The Martial Genius Who Remembers Everything Novel - Chapter 182

Chapter 182
WHIZZ—

Suddenly, a signal flare streaked upward from the center of the Blood Cult’s camp.

As the flare burst into the night sky with a piercing cry, the members of the Blood Cult descended into pandemonium.

“An intruder!”

“Over there!”

“Take him down at any cost!”

Hundreds of men lunged toward my position in a blind frenzy.

There was only one reason I had risked firing that flare while deep within enemy territory.

‘Move! Murong Jae-hwa!’

POP—

A faint, sharp crack echoed from about two hundred zhang away.

Then, with a sound that sliced through the air, a lone arrow plummeted into the heart of the Blood Cult’s ranks.

BOOM!

It wasn’t a standard Thunderbolt Arrow, but a modified version that relied on the explosive force of the arrowhead itself.

Even so, the shrapnel that scattered into dozens of jagged fragments was more than lethal enough to punch through the soft bodies of the warriors.

“Aaaaaagh!”

“Kuhuk!”

“Kyaaak!”

The punctures were no larger than millet grains, but they possessed enough piercing power to instantly disable vital functions.

The sudden lightning strike from the heavens instilled a primal terror into the Blood Cult members, who had been focused solely on hunting their target.

“Shields! Get the shields up!”

“Fall back! Another one is incoming!”

“Scatter!”

BOOM!

A second Thunderbolt Arrow landed, plunging the formation into absolute chaos.

Blood-robed men dropped, bleeding from countless wounds, and even the spell-casters who failed to retreat in time sustained grievous injuries from the iron shards.

‘Wait… what?’

Then, an arrow arched directly toward me.

With my pulse thumping wildly, I ignited my Unrivaled under Heaven Movement Art and scrambled away from the spot.

BOOM!

Iron fragments shredded the Blood Cult members who had spotted me and were closing in; they fell in heaps, like cut stalks of grain.

I had barely evaded the blast by a hair’s breadth.

“……He didn’t do that on purpose, did he?”

Doubt flickered in my mind, but I quickly brushed it aside.

“Of course not. Our Jae-hwa would never aim for me. Maybe Eun-ho or Geum-pyo would pull such a stunt, but not him.”

Jae-hwa had been remarkably reliable since the moment we crossed paths.

He was nothing like those troublemakers, Geum-pyo and Eun-ho.

He had to be better than that.

Regardless, thanks to Jae-hwa planting that Thunderbolt Arrow in the perfect spot, I had slipped out of the Blood Cult’s line of sight and gained the freedom to move.

Within the encampment, where cries of agony echoed from every direction, I activated my Ghost-Breathing Step, sticking strictly to the shadows.

I began to edge toward that distinctively colored tent.

It was draped entirely in crimson fabric.

Golden trim traced the seams, and most tellingly, a golden, grotesque bird—the emblem of the Blood Cult—sat perched at the very peak.

“Found it……”

As I crept forward, heart pounding with anticipation, I halted at a sudden swell of noise.

Dozens of men were sprinting in my direction.

‘Did they detect my Ghost-Breathing Step?’

I instantly switched to the Ghost-Breathing Great Art, pushing my ability to suppress my presence to its absolute limit.

Byeon Ho-seong, who had been channeling his Blood Sea True Qi throughout the camp, snapped his eyes open.

The foreign energy he had tracked only moments ago was fading away.

“They’ve caught him.”

An entity with a presence clearly distinct from the Blood Cult had breached the camp.

Then, as if to announce his own location, he had launched that flare and vanished shortly after.

“What a foolish display. Even if they locate this place, no one should be able to navigate the Blood Sea Illusory Boundless Formation.”

According to records within the Divine Cult, even the Mystic Gate Formations of the Jegal Clan—supposedly the cleverest of the Orthodox Path hypocrites—couldn’t hold a candle to the Blood Sea Illusory Boundless Formation.

Those incapable of cracking the Jegal clan’s defenses had no hope of bypassing the Blood Cult’s intricate web of illusions.

Just then, a massive detonation rumbled outside the tent.

BOOM!

The blast was followed by the pathetic screams of the elite Blood Cult warriors.

‘Those pests……’

Those cursed arrows made him grit his teeth in frustration.

Only one arrow had landed, yet it had already crippled at least three or four of his men.

Moreover, unlike the previous day, when they could at least gauge the enemy’s trajectory, today they had no way of telling where the strikes originated.

Because of this, even his most hardened, blood-robed warriors were succumbing to panic.

CRACK.

The edge of the table crumbled into dust under his grip.

What enraged him most was his own helplessness; this was the only outlet for his fury.

Then, the sound of dozens of men rushing toward the tent reached his ears.

“Young Cult Master!”

“Are you unharmed?!”

The tent swarmed as dozens of soldiers burst inside at once.

Byeon Ho-seong glowered, his brow furrowed in disdain.

“What is the meaning of this ruckus! Did you think I would be intimidated by mere arrows?”

At Byeon Ho-seong’s thundering reprimand, the blood-robed men looked flustered.

“Th-that is not it, sir.”

“Well? Did you capture that wretched archer?”

“We are currently scouring the area, and……”

BANG-!

Before they could finish, Byeon Ho-seong smashed his fist against the desk.

“You incompetent fools! You can’t even execute a simple task!”

“N-no, sir! Young Cult Master. More importantly, there is an intruder loose inside the camp right now.”

“What?”

At his subordinate’s report, Byeon Ho-seong’s expression hardened.

“And you didn’t catch him?”

“Indeed! Th-that is the situation. The rat escaped the encirclement in the confusion, and…… we have no idea where he vanished to……”

“……”

Byeon Ho-seong began cycling his Blood Sea True Qi once more.

Having reached the Two Cycles stage, his internal energy was refined enough to sense even an ant crawling within the camp perimeter.

He focused intently, but his brow soon twisted in confusion.

‘He isn’t here……?’

No matter how thoroughly he scanned the grounds, he could not detect that same foreign presence.

BOOM!

Kraaaagh!

Kuhk!

Save me!

Outside, the shrieks of the blood-robed men erupted again.

A vein throbbed on Byeon Ho-seong’s forehead.

“Find that bastard firing those arrows and kill him at once!!!”

“B-but, Young Cult Master!”

“Do I look like the type to fall to a common assassin?”

“……”

The Young Cult Master was an prodigy in a realm far beyond his peers, not just in the Blood Cult, but throughout all of Tibet.

It was whispered that in the wider Murim, only someone of Yong So-ah’s caliber could hope to challenge him.

Finally, the blood-robed man bowed his head.

“Understood. We will keep a skeletal guard and mobilize the rest to pursue and slaughter the archer.”

“Don’t kill him instantly. Hack him to pieces, limb by limb. Make him watch his own flesh being carved away before he breathes his last.”

“As you command!”

Even after the soldiers vacated the tent, Byeon Ho-seong’s rage remained unquenched.

“How, how did it come to this……!”

If his father, back at the main mountain, witnessed this, what kind of scathing punishment would he face?

“Aaaaaagh!”

The table, already vibrating under his aura, finally surrendered to the Torrent of Qi and disintegrated into powder.

“Damn it…… damn it all……”

One of the Iron Corpse Puppets his grandfather had gifted him upon leaving the Divine Cult had been squandered in such a trivial way.

Now, only two Iron Corpse Puppets remained at the stronghold.

What infuriated him the most was that, contrary to his belief that they would only be challenged by the full might of the Murim Alliance, the Iron Corpse Puppet had been bested by mere academy students.

“Just what is that bastard?”

He knew Il-gak wielded Diamond Power.

But no one in the Blood Cult expected the individual who arrived later to possess Ascendant Qi Force.

“Wudang opted out of this conflict, so it couldn’t be Taiji Power…… Then, the Three Pure Ones Sect?”

He had never even heard that a descendant of the Three Pure Ones Sect existed.

He felt as if his entire master plan was falling apart.

At this rate, the grand design to conquer the Murim might crumble.

Byeon Ho-seong forced himself to calm his agitation and signaled for a subordinate.

“Chuhyeol……”

A figure clad in black, standing guard near the entrance, stepped forward and knelt.

“Yes!”

“Order a reorganization of the units.”

“……”

The subordinate hesitated, unable to respond readily. Byeon Ho-seong gave a curt, final command.

“While the pursuit party hunts the archer, we will launch a rear assault on Shaolin and Diancang.”

Chuhyeol still remained silent.

Seeming to grasp the difficulty, Byeon Ho-seong continued.

“We still possess the Blood Sea Jade and the Illusion Ring. Once we deal with that unidentified worm, we will eradicate them all here.”

Chuhyeol looked up, met Byeon Ho-seong’s gaze, and nodded.

“As you command!”

In the blink of an eye, Chuhyeol dissolved into the shadows, as if he had never been there.

None of the guards inside the tent found this departure strange.

Byeon Ho-seong looked down at the red, bird-shaped ring on his finger and muttered,

“No matter if he’s a descendant of the Three Pure Ones Sect, he cannot withstand the power of the Blood Sea Illusory Boundless Formation and the Corpse-Blood Dead-Spirit Chaos Formation.”

He vowed to finish the man who had ruined his plans with even greater cruelty than he had ordered for the archer.

He would go further—he would carve up the man’s friends and family as well, piece by piece.

He would savor the sight of them writhing in torment……

“Is that so?”

Byeon Ho-seong snapped his head up in shock at the sound of the strange voice.

He saw it.

He witnessed a long, black blade appear in mid-air, piercing through the backs of his guards.

“Guhk……”

“Ugh……”

“Kuhp……”

Perhaps because their lungs were punctured instantly, the guards collapsed without a single scream.

Then, the freezing bite of a sword blade touched his throat.

A voice, colder than the steel itself, brushed against his ear.

“Careful now… Don’t twitch. Move an inch, and I’ll end you.”

“……”

Byeon Ho-seong fought to keep his composure, asking the unseen figure pressing against him, “Who are you?”

“Hard to say, but I believe I’m the person you were just talking about—the descendant of the Three Pure Ones Sect, or whatever.”

At the calm retort, Byeon Ho-seong swallowed hard.

Was he actually the one who had destroyed the Iron Corpse Puppet?

“I have a few questions of my own. That Blood Sea Illusory Boundless Formation you were bragging about—is that what’s spread across this camp?”

“It is.”

“Really? But when you mentioned it, you kept staring at that ring. Does it have anything to do with it?”

“You have sharp eyes. This is the Illusion Ring, a Sacred Relic of our order.”

“How does it work?”

“Why would I tell you that?”

“Well, if I take it, shouldn’t I know how to use it?”

At such brazen arrogance, Byeon Ho-seong let out a hollow laugh.

“For any Mystic Gate Formation, you simply infuse the Illusion Ring’s power into the boundary.”

“Really?! That’s quite a Sacred Relic.”

“It’s a treasure that has been woven into our cult’s history.”

The man who had supposedly dismantled the Iron Corpse Puppet asked, feigning confusion,

“But is it wise to tell me so easily?”

“Heh heh. You think you can take it from me?”

“Hm?”

With that, Byeon Ho-seong channeled his Blood Sea True Qi.

The owner of the cold voice immediately drove his blade into Byeon Ho-seong’s artery.

However.

“Huh?”

The steel that should have sliced through skin like butter refused to sink in.

Instead, the wound knitted together almost instantly, pushing the blade out.

“Did you undergo the Mad-Blood Human procedure?”

At the intruder’s whispered realization, Byeon Ho-seong gasped.

“How do you know about the Mad-Blood Humans?”

That was not knowledge held by any ordinary member of the Orthodox Path.

The intruder remained unflappable.

“Red skin, crimson hair. Obviously, you’re a Mad-Blood Human.”

“……No, I’m asking how you are aware of that……”

Byeon Ho-seong could not finish his sentence.

Suddenly, his internal energy began to be siphoned away through the man’s hand, which was now pressed firmly against his neck.

“Kuhuk…… Th-this is……”

“Disturbing, isn’t it? Keep it between us.”

“A-a Vampire Breed? Did the Demonic Cult send you?”

“No, I’m not with them. To be precise, I’m with the people who despise the Demonic Cult.”

Once one became a Mad-Blood Human, their potential exploded and their internal power tripled.

Yet, the intruder was draining that vast reservoir of power as if it were the Yangtze River itself.

Even the redness of his skin began to fade back to a natural tone as his power was stolen.

“Anyway, thanks for the explanation. This technique didn’t exist in my previous life. It’ll prove incredibly useful in this one.”

As his vision clouded, Byeon Ho-seong saw the man wave his hand dismissively.

“Goodbye. Go ahead and find your spot in hell. After you lot are cleared out, the Demonic Cult will be following soon.”

“Uhh…… uhh……”

Once I had decapitated the bastard who had been morphing into a Mad-Blood Human, I activated the Azure Dragon Bracelet, draining him until he was nothing but a desiccated husk.

‘The Blood Sea True Qi is even easier to absorb than Demonic Qi.’

Moreover, perhaps because his internal arts had been refined through generations of Dual-Origin techniques, absorbing his cultivation felt like consuming a powerful Spiritual Medicine; I could feel my own strength expanding.

“If I’d known he was carrying this much energy, maybe I should’ve listened to his last words?”

He certainly seemed like he wanted to say something before the end……

“Well, no matter. I’ve hit the jackpot.”

I hadn’t just secured the Blood Sea Jade; I had also snatched that ridiculous Sacred Relic, the Illusion Ring.

Recalling the intensity of the Regular Exam, I couldn’t even calculate the potential value of this item in the wars to come.

“As expected, doing good deeds really does pay off.”

I raised the Holy Flame Demon-Extinguishing Hand, placing one palm on the mummified corpse and another on the bodies of the guards.

The skill used the lingering death energy as fuel, erupting in flames far fiercer than normal, which began to consume the tent and spread outward.

“F-fire!”

“The flames!”

“The Young Cult Master’s tent is burning!”

Panic set in as men began to scramble toward the inferno.

I activated the Ghost-Breathing Step once more, slipping unseen out of the enemy camp.

“Heh heh……”

Only when I was a safe distance away did I allow myself to roar with unrestrained laughter.

“Mwahahahahaha! The wretched Blood Demon Sect is just the start! Demon God, you coward, your turn is coming!”

I shouted until my voice echoed across the night sky.

In a place far beyond where Jin So-un’s shouts could reach, a man standing on a cliff stared into the far distance, letting out a faint, amused laugh.

“What an entertaining fellow. Does he truly believe the Blood Demon Sect represents the Divine Cult’s full might?”

The man, standing with haughty poise, chuckled softly.

A voice manifested from the empty air.

“He dared to insult the Demon God. Shall I capture him?”

There was clearly no one else on the cliff, yet the voice was crisp and distinct.

The man shook his head, signaling for calm.

“Let him be. Dealing with the Blood Demon Sect was originally my task, and he did it in my stead.”

“However, the Illusion Ring is a Sacred Relic of the Divine Cult.”

“If it were a true Sacred Relic, our cult would have claimed it long ago. You know that as well as I do. A half-baked toy like that cannot compare to our true heritage.”

“……”

As if observing someone invisible in the empty air, the man smiled.

“Still, he’s fascinating. He employs the techniques of the Three Pure Ones Sect, and when he infiltrates, he erases his presence as if he were already a corpse. Have you ever seen such a thing?”

The voice responded from the void once more.

“Our cult’s Darkness……”

“Oh, spare me. That leaves a demonic taint behind. I’m asking if it can completely vanish like his.”

“……”

When silence returned, the man tilted his head in genuine curiosity.

“Just what is he?”

“I shall investigate.”

“Huh? Goodness, what’s gotten into you? Do I look like the type to order the Heavenly Demon Black Sword Unit for a trifle like this?”

“Anything the Young Cult Master desires is our command.”

The Young Cult Master waved his hand toward the void, laughing leisurely.

“Haha, drop it. If he’s a player of that caliber, information will surface on its own without us lifting a finger. Let’s take our time.”

“As you command!”

With those words, the man smiled again, looking out into the empty space.

“I truly hope he survives until we meet again.”