Into the Creations 980

Chapter 980 – 980. Ascent To The Light

I plastered talismans all over Mobiseol’s neck, or rather, the severed end of it.

“Hah, don’t…! Ugh…!”

His resistance was just words. That was all Mobiseol, without a torso, could do. Escaping was impossible.

“But it’s amazing, isn’t it? How can you talk when there’s nothing below your neck? Is it because you’re a monster?”

I picked up Mobiseol’s head and put it in a container. Actually, it wasn’t that amazing.

“Da, damn it! Don’t put my head in such a stuffy place! Take it out right now! Can’t you hear me?!”

“Stay quiet in there. I’ll take you out when you’re ready to answer my questions honestly. Oh, and your tone needs to be more polite.”

“Damn it! How did I end up like this…! Waaah!”

His screaming was annoying. I wrapped the box several times with a cloth. The sound was blocked out.

“Seong Yujin, what should we do with these?”

I turned my gaze to the side. Mobiseol’s wriggling flesh had drooped. It had lost its regenerative power and become ordinary flesh.

“Just burn them. Let’s leave around noon today. Rest until then.”

“Um… Seong Yujin. What about the loot they had…?”

Jin Gu-eon asked cautiously.

“Ah, right. We need to distribute that. Seong Ji-gon, you handle it.”

“Okay, Yujin. But there were also martial arts manuals? What should we do with those?”

“I’m not interested in that trash martial arts. Do whatever you want with them. Just make sure you get my share of the money.”

I left all the other tasks to them and went into an empty room in the inn, lying on the bed to sleep.

***

The sun rose to its zenith.

Cheolodan, along with the old woman from Odong Inn and her son, headed towards Manmusi.

“Aigoo, aigoo.”

The old woman groaned. It was too much for her old body, which had not trained in martial arts, to walk such a long distance. Her son couldn’t help her. He was struggling just to carry the luggage and follow along. In the end, Seong Ji-gon stepped in.

“Grandma, let me carry you on my back.”

“…Thank you.”

Before she knew it, the old woman had started to trust and rely on Seong Ji-gon more than her own son.

And when the group took a short break, Seong Ji-gon and the old woman quietly disappeared somewhere. I, of course, and the other members kept silent. We didn’t need to check to know what they were doing during their brief disappearance. When the old woman returned from the break, she was exhausted, while Seong Ji-gon looked refreshed.

‘Walking is annoying. I should use auto-progress.’

Time flew by quickly.

This world wasn’t entirely safe. Bandits would appear and start fights, or monsters would suddenly attack. It wasn’t for nothing that ronin and escort agencies had developed.

“It’s a man-eating tiger!”

A tiger that had tasted human flesh and awakened as a monster appeared. The tiger glared at us with bloodshot eyes and charged.

There was no need for me to step in. Cheolodan was a ronin group that was considered to have decent skills. They could handle a man-eating tiger without my help.

“Seong Yujin! Here’s the tiger skin!”

“I don’t need it.”

“Huh?”

“I said I don’t need it.”

“Th, then what about this…?”

“Do whatever you want with it.”

I ignored Jin Gu-eon and took out the box wrapped in cloth. When I opened the box, Mobiseol’s head, which resembled a newborn baby’s face, appeared with a foul smell.

Mobiseol’s eyes fluttered and slowly opened.

“Ugh… baby…!”

“Stop talking nonsense. Have you decided to answer my questions now?”

“…How many weeks have passed?”

Mobiseol asked in a dying voice.

“Weeks? It hasn’t been that long. About two weeks, I guess?”

“Only two weeks…?”

“Judging by your condition, it seems like it’s not enough. I’ll take you out again in a month.”

Just as I was about to put his head back in the box, Mobiseol opened his mouth wide.

“Wa, wait! I don’t want to go back in there again! It’s like an abyss, a hell.”

“Your tone isn’t polite.”

“I, I’m sorry. Please don’t put me in the box! If I had been in there for a few more days, I would have really gone crazy!”

“Is there anything you can call crazy?”

“You, you have a lot of questions for me, don’t you? If I go crazy, you’ll be in trouble, Seong Yujin!”

Mobiseol’s eyes were filled with fear. Locking him in the box had been more effective than I thought.

“You seem to be mistaken. Your value isn’t that high. I can get information about the Mukjilyeon from others.”

“I’ll tell you! I’ll tell you everything I know! So please, let me out!”

“Let you out? You arrogant bastard. You still haven’t come to your senses.”

I lifted the box. Mobiseol was terrified.

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’ll tell you everything! Please, just don’t put me in the box!”

“Now we can have a conversation. If your answers aren’t satisfactory, you’re going back in the box.”

I put the box down on the ground. I took out a piece of paper. Pointing to the paper with Earth’s characters, I asked him.

“This character. It’s like a code, right?”

“…Yes. It’s the Mukjilyeon’s code.”

“Who developed it?”

“I, I don’t know. I only received the code decryption method from the Mukjilyeon’s leader.”

I frowned. I was lost in thought for a moment. Could the Mukjilyeon’s leader be the possessed Cheonma? It was unlikely. The possessed Cheonma would be the current Cheonma, as the title of that work, ‘I Woke Up and Became a Cheonma,’ suggests.

‘But the name of Cheonma isn’t that famous in this world. And that guy wouldn’t do something like being the leader of the Mukjilyeon.’

Even if multiple worlds were mixed, the basics wouldn’t change.

“What does this code mean?”

“It’s a code to gather at the center of the Mukjilyeon in three months! There are about two months left.”

“Two months… I can’t go since I have to go to Manmutop.”

I might have to spend several months or even years in Manmutop. I couldn’t use techniques to disguise myself as Mobiseol and infiltrate.

“What does the Mukjilyeon’s leader look like? Is he handsome?”

“The Mukjilyeon’s leader? He’s far from handsome. He looks even more menacing than me.”

“What’s his name?”

“I don’t know. We just call him the leader.”

I frowned.

“This bastard… why does he know so little?”

“I, I’m sorry.”

“You are a Mukjilyeon executive, right?”

“Yes, I am. I’m in the top five of the Mukjilyeon!”

“But you know so little? How did you even get into the Mukjilyeon?”

“Well… I was originally a bandit. I practiced the Undying Divine Art while eating passing humans in a suitable mountain. Then the Mukjilyeon’s leader came and offered me a deal. He said he would give me elixirs and the Crimson Divine Organ if I worked with the Mukjilyeon…”

“You were lured into the Mukjilyeon by the Crimson Divine Organ?”

“Yes. I also heard that I could easily eat humans…”

Gulp.

The guy with only a head swallowed.

“Seong Yujin. I’m… I’m so hungry… I don’t want human meat. Can you give me something else to eat?”

“A guy without a body is making a fuss. Don’t try to trick me and answer my questions well. Then I’ll give you some water.”

I grilled him about the Mukjilyeon. I managed to get a rough idea of the Mukjilyeon. The Mukjilyeon was currently focused on expanding its power by recruiting monsters and demons indiscriminately.

‘Hmm. I’ve got all the information about the Mukjilyeon. It doesn’t seem like they have the resources to track us.’

We were already out of the Mukjilyeon’s sphere of influence. It was too late for them to chase us, and Manmusi wasn’t a place where a nobody like the Mukjilyeon could run wild.

‘I’ve got all the information… I should kill this guy.’

I had no intention of carrying around a gruesome head.

As I raised the red sword, Hwaryeonbido, Mobiseol’s eyes widened.

“No, right? You’re not going to kill me, are you? I haven’t told you everything about the Mukjilyeon yet!”

“It’s okay. I’ve got all the information I need.”

“Please spare me! I also know some of the Mukjilyeon’s business! I’ll tell you everything, please…!”

“That kind of information isn’t important. And I can just catch the Mukjilyeon’s leader later and deal with him. Ah, but does cutting off the head kill you?”

“Y, yes, it does. The Undying Divine Art is blocked because of this strange talisman! I don’t want to die! Please, spare me!”

“Die.”

Stab.

The sword pierced Mobiseol’s forehead accurately. Mobiseol trembled and then died. Milyeong’s talisman was reliable, so he wouldn’t revive.

“Seong Yujin. Still, wouldn’t it be better to burn it, just in case?”

Jin Gu-eon said to me. He seemed uneasy even though Mobiseol was definitely dead.

“Do whatever you want.”

Jin Gu-eon put Mobiseol’s head into the bonfire. Mobiseol’s head didn’t burn easily. It took five hours for the bones to appear, and Jin Gu-eon and the members smashed even those bones into powder with stones. The powder disappeared somewhere with the wind.

***

At the end of our journey, we arrived at Manmusi, where Manmutop was located.

Manmutop stood tall in the center of the city. It was a building that was at least 100 meters tall. However, it was only 20 stories high. Each floor was as big as a building. I was amazed by the tower, then I turned around.

Cheolodan, which had over 30 members, was reduced to 23. Including me and Seong Ji-gon, there were a total of 25 people. They had died in battles with bandits and monsters along the way.

For reference, the mother and son from Odong Inn had also died a week ago. The old woman had died of a heart attack during sex with Seong Ji-gon.

“A good pussy is gone… Grandma, be happy there.”

On the day the old woman died, Seong Ji-gon muttered wistfully while looking at the night sky.

“H, how could my mother die! You crazy bastard! Did you have to rape my mother so much?!”

The old woman’s son, Shin Gu-bo, enraged by his mother’s death, charged at Seong Ji-gon with a sword he had stolen from a ronin. Seong Ji-gon took Shin Gu-bo’s sword and stabbed it into his heart.

“Shin Gu-bo… you were only alive until now because of the old woman. Now that the old woman is dead, I don’t need you anymore. Be filial to Grandma Mayo in the afterlife.”

“Ugh… you crazy bastard…!”

Seong Ji-gon, who had lost his sex toy, was depressed for about two days, but then he regained his energy and focused on training.

After such twists and turns, we arrived at Manmusi. We took lodging at a nearby inn and submitted an application to enter Manmutop.

There were five days left until Manmutop opened.

***

The day Manmutop (萬武塔) opened its doors.

The area in front of Manmutop was filled with people from all over. Martial artists, merchants, sorcerers, escorts, and people of all professions gathered. This was because Manmutop offered not only martial arts but also elixirs and magical artifacts.

Manmutop didn’t discriminate against people. Anyone under 50 years old was accepted, even a 10-year-old child.

‘There must be at least 200,000 people. It’s enormous.’

I spread my senses among the crowd. I could feel the presence of several people exuding a powerful aura. They were people who had reached the Five Qi realm like me.

‘So many people under 50 years old have reached the Five Qi realm… This world is vast. Too vast.’

Whether we would fight them or become allies, no one knew. The trials of Manmutop were different every time.

Clang. Wooooooooom!

The huge iron doors of Manmutop swung open. People wearing armor walked out of the door. They were soldiers. It wasn’t strange. The owner of this Manmutop was the emperor. They were all the emperor’s subordinates.

In the center of them, a middle-aged man with a black beard, wearing a flamboyant red helmet, and holding a pure white spear, opened his mouth.

“Attention.”

Everyone’s gaze turned to him. I tensed up. I could tell just from his aura. He was a strong person who had reached the Three Essences realm.

“I am Baeun, a general serving the Western Ox God General. People call me the White Snow Spear. I am currently in charge of managing Manmutop, and I will be in charge of the first floor trial of Manmutop.”