Chapter 29

Chapter 29. Where Did They Hide?

Dangjong glared at Jaha while huffing in anger, but there was nothing he could do.

After all, he had been the one who tried to attack Jaha secretly.

If he got angry now, he would only expose what he had tried to do.

Jaha, on the other hand, laughed inwardly.

I was wondering why Byeokho moved on his own. I never thought that bastard would try something like this against me.

He fiddled with the money note in his hand.

However, Jaha had no idea why Dangjong had thrown the money note at him.

He would never have imagined that Dangjong’s pride had been wounded because Jaha looked at them as though they were insignificant servants.

Jegal Yuyeon, meanwhile, was paying attention to a different side of Jaha.

The young masters of the Five Great Clans were arrogant enough to act as though no one else mattered.

And there was a reason for that.

They had enjoyed everything from the moment they were born, so ordinary people rarely caught their attention.

That was also why they had pressured Jaha earlier.

But Jaha’s reaction was rather interesting.

Even back at the shack beneath the bridge, he had shown no fear whatsoever toward Namgung Cheol, Dangjong, and Paeng Umyeong, despite the extraordinary presence they gave off.

If anything, the way Jaha looked at them almost seemed as though he considered them beneath himself.

That was why I thought he was just an ignorant country bumpkin who knew nothing.

But judging from his actions now, that wasn’t the case.

Among the young martial artists Jegal Yuyeon had met until now, everyone except the chief disciples of the Nine Great Sects tended to yield or take a step back in front of the young masters.

That was simply how much weight the title of young master of one of the Five Great Clans carried.

Even famous veterans of the martial world avoided offending them when possible, so there was no need to mention the younger generation.

Naturally, they had grown arrogant and somewhat lacking in manners.

People constantly watched their moods and tried not to offend them, so Jegal Yuyeon had become accustomed to seeing that kind of behavior.

But Jaha was unbelievably stiff-necked.

That was exactly why he kept getting on their nerves.

And because of that, Jegal Yuyeon found Jaha interesting.

Is he simply ignorant, or does he truly possess something that allows him to look down on them?

Traveling with these people had been unbearably boring.

Now that she had someone interesting to watch, however, Jegal Yuyeon’s expression brightened.

After that, Dangjong stopped trying any petty tricks and quietly followed Maggae.

That did not mean he had given up on his small revenge.

He was simply waiting for another opportunity.

He firmly believed that sooner or later, a chance would appear for him to humiliate Jaha so badly that Jaha would want to crawl into a mouse hole.

Maggae led the group to one of the Beggars’ Sect’s safe houses.

It was a small, neat little house that looked nothing like what someone would imagine to be a den of beggars.

People usually assumed that beggars lived only in filthy shacks.

The Beggars’ Sect had taken advantage of that prejudice and prepared a clean safe house instead.

Looking at the house from about ten jang away, Maggae said,

“This is the place.”

At that moment, Jaha spoke.

“The smell of blood is everywhere.”

The moment Maggae heard that, he immediately leaped over the wall of the safe house and entered.

When the rest of the group opened the gate and stepped inside, Maggae came out of one of the rooms with a troubled expression.

“All the brothers who were staying here are dead. It seems there was an attack.”

Bodies were scattered not only inside the rooms, but all over the courtyard as well.

Every one of them belonged to the Beggars’ Sect.

One man was dead while leaning against the wall.

Another lay face-down in the middle of the courtyard.

Someone else was sprawled halfway across the wooden floor, his neck bent at an unnatural angle.

Another body lay with all four limbs stretched out on top of the stone steps.

There appeared to be more than ten corpses visible in the courtyard alone.

The scene made it look as though a fierce battle had taken place here before Deunghwahong escaped.

Namgung Cheol asked,

“Who attacked them?”

“It was probably either Seohyeop Sect or Hwancheonma. It seems Hall Master Song escaped with the young lady. Hall Master Song and the warriors from the Murim Alliance branch who were staying here are nowhere to be seen.”

Paeng Umyeong asked,

“Who is Hall Master Song?”

“Ah, he is Songrim, a hall master belonging to the Murim Alliance’s Inspection Division.”

“If he’s a hall master of the Inspection Division, then he should be able to hold out for a while.”

“We should hurry after them and rescue them.”

Jaha snorted inwardly as he watched the youngsters from the Five Great Clans burning with enthusiasm.

These fools have no idea how terrifying that old monster Hwancheonma is.

If we actually run into Hwancheonma, every one of us here is as good as dead.

They’re like puppies charging at a tiger because they don’t know how frightening it is.

They were hot-blooded young men who overestimated their own abilities and blindly charged at anyone, regardless of who the opponent was.

“Let’s find their traces and determine which direction they escaped in.”

Dangjong stepped forward as he spoke.

He was quite skilled in tracking.

Maggae was no worse than anyone when it came to tracking either, but he stepped back because he did not want to offend Dangjong.

“They must have left some sort of trace behind when they fled.”

Dangjong began carefully examining the surroundings.

After about fifteen minutes, his face suddenly brightened with excitement.

“I found it!”

Dangjong was excited that he had discovered a trace no one else had noticed.

“Look here. It rained, so every leaf is covered in moisture.”

“But only the leaves here are dry. That means someone passed through this spot while escaping.”

“As expected of Brother Dang.”

Namgung Cheol praised him.

Even Maggae, who had extensive experience wandering the martial world, had failed to notice it.

That alone showed how sharp Dangjong’s observation skills were.

It was the sort of detail most people would simply overlook.

Naturally, Dangjong had every reason to feel proud.

Maggae carefully examined the path in that direction as well before nodding.

“Young Master Dang is correct. It appears they fled through here. There are also faint traces of footprints.”

“The rain washed away most of the footprints, but you can still see slight depressions in the rotten soil nearby.”

Once Maggae agreed, all that remained was to follow the trail.

“This path leads into the mountains. They probably fled into the mountains to escape the attackers.”

Paeng Umyeong added his own opinion.

He seemed worried that if he stayed silent, people might think he was foolish.

Just as they were about to head up the mountain path, Jaha suddenly stopped them.

“Wait!”

“We shouldn’t move blindly like this.”

“First, I would like to ask the wisest person here.”

Jaha turned toward Jegal Yuyeon.

“Miss Jegal, what do you think? Do you truly believe they escaped into that mountain?”

Dangjong immediately flared up at Jaha’s words.

“Don’t speak recklessly when you know nothing. The traces are right here! If they didn’t go that way, where else could they have gone?”

Dangjong was so angry that it was surprising he wasn’t outright cursing.

He already disliked Jaha.

And when Jaha openly questioned the conclusion he had reached, killing intent unconsciously seeped from Dangjong’s body.

“I’m not saying Young Master Dang is wrong.”

“Only someone like Young Master Dang could have discovered those traces.”

“However, there is something strange here.”

“Something strange?”

Dangjong glared at him.

“Then tell us what exactly is strange.”

His tone was almost a threat, as though he were saying that Jaha had better not speak nonsense.

At that moment, Jegal Yuyeon, who had remained silent until now, explained to Maggae.

“If you look at these corpses, they don’t appear to have died while fighting here.”

“There is hardly any blood around the bodies.”

“That means someone deliberately carried the corpses here.”

“So?”

Maggae asked, unable to understand what she meant.

Jegal Yuyeon did not answer directly.

Instead, she asked him another question.

“Who would bring these corpses here? And why would they do that?”

Dangjong asked in a slightly irritated tone,

“Miss Jegal, so what is your conclusion?”

“We first need to understand why someone brought corpses from somewhere else and placed them here.”

Jegal Yuyeon then looked toward Jaha.

“Why don’t you explain the rest, Young Hero?”

Jaha and the others still had not formally introduced themselves to one another, so Jegal Yuyeon simply addressed him as Young Hero.

After all, they were young masters of prestigious clans.

People of such status normally did not bother exchanging names with someone of Jaha’s insignificant background.

Jaha nodded after hearing Jegal Yuyeon’s words.

As expected of someone from the Jegal Clan.

She understood the intention behind these corpses just by looking at them.

After staring at Jegal Yuyeon for a moment, Jaha spoke.

“Someone placed these bodies here so that anyone who found them would believe the people who were staying here had escaped.”

“In other words, the people who were staying here never actually left this place.”

“They didn’t leave?”

Dangjong stared at Jaha as though the idea was absurd.

“Then where are the important person and Great Hero Songrim right now?”

Jaha turned toward Jegal Yuyeon again.

“Miss, do you know where they are?”

Jegal Yuyeon examined the surroundings.

She now understood that they probably had not left this place.

However, she still had no idea where they could possibly be hiding.

Then an idea suddenly occurred to her.

“Could they have hidden themselves using a formation?”

“There doesn’t seem to be any other possibility.”

“A formation?”

Dangjong frowned.

“I know something about formations, but there isn’t a single sign of a formation being installed here.”

Dangjong came from the Sichuan Tang Clan, so he possessed considerable knowledge of mechanisms and formations.

He was confident that his understanding of such things surpassed most people.

The Jegal Clan was also famous for its knowledge of formations.

If even Jegal Yuyeon could not detect a formation here, Dangjong concluded that there simply wasn’t one.

“What happened, then?”

“Did they sink into the ground? Or fly into the sky?”

Dangjong sneered at Jaha.

His expression clearly showed that he believed Jaha was pretending to know things despite knowing nothing.

Jaha wanted to kick Dangjong directly in the face, but he restrained himself.

If one of his subordinates back in the Demonic Cult had spoken back to him or mocked him like this, at least one of that subordinate’s limbs would have been broken.

Regardless, Jaha was only now realizing just how advanced the formation lessons he had received from his late father had been.

After all, he had learned formations that even members of the Sichuan Tang Clan and Jegal Clan could not recognize.

Naturally, those lessons must have been extraordinary.

Jaha muttered to himself.

“Come to think of it, Miss Deung is quite remarkable too.”

“To think she could create a formation that neither Miss Jegal nor Young Master Dang recognizes.”

Namgung Cheol finally grew impatient and spoke.

“Stop dragging this out and tell us.”

“Where exactly is this formation you keep talking about?”

Namgung Cheol had also studied the basics of mechanisms and formations.

He knew that formations were generally created by altering nearby objects or arranging them according to certain principles.

But there was no sign of anything like that in this small courtyard.

There were not even wooden stakes, rocks, or other objects that looked as though they could have been used to create a formation.

By now, everyone’s attention was focused on Jaha.

Dangjong, Namgung Cheol, and Paeng Umyeong already had faint mocking smiles in their eyes, as though they were secretly delighted that Jaha was about to embarrass himself.

Jaha asked,

“Have any of you ever heard of a Corpse Formation?”

“A Corpse Formation?”

Jegal Yuyeon looked surprised.

She immediately examined the corpses scattered around them again.

Now that she looked carefully, the bodies didn’t seem to have been thrown around randomly.

It almost looked as though they had been placed according to some specific pattern.

However, she had never heard the term Corpse Formation before.

A Corpse Formation was exactly what its name suggested—a formation created using corpses.

“The Corpse Formation originated from Baegyo, but the method of creating it was so difficult that it was lost long ago.”

“However, its effects are extremely powerful.”

“That is precisely why almost no one can recognize it.”

“It gathers the spiritual energy that has not yet completely left the corpses and uses it to form the array.”

“For that reason, it is also called the Soul Spirit Formation.”

“I don’t care about its origin or its name.”

Dangjong abruptly cut Jaha off.

“Where exactly is this formation?”

Jaha turned around and pretended to examine the surroundings while secretly speaking to Byeokho.

Byeokho, use your Baekryeong and search for any place nearby where you can sense spiritual energy.

Once a Soul Spirit Formation was established, it was impossible to locate unless someone could sense spiritual energy.

That was why even Jaha himself could not find it.

Dangjong raised a finger, preparing to mock Jaha for simply standing there doing nothing.

At that moment, Jaha’s head slowly turned.

Byeokho’s Baekryeong had turned toward the direction where it sensed spiritual energy.

In that direction stood a partially collapsed wall.

Jaha walked over, examined the direction carefully, and then approached one of the corpses scattered nearby.

It was the corpse lying on the stone steps with its arms and legs stretched out.

Jaha lowered both of the corpse’s hands.

Then he went to the corpse lying on the wooden floor with its neck bent and straightened its head.

Immediately—

A hole appeared in the collapsed stone wall.

“Ah!”

Until the moment Jaha began touching the corpses, the young masters had been ready to burst into laughter and mock him.

But the instant he moved the bodies and the formation revealed itself, they involuntarily cried out in amazement.

Then someone slowly walked out from inside the opening.

It was Songrim, the hall master of the Murim Alliance’s Inspection Division—the same man Jaha had met at the government office several days earlier.