Chapter 480 - The Rotten Thing
A deep, hollowed pit.
Nahi, looking down into it, had to hold her breath.
Setting aside that the lake water had completely drained, the person standing there was the problem.
'Could it be him?'
Nahi's brow furrowed deeply.
Though the feeling of his physique was different and his appearance had changed, it didn't take long for Nahi to realize.
That man.
It was Guyangcheon, who had hurled himself into Dokcheon Lake just moments ago.
'How?'
She couldn't understand it.
It was already strange enough that he was alive and unscathed inside that lake.
'...Why does his appearance...?'
Guyangcheon's appearance had changed drastically from just moments before.
Not to mention the clothes he wore, but even from afar, his height had increased and his build had become much sturdier.
If his previous form had been agile and somewhat gaunt.
Now, it wouldn't have been strange to call him a robust young man.
'Not only that.... He's not alone.'
There was something beside him.
What is that? Nahi narrowed her eyes and focused her gaze.
Then, the thing beside Guyangcheon became a bit clearer.
'A... demonic beast?'
It was at least not human in form; no matter how she looked at it, it was a demonic beast.
Judging by the blue scales it possessed, was it a Blue-grade demonic beast? But if so, its color was rather light.
It was closer to sky blue than deep blue.
As Nahi carefully observed the demonic beast's form.
Swish.
The demonic beast's eyes turned toward Nahi.
"...!"
There was clearly distance between them, yet the demonic beast seemed to detect Nahi and stared straight at her.
Grrrr-!
It twisted its face viciously and threatened her.
At that growl, Nahi felt shivers run down her spine involuntarily.
'...What?'
It was merely the threat of a Blue-grade demonic beast, at best.
As a peak-level assassin, she shouldn't have been afraid of such a threat.
Yet she felt an inexplicable sense of vigilance and had to swallow dryly.
Not to mention Guyangcheon, whose appearance had changed, but what on earth was that demonic beast beside him?
While Nahi continued watching the situation with doubt and bewilderment.
"...Hup...!"
She had to cover her mouth with her hand to suppress her reaction.
Because a sudden abnormality had appeared, and it was no ordinary one.
Crack-!
A change occurred in Guyangcheon's body.
His body showed signs of twisting slightly. In the end.
'Is he shrinking?'
His height decreased and his frame withered.
It might have been somewhat ambiguous to say he had withered.
He had simply returned to the appearance he had right before jumping into the lake.
Whether the larger form was the real one.
Or whether the shrunken present form was real.
Either way, it was equally something that could not easily happen.
Having confirmed this, Nahi tried to turn her body away immediately.
It was strange. That person was definitely strange.
She had to run. Nahi's instincts were screaming at her.
But.
'...Where?'
Where could she go?
To Dokwang? Or to Dangdeok?
Whichever direction she went, it would be a problem, but Nahi moved her body first.
Because getting out of this place was the priority.
At that moment.
"Where are you going?"
"--!!!"
Someone appeared in front of the fleeing Nahi and spoke in a welcoming voice.
Perhaps thanks to the days she had lived as an assassin, Nahi barely managed to hold back a scream.
The one who blocked Nahi's path was none other than Guyangcheon, who had been in the pit just moments ago.
"I asked where you're going."
Guyangcheon looked at Nahi with a broad smile, as if something pleasant had happened.
Nahi found that smile even more terrifying.
And it wasn't solely because of his appearance.
'Something... something is different.'
The atmosphere radiating from Guyangcheon before her was completely different from before.
Perhaps one could say it was hard to grasp.
How should she put it?
She felt an oppressive pressure that made her want to kneel involuntarily.
"I don't quite remember, but."
Tap.
Guyangcheon took a step closer.
At this, Nahi tried to step back, but she couldn't even do that.
Because her legs were stiffened solid and wouldn't move.
"I clearly warned you that you shouldn't think about running away. Didn't I do something like that?"
"..."
"I'm asking because I really don't remember."
He had.
He had said she could run away as much as she wanted.
But the look in his eyes at that time.
And his energy, had told Nahi a different answer.
That if she did so, he would rip both her legs off.
Guyangcheon's eyes had whispered thus.
And it was the same now.
Reading Nahi's expression, Guyangcheon asked.
"But why did you run?"
"...Y-you... wh-what on earth... what are you... what is your identity?"
Crushed by fear, she couldn't even speak properly.
Despite having lived her whole life as an assassin, it was the first time since birth that Nahi had harbored such bewilderment.
The corner of Guyangcheon's mouth rose at Nahi's question.
"My identity."
As he spoke.
"Urk."
Nahi's gaze wavered.
"Indeed."
It was because Guyangcheon had grabbed Nahi by the neck and lifted her up.
"Even I don't know anymore. I was planning to figure it out slowly."
"G-gurk...."
Could he be planning to kill her?
He probably was.
This man didn't look like a fool who would keep alive someone who had discovered his secret.
'Like this.... Am I going to die like this?'
Death was coming.
Nahi's entire body trembled from the surging fear.
She wasn't afraid of death itself.
The fear wasn't because of that.
What she felt was dying futilely without accomplishing anything.
She was afraid of bidding farewell to this earth so incompetently.
She hadn't been able to do a single thing she needed to do.... Was she going to die like this?
"Sa... save... Please... save... me...."
Her voice burst out through the pressure on her neck and the terror constricting her entire body.
Hearing that, Guyangcheon tilted his head slightly.
"How curious. I didn't think you were the type to beg for your life."
"I... I can't... die like this...."
"Shut up."
"...!"
Whoosh-!
A cold energy pierced through Nahi's body.
Killing intent? No, it was slightly different from that.
"Your barking is noisy. Keep your mouth shut; I have no intention of killing you."
Contrary to his words, his actions remained the same.
The pressure in the hand gripping her neck was unchanged.
And the look in his eyes as he gazed at Nahi was unchanged as well.
Eyes as if looking at a bug.
No, even further—dark eyes that seemed not to treat her as a living being at all.
"Why would I kill you?"
A voice that seemed to smile yet was full of chilliness burrowed into Nahi's ear.
"I was already going to test whether it would work or not. You're the perfect test subject, so to speak."
Test subject.
A word that made her want to vomit just from hearing it dug deep into Nahi's core.
She felt chills.
What was he going to do to her?
Such doubts disappeared before long.
Ssssssss....
"...U... urk...."
From the fingertips gripping her neck, an unknown energy began to invade Nahi's body.
It was hot.
A maddeningly hot heat.
Moreover, the energy digging into her meridian points felt as if thorns were sprouting.
Each time the energy passed, it felt like wounds were forming inside her body.
"G... uha... ha... uwaah!!"
Having lived as an assassin, Nahi was proficient in all manners of torture and pain, yet she let out a scream she couldn't endure.
That was how painful it was.
Soon, the energy dug into her dantian.
Squeeeze-!
The moment the energy coiled there.
Thump-!
Something felt as though it was bound tightly around Nahi's heart.
Afterward, an immense agony struck Nahi's head.
Kwaaang-!
"Kkak."
With a short scream, Nahi rolled her eyes back and lost consciousness.
Slump-....
Nahi's body went limp as her strength gave out.
"Hmm."
Guyangcheon, watching this, checked Nahi's condition this way and that.
"She's not dead."
Seeing the demonic energy properly mixed into Nahi's body, he nodded.
Fortunately, it seemed the demonic energy was working well too.
After confirming up to this point.
Swish.
Thud-!
He roughly tossed Nahi far away and cast her aside.
The unconscious Nahi rolled powerlessly on the ground.
Pat, pat.
He roughly dusted off his hands.
He simply felt compelled to; it was that unpleasant.
How should he put it.
He felt as though he had touched something he shouldn't have.
To Guyangcheon now, it wasn't the woman who had collapsed far away whose name he couldn't even remember.
Only the important people in this life.
The formula for the Dokcheon Pill swirling in his mind.
And the worry about how to use it.
What about Nahi, whom he had just turned into a demonic human?
He wasn't very interested in such things.
Not even the slightest bit.
******************
Somewhere in Sichuan, in a forest.
Trees abounded around it. It was a lush forest brimming with vitality, imbued with a clear blue hue.
Swish-! Swish-!
In its center was an open field.
Unlike the beautiful forest, its center looked far too violent.
There wasn't a single intact rock nearby, and the grassy ground that had originally held grass was all torn up and in shambles.
Swish-!
In that place.
A man continued to swing his sword.
Shiiik-!
The sword tip cut through the air.
Elegant yet flexible.
That was how one would describe the man's sword.
It was as if waves had been given form through the sword's trajectory.
The sword qi wrapped around the sword left trails, sometimes creating the illusion that a galaxy was unfolding.
A sword path that surrendered itself to the flow.
The man did not fix his gaze on the sword tip but moved his hand according to the flow.
His disheveled hair fluttered each time he moved. The uniform, mostly in tatters, could be seen torn here and there.
As he swung his sword for quite a while like that.
[----..--!]
A voice rang in the man's ear.
Perhaps because of that voice.
Thud.
The man suddenly stopped his moving hand and straightened his posture.
Haaahm-
Sweat was pouring down, but the man seemed unconcerned and merely let out a yawn.
[--!!]
Perhaps displeased by that, a shout stabbed through.
But the man remained the same.
"Hey, can't you please shut up? You don't take a single day off from throwing a fit."
Digging at his ear hole, he gave a halfhearted reply.
He was clearly not a normal person at first glance.
That man's nickname was Mudang Gwoeseon.
He was one of the Three Eccentrics of the Central Plains.
[----!]
"Where would I go down? I went down once before, too. Can't you bear it a bit? An old man of such advanced age has no patience."
[---]
"Ha, how transparent you are."
Tsk, tsk.
Mudang Gwoeseon laughed.
"I'll say it again, but I have no intention of returning to that shithole. Don't you know that too?"
[---]
"I'm going to live as a Daoist of Wudang. So if it bothers you, just get lost, why don't you?"
[-----.]
"That's right, there's no one but me. That's why you're acting so annoying like this. Then stay put. I might just cut you off entirely."
Mudang Gwoeseon, who had been muttering away, approached a rock and sat down on it with a thud.
There, rice balls that seemed to have been prepared beforehand were placed, roughly rolled up.
He grabbed one roughly and stuffed it into his mouth in one bite.
Rice grains fell on his clothes and dust from his hands mixed in, but Mudang Gwoeseon seemed not to care.
Swallowing a few more mouthfuls like that, Mudang Gwoeseon looked around.
"Ah, I didn't bring water, did I."
Oh dear.
A mistake. He should have brought water.
This was quite troublesome.
Mudang Gwoeseon, who had been making a slightly troubled expression, suddenly looked toward the forest dense with trees.
"Since it came to this. Could you bring me some water?"
To the forest that appeared to have nothing in it, Mudang Gwoeseon suddenly muttered.
However, surprisingly, an answer came from the forest.
Sliiide.
Someone appeared with composed steps from behind a tree trunk. Upon confirming this, Mudang Gwoeseon furrowed his brows and spat on the ground once.
Toward Mudang Gwoeseon, the mysterious figure formed a slight smile.
Mudang Gwoeseon detested that smile immensely.
"Are you making your grandfather, whom you haven't seen in a while, run errands?"
"That's not something an old man should say after coming as a guest empty-handed."
Heh heh.
At Mudang Gwoeseon's words, the one who appeared from the forest laughed.
The one who appeared suddenly was a white-haired old man.
Furthermore, he wore a blue martial arts uniform, and on his back were written the characters meaning 'Lord of Anhui.'
Namgung.
Those were clearly written on the old man's back.
"You're mistaken about something."
"Mistaken? Is that something you eat?"
"I'm not a guest, you see. I simply."
The old man's identity was precisely.
One of the Three Supremes of the World, and the absolute expert of the Namgung family.
He was the Heavenly Venerable.
And furthermore.
"Just an old man who came to catch his runaway grandson."
He was the grandfather of Mudang Gwoeseon, Namgung Hyeong.