Chapter 413

In its heyday, the Divine Demon Association was composed of one Hall, two Palaces, three Courts, four Pavilions, and five Lodges.

There were fifteen known organizations, but including the secretly hidden ones, dozens of factions were united under the name of the Divine Demon Association.

It was not at all strange for each organization to create secret spaces or operate clandestine plans.

The Divine Demon Association was annihilated long ago, and their base turned to ruins. But in various places, the secret spaces they had used still remained.

The place where Jang Sachun and his Subordinates were now was one such place.

Jang Sachun looked at a sign plaque sprawled on the floor and muttered.

“Blood Heaven Hall…”

The place they were in was the basement of the Blood Heaven Hall, one of the three Courts.

Jang Sachun did not know much about what kind of place the Blood Heaven Hall was.

The past or the structure of a faction that had already been destroyed was not his concern. If he hadn’t received the order, he would never have entered the basement of some ruins in this distant place.

After looking around for a moment, Jang Sachun knocked on one of the basement walls.

He knocked twice long and three times short, and an entire section of the wall moved.

Srrreung!

With a heavy sound, the wall receded, revealing a pitch-black space. Another secret space was hidden within the underground area.

Jang Sachun frowned at the foul smell wafting out from inside.

He had been here several times already, but he could not get used to the stench flowing from within.

Just then, a gruff voice came from inside.

“If you’re here, what are you doing not coming in?”

“Yes! We’re coming in. Dammit!”

Jang Sachun replied and gestured to his Subordinates with his eyes. They then entered the secret space, carrying their loads.

Once Jang Sachun entered, the wall closed again.

A little deeper into the underground space, a faint light illuminated the darkness. Luminous pearls were embedded in the ceiling.

Thanks to the precious luminous pearls, there was no need to take time to adjust to the darkness.

As they went further inside, a spacious area appeared before their eyes.

Inside, dozens of stone beds were lined up in a row. Unconscious people lay on each bed, and a single old man was moving among them.

The old man didn’t even glance at Jang Sachun’s party and instead examined the condition of the person lying on the bed.

The body of the person on the bed was densely pierced with hundreds of Silver Needles, like a hedgehog.

Jang Sachun and his Subordinates held their breath and watched the old man.

They knew from their experience of coming here a few times.

Just how sensitive the old man was at this moment.

And the fact that if they got on his bad side, they would be subjected to a torrent of curses.

If anyone else had spouted such nonsense, they would have been butchered on the spot, but unfortunately, they couldn’t do that to the old man.

If they showed even a hint of displeasure, they would end up like the people lying on the stone beds now.

The old man had that much ability.

Demonic Physician Gwak No-saeng.

That was the old man’s name.

Though unknown to the world, anyone who knew even a little about Gwak No-saeng feared him.

Because if you got caught by Gwak No-saeng, you would end up in a state of neither living nor dead.

Just like the people lying on the beds now.

The people lying on the beds were still breathing. But if asked if they were truly alive, could one answer? Jang Sachun thought not.

‘They are merely breathing, not living.’

They weren’t just unconscious.

Gwak No-saeng had used some sort of trick to separate their consciousness from their bodies. Their minds were wide awake, but their bodies were asleep.

Lying there with their eyes closed, they could hear and discern all the sounds from the outside.

‘It’s like he’s imprisoned their minds in the prison of their bodies.’

It was an act of evil that truly transcended imagination.

Jang Sachun had also committed evil deeds his whole life, but compared to Gwak No-saeng, he was at a child’s level.

It was then.

“What are you doing? If you’re here, why haven’t you put down the luggage?”

Gwak No-saeng raised his head and looked at Jang Sachun.

The old man’s face was covered in spots, so-called netherworld spots. His eyes were cloudy and unfocused, and most of his teeth had fallen out, leaving only a few. It made him look even more bizarre.

Jang Sachun greeted Gwak No-saeng with a Fist-Palm Salute.

“Have you been well?”

“Cut the crap and put the goods down. You brought everything I told you to, right?”

“Yes! I checked three times.”

“If even one thing is missing, you know you’ll be the one on this stone bed, right?”

“That will absolutely not happen.”

Jang Sachun replied and gestured to his Subordinates. They hurriedly put down the luggage they were carrying.

Gwak No-saeng rummaged through the luggage and asked.

“You brought the Fire Heart Grass, right? That’s the most important thing.”

“Yes! We scraped together every last bit, so you don’t have to worry.”

“Hmph! I’ll have to check with my own eyes.”

Gwak No-saeng snorted and opened the bundle containing the Fire Heart Grass. The bundle was filled with red flowers.

A nauseating scent flowed from the flowers, which were made of seven red petals.

“This is it! You brought good quality ones.”

“I paid special attention.”

“The other items are correct too, right?”

“Of course. I checked them with my own eyes.”

“Good! You’re quite good at your job, at least. Even if you mess up, I won’t turn you into a living jiangshi.”

“Thank you, Demonic Physician Elder.”

Jang Sachun performed a Fist-Palm Salute and bowed his head.

‘Crazy bastard! How can he say something like that?’

His face was filled with contempt.

What Gwak No-saeng was creating right now was a living jiangshi.

Turning a living person into a jiangshi, neither dead nor alive.

Turning the living into jiangshi was a taboo in Jianghu. If this fact were to become known, he would be branded a public enemy of Jianghu and his family would be annihilated for three generations.

Gwak No-saeng knew this, which was why he had hidden himself away in this distant place.

Because this was the only place that could satisfy his bizarre thirst for research.

Gwak No-saeng conducted his research to his heart’s content here.

To him, this place was no different from paradise.

Because the support was nearly infinite, and there was almost no interference.

The number of people whose heads he had split open so far exceeded several hundred. By observing the brains of living people and through various reactions, he had mastered the method of creating the jiangshi that had only remained in legends.

“Hehe! The day the living jiangshi are complete is not far off. Once the living jiangshi are complete, those monsters made with mere mystic art will be no match for them.”

“The… Ghost King, you mean?”

“That’s right. With mystic art, you can barely create one Ghost King in decades, but with my medical skills, I can create dozens of living jiangshi at once. Which do you think is more efficient?”

“Of course, it’s the Demonic Physician Elder’s medical skills.”

“That’s right. In terms of efficiency, there’s no comparison. With my living jiangshi, we won’t have to fear the likes of that Ghost King. They have no fear, and they remember the Martial Arts they had when they were human. On top of that, they follow any command without complaint, so they’re much more efficient than that troublesome Ghost King.”

“That’s right. But are the living jiangshi really on the verge of completion?”

“They’re practically complete. All I need to do is reinforce them with the Fire Heart Grass and Medicinal Herbs you brought, and an Invincible army of living jiangshi will be born.”

“Ooh! The Lord will be pleased when he finds out.”

“Hehe! I’ve already informed the Lord. All that’s left is to complete the living jiangshi and send them to him.”

Gwak No-saeng smiled triumphantly.

At his madness-filled smile, Jang Sachun felt a fear that seemed to freeze his entire body.

He thought of himself as not normal, but in front of a truly insane person, he felt utterly insignificant.

He had seen many people in his life, but he had never seen someone as truly insane as Gwak No-saeng.

‘Just what is the Lord thinking, making a man like that do such a crazy thing?’

For the first time, he felt a sense of resentment toward the Lord he revered like the heavens.

＊＊＊

Pyo Wol and Yong Seol Lan entered the ruins where Jang Sachun and his Subordinates had disappeared.

The inside of the ruins was, as expected, empty.

Pyo Wol had no trouble finding the entrance to the basement.

Yong Seol Lan asked.

“Are you going in?”

“We can’t just turn back after coming all this way.”

“That’s true, but…”

Seeing Yong Seol Lan hesitate, Pyo Wol said.

“You should go back.”

“What?”

“You settled in that village because you wanted to leave Jianghu, didn’t you? If you get involved any further, you’ll inevitably be swept up in the affairs of Jianghu again. So go back. This is your last chance.”

At Pyo Wol’s words, Yong Seol Lan bit her lip gently.

After a moment of contemplation, she shook her head.

“I can’t do that after coming all this way.”

She didn’t want to be swept up in the affairs of Jianghu again, but she couldn’t give up on avenging the villagers.

She had to punish at least the three people who had directly harmed her.

Watching Yong Seol Lan steel her resolve, Pyo Wol said.

“Do as you please.”

“I won’t be a burden.”

She picked up a tree branch lying on the ground.

Just by holding the branch, her aura changed.

She had returned to being the female Swordsman of the Emei Sect.

Pyo Wol glanced at her for a moment before heading into the basement. Yong Seol Lan followed behind him.

When they reached the underground space, it too was empty. But Pyo Wol was not flustered. He immediately found a passage leading elsewhere.

‘It seems there are many such underground spaces here.’

The Divine Demon Association had been comparable to a massive city.

It wouldn’t be strange at all if there were countless secret spaces like this underground.

It was the perfect place for someone to plot a conspiracy.

It was completely hidden from people’s eyes, and there were countless spaces that could be usefully utilized.

Pyo Wol did not open the door right away.

He felt that if he opened the door, he might run into the people inside.

The first priority was to find out what was happening here. If he provoked the enemy before that, they would surely hide the evidence and disappear again.

Having experienced such opponents before, Pyo Wol was cautious.

‘There must be a ventilation shaft.’

No matter how well-made an underground facility was, it needed a ventilation shaft. It had to take in fresh air from the outside for the people inside to breathe.

There were no exceptions for any underground facility.

After a long search, Pyo Wol was able to find a ventilation shaft hidden behind a closet.

Pyo Wol and Yong Seol Lan crawled into the ventilation shaft.

The ventilation shaft was so narrow that their shoulders were tightly squeezed.

An ordinary person would have gotten stuck and been unable to move as soon as they entered the shaft. But both of them were far from ordinary.

Pyo Wol could move as freely as a snake, and Yong Seol Lan had a slender frame and a flexible body.

Through the narrow ventilation shaft, they were able to reach the ceiling of the hidden underground space.

Through the dense iron bars, they could see the scene in the basement at a glance.

Dozens of stone beds and the people lying on them. They could see an old, bizarre-looking man busily moving between them.

The moment she saw the people lying on the stone beds, Yong Seol Lan felt an indescribably eerie feeling.

Every hair on her body stood on end, and a chilling sensation, as if all her pores were opening wide, made her shudder involuntarily.

“Ugh!”

She couldn’t tell exactly what was happening inside, but her body instinctively knew first that something unusual was taking place.

Unlike Yong Seol Lan, Pyo Wol looked down at the underground space with a calm expression.

He could tell at a glance that something unusual was happening.

The figures lying on the stone beds all had excellent physiques.

It was a physique that ordinary people would find hard to possess.

Only those who had learned Martial Arts could have such trained bodies.

Dozens of such people were lying there, unconscious.

A single individual could not have abducted so many people. It was something that could only be done with the backing of a huge organization.

It was then.

Suddenly, the Demonic Physician Gwak No-saeng raised his head and looked at the ventilation shaft.

“Who’s there?”

Even though they had made no sound, Gwak No-saeng had detected, as if by a ghost, that there was an intruder in his space.

As Gwak No-saeng glared at the ventilation shaft with a terrifying gaze, Jang Sachun and his Subordinates gathered around him.

“What is it?”

“Some bastard has snuck in.”

“What? What do you mean?”

“It seems you lot brought a tail with you.”

Gwak No-saeng looked at Jang Sachun and his Subordinates with a pathetic expression.