Chapter 40: Four Bone Inscriptions, Four Blood Inscriptions
Just as the word lust demon was part of his title, he enjoyed bedding women but there was something he loved even more.
Blood.
The reason Pa Ga-hyeol had waited over ten years for his command was because he had expected that, once the order came down, he would finally be able to gorge himself on blood.
In just a few more days, once the First Scheme began in earnest, the Namgung Family would disappear. In the process, a horrific bloodbath would naturally unfold.
As he imagined the Namgung Family drenched in crimson, Pa Ga-hyeol’s body turned an even more brilliant silver. At the same time, the movements of his lower body became increasingly violent.
“Huff… huff!”
“Aah, aaah!”
The pitiful sacrifice, unaware that she was about to die, rolled her eyes back in ecstasy as she writhed in bliss.
She was a martial artist his subordinates had captured yesterday. Since she had been traveling from Bongyang toward the Namgung Family, she had most likely been on her way to congratulate Transforming Shadow and Namgung Hye on their wedding.
Though the sacrifice had no idea, her family or sect would probably disappear from the Jianghu before long as well.
Perhaps they’re already gone.
Mad Cloud was never a merciful man. He had gone to lay the groundwork for the Second Scheme, so the martial world of Anhui Province would be reduced to complete ruin.
If nothing else, several “Clouds” had likely been mobilized for the Second Scheme. The order alone differed. No sect in Anhui Province would be able to escape Mad Cloud’s grasp.
In contrast, only seven Shadows had been deployed for the First Scheme.
Myself, Transforming Shadow, the four who infiltrated the Namgung Family. And…
The last one was responsible for the Lake Chaohu region.
If the Anhui Branch of Heavenly Demon Castle under his command, the Namgung Family, and the force led by that other Shadow all clashed within Anhui, the outcome was too obvious to even question.
Now that the Martial Origin’s First and Second Schemes had begun, there was no possibility that Anhui Province’s martial world would remain intact…
None.
“Aaaah!”
The woman, completely oblivious, continued wandering in paradise even as every last trace of her yin energy was being drained away.
Knowing it was time to finish, Pa Ga-hyeol greedily absorbed the final remnants of her vital essence.
Then, at the very instant he was about to reach climax,
Flash! Flash! Flash!
Three brief yet incredibly intense streaks of light entered his vision.
They came from the direction of the Namgung Family.
What was that!?
Although the Namgung Family could be vaguely seen from here, the distance was by no means close.
Unless it was an extraordinarily powerful light, it could never reach the summit of Seungryong Mountain from the Namgung Family, especially in the middle of the night. A light of that intensity would have required something on the level of a Thunderbolt Bomb exploding, unless it was sunlight itself.
That definitely was not a signal sent by Transforming Shadow. Transforming Shadow had neither mastered the Sun Divine Art nor possessed any Thunderbolt Bombs.
More importantly, neither the scorching heat emitted by the Sun Divine Art nor the destructive explosive flash of a Thunderbolt Bomb could possibly carry such a gentle, indescribably warm aura.
That was why Pa Ga-hyeol became even more uneasy.
Something incomprehensible had undoubtedly happened within the Namgung Family.
And it had definitely not been part of the plan.
“Aaaah!”
At last, both Pa Ga-hyeol and the woman reached their climax.
Thud.
As his manhood withdrew from her body, the woman breathed her last.
His body had already returned from silver to its original color, and his member likewise hung limply.
“Seal off every route leading to Hefei immediately.”
Who was he speaking to?
Certainly not the dead woman.
“As you command.”
As if to prove it, a voice answered from somewhere beneath the rock.
The moment the reply sounded, the shadows cast beneath the rock stretched outward in every direction before splitting into several separate strands.
In no time, the shadows disappeared down Seungryong Mountain.
Several people had been secretly hiding beneath the very rock where Pa Ga-hyeol had been practicing his seduction art.
Once the shadows vanished, Pa Ga-hyeol himself also disappeared from the spot, as though snuffed out.
Whoooosh—
The cold wind swept across Seungryong Mountain’s peak once more.
But now, there was no one left to receive it.
Well, there was one.
But it was nothing more than a corpse.
It no longer mattered, but the corpse’s name had been Danri Hui.
● ● ●
At the same time, within the Namgung Family.
Standing aboard the sailboat while facing the cold wind blowing from Lake Chaohu were two men.
Dong Bong-su had already departed, but the horrifying scene he had left behind still lingered, weighing heavily on their hearts.
One was Namgung Hu, Commander of the Heavenly Thunder Unit.
The other was Namgung Il, Commander of the Heavenly Wind Division, who bore responsibility for those who had died here.
“What do you make of it?”
Namgung Il spoke first.
Even as he spoke, his gaze never once left the ship’s deck.
Written across it in magnificent calligraphy, as though a dragon were ascending into the heavens, were several characters.
What made him furrow his brow was that the scent rising from them was not the fragrance of ink, but the stench of blood.
“……”
As commander of the Heavenly Thunder Unit, Namgung Hu had arrived before Namgung Il.
When the three flashes of light originated here, the nearest patrol was the Heavenly Thunder Unit members stationed at the West Heavenly Guest Hall. After receiving their report, Namgung Hu had reached the ship first.
Soon afterward, Namgung Il rushed over after hearing the report from the Fourth Squad, which had come to relieve the Third Squad of the Heavenly Wind Division, the very squad that had perished today.
Without answering directly, Namgung Hu pointed toward the lower cabin beneath the cabin.
“Judging from this alone, we can’t fully understand the intentions of whoever created this tragedy. Come with me.”
Namgung Hu led Namgung Il down into the ship’s lower cabin.
Believing there had to be a reason, Namgung Il followed without another word.
Since it was still deep into the night, the interior was dark.
Boom!
Namgung Hu unleashed a palm strike into the side of the cabin, blasting a hole through it.
Dim moonlight immediately streamed inside, illuminating the room.
Thanks to that, the previously unseen interior came clearly into view.
“This!”
Embedded with meticulous precision into the cabin floor were fragments that appeared to be human bones, arranged to form a four-character sentence, just like the blood writing on the deck.
The grotesque display was far more horrifying than what lay above on the deck.
Yet the elegance of the writing rivaled the world’s greatest calligraphers, just like the characters written in blood above.
“The Heavenly Thunder Unit members who had been on watch at the West Heavenly Guest Hall were the first to arrive here before dawn. According to their investigation, this bone writing appears to have been made before the blood writing on the deck. In other words, the intruder stripped the flesh from the Heavenly Wind Division members here, arranged their bones into this, and only then went up to the deck to write the blood characters.”
Namgung Hu explained as Namgung Il stood there in shock.
After hearing the explanation, Namgung Il silently prayed for the souls of his subordinates before speaking.
“But why? The intruder went through all the trouble of infiltrating this place, yet for what purpose did he write this… no, commit something like this? He should have been more concerned with hiding.”
“Who knows? I don’t know either. Why infiltrate the Namgung Family with such difficulty just to write something like this?”
When the bone writing in the lower cabin and the blood writing on the deck were combined in order, they formed the following eight characters.
When the moon is full, the Emperor falls; slowly advancing, I become king. (月滿帝沒 辶余爲王)
Namgung Hu and Namgung Il discussed the meaning of those eight characters for quite some time.
As dawn gradually broke, they headed toward the Hall of the Emperor.
This was clearly not something they could resolve on their own.
● ● ●
Author Notes: (Revised) Shin Murim Online, Fifth Law: Upon leveling up, white light bursts from the body in every direction, and all injuries are completely healed. At the same time, all stats increase slightly. In other words, one becomes stronger, faster, and more intelligent.
Addition: This restoration includes not only wounds but also any lost body parts.
※ Even now, none of these laws are considered fixed or absolute.
● ● ●
“Hey, did you hear about what happened last night?”
“Hm?”
“Oh, you still haven’t heard? Well, here’s what happened…”
The Namgung Family was unusually noisy from early morning.
The cause was the three brilliant flashes of light that had enveloped the entire Namgung Family the previous night.
Since ancient times, people had regarded the number three as sacred.
One represented yang, while two stood opposite as yin. Since three was formed from the union of one and two, it was considered the perfect number in which yin and yang existed in harmony.
Moreover, the light that had enveloped the Namgung Family the night before had been so brilliantly radiant and gentle that it seemed capable of purifying the entire world.
Every guard who had been on watch at that hour, along with the few people who had still been awake, unanimously agreed that it had been no ordinary phenomenon.
The Three Sacred Lights.
As the story passed from one mouth to another, those three flashes naturally came to be known by the grand and fitting name, The Three Sacred Lights.
“The Three Sacred Lights, you know…”
Although it was still early morning and many people had yet to wake, rumors about the Three Sacred Lights spread like wildfire.
[The heavens are blessing the upcoming marriage between Namgung Hye and Do Heo-ok!]
No one knew who had first said it, but before breakfast, there was no one within the family who had not heard the story.
Because of the Three Sacred Lights, the Namgung Family’s key figures and elders had all been summoned to the Hall of the Emperor early that morning.
However, the matter they were discussing was nowhere near as hopeful as the ordinary family members and congratulatory guests believed.
The reason was simple.
What the Three Sacred Lights had heralded was not a blessing from heaven,
but the omen of a calamity known as the Four Bone Inscriptions, Four Blood Inscriptions.
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