novelraw Chapter 177 : Chapter 177
Chapter 177 : Chapter 177
Chapter 177. Ill-fated Relationship (2)
Dang Sopyeong crumpled his face and said.
“Did you say uselessly just now? Ha. Who do you think I was suffering for right now?”
At his words filled with annoyance, Jin Yuseong rather smirked.
“Were you trying to take revenge for me?”
Then Dang Sopyeong’s face crumpled even more.
“Revenge for you my foot! Ahem. Yes! Black Heart Ghost Claw! Since you disappeared, I was training to kill the Black Heart Ghost Claw alone!”
As Dang Sopyeong shouted shrieking, Baek Hyang and Nam Geon made strange expressions.
While the two were suppressing laughter forcibly. Choyeon muttered in an indifferent tone.
“Young Master Dang is the same as usual.”
At Choyeon’s words, Baek Hyang and Nam Geon, unable to hold back, eventually burst into laughter.
“Pfft.”
“Kukuku.”
Dang Sopyeong, whose face turned crimson, asked Choyeon.
“……Same as usual, what does that mean? Miss Cho.”
“It meant it was good to see you are consistent.”
Dang Sopyeong glared at Choyeon intently.
But it was an expressionless face like usual.
Since no sarcastic intent was felt at all, it was hard to even argue.
“Haa…….”
Why was it?
At the same time as sighing, it felt like the tension snapped and released.
What was funny was that nothing happened even though the tension was released.
The heavy poisonous Qi in his Dantian that always touched his nerves sensitively.
He was anxious that the poisonous Qi might melt his internal organs the moment he relaxed, but nothing happened.
Far from a problem arising even though he relaxed, it felt somewhat more comfortable.
Dang Sopyeong, suppressing laughter trying to flow out unknowingly, asked Jin Yuseong with a grumpy expression.
“So, what on earth happened? If you were alive so perfectly well, why was there no news at all in the meantime?”
“I was trapped in a cave.”
“Cave?”
For the curious Dang Sopyeong, Jin Yuseong explained what had happened.
“……There truly is no crazy old man like him. To trap an innocent person in a cave for over three years just for the reason of wanting to face a former generation master’s martial arts.”
As Dang Sopyeong muttered as if absurd, Jin Yuseong shrugged his shoulders once as if it was nothing.
“Well, although he is a crazy old man, it is true I owe him a life debt, so I decided to overlook it favorably. After all, everyone is safe like this thanks to that Fighting Venerable, aren’t they?”
Dang Sopyeong blinked and looked at Jin Yuseong.
“Are you crazy by chance? No. You were originally crazy. Perhaps, is your madness cured?”
“What nonsense is that?”
“Weren’t you the guy who wandered around the Jianghu with a half-crippled body saying you had to kill trash almost every day? But to forgive a guy who trapped you for three years. Do you think that makes sense?”
At this, the companions’ gazes turned toward Jin Yuseong.
Everyone just didn’t use intense expressions like Dang Sopyeong. They were harboring such doubts.
Thinking that Jin Yuseong seemed to have become somewhat calmer compared to the past.
“I just became able to hold back anger.”
Jin Yuseong answered vaguely.
He didn’t explain that he locked anger deep inside. That he split his personality in two.
“Hoh. To cure madness with isolated training. Looking at it this way, it seems the Fighting Venerable was right.”
“Stop talking nonsense and take this.”
Jin Yuseong spoke grumpily and held out a bundle to Dang Sopyeong.
“What is that again?”
“It is an item Blacksmith Yeo and Miss Yeo entrusted.”
What was contained in that bundle were hidden weapons.
The world’s best hidden weapon couldn’t be made in a day or two.
Dang Sopyeong had left the Seomoon Clan leaving a request to create it until he finished isolated training.
“Blacksmith Yeo said this. Although not the world’s best yet, they are quite usable things. He asked you to use them and let him know parts worth fixing later.”
Dang Sopyeong received the bundle and opened it.
Among various hidden weapons, a letter was folded.
It was a letter sent by Yeo Yun.
Checking this, the corners of Dang Sopyeong’s mouth went up grinning.
Jin Yuseong, who knew Yeo Yun’s letter was there, also smirked.
‘Indeed, a fate where he shouldn’t live alone.’
Was it because of the unfortunate times spent at the Sichuan Sword Clan?
A personality like a hedgehog in many ways, pushing people away yet liking people.
At that time, perhaps noticing his expression belatedly, Dang Sopyeong, who was grinning, coughed hurriedly.
“Ahem. You came exactly at the right time.”
He spat out strange sounds as if trying to change the subject.
“What time? Well, are you saying you were just about to descend the mountain?”
“Hmph. Don’t make useless deductions and follow me.”
Saying so, Dang Sopyeong took a step first.
Holding the bundle containing Yeo Yun’s letter very tightly lest he lose it.
Moving steps following behind Dang Sopyeong for a while.
They arrived at a familiar place.
The place where the spiritual elixir Baek Hyang ate in the past at Heavenly Peak Ridge was made.
It was the place where that spiritual elixir was manufactured.
And a scene similar to that time was unfolded there.
A brazier, cauldron, herbs, and such were gathered in one place.
“These are spiritual herbs gathered by searching this place like catching rats for three years. I was just about to manufacture a spiritual pill for me to eat with this. I do not know how you knew and came to steal this again.”
He was speaking as if being robbed, but it meant he would just give the spiritual elixir.
Thinking indeed he was a guy like a hedgehog, Jin Yuseong asked.
“We are fine, so wouldn’t it be better for you to eat it?”
“Ahem. I already ate enough to be sick of it. The things here are mostly spiritual herbs with strong Yang energy. To me who learned Poison Art, these are rather poison.”
Jin Yuseong smirked.
“You gathered quite a lot of things that are no different from poison.”
It was obvious without looking.
On the way out after finishing isolated training. He must have intended to take the spiritual elixir manufactured with those.
In other words, it meant he gathered them with the intention of sharing with his companions from the start.
Even knowing that intention clearly, Jin Yuseong threw a joke.
“Were you intending to give it as a gift to Miss Yeo perhaps?”
“Wh, wh, what nonsense! Ahem. I, I intended to eat it all!”
“Didn’t you say it is poison if you eat it?”
“I, I was researching! I was researching a method to make it so I, I could eat it!”
Dang Sopyeong, who was hurriedly making excuses, shouted shrieking.
“If you don’t want it, quit it! Since I will eat it all!”
Again, Baek Hyang and Nam Geon covered their mouths and suppressed laughter.
Thinking he might really sulk if teased more, Jin Yuseong also spoke suppressing laughter with effort.
“It was a joke. Rather, if it is a pill made with that amount of spiritual herbs, the medicinal effect seems to be very excellent.”
Dang Sopyeong coughed and answered.
“Ahem. You are saying the obvious. If absorbed properly, internal energy will increase by at least half a Gapja.”
Jin Yuseong nodded with an expression saying as expected.
‘My deduction was correct.’
It was a problem he thought about since hunting the Human-faced Spider.
How on earth did the Poison Immortal of the past life pierce the ignorantly sturdy outer skin of the Human-faced Spider?
The answer Jin Yuseong came up with back then was that.
He thought there might be several spiritual herbs with strong fire energy or Yang energy growing in this Heavenly Peak Ridge.
The spiritual herbs used for hunting the Human-faced Spider in the past life were eaten by a person in this life.
Jin Yuseong turned his head and looked at Nam Geon and the two Junior Sisters.
“We should decide who will eat it.”
“Hy, Hyung-ah eat it.”
“Yes, Senior Brother. We are fine.”
Nam Geon and Baek Hyang’s refusal. Choyeon also nodded as if agreeing with their words.
“As I said last time, I already have sufficient internal energy.”
“It is the same for me. Senior Brother. I just barely adapted to the rapidly increased internal energy, I cannot become like last time again.”
“I, I am stupid. I, I ca, cannot absorb th, that properly anyway. Sh, shouldn’t waste food.”
After expressing refusal to each other, naturally everyone’s gaze turned toward Choyeon.
“It seems best for Junior Sister Choyeon to eat it.”
“I also think so. Senior Brother.”
“Ri, right. La, last time Hyung-ah also said. Yeo, Yeon-ie has ju, just one regret, internal energy.”
Choyeon, who ended up having to eat the spiritual elixir bewilderedly, just blinked her eyes.
***
While Dang Sopyeong was refining the spiritual elixir in earnest. Jin Yuseong was giving this and that advice to Choyeon.
Although it was a spiritual elixir he had no connection with in the past life, in this life, he somehow ate spiritual elixirs three times.
Thanks to that, he could be called quite an expert in absorbing spiritual elixirs.
Around sunset.
Dang Sopyeong, who continued refining for a long time, straightened his back and said.
“It is finished.”
Saying so, Dang Sopyeong held out one pill to Choyeon.
Although it was a pill made by decocting a pile of spiritual herbs, its size was very small.
But only the size was so. The energy flowing out subtly was emitting a very strong scent.
It seemed to have extremely condensed the energy accumulated in a considerable amount of spiritual herbs.
Choyeon threw that spiritual elixir into her mouth with an indifferent expression.
According to Jin Yuseong’s advice, she chewed only once or twice and swallowed it as is.
Huge energy began to flow out from the pill flowing down her throat.
Since this was also content she heard from Jin Yuseong, she didn’t panic.
She operated the Great Swallow Nest Building Divine Art while sitting cross-legged and gathered that energy.
New energy piles up in the Dantian incessantly. As huge energy runs through the acupoints of the whole body, the narrow acupoints scream.
As her small Dantian grew, tingling pain was felt.
However, for her who had gone through terrible training and torture under the name of assassin training, it was nothing.
She continued breathing exercises with an indifferent face as expected.
Choyeon thought.
‘Right. Since it is most efficient for me to eat, it must be best for me to eat.’
Although she was helping her companions in small ways through stealth techniques, she wasn’t much help in battle.
They yielded the spiritual elixir for her who was only a hindrance.
Her reason was saying so, but for some reason, one side of her chest felt somewhat warm.
She also knew. How precious such a spiritual elixir was.
It was an item that would cause bloody battles to possess it if known to the world.
But the people here yielded that treasure to her without a shred of hesitation.
‘Therefore, I must not waste even a single grain of energy.’
To meet the expectations of her companions. Furthermore, to be helpful to the companions who yielded such a thing.
Maybe feeling warmth wasn’t just a feeling.
Since Choyeon entered breathing exercises, someone had placed a palm on her back and was examining her condition.
Even without looking with eyes, Choyeon seemed to know who the owner of that hand was.
It was the hand of her Senior Brother, Jin Yuseong.
Warmth transmitted through that hand was felt.
Jin Yuseong didn’t try to help her by sending energy unnecessarily.
He was just examining her condition. Ready to step in whenever a problem arose.
The corners of her mouth almost went up unknowingly.
It was obvious that not only Senior Brother but also other companions were guarding around her. With eyes full of worry.
That scene was vivid in her mind, so laughter almost came out unknowingly.
Within their warmth, Choyeon continued breathing exercises.
And when she opened her eyes. Before she knew it, the sky had become completely dark.
The first thing heard was Jin Yuseong’s voice.
“You worked hard.”
Jin Yuseong, who had taken his palm off her back before she knew it, smiled faintly and said.
“Well done. As expected, Junior Sister Choyeon executes exactly as I order.”
For some reason, as soon as Jin Yuseong’s words ended, Baek Hyang laughed awkwardly.
Choyeon looked at the two alternately with a puzzled expression.
It was Dang Sopyeong who resolved Choyeon’s doubt.
“Ah. Come to think of it, didn’t Miss Baek pierce the Gate of Life and Death abruptly? Hahaha. You should have seen that guy’s expression back then, it was truly a face as if seeing a ghost.”
Choyeon blinked her eyes a few times and asked.
“Should I pierce it even now. Senior Brother?”
Jin Yuseong shook his head.
“Let’s go safely. Since it is late today, burn the turbid energy of the Ren and Du meridians diligently from tomorrow.”
If she removed all turbid energy and accumulated just a little more internal energy in her Dantian, it seemed she could safely open the Gate of Life and Death then.
***
Early next morning.
We, fully equipped, started descending the Heavenly Peak Ridge.
The Dang Clan guy also chased behind us as if it were natural.
“Is the isolated training finished?”
“Ahem. Well, it seemed su, sufficient to kill the Black Heart Ghost Claw guy.”
Perhaps the Dang Clan guy was also embarrassed, so he hurriedly changed the subject.
“Rather, where do you plan to go now?”
“We plan to visit the Potala Palace.”
The Dang Clan guy frowned faintly.
The Dang Clan guy, who seemed to ponder something for a moment, opened his mouth.
I thought he was going to ask what business we had at the Potala Palace, but he spat out unexpected words.
“Then which path do you intend to take? If possible, I wish we could avoid Sichuan.”
“Is it because of the Sichuan Sword Clan?”
“To be precise, it is because of the Sichuan Sword Clan Leader.”
“Are you still afraid of that person?”
I asked just in case, and the Dang Clan guy shook his head.
“Wouldn’t there be something called minimum duty? No matter how much I dislike him, Jang Muryong was Mother’s husband anyway. I do not wish to kill him.”
It meant that while killing guys sent by the Sichuan Sword Clan occasionally was fine, he couldn’t bring himself to kill the Sichuan Sword Clan Leader.
In that sense, if we moved across Sichuan, the risk of encountering the Sichuan Sword Clan Leader was quite high.
There was also ill-fated relationship accumulated in the meantime.
“If we move avoiding Sichuan, there is only one path.”
We had to pass through the place called Dali Kingdom or Yunnan to enter Tibet.
I added towards the Dang Clan guy who seemed to be gauging my reaction slightly.
“Rather, it worked out well. I was thinking of stopping by Yunnan once anyway.”
There was one remaining in Yunnan too.
An ill-fated relationship of the past life.
Perhaps I should see it as a miraculous encounter rather than an ill-fated relationship.
Because thanks to almost dying to that guy, I obtained special eyes and returned to the past.