Chapter 482

“We found a trace of Honglan.”

Gung Gibang’s announcement did not agitate only me. Immediately after the battle with the Water God Dragon ended, Jeok Cheongang and Mungyeong—both of whom already knew what we had learned about Honglan’s identity—reacted as well.

“You found that goddamned bitch?”

“What happened?”

After Jeok Cheongang’s blunt question and Mungyeong’s shameless question, asked while he was still concealing his identity, I spoke grimly.

“A trace?”

The result was what mattered.

Gung Gibang had not said they had found Honglan. He had clearly said they had found a trace of Honglan, and the implication was obvious.

“You didn’t find her.”

Gung Gibang had finally caught his breath. He nodded.

“Not yet. But I’ve sent messenger pigeons to our disciples, Wudang, the Zhuge Clan, and the government troops, so soon—”

“No. You won’t find her.”

I answered firmly and continued.

“If she were that easy to catch, we would’ve picked up her trail long ago.”

The government troops were idiots with nothing but numbers on their side. The Beggars’ Sect, Wudang, and the Zhuge Clan were at least reliable, but the chances of them finding Honglan…

Slim, no matter how I looked at it.

Even setting aside my gut feeling that there was no way she would be caught this easily, if she had a Moving Formation hidden nearby, we would all be like dogs left staring at the roof after the chicken got away.

“What kind of trace did you find, and where? Tell me everything.”

“A military vessel was found at Red Cliffs.”

“Don’t tell me it was…”

“That’s right. The very vessel where Honglan was last seen. The authorities have already confirmed it.”

Two days ago, shortly after we left to find the Dongting Fisherman, the government troops had attempted to take Honglan to the Hubei provincial government.

She was the only survivor besides Ju Wongong, a member of the Huang tribe. On the surface, she was also one of the chief contributors to his rescue, alongside me. From the authorities’ perspective, taking her with them had been the obvious choice.

Though that was the last time anyone saw her.

After that, the military vessel Honglan had boarded vanished like a ghost.

So did the roughly one hundred government troops and sailors aboard it.

And now Gung Gibang had brought us news that the same vessel had been found.

“…And? What happened?”

In truth, I already knew the answer before I asked.

They’re probably all dead.

I had already heard that the people who boarded the vessel with Honglan were ordinary men with no connection to Dark Heaven.

There was no way Honglan had tossed them a few coins for their trouble, waved goodbye, and gone peacefully on her way.

The grim expression on Gung Gibang’s face only supported my guess.

Except—

“Ninety-four in total. Every one of them committed suicide by stabbing themselves in the throat.”

“What?”

That, I had not expected.

I blinked silently, then somehow managed to force out my voice.

“All those people… committed suicide together?”

“Without a doubt. They stabbed themselves in the throat with the daggers they carried as standard equipment. When the bodies were examined, they were said to have died with smiles on their faces. Of course, Honglan was nowhere to be found.”

“What the hell?”

I would not have been this shocked if Honglan had simply killed them herself.

But this was a kind of death far beyond anything I had imagined.

A mass suicide.

And they had been smiling?

For a moment, I could not speak. Then Mungyeong and Jeok Cheongang opened their mouths almost simultaneously.

“This is…”

“Yeah. It has to be the Soul-Seizing Technique. And an extremely powerful one.”

The Soul-Seizing Technique.

As the name suggested, it was one of the monstrous martial arts and supreme techniques that bewitched and controlled an opponent’s soul.

I knew what it was because it had often appeared in the wuxia¹ novels I had read, but this was the first time I had encountered it since coming to Murim.

“Wait. That actually exists?”

Jeok Cheongang stared at me as if I had said something absurd.

“Is that something the man who took down a five-hundred-year-old imugi² should be saying?”

“…Well, when you put it that way, I don’t really have a response.”

“For untold ages, the Demonic Cult has stood at the heart of the Thousand-Year Demonic Path. Dark Heaven is the successor to that very Demonic Cult. It would hardly be strange for people who use the Soul-Seizing Technique to be running wild.”

“But you said before that the Soul-Seizing Technique was nothing special.”

“That’s only true against this old man. The reason that wretched witch Honglan didn’t use it on you from the beginning is likely much the same.”

“Because I’m a Supreme Peak master?”

“To break through the wall means that one’s body and mind have reached a supreme realm. And how much more resistant would you be, with your Middle Dantian awakened?”

Jeok Cheongang paused, then suddenly frowned and added,

“No. Perhaps what that bitch wanted was for you to fight the imugi.²”

“Either way, what matters is that the culprit is a master of the Soul-Seizing Technique and has vanished like a ghost.”

Mungyeong quietly joined the conversation, but Gung Gibang shook his head.

“There’s one more thing.”

“…What?”

“The investigation found that there were ninety-six people aboard the military vessel in total. Even excluding Honglan, that leaves one person.”

“Wait. Then…”

“There’s one survivor. The officer who commanded the military vessel, attached to the Hubei provincial government.”

“……!”

A survivor?

Everyone, myself included, stared wide-eyed at Gung Gibang. He swallowed hard before continuing.

“He’s on his way here now.”

A brief silence followed.

Then Jeok Cheongang spoke, his expression stiff.

“By the way, is speaking informally to this old man a trend among young people these days?”

“…I-I wasn’t speaking to you, Great Hero Jeok.”

“You won’t come to your senses until you’ve been beaten like a dog on slaughter day.³ Get down.”

“His name is Song Ho. He is the son of a prominent merchant family in Hubei Province, and thanks to his father’s efforts, he was summoned by the City Lord of Hubei Province. Two days ago, the City Lord dispatched him with orders to bring in the culprit.”

The middle-aged man, whose looks must have broken plenty of women’s hearts in his youth, continued anxiously.

“He was a womanizer and had been involved in several scandals, but he showed talent in both literary and martial pursuits from a young age. The City Lord kept him close not merely because of his father’s influence, but because he was sharp and dependable when it came to getting things done.”

I didn’t know what he had been like before, but he certainly didn’t seem that way now.

I half listened to the middle-aged man—the Hubei Branch Leader of the Lower District Sect—and studied the young officer sitting before us, bound with rope.

His skin was dry and rough. His eyes were unfocused, as though he had been possessed by a ghost, and clear saliva dripped from the corner of his open mouth.

Drip. Drip.

Jeok Cheongang watched the young officer drool vacantly and furrowed his brow.

“He’s been completely ensnared by the Soul-Seizing Technique. He’s already lost his mind.”

I agreed with Jeok Cheongang completely.

There was no trace of reason left in the young man before us. Instead of a promising military officer, a doll with its soul pulled out was sitting there.

“How is his condi—how is he?”

At my hurried correction, Mungyeong slowly shook his head.

“It’s hopeless. I cannot say what prolonged observation might reveal, but for now, there does not appear to be even the slightest chance of recovery.”

“If there’s no hope, how bad is he?”

“To lose one’s soul is no different from dying. In this state, he will be unable to speak or act on his own.”

His condition was far worse than I had expected.

Jin Wikyung, who had hurried over after hearing that the sole survivor had been escorted here, spoke up.

“Would another renowned physician have a different opinion?”

“No matter who examines him, they will reach the same conclusion. If their opinion differs from mine, they are probably a quack.”

“Good heavens. Even if the Divine Physician examined him?”

“…Yes.”

Hyung.⁴ That’s the guy.

I swallowed the words rising in my throat. The Hubei Branch Leader of the Lower District Sect—who had briefly been treated as an agent of Dark Heaven after mistaking Honglan’s identity—bowed repeatedly and withdrew.

Then, just as the room fell silent—

“Ah… uh… oh.”

“……!”

A cold chill raced up my spine.

Everyone around me, myself included, stared at the young officer with our eyes wide open.

His eyes remained hazy and unfocused. In contrast, his slack mouth began to twitch, and a voice slowly seeped out.

“Uh… ah.”

“…That’s impossible.”

Mungyeong muttered in disbelief.

He had cared for and treated countless patients. With medical skill worthy of the title Divine Physician and the martial prowess of a Supreme Peak master, Mungyeong’s confident diagnoses were practically absolute laws.

Or at least they had been until a few seconds ago.

“What is this?”

Mungyeong rarely raised his voice, but now he did as he swiftly took the officer’s pulse.

His expression grew as complex and subtle as it had been when he looked at the Water God Dragon.

“His condition is completely unchanged. Then why?”

And in the next moment, everyone present heard the voice that flowed from between the officer’s lips.

“Nothing is absolute, and nothing remains unchanged forever. You’d think you would have learned that by now. Don’t you agree?”

“……!”

It was unmistakably a man’s voice—the officer’s own.

But Gung Gibang and I both recognized the echo of someone else within it. Our eyes met, and we shouted the same name at the same time.

“Honglan!”

It felt as though a bolt of lightning had pierced the crown of my head.

If Hyuk Mujin and Cheongpung had been here, they would have reacted the same way.

I looked at the young officer—or rather, at Honglan, confronting me from some distant place through the officer’s body—with a sunken gaze and spoke.

“Where are you, you fucking bitch?”

“Oh my. Our young master has a rougher mouth than I expected. Men who swear at women aren’t very popular, you know.”

“Fuck off. I’ve never been popular anyway.”

“I didn’t expect that answer. You really are a masterpiece.”

“Cut the bullshit and tell me where you are. I’ll leave you in tatters.”

“You’re cuter than I’d heard. And funny, too.”

Her familiar, clear laughter slipped out through the officer’s lips.

The corners of his mouth remained the same, yet her voice continued to flow from it. The sight was enough to raise goose bumps.

Even then, I did not miss one important phrase.

“…Than you’d heard?”

“You already know, don’t you? We have many eyes and ears. Blood Lord did most of the talking.”

“Dark Heaven. Yeah, I figured.”

Even a 99.9 percent possibility was still only a guess without that final 0.1 percent.

Honglan had revealed her identity without the slightest hesitation. She continued brightly.

“I was surprised. You’ve become much stronger than Blood Lord said you were. Then again, if that were still all you amounted to, the Western Heaven Demon Lord would have killed you before the imugi² got the chance.”

Why was this happening?

My anger showed no sign of fading, yet my mind and voice were growing calmer instead.

Unlike before, I asked in a remarkably composed voice,

“Who are you?”

It was a genuine question.

Even as I asked, I did not expect her to answer willingly.

But Honglan shattered my expectations with a single word.

“The Southern Heaven Demon Empress.”

“The Southern… Heaven Demon Empress?”

These fucking bastards are really screwing around in every direction—east, west, south, and north.