Chapter 113 : Punishment (5)

Chapter 113: Punishment (5)

The moment Pa-eum Bima rode the Sain-gyo and quickly reached the underground level of the Blood Prison Hall.

He was unable to hide his dismay at the enemies standing before him, which were completely different from what he had expected.

The scars carved into the corpses of the cultists left on the surface had clearly been the kind of results only possible from at least the peak of the Hwagyeong realm—people on the same level as himself.

‘So they ran here at lightning speed…’

Pa-eum Bima’s heart, which had been swelling with high expectations, cooled.

Tsk, he clicked his tongue and looked ahead.

“Enemy!”

“Everyone, prepare for combat!”

“Sound arts is their main technique! Be careful not to fall into inner demons!”

They were only youngsters who looked barely over twenty, or at most in their early-to-mid thirties.

No matter how carefully he looked, there was no sign they were hiding their true power.

‘The strongest among them were only two at the doorway of Hwagyeong.’

Besides the two who had entered Hwagyeong, there was nothing unusual.

There had clearly been a leader guiding them, but no matter how he searched, he could not be seen anywhere.

…Could it be?

His gaze suddenly turned to the pit in the center.

‘To seize the Thousand Blood Gu…?’

But he immediately shook his head.

That was an absurd hypothesis.

To begin with, the fact that the Thousand Blood Gu slept there was known to no one in the Blood Cult except the ten elders.

Moreover, without the talisman imbued with the master’s power, they could not risk doing anything around the Thousand Blood Gu for fear of being consumed by it.

So where on earth was that bastard?

Just as his curiosity about the one who had caused the blood massacre on the surface surged—

‘Heh heh, if I leave one alive, he’ll spill the information on his own.’

He decided to carry out the easiest solution.

“Master.”

“Please grant us your blessing.”

“Let us tear apart with our hands those who dared ruin the Master’s grand enterprise.”

His subordinates who had set the Sain-gyo down, the Four Young Masters (四公子), bowed politely and spoke.

Pa-eum Bima slowly walked out of the Sain-gyo and spoke.

“Heh heh. So it’s nothing but worms unfit for me to step out myself.”

Ttiriring.

When the pipa at his fingertips began to emit an alluring tone.

“Ahhh!”

The Four Young Masters all cried out at once.

He was unleashing the genuine martial art he had received from the Blood Demon, the Soul-Returning Melody of the Pointing Finger, and it was taking effect.

Swaaa!

Kwaga!

The wave of sound surged through the Four Young Masters’ bodies and Qi rose within them.

Their bodies, intoxicated by ecstasy, began to change into grotesque forms.

Crack!

Thick veins stood out on their skin and their eyes became white with the black pupils gone.

They looked like jiangshi (殭屍).

“We can’t leave them like that!”

“Finish them all before the great ritual is completed!”

Paa-bat!

Pushing off the ground, the enemies all charged.

They must have instinctively felt the extraordinary danger emanating from the Four Young Masters.

Quarrr!

Kwaga!

At that moment, the enemies poured out all their finest martial arts.

The force was so fierce the entire underground floor shook as if an earthquake had struck.

But….

‘Pathetic things.’

Pa-eum Bima only let out a derisive laugh as he watched.

Titing!

Kka-gang!

The moment the sword tips, poured out with all their strength, touched the Four Young Masters’ bodies, confusion and shock flashed across the attackers’ faces.

Not one of their strikes had managed to cause even the slightest harm to the Four Young Masters.

‘The instant they heard even a single phrase of the sound, their enhancement had already been completed.’

They were not merely jiangshi in appearance.

Enraptured by the Soul-Returning Melody, the Four Young Masters had attained a power comparable to the iron jiangshi, possessing defense approaching near indestructibility.

Before being affected by the Soul-Returning Melody, all the Four Young Masters had only been at the extreme of Supreme Peak, but—

“Grrr!”

“Grr!”

Transformed into inhuman monsters, the Four Young Masters now displayed martial prowess equivalent to the entry point of Hwagyeong.

Chwaaak!

Segeuk!

This time the Four Young Masters counterattacked with terrible ferocity.

What made them more terrifying than ordinary jiangshi was that, while they had fortress-like, impregnable defenses, they could still use martial arts as they pleased.

Hand techniques, finger techniques, claw techniques, fist techniques.

The Four Young Masters unleashed the grotesque and ferocious demonic arts granted to them by the Blood Cult.

“Ugh!”

Cough!

The enemies repeatedly emitted groans of pain.

“You must not take their demonic arts head-on! If the demonic qi corrodes you, it will be irreversible!”

“Understood, vice captain!”

But the battle, which seemed like it should have ended quickly, dragged on tediously.

Annoyance flickered in Pa-eum Bima’s eyes.

No matter how long he waited, the leader did not appear.

It would be better to kill them quickly and search outside.

‘Shall I break their will?’

Ttiriring!

According to his fingerings, the melody of the Soul-Returning Melody changed.

As the tune shifted, the mood of the battlefield changed completely.

This time, the beings Pa-eum Bima had put under the influence of his sound arts were not the Four Young Masters.

“Ugh! Ack! My, my head!”

“Yechun!”

Pa-eum Bima fomented discord among the enemy ranks.

‘Those who possess the power of the Ominous Star are the easiest to use.’

To manipulate those who carried the power of the Doomed Star.

It was one of Pa-eum Bima’s specialties.

Thus he easily took control of the Hwagyeong warriors within the enemy formation.

The situation had shifted so much in their favor that it could no longer be overturned.

Pa-eum Bima looked at the enemies who still clutched their weapons while groaning and bleeding, and he spoke.

“Your weakness is simply revolting. No evil image arises at all.”

“Now die, all of you.”

Ttiring-.

The moment Pa-eum Bima pronounced death upon the enemies.

Paaaa!

‘What?!’

Suddenly a stream of blood shot high from the pit.

At the same time, something like a storm itself burst through the spray and flew in with ferocity.

Buuuuung!

Bwoooong!

“Gukk!!”

Pa-eum Bima threw his body to the side and narrowly avoided the attack.

But it was not the Four Young Masters.

Swoosh!

Thud! Thump!

The Four Young Masters’ bodies collapsed to the floor, all limp.

Their throats had all been cleanly cut from their bodies.

What was that man?

Pa-eum Bima could not hide his bewilderment as he stared at the mysterious enemy.

“Gah!”

Black blood spewed from Pa-eum Bima’s mouth.

The shockwaves wracking his body were so great that fragments of his organs came out mixed with the blood.

‘What is this? Why… me?’

Half-buried in the cave wall, Pa-eum Bima wondered in the midst of unbearable pain.

The sudden, devastating impact had left his memories in disarray.

Swaeeek!

Whooosh!

At that moment, the ripping sound of the air tearing apart pierced his ears, snapping Pa-eum Bima’s mind back to focus.

He was in the middle of a fierce battle.

And the one who had wrought this dreadful outcome stood before him.

“Ugh!”

Suppressing the agony, Pa-eum Bima rolled his body to the side.

Degururuk.

It was a disgraceful, pathetic roll like a donkey.

But the reward for abandoning dignity was sweet.

Kwaa-duk!

Pa-eum Bima’s eyes widened as though they would burst.

A Great Axe, the kind only a giant might wield, slammed into the very spot where he had just been.

A chill ran down his spine.

“Well now. You actually managed to open your eyes, clown?”

The voice of the one responsible for this mess resounded.

Sewoon was sneering at him.

Swaaa!

“You wretch…!!”

Sensing his life was in peril, Pa-eum Bima hastily drew up his demonic qi from his dantian.

He unleashed the Ghost Yin Demon Binding, the inner cultivation method that only the Blood Sound Sect Leader could master, prepared even for direct combat.

‘This one must never be taken lightly!’

All traces of carelessness vanished from Pa-eum Bima’s mind.

His ravaged insides had nearly recovered.

With a gaze cold as ice, he studied the enemy for information.

A master of Yin-Cold Qi Arts.

His main weapon: the Great Axe.

His martial level: the same as Pa-eum Bima’s, the peak of Hwagyeong.

Pa-eum Bima’s mind turned quickly.

Within the Blood Cult, after the Blood Brain Gui Yeongja, he was considered the most cunning strategist.

‘Good. Then I’ll do this!’

Ttiriring!

Having reached his decision, Pa-eum Bima immediately plucked the strings of his pipa.

The beautiful melody enveloped the surroundings.

Sewoon leapt aside in haste.

Kwaa-ru-ruk!

Kwaaang!

This time, it was the spot Sewoon had just been standing that exploded.

An invisible shockwave had struck it.

Naturally, it was the sound-wave blast launched by Pa-eum Bima.

Sound arts (音功) were not only for confusing and seducing enemies.

They could also be used offensively with qi.

Kwaa-ru-ruk!

Kwaaang! Kwaa-kwang!

Pa-eum Bima unleashed wave after wave of relentless attacks.

And his strikes were not aimed only at Sewoon.

They poured down like a torrential rain upon the Young Successors standing defensively in the rear.

“Ugh!”

“Hup!”

The Young Successors faltered at the overwhelming force carried by the sound-wave blasts.

Since the projectiles could not be seen with the eyes, they barely managed to block them by forming a formation and swinging their weapons wildly.

“Focus your qi in your eyes! Don’t try to see the sound waves—read the air’s movement and avoid them!”

Unable to endure watching, Sewoon shouted with his qi infused.

And in that instant, when his entire attention turned to his subordinates—

‘Now!’

Pa-eum Bima’s eyes glinted coldly.

The reason he had spent so much qi bombarding them indiscriminately was precisely for this moment.

‘Heh heh, you hypocrites of the orthodox sects are all the same.’

At the moment when their concentration wavered for the sake of their subordinates, he would strike their throat.

Ttiriring!

From his pipa came a different note.

In that instant, the eyes of the warrior, who had looked like a puppet with its strings cut, suddenly blazed with murderous intent.

Paa-bat!

Do Yecheon, ensnared by the claws of the Soul-Returning Melody, stamped down with all his might and charged fiercely at Sewoon.

Ta-dat!

And at the exact opposite side, Pa-eum Bima also soared forward like a whirlwind.

He had deliberately feigned that Do Yecheon was beyond his control, waiting for this moment.

A warrior at the entry of Hwagyeong, now under his command.

But if he pushed the Soul-Returning Melody to its extreme, he could elevate that warrior to maturity—no, even to the level of One Kick, the peak of Hwagyeong.

And if he himself joined in, that would make two warriors at the peak of Hwagyeong!

‘With not one but two, I can easily tear him apart!’

Convinced of victory, Pa-eum Bima executed his hidden technique, the Soul-Stealing Ghost Bone Claw.

But then—

Pisik.

‘……What?’

Sewoon twisted one corner of his mouth.

At such a desperate moment—what was that smirk?

A shiver crept down Pa-eum Bima’s back for no reason.

Sreureuk!

At that moment, Sewoon’s hand moved like a living snake toward Do Yecheon.

Tap. With just the faintest touch of his fingertip.

And everything changed.

Chwaaat!

‘What?’

In an instant, Do Yecheon broke free from the grasp of the Soul-Returning Melody and turned his blade against Pa-eum Bima.

‘Exorcism is all it takes.’

He had lightly wrapped the Extinction Thread around his finger, using its Demon-Subduing power to free Do Yecheon.

Chwaaaat!

The next moment, Sewoon’s Great Axe and Do Yecheon’s Plum Blossom Sword crossed in an X (乂) right at Pa-eum Bima.