Chapter 735: He Must Have Been Here in a Previous Life
“There was such a place as this.”
Blood Heaven Blade Demon and One-Slash Sword Supreme marveled at the wonders created by nature.
The maze they had just traversed suddenly felt justified. To witness such a spectacle, was it not natural that one had to endure such hardship to arrive?
For a brief moment, the two Demon Supremes gazed upon the scenery, before Geom Mugeuk revealed the reason he had come here.
“If I had to hide somewhere within the Cave of Death, this would be the place. Who would ever imagine, after passing through that labyrinth, that a man could be hiding here?”
Anyone would be entranced by this grandeur for a moment, then continue on to search for another path.
But Blood Heaven Blade Demon looked around with a puzzled expression.
“Here? Where is there a place to hide?”
No matter how he looked, there seemed nowhere suitable for a man to conceal himself.
“Are there not plenty of places to hide?”
“Plenty?”
Once again scanning the surroundings, Blood Heaven Blade Demon’s face took on a look of realization.
His gaze fell upon the massive stalagmites rising from the earth.
‘Surely not… inside there?’
As if he had read it correctly, Geom Mugeuk walked slowly among the stalagmites.
“If someone was bold enough to intercept the Treasure Map and fight for it, he must have already known what kind of place this Cave of Death was. Without knowing the way, he would only wander in the maze and perish. That man must be well aware of this cavern, and surely of this very spot where we stand.”
“Then he is no ordinary man.”
Geom Mugeuk had already discerned the nature of their quarry.
“More than that. He is one who intended for his pursuers to tear each other apart in this chaos and die by one another’s hands.”
Geom Mugeuk stopped before one particular stalagmite.
There was a depression within it, and in that curved hollow was a hole of considerable size.
Yet it looked far too narrow for a person to pass through.
Geom Mugeuk sent a glance at Blood Heaven Blade Demon and One-Slash Sword Supreme. By now, both Demon Supremes had already sensed the human presence inside.
“I have always been curious to see what the inside of one of these stalagmites looked like.”
At his words, Blood Heaven Blade Demon replied,
“Then why not cut it open?”
Drawing the Black Demon Sword, Geom Mugeuk tapped lightly against the stone.
“Shall I cut here?”
“Cut diagonally. That way you can see more clearly.”
“Like this?”
He struck the stone lightly with his sword.
“Then, let’s cut it open!”
At that very moment, an urgent voice burst out from the hole.
“Wait! Someone’s here! There’s a person inside!”
A man thrust his head out from the hole. It seemed impossible for anyone to emerge from such a small opening, yet he slipped out smoothly, like an octopus escaping through a crack.
“Please, don’t kill me! I beg you!”
The man was of small build. His face was that of an adult, but his body resembled that of a boy.
“How did you even get inside such a narrow place?”
Geom Mugeuk peered into the hole. Using the New Eye Technique, his eyes scanned the dark interior of the stalagmite.
The man who had crawled out looked at the three of them with eyes full of fear. From the qi he emanated, it was clear he was a martial artist, but he possessed neither skills nor inner power worth mentioning.
“Please spare me.”
Sensing he was no match for three opponents, the man threw himself flat on the ground.
“I came searching for the Treasure Map, but I lost my way and wandered until I ended up here. I was too afraid to leave, so I hid. I am not a bad person!”
“You’re not a good one either.”
“No, no, I’m not!”
Shaking all over, he confessed details of his personal life that no one had asked for.
He said his father, the head of a small martial household, had fallen into gambling late in life and ruined the family. His young sister was on the verge of being sold to a wealthy household when he heard a rumor that someone carrying the Treasure Map had appeared at Cheonja Mountain. With nothing else left, he had rushed up here.
“If I can’t obtain the Treasure Map, my sister will be sold! Please, just pretend you never saw me!”
At the thought of his sister, tears began streaming uncontrollably down his face.
Watching him silently, Geom Mugeuk spoke coldly.
“You lack the martial strength, so how could you ever hope to seize the Treasure Map? Were you thinking that if you hid here, everyone outside would fight to the death, and the map would just fall into your hands? You shouldn’t blame your father for gambling—you’re making an even more absurd gamble yourself.”
At those words, the man bowed his head deeply, unable to reply.
“Come. We’ll take you out.”
Geom Mugeuk addressed the two Demon Supremes.
“We’ve seen most of the cave anyway. Let’s leave.”
Leave? Without finding the Treasure Map?
The Demon Supremes knew Geom Mugeuk well. If he hadn’t come at all, perhaps. But once he had entered, he was not the type to give up so easily.
“Very well.”
The two exchanged glances. They understood.
‘So, he’s the one.’
It was certain Geom Mugeuk had found what they themselves could not. He had located the man carrying the Treasure Map.
—If it were me, I would suppress his inner energy immediately and search his body!
So thought Blood Heaven Blade Demon. But One-Slash Sword Supreme was unconcerned.
—Surely the Young Cult Leader will handle this as he sees fit.
Before leaving, she turned her head back once more. There was reluctance in her gaze.
Blood Heaven Blade Demon stood beside her.
“Why?”
“When will I ever have the chance to come to a place like this again? I want to imprint it clearly in my eyes before leaving.”
“Then just come again.”
“How?”
Her words meant that one couldn’t return here simply because they wished to. Without knowing the path, they could never make it back. It was true. Without Geom Mugeuk, escaping from the Cave of Death itself would not have been possible.
“The Central Plains are full of caves like this. Next time……”
Blood Heaven Blade Demon did not finish his words, but One-Slash Sword Supreme understood what he had intended to say.
Geom Mugeuk, watching their backs, waited for them. He didn’t intrude.
Just like that night when they had sat side by side under the morning star, what the two of them needed now was their own time together.
Then Geom Mugeuk turned his gaze to the man.
Terrified, the man quickly averted his eyes the moment they met Geom Mugeuk’s.
“You really are sparing me?”
“You’ve used up all the gambling luck of your lifetime this day. Because you met me.”
The man let out a breath of relief, though his expression still bore the turmoil of worry for his younger sister.
Soon, Blood Heaven Blade Demon and One-Slash Sword Supreme returned to them.
“Let’s go.”
And so they left the chamber filled with stalactites and stalagmites.
The atmosphere inside the cave had grown even more fevered. The more corpses piled up, the more frenzied the survivors became.
The thrill of killing a man and rifling through his belongings was more intoxicating than any pleasure they had ever experienced. Perhaps this time, the Treasure Map would appear! That burning expectation drove them into madness and slaughter.
Chu Yeon of the Flying Dragon Gang was no exception.
Swiik! Puaak!
She cut down the foe charging at her, blood splattering across her face.
She immediately searched the corpse. But once again, the Treasure Map was not there.
Wiping the blood from her face with her sleeve, Chu Yeon scowled deeply.
Things were not going as she had expected. When she first entered, the prodigies of the Flying Dragon Gang numbered ten. Now they were reduced to six.
It was already a situation where she should have retreated. But she refused to give up.
At that moment, several figures approached her. At the sight of the man leading them, she flinched in surprise.
“You?”
The one at the front was the porter. She had run into them once more.
Geom Mugeuk greeted her with an easy smile.
“Meeting three times in one day—surely that means we share a fated bond.”
Chu Yeon glared at Geom Mugeuk coldly. Just seeing this man left her in a foul mood. The way he, a mere porter, spoke to her so casually was enough to irritate her. He even acted as if he were the disciple of those great masters.
But if he had truly been their disciple, he would have addressed them as Master.
He was calling the old man "elder." He must have been a porter or a low-ranking martial artist. There were no traces of cultivated martial skills on him.
‘If only it weren’t for those people.’
Dying by her hands, he would have left "I shouldn’t have met them the third time" as his dying words. No — he would have already died the first time they met.
Her gaze shifted to Blood Heaven Blade Demon and One-Slash Sword Supreme. As before, they did not spare her so much as a glance.
‘They completely ignored me.’
Chu Yeon’s eyes moved again to the man standing with them.
“Who is that man?”
“We happened to meet and are traveling together.”
“Then why are you taking him?”
“He said his younger sister was about to be sold. If it were another circumstance, perhaps not, but in such desperate straits, shouldn’t one help?”
Chu Yeon looked at the man with suspicion.
“Do you believe that?”
“Do you think he has the Treasure Map? With that weak body?”
“Surely you haven’t not searched his body yet?”
“No, we haven’t.”
At that confident answer, Chu Yeon was speechless.
“May we search him instead?”
She was not asking the porter before her. She was asking permission from the two masters standing behind him.
“To distrust people so much. Very well, do as you wish.”
When Geom Mugeuk gave permission, Blood Heaven Blade Demon felt a slight shock inwardly. He had expected Geom Mugeuk to prevent anyone from laying hands on the man, even if it meant putting themselves forward.
‘The Treasure Map will surely be found on that man’s body.’
Blood Heaven Blade Demon thought the Heaven-Extinguishing Saber’s wrapped celestial knot would be loosened hereafter.
One of the Ten Prodigies of the Flying Dragon Gang searched the man’s body. He rifled him more thoroughly than others, but no Treasure Map appeared.
Chu Yeon had searched on a whim, but the ones truly surprised were the two Demon Supremes.
—That man doesn’t have the Treasure Map?
—Then why would the Young Cult Leader want to leave so easily? Why take him with them?
—How could we possibly know what’s inside that fellow?
Geom Mugeuk smiled and bid farewell.
“Then let us survive to meet a fourth time!”
In truth, Chu Yeon wanted to search the satchel Geom Mugeuk carried. She truly wished to search the bodies of those two masters.
Because sending them off felt unbearably off, she mustered courage. It was the boldness intoxicated by the blood she had spilled today.
“May I see your satchel?”
Geom Mugeuk shook his head with a relaxed expression.
“I would show it if I could, but there are many things you should not see.”
Hearing that made her even more curious. She truly wanted to snatch that satchel away and order it taken!
‘Am I not just imagining things?’
If those two weren’t masters, and she had only mistaken them for such?
It was just then.
“Let’s go.”
Blood Heaven Blade Demon was the first to move.
He strode straight toward Chu Yeon, who was blocking the way. Unconsciously, she stepped aside. If someone could make her yield without releasing even a thread of qi or killing intent? No, it could not have been a mistake.
At that moment, a shout echoed from deeper within the cave.
“The Treasure Map!”
Chu Yeon and her subordinates leapt toward the source of the cry.
From behind, the porter’s voice rang out.
“Miss, be careful!”
Chu Yeon bit her lip. If she encountered them again, let it be without those two masters! Just once, let her catch them alone.
Geom Mugeuk resumed walking, with the man and the two Demon Supremes following behind.
How long did they walk?
—Look there.
At One-Slash Sword Supreme’s sound transmission, Blood Heaven Blade Demon saw the subtle markings carved on the wall.
—I secretly left those markings on the way in.
She had left them in an attempt to remember the path. But as the passages grew more convoluted, she had abandoned the effort halfway.
—The Young Cult Leader is leading us back exactly along the way we came.
—That fellow must have been here in a past life.
At Blood Heaven Blade Demon’s words, One-Slash Sword Supreme allowed a faint smile. How could they have known? That his joke was in truth the most accurate description.
Thus Geom Mugeuk led them safely out of the cave.
By chance, when they emerged, there was no one outside.
Breathing in the open air, Blood Heaven Blade Demon exhaled deeply, looking as though life had returned to him.
“Did you come out because of me?”
He worried they had abandoned everything on his account, because of his restlessness.
“I could bear it. If I truly weighed on your mind, you could have left me and gone on.”
“How could I go anywhere leaving you behind, Elder?”
“You leave me behind often enough.”
Geom Mugeuk smiled and said,
“Still, it wasn’t for nothing, was it?”
His gaze fell upon the man. Alarmed that they might change their minds, the man hurriedly bowed and spoke.
“Thank you for saving me. I’ll take my leave now.”
Looking so deflated, one might think that once parted, he would only end up back inside the cave again.
“Wait.”
Geom Mugeuk stepped toward him.
Blood Heaven Blade Demon and One-Slash Sword Supreme thought it the natural course. Yes, the Young Cult Leader wouldn’t simply let him go. Surely, he would ensure the sister was never sold.
As if about to hand him money, Geom Mugeuk reached into his chest.
“Do you know what this is?”
But what came out was not money. What Geom Mugeuk withdrew was a single sheet of paper.
On the paper was a man’s face, with lines of writing filling the space below it. It was information sent from Hidden Moon.
“This is the portrait and personal details of the one who fled into the Cave of Death with the Treasure Map. Well? Isn’t our information network remarkable?”
Blood Heaven Blade Demon and One-Slash Sword Supreme widened their eyes at the unexpected turn. Neither of them had known Geom Mugeuk had received such information. They had only noticed that, all along the way, he seemed to be receiving something continuously from the Heavenly Communication Pavilion and Hidden Moon.
“The one who stole the Treasure Map is named Tae Soo, son of the great thief Tae Gon—hailed in this generation as the greatest thief alive.”
Even Blood Heaven Blade Demon and One-Slash Sword Supreme knew the name Tae Gon. He was that famous a thief.
Geom Mugeuk began to read aloud the details written beneath the portrait.
“Tae Soo, from a young age, was taught the trade of thievery by his father and passed down many techniques. He excels in deciphering codes, analyzing terrain, and dismantling mechanisms. His memory is extraordinary, able to recall anything once seen without forgetting. And that’s not all—he mastered Bone-Shrinking Technique, allowing him to slip into even the narrowest spaces with ease. Truly a remarkable fellow, don’t you agree? And as for his appearance…”
Holding the sheet so that the portrait lay beside the man’s face, Geom Mugeuk revealed the resemblance.
When the two Demon Supremes compared the faces, they finally understood why Geom Mugeuk had insisted on bringing this man out with them. Geom Mugeuk had known from the very beginning.
“It’s you, isn’t it?”