Side Story 60. Ascension (1)

“Shin-gwi, that was a great victory. Euhahahaha!”

One Crimson Fighting Fiend laughed uproariously.
It was a damp place. The air was humid and a little cold.
Underground, a cave. It seemed to be somewhere like that.
Despite the poor conditions, the Crimson Fighting Fiends swaggered as if this place were a palace.

“Can you finally accomplish the grand plan now?”
“…The grand plan. Yes, that’s right.”

The one the Crimson Fighting Fiends revered as Shin-gwi was none other than Ahim.
He was truly the leader of the Crimson Fighting Fiends, and all the Crimson Fighting Fiends feared him and pledged him loyalty.
But Ahim didn’t rule through fear alone. If he had, so many subordinates would not have sincerely followed him.
A leader, by nature, had to know how to use both carrot and stick.
The carrot was desire.
Most of the Crimson Fighting Fiends were those abandoned by the world. By touching the desires deep in their hearts, Ahim controlled them.

“Yes, now if you simply feed the Emperor Guihon Jade and then control him, Shin-gwi…”

And that plan was truly grandiose.
Using powerful force as a foundation, they would infiltrate Beijing’s Forbidden City. They would brainwash high officials and great ministers with Guihon Jade, and in the end, even feed Guihon Jade to the Emperor and brainwash him.

“The entire Central Plains will fall into our hands.”
“Now no one will be able to look down on us!”

The eyes of the Crimson Fighting Fiends shone bright red.
Guihon Jade had many side effects besides making one’s nature violent.
One of them was that it stimulated a person’s desires.
Those who had cultivated themselves could control such desires.
Just as the Twin Tigers of the Peng Family, Namgung Shin, and others had controlled themselves.

But most of the Crimson Fighting Fiends were people who had simply grown stronger by eating Guihon Jade.
Power gained easily was that much more frightening.
At the Crimson Fighting Fiends, who were already excited as if they had gained everything, Ahim gave a smile.

“Shall we interrogate that old man? If we pull out a few of his nails, he will quickly tell us the location of the Guihon Jade.”
“No, there is no need. I will interrogate him myself.”

It was the moment Ahim said that with a faint smile.

“Mad… bastards. Hehe.”

Seok Sung, who had collapsed, began to chuckle.
Having woken up, he had been listening in on the Crimson Fighting Fiends’ plan.

“Vermin like you will what? Brainwash the Emperor? Euheuheuhahaha. Your imagination, at least, is impressive. You madmen.”

He began mocking the Crimson Fighting Fiends.

“Do you think the world lies beneath your eyes just because you ran wild a little in Hangzhou? I have seen so many of your kind they get kicked underfoot. Bastards who have nothing but an inferiority complex. Failures of society. Give you even the tiniest bit of power, and you look down on others and swing violence around.”
“How dare this insane old man. Shut up.”
“Do you think a plan made with those bean-sized brains of yours will work? Do you think the world is that easy!”
“I said shut up!”
“Do you really think your leader has that sort of plan? You fools! Every one of you will die with your bellies split open. I am certain…”

Seok Sung could not finish speaking.
Because one Crimson Fighting Fiend kicked Seok Sung in the stomach.
Seok Sung violently vomited the contents of his stomach.
The enraged Crimson Fighting Fiend failed to properly control his strength. Blood came out mixed with the vomit.

“Enough!”

Ahim shouted irritably.
The Crimson Fighting Fiend withdrew quickly in panic.

“That is enough. I will speak with him myself.”
“Keoeok, heok.”

Ahim crouched in front of Seok Sung.

“Well, old man. You say I harbor other intentions? Then have you guessed what my true purpose is?”

Seok Sung could not come to his senses from the terrible pain.
He glared at Ahim with unfocused eyes and spoke.

“It won’t be much different from those bastards. At best, it will be something to satisfy some base desire, and even that is probably because of an inferiority complex.”
“You bark like a frightened dog, Seok Sung. I am gathering Guihon Jade in order to transcend.”
“Nonsense.”
“My purpose is to transcend humanity through true power and become moksha.”

At those words, Seok Sung chuckled.

“You are saying you can transcend humanity with a yokai’s inner core?”
“Of course. There is a thought that powerful old men like you all have. My father, a member of the Mughal imperial family, was the same. Do you know what it is? The thought that humans are the most superior.”
“……”
“Humans may be better than most beasts. Humans may even be better than ordinary yokai. But is that truly so? If so, what of dragons? What of the Da Luo immortals in the heavens? What of great yokai? What of Buddha! How lowly are humans compared to them?”

The world had changed too much to dismiss him simply as a madman.
Yokai, Immortals, dragons, and the like had been treated as products of imagination until only ten years ago.
But now, the age had changed.
People knew that there were beings born powerful from the start.

“So you intend to become a dragon and ascend to heaven as well?”

Seok Sung had said it to mock Ahim.
But instead of becoming angry, Ahim smiled faintly and nodded.

“Something similar.”

Seok Sung quietly shifted his gaze and swept it over the Crimson Fighting Fiends.
They all looked as if they didn’t understand what he was talking about.
As expected, they seemed to be nothing more than chess pieces moved by Ahim.
Seok Sung instinctively placed a hand on his stomach where he had been kicked.
That had almost gone terribly wrong. Fortunately, what he had hidden inside himself was safe.

“Do you see that?”

Ahim raised his hand and pointed behind himself.

“What is that…”

Seok Sung’s mouth fell open and did not close.
Until now, he had thought it was a ‘wall.’
Because it was simply that enormous.
Hidden deep inside this cave, it was so large that a few torches could not fully reveal its form.

“As you can see, it is a head.”
“A y-yokai…”

Its identity was the severed head of something monstrous.

“That is right, yes, a yokai. And a great yokai at that. Originally, its power was so great that it could not exist on earth, so it dwelled only in the Yokai Realm. Unfortunately, only the head remains.”
“Could it be…”
“Yes. It is Guihon’s head.”

Guihon.
That yokai that had once appeared like a calamity.
The yokai that had toyed with several Absolute masters had a form somewhere between a crab and a spider.
It was like a crab in that it was covered with a carapace as hard as Ten-Thousand-Year Cold Iron. And it resembled a spider in that it had a head studded with countless eyes.

Its body had been as large as a five-story pavilion, so it was only natural that its severed head looked as enormous as a wall.
Dozens of lightless eyes were embedded in that head.

“One day, after I had consumed a certain amount of Guihon Jade, a revelation descended upon me. I heard a voice.”
“Did the dead Guihon whisper to you or something?”
“Something greater than that. The one who gave birth to Guihon. The father of all yokai. Just as there is a Heavenly Venerable in the heavens, underground there was one who rules that Yokai Realm. A god, a Demon King!”

Seok Sung decided not to listen seriously to Ahim’s words any further.
Was he not completely insane?
The moment he tried to put the plan he had prepared into action.

“I will follow that one’s words and become a new Guihon, a great yokai. It is almost done now. I no longer need those garbage-like humans.”

The words ‘those garbage-like humans’ clearly referred to his subordinates.
It was so clear that even the Crimson Fighting Fiends became flustered.

“Is that so? Then…”
“They can all die. I intended that from the start.”

In the end, even the officers of the Crimson Fighting Fiends stepped forward.

“Shin-gwi, what do you mean by that?”
“That is insulting. We are not so laughable that we deserve to hear such words from you…”

Ahim’s eyes flashed as he chanted.

“Split open your bellies and kill yourselves. All of you!”

Even subordinates with considerable loyalty would not obey such an order.
Would officers with skills above the Transcendent level really kill themselves over a single word?

“And offer the Guihon Jade to me.”

Astonishingly, they did so.

Puk, puk, puk, puk, puk.

It truly was possible for a person to stab into their own belly with their bare hand and kill themselves.
Those by Ahim’s side were all officers who had consumed five or more pieces of Guihon Jade.
Their hands pierced into their own skin as if they were truly blades, splitting open their abdomens.
Then, with their bare hands, they took out the Guihon Jade inside their stomachs.

Thud, thud, thud.

They collapsed as they were and died.
Although countless people had been in this cavern, only three survived.
Ahim, Seok Sung, and So-ryu, who lay collapsed and unconscious.

All the remaining Crimson Fighting Fiends became corpses while holding bloodstained Guihon Jade in their hands.

“You are trembling. Are you afraid?”

Seok Sung flinched.
Just as Ahim said, he felt fear at this hellish sight.
But he had no intention of showing a frightened appearance here.

“Can you control them because you ate so much Guihon Jade?”
“You could see it that way.”

Seok Sung forced a smile.

“Ahim. Do you remember Seok Myeong?”
“What?”

Seok Sung spoke as if chewing up and spitting out the words.

“Seok Myeong, I said. A short fellow with a mole under his eye. My foolish child who died with his belly split open by you lot. Do you remember him?”
“Mm.”

Ahim thought deeply, then answered.

“I cannot remember him at all. My apologies.”
“Yes, I thought so.”

Seok Sung spat something out.
It was his own molar.
A string tied to the molar was connected down into Seok Sung’s throat.
Seok Sung yanked the molar he had spat out.
That string continued all the way into Seok Sung’s stomach.
A pouch contained in his stomach.
Wrapped in snakeskin that would not dissolve even in stomach acid, the opening of the pouch containing one pound of the Guihon Jade he had gathered came loose.

“You are doing something interesting.”

In truth, even Seok Sung’s plan was crude.
Ahim could already have cut off Seok Sung’s head long ago, and he could have split Seok Sung’s belly open in the blink of an eye.
But he did nothing and watched Seok Sung.

“So that is why you didn’t eat. Do you know that your neck is still attached to your body because of my mercy?”
“It is not mercy, but your worthless leisure. A breed full of inferiority like you tries to enjoy that sense of superiority whenever they feel they stand even a little above others…”
“……”

Seok Sung consumed an enormous amount of Guihon Jade all at once.
His eyes gradually grew redder.
Before long, his eyes shone brightly like the sun.
That intense light surpassed Ahim’s.

“So, now.”

Seok Sung’s voice rang out like thunder.

“Die!”

A majestic Word Command.
At that voice, Ahim slowly raised his hand…
And lifted up his upper garment.
On the exposed abdomen.

“The Guihon Jade you just consumed is probably not even half of what I have eaten until now.”
“…!”

Seok Sung was shocked not because of Ahim’s words, but because of the state of his abdomen.
On Ahim’s belly was a mouth that looked like a beast’s.
The densely packed fangs were the very image of a yokai.
From between the tightly packed teeth, a tongue shot out like a spear.

Puuk!

That tongue pierced through Seok Sung’s abdomen.

“When I swore to uphold the Demon King’s will and become a new Guihon, that one made my body half-human and half-yokai.”
“Keok, keheok!”

Blood poured from Seok Sung’s mouth like a fountain.
And the mouth on Ahim’s abdomen recovered the Guihon Jade clustered inside Seok Sung’s stomach.
Then it began to crunch and swallow it.

“Now, it is done.”

Ahim smiled in satisfaction.

Wadeudeuk, kkajak, kkadeudeuk.

Before Seok Sung’s corpse, he digested the Guihon Jade Seok Sung had left behind and made it his own.

“It is finally done.”

At last, Ahim had gathered all the ingredients for transcendence.
A red light began to faintly pour from his entire body.

Just as he was finally about to cast off his human body, he whipped his head around.
He sensed a presence outside.

“…Pursuers?”

That was a good thing. Once he became a yokai, he would need food to fill his hunger.
And if, by chance, Cheongho was among them…

Ahim smiled.