Chapter 215: Is There Anyone Like That
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KKUKUKUNG-!
The sound of horse hooves heavily striking the ground.
Divine wind, having landed on the flat ground that was the starting point of the gap-path, leisurely moved both ears.
A sign that he felt good.
Meanwhile, Gal Jung-heon, Hae Su-yeon, and Namgung Sang-rin, densely packed in a row behind Cheol Ryu-heun’s saddle, each wore surprised expressions.
Because they hadn’t felt any impact when landing hard on the ground.
No.
It had been like that from the beginning.
Normally, one would have to tense up their whole body and endure, but they had been absurdly comfortable during the leap through the void.
What to say. It was like sitting on an unshaking chair.
The reason was one.
Thanks to the pure white heat haze currently enveloping their bodies.
In other words, the energy Divine wind was emitting was perfectly blocking external influences like wind pressure and vibration.
As if seated at an intangible indoor table.
Soon, Gal Jung-heon, having stuck out his tongue, smiled quietly and said.
“HUT. How nice. For it to be such a comfortable feeling…”
Not only had his power grown stronger, but for him to exert such strange wondrous application too – it was simply surprising again and again.
Namgung Sang-rin also nodded in agreement.
“We’ll suffer less hardship from now on.”
All along, every time they mounted his back, motion sickness would assault them, making them retch constantly, but now they needn’t worry.
However, Hae Su-yeon seemed regretful.
“UOONG, I don’t feel excited. When things bobble around wildly and wind whips past your cheeks, that’s when riding feels worthwhile…”
Namgung Sang-rin immediately shot a look at the back of her head.
YEEK! I hate that! Please don’t say such things carelessly!
At that moment, Cheol Ryu-heun at the very front extended his arm to the side.
Simultaneously.
DEUDEUDEU…
An old tree in the direction his arm extended vibrated and made a sound.
A phenomenon responding to formless energy.
Thus, the barrier formation that the Heavenly Demon and Bodhidharma had arranged moved again.
SEUSUT, SEUSEUSUT…
The hazy mist on the side and the gap-path in the cliff disappeared.
WOOONG-
Along with a sound resembling thunder, the place filled with boulders also shimmered transparently and then transformed back into its original primeval forest.
A secret space that had completely vanished from sight.
Yet that wasn’t the end.
When Cheol Ryu-heun used void grasping to emit formless energy.
DEUDEUDEU…
The old tree vibrated once more.
A succession of amazing changes.
Countless rays of light spewed out from each branch as if unspooling thread.
Seeing that, the party quietly exclaimed.
The rays of light in which black and yellow were harmoniously mixed – those were precisely the currents symbolizing the Heavenly Demon and Bodhidharma.
Cheol Ryu-heun’s emitted power seemed to have drawn those out through some function.
“If we lay one more layer, no one will be able to find it.”
With those words, Cheol Ryu-heun’s hand moved upward.
CHEUCHEUCHEUT, CHEUCHEUCHEUCHEUT…
The numerous rays of light that had swarmed out rose along the cliff face and spread widely.
Soon, the party was captured by a sense of wonder.
The rays of light that had thoroughly covered the cliff transformed into vines in the blink of an eye.
As if they had grown lushly over long, long years.
An exquisite scenery without any discordance, assimilated with the primeval forest.
Namgung Sang-rin, spilling a dazed gaze, asked.
“Sect Leader Cheol, it doesn’t seem to be just an illusion… What kind of wondrous application does it exert?”
Cheol Ryu-heun, having withdrawn his hand, spoke briefly.
“I’ve set it up so the cliff collapses if anyone touches it.”
“AH… That’s amazing.”
“It’s a contingency measure. Finding the tree won’t be easy, but you never know what might happen.”
Gal Jung-heon, sitting at the very back, suddenly recalled what he had heard earlier.
-It’s a secret realm where the Heavenly Demon’s breath lives on, one of five such places.
Then did he know the locations of all the other four places as well?
It seemed that way somehow.
Yes, he must have come to know that too through the all-purpose cave’s fortuitous encounter.
Just then, coincidentally, Cheol Ryu-heun mentioned the secret realm.
“I plan to visit the remaining secret realms of the Heavenly Demon as well. And there’s also someone I need to meet at one of them.”
At that, Hae Su-yeon looked puzzled.
“Meet? Who?”
“The old man who last used gu poison.”
No sooner had Cheol Ryu-heun’s words ended than Gal Jung-heon’s eyes widened.
“Could it be…”
“EO, that’s right. The alias that just popped into your head.”
“HEOH, you mean he’s still alive?”
“Probably.”
When Cheol Ryu-heun shrugged his shoulders, during Gal Jung-heon’s repeated surprise.
“AH! Co-could it be Deviant Eccentric Physician?”
When Hae Su-yeon asked in a sharp voice, Namgung Sang-rin also opened his mouth in turn.
“GOOD HEAVENS! Is it really him?”
The Deviant Eccentric Physician was a person who had become a wanted criminal of the martial world for using gu poison and fled, then completely disappeared.
His original alias when his outstanding swordsmanship and excellent medical arts had been praised was Living Hand Sword Physician.
But at some point, he became engrossed in all kinds of poison arts, and afterward even researched the forbidden gu poison, losing his dignity and reputation.
When he was called Living Hand Sword Physician, he had been one of the Thirteen Seats of the World, whose fame was also brilliant – second only to Ascending Heaven Sword Dragon’s among the powerful of the orthodox and heterodox factions.
However, after becoming a wanted criminal, he came to be called the Deviant Eccentric Physician and was removed from that rank.
The time when he completely vanished was about forty years ago.
At that time, his age was roughly around sixty.
If he were still alive now, he would be over a hundred years old.
Cheol Ryu-heun had learned of the Deviant Eccentric Physician’s hiding place through his owner Ba Hun’s during his Divine Martial Sword era.
“If it’s that old man, he might know something about the gu poison we saw today.”
At Cheol Ryu-heun’s indifferent reply, Namgung Sang-rin asked again.
“Back then, the place where the Deviant Eccentric Physician hid was one of Heavenly Demon’s secret realms?”
“Yes, according to Ascending Heaven Sword Dragon’s journal.”
“EUEUM. How mysterious.”
Having spoken quietly, Namgung Sang-rin was filled with anticipation.
Understandably so… If the Deviant Eccentric Physician, who was well-versed in gu poison, was still alive, there was also a possibility of obtaining clues about the group that had destroyed his household.
Suddenly, an indifferent voice lightly tapped their eardrums.
“Stop it, don’t get your hopes up already.”
At Cheol Ryu-heun’s words, Namgung Sang-rin reset his expression.
“Yes. Sect Leader Cheol. I understand what you mean.”
The meaning was that the greater the expectations, the greater the disappointment.
“We’ll know when we go there. Whether he’s alive or dead. If he’s already dead, then there’s nothing we can do.”
Contrary to his words, Cheol Ryu-heun was certain inside.
‘HUT. There’s no way that guy’s already dead. With how many elixirs good for the body he’s gobbled up.’
Without doubt, he would easily live to a hundred fifty.
Cheol Ryu-heun gripped the reins and instructed with an indifferent face.
“Anyway, I’ll take care of everything. For now, focus only on the top priority target, the Sun Moon Demon Cult.”
“We will keep that in mind.”
The moment the entire Guest Retainer party answered in unison.
TUK.
The moment Cheol Ryu-heun sent a departure signal with a light foot motion, Divine wind kicked the ground.
KWANG!
Becoming a ball of pure white light, they soared high.
As Divine wind was flying through the void as if in flight, traversing several tens of zhang, Cheol Ryu-heun was thinking about the Heavenly Demon, the first owner of the Divine Martial Sword.
‘He was quite an honest fellow.’
By and large, everything has its own quality.
The quality the Heavenly Demon possessed was lofty amidst hegemony.
He committed no falsehood in wielding power.
In other words, he achieved everything purely through martial force alone.
Schemes? Stratagems?
He didn’t deal in such things at all.
While his hand techniques might be brutal.
He was one who kept away from deceptions and tricks, considering them humiliating for one who reigns.
He was one who didn’t avoid head-on confrontation, openly displaying his power.
Thus he stepped to the top as the progenitor of ten thousand demons and hegemon of the martial world.
After the Heavenly Demon’s era of reign, the demonic path gradually committed all kinds of wicked plots.
Differently from the Heavenly Demon’s path of wielding pure martial force back then…
The Sun Moon Demon Cult’s Cult Leader would be a prime example of that.
He walks not a hegemonic and dignified path but a vile and sinister one.
Trying to swallow the martial world with mere false trickery.
‘Then I must teach him. What the Heavenly Demon’s quality was like in those days.’
Cheol Ryu-heun, enveloped in pure white heat haze, gazed at the night sky and wore a faint smile.
* * *
A certain pavilion in a deep mountain valley.
It was dark night, but inside, the fire was lit and very bright.
At that inner chamber table, an octogenarian elder was reading through various books.
He was a figure of strange air, with everything about him – hair, beard, clothing – all white.
“HU…”
The sighs he occasionally exhaled gave the feeling that a troubled heart was seeping out.
Sure enough, his expression was somehow heavy and dark.
The spacious room was quite messy.
Because all sorts of strange tools, test tubes, empty bottles, medicinal ingredients, toxic substances, and the like were strewn about on three sides, excluding the door where people entered and exited.
Could it be a place for conducting some kind of experiment?
The elder, who had been holed up in the inner chamber reading books in silence, suddenly took out blank paper, spread it, and then picked up an ink brush to begin densely writing something with incomprehensible drawings and text.
Then.
“SCREW IT!”
He suddenly spat a curse and roughly WAK! crumpled the paper.
“This isn’t it either! DAMMIT!”
The elder who had nervously grumbled suddenly looked at the door.
At that moment.
SEUREUREUK.
With a gentle sound, a person entered through the faded door.
An old woman with equally gray-whitened hair as the elder.
“You’ve got cursing practically glued to your mouth. That temper of yours… HOLHOL.”
When the old woman in dark palace attire laughed mockingly, the elder widened his eyes and shouted.
“SCREW IT, I’M LIKE THIS BECAUSE THERE’S ABSOLUTELY NO SOLUTION! YOU OLD HAG!”
“TSK, what a rascal. That way of talking. To an older sister ten years your senior. Either way, who’d know you’re the eccentric physician who deviated.”
“AIGOO! Most esteemed sister of the Ink Zither Aged Grandmother! My deepest respects! Is that what you want to hear?”
That’s right.
The identities of the elder and old woman were the Deviant Eccentric Physician Bo Hwoe and Ink Zither Aged Grandmother Song San, who had been of the previous generation’s Thirteen Seats of the World.
“HOLHOLHOL, that’s nice to hear. Why don’t you speak respectfully like that from now on.”
“RIDICULOUS! When we’re all getting old together, why bother with hierarchy! We’re practically friends!”
“Friends? A rascal who couldn’t even share a dining table in the old days…”
“KEUK, I’m busy! Get out now! Day and night it’s that blasted medicine research frying my brain, can’t you see?”
The moment Deviant Eccentric Physician Bo Hwoe spoke again as if scolding, Ink Zither Aged Grandmother Song San’s gaze sank deeply.
“I came here to tell you because a letter from that child arrived earlier.”
Simultaneously, Bo Hwoe’s countenance changed completely.
“…!”
The ‘that child’ Song San just mentioned was none other than her disciple, Black Rope Wondrous Lady Na Rae-hyang.
“Sister, what did it say?”
Bo Hwoe’s manner of speech changed as if by magic.
“To summarize in one line… She said it’s the stirring of demonic forces.”
“KEUEU-UM…”
Bo Hwoe, having let out a quiet sound, firmly bit his parched lips.
‘Stirring of demonic forces. A sign of a full-scale chaotic era arriving? But the Transcendent Revival Pills is still incomplete…’
Soon, Song San spoke with a meaningful expression.
“Bo Brother, I’m sorry to keep saying this but… I hope you can complete the Transcendent Revival Pills as quickly as possible using the Heavenly Demon Power trapped in this place. It seems the thing we were worried about will soon begin.”
Bo Hwoe, having shaken his head, received the words with a grave attitude.
“It’s fine. Sister. Nothing to be sorry about. I’ll try harder.”
Then he sighed again and muttered as if in soliloquy.
“HUU… I wish someone who can even freely achieve ascending to immortality would suddenly appear and help.”