Chapter 171
Chapter 171
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 50
>Chapter Title: Jo Tae-cheong (2)
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-Pang! Pang!
Toru's hooves were blocked by some invisible barrier.
'What is this?'
He could feel spiritual energy emanating from the barrier.
That was when it happened.
"Hey!"
'!?'
A pretty short-haired girl dressed as a maid, her hand forming a hand seal, urgently beckoned to Mok Kyung-un and spoke.
"Come with me right now!"
"Who are you?"
"You can ask questions later? Hurry!"
Mok Kyung-un narrowed his eyes at the girl's words.
The spiritual energy coming from her was on par with Fangwol's level.
But why was this girl dressed like that?
Puzzled, Mok Kyung-un looked up.
-Kraaaargh!
-Pang! Pang!
The demon beast Toru roared as it tried to break through the barrier with its hooves.
Mok Kyung-un clicked his tongue inwardly.
Things had escalated too far to kill it now.
With this much commotion, people would swarm in from the surroundings, and chaos would erupt soon enough.
With that, Mok Kyung-un said to the girl,
"Got it. But where am I supposed to follow you to?"
Maintaining the hand seal with one hand, the girl drew something from her waist with the other.
She slipped it onto her finger and spun it in the air.
-Ssssh!
'Huh?'
To his surprise, smoke-like mist flowed out into the air, forming a circular entrance.
"I can't hold it for long. Hurry!"
With those words, the girl entered the round entrance first.
Though puzzled, Mok Kyung-un followed her inside.
-Slurp!
The mist soon scattered, and the entrance vanished.
Shortly after, a red haze subtly rose from the first-floor ground, and sand grains surged upward all at once, filling the spot where Mok Kyung-un had been.
-Papapapapapap!
* * *
A irritated voice leaked from Sorcerer Jo Tae-cheong's mouth as he formed a hand seal with his right hand.
"Look at this guy?"
His voice was quite hoarse.
Sorcerer Jo Tae-cheong shook his head and clicked his tongue.
He had intended to make the fool who dared target him pay, but the intruder had vanished in an instant.
'......Sorcerer, was it?'
For a brief moment, he'd sensed considerable spiritual energy from below.
That level was nearly on par with Fangwol.
Which meant that had to be some kind of sorcery technique.
-Swish!
Jo Tae-cheong touched the back of his neck.
He felt a foreign sensation on his palm.
It was the sticky blood trickling down.
-Grit!
Grinding his teeth, Jo Tae-cheong rasped,
"If I hadn't switched places, your neck would've been severed clean off."
At his words, Jo Tae-cheong's body trembled faintly.
As if reacting to his rage.
Snorting derisively, Jo Tae-cheong looked down at the hole in the floor.
'That guy?'
He hadn't gotten a proper look at the intruder's face while focusing on defense.
Staring at the hole, Jo Tae-cheong felt incredulous.
"Ha......"
What the hell was this guy?
Even if he'd escaped the Time-Space Reversal Array at the Ghost Sorcerer Hall thanks to that vengeful spirit variable, all his senses and consciousness had been stolen until then, so he couldn't have grasped what happened.
Yet he'd come straight here?
Did that mean he'd retained his awareness?
'Or...... did that vengeful spirit tip him off?'
Whatever the case, one thing was clear: the intruder knew about the Ghost Sorcerer Hall incident and had targeted him for it.
He needed to track him down quickly.
A normal person wouldn't dare target him so boldly, but this one was proving to be a real pain.
Just then, someone hurriedly climbed the stairs and appeared.
"Are you alri......"
It was the guard stationed at the stairs to the third floor.
Startled by the sudden explosion, the guard climbed up and couldn't hide his shock at Jo Tae-cheong's face.
"What's that on your forehead......"
"Oh dear...... you saw it, huh."
"Pardon?"
No sooner had the words left his mouth.
-Puk!
"Gahk!"
Something sharp pierced through the guard's chest.
Eyes bulging as if torn wide, the guard gasped for breath before slumping forward, strength spent.
Jo Tae-cheong coldly regarded him, then looked into the air and said,
"Find him. He couldn't have gone far."
-Flutter!
At the command, a massive wingbeat echoed, and the shadow blanketing the area dispersed.
* * *
-Slurp!
'Hm?'
Mok Kyung-un eyed the entrance vanishing like scattering smoke, puzzled.
He'd learned many sorcery arts, but this one was new.
As he marveled, the girl behind him spoke.
"What's your deal?"
Turning at the question, Mok Kyung-un saw the short-haired maid folding her arms, staring at him with wide eyes in disbelief.
He glanced around.
"Where are we?"
"The kitchen."
Even without her answer, it was obvious this was a kitchen.
Iron pots hung on the walls, knives everywhere—anyone could tell.
"Yeah. Looks like it."
"That's all you have to say? After experiencing the Sea Flame Convergence Ground...... No, that's not important. More importantly, I asked you first—who are you?...... Wait. You're pretty handsome, aren't you?"
"Pardon?"
Mok Kyung-un tilted his head at the girl's rambling.
She approached without hesitation, staring intently at his face.
-What is this, some mortal wench?
Cheongryeong sounded displeased.
Puzzled, Mok Kyung-un asked,
"Are you just going to keep staring?"
"It's not like it'll wear out from looking. Can't I?"
"......"
Shoulders shrugging at her brazen attitude, Mok Kyung-un focused his senses to check for approaching presences.
Yet no presences registered anywhere nearby.
Smacking her lips, the girl said,
"Aaah. What a shame. Such a shame. Your features don't even reach twenty yet, but you're fated for a short life."
"Pardon?"
"Short life. Neck's gonna snap or get severed. Otherwise, you'd be perfect husband material."
Giggling bashfully, she covered her flushed face with both hands.
Cheongryeong bristled at her erratic demeanor.
-This mortal wench rubs me the wrong way.
-Does she?
To Mok Kyung-un, she just seemed like a bubbly girl.
Though her curvaceous figure made "girl" a bit of a stretch.
Her cute face suggested seventeen or eighteen.
About his age.
Anyway, the girl said,
"So, who are you? Your clothes don't scream Circle of Original Assassins, and you look like a regular guy. Why would they target you?"
"That matter?"
"Oh, that? Hmm...... how do I explain? It's such a hassle telling normals, and they never believe it anyway."
"Just tell me. I'll take it as is."
"Doubt it. Normals can't handle this stuff."
"If I couldn't handle it, I wouldn't have followed you through that smoke entrance just now."
"Oh! True. What made you trust me enough to follow?"
"......"
Hadn't she told him to?
She seemed awfully capricious.
With that, Mok Kyung-un said,
"Your outfit's a maid's, but that sorcery earlier...... are you a sorcerer?"
"Huh? So you're not a normal?"
Smiling faintly at her question, Mok Kyung-un replied,
"I know a little."
"A little? Entry-level at best, and they targeted you for that?"
"Then you're talking about that Yi Mae-mang-ryang from earlier?"
"......Not just a little. You're in the craft too, huh?"
"The craft?"
"Yeah. The craft. If they targeted you, you're not from the Circle of Original Assassins, right?"
Her roundabout speech was hard to follow, but Mok Kyung-un gleaned two facts from it.
"The craft" meant those who wielded sorcery.
And she wasn't from the Circle of Original Assassins.
If she were, she wouldn't have helped him earlier.
Nodding, Mok Kyung-un said,
"Yeah. I'm not."
Strictly speaking, as the disciple of the late Circle Leader Jo Ui-gong, he could claim origins there.
But saying so now might put her on guard.
His tact hit the mark.
She exhaled in relief.
"Whew. Good. I was worried I'd gotten dragged into Circle of Original Assassins infighting for nothing."
"Really? It's not that."
"Figured. Otherwise, that cursed Three-Eyes wouldn't try to kill you."
"Three-Eyes?"
Mok Kyung-un echoed her words.
Three-Eyes, just now?
She nodded at his question.
"Yeah, Three-Eyes. That Red Falling Star Yi Mae-mang-ryang from Kunlun Mountain earlier—it's one of Three-Eyes' familiars, right?"
'!?'
Mok Kyung-un's eyes narrowed at her words.
The sorcerer—no, Jo Tae-cheong—he'd tried to kill was Three-Eyes?
Memories of the Blood River Valley secret records flashed in Mok Kyung-un's mind.
[So what's this Three-Eyes supposed to be?]
-Literal. Three-eyed freak. An aberrant spirit born from a human's placenta. They say when it appears, calamity follows.
[Calamity?]
-But funny thing. In ancient times, Three-Eyes couldn't survive a day before being slain.
[I don't get it, but a robed sorcerer with Three-Eyes left you here?]
-Yeah. No idea what he did, but after he left, no one could perceive me.
The conversation with the monster tanuki sealed in that scroll.
Did that mean Sorcerer Jo Tae-cheong, grand disciple of the former Circle Leader In Seo-ok, was the one who'd imprisoned that immensely powerful monster tanuki?
Cheongryeong's voice rang in his ear.
-......Mortal. If this wench speaks true, you've poked a big one.
-A big one?
-Spirit beast. A sorcerer who can seal a spirit beast isn't ordinary. That's Fang God territory—peak of the sorcerers.
"Fang God?"
Sorcerers had titles based on their spiritual energy and sorcery prowess.
God, Sun, Moon, Technique, Obscure, Initiate.
The pinnacle six bore the "God" title.
Only six across the Central Plains held it: the Six Directional Gods.
'Fang God......'
Was Jo Tae-cheong truly at Fang God realm, as Cheongryeong said?
Puzzled, Mok Kyung-un asked the girl,
"Is this Three-Eyes you mentioned at Fang God realm?"
"What are you talking about?"
Her lips suddenly pouted at the question.
Why that reaction?
"How could an aberrant placenta-spirit barely different from Yi Mae-mang-ryang stand on the same level as my master?"
"Pardon?"
One of Mok Kyung-un's eyebrows arched.
Same level as her master—did that mean?
"......Is your master a Fang God?"
Shoulders shrugging proudly at his question, she boasted,
"Ahem. Pretty much."
"......"
He'd suspected, but it was true.
He'd guessed she wasn't ordinary, but a disciple of a peak Fang God?
This was more startling than expected.
Then she said,
"You're in the craft, so you probably know. Ever heard of the Haesun Pavilion Lord?"
"Haesun Pavilion Lord?"
Mok Kyung-un had no clue.
Jo Ui-gong had taught him basics, but not famous sorcerer groups or who the Six Fang Gods were.
Naturally clueless, he drew a baffled look from her.
"Huh? You really don't know? The Crimson Plum Old Immortal of Haesun Pavilion?"
"Crimson Plum Old Immortal?"
"No way, for real? You're really in the craft? Which pavilion are you from that you don't even know my master......"
"Shh!"
"Gasp!"
She instinctively held her breath and clamped her mouth at his word.
Wondering why, Mok Kyung-un glanced northeast.
And soon,
-Flinch!
She furrowed her brow.
A faint yokai energy seeped from outside the building.
It was Yi Mae-mang-ryang yokai energy.
Staring at Mok Kyung-un in shock, she thought,
'Who is this guy? He sensed the yokai energy before me?'
[Chapter 50: Jo Tae-cheong (2)] End