Chapter 285
Chapter 285
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 78
>Chapter Title: Entangled (4)
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While Six Heavenly Protector So Ye-rin and Six Blood Star Dam Baek-ha of the Ancient Blood Sect were deep in conversation, the masked Golden Guard Mara Hyun—who had helped Mok Kyung-un steal prisoners from the underground Golden Prison—was watching quietly, relieved that no trouble had arisen.
Mara Hyun, who had been observing silently, soon found his gaze shifting from So Ye-rin and Dam Baek-ha to someone else.
It was an old woman dressed in prisoner garb: Seonghwa Ryeongju.
His initial interest in Seonghwa Ryeongju stemmed from her advanced age.
‘...How did someone that old end up imprisoned in the Endless Golden Prison?’
He had heard that only the worst criminals were confined there.
Those locked away were either traitors or individuals who had grown beyond control, yet this old woman seemed off.
There were no traces of internal energy cultivation in her.
Even if she were hiding her martial arts, her footsteps were no different from those of an ordinary person.
‘What crime could she have committed?’
And why had Mok Kyung-un brought her out?
As he puzzled over this, Mara Hyun, who had been staring intently at Seonghwa Ryeongju’s face, furrowed his brow.
At first, it was mere curiosity about who she might be.
But her face felt strangely familiar.
‘Odd.’
Had he ever crossed paths with a prisoner from the underground Golden Prison?
He had never been assigned to the Execution Department like So Ye-rin.
So why did her face ring a bell?
After staring for a long while, Mara Hyun’s eyes narrowed like needles.
‘I’ve definitely seen her.’
It was faint, from a very long time ago, but he had encountered this old woman before.
Just as he was about to dismiss it without further thought, his pupils contracted, his gaze locked unyieldingly on Seonghwa Ryeongju.
Mara Hyun racked his brain to recall her.
Instinct told him he couldn’t just let it pass.
An obsessive compulsion gripped him—he had to remember.
So consumed was he that So Ye-rin and Dam Baek-ha’s conversation fell on deaf ears.
Then,
-Swish!
Perhaps sensing the piercing stare, Seonghwa Ryeongju unconsciously turned to look at Mara Hyun.
Meeting his eyes, Seonghwa Ryeongju felt puzzled as to why.
She had already been instinctively avoiding his gaze due to his Golden Guard uniform, but being stared at so intensely made her uneasy.
Yet,
‘Hm?’
Seonghwa Ryeongju’s own eyes narrowed.
Through the gap in his mask, she spotted his jade-green eyes.
Upon seeing them, Seonghwa Ryeongju couldn’t suppress her shock.
Unknowingly, she staggered slightly and murmured,
“Mayera Priest?”
But a master like Mara Hyun couldn’t possibly miss those words.
‘Mayera Priest?’
At that moment, Mara Hyun’s eyes trembled violently.
A long-forgotten memory crept into his focused mind as he strained to recall the familiar face.
It dated back to Mara Hyun’s childhood.
Standing beside his mother, young Mara Hyun watched someone hurriedly packing and preparing to leave.
Unlike the mixed-blood Mara Hyun, the man had yellow hair and jade-green eyes—a perfect Westerner.
Dressed not in Western garb but in Central Plains attire, the Westerner approached his mother, embraced her, and ruffled Mara Hyun’s hair.
[My son.]
With those words, the Westerner turned toward the door.
There stood a graceful middle-aged woman leaning on a staff embedded with a blue jade bead.
That woman was none other than the old lady herself.
Now he understood why her face had seemed familiar yet elusive.
It had been when he was young, and her face had been so gaunt and wrinkled that it hadn’t clicked.
Speaking in halting tones, the Westerner said to the old woman,
[Oh, you’ve been waiting.]
[No, Mayera Priest.]
[Now, please go.]
[Thank you. If Mayera Priest, come from the mother church in the homeland, leads us, it will be a great source of strength for our faith’s followers.]
At her words, the Westerner’s expression turned peculiar—profoundly bitter.
It was the face of one heading to a place from which he might never return.
And it was the last face Mara Hyun ever saw of the Westerner.
‘...Father.’
The Westerner was none other than Mara Hyun’s father.
Did ill omens always come true?
His father had promised to return upon leaving.
But he never did.
What returned were a few relics his father had carried, and upon hearing the news of his death, his mother succumbed to grief and passed away after a lingering illness.
-Grit!
Now it all came flooding back.
His mother pleading tearfully for his father to stay, deeming it an ill omen.
His father agonizing to the end.
And this old woman persuading him to leave.
-Clench!
Mara Hyun’s nails dug into his clenched fist.
Rage surged in an instant.
Had this old hag not appeared and taken his damned father away, his mother wouldn’t have withered away in sorrow, nor would he have been dragged around for years by slavers due to his mixed blood.
‘You bitch!’
Yet she had never once shown her face to them afterward.
She had prattled on about personally coming because his father was a priest of the homeland mother church, but the one who delivered the death notice was some low-ranking nobody he’d never heard of.
Unable to contain his fury, Mara Hyun approached Seonghwa Ryeongju.
‘This guy?’
Seonghwa Ryeongju took an instinctive step back.
The moment she saw his jade-green eyes, someone came to mind.
But that person was dead.
Long ago, at that.
So it had to be someone else she didn’t know, yet the blazing intensity in his eyes instinctively screamed rage.
-Step!
He approached wordlessly, and her eyes wavered.
At first, she couldn’t fathom the source of his anger.
But as he took two steps closer, a figure flashed through her mind.
It was,
‘No way?’
The mixed-blood boy she had seen at Mayera Priest’s home.
His hair was black from his Central Plains blood, but with his exotic features and eyes identical to his father’s.
Shock overwhelmed Seonghwa Ryeongju in that instant.
If that boy had survived, he would have grown into a man by now.
‘How could this be...’
He had truly lived?
When she returned to that place later, everyone was gone.
She couldn’t even inquire after them, as they lived deep in the mountains, with no trace of where they’d gone.
Thus, Seonghwa Ryeongju spoke to the approaching Mara Hyun.
“You wouldn’t happen to be...”
It was right then.
-Shing! Shing! Shing!
Mok Kyung-un suddenly unleashed a sword sequence.
Though it was one he had never seen before, the grandeur infused in its path was so overwhelming that everyone’s attention was inevitably drawn to it.
Evoking the image of a full moon, the sword strikes were uncomplicated in trajectory yet contained profound sword intent.
‘...Ha!’
Even Mara Hyun, consumed by rage, couldn’t tear his eyes away.
As a martial artist, ignoring the sword sequence Mok Kyung-un was displaying was impossible.
‘How can such complexity be hidden within simplicity?’
Mara Hyun wasn’t the only one with such thoughts.
So Ye-rin, who knew what sword art Mok Kyung-un was using, and even Six Blood Star Dam Baek-ha let out exclamations of awe.
So Ye-rin’s eyes widened as she watched the sword strikes.
The reason was that Mok Kyung-un’s Full Moon Sword Art differed from what she knew.
‘It’s different.’
The trajectory of the forms had changed.
Unnecessary paths from the original strikes were gone, and each remaining path was honed ruthlessly to kill.
Yet Mok Kyung-un’s Full Moon Sword strikes transcended even that framework.
-T trickle!
Tears streamed down So Ye-rin’s cheeks as she watched.
It was a sword path that filled her heart to bursting.
Free from the constraints of prior forms, it flowed unbound yet never strayed from the Full Moon Sword Art’s essence.
‘So it was real?’
Six Blood Star Dam Baek-ha gaped, sticking out his tongue in amazement.
The sword strikes Mok Kyung-un displayed were near perfection.
The elder’s sword from back then had been filled solely with killing intent, but this one embodied pure freedom.
‘No doubt. It’s the elder’s sword.’
The essence couldn’t change, even if the form did.
What astonished him was that this was the Full Moon Sword Art, once hailed as one of the Central Plains’ five great sword arts.
To think it could evolve this far.
The elder was truly a once-in-a-millennium genius.
-Thud!
Someone collapsed to the ground.
It was the masked Golden Guard, Mara Hyun.
Having stared piercingly at Mok Kyung-un’s sword, Mara Hyun seemed to have gained some realization; he closed his eyes and entered meditation.
‘Ha? Look at this guy.’
What luck.
The sword Mok Kyung-un displayed transcended the transcendent, bordering on the ultimate realm.
To gain nothing from witnessing it would mean one was utterly talentless.
Dam Baek-ha glanced at So Ye-rin.
Seeing her flushed and unable to look away from the sword strikes, she too had evidently gained realization.
‘...As expected of his blood descendant.’
Dam Baek-ha had briefly clashed with So Ye-rin.
Her skill was incomparable even to his own, honed over long years of cultivation.
No, he couldn’t even gauge her limits.
Yet here she was, gaining another realization.
Truly remarkable talent.
Blood couldn’t lie.
-Swish!
Then Mok Kyung-un halted his sword sequence.
He had only done it to prove his encounter with the elder; there was no need to demonstrate every form.
As Mok Kyung-un stopped midway, So Ye-rin’s eyes filled with regret.
‘Ah...’
Just as she was on the verge of grasping something.
It wasn’t a mere insight but a massive clue toward a higher realm.
But with the sword strikes ending, the momentum toward immersion in that clue halted as well.
She could only smack her lips in disappointment.
To her, Mok Kyung-un said,
“As you can see, I received guidance from the elder. But I’m not sure if it’s the same elder that Lady So Ye-rin...”
“Wait... You said you received guidance just now?”
“Yes.”
“Directly from him to Young Master Mok?”
“Well, more or less.”
Thanks to that, he had even created his own Demonic Sword Art.
At Mok Kyung-un’s response, So Ye-rin and Dam Baek-ha exchanged stunned glances.
Then,
-Pak!
Six Blood Star Dam Baek-ha dropped to one knee before Mok Kyung-un, clasped his hands in a formal salute, and paid his respects.
‘!?’