Chapter 39: Chapter 39
“……!”
“……!”
Ha Woo-jin, of course, and even Hyeon-do, who was listening together with him, could not contain their shock.
However, the reason the two of them were shocked was obviously different.
“How could the Soul-Slaying Squad……?”
Ha Woo-jin could not hide his surprise, but Hyeon-do was different.
Of course, the news that he defeated the Soul-Slaying Squad was surprising, but he understood it.
‘It is entirely possible.’
An existence beyond the standard that was impossible to understand.
Cheon-hwi was exactly that.
Even he, who had reached the Heavenly Martial Realm, could not get a grasp on what level of martial prowess Cheon-hwi had reached now.
No matter how great the Soul-Slaying Squad was, if Cheon-hwi stepped forward, it would unconditionally be a sure victory.
Then why was he shocked?
The reason leaked out of his mouth.
“……To think they would actually send the Soul-Slaying Squad.”
His whispering voice was troubled.
It meant that the White Ghost Castle was serious enough about destroying the Flying Wind Merchant Guild to send the Soul-Slaying Squad, known as the most secretive among the Three Great Squads of the White Ghost, making his feelings complicated.
The White Ghost Castle had set up the Supreme King Sect as a shield and had remained silent for years.
Yet now, they had personally broken their long silence by sending the Soul-Slaying Squad.
Of course, as Ha Woo-jin had said, it could be that the Supreme King Sect moved for extermination on top of the failed plan.
But even so, sending the Soul-Slaying Squad just for a merchant guild?
Was it not too excessive of a measure?
‘Just what is the goal of the White Ghost Castle?’
He recalled the information he had accumulated over a long time in his head and sorted it out.
Just how long was he lost in thought like that?
As expected, the first thing that came to mind was related to his main sect.
‘Are they trying to cut off the Mount Hua Sect’s source of funds by striking the Flying Wind Merchant Guild? Or…….’
Hyeon-do repeatedly thought to find an answer to the question that arose.
‘I do not know.’
As expected, the answer remained unknown.
Soon, he lightly shook his complicated head and eventually asked for help from Cheon-hwi, who was deeply involved in this incident.
“Do you know about their objective? Why the White Ghost Castle tried to attack the Flying Wind Merchant Guild by sending even the Soul-Slaying Squad…….”
“No.”
At the short answer, Hyeon-do wore a bitter smile.
Perhaps it was a natural answer.
“I asked an useless thing. They wouldn’t have told you just because you asked.”
“That’s not it.”
Spitting out words with a bitter expression, he was momentarily flustered by Cheon-hwi’s answer.
“D-don’t tell me you didn’t ask?”
“Why would I ask something like that?”
“Shouldn’t we know what the White Ghost Castle’s objective is?”
“Why is such a thing important.”
Cheon-hwi parted his lips with an expression that showed he did not understand at all.
“The most important thing is that they tried to launch a sneak attack on the Flying Wind Merchant Guild.”
“……!”
Hyeon-do looked at Cheon-hwi with a dazed expression, as if he had been struck in the back of the head.
‘Had my desire for revenge crumbled over time!’
The White Ghost Castle were enemies who could not live under the same sky as the Mount Hua Sect.
Since a justification was created, wasn’t it something he should rightfully be happy about?
And yet he was questioning the White Ghost Castle’s objective.
“Hahaha!”
Having finished his thoughts, he threw his head back largely and burst into hearty laughter.
‘What is it? Why is he laughing?’
By the time he stared blankly at Hyeon-do, who suddenly burst into roaring laughter out of nowhere.
“Right. Your words are correct.”
Hyeon-do spoke as he crossed his arms.
“Isn’t the most important thing that those bastards attacked.”
What use was there in thinking complicatedly about what the White Ghost Castle’s objective was.
Wasn’t the most important thing the fact that the White Ghost Castle messed with the Flying Wind Merchant Guild.
“If they messed with the Flying Wind Merchant Guild that our sect protects, it is natural that they must pay the price for their sins. Yes, of course.”
Along with his words, Hyeon-do, wearing a cold gaze, glared at the location where the White Ghost Castle was situated.
At that moment.
“W-when did they sneak attack?”
Ha Woo-jin, who had been restlessly watching the conversation between the two, spoke up.
He was in quite a rushed state.
‘To think it’s the Soul-Slaying Squad!’
His position was different from Hyeon-do’s.
As a Daoist of the Zhongnan Sect, his focus was on the fact that the White Ghost Castle moved above anything else.
Especially, the fact that the Soul-Slaying Squad appeared among them meant that the White Ghost Castle was revealing the ambition they had hidden all this while.
‘I need to know what the situation is.’
Cheon-hwi opened his mouth while looking at Ha Woo-jin, who could not hide his urgency.
“It wasn’t a sneak attack, though.”
“What does that mean?”
“Because I killed them before that.”
Cheon-hwi spoke as if it was nothing special, but Ha Woo-jin, who heard those words, could not accept it at face value.
“Don’t tell me you noticed the Soul-Slaying Squad’s sneak attack first?”
“Yes.”
Cheon-hwi answered with a face that asked why he was asking such an obvious thing.
The one flustered by that was Ha Woo-jin.
‘Are you saying you noticed the presence of the Soul-Slaying Squad first!’
Surprise settled in his two pupils that contained the seemingly indifferent Cheon-hwi.
What was the reason the Soul-Slaying Squad became so famous when no one had ever seen them directly?
When the unorthodox sects that had enmity with the White Ghost Castle were exterminated without a sound or rumor, it was because of the rumors floating around the Six Imperial Sects.
That the White Ghost Castle had the Soul-Slaying Squad possessing a secretive stealth art that no one could detect.
A martial squad with no such substance and only floating rumors was the Soul-Slaying Squad, but…….
‘If so!’
Ha Woo-jin’s eyes widened in thought.
‘Some of the Soul-Slaying Squad must have been caught while scouting for a sneak attack!’
Recalling a hypothesis, he stared at the Flying Wind Merchant Guild as if he had understood.
‘I thought as much. If the entire Soul-Slaying Squad had come, there’s no way the Flying Wind Merchant Guild would be completely fine.’
Ha Woo-jin started to misunderstand.
In a way, it would be a natural occurrence.
Who would even think that the entire Soul-Slaying Squad of the White Ghost Castle was massacred by a young man who hadn’t even reached the age of twenty?
It was a statement that would be dismissed as bullshit.
‘If so, the Soul-Slaying Squad excluding the scouting personnel might come back again.’
The misunderstanding deepened further, but there was no one to correct his thoughts.
‘I’m worried about the future.’
Ha Woo-jin, who was staring at the Flying Wind Merchant Guild, shook his head and soon spoke while looking at Cheon-hwi with a determined expression.
“If it’s not an impoliteness, could I stay at the Flying Wind Merchant Guild?”
“Pardon?”
Cheon-hwi, looking at Ha Woo-jin’s resolute pupils, answered with a dumbfounded expression.
“Shouldn’t you ask the Guild Master that?”
* * *
That night.
Cheon-hwi’s mind, having returned to his room, was full of the Falling Plum Heavenly Rain Flower he had unfolded earlier.
The feast of sword qi that spread out in all directions.
The Falling Plum Heavenly Rain Flower had severed the breathing of the bastards called the Soul-Slaying Squad at once, more beautifully and cruelly than he had thought.
‘As expected, martial arts must contain killing intent.’
Pure white teeth were revealed between his lips.
Whether killing intent was contained or not.
For one who had reached the Realm of Divine Entry, even that alone showed a huge difference.
Especially, he himself was the Cult Leader of the Heavenly Demon Cult.
Because he had spent his whole life unfolding demonic absolute arts that were full of combat-oriented demonic qi and killing intent, the difference was even greater for him than others.
‘It has gotten somewhat better, but…….’
He lifted the eyelids that blocked his vision.
Although it was a dark room because the windows and doors were closed, it did not hinder him at all.
The interior that looked just like broad daylight.
Since when was it?
Not only did his eye power tear down the boundary between night and day, but his vision also appeared bright as if it had originally been so.
A freezing flame burned in his eyes.
A blue ghost fire burned as if it would burn up not just the room, but even himself.
‘Not yet.’
Soon, his pupils that were looking at the empty air loosened slightly. No, he was not looking at the empty air, but looking at the past.
It was a man with a slender physique with pitch-black hair scattered on both shoulders.
The man’s two pupils were transparent.
Just how transparent and clean they were, his own figure was breathing inside them.
He let out a fleeting snicker.
‘Was it to this extent.’
The man in front was himself.
Exactly speaking, his past life self, Dokgo Gu Yeon who was called the Absolute Heavenly Demon.
The overwhelming demonic qi and presence, along with two pupils as freezing as sheets of ice, seemed to pierce through everything of those looking at him.
‘Is this why everyone who had an exclusive audience with me was afraid of looking at my eyes.’
Now that he faced it even just as an illusion, he could understand the hearts of those who had feared him in the past.
He narrowed his eyes while observing the false figure, the appearance of the Absolute Heavenly Demon, Dokgo Gu Yeon.
‘It will take time to reach that level.’
His current goal was his past life self.
However, he was still lacking.
Srrk…
Along with his thoughts, when he closed his eyes once and opened them, the figure of his past life scattered like dust as if he had dreamt a dream.
He lightly moved his neck left and right.
Crack… Crack…
Perhaps because he was quite stiff from continuously sitting down, he felt his body becoming noticeably lighter as the sound of bones rang from his neck.
“First, the most urgent thing is…….”
He recalled the internal energy he had examined just before.
Right now, the internal energy of the Plum Blossom Divine Art had a difference equivalent to a drop in the bucket compared to the demonic qi he had built up for a long time.
On top of that, what about his physical body?
It was a mysterious and amazing body capable of absorbing and emitting all internal energy, but it was still in a state of continuous growth.
‘It might take more time.’
When it came to internal energy, there were many methods such as spiritual medicines or internal cores.
But there was nothing he could do about his physical body.
How could one go against the providence of nature?
‘No, I did try going against it, didn’t I.’
He shrugged his shoulders.
Wasn’t it himself who had gone against the greatest providence of nature, life itself?
“Hmm, if I quickly finish growing and just accumulate internal energy, I feel like I could rapidly chase up to my past realm.”
He had confidence.
Rightfully so, despite his body being unstable and his internal energy being ridiculously lacking, he had surpassed the Limitless Realm and reached the Heavenly Martial Realm with martial learning alone.
But if he finished his growth on top of that?
There was nothing easier in the world than walking down a path one had already walked.
“In the end, is time the only answer.”
He could not predict when it would be.
But what could he do?
Since that was the only solution.
He had to patiently wait until his current body finished growing.
“There’s nothing I can do right now.”
He flopped down on the bed.
Then suddenly a thought came to mind, and a faint smile hovered around his mouth.
“I want to unfold other forms as well, aren’t other bastards going to come today?”
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