Chapter 12
Chapter 12
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 12
Chapter Title: Indestructible Diamond (3)
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“Young man. I hear you live with your ailing mother?”
“...That’s right. But might I ask who you are?”
“No need for that. Just take this medicine and give it to your mother. She’ll be hale and hearty for another ten years.”
“Pardon?”
Travel is fun if you have money, enjoyable if you have power. In the martial world, I was the richest and strongest of them all.
These were just villagers from some backwater with zero ties to the main story anyway. I breezed through their troubles without a care, then slipped away from the village before they could dwell on me too much. After repeating that a few times, I found myself quite close to Mount Emei.
‘One of the Four Great Mountains, they say, and it’s true.’
Having picked up hiking as a hobby from my journey so far, I immediately set out to climb Mount Emei.
I couldn’t go all the way to the peak, but the mid-mountain halls where pilgrims offered alms and paid respects were open to anyone.
Stopping at a suitable spot, I took a good look around. A strange yet familiar sensation. I’d spent days practicing here just to beat that ‘bear trained in martial arts’.
A smile crept onto my face unbidden.
Everything I saw felt like reality and faded memory all at once.
No time to get sentimental—plenty left to do. I sprang up from the stump I’d been sitting on.
Having taken my sweet time getting here, I needed to get moving right away.
I could solve it on the spot if I wanted, but these days, life for me was about the journey, not just the answers. Rush through the easy fixes, and headaches piled up.
Seo Yul-hye’s problem was simple: trauma.
A heart demon born from failing to protect those she should have stimulated her upper dantian.
Causing some brain anomaly that plunged her into a coma.
In the game, the player followed Jeongam Satae’s words, fetched the quest item ‘Shattered Plate’ to wake her.
But delays meant Jeongam Satae couldn’t wait and ended up allying with the Demonic Cult.
Seo Yul-hye awoke under demonic arts’ influence.
The boss fight kicked off when she stabbed Jeongam Satae in the back as the woman embraced her….
‘There’s a way to fix it on the sly and bail.’
A method that wouldn’t derail the main storyline or expose me.
Here’s how Seo Yul-hye’s issue resolved in the story.
Fill her shattered upper dantian with demonic energy, then have the protagonist dispel it with righteous power.
But what if I intervened the instant that demonic energy entered her dantian?
Swap it out for pure, righteous qi.
Absurd? Of course it was. Impossible for any individual. But my items made the impossible routine.
This wasn’t even a story item.
Players used it for death-penalty-free spars.
But with things as they were, I’d use every tool I had. Solve it in her dream, no need to show my face, no way to guess who I was—perfect.
The hitch? How to slip this talisman under Seo Yul-hye’s pillow….
No choice there.
Sneak in and plant it.
That night.
A man in a bamboo hat strode boldly through the gates of the Emei Sect, long called a world forbidden to men. No assassin’s stealth—just ordinary steps—and no one noticed.
He glanced around, spotted something, and headed straight there without hesitation.
A space built solely for Seo Yul-hye.
The door, untouched by any but Jeongam Satae, caught the man’s thick finger.
Creak.
The door opened, revealing the interior.
There lay Emei Sect’s Moon Phoenix, Seo Yul-hye, on the bed like the dead.
Rumors from her active days claimed her beauty rivaled the world’s finest.
Even in pristine white robes, pale as death, her undeniable curves and the jet-black hair spilling like waves atop her exquisite face proved it no exaggeration.
The room’s faint candle flame flickered wildly with the man’s movements.
Like a loyal hound guarding its master.
Undeterred, the man approached her bedside and….
Slip.
Swiftly tucked a talisman under her pillow.
He shut the door and fled the Emei Sect at five times his entry speed, finally exhaling in relief.
“Whew. Never cut out for thieving, that’s me.”
Even decked in stealth gear head to toe, passing people made my hands shake and sweat pour.
Technically good deeds, but my heart pounded like mad.
This was the fear thieves endured? Might as well clean high-rise windows—good pay, respectable job.
Wiping sweat and shaking off thoughts, I slipped the remaining talisman under my own pillow.
Theory held: every sleep would link me to Seo Yul-hye’s dreams—her upper dantian.
The Demonic Cult’s ritual hadn’t started yet, so no effect now, but I needed to keep testing it.
Variables could spell disaster.
‘Oh, right.’
Dizziness hit me.
So I’d have to do this every single night?
...Really?
Everyone has that first memory.
The spark of ‘self’ awareness.
Some grasp it suddenly one day, but Seo Yul-hye’s formed a bit differently.
“Please…! Not my daughter!”
Opening her eyes, her father was taking blows from clubs across his body.
Desperately blocking a gang invading their home.
Four of them? Five? Too many for an ordinary man without martial arts to hold off alone, yet Father endured hours of beatings, standing firm at the door.
Beside her sobbing mother lay a shattered bowl, flung by one of them.
For some reason, she tried to clean it up.
Cut herself slightly; blood welled from her finger.
Seeing it, she thought.
How many bowls must shatter for Father to bleed like that?
The iron tang. Mother wailing on the floor. Father’s blood-soaked back.
That was her first memory.
After that, things went well.
Talent shone; she became a direct disciple at Emei Sect’s headquarters. Jeongam Satae favored her, elevating her beyond merit.
Couldn’t descend freely, but letters were allowed. She wrote Father many.
Training hard here. Growing strong fast—I’d protect you next time.
Always the same reply.
Waiting for that day.
Time flowed like river waters. Met many young talents, built merits. Finally brought parents to Emei as family.
Didn’t send word by letter.
Good news deserved a personal visit; Jeongam Satae permitted her descent.
...But arriving home, no waiting family—just shattered plates everywhere.
No sign of her parents.
Searching desperately, picking up a shard, realization dawned.
Her parents had been here from the start.
The iron tang clung fiercely to the plate.
The bodies were quickly laid to rest.
Reason? Her fame. Thugs demanded money from parents, refused, so vengeance killing.
Killer caught and jailed, but peace evaded her. Mind blank.
Jeongam Satae urged rest, but no heart for it.
She trained as always, ate as always, slept as always.
That was her last memory.
Time rewound.
Thwack. Thwack. Thud. Clubs rang mercilessly; eyes open to Father beaten again….
“Aigoo, mercy, great hero! Spare us!”
“Never again! Just one mercy…!”
Huh?
“Huh?”
A dazed voice slipped from Seo Yul-hye’s lips. Father unscathed, hale. The thugs instead bloody near death.
Thud. A man rolled a piggish fatso with his foot, grinned, and lifted his bamboo hat.
“Something like this, right?”
...A smile refreshing enough to stir the heart.