EP.52 Plum Blossom Sword Dragon (Meihua Jianlong). (2)
"Young Hero?"
Yingfeng called me again.
However, I was in no position to answer Yingfeng's question.
'What was that just now...?'
I must have misheard.
It must be an auditory hallucination.
It definitely had to be.
Otherwise, I might want to bite my tongue off and die right here.
'I must have misheard. I just woke up, after all.'
Yes, it must be because I woke up so abruptly that I hadn't fully snapped out of my dream.
After struggling to organize my thoughts, I first needed to urgently answer Yingfeng.
"...It's noth—"
[Oh, what's this! Can you hear me, brat?]
"Uwaah, fuck!"
Startled by the second voice, I shouted out loud.
Because of that, Yingfeng, who was in front of me, was the most startled, his eyes widening.
Ignoring Yingfeng's reaction, I abruptly hid behind him.
Yingfeng cried out in dismay.
"Y-Young Hero! What are you doing!"
"D-Did, did you just hear something!?"
"Hear something... Are you talking about the curse you just uttered, Young Hero?"
"No... Not that! I mean an old man's voice that sounds really nitpicky and fussy."
"What in the world are you talking about..."
[You little brat! Who are you calling nitpicky!]
"See...!! You really don't hear that!?"
I pressed Yingfeng for an answer, but Yingfeng instead gave me a look as if I were some weirdo.
It was understandable; he came to interrogate me, only for me to suddenly dart behind him, grab his clothes, and hide.
No, fuck, he can't hear this? How can he not hear such a loud voice?
Sound Transmission? No, it was definitely different from Sound Transmission.
It felt like it was striking my brain directly...
[You young little shit, to think I'm hearing this kind of talk from a brat who would have pissed himself just making eye contact with me when I was alive. When you get old, you should just die, just die!]
'When I was alive? Is it really a ghost...!?
[Shut up, you brat! What's a guy with balls between his legs getting so scared for over something like this!]
...Where on earth did this possession come from?
I haven't even passed by any graves or abandoned houses, so why this bolt from the blue...!
[Possessed my foot. You took it upon yourself, you brat.]
At the evil spirit's words.
[Evil spirit!? An e-e-evil spirit!?]
.....I flinched at the ghost's words.
What did it mean I took it upon myself?
[You were gobbling it up so happily, and now you're playing dumb? Aren't you ashamed of yourself, brat!?]
"No! What did I eat that you keep saying this!"
"Y-Young Hero...?"
I ignored Yingfeng, who was now looking at me as if I were scary.
My situation was more urgent right now, so it wasn't the time to worry about face.
At my words, the ghost spoke as if dumbfounded.
[Look at this brat? Did you really not know? Even after sucking it up until your belly was full like that.]
What in the world did this mean?
What did I eat?
[To not even remember properly, I'm at a loss for words. Do you truly not know whose help allowed you to break through the wall?]
Wall?
A thought flashed through my mind at the ghost's words.
The day the Jiuyan Huolun Gong rose to the 4th star.
The dense plum blossom scent I felt the night before.
And the strangely diminished glow of the precious treasure the next day.
It was a spine-chilling thought.
Surely not that.
[Hahaha! Fortunately, you aren't completely stupid.]
...Oh, Gods of Heaven and Earth.
[Thanks to me, you crossed a wall that would have taken a long time so easily, yet you dare treat me like an evil spirit.... Your gall is sticking out of your belly, brat.]
What is this, did Huashan's precious treasure originally have this kind of effect?
No, why would they treat an object possessed by a ghost as a precious treasure? What precious treasure (guiwu)? It's a ghostly object (guiwu)..!
[To still maintain that hopeless mouth of yours even after coming this far.... You're amazing in a different sort of way.]
'Who are you?'
Is a ghost really possessing the precious treasure...?
[Ghost? Do not compare me to such trifling things.]
Along with the ghost's words, my chest tingled.
Is it heat? Yet it felt refreshing and tranquil.
My internal qi moved on its own.
Internal qi moving without one's own will is truly an unpleasant sensation.
It was a sickening feeling, as if hundreds of bugs were crawling up through my flesh.
'I feel like I'm going to throw up....!'
Though it was tranquil, it rampaged all over my body, so it wasn't without pain.
I tried to grit my teeth and endure it, but even that was not easy.
Even in that moment, the ghost's words did not stop.
[I am the 8th Sect Leader of the Great Huashan Sect.]
As the ghost spoke, my chest heaved wildly on its own.
The heavy energy that settled on my shoulders constricted my entire body, eventually penetrating all the way to my dantian.
Yingfeng panicked and supported me, but my fading consciousness only grew further away, showing no signs of returning.
My vision seemed to slowly fade to white.
And then.
[I am the Huashan Immortal Sword (Huashan Xianjian), Shenche.]
With the ghost's final words, I lost consciousness.
******************
The Great Blood Demon War (Xuemo Dazhan).
This refers to the war waged by the Blood Demon centuries ago.
Even though it is called the greatest disaster in the history of the martial world before the appearance of the Heavenly Demon.
Strangely, there were not many stories passed down about the Blood Demon.
The end of history was practically just the saying that it was a cruel and brutal affair, and that the heroes of the time stopped the Blood Demon from turning the Central Plains into a sea of blood.
I wonder why. Whether it was because I had no interest in history, or if there were no records to begin with, or if someone intentionally didn't pass it down, I didn't know.
Regardless, it was true that the records regarding the Blood Demon were particularly sparse.
Iron Fist Golden King (Quantie Jinwang) Jin Yitian.
Glorious Buddha Venerable (Huang'a Fozun) Tie Ying.
Huashan Immortal Sword (Huashan Xianjian) Shenche.
Thunder Heaven One Sword (Leitian Yijian) Nangong Ming.
Poison Severing Heaven (Dujietian) Tang Jimun.
The five absolute masters who blocked the Blood Calamity would have their names recorded in the history of the Central Plains' martial world no matter how many centuries passed.
In that process, Jin Yitian died, and the Jintian Lian Family, which reigned as the number one prestigious family, vanished without a trace.
When Tang Jimun of the Tang Clan also died, there was a time when the Tang Clan was greatly shaken.
Looking at the result, it was fortunate that they were ultimately able to block the Blood Calamity and succeed in killing the Blood Demon.
Because of them, the current Central Plains existed, or so I heard until my ears bled.
Later, when the Heavenly Demon reached out to the Central Plains, many heroes including Weixue'er blocked it together, so wasn't it the same context?
That was why it was even harder to believe.
Holding my throbbing head, I asked.
"...Who did you say you were?"
[I am Shenche, brat.]
"...So, you're saying you are the Huashan Immortal Sword...."
[Do you know how many times you've asked that?]
"Yes, I think I've asked more than ten times."
When I briefly lost consciousness and reopened my eyes, I was inside a carriage instead of outside.
I thought the voice I heard might have been a dream, but contrary to my hopes, the prickly voice was still ringing in my ears as soon as I opened my eyes.
[Prickly? You brat! Your insolent mouth is still the same!]
A fussy voice with a tone full of prickliness. But the Huashan Immortal Sword...?
At least, having grown up as a member of a martial family, it was impossible not to know the moniker Huashan Immortal Sword.
If you asked a Huashan Sect martial artist to pick the most respected person, the first name to come up, excluding the current Sect Leader, was the Huashan Immortal Sword.
His gentle character and popularity were said to have spread beyond Huashan throughout the entire Central Plains.
[Kids these days... tsk tsk. In my time, when a senior spoke, you just believed them first.]
The supreme realm the Huashan Immortal Sword was said to have reached was such that plum blossoms bloomed on withered trees whenever he walked ahead.
[At the very least, when an elder is speaking, you should respectfully listen, but for a grown man to be so terrified...]
"...."
...But I'm supposed to believe this?
Gentle my ass; it feels like a twisted personality that took the harsh winds of time completely wrong. Popularity?
Plum blossoms blooming on withered trees? The plum trees that were already blooming would all wither at this rate...!
'It would be more believable to call him an evil spirit.'
After all, he actually looked closer to that.
Yes, he was definitely an evil spirit.
I must have been possessed by an evil spirit without even realizing it.
'...Fuck, should I really perform an exorcism?'
[You rotten brat...! How dare you talk about exorcism, exorcism in front of a Daoist!]
I grabbed my forehead as my head throbbed again.
How was I supposed to find Huashan's Daoist spirit in that beggar-like way of speaking?
No matter how I looked at it, it was absolutely impossible to believe.
No, why would a hero of Huashan become an evil spirit? It's not something you can believe just because you're told to.
[You were so eager to devour it, and now you're spouting nonsense.]
"Why do you keep saying I ate something?"
[You're playing dumb. I rather want to ask you, brat. How could you, who isn't even a child of Huashan, take the energy so naturally?]
At the evil spirit's words, I couldn't say anything.
Since it had come to this, it would be stranger if it didn't come to mind.
The rich plum blossom scent and the voice I felt in the middle of the night were clear reality, not a dream.
The fact that I had suddenly risen to the 4th star in the morning, was it ultimately correct to see that as the effect of the Madao Tianxi Gong?
'What on earth is going on...'
That was why it was even more questionable. If this happened because of the Madao Tianxi Gong.
It meant that a demonic art that could only be used by touching something had arbitrarily absorbed energy just because the precious treasure was in my embrace.
I thought it was a demonic art that only absorbed the energy of demonic stones, but now even precious treasures...? And arbitrarily at that, without even touching it?
'....This has become a headache.'
It was something I couldn't confirm because the precious treasure's condition didn't seem much different from before.
Coming this far, it felt like my escape routes were disappearing.
[Clearly, there is another internal energy residing in your body, so how can this be...]
"...Before that, if you really are the Huashan Immortal Sword, why are you talking to me in this manner?"
[As I said earlier, brat, it's because you arbitrarily absorbed the stone's energy.]
"Then you mean you were inside the precious treasure the whole time?"
They said it had been hundreds of years since the precious treasure appeared, so did that mean he was inside the stone all that time?
Was that really possible...?
[That is not it. I have not been awake for long.]
"Not for long...?"
What did this mean now?
[Yes, it was right around the time you first picked up the Plum Blossom Stone. That was when I regained consciousness.]
When Elder Li handed me the precious treasure? Then it really meant not long ago.
If those words were true, how on earth...?
Could it be that this was all an auditory hallucination caused by side effects from absorbing the precious treasure's energy...?
I was driven to the point of having such thoughts.
Whether he was truly the Huashan Immortal Sword, or just some random ghost hiding its true identity.
Whatever the case, it was the same in that a troublesome matter had fallen upon me.
[How ridiculous. You tried to break through the wall without knowing your place, so I helped you lest you lose your life, and yet you treat me like an evil spirit again!]
The ghost said.
Just as it said, this was definitely a fortuitous encounter.
Thanks to absorbing the precious treasure's energy, I was able to smoothly overcome what my meridians couldn't withstand due to the rough internal qi.
The problem was that I had been trying hard to ignore it, yet had gained certainty of it through the Sword Dragon's words.
The energy that had mixed into my body.
The faint plum blossom scent that forced its way out no matter how much I tried to hide it.
I was stepping into the Plum Blossom Realm, which Huashan's disciples could only attain after grueling training, despite having no relation to it.
"...What should I do?"
It wasn't going to end with something like, 'Hehe! I ate the precious treasure's energy. I'm sorry.'
It was a problem that someone not recognized by Huashan possessed the internal qi of the Huashan Sect.
But the biggest problem was that I couldn't properly explain how I came to possess that internal qi.
The ghost chuckled at my distress.
[See, who told you to eat it so recklessly.]
"Do you think I ate it because I wanted to...?"
[You gobbled up the energy like a thirsty beast at night, but now you have a lot to say.]
I mean... how hard must I have eaten it for it to be this obvious.
Since it wasn't of my own will, it was even more unjust and annoying.
This damn demonic art... it's trying to ruin even this life where I'm trying so hard to live.
Suppressing the irritation that was rising on its own, I asked.
"...Let me ask you something. Why were you in there in the first place?"
If he was truly the Huashan Immortal Sword, the reason he was attached to the precious treasure in this way.
If he wasn't the Huashan Immortal Sword, I needed to know what his true identity was.
The ghost kept silent for a moment at my question.
[...Hmm.]
Was it something hard to say, or was he choosing his words because it was important?
The brief moment ended, and the ghost's voice was heard.
Unlike before, it was a voice that had become considerably smaller.
[...I also don't know well. Why was I here?]
At the ghost's words, I let out a deep sigh and opened the carriage door.
It was essentially an answer that he knew nothing.
He might be pretending not to remember.
If so, it meant he didn't want to tell me, so either way, it was an unhelpful story.
Huashan Immortal Sword my ass, it was just an evil spirit after all.
I had to stop this unhelpful conversation and quickly go outside.
Because of the events that occurred before I fainted, I needed to check the outside situation right away.
[You brat...! I told you it's not!]
"No, what do you mean no..."
"Oh! Young Hero!"
At the lively voice, the ghost and I stopped talking at the same time.
It was because Yingfeng's voice was heard from afar.
However, the situation was a bit strange.
Because Yingfeng's appearance, unlike his neat look from earlier, had become quite shabby.
Kneeling on both knees with his limbs tightly tied with rope, being threatened at the neck by Wuyeon's sword.
And behind him....
"The Huashan Sect...?"
Martial artists wearing the same white clothes as Yingfeng were facing off against our people.
It didn't look like a friendly atmosphere at all, so I stared at Yingfeng with my eyes wide open.
Yingfeng looked at me and smiled broadly.
"Haha! Young Hero! Could you somehow help me out with this!"
"....What?"
At the voice that was too lively for the situation, a dumbfounded answer unknowingly slipped out of me.
[...Why is that guy acting like that again?]
It seemed like another strange situation had unfolded.