Light Novel: Volume 17 Episode 12
Manhwa: N/A
Pyo-wol lifted his Black Dragon Robe slightly and peered inside.
Gwiya was unwrapping its tail and wriggling around. However, Jiaolong’s inner core which Gwiya had been holding like a treasure until now, was nowhere to be seen.
‘Has it all been absorbed?’
It was the core of a creature that had failed to become a dragon.
A tremendous amount of power was stored in it.
Pyo-wol thought that it would take considerable time for Gwiya to fully absorb the core. But as if to prove him wrong, Gwiya had already completely absorbed it.
After absorbing Jiaolong’s inner core, Gwiya’s appearance changed greatly.
Its already red body had turned to an even more intense reddish color. Its red scales seemed to emit an intense heat as if it were soaked in lava.
If Gwiya had been tiny to the point that it could barely able to wrap around Pyo-wol’s forearm before, it now seemed to be at least twice as large.
The biggest change of all was on Gwiya’s forehead.
A tiny horn, the size of a child’s pinky finger, had sprouted on its forehead.
Gwiya, seemingly fascinated by its own transformation, twisted its body here and there, tickling Pyo-wol’s chest.
Suddenly feeling Pyo-wol’s gaze, Gwiya lifted its head to look up.
Their gazes met in midair.
Gwiya’s eyes were as red as its scales.
It was as if red jewels had been implanted in its eyes.
Its ruby-like eyes were full of trust as it looked at him.
Seeing Gwiya like this, Pyo-wol subtly smiled.
Gwiya stared intently into Pyo-wol’s eyes before turning its back to him, curling up again in his lap.
It had spent a lot of energy absorbing Jiaolong’s inner core, so it wanted to rest and recover its strength.
“What are you doing?”
Yong Seolran looked at Pyo-wol, who was neither eating the rabbit meat nor doing anything else, with a puzzled expression.
“Nothing.”
“Are you hiding some kind of jewelry in your lap?”
“There’s something more precious than that.”
“Really?”
As Pyo-wol nodded wordlessly, Yong Seolran showed her curiosity. However, Pyo-wol seemed to have no intention of elaborating and started tearing into the rabbit meat he was holding.
Yong Seolran looked at Pyo-wol with a wistful expression.
Illuminated by the campfire, Pyo-wol’s face was beautiful. Even she, a woman, could not help but be swayed by it.
She thought she had gotten over him, but now that he had reappeared, her heart was shaken all over again.
The emotions and feelings she held for him were complicated.
He was responsible for the downfall of her sect, Emei, but upon closer inspection, the responsibility lay even more with the Emei sect and her master, Guhwa Satae.
Had Guhwa Satae not been greedy, Pyo-wol might have lived a normal life instead of being an assassin.
It was Guhwa Satae and the Emei sect’s tremendous greed and ambition that had created the extraordinary assassin Pyo-wol.
Therefore, Pyo-wol’s revenge was justified.
The Emei sect had closed its doors, and Guhwa Satae had lost her life.
In her head, she knew this fact, and she tried to understand Pyo-wol. But, human emotions are not always rational.
She was human, too.
No matter how rational she tried to be, resentment and regret towards Pyo-wol would suddenly rise to the surface. Therefore, she could not look at Pyo-wol properly.
“Haa…”
Yong Seolran sighed and shifted her gaze.
Swoosh!
The rain continued to pour down with terrifying force.
As if her already complicated emotions weren’t enough, seeing the rain only further agitated her.
The rain continued to fall afterward.
It wasn’t until the next morning that the rain stopped.
Yong Seolran had spent that long period wide awake.
Whether or not they were aware of her complicated thoughts, Pyo-wol and the Ghost King had taken their respective places and fallen into a deep sleep.
Just one sleepless night wouldn’t make much of a difference.
Although she had put down her sword for quite some time, she had never skipped a day of qi circulation. The only reason why she felt an overwhelming sense of fatigue right now was because of her emotional turmoil.
It was then.
As if on cue, Pyo-wol and the Ghost King both woke up at the same time.
Pyo-wol reached his hand out towards the rock outside. The rainwater that had been trickling down the rock gathered in his palms.
Pyo-wol quickly washed his face with the collected water.
Yong Seolran followed suit and washed her face with the rainwater.
Having the cold water hit her face made her spirits instantly alert.
Pyo-wol said,
“Let’s go.”
The ground was a complete mess from the overnight rain.
The ground had turned muddy, with large puddles here and there.
No traces of people passing by remained. Yet, Pyo-wol relentlessly tracked the trail of the warriors.
Yong Seolran looked where Pyo-wol was looking at. She didn’t see anything out of the ordinary, but he seemed to see something else.
Just by inspecting the ground for a moment, Pyo-wol determined the direction and moved. After half a day of tracking like this, they arrived at a small clearing.
The small clearing used to be full of grass that grew up to a person’s waist. Yet, all the grass now lay flat on the ground, as if it had been blown down by the wind and rain. Pyo-wol was certain that this was where the men had stayed.
“They camped out here.”
The terrain was higher than the others, so no water pooled in. There were also trees lined densely at the back like folding screens. The trees might not totally keep the men out of the rain, but they provided enough cover from the wind.
If Yong Seolran was leading a large party and suddenly met such heavy rain, she, too, would definitely choose to camp out here.
When they pushed aside the bent grass, they saw footprints of both men and horses that hadn’t yet disappeared.
Only then did Yong Seolran realize that Pyo-wol had been accurately tracking them all along.
‘If I become enemies with this man, he will chase me to the ends of hell.’
The thought scared her.
If someone with his level of persistence and perseverance had such terrifying tracking skills, there wouldn’t be a perfect hiding place anywhere.
“Hoo!”
Yong Seolran inadvertently let out a sigh.
It was then.
“Heuk!”
The Ghost King suddenly let out a strange breathing sound.
This had never happened before, which shocked Yong Seolran into looking at the Ghost King.
The Ghost King stood still, shaking like an old tree.
At the Ghost King’s unusual behavior, Yong Seolran hesitantly took a step back. Pyo-wol, on the other hand, went closer to the Ghost King.
“What’s wrong?”
“The smell–”
“Did it get stronger?”
“Yes! And it makes me so… so angry.”
The Ghost King gritted his teeth.
His eyes seem to glower as if piercing through the cloth covering them.
Tsuu!
The water under his feet evaporated and disappeared in an instant.
It was a terrifying display of internal energy.
Yong Seolran was so surprised and intimidated by the Ghost King’s show of might that she didn’t dare to approach him. However, Pyo-wol remained unfazed. He even leaned his face close to the Ghost King and said,
“Come to your senses.”
“I can’t–!”
“You’re the Ghost King. You have spent your life switching to another person’s body. Take the responsibility that comes with it.”
Pyo-wol’s voice was chillingly cold.
Even Yong Seolran who was listening from a distance could not help but shudder.
Fortunately, it seemed Pyo-wol’s words had gotten through since the Ghost King began to calm down.
“Hoo…”
The Ghost King let out a subdued sigh and tightened the cloth covering his eyes and ears even more.
The Ghost King said,
“I have blocked my sense of smell. But I’m not sure how long I can hold back my anger.”
“I hope you can hold out as long as possible.”
“I will try.”
With those words, the Ghost King blocked even his hearing.
He had completely isolated his own consciousness in the darkness. It was an action that couldn’t be done unless he trusted Pyo-wol completely.
Pyo-wol sensed that the Ghost King couldn’t hold out for long.
Something nearby was stirring the Ghost King up.
“Move.”
Pyo-wol pulled the silver thread connected to the Ghost King.
The Ghost King dashed forward, relying solely on the silver thread.
They went deeper and deeper into the forest.
The forest was so dense that even in broad daylight, there was barely any light.
Just when Yong Seolran was doubting if any humans could stay in such a place,
“Hurry!”
“If we’re late, the ingredients we worked hard to gather will spoil!”
Suddenly, she heard men’s voices from beyond the bushes.
Yong Seolran held her breath and carefully cleared away some of the bushes. Then she saw a group of men busily moving about beyond.
It was Jang Sa-chun and his men.
Pyo-wol had accurately tracked them.
Unaware they were being watched, they were unloading the goods they had brought on horseback.
‘But where is this place?’
They were in a deep rainforest in the middle of Yunnan Province.
It was a place known to be uninhabitable due to the abundance of poisonous insects and wild animals. While there were some tribes that had adapted to the rainforest, they were few and far between.
And even then, they lived in its outskirts, and not at the center and heart of the forest. After all, living this deep in the rainforest was dangerous for them, too.
Yong Seolran carefully surveyed the area where the men were.
‘A ruin?’
The area where they were was overgrown with bushes. There were signs of collapsed walls and gate pillars here and there, but the scale was beyond her imagination.
At first glance, it seemed to stretch all the way to the horizon.
It wasn’t a village, but the remnants of a huge city.
‘Did such a place exist in the world?’
Yong Seolran’s brows furrowed naturally.
As she rummaged through her memories, Yong Seolran’s face gradually turned to horror.
She had dredged up a fragment of a long-buried memory.
‘Yunnan Province, rain forest, city… Could it be the Celestial Demon Union?’
Yunnan province was home to the legendary sect that had soaked Jianghu in blood decades ago.
According to her master, the Celestial Demon Union had built a huge fortress deep within Yunnan.
But as the Celestial Demon Union advanced into Jianghu, the city was abandoned and was said to have crumbled along with their downfall. The deserted city turned into ruins and was forgotten in people’s memories.
‘Is it really the Celestial Demon Union?’
Yong Seolran hoped her speculation was wrong, but the ruins of a great city in the middle of the rainforest could not be explained by anything other than the Celestial Demon Union.
‘It can’t be that the Celestial Demon Union is reuniting again, can it?’
Decades ago, the Celestial Demon Union was said to have been completely defeated and destroyed by the combined attack of the Frenzied Warrior Sect and various martial artists.
In particular, it was said that the life force of the union was completely severed when Jang Cheonhwa, who founded the Celestial Martial Sect, took the life of Go Geomwol, the leader of the Celestial Demon Union.
Without her realizing it, her palms became sweaty from the tension.
She cautiously looked at Pyo-wol.
Pyo-wol was also looking at the ruins. However, he didn’t look as tense as her.
‘Does he not know about the Celestial Demon Union?’
The thought suddenly crossed her mind. But she immediately denied it.
She knew how obsessed Pyo-wol was with gathering information. A person like him should already know the entire history of Jianghu by now.
It was then.
“Heuugh!”
An unusual sound of breathing escaped the Ghost King’s lips.
Woooosh!
Unable to hold in his discomfort any longer, the Ghost King tore away the cloth covering his eyes and ears.
His eyes were red and bloodshot, with madness flickering in them.
The Ghost King glared at the ruins as if his life depended on it.
“Ugh… this detestable smell! This! This is the place!”
Suddenly, the Ghost King propelled himself into the air. Reaching a height of dozens of meters, he darted towards a specific part of the city like a meteor.
“W-What?”
Yong Seolran covered her mouth with her hand in surprise.
Fortunately, the people who were unloading their goods from their horses hadn’t noticed that the Ghost King had flown overhead.
“Hm?”
Jang Sa-chun was the only one who raised his head upon feeling a strange sensation. But by the time he looked up, the Ghost King had already disappeared from sight.
Pyo-wol looked in the direction where the Ghost King had vanished.
The Ghost King had clearly said ‘this place.’
That could only mean that he had reached his desired destination.
‘I’ve kept my promise.’
Pyo-wol had promised to guide the Ghost King to the place he wanted to go in exchange for sparing Hong Ye-seol’s life.
Now that he had arrived at the place he so desperately wanted to find, Pyo-wol had kept his word.
Whatever happened from now on was the Ghost King’s affair.
If that was the case, then he should be free to move about from now on without being tied to the Ghost King.
Pyo-wol looked at Jang Sa-chun.
Jang Sa-chun’s men were unloading their baggage from their respective horses and putting them into some abandoned house.
The abandoned house was nothing more than a small hut.
It was barely big enough to accommodate all thirty men, yet once the men went in, they did not come out again.
There was only one conclusion.
‘There must be an underground space to accommodate them.’
luna-cave
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