Chapter 419

“What happened?”

Yong Seol Lan blinked her large eyes.

A look of bewilderment was plain on her face.

Pyo Wol, too, could not hide his perplexed expression at the unexpected sight.

Traces of destruction, comparable to a great earthquake, greeted them. If a real earthquake had occurred, the Stone Chamber they were in would have completely collapsed.

Pyo Wol carefully examined the overturned earth.

As a result, he was able to quickly figure out what had happened here.

“Two absolute Experts clashed here.”

“Absolute Experts?”

“One must be the Ghost King. And the other one is…”

He would know if he saw them with his own eyes.

It was then.

Kwa-kwang!

An explosion erupted from the other side of the ruins.

Startled animals bolted, and birds soared high into the sky.

Through the scattering dust, two figures could be seen.

They broke through the dust and clashed high in the sky.

“Hee-at!”

“Chat!”

The ones clashing with monstrous cries were none other than the Ghost King and the Life-Death Guest, Gyeong Musaeng.

“He followed us all the way here?”

“Who is that man?”

“The Life-Death Guest!”

“The Life-Death Guest, Gyeong Musaeng? You mean one of the Eight Constellations?”

“Yes!”

“My goodness!”

Yong Seol Lan covered her mouth with both hands.

The Eight Constellations were the greatest Experts in Jianghu.

Although they didn’t belong to huge Sects like the Two Powerhouses, the Three Clans, or the Three Hegemons, they enjoyed a reputation that rivaled them through their individual strength alone.

Among them, the Ghost King and the Life-Death Guest were very special beings.

This was because they were absolute Experts positioned at the very top of the eight stars in the sky.

“Why are they fighting?”

For Yong Seol Lan, who did not know the story between the Ghost King and Gyeong Musaeng, it was a natural question.

Pyo Wol did not answer and watched the two fight.

‘Did Gyeong Musaeng follow us all the way here?’

Pyo Wol and the Ghost King had moved in secret.

They hadn’t done anything to attract the attention of others, nor had they caused any particular trouble.

Despite giving no reason for Pursuit, the fact that Gyeong Musaeng had found this exact place was surely because of the Soul Binding Technique.

‘If he is indeed a descendant of Gyeong Chu-wol, he must be related to the Heavenly Martial Fortress.’

The problem was the relationship between the Heavenly Martial Fortress and the Nine Dragons Assassination Guild.

If the two organizations were related or in a cooperative relationship, the problem would become serious.

He wanted to subdue Gyeong Musaeng himself and find out the circumstances, but he couldn’t.

It was Gyeong Musaeng who had created the current Ghost King.

It was the way of the world for the one who tied the knot to be the one to untie it.

He had to leave everything to the Ghost King.

Kwa-aaang!

The clash between the two grew more intense.

The Ghost King launched a tyrannical offensive based on his immense Internal Energy, while Gyeong Musaeng unleashed a mystic art never seen or heard of before.

“Darkness Engulfs All Under Heaven!”

With his incantation, the heavens and earth turned pitch black.

Darkness had covered the world.

Within it, the Ghost King chanted a Three-character mantra.

“Heaven! Thunder! Annihilate!”

Kwa-reung!

In that instant, a bolt of Thunder and Lightning struck down toward the Ghost King.

The pure white Thunder and Lightning hit the Ghost King directly. But the Ghost King, who was struck by the bolt, was unharmed.

He had deployed his Protective Gang Qi just before being struck.

The Thunder and Lightning, flowing along the Protective Gang Qi, struck the ground.

Kwa-aaang!

A huge pit was gouged where the Thunder and Lightning struck.

The pit was charred black and emitting white smoke.

It was only because he was the Ghost King that he could change the direction of the Thunder and Lightning with his Protective Gang Qi; if anyone else had been hit squarely by such a bolt, they would have been roasted in an instant.

“My goodness!”

At the sight of their battle, which far surpassed imagination, Yong Seol Lan was completely mesmerized.

Neither Gyeong Musaeng, who continuously called down lightning, nor the Ghost King, who endured by deflecting such attacks as if they were nothing, seemed human.

She glanced to her side.

Pyo Wol was watching the two fight with his lips tightly sealed.

‘Could this man fight on equal terms with them?’

If so, that too would be an incredible feat.

Those two had already dominated an era and were well advanced in age. But Pyo Wol was still young and full of vigor.

If Pyo Wol possessed the same level of Martial prowess as them, he might be able to overwhelm them with his youth.

Pyo Wol was a man whose inner thoughts were impossible to read.

Even now, she couldn’t tell what he was thinking as he watched the two fight.

Even in that moment, their battle was growing more intense.

The Ghost King performed the Lightness Art of Eogichungso to soar higher into the air.

“Do you think you can escape my grasp? Ghost King!”

Gyeong Musaeng shouted and stirred up the wind.

He rode the wind and pursued the Ghost King.

At that moment, the Ghost King changed direction high in the sky and plummeted straight down toward Gyeong Musaeng.

Koo-ooo!

It was as if a meteor was falling.

If he collided with the Ghost King like this, no matter how sublime Gyeong Musaeng’s mystic art was, he would inevitably suffer a great blow.

Gyeong Musaeng gritted his teeth and shouted.

“Revolve! Sever! Wind!!”

In an instant, he swirled and bent the wind, changing its direction.

As a result, he was able to avoid the Ghost King’s attack by a hair’s breadth. But in return, he had to expend a vast amount of mystic power.

What he called mystic power was a combination of Internal Power and mental strength.

Just as the human mind has its limits, mystic power is not infinite.

The creature he had created, the Ghost King, possessed truly formidable skill.

It was only natural.

That was how much of a vast amount of resources had been consumed to create him.

Even he did not know the Ghost King’s identity.

The place where he had found the Ghost King was right here in these ruins.

Inside the ruins, he had found a body that had not been dead for long. But surprisingly, the body was breathing.

It wasn’t truly dead, but had sustained wounds so deep that its breath could have stopped at any moment, yet it was still breathing.

It was a truly tenacious life force.

In that moment, Gyeong Musaeng had a good idea.

It was to apply the secret art he had found in the residence of his ancestor, Gyeong Chu-wol, to the man.

It was no coincidence that he had found Gyeong Chu-wol’s residence.

Gyeong Chu-wol had continued to research mystic arts even after moving to the Divine Demon Association. But he was ultimately unable to complete his research.

It was because of an eccentric who came to visit him one day.

He was a master of mystic art who surpassed Gyeong Chu-wol.

His name was Gi Jin-hwi.

He was a mystic artist who belonged to the Radiant Martial Gate.

Their ill-fated relationship was very old.

The foundation of the mystic art Gyeong Chu-wol had learned was from the Gi Clan. He had made an Escape with a book containing the Secret Transmission of the Gi Clan, and Gi Jin-hwi had dedicated his life to catching him.

Gyeong Chu-wol, fleeing from Gi Jin-hwi, went through the Divine Demon Association and entered the Heavenly Martial Fortress. But in the end, Gi Jin-hwi found Gyeong Chu-wol. And he recovered the Secret Transmission that Gyeong Chu-wol had stolen from the Gi Clan.

But Gyeong Chu-wol’s line was not broken. He had left a descendant.

That was Gyeong Musaeng.

Gyeong Musaeng, following in his father’s footsteps, entrusted himself to the Heavenly Martial Fortress. Then, searching for his father’s origins, he came here, found the Stone Chamber where he had researched, and collected the mystic arts.

He had no idea that the Demonic Physician Gwak No-saeng would later discover Gyeong Chu-wol’s Stone Chamber.

He thought that someone who didn’t know mystic arts would gain almost nothing from looking at the murals inside the Stone Chamber. That was why he had left the murals inside the Stone Chamber as they were. But Gwak No-saeng combined the enlightenment he gained from the murals with his medical skills and created the living Jiangshi.

Thus, the legacy left by Gyeong Chu-wol had a great influence on two people.

Once he made up his mind, Gyeong Musaeng immediately began his work.

All the Spirit Medicine in Gyeong Chu-wol’s Stone Chamber was administered to the Ghost King. And Gyeong Musaeng applied the mystic art left by Gyeong Chu-wol.

The work took a full year.

Gyeong Musaeng poured his very soul into performing the mystic art, and in the end, he was able to complete the Ghost King.

The Ghost King opened his eyes.

He had returned from the threshold of death.

Gyeong Musaeng let out a wild laugh to the heavens at the masterpiece he had created.

He thought he could now wield the Weapon called the Ghost King as he pleased. But contrary to his thoughts, the Ghost King was not completely subjugated.

He had free will remaining. So he refused to be subjugated by Gyeong Musaeng.

Only then did Gyeong Musaeng realize that Gyeong Chu-wol’s mystic art was not perfect.

Perhaps it was only natural.

A mystic art related to life could not be completed so easily. That was why Gyeong Chu-wol himself had not been able to experiment directly and had only left it as a theory. It was only natural that side effects would occur when he rashly performed such a mystic art.

The only problem was that the side effect was disobedience with free will.

Gyeong Musaeng tried to subdue and force the Ghost King to obey, and the Ghost King spent his life avoiding him.

The Ghost King was curious about his own history.

About what kind of being he was before he became the Ghost King.

But neither of them had achieved their goal, and things had flowed on until now.

Gyeong Musaeng knew that the Ghost King would eventually return here.

Just as a salmon returns to the place it was born, he thought the Ghost King would eventually come here in search of his origins. Moreover, the Ghost King had an excellent guide named Pyo Wol with him.

So he arrived here before Pyo Wol and the Ghost King and waited for them.

Gyeong Musaeng shouted.

“Meekly become my tool, Ghost King!”

“I am not a tool. I am a human. A human, I say.”

“You are a creature I made, nothing more, nothing less.”

“Leave me alone!”

The Ghost King’s roar swept through the ruins.

The Ghost King was enraged.

He unleashed his hostility toward Gyeong Musaeng, who persistently pursued and tried to compel him.

‘What on earth am I? Am I human too?’

It was a question about his origins that he always harbored.

No one could give him an answer to his question.

The Ghost King was enraged.

He unleashed all his anger toward Gyeong Musaeng, who had made him this way.

“Kra-aaaah!”

His roar echoed thunderously through the heavens and earth.

The undergrowth of the Wulin shook violently as if swept by a storm.

The Ghost King exploded with everything he had.

His form, shrouded in black Ghostly Aura, was terrifying enough to make one’s flesh crawl. But Gyeong Musaeng, who was facing him, was no ordinary person either.

Armed with all sorts of mystic arts, he was the Ghost King’s natural enemy.

“Thunder! Wind! Capture! Fall!!”

He chanted a four-character mantra.

Only one character had been added. But the burden on him increased tenfold.

It was a drawback of mystic arts that used incantations.

Dark red blood flowed from Gyeong Musaeng’s lips.

He had suffered a severe internal injury as the price for performing the four-character mantra.

Wind was added to the Thunder and Lightning.

The wind bound the Ghost King, and the Thunder and Lightning fell.

“Kra-aah!”

The Ghost King let out a scream.

Even with his Protective Gang Qi, he couldn’t completely deflect the power of the Thunder and Lightning.

It felt as if every nerve and muscle in his body was burning.

Even a great Expert would have been instantly paralyzed and their heart would have stopped. Yet the Ghost King moved.

He could see Gyeong Musaeng.

The one who made him.

The one who called himself his master.

Everything started with him.

That was why he endured the pain and launched an all-out attack on him.

To end all of this.

“Hee-aaaah!”

The Ghost King spewed out everything he had.

Kwa-aaaang!

The Ghost King and Gyeong Musaeng collided. And a blinding light swallowed the area.

“Huk!”

Yong Seol Lan hurriedly closed her eyes.

Immediately after, a tremendous storm struck her.

“Aack!”

Yong Seol Lan screamed and flew backward.

Her body only stopped after flying nearly twenty zhang and hitting a large tree.

Yong Seol Lan carefully opened her eyes.

In her eyes, she saw a destroyed world.

Everything was broken.

The Wulin that had existed for thousands of years, and the ruins that had been precariously maintained.

They were shattered without a trace.

The only one standing tall amidst it all was Pyo Wol.