Chapter 148: Soul Reaper Demon (2)

“Go ahead. I’ll count to ten. One, two.”

【Ten is too short.】

“Three.”

【That should be enough to properly—】

“Four.”

【—explain the story.】

“Five.”

【Hey! Give me some time!】

“Six, seven.”

【I know their location!】

“Eight……”

As soon as the necessary information was brought up, Jang Woo-hyun stopped counting.

“Go on.”

【You should already know what kind of entity the group called the Ascension Cult serves, right?】

Jang Woo-hyun answered with a nod.

【That’ll make the story easier. There’s a place not far from here where they’ve taken root. From there, they’re constructing a gateway connected to the True Immortals.】

“A gateway? Are they trying to bring the power of the True Immortals?”

Jang Woo-hyun asked, recalling a past incident.

【I don’t know whether they’re trying to draw the True Immortals’ power or establish communication. But it’s certain they’re building something that links to the True Immortals at that location.】

“Hard to believe, but let’s say what you’re saying is true.”

【It’s not a lie. I truly intend to tell you where they are.】

“And how am I supposed to trust that? Could be a trap. Anyway, let’s assume it’s real. But are you okay revealing this? You might end up in conflict with the Ascension Cult.”

【Hahaha!】

Yang Jeon-gun suddenly burst into laughter.

【It doesn’t matter. They’re all pathetic weaklings desperate to borrow the power of the True Immortals.】

From his reaction, it seemed the power held by the Ascension Cult posed no real threat to Yang Jeon-gun.

“Then what about the True Immortals?”

Unlike martial artists like Jang Woo-hyun, Yang Jeon-gun belonged to the Spiritual Realm.

To him, the True Immortals likely held a very different significance.

【The True Immortals. Noble, sacred, and beautiful beings. They look down upon everything from the upper worlds. It’s difficult even to meet their gaze.】

Yang Jeon-gun’s earthen head grinned. Contrary to Jang Woo-hyun’s assumption, the True Immortals meant something else entirely to him.

【Which is why I want them all the more.】

His madness radiated through the clay-crafted head.

“Madman,” the words slipped out of Jang Woo-hyun’s mouth unconsciously. Yang Jeon-gun even saw the True Immortals as part of his collection.

“Why are you telling me the Ascension Cult’s location?”

Yang Jeon-gun had no reason to divulge such things to Jang Woo-hyun. They were enemies.

To Jang Woo-hyun, it felt like nothing but a trap. But even as suspicion filled his gaze, Yang Jeon-gun remained unconcerned and continued.

His earthen head mumbled something and then—ptooey!—spat something out. It wasn’t fast, so Jang Woo-hyun easily caught it midair.

What he grabbed was a kind of hardened clay tablet. Unfamiliar symbols and patterns were drawn on it.

“What’s this?”

【……You don’t recognize it? It’s the coordinates of the Ascension Cult’s branch. Go there, and you’ll find them.】

“And I’m just supposed to believe this?”

【Do you know the tale of Mudong and Yudong?】

Yang Jeon-gun answered Jang Woo-hyun’s question with a question of his own.

“……What the hell are you talking about now?”

【Seems you don’t know. There’s an old story about the brothers Mudong and Yudong.】

Mudong and Yudong went to play in the forest and got caught by an old monster woman. She fattened them up to eat them, but the brothers learned she had poor eyesight. So, they used bones on the floor to stall for time and escaped the crisis.

‘Is this kind of fairy tale everywhere?’

It reminded Jang Woo-hyun of a story about siblings he knew. He asked again.

“Why are you telling that story now?”

【Because I’m fattening you up.】

“Ah, so you’re fattening me up to eat me later?”

A smile crept across the earthen face of Yang Jeon-gun in response.

Once Jang Woo-hyun grew stronger and acquired more, Yang Jeon-gun intended to catch and add him to his collection.

“Interesting.”

Even after losing the fight, Yang Jeon-gun saw Jang Woo-hyun as either prey or livestock he could devour anytime.

“Let me ask you one thing.”

【You can ask a hundred.】

“You cultivators… even after getting your faces bashed in, why do you all—”

Jang Woo-hyun paused, unsure how to phrase it.

“……Why do you all look down on martial artists so easily? Even those weaker than me do it.”

【What a foolish thing to say.】

The smile vanished from Yang Jeon-gun’s clay-crafted head.

【Your strength is irrelevant. Do you think martial artists of the Murim Realm are similar to us? You’ve only just become comparable. I don’t know the exact timing… twenty thousand years? That’s about right.】

‘Twenty thousand years?’

To Jang Woo-hyun, that was an incomprehensibly long time. Yang Jeon-gun said it like it was nothing. Their perception of time was entirely different.

And in that span, the Lower Realm would’ve also developed—━━━

‘Huh? What was that?’

An odd feeling swept over him. It felt like something had just come to mind, but he couldn’t recall it. Even the strange sensation vanished in an instant.

Yang Jeon-gun continued.

【Until then, you were just livestock and beasts to us. Think about it. From a human’s perspective, would pigs and dogs gaining strength make them equals? You wouldn’t think so either.】

“……”

【A stronger dog or pig is still just a dangerous and savage beast. That’s what martial artists are to us.】

They thought entirely differently.

From the beginning, cultivators never saw martial artists as ‘people.’

“And then you get beaten up by those martial artists…”

Jang Woo-hyun let out a dry laugh at the cultivators’ insane perspective but stopped mid-sentence. He found a contradiction in Yang Jeon-gun’s words.

If they truly viewed martial artists as mere livestock or beasts, why was he being so generous with his information? Especially to someone who had smashed his body.

Jang Woo-hyun would never act that way.

‘Feels like he’s stalling for time.’

Even before the fight, Yang Jeon-gun had seemed eager to talk.

So then—what was the reason for stalling?

“You, what are you hiding?”

Jang Woo-hyun expanded his Qi Perception to scan the surroundings. After reaching the Boundless Realm, his Qi Perception had grown far beyond what it once was—almost to the point where he could completely monitor an entire small Floating Stronghold.

‘Nothing.’

There was nothing hindering him, and nothing approaching from the other side either.

‘Then.’

It wasn’t an approach for an attack—it was a retreat.

The vast manor owned by Yang Jeon-gun. Right now, that bastard was buying time for the manor to escape.

“There’s something important to you inside that place, isn’t there?”

Yang Jeon-gun, who had been rambling non-stop, fell silent, seemingly struck at the core.

Jang Woo-hyun gathered his energy and erased everything surrounding him. Then, he kicked off the ground and hurled himself in the direction where Yang Jeon-gun’s manor had vanished.

“Tsk, he figured it out.”

A diminutive old man muttered to himself.

His cheekbones protruded sharply, and his skin lacked any vitality, yet his eyes gleamed with such clarity that it concealed all those flaws.

When the old man smiled, his eyes sparkled as if stars had been embedded in them—an expression wholly out of place with his exterior.

“Euhuhuhuhu.”

The old man couldn’t suppress the laughter escaping his lips.

He had found a new prey. And not just any prey—an exceptional one.

Slayer Sword Demon, Jang Woo-hyun.

Among everything he had seen in his lifetime, this one would surely be among the finest.

‘A martial artist of the Boundless Realm.’

He was incomparable even to other martial artists of the Boundless Realm he had encountered. A martial artist who had reached the Realm of Wish could not be captured directly, so this might very well be the finest collectible he could obtain.

“I should’ve moved it before he caught on. Everything inside the manor will be lost.”

He felt a slight regret, especially about the other captive from the Middle Realm.

But the moment he recalled Jang Woo-hyun, even that regret vanished.

Now that he had acquired the ultimate collectible, the Slayer Sword Demon, nothing else mattered.

‘He’ll go looking for the Ascension Cult, so I’ll have some time.’

He had deliberately revealed the Ascension Cult’s location. If Jang Woo-hyun got entangled with them, it would stall him long enough to be caught.

“Hehehe, then let’s be on our way.”

The old man infused power into the large orb in front of him.

Kwa-rururung.

Heaven and earth shook.

Moments later.

A gigantic fortress, the size of a mountain, began to move. The manor that Jang Woo-hyun had infiltrated boasted the size of a palace, but it couldn’t compare to the fortress now in motion.

Ku-kwa-gwang! Kwa-ang! Kwang!

Hundreds of massive legs, each resembling towers, began to move. The mountainous building roared as it started to traverse the world.

“Hehehe. Sword Demon, wait for me.”

At the top of the mountain-like fortress, inside a towering building.

Behind the old man, twenty cultivators stood, their bodies wreathed in white flames.

Until now, cultivators Jang Woo-hyun fought could not regenerate if struck by his sword and were incapable of resurrection.

But Yang Jeon-gun was different. His spell arts remained intact, and he kept speaking unless his head was completely smashed.

‘He’s on another level.’

The cultivator he used had clearly been at the Refined Void Stage.

Which meant Yang Jeon-gun’s power was, at minimum, the level above that—Fusion Stage.

Perhaps even Great Ascension Stage, which marked the pinnacle in the Middle Realm.

On top of that, no one knew the true extent of his faction’s strength. Jang Woo-hyun had made a troublesome enemy in the cultivator’s domain.

‘I need to get stronger.’

Strong enough to shatter monsters like that in a single strike.

Jang Woo-hyun’s talent would be ranked among the top even in the Central Heavens Realm. But that alone wasn’t enough. There were beings who had cultivated for hundreds or even thousands of years before he ever set foot in the Central Heavens—both in the Murim Realm and the Spiritual Realm.

Moreover, in this vast Central Heavens Realm, there were still unknown races and strange entities.

He was growing stronger at an astonishing pace, yet still felt he lacked.

Resolving once again to grow stronger, Jang Woo-hyun dashed through the air like he was flying and soon spotted Yang Jeon-gun’s distant manor.

Upon seeing the manor flying at incredible speed, Jang Woo-hyun expanded his Will-Form Qi and slashed with his sword.

Kwaaaaang!

The sword strike tore across dozens of li and smashed a corner of the manor, causing its flight to slow.

Closing the gap instantly, Jang Woo-hyun approached the manor.

Wuuuuung.

As he neared, a transparent barrier formed around the manor, as if trying to block his entry.

But it was useless.

Without even swinging his sword, Jang Woo-hyun simply rammed through it and entered. Immediately, he spread his Qi Threads in all directions to scan the interior.

‘This way.’

He detected human presence with his Qi Threads and moved toward it. Along the way, automatic puppets rushed at him, but a few gestures shattered them into dust.

After destroying the puppets, Jang Woo-hyun arrived at the building where the throne had risen and smashed through the wall.

Kwaaang!

Through the large hole, the interior was revealed.

A gigantic orb that reflected the surrounding area. And before it, on the table, was a mechanical device.

At a glance, it was clear that the device was the control mechanism for moving the building. In front of it stood the woman who had played the role of Seok Hae-gang’s wife.

“W-What… Did you defeat the master…?”

The flustered woman tried to compose herself and manipulate something, but Jang Woo-hyun immediately cut her in two.

He sensed an energy from deeper inside and didn’t hesitate to eliminate the woman.

Controlling his Qi, he hurled the severed corpse outside and made his way to the inner room.

After passing a short corridor, a luxurious door appeared.

Jang Woo-hyun opened it without even touching it.

Ggeugeung.

With a heavy sound, the door slowly opened.

Inside was a space arranged like a bedroom. A massive bed stood in the center, and around it were a bathtub, chairs, and all sorts of unfamiliar devices.

Jang Woo-hyun spotted people trembling in fear in one corner of the room. At first, he thought they were Yang Jeon-gun’s subordinates hiding in fear, but they weren’t.

Over a dozen people.

All of different races, a mix of men and women. The commonality was that, by Jang Woo-hyun’s standards, they were all extraordinarily beautiful—and most of them weren’t dressed normally.

Some wore clothing that covered only parts of their bodies like swimsuits, others wore see-through fabrics that revealed everything.

“Haa.”

Upon seeing their attire, Jang Woo-hyun immediately understood why they were here and what Yang Jeon-gun had done to them.

As he took a step toward them—

“……!”

Those who had been covering their mouths to suppress their screams all began to tremble uncontrollably.

‘Should’ve torn him apart.’

Yang Jeon-gun had truly been collecting actual people.

“I’m not here to harm you.”

Even as he spoke, the terrified individuals only hung their heads low and trembled.

“My name is Jang Woo-hyun. I have no intention of hurting you. The owner of this house… in other words, the one who abducted you… haah.”

Jang Woo-hyun sighed, carefully choosing his words so as not to cause further pain. He had no experience in this sort of situation and didn’t know how to approach them.

Fighting hundreds with a sword would’ve been far easier on his mind.

‘What am I supposed to do?’

He couldn’t just leave them, but he also had no idea how to handle this.

As he stood in that helpless moment, stuck between choices—

A strange sound reached Jang Woo-hyun’s ears.

‘What is that?’

He had already scanned the entire building with his Qi Perception and sensed no presence. He thought no living beings remained, yet the odd sound persisted.

Uuu!

To find the source, Jang Woo-hyun followed the faint noise out of the bedroom and toward another direction.

After passing a hallway and descending a staircase, he saw a small door.

‘Below?’

Curiously, the sound seemed to be coming from beneath the door.

Inspecting the floor closely, he spotted something like a small seed that twitched and made a low uuu! sound with each movement.

‘No idea what that is.’

After observing the curious seed for a moment, Jang Woo-hyun drew his sword and raised his energy, then opened the door.

Hwaaak—

From inside the door came a wave of energy he hadn’t sensed before—along with a revolting stench. It was a space that defied Qi Perception.

Staying alert, Jang Woo-hyun stepped inside.

And instantly, his face twisted.

“That crazy bastard…”

The place he entered was a human slaughterhouse.

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