Back atop the altar in the Black Buddha's seat, Zen Master Mucho closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
The plan was to let one Hundred Wonders Pill restore a measure of his vitality, then take the remaining two to heal his internal injuries.
Of course, he had yet to receive those two pills.
"Please tell him I've gone ahead to scout Heaven-Reaching Pass."
Cheol-u nodded and headed outside.
Scouting was what he called it, but finding the spirit creature was the real objective.
Would Cheol-u, who was connected to the Huizhou Merchant Guild, really just relay that message to the party and leave it at that?
Not a chance.
He would slyly claim credit and try to leverage a better position in his dealings with the Huizhou Merchant Guild.
And the people who heard he had gone searching for the spirit creature would not sit idle either.
If this gave him a chance to learn more about the relationship between Jegal Su-ran, Sanggwan Hyeok, Danri Myeong, and the Huizhou Merchant Guild, all the better.
Hyeol-u gazed at his master, Zen Master Mucho, for a moment.
Just seeing him alive was enough.
No matter that the master had turned a blind eye to the life-and-death struggles among the brothers--he was still the Hell Reaper's master.
Was meeting him again this time a stroke of fortune, or misfortune?
His thoughts deepened.
The battle against Blood Sand Wind--the great curtain that ruled the murim from the shadows--had already begun.
They were surely watching the Namgung Clan's march through the jianghu as well.
The hour was the Rooster--around seven in the evening. The moon was bright and the air was clear.
Peek.
Geum-a poked its head out of his robes. Seeming to be in good spirits, it let out a whistle-like chirp and flapped both wings before hopping up to perch on his shoulder.
Geum-a's firm grip on his shoulder pinched the flesh a little, and it stung--but it was the bird's first time, so he let it pass.
Before long.
The deeper he walked along the path, the more the bamboo canopy completely obscured the sky.
A mountain wind blew in from somewhere, sharp enough that Geum-a burrowed into his robes with a coo.
The bamboo grove, which had seemed to stretch on forever, abruptly ended, and two boulders appeared as though they had split the sky in two.
On the flank of one boulder, the characters for "Heaven-Reaching Pass" were carved in red.
From a distance it had looked barely wide enough for one person to squeeze through, but rounding the corner of the boulder revealed a gap ample enough for a carriage to pass with room to spare.
Beyond lay seven ponds arranged in the shape of the Big Dipper, leading to a mountain lake.
Black Dragon Lake.
Clinging to the sheer cliff beside the lake, a small hermitage sat as though suspended in the void.
Black-Face Hermitage.
Three hundred years ago, the Black-Face Blood Buddha--founder of the Black Dragon Temple--had spent his final years here. Now it was half in ruins.
Hyeol-u sank into bittersweet memories.
Whenever he grew weary of training, he had sometimes dived into the lake.
Heh. It was no splash-and-play affair.
The lake bed, where aquatic plants grew thick as coral reefs, was where they hid--and who could hold their breath the longest was the lifeline that separated life from death.
'I never imagined a spirit creature lived in the underwater caves beneath this lake.'
They say you never see what's right under your nose, but even if he had stumbled upon the cave and seen the creature back then, would he have recognized it as a spirit creature?
Five-Colored Spider.
A thousand-year-old spider bearing five colors on its body.
Frankly, it beggared the imagination.
The book "Records of Strange Objects and Marvels Under Heaven" was filled with legendary spirit creatures and venomous beasts.
But he had only heard rumors of the book itself.
Perhaps it was nothing special at all--something that had simply lived too long and happened to have unusual coloring, then got blown out of proportion.
Hyeol-u recalled the records of the Absolute Invincible Martial World Travelogue.
My, what a sight! Bizarre rock formations dazzling enough to make your head spin, and waters so clear and blue they'd take your breath away!
After wandering through a sea of green bamboo that stretched endlessly, I emerged at a rocky mountain called Heaven-Reaching Pass, where I found a lake of water green as jade, shimmering before me......(abridged)......There, I met a pitch-black monk with eight ordination scars stamped on his dark forehead.
The damn monk claimed the entire mountain was his and threatened me to leave at once. Well, everything under heaven has its owner, I suppose--but one look told me the monk hadn't been here long himself.
So we fought an earth-shattering duel over this mountain and lake.
The monk was strong, I'll give him that. After three days and nights and thousands of exchanges, I won by a margin of half a technique.
The moment the outcome was settled, the monk started calling me "Elder Brother" and begging. Know what he said? He'd give me something else in return, so please, let him keep this mountain--whining on and on.
What could I do? Beating the monk didn't actually make it my land. When the monk told me a Thousand-Year Five-Colored Spider lived inside the lake, I agreed--only to lose my mind. He said it still needed another three hundred years before becoming a thousand-year spirit creature! Bah, what a fraud of a monk.
O descendant! If you are a scion of the Namgung Clan three hundred years hence, I hereby bequeath the rights to the Five-Colored Spider unto you--claim it and become a beacon to the multitudes of living beings.>
What an incredible bluffer. Making the fate of multitudes ride on a single spirit creature.
Calling the Black Dragon Temple's founder a fraud felt a bit uncomfortable, too.
In any case, the Five-Colored Spider did rightfully belong to him.
'Still, this three-hundred-year-old legend was resurrected through Master Mucho's own mouth--am I really supposed to believe it?'
Well, it was not as if he would turn back over a few doubts.
All he had to do was dive into the lake and find the cave where the creature dwelled. That would settle the question of truth.
Hyeol-u pretended to gaze quietly down at the lake while extending his qi sense outward.
'Oh! Quite a few of them.'
He recalled the dozens of masters who had been tailing him at a set distance along the way.
It was hard to say they were all connected to the Huizhou Merchant Guild.
'Good--they've entered through the gap between the Heaven-Reaching Pass boulders. At that distance, they should be able to see me.'
Lure them in and eliminate them!
Hyeol-u gauged the distance, then dove straight into the lake.
WHOOSH, TAP!
A man and a woman clad in yellow light-armor appeared at the lakeshore where Hyeol-u had just stood.
The man was in his late twenties: a gaunt face on a lean frame, slitted eyes and a pointed chin adding a cold, forbidding air. The woman was tall for a female, her slender figure striking beneath a black veil.
"Third Brother. Seeing him jump into the lake, there must really be a spirit creature inside, don't you think?"
Her voice was remarkably smooth, yet frigid.
"That would be the safe assumption."
His voice had a wasp-sting quality to it, as though drilling into the ear canals with venom.
It suited his features, one might say.
"Heh heh. If it's real, then this is killing two birds with one stone. Good thing we listened to Auntie."
"Indeed. Scooping up the crumbs like this. That's how the world works. One man cooks, another eats."
To their left and right, some twenty fighters swept past.
Their actions were unhesitating, as though already briefed. They paired off and took positions at key points around the lake.
"I'll go in. What about you, Brother?"
The veiled woman declared she would dive in without a moment's hesitation.
The young man stepped onto the spot where Hyeol-u had paused and asked cautiously.
"Won't it be dangerous?"
"No. Besides, what if there's a separate way out at the bottom of that lake? Then what? We'd be the dog that chased the chicken and came up empty."
"W-well, that's......"
"Heh. If you don't want to go in, then don't. Just don't try to claim a share later."
"Hey, hey, fine. This girl looks down on her brother, I swear. Let's go in together."
Just then, a fighter with a face as long as a horse's approached.
He was Yeo Bul-wi, Captain of the Absolute Valor Unit--one of the Sichuan Tang Clan's two great military forces, the Absolute Valor Unit and the Black Heaven Unit.
"Third Young Master, Young Lady. If the two of you intend to go in, we must accompany you. If we end up as the dog that lost the chicken, there'll be a severe reprimand."
The veiled woman--Tang Ga-ryeong, sole daughter of Tang Mu-gi, head of the Sichuan Tang Clan--smirked.
"Fine. Do that."
"Understood. Then."
Yeo Bul-wi bowed and withdrew.
***
The gibbous half-moon's light reached only to the surface of the lake. A short dive plunged him straight into ink-black darkness that devoured his vision.
At times like these, one relied primarily on hearing and touch rather than what little sight remained.
Pushing through the currents pressing against the underwater forest of weeds, Hyeol-u felt a helpless sense of being adrift in a vast, open sea.
After being swept by the currents several times, his ability to perceive his surroundings in all directions had vanished entirely.
"Huuph, huuuph."
His breathing grew increasingly labored and his mind went foggy.
He held out a little longer, and his body stiffened as dizziness set in.
'Haa, should I go back up?'
Doing so would expose his position to the group pursuing him.
But he was out of options now.
The very instant he was about to surface, he heard a fish brush past his body, snag on something, thrash--and then get dragged away.
As if caught on a fishing line.
'Could it be?'
A memory from the Travelogue surfaced.
Certain species of spider bundled their silk into balls and hurled them to snare prey at long range.
'There's a spider somewhere down here, and it just snatched its catch.'
Hyeol-u made a sharp turn toward where the fish had been dragged.
How far had he moved?
A pitch-black hole yawned open like a bottomless pit.
'There!'
Hyeol-u plunged into the cave opening.
His body rose upward, and the moment he felt warm air envelop his face, he hurriedly expelled his labored breath.
"Wheeww......"
A sigh of relief escaped on its own.
He pulled himself out of the opening and looked around the cave.
Luminescent stones embedded here and there gave the cave a ruddy glow. On one side of the floor, water gushing from the hole he had emerged from flowed in a channel.
'Why is it so hot in here?'
Somewhere, magma that had yet to cool seemed to be flowing still.
Whether it was his imagination or not, the ceiling felt as though it was trembling ever so slightly.
As his eyes gradually adjusted to the darkness, the ceiling--which had appeared pitch-black like a curtain--revealed its true form.
"Huh!"
Hyeol-u could not help but be startled.
From ones the size of a finger joint to those as big as an adult's fist.
Countless black spiders clung to the ceiling in a dense mass, beyond all counting.
Their bright yellow eyes stabbed at his own like sharp pecks.
The floor was carpeted mostly with fish bones, though quite a few resembled animal bones as well.
A graveyard of skeletons, one might call it.
Most had decayed, but several looked as fresh as if they had just been devoured.
"Ha, these things caught them all with fishing lines."
SCRITCH. SCRITCH-SCRITCH.
The moment he registered the spiders, a bone-chilling sound of gnawing reached his ears.
Whether that was the signal to attack--
SWISH--!
Silver threads of spider silk, launched from dozens of points, spun like ropes as they hurtled toward him.
***
Just then, Geum-a poked its head out of his robes, golden eyes flashing bright.
"Hey! Geum-a, wait!"
The instant he shouted, the bird glanced back at him, let out a coo-coo-coo, and flapped its wings to soar toward the ceiling.
The webs that had been shooting at Hyeol-u from all directions retracted even faster than they had appeared.
And then.
SKREEEK. SKRAAK, SQUAWK.
Amid a chorus of varied shrieks, spiders--struck mainly in the eyes and hearts--fell helplessly, like honeybees stung by hornets.
'Wow......'
***
Where on earth did he go?
She simply could not hold her breath any longer.
And yet, judging by the reactions of the fighters stationed along the shore, he had never surfaced.
"Going back in."
Just as she bit her lip and prepared to dive again, her expression changed sharply.
Something black as ants surged up from the water and bumped against her exposed arms.
"What's this?"
"What the--why are these spiders so huge?"
"That's not the point. Look. Their heads, eyes, and hearts have all been gouged out."
"Then......?"
"Yes. He's invaded their habitat."
She did not need to see.
The deeper she dove, the more spider carcasses bumped against her like guides pointing the way.
When they arrived in the sweltering cave, thousands upon thousands of spider corpses crunched underfoot, their final cries leaking out.
"Hurry!"
Her figure shot deeper into the cave at a speed reminiscent of the Thunder-Chasing Movement Art.
"As expected! They say few in the Tang Clan can match her talent for movement arts."
Tang So-pyeong murmured in quiet admiration before his own figure vanished, leaving only an afterimage.
It was the Tang Clan's Shadowless Soaring Movement Art.
TRICKLE-TRICKLE.
Molten rock flowed like a stream, the stench of scorched stone pressing down as if to crush the tip of his nose.
With every step, the heat intensified. Sweat poured off him in sheets, like rain.
The cave growing brighter and the heat growing fiercer meant they were drawing closer to the source where the magma erupted.
Already, the soles of his worn leather shoes had melted and his feet felt as though they were cooking. His cotton clothes were riddled with holes where droplets of magma had splattered from the ground.
'Damn, this is insane.'
Magma churning beneath a lake cave.
Hard to comprehend, but that was exactly what he was feeling right now.
Is there another passage somewhere?
Hyeol-u's feet faltered as he scanned the cave walls.
The soot-blackened surface, scored with cracks, formed a peculiar shape.
It did not look man-made.
'Ha, that's downright eerie.'
It looked like a great serpent--no, a black wyrm--coiled tight and glaring.
A dragon would have horns on its head and a wish-granting pearl in its gaping maw, but this had neither.
'W-wait a moment.'
Hyeol-u had been momentarily distracted by the oddly mesmerizing shape. Now, studying the cracks scored into that wall, he recalled the Black Dragon Shaking Heaven sword art--a secret technique unique to the Black Dragon Temple.
He hesitated briefly, but time was short.
WHOOSH-WHOOSH-WHISK.
The sound of bodies cutting through air and hurtling closer was growing near.
'No choice.'
He traced the forms and stances of Black Dragon Shaking Heaven onto the wall with his cane, then waited.
Nothing?
Perhaps it was merely the fire-qi of the magma that had scorched the wall, nothing more.
The instant disappointment sank in--
RUMBLE.
With a sound of the ground giving way beneath him, Hyeol-u's body plummeted downward.