Chapter 245: Lord's Secret (3)
The fact that this gold-eyed man had been defeated by the descendant of the Sword Immortal was shocking.
Short Sword, not understanding, also asked a question.
-I thought you were the only one who succeeded in his skills?
As she said, I was directly taught his skills through the Big Dipper and his remaining Will. I had received both his treasure and vision.
Yet this woman was saying that the man I was looking for had been defeated by the Sword Immortal?
-Isn’t it just a lie?
Wait, even if we call it a lie…
Suddenly a thought ran through me.
The Sword Immortal’s Will, that had taught me his martial arts, said that he had left something behind. Three treasures.
-Three treasures?
If so, the descendant of the Sword Immortal, who Cheol Su-ryun was talking about right now, might have been someone who inherited his skills through another one of his treasures.
Perhaps it was more bizarre to assume that not one single person had found these treasures in the hundreds of years after the Sword Immortal’s death.
‘Hmm…’
-Why? Feeling bad?
It was Short Sword who pointed it out. Human greed was not something I could escape.
Perhaps it was because I had already gotten two of his treasures, but I also hoped that the remaining one would also come to my hands. The last one may not have anything to do with me.
-That’s not for sure yet.
Of course, it could be so, but I should throw away these useless lingering feelings. However, all of the treasures he left behind had a mysterious power. If the descendant of the Sword Immortal that Cheol Su-ryun spoke about was real and had learned it from the last treasures, how did they get it?
“A descendant? Did you mean that there was someone who inherited his vision?”
Sima Chak asked this. It seemed that he found it interesting that a descendant of the Sword Immortal, the person called the best swordsman, was mentioned here.
To this, she smiled and said,
“That is something we don’t know for sure.”
“What?”
“But at the very least, he isn’t one to lie about such things.”
“Who the hell is this so-called lord to have lived for so long and fought against the descendant of the Sword Immortal?”
In response to this question, Cheol Su-ryun sighed and said.
“I don’t know. Even if it was just a feeling of lust, he didn’t reveal everything, even to me, who gave birth to his child.”
‘…!!’
Now it was my turn to be shocked. She gave birth to his child?
I knew she had joined hands with him, but I didn’t expect their relationship to be like this. How could such an important memory not be in her Will?
She laughed in a horrid manner and said.
“Kukakakaka, do not end up with unneeded misunderstandings. Neither he nor I had any attachment to each other. It was just a fleeting entertainment.”
“You said you gave birth to a child for the sake of entertainment?”
That question wiped the smile off her face, and she wrapped her arms around her body as if she was hugging it.
“This is the child I gave birth to from my stomach. It isn’t for you people to cut down.”
There was a coldness in her voice. She was so eccentric and evil that any of her real intentions were hard to understand.
What was certain was that judging from the fact that she had a strong obsession with the child in her memory, it seemed that she regarded it as her own alter ego and cherished it.
So, after that child died, she might have tried to continue having children even by using the body of other women.
At that moment, I heard a voice.
[Who is this lord person, and why are you going so far to know this?]
My father-in-law asked this, and Cheol Su-ryun simply chuckled.
“Even from your father-in-law, you are keeping a lot of secrets. Blood Demon.”
Damn it.
Was she able to even eavesdrop on this?
It seemed that this wasn’t some sorcery but an ability to understand through qi and sounds. My father-in-law was surprised and then looked at me as he asked again.
“Secret?”
She was making things unnecessarily messy.
It might be better to tell him the truth. Perhaps he knows of someone with a golden eye.
“Father-in-law, the one I am looking for, the Lord…”
Shhh!
Before I could speak, he held his hand out, asking me to be silent, and his eyes moved up. I was about to do the same when Cheol Su-ryun said.
“Seems like a hawk.”
‘Hawk?’
Surprisingly, the shadow was a hawk that was spinning around in the night sky. My father-in-law had a bright smile as he said,
“Du Gong.”
Did he just call that hawk Du Gong?
What did this mean? But then he climbed up a tree.
As he climbed up, the hawk that was circling above us came down and landed on his arm. I couldn’t understand what they were doing.
My father-in-law then sent the hawk back into the sky and jumped down.
I wanted to ask what was happening, but he spoke first before I had the chance to ask.
“I was going to ask more, but it doesn’t seem like I would have to. It looks like you can solve it without me, so I will head off first.”
“Uh?”
What was this now?
Didn’t Sima Young ask him to help me? Was the situation now resolved because a hawk appeared?
Judging from the fact that his eyes didn’t move from the sky as he spoke to me, he was clearly being conscious of where the hawk was flying. I then bowed to him and said,
“I understand. Is there anything I can help with?”
I asked him politely.
“None. I will come and see you when I am done with my errands.”
Along with that, he left me another word of advice as if to warn me from acting too much.
“Be constantly on the lookout.”
…Ah
Everything was contained in that short sentence. Revolting Mother was listening to this, so he was conveying things implicitly.
It was quite polite.
Why did he suddenly appear like this on the day when my life could have ended?
-But thanks to him, your life was saved.
Right.
But I still didn’t know why he was in such a hurry.
He looked at that hawk and called it Du Gong. Was there something else happening?
I had doubts, but it was more important to hear more about the lord right now.
Cheol Su-ryun then said to me.
“Judging from the speed of his heart, it must be an urgent business.”
Really, this person’s hearing was so monstrous. Even if her other senses were developed due to her blindness, hearing the sound of the heart and conversation made using qi should be impossible. Just how much were her senses heightened?
Well, that wasn’t important.
“It isn’t our business. Keep talking.”
To which she snorted and continued to talk.
“Didn’t you say you were curious about why the lord was looking for the five swords?”
“That’s right.”
“That man told me that he could not do anything without dealing with the descendants of the Sword Immortal.”
Was the person the lord afraid of the descendant?
Then it might be because he was worried about running into the descendant again. How strong was he that even warriors who have crossed the wall could not find his trace?
“So?”
“Isn’t it simple? He was defeated by that man’s descendant, and he still fears him. What would you do, Blood Demon?”
“… find a way to defeat the descendant.”
“That’s right. That’s what I guessed. If you collect the 5 swords, then there should be a secret that might allow him to defeat that man. Otherwise, it might lead to something like a treasure or martial arts book.”
Those expectations weren’t wrong.
I thought he was searching for a way to prevent the recovery ability from being disrupted by water, but I unexpectedly learned more about his nemesis.
He also said that his enemy was the descendant of the Sword Immortal.
‘Hmm.’
-Why? Not happy with the answer?
To be honest, I was not sure if that statement was true.
I had my doubts.
She said that the person called lord had lived long enough that even imperial dynasties had changed. With his excellent recovery ability that, Cheol Su-ryun called immortality, he should easily be the best martial artist.
But then a descendant of the Sword Immortal appeared?
-Uh… is this right?
No matter how strong the descendant was, he was just a normal human. Even if his internal qi was at the level of a god, there was a limit to human life.
Then, couldn’t the lord just wait for him to die?
-It could also be that once the enemy died of old age, there would be no more worthy opponent.
-That is something we don’t know.
The Blood Demon Sword, who was listening silently, suddenly spoke up.
-What do you mean by we don’t know?
-What is more humiliating than hiding and waiting for an opponent who defeated you to die? If you are a warrior, you should bite your tongue and die for even wishing for it.
-… is that something to commit suicide for?
The Blood Demon Sword’s words held some truth. Any kind of relationship could not be judged simply through objective facts.
This was because humans formed causal relationships with not only reason, but also emotions. It might really all just be for seeking revenge for a humiliating defeat.
-Human. If we get one piece of information, won’t all the questions be solved?
‘Uh?’
-I don’t know if that descendant has the ability to recover, but wouldn’t it make sense if he was someone who could live for a long time or someone who passed on his martial arts to the next generation?
‘…!!’
This guy.
He had made a sharp observation.
Certainly, as Blood Demon Sword said, it fitted well.
This solved the reason why the lord was hiding himself despite having so much power. If he thought that the Sword Immortal’s descendant could appear and interfere with him at any time, he would have no choice but to be cautious in everything.
I asked her.
“… do you know who the descendant is?”
“How can I know what that man doesn’t know? However, if that man shows up, the descendant of Sword Immortal will appear too.”
“How can you be this sure?”
“Can you not tell by looking at his hidden movements?”
A person of that level of martial arts who had no goal but to stop the lord. Was he someone who sacrificed himself for the sake of Mruim?
Or was he hiding his identity for his own sake?
No matter how much I thought about it, I couldn’t understand.
Still, that decided what I needed to do.
-Are we done?
That’s right.
We would know more for sure when we stepped into that tomb.
If we beat the lord to whatever he wanted to get, the secret would surely be revealed.
Cheol Su-ryun said to me
“Now that I have told you everything I know, keep your promise.”
“I have one more thing to ask.”
“What do you want?”
“Did the man have no affection for you and the dead child?”
This made her laugh.
“Do you think that man has things like affection? To that man, the child was just flesh. The one who didn’t grieve at all after the child died…”
“Well, I don’t think it was quite to that extent.”
“What?”
“I heard the lord had told his subordinates not to touch you.”
My words made her frown.
At first, I thought it might be because of this woman’s strength, but that clearly wasn’t the case.
No matter her strength, the lord could have stopped her at any time.
“… what do you mean?”
“From what I can understand, it seems like the lord still had some feelings for you after that one moment of entertainment.”
Otherwise, there was no reason why he would warn his people not to touch her.
She frowned as she said.
“Does that mean you think he has affection for me?”
“Right, I think so.”
“Ha!”
She looked stunned. I guessed that she didn’t want to acknowledge it.
“So what do you mean? You want to break the promise you made to me?”
“No, why would I? I need to keep the promise. As a Blood Demon, I have to.”
“What?”
Puak!
I stabbed her through the stomach, and she screamed as I pierced her dantian.
“KUUUUUUU!”
I held her head as she groaned and said.
[Yet can I send you away as the Little Immortal Swordsman?]
‘…!?’
Her white eyes opened in shock as they shook.
I wanted to release her and kill her later as the Little Immortal Swordsman. Yet, her bizarre hearing would just bring me trouble as she could recognize that it was me. I wouldn’t bother leaving her alive.
“Y-You…”
[I need you to stay still for a while.]
As soon as I said this, I pushed my qi into her head, and she trembled as she passed out.
-What did you do?
I had put a seal on her.
I made it the same as the one she had put on her people.
She will be stuck in a dream for a while, remembering things that have happened.
-I don’t understand who is the bad person here.
-Hehe, I like this. Getting more and more bloody.
Don’t talk nonsense.
The enemy doesn’t discriminate between their means and methods, so why should I be the only one who sticks to a righteous method?
We should ensure safety for our side.
It wasn’t my way to wait until someone came for me.
Inside a fog-filled, dense forest.
In the center of it was a gray-haired, middle-aged man who looked like a sect elder. They were walking down a path without stopping.
The direction he headed toward was divided into eight parts, with stone towers piled up on each of them. The man continued to pick up the stones that fell from the tower as he moved and piled them back up again.
The stone towers made up a formation called the Stone Eight Way Circle.
Drrr!
The towers would sway each time the man piled the stones up. It was as if he had received a shock from them.
Oddly enough, the thick fog gradually became thicker as the middle-aged man moved to another path where the stones were falling. A voice then came from somewhere.
“How long will you continue keeping me locked in?”
Those words made the middle-aged man sigh and smile.
“I need to tie you down as long as I can.”
“2 days? 3? Maybe a month? Will you be able to overcome hunger and sleep?”
To that, the middle-aged man looked inside the circle where the voice had originated from. Inside, two golden eyes were clearly visible.
“It has already been four days, and I can live without food, but will that be true for you?”
The middle-aged man sighed at those words as he continued to pile the stones.
“The friend you are afraid of will soon come, so I want you to stop and just stay still within it.”
At those words, the golden-eyed man said,
“Are you speaking of the one who threw the iron ball?”
“You seem to know it well.”
“Well, that is a scary friend, but I would have said that we need someone scarier than that to catch me.”
The middle-aged man raised his eyes and said,
“That is also what I wish for.”
“… no fear. You will regret holding me here.”
“Then tell me the secret of that person, Gun Bang. Or shall I call you Seo Bok?”
At that last name, the man’s golden eyes shone brightly.