Light Novel: Volume 19 Episode 19
Manhwa: N/A
So Yeowol frowned as she closed her eyes.
She wanted to organize her thoughts, but the vibrations that began at her hips and spread up her spine made it impossible to concentrate.
Eventually, So Yeowol stopped thinking and opened her eyes. Across from her sat Song Cheonwoo.
Unlike her, Song Cheonwoo had his eyes closed, focusing all his senses. So Yeowol knew well that it was because of her.
He had heightened his senses in order to protect her.
The place they sat was the cramped inside of a carriage.
The wooden wheels rolled over the rough mountain roads, shaking the carriage violently. The vibration spread from the buttocks to the whole body.
‘I should have ridden a horse instead…’
If it were just her moving, she wouldn’t have needed to bother with the carriage. But today, not just her but many others were part of the procession.
There was no need to attract attention by revealing themselves.
‘Such a useless endeavor…’
So Yeowol clicked her tongue as she looked out of the window.
The carriage was heading deeper into the mountains.
All she could see outside the window were thickets.
After a while, the carriage’s speed noticeably slowed down.
That’s when Song Cheonwoo opened his eyes.
“Looks like we’re almost there.”
“It looks like it.”
So Yeowol nodded her head.
In life, there are some things you have to do even if you don’t want to.
Today was one of those days for the two of them.
Creak!
Finally, the carriage came to a stop, and a cautious voice called out from outside.
“We have arrived.”
The two of them opened the door of the carriage and stepped out.
They were greeted by a large temple surrounded by a green forest.
The temple looked very clean as if it had been recently built. Moreover, it was so large that it couldn’t be taken in at a single glance.
Behind the large main hall in front, several tall pavilions soared high into the sky.
“Hmm!”
So Yeowol looked at the temple with a displeased expression.
Song Cheonwoo whispered from behind her.
“Watch your expression.”
“Ah! Sorry.”
So Yeowol quickly realized her mistake and adjusted her expression.
Voices of people came from behind her.
“Is this the temple built by the New Moon Manor?”
“Tianyuan Temple?1 It’s as majestic as its name.”
“The New Moon Manor must have invested a lot of money in this temple.”
They were distinguished guests who had arrived in carriages like her.
The temple they were looking at was called Tianyuan Temple.
As befitting of its majestic name, it was of an enormous scale. It seemed it might be on par with the Shaolin Temple, known as the foremost temple under the heavens.
Today marked the first day the Tianyan Temple was open to the public after years of construction.
To commemorate the day, Tianyuan Temple had invited local dignitaries to celebrate.
So Yeowol was one of those dignitaries who had been invited.
“Amitabha! Please come in, we sincerely welcome your visit.”
An old monk, who had been appointed as the host of Tianyuan Temple, greeted the guests.
“Thank you for inviting us to such an important occasion.”
“The temple is truly magnificent. I sincerely hope it prospers for hundreds, even thousands of years.”
The guests exchanged pleasantries with the old monk.
They knew instinctively.
That the Tianyuan Temple would become the center of the region in the future.
Behind the Tianyuan Temple was a huge force known as the New Moon Manor. It was unlikely that New Moon Manor had built such an enormous temple without reason.
The guests believed that the New Moon Manor had something planned by putting forward this huge temple, so they felt lucky to be invited on the first day of the temple’s opening.
Being invited on the first day was evidence of their special status.
Exactly one hundred guests had been invited today.
All one hundred were influential figures from the region.
With joyful hearts, they followed the abbot monk toward the grand hall of Tianyuan Temple.
So Yeowol and Cheong Cheonwoo trailed at the end of the group, and when they came to a fork in the road, they quietly slipped away onto the side.
Unlike the other guests who were visiting for the first time today, they had already been to Tianyuan Temple several times. Therefore, they were very familiar with the internal layout of the temple.
Suddenly, So Yeowol spoke up,
“The Ten Thousand Man Slayer has moved, hasn’t he?”
“He should have entered Shaoyang by now.”
“You’ve worked hard. But how did you get him to move?”
“It wasn’t as hard as I thought. When I suggested that the one who destroyed the Prison of No Return might have entered Shaoyang, he rushed off without a second thought.”
“Is that so?”
“He usually thinks things through, but once he fixates on something, he becomes blindly obsessive and easy to handle.”
“That’s good to hear.”
“If Pyo-wol really is in Shaoyang, the Ten Thousand Man Slayer will definitely find him.”
“Good!”
So Yeowol nodded her head.
How wonderful would it be if everything in the world went her way? No matter how meticulous the plan was, one or two out of ten things were bound to go awry.
It wasn’t for nothing when people say, ‘Man proposes, God disposes.’
Having set the Ten Thousand Man Slayer in motion, there was nothing to do but wait for good news.
Today, she had to put aside her worries about Pyo-wol and focus on the task at hand.
Little by little, So Yeowol’s face became visibly stiff.
It was a sign that she was getting increasingly nervous.
It was the same for Song Cheonwoo.
The place they had secretly arrived at was the most secluded area of the Tianyuan Temple.
At the entrance to this secret area, surrounded by a tall wall, was a small gate.
Swoosh!
The moment the two arrived at the gate, a group of white-robed martial artists appeared without a sound or a trace.
They surrounded So Yeowol and Song Cheonwoo.
‘The White-Robed Shadow Ghost Squad.’2
Song Cheonwoo’s gaze turned icy.
They were the lord’s personal guards.
Their exact level of martial prowess and their numbers were unknown.
They were like the shadows of the lord whose existence was unknown to the outside world.
Their martial skills and stealth were exceptional enough to make even Song Cheonwoo tense.
The White-Robed Shadow Ghost Squad all had a white cloth covering their faces.
Because of this, no matter how many times one saw them, it was impossible to distinguish their features.
The leader of the White-Robed Shadow Ghost Squad spoke to So Yeowol,
“Our lord awaits you. Please, enter.”
“Thank you.”
So Yeowol nodded slightly and proceeded inside.
Song Cheonwoo naturally followed behind her.
At that moment, the leader of the White-Robed Shadow Ghost Squad blocked his way.
“Only the lady may enter.”
“I am her escort.”
“No one but those permitted may enter.”
Song Cheonwoo’s gaze grew even colder.
The leader of the White-Robed Shadow Ghost Squad did not blink, meeting Song Cheonwoo’s eyes firmly.
He continued,
“No exceptions.”
“I’ll go in by myself.”
The one who answered was not Song Cheonwoo, but So Yeowol.
“Yeowol?”
“I’ll be fine, don’t worry.”
After showing Song Cheonwoo a reassuring smile, So Yeowol entered inside.
Song Cheonwoo silently watched So Yeowol’s receding figure.
Inside the secret field, there was a small pavilion.
The pavilion, which had no signboard, had its doors wide open.
So Yeowol didn’t hesitate to enter the pavilion.
In the center of the pavilion was a large Buddha statue.
The floor beneath the statue was wide open. In the open space was a staircase leading to the basement.
So Yeowol naturally began to descend the staircase.
After going down for a long time, she came to a huge underground space.
There were two torches hanging on the wall.
The space was too vast to be illuminated by just two torches, but for So Yeowol, that was enough.
Even in faint light, she could see through the darkness.
In the center of the underground space, a man was sitting.
So Yeowol quietly approached him.
The man’s back was quite small.
However, So Yeowol did not dare underestimate the man.
As she looked at the man’s back, her eyes swirled with a myriad of emotions. She struggled to suppress the tumult of her feelings and adopted a formal fist-and-palm salute.
“It’s me, Yeowol.”
“Have you come?”
The man responded and gestured with his hand.
She cautiously approached the man’s side.
The man didn’t even spare her a glance as she approached. He kept his gaze straight ahead.
Where his gaze rested, there was a set of iron bars as thick as a child’s arm.
It was made of ten-thousand-year-old cold iron, which was said to be among the strongest materials in the world.
Inside the bars, a figure sat cross-legged.
It was an old woman with snow-white hair.
The old woman seemed to be in great pain, her eyes tightly shut, grinding her teeth.
Her arms and legs were restrained with thick iron chains.
The chains restraining her were also made of millennium-cold iron.
So Yeowol cautiously asked the man.
“Is there still no improvement?”
“The madness is getting worse.”
“What about the Buddhist scriptures obtained from Chengdu?”
“She’s managing to hold on to this extent thanks to that. Without it, she would have already been released.”
“Hmm!”
As So Yeowol let out a sigh, the man turned his head to look at her.
He had a dignified face, appearing to be in his early to mid-fifties.
“Is there something wrong?”
“No.”
“Say it, Yeowol!”
“I’ve moved the Ten Thousand Man Slayer.”
“By your own will?”
The man’s voice deepened.
So Yeowol instantly felt a chill run through her entire body.
Right now, he was stuck in Tianyuan Temple, looking after the old woman trapped behind the iron bars, but he was one of the absolute beings who moved the era.
With his abilities, he could make So Yeowol disappear without a trace.
So Yeowol was confident in her abilities, but in front of the man next to her, she was hesitant.
She spoke cautiously,
“There’s been a problem.”
“A problem significant enough to move the Ten Thousand Man Slayer?”
“It involves the Reaper.”
“Pyo-wol?”
“Yes!”
“Hmm!”
This time, the man let out a thoughtful hum.
So Yeowol silently watched him.
Only after a long time did the man speak again.
“Can the Ten Thousand Man Slayer handle him alone?”
“It won’t be easy.”
“Yet you sent the Ten Thousand Man Slayer knowing that? Are you trying to kill him using a borrowed knife?”
“Of course not. Only someone like the Ten Thousand Man Slayer could draw him out from where he’s hiding beneath the surface.”
“So you used the Ten Thousand Man Slayer as bait.”
The man’s gaze intensified.
Merely meeting his gaze made So Yeowol feel as if her eyes were burning.
Such was the greatness of his power.
She clenched her teeth.
‘I’ve tried so hard, yet I still can’t reach him.’
The man’s name was Go Jang-myung.
He was the master of the New Moon Manor, one of the Three Great Manors of Jianghu, and the ruler of the underworld. But Go Jang-myung had always thoroughly kept himself hidden.
The world’s knowledge of him was just the tip of the iceberg.
The parts of him that were hidden were even more terrifying and vast than the parts revealed, that was who Go Jang-myung was.
So Yeowol tried to remain calm as she spoke,
“Who knows what will happen if he arrives at Qiyang, where the New Moon Manor is located? We must find him before then, and we need the Ten Thousand Man Slayer for that.”
“You’re scared.”
“Pardon?”
“You’re scared of him. Like a dog that’s been beaten–”
“Who says I’m scared? I’m afraid of no one.”
“Then why did you move the Ten Thousand Man Slayer on your own? Instead of taking matters into your own hands?”
“You’re the one who taught me that it’s much more efficient to have others do the dirty work than get blood on my own hands. I’m just doing what you taught me.”
“Is that your true sentiment?”
“I’m always sincere. Father!”
“Father, huh… It’s been a while since I’ve heard that. So, what do you want?”
“Give me the authority to mobilize the Kowloon.”3
“You want something you can’t handle.”
“Whether I can handle it or not, we’ll see.”
“No, you can’t handle it. Kowloon is too big and too vast for a brat like you.”
“Father!”
“Be quiet. It will be difficult to handle if Mother has a fit.”
Go Jang-myung’s gaze shifted towards the old woman.
Sure enough.
The old woman was trembling, as if she was about to have an episode at any moment.
If they caused any more disturbance, the madness she was barely suppressing would explode.
“It’s impossible to summon all of Kowloon. However, I’ll grant you the authority to move the Red King.”4
“The Red King?”
“Yes, the Red King, the strongest in all of Saibei,5 has come into my service.”
LUNACAVE
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