The Boy from Her Memories
Danmok Ryeon, sighing in relief once more, decided to first check on the boy right in front of her.
What...? What's this?
Why wasn't anything showing up properly? Ryeon panicked.
Synchronization failed? But her Divine Eye had leveled up just from looking at him, so it was clear he was no ordinary talent.
In these times when the family was declining and every single person was precious, talent was even more invaluable.
The clan had to survive for Ryeon to live comfortably too.
Ryeon resolved not to hesitate and whispered to Jang ssi.
"Nanny, wait here. Just for a moment."
"Y-yes? Young miss?"
Pushing Jang ssi behind the chicken coop, Ryeon ran to the boy and grabbed his arm.
A drizzle had started, water droplets forming on her eyebrows, but she ignored it.
"Hey, kid!"
The boy turned to her without the slightest surprise at her presence.
"……."
"……."
And in that moment, Ryeon completely forgot what she was going to say.
He looked a year or two younger than her. His gaunt, skinny frame and ragged clothes made him seem more like a small beast than a person, but his features were sharply defined, as if drawn with ink.
And there was a tear mole under his left eye, making it a face hard to forget once seen.
A faint light seemed to shimmer around the boy.
But... where have I seen this face before?
The face rising in her memory belonged to someone extraordinarily beautiful too. He had a tear mole just like this boy, right under his left eye—but who was it?
At that instant, a scene from the future she had experienced flashed by.
The forest's woody scent buried under the stench of blood, clear sunlight cruelly piercing through the leaves.
Her spiritual energy backflowing, she spat up blood and staggered. An indifferent hand had caught her.
As she grew older, her body worsened, and she had left Hangzhou for convalescence.
She planned to stay in a small hermitage, but remnants of Blood Valley (Hyeolragok) raided the village below.
Ryeon was in no state to do anything then. Every day, her spiritual energy backflowed—staggering on good days, vomiting blood on bad ones. She knew no martial arts she could use...
Then, by chance, a group of martial artists passed near her hermitage.
The leader caught her as she staggered, so shamelessly, she begged for help—or if that was too much, at least pass word to the Zhuge Clan just below...
—I'll give you this jade pendant. In return, beyond these mountains is a great clan. If you could just deliver a message there...
She had bowed her sick body in plea, but the man's distant gaze lingered vividly.
—We have a long way to go ourselves.
And then he just left.
He had looked down at her like she was a barking dog, then walked away without a backward glance.
Before she could grab him, she fainted. When she woke, she was on a large porch, tended by villagers.
Fortunately, Zhuge Clan patrols spotted the Blood Valley remnants and drove them off in time.
Like a bolt of lightning, the man who had glanced at her and left overlapped with this boy's face.
Ma, ma, Machun-gyo Young Cult Leader! Hwaryun!
"...Who?"
The boy's childish voice felt utterly out of place. Ryeon just stared at him in shock.
"Uh, I mean, you... that is..."
He was here at this time? In Hangzhou? Before joining Machun-gyo?
She learned later from Zhuge Clan people that the man she tried to grab was Machun-gyo's Young Cult Leader.
Back then, she thought it fortunate he passed quietly.
As Ryeon's lips twitched silently, the boy suddenly spoke.
"I have my own temple I go to."
Stunned by the unexpected encounter, Ryeon blinked wide at his words.
Why was he suddenly talking about his temple...?
Her face flushed red.
"N-not proselytizing or anything!"
She, who would become Machun-gyo's Young Cult Leader herself, accusing him of being a cultist now!
"Really, I'm not. Not at all, it's just..."
Her mind reeled. Thinking of him not as a mere child but as Machun-gyo's Young Cult Leader...
Wait... Machun-gyo... Young Cult Leader?
Who was Machun-gyo's Young Cult Leader? The one who ascended before twenty, wielding all of Machun-gyo's affairs in the Lord's stead, shaking the murim.
Overwhelming prowess let him be known simply as "Young Cult Leader," no name or title needed. In the future Ryeon saw, he was the most unpredictable man.
About thirty years ago, to face Blood Valley, Heukcheon-ryeon, Machun-gyo, and Baekdo-maeng allied in the Murim Alliance, where he boldly held a seat.
After the Dongting Blood Incident, proxying for the reclusive Lord, he matched Heukcheon-ryeon or Baekdo-maeng elders without yielding...
And now, so much younger, just meeting his eyes raised her Divine Eye a whole level—what did that intensity mean?
Ryeon was certain. This was true genius.
Talent promising dazzling achievements with sword, saber, spear, bow—anything!
Her eyes sparkled like stars.
"What's your name?"
"And yours?"
The skinny little boy had a surprisingly bold spirit.
Ryeon narrowed her eyes.
"I'm... Ryeon. You?"
The boy pursed and unpursed his lips, studying her face before answering.
"Hwaryun."
"Hm, Hwaryun? Just Hwaryun?"
Machun-gyo's Lord was Cheon Hye-dam, so probably took the clan name later.
She had suspected he was the future Young Cult Leader, but hearing his name chilled her.
The real deal.
The boy's gaze flicked up suspiciously, as if doubting her.
Ryeon waved her hands hastily.
"Ryun-ah, how old are you? I'm eight now."
"...Probably six."
Ryeon froze.
Six? A Young Cult Leader young enough to count his age on one hand—she'd never imagined.
Six... six... two years younger than me...
She'd never spoken privately with him, so she hadn't known.
Two years younger, yet achieved all that.
His martial prowess was so supreme, she'd assumed he was ten years older.
Ryeon glanced at her sleeve. The text shook erratically.
Because she knew his name, it showed as 'Hwaryun,' but the rest remained 'partial synchronization failed.'
Does this mean his aptitudes are so exceptional they won't even display? Even more than Grandfather?
When she died and splashed in the Samdo River, Ryeon saw and passed through much.
The places long called heaven, immortal realm, nirvana, paradise, hell.
And futures, revelations, prophecies.
There, she learned why she lay comatose, why she hurt, the future after presumed death, past lives before this one, how this world was made, beginnings and ends, light and dark, yesterday and tomorrow, death and life—all of it.
Her intuitive grasp of the world came because her soul 'knew.'
But she returned alive because she forgot most. What she couldn't bear was erased.
The info she saw was those truths, digested into forms she could handle.
Not showing means it's info I can't handle yet?
A faint golden light shimmered around Hwaryun.
Lost in thought, Ryeon met Hwaryun's staring eyes and snapped back, examining him again.
She thought the shabby basket he held didn't suit him at all—like camouflage picked up somewhere.
He won't try to kill me later for seeing his childhood, right?
Some hate reminders of their weak days.
To break the awkward silence, Ryeon pulled out what she'd brought.
"Ah! Want some of this?"
Sudden and random, but the boy pondered briefly and seemed to agree.
"What's that?"
"It's medicinal candy. I got it today for finishing my decoction well."
Making excuses, she pulled out the oil-paper wrapped candy.
Then Hwaryun raised his basket-holding hands. Dusty palms.
Unable to hold it himself, Ryeon gladly brought the candy to his lips.