Call Of The Spear [EN]: Chapter 369

Nangseon Gihwandam – Part 2, Chapter 78

Six Joints, Thirty-Six Gates.

It was a circular gate adorned with thirty-six visible sockets, resembling eyes.

Inscrutable geometric patterns were engraved upon it, and carved images adorned the nearby stone walls.

‘The six who have opened the Six Gates shall gather to unleash the Six Joints, Thirty-Six Gates.’

This seemed to indicate that six individuals who had unlocked the Six Gates were required to open the sealed gate.

“Alright, let’s begin.”

There was no explanation offered, despite the expectation of some.

Each of them performed a hand seal and began to gather their energy.

Celestial energy surged rapidly, and the pressure of divine power weighed down on all sides.

‘How fascinating.’

The eyes of the Six Gates, visible one by one, were all distinct.

First, Gu Qi, who resembled an old man, produced his staff.

The upper part of the staff was blunt and thick, and the six eyes embedded there moved as if alive.

Subsequently, six of the thirty-six eyes of the Six Joints, Thirty-Six Gates lit up with a red glow.

“Tsk.”

Next was Yeo Obu.

She wore a displeased expression.

‘I heard that the corpse of the Gold Foil Spider resides within the Six Joints, Thirty-Six Gates.’

She must be a direct descendant who properly inherited the bloodline [a lineage or heritage passed down through generations].

That must be why she feels unpleasant looking at the eyes embedded in the staff.

Originally, this gate was said to be a seal that only the descendants of the Gold Foil Spider could open.

Since she had six eyes on her face, she didn’t take anything out.

Just by infusing her energy, the eyes on the sealed gate lit up.

Next was a woman named Nanchae.

‘Was it a bee, they said.’

He was tipped off by the Honored One that her true form was close to that of a bee.

Nanchae soon chanted a celestial mantra [a sacred utterance or formula], and her two eyes glowed, splitting her pupils into six.

It seemed she had transplanted them into her own eyes like Beom did.

Eighteen eyes lit up.

Next was the Honored One.

The Honored One rolled up his sleeves and exerted his strength, causing six eyes to pop out from his wrist to his forearm, wriggling.

It wasn’t a pleasant sight.

It seemed that the Honored One had hidden the Water Splitting Divine Eyes in his hand like Cheonbeom.

However, since there were so many, the grotesque appearance was unavoidable.

Yeo Obu, as well as Cheongmin, frowned at the Honored One’s Six Gates.

But he just chuckled.

“Next is me.”

It was Cheongmin.

She proudly spread her beautiful wings.

Then, the patterns on her butterfly wings changed, turning into six eye-shaped patterns.

‘Pretty.’

Because the patterns were similar to eye shapes, they didn’t look grotesque, and they suited the butterfly wings, making them lovely.

Cheongmin seemed to know this, and she was pleased to see Beom’s surprised expression.

“Pretty, right?”

“Beautiful.”

Cheongmin licked her lower lip with her tongue as if she was in a good mood.

Beom felt a chill for some reason.

“I’m last, I guess.”

Beom also made a hand seal and began to open the Danyeong Gold Well.

First Gate, Second Gate, Third Gate, Fourth Gate, Fifth Gate, Sixth Gate.

He wondered if his eyes would be strained again, but it was okay to just open the gates without using the Six Calamity Earthly Calculation [a complex divination technique].

‘Just for a moment….’

His eyes were already stinging and blood tears were flowing, but it was okay.

“Oh, you really opened it? Amazing?”

“I know, right? It’s not a gate that a Superior Immortal can open.”

After the surprised reactions passed, the eyes of the Superior Immortals turned to the Six Joints, Thirty-Six Gates.

Red lights entered the thirty-six eye-shaped patterns.

Kugugung.

As light entered the thirty-six eyes, the two circular stone gates began to turn with a grinding sound.

With clanking sounds, the noise of something interlocking could be heard.

And then.

Thump!

With a huge impact sound, dust flew in all directions.

Soon, it quieted down, and then, creak.

The gate of the Six Joints, Thirty-Six Gates opened.

“Ooh! Finally!!”

The Honored One exclaimed, and Cheongmin gathered her hands near her chest as if she was overwhelmed.

“Ah….”

Yeo Obu let out a soft exclamation and shed tears.

She must have her own story.

“Let’s go in.”

Gu Qi was the first to step into the circular Six Joints, Thirty-Six Gates.

Then, the others also followed, a little wary.

“It’s a bit humid.”

Cheongmin flinched as soon as she entered. As she said, the inside of the gate was a little humid. But it wasn’t so humid that it was bothersome.

‘Less humid than Dragon Vein Bone, though.’

It was less humid than the place the Hwang Clan of the Water Realm had taken as their base.

It wasn’t that bad.

“That’s because we’re walking the path to the Gold Foil Spider’s body.”

It was Yeo Obu.

“How can it still be so humid after hundreds of thousands of years?”

When Cheongmin asked, the Honored One answered instead.

“If you reach the level of a Prime Celestial Grandmaster, your body won’t decay even after death. That’s why they say the death of a Prime Celestial benefits the heavens. Because they become mountains after death, or their essence scatters in all directions, creating beneficial phenomena.”

That was a new story to him.

Cheonbeom quietly listened and eavesdropped on the Superior Immortals’ conversation.

“A Prime Celestial’s body is a treasure of the heavens in itself. There’s no stench, but rather a scent of grass that seems to purify the body.”

“Since it’s a Prime Celestial’s body, many things must have taken root and grown inside. There might be celestial herbs that are not easily seen, or the incarnation of insectoid creatures might have been born.”

“Could there be a Yeonjabo [a rare and powerful spiritual entity]?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

Everyone’s hearts swelled with anticipation.

Beom felt the same.

‘Even a Yeonjabo can be created….’

He was surprised again.

Since it was the body of a Prime Celestial sealed hundreds of thousands of years ago, it was possible.

The accumulated celestial energy was beyond measure, so it could truly be called a treasure of heaven.

However, Beom didn’t want to be too greedy.

He was tired of being backstabbed, and he wanted to part ways amicably, sharing nicely with each other if possible.

Anyway, once this was over, Beom would return to the Water Realm.

If he could build good relationships with these people, he might be able to receive help later.

The Water Realm wasn’t safe either.

“Look at this.”

Gu Qi, who was walking at the front, stopped after discovering something.

“A good omen.”

What he was looking at was a forget-me-not with delicate blue petals growing in a crack in the wall.

“The presence of forget-me-nots means there’s a high probability that many celestial herbs are teeming deeper inside.”

“That’s welcome news.”

And after a while.

As Gu Qi said, a fragrant scent of grass filled the air.

“Oh! The celestial herbs here are at least 400,000 years old! These days, it’s hard to even find 10,000-year-old ones….”

Celestial herbs that had absorbed essence for a long time, 400,000 years.

Moreover, they had grown inside the body of a Prime Celestial, so one couldn’t even imagine how much celestial energy they had absorbed.

‘A 10,000-year-old celestial herb is worth about half a nyang of silver [an ancient currency], even if it’s a common variety.’

Even 10,000 years was rare, but since they were at least 400,000 years old, everyone couldn’t help but be greedy.

“Let’s go further ahead first. We’ll have to come back this way to get out anyway.”

“Ah, let’s do that. It’s just the entrance, and we don’t know what’s ahead yet!”

Cheongmin nodded repeatedly, excited.

She couldn’t take her eyes off the celestial herbs growing like weeds.

If it weren’t for Gu Qi, she would have run to pluck all the celestial herbs right away.

“I think we’re probably near the head of the insectoid creature.”

Gu Qi stroked his beard, and the Honored One agreed.

“It’s too huge to get a good sense of it, haha.”

If he was right, we might be walking around the mouth of the insectoid creature.

Since the insectoid creature was as huge as Mount Tai, it was a plausible statement.

Considering that, the floor and walls were all hard as stone, though….

‘Reminds me of Ha Humineung.’

Ha Humineung was also incredibly huge, and all sorts of things happened inside.

Tanhwa had even shed its skin inside Ha Humineung.

‘Surely there isn’t any gastric acid left here.’

That might be the case with Ha Humineung, but since the insectoid creature was in the form of a spider, it probably wasn’t.

‘Spiders mostly suck bodily fluids.’

But that was a general statement, so we didn’t know what the insectoid creature was like.

“Already a fork in the road.”

“What are you going to do?”

When Cheongmin asked, Gu Qi hesitated for a moment and headed to the left, which was larger.

“Don’t even think about going separately. We don’t know what will come out, and we’ll explore everything together, even if it takes a long time.”

The others suppressed their slight disappointment and agreed with Gu Qi’s words.

They didn’t know what they would do if they went alone, and it was also dangerous.

How long had they been walking for half a day?

“The inside of the insectoid creature is bright.”

Suddenly, Cheongmin said that.

As she said, this place was quite bright for being inside the body of an insectoid creature.

It was probably due to the luminous pearls and glowing celestial herbs that had sprung up all over the walls.

They had been wandering inside the insectoid creature for half a day, but they hadn’t found anything particularly noteworthy.

They occasionally found mountains of celestial herbs that were tens of thousands of years old, and they also saw celestial stones that had naturally formed inside the insectoid creature.

‘Corpse Stone (死者石) [stones formed from the remains of powerful beings].’

They were sometimes found inside the bodies of mystical beasts or celestial insects that contained celestial energy.

They were similar to relics created when high-ranking individuals died and accumulated inside their bodies, but they were not very useful except when using puppetry or reanimation techniques.

Puppet masters and reanimators would search for them with their eyes wide open, but they weren’t that great, so they left them alone and just kept walking.

And after a while.

Gu Qi, who was at the front, stopped.

“It’s the heart.”

“Oh, so it is!”

“This is the heart? It’s huge?”

It was as Cheongmin said.

‘Is this the heart?’

It was hardened like a stone, but at first glance, it did look like a heart.

It was more enormous than imagined, making it awe-inspiring.

Cheonbeom narrowed his brows as he looked at the heart, which was as huge as a hill.

‘There’s something inside.’

When he glanced at the Honored One and Gu Qi, they seemed to have noticed it too.

What on earth was residing inside the heart that had turned to stone?

“We’ll find out.”

Gu Qi fluttered his sleeves, and a small dagger flew out and pierced the heart.

Pik.

Thump!

As the dagger pierced the center of the heart, it began to crack and collapse.

The fragments of the collapsed heart fell to the floor and scattered.

And what was in the air was a ring with a subtle light.

It was a round ring.

‘It’s too big to be a bracelet, what is that?’

However, it had a blunt part and was small to be called a wheel.

It was a ring that seemed to be made of metal.

Cheonbeom was wondering what it was, but the others were not.

Gu Qi had an interested expression, and Cheongmin and Yeo Obu had eyes filled with greed.

The Honored One and Nanchae, who hadn’t said much, were the same.

Just as Beom, who had been subtly watching, couldn’t resist his curiosity and was about to open his mouth.

“Oh!”

Cheongmin shouted in surprise.

When he quickly turned his head, the ring floating in the air was emitting a milky white glow and absorbing energy, beginning to take the form of a beast.

“It’s forming an incarnation! It’s a Yeonjabo after all!”

“Is that what a Yeonjabo is?”

“Yes, and that energy is definitely the energy of the Law of Time!”

Law of Time!

Beom’s eyes widened as big as lanterns.

“Ah! Run away!”

“It’s a Yeonjabo of the Law of Time! If we miss it now, we’ll never be able to catch it!”

The ring gathered milky white energy and took the form of a rabbit, craning its neck and twitching its ears.

“Catch it!”

At Yeo Obu’s urgent cry, the rabbit incarnation that had transformed from the Yeonjabo hopped once on its hind legs.

Whoosh!

It disappeared in an instant.