Chapter 284
Chapter 284
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 78
>Chapter Title: Entangled (3)
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[Joo Un-hyang... Do you even realize what you're saying right now? That's...]
[Yes, treason.]
[!!!!!!]
Treason.
I never imagined those words would come from his mouth.
The resolute glint in that man's eyes still lingered in my memory.
I'd met countless people over the years, but this was the first time anyone had ever voiced such an absurd ambition.
'To... overthrow the country?'
His martial arts were weak, and he didn't even have any power to speak of.
How could such words come from a man who had absolutely nothing?
And yet, she didn't mock his ambition.
The current state of the nation was rotten to its core.
The emperor was lost in his harem, while the powerful ministers were bloodthirsty in their power struggles.
The people suffered, but the rulers and elites continued to exploit them relentlessly, leaving the lives of the common folk in ever-worsening ruin.
Those who should have been tilling the fields were starving to death or turning into bandits, slaughtering one another.
Things were only getting worse—there was no sign of improvement.
That was why So Ye-rin could understand why Joo Un-hyang harbored such ambitions.
She just couldn't judge whether he could actually achieve them.
No matter how rotten and festering it was, it was still a nation.
Overthrowing a nation wasn't something one man’s strength or resolve could accomplish alone.
Still, she wanted to watch.
To see if that man could fulfill his ambition with the support of people like her, one by one.
“Miss?”
At that moment, Nim Baek-ha, the Sixth Blood Star of the Ancient Blood Cult, called out to her.
“Ah... Yes.”
So Ye-rin snapped out of her reverie and turned her gaze to Nim Baek-ha.
Since the pact with Joo Un-hyang wasn't something she could discuss with others, she revealed the other reason she had to remain in the imperial palace.
“...I'm searching for clues about the Great Catastrophe.”
At her words, Nim Baek-ha furrowed her brow and spoke.
“The Great Catastrophe? You mean...?”
“Yes, that day. The day that drew the line between the present martial world and the ancient martial world. I'm looking for clues from that day.”
“Miss, that incident is already...”
“Yes, ancient history now. But my father lost his life while searching for those clues.”
“Your father?”
“He used the characters 'Jin' for truth and 'Yeong' for hero.”
Nim Baek-ha exclaimed in surprise at So Ye-rin's words.
“H-He was the Little Castle Lord Jin Yeong-in, wasn't he?”
So Ye-rin replied with a bitter voice.
“...Yes. That's what I heard.”
“Ahhh, so the unparalleled Little Castle Lord was still alive.”
Nim Baek-ha nodded, now understanding So Ye-rin's lineage and status.
But on the other hand, she stared intently at So Ye-rin's face, puzzled.
It made sense—Jin Yeong-in's daughter should be quite advanced in years by now, yet she looked no older than her twenties.
She might have achieved longevity, but So Ye-rin didn't emanate the aura of a spiritual being.
As Nim Baek-ha puzzled over this, So Ye-rin seemed to read her thoughts and explained.
“At the time, everyone in the Jin family perished in the Great Catastrophe. I was born from my father's search for clues and his fateful encounter with my mother.”
“Ahhh, I see.”
Nim Baek-ha let out a sigh of understanding.
So Ye-rin was the daughter of the Little Castle Lord and bore his blood, but she hadn't lived through that era.
No, she was probably the only one left who even remembered that time.
Who else could still be alive now?
Of course, that wasn't the truly important part.
“But Miss... You said the Little Castle Lord lost his life while searching for clues about the Great Catastrophe. What exactly do you mean by that?”
She asked in a trembling voice.
So Ye-rin clenched her fists, her eyes reddening as she answered.
“...My father was murdered here in Kaifeng.”
“How... How could that happen? Little Castle Lord Jin Yeong-in was one of the supreme masters of his generation, beyond even the walls of walls. How could he...”
“My father lost a leg and his left eye on the day of the Great Catastrophe. He said his martial arts were no longer what they once were.”
“Even so, he wouldn't have fallen easily. If someone could harm him... Did he get too close to the clues from the day of the Great Catastrophe?”
“...It seems that way.”
So Ye-rin still couldn't forget that night.
Her father, Jin Yeong-in, gravely wounded and barely holding her in his arms as he escaped the imperial capital Kaifeng, passed all his innate true energy to her even as he lay dying.
Her dying father gripped her hand tightly and pleaded.
[Don't... Don't get involved in this anymore. Lin-ah... Please... live... your own... life...]
Those were his last words.
He didn't want his daughter to seek revenge or pursue the clues to the Great Catastrophe.
But she couldn't do that.
She had lost her only family.
A single tear trickled down So Ye-rin's cheek.
Seeing this, Nim Baek-ha silently pulled her into an embrace.
She knew all too well the pain of losing someone precious, having endured it countless times over her long life.
Far from growing numb to it, each loss tore at her heart like it was being ripped apart.
Understanding this, she silently held and comforted her.
“...”
Mok Kyung-un, who had been staring blankly, let out a small sigh.
He was clumsy with other emotions, but he knew well the feeling of losing someone dear, so he'd simply watched.
But time was pressing.
They couldn't stay here much longer.
The Great Catastrophe, ancient martial world, whatever—it was their business anyway.
Just then, So Ye-rin, sobbing in Nim Baek-ha's arms, wiped her tears with her sleeve and spoke.
“Thank you.”
“No need to thank me.”
“More importantly, there's something I want to ask you, Sixth Blood Star.”
“Me?”
“I heard you're the only one who survived the day of the Great Catastrophe. Is that right?”
“...Yes.”
Nim Baek-ha sighed and nodded at the question.
With everyone else gone, that was true enough.
So Ye-rin pressed on.
“I heard you faced the four-headed dragon ghost that turned five castles into ruins that day. Is that correct?”
“Yes... That's right.”
Her expression darkened sharply as memories of that time resurfaced.
To her, that day had been no different from hell.
It was the day she lost so many precious people—and the day she received the curse of longevity, which she would discard if she could.
So Ye-rin took a breath and spoke to the despondent woman.
“I heard an absolute master appeared then and took the dragon ghost's essence core after you barely killed it. Is that true?”
“...”
Nim Baek-ha's eyes wavered at the question.
Her pupils reflected that long-past day.
She, the cult's executives, thousands of followers, and the unorthodox alliance's martial artists had gathered to slay the dragon ghost, fighting day and night.
But even with all those warriors staking their lives, killing it seemed impossible.
Its heads had to be severed all at once to die, but they didn't know this at first, so they kept regenerating shortly after being cut, dragging the battle on endlessly.
[Three Venerables! Th-Three Venerables!]
[Y-You, Sixth Blood Star. The Fourth Blood Star has fallen.]
[Huff huff. It's hopeless. That monster won't die!]
By the time they discovered its weakness, nearly seventy percent of their forces had perished.
But as that many lives were lost, they finally learned the truth: sever all heads at once.
They launched one final, desperate battle.
It was around the time they severed two of its heads.
Even at full strength, they could barely hold it off—there was no way their remaining thirty percent could endure.
Nearly all had fallen, with only a handful surviving.
That was when someone appeared.
“...It was a swordsmanship I'd never seen before in my life.”
“Swordsmanship?”
“Yes... Every form exceeded the range of human joints and mocked the limits of muscle—a monstrous sword art.”
So Ye-rin furrowed her brow at the words.
Undeterred, Nim Baek-ha continued.
“The one who appeared out of nowhere severed the remaining two heads of the dragon ghost that had given us such hell.”
The survivors cheered at his arrival.
They thought this peerless powerhouse had come to aid them.
But once the dragon ghost was dead, he shattered its carapace and extracted the essence core inside.
“That much was fine. We didn't even know what a spirit beast's essence core was, and our only goal was killing the dragon ghost.”
The problem came after.
The man suddenly turned on the surviving warriors.
At his abrupt actions, Nim Baek-ha realized he wasn't their ally.
“I tried to fight him with the remaining followers.”
But she couldn't.
When they severed its necks, she'd swallowed some of its blood, causing her organs to convulse with thunderous energy, engulfing her in unimaginable agony.
As she lost consciousness from the pain, she could only watch her dying followers.
“Ha...”
“...If the Elder hadn't come, I would have lost my life too.”
“The Elder? Ah! Him. I heard from my father that he came to help.”
“Yes. If the Elder hadn't arrived in time, I'd be in the afterlife by now.”
At her words, So Ye-rin asked with a voice full of anticipation.
“Could the Elder still be alive, by any chance?”
“I'm sorry, but I don't know. The last time I saw him was before I was imprisoned in the imperial palace's underground Golden Prison. That was decades ago.”
“Decades... Ah...”
“Even then, the Elder was hale and hearty. He wandered the Yangtze's banks like a drifting fisherman, a single bamboo fishing rod slung over his shoulder.”
‘Bamboo fishing rod?’
Mok Kyung-un, who had been listening silently, had a spark in his eyes.
The mention of the Elder carrying a bamboo rod reminded him of someone.
The old man with the pale face and scholarly air he'd seen on the boat amid the storm.
‘...Coincidence?’
It was just the bamboo rod, but the features overlapped.
And yet, it was only one detail.
But Nim Baek-ha said she'd seen this Elder decades ago.
For her, who had achieved immortality, to call him Elder, he must have been extremely old.
No way such a person could still be alive.
‘Or maybe not?’
Come to think of it, a woman with eternal youth in her prime was right in front of him—there was no rule saying an ancient elder couldn't still live.
Mok Kyung-un suddenly asked them.
“Pardon the interruption, but was this Elder perhaps a man with a pale face, sharp eyes, and a scholarly demeanor?”
‘!?’
No sooner had he spoken than So Ye-rin and Nim Baek-ha whipped their heads around in unison.
They approached him simultaneously, demanding:
“What did you just say?”
“A scholarly demeanor?”
Mok Kyung-un scratched his head as they spoke at once.
“Before coming to Kaifeng, I had to cross a river, and there I met an old man carrying a bamboo fishing rod.”
Nim Baek-ha looked at him skeptically.
She then cautiously said to So Ye-rin beside her.
“Miss, it might not be him. The features may match, but considering the Elder's age, even with profound inner energy...”
-Swish!
Before she could finish.
Mok Kyung-un gripped his sword manual and assumed a starting stance.
‘!!!!!’
So Ye-rin and Nim Baek-ha, who had been doubtful, stared in shock.
Mok Kyung-un then unleashed a single sword form.
-Shwaa shwaa shwaa shwaa shwak!
A refreshing sword path evoking a full moon at its peak.
So Ye-rin's eyes trembled as she watched.
Having inherited her family's arts and all related martial techniques from her father, she recognized the swordsmanship at a glance.
‘No Moon Empty Sword!’