The infernal realm was the birthplace of demons, where ghosts and spirits with too much resentment or evil energy ended up going. The place was separated from the underworld where people who died were; entering the infernal realm was a conscious choice someone had to make, which meant that nothing that came out of there could be anything good. All talismans that involved the infernal realm were considered forbidden, for one reason: if the border between the living world and the infernal realm was successfully eroded, an infernal rift would open, and thousands of people would be in imminent danger.
Gyuvin felt something overtake him just then, like a bottle of water overflowing, like a dry fountain bubbling to life, like a dormant volcano awakening with new vengeance. In a blink his dwindling spiritual reserves restored to its full capacity, energy filling him like a vessel, shooting down to the tips of his fingers, an energy like he’d never felt before. Standing there under the roiling sun, it was like he was opening his eyes for the first time.
Summoning Yuexi, he moved immediately. He didn’t know what the source of his new power was, but he needed to act quickly and make the best of it.
“Rain!”
The array opened up, bigger than it had ever been, so wide Gyuvin couldn’t even see its edges. Heavenly light descended from the sky, burning through every demon that escaped from the infernal rift, sending ash and dust fluttering through the air like a deadly snow. Gyuvin held up the array for almost a full minute before letting it close. His breath caught in his throat as he let Yuexi dissipate, sending him into a coughing fit; when he pulled his hand away, he saw blood. He was using too much of his spiritual powers too quickly for his body to handle.
He could see the Mushan Temple cultivators talking to Han Seungho and Lee Eunyoung not far away, and he got closer to hear what they had to say.
“There is a very strong spiritual suppression array at work on this Peak,” one of the monks said calmly. There was a glimmering barrier protecting them as they spoke; it seemed like the suppression array, whatever it was, didn’t affect the newest arrivals to the Peak. “Until it is destroyed, your spiritual powers will not return. It is imperative that you locate the control points of the array and destroy them immediately.”
Han Seungho pointed in Gyuvin’s direction. “He’s the only one on this entire Peak who didn’t have his cultivation suppressed. Don’t you see how he’s wielding a holy weapon?”
Gyuvin backed away, wondering how bad it would look if he turned and ran now.
“If anything, let him help you,” Han Seungho continued. “He knows the grounds well.”
One of the monks nodded, and walked over to where Gyuvin was. “Young master, I’m afraid we need your assistance. Do you have any idea where the array could be controlled from? We could search the entire grounds, but it would take too long.”
Gyuvin wracked his brains, thinking hard. If the array spanned the entire peak but didn’t reach Mushan Temple, that meant it had to be limited to only the immediate area, which meant the focal points couldn’t be far. Such a strong array couldn’t possibly cover too wide of an area, anyway, without taking an insurmountable amount of energy. “We should start by searching the perimeter of the Peak grounds,” he answered decisively, looking around at the raging chaos. “But-“
“We will focus on clearing up the demons and getting all the cultivators to a safe place,” the monk reassured him. “Please help us look for the source of the array’s power. You are best suited for it at the moment.”
“Okay, I understand.” Gyuvin leapt onto the outer wall using qinggong, surveying his surroundings. Running along the outer walls and keeping his eyes peeled for anything on the ground would be the fastest way to clear the perimeter of the grounds, and he didn’t have any more time left to waste.
As he ran, balancing along the tops of the Peak’s outer walls, there was a flash of something devastatingly bright behind him, and he turned to look. The monks in dark brown robes hovered several feet up in the air, a thin, almost invisible barrier held up between their open palms. They were creating a gigantic shield to keep any more demons from entering the courtyard.
Gyuvin neared the cultivators’ sleeping quarters, and something bright near the ground caught his eye. He leapt neatly back down to ground level to get a closer look, watching carefully for anything in his surroundings; he summoned Yuexi to his side and the polearm materialized in his hand, humming in acknowledgement.
As he got closer, the source of the bright light became obvious. The willow tree by their bamboo grove, the one that he and Minwoo had just seen a few days ago, had grown exponentially again, towering over the rest of the bamboo and over him. Its branches hung low, leaves wrapping around something near its center, as if to protect it. The entire willow tree glowed with a bloodlike, sinister red energy, and dark red veins ran from the tree’s roots into the dirt beneath his feet, spreading out all around him.
Was this willow tree the control point of the suppression array? Gyuvin swung out with Yuexi and slashed away at the low-hanging boughs, trying to unwrap what was in the middle. The leaves curled up and died the second they were cut from their stem, but immediately more slithered in to take its place, almost as if the tree itself was sentient. Giving up, he dismissed Yuexi and summoned spiritual power to his fingertip, drawing quick strokes in midair.
Light!
He drove ten times the energy of a regular light talisman into the heart of the willow tree with one slam, and in the next second he was thrown backwards, flying through the air like a ragdoll. He landed a few feet away, his hand raised to protect himself, but nothing came. The willow tree had splintered down its center, all of its boughs burned off and withered, dead leaves fluttering through the air. The red glow surrounding the tree had faded away, and the veins streaking the ground had retreated back into its roots, like a symbol of surrender.
Getting up slowly, Gyuvin inched closer to take a look inside the tree, and as he got closer, he recognized what the boughs had been protecting. A human heart, wet with fresh blood, still faintly beating.
A heart…was it a coincidence, then, that the murders from just days ago had involved the carving of hearts? If it wasn’t a coincidence, then logically, six murders and six hearts meant there were six willows that had to be destroyed. He couldn’t even be sure that the willows were the mechanism controlling the array, or if it was something else entirely unrelated, but at this point it was clear the willows had to do with something sinister, and it was best to just destroy them as soon as possible.
Abandoning the dying heart on the ground, Gyuvin took off running. Now that he knew what he was looking for, the other five willows were not difficult to find; they were located in an almost perfect circle around the grounds of the Peak, six willows in total planted in what looked like random places, with demonic energy veins running through the ground, all protecting a human heart within its core.
As he destroyed the core of the last willow tree, removing the heart from its dead branches, a collective shout echoed from the main courtyard.
“Everyone, the suppression has been lifted! I can feel it!”
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