Chapter 107: Abyss Valley (6)
Whistle, whistle…
A blizzard raged across the vast snowfield.
The prisoners began their final work.
“Erect it! Erect it! It’s tilted!”
“Pull the rope over there a bit more!”
“Uh-oh!? It’s falling! Uaaahhhh!”
“Hold the rope properly, you crazy bastard!”
They were driving the iron stakes here and there into the snowfield.
Clang! Clang! Thud!
After cracking the ice sheet, the prisoners secured the stakes on it by tying them with ropes, and climbed onto the temporarily built retaining walls to strike down with hammers.
Crack— crack! Crunnnch!
Every time the large hammers struck down alternately, the iron stakes split the ice sheet and were driven deep inside.
Their number was already over several hundred before long.
The numerous iron stakes that the prisoners had suffered to death to manufacture in the meantime were driven all over the snowfield, creating a sight just like a maze.
Namgung Yul asked.
“Young Hero Chui. Why are you doing these tasks?”
“It is to cut off the mountain’s essence.”
Chui replied shortly.
At that moment, the eyes of Gyeon Sul, who was beside him, went wide.
“Look at that.”
“?”
Namgung Yul turned her head, following Gyeon Sul’s finger.
“!”
Soon she, too, opened her eyes wide like a rabbit.
The paths of melted snow on the snowfield were being covered in ice again.
Crack, crack, crack…
The geothermal heat rising through the thick snow was cut off.
The melted ground froze at a rapid pace, and the sprouts and flowers that had budded also completely withered and died.
Gyeon Sul and Namgung Yul trembled at the chilling goosebumps.
“You can cut off the mountain’s essence just by driving in iron stakes?”
“More precisely, it seems to block the path where the essence flows. Just like drilling a hole in the pipe of a bamboo flute to make the sound leak.”
At those words, Chui nodded.
“Artificially creating a path through which the mountain’s essence passes is difficult to the point of being nearly impossible… but ruining it is easy. Since you only have to drill a hole anywhere.”
Just as manufacturing a sweet-sounding bamboo flute is difficult, but ruining it is easy.
Hearing those words, Gyeon Sul wore a mischievous smile on his lips.
“The fellow who has been gathering the mountain’s essence all this time will probably die of a fit of anger. When he laid out the path where the essence flows while going through such extreme suffering.”
“But for what was he gathering the mountain’s essence?”
Namgung Yul tilted her head.
Gyeon Sul also shrugged his shoulders.
“How would I know? They were probably making Jiangshi or something with it. Since it is the essence of a snowy mountain, it must be cold. And Jiangshi are also made of frozen corpses.”
“If that’s the case… Young Hero Chui might have truly accomplished a great achievement. Since Jiangshi manufacturing is so dangerous that merely possessing the manual where its manufacturing method is written makes one a public enemy of the Jianghu, preventing it is equivalent to saving the entire Wulin.”
“Bah—pretty boy praise again? Your unrequited love is extremely severe.”
At Namgung Yul’s words, Gyeon Sul stuck out his tongue and scratched his side.
Whether he did so or not, Namgung Yul’s gaze looking at Chui was slowly being dyed with wonder.
* * *
Meanwhile.
‘Keep sucking up to him all you want. You bastards are going to die soon anyway.’
Gongson Ho, who was driving the iron stakes, held a fishy smile on his lips.
He stared at the mountain peak far away, standing on the retaining wall installed to drive the stakes.
…Creek! …Creek! …Creek!
The deeper the stakes were driven in, the more the rocks on the mountain peak far away seemed to shake.
It was also visible that a rock which had been far above until just now was slightly tilted by the time the stakes were fully driven in.
Gongson Ho was certain.
‘By the time these iron stakes are all driven in, an avalanche will occur.’
Every time an iron stake was driven in, the ground of the upper mountain peak grew increasingly unstable.
If this continued, an avalanche would surely occur before long and sweep this side completely clean.
Gongson Ho called his faction.
And he directed the future tasks in a low voice.
“There is no need to even drive all these iron stakes. Looking at it, the ground above has become extremely unstable. At this rate, just a few of us going up and stomping our feet a couple of times will make it collapse immediately.”
It was about time to slip away.
Gongson Ho intended to betray even the other prisoners, climb the mountain peak, and trigger the avalanche.
“Just a tiny vibration is enough. Just as a snowball at the mountain peak becomes a giant mass of snow at the bottom. What do I care about the other garbage? Let them be swept away and die together.”
With this, he would avenge his older and younger brothers.
Gongson Ho turned his head with a triumphant smile.
“Now, let’s set out… Huh?”
But he could not finish his words.
…Splat!
This was because the face of the companion he was speaking to was split horizontally and flew off.
Thud—
The area above the prisoner’s lower jaw tore away, flew off, and landed on the snow.
“?”
“?”
“?”
Gongson Ho and the rest of the prisoners raised their heads.
Standing in front of the corpse whose upper head had flown off was a tall man wrapped entirely in bandages.
He wore a blue Yaksha mask on his face.
“……Uh?”
Just when Gongson Ho was about to awaken from the unreality.
Swish, swish, swish—
Assassins wearing blue Yaksha masks appeared in front of the prisoners.
The Blue Yakshas of the Abyss Valley. They had arrived here.
Soon, beyond the blue-masked Yakshas, several red-masked Yakshas stepped down.
Their number was three in total.
The red-masked Yaksha in the very front chanted in a muddy voice.
“I wondered why the mountain’s essences were suddenly all cut off… so it was you bastards.”
The Red Yaksha. Bloodshot veins stood in his eyes visible through the mask.
“Kill them all.”
Hearing those words, the Blue Yakshas immediately began to make their moves.
Thwack, thwack, thwack!
The prisoners were still in a state of not having grasped the situation until then.
Only after a dense spray of blood entered their vision did they scream.
“Uaaahhhhh! Monsters!”
“Assassins have appeared!”
“Ch-Chui! Where is Chui!?”
The prisoners, including Gongson Ho, fled to escape the Blue Yakshas while searching for Chui.
However.
“Huh!?”
When Gongson Ho discovered Chui, Chui had already arrived halfway up the mountain peak far away.
Soon, Chui looked down at the prisoners below and left a word.
“You worked hard all this time.”
This was his return gift for the second rebellion.
Gongson Ho’s eyes widened as if they would tear.
The scene of Chui just raising his foot was slowly engraved in his eyes.
Soon.
…Boom!
Chui stomped his foot.
His sole, laden with internal energy, began to spread out while creating double, triple, quadruple, quintuple, sextuple, septuple, octuple, nonuple, and decuple ripples in the surroundings.
The surrounding snow seemed to boil up, and soon it turned into a tremendous amount of water and shot upward.
The dirt, rocks, and logs buried beneath were all pulled out, creating a massive turbid stream.
Ruuuumble!
The avalanche viewed from up close was unexpectedly not white.
A muddy brown tidal wave swept down the mountain slope with tremendous momentum.
“U-aaahhhhh!”
The prisoners screamed as they saw the flood of snow descending upon them.
It was the same for the assassins of the Abyss Valley as well.
Roaaaar!
Prisoners, assassins, all were buried in the flood of snow and vanished.
Colliding, tearing, freezing—if they passed through this series of processes, only the fair result of everyone becoming crushed frozen meat would be derived.
The only difference was that the prisoners died screaming, while the assassins died in silence.
“……! ……! ……!”
It was the same for the Red Yakshas who had been dominating the entire snowfield until just now.
The three Red Yakshas stepped on the bodies of the other Blue Yakshas and leapt upward as high as possible, but in the end, they could not avoid the tidal wave of pouring gravel, wood fragments, snow, and dirt, and were swept away.
The last Red Yaksha fleeing until the very end also eventually got caught in the turbid stream.
Crack— snap! Crunch!
The red Yaksha mask shattered, revealing the face of an old man inside.
Even that was quickly struck by a rock and flattened.
Shhhhhhh—
When even an individual of the Red Yaksha level turned into a blood clot and died in an instant, there was no way the Blue Yakshas or prisoners could survive.
…Splat!
Struck by a lump of ice, Gongson Ho’s skull burst.
He got caught in the turbid stream like a kite with its string cut, and soon his limbs were torn as he was swept in different directions.
All the assassins and prisoners were buried under the snow and swept away, disappearing below the cliff of the plain before long.
Rumble, rumble…
Nothing living remained on the entirely dirtied snowfield.
* * *
The snow fell once more.
The heavily falling snow thinly covered the dirtied snowfield.
Crunch, crunch, crunch—
Chui stepped down onto the quiet and clean field.
Gyeon Sul and Namgung Yul opened their mouths halfway.
“It seems as if nothing had happened.”
“The scenery is exactly the same as earlier. Like a lie…”
It was as if everything that had happened here just now was a lie.
Who would ever think of this place as one where over a hundred people were massacred just half an hour ago?
Meanwhile, Chui was quietly examining the snowfield.
“…….”
The mountain’s essence was cut off, and the assassins were massacred.
Extracting the essence of the snowy mountain to make Jiangshi would be impossible now.
It would take at least several decades to put the work back on its original track.
They say a tower built with effort does not collapse, but in truth, nothing collapses as easily as a tower built with effort.
Aren’t all affairs in the world just like that?
“Since the tower built with effort has collapsed, there must be a fellow who is angry now.”
There must be a fellow who tried to do something by manufacturing Jiangshi.
And he must surely be extremely angry.
“Since he is angry, he will come rushing out.”
Chui said.
And as soon as those words ended, precisely.
…Boom!
A loud explosion was heard from the entrance of the cave far away.
Roaaaar!
From the entrance of the cave to here, the accumulated snow shot upward.
It was a sight just like a giant dragon charging beneath the surface of the water.
Soon, someone fell down in front of Chui.
…Thud!
Looking at her build, she was presumed to be a woman.
She wore a wide white mourning dress and left her long white hair helplessly to the blizzard.
The Yaksha mask covering her face was a dark black.
A Black Yaksha of the Abyss Valley.
Except for the Valley Master, Old Master Abyss, the highest-ranking assassin made her appearance.
And Chui already knew her bare face and real name.
“It has been a long time, Beigong Seol.”
“……!”
Hearing Chui call her name, the Black Yaksha tilted her head.
Soon, she spoke in a flat voice.
“Do you know me?”
“…….”
More than well.
Chui recalled memories from before his return.
Corpse Ghost Beigong Seol.
The Black Yaksha who would be chased by the Abyss Valley for the crime of turning a large number of the Abyss Valley assassins into Jiangshi.
And the woman who had come to be known as the Left State Councillor of the Blood Cult since then.
However, those were not the points Chui paid the most attention to.
‘…Hong Gong’s lover.’
This was the real reason Chui had come to find her.
Unrivaled Spear Ghost