Myst, Might, Mayhem

Chapter 283 – Entanglements (3)

[Joo Woonhyang… Do you know what you’re trying to say now? That’s…]

[Yes, it’s treason.]

[!!!!!!]

Treason.

She had never expected those words to come out of his mouth.

She still couldn’t forget the determined look in that man’s eyes.

She had met countless people until now, but he was the first to reveal such an absurd ambition.

‘Overturn… the nation?’

His martial arts were weak, and he had no power at all.

He had nothing to his name, yet how could such words come out of his mouth?

Nevertheless, she didn’t ridicule this ambition.

This nation was rotten to the core.

The emperor was immersed in lust, and the powerful officials were only focused on fighting for power.

The people were suffering, but those in power and the privileged class were still busy exploiting them, and the people’s livelihood was becoming increasingly destitute.

The people who should have been cultivating the land were starving to death or becoming bandits, harming each other.

This would only get worse, not better.

That’s why So Yerin understood why Joo Woonhyang revealed such an ambition.

However, she couldn’t judge whether he could achieve it or not.

No matter how rotten and festering, it was a nation.

Bringing down a nation was not something that could be done with the strength or ambition of a single individual.

But she wanted to watch.

She wanted to see if that man could achieve that ambition when people like herself and others lent their strength one by one.

“Young Miss?”

At that moment, Nine Blood Sect’s Blood Demon Dam Baek-ha called out to her.

“Ah… Yes.”

At this, So Yerin, who had been lost in thought, came to her senses.

She turned her gaze to Dam Baek-ha.

Her promise with Joo Woonhyang was not something she could mention to anyone, so she spoke of another reason why she had to stay in the imperial palace.

“…I’m searching for clues about the Great Calamity.”

At those words, Blood Demon Dam Baek-ha frowned and spoke,

“When you say the Great Calamity, could it be?”

“Yes, that day. I’m searching for clues about the day that created the boundary between the current martial world and the old martial world.”

“Young Miss, that incident is already…”

“Yes, it’s an old story now. But my father lost his life in the process of searching for clues about it.”

“When you say your father?”

“His courtesy name uses the characters Jin, Yeong, and In.”

At So Yerin’s words, Dam Baek-ha spoke in surprise,

“Th-that person is the So Clan Leader, isn’t he?”

At her words, So Yerin replied in a bitter voice,

“…That’s right. I heard he was.”

“Aaah. The peerless So Clan Leader was alive.”

Dam Baek-ha nodded, finally realizing the position of So Yerin’s family.

However, on the other hand, she looked intently at So Yerin’s face as if she couldn’t understand.

That’s because if she was the daughter of Jin Yeong-in, the So Clan Leader, she should be of considerable age now, but no matter how one looked at it, she appeared to be only in her twenties.

It could be that she had achieved longevity, but there was no sense of spiritual energy that would suggest that.

At this bewilderment, So Yerin spoke as if reading her thoughts,

“At that time, all the people of Jin Clan lost their lives in the Great Calamity. I was born from my father’s connection with my mother while he was searching for clues about the Great Calamity.”

“Aaah, I see.”

Dam Baek-ha sighed in understanding.

So Yerin was the daughter of the So Clan Leader and carried his bloodline, but she was not someone who had experienced that era.

No, in the first place, the only one who knew about that era was probably herself.

Who would still be alive now?

Of course, what was really important wasn’t that.

“But Young Miss… You said the So Clan Leader lost his life while searching for clues about the Great Calamity. What do you mean by that?”

She asked in a trembling voice.

At this, So Yerin replied with reddened eyes, clenching her fists tightly,

“…My father was murdered here in Kaifeng.”

“How… How could such a thing happen? Jin Yeong-in, the So Clan Leader, was one of the greatest masters of the era who surpassed the pinnacle. But how could he…”

“My father lost one leg and his left eye on the day of the Great Calamity. He said his martial arts were not as they used to be.”

“Even so, he wouldn’t have been someone who could be easily defeated. For someone to be able to harm him… Could it be that he approached the clues about the day of the Great Calamity?”

“…It seems so.”

So Yerin still couldn’t forget that night.

Her father, Jin Yeong-in, who had suffered severe injuries, barely escaped the imperial capital Kaifeng while holding her, and even on the verge of death, he transferred all his innate true energy to her.

On his deathbed, her father held her hand tightly and entrusted her,

[No more… Don’t get involved in this matter anymore. Rin-ah… Please… your… life…]

Those were his last words.

He didn’t want his daughter to avenge him or search for clues about the Great Calamity.

However, she couldn’t do that.

She had lost her only blood relative.

-Drip!

A tear rolled down So Yerin’s cheek.

Seeing this, Dam Baek-ha silently embraced her.

The feeling of losing a loved one was something she had experienced countless times throughout her long life.

Nevertheless, far from getting used to it, each time it happened, her heart felt like it was being torn apart.

Understanding this, she silently embraced her to comfort her.

“…”

Mok Gyeong-un, who had been staring intently at her, let out a small sigh.

Although he was clumsy with other emotions, he knew well the feeling of losing a loved one, so he just watched, but time was running out.

They couldn’t stay here any longer.

The day of the Great Calamity or the old martial world, whatever it was, it was their matter anyway.

Meanwhile, So Yerin, who had been sobbing in Dam Baek-ha’s arms, wiped her tears with her sleeve and spoke,

“Thank you.”

“Please don’t mention it.”

“By the way, there was something I wanted to ask the Blood Demon.”

“You mean me?”

“I heard that you were the only one who experienced the day of the Great Calamity. Is that right?”

“…That’s correct.”

At that question, Dam Baek-ha sighed and nodded.

Everyone else had passed away, so that was the case.

At this, So Yerin asked,

“I heard that on the day of the Great Calamity, you faced a four-headed demonic creature that turned five cities into ruins. Is that true?”

“Yes… That’s right.”

Perhaps recalling the memory of that day, Dam Baek-ha’s expression rapidly darkened.

For her, that day was no different from hell.

It was the day she lost countless loved ones and the day she received the curse of longevity (chang-sheng), which she would discard if she could.

So Yerin took a deep breath and spoke to her, whose energy had diminished,

“I heard that at that time, an absolute master appeared and barely killed the demonic creature, stealing its essence. Is that correct?”

“…”

At her question, Dam Baek-ha’s eyes wavered.

Her eyes were already picturing that day, which had become the distant past.

She, along with the executives of the Blood Sect, thousands of sect members, and martial artists of the Evil Faction Alliance, had gathered to fight day and night to kill the demonic creature.

However, even though all those martial artists fought with their lives on the line, killing the demonic creature was far from easy.

They had to cut off all its heads at roughly the same time to kill it, but they didn’t know this properly, so after cutting off a head, it would regenerate not long after, and the battle continued endlessly.

[Three Venerables! Three Ancestooooors!]

[B-Blood Demon. Fourth Blood Demon has fallen in battle.]

[Huff huff. There’s no more hope. That monster won’t die!]

By the time they discovered the demonic creature’s weakness, nearly 70% of their forces had already lost their lives.

However, with so many people dying, they finally learned that they could kill the demonic creature by cutting off all its heads, so they engaged in one last fierce battle.

It was around the time they had cut off two of the demonic creature’s heads.

There was no way that the remaining 30% of their forces could withstand the demonic creature that they had barely dealt with even when all their forces were intact.

Almost everyone had lost their lives, and only a few remained alive.

It was at that moment.

Someone appeared.

“…It was a supreme swordsmanship I had never seen before in my life.”

“Swordsmanship?”

“Yes… Each sword move exceeded the range of motion of the joints and even surpassed the limits of the muscles. It was a monstrous swordsmanship used by that person.”

At these words, So Yerin frowned.

Regardless, Blood Demon Dam Baek-ha continued,

“That person who suddenly appeared cut off the remaining two necks of the demonic creature that we had been struggling so much with.”

At his appearance, the survivors cheered.

They thought a supreme expert had come to their aid.

However, when the demonic creature died like that, the supreme expert smashed the demonic creature’s back shell and extracted the essence inside.

“Up to that point, there was no problem. We didn’t even know what the essence of a spiritual creature was in the first place, and our goal was simply to kill the demonic creature.”

But what followed was the issue.

The person who had extracted the demonic creature’s essence suddenly attacked the surviving martial artists.

With his abrupt actions, Dam Baek-ha realized that this person was not their ally.

“I tried to fight him along with the remaining sect members.”

However, she couldn’t do that.

When cutting off the demonic creature’s neck, she had swallowed some of its blood, which caused her internal organs to be overturned by lightning power, and she was engulfed in unimaginable pain.

Unable to endure that pain, she had to watch her sect members die as she lost consciousness.

“Ha…”

“…If the Elder hadn’t come, I would have lost my life as well.”

“Elder? Ah! It’s that person. I also heard from my father that he had gone to help.”

“Yes. If the Elder hadn’t arrived in time, I would also be in the netherworld.”

At her words, So Yerin asked in a hopeful voice,

“Could the Elder still be alive?”

“I apologize, but I don’t know. The last time I saw him was before I was imprisoned in the underground golden prison of the imperial palace here. It’s been decades.”

“Decades… Ah…”

“Until then, the Elder was also in good health. He was wandering near the Janggang River, carrying a bamboo fishing rod on his shoulder.”

‘Bamboo fishing rod?’

Mok Gyeong-un, who had been silently listening to their conversation, had a gleam in his eyes.

At the mention of an elder carrying a bamboo fishing rod, someone came to mind.

It was the elderly man with a pale face and a scholarly appearance that he had seen on the boat in the pouring rain.

‘…Is it a coincidence?’

Just mentioning that he had a bamboo fishing rod, the appearance and attire overlapped.

Even though it was just one thing.

However, Blood Demon Dam Baek-ha said she had seen that elder decades ago.

If she, who had achieved immortality, called him an elder, he must be an extremely old man.

There was no way such a person could still be alive.

‘Or could it be possible?’

Come to think of it, there was a woman right in front of him who had achieved immortality in a youthful appearance, so there was no reason why there couldn’t be an old man who had lived a long time.

At this, Mok Gyeong-un abruptly asked them,

“Sorry to interrupt, but does that elder have a pale face, sharp eyes, and a scholarly appearance?”

‘!?’

As soon as he finished speaking, So Yerin and Dam Baek-ha simultaneously turned their heads.

Then the two of them approached him at the same time and said,

“What did you just say?”

“Did you say a scholarly appearance?”

Asked simultaneously, Mok Gyeong-un scratched his head and said,

“Before coming to Kaifeng, I had to cross a river, and there, I met an old man holding a bamboo fishing rod.”

At Mok Gyeong-un’s words, Dam Baek-ha looked at him with doubtful eyes.

Then she carefully spoke to So Yerin beside her,

“Young Miss. It might not be him. Although the appearance and attire seem similar, considering the Elder’s age, no matter how profound his internal energy is…”

-Swish!

Before she could even finish her words,

Mok Gyeong-un grasped his sword and assumed a stance.

‘!!!!!’

Seeing this, So Yerin and Blood Demon Dam Baek-ha, who had been skeptical, momentarily looked at him with surprised eyes.

Then Mok Gyeong-un unfolded a sword technique.

-Swish swish swish swish swish!

A refreshing sword path reminiscent of a full moon.

So Yerin’s eyes trembled as she watched this.

Having inherited all the martial arts related to her family from her father, she recognized at a glance what sword technique Mok Gyeong-un was using.

‘Moonless Void Sword!’