Chapter 747: Your Death Leads Us to a New Path
“That’s the smell from back then.”
The scent Ji Han mentioned was the same one that came from the man in the bamboo hat who had told them to apply the Soul-Chasing Incense.
“He’s here.”
But soon after, Ji Han frowned.
“There are too many other smells mixed in. I’ll have to get closer to be certain.”
It was already impressive that he could even pick up such a faint scent in a place filled with this many people.
Just as Ji Han was about to step forward to get a better sense of it, Geom Mugeuk grabbed him and shook his head.
Ji Han realized that he had gotten too excited. If he approached carelessly, he would only alert the other side that they had been discovered.
The man in the iron mask took the lead and began climbing toward the summit.
“Now then, follow me!”
The martial artists followed behind him, still half in doubt.
Geom Mugeuk and his group followed as well.
The appearance of the iron-masked man had turned the entire situation into something no one had foreseen.
Whether he had truly deciphered the secret message or not, the man headed toward the western peak.
There, they found a large pond—large enough that one could just as easily call it a lake.
“Beneath this pond lies an underwater cave leading to the Sword Tomb.”
He knew the exact entrance to the Sword Tomb.
“You’ll have to hold your breath for quite some time to get through. If you can’t swim or if you fear the water, it’s better not to go in.”
Then one of the martial artists who feared the water asked,
“How long must we hold our breath?”
“Until you slowly count to one hundred.”
Everyone thought that counting to one hundred shouldn’t be too difficult.
At that moment, Geom Mugeuk warned Tae Soo and Ji Han, both of whom were confident in their swimming.
“If you let your guard down just because of his words, you’ll die. You’ll have to swim, of course, but the real problem is that you won’t be able to see clearly down there. There may be unexpected obstacles—or worse, someone might grab onto you in panic and drag you down. Don’t think of that ‘one hundred’ as the one hundred you count above the water.”
“Yes, sir!”
Tae Soo and Ji Han steeled their resolve.
Geom Mugeuk wasn’t worried about Blood Heaven Blade Demon or One-Slash Sword Supreme. Experts of their level, or close to being Demon Supreme, could even fight underwater if needed.
“You must follow me closely.”
Without hesitation, the man in the iron mask leapt into the water. Afraid they might lose him, the martial artists immediately followed. They figured it would be safest to stay right behind him.
Geom Mugeuk, however, remained unhurried.
He took out a piece of cloth—the same kind used to make the Wind-and-Rain Canopy—from his sack and wrapped it around the sack.
“You really carry all sorts of things around, don’t you?”
Geom Mugeuk’s sack truly seemed to contain everything imaginable.
“Can the two of you swim well?”
At Geom Mugeuk’s question, Blood Heaven Blade Demon scoffed. One-Slash Sword Supreme answered in his place,
“He’s practically a seal.”
Geom Mugeuk handed the sack wrapped with the Wind-and-Rain Canopy cloth to Blood Heaven Blade Demon.
“I’ll entrust this load to the great seal.”
It seemed he intended to free himself of the burden so he could look after the two younger ones, since they would need to pass through a narrow tunnel.
“Quite the considerate man, leaving it all to an old one.”
“You don’t look so old anymore.”
Then One-Slash Sword Supreme extended her hand.
“Give it to me. I’ll take it.”
But before Geom Mugeuk could hand it over, Blood Heaven Blade Demon had already taken the sack.
Tae Soo jumped into the water first, followed by Ji Han, then Geom Mugeuk and the two Demon Supremes.
Tae Soo led the way up front.
Blood Heaven Blade Demon swam like a true seal even with that large load and his massive saber, while One-Slash Sword Supreme glided elegantly through the water.
The deeper they went, the darker it became. Fish appeared for a moment, then vanished into the murk.
Then suddenly, something appeared before them—a human corpse. Someone had already drowned.
Startled, Tae Soo momentarily lost his sense of direction. The shock of seeing the corpse shook his concentration, and the depths were darker than he’d imagined. While he floundered for a brief moment—
Geom Mugeuk’s voice reached him through transmission.
—To the right.
Sure enough, just where Geom Mugeuk had said, there was a gap among the rocks. It had originally been covered with weeds, but those who had gone in first had torn them away, revealing the entrance.
As Tae Soo entered the gap, a strange thought crossed his mind.
‘Wait, how can sound transmission work underwater?’
He had heard that it shouldn’t be possible. Was he just imagining it?
The underwater tunnel was wide enough for two adults to swim side by side, but it was so dark that nothing ahead could be seen.
Without the certainty that there was a place to breathe at the end, no one in their right mind would ever dare enter such a passage.
Who knew how long they had been swimming when Tae Soo panicked again—this time, a drowned corpse was blocking the tunnel. He tried pushing it aside, but the floating body drifted about unpredictably.
In his growing panic, it wouldn’t move easily.
Then—
Splash!
Blood Heaven Blade Demon, swimming behind, stretched out his hand. A surge of bubbles rose, and the corpse shot forward in an instant.
Now, Blood Heaven Blade Demon took the lead, clearing away the floating corpses as they went. And there were more than one or two along the way.
The tunnel was longer than expected. It felt like they had already counted to a hundred.
‘At this rate…’
Tae Soo, being the weakest in martial arts among them, was running out of breath.
The terror of suffocation began to merge with the fear of death. To think he might die before even reaching the entrance of the Sword Tomb! No—there was something even more humiliating than that.
A guide dying by drowning?
That would be a disgrace even in death.
‘I can do this! I’ll make it!’
But contrary to his will, Tae Soo’s consciousness was fading fast.
Then, at that moment—
He heard Geom Mugeuk’s voice through transmission.
—Close your eyes!
Was that another hallucination? Just as Tae Soo’s eyes began to close on their own—
Swoosh!
His body suddenly surged forward through the water. Ji Han, swimming behind him, was also pulled along by Geom Mugeuk’s hand.
They shot through the water in an instant.
“Open your eyes.”
When Tae Soo opened them, he and Ji Han were already breaking the surface. Nearby, the corpses that Blood Heaven Blade Demon had pushed ahead were floating about.
After tossing the two of them out of the water, Geom Mugeuk emerged as well.
Tae Soo bowed his head deeply in gratitude.
“Thank you for saving me.”
Ji Han could have made it out alone, but Tae Soo had truly come close to death. He felt embarrassed remembering how he had even worried that Geom Mugeuk might kill him if he showed weakness.
Soon after, One-Slash Sword Supreme also surfaced.
The place they had arrived at was a space large enough to hold a dozen people, with another tunnel leading deeper into the underground cave. Those who had entered earlier must have already gone ahead, for no one else remained there.
The wet clothes of One-Slash Sword Supreme clung tightly to her body. Blood Heaven Blade Demon turned away and used his great saber to discreetly shield her from view.
Whoosh—
Raising her Heat Yang Energy, One-Slash Sword Supreme dried her clothes instantly while standing.
“I think this is my first time swimming through such an underwater cave. How about you, Orabeoni?”
Blood Heaven Blade Demon, also drying his clothes with Heat Yang Energy, replied,
“Do you think I’ve ever done something like this before?”
Geom Mugeuk didn’t bother drying his clothes. Two immaculate figures making their entrance were more than enough.
As they walked deeper into the cave, they entered a vast chamber where those who had gone before were gathered. Many had dived into the water earlier, yet only about twenty martial artists remained alive.
All eyes turned toward the five of them. Their numbers should have dwindled, yet five more had arrived. Naturally, the looks they received were less than welcoming.
Then someone shouted,
“Hurry and open the door!”
Behind the iron-masked man standing at the front was a stone door.
This was the entrance to the Sword Tomb.
Believing that beyond this door lay something that could change their fates, greed and desire filled the faces of the martial artists.
The iron-masked man slowly opened the door.
As the stone gate creaked open, the scene within was revealed.
What captured everyone’s gaze was the countless number of swords—hundreds, perhaps thousands—embedded in every visible surface. It was truly a sight worthy of the name Sword Tomb.
On closer inspection, the place was not merely flat ground.
It was a reconstruction of a great hall from somewhere. Pillars and chairs, statues lining the walls, and swords were embedded wherever one looked.
Countless swords, each likely with its own story.
The martial artists inspected the nearby swords first. With eyes alight, they searched among the old iron blades as if hoping to find a precious sword hidden there.
“Just look and never pull one out!”
But when people gathered, there was always someone who ignored such warnings.
The moment someone drew a sheathed, ornate sword—
Shh! Pook!
A blade shot up from the floor and pierced his groin. The speed at which it sprang up was like light; he could not avoid it.
No one lamented his death.
The iron-masked man looked toward the Throne standing across and said,
“You must get to the door behind the Throne. The mechanism will activate the moment you step out of here.”
The distance from where he stood to the Throne was ambiguous.
It was a distance that someone confident in lightness skill might try once.
That vague distance, combined with the greed to be the first to pass, drove one man to launch himself forward.
When he was about halfway across—
Shiiik! Pook!
A blade fell from the ceiling and impaled his head, killing him—opposite to how the previous man had died.
At the same time another man was slicing through the air.
‘The opportunity is the exact moment the mechanism activates!’
As the man ahead hit the ground, he passed through that spot.
Shh! Chacheng!
He struck away the throwing weapon falling toward his head.
‘Done!’
Just as he forcefully pushed off the air to rush toward the door—
Shiiiiiik!
A blade flew with the speed of light and pierced his heart. The attack came diagonally from the ceiling at an angle difficult to parry; more than the angle, its speed was overwhelming.
Clank!
As the floor opened and a corpse fell into the ground—
Another expert rushed that place.
The moment someone cleared a corpse seemed like the chance!
But contrary to his hope, reality was this:
Handling the corpse was the trap!
Three corpses vanished into the earth in an instant.
A brief silence followed.
Their greed had been excessive, but their skill was not lacking.
Then someone shouted angrily,
“Let’s just smash everything and go in!”
The iron-masked man answered firmly,
“That won’t work. It was written on the Treasure Map. If you force your way in and break the mechanism, this place will collapse and you will be buried.”
What terrified them more than death was the thought that they would not be able to claim the treasure here.
“Now do you understand why I brought you all in?”
Geom Mugeuk looked toward Tae Soo. The latter had once spoken with confidence, claiming not only to know the Sword Tomb’s location but also that he alone could dismantle its mechanisms.
But now, Tae Soo whispered with a flustered expression,
“The mechanism is completely different from what was written on the Treasure Map.”
Geom Mugeuk showed no sign of surprise. There was no way the map would have so kindly revealed every secret of the mechanism in advance.
The iron-masked man addressed everyone.
“Does anyone here know how to pass through this place?”
When no one answered, he pointed at Geom Mugeuk.
“You there, the young man carrying that load.”
All eyes turned toward Geom Mugeuk.
“Do you perhaps have a way?”
“Why ask me?”
“Because of that pack. To swim all the way here while carrying such a heavy load means you must have considerable skill, doesn’t it? A young man with such skill likely has a sharp mind as well. A problem like this should be solvable by someone young and clever.”
Geom Mugeuk could feel it—the man knew who he was. He was testing him.
‘Is it you?’
But if he truly were the one behind all this, he had appeared far too openly before him.
Geom Mugeuk slowly stepped forward and scanned those who remained. After the deaths of many, only the true experts and the cautious ones were left standing. The one pulling the strings could very well be among them.
“Has no one noticed anything strange about this place?”
The crowd looked around. Failing to find an answer, their eyes turned back to Geom Mugeuk. Even Blood Heaven Blade Demon and One-Slash Sword Supreme appeared uncertain.
What Geom Mugeuk had noticed was something no one else had considered.
“I found the swords here to be the strangest thing.”
The others looked puzzled. The iron-masked man spoke for everyone.
“You find it strange that there are swords in the Sword Tomb?”
They all exchanged confused glances. The swords embedded around them were the least unusual things in sight.
Geom Mugeuk asked,
“Was this place a Sword Tomb from the beginning?”
For a moment, everyone stiffened.
“Decades ago, many masters entered this place and perished. Only afterward was it named the Sword Tomb, wasn’t it? The name came after they died here. So doesn’t it seem strange that this gateway is designed to resemble the Sword Tomb itself?”
“...!”
That meant this gate had been constructed after the Sword Tomb already existed.
It greatly increased the likelihood that this place was a trap—but no one spoke of turning back.
Geom Mugeuk slowly surveyed the surroundings.
Finally, his steps halted before a statue with several swords embedded in it.
It was the statue of a woman holding a pipa. Her expression was sorrowful, deeply mournful.
Geom Mugeuk had been to this place before, in his life before regression. Back then, this statue had not existed. If it had, he would have remembered it without question—it was the kind of statue that left a lasting impression.
“Was this woman a musician? Or perhaps a master of sound-based martial arts?”
Geom Mugeuk flicked the sword embedded in her abdomen with his finger.
Ting.
A clear metallic note resonated.
He then flicked the sword in her side.
Tiing.
Next, the one in her shoulder, then the one in her thigh. Whether it was due to the differing metals or the varying depths they were embedded at, each sword produced a distinct sound.
Then Tae Soo cautiously spoke to him.
“That sound just now—it was identical to the note of the pipa.”
“The same as the pipa?”
“Yes.”
“You know how to play instruments?”
“I learned a little bit of everything when I was young.”
His father had once said that to become a proper thief, one had to also understand music—and so he had even been taught to play.
Geom Mugeuk looked at the statue once more.
“Perhaps…”
At his direction, Tae Soo took each sword that had produced a lower tone and pushed them back into the statue in order, from the lowest pitch upward. The one that had emitted the highest note was the last to be driven into her heart.
The moment all the swords embedded into the statue were flicked—
Rumble…
The ground trembled, and the floor began to shift.
Shrrrrrrk—
The swords buried in the floor seemed to rearrange themselves, and soon—
As if inviting them to step forward, sword handles of the same color lined up in a straight path all the way to the door.
Overjoyed, Tae Soo shouted,
“The mechanism has been undone!”
Everyone turned to Geom Mugeuk in astonishment. Some gazed at him in admiration, others in suspicion.
It was, in hindsight, a simple method—but without knowing the answer, one could have spent a lifetime here and never uncovered it.
The iron-masked man looked at Geom Mugeuk with eyes full of mixed emotions.
“Truly remarkable!”
“I was lucky. It just happened that someone I brought along knew how to play instruments.”
Of course, only Blood Heaven Blade Demon and One-Slash Sword Supreme knew the truth—that this had been possible because it was Geom Mugeuk. The two exchanged glances, shaking their heads lightly, then nodding in acknowledgment.
Before leaving, Geom Mugeuk turned toward the statue and spoke softly.
“Your death has guided us to a new path. Thank you.”
Everyone stepped across the aligned sword handles and passed through. There was no attack whatsoever.
Thus, they overcame the first trial and opened the second door.
There, too, was a sword—
But this time, it was different. If the previous chamber had been filled with countless blades, this one held only a single sword.
At the center of the room sat a skeleton, and resting against its body was that one lone sword.