Reaper of the Drifting Moon - Chapter 35

Light Novel: Volume 2 Episode 10

Manhwa: Chapter 24 –

Mu Jeong-jin walked forward with a frown on his forehead.

Originally, he was supposed to be with his disciples, but he chose to be separated and moved alone.

‘Isn’t this strange? It’s highly unlikely that the assassins would build such a huge facility underground just to assassinate Gunsang.’

Intuitively, it didn’t make sense.

It was true that the image of Gunsang was widely recognized in Jianghu, but his reputation was still limited to Sichuan Province.

The sects such as Shaolin Temple, Mount Hua Sect, and Wudang Sect had better martial artists than Woo Gunsang. They already have an outstanding reputation, and there was a great possibility that they would be leading figures in the future.

Of course, there was also a great possibility that Woo Gunsang would grow into a leading figure in Sichuan, but his reputation was weaker than that of the disciples of the other three sects. No matter how much he thought about it, making this place just to kill Woo Gunsang made him look more special.

‘It is highly likely that the assassins discovered and utilized this facility that someone made.’

A group capable of creating such a huge facility must have had tremendous forces and power.

No matter how urgent the situation they were in, he had to know who made this place.

Because it was related to the dignity of the Qingcheng sect.

If the power that created this place still exists in Sichuan, it was clear that they would end up being a great threat to the Qingcheng sect.

That was the reason Mu Jeong-jin moved alone.

Mu Jeong-jin discovered a large iron door.

He looked around with his torch, opened the lock and then went inside.

The place he found was the dwelling place of the instructors of the Blood Shadow Group.

The dwellings of the instructors were the same as they were when they left.

Like the children, the instructors  suffered from the long hours in the underground cave. They didn’t want to take the objects associated with the underground cave to the surface. So they left most of their stuff behind.

Mu Jeong-jin looked into the rooms of the instructors one by one. But most of it just contains useless stuff. Still, without a sign of displeasure, Mu Jeong-jin meticulously searched all the rooms.

He searched all the rooms like that, and he came to the last room.

It was the residence of Lim Sayeol.

While searching for Lim Sayeol’s residence, Mu Jeong-jin found a secret compartment. It was the place where Lim Sayeol hid his important documents.

Mu Jeong-jin used his torch and read the documents one by one.

“T-These bastards!”

Mu Jeong-jin, who was reading the document in his hands, burst out in anger.

[Privy only to the Blood Shadow Group Captain.

Requesting the assassination of Woo Gunsang.

Duration: Seven years.

Reward: 500,000 gold.

Condition: Leave no traces related to the Blood Shadow Group.]

It was a note that someone commissioned for the Blood Shadow Group.

“How dare—!”

For only 500,000 gold, the Qingcheng sect lost its bright future.

Even if there was a bit of a difficulty, it did not change as much as the fact that Woo Gunsang was like a lamp that would light up the Qingcheng sect

“Euaa!”

The warrior Mu Jeong-jin, with his hair rising, blew the wall in front of him with his great intense aura.

Quarreung!

A thick wall collapsed in his powerful roar, which was loaded with all his internal energy.

Mu Jeong-jin frowned.

It was because he did not know that the wall was going to collapse due to his aura that was caused by his anger.

He led his torch through the crumbling wall.

Sssssss!

At that moment, a small noise reached Mu Jeong-jin’s ears.

Mu Jeong-jin carefully pointed his torch in the direction of the soun. The moment he confirmed the reality of the noise, Mu Jeong-jin’s body stiffened.

“What?”

He widened his eyes in disbelief.

There was a large pit where Mu Jeong-jin’s gaze was directed, and there were countless snakes entangled in it.

The sight of large and small snakes wriggling in large pools was terrifying enough to make him nauseous.

It was the first time in his life that he had seen such a sight, so he was unable to take any action for a moment.

“C…Crazy!”

He came to his senses after a while.

The snakes woke up, wriggling and weeping as if they felt the presence of Mu Jeong-jin. .

One or two would hardly be audible, but when a huge number of snakes hissed, the sound was greatly amplified making it even more terrifying.

The snakes had been hibernating for a long time, but were woken up by the sound of Mu Jeong-jin breaking the wall with his aura.

Some large snakes used each other to crawl out of the pits. However, it was not likely that they would get out immediately, so Mu Jeong-jin looked inside with confidence.

In the middle of the room was a small table. There was a high pile of dust on the table.

A yellow booklet lying on the table was revealed when Mu Jeong-jin reached the table.

The moment he checked the letters on the booklet, Mu Jeong-jin’s eyes shook.

“Nine… Demon Style (九魔流)¹?”

It was now a forgotten name.

The young martial artists of today did not even know that such a name existed. Even among the elderly warriors, only a few knew of the Nine Demon Style.

The Nine Demon Style disappeared a long time ago.

There were two great wars that decided the fate of Jianghu within hundreds of years.

The War of the Demons and Heaven (魔天大戦) and the Battle of the Blood Heaven (血天大戦).

The War of the Demons and Heaven took place only a few decades ago, while the Battle of the Blood Heaven happened much earlier than that.

And the enemies of both battles were those of who continued the name of Magyo (魔教) or the demon sect.² Although it is now a forgotten name in people’s memory, the name Magyo was once synonymous with fear.

There were Thirteen Tribes of the demon sect besides the Bonsan-Ilmaek [본산일맥(本山一脈)], and the Nine Demon School was one of those thirteen tribes.

The Thirteen Tribes were feared because they possessed a force comparable to that of the main sects. However, many of them were either destroyed during the Battle of the Blood Heaven or absorbed by the supreme-rulers³ and disappeared from the world.

The Nine Demon School was one of those sects.

Mu Jeong-jin did not know what happened to them, but their names have not been mentioned once since the Battle of the Blood Heavens.

The reason Mu Jeong-jin knew about the Nine Demon School was because the history books that were kept in the library of the Qingcheng sect contained detailed information about the situation of that time.

In the booklet, it was written that the Nine Demon School was an unpredictable and bizarre sect.

Just like the name Nine Demon School, there were nine different demon powers within the sect, and they dealt with bizarre techniques and demon practices rather than traditional martial arts.

“Is this the secret base or stronghold of the Nine Demon School?”

If it was the base of the Nine Demon School, a tribe of the demon sect, and not anything else, then everything makes sense.

“Then did the assassins accidentally find and use this empty space hat the Nine Demon School left?”

Mu Jeong-jin read the booklet.

The booklet describes the process of studying various poisons and an unknown monster.

The content of the book was so vast that it was impossible to understand all of it with just one glance.

Still, one thing was certain.

The fact that Nine Demon School was especially obsessed with snakes.

The snakes wriggling in the pit were laboriously collected from all over the world by the Nine Demon School to study them. However, when Nine Demon School left this place, it was clear that they had no choice but to abandon it.

“Nine Demon School— I might have to check it out as soon as I get back to the main sect.”

Mu Jeong-jin placed the booklet in his arms and left.

Now that he found out the identity of the underground cave, he had to go back in catching the assassin.

* * *

The faces of the Emei sect’s disciples, as they walked holding on to their torches, were full of tension.

Even the thick darkness did not completely hide their fears.

It was the first time since they were born that they were placed in a darkness so thick. They never imagined that they would be able to step into such a vast dark space. It was an unknown space that they had never even imagined.

So they had to be more careful by taking one step at a time.

“Come on, can’t you move?”

If it wasn’t for Jeonghwa, who was following them with a ferocious voice from behind, they wouldn’t have been able to even move like this.

Jeonghwa encouraged the younger disciples.

Her face was filled with an anxious light.

A sense of crisis filled her mind that all of their secrets would be revealed if the assassin was not found and eliminated faster than the Qingcheng sect.

She was thinking of killing Pyo-wol.

In the midst of her thoughts, the Emei disciples increased the speed of their search. But the underground cave was more extensive than they could have imagined.

How could such a large space exist underground?

Besides, it was incredibly dark.

Without a torch, they could not even tell what was in front of them.

No matter how elite the disciples of the Emei sect was, their power was inevitably dispersed as they searched such a wide area.

However, since the Emei disciples were so concentrated on the search, they did not even realize that fact. Aiming for that moment while hiding in the dark, a red-eyed assassin began to move.

Pyo-wol was reclining in a hollow above the wall of the underground cave.

From where he sat, the movements of the Emei warriors were clearly visible. They were chasing his trail noisily as they moved with their torches to and fro.

They were trying to capture Pyo-wol, but their movement was actually being exposed.

Pyo-wol’s first target of assassination was the warrior at the forefront.

He was a martial artist named Gong-un⁴, a second generation disciple of the Emei sect.

Gong-un was a martial artist who came in when the Guhwasata, the Abbess of Nine Calamities⁵, started accepting male students. He showed talent enough to break through the walls of Geumnam⁶, and since he was also tenacious, he was moderated by Guhwasata.

The reason why Gong-un took the lead was to show his presence by using this opportunity. Despite the fact that the wall preventing men from joining the sect was broken, discrimination still existed between the male and female disciples.

‘If I make a substantial contribution this time, they will pass on the vision of Emei to me…’

At that moment, the thoughts of Gong-un were suddenly cut off.

Even his eyes that had been burning with ambition lost focus.

The dagger, which silently cut through Gong-un’s cervical vertebrae, stopped his breathing at once.

There was no screaming, no commotion.

Pyo-wol came with darkness and took his life in an instant.

“Oh!”

“Junior brother Gong-un!”

By the time the warriors who followed Gong-un noticed what happened, Pyo-wol had already come close to them.

Pyo-wol, who approached at a frightening speed without leaving a trace, snapped their necks in an instant.Pyo-wol injected his internal energy into the Cheonjamsa thread and pulled it with all his might.

Tududuk!

The warrior’s heads that separated from their neck floated before falling on the floor.

Darkness obscured the terrible scenery.

Pyo-wol, who killed three Emei disciples in an instant, hid himself in the dark again.

“Gong-un has been killed by the assassin!”

“Everyone, watch your surroundings!”

A commotion broke out among the warriors of the Emei sect, who belatedly noticed Gong-un’s death.

The chaos was a golden opportunity for Pyo-Wol.

He mingled silently among the Emei disciples.

Although his outfit was a little different, it was not a problem because the darkness covered it. There was an opponent right next to them, but the disciples of the Emei sect remained unaware of that fact.

They would not have imagined that Pyo-wol would dare to blend proudly among them. However, Pyo-wol’s audacity exceeded their imagination.

The Emei disciples could only see ahead by relying on torches, but it was different for Pyo-wol. Even in the dark, he could see like it was noon.

The difference decided their life and death.

Puuc!

Pyo-wol wrapped his forearm around the neck of the warrior who was right next to him. The warrior who was startled by the sudden tightening of his breath, grabbed the sword in reverse and tried to stab it toward the back. But before the sword could hit him, Pyo-wol already twisted the man’s neck.

Touduk!

The man’s breath was cut off with an eerie sound of his bone fracturing.

Pyo-wol was relentless.

He mingled among the Emei disciples and assassinated them to his heart’s content.

In an instant, more than 20 Emei sect’s disciples lost their lives to Pyo-wol.

Jeonghwa, who recognized the severity of the situation late, shouted.

“All of you, gather together! He’s hiding among us!”

The Emei disciples hurriedly gathered around Jeonghwa.

Pyo-wol followed them to the end and took two more by the throat.

“Kouck!”

“Greuk!”

The Emei sect’s disciples put on a fearful expression at the sight of the warriors who fell with foam on their mouths. A tremendous fear came crashing down like a tidal wave and engulfed their hearts.

“Kuagh! I can’t…”

“H–How could this happen?!”

The faces of the Emei warriors were all white.

‘This is not good.’

Yong Seol-ran said as she looked at the faces of the disciples.

Despite Jeonghwa’s encouragement, the disciples’ morale was already running low.

As she had expected, this was the domain of Pyo-wol.

He was using everything here to hunt the disciples of Emei to his heart’s content.

‘If it goes on like this, there will definitely be more victims.’

Yong Seol-ran’s talent was real. Her martial arts had already reached a level comparable to that of the famous masters of Sichuan. Considering her age, it was an astonishing achievement.

But even with that kind of ability, she couldn’t detect Pyo-wol.

Pyo-wol was darkness itself.

His ability to use darkness and chaos was unparalleled, which no one dared to imitate.

He infiltrated the Emei disciples, fostering division and a sense of crisis. And because of that, the Emei warriors lost their reason in fear and went back and forth.

Jeonghwa tried to sort out the chaos, but it was in vain. She was already losing control of the disciples.

In Yong Seol-ran’s eyes, it looked like a sinking ship.

‘If we keep going like this, we’ll end up getting stuck. We have to join forces with the warriors of the Qingcheng sect at least once.’

She hurriedly looked around. However, the place where they went, none of the disciples of the Qingcheng sect could be seen.

That was then.

Poeng!

Suddenly, a firecracker went off in the middle of the Emei disciples.

As sparks splattered in all directions along with the explosion, the Eneu disciples were startled and scattered all over the place.

“Oh no! Gather everyone!”

Jeonghwa shouted loudly, but to no avail.

Her voice is not heard by the disciples of Emei, who were lost in their confusion and fear.

“Everyone gather around the mansion!”

Yong Seol-ran also shouted until  her throat was about to burst. But her cry was to no avail.

At that moment, Yong Seol-ran’s eyes saw a dark shadow seeping through the Emei disciples.

Ciit!

“Keuk!”

Someone’s screams continued to rip through the darkness.