Chapter 179 : Submission of the Blue Eyes
Chapter 179: Submission of the Blue Eyes
The intruder had not driven the Super-Peak Realm masters forward first in order to reduce the risk when fighting experts of the Profound Realm and the Transcendent Realm.
He was simply clearing away the easiest prey first.
That fact became unmistakably clear with the single move that defeated the Mad Tyrant Divine King.
To the intruder, they were nothing more than ‘prey’.
The moment he became certain of that, Garuk shouted.
“R-Retreat!”
At Garuk’s shout, the Possessed Martial Artists who had managed to survive hurriedly gathered behind him.
Even during that moment, four Possessed Martial Artists were turned into corpses under the terrifying rampage of Yul Han’s hands.
The explanation had taken long, but everything had occurred within the span of merely two breaths.
In that brief time, more than two-thirds of the Possessed Martial Artists had been killed.
Of the fifty Possessed Martial Artists, barely a little more than ten remained alive.
What was truly alarming was that among those who survived—excluding the Mad Tyrant Divine King who had been thrown into a corner unconscious—not a single one of them was injured.
Why was the absence of injuries alarming?
Because being injured meant one had clashed with the intruder.
It meant they had fought fiercely, been wounded, and yet survived.
But if none were injured, then that meant—
‘One strike, one kill!’
The moment they collided, they died.
It was fragmentary yet undeniable proof of the opponent’s overwhelming strength.
Realizing this, Garuk swallowed dryly from sheer tension.
“Gulp.”
The sound of his dry swallow echoed through the Closed-Door Training Grounds.
But there was no reason to feel ashamed.
Among the Possessed Martial Artists gathered behind him, the sound of dry throats being swallowed echoed countless times as well.
That made one thing perfectly clear.
Everyone recognized the danger of the intruder.
As if confirming that fact, Garuk slowly turned his head.
What entered his sight were the despair-filled faces of the Possessed Martial Artists.
However, among them, the expressions of Water Bandit King Gil Saju and Monk Demon were slightly different from the others.
Their faces were equally full of despair, but their eyes trembled violently with terror, like a lone leaf boat tossed in a storm.
‘Fear! Why?’
With suspicion in his gaze, Garuk followed the direction where the Water Bandit King and Monk Demon were staring.
“Gah!”
Garuk let out an involuntary scream, his body trembling as if struck by a harpoon.
Just as flames burning at their fiercest shift from red to blue, the intruder’s blazing red pupils had changed at some point into blue ones, shining with a strange and eerie light.
There was only one such pair of blue eyes in the entire world.
‘B-Blue Eyes!’
At that gaze—something no ghost could fail to recognize—everyone froze.
<It suppresses ghosts, subjugates ghosts, and commands every ghost that exists.>
It meant the contents of the Demon-Summoning Divine Scripture had not been nonsense at all.
Their knees buckled on their own.
Even Yul Han was not exempt from confusion at this sudden turn of events.
He had stormed in fully determined to slaughter them all, yet his opponents had suddenly dropped to their knees and lowered their heads.
He vaguely suspected it might be because of his Ghost Eyes, but until now ghosts had only feared him—they had never submitted.
That contradiction left him bewildered.
Then Garuk’s voice reached him.
“M-Master of the Blue Eyes, I beg for my life. P-Please spare us.”
Garuk—Garuk of all people—was prostrating himself and pleading to be spared, trembling with terror.
A fundamental fear beyond death had paralyzed the reason and intellect of the Possessed Martial Artists, Garuk included.
Only the instinctive whisper that they must submit had taken control of everything.
As Yul Han looked down at those bowing before him, the confusion on his face gradually faded.
At first he could not understand it, but as time passed, he simply did.
How should he describe it?
It felt as though—
‘Of course they should submit like that.’
Their submission simply felt natural.
He just came to know it.
That he was their master.
If that was the case…
There was no need for deliberation.
“Follow me!”
Throwing out those words, Yul Han turned and began walking away.
The Possessed Martial Artists hurriedly followed behind him.
Leading them without hesitation, Yul Han ran toward the place where he felt the second ghostly aura.
After pressing the captives’ acupoints and leaving them stuffed into the corner of the room, Palmi Venerable had been leisurely treating his wounds.
Suddenly, alarm filled his eyes.
As Palmi Venerable abruptly sprang to his feet, Zhuge Giyeon looked at him with puzzlement.
After hesitating for a moment, Palmi Venerable’s figure vanished.
And then—
Bang!
The door shattered into pieces as Yul Han burst in, dragging a line of Possessed Martial Artists behind him.
To encounter the Vice Cult Leader of the Bright Cult here—of all places, in the very heart of the Zhuge Clan—left Zhuge Giyeon utterly shocked.
Yet Yul Han, who had stormed in so violently, had no interest in Zhuge Giyeon at all.
Because the intense ghostly aura he had clearly sensed just moments ago had suddenly vanished.
He immediately spread his perceptive sense in all directions, but not even a trace of the vanished aura could be found.
Concluding that his opponent had fled, Yul Han clicked his tongue inwardly.
‘Fast.’
Since the opponent had already escaped, there was no reason to maintain such heightened momentum.
Slowly withdrawing his aura, Yul Han’s gaze shifted to the figures lying in the corner.
Among them he spotted a familiar face—the Namgung Clan Head.
If he was here, then the one who fled was most likely Palmi Venerable.
Realizing he had let him escape once again, Yul Han clenched his fist tightly and carefully examined the condition of those lying there.
Their Demon Blood had been suppressed, leaving them lying as if dead, but they were still breathing.
They were clearly alive.
After confirming that, Yul Han was about to release their acupoints and wake them.
But his eyes briefly glanced at Zhuge Giyeon in the distant corner, who was staring at him with trembling eyes.
Then he stood up instead.
He had realized there was something that needed to be resolved before waking them.
Yul Han slowly rose and faced Zhuge Giyeon.
“It has been a while.”
At Yul Han’s calm words, Zhuge Giyeon forced down his shock and replied.
“I-It has been a while.”
Even though he had tried to steady himself, his voice still trembled.
Frowning slightly at that, Zhuge Giyeon quickly continued.
“This was not my plan. He simply came here bringing them.”
“I know the Strategist does not possess such capability. So I do not suspect that.”
Zhuge Giyeon had just breathed a sigh of relief—
When his expression stiffened.
The words “does not possess such capability” struck his chest like a dagger only after the fact.
As Zhuge Giyeon stiffened like that, Yul Han continued speaking.
“That is why one should not involve oneself in things that are not good, and one should not step onto paths one should never walk.”
Even at Yul Han’s rebuke, Zhuge Giyeon could say nothing.
Yul Han turned his gaze away from him.
When he turned around, Garuk immediately lowered his head.
“Please give your command.”
Garuk behaved as if he had been a servant who had followed him for decades.
Yul Han stared at him for a moment before speaking.
“Go bring the Clan Head of the Zhuge Clan.”
“I will capture him at once.”
Garuk answered without hesitation.
But Yul Han spoke again.
“I said bring him. Not capture him.”
“Ah! Y-Yes. I will bring him.”
As Garuk disappeared with a terrified voice, the remaining Possessed Martial Artists could not even properly meet Yul Han’s gaze.
Among them, Yul Han noticed a man with a gleaming bald head and looked straight at him.
“What should I call you?”
At the question, Monk Demon hurriedly raised his head.
But the moment his eyes met Yul Han’s gaze, he hastily stepped forward and answered.
“I-If it pleases you, you may simply call me a worthless monk…”
“I am asking for your name.”
“I have already forgotten my Dharma name. People simply called me Monk Demon.”
“Monk Demon. Then what should I call that person?”
Seeing Yul Han’s gaze directed toward Gil Saju, Monk Demon quickly answered.
“That is Water Bandit King Gil Saju.”
“And the others?”
As if the question were an absolute command, Monk Demon immediately began introducing the surviving Possessed Martial Artists.
“The one holding the long blade there is Zhang Pan, the Demon Blade of War who has no equal in mounted combat. The one missing an ear is Palya, the Crippled Slaughter Blade who excels in chaotic battles, and…”
As the introductions continued, Yul Han nodded and engraved the names of the Possessed Martial Artists into his mind.
Each time their names were mentioned, the Possessed Martial Artists hurriedly bowed deeply.
As if they were honored simply by having their names recognized.
Watching them, Zhuge Giyeon wore an expression of complete incomprehension.
Before today, there had been absolutely no connection between them and the Vice Cult Leader.
Yet they behaved like long-serving retainers.
If Zhuge Giyeon was surprised, the Zhuge Clan Head was even more shocked.
Garuk had suddenly appeared out of thin air and was barking at him to follow.
“You—how could you—!”
“Stop spouting nonsense and hurry. My master is waiting for you.”
At Garuk’s tone, the Zhuge Clan Head instinctively realized something had gone terribly wrong.
Though rough in demeanor, the Possessed Martial Artists could never treat members of the Zhuge Clan so rudely.
It was due to a certain restriction placed upon those who had activated the White Enemy Pellet.
In fact, none of the Possessed Martial Artists had ever been able to kill a member of the Zhuge Clan.
They could not even lightly harm them.
That had been proven through countless experiments.
Yet Garuk, who had suddenly appeared, overturned all of that in an instant, snarling as if he might leap forward and tear his throat out at any moment.
And one word Garuk had spoken drew the Zhuge Clan Head’s full attention.
‘Master!’
“If you don’t want to die, hurry!”
Under Garuk’s fierce urging, the Zhuge Clan Head could no longer continue thinking.
If he hesitated any longer, Garuk looked as though he would cut off his legs and drag him along.
In the end, the Zhuge Clan Head followed.
Garuk led him forward with hurried steps.
His pace alone revealed how urgently he was rushing.
‘Who in the world is the master capable of making Garuk tremble in such terror?’
Filled with doubt, the Zhuge Clan Head followed him.
Then he realized they were heading toward the place where Zhuge Giyeon had been imprisoned.
His expression hardened.
He suspected that Zhuge Giyeon had somehow tampered with the White Enemy Pellet beforehand, forcing the Possessed Martial Artists to obey him.
But the moment he stepped into the room where Zhuge Giyeon had been confined, that suspicion scattered.
“V-Vice Cult Leader!”
Yul Han slowly turned and looked at the Zhuge Clan Head frozen in the doorway.
“We meet again under rather unfortunate circumstances.”
“W-Why are you here…?”
“Because the Zhuge Clan invited me. I trust you won’t say you don’t know why.”
“I-I do not know what you—”
“Sometimes lies are necessary. I myself do not live perfectly truthfully, so I understand that. But if you lie at a moment like this, Clan Head—I assure you—you will not survive.”
The eerily shining blue pupils.
The face dripping with killing intent.
The calm voice that carried not the slightest emotion.
All of it only multiplied the terror, surging toward him in a crushing wave.
Because of that, the Zhuge Clan Head hurriedly shut his mouth.
Then Yul Han asked:
“What will you choose? Death—or survival?”
At that question, the Zhuge Clan Head instinctively realized he could not avoid answering.
It was regrettable that everything had collapsed when the great undertaking was so close to completion.
But that was the nature of the world.
Even so, he did not wish to behave disgracefully at the very end.
Grinding his teeth, the Zhuge Clan Head steeled himself.