novelraw Chapter 14 : Chapter 14
Chapter 14 : Chapter 14
Chapter 14 - That’s the Diancang Sect's Way
‘Flowers bloom on Jade Dragon Snow Mountain.’
"If someone were to say such a thing, they might be dismissed as a terminal pathological liar."
On a snowy mountain covered in snow all year round, what talk is there of flowers?
But it was true.
In the depths of Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, in a hidden inner area, there was a small patch of land where grass and flowers bloomed.
And this was the hermitage that Hyeokri Chong had used for a long time.
The space where green leaves bloomed beneath the snow-covered peaks was in itself mysterious and fantastical.
A place where the sweet scent of flowers wafted through the chilly atmosphere of the snowy mountain.
Anyone visiting this place for the first time would have been captivated by the ecstasy.
But unfortunately, this was not Biyoung’s first time here, and he had no energy to appreciate his surroundings.
“Old man. You left so soon.”
Perhaps it was more strange that he had been alive.
Considering Hyeokri Chong’s age at the time.
But even so, Biyoung could not soothe his sorrow.
“The one I could meet…”
Biyoung bent down and swept the grass on the burial mound.
“The closest person.”
Biyoung’s grandfather was also related to the Diancang Sect.
But Hyeokri Chong could be said to be the only person who had spoken with the Biyoung of his past life and could remember him.
The elite masters of the Diancang Sect had all died in the battle against the Heavenly Demon, and it was difficult to meet people from a destroyed sect.
The one who shared memories with ‘World's Fastest Sword, Yeongbi’.
In a way, he had lost what might have been his only remaining hope.
“………….”
Biyoung stroked and stroked Hyeokri Chong’s grave.
On his face, a sense of loss and sorrow that could not be seen on a fifteen-year-old’s face appeared.
After a long time had passed.
Biyoung stood up from his spot and scratched his head.
“Anyway… what am I going to do now?”
Hyeokri Chong’s death was a most regrettable thing.
But there was another fact that put Biyoung in a difficult position.
The Earth-Drawing Spirit Pill.
That spirit pill, which could be called the partner of the Heaven-Shaking Divine Pill, could only be made by Hyeokri Chong.
If Hyeokri Chong was not in this world, then naturally, the Earth-Drawing Spirit Pill would not exist in the world either.
Around Biyoung’s pure and noble Dantian, the energy of the Heaven-Shaking Divine Pill was still clamoring.
-Hey!
-I told you to make me perfect already, didn’t I?
Since the internal energy of the Heaven-Shaking Divine Pill was so strong, it was fine for now, but if he continued to operate the Profound Heaven's True Energy Unification Art, the half-formed energy would eventually disappear.
“Hmm.”
Biyoung turned his head and looked at the earthen hut some distance away.
It was the house where Hyeokri Chong had lived in the past.
As he got closer, he saw that the wooden veranda was covered in a thick layer of dust, and the papered windows were riddled with holes, making it look desolate.
Well, since Hyeokri Chong had died, it was unlikely that a human touch would remain.
Biyoung slowly looked around the house, lost in thought.
If someone were to see him, they might think he was searching for a spirit pill that Hyeokri Chong might have hidden.
‘Old man…’
However, Biyoung was simply reminiscing about his memories with Hyeokri Chong in that way.
Though the memories were mostly of them bickering, even such a connection was rare and precious to Biyoung.
The problem was.
To the person secretly watching Biyoung, it was an act that could be easily misunderstood (?).
Pababat!
“?”
The sound of light footwork stepping briskly came from behind Biyoung.
By the time Biyoung turned his head in surprise, a shadow had already closed in right before his nose.
“Hup!”
Biyoung let out a gasp and rotated his body half a turn.
At the same time, a sharp fist pierced through the spot where he had been standing.
Pasat!
Biyoung looked at his shoulder with wide eyes.
It was a close call, but the opponent’s fist had definitely not touched him.
But his shoulder area was sharply cut, as if by a knife.
What was more surprising was the appearance of the opponent who had rushed him.
‘A little kid?’
Was she even ten years old?
A cute little girl with her hair in two pigtails was looking this way with rabbit-like eyes.
The girl, for her part, seemed not to understand the current situation.
“You dodged this?”
A young and clear voice flowed into Biyoung’s ear.
But soon, her not-yet-fully-grown brows furrowed.
“Let’s see if you can dodge this too!”
The girl stamped her foot again and flew at Biyoung.
“!”
Biyoung’s eyes flashed for an instant.
He didn’t know when she launched a surprise attack, but now, the girl’s martial arts (?) were clearly visible to him.
The footwork flying towards him was none other than the Flying Eagle Steps?
“Haap!”
That wasn’t all.
The way she flew up to his nose and moved her fists and feet was very similar to the Diancang Sect’s basic palm and fist art, the Beak Striking Palm Fist.
It wasn’t a perfect form, but it had a power that was unbelievable for a girl of about ten.
Woosh! Woosh!
‘Especially…’
The sound of tearing through the air.
What gave the crude forms their destructive power was this immense internal energy.
If there was a world’s strongest man, no, a world’s strongest girl competition in the Murim, the victory would be as good as this girl’s.
If it were his body from his past life, he would have laughed it off and countered, but he guessed his current body would have a hard time handling that internal energy head-on.
Kwagang!
Even the palm force that could break down a wall.
Biyoung was so surprised he was almost dumbfounded.
“Wait! Why are you doing this?”
“Hmph!! Does a homeowner need any more reason to chase away a thief?”
“A thief?”
A thief, she said.
Then does this house belong to the girl?
“Sometimes, a conversation of fists is more certain than words!”
The girl said so and continuously threw threatening punches.
Biyoung dodged the girl’s punches here and there and, without realizing it, let out a smirk.
Well.
That’s the Diancang Sect's way.
“Is this bastard laughing?”
Spitting out a curse unfitting for a girl, as much as her internal energy, the homeowner (?) flew at Biyoung once again.
She was already worked up because he had dodged all her attacks, but seeing Biyoung’s smile made her see red.
“Die!”
This time, Biyoung didn’t dodge either.
After deflecting the cute, determinedly flying fist with the back of his hand, he hooked one of his legs around the girl’s pivot foot.
Twirl!
The girl’s body spun quickly like a top.
“Huh?”
By the time the girl let out a flustered voice, she had already lost her balance.
Thump!
“Ugh…!”
The girl squeezed her eyes shut and let out a groan.
Since she fell on her bottom, it wouldn’t be a major injury, but since she took the brunt of her own heavily loaded internal energy, the shock must have been quite great.
“You bastard who deserves to be fried in shit water!”
At the familiar curse, Biyoung smiled again.
……Wait.
Her foul mouth.
And seeing those sharp eyes and buck teeth…….
It naturally reminded him of someone.
Just in case, Biyoung asked the girl.
“Is your surname by any chance Hyeokri?”
“What’s it to a guy who’s about to die?”
With a sharper momentum than before, the girl rushed at Biyoung.
But in the first place, the Flying Eagle Steps and the Beak Striking Palm Fist were the basic martial arts of the Diancang Sect.
For Biyoung, dealing with them was as easy as grabbing a child’s wrist.
Thump!!
This time, the girl, who had spun in the opposite direction, landed on her bottom in an unsightly manner once again.
“You…!!”
“If you swear or attack one more time, you’ll really be in trouble.”
Was it because she realized the difference in skill?
Or was it because she saw Biyoung’s face, which had turned as cold as thin ice?
The girl could no longer attack and only clenched her fists tightly.
‘Her actions are just like a boy’s… what an inscrutable child.’
Forgetting that the age difference between them was only five years, Biyoung gently asked the girl.
“I am Biyoung from Yiliang County. What is your name?”
“……My name is Hyeokri Hong.”
Although she bit her lip once, perhaps because her spirit had been broken, her answer was submissive, unlike before.
‘As I thought…!’
The owner of this house with the surname Hyeokri.
As Biyoung had guessed, the girl before him seemed to be a blood relative of Hyeokri Chong.
“I wasn’t exactly invited, but is it okay to just swing your fists at me like this so suddenly?”
“That’s…”
As if she also thought she had been a bit reckless, Hyeokri Hong hesitated and answered.
“I thought you were an intruder since you broke the formation. No one has ever entered this place without permission until now….”
Then, as if suddenly getting angry, she pointed her finger at Biyoung.
“What do you think you’re going to scavenge for, loitering around an abandoned house? If you saw the grave and the abandoned house, you should have just quietly turned back! So how could this young lady just watch quietly?”
She seemed a bit too young to be calling herself a young lady.
Biyoung smiled bitterly to himself and asked.
“So. You thought I would leave right away, but since I kept snooping around, you couldn’t stand it and threw a punch?”
“Well… something like that!”
Although she felt guilty about throwing a punch, she couldn't take back what had already happened, so Hyeokri Hong instead puffed out her chest and answered confidently.
Actually, since he had also broken the formation to enter, he wasn’t in a position to keep scolding her.
It wasn't his intention, but his lingering around Hyeokri Chong’s house seemed to have been what made Hyeokri Hong lose her patience.
Biyoung, who understood the situation, smiled brightly and approached the girl.
Hyeokri Hong flinched for a moment but did not clench her fists again.
“I visited this place a very long time ago. I wanted to meet Lord Hyeokri, but unfortunately, it seems I was too late.”
Within his exceptionally gallant appearance, an indescribable sense of loss was cast.
It was the first time Hyeokri Hong had seen such a handsome person, and the first time she had seen a smile that made her heart ache just by looking at it.
‘What am I thinking right now?’
Hyeokri Hong, who had been staring blankly at Biyoung’s face, snapped her eyelids shut with force.
“You look like you’re still a long way from coming of age, so what do you mean a long time ago? You should at least lie moderately!”
“Uh… um. Is that so?”
Biyoung scratched his head as if embarrassed.
It was true that it had been a long time, but it wasn't his current body that had come, so Hyeokri Hong’s words had a point.
He just felt a little frustrated that he couldn’t tell the truth.
“It seems the person you came to see is my grandfather, Hyeokri Chong. Am I right?”
“Yes. I came to meet him.”
“What were you going to do when you met him?”
She would be suspicious one moment, then her eyes would widen with curiosity the next.
Her internal energy was ruthless, but perhaps because she was a child, her actions had an innocent side.
Biyoung straightforwardly revealed his purpose.
“I was planning to ask Lord Hyeokri for a spirit pill.”
“A spirit pill?”
A look of suspicion rose on Hyeokri Hong’s face again.
“My grandfather is not someone who would give away a spirit pill so easily.”
“That’s right. That’s why a qualified person had to come.”
“Qualified?”
What meaning could it have now that he was already deceased, but Biyoung told her the truth.
“I am a person who has absorbed the Heaven-Shaking Divine Pill.”
“Lies!”
Hyeokri Hong shouted reflexively.
“So you were a fraud after all! The Heaven-Shaking Divine Pill could only be obtained by someone from a sect that is now defunct… no, a sect that has been annihilated. I heard my grandfather say so clearly just a few days ago, do you think I would fall for such an obvious lie?”
“!!!”
At that moment.
Biyoung’s body stiffened as if struck by lightning.
A few days ago, she said.
The grave of Hyeokri Chong he had seen here looked like it had been made at least a few years ago.
If Hyeokri Hong’s words were true, it didn’t add up.
A grave made a long time ago.
And a conversation held a few days ago.
Which one was the truth?
It didn’t take long for Biyoung to find that answer.
“That is enough.”
A weary voice came from behind him.
Biyoung instinctively realized that it was not much different from what he had heard in the past.
Biyoung, who turned around like a lightning bolt, soon called his name with a trembling voice.
“Old man!!”