Chapter 792: Just Open Your Eyes!
The Evil Smiling Demon, who had flown over the long distance in one leap, descended in front of Lee Ahn.
“Thank you for saving our lives.”
Not only Lee Ahn, but all the martial artists behind her bowed their heads politely.
If the one clad in Divine Mechanism Iron Armor had unleashed hidden weapons, many people would have died.
As if it were nothing, the Evil Smiling Demon clasped his hands behind his back and looked toward the Ship of Wealth and Honor floating far away on the river.
The dark aura felt from there was steadily growing stronger. The reason the Demonic Buddha and the Drunken Demon had hurriedly broken through the barrier and entered must also have been because of that dark aura.
The Evil Smiling Demon wanted to break through the barrier and board the ship immediately. He trusted the Young Cult Leader more than anyone, but the Dark Palace Master was pouring out everything he possessed and making a final desperate struggle. Even here, an unexpected ambush had been waiting.
The Evil Smiling Demon spoke to Jangho and Lee Ahn.
“Leave only those who need to stay, and have the subordinates go to the safe house and wait.”
“Yes, we will do so.”
The subordinates had already gained sufficient real-life battle experience from this mission.
Lee Ahn left Cha Iran and Cheong Myeon behind. She left Cha Iran because she would be a great help in this fight, and she left Cheong Myeon because of the Evil Smiling Demon. It seemed Cheong Myeon would want to stay.
“Have this unit leader and the Fourth Squad Leader take the subordinates to the safe house and wait.”
“Yes, understood.”
“And make sure you take all the hidden weapons without missing any. Especially make sure to secure that Divine Mechanism Iron Armor.”
Seo Jin and Ji Han, together with the subordinates, gathered all the hidden weapons left behind by the corpses. Fortunately, because the Evil Smiling Demon had killed him by piercing their eyes with a single move, they were able to obtain the Divine Mechanism Iron Armor intact.
These hidden weapons of the Iron Gate would be useful in many ways to the iron workshop of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.
Jangho sent all the Demonic Army soldiers back. The Tactical Shields were reassembled into the carriage walls again, and the gaping holes left by the broken shields seemed to remind what might have happened if this battle had gone wrong.
After all the subordinates left for the safe house, only Lee Ahn, Jangho, Cha Iran, and Cheong Myeon remained there.
Lee Ahn felt the Evil Smiling Demon’s consideration.
He could have sent everyone to the safe house. By this point, enough had been done. Then he would also be free from the responsibility of having to protect them.
But the Evil Smiling Demon was giving her another opportunity. He was telling her to remain on the battlefield and gain more experience.
Not to mention fighting directly, even just standing like this and gazing at the Ship of Wealth and Honor filled with that dark aura would surely yield something.
It was consideration that only a truly strong person could show, and it was also a moment that revealed how deep his relationship with Geom Mugeuk was.
‘Thank you, Demon Supreme.’
At that moment, Cheong Myeon approached the Evil Smiling Demon.
During the journey from leaving the Cult to coming all the way here, there had been no separate opportunity to have a conversation with him. Even if there had been, it would have been difficult to dare approach him.
But after he had watched over the Tenebrous Ghosts Corps martial artists from behind like this, Cheong Myeon could not simply remain silent.
“Thank you for protecting us.”
At his greeting, the Evil Smiling Demon, still gazing at the Ship of Wealth and Honor, asked a single question he had not asked even while they had come here together.
“Have you been well?”
When the Evil Smiling Demon asked after his well-being, Cheong Myeon felt his chest tighten.
“Yes, I have been well.”
He had left in search of a new life, but how could he not feel longing for the Valley of Wicked? Among all of it, the person he missed the most was the Evil Smiling Demon.
Then, an astonishing remark casually slipped from the Evil Smiling Demon’s mouth.
“If you want to come back, you can return.”
“!”
Behind the mask, Cheong Myeon’s eyes widened. Even when an ambusher had suddenly appeared during the earlier fight and shoved hidden weapons toward his face, he would not have been this startled.
The Evil Smiling Demon turned to look at Cheong Myeon. It was as if his gaze were asking this.
Even if a new life seemed good at first, once it actually became reality, it was not all that different, was it?
Not knowing how to answer, Cheong Myeon silently lowered his head. As much as he was satisfied with his current life, he missed his days as a Faceless Swordsman.
Then the Evil Smiling Demon suddenly spoke.
“Come out.”
Startled, Cheong Myeon raised his head. He thought the words meant he was being told to leave the Tenebrous Ghosts Corps, but that was not it.
The Evil Smiling Demon’s gaze was directed past Cheong Myeon’s shoulder, toward the rear.
Srrrk.
Far away on the ground, a black circle formed, and a single person rose up from it.
It was Hwe, a subordinate of the Dark Palace Master.
No emotion could be felt from him. There was no hostility, no anger, no killing intent. That indifferent gaze seemed even more dangerous.
With Hwe’s appearance, the Evil Smiling Demon was able to grasp one fact.
From their standpoint, this was the moment when they should have been concentrating their forces on the Ship of Wealth and Honor, where the Young Cult Leader and several Demon Supremes had entered. Yet he had come here instead, meaning?
“You are aiming for Leader Lee Ahn.”
When Hwe gave no response, Cha Iran looked at Lee Ahn and spoke in his stead.
“If one is an enemy, it is only natural to aim for the opponent’s heart.”
Teasing her with talk of hearts in a situation like this? Clearly, Cha Iran had more composure than she did.
“You keep calling me a heart for no reason, Young Cult Leader.”
Though her mouth was joking, Lee Ahn’s eyes were shining sharply.
“Still, thanks to that, it has become a somewhat sturdier heart.”
After experiencing the earlier battle in a state of self-forgetful immersion, she had gained a strange sense of confidence.
And that confidence stirred within her a desire to fight more.
Hwe looked at Cha Iran.
“Wasn’t it the heart you should have been originally aiming for?”
To his question rebuking betrayal, Cha Iran readily acknowledged it.
“Looking for loyalty in an assassin?”
Cha Iran did not know the Dark Palace Master’s direct subordinates very well. The twelve who would later become the Twelve Zodiac Kings were managed separately.
But if not others, she knew Hwe well. He was the one who went back and forth between the Dark Palace Master and them, delivering orders.
The most trusted subordinate of the Dark Palace Master.
He had stepped out personally.
“It seems the situation is desperate enough that you had to come yourself.”
Hwe neither affirmed nor denied it.
His gaze turned toward the Evil Smiling Demon.
“What you said earlier was wrong.”
The reason he had come was not because of Lee Ahn.
“I came because of you.”
The moment those words ended.
At some point, a black circle formed beneath the Evil Smiling Demon’s feet.
Swoooosh.
In an instant, the Evil Smiling Demon was dragged into the darkness.
It was not a force that could be blocked by movement techniques or inner power. To others, it looked as though he were falling downward, but to the Evil Smiling Demon, the outside world flipped violently, and he was standing in a different place in the blink of an eye.
Darkness.
It was pitch-black darkness without a single shred of light. Even the Evil Smiling Demon’s white mask was swallowed by the darkness and did not reflect at all.
From within the darkness, Hwe’s voice was heard.
“You will have to remain trapped here for the rest of your life.”
One of the Dark Palace’s powerful exclusive demonic arts, Eternal Dark Prison, had been unleashed.
Eternal Dark Prison was a demonic art that entailed sacrifice and risk.
In exchange for imprisoning someone, the caster also had to be trapped there together. And only when the one imprisoned died could the caster leave this demonic art.
Of course, the opponent would try to find and kill him, but within this absolute darkness, it was impossible to locate him. The darkness was on his side, and it was no ordinary darkness.
“In the end, they can’t endure the darkness and solitude, go mad, and die.”
Even at those terrifying words, the Evil Smiling Demon did not waver in the slightest.
Rather, the two eyes behind the mask were smiling.
The Evil Smiling Demon had spent his entire life training while staring only at white walls.
What that life had touched was emptiness and nothingness.
And so, words Hwe could not even imagine flowed from the Evil Smiling Demon.
“This place is comfortable.”
* * *
The Drunken Demon and the Demonic Buddha were watching the black energy slowly pressing in from the end of the corridor.
“It’s the aura manifested by the Greed Annihilation Art. If exposed to that aura, one cannot fully use one’s power. Let us turn back that way.”
At the Demonic Buddha’s words suggesting retreat, the Drunken Demon proposed a frontal breakthrough.
“Let’s just push through.”
There was a reason the Drunken Demon made this choice.
“The Young Cult Leader would not have avoided that aura.”
The Demonic Buddha nodded. Yes, if it were Geom Mugeuk, he would have pushed through that dark aura and gone to find the Dark Palace Master.
“Alright, let’s push through.”
In truth, when the Demonic Buddha had suggested turning back, it had also been out of consideration for the Drunken Demon.
“I can endure that aura, but will you be all right?”
“I’ll try to endure it with liquor qi.”
When the two stepped into the black fog, a baleful aura rushed at them.
Golden radiance burst forth from the Demonic Buddha’s body, protecting him.
Around the Drunken Demon’s body, intense Liquor Qi, so potent that merely smelling it would make one collapse drunk, wrapped itself around him in protection.
Despite their martial arts’ natural affinity against dark demonic arts, they were unable to protect their bodies perfectly.
“It’s truly vicious.”
The dark aura pierced through the Liquor Qi. The Drunken Demon’s body grew heavy, as if he were suffering from a severe fever.
“I’ve never encountered such powerful dark demonic energy in my life. If not for the Cult Leader’s Heavenly Demon Body Protection Technique, it would be impossible to fully withstand this aura.”
The golden light emanating from the Demonic Buddha’s body intensified further, and the Drunken Demon’s Liquor Qi likewise grew denser.
“Conversely, the dark demonic arts they deploy will be exerting far greater power than usual.”
As they moved forward, they came to a fork in the path.
“Which way would it be?”
“The Young Cult Leader would definitely have gone toward where the aura grows stronger.”
The Drunken Demon was certain. Had he only drunk liquor with Geom Mugeuk? He knew well what kind of person Geom Mugeuk was, and what kind of choices he would make.
The Demonic Buddha paused briefly, sensing the flow of energy within the fog.
“Then, it’s this way.”
The two moved their steps toward the direction where the aura was stronger.
After proceeding further, they reached a dead end, where a large door stood.
The Drunken Demon and the Demonic Buddha looked at each other and nodded. After exchanging looks that warned caution, they opened the door and stepped inside.
It was an enormously wide space. After moving only through narrow cabin corridors, such a space was truly unexpected. The ceiling was so high that one had to crane one’s neck to look up at it.
It appeared to be a storage area used on the ship, with several large crates and nets laid about. At the far end, there was a door leading out to the opposite side. Fortunately, the fog had not yet invaded this storage area.
“I feel like I can finally breathe. Let’s rest here for a moment.”
The Demonic Buddha, who had been tense all along, also let out a breath.
While resting briefly and looking around, the Drunken Demon discovered something on one wall.
“Look over there. There’s a painting on the wall.”
It was a painting of a man standing with his eyes closed. Naturally, it looked grotesque. On that vast wall, only a single person had been painted.
“It feels unpleasant.”
The Demonic Buddha felt displeased that a painting existed in a place like this, but the Drunken Demon felt even more specifically unsettled.
“This bastard, just looking at him pisses me off. Even the way he’s closing his eyes looks arrogant.”
The Drunken Demon drew up his inner power and walked toward the painting. From behind him, the Demonic Buddha’s voice was heard.
“Whoever painted it, they were skilled.”
Right. It was probably because it was painted too well that it felt so unpleasant. The figure in the painting was drawn so vividly that it looked as though it might start moving at any moment.
“There’s no way a sailor could paint this well.”
“Maybe the painter got hooked on gambling.”
“For some reason, it feels like this guy is definitely going to open his eyes.”
Like a drunk picking a fight, the Drunken Demon provoked the painting.
“You, just try opening your eyes. I’ll stab you for sure.”
The Demonic Buddha looked as though he might say something, but he said nothing.
Sensing an inexplicable sense of foreboding, the Drunken Demon suddenly spun around.
“!”
In that instant, the Drunken Demon’s expression froze. A scene was unfolding that instantly sobered him up.
The Demonic Buddha had become a painting within the wall, staring blankly as he looked over his own body and surroundings.
“I think I drank too much. The Demonic Buddha is inside the wall.”
At the very moment those words ended, the Drunken Demon spun around with lightning speed and hurled a dagger at the painting whose eyes had been closed.
Swoosh.
Thud!
The Drunken Demon’s dagger embedded itself in the painting.
The spot where the dagger struck was the chest of the man with closed eyes. Even with the dagger lodged in it, the painting did not move an inch. What stained the dagger was not blood, but paint.
‘Is it not this one?’
How could it not be! At that moment, the man snapped his eyes open.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Without the slightest hesitation, the Drunken Demon stabbed repeatedly with his dagger.
But the man in the painting smiled at him, as if being stabbed a hundred times would make no difference.
“You bastard!”
The man moved within the wall. The area of his chest where the dagger had struck turned white.
Sssrk, sssrk, sssrk.
Then, as if an invisible brush were painting over it, color filled in that spot.
He was the secret weapon that had been with the Dark Palace Master earlier, the Dark Painting Spirit.
“So I can’t kill you outside, is that it?”
The Dark Painting Spirit swiftly traveled along the wall toward the opposite side where the Demonic Buddha was. His movement was incredibly fast.
“Be careful, Demonic Buddha!”
The Demonic Buddha also said something while looking at the Drunken Demon. But though his lips moved, no sound came out.
The Demonic Buddha struck out with a palm toward the Dark Painting Spirit charging at him.
Even the force of the palm strike was expressed as a painting.
In response, the Dark Painting Spirit also released palm force.
The two forces of palm energy that had flown out as paintings met in midair and exploded.
Even the explosion was depicted as a painting. From the outside, it looked utterly ridiculous, but Drunken Demon understood. If it was a dark sorcery capable of dragging the Demonic Buddha in within an instant—
‘If he dies in there, the Demonic Buddha will die as well!’
The problem was that this space was absolutely advantageous for that bastard.
The Drunken Demon pounded on the wall, trying to enter the painting himself, but he could not get inside. The wall was nothing more than a wall.
He wanted nothing more than to smash the wall to pieces, but with the Demonic Buddha inside, he could not recklessly destroy it.
“Kill that bastard and come back out! I trust only you, Demonic Buddha!”
Right now, the only thing he could rely on was the Demonic Buddha’s skill.
And the Demonic Buddha splendidly lived up to that trust. While engaging the enemy in close combat, he did not miss his chance and completed his hand seals.
Golden Vajra Demonic Art!
Killer Formation Being!
From the Demonic Buddha’s two hands, golden qi surged forth and swept outward. The golden qi, spreading like waves, looked magnificent even as a painting.
“It worked!”
Watching, the Drunken Demon cheered. At such close range, with the hand seals completed in an instant, there was no way the bastard could avoid it.
At that very moment, something unbelievable happened.
The Demonic Buddha’s movement stopped dead. The golden qi he had unleashed also froze in midair. The Dark Painting Spirit, which had been trying to dodge, likewise halted.
All of them had become paintings.
And then something even more shocking followed.
Sssk, sssk, sssk.
Between the Demonic Buddha and the Dark Painting Spirit, something began to be drawn.
“You insane bastard! This is cheating!”
Right in front of the flying qi, a pitch-black hole was drawn. It looked like a passage leading somewhere else.
The Drunken Demon’s eyes widened in shock. A surge of dread rushed up within him. At the very moment the Dark Painting Spirit’s frozen, painting-like lips curled upward—
“Don’t tell me you’re—?”
The next instant, the painting began to move again. The qi unleashed by the Demonic Buddha entered the dark passage drawn directly in front of it.
At the same time, pitch-black darkness formed in front of the Drunken Demon.
Shraaaaaaaash!
Killer formation poured down upon the Drunken Demon.