Volume 2 Chapter 2 – Dark Venerable

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Translated by Rain

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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The first cock crowed.

The streets of Luoyang, having passed midwinter, welcomed the dawn that was starting to break slightly earlier.

The figures of people who had no choice but to be diligent to feed themselves and live began to increase on the streets.

“Did you hear?”

Merchant Jang of the jewelry shop carefully tossed out a hint.

“……Could that perhaps be the rumor about the Black Bone Gang from last night?”

Merchant Tak of the woodenware shop , who usually waved off Jang’s stories as mere rumors, unexpectedly accepted his words.

However, since the subject of the rumor was what it was, their words had no choice but to be exchanged in low voices.

“They say five dens were destroyed in a single night.”

“Five dens? I heard it was seven?”

“Oh, my. Where did you hear such a story?”

Tak gestured for Jang to come closer.

As Jang approached with a face full of curiosity, Tak quietly spoke.

“Is my brother-in-law not in the government office? He said the entire Luoyang was in an emergency all night. So according to what the government office investigated……”

“Seven dens in a single night?”

Tak nodded.

“No, I heard it was ten?”

At the voice that suddenly intervened, Tak was startled and fell backward.

As the flustered Tak looked around, before he knew it, the merchants who had gathered were forming a long line.

“No, Wang said it was fifteen……”

“What are you talking about? I heard it was thirty!”

As much as the commoners feared the existence of the Black Bone Gang, the stories about them spread rapidly.

Soon, the rumors followed one after another, and wherever even a few people gathered, they were frantic with stories about the Black Bone Gang.

“I heard that not a single corpse was left in the dens.”

“Corpse? They say not even a drop of blood was left!”

“They said the number of members who vanished like that without anyone knowing is beyond count!”

Such stories always ended with the same question.

“Just who did it?”

* * *

“Then you are saying there is no information at all?”

Golden Spider’s clothes and adornments were extravagant indeed.

However, no matter how one looked at it, there was a feeling that she was outmatched by more than a level by the luxury of the room she was currently in.

“When did I tell you that? That the great Luoyang Sword Family has no information?”

At the low question of the middle-aged man sitting in the seat of honor , Golden Spider felt the back of her neck grow cold.

“I apologize.”

Toward Golden Spider, who bowed her head deeply, the middle-aged man clicked his tongue.

“You do not seem to know your place. Over such a minor matter, you bother me from this busy morning?”

At the words that it was merely a minor matter, Golden Spider flared up internally, but she bowed her head even deeper.

“I am sorry, Elder.”

Indeed, considering the position of the person in front of her, matters related to the Black Bone Gang had no choice but to be minor.

“I think you are misunderstanding something right now.”

The middle-aged man raised his finger and tapped the precious black ebony table.

“Do you perhaps think I gave you the Sword Family Bronze Plaque because of your father’s influence?”

Golden Leech, Golden Spider’s adoptive father, was a figure who shook the Luoyang underworld with a terrifying reputation, but he dared not be compared with the name of the Luoyang Sword Family.

“H-How could that be? This girl has never had such a thought in the slightest.”

She prostrated herself flat.

The middle-aged man looked at the hourglass placed on the black ebony table.

“The time wasted because of you is already becoming almost a quarter of an hour.”

He said as he received a bundle of documents politely handed to him by a work assistant maid.

Other than that maid, other maids were waiting in line, holding armfuls of documents.

“Beat it from my sight at once.”

Behind the retreating Golden Spider, who offered a bow, the middle-aged man’s voice was heard.

“If you disappoint me one more time, I will hand the Sword Family Bronze Plaque to someone else.”

Her face flushed, Golden Spider left the massive hall with quick steps.

‘Damn it, I could not even bring up the talk of inviting the Sword Family’s experts.’

Judging by the atmosphere, if she had brought up such a story, she would have probably been disposed of on the spot.

Stepping out onto the main street, she could see a group of warriors.

She saw a group of Luoyang Sword Family warriors , carrying swords that did not look ordinary even at a glance, heading somewhere in an orderly fashion.

Even at a glance, they were those whose level felt completely different from the underworld martial artists she employed.

‘……Damn it.’

She turned her body, thinking of the methods left to her.

“Oops, sorry.”

A man who had almost collided with her apologized briefly.

“No, I also made a mistake……”

She tried to say something, but the man was already moving away with hurried steps.

It was an attitude that showed she was not even in his consideration.

‘This dog-like Sword Family!’

The man, who did not care whether Golden Spider glared at him from behind or not, hurried to his superior’s residence.

The small residence, which was clearly on the outskirts, was shabby enough to show the level of neglect their department received.

He flung open the door of his superior’s room in a single bound.

“Wake up! The sun is in the middle of the sky!”

Books about astronomy and a dust-covered astronomical observation instrument and such allowed one to guess their position.

They were the astronomers , the representative idle officials of the Sword Family.

In an era where materialism was prevalent and the number of people who believed in superstition was decreasing day by day, their value of existence was faint.

Moreover, as the meteorologists who analyzed and predicted the weather split off, their astronomers had even less to do.

“Snoooore.”

The superior showed no sign of waking up.

Pinching his nose at the air in the room, which was full of the smell of alcohol, the man kicked the unconscious superior.

“Uh, eh?! What is going on?!”

The superior, who had been sleeping while hugging an empty alcohol bottle, rolled down from the bed just like that.

“It is trouble!”

The man filled a bowl with cold water and handed it to the superior.

“……What is it from this early dawn?”

Of course, it was currently late morning, not dawn.

“Ah, I drank too much, I am going to die.”

The superior had no intention of getting up from the floor, and roughly setting aside the handed cold water, he yawned while wiping sleep from his eyes.

Regardless, the man pulled up a chair and sat down.

“Last night, I was standing guard .”

The superior looked at him as if he were pathetic.

“Are you still standing guard alone every day? Good grief, who would appreciate that.”

Ignoring him, the man continued.

“It is an ominous sign .”

The superior frowned.

“An ominous sign is common enough.”

“It is a great ominous sign .”

Only then did the superior clear his mind a bit.

“A great ominous sign? What was it?”

The man hesitated for a moment before opening his mouth.

“I think I observed the Heavenly Killing Star last night.”

At the words Heavenly Killing Star, the superior drank the cold water he had pushed aside just like that.

And he poured the remaining water over his own face.

“……Is it real? The Heavenly Killing Star?”

The man continued in a low tone.

“As you know, is the Heavenly Killing Star not extremely tricky to observe? Its position is not constant, nor is its shape, nor its color……”

“It is diverse. Furthermore, the time it can be observed is short.”

Taking over the words, the superior rubbed his face and asked once more.

“Are you sure? That it is the legendary Heavenly Killing Star? All we did was study it from books.”

“……If you ask if I am sure, it is hard to say flat out, but.”

If a subordinate with an extremely thorough personality expressed it to that degree, it was the same as saying it was accurate.

“Crazy……”

If it appeared from the past, what accompanied it was a massive history of blood —that was the Heavenly Killing Star.

“Should we not report it to the higher-ups?”

The superior sighed.

“Report this? In this day and age, who would believe our words? And that it is the Heavenly Killing Star?”

“That is……”

The man scowled at those words.

However, he had no counter-argument to make either.

“Then, we should at least report it to our department’s supervisor officer……”

“Report to our supervisor officer? We should, but I do not think it will have much meaning.”

“It will probably be like that, but……”

The supervisor of their organization, the Astronomical Pavilion , was the leader with the least power in the Sword Family.

It was the Swordless One, Yeon So-hyeon.

* * *

Turning corner after corner in the depths of Luoyang, in a slum that was deep inside the alleys.

That alley was filled with swarming poor.

It was surely a place that decent people would not search for.

However, not only ordinary people but also famous merchants and high officials searched for that place, and the reason was only one.

The greatest prophet of Luoyang was living there.

A dugout hut refers to making a space where a person can barely sit by digging the ground, placing straw and such on top, and covering it with dirt.

A single old blind man sitting in that dugout hut between buildings.

To see that single person, so many people searched for this highly dangerous and filthy alley.

Even if they did not believe it normally, when life became vague, did people not cling to anything?

“Ooh……”

Not even making his name known, the old man, who was merely called the Straw Hut Teacher, was trembling with his skeletal body.

“The sun, I cannot see the sun……”

He was indeed blind.

Having lost both eyes for some reason, it must have been more than a day or two that he could not see the sun.

However, in his words, a heavy language spirit was contained to the point where no one could ignore it.

“The sky……”

He raised his withered arms, which had no flesh on them.

Those two arms trembled like an aspen leaf.

He was searching for the sun in the sky.

However, the brilliant sun could no longer be found there.

“The sky is pitch black. The sun is covered. I can no longer see the sun.”

To his spiritual eye , the sky was like pitch black.

The sky, which had not a single point of light, was hidden in layers by clouds that were too thick.

Neither the moon nor stars could be found.

Although more than a cycle had passed since he scooped out his living eyeballs and obtained the spiritual eye, he had never seen such a sight in his life.

“T-This is?!”

The body of the old man who was looking up at the sky without end shook greatly as if struck by lightning.

He barely managed to connect word after word to make a sentence.

“Dark Heaven ……! The Master of the Dark Heaven has appeared!”

He, who had never stood up from his seat since settling in the slums, stood up from his seat.

If he had not walked for that long time, all his muscles should have withered, making it impossible to stand up, yet he stood up.

Although his skeletal legs trembled uncontrollably, he did not care in the least.

“Demonic Scripture ! Has the Demonic Scripture awakened?! Has that ancient demon creature that devours darkness and makes the heavens tremble appeared?!”

His skeletal body, draped in a piece of rag, stepped out of the dugout hut.

He shouted, trembling with joy.

“The Master of the Dark Heaven has appeared! He who will punish the wicked from the deepest darkness has descended! Ye who possess nothing, ye who cannot eat, cheer! For the Dark Venerable who will deliver black lightning on behalf of the heartless heaven and earth has come!!”

The skeletal body of the old man began to dance, burning the last flame of his life.

The poor who saw that sight murmured from a distance.

The final prophecy left by the old man was clearly engraved in their minds.

And such a rumor was added to Luoyang.

“If you meet a ghost wearing a white mask, bow your head and show respect. If he asks about your sins, answer without hiding anything. He is the agent of heavenly punishment , the Dark Venerable ! None of the great sinners who did not know to fear heaven shall dare to escape before him!”