Chapter 56: Black Shadow Exploration (1)

Searching for secrets within the dark shadow.

Sasaha took off her shoes and dipped her feet into the valley stream.

As the cold water brushed against her toes, she finally let out a satisfied sigh.

“Refreshing.”

Sasaha wiggled her toes, splashing lightly. Sunlight reflected off the rippling water, scattering in glittering sparks.

“Captain.”

From behind, Jin Mukran carefully approached.

“How long has it been since you stopped serving in the training hall, and you’re still calling me Captain? Just call me Unnie.”

Sasaha spoke without turning around, her gaze fixed on the water.

“Ma Ungyeol of the True Armies is in Danhong Valley.”

“And? Where’s Gugwi then?”

Sasaha’s voice remained calm and unhurried, as though she were making small talk about the weather.

“It seems the Wind Sword Swordsman has joined Gugwi.”

Jin Mukran reported.

“And where exactly is Gugwi?”

Sasaha asked again, dipping her feet deeper into the stream.

“He has probably gone to Stone Mountain. That was the place most cherished by the Wind Sword Swordsman.”

For the first time, Sasaha turned her head to look at Jin Mukran. Droplets of water fell from her feet, pattering onto the rocks.

“You still haven’t let go of your attachment to the Wind Sword Swordsman, have you?”

Jin Mukran’s face stiffened.

“I cast away such feelings long ago.”

“I may very well kill the Wind Sword Swordsman. If you still have lingering feelings, don’t follow me. I dislike watching someone wear that grim expression.”

Sasaha spoke coldly, turning back toward the water.

“It is right for him to die by my hand.”

Jin Mukran’s voice carried firm resolve.

“Love and hate… how terrifying.”

Sasaha smirked with a cold laugh as she pulled her feet from the water. Droplets fell onto the rock, making small tapping sounds.

On the road to Stone Mountain lay Budohyeop.

Budohyeop was a rugged valley, as though a giant axe had cleaved a mountain in two. The cliffs on both sides towered into the sky, leaving even sunlight struggling to seep through.

On either side of the narrow path, oddly shaped rocks jutted upward, sharp like the edge of an axe blade.

Crunch! Crunch!

The gravel beneath their feet crackled with each step.

From deep within the gorge came the faint murmur of water, though it was too far down to be seen.

“Once we pass through here, it’s Stone Mountain.”

Jang Unhyeok said, walking in the lead.

“Why is it called Stone Mountain? Because it’s covered in rocks?”

Gugwi asked curiously.

“No, it’s because the mountain juts out abruptly, like a stone spike. That’s why it’s called Stone Mountain.”

Jang Unhyeok explained with a smile.

“At first, I had only intended to pass through. But I was enchanted by the scenery and wandered deeper… and that’s where I met the Wind Wave Swordsman. Now, he’s my left arm.”

He spoke proudly about the Wind Wave Swordsman.

“A swordsman who roamed the Central Plains a hundred and fifty years ago. A free soul. He suits my impulsive nature.”

He caressed the Wind Wave Sword in his left hand as he spoke.

“The Wind Wave Frenzy moves in unpredictable trajectories…”

It was then.

From among the Twelve True Armies, the Tenth Army’s Sasaha suddenly appeared.

She emerged like a ghost from the shadows of the rocks, so silent it was as if she had seeped out of the stone itself. There was no sound of footsteps, no presence to sense. From between the jagged rocks of Budohyeop, she appeared so naturally that it seemed she had been there all along.

There was no chance to evade. They had run straight into her.

‘Even the Spirit Flow Core didn’t sense her.’

Inside, Gugwi was deeply alarmed.

Normally, the Spirit Flow Core would have detected the aura of a Spirit Summoner and warned him, but this time it had given no reaction at all.

Sasaha’s martial arts—her Soul-Summoning Arts—were far more advanced than expected.

‘She can completely conceal her spiritual energy? Such mastery…’

“It really is the Spirit Flow Core.”

Sasaha looked Gugwi up and down with a piercing gaze.

“How did I miss it back then? I should live with a bit more caution.”

Her voice brimmed with ease, as though she were welcoming a long-awaited guest.

As the four stood facing one another in the narrow space of Budohyeop, the tension spiked sharply. The looming cliffs pressed down upon them, while the axe-blade rocks added a cutting edge to the atmosphere.

Clang! Chang!

Jang Unhyeok swiftly drew two swords. The Blazing Spirit Sword and the Wind Wave Sword radiated crimson and azure energies. Behind him, two Spirit Union martial artists lined up in formation.

“How dare you!”

Sasaha mocked with a laugh.

“Our positions are now opposed. I will give my all.”

Jang Unhyeok raised his swords, bracing himself.

At that moment, Jin Mukran appeared.

“You’re mine. You must die by my hand.”

“Mukran!”

“Don’t you dare speak my name with that filthy mouth!”

Swiish!

Jin Mukran drew the Four Sun Sword and charged at Jang Unhyeok.

Jin Mukran’s eyes changed.

Expanding her consciousness into the Realm of the Threshold, she called upon the spirit of the Four Sun Swordsman who had swept across the Central Plains two hundred years ago. A crimson aura wrapped around her body, and the Four Sun Sword shone like the blazing sun.

Swiishhh!

Four Sun Gust! Jin Mukran swung her sword wide.

From a single motion, four sword qis erupted simultaneously, hemming in Jang Unhyeok from all directions. The solar-like brilliance filled the narrow confines of Budohyeop.

Jang Unhyeok hastily retreated, pressing a hand against his chest.

From the Mount Hua Sect, the legendary swordsman, the Fire Spirit Warrior, responded to his summons. A fiery aura engulfed his body, while blazing heat burst from the Blazing Spirit Sword like erupting fireworks.

Blazing Firestorm!

From Jang Unhyeok’s blade, flames exploded outward.

The scorching fire clashed against Jin Mukran’s four sword qis, colliding head-on. Flame and sword qi smashed against each other, the deafening shockwave reverberating through the gorge.

Boom! Crack! Jjaaang!

Jang Unhyeok swiftly raised his left hand.

This time, the spirit of a wandering swordsman from a hundred and fifty years ago descended into him. From the Wind Wave Sword surged a gale-like energy.

Wind Wave Frenzy!

Twelve consecutive strikes of unpredictable trajectories shot toward Jin Mukran.

The sword curved and twisted like the wind itself.

The sword strikes aimed straight for her openings.

Jin Mukran flinched and twisted her body in alarm. But the final strike of Wind Wave Frenzy grazed her shoulder, tearing her collar.

“Blood Shadow Assassin!”

Jin Mukran summoned the Blood Shadow Assassin from the depths of the Realm of the Threshold. When the bloodthirsty spirit descended into her left arm, a dark crimson aura burst forth from the Blood Shadow Blade.

“Blood Shadow Slash!”

Blade and sword moved as one. The crimson blade energy of the Blood Shadow Blade coiled like a serpent around Jang Unhyeok’s Blazing Spirit Sword, while the Four Sun Sword’s sunlike radiance aimed at his throat.

Jang Unhyeok likewise drew upon the strength of two spirits at once. Flames blazed from the Blazing Spirit Sword, while gales surged from the Wind Wave Sword. The two forces fused together, forming the Harmony of Flame and Wind.

“Mukran! Step back! I have no reason to fight you!”

The Wind Sword Swordsman roared as he unleashed Flame-Wind Strike, a blow combining fire and storm.

Jin Mukran crossed the Four Sun Sword and Blood Shadow Blade to block, but the overwhelming force of the combined attack drove her three steps backward.

“Kik! You’ve grown stronger. Is this what made you arrogant?”

“Mukran!”

“I told you not to speak my name with that filthy mouth!”

Swiish!

She lunged at him with even greater ferocity.

The rocks of Budohyeop cracked beneath their fierce clash, stone dust scattering into the air.

Sasaha traced her right hand through the air.

The spirit of the Black Wind answered from the Realm of the Threshold, and dark gales swirled around her. The black wind wrapped Gugwi, disrupting his resonance with Un Serim and General Madal.

“What?”

Gugwi faltered.

Suddenly, the presence of those two spirits—almost like his second self—grew faint.

At the same time, Sasaha’s left hand moved.

The spirit of Kang Sojin, master of poisons, descended into her arm, and a green mist spread toward Yeon Sohye.

“So Ryeonghwa!”

Yeon Sohye hastily deployed the Silver Spirit Technique to block the poison, but some of the mist seeped into her nose and mouth.

Her body grew heavy, her movements sluggish.

“A cowardly ambush!”

“Ah! For the Captain of the Dark Blood Unit to say such a thing? Do you not know the battle begins the instant you face your enemy? Don’t speak such rustic words. You disappoint me.”

Then suddenly, Gugwi clutched his chest with a groan.

“Kuugh!”

Another blow struck.

An unseen force crashed into his chest. His inner wounds had not yet healed, and now his ribs ached while his breath was crushed.

Sasaha smiled leisurely as she approached, wearing the expression of a hunter watching her prey.

“I dislike toppling prey this way, but the Spirit Flow Core is far too important. If the Seventh Army fell, and the Eleventh Army failed to seize it, then it must hold something. The fact that someone of my level struck first—take that as recognition of your worth.”

Speaking calmly, she summoned the spirit of an assassin.

That spirit, once called Jin Mukgyeol, was a master of striking vital points from the shadows.

In an instant, Sasaha’s form blurred.

Already possessed! She became a shadow and shifted instantly into Gugwi’s blind spot.

“Gugwi!”

Yeon Sohye tried to block her, but poisoned, she reacted too slowly. No—she simply could not keep up with Sasaha’s speed. Compared to Sasaha, her movements were far too slow.

Thud!

Sasaha’s fingers—her index and middle—stabbed precisely into Gugwi’s Guigweol Acupoint, two inches below the solar plexus, where the meridians of heart and liver intersected.

Chak!

With a sharp sound, her fingers pierced into his chest. From the tips, dark poisonous qi surged, forcing its way between bone and muscle.

Gugwi’s body stiffened instantly.

The Guigweol Acupoint was the key meridian to the heart. Block it, and the heart would stop, while the circulation of qi to the liver would also be severed.

“Kuugh!”

Foamy blood spilled from Gugwi’s mouth.

Sasaha’s inner qi pierced his vital point, trying to extinguish the flame of his life. His face began to turn bluish.

Sasaha drove her fingers deeper.

At that depth, her fingers pressed directly against the blood vessels near his heart.

“Puaahk!”

Gugwi vomited black blood and collapsed backward.

Struck at the Guigweol Acupoint, his soul began to slip free from the confines of his body. The prelude to death.

Boom!

From his heart, a burst of blue light surged and gathered in his Dantian. The Spirit Flow Core seized his soul, rejecting death.

“What is this!”

Sasaha recoiled, trying to pull her hand free, but the blue radiance pouring from Gugwi’s chest froze her fingers in place.

The power erupting from the Spirit Flow Core rippled outward like waves, spreading in concentric rings that swept across the entirety of Budohyeop.

Then something strange occurred.

All pathways linking the Realm of the Threshold and the present world were instantly cut off. The Spirit Flow Core’s pure force cleansed all yin energy that sustained spirits.

“What—?”

Jang Unhyeok’s Fire Spirit Warrior vanished in an instant. Jin Mukran’s Four Sun Swordsman and Blood Shadow Assassin disappeared as well. Like smoke scattered by a strong wind, the spirits were gone.

Even Sasaha’s four Spirit Union souls were no exception. The Black Wind, Kang Sojin, the assassin Jin Mukgyeol, and Wi Unseo all fled deep into the Realm of the Threshold.

So Ryeonghwa’s So Ryeonghwa spirit and Gale Spirit Guest also vanished.

The places swept by the blue radiance were wholly purified. A pure space where spirits could no longer exist had formed. Like a sacred flame burning away all shadows, the power of the Spirit Flow Core turned Budohyeop into a spiritless zone.

A deep stillness fell.

Within a radius of one hundred jang, no spirit remained—only the living stood in a perfect spiritless domain.

At the same time, the Spirit Flow Core firmly grasped Gugwi’s soul. Drawing it back into his body through the Guigweol Acupoint, it began restoring his life force.

In that moment, Gugwi rose.

“Keuugh!”

He vomited black blood. Though it was dead blood, expelled from within, he yet lived.

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