Chapter 111: Abyss Valley (10)

Clatter-clatter-clatter!

As the iron chain was pulled, the length of the spear shortened.

Chui immediately retrieved the Plum Blossom Ghost Spear and collapsed onto the edge of the opposite cliff just like that.

Crash! Roll, roll, roll…

Daggers were embedded all over his body, except for his vital points.

Chui stood up looking just like a dark-red porcupine, and brushed off the snow on his body.

If he was unlucky, he would not escape freezing to death despite having avoided all his vital points.

‘Was there even poison applied?’

He was feeling a sort of stinging sensation from the tips of the daggers embedded in his body.

Come to think of it, these were daggers used by an assassin, so it would indeed be strange if there was no poison.

Chhhhhhh…

The spear ghost in his dantian quickly moved through his body, burning away and eliminating the poison.

Obliterating everything that entered his body, whether it was medicinal energy or poison.

This was also one of the side effects of Spear Ghost Calling.

Chui leaned on the ground with his spear and then turned his head.

Around that time.

…Thump!

From below the cliff, a sound like the one made when mincing meat drifted up.

Beigong Xue. She was collapsed on top of a rock protruding halfway down the cliff.

Red blood flowed from her severed left shoulder and right instep, soaking the snow.

Her remaining right arm and left foot were also seen bent in strange directions.

However, her primary cause of death was a spear wound gouged between her eyebrows, about the length and depth of a finger.

“…….”

He had to perform a finishing blow, but no strength remained.

This was because he had poured all his strength into delivering the final blow just moments ago.

‘She seems to have been the strongest among those I have killed since my regression.’

Staff Ghost Gu Gang-ryong, Northern Palace Elder Namgung Paeng-saeng, Hegemon Society Master Do Mak-saeng, and Tiger Butcher Ga Jeong-maeng—each and every one of them was a formidable opponent whose victory or defeat could not be fully guaranteed even if they fought again.

Yet despite that, the corpse ghost Beigong Xue was by far the most troublesome opponent.

‘It was fortunate that the spear hit between her eyebrows; had it missed even slightly, I would have been the one fallen down that cliff.’

For even though she had exploded that massive amount of internal energy all at once, she had only left a wound about a finger deep.

If he had met her with the blood jiangshis in a completed state, he would not have been able to graze even the hem of her sleeve.

At that moment.

“Hey! Pretty boy! Are you okay!?”

Gyeon Sul landed beside Chui.

He immediately placed his palm against Chui’s back and poured in his own internal energy.

Thanks to the internal strength Gyeon Sul sent, the cold energy that had invaded Chui’s body was rapidly dispersing.

Once the blood that was about to freeze solid thawed moderately, color finally returned to Chui’s face.

Meanwhile, Gyeon Sul clicked his tongue as he looked at Beigong Xue’s corpse in front of him.

“You were a hundred paces away, so how on earth did you catch up to this? Pretty boy, you… was lightfootwork really your specialty?”

“Make sure she is dead first. Quickly.”

“Huh? O-Okay.”

Hearing Chui’s words, Gyeon Sul moved immediately.

…Swish!

In the blink of an eye, Gyeon Sul climbed down the cliff and arrived in front of Beigong Xue’s corpse.

Slash-crack!

The Dog-Head Guillotine sliced the hard ice.

Beigong Xue’s corpse, which was lying on the ice, was hacked into dozens of pieces and scattered.

Only then did Chui also nod.

“That is enough.”

Beigong Xue’s soul became a spear ghost and entered Chui’s dantian.

Yet, perhaps because he still could not feel at ease, Gyeon Sul kicked Beigong Xue’s fragments down the cliff, each toward a different direction.

Right at that moment.

“Ohohohoho—”

A hearty laugh drifted from up ahead.

“……!”

Gyeon Sul, who was climbing back up the cliff, was startled and raised his Dog-Head Guillotine.

Chui also turned his head.

Beyond the snowy field. Beyond the snow carried by the wind, something like a red shadow was flickering.

The moment he saw it, Chui intuitively knew.

There was no way another being could emit such ominous demonic energy.

“Hong Gong.”

As soon as the name was called, the laughter abruptly stopped.

Soon, the shadow spoke.

“……Since you have severed my left arm, I will surely return this favor someday.”

Because the sound of the wind was fierce, the voice sounded like a faint auditory hallucination.

Thus, it was impossible to tell whether it belonged to an old man, a young person, a man, or a woman.

“Who the hell is that!?”

Gyeon Sul threw the Dog-Head Guillotine at the red shadow with all his might, but it was in vain.

The Dog-Head Guillotine traced a wild arc and embedded itself into the icy ground, and there was nothing there.

The red shadow had suddenly vanished like a flame.

Chui stared blankly in the direction it had disappeared for a long time.

“We will meet soon anyway. Do not bother chasing.”

“No! He was right there just now! If we chase him, we can catch him!”

“Even if you catch him, you cannot win. He is an opponent against whom I could not guarantee five exchanges even if my body were in normal condition.”

“……!”

Hearing Chui’s words, Gyeon Sul flinched.

Had Chui not just killed Beigong Xue, who was on the verge of the Transcendent Realm?

If such a Chui said there was no chance of winning, it was right to listen to his words.

Gyeon Sul asked in a whisper.

“……But why did he run away?”

“Because he is very cautious. It seems he judged that I am hiding something.”

An unintended Empty Fort Strategy had worked.

It was quite a fortunate thing for Chui.

‘Well, although I had prepared traps in my own way… he indeed leaves no openings.’

Chui clicked his tongue once as he looked in the direction Hong Gong had vanished.

In preparation for any contingencies, he had thoroughly checked the terrain in this vicinity.

Specifically, places where a single stomp of the foot could trigger a massive avalanche.

However, since Hong Gong did not fall for the provocation and ran away, he did not have to go to those places to take risks.

“Whew. Then is it roughly finished now?”

Smacking his lips, Gyeon Sul picked up his Dog-Head Guillotine.

“Is our business in the snowy mountain over with this?”

“That is about right.”

Without even pulling out the daggers embedded in his body, Chui brushed himself off and stood up.

And then, he spoke in a low voice.

“Now, only going to the Martial Alliance remains.”

Startling the snake by beating the grass.

In order to strike the Heterodox Alliance, it was necessary to draw upon the power of the Martial Alliance.

It was the second step to lure out Hong Gong, who was hiding in the Heterodox Alliance.

* * *

Namgung Yul. She was dreaming right now.

‘Ah, this is inside a dream.’

Namgung Yul realized the fact that she was inside a dream.

Naturally so, for what appeared before her eyes right now was her past self.

Boom- boom- boom- boom-

Resounding drumbeats, a blazing sacred fire.

In front of it, the past Namgung Yul was dancing a sword dance while holding the Fish Gut Sword.

In front of Namgung Yul, who was dancing with a sword, a wolf to be used as a sacrifice for the Blood Oath Ceremony was hanging.

‘Ah! If, if you go there…!’

Namgung Yul tried to reach out her hand, but for some reason, her body did not move.

Her voice as well only gasped, muffled.

Before long, the Namgung Yul on the altar was about to slice open the sacrifice’s belly.

And just as expected, the event occurred.

…Splurt!

A bloody man who leaped out from inside the wolf’s belly.

Quivering with raw muscles, drenched in fishy fresh blood, choking her neck with a violent grasp.

This was her first meeting with him, Chui.

Namgung Yul trembled at her fingertips due to a strange excitement.

She saw her own face grabbed in Chui’s hand.

A face stained with reddish light, an expression distorted by panic and terror, a body helplessly trampled and pinned down.

As a woman, and as a martial artist, something she had never experienced before in her life was happening before her eyes.

‘……Did I have that kind of face?’

It was far stranger than she remembered.

Looking at herself struggling with disheveled hair, smeared with tears and saliva, and a flushed face, she even felt a tingling and chilling sensation somewhere.

At that time, her past self spoke haltingly.

‘You…… villain…… in the middle of the…… Namgung Clan…… even after committing such a deed…… can you…… remain safe……’

Seeing that, Namgung Yul was horrified.

‘Ah!? No! If you say that…!’

And as expected, the event flowed in an orderly fashion along the horizon of memory.

Sli-de!

Chui’s tongue entered Namgung Yul’s parted mouth.

The first kiss she had ever had in her life.

Its taste was…

‘Choke!? Kyaaaaak!’

It was a spicy taste that felt as if it were burning from the tip of her tongue to the root.

“……Gasp!?”

Recalling that spicy taste, her mind suddenly snapped awake.

Whoosh—

As soon as Namgung Yul woke up from her dream, she sat bolt upright.

“W-where is this?”

She hurriedly raised her head and looked around her surroundings.

To summarize, this place was inside a carriage.

She was lying alone in the inner part of the carriage covered with a warm fur blanket, and in a corner of the carriage, two women who appeared to be maids were asleep, curled up.

Outside the window, a scenery of people busily coming and going was visible.

The carriage was running along the main street of a bustling marketplace.

“Ah, have you woken up?”

The driver in the front turned his head.

A man with a scrawny build and a goatee, with a dark blue bruise on his eye.

He was indeed Seo Se-chi.

Namgung Yul blinked her eyes with a blank expression.

And she immediately asked.

“W-where is this? Why am I here?”

“Calm down, young lady. I will explain everything to you.”

Seo Se-chi raised his whip and slowed the horse down.

And then, he briefly summarized and sorted out the circumstances in the meantime.

“First of all, young lady, you lay in bed for a full ten days.”

“For ten days!?”

“Yes—you were in a coma because you were hit by the demon’s ice martial art.”

Hearing Seo Se-chi’s words, Namgung Yul slowly nodded her head.

Come to think of it, the memory returned clearly.

The very moment she was taken hostage by Beigong Xue, and Chui gave up the decisive battle to save her.

Namgung Yul dropped her head with a miserable heart.

‘I…… because I was weak…… because I was weak, I held Young Hero Chui back.’

However, Seo Se-chi, who had no way of knowing her state of mind, continued his explanation.

“Thousand-Head Chui carried you down in his arms himself. As soon as he came down from the snowy mountain, he went straight to a physician. Ah, of course, I also chased after him diligently. Well, although Thousand-Head Gyeon Sul carried me down later… Ugh. Thinking about that time, my eye again…”

Judging by the bruise on his eyelid, it seemed he had been hit once while being carried down by Gyeon Sul.

Well, at any rate. Seo Se-chi’s explanation was as follows.

Namgung Yul had fainted, and Chui took her to a physician for treatment.

Afterward, he had Seo Se-chi drive the carriage and sent her to the Namgung Clan, accompanied by two maids belonging to the physician.

That was what had happened over the past ten days.

“Right now, we are heading to Anhui Province. Since we also took a boat once on the way, it is not much further to the Namgung Clan.”

“……I see.”

Namgung Yul bowed her head for a moment.

After a brief hesitation, she asked Seo Se-chi.

“By any chance, did Young Hero Chui…… say anything in particular when he left?”

Gratitude for saving her from being held hostage, and bitterness for leaving her behind.

Namgung Yul asked the question with a complex and confused heart that she herself did not understand.

And Seo Se-chi tilted his head without much thought.

“Well…… there was nothing in particular left for the young lady……”

“Is that so……”

At the very moment Namgung Yul was about to drop her head once again.

“Ah.”

Seo Se-chi clapped his hands as if he suddenly remembered.

Then, he tapped his own head and spoke.

“There was one thing. He said it so in passing that I almost forgot it.”

“W-what is it?”

Namgung Yul’s head snapped up.

To her, Seo Se-chi delivered a short sentence.

“‘Let’s meet again.’ That is what he said.”

And the moment she heard those words.

Burst—

Something welling up from deep within her chest flowed down through her eyes.

‘I, I like that person.’

It was the moment Namgung Yul realized her own feelings.

Unrivaled Spear Ghost