Chapter 85 – Imugi (1)

Sun-woo received various questions from Nan-seol’s master and made an awkward expression. From questions about his sect and master to when he met Nan-seol, he had no choice but to flounder at her continuous questions.

He could have roughly passed it off as something like the Alliance’s secret warrior, but under Hong Jeong-in’s gaze examining him with a peculiar look, Sun-woo broke into a cold sweat.

“I thought we’d be discovered and got in trouble.”

“Master seems to have misunderstood. I’m really sorry.”

On the way down the mountain, Nan-seol apologized on behalf of her master toward Sun-woo who shook his head with a pale face.

But a smile lingered on her face as she bowed her head.

“But why did you come all the way here yourself?”

Nan-seol raised her head and threw a question at Hwangbo Ja-gyeom and Wang Mun-pung with a puzzled expression.

At her words, the two people made bitter expressions.

“Right now the Alliance is practically in wartime mode. The Evil faction has risen up and conflicts with the Demonic Cult are fierce, so it’s right before a great war.”

Wang Mun-pung answered her question as representative.

“The summoners belonging to the Alliance all know it’s a situation caused by contaminated summoners, the Blood Cult, and brainwashed people, but the others in the Alliance have no way of knowing. Plus, removing talk of summoners and insisting the Blood Cult did it was too much of a stretch.”

Wang Mun-pung’s story continued.

“Moreover, since many members who couldn’t return from missions were announced as missing, the squad became practically nominal. Seizing that opportunity, the elder council turned most of the squad members toward the Demonic Cult side.”

Wang Mun-pung said that far and let out a small sigh.

“The Blood Cult bastards caused trouble then immediately hid, so even Advisor Zhuge can’t help it. Thanks to that.”

“Only a few people are left tracking the Blood Cult now.”

Hwangbo Ja-gyeom cut in from the side. He too had quite a dissatisfied expression.

“No, if you dislike it that much, why didn’t you transfer to the combat squad?”

As Wang Mun-pung said, Hwangbo Ja-gyeom seemed dissatisfied about remaining in the squad tracking the Blood Cult.

“What for if I go. If those above give missions, I’ll immediately be flung to the wrong place. The guys who went to the combat squad all have messed up expressions too.”

“Serves them right, you bastard. It’s punishment for teasing me all this time.”

Even now they were bickering with each other.

“Since personnel drastically decreased, what can we do. We have to supplement. Plus, there aren’t many capable summoners not belonging to the Alliance left either. That’s why we came to find you.”

“Well, we ran away because it’s noisy inside the Alliance.”

At Hwangbo Ja-gyeom’s words, Wang Mun-pung sighed. As he said, their position dealing with the Blood Cult had become extremely small within the Alliance.

When the Evil faction and Demonic Cult were immediately urgent, there weren’t many Alliance warriors who would view favorably a squad tracking an invisible organization.

“After calling you out, we were planning to wander around leisurely under the pretext of tracking the Blood Cult…”

Wang Mun-pung looked back at Sun-woo and sighed.

Wang Mun-pung’s thoughts seemed to be going well until just a moment ago.

During the journey to Mount Hua, they could somewhat feel the traveling mood, and while waiting for Nan-seol, Mount Hua Sect treated them well as guests.

And while waiting for Nan-seol outside the mountain gate in a happy mood, a mission dropped, and immediately after Sun-woo appeared.

“But this mission seems quite troublesome…”

Sun-woo agreed with Hwangbo Ja-gyeom’s grumbling.

[Deal with the contamination sources in the northern peak area of Mount Hua (華山).]

This short voice content was the mission that came down to the party a moment ago.

Probably the Summoners aimed for when Hwangbo Ja-gyeom’s party and Nan-seol met and issued a mission around Mount Hua.

“Let’s go quickly. It’s not just one or two. If time passes, things will get worse.”

“Demonic Cult, Evil faction, Blood Cult, contamination sources, and drugged madmen too… It’s more hopeless than the great war ten years ago.”

At Sun-woo’s words, Wang Mun-pung clicked his tongue.

As they moved away from Mount Hua Sect, the party gradually began running using lightness kung fu.

***

The party consisting of absolute masters and lightness kung fu experts ran north at tremendous speed. Though Mount Hua’s steep rocks blocked their path, they couldn’t hold the party’s ankles.

Sun-woo’s party crossed several mountain peaks in half a day and could arrive at a slash-and-burn farmer village near the northern peaks.

The village appearance the party discovered after crossing a low hill was a typical mountain village appearance.

Fields cultivated from mountain slopes and over ten thatched houses visible here and there looked like a beautiful oriental painting harmonizing with the surrounding scenery to ordinary people.

But to the party who were summoners, the village looked like a faded watercolor painted over with murky colors.

“There seems to be a contamination source in the village.”

“There are corpses everywhere. Are there no living people?”

Following Nan-seol’s words, Hwangbo Ja-gyeom frowned and spoke. As he said, people collapsed here and there throughout the village were visible.

“Only one presence is felt from the village.”

Sun-woo deployed sorcery to check the village’s vibrations then shook his head.

“Then we need to catch them.”

With Hwangbo Ja-gyeom’s words, the party all drew their weapons and began running toward the village.

“The presence is felt inside the third shack!”

Sun-woo’s sorcery precisely informed them of the opponent’s location, and,

“Here I go!”

Hwangbo Ja-gyeom excitedly smashed through the sliding door and jumped into the shack. At the same time, the shack’s back wall burst and two people popped outside.

One was Hwangbo Ja-gyeom who had rushed inside, and the other was a masked person wearing black martial clothes. But now the mask didn’t seem very meaningful.

Three-fourths of the opponent’s mask was torn off, revealing their face clearly.

It was an ordinary young man, but his greatly distorted face, eyes burning red, and appearance with blood all over his mouth looked extremely grotesque.

“As expected, a contamination source.”

Seeing his appearance changed to a murky color, Wang Mun-pung nodded from behind. Wang Mun-pung looked very relaxed. As if he only planned to watch, he seemed to be looking for a good seat here and there.

“But looking at the clothing, is he a Blood Cult guy? But why did a Blood Cult bastard appear in such a remote mountain valley?”

As Wang Mun-pung said, his appearance looked like a Blood Cult martial artist.

“Don’t tell me he ate people?”

Nan-seol, who had rushed ahead to block the back path, saw what the contamination source held in his hand and her eyes became fierce.

In his left hand not holding a sword, one leg dripping blood was held.

“Damn, inside is even more of a mess. There’s no intact corpse in the room.”

At Hwangbo Ja-gyeom’s words, Nan-seol’s eyes became even sharper.

“Ho, the future Sword Empress is quite angry.”

Wang Mun-pung clicked his tongue at Nan-seol’s appearance, then looked beside him and tilted his head.

“Wait, what are you doing here?”

Sun-woo stood beside him. He was watching the scene ahead in a posture similar to Wang Mun-pung.

“There doesn’t seem to be a place for me to step in.”

It was as Sun-woo said.

“This one is mine! Don’t interfere!”

Hwangbo Ja-gyeom gripped his saber and shouted toward Nan-seol.

But unlike before, Nan-seol didn’t step back. She too was blocking the contamination source’s opposite side with an extremely angry expression.

Her expression said if it came toward her, she would immediately finish it.

“Tsk, it’s really hard to interfere.”

“More than that, the contamination source’s appearance is peculiar. Excluding contaminated summoners, they all lost reason and rushed at summoners, but that contamination source seems different.”

“Right? It looks like he’s searching for a place to escape.”

As Sun-woo said, the Blood Cult person who became a contamination source was rolling his eyes searching for an opening. It seemed like he was thinking of breaking through between the two and running away if possible.

But he had no way to escape. Though he became stronger transforming into a contamination source, he who was only first-rate level couldn’t beat Hwangbo Ja-gyeom who was a complete absolute master.

Moreover, escaping toward Nan-seol’s side, who was emitting energy so much that her hair swayed with rage, was also impossible.

Moreover, while confronting each other, the ground around the shack’s backyard rose up.

At the earth wall shooting up surrounding the contamination source and two summoners, the contamination source gave up escaping and just rushed at Hwangbo Ja-gyeom.

***

Shortly after, the contamination source’s head flew off by Hwangbo Ja-gyeom’s saber.

At the same time, the village that had become murky returned to its original color.

[Contamination source has been dealt with. Six contamination sources remaining.]

At the same time, the Summoners’ voice was heard in the party’s ears.

“No, this feels like we’re going to struggle like hell.”

“For once we’re thinking the same.”

At Hwangbo Ja-gyeom’s words, Wang Mun-pung also clicked his tongue. No matter how much they were masters, searching for contamination sources in this steep Mount Hua wasn’t an easy task.

“Fortunately several places are visible, but when will we find them all?”

As Wang Mun-pung said, even from here, several places that looked faded in color were visible in the distance.

Checking the nearest lower mountain ridge, that place too was changed in color centered on a small village.

But Sun-woo stood before the corpse tilting his head.

“But would a Blood Cult warrior fall in such a remote place while contaminated?”

“Hmm, that’s right. This village isn’t this Blood Cult bastard’s hometown or anything, right? Or maybe there’s a secret branch somewhere here.”

Even while speaking, Wang Mun-pung seemed to feel it was somewhat random and made an awkward expression.

“We can find out after beating them all down. And catch these!”

Hwangbo Ja-gyeom threw Sun-woo and Nan-seol each a stick with a wick attached.

“It’s a signal flare. When something happens, pull the wick and throw it upward.”

When Sun-woo and Nan-seol looked at him with bewildered expressions, he explained about the signal flares he threw.

“Why are you giving us these?”

At Sun-woo’s question, Hwangbo Ja-gyeom showed his teeth and smiled fiercely.

“Let’s split up and deal with them. Looking at them, they’re guys we can catch alone sufficiently. If we cluster around and miss them, it becomes troublesome.”

Nan-seol immediately nodded at his words. Seeing the contamination source’s cannibalism, she seemed extremely enraged.

But Sun-woo couldn’t help but worry at his words.

“It could be dangerous. There’s no guarantee other places are this easy.”

“That’s why I gave signal flares. If problems arise, pull back and wait for others. You can at least pull back, right?”

Hwangbo Ja-gyeom seemed to have used his head somewhat after being hit before. Only the direction was toward being able to rampage more alone…

At this point, it was difficult for Sun-woo to stop him. There might still be unharmed people, so it wasn’t easy to keep insisting on safely dealing with one place at a time.

Eventually the party split up. Hwangbo Ja-gyeom, Nan-seol, and Sun-woo with Wang Mun-pung. They decided to move in three groups like this.

Sun-woo and Wang Mun-pung going together was because Wang Mun-pung chose Sun-woo.

“Why did you decide to go with me?”

Watching the two people setting off first, Sun-woo threw a question to Wang Mun-pung.

“That’s obvious. Why would I go with that fighting maniac and get into trouble? Moreover, the Mount Hua young lady doesn’t help me. There’s a high possibility I’ll rather be baggage.”

At his words, Sun-woo tilted his head.

“My martial arts don’t match well with yours either, do they?”

“What nonsense. Going with you has the highest probability of preserving my life. If you use those strange techniques, I won’t die anyway.”

“If that’s your worry, you should have opposed splitting up together.”

“Heh, as if that Hwangbo bastard would listen well.”

Sun-woo had no choice but to agree with his words. The two people briefly looked around the desolate village with corpses lying everywhere, then launched their bodies.

Toward the murky forest visible in the distance, the two people ran quickly.