Chapter 226 : Chapter 226
Chapter 226 - Tower of Causalitas (14)
The Demonic Cult’s stronghold, the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains.
Somewhere among these countless peaks were the Demonic Cult and its leader, the Heavenly Demon.
And I had already entered the domain of the Qimen Formation.
The sign that the illusion had begun was that the positions, shapes, and number of the peaks had become jumbled beyond recognition compared to how they had appeared from afar.
But there was no reason to panic.
I had mastered the fundamentals perfectly with Kwak Woo-gyeong, so I was confident I could solve any applied problem that appeared before me.
‘Kwak Woo-gyeong really must be a genius.’
After all, he had recreated the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains, a place he had never once visited, well enough to prepare me for this.
Even the illusion unfolding now did not stray far from what he had anticipated.
The most important thing now was to find the Life Gate as quickly as possible.
If I wandered here, I would exhaust my strength while roaming through an endlessly changing landscape.
I calmly began climbing the mountain, distinguishing the real from the false.
SWISH!
Any place the blade could not cut was a space connected to an illusion.
To find the real path among countless fakes, I had to identify a certain route, even if it took a little time.
Of course, once I grew accustomed to this task, my pace would become faster and faster.
No matter how convincing the Qimen Formation was, it was impossible to create every illusory backdrop from scratch.
Furthermore, if the domain of the Qimen Formation was this vast, repeated patterns were bound to appear, and I could find them without much difficulty.
Some patterns were almost at the level of repeated copying and pasting.
‘It certainly is easy when I already know the answer before seeing the problem.’
I broke through such sections very quickly, as though pressing a skip button, and eventually succeeded in finding the Life Gate.
At last, the peaks of the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains began returning to their true forms.
My friend! Are you a god?
Bastian was being dramatic for the first time in a while.
But this was not the end.
I had only just passed the first stage of the layered Qimen Formation.
FWOOSH!
At that moment, flames began spreading across the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains.
As if oil had been poured across the entire mountain range, the countless peaks became a sea of flames in an instant.
A scene of hell had unfolded.
Thick smoke billowed everywhere, and the tremendous heat burrowed into my lungs.
For something that was merely an illusion, everything felt so vivid that all my senses sharpened at once.
When I thought that such a sight was unfolding across the entire vast expanse of the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains, I could not help but be impressed.
‘Amazing.’
Of course, I had prepared sufficiently for this kind of situation.
I had also already planned how I would find the Life Gate.
For a start, I would crush it with force.
BOOOOM!
I poured Sword Qi toward the spreading flames, meeting fire with fire.
Then the flames were driven all the way back to the mountaintop.
I unleashed the power of the Yeti and walked proudly along the path before me.
Of course, this hellscape of flames did not easily allow me such a comfortable mountain hike.
The enormous inferno came rushing toward me once again, and I had no choice but to keep fighting.
BOOOOM!
Of course, I had the strength to repeat this hundreds or even thousands of times.
And eventually, the Life Gate would open, and this trial would also come to an end.
My friend! Even so, there must still be a long way to go, correct?
Probably.
According to Kwak Woo-gyeong’s estimate, the Qimen Formation would have at least ten stages.
“It does not matter. It is only a matter of time anyway.”
At that moment, the mountain fire began to be extinguished all at once.
The world that had been blazing fiercely cooled as if it had all been a lie.
Moreover, the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains before my eyes had not been burned black.
The magnificent scenery, thick with all kinds of green vegetation, remained exactly as it had first been.
At the sudden change, I expanded my qi sense a little further.
My friend! What sort of strange trick is this now?
Something felt strange, but it seemed as though the Qimen Formation in the area around me was being undone.
No, it felt as if a hole had opened in the Qimen Formation.
I could even sense human presences.
‘Why?’
Then black-clad figures fell from the sky.
There were thirteen of them.
In particular, I could feel a considerable energy from one among them.
He had delicate, pretty features, almost effeminate.
Of course, he was not the Heavenly Demon.
To be precise, I would have to see more to know for certain, but he seemed to be around the level of the Murim Alliance Leader.
“I have seen your skill, young master.”
That pretty-faced fellow stepped forward and addressed me.
“I did not expect the Qimen Formation to end this quickly.”
“Because I felt there was no further meaning in it. You looked as though you would pierce through it all anyway.”
“Even so, you could have drained a little more of my strength.”
“I suppose I felt that would also be meaningless. I also wanted to meet you quickly.”
The pretty-faced man looked confident.
His own strength was formidable, but the twelve people behind him were also experts who could not be taken lightly.
Every one of them had reached the realm of Sword Expert.
People said the Demonic Cult was the strongest of the three powers dividing Murim, and now I could truly understand why.
“Perhaps you are the man from the rumors.”
“Are you talking about the nameless warrior who went to the Evil Path Alliance and the Murim Alliance in turn and defeated them one after another?”
“I believe there was one more modifier before ‘nameless warrior.’”
The nameless warrior of the Demonic Cult.
“That is not a title I gave myself. People simply made their own guesses.”
The pretty-faced man nodded.
“We were the ones who found it most absurd. We had done nothing, yet ended up taking all the blame.”
“And yet, even knowing who I am, only thirteen of you came?”
“I believe it would be more accurate to say that because it is you, as many as thirteen of us came.”
The pretty-faced man raised the corners of his mouth slightly and continued.
“Allow me to introduce myself. I am Jin Wol-cheon, Vice Cult Leader of the Demonic Cult.”
If he was the Vice Cult Leader, then he was the second-in-command of the Demonic Cult.
He seemed far younger than I had expected, but judging solely by the power he possessed, it was convincing enough.
Even compared to the pillars of the Righteous Faction and the Evil Faction, he did not feel inferior at all.
“Then what exactly did you intend to do by suddenly appearing here? Were you planning to fight me?”
“That will depend on what purpose brought you to the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains.”
“If your head works at all, can you not roughly guess? I defeated the Evil Path Alliance and the Murim Alliance in turn, so what do you think remains?”
At my words, the expressions of Jin Wol-cheon and the twelve others turned cold all at once.
“It would have been better if the Heavenly Demon himself had come.”
“That disrespectful remark toward Him must be repaid with death.”
Then, for the first time, they began releasing killing intent.
“Before that, let me ask one thing. All the Murim people are curious whether the Heavenly Demon is alive or dead. Just where has he shut himself away, and what is he doing?”
“If hearing that answer is your final wish before death, I shall gladly grant it. The Supreme One has entered the Demon God Temple for a long period of secluded training.”
“That sounds like you do not know when he will come out. Correct?”
Jin Wol-cheon nodded.
“He will not emerge before achieving his goal.”
That was the reason the Demonic Cult had been quiet recently.
The Cult Leader was absent because he was training.
And no one knew when he would emerge in the future.
At the Heavenly Demon’s level, achieving a new accomplishment within a few years was not easy.
Once swordsmanship reached a certain realm, the weight of adding a single sheet of paper became heavier than ten million geun.
“I believe I have answered sufficiently, so now I will take your head.”
“The Cult Leader is absent, and the Vice Cult Leader will soon disappear from this world as well. Has an acting authority been appointed, by any chance?”
Jin Wol-cheon gestured toward the black-clad figures behind him, as though this question was not worth answering.
“Then let us begin.”
Jin Wol-cheon was certainly not the type to bluff.
He had every right to say such a thing.
Had his opponent been anyone other than me.
SWISH SWISH SWISH!
The twelve warriors began a combined assault all at once.
It was the first time in my life I had faced this many Sword Experts simultaneously.
In that sense, Murim was truly an interesting place.
BOOOOM!
The energy of the Holy Sword, swung in a long arc, drove them all back at once.
But it was the finest combined sword technique I had ever seen.
The twelve came in organically, as though they were one, trying to pierce me, and even as they were pushed back, they efficiently covered one another.
Remarkably, Vice Cult Leader Jin Wol-cheon already seemed ready to step in.
It was a good decision.
If he waited until all his subordinates were dead before making his move, no stroke of luck would be enough to capture me.
The addition of a Sword Master was significant, and now the odds had reached a level where they could at least leave it to luck.
CLANG CLANG CLANG!
Of course, such luck would only arrive with an absurdly low probability.
***
The last one to collapse, bleeding, was Jin Wol-cheon after all.
He was not the least bit mournful.
Rather, he was naturally accepting his own death.
This was likely the result of embodying the Demonic Cult’s truth that the strong survived.
“It was a good fight, young master.”
Jin Wol-cheon remained composed until the final moment.
“Where is this Demon God Temple where the Cult Leader is in secluded training?”
Even while dying, he opened his mouth with a faint smile.
“……I do not know. Even if I did, I would not tell you.”
With that, he finally closed his eyes.
His final words before death were likely not a lie.
If even the Vice Cult Leader did not know, it meant the place was thoroughly hidden somewhere within the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains.
I began climbing the mountain again.
After I passed through the area of the Qimen Formation that had been partially undone, what appeared this time was a thick fog.
The illusion had begun again.
‘The Demon God Temple…….’
A secret place known to no one except the Cult Leader.
Since it had never once been discovered by anyone, that meant it had been hidden inside the Qimen Formation since long ago.
Another Qimen Formation now covered the entirety of the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains, so my conclusion was that the current Demon God Temple lay inside a double Qimen Formation.
‘That actually works in my favor.’
The Demon God Temple would surely emit an energy different from the other places.
I expanded my qi sense and began searching.
Since I also had to find the Life Gate of the Qimen Formation, I had to pour all my concentration into it.
***
The invisible barrier surrounding it was the most vicious and powerful one yet.
It was a locking mechanism so desperate that it seemed to contain someone’s entire being.
When I undid it, what appeared before me was an exotic stone building.
It was a place overflowing with a sense of incongruity, completely out of place in Murim.
My friend! This must be the Demon God Temple!
A garden stretched along the path from the entrance toward the Demon God Temple.
Even though I had escaped the Qimen Formation, the dreamlike atmosphere continued.
The plants in the garden also gave off mystical energies, as if they were not of this world.
They were not quite on the level of Ten Thousand Year Snow Ginseng, but medicinal herbs strong enough to contain considerable power were growing in profusion everywhere.
The moment I touched one of them.
[Consuming this will not increase your mana.]
A message was transmitted.
If the Abyss had intervened, it meant every single one of these commonly growing medicinal herbs was a considerable spiritual medicine.
I could fully understand just how great a privilege the Heavenly Demon enjoyed within the Demonic Cult.
If he had been able to freely consume such spiritual medicines whenever he wished, I could not even begin to guess how much mana he possessed.
However, even when I expanded my qi sense, I could not feel the Heavenly Demon’s energy.
That meant this building called the Demon God Temple was perfectly controlling all energy inside and outside.
I walked toward the entrance one step at a time.
The doorknob I finally grasped radiated an unknowable power.
My friend! Are you truly going inside?
Having come this far, I could not simply turn back.
I pulled the doorknob without hesitation.
CREAK!
The moment the door opened, fragments of an immense energy leaked through the gap.
‘It is you!’
The Cult Leader of the Demonic Cult.
The Heavenly Demon.
He had probably sensed my existence as well.