EP.23 Why Are You Here Again...? (3)
Gu Yangcheon’s quarters shook from the Sword Venerable’s qi. Elder Lee immediately unleashed his qi to shield the quarters.
Rough and fierce. To think the qi of a swordsman who hadn't even drawn his sword could be this sharp.
‘They say a dragon grows larger with age, and those words couldn't be more true…….’
A drop of sweat fell along Elder Lee’s jaw.
This was the level of qi that had leaked out after piercing through the Sword Venerable’s shaken emotions.
The Three Great Masters Under Heaven.
The Sword Venerable was clearly proving that his title was no empty name.
“You’re crossing the line, Gu Ryun.”
“You know better than I do what my words mean, Senior.”
A master’s field of vision is vast. If an expert of Elder Lee’s caliber were to fully unleash his qi, he could overlook half of the Gu family’s estate within his感知 domain.
He couldn’t grasp the every move of experts like the Family Head or the Sword Venerable just yet, but he could perceive the actions of others.
The presence a person exudes comes across even more distinctly to a martial artist.
That was how Elder Lee knew.
“You must have known already, so why do you pretend not to?”
Elder Lee thought of Wi Seol-ah.
She was a girl with impossibly beautiful features, but from Elder Lee’s perspective, it was a different story.
There was nothing.
Wi Seol-ah didn’t emit a shred of the presence a human being should possess.
Awe, or fear.
These two contradictory words came to mind upon seeing Wi Seol-ah.
She lacked everything a human being should inherently possess. Yet, Wi Seol-ah’s hollow interior was filled with something else entirely.
Light, or darkness? At Elder Lee’s level, he couldn’t see that far.
But what about the Sword Venerable? Could the Sword Venerable also not see it?
“What is that child’s true identity, Senior?”
“My granddaughter is human, Gu Ryun!”
The Sword Venerable slammed his hand onto the desk.
With a crack, the desk collapsed, and in that instant, the Sword Venerable’s qi exploded.
As a result, a massive shock surged into Elder Lee’s body, which had been wrapped in qi to protect the quarters.
However, he didn’t show it.
Elder Lee swallowed his boiling blood and continued speaking.
“Do you think that if you find the Divine Physician, you can fill that child with something else?”
The Divine Physician was an old man audaciously called a god-sent doctor, but could he really do such a thing?
Her presence was so faint that one might not notice her even if she approached from behind. Even when he had faced the Dark King, the former master of the Cheolya Assassin Squad who was called the King of Assassins, her presence hadn't been this shallow.
But the strange thing was that Wi Seol-ah’s inside was completely filled with something else.
It was fundamentally different from the Innate True Qi that every human possesses or the internal qi filling the dantian.
Elder Lee felt an incomprehensible infiniteness within Wi Seol-ah’s body.
‘What in the world is that….’
To a human, ignorance equates to terror. Elder Lee clearly felt terror towards Wi Seol-ah.
What could possibly be inside that little child? He was curious, but he didn’t want to know.
His instincts told him so. That it was something that should never be opened.
“Is that why you’ve come to live in seclusion now, Senior? Afraid others might see?”
How would other martial artists see Wi Seol-ah? What if they saw her similarly to Elder Lee?
In the first place, there would be very few martial artists in the Central Plains at the level to see such things from Wi Seol-ah.
However, there weren’t none at all. If they were to see Wi Seol-ah’s secret like Elder Lee?
How would they judge the unknowable thing visible in that small child?
Of course, judging by the Sword Venerable’s expression, it didn’t seem to be solely for that reason, but it looked like he couldn’t ask any further.
A chilling sensation ringing down his back.
It felt as if dozens of invisible sword tips floating around were glaring at Elder Lee.
The Sword Venerable’s hand held nothing.
But these swords were undoubtedly all the Sword Venerable’s.
Was this the Heart Sword, the highest realm a swordsman could reach?
Elder Lee, not being a swordsman, couldn’t know.
“If I ask any more, it seems you’ll slice your junior down without hesitation.”
“Gu Ryun, the very reason you are alive right now is thanks to that, so don’t feel resentful.”
“I cannot know what you are thinking, Senior, nor why you are embracing and raising that child. And I am not curious, either.”
He didn’t care what others thought. His life was too overwhelming just looking at the path he had to walk.
That was Elder Lee’s belief.
“If it were the Senior from the past, you wouldn’t have worried.”
In Elder Lee’s eyes, the Sword Venerable looked precarious.
The sword called the Sword Venerable, which he thought would never rust, felt dulled by a heart demon.
The pillar of the Righteous Faction, the sky of the Righteous Faction. The Sword Venerable was called such, and he was one worthy of being called so.
Elder Lee had also felt awe towards the sky contained within that diminutive physique.
But what about now?
The once-so-high sky could be seen cracking little by little. Looking at the Sword Venerable like that, Elder Lee spoke.
“If you say that child is human, Senior, then I will think so too. If you intend to embrace her, then do so. My will shouldn’t be of much importance, however.”
Leaving the shattered desk behind, Elder Lee stood up.
To fulfill the Family Head’s request, Elder Lee had to head to the Namgung Family immediately.
“Do not regret the choice you have made, Senior. There is nothing more pathetic than that. Though you would know that best yourself.”
Not long after Elder Lee slipped out of the quarters, the Sword Venerable’s qi vanished.
Having retracted his sharply poised qi, the Sword Venerable swept a hand down his face.
‘Is that child really human?’
Elder Lee’s words lingered in his ears. Is she human? His granddaughter was definitely human.
The Demonic Realm.
The place where the Sword Venerable brought Wi Seol-ah from. The Sword Venerable had erased the memories of that time.
From the very moment he first met the child. The moment her pretty mouth held him, the moment they walked hand in hand across the fields.
Every single one of those moments told the Sword Venerable that Wi Seol-ah was human.
No matter what Wi Seol-ah possessed, even if that child was destined to be at the center of the blood calamity that would befall the world.
He just had to slash away such a fate. He swore upon his sword, which he had honed and sharpened for that very purpose.
No matter what Wi Seol-ah was. No matter what the blood calamity was.
If it was for his granddaughter, the Sword Venerable could burn away his insignificant remaining life without a moment’s hesitation.
Then, the Sword Venerable carefully gathered the pieces of the desk he had shattered, one by one.
“I’m sorry...”
Even after living through so many years, the fact that he still couldn’t control a single emotion made the Sword Venerable feel his discipline was lacking.
So what if Wi Seol-ah wasn’t human?
What she lacked as a human could just be filled.
If necessary, he would give up even his own life.
The Sword Venerable was resolved to do so.
Like that, a few hours later.
The Sword Venerable belatedly realized that Wi Seol-ah had disappeared from the estate.
******************
How long had it been since we rode the carriage? My butt was slowly getting stiff.
Looking outside, the sun had already set. Soon, we would enter a forest path, so it was time to slowly take a rest.
Soon, the carriage stopped, and we began preparing to camp. There was a valley nearby, making it a good area to camp.
Was it because I had been sitting for so long? My whole body was stiff.
Muyeon had a haggard face for some reason, then suddenly said he was going to train and disappeared somewhere with his sword.
He said he’d be back before the night watch, so he can do as he pleases.
The servants began preparing the meal, and I stood in a field not far away.
How much farther to Sichuan?
Even at the very least, it would take a few more days. As always, this damnably huge land takes forever just to traverse.
It wasn’t for nothing that the Murim Alliance in the past tried to tame demonic beasts capable of gliding through the sky.
Of course, as a result, it failed like the Deer-Horned Hound.
In the end, the Murim Alliance judged that taming demonic beasts was impossible.
‘...Though the Heavenly Demon was different.’
Funnily enough, the Heavenly Demon could do what the Murim Alliance couldn’t even after years of research.
The Heavenly Demon tamed demonic beasts.
Just him breathing was enough to make demonic beasts bow their heads.
Even massive demonic beasts that looked like they could swallow the family’s pavilions in one bite were like gentle sheep to the Heavenly Demon.
On the day he erased the Huashan Sect from the Central Plains in his past life, the Heavenly Demon appeared in the sky riding a massive demonic beast.
Does it even make sense to tame a demonic beast?
“Is someone who can do such a thing really human?”
Just recalling it gives me cold sweats.
I had to stop thinking about it quickly. First, I needed to recall the tasks ahead of me.
I circulated my internal qi to erase distracting thoughts. I had trained as much as I could, but my internal qi reserves were too small to improve in such a short time.
It felt like it would take a long time for the Gu Yeom Hwa Run Gong, which was still stuck at the 2nd Star, to reach the 3rd Star.
The physical aspect was one thing, but setting that aside for now, the most urgent issue was the amount of internal qi.
This was something I had also felt during the sparring match with Gu Jeol-yeop.
With a severely lacking amount of internal qi, there were things I couldn’t do even if I wanted to.
This was an issue directly tied to my life in real combat.
Stepping forward with my left foot, I thrust my fist forward.
Bang!
The sound of air bursting could be heard from my swiftly extended fist.
Just doing this once gives the sensation of internal qi draining right out of my dantian.
I endure it and connect to the next stance.
From arm to leg, and from leg to arm again. Due to my inflexible body, it didn’t smoothly transition into the desired movements.
Amidst all that, the internal qi had to flow fluidly.
Ultimately, martial arts is a realm of sensation that the body remembers.
The realm of a martial artist is not easily given to the unprepared.
It meant to shut up and repeatedly train.
Repeating the same movements a few times like that, my lower belly already throbbed.
It meant my internal qi was depleted.
“Huu...”
As if spitting out the remaining dregs, I exhaled the last of my internal qi with my breath.
I trained for a short while, but my whole body was already covered in sweat. My insufficient internal qi constantly holds me back.
Thoughts of the Mado Heopcheon Gong kept crossing my mind.
This was the fastest and easiest method.
If demonic qi truly didn’t accumulate in the body, there would practically be no better mental cultivation method for building internal qi than this.
However.
“I barely escaped, I don’t want to crawl back into that fucking path.”
Even if demonic qi didn’t accumulate, it was ultimately the Heavenly Demon’s martial art.
Let alone properly verifying whether demonic qi had accumulated from merely absorbing a couple of demonic stones.
My desire not to be associated with that place was strong.
‘Not yet... Not yet.’
This is a curse. If regression was a blessing, a curse must have come attached to it.
At the very least, it was important to properly investigate and confirm.
How much time had passed since I started training? Maybe about an hour or so.
I soon stopped the short training session, and when I also stopped the continuously circulating Gu Yeom Hwa Run Gong, the night wind felt exceptionally cold.
I should feel less cold due to the characteristics of the mental cultivation method, so it must be because I was drenched in sweat.
I returned to the campsite, asked for a change of clothes, and headed to the valley.
I wanted to just eat and lie down out of laziness, but I still wanted to maintain the title of a scion of a prestigious family, so I had to at least keep up appearances.
The moment I was about to sluggishly dip my feet into the valley.
-Kyaaah!
My head snapped around at the ear-piercing scream.
It was none other than the direction of the cargo carriage carrying the food ingredients.
Wondering what had happened, I quickly ran towards the carriage.
What? Did bandits attack? I heard bandits and the like had practically disappeared since the Demonic Realm Gate emerged.
As I approached the carriage, the servant was peeking towards it, terrified.
“What’s going on?”
Muyeon, as well as the other guards, had already gathered after hearing the scream.
“Um... I saw something moving inside.”
The servant answered in a slightly trembling voice.
“Inside the cargo carriage?”
Did a wild animal sneak in after smelling the food? If possible, I hoped it was an edible animal.
A guard quickly brought a lantern and illuminated the inside of the carriage.
Then, something moved inside the carriage.
It appeared with a rustling sound, and sensing it wasn’t a small beast, the guard drew his sword.
And what came into the light was.
“Umm... Hmm?”
None other than Wi Seol-ah, with a carrot in her mouth.
I saw that and couldn’t open my mouth for a while.
...Why are you here again?
‘...Ah, my life.’
In a situation that looked like things had gone royally screwed, a headache rushed in for the first time in a while.