Chapter 314

When the red-clad woman withdrew her finger from above the blue-jade cup, a pulse rippled through the air inside the cabin.

WOOOOONG!

Still holding the golden tray aloft, the black-and-white-clad old woman backed away from where she had been kneeling before the woman in red.

After retreating three steps, she rose and circled the flames in the center of the cabin until she stood before Hocheon Unit Lord Myung Jincheon.

“Unit Lord Myung, drink the divine blood.”

Myung Jincheon lifted the blue-jade cup, drained it without hesitation, and set it back upon the golden tray.

“You have now become one of the Divine Maiden’s blood kin. You will therefore share in her boundless glory and power. Before that, however, you must pass through one final gate.”

“......”

“Rise now. Pass through the Sacred Flame Spirit and go to the Divine Maiden.”

When Myung Jincheon stood, the women in black and white arrayed on either side began chanting an incantation in words he could not understand.

At once, the red flames in the center of the cabin swelled and began billowing even higher.

Myung Jincheon instinctively faltered before the crimson blaze, which looked capable of consuming anything.

“Do not doubt.”

Grand Merchant Lord Ho Yeonwon spoke from behind him.

“The Sacred Flame Spirit will merely burn away everything false within you and allow your true self to be born anew.”

“......!”

Biting his lip, Myung Jincheon walked straight toward the red flames.

WHOOSH!

Just as the Grand Merchant Lord had promised, the flames were not hot.

Yet Myung Jincheon soon found himself wishing his flesh truly were burning.

His heart felt as though it had caught fire.

In a steep, dead-end ravine, his grandfather, father, elder brother, and countless retainers had been beheaded.

The gates of Myung Clan Manor had been smashed apart, and the white robes of his grandmother, mother, sister, and countless other women had been dyed crimson with blood.

On a dark mountain road, a masked man’s merciless blade descended upon a youth barely twenty, sprawled across the shattered signboard of Myung Clan Manor.

“Do not resent me. This is your own fault for refusing to surrender the Myung Clan’s enterprises to an elder of Wudang.”

A searing flame surged from within Myung Jincheon’s burning heart to meet the fire.

WHOOSH!

The flames rising from his heart engulfed his entire body.

The moment he surrendered everything he was to those flames, the pain vanished.

Before he knew it, Myung Jincheon had passed through the crimson Sacred Flame Spirit.

He saw the woman in red approaching him with her arms spread wide.

The instant the Divine Maiden’s blue eyes blazed with radiant light, Myung Jincheon felt his entire body turning to ash and scattering away.

I’m disappearing from this world.

Then he found himself facing the Divine Maiden, still seated motionless upon the jade throne across from him.

Even though the Divine Maiden was clearly holding him in her arms before his very eyes.

How can one person be in two places at once?

—Do not doubt.

A voice reverberated through Myung Jincheon’s mind, and he relinquished his doubt.

That was Myung Jincheon’s final awareness of himself.

FLASH!

Blue light flared in Myung Jincheon’s eyes, and the Divine Maiden seated upon the jade throne collapsed as though her body had suddenly given way.

As if she had been waiting for that exact moment, the black-and-white-clad old woman caught the Divine Maiden in her arms.

“Divine Maiden, may your path through dreams be peaceful.”

*****

WHOOOOSH!

Kwak Yeon was making his way through the narrow cave a step ahead of the others when a sudden chill made every hair on his body stand on end.

“......?”

It was truly strange.

There could be no wind inside the cave.

More importantly, it felt nothing like a natural wind.

It was a cold that seemed to freeze the mind and soul.

Kwak suddenly realized that he had not physically felt it at all. He had sensed it through his Honwonmusang qi.

CLATTER! TAP.

Something fell onto the cave floor behind him, and the party’s shadows thrashed wildly.

“Ah! Taoist Cheongmu?”

At Jin Cheongha’s startled cry, Kwak spun around.

Behind Hu Gae and Jin Cheongha, Taoist Cheongmu stood trembling, his face drained of all color.

The torch he had been holding lay at his feet, sputtering as it slowly went out.

“......Uhhh!”

The groan escaping Cheongmu’s lips made it clear that something was seriously wrong. Kwak rushed toward him.

“Brother, let me through.”

“Go ahead.”

Hu Gae pressed himself flat against the cave wall to clear a path, and Jin Cheongha stepped aside as well.

Thanks to them, Kwak quickly reached Taoist Cheongmu.

“Brother Cheongmu, what is it?”

“......Uhhh. That female ghost came back.”

Kwak immediately followed Cheongmu’s fixed stare and looked ahead.

“......!”

The cave ceiling was uneven, with stone spikes shaped like icicles hanging from winter eaves jutting down here and there.

As the torchlight moved, grotesque shadows constantly formed along the cave walls and ceiling.

“Brother Cheongmu, those aren’t ghosts. They’re only shadows.”

After reassuring him, Kwak called out to Hu Gae.

“Brother.”

The moment Kwak called him, Hu Gae swung his torch in broad arcs from side to side and up and down.

SWISH! WHOOSH! WHIRR!

The shadows across the cave ceiling changed endlessly, dancing in one grotesque shape after another. The instant Hu Gae stopped moving the torch, they fell still.

“Brother Cheongmu, you saw that, didn’t you? There are no ghosts here.”

“Little Martial Uncle... I know that female ghost isn’t here.”

“......?”

Still trembling, Taoist Cheongmu continued.

“But she’ll come. I thought she was dead back then... but now she’s alive again.”

Seeing Cheongmu seized by such overwhelming terror that even his teeth were chattering, Kwak quickly pulled him into an embrace.

“Brother Cheongmu, it’s all right. I’m here.”

Kwak stirred his Honwonmusang qi and wrapped it around Taoist Cheongmu.

Because the Honwonmusang Technique was a heart method that harmonized with another person’s state of mind, it should be able to calm Cheongmu’s anxiety.

Ah!

Kwak felt that Cheongmu’s mind was engulfed in an extraordinarily dark and heavy energy.

For him to be this afraid...

Drawing as much of that dark energy into himself as he could, Kwak continued speaking.

“Brother Cheongmu, I’ll make sure that female ghost can’t come near you.”

Whether it was because of the Honwonmusang qi or because Kwak’s words had reassured him, Cheongmu’s trembling eased slightly.

“That’s right. You’re all right.”

As he continued soothing Cheongmu, Kwak suddenly realized that Cheongmu had referred to one specific female ghost.

He also remembered that Taoist Cheongmu had spoken about that ghost before.

“A female ghost dressed in red and wreathed in flames attacked me.”

Cheongmu had said it was a dream he experienced the night before suffering deviation, which was why Kwak remembered it so clearly.

Why did he suddenly remember that female ghost from his dream?

At that moment, Kwak recalled the soul-freezing chill he had felt without warning.

A single phrase slowly surfaced in his mind.

Evil energy!

Kwak clearly understood that what he had sensed was evil energy—and that Taoist Cheongmu had sensed it as well.

Unseon Taoist, an immortal master, had remained at Samryeong Palace all along, yet he had declared that evil energy had descended across all under heaven.

Kwak had vaguely assumed that Unseon could perceive it because he cultivated the path to immortality.

But he could not understand how he himself had come to sense it.

I’ve never properly cultivated the immortal path. It makes no sense for me to be able to sense evil energy.

Until now, he had never felt evil energy, or even anything resembling it.

Then why did I suddenly feel it today...?

Kwak’s thoughts returned to Taoist Cheongmu, whose body was still trembling with fear.

Ah! What I sensed wasn’t evil energy.

It was more reasonable to assume that his Honwonmusang qi had reacted because Cheongmu was beside him.

For that conclusion to be correct, however, Taoist Cheongmu must first have sensed the evil energy himself.

Then how is Taoist Cheongmu able to sense it?

Kwak knew that something other than deviation had happened to Taoist Cheongmu.

That knowledge allowed him to move on to the next question without hesitation.

Is that female ghost the source of the evil energy? Did Taoist Cheongmu sense it because her evil energy stirred somewhere?

Kwak did not know precisely how such a thing could happen, but he believed it was entirely possible.

It isn’t impossible.

The Honwonmusang Technique itself possessed the ability to connect one person’s mind to another.

“......!”

The moment he reached that conclusion, a chill pierced Kwak’s heart.

Then was the story about the woman in red not a dream, but something that truly happened?

When people endured something too terrible to bear, they tried to erase the memory.

Kwak himself had tried to erase the memory of the father who had sold him.

At the External Martial Training Ground, he had gritted his teeth and run endlessly around the training field. At the Hall of Heroic Martiality, he had struck a brick wall until his knuckles split.

While sitting beside Jang Noya in the cookhouse and feeding wood into the hearth, he had tried to burn that memory along with the firewood.

But it remained as vivid as ever, and even now he sometimes dreamed of three taels of silver dropping into his father’s hand.

If even that memory refused to disappear, what choice would a person make after experiencing something so terrifying that it could not be endured—something that made even opening one’s eyes unbearable?

Some people might sink deep within themselves and hide.

Just like Taoist Cheongmu.

“Brother Cheongmu, I’ll make sure she can never appear again.”

Kwak held the still-trembling Cheongmu even tighter.

“I promise.”

Taoist Cheongmu flinched.

“Little Martial Uncle, you promise?”

“Yes.”

Kwak patted Cheongmu’s broad back as he continued.

“Brother Cheongmu, you know I always keep my promises, don’t you?”

“......I know.”

“Then don’t be afraid of anything anymore.”

“Okay... I-I understand.”

Although Taoist Cheongmu answered, his body was still trembling.

How deeply must he fear that woman in red...?

Kwak spoke to Hu Gae, who stood nearby at a loss, unable to understand what was happening.

“Brother, I think we should rest here for a while.”

“I think so too.”

Hu Gae readily nodded.

“Didn’t I already tell you it would be too much to start moving again immediately after spending a full double-hour breaking through that wall of ten-thousand-year cold iron?”

Kwak looked at Jin Cheongha.

“Lady Jin, please understand.”

“Of course we should rest here. I should have been the first to suggest it...”

Jin Cheongha bowed her head.

“I’m the one who should apologize.”

Hu Gae cut between them.

“Every moment matters, so why waste time trading apologies? Sister Jin, let’s hurry and find somewhere suitable to rest.”

Jin Cheongha understood why Hu Gae had spoken that way and answered immediately.

“Sub-Branch Master, when you swung the torch earlier, I saw a flat rock farther ahead.”

“Then let’s go take a look.”

Once Hu Gae and Jin Cheongha had moved deeper into the cave, Kwak was able to focus on his thoughts while soothing Taoist Cheongmu more comfortably.

Whatever happened, it definitely took place somewhere on Mount Wudang.

Everyone on Mount Wudang had wondered about it, yet no one knew the truth.

No one except one person.

The man who had buried what happened to Taoist Cheongmu in absolute secrecy and descended the mountain to resolve it himself.

The Supreme Patriarch.

Kwak now had another reason to meet the Supreme Patriarch besides completing Jang Noya’s assignment.