Did he want to get out of here?
Jin Mudo's words carried considerable weight for Murin.
'He means it!'
His attitude, which had been cynical until now, had changed drastically from the moment the words "North Wind Sect" were spoken.
And judging from the conversation afterward, Murin could tell that his hostility toward the Palace of Ten Thousand Demons ran even deeper.
'We have the same targets for revenge.'
Enemies he wanted to tear apart and kill at once.
The thing Jin Mudo and Murin had in common was that their enemies were the same.
"Old man, you, the one called Unopposable, could not get out of this place. Are you asking whether I can?"
Jin Mudo laughed coldly at Murin's words.
"If you listen only to me, it is entirely possible."
"Then why don't you get out yourself?"
Perhaps sensing Murin's wariness in his words, Jin Mudo let out a short sigh.
"The most important thing to a martial artist is the lower qi center. Yet as you can see, mine has been completely destroyed. It was the work of my first disciple, Hwa Gwangcheon."
Murin furrowed his brow.
He knew that the qi center was of great importance to martial artists. But the one who had destroyed Jin Mudo's qi center was his first disciple!
"And the muscular pathways in one's arms and legs are essential for using movement arts and martial techniques such as swordsmanship and palm arts. But look at me. This was a gift from my second disciple, Cheol Mugeuk."
Like branches that had withered after dying long ago, Jin Mudo's limbs were horrific beyond measure.
"And what of my eyes? One must see to find one's way, must one not? Yet the one who gouged out my eyes and presented them to the Martial Alliance was my third disciple, Jo Yunok."
The more Murin heard, the more tragic the old man's life seemed.
How had a man who had earned the renown of being the foremost man of the Demonic Path been betrayed by his disciples and reduced to this state?
"For those reasons, I cannot leave. And I have lived too long; I do not have much life left."
Murin nodded.
They were understandable reasons.
"Will you go out and carry out my vengeance for me?"
But Murin shook his head this time.
"You were dragged here helplessly yourself. How can I, who knows nothing at all about martial arts, escape from this place?"
Jin Mudo let out a derisive laugh.
"What a fool! How do you think my disciples subdued me?"
"They ambushed you in your sleep, perhaps...."
Then killing intent radiated from Jin Mudo's entire body.
"The bastards used twenty poisons and five drugs that cloud the mind to subdue me. Even in that state, I nearly killed them. That is the martial art I cultivated: the Mad Heaven Demonic Art."
Murin nodded as if he accepted this, but then immediately tilted his head.
"About that Mad Heaven Demonic Art. You must have cultivated it your entire life, old man, but I do not have that kind of time."
"Tsk, how can you be so frustrating! Do you think I would teach you in such an ordinary way and send you off?"
"Well, even if you say that, I cannot quite believe you."
Jin Mudo ground his teeth.
"Damn it! Do you know why the Mad Heaven Demonic Art is called the greatest martial art of all time?"
"I do not."
At Murin's deliberately innocent manner, Jin Mudo grew more heated and spoke in a completely subdued voice.
"In one year, you will be able to escape this place."
"Who would believe that? How could one master the greatest martial art of all time in just one year?"
"Keh! You little brat keep provoking me!"
Jin Mudo clicked his tongue and spoke again.
"You are the sort who must see hell before begging for mercy. Fine, I will show you my hell."
Whoosh—
"...!"
Murin's body suddenly went rigid.
He could not believe it.
The surroundings that had been filled with nothing but dense darkness suddenly burst into enormous flames, and countless decaying corpses appeared, moving toward him.
"Fight. If you cannot defeat even these things, you are not qualified to learn the Mad Heaven Demonic Art."
He did not know what this was.
Even as this shocking sight unfolded before him, Murin forced himself to collect his thoughts.
He was certain it was an illusion, but the scene around him was far too vivid.
"Do you think this old man has been idling for a hundred years? Keh! Do you think you are the only one who has entered this Heavenly Prison in all that time?"
Murin furrowed his brow.
"Endure it. Prove that you can take your revenge with your own hands."
At Jin Mudo's mocking words, Murin bit his lip hard.
In truth, at the old man's offer to teach him martial arts, the words asking to be taught had risen to Murin's throat.
But because he did not know what Jin Mudo was plotting, he was deliberately testing him instead.
'The Mad Heaven Demonic Art, is it?'
And there was something important.
Even if he cultivated the Mad Heaven Demonic Art, he could not know whether he would truly be able to escape this place.
But if Jin Mudo could command an illusion formation like the one spread around them now, his words did not seem to be lies.
Yet Jin Mudo was testing him as well.
'Then there is only one way.'
Murin had already finished calculating in his mind.
'I have to provoke the old man and learn everything from him! Merely getting out of here has no meaning.'
So far, his intention seemed to be working to some extent.
'First, I survive against them. That comes first!'
Murin clenched his fists as he looked at the corpses slowly approaching him.
He did not know what trick had been used, but if they attacked him, the result was certain to be unpleasant.
'Hoo....'
Though he had lived as an inn servant, Murin had always been naturally good at physical labor.
"Kyaak!"
One corpse opened its mouth and lunged at him.
The stench of rot washed over him.
But Murin was too focused on the creature's movements to feel it.
Crack!
The corpse attacked Murin more quickly than he had expected, but Murin did not simply take the blow.
He picked up a nearby rock and smashed it into the corpse's head.
A revolting smell spread through the air. The corpse staggered, then fell.
"Come on!"
The remaining corpses seemed to stand around blankly for a moment, then began rushing at him all at once.
"Urgh!"
More than ten corpses rushed at him at once, and even Murin could not help being overwhelmed.
But he quickly rolled along the floor and first evaded their attack.
Then he sprang up, grabbed one corpse's arm, and broke it at once.
Crack—
The unpleasant sensation traveled through him, but Murin had no time to care.
"Kyaak!"
The corpse seized Murin's shoulder fiercely with its other hand and thrust its teeth at him. Its sharp fangs were deeply threatening.
Thud!
At that instant, Murin threw his head back, then slammed it into the creature's skull.
As the corpse flew backward, Murin swung the rock in his hand with all his strength.
The corpse fell back with a sound like a pumpkin bursting. But Murin could not watch it meet its end.
"Kyaaaak!"
"Kyaak!"
The corpses had become an entire mass and were swarming over Murin.
"Urgh!"
One grabbed his arm, another seized his leg, and their teeth sank deep into him.
Even knowing this was not reality, the pain was so agonizing that his mind nearly went blank.
"Argh!"
As blood sprayed, the corpses began to thrash about even more madly.
And that was not the end.
As if they had smelled blood, corpses came pouring in from somewhere, crazed.
"Come at me, you fucking bastards!"
If he could not shake them off, it was over.
Gritting his teeth, Murin punched and kicked at them as he struggled.
How long had he rammed them with his head and rolled about on the floor with them?
"Huff, huff!"
Murin barely remained standing, wounded all over.
Several corpses lay around him, but even more were advancing before his eyes.
Looking at the approaching corpses that poured forth revolting desire from their eyes, Murin wiped around his mouth with his sleeve and said,
"Hey, old man! Is this supposed to be enough? This is not even enough to warm me up!"
Thud!
Jin Mudo was surely watching him from somewhere.
He was probably testing Murin against his own standard.
But he would not know.
The more Murin fought, the more hot blood coursed through his body, the more completely insane he became.
Crunch!
The corpses fell one after another.
At the same time, wounds multiplied across Murin's body, but he did not care.
"Aaaah!"
Covered in the corpse fluids and rotten blood of bodies that reeked all over, he charged forward and ran into the thronging corpses.
"Kyaaaah!"
The corpses also raged madly in proportion to his madness.
Jin Mudo watched all of it.
What he had deployed was an illusion technique called the Dead Realm Entangling Formation.
It had been laid down by Sa Giljin, the Nightbreaker Master, who had been imprisoned here fifty years ago.
Sa Giljin had been highly skilled in formations, and the Martial Alliance, having suffered tremendous damage because of him, had imprisoned him here.
'It is only the first stage of the Dead Realm Entangling Formation, yet he resists this fiercely? A vicious seed truly is a vicious seed!'
Martial artists might be different, but the Dead Realm Entangling Formation was such a vicious illusion formation that an ordinary person who became trapped in its first stage would immediately go mad.
Yet this mad bastard was doing everything he could to survive inside it....
Had Jin Mudo's eyes remained, they would have shone with intense interest.
'A Heavenly Kill Star truly is a Heavenly Kill Star, then? Keh heh heh! What an interesting body!'
A cold smile formed at the corner of his mouth.
He had met numerous demonic practitioners and eccentric figures during his hundred years imprisoned here, but someone born a Heavenly Kill Star really was different in some way.
'If I unleash him upon the world, it will truly be entertaining! Keh heh heh heh!'
He had long since realized that no matter what he tried, he could not leave the Heavenly Prison in his condition.
But the fire he carried in his heart did not grow smaller as time passed. It only grew hotter and larger, to the point of driving him mad.
It had already been decades since he began pondering day and night how he would repay this grudge.
'Keep going! Show me more of yourself!'
Without realizing it, Jin Mudo wore a killing smile.
His body trembled, and for the first time in a long while, his heart raced. Vitality returned to his twisted, rotted body, like a dry, withered tree.
The three characters that made up the name Jin Mudo, which would have been buried here and vanished forever, were crying out to live once more after meeting Cheon Murin.
Thud!
"Heh heh...."
In that instant, Murin began to laugh softly as he slammed one corpse's head into a wall.
"Hey, old man."
Then, with eyes completely gone mad, he looked toward Jin Mudo and spoke.
"Could you give me more of this? Only now...."
The killing smile that had just appeared on Jin Mudo's lips was slowly spreading across Murin's lips as well.
"...is my body starting to heat up."
Feeling this, Jin Mudo shuddered.
But only for a moment; he, too, smiled brightly.
The boy wanted to take his revenge, yes, but he also wanted to kill more.
To take the lives of the living and throw everything into chaos through a frenzy of blood.
If he could, Jin Mudo felt like applauding him.
"Yes, yes! Keep going!"
Jin Mudo and Cheon Murin.
The two smiled at each other through an invisible wall.
A madman and someone even madder.
It was their first meeting.