Chapter 326: Darkness Returns (1)
Flinch!
Muk Bi looked at Gi Wu-hui with questioning eyes.
Gi Wu-hui’s complexion had turned pale. She was just about to get up to go to bed after finishing her tea, but she froze in that posture.
Muk Bi’s face also became serious.
“Physician?”
“…”
“Physician!”
“…Yes.”
“What’s wrong? Are you sick somewhere?”
“No.”
Gi Wu-hui let out a deep sigh.
“No. It’s not like that.”
“But then why…?”
“I suddenly felt a little unwell. It’s just a feeling, so you don’t need to worry too much.”
“Are you sure you’re really okay?”
Gi Wu-hui smiled. It was a beautiful smile, but Muk Bi felt that her smile was somehow awkward.
“I’m really okay. Even if I were sick, could a physician not cure her own body?”
“That’s true, but…”
“Don’t worry. Vice Commander Muk, you should go in and rest now too. You worked hard escorting me today as well.”
Muk Bi smiled.
“Not at all. Rather, it must have been troublesome for you, Physician, to be my conversation partner.”
“No. It really isn’t.”
“Hoho, then please get a good rest. I’m in the room right next door, so you haven’t forgotten to contact me right away if anything happens, right?”
“Of course.”
“Then I’ll go. Get a good rest.”
Thus, Muk Bi left the room.
Thud.
Gi Wu-hui collapsed onto the bed just like that.
Her complexion turned pale again. Her beautifully shining blue eyes were filled with sadness, fear, and an unknown sympathy.
“…Army Commander Yeon.”
The Spiritual Eye is something that allows one to see what ordinary people cannot see.
It’s an innate ability, and to express it, it’s a supernatural ability. Because it’s innate and cannot be interpreted by medicine or martial arts, it can only be described with the cliché expression that it is simply a divine mystery.
Her Spiritual Eye was special.
Having been harassed by all kinds of people wearing masks since childhood, she wished to be able to look into the true hearts of others.
So the Spiritual Eye told her whether the other person’s words were true or false.
Of course, it didn’t tell her all the time. Like receiving a divine spirit from moment to moment, this ability, which she couldn’t control herself, often told Gi Wu-hui the truth she desired and the emotions of the other person.
And recently, the person Gi Wu-hui most wanted to know the inner thoughts of was none other than Yeon Ho-jeong.
However, her Spiritual Eye did not work on Yeon Ho-jeong. No, it didn’t work on Yeon Wi as well, not just Yeon Ho-jeong.
A person whose martial arts broke through human limits, and whose spiritual power was developed enough to wrap an absolute defensive barrier around their Upper Dantian, could not be looked into. Her innate supernatural ability was great, but it was definitely not omnipotent.
But at this moment.
She could see, and also feel. It was her first time seeing the emotions of someone so far away, but she had no time to feel the initial surprise.
Drip.
Transparent tears flowed down both of Gi Wu-hui’s cheeks.
No one would know why she was crying.
Except for the one person she directly looked into, whom her Spiritual Eye had captured.
* * *
“Gasp! W-what is this?!”
Ga Deuk-sang’s mouth dropped wide open.
The whole world was a sea of fire. Fortunately, it wasn’t a big enough fire to invade the village, but if it wasn’t extinguished quickly, the area seemed like it would widen twice as much.
“Damn it! Move quickly! Stealth or whatever, don’t worry about being noticed and hurry up!”
“Yes!”
The two hundred or so Beggars’ Gang members who had gathered through the lightning-like communication network scattered in all directions. It was to carry dirt and water.
Although the distance was well over a hundred li away from the Murim Alliance, considering the size of the entire Central Plains continent, it could be said to be a fairly close distance. That was the reason why so many Beggars’ Gang members could gather with just one communication.
Bang! Ba-bang!
Yeon Wi descended to the center of the fire in one breath and fired palm force in all directions.
The absolute internal power of the Sword-Limit Thought Qi was perfectly protecting him from the intense heat. They say smoke is scarier than fire, but the breathing of an internal arts expert is deep and long enough to far exceed the imagination of an ordinary person.
Without even breathing, Yeon Wi used his formidable palm force to extinguish the fire at a terrifying speed.
“He is amazing as expected.”
Ga Deuk-sang clicked his tongue at Yeon Wi’s serene divine dignity.
It wasn’t an act possible simply because one’s martial arts were strong. Without the eyes to instantly see through the weak points of the place where the fire broke out and the ability to read the flow of the flames, one couldn’t do such a ridiculous thing.
“Damn it, the fire qi is so severe that it’s hard to feel qi senses. Where on earth is Young Master Yeon?!”
Tap, tap, tap!
Ga Deuk-sang, who climbed to the top of the largest and most intact tree nearby, looked around.
In an instant, his eyes widened. He discovered a bizarre trace near the eight-part ridge that had become a sea of fire.
‘Why only there?’
Everywhere else had caught fire, but only that place was hollowed out in a circle. If it was that size from this distance, in reality, a radius of about twenty zhang was escaping the offensive of the fire demon.
Ga Deuk-sang shouted.
“Clan Head Yeon! It’s to the northeast!”
“I know.”
Even though they were quite far apart, Yeon Wi’s calm voice smoothly dug into Ga Deuk-sang’s ears. It was an incredible internal power.
“I felt Ho-jeong’s internal energy. He is much more intact than I thought. If so, right now, catching the fire comes first.”
“More of our union members are coming! We can do it!”
“I know. I’m just planning to catch the flames at the center first for quick suppression. It will be over soon, so don’t worry.”
“Ah, yes!”
Yeon Wi’s words were accurate.
As he grabbed the center of the fire demon, the flow of fire qi was abruptly cut off. Even if it was an artificially created fire, fire is fire, but since he cut off the qi meridian in the middle, the fiercely burning fire demon greatly faltered.
Pang!
Yeon Wi, who finished his work, advanced to where Yeon Ho-jeong was in one breath.
‘Are you okay, this lad.’
No matter how much it was Yeon Wi, it was difficult to find Yeon Ho-jeong’s internal energy from this distance. It was possible because the source of their internal energy was the same, so he could feel it more sensitively.
Wooooosh!
Yeon Wi, who closed the distance in one breath, felt a humidity that made it instantly stifling to breathe.
Even though the fire was quite fierce, the humidity was thick only here. It was a ridiculous thing.
‘Is this the source of water qi Ho-jeong spoke of, the Black Tortoise Qi?’
Pang!
Only then did his son’s figure come into Yeon Wi’s view, who had descended to the source of the humidity.
‘…!!’
Yeon Wi’s eyes trembled.
Crackle! Crackle!
The threatening sound of flames burning from a considerable distance tickled his ears.
The sky was dark, but the surroundings were bright because of the fire burning everywhere. However, the place Yeon Wi was looking at looked so dark that neither firelight nor moonlight could approach.
Yeon Ho-jeong was there.
A blood-covered body, and in his hand, he held an axe dripping with blood.
His hair, disheveled from the fierce battle, was completely wet and clung haphazardly to the back of his neck and shoulders. It was a truly miserable appearance.
However, Yeon Wi could not easily move his feet.
Swoosh.
Like a phantom, or like an illusion.
Around Yeon Ho-jeong, who stood looking up at the sky with his blood-covered body holding an axe, darkness was wandering like fog.
That must definitely be an illusion. But even though he knew it was an illusion, that terrifying darkness did not fade away.
Drip. Drip.
The sound of blood and flesh falling from the axe hitting the ground could be heard eerily.
It was an overwhelming sight.
Neither the fire demon, nor the moonlight, nor the thunder could infiltrate the place where Yeon Ho-jeong was.
He stood draped in darkness. In a realm of illusion where not a single point of light entered, it seemed as if only he existed entirely.
Yeon Wi’s eyes deepened.
“Ho-jeong.”
His son, his child who had lived an extraordinary future and past and returned.
What was he looking at, standing in that non-human place? What could he be thinking, and what kind of future was he seeing?
Even Yeon Wi, who had begun to completely understand his child and started living an exemplary life more than any parent in the world, found it hard to read his son’s mind right now.
But he knew one thing.
‘Are you sad.’
His son was grieving.
He couldn’t know the reason. Rather, if he had been filled with anger and screaming like a shriek, he would have been worried but understood.
But to be sad? What was his son so sad about?
Was he sad, realizing his miserable fate of having no choice but to live a life full of the stench of blood, seeing the nemesis he encountered again even though he had returned to the past?
Was he sad because he couldn’t become an evil spirit like before? Or was he sad, realizing himself who had already strayed from the righteous path?
Why on earth was his son sad?
“Are you here.”
Yeon Wi was suddenly startled and looked at Yeon Ho-jeong.
Before he knew it, the darkness wandering around his son had disappeared. There was his exhausted son’s bitter face.
Yeon Wi walked toward Yeon Ho-jeong.
Step. Step.
The father’s footsteps were only heavy as if representing his own state of mind.
The distance to his son was never far. Yet Yeon Wi felt that distance was as distant as ninety thousand li.
Gradually narrowing that distance that only felt far, Yeon Wi’s eyes went beyond Yeon Ho-jeong.
‘…!’
There was a miserably ruined man there.
Surprisingly, that man, who had already lost his human shape, was still alive. How on earth had he been handled? Even though his limbs were torn into dozens of pieces and his abdomen was opened, he was breathing, albeit faintly.
It was a truly gruesome sight. It was like looking at a corpse left behind after beasts had fed on it.
‘…’
Yeon Wi closed his eyes.
And when he opened his closed eyes again, his son was in front of him before he knew it.
Yeon Wi asked calmly.
“How is your body?”
“I am fine.”
He expected the answer that he was fine. Yet Yeon Wi felt his son’s words and voice were strangely unfamiliar.
Yeon Wi once again looked at someone who hadn’t died, no, who couldn’t die.
Twitch. Twitch.
He was still alive, but that too wouldn’t last long. His breath would stop before half a shichen passed.
Yeon Wi’s gaze turned to Yeon Ho-jeong again.
His son’s face, which had been extremely bitter, had become expressionless before he knew it. The expression that he had become numb would also be fine.
Whatever it was, it wasn’t a human face. It was like looking at a wooden puppet that resembled a human.
‘…’
There were many things he wanted to ask. There were also many things he wanted to hear.
Yeon Wi, who had been quietly observing Yeon Ho-jeong, took the axe from his hand.
Clink!
The completely ruined hand axe fell haphazardly to the ground.
Yeon Ho-jeong looked at Yeon Wi.
“Father?”
“It is an ominous object. Holding such a thing makes your face seem equally ominous.”
It wasn’t ominous because it was an axe. It was ominous because the blood stained on it was an object fully holding the vengeful spirit of that unknown enemy and the anger Yeon Ho-jeong had spewed out.
Drip.
Yeon Wi’s hand, which had grabbed the axe, also became full of blood. But he didn’t care.
Yeon Wi grabbed Yeon Ho-jeong’s hand with his clean hand that had no blood on it.
“Let’s go.”
He led Yeon Ho-jeong and walked toward the Murim Alliance. Yeon Ho-jeong held his hand and walked as his father led him.
While following his father, while taking his son,’he’ didn’t say a single word.
It was a night that was not beautiful.