ryeon's vault. It's not on par with the Four-Character Thunderclap Bow, but it's an excellent weapon in its own right."
Woo Moon Ga-yul accepted the bow from Gong Ya Jang-cheon.
She strung the accompanying bowstring onto one curved end, drew it taut, and hooked it to the opposite side.
Its splendid form was revealed.
"It's called the Flower Phoenix Horn Bow."
It suited her perfectly.
True to the renown of Eastern horned bows, the bow's elasticity was tremendous.
It even held a faint trace of thunderous energy.
It was a divine weapon worthy of storage in the Saha-ryeon's vault.
Woo Moon Ga-yul gazed silently at the Flower Phoenix Horn Bow, then bowed to Gong Ya Jang-cheon once more.
"Thank you, Father."
"Please... bring them both back safely. I leave it to you."
Leaving Gong Ya Jang-cheon behind, Woo Moon Ga-yul kicked off the ground.
She raced toward Mokran Mountain at full speed.
The rugged terrain of Hyeong Mountain posed no obstacle to her.
The spot where Ha Mu-baek had vanished.
Yeon Jin and the other Shaolin monks stared blankly in the direction he had gone.
Some were still slumped on the ground.
"What a monster."
Yeon Jin muttered.
Hoping his disciples would recover quickly from the shock of the day.
"Hang San, come with me. The rest of you, rest up. We'll stay here tonight as planned."
Yeon Jin led Hang San to a quiet spot.
He questioned him in detail about what Ha Mu-baek had asked.
Hang San told him everything he knew.
"Observing Heaven Temple Flower Bow, huh..."
Yeon Jin murmured softly.
It was a name he remembered.
One he had forgotten at some point.
"Yes. As you said, I do recall hearing there was such an incident among the unorthodox sects."
His expression was as if recalling a distant memory.
"But why did Ha Mu-baek react to that woman's title?"
His face showed utter bewilderment.
"I'm surprised too that the Four-Character Thunderclap Bow reacted to a layperson's martial arts, not a monk's. It didn't match the records."
Hang San said hesitantly.
The Martial World's Armory Compendium was wrong?
His face said he couldn't believe it.
"I see. Go rest now."
Yeon Jin dismissed Hang San and found a suitable spot to pull out brush, inkstone, and paper. He wrote a letter to send back to headquarters.
It was originally a task he had assigned to Hang San.
Now he had to do it himself.
Thanks to Ha Mu-baek just up and leaving.
The messenger pigeon took flight toward Song Mountain.
"Now only one messenger pigeon remains?"
Could they really catch her?
After witnessing Ha Mu-baek's movements...
He felt no confidence.
Ha Mu-baek followed the faint traces Gong Ya Hwi-yeon had left behind.
He was skilled in tracking himself, so he managed to pick up her trail.
He moved swiftly.
He didn't bother erasing his own tracks.
Right now, meeting her quickly was more important.
He needed to ask about the owner of this bow.
The Four-Character Thunderclap Bow slung over Ha Mu-baek's shoulder scattered rainbow hues.
He arrived at a village near the border between Hubei and Anhui Provinces.
Gong Ya Hwi-yeon's traces led here.
Inside the village, the crowds made it impossible to follow further.
"Coming here means she planned to cross into Anhui Province..."
Ha Mu-baek surveyed the bustling street teeming with people.
"She must have rested here."
The path to this village had passed through insignificant hamlets.
Places where she couldn't fully hide her tracks.
He could see efforts to blend her traces with others'.
But with the Shaolin monks' skills that had tracked her to that well village, they would reach here too.
Gong Ya Hwi-yeon must have anticipated that and pushed nonstop to this point.
However.
This place was crowded.
Crowded enough that her traces vanished completely.
Gong Ya Hwi-yeon would know that too.
"She must have desperately needed a break."
Ha Mu-baek's gaze turned to the inns lining the busy street.
A young—no, young girl.
Right after the Summer Combat Festival, without properly washing or resting, she had fled.
And here, in this bustling place where traces could be perfectly concealed.
Her first thought was probably a hot bath.
Especially as the granddaughter of the Saha-ryeon Lord.
And so, Ha Mu-baek checked inn after inn.
He slipped iron coins to the errand boys, asking if any woman had come alone recently.
Appearance was irrelevant.
She could change her face.
What he asked for was a woman who had requested bathwater and stayed alone.
It wasn't hard to find.
Even in a busy area.
A woman staying alone was exceedingly rare.
"Ah, yes, there was one. She said not to worry about her since she'd be leaving alone at dawn."
The guest had tipped him an iron coin while saying that, so he remembered clearly.
"Which room was it?"
Another iron coin emerged from Ha Mu-baek's hand.
"It's empty right now, so I can show you."
The power of iron coins was remarkable.
It was around lunchtime, so an unoccupied room would be vacant.
And it was.
Ha Mu-baek entered the third-floor room and examined it carefully.
Others might have stayed here since then.
He opened the window and checked outside.
Then, his eyes caught footprints under the window frame.
Traces of someone carefully climbing out the window.
'This way.'
She said she left alone at dawn, yet she bypassed the perfectly fine door for the window.
She hadn't left at dawn.
Ha Mu-baek peered out quietly.
He thought tracking might end here.
His eyes twitched as he examined the traces.
'The footprint size is different.'
It was markedly different from Gong Ya Hwi-yeon's footprints he had followed so far.
He had been tracking a woman's prints, but this looked like a man's...
'Disguised as a man?'
That was the only explanation for the change in footprint size.
No other man staying here would climb out the window.
"Was there anyone who jumped out the window from this room or anything like that?"
"No, no one like that."
The errand boy waved his hands, insisting he remembered clearly.
Ha Mu-baek slipped another iron coin into the boy's hand.
"Thanks."
Ha Mu-baek exited the inn.
'Clever girl. Even thinking to disguise herself as a man.'
He had nearly lost her trail too.
The change in footprint size.
Could the Shaolin monks detect it?
As he circled back around the inn building, Ha Mu-baek glanced up at the room Gong Ya Hwi-yeon had stayed in.
With a light wave of his hand, he erased all the traces she had left climbing out the window.
No matter how rushed, she had this much time.
Could the Shaolin monks keep following now?
Ha Mu-baek searched the inn again.
Posing different questions to the errand boys than before.
The Primordial Six Divine Arts.
Infinity, Chaos, Void, Darkness, Radiance, As Desired.
Six divine skills.
The Demonic Cult had obtained the complete Void among them.
The Heavenly Demon's Illusory Void Divine Art.
This was the name of the complete Heavenly Demon Divine Art five hundred years ago.
After it shattered into five pieces, the portion left in the Demonic Cult became the Heavenly Demon Divine Art.
"Hmm."
Deep furrows formed on Sek Cheon-gyeong's forehead.
After his meeting with Sima Hu-do, he had retrieved the manual for the Asura Thunder Spirit Returning to Origin Heart Method.
And for several days, he had immersed himself in it.
The more he read, the less sense it made.
It was clearly an exceptional internal energy method.
Yet he couldn't fathom why it reacted to the Void fragment.
No matter how he dissected the manual, no answers emerged.
There was definitely something to it.
But no matter how he pondered the incantations, he couldn't grasp it.
Even as the Demonic Cult Leader, Sek Cheon-gyeong.
He had lost count of how many times he had read this manual.
Now he had memorized even the calligraphy.
"Should I cultivate it?"
Sek Cheon-gyeong had already mastered the Heavenly Demon Divine Art.
Thus, there was no need to learn another Demonic Cult method.
Having attained the pinnacle of all Demonic Cult martial arts, learning a lesser one would be a waste of time.
But this time was different.
The key to a problem the Heavenly Demon Divine Art couldn't solve seemed to lie in the Asura Thunder Spirit Returning to Origin Heart Method.
In the end, Sek Cheon-gyeong circulated his energy slowly according to the method's incantations.
He temporarily set the Heavenly Demon Divine Art aside.
How long had it been since he delved into this new cultivation?
His energy flowed steadily through his meridians as per the Asura Thunder Spirit Returning to Origin Heart Method.
Sek Cheon-gyeong's body emitted a subtle glow.
Having reached perfection in the Heavenly Demon Divine Art, mastering this new method didn't take long.
The moment he operated the heart method...
Sek Cheon-gyeong's eyes widened involuntarily.
He had no choice.
It was due to the energy surging within his body.
The Asura Thunder Spirit Returning to Origin Heart Method had reacted to the energy inside him.
Precisely, to the Heavenly Demon Divine Art he had momentarily pushed aside.
The heart method was reacting to the Heavenly Demon Divine Art.
'It reacts to the Void fragment after all?'
The Heavenly Demon Divine Art was one of the Void fragments.
He needed to check the other Void fragments too.
Sek Cheon-gyeong picked up the Void Heaven Formula, the duplicate fragment, and read it.
It matched what Sima Hu-do had said.
The Asura Thunder Spirit Returning to Origin Heart Method's energy reacted.
'But...'
Sek Cheon-gyeong furrowed his brow.
It reacted, but differently from the Heavenly Demon Divine Art.
Why was that?
Did each fragment provoke a different kind of reaction?
Harboring such doubts, he picked up the remaining Void fragment manuals.
Again, the energy reacted.
But this time, it matched the Void Heaven Formula's reaction.
What he learned from this was...
The Heavenly Demon Divine Art was different from the other Void fragments.
And the Asura Thunder Spirit Returning to Origin Heart Method reacted to both the Heavenly Demon Divine Art and the Void fragments.
It would greatly aid in finding the remaining Void fragments.
'But why with the Heavenly Demon Divine Art...'
The Heavenly Demon Divine Art was said to be one of the Void fragments.
Yet it showed a different reaction.
The other two types of fragments elicited the same response.
Of the four lost pieces, he had recovered two.
Two remained to complete the full Void.
Yet the reaction to what he thought was the original piece, the Heavenly Demon Divine Art, was different.
"I need to investigate."
In the end, Sek Cheon-gyeong emerged from his seclusion chamber.
He headed to the deeper Ancestor Cave.
This was the true root of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.
The main headquarters, burned and lost in the last war, had been merely a stem grown from this root.
As long as the root remained intact, the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult would revive someday.
Entering the Ancestor Cave, Sek Cheon-gyeong began meticulously reviewing the records left by past cult leaders.
He started five hundred years ago.
From the time the Heavenly Demon's Illusory Void Divine Art shattered into five pieces.