Chapter 19
Chapter 19
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 19
Chapter Title: Are You Okay?
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As we drew near the spot where I'd last spotted the bloodsucker.
"Fortune teller. This just ain't gonna cut it, is it?"
"Almost done..."
-scritch scritch-
I was hard at work carving the wooden plaques.
It was a pain having to make all eight of them: Qian, Dui, Li, Zhen, Xun, Kan, Gen, and Kun.
When I was up in the mountains, Master whipped them up in no time flat.
They hadn't been ruined by heavenly punishment or anything like that, but I'd accidentally wrecked plenty of them due to my own clumsiness.
And every time, Master had made me new ones.
Complete with a lecture, of course.
[A guy learning divination who handles his tools so carelessly—when do you think you'll ever be ready to leave the mountain?]
Said all that and still never let me descend in the end.
That's why I'd ended up escaping like this.
-crack-
If she'd just taken me out to play sooner, I wouldn't have had to slip away during her closed-door training.
Sure, I owed her a debt of gratitude, but I'd paid it back by cooking, doing laundry, washing dishes—you name it. Plenty to gripe about there.
"Fortune telling's a tough gig, huh? Can't even get anyone to help make your own tools."
"It's not like just anyone can handle heavenly secrets, so what choice do I have?"
I had to carve the plaques while infusing them with heavenly secrets, which meant you needed a basic grasp of handling qi to pull it off.
That's why Master could make them effortlessly, while I—with my two left hands—was stuck grunting and struggling over here.
Even this was an improvement, thanks to learning hidden weapons from Dang Ayoung. Back in the day, I'd prep sixteen spares before even attempting it solo.
-thunk-
"And that's the last one."
Luckily, I'd only botched one this time.
Eight wooden plaques, complete.
"They're all crooked and uneven, though. That okay?"
"As long as I can read 'em, the heavens don't mind."
Sure, they'd look better to customers aesthetically, but the sky couldn't care less about appearances.
For now, this makeshift set would do. Once I got back, I'd craft a proper one from quality wood.
-heavy-
"Hm."
The grip still didn't feel right, but there was no helping it.
This was an emergency.
"Alright, let's see... the bloodsucker's current position."
I spread out the map, marked our approximate location with my finger, and laid down the plaques.
I should've been checking its position periodically as we closed in, but heaven's inscrutable whims had delayed me.
-swish-
No time for fancy rituals or flashy effects—I poured in the heavenly secrets straight away.
The qi flowing into the plaques was priming them to fetch records from the sky.
A familiar sensation swirled through my mind.
I matched the position heaven revealed to the map and pinpointed it.
"...Right he—"
"Danger!"
-crash!
The men's urgent shouts rang out as a boulder smashed through the wall where my head had been just moments ago.
"You okay?! It didn't hit you, right?!"
"Th-thanks to you."
Dang Ayoung had yanked me back by my cloak hood, saving my skin.
Worried my hood might slip and expose me, I clamped it down with one hand and glanced at her.
Her face was deadly serious—something I'd never seen before.
"I'll handle this quick. Stick with Cheongsu over there."
With that, she set me down and vanished in a blink.
-rumble rumble rumble-
"...Cheongsu?"
"That's me."
For reference, Cheongsu was the guy who'd drawn the short straw in my reading.
As I stood there speechless, he let out a sigh.
"Don't worry, I'm fine. Just stay behind me. Get out of the carriage, quick."
"Wouldn't it be safer inside...?"
"If it flips the whole thing, that's a bigger headache. Word is that bloodsucker's got insane strength. Hurry up."
-rumble-
Having just brushed death, my hands and feet wouldn't stop shaking as I finally dragged myself out of the carriage.
Stepping outside, the chaos unfolding around me hit me all at once.
And in that moment, I truly felt like I was in the martial world.
-clang! Clang!
"This bastard's external arts are no joke!"
"My sword won't even stick...!"
"Grrr..."
Two men were facing off against another man whose eyes were bloodshot and whose body was caked in dirt and bloodstains.
Their swords seemed to pierce the bloodsucker's flesh only to get flung back in an instant, and every time it swung a fist in retaliation, a vicious whoosh of wind reached even here.
I'd wondered where Dang Ayoung had gone.
-thunk!
"Gurk!"
A dagger flew in from somewhere, burying itself in the bloodsucker's left shoulder.
"Probably aimed to kill in one shot. Right for the throat."
"...And it dodged?"
"Most likely."
Whether it was the dart thrown with pinpoint accuracy from some hidden vantage or the freak that dodged it—
Stuff like that didn't exist back on Earth.
"Anyway, first-rate experts can pierce even tough external arts like that. These guys are second-rate."
"That big a gap between realms?"
"Not all second-rates are equal, and not all first-rates are either. We're middling second-raters, but that monster and the young lady look like peak first-raters on the verge of mastery. No wonder we can't keep up."
"Ah..."
Even as I listened to his explanation, the fierce exchange raged on.
The two men barely held the line together, tying down the bloodsucker's feet, while Dang Ayoung peppered it with darts whenever an opening appeared.
Wounds were accumulating on its body—plain as day to my eyes.
"Think it'll end like this?"
"That bloodsucker's got monstrous external arts but barely any wits left. Just some martial addict gone feral, I reckon."
"RAAAAAAGH!!!!"
The murderous aura echoing out was terrifying, but seeing the men's solid defense and Dang Ayoung's poise diluted my fear bit by bit.
A bloodsucker in name only—a martial-obsessed freak, nothing more.
I half-thought there'd be an actual vampire.
The name didn't even faze me anymore.
It hadn't inflicted any real damage on us, let alone been seen sucking blood.
-thunk!
That instant, one of Dang Ayoung's darts nailed it right in the heart.
"Gu..."
No matter how many darts it took, it'd thrashed wildly—but now its movements slowed visibly, and more darts pierced home after that.
"Grhh..."
The bloodsucker bristled like a porcupine, darts jutting from everywhere.
"RAAAAAAGH!!!!"
It bellowed as it lunged fists at the two men.
"Hah! I've read all your moves now!"
One man raised his sword to block the punch, retreating—but
-thunk!
"Guhk..."
In a flash, the bloodsucker's claws grew and bypassed the sword, skewering the man's body.
"...!"
"Hss...!"
I froze in shock; the man beside me sucked in a breath.
"You alright?! Snap out of it!"
The other man slashed at the bloodsucker—but
-slash!
With claws on its other hand, it sheared his sword like tofu.
The man froze in panic.
No fortune needed to know the horror coming his way.
-thud!
I felt the man beside me kick off and charge.
But the bloodsucker didn't react as we expected.
-thud!
It ignored the disarmed man, kicked him aside, and yanked its claw free from the impaled one's body.
Then it pressed its mouth to the wound and...
-gulp... gulp...
"Urk...!"
A gruesome scene unfolded.
He was a literal bloodsucker.
Even Cheongsu, charging toward it, halted at the sight.
-gulp... gulp...
The only sound around was the glugging from its throat.
"Puh..."
Finished feeding, the bloodsucker tossed the drained man aside like trash.
What I'd seen so far had already shattered my common sense.
What came next was worse.
-writhe
Its body convulsed, and the wounds Dang Ayoung had inflicted healed in seconds.
The embedded darts popped out uselessly as fresh flesh sprouted in their place.
Sated, the bloodsucker now hunted its next prey.
A witless fiend. A beast driven by instinct alone.
And the next prey it eyed was the one straggler from the group—
The weakest.
The one who knew it and could only tremble helplessly.
"Ah..."
-tremble tremble tremble-
My legs wouldn't move.
I had to run.
They wouldn't obey.
I... I don't wanna die...
Death's terror loomed right before me.
Why had I ever left for the Central Plains?
Staying in the mountains with Master, living peacefully—that wouldn't have been so bad.
Why follow her to a deadly place like this?
I could've just run a quiet fortune stall.
I didn't want to die.
I wanted to live more.
Live longer, savor more pleasures and delights of the world.
I desperately fumbled in my robes for the item I'd stashed there.
The shop window. The one thing I'd brought to this godforsaken world.
The thing I'd bought dumping every last point into it—but
-tremble tremble-
Were my hands shaking too much?
Or had the bloodsucker—claws aimed at my cloaked heart—reached me first?
As its claws thrust toward me, terror sealed my eyes shut.
The image that flashed before them was that of a woman.
.
.
.
"Haa... haa... Made it just in time. You okay?"
"Ah...?"
A woman's back filled my view.
A slender woman, desperately gripping the bloodsucker's wrist with her thin arms and delicate hands.