SYM 74

When Eun-hyeon regained consciousness, the first thing he felt was a terrible headache, as if his head had been split in half.

He couldn’t even think about where he was or why he was there.

“Ugh.”

He felt like his heart was being squeezed, and he felt like he was really going to die. Eun-hyeon instinctively began Qi Circulation. Only after the headache subsided did he manage to come to his senses.

Eun-hyeon sighed and lifted his head. He had sweated so much that his clothes were damp.

It was dark all around, and the only light came from the faint moonlight through a small window when he looked up.

The damp, cool, and strangely unpleasant air suggested that he was underground.

Eun-hyeon rubbed his arms against the cool air. He was glad he was wearing the Celestial silk clothes Cheong-un had given him, or he would have caught a cold.

Eun-hyeon tiptoed, trying to see if there was anything outside the window, but he couldn’t see anything.

“…Haa, Cheong-un must be worried.”

Knowing that he was in a strange place, the first thing he thought wasn’t fear, but what if Cheong-un was surprised.

If he knew he was gone, he would be very surprised… He didn’t know how long it had been, but if it was Cheong-un, he would have already summoned all the Dark Shadows to find him.

A smile appeared on his face when he thought of Cheong-un.

When he heard that he had become the Heavenly Demon, the leader of the Demonic Sect, he thought that he would no longer be the Cheong-un he knew.

But Cheong-un was still Cheong-un. Of course, the way he looked in front of him wasn’t his true self, but the humanity within Cheong-un hadn’t disappeared entirely. That alone was enough to reassure Eun-hyeon.

“Haa…”

Eun-hyeon carefully moved, relying on the dim moonlight. Judging from the fact that it was underground and the window with bars was high up, he guessed it was a prison of some sort.

Then something caught Eun-hyeon’s foot. Eun-hyeon covered his mouth, which was about to scream. He almost screamed loudly.

His heart pounded wildly, he was so surprised.

“W-Who is it?”

He carefully groped with his toes and realized that what he had tripped over was something large and soft. He wondered if it was a person, so he spoke, but there was no response.

After waiting for a while without any movement, Eun-hyeon slowly approached.

“Gasp!”

Lying on the floor was a person. It was a child.

As Eun-hyeon blinked, trying to confirm if what he saw in the darkness was correct, the moon emerged from the clouds, illuminating the inside with bright moonlight.

And he saw countless children lying on the floor.

For a moment, he felt dizzy.

“W-What is this…”

The children were all lying straight, looking at the ceiling. The bizarre scene made him dizzy and nauseous.

Could these all be corpses?

The shock was even greater because those lying down were all children.

Eun-hyeon, with a pale face, stared at the endless rows of children and carefully placed his hand under his nose.

“Ah…!”

It was faint, but there was definitely breath. When he grabbed his wrist, he could feel a pulse.

“Hey, can you wake up? Can you hear me?”

Eun-hyeon then shook the lying child gently, trying to wake him up, but the child was lying stiffly like a log.

He briefly considered injecting Qi into the child, but soon gave up. His condition was too poor to do so.

Even after Qi Circulation for a while, his hands were still trembling. In addition, his body temperature had dropped so much that he kept shivering.

“This seems like a poisoning symptom…”

Eun-hyeon muttered, looking at his trembling hands. It was definitely a poisoning symptom, and it felt strangely familiar.

“This seems to be the Hongbaek Sect’s poison.”

Eun-hyeon had become more resistant to the Hongbaek Sect’s poison by overcoming Madam Hwang and the Godeok Temple’s formation’s poison. He seemed to be able to come to his senses on his own now because of that.

“The Hongbaek Sect. What bad karma do I have with them that I keep getting entangled like this…”

A deep sigh escaped him as he thought that the mastermind behind this was the Hongbaek Sect.

But he couldn’t just keep lamenting like that. Eun-hyeon regained his composure and began Qi Circulation again.

He didn’t know when the Hongbaek Sect’s people would come, so he had to quickly get rid of the poison and recover his energy in the meantime.

The poisonous energy that had been lurking throughout his body slowly began to dissipate. Eun-hyeon, who was doing Qi Circulation with his eyes closed, didn’t see it, but a red haze was rising around Eun-hyeon’s body. It was the transformed poisonous energy.

The time he could spend on Qi Circulation was short, and his condition wasn’t good, so it was impossible to completely get rid of the poison. Just as he had driven out enough poison to clear his mind, a vague memory flashed through his mind.

The first thing that came to mind was the mournful sound of a flute. It wasn’t a particularly outstanding performance, but it strangely touched the hearts of those who listened. So he unconsciously focused on listening to the performance, and at some point, his consciousness became hazy and his limbs moved on their own. Without even realizing it, he walked out of the room and headed somewhere. There were many children on the road, and Eun-hyeon was one of them.

He walked and walked all day without rest. Blisters formed on his feet, burst, and then formed again, but he didn’t even feel the pain. Even when he got cramps from walking without rest, he didn’t stop walking. He didn’t feel hunger and just kept walking blankly.

The place he arrived at after walking for days without rest was this place. He couldn’t figure out what kind of magic they used to bewitch people like this.

Eun-hyeon suddenly thought of the Hao Gate’s disguised pleasure house being engulfed in bright red flames. Was that also the work of those who had brought him here? He hoped Cheong-un wasn’t hurt in the fire.

Cheong-un was the Heavenly Demon, who was even called a god in the Demonic Sect, so he wouldn’t have been hurt by such a fire. But he couldn’t help but worry.

But since he was kidnapped while Cheong-un was away for a while, he wouldn’t be able to say anything even if Cheong-un tied him up from now on.

Clang.

Then, the sound of a door opening came from afar.

Eun-hyeon quickly finished Qi Circulation and lay down next to the children.

“Hori, how many sacrifices are there in total?”

“Including the children who arrived today, there are exactly three hundred.”

“Good. We barely filled the number. Are these all the sacrifices here?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

Sacrifices?

He had a bad feeling.

Step, step.

The sound grew closer. Eun-hyeon hadn’t mastered the Turtle Breathing Technique, but he breathed as slowly and thinly as possible, pretending to be unconscious like the children.

“The number is 300, that’s right. But I told you to gather only young ones, and there are too many big ones mixed in. Who recruited these sacrifices this time?”

“The Cruel Demon brought them.”

“That damn bastard. He just filled the numbers without any sincerity. Deal with him after this ritual is over.”

“Yes, High Priest. I was about to deal with him anyway.”

“Good, Hori. Once today passes, there will be well over a hundred days until the next ritual opportunity. We can’t keep the sacrifices fresh until then, so we must perform the ritual today. You know what I mean, right? There’s a lot to prepare, so tell all the cultists in here to prepare for the ritual without exception.”

“Yes, High Priest. I understand.”

Eun-hyeon swallowed hard as he eavesdropped on their conversation.

As he held his breath, the iron door closed before long.

Eun-hyeon held his breath for a while longer before getting up.

From listening to their conversation, it seemed like they didn’t think there would be anyone among the sacrifices who had regained consciousness. If he was lucky, he might be able to use that to escape.

Eun-hyeon got up and took a step, biting his lip tightly. Terrible pain flowed through his entire body, from his soles and ankles to his calves and waist. His already weak body had been walking for days without rest, so it was bound to be a mess.

Fortunately, when he was poisoned, his senses were dulled and he couldn’t feel the pain, but after detoxifying, he began to feel the pain.

Eun-hyeon frowned, taking clumsy steps like a child learning to walk for the first time. Even if he ran away in this condition, it was uncertain how far he could go.

Eun-hyeon carefully walked towards the door. Looking at the children lying like corpses on either side of the door, his chest felt heavy.

“…I will definitely come to save you, so please wait a little longer.”

Eun-hyeon carefully pushed the iron door. The iron door, which wasn’t locked, opened easily.

Eun-hyeon looked around and went outside. The long corridor was a confusing maze, like an ant tunnel.

Eun-hyeon looked around and found a staircase leading upwards, and headed there. There was no guarantee that going there would lead him outside, but since this place was underground, he thought he would have to go up to get outside.

Whether it was luck or not, Eun-hyeon was able to reach the end of the stairs without being noticed by anyone.

At the end, there was a small, flimsy wooden door, and he could hear the buzzing sound of wind behind the wooden door. It was definitely the sound of wind from outside.

Eun-hyeon looked around and quickly opened the door and went outside.

“What on earth…”

Eun-hyeon’s mouth dropped open at the sight outside.