Chapter 107 – Divine Cult (3)

Yeonhwa looked at Sun-woo with a puzzled expression. Sun-woo wasn’t studying martial arts by looking at traces remaining on the wall like other martial artists, but placed his hand on the traces then closed his eyes and became lost in thought.

She also thought, is he tracing the marks with his hand? But Yeonhwa soon recalled Sun-woo’s origins.

She mistook because he wore clothes like the cult’s martial artists, but Sun-woo was a person from another world. Moreover, a person who could use various magic never seen before. Even now he might be grasping martial arts using his own method.

‘Really a fascinating person.’

Yeonhwa looked at Sun-woo continuously with sparkling eyes.

Sun-woo removing his hand from the wall and stepping back was after tracing about half of one wall side with his hand.

Sun-woo wanted to continue checking, but used his ability to the bottom so the past was no longer visible.

But even just this much was to the point of bursting from being full, not just satisfied.

Until just before, he saw with eyes and experienced with body the training of Dharma Protectors and martial artists who left traces on the wall.

Though different martial arts from various eras, experience of numerous martial artists reaching from peak to super-peak level absolutely had to be tremendously helpful.

Just experiencing briefly didn’t immediately embody it in his body, but fortunately the content just seen stuck in his head without disappearing. Looks like it was a side effect of the ability.

Sun-woo immediately used a potion to recover internal energy. Regrettably, the superpower seemed to have cooldown time so couldn’t be used again, but consumed internal energy nearly all recovered.

Waiting until he could use the superpower again and checking other traces too would be good, but too much excess isn’t good. Now was time to leave.

“Did you gain much?”

Yeonhwa threw a question to Sun-woo approaching her, and

“Gained sufficiently.”

Sun-woo answered her words while wearing a smile on his lips.

At Sun-woo’s words, Yeonhwa made a strange expression then guided him to the stone chamber’s opposite side.

On the stone chamber’s opposite side, a statue holding a sword was positioned this time too, but unlike before it was human-sized.

Yeonhwa placed her hand on the statue’s sword and began praying.

At that moment, with bright light the statue moved sideways and a passage appeared in that place.

At the quite obvious secret passage, Sun-woo couldn’t help but say a word.

“Looks like just moving the statue with force would work. Security that’s too easy…”

“Ah, if opened without the Holy Maiden praying, the entire passage collapses. It collapsed several times that way too.”

As expected, thorough preparation seemed made in its own way. Sun-woo who became slightly awkward hurriedly entered the passage following her.

This passage was quite long. As she said, if it collapsed, no one except Sun-woo seemed able to live.

The two people who walked for quite a while came to arrive at a dead end, and there was a wall with patterns engraved.

The moment Yeonhwa tried to place her hand on the pattern, Sun-woo opened his mouth with an awkward tone.

“There are people here too. Did they surround the entire mountain? Fortunately only two people but… How far does the barrier take effect?”

“Ah, as soon as you exit the passage, it’s outside the barrier.”

The amplification stones in inventory could remove contamination even here, but then he couldn’t know if the mission would be completed. Anyway, he had to go outside where connection with the Summoner occurs.

“Then can’t help it. Since we came this far, must buy time.”

When Sun-woo told Yeonhwa to continue proceeding, she placed her hand on the pattern, and the wall slid sideways revealing stairs going upward.

The two people immediately climbed the stairs, and above was inside an abandoned old shrine behind the hill.

Beside the stairs the two people climbed stood the statue that originally hid the stairs pushed aside, and in front of the two people stood two men and women glaring at Sun-woo and Yeonhwa.

“Yeonhwa! Do you know what you’re doing right now!”

The one shouting at Yeonhwa was a woman who looked quite old. Seeing she wore clothes similar to Yeonhwa, Sun-woo seemed to know who she was.

“Master was waiting. I worried I might leave without greeting, but fortunately.”

“What?”

As expected, it was Yeonhwa’s master as Sun-woo predicted. Yeonhwa wasn’t surprised at all at her master’s appearance.

She continued trying to say farewell greetings, but before that the man standing beside the master stepped forward.

“Looks like buying time. First catch them and start talking.”

At the man’s words, Sun-woo had no choice but to make a disappointed expression inside.

[Starting dimensional travel after 1 minute. Prepare for movement.]

Because of the sound heard immediately when the two people came outside the passage just before. It was exactly the voice of the Summoner announcing dimensional travel.

As expected, the mission didn’t end with just having Yeonhwa remove contamination.

Time remaining was 1 minute, longer time than expected. Just bought ten-some seconds with Yeonhwa’s conversation. But regrettably, the opponent seemed to notice.

The man who stepped forward in front of the master wore armor in form similar to general uniform and in one hand held a bumpy thick iron flail, a whip (pyeon).

At that appearance, Sun-woo also immediately took out his sword.

When Sun-woo grasped his sword and released hidden internal energy, the middle-aged man rushing in flinched briefly.

At that moment, Sun-woo shot forward. The opponent was clearly peak level or higher, time remaining wasn’t much, but in a situation clearly being pushed in martial arts, couldn’t even have first strike stolen.

Kwang!

With tremendous sound, Sun-woo who shot forward immediately bounced backward. As expected, the opponent was above peak level, a master who entered super-peak level.

The sword Sun-woo swung didn’t even touch the opponent’s whip and was blocked by protective qi. Rather, he bounced while blocking the whip the opponent swung.

A situation where the opponent had completely no damage, but the man only glared at Sun-woo with a deeply frowning face.

“What are you? Putting aside useless disguise technique, how do you know my whip’s trajectory? Plus using martial arts richly giving off this cult’s scent.”

As expected, reaching about super-peak level, illusion technique didn’t work. Moreover, the Demonic Cult super-peak master seemed able to feel faintly Sun-woo’s martial arts lineage that the Orthodox Faction completely didn’t know.

But Sun-woo wore a smile on his lips. Because experience obtained in the stone chamber just before immediately displayed effect.

Among training Sun-woo saw using superpower was martial arts using whips (pyeon), and the martial artist before his eyes used exactly the same whip as that.

Naturally thinking he would use the same type of martial arts, he pushed his sword into the opponent’s attack trajectory and that fit precisely.

Though pushed by internal energy and bounced, Sun-woo was sufficiently satisfied with the situation.

“A situation completely different from expected. Not a matter to take lightly.”

The middle-aged warrior, one person among the Demonic Cult’s Dharma Protectors called Whip King (Pyeonwang), called Whip Demon by the Orthodox Faction, bared his teeth toward Sun-woo. At that moment, red energy began wrapping around the iron flail, the whip he held.

Then Yeonhwa’s master standing beside shouted in surprise.

“Planning to destroy everything?”

But he seemed not to hear her words.

“Oh no!”

Sun-woo was startled at the internal energy surging from the opponent’s body and pressed his hand to the ground.

Kwaaaaakwang!

Simultaneously, Sun-woo’s front, the shrine floor became a wall surging upward. And Sun-woo placed his hand on the surging wall and cast magic.

Shining patterns appeared on the wall and moisture in the air poured onto the wall, and together with that the wall froze solid.

He raised a wall with sorcery while simultaneously using water magic and ice magic doubly to freeze the wall.

Kwang!

At that moment, the wall exploded with tremendous roar. The giant earth wall strengthened with ice magic shattered in an instant.

But fortunately, energy didn’t fly even to behind the earth wall. Freezing and strengthening the earth wall was the correct answer.

“Peak martial arts plus magic? Exactly where do you belong!”

The appearance of Whip King with surprised expression was visible behind the shattered earth wall.

“Self-taught!”

Sun-woo answered Whip King’s words and threw his body again.

“That can’t be! A magic user of this level being self-taught! Plus never heard or seen a magic user having martial arts of this degree!”

He blocked Sun-woo’s attack with an expression of disbelief. However, because he used a powerful technique just before, the protective qi wrapped around his body also disappeared, and internal energy loaded in the whip also considerably weakened.

Even so, Sun-woo had no choice but to be pushed in martial arts’ purity and power. However, he offset disadvantage with advantages of sword’s sturdiness and being familiar with opponent’s martial arts. Thanks to that, Sun-woo endured over ten exchanges without being pushed.

Of course, if time passed just a bit more, the opponent’s internal energy would recover and he clearly would be pushed immediately, but no more time remained now.

[Starting dimensional travel.]

With the voice, Sun-woo and Yeonhwa’s bodies began blurring.

“Master, stay healthy! I told shrine maidens about aftermath!”

“Wait!”

“Stop!”

The two surprised people’s voices resounded in the half-shattered shrine, but ending with Yeonhwa’s greeting, the two people’s appearances disappeared from the shrine.

“Goodness, even Yeonhwa disappeared, this can’t be.”

Yeonhwa’s master sat down on the floor half out of her mind. She was master of two Holy Maidens Nanhwa and Yeonhwa and the highest religious leader of this Divine Cult, but actually had nearly lost divine power.

For such reason, she stuck to martial artists’ side managing Holy Maidens even more, but couldn’t get her mind straight at the Holy Maidens’ disappearance suddenly blowing in.

“Don’t tell me, Yeonhwa disappeared on her own, then did Nanhwa also leave on her own feet? Why did she leave? Was there an oracle? But why didn’t she tell me?”

She sat down rambling all over. She who talked distractedly for a while suddenly came to her senses and shouted toward Whip King pondering something.

“Must quickly tell the Cult Leader to send a search party! No matter how strong the magic, they couldn’t have gone far!”

But Whip King didn’t respond to her words. He opened his mouth while looking at his whip with a serious expression.

“That’s not important. What’s important is that the Dharma Protector’s successor who disappeared appeared after hundreds of years. The Wheel-Turning King’s successor.”

Though said to have disappeared long ago, he couldn’t not know fellow Dharma Protector’s martial arts. At first he couldn’t recognize it, but as exchanges repeated, he could notice to some degree.

Eventually, when exchanging the last clash, the opponent’s sword confirmed was undoubtedly Wheel-Turning Demon, Dharma Protector Wheel-Turning King’s martial arts.

“Let’s return! Must report to the Cult Leader. That the Wheel-Turning King’s successor appeared.”

He immediately soared upward through the shrine’s burst ceiling, and shortly after when martial artists who surrounded surroundings entered inside the shrine, only Yeonhwa’s master with spirit drained remained there.

***

At the same time.

Sun-woo and Yeonhwa dimensionally traveled to Sun-woo’s house yard.

“Where is this?”

Perhaps because she moved to an unfamiliar house yard, Yeonhwa looked around surroundings with a curious expression.

“My house.”

“Wow! There are houses like this too. I thought there were only tremendously big houses.”

For her who only saw downtown buildings when she came last time, the single-story residential house was just fascinating.

But Sun-woo had to process the mission first as priority.

He took out amplification stones and handed them to Yeonhwa.

“So this is what’s called amplification stones.”

Yeonhwa immediately placed her hand on the jewel then removed the amplification stones’ contamination.

Seeing that appearance, Sun-woo sighed. Because he went through that hardship to solve such a simple matter.

Fortunately helpful things happened, but if not, he clearly would have been quite deflated.

“Then returning now?”

Since all missions were completed, now was time for Yeonhwa to return.

But Yeonhwa shook her head at Sun-woo’s words.

“Probably not?”

“What?”

A voice was heard in bewildered Sun-woo’s ears.

[Mission completed. Giving rewards.]

Up to here was ordinary mission completion voice. But the voice didn’t end there.

[Chain mission. Protect summoner Yeonhwa in summoner Sun-woo’s dimension. Duration is until summoner Yeonhwa can be summoned freely.]

When summoning Yeonhwa became difficult, the Summoners carelessly entrusted Yeonhwa to Sun-woo.

Sun-woo looked at Yeonhwa with an absurd expression.

A freeloader appeared.