Wudang Sacred Scriptures

Chapter 189

Ma Geollyang felt something had gone wrong and tried to draw back the inner true qi he was pouring out.

Instead, the floodgates burst and everything rushed out at once!

So it isn’t Borrow-and-Fill Qi after all.

Borrow-and-Fill Qi only extracts within the limit one can bear; it cannot drain an opponent’s inner true qi to death.

Thus it had been acknowledged as orthodox—a defensive resort when unavoidable.

If so...

There is only one art that can seize such a vast amount of inner true qi in one stroke.

Don’t tell me the Dark Cavern Taoist is using the Essence-Draining Demonic Art...?

As inner true qi gushed out like a broken dam, the channels across his whole body began to collapse.

Crack—grind—!

It was truly the Essence-Draining Demonic Art.

And a terrifying version like an ant-lion pit—once caught, there was no escape.

Shuuuuu—...!

Down to the last handful of qi was sucked away; his dantian shriveled.

Tat-tat-tat!

Ma Geollyang groaned from the savage agony of a shattering dantian.

“Ghhuk!”

With the groan, a lump of bright blood spilled out. His dantian had broken completely, wounding him internally as well.

The sky went yellow; his whole body had no strength.

Ma Geollyang understood he was now a husk.

In a blink, the great demon who had towered over the world was reduced to worse than a peasant. He forced his head up.

Huh?

Seeing Kwak Yeon standing there unscathed, Ma Geollyang was stunned anew.

He could not believe the man showed no change of expression after swallowing such a mass of inner true qi.

A demonic man who robbed others’ inner true qi with the Essence-Draining Demonic Art always hid for a time.

Like a snake that coils until it digests its prey.

Yet this man stood with a calm face.

Moreover, Ma Geollyang’s own inner true qi had been refined by demonic art, utterly opposed to the man’s.

Naturally, a vicious battle should be raging within his body.

Slack and limp, Ma Geollyang had to ask as he looked at Kwak Yeon.

“What... are you, really?”

“You chased me knowing I am a Taoist of Samryeong Palace on Mount Wudang, did you not?”

“I’m asking your true identity. Since when did Wudang teach the Essence-Draining Demonic Art? No—how can such an art even exist on Mount Wudang?”

Kwak Yeon’s voice was cold.

“Is there some law of the martial world that a disciple of Wudang must never train a demonic art?”

“...So you admit it is demonic?”

Kwak Yeon nodded readily.

“If one must divide it, it leans demonic.”

He had named it the Seama Sunyang Technique, but in truth it was a demonic art left by a priest who purged demons.

Ma Geollyang spoke with a face full of wrath.

“So you sat yourself there meekly because you had this in your sleeve!”

“Did I not say I let myself be caught on purpose?”

Ma Geollyang had no retort to Kwak Yeon’s return.

Indeed, the Dark Cavern Taoist had said so; he had dismissed it.

More than regret for taking the man lightly, a question loomed larger.

“I cannot comprehend it. With your ability, you could have subdued us without staging any of this.”

“That’s true.”

Kwak Yeon nodded and continued.

“But I had reason to do it this way. I could not afford to let even one of you escape.”

“So you’re saying you let us seize your Wrist Gates?”

“In fact, I didn’t expect your two juniors to go for my Wrist Gates. All the same, it made it easy to pin the two—so I’m grateful.”

The more he heard, the more Ma Geollyang seethed, but curiosity forced another question.

“What is that method you used to kill my two juniors? How did you unfold blazing yang true qi and frigid yin true qi at once to kill them both?”

“I won’t explain every step. Know # Nоvеlight # only this: I possessed a qi stronger than either of them, therefore I could.”

As Kwak Yeon moved to end the talk, Ma Geollyang hurried to ask:

“So you have concealed such arts all this time—why?”

“I did not conceal them.”

“...?”

“I swore long ago to use those arts only against demonic men like you. Ah—and one thing to correct. Your three juniors are not dead yet.”

At that, Ma Geollyang darted his gaze about.

“...!”

Ga Yu’s face was blue and Yeong So’s was flushed like fire, yet both moved faintly. Deuk Gigon, too, clutched the Cheonggang Sword buried in his dantian, his whole body shuddering.

Ma Geollyang looked to Kwak Yeon, baffled.

“Why...?”

“Snuffing you out cleanly in one breath would not soothe the resentment of the restless dead.”

Ma Geollyang’s heart lurched.

“Then from the start, you...?”

Kwak Yeon nodded.

“Your guess and my intent do not differ much.”

Ma Geollyang was truly aghast.

“A man of the righteous way—a Taoist of Wudang—how can you think like that?”

“I swore long ago never to play the gentleman before the wicked. Save your strength and rest a while.”

Touching Ma Geollyang’s Sleep Acupoint, Kwak Yeon went on:

“Soon enough, there will be something I need you to do.”

****

When Ma Geollyang came to, he realized he was bound and hanging at some height.

For some reason he could not move his head, so he searched with a sideways glance.

He found his three juniors next to him, each tied atop a wooden stake, heads fixed forward.

Only then did he realize he, too, was tied atop a stake like them.

Naturally, all this was the work of the Dark Cavern Taoist.

Why go to such trouble?

Even for a master in the Fire Realm, setting such thick stakes takes effort—four of them besides.

Tie the four of us to posts and conduct an inquiry? Being a disciple of the righteous path, he won’t mutilate bodies, so—

Finding no other reason, Ma Geollyang decided the Dark Cavern Taoist was showing his youth.

He has tricks and astonishing skill, but he lacks the roadsense of the jianghu.

With his dantian shattered, Ma Geollyang had already forsaken life. Before death, he resolved to crush the Taoist’s nose one last time.

Dark Cavern Taoist, you will have to kill us without hearing a single word about who hired us.

Regret at leaving a task unfinished lasts longer than one thinks.

If this was the Taoist’s first failure, he would remember today all his life.

As revenge went in this situation, nothing could be better. Amid his gall, Ma Geollyang steeled himself.

But where has the Taoist gone?

The tent of the roadside inn was torn away; no one was inside.

After a time, Ma Geollyang sensed a presence coming from the pass.

His head was fixed facing the inn, so he could not see, but he knew by feel it was the Dark Cavern Taoist.

—Thump. Thump.

With heavy steps, the Taoist came into view.

He had his back piled high with long objects wrapped round in tent cloth.

Ma Geollyang recognized what the cloth-wrapped lengths were in an instant.

Why the corpses...?

He saw tables arranged in rows inside the inn, and firewood stacked beneath.

Ah. A cremation.

Suddenly he realized why the Taoist had tied the Four Evils of Heaven side by side to posts and fixed their heads.

So he means for us to watch the merchants’ funerary rites right here.

He decided the Taoist was naïve with youth.

Does he think that will make the Four Evils of Heaven repent?

If the man insisted, he could even squeeze out a dry tear.

Then, just before dying, he would laugh in the man’s face and go gladly to the other side.

Under the Four Evils’ gaze, Kwak Yeon laid all the bodies on the tables and bowed his head.

For nearly the length of a stick of incense, he recited the True Origin Mantra, then kindled Samadhi Fire and touched it to the woodpile.

In an instant the flames rose and began to burn in earnest.

Kwak Yeon watched the bodies vanish into the fire a moment, then turned.

Standing before the Four Evils of Heaven, he said:

“Open your eyes.”

Ma Geollyang thought at last the time had come to mock the man.

Surely now he would ask who had hired them.

Of course, he would hear that answer from none of them.

“I know you won’t feel so much as a speck of remorse for those people.”

“......”

“Even so, I’ll keep you alive to watch to the end.”

Finishing, Kwak Yeon turned away.

Ma Geollyang was flummoxed.

“Hey—that’s it?”

“Ah, I left something out.”

Kwak Yeon turned back.

So. Of course.

Ma Geollyang looked down at him with eyes full of expectation.

“The gold and draft notes found on your persons will be used for the bereaved.”

“...?”

As Kwak Yeon started to turn, Ma Geollyang cried out hastily.

“Hey—aren’t you going to ask us anything?”

“Ask who hired you?”

“Yes.”

“If I ask, will you answer?”

“That... we won’t. We have never revealed the hirer.”

Kwak Yeon nodded.

“Carry that secret gently all the way to the underworld. I’ve already crippled your dantian and severed the sinews and meridians of your limbs; forcing you to break such a rule would be too much. Go to the Hall of Yama and boast to the King that you kept such filthy fidelity all your life.”

Ma Geollyang grew more desperate.

“Dark Cavern Taoist, are you truly going to leave us like this?”

“......”

“You’re a Taoist of Mount Wudang in name—do you mean to show no mercy? The match is decided. Be clean about it like a disciple of the righteous sects and strike off our heads.”

“If I meant to show mercy now, why would I have kept you alive until now?”

“...!”

“In any case, I have provided coffins for you. Be content with that.”

“Coffins?”

At Kwak Yeon’s outrageous words, Ma Geollyang barked:

“How are these wooden posts coffins, Dark Cavern Taoist?”

Kwak Yeon’s voice was icy.

“Do you not see the crows blackening the mountain? They’ve scented the blood you spattered everywhere.”

Ma Geollyang’s eyes widened.

He had seen the crows busily coming and going, but had thought it was because the Taoist had carried the bodies.

When the Taoist tied coffins to crows in his words, a chill ran down Ma Geollyang’s spine.

“Dark Cavern Taoist—surely you don’t mean...?”

Kwak Yeon nodded.

“What you are thinking is right. I have heard that the grassland folk beyond the frontier call this sky burial.”