Chapter 84
Chapter 84
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 23
>Chapter Title: Corpse Blood Valley Lord (3)
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[Grandfather. Is our Lee family truly a traitor's clan?]
[Ji-yeom, my boy. Is that question related to the scars on your face?]
[........]
Eleven-year-old Lee Ji-yeom gave no answer to his grandfather's question.
Such things were commonplace while attending the assembly's training hall.
Traitors, betrayers' kin.
He endured all sorts of insults and bullying.
He tried ignoring it, fought back against their torment.
But it was meaningless.
It was the curse inherited from his grandfather, who had sworn unwavering loyalty to the vanished Moon Vein, and this was the price.
[.......Is it a curse our Lee family can never escape?]
[Ji-yeom.......]
His grandfather looked pityingly at Lee Ji-yeom, covered in wounds.
Then he pulled him into a warm embrace and soothed him in a gentle yet firm voice.
[Do you remember what this old man told you?]
[Lying on brushwood, tasting gall.]
Lying on brushwood, tasting gall.
It meant sleeping on thorny brambles and sucking bitter bile to endure hardships for the sake of the future.
His grandfather would say it to him like a mantra.
And rightly so, for his grandfather—one of the ten founders of the assembly—had seen his honor plummet to the depths after that day.
[........]
[Why no answer?]
[I don't know anymore.]
He had tried to endure and bear it, as his grandfather said.
But no matter how he tried to patch his crumbling heart, it was no use.
Why must his grandfather, his father, and he himself suffer like this?
They hadn't committed any sin themselves, yet just for swearing loyalty, were they to be shunned by the assembly to this extent?
[Grandfather, why not swear eternal loyalty to the Assembly Lord—]
[Tch!]
That day, for the first time, he saw a terrifying expression on his grandfather's face.
His grandfather, who had never once shown it, flew into such rage at the mere suggestion of swearing loyalty to the Assembly Lord to escape this branded curse.
Why was he angry at him?
Had he said something wrong?
For the first time, a spark of defiance rose in his surging heart.
[Did I.... Did I say something wrong? We are the founding contributors of the assembly, so why must we—]
[Quiet!]
A pain like his ears were being torn apart stopped Lee Ji-yeom mid-sentence.
As he writhed in agony, his grandfather spoke with bloodshot eyes.
[No matter the outcome, it is the duty of a vassal to trust one's sworn lord to the end! Did I teach you otherwise?]
[That lord of yours strayed down the wrong path and branded our house traitors. What meaning does that hold? And didn't Grandfather accept that fault, submitting to confinement in Corpse Blood Valley as valley lord for four generations?]
The more he thought, the angrier he became.
Why hadn't his grandfather firmly denied any connection to that man?
Why bear that man's sins alongside him?
Because he was a vassal?
'I can't accept it!'
From that day on, Lee Ji-yeom no longer spoke to his grandfather.
Instead, he gritted his teeth and immersed himself in martial arts training.
If he didn't lose himself in something, he couldn't endure.
In his devotion to training, he became the first in his family to reach five stars in the Crimson Flame Sword Art's Great Flame Energy before the age of thirty.
This ignited even greater zeal in Lee Ji-yeom.
'I can do it.'
No ancestor in his family had ever mastered the Crimson Flame Sword Art.
Even his grandfather had stalled at eight stars.
This was because the Great Flame Energy grew ever more intense with solar flame qi, not just in power but scorching the practitioner's body itself.
Yet he was certain he could surpass eight stars, reaching nine, even ten.
And was this overambition his poison?
-Do not attempt six stars until five stars are perfectly assimilated into your body.
[Aaaargh!]
Ignoring his father's warning, Lee Ji-yeom's body erupted in flames as he rashly pushed for six stars.
Upon reaching six stars in the Great Flame Energy, one could infuse solar flame qi into the Crimson Flame Sword Art—but he failed, suffering backlash.
In an instant, flames engulfed half his face, racing up his arm. He lost consciousness.
The rampaging solar flame qi had exceeded his control.
[Aaaargh!]
Was he to die from his own greed?
In that moment, someone seized his thrashing form.
They absorbed the rampaging solar flame qi, stabilizing it.
'!?'
The one drawing the solar flame qi from his burning body was none other than his grandfather, Lee Hwa-mun.
Regaining his senses amid the pain, Lee Ji-yeom was stunned.
Neither his grandfather nor father could perfectly control the solar flame qi in their bodies. Forcing it in would—
-Whoosh!
The flames would turn on the absorber themselves.
Thanks to the qi being drawn out, Lee Ji-yeom's body stabilized.
But his grandfather, Lee Hwa-mun, did not.
In an instant, flames engulfed his entire body.
It dwarfed what Lee Ji-yeom had endured.
[No, nooooo! Grandfather! Grandfatherrrr!]
Lee Ji-yeom rushed forward to calm Lee Hwa-mun's solar flame qi.
But his grandfather's profound true energy formed a barrier, keeping him at bay.
[Grandfather! No, Grandfather!]
To reunite after nearly four years, only like this.
His deep inner energy slowed the flames' consumption of his flesh, but his grandfather's skin had already reddened, oozing pus.
[Grandfather! Please! Please!]
Lee Ji-yeom forced his way through the barrier.
His grandfather slowly shook his head with a bitter expression.
He could read it from his lips.
'Stay back. My grandson.'
The sight tore at Lee Ji-yeom's heart.
Watching his grandfather burn away right before his eyes filled him with utter devastation.
He waited for his grandfather's true energy to weaken, desperate to quell the solar flame qi, but the wait was excruciating.
[Please! Please!]
He begged his grandfather to withdraw his energy.
But even as his flesh charred away in the fire, his grandfather refused.
Only when his last breath faded did the barrier vanish.
[Uwaaaaaaaaah!]
Lee Ji-yeom wailed.
Having watched his grandfather die for his sake from start to finish, his grief was tragedy incarnate.
If he could, he would trade his life for his grandfather's.
But he couldn't.
[Urgh...]
After more than half a day of screaming and sobbing, Lee Ji-yeom collapsed from exhaustion and finally passed out.
When he awoke, everything moved in a blur.
They had to hold his grandfather's funeral.
He confessed to his father and the entire family that his grandfather had died because of him.
Yet no one blamed him.
[Even if it was reckless, it's not your fault. It's ours—for failing to teach you properly and giving weak warnings.]
[Please.... Please punish me.]
His father, now clan head, shook his head and firmly refused.
Because it wasn't what Grandfather Lee Hwa-mun would have wanted.
[But.....]
[If your grandfather harbored even a shred of resentment toward you until his dying breath, then I would.]
[.........]
He hadn't.
Even amid the agony of his body burning away, his grandfather never showed it once.
As if worrying him would only hurt his heart more, he kept his mouth shut with the calmest face possible.
It was all consideration for him.
Throughout the funeral, Lee Ji-yeom shed silent tears.
In his grief, after the rites, he saw the verse his grandfather had left behind in his poem.
Like the words of the deceased's final will.
-Ah, the day I gazed upon the black banner and followed is ever vivid in my mind. No matter how time passes, how could dreams forget those days?
He thought he had no tears left to shed.
Yet reading this squeezed out fresh pain from his eyes.
Though one of the ten founders, bearing the stigma of disgrace, most leaders including the Assembly Lord boycotted the funeral—yet he clung to his loyalty to the end.
Such faith in that man.
[........]
His heart grew complicated.
Lee Ji-yeom had despised that figure.
Yet seeing his grandfather's final words brim with longing for his old lord filled him with mixed feelings.
The one his grandfather never lost faith in until the end.
And now, the grandson bearing the Lee family's direct bloodline had mocked his grandfather's loyalty and resolve.
'Grandfather.'
In that moment, Lee Ji-yeom resolved himself.
The will of his grandfather, who had endured all with lying on brushwood, tasting gall—even forsaking honor.
He would carry on that will.
'This foolish grandson......will carry on that loyalty.'
Even if it was a vile brand.
Even if it meant endless hardship.
To reclaim his departed grandfather's honor, he vowed to uphold that will.
* * *
'No......way.'
Corpse Blood Valley Lord Lee Ji-yeom could scarcely believe the sight before him.
At first, he thought Mok Kyung-un had used some bizarre sorcery.
But beholding the form taking shape from the blood pool left him speechless.
A peerless beauty wearing a crown, holding a pipe, with blood-red eyes.
Arrogance and majesty intertwined on that face.
The instant he saw it, it overlapped perfectly with the image his late grandfather had described so vividly.
'Do not hate that one too much. The lord this old man served for half a lifetime is not the vile traitor you imagine. That one was stronger and more beautiful than anyone in the assembly.'
He had brushed off his grandfather's words lightly.
They weighed less than the wounds he suffered growing up.
But the moment he saw her, he understood.
They say dominion is innate.
'Ahh!'
The being before him seemed born to rule.
Just her downward gaze sent shivers through him, stirring awe unbidden.
Then Mok Kyung-un's voice reached his ear.
"How does it feel to behold that one in person?"
"That one........"
Lee Ji-yeom's heart pounded wildly.
Was this truly the figure his grandfather longed for until the end?
In that instant, as if his legs gave way, Lee Ji-yeom dropped to one knee.
-Thud!
Whether ghost or otherwise, it mattered not.
Before his grandfather's spirit tablet, he swore.
To inherit the loyalty his grandfather had upheld nobly until death.
Lee Ji-yeom bowed his head, clasping his hands in utmost respect.
"I, Lee Ji-yeom, head of the Lee family, pay my respects to my lord, master of the Moon Vein!"
At Lee Ji-yeom's profound obeisance, a glint flashed in Mok Kyung-un's eyes.
Meanwhile, Cheong-ryeong shot Mok Kyung-un a triumphant glance.
'See that, mortal?'
She had boasted to him.
That unlike the rotten others, the blood descendant of Lee Hwa-mun—the Lee family she knew—would still uphold that loyalty.
Mok Kyung-un had scoffed inwardly at her words.
A whole century had passed.
To think such loyalty would endure was laughable.
'A vengeful spirit trusting humans?'
Foolish indeed.
Even in mere years, all fades.
For the principal to have died and vanished, expecting the loyalty to continue was sheer delusion.
Yet, against all odds, the improbable occurred.
'It turned out differently than intended.'
Mok Kyung-un licked his lips.
He had wanted to see her empty hopes shatter in disappointment.
Instead, he had made her triumphant.
'What a shame.'
Well, not entirely bad.
For that loyalty to persist after a century meant it had value to exploit.
As Cheong-ryeong opened her mouth to speak—
-Long....
It was then.
-Pak! Pak! Pak! Pak!
Mok Kyung-un formed a hand seal with one hand and thrust the wooden doll toward her.
"Seal the domain, nullify the ego form, bind the name, hasten the restraint—Seal!"
No sooner had the incantation ended.
Her manifested spirit body was sucked back into the wooden doll in an instant.
The blood-soaked ghost domain formed by Cheong-ryeong vanished, and the office reverted to normal just as quickly.
-Flinch!
Noticing the change, Lee Ji-yeom furrowed his brow and raised his head.
Where had that one gone?
Of course, Cheong-ryeong was inside the wooden doll.
-Crackle!
The doll twitched, and her voice rang in Mok Kyung-un's ear.
-You damned mortal! What is this?!
She had finally manifested her spirit to confirm the loyalty.
Then he could pull this fellow in and issue commands—yet why seal her back inside?
As she fumed, Mok Kyung-un spoke.
"Did you see? That one lingers with me as a vengeful spirit full of resentment."
"You bastard........"
Lee Ji-yeom rose, glaring at Mok Kyung-un.
The vision of that one just now was no mere illusion.
Lee Ji-yeom demanded of Mok Kyung-un.
"Where is that one?"
"I just told you. Right here with me."
[.......Then show that one to me again. I have so many questions.]
At his plea, Mok Kyung-un pointed a thumb at himself.
"Not right before your eyes?"
"What?"
To Lee Ji-yeom's baffled retort, Mok Kyung-un grinned.
"I am that one's vessel. It may be hard to grasp, but with that one possessing me, I am that one, and that one is me."
-Hah!
Cheong-ryeong inside the wooden doll was floored by Mok Kyung-un's words.
She wondered why he sealed her after showing her form.
Mok Kyung-un's intent was clear.
'That loyalty spanning generations. I'll claim it myself.'
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