Chapter 132

BANG!

Heuk Am kicked the door open and came out.

The inside of the Redwood Tower was quiet.

The Redwood Tower was usually on the quiet side. This was because its master, Yul Mok-a, did not particularly like commotion. But the suffocating silence that now permeated the Redwood Tower could not be described as merely quiet.

Not a trace of warmth, not even the faintest breath could be felt, and only a chilling, cold air made the hair on Heuk Am’s skin stand on end.

Heuk Am stared down the corridor where nothing was visible. But no matter how hard he strained his eyes, he still couldn’t see anything.

An ominous premonition assailed him.

After a moment’s hesitation, Heuk Am cautiously opened the door to the next room.

It was the room where one of the Redwood Tower’s Martial Artists resided.

“Kuh!”

The moment he opened the door and checked inside, a suppressed groan escaped Heuk Am’s lips.

A Martial Artist of great stature stood tall, glaring at him.

He looked as if he were facing a mortal enemy.

“Ah, my apologies…”

Heuk Am, who was about to apologize inadvertently, clamped his mouth shut.

He could not feel any sign of life from the Martial Artist.

“Could it be?”

Heuk Am cautiously approached the Martial Artist. Still, the Martial Artist did not move.

“Ah!”

Finally arriving in front of the Martial Artist, Heuk Am unknowingly let out the breath he had been holding.

As he had guessed, the Martial Artist was already dead.

It was just that his standing posture and glaring expression were so vivid that he appeared to be alive.

The dead Martial Artist was a renowned Expert in the Redwood Tower. Yet, despite such an Expert dying in the room right next door, Heuk Am had not sensed a thing.

A chill ran through him, as if he had caught the flu.

Heuk Am examined the Martial Artist’s body with eyes full of terror. But he could not find any wounds.

The fact that a Martial Artist of immense power had died, and he couldn’t tell how, made Heuk Am shudder.

“It’s him. He has infiltrated this place.”

Heuk Am rushed out of the room.

After a brief look around, Heuk Am dashed into another room.

The owner of the room was a man who looked like an ordinary scholar.

He was dead in the same position he had been in while reading a book at his desk. He, too, had no visible injuries.

“Ugh!”

Heuk Am let out an involuntary groan.

It was hard to bear the terror welling up from the depths of his chest.

He had lived his entire life as a being who instilled fear in others.

His Evil arts, a combination of the Soul-Seizing Eye, Gu Poison, and Dream Soul Powder, were a source of terror even in the Small Thunder Sound Temple. Some belittled his Martial Arts as nothing special, but in truth, his Martial Arts were considered excellent even within the Small Thunder Sound Temple.

Everyone feared Heuk Am. And Heuk Am enjoyed the gazes filled with people’s fear.

He had overcome the inferiority complex caused by his hideous appearance by feeding on people’s fear.

And now, he was feeling fear towards another.

The hair on his back stood on end, and his shoulders trembled with fine spasms.

His stomach cried out in extreme pain, as if he were about to vomit at any moment.

Heuk Am kicked the door open and went outside.

“Uweck!”

Crouching in a corner of the hallway, he threw up all the food in his stomach.

Only after he had vomited up even the yellow bile did he get to his feet.

Heuk Am threw open every door in the Redwood Tower.

“Everyone… is dead. Not a single person left…”

Heuk Am muttered blankly.

Just yesterday, when he had entered, countless people had been moving about the Redwood Tower, full of life.

Some were practicing their Martial Arts, while others went about their daily lives. Among them were those who had looked at Heuk Am with disdain. There had certainly been such a variety of people, but now, all of them had turned into cold corpses.

“How?”

Although he had been in a deep sleep, Heuk Am was also an Expert with heightened senses. The fact that he hadn’t noticed until so many people had died maximized his terror.

With a trembling hand, Heuk Am opened the door to Yul Mok-a’s room at the top of the tower.

“…”

Heuk Am’s eyes widened.

Yul Mok-a was sitting in a grand armchair.

The ornate accessories she wore on her body as a substitute for a weapon were gone. The accessories found on Heuk Am’s bed were clearly the ones Yul Mok-a had been wearing.

Even as Heuk Am approached, Yul Mok-a showed no reaction.

Like the others, she was already dead.

Her wide-open eyes and clenched teeth made her look so vivid, as if she would spring from her seat at any moment.

Heuk Am glimpsed extreme terror in Yul Mok-a’s expression.

He didn’t know what had happened before she died, but it was clear that Yul Mok-a had felt a dreadful fear.

“Pyo… Wol!”

He already knew who the culprit was.

Because Pyo Wol was the only one who had persistently tracked and tormented him all the way from Chengdu.

Pyo Wol was a cruel hunter.

He had slowly tightened the noose around Heuk Am’s neck.

He never rushed, nor did he ever show himself. In fact, he had never once seen Pyo Wol’s face until now.

Like a ghost, Pyo Wol had hidden his form and tightened the noose on Heuk Am.

Even the Redwood Tower, which Heuk Am had trusted, could not stop Pyo Wol.

With the Redwood Tower fallen, there was no place nearby that could protect Heuk Am.

Only one place remained.

‘The only way for me to survive this demon is to go to the Small Thunder Sound Temple.’

Heuk Am did not want to die.

He had toyed with and killed countless people, but he did not want to meet a futile end like the Martial Artists in the Redwood Tower.

He wanted to be remembered as a being of terror to the very end, not forgotten as someone who lost his life in vain at the hands of an Assassin.

Heuk Am scrambled out of Yul Mok-a’s room.

The short time it took to get from the seventh floor to the first felt like an eternity.

He felt as if a blade would fly out from behind him at any moment and slit his throat.

In extreme terror, Heuk Am couldn’t even breathe properly as he tumbled down to the first floor.

BANG!

He threw his body, broke through the first-floor door of the Redwood Tower, and came out.

As he stepped out of the tower, a dazzling sunlight poured down like a waterfall, stinging his eyes.

“Heok! Heok!”

Without even thinking of opening his eyes, Heuk Am fell to the ground and gasped for breath.

It was then.

Swish!

A faint sound of something cutting through the air rang out, and Heuk Am felt a fiery pain in his forearm.

A Flying Dagger, flown from somewhere, had grazed his forearm and embedded itself in the ground.

His forearm was split open in a long gash, and blood flowed freely.

It was Pyo Wol’s doing.

“Keuk!”

Heuk Am gritted his teeth and got up.

Pyo Wol no longer permitted him to rest.

He was pressuring him to keep moving if he didn’t want to die.

It was a situation he had grown all too accustomed to, but that didn’t mean his fear had dulled.

If he didn’t want to get hurt further, he had to move.

Heuk Am staggered and began to walk.

Pyo Wol watched Heuk Am’s back with emotionless eyes.

He felt no pity for Heuk Am, whose shoulders were slumped.

He had driven a human being to an extreme situation, but the reason he felt no guilt was not simply because he had lost his humanity.

Pyo Wol knew well how foolish it was to let an emotion like compassion interfere in a fight for survival.

It was a battle of life and death.

He had to use every means at his disposal.

Pressuring him psychologically so he couldn’t think of anything else was also an effective method.

To push Heuk Am to his limit, Pyo Wol had killed every single Martial Artist in the Redwood Tower.

The Redwood Tower, which had split off from the Small Thunder Sound Temple, was by no means a pushover. They used the isolated environment of the tower as a shield. Their confidence that no one would dare infiltrate the tower became their poison.

It was difficult to infiltrate, but once inside, the closed environment made it impossible to find an escape route.

They trusted the tower, but the tower could not prevent Pyo Wol’s intrusion.

Pyo Wol had secretly slipped into the Redwood Tower at night while they were all asleep, and hunted them down one by one.

No one noticed Pyo Wol’s infiltration.

Pyo Wol was a Reaper.

He had fairly delivered the punishment of death to the Experts of the Redwood Tower.

Even the master of the Redwood Tower, Yul Mok-a, could not escape his punishment.

Still, she was better off than the other Martial Artists.

Because at least she saw Pyo Wol’s face before she died. But that didn’t mean she had put up a proper fight.

The tower was a closed, yet safe space.

There was no reason to feel her life was threatened, nor was her authority ever challenged.

She practiced her Martial Arts every day, but there was no desperation. It was merely Training to maintain her current physical condition and level.

As a result, her belly grew fat, and her senses dulled.

That was the biggest reason why Yul Mok-a was killed without being able to put up much of a fight.

Perhaps it was because Pyo Wol’s Killing Method had developed that much, but the reason didn’t matter.

What mattered was that everyone who had been protecting Heuk Am was gone.

Heuk Am’s movements, which had been erratic as he changed his route here and there to shake off Pyo Wol and find allies, had now become simple.

Now, he no longer deviated, moving only in a straight line.

That meant only one thing.

‘He’s heading to the Small Thunder Sound Temple.’

When a person is cornered with no way out, there is only one thing they do.

They desperately move towards the place they believe is the safest.

For Heuk Am, the safest place was the Small Thunder Sound Temple.

The Small Thunder Sound Temple was his everything.

Hyeolbul was there, as were the Blood Thunder Ten Monks and countless other warrior monks. There were those who, like Heuk Am, only researched strange Great Methods, and others who wielded poisons that ordinary people could not even imagine. Above all, the results of Heuk Am’s research to date were in the Small Thunder Sound Temple.

He believed that by using those results, he could surely kill Pyo Wol.

Pyo Wol couldn’t know Heuk Am’s thoughts, but he could sense that he had something to believe in.

After rescuing Won Gayoung, Pyo Wol no longer left any signs.

There was no need for Jin Geum-woo.

He thought that since Jin Geum-woo had rescued Won Gayoung, he would naturally have returned to Chengdu.

No matter how strong a person’s sense of righteousness, once they escape their own difficulties, they tend to no longer care about the affairs of others.

Knowing this trait of people well, Pyo Wol thought that Jin Geum-woo would not be an exception to this rule. That was why he had completely stopped thinking about him and left no more signs.

Pyo Wol unfolded his synchronization and matched his Footwork with Heuk Am’s.

If Heuk Am walked fast, he walked just as fast, and if Heuk Am’s pace slowed, he matched it.

Heuk Am also knew that Pyo Wol was following him. But knowing he couldn’t shake him off, he had given up and was just walking forward.

It was a very bizarre sight.

Heuk Am had never seen Pyo Wol’s true form, let alone his face, but people like the shepherd they met on the plains had seen Pyo Wol’s appearance clearly.

Heuk Am was walking with difficulty, panting heavily, and Pyo Wol was following behind him like a ghost.

The distance between Heuk Am and Pyo Wol was only about ten steps.

Yet, Heuk Am had never once seen Pyo Wol’s face.

He just shuddered under Pyo Wol’s pressure and moved his feet with difficulty.

Heuk Am’s eyes were hazy.

Under Pyo Wol’s relentless pressure for days on end, he had come to the verge of madness.

He was barely holding onto his sanity.

Now, only two thoughts existed in Heuk Am’s mind.

One was the Small Thunder Sound Temple, and the other was Pyo Wol.

He couldn’t think of anything else.

Pyo Wol was forcing it upon him.

And so, Heuk Am’s mind was devastated day by day.

Pyo Wol only allowed Heuk Am enough rest to barely keep breathing.

It was a form of torture.

A sophisticated torture that thoroughly destroyed the body and mind.

Without laying a hand on him, Pyo Wol was thoroughly breaking Heuk Am.

“Heok! Heok!”

At some point, a spark of life appeared in the eyes of Heuk Am, who had been only panting raggedly.

A huge forest was visible in the distance.

A vast forest shrouded in thick mist all year round. A forest of terror that ordinary people dared not enter because it was dark even in broad daylight.

People called it the Southern Wood Forest.

That was Heuk Am’s final destination.

“Finally!”

For the first time, an emotion called joy appeared on Heuk Am’s face.

His final destination existed within the Southern Wood Forest.

Small Thunder Sound Temple.

The legendary Sect that ruled Tibet.