Chapter 36 - Act 5. Iron Sun Thunder Sect (6)

"Demon butcher."

"Demon Crusher."

"Could you put that head down first?"

Pi Garam, Seol Ryeong, and Hong Wonseo each offered a comment, in that order.

Yise neatly set the Dreadflesh Raptor's dripping head in front of its body, then pulled out the Twin-Banner Spirit-Domain Sealing Standard to retrieve it. Hong Wonseo's eyes lit up at the sight.

"That banner spear... Did the Hall Master make it?"

"You recognized it right away. Is it that obvious?"

"That vermilion bird design is the seal of the Heavenly Circuit Society, Vermilion Bird Hall's predecessor."

Hong Wonseo lightly tapped the round plaque at her waist.

"I received a defensive ritual implement. I suppose she didn't want me to die."

A defensive ritual implement. Among all ritual implements, those were exceptionally rare and invariably expensive. The choice spoke of Hall Master Hong Mihui's affection for her descendant.

Hong Wonseo calmly glanced at Seol Ryeong and Pi Garam. She had likely volunteered information about her supernatural treasure to encourage the other two to share theirs naturally. Asking about someone else's ritual implements was terribly rude, but it was another matter when they were companions entrusted with protecting one's back.

Pi Garam produced a small metal cylinder from his sleeve.

"This implement makes laying formations faster and more powerful. I haven't mastered many formations yet, but I'm mainly working on ones suited to defense and escape."

Looking regretful, Seol Ryeong took a small pouch from inside her robes.

"Mine is a treasure for crafting ritual implements, so it's no use in a fight. Sorry."

"Nothing to apologize for."

Yise gave a simple nod and changed the subject.

"Hong Wonseo. You handle the purification."

"Me? But I haven't really done anything."

"I'll factor it in when we divide the spoils and mission rewards. Go ahead."

"All right. Thank you, then."

Without further comment, Hong Wonseo took out her Purification Staff. She knelt before the corpse and smoothly recited the exorcism prayer's formula without hesitation. As Yise watched, other thoughts circled through his mind.

This area was Gwisu Temple's territory. Yet there were demonic practitioners from the Iron Sun Thunder Sect, Deathwind Black Tigers, and now a Dreadflesh Raptor. There were far too many Demons. Was it coincidence, or was there a reason?

After placing the Dreadflesh Raptor's corpse in the Demon-Sealing Album, Yise glanced toward the eastern ridge. Toward Gwisu Temple.

'You're all right, aren't you?'

Mongryeon was among the strongest on the continent. It was natural to worry about his master, but this was no different from a cat worrying about a tiger. Yise turned his gaze away and ordered the search to resume. With Pi Garam in the lead, the four ventured deeper into the forest.

The Deathwind Black Tigers had left obvious traces, seemingly with no intention of erasing or hiding them. No, if anything, they had left far too many.

"Seol Ryeong, what do heaven's secrets say? Still ominous?"

At Yise's question, she gazed blankly up at the sky, then looked back at her companions.

"Yes. They still point to deadly misfortune."

The ominous divination prompted Yise to halt the group briefly. Though he had little personal sense of it, Seol Ryeong was renowned among the novice disciples as a fairly gifted fortune-teller.

"The Shaman Volume doesn't mention heaven's secrets or divination. Did you learn a separate spell?"

"Huh? Oh, this... has nothing to do with my aspired specialty. It's not a spell, either. It's more like my constitution. And I've heard that most Cultivators can read simple heavenly secrets once they reach a certain realm."

"How accurate is it?"

"... Who knows? Fifty-fifty, I suppose. Either it's right or it isn't."

"You sound like an amateur shaman to me."

Seol Ryeong chuckled at Yise's teasing. But remembering what had happened with the independent Cultivator Kim Siwon... he couldn't dismiss it lightly.

"Let's slow down a little. Move carefully."

Yise adjusted the pace of their search. Seol Ryeong's words kept colliding with their present circumstances, sounding warning bells.

At last, they found traces of Yeom Bo. Although considerable time had passed since his disappearance, the strong smell of blood still lingered in places.

"There was a fight."

Pi Garam gave a brief assessment. Gouges in the dirt, claw marks on tree bark, and widely scattered bloodstains.

"Two Deathwind Black Tigers attacked him together. He tried to flee, but his retreat was cut off..."

Pi Garam advanced a few steps at a time, then stopped.

"He fell here."

"The body..."

Seol Ryeong trailed off, looking around.

While Pi Garam searched the surroundings, Hong Wonseo scattered a strange powder, revealing a trail of blood that had soaked into the earth and vanished. A short distance away, at the trail's end, Yeom Bo's body lay discarded amid tall weeds.

Or rather, part of his body. His head lay there alone. It was badly mutilated, with patches of flesh seemingly pecked away by birds.

All four stopped in their tracks. The novice disciples turned deathly pale. None of them was seeing a corpse for the first time, but the revulsion of finding a severed, mutilated, decaying piece of a fellow disciple was beyond anything they had imagined.

"I'll... examine the remains."

Despite it all, Hong Wonseo covered her nose and mouth with a cloth and began tending to the remains, determined to do her duty. Kneeling, she first inspected the area around the head, then examined the severed surface and removed a scrap of Daemudo uniform collar stuck to the nape. After slowly and thoroughly checking its condition, she carefully wrapped Yeom Bo's head in a white cloth taken from her robes.

"He was indeed killed by Deathwind Black Tigers. The bite wounds and claw marks match. There are no other traces. His head... was torn off after he died."

After a moment, she added,

"But these aren't the remains of a feeding."

"What do you mean?"

"This wasn't left over after they ate. They tore it off deliberately. The severed surface is too clean. If it had been ripped away while they were feeding, the flesh would have torn irregularly. This was pulled off with brute force in one go. They probably discarded it because it wasn't a part they would eat."

"There are no signs of feeding nearby," Pi Garam replied, surveying the area.

Seol Ryeong asked in a trembling voice, "Why take the body? If they wanted to eat it, they could have done it right here."

"There's blood, but no signs of feeding. That means they carried the whole body away."

"A reason to take the body. A reason..."

As the three pondered, Yise silently studied the traces around them. Seeing his expression, Seol Ryeong asked, "What do you think, Yise?"

"I have an idea."

He paused before speaking.

"Deathwind Black Tigers don't raise their young in the wild. They abandon their cubs at birth and move to a new habitat."

"Yes. You explained that earlier."

"What if they aren't wild?"

He had harbored that suspicion ever since learning there were two Deathwind Black Tigers. Rare though they were, demonic practitioners known as demonic beast tamers certainly existed on the continent.

All three turned their eyes to Yise.

"If the Iron Sun Thunder Sect practitioner Senior Gwak Chan is tracking is a demonic beast tamer, and he's tamed an adult Deathwind Black Tiger while raising its cubs..."

Yise pointed to where Yeom Bo's head had lain.

"Then they took his body to the cubs. For food."

A brief silence fell. Yise immediately reached a conclusion. It was only a hypothesis. But with two or more pieces of supporting evidence, a hypothesis became a probable danger.

"Seol Ryeong, send our location to the outpost by message talisman."

"Right."

"We'll abandon the rest of the remains. We've investigated enough. We'll leave the rest to Senior Gwak Chan and retreat."

Yise turned swiftly, making it clear that he would brook no objections. But at that moment, his Dokkaebi Senses screamed. An ominous sensation shot from the crown of his head down his spine.

"... Looks like we're already too late."

Yise looked northwest, toward the top of a cliff beyond a ridge some distance away. A man in dark robes stood there. His face was hidden, but the sinister energy flowing from his body was enough to identify him.

An ordinary person might not even have recognized a human figure at that distance, but Yise's spirit sight showed it clearly: a Dharma-Transformed Dantian, existing as a vessel rather than a network of channels.

A Foundation Establishment demonic practitioner.

None of them lacked talent. They all recognized that fact.

"The Dreadflesh Raptor must have been tamed, too."

His self-reproachful remark brought the situation home to everyone. The raptor that had attacked them was actually under the demonic practitioner's control. They had been in danger from the moment it spotted them.

The man atop the cliff slowly raised one hand.

CRACKLE.

Sparks of lightning leaped from his fingertips. These were no small sparks. Lightning qi gathered into a sphere above his palm, swelling and cleaving the air.

The oppressive spell power made every hair on Yise's body stand on end. If that came at them, they would die. There was no time to think.

"Run!"

The four kicked off the ground the instant Yise shouted. Taking the lead with Dokkaebi Steps, he chose the fastest route, and the other three followed. They did not slow even as branches clawed their faces and stones crumbled beneath their feet.

He could tell without looking back. The lightning qi was growing. The fact that the man had not yet fired meant he was gathering that much spell power.

'Can we escape?'

Impossible. Yise had never experienced the might of a Foundation Establishment Cultivator, but preparing a spell instead of giving chase was itself proof of the man's confidence that this single spell could hunt them down as they fled.

'Could I stop the attack by planting the Twin-Banner Spirit-Domain Sealing Standard and sealing his Demonic Energy?'

He wasn't sure. He had never tested whether sealing Demonic Energy would also nullify a spell that had already been cast. If he was unlucky, he would simply end up taking it with his body.

Even so, he had to block at least one attack. Only then would they have a chance to flee or hide. As Yise drew the Twin-Banner Spirit-Domain Sealing Standard from his back, his Dokkaebi Senses howled again.

It was coming.

Death pressed close.

Yise planted the banner spear in the ground and turned, raising his black iron shield before him. An enormous bolt of lightning flashed toward him like a calamity.

Time flowed as though it had stopped.

Lightning was supposed to strike down from the sky. Seeing it fly horizontally toward him was quite a rare experience.

CRACK!

Just as he braced to block the spell, prepared even to die, a round mass of spiritual energy enveloped all four of them. A translucent sphere. The pattern of spiritual energy flowing across its surface was familiar: the vermilion bird seal. Hong Mihui's supernatural treasure had activated.

The lightning struck the sphere.

BOOM!

With an ear-splitting blast, the lightning spread along the sphere's contours like an earthquake. The ground shook. The surrounding trees burned away or were uprooted and hurled through the air by the shock wave.

The sphere held. As expected of Vermilion Bird Hall Master Hong Mihui. A supernatural treasure wielded by a Qi Refining Cultivator had blocked a blow from a Foundation Establishment Cultivator.

Inside the cracked defensive spell, the four sat where they had fallen on their backsides, staring at one another. Hong Wonseo loosened her grip on the plaque at her waist and spoke, her face pallid and her hand trembling violently.

"... Once used, it needs a day to recharge."

At those words, Yise looked up at the cliff. Brilliant lightning sparks were forming at the demonic practitioner's fingertips once more. A second attack was being prepared.

Without waiting for anyone to move first, all four broke into a run again.