Silver Dragon Chronicles: Episode 45
“Mm……”
Having left the domain of the Vermilion Bird Palace, Hong Yuhwa narrowed her eyes and looked at Jehwa.
“What?”
Jehwa, who had returned to his original self before anyone knew it, frowned at Hong Yuhwa, who was staring at him.
“What’s with that filthy look?”
“No…… It’s nothing.”
At Jehwa’s words, muttered low under his breath, Hong Yuhwa shook her head and spoke.
“It’s just that there’s some parasite-like eyesore that keeps bothering me.”
“What is it?”
“So, it’s nothing. Don’t mind it. He’s just a leech-like fellow. Ahahahaha!”
Laughing like that, Hong Yuhwa began provoking the other Eunjehwa inside Jehwa.
At that sight, Jehwa, who had been tilting his head with a puzzled expression, suddenly felt his body move on its own and opened his eyes wide.
Thwack!
“Kuh!”
“Oh…… Why is it doing this?”
Hong Yuhwa yelled at Jehwa, who was looking at his own hand with a bewildered expression.
“What do you think you’re doing!”
“My hand just……”
Thwack!
“Agh!”
Once again, Jehwa’s fist struck Hong Yuhwa’s head.
“How strange……”
Hong Yuhwa writhed in pain and rolled across the floor, but Jehwa simply found his own hand moving on its own fascinating.
***
The sudden raid of jiangshi on the Sichuan Tang Clan.
Along with that, warriors of the Blood Cult had also swarmed in, causing the Sichuan Tang Clan to suffer considerable damage.
Buildings were sent flying in every direction by thunderbolt bombs, and many people died.
Even so, it wasn’t damage severe enough to force them to seal their gates, but it was significant enough that the clan would have to devote itself to recovery for the next several years.
“Where did Jehwa go?”
Sawollin muttered with a worried expression, letting out a deep sigh.
If one looked at his strength, there was no reason to worry at all, but if one looked at his personality, it was impossible not to worry.
“What are you so worried about?”
I Seolhye smiled as she looked at Sawollin, who was making a worried face.
“There’s no need to worry. It’s not like that kid is a child anymore.”
Having spoken like that, I Seolhye thought for a moment, then opened her mouth with an awkward smile.
“We don’t…… need…… to worry, right?”
“……”
Don’t ask again after you’ve already convinced yourself.
At I Seolhye’s question, Sawollin’s face contorted fiercely.
“I said don’t ask again after you’ve already convinced yourself!”
“Kah! Why are you taking it out on me! It’s that missing guy’s fault!”
The two grabbed each other by the scruff and shrieked.
As they were fighting like that inside the room, someone entered.
“Excuse me……”
“Huh? You’re……”
Sawollin and I Seolhye tilted their heads as they looked at Dokgo Ryeong, who had entered the room.
“Is everything alright?”
“Does this look like nothing to you?”
Sawollin scowled fiercely at Dokgo Ryeong, who asked with an awkward smile.
“Ahahaha!”
Dokgo Ryeong laughed awkwardly as she watched the two of them rolling around on the bed, pulling at each other’s hair.
“Anyway, what brings you here?”
When I Seolhye, who had shoved Sawollin aside with a frown, asked, Dokgo Ryeong answered.
“Elder Cheong Deung-un told me to call Jehwa.”
“Why does that old man want Jehwa?”
“Well, I don’t know……”
When Sawollin asked with a puzzled expression, Dokgo Ryeong smiled awkwardly. Looking at her, I Seolhye spoke.
“Jehwa isn’t here. We haven’t seen him since yesterday.”
“What?”
Dokgo Ryeong opened her eyes wide at I Seolhye’s words.
“We’ll let you know when he returns,”
I Seolhye said with a smile to Dokgo Ryeong, who nodded at her words.
And just as she was about to go outside!
“I’m back!”
Jehwa entered the room with a bright smile.
“Eek!”
And at Jehwa’s sudden appearance, Dokgo Ryeong let out a strange shriek in surprise.
“Huh? What?”
Jehwa tilted his head curiously as he looked at Dokgo Ryeong, who was startled.
“I-I was surprised……”
When Dokgo Ryeong spoke to him, sighing as she looked at Jehwa, he frowned and said,
“Who stands in front of the door when someone’s coming in?”
Sawollin, scowling as she looked at Jehwa, who spoke like that, said,
“Where did you go?”
“Huh? Somewhere.”
There had been a request from Yeom Hwi-hyeon not to speak of the Vermilion Bird Palace, so Jehwa said nothing about having gone there.
“More importantly, you…… Do you know that woman who appeared back then?”
When I Seolhye asked with a serious expression, Jehwa also answered with a serious expression.
“I don’t know that old hag with the dirty personality.”
“How do you know she has a dirty personality if you don’t know her?”
“Huh? Hmm…… That’s……”
Jehwa pondered deeply for a moment at Sawollin’s sharp(?) point, then spoke with a smile.
“She just seems like she would be.”
At those words, the three women in the room thought inwardly,
‘He knows.’
‘He knows. Where’s he pulling that lie from?’
‘You know, don’t you.’
They were women who did not fall for Jehwa’s lies.
“Don’t lie. We know you know.”
When Sawollin let out a deep sigh and spoke, Jehwa shook his head.
“I don’t know.”
“Liar.”
“I told you I don’t know.”
“So you really don’t know.”
Sawollin, who had been interrogating him with narrowed eyes, stopped when she saw Jehwa speaking while raising his fist.
She knew all too well that if she talked back just one more time, that fist would strike her head.
“Jehwa.”
“Huh?”
As an awkward silence descended, Dokgo Ryeong cautiously called out to him.
“Elder Cheong Deung-un wants to see you.”
“Who’s that?”
Dokgo Ryeong made a bewildered expression at Jehwa’s words.
“You know, that elder from the Wudang Sect whom you saw at the Heavenly Demon Cult……”
“This guy doesn’t know the Wudang Sect or anything like that,”
Sawollin said, letting out a deep sigh as she looked at Dokgo Ryeong explaining in a panic.
“You know, the oldest grandpa when you parted with Seonu Ran.”
“Ah, that grandpa! But why does that grandpa want to see me?”
Dokgo Ryeong smiled awkwardly as she looked at him, tilting his head with a puzzled expression.
“He said he has something to ask you……”
“Hmm…… Do I have to go? What a bother.”
Jehwa was someone who would refuse even if the emperor of this country summoned him, if it was a bother.
Sawollin, who knew that all too well, let out a deep sigh and shook her head at Dokgo Ryeong.
Dokgo Ryeong nodded with a tearful expression upon seeing that.
“I understand. Then please rest.”
***
“He says he wants to rest.”
“How impudent! How dare he, when an elder of the martial world summons him!”
At Dokgo Ryeong’s words, several orthodox martial artists erupted in fury and shouted.
While Dokgo Ryeong was making a slightly bewildered expression seeing that, Cheong Deung-un smiled faintly and spoke.
“I had expected as much but…… Hehehe! I suppose that is befitting of that young hero.”
A middle-aged man who appeared to be from the Wudang Sect shouted as he looked at Cheong Deung-un, who burst into laughter.
“Elder, this is no laughing matter! A mere greenhorn brazenly refusing to come when the Elder summons him, saying he wants to rest! This is an act of disregarding the Wudang Sect!”
Cheong Deung-un clicked his tongue lightly at him and spoke.
“That is the problem with you. How can one who calls himself a disciple of the Dao be so hung up on such things? And what do you mean, an act of disregard? How is resting because one wants to rest an act of disregard?”
‘He did disregard him, though……’
Dokgo Ryeong muttered inwardly at Cheong Deung-un’s words.
Indeed, since he hadn’t come because it was a bother, it was indeed disregard.
“And so what if he disregards us a little?”
“B-but, Elder……”
The middle-aged man made a bewildered expression, and Cheong Deung-un opened his mouth again.
“If he disregards us, what do you intend to do about it?”
“Well, I would go and give him a stern lecture……”
“With what? With force?”
“……”
At Cheong Deung-un’s question, the middle-aged man clamped his mouth shut.
How could one admonish by force a possessor of terrifying might who had easily blown apart the head of a steel jiangshi—a steel jiangshi that possessed skin capable of resisting sword qi and even sword gang to a certain extent—with a single punch?
“B-but an elder is speaking to him……”
“He won’t listen. Let’s just be thankful he doesn’t throw a fist first……”
Everyone except Dokgo Ryeong and Jegal Hwan made expressions of shock as they looked at Cheong Deung-un, who clicked his tongue lightly.
Throwing a fist the moment an elder tries to admonish him? What, is there really such a ruffian?
‘If it’s that young hero, he wouldn’t stop at just that……’
Jegal Hwan recalled the image of Jehwa smiling brightly and beating Seonu Ran’s head relentlessly in his mind, and let out a deep sigh.
“He is a young hero whom even the elders of the Heavenly Demon Cult cannot treat lightly. Moreover, he is one who possesses a personality to immediately flip everything over the moment even the slightest thing displeases him.”
“You seem to know that young hero well.”
When the Patriarch of the Sichuan Tang Clan asked cautiously, Cheong Deung-un spoke with a sigh.
“I haven’t known him long, but I was at least able to grasp his personality to some degree.”
‘A child who simply must do as he pleases.’
Jegal Hwan muttered inwardly again at Cheong Deung-un’s words.
“Why have you called such a person?”
When the Patriarch of the Sichuan Tang Clan asked with an expression saying he could not understand, Cheong Deung-un answered.
“To ask for his help, of course.”
“Excuse me?”
At those words, everyone except Dokgo Ryeong and Jegal Hwan once again made expressions of shock.
“That young hero is strong. He is probably stronger than anyone else present here.”
“Th-this is unacceptable! Most of those present here are masters acknowledged even in the martial world! There are many seniors of the martial world here as well! Y-yet to say that a mere child is the strongest among those present……”
“I have seen that young hero’s strength with my own two eyes.”
Everyone fell silent when Cheong Deung-un spoke with a stern expression.
“On the way back from the Heavenly Demon Cult, that young hero and the Blood Cult’s armed force clashed. And he annihilated the Blood Cult’s armed force single-handedly.”
“……”
At Cheong Deung-un’s words, everyone once again lost their words.
“The world is in turmoil. That young hero is neither of the Heavenly Demon Cult, the orthodox faction, nor the demonic faction. He may have personal reasons, but he is fighting the Blood Cult as well. If we ever come to fight the Blood Cult on a large scale, his strength will be desperately needed.”
Cheong Deung-un spoke with a deep sigh.