Chapter 178 : Demon-Summoning Divine Scripture
Chapter 178: Demon-Summoning Divine Scripture
When the Cult Leader first learned that Yul Han had obtained Red Eyes, he had felt uneasy.
That was because he could not know what kind of influence the Red Eyes—whose true nature he himself did not properly understand—would have on his only junior disciple.
Feeling uneasy about it, the Cult Leader secretly ordered the Strategist to investigate everything about the Red Eyes.
For that purpose, the Cult Leader granted the Strategist permission to access every library that existed within the Bright Cult.
The same applied to the Secret Repository where countless books were stored.
Having obtained such tremendous authority, the Strategist rummaged through every library of the Bright Cult and read, and read again, every book that might possibly contain anything written about the Red Eyes.
But unfortunately, there was not a single book that clearly described the Red Eyes.
He had only managed to find a few texts that merely recorded things like, “such stories are said to exist.”
That level of information could not fill the answers the Cult Leader desired.
Then one day, when he was growing impatient, he happened to find a certain title in a book he had casually flipped open.
Demon-Summoning Divine Scripture.
The moment he read the passage explaining that it was a book that interpreted all the strange and mysterious phenomena of the world, the Strategist suddenly remembered that he had once seen that book before when he and the Cult Leader had searched through the Secret Repository together.
Immediately, the Strategist rushed to the Secret Repository and searched for several days until he finally discovered the Demon-Summoning Divine Scripture.
“This is it!”
The Demon-Summoning Divine Scripture he pulled out with joy looked as though it had been written an extremely long time ago. Even though it had been stored in the Bright Cult’s Secret Repository—which was said to surpass even Shaolin’s Sutra Pavilion in book preservation—the pages had almost completely decayed.
For that reason, even turning each page required extreme caution.
As he carefully turned the pages, the Strategist finally discovered a passage about the Ghost Eyes.
<Ghost Eyes, called the eyes of the underworld rather than this world, belong to a god.
The one who first revealed the existence of the Ghost Eyes to the world was Asura, the king of ghosts.
The three pairs of eyes possessed by Asura, who had three faces and six arms, were precisely the Ghost Eyes.
Later, after Asura was moved by the will of the World-Honored One and became a Guardian Divine Spirit, entering the Immortal Realm, the Ghost Eyes disappeared from this world.
If the Ghost Eyes were ever to manifest again in this world, it would mean that the will of Asura had reached it.
According to the compilation of countless eyewitness accounts and records, these Ghost Eyes are divided into three types depending on their stage of development.
The first is called Red Eyes.
The burning crimson Red Eyes distinguish illusion from reality, discern truth from falsehood, and see everything that rejects the natural order.
The second are Blue Eyes.
The blue-shining eyes suppress ghosts, subjugate ghosts, and command all ghosts that exist.
Any of the dead cannot help but tremble in fear before the Blue Eyes.
The third are Black Eyes.
Upon reaching these Black Eyes—the final stage of the Ghost Eyes—the eyes are completely dyed black, and death……>
Because the book was so old, the text recorded in the Demon-Summoning Divine Scripture ended there, with the rest damaged.
At that, deep regret filled the Strategist’s face.
Still, he had no intention of giving up.
Even if the Demon-Summoning Divine Scripture was an extremely old book, if the Bright Cult had possessed it, there was a possibility that another copy—or even the original—existed somewhere else.
The Strategist gathered all the scholars who had pledged themselves to the Bright Cult and ordered them to search for the Demon-Summoning Divine Scripture through every possible network.
He added that if they could find it, the Bright Cult would purchase it at any cost.
It did not take long for that news to spread to every scholar across the Central Plains.
That was because the scholars who had joined the Bright Cult came from extremely diverse backgrounds.
Thus, quietly and widely, a frenzy to find the Demon-Summoning Divine Scripture began to sweep through the scholarly world.
Ghostly Aura that even those who handled Ghostly Aura could not see—yet was visible only to Yul Han, who possessed Ghost Eyes.
The Ghostly Aura now overflowing within the Zhuge Clan was exactly that kind.
Before encountering that Ghostly Aura within the Zhuge Clan, Yul Han had met two people who possessed the exact same Ghostly Aura.
One was Monk Eightfold Confusion, who had lost an arm and fled.
And the other…
Was Yul Han himself.
Whenever he looked into the Bronze Mirror, an eerie Ghostly Aura always seeped out from himself. Yet no one noticed it—not Ghost Demon nor Profound Demon, and not even the Cult Leader, who stood at the extreme peak of the Profound Realm.
And now that very same Ghostly Aura, which even those who controlled Ghostly Aura could not perceive, filled the Zhuge Clan.
Yul Han could easily grasp what that meant.
It meant that people like himself—or like Monk Eightfold Confusion—were not just one or two within the Zhuge Clan.
The moment that conclusion formed, the name “White Enemy Pellet” slowly surfaced from the depths of his memory.
That thing, which had a high probability of having infiltrated the Zhuge Clan, had finally caused an incident.
“It won’t be easy.”
The moment those words left Yul Han’s mouth, the expression of Profound Demon standing beside him stiffened.
Because it was the worry of someone whom he had believed nothing in the world could possibly stop.
Seeing Profound Demon tense up, Yul Han said,
“Return and request reinforcements from the Cult Leader. Mobilize both the Profound Realm and Transcendent Realm, and even the Thirteen Bloods.”
Profound Demon’s eyes widened so much it seemed they might tear apart.
“That means our Bright Cult will attack the Zhuge Clan with full force. If that happens, it will immediately become the Great Ma Baek War.”
It meant a full-scale war between the Demonic Path and the Orthodox Faction.
“If it must be done, then it must be done.”
It was somewhat different from Yul Han’s usual demeanor, which tried to avoid meaningless slaughter whenever possible, but Profound Demon welcomed it all the same.
If the Vice Cult Leader stood at the vanguard and they supported him from behind…
‘Demonic World Under Heaven!’
That dream—one that made his heart pound just by the words alone—would become reality.
So…
“By your command!”
With that response, Profound Demon’s figure disappeared. He had dashed toward the Bright Cult at his maximum speed.
Once Profound Demon left, Yul Han began to move.
His destination was the Zhuge Clan.
That was right.
Even now, he had no intention of starting the Great Ma Baek War.
Because he did not believe the value of “Demonic World Under Heaven” was worth obtaining by sacrificing someone’s future, someone’s father, someone’s son and daughter.
That was why he had sent Profound Demon away and intended to move alone.
Why send Profound Demon away when two hands were better than one?
If the opponent was someone like himself or Monk Eightfold Confusion, even Profound Demon could be in danger.
Thus, he judged it better to use him as preparation for a worst-case scenario.
If by any chance he failed, then Profound Demon—along with the Bright Cult forces led by the Cult Leader—would arrive and finish the Zhuge Clan completely.
Pushing that thought aside, Yul Han’s senses began to sharpen to an extreme degree.
He was searching for the place from which the Ghostly Aura overflowing through the Zhuge Clan was being emitted.
There were two locations where he felt the Ghostly Aura.
Among them, the clearer and more intense one was deep within the Inner Courtyard.
However, a far larger mass of Ghostly Aura came from Mount Longzhong behind the Zhuge Clan.
It was precisely the place where numerous Closed-Door Training Grounds owned by the Zhuge Clan were lined up.
At that crossroads of choice, Yul Han chose Mount Longzhong.
He judged that the place with the greater numbers had to be dealt with first.
If something powerful was also supported by numerical superiority, it would become extremely troublesome.
Soon, Yul Han’s figure moved toward Mount Longzhong.
The first to sense something strange was Left-Hand Slaughter King Garuk.
The moment he felt something powerful approaching—
Boom!
The door of the Closed-Door Training Grounds exploded apart as someone burst inside.
Whrrr.
From the instant the intruder entered, Lightning Energy raged throughout the training chamber.
Over a dozen God-Descended martial artists at the Supreme Peak were torn to shreds before they could even properly react.
“Kill him!”
The one who shouted was Mad Tyrant Divine King Gwangpae.
At his roar, the others finally began to fight back against the intruder.
Garuk had already concealed himself within the darkness and vanished from sight.
Considering his specialty was assassination, that actually made the intruder even more dangerous.
But then—
Swoooosh.
The Half-Moon Force Energy released from the intruder suddenly cut through the air.
“Ghk!”
From the empty air struck by the Half-Moon Asura Slash, a startled cry erupted as Garuk was forced into view.
His sleeve had been sharply cut off, and shock filled Garuk’s eyes.
Because his concealment—never once discovered until now—had been broken.
Yet the intruder who had accomplished such an impossible feat did not even glance at Garuk, whose figure had been exposed, and instead continued slaughtering the God-Descended martial artists.
However—
He was meticulously avoiding the Transcendent Realm experts and killing only the Supreme Peak ones.
That meant…
‘Reducing their numbers!’
Already, nearly twenty Supreme Peak God-Descended martial artists lay scattered as corpses.
Judging by the intruder’s movements and destructive power, if only he and the Transcendent Realm fighters remained…
‘Certain defeat!’
There was only one reason the assassin who had uniquely reached the Profound Realm immediately concluded they would lose.
Actual one-on-one combat was not his specialty.
Even though he had reached the Profound Realm, his frontal combat ability was barely on par with the Transcendent Realm.
How could someone at the Profound Realm possess combat ability barely at the level of the Transcendent Realm?
Because what he had learned was crude.
The assassination martial arts he had learned were all meant for concealment and ambush—not direct confrontation.
After all, Garuk had not grown up in a famous assassin sect with proper martial arts, but in a pitiful rural assassin clan.
Knowing that better than anyone, Garuk had seized every opportunity during missions to consume anything that could enhance internal energy.
In fact, while infiltrating a wealthy merchant’s mansion for an assassination, he had stolen a Thousand-Year Ginseng from the merchant’s Secret Repository before even killing the target.
To accomplish such things, Garuk had mastered every technique used by thieves.
That was right.
The reason Garuk had been able to reach the Profound Realm as the only assassin was precisely that.
The assistance of spirit medicines.
Of course, it had also required relentless effort to turn those into reality. But without the numerous spirit medicines he had secretly obtained during his assassination missions, he would never have reached his current realm.
Even so, one problem had never been solved.
His martial arts.
With his crude assassination martial arts, when he had been at the Supreme Peak, his combat power had only been equivalent to the Peak Realm. When he reached the Transcendent Realm, he could barely match a Supreme Peak opponent.
In such circumstances, there was no way he would not crave better martial arts.
In fact, he had once obtained a secret manual of considerable level during an assassination mission.
The problem was that Garuk did not have the ability to interpret it.
He had even captured a fairly famous scholar to interpret it for him, but the explanation was far beyond what he could learn.
It was the limitation of Garuk, who had never once studied a true secret manual. And since he could barely read and write, understanding a martial arts manual that sounded like incomprehensible nonsense was impossible.
Thus, even though he himself was included among them as a Profound Realm expert, he judged they would lose against the intruder.
After all, he had somehow returned to the living world.
He absolutely did not want to die again.
“Block him! He’s trying to reduce our numbers!”
When Garuk shouted, the Transcendent Realm masters—who had been unable to properly fight amidst the chaos—finally grasped the situation and rushed in like madmen.
Garuk also concealed his body once again.
He did not do it because he believed the earlier discovery had been coincidence.
A concealment that had been broken once could be broken twice.
Even so, he used the concealment technique again because if the intruder’s attention were divided in searching for him, that alone would be worthwhile.
But—
Swoooosh.
When the Half-Moon Force Energy flew toward him once again, Garuk let out another strange scream as his concealment was broken and he was forced into view.
“Gah!”
Scrambling away to dodge the Half-Moon Asura Slash, Garuk fled to the side.
Watching him, Yul Han smirked slightly before colliding head-on with Mad Tyrant Divine King Gwangpae, who charged with a “you die, I die” momentum.
Boom!
Mad Tyrant Divine King Gwangpae was smashed horribly and thrown into the corner of the Closed-Door Training Grounds.
He could not stand up again.
Judging by the rise and fall of his chest, he was not dead—but he had been rendered completely unable to fight with a single blow.
‘A Transcendent Realm master in one strike!’
Seeing that scene, Garuk realized something.
He had been mistaken.