Chapter 618
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 618
Chapter Title: Dig
Geumbo Valley.
Those were the characters carved into the rock above the valley.
A name etched with the character for "forbidden" in the territory of the Unorthodox Alliance.
Not only the warriors of the Unorthodox Alliance, but even herb gatherers or hunters among the common folk wouldn't dare set foot here.
Ha Mu-baek leaped down into the valley below.
A small mound had been prepared in one spot.
Ha Mu-baek strode fearlessly into the cave before him and took in the scene that remained.
The rope at the entrance caught his eye, as did the one right above the flat pedestal deepest inside.
And the bloodstains lingering around it.
Ha Mu-baek spread his qi sense anew from that spot.
The qi sense, infused with dark energy, soon expanded from him in a massive spherical form.
Encompassing not only the mountain above his head but the earth beneath his feet as well.
After probing about a chi deep.
Ha Mu-baek nodded.
He glanced at the rope once more.
"So it was a trap after all?"
He couldn't grasp the exact mechanism.
He had virtually no knowledge of mechanisms or formations.
But through his qi sense, he intuitively felt this: pulling that rope would bring the whole place crashing down.
A tomb formed from a massive cliff would be created here.
After exiting the cave, Ha Mu-baek looked toward the east.
Faint traces of dark qi—what he called the aura of darkness—remained from something that had flown here from somewhere.
That direction was east.
Continuing east from Mount Heng would lead to southern Zhejiang Province.
And the people called that place Sanwol.
The Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest.
The origin of that name was none other than the demonic forest in the Sanwol lands.
The qi might have originated from there.
"The culprits are the Blood Cult after all..."
The fact that someone who had endured the Demon Extermination Curse for years without succumbing suddenly underwent such a change recently.
It meant a variable had arisen.
Such variables typically came from outside rather than within.
The dark qi from outside had combined with the Demon Extermination Curse, leading to this disaster.
That was Ha Mu-baek's deduction.
Both Bang Sa-uk and Gongya Ha-rang.
The true culprit was likely that world-devouring evil hidden deep underground in the Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest, absorbing the dark qi.
That's why, upon sensing its presence, he had dropped everything and raced at full speed to the Blood Cult's main base in the Mountain-Crossing Forest.
But it had already vanished.
Not leaving behind even a wisp of qi—it had disappeared completely clean.
Yet now he had found traces of qi leading from here to Sanwol.
'It must have held out for quite a while.'
Working backward from the timing, Gongya Ha-rang must have been affected by the dark qi some time ago.
Yet the curse only seemed to take hold recently.
If her cultivation had been just a bit higher, perhaps she could have overcome the Demon Extermination Curse from the start—that thought crossed his mind.
But Ha Mu-baek soon shook his head.
"Ridiculous thinking..."
The Demon Extermination Curse.
It wasn't something so simple.
That's why it had plunged the martial world into chaos.
Fujian Province.
Mount Wuyi.
A rugged mountain where thirty-six jagged peaks intertwined with winding valleys, forming sheer cliffs one after another.
A mountain fit only for immortals to dwell in.
Deep underground beneath one of those thirty-six peaks, Tianyu Peak.
There, the world-devouring evil had taken root.
Just as light permeates every corner of the world, so too does darkness.
Fragments born at the dawn of creation.
Those fragments weren't the entirety of the darkness.
The same went for radiance.
Much of their power had been expended in forming the world.
And over eons, as night and day repeated across the world, they had grown even vaster, scattered everywhere.
Thus, the world-devouring evil sought to gather as much power as it could.
He had chosen Mount Wuyi for the same reason.
A vast, rugged mountain.
Lush forests.
It was regrettable that faint deathly qi lingered in the surroundings, but darkness wasn't composed solely of deathly qi.
As the world-devouring evil focused on absorbing the power of darkness—the true darkness—
A heterogeneous qi that he had once absorbed along with the darkness, a qi that was dark yet not purely so, began to stir and move after having lain dormant.
'What is this?'
The qi he thought had assimilated into the darkness was now trying to break free from it.
'Damn it.'
Flustered, the world-devouring evil tried to control the writhing qi, but it had already slipped from his grasp.
'What is this? Darkness!'
[Shut up. Hngh.]
The darkness seemed flustered as well.
[Kekeke. Thank you, truly thank you.]
Then, another voice echoed in the world-devouring evil's mind.
At that voice, he flinched.
He remembered hearing it before.
However, he had dismissed it as one of the many voices of the darkness that had tempted him upon their first encounter.
'What in the world is happening...'
The world-devouring evil was bewildered.
The power he had gathered to defeat Ha Mu-baek—now it seemed it might devour him instead, anxiety creeping up.
[You... what are you...?]
The flustered voice of the darkness rang out again.
[It's been ages. Eons, perhaps?]
The leisurely voice mocked the darkness.
Gongya Jangcheon moved swiftly.
The traces left behind were so vivid that he had no choice but to move fast.
Following those traces relentlessly, their destination was the southernmost tip of Mount Heng.
The Blood Thunder soldier, who had mastered tracking to a profound level, led at the forefront, with Gongya Jangcheon in the center.
Blood Thunder soldiers flanked him front, back, left, and right, protecting him.
Thus, Gongya Jangcheon raced alongside five Blood Thunder soldiers.
His eyes were deeply sunken.
Even now, as he simply pursued the traces.
He focused on one thing.
'I am heading to slay the Blood Cult's demonic beast. What I must face is the Blood Cult's demonic beast.'
He repeated this to himself endlessly.
And with each repetition, the killing intent in Gongya Jangcheon's eyes deepened.
Gongya Jangcheon.
He knew it too.
Without doing this, he could never strike down Gongya Ha-rang with his own hands.
Even then, he wondered if he could truly thrust his blade when he faced her.
He had faced dark blood stiffeners countless times.
Even as demonic beasts, they retained their original appearances.
At least dark blood stiffeners were mindless monsters, despite using their original martial arts.
That's why he could unleash killing blows without hesitation.
But if she retained her reason, spoke in her original voice, and approached with her original memories...
Could Gongya Jangcheon truly strike Gongya Ha-rang down?
Grind.
Gongya Jangcheon clenched his teeth unconsciously.
Yet he kept telling himself he was en route to exterminate the Blood Cult's demonic beast, not Gongya Ha-rang.
That he must eradicate it utterly.
With each vow, faint killing intent emanated from his body.
The five Blood Thunder soldiers moving with him at the center felt suffocated by the thick, viscous killing intent, advancing in tense silence.
After two days of pursuit, they finally reached the end of the trail.
At the southernmost point of Mount Heng.
There, Gongya Ha-rang's traces vanished.
As if she had shot into the sky or sunk into the earth—the trail disappeared like a lie.
It was an extreme change, hard to believe after the intense traces left until now.
"Search the surroundings."
"Understood."
At Gongya Jangcheon's low command, the five tense Blood Thunder soldiers responded reflexively and scattered.
Gongya Jangcheon and they all sensed it.
Gongya Ha-rang was nearby.
A battle would erupt soon.
After sending his subordinates out, Gongya Jangcheon sat cross-legged beneath a massive tree.
He closed his eyes and expanded his qi sense.
He intended to scour every inch of space within his limit.
There might be traces the Blood Thunder soldiers could miss with their eyes.
That's why he probed with qi sense.
This was a technique that bastard favored.
After hearing it mentioned in passing during the last war, Gongya Jangcheon had trained relentlessly and reached a considerable level.
Beyond the natural qi sense gained at that level.
He thus meticulously examined the surroundings.
And then.
'Hm?'
He caught a clue.
One step ahead of Gongya Ha-rang's final trace.
Right below that spot, about an inch underground, he sensed a heterogeneous qi.
Qi unlike anything elsewhere.
Retracing the spot of her trace, he found the same faint heterogeneous qi lingering there.
Gongya Jangcheon focused his qi sense.
Extending it deeper below where he felt the heterogeneous qi, he sensed it growing thicker.
However, his level limited him to fifteen zhang below.
He felt the qi intensify further, but couldn't probe deeper.
Even so, he was certain.
'She's down there.'
He couldn't tell what she was doing deep in the earth.
Nor how she had gone so deep.
But she was definitely there.
Gongya Jangcheon rose from his cross-legged position and walked to the spot.
"To think she really sank into the ground..."
He muttered softly.
"Found her. Everyone, return."
His low cry, infused with inner energy, spread in all directions, and soon the Blood Thunder soldiers returned.
"Right here. I don't know how deep, but she's below this spot."
The five Blood Thunder soldiers flinched at Gongya Jangcheon's words.
It seemed implausible, but it was their lord's word.
It had to be true.
"Two options. Wait for her to emerge, or dig down."
"How deep is it?"
One of the Blood Thunder soldiers asked cautiously.
"Confirmed down to fifteen zhang, but no sign."
The five flinched again.
Fifteen zhang.
An incredible depth.
Of course, as high-level warriors, they could dig if they set their minds to it.
But they lacked tools.
No shovels at hand.
"We have to dig in."
The tracking specialist spoke up.
Gongya Jangcheon's gaze turned to him.
"Why?"
"She left such clear traces rushing here urgently. Hiding deep underground can't be the goal. She's surely after something below, so we must dig to find her."
Gongya Jangcheon nodded at his words.
"Dig."
At that command, the five drew their swords.
Five blades aglow with crimson sword qi.
Swords of warriors who had surpassed the pinnacle realm poured down toward the earth.
Boom! Kwang-kwang-boom! Boom-boom!
Amid deafening roars that blurred digging from demolition, a massive pit formed.
Fifteen zhang deep.
"Hold."
Gongya Jangcheon said, then sent his qi sense downward from the center again.
From there, another fifteen zhang.
Still, his limit was fifteen zhang.
The heterogeneous qi had grown thicker.
And with it, Gongya Jangcheon sensed a strange familiarity amid the alienness.
A subtle familiarity he only recognized now that it was this intense.
Frowning, Gongya Jangcheon stepped back.
"Fifteen more zhang."
At his order, the five infused their swords with inner energy and unleashed sword qi downward again.
Boom! Kwang-kwang!
The pit deepened and widened.
It was so vast now, one might hesitate to call it a mere pit.
The excavated earth had piled up into a small hill.
Even at thirty zhang deep.
Even when Gongya Jangcheon's qi sense extended another fifteen zhang from there, no entity was felt.
Only the increasingly viscous heterogeneous qi.
Qi he had never sensed anywhere before.
Qi so strange he questioned if it could even be called qi.
Gongya Jangcheon found it baffling that he had sensed it at all.