Chapter 275 : The King of Rats (4)
Chapter 275: The King of Rats (4)
Il-mok stared down at the lifeless eyes of the Hao Clan Lord for a moment before turning around.
"Thanks for the hard work, Third Brother."
Seo Wan-pyeong walked over to him after finishing the Commander of the Gray Shadow Corps who'd tried to ambush Il-mok.
"It was nothing. You made it easy for me."
He wasn't being modest.
The Gray Shadow Corps’ Commander had been quite the expert, befitting his position as the Hao Clan Lord's right-hand man and second-in-command. He was skilled enough not to be completely outmatched by Seo Wan-pyeong.
Despite that, their battle had produced almost no noticeable sounds or visible exchanges.
Both Seo Wan-pyeong and the Gray Shadow Corps’ Commander had mastered martial arts specialized in assassination and stealth.
Using those arts, they waged an unseen battle that normal martial artists couldn’t see.
They’d fake their presence to trick each other or move in for the kill whenever something changed in the other fights nearby.
And that tedious game of cat-and-mouse had ended rather anticlimactically.
When Il-mok and the Hao Clan Lord's duel reached its final stages and the Hao Clan Lord began getting overwhelmed, the Gray Shadow Corps’ Commander lost his composure and made the mistake first.
That’s why Seo Wan-pyeong said he won thanks to Il-mok.
Il-mok guessed what happened, but he shook his head and insisted.
"I could only focus on the Hao Clan Lord because you kept that guy busy, Third Brother."
"I just did my job."
"Doing your job well is what makes someone competent, Third Brother."
"Is that so?"
"It is."
"Hehehe."
That praise earned a grim laugh of happiness from Seo Wan-pyeong
The moment Il-mok finished his conversation with Seo Wan-pyeong and took a few steps forward, people started shooting up from the holes in the floor.
Starting with Ju Seo-yeon, Hyeokryeon Seon-ah, and Jeong Hyeon, all the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult warriors who'd entered the pavilion soon came up and paid their respects.
"We've exterminated the rats without leaving a single one alive."
To make sure no news got out, the Divine Cult warriors had cleaned the house, starting from the bottom floor. Thanks to their backup, Hyeokryeon Seon-ah, Ju Seo-yeon, and Jeong Hyeon had been able to finish off the remaining Gray Shadow Corps members without much difficulty.
The moment the warriors finished their report, Ju Seo-yeon shouted desperately.
"Young Master! P-please save Senior Hayeon!"
"Miss Jin?"
Il-mok looked confused as he turned toward the ice wall.
He had been busy fighting the Hao Clan Lord when he noticed the massive surge of Yin energy from nearby and glimpsed a huge ice wall surging out from behind him.
He knew Jin Hayeon had pulled off some finishing move, but he just hadn't realized something had gone wrong with Jin Hayeon afterward.
When he looked closer, he saw Jin Hayeon trapped inside the ice with the enemies. Il-mok immediately used his lightness skill to rush over, and the others followed him.
Tap.
Il-mok stopped in front of the ice wall and reached out to touch its surface. It felt like a pillar of ice from an ancient snowy mountain rather than a wall created by a human’s hands.
‘This move is definitely too much for the Miis Jin I know.’
The cold was so intense that if he hadn’t protected his hand with energy, it would have frozen instantly. What's more, he could sense Yin energy continuously seeping out from within bit by bit.
'She's alive at least.'
A move too strong for her current realm, Yin energy is leaking, and she trapped herself with the enemies.
'Qi Deviation.'
Knowing that Jin Hayeon had been on the verge of transcending Extremity, Il-mok thought this was entirely possible.
Now that he understood the situation, Il-mok pulled out his Ascension Sword that he'd sheathed earlier.
"Everyone, step back."
After saying that, Il-mok wrapped the blade of the Ascension Sword in Sword Force and thrust it toward the ice wall.
Crack!
Unlike Ju Seo-yeon's short spear, Il-mok's Ascension Sword penetrated deep into the ice wall in one strike.
With his sword embedded in the ice wall, Il-mok unleashed the Heavenly Net Sword.
As the bundles of Sword Force tore through the interior of the ice wall, part of the ice wall crumbled away.
Thud.
Ju Seo-yeon was way sharper than usual. She frantically cleared the broken ice with her bare hands, and once a path opened up, Il-mok entered the ice wall's interior.
After breaking through two more ice walls, Il-mok was able to reach Jin Hayeon's vicinity.
'Phew.'
Now came the hard part.
One wrong move and he could slice Jin Hayeon in half.
Il-mok calmed his breathing and sharpened his concentration. Instead of using the Heavenly Net Sword, he focused his Sword Force to carefully carve the ice away.
Even while he worked, the ice kept growing back because the Yin energy kept pouring out of the wall with Jin Hayeon at its center.
'If I wait any longer, she’ll use up her Innate Life Force and die.’
Realizing Jin Hayeon's condition was quite serious, Il-mok swung his sword rapidly, and before long, he succeeded in removing part of the ice encasing her.
With the wall between them gone, Il-mok put his palm against her abdomen where her dantian was located.
***
In a pure white world filled with nothing but snow, there was a woman.
A woman with jet-black hair and jet-black eyes that contrasted sharply with her snow-white skin.
Despite the bone-chilling blizzard winds cutting into her flesh, she felt strangely comfortable.
Ironically, the cold that pierced her entire body felt warm and cozy.
In that pristine snowfield, she simply curled up her entire body and wrapped her arms around her knees like a child in its mother's womb.
Her eyes were completely empty as she looked at the snowy world. She looked like someone who had never felt joy, anger, sadness, or happiness in her life.
But that’s natural since she had nothing left inside.
She has no place to return, no one to care for, and she doesn't even remember who she was anymore.
Nothing remained for her.
All she could do was freeze the world, over and over again.
Until the whole world is dyed white.
She had made it so, but she couldn't remember why.
The only thing left was this sense of duty.
'Duty...?'
For some reason, that word felt unfamiliar.
If that was the case, did she really need to keep freezing the world like this?
But that question soon vanished as well.
She just felt like she should keep doing it because that's what she’d been doing all this time.
Suddenly, something changed in her pure white world.
"?"
She turned her head and saw something gray and blurry appearing in the distance.
That gray presence staining the pure white world felt unpleasant somehow.
'Unpleasant?'
That was strange. Since she couldn't feel any emotions at all, it was an unfamiliar word to her.
It felt like a forgotten word had resurfaced, but she soon turned away from it.
She didn't want to recall that word again.
So she focused her energy toward that gray existence.
Whoosh!
A blizzard sharp enough to cut flesh roared toward that grayish presence.
But even against the power that froze the whole world, the gray thing didn't back down.
On the contrary, it gradually increased its presence and kept walking toward her step by step.
She was angry at that existence for staining her white snowfield.
'Anger...?'
Another unfamiliar word came to mind, but she shook her head right away. Thinking about stuff like that gave her a headache.
To clear away these distracting thoughts, she focused even harder on pushing away the gray existence.
But no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't stop the gray existence from approaching.
The existence that had appeared as a faint grayish shape in the distance had now come right up to her.
"Who...?"
It was shaped like a human, just like her.
Even though she couldn't remember him, looking at his face gave her a strange sense of familiarity.
It was a man with indifferent and lazy-looking eyes, like everything in the world was a hassle. But for some reason, looking at those lazy eyes made her feel safe.
It felt like no matter what went wrong, everything would work out somehow.
'Relief...?'
While she was feeling a headache from yet another unfamiliar word that surfaced, the man put his right hand on her shoulder.
It was an odd feeling.
She had thought the freezing wind felt cozy, but the warmth from this man’s hand was different.
"You've worked hard, Miss Jin."
"..."
A familiar voice came from the man's mouth. But what reached her before the voice was the meaning contained within it.
That single phrase, acknowledging her hardship and effort, felt inexplicably rewarding.
'Rewarding...?'
Through the storm of emotions, she finally opened her frozen lips.
"Is my name... Miss Jin?"
The man shook his head.
"Jin Hayeon. That is your name."
"!!!"
A tempest of memories raged through the mind of the woman who had forgotten even her own identity.
"Aaah."
A cold storm exploded around her again because of the splitting headache, but she didn't feel cold at all.
Because that man was blocking out all that coldness.
And when she'd soon recovered all her memories, the blizzard that had covered the world also vanished without a trace.
The figure of the man who'd been blocking the cold by her side also disappeared.
'Young Master.'
But now, she remembered who that man was.
The world that had been dyed white also underwent a slight change.
It had been white all the way to the distance, but only the spot where she'd been sitting had its snow melted away.
[Heavenly Demon Divine Cult]
The first thing she saw was a name all too familiar to her.
Turning her head slightly, she saw the shape of a person depicted beside the text. Although most of it was still covered in snow, the small portion revealed was enough for her to recognize who it was.
For it bore the same face as the gray man who had visited her just moments ago.
'I should go back.'
Back to the world where the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult exists.
To the place where this man is.
***
Il-mok noticed that the cold energy going crazy inside Jin Hayeon was finally calming down, so he took his hand off her stomach.
"Phew."
When Il-mok sighed, a cloud of frozen sigh came out.
His body was already covered in a thin layer of frost.
If he'd made even a small mistake, he might have been swept up in her Qi Deviation and found himself in danger too.
But now that they'd passed the crisis, all he had to do was wait for her to return.
And as if responding to Il-mok's expectations, the ice wall that had been freezing everything around them started to melt.
Rustle.
Jin Hayeon’s eyelids slowly opened.
"Young... Master."
Her voice was weak, probably because she used too much energy or because of the Qi Deviation.
Il-mok smiled faintly at her call.
"Congratulations. You've taken your first step to liberate yourself from Extremity."
Maybe she'd run out of strength, but she gave no answer to Il-mok’s praise.
She simply lifted the corners of her mouth just a little bit.
Even that must have been too hard for her, because her smile faded and she closed her eyes again.
At the same time, the ice wall holding her melted away and her body collapsed.
Il-mok moved fast and caught her before she hit the ground.
Seeing her fall into a deep sleep, Il-mok sighed with relief.
'She just fell asleep.'
Her energy wasn't going wild, and her breathing was steady.
After checking her condition, Il-mok soon let out a chuckle.
'Come to think of it, I think that's the first time I've seen her smile.'
He couldn't help but think of how vivid the smile was before she passed out.