Ise’s gaze swept over the prostrated Rotting Ones before he slowly spoke.
“I have something to ask you.”
Still, no one raised their head.
“If you answer honestly, I’ll give you a medicinal pill that can restore missing body parts.
I don’t know whether it’ll restore the rotten flesh, but at the very least, it should regrow a severed tongue.
Is anyone willing to cooperate?”
It wasn’t mercy or compassion.
If anything, it was closer to hypocrisy.
The more desperate someone was, the more readily they would cling to even the thinnest straw.
And compared to demon beasts with their fur standing on end, it was much easier to persuade desperate ordinary people or crippled demonic cultivators.
For the moment, gathering information indiscriminately was his priority.
One of them cautiously rose to his feet.
It was an elderly woman who looked to be the oldest among them, seemingly over eighty.
Half of her face had melted away like candle wax, and she could barely open one eye.
When Ise gestured, the old woman hesitantly approached.
‘Perfect.’
The fact that the oldest person had stepped forward herself meant she possessed the courage and concern to think of the group.
And the fact that she had survived until now despite her age meant she must possess a corresponding amount of knowledge and wisdom.
Ise took a Regeneration Pill from his Storage Pouch and handed it to her.
When the old woman swallowed it with trembling hands, the ruined flesh on her body healed slightly.
The decay did not disappear completely, but at the very least, her severed tongue seemed to grow back.
“Ah, aaah…”
The old woman quietly made a sound as though confirming that she could still speak.
Ise calmly waited until she had adjusted to the changes in her body.
“How old are you?”
“I… I’m about one hundred and twenty years old.”
“Were you once a cultivator?”
“I was, once.
But in the end, I was merely an ordinary mortal.”
At her answer, Ise swept over the old woman’s entire body with his divine sense.
Her spiritual root had been cleanly shattered, leaving not even a trace.
It looked distinctly different from the other people whose spiritual roots had been broken.
Wondering whether she might be concealing her cultivation realm, he examined her again, but he could not sense any divine sense from her.
Suspicion appeared in Ise’s eyes.
It was a kind of habit he had developed from living in the cultivation world.
‘Strange.’
He could accept that her spiritual root had been destroyed so long ago that not even a trace remained, but the decaying aura flowing from her body blurred his divine sense like fog, and that was irritating.
He considered using a Demon-Beast Detection Talisman, but decided against it.
Even if she were a Qi Condensation cultivator concealing her realm, she posed no threat to him.
And there was no reason for a healthy demonic cultivator to deliberately live among the Rotting Ones in this condition.
Maintaining a reasonable degree of vigilance would be enough.
That wasn’t what mattered right now.
“I’m looking for a way to obtain a Heart-Severing Art so I can enter Area 3.
Do you know anything?”
“If you’ve lived in this area for a long time, you inevitably hear quite a bit.”
The old woman’s sunken lips moved slightly.
“The most certain method is to be selected during the Essence-Draining Ghost-Demon Valley’s disciple selection, which is held once every ten years.”
“Other than that.”
“I’m not sure… I’ve heard that sometimes those who accomplish some extraordinary feat are granted permission to enter Area 3 and bestowed a Heart-Severing Art, but that’s little more than a rumor without any solid basis.”
That was precisely the method Ise was hoping for, but he had already half given up on it.
There was very little reason for the valley to ask anything of the demonic cultivators in Area 4.
“Is there no one here who possesses a Heart-Severing Art?”
The old woman paused for a moment, seemingly thinking.
“I don’t know that either.
But if you’re looking for the people most likely to have one, they’d probably be the rulers of Areas 4 and 5.”
“There are ruling factions here?
They’re demonic cultivators who don’t even practice Heart-Severing Arts.
How do they maintain their influence?”
“More precisely, they simply pledge their allegiance to powerful Foundation Establishment demonic cultivators and crawl under their protection.
They rule, but they don’t truly reign.”
Ise nodded in understanding.
A relationship between figurehead and patron was certainly plausible.
“Late-stage Foundation Establishment.
That’s higher than I expected.
At that level, it seems unlikely they possess a Heart-Severing Art.
There’d be little reason for them to remain in this area.”
“There is a reason.”
“What is it?”
“Because there are many Foundation Establishment cultivators in Area 3, and even Core Formation great demonic cultivators exist there.
Some people would rather remain the head of a snake than the tail of a dragon.”
It was a plausible assumption.
Perhaps one of the four actually possessed a Heart-Severing Art.
With that possibility in mind, Ise urged the old woman on.
“Tell me their names.”
“The most famous one is the puppet master, Wang Gyu.
You can find him at Black Night Market in the center of northern Area 4.”
Puppet master.
Ise’s brows narrowed slightly.
He remembered the stone puppet he had encountered in the Dark Heaven Secret Realm.
He had struggled considerably against those heavy and bizarre chunks of stone.
Because of that memory, he had developed a somewhat unfavorable impression of people who controlled puppets.
“Who else?”
He asked because he intended to deal with the other people later if possible.
But the old woman answered with a faint smile.
“I’ll tell you after you’ve finished your first errand.”
“You’re not going to tell me everything?”
“Once your business is finished, might you not harm us?
Please consider it my final safeguard.”
“You make it sound as though you’re expecting me to die and never return.”
“Dare I say such a thing?
I’m merely a peasant struggling to survive.”
There was neither fear nor hostility on the old woman’s sunken face.
Only the worn-down calculation unique to someone who had survived for a very long time remained there.
Ise didn’t press her any further.
He could probably squeeze the information out of her if he tried, but doing so would only make the information coming out of her mouth less valuable.
“How did you end up afflicted with this Rotting Disease?”
“I cannot tell you anything about that.
Please, show mercy.”
Was someone keeping them quiet?
That would explain why they had been gathered into one place and had their spiritual roots severed and even their tongues cut out.
Ise’s suspicions pointed toward the Essence-Draining Ghost-Demon Valley.
Could these people be one of the valley’s darkest secrets?
Yet no matter how he turned the idea over in his mind, he couldn’t come up with a convincing explanation.
If the Rotting Ones were truly the valley’s dark secret, there would be no reason to keep them alive in a corner of Area 4.
It would be more in keeping with demonic cultivators to simply erase them cleanly and eliminate any future trouble.
They were not a group that would handle loose ends so carelessly or mercifully.
‘I’ll put this aside for now.’
At present, the Heart-Severing Art right in front of him mattered more than an unanswered question he couldn’t even grasp.
***
After securing a temporary residence at an inn in Black Night Market in the northern part of Area 4, Ise installed a formation array and the Secret Realm Key.
He had no need for sleep, but he still couldn’t neglect cultivation from time to time.
Just as Ise was about to turn the handle of the Secret Realm Key and enter the Life-Spirit Cave Abode—
A massive divine sense suddenly swept over the entire area.
Core Formation Realm.
And one whose depth was difficult to gauge.
Ise immediately compressed his divine sense until it was barely the size of a fingernail and held his breath.
To an infiltrator, the divine sense of a Core Formation cultivator was no different from a natural disaster.
If he so much as caught their attention, that alone might bring everything to an end.
Fortunately, the unknown divine sense didn’t sweep over him and instead moved away.
The tension in Ise’s mind, which had relaxed somewhat after becoming accustomed to Magok City, tightened all at once.
This was the tiger’s den.
He had momentarily forgotten that it was a lair where Nascent Soul and Core Formation demon beasts roamed about.
After releasing Bisan inside the Life-Spirit Cave Abode, the little fellow, which had been curled up tightly to escape the cold, finally stretched and began flying all around the grotto. You are reading on g.com, the official source.
Ise checked the spiritual herbs in the garden, tidied everything up, then sat cross-legged and began his cultivation circulation.
He abandoned his initial plan of moving immediately and spent several days recovering his composure.
The divine sense of that passing Core Formation cultivator had continued to bother him.
If there was a great demonic cultivator nearby, avoiding it was undoubtedly the wisest choice.
During that time, he sent a communication talisman to Ryu Seonghan.
It simply asked whether things were going well.
But the communication talisman wandered for quite some time after leaving his fingertips, eventually losing its way and scattering apart.
The distance between Tiandaogyeong and this place was apparently too great.
Feeling briefly as though he had been left alone, Ise gave a self-deprecating laugh.
Hadn’t he been alone from the moment he came to the Northern Continent?
Since when had he started relying on someone else?
Ise rose and stepped outside the inn.
He spread his divine sense and slowly probed the Foundation Establishment cultivators scattered throughout Black Night Market.
There were quite a number of Foundation Establishment demonic cultivators in the market.
After all, reaching the Foundation Establishment Realm was far easier for demonic cultivators than for orthodox cultivators.
Perhaps for that reason, not a single one bothered hiding their cultivation realm, freely spreading their divine senses as they moved about.
Whenever the divine sense of a Foundation Establishment demonic cultivator touched Ise’s, they quietly retracted it like a turtle shrinking its neck.
After probing around for some time, a large divine sense from a late-stage Foundation Establishment demon beast met his.
A threatening aura seemed to demand that he lower his gaze immediately, so Ise withdrew his divine sense first.
Then, from a distance, he observed the demonic cultivator’s residence.
‘They built a fortress.’
The walls were reinforced with steel, with formations inscribed into them.
Guarding the entrance was a single Qi Condensation puppet.
‘Cute.’
Compared to the stone puppet from the Dark Heaven Secret Realm, it was practically adorable.
It looked like a rag doll crudely stitched together from scraps.
Apparently, not all puppet masters were on the same level.
Rather than charging straight in, Ise carefully surveyed the surroundings first, just as he did when going out to perform spirit expulsion.
He studied the shape of the alleys surrounding the fortress, the varying heights of the walls, the locations where formations had been inscribed and the gaps between them, as well as the identities of those who entered and exited and the times at which they did so.
Only a handful of people visited the fortress each day.
Every one of them entered carrying something and came out empty-handed.
Were they bringing offerings?
Or were they the ones who had something taken from them?
The puppet guarding the entrance turned its head from side to side at a constant speed, while from time to time a shadow larger than it appeared above the wall.
After spending three full days conducting reconnaissance and surveillance, Ise had grasped the general situation.
The most important thing was the type of formation that had been deployed.
Ise injected his internal energy along with his divine sense and observed the formation’s reaction.
His expanded knowledge of formations after fighting the demonic cultivator who had used a Blood Formation proved useful.
What had been installed was a Foundation Establishment-level formation.
It was merely a simple barrier formation that prevented unauthorized individuals from entering.
There were no other formations.
After roughly determining whether there were traps and what kind of formation had been installed, Ise finally spread his divine sense and sent Voice Transmission directly to the late-stage demonic cultivator inside the fortress.
There was no reason to draw his blade first.
No matter how valuable a Heart-Severing Art manual Wang Gyu possessed, things would be different if he had no intention of entering Area 3 in the first place.
If it was an item he had no use for, there was no reason he couldn’t sell it for a suitable price.
– I’d like to make a deal.
Can I come in?
No response came back.
As expected from demonic cultivators, no respect for your fellow Daoist.
‘What a warm welcome.’
Ise flattened the puppet guarding the entrance, used a Formation-Breaking Talisman to shatter the barrier, and stepped inside.
The formation surrounding the walls split apart like a spiderweb being torn, and the fortress entrance gaped open.
Only then did he get a clear view of the interior.
Steel puppets stood arrayed throughout the courtyard.
The instant the entrance opened, they all turned their heads toward him in unison.
There were roughly a dozen of them.
Every single one contained demonic qi on the Foundation Establishment level, a completely different caliber from the mere gatekeeper.
Beyond them, the divine sense of the late-stage demonic cultivator from inside the main residence swept over Ise’s body.
Ise tightened his grip on his Small Axe.
Then, despite not having been invited, he slowly stepped inside as though he were merely a guest.