Chapter 40
Chapter 40
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 40
Chapter Title: Flame Lord 2
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Baek Moo-jin could feel Jin So-hye's body gradually growing hotter. The moment the innkeeper showed them to the room, he hurried to the bed and laid her down, but she was already no different from a blazing fireball.
It was truly bizarre.
What would have happened to Jin So-hye if Baek Moo-jin hadn't been there? He soaked a towel from the room in water and wiped her face. But the instant the moisture touched her skin, a sizzling sound rang out, and her face grew even redder.
"This is ridiculous. What the hell is this Flame Lord?"
Baek Moo-jin rolled up Jin So-hye's sleeve, grasped her wrist, and once more infused her with his qi. Yet her entire body repelled his qi with a powerful rebound, as if maintaining a fierce resistance.
Only then did Baek Moo-jin realize.
'This energy itself is the Flame Lord.'
In that case, Jin So-hye was in a state of rampage. She must have ended up in this precarious condition because she couldn't control the Flame Lord's energy herself. The right move was to first bring her to her senses, then let her circulate her qi on her own.
A chill began to gather in Baek Moo-jin's palms. He poured an icily cold energy onto the crown of her head. He adjusted the force to the bare minimum, ready to stop immediately if it backfired.
But it seemed to work—Jin So-hye's eyes fluttered open.
Baek Moo-jin hurriedly asked,
"Are you all right?"
Once she regained consciousness, he planned to get answers to everything, so his questions tumbled out in rapid succession.
"How do you feel? Is there any way I can help? What is this Flame Lord? You keep passing out..."
Jin So-hye swallowed hard before speaking.
"The Flame Lord is the foundational power of the divine art I cultivate. I need to start circulating my qi now."
Baek Moo-jin nodded, and she dropped a bombshell as casually as if commenting on the weather.
"Patriarch Baek..."
"Yes."
"If... I fail to wake up while circulating my qi, could you take my remains to my father?"
Baek Moo-jin stared at her in shock.
"Remains? What kind of grim talk is that?"
"If I can't suppress the Flame Lord back into my dantian, that's probably what'll happen. I'll merge with the flames. That's the technique I learned."
Baek Moo-jin grasped the gravity of the situation and, without realizing it, switched to informal speech.
"Any way I can help?"
Jin So-hye shook her head.
"When it rampages like this, my father and the Left and Right Guardians would step in, infusing me with compatible inner energy to guide a Great Heavenly Circulation and suppress the Flame Lord. The Left Guardian's been attacked now, and even if the other two somehow find me... For now, I'll endure it alone."
Jin So-hye gave a faint smile as she spoke to Baek Moo-jin.
"Thank you for helping me, Patriarch Baek."
Her words sounded like a farewell directed at him. Baek Moo-jin shook his head with a bitter expression.
"Miss Jin."
"Yes."
"That Flame Lord energy... let me try suppressing it."
Jin So-hye smiled back.
"It's hard to endure unless it's compatible energy. It's more than enough to burn even you, Patriarch Baek."
At those words, veins bulged on Baek Moo-jin's forehead.
'How dare she...'
His expression hardened with tension and anger, like a man on the verge of battle. In that moment, he couldn't help but speak with supreme arrogance.
"Miss Jin, forgive me, but do I seem weaker to you than the Holy Flame Palace Lord and the Left and Right Guardians?"
"That's not it, but even the three of them together could barely..."
"Think back. To our spar..."
As Jin So-hye looked at him, Baek Moo-jin continued.
"Do you think the Palace Lord and Guardians combined could overpower me? You know their skills well, and you've faced me yourself, so you should understand better than anyone. What do you say?"
His question brimmed with extraordinary confidence.
Jin So-hye gazed at Baek Moo-jin, pondering.
'Could my father and the Left and Right Guardians defeat Patriarch Baek even if they joined forces?'
Baek Moo-jin met her eyes and slowly shook his head.
"They couldn't. Not even all three together..."
Jin So-hye, on the other hand, nodded.
"Will you help me?"
"Let's do it."
Jin So-hye boldly extended her hand, a silent request to grasp it. Baek Moo-jin took hold, and she slid off the bed to sit cross-legged on the floor.
"I'll perform the Great Heavenly Circulation. But my qi is too weak—the path will be blocked. Don't push too hard; withdraw your qi anytime if it gets tough. Together..."
Jin So-hye couldn't bring herself to say, 'I don't want to die with you.'
Baek Moo-jin could guess the unspoken words and nodded curtly, as if urging her to hurry.
"Begin. Flame Lord or King of Hell... let's take a look."
Jin So-hye formed a hand seal mimicking flames, then lowered her hands demurely to her knees and closed her eyes gently.
Silence descended.
Baek Moo-jin, who had been watching quietly, moved behind her, sat, and closed his eyes as well.
In the darkness, he perceived her qi flow as if opening his mind's eye.
A massive blaze flickered before Baek Moo-jin's inner vision.
'The Flame Lord?'
It was no ordinary flame, true to its name. What kind of fateful encounter had forged this? Or was it like Baek Moo-jin's own destiny, inherited from the Holy Flame Palace? Or perhaps a grand ritual performed by demonic forces to grow stronger? As Baek Moo-jin's mind spun wild guesses about the Flame Lord, the blaze that was Jin So-hye swelled beyond what she could contain.
A competitive spirit welled up within him.
Whatever that flame signified, Baek Moo-jin didn't care.
Grand ritual or fateful blessing.
Even if it was the Holy Flame Palace's destiny...
'It can't devour me.'
Baek Moo-jin swiftly circulated his qi through one full heavenly cycle with the White Flower Divine Art, then thrust out both palms toward the massive blaze.
At last, his inner energy extended into Jin So-hye's body like a probing gaze. But from the darkness, a fierce power reared its head. A flame emerged with the momentum to swallow him whole, flickering as it came to greet him.
Even Baek Moo-jin's complexion paled.
He had been imagining Jin So-hye's form as a blaze with his eyes closed, but the newly appearing fire energy took on the ridiculous shape of a fire dragon.
Was it an illusion born of his imagination?
Or the true form of the Flame Lord's energy?
Having already filled himself with the White Flower Divine Art—unlike before—his energy had penetrated her body, and now the enormous fire dragon glared at him, poised to devour.
Far from aiding the Great Heavenly Circulation...
At the boundary of Jin So-hye's body, the fire dragon and Baek Moo-jin faced off.
Yet this clash unfolded not in the realm of reason or reality, but in something mythical, primordial—unreal.
This was utterly unlike what Jin So-hye had anticipated, and something that had never happened even when the Palace Lord or Guardians aided her.
Yes, it was unreal.
But it was also an ancient battle from the dawn of time.
A clash of flame and ice.
Origin against origin.
Holy Flame Palace against Snow Mountain Baek Family.
The myth of the Flame Lord against Baek Moo-jin, bearer of the Snow Mountain Baek Family's destiny.
2.
Baek Moo-jin stood in a pitch-black void.
Before him loomed a colossal fire dragon—worthy of the name Flame Lord—its massive body coiled behind it as it thrust its head forward to gaze down at him.
Its aura dripped with contempt for him.
Even though this space could be seen as Jin So-hye's body, Baek Moo-jin kept elevating his White Flower Divine Art. He had no choice. Instinct told him that the moment he was devoured by the dragon, he'd be reduced to a handful of ash, just as she had warned.
It was utterly bizarre and unbelievably perilous.
Baek Moo-jin immediately raised the art from four stars to five, five to six, six to seven.
Yet with each ascension, men dressed identically to Baek Moo-jin appeared at his sides.
Chills ran down his spine—not just in reality, but in this unreal realm as well.
The fire dragon's eyes slowly shifted, glaring at each of the men flanking Baek Moo-jin one by one.
Baek Moo-jin felt fear.
For his nature, fearing anything was exceedingly rare.
But he wasn't afraid of the dragon before him—he dreaded confirming the faces of those beside him. Everyone stared at the dragon.
'No way... it can't be.'
He glanced at the man to his left, who wore a deeply unfamiliar face as he glared at the dragon.
'Ah... just an illusion, then.'
That was when it happened.
The dragon's entire body rippled as it opened its massive maw, unleashing flames vast enough to unfold a hellscape.
At the same instant, Baek Moo-jin drew his sword and poured forth the pure power of his White Flower Divine Art.
Was this a soundless world?
The colossal fire stream clashed with Baek Moo-jin's inner energy, yet no sound emerged. Instead, as he was pushed back by the flames, he instinctively unleashed the eight-star stage he never thought he'd need.
Thud—crackle-crackle-crack—
The moment he released eight-star power, it surged from his dantian like a burst dam.
Then two white-robed men landed before him, unleashing beams of white light toward the inferno.
'Ah...'
Baek Moo-jin instantly knew who they were.
How could he forget the backs of those two?
A white-haired elder master and a sturdier black-haired middle-aged man wielded white swords, blocking the dragon's flames.
Baek Moo-jin's grandfather and father.
This meant the figures around him were all former patriarchs of the Snow Mountain Baek Family.
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