Chapter 424
Chapter 424
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 111
>Chapter Title: Soul and Spirit (1)
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-Rise.
-Bam!
“Keuk!”
The great disciple of the Society Leader, Na Yul-ryang, spat out blood from the shock and awoke.
Regaining his senses, Na Yul-ryang couldn’t hide his astonishment at the being pressing down on his chest.
“Senior Sister... So-yeon?”
-Nonsense.
-Stab!
“Kuh.”
A groan escaped Na Yul-ryang’s lips as sharp nails dug into his chest.
Though arrogant and prideful beyond measure, with patience stronger than anyone’s, he strangely couldn’t endure the pain.
He tried to pull out the nails embedded in his chest.
But something was off.
‘My body?’
It wouldn’t move.
It wasn’t paralyzed, yet it felt as if most of his muscles had been severed—only pain registered, and he couldn’t comprehend why.
He tried to circulate and refine his qi.
-Crack! Crack!
“Gaaaaah!”
The moment he attempted to cycle the internal energy in his dantian, an excruciating pain like needles piercing every acupoint in his body surged through him, turning his groan into a scream.
This was no pain one could endure with mere patience.
Instinctively, Na Yul-ryang realized all his acupoints had ruptured, and even his dantian was no longer normal.
‘Why my body?’
It was beyond severe injury—his flesh was ruined to the point where recovery as a martial artist was nearly impossible.
Why was his body destroyed?
Clearly, in his memory...
-Throb!
His head ached, and fragments of inexplicable memories flickered briefly.
What phenomenon was this?
Puzzled, he looked at Wi So-yeon, whose nails were embedded in his chest...
Wait, was this woman really Wi So-yeon?
“You wench... who are you?”
She was different from Wi So-yeon.
Her face was deathly pale, devoid of any vitality.
She resembled Wi So-yeon perfectly, but unlike the junior sister’s pure innocence, this woman exuded an overwhelming dignity and pressure that dominated her surroundings.
-Crush!
“Hup.”
The sharp nails burrowing into his chest touched something.
It was undoubtedly his heart.
The sensation of something pressing against his beating heart filled him with an alien discomfort he had never felt before in his life.
At a loss for words, the peerless beauty resembling his junior sister Wi So-yeon—Cheong-ryeong—spoke to him.
“The Heavenly Vein gave this seat the agony of having its heart ripped out alive. That pain defies description.”
“What... are you... saying...”
“The third eye within you... no, Bi Yong-hun entered you. Though briefly, since I shared a body with him, something must remain in that head of yours.”
“Shared a body...”
-Throb!
His head throbbed again, and more incomprehensible memories flashed by.
It was a scene of himself fighting Mok Kyung-un.
A transcendent Heavenly Vein sword art beyond his current level unfolded from his own hands, yet Mok Kyung-un blocked that tremendous sword with an equally matched sword strike.
‘What is this?’
Why were such memories lingering in his head?
He couldn’t understand.
His consciousness had been clear when the Society members blamed everything on him...
“Mo-yak? Keuk!”
Suddenly, Mo-yak’s altered appearance surfaced.
Yes.
She had suddenly changed into someone else, shoving her finger into his empty right eye socket and gouging out his eyeball...
-Thump! Thump! Thump!
His heart pounded wildly, his head feeling like it would burst.
“Kuhuhuhu.”
The moment he recalled her like that, Na Yul-ryang’s eyes turned bloodshot as if he had fallen into qi deviation, veins bulging fiercely on his forehead.
Seeing this, disappointment clouded Cheong-ryeong’s eyes, who had been about to interrogate him.
She had hoped something remained in his head, but he seemed utterly broken.
‘Bi Yong-hun!’
Rage surged.
Whether that bastard was human or not remained unknown, but to ruin the successor to her Heavenly Vein martial legacy like this.
To him, was everyone except himself mere pieces on a chessboard?
-Pop!
Cheong-ryeong pulled out the nails from his chest.
With his dantian and meridians ruptured, he had lost his martial arts, and both body and mind were shattered beyond repair. Revival as a martial artist seemed impossible.
‘...Living itself will be a living hell.’
She had planned to extract information before killing Na Yul-ryang, the inheritor of the Heavenly Vein martial arts.
But with his body secondary and his mind this ruined, he seemed done without her needing to take his life.
It was then.
At the approaching presence, Cheong-ryeong turned her gaze.
-Tatata-tak!
There stood a woman with one eye bruised and closed, breathing raggedly.
It was Mo-yak, Na Yul-ryang’s trusted subordinate.
“Young Master!”
At her cry, something strange happened.
Na Yul-ryang, on the verge of qi deviation and irreversible ruin, regained clarity in his eyes.
Then, he looked at Mo-yak with trembling eyes.
‘This bastard...’
His crumbling consciousness returned the moment he heard that mortal woman’s voice.
It had seemed beyond recovery—an astonishing turn.
Seeing Na Yul-ryang’s eyes clear and his eye rims redden, Cheong-ryeong felt a peculiar emotion.
‘...’
She had spared Na Yul-ryang, the Heavenly Vein inheritor, because she deemed his mind too broken for recovery.
But if his mind had returned, the story changed.
Determined to wash away her grudge by stripping him of everything Heavenly Vein-related, she acted.
-Ssshh!
Her nails lengthened, bloody spiritual energy flowing out.
This might be the perfect moment.
She thought him emotionless, but his eyes softened tenderly at the sight of that mortal wench.
Clearly, they cared for each other.
‘So that’s it.’
Cheong-ryeong’s lips twisted upward.
-Swish!
With a light swing of her sleeve, Mo-yak, who had been rushing forward, was bound by spurting blood.
-Splash!
“Ah.”
“You wench!”
In an instant, she was captured. Despite his ruined body, Na Yul-ryang forcibly tried to raise his upper body.
But with all his meridians ruptured and muscles torn from overexertion, proper movement was impossible.
“Kuhuhuhu.”
Unable to lift himself amid the agony.
-Swish!
Cheong-ryeong used spiritual energy to prop his body up.
-If you want to see her, then watch.
She planned to show him his precious one dying in torment anyway.
You inheritors of the Heavenly Vein blood and arts can never know happiness.
As Cheong-ryeong extended her sleeve toward Mo-yak, Na Yul-ryang thrashed wildly and shouted.
“Kuhuhu. Stop! What do you think you’re doing?”
-What do you think I’m doing?
-Swish!
As Cheong-ryeong swung her sleeve,
-Kwachak!
Mo-yak’s left arm twisted backward, the elbow bone piercing through flesh and protruding.
“Aaaaagh!”
“Stop! Stop it!”
-Does it hurt? This doesn’t even reach a fraction of the pain you gave this seat. It’s just beginning—don’t whine already.
“Let her go. Kill me instead. If you hold a grudge against the Heavenly Vein, then me... Eup!”
Na Yul-ryang’s mouth was forcibly shut.
Having lost nearly all his strength, he couldn’t resist.
-Don’t worry. I’ll kill you too.
As Cheong-ryeong swung her sleeve at Mo-yak again,
-Kwachak!
“Aaaaaaaaagh!”
Mo-yak’s right arm twisted backward, bone protruding similarly.
Already injured from the manor, having lost an eye with severe bleeding, the double arm breakage paled her face deathly white beyond the pain.
At her sight, Na Yul-ryang screamed in fury.
“Kuhuhuhuhu!”
He who never lost his arrogance or pride in any situation.
Yet seeing his cherished woman dying before his eyes, he felt his heart tear for the first time.
-Grip!
Seeing Na Yul-ryang like this pained Mo-yak too; she bit her lips hard to endure, mustering all her strength.
The sight she so desired had come.
Cheong-ryeong awaited returning all the torment she endured before death.
Thus she had longed for this moment...
‘...’
But watching them, her resentment didn’t ease, nor did she feel satisfaction.
Instead, bitterness turned to hollow emptiness.
‘Why? Why?’
For a century as a vengeful spirit, hadn’t she vowed to eradicate everything Heavenly Vein-related without trace?
Yet witnessing their suffering brought no relief—only stifling frustration.
Why?
It made no sense.
Had she, after waiting so long, developed pity for them?
Impossible.
She was no mere soul, but a vengeful spirit.
Bound to this world by grudge alone—how could such feelings arise for those no different from enemies?
‘No. No. How could this seat harbor such petty pity for them?’
Yes.
It must be because she learned Bi Yong-hun, the ultimate target of her grudge, still lived.
Thus, the suffering of others barely moved her.
With the culprit right there, their pain alone couldn’t sate her grudge easily.
‘I need to see him in torment...’
Believing that would resolve everything, she saw Na Yul-ryang and Mo-yak gazing silently, piercingly into each other.
Though silent, resigned to death, they conveyed their feelings through their eyes.
‘...’
How bizarre.
Seeing this, Cheong-ryeong momentarily thought of Mok Kyung-un before ‘him.’
Recalling Mok Kyung-un made her chest ache terribly.
‘Mortal...’
Once all grudges resolved, her soul would have no lingering attachment to this world and depart.
Thus ending her bond with the mortal.
Such is the tie between living and dead.
-Throb!
Suddenly, Cheong-ryeong’s chest ached.
What?
A spirit of ethereal form—why this suffocating pain?
It was then.
“Cough... cough... Ryu So-wol. Please stop.”
At the cough of damaged vitality, Cheong-ryeong’s gaze turned.
“Master?”
Na Yul-ryang said in shock.
The sudden arrival was none other than the Heaven-Earth Society Leader.
Appearing pale from severe internal injuries, the Society Leader glanced at Na Yul-ryang,
-Tap! Tap! Tap!
Then flicked his fingers repeatedly.
Small bursts of energy from his fingers struck Na Yul-ryang’s acupoints, subduing him into sleep.
As Na Yul-ryang slept, the Leader flicked toward Mo-yak too.
Flicking more,
-Tatata-tat!
Striking her severe bleeding points and sleep acupoints, putting her to sleep as well.
Seeing the Heaven-Earth Society Leader put them to sleep, Cheong-ryeong’s eyes sharpened again.
Unlike those young ones, this was Bi Yong-hun’s direct lineage.
The one who bore that blood.
-Yes. You were here too.
Cheong-ryeong gathered spiritual energy to unleash her auditory domain, the Blood Realm.
But then.
-Thud!
The Heaven-Earth Society Leader suddenly knelt on both knees before her.
Then bowed his head to the ground.
‘!?’
Cheong-ryeong’s expression hardened.
What was this bastard doing?
Surely not...
“Ryu So-wol. What you want is the extinction of the Heavenly Vein bloodline, yes? Please spare their lives.”
-Ha?
“I took in and taught Na Yul-ryang, but he does not carry the Heavenly Vein blood.”
At his words, Cheong-ryeong replied curtly, incredulous.
-What of it? He inherited the Heavenly Vein martial arts, so he is Heavenly Vein. You can’t deny that.
“...I know. But if you go that way, your grudge won’t end until you kill everyone in the Heaven-Earth Society.”
Cheong-ryeong sneered coldly.
-Hmph! Nothing I can’t do.
“In the end, though that one—no, Bi Yong-hun—took everything, it was you who laid the foundation and grasped it all, as I know. No matter your hatred for the Heavenly Vein, will you deny and destroy everything you built with your own hands?”
-Goooooo!
At his words, the surroundings dyed red with blood.
As Cheong-ryeong’s killing intent peaked, even the Society Leader swallowed dryly under its weight.
Not from fear of her, but because her hatred exceeded his expectations.
Yet he understood.
After seeing the past records of ‘that,’ he realized the Heavenly Vein had committed an unforgivable sin against her and the Moon Vein.
Thus, he wished to end all errors in his generation.
But if her rage was this intense, mere apology and offering his life wouldn’t suffice.
Sighing, the Heaven-Earth Society Leader slowly raised his head to look at Cheong-ryeong and said.
“Then... we have no choice but to make a deal.”
-A deal?
“Yes.”
-What a joke. On the verge of losing everything to a mortal... no, the Heavenly Demon—what deal can you make?
To her words, the Heaven-Earth Society Leader replied in a low voice.
“If that Heavenly Demon you believe in fails to save my youngest disciple Wi So-yeon, you won’t just fail revenge—you’ll face the worst crisis.”
-What?
“Then, Ryu So-wol, there will be only one way to save you.”
-Save this seat? What nonsense are you spouting?
“...The moment your soul and spirit unite in his hands with the golden elixir, you won’t resolve a century’s grudge—you’ll be eternally trapped in his grasp.”
‘!?’