After leaving only a short, command-like remark, the Crimson Blood Hall Lord moved.
Standing within his own domain, he abandoned the attitude with which he had been trampling the Crimson Blood Hall Lord earlier.
The moment Hae-rak settled his momentum, the surroundings brightened. Like gnats drawn to a lantern flame, the Crimson Blood cultists swarmed toward him.
He had told her to stay still, but Tang Sohwa turned her gaze.
Far in the distance, she saw a bonfire. Its light was faint, like that of a small firefly, but bright enough to check the surroundings.
An empty area and a black cliff came into view. She also saw the gate spread out before it. It was the Passage.
Because all the Crimson Blood cultists had followed the Crimson Blood Hall Lord here, the surroundings of the Passage were empty.
Sohwa measured the path with her eyes and took a pouch from her sleeve. Half the fine powder remained.
Boom.
At that moment, Min Hae-rak charged toward the Crimson Blood Hall Lord.
Their movements were so fast they could barely be followed with the naked eye. They appeared and disappeared repeatedly within a distance of about one zhang.
It was like the sparring of young martial artists who ran from one end of a ten-zhang training ground to the other. But the fact that they moved only within a one-zhang boundary at that speed meant one of them was accepting heavy restrictions.
Sohwa understood that Min Hae-rak was trying not to leave the surrounding area.
Moreover, the Crimson Blood cultists that had gathered began to quietly encircle the perimeter.
If he showed even the slightest opening, those men would intervene.
Tang Sohwa realized she was a burden to Hae-rak in his fight against the Crimson Blood Hall Lord.
And even if she were lucky enough to escape by following Hae-rak out of here, that would not be the end.
It was not a matter of whether she trusted the Crimson Blood Hall Lord or not.
Sohwa turned her gaze toward the entrance.
It had been half an incense stick since the last cultist had come through, and the entrance had disappeared.
Someone else could come through that place.
If the Blood Demon were to come through, even Hae-rak would not be able to withstand him.
Assuming the worst, Sohwa looked around.
She searched for a way to move as quickly as possible along a path without Crimson Blood cultists.
Boom.
Hae-rak, who had been blocking the Crimson Blood Hall Lord’s strike, suddenly twisted his body back.
In °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° his hand was the throat of a Crimson Blood cultist.
“Khuk.”
The cultist swung his fist, clawing Hae-rak’s arm.
Boom.
Because Hae-rak threw him away quickly, the blow barely grazed him, but dark-red spots splattered onto his violet robe.
This was not a battlefield favorable to Hae-rak.
He had far too much to pay attention to.
She loosened the string of the pouch she had taken from her sleeve.
Sohwa leapt and moved onto another tree. Using the recoil, she stepped across branches as if running across flat ground.
“[You really are disgustingly disobedient.]”
His irritated voice tickled her eardrums, but only briefly.
Boom.
She felt the fierce presence of the Crimson Blood Hall Lord collapse. He must have tried to follow after sensing that Sohwa had left her position, only to be caught by Hae-rak.
Though she could not send a transmitted voice, he would know she was heading for the Passage.
Sohwa intended to destroy the Passage while Hae-rak held the Crimson Blood Hall Lord in place.
Whoosh.
A fierce rush of wind sounded. The countless footsteps behind her were those following her.
Sohwa stepped onto a higher branch and ran.
Her speed was not particularly fast, yet those following her did not close the distance.
Considering that she could not use lightness arts, she should have been caught already, but instead the distance widened.
Thud. Thud.
She heard the sound of bodies falling and rolling over snow.
Those who had come close to her were dropping from the trees.
Just as she ran out of poison powder, she began to see the formation carved into the cliff.
Without stopping, Sohwa took a fire-starter from her sleeve. She lit the poison smoke packet but did not throw it to the ground.
The burning mass scorched her palm, an unbearable surge of pain spreading through her hand. Still, Sohwa did not release the poison smoke.
Thud.
One Crimson Blood cultist seized her calf and pounded his fist, but the moment he inhaled the smoke, he slipped down helplessly.
The poison smoke spreading through the air forced the cultists to widen their distance.
Reaching the cliff, Sohwa landed on the ground.
“Ugh.”
Her leg muscles tore, and she could not put strength into them. Dragging one leg, she approached the formation.
Passing the mountain of corpses, Sohwa threw the poison smoke packet into the bonfire.
Fwoosh.
A fierce column of fire rose, and dense smoke spread outward.
“Guh—huk!”
A cultist who had been leaping toward her back gagged violently and fell backward.
Limping, Sohwa moved close to the bonfire.
Her leg still had not fully recovered, making it difficult to move.
Meanwhile, the Crimson Blood cultists surrounded her densely.
“It's ridiculous that you crawled all the way to the Passage yourself, but fortunate.”
A familiar face stepped forward.
He laughed and placed his hand on his hip.
“You’ve been a good girl, so I’ll take you back intact. Depending on how you behave, you might lose an arm, but that’s not a big deal, is it?”
Sohwa remembered where she had seen the man before.
He was the one who had blocked their retreat at Geumeunsan.
Seeing that he had survived fighting one of the greatest forces in the Central Plains meant his martial ability could not be ignored.
The cultist’s eyes fell to Sohwa’s leg. Through the torn hem of her skirt, flesh soaked in blood was visible. The torn muscles twitched and tried to knit back together.
“You were born with a fine body despite not having received the Blood Art.”
His gaze slowly moved upward.
“But even if your leg recovers, do you think you can escape me?”
His voice dripped with mockery.
He strolled lazily around the smoke and approached the cliff.
Placing his hand on the formation, he looked at Sohwa.
“What can you do with a body that can’t even kill itself? The entrance to take you back is right in front of you.”
Though the fire was at her back, heat pressed against her from the front. The cultist’s inner energy flowed along his hand and filled the engraved grooves of the cliff.
Ssshhh.
A flash erupted before her eyes, and space tore open. A gate appeared barely two steps ahead.
Grinning, the cultist pointed at Sohwa and the Passage.
“At this distance, even a flick of my hand would send you through.”
He extended his hand and withdrew it, mocking her. The surrounding cultists followed his laughter.
Sohwa’s black eyes shifted sideways to meet the cultist’s gaze.
She took out a poison vial from her sleeve.
The cultist sneered openly.
“What do you plan to do with that? How many do you think you can kill? Even if that poison is strong, you can’t escape unless you kill everyone here.”
“You’re right. If I can’t kill all of you, I may not be able to escape.”
“Exactly. Admit it—you’re a rat trapped in poison.”
Unfortunately, she did not have a poison capable of annihilating everyone here. If she went to Gujeonggak, she could find a toxin capable of destroying an entire city, but poisons kept as heirlooms in the Tang Clan were forbidden to take out.
Even worse, the cultists here seemed resistant to poison.
The one who tore her calf had followed her all this way, waiting for the poison smoke to clear.
Still, Sohwa held the vial like a throwing dagger, as if attempting a threat.
“Have you heard of Bone-Melting Powder?”
“Is there a martial artist who doesn’t know it?”
The cultist chuckled and looked at the vial.
“Isn’t that the poison used to dispose of corpses?”
“Why use it only on corpses? It can melt the bones and flesh of the living as well.”
Though he was not frightened, he looked uncomfortable—being hit by Bone-Melting Powder was something to avoid if possible.
“So even you pretend to bare your claws like a martial aristocrat.”
“Yes. And I learned concealed weapons from childhood, so I throw things fairly well.”
Sohwa curved her lips while looking at the cultist standing at the cliff.
“Hitting a target right in front of me is nothing.”
“Pretty girl, that’s not how you bluff. Even if you hit me with Bone-Melting Powder, do you think I’d die? Tsk tsk. To think someone blessed with the Blood Demon’s blood would have such a small heart. Don’t babble nonsense that will make you kick your blankets in embarrassment later. Just come quietly. That will at least save some of your dignity.”
The cultist gave her a pitiful look.
Tang Sohwa did not reply. She threw the Bone-Melting Powder.
Clang.
The cultist did not move. He frowned and turned his gaze aside.
“...You can’t even hit a target right in front of you?”
Laughter erupted from the surroundings.
Bone-Melting Powder had missed and splashed harmlessly on the wall—her bluff seemed meaningless.
But the orthodox woman showed no embarrassment and spoke in a calm voice.
“The idea that Bone-Melting Powder melts flesh and bone is merely a human expression. Bone-Melting Powder is poison formulated to create corrosive reaction.”
Her cold voice crushed the laughter.
“Well-formulated Bone-Melting Powder can corrode wood, stone, and sometimes even swords.”
Somewhere, a small sound rang out.
Ssshhh.
The cultist’s gaze moved toward the sound.
Along the trail where the Bone-Melting Powder had flowed, the cliff wall was corroding. The damage was not severe, but thin smoke rose along the path where it trickled, shaving the surface.
“D—damn it!”
The cultist hastily tried to wipe the Bone-Melting Powder with his palm, but the powder that had already soaked into the cliff was doing its work.
The spacing between the formation’s engraved characters became uneven, and in some places, long vertical strokes were gouged out.
Ssshhhh.
Not even half an incense stick had passed before the Passage began closing.
Sohwa stared at the cultist who now looked at her with a sharp gaze.
“Now you’re the rat trapped in poison.”
Boom.
At the same time, an enormous presence landed beside her.
Wiping the sweat pooled at his chin, Min Hae-rak scolded Tang Sohwa.
“It’s killing me, siding with someone who never listens.”
Sohwa kept her gaze on the stunned cultist, not the Crimson Blood Hall Lord, and added:
“It seems the one trapped on this island isn’t me anymore, but you.”
