“So there was a place like this.”
The Blood Heaven Blade Demon and the Ilhwa Sword Venerable marveled at the mystery wrought by nature.
The complicated maze they had passed through now seemed only natural. To witness such a magnificent sight, should one not have to struggle at least that much to find it?
After gazing at the place for a while with the two Demon Venerables, Geom Mugeuk revealed the reason he had come here.
“If I had to hide somewhere in Manhyeoldong, I think I would hide here. Those who made it through that complicated maze and arrived here—how could they possibly imagine it? That someone was hiding in a place like this.”
They would be entranced by this majestic sight for a moment, then set out again to look for another path.
But the Blood Heaven Blade Demon looked around with a puzzled expression.
“Here? Where is there to hide?”
No matter how he looked, there did not seem to be anywhere a person could conceal themselves.
“Aren’t there many places to hide?”
“Many?”
As the Blood Heaven Blade Demon looked around again, a disbelieving expression crossed his face.
His gaze turned to the huge stalagmites rising from the ground.
‘No way. Inside those?’
As if to say he had seen correctly, Geom Mugeuk slowly walked among the stalagmites.
“If he was someone capable of snatching the treasure map and inciting a struggle over it, then he must have known what kind of place Manhyeoldong was. He wouldn’t have recklessly entered a place where, without knowing the way, one would wander the maze until death. He is likely someone who knows the inside of this place well, and knows this location we are in too.”
“Then he’s no ordinary fellow.”
Geom Mugeuk had grasped the opponent precisely.
“He is more than that. He is someone who intended to make those pursuing him kill one another in this pandemonium.”
Geom Mugeuk stopped before one stalagmite.
There was a sunken part in the stalagmite, and inside the curved hollow was a fairly large hole.
Even so, it looked far too narrow for a person to enter.
Geom Mugeuk sent a glance to the Blood Heaven Blade Demon and the Ilhwa Sword Venerable. The two Demon Venerables had already sensed the presence of a person within.
“I have wondered for a long time what the inside of these stalagmites looks like.”
At Geom Mugeuk’s words, the Blood Heaven Blade Demon replied.
“Why not cut it open?”
Geom Mugeuk drew the Black Demon Sword and tapped the stalagmite.
“Shall I cut it around here?”
“Cut it diagonally. That way we’ll be able to see better.”
“Like this?”
As he spoke, he tapped the stalagmite with his sword.
“Now then, I’m cutting!”
It was at that very moment. A panicked voice came from the hole.
“Wait! There’s someone here! There’s a person inside!”
A man stuck his head out of the hole. It seemed impossible for a person to come out of that tiny opening, yet he slipped out smoothly, like an octopus squeezing free.
“Please don’t kill me! Please!”
He was a man of slight build. His face was that of an adult, but his body was the size of a boy’s.
“How on earth were you inside such a narrow place?”
Geom Mugeuk peered into the hole. His two eyes, empowered by the Divine Eye Art, examined the dark interior of the stalagmite.
The man who had come outside looked at the three of them with eyes full of fear. Judging by the aura that could be felt from him, he was indeed a martial artist, but not someone with martial arts or internal energy worth boasting of anywhere.
“Please spare me.”
After watching their reactions, the man apparently decided that, with three opponents before him, he could not handle them, and threw himself flat on the ground.
“I came in to find the treasure map, lost my way, wandered around, and ended up here. I was too afraid to leave, so I hid here. I’m not a bad person!”
“You probably aren’t a good person either.”
“No, no, that’s not true.”
Trembling all over, he began revealing his personal history without even being asked.
He said his father, the head of a small martial family, had fallen into gambling late in life, causing the household to fall to pieces. In the end, they had been driven to the point where his young younger sister was about to be sold to a rich household, and that was when he heard the rumor that the person with the treasure map had appeared on Mount Cheonja and blindly came up here.
“If I can’t get the treasure map, my sister will be sold. Please just pretend you didn’t see me and pass by!”
Perhaps the thought of his sister was unbearable, for tears fell from his eyes in drops.
Geom Mugeuk quietly stared at the man, then spoke coldly.
“With your level of martial arts, how were you going to obtain the treasure map? Did you think that if you hid here and then went out, the people outside would all have died in mutual destruction, and the treasure map might be lying among them? You shouldn’t curse your father. You’re making an absurd gamble yourself.”
At those words, the man lowered his head deeply and could not answer.
“Let’s go. I’ll take you outside.”
Geom Mugeuk spoke to the two Demon Venerables.
“I think we’ve roughly looked through the cave as well, so shall we head out now?”
They were leaving without obtaining the treasure map?
The Demon Venerables knew Geom Mugeuk well. If he had never come in to begin with, that would be one thing, but he was not someone who would enter to find the treasure map and then give up so easily.
“Let’s do that.”
The two Demon Venerables exchanged glances. They thought they understood.
‘It’s that man.’
Geom Mugeuk must have discovered something they could not see. He had said he felt something good would happen, and indeed, he had found the person with the treasure map.
—We should immediately suppress that fellow’s internal energy and search his body!
That was what he would have done. The Ilhwa Sword Venerable, on the other hand, was not worried at all.
—The Young Cult Leader will surely handle it in his own way.
Before leaving, she looked around the place. There was lingering regret in her eyes.
The Blood Heaven Blade Demon stood beside her.
“Why?”
“When will I ever have another chance to come to a place like this? I want to take it all in before I go.”
“We can come again.”
“How?”
She meant that they could not come even if they wanted to because they did not know the way here. She was right. Without Geom Mugeuk, even getting out of Manhyeoldong would not be easy.
“The Central Plains are full of caves like this. Next time…”
The Blood Heaven Blade Demon did not continue, but the Ilhwa Sword Venerable knew what he had been about to say.
Geom Mugeuk watched their backs and waited for them. He did not intrude.
Just as when they had sat side by side watching the morning star, what those two needed now was time for only the two of them to share.
Then Geom Mugeuk looked at the man.
Terrified, the man quickly averted his gaze when his eyes met Geom Mugeuk’s.
“Are you truly going to spare me?”
“You used up all the gambling luck of your lifetime this time. Because you met me.”
The man looked relieved, yet perhaps because of worry for his sister, he could not hide the complicated feelings on his face.
A short while later, the Blood Heaven Blade Demon and the Ilhwa Sword Venerable walked over to the two of them.
“Now, let’s leave.”
And so they left the space with the stalactites and stalagmites.
The atmosphere inside the cave had grown even more heated. The more dead there were, the stronger the madness of those who survived became.
The sensation of killing a person and rifling through another’s clothes was more thrilling than any pleasure they had ever experienced. Perhaps this time, the treasure map would come out! That intense expectation drove them into slaughter and frenzy.
Chuyeon of the Flying Dragon Gang was no different.
Swiik! Puaaak!
Blood splattered across her face as she cut the throat of an opponent charging at her.
She searched the body of the fallen man herself. But this time too, there was no treasure map.
Wiping the blood from her face with her sleeve, Chuyeon scowled fiercely.
The situation was not unfolding as she had expected. When they had first entered, there had been ten of the Flying Dragon Ten Elites, but now only six remained.
It was a situation where she should have given up and left, but she did not give up.
Just then, people approached in her direction. Seeing the man at the front, she flinched in surprise.
“You?”
The one leading them was that porter. She had met them again.
Geom Mugeuk greeted her cheerfully.
“Seeing as we’ve met three times in one day, perhaps we are fated.”
Chuyeon glared coldly at Geom Mugeuk. Just seeing him put her in a foul mood. The fact that a mere porter dared treat her so casually displeased her. He was acting as if he were the treasured disciple of those experts.
But if he were truly their disciple, he would have called them Master.
He was calling the old man elder. He was surely a porter or a low-ranking martial artist. She could not even sense any trace of martial training from him.
‘If only it weren’t for those people.’
As he died by her hand, he would be leaving behind the final words that he should not have met her a third time. No, he would already have died the last time they met.
Her gaze turned to the Blood Heaven Blade Demon and the Ilhwa Sword Venerable. As before, they did not give her so much as a glance.
‘They are ignoring me completely.’
Chuyeon’s gaze shifted again to the man with them.
“Who is that man?”
“We happened to meet him and are traveling together.”
“Then why are you taking him with you?”
“Apparently his younger sister is about to be sold. If it were some other circumstance, I might not know, but with such desperate circumstances, shouldn’t we save him?”
Chuyeon looked at the man suspiciously.
“You believe that?”
“Are you suggesting that this man has the treasure map? With that feeble body of his?”
“Surely you haven’t yet searched his body?”
“I haven’t.”
At his confident answer, Chuyeon was dumbfounded.
“May we search him in your stead?”
She was not asking the porter before her. She was seeking permission from the two experts behind the porter.
“To think you distrust people so much. Very well, go ahead.”
When Geom Mugeuk gave his permission, the Blood Heaven Blade Demon inwardly flinched. He had thought Geom Mugeuk would use them as a shield if necessary to prevent anyone from laying a hand on the man’s body.
‘The treasure map will surely come out from that fellow’s body.’
The Blood Heaven Blade Demon thought that, in the end, he would have to untie the cloth wrapped around the Myeolcheon Great Saber here.
One of the martial artists of the Flying Dragon Ten Elites searched the man’s body. He searched more thoroughly than he had the others, but the treasure map did not appear.
Chuyeon had searched him just in case, but the ones truly surprised were the two Demon Venerables.
—He doesn’t have the treasure map?
—Then why is the Young Cult Leader simply leaving? And why is he taking that man with him?
—How are we supposed to know what goes on inside that rascal’s head?
Geom Mugeuk smiled as he bid farewell.
“Well then, let us still be alive when we meet for the fourth time!”
In truth, Chuyeon wanted to search the leather pack Geom Mugeuk was carrying. Truly, she wanted to search the bodies of those two experts.
It felt far too unsettling to simply let them go, so she mustered her courage. It was courage intoxicated by the blood shed by those she had killed today.
“May I see that baggage of yours?”
Geom Mugeuk shook his head with a relaxed expression.
“If it were most things, I would want to show you, but there are many things you must not see.”
Hearing him say that made her even more curious. In truth, she wanted to give the order: take that leather pack from him!
‘Could I possibly be mistaken?’
What if those two were not experts, and she had merely mistaken them as such?
It was right then.
“Let’s go.”
The Blood Heaven Blade Demon was the first to move.
He strode straight toward Chuyeon, who was blocking the path, and she stepped aside without realizing it. If he could make her retreat without any aura or killing intent at all? Yes, it could not be a mistake.
At that moment, a shout rang out from deep inside the cave.
“The treasure map!”
Chuyeon flew toward the sound with her subordinates.
The porter’s voice came from behind her.
“Miss, be careful!”
Chuyeon bit her lip. If she were ever to see him again, please let it be when those two experts were not with him! Just once. Let him fall into her hands just once.
Geom Mugeuk started walking again, and the man and the two Demon Venerables followed behind him.
How long had they walked like that?
—Look there.
At the Ilhwa Sword Venerable’s sound transmission, the Blood Heaven Blade Demon saw the subtle mark carved into the wall.
—It’s a mark I secretly left when we came in.
It was something she had left at first in an attempt to remember the way. She had given up after the path became too complicated.
—The Young Cult Leader is going back exactly the way we came in.
—That brat must have come here in a previous life.
At the Blood Heaven Blade Demon’s words, the Ilhwa Sword Venerable smiled faintly. How could the two of them know? That this joke of the Blood Heaven Blade Demon’s was, in truth, precisely correct.
In that way, Geom Mugeuk led them out of the cave.
As it happened, when they emerged, there was no one outside.
Breathing the outside air, the Blood Heaven Blade Demon drew in a deep breath, his expression saying he finally felt alive.
“Did you come out because of me?”
He wondered unnecessarily whether Geom Mugeuk had given everything up and come out because he had seemed so stifled.
“I could have endured it. If you’re that worried about me, leave me here and go back in.”
“How could I go anywhere leaving you behind, Elder?”
“You go around just fine leaving me behind.”
At that, Geom Mugeuk smiled and said,
“Still, it wasn’t a complete waste, was it?”
Geom Mugeuk looked at the man. Perhaps afraid the three might change their minds, the man hurriedly bid farewell.
“Thank you for saving me. Then I will be on my way.”
Seeing his dejected figure, Geom Mugeuk thought that if they parted ways like this, he might go back into the cave.
“Wait a moment.”
Geom Mugeuk approached him.
The Blood Heaven Blade Demon and the Ilhwa Sword Venerable considered it only natural. Yes, the Young Cult Leader would not simply send him away. If it was the Young Cult Leader, he would surely ensure that the man’s sister would not be sold.
Sure enough, as though to give him money, Geom Mugeuk reached into his robes.
“Do you know what this is?”
But what emerged was not money. What Geom Mugeuk took out was a sheet of paper.
On the paper was a drawing of a person’s face. Beneath it, dense writing filled the page. It was the information sent from Eunwol.
“It’s the portrait and personal details of the man who was chased into Manhyeoldong with the treasure map. Well? Isn’t our information network incredible?”
As the unexpected situation unfolded, the Blood Heaven Blade Demon and the Ilhwa Sword Venerable opened their eyes wide. Neither of them had known Geom Mugeuk had received that information. They had sensed that, all along the way, he kept receiving something from Tongcheongak and Eunwol.
“The name of the man who snatched the treasure map is Tae Su, the son of Tae Gon, the great thief called the greatest thief of this era.”
Tae Gon was a name known to both the Blood Heaven Blade Demon and the Ilhwa Sword Venerable. He was that famous a thief.
Geom Mugeuk read aloud to the man the information written beneath the portrait.
“From a young age, Tae Su received training as a great thief from his father and was taught various techniques. He is skilled in deciphering codes and analyzing terrain, and has considerable knowledge of dismantling mechanisms. He has an outstanding memory, so once he sees something, he never forgets it. And that is not all. Having mastered the Bone-Shrinking Art, he can easily enter narrow spaces as well. A truly remarkable fellow, isn’t he? And as for his appearance…”
Geom Mugeuk held the paper with the portrait beside the man’s face so they could be seen side by side.
When the two faces were compared, the two Demon Venerables understood why Geom Mugeuk had suddenly said they should take only this man out with them. Geom Mugeuk had known from the moment he first saw him.
“It’s you, isn’t it?”