〈 Episode 433 〉 Lake of Regret (3)
Whoooong.
A vibration rang from Nahi’s body.
It was proof that the rings of the binding had been properly interlocked.
Only then did I remove my supporting hand and stand up.
“Keu-heok….”
Nahi let out a rough breath.
Not only were her ribs cracked, but she had also forcefully channeled her internal energy while attempting the binding.
It wasn’t such an incredible binding.
I didn’t have that much internal energy to spare, and I didn’t feel the need to go that far anyway.
“Huu… huu….”
Nahi, gasping incessantly as if in agony, looked at me with tear-filled eyes.
“You… just what are you…?”
I smirked at that question. It was one I heard so often that it was almost sickening.
“What would you do even if you knew?”
The answer I always spat out to this kind of question was the same, to the point it had become almost reflexive.
“…What did you do to my brother? Why does he follow you?”
“Curious?”
Swish.
When I took a step closer, Nahi flinched and trembled.
I hadn’t been thinking of hitting her, but it seemed the attack from just now still lingered in her body.
I bent my knees and met her gaze.
“Bear with it. You’ll end up the same way anyway.”
“…I am different from my brother.”
Yeah, you probably are.
“That’s for you to figure out.”
Nahi had probably approached Dangdeok, who had appeared out of nowhere, several times to talk to him.
Perhaps she had even sent a telepathic message or two.
Dangdeok probably hadn’t answered anyway. No, he *couldn’t* have answered.
I dusted off my hands.
At best, this binding meant we would turn a blind eye to each other’s affairs.
If things went well, I planned to undo this binding anyway.
‘It would be easier to just kill her…’
As Dangdeok’s subordinate, she was unlikely to be a good person.
The very fact that she was a shadow assassin of the Dang Clan meant she was someone with much blood on her hands, so I had no qualms.
However.
‘Having eyes and ears of my own would be convenient.’
In a situation where the current state of the Dang Clan was suspicious, having a spy fit for the role was a good thing for me too.
As long as I created a situation where I wouldn’t be harmed if she were discovered.
That wouldn’t be too difficult. It was something I was fairly confident in, at that.
Moreover, there was a high chance Nahi knew information even Dangdeok didn’t.
Killing her like this would be a considerable waste.
Even if I did kill her.
‘I’d have to make her spit out everything she knows first.’
Having settled that, I stood up.
“Stay put. Don’t think about going anywhere.”
“...”
“Ah, if you want to run, go ahead.”
I’d catch her soon enough anyway.
That is, if she wasn’t afraid of what happened after that.
I kept the latter part to myself.
Even though I didn’t say it out loud, I felt that Nahi understood.
I turned around and approached the lake. The closer I got, the more I felt the poisonous miasma.
‘Hm.’
It was a force I could barely feel when I was far away.
To think it was this intense just from getting a little closer.
“…Why are you thinking of entering the lake?”
“I don’t recall saying you could ask questions.”
“Is there something in there?”
Her constantly talking to me for no reason was getting on my nerves.
I shot her a glance filled with annoyance.
“Say one more word, and I’ll rip out your tongue.”
“...”
I meant it.
I delivered the line with faint killing intent, and Nahi’s shoulders trembled violently.
I stopped walking and waited, as if to say, ‘Go ahead, say something.’
Nahi didn’t utter another word after that.
Seeing that, I stepped forward again.
Splish.
Sssssss-!
When the soles of my feet touched the lake surface, a sound like something frying spread out.
The poisonous miasma spasmed as if trying to devour my flesh.
‘Hm.’
Watching that, I thought.
Had I prepared new clothes to change into when I came out?
“...”
Ah, I hadn’t.
For a moment, I considered telling Nahi to prepare some clothes too, but held back.
‘I’ll figure something out.’
Sssssss….
I passed through the mist filled with poisonous miasma and headed toward the center of the lake. The closer to the center, the more vicious the miasma became.
‘If the surface is this bad, the inside must be even worse.’
I changed my calculations.
I halved what I had initially estimated to be a quarter-gak.
Unlike when I had observed from afar, it was clearer now that I had reached the center. This lake was….
‘The poisonous miasma isn’t leaking out,’
With this level of miasma, it should have been enough to erode a distance of one li in diameter.
If it was at a level where one couldn’t tell at all from the outside, I could guess that something was containing the miasma.
If I entered the lake like this, my qi barrier would unravel before long.
If that happened, not even bones would remain; I’d melt away completely.
A spine-chilling thought just to imagine.
Yet, strangely, my head was calm.
I surveyed the surroundings with indifferent eyes.
‘Where was it.’
Ridiculously enough, even so, the option to turn back didn’t even cross my mind.
I needed to treasure my life if I wanted to survive the Blood Tribulation within ten years.
I wondered why I was being so reckless.
Standing atop the lake, for some reason, I felt something.
That I would be able to find it.
That I would be able to do it.
That feeling was piercing through my chest.
‘What is this now?’
Feeling that sensation, I raised the corner of my mouth.
I see.
‘It’s calling me.’
It was calling out.
Otherwise, I couldn’t have felt this way.
It was a sensation I had felt several times before.
In the past, I hadn’t been certain, and it was nothing more than a faint texture.
Now, I had reached a point where I could feel it to some extent.
‘Something is calling me.’
Most of the fortuitous encounters I had experienced were like this.
I had simply thought them coincidences because I had followed my instincts.
For some reason, I could understand now.
Where did this difference come from?
Because my realm had reached the Hwa Realm?
Or because the energy contained in my body had increased?
If not that.
‘Is it because I’ve become a Demon?’
Whatever the reason, nothing was certain.
This sensation could also be false.
Still, I had to go.
It was a situation where I could not accomplish what needed to be done by pursuing safety alone.
Hesitation was a luxury.
Swoooooosh-!
I raised my energy and covered my entire body with it.
And then.
Splash-!
I submerged my body into the lake, which was drenched in poison.
Brrrr.
Having entered the water, I slowly opened my eyes.
Though it looked no different from ordinary water.
Sssssss-!
The pressure felt in my body made it clear that this was anything but water.
Initially, I had said I could endure for a quarter-gak.
‘Bullshit.’
That had been an absurd estimate.
Even halving that time again would have been precarious.
I expanded my senses.
And using my internal energy, I descended to the bottom of the lake.
‘Deep.’
The lake was far deeper than it appeared.
The surroundings were nothing more than an ordinary dirt floor, but there was surely an entrance somewhere here.
‘Time.’
At most, about one minute now.
That was how long my qi barrier could last.
If this water channel penetrated my flesh directly, it would be instant death.
‘Where is it.’
Where was the place calling me?
I knew for certain that something was pulling me.
‘If you’re going to do it, call me properly.’
Time was flowing.
At this rate, the situation was truly dangerous.
Just when I was wondering if I should get out of the lake first and regroup.
Something burst out from my breast pocket.
“...!”
Shaaaa-!
When I looked with surprised eyes, it was none other than the Jeoksusa.
‘That guy…?’
Come to think of it, it had been in my pocket.
I had forgotten.
It was surprising enough that the Jeoksusa had suddenly leaped out of my pocket.
And in the midst of this.
‘It’s swimming?’
It was swimming leisurely in this water filled with poisonous miasma.
‘Is it because it’s at least a red-grade demonic beast…?’
If not, perhaps it was because the Jeoksusa was a demonic beast that carried poison within its body.
Whatever the case, whether it was the Jeoksusa or whatever, the priority at that moment was to get out of the lake.
Sha-!
The Jeoksusa wrapped its tail around my arm and started pulling me somewhere.
Its strength was so weak that it was more like a gesture of pulling.
‘What?’
The fact that it was suddenly pulling me was what mattered.
I could see the Jeoksusa struggling to keep pulling me.
It seemed to have some intention.
‘I need to get out of the lake now.’
Otherwise, this was a situation where I might actually die.
Funnily enough, while my head thought that, my body was already moving in the direction the Jeoksusa was pulling.
As if entranced by something.
‘I think I’m screwed.’
Feeling that, I frowned.
The distance wasn’t very far.
The floor all looked the same, with no distinguishing features.
At best, the only difference was whether there was a pebble or not.
Roughly twenty seconds remained before my internal energy ran out and my qi barrier collapsed.
It was truly the border between life and death.
Shaaa-!
The creature urgently pointed somewhere.
Ten seconds vanished due to this brief action.
The place it pointed to was an ordinary floor.
My senses detected nothing there.
But I reached my hand toward it.
Crackle.
My internal energy was gradually depleting. Just as the qi barrier wrapped around my body was about to crumble away.
Tap.
My fingertips touched the ground.
Kwaaa-!
My vision flipped entirely.
Thud…!
“Keuk….”
My body fell somewhere and rolled across the floor.
After rolling for a while, I finally stopped and exhaled for a long time.
“Huff… hah….”
Only after gasping for the breath I had been holding did I survey my surroundings.
“This place is….”
It wasn’t underwater.
The scorched black dirt floor I had been looking at until just now was nowhere to be seen. I was lying on a well-polished stone floor.
Moreover, despite having just come from inside the water, not a drop of moisture remained on my body, as if I had never been in it.
It would have been a big problem if the poisonous miasma had remained.
Was that a small mercy?
I raised my head.
Long pillars arranged in a row.
Something embedded in the pillars, emitting a faint light.
My eyes widened at that.
“That… could those be Luminous Night Pearls?”
I knew the moment I saw them.
The things emitting light from all directions were definitely Luminous Night Pearls.
Expensive objects that emitted light.
They were the same Luminous Night Pearls I had seen when I headed to the secret vault of the Geumcheon Yeonga.
While I was expressing my surprise at the sight.
Shaaaa….
The Jeoksusa appeared and climbed up my body.
It seemed this one had also entered safely.
Looking at the creature hanging its head as if exhausted, I let slip,
“…Thanks.”
Sha-?
Since I had survived thanks to this one, I expressed my gratitude first. Then I asked.
“How did you even know?”
Sha?
At my question, the creature merely tilted its head as if asking what I meant.
Clicking my tongue at that, I surveyed the surroundings. It was an absurd situation to call a coincidence, but for now, finding the item took priority.
Judging by the situation, it seemed I had succeeded in breaking through the formation and entering the secret vault.
I wondered how the environment could suddenly change to this secret vault from inside the water, but I wasn’t surprised by such things anymore.
Because I had experienced it so many times.
“It seems to be the secret vault, but….”
It felt somewhat different from the secret vault I had visited in my previous life.
Moreover, there had been no Luminous Night Pearls back then.
This meant.
‘Does this mean someone other than me came here first….’
Which meant.
‘They left the White Horse Stone and only took the Luminous Night Pearls?’
I couldn’t understand why, but it wasn’t a problem.
Demonic stones weren’t exactly useful to ordinary people in the first place.
So it wasn’t strange for someone to snatch only the Luminous Night Pearls and flee.
‘It doesn’t matter either way.’
My goal was the White Horse Stone anyway.
At best, the Luminous Night Pearls were just something I’d take along the way.
Not that I wouldn’t take them. Those things were damn expensive, so I was definitely grabbing them this time.
I nodded and turned my gaze.
I needed to secure the White Horse Stone first.
‘It must be somewhere here….’
Shaaaa.
As I was trying to look around to find the White Horse Stone.
The Jeoksusa on my shoulder suddenly looked somewhere and bared its fangs as if on guard.
“Why are you doing that agai—”
When I turned my head in the direction the Jeoksusa was growling.
“…!”
Darkness where the light of the Luminous Night Pearls didn’t reach.
Beyond that, something could be felt.
Swoooooosh….
Inside the secret vault where only silence spread quietly.
There was someone other than me.
The moment I realized it, I tried to raise my internal energy.
Throb-!
“…Kkeuk!”
My empty dantian rebelled against me, bestowing only pain.
‘Damn it.’
The pain was so intense that, though it lasted only a moment, I nearly lost consciousness.
“Huu….”
I knelt on one knee from the pain.
[Who are you?]
Then, a voice came from beyond the darkness.
[You are not Sincheol. Who are you?]
“…!”
My eyes widened at the familiar name.
The tone of someone looking for Elder Shin.
A formation capable of spatial movement.
I frowned at the figure beyond the darkness; the method was one I knew all too well.
Don’t tell me….
I felt I could vaguely guess that person’s identity.
“…Excuse me, but by any chance.”
As if reacting to my words, I saw a semi-transparent figure approaching from the front.
In this kind of situation, I had mostly experienced something similar before.
Especially when Elder Shin was mentioned, it had happened every single time.
Moreover, seeing as this place was the Dang Clan.
As if all the pieces were falling into place, I immediately recalled his identity.
“You’re Senior Dangjemun… huh?”
[Yes.]
However. If there was one shocking part I hadn’t expected.
[I am Dangjemun.]
“...”
[Who are you?]
Dangjemun was not a ‘he,’ but a ‘she.’