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As I stepped into Dongning Prefecture, I could suddenly feel ghosts swirling out from all corners of the dilapidated buildings.

This was a sight I had never seen when Miho ruled this place, so I glanced at them, prompting Cheon Woo-jin to speak up.

“The evil spirits are reacting to us and starting to awaken. That’s why the weaker wandering spirits are fleeing in panic.”

“Where do you think Myo Cheong is?”

“I’m not sure. He’s hiding his energy so well that without something like a Zoyogyeong, it’s not easy to pinpoint his location.”

“Zoyogyeong?”

“It’s a treasure that can reflect the essence of the yokai, weaken them, and find out where they are.”

That sounded pretty useful. Curiosity getting the better of me, I asked, “Where can I get a Zoyogyeong?”

“Well, it’s only passed down in stories, so I can’t say exactly where it is.”

“Hmm…”

“You seem to have a ton of legendary treasures and relics, but normally, you’d be lucky to find even one during a lifetime of adventures.”

I glanced at the Sanhasajikdo hanging from Cheon Woo-jin’s waist.

“And you have a treasure too.”

Cheon Woo-jin looked a bit surprised that I recognized it immediately.

“I got this from my master.”

“Master Mangnyang gave it to you?”

“He gifted it to me as a commemorative gesture for doing my part. Don’t ask more.”

He answered bluntly and began trudging forward. Suddenly, he stopped at the entrance on the first floor, stretched out his arms, and shouted loudly.

“Gugugyeolryeong!”

Boom!

In the next moment, a colossal bolt of lightning and flames rained down from the sky, creating a pillar of fire on the ground. The explosive spell was so powerful that it incinerated the ruins of Dongning Prefecture in an instant, even making me take a step back automatically.

‘Five Elements Technique?’

Just as expected from the strongest sorcerer in the mortal realm—its power was no joke. Dense smoke billowed out from the crumbled building, making it clear that Cheon Woo-jin chose to destroy the yokai’s nest first rather than entering head-on.

As the thick smoke settled, Cheon Woo-jin remarked, “It’s below.”

“Is there a separate entrance?”

“Not sure. There’s an odd feeling in the air.”

Cheon Woo-jin thought for a moment and then asked, “Baek Woong, how skilled are you in martial arts?”

“Why do you suddenly want to know that?”

“I’m about to find Myo Cheong’s lair, and it’ll likely be a dangerous place, so your skills will be crucial.”

“Can’t you just demolish it again with your Five Elements Technique like you did just now?”

When I replied, Cheon Woo-jin got annoyed. “That might not work! It seems like this Myo Cheong has crafted a unique otherworldly realm to hide himself in, so we have to directly find the entrance and take him out ourselves.”

“Can an evil spirit do that?”

“Damn it. I asked first, so answer me.”

With Cheon Woo-jin glaring at me, I just chuckled. “Well… excluding the White Lotus Sect and the Twelve Joules, I’d say I rank in the top five in the world.”

“I don’t know about the martial artists’ standards, but that sounds pretty impressive.”

“Well, it’s something like that.”

Rarrgh!

“So deal with those guys while I conserve my energy.”

Beyond the ruins Cheon Woo-jin looked at, grotesque yokai had already been summoned. They were too hideous to be called otherworldly beings but couldn’t really be mistaken for humans either. It seemed that the evil spirit Myo Cheong had sensed a threat and decided to summon these beasts.

Whoosh!

A massive bull-headed yokai swung a great axe at me. Its sheer might cracked the ground and kicked up earth, but I had already slipped to the side and positioned my hands on its waist.

Thunder God Fist!

Expanded Twin Palms!

Ka-pow!

[Kooooroo]

The bull-headed yokai exploded in a shower of gore, collapsing to the ground. I could have just smashed it with a Thunder Spirit Seal, but I felt like showing off my new derivation of the Absolute Slash technique, which was meant to cause instant death by shaking its insides. After dropping the yokai, I looked around.

‘About twenty or so?’

Each one was large and powerful. For a typical exorcist, a legion this size would surely spell trouble. But I soon realized I felt no pressure at all facing these figures. After all, I had fought against far worse demon beasts in Aokigahara Life Sea, and by comparison, these were trivial.

Ka-pow!

I mixed in the Soul Removal Technique and the Splitting Shadow, using my Thunder Spirit Seal and Sword Strength to dispatch the ones getting closer to Cheon Woo-jin. After taking down about ten, I noticed the yokai hesitating a bit.

Cheon Woo-jin stared at me in amazement. “So the Half-Transition Master really is strong.”

“Am I not done yet?”

“Finish off those guys first. I can’t concentrate right now.”

Following Cheon Woo-jin’s orders, I employed all my martial arts skills to eliminate the remaining yokai. It took exactly half a meal’s worth of time, and the area around us turned red, splattered with the yokai’s blood. Cheon Woo-jin murmured incantations before reaching out his hands.

“Gugugyeolryeong!”

Suddenly, a dark spirit energy surged from somewhere within the ruins. Cheon Woo-jin approached the dark energy and pointed to a square-shaped entrance with his finger. A moment later, the entrance opened up slightly, responding to his spell. I was a bit taken aback.

“An underground entrance?”

“It seems so. I had my doubts, but it was hidden with rather advanced magical techniques. It must have been designed to prevent physical entry.”

“Hmm…”

Listening to Cheon Woo-jin, I realized why Miho hadn’t been able to absorb Myo Cheong right away. Each time a powerful shock was dealt, Myo Cheong would awaken and the yokai would be summoned, plus the entrance was hidden away with magic. Miho must have prioritized taking control of Dongning Prefecture and setting up her base first to prevent her power from waning.

With measured steps, I proceeded down the dark staircase, gradually feeling a spiraling path ahead of me. At that moment, I recognized the shape of the staircase.

“A spiral…”

Could this also be the ruins of the otherworldly beings? Cheon Woo-jin shot a glance at my mumbling but seemed focused on moving forward.

After a while of descending, I spotted a dark mass up ahead. Cheon Woo-jin quickly warned me.

“That thing is trying to confuse us! Focus your mind.”

Confuse us?

I snapped to attention at his words, but oddly enough, I didn’t feel any mental assault.

‘What gives?’

When I glanced sideways, I saw Cheon Woo-jin braced against the mental attack, focusing hard. I wondered if the dark being before us was trying to launch a mental attack, so I boldly stepped closer, but I still sensed nothing strange. When I arrived right in front of the ghastly entity, I finally caught sight of what the dark mass truly was.

What I had thought was just a dark mass was actually a highly concentrated dark energy rich enough to appear black, and within that energy was a skeleton dressed in a monk’s robe sitting cross-legged, gazing directly at me.

Our eyes locked, and I realized this was not just any skeleton. It let out a clacking noise and spoke:

“Why… is the illusion not working…?”

“……”

“Leave… this place… it is where I dwell…”

I wondered if it was Myo Cheong, so I asked the skeletal figure, “Are you Myo Cheong?”

“Leave… hurry, leave…”

I suspected it was nine out of ten likely that he was indeed Myo Cheong, but the skeletal monk seemed uninterested in answering anything other than repeating for me to leave. So, I decided to take down this foe standing before me, drawing upon my Sword Strength to unleash a focused strike at the skeleton.

Slash!

[Kaaaak…]

The skeleton was instantly split in half, collapsing into pieces. At the same time, the dense dark energy surrounding it dissipated like fog. Just then, Cheon Woo-jin, who had been walking up from behind, looked on in disbelief.

“What are you? How did you not take any hits?”

“I’m not sure. I felt nothing at all.”

“……”

Cheon Woo-jin, who had been staring at me, shifted his gaze back to the skeleton.

“Anyway, well done. It seems we can dispatch it with a single blow now.”

As Cheon Woo-jin made a hand sign and reached towards the skeleton’s remains, the skeleton, now lying on the ground, clacked nervously.

[Kaaah… stop… not only killing me… are you trying to take my dwelling…?]

“It’s not right for an evil spirit like you to set up camp here, causing innocent people to suffer from your dark energy. Please, be reincarnated.”

[Heh… nothing of the sort will happen…]

The skeleton cackled violently, clanging its bones.

[I, Myo Cheong… struck down the southern capital for the oppressed… I did my utmost… but foolish people panicked… leading to my failure… Yet no one knows… that a god dwells here… all shall regret it!]

“Is your farewell speech finished? Gugu…”

“Cheon Woo-jin, hold on a moment.”

I felt curious and stopped Cheon Woo-jin, who was about to shout his spell, and turned to the evil spirit claiming to be Myo Cheong.

“A god? What kind of god?”

Thinking that I might have shown fear, Myo Cheong’s eerie voice responded arrogantly, [A grand being… sealed since the ancient times, yet no one could ever find the trace… the ruler of the moon… the leader of great clans… who ruled over Dongyoung as its creator deity… that being resides in this city… and will one day resurrect…]

“……!!”

[Heh heh heh… You can kill me, but you can’t stop the resurrection of the great Ijinasi!]

Crack!

In the next moment, the ceiling collapsed, and grotesque tentacles sprung forth from all directions, filling the area like a swarm. Cheon Woo-jin’s face turned horrified at the sight.

“Gugugyeolryeong!”

As Cheon Woo-jin’s spell erupted, the spirit energies surged into the air. Dozens of enormous tentacles, appearing ready to swallow us whole, burst apart with eerie screams echoing everywhere. Cheon Woo-jin shot me an urgent look, and I swiftly reacted by casting the Mind Control Technique at the attacking Myo Cheong.

Kwah-shang!

[Kyaaak…]

Myo Cheong seemed truly obliterated this time, letting out a heart-wrenching scream as it was devoured by the summoned tentacles. As Cheon Woo-jin cast a seal with his spells, he yelled, “Let’s hurry out!”

I quickly grabbed Cheon Woo-jin’s clothing and attempted to use my Bursting Sound technique, but it had no effect. Frantically, I asked, “Should we just head back the way we came?”

“That seems to be it.”

Crash!

I cast the Soul Removal Technique while coupling Cheon Woo-jin against my side and flew towards the entrance. We barely squeezed through just as the entrance started to close behind us.

Once we exited to the surface, Cheon Woo-jin sighed heavily.

“Damn it… why don’t you listen when I say to just destroy it? That evil spirit was gathering its energy for one last strike, you know?”

I scratched my head sheepishly. “Sorry, but it seemed like it was going to spill some important information.”

“Looks like that place was originally part of the [Old Ruler]’s territory in another realm. Myo Cheong, or whatever, must have made that its hideout for the last few hundred years.”

“…Why?”

“I mean, seriously? Why am I even in this east country, fighting against a major evil spirit? Damn it!”

Cheon Woo-jin was getting frustrated, but I didn’t feel like being bothered by his tantrum.

‘Ijinasi.’

The name Myo Cheong mentioned—“The God Sleeping in Seogyeong”! I recalled having heard that name before.

[If you go there, you might find the clues you seek about the Seven Luminaries.]

[That place is known as Takamagahara, a realm akin to what you think of as the divine realm. However, it seems that it might really be the base of the otherworldly beings.]

[The heavenly emperor should have a hidden passage that leads to Takamagahara. If you go there, you might find some leads.]

That information came from a certain emperor of Dongyoung, who masqueraded as if he were charmed by Miho. I had even once explored with Jin So-cheong to see if there was a place called Takamagahara in the region of Geochang, and I had managed to breach into another realm from a void space there.

And at that time, I discovered that the other realm was actually a passage connected to Dark Heaven Village, as well as encountering a stele inside.

[Emperor Ijinasi’s Domain]

Back then, I had suspected that the figure of Ijinasi was the first monarch, who eventually became the god of Dongyoung. And unexpectedly, I was hearing that name again come out from Myo Cheong’s mouth.

‘If that’s the case…’

A chilling realization formed in my mind, making me rush to ask Cheon Woo-jin, “Cheon Woo-jin. You just mentioned a god sleeping here. Do you feel any powerful presence in this city of Seogyeong?”

Cheon Woo-jin shook his head. “That would at least be on the level of a demon king, right? If such a powerful being were here, I would have known long ago. There’s nothing.”

“But if it’s within that other realm…”

“…It could be possible.”

Cheon Woo-jin seemed to catch on to what I was hinting at and fell silent.

That’s right. In the land of Seogyeong, there lies a being that was regarded as the creator god of Dongyoung, reigning as a demon king, and its entrance is in the other realm where Myo Cheong is hiding! It looked like Myo Cheong had fled to Seogyeong seeking Ijinasi for power.

I had unexpectedly uncovered the location of the powerful demon god, Ijinasi!

 

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