Chapter 106 – Divine Cult (2)

A massive plaza as big as a soccer field, numerous halls and towers, and martial artists guarding everywhere, anyone could see the Divine Cult’s prosperous influence at a glance.

The cult’s martial artists standing at the entrance and everywhere had their eyes lit up guarding, but fortunately, no one looked strangely at the shrine maiden and Sun-woo following her using illusion technique.

The shrine maiden walked around the side of the massive plaza moving her steps to the small path behind the halls.

“Weren’t we going to where the Holy Maiden is?”

Looking at servants and workers visible around, Sun-woo whispered small to the shrine maiden.

If it was where the Holy Maiden was, it seemed like it would be quite important, but seeing the path they were taking now, it was a completely unexpected direction.

“This path is correct. Well, we could go through the central main road. But that place only high-ranking martial artists pass through… Shrine maidens like us can’t pass through.”

Looks like they received less recognition than expected.

Hearing the somewhat gloomy shrine maiden’s words, the two people passed between halls through the small path and arrived before a small hill positioned to the north.

The not-large hill positioned north of the halls was a rocky mountain made of massive rocks.

Below the rocky mountain was a giant iron gate similar in shape to what he saw at the place where he obtained martial arts and sword before, but even more massive.

[Light Under Heaven (Gwangmyeongcheonha)]

The moment he saw the Divine Cult’s doctrine engraved on the gate, he felt breathless.

Massive Chinese characters carved to an absurd depth. That was made by a martial arts master slashing with sword qi.

Probably an absolute master of the Divine Cult from long ago clearly left that on that giant iron gate.

At a glance it looked like an important place, but unexpectedly, before the iron gate was just quiet.

Several martial artists holding spears were guarding before the iron gate, but they didn’t seem to even reach first-rate. Even to Sun-woo who didn’t know the circumstances, they richly gave off the feeling of guarding formally.

The iron gate also looked very worn. Unlike the gate seen before that was completely abandoned, but still couldn’t possibly say it was well-managed even unto death.

The shrine maiden bowed her head greeting the two martial artists then guided Sun-woo to the small cave beside the gate.

The two martial artists who greeted the shrine maiden saw Sun-woo following behind and tilted their heads briefly, but didn’t particularly ask the shrine maiden.

“This place is the cult’s altar continuing from ancient times. In the past, all rituals occurred at this place, but now it’s a place only Holy Maiden-nims and us shrine maidens frequent. In the past, whenever performing rituals, that gate opened wide… Now we have no choice but to pass through the newly made cave beside like this.”

She walked the cave with an apologetic, lamenting expression.

The position of Holy Maidens and shrine maidens within the Divine Cult was a very ambiguous situation.

Ordinary believers still worshipping the Divine Cult as religion looked up to the Holy Maiden, but inside the Divine Cult’s main headquarters, they seemed quite marginalized.

Like watching the appearance of the Emperor winning in the fight between Pope and Emperor in medieval times, Sun-woo felt strange.

The newly drilled cave soon ended and a giant underground cave appeared.

With a giant gate visible in one distant side, this cave appeared to be an underground passage continuing from the gate originally.

The massive cave over 20 meters wide was gradually heading downward. It was a giant space like revealing the entire hill’s interior, and Sun-woo entering the cave began feeling a sense of wrongness sweeping his body.

“Oh, you noticed. Amazing. Even master warriors didn’t really know.”

When Sun-woo looked around with a tense expression, the shrine maiden looked at Sun-woo with an impressed expression.

“It’s a formation (jinbeop) that Holy Maidens and shamans from long ago created. It’s a formation that disconnects from outside so as not to interfere with connection to the Supreme Lord.”

‘As expected, this is it.’

If it was a formation, certainly summoners had no choice but to be unable to find the Holy Maiden. Sun-woo breathed a sigh of relief.

It wasn’t that something was deep underground or there was a contaminated region. Having experienced only difficult missions every time, it was time for an easy mission to come.

The already wide cave became gradually wider going downward and eventually the end became a large underground plaza.

Around the plaza stood giant statues appearing closer to Indian gods rather than Chinese gods, and in the plaza center, complex patterns were embroidered.

Yeonhwa was kneeling and praying at the pattern’s center. With a halo shining, it was a very sacred appearance.

Though not felt well until now thanks to her playful personality, certainly Yeonhwa was right as a Holy Maiden properly using divine power.

“Ugh! Prayer is really boring!”

But Sun-woo and the shrine maiden’s emotion shattered at Yeonhwa’s words while stretching and grumbling.

“Holy Maiden-nim! How can you grumble out loud! The Supreme Lord will be angry!”

“Well, anyway whether grumbling inside or grumbling outside, He’ll notice everything, so doesn’t matter.”

At the shrine maiden’s angry voice, Yeonhwa answered with a welcoming voice and turned her body. And seeing Sun-woo standing together with the shrine maiden, she smiled brightly.

“You came! Fortunately, my intuition was accurate. I was quite unsure…”

Yeonhwa seemed surprised that her prophecy was correct.

Though at this point it wasn’t easy to dismiss as intuition, Sun-woo who knew Yeonhwa didn’t particularly have prophecy ability decided to just think of it as part of divine power.

“You were unsure but gathered all nearby shrine maidens and gave instructions?”

The shrine maiden shook her head. Though a Holy Maiden with tremendous divine power, that mindset was truly not easy to follow.

But since Yeonhwa’s divine power and instructions were never wrong, she decided to pass this matter with a sigh.

Yeonhwa rose from her seat with difficulty and smiled toward the shrine maiden.

“Then shall we go? Cholyeon can continue the remaining prayer.”

“Yes?”

At Yeonhwa’s words, the shrine maiden blinked.

“Well, for a 30-day prayer, doesn’t matter if a Holy Maiden does it or a shrine maiden does it. The Supreme Lord isn’t someone who cares about such things. From some point, Holy Maidens came to be in charge because outside keeps picking at this and that.”

“No, that’s right but. If you suddenly say that…”

But Yeonhwa waved her hand lightly at the shrine maiden then began moving her steps. Thanks to that, the shrine maiden had no choice but to sit down in the place she sat with a tearful face.

“Is it okay to leave like that? Plus you’re not even asking why I came…”

Seeing her after a long time, following Yeonhwa’s pace wasn’t easy.

“Hmm, anyway to other people, just telling them the truth that I gave instructions is enough, and Sun-woo-ssi coming is because those people up there couldn’t make contact so you came. If we go outside, we’ll know the reason.”

At Yeonhwa’s words answering with a comfortable face, Sun-woo ended up making a slightly fed-up expression. No matter how much he looked, worry didn’t seem to exist for Yeonhwa.

‘Is it because she’s a Holy Maiden…’

Well, even the shrine maiden sitting behind not worrying at all appeared to be Divine Cult Holy Maidens’ characteristic.

But from Sun-woo’s position, there was need to explain.

Sun-woo explained the events that happened in the previous mission and the new mission received this time.

While talking about the previous mission story, when content about Sun-woo seeing the past through neidan came out, Yeonhwa frowned.

“As expected, Holy Maiden Nanhwa-nim who disappeared was kidnapped and brainwashed.”

The Holy Maiden Sun-woo saw through the neidan was indeed a Holy Maiden like Yeonhwa. After failing to kidnap Yeonhwa, they kidnapped another Holy Maiden.

“It was chaotic for a while. Because one of two Holy Maidens besides Master disappeared. Though not much meaning to martial artist folks, it’s an important matter to believers.”

Yeonhwa breathed a big sigh.

“Thanks to that, the expedition prayer this time was Holy Maiden Nanhwa-nim’s charge but I ended up taking it. If Sun-woo-ssi hadn’t come, I nearly had to fill all the time.”

Hearing Yeonhwa’s words continuing leisurely, it was an atmosphere where Sun-woo would sigh.

While talking, the two people arrived near the big iron gate. They could exit outside through the small cave beside, but Sun-woo didn’t move further.

“No wonder it felt too easy entering. No matter how much they don’t care about the Holy Maiden, in a situation where one person already disappeared, they wouldn’t thoughtlessly abandon it like this.”

According to what Earth Spirits informed, outside this giant iron gate, numerous people were gathered waiting for the two people to come out.

“Still, looks like they really ignore us. Feels like using as bait rather than protection.”

At Sun-woo’s words, Yeonhwa who immediately caught on to the outside situation opened her mouth.

“Probably Master decided. She tried in various ways to restore weakened position.”

At Yeonhwa’s words, Sun-woo had no choice but to look at her again. Because the nuance of the words seemed like complaining that Master was moving politically.

But there was no need or reason to nitpick internal circumstances.

“Is there no other path? Still, it looks like a fairly important place, so drilling holes recklessly is…”

If there was no other path, he was thinking of just drilling through, but fortunately the Divine Cult’s altar didn’t need to become Swiss cheese.

“There’s a path Holy Maidens use.”

She turned around again and went down. The two people passed beside the shrine maiden who was praying intently for quite a while, and the shrine maiden stopped praying and looked at the two people with an absurd expression.

Yeonhwa walked behind the statue positioned frontally among various statues surrounding the plaza, a statue firmly gripping a sword.

It was about a 10-meter statue, and Yeonhwa placed her hand on the statue’s heel.

And when Yeonhwa’s hand shone brightly, part of the wall behind the statue sank downward making rough sounds.

Behind the wall, a fairly large underground stone chamber positioned connected with a short passage.

“In the old days, this was where the warrior protecting the Holy Maiden stayed during prayer. Because the Divine Cult’s influence wasn’t as great as now, during prayer times, Dharma Protectors protected us.”

Whether because the Divine Cult’s influence grew or because Holy Maidens’ status lowered was unknown, but he decided to think positively. Anyway, when going outside, they seemed to even establish peak warrior-level escorts.

Sun-woo looked around the stone chamber. The large stone chamber over tens of meters wide looked too big to just use for sleeping.

“On the other side, there’s one secret passage going to the hill’s opposite side.”

Yeonhwa tried to guide Sun-woo immediately but stopped her feet. Because Sun-woo didn’t follow.

Sun-woo seemed not to have heard Yeonhwa’s words. His eyes were continuously sweeping the stone chamber’s walls and ceiling.

“These are all scratches made by Dharma Protector folks who stayed at this place. Being warriors, looks like they couldn’t just rest.”

The walls and ceiling were full of numerous lines and carved traces.

“Several times the Cult Leader or Dharma Protector folks heard stories and came to examine the traces, but all were disappointed and just went back.”

Probably she brought up words worried Sun-woo would waste time because of traces of profound martial arts.

Certainly her worry proved true.

“Let’s go out after a little while.”

Sun-woo moved his steps toward the wall with an entranced expression.

Yeonhwa sat on a stone chair placed in the corner with an expression like it couldn’t be helped. Looks like time would be needed to leave.

Fortunately, the warriors didn’t seem likely to enter inside the altar. Moreover, this generation’s Dharma Protector and Cult Leader didn’t even know such a stone chamber existed. Therefore, even if spending a bit of time, there wouldn’t be a big problem.

Sun-woo seemed to have goosebumps at the feast of sword qi visible before his eyes. Naturally, with this sword qi he could only feel traces of that profound martial arts, but even that alone was sufficient.

Seeing Chinese characters made with sword qi on the main gate, he felt greedy, but he couldn’t place his hand on the gate with warriors stationed beside.

But this place had no one watching.

Sun-woo gulped down saliva at the full feast spread before his eyes then placed his hand on the sword qi traces.

And Sun-woo’s internal energy transformed into a skill manifesting through his hand.

<Elapsed Time (Experiencing)>

Sun-woo’s time began heading to the past.