The Heart of the Tomb
The space that greeted Seong-jin and his party as they stepped into the Third Mausoleum was a cavern so vast it defied comparison to any of the previous chambers. It was a void so deep and wide that one could have built a ten-story pagoda within it. The small holes dotting the walls in every direction looked as if a bomb had been detonated in the heart of a complex anthill.
"It seems they carved this out of a pre-existing limestone cave. It’s completely different from the previous mausoleums, which were lined with bluestone from the passages all the way to the inner chambers."
"That must be because this is the true mausoleum."
A formation is always strongest when installed upon a spirit vein where natural energy converges. Since the structure where formless energy gathers is not much different from that of tangible energy, it was common for spirit veins to connect with water veins.
"It appears the water from the vein has seeped in. It seems we must pass through a flooded passage."
Seong-jin leaped down into the cavern and landed on the surface of the water. He moved with perfect Water-Walking Technique, leaving only calm ripples in his wake. Young-myeong and Danmok-cheong followed suit, landing on the water with their own techniques.
"Among all these holes, how are we supposed to know where everyone went?"
If the Murim Alliance warriors and the Green Forest bandits had been trapped in one place, there surely would have been bloodshed, yet there was no scent of blood in the cavern. This meant the battles had not taken place in the open, but in spaces blocked off by something. Seong-jin made his judgment after observing the water, which lay as still as a lake in the center of the cavern, and the lower-level holes that were completely submerged.
Earth-Thunder Quake
The lightning energy extending from beneath his feet flowed through the water. The lightning of Returning to Truth, moving at the speed of a thunderbolt, traveled through the medium of water, colliding here and there. Through those reactions, Seong-jin could map out the connected spaces in his mind.
"Follow me."
His Water-Walking Technique instantly transformed into a Water-Mastery Technique. Mastering a martial art he had created himself required no special effort. Seong-jin, who had instantly devised and mastered a water technique on the spot, cut through the current. Leading his party, who followed while creating their own water currents, Seong-jin arrived at the other side of the underwater cave in an instant.
Splash!
As they burst out of the water, the Green Forest bandits standing guard leveled their sickles at them.
"A kid?"
"Never seen that face before."
"Are you one of those who snuck in before us? You look well-fed, so you must have food on you, right?"
"Heh, we're all brothers in the Green Forest; if you've got something good, you should share. Don't be too unhappy about it."
The Green Forest bandits approached him with sinister smiles. For them, the most common weapons were sickles and axes. After all, how many children grow up saying, "I want to be the world's greatest bandit when I grow up!"? The Green Forest bandits were people who had begun to use whatever they had in their hands as weapons because they couldn't make a living, regardless of their origins. The most numerous among them were farmers, followed by woodcutters. Thus, the vast majority of the Green Forest wielded sickles and axes instead of spears and swords. Seong-jin, having descended from Mount Bongnae, had already tasted such things a few times.
"Those are not belongings befitting a mourner."
It meant he had already devised a way to dismantle their techniques.
"From this moment on, I declare this place a Disarming Pool. Everyone possessing weapons without my permission, disarm yourselves."
"Heh, by whose authority?"
"By mine."
The swung sickle was sucked into Seong-jin's hand. Using his internal force to pull the enemy's blade, Seong-jin grabbed the sickle and struck the chin of the bandit who had been pulled along.
Crack!
Young-myeong, who came up behind him, saw this and asked, "I thought you said you wouldn't interfere in human affairs...?"
"If they do not show courtesy, they are no different from beasts, so there is no need to treat them as humans."
"As expected of Master."
While Danmok-cheong was busy transcribing Seong-jin's sayings into his secret manual, they sensed the presence of the Murim Alliance warriors from afar.
"So everyone was gathered here. Wait, Brother Ju?"
"Master!"
The moment he caught the signs of Qi Deviation in his senses, Seong-jin skipped the explanation and dashed forward.
Whoosh!
As he sprinted, arrows flew from the darkness. Thanks to the effect of Unity of Body and Sword, the arrows began to chase Seong-jin like living creatures. He couldn't bring those things to his allies.
Lightning Extremity Realm.
His body's movements caught up to the speed of his thoughts. His hand, wrapped in fist energy, snatched the arrow shaft. The arrow began to rotate violently, resisting. Because the strength of his grip alone could not fully dampen the arrow's power, the fist energy tore like loose threads, invading his skin. Seong-jin released the shaft before he could draw blood, and the arrow stopped in mid-air. It was the result of his lightning energy achieving a perfect state of equilibrium with the power contained within the arrow, using the same principle as the Sword-Controlling Technique of the Heaven-Escaping Sword Art. Leaving the arrow behind, suspended as if time had stopped, Seong-jin approached Ham Bi-so.
"Senior Ham."
His condition could not be called good by any stretch of the imagination. Seong-jin immediately blocked the runaway energy through acupoint striking and began Qi-Guiding.
"I am going to attempt Qi-Guiding, so do not resist."
A peak expert of the Green Forest, who had been listening, spoke as if he were dumbfounded. "Am I just a sack of grain left in the corner? You intend to face a peak expert while performing Qi-Guiding?"
"It is merely a matter of dealing with a single beast."
"A beast, you say. Banditry isn't something to be proud of, but it's upsetting not to be treated like a human."
He rambled on at length. "Is it my fault that they raised the tax rate even during a drought? Do you mean to say I should have just quietly starved to death? How can you disparage those who struggled to survive as beasts?"
"Did you get that potbelly from starving?"
The Green Forest archer was glistening with oil, as if he had been eating well.
"Entering this place, I smelled meat roasting amidst the scent of blood. It wasn't the smell of dried rations boiled in soup, but the smell of raw meat being grilled."
"So what?"
"How did you manage to grill raw meat in a place like this?"
It was possible the Green Forest bandits had packed better food than the Murim Alliance. However, no idiot would pack raw meat that would spoil in an instant when preparing for a mission. Unless they had hunted a beast and butchered it on the spot. In this place, where the only living things were the Murim Alliance warriors and the Green Forest bandits, how did they obtain raw meat?
"It's the law of the jungle."
"That is why you are beasts."
The opponent leaped high and retreated in response to Seong-jin's surprise attack, launched while he was tending to Ham Bi-so. "As if an archer would reveal himself without any defenses!" At the same time, countless arrows rose up behind his back. Arrows he had shot one by one over the past few days, pouring his full power into each. Arrows holding their full potential. Arrows that would be fired all at once if he simply infused them with his intent and chose a target.
"Being able to pull out arrows shot yesterday today is the true value of my Unity of Body and Sword."
If he could fire ten arrows at full power in a day, his Unity of Body and Sword allowed him to fire and collect a hundred arrows over ten days, then pour them out all at once.
"Green Forest Bow-Ghost, Im Cheol-woo. So you were the grandson of the Green Forest Fighting King."
Seong-jin remembered reading about Im Cheol-woo's Unity of Body and Sword, the Red Bow White Arrow, in the files he received from the General Manager's office. The effect of the Red Bow White Arrow was not merely a guaranteed hit. The terrifying aspect of the Red Bow White Arrow was the technique of "pre-shooting arrows" using that guaranteed-hit effect to pour out hundreds or thousands of arrows at once. It was a Unity of Body and Sword where he could prepare a move, fired by a peak expert at full power in a state of readiness, and use it whenever he pleased. Given enough time, Im Cheol-woo could exert the firepower of dozens of peak experts alone.
"Do you understand the situation now? You seem to have some skill, but a nobody like you..."
Shing.
He drew his sword.
Crackle!
The lightning of Returning to Truth wrapped around the blade.
"Damn it, it was the Lightning Asura?"
The mysterious expert who had defeated Baek-geomja, known as the greatest sword of Mount Hwa. There was no other expert who had reached the realm of Returning to Truth while wielding lightning energy, yet whose face remained unknown. The Green Forest had already narrowed down the list of experts they might encounter upon entering Hubei. Im Cheol-woo did not panic; he widened the distance from Seong-jin and fired the arrows he had kept suspended.
Ground-Shrinking.
Seong-jin, stepping on the Drunken Eight Immortals Steps, dashed out, dodging Im Cheol-woo's web of arrows at a speed faster than the arrows themselves. Seeing Seong-jin's speed, Im Cheol-woo immediately stopped targeting him directly with the arrows and instead aimed at the ground to restrict his approach path.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Stalactites scattered, and the path was destroyed. 'No matter how fast you are, it's hard to avoid a hail of arrows in a canyon where there's only one way in!' Whether he knew that intention or not, Seong-jin broke through the path Im Cheol-woo had created head-on.
Snap! Snap!
He leaped to avoid the shattered ground. He stepped on the scattering stalactites and vaulted through the air. The moment he tried to pass over the water puddle, jumping between the arrows...
His body, floating in the air, suddenly slowed down. The surroundings were the same. The fragments of the scattering stalactites looked as slow as snails. At the same time, a powerful energy was felt from above his head.
"Die!"
He swung the sword in his hand at the arrow falling from above. The sword clashing with the Red Bow White Arrow was shattered in an instant, scattering lightning in all directions. Seong-jin, repelled by the intense impact, was slammed beneath the water's surface.
"Don't let that bastard come out of the water!"
When Seong-jin poked his head above the water again, the place was full of Green Forest bandits. They looked down at Seong-jin, who had fallen into the puddle, as if surrounding him. Every one of them was a first-rate expert who had achieved Sword Qi Projection. Like the son of the Green Forest Chief, his subordinates were all composed of elites.
"Did you think I would fight you one-on-one like those idiots of the Righteous Faction?"
Indeed, it was a beastly appearance, different from Baek-geomja, who had not crossed the final line even after betraying his sect. Seong-jin reached out his hand toward the Green Forest bandits surrounding him.
"Sun-Illuminated Polarized Light."
Hum!
Attractive and repulsive forces began to act on their weapons simultaneously.
Hummmm!!
"What are you doing...?"
Hummmmmmm!!!
As their weapons, unable to withstand the force, were destroyed all at once, countless fragments were fired toward Im Cheol-woo. A surprise attack in a way he hadn't imagined. Furthermore, the fragments of the weapons were imbued with the sword energy that his subordinates had been manifesting until just moments ago, meaning a literal storm of sword energy was raging.
In the end, Im Cheol-woo rolled his body in a hurry, and...
"I never said I would fight one-on-one either."
His throat was pierced by Danmok-cheong's thrust, which had seized the opportunity.
"Gah! Ugh...!"
Even as he died with his throat pierced, Im Cheol-woo's eyes widened in shock. Although he was a step below him, a peak expert, the Diancang Single Sword was also a top-tier expert. If it was the Death-Seeking Sword Art, which aimed for a single-strike kill at super-speed, the momentary speed could be effective even against a higher realm.
"When hunting beasts, a group hunt is the basic rule."
Danmok-cheong looked impressed upon hearing those words. "As expected, just listening to Master's words, even while sleeping, the heads of peak experts..."
"I get it, so just subdue the rest of them first!"
Two hours later, the party was able to completely annihilate the Green Forest bandits in the area.
* * *
After sweeping away all the Green Forest bandits, Seong-jin immediately sought out the Arangdae. There, Byeok Wol-rang, who had plugged his stomach with golden wound medicine, was dulling the pain with opium.
"Cried? That guy? Because of me? Ham Bi-so? Ah, seriously, don't make me laugh! My stomach hurts!"
"Yeah, I know it's hard to believe. But if you do this and don't accept her confession later, you're going to be trash."
"What? What happened?"
"Responsibility without pleasure..."
Byeok Wol-rang, chatting with his comrades, looked like he had passed the crisis. However, that was only if he continued to receive follow-up treatment. If he didn't get out soon and receive help from a proper physician, the danger remained. 'Not just Senior Byeok, the others are the same...' The condition of the other members was also poor. Ham Bi-so had lost consciousness and fainted. The other members had also been starving for so long that the distinction between the patients and those who weren't was useless.
"Hey, junior, welcome."
"Don't wave your hand. Your finger, which we barely managed to reattach, will fall off again."
Byeok Wol-rang waved his hand to welcome Seong-jin. Seong-jin's party was able to hear briefly from him about what had happened inside the mausoleum.
"So you mean that much time has passed in here?"
Young-myeong, having received the report of events from the Arangdae, was surprised that several days had passed here, but Seong-jin, who had already seen something similar, quietly kept his mouth shut. 'Time distortion. Is there a formation similar to that of Mount Bongnae spread inside here?' However, this kind of distortion meant that this place was on the outskirts of the formation.
"And in the meantime, the Zhuge Clan warriors personally led by Zhuge Hyuk ran away, leaving only the Arangdae behind?"
"Considering the direction, they didn't run outside. It seems they went deeper into the mausoleum while the Green Forest was distracted by trying to crush us."
"That seems even more malicious."
Danmok-cheong clicked his tongue at Zhuge Hyuk's actions. Whether it was a calculation that the Arangdae would be wiped out and the witnesses would disappear, or a calculation to cover up his failure by achieving merit. Whichever it was, one fact was certain: he had thoroughly ruined everything.
"Sword Dragon of Mount Hwa and Diancang Single Sword, please lead the Arangdae and join the Murim Alliance camp outside. I will go inside and find the Zhuge Clan warriors."
Even outside, the Green Forest and the Murim Alliance were in confrontation. Since he couldn't just send the patients out alone, he needed someone to accompany them.
"Well, it seems all the Green Forest bandits inside have been wiped out, so there shouldn't be any danger. Understood."
Thus, Seong-jin, having sent his party back, entered the depths of the mausoleum alone. Unlike the previous fake mausoleums, the true mausoleum was waiting for him.