Chapter 59
Chapter 59
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 59
Chapter Title: Resentment
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Dang Gyujin and the support troops led by her raced swiftly along the ridgeline.
“Just a little more, hurry just a little more!”
“My lady! I understand your urgency, but even Young Master Unhwi couldn’t have crossed over to Doseng County in just one day! There’s no need to rush like this!”
The support force consisted of six men in total.
But their small number didn’t mean they could be underestimated.
Each one was an elite from the Nine Dragons Branch Family, men who had shaken the Sichuan martial world in their youth.
They were members of the Pure Wind Hall.
They were also veterans of the old Stormwind Squad.
‘What in the world is making her act like this?’
Dang Ri, who was in charge, couldn’t understand why Dang Gyujin was urging them on so relentlessly.
He knew full well how urgent the situation was.
He now acknowledged that Unhwi was more remarkable than he’d thought.
But that still wasn’t reason enough to rush like this.
Gurong County and Doseng County were close in distance, but the path between them boasted treacherous mountain trails that required crossing a high plateau.
Even veterans of the Stormwind Squad like them had to steel themselves to advance at full speed.
No matter how urgently Unhwi pushed forward, there were limits to his movement.
If he grew tired midway and rested, or if night fell and he camped, time would slip away.
But no matter how much he explained this, Dang Gyujin dismissed it all with a simple wave.
“So, did you find any signs that Hwi-ya rested?”
“That’s—”
“On the contrary, it seems like we only found traces of him hurrying through without a break?”
“…….”
Dang Ri had no retort there.
It was the truth.
With the path over the plateau being limited, Unhwi’s traces were easy to spot.
But among them, there wasn’t a single sign of him resting.
Instead, there were only marks of him catching his breath briefly before pressing on in haste.
It even raised suspicions that he might be fleeing from someone, but the surrounding traces suggested otherwise.
In short, everything was a mystery.
Common sense dictated that Unhwi, lacking real combat experience, couldn’t move this fast, yet those traces remained.
What was he supposed to make of it?
‘I saw it right. I don’t know the exact reason, but Hwi-ya is in a desperate hurry right now.’
Dang Gyujin recalled the sight of Unhwi sending her and Dang Gon back to the branch family while heading alone to Doseng County.
He wanted to reach Doseng County as quickly as possible.
Like someone being pursued.
Even the most level-headed person could narrow their vision in such a state and court disaster.
Dang Gyujin was determined to prevent that from happening.
“So, I’m asking you to push just a little harder.”
“…Understood.”
In the end, with Dang Gyujin bowing her head in request, Dang Ri had no choice but to agree.
Not long after, Dang Gyujin’s group received new information from a messenger falcon sent by the branch family.
—Conflict erupted between Young Master Unhwi and the Lion Gate Daoist squad; Young Master Unhwi achieved a great victory.
—Pure Moon Fairy of the Emei Sect and White Sword Orchid of Blue Flower Manor were reportedly present at the site.
—Need to ascertain details.
“Hwi-ya met Min Fairy and Seon Fairy?”
Yu Sumin and Sima Seon-ui were acquaintances of Dang Gyujin as well.
They had even joined together in the Sichuan Mountains Friendship Society, a gathering of young talents from the western regions, yet here their names appeared out of nowhere.
But what caught Dang Ri’s attention was something else.
Why on earth did Young Master Unhwi clash with the Lion Gate Daoist squad?
The Lion Sword King’s defeat to the Azure Sky Sword Emperor was infamous, so the Daoists might target Sima Seon-ui, but it made no sense for them to tangle with Unhwi, who had been hunting demonic cult lackeys.
But one thing was certain.
As Dang Gyujin said, Unhwi had already reached Doseng County and won a conflict there, having recovered his stamina enough to do so.
‘Perhaps Young Master Unhwi is far more extraordinary than I imagined…!’
When Dang Gon had gone around praising Unhwi effusively, he’d dismissed it as excessive favoritism toward a disciple.
But it seemed that wasn’t the case.
‘The exceptional stamina management to cross the rugged plateau without much strain, the victory over the Daoist squad—it’s not just about raw skill.’
Dang Ri’s assessment of Unhwi flipped completely.
‘He’s a natural-born hunter.’
With such innate combat sense, the hunt for demonic cult lackeys must have progressed faster than expected.
‘Damn! I was too complacent. We should have hurried more.’
After discussing with the other members, Dang Ri pressed on without camping even as dawn broke, fully cresting the mountain ridge.
And there, they spotted a single carriage heading their way.
‘What’s that?’
—Tang.
—Nine Dragons.
Unlike their own banners, it looked crudely made, as if hastily prepared.
But it was unmistakably the banner of the Nine Dragons Branch Family.
Dang Gyujin joined Dang Ri in spurring their horses faster toward the carriage.
The coachman seated on the box, however, was a complete stranger.
‘An expert!!’
Dang Gyujin’s group tensed up immediately.
The aura emanating from the old man was no joke for a mere coachman.
‘It feels like facing Mount Hua.’
Especially since their eye levels didn’t match, and the old man looked down at them, the pressure intensified.
Pupils devoid of any emotion.
As if a ferocious energy was forcibly suppressed within.
One poke, and it might explode, devouring everything around.
It could pass for demonic qi.
Shwick!
Dang Ri and the group drew their hidden weapons in unison, preparing for battle.
This was someone impersonating the Tang Clan and Nine Dragons Branch Family with an ominous aura.
Good men do not come; those who come are not good. No benevolent intent here—they needed to uncover the scheme.
He might even be a demonic cult lackey returning after targeting Unhwi.
“Kikikik! A monster, this is a monster! The old monster has come back even stronger! At this rate, even we might not be able to handle it?”
Dang Gyujin reflexively reached for her waist but frowned at the words from the blue-faced mask.
She was sure this was a stranger, yet the blue-faced mask spoke as if reuniting with an old acquaintance.
‘Came back? What does that mean?’
“You still don’t get it? Ihihi. You idiots. The owner of the aura you’re sensing isn’t that coachman! It’s that bird!”
‘What?’
Perched on the coachman’s left shoulder was a hawk larger than a human torso.
“Don’t you remember? You have to. You can’t not remember after keeping me. Can’t have dementia at your young age.”
Dang Gyujin focused her senses on the hawk.
That instant.
‘!!!’
A chill ran down Dang Gyujin’s spine involuntarily.
Right there was a boiling volcano incomparable to anything she’d sensed before.
Even gathering all the anomalies she’d exorcised would pale in comparison—an enormous anomaly.
Demon.
It merely took the form of a bird; it was more like a yokai.
“Ihihihi! Only now you feel it? So slow! Way too slow!”
The problem was that its temperament felt familiar.
‘…No way that hawk is the monstrous bird Unhwi tamed at the White Tournament?’
“Right!”
‘No way!’
“Why not?! It’s right there!”
The high bird Unhwi had tamed was no weakling even then.
But now, its aura was on another level entirely.
How could it evolve so much in such a short time?
Some heavenly opportunity?
Could he even control something like that to begin with?
Yokai were yokai proper.
Called so for their bewitching (妖) and bizarre (怪) nature.
They fed on the negative thoughts humans emitted.
To yokai, humans were mere prey, and Daoists always sought to exorcise them.
If it could be tamed, it ceased to be a yokai.
It could no longer inspire fear. It would fade away.
But this hawk was different.
Not only did it retain yokai traits, it surpassed them with demonic qualities.
Look at it now.
Just gazing down at them had Dang Gyujin and her group on edge.
Dang Ri stepped forward and shouted.
“Why are you flying the main family’s banner? Where is Young Master Unhwi?”
“My lord is—”
The stone-faced coachman’s mouth opened very slowly.
My lord?
As the same question arose in everyone’s minds—
Clack!
The carriage door suddenly flew open, and someone stepped out slowly.
‘Un… Young Master Hwi?’
‘But—’
‘Is it really him?’
‘It is, but definitely—’
‘It doesn’t seem like him.’
It was Unhwi.
Yet it wasn’t Unhwi.
His long ink-black robe trailed as he walked.
Power brimmed.
But an indescribable pressure weighed down the air around him.
Whoosh!
“!!”
“!!”
“!!”
The demonic qi from Onma vanished like a lie, replaced entirely by Unhwi’s aura.
Breath caught in their throats.
Dang Gyujin, Dang Ri, the other Pure Wind Hall members—all fell silent in that moment.
The Unhwi they’d met over the past two months had always been confident.
Always smiling, approaching everything without hesitation.
Everyone he met felt some invisible strength from him.
But not now.
Touch him, and everything would burn to ash.
Body and soul alike.
A blaze raging as if ready to erupt.
Yet unable to find release, simply standing there forced Dang Gyujin’s group to sense mortal peril.
What ordeal could forge such lethal killing intent in a person?
He was like a wrathful demon coalesced from pure malice.
“M-my lord?”
Even Ilno found this Unhwi so alien that his voice trembled unwittingly.
Onma’s pupils quivered in shock.
He’d been interrogating Baeksan in a playful mood, taunting the spirits moments ago—what had happened?
Onma had panicked then, spotting the spirits fleeing in terror to the carriage roof.
“What in the world happened!?”
“Something went down while interrogating the earth ghost!”
“Something?”
“We didn’t hear the details! Seems the earth ghost spouted something bad about the Mythical Flower Sect!!”
“Oh no—”
Onma realized.
‘The suppressed rage has erupted!’
Unhwi hadn’t shown it outwardly, but Onma knew the deep resentment from those six lost years.
Baeksan must have poked at it.
What to do with that fury?
As Onma floundered uncertainly—
Step.
“…My lady?”
“What are you doing?”
Dang Gyujin suddenly stepped toward Unhwi.
Dang Ri and the group, Onma and the spirits, even Ilno—all panicked.
She’d be devoured by the killing intent pouring from Unhwi.
But Dang Gyujin calmly dropped her sword to the ground.
‘He looks sad.’
Dang Gyujin perceived something different from the others.
She wasn’t unafraid of this Unhwi.
Yet strangely, pity overwhelmed her fear.
She didn’t know why.
Perhaps the shadow beneath those ferocious eyes stirred her heart.
In her eyes now, Unhwi was just a wounded wolf wandering lost.
She wanted to soothe those wounds, even a little.
Easing the resentment in his chest might help, even slightly—that was her thought.
“…….”
“…….”
Dang Gyujin silently embraced Unhwi.
Unhwi stood still for a long while.
Reincarnated Demon God Chronicles