Volume 2 Chapter 9 – Demonic Path of the Underworld (1)

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Translated by Rain

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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Until just moments ago, this place was no different from a small battlefield.

Orders and reports were exchanged frantically, and it was chaotic with shouts to raise morale, the clashing of weapons, screams, and groans.

However, the Dark Venerable appeared, and he swept everything away like a tsunami.

As if returning to the state before all of this had happened.

Only the occasional groans of the wounded and the quiet conversations exchanged between messengers and adjutants to clear the scene were heard, piercing the silence.

Some had fought, some had bled, and some had died, but no trace of the enemies remained.

No corpses, no bloodstains, nothing.

It was an unrealistic sight.

Se-ah felt dizzy for a moment at that appearance, which departed from the conventional path.

“Pavilion Master.”

The report of the field commander pulled her back to reality.

“Measures for the casualties are underway, and reorganization to sustain the blockade of the streets is also in progress.”

“I see.”

Replying briefly, Se-ah asked the field commander as he turned around,

“Is this sight strange even to you, who have stood on so many battlefields? No, it must certainly be strange.”

At her question-like statement, the field commander’s steps stopped.

He turned around and scanned the surroundings for a moment.

Since everyone was dedicated to their respective duties, no one was paying attention to this side.

He sighed briefly, took off the leather helmet he was wearing on his head, and tucked it under his arm.

Hot steam rose from his head along with the smell of sweat.

“It is. Just as you say, it is tremendously strange.”

He scratched his beard, which was starting to turn white, and continued,

“And it is even ominous and unsettling. It even feels as if we are possessed by something.”

It was a frank account, to an extent that felt unexpected.

He smiled calmly at Se-ah, who wore a surprised expression.

“However, bizarre things originally occur a lot on the battlefield. Things happen that we can never comprehend or explain at the time.”

He was about to explain further, but blaming his lack of eloquence as a former military official, he decided to use a familiar method.

“Forget it.”

“Pardon?”

He retightened the loosened leather straps of his armor.

“One’s vision naturally narrows on the battlefield. It is only natural. Therefore, focusing on something just because it is strange is a surefire way to ruin things.”

Se-ah nodded slowly in agreement.

“If we look back on everything much later after time has passed, it makes sense somehow and can be explained reasonably. That is because things unseen at the time become visible.”

“Is that so…?”

He scanned the surroundings again and patted Se-ah’s shoulder with a quick motion.

“So for now, forget it quickly, Commander.”

Se-ah nodded.

“That is good advice stemming from long experience on the battlefield.”

He put the leather helmet back on his head and wore a bitter smile.

“Of course, I do not know if such a bizarre experience can be explained even with the passage of time.”

That was also true.

But in any case, the conversation with him had an effect.

Se-ah returned to her duties and asked him,

“Is there still no word on the whereabouts of the Dark Venerable and Geum-ju?”

It was only a moment ago that the Dark Venerable had eliminated all the martial artists and vanished.

“About that…”

Just then, Gyu, who was waiting quietly behind her, answered instead,

“Geum-ju vanished not long after the Dark Venerable showed himself. And the Dark Venerable…”

She cast a sharp gaze toward the front.

“His energy is felt so distinctly. Although I cannot pinpoint his exact location…”

Feeling her mouth dry up, she continued,

“he is definitely still somewhere in this street.”

Se-ah nodded.

It was just as she was about to give some instructions.

“If so…”

With a tremendous explosion, a strong vibration assailed them.

Gyu, who hugged and protected Se-ah faster than anyone else, shouted,

“Over there!”

The one who bounced out from the debris of the building shattered in the center of the explosion was the woman in red court robes, Geum-ju.

“How does someone like you! Someone like you! How do you know my name?!”

Her voice resounded ringingly.

And the Dark Venerable’s laughter, made of his characteristic harsh metallic sound, echoed dismally throughout the street.

* * *

Prompted by that laughter, the dust cloud dispersed rapidly, revealing the figure of the Dark Venerable.

Geum-ju, landing atop the opposite building, pressed him again,

“From whom did you hear my name?! Speak at once!”

At that moment, his laughter snapped to a halt.

Twisting his neck to the side to look up at her, the Dark Venerable said,

“Did you think that whatever you do or wherever you are, I would not know your name?”

With that question, a dark blue ghost fire flared up over the unpierced eyeholes of the Dark Venerable’s white mask.

“D-Don’t be ridiculous!”

He was clearly standing down below, looking up at her on the roof.

Yet, for some reason, she felt as if he was looking down at her from that high place.

“Did you think that by hiding your name, even your evil deeds would be hidden?”

The Dark Venerable’s eyes, burning with ghost fire, were seeing a sight different from others.

[Se Yu-hwa! Give back my brother! Give back my family!]

A woman whose eyes had been gouged out, bleeding from her eye sockets, grabbed Geum-ju’s hair and wailed.

[You wench Yu-hwa! What was a mere twenty coins that you made me, who raised you, like this?!]

A middle-aged man who crawled over while dragging his intestines long from his abdomen clung onto one of Geum-ju’s legs.

[Young Lady Se Yu-hwa! My children are crying because they are hungry! Please give back my breasts!]

A woman whose upper body was covered in blood was thrusting three crying children toward Geum-ju.

The headless children cried out vigorously from their throats.

[Since you took the arm of someone who only knows how to do manual labor like me, you surely didn’t think I would survive, did you?]

[My hand! Give back my hand!]

At first, there were only one or two.

Over time, their numbers gradually increased, encircling Geum-ju.

Not only that, but the line made by the vengeful spirits stretching beyond them was to the point where its end could not be seen.

Their resentful accusations, the screams of those who could do nothing even after becoming vengeful spirits, created a dismal discord.

Their voices, growing louder with the passage of time, became a giant roar, reaching a point where they could not be understood at all.

[What sin did my only daughter commit that you took her?! What grudge did you hold against that child in the flower of her youth to make her die so miserably? Why do you hold the children accountable for the sins committed by the father! How can I look at my daughter’s face in the afterlife?!]

[I will tear you to death! Even if my white bones turn to dust and I roll in the fiery pits of hell for a nayuta of years, I will curse and tear you to death!]

Inside the white mask, Yeon So-hyeon’s expression was distorting boundlessly.

The injustice they felt, the resentment they felt, and their grudges and anger dug into his chest so vividly.

The Scripture of Controlling Darkness and Shaking the Heavens was shoving the stories of the vengeful spirits and those memories into him like that.

The ghost fire burning on the mask flared up even more violently, as if reacting to his anger.

He raised his trembling hand to cover the mask.

However, his vision was not blocked in the slightest.

Even when he lowered his head, he could not avoid it.

The burning ghost fire was showing him everything at its own will.

Before long, blood was flowing from the corners of his tightly clenched mouth.

“…makes no sense! Stop muttering nonsense like that continuously!”

Geum-ju was shouting at him.

“Answer the question I asked right now…?!”

When he, who had been lowering his head, suddenly lifted his head, Geum-ju ended up taking two or three steps back reflexively.

Yeon So-hyeon shouted with a sound like thunder,

[Se Yu-hwa!]

His body surged with black demonic qi.

[Resist to the limit of your strength! Pull out everything you have! Even in death, you will suffer for eternity until all this resentment subsides!]

The demonic qi contained in that voice was so intense that the surrounding buildings shook, and the accumulated dust fluttered into the air.

“Shut up!”

The qi shield Geum-ju reflexively deployed vibrated violently at the Dark Venerable’s thunderous shout.

“Who do you think someone like you, someone of your stature, is to try and judge me as you please?!”

As she raised her energy to the limit, dark red veins bulged hideously even on Geum-ju’s face.

The formidable momentum originating from her scattered in all directions.

“Enjoy your ridiculous hero play in death!”

As she swung her hands like lightning, the surroundings exploded with the Dark Venerable at the center.

In that continuous series of ear-deafening roars, a voice composed of metallic sounds lodged itself very clearly in Geum-ju’s ears.

“First, one.”

“What nonsense is it this time?”

At the words whose meaning she could not understand, Geum-ju raised her hands and bared her nails.

And she was able to confirm that the ring finger of her right hand had vanished.

“……?!”

Bright red blood spurted from the spot where the ring finger had been.

“Wh-When did my, my finger…!”

The Dark Venerable’s gloomy laughter was heard.

“Are you, a wench who destroyed other people’s lives so easily, so surprised by a mere single finger?”

As the dust cleared, the sight of the Dark Venerable holding her finger was revealed.

“How dare you! How dare you! You…!”

As she raised her foot and slammed it onto the ground, the surroundings caved in heavily.

Although it was a terrifying momentum, the Dark Venerable seemed not to care about her momentum at all.

Maintaining his balance calmly even as the ground vibrated, he tossed the finger into the air.

Then, Geum-ju’s finger fell into his wide-open mouth.

The sound of chewing bones was heard vividly.

“…It is a delicacy.”

His long tongue wiped the blood flowing outside his lips.

“Did the human flesh of the neighbor’s child, which you ate for the first time, taste like this too?”

“Shut up!”

Geum-ju’s figure dove down toward the Dark Venerable.

The Dark Venerable slid backward like a ghost to escape her range, but it was already a movement within what she had anticipated.

Her arms ripped the air to shreds like whips, flying in as they drew irregular trajectories.

A series of attacks as fast as rays of light battered his torso.

Along with the continuously echoing rupturing sounds, his body shook pitifully.

“Die!”

Shouting a scream, she thrust a strike of internal energy technique, packed with internal energy, into his body.

With that strike, the surrounding air layer exploded, and his body was crumpled and blown away pitifully.

Along with a tremendous roar, he broke through the outer wall of a building and protruded from the opposite outer wall.

Even after that, only after penetrating several walls at a speed that did not decrease at all did he crash into the outer wall of a building.

The buildings with huge holes in their walls collapsed in order.

The building into which he crashed collapsed last, crushing his body.

“Is this all?! Did you brag so much with only this?!”

In the ears of Geum-ju, who was shouting in a ringing voice, a voice that could not possibly be there was heard.

“Two.”