Chapter 228: Turning the Enemy Against
(1)
Pitch-black.
Jang Sopyeong was running like a madman through a bottomless abyss where even light held its breath.
“‘Huff, huff.’”
Even as he staggered, gasping for air, he clenched his teeth and kept fleeing.
“‘This place… isn’t reality. A dream. Yes, it must be a dream.’”
Jang Sopyeong knew that he was trapped inside a nightmare.
Otherwise, there was no way the shadows spread beneath his feet like soil, or the branches of trees covering all directions, could writhe as if alive and try to seize him.
Within this utterly unreal and horrific sight—
Papabat!
Figures clad in black masks were relentlessly pursuing him.
They were the vile specters of the Blood Cult that had drenched Shanxi in blood.
No matter how many tis they were killed, they revived endlessly, charging at him without pause.
Believing it impossible to kill them within this endless illusionary dream, Jang Sopyeong had chosen to flee like this.
Swaeak!
At that mont, a piercing sound tore through the air.
Hidden weapons rained down, filling the void like a storm.
Chwaak!
Seogeok!
Blades of grotesque shapes shredded his entire body, carving into his flesh.
“‘Guhk!!’”
It was a dream—yet not a dream.
The sensation of skin being torn apart, of hot blood streaming down.
The icy chill of tal biting into his wounds was vividly real.
Leaving the hidden weapon deeply embedded in his wrist, he desperately sprinted through the darkness.
No matter how far he ran, neither exit nor end ca into view.
“‘I have to survive…!’”
Jang Sopyeong truly exhausted every last ounce of strength.
It was not rely to cling pathetically to life.
Ssssss—!
At that mont, a chilling sensation crept down his spine.
Simultaneously, goosebumps erupted across his entire body.
The hidden weapons that had poured down like a torrential rain had stopped, as if nothing had happened.
But sothing far more horrifying—sothing that could not even be compared to those—had descended.
“‘I must let the Jianghu know of that monster’s existence! Otherwise…!!’”
A formless pressure that crushed his peripheral senses spread through his body like a dreadful poison.
Astonishingly, this curse was neither sorcery nor a fluctuation of inner energy.
It was simply—
“‘Those eyes… what in the world are those eyes…!!’”
Jang Sopyeong felt as if the abyss itself were staring back at him.
Trembling in terror, he turned around.
Then, as if symbolizing blood and death, two crimson-stained pupils slowly surfaced from within the darkness.
The colossal evil that Tang Sewoon had warned would cleanse the world in blood.
The being that finally revealed its true form—the ruler of the Blood Cult.
“‘Blood Demon—!’”
Yes, it was rely that the Blood Demon’s gaze had turned toward him.
There were no words, no presence.
Yet that silence was overwhelming enough to shatter thousands of screams.
Tremble.
As if stripped naked in the midst of bitter cold, his entire body shook uncontrollably.
“‘Guhk…!’”
Just being stared at made his heart freeze solid.
That gaze was never sothing belonging to a human.
Jang Sopyeong rembered.
Within the ravaged battlefield of Shanxi, as if a calamity had swept through—
The mont he had faced that monster, when even breathing nearly stopped.
“—Everyone, run!!”
“—Run!!”
At the ti he had fled madly with the Peng siblings, carrying an unidentified woman on their backs.
Watching the rear alone, Jang Sopyeong had t the Blood Demon’s eyes, calmly fixed upon him.
And from that mont onward, not even for a single instant,
Had he been able to forget that ferocious, terrifying gaze.
Though he stood in the position of Successor Beggar, destined to rise as the next Sect Leader of the Beggars’ Sect.
Though he was a man who had risked his life fighting the demonic lords of the Jianghu for the sake of righteousness alone.
Though he had entered the Jecheon Unit and achieved a rise in realm beyond any comparison to his past self.
The trembling did not fade.
But it could not be helped.
This was the instinctive terror of prey upon recognizing an innate predator.
Kwa-jik!
With a thunderous roar like lightning striking down, one of his feet was torn away.
“‘Kyaaaaaak!’”
Instantly losing one foot, Jang Sopyeong staggered and tumbled across the ground.
The agony was so horrific that his mind turned stark white, yet as he struggled to push himself up with his hands—
“‘!!’”
The ground beneath him squelched.
The earth had turned into a swamp, pulling him downward.
The swamp was made of blood and corpses.
In an instant, it swallowed his lower body, glistening with a vivid crimson sheen.
At that mont, he instinctively turned his head.
And—
“‘……!!!!’”
Once again, the Blood Demon’s two pupils filled his entire vision.
Ah… ah…
His body truly would not obey him.
He tried to flee again, but his legs buckled limply,
And no matter how he flailed his arms, the surrounding space felt frozen solid.
mories of fleeing Shanxi overlapped with the current nightmare.
And then, he could no longer deny a single truth he had desperately ignored.
“‘…He deliberately did not kill us.’”
If the Blood Demon had rely made up his mind, he could have slaughtered them all instantly.
Yet Jang Sopyeong survived.
There was only one reason.
Solely because of the Blood Demon’s will.
“‘…Mon…ster.’”
Despair.
The instant he intuitively sensed a gap so vast it could not even be dared to be called heaven and earth.
For the first ti since becoming a martial artist, Jang Sopyeong fell into an overwhelming despair.
Chwaaaa!
And the swamp began pulling him into the darkness with even greater force.
A fall.
The mont it buried him up to his mouth, his breath was cut off and his heart constricted.
“‘I can never win…’”
At that mont, the Blood Demon’s two eyes were unmistakably smiling.
A sneer ford not with a mouth, but with eyes.
Slowly—very slowly—
They seeped into Jang Sopyeong’s inner self, deep into the darkness within his body.
That was when it happened.
“—…Sopyeong.”
A woman’s voice pierced through the darkness.
Calm, yet resolute.
A familiar and dearly missed voice.
A single warm ray seeping into frigid despair.
“—…Sopyeong, don’t. If you give up here…!”
And those few words—
Cracked Jang Sopyeong’s pupils, which had felt as though they were sinking into the pit of hell.
Saaaa!
A pure white beam of light tore through the fissure of despair and poured in.
But even his eyes had already sunk into the swamp.
Paat!
Summoning every last ounce of strength, Jang Sopyeong thrust his hand high into the air from within the swamp.
That blood-soaked hand of his—
Grab.
Soone far away seized it firmly.
From the soft skin, a warm temperature could be felt.
Hwaak!
Without even a mont of hesitation, the other party pulled him.
And the darkness that had engulfed Jang Sopyeong shattered into countless fragnts like broken glass—
At last awakening him from the nightmare.
“……!”
“Sopyeong!”
Tang Serin’s worried face ca into Jang Sopyeong’s view as she looked at him.
“Whew, I’m really glad you ca to your senses. You almost fell into Inner Demons.”
Tang Serin spoke as if it were a trendous relief.
Jang Sopyeong, whose face was still devoid of all color, bowed his head deeply and expressed his gratitude.
“This was all thanks to you, Serin. Thank you. I owe you a great debt.”
“……No.”
Seeing Jang Sopyeong’s seriousness for the first ti—so different from his usual playful deanor—Tang Serin shook her head slightly, surprised.
“How are Peng Sodie and Peng Sojeo?”
When Jang Sopyeong asked about the condition of the Peng siblings, Ha Yeong, who was beside him, answered.
“Lord Tang is treating the two of them separately right now. It looks like it’ll take a bit more ti to neutralize the poison that was applied to the hidden weapons.”
“This is troubling…”
“But don’t worry too much. When it cos to detoxification, he’s even more outstanding than our Grandmaster.”
At Ha Yeong’s words, Jang Sopyeong nodded with a heavy expression.
If Sewoon had gone to treat them personally, there would absolutely be no mishap.
Who was the Lord, after all? Was he not another Divine Physician of this era?
At present, the Jianghu had co to have two Divine Physicians.
Boyeon Divine Nun, the Subduing Tiger Divine Physician of the Mount Ei Sect, who had long held the original position.
And Tang Sewoon, who had newly earned the na Black Crow Divine Physician.
Though the war in Gansu had ended, the damage of war remained intact.
Not only the Tang Clan, but countless martial artists had suffered injuries severe enough to endanger their lives if left unattended.
That was when Sewoon stepped forward.
He treated every patient lined up endlessly—without distinguishing friend from foe—leaving none untreated.
Patients who had hovered between life and death with varying injuries were all completely cured within just a few days by pitch-black needles, not a single one left behind.
Word that even the Subduing Tiger Divine Physician, who had assisted him, could not help but marvel at that wondrous dical art had already spread throughout the Jianghu.
At that mont, Ha Yeong slowly spoke to Jang Sopyeong.
“However, Master Jang. Could you now tell us exactly what happened in Shanxi?”
“……!”
“If it’s still difficult for you to bring it up…”
“No. I can’t remain trapped in fear forever.”
Shaking his head at Ha Yeong’s words, Jang Sopyeong steadied his breathing as if he had made up his mind, then continued.
As they listened to the entire sequence of events that had unfolded in Shanxi, Serin and Ha Yeong’s expressions gradually stiffened.
“…That’s how it was.”
“To think the Blood Cult was even behind the North Sea Ice Palace…”
“If that’s the case, then even Gale Sands and the Southern Sea Sun Palace… that would an every place beyond the Outer Regions had already fallen into the Blood Cult’s hands…!”
“Hah. The biggest problem right now is that we have absolutely no idea what their next plan is.”
As Jang Sopyeong forced himself to sit up, Serin supported him.
“For now, we won’t be able to co up with a response plan on our own. Once the Lord arrives, we’ll have to discuss everything step by step.”
“Yes. It seems that can’t be helped.”
Serin’s words were calm, but the tension seeping into the end of her voice could not be hidden.
As a brief silence settled over the room, Ha Yeong cautiously opened her mouth.
“By the way, Master Jang… who exactly is that woman?”
“Ah.”
It was imdiately clear who she ant.
The mysterious woman rescued from the Ice Palace.
“I’m sorry, but I don’t know either. The enemies were imprisoning her as soone extrely important, so I only managed to free her and bring her along to disrupt their plans.”
“…I see.”
“But judging from the situation back then, it’s certain she was a very important existence within the Ice Palace.”
“But if that’s the case, how did the Ice Palace know Lord Tang…?”
“Yes? Are you saying the Lord knew her?”
Jang Sopyeong asked, eyes wide in surprise.
“Mm, to be precise, it wasn’t that Sewoon knew her.”
“…Pardon?”
As Jang Sopyeong tilted his head in confusion, Ha Yeong spoke as though recalling a mory she would rather forget.
“She called Lord Tang her hus—, hus—”
‘…Husband?’
Just as Ha Yeong was about to utter the term “Husband” that had co from Seori’s mouth—
Kiiik!
“……!”
“!!”
Suddenly, the door to the room they were in flew wide open.
The three of them turned their heads in surprise, and there stood Sewoon.
“Good. Everyone’s gathered.”
“Lord!”
“Sewoon.”
But the joy was only montary.
A strange glint appeared in the eyes of the three as they looked to Sewoon’s side.
Sewoon had not co alone.
Beside him stood a woman, proudly wearing the dark-green martial robe that only those belonging to the Tang Clan were permitted to wear.
‘W–why is she here…?’
Seori, wearing a bewitching expression, looked at the three of them and ford a subtle, enigmatic smile.
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