Read Novel Full Chapter 1229: I Don’t Know. (4)
Chapter 1229: I Don’t Know. (4)
The Heavenly Friends Alliance party ran like the wind. Time had already been lost, so they could not afford a moment’s rest. Regardless of day or night, they ran along little-used side paths.
Meanwhile.
“Wait!”
Im So-Byeong shouted shortly and raised his hand. Those running behind him all stopped at once.
Im So-Byeong wiped the sweat from his brow with his sleeve and cleared his throat softly.
“Hmm.”
Then he spoke calmly with a warning.
“From here on, we must be a bit careful.”
“...From here?”
“Yes.”
Yoon Jong looked ahead with puzzled eyes. The road ahead didn’t seem different from the one they’d been on. But Im So-Byeong answered his question in one line.
“From here on, I have no information about the road either.”
“What?”
Jo Gul’s face crumpled.
“You boasted that all the mountains under heaven were in your hand!”
“That wasn’t exactly wrong. The problem is... whether what lies ahead can truly be called ‘under heaven.’”
“What’s that supposed to mean...”
Baek Cheon answered that question. He tilted his head slightly and asked Im So-Byeong, as if he had a guess.
“From here?”
“Yes.”
“Sasuk. What do you mean?”
“It’s a great mountain range.”
“What?”
“The Ten-Thousand Great Mountains.”
A shiver ran down Jo Gul’s spine at that moment.
‘Here?’
Once he realized this, things around him suddenly stood out.
Though the path they’d taken wasn’t exactly different, before them there now stretched endless jagged peaks instead of gentle ridgelines.
‘The Ten-Thousand Great Mountains...’
Now that he knew, the sight looked like hundreds of blades thrust toward the sky.
“From here it’s unknown. The reason the Green Forest takes the mountains is to control those who travel them. But... as you know, people don’t go into the Ten-Thousand Great Mountains. And any sect with sense never sets foot there.”
Everyone nodded at that.
It was obvious without deep thought. Anyone with sense would avoid this place. This was the very stronghold of the Demonic Cult that once turned the Central Plains into hell.
Even now, long after the Demonic Cult faded, the ominous fear the name evokes remains vivid.
As a result, though no one officially declared it, the murim world of the Central Plains treated the Ten-Thousand Great Mountains as forbidden ground.
“Um... Green Forest King.”
“Yes.”
“Among our Justice faction people there’s the belief that one must not enter the Ten-Thousand Great Mountains... is it the same for the Evil Sect?”
“Just because they’re the Evil Sect doesn’t mean they’re not human. They understand what ominous means.”
Im So-Byeong shrugged his shoulders and continued.
“The reason the Justice faction avoids this place isn’t some tremendous cause. It’s simply because it’s uncomfortable and ominous.”
“That’s right...”
“The Evil Sect is the same. And they have no reason to set up here. Why would the Evil Sect stake out a place without people? They don’t practice cultivation in the mountains.”
“True.”
The Justice faction can be far from villages without much issue. Especially Taoist or Buddhist sects, whose practitioners gather, prefer isolated places. Once a sect becomes famous, people come to them anyway.
But the Evil Sect is different. People avoid them. They survive by extorting people, so most Evil Sect groups set up near large cities.
Im So-Byeong snorted with a laugh.
“The reason Jang Ilso could grow the Ten Thousand People Clan so big was largely because their base was in Guizhou and Guangdong. Other major sects avoided the area below because of the Ten-Thousand Great Mountains. So a chaos of small sects arose, and Jang Ilso pacified that land.”
“...Depending on how you hear it, that sounds like you’re saying Jang Ilso grew because of those Demonic bastards?”
“It’s a clumsy way to put it as the cause, but if you nitpick, it’s not entirely wrong.”
Baek Cheon’s face twisted.
“Anyway, those Demonic bastards were no help.”
He put on an exaggerated grin, but the others’ faces remained hard.
“...Do we have to pass through here?”
“We have no choice. Though information is lacking, this is the place where the Four Sects Alliance’s watch is least thorough.”
“But...”
Namgung Do-Wei looked at the Ten-Thousand Great Mountains with a faintly ominous gaze.
At that moment, the image of the high priest they’d seen recently in Hangzhou flashed through his mind. If remnants of the demonic sect still remained there... if a high priest like that was present?
When he glanced around, he met faces carrying the same concern.
Noticing this, Im So-Byeong snorted and said.
“I recommend this route, but detouring isn’t necessarily bad either. It will take time, but we’re not that late to begin with.”
At that, those exchanging looks nodded in unison.
“Then...”
“Let’s detour...”
“This is insane. This is insane.”
But their timid voices were drowned out by an irritated voice from the back.
“What the... detour?”
“...”
“Are these idiots out of their minds? Hey, you lot! A hundred years ago, even if those demonic bastards swarmed there, we charged in head-on. And now the descendants of those who cleared them out are too scared to enter the land? Why? Afraid of the demonic sect?”
“Back then we’d have gone in like a pack! Now there are only ten of us!”
“So you’re scared?”
“Who’s saying they’re scared of the Demonic Cult?”
“Then?”
Jo Gul trembled as he shouted.
“There could be ghosts! Demonic Cult ghosts... Aaaah!”
Jo Gul, kicked hard by Chung Myung, screamed as he flew and crashed down.
“Look at this madman! Hey, you lunatic! You’re a taoist, taoist! An exorcist who catches ghosts!”
“That’s true.”
“We were meant to play that role.”
“Though I haven’t actually caught one...”
Even those in Buddhism, not Taoism, tend to ask the Taoist halls to deal with restless spirits or ghosts. Mount Hua rarely handles such matters, but in the shaman’s trade, exorcism brings a considerable portion of income.
“And you idiots! If there are ghosts, they wouldn’t all be demonic sect ghosts! The Justice faction fellows who died there would be ghosts too! The victorious ghosts would be on our side, so what’s the problem!”
“Ch-Chung Myung! It’s our ancestor!”
“Don’t say that about them, you bastard!”
“Tsk...”
Chung Myung clicked his tongue.
As if it was forbidden—Chung Myung was the one who kicked those useless ones and dragged them into the Ten-Thousand Great Mountains.
‘What’s changed between then and now?’
Sighing deeply, Chung Myung shook his head and led the way.
“Quit your whining and follow.”
“...Ah, no...”
“Just follow.”
Watching Chung Myung stride ahead, everyone bit their lips in unease.
“S-Should we go?”
“...We have to. We must.”
One by one, reluctantly, they followed him. But the unease did not disappear.
Whoooooosh.
Soon after entering the slopes of the Ten-Thousand Great Mountains, they quickened their pace again. It made sense—aside from the occasional mountain beast, there were no signs of life.
Even those who had been anxious began to calm down.
“It’s unnaturally quiet.”
“Indeed.”
They weren’t deliberately taking the rough route to avoid being seen, yet they hadn’t encountered anyone.
‘No wonder.’
Baek Cheon looked around and soon understood why.
Even if this weren’t the demonic sect’s stronghold, people would be hard to come by here.
This place was not hospitable for people.
With razor-like peaks packed together, the land ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) was poor for farming, and each peak was too steep to hunt beasts comfortably.
For warriors and commoners alike, there was no reason to settle here.
But one thing was certain.
“...It’s terrifying.”
“Yes, it’s truly frightening.”
Yoon Jong nodded in agreement with Baek Cheon.
He had seen the Ten-Thousand Great Mountains from afar once before, when they recovered their ancestor’s remains and returned to Mount Hua.
But entering the Ten-Thousand Great Mountains in person was very different from viewing it at a distance.
The suffocating terrain explained why this was the Demonic Cult’s stronghold and why such a terrible war had occurred here.
The endless jagged peaks meant you couldn’t see what was happening just a few ri behind from anywhere.
Distances that would be clear elsewhere in the Central Plains were obscured here; it was almost complete darkness.
Even if you tried to gain sight by moving sideways, another peak would block you. To know what’s happening beyond, you had no choice but to enter.
‘I don’t even know where the Demonic Cult might be...’
Cold sweat ran down his back.
Thinking about leading a force here made him dizzy. You couldn’t enter carelessly, not knowing where ambushes might lie.
If you were entrenched here and defending, you’d be in a bind too; deciding which of these many ambush points to use would drive you mad.
‘They led the elite and pushed in here?’
Before, he had only thought it vaguely impressive—thinking of the heroes who threw away their lives to kill the Heavenly Demon was enough.
But seeing the Ten-Thousand Great Mountains in person showed that the situation wasn’t as romantic as he had imagined.
If someone had told Baek Cheon to gather all the elite and storm that place, what would he have answered? He probably would have first asked if they were sane.
A single mistake, a single misjudgement could cost you all your forces; that’s the kind of terrain it was.
Yet those who had to lead the elite here—what must they have felt?
A desperate gamble: winner-take-all, responding with the feeling that a failure would lose everything.
There was no other explanation.
‘And Mount Hua was there.’
At the very forefront more than anyone...
Baek Cheon unconsciously turned around. The expressions of those following were all set. It seemed they felt similar to him.
Especially the disciples of Mount Hua looked even darker.
And then.
“Sasuk! Over there!”
At Jo Gul’s sudden shout, Baek Cheon snapped his head around.