Chapter 292 – Joining Forces (1)

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Translated by Jinmu

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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Qinyuan.

It was one of the demon beasts of Mount Kunlun, with the upper body of a gigantic bird and the lower body of a hornet.

As was true of most demons and monsters, anomalies weakened during the day, but even so, the speed at which Qinyuan flew could not be compared with that of a galloping horse.

The pursuing forces tried somehow to catch up to the Qinyuan soaring high into the sky, but in the end all they could do was watch its retreating figure disappear farther and farther away.

“Damn it…”

“How are we supposed to chase something like that?”

From the beginning, it was close to impossible to catch something that flew into the sky.

The group that had been left in despair could only turn back in the end.

-Flap, flap!

“It seems they will not be able to follow us.”

Watching the pursuit group fade into the distance with his superior vision, Mok Gyeong-un said with a smile.

At those words from Mok Gyeong-un, Seop Chun clicked his tongue and asked,

“My lord, just when did you tame something as bizarre as this anomaly?”

“Ah, this? I had a lucky opportunity while I was at the Society.”

“The Society?”

At that answer, the eyes of Seop Chun and Mong Mu-yak widened.

As men from the Heaven and Earth Society, they had lived there for a long time, but had never once seen such a thing.

Then So Ye-rin, the Deputy Thousand-Household Commander, removed the black face veil she had been wearing and spoke.

“Young Master Mok truly is exceptionally skilled in occult arts as well. To think you even tamed an anomaly like this.”

“It was only luck.”

“Who could tame something like this through luck alone? In any event, to think Young Master… ah.”

As she spoke, she suddenly flinched and grabbed the cart.

At the moment Qinyuan gained altitude and made a slight turn to the side, she had lost her balance.

Looking down, her eyes trembled.

She had seemed like the sort of woman who feared nothing, but unexpectedly it seemed she was afraid of looking down from so high in the sky.

At that, Mara Hyeon, the masked officer of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, asked with concerned eyes,

“Deputy Thousand-Household Commander, are you all right…”

“I am fine! Completely fine.”

Before Mara Hyeon could even finish, So Ye-rin hurriedly shook her head and denied it.

Judging by the slight flush on her face, it seemed she was embarrassed that she had shown fear while looking down.

As if he had read his former master’s feelings, Mara Hyeon turned his head away.

Then he looked toward the leftover barrel that held the Sacred Fire Leader.

A strange look entered Mara Hyeon’s eyes as he looked at it.

At that moment,

-Click.

Mok Gyeong-un opened the lid of the leftover barrel.

The Sacred Fire Leader, who until now had only been able to guess what was happening outside from the sounds, wore a bewildered expression and asked Mok Gyeong-un,

“What has happened?”

“As you can see, we succeeded in escaping.”

“Succeeded in escaping?”

“Yes.”

“Ahhh!”

At those words, her face brightened.

She had felt for a while now that the situation had turned urgent, but she had not known what had happened.

Now that she heard they had succeeded in escaping, the feeling was extraordinary.

So the old woman, crouched down with only her head sticking up from among the food scraps, tried to rise.

To her, Mok Gyeong-un said,

“I would actually recommend staying still.”

“Did you not say we escaped? I have been in here all this time, and for some reason my ears keep ringing and my stomach is churning, so if I stay in here any lo…!?”

At that instant, the Sacred Fire Leader’s expression froze.

When she looked up and saw the huge talons gripping the cart and the underside of Qinyuan, she could not hide her bewilderment.

“Wh-what in the world is this?”

“It is nothing much. You might say we are simply a bit high up right now.”

“High up?”

“Yes. So perhaps you should remain comfortably inside again.”

“…….I understand.”

“Shall I close the lid for you?”

At those words, the Sacred Fire Leader, still feeling queasy, nodded.

Continuing to look at it made her feel even more nauseous, so she thought it would be better to stay inside the leftover barrel where she could not see anything at all.

With a smile, Mok Gyeong-un closed the lid and turned his gaze.

When his eyes met Mara Hyeon’s, Mara Hyeon at once looked away in fluster.

-Sentient being, did you notice it too?

At Blue Spirit’s words from beside him, Mok Gyeong-un shrugged.

Of course he had noticed.

He was sensitive to other things too, but when it came to murderous intent, Mok Gyeong-un caught it like a ghost no matter how carefully it was hidden.

He had already noticed the faint killing intent coming from Mara Hyeon and aimed at the Sacred Fire Leader.

He did not know the reason, but there clearly seemed to be some emotional entanglement there.

-It would be better not to leave them together.

-That seems right.

-In any case, to think you would think of using a demon beast like Qinyuan in this way. You truly are something else.

-Should I call it improvisation?

-Thanks to that improvisation, you really did manage to escape the imperial palace. To think you even used the Golden-Furred Nine-Tailed Fox in the process. I truly have to acknowledge your nerve, sentient being.

At those words, as she clicked her tongue, Mok Gyeong-un let out a faint laugh.

Up until Qinyuan, it had been a contingency plan for the worst case.

But as for the Golden-Furred Nine-Tailed Fox, one could say luck had favored them.

Had that Golden-Furred Nine-Tailed Fox not whimsically chosen to help, he truly might have been caught by Gu Seong-baek, the Southern Suppression Envoy who was called one of the Six Heavens.

-Clench.

Mok Gyeong-un tightened the trembling fist of his left hand.

He did not possess regenerative ability near the level of Dam Baek-ha, who had consumed the blood of a spirit creature, but his recovery was quick enough that strength was gradually returning to the hand.

Watching that, Mok Gyeong-un let out a faint breath.

He had absorbed the Golden-Furred Nine-Tailed Fox’s immense demonic power and had gained his own realizations too, but the wall called the Six Heavens, the summit of the martial world, was certainly massive.

‘I still have far to go.’

There was a high chance the people who had killed his grandfather were part of a vast organization.

To uncover them, he would need either a force to match theirs or overwhelming martial strength, and this battle had convinced Mok Gyeong-un that he still lacked both.

Even so, there was no reason to be disappointed.

Through this battle, he had learned what level the martial prowess of the Six Heavens was at, and from that he had gained many things to learn and realize.

‘The ways of handling qi are endless.’

He had carefully observed how someone who had fully crossed beyond the Wall of the Wall operated qi.

Because of that, he had grasped, however faintly, how Gu Seong-baek manipulated it.

If he could make use of that, then it seemed he would be able to handle qi even more effectively than before.

-Swish.

When Mok Gyeong-un moved his fingers slightly, the hilt of Evil-Answering Sword, still in its scabbard, gave a faint tremble.

At that, the corner of Mok Gyeong-un’s mouth lifted.

It was then.

-Sentient being.

-…….

-Sentient being.

-Yes?

-You… are you really going to leave that bald monk behind?

-!?

The bald monk Blue Spirit referred to was none other than Ja Geum-jeong, the Demon-Subduing Fist Warrior of Shaolin.

With matters becoming so tangled that he had ended up using even Qinyuan, Mok Gyeong-un had truly forgotten him.

Originally, once they got the leftover carts out of the outer palace, the overall plan had been to leave Kaifeng by carriage that Ja Geum-jeong had prepared.

But because they had escaped by Qinyuan instead, they had ended up leaving Ja Geum-jeong behind.

-Ah… I forgot.

-It seemed so.

-Well, nothing can be done about it.

-Hm?

-It is not as though we can go back now, so…

Mok Gyeong-un looked toward So Ye-rin.

Though Gu Seong-baek’s appearance had forced her out of the imperial palace as well, she would still have to return there in the end.

So he figured he would have to ask her to pass a message to Ja Geum-jeong to come after them separately.

At that moment, Blue Spirit suddenly made an exasperated face and said,

-It seems that will not be necessary.

-What do you mean by that?

-Look below.

At Blue Spirit’s words, Mok Gyeong-un looked down toward the ground in puzzlement.

With eyes far superior to those of ordinary people, he saw a tiny dot moving above what looked like a clump of hair, and he could hear a faint sound as well.

Because of the noise of Qinyuan flying and the roaring wind, it was hard to hear, but when he focused his hearing, that faint sound became clear.

-Heyyyyyyy! Can you not heaaaar meeeeeee!

A voice infused with internal energy was ringing upward.

The owner of that voice, shouting as if driven to madness, was none other than Ja Geum-jeong, the Demon-Subduing Fist Warrior.

* * *

In a secluded forest nearby.

“Huff… huff…”

Ja Geum-jeong, the vow-breaking monk, his face drenched in sweat, stuck out his tongue and breathed harshly.

Though he had somehow endured by drawing in the surrounding qi, he had completely exhausted himself keeping up with the flying Qinyuan.

Ever since he had begun practicing martial arts, this was the first time he had felt like he might die just from using lightness skill.

To him, Mok Gyeong-un said with a smile,

“You followed us well.”

“Huff… huff… damn it… my lord… you told me… huff huff… to wait with the carriage ready… and then you just left this bald monk behind? What kind of nonsense is that?”

“Ah, I did not abandon you. Circumstances beyond my control just forced it that way.”

“Circumstances beyond your control? What kind of…”

-Thwack.

At that moment, Seop Chun nudged him in the side with his elbow and whispered in his ear,

“You will be surprised too if you hear what happened to us.”

“Surprised?”

“Just listen quietly. The truth is…”

Seop Chun briefly explained what had happened in the outer palace during their escape.

As he listened, the eyes of Ja Geum-jeong, the vow-breaking monk, widened, and he exclaimed,

“What? You fought Gu Seong-baek, the Northern Sect Blade King?”

“No, I told you just to listen quietly. What am I supposed to do if you immediately blurt things out like that?”

Seop Chun shrugged, looking troubled.

But despite himself, he also looked a little proud.

And that was only natural. Though it had been a combined attack, Mok Gyeong-un, the man he had chosen as his lord, had fought against Gu Seong-baek, the Southern Suppression Envoy, one of the Six Heavens said to stand at the summit of the current martial world, and had even managed to wound him.

That was not something to be dismissed as mere luck.

Against an absolute grandmaster-class expert who had reached the realm of crossing beyond the Wall of the Wall, it had been a remarkable achievement.

If this spread to others, no, to the martial world at large, Mok Gyeong-un’s fame would rise as well.

He might even become known as a rising master.

‘Ah…’

For a moment, Seop Chun smacked his lips.

Come to think of it, in the imperial palace Mok Gyeong-un had been treated as dead.

Because of that, regrettably, it seemed unlikely that his fame would spread through this incident.

It could have been a chance to gain, in a single leap, a reputation comparable to one of the Eight Stars, far beyond merely being a promising junior talent, but because it had been a mission tied to the imperial palace, it would all have to remain completely hidden.

Then Ja Geum-jeong asked Mok Gyeong-un in an excited voice,

“No, my lord. Did you really fight one of the Six Heavens?”

“Hey, bald monk.”

“What?”

At the sudden voice calling him, Ja Geum-jeong, the vow-breaking monk, turned with a fierce expression.

The one who had spoken to him was Dam Baek-ha.

“Did you just call me a bald monk?”

“When you yourself call yourself a bald monk, but you cannot bear hearing it from someone else?”

“Hah?”

“Judging by how you call Young Master Mok your lord, you seem to be his subordinate. What kind of manner of speech is that from such a young one toward his own lord?”

“Hold on. Has this old madam already gone mad wanting to head to paradise? Looking even more ragged than this bald monk and saying who is young and whatnot…”

-Thwack.

Before his words could even finish, Dam Baek-ha released her qi.

-Gooooooo!

“If the young are not called young, then what else should they be called?”

Sensing that, Ja Geum-jeong flinched in surprise.

Because even from the qi she was merely releasing, he could tell that her internal energy far exceeded his own.

‘What is this old madam?’

Merely from the qi she was displaying, her internal energy was profound enough to remind him of Gwangjeon Dae-sa, the head of Shaolin’s Sutra Pavilion and once his master.

Who in the world was this woman?

As he stood there puzzled, something happened.

A moment later, someone suddenly dropped to both knees before So Ye-rin.

It was Mara Hyeon, the masked officer of the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

At such behavior from Mara Hyeon, a look of bewilderment entered So Ye-rin’s eyes.

“What… exactly are you saying right now?”

“……..Exactly what I said. It seems I will not be able to return to the imperial palace together with you.”