The Heaven-Slaying Sword - Chapter 17

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Order

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◈ The Heaven-Slaying Sword ◈

Chapter 17: Chapter Three - Companions, Ghost Valley (2)

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Despite Hwa Seo's unease, Mok Ri-won radiated excitement throughout their journey toward the Valley of Meager Blood.

He could hardly help it.

To him, the Valley of Meager Blood was not simply the site of the Bloody Affair. It was a place where his master had left his traces.

Naturally, Mok Ri-won was chattier than usual.

"I heard that every senior who survived the battle in the Valley of Meager Blood went on to make a name for themselves. No, it would have been stranger if they had not! They defeated Evil Heaven Blood Fiend, one of the Blood Heaven Cult's Five Evil Ghosts!"

Whatever had gotten into him, he even let out an admiring "Khh!" as he kept talking.

Dang Hwa-seo, whose head was beginning to throb, gave him a perfunctory reply.

"Yes, it was also when the epithet Sword Star first appeared in the Martial World."

Dang Hwa-seo knew well enough about him.

Mok Seon-o, the Sword Star.

The greatest martial artist under heaven of the previous generation, now vanished without a trace.

And the first martial artist in the Central Plains to bear the character Star in his epithet.

'They said he was given that name because his sword qi shone like starlight. The Four Stars were originally masters who admired the Sword Star and followed his epithet.'

That they had all become absolute masters and pillars of the Orthodox Sects was another matter.

Dang Hwa-seo had been walking along, absentmindedly dwelling on those thoughts, when she noticed Mok Ri-won had suddenly clamped his mouth shut. She turned toward him.

"...What are you doing?"

Mok Ri-won stood before her with his face flushed and his shoulders puffed up.

He almost looked proud.

She wondered what had gotten into him this time, but after thinking it over, she could roughly guess why.

'Ah, right. He's a Sword Star devotee too.'

He was the sort of person who went wild over any chivalrous hero.

He also treated Tales of Martial Heroes as if it were sacred truth.

It would be stranger if someone like that had no interest in the Sword Star.

She wanted to let him bask in the moment a little longer, but they did not have time to spare.

"That's enough. Hurry and follow me. We need to reach the entrance to the Valley of Meager Blood before sunset."

"Ah! Understood!"

Mok Ri-won hurried over to her side.

At least he listened well. Dang Hwa-seo felt a strange relief, unsure whether to be happy or sad about it.

* * *

Ghost Valley.

The Valley of Meager Blood, which they had finally reached, suited that name perfectly.

Tall trees grew thick overhead, blocking out the sky.

With the sunlight gone, yin energy had gathered beneath them, and mold and mushrooms flourished everywhere. The gloomy surroundings only made the eerie atmosphere more oppressive.

"Corpses."

Mok Ri-won spoke as he looked at the white bones scattered about.

Dang Hwa-seo nodded.

"Yes. Until we leave the Valley of Meager Blood, you'll get sick of seeing them."

Calling them white bones was almost too generous.

Dust and the ravages of time had already yellowed them, while unknown weeds grew thickly over them.

'The deathly energy is starting to rise.'

Dang Hwa-seo frowned as she felt the deathly energy churn through her insides with every breath before seeping into her dantian and transforming into pinpricks of Inner power.

"Young Hero Mok, put the poison-repelling bead in your mouth."

"Not yet..."

"Now."

Mok Ri-won dejectedly reached into his pack.

He took out a small bead and placed it in his mouth.

"Mmph..."

If he could speak clearly with a bead in his mouth, that alone would qualify as a superhuman ability.

Dang Hwa-seo smiled in satisfaction as she watched Mok Ri-won finally fall quiet.

"Come on, we're in a hurry. Let's get moving."

"Mmph...!"

Mok Ri-won drooped as he nodded.

It was the Valley of Meager Blood, where his master's traces remained, yet he could not speak of its wonders. His heart ached.

* * *

The deeper they entered the Valley of Meager Blood, the denser its deathly energy became.

How many people had died here? As they walked, they stepped on bones every ten paces or so.

That was a problem, but even Dang Hwa-seo, who possessed Immunity to Ten Thousand Poisons, found something else painful.

'The stench is unbearable.'

The stench.

A rotting smell rose from every corner, as if the air itself had been trapped and left to decay.

The humidity was awful too, making the odor even heavier and more unpleasant.

Dang Hwa-seo hated foul smells to the point of loathing.

She wanted to leave this place as soon as possible, but sadly, that was not a wish she could fulfill.

'The heart of the Valley of Meager Blood is still far away.'

The Valley of Meager Blood had once been a village where slash-and-burn farmers lived.

In other words, since they had not even found the village yet, they could not say they had truly entered the Valley of Meager Blood.

Her irritation surged without warning.

Dang Hwa-seo's expression darkened by the moment, but Mok Ri-won remained bright and cheerful.

'Traces of martial arts!'

Mok Ri-won giggled as he closely examined the scars on rocks, trees, and bones.

Just looking at them brought certain scenes to mind.

He might have looked foolish and innocent, but he was still the Heavenly Slaughter Star, born with heaven-given martial talent.

By piecing together these traces, he could roughly grasp what the battle here had been like.

'If I account for the trees having grown over time...'

The battle had likely been even fiercer than it looked now.

The skull before him bore a long scar running from its lower left jaw to its eye.

It had clearly been caused by an upward slash.

Considering how unsteady the tip of the sword wound was, the one who made it must have died in that same instant.

It had certainly been mutual destruction.

What about the sword lodged in that tree?

Its style differed somewhat from those of the Central Plains, so it had likely belonged to a Blood Heaven Cult martial artist.

Judging by its angle and how deeply it was embedded, a sword trajectory aimed elsewhere must have been twisted by an outside force and driven into the tree.

The person holding that sword had likely died in that sudden instant as well.

"Young Hero Mok."

Dang Hwa-seo urged Mok Ri-won on as he repeatedly paused to look around.

"Curiosity is good, but we still have a long way to go. Stop dawdling and follow me."

"Mmph!"

"Do you sense anything? Any living people, perhaps..."

"Mmph!"

Mok Ri-won shook his head.

His Qi Sense detected no human Inner power.

Nor did he sense any Killing Intent aimed at them.

That was why he had been wandering about, indulging his curiosity. Still, there was one thing that felt strange to him.

"Mmph!"

Unable to speak with the poison-repelling bead in his mouth, Mok Ri-won began making bizarre gestures that no one could understand, wildly waving his arms around.

Confusion deepened on Dang Hwa-seo's face.

"Pardon?"

"Mmmph!"

Mok Ri-won spread both arms wide.

Then, with his index fingers raised, he began stabbing at the air.

Dang Hwa-seo pressed her lips together.

A blank look spread across her face.

'What is he even saying?'

His actions made no sense at all.

Dang Hwa-seo let out a long sigh.

"Take out the poison-repelling bead and tell me. You can endure it for a moment, can't you?"

"Mm! Understood! Something is prickling against my skin!"

"Pardon?"

"It's not a human's Killing Intent! But it feels too alive to be a simple current of air!"

After saying that, Mok Ri-won put the poison-repelling bead back in his mouth.

His eyes sparkled. Something had stirred his curiosity again.

Ordinarily, Dang Hwa-seo would have dismissed that look as nothing, but she could not do so now.

'There's something here?'

This was the Valley of Meager Blood.

And there was something here that matched what Mok Ri-won had described.

Something alive.

Something not human.

And a place filled with deathly energy.

'...Could it be?'

Dang Hwa-seo gave a hollow laugh.

The circumstances were rather convincing for something she wanted to dismiss as impossible.

Her mouth began to water.

"...There was a rumor about the Valley of Meager Blood."

"Mmph!"

"Yes, a spirit creature."

Mok Ri-won bounced in place.

He stretched out a hand and pointed in one direction.

It lay slightly off the path they had been following.

Dang Hwa-seo did not stop him.

"It sounds absurd, but..."

Dang Hwa-seo gently rubbed her chin as she continued thinking.

A spirit creature had to spend hundreds, even thousands of years in the same place, absorbing the same energy, before it could come into being.

A place filled with deathly energy for only around twenty years should never have produced one.

Even so, Dang Hwa-seo could not deny her desire to take that chance. She was a martial artist too, after all.

A spirit creature's inner core was a divine elixir worth seeking for a thousand years. She could not simply pass it by without regret.

Dang Hwa-seo looked in the direction Mok Ri-won had pointed.

'A cliff face. If something is there, it would make sense for it to be in a cave somewhere over there.'

Her thoughts raced.

If they moved a little faster, making a brief detour would not be a problem.

She just had to seize Mok Ri-won by the collar so he would not wander off along the way.

Besides, Mok Ri-won was a martial artist who had reached the realm of Sword Qi Injures the Person, while she possessed Immunity to Ten Thousand Poisons and could turn nearly every poison in the Martial World into Inner power.

'The Valley of Meager Blood is a land overflowing with deathly energy. It is also a young land, one where deathly energy has existed for less than twenty years.'

That meant that if there truly was a spirit creature here, it was either a young creature that had only recently come into being or one that had moved here from elsewhere and was still adapting to its new environment.

"I can't be certain it's really there, but if we don't go, we'd deserve to be called idiots."

"Mmph!"

"Yes, let's take a look. Young Hero Mok, you've done well."

Mok Ri-won smiled, his face reddening.

Dang Hwa-seo watched him and thought,

'How adorable he is when he keeps his mouth shut.'

He did not spout nonsense, and when he needed something, he expressed it with his whole body. It was wonderful.

A man should know how to keep his mouth shut.

* * *

Once they made their decision, they moved quickly.

Mok Ri-won's eyes had already gone wide at the thought that he might actually meet a spirit creature, so he did not look anywhere else. Dang Hwa-seo also cast aside her irritation at the stench and humidity, thinking she might encounter unexpected fortune.

They reached the cliff face.

Following Mok Ri-won's instincts as they searched around, the two found a fairly large cave entrance.

"Hah, it really is here."

"Mmph!"

Mok Ri-won's face brightened.

He was expending Inner power to keep the deathly energy seeping through the poison-repelling bead at bay, but even that fatigue could not stop his enthusiasm.

"Can you still sense it?"

Mok Ri-won briefly spat out the poison-repelling bead and answered.

"Without a doubt! The strange sensation I've felt all along has grown stronger as we came here! It definitely belongs to a living creature!"

"Good. Stay alert from here on."

Dang Hwa-seo pleasantly wondered what kind of spirit creature it might be.

'What kind of spirit creature could it be...?'

Since it lived in a land filled with deathly energy, it might be a spirit creature that used poison.

No, considering that it lived inside a cave like this, there was more than a ninety percent chance of it.

'Poison.'

Even apart from its inner core, it would act as a medicinal treasure for her.

Dang Hwa-seo cracked her knuckles and sharpened her Qi Sense.

Mok Ri-won took out a small piece of oiled paper from his pack and lit it.