The Salt Pillar Awakens – Hongbeom’s Desperate Cry
Staring at Hong Beom, I asked.
“Hong Beom, do you feel something?”
“…Yes. I can faintly sense a sense of solidarity as a blood relative.”
He shuddered and added, “And I have just realized it myself, but now that I know my kin’s senses, I will be able to detect nearby ones.”
“Ho… I see.”
It seemed I had finally understood why the Jin clan had found us. At the level of the Jin family head, it was only natural.
‘By the way, how strange.’
Even though his lifespan was almost over, the centipede before my eyes was clearly a spirit beast possessing the demonic energy of a Qi Condensation Stage 1 cultivator.
‘With the spiritual energy of the Yeon Sea Disaster and Deungsunhyang, it could truly awaken as a spirit race.’
I looked at the head of the Jin clan.
“So… you looked for me because you thought feeding my spirit beast Hong Beom’s spirit core would extend his lifespan?”
“H-ha…!”
The Jin clan head sweated like never before, shaking his head frantically.
“N-no, not at all! How could I dare steal a senior disciple’s core who surpasses my own cultivation level! I wrongly assumed you were a same-rank expert and tried to negotiate a trade!”
“Hmm, is that so?”
Doubting his words, I asked, “Your pet spirit beast… it doesn’t seem like you’re trying to keep it alive out of affection. Do you mind if I ask why you want to preserve it?”
From his intent, it was clear the Jin clan head wanted to keep the spirit beast for some practical purpose rather than out of brotherly love.
He swallowed hard and answered, “Though the heavenly beings may see it as crude… bring it here!”
He urgently called one of the elders kneeling beside him.
The elder quickly fetched a small sealed jar from somewhere.
As he opened the seal, faint spiritual energy waves emanated from inside.
“Ho…!”
I, and even Hong Beom who had been watching, showed great interest in the jar.
“It’s a spiritual liquid.”
The spiritual liquid inside churned, filled with thick spiritual energy.
The concentration was incredibly high—enough to instantly push even a talentless person from Qi Condensation Stage 1 to Stage 3 through sheer perception alone.
And that was for a talentless person. For a heavenly talent like Hong Beom, it would push anyone from Qi Condensation Stage 1 straight to Stage 6.
“This is a kind of poison that my pet spirit beast manufactured. As you know, poisons can be used as medicinal herbs depending on their concentration. This spiritual liquid is no different from the highest-grade herbs.”
“Hmm, it doesn’t look like simple centipede poison?”
I analyzed the liquid using my knowledge of poisons.
The scent, the essence, and the color suggested it was not a plain centipede poison but a refined plant poison made from many other herbs.
Yet Hong Beom, staring at the liquid, spoke.
“Amazing, Master. All the raw materials of this poison contain no spiritual energy at all—they are ordinary grasses and liquids.”
“…!”
Only then did I understand why the Jin clan head had gone to such lengths to prolong the lifespan of a centipede that barely reached Qi Condensation Stage 1.
“Ho… that’s astonishing.”
The Jin clan head, having his secret seen in one glance, trembled in fear and glanced at Hong Beom’s shadow.
“I was merely a student of the centipede spirit beast. Rather, it is amazing that you saw through it so quickly, senior.”
He praised the centipede spirit beast and prostrated himself deeply before Hong Beom.
“No need to be so overly respectful.”
As I waved my hand to stop him, the Jin clan head panicked.
“No, it is because my heart feels at ease that I do this. Please allow it.”
“Whatever you say.”
When I agreed, he became flustered.
At that moment.
Hong Beom suddenly erupted with furious intent and roared.
“You damn insect!”
The one who had remained silent ever since I met his brother.
Yet now he was spewing rage at the Jin clan head.
Even the Jin clan head and his elders, and myself, were stunned as we stared.
Hong Beom, truly enraged, poured out killing intent and shouted, “This disrespectful wretch dares to raise his head before Master’s presence!”
“I-I’m sorry! I thought you had approved it…”
“Where did you get the gall to speak so disrespectfully! I had to be granted permission at least three times!”
I was puzzled and said, “It’s fine, Hong Beom. I gave permission. It doesn’t matter to me.”
“…!”
Upon hearing that, Hong Beom closed his mouth, nodded, and took a step back.
I felt an incredibly strange sensation.
His intent had somehow become almost identical to before.
He had returned to his usual emotionless self.
‘Just because I took a bit less formal manners, he suddenly erupts in rage?’
I calmed my astonishment and told him, “Thank you, but in the future, there’s no need to get so angry over things I have approved.”
“Yes, I will remember. However, Master’s prestige is very important to me. I may not be able to control it. I hope you understand.”
“…”
Seeing Hong Beom display intense emotion for the first time in a long while, I felt a bit amazed.
“By the way, Hong Beom. That centipede over there is your brother, right?”
“That one is a girl.”
“Ah… sorry. I couldn’t tell the difference. Anyway, you have siblings. What do you want to do?”
Hong Beom looked at me with a puzzled expression.
“Should I deal with her?”
“No, no, no…!”
Shocked, I asked, “You just met your siblings for the first time in your life. Isn’t there any emotion—like pity or something? If you want, I can bring her along and raise her.”
“…”
Did he say that because of the spiritual liquid?
Hong Beom immediately told me the formula for the poison combination.
‘In such a short time, seeing it once and analyzing the poison’s ingredients and formula… amazing.’
I felt a twinge of admiration and said, “Thank you. But what I meant was from a moral standpoint, not necessity. That person is your family, isn’t she?”
Hong Beom shook his head.
“No, Master.”
“Hm?”
“Since reaching the Nascent Soul realm, I have seen and remembered every moment from the time I met you until now. It was not the first time I saw her—it was one of the siblings I saw right after hatching. I also remember which egg she came from and where she was heading.”
“…”
Because I had stored all my memories using the Ten Thousand Phenomena Affinity Diagram, I had no fear of memory leakage even after the Nascent Soul realm.
Ordinary Nascent Soul cultivators passed through the primary lamp of memory in an instant and gained nothing.
There were cases where one learned the secret of their birth, but even that was hard to recall clearly.
Yet Hong Beom had seen the fleeting primary lamp once and remembered everything.
‘What kind of brain structure does he have?’
I asked in astonishment, “You have no feelings toward your family?”
“That is correct, Master. Honestly, I don’t quite understand why I am linked with family. Well, blood relation is blood relation, but I don’t really feel the need to acknowledge it.”
“…”
‘Because he is too superior, he doesn’t recognize his own kin as family.’
A rare attitude I had occasionally seen in prodigies.
And it resembled the way sages looked down on criminals when I was on Earth.
Same human, yet not the same.
To them, a criminal was merely an idiot whose intent was leaking like a thread.
I hesitated and then gave up.
“Well, if that’s how you feel, then so be it. More importantly….”
Looking at the centipede spirit beast that was the Jin clan head’s pet, I asked Hong Beom, “Do you have any desire to extend her lifespan?”
“Not really. If Master commands it, I will try to find a way.”
“You don’t want to?”
“No.”
I nodded.
“Then it is settled, Jin clan head.”
“Yes, senior!”
It seemed his pet spirit beast would have to find another way to increase its lifespan. I couldn’t provide my own spirit core.
“I understand, senior.”
After giving a few words of advice to the Jin clan head and his elders who kept bowing, I left the Jin clan with Hong Beom.
As we flew through the sky of the Yeon Kingdom, I confessed to him.
“Actually, Hong Beom… I am the one who killed your parents.”
It was the truth I had meant to tell him ever since coming to the Water Realm.
And if that caused him to rage or if he tried to kill me, I was prepared to accept it.
It was the truth I had to reveal someday. Even if I died, I had already done everything I could for the Golden Thunder Calamity. I was ready to accept any death that severed all connections.
Yet Hong Beom’s reaction was nothing like I had expected.
“I see.”
“…”
The same person who had suddenly raged over my prestige showed no emotion at all toward the death of his family.
His strangely emotionless reaction made me tell him the story of how I killed his mother.
His mother, a Foundation Establishment stage spirit beast, had been ravaging human villages. To save them, I killed her. I told him the unvarnished truth.
After listening, Hong Beom tilted his head.
“…Could it be that you have some command for me?”
“Hm?”
“Do you want to make that human village prosperous?”
“No, Hong Beom… I am the one who killed your parents.”
“Yes.”
“…”
“Master?”
I could not help but be surprised by his completely different way of thinking from the sages.
No matter how great the sages were, they would not casually ignore the fact that their own parents were the criminal.
Sages who had criminals as parents would treat them with utmost care as their own, and if anything happened to them, they would go mad like ordinary people.
“…I apologize. I killed your parents.”
I sincerely apologized, even though I felt uneasy about his attitude.
And then I felt Hong Beom really panic.
“Master, why are you apologizing to me? Do not apologize. I have no feelings toward my parents. My existence only has meaning when I am with you. Master, since my very early childhood, I have understood my own destiny. Do you know what it is?”
“…”
“What is it? It is to help you advance forward while standing by your side. That is the destiny I have understood.”
“…”
I looked at Hong Beom with an indescribable strange feeling.
Why… why was his destiny to help me?
I could not understand it at all.
For a moment, we flew in silence through the sky.
Then Hong Beom spoke.
“Master, by the way, would you like to see the supreme law of the poison I have understood?”
“Hm?”
“Suddenly?”
Since Hong Beom rarely suggested anything to me out of nowhere, I looked at him curiously.
“Yes. Take a look.”
He reached his hand toward me.
“This is the ultimate meaning of the poison I have understood.”
* * *
Whoosh!
Jeon Myeong-hoon slashed through the air like lightning, gnashing his teeth.
Whoong!
As he formed the sword seal, the sound transmission technique appeared before him.
Jeon Myeong-hoon shouted at it.
“Boss Kim Young-hoon! Come to the capital of the Yeon Kingdom right now! Seo Eun-hyun is…”
He spoke of Seo Eun-hyun and then activated the technique.
Krroong!
The sound transmission technique shot away at the speed of lightning toward somewhere.
Whoosh!
A moment later, Jeon Myeong-hoon arrived above the imperial city of the Yeon Kingdom.
Inside the city walls.
He looked down at what had appeared there.
Flash!
And in an instant, a golden light flashed, and suddenly Jeon Myeong-hoon stood beside him.
“Jeon Myeong-hoon, is it true? Seo Eun-hyun…”
“Yes. Probably…”
Jeon Myeong-hoon and Kim Young-hoon stared with serious expressions at one corner of the imperial city.
Not at an inn.
At the place that had once been an inn.
A giant pillar of salt shot out into the sky.
And at the center of the salt pillar, an old man in black robes with long, drooping eyebrows was frantically doing something.
“Hong Beom!”
Jeon Myeong-hoon shouted upon seeing the old man.
Kim Young-hoon and Jeon Myeong-hoon landed beside Hong Beom and watched what he was doing.
On Hong Beom’s side, Seo Eun-hyun’s head protruded from the salt pillar.
Inside the pillar, Seo Eun-hyun’s body was faintly visible.
But gradually his body was melting into the salt pillar and becoming one with it, and Hong Beom was injecting something transparent into Seo Eun-hyun’s head while holding it.
“What is going on!?”
Hong Beom asked in confusion.
“I don’t know either. When I broke the seal and saw, Master was like this. I am using my formless poison to stimulate Master’s spirit and trying to wake him up!”
“What…!”
Jeon Myeong-hoon looked at Seo Eun-hyun in panic, then rushed to a nearby man who was collapsed and shaking in terror.
“You wretch! Can’t you speak properly? Why is Seo Eun-hyun like this?!”
But the man only rambled in terror.
“I-I don’t know. The gentleman asked for another bowl of noodles and suddenly a white pillar shot out from his body…”
“Tell the truth! Is that all?!”
“It is the truth!”
Kim Young-hoon grabbed Jeon Myeong-hoon’s shoulder.
“It’s over. His words are true. There is no change in emotion.”
“This is ridiculous…”
At that moment.
Hong Beom opened his eyes wide and shouted, “Master’s main consciousness has contacted me! Everyone be quiet and let me wake him!”
Whoooong!
How much transparent energy was circulating in Hong Beom’s palm into Seo Eun-hyun’s brain.
Whoosh!
Seo Eun-hyun’s eyes opened.
“…Eh?”
At first Seo Eun-hyun seemed unable to understand reality, but gradually his eyes filled with killing intent as he grasped the situation.
And then his pupils trembled violently, and he screamed madly.
“AHHHHHHHHH!!!”
* * *
As the formless poison Hong Beom had understood erupted from his hand, the scene before my eyes shattered into pieces.
At the same time, I was back at the moment right after serving noodles in the inn.
Before my eyes, Kim Young-hoon and Jeon Myeong-hoon were staring at me, Hong Beom was sweating and looking at me, and a pillar of salt was growing from my body.
“Ah….”
My thoughts gradually returned.
I had served noodles and…
Used my hand to form the inverse triangle…
Then…
Something…
“AHHHHHHHHH!!!”
I had seen it.
I had seen it, seen it, seen it, seen it, seen it, seen it.
Seen it over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over.
The legacy left by the main of the Salt Mountain.