NOVEL NEXT chapter 103 - Trial of Marriage
“When did the Blue Blood Hall Lord enter the headquarters?”
“Within one or two shichen.”
Hae-rak frowned, as if inconvenienced.
“No matter how fast I chase, she’ll already have entered Geumeunsan. Stay here.”
“Sir? If you’re going to Geumeunsan, of course I should come with you.”
“The old man might not kill me, but he’ll kill you. What for?”
“That’s true.”
Apparently not meaning it in earnest, the Vice Unit Leader obediently stepped back. He followed Hae-rak down the stairs.
Just then, another cultist came hurrying up the stairs and froze pale when he saw them. He hadn’t expected to meet the Hall Lord. Rolling his eyes, he bowed in the narrow stairway.
The Vice Unit Leader said evenly to Hae-rak,
“On the way up, I ordered them to check the Hubei Passage.”
Hae-rak looked at him wordlessly.
“I thought maybe the Blue Blood Hall Lord had left gatekeepers behind so we couldn’t follow. You hate troublesome things, don’t you? So I told them to clear it in advance.”
Hae-rak smiled faintly at the subordinate who had acted without being told.
“Looking at you, I think I understand why the Blood Demon can’t kill me.”
“…That’s a compliment, right?”
Instead of answering, the Hall Lord’s lips curved. Though uneasy, the Vice Unit Leader chose to take it as praise and kept quiet.
At that moment, the nervous cultist spoke carefully.
“When I checked, there were traces of it being opened. I don’t know how to unseal a formation, so I couldn’t track beyond it, but it was clear someone went inside. We also searched the rock path nearby—no human traces. There were two sets of footprints leading up to the formation.”
So only two people had gone through; the Blue Blood Hall Lord hadn’t taken subordinates. That couldn’t have been out of haste.
'She must have planned to return to the Central Plains.'
To settle there again.
And the Blood Demon had allowed it.
Hae-rak swallowed a sigh.
The reason that precious Blue Blood Hall Lord had been sent merely to carry one orthodox woman was obvious.
The Blood Demon, too, suspected Tang Sohwa might have turned back time.
And since Tang Sohwa had heard the story about the Blood Demon from him, she must have guessed why the Blood Demon sought him.
Yet she’d had the nerve to ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) follow the Blue Blood Hall Lord to meet the Blood Demon.
'She’s out of her mind.'
Hae-rak knew well how deeply Tang Sohwa despised the Blood Cult.
For someone like her to do something this insane just to meet the Blood Demon—her motive was plain.
'She wants to kill the Blood Demon with her own hands.'
Hae-rak murmured before realizing it.
“…A lunatic.”
The very words Tang Sohwa had often said to him slipped from his own mouth.
He rubbed the back of his head and turned his gaze aside.
“Doyu, bring me the arm.”
“Yes, please wait a moment.”
Though the command lacked a subject, the Vice Unit Leader understood immediately—it meant the Red Blood Hall Lord’s arm they’d taken earlier. Hae-rak didn’t stop him when he went down to the storage.
If the Red Blood Hall Lord found out, he’d flip the table, but Hae-rak figured bringing it would make the Blood Demon more interested in him than in Tang Sohwa.
***
Sohwa lifted her eyes to the sky tinged with dawn.
Judging by the light, the time zone wasn’t far from Hubei; either that, or she had moved far above or below it.
Since the Alliance Leader wouldn’t tell her, she had chosen to find out herself—and now that she was actually inside the Blood Cult’s heart, tension began to rise.
Crunch.
The Blood Cultist walking ahead suddenly stopped.
A steep cliff lay before him.
Sohwa’s eyes narrowed.
Because beneath the cliff stretched a vast basin, large enough to hold an entire city.
Yet the basin was empty—only a black shadow, like the mouth of a deep pit. Beyond the dark circle, the tips of rooflines jutted out, their shapes forming the illusion of a city wall’s shadow.
Whether by sorcery or illusion, the true form was hidden, but the shadow could not be concealed.
Then the man’s easy voice sounded ahead.
“Hey, come here.”
The Blood Cultist kicked aside some snow. A hole covered with cloth appeared—wide enough for two to enter at once.
“Heh heh. Long ago, the Master melted a hole through the ice wall because he was too lazy to go down properly. Crazy bastard. We all panicked, thinking an intruder had broken in, and he had the gall to say, ‘Why suffer when there’s such an easy way?’ He spent over a month locked in the dungeon afterward and never reflected.”
He snickered, cursing Hae-rak by name, then met her eyes.
“Still, this was one of the few decent things he ever did. Since you’re visiting Geumeunsan in a season when the walls can’t be climbed, you’re quite lucky.”
At those words Sohwa frowned.
'Don’t tell me…'
While suspicion clouded her gaze, the man slipped feet-first into the hole.
“Ahahaha!”
A coarse laugh echoed all around.
Moments later, the man shot out midway down the cliff and dropped into the basin below.
Brushing snow from himself, he waved eagerly.
“Ahaha! Hurry and come down! Ha, it’s been ages since I slid like that—what fun!”
Sohwa’s eyes dimmed.
…Why is there never a sane person in the Blood Cult?
Jumping off the cliff might have been better.
But she couldn’t risk arousing suspicion after coming this far.
Suppressing self-disgust, Sohwa entered the burrow.
Some time later, she was spat out and landed lightly on the snowy plain. She hadn’t sunk, so there was no need to shake off snow.
The Blood Cultist clicked his tongue in disappointment.
“Click. Orthodox people have no romance. You just go through without enjoying the fun.”
She ignored him. More pressing was that the shadows she had seen before were gone now that they’d descended.
And soon she realized—it was because she was standing inside the shadow.
Sohwa swallowed dryly.
The endless darkness around her evoked a fear like being trapped in a vast sea.
'…So the Alliance Leader entered this place how many times?'
She found herself admiring his courage anew.
She could imagine what the hearts of those orthodox warriors must have felt when they first stepped inside.
Even the strongest must have felt fear in their bones.
“……”
Sohwa’s gaze darkened.
'Could it be that the Grand Elder came here too?'
If the Alliance Leader had gathered warriors to destroy the Blood Demon, surely he had also sought help from Heukcheon Amgui.
He had said he never once defeated the Blood Demon; that with each repeated life, his comrades died more cruelly.
Sohwa’s expression hardened.
The fear at her core began to fade.
Cold moonlight gleamed in her once-dark eyes.
“Oh! Here we are.”
The Blood Cultist walking along the shadow suddenly stopped. He held up a name plaque toward the air.
Creak.
A sound of doors opening—then a warm breeze flowed out ahead.
“Ahh, I can breathe again!”
In an instant, the man’s body vanished like a mirage.
A cutting wind grazed Sohwa’s cheek, carrying his distant shout.
“What are you doing? Hurry and get in!”
Left alone in the snowfield, Sohwa stepped forward toward the warmth.
Shhhhh.
With each step came a strange sound at her ears—like ice melting away, or fine sand pouring into a bottle.
Following the sound, twigs began to sprout from the ground one by one—terrifyingly fast. After only a few steps, her view was blocked by a dark forest.
So the world inside the walls had been an illusion.
Tense, Sohwa fixed her eyes on the Blood Cultist standing among the ancient trees.
He warned her in a casual tone,
“Stay close. If you step back by mistake, you’ll be recognized as an intruder.”
His voice was as relaxed as if returning home.
Loosening up, he continued in a chatty tone,
“Just walk the designated path with a heart that obeys the Blood Demon. Follow well. Walk quietly for a full day and you’ll pass the Trial of Marriage. Nothing hard about it. Just keep walking calmly like you have.”
Brushing branches aside, the Blood Cultist tapped a tree.
“This is the boundary of the formation. Here’s why you mustn’t step backward inside. If you tread again on a boundary you’ve crossed once, the formation will judge the marriage as invaded. So be careful.”
His face was full of smiles.
“If you fail the Trial of Marriage, this peaceful forest will turn into hell.”
He kept warning her now and then—this is the boundary, be careful—but no matter how many times he did, Sohwa couldn’t tell where those boundaries were.
She understood now why this formation served as a test to distinguish intruders.
The structure itself was one only Blood Cult members could navigate.
Each time she passed one of those unseen thresholds, the air grew warmer, and she gradually realized they were moving toward the center.
The sorcery seemed endless.
The Alliance Leader’s words about the Blood Demon’s obsession with sorcerers struck home.
While she walked through the forest, the sun rose, set, and rose again.
After walking an entire day, the Blood Cultist shouted joyfully,
“At last! We’ve reached the Middle Gate!”
Beaming, he pulled out the name plaque once more.
Then the hanging branches slithered closer. Like fingers, they carefully stroked the plaque—then suddenly froze.
Boom.
With a sound like thunder, the illusion before them split open like a door.
The Blood Cultist chuckled and spread both arms wide.
“Congratulations! You, a mere unbeliever, have earned the honor of entering Geumeunsan.”