Myst, Might, Mayhem

Chapter 409 – Encounter (1)

“Grudges are truly frightening.”

“……”

“Did the anger towards that person make even a mere possessed body reach such a realm? Spirit, no, Ryu So-wol, the originator of the Moon Vein.”

‘!?’

At these words, Mok Gyeong-un’s eyes sharpened.

He had thought that the Society Leader, being from the Heaven Vein clan, might know something, but he didn’t expect Cheong-ryeong’s real name to be mentioned from his mouth.

As if reading Mok Gyeong-un’s thoughts, the Society Leader spoke in a solemn voice.

“Did you think I wouldn’t know? From the beginning, that secret manual couldn’t be touched or learned due to the overwhelmingly strong grudge. The moment I knew you had mastered it, I realized you were inside that body.”

Secret manual.

It was the medium made from the heart that had sealed Cheong-ryeong’s vengeful spirit.

The fact that he knew this much about it meant that the current Society Leader had likely inherited all these secrets from his predecessors.

-Disciple.

‘……’

-Kill him.

Cheong-ryeong’s voice, filled with anger, boiled.

Having waited only for this moment, she seemed unable to contain her anger any longer.

Seeing her reaction, Mok Gyeong-un called out to her through voice transmission.

-Cheong-ryeong.

-Don’t even dream of trying to stop me. Don’t you understand after hearing what these damn clan members are saying? If you don’t do it, I’ll manifest myself directly and tear this descendant of that bastard limb from limb.

-I have no intention of stopping you. But please wait a moment.

-What are you telling me to wait for? Right now……

-I told you.

-What?

-If we’re going to do it, we should do it properly.

-……

He had declared war in front of all the Heaven and Earth Society members, saying he would make this enormous organization disappear.

And in front of all of them, he had shown overwhelming power and dyed the plaza of the main building Heavenly Cherishing Hall, which could be called the symbol of the Heaven and Earth Society, in pandemonium and blood.

Seeing this, she had felt immense joy after 100 years.

-Aah.

Finally, the moment she had waited for so long had arrived.

Now, with the bloodline of the Heaven Vein, the descendant of Bi Yeong-hon who could be called the pinnacle and end of this revenge, right before her eyes, what was he trying to do here?

Recognizing her existence means he knows what his predecessors did.

Of course, he was mistaken in thinking she had possessed this disciple, but in the end, she and the disciple were indeed together, so this wasn’t particularly important.

-What more are you trying to do here? It will all be over if we just kill this guy.

-It would be good if that alone would resolve your grudge, Cheong-ryeong, but it doesn’t seem to be the case. Surely there are things that bother you as well?

-……

At Mok Gyeong-un’s words, Cheong-ryeong fell silent.

Things that bother her.

Yes. Besides the grudge, there are certainly questions.

From why she had been sealed in the secret manual made from her heart for nearly 100 years, to how she had been trapped, who did this and why – she was curious about everything.

But the ancestor of this guy who she truly wanted to vent her grudge on must have died long ago, so would anything change by hearing something from his descendant?

Wouldn’t it rather make her more frustrated by the fact that she couldn’t directly vent her grudge on him?

Cheong-ryeong was rather afraid of that.

-Disciple…… I……

Just as she was about to say something, the Society Leader exhaled a strange sigh and opened his mouth.

“Haah. No matter how deep your grudge, you shouldn’t have acted recklessly and revealed yourself like this, Ryu So-wol.”

“……What do you mean by that?”

Mok Gyeong-un asked without any denial, as if he were Cheong-ryeong himself.

At this question, the Society Leader uttered words that were difficult to understand.

“We thought it would get better if we made it as distant as possible or cut off the obsession, since no method could burn or tear it. But thanks to your grudge, no less intense than that person’s madness, it was all in vain. No, was it this one’s foolishness for not calculating that?”

-Swish!

Mok Gyeong-un aimed his Invisible Sword at the Society Leader’s chin.

If he thrusts now, it will be fatal.

“You’re speaking in a way that’s hard to understand. That person’s madness? Who do you mean by ‘that person’? Are you talking about your dead ancestor?”

“Dead ancestor…… Do you really think so? Ryu So-wol.”

“……What?”

At Mok Gyeong-un’s retort, the Society Leader snorted as if exasperated and said,

“Are you pretending not to know? Or have you forgotten?”

“……”

“Whatever the case, my plans have already gone awry. Trying to pull that person out of the quagmire, trying to return the Society to its original state……”

-Flinch!

It was before his words could finish.

Mok Gyeong-un raised one eyebrow and looked down at the plaza.

This was because sinister energies were rising faintly from various places all around.

The Society Leader let out another sigh and said in a meaningful voice,

“In the end, you end up drawing them in.”

-Wudeuk! Wudeuk!

At that moment, some of the Society members where the sinister energies were spreading suddenly clutched one of their eyes and writhed in pain.

“Kkeup!”

“Wh-What is this……”

Unlike their painful writhing, their bodies gradually showed movements different from their own will.

It looked as if they were losing control over their own bodies.

***

Just a little while ago.

The atmosphere in the plaza was extremely divided.

From the moment the Society Leader’s arm was cut off, the forces supporting Mok Gyeong-un couldn’t hide their joy, cheering loudly, while the forces under Young Master Na Yul-ryang rapidly sank into depression.

It was the worst possible situation, with nearly half having already submitted and countless lives lost to the Sword Riding Ejected Sword Energies, tilting the balance of power.

‘……Damn it.’

Even Na Yul-ryang, who was caught up in extreme jealousy and anger towards someone for the first time, seemed to think it was already difficult to turn the tide, his lone left pupil gradually filling with resignation.

-Murmur murmur!

An arm lying on the ground.

The expressions of all those who had stepped back in a circle were beyond shock, even dazed.

Who could have imagined such a thing?

This was the same for Na Yul-ryang.

‘Master…… was overwhelmed?’

Even being called such a genius and growing stronger quickly, he had never imagined the reality of surpassing his master.

But it happened right before his eyes.

Because of this, morale had already reached a point where it couldn’t be revived.

If the Society Leader, one of the Seven Heavens called the peak of the current martial arts world, couldn’t handle him, no one could stop that monster.

Even if he tried to join forces with others……

-Clench!

It would just be a meaningless death.

A situation where no outcome could be expected brought a suffocating sense of frustration.

Na Yul-ryang’s pupils moved back and forth.

He had always been emotionally dry to the point of being cold-blooded, and arrogant and full of confidence, so he had never cared about others’ opinions in his life.

But this time was different.

If he had simply been defeated, he would have accepted it as just being weak himself.

But in a fight where the fate of countless people hung on his shoulders, showing nothing but helplessness without being able to do anything, he was seized by a strong sense of shame he had never experienced before.

[To think you’re only this capable, yet you claim you’ll lead us?]

[It’s laughable that you aimed for the Society Leader position.]

[To think we bet our lives trusting such a guy.]

It was truly strange.

Usually, no one dared to look at him like this.

But their gazes were utterly cold.

Although they couldn’t say it out loud, their eyes clearly seemed to blame and criticize him.

‘Little rats.’

He wanted to kill them all.

But he knew why they resented him, and he held back, thinking it would only make him look ugly if he got angry here, but his feelings were getting more and more mixed up.

Since everything had gone to hell anyway, should he just vent his feelings and end it?

If he just tore and ripped apart everything he saw, maybe he’d feel a little better……

-Clench!

“Young Master!”

At that moment, Mo Yak grabbed both cheeks of Na Yul-ryang, who was about to fall into a state of madness from shame and anger.

Instinctively realizing that he was about to break down, she felt she had to hold onto his sanity somehow.

“Young Master, come to your senses! You’ve never been shaken by such things before. Since when did you start caring about others’ eyes?”

At her words, Na Yul-ryang opened his mouth in a depressed voice.

“……It’s all over already. Mo Yak.”

At those words, Mo Yak barely held back the lump in her throat and shook her head vigorously.

This was absolutely not his fault.

That was literally like a natural disaster.

Even the current peak of the martial arts world couldn’t do anything against such a monster, so what could Na Yul-ryang do, no matter how much of a genius he was called?

She gently caressed Na Yul-ryang’s cheeks and said,

“Young Master. This is…… All because you’re pathetically weak.”

‘!?’

At Mo Yak’s completely unexpected words, Na Yul-ryang’s expression distorted.

Seeing his face like that, Mo Yak suddenly showed a bewildered expression and her left eyelid trembled.

‘Th-This……’

Why did she say such a thing?

She had intended to say it was absolutely not his fault.

But words completely different from her will came out of her mouth.

Mo Yak tried to say that these words were not of her own will.

However,

“Because of your incompetence and weakness, you’ve driven all these people to their deaths. Do you want comfort when you should take your own life and it wouldn’t be enough?”

Words contrary to her will continued to come out of her mouth.

At these words from her, Na Yul-ryang’s expression went beyond distortion to become terrifying.

“……What are you?”

Although he was mentally cornered to the point of almost falling into madness, a shred of reason remained.

Even if others feared him and turned their backs, Mo Yak would never do such a thing.

She was a companion who would walk with him even if the end of the road was hell and destruction, never one to let go of his hand.

Just as Na Yul-ryang’s lone pupil was about to be dyed with doubt and anger,

“You absolutely……”

-Puk!

At that moment, the thumb of Mo Yak’s left hand, which had been caressing Na Yul-ryang’s cheek, dug into his empty right eye socket.

“Keuk!”

He couldn’t stop her finger from digging in for a moment due to being off guard, but he was able to grab it belatedly.

-Pak!

Na Yul-ryang grabbed her wrist and tried to remove it.

However, not only Mo Yak’s arm that had dug in, but even her finger didn’t budge.

To the bewildered Na Yul-ryang, Mo Yak opened her mouth with a chilling smile.

“I’ve waited quite a while for this moment.”

“Keuuuu.”

“You’ll soon forget that weakness.”

‘!?’

In Na Yul-ryang’s lone pupil, he saw the bizarre sight of Mo Yak’s left pupil splitting into a cross shape, with another pupil rising from within.

‘This is……’

“Ugh.”

Na Yul-ryang’s head tilted back.

Along with this, he felt something strange and chilling gradually filling his empty right eye socket, which had been taken by Mok Gyeong-un.

Then Na Yul-ryang felt his mind becoming hazy.

He was clearly looking ahead, but everything became blurry and his consciousness gradually became muddled.

Eventually, Na Yul-ryang’s empty eye socket was suddenly filled, and a golden pupil like the one Mok Gyeong-un had taken appeared.

It didn’t end there.

-Puk!

Mo Yak forcibly pulled out her own eyeball that had split into a cross and protruded, without any hesitation.

It should have been painful, but Mo Yak was rather smiling eerily.

Eventually, Mo Yak brought her extracted eyeball to Na Yul-ryang’s forehead, and,

-Shu ru ru ruk!

The eyeball, as if alive, spewed out blood vessels, which dug into the flesh of his forehead.

As the blood vessels that had dug in wriggled and moved, the forehead area split and a space opened.

Then the eyeball Mo Yak was holding popped into that space.

With this, Mo Yak lost consciousness and collapsed to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut.

Na Yul-ryang, who now had three eyes including the one embedded in his forehead, muttered to the fallen Mo Yak.

“It was worth preparing for this possibility.”

Then he raised his head.

Na Yul-ryang’s three eyes were precisely focused on one figure floating in the air.

It was Mok Gyeong-un.

Na Yul-ryang’s lips curled up ominously as he looked at Mok Gyeong-un.

“So you were inside?”

Na Yul-ryang’s three pupils sparkled as if filled with ecstasy.