Chapter 540: Side Story 40

Chapter 40

“V… Vice Sect Leader. Please… let’s go back, us…”

“This guy really! Didn’t I say we would go back if we catch that villain!”

“We’ll all die trying to catch that guy, really-!”

Geum Dae-gil tried to stop Kang Sang-chun while looking on the verge of tears.

Nothing had gone right since they took up swords to catch the Demonic Star or whatever. Getting beaten up, falling, and breaking their noses was nothing.

They ran out of travel expenses and sold off most of their belongings, and now even that wasn’t enough, bringing them to a situation where they had to beg.

Even so, Kang Sang-chun didn’t give up.

Rather than thinking of catching the Demonic Star to contribute to a righteous cause, he was holding on with the will to absolutely win over that woman.

If this was a skill, it was a skill.

Geum Dae-gil would have beaten him up if he wasn’t the Vice Sect Leader.

It was undeniably a difficult and arduous situation.

“He must definitely be here, that Demonic Star guy! My intuition says so!”

“Do you know how much we suffered because of that intuition of yours? If that saintess or whoever’s group hadn’t subjugated the bandits and thieves, we would have been dead by now!”

“That means we’re lucky, you rascal! Stop talking and keep your eyes wide open and look around carefully. He’ll definitely be here!”

Kang Sang-chun, who was in Yichang, was literally looking around with his eyes wide open. With the resolve not to miss anyone, he recalled the appearance of Jang Sam-tae in his mind.

“Huh?”

Then suddenly, someone entered his field of vision.

This familiar face, unlike the last time she was alone, this time she was with a completely different woman. Since she was also an eye-catchingly beautiful woman, his gaze couldn’t help but be drawn to her.

This was heaven’s luck.

Heaven had created a path to connect him and that woman. Otherwise, how could they meet so certainly everywhere they went?

It was a situation that could never be realized if heaven hadn’t intended to tie them together.

Kang Sang-chun suppressed his pounding heart and smirked.

“Look at that, didn’t I say they’d be here?”

“B-But the Demonic Star is nowhere to be seen.”

“Be quiet. We’ll find out if we follow them quietly. This time for sure… I will eliminate that Demonic Star guy and win that woman’s heart.”

“…I just hope you don’t die.”

“Is this bastard being unlucky?”

Kang Sang-chun frowned and began to secretly follow behind Dan So-mi. He thought that if he followed them without getting caught as much as possible, there would be an opportunity to catch the Demonic Star.

* * *

“Wow- this place is amazing.”

A little on the outskirts, quite a distance from the marketplace, there was a small mountain and a vast flower field spread out. With a huge waterfall flowing on one side and surrounded by all sorts of green trees, it was undeniably a landscape so beautiful it would make one’s eyes spin.

Dan So-mi, who stopped there, let out an exclamation and put a candied fruit in her mouth.

The food was delicious, and the scenery was good.

Only now did it feel somewhat like she was on a sightseeing trip.

“It’s your first time here, right? It’s a place I treasure!”

Ju Ji-yak proudly opened her arms and introduced the place. Since it was a place ordinary people couldn’t access, it preserved its natural state.

Thus, it was more beautiful and magnificent than any other place.

It was a place she visited occasionally whenever she passed through Yichang, and it was one of Ju Ji-yak’s favorite places.

“Does it feel a bit like sightseeing now?”

“…O-Of course.”

Dan So-mi broke out in a cold sweat.

Despite coming quite a long way from Hunan to here, it didn’t really feel like sightseeing. She had to constantly save people caught by bandits, be chased by people, and had weird people chase and cling to them annoyingly.

Even worse, now that Hong Won-chang had brought weird jobs about evil spirits or murderous ghosts, it was obvious that the surroundings would become noisy once again soon.

What kind of sightseeing was this?

Because she remembered smashing things up while wandering around Henan and Anhui under the pretext of touring the Central Plains when she was young, she thought it wouldn’t be much different this time either.

This was why she said she didn’t want to go.

However, it seemed Ju Ji-yak realized her feelings immediately and brought her to a place like this.

“It’s not like you left alone with your dad, and if you brought those people out… well, the result is obvious. Isn’t that right?”

“Ahaha… Spot on. As expected, you’re the only one.”

“You like me more than your dad, right?”

Dan So-mi smiled awkwardly and stretched out her body. Looking at a good scenery while eating good food made her feel a little better.

Now it seemed it would be okay to accept reality again.

“Wow- It’s a wonderful place. Why didn’t I even know a place like this existed?”

At that time, a strange voice was heard from somewhere.

As the startled Dan So-mi and Ju Ji-yak hastily turned their gazes, a man parted the bushes and revealed his appearance. He looked around here and there, showing a moment of composure, but soon turned to Dan So-mi and Ju Ji-yak and hung a strange smile on his lips.

“That young miss over there… I certainly remember seeing you last time. Am I wrong?”

“No, I don’t know.”

At the single word spoken with certainty, Dan So-mi shook her head from side to side. Because even though they said they had seen her face, she couldn’t remember it at all.

“You… don’t remember seeing me?”

“Ah… well, I’m not good at remembering people’s faces… I’m sorry if you were offended…”

“Why are you apologizing?”

“No, he seemed flustered…?”

Ju Ji-yak looked at Dan So-mi with a dumbfounded expression.

At a glance, he wasn’t a person who approached with good intentions. But she was apologizing to him, so she couldn’t help but be flustered.

What on earth was this child thinking as she lived?

Ju Ji-yak grabbed her throbbing glabella.

“Excuse me, but I’m sorry, this is a place you shouldn’t enter recklessly, you know? Will you please disappear?”

“Haha, discovering two tremendously beautiful women like this… and you tell me to just go? That’s unacceptable.”

“We will gratefully accept only the compliment.”

“What a bold wench… I like you even more.”

Chu Jak-han smacked his lips and looked Ju Ji-yak up and down.

He could tell just by looking at her standing posture.

She was a high-ranking official, a figure in the highest of the upper echelons.

Perhaps she might be the daughter of a prince with deep connections to the Imperial Family.

But what did that matter to him? Women had never not knelt before him, and whether they were wives or concubines of high-ranking officials, it had no meaning.

Chu Jak-han stealthily unleashed his aura.

A strange energy spread out from his body in all directions.

“Y-You’re not under the illusion that we’re the only ones here, right?”

“Haha, your escorts won’t come no matter how much you call them. They must be stuck to the ground wiggling like caterpillars… Ah, the two remaining guys over there will also be meaningless.”

Chu Jak-han glanced at a certain spot and opened his mouth.

At that moment, the bushes rustled.

It seemed there were definitely people, but perhaps holding their breath for a while, they didn’t even make a slight movement, until soon someone revealed their appearance along with a loud voice.

“Y… You bastard! W… What kind of bastard are you to dare oppress… oppress two young misses?!”

“V-Vice Sect Leader! I said no! I said this is unusual!”

The ones who revealed their appearances were none other than Kang Sang-chun and Geum Dae-gil.

Geum Dae-gil, whose complexion had turned pale blue, instantly recognized Chu Jak-han’s power. In fact, it was even more so because while hiding in the bushes, he heard fierce thwack! sounds and saw the escorts he hadn’t even felt the presence of end up dead.

However, Kang Sang-chun didn’t even care about that.

He just seemed to be stepping forward out of chivalry, wanting to protect those women. It seemed he didn’t even realize the fact that it was shortening his lifespan.

He was just a crazy guy.

“Hahaha- I see all kinds of funny guys.”

Chu Jak-han smiled and lightly kicked a stone.

In an instant, with a pow! sound, Kang Sang-chun’s body bent like a shrimp, and then vomit poured out of his mouth. Soon, Kang Sang-chun shoved his face into that vomit and rolled his eyes back.

“V… Vice Sect Leader, keok?!”

Soon after, another stone flew into the face of Geum Dae-gil who was standing fine, and his body fell backward with the sound of a watermelon breaking.

“Now, this settles it. Well then, are you misses alright?”

Chu Jak-han, who lightly sorted out the two, looked at Dan So-mi and Ju Ji-yak with an incredibly bright smile.

That smile was beautiful enough that it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call it a demonic smile, and if it had been a marketplace and not a place like this, women would have collapsed with blushing faces.

“Ah… You seem to be badly hurt, are you okay? Excuse me?”

However, a strange thing happened.

Perhaps not realizing at all that it was an urgent situation, Dan So-mi approached the fallen Kang Sang-chun and Geum Dae-gil and was examining their condition.

What was even funnier was that Ju Ji-yak, who was watching the scene, was dumbfounded by Dan So-mi’s appearance.

It felt as if Chu Jak-han’s demonic charming arts hadn’t exerted any effect at all.

For a moment, Chu Jak-han’s mouth corners twitched.

But soon, he unleashed his aura again and hung a smile on his mouth.

“Now, come here, for I will protect and embrace you forever from now on.”

Once again, a demonic energy spread around. Perhaps thinking it would have an effect this time, Chu Jak-han showed considerable confidence.

However, Ju Ji-yak looked at Chu Jak-han with an expression as if she had seen something disgusting, then soon let out a small sigh and opened her mouth towards Dan So-mi, who was examining Kang Sang-chun stuck in vomit.

“So-mi, that person is dirty, so don’t touch him.”

“No, well… he’s pitiful.”

“To me, that guy is the most pitiful right now.”

Ju Ji-yak clicked her tongue, tsk-tsk.

She seemed to know what he was trying to do. Actually, her heart was slightly moved, so it wasn’t that difficult to notice what kind of power he possessed.

The problem was, who was Ju Ji-yak?

The Emperor’s most beloved eldest child.

Since the influence she had on the Emperor was considerable, she had naturally learned high-level mental cultivation methods to block charming arts so she wouldn’t be used by anyone.

Even her accessories included things that interfered with or disrupted such energies, so she wouldn’t be easily enchanted, even if not to the extent of Dan So-mi.

On the other hand, who was Dan So-mi?

None other than Dan Woo-hyun’s daughter.

She was a child backed by the Five Emperors of the world, and an existence called Dan Woo-hyun, whom even they couldn’t do anything about, was the one protecting her side.

Would they have made her body vulnerable to something like charming arts?

No.

No matter what that human did, nothing would work.

Look at him, wasn’t his face completely red from embarrassment?

“T-This makes no sense…!”

“It has no meaning anymore, so how about you just go? It doesn’t seem like there’s any use in staying longer.”

Ju Ji-yak opened her mouth with an indifferent expression.

No matter what a guy like you does, we are fine.

It was like words that crushed Chu Jak-han’s pride, who had been confident in his charming arts for a long time, and that soon caused anger.

“This fucker! Then I’ll take you by force!”

Chu Jak-han ground his teeth and rushed in.

The charming arts not working was an unexpected event.

He tried to handle the matter cleanly, but since that became impossible, he had no choice but to use the power of the Heaven and Earth Cult’s Four Heavenly Kings.

He rushed towards Dan So-mi fiercely.

And in an instant, he felt a chill.

Ssaaak-!

The sensation of his hair standing on end from his toes to the top of his head.

An insane warning bell rang in his head.

The moment he urgently stepped back without realizing it.

Something brushed past him and stayed by Dan So-mi’s side.

Kuwaaaaawang-!

Soon, overwhelmed by the sound of its roar, he lost strength in his legs. Subconsciously plopping down, he looked at it with a trembling gaze.

“W… White Tiger…?”

A huge white tiger.

Its size seemed to be several times that of a large bear, and its fierce and sharp gaze and claws were sharper than any famous sword in the world.

A sensation as if flesh was being sliced away just by looking at it.

Chu Jak-han thought he could never defeat that thing.

And at that moment.

Pow!

Dan So-mi strongly smacked the White Tiger’s head.

“You’re too loud!”

At that sight, his mouth dropped wide open and he lost his words.

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