Chapter 462 : Reaching the Sword of the Heart (1)
Chapter 462: Reaching the Sword of the Heart (1)
‘What they wanted from me was to detoxify this venom so others could enter. But now, there's no reason to detoxify it, which means I’ll just get in the way.’
Ha Deokgye clearly heard Cheong Yeong’s words as he collapsed.
“Keuk, this is why demonic bastards are always a problem… Never once have I seen one keep their promise…”
Though the voice was weak—uttered in the throes of death—Ha Deokgye had been watching Cheong Yeong closely and could make out every word.
Suppressing his trembling heart, Ha Deokgye turned to Sohyeon and spoke.
“It wouldn’t be good to leave a corpse here, so allow me to take care of it.”
Using the excuse of disposing of Cheong Yeong’s body, Ha Deokgye intended to slip out of the Dragon Bone Cavern.
However, Sohyeon had already seen through his intentions.
With a knowing smile, Sohyeon looked at Ha Deokgye.
“You’re quick-witted. Trying to find a way to survive. But it’s already too late.”
Ha Deokgye felt his chest sink. The very thing he’d feared had come to pass.
“Hahaha, what a grim joke, my lady. Our Venom Valley has faithfully followed you until now, have we not?”
“There’s nothing good about too many people knowing about this.”
“Damn it! I can’t believe I trusted a demonic bastard’s sweet talk! Damn these damned demonic dogs!”
Fury erupted from Ha Deokgye as he gathered all the qi in his body to strike Sohyeon.
Sohyeon, seeing this, readied herself.
Then, all of a sudden, Ha Deokgye veered away.
Feigning an attack, he suddenly launched himself toward the tunnel.
Watching this, Sohyeon muttered,
“Of course. That’s just how demonic bastards behave.”
She threw Cheong Yeong’s sword as she spoke, no different from the insults Ha Deokgye himself had hurled.
Shwiiiing!
Thud!
Ha Deokgye managed to hide his body inside the tunnel.
Thump!
A dull thud echoed as his body fell—oddly clumsy for someone trained in martial arts.
That was because only his torso had dropped into the tunnel—his neck remained in the cavern.
His severed head still on the floor, Ha Deokgye stared up at Sohyeon with eyes full of resentment.
“That place is your grave.”
While Sohyeon was finishing off Cheong Yeong and Ha Deokgye, Cheong Geonmin’s abdomen had begun to swell like a woman at the final stage of pregnancy.
Cheong Geonmin groaned in agony as if he were about to give birth at any moment.
“Ughhhhh!”
As the groaning intensified and his blood vessels bulged, he cried out to Sohyeon.
“Valley Leader Sohyeon! Please spare me! I beg you—let me live!”
“You want to keep living in that state?”
Hearing Sohyeon’s words, Cheong Geonmin realized there was no way out for him.
In that moment, he thought if he was going to die, he might as well scream and curse to ease his resentment.
“You son of a bitch! May you end up just like me—torn apart by Yong Hwarin, your limbs scattered, and cursed to live your life as a cripple! I’ll curse you from the grave to suffer the same fate!”
With that final curse, Cheong Geonmin’s belly burst open.
Boom!
His innards exploded in all directions, but not a single drop of blood touched Sohyeon or Wang Wook, protected as they were by their Protective Energy.
Wang Wook calmly reached out toward the exposed contents of Cheong Geonmin’s abdomen, now torn wide open. There, a Dragon Pearl had already grown to the size of a man’s fist.
As his hand reached out, the Dragon Pearl floated up and flew into his grasp.
What had once held a glimmer of azure light had now turned pitch black, as if drenched in ink.
“Is that the Dragon’s Evil Spirit?”
Since it contained the malice of a dragon, the name felt appropriate.
“Dragon’s Evil Spirit, huh. That’s a good name.”
“What will you do now? Are you going to absorb it, Right Minister?”
“No.”
Wang Wook stared at the Dragon’s Evil Spirit in his hand, then turned to Sohyeon.
“This is indeed a Dragon’s Evil, but it’s merely a tool to summon another Dragon’s Evil. The one this Dragon Pearl absorbed is an ancient Dragon’s Evil. What it holds is the power to summon a newly formed one. Only when the old Dragon’s Evil and the newly formed one combine will it become a true Dragon’s Evil.”
“What?”
For a moment, Sohyeon was so flustered she almost cursed.
To learn that the precious item they had fought so hard to obtain was, in truth, only half of the whole…
“You’re saying there’s another Dragon’s Evil? And where exactly is that one?”
Frustration seeped into her tone, rising sharply.
“I think it’s time I tell you my true intentions.”
As Wang Wook began to move his lips, Sohyeon’s expression changed by the second.
After receiving the full message through telepathy, her eyes widened. She stared at Wang Wook like he was some kind of monster.
“Is that… really possible?”
“Yes.”
“So that’s what you’re planning to give to the winner.”
“Correct. It was something I had discussed with the Martial Flower Lord from the very beginning. Among all the prizes, this will be the most precious.”
“And to do that… you plan to kill every single warrior from the Venom Valley.”
Wang Wook nodded.
“If we gather all the corpses here, the Dragon that absorbs their bloodthirst will forge a new Dragon’s Evil. During that time, the ancient Dragon’s Evil contained in this Dragon Pearl will be refined into a new force during the Murim Reorganization Tournament.”
“It's more troublesome than I thought.”
“This is all because we failed to obtain that child named Yong Hwarin, forcing us to seek out unorthodox methods. If only we had secured that child, there’d have been no need for such a convoluted and unpleasant process.”
There was a faint tone of reproach in his voice.
Though Sohyeon was a Grandmaster of the Demonic Path, even she didn’t feel entirely comfortable with killing nearly hundreds of lives all at once.
But by now, she had already sailed far from shore.
It was neither possible nor permissible to withdraw now.
In that case, it was better to actively involve herself in the situation.
“Understood. I’ll follow your orders.”
Wang Wook let out a satisfied smile and said,
“Then I’ll be heading off first to prepare for the Murim Reorganization Tournament.”
“Very well.”
Wang Wook’s figure vanished in an instant.
Sohyeon stood in brief thought before gazing at the enormous dragon.
“For the dominion of the Demonic Path!”
Sohyeon left the Dragon Bone Cavern and gave an order to So Yonghwa.
“Kill all the warriors of Venom Valley on Mount Wangok and gather their corpses here.”
At first, So Yonghwa seemed reluctant, but after hearing Sohyeon’s explanation, she couldn’t hide her shock and simply opened and closed her mouth in disbelief.
“So it’s really like that?”
Once she accepted it, So Yonghwa quickly gathered the warriors of Valley of Hidden Darkness.
And so, on Mount Wangok, harrowing screams echoed for half a day.
Yong Hwarin emerged from his isolated training chamber and looked up at the sky.
He had been so immersed in his cultivation of the Azure Dragon Stance Art that he had lost all sense of time.
Feeling satisfied with the results, he was proud.
‘Now, I finally feel like I won’t lose to anyone I face.’
While basking in the sunlight, he suddenly realized how long it had been since he’d bathed. So, the first thing he did was head toward the side building for a bath.
He wanted to clean himself before meeting the women.
After bathing, Yong Hwarin returned to his quarters and was greeted by five women.
Seeing them, he realized they had been waiting for him.
“We heard you were headed to the bath, so we all waited.”
When Jeong Minji was the first to speak, the youngest, Bukri Sehee, suddenly shouted,
“I missed you! Gagaa!”
Yong Hwarin gave a soft smile as he watched Bukri Sehee about to leap into his arms.
“I missed you all too.”
At that moment, Mo Biyoung suddenly stood and embraced Yong Hwarin tightly.
“Huh? Mo unnie! That’s cheating! Ugh, I’m going to cheat too!”
Bukri Sehee squeezed into Yong Hwarin’s side and buried her face in him.
It was obvious that Jeong Minji had ordered them not to act overly dramatic until Yong Hwarin returned.
That’s why Bukri Sehee was so antsy.
“Well now, this isn’t fair. The first one to act wins.”
Even Namgung Yoo jumped in, hugging the other side of Yong Hwarin’s waist.
“I can’t be the only one holding back. Big sister, forgive me.”
Hoi Unkyung, who was usually the most reserved among them, wrapped her arms around Yong Hwarin from behind.
Surrounded by four women, Yong Hwarin looked at Jeong Minji, who sat quietly, and gave her a gentle smile.
Then he sent her a message through telepathy.
—I missed you, Min Mae.
Although she hadn’t thrown herself at him like the others out of respect for her status as the eldest, that one whisper from Yong Hwarin made Jeong Minji feel like she was melting.
And now that Yong Hwarin had returned from his isolated training, she could feel he had changed drastically.
‘Gagaa… has stepped into yet another realm.’
Jeong Minji could no longer even imagine what level he had reached.
Her heart swelled with pride knowing that Yong Hwarin—who had now surpassed the limits of humanity—was her man.
She thought that the best decision of her life was when she ran away from home after her mother told her to marry Geum Yujin.
Had she not fled, she would never have met Yong Hwarin, nor gained such a warm and loving mother.
“But Gagaa! There’s something strange about your energy!”
Bukri Sehee suddenly lifted her head and exclaimed.
“Oh! I feel the same.”
As Hoi Unkyung spoke from behind, Namgung Yoo pulled away from Yong Hwarin’s side and responded.
“So it wasn’t just me. It feels warm… like a distant, nostalgic memory.”
Mo Biyoung, lifting her face from Yong Hwarin’s chest, added,
“To me, it felt like a breeze—gentle and still, not fierce. I need to know what it is.”
And then she hugged Yong Hwarin tightly once again.
“Mo unnie, aren’t you being a bit too blunt?”
Bukri Sehee scolded Mo Biyoung.
Each of the five women perceived Yong Hwarin’s aura differently.
That was because their perceptions varied based on their cultivated martial arts.
“Did you master the Azure Dragon Stance Art?”
Among them, Mo Biyoung was the most curious about that fact.
When Yong Hwarin obtained the Azure Dragon Stance Art from the Sangmubo and went into isolated training to master it, Mo Biyoung was the most eager and excited.
Her fascination with Heavenly Central Sect’s martial arts was befitting of someone known by the nickname Yongjung Ilhwa of the Heavenly Central Sect.
“Unfortunately, the Azure Dragon Stance Art can’t be used without the Four Great Divine Items. It’s a martial art that requires the Azure Dragon Three Marbles, so it’s impossible to pass it down to others.”
Hearing this, Mo Biyoung looked visibly disappointed.
She was nearly obsessed with martial arts and had wanted to learn the Azure Dragon Stance Art herself.
Meanwhile, Bukri Sehee lit up at the thought of her man growing stronger.
“Gagaa! Then just how strong have you become?”
In truth, such a question was quite rude when asked to a martial artist.
It was the kind of thing only someone like Bukri Sehee—completely uninformed about the Murim—could ask.
Jeong Minji and Mo Biyoung both glared at her, but in truth, they too were curious and turned to look at Yong Hwarin.
They wanted to witness what kind of martial art the Azure Dragon Stance Art truly was.
“Hwaryin Gagaa! Please show us a little.”
Namgung Yoo added Yong Hwarin’s name when she called him “Gagaa.”
It was her way of distinguishing herself from the other women.
Though they used to be like friends in the past, she liked to add his name when calling him “Gagaa” to hint at their unique bond.
Except for Hoi Unkyung, everyone else looked at him with pleading eyes, so Yong Hwarin let out a soft chuckle.
‘They may be women, but they’re all renowned experts in the Murim… no wonder they’re curious about my martial arts.’
They were all women who didn’t seem like they’d lose to anyone anywhere.
In fact, aside from Hoi Unkyung, the other four could easily be included in the Ten Absolutes of the Martial World.
On top of that, they had exceptional talent, meaning they would only continue to climb higher as time passed.
To live among such women was, to Yong Hwarin, a far greater joy than he had anticipated.
He thought that perhaps the happiest thing for a couple was walking side-by-side, looking in the same direction as they moved forward through life.