Volume 2 Chapter 12 – Demonic Path of the Underworld (4)

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Translated by Rain

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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Geum-ju slipped out of the secret passage and utilized her light body technique frantically.

She ran without hesitation through the slums where not a single speck of light could be found.

And soon, she was able to enter the back alleys of the Luoyang commercial street, which were incredibly complex.

Due to reckless development continued by rapid expansion and growth, the back alleys of Luoyang were all extremely complex.

Tall buildings of at least four or five stories were densely packed without a single gap between them, forming a giant maze.

Only after passing through several alleys and turning around several corners did she stop.

She wanted to move even a little more, but her breathing was too rough.

With her internal energy level returned to its original state, it was impossible to maintain her movement technique.

The wall of the dirty back alley, which she would normally have spat curses at just by looking, let alone touching, supported her exhausted body.

“Huff, puff.”

She clutched her chest.

The moment her heart was gouged out, the ‘backup plan’ definitely worked.

The effect of the grand sorcery was to an extent that even Geum-ju herself could not have imagined.

‘Under that monster of a master, how hard was it for me to learn that…’

A headache rushed in.

Her memory was confused.

‘How did I learn that? Sorcery? Me, learning sorcery?’

For a moment, several scenes she had forgotten brushed past her mind.

The old man’s hand that stirred her internal organs with a playful attitude.

The dry, withered hand covered in age spots.

That bizarre laughter.

Herself, screaming to the point where her throat was about to tear.

Terrible pain.

She shook her head hurriedly.

She denied the memory.

‘Right now, fleeing is the important thing.’

She moved her steps again.

In any case, the grand sorcery operated successfully.

The grand sorcery raised her realm temporarily.

It activated the barrier the moment she lost her life.

And even her lost heart returned.

It was an effect well worth hundreds of lives and decades of lifespan.

However, there was no longer any life-saving measure left for her.

‘If I am caught this time, I will truly be killed…!’

She shuddered, thinking of that white mask.

As a result of exchanging blows, she had felt it to her bones.

That was a true monster.

That was of the same kind as her master.

Departing from the natural order, ignoring logic, and defying the laws.

Even if she had mimicked crossing the wall, that monster played with her as if it were nothing.

Yes.

He played with her.

No matter how much she attacked, she could not inflict any damage.

Among the methods it had shown, there was not a single one she could understand.

She could not understand.

While receiving all the attacks, it took away her fingers one by one, one by one, all in order.

The fingers that grew back became cold.

The reclaimed heart throbbed.

The pain originating from her heart grew even greater with the passage of time.

It still felt as if that monster’s maw was chewing her up.

‘I must flee, I must flee.’

She, who began to be consumed by fear, ran through the back alleys like that.

The complex streets were twisted and twisted again.

If she climbed onto a building, she would be able to secure vision, but conversely, she herself would also be exposed.

As long as the direction was right, this alley was bound to end someday.

‘As someone from the back alleys of Luoyang, there’s no way I would get lost in a place like this.’

For a moment, she was confused.

‘No, I am not from Luoyang, but clearly some rural mountain village…?’

The headache rushed in again.

The hook-like hand that stirred inside her head came to mind.

Her heart hurt so much.

It felt as if his teeth were tearing her heart apart.

‘I must move…’

She ran frantically.

At some point, she lost her shoes, and after rolling a few times, her clothes were also in a mess.

And at some point, she realized that she had lost her direction.

When she looked up between the alleys, all she could see was a sky filled with heavy clouds.

There was no indicator to help her guess the direction.

She resolved to climb onto the roof of a building, even if only for a moment, to find the direction.

As she turned another corner searching for a wall that was easy to climb, a small empty lot where several alleys met revealed itself.

“…The old monk who has reached the True Dharma chews on pine trunks, the official striving for governance tears up pages of books, and the poet who achieved vocal mastery burns and eats the moonlight…”

It was a clear yet delicate voice of a boy.

“Why do the legs of my table, which has achieved nothing, bend so heavily, draining the marrow of the people?”

Standing in the center of the empty lot, the back of a boy reciting poetry entered her field of vision.

Draped in neat white cotton robes, the boy looked like a mere scholar.

“Hey.”

The local was the one who knew the streets best, and she resolved to verify the direction with that boy.

“Hey, can’t you hear me?!”

At the sight of the boy lowering his head, lost in thought, she strode over and grabbed his shoulder.

“Hmm?”

Her eyebrows shot up.

The boy who turned to look at her was a face she also knew well.

“Who is this, did we not meet not long ago?”

“Eldest Young Master…?!”

The one who recognized her upon seeing her was the Swordless One of the Luoyang Sword Family, Yeon So-hyeon.

Although it was a meeting that was by no means friendly, meeting a familiar face relieved her mind slightly.

“What are you doing here at this hour…, no. That is none of my business.”

Beside him, there was not even the bodyguard she had seen that day.

She swept her hair up.

“Tell me the direction to the main road immediately.”

Yeon So-hyeon shrugged his shoulders.

“Meeting like this is also fate, how about we have a chat about how you ended up in an alley like this?”

“What?”

Her expression crumpled completely.

The plight of fleeing after having all the achievements she had made until now taken away by a monster of unknown identity rose to her mind again.

The anger she had suppressed until now flared up suddenly.

“What are you, a useless thing of your stature, going to do by knowing about me?!”

At her words, the Eldest Young Master tilted his head with an innocent expression.

“No, it’s just…”

Although his actions looked natural at first glance, a feeling that something was wrong crept up the back of Geum-ju’s neck.

“It’s just a bit strange.”

His movements were somehow devoid of emotion.

It was just like a puppet used in a marketplace puppet show.

Unnaturalness.

A sense of incompatibility.

A non-human imitating a human.

Acting.

“Fleeing so hard like that, did you only manage to make it this far?”

“……!”

Blood rapidly drained from her face.

She felt the pain rising from her fingers and her heart growing larger.

“Y-You, who are you?!”

On the Eldest Young Master’s face—no, on its face, a dark shadow fell.

“You must know that well yourself, Se Yu-hwa.”

A voice like boiling molten iron.

A dark blue ghost fire flaring up from the eyes.

As he smiled, the teeth packed like gears entered her field of vision.

“Is it twelve now?”

Her entire body trembled at that endless terror.

“Or do I have to count from one again?”

* * *

Jeong-ah and Se-ah were walking through a passage inside a natural cave of huge scale.

Although it was a cave complexly woven like a spiderweb, Jeong-ah moved her steps as if it were nothing, without a sliver of hesitation.

“It is an immense scale, Sister.”

“Indeed.”

Another fork appeared, but Jeong-ah decided on the direction and advanced without any worry.

“Now that the Black Bone Gang is gone, what will happen to all these buildings and land?”

“Geum-jil will take them. Since Geum-ju was his adopted daughter, he will claim his ownership.”

A bitter smile settled on Se-ah’s face.

“That is his business style, utilizing his ‘adopted daughters.’ Swallowing what is sweet, and spitting out what is bitter.”

If the Black Bone Gang had clashed with some powerful force, how would Geum-jil have reacted?

He would have claimed that Geum-ju was merely calling herself his adopted daughter unilaterally.

But what if the opponent was a single master of unknown identity?

He would claim all ownership.

“…It is absurd.”

The torch held in Se-ah’s hand flickered, making shadows dance on the cave walls.

Come to think of it, her younger sister was walking in the lead without even a torch.

Even she, who held the torch, had almost slipped several times.

Yet Jeong-ah looked as if she was walking down a well-polished hallway.

It clearly seemed to be related to her eyes shining with golden light.

However, even when asked, only the reply that she did not know well either returned.

After a moment, Se-ah asked what she had wanted to ask her all along.

“You know, don’t you? The identity of the master you serve.”

“Yes, of course.”

The answer returned immediately.

Se-ah, who had lost her words for a moment, asked her sister again,

“…Are you not afraid?”

It was a question holding many implications.

For a while, only the footsteps of the two echoed in the cave.

“…That day I left the Reception Hall, I packed my bags.”

It was the story of just before she met the Eldest Young Master.

“I packed my possessions carefully one by one. After packing everything, it became a single small bundle.”

Jeong-ah chuckled.

“Even what was inside was only miscellaneous items filled with memories.”

As Jeong-ah walked, she naturally turned around once.

The high-grade silk clothes Yeon So-hyeon had obtained for her rose gracefully and then settled.

“Since entering the Sword Family, I have lived all those days, considering them like a struggle.”

The jeweled hairpin stuck in her hair glittered, catching the light of the torch.

“Even though I lived like that, in the end, I was nothing.”

Se-ah could not say anything.

“I was a nameless wild grass that had to flutter in the direction the wind blew.”

Jeong-ah’s steps stopped.

Se-ah looked at Jeong-ah’s slender back.

“Am I not afraid, you ask?”

Jeong-ah set down the bundle she was carrying beside her.

“Of course I am afraid.”

Jeong-ah’s tone was calm.

“He is like a typhoon that blows in late summer, as if to smash everything. He is an existence that a common woman like us cannot dare to fathom.”

She was standing still, looking at the other side of the passage.

“If you think you know one thing, two are hidden, and if you find two, four are revealed.”

A deep golden brilliance flowed from her eyes.

“I am not serving him as my master to lean on him and be protected by him.”

“…Then?”

Just then, the echo created by footsteps reached Se-ah’s ears.

It was from the direction Jeong-ah had been standing and looking at precisely since earlier.

“Huff, puff.”

Along with rough breathing, the sound of irregular yet busy footsteps was heard together.

‘Like being chased by something…’

Even before she could form a judgment, the one who revealed herself was someone they knew well.

“You are…?!”

Se-ah gasped at the sight of the woman leaning against the cave wall, breathing roughly, and looking this way.

With disheveled hair and covered in blood all over her body, she recognized Jeong-ah and Se-ah.

Killing intent was loaded in her gaze.

“You wenches…!”

She shouted like a wounded beast.

Regardless of whether she did that or not, Jeong-ah looked back at her sister.

“It is to become like him.”

Se-ah asked back reflexively,

“What did you say?”

Jeong-ah showed a reassuring smile to her,

“My reason for serving Master, I mean.”

Golden light flashed deeply from her eyes.

“It is for me to become like him too.”