Chapter 312

Damn it!

The lava porridge was hot enough to make curses leap from his mouth, and bitter beyond description.

Hu Gae barely managed to swallow the profanity that had surged all the way up his throat.

If he let it out now, all the effort he had put into their budding friendship(?) would go to waste.

More importantly, how many roots of wild ginseng had Cheongmu thrown into this stuff? One bite had made his tongue feel numb.

And why did the aftertaste have to be so fishy?

Cheongmu had apparently heard somewhere that “one bite isn’t enough to show affection,” and kept staring at him until Hu Gae forced down several more spoonfuls.

CRUNCH! POP!

The instant something burst between his teeth and left his entire mouth tingling, Hu Gae could endure no more.

“I believe I’ve had enough.”

He was the first to set down the wooden ladle carved from split firewood, then quickly asked a question before Cheongmu could say anything ridiculous.

“Taoist Cheongmu, are you certain this porridge was made with nothing but wild ginseng?”

Of course he knew wild ginseng was bitter. But it should not have been enough to shock a stomach tempered by a lifetime of beggary. He could not help wondering.

Besides—

“I just bit into something soft and squishy. That certainly did not feel like wild ginseng.”

“Wow! So the big beggar ate it!”

“What...?”

“There was a mole cricket beside the campfire, so I threw it in. It’s not as good as a snake that’s eaten lingzhi, but it’s still good for giving you strength.”

“A mole cricket?”

Hu Gae was not shocked that Cheongmu had put a mole cricket into the lava porridge.

He had roasted and eaten them more than once during the hungry years of his youth.

The older beggars had called them earth dogs and told him that since they were dogs too, he might as well eat them.

The problem was that mole crickets did not live in a barren desert like this.

And what he had just eaten tasted nothing like the ones he remembered.

“Taoist Cheongmu, are you truly saying there was a mole cricket here?”

“Yeah! Where else would it be...? Oh! There’s another one.”

Hu Gae looked where Cheongmu was pointing and froze in horror.

“Gah! That’s...”

The creature crawling across the ground with its black tail raised high was unmistakably a scorpion.

“Taoist Cheongmu, is that not a scorpion?”

“Huh? That wasn’t a mole cricket?”

Cheongmu tilted his head, then continued.

“Ah! I thought its tail looked a little long. It was crawling on the ground, so I figured it was a mole cricket.”

Hu Gae nearly fainted at Cheongmu’s simple logic that anything crawling on the ground must be a mole cricket.

So the fishy aftertaste and the tingling in my mouth were from scorpion venom! Ugh!

Barely suppressing the urge to vomit, he asked,

“Taoist Cheongmu, do not tell me you caught that venomous thing with your bare hands.”

“Yeah.”

“Did it not sting you with its tail?”

“It did.”

“And you were unharmed?”

“It just pricked a little.”

“...?”

He was stung by a scorpion, and it only pricked a little? Is he immune to all poisons or something?

Stunned, Hu Gae turned to Kwak Yeon.

“Brother Kwak, are you all right?”

“It is a little fishy, but I am fine.”

Hu Gae could not help feeling disappointed by Kwak’s placid answer.

Damn it. Birds of a feather. I should never have asked.

Besides, scorpion venom would hardly register to Kwak, who had already set one foot into the Entrance-to-Divinity Realm.

Hu Gae quickly turned to Jin Cheongha.

“Sister Jin...?”

“Sub-Branch Master, I only had one bite, so I cannot really say.”

“...!”

Cheongmu was lenient with Jin Cheongha about everything. Even when she merely picked at her food, he pretended not to notice.

“And I have learned the fundamentals of poison arts, so I have some resistance to most poisons.”

At last Hu Gae understood why neither Kwak nor Jin had reacted much upon hearing it was a scorpion.

So I’m the only one... And of all those mouths immune to poison, I had to be the one who ate the venomous thing. Damn it!

Seeing Hu Gae’s face twist into a grimace, Kwak asked,

“Brother, why do you look like that?”

“Why do I look like this? Brother Kwak, are you asking because you somehow missed the part where I ate that venomous thing?”

There was a trace of hurt in Hu Gae’s voice, and his retort came out louder than intended.

Even so, Kwak remained calm. In fact, the faintest smile had appeared at the corners of his mouth.

“Has anything actually happened to your body?”

“My body...?”

Only then did Hu Gae remember that he too had entered the Flower Realm, where his inner power and true qi would burn away most ordinary poisons on their own.

“...I see!”

Hu Gae nodded several times, finally understanding why Kwak had treated the matter as insignificant.

Kwak had probably meant to remind him that he had reached the Flower Realm, since Hu Gae himself seemed to have forgotten.

Kwak turned to Cheongmu.

“Brother Cheongmu, you cannot throw in anything you find just because it looks good for the body. This is not Mount Wudang.”

“Hehe. All right.”

Cheongmu scratched the back of his head.

“Little Martial Uncle, I’ll ask before I put anything in next time.”

Watching him pointedly avoid saying he would stop adding strange things altogether, Hu Gae realized Cheongmu possessed a stubborn streak of his own.

Like martial uncle, like martial nephew, I suppose.

Once the minor commotion over the scorpion died down, Kwak finished the rest of the lava porridge.

CLATTER. CLATTER.

Good heavens. What a stomach.

Hu Gae watched with pity until Kwak finally set down the wooden ladle.

“Brother Cheongmu, thank you for the meal.”

Cheongmu’s face lit up when he saw that the iron bowl was empty.

“Little Martial Uncle, I’ll dig up more wild ginseng and make it for you again.”

Hu Gae was once again reminded that Cheongmu’s entire world revolved around Kwak.

“Big beggar thief! Give back Little Martial Uncle’s wild ginseng right now!”

Now he understood why Cheongmu had burst out from the cargo of the Cloud-Drifting Boat and seized him as though intent on killing him.

For Taoist Cheongmu, the whole world turns around Brother Kwak.

Hu Gae had inserted himself between the two of them, so it was only natural that Cheongmu kept baring his blade at him.

Still, having shut his eyes and eaten the lava porridge Cheongmu offered, he could at least hope that blade would be somewhat duller from now on.

Then I suppose I got something in return for eating scorpion venom.

Cheongmu gathered the iron bowl and ladles and headed back toward the campfire where their packs lay. Kwak then turned to Hu Gae.

“Brother, do you have any idea who the hidden mastermind might be?”

“Hm?”

Hu Gae looked at him in surprise at the abrupt question, and Kwak continued.

“A faction capable of using a great evil art that defies heaven, the Wind-and-Sand Formation, and sorcery from the Western Regions cannot be common in the martial world.”

“Of course not.”

Hu Gae nodded.

“The appearance of a faction capable of even one of those would be enough to throw the entire martial world into an uproar. But a faction possessing all three? That is precisely why I have no idea who they are.”

“...?”

“There would need to be some precedent for a faction like that before I could even begin to guess.”

Kwak nodded readily at Hu Gae’s answer.

“So the hidden mastermind belongs to a faction without precedent in the martial world?”

“Exactly. Which also means they are not people we can afford to underestimate.”

“Brother, there must still be precedents for factions that used each of those things separately.”

Hu Gae’s eyes widened.

“Brother Kwak, do you think the hidden mastermind might be an alliance of three factions, each with such a precedent?”

“Nothing truly unprecedented has appeared from nothing. That is one possibility. Or the exact opposite may be true.”

“The exact opposite...?”

“One faction may have appeared several times across different eras, revealing only one of those methods each time. The possibility is extremely remote, of course, but I do not want to dismiss it simply because it seems unlikely.”

Hu Gae stared at Kwak in astonishment.

“You intend to look at the world without prejudice? Brother Kwak, the more I learn about you, the more you surprise me.”

He glanced toward Jin Cheongha.

“Sister Jin, would you not agree?”

She nodded.

“I was surprised as well, Sub-Branch Master. It is difficult to think so completely in reverse.”

Growing uncomfortable under their coordinated praise, Kwak quickly said,

“Brother, please organize everything you know about the factions that established those precedents. I would also like you to determine whether any connections existed between them.”

Hu Gae nodded readily.

“Of course. I will squeeze every last memory from my head and set it all in order. Whatever remains missing, I will investigate once we leave.”

Kwak turned to Jin Cheongha.

“Lady Jin, what do you think we should do with those mummified corpses?”

“...?”

She looked at him with wide eyes, and he continued.

“I ask because they appear to have been members of the Demonic Eight Divisions. I suspect the hidden mastermind’s Servitors used demonic-path practitioners who opposed their proposal as sacrifices for the Ghost-Spirit Formation.”

Jin Cheongha nodded.

“I also believed they were demonic-path practitioners. There would have been no way to gather and bring in so many corpses from outside.”

She let out a quiet sigh before continuing.

“Those of the demonic path concern themselves only with this life. They do not worry about what becomes of them after death, nor do they expect anyone to tend their remains. I appreciate your consideration, Chief Secretary Kwak, but I believe it would be best to leave them as they are, according to the law of the demonic path.”

Hu Gae supported her.

“Brother Kwak, that is the way of those who honor life in the present. Let us leave them as Sister Jin says.”

“Understood.”

Kwak nodded without objection.

“Then let us begin searching in earnest for the cave where the Eight Demonic Venerables have taken refuge.”

As he brushed himself off and rose, Hu Gae said,

“Brother Kwak, we have already found that cave. There is no need to hurry.”

Kwak looked at him in surprise.

“Brother, that is remarkable. I heard there are hundreds of branching caves in this vast cavern, yet you have already found the right one.”

The structural map of the Great Demon Prison that Grand Strategist Sagong Ui had given them showed countless caves spreading out from the bottomless central cavern.

Naturally, it contained no information about which cave held the Eight Demonic Venerables.

Kwak had expected they would need to search each one in turn. He was astonished that Hu Gae had already located it while Kwak was engaged in qi-circulation meditation.

Hu Gae smiled bitterly.

“It is hardly worthy of praise. Anyone who was not blind could have found it.”

“...?”

“And that is the problem. Or rather, there is a very large problem.”

Seeing Hu Gae’s troubled expression, Kwak had no choice but to ask,

“What is wrong with the cave?”

“See for yourself.”

Kwak followed Hu Gae and Jin Cheongha. The moment he reached the cave, he understood Hu Gae’s cryptic words.

“...!”

There was no cave entrance in sight.

Instead, a pitch-black wall of metal gleamed in the torchlight.

THUD! THUD!

Hu Gae kicked aside the broken crucibles littering the ground.

“The hidden mastermind’s people did not stop after sealing the entrance with boulders. They poured molten metal over it as well.”

BANG! BANG!

He struck the iron wall twice with his fist, then continued.

“Brother Kwak, this is ten-thousand-year cold iron.”

They had sealed the cave entrance not with ordinary iron, but ten-thousand-year cold iron.

CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!

At the sudden racket of metal striking metal beside them, all three quickly turned.

CLANG! CLAAANG...!

Cheongmu, who had been pounding on the iron wall, gave them a sheepish smile.

“The big beggar did it, so I wanted to try too.”