Chapter 142 : Similar Yet Different
Chapter 142: Similar Yet Different
After finishing the cleanup, Zhuge Hoon returned to the Closed-Door Training Grounds and spoke to the Clan Head.
“The people from Room 32 left a few stationed about a hundred jang away and withdrew to a nearby guesthouse.”
“So they intend to keep watching.”
At the Clan Head’s words, Zhuge Hoon, who had been reporting, nodded.
“That seems to be the case.”
“It will be difficult to proceed for the time being.”
He was concerned that if Spirit Possession were carried out using the White Enemy Pellet, ghostly aura would surge forth again.
As if in agreement, Zhuge Hoon nodded obediently and looked toward the prodigies gathered at a distance, murmuring among themselves.
“And what of them?”
“They appear afraid. They watched fifty of their comrades die before their very eyes.”
Just before Yul Han arrived, the White Enemy Pellet had been completed.
Within the fully blossomed flower buds above the heads of those circulating their energy, the pellets transformed into White Enemy Pellets had taken root.
The Clan Head summoned the remaining fifty prodigies and ordered them to consume them.
He instructed them to ingest them completely, fearing they might be searched.
Just as with the Enemy Pellet, the White Enemy Pellet would not activate unless guided through a specific energy circulation technique.
In particular, the White Enemy Pellet, which could now perfectly contain ghostly aura by absorbing benevolent souls, did not leak even the faintest trace of ghostly aura.
That was why even Yul Han, who had activated Ghost Eyes, and the ghosts commanded by the Ghost Monk could not detect any ghostly aura.
Under the Clan Head’s icy command, they had no time to hesitate. They plucked the White Enemy Pellet from the flower bud blooming above their comrades’ heads and swallowed it.
Yet the moment they tore it free and consumed it, the heads of the comrades who had been seated beside them snapped limply to the side.
In other words, they had severed their comrades’ lifelines with their own hands.
One might say they had become accomplices.
That was why the fifty prodigies could not merely condemn the Clan Head and Zhuge Hoon.
Moreover, once the crisis had passed, fear surfaced from beneath the calm.
Fear that when the White Enemy Pellet they had consumed activated, they might end up just like their already dead comrades.
That fear had to be dispelled, but neither the Clan Head nor Zhuge Hoon had a suitable solution.
From what Zhuge Hoon had witnessed in the case of Slaughter Demon Gireon, once the White Enemy Pellet activated, the original soul ultimately vanished.
More precisely, it was replaced.
The Law of Causality required fulfillment of both time and space.
If one soul was drawn out from hell, then another soul had to be sent there in its stead.
In other words, when someone consumed and activated the White Enemy Pellet, their soul would be sent to the place where the possessing soul had originally resided.
If it were someone like Slaughter Demon Gireon, a villain of unparalleled evil, then he would have been in hell. Simply for consuming the White Enemy Pellet, that soul would be dragged down to hell.
That could not be explained.
If it were, then no one would later attempt to activate the White Enemy Pellet.
In the end, the Clan Head resolved to employ falsehood.
Stepping forward before the murmuring prodigies, he opened his mouth.
“Do not waver. Through your comrades’ sacrifice, you will grasp a power no one has ever held before.”
At his words, the fifty prodigies ceased their murmuring and focused their gazes on him.
Looking at them, the Clan Head continued.
“Some of you may have already sensed it, but the comrades who sacrificed themselves were not selected for their martial prowess.”
At that, several nodded here and there.
Even by their own judgment, some of those selected had seemed lacking in skill, which had struck them as strange.
Looking at them, the Clan Head went on.
“They were chosen for their chivalrous spirit and purity. And for you, their comrades, and for the glory of the clan, they offered themselves.”
The corpses of those still slumped with heads bowed remained abandoned where they had fallen.
There had been no time to remove them.
Thus, as the prodigies gazed at the bodies of their comrades visible at a distance, the Clan Head added his explanation.
“By their sacrifice, the spirit pill you consumed has been purified, and its risks eliminated. In short, they gave their lives to aid your ascension.”
The prodigies who had steadied themselves looked at one another.
The Clan Head’s voice continued into their ears.
“So do not fear. Be grateful for their sacrifice. You are the future of the Zhuge Clan. I will not let you fade away meaninglessly. Trust me—and trust the clan!”
When his words ended, the fear that had permeated the prodigies subsided considerably.
Even by their own reasoning, if the intention had been to let them die like that, there would have been no reason to expend such effort teaching them secret manuals.
Moreover, here and there, voices arose.
“That’s right. They weren’t quite fit to shoulder the clan’s future.”
A quiet awareness that they were different began to spread among the remaining prodigies.
As the Clan Head and Zhuge Hoon looked upon them, relief flickered in their eyes.
Unlike Room 32, which decided to keep watch over the Zhuge Clan in case ghostly aura surged again, Yul Han and his group returned to the Bright Cult.
They did not order the Four Calamity Emperors’ Stronghold to continue monitoring the Zhuge Clan.
They had seen that Room 32 remained.
This was neither related to Man-Sa Calamity Emperor nor to the Blood Corpse.
Moreover, it concerned an event within the domain of the Hundred Paths, happening to a sect of the Hundred Paths.
They judged it sufficient that, because of them, the Martial Alliance’s Room 32 had become focused on the matter.
And there was something else to investigate.
As soon as he returned, Yul Han headed toward the military farm village.
There were three there as well—those who lived and moved, yet were already dead.
After witnessing Slaughter Demon Gireon, he had begun to wonder if he had been neglecting them too much.
Furthermore, the three of them were residing in the military farm village, where many ordinary commoners lived together.
If they were to reveal a vicious nature like Slaughter Demon Gireon, a horrific tragedy would unfold.
With that concern in mind, he arrived at the military farm village.
It was peaceful.
With everyone out working in the fields, the village was quiet, occupied only by a few elderly too frail for labor and children too young to attend the academy.
The academy where the children gathered burned with the heat of learning.
With bright, sparkling eyes unlike typical children, they focused on the instructor’s words.
They were children who shared the experience of once being unable to learn despite wanting to. They understood well how precious this moment was.
A faint smile curved Yul Han’s lips as he passed through the village and made his way toward the fields.
The entire plain had been transformed into farmland.
The sight of people working diligently there was pleasing.
Several Instructors who had been laboring alongside them noticed Yul Han and hurried over.
“You have come, Vice Cult Leader.”
To the Instructor who bowed deeply, Yul Han replied,
“You have worked hard.”
“Not at all. Labor is sacred. It allows everyone to eat their fill—what could be better than that?”
“That is a gratifying thing to hear.”
Even as he spoke, the Instructor noticed Yul Han’s gaze drifting toward one side of the fields.
“Is there someone you wish to meet? If you give the word, this subordinate will call them.”
At the Instructor’s words, Yul Han smiled awkwardly.
“Then please call Gu Tae, Dok Yang, and Dan Yang.”
As the name of those whom the Instructor of the Departed had always told him to observe carefully came from the Vice Cult Leader’s lips, worry appeared on the Instructor’s face.
“Have they committed some wrongdoing?”
“No. There is something I wish to ask them.”
“Ah! Yes. This subordinate will hurry and bring them.”
“I would appreciate it.”
At Yul Han’s reply, the Instructor ran toward the military farm.
The military farm was divided by sections, each working separately. One might call it a sectional responsibility system.
Perhaps because of that, every section worked with remarkable diligence.
If their harvest were less than that of another section’s fields, they feared it would appear as though they had been negligent.
Moreover, of the yield from the farmland assigned to each section, three-tenths was offered to the Bright Cult’s Main Fortress, and the rest belonged entirely to that section.
That was the reason the harvest had to be abundant.
The more they produced, the larger their share became, and the more comfortably they could live.
Furthermore, at Yul Han’s persuasion, the Cult Leader had permitted the external sale of surplus crops.
They were no longer merely sustaining themselves on what they harvested—they could earn money as well.
Perhaps for that reason, the fields were filled with people working harder than any farmland Yul Han had ever seen.
After all, their hearts were different from tenant farmers who, after being stripped of taxes by the government office and landowners, barely retained three-tenths for themselves.
As Yul Han quietly observed the military farm, Gu Tae, Dok Yang, and Dan Yang—having received word from the Instructor—ran toward him as if flying.
They had already been fairly skilled martial artists before, but it was evident their abilities had improved.
He had heard that even the military farm village trained diligently; perhaps this was the result.
Smiling faintly at the sight of people living so earnestly, Yul Han watched as the three arrived before him.
“You have come, Vice Cult Leader.”
“It has been a while.”
“Indeed. We thought you might have forgotten us.”
As he looked at the three men smiling good-naturedly, Yul Han’s eyes turned red.
Ghost Eyes had activated.
The three stiffened at his gaze. Ghost Eyes were the bane of that which was impure—of that which was not normal.
Yul Han examined the three who had frozen in place, then the red light in his eyes slowly faded.
Fortunately, when he examined their souls with Ghost Eyes, he did not sense the traces of an evil spirit like he had from Slaughter Demon Gireon.
It was strange.
Latent Death, whose medium had vanished, was still living and moving.
Moreover, it had been Latent Death created by Man-Sa Calamity Emperor, who had once dyed the entire world in blood.
It was just as strange that such people did not transform into evil spirits as before.
It was not as though they had been extraordinarily kind from the beginning.
All three had been masters of mountain strongholds.
In other words, they had been bandits—men quite distant from goodness.
And yet…
They lived diligently, in harmony.
It was difficult to understand, but it was not a bad thing.
“I am relieved to see that you are well.”
“You were worried we might change strangely?”
At Gu Tae’s question, Yul Han could not say no. He simply smiled faintly.
Gu Tae spoke to him.
“We are afraid as well. So we watch one another. If any one of us becomes strange…”
“Before it becomes a problem, I agreed to cut off his head.”
At the sudden voice, they turned to see the Ice Heaven Blade King standing there.
Yul Han, who had sensed his approach from the start, remained calm, but Gu Tae, Dok Yang, and Dan Yang—who had felt no presence at all—looked quite startled.
Yet that surprise quickly turned into blazing competitiveness.
Realizing that the Ice Heaven Blade King had advanced another step, they steeled themselves to train even harder and improve as well.
Watching the three, Yul Han smiled faintly and looked at the Ice Heaven Blade King.
“I am glad to see you are well.”
“I must be. Until I personally capture and kill those damned bastards, I will never grow complacent.”
Knowing that “those damned bastards” referred to Man-Sa Calamity Emperor and the Blood Corpse, Yul Han merely nodded.
To Bang Gung, those two were irreconcilable enemies.
The Ice Heaven Blade King then asked him,
“Are there still no traces of them?”
“They have not shown themselves at all.”
“They must be completing some Blood Divine Art or whatever it is somewhere. But once it is complete, he will surely reveal himself again. When that time comes, you must allow me—allow our Ice Palace—to accompany you.”
“I will.”
Satisfied with Yul Han’s answer, the Ice Heaven Blade King returned to where he had been working.
Gu Tae then said,
“As you heard, if any of us becomes strange, the Ice Heaven Blade King will step in and cut off our heads. We will never allow harm to come to the people.”
Yul Han silently looked at the three who spoke so calmly of their own complete deaths.
Meeting his gaze, Dok Yang and Dan Yang spoke at the same time.
“You may trust us.”
“I do trust you. I only feel sorry.”
There was nothing he could give them.
What lay beyond death was beyond his reach.
Perhaps sensing Yul Han’s feelings, faint smiles formed on the lips of Gu Tae and the others.
“We are fine. We have never seen our children and families live so peacefully as they do now. To be honest, this sight was always our goal.”
Gu Tae’s words were followed by Dok Yang.
“That is right. What we could not achieve despite every desperate act has been realized here.”
“And we know it is all thanks to you, Vice Cult Leader. So if you ever need us, simply say the word. Whether we have changed or not, if you desire it, we will offer our heads at any time.”
At Dan Yang’s words following his elder brother’s, the other two nodded as well.
It meant that if Yul Han felt uneasy, he could take their lives even if they did not appear dangerous.
Yul Han smiled faintly at the sight of the three.
Though he had never revealed it to anyone, he had been afraid.
He too was one who had died and returned.
There was no law saying he could not become like Slaughter Demon Gireon, who had been in the same situation as himself.
But seeing Slaughter Demon Gireon—and these three, who were in circumstances similar to his own—he realized anew that not all who died and returned were the same.
Feeling his vague fear gradually lifting, Yul Han spoke.
“Thank… no. I trust you. I believe such a thing will not happen. So let us strive. All of us.”
At his words, bright smiles spread across the faces of Gu Tae and the others.
They had read the trust in Yul Han’s heart.