Chapter 122

“I met Heoju . ”

The moment Juwon said so . A bright white light appeared in the room . After a moment of silence, someone said .

“Heoju? Didn’t he die 400 years ago?”

“He said that he was sealed . ”

“Haha! He was sealed, huh . He used to be the nightmare of the South back in the day, but that crackdown 400 years ago was far too difficult to overcome . It’s amazing how he still managed to escape alive . ”

“It’s surprising that he’s still alive . Why did he show up now?”

“He doesn’t have a body right now . ”

Juwon replied . There was silence at the unexpected remark . It would be too much of a hassle to explain it with words, so Juwon put his hand on his head . After a while, he pulled out his memory and showed it to everyone there .

“Huuh . ”

Someone exclaimed . The monsters belonging to the Predator class were gathered here, responding to his call . Juwon and the other old beings remembered Heoju, who reigned like a nightmare in the South .

“He lost his body, and only his soul remains . His power seems to be intact… Strange . It’s only a human . No, it’s not even a human vessel, he’s only possessing a piece of armor . ”

“I’ve heard of the name Ghost Gun before . That’s the one who killed Geniella’s toy a few years ago . ”

“That’s right,” A female voice replied, “It wasn’t my favourite toy, but I was really annoyed when it broke . ”

“It’s surprising that Heoju still exists… This Ghost Gun guy . The feeling about him is weird . He’s definitely human, but there’s also something non-human about him . ”

That was what Juwon felt . He was unmistakably a human being . However, there was a subtle and definite feeling of something being quite non-human about him .

“Let’s sit back and watch for now . ”

Juwon judged that it would be better to let Lee Sungmin go for now . He could have tried to kill Lee Sungmin there, but he felt that Lee Sungmin’s weird energy and Heoju’s presence were enough to be a variable .

The reason why he had called the monsters so suddenly was to show them that Heoju was alive . He didn’t intend to touch Heoju or Ghost Gun, who was traveling with Heoju, right now .

“Maybe they are headed for Travia . ”

“Travia? What business do they have there?”

The woman who responded was Geniella . She was particularly powerful among vampires, and she was also the Lord who had turned Ghost Blade a few years ago .

“Don’t make any contact . Although he said he didn’t have a body, Heoju’s power still remains . ”

Juwon warned . But at the other end, Geniella just burst into laughter .

After the meeting, Freskan sat on his chair and pondered . The guy named Ghost Gun, whom he saw through Juwon’s memories . The face was somehow quite familiar to him . Memories were only memories, so the ‘weird energy’ that Juwon felt was not transferred over . Therefore, Freskan did not know about Juwon’s feelings .

“Oh! I finally remembered it!”

Freskan leaped up . He trembled, feeling a mixture of anger and joy .

“That bloody heart thief!”

A few years ago . He had been attacked by mercenaries in the dungeon . Right, it wasn’t a big deal . Mercenaries were large in number but generally weren’t all that great . Of course, not all mercenaries were like that . Some of them were truly like monsters . But the mercenaries who came to the dungeon at that time were only slightly better than cockroaches in Freskan’s opinion .

There was no problem . Without the presence of that guy with the twisted fate, and Lloyd, the Lord of the gold tower, Freskan would have been able to continue his pleasant study in the comfortable dungeon, without any danger or discrepancies .

‘He’s coming here?’

Freskan had made two hearts . One of them was in Aine’s possession, and the other was lost . At first, he thought Lloyd must have crushed it, so he gave up on finding it, but when he heard Aine’s story, he found out that a damn child had put his heart into his body . How long had he toiled to learn the truth? He couldn’t believe that the heart he barely managed to create, the Biwon, which he so desperately wanted to make a Lich out of, was stuck in the body of a person who didn’t even know what it was . But now, he knew . That the one who stole the heart was that mercenary with the twisted fate that had entered the dungeon .

“I have to catch and kill him . ”

Freskan shuddered . Heoju’s existence? It was none of his business . Although he was said to have been a Great Yokai 400 years ago, Freskan was not yet born then . He knew that the monsters belonging to Predator were on guard against Heoju .

‘So why should I care?’

In the first place, Freskan did not even want to join the Predators . He only joined because of something unavoidable . When he fled Lloyd and escaped to the North, Travia’s borders were chaotic, overflowing with Sama Order’s people and fraught with witchcraft and devil magic .

(T/N: author uses 人畏魔境 rén wèi mó jìng to describe Travia’s situation)

There’s no way he could even have imagined that someone like the Vampire Queen would be in Travia . He had been caught by the Vampire Queen and forced to join Predator, but had also been on the lookout for an opportunity to leave as soon as possible .

“Just wait till you get here . ”

Freskan spat out through gritted teeth .

“I’ll rip your heart out . ”

(T/N: not sure if this is a spoiler but Biwon, when used in a Buddhist context, means a ‘strong desire/wish of rebirth’ so just putting that out there)

* * *

One month after the encounter with Juwon, Lee Sungmin could see Travia in front of him . Travia’s walls and gates were large and magnificent enough to be seen from a long distance, but Lee Sungmin realized that it was only an illusion as he got closer . The huge door was smashed, with debris scattered all around . Bodies of unknown origin, blood, and flesh were buried in the snow .

“Euurgh… ”

Rubia, who was currently in the form of a sphere of light, hidden in Lee Sungmin’s sleeves, made a sound of disgust . Lee Sungmin ignored the sound and entered through the gate .

The city resembled a ruin . It seemed to be functioning normally on the surface, but if you looked closely, it was far from normal . Dirty vagrants and thugs with ill-intent stared at Lee Sungmin as he entered the gate, but did not approach him .

“Travia is said to be the largest metropolis in the north…”

“It was before . ”

It had only been two years since Wijihoyeon crippled Bloody Heavenly Demon Baek Museon . During those two years, the large city of Travia had become a city overrun by monsters and witchcraft .

On the way there, Lee Sungmin found out a lot of information about the city of Travia .

Before arriving at Travia, Lee Sungmin had clashed with the Gui Lang Sect . Juwon, the sect’s master, was an old monster belonging to Predator, a class of non-humans . There were many other old monsters that would not lose out to Juwon in Travia .

[Don’t run into the Vampire Queen . ]

Heoju repeated the warning he had already said several times .

[Juwon was a very forthright opponent . He tends to go outrageously out of control when he’s angry, but he’s very rational at other times . ]

“Yeah, he does seem like that . ”

Lee Sungmin nodded, thinking of Juwon’s expression during their encounter .

[But the Vampire Queen – that’s not the case with Geniella . That bitch is crazy . I mean it in a very bad way . ]

“Hasn’t she already set her sights on me?”

[Maybe so . Even if Geniella is crazy, she’s not crazy to the extent of capturing you here right away . ]

“Because of you?”

[Although this elder lost his body, I showed Juwon that my power was still intact . Geniella is crazy, but she is a very thorough and calculating person . She might try to keep an eye on you, but she will not come forward to capture you . ]

He knew what Heoju meant . Even if she was trying to interfere, she would not be overtly hostile to him . But even if that lunatic Vampire Queen planned to sit back and observe for now, she would not let him go if he ran into her .

[Perhaps she is the one that the Divine Spirit told you about . ]

Heoju chortled . He had no intention of clinging to something that was not certain . The ‘fate’ that the Divine Spirit told him about would happen regardless of what he did since he had already come to the North . The problem was that it was impossible to properly judge whether or not this was the fate that the Divine Spirit foretold .

“… Where are you going to go first?”

“I plan to go to the center of Travia . According to the information I purchased through Erebrisa, that part hasn’t fallen apart yet . ”

Not all parts of this huge city had fallen . The heart of Travia . The traces of the big city still remained there . The problem was that it was also overrun with monsters .

No one disrupted their path while they were walking through the ruined city . Although Lee Sungmin had not yet completed mastery and reached transcendence, he intentionally threw about his aura after entering the city . This was to block any unnecessary clashes . What’s more, the only ones living near the gates of the city gates were shepherds and bums with no great skills .

“Carriage . ”

A voice called out .

“You seem to be heading for the city’s central district . It will be troublesome to go on foot, so take this carriage if you please . ”

The voice came from a shabby-looking man . Lee Sungmin opened his mouth while looking at the man’s face .

“Don’t mess with me unless you want to die . ”

“Haha! Rest assured, it’s not like that . I am also headed towards the central district, so I called out to you . ”

The man replied with a smile . Lee Sungmin stared at the man . He wasn’t ordinary . He could feel something extraordinary in his eyes, so Lee Sungmin nodded slowly .

The man didn’t ask for much . Lee Sungmin paid the price and followed him . It was an old wagon . The man climbed onto the coachman’s seat and pointed at the luggage compartment with his chin .

“Please get on . ”

“I don’t have any luggage . Why are you going to the central district?”

“I have something to do . ”

The man replied so and began to drive the wagon . The horse ran on the dirty road . The ride wasn’t very comfortable because of the wagon’s rattling . It wasn’t that fast either . If he had known that this would be the case, he would rather have run using inner force .

“Why did you come to Travia?”

“Do I have to answer?”

“You’re a tricky one . If you don’t want to answer, don’t answer . ”

That ended the conversation . Lee Sungmin crouched down . As the wagon moved ahead, the snow breeze hit him at full force, but he did not feel cold .

There was also a reason for riding the wagon . Rather than walking to the central district of the city on foot, it would attract less attention if he used someone else’s carriage . Besides, winter was approaching . Perhaps this wagon was linked to the fated meeting .

“Have you decided where to stay?”

“I’ll decide once I get there . ”

“If it’s alright, how about staying at my house? I can’t say it’s a great mansion, but it’s still a place to stay . ”

“No, thanks . ”

“The inn would be dangerous . There are a lot of bums and troublemakers there . Monsters too . ”

The man laughed . Lee Sungmin did not speak anymore, and the man shut up again .

“He sure is talkative . ”

Rubia grumbled from inside Lee Sungmin’s robes . Lee Sungmin also sympathized with her words .

* * *

Although there were no strong winds in the central district at the moment, it was still definitely part of the North . However, despite the bitter cold, the woman wore a kimono without any outer layers . She lifted her red hair and fixed it with a long hairpin, exposing the white nape of her neck .

“The smell of alcohol . ”

The woman who opened the door mumbled with a smile . She pushed the door swaying in the draft with her fingertips and closed it . Right when the woman turned .

Kwasak!

A thrown liquor bottle brushed past her face . The bottle that hit the wall shattered into smithereens, but the woman wasn’t surprised at all .

“Get lost . ”

A man sitting on a messy bed stared at the woman and spat out . The woman looked at the man’s distorted expression and raised the corner of her lips into a smile .

“What do you think?”

The woman asked while lifting up the edge of her kimono .

“I heard it’s a two-way dress . Isn’t it pretty? I wanted to show you…”

“Piss off!”

The man exhaled while gasping . His breath smelled strongly of liquor . It was strong enough for the woman standing far away to smell it, but she only smiled pleasantly rather than wrinkle her nose at it .

Once upon a time, that man was called the Bloody Heavenly Demon, Baek Museon . Two years ago, he took control of Travia and reigned with an iron fist . But since being defeated by the Minor Heavenly Demon, Wijihoyeon, both he and the Bloody Heavenly Demon Sect had been ruined . It wasn’t merely because he was defeated . As a proof of defeat, Baek Museon was turned into a cripple with his left arm cut off .

And the woman .

“You know that I’m not going to back off with that kind of remark, right?”

The woman was the monster called the Vampire Queen .