Radiant Sword Tomb (2)

The next morning, Do Munseung was finally released from his restraints and allowed to walk toward the entrance of the Radiant Sword Tomb.

Beside him, Association Leader Mak Ujeon was warming up by swinging his sword.

Mak Ujeon spoke to him.

“As you saw yesterday, Vice Association Leader Ga Yuak, who has fallen into madness, is lurking inside. For some reason, he never comes more than a certain distance out of the cave and attacks only those who attempt to enter.”

Do Munseung frowned at those words.

Ga Yuak attacked anyone trying to enter the cave?

He looked distrustfully at Mak Ujeon and asked.

“Is Great Hero Ga Yuak, the Vice Association Leader, not a pinnacle master who has surpassed eighty years of internal energy? If someone like him is guarding the cave, there is no possibility that I can enter.”

Mak Ujeon chuckled and answered.

“Of course. Moreover, astonishingly, his martial prowess rose another level after he went mad. I fought him briefly, and he is now equal to me.”

“What?!”

That was astonishing.

Ga Yuak’s martial prowess had increased after he fell into madness.

Did that not mean he had become equal to Association Leader Mak Ujeon, who had surpassed ninety years of internal energy and stood on the threshold of the Supreme Realm?

Falling into madness had instead increased his strength.

As a martial artist, Do Munseung could not help finding it fascinating.

However, something else was far more important to him.

Mak Ujeon was currently telling him to break through such a man and enter the cave.

The more he listened, the more impossible it sounded.

Seeing Do Munseung’s expression, Mak Ujeon patted his shoulder reassuringly and spoke.

“Do not worry too much. Dealing with him is my task. I will go first and fight him before the entrance, holding him in place. You must not miss that opportunity and rush into the cave.”

Do Munseung looked toward the cave again.

The cave entrance was not particularly wide, and he briefly imagined the scene Mak Ujeon described.

A hollow laugh escaped him.

Two masters with more than ninety years of internal energy would be fighting at the entrance to that narrow cave, and he was supposed to slip past them?

Did Mak Ujeon truly believe that was possible?

And what was he supposed to do after entering?

Do Munseung asked with an incredulous expression.

“What if you lose hold of the Vice Association Leader? No, you cannot enter the cave anyway, can you? Then what should I do if the Vice Association Leader simply ignores you, follows me inside, and attacks me?”

Mak Ujeon sighed with a grave expression and answered.

“I will do my utmost to restrain him. You may not know this, but I am also rather desperate at present. So trust me just this once.”

That was also ridiculous.

The man who intended to kill him was asking to be trusted.

Do Munseung almost laughed again, but decided not to say anything further.

These people did not care whether he lived or died anyway.

No, if he somehow survived miraculously, they would probably kill him themselves. In that case, gambling with his life was perhaps only natural to them.

After staring for a moment at the crimson eyes visible within the cave, Do Munseung finally sighed in apparent resignation and nodded.

“Understood. I suppose you are doing this because you have no other method.”

Mak Ujeon smiled faintly at Do Munseung’s seemingly understanding reply.

From Mak Ujeon’s perspective, the more he saw of the young man, the more he liked him.

He even felt regret that, had they met under different circumstances, he might genuinely have taken Do Munseung as his disciple.

However, Mak Ujeon did not know.

He did not know what Do Munseung was thinking at that moment.

Nor did he know whose voice transmission Do Munseung was hearing.

After finishing the conversation, Mak Ujeon drew his sword and began walking toward the cave.

Then he shouted toward Vice Association Leader Ga Yuak, whose eyes shone crimson inside.

“Yuak! I have come! Do you recognize me?!”

However, even Mak Ujeon already knew that he probably did not.

The ominous blood-red light pouring from Ga Yuak’s eyes and his murderous aura, which made the skin prickle, were only growing stronger.

Mak Ujeon gradually heightened his vigilance.

As before, once he approached within a certain distance, Ga Yuak would leap out of the cave and attack.

Just as he did now.

Tap!

“Uwooooo!”

Chachachachang!

Ga Yuak’s sword flew like a beam of light and collided countless times with Mak Ujeon’s blade in midair.

Their exchange was so fast that neither Do Munseung nor the other warriors could follow it with their eyes.

As Mak Ujeon exchanged sword strikes with Ga Yuak, he thought.

‘His strength is the same as last time.’

Facing Ga Yuak, who was unleashing sword strikes nearly equal to his own, Mak Ujeon felt slightly relieved.

Since Ga Yuak’s martial prowess had suddenly risen after he went mad, Mak Ujeon had worried that he might continue growing stronger with time.

However, Ga Yuak’s strength remained at roughly the same level as before.

It seemed his martial prowess had increased only once, when he initially fell into madness.

Now reassured, Mak Ujeon continued fighting Ga Yuak and shouted behind him.

“Now! Send him inside while I hold him!”

At this level, Mak Ujeon believed he could restrain Ga Yuak long enough for Do Munseung to enter.

No, he should even be able to hold him after Do Munseung went inside.

He gave the signal with that confidence, but the moment he did, something no one had expected occurred.

“Kihahahahaha!”

“Ohohohohoho!”

Chilling laughter suddenly rang out.

It was a sound all too familiar to Mak Ujeon—the laughter of those he had desperately searched for until yesterday.

The Blue-and-Red Twin Swords had appeared.

The very pair who had toyed with Mak Ujeon and vanished.

“What?!”

Even while fighting Ga Yuak, Mak Ujeon was so shocked that he turned toward the sound.

The pair emerged from the forest like ghosts amid their laughter and charged directly into the Sucheon Association warriors stationed around the cave.

Fountains of blood suddenly erupted as though exploding.

Slaaash!

“Kyaaaaagh!”

“Aaaaagh!”

Until moments earlier, the Sucheon Association warriors had been completely focused on the duel between Mak Ujeon and Ga Yuak.

Thus, they had no choice but to receive the Blue-and-Red Twin Swords’ assault while defenseless.

Blood from the Sucheon Association warriors sprayed like rain wherever the Blue-and-Red Twin Swords passed as though through an empty field.

No one could slow their advance.

Among the subordinates collapsing while scattering blood, Mak Ujeon focused on a single face.

It was Do Munseung, who had been waiting to enter the cave.

Struck by a palm from the male eccentric, Do Munseung flew away while spewing blood from his mouth.

Do Munseung, whom Mak Ujeon had considered his final hope.

“Kheugh!”

Watching him rise into the air and fall toward the ground, Mak Ujeon cried out in anguish.

“No!”

However, Do Munseung crashed helplessly to the ground, went limp, and stopped moving.

Mak Ujeon’s final hope was disappearing.

“You bastards!”

Mak Ujeon felt as though he were going insane.

However, while facing Ga Yuak directly before him, there was nothing he could do.

Mak Ujeon had intended to restrain Ga Yuak, but instead, he had become the one trapped by Ga Yuak.

Moreover, the Blue-and-Red Twin Swords did not stop there.

After slaughtering the Sucheon Association warriors as though no one opposed them, they passed directly beside Mak Ujeon and Ga Yuak without hesitation and entered the cave.

They moved like an unhindered wind brushing past.

They headed toward the place where the Radiant Sword’s legacy supposedly slept.

Mak Ujeon was horrified.

“What?!”

At that moment, a thought suddenly flashed through his mind.

‘They already knew about the Radiant Sword’s legacy! Their attack on the association and humiliation of me were actually meant to let them seize it!’

He felt as though he would go mad.

At this rate, those bastards would steal the Radiant Sword’s legacy from him.

The violent flames he had been suppressing with reason surged within his chest like an erupting volcano.

The enraged Mak Ujeon roared.

“You bastards! Do you think I will let people like you take it from me?!”

The flames of his inner demon, which he had pressed into a corner of his heart, blazed into a tremendous inferno.

He could no longer see anything else.

His gaze was fixed solely upon the cave entrance the pair had entered.

Mak Ujeon’s sword suddenly erupted with terrifying force and smashed into Ga Yuak.

“Move!”

Kaboooom!

It was a tremendous force.

Ga Yuak, who had fought him evenly until then, could not withstand it and was hurled backward.

“Grrrrrr!”

Mak Ujeon left him behind without hesitation and rushed into the cave.

“You bastards!”

His eyes were now becoming stained the same crimson color as Ga Yuak’s.

The previous night, Seonu Jin had secretly contacted Do Munseung and heard the full story from him.

Then he understood everything.

“The legacy of Jeong Myeonggang, the Radiant Chivalrous Sword Eccentric! So that was it!”

As expected, Mak Ujeon had obtained it in his previous life and therefore risen to become one of the Thirty-Six Stars of the World.

Seonu Jin’s mind raced.

Simply rescuing Do Munseung was no longer particularly meaningful.

He had to prevent Mak Ujeon from obtaining the Radiant Sword’s legacy.

If left alone, Mak Ujeon would somehow acquire it, and later become the Blood Demon’s demonic sword as in Seonu Jin’s previous life, washing the world in blood.

Moreover, it seemed likely that Mak Ujeon’s transformation from the Rising-Heaven Swordsman into the Heaven-Slaughter Demon Sword was connected to the cave said to drive people insane.

‘What should I do?’

Seonu Jin muttered as he considered his options.

“The best method would be to kill him and claim the Radiant Sword’s legacy ourselves….”

Tang Yeo-eun, who stood beside him, spoke worriedly.

“But neither of those will be easy. There is the problem of fighting Mak Ujeon, a master with more than ninety years of internal energy, and above all, there is no guarantee we will remain sane after entering a cave that drives people mad.”

“Hmm. That is true.”

At that moment, something did come to Seonu Jin’s mind.

In fact, it had occurred to him the instant he heard that only someone with a righteous heart could enter.

‘Great-Extension Heart-Calming Formula.’

While memorizing every book in the Seonu Clan’s martial repository, Seonu Jin had once read a book with that title.

It had been a rather strange book.

It was neither an internal cultivation manual for accumulating energy nor a scripture, but an unusual set of mnemonic verses.

He had nearly passed over it, but the martial arts beside it included Shaolin techniques such as the Iron Arhat Heart Method and Arhat Fist, so he read it three times and memorized it just in case.

He had pushed it into a distant corner of his memory afterward, but the moment he heard the words “righteous heart,” it resurfaced.

In particular, the words written on the first page of the Great-Extension Heart-Calming Formula strongly drew Seonu Jin’s attention.

—It shall free one from every wicked delusion. Yet beware the Heavenly Demon’s Soul-Shattering Art.

Those were the words written on its first page.

Considering them together with the phrase “righteous heart,” it seemed to mean that the formula protected the user from external mental attacks.

Moreover, Seonu Jin did not know what the Soul-Shattering Art was, but if the “Heavenly Demon” written there referred to the Heavenly Demon of the Demonic Sect, did that not mean the formula could block everything except the Heavenly Demon’s technique?

For some reason, that sounded more trustworthy than claiming it could block everything under Heaven.

In the end, Seonu Jin decided to try learning it.

“Good. Let’s do it!”

At worst, he had nothing to lose.

There was no other promising method anyway.

Learning the Great-Extension Heart-Calming Formula was not particularly difficult.

Since it was a mantra composed only of mnemonic verses rather than an internal cultivation method that accumulated energy, there was no sense of something being achieved or stages being advanced.

However, after practicing it for about half a shichen, Seonu Jin concealed himself and approached the cave as a test.

The closer he moved, the more clearly he could feel an unknown force attempting to invade his soul and the barrier of the Great-Extension Heart-Calming Formula blocking it.

It was a success.

A tremendous success.

“Hah. Good heavens.”

Seonu Jin let out an incredulous laugh.

He had memorized such a secret art and neglected it until now.

It was as though he had carried a jewel in his pocket while treating it like a mere stone.

Had he learned its effects earlier and taught it to his companions, it might even have blocked the Blood Cult’s Soul-Seizing Arts.

The face of Myeong Sahyeon, who had died so tragically, suddenly came to mind.

However, Seonu Jin soon shook his head and cast the thought away.

It seemed wiser to be grateful that he had discovered it now.

Afterward, Seonu Jin spent the entire night practicing the Great-Extension Heart-Calming Formula with Tang Yeo-eun.

As a precaution, he also taught it to Do Munseung through voice transmission.

Of course, Do Munseung, who was currently lying outside the cave pretending to be dead, probably would not need to enter.

Now that he had entered the cave, Seonu Jin could smile with satisfaction as he felt his mind remain astonishingly calm despite the wicked force attempting to shake his soul.

He also asked Tang Yeo-eun through voice transmission.

—Miss Tang, are you all right?

—Yes! Strangely, my mind is completely peaceful! I can also clearly feel the forces trying to invade from around us! This is incredible!

That was fortunate.

He had worried because Tang Yeo-eun possessed a tender heart.

Seonu Jin had originally intended to leave her behind and enter alone.

However, she had insisted that she could not send him into danger alone, leaving him no choice but to bring her.

Fortunately, the effects of the Great-Extension Heart-Calming Formula seemed to work fully on her as well.

It was then.

Mak Ujeon’s furious roar rang out behind them.

“You bastards!”

He had knocked Ga Yuak aside and entered the cave in pursuit.

Sensing him, Seonu Jin spoke urgently.

—Let us hurry, Miss Tang!

The two quickly moved deeper into the cave.

A fork appeared before them at the end of the straight, dark passage.

Seonu Jin immediately sent a voice transmission.

—Left!

Although he could not determine the difference between the paths, Seonu Jin chose one and swiftly launched himself in that direction.

Immediately after they disappeared down the left passage, Mak Ujeon reached the fork.

“Grrrrrr!”

His eyes were already radiating crimson light, and he growled like a beast.

Yet even so, he occasionally shouted.

“It is mine. Grrrr! I said it is mine! I will never let anyone take it! Grrrrr!”

It appeared that at least his original greed had not vanished.

Because he had entered the dark cave after standing in the bright outdoors, Mak Ujeon had not seen which way the pair went.

Moreover, since the two were moving as stealthily as possible, he could not even hear them.

After looking left and right at the fork for a moment, Mak Ujeon finally launched himself down the right-hand passage.

“Grrrrrrr!”

Immediately after he moved, Ga Yuak, who had followed directly behind him, also raced down the right passage in pursuit.