Chapter 162

“How did you know?”

I relaxed my vocal cords and returned to my normal voice.
He had specifically called me Seventh Young Lord, so there was no point denying it.
It was a shame after all the effort I had put in, but my fortune-teller act was over.

“…….”

Instead of answering, the Ink Scholar looked down at my feet.
At the strange woman lying there.

‘I wonder how he’ll react.’

I suddenly found myself curious.
What did the strange woman mean to him?
She pushed his wheelchair and activated the formation.
He had also kept calling out Sang-eon’s name over and over.
Would he be angry, then?
Because I had left something he treasured in tatters?

The Ink Scholar lowered his gaze.
He began moving his brush as he muttered.

“Sang-eon, the stitching along the left side has been completely destroyed. Judging by the pattern of the rupture, an external blade severed the stitches one after another. Did he finely control his Aura Qi to concentrate cutting force on such a narrow area? Or perhaps it was a treasured blade. Simply restoring it would only leave the same spot vulnerable again. Driving iron supports between the ribs to reinforce the frame first, then stitching it closed in three layers should solve the problem, though it would require quite a bit of time and material.”

His tone was astonishingly devoid of emotion.
As though he were merely inspecting damage to a tool.
Granted, she was closer to a soulless puppet than a person, so perhaps that made sense.
But then why had he kept calling her name like that?

‘He was doing it just now too, wasn’t he?’

Before I could resolve the question, the Ink Scholar raised his head.
He looked straight at me and said,

“You asked how I knew your identity?”
“I did.”
“I listened in on the sounds inside the formation. That included hearing ‘Guard Im’ and ‘Unit Leader Ak.’”
“You figured it out from that alone? Sounds like you’d done quite a bit of research on me.”
“I received several reports. There was said to be one man in particular who kept getting in the Society’s way.”

I chuckled.

“To be precise, it’s the other way around. The Heaven Rebelling Society keeps getting in my way. Again and again.”
“If the same stone keeps catching the foot of a traveler walking a road, the problem is not the road. It is the stone that does not know its place.”
“The problem is the fool walking a road he shouldn’t.”
“It is not the stone that decides whether the traveler walks. The traveler does.”
“How foolish. There’s nothing at the end of that road. I’ve seen it.”

I tapped beneath my eye with a finger.
The Ink Scholar lowered his voice coldly.

“Do you truly believe you possess such an ability?”
“Of course.”
“You overestimate yourself. I suppose you are at the age for such recklessness, but its consequences will be miserable. You will realize your own helplessness as your final breath leaves you.”
“I’ll return those words to you.”

I answered leisurely.
I had killed the Heavenly Demon after he became a demonic fiend in my previous life. Was I really supposed to be unable to deal with one Heaven Rebelling Society?
The Ink Scholar stopped his brush and quietly stared at me.
Then he muttered,

“There is nothing strange about trying to stop the Society’s plans. If the Heavenly Demon becomes a demonic fiend, you yourself will not escape unscathed. But that alone does not explain it. Would a man who values his life disguise himself and walk willingly into what might become a deathtrap? You could have devised countermeasures from a safe distance, yet you deliberately put your own neck on the line. Simple self-preservation cannot explain this.”
“What’s so complicated about a disciple wanting to save his master?”
“That is not a reason. It is merely an action. Every action must have a motive. Is there still something you expect to receive from your master? Or would your position become precarious without him?”

I shook my head.
Apparently, in the Ink Scholar’s mind, everyone acted solely according to their own interests.

‘That’s not how it is.’

Some masters open a path to survival for a disciple who defies their wishes.
And some disciples risk their lives to grant peace to a master they once hated.

I saw no reason to explain any of that to him.
I doubted he would understand even if I did.

“Either way, as his disciple, I can’t tolerate what the Heaven Rebelling Society is doing.”
“And what will you do if you cannot tolerate it?”
“Stop it of course. Starting by capturing you.”
“In that state? Let us make a deal instead.”
“What kind of deal are you suddenly talking about?”

The Ink Scholar answered.

“First, hand over my doll.”

Doll.
He meant the strange woman.

“And after I hand her over?”
“I will release the formation. The Primordial Chaos Labyrinth Formation will not collapse unless its creator releases it. Even if you forcibly break it, the interior will remain as a pitch-black space. You would not wish to live inside it forever, would you?”

I snorted.

“This woman activated the formation. Can’t she release it too?”
“The doll is merely a ritual implement used to manifest the formation. I govern its maintenance and dissolution.”
“And you expect me to believe that?”
“I see no need to lie.”

‘Hmm.’

I looked down at the strange woman.

‘Looks like he wants to take her back.’

There had been no emotion whatsoever in the Ink Scholar’s eyes as he examined the strange woman’s damaged state.
I had assumed he would abandon her, but apparently I was wrong.
Then again, creating something like this again couldn’t possibly be easy.
If it were, there would already be packs of strange women roaming around like the freaks of Demon Valley.

“Well, none of that really matters. The problem is-”

I continued, idly flicking my cold-iron dagger.

“I’m not exactly a nice person. Once someone tells me they need something, I stop wanting to give it to them. So no.”
“An unwise choice.”

The Ink Scholar’s mouth stiffened slightly.
After filling the paper with writing, the Ink Scholar tore it up and threw it onto the ground.

“Sang-eon, that man has no intention of returning it. He wishes to rot inside the formation forever, so we should grant his wish.”

The Ink Scholar gripped the wheels of his wheelchair.

“You’re giving up that easily? Even while you’re still calling her name?”
“What are you talking about?”
“You just said Sang-eon.”
“Sang-eon is my name.”
“…….”

My brain stopped.
A beat later, the meaning finally sank in.
Sang-eon wasn’t the strange woman. It was the Ink Scholar himself.
Then all this time, whenever he had said “Sang-eon,” he had been talking to himself?

‘He really is insane!’

Flying Swallow’s assessment had been an understatement.
This man wasn’t merely eccentric.
Something about him was fundamentally twisted.

“Young Lord!”

Im Yeon’s sudden shout snapped me back to my senses.
The Ink Scholar had opened a gap in the air and was trying to leave through it.
Im Yeon was rushing toward him, but she wasn’t fast enough.
I wasn’t much better.
If I used Lightning Step three times in succession, I could probably make it through before the gap closed.
If it were only me.

‘I can’t do that.’

How could I abandon the people who had followed me because they trusted me?
Especially when they were Im Yeon and Ak Mu-jin.

‘What do I do?’

My mind raced.
Nothing came to me.

By then, the Ink Scholar’s wheelchair had almost reached the gap.
A few blinks and he would be through.
Then the gap would begin closing.

I knew absolutely nothing about this formation.
But I did know who was connected to it.
I dropped to my knees and grabbed both of the strange woman’s ankles. They were hard and heavy.

‘Ah, screw it.’

I drew up a massive amount of Perfect Demonic Qi.
Using the lower-body strength I had built through all that brutal training, I rose and spun rapidly in place with the strange woman.
One turn. Two.

I released my grip.
The strange woman’s body flew through the air.
Her limp arms and legs flapped behind her.

Peok!
The strange woman’s torso wedged perfectly into the narrowing gap.
Her rigid body braced against both sides and kept it from closing.

Pajijit, pajijijit-
Strange lightning-like sparks sprayed everywhere.
I had no idea why, but my improvised solution worked.

“……!”

The Ink Scholar, already outside, turned his head.
His mouth fell open.
It was an expression I had never seen on him before.
The recording, muttering, and brushwork all stopped as he stared in bewilderment.

“Sang-eon! That man is unbelievably crude!”

Whatever the Ink Scholar said, I was already running.
My left palm pressed against Ak Mu-jin’s back and my right against Im Yeon’s as I pushed both of them from behind.

Pajijijik!
Cracks spread through the scenery around us. The desert split apart, and the pillars shook.
It was just like what I had experienced inside the No-Return Cave.
The formation was collapsing around the gap where the strange woman was wedged.

“Run!”

With only a few steps left, I put more strength into my arms and shoved both of them forward.
Im Yeon and Ak Mu-jin slipped through the now-narrow gap.

“Young Lord!”

Im Yeon shouted, her face drained of color.
Paang!
I used Lightning Step and barely made it through the gap.

Jjiiiiik-
The gap closed.

Kuuuuung!
The formation exploded.
The collapsing formation had swallowed the strange woman, then erupted a moment later.
The resulting shock wave slammed into my back.

I pitched forward.
I wasn’t the only one.
Im Yeon went tumbling, while Ak Mu-jin dropped hard onto one knee.
Leaves and dirt rose like a storm and engulfed everything around us.

My ears rang, and my head spun.
Only when the dust began settling did I finally regain my senses.
Soul-Bewildering Forest.
Sparse moonlight filtered through the dense trees around the place where we had been before.

‘Where’s the Ink Scholar?’

He was already gone.
Had we lost him?

“Are you all right, Young Lord?”

Im Yeon rushed over and asked, but I didn’t answer.
There was no time.
I had spotted something on the ground.

‘Wheel tracks.’

The Ink Scholar was a huge man.
Without the strange woman pushing him, rolling his wheelchair himself was bound to leave tracks.

‘He went that way!’

“Hey!”

A voice came from the darkness.
Flying Swallow glided down from a tree like a flying squirrel.

“……What happened to all of you?”

Ak Mu-jin was covered in blood, Im Yeon was deathly pale from her internal injury, and the explosion had ruined my disguise and blown the back of my clothes wide open.
We hardly looked normal.

“What happened to the Ink Scholar? You came all the way here to see that old man, didn’t you?”
“He went that way.”
“That way?”

Flying Swallow looked in the direction I pointed and murmured,

“That’s toward the base. Is he planning to hide there?”
“The base? Where exactly is it?”

Flying Swallow launched into a long-winded explanation.
Follow this path straight, turn left at the mulberry tree struck by lightning, then you’ll reach a pond, and after you pass that, blah blah blah.

“When are you going to finish?”
“I was just about to finish, and now you’re rushing me. Makes me not want to tell you.”
“Guard Im.”
“Yes, Young Lord.”
“Didn’t you say the Hidden Cloud Pavilion was short on firewood?”

Im Yeon blinked.
I tapped the front of my robe.

“Ah, ahhh. That’s right, Young Lord.”
“Then I suppose we’ll have to burn some books?”
“Indeed!”

Flying Swallow sighed beside us.

“The more I watch you two, the more the guard and her boss seem exactly alike. There’s a passage beneath the Twin Cliffs. That’s the place.”

At those words, the scenery around the Twin Cliffs flashed through my mind.
I had been there before.

‘That was a Heaven Rebelling Society base?’

I marveled inwardly for a moment, then shook my head.
We had to hurry.
We needed to catch the Ink Scholar before he reached the base. There was no telling what other mechanisms might be waiting inside.

“By the way, what happened to the Guardian Court Master and everyone else?”
“They got caught in traps.”
“Traps?”
“The ground just gave way. Over a huge area.”
“……The Guardian Court Master got caught by something like that?”
“No, no. The Hwang Family’s eldest son and your men. The Guardian Court Master got caught in formations. Looks like they laid them down layer after layer, each one activating the moment someone stepped on it. Fog everywhere, sprays of water, the whole place is a mess.”
“…….”

I was at a loss for words.
Du Jung-baek was an Extreme Demon Realm master.
I could hardly believe someone like him had been trapped in formations and couldn’t get out.
An Extreme Demon Realm master could smash through most formations by sheer force.

‘Wait. Could that sound be……?’

Ever since escaping the Primordial Chaos Labyrinth Formation, I had been faintly hearing repeated booming impacts.
Apparently, that was the sound of Du Jung-baek breaking formations.
Flying Swallow said they had been laid down in layers, so breaking through one after another was taking time.

“Haa.”

A sigh escaped me.
I had thought I had prepared fairly well.
But I had never expected Soul-Bewildering Forest to be equipped with traps and formations on this scale.
The Ink Scholar’s preparations had far exceeded my expectations.

‘I can only hope they make it out safely.’

“For now, let’s move.”

I started running toward the base.
Flying Swallow, Ak Mu-jin, and Im Yeon naturally followed behind me.

I decided not to wait for the Guardian Court Master and the others.
The Ink Scholar was putting more distance between us with every moment as he headed for the base.
If he made it inside, there was no telling when I would get another chance to meet him.
Unless I brought a large force from the Demon Cult, I would be reduced to standing outside and watching. And even if I gathered enough manpower, the Ink Scholar could leave before they ever arrived.

“Guard Im.”
“Yes, Young Lord.”
“Does the Guardian Court have any markings that only its people use?”

Im Yeon nodded.

“Yes, it does.”
“From now on, leave those markings along the route we take. That way, once the others get out, they can catch up with us.”

There was the Guardian Court Master, of course, as well as my guards.
As long as we left markings behind, both groups would be able to follow us.

‘Though Du Jung-baek alone would probably be enough.’

With Du Jung-baek, it probably wouldn’t matter how many subordinates the Ink Scholar had with him.
Time was still the problem, though.

Flying Swallow tilted her head as she ran beside me.

“But can we really catch him by chasing straight after him? You all look pretty beat up.”
“Not by chasing him directly.”
“Then how?”

Following the direction the Ink Scholar was headed meant taking the long way around along the main path.
But there was a side path that cut straight through the forest.
A path no one else knew, one I had personally discovered in my previous life.

The corner of my mouth curled upward.

“There’s a shortcut.”