Chapter 499: I Must Find Out Everything

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Silence dwelling in the ruins.

The reeking blood scent spread rapidly on the wind.

Though it wasn’t solely the smell of the dead Eul Sa-jeok’s blood.

Clunk…

Cheol Ryu-heun sheathed the Mo Ye Sword of the two swords and looked down at the corpse.

“Stupid fool. I deliberately fed him so much, yet he couldn’t hold out.”

His emotionless muttering.

But the dead Eul Sa-jeok said nothing.

He merely lay there in the wretched state of having his head blown apart.

The corpse was gruesome, but was it a judgment befitting a fallen one?

A life that had ended while harboring an evil heart and dreaming only of impossible dreams.

In truth, it was a foreseen end.

From the moment he reunited with Cheol Ryu-heun…

There was not the slightest room to feel pity for it.

Cheol Ryu-heun had thought about the past.

That time in prison was his last chance to change his life going forward.

To achieve true repentance and inner reflection and self-awareness while confined there…

Turning over a new leaf isn’t easy, but the possibility wasn’t completely nonexistent.

But Eul Sa-jeok, seized by hatred, chose the hand of a dark gang and ultimately headed down the path of corruption.

Thus he fell ever deeper into the pit of evil.

Precisely due to his connection with Central Heaven Tower Grand General Pa Ga-wi.

Earlier, Cheol Ryu-heun had glimpsed that memory.

-I have a question.

-I’ll hear it.

-I am… Merely of ordinary talent. And as you can see, even my body is ruined. So why… Are you going out of your way to get me out?

-Ha. Yes, that would be your biggest question.

-If you’ll pardon my impertinence… Please answer honestly.

-Because it seems like it’ll be fun.

-Pardon? F-fun…?

-That’s right. It’s a type of amusement.

-…!

-It’s like that for all of us.

-What you mean is… A bit difficult to understand.

-It’s just as I said. It means we’re going to enjoy playing with the big toy called the Jianghu together.

Cheol Ryu-heun swept back his bangs and spoke inwardly again.

‘You should have known that you too were an experimental subject and expendable for that amusement. Well, what can you do? He kicked away the chance to change his life himself.’

That was the reason he had called him a stupid fool earlier.

If he had changed his heart and later came out again, he had the intention to reluctantly accept him.

Therefore, he had planned to test his character from the very bottom.

But Eul Sa-jeok did not choose to turn over a new leaf.

Instead of the process of repentance that required time of endurance, he was seduced by the sweet words of the evil gang that immediately presented the realization of desire.

He was so blinded by it that he even endured his own life being shortened.

-A guaranteed minimum of twenty years… If I can live as a powerhouse during that period, I’ll have no regrets.

-Yes, that’s a desirable mindset.

-I want to take revenge on White Peak Sword Sect and Cheol Ryu-heun with this power. That’s why I chose it.

-I’m sorry, but you may not be able to fulfill that.

-Pardon?

-I’ve already made arrangements.

-…!

-Cheol Ryu-heun has currently headed to the Shiwan Mountains. A trap arranged by our side is prepared there. But if he should return alive, you will get that opportunity.

-I’m rather disappointed, but… My mood isn’t bad. Honestly, I hope he returns alive. I’m sorry.

-It’s fine. His life or death is not my concern. That’s the nature of the work we’ve planned.

-But by “our,” do you mean there’s an organization you belong to…

-Heaven Emperor Society.

-Heaven Emperor Society…

-I am Pa Ga-wi, the Grand General of the Heaven Emperor Society’s subordinate Central Heaven Tower.

‘That bastard…’

Soon Cheol Ryu-heun turned his head and gazed in that direction.

It was the direction where Pa Ga-wi had vanished.

No doubt he was somewhere over there, straining with all his might to break through the formation boundary and escape.

However… It was futile effort anyway.

Since he was alive and well like this.

Therefore, the formation that sealed all four sides of the Central Heaven Tower fortress was practically an indestructible iron wall.

That was why he maintained a leisurely attitude.

The divine artifact imbued with Heavenly Demon power that had risen into the sky was a shamanic tool that the original Heavenly Demon had researched for several years.

He had done so after sensing the power contained within the mysterious iron sphere of unknown origin.

But that research had ended pitifully incomplete.

The disappointed Heavenly Demon had ultimately sealed the iron sphere somewhere.

But Cheol Ryu-heun had pulled it out again.

And using his knowledge and abilities, he had completed the method to utilize the mysterious power latent in the iron sphere.

That was the formation currently deployed at this fortress.

In the process of creating it, the subtlety of Heavenly Demon Cult Great Prelate Gun Mu-ak’s terrifying supreme technique, the Heavenly Demon Black Soul Coffin, had been decisively helpful.

It was an almost identical principle.

If one tried to forcibly break through the formation’s energy wall, they would instead suffer mental damage…

Furthermore, even their spiritual essence… That is, the spiritual element… Could be destroyed.

Pa Ga-wi must have felt that power by now as well.

But he couldn’t give up his escape attempt even while suffering mental damage.

Why?

Because the situation naturally demanded it.

He had learned a great secret here.

That Cheol Ryu-heun… The new master of White Peak Sword Sect who had rapidly risen to become a supreme powerhouse in the Jianghu in a short time… Was the reincarnation of the Divine Martial Sword…

The Spiritual Awakening Stone had already proven everything with its strange phenomenon.

On top of that, even Black Tortoise Divine General Wang-ryu had departed from this world.

That it was not a lie had already been keenly realized through Cheol Ryu-heun’s terrifying martial might.

So wouldn’t he have to inform the Heaven Emperor Society Lord by any means that a threatening variable had appeared?

Just then.

Stab… Slice!

Cheol Ryu-heun’s blade split open the dead Eul Sa-jeok’s belly.

Immediately after, a dark grayish object came out attached to the sword tip.

It was the improved variant of gu poison that Eul Sa-jeok had consumed.

But the gu poison wasn’t moving.

It had already expended all its power and died.

Cheol Ryu-heun looked at the gu poison and became lost in thought.

‘So it shares life with its host. But the principle of operation that seems to activate an innate true energy…’

He guessed it was a newly created species.

Just as said, Eul Sa-jeok had been an experimental subject.

To test the supernatural abilities of the still-incomplete gu poison…

‘Earlier, the gu poison briefly imitated the ability to recover and regenerate the body. Though that subtlety weakened as the host Eul Sa-jeok’s condition deteriorated. To keep making things like this and using people like toys before discarding them… Heaven Emperor Society Lord, you are someone who must certainly be destroyed.’

Once again, the conversation between Eul Sa-jeok and Pa Ga-wi surfaced in his mind.

-What kind of person is the Society Lord at the top…

-The Lord is an existence that transcends the human world. He is like an emperor who rules the heavens. From now on, questions about the Lord are forbidden. Do not harbor any doubts whatsoever.

-Y-yes. Understood. I will keep it in mind.

At that, Cheol Ryu-heun sneered inwardly.

‘Ha. Rule the heavens?’

Having deeply sunk his gaze, he spoke inwardly again.

‘Then I’ll become a divine being of the universe that even subordinates heaven. Just wait a little. Soon we’ll cross swords.’

Immediately after, he moved like a ghost and vanished.

Pit…

* * *

The boundary point in the north of the fortress.

Kwakwang!

Following a heavy explosive sound that shook the ground.

“Kuk…!”

Pa Ga-wi, having let out a brief groan, flew backward.

Thump!

Having fallen to the ground as if tumbling backward, he soon furrowed his brow hard and vomited blood profusely.

“Urrgh…”

He had suffered damage in reverse while trying to break the formation deployed along the ramparts.

To be precise, it was a type of shock similar to the process of qi deviation… The extreme of mental internal injury.

Finally.

Clack!

Pa Ga-wi was using his sword as a cane to raise his body.

Tremble, tremble…

The sword body fixed in the ground was shaking.

No.

Pa Ga-wi’s hand was trembling continuously.

Because of the shock in his body?

What, was it just that?

It was precisely because of the anxiety and fear from the series of events.

Generally, when the mind wavers, the body wavers.

Pa Ga-wi’s hand trembling was proof of immense fear.

To that was attached an indescribable despair.

About wanting to get out right now, but being unable to…

It was a feeling of frustration he had experienced for the first time in his life.

Still, his survival instinct hadn’t disappeared.

He couldn’t see a way out, but he wanted to live somehow.

That heart made his wounded body move again.

A body advancing like a bodily charge toward the wall of dark energy.

Kwakwang… !

A reflective force proportional to that charge burst out fiercely.

Puheoong!

Pa Ga-wi, thrown back again, spun over ten times in mid-air before falling.

Thud… Splat!

“Kuh…!”

Having let out another groan, Pa Ga-wi felt as if his upper dantian was rupturing.

How to describe it?

A pain like his soul being finely shredded?

But at that moment.

Shk.

A person’s shadow fell beside him as he lay prone on the ground.

At that moment, Pa Ga-wi’s face turned as white as a sheet of paper.

He had appeared.

The Martial God who presided over life and death…

That’s right.

The identity of the figure that had appeared at close range was Cheol Ryu-heun.

Soon, a flat voice that chilled the heart reached his ears.

“There sure are a lot of bugs here.”

Just as Pa Ga-wi, his sense of crisis heightened, desperately operated internal power.

Puhook!

An unpleasant sound rang out as if leather was being pierced.

“Uaah… Uaaah…!”

Pa Ga-wi’s scream, followed by the sound of bleeding.

Thud thud thud, thud thud, thud thud thud thud…

Crimson blood thoroughly soaked the floor.

Cheol Ryu-heun had pierced Pa Ga-wi’s abdomen with his sword like skewering something and lifted him up.

That wasn’t all.

The demonic energy that had infiltrated his body through the blade was forcibly blocking his entire body’s energy meridians and blood channels.

His body convulsed violently.

Pa Ga-wi felt pain that couldn’t be expressed in words and even shed tears.

Soon.

Clatter…

Pa Ga-wi’s sword slipped from his limp grip and collided with the floor.

Meanwhile, Cheol Ryu-heun, operating divine power, expressionlessly parted his lips.

“Thanks to the conspiracy you all plotted, I was able to grow more rapidly. Now, let’s look inside your head.”

Tsss tsss, tsss tsss tsss…

Radiant light began to fill his eyes.

“Guh…”

Pa Ga-wi, amidst the pain, was struck by an ominous premonition.

What were those eyes?

They had changed color in an instant.

The pair of pitch-black pupils had become dyed crimson.

As if some supernatural ability related to the body had been activated.

They were so red.

A red deeper than flames.

Eyes that seemed to have both bright and dark feelings coexisting…

At that moment, Cheol Ryu-heun’s indifferent voice was heard again.

“The information you possess will be a great help.”

Pa Ga-wi was instantly certain.

That the mysterious eye-light Cheol Ryu-heun was executing was a supreme technique of the mind’s eye lineage.

Nine out of ten, it was the divine power of the Divine Martial Sword.

He finally realized.

That he had used this power to obtain information about the Heaven Emperor Society from Wang-ryu.

‘Kuk…! No! I must protect the Society Lord’s identity… That secret…!’

But Cheol Ryu-heun’s flat voice paralyzed his thoughts.

“That guy, he’s in the imperial palace, isn’t he? The brilliant Heaven Emperor Society Lord.”

At those words, Pa Ga-wi’s dark brown pupils wavered greatly like transparent waves.

‘Damn! He already knows that…!’

Whether the opponent was surprised or not, Cheol Ryu-heun spoke again.

“This time, I’ll find out that guy’s appearance, background, identity, position… Everything. It’s easy. Because you’re someone with weaker mental strength than Wang-ryu.”