Chapter 838: In Two Hours, You Die

TL: FoodieMonster007

Geom Woojin fought alongside his son. Though he only watched, he was with Geom Mugeuk in spirit, thrusting his sword and blocking blades in tandem. They moved as one, allowing him to react faster than anyone.

The instant Geom Mugeuk's strength failed, Geom Woojin shot through the air like a lightning bolt. He caught his son before he could even fall. Cradling his son in one arm, he sent the Heavenly Demon Sword flying toward Hwa Mugi's neck with the other.

SWISH!

Hwa Mugi stood his ground, making no move to dodge. He was certain Geom Woojin wouldn't kill him, despite his agitation. He trusted his opponent's skill and believed Geom Woojin would remain calm, no matter the circumstances.

Indeed, the Heavenly Demon Sword stopped just short of his neck.

Hwa Mugi stared at Geom Woojin, who stood behind the cold blade, and said calmly, "If you kill me, your son dies."

Geom Woojin could tell at a glance that Hwa Mugi had almost no inner qi left.

He poured everything into that one move.

As a result, his son now lay unconscious in his arms.

"Lay a hand on my body, and your son dies," Hwa Mugi repeated.

Geom Woojin merely stared back with an impassive gaze. If anything, the situation only made him colder.

The Fist Demon approached and took Geom Mugeuk into his arms. After carefully examining Geom Mugeuk's condition, he calmly reported, "There are no external injuries, but he's completely unconscious."

Jin Paecheon, Baek Jagang, the Heavenly Wind Cult Leader, the Poison King, and the Sword King gathered around Geom Mugeuk. The sight of the ever-talkative young man lying silent with his eyes closed was deeply unsettling. Though their concern varied, all of them were worried.

The Poison King stepped forward to examine Geom Mugeuk. "He hasn't been poisoned," he said, his voice unusually agitated and his gaze toward Hwa Mugi filled with blatant irritation. It was a rare display of emotion from him in Geom Woojin's presence.

Hwa Mugi said to Geom Woojin, "Your son is inside my body."

Finally, the Heavenly Wind Cult Leader understood. "He used the Dark Heaven Soul Binding Art! It's a secret technique of the Dark Palace that traps a person's soul inside one's body…" He added nervously, "If it's the Dark Heaven Soul Binding Art, he has to break free within two hours. If he fails… he'll be trapped in that man's body forever."

As if confirming the guess, Hwa Mugi provoked Geom Woojin. "I wonder? Can the current Demonic Cult Leader bring himself to kill an enemy when his own son's soul is trapped inside?"

He spread his arms wide, as if daring Geom Woojin to try.

Geom Woojin stared at Hwa Mugi in silence. With his opponent's inner qi depleted, killing him would be as easy as lifting a finger.

Just as the tension became palpable, Jin Paecheon stepped forward. "Cult Leader Geom isn't a man bound by personal feelings, so he might just kill you… but there's no need for that. The Young Cult Leader will surely break your evil arts and escape."

Of course, he hadn't stepped forward just to support Hwa Mugi's provocation.

Hwa Mugi's gaze shifted past Geom Woojin to Jin Paecheon. "Then you have nothing to worry about, right?" he said confidently.

His demeanor was enough to make everyone uneasy. After all, one was Geom Mugeuk, but the other was the Celestial Killer Star, who had come to the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult Headquarters all by himself.

This time, the Heavenly Wind Cult Leader stepped forward. "Are you sure about this? If the Young Cult Leader gets trapped in you, he'll be chattering away all day, every day. Are you confident you can live with him for the rest of your life? Don't come crying to us later, begging us to take him back. Just release the Young Cult Leader now. The Young Cult Leader is not someone a single person can handle alone."

No one treated the Heavenly Wind Cult Leader's words as a joke. They all wholeheartedly agreed. Putting everything else aside, the thought of Geom Mugeuk's soul relentlessly hurling curses from within one's mind was truly difficult to endure.

Geom Woojin asked Hwa Mugi, "What is it you want?"

Hwa Mugi said unexpectedly, "Let me go, and I'll release the Young Cult Leader."

Surprisingly, Hwa Mugi was trying to use Geom Mugeuk as a hostage to escape. It was unexpected. The Celestial Killer Star seemed like the type of man who would either survive alone or kill everyone, yet here he was, planning for the future.

"If you don't let me go right now, the Young Cult Leader dies!"

POW! CRASH!

The moment those words left his mouth, Geom Woojin's fist exploded on his face. Hwa Mugi went flying and tumbled across the ground.

Everyone stared in shock, not expecting Geom Woojin to strike without warning. Fortunately, the punch wasn't infused with inner qi, so Hwa Mugi's head didn't shatter.

Hwa Mugi had threatened to kill Geom Mugeuk if they touched his body, but Geom Woojin was certain he wouldn't be able to do it.

He strode over, grabbed the collar of the man lying on the ground, and hauled him up.

Though it was a punch without inner qi, Hwa Mugi had taken it without any protective qi, and he stared up at Geom Woojin with a wounded face.

Geom Woojin sensed that the Celestial Killer Star wasn't using this tactic merely to escape. He didn't know what it was, but the man was plotting something dangerous, a plan that stimulated his own crisis instincts.

Still, he showed no sign of this and said coldly, "Whether Mugeuk breaks free and comes out or not…" he paused briefly, then stated icily, "In two hours, you die."

The Fist Demon walked over and sealed Hwa Mugi's acupoints, preventing any chance of him recovering his inner qi.

He knew Geom Woojin's words were sincere. The Demonic Cult Leader's actions were possible only because he believed in his son more than anyone, certain that Geom Mugeuk would break free.

However, he also knew the sincerity of the alternative. Even if Geom Mugeuk failed, the Cult Leader was a man who would sever Hwa Mugi's head without hesitation. He would not let his son live on inside the Celestial Killer Star's body.

His son wouldn't want that either, and Geom Woojin knew it.

For that reason, the Fist Demon prayed earnestly.

Mugeuk, you must escape.

No one expected Ju Gasin to step forward, so all eyes focused on him. Geom Mugeuk had asked him for the most unchanged place in Hwa Mugi's mental world. What was it?

"Can you guide me there?" Geom Mugeuk asked.

"I will." Ju Gasin nodded. He had intended to reveal the location from the start, which was why he had spoken up.

Geom Mugeuk asked apologetically, "But will you face any disadvantages for helping me like this? Like being locked up in a prison or something."

Ju Gasin said nothing, so the Divine Sword Martial Emperor answered instead, "He might even receive a reward. Besides, it's not certain if he's actually helping you."

He did not trust Ju Gasin. The man could be leading them to the wrong place to waste time, a possibility that made him anxious.

Despite spending so many years together, he still didn't know what kind of person Ju Gasin was or what he was thinking. This very situation was a case in point, as he couldn't fathom Ju Gasin's intentions.

Geom Mugeuk, on the other hand, was not worried. "I don't think so."

"Why do you think that?"

"Because if he does, he'll be tormented endlessly by Cult Leader Hyeok, not me."

After all, Hyeok Docheon desperately wanted to get out of this place.

Indeed, Hyeok Docheon was glaring at Ju Gasin with eyes that said he wouldn't let him get away with a lie.

Geom Mugeuk looked at the others and said, "Will you come with me?"

Except for Hyeok Docheon, who had clearly demanded to be let out, the others had yet to express their intentions.

Naturally, Hyeok Docheon stepped forward, and the Divine Sword Martial Emperor also intended to help Geom Mugeuk to the end. The Heavenly Fate Palace Lord decided to go along as well.

"We don't have time, so let's go using movement arts." Geom Mugeuk extended his hands to both sides.

Everyone was startled by the gesture.

"No way. You want us to hold hands?"

"You don't have any inner qi, do you? And I can't exactly carry you all under my arms."

Here, the souls acted just like ordinary people, but they had no inner qi. However, Geom Mugeuk could still use his inner qi and martial arts. If he put his mind to it, he could destroy this entire mental world.

Of course, being a world of the mind, it would regenerate, but it would become a completely different place.

The Divine Sword Martial Emperor, on Geom Mugeuk's right, took his hand without hesitation.

Hyeok Docheon, on the opposite side, hesitated. "Are you trying to make things difficult for us on purpose? Just take us with telekinesis. Your martial arts should be more than enough for that, shouldn't they?"

Geom Mugeuk refused at once. "I can't waste inner qi so needlessly when I don't know what might happen. If you don't want to, you can stay here. I'll go with the two Chairmen."

In the end, Hyeok Docheon took Geom Mugeuk's hand. Taking the strange Young Cult Leader's hand was the easy part. The problem was having to take Ju Gasin's hand with his other hand.

However, Ju Gasin grabbed his hand without much thought. He likely didn't want to hold Hyeok Docheon's hand either, yet he didn't hesitate.

Hyeok Docheon also couldn't fathom Ju Gasin's true intentions. What an inscrutable bastard!

The final hurdle was between the Divine Sword Martial Emperor and the Heavenly Fate Palace Lord. Normally, they were opponents who wouldn't hold hands even if it meant death, but the Divine Sword Martial Emperor willingly extended his hand.

"Take it." The Divine Sword Martial Emperor prioritized helping Geom Mugeuk over his own feelings. He felt that fate had given him a final mission to help this Young Cult Leader.

Perhaps sensing the Divine Sword Martial Emperor's unusual state of mind, or perhaps because he had no intention of being left out, the Heavenly Fate Palace Lord also took the Divine Sword Martial Emperor's hand.

"Alright, let's go!"

Geom Mugeuk soared into the air, and they all rose with him. At first, they thought it was madness, but the cool wind blew all such thoughts away.

How long had it been since they had flown? How they had longed to fly so freely?

They had fought before by borrowing Hwa Mugi's body, but this was the first time they had experienced flying through their own world. For the first time, they held hands and flew through the sky with the very people they had spent three hundred years with. The feeling was truly strange.

Then, the weather suddenly changed, and dark clouds gathered in an instant. It was as if the world was declaring it would never permit their flight.

A flash, and lightning struck down.

KRA-KA-KA-BOOM!

Geom Mugeuk twisted his body in mid-air, and the lightning bolt grazed past them. "By the way, what happens if we die here?" he asked urgently.

The Divine Sword Martial Emperor answered, "We revive after some time. Sometimes we come back right away, other times it takes a few days."

They had likely killed each other before, even without inner qi. Perhaps those fights had been even more brutal.

"Then we absolutely cannot die within the next two hours!" Geom Mugeuk declared, determined to get everyone out.

FLASH! FLASH! RUMBLE! CRASH!

It was unclear whether it was Hwa Mugi's interference or a defense mechanism of the Dark Heaven Soul Binding Art, but lightning continued to strike down at them.

However, the one leading them was Geom Mugeuk. Moreover, though they flew using his inner qi, they were all top-ranked leaders of the murim. The lightning could not break their will to advance. They became one, weaving through the bolts in a sight no one would have believed possible.

"There it is," Ju Gasin said.

Geom Mugeuk brought everyone down to the place Ju Gasin had indicated. They had flown through the sky and arrived in an instant.

I thought we were going to that castle on the distant hill beyond the swamp. It looked like it had been there for a very long time.

However, the place Ju Gasin guided them to was not a floating mountain, a complex maze, or any bizarre landscape. It was a village. A village from which smoke was rising, beyond the field strewn with corpses. There were corpses scattered there as well.

Hyeok Docheon looked around and remarked, "Right, now that I think about it, this village has been here from the beginning."

He had never come near it because of the terrible stench of rotting corpses. Besides, there was nothing special here. It was just a small country village, littered with bodies as if it had gone through a war.

Ju Gasin suddenly spoke, "This place has changed a lot, too."

All eyes turned to him.

"The roads have changed, and the houses and these walls have shifted little by little. Sometimes the paths would narrow, and the walls would get taller or shorter, but the basic layout of this village has remained the same."

Geom Mugeuk could tell Ju Gasin had been here many times. Perhaps Ju Gasin was the one who had wandered this mental world the most, searching for a way out. "Did you want to leave this place too, Chairman?"

Ju Gasin replied, "Who wouldn't?"

Geom Mugeuk's gaze returned to the village. "If it's been here from the beginning, then this must be an unforgettable place for the Celestial Killer Star."

Everyone nodded at Geom Mugeuk's words.

"Could it be his hometown?"

Hyeok Docheon spoke as if he finally understood. "The Darkness Palace Lord must have massacred his family and the villagers when he took him. To further incite his innate killing intent."

The Divine Sword Martial Emperor's expression hardened. He was tormented. If that were true, then they couldn't consider themselves unrelated to the massacre of this innocent village.

However, words that would relieve his anguish flowed from Geom Mugeuk's lips.

"I don't think this is his hometown."

All eyes focused on Geom Mugeuk at his unexpected statement, but he had a reason for thinking so.

"The Darkness Palace Lord I experienced was a man who used everyone except himself," Geom Mugeuk explained. "If the Celestial Killer Star had a family, he would have used them, not killed them."

Meaning, he wouldn't have just massacred them blindly.

The Divine Sword Martial Emperor asked with a puzzled face, "If it's not his hometown, then where is this place?"

What kind of place would haunt the Celestial Killer Star's mind for so long?

Geom Mugeuk answered, "I believe it's the place where he committed his first murder."

Translator's Note: Sorry about the late chapter, had to work overtime yesterday and only got home past 10pm