The Dragon Tribe's Family (5)
Around seven years had passed since Seo Ran became the parent of the Turbid Soul dragon clan children.
“Gyerurururu!”
“Cheorurururu!”
“Kweeuk, you brats. I can’t let go!”
Two monsters, each possessing a human face on a snake’s body, lunged at Seo Ran, whose form had been transformed into that of a half-dragon youth, and bit into him.
Seo Ran’s body was torn apart in multiple places, yet he desperately grabbed hold of their main bodies.
Chiiiiii!
“Kkueuk!”
However, the intense pain spurting from between their scales forced Seo Ran to clench his eyes shut and groan in agony.
“Kkueueueueu!”
Despite the pain, he finally managed to tear the two monsters away from his body before activating a spell.
【Technique Activation:】
【Technique Activation:】
【Technique Activation:】
A weak spell from the Turbid Soul Dragon clan’s bloodline.
The spell that weakened the Great Sea Thousand-Li Pearl spread out, forming a small pearl the size of seven chi that seized and suppressed the two snake-like monsters.
However, the monsters thrashed wildly inside the pearl, and Seo Ran clenched his fists to keep it from collapsing.
How much effort had it cost him?
Pusu su su—
Some black energy fled their bodies, and soon the Turbid Souls opened their eyes again.
Only then did Seo Ran sigh in relief and release the spell.
Kwack!
The spell on the pearl faded, and the two Turbid Souls that had been trapped inside the pearl moments ago crawled toward Seo Ran, tears streaming down their faces.
“Uwaaa! Uncle, we made you suffer so much again?”
“Sorry, noona… we should have controlled it better…”
Seo Ran let the two crying dragon-clan children climb onto his body and gently stroked their heads.
“It’s alright, kids. How much would it hurt if I let you bite me with those tiny teeth? The wounds you cause are barely at the Nascent Soul third stage level—nothing to be afraid of… And I told you before, let’s unify the honorifics.”
“But… you’re covered in blood, brother.”
“Look at your hands, auntie. They’re all burned.”
Seeing the dragon-clan children insist on calling him whatever they liked, Seo Ran quickly regenerated his body.
Chiiiiii—
“See? All better now. Even at just the Foundation Establishment stage, you can recover from most bodily injuries. And as I keep saying… let’s unify the honorifics.”
“But… but we’re sorry… uncle…”
“Seo Ran halabuji… but you must have been in pain.”
“…”
Seo Ran simply stroked the two children without a word.
The Turbid Soul dragon clan possessed a unique trait: once every few years, they would lose control of their fierce nature and go into a frenzy, losing their sanity.
Like day and night, they would spend one day in a mad frenzy, then the next in perfect clarity, all while staying with Seo Ran.
During their outbursts, the heat of their pain itself would surge from between their scales, making it difficult for Seo Ran to suppress them every time.
But after years together, he had grown used to their patterns and could now suppress them with minimal damage.
Seo Ran hugged the sobbing children and calmed them down.
Creak, creak…
Seo Ran lifted his tingling hand and looked at it.
Causing the sleeping children to remain undisturbed, he gently raised himself and dipped his prickling hand into the nearby stream.
Chiiiiii—
At the same moment, something blackish oozed out from his hand.
The curse they had been born with.
Duduk, tuk…
When the heat they exhaled touched the stream, the curse and pain naturally seeped into his body, and once the power of the curse faded, glass-like shards formed inside.
Tudu duduk…
Seo Ran expelled the glass shards from within his body and clicked his tongue.
They’re a remarkably strong race. Not even mid-realm, yet from birth they already wielded Nascent Soul power and began operating the Venom Dragon Technique. Not even at the third stage of Nascent Soul… These beings, simply through their racial traits, possess enough potential to seize the hegemony of an entire world…
He briefly glanced up toward the summit of Glass Threefold Mountain.
The entity at the peak of Glass Threefold Mountain—Seo Eun-hyun, the realization of Threefold Mountain who carried an immense curse and whose flames of glass would burn mortals who dared to perceive him, causing shards of glass to erupt from his body.
Through the Turbid Souls, Seo Ran had come to understand Seo Eun-hyun’s true essence.
He said he was “human” until now… but in truth, the senior is hiding his true Turbid Soul self…
Clearly, Seo Eun-hyun was the true progenitor of the Turbid Soul dragon clan.
Sarak, sararak…
Seo Ran scratched the scales of the Turbid Souls.
Every time he scraped the scales that radiated clear light, they produced a clear ringing sound.
Even in this moment of transition from the fluid state, the scales of the Turbid Souls were already at the level of steel jade.
Any blade would shatter them like they were glass.
In other words, the Turbid Souls rarely ever took wounds from other races.
Yet Seo Ran found the children even more pitiful because of it.
Just as some snakes have no resistance to their own venom… these children possess no resistance whatsoever to the pain they unconsciously exude.
Races that only inflicted pain upon others, but could not easily suffer pain themselves.
But this world is not one that can be lived through without experiencing pain.
However, it was not merely that they did not suffer easily.
These children would undoubtedly suffer pain if they endured a powerful shock.
And because they lacked resistance to pain, they would suffer far more than others when they did.
Seo Ran stroked the Turbid Soul children as he thought.
Will these children be able to live well in the world?
And just as he was gazing down at the sleeping children, a figure descended from the sky wearing a pink arch.
It was Kim Yeon.
She sat beside Seo Ran with a gentle smile and began operating her consciousness.
Her vast consciousness waves enveloped the entire area.
Seo Ran read the flow of her consciousness and grasped her intention.
“Yes. For now… there is no notable reaction. The Muddy Soul Filling the Heavens also… for some reason, it doesn’t affect these children at all. …They simply don’t listen to what I say. I don’t know why. The more I try to handle them consciously, the more distant they seem.”
“Mmm…”
Kim Yeon nodded after listening to Seo Ran’s words.
A while later, Kim Yeon stimulated Seo Ran’s consciousness field to clear it.
She then used the abbreviated consciousness technique derived from the Strange Star-Mind Scroll to train Seo Ran’s consciousness together with his own.
“Thank you, Lady Kim Yeon.”
Kim Yeon’s actions were intended to prevent Seo Ran from possibly being corrupted by Seo Huel or falling victim to his schemes.
Perhaps the senior Seo Eun-hyun also gave that order.
Seo Ran felt, through his own senses, that Seo Eun-hyun had experimented on him through Kim Yeon.
Of course, it didn’t matter.
Everything had ultimately been to block Seo Huel’s schemes.
Kim Yeon, who had trained Seo Ran’s consciousness for some time, smiled gently once more before rising back into the sky.
The sun had long since set, and the night sky had risen.
Previously, the days and nights of Threefold Mountain had been chaotic, but recently, with Seo Eun-hyun grasping the sensation of his realization practice, he had improved considerably.
Fourteen new stars now hung in the sky above Threefold Mountain.
During that time, Kim Yeon had exchanged seven artificial planets created by Goe-gun for another seven, creating a total of seven artificial planets.
The artificial planets interacted with one another, amplifying their qi and supplying the amplified qi to Threefold Mountain.
So much has changed…
Seo Ran watched the world change.
And he watched his children change, and a bitter smile crossed his face.
Everything was evolving rapidly around Seo Eun-hyun.
And in the time of that evolution, change, and growth…
Only Seo Ran remained in place.
Again, eight years had passed.
___
“Seo Ran halmoni~”
“Seo Ran daehyung!”
Still ignoring Seo Ran’s words, the two Turbid Souls ran toward him on two legs.
“Oh? You brats!”
Seo Ran hugged the two children.
They had been born fifteen years ago.
Because they were creations directly made by Seo Eun-hyun, they were not mere monsters.
Even with support from the entire Threefold Mountain, they had reached Nascent Soul at the age of fifteen and successfully undergone the rite of fire.
Seo Ran hugged the two children and laughed.
“Congratulations on successfully undergoing the rite of fire! What geniuses you brats are!”
“Hehe, what geniuses? In reality, the senior’s training grounds around us have elevated our qi to an exceptional level even among mid-realm training grounds.”
“Moreover, every time we train, the senior twists the heavenly qi to push us! So it’s weird to be held back by a fool like me!”
“…”
Seo Ran looked at the Turbid Souls with a bitter gaze.
They were lying.
After Seo Ran had entrusted the Turbid Soul children to him…
Seo Eun-hyun had provided no support whatsoever to the Turbid Soul children until now.
He had only given them a place to live, cleared the heavenly qi so they wouldn’t suffer ailments, and nothing else—no true aid.
Manipulating the heavenly qi? The senior?
Kim Yeon, and Seo Eun-hyun’s other colleagues.
He had heard it directly from the one closest to him, Kang Min-hee, who was nearing the Star Plate realm.
Seo Eun-hyun was still not capable of such miracles.
Then why were these two Turbid Souls, at only fifteen years old, reaching Nascent Soul and praising Seo Eun-hyun while fawning before him?
They used a forbidden technique… you brats…
A forbidden technique that shortened their allotted lifespan in exchange for rapid cultivation advancement.
It was the forbidden technique Seo Ran had learned from the ghosts within his Seopmyeong Ship.
Seo Ran himself had found it nearly impossible to control all the ghosts in his Seopmyeong Ship, so he had been unable to stop the Turbid Soul children from occasionally learning dangerous forbidden techniques from them.
But even though he had realized they had learned a forbidden technique, he had not scolded them and had simply hugged the children.
“Anyway, you brats who never listen.”
Knowing why the children had reached Nascent Soul so quickly despite using a forbidden technique that shortened their lifespan, Seo Ran simply hugged the children tighter without a word.
Twenty years had passed.
___
Seo Ran sat quietly before a cave, gazing into its depths.
“…”
Thirty-five years.
A short time for the Immortals, but an incredibly long and precious time for Seo Ran.
And during that time, together…
He gazed at the cave where the two children he now considered his own lived.
From inside the cave came a painful groaning sound.
And a while later…
The groaning finally stopped.
The moment the groan ceased, Seo Ran rushed into the cave at top speed.
And at the end of the cave, Seo Ran saw dozens of eggs, and in front of them, the two children holding each other’s hands and facing him.
Though they had grown up like siblings, they were not actually siblings—each had been created by Seo Eun-hyun.
They had grown, mated, and given birth to offspring.
“You’ve worked hard.”
Seo Ran approached wordlessly and took their hands.
“Father.”
“Mother.”
Seo Ran’s children still called him differently, but with no strength, they held his hand with a playful voice.
“…”
Seo Ran accepted their words without saying anything like “Let’s unify the honorifics” as he had on other days.
“I am here.”
The Turbid Souls could give birth to eggs only once in their lifetime.
And after giving birth, they would wither away and die.
It was a line Seo Ran had heard when he first received the children from Seo Eun-hyun.
The greatest trait of the Turbid Souls was inheritance.
After the parents depleted all their qi and infused it all into the eggs, the descendants would live a slightly longer life than the previous generation, with even tougher scales and a powerful supernatural ability.
Perhaps this was a trait born because the Hwahonmancheon of Seo Eun-hyun dwelled within them.
But the saying that it would be inherited and grow stronger and live longer as the generations passed…
Meant that the first generation would inevitably be short-lived and weak.
Seo Ran held his children and shed tears.
The reason his children had reached Nascent Soul so quickly while shortening their lifespan.
Because, in any case, their allotted lifespan was around sixty years, and even reaching Foundation Establishment, Core Formation, and Nascent Soul, the increase in lifespan was so slight that it could be called worse than slave races.
Instead of crawling around for sixty or seventy years while being bitten by him, they had chosen to live as humans in human form, maintaining clear sanity through Nascent Soul, after reaching Nascent Soul at thirty or forty years old.
“My children… will surely… love you…”
“Though it was a short… life… it was good. Please don’t be sad.”
These children were now destined to die.
He could have held their souls in his Seopmyeong Ship, but Seo Ran had decided to send them to the underworld.
For a long time, he held the children’s hands while sobbing, then poured out his final words to his children.
“Thank you for becoming my children…”
With that, Seo Ran’s first children closed their eyes.
And one year later…
The first egg among the eggs laid by Seo Ran’s children hatched.
The Turbid Soul that emerged from the first egg was a girl.
Seo Ran, at last, held the child and named her.
“Your name is… Seo Hye.”
A surname given after his own.
Perhaps it pleased her, or perhaps there was another reason.
Seo Hye smiled gently while gazing into Seo Ran’s eyes.