◈ The Martial Genius who Remembers Everything ◈
Chapter 510: Into the Darkness (5)
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The five hundred years of peace that began with the founding of the Martial Alliance had ultimately brought about its golden age.
The memory of the martial world reeling beneath the Demonic Cult’s sorcery and bizarre martial arts had left those who led it at the time with scars that bordered on nightmares.
Unable to endure that lingering discomfort, like still having urine in one’s bladder, they began purging the martial world alongside that golden age.
It was an era of suppressing unorthodox methods and dark arts. In the end, even illusion art and talisman arts were branded as unorthodox methods.
Once the sprouts that grew from that cleansed soil became towering trees, it was only natural that they had no immunity to blight and pests.
And inside the Sword Tomb, it was clear what sort of grotesque behavior people raised like hothouse flowers would display.
“Hehe, you bastard. You treasured it so much, and look at you now. Your money is mine!”
One person coveted money before mourning their dead companion.
“Die! Die! Die!”
Another, drenched in blood, pounded at a rock.
None of them realized what state they were in as they surrendered themselves to Mindless Illusion Powder and displayed extreme madness.
Some did realize something was wrong with them.
“Om somani somani hum harinna harinna…”
Still, they could only fight the nightmares in their minds by reciting an unstable Demon-Subjugation Mantra they had picked up somewhere. Few were capable of acting on their own.
“The situation is serious.”
Just as Geumpyo said, the situation inside the Sword Tomb was not good.
People separated from their groups lay scattered everywhere, driven mad.
Interestingly, none of them rushed at us when they saw us.
Even while madness overtook them, their obsession with survival had grown stronger. They could accurately recognize danger and threats.
‘Which means they’ll attack freely if they think we’re easy prey.’
Their minds no longer cared whether someone was friend or foe. All that mattered was whether the other person was stronger or weaker than them.
The Sword Tomb was becoming more dangerous with every passing day.
“Has the Second Investigation Unit… been wiped out?”
“I don’t know.”
Mindless Illusion Powder was certainly more dangerous to the Black Path than the White Path. That did not mean White Path martial artists were completely protected from it.
Unless we saw the Second Investigation Unit’s corpses ourselves or spoke with them, there was no way to know.
This strange atmosphere was affecting even us, who had taken Heart-Calming Spirit Pellets, both directly and indirectly.
“…!”
“Huh?”
We encountered four martial artists in the cave we had just entered.
Their martial robes were different colors, but the air they gave off and the emblems on their clothes belonged to the White Path.
-Sh-should we hit them?
Nam Hwaseong suddenly sent me a sound transmission.
When I stared at him in disbelief, he hurriedly continued.
-H-hit them? Should we strike first?
“…”
Maybe I had drilled the lesson into him too hard.
Every time he saw someone from the White Path, he tensed up and raised his fists. I didn’t know whether I should be pleased or not.
I sighed at Nam Hwaseong, who looked ready to spring into action at any moment, then approached them.
Fortunately, the Red Phoenix Bangle did not ring even as I closed the distance.
“I am Jin Sowoon, Hall Master of the Martial Alliance’s Yuseong Hall.”
When I took one step forward, they took two steps back.
“What are you plotting? This is the first I’ve heard of a Yuseong Hall in the Martial Alliance.”
“It was only established recently.”
“Whatever. Get lost if you don’t have business with us.”
I tried to approach them amicably, yet they showed no intention of lowering their guard.
“Then let me ask one question. Have you seen anyone from the Moyong Clan?”
“…No.”
They thought for a moment before shaking their heads.
I continued.
“Have you heard? There is apparently a strange poison spreading through the Sword Tomb. They say it changes a person’s temperament once they are poisoned.”
“…Stop talking nonsense and get lost!”
I gestured to Geumpyo, who took four Heart-Calming Spirit Pellets wrapped in paper from the bundle on their back and handed them over.
Then I pointed at Dang Seohui.
“The Tang Clan made an antidote for that poison. Whether you take it or not is your choice, but if you want to leave the Sword Tomb safely, you should take it.”
The four martial artists did not take their eyes off us for even a moment until we passed by.
Once we were gone, they cautiously picked up the Heart-Calming Spirit Pellets.
Still suspicious, they only stared in our direction and did not take them.
“Senior Brother, do you think they’ll take them?”
“Who knows? If they’re lucky, they will.”
We could not force them to take the medicine.
Would anyone easily swallow something given to them by a stranger when they were already so suspicious?
The odds would improve if one of them realized something was wrong with them, at least.
“What did you mean by saying the Tang Clan made an antidote?”
“They wouldn’t believe me if I said I made it.”
“So you’re using the Tang Clan’s name?”
“The Tang Clan did make it, didn’t they?”
When I looked at Geumpyo as though they were the strange one, their eyes trembled.
Were they worried about impersonating the Tang Clan?
I took a mooncake from my sleeve and handed it to Dang Seohui.
“…Jin Sowoon is not wrong.”
“…”
Even after receiving confirmation, Geumpyo looked at me with the gaze of a stone Buddha.
What exactly did they want me to do?
#
Sichuan Tang Clan.
A member of the investigation unit who had fallen unconscious woke up.
It was an achievement made possible by the physicians taking turns staying awake through the night, and proof of the Tang Clan’s exceptional medical skill.
They tried to ask the awakened investigator what had happened inside the Sword Tomb, but a problem arose.
“Aaaah! Don’t come near me!”
“Hey! It’s me, the Tang Clan Medical Hall Master. Get a hold of yourself!”
The investigator saw hallucinations, said strange things, and began suspecting everything.
Even when they tried to administer medicine, the investigator stubbornly refused, making it impossible to continue the unfinished treatment.
“Don’t come closer! If you do, I’ll kill every one of you!”
In the end, the investigator even pointed a sword at a female physician, leaving them no choice but to knock the person unconscious again.
“Whatever it is, it has definitely unsettled their steadfast heart.”
Fifty investigators had gone ahead.
Only three returned, and two of those three had died.
The sole survivor was now showing signs of madness.
“Putting aside questioning them, is treatment impossible as well?”
The additional investigation team within the Tang Clan could not even depart.
“What if we bind them and wake them?”
Sending people in without knowing what was happening inside was close to suicide.
Besides, if those who had not returned remained in the Sword Tomb, they had to save them or, at worst, retrieve their remains.
Young Clan Head Dang Mուգap spoke, but the physician shook their head.
“Their mind has not properly returned. If we force them awake and they harm themselves…”
At that moment, the Poison King, Dang Hyeokje, entered.
Dang Hyeokje frowned as he looked at the bound survivor.
“Did you not say they had woken up?”
“They did. But they kept causing a scene, so we put them back to sleep.”
Dang Mուգap carefully explained what the survivor had done.
“Hallucinations…”
Dang Hyeokje fixated on that one detail and looked at the survivor.
He took out a needle case and began swiftly inserting needles into the survivor’s body.
The middle-aged physician watched the precise, rapid acupuncture with wide eyes.
After quickly placing the needles, Dang Hyeokje removed them just as swiftly.
He stared at the survivor as though something was strange.
“Did you find anything?”
“They are seeing hallucinations, yet it is not poison.”
Everyone present could not hide their dismay at Dang Hyeokje’s words.
If even Dang Hyeokje, who knew everything there was to know about poison, did not know what it was, then no one among them could know either.
Then Dang Hyeokje raised his head as though he had suddenly remembered something.
“Do we have any Heart-Calming Spirit Pellets?”
“Pardon? Ah… yes, we do.”
A physician held out a Heart-Calming Spirit Pellet.
Dang Hyeokje stared at it, then approached the survivor.
The physician turned pale and tried to stop him.
“Clan Head, the vitality of their five viscera and six bowels has not settled back into place. We do not know what side effects might occur if you force them to take that now.”
“What side effect could there be besides diarrhea?”
“…E-even so, for an exhausted patient…”
“This is more important than diarrhea.”
Dang Hyeokje struck an acupoint to wake the survivor, then shoved the entire Heart-Calming Spirit Pellet into the struggling patient’s mouth and covered it.
The survivor resisted for a long time.
As time passed, though, their strength gradually faded. In the end, their body went limp.
Then,
“Gasp! C-Clan Head!”
The survivor jolted in shock.
“Are you back to your senses?”
“W-where am I… Huh? Wait, my body…”
The survivor looked around as though unable to understand why they were bound and demanded an explanation, but nobody answered.
At Dang Hyeokje’s gesture, Dang Mուգap followed him outside.
“Father, how did you know?”
“I didn’t.”
“What?”
“I only remembered what that bastard said.”
“That bastard…?”
“Who else but Jin Sowoon?”
The bastard who had made the absurd request for Heart-Calming Spirit Pellets in the face of a disaster that could shake the martial world.
Yet it had happened exactly as he said.
“It really works…”
After thinking for a moment, Dang Hyeokje looked at Dang Mուգap.
Dang Mուգap recoiled and hurriedly stopped him.
“Father, you absolutely, absolutely cannot go in!”
“…”
“If you go in, I’m going with you. I mean it this time!”
“…Who said I was going in?”
Dang Hyeokje cleared his throat several times before continuing.
“If the Sword Tomb was created by someone’s design, as that bastard said, this will become a far larger matter. Assemble another investigation team.”
“How should we organize it?”
“Dang Suje will be the Unit Leader. Dang Yangseo will be the Deputy Unit Leader.”
Dang Mուգap’s eyebrows shot up.
“You are sending Hall Master Dang Yangseo?”
“I would send the entire Poison Practitioner Unit if I could.”
“…”
Dang Hyeokje’s green eyes flashed.
“Do you know what I saw in the Blood Cult’s true headquarters?”
“A terrifying, immense obsession with the Central Plains.”
“And it does not seem that the Blood Cult is the only group that carries such an obsession.”
The expression of the Poison King, who had lived his life fearing nothing, was harder than ever.
“How many Heart-Calming Spirit Pellets have been made?”
“A little over five thousand.”
“Give four thousand to the investigation team. Distribute the remaining thousand to people passing through Chengdu or heading to the Sword Tomb.”
“If it is such a dangerous place, should we not stop people from going?”
Dang Hyeokje asked as though the question were absurd.
“Do you think there is anything in this world that can stop a martial artist’s desire?”
“…”
“Neither kings, lords, generals, ministers, the Jade Emperor, nor the grim reaper can stop a martial artist’s desire.”
The only elixir that could slake their desires was oceans of blood and endless corpses.
“Lift the emergency standby order. Tell every physician to devote themselves fully to making Heart-Calming Spirit Pellets.”
“Yes.”
“Oh, and one more thing.”
Dang Hyeokje grabbed Dang Mուգap.
“Send a letter to the Taeul Sect.”
“The Taeul Sect?”
“Yes. Tell them I want to meet once this is over.”
“???”
“A great wind is coming. When it does, one must raise the sail in the direction it blows.”
#
“Geumpyo! Push through!”
Geumpyo, who had been swinging their sword, raised the Vajra Shield before them and advanced.
At the same time, Ilgak’s Vajra Fist exploded, opening a path through the passage.
“Jin Sowoon!”
At Nam Hwaseong’s shout, I released sword qi toward the rear.
The narrowing cave ceiling was cut apart, and rocks came crashing down.
Thud.
That was already the fifth time.
We kept fighting as we repeatedly encountered Black Path groups.
The Black Path was certainly vulnerable to Mindless Illusion Powder.
We had tried giving them Heart-Calming Spirit Pellets, but they were far too agitated for there to be any way.
“Whew…”
As soon as there was room to breathe, the Yuseong Hall members collapsed to the floor.
With only six people, the repeated battles were piling fatigue on all of us twice over.
“Benefactor Jin, it will be difficult to keep moving at this rate.”
I knew.
But unless the Tang Clan distributed Heart-Calming Spirit Pellets, there was no solution for now.
It had also been a long time since we lost the Moyong Clan’s trail, and we needed to find them urgently.
As we were stuck with no good options, Dang Seohui, who had been sitting on the ground, suddenly stood.
At the same time, I felt a large group enter my energy sense.
‘There are still this many people left?’
While I considered whether to flee or fight, people began entering the cave one by one.
Ilgak, Dang Seohui, and I lowered our weapons.
Then, from among the approaching group, a man recognized us first.
“Ilgak? Dang Seohui?”
The murmuring grew louder.
“Where? It really is them.”
“What are you doing here?”
Before long, the crowd surrounded us.
They were members of the Martial Alliance’s First Investigation Unit.
As the crowd closed in further, a sound transmission reached my ear.
-H-hit them? Should we strike first?
Nam Hwaseong’s martial robe puffed up as he spoke.
-Hit them? Should we hit them?
Even Yayul Geuk’s face was red, as though he were excited.
“…”
I only wanted to make them vigilant. The lessons had taken effect far too well…
“One, two, three, four… How many pieces of candied fruit is that?”
Please stop…
#
“So the Chief Strategist sent you?”
The leader of the First Investigation Unit did not look pleased with us.
“Is this how you break your promise?”
Others standing beside the leader added their own words.
“What do you take us for, doing this kind of thing behind our backs?”
“So you think we are a joke now.”
Despite the unit leader being present, they acted without the slightest formality. It seemed that investigation teams from other sects, rather than members of the original First Investigation Unit, had joined them.
There were far more people than the First Investigation Unit that had originally departed from the Martial Alliance.
“What are the casualties like?”
The unit leader’s brows twisted strangely at my question.
“Am I obligated to report to you?”
Was this shitty attitude caused by Mindless Illusion Powder? Or did they just hate me?
“If you find it unpleasant, you need not answer. I simply don’t know how much of what the Tang Clan brought I should give you, depending on the situation.”
“The Tang Clan?”
“Yes. I heard that a strange organism growing in the Sword Tomb is affecting people’s minds. Have you seen anything like that?”
“!”
Only then did strange looks pass between the unit leader and the others.
They must have noticed something was wrong as well.
“What did you bring?”
“Do you need it?”
“…”
“If you do not need it…”
“We need it.”
The unit leader spoke firmly.
“We recovered two legacies of the Sword Venerable.”
“Unit Leader!”
“How can you say that?”
“Everyone, be quiet. I am speaking with the Hall Master of Yuseong Hall.”
What a sudden change in attitude.
I didn’t know whether they liked me or hated me.
“And there were exactly seven attempts to steal them.”
“…”
“From within our own ranks.”
I understood that they were desperate.
Having remained in the Sword Tomb for so long, they must have realized they were reaching their limits.
“Understood. I will prepare them.”
I spoke to Geumpyo and Nam Hwaseong, then handed over Heart-Calming Spirit Pellets according to their numbers.
Afterward, I asked about the Moyong Clan.
“The Moyong Clan? I have not seen them since we saw them at the entrance.”
The members of other sects who had encountered them inside the Sword Tomb gave the same answer.
‘Ha… Damn it. Do I have to go find that bastard in the end?’
It was not difficult to spot him among so many people.
Damn it, he stood out wherever he went.
He was glaring at the Heart-Calming Spirit Pellet he had just received, about to put it in his mouth.
“Yong Soa.”
His indifferent eyes turned toward me.
“What is it?”
“You know what it is.”
His expression remained utterly blank, as though he had no idea.
“The Moyong Clan… Where are they now?”
His lips slowly parted after he looked at me for a moment.
“They…”
His flat voice echoed through the space as though it were nothing important.
“Are dead.”
Footnotes:
