Chapter 435 The Ruins of an Old Castle (3)

[The ruins of an old castle… You know where that is, Ryu So-wol.]

-A place where those who revered martial arts gathered to form a high castle. The foundation where the legends of the old martial arts world lived and breathed.

[Cough cough… Indeed, you know it better.]

-So where is he? Don’t think about deceiving me. If you do, you’ll accompany this seat to the depths of hell.

At Cheong-ryeong’s threat, the Heaven and Earth Society Leader coughed up blood, then gave a bitter smile and said,

[Hell… If that’s what you want, as a member of the Heaven Vein, I have no reason to refuse. Cough cough. But have you ever thought that the world we’re living in now might be more hellish?]

-……

[I seem to have said something unnecessary. Ghost Blade… Haa… Ghost Blade reported that he’s waiting in a bamboo forest not far from the ruins of the old castle.]

-Bamboo forest? You mean a bamboo grove?

[That’s right. If you take this… this on my belt… he’ll know I sent you.]

Being unable to move due to being restrained by Cheong-ryeong’s spiritual energy, he gestured with his eyes towards the belt at his waist.

The Society Leader’s token was attached to the belt.

Seeing this, Cheong-ryeong suddenly recalled what Poison King Baek Sa-ha had told Mok Gyeong-un when she was inside the wooden doll.

He had said that while competing with him, he had asked to deliver that token to the Society Leader.

Is that the medium through which the Society Leader can move Ghost Blade?

As Cheong-ryeong had reached the extreme of her rank and could directly affect matter with her spirit body, she easily collected his token.

After collecting it, she asked,

-But there’s something I don’t understand.

[Cough cough… What is it?]

-About Ghost Blade.

[……]

-He obtained the forbidden technique, so why is he staying there instead of sending it to you?

At her question striking the core of the matter, the Heaven and Earth Society Leader remained silent with a strange expression for a moment before speaking.

[That’s……]

***

Seven days later.

‘Found it.’

As a spirit body, she could freely traverse the sky and didn’t need to eat or sleep, so she was able to reach the northern part of Shaanxi Province in just seven days.

If she could have fully exerted her spiritual power during the day as well, she would have arrived even faster.

Even though she had reached the extreme of her rank, prolonged exposure to the sun, the peak of yang energy, would inevitably weaken her spirit body composed purely of yin energy, no matter how powerful she was.

‘What are those?’

Unexpectedly, the bamboo-hatted man presumed to be Ghost Blade was fighting with dozens of martial artists.

However, seeing him, Cheong-ryeong couldn’t help but be inwardly surprised.

She knew he was one of the Eight Stars, the highest masters in the current martial arts world, and that he belonged to the highest rank of the Secret Society, but this was unexpected.

-Swoosh! Swoosh!

He was killing enemies with a single strike, aiming only for their vital points with minimal movement.

There wasn’t a single unnecessary or wasted motion.

As long as no variables arose from the enemies’ combined attacks, he efficiently killed most of them with a single sword strike.

But what impressed Cheong-ryeong was that this sword technique had not a shred of defense.

It consisted only of offense.

It was a sword technique that risked one’s own life to ensure the enemy’s death, or rather, annihilation.

‘A sword technique that disregards one’s own safety…’

In a sense, he had mastered a truly dangerous sword technique.

However, he was overcoming this single weakness in one way.

‘… He’s a monster.’

He deflected all the enemies’ fatal attacks with his sword.

This was the first time she had seen such a perfect and extreme level of the Pear Blossom Grafting technique.

Now she understood why this person was called Ghost Blade (Ghost Blade).

But that wasn’t what was important.

-Swoosh!

As the bamboo-hatted man presumed to be Ghost Blade killed the last enemy, Cheong-ryeong spread her Ghost Intent Domain, the Blood Boundary.

The conditions were favorable.

Thanks to the tall bamboo forest, the surroundings were dark, and the area was overflowing with death energy from dozens of people meeting their end.

Therefore, by properly utilizing these conditions,

-Creep!

She could construct an even more powerful Ghost Intent Domain.

Her spiritual power, interlocked with the death energy of the surroundings, stained everything with blood, and soon the entire area was filled with nothing but a blood-red color.

The reason she was binding him like this, despite having brought the Society Leader’s token that could move Ghost Blade, was due to what the Society Leader had said.

[… Haa… Haa… It seems some problem occurred with him in the process of approaching the forbidden technique.]

-A problem occurred?

[I don’t know why… but I received periodic letters from him with the same content.]

-The same content?

[That’s right.]

-What was it?

[Just this: I’ve gotten closer to the source of the forbidden technique.]

-What?

[Exactly as I said. There were repeated reports stating that he had gotten closer to the source of the forbidden technique.]

-How many times?

[Twelve times.]

-!?

The Heaven and Earth Society Leader said that Ghost Blade had sent secret messages with the same content a total of twelve times, almost every five days.

Because there were eyes from the Secret Society monitoring, retrieving secret messages usually happened once a month, but as the Elder Council began to move in earnest, they were forced to retrieve them in the second month.

When the two months’ worth of secret messages retrieved in this way contained the same report at five-day intervals, the Heaven and Earth Society Leader couldn’t help but find it strange.

[… Originally, I planned to go there myself once internal matters of the society were settled, but now it seems you, Ryu So-wol, must uncover the secret of these repetitive messages.]

Recalling those words of the Society Leader, Cheong-ryeong came to one conclusion.

Although she didn’t know what the secret was, if Ghost Blade had betrayed the Society Leader or if some problem had occurred with him personally that would cause them to lose him, they wouldn’t be able to find out anything. So, the priority was to subdue him somehow.

With this in mind, she opened the Blood Boundary and moved the blood.

-Creep!

Countless blood thorns sprouted from within the bloodied area.

These sprouted blood thorns all rushed towards the bamboo-hatted man presumed to be Ghost Blade.

-Whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh!

The bamboo-hatted man drew the sword he had half-sheathed against the incoming thorns.

A flash of sword light flowed out like lightning, and in an instant, the red blood thorns covering the bamboo-hatted man split and melted back into blood.

‘Yes, you should at least manage that much.’

Her rank was incomparable to before.

While coming here without rest, her anger that had been burning like fire had somewhat calmed down, so her spiritual power wasn’t maximized to the extent she had shown at the Heaven and Earth Society. But in her normal state, she had become powerful enough to face at least one of the Seven Heavens.

-Splash!

In an instant, two hands emerged from the blood and grabbed the bamboo-hatted man’s ankles, pulling him.

This caused the bamboo-hatted man to lose his balance and start falling backward.

At that moment, spears made of blood shot out towards the bamboo-hatted man’s hands and thighs.

However,

-Thud!

-Pat!

The bamboo-hatted man, who was about to fall, arched his back, thrust his sword into the ground, and using it as a support, flipped his body while pushing off with his sword-holding hand to lift himself up.

As the bamboo-hatted man swung his sword-formed fingers in that state,

-Swoosh swoosh swoosh!

Sharp sword energy flowed out, cutting through the spears she had created from blood.

The bamboo-hatted man made a gesture of pulling with his hand, and the sword stuck in the ground flew out and was drawn into his hand.

-Tap!

Gripping the sword, the bamboo-hatted man immediately unleashed sword energy in all directions.

-Swoosh swoosh swoosh swoosh swoosh!

The blue sword energy that flew out split the blood staining the surroundings, threatening to destroy the Blood Boundary.

As it split, for a moment, part of the real world—the bamboo forest—was briefly revealed instead of the Blood Boundary, but soon the blood covered it again.

‘Is this not enough?’

However, having confirmed that the world created by spiritual power could be dispelled by strong true qi, the bamboo-hatted man flew towards one area covered in blood.

-Rumble!

The size of the sword energy emanating from his sword grew to nearly five jang.

But it didn’t end there; the sword energy that had grown so large began to condense, becoming an even deeper blue.

‘That won’t do.’

Realizing that he was trying to forcibly cut through the Blood Boundary by concentrating his energy to the maximum, Cheong-ryeong then,

-Swoosh!

Emerged from the blood and manifested.

Blood clung to the long pipe in Cheong-ryeong’s hand, forming the shape of a sword.

She gathered spiritual power infused with resentment into the blood-formed sword, and that energy was comparable to the condensed sword energy of the bamboo-hatted man.

Just as the sword made of spiritual power and the condensed sword energy were about to clash,

“Hup.”

Suddenly, the bamboo-hatted man forcibly stopped swinging his sword.

If one simply tries to forcibly stop while moving their body vigorously, the residual force of that action would directly impact oneself, causing strain on the body.

Let alone in this situation, where he had raised his energy to the point of condensing sword energy, forcibly stopping it would,

-Crack! Crack!

Along with the sound of muscles twisting in the bamboo-hatted man’s body, the hand holding the sword began to shake violently.

The palm gripping the sword hilt was torn, causing blood to flow.

Cheong-ryeong couldn’t understand his behavior.

What is happened was his intention?

So,

-Swoosh!

Cheong-ryeong likewise stopped swinging the blood sword made of spiritual power.

Unlike him who had a physical body, she, being a spirit body, didn’t experience strain from stopping the force she had exerted.

Cheong-ryeong, who had stopped the blood sword right in front of the bamboo-hatted man’s neck, asked with puzzlement,

-Why did you stop your sword?

At her question, the bamboo-hatted man, who had been silent for a moment, finally spoke.

“So you really were freed.”

-What?

“For your rank as a vengeful spirit to be this high in just a mere hundred years, was it your own will that freed you rather than contact with an avatar?”

‘!?’

At the bamboo-hatted man’s words, Cheong-ryeong’s expression hardened.

The Ghost Blade she knew was supposed to be a highest-ranking executive of the Secret Society, but for some reason, he had aligned his intentions with the Heaven and Earth Society Leader.

But judging from the way this person was speaking to her now, it seemed as if he knew something.

-Who are you? What exactly do you know about this seat?

“… Having just been freed from the seal, the fact that you, who should be burning with resentment, came all the way here means you must have known that person is still alive and well, and that there’s been a setback in the Society Leader’s plans.”

At his words, Cheong-ryeong’s eyes sharpened.

She had thought that even if she went a bit further, it would only be related to the death of Jang Munno, Mok Gyeong-un’s grandfather and the society leader, but it seemed that wasn’t the case.

To show this level of insight, being able to grasp the situation to this extent with just simple information, one would need to know a lot.

Eventually, the corners of Cheong-ryeong’s mouth lifted.

-It seems I’ll learn a lot if I make you open your mouth.

“……”

-Choose whether it would be better for me to force it open or for you to open it yourself.

-Swoosh!

Cheong-ryeong showed him the token she had received from the Society Leader.

Seeing this, the bamboo-hatted man presumed to be Ghost Blade maintained silence for a moment.

Then, letting out a faint sigh, he said,

“The fact that you brought that means you either received it willingly from him or forcibly took it.”

-If it were the latter, how do you think I would have known your location?

“Even that person, now that he’s close to the traces of the forbidden technique, finding this place is no longer difficult.”

The bamboo-hatted man gestured with his chin towards the corpses scattered on the ground.

The fact that these people had come here meant that even the Secret Society had finally discovered traces of the forbidden technique.

-Hmph, then if I say I know about you repeatedly sending the same secret message, would you think it’s the former?

“Repeatedly… sending the same secret message? What do you mean?”

The bamboo-hatted man frowned, asking in a tone of incomprehension.

At this, Cheong-ryeong said,

-They say you kept sending secret messages repeatedly saying you’ve gotten closer to the traces of the forbidden technique. This should be enough… You… Why are you acting like this?

‘!?’

As the bamboo-hatted man showed signs of bewilderment, Cheong-ryeong couldn’t hide her puzzlement.

The man was quietly repeating something, and it sounded like he was saying “It can’t be.”

Why on earth is he acting like this?

At that moment,

-Woong woong woong!

Cheong-ryeong looked around with surprised eyes.

This was because she was still maintaining the Ghost Intent Domain, the Blood Boundary, but she could see the surrounding spaces suddenly bending.

Wondering what this phenomenon was, eventually,

-Crack crack crack crack!

Surprisingly, beyond the space distorting, her Blood Boundary was forcibly shattered.

She had prided herself on how difficult it would be to break easily due to her strengthened spiritual power, but what on earth was happening?

Even the bamboo forest revealed after the Blood Boundary broke was bending.

‘What is this?’

As she was puzzled, the bamboo-hatted man presumed to be Ghost Blade spoke.

“Though it looks like a simple bamboo forest, this entire bamboo grove is one big formation.”

-… You’re saying this is a formation?

“Not just a simple formation. If you look at the positions where the bamboo is planted, it’s composed of highly advanced formation patterns, not just one but hundreds concentrated together. It’s a formation that you can neither enter nor exit unless certain conditions are met.”

-Don’t tell me this is…

“Yes, this formation made up of the bamboo forest is the entrance leading to the traces of the forbidden technique.”

At that very moment,

-Crack crack crack!

The space of the bamboo forest that had been bending completely twisted into a vortex shape, and then Cheong-ryeong and the bamboo-hatted man were sucked into it.

-Swoosh!

And the moment the vortex’s distortion ended and the space returned to normal,

The bamboo-hatted man was suddenly standing alone in the middle of the bamboo forest.

As a gentle breeze blew, causing the bamboo to sway and its leaves to flutter and fall, the bamboo-hatted man, hit by this, quickly scanned the arrangement of the surrounding bamboo and muttered softly,

“I’ve finally found it. I should send a secret message.”