Call Of The Spear [EN]: Chapter 68

Tale of the Wandering Swordsman – Chapter 67

“I had so much to ask… Now there’s not even a bone left.”

Seven Treasures, Six Spirit Stele Tower.

The Six Spirit Stele Tower, towering high into the sky, was immensely large.

It might seem its divine power is simple for a Seven Treasures artifact.

However, that perception exists because the Mountain Lord’s cultivation is low, not because of any inherent limitation of the Six Spirit Stele Tower.

If his cultivation reaches the Spirit Enlightenment stage, and then the Eternal Epoch stage, he would be able to utilize the Six Spirit Stele Tower more completely.

The current Six Spirit Stele Tower was merely the tip of the iceberg.

Even with just that limited usage, most of the Mountain Lord’s spiritual power was consumed, so further elaboration was unnecessary.

The Mountain Lord severed an arm from the flattened corpse.

It was the location of the implanted treasure the man had used.

The Mountain Lord’s eyes gleamed as he examined it.

“Demon Devouring Badge….”

After staring at it for a moment, he tossed it into the Gong Jeong River and suddenly shouted.

“If you’ve watched enough, please come out!”

Then, a woman’s figure emerged from the bushes.

“Did you know I was there?”

“How could I not? You were peeking like a rat.”

Her brow furrowed at the word “rat,” but she remained silent.

As he said, she had indeed been hiding and watching.

“Geummyeong Jisu, why did you ignore my words and spy on me?”

She was Geummyeong Jisu, who had followed him out of concern.

“……”

Geummyeong Jisu remained silent.

It was obvious that anything she said would be disadvantageous. She could claim she was worried about him, but her pride wouldn’t allow her to voice such a sentiment. Furthermore, suggesting she feared he would be defeated by those men would wound his pride, so she found herself without a suitable response.

The Mountain Lord quietly stared at her before shrinking the Six Spirit Stele Tower and placing it in his pocket. He glanced at Huan Seon’s corpse, which had been reduced to jerky without even a chance to escape, and turned away.

“Since you’re here, let’s search for clues about the Blood Collapse Water. I’ll examine the pit, so Princess, please look around elsewhere.”

“Yes, I will.”

Geummyeong Jisu disappeared, and Hwaran appeared.

“Don’t be too harsh.”

“What am I doing?”

“Aren’t you just being spiteful? You don’t mind being seen through.”

“Hmph, how could I not be when everything she does is hateful?”

It had been like this since he treated Hwaran condescendingly, so there was no way she would view Geummyeong Jisu favorably.

Besides, how could he like her when she ignored his instructions and secretly followed him?

“Still, didn’t the Mountain Lord say so? That it’s not good to be on bad terms with Sawolrang… And you also agreed to receive two treasures from her, so please calm down.”

Hwaran earnestly pleaded, grabbing the Mountain Lord’s arm. She knew why she was saying this.

It’s not good to antagonize her, who has Sawolrang as her backer.

Sawolrang is the only reliable Spirit race member, and if the relationship with her sours, the relationship with the clan will also become strained.

As long as they treat the Mountain Lord as a hermit, Sawolrang will remain on his side.

“I understand, so let go. I need to look at the pit.”

Only then did Hwaran smile brightly.

The Mountain Lord also smirked at the sight.

“But how will you examine the pit? What are you going to do by looking at that place….”

She looked quite uncomfortable.

Well.

It was obvious that the pit would be filled with the corpses of various spiritual beasts and humans, or, if not, bizarre creatures would be gathered together, biting and fighting each other like hungry ghosts.

That’s what Gu poison [a type of venomous poison made by sealing many different venomous creatures inside a container, where they devour each other until only one remains] is like.

“The guy’s memories included the memories from when he was in the pit.”

The memories of Gu poison.

However, Hwaran was even more suspicious at the Mountain Lord’s words. Sensing her thoughts, the Mountain Lord added an explanation.

“Originally, Gu poison is about extracting the strongest poison and using it magically. But, these guys don’t use it that way. Besides… they were strangely feeding blood to the Chaos Fiends.”

“Blood?”

“Yes. The reason I came here is all because of that.”

Blood Collapse Water is a treasure that constantly gushes blood.

He didn’t know what effect it had.

If they had the Blood Collapse Water, they might have used it on the Gu poison.

“I don’t know what kind of efficacy the Blood Collapse Water has, but….”

Since it is a treasure that constantly produces blood, it could be said to have some special efficacy.

That’s why it would be an indispensable treasure in the Thousand Autumns, One Day Calamity [a catastrophic event or period of great upheaval].

The Mountain Lord, having organized his thoughts, summoned Tamhwa Ogong. He put the Huan Seon’s elixir made of cocoons in his pocket, collected the Gong Jeong River, and summoned the treasures he had released.

There were a total of five pits made with Gu poison.

One large pit and two smaller ones on each side.

The large pit was over ten spans [a span is the distance between the thumb and little finger of an outstretched hand, roughly 9 inches or 23 centimeters] in diameter. As expected, along with the foul smell that brushed the tip of his nose, the wriggling Chaos Fiends were entangled and dying.

And in the middle of them, one living creature was devouring their corpses.

“……”

The Mountain Lord looked at it pitifully.

The guy’s appearance was terrible.

The upper body could be said to be human, but the lower body was a huge mass mixed with all kinds of beasts.

A spider’s body, a centipede’s legs, a Gyoryong’s [mythical dragon-like creature] tail, etc. There were so many things that it was difficult to even identify them.

It was a bizarre form mixed with various Chaos Fiends due to the Gu poison’s magic.

The human body was in the middle of them.

The upper body looked endlessly weak.

The sturdy lower body was opening its mouth and tearing apart the corpses, but the human that sprouted from the upper body was silently shedding tears. Hwaran was speechless at the ironic sight. She could only look at the Mountain Lord with her endlessly shaking eyes.

“The choice is up to oneself.”

Having said that, the Mountain Lord immediately reached out his hand.

Suddenly, the Nine Ringed Sword was in his hand.

The Mountain Lord unhesitatingly slashed at the barrier blocking the pit.

Crack! With a sound, the barrier shattered.

Swoosh.

The Chaos Fiend, who had been drooping, raised her head. She had a ghostly appearance, but her face must have been beautiful in life.

She looked up at the Mountain Lord.

Her eyes were hazy.

Eyes that had lost the will to live.

“If you want to die, I’ll kill you.”

A Chaos Fiend is a mixture of human and spiritual beast.

It is sometimes used as a material for criminals, but since their original purpose is that, Taoists are also used as test subjects.

The Chaos Fiend in front of him seemed to belong to the latter. It was a bizarrely twisted spiritual power, but he could see it.

The Taoist’s inner core and the spiritual beast’s inner core were mixed but not united.

“……Please kill me.”

“Alright.”

But Hwaran grabbed his hand.

“Mountain Lord.”

She shook her head as if she had a different thought. The Mountain Lord’s brow narrowed.

“Hwaran, sometimes your kindness can make the other person suffer.”

Hwaran is kind.

But her kindness sometimes made herself a Chang Gui [a ghost that lures people to their deaths]. The Mountain Lord didn’t like her kindness very much because Hwaran herself was not included in that kindness.

“Even so, can’t we at least hear why she wants to die?”

He frowned and clicked his tongue.

Then, her gaze, which had become much brighter, stretched out to the Chaos Fiend.

“Why do you want to die? Even if you have become an unwanted body, wouldn’t it be better to live if you can?”

The Chaos Fiend was constantly shedding tears.

There was no hope in her eyes.

“I fell into this place… and killed my fellow disciples, killed my brothers, and even killed my own child because of the spiritual beast’s blood, so what’s the point of living any longer?”

Child.

Hwaran couldn’t possibly not know what that meant.

When he glanced at Hwaran, she looked quite shocked.

What would the heart of a mother who killed her child be like?

How did that child come to be?

How many years had she spent in this pit?

Humans mixed with spiritual beasts.

It became a Chaos Fiend and gave birth to a child.

Until she killed it again.

It must have been an immeasurable amount of time and great pain.

She was living because she couldn’t die.

“Please end it. I have become one with all sorts of things, but I can’t even move my body as I please….”

“B, but….”

“Stop it.”

“But Mountain Lord……!”

“Living might not necessarily make her happy.”

The Mountain Lord took the Nine Ringed Sword from her and continued.

“But it is only up to herself to decide that.”

He pointed the Nine Ringed Sword at her.

But soon he withdrew it.

If she dies by the Nine Ringed Sword, she will be trapped inside it.

That wouldn’t be bad either, but her situation reminded him of the old days.

The Mountain Lord planted the Nine Ringed Sword on the ground and let out a small breath.

From his mouth, a blue flame appeared, flapping its wings. The Azure Bird circled, flapping its wings, and then landed on the Chaos Fiend.

Slowly.

Very slowly, she raised both hands and welcomed the Azure Bird that had landed.

The moment the Azure Bird landed on her hand.

Whirr!

“Ah….”

The Bongak Blue Flame slowly spread through the Chaos Fiend’s body. Blue lightning flashed, and a blue pillar of light soared high into the sky.

The pit, which had been stained with blood, turned blue, and everything in it turned to ashes.

In it, the Chaos Fiend smiled faintly and turned to ashes.

Their ashes fluttered in the wind, causing a strange feeling of relief.

Hwaran and the Mountain Lord stared at her end in front of her for a long time before opening their mouths.

“They are pitiful people.”

“Yeah.”

“Why… are they doing this?”

He could feel the anger that was being suppressed as much as possible. The Mountain Lord turned his back, pretending not to notice Hwaran.

It must be to create the treasure that is implanted and used on the arm.

Right now, it’s just an arm, but in the future, the whole body will be made that way.

“Planting Demon Unification (植魔合臺) [a demonic art involving the fusion of a demon with a living being].”

Right now, it’s just an experiment for that.

“Planting Demon Unification? Isn’t that a demonic art of the Demonic Path that was lost in the Ten Thousand Ages! They’re doing this to restore it….”

Hwaran had a blank expression as if she had been struck on the head.

Making the spiritual beast’s body into a treasure is the priority. And then, unifying it with the body to become a half-human, half-beast.

It’s easy to say, but it’s a realm that’s not easy to reach. Once you become a half-human, half-beast, you can gain a powerful body and divine power, but it’s difficult to become a god.

But even putting that aside, it’s not a bad choice since there would be no one to compare with in the Human Realm.

“I should have killed Gwieum Nachal back then… Tsk.”

The Mountain Lord, having shaken off his thoughts, looked at the other pits.

There, too, the corpses of Chaos Fiends formed a mountain, and there were a few Chaos Fiends who had survived. But there was no mercy to be shown to those who had lost their reason. He took out the Nine Ringed Sword and fed the bellies of the evil spirits with their corpses.

After looking around like that for a while, he narrowed his eyes. The moment his red eyes flashed, he suddenly waved his hand. At that moment, a drop of blood flew from the pit, and the Mountain Lord stared at it intently before raising the corners of his lips.

Swish.

Ryoon and Geummyeong Jisu approached him with the sound of the wind.

“Did you find anything?”

Ryoon and Geummyeong Jisu looked at him with eyes mixed with various emotions before handing him something.

“…This.”

It was a jade box.

When he opened it, a strong scent of blood filled the air.

There was a bottle of medicine with elegant decorations.

When he opened the stopper, a subtle scent of blood stimulated the tip of his nose.

When he floated one drop of it in the air, a silver, brilliant color sparkled in the sunlight.

In front of him, there was a drop of blood and a drop of silver water floating.

The Mountain Lord nodded as he looked at it.

“It’s definitely the blood of the Blood Collapse.”

The Mountain Lord’s prediction was correct.

They had the Blood Collapse Water and were using it to create Chaos Fiends.

The Blood Collapse Water is originally silver, but it must have been combined through some kind of secret technique so that it could be fed to the Chaos Fiends.

But what he found was just one medicine bottle containing the Blood Collapse Water.

The real Blood Collapse Water must be somewhere else. Its location is….

“Who are you guys to cause this commotion in the territory of the Gungbi Fox!!”

At that moment, an old man’s roar echoed throughout Mount Kumgang.

In the sky, about twenty Gungbi Foxes with their wings spread wide covered the sky.