Chapter 111 : Chapter 111
Chapter 111. The Faded One
As was the case with most cities of the Central Plains, Shanxi was itself a vast region, large enough to rival a minor kingdom.
Thus, if the Blood Palace were to conceal a branch deep within layered mountain ranges, the reality was that even the Martial Sovereign Castle would find it difficult to uncover.
“However, deep within the mountains, there is no real reason to build a branch in the first place.”
Dam Jeok-san spoke as he glanced at the two people following behind him.
“That is true. Even if one were to establish a branch in a mountain valley, it would serve little purpose. It would even be difficult to maintain.”
“Indeed. Those of the Outer Path are, by nature, mostly faithful to their own desires.”
Dam Jeok-san nodded and accepted Kwon Gi-il’s words.
In the depths of remote mountains, there were neither partners to satisfy lust nor wine and meat. Daoists and monks of the Nine Sects were not bound by such things. However, those belonging to the Blood Palace of the Outer Path were different.
“So that is why you normally do not bother searching mountain valleys.”
Bukgung Wan crossed his arms and nodded. As the successor of a massive organization like the Ming Cult, he understood the logic of selection and concentration.
“That excuse could be made. However, the fact that those vile bastards were not discovered until the Castle Lord himself took action leaves no room for justification.”
Kwon Gi-il spoke in a rigid voice. The pride of someone who had devoted his entire life to the Martial Sovereign Castle, and the shock of having that pride shattered, were fully conveyed in his tone.
“That is correct. This incident occurred due to Woo Gi-tae’s foolish and cruel deviation. It is a problem for which we must rightly take responsibility.”
Dam Jeok-san likewise expressed cold fury and sided with Kwon Gi-il.
The reason the Blood Palace had been able to establish a branch in such deep mountains was, in the end, due to internal collusion.
To secretly move vast quantities of supplies and people into the depths of the mountains required a powerful figure within the Martial Sovereign Castle itself.
That person had been the family head of the Iron Blood Woo Clan, one of the Five Great Families. Once he disappeared, the existence of the branch naturally came to light.
The conversation flowed naturally in that direction.
Dam Jeok-san mostly stated facts with an indifferent expression, while Kwon Gi-il revealed his emotions without restraint, venting his anger.
Bukgung Wan, who was closer to an outsider, largely remained silent and simply listened to their exchange.
‘The Sword Dragon seems even more furious.’
Bukgung Wan idly shifted his legs as he thought with indifference.
Kwon Gi-il’s anger stemmed from the damage done to the dignity and pride of the Martial Sovereign Castle.
But Dam Jeok-san’s anger was, somehow…
‘It feels like watching a Guardian interrogating an apostate.’
They never raised their voices.
They merely maintained a calm demeanor while slowly carving into the apostate’s flesh, until his breath finally ceased.
‘Those bastards are not going to die cleanly either.’
Two Ultra-Peak masters and one Entering Transformation Realm expert.
With this level of force, most sects could be reduced to ashes overnight.
Even so, it was not something they could take lightly.
The four factions of the Outer Path Four Fiends possessed a startling number of Entering Transformation Realm experts, despite their relatively small numbers.
‘Of course, it is unlikely that someone like that would be present at the Shanxi branch.’
What erased Bukgung Wan’s train of thought was—
“We should go that way.”
Dam Jeok-san’s decisive stride. They had entered the estimated area marked on the mission map. In such cases, it was standard practice to use tracking techniques to find traces and gather clues.
However, Dam Jeok-san did not slow his steps at all, as though he already knew the answers.
“You are the same as ever. How on earth do you find it?”
“We are quite close now.”
Dam Jeok-san replied to Bukgung Wan’s question as though it were nothing.
Placing the entirety of Shanxi under one’s senses was impossible even for the Lord of the Martial Sovereign Castle. That could hardly be called the skill of a mortal any longer.
Although Dam Jeok-san was exceptional at using the Ability of Predation to track traces of demonic energy, even that ability was bound by his own limits.
It was impossible to locate a Blood Palace branch within the Martial Sovereign Castle’s territory without any context. To do that, one would have to be a Great Luo Immortal.
But now, they had come quite close to the branch. They had followed the direction indicated on the map while maintaining lightness skill for a long time.
“Once you are this close, you can feel it. Can you not smell it?”
When he had tracked the Sword Ghost in the Demonic Realm. And when he had searched, together with Bukgung Wan, for the Corrupted Land where Jeong Tae-san of the Three-Extreme Sword had been preserved.
Each time, Dam Jeok-san had found those bearing demonic energy by following a ‘scent.’
And from the place where the Blood Palace branch was hidden, that ‘scent’ also emanated.
A stench far stronger and more vile than expected.
“…Should we kill them?”
Bukgung Wan reacted irritably to that arrogant and somewhat brazen attitude. The fact that Dam Jeok-san possessed even more diverse abilities than a sorcerer like himself felt absurd.
“If you can.”
Dam Jeok-san answered as though it were something he was used to.
Of course, given that their acquaintance was not long-standing, it was not familiarity in the literal sense—
‘Strangely familiar.’
Almost as if Dam Jeok-san himself had subconsciously wished to form this kind of relationship with his Senior Brothers
The head of the Shanxi branch of the Blood Palace was a wretched old man known by the alias Reverse-Blood Heaven Fiend.
Sparse white hair atop a balding crown, grotesquely deep wrinkles, sagging flesh, and limbs reduced to skin and bone.
There was nothing about his appearance that suggested a martial artist. He looked more like a beggar from the streets, to the point that calling him one would feel less out of place.
Yet the Blood Palace disciples feared the beggar-like Reverse-Blood Heaven Fiend immensely.
Whenever his temper soured, he would indiscriminately sever the limbs of his subordinates or tear out their tongues.
Resistance was impossible. Although he had fallen into wretched decline, Reverse-Blood Heaven Fiend had once reached the Entering Transformation Realm.
After suffering a crushing defeat at the hands of an old Daoist of the Wudang Sect and sustaining grave injuries, he lost his realm, and senescence set in.
He could no longer truly be called an Entering Transformation Realm expert.
Thus, he was pushed out in the internal power struggles of the Blood Palace and sent to Shanxi, virtually as an exile.
Even so, Reverse-Blood Heaven Fiend was still a formidable expert capable of slaughtering dozens of Peak masters single-handedly.
“Damn it! Woo Gi-tae, that incompetent fool…!”
Curses spilled from the twisted mouth of the old man.
When that man had still been alive, life at this branch had been fairly satisfying.
Fine wine, lavish feasts, and women. Woo Gi-tae, the family head of one of the Five Great Families, had procured anything he desired.
In return, Reverse-Blood Heaven Fiend had merely passed along some forbidden art manuals held by the Blood Palace and a portion of the martial manuals acquired from outside.
Everything changed after Woo Gi-tae’s death.
That idiot had been crushed and killed by some fledgling—whether a Third Young Master or a Sword Dragon.
Once his backer disappeared, Reverse-Blood Heaven Fiend and the Shanxi branch became effectively isolated.
Of course, if he truly wished, descending upon villages to plunder necessities would be easy.
But this was Shanxi. No matter how vast it was, large enough to rival a minor kingdom, he could not ignore the Martial Sovereign Castle’s watchful eye.
Thus, Reverse-Blood Heaven Fiend had lived a life close to that of an ascetic, with his desires suppressed.
Naturally, by his own standards.
Gulp, gulp—
He guzzled down harsh grain liquor straight from the bottle, unable to conceal his irritation.
“Are there no women?”
Having drunk deeply, Reverse-Blood Heaven Fiend began to bark at his subordinates in a voice as rough as scraping metal.
Gluttony and lust. A man utterly faithful to his most primal urges.
This was a kind of aftereffect brought about when the mental image of Entering Transformation, forged over an entire lifetime, shattered into pieces.
Of course, even before that, Reverse-Blood Heaven Fiend had been greedy and indulgent.
‘That damned Taeguk Hye Sword….’
Now, merely seeing different types of genuine qi mixed together made his skin crawl, to the point that he felt as though qi deviation might strike.
“Immediately! Bring them here!”
He erased his thoughts and roared once more. After hesitating for a long while, one disciple—seemingly the lowest-ranked—carefully stepped forward.
“T-The people you abducted yesterday were all killed by you, Great One….”
“There is nothing left?”
Reverse-Blood Heaven Fiend spoke as though referring to objects rather than people.
Yet no one found it strange. To them, the lives of commoners were no different from a few copper coins.
“T-That is correct.”
The moment the lowest disciple answered—
PUHRAK!!
A crimson wave of qi flashed from Reverse-Blood Heaven Fiend’s hand, turning the disciple’s head into a fountain of blood.
“Clean it up.”
He spoke indifferently as he watched the headless body collapse.
The others lifted the corpse and carried it outside as though handling cargo, no different from how they treated the women killed by Reverse-Blood Heaven Fiend’s hand.
They did not treat humans as humans. Even those who worshipped the same thing and shared the same pot of food.
This was the true nature of the Blood Palace, one seat among the Outer Path Four Fiends.
“Hoo….”
Reverse-Blood Heaven Fiend let out a hot breath.
If there was no way to satisfy his boiling lust, then slaughter would have to suffice. With that mindset, he had killed a subordinate.
‘Damn it, it might be better to flee far beyond the borders….’
The Cult Master would never forgive him. The Blood Palace was little different from a heretical cult.
Entering was one thing, but leaving freely was impossible. If he fled beyond the borders, the Palace’s enforcer, the Left Protector, would surely come to kill him.
If he encountered that monster now—one he could not handle even in his prime—death would be certain.
Thus, Reverse-Blood Heaven Fiend had no choice. All he could do was hide here in Shanxi and wait for the storm to pass.
‘At least I concealed my existence thoroughly.’
Even if the Martial Sovereign Castle organized a subjugation force, there was a high probability that its strength would not be overwhelming.
Even if an Ultra-Peak master were included, the chances of survival would be far higher than facing pursuit by the Left Protector.
‘When the subjugation force arrives, I will kill them and withdraw.’
The justification would be clear. Even if the first subjugation force in Shanxi were annihilated, reinforcements would certainly follow.
The Palace Lord would not hold him excessively accountable.
‘It would be troublesome if the first subjugation force included someone who had reached the Entering Transformation Realm.’
But that would not happen.
It was true that the Martial Sovereign Castle was the strongest martial force in the Central Plains.
But it also had to deploy vast numbers of troops across an enormous territory.
They could not easily commit large-scale forces.
“Pathetic.”
Reverse-Blood Heaven Fiend drained more liquor, feeling disgust at himself for harboring such thoughts.
Once he imagined the subjugation force arriving, even his urge to vent his anger by killing subordinates subsided.
The more meat shields, the better.
“Hoo….”
He exhaled slowly.
The grand ambitions he once held as an officer of the Blood Palace had shattered on the day of that defeat, leaving not even a trace behind.
All that remained within him were the most base and primitive of human desires.
Yet paradoxically, those desires were the very foundation from which something dazzling could be forged.
Perhaps he might rise again.
That night,
Reverse-Blood Heaven Fiend dreamed, for the first time in a very long while.
In the dream, he was fighting an old Daoist of Wudang.
The old Daoist, who had mastered the Taeguk Hye Sword to its zenith, bore the alias Spirit River Sword Immortal, also known as Wudang’s Number One Sword.
The Spirit River Sword Immortal appeared without warning, annihilated the Blood River Wraith Unit led by Reverse-Blood Heaven Fiend, and ground the domain he had unfolded into dust.
To the point where it could never again be deployed.
On that day, Reverse-Blood Heaven Fiend fled with only one desire—to survive. He had thrown not only his subordinates but even innocent villagers from nearby settlements into the fray as meat shields.
But the dream was different.
The Blood River Wraith Unit—an elite force he had personally raised, training orphaned children through brainwashing and brutal cannibalistic slaughter.
Though he seemed to have used them one by one as shields, Reverse-Blood Heaven Fiend ultimately emerged victorious.
The Blood River Wraith Unit was annihilated, but the Spirit River Sword Immortal fell with them.
Reverse-Blood Heaven Fiend did not lose his realm, offered the Sword Immortal’s head to the Blood Palace Lord, and received a great reward.
It was a blissful fantasy.
And the next morning—
News arrived that a subjugation force, consisting of only three people, had appeared.
It was time to awaken from the dream.