Chapter 132: Wronged Ghost Summons Calamity (9)

“......So there was a cave like this.”

Soyak slowly moved forward, eyes narrowed.

She clapped her hands lightly and gauged the breadth of the interior from the echoing sound.

At this rate, if she tried to examine the whole place, dawn would break before she finished.

It was fine if she did not sleep.

For a master around Transcendent Apex, skipping sleep for a day could be resolved through circulation practice.

But what truly worried her was......

The fact that something had definitely been inside this cave.

Not was.

Had been.

Soyak instinctively felt that something once sealed in this place had been released.

The Demonic Energy seeped into every wall and floor was nothing but a remaining trace.

“......What exactly did they lock up here?”

Aside from the obvious inference that it had something to do with the Demonic Cult.

She needed more clues.

Soyak went deeper down.

And then...... she saw a huge wooden door split in half.

“......A trace of something cut down in a single stroke.......”

It was definitely a trace left by martial arts.

And this sword mark belonged to the Ninefold Heaven Plum Sword.

Soyak slowly looked around.

Pieces of chains and warding chains, presumed to have once blocked the door, were scattered everywhere.

Soyak carefully stepped beyond the broken door.

There was......

A pool of blood and an altar.

And one arm, whose owner she could not identify.

There was also a shriveled corpse with its arm severed.

“......Nothing good happened here.”

The Demonic Energy was dense as well.

Though the source of that Demonic Energy had already vanished, leaving behind nothing but residual echoes.

It was denser than the Demonic Beast she had faced at the Shandong Ak Family.

If the lingering trace alone was this strong......

She could roughly guess what level of object had been imprisoned here.

Assuming the worst-case scenario, it was an object connected to the Demonic Cult Leader, the Heavenly Demon.

In the relatively fortunate scenario, it would be an object connected to their elder-level figures, the Left and Right Luminary Guardians.

“But why, exactly.......”

Had Mount Hua been keeping something like this?

Soyak narrowed her eyes.

After the Demonic Cult collapsed, the Martial Alliance would have tried to dispose of its objects.

The ones that could be destroyed would have been destroyed.

The ones that could not be destroyed would have been sealed.

It was natural to decide that the best sects to take charge of such things would be Daoist or Buddhist sects capable of resisting Demonic Energy.

But exactly what object had been sealed here?

And this shriveled corpse, along with the severed, rotting human arm......

Who were they?

And whose were they?

Soyak lightly pushed the shriveled corpse over with the end of her scabbard.

Then she began searching its clothes.

Unfortunately, she could not find any object that would identify him.

But that did not mean there were no clues at all.

“A Mount Hua martial uniform, and a height a little over six feet.......”

At present, even Cheonjeong, Cheongak, and Cheonju, the tallest among the third-generation disciples, did not exceed six feet.

That meant this corpse was......

At minimum, the corpse of a martial artist with the rank of a second-generation disciple or higher.

Then she simply had to find the person missing from Mount Hua.

Only one thing was strange. If someone had truly gone missing, Soyak could not possibly have failed to know.

A disappearance caused a commotion around it.

At the very least, people would have searched all over Mount Hua to find the person.

“But this arm looks like it was severed several days ago.......”

Had anyone recently suffered a major injury?

Soyak quietly shook her head.

To begin with, the present martial world, ruled by the Martial Alliance, was peaceful aside from battles against Demonic Cult remnants or those unorthodox-faction bastards.

Even those had decreased drastically compared to before the War of the Righteous and Demonic.

And on top of that, losing an arm in a cave like this beneath Mount Hua’s South Peak?

Under normal circumstances......

At that moment, Soyak frowned and muttered.

“Why are there so many abnormal cases lately?”

She let out a deep sigh.

With only the information she had now, this was the limit of her inference.

It was a flimsy, answerless line of reasoning that left every possibility open.

Soyak turned away from that place.

Once the sun rose, she intended to go to Elder Jeonggang and tell him what she had seen today.

He was the Sect Leader’s senior brother.

Of course, there would be certain pieces of information only the Sect Leader knew that he might not......

But if Jeonggang did not know about something in Mount Hua, then it would be fair to say no one did.

As a final check, Soyak tapped the severed arm with the end of her scabbard and flipped it over.

The palm was clearly covered with thick calluses.

Though the arm was half-rotted, judging from its thickness and circumference, it belonged to a man.

And not just any man, but a well-trained martial artist.

“......Should I look for someone who had his arm cut off recently?”

It would probably be useless.

Soyak considered making inquiries, then shook her head.

The fewer people knew about this kind of place and this kind of incident, the better.

For now, the priority was to inform Jeonggang, Eunsong, and Myeonggon.

After that, they could decide the direction of their next move.

Thinking that, Soyak walked out of the cave.

*****

“Someone came by.”

The Young Cult Leader murmured.

Jeongyang narrowed his eyes, showing his discomfort.

Because this was troublesome.

“Only the Sect Leader and the next Sect Leader should know this place’s location.”

“What secret in this world is ever truly kept? There are times when something gets exposed by chance even though no one told anyone.”

He was right.

No matter how hard one tried to hide something, it was sometimes discovered by coincidence.

Still, if there was one fortunate thing, it was the fact that the footprints entering and leaving belonged to exactly one person.

And......

Judging from the consistency of the depth in the footprints, that person had turned back not long after entering.

What that meant was simple.

“......It seems they still failed to figure out what was here.”

“From the rather small size of the footprints, it was a woman. And one with small feet.”

Just as Soyak had inferred the situation in this place.

They could do the same.

The Young Cult Leader narrowed his eyes and measured the depth of the footprints with his finger.

“Are there many women in the Mount Hua Sect?”

“......Not many.”

“Anyone shorter than five feet?”

“Even fewer.”

“Among them, anyone with powerful martial arts?”

Jeongyang narrowed his eyes.

With each question the Young Cult Leader threw out, the scope of the pursuit narrowed.

And with the final question, the answer emerged.

It was not that Mount Hua had no women.

If one looked, there would also be short women.

But among them, someone whose martial arts could be called powerful?

Among Mount Hua’s women, the only ones who had learned martial arts were female disciples.

Naturally, they would not teach martial arts to the women who worked in the kitchens or the maids.

And among those female disciples, how many could be called powerful?

First, there were none among the second-generation disciples.

By the Young Cult Leader’s standards, for the words “powerful martial arts” to come out, the person would have to be at least Transcendent Apex.

And a female Mount Hua disciple at that level......

There was only one.

“We have our answer.”

“Ha. Does Mount Hua have so little talent?”

“That is quite an arrogant remark, Young Cult Leader.”

Jeongyang narrowed his eyes and snapped back.

“By your standards, would a person not need to be around Transcendent Apex for you to say their martial arts are powerful?”

“Judging from the size of the feet, she looks young. You are saying there is a girl who has reached Transcendent Apex?”

“Yes, there is. Exactly one.......”

Jeongyang’s gaze turned far into the distance.

The Young Cult Leader followed his gaze.

At the end {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} of it, the Flower-Haze Hall building could be seen in the distance, small and far away.

“A third-generation disciple?”

“That’s right. She was born under the Heavenly Killing Star. Like your Cult Leader.”

Jeongyang did not see it.

But the corners of the Young Cult Leader’s mouth had risen lightly.

The leader of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult was called the Heavenly Demon.

Born under the Heavenly Killing Star, he worshiped the Malevolent God that originated from the immeasurable, unbound abyss between stars, the god they served.

And he was the only one who could know, hear, and speak that Malevolent God’s name.

Things are becoming interesting.

All of those conditions had to be fulfilled before one could be called the Heavenly Demon.

Being born under the Heavenly Killing Star did not necessarily mean one would become the Heavenly Demon, but......

The Young Cult Leader was certain.

With his powerful, pure Demonic Energy, he could bring that unknown girl to her knees, tame her, and tear her open.

He would rip apart her mind, heart, and soul......

And use her as ritual material needed to find the Heavenly Demon, who must be sleeping somewhere.

She should be of that much quality.

“Young Cult Leader. There is one thing I am curious about.”

“What is it?”

“The Heavenly Demon who ruled you is dead. If the Demonic Cult rises again, will you become the new Heavenly Demon?”

At those words, the Young Cult Leader burst into a wild, arrogant laugh.

It was such a savage laugh that even Jeongyang, Sect Leader of the Great Mount Hua Sect, was startled enough to take one step back.

Though it was a person laughing, it looked so evil and ferocious that it seemed impossible for a human face to appear that way.

Only after laughing like that for a long while.

The Young Cult Leader glared at Jeongyang with shining eyes and answered.

“No.”

“......What?”

“The Heavenly Demon is not dead, Jeongyang.”