Chapter 100: Must I Not Go?
Jin Seong-un and Chae Seo-ryeong quickly approached the direction of the scream. Even as they only stepped on the life gates of the formation, their speed did not slow in the slightest.
It was dangerous work.
A single misstep onto a death gate could put their lives in peril.
Yet, since the child’s screams continued to echo, they could not stop.
Chae Seo-ryeong was beginning to feel her limits.
Falling Flame Point Pupil was not something she could use indefinitely. An excruciating pain welled up, as if her eyes might be gouged out at any moment.
Chae Seo-ryeong wiped at her eyes with the back of her hand.
Blood stained her skin.
Over there!
Following Chae Seo-ryeong’s voice transmission, Jin Seong-un shifted direction. Soon, it felt as if the scream had grown much closer.
Wait!!
Both Jin Seong-un and Chae Seo-ryeong stopped at the same time.
The scream now echoed right nearby.
Chae Seo-ryeong shed bloody tears as she carefully scanned her surroundings.
Are you all right?
Jin Seong-un asked.
Chae Seo-ryeong’s condition looked far from good.
Her expression soon hardened.
…We can’t go.
Just one more roof lay between them and the source of the sound.
The very center of the Qinghai Trading Company.
But there was no path leading to it.
Like before, when there wasn’t a life gate at all?
That had been the case with the formation set up by Sima Hwi.
Back then, he had simply torn apart the entire formation.
But that was only possible once they were already inside.
Chae Seo-ryeong shook her head.
No. Two formations are overlapping, so the life gates and death gates overlap too.
In other words, a life gate in one formation was a death gate in the other. Simply put, every life gate was also a death gate.
What if I step through the air?
At Jin Seong-un’s question, Chae Seo-ryeong shook her head again.
The flow of energy surged skyward, with no end in sight.
Unlike the Sima Clan’s formation, passing through by air was impossible here.
If such a thing were possible, then someone like the Divine Thief would never have been trapped inside a formation in the first place.
“……”
Jin Seong-un still stared toward the direction of the screams. No matter how much he thought, no solution came to mind.
We can’t go. No matter how we approach, we’ll inevitably be caught in the formation. And that formation…
It was the very formation that had killed the Divine Thief.
Or perhaps, after decades, an even more advanced version of it.
Chae Seo-ryeong’s face was filled with despair.
They had come this far, the screams were just ahead, and yet, they could not reach. The truth gnawed at her.
Just then—
Jin Seong-un stepped forward.
Startled, Chae Seo-ryeong temporarily withdrew her Falling Flame Point Pupil and asked,
What are you trying to do?
Must I not go?
I told you we can’t!
Even so, I must see. To know what they are doing with the children. And if I can save them, I must.
It wasn’t that he had an exceptional sense of chivalry.
But having learned the martial arts of the Sword Immortal and the Noble Enchantress, he couldn’t ignore children’s screams when they were right before his eyes.
Jin Seong-un then turned to Chae Seo-ryeong.
It was time to keep the promise he had made before coming here.
Miss, return.
No…
Chae Seo-ryeong froze.
She remembered the promise as well.
But this wasn’t merely a dangerous situation. How could she leave someone behind who was walking into death with his own feet?
Yet Jin Seong-un was firm.
Keep the promise. Moreover, someone must inform others of this situation.
With that, Jin Seong-un decisively turned and used his movement arts.
He leaped onto the roof.
Chae Seo-ryeong, watching him, bit her lip hard.
He was right.
Someone had to tell others.
And right now, she was the only one who could do it. But even as she watched Jin Seong-un throw himself into danger, her feet would not move.
Still, she couldn’t just stand here, blinking stupidly in hesitation and achieving nothing.
She had to do something. Chae Seo-ryeong’s eyes turned red once more.
Blood seeped out thickly from her tightly bitten lips.
Jin Seong-un soared high into the air.
Only then did the scenery beyond the roof come into view.
“……”
His eyes trembled, something that rarely happened.
From the place where the screams were coming, a truly horrific sight unfolded.
There were people.
Their bodies swelled, then melted down. Even a hardened villain would frown and look away.
Jin Seong-un committed the sight to memory.
Amidst the screams and gruesome spectacle, the blacksmiths present remained calm.
As if it were routine, they picked up bones and hammered them against lumps of iron.
It seemed they were testing the strength of the bones.
A metallic sound rang from human bones.
He surmised they had been forced to learn demonic arts.
Demonic arts were known for their extreme effectiveness, but also their severe side effects.
Among them, those with fewer side effects were what the warriors of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult practiced.
But there must also exist demonic arts with unparalleled power—and equally horrifying consequences.
Like external arts where bones and muscles became harder than steel. But as a side effect, the body swelled and then melted down. A dreadful martial art.
Jin Seong-un drew the Falling Flame Sword.
Fierce crimson flames wrapped around the blade.
Swaeak—!
A massive crimson sword qi engulfed the blacksmiths.
Jjeoeeong—!
The entire area shook violently.
At the same time, something grabbed Jin Seong-un’s ankle and yanked him down with immense force.
…
Jin Seong-un found himself in a small enclosed room. Roughly the size of the Seong-un Inn, or perhaps slightly smaller.
There was no furniture. Only walls of reddish-brown earth sealing off every side.
Jin Seong-un swung the Falling Flame Sword, flames roaring along its edge.
Kwaaaang—!
A massive wave of energy exploded.
Dust filled the air and slowly settled after a moment.
“……”
The wall remained intact.
Not a single crack.
At last, Jin Seong-un understood why his master, the Divine Thief, had struggled so much. In a space this confined, there was almost nothing his master could do.
Swaeak—!
Suddenly, the sharp sound of something piercing the air rang out.
Jin Seong-un instinctively twisted his body.
Something shot past, grazing his face by a hair’s breadth.
“……”
It was a vine.
Astonishingly, thick green vines sprouting from the walls threatened Jin Seong-un.
Jin Seong-un lightly swung the Falling Flame Sword.
Tuk.
The vine was cut far too easily, almost disappointingly so.
The severed vine writhed briefly on the ground, then melted away.
Watching with bafflement, Jin Seong-un once more infused energy into the Falling Flame Sword.
Swaeaaeeeng—!
A fierce sword qi surged forward, incomparable to the one before.
With a thunderous boom, the entire chamber shook.
A hairline crack appeared on the wall struck by the sword qi.
“…So this much.”
That strike carried power nearly equal to when he had torn apart Sima Hwi’s formation.
What kind of formation could withstand such a blow?
As he pondered, Jin Seong-un felt a sudden chill and instinctively swung the Falling Flame Sword.
Seogeok—!
Once again, vines.
But this time, not just one.
Dozens of vines sprouted from every wall, rushing toward him.
He cut most of them down, but one vine suddenly shot up from the floor, wrapping around his ankle.
Jin Seong-un slashed it apart almost instantly.
‘It absorbs qi.’
Even in that fleeting moment, the vine drained a fair amount of his inner energy.
Silence fell for a brief instant.
Jin Seong-un scanned his surroundings, feeling an eerie discomfort. The formation itself was unpleasantly oppressive.
The vine that had wrapped his ankle melted away, and at once, more vines surged from every direction.
Sensing the truth, this time he did not channel qi, cutting them down only with his blade.
“As I thought.”
No more vines appeared.
Those vines grew by consuming inner energy.
If he poured sword qi into the walls or let them drain him, vines would sprout without fail.
This chamber felt like a living organism.
‘Break it.’
Having roughly grasped the principle, Jin Seong-un nodded. There was only one way forward.
He took his stance.
Clutching the Falling Flame Sword, he stared at the wall he had first struck.
Suddenly, searing crimson flames cloaked the blade.
Swaeeaeeaek—!
A wave of sword flux slammed into the wall.
Predictably, dozens of vines erupted from all directions, surging toward him.
The vines were swift and stealthy, while the chamber was too small to evade them.
Jin Seong-un swung his sword, relying solely on his sense of qi. It was impossible to cut them all with sight alone.
In barely a single breath, the Falling Flame Sword moved more than ten times, severing every vine without looking, before he once again unleashed sword qi at the wall.
And then, it repeated.
Strike the wall with sword flux, cut the vines with the blade. Inevitably, the more energy the chamber devoured, the faster and more numerous the vines became.
If he tired before breaking the wall, he would die.
If he broke it before tiring, he would live.
It was simple.
Jin Seong-un stood his ground, slashing again and again.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
The crack in the wall spread wider. Meanwhile, the chamber filled entirely with vines. A bead of sweat trickled down his forehead.
How much time passed?
For the first time since learning martial arts, his body began to feel fatigue.
Kwaaaaang—!
At last, the wall shattered.
Just as Jin Seong-un felt relief,
A middle-aged man appeared from beyond.
“What on earth are you?”
The man asked in a deep, heavy voice.
The moment Jin Seong-un saw him, he knew.
‘Strong.’
The thick demonic qi swirling around him radiated danger, even to Jin Seong-un.
Without a doubt, he was stronger than the Food Butcher or Sa Ryeong-geuk.
So he asked,
“And you, who are you?”
When Jin Seong-un questioned him in turn, the man looked baffled. Stroking his black beard for a moment, he grinned.
“Ask Yama.”
“Famous in Hell, it seems.”
Jin Seong-un nodded briefly, buying time. But the man’s brows twitched.
“You’ve trained in a strange inner cultivation method. To restore qi even now?”
“That’s not something you should say.”
How could someone drenched in such ominous demonic qi dare call Master Noble Enchantress’s Women’s Moon Heart Method strange?
At Jin Seong-un’s blunt retort, the man burst into hearty laughter.
And in that instant—
He swung, unleashing a strike brimming with heavy demonic qi.
Jin Seong-un calmly deflected it.
A solid weight pressed against his wrist.
‘Not good.’
Even under normal circumstances, this wouldn’t be easy. But already fatigued, it was worse. On top of that, vines continued surging from every direction except the front.
“……”
Jin Seong-un heightened his senses to the limit, fending off both vines and sword strikes.
But soon, his limits showed.
Fwiik—!
Occasionally, vines coiled around his ankles, each time sapping away chunks of his qi.
Jin Seong-un’s face paled.
Meanwhile, the man’s strikes grew fiercer, stronger. It was an unfair fight.
As the battle continued, intrigue deepened in the man’s eyes.
“A monster. Appearing in the dead of night, masked…”
Jin Seong-un remembered he was still wearing a mask. Oddly, despite the dire situation, he felt calm.
‘At this rate, no chance.’
Whether from the mask or his nature, Jin Seong-un assessed the situation with his usual composure.
This fight could only end in defeat. Now he understood why even Master Divine Thief could not overcome it.
Especially in such a battle of attrition—there wasn’t a single percent chance.
He realized he had to end it quickly.
Jin Seong-un suddenly stilled his sword. In that brief opening, dozens of vines bound his limbs.
At the same time, his qi was drained at alarming speed, and the man thrust his blade at Jin Seong-un’s heart.
The sword pierced Jin Seong-un’s chest.
Kang—!
A clear metallic clang rang out.
The man’s eyes widened in shock. His blade had failed to pierce the skin. An impossible sight.
Jin Seong-un swung his left arm. The vines binding him tore apart under sheer strength.
Tudududuk—!
His left hand, brimming with Blood Demon Qi, surged toward the man’s face.
Having just thrust his sword, the distance between them was dangerously close. The man hurriedly stepped back, but…
Jjjeoeeoong—!
The Blood Demon Palm exploded against his face.