The vicious trials and traps the Empress Dowager had set this time had presented them with another unexpected piece of information.
―'We have uncovered information concerning the Eighteen Souls of Light.'
The Martial Alliance's secret intelligence organization had mobilized to investigate the incident at the Yangguan Branch.
As a result, a temporary gap had opened in their security system.
The Death Spirit Corps had not missed that opening.
They had managed to obtain some of the intelligence overseen by the Martial Alliance's secret organization.
Among it was information concerning the Eighteen Souls of Light.
―'There was a record stating that Hyeon Myeongja, a master of the previous generation, left behind the term Eighteen Souls of Light before he was secretly murdered.'
According to the information, Hyeon Myeongja had been investigating the Lowly Tears Gang.
It was a Black Path faction where criminals of the martial world gathered and operated.
During the investigation, he left the words "Eighteen Souls of Light" with his closest friend, So Musaeng, before taking his own life.
Not long afterward, So Musaeng was also killed for unknown reasons.
―'The Lowly Tears Gang.'
The reason the Eighteen Souls of Light had never revealed themselves until now might be that they were closely connected to lower-class factions unrelated to the martial world's principal powers.
―'Commerce has recently been expanding throughout the Pogang area, and we have information suggesting that it is connected to the Lowly Tears Gang.'
Whatever the truth behind the matter might be, the present martial world was extraordinarily peaceful.
There was almost no struggle for power between the orthodox and unorthodox factions.
Thanks to that, the merchant world had remained untroubled and prospered greatly.
There was a high probability that the secret organization connected to the Eighteen Souls of Light was likewise using commerce to expand its power and maintain its organization.
―'We continued investigating, but have yet to uncover anything.'
Bu Eunseol moved out immediately after receiving the Death Spirit Corps's report.
―'I will investigate it myself.'
His foremost objective was the destruction of the Martial Alliance, which was connected to the culprit who had killed his grandfather.
The other was uncovering the truth behind the Eighteen Souls of Light.
If the Death Spirit Corps had failed to find a clue despite investing so much time, then something was hidden with extreme secrecy.
He intended to investigate it himself and shorten that time by even a single day.
* * *
After leaving Majeon, Bu Eunseol disguised himself as an ordinary man and surveyed the Pogang area to understand the situation.
The marketplace was noisy with merchants calling out to customers.
At first glance, the scene appeared no different than usual.
'Something is strange.'
As he walked through the city, he felt that something was deeply amiss.
'Why have so many dumpling shops appeared?'
Ordinarily, no marketplace had more than one or two shops that made and sold dumplings.
That was because commerce on the streets followed strict rules.
Once one dumpling shop established itself, others in the same trade refrained from setting foot nearby as a matter of principle.
Moreover, dumplings were the sort of food usually sold in back alleys or shabby inns.
Yet among the respectable shops in the heart of the city, where luxury goods such as silk, tea, medicinal herbs, and books were sold, dumpling-shop banners fluttered in the wind.
'There is something here.'
He entered one of the shops and ordered a dumpling.
When he tasted it, there was nothing special about it. It was an ordinary dumpling, neither excessive nor lacking, of the sort commonly sold anywhere.
Bu Eunseol immediately headed to the next dumpling shop.
Then, like a starving man, he bought and ate dumplings without pause.
The second shop. The third. The fourth...
By the time the sun reached its zenith, Bu Eunseol had visited no fewer than twelve dumpling shops.
"They are all the same."
Rubbing his stomach, which felt ready to burst, Bu Eunseol spoke in a low voice.
"The taste."
Dumplings were a simple food.
Yet their taste depended greatly on the hands that made them, so every shop ordinarily had subtle differences.
However, every dumpling shop he had visited so far was virtually identical.
There was almost no difference in the quality of the ingredients, their proportions, or even the steaming time.
'That would be impossible unless someone deliberately standardized the proportions.'
That night, Bu Eunseol concealed himself on a rooftop opposite one of the dumpling shops in the city.
It was a pitch-black, moonless night.
Even so, he could see every detail of the surroundings clearly in the darkness.
Having failed to find any clues at all, he had decided to watch one suspicious dumpling shop throughout the night.
Click, click.
Around the Hour of the Ox, he saw a freight cart visiting the dumpling shops one after another.
A faint circular emblem stamped on one side of a sack loaded on the cart entered his sight.
'It would be better to follow the cart.'
No unusual presence could be felt inside the darkened dumpling shop.
In that case, investigating the cart making its rounds among the shops would be more useful.
Whirl.
Bu Eunseol secretly moved like lightning with his movement technique and began following the wagon.
He soon discovered several carts traveling about, each heading toward a different dumpling shop.
The cart drivers' gait and the way the sacks were tied were identical.
Even the creaking of the wheels was the same.
'They belong to the same sect.'
When he approached the small warehouse at the end of the alley where the carts arrived, he saw ingredients piled inside through the crack in the door.
In other words, there was only one source of supply.
While examining the area around the warehouse, Bu Eunseol discovered a small wooden plaque hanging on the wall.
Carved into it was a peculiar version of the character for "white," its right-hand stroke slightly twisted.
'Subtle enough that even the Death Spirit Corps would not discover it.'
That twisted stroke was extraordinarily minute.
Unless one's super senses had reached their absolute limit, it would have been impossible to detect.
'They convey a cipher through written characters.'
If this were an ordinary dumpling shop, there would be no reason to alter a character merely to convey a cipher.
There was clearly something here.
'It signifies a direction.'
The twisted stroke of the character "white" undoubtedly indicated a direction.
After running continuously in the direction of that twisted stroke, he saw another warehouse.
This time, however, there was neither a wooden plaque nor any unusual writing.
Just then, a piercing, bitter scent assaulted his nose.
'These are not ingredients one would use in dumplings.'
Large sacks and baskets filled the warehouse, all containing what appeared to be cheap medicinal herbs.
'Are these intended for an apothecary?'
He examined the ingredients closely but found no other clue.
Then, all of a sudden, he noticed something.
The weave of the bamboo baskets holding dried herbs and grain looked somehow unnatural.
Amid the crisscrossing bamboo strips, several unusually dark slats had been woven in, revealing a strange pattern.
To ordinary eyes, it would have looked like a clumsy craftsman's mistake.
To Bu Eunseol, however, it resembled a boundary dividing the blocked roads of the town from the open ones.
'The twisted stroke indicates the direction, while the pattern on the basket indicates the detailed route.'
Yet something was strange.
If an organization stood behind the dumpling shops, it should conceal its information and headquarters as thoroughly as possible.
Why, then, had it left traces like these that allowed an outsider to follow them?
'It is a compartmentalized organization.'
What if its members were given only simple instructions, such as following the direction indicated by a written character or traveling according to the shape of a pattern?
The couriers would follow only the signs before their eyes, without knowing where they were going or what their final destination was.
'They are remarkable.'
Even the members of the Death Spirit Corps, who were said to be unmatched in gathering information, would have dismissed these signs as poorly written lettering or crudely woven baskets.
It was impossible for the organization to erase every trace of itself, and goods still had to be transported.
Therefore, it had chosen an ingenious method that allowed insiders to see while keeping outsiders blind.
'They must have trained only those whose senses exceed a certain level to recognize these minute differences as signals.'
Having found the clue, Bu Eunseol rapidly raced through the alleys, following the shape of the pattern woven into the basket.
Then he suddenly felt a peculiar presence.
When he stopped his movement technique and stood still, he saw a shadow in the distance slowly approaching with a bamboo box on its back.
Various banner poles shaped like talismans protruded from the box.
The figure looked exactly like one of the now-vanished Taoists of the Mosan Sect, who had once wandered from place to place exorcising evil spirits and barely scraping together a living.
"Wow."
The person carrying the box was a woman in her early thirties.
She stared intently at Bu Eunseol's disguised face, then raised her thumb.
"Quite impressive, aren't you?"
Bu Eunseol's eyes narrowed.
She had contained her bodily aura so completely that even Bu Eunseol had noticed her presence late.
Moreover, she had spotted his figure, over six feet tall, in the darkness and was strolling toward him as leisurely as if she had encountered a welcome friend.
She was clearly no ordinary Taoist.
"Truly impressive."
The woman opened her eyes wide and craned her neck, staring straight through Bu Eunseol's disguised face.
Her eyes kept shifting and blinking as if she had discovered an extraordinary treasure.
"Why are you doing that?"
Bu Eunseol flinched despite himself.
He was worried that she might have seen through the secret art of darkness.
"I've never seen anyone with such a pure spirit."
She raised her thumb in admiration.
"Your ancestors must have accumulated great virtue. If you offer them proper devotion, everything will go even more smoothly for you."
Bu Eunseol sighed in disbelief.
Was that not precisely the sort of prattle the followers of the Eternal Life Cult used when proselytizing to innocent commoners?
"I do not believe in ancestral spirits."
Bu Eunseol turned away.
The Taoist quickly approached him and spoke again.
"Then how about we have a cup of tea at the teahouse up ahead and talk?"
"What teahouse would be open at this hour?"
Leaving those words behind, he rapidly departed using his movement technique.
He continued for a long while in the direction indicated by the basket pattern he had seen earlier.
Soon, he saw a small hut a short distance outside the city.
'Is that their headquarters?'
Bu Eunseol narrowed his eyes and carefully observed the place.
'The couple from the dumpling shop?'
The people living in the hut were none other than the married couple who operated one of the dumpling shops Bu Eunseol had visited.
'There must be something here.'
Bu Eunseol observed them closely.
Yet he saw nothing strange about them, nor anything unusual inside the hut.
"Wow."
Just then, the female Taoist from earlier appeared beside Bu Eunseol without warning and exclaimed in admiration.
"What sort of person is he to have killed so many people? He might as well be an evil spirit."
Bu Eunseol looked somewhat startled.
He had employed Swift Beyond Shadow at the Three-Star level.
Because it left no trace of his movement, even an expert in pursuit would have found him difficult to follow.
Yet she had arrived here not long after him.
In other words, she had found the traces of his movement and followed him, all while making it difficult even for his super senses to detect her approach.
"Why are you following me?"
"No, look carefully."
As though changing the subject, the woman pointed at the husband.
"Look at how many people that man has killed."
Bu Eunseol furrowed his brow and examined the husband again.
The taciturn man, whose face looked as hard as stone, appeared exceptionally honest and diligent.
Yet she claimed he had killed countless people.
Moreover, there was no sign that he had trained in martial arts.
'No... I see it now.'
Bu Eunseol soon noticed what was strange.
There were no calluses on the man's hands.
Nor were there any traces of martial training anywhere on his body.
But there was something in his eyes.
A cold, cruel hue unique to a butcher who had extinguished countless lives smoldered faintly within them.
Bu Eunseol had also survived countless battlefields and recognized that look at once.
"You are right."
Bu Eunseol nodded, then looked at the woman.
"How did you know?"
"Because his spirit is filthy."
"You can see souls?"
"Do you think I am lying?"
Her eyes were so clear that he could sense an inexplicable madness within them.
'But she is not evil.'
Bu Eunseol could instinctively distinguish good from evil.
Ever since the Empress Dowager had caused him to awaken a new function of the Seven Blood Tear Forms, he had been able to sense the aura of evil even more clearly.
The woman before him was bold and mysterious, but one thing was certain: she possessed the aura of goodness.
"In any case, I have several matters to handle."
Bu Eunseol regarded her with a wary gaze.
"Do not interfere."
The female Taoist merely closed her mouth and gave him a brazen, unruffled smile.
Bu Eunseol sighed, then immediately launched himself toward the hut.
He struck the acupoints of the couple inside.
Now that he knew something was there, there was no reason to waste time. He intended to subdue them immediately and question them about the Eighteen Souls of Light.
However, something unexpected happened.
Spurt!
The wife seemed to have been bound by a restriction.
The moment her acupoints were struck, she spat out blood and died on the spot.
Thock!
Unlike his wife, the husband's acupoints could not be sealed at all.
That was not all.
Crack, crack.
When the finger strike hit him, the man tilted his head to one side.
His complexion turned as pale as a corpse.
Sensing something strange, Bu Eunseol unleashed another finger strike to seal his acupoints.
Jab, jab.
It felt as though he had stabbed a withered tree, and the man's acupoints remained unsealed.
"Is it a grand method?"
The finger strike Bu Eunseol had unleashed could pierce iron.
This could not happen to an ordinary dumpling-shop owner unless the man had mastered the Diamond Invincible Body Technique.
Halt.
With his neck lightly tilted and the complexion of a corpse, the man slowly walked forward.
There was no emotion whatsoever in his eyes.
'If supernatural power or a grand method is behind this, there is no need for me to hold back.'
Ziiiiiing.
Bu Eunseol immediately drew upon the Realm of Destruction and Extinction and extinguished the enormous force spreading from the man's body.
Or rather, he should have extinguished it.
The man continued approaching Bu Eunseol with an expressionless face.
Then he slowly extended his hand.
Sizzle.
Something swept past Bu Eunseol's neck along with a stream of white air.
In that instant, tremendous yin-cold energy invaded his meridians as though he had been plunged into freezing water.
'This is not a supernatural power.'
What the man was emitting was neither a supernatural power nor any kind of grand method.
It was the force of a perfectly natural martial art that existed within nature itself.
Swish! Swoosh!
The man's skin turned as pale as though it had been coated in powder, and he swung his hand with an expressionless face.
It was a bizarre sight of the sort one might witness only in a nightmare.
'If I cannot subdue him, this will all be for nothing.'
Killing the man would not be difficult.
But what if he could not obtain any clues from him?
In the end, he would have to use the Death Spirit Corps to investigate repeatedly over a long period and uncover the secret of the dumpling shops.
"Would you like some help?"
At that moment, the female Taoist rose to her feet on the roof behind Bu Eunseol and spoke in a friendly voice.
"That man isn't human, so you probably won't be able to subdue him with ordinary martial arts."
"What do you mean, he is not human?"
In response to Bu Eunseol's question, the female Taoist took a talisman from inside her robes and spoke in a low voice.
"His soul already belongs to the Ghost Gate. He is in a state that is neither dead nor alive."
Paaat!
She flung the talisman, and it instantly adhered to the center of his brow.
Thunk.
The man's movements stopped.
She had employed the Taoist Auxiliary Arts, a lineage said to have vanished from the martial world.
"In ancient times, people like him were called Half-Spirits."
Tap.
The female Taoist descended from the roof and smiled at Bu Eunseol.
"I've attached the talisman, so now he will no longer move..."
Before she could finish speaking, flames erupted from the talisman attached to the man's body.
Fwoosh!
The man began swinging his hand at her this time.
"Ah!"
The woman was greatly startled and rapidly flung more talismans.
Pat, pat, pat!
This time, she attached six talismans to his brow, chest, and four limbs.
Fwoosh.
Flames appeared once again and burned them to ashes in an instant.
"As expected, I used too much dharma power getting out."
Muttering something incomprehensible, the female Taoist drew a peachwood sword from her waist and swung it at the man.
Sizzle! Sizzle!
Every time the sword struck him, flames erupted and the man staggered backward.
Yet he still could not be subdued.
"I will do it."
Bu Eunseol, who had been watching in silence, raised the Silent Tiger Soul Sword into a middle guard.
Screeeech!
Along with the wail of a ghost, dark blade energy burrowed into the elbow of the man reaching out his hand.
Bu Eunseol had used the Seven Blood Tear Forms to sever his right arm.
Slice.
Even with his right wrist severed, the man did not stop moving and lunged at the female Taoist.
'Is he truly not alive?'
Bu Eunseol had deliberately used the Seven Blood Tear Forms to determine whether her claim that the man was a Half-Spirit was true.
Ordinarily, being struck by that blade energy should have torn away a vast portion of his life force.
Yet the man was like a corpse that had already died.
No blood flowed from his severed arm, and his vitality remained unchanged.
"It seems there is no choice."
At this rate, the only remaining method was to destroy the man's body.
"Haaap!"
The cornered female Taoist bit her index finger until it bled, then flicked the blood onto the man's brow.
Sizzle.
White smoke rose.
Pupils slowly began forming once more in the man's previously empty eyes.
"With no dharma power left, I have no choice but to use my life force!"
Sizzle.
However, the blood smeared on his brow also evaporated in an instant, and the man became even more violent.
"Damn."
The female Taoist bit her lip.
"To think someone could create a Half-Spirit of this level."
Watching her response, Bu Eunseol realized how the Half-Spirit could be subdued.
"Will the power of life work?"
Life force.
Only the power of life could affect a being suspended at the Ghost Gate, neither dead nor alive.
"It will, but it is somewhat different from the original true energy used by martial artists. Only pure life force can..."
At that moment, a mysterious green light bloomed beneath Bu Eunseol's feet, and five-colored motes of light began spreading in every direction.
Clench.
He took the Silent Tiger Soul Sword in a reverse grip, and a mysterious radiance spread across his entire body.
Silent Tiger Soul Eclipse.
He had unleashed the sword form of life passed down by his father.
Paaaaat!
When he thrust out the sword, light as warm as sunlight spread outward.
The pale-faced man swinging his severed arm was enveloped by the light in an instant and vanished from sight.
Paaat!
When all the light disappeared, the surroundings gradually regained their natural colors.
"Woooow."
The female Taoist exclaimed as she watched the motes of light spreading from the Silent Tiger Soul Eclipse.
"To release life force this pure through a sword art... this truly is..."
Thooom!
At that moment, the man collapsed to the ground with a dull sound.
His deathly white skin had returned to normal, and his gaze looked ordinary once more.
However, hot blood continued flowing from his mouth.
Thanks to the Silent Tiger Soul Eclipse, he had escaped the Ghost Gate.
But because he had remained there for too long, he was practically dead already.
"Why am I..."
The man looked around with unfocused eyes.
"Why am I here?"
Judging from his expression and gaze, he had clearly been living as a Half-Spirit without knowing what had happened to him.
"Look at me."
Bu Eunseol spoke.
"Who made you like this? Why did they have you open a dumpling shop?"
"The dumpling shop."
Only then did light return to the man's eyes, and he spoke in a low voice.
"It was to create something called Human Flowers."
"Human Flowers."
Bu Eunseol's eyes widened.
They were flowers created in the Three Realms long ago by extracting the vital essence of humans.
To think they had been creating them in dumpling shops.
"Who did this?"
"They..."
The man tried with all his strength to speak.
Thuud.
In the end, he died with his eyes wide open.
'Human Flowers.'
Bu Eunseol bit his lip.
Cultivating Human Flowers with essence extracted from people required a force at least as large as the Three Realms.
The problem was what would happen once it became known that a dumpling-shop owner had died here today.
The dumpling shops throughout the Central Plains would close.
Moreover, the powers behind them would erase every trace of themselves in an instant.
Secret organizations always protected their secrets without hesitation in precisely this manner.
"Must I spend years searching for a long trail of clues yet again?"
Bu Eunseol released a sigh so deep it seemed the earth might collapse beneath him.
Ultimately, to find the organization controlling the dumpling shops, he had no choice but to mobilize the Death Spirit Corps and investigate without end all over again.
"They say it was the Splendid Cloud Merchant House."
At that moment, the female Taoist, who had been looking at the corpse, said something astonishing.
"He says that was the place that helped them open the dumpling shop."
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