Light Novel: Volume 17 Episode 8
Manhwa: N/A
Pyo-wol and the Ghost King left Baita Village and moved.
As the Ghost King had said, his memory was not complete.
He could only rely on bits and pieces of his memory and his instincts to guide him. Still, Pyo-wol watched without intervening.
He wanted to see if there was any pattern or consistency to the Ghost King’s behavior.
Observation was one of the things he did best.
To watch intently, to get to the bottom of things.
It was his way of getting closer to the truth.
He followed the Ghost King’s lead.
The Ghost King was really inconsistent.
Sometimes he would head north, sometimes south.
He crossed mountains many times, and he crossed lakes and rivers countless times.
It was so inconsistent that Pyo-wol wondered if the Ghost King was doing it on purpose.
However, the Ghost King was clearly doing his best.
Sometimes he just stood still, desperately trying to remember, and other times he relied on his instincts to find his way. But he never managed to find the path to where he wanted to go.
Pyo-wol could see why the Ghost King had traveled all the way to Poyang Lake, and why he could not ultimately shake off Kyung Musaeng’s pursuit.
The Ghost King’s movements were too inefficient.
He made many decisions on the fly, making it impossible to find clues.
Searching for clues requires careful consideration, which is something the Ghost King lacked.
As a result, he wandered around in circles without getting any clues.
All this time, Pyo-wol had only observed Ghost King. But, on the fifteenth day of their journey, Pyo-wol finally noticed something strange.
‘He never crosses a certain line to the west.’
If Pyo-wol hadn’t been observing consistently over the past fifteen days, he wouldn’t have noticed such a fact.
The Ghost King would seem to be going well, but when he reached a certain line, he would change direction without realizing it.
At first, it was hard to notice, but as the situation repeated itself regularly, Pyo-wol realized that the Ghost King’s subconscious mind had ingrained in him the idea that he shouldn’t cross a certain line to the west.
The Ghost King’s subconscious refused to let him go west.
Pyo-wol wanted to know what that line was, so he deliberately led the Ghost King westward from then on.
When they arrived in Hunan Province, crossing into Guangxi Province, the Ghost King’s resistance became severe.
It was obvious even to anyone who didn’t know him that he didn’t want to go beyond Guangxi Province.
While he had no objection to traveling to Hunan which is in the east, he instinctively rejected the idea of traveling west to Guangxi.
‘Is it Yunnan?’
Beyond the west of Guangxi was Yunnan Province.
The hottest and most humid place in Jianghu.
It was densely populated with beautiful giant trees, infested with poisonous insects and venomous snakes, and a place no one dared to approach.
The Ghost King had mentioned that the first thing he saw when he opened his eyes were beautiful giant trees and stars that seemed to be pouring down.
His description matches perfectly with the landscape of Yunnan.
Of course, such scenery could be found in other famous mountains in Jianghu, but it was worth checking out at least once.
Pyo-wol asked the Ghost King,
“You said you don’t remember anything before you opened your eyes, right?”
“That’s right.”
“Do you remember ever going to Yunnan Province?”
“No.”
“Have you been to Yunnan since you appeared in Jianghu?”
“I don’t know.”
“We’re going to Yunnan.”
“Yunnan? Why?”
“Because you are instinctively refusing to go there.”
“I refuse?”
“Yes. You turn in another direction as soon as you get close to Yunnan Province.”
“I never do that.”
“I suppose not, but it’s not a conscious action. You do it unconsciously.”
“Unconsciously?”
The Ghost King blinked his eyes.
It was an expression that implied he didn’t understand.
Pyo-wol calmly explained,
“Either someone has placed such a restraint on your subconscious mind, or you are reluctant to approach it because of your own resistance. It’s one or the other.”
“Really?”
“I can only guess. We can only know for sure when we go to Yunnan Province.”
“Yunnan Province… I see. I will follow you.”
In the end, it was the Ghost King who had asked help for directions.
For the past month, Pyo-wol had been following and observing him. Now, that he had come up with results, it was now the Ghost King’s turn to follow him.
Pyo-wol traveled with the Ghost King to Yunnan.
The problem occurred at the border region of Yunnan Province, in Tianyang.
From the moment they entered Tianyang, the Ghost King started walking in the wrong direction.
His head understood where he needed to go to, but his body refused to obey.
‘Surely, a restraint has been planted deep within his subconscious.’
Pyo-wol was certain that his guess was correct.
The problem was the Ghost King’s resistance.
To control him, he would have to be subdued, which was no easy task.
Even Kyung Musaeng, who could be considered his natural enemy, could only subdue the Ghost King after sacrificing two talismans. If Pyo-wol tried to subdue the Ghost King by force, both of them would both suffer great losses.
After pondering for a while, Pyo-wol came up with a plan.
“If there is a restraint implanted in your subconscious then I’ll just have to make sure you can’t feel it at all.”
“What do you mean?”
“I will cover your eyes and block your ears. Cut off all your external senses so that you don’t even recognize where you are.”
“So you’re saying you would trick my senses.”
“Exactly.”
“I see.”
The Ghost King immediately tore off his sleeves to blindfold his eyes and block his ears. Then, he used his internal energy to isolate his senses.
With that, he submerged himself in a world of darkness.
His only connection to the world was through Pyo-wol.
Pyo-wol took out a silver thread he had at Black Dragon Robe and linked his wrist to the Ghost King’s. He intended to communicate with the Ghost King through the thread.
An ordinary person might find it impossible to move with all their senses blocked. They might be able to walk for a while at first, but if they kept doing this all day, they would either collapse or lose their minds.
However, Ghost King was an expert with an extreme level of internal energy.
He also had great mental strength.
Though his memory was not complete, he was able to overcome the darkness and solitude that surrounded him with his unwavering mental strength.
Fortunately, as soon as all his senses were blocked, the feeling of resistance disappeared.
He followed wherever Pyo-wol led him.
Their appearance was very strange.
A young man with a stunningly white and beautiful face leading a blindfolded young boy. Such a sight attracted the attention of everyone.
Ordinary people would have found such attention burdensome, but neither Pyo-wol nor Ghost King cared about such things.
Regardless of the stares, they kept walking in silence.
As a result, they were able to enter Yunnan Province in just a few days.
The moment they entered Yunnan, the atmosphere dramatically changed.
The hot and humid hair was stifling right at the beginning.
The change in the air alone made them realize that they had arrived in Yunnan.
Pyo-wol asked the Ghost King,
“Do you feel anything?”
“Not yet.”
“Tell me if you notice even a slight change.”
“Understood.”
The Ghost King nodded.
He hadn’t unblocked his senses even after entering Yunnan.
He had become quite accustomed to it by now and had no issues walking with Pyo-wol’s assistance.
The two wandered aimlessly around Yunnan Province.
They would walk all day, find a place to stay, rest overnight, set off again the next day, and so on.
This routine didn’t just occur in a day or two, but almost a month.
Had they been normal people, they would have been exhausted by now, but neither of them showed any signs of fatigue.
During this time, they had explored every nook and cranny of Yunnan Province.
There was no place in eastern Yunnan that they hadn’t traveled to.
So far, they hadn’t gotten anywhere.
It was until the next day, something changed.
Suddenly, the Ghost wrinkled his nose.
“This smell, it’s familiar.”
“Are you sure?”
“Absolutely. I’ve smelled it before.”
The Ghost King replied with a voice full of certainty.
He hadn’t realized it at first. But the more he focused on the smell, the more certain he became.
The fact that he had smelled this odor before.
It was a scent that was both moist and piercing.
He had never smelled such a thing outside of Yunnan Province.
“I must have been here at some point.”
“Anything else?”
“I’m not sure yet.”
Despite the Ghost King’s response, Pyo-wol was not disappointed.
Just getting this much of a clue was a big deal.
“If we stay and linger around here a while longer, something will definitely come to mind. Let’s look for an inn for now.”
Pyo-wol looked around.
They had been roaming around Yunnan for over a month, yet they didn’t know the exact name of the place they were in.
Yunnan Province was different from other regions in Jianghu.
In other regions, villages would appear after walking a short distance, but here, one could walk all day and still not see a single home.
Where they stood was just such a place.
Looking around, Pyo-wol couldn’t see a single house, let alone a city.
They could have stayed and slept outdoors, but Pyo-wol preferred to sleep at an ann whenever possible to preserve their strength.
Pyo-yue left the Ghost King alone and climbed up a high tree branch to take a look around.
He could see a village in the distance.
It was a small village with only a dozen or so households.
From the looks of it, it seemed like a settlement made by slash-and-burn farmers.
Pyo-wol headed towards the village with the Ghost King.
As he suspected, the village had been established by slash-and-burn farmers.
Around the recently tilled fields were traces of fire. Some of the forest had been burned to make way for the fields.
From the newly tilled field, a middle-aged couple who appeared to be husband and wife were diligently picking stones.
As Pyo-wol and Ghost King approached, the couple were startled.
“Oh my goodness!”
“Eek!”
They screamed and ran away as if they had committed a crime.
Pyo-wol frowned slightly at the unexpected violent reaction.
Even for the most wary slash-and-burn farmers, such a reaction was excessive.
Perhaps alerted by the couple, people from the village began pouring out.
In their hands were pitchforks and axes.
An elderly man who appeared to be the village chief came forward.
His sunburned skin and sagging wrinkles told of the hard life he had led.
Like the others, the old man held a pitchfork in his hand.
He pointed the pitchfork at Pyo-wol and said,
“I don’t know where you’re from, but our village doesn’t take in outsiders, so you should leave.”
“Can’t we stay just for one night?”
“As you can see, we don’t have an inn here. We can’t even give you food either because we all work the fields for a day and live for a day, so give up on staying here and go somewhere else.”
The villagers echoed the elder’s words.
“We don’t take in strangers.”
“Go somewhere else!”
Pyo-wol frowned slightly at the more stubborn response than he had expected. But he had no intention of trying to persuade those who were so staunchly opposed to their presence.
Pyo-wol turned to the Ghost King,
“Let’s go.”
“Wait!”
But the Ghost King didn’t seem to have any intention of leaving quietly.
He had his eyes and ears blocked while coming here, but he opened them for a moment to hear the conversation with the villagers. Thanks to that, he heard everything they were saying.
The Ghost King emitted an overwhelmingly powerful aura.
“I must sleep here tonight.”
He demanded with a voice filled with resentment.
He had become enraged at the villagers who rejected them for no reason.
The Ghost King had an unpredictable temperament.
While his temperament mellowed a bit while traveling with Pyo-wol, his nature had not completely disappeared.
“Hiiik!”
“Eek!”
As the Ghost King released his aura, the faces of the villagers turned pale.
In particular, the village chief closest to him fell to the ground and wet himself.
The Ghost King’s overwhelming aura was too much for an old man like him to handle.
The elder felt like an ant facing a tsunami.
His mind went blank, and he couldn’t think of anything.
Only then did he realize that the men in front of him were far more fearsome than he had anticipated, and there was nothing he could do about it.
It wasn’t just the village chief.
All the villagers were lying on the ground, trembling in fear.
Some people might enjoy such a spectacle, but it wasn’t to Pyo-wol’s taste.
Just as Pyo-wol was about to tell the Ghost King to stop, someone else beat him to it.
“That’s enough. They don’t mean any harm.”
The voice was so calm, that it could soothed the hearts of the listeners.
The owner of the voice walked out from the back of the village.
Their steps were as calm as their voice.
The moment Pyo-wol saw the figure, his expression slightly changed.
“Yong… Seolran?”
LUNACAVE
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