Chapter 98: Chapter 98
The moment Zhuge Seong-hyeon and his party left the accommodation they had been guided to last night.
“Infinite Life Buddha.”
A Daoist title was heard.
In that place, a cold-looking female Daoist stood with a blunt expression.
“I am Seol Ran, a second-generation disciple of the Mount Hua Sect, who will be guiding everyone today.”
Zhuge Seong-hyeon also took a fist-palm salute in greeting.
“I am Zhuge Seong-hyeon of the Zhuge Clan.”
The female Daoist Seol Ran scanned Zhuge Seong-hyeon and the party one by one and moved her lips.
“Martial Uncle Cheon-hwi is waiting for you all. Please follow me.”
With those words, Seol Ran turned her body and walked somewhere as if urging them.
“Third Young Master.”
“Let’s follow.”
The party was flustered by the suddenly unfolding situation, but they matched their steps with Zhuge Seong-hyeon who followed behind her.
Zhuge Seong-hyeon asked her.
“Young Miss. May I know where we are going right now?”
“It is Dorimpyeong.”
“Dorimpyeong……?”
Zhuge Sang-hyeon, who had no idea what kind of place Dorimpyeong was, tilted his head.
“What kind of place is that?”
At that moment, Seol Ran turned her head.
Her lips, which had been staring at Zhuge Sang-hyeon with a blunt expression, parted slightly, and soon spilled a cold voice.
“It is the martial arts training ground of the second-generation disciples.”
“Is that so?”
The conversation was abruptly cut off.
And Seol Ran, who thought that was enough of an answer, turned her head again and took the step she had briefly stopped.
Crunch crunch.
Zhuge Sang-hyeon muttered while looking at Seol Ran’s back as she walked, leaving footprints in the snow.
“She doesn’t seem like a Daoist at all.”
At Zhuge Sang-hyeon’s very quiet words, the party nodded their heads and agreed.
Along with her blunt expression, her voice that struck their ears was cold enough to be chilling, like a sheet of ice.
In the subtle silence, as Seol Ran and the party walked along the snow-covered path for a moment, Zhuge Seong-hyeon felt a slight sense of disparity.
‘We haven’t encountered anyone.’
The distance from the accommodation to here was quite long, but they hadn’t encountered a single other person.
He frowned and scratched his head.
He knew well that the Mount Hua Sect had almost fallen, but wasn’t this excessive?
‘There are footprints, though.’
There were many footprints carved into the snow.
But there was no one.
He scratched his head and looked around.
No matter if the current time was just after sunrise and the time to train, it was too quiet even if it was quiet.
‘Is something wrong?’
Crunch…
Just then, Seol Ran stopped her footsteps.
And then she pointed somewhere.
“That place is Dorimpyeong.”
Following the extended pure white index finger, their gazes slowly moved.
“Such a beautiful place.”
“It’s a spectacular view.”
The party let out exclamations of admiration.
Under the sunlight that was just showing the sunrise, the pure white snow mountain was sparkling, and below it existed a vast martial arts training ground.
Around the time they were looking at the spectacular view like a painting in a daze.
“Then please follow me.”
Seol Ran took a step again.
Following that, how long had it been since the party also followed her, around the time Dorimpyeong got closer.
Halt…
Zhuge Sang-hyeon stopped his footsteps.
“Third Young Master?”
“Why are you doing that?”
The party who had been going side by side together asked while looking at Zhuge Sang-hyeon who suddenly stopped his feet.
“Shh.”
Zhuge Sang-hyeon put his index finger over his lips with a serious expression.
And then he narrowed his eyes.
“Do you hear that sound?”
“Pardon?”
“I hear a strange sound from that place.”
The party was flustered and pricked up their ears.
And when they concentrated their minds.
“Ugh, ugh ugh…….”
A bizarre sound was heard from afar.
As if suffering from an illness.
Yes, it sounded like a groan.
“What is this…….”
Around the time everyone in the party was flustered.
“Kuaaak!”
A scream swept over them.
“……!”
“Huh?!”
“Wh-what is happening?”
Zhuge Seong-hyeon and the rest of the party were flustered and quickly moved towards the scream, but froze at the sight that appeared.
“Third Young Master!”
The party of the Zhuge Clan glared their eyes and protected Zhuge Sang-hyeon as if wrapping around him.
“How could this be!”
Zhuge Sang-hyeon’s pupils shook.
Above the martial arts training ground was a chaotic hell.
Most of the young Daoists were wriggling while lying flat, and some were twisting their bodies and suffering.
And next to them, a middle-aged Daoist and an old man who looked like physicians were moving here and there, checking their pulses.
‘Just who could have done this to the Mount Hua Sect……!’
In an instant, cold sweat flowed.
Clearly, until yesterday, the Mount Hua Sect was peaceful.
However, in just one night, most of the disciples were in a state of combat incapability.
And there were very few places in the Jianghu that could cause such an incident.
‘From the Flying Heaven Society? No, in the current situation, there is no way the Flying Heaven Society would make a move. Then the Four Black Alliances……?’
A stream of sweat flowed down his forehead.
He had come to make a request, but he ended up getting involved in a massive incident.
‘To think something like this would happen right when I came to make a request.’
Zhuge Sang-hyeon gulped down his saliva.
Since it had already penetrated this deeply, it was a situation where it was difficult to escape any further.
‘We have to join forces.’
He quickly scanned the disciples of the Mount Hua Sect.
Most were incapable of combat, though.
There were some Daoists performing breathing techniques to circulate their qi. However, they also looked quite haggard and seemed to have no strength at all.
It was not just their haggard appearances.
A stench that seemed to exude from them drifted in the air and tormented his nose.
“Ugh, what is this stench…….”
The party protecting him also frowned heavily, having perhaps smelled the stench as well.
‘Th-this smell is!’
Zhuge Sang-hyeon’s face turned pale blue.
“Everyone, cover your noses!”
“Pardon?”
“It’s poison!”
At Zhuge Sang-hyeon’s urgent shout, the party widened their eyes and held their breaths.
‘Of all things, this poisonous herb……!’
His expression gradually grew serious.
The smell drifting in the air was a stench he also knew well.
Mountain Arsenic!
It was because it was an extreme poison frequently used by that bastard from the Sichuan Tang Clan whom he was close with.
‘Have they gone crazy! Using such an extreme poison means they intend to wage a war!’
Zhuge Sang-hyeon’s hands trembled.
If it was an enemy who would use poison on the Mount Hua Sect, they would at least be aiming for annihilation.
“What are you doing?”
At the voice that suddenly interrupted from the side, Zhuge Sang-hyeon flinched and turned his head.
Cheon-hwi was there.
Cheon-hwi was looking at the party who were currently blocking their mouths with both hands with an absurd face.
‘What kind of act are they doing?’
Zhuge Sang-hyeon hastily moved his hands.
“Yes?”
Even at the question, Zhuge Sang-hyeon made urgent hand gestures while blocking his mouth with both hands.
“Mmph! Mmph!”
Watching the hand gestures urgently moving here and there, Cheon-hwi furrowed his eyebrows.
“Why don’t you speak?”
Seeing Cheon-hwi who didn’t understand at all, Zhuge Sang-hyeon quickly parted his lips.
“Poison!”
“What? Poison? I wondered what it was again. Making a fuss over something so trivial.”
Along with those words, he immediately waved his hand.
At that moment, a gentle wind arose and chased away the poisonous smoke in a single breath.
“There, right?”
As the poisonous scent piercing his nose disappeared, Zhuge Sang-hyeon exhaled the breath he had been holding.
“Then let’s go make the gateway now.”
“Wh-what are you talking about? We’ve been attacked right now…….”
“Attacked? What attack?”
At Cheon-hwi’s overly calm appearance, Zhuge Sang-hyeon and the rest of the party were flustered.
“Then why are the fallen…….”
Seeing him pointing at the second-generation disciples with his finger, Cheon-hwi spoke nonchalantly.
“They are training.”
“Pardon……?”
When Zhuge Sang-hyeon, who didn’t understand at all, was staring blankly, Hyeon-cheong approached.
“Infinite Life Buddha. You must be the guests from the Zhuge Clan who visited our mountain yesterday.”
At Hyeon-cheong’s sudden appearance, Zhuge Sang-hyeon was startled and took a fist-palm salute.
“I am Zhuge Sang-hyeon of the Zhuge Clan.”
“Hoho, I am Hyeon-cheong.”
“Nice to mee…… Ah, no. More importantly, what in the world has happened?”
Zhuge Sang-hyeon, who was exchanging greetings with Hyeon-cheong, belatedly came to his senses and reacted.
“R-right now, to say that sight is not an attack but training…….”
“Hoho, it is training indeed.”
Hyeon-cheong laughed awkwardly.
It wasn’t just Zhuge Seong-hyeon, but if he himself had seen this situation without knowing anything, he would have thought they were attacked.
When not only Cheon-hwi but even Hyeon-cheong said it was training, Zhuge Seong-hyeon was flustered.
“Th-then why are they poisoned?”
“That is a secret.”
“It seems the Zhuge Clan strictly pries into the training methods of other sects.”
Hyeon-cheong spoke, and Cheon-hwi added.
At the words of the two people that pierced sharply like thorns, Zhuge Seong-hyeon flinched.
After that, he didn’t ask further and accepted it.
“……I understand.”
Cheon-hwi spoke to Zhuge Seong-hyeon, who was about to fall into thought with a somewhat complicated face.
“More importantly, let’s go now.”
“Go? Where do you mean?”
“To the place where we will make the gateway.”
* * *
A short while later, Cheon-hwi, Zhuge Seong-hyeon, and his party arrived at a cave in Mount Hua.
“To think we would come to this place.”
Zhuge Seong-hyeon let out an exclamation of admiration.
The place where he was currently standing was precisely Mount Hua Sect’s Cave Heaven Geonwondong.
As one of the Four Great Cave Heavens of Mount Hua imbued with the greatest spiritual energy in Mount Hua, it was a place with rarer footsteps than the other three Cave Heavens used for closed-door cultivation.
‘I thought I wouldn’t even be able to come to the Mount Hua Sect in this life.’
Even if one visited the Mount Hua Sect, the Four Great Cave Heavens were places difficult to enter, but since he got to enter one of them, he was deeply moved.
“Oh oh!”
Zhuge Sang-hyeon, who was touching the considerably sized entrance with an excited expression, opened his mouth.
“By the way, is it okay to use this place as a gateway?”
Zhuge Seong-hyeon was cautious.
Even at a glance, the cave emanated a miraculous energy, and a long history could be felt.
However, if they used this place as a gateway, it might ruin that history.
“Yes.”
Cheon-hwi answered quietly.
‘It was hard to persuade them.’
From the time he made the plan to create the Plum Blossom Seven Gateways, the location had already been decided.
The Four Great Cave Heavens of Mount Hua.
It was because there was no other place than there.
‘Because a miraculous energy is needed to properly activate the formation.’
Was the Heavenly Demon Ten Gateways an ordinary gateway?
It was the crystallization that gathered all kinds of demonic paths created in the Age of Myths, and the gateway that created the current Heavenly Demon Cult.
Therefore, the mechanisms and formations in each gateway were so incredibly powerful that a miraculous energy was required to activate them.
‘It wasn’t built in the most miraculous cave among the Tianshan Mountains for nothing.’
He recalled the entrance of the Heavenly Demon Ten Gateways.
A place that was chilling as if it was the entrance to hell, while also exuding the aura of death.
Cheon-hwi’s gaze headed towards Geonwondong.
The spiritual energy he felt was distinctly weaker than the Heavenly Demon Ten Gateways, but he paid it no mind.
‘Because the energy I felt back then was demonic energy accumulated as time flowed. This time, the Plum Blossom Seven Gateways will also change as time flows.’
Cheon-hwi moved his head.
“This place, with my own hands…….”
Cheon-hwi spoke to Zhuge Seong-hyeon, who was touching the wall of the cave with a rejoicing expression.
“Then let’s begin.”
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