Chapter 577
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 577
Chapter Title: Eat Well and Sleep Soundly
"Hoo."
"Hah."
Gong Hae-bin and Gong Hae-jun let out deep sighs.
They had just finished a full half shichen of meditation.
In the dim predawn hours before the sun had risen, the siblings had been sitting cross-legged in the small backyard of the inn. As they rose to their feet, they startled.
"Ah!"
"M-Master."
They hadn't officially been accepted as disciples yet, but at some point, the two children had started calling Ha Mu-baek "Master."
Ha Mu-baek had stopped correcting them every time.
They kept doing it anyway.
"As I mentioned yesterday, I'm heading to Mount Hua for a bit. Keep up your training while I'm gone."
"Yes!"
The two children answered in unison.
"And getting plenty of rest is another form of training, so make sure you sleep well."
It was nagging laced with a hint of worry.
Ha Mu-baek knew they had only slept for two shichen.
Their diligence was certainly praiseworthy, but considering their age, it wasn't.
This was an age when eating well and sleeping soundly were crucial.
Ha Mu-baek himself had once thrown himself into martial arts just like these siblings when he first began training under his own master.
At that time, following his master's advice, he had made sure to allocate plenty of time for sleep.
"You both still need to grow more. Eat well, too."
"Understood."
"We'll keep it in mind."
The advice sounded like nagging, but the siblings could sense the concern behind it, so they replied brightly.
Ha Mu-baek gazed down at the two children for a moment, nodded once, and then his figure vanished in an instant.
"Grrr. Grroooar."
A man emitting beastly growls.
He was embedded deeply into the ground.
Above him loomed an impossibly sheer cliff stretching endlessly upward.
His eyes lacked focus, and his limbs were twisted at grotesque angles.
Dried blood crusted his head, leaving him in an unrecognizable state.
A body that should rightfully be dead.
Yet he lived, vomiting forth those animalistic cries.
"Grr. Graaaang."
A wail that seemed to crave something.
His shoulders and hips twitched as he tried to move, but he couldn't budge an inch.
It wasn't just the grotesquely broken limbs; his spine was shattered too.
For a fall from that towering cliff, the edge was far too high.
If he had truly plummeted from the top, maintaining even this mangled form would have been impossible.
And yet, the man continued to howl.
No one knew how long he had been like this, but crimson light flickered persistently in his eyes.
Then, at some point.
Focus returned to his eyes.
The crimson glow faded.
"Uh, uh, uuuuh."
And leaking groans.
"I... I absolutely won't... get devoured... by the Destruction Art..."
Muttering those instinctive words amid his groans, the man soon unleashed crimson light from his eyes once more and howled like a beast.
Focus returned, then crimson light flashed—repeating endlessly.
At some moment.
Black energy faintly seeped from the ground around where he was buried, seeping into his body.
How much time passed?
Clarity of reason distinctly returned to his eyes, now filled only with crimson light.
"Kuh-heok."
A human groan, not a beast's cry, spilled out.
"Wh-what happened...? I clearly..."
His reason had recovered to some degree.
This was no mere instinctual mutter.
His gaze turned to the endless cliff.
And with it, an intense hunger washed over him.
"What in the world..."
Foggy memories began surfacing one by one in his clouded mind, incomplete fragments.
Bang Sa-uk.
His own name.
Deputy Leader of the Beggar Clan.
His position.
And.
Hunyuan Liuxia.
The new internal art he had begun cultivating.
His head throbbed.
The name Chaos Blood Destruction Art overlaid it.
"That's why I jumped... kuhk."
Pain wracking his entire body drew out a groan.
Checking inside himself.
The Destruction Art's energy was clashing with the Beggar Clan's internal art, White Lotus Pure Flower Art.
He hadn't been devoured by the Destruction Art yet.
"H-how..."
To avoid becoming fodder for the Destruction Art, he had hurled himself off the cliff, yet he still hadn't been consumed.
No, more than that—how was he even alive?
Introspecting inward, he found the answer.
"The Destruction Art..."
That was it.
The Chaos Blood Destruction Art had taken root throughout Bang Sa-uk's body, sustaining his life.
Thanks to it, the White Lotus Pure Flower Art could resist the Destruction Art.
The Destruction Art, which devoured its host, was now using its power to keep the host alive.
'Does this mean I won't get devoured by the Destruction Art?'
The question arose as his mind gradually cleared.
The Destruction Art was an unstoppable curse.
Hadn't there been cases where it activated in those already gravely wounded, turning them into blood zombies?
Then why him?
It was tied to Bang Sa-uk's unique constitution.
An extremely rare body with resistance to the Destruction Art.
Bang Sa-uk possessed it.
The Destruction Art's power, scattered amid life-threatening wounds, combined with his resistance and the White Lotus Pure Flower Art to fend it off.
But Bang Sa-uk had no way of knowing this.
'How much time has passed?'
He tried to move, but only excruciating pain followed.
"Kuh-uuuk."
A scream-like groan escaped involuntarily.
Struggling to turn his head and inspect his body, the state was miserable.
"Hoo."
A deep sigh escaped.
'But why has my mind suddenly cleared?'
A question that arose now.
In his faint, hazy memories, scenes of regaining sanity amid the struggle with the Destruction Art flickered intermittently.
But back then, he hadn't fully maintained his senses.
So why now?
As that doubt surfaced.
[The child of darkness returns to the darkness.]
A strange voice echoed in his head, followed by an unidentified energy flowing through his body, merging with the Destruction Art's energy.
The result.
"Ku, grrrrng. N-no."
Beastly cries poured from his mouth once more.
And.
His twisted limbs began slowly, ever so slowly, moving back into place.
Even between shattered bone fragments, the Destruction Art's energy seeped in, beginning a gradual, minute recovery.
Bang Sa-uk's White Lotus Pure Flower Art shrank to the size of a fingernail, retreating to evade the Destruction Art's energy.
It hid in the depths of his mind, the profound core of his upper dantian.
Gwi Hwi and Wi Su-yeon entered Huayin County.
The journey from Shangnan to Huayin had been swift.
Mount Hua of the Western Peaks loomed majestically before them.
"Let's hurry on."
Gwi Hwi quickened his pace.
They could rest a day in Huayin and ascend early in the morning, but right now, arriving as soon as possible was key.
Before Ha Mu-baek arrived.
Finding the origin of the demonic art was the way to minimize the storm brewing at Mount Hua.
By the time they passed through the sect's gates, evening had fallen.
Gwi Hwi went straight to the sect leader.
No Hu-myeong welcomed Gwi Hwi warmly.
"Welcome. Martial Uncle. Did your trip away from the mountain yield results?"
"Greetings to the Sect Leader."
No Hu-myeong returned the cupped-fist salute as Gwi Hwi performed it.
Wi Su-yeon had gone to report her return and visit her master.
"There were results."
"Oh!"
No Hu-myeong exclaimed joyfully at Gwi Hwi's reply.
"But something worse happened as well."
The exclamation quickly died down.
"What do you mean...?"
"Do you happen to know Elder Uncle Un's whereabouts?"
"Uncle Un... I saw him not long ago. He stopped by asking about your news, so I informed him."
Gwi Hwi nodded and asked again.
"Was there anything strange about him then?"
"Hm."
No Hu-myeong pondered his memories before answering.
"His aura had grown quite fierce. Each time I saw him, it seemed fiercer, and I was growing worried."
"When was that?"
"Not long after you descended the mountain, Martial Uncle. Why do you ask?"
"That was the last time you saw him?"
"Yes."
Doubt thickened on No Hu-myeong's face amid the barrage of questions.
Gwi Hwi fell into thought.
He hadn't yet sorted out how to explain it.
No Hu-myeong waited silently for Gwi Hwi to speak.
In the meantime, the tea grew cold.
"Elder Uncle Un... has passed on."
Gwi Hwi delivered the most crucial news first, in a somber tone.
"What?!"
No Hu-myeong, who had been listening quietly, cried out in shock.
Had he been sipping tea, he might have spat it out.
"Wh-what do you..."
"Elder Uncle Un cultivated a demonic art."
At the even more shocking revelation that followed.
No Hu-myeong froze, expression blank.
Had he sorted his thoughts by now?
Gwi Hwi calmly recounted the events in Shangnan.
Including the Maehyang Sect's atrocities.
The long tale finally ended.
"Hm... I never imagined such a thing. No wonder Uncle's aura was so fierce. Ha, truly... kuhm."
Unable to accept it fully, No Hu-myeong floundered.
He was trying to accept it yet couldn't believe it.
But how could the Plum Blossom Sword Sage speak falsehoods here?
There was absolute trust in that.
Moreover, Gwi Hwi wasn't the only witness.
His disciple Wi Su-yeon had been there.
Ha Mu-baek, who executed the uncle.
Gwan Ha-gyeong of the Righteous Heaven Alliance's Fierce Dragon Corps, and Feng Jian, disciple of Shan Hua-jang.
And even Ban Yun, leader of the Mount Hua branch, Maehyang Sect.
Countless people had witnessed it—no way it was false.
That meant a demonic art had infiltrated Mount Hua.
"How devastating..."
No Hu-myeong hung his head.
"And the Maehyang Sect."
At Gwi Hwi's following words, No Hu-myeong nodded and said.
"Naturally, we'll strip them of branch sect status. For a Mount Hua branch to stoop so low... I never thought Ban Martial Uncle would do such a thing."
Ban Yun was Un Se-hyeok's disciple.
In other words, No Hu-myeong's direct martial uncle.
Thus, his disappointment was all the greater.
"The biggest issue is that Ha Mu-baek is coming to Mount Hua. And finding the origin of the demonic art."
Now somewhat composed, No Hu-myeong looked at Gwi Hwi and said as much.
"Indeed."
Gwi Hwi agreed.
"With the pretext of the demonic art, we can't block him... Ha... a storm may ravage Mount Hua."
Those in the know were aware of Ha Mu-baek's obsessive fixation on blood cults and demonic arts.
His deeds as Hocheon Corps Leader weren't few.
"Ah, more than that, he was that strong?"
No Hu-myeong asked as if hearing it for the first time.
"His realm is beyond conjecture."
"Wasn't he not at that level during the last war?"
Ha Mu-baek as Hocheon Corps Leader was strong, but the righteous faction's top master was Alliance Leader So Hwi-woong.
Ha Mu-baek was a transcendent realm expert, but known as perhaps only finger-countable in the world.
"That's what I thought too..."
Gwi Hwi shook his head lightly.
"Perhaps the world was fooled by Corps Leader Ha Mu-baek."
The realm of Ha Mu-baek that Gwi Hwi had witnessed.
Was in no way beneath So Hwi-woong's.
"We must find and eradicate the demonic art's origin before he arrives. If he starts tearing through Mount Hua, who knows what will happen."
Gwi Hwi urged earnestly.
"We'll keep it in mind. Then, when might he arrive?"
"When we set out, it seemed he had about two days left, so at latest, two days from now."
"Ha. Such a tight timeline."
Gwi Hwi nodded silently.
He thought the same.
Would they be fortunate even to find traces of the demonic art before then?
Eradicating its origin before Ha Mu-baek reached Mount Hua was impossible.