Chapter 316

Thud!

Pyo Wol and Yul Ayeon landed on the ship’s deck at the same time.

Upon landing, Yul Ayeon immediately hid her body behind a large nearby crate.

The impact of the landing made her ankles throb.

No matter how exceptional her Light Body Art was, she couldn’t jump from a height of nearly twenty Zhang and be completely unscathed. Still, she had ridden the wind as much as possible to limit the damage to this extent; anyone else would have already broken their ankles.

“Everyone, be on high alert in all directions.”

“There might be pursuers, so report anything unusual immediately.”

Right after Yul Ayeon took cover, a group of martial artists poured out onto the deck.

They took their positions on the deck and masts, their eyes glaring.

‘If I had been even a little late, it would have been a disaster.’

Yul Ayeon let out a sigh of relief, then suddenly realized Pyo Wol was gone.

Although they had clearly jumped onto the ship at almost the same time, she couldn’t see any sign of him. Come to think of it, the only sound she had heard upon landing was her own footsteps.

Pyo Wol’s footsteps had been completely silent.

‘Did he infiltrate first?’

A chill ran down her spine.

How outstanding must his Light Body Art and Stealth Skill be for even her, who had jumped with him, to not notice his whereabouts?

If he had harbored any ill intentions while they were jumping together, she would not be alive right now.

‘Just who is he?’

She regretted not paying much attention to him, thinking of him as just a passing acquaintance.

Yul Ayeon decided she had to find out more about Pyo Wol once this was over.

It was already too late to look for Pyo Wol.

Yul Ayeon decided to move on her own and infiltrated the ship’s inner corridors.

Fortunately, apart from the deck, there were no martial artists on guard.

The martial artists on the ship didn’t think that someone else had already invaded. Then again, even she wouldn’t have imagined that an outsider could be freely roaming a ship isolated in the middle of the sea.

Yul Ayeon walked through the cabins at a very fast pace.

She hadn’t learned infiltration techniques like Pyo Wol.

While her Martial Arts were strong, she was hopeless at this kind of stealthy infiltration.

She had only one option left.

Find the Devil Soul Diagram as quickly as possible and escape to the ship where Tae Musang was waiting.

Creeak!

Just then, she heard the sound of a door opening in the deepest part of the corridor.

Yul Ayeon pressed herself flat against the wall, almost instinctively.

She held her breath, completely erasing her presence.

Soon, the door opened and a white-haired man came out. It was Jin Yugeon.

He walked straight toward where Yul Ayeon was.

In that moment, Yul Ayeon’s heart pounded as if it would burst.

‘What do I do?’

For now, the darkness concealed her, but if he came any closer, she would surely be discovered.

In a flash, countless thoughts raced through her mind.

It was then.

Jin Yugeon, who had been walking straight toward Yul Ayeon, turned to his left.

She had thought it was a dead end, but there was a staircase leading down.

Yul Ayeon had heard from Pyo Wol that the white-haired man had the Treasure Map.

‘I’ll follow him.’

She moved her feet, following Jin Yugeon.

The stairs leading down were even darker. And a headache-inducing stench wafted up.

It smelled like a mixture of rotting fish and excrement.

Just breathing in the air made her want to gag.

Yul Ayeon fought back the nausea and carefully descended the stairs.

The moment she reached the unknown space below the stairs, Yul Ayeon’s eyes widened in spite of herself.

‘My god!’

The underground cabin was filled with cages of all sizes. Inside the cages, whose walls were made of iron bars, countless people were trapped.

Naked, wounded, and confined in narrow cages, they looked just like beasts. Their attire and ethnicity were diverse, suggesting they had been captured from various places.

They had their eyes closed with expressions of despair, as if they had lost all hope.

‘How could this be!’

A slight tremor ran through Yul Ayeon’s shoulders.

She had never seen such a horrific sight.

It was the first time she had seen humans treating other humans like beasts, so the shock she felt was even greater. And she felt a strong hatred for Jin Yugeon and the others who had committed such an atrocious act that would anger both heaven and man.

She gritted her teeth and walked further inside.

The deeper she went, the worse the stench became, and the more miserable the condition of the trapped people was.

Many were curled up, hovering on the brink of death, and the floor was covered in the excrement they had produced.

The usual Yul Ayeon would never have come to a place like this. But now, she was so consumed by a powerful rage that she didn’t even notice her clothes getting dirty.

“Keuk!”

Just then, a pained groan came from ahead.

Yul Ayeon hid behind a nearby cage and peeked toward the source of the sound.

Where her gaze fell, Jin Yugeon was standing with his crewmen.

The crewmen’s clothes were stained with red Fresh Blood.

Yul Ayeon quickly figured out why.

In front of them was a man who had been turned into a slab of meat.

He was the man who had stolen the Treasure Map and escaped. As soon as he was caught, he was dragged here and subjected to brutal torture.

“Just… kill me…”

The man barely lifted his head and begged to be killed.

Jin Yugeon squatted down, meeting the man’s eyes.

In his hand was a small Flying Dagger.

Shhhlick!

Jin Yugeon slashed the man’s forearm with the Flying Dagger.

“Keuuugh!”

“Who told you to run away? And with the Devil Soul Diagram, no less.”

“That was…”

“Ah, I understand! You finally got a chance to escape, so you must have wanted to take something with you, right? Still, you shouldn’t have. Do you know why?”

“I, I don’t…”

Stab!

At that moment, Jin Yugeon plunged the Flying Dagger deep into the back of the man’s hand. The man, already a wreck from the torture, couldn’t even scream and just trembled violently.

“More than ten people died because of you, you know? More than ten. They went ashore unprepared to catch a piece of trash like you, and they died. Because of a human like you…”

“Keuk! I’m, I’m sorry…”

“Don’t apologize. I’m not saying this to hear your apology. Do you think hearing an apology from the likes of you will soothe my heart?”

Jin Yugeon’s eyes were already bloodshot.

The subordinates he had lost at Haemun were all his trusted men.

Having braved countless battlefields together, their bond was deeper than anyone’s.

If the man hadn’t escaped, they would never have gone to Haemun, and he would not have lost them.

It was all because of the man before him.

If he was going to escape, he should have escaped alone, but he had to cause this mess by escaping with the Devil Soul Diagram.

Jin Yugeon spoke to his subordinates.

“Open the door.”

“Yes!”

His subordinates replied and opened a small door on the hull wall. The pitch-black sea appeared.

The black sea of unknown depth maximized the man’s terror.

He was even more afraid because he knew that Gyo Fish with massive teeth were swimming in that dark sea.

“N-No!”

A look of terror dawned on the man’s face.

Jin Yugeon sneered at him.

“What, didn’t you ask me to kill you? I’ll kill you.”

“But not like this.”

“What do you mean, not like this? Whether you die by the sword or get eaten by Gyo Fish, death is all the same.”

Jin Yugeon grinned.

“Uwaaah!”

The man struggled to avoid being dragged away, but it was useless. Jin Yugeon’s subordinates easily dragged him over.

“N-No! Just kill me with a single strike.”

The man pleaded, tears streaming down his face. But he couldn’t change Jin Yugeon’s mind.

Just as Jin Yugeon’s subordinates were about to lift the man’s arms and legs and throw him into the deep sea.

“Who is this wench?”

Suddenly, a voice echoed from the opposite side. It was one of Jin Yugeon’s subordinates.

Jin Yugeon frowned and looked in the direction the voice came from.

“What is it?”

“Some wench has secretly snuck in.”

From where the subordinate pointed his sword, Yul Ayeon walked out.

A look of dismay was evident on her face.

She had been so focused on Jin Yugeon and the others that she hadn’t noticed a martial artist approaching from behind.

“Who the hell are you?”

Yul Ayeon didn’t answer Jin Yugeon’s question and instead looked at the man who was about to be thrown into the sea.

His face was so mangled from torture that it was unrecognizable, but Yul Ayeon somehow recognized his identity.

“Are you perhaps one of the Three Dharma Lords?”

“Keuuugh!”

The man couldn’t answer and squeezed his eyes shut.

His action confirmed Yul Ayeon’s suspicion.

A look of devastation appeared on Yul Ayeon’s face.

In the Mara Dharma Hall, there were three Dharma Lords under the head Dharma Lord. They were like the three legs supporting the great furnace that was the Mara Dharma Hall.

If Yul Ayeon’s maternal grandfather, Tarha, was the symbol of military might, the Dharma Lords were the source of spiritual support.

The Three Dharma Lords had mysteriously disappeared when a civil war broke out in the Western Regions a while ago. Because of that, many thought he had been caught up in the rebellion and lost his life.

But here he was, discovered on a Phantom Ship Fleet vessel in this distant land of the Central Plains.

“Was it you who made the Devil Soul Diagram disappear?”

“Keuuugh!”

The man, one of the Three Dharma Lords, couldn’t answer.

That alone was a sufficient answer for Yul Ayeon.

“Why would a noble person like you do such a thing?”

Just then, Jin Yugeon stepped forward and said.

“His nobility was only what was visible on the surface.”

“Are you saying he wasn’t?”

“If he were that kind of person, he wouldn’t have accepted our proposal and stolen the Devil Soul Diagram.”

“You proposed it? Why?”

“Why else? Because the Devil Soul Diagram is worth that much.”

Jin Yugeon gave a cold smile.

“Don’t tell me you thought you could control the Mara Dharma Hall using the Devil Soul Diagram? The Devil Soul Diagram is a treasure with symbolic meaning, not a Spiritual Talisman that grants authority.”

“Still, depending on how it’s used, it can certainly shake things up internally. That’s enough.”

“What do you mean? Why would you want to shake up the Mara Dharma Hall?”

“So that the chaos in the Western Regions can be maintained for as long as possible.”

“What?”

Yul Ayeon unknowingly wore a confused expression.

She couldn’t quite understand what Jin Yugeon was saying.

“Why the chaos in the Western Regions? Why would you people…”

As her thoughts became tangled, her words faltered.

She usually had a calm personality, but she was so confused at this moment that she couldn’t maintain her composure.

That was what Jin Yugeon wanted.

While he was buying time by talking, his subordinates had already filled the cabin.

They were holding harpoons used for fishing, straight swords used for chopping up fish, and other such items.

Their shabby attire made them look like sailors or fishermen at first glance. But the aura flowing from their bodies was incredibly calm.

The fact that they remained unshaken even in this situation showed how highly trained and elite they were.

‘Just who are these people?’

Yul Ayeon couldn’t hide her confused expression.

At that moment, one of the Three Dharma Lords shouted at the top of his lungs.

“What these people want is for the conflict in the Western Regions to continue for a long time so that it never unifies. That way, they can use the chaos to gain as much profit as possible. I, too, realized this fact too late and regretted my betrayal, Miss Yul!”

Tears stained the Three Dharma Lords’ ruined face.

He sincerely regretted his actions.

He cursed his own foolishness for being blinded by a moment of greed and smuggling out the Devil Soul Diagram.

He was ultimately paying the price, but that didn’t mean his sin would disappear.

“Miss Yul! I pray that you succeed in retrieving the Devil Soul Diagram.”

With a loud cry, the Three Dharma Lords threw himself into the sea.

As soon as he entered the cold seawater, a school of Gyo Fish swarmed him as if they had been waiting.

“Kraaaack!”

His desperate scream echoed across the sea.

His body was torn to shreds by massive teeth and disappeared into the bellies of the Gyo Fish.

At the horrific scream, Yul Ayeon briefly closed her eyes.

Jin Yugeon’s sneer reached her ears.

“You’ll end up just like him, wench!”

“No, you are the ones who will pay the price.”

Yul Ayeon opened her eyes.

Her blue eyes shone with a particular brightness in the deep darkness.

Jin Yugeon shouted.

“Subdue that wench.”