Free Web NovelThe faces of those who had been laughing and jeering turned pale.
In that time, the Crimson Blood Hall Lord caught his breath and straightened his body. His eyes turned toward the one standing before him.
Soon Hae-rak’s gaze returned to Sohwa. In a displeased voice, he asked,
"In the middle of all this, you went and picked the strongest one? It's hard to tell whether you could even win against the guy all the way at the end, so why do you overestimate yourself like that?"
Sohwa’s eyes lifted upward.
"I didn’t pick him. He came out to the front on his own and started running his mouth."
This time, Hae-rak looked at the cultist.
"Well, I suppose it makes sense since you're under Pyowol, but does Crimson Blood Hall really have no sense of face? When you're clearly up against someone weak, the strongest guy comes rushing out and just struts around. You don't need to look cool, but you also don't need to be as filthy as your master, do you?"
The Blood Cult man, his face gone ashen, moved his lips and asked,
"...Where is the Hall Lord?"
"He’ll be on his way. I pulled his legs out, so it seems it’ll take him a bit of time; he’ll come on his own once he can run again."
The Crimson Blood Hall Lord, who recited such cruel words as if they were nothing, narrowed his eyes.
"Still, as expected of a subordinate, you're worried about your superior first."
Sohwa looked around.
The Crimson Blood cultists did not dare rush in and kept their distance.
Sohwa gauged the Crimson Blood Hall Lord’s reputation within the Blood Cult.
From the way he spoke alone, it was obvious he was not in his right mind; there was no way he had ever fought while keeping to any bounds.
Instead, she thought it fortunate that Hae-rak’s reputation was for cruelty, and looked back over her shoulder.
A silver snowy mountain filled her field of vision.
To leave the Ice Palace, they would have to cross that mountain.
From what Hae-rak had said, it seemed the Crimson Blood Hall Lord had been recovering his body in that forest.
She wondered if the Passage outside the Ice Palace had been sealed.
It was not that she distrusted the others, but not knowing what variables might have arisen made her tense.
Whatever the case, all the Passages inside the Ice Palace had now been destroyed.
She had left the Passage back to the Central Plains in Namgung Jin’s care, so they needed to hurry to the Han family’s territory.
They had said there was also a Passage outside the island; she worried whether they were managing to seal that one properly.
Outside the island, the bloodline of the Northern Sea Ice Palace remained.
Sohwa hesitated, troubled by the thought of fleeing alone to the Central Plains in a situation where the Blood Demon might cross over.
At that moment, recalling something, Sohwa turned her body and stared at the cliff.
On the black cliff, snow had frozen white in scattered patches.
Between them, she could see letters that had been obscured.
They were characters meaning the east.
The Fourth Seat had said to her when he left the dispensary.
That he would keep a boat moored to the northeast, so if anything happened, she was to hang a red cloth on the eastern cliff.
By eye, Sohwa estimated where on the cliff she could place her feet.
"If I go up along the cliff, wouldn’t I be able to get outside the Ice Palace faster?"
Hae-rak looked at Sohwa.
Seeing that her eyes were fixed on the cliff, he was appalled.
"Have you not seen what this island looks like? How are you going to run along a path that narrow?"
Feeling his voice had risen, Hae-rak let out a long breath.
Once he had calmed, he spoke in earnest.
"Just stay still, please."
Spoken in that way, Sohwa could not say anything more.
She had no choice but to trust Hae-rak.
It felt like an opportunity, so she hesitated, but as she was in a position of relying on Hae-rak’s strength, she followed his advice.
Truly, she was going to stay still.
Rumble, rumble, rumble.
At the fierce disturbance, Sohwa’s gaze shifted to the snowy mountain.
Clicking his tongue, the Crimson Blood Hall Lord walked in that direction.
"He came quickly."
Something shot forth like a flaming arrow, tearing through the air with a sonic boom.
Crash.
She saw a coniferous tree ripped up and sent flying into the sky.
It seemed a giant tree had been swept up by the air currents.
When he had first appeared, the Crimson Blood Hall Lord had not made such a noisy entrance.
With a hazy gaze, Sohwa looked at Hae-rak.
"...What did you do to make him that furious?"
"I didn’t do much."
Hae-rak replied nonchalantly as he waited for the Crimson Blood Hall Lord.
As fast as his speed suggested, the Crimson Blood Hall Lord soon showed himself.
For an instant, without realizing it, Sohwa turned her eyes away.
The Crimson Blood Hall Lord was running toward them in a state close to nakedness.
No—being completely naked would have been better.
His torn clothes were wrapped around his lower body, looking like a newborn baby’s diaper. freewebnσvel.cѳm
With that threatening body running toward them with only the vital area covered, the sight was nothing short of grotesque.
The moment he arrived, the Crimson Blood Hall Lord grabbed the biggest man and stripped off his long coat.
His subordinate even tried to take off his clothes faster to hand them to the Hall Lord.
Only after putting on the long coat did the Crimson Blood Hall Lord seem to regain his composure, striding toward them in steps full of anger.
Thud.
Thud.
With each step he took, the ground shook.
Watching him, Sohwa muttered,
"...It might have been better to just climb up the cliff and run."
Hae-rak did not answer Sohwa’s words and let out a crooked smile.
"I went to the trouble of dressing him up nicely. I made him look thirty years younger than you, and yet you have not even a speck of aesthetic sense."
Hae-rak clicked his tongue as if he were serious.
Sohwa wanted to clamp a hand over his mouth and beg him to stop.
Hot heat drove into the silence.
Though the Crimson Blood Hall Lord was her enemy, she felt she could understand if he tore Hae-rak and her to pieces.
Without realizing it, Sohwa turned her gaze to the cliff.
The quick-witted Crimson Blood Hall Lord warned her in a low voice,
"I told you not to try anything stupid."
Sohwa lowered her gaze again, but could not hide what she was thinking.
"I don’t know if trusting you is wise."
Hae-rak was silent for a moment.
After thinking, he gave a brief laugh and compromised.
"Just don’t go too high; stay somewhere reasonable. You’re distracting."
It seemed even he thought he had been too harsh.
Heat could be felt from Hae-rak.
Contrary to his relaxed tone, he too seemed to recognize that the Crimson Blood Hall Lord was not in his right mind.
Sohwa drew out the hand she had kept in her sleeve.
The three throwing daggers caught between her fingers flew toward the cliff.
Thunk. Thunk. Thunk.
Sohwa stepped on the throwing daggers embedded in the cliff and leapt up.
Standing on a protruding rock face, she looked down, and at the same time, a scream rose from below.
"Aaaagh!"
A Crimson Blood cultist who had tried to follow her up the cliff was pushed back by the heat and slammed into the rock face.
Crash. Crash. Crash.
There came the sound of clothes being torn and a body breaking as it was ground against the rough cliff.
The cultist resisted in his own way, but the spike that had been about to drive into Hae-rak’s hand bent like clay.
The melted metal burrowed into the cultist’s flesh.
"Gyaaaah!"
Hae-rak did not devote much time to the cultist.
In the brief instant after he had gripped him, he released his hand and blocked another.
However, it would have been better if the Crimson Blood Hall Lord had not withdrawn his hand.
As soon as the heat receded, the metal cooled and hardened as it was. It looked as if thick needles had been driven in.
In an instant, dozens of cultists had their hands bound and did not know what to do.
Blood streamed from their hands, but they could not bring themselves to pull out the metal fragments.
The Crimson Blood Hall Lord stood without the slightest movement even though Min Hae-rak had neutralized his subordinates.
If anything, he seemed to have suppressed his rage and calmed down during that time.
Clink.
The Crimson Blood Hall Lord knocked together the spikes embedded in both his hands as he took his stance.
"Crimson Blood Hall, listen."
However, instead of provoking Hae-rak, the Crimson Blood Hall Lord called out to his own subordinates.
Keeping his gaze on Hae-rak, he ordered,
"I will take care of the hunting dog, so you lot go capture that woman. You can even cut off her limbs; she has a body that will not die, so there is no need to fear hurting her. Whether you throw harpoons or hang her by the neck, bind her somehow."
"Before that, you should assume you can actually keep me tied down."
Hae-rak cut in, but the Crimson Blood Hall Lord ignored him and continued his command.
"You lot also cannot die easily. If you feel like you’re going to die, maintain your cultivation the way you were taught. It doesn’t matter if you haven’t mastered it properly; it doesn’t matter if you can’t stabilize it. Rather than surviving and having to report to the Blood Demon why you let that woman escape, it will be better to sacrifice your body and capture her."
Seeing Hae-rak’s face turn cold, the Crimson Blood Hall Lord added,
"This is not an order. It is advice so that you lacking fools can avoid even a little pain; push aside the fear before your eyes and protect your own dignity."
The Crimson Blood Hall Lord could not continue speaking.
It was because the lord who had not been leaving his own domain until now had suddenly appeared right before his eyes.
Fwoosh.
The Crimson Blood Hall Lord jerked his head back from the heat flaring before his eyes.
Having already experienced that strike, he did not let himself be caught by it a second time.
Hae-rak reached out toward the Crimson Blood Hall Lord again, then pulled his body far back.
"Damn it."
He had rushed in hastily to shut the Crimson Blood Hall Lord’s mouth, but the Crimson Blood men were already swept up in their leader’s words.
Hae-rak hurriedly turned in their direction to catch them.
The moment he threw his inner-powered hand toward the cliff, his upper body pitched forward.
Crash.
Perhaps knowing that Hae-rak would pull his body back toward the cliff, the Crimson Blood Hall Lord stuck right behind him and grabbed his leg.
A sharp spike clawed at the back of Hae-rak’s knee.
Cursing under his breath, Hae-rak twisted his body in a hurry and kicked up at the Crimson Blood Hall Lord’s chin.
Whack.
But he had been dragged into close combat.
All his attention was on the cliff, yet his body was right in front of the Crimson Blood Hall Lord, so he could not move the way he wished.
Hae-rak wanted to finish this quickly and deal with those bug-like men, but it seemed it would take time.
It might be less than half a ke, but for someone like Tang Sohwa, half a ke was enough time to lose all four limbs.
Locked in close combat with the Crimson Blood Hall Lord, Hae-rak shouted,
"Go up the cliff! Just run for now!"
It was not easy to say that after telling her to trust him, but he could not afford to hesitate.
Foolishly, Tang Sohwa was not moving, as if she were waiting for him.
Only after he shouted did Tang Sohwa’s presence move farther away.
She moved to the northeast, as if climbing the cliff on a diagonal.
Guessing her destination, Hae-rak trusted Tang Sohwa and pulled his attention away from her.
He intended to focus on the Crimson Blood Hall Lord, quickly cut off his head, and then follow after her.
Crash. Thud.
As they fought at close quarters, Hae-rak could not hide his irritation.
The man seemed to have made it his goal to stall for time, focusing more on maintaining his cultivation than attacking.
Even when his arm was cut or his shoulder torn, he recovered in no time.
His rate of recovery could not even be compared to before.
It felt like hacking at water.
It was as if the Blood Demon’s blood was sweeping through his body, maximizing the Blood Art he had supposedly just learned.
"This is tedious. Just how do I have to tear that body apart for it to finally end?"
"I’m curious too, about just how far the power I received from the Blood Demon can reach."
The Crimson Blood Hall Lord thrust his hand toward the side of Hae-rak’s neck.
Slash.
Cut hair scattered through the air.
In the process, a throwing dagger fell to the ground.
"You really are irritating."
In a chilly voice, Hae-rak spoke as he grabbed the arm that had dug into his shoulder.
Crack.
There was the sound of bone breaking, but the Crimson Blood Hall Lord’s expression did not change in the slightest.
Instead, realizing that Hae-rak was trying to press his acupoint, he covered Hae-rak’s hand with his other hand.
Hae-rak’s face twisted.
Injecting heat into the blood was the secret art of the Crimson Blood Hall Lord, something that both Crimson Blood Hall and Blue Blood Hall found horribly repulsive.
Yet he accepted that and clung to Hae-rak.
"Are you really planning to die this time?"
"Kill me. I don’t care if I die. As long as I can hold you down, nothing else matters."
The Crimson Blood Hall Lord spoke as if coughing up blood.
Yet his face was bright.
With a voice full of laughter, he babbled,
"This time, the Blood Demon will come in person. When he sees you in this state, he will finally realize he can’t tame you and give up."
The Crimson Blood Hall Lord giggled, as if he found that delightful.
"That woman seems to be quite important. It’s a good thing. The Blood Demon is furious that you stole her away, so he won’t wait any longer before taking your life."
The Crimson Blood Hall Lord’s face dried out tight.
Even in the heat that was burning his body, he laughed as if relieved.
"Keh-heh, at last, if I can get rid of the mad dog that threatens him... kuh, I’ll be satisfied."
Thud.
A violent sound of air being torn reached them.
It was the sound of ice breaking.
For some reason, Hae-rak felt as if his heart were dropping.
He hurriedly shoved aside the Crimson Blood Hall Lord, who had burned to a crisp, and twisted his body.
The man might rise again, but there was no time to check.
Turning his body toward the cliff, he traced Sohwa with his gaze and flinched.
Something was fluttering atop the cliff.
A violet long coat was caught on a jagged outcropping of rock, fluttering in the wind.
"Foolish..."
A frown formed between Hae-rak’s brows as he used Silent Script.
The long coat was soaked in blood.
But Tang Sohwa was nowhere to be seen.
The Crimson Blood men were nowhere to be seen either.
Even if she had run along the top of the cliff, there was no way she could already have gotten out of the palace compound.
"Tang Sohwa!"
Hae-rak cried out loudly with a voice imbued with inner energy, but no answer came back.
