Chapter 302 – Black Sheep (2)

Sneak.

Everyone silently drew their weapons that they had put away for a moment.

It was time to enter the enemy’s lair.

***

A long staircase leading underground.

Perhaps the one who had driven us this far was waiting at the end.

Gulp.

I swallowed my saliva and looked beyond the stairs. It seemed to stretch on so long that the end was swallowed up by darkness.

Normally, we would have put up a charm on the wall, but since there was none, it was so dark.

Hong Yeon-hwa raised her arm and conjured up a firework in the air.

Hwaryuk.

The fist-sized flames illuminated the surroundings brightly.

Did they carve out a giant rock to make this passage? There was no dirt, not even a small gap visible.

Beyond that, Hong Yeon-hwa stepped forward and took a step.

“Be careful not to take your eyes off the person in front of you so that you don’t fall into another trap.”

“Oh, before that, take one of these with you.”

Since we were a group of people who dealt with traps, we all raised our hands as Hong Yeon-hwa said.

Myung Wol-jin took out a few talismans from his pocket.

“What is that?”

“It’s a protective talisman that protects the body from blood energy. I couldn’t make many because I didn’t have time, but now is the time to use them.”

A unique energy that forcibly binds the coexistence of vitality and death with intense hatred.

That’s blood energy.

It is more deadly than any poison, enough to make even a Hwagyeong Muin collapse, but avoiding blood energy completely is not an easy task.

It is natural for blood to spurt out during a fight. Even if you don’t turn it over, it is quite common to drink small drops of blood in the air.

Imagine if all of that became extremely toxic. It’s terrible.

That’s why Myung Wol-jin and Sama Yeoryeong had been stepping back from the fight and constantly purifying the blood energy around them, but if this talisman really blocked the blood energy, Myung Wol-jin and Sama Yeoryeong could fight properly this time.

Everyone nodded their heads and firmly held the talisman in their pockets.

“Let’s go in now.”

Hong Yeon-hwa led the way down the stairs with a stiff expression.

Right behind her was me. Behind me were Paeng Soso, Sama Mang, and Sama Yeoryeong lined up in a row.

Behind them were the leaders of the Shin-gyo, and at the very end was Myung Wol-jin.

The staircase was so narrow that it couldn’t be helped.

How many steps did we repeat, thinking that we didn’t know what would happen?

“…We’ve been going down for a while, but nothing’s happening?”

“Don’t let your guard down,” I said.

“Of course not. I’m just nervous,” Paeng Soso replied.

Did they leave this place empty on purpose, perfect for some kind of trick?

One of two things.

Either they were so confident that they could win even if we let our guard down, or they had something else in mind.

Given their cautious behavior so far, it was unlikely to be the former. They probably had another objective in mind.

And judging from what we’ve seen so far, maybe they’re not trying to kill us, but to use us?

They’re the type to use people in a bad way.

As I thought about this, we continued down the stairs, and suddenly a small light appeared in front of us.

It wasn’t Hong Yeon-hwa’s fireworks, but an unknown crimson light.

The scenery reflected in that light was not a staircase like the one we were walking on, but a plain.

That must be the end of this passage.

I firmly gripped my sword and took a step forward.

And finally, when we got off the stairs, a wide underground space with a sparkling crimson light greeted us.

They made something like this underground? It could probably fit an entire small village inside…

I was admiring it without realizing it.

“Ugh!”

I swallowed my breath at the sudden and intense stench.

A violent smell that pierced my nose and even hit the back of my head.

I quickly concentrated my inner energy on my nose to dull my senses.

But before that, Myung Wol-jin’s talisman, which I had put in my pocket, began to burn hotly.

But the foul smell that was enough to make my head ache disappeared after a while, and clear air filled my lungs.

“Ugh…!”

What was that?

I looked around while gasping for breath.

The others seemed to be worse off than me, trying to calm their upset stomachs.

Hong Yeon-hwa was almost fine, and Myung Wol-jin was just coughing a little, probably because the severity of the reaction depended on one’s level of cultivation and inner energy.

Since the talisman was still working at this moment, it was probably related to blood energy.

“Myung Wol-jin, do you know what that smell was just now?”

“…”

“Myung Wol-jin?”

“…”

Myung Wol-jin just stared blankly at the ceiling, ignoring my calls.

Until a moment ago, he was coughing violently, but now he was acting as if he had lost his mind.

What’s going on? Did he get hit by some kind of hidden technique without us knowing?

No, if that were the case, there would be no need to single out Myung Wol-jin. We could just check everyone.

I approached Myung Wol-jin and lightly tapped his arm.

“Myung Wol-jin, snap out of it.”

“…Hmm? Ah, it’s just the blood energy.”

“Why are you suddenly saying that? Did you experience some kind of hallucination from a technique?”

“Hehe…I did experience a technique. It’s not a lie. I wish it was just a hallucination.”

“That doesn’t make any sense…Oh, but I have a question about the smell from earlier. It seems like it was caused by blood energy…”

“Sohyeop.”

Myung Wol-jin interrupted me by raising his palm.

“Look over there. Then you’ll understand.”

He slowly pointed to the ceiling with his hand.

When I looked up, all my questions were answered.

The staircase was so dark, so why was this underground space so bright? Why was it shining in a deep crimson color? What was the smell from earlier?

The answer was above our heads.

A complex pattern of symbols and shapes, filled the ceiling with deep crimson blood.

The amount of blood was so vast and dense that it looked like a sea of blood had spread out in the sky.

It was truly a blood ocean.

Was it because it contained so much blood energy that it was incomparable to what was inside Togui’s body?

The flowing blood, like pulsing veins, shone on its own, acting as a source of light.

All the purified resentment and blood energy collected from us and Togui were here.

We couldn’t smell anything until we completely left the staircase because the perfectly controlled blood energy couldn’t escape the chamber.

It was natural for our bodies to react like this when we stepped into a place like this.

If our cultivation level was lower, we might have even fainted.

Everything was roughly understood.

However, there was one thing that I couldn’t understand.

“Even though we have something like this right above our heads, we couldn’t sense anything…?”

I wasn’t particularly sensitive to energy like Samamaeng, but my cultivation level was still appropriate.

Wasn’t it reasonable to be able to detect this much energy, even if it wasn’t Hwagyeong’s level?

Hong Yeon-hwa answered my question.

“Because it’s perfectly controlled…there’s not even a hint of waste. That’s why.”

“What?”

Hong Yeon-hwa, with her pink eyes that didn’t lose their radiance even in a place like this, narrowed them and looked up at the ceiling.

“Didn’t I show you sometimes? Like when I surrounded the area around you, except for where you were, with the Heavenly Demon’s Flames, or when I burned only what I wanted to burn with the Three-Flame Inferno.”

“So…you didn’t feel anything because the energy didn’t want to escape? Then what about the dizziness from earlier?”

“It’s just impurities. Whether it’s to use it as a light source or to confirm the results with the naked eye, there’s no need for that blood to shine on its own. It’s just the minimum amount of impurities that come out during the process.”

“….”

This is driving me crazy.

Just because there are impurities, it acts like poison?

Saying that, it’s really felt like I’m on the same level as Hong Yeon-hwa.

But still, there’s no change in what needs to be done.

I shook my head to clear my mind and spoke.

“Let’s go a little further. He’s probably in the center of this chamber. And Myung Wol-jin? Do you happen to know what’s above us? It seems like it’s the true formation we’ve been facing all along.”

“…It’s the formation, and not just any formation. It contains various Taoist sects such as shamans, volcanoes, swords, geomancy, communalism, and even Mo Mountain. It’s a perfect technique that fully embodies the vision of the Taoist sects.”

At first, Myung Wol-jin’s voice was like he was possessed, but as he continued to speak, his face and voice became filled with anger.

“A perfect technique that goes far beyond the scope of techniques and contains the history of Taoism… no, it’s a perfect technique that is infinitely close to the perfect technique of the Immortals. But this… this is not the Tao!”