Chapter 91
Chapter 91
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 91
Chapter Title: Awakening (2)
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Seeing Ouyang Jue quiet down for a moment, Ha Jin-ak looked at everyone surrounding him.
He had to force himself to hide a bitter smile.
*'Things have changed.'*
They no longer looked at him with the expectation and trust he had received since he first distinguished himself in martial arts. Now, he was just a patient who had miraculously awakened.
Ha Jin-ak knew he could no longer walk the path of a warrior.
He was proud that Ouyang Jue and Bai Duanxian had worked so hard while he was asleep.
He understood it logically. Just as Cheong Ho-won had said, he should be grateful just to have woken up with his body intact.
But... why couldn't he feel purely happy?
Ha Jin-ak gently clenched and unclenched his fist.
"......!"
A sudden wave of pain made his vision flash.
It felt as if his unhealed internal injuries and the fire energy were pounding against his chest.
It was easy to control the surge of emotion, but accepting it was another matter entirely.
Ha Jin-ak squeezed his eyes shut for a moment.
Seeing this, a startled Cheong Ho-won asked.
"Jin-ak, are you alright?"
"......"
Ha Jin-ak didn't answer right away. He focused on scraping away the lingering regret that had settled like dregs in his heart.
It didn't take long, but it was difficult.
Without showing any of it, Ha Jin-ak offered a light smile.
"It's just that feeling the cold wind after so long is quite moving."
"Whew, that's a relief. I'll go brew some medicinal tea, so tell me immediately if you feel unwell."
"Thank you, Elder Cheong."
As Cheong Ho-won disappeared into the infirmary, Ha Jin-ak looked around.
Once he shook off the sorrow of no longer being able to walk the path of a warrior, other things finally came into view.
"...Ah!"
The somewhat shabby hermitage had been torn down and rebuilt, now much safer.
The path, which used to collect puddles and splash, had been repaired. The young disciples would no longer have to walk around with the hems of their robes soaked.
And what of the most important place, the training grounds?
Ha Jin-ak muttered to himself without realizing it.
"It's a shame."
*Is this what it feels like to see a child who has grown up in the blink of an eye?*
So much had changed while he slept.
As if preparing to soar to new heights at any moment, there were well over ten Daoists training right now.
*'It truly is a shame.'*
Ha Jin-ak felt a profound regret that, in the Mount Hua Sect of today, he would have to set down his sword and open a Daoist scripture instead.
But he held no resentment. He simply thought that he had been unlucky, and that this, too, was part of the process of reaching this point.
He was a Daoist of the Mount Hua Sect, and as such, he couldn't harbor a grudge for ending up this way while trying to protect Ouyang Jue.
"Sect Leader."
Bai Duanxian's eyes widened in surprise at Ha Jin-ak's words.
His mind had been a mess ever since he heard Ouyang Jue had the Small Purple Spirit Elixir.
"What is it?"
"A lot has changed while I was asleep."
As he spoke, Ha Jin-ak offered a gentle smile.
"To wake up and see the Sect Leader has changed, to see my junior brothers performing their sword dances, to see Junior Brother Ouyang, whom I tried to protect, has also grown stronger... and even the Mount Hua Sect has developed so astonishingly."
As he continued, Ha Jin-ak felt the fire energy creeping up his throat. For a moment, it became hard to breathe.
But he ignored Bai Duanxian's silent plea to stop and kept speaking.
"My only regret is not being able to witness that process. And that from now on... I cannot walk beside you. That, truly, is a shame."
"...Jin-ak."
*Has my voice become choked with emotion?*
When Bai Duanxian called his name in a low voice, Ha Jin-ak put on his usual cheerful smile.
"From now on, I plan to learn medicine from Elder Cheong. It's a field I've always been interested in, so I should have plenty of time to learn, shouldn't I?"
"No."
Ouyang Jue spoke.
"I still have a debt to repay to you, Senior Brother Ha."
"A debt? Are you talking about the internal energy?"
Ha Jin-ak shook his head.
"You don't need to worry about it. Even if you wanted to transfer your internal energy back to me, my body is completely ruined by the fire energy. It wouldn't work."
Even if his body were to heal, transferring internal energy required pouring out one's essence, qi, and spirit, including the primordial true qi.
Ha Jin-ak didn't want him to take such a risk. Especially since he had already experienced it himself.
"So..."
Just as Ha Jin-ak was about to continue.
*Click.*
Ouyang Jue untied the drawstring of his leather pouch.
"Good heavens... is that!"
*Clang!*
Cheong Ho-won was so astonished that he dropped the medicinal tea he had just brewed and rushed over to Ouyang Jue.
The tea for suppressing the fire energy was unimportant. Inside the pouch Ouyang Jue had opened lay a spiritual medicine that could purge all fire energy.
The Small Purple Spirit Elixir.
A legendary spiritual medicine created by condensing the supremely pure Purple Mist True Qi with the sacred mountain energy deep within Mount Hua for ten years.
Ouyang Jue handed the pouch to Ha Jin-ak and said.
"Debts, even between senior and junior brothers, must be settled strictly."
"But, this is!"
"Senior Brother Ha."
Ouyang Jue smiled brightly, a smile he had never shown before.
"We can start walking together from now on."
***
"At last, the scales of causality have tipped. If they tip just a little more, we can be freed from the pact."
The man wearing the mask of King Yama spoke and looked around at the assembly.
Eight men and women were seated around a large round table.
The common threads among them were that they all wore masks and exuded a strange, otherworldly aura.
The one wearing the mask of a black dragon was particularly ferocious. A growling sound, as if he might smash the table and leap out at any moment, escaped from beneath his mask.
"Is there any reason to wait longer?"
To that, Yama replied firmly.
"We must be cautious."
"Do you remember how many years we've waited because of that caution? Huh?"
Yama remained silent at the provocative tone. Instead, a man wearing a ghost mask spoke coldly.
"That's enough."
"And what will you do if I don't stop? Ghost?"
"I'll have to tear you apart again."
The Ghost laughed with an eerie voice.
"Have the wounds you received twenty years ago healed well?"
"Hmph!"
As the Black Dragon gnashed his teeth and slowly gathered his energy, the one wearing the mask of a young acolyte spoke in a high-pitched voice.
"If you're going to fight again, I'm out!"
"Same as ever."
As another mask let out a dry laugh, it seemed a fight between the Ghost and the Black Dragon was about to break out.
However, the acolyte's words made them both stop.
"Isn't it a waste of all the time we've waited?"
"......"
"......"
A full twenty years.
No matter how long-lived they were, twenty years was by no means a short time.
But what if they lost this chance over a petty squabble and had to wait again?
That would be the height of foolishness.
The Ghost and the Black Dragon snapped their mouths shut.
"Finally, some quiet."
Yama's gaze shifted beyond the table, to a man prostrated with his back to the darkness.
"Demonic Doctor, explain everything you have seen and heard."
At those words, the Demonic Doctor, Heavenly Dragon, lowered his head even further.
"As you command."
Just then, the acolyte suddenly interjected.
"So, who wiped out the Zhenzhou Yan Clan?"
"You flippant brat!"
Despite the Black Dragon's rebuke, the acolyte giggled and asked.
"Hurry up, I'm curious!"
"......"
The Demonic Doctor, Heavenly Dragon, hesitated for a moment before speaking.
"I did not see."
"You didn't see?"
The acolyte's voice turned sullen.
"That's strange. Our Demonic Doctor isn't one to make such a mistake..."
"...My apologies."
"No, it's fine. I never knew our Demonic Doctor had such a human side to him."
The acolyte touched the bottom of their mask, adjusting it.
"Continue."
"Yes."
As he always did, the Demonic Doctor, Heavenly Dragon, recounted the events with an emotionless expression.
With one exception: he omitted any information regarding Liu Zhangming.
***
*Rumbleeee...!*
Winter passed, and before long, it was spring.
A woodcutter, with an axe slung over his shoulder, was climbing Mount Mo.
The winter chill had not yet faded, so a single misstep could lead to serious injury.
But he had a reason he absolutely had to climb the mountain.
*'I must have been crazy to tell them about it!'*
The previous night, while drinking with his fellow woodcutters, he had blabbed about the location of an oak tree he had his eye on.
A high-quality one, at that.
The woodcutter clutched his aching stomach and hurried up the mountain. As he climbed, he had the strange sensation that the world was shaking up and down.
"Am I still drunk? Dammit..."
He should have sobered up before coming. The woodcutter briefly considered heading back down.
He had seen his fair share of madmen who tried to chop wood while drunk and ended up chopping their own arms instead.
If that happened to him, he would be teased for the rest of his life whenever they drank. His own family might even turn their backs on him.
With that thought, the woodcutter sighed deeply and turned to leave the mountain path.
It was then.
"...Huh? H-Huh?"
The branches on the tree he was looking at were shaking. Some of them bent, unable to withstand the tremors.
Just in case, he picked a branch and placed it on the still-unmelted snow.
Sure enough, it moved.
The shaking wasn't due to his hangover; it was really happening.
"What rotten luck, first thing in the morning!"
Until this point, he thought it was just a natural disaster, the heavens angered. He had experienced such things before while living in Jiangsu.
But...
*Crunch, craaack.*
The sound of tearing flesh and grinding bone sent a chill down the woodcutter's spine.
The sound was getting closer.
The woodcutter swallowed hard and gripped his axe tightly. He was ready to swing it at whatever might jump out.
Then, the source of the sound finally appeared.
"H-Huh!"
The woodcutter's eyes became bloodshot.
And for good reason—the figure that emerged was utterly bizarre.
"......"
Not only was he carrying a wooden stake over five feet long, but his hair, tied with a black cloth, was a complete mess, and his clothes were filthy.
He reminded the woodcutter of a demonic leader from an unorthodox sect he had seen in the past, and fear quickly gripped him.
What's more, he was holding a rabbit in his other hand, eating it raw!
"D-Demonic Cult?!"
At that, the man grinned and replied.
"If you're going to talk, make it loud."
"Ugh... Aaaah!"
The woodcutter fled in terror, scrambling down Mount Mo.
The man watched him go and muttered to himself.
"The Return of the Black Dragon..."
"I hope many will be in attendance."