Chapter 190: The Moon Rises
Venerable Huiyin’s residence was located in the deepest part of Mount Ei.
An ancient building called Lotus Hall, where the breaths of successive Sect Leaders had lingered through the generations.
Rustle.
The hem of white robes brushed across the floor, producing a faint sound.
A folding screen engraved with lotus patterns trembled slightly in the passing breeze, and beyond the window the winding ridgelines of Mount Ei could be seen faintly in the distance.
“The moon is truly bright.”
The sun of the night, dazzling in brilliance as it gazed down upon the earth.
On nights when the moonlight swelled like this, she was always seized by strange recollections.
Once, there had been a woman blocked by the wall known as the Blazing Fla Realm, struggling and screaming during isolated training.
In a place where no one was present, where not even her voice could reach another person, where only the moonlight shone down—she had been seized by inner demons, coughing up blood as she died alone.
Venerable Huiyin’s once-steadfast mind collapsed, and she clawed at the wall until her fingernails broke, crying desperately for soone to save her.
Before that chilling terror, she had been neither the Sect Leader of the Ei Sect nor a renowned female chivalrous hero. She had been nothing more than a creature made of flesh.
Just when it seed that everything would end like that—
Within the pouring moonlight, a mystical being approached her.
To the woman standing at death’s threshold, the transcendent Daoist introduced himself as Ilseong.
To the woman who muttered that she wanted to live, he passed on a Heart Cultivation thod that could save her life.
Contrary to the na Ilseong, which ant a single star, he whispered to her a thod that imprisoned the power of the moon within one’s body and wielded it as strength.
That day, Venerable Huiyin desperately absorbed the pouring moonlight and managed to survive.
She even reached the realm she had dread of—the Blazing Fla Realm.
However, as with all things in the universe, there was a price.
Compared to the tiny glimr of a star, the light of the moon was overwhelming. And this Heart Cultivation thod that wielded that lunar power carried one fatal flaw.
‘How could a re human contain the vast moon? You will gradually lose your mind.’
Unlike the countless tiny stars that sparkled in fragnts, the moon alone was dazzling enough to overwhelm.
The fragile rationality of a human mind would face that vastness and gradually be dyed in madness.
Thus Venerable Huiyin had desperately asked how it could be stopped.
Ilseong, with a face devoid of emotion, told her to increase the vessel that held the human essence—latent energy.
But that vessel was sothing given at birth.
There was no way to expand it.
The only thod was to seize the latent energy of others.
Upon realizing this, Venerable Huiyin cried out in despair, asking how such a demand could be made of one who walked the Dao.
But the mysterious Daoist called Ilseong rely looked at her as if observing an experintal subject.
Overco with an incomprehensible fear of that being from beyond the heavens, she trembled.
Ilseong muttered sothing as if he could foresee her future, and soon after, he left her.
“…Even after that day, I tried so hard.”
After the being from beyond the heavens disappeared, Venerable Huiyin tried every possible thod to hold onto her sanity as it slowly succumbed to madness.
But this was not sothing effort alone could solve.
She had tried to contain sothing far too great within a small vessel, and so her mind gradually crumbled.
“Primordial Heavenly Lord… why do you bestow such a trial upon …?”
As the madness of the moonlight slowly approached again, the demon within her heart—one she thought she had cast aside—raised its head once more.
Death.
Soil and dust.
A return to nothingness.
Eventually, unable to endure any longer, Venerable Huiyul noticed her condition.
The strange sensation spread to the very marrow of her bones, and at tis she began to behave as though she were no longer herself.
“I… cannot die yet…”
Her body would remain, but her mind would vanish.
That was the destined fate Ilseong had foretold if she failed to take others’ latent energy.
However, before leaving, he had muttered one more cryptic remark.
‘If you encounter a star, you might be able to control it.’
How could a human possibly face a star hanging high in the night sky?
With that unanswered question, Venerable Huiyin slowly lost her mind.
Recently, even her cherished subordinates Gi Hyo and Jeong Yo had begun to cast strange looks at her.
She was completely surrounded on all sides. If she faltered again, more and more people would begin to suspect her.
If she could reach the Profound Realm—if she could attain the Life-and-Death Realm—perhaps her vessel would expand enough to endure it.
But for soone who had barely reached the Blazing Fla Realm, that realm was far beyond her reach.
Therefore, to regain her sanity, it seed that only one thod remained—the thod she had delayed again and again.
“So this is why villains cross the final line.”
Why people abandoned the Orthodox Path and walked the Evil Path.
She hated herself for finally understanding that process.
But her final shred of reason prevented her from absorbing the latent energy of the disciples she had raised with her own hands.
Then who should beco the sacrifice?
An outsider.
An outsider who had co to the Ei Sect with sinister intentions.
“Seo Muhong.”
At first, her gaze had been drawn by a strange aura she could not identify.
When she examined the bones and muscles of the Lay Disciple to gauge her martial talent, she quickly saw through the truth.
“A man… daring to step into a male-forbidden domain.”
Did he really think he could deceive the eyes of a Blazing Fla Realm master with sothing like the Bone-Shrinking Technique?
The audacity was unbelievable.
Her plan was simple—take his latent energy and then claim that she had slain a suspicious intruder who had disguised himself as a woman.
Blood Cult and Demon Cult activity had been increasing everywhere lately.
Blaming them would be easy enough.
With that plan in mind, Venerable Huiyin had lured him with talk of becoming a disciple and sensing a virtuous aura from him.
“Do not feel too resentful, Muhong. From today onward, you will live and breathe within this body.”
As the moonlight poured down, her eyes clouded over and the familiar madness began to rise again.
Under the moonlight, Venerable Huiyin stood with the elegance of a celestial maiden.
“Sect Leader, the Lay Disciples you summoned have arrived.”
She longed for the faint light of stars, but what reached her was only the endlessly bright moonlight.
The Sect Leader of the Ei Sect smiled faintly at the martial woman who guided them in.
“The moon is unusually bright tonight, Captain.”
Walking through the dim night, Ilhong muttered in surprise as the pouring moonlight illuminated the surroundings clearly.
“Yeah. Pretty lunatic tonight.”
I muttered sothing she wouldn’t understand as I followed behind her.
Before long, we arrived at Lotus Hall—the residence of the Sect Leader of the Ei Sect.
As if she had been waiting for us, Venerable Huiyin welcod us with a bright smile.
Though her expression darkened slightly at the fact that we were three instead of one, she soon let it pass.
“The moon is beautiful tonight. Let us take a short walk.”
She said there was a place she wished to show us and led us along a mountain path.
When soone of such status spoke, we followed without complaint.
After walking for quite so ti, we arrived at a small clearing and a stone cave.
“This is the secluded cave where successive Sect Leaders of the Ei Sect have perford isolated training.”
Her expression was tinged with nostalgia and reminiscence.
Why had she brought us all the way here?
Inside the cave were horrifying marks on the walls—deep scratches as if soone had clawed them with their fingernails while spilling blood.
When our gazes fixed upon them, Venerable Huiyin smiled faintly.
“To cultivate martial arts is inevitably painful. Both body and mind are worn away. That is why I always emphasize the cultivation of the spirit.”
Her regretful expression resembled that of Abbot Beopgwang of the Shaolin Temple.
An elegant woman who looked sorrowful at the suffering her juniors would endure, revealing gentle compassion in the soft glow of night.
No matter how I looked at it, she showed none of the sinister deceit that Venerable Huiyul had warned about.
Maybe I had simply misread that faint killing intent I felt earlier.
Perhaps I had been mistaken.
Just as I began to wonder whether I had misjudged the celestial-like figure standing beneath the moonlight—
“How truly unfortunate.”
Standing with her back to the entrance of the cave, Venerable Huiyin turned to face us and murmured those words.
“Venerable Huiyin, what exactly is unfortunate?”
“Seo Muhong, if only you had died alone. Because you ddled unnecessarily, two innocent won will die as well. Of course that is unfortunate.”
“….”
For a mont I thought I had misheard.
But judging by Ilhong’s stunned expression—and the thief who had introduced herself as my “spouse”—I had heard correctly.
‘You idiot… I told you sothing was wrong….’
The red Salseong mocked in my head.
Yeah, I knew sothing was off.
But I hadn’t expected the Sect Leader of a Daoist sect to be this insane.
“The area around this secluded cave is special. Surrounded by dense forest—no matter how loudly you scream or cry, no sound will ever reach others.”
Her tone suggested soone who had personally experienced such terror.
Damn.
Venerable Huiyin had completely dropped her mask now.
“Uh… what’s going on here? I only ca to steal the Yitian Interspatial Sword…”
The Gentleman of the Beam I had brought along as insurance finally realized sothing had gone terribly wrong.
“Do not resent too much. Once I overco this evil karma and regain my sanity, I will accumulate virtue again…”
Under the moonlight, Venerable Huiyin’s eyes glead with madness like glittering stars.
“Captain… I think we’re in trouble.”
“Yeah. Looks like we’re screwed.”
Having faced situations like this before, I answered calmly beside Ilhong.
Why did things always turn out like this?
“This is all your fault, Captain. Whenever I follow you, things end up like this.”
“What did I do? And who told you to follow ?”
I felt wronged.
Wasn’t she the one who insisted on coming with ?
“Tonight, I will take the three of you. Primordial Heavenly Lord, please watch over this sinner…!”
Praying to the heavens rather than apologizing to us, Venerable Huiyin unleashed her power.
The situation was explosive.
I allowed Ilhong to release the seal on sothing I had forbidden her to use.
No sound could escape this place?
Then let’s see if this can escape too.
“Ilhong!”
“Yes! Strike first to win!”
Even without words, we understood each other.
Ihong hurled several iron sphere bombs, sparks flying, directly toward the Blazing Fla Realm master who was gathering energy.
The fuses were cut extrely short, burning rapidly in the darkness.
A mont later—
An explosive roar and a storm of fire shook Mount Ei.
KWA-KWA-KWANG!
There was once a woman who infiltrated the Ei Sect in search of a mysterious sword.
Her identity was the Fifth Divine Thief—the successor to all the teachings of the recently deceased Fourth Divine Thief.
The woman known as the God of Thieves had entered Lotus Hall to search the final place where the Yitian Interspatial Sword might be hidden.
After threatening two innocent won to help her.
At first, she had thought this.
‘I feel a little bad dragging innocent won into my business.’
She had planned to steal the sword and then give them sothing as compensation before leaving.
But—
KWA-KWA-KWA-KWANG!
It seed the one who had been dragged into sothing dangerous was not them.
It was her.
“Damn it—!”
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