Chapter 242. Within Ten Paces, You'll Find A Fragrant Flower (13)
Following their enemies’ trails, they arrived at a waterfall.
'It's through the waterfall, there's an opening inside.'
It was an extremely tall waterfall, as high as fifty zhang.
About forty zhang up, there seemed to be the entrance to a cave.
Woo-Moon and the Blood Cloud Devil Emperor rose into the air and flew, breaking through the waterfall and entering the cave. With Woo-Moon's continued urging, the two went deep into the long and winding cave.
Meanwhile, Woo-Moon had found out the name of the Blood Cult leader—Moon Ryang.
That was because the Blood Cloud Devil Emperor cursed Moon Ryang for a long time. His eyes flashed with a bloody light as he spoke, his voice dripping with madness.
"Hey, Song Woo-Moon. That bastard, Moon Ryang, I mean. He must have gone to hell, right? Hehe, and I'll be going to hell in the end, too, right?"
"... Of course.”
"That's good. Good. I'll go kill that bastard Moon Ryang in hell again. Since you can't die after reaching hell, I can kill him twice, three times, dozens, hundreds... kekeke..."
The Blood Cloud Devil Emperor’s resentment was so strong that even Woo-Moon got goosebumps. He suddenly felt his chest tighten, and his thoughts started to wander.
'That's why I have to end this sadness. Evil people are born at the hands of evil people... if there were no evil people, the cycle would end.'
Woo-Moon strengthened his conviction regarding his path and beliefs even more.
Of course, Woo-Moon himself already knew it would be impossible.
It was impossible to remove evil from the duality of good and evil.
However, he knew that he could at least reduce it if he tried. He would be able to make things better—or less bad, at the very least.
With that, the Blood Cloud Devil Emperor stopped speaking. He was incredibly anxious and nervous, wondering if the ending he dreaded would come to be.
A fairly large space lay at the end of the cave, with a pond in the center.
"There. If you go inside, you'll find Martial Heaven's headquarters."
“Into the pond? How strange.”
The two jumped into the pond at the same time, using Thousand Catty Ballast to sink quickly.
The deeper one goes down into the water, the colder it gets and the stronger the pressure becomes, so there’s a limit to how far a human can free dive. However, such concepts simply did not apply to the two.
After sinking for a while, they reached the bottom of the pond.
Seeing that a vague light was glowing from what looked like a small hole at the bottom, Woo-Moon sent a Voice Transmission.
"Should we go down there?"
"Yes."
The winding passage was only wide enough for one person to swim through. Woo-Moon took the lead, followed by the Blood Cloud Devil Emperor.
After a while, Woo-Moon finally swam to where he could see the light. He could see the surface of the water above.
'Here we go.'
Splash!
Woo-Moon splashed water everywhere as he emerged from the lake.
Splash!
As he flew out of the water and spun like a top, water droplets flew out in all directions and pierced the bodies of the seven Martial Heaven warriors guarding the lake. The seven Martial Heaven warriors fell forward with shocked expressions. As they died, Woo-Moon discovered a very thin, transparent string connected to their waists.
'They're connected to alarm bells!'
Woo-Moon flicked his hand and shot seven blasts of finger wind, cutting off the strings.
However, Martial Heaven was thorough.
Six of the seven were attached to an alarm bell connected far away that would ring if the person connected to the string suddenly moved. However, one of them was actually attached in a manner where the alarm bell would ring if the string suddenly lost tension.
Ring, ring, ring!
An alarm sounded throughout Martial Heaven. Right as it blared, Seob Un-Ha emerged from the lake.
"Damn it! I got caught, Seob Un-Ha."
The Blood Cloud Devil Emperor had an anxious expression.
"How can a Zenith Master be this sloppy? We have to move quickly. Quickly!"
Woo-Moon was also feeling quite regretful. He should have thought about it. Instead of simply cutting the threads, he should have used his qi to pin the threads in the air and keep them from moving.
"Let's split up, since our goals are different anyway."
"But I won't be able to run around Martial Heaven alone. I—"
"Don't worry. This is happening because of me, so I'll take responsibility. I'll make as much noise as possible to attract their attention, so you move as quietly as possible and go save your little sister."
No one had ever infiltrated Martial Heaven like this; Woo-Moon definitely was the first. However, the Martial Heaven warriors still acted quickly despite the unexpected situation. He could already hear countless footsteps nearby.
"You may have killed the Martial Heaven Emperor, but the Martial Heaven God is strong. If he comes forward, make sure you keep yourself safe as long as possible and buy time."
The Blood Cloud Devil Emperor was obviously asking him to hold back the Martial Heaven God until he could save his younger sister.
Woo-Moon nodded with a serious expression.
“Of course.”
'The higher up you are, the longer it takes you to come down. The Martial Heaven God will send his subordinates first to assess the situation before making a move himself. So, I'll take this opening to quickly save Mother and escape before he does that!'
While he felt a little guilty—if the Blood Cloud Devil Emperor was too slow, there was nothing he could do—Woo-Moon planned to escape first.
He didn't think that he would necessarily lose in a battle against the Martial Heaven God. However, he couldn't gamble with his mother's life.
The time for a decisive battle wasn't now. His fight would come after he saved Jin-Jin.
"Then, let's split apart here."
The Blood Cloud Devil Emperor remembered perfectly the location his younger sister was imprisoned. However, he said that he had no idea where Jin-Jin was. In the end, Woo-Moon had to find her himself.
'I just hope that the base isn't that big.'
Woo-Moon suddenly looked up. Of course, he didn't see a sky above him, but a cave ceiling. However, countless beads were embedded into the ceiling, all emitting light and warmth.
'Sunlight Pearls.'
The Sunlight Pearl was practically a legend, something that only appeared in obscure books that detailed objects people never really came across. They were similar to Luminous Night Pearls, but of a far higher level.
True to its name, the light from the Sunlight Pearls embedded in the ceiling was no different from normal sunlight. This light was unquestionably why countless plants and animals grew in this cave just like outside, even though it was fully closed.
Woo-Moon grabbed a massive cleaver that was as tall as he was from among the dead warriors’ weapons. Then, he destroyed the wall of the stone chamber surrounding the lake.
Boom!
Thick dust rose through the air; the Blood Cloud Devil Emperor turned into a wisp of blood-red smoke, hid himself in the dust, and slipped away.
“I am Yang Cheon-Hwi, the hidden master of the Imperial Palace! I've come to punish you, unruly Martial Heaven bastards!”[1]
Woo-Moon shouted whatever came to mind and killed the Martial Heaven warriors rushing toward him with the great cleaver.
“Ya-Yang Cheon-what?”
"The hidden what of the what? I've never heard of a bastard like... agh!"
Woo-Moon advanced forward, plowing through his enemies with great momentum.
The underground cave where Martial Heaven was located was extremely tall and wide. It was in fact not much smaller than the imperial capital, and there were numerous pavilions built everywhere.
"Who dares block the path of General Yang Cheon-Hwi!"
The reason Woo-Moon was lying through his teeth so audaciously was to confuse Martial Heaven as much as he could, even if it was only for a second, and delay any harm that might come to Jin-Jin.
Warriors burst out from each of Martial Heaven’s pavilions. Although there weren't many of them, each and every one of them was extremely strong. One would be hard-pressed to find a single person who hadn't reached at least the Peak Stage.
'I should try to hide my level as much as possible. But I still have to make as much fuss as possible.'
"HAHAHAHA! BY ORDER OF HIS MAJESTY THE EMPEROR, FUCKING DIE!"
Completely unlike his usual self, Woo-Moon shouted crazily as if he were a battle-thirsty brute.
"One Blade, Two Halves!"[2]
A Martial Heaven warrior in front of him fell to both sides, with his body split exactly in half.
While Woo-Moon had the ability to kill thousands of them in a single move, he didn't do so. He was worried that doing something like that might indeed prompt the Martial Heaven God into making a move.
'I have to avoid fighting that bastard here as much as possible.'
Woo-Moon raised his foot and kicked a Martial Heaven warrior in the chest.
Crunch!
As the man had his chest crushed and was pushed back into the others, Woo-Moon followed swiftly behind.
He then grabbed a spear from a warrior close to him and stabbed four people clumped together, impaling them simultaneously.
"Ha-a-eup!"
He swung the spear around, impaled people and all, striking everyone in its path. Both the people impaled on the spear and those around him were crushed and random limbs flew everywhere.
"You damn imperial government dog, you dare?!"
An Absolute Master pushed past and flew above his subordinates.
'What kind of weapon is that? Are those Moon Discs attached to chains?'
Clank, clank!
Eight Moon Discs, each connected to a finger, flew fiercely toward Woo-Moon.
Of course, from his perspective, they moved slowly enough he had time to get breakfast before they arrived.
"One Blade!"
Woo-Moon lifted the cleaver above his head. Then, his figure seemed to grow larger than it actually was. The onlookers felt an enormous sense of intimidation; although only a small part of it was released, his sheer aura was enough to create such an illusion.
"Two Halves!"
The great cleaver slammed down on the air with a bang.
Swoosh! BOOM!
The sound of air collapsing on itself echoed through the cave, and a terrifying wind pressure was generated around the cleaver as it crossed the sound barrier. As the cleaver swung down, it accurately split a Moon Disc down the middle.
The other discs were all sucked in by the vacuum created by the falling saber, and even the fine metal chains imbued with qi shattered, unable to overcome the force.
“What the...!”
The Absolute Master of Martial Heaven wasn't able to finish his words. He seemed fine after the attack, but that was just for a moment before he was directly cut in twain.
Even though he hadn't been directly hit by the great cleaver, he had been cut by the saber qi imbued into it and the minute amount of Zenith aura disguised within.
Woo-Moon kicked off the ground once again and dove into the enemy wave.
"Yang Cheon-Hwi, the hidden master of the Imperial Palace, is here to enact justice on behalf of the heavens! Who dares stand against me!"
While pretending to be some kind of overpowered government official and causing a massive commotion, Woo-Moon searched for Jin-Jin while conveniently destroying all of Martial Heaven's halls. Of course, he did his best to avoid giving the impression that he was searching for something.
***
"What? Yang... who? Master of what now?"
The Forgetful King, who had been diligently cleaning his dagger, as always, frowned. He obviously wasn't happy with his subordinate's report.
"Y-Yang Cheon-Hwi, my lord. The hidden master of the imperial palace, Yang Cheon-Hwi, broke in and is causing a commotion."
Woosh!
The dagger flew past the cheek of the subordinate and then returned to the Forgetful King's hand.
"The next one goes into your throat. Don't bother me about some dirty dog of the emperor that I've never even heard of."
The Forgetful King went back to sharpening his dagger again.
This was his favorite time of the day. It made him feel good when these daggers, with which he had spent his entire life, were shining brightly.
Swish!
The next moment, a dagger pierced another subordinate's shoulder before returning to the Forgetful King again.
“I just told you people not to bother me.”
The subordinate knelt down in pain, sweating profusely.
"I deeply apologize! However, even the Privy Council’s Fourteenth Martial Spirit was taken down by that bastard."[3]
It was only then that the Forgetful King stopped sharpening his dagger.
“The Fourteenth Martial Spirit? Wasn't that bastard at the peak of the Absolute Stage?"
"Yes, my lord."
"Then that Yang Cheon-Hwi must be a Paragon, I suppose. Good, it's getting a little interesting. What kind of bastard is he?"
"He's so massive it's almost comedic, and the saber technique he uses is incredibly crude and barbaric. It seems like he only knows this technique called One Blade, Two Halves; he just keeps using it over and over again and does nothing else."
"Oh. Fine... Let's go see how he is."
1. The name ?? can mean “fight the heavens” or “tie up the heavens.” ☜
2. An idiom that means to act without hesitation. In this case, it also works literally. ☜
3. There is no hanja for this man's title, so it might change based on future context. ☜