Chapter 218 Who’s Who

Chapter 218 Who's Who

The shadows in the darkness cried out, then stopped.
Next.
Shhh.
A middle-aged man in a black robe quietly turned and walked away.
One.
I cringed.
It didn’t even make the slightest sound of stepping on a blade of grass.
It’s a ghostly walk.
I felt like I was sliding across the ground as the long hem of my dress covered my feet.
And with his steps, the myriad infernals swiftly parted.
Sasasasat, Sasasasat……
It was getting out of the way.
And with that, the multitude of shadows that had gathered behind his back slithered away again.
Like a pack of beasts following their leader.
How far we’ve come.
Somewhere in the woods, a middle-aged man stopped weeping and spoke in a low voice.
“I don’t have to hide anymore.”
Shortly thereafter, five short figures emerge from the overgrown brush on the flank.
Rustle.
He was a hairy man in his forties, with a stout body that resembled a log and a large mole on his left cheek.
Naknyeong.
Yes.
He’s the one that Namgung Heonlin and Zhen Hui have been tracking.
“Did you finish……?”
The middle-aged man tugged at the corners of his mouth as Ning stepped closer to ask.
“Hoot. Sure.”
Is it because of their height difference?
Standing with his back straight, the middle-aged man looked like a giant of a man.
“What happened?”
“I killed them all. The last two fell off a cliff.”
“Ugh! Well, then you might be lucky to survive…….”
“Not likely. It’s a notoriously inhospitable place in the Ten Thousanders.”
“Ah……!”
“It’s a place I wouldn’t dare step foot in. Legend has it that there’s a hot swamp underneath, and the slightest touch will melt you to death.”
“Hmmm, that sounds like a scary place. But there’s no way to know with your own two eyes if it really is, so…….”
“The record exists.”
“……!”
“It belongs to the only survivor of a man who went to the bottom of that cliff a long time ago.”
The middle-aged man nodded as he listened.
“Well, as long as you have a record…… By the way, is my family safe?”
“Whatever. Proof?”
“Here.”
Naknyeong pulled out a small, flat wooden plaque.
It was a gift from Nangin.
It was made of oak and had no crest, no symbols, just a red line.
The middle-aged man who took it laughed quietly.
Naknyeong, who had been watching the scene, felt a chill run down her spine.
“Up close, it has a bizarre appearance.
A smooth, unshaven jaw, a sharp brow, a pair of pupils tinted a dull grayish-white, and skin too white to show any hint of blood.
It was lifeless.
It’s like coming face to face with a walking invoice.
Then the middle-aged man asked with an odd smile.
“Does this make me look like a kangxi (殭屍)?”
A corpse that moves without a soul is known as a Kangxi.
It was a forbidden human weapon made from the flesh of a lion, utilizing the worst of sorcery.
Wincing, Naknyeong threw up his hands.
“Oh, no. What…….”
“Huh, I don’t care. I’m free to think.”
“I just thought your prayer was unusual. Don’t get me wrong.”
Naknyeong muttered to himself as he said it.
‘Yeah. It can’t be Kangxi. She’s got an ego like that…….’
A middle-aged man suddenly broke his neck.
Wazazak-.
Suddenly, a sense of foreboding settled over Naknyeong’s mind.
“Hmm! What is it?
A middle-aged man with a grim smile spoke up.
“Kwik…… should see his family now, right?”
Naknyeong said, managing a straight face.
“I can’t wait to see it, where can I go…….”
Pooh-pooh-pooh-!
Suddenly, an eerie sound bursts out.
“Ouch!”
With a piercing shriek, Naknyeong staggered to his feet.
A long object embedded deeply in the left flank.
It was a middle-aged man’s fingernails.
Jurrrrrr.
Thin blood soaking your clothes.
In the blink of an eye, the black nail stretched out and stabbed him.
Then.
ppppppppppp.
The five nails that dug deep into the flesh quickly shrunk again.
Naknyeong shouted, stumbling backward.
“Off…… what the hell are you doing!”
“To give your wife and daughter what they need.”
Dreading the end of a middle-aged man’s speech.
“Kiaak, kiaak!”
“Kihayak!”
Behind him, crouching in the darkness, countless inhumans let out a guttural roar and rampaged ferociously.
Each of them went berserk as soon as they smelled the blood incense.
Not really.
Swoosh.
Two shadows, one large and one small, walked out with bizarre gestures.
Seeing their faces in the moonlight, Naknyeong’s eyes ripple as she recognizes them.
‘No……!
The two shadows turned out to be his wife and daughter.
One.
It looked weird.
Like a middle-aged man, his skin was as pale as his eyes, and his pupils were a dull grayish-white.
“Hey, honey, are you okay? Jin! Abida!”
But his wife and daughter had no answer.
“krug…….”
“Crrrr…….”
It just bared its sharp fangs like a ravenous beast and made creepy noises.
The middle-aged man stood up, licking the blood from his fingernails with his tongue.
“None of your words will fall on deaf ears, for you are nothing but a puppet who has lost her mind…… crap.”
“Gal! What have you done……!”
“I’ve made you a slave to the great kin who rule the night, so here, eat and drink to your heart’s content.”
The middle-aged man who said that waved his hand.
“Bam!”
“Kihayak!”
The mother and daughter, in a fit of rage, attacked Naknyeong in a frenzy.
“Oh…… no, please!”
Unable to do anything about it, he ended up as a piece of meat at the hands of his family.
Woo, woo, woo, woo, woo, woo……!
The mother and daughter sank their fangs into the bloodied body of Naknyeong, who fell to the ground, and drank his blood in pleasure.
The middle-aged man who looked at it smiled with satisfaction.
‘Hoohoo. Just a little longer and it will be wide open. The door for the return of the Absolute God…….’
He walked away quietly, muttering to himself.
“It’s almost time to execute our plan with the Shadowblade. Let’s enjoy it together.”
At the same time, the countless shadows around him wriggled ferociously and let out a terrifying roar.
“Kahak!”
“Kahaak!”
* * *
tak-
Sitting at his desk in the flickering light of his office, Chulhyeok laid down his paintbrush and flicked his ear.
“Someone tell me a story.”
He then snapped his fingers and stretched.
Then he saw two thick booklets in front of him.
It was a blank slate that I had just finished writing.
He pushed himself to his feet and stepped out of his office and into the moonlit courtyard.
I thought I’d shoot the breeze for a while and then go to bed.
And when I stood still and looked up at the night sky.
‘……!’
Suddenly, an unfamiliar scene flashed through my mind.
In the soft moonlight, a woman leans against a large tree and wipes away tears.
The scene of politeness vanished like a flash of lightning as Chuliu Hyeon’s face hardened.
‘This is…….’
It seemed to be related to a dream I had one day.
A subconscious memory trick.
However, the scene had nothing to do with the iron currents before he became a vegetable.
But that doesn’t mean it’s not a throwback to the days of the martial arts…….
I don’t understand this.
Frowning slightly, Chulhyeon recalled the dream from before.
A mysterious woman danced in a sensual robe.
The moonlight in my dreams was also high.
The laughter in the woman’s dance across the frosty ground was beautiful.
Although you can’t see what he looks like because of the cotton yarn covering his face.
-You’re here.
The woman who had finished dancing said as she approached.
I stepped forward, grabbed the cotton thread with both hands, and was interrupted by a short voice.
-That’s me.
Cheol Ryuhyeon was convinced.
That it all leads to one.
-You’ve become a sword after all. You wanted it so badly…….
It was clear that it was the same woman who had spoken to him in the dreams he’d first dismissed as strange, the dancing he’d seen in later dreams, and the scene that now flashed through his mind.
“There’s something.
Chulhuen stared at the moon in wonder, then strode back to his room.
‘If someone else’s memories have been planted in your head, …… let’s try to figure out what he left behind. It might be a little risky.’
* * *
“Hmph, hmph…… ugh…… wow…… that was dangerous.”
Namgung Hunlin, who had fallen deep into the swamp and swam out, exhaled heavily and crumpled his face.
His whole body was throbbing from the impact of the rapid fall.
The exhilarated expression on his neighbor’s face twisted.
“Black…… thought I was going to die.”
That’s when an amazing phenomenon came into view.
Thrrrr, thrrrr, thrrrr……
The nail disappeared like a lie and was soon replaced by a waterlogged muddy field.
Seeing that, Namgung Heonlin and Zhen Hui’s eyes went blank.
“Pleasant…… just…… what? Do you see anything?”
“No…… me, I saw it too, but……?”
“Nails appear and disappear, what a…….”
With those words, Nan Gongxunlin turned his head as if to survey his surroundings.
I couldn’t see anything but a thick fog.
“The Iron Gate Lord’s writings say it’s a misty swamp of mystery…… Looks like we’re in the right place.”
The head of the head, Zhu Yun, was told.
“Yeah, it’s a mystery swamp, and I just saw that phenomenon…… Ewww!”
“Are you okay?”
“Damn……, that crazy monster’s got some deep wounds.”
True to his word, a few small holes had been punched in Zhen Heng’s left arm.
It was a penetrating wound.
Rising to his feet, Namgung Hunlin walked over to him.
“Here, let me help you up.”
“Thanks. Whoa…… who is that guy?”
“I don’t know. But the way he was dressed, he didn’t look like he belonged to a cult.”
“I’ve never seen anything like it. My nails just grew longer.”
“As expected, a hundred thousand mountains are dangerous.”
“You’ve already made up your mind, but…….”
The smirk of exhilaration that clouded his features darkened.
Because your men are dead.
They’re all dead.
By a bizarre middle-aged man and a savage raid by a pack of fierce shadowy figures…….
After realizing what he’d swallowed, Nan Gongxunlin’s expression turned sullen.
But he soon composed himself, and clasped his hands together in a gesture of exhilaration.
“I must survive, so I must pay this debt!”
“Whatever……!”
The moment Zhen Heng nodded, Nan Gongxunlin’s eyes flashed.
“Let’s find it. The Iron Gate Master taught me where…… the Beecher that the Sword Emperor had arranged for Qi Yan in the past.”