Chapter 279

Chapter 279

Originally, the region called Qinghai is needless to say vast in scope, but there actually aren’t that many people.

That’s because Qinghai isn’t an environment where people can easily live. In Qinghai’s environment, which is mostly composed of high mountains and has the characteristics of a highland region as is, it’s not easy for many people to live.

Qinghai’s exceedingly high altitude makes it difficult to sustain life through farming or hunting that isn’t adapted to the environment. And because of that, despite having one of the largest areas in the Central Plains, Qinghai belongs to the regions with the fewest people living in the Central Plains. 

Saying there are few people can conversely be interpreted this way.

‘There are few warriors in Qinghai who can respond to yokai.’

“Huu. Huuk. Huuuu.”

Breathing is difficult.

The white-robed man who lowered his body and looked around confirmed that no presence could be felt and leaned his back against the canyon’s rock. His body demanding breath even more after moving intensely while tense in an already thin-air environment.

“Huu. Huuu… Calm down, I need to calm down.”

The white-robed man, Gang Ryung, who barely succeeded in calming his breathing, checked his body’s condition and let out a sigh realizing his internal power had dried up. Because the time given to him wasn’t that much.

‘I need to inform the Murim Alliance…!’

Like night arrives at your side before you notice it, those things suddenly arrived and began massacring people. Like a nightmare.

At first, he thought it was just the work of the occasionally existing lost yokai. Because Qinghai was a region that received yokai attacks rather frequently.

There are no people and the environment is harsh, so great yokai rarely settle down. And because great yokai rarely settle down, conversely, low-grade yokai often settle down taking advantage of those gaps.

Since Qinghai is a place where only such low-grade yokai gather, he could handle most yokai at his level, someone evaluated as first-rate anywhere. Actually, the yokai that attacked at first were like that too.

What about the yokai that attacked next?

Those bizarrely dreadful yokai that appeared while dyeing the surrounding environment with a light never seen before?

‘Ryung-ah. Run away!’

‘M-Master!’

‘Run away and inform the Murim Alliance! That Baekgwiyahaeng attacked this Qinghai. That our power is insufficient! Hurry and tell… Keheuk!’

‘Master—!!!’

A terribly dreadful death.

Gang Ryung, who was recalling his master’s final moment, gritted his teeth and shook his head. Though it was a tragic memory, it wasn’t a memory a warrior like him should be recalling right now.

‘The Murim Alliance branch is at the border adjacent to Sichuan.’

About fifteen hundred li from Qinghai’s center to reach Sichuan.

The Murim Alliance branch is near there. It means even if a first-rate warrior uses lightness arts and runs day and night, it’s a distance that takes almost a full day.

Of course, if it only takes a day, it wouldn’t be a problem. The village Gang Ryung left has already been completely destroyed with everyone becoming yokai’s prey, and other villages are at distances requiring at least two or three days of travel.

‘Qinghai… has far too many villages for its population.’

That’s actually the problem. That this vast Qinghai doesn’t have excellent granaries that can accommodate many people.

If yokai start spreading in earnest, to respond, all of Qinghai’s people need to be gathered in one place, but considering Qinghai’s enormous size, that’s nearly impossible. As long as warriors can’t pick up and move villages as they are, even with planning, it would clearly take over half a year.

In such a situation, even if they receive the Murim Alliance’s aid, how many people can be protected? Half? One-third?

‘…Don’t think pessimistically. Gang Ryung.’

Right. He should focus on protecting even one more person. If he doesn’t move, no one can be protected, but if he moves, at least one or two villages can definitely be protected.

Gang Ryung, who steeled his resolve briefly, confirmed through his breathing that some internal power had returned and stood up. And at that moment, he felt a presence.

‘Yokai!’

At the ominously dreadful energy, Gang Ryung stopped breathing and searched around. A black puppet visible far in the distance just then.

‘…Strong.’

He could tell without needing to fight. The scene of ominous yokai power flowing out in streams clearly showed it was a strong yokai.

The moment he’s discovered, he dies.

At the premonition of death surging like a tide, Gang Ryung slowly stepped back and prepared to flee. And the moment he was about to launch his body to escape.

A woman entered Gang Ryung’s eyes.

A woman slowly walking toward the direction where the yokai was.

‘Damn it.’

Gang Ryung, who cursed inwardly, clenched his fist and assessed the situation. If things continue like this, the woman will obviously encounter the yokai and be killed.

But he can’t stop the woman before being discovered by the yokai either. If he raises his voice, the yokai will discover him, and going directly is also impossible since the woman is on the completely opposite side.

What about voice transmission?

‘No good.’

Voice transmission technique is also accomplished through internal power’s movement.

Much higher-level masters might be able to send voice transmission in a covert way hiding internal power without being detected, but Gang Ryung doesn’t have that level of skill. The woman’s position will definitely be exposed by the influence of the voice transmission, and perhaps even his own position might be exposed.

Then what should he do? In this situation, how.

‘…I must abandon her.’

Gang Ryung, who gritted his teeth, clenched his fist. Hasn’t he already come too far?

While village people were all dying, he fled saying he’d try to save other village people at least—that was just half a day ago. If he doesn’t deliver the message to the Murim Alliance, news of this Baekgwiyahaeng definitely won’t reach the Murim Alliance, and as a result, more people will die.

He must ignore it. While the woman encounters the yokai, screams, and the yokai kills the woman, he must leave this place during that time. Because that’s the way to save more people.

Gang Ryung, who stood up, circulated internal power through his legs to leap backward. And the moment he was about to turn back and flee.

A little girl holding the woman’s hand entered Gang Ryung’s eyes.

“…Seuuup.”

Having quickly made his decision at that very moment, Gang Ryung raised his voice.

“Hey, you ugly bug-like yokai! This Hero will exterminate you!”

At the sound echoing in the high plateau, the yokai who had been standing still slowly turned her head to look at Gang Ryung. Simultaneously, surging killing intent.

‘…Done.’

She recognized him before recognizing the woman and child. Now if he runs, the yokai will chase him.

Since she realized there’s a yokai, that woman will also run away with the little girl. So what he must do is one thing.

Get as far away from here as possible. Flee to a distance where the yokai can’t return.

Paaang—!!!

Gang Ryung, who quickly assessed the situation, drew up internal power to the extreme and circulated it through his legs. And the moment he took a step, a voice reached his ear.

“What’s this mutt again!”

“Heueok.”

Faster than expected.

Confirming the fist covering his head, Gang Ryung drew up internal power and deployed palm techniques. And the next moment.

“What the?”

The yokai’s fist embedded itself in Gang Ryung’s jaw.

“You’re so weak…! Fuck, you really want to die?!”

Very spicily.

Few yokai care about beauty, but from what I’ve observed over the past few days, Toehui is extremely obsessed with her appearance. Why?

That’s because Heukya possesses extremely excellent looks by yokai standards and by human standards too. For Toehui, who can only be satisfied by surpassing Heukya in every aspect, the option of not cultivating her appearance doesn’t exist.

Being such a Toehui, compliments and criticism about appearance also enter very directly. She can laugh off being called weak, but she can never tolerate being called ugly. That’s what Toehui is.

From that perspective, the warrior who just passed out can be considered extremely unlucky.

Of all things, he provoked Toehui about her appearance.

—D-didn’t I tell you not to knock them unconscious?

“So what?”

—Wasn’t it supposed to be just lightly roughing them up?

“Why should I?”

“Now, now, let’s not do that to each other.”

At Hyeong-nim’s mediation, Toehui showed her displeasure clearly, frowning and making it obvious she was in a bad mood, then I shook my head and turned my gaze downward. The warrior’s appearance, jaw twisted from being hit by Toehui’s fist and buried in the ground.

His skill is lacking, but his spirit exists. I realized that seeing the action the warrior took. Because that movement just now was one that assumed his own death.

—It seems he was trying to draw out Seoncheonjingi.

“Huh? Seoncheonjingi?”

—Right.

“Then he’d die, wouldn’t he?”

—He was prepared to die. I think he misunderstood seeing you and Sinui-nim.

“Sinui-nim? Ah…”

Confirming Sinui gasping for breath while holding my hand due to lack of stamina, Seohwa understood my words’ meaning and wore a bitter smile.

“It seems he thought we were being attacked by a yokai.”

—Right.

From far away, Seohwa and Sinui look like sisters. Probably from this warrior’s perspective, it looked like affectionate sisters hand-in-hand jumping into a yokai’s maw.

—He risked his life to protect commoners’ lives. I don’t know his affiliation, but he’s a youth with spirit and decisiveness.

“Hmm. I see.”

—If he’s first-rate, he should be able to manage his body with internal power, so he’ll wake soon. Let’s just stand guard for a bit before going.

“Okay. More than that.”

Seohwa, who nodded as if she understood, looked around while sitting on a rock then turned her gaze toward me.

“What are we going to do from now on?”

—From now on?

“Yes. You only told us we need to weaken Heukya, but didn’t tell us the exact plan.”

—Umm. I guess I did.

“How can we weaken Heukya? Is it even possible to weaken Heukya in the first place?”

—It’s possible.

“How?”

—By manipulating facts.

“Facts?”

“…You mean intentionally distorting the factual relationship.”

—Right.

Looking at Seomun Cheok, who was quietly listening from the side then interjecting, I nodded at him. Then Seohwa, who had been pondering what it meant, widened her eyes as if she just understood.

“Could it be you’re going to steal the fear directed at Heukya?”

—Mm.

“You’re going to propagate that someone other than Heukya caused this situation!”

—Correct. To be more precise, you’ll say it was caused by another yokai, not Heukya.

“Ah…”

What is the source of a yokai’s strength?

It’s fear. The more people fear a yokai, the stronger that yokai becomes. Needless to say about fear growing toward a specific yokai.

That’s why Heukya made Sinseon Valley’s yokai overflow to strengthen fear toward herself, and now she even destroyed the Great Seal to make yokai overflow. That the instigator who caused this Baekgwiyahaeng… no, Mangwiyahaeng is Heukya is already a fact many people know.

—Whether that spreads to the common people or not is a separate matter. The common people still don’t know that Heukya caused this situation.

What would happen if it became known that Heukya is the culprit who caused this situation?

Naturally, people would fear Heukya more. Heukya was already famous as the master of Sinseon Valley, but now she destroyed the Great Seal and is moving to exterminate humanity, so she’ll inspire fear in most people.

That’s the problem. The more she inspires fear, the stronger Heukya becomes, and if Heukya, who’s already strong, becomes even stronger, humanity’s current forces can’t oppose Heukya.

What if that fear is redirected to another yokai?

—People still don’t know who destroyed the Great Seal, or rather, whether the Great Seal itself was destroyed in the first place. Because there were hardly any people who knew of the Great Seal’s existence.

“Well, that’s true.”

—But if you explain that situation and spread that this yokai here destroyed the Great Seal, what would happen? Especially if you show this yokai commanding the Mangwiyahaeng?

“…We could harvest fear!”

—Right. It’s a method that not only weakens Heukya but can also strengthen our forces.

—Though I don’t like having to cooperate with this yokai.

“Who do you think likes it? Inferior species trash.”

“Uh, uhuh… Please don’t fight.”

“Who’s fighting? Have you seen insects and humans fight?”

Looking at Toehui turning her head away irritably, I frowned, and Seohwa in the middle fidgeted restlessly and changed the topic for ventilation.

“By the way, you said there’s someone you’re looking for.”

—That’s right.

“Who is it?”

—I can’t pinpoint a specific someone. It’s not finding a specific person but someone who meets certain conditions.

“Conditions?”

—Right.

Stealing the fear going to Heukya to strengthen Toehui.

To achieve this condition, we must first find villages scattered throughout the Central Plains. But is that an easy task?

—Places like Sichuan or Hebei where many people live are fine. There are maps, and even without that, because many people come and go, the geography is well known.

—But remote places like Gansu or Qinghai, Yunnan where human traffic isn’t frequent—it’s good to have a guide well-versed in those regions. Because they’re so vast that maps aren’t accurate, and people are scattered widely.

“Ah…”

—So ideally, we need to find someone who’s a local here, well-versed in the surrounding geography, has decent lightness arts, and has a sense of responsibility too.

Without one, we’ll manage to travel around anyway, but having a guide or not makes a world of difference. If done well, time could be reduced to less than half.

After those words, Seohwa, who was thinking briefly, looked at the lying warrior’s garments for a moment then felt them with her hand. And soon the words that follow from Seohwa.

“I think the conditions Sect Master and Baek Riseon-nim were looking for match this person?”

—Mm?

“You were looking for a warrior well-versed in Qinghai, right? Someone who could be a guide.”

—That’s right.

“It’s this person.”

—How are you certain? You just met for the first time.

“These martial robes are made of silk. And not very good quality silk at that.”

—…Mm?

“I’ve heard that silk merchants passing through Qinghai sometimes sell inferior quality silk that couldn’t be managed locally at bargain prices.”

Seohwa, who caught her breath briefly, continued speaking.

“Places where silk merchants stop by and sell low-grade silk aren’t cities but mostly settlements located in remote mountains. They usually exchange through barter. But such places are very exclusive toward outsiders.”

“This person is probably a local. His lightness arts seem decent enough too.”

At Seohwa’s story, I quietly looked at the warrior lying unconscious. A man with an ordinary face you could see anywhere.

—Well, well.

Just when we needed one, a guide rolled in vine and all.