Urban Vagabond: Reload

After Shin Kangheon’s aggrieved testimony, with Bu Yeonha adding her own explanation—

“So.”

Sunwoo Jeha looked at Kim Muhyuk, who was avoiding her gaze, as if he were some kind of incomprehensible life-form and asked,

“You already have your spirit sight open, anomalies avoid you for some reason, and you tamed that cursed sword by yourself?”

“I think there’s a bit of exaggeration there......”

Kim Muhyuk’s attempt at an explanation was immediately shot down by Shin Kangheon and Bu Yeonha before it could even begin.

“Exaggeration my ass. I know a spellcraft user, and whenever this bastard goes to that guy’s office with me, all the anomalies run and hide in the bathroom.”

“......I can’t go into detail because it concerns my sect, but Muhyuk once startled our sect leader over something related to anomalies.”

If it had only been Shin Kangheon, Kim Muhyuk might have been able to argue his way out somehow.

But with Bu Yeonha—who had actually seen him handle the Namcheon Sword—backing it up too, there was nowhere left for him to run.

In the end, Kim Muhyuk let out a deep sigh and admitted it without resistance.

“This was the one time I really wanted to stay humble, but that’s not turning out to be easy.......”

“Stop muddying the water and get out!”

“Kim Muhyuk, you really are obnoxious.”

“No, seriously, how does Muhyuk have every talent there is?”

While the young rising stars bickered back and forth, Sunwoo Jeha studied Phantom Dream hanging at Kim Muhyuk’s waist once more.

He handled that by himself?

A sacred weapon brimming with sinister energy.

Naturally, she had assumed some martial artist above supreme-master level had subdued it and broken it in for him.

I expected him to be talented, but.......

If everything Shin Kangheon and Bu Yeonha had said was true, then he was on a level far beyond what she had expected.

At least when it comes to anomalies, he might even be more talented than Han Shinhu.

Of course, Sunwoo Jeha had no intention of saying that out loud to Kim Muhyuk.

After a brief silence, she folded her arms and said to the young rising stars,

“Come with me. We’ll find out if we check directly.”

The four young rising stars followed Sunwoo Jeha toward a forbidden ground hidden deep in the center of the Transcendent Extremity Gate.

The farther they went, the fewer people there were, and the surroundings grew darker and darker, as though the sunlight itself were thinning out.

“Creepy.......”

Kim Muhyuk muttered as he looked around at the bleak wind blowing past.

It was just as his sharpened senses began picking up unpleasant things little by little.

“Hey, Junior Muhyuk.”

Kang Hyuntae had somehow drifted up beside him and spoke with an easy smile.

“You already know all this stuff anyway, so isn’t it boring? Doesn’t look like there’s anything left for you to learn. How about giving an older senior a chance?”

It was blatantly an attempt to cut down the number of competitors, but he was so shameless about it that it almost came off like a joke.

At that brazen attitude, Kim Muhyuk only laughed and shrugged.

“I think I’m the one learning the most here.”

And that was true.

Kim Muhyuk was learning more from Sunwoo Jeha than he had expected.

Even when it was something he already knew, hearing it explained from the perspective and standards of the Strongest in Korea made him realize things all over again.

At Kim Muhyuk’s answer, Kang Hyuntae shook his head with a look of resignation.

“The ones who already have everything are always the greediest.......”

“Hyung. I told you it wouldn’t work.”

Shin Kangheon came over and jabbed Kang Hyuntae in the side. Over the last few days, the two of them had gotten close enough to start casually calling each other hyung and dongsaeng.

“You were the one who said we should kick him out.”

“I was just saying it. If he actually leaves, it’ll feel weird. You have to beat him fair and square with skill. Right, Senior Bu Yeonha?”

Bu Yeonha, who had been gazing at Sunwoo Jeha’s back with open admiration, nodded in agreement.

“Right. I don’t want to make it to the end because somebody forced a concession for me.”

“Ha, if all of you say that, what does that make me?”

By the time the young rising stars finished talking, they had already reached their destination.

Sssssss......

It was a traditional tiled building.

But with dozens of sacred ropes wound around it and talismans plastered all over the walls, it radiated an atmosphere that made it hard to approach.

“I just got chills.......”

“Doesn’t {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} it feel colder all of a sudden?”

The area around the forbidden ground was dark and chilly, as though sunlight refused to reach it, and the Transcendent Extremity Gate martial artists standing guard there let out sighs when they spotted their sect leader.

“Sect Leader? Why again.......”

Apparently, this was far from the first time she had come to this forbidden place.

“Open it.”

One of the guards was just about to comply when he noticed the young rising stars behind Sunwoo Jeha and hesitated.

The oldest-looking of the guards, a middle-aged man, asked,

“Are those kids going in too?”

Sunwoo Jeha nodded as if it were nothing.

“Field trip. I made a deal with the Martial Alliance Leader. I said I’d take responsibility for teaching them about anomalies.”

Yeo Pilgeuk had never made any such agreement, but the guard had no way to verify that.

In the end, after letting out a long sigh, he glared at the young rising stars and warned them,

“......Understood. You lot, don’t touch anything carelessly. If something goes wrong, it could cause trouble that your lives alone wouldn’t be enough to answer for.”

At the brutal warning, the young rising stars swallowed dryly.

Creeeeak......

The Transcendent Extremity Gate martial artists stepped aside, and the tightly shut doors opened to either side.

Thooom.

Beyond the doors, opened with that ominous sound, stood a massive stake at the center of the forbidden ground.

Sealed Demon Ground.

Red characters, as though written in blood, were carved into the stake, and beneath it was a stairway leading underground.

“Ground where a demon is sealed? Sect Leader, is this perhaps.......”

Bu Yeonha stared at the stake with shaking eyes.

As befitted the successor to the sect leader of one of the Eight Great Sects, she seemed to have realized what this place was.

“That’s right. Come on.”

Sunwoo Jeha nodded casually and stepped inside first. Kim Muhyuk and Shin Kangheon followed after her before anyone could stop them.

“This really does look dangerous.”

“Doesn’t it feel like we just came to a haunted house?”

“Wait! Do you two even know where this is before you just walk right in?”

“Ugh. This is insane. Seriously.......”

Bu Yeonha and Kang Hyuntae followed after them with uneasy expressions.

Inside the forbidden ground, a straight path ran toward the central stake, while on both sides stood rows upon rows of crocks, well over a hundred of them.

“Don’t touch those.”

Sunwoo Jeha warned Shin Kangheon, who had walked up to one to take a look.

“Those are anomalies that were captured, sealed, and locked away. Among anomalies, the ones that eat people. The ones that cause disasters. The cunning ones that delight in slaughter, plunder, and deceit are sealed in there.”

“Gulp.......”

The crocks varied in size, from ones that only came up to the waist to others taller than Shin Kangheon.

“Why seal them instead of killing them all?”

The question came from Kim Muhyuk.

He had known that the Eight Great Sects had suppressed anomalies for centuries, but he had still wondered why they preserved them like this instead of destroying them outright.

“Most are used for research. Makes it easier to deal with them later. Sometimes they get used commercially too.......”

Sunwoo Jeha’s flat voice echoed quietly throughout the forbidden ground.

A little later, they crossed the forbidden ground and arrived at the stake in the center.

After glancing once at the stake carved with Sealed Demon Ground, Sunwoo Jeha immediately descended the stairs leading underground.

When the young rising stars followed after her, she spoke in a low, settled voice.

“......And sometimes, there are ones that don’t die.”

What lay underground was a completely different world from the forbidden ground above.

Grrrrrrrr!

Kyaaaaaaah!

Kikikikyakakaka!

Anomalies of every imaginable shape were imprisoned there, shrieking.

A beast-like anomaly on four legs, a spiritual body pinned through a stake and mounted on the wall, a sword writhing while bound in chains.......

The only thing they all had in common was the vicious aura every last one of them carried.

“This is insane.......”

“All of these are anomalies?”

“I’d only heard rumors......”

Shin Kangheon, Bu Yeonha, and Kang Hyuntae all shuddered at the hellscape of monsters locked underground.

Even to Kim Muhyuk, who had experienced countless anomalies in his previous life, the number here was no small thing.

“These are the things you’ll be facing from now on. Get a look at them in advance.”

Sunwoo Jeha’s lesson on anomalies began.

“Most anomalies also have attributes. Most belong to the Five Elements, though some are different.”

FWOOOOSH!

“Gah! What the fuck was that?!”

Shin Kangheon flinched and spun to the side. A snake-shaped anomaly had just breathed fire from its mouth.

Fortunately, the flames could not escape the prison.

Kyaaaaaah!

The snake anomaly, its scales standing on end, bared its fangs and reacted with particular hostility toward Shin Kangheon. Kim Muhyuk watched the sight with interest.

Probably because of Apricot.

Whenever Apricot met Shin Kangheon, the two of them ended up rolling around and playing together.

So it was hardly strange if the aura of a Great Anomaly had naturally rubbed off on Shin Kangheon.

That was why every fire-aligned anomaly either convulsed or cowered whenever Shin Kangheon passed by.

Woooooong!

When they entered a stretch swallowed in pitch-black darkness, a faint white radiance began to flow from Bu Yeonha’s body.

The Azure Sky Sword Gate had once taken the lead in hunting anomalies, carrying demon-subduing power into battle.

And lately, since Bu Yeonha had been spending more time holding the Namcheon Sword while also beginning her training as a successor, that power seemed to have imprinted itself onto her body.

At the sight of Bu Yeonha, Sunwoo Jeha nodded as if she had expected it.

“I’d heard the sword of Azure Sky has always been especially suited for suppressing demons. In that field, you might already be better than your grandfather.”

“......Thank you.”

Bu Yeonha bowed her pale face.

It clearly was not easy for her to endure a place with this many anomalies packed into it.

“Sect Leader. May I ask one question?”

Kang Hyuntae, who had been watching the others, turned to Sunwoo Jeha.

“Why don’t the anomalies react to me at all?”

“Because you don’t have any talent that would provoke them.”

Sunwoo Jeha answered without the slightest hesitation.

At those merciless words, Kang Hyuntae’s face darkened. Then he pointed at Kim Muhyuk and asked,

“Then what about Muhyuk? The anomalies aren’t paying any attention to him either.”

“Him.......”

Sunwoo Jeha tilted her head as if she didn’t understand it either.

Then, as though she had suddenly realized something, she clicked her tongue softly and muttered,

“It’s the opposite.”

“Huh?”

“They don’t want to provoke him. They’re pretending not to notice.”

While Kang Hyuntae still failed to understand what that meant, Kim Muhyuk quietly muttered to himself,

“......This place feels really disgusting.”

Kim Muhyuk could sense every anomaly sealed beneath the ground.

And conversely, all the anomalies could sense Kim Muhyuk as well.

They were simply pretending with all their might not to notice him.

Lick. You look delicious.......

Because Phantom Dream’s spirit body was perched right on its master’s shoulder, drooling greedily.

Terrified that they might get cut apart if their eyes happened to meet, the anomalies were desperately avoiding only Kim Muhyuk.

“That’s enough.”

A little later, Sunwoo Jeha and the young rising stars reached the end of the underground prison.

“You’ve seen enough. We’re going back.”

She stopped in front of the door leading farther down and turned away without any hesitation.

Then—

Thump.

At the faint sound that came from beyond the door, Sunwoo Jeha froze.

She spun around and strode back to it.

“Why is that...... reacting?”

The door had been tightly sealed shut.

For years, absolutely no one—including herself—had entered beyond it.

Thump! Thump!

Beyond that door was a fragment of a Great Anomaly’s heart, torn away at the cost of the previous Transcendent Extremity Gate sect leader’s life—Sunwoo Jeha’s master.

And now it was pulsing as if it were alive.