Chapter 315

“Brother Kwak, you said we should rest for a while. Why are you already back on your feet?”

Hu Gae called out to Kwak Yeon as he approached.

It had not even been long enough to drink a cup of tea since they had found a place to sit down.

“Taoist Cheongmu has calmed down, so there is no need for us to rest.”

“......?”

Hu Gae stared in disbelief at Taoist Cheongmu, who was following close behind Kwak with a broad smile on his face.

Had he not been trembling like a frightened child moments ago after seeing something that was not there?

Such a rapid emotional swing was impossible for an ordinary person.

Hu Gae supposed it might be because Cheongmu was so guileless, but he still could not help worrying.

“Taoist Cheongmu, are you truly all right?”

“Yeah! Big Beggar, I’m fine now. That female ghost is gone from this world.”

“......?”

It was a baffling answer, but Hu Gae took it to mean that Cheongmu was no longer afraid and nodded.

“Then that is a great relief.”

Jin Cheongha also spoke, her expression considerably brighter.

“Taoist Cheongmu, I’m so glad.”

“Hehe. Thank you, Sister Jin.”

Kwak walked past the two of them and headed deeper into the cave.

“You should all get up now.”

“Chief Secretary Kwak.”

Jin Cheongha hurriedly called after him.

“Since we have already settled here, why don’t we rest for a little while?”

She felt deeply guilty that the others had been maintaining such a grueling pace day after day because of her.

She also wondered whether Taoist Cheongmu had seen the ghost because the forced march had exhausted him in both body and mind, which only made her feel worse.

Kwak shook his head.

“Lady Jin, we are almost there. We can rest after meeting the Eight Demonic Venerables.”

Hu Gae rose and dusted off his backside.

“Yes. Brother Kwak is right. To the people waiting inside, every moment must feel like an eternity.”

Anxiety was evident in his voice.

No one in the group had said it aloud, but they had all begun to doubt whether the Eight Demonic Venerables were still alive.

They had spent nearly a full double-hour making an enormous amount of noise as they broke through the wall of ten-thousand-year cold iron, yet there had been no response from within the cave.

Unless the people inside were already dead, there was no way they could have failed to hear it.

Jin Cheongha’s expression darkened, but she rose as well.

Kwak led the group through the narrow cave until an open cavern appeared before him.

It was nowhere near as vast as the enormous cavern at the entrance to the Great Demon Prison. Even so, after spending nearly a double-hour walking through a cramped, twisting passage, the group felt as though they could finally breathe again.

“Ahhh! Now I feel alive.”

Hu Gae stretched his entire body and let out a satisfied exclamation.

“Sniff, sniff! The air isn’t stale here either. Sniff! There must be an air shaft somewhere in this cavern.”

He was not merely making a show of his delight at reaching an open space.

The Eight Demonic Venerables had to be somewhere inside this cavern. Hu Gae was deliberately making noise to announce their presence and show that they bore no hostility.

That was assuming the Eight Demonic Venerables were still alive.

Kwak and Jin Cheongha understood his intention and listened in silence.

Yet no matter how long they waited, the only sound was the low, lingering echo of Hu Gae’s voice. There was no other noise and no response.

“......!”

Seeing Jin Cheongha’s face rapidly darken, Kwak spoke.

“Young Castle Lord, this cannot be the only cavern within this cave.”

Like Hu Gae’s noisy display, Kwak’s decision to address her as Young Castle Lord rather than Lady Jin was deliberate.

Now that they had reached their destination, there was also no longer any need to worry that Taoist Cheongmu might accidentally reveal her identity.

Jin Cheongha nodded.

“Yes. There must be another cavern.”

She could not bring herself to add that the Eight Demonic Venerables—and her grandfather among them—would surely be alive there.

That hope was beginning to feel increasingly hollow.

“Then let us search. There must be another cave entrance somewhere in this cavern.”

Kwak was about to urge the others to begin searching when Taoist Cheongmu’s voice thundered through the cavern.

“Little Martial Uncle! Come over here!”

“There’s a dead person here!”

Kwak, Hu Gae, and Jin Cheongha all flinched and widened their eyes.

Unlike the three of them, who had remained cautious and alert since entering the cavern, the utterly carefree Taoist Cheongmu had already begun wandering around and examining the place.

The three hurried over and saw a hollow niche recessed into the cavern wall.

Inside sat a gaunt old man in ragged clothes, frozen in a cross-legged meditation posture.

Only skin seemed to remain upon his body, leaving him like a mummified corpse. A large stone slab stood before him.

Jin Cheongha’s face went pale. She brought her torch closer to the slab, revealing several clearly carved lines.

“Ah......!”

A grief-stricken moan escaped her lips.

Nine Hells Demon Gate

Netherworld Demon Venerable Wi Baeksang

Tablet Raised in Life

The torch trembled in Jin Cheongha’s hand, making the carved words dance chaotically across the stone.

After confirming the remains of Wi Baeksang, the Netherworld Demon Venerable of the Nine Hells Demon Gate—one of the Demonic Eight Divisions—her strength drained away, and she wanted nothing more than to collapse where she stood.

Nevertheless, Jin Cheongha summoned every bit of strength she possessed and remained upright.

The other Demonic Venerables will be all right. My grandfather too.

That last thread of hope snapped at Taoist Cheongmu’s next shout.

“There’s another dead person here!”

Completely oblivious to the mood, Cheongmu wandered along the cavern walls with his torch and continued calling out.

“Oh, there’s one over there too. And another over there......”

Thanks to Taoist Cheongmu’s tireless efforts, Jin Cheongha discovered that there were eight niches in all.

At last, she collapsed to the floor as though her body had given way.

Neither Kwak nor Hu Gae could say anything at that moment.

What words could possibly comfort someone grieving after all hope had vanished?

Just as they had feared, each of the eight niches contained one of the Eight Demonic Venerables, seated cross-legged.

Jin Cheongha stood before one of the niches, tears pouring endlessly from her eyes.

Hu Gae silently remained beside her.

He knew that simply staying by her side was better than offering some clumsy consolation.

For a moment, he glanced sideways at Kwak, who was circulating his qi in the center of the cavern.

Honestly! What could possibly be so urgent about circulating his qi? Would it kill him to come over and stay beside Sister Jin at a time like this? He really is the same hopelessly rigid Cave Hermit Taoist as ever.

After berating Kwak inwardly, Hu Gae turned his gaze back toward the niche.

Ghost Night Castle

Ghost-Hand Demon Venerable Jin Gwanho

Tablet Raised in Life

Reading the words carved upon the stone before the white-haired, emaciated body, Hu Gae sighed inwardly.

Haaa. Ghost-Hand Demon Venerable, if you were going to endure for so long, could you not have held on just a little longer? Then you would have seen how splendidly your granddaughter has grown.

The condition of the cavern, which Hu Gae had briefly inspected before coming to Jin Cheongha’s side, was nothing short of horrific.

He could tell that the Eight Demonic Venerables had survived by licking the moisture seeping from the cavern walls to quench their thirst.

Once their reserve of fasting pills had run out, they had scraped water moss from the rocks and eaten it.

The yellowed fragments of moss still clinging to the stone and the deep gouges cut into the walls bore witness to their desperate struggle to survive.

The entire cavern floor had also been dug apart. The Eight Demonic Venerables must have caught and eaten every insect and earthworm they could find.

But in the years since the breach of the Great Demon Prison, even those creatures would eventually have vanished.

When they finally realized that they had reached the limits of survival, the Eight Demonic Venerables had dug the niches that would serve as their own graves.

Hu Gae could not begin to imagine how desolate they must have felt while preparing their own grave markers.

The final words—Tablet Raised in Life—made it clear that each man had carved and erected his own marker. Their grief as they inscribed those words must have been unbearable.

These Demonic Venerables had once commanded all under heaven. Yet not only had they suffered the humiliation of imprisonment in the Great Demon Prison, they had then been betrayed by their own subordinates and left to starve to death.

How profound must their final resentment have been?

Even knowing that the Eight Demonic {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} Venerables had been great demons feared throughout the realm, Hu Gae could not help feeling sorrow for them.

“Sister Jin, why don’t you stop crying for now and perform the funeral rites for your grandfather?”

Hu Gae was beginning to worry that if she continued weeping without end, she might shrivel up just like her grandfather.

“Then I can pay my respects as a guest as well.”

A visitor could not offer condolences before the chief mourner had made the first bow.

Jin Cheongha wiped her eyes with her sleeve.

“Sub-Branch Master, I’m sorry for worrying you. And thank you for staying beside me.”

“What are you talking about? That is only natural between companions.”

Hu Gae shook his head before continuing with a bitter expression.

“The outcome may not have been what we hoped, but your grandfather must know how hard you worked to reach him.”

“Thank you for comforting me. But the outcome is not entirely bad, so please don’t grieve on my behalf.”

“......?”

When Hu Gae looked at her, Jin Cheongha wiped away another trail of tears.

“Because I came here, I was able to see my grandfather’s face with my own eyes. And I can recover the secret techniques of Ghost Night Castle and take them home.”

“Hm?”

“Look closely at the wall behind my grandfather.”

At Jin Cheongha’s words, Hu Gae focused his vision and examined the back wall of the niche.

He discovered that it was densely covered in characters as tiny as grains of millet.

“Ah! I see.”

The Ghost-Hand Demon Venerable had left behind the secret demonic art passed down among the Castle Lords of Ghost Night Castle so that it would not be lost.

He had done so in the hope that a descendant of Ghost Night Castle would one day find this place.

Now that his own granddaughter, Jin Cheongha, had come, his wish had ultimately been fulfilled.

Hu Gae was once again struck by the extraordinary lengths to which martial artists would go to pass down their martial arts.

Even while starving to death, he dug his own grave and inscribed the martial formulas upon its wall.

As he marveled at that, Hu Gae suddenly thought of the other seven niches.

Did that not mean the core demonic arts of all eight Demonic Eight Divisions were inscribed within them?

A chill ran through his heart.

If someone were to enter this cavern and acquire the true demonic arts of all eight divisions......

The greatest demonic martial artist under heaven—no, the greatest in all history—would be born.

Good heavens. This cavern is a veritable Hall of Ten Thousand Demons!

Hu Gae was beginning to worry that the cavern might become the source of some future calamity in the martial world when Jin Cheongha spoke.

Perhaps talking with him had eased her grief slightly.

“Sub-Branch Master, I will now perform the funeral rites for my grandfather.”

Hu Gae nodded.

“You should. The Ghost-Hand Demon Venerable might become angry otherwise.”

“......?”

“It has been quite some time since his granddaughter arrived, yet he still has not received a deep bow from her. Wouldn’t that make him angry?”

At Hu Gae’s words, Jin Cheongha burst into tears again.

Then Kwak’s voice reached them.

“Brother, why are you making the Young Castle Lord cry?”

Hu Gae glared at Kwak, who had somehow appeared beside them.

“That may have been the result, but...... I was trying to lighten Sister Jin’s heavy heart. In any case, you are hardly in a position to criticize me.”

“Why am I not in a position to criticize you?”

“Because until now, you were......”

Hu Gae could not bring himself to say that Kwak had been circulating his qi instead of comforting Jin Cheongha.

While he hesitated, Kwak turned to her.

“Young Castle Lord, I believe it is still too early to shed tears of mourning. Tears of joy, however, may continue.”

“......?”

Not understanding him, Jin Cheongha raised her lowered head.

Kwak continued.

“The Eight Demonic Venerables are not dead.”