Chapter 111 : Chapter 111
Chapter 111 : Great Thunder Temple
“Cough……!”
As soon as the fire butterfly, Flame Butterfly, that landed on Yeon Jeok-ha's shoulder fluttered its wings, the hellish fire demon exploded.
If it were a general fire art, he would have struck it away by channeling blood qi, but my flames were different.
The flame, a mix of the poison qi from the Ten Thousand Heavens Poison Hand and the pure yang qi of the Extreme Yang Body, used the Seventh Blood Lord's blood mist as fuel to burn even more fiercely.
Yeon Jeok-ha's eyes rolled back.
The flames covered his entire body in an instant.
Having roamed the Outer Regions as the Seventh Blood Lord and faced countless experts, this was the first time he had encountered such grotesque and destructive energy.
And that was the last thought of the Seventh Blood Lord, Yeon Jeok-ha.
The scene where the battle ended.
Moyong Geum walked past the frozen skeleton soldiers and spoke cautiously.
“You are amazing.”
Seol Ye-rin shook her head.
“I smell something burning from above. Perhaps a hellscape even worse than here has unfolded? What about the damage situation?”
“A few carriages were broken, but the escort goods are fine.”
“That is a relief.”
At that moment, I lightly flew from the top of the cliff and landed next to Seol Ye-rin.
“Are you okay?”
“Yes, what about you, Small Snow Squad Captain?”
“No problems.”
I stared at the frozen skeletons.
“Are the skeletons that came out from under the carriage wheels also Jiangshis?”
At Seol Ye-rin's question, I nodded and pointed to the top of the cliff.
“I heard he was a guy called the Blood Lord of the Blood Cult, calling himself the Blood Bone Lord. He was a guy who handled bones. The bones he controlled have all turned to ash now, so you do not have to worry.”
“Sigh, really, Young Master burns everything wherever he goes.”
Wi Ji-yeong approached, dusting off the dirt from her clothes.
“Anyway, these bone guys were really persistent. I was scared to death because they kept crawling even when their limbs were cut off.”
“For saying that, you wielded your dagger well, didn't you?”
“I cannot lose to skeletons!”
Wi Ji-yeong responded to Baek Mu-yong's rebuke.
“Ah, Miss Seong. Can I help you with anything?!”
Seong Sang-ah, who was calmly organizing the medicine box from the side, smiled and nodded.
“Fortunately, everyone does not seem to be seriously injured, but since the Blood Cult's energy is mixed with poison qi, you must drink a cup of detoxification tea later.”
“I will deliver it!”
“Young Master Moyong, will there be more attacks like this on the way to the Great Thunder Temple?”
Seol Ye-rin looked at Moyong Geum with concern.
Moyong Geum folded his fan with a snap and answered with a serious expression.
“I did not know the Blood Cult was moving. The problem is that this area is already within their range. But do not worry. The Great Thunder Temple is not far away.”
“They are persistent guys. Since they failed once, they might send a more persistent guy.”
Moyong Geum gave a bitter smile at my indifferent reply.
“That is why we must hurry even more. Once we enter the sanctuary where the Great Thunder Temple's influence reaches, even the Blood Cult guys will not be able to move rashly. Come, come! Abandon the broken carriages and transfer to the spare carriages I prepared!”
***
At that time, the Great Thunder Temple.
The Abbot of Great Thunder Temple, Beop Jeong, was deep in meditation.
Great Thunder Temple is a holy ground of the West and a place where the essence of Buddhism is gathered.
This place, boasting majestic dignity with stone Buddhas that have withstood a thousand years and the Scripture Pavilion where tens of thousands of Buddhist scriptures are stored, should normally have the ceaseless scent of subtle incense and the sound of monks chanting.
But now, what pierced Abbot Beop Jeong's nose was not the scent of incense.
‘It is fishy.’
It was a very faint, but never negligible, blood scent.
Abbot Beop Jeong slowly opened his eyes.
His eyes were filled with a bright gleam.
“Ji Myeong, come in.”
Beop Jeong's low voice echoed inside the Dharma Hall.
The door opened quietly, and a monk wearing a neat Buddhist robe entered and pressed his palms together.
It was Ji Myeong, a disciple expected to be the next leader of Great Thunder Temple.
“Did you call, Abbot?”
“The energy of the temple is chaotic. I heard that over thirty monks have gone missing recently. How is the investigation going?”
Ji Myeong answered calmly with his head bowed.
“It seems they lost their way due to the fickle weather of the high mountain areas. We sent people to nearby villages, so there will be news soon.”
“Lost their way…….”
Abbot Beop Jeong's gaze lingered on the tip of Ji Myeong's sleeve.
It was a very fleeting moment, but Beop Jeong did not miss the blood-red glint that flashed and disappeared in Ji Myeong's eyes.
The shadow of the Blood Cult had already cast deep inside Great Thunder Temple.
No, perhaps the suspicion that even his most trusted disciple might have been encroached by that darkness weighed heavily on Beop Jeong's qi center.
‘The underground Blood Pond is fluctuating.’
Deep underground in Great Thunder Temple, the demonic qi sealed during the war with the Heavenly Demon in the past was trying to awaken again.
‘Amitabha.’
He knew that now, the original power of the Great Thunder Temple alone was not enough to clear away the darkness of the Great Thunder Temple.
So.
“Ji Myeong, where is the merchant guild coming from the Central Plains?”
“They say they have just arrived at the entrance of the sanctuary.”
“Right, is the rumor true that figures from the North Sea Ice Palace are accompanying them?”
At Beop Jeong's question, Ji Myeong's eyelids trembled slightly.
Ji Myeong maintained a calm tone with his head still bowed.
“Yes, Abbot. It is said that the Young Palace Head of the Ice Palace and a man called her fiancé are together. However…….”
“However?”
“I received a report that the man's energy is unusual. It is said he destroyed the Poison Palace in Namman and burned the group of the Blood Cult interfering with missionary activities in an instant.”
When the word ‘missionary activities’ came out of Ji Myeong's mouth, Beop Jeong's eyes became sharp.
Seeing that gaze, Ji Myeong immediately corrected his words.
“…They say he repelled the Blood Cult's attack. They said the flames were so hot that the top of the cliff turned into a pile of ash.”
Beop Jeong quietly rolled his prayer beads.
A man with energy hotter than the sun and a woman with energy colder than the Ten Thousand Year Cold Snow.
Those standing at the extremes of Yin and Yang were trying to step into this Great Thunder Temple where the fishy smell of blood vibrated.
“Welcome them politely. The gates of Great Thunder Temple are always open to those who seek enlightenment.”
“……I understand. I will carry it out as you wish.”
When Ji Myeong withdrew, Beop Jeong burst into the cough he had been suppressing.
“Cough!”
A dark red lump of blood splattered onto his white sleeve.
“Now… you are not even hiding it.”
Beop Jeong looked at the tea Ji Myeong had served.
Already, more than half of the monks of Great Thunder Temple were caught in the Blood Cult's evil arts, becoming sentinels guarding the underground Blood Pond with their eyes dyed red.
Beop Jeong began to wait for the Murim merchant guild approaching while squeezing out his fading inner qi.
***
At that time, the entrance to the sanctuary.
The spare carriage Moyong Geum provided soon reached the pass overlooking the huge golden roof of Great Thunder Temple.
“Wow, it is really flashing! Is that all real gold?”
Wi Ji-yeong, who stuck her head out the carriage window, opened her mouth wide.
But my expression, sitting on the carriage roof and facing the wind, was not that bright.
The fact that the Blood Cult ambushed us right in front of the Great Thunder Temple and acted as if it was nothing meant that perhaps the Great Thunder Temple was also under the influence of the Blood Cult.
-Heh heh, it smells foul already even before going inside.
-Hmm? But, it seems a bit different from when I came before.
At the Demon Queen's words, I made a puzzled expression.
‘Have you also been to the Great Thunder Temple?’
-Would the North Sea Martial God be called the North Sea Martial God for nothing? Visiting the Outer Regions once was a natural thing in my time. I even met the Abbot of Great Thunder Temple once, and he begged me to please stop coming.
What on earth did the Demon Queen do at Great Thunder Temple?
‘Could their perception of the Ice Palace be bad?’
-I do not know, it was such a long time ago.
-Heh heh, it was a long time ago.
Seeing this, it seemed the Sword Venerable also had memories.
A thought suddenly occurred to me.
‘By any chance, did the Ice Emperor also visit the Great Thunder Temple?’
-It is a tradition.
Maybe I could get information about the Ice Emperor, Seol Cheon-u.
I lightly jumped down from the carriage roof and examined the party.
At that moment.
I saw Cheon Deung-jin's face staring at Great Thunder Temple with a pale complexion.
“Miss Cheon, why is your expression like that? It is exactly the expression of being dragged to a slaughterhouse.”
“……You can feel it too, right, Young Master? The energy here is incredibly twisted.”
Cheon Deung-jin's voice trembled thinly.
“Huh?”
The energy is twisted?
Cheon Deung-jin is sensitive to energy.
In other words, it means that bad energies are really wafting from the Great Thunder Temple.
At that moment, Seol Ye-rin also got off the carriage and gently grabbed my sleeve.
“Young Master, the air is too heavy. It feels like the surroundings are already dead even before my coldness touches them.”
It seems even Seol Ye-rin feels the death qi.
I tightly held Seol Ye-rin's cold hand and softly raised the yang qi in my qi center.
“It is warm.”
“Yeah.”
“Oh? Someone is coming out!”
At Moyong Geum's shout, my eyes flashed purple.
The huge main gate of Great Thunder Temple was slowly opening, and beyond it, a monk was appearing to welcome the party.
Great Thunder Temple's huge main gate, the Mountain Gate, opened with a magnificent sound.
The energy emitting from beyond it looked holy on the outside, but my senses were constantly becoming sharper.
“Amitabha. You went through a lot of trouble coming a long way.”
The person who appeared accompanied by dozens of monks was a middle-aged monk wearing a neat Buddhist robe.
He was wearing a gentle smile, but in my eyes, his footsteps were terribly heavy.
“I am Ji Myeong of Great Thunder Temple. I received the Abbot's order to welcome the Moyong Clan Merchant Guild and the precious guests from the North Sea.”
Smirk.
Ji Myeong's smile met me.