Chapter 166

Chapter 166

It bears repeating, but formations spread by skilled formation experts or sorcerers deliberately for concealment are extremely difficult to detect.

In a way, this is natural. The formations they spread are used for such purposes from the start. They’re used to hide oneself away from others’ eyes, or to perform secret rituals.

Especially formations created by preparing over a long time are often unrecognizable even when right before one’s eyes. Formations where skilled sorcerers use refined formation axes and invest plenty of time cannot be found by ordinary people.

From that perspective, the current situation fortunately couldn’t be called the worst.

Because despite that sorcery’s excellence, the Blood Cult member didn’t have much time to prepare the formation.

“You came?”

Gyoryongpa Main Group.

Seeing us who rushed over immediately upon hearing the news, Jinwoong casually tossed out his words. And at that sight, Seohwa urgently asked.

“You found them?!”

“Right. They said they found them.”

“Where, how……!”

“Group 22 found them. Lining up one jang apart while searching, they said there was a place people strangely avoided.”

“It must be a Recognition Formation.”

“Recognition Formation?”

“A formation that manipulates consciousness to naturally make you not want to approach. A type of formation that makes you instinctively avoid it.”

Here’s where the difference between formation experts, sorcerers, and illusionary arts practitioners appears. Formation experts mainly use formations like the Eight Trigrams Formation that make people lose their way, but sorcerers frequently use formations that manipulate human perception or physically prevent interference.

Since the probability of another sorcerer setting up a formation here is also low, that formation is probably set up by the Blood Cult member.

“Where was Group 22’s assigned area?”

“The forest center. Not far from that slash-and-burn village.”

“They must have been confident they wouldn’t be detected. Well, experiencing being searched by such numbers would be a first.”

Though it’s a formation spread hastily, it’s a formation spread by a Blood Cult member from Moshan Sect, the progenitors of sorcery. They probably let their guard down, not thinking it would be found this easily.

So this can be seen as favorable. At least it’s proof that the opponent hasn’t made perfect preparations and wasn’t ready.

“Entry?”

“We haven’t. If it’s a formation spread by a Blood Cult member as suspected, having commoners enter would be nothing but telling them to die, wouldn’t it?”

“Good judgment. Let’s talk while going.”

“Understood. I’ll guide you immediately.”

“I also…….”

Hearing my words, Jinwoong immediately stood up and went outside. Seeing that, Seohwa also abruptly stood to follow along. But at that moment, Seohwa staggered, losing her balance.

Teok!

“Uh……?”

“Are you alright?”

“Ah, yes…….”

Probably accumulated tension and fatigue.

After supporting the nearly collapsing Seohwa, I looked at Seohwa’s pitiably pale complexion and pressed down on her head. Seohwa has already more than fulfilled her role.

“You can rest here.”

“Haven’t you done enough? Leave the rest to me and rest.”

“No.”

Hearing my words, Seohwa firmly shook her head without a moment’s hesitation and looked directly at me. Eyes that, though exhausted and steeped in fatigue, still hadn’t lost their light.

“I’m the one who promised Choil. To protect him until he left the village.”

“For Choil and Choil’s sister, that village was like rope binding their bodies. Unless that binding is released, I haven’t kept my promise. So.”

Even if she can’t do anything directly, she must watch. Because it was she, no one else, who promised Choil.

“The Grand Disciple of Uicheonmun can’t abandon her work and leave.”

“I have to go. No matter what.”

Standing on trembling legs while confidently stating her opinion, I smiled at Seohwa’s appearance. Perhaps because she’s experienced many things. I could see she’d learned not just to wait for my opinion to come down, but to clearly express her own opinion.

“You’ve grown.”

“What?”

“Nothing. But right now, every moment counts.”

“……If you go first, I’ll follow.”

“No. There’s a more comfortable method, isn’t there?”

“What?”

As I slightly bent down in front, Seohwa looked at me with a dumbfounded expression. Eyes wondering what I was trying to do.

“Have you ever experienced how fast ‘as fast as lightning’ is?”

“If you haven’t, experience it this time.”

Pajik!

Becoming conscious of the lightning beginning to spark from my toes, I drew up my internal energy.

“Get on.”

The ride comfort won’t be that great, but still.

The speed alone will be astounding.

The girl thought.

Even leaving the village, what she does is the same.

Ttok!

“Boring.”

Inside the cave.

Hit on the forehead by a falling water droplet, the girl blankly rubbed her forehead and muttered vacantly. Though not bound with chains like before, a cave so dark not even an inch ahead was visible.

Blankly caressing what was presumably the cold stone wall, the girl bit her lip and rolled on the floor. Unlike before when she had dolls to play with or patterns on the floor to count, there was truly extremely little to do.

‘This place is…… outside the village?’

She left the village.

She remembers that much. The village chief suddenly transforming and carrying her and Choil out beyond the wooden fence with superhuman strength remains in her memory.

After leaving the village like that, she came to this cave with that person who called themselves Ilnachar, who felt like a patched-together doll. So it’s definitely outside the village.

But is this place really outside the village?

‘Choil said outside the village has many fascinating and fun things.’

Markets where countless people come and go. Training halls where shouts continuously ring out. Benevolent-looking but secretly quite fat Buddha statues.

The ‘outside the village’ Choil had come to tell her about was filled with such scenery. Though she couldn’t imagine it having never seen it, it surely wasn’t such a boring space.

‘I miss Choil.’

He said there’s lots of delicious food outside. Come to think of it, hasn’t it already been three days without eating or drinking anything?

She’s not hungry so there’s no reason to eat, but she’s too bored. Does outside the village not even give food?

As the girl was rubbing her cheek against the wall while thinking that, she suddenly stopped moving. A small sound was coming from beyond the wall.

—Cheonra…… he’s definitely skilled, isn’t he? To think he’d find the formation with that method. Got caught off guard.

—Heueung. There isn’t much time.

That person. The doll-like person.

Listening carefully to the dry yet androgynous voice, the voice continued speaking.

—Village Chief. Still no method?

—Torture… won’t work. Even if broken that way, the ritual won’t properly establish itself. Drawing out innate fear is…….

—Innate fear, innate fear. So troublesome. I’m guessing, but Cheonra is coming here. Once he comes, the formation will be destroyed, and while I’m fighting Cheonra, the ritual will be ruined. Then it’s meaningless, isn’t it?

—If it’s not a method that can be done right away, it’s meaningless. There’s no time for torture either.

What’s torture?

At the voice speaking in a low tone with the laughter gone, the girl, feeling puzzled, continued eavesdropping on the conversation. But after not continuing for a while, the village chief’s answer slowly flowed out.

—There is…… a method. The risk is high, but. If your goal is that child’s corruption.

—What’s this method?

—Heueung.

Sounds so small they couldn’t be understood came and went briefly. And after the village chief’s continued words ended.

—Interesting. Worth trying.

The voice accepted the village chief’s words, and.

Kkiiiiik!

Shortly after. The closed door slowly opened.

“Our Divine Maiden. What are you doing?”

“Nothing.”

“Oh my. You weren’t doing anything?”

The girl, who had been pressing her ear against the wall and hurriedly pulled away at the door opening sound, played innocent at Ilnachar’s question. But Ilnachar smiled grotesquely regardless of the girl’s reaction.

“Our Divine Maiden seems bored?”

“I’m bored. When will you give food?”

“Mm, I’m not giving food.”

“Boring.”

“Still, endure it. Something fun will come soon.”

“Something fun……?”

“Right. The ‘ritual.’ The ‘ritual.’ The thing Divine Maiden has been doing all along.”

Ritual.

Recalling the blood scent wafting to her nose, the girl unconsciously swallowed the drool flowing down and shook her head.

“Won’t do ritual. Promised not to do it anymore.”

“With who?”

“Choil. Seohwa.”

“I know Choil…… Seohwa? Ah, that brat who was in the village?”

“You promised that brat not to do rituals? Why?”

“Because it’s a bad thing.”

When rituals are performed, people die. And people dying is a sad thing.

What Seohwa and Choil said didn’t really resonate much with the girl. To the girl, the people who died were just villagers who revered her as Divine Maiden, people whose faces she’d never seen once. However,

“If I do bad things, people hate me.”

Both Choil, with whom she’d spent several years, and Seohwa, who talked with her for just a few days, were good people. People who were fun and comfortable to be with.

She didn’t want to do things such people hated. At the girl’s clear expression of opinion, Ilnachar wore a deep smile.

“Good. Divine Maiden. Then let’s do it like this.”

“……What?”

“Just once. Without getting caught. Don’t you want to do the ‘ritual’?”

“…….”

“When you smell blood, your heart pounds, right? Your breathing gets rough. Saliva comes out. You feel like you can’t stand it.”

At Ilnachar’s words, the girl unconsciously recalled the rituals she’d experienced until now. The blood scent grazing her nose. The breathing of dying people. And the deep fear.

“Won’t get caught.”

“I won’t tell those two, so just do it once. Then I’ll let you out of this stuffy place. I’ll let you meet Seohwa and Choil too.”

“……Really?”

“Of course.”

If just once, if she just endures once, they’ll let her meet both of them.

Looking at Ilnachar smiling kindly, the girl carefully nodded. And watching that, Ilnachar’s mouth corners tore into a smile.

“Good. Then shall I bring in this ‘offering’?”

“……Okay.”

“Just like usual. Just do it like usual.”

The light goes out.

At the blood scent slowly beginning to waft from beyond the door, the girl crawled closer. To at least lessen the pain, like she always did.

“This is this time’s ‘offering.’“

With faint breathing, the offering was brought in and placed on the ground, and when she smelled that blood scent.

The girl froze.

A blood smell she’d smelled before. A smell she’d smelled numerous times.

Slightly pungent, yet familiar.

──Oil smell.