The Crimson Hunt on Ghost Crying Mountain
Deep within **Gwigok Mountain**.
A place where the sun never reached, forever dark and damp, lay the rumor of decayed human skeletons scattered across its wilds.
Wandering souls bewitched by ghosts.
And the flesh-eating wolves that tore them apart.
*Au wu wu…*
Under the bright moonlight.
A pair of glowing red eyes flashed.
From the bushes.
Over the swaying thicket.
Beside a fully rotten ancient tree.
From behind the rocks.
From below the ravine.
Before long, the pack of flesh-eating wolves had surrounded **Gwak Yeon** in greater numbers than ever. Even if they caught only a few, twenty. The most vicious among them bared its fangs and leaped forward.
*Kwak!*
At that exact moment.
A red line flashed beneath the moonlight, and the wolf that had been leaping at **Gwak Yeon**’s neck crashed to the ground.
Thud.
Writhing in agony, the wolf bore a small hole near its neck.
“Hm.”
In the place that seemed to have been pierced by a blade, dark red blood still seeped out.
Yet the wolf, still not quite dead, tried to rise while glaring at **Gwak Yeon**…
*Gwigig!*
…But **Gwak Yeon**’s foot crushed its throat, ending its life.
“The aiming sense is somewhat strange.”
**Gwak Yeon** muttered, tilting his head in curiosity.
As he watched, the surrounding wolves suddenly grew more cautious.
*Krurrr…*
*Kong… kong kong!*
*Krurrr…*
Their eyes flickered with thoughts like: “That human… something unusual just happened. Let’s finish the hunt at once and kill him. There’s the scent of blood, but it’s troublesome… yet it smells delicious.” The feelings passed between them.
Drip… drip.
The moment the saliva from a few bared fangs fell to the ground.
“Then this time… let’s be more daring.”
A thick, nauseating stench suddenly assaulted the nose.
It came from the human.
The scent was far richer than before, stabbing the wolves’ noses mercilessly!
In the end, the wolves, unable to hold back, charged at **Gwak Yeon**.
* * *
Under a sky thick with stars.
Red lines weaved below it.
Blood vessels sparkling in the moonlight, trailing behind as they vanished.
*Swish!*
*Swish!*
*Swish!*
Red afterimages danced like a net above the wolves with jaws full of sharp teeth.
Between them, **Gwak Yeon** danced freely.
Dashing between the wolves that lunged to bite his neck, he moved the blood vessels with masterful control.
*Slash!*
**Gwak Yeon** twisted his body and swung his blade, severing the throat of a charging wolf. The moment he kicked away the wolf behind him that he had sensed just then, the jaw of another wolf that had leaped toward his head from the side touched his ear.
*Kwa-jik!*
With just a flick of his fingers, **Gwak Yeon** pierced the lower and upper jaws of the wolf with blood vessels, drilling clean through.
After kicking the belly of the wolf whose entire mouth had been pierced,
He lightly flicked his hand. Eight blood vessels that had been roaming nearby shot out in all directions, blocking the approaching wolves.
In an instant, **Gwak Yeon** created distance from the remaining wolves.
The wolves, having lost their courage, encircled him from afar without daring to advance.
**Gwak Yeon** casually scanned his surroundings, wiped the blood-soaked face with his hand, and let out a dry chuckle.
‘A vampire… this is too much.’
The **Yineung** of a vampire?
No.
This was rather **Jasul**—demonic arts.
Even the Daoist masters of the **Mosan** school who handled corpses and talismans would tremble in fear upon seeing it.
*Krr…*
More than half the wolves were already dead.
The survivors, too, were wary of every move and none dared to charge first.
It was because they sensed fear amid the stench of blood.
**Gwak Yeon**’s blood vessels hovering in the air—
Sometimes they shot straight like spears, sometimes they curved like whips, sometimes they sliced like blades.
*Shush!*
He clapped both hands. Two of the vessels immediately pierced the necks of two wolves that had lunged at him again.
‘How utterly absurd.’
Standing tall among the countless wolf corpses scattered around, **Gwak Yeon** gazed at the frightened wolves and gradually concluded.
‘Still… there is a weakness.’
The ability to create blood vessels with his own blood.
The effective range was only one *jang*.
Once created, a blood vessel moved only as a fixed shape within a radius equivalent to the length of two adult men lying straight.
‘And even that fades and disperses after a few uses.’
It was not an infinite supply of attacks.
Only his own blood could create them.
In truth,
His head was already dizzy. The blood he had used so far must have been quite a lot.
*Dub-dub.*
*Dub-dub.*
*Dub-dub.*
His heartbeat, as if urging him to replenish blood quickly, grew louder.
‘Ah.’
It was a strange feeling.
**Gwak Yeon** had instinctively recalled the method of absorbing blood.
Like a thirsty tooth reaching for water.
Focusing on the sensation of blood soaking into his hand that had been buried in the recent wolf.
Then.
Blood itself seeped into his hand?
That was the turning point.
**Gwak Yeon**, who had been about to flee, quickly accelerated his body toward the escaping wolves.
And.
After swinging his blade to cut down one wolf, he focused on the sensation on his hand placed over the dying wolf’s neck.
He could feel it.
‘This… is truly monstrous.’
The living wolf’s blood was flowing into him!
* * *
*Shu uuu!*
**Gwak Yeon** had just absorbed the blood of the final fallen wolf.
*Tap tap.*
**Gwak Yeon** rose, shook his hand clean.
Let him summarize what he had learned just now.
‘Only blood that is still warm or freshly taken from the dead can be absorbed… there is no separate **Hyeongsun Daepop**.
Beyond that,
He felt something filling abundantly near his *danjeon*. To be precise, he was far more solid than before using the **Yineung**.
He had a premonition.
Perhaps this was a storage pocket for surplus blood unrelated to direct survival.
‘It doesn’t seem to fit in here.’
It felt like it had a limit on capacity.
In any case.
Today’s **Yineung** experiment was over.
And all the ones who had targeted the master of this body were dead.
Yet… something felt off.
*Thud.*
Sitting among the wolf corpses,
He suddenly realized that he had never properly spoken the name of the body he had been sharing this life with.
“……**Gwak Yeon**.”
In such a situation, speaking the name.
Because he had been reading the memories of the original owner,
The words came out naturally.
“You’ve suffered greatly.”
They had never shared friendship.
Never spoken a single word.
They hadn’t even brushed shoulders.
Yet he wanted to say this.
“Even though you’re already dead… it has no meaning, but I shall elevate your name in your place.”
At that moment.
The dense thicket on the opposite side suddenly shook violently.
*Swish!*
A strange sense of relief washed over him.
The heavy feeling in his reincarnated mind had cleared. Whether the original owner of this body had finally been freed or something else, he could not say.
But.
“Therefore, when we meet again in the afterlife, let’s drink a cup of wine together.”
**Gwak Yeon** ended his greeting.
Perhaps this was
The bare minimum courtesy extended to one who shared memories,
Or perhaps the guilt of the body’s previous owner.
*Hoo!*
With a short sigh, **Gwak Yeon** rose.
Suddenly looking up, green and red hues began to spread across the sky that had once been pitch black.
Dawn was approaching.
The **Yeongmyeong**.
**Gwak Yeon** swept his gaze over the blood-drained corpses around him and felt that his own life had also entered this dawn-like turning point.
It was the turning point where the life of a human ended and the new life of a vampire began.
‘Only now do I truly feel it.’
Today’s **Yineung** experiment had awakened him.
That the **Muyeonno** had been a mad monster and that the giant evil behind it was still, even now, trying to create a monster like him.
*Gulp.*
Suddenly tense, he swallowed.
What kind of atrocities had that force, whose name he would soon devour, committed over the past several decades? And where was it hiding now, carrying out its evil deeds? Was there possibly another villain in the world possessing strength of this level?
‘No… I must not rush.’
Indeed.
**Gwak Yeon** was already a member of the **Seoho Gwak Family**.
Based on this connection that the family’s long-cherished wish and his own goal were the same, he would advance slowly.
‘There is time to investigate separately, and there is a way to obtain information from the family head.’
Surely **Gwak Seo-ryong** knew something.
And he had said that to learn the family’s long-cherished secret, one must have the qualifications.
In one month’s time, the duel against the rival family’s successor.
If he won there, he would tell them information about the hidden force.
Whether it was to gauge the possibility of becoming the family head or to use the curiosity of a man in the midst of **Mu** training, he did not know.
‘Doesn’t matter.’
For **Gwak Yeon**, it was fine either way.
**[Jusan Baek Family]**
After all, the victory or defeat of the duel with that family would ultimately be decided by his own choice.
* * *
**Jusan Island Group**.
On the eastern coast of Zhejiang Province.
Beyond it lay countless islands.
Among them, a single ship was returning.
*Swish!*
Normally, the view of exchanging wine on a pleasure trip would have unfolded over the blue sea.
But…
“……”
“……”
“……”
“……”
“……”
The reason all the warriors in splendid martial robes wore gloomy expressions was simple.
“The **Jusan Baek Family** is the greatest!”
In the center of the ship fluttered a large banner.
The sect name written there was not that of any warrior aboard this vessel.
In other words.
The reason was that the **Cheoryeongmun**—a sect among the top five in **Hangzhou**—had suffered a miserable defeat in the wager duel against the **Jusan Baek Family**.
“Then, shall we just break them?”
“It can’t be helped.”
“Still… bringing back such a disgrace to our sect is shameful!”
“Broken promises as a warrior are not shameful?”
“This is ridicule, pure ridicule! If we accept it as is, how will the world see our sect?!”
“Let’s go back first and think it over.”
“W-we’re truly sorry… we have no face left to show.”
The man, the foremost hopeful of **Cheoryeongmun** and now covered in bruises with a swollen face, lowered his head.
The losing side would have to hang a banner beside the opponent’s name for a year.
Accepting this absurd proposal had been a blunder.
No.
Perhaps failing to tear apart the challenge that had been thrown like a joke was the real blunder.
No.
From the beginning, padding their shoulders in **Hangzhou** with utterly inadequate skill had been the blunder.
“I-it’s all because my skill is so lacking…”
“……”
“……”
“……”
At those words, all present looked solemn.
The hopeful of **Cheoryeongmun**, once full of pride, looked like a chicken with its throat cut—truly unpleasant to watch.
“W-well! Did everyone hear?”
Someone awkwardly changed the subject.
As if the day had never happened, he tried to draw people’s attention, but…
“A month from now, the arrogant brats from **Jusan Baek Family** are dueling with **Seoho Gwak Family**?”
“Oh, **Seoho Gwak Family**?”
“It’ll be interesting. You think **Baek Jung-hyeok** will face off?”
“Of course.”
“Then who is coming from that side?”
“Of course **Gwak Ho-shin**. The eldest hasn’t returned yet.”
“**Gwak Ho-shin**? That should be worth watching.”
“No, I heard that the duel between **Gwak Ho-shin** and **Gwak Yeon** is already decided.”
“What? Why is that idiot **Gwak Yeon** appearing?”
“Puhaha!”
The conversation immediately ignited.
Trying to forget today’s defeat and humiliation against **Jusan Baek Family** by swiftly shifting the topic,
“Compared to **Gwak Yeon**, of course it’s **Gwak Ho-shin**-”
“This is meaningless talk. Whether **Gwak Yeon** or **Gwak Ho-shin**, it means nothing before **Baek Jung-hyeok**.”
The hopeful with the swollen face poured cold water over it.
No, it was not cold water. It was a straightforward sentiment born from humiliation and shame.
“I am truly ashamed… but today I have understood clearly.”
It was heartfelt sincerity.
“Of those in that age group, there is not a single person who can defeat **Baek Jung-hyeok**.”