Conquering the Tower Even Regressors Couldn't-Chapter 337: Eighty-First Floor, Monstrous Might and Malevolent Spirits (5)

Chapter 337: Eighty-First Floor, Monstrous Might and Malevolent Spirits (5)

After our brief exchange, we fell silent—we needed time to process what he had just heard.

Within the stillness that settled heavily around us, my mind churned rapidly. Chronologically speaking, the merchant’s claim of having visited an untouched capital didn’t align with the facts.

However, it wasn’t entirely implausible.

The high official set up an illusion barrier around the village.

We had absolutely confirmed that the capital had been attacked; both the general and the high official had proven that much. The merchant had likely been misled, which made the illusion theory the most likely explanation.

Although he had entered the city and hadn’t merely glimpsed the city from afar, there were over three hundred yokai involved. One of them could very well have tampered with his memory or cast an illusion powerful enough to fool him.

There was something I needed to clarify first.

“Ha-Seon.”

“Yes?”

“If a yokai tampers with someone’s memory or casts an illusion, does that leave any trace of their energy?”

“You’re asking about the merchant, aren’t you?”

“Right. I didn’t sense any trace of a yokai’s power from him.”

Ha-Seon answered with a thoughtful expression, “When memories are manipulated, there is absolutely a faint remnant. But it gradually fades with time, and the stronger the yokai, the faster it disappears. However, illusions wouldn’t leave any of those traces. It’s simply something they’ve been deceived into seeing.”

“He didn’t seem like he was lying, and given what we know about the capital, the most probable explanation is an illusion. Although he could have also had his memory manipulated by a powerful yokai.”

“Exactly.”

That left only one question.

Why? Why would the yokai let this merchant leave?

The man didn’t seem exceptional in any way.

He probably wasn’t the only one. There was a high likelihood that a wide-scale illusion had been cast around the capital, distorting the memories of anyone who passed through it.

Three possibilities come to mind.

First, the king could have already been captured. I believed he was likely still alive, given the nature of a hidden mission, but perhaps that assumption was wrong. Perhaps the hidden mission was about rescuing the king from his captor. If completed successfully, the throne would pass to Ha-Seon.

Second, the king is in league with the yokai.

It wouldn’t be unprecedented. After all, I had encountered a similar betrayal before, during the floors in the tens.

An enemy from within.

It would be a cruel twist for Ha-Seon, but perhaps the Great Yokai’s assault had been nothing more than an elaborate act.

Still, that seemed unlikely.

There wasn’t any real incentive for them to go that far.

The yokai were either planning to throw the kingdom into disarray or to use the Celestial Bell to orchestrate something far greater.

The latter felt more probable. After all, the Celestial Bell was linked to the Celestial Realm. If they had gone so far as to cloak the capital in illusion, that suggested they still had unfinished business there.

Perhaps they intend to use the citizens as sacrificial offerings.

Regardless, if the second possibility were true, there would have been no need to hide behind an illusion. Acting openly would have served them just as well.

The third scenario is that they are trying to prevent word of the capital’s fall from spreading.

This would imply they hadn’t yet located the king. If news spread, monks and soldiers from nearby provinces would descend upon the city and complicate their efforts. Casting illusions would allow them to delay that, and the fall of the capital would remain hidden.

It was a plausible theory, but not without its weaknesses.

Some have already escaped the chaos.

I had encountered one of the generals, and he had shared that eight generals had donned royal robes and scattered. Even if the civilians had been unable to escape, some individuals certainly had.

Still, the yokai could be trying to delay the flow of information, hoping to hunt down those who fled before they could spread the truth. The general we met could have been an unforeseen disruption to their plans.

Hmm. The second theory seems unlikely. It is either the first or the third.

If it were the third, we still had time. Despite that, I couldn’t shake the feeling that things were leaning toward the more ominous outcome.

I turned to Ha-Seon. His expression mirrored my thoughts—tense and troubled.

He said nothing, which was understandable, given that we were discussing his father’s fate. I kept my own thoughts to myself as well.

Instead, I turned sharply and started walking ahead. “Ha-Seon, change of plans. Before we head to the Fourth Division, we’re stopping by the capital.”

“Okay.” He followed silently after nodding.

If my third theory were correct, we would lose a bit of time, but that was acceptable. There was no way to know which scenario was true, but ignoring that possibility could lead to something far worse.

The king’s destination was set, though whether the yokai knew it was uncertain. If we found nothing unusual in the capital, we could move swiftly to the garrison.

I picked up speed.

***

As we made our way to the capital, with Ha-Seon leading the way, I steeled myself for the worst. It tied back to the first theory I had considered earlier.

The trial on the eighty-first floor was simple on paper. I had to defeat the Great Yokai and survive for a period of time. That could also imply there was something I wasn’t yet ready to face, however.

Maybe the yokai are planning something with the Celestial Bell, like summoning an evil god.

If I could stop it in time, it would be fine. On the other hand, failing to do so would be disastrous. Perhaps this was the very future The Meticulous Architect had warned me about.

Natalie said that if I gave it everything I had, I could overcome it.

Sure, I had my doubts, but even if I doubted it would happen now, nothing was guaranteed.

I had asked Ha-Seon what exactly the Celestial Bell could do, but even he wasn’t certain. He only knew it as a secret tool handed down through the royal family, and there weren’t any known records of its actual use.

All the more reason to head to the capital and see the situation with my own eyes.

If I could stop it, I would. If not, I would deal with it once I saw what I was up against.

The landscape blurred past us as I ran at full speed.

Ha-Seon, seated beside me, cautiously asked, “Wouldn’t it be a good idea to eat something?”

“I’m fine.”

“It just feels wrong for us to eat while you carry us. You have to be exhausted, too, Mr. Kwon.”

I shook my head firmly. “Food’s not the priority right now.”

That wasn’t a lie. I could go days without eating if needed.

I had given food to Doppy and Ha-Seon because they required it. Moreover, they were seated and protected from the wind, so there was no reason for them to starve. With so much uncertainty ahead, they needed to be in peak condition.

Ha-Seon hesitated. Even now, he was worried about me. He really was too kind for his own good.

“I mean it. Doppy’s a kid, and you’re injured. You two need it. Me? I can go a week without food and barely notice.”

“Thank you.”

When we first set off, the mood had been stiff. By now, it had softened considerably.

That had been intentional on my part. A certain amount of alertness was necessary, but too much could eat away at one’s clarity. Maintaining a healthy amount of optimism would allow someone to stay sharp, although, just as was the case with stress, too much could be a bad thing.

“We should reach the capital in about fifteen minutes, right?”

“Yes, if we keep this pace.”

“Then eat quickly. I’m going to speed up a bit.”

“Okay.”

Ha-Seon and Doppy had been chewing at a somewhat relaxed pace, and they began to eat more hastily.

We hadn’t encountered a single yokai along the way. Though there were apparently over three hundred of them, it wasn’t entirely surprising. There likely weren’t enough of them to guard every inch of the capital and its surroundings.

If the king hadn’t been captured yet, the yokai were likely still pursuing him and thus absent from the capital. If he had been taken, they were probably mostly within it, preparing some elaborate scheme.

Roughly seven minutes later, I came to a stop. The capital wasn’t yet visible, but at this speed, our approach would inevitably be detected even with Shadow Veil.

No one is nearby so far, but still, best to be cautious.

I dissolved the shadow chairs and activated Shadow Veil.

Ha-Seon, now standing on the ground, looked around with a mixture of surprise and awe. “This really is incredible.”

“It’s not foolproof, so you still need to suppress your presence.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.” He nodded seriously and tightened his grip around the fan, the one he had received from the general.

Thankfully, it seemed he had returned to full health, courtesy of Doppy’s sustained divine spells. Aside from the missing arm, he appeared outwardly recovered. I wasn’t expecting anything extraordinary, but he seemed capable of holding his own.

We slowed our pace and began approaching the capital on foot.

After about three minutes, the city walls came into view in the distance. Guards stood in formation before the intact gates, weapons in hand. The general had spoken of a fierce battle, but there was no trace of conflict to be seen.

No yokai either.

“An illusion?”

“Most likely.”

“It feels a little too convincing, though. I don’t sense a barrier either. We’ll need to be careful.”

Ha-Seon nodded.

Unlike before, there wasn’t a discernible flow of the strange yokai energy. It was there, but faint.

As expected.

It had to be the work of a yokai that specialized in illusions.

I tightened my grip on the axe while Ha-Seon raised his fan. His facial muscles had stiffened slightly, and he was clearly on edge.

We moved in cautiously. The walls loomed ever closer, but still, I didn’t sense a barrier. I could only sense the subtlest increase in yokai energy, like the way a drizzle gradually soaked through clothing.

Wait.

A sudden wave of unease swept over me. I couldn’t immediately identify the cause—it was borne of pure instinct. A surge of divine energy stirred within me.

When did we get so close? 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

I froze in place, directing more divinity through me. Clarity returned to my mind.

Beside me, Ha-Seon continued forward in a daze. I swiftly reached out and grabbed his arm. His pupils were beginning to lose focus.

Doppy was in the same state, so I pulled him back using a shadow tendril.

That was dangerously close.

Even I had barely noticed the effect. If I had circulated any less divine energy, I would have lost consciousness as well. Just a few more steps, and I would have ended up like Ha-Seon.

Of course, this was the capital. There was no way the yokai would have left it unprotected. Monks passed through here, so a simple barrier wouldn’t have sufficed to protect the yokai.

Ha-Seon still hadn’t regained his senses.

Now what? I don’t know how to directly dispel illusions.

Nothing came to mind that could be done with mana. As a test, I infused a bit of divine energy into them.

Slowly, Ha-Seon and Doppy’s eyes began to clear. They both blinked in confusion for a moment and glanced around as they pieced together what had just happened.

“Th-that was too close!”

“Thanks, Su-Yeok!”

“Seems like sorcery that creeps in gradually.”

“Yes. It wasn’t a barrier. It lures the target into an illusion, the closer they get. I was on guard, and I even fell for it. Whoever cast it invested considerable effort.”

“Can you defend against it now?”

“Yes. Fortunately, once you’ve broken free, you can resist it. If we’d entered unaware, we may never have realized we’d been caught at all,” Ha-Seon murmured, then lifted his fan and muttered an incantation. A breeze fluttered gently over its surface.

Wind Hawk.

The hawk formed from wind manifested briefly in a smaller form and wrapped around us protectively, then vanished again. Only the refreshing trace of a monk’s power lingered on our skin before we gradually absorbed it. No residual trace remained.

“This feels similar to the yokai energy we encountered.”

“Yes. I patterned it after what I sensed. It’s not much, just a passive defense to gradually filter it out.”

“You should’ve done this earlier.” I hadn’t meant it as criticism, but after hearing myself say it, I realized it came off that way.

I quickly added, “I wasn’t blaming you.”

“I’m sorry. Without knowing the nature of the technique, it’s difficult to prepare for it. Unless you're someone on the level of the High Priest.”

“Think it’s the work of a Great Yokai?”

“I’ve heard that Starfish doesn’t favor illusions. More likely the handiwork of someone like Sorcerer Ichon or the Demoness of Mount Tai.”

For now, we had cleared the immediate danger. The spell had been broken, and Ha-Seon’s monkly power had sunk back into him without drawing attention. With Shadow Veil back in place, we wouldn’t be noticed unless something unexpected occurred.

I rolled my neck to ease the tension, then rolled my fingers over the axe and amplified the divinity coursing through me just in case.

We were ready.

“All right, let’s move in.”

Ha-Seon swallowed hard, his expression taut from nerves. “Sure.”