Chronicles of Heavenly Demon - Chapter 198: Tomb of Martial Gods (2)

Woon-seong shot down the passageway like an arrow.

It was obviously a passageway of the Thousand Paths Disorienting Labyrinth.

The ceiling and floor or the corridor were made of stone. Woon-seong dashed through, feet slamming against the bottom.

His body was lighter than ever; energy coursing. At this rate, it didn’t seem like he would tire even after fighting for several hours.

Since there was a weight limit on the passageways, he had removed his iron bracers.

Of course, he wouldn’t actually be able to fight for hours on end. A strong poison was still eating away at his body.

Even now, after releasing the iron bracers, he couldn’t feel the coming of his second body modification.

It was just that hard for a body that had crossed the wall to cross a second time.

Please let my body endure until the end of this battle.

Woon-seong hit the ground running. He was the only one in this corridor.

Only a few people could use each passageway or the Thousand Paths Disorienting Labyrinth, by design, would collapse in on itself..

Thus, the number of people entering the Imperial Palace using the secret paths was very limited.

In fact, it was only the people who had gathered at the wood house with Jo Woo-sang that were a part of the mission. Each of them had separated too.

How long had he been running? Woon-seong felt a strange twist in his senses. He suddenly remembered what Jo Woo-sang said:

“When you enter the passageways, you’ll feel like the sky and earth flip, while the four cardinal directions rotate.”

It was an apt description.

Everything went distorted and Woon-seong’s senses had to be recalibrated every few meters. The passage was clearly straight, but it felt like he was running along a winding road towards nowhere.

In other words, he felt nauseous, like he was running while seasick.

The Imperial Palace…

An illusion formation that could twist even the senses of a Semi-Divine Being. In fact, Woon-seong had to admit he had been looking down on the labyrinth.

Not anymore.

It was a very practical invention that would save the life of the emperor in the event of a conflict.

How long had he been running?

At last, the end of the passage could be seen. He could feel a wind blowing, even though there was still no light.

A faint breeze brushed Woon-seong’s nose.

That was impossible without an exit point.

Woon-seong rubbed the tip of his nose and grabbed the White Night Spear, thinking, The others must have also arrived.

***

“But how are we supposed to find the tomb?”

The Sword Star looked at the board with the words ‘Palace of Eternal Spring’ on it.

The Buddhist Star only chanted, “Amitabha.”

The swordsman sighed, “Let us hide our presence and take a quick look around.”

After that, the existence of the swordsman became blurry. The same was true of the Buddhist Star.

Though their stealth arts were not profound, they were able to assimilate themselves with the surrounding environment. By simply assimilating their energy, they were able to disappear.

In this scattered form, the Sword Star pointed towards one side while the Buddhist Star pointed to the other.

The buddhist nodded.

They would split up and take a look around.

With a hand signal, the two separated.

The Buddhist Star headed towards the crest of the Palace of Eternal Spring.

Hidden among the shadows, he looked around the interior.

He also observed the passersby. Among those moving inside the palace, there were definitely many soldiers and armed guards.

That was to be expected, since the Justice-Demon Alliance had set up camp right outside of Beijing. It was only natural for the enemy armed forces to be more active than usual.

However, unarmed workers were also rushing about.

These people moved back and forth through the hallways, their hands filled with medicinal ingredients.

“Hmm.”

The buddhist enhanced his eyesight in order to look at the ingredients.

— Soul-Erasing Grass and Spirit-Calling Flowers. [1]

A voice then flew from the opposite side. It was the Sword Star.

— There was a pile of herbs nearby. Turns out they weren’t medicinal, but Soul-Erasing Grass and Spirit-Calling Flowers. They took it from the pile and then walked around.

“Amitabha,” echoed the Buddhist Star.

Soul-Erasing Grass and Spirit-Calling Flowers. Weren’t those plants mentioned in a recipe of advanced techniques for creating jiangshi?

The city of Kimitsu was home to the Tao (Do) Family, but it was also the gathering place for many unorthodox peoples who practiced shamanism. [2]

When performing cleansing rituals or funeral rites on behalf of the sects, these shamanistic rituals could look similar to or use similar ingredients as blood summoning. Soul-Erasing Grass and Spirit-Calling Flowers were also commonly used when calling upon ancestral spirits.

Since making a corpse puppet technically also included communication with ancient spirits, it could loosely be considered as an offshoot of shamanism.

— That seems to be the place.

— I think so too.

The Twin Stars looked at each other and nodded in agreement. Soon, their presences scattered once more and they disappeared.

Zek—

Where the Twin Stars reappeared was the entrance through which the people carrying the Soul-Erasing Grass and Spirit-Calling Flowers were walking.

A subtly hidden passageway between two pillars and a staircase descending down, seeming to lead underground.

The two hid once more, then glanced at each once before climbing down when there was no one coming in or out.

Through the entrance, a narrow staircase wound down.

Of course, there were guards at the entrance.

— The guards are hiding. 

— Their skills are pretty good. 

If an unauthorized person attempted to enter the passage, the guards would have appeared in a flash and slit their throats.

Exceptions to that fate would be the Buddhist and Sword Stars.

The Buddhist Star, who felt their qi senses, flicked his fingers.

‘One Finger Zen’ was once again used, clogging their veins.

“Huff!”

“Glug!”

With their veins blocked, the guards passed out, strangled without knowing why.

The Sword Star did not stand still. He swung his sword.

Sok—

A blue light flashed through the air, the sword shooting forward like an arrow.

“Queek!”

The blade flew through the air, blocking the bloodstream of the guards, just as the Buddhist Star’s ‘Taiji Shen Gong’ had done.

The swordsman who had achieved perfection with the sword could cause blood clots just by striking the air.

Using sword qi to hit acupressure points (剑气点宂).

Of course, the Twin Stars could also have just stabbed the guards. It was because of the metallic scent of blood that they forced the guards to die or pass out without any external injuries.

How far did the go after these murders?

“……”

“…!”

At the bottom of the corridor were voices talking.

Sensing they had reached the end, the Twin Stars began moving faster.

And finally, the scene revealed was terrible.

“Uagh.”

“Please, please kill me.”

Dozens of bodies lay flat on beds. A few of them were dying.

They were not bodies.

Those were living people.

When the Buddist Star saw this, his expression darkened. “They’re transferring qi!”

“They’re taking the qi of living people and bringing the dead back to life. That’s insane!”

The sword swiftly grabbed his sword and swung, smashing down the wall.

Kuakuakuakua—

The wall of the tomb was broken. But what he was aiming for was not the wall!

“Huff!”

It was the assassins who were hiding behind the walls. With their torsos slashed open, they slid down to the ground.

There was no one strong enough to stop the Sword Star when he was angry.

“I’ll deal with the guards. In the meantime, save those who are being deprived of life.”

“Of course,” nodded the Buddhist Star, clenching his fists.

“Hurry!”

Kung-

As the two scrambled back, the Buddhist Star released a dazzling white light from his fists. It was the highest level of the 72 skills of the Shaolin Temple, the ‘Hundred Steps Divine Fist’.

Boom!

The white light slammed into a body lying on the bed, a corpse puppet still in production.

“Agh!”

At that moment, one of the guards growled.

Chaos unfolded.

In the midst of the confusion, one of the guards, suspected to be the leader, shouted loudly, “Tch, there’s no other choice. Wake them all up! Stop production and get out!”

“But they’re not complete yet, so they can only buy…”

“Do you want to die?! Abort the mission and move, now!”

A white light flew from somewhere to the side and pierced his head. It was the Taiji Shen Gong, aimed to kill.

“If I do not go to Hell to help the suffering there, who else will go? In this day and age, I follow Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva and will not become a Buddha until the hells are empty. Only when all beings have been saved will I attain Bodhi. Amitabha.” [3]

At the same time, a different type of energy began to flow around the Buddhist Star’s body compared to before.

It was because of his anger towards those who had killed the living and defiled the dead.

A golden glow began to rise around his body, flickering like flames. These tendrils gathered together and shot forward, like a mixture of the Taiji Shen Gong and the Hundred Steps Divine Fist.

Boom-

There was a loud explosion and the corpses were destroyed one by one. Since they were unfinished products, they were not very durable.

“No, the products!”

“Ahhh!”

The Inverted Sky’s workers, who had devoted their strengths to producing these puppets, screamed nonstop.

“Please, kill me instead!”

Some of the workers screamed like that.

However, their cries angered not only the Buddhist Star but also the swordsman, who had been dealing with the guards.

“You bastards!”

A glow rose from around the swordsman’s body. At the same time, a bright sword made of light rose from the ground.

Like stars dotting the night sky, a swarm of swords made of qi appeared.

In Murim, the Sword Star, who had reached perfection, was said to be able to make swords with just his own energy.

Kuakuakuakua—

Dozens of intangible swords, which had reached physical limits through qi, cracked through the air.

The space through which these intangible swords passed burned with a white trail.

They were much sharper than swords made of metal. Whenever these swords passed through, the workers of the Inverted Sky would fall down clutching their throats.

“You have committed sins you should never have committed. Sins against a man’s right to life. Pay for your crimes in Hell!”

Huahuahauhauhua—

The swords tornadoes through the room. One of the workers, who had barely escaped the net of sword qi, trembled as he pulled something from his robes.

It was a black flute which controlled the corpse puppets.

It was the appearance of the Insanity-Inducing Black Flute.

[1] soul-erasing grass (忘魂草) and spirit-calling flowers (招灵花) aren’t real, unless someone can help me find what they actually are

[2] Kimitsu is a city in Japan; all I could find about the Tao/Do Family in regards to shamanism is the Shaman King series

[3] Ksitigarbha is often considered the Bodhisattva of Hell or Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva of the Great Vow; a reference to his pledge to take responsibility for the instruction of all beings in the six worlds in the era between the parinirvana of the Buddha and the rise of Maitreya