Chapter 611
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 611
Chapter Title: That Bastard Myo Su-gae Is the One Who Deserves to Die
Ha Mu-baek, facing Bang Sa-uk, confirmed the look in his eyes and stepped back.
Of course, he had already released his hand from Bang Sa-uk's head.
"You coming back to your senses a bit?"
At Ha Mu-baek's question, Bang Sa-uk slowly and heavily nodded.
"Wh-what did I... do..."
His voice was thick with self-loathing.
"It wasn't you. It was just the Demonic Cult."
Ha Mu-baek stated matter-of-factly.
But such words offered Bang Sa-uk no comfort.
The floor of Nakryong Gorge.
Everything that had happened after regaining his senses there and being overtaken by the Demonic Cult was vividly etched in his memory.
It had clearly been his own will at work.
Though Ha Mu-baek called it the Demonic Cult's doing, Bang Sa-uk had definitely acted with his past memories intact, making rational judgments on his own.
"Urgh..."
Bang Sa-uk clutched his head, swallowing back sobs.
Ha Mu-baek said nothing more.
Not much time remained for Bang Sa-uk, but how he spent it was entirely up to him.
Vanishing in regret over his own actions was his choice, after all.
Bang Sa-uk stared blankly down at his hands.
The screams of the Beggar Clan elders who had fallen by these hands still rang vividly in his ears.
"How could I... do something like th-that... ngh..."
Tears fell in drops.
Regret, remorse, self-reproach, disbelief.
Tears swirling with every emotion imaginable.
Finally, Bang Sa-uk lifted his head and looked at Ha Mu-baek.
"Th-thank you... for stopping me back there."
Genuine gratitude filled his words.
If Ha Mu-baek hadn't been there, he might have stained the Beggar Clan's headquarters with blood using his own hands.
Ha Mu-baek shrugged.
"Well, facing you taught me a few new things."
Ha Mu-baek replied as if it were nothing.
"And besides, revenge has to be done right."
At those words, Bang Sa-uk thought of Myo Su-gae and gave a bitter smile.
"I had no idea I harbored such regret and resentment. If not for that... I wouldn't have done such a thing to the Beggar Clan..."
Bang Sa-uk still blamed himself.
"If there had been no resentment, the place stained with blood by your hands would've been the Myriad Things Union instead."
Bang Sa-uk froze at Ha Mu-baek's calm words.
Nakryong Gorge.
Wasn't it a cliff located to the north of the Myriad Things Union?
Bang Sa-uk had gone there for a battle to defend the Myriad Things Union.
If he had been overtaken by the Demonic Cult without any resentment, he might have headed straight for the Myriad Things Union, just as Ha Mu-baek said.
He wouldn't have been able to prevent him from becoming a Dark Blood Jiangshi.
"That's why that bastard Myo Su-gae deserves to die. He created a Dark Blood Jiangshi out of personal greed. That's also why I let your revenge slide."
Bang Sa-uk's entire body trembled violently.
"I... I..."
Even as he spoke, his body was crumbling rapidly.
The body of a Dark Blood Jiangshi sustained by the Demonic Cult's energy could no longer hold now that it had all dissipated.
Ha Mu-baek's Infinite Freedom and Radiance, along with the energy of Bang Sa-uk's original White Frost Lotus Art, struggled to repair the body, but they were fundamentally incompatible forces.
Radiance was the natural counter to the Demonic Cult—or rather, darkness—and Infinite Freedom could overcome darkness as well.
The only reason Bang Sa-uk had held out this long was the tiny space in his upper dantian where the White Frost Lotus Art had hidden from the Demonic Cult, like a fingernail's worth of room.
That had made the difference.
"Anything you want to say?"
Ha Mu-baek watched Bang Sa-uk slowly fading and asked.
"Tell them... I'm sorry... that I'll pay for my sins in hell, over and over."
Ha Mu-baek gave a small nod.
"Then hear out my business too. When the power of darkness took over your body, did you sense anything special?"
Bang Sa-uk pondered deeply at Ha Mu-baek's question.
Ha Mu-baek had essentially done him a great favor.
He wanted to answer as best he could.
"While the Demonic Cult and White Frost Lotus Art were constantly clashing, a stream of dark energy flowed in from somewhere and seeped into me. That's when it overtook me."
That was exactly what Ha Mu-baek was curious about.
The floor of Nakryong Gorge.
If it had always been a place where dark energy gathered, Bang Sa-uk should have become a Dark Blood Jiangshi long ago.
Yet after years of that drawn-out struggle, he had suddenly turned into this variant Dark Blood Jiangshi.
"Was that energy originally there?"
Bang Sa-uk shook his head.
In the meantime, his body was crumbling even faster.
"It flowed in suddenly one day. From that direction... yes, southeast. It suddenly appeared from the southeast and flowed in."
Now his crumbling body began turning to powder and scattering.
At that moment.
Bang Sa-uk recalled a faint whisper, so vague he wasn't sure if he'd heard it at all.
A murmur like something from a dream.
"The remnants of darkness belong to the master of darkness, Gae Seo-ak..."
That was as far as Bang Sa-uk got.
He turned to dust and scattered away.
But that was enough for Ha Mu-baek.
He bowed his head briefly, offering a silent prayer for Bang Sa-uk, who had met a true death.
Then he turned his gaze.
Toward the Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest.
Southeast of Cheonjung Mountain.
And Gae Seo-ak.
Those two were enough.
"Gae Seo-ak... a descendant of Gae Hong-cheon. So the Blood Cult remnants are still around."
A possibility Ha Mu-baek had considered—confirmed, really—upon seeing the pool of dark energy here.
Bang Sa-uk had verified it for him.
[He's completely gone. What a shame.]
Gae Seo-ak nodded at the voice from the depths of darkness.
"Then we should move."
[Move? Why?]
"If it's the Ha Mu-baek I know, he'll definitely come here."
Gae Seo-ak stated firmly.
[And if he does? So what? Just crush him.]
The darkness spoke with full confidence.
But Gae Seo-ak shook his head.
"You felt his power too, same as me."
[Hmph. That mishmash nonsense.]
"I'm not clashing with him until I'm absolutely certain of victory."
[To think the one who accepted my power is such a coward.]
Gae Seo-ak remained unaffected by the darkness's mockery and provocation.
"Ha Mu-baek. That's the kind of guy he is. That's why the Blood Cult fell to him."
Gae Seo-ak's voice was calm.
In truth, Gae Seo-ak had never met Ha Mu-baek even once.
Everything he knew about Ha Mu-baek came from Il No.
From Il No's tales brimming with resentment, Gae Seo-ak had pieced together his own image of Ha Mu-baek.
Thorough, intelligent, unafraid of repercussions, and bold.
Having indirectly felt his power through Bang Sa-uk this time.
The Ha Mu-baek in his mind would head straight for the Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest.
Hunkering down here like this would be foolish.
He had already absorbed all the dark power available in the Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest.
But the world's dark power wasn't limited to this place.
The densest, stickiest, most abundant had been here, along with the abyss's will—the essence of darkness—in the Blood Cult's main base, the Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest.
Still, dark power lingered in spots across the world.
The world was vast.
"We're going somewhere else. He seems able to sense our power now, so we move carefully."
With that, Gae Seo-ak melted into the darkness.
And burrowed deeper into the earth.
Not a hundred zhang, but three hundred zhang deep.
A precaution, considering how Ha Mu-baek had precisely located Bang Sa-uk even while he absorbed power from a hundred-zhang-deep dark blood pool.
Ha Mu-baek pondered briefly.
Head straight to the Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest, or go to Kaifeng first and report the outcome?
He decided quickly.
Because of Bang Sa-uk's final words before vanishing.
He had heard the name Gae Seo-ak, master of darkness.
It was an absurd assumption, but perhaps Gae Seo-ak's senses reached this far.
Since primordial power transcended common sense, Ha Mu-baek imagined as much.
And made his choice.
He kicked off the ground toward the Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest.
If the enemy could sense this place's situation, he needed to get there as fast as possible.
Recalling that day when he razed the Blood Cult's base in the Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest—not even leaving a tiny trace behind with his meticulous, cautious movements.
He would definitely move elsewhere.
Ha Mu-baek had to catch him first.
The longer time passed, the stronger the bastard would grow.
Now that he knew of his existence, he had to eliminate him quickly.
Last time, he hadn't known the method and couldn't find his hiding spot, but the battle with Bang Sa-uk had revealed it.
He unleashed Ability to See Miles to its limit.
He had raced here nonstop for three days and nights, but there was still no time to rest.
As Ha Mu-baek dashed full speed toward the Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest, he simultaneously trained his Infinite Bright Wheel Eye and energy sense.
Not ordinary training.
Imbuing the primordial energy onto his Infinite Bright Wheel Eye and energy sense in an improvised way.
Now, properly cultivating it for real.
If successful, his Infinite Bright Wheel Eye and energy sense would reach a whole new level.
'And I'll be able to detect that damned Demonic Cult Soul Devouring Great Law too.'
If Blood Cult martial arts were based on darkness from the Primordial Six Divine Arts, the Demonic Cult's rooted in emptiness.
If he could infuse darkness into Infinite Bright Wheel Eye and energy sense, emptiness should work too.
Then, perhaps he could detect those hit by the Soul Devouring Great Law.
He had confirmed the clash of energies in the upper dantian during the Bang Sa-uk fight with Infinite Bright Wheel Eye.
It might work on the Soul Devouring Great Law too.
Even if it devoured souls.
For that, demonic energy would need to seep into the upper dantian.
The Beggar Clan headquarters was bustling.
They had to rebuild the collapsed shacks and recover lost records.
The Beggar Clan beggars moved with frantic energy.
Some headed off in all directions nonstop.
"Where are they off to?"
One of the Hocheon Corps members muttered at the sight.
"To find the missing records."
Dam Mu-heun answered calmly.
There were plenty of intact records, but many had been lost or completely destroyed.
Considering the vast archives of the Beggar Clan headquarters, an enormous amount of information had vanished.
"Where do they find the lost ones?"
"Copies."
"Pardon?"
"The Beggar Clan is more meticulous than you think. Don't underestimate them. They transcribe everything and store copies elsewhere."
"Whoa..."
The Hocheon Corps member let out a sigh of admiration or surprise.
"The Beggar Clan isn't called the world's best at information for nothing. When it comes to info, storage is basic. Heavenly Eye Pavilion, Lowly Literary Pavilion, Black Warriors Group—they all do the same."
The Righteous Heaven Alliance's intelligence department, the rival unorthodox Beggar Clan in info, and the Evil Sea Alliance's intel arm.
Dam Mu-heun stated plainly.
"Then it's not a big deal. So why do those beggars look like they're facing death?"
The member asked, genuinely curious.
"You saw how big the Beggar Clan headquarters is, right?"
The Hocheon Corps member nodded at Dam Mu-heun's question.
"Then how much paperwork do you think was stored inside? You think they'll just bring over the copies from some secret spot as-is?"
"Ah..."
The member gasped in realization.
Dam Mu-heun's explanation made him understand the beggars' grim faces.
If they brought the copies here and something like this happened again?
Then the information would be lost permanently.
Meaning they'd have to retranscribe from the storage sites.
No wonder the beggars looked so rotten.
"Think our corps leader might live forever?"
At the member's cautious words, Dam Mu-heun nodded slightly.
"Maybe."
It was Ha Mu-baek's energy that had wrecked the Beggar Clan headquarters.
Precisely, the battle between Bang Sa-uk and Ha Mu-baek.
Bang Sa-uk was dead and gone now, leaving only Ha Mu-baek.
So all the beggars' resentment and curses were aimed squarely at him.
Three days had passed since Ha Mu-baek left, so news should arrive soon, thought Dam Mu-heun as he glanced in the direction Ha Mu-baek had vanished.
But there was still no movement from there.