Chapter 182: My goodness. The sea, the sea! (8)

The Martial Arts Alliance's Chief Advisor, Zhuge Mi Ryeo, was getting drenched under the swirling winds and the rain underneath the clouds that were dark enough to cover the stars and the moon.

She reached out her hand.

"The rain has stopped."

She raised her head.

The clouds were scattering.

The bright moonlight was cutting through the dark clouds and starting to reveal itself.

She then looked down.

Underneath the cliff…

"The sea has calmed as well."

The violent waves and the vicious wind and rain had disappeared.

She could see Hainan in the distance.

She could see the true appearance of Hainan with half of the island glowing blue.

It was at that moment.

A white flame shot up into the sky.

"There is the signal."

She turned around with her back to the sea.

The Divergent Coalition Leader, Sima Pyeong, leisurely folded up his umbrella. His gaze followed Zhuge Mi Ryeo to a certain person.

The Heavenly Demon, who had been seated on a boulder, stood up.

An odd feeling of heat could be felt from this person, the only person who was not wet from the rain at all.

He looked toward the island as he spoke.

"Let's go."

The hundreds of small and large ships that were docked at shore…

Battleships, merchant ships, fishing boats… The hundreds of ships they had borrowed from the navy, merchants, fishermen, and basically anybody they could find, all set out into the sea.

They were moving very fast.

"As expected of my master."

Sima Pyeong chuckled as he looked at the thing in his hand.

Sima Pyeong had gotten on the largest ship at the back of the group.

Wind swirled from his ship to make the ships in front of his go even faster.

There was a magic circle that filled the entirety of the ship's deck. Sima Pyeong was continuously putting the magic stones in his hand onto the center of the magic circle.

Raon had arranged all of this in advance, allowing a spell to release that created gusts of wind.

The ships used the wind to quickly cross the sea toward Hainan as if they were not carrying anything on them.

However, these hundreds of large and small ships were all full of martial artists.

The core members of the Triumvirate all held their weapons as they observed the slowly approaching blue lights.

"Now I'll get to fight."

The only member of Cale's group who had not gone to Hainan…

Toonka stretched the muscles in his shoulder as he licked his lips.

It was at that moment.

Piiioooooo….

In the sea of blue light that covered half of Hainan…

A red flame shot up from the opposite side.

Chief Eunuch Wi. This was the signal that he had finished discussing things with the Lord of Hainan and had gathered the martial artists on the island.

"Wow."

Toonka commented while watching this.

"Things are going well."

Cale had destroyed the core of the formation to calm the sea and make the Blood Cult appear. Everything had gone according to their plan.

Furthermore, Chief Eunuch Wi had successfully gathered the other people on Hainan.

The martial artists of the Triumvirate were headed toward Hainan as well.

Things were going well.

Toonka felt this and subconsciously commented.

"It is weird that things are going so well."

He was shocked by what he had just said.

"That's true. It is so weird that things are going this well."

'Hmm.'

He stopped talking for a moment.

He then thought to himself.

"Ah, whatever. All that matters is that I get to fight!"

Toonka stopped trying to think deeply about the matter.

However, he still felt that something was off. He had not accompanied Cale Henituse too many times, but every time he had been with Cale, things went differently from what they had planned and issues also got much bigger. After having those experiences, Toonka couldn't help but have a single thought.

"…This feels so small-scale."

The trash of the Unorthodox faction, Sima Jung, looked at Toonka as if he was speaking nonsense, but Toonka was serious.

"Hmm. Well, I'm sure it'll be fine."

Of course, Toonka stopped thinking about it because it was annoying to think.

Instead, he raised his voice.

"Let's increase the speed even more! We need to hurry up so we can fight! Kahahahahah!"

Toonka just wanted to fight.

A smile soon appeared on his face.

"…They're fast."

Ships with blue lights were slowly appearing from Hainan.

These would be members of the Blood Cult.

The battle had already started, just as Toonka had wanted.

* * *

"Human, did I do well?"

"Yeah."

The one to send the signal, Raon, puffed up his chubby stomach as he asked. Cale just nodded his head and praised Raon.

Of course, he looked away from the roof that now had a large hole because Raon had sent up the signal.

Raon had sent the signal up as soon as Cale pulled the core out of the formation.

"Human, are you not going to destroy the core?"

Raon asked with a confused look on his face.

They heard the guard's angry shout at that moment.

"You bastards! Hand that over!"

He then immediately destroyed the barrier that Raon had created.

Baaaaang!

"Oh." 'As expected of someone in the latter stages of the Profound Realm.'

Cale was wowed by this person's abilities but not scared. Instead, he commented with a relaxed look on his face.

"I'm going to destroy this if you get any closer."

The guard flinched.

The old man with the long white beard completely stopped moving. It was not because of what Cale had said.

If Old man Baek had said something like that, this old man would have ignored the comment and charged in.

He was confident that he would be able to take it away before Old man Baek destroyed it.

However, the guard's complexion slowly turned pale and sweats became visible on his forehead.

"…H, how-"

This damn rat-like bastard who suddenly broke in, this bastard who dared to steal the formation core-

How was he able to release such a strong aura?

'This is not the aura of martial arts.'

Existence. 'This was a sort of presence from this person.

The guard naturally thought about his disciple, the Blood Demon, who surpassed him a long time ago.

Even when her martial arts had been lacking compared to him, her aura and presence that she was born with had given him the confidence that she would become the future of the Blood Cult.

That overwhelming presence made him feel no complaints about having to forever be stuck in this place as a guard.

However-

'This is similar to her.'

The aura coming out of this person was not any less than the Blood Demon who had reached the Peak Realm.

But the problem was-

'That's not it.'

The aura he was releasing right now was just the tip of the iceberg.

That was how relaxed this person was right now.

'Who is he?'

As someone who spent all his time here as a guard, he could not tell the identity of this mysterious intruder.

On the other hand, he could understand why Old man Baek chose to betray the cult.

'There is no way to fight and defeat someone with such an aura.'

You would definitely be defeated.

However, the guard soon started smiling.

"You're going to destroy that?

Ha!"

He scoffed in disbelief.

It was Cale's turn to look confused. His gaze headed past the guard to Old man Baek, who was looking for an opening.

Old man Baek flinched and shouted.

"They can't use the formation device if you break that! I'm sure of it!"

The guard sneered at Old man Baek, who had raised his voice because he was feeling guilty.

"Hmph. What bullshit!"

The guard glared at Cale as he spoke.

"That is an item that was pulled off the treasure of a world. That is not something that can be destroyed! No matter how strong you are, you will not be able to destroy that. Furthermore, do you even know how strong of a power is inside that thing?"

Cale had been focused on the core so he took another look at the formation he had entered earlier.

Taking another look, he could see that the ten-sided formation was not just on the ground but also on the ceiling. They were both decagons but the patterns inside were different.

The core seemed to have been floating in between the two formations.

The guard shouted.

"You will soon be suppressed by the power inside that core! Even I get suppressed by that aura if I hold the core even for a little bit and my meridians feel like they are twisting. You are also human so I'm sure you'll feel the same thing!"

He did not hold back his sneering.

"Kehehe! How is it, the aura is already suffocating you, isn't it?"

This formation core was something the priestess and the guard did not dare to touch.

Even the Blood Demon had to be cautious when handling this core. How could this mysterious person handle that?

'The only variable is the Dragon next to him.'

This young Dragon…

He needed to be careful as this was a Dragon like those Purple Blood bastards of Aipotu.

'He is young but a Dragon is still a Dragon. We can't let this bastard of that nasty race get his hands on the core.

I need to prevent that at all costs!'

The guard slowly started walking toward Cale again.

It was at that moment.

Boom-!

The whole Stairway to Heaven shook violently.

"The formation is losing its power!"

Old man Baek hatefully shouted from behind the guard.

Beeeeeeep-

A sharp alarm started ringing.

This alarm that was ringing throughout the entire region of the Blood Cult's territory was probably a warning that rang whenever the formation device stopped working.

The Blood Cult would soon fall into chaos.

The guard started frowning.

'Why is it that the esteemed Blood Demon has not appeared?

It would not be weird if she had already arrived here earlier!'

The guard was finally realizing that something must have happened to her as well.

Baaaaaaaaaang-!

Explosions were continuing to go off outside after all.

There was no way that the Blood Demon would lose.

It would just be that the obstacle in her way was quite persistent.

'I'm sure that is this intruder's ally.'

The guard bit down on his lips.

He needed to swipe the core from this person's hand and return it to its proper location before the Dragon could get his hands on it.

'There will definitely be a moment that this bastard's aura will twist because of the core. If I can use that instant-'

If he could use that-

The guard then heard the intruder's voice.

"Aura?"

Cale found this to be odd.

'I can't feel anything?'

The purple core in his hand looked like a gem.

Honestly speaking, it just felt like he had a pretty stone in his hand.

– It's not that dangerous?

As the Sky Eating Water mentioned, Cale was feeling fine.

Pat pat. Cale tapped on the formation core.

"H, how-"

The guard seemed to be blanking out in shock after seeing that Cale was completely fine.

– Let's hurry up and eat it!

Cale heard the Sky Eating Water urging him but he observed the guard's blank expression and put it in his pocket.

'It'll be dangerous to eat it right here.

I'll either use it when I need it or destroy it.'

The guard said that it could not be destroyed but Cale felt as if he would be able to do so. It was just an instinctual feeling and his intuition tended to be accurate about things like this.

"N, no-"

The moment the guard saw the core disappear into Cale's pocket and was about to move…

"Old man Baek!"

Cale called out to Old man Baek.

"You are in charge of holding the guard back!"

"Huh?"

As Old man Baek blankly asked back…

Cale quietly whispered. It was only loud enough for someone who was around him to hear.

"Let's destroy it."

Cale then tapped the ground with his foot.

Raon understood exactly what he was trying to say.

"Sounds great!"

Black mana shot out of Raon's front paws and Raon clasped his front paws together before slamming down against the ground.

Baaaaaang!

A hole appeared on the ground.

'I need to go find the priestess.'

Cale started falling into the hole. Of course, he was not worried about the landing at all because of Raon's magic.

"No!"

He saw the look of despair on the guard's face as he fell down.

"No!"

He also saw Old man Baek, who shouted the same thing and sent the True Jiangshi forward to stop the guard.

'I'm sure these old dudes will have a nice fight.'

Cale stopped paying attention to them.

Because-

"One more floor."

Cale and Raon, who had now destroyed the floor of the ninth floor and were headed down to the eighth floor… The two of them were invisible once again.

Cale believed that there was no chance that the two of them could be found.

"W, what is going on!"

"This is not the time to flail around in confusion! We are heading up right away! I'm sure that something must have happened to the guard-nim!"

The inside of Stairway to Heaven was already completely chaotic.

He was sure that the people inside this building were normally extremely elegant and overbearing, but… They currently looked completely lost because of the suddenly breaking ceiling and the issue with the formation device.

'It will be hard to find us in this chaos.'

Cale moved in between these people and continued to look for the priestess with Raon.

'It looks like the others are still doing a good job of holding the Blood Demon back.'

Baaaaaang—!

Baaaaang—-

The endless explosions let him feel that his friends were doing great.

Of course, he didn't want to see his friends get hurt while fighting the Blood Demon. He needed to look through Stairway to Heaven as quickly as possible. If the priestess or the young ladies of the House of Orsena were not here, he was planning on immediately heading toward the Blood Demon.

– Let's hurry!

Raon sounded rushed as well.

Just like Cale.

'But this is weird.'

Cale felt extremely iffy while they quickly moved around.

'…Something definitely feels weird.'

The reason behind it was simple.

'It's too easy.'

It had been too easy for him to take the formation core.

Of course, that was supposedly because Raon is a Dragon and he has the power of a Dragon, but…

'Then isn't that even weirder?'

This formation existed for the Blood Cult.

It was a device to hide their hiding place and control the path to it.

That would be why it was here with an important existence like the priestess and the guard was stationed in front of it.

'Should a barrier protecting such an important thing, an important formation like this be made so that a Dragon or someone with the power of a Dragon can approach it so easily?'

Absolutely not.

'I'm sure the Blood Cult would not have wanted something like that.'

In that case, what had happened?

Who had created such a situation?

The answer was easy to guess.

'…It looks like the Dragons are responsible for it.'

Aipotu.

The Purple Bloods of that world…

The Dragons of that Hunter household must have made the formation and barrier like this.

'The core of the formation is something the Dragons gave them.'

Since this formation device was created with the Dragons helping them, it was highly likely that it was the Dragons who had messed with it.

'Mm.'

Cale subconsciously stopped walking.

– Human, are you not going?

He could hear Raon urging him on, but Cale could not easily move.

It was because he had a thought on his mind.

'The different Hunter households cooperate with each other but are in competition with one another as well.'

The Hunters were negatively affecting numerous worlds in order to create the Omnipotent god.

They cooperated with each other but oddly felt wary of one another as well, working hard to have more achievements than the other households.

The way the House of Huayans had talked about the Blood Cult and the others during his time in Xiaolen was enough to confirm this.

'Hmm.

But the Dragons of the Purple Bloods helped out the Blood Cult, the Blue Bloods?

They even gave them such a precious core?'

It could have been a trade but the Purple Bloods were believed to have made a whole world disappear.

Would such a group do something that would benefit their competitors?

'Ah, this-

This, very much-

I have a bad feeling about this.'

It was at that moment.

Boom-

Stairway to Heaven violently shook once more.

He had been thinking that this was because the formation device had stopped, but… For some reason, he felt as if this vibration was shooting up from deep underground.

'I guess I have no choice.

I'll need to check again.'

Cale's face slowly stiffened.

'We are on the sixth floor right now.

Let's quickly check on the priestess before looking at the formation again.

Of course, I need to check to make sure the others are okay as well.

It's soon. The priestess resides on the fifth floor.'

Cale, who was using the information Old man Baek gave him as reference, flinched after arriving on the fifth floor.

He raised his head.

Baaaaang! Bang!

He could hear something breaking on the upper floors.

The sound was slowly getting closer.

'Did the guard manage to get past Old man Baek and is heading down?'

The enemies were chasing him.

Cale felt annoyed and thought to himself after realizing that fact.

Would the tenth floor have been empty?

Is it okay for there to be nobody guarding it?

'Let's just do the things I have to do in order first.'

The moment he stepped down onto the fifth floor…

– Human! It's blue hair!

Cale looked at the new young Blood Demon candidate at the entrance.

"We greet Lord Myung!"

Cale flinched after seeing the Blood Cultists greeting the young Blood Demon candidate.

'Hmm?'

This young Blood Demon candidate named Myung…

– Human, I think we've been noticed?

Although he was invisible, Cale was certain that he had made eye contact with that person.

While that was going on…

Boom-

As Stairway to Heaven violently rumbling once more…

On the top floor…

Ssssssssss-

An extremely faint purple aura roamed around the formations on the ground and the ceiling.

While other martial artists were guarding the formation as the guard had chased after Cale…

The ground and the ceiling… The formation with different patterns in the two places was slowly changing.

The pattern on the ceiling was moving to the ground and the pattern on the ground up to the ceiling.

The top and the bottom were slowly changing.

Craaaaaaack.

And the border encapsulating these patterns started to crack.

This was happening extremely slowly as well.

—

Translator's Comments

Welp…

***

If you find any errors or have suggestions, please feel free to provide feedback.

Thank you for reading!

[Author – Yu Ryeo Han]

[Translator – Anowa]

[Proofreader – Rai_Mayank]