Chapter 39: Way Back (2)
WHOOSH—
It’s raining.
The downpour breaking through the sky is fierce and ferocious.
The moon had long been shrouded by dark clouds, and the rain felt heavier than ever.
I ran madly down the dark forest path.
Even though I was using my Qi, my feet still felt unbearably heavy.
As I kept running for quite some time, I couldn’t help but think.
How long have I been running?
How much time has passed?
How long… how long…
How long could I endure…?
My legs, sliced and torn, screamed in agony.
They urged me to stop and rest, but I didn’t listen.
I couldn’t stop.
Something dripped from my hands.
Was it the rain?
Trying to convince myself with such a silly hope, I turned out to be wrong.
The liquid trickling down my hands was too warm to be rain.
I gritted my teeth. I absolutely couldn’t stop.
Wake up!
I shouted, but there was no reaction from behind me.
Because of that, I poured even more Qi into my legs.
Time was running out. I felt more and more blood pouring down my hands.
Damn it… wake up!
I yelled again, but the response remained the same.
So, I gripped her tighter.
As if determined not to let go.
What the hell am I even putting myself through? That question kept circling in my mind.
Why didn’t I just leave this useless girl behind?
I knew she’d just be a burden, so why did I carry her all this way?
And why was I still running like my life depended on it?
I had no idea.
I just kept running.
Blood vessels burst in my eyes.
The pain beneath my navel signaled that I’d drained everything from my dantian.
My heart pounded like crazy.
Then, I felt something else leaving my body.
With my Qi depleted, I was burning my life energy. The sensation of it escaping made my lips quiver.
This is just ridiculous…
Breathing behind me faded as the seconds passed.
While my heart raced, the heartbeat I sensed from her back grew fainter.
The presence that had been chasing me vanished, yet I couldn’t halt my legs.
I still had no certainty that I had escaped that monster.
Where am I? How far have I run?
My wobbling legs had long lost their sensation.
In the distance, I spotted a cave nestled between trees.
There wasn’t time to hesitate, so I dashed into the cave, cutting through the rain.
This place was so dark I couldn’t even tell where I was.
But there was no choice but to go deeper.
As I ventured further inside, the noise of the rain faded, leaving only the quiet stillness of the cave behind.
Dragging my weary body, I finally reached a relatively spacious area within the cave.
As soon as I released my Qi, I nearly collapsed on the ground.
Every joint in my body screamed, but I first laid the person I was carrying down flat.
A straight gash across her chest oozed blood.
She was still breathing, albeit faintly.
I placed my trembling hand on her injury and channeled my Qi into it.
Though I was reduced to using my life force due to being nearly out of Qi, I didn’t hesitate.
Seriously… why won’t the bleeding stop…?
Despite my best efforts, blood kept gushing from her wound.
Suddenly, my body swayed.
I had consumed too much Qi too quickly.
Why, why, why…?
A weak hand grasped mine, trying to stop me.
P… please…
Her voice was barely above a whisper.
I shouted in frustration.
What do you mean stop!? Just keep quiet!
…At this rate… you’ll die… I… will be fine…
Shut up! Who told you to do something I never asked for!? This is all on you, so I’ll do whatever the hell I want!
So just shut up and think about living, okay?
I couldn’t voice that last thought because by then, she had fainted again.
She had to live.
She couldn’t die here.
I had to save her.
I couldn’t let her die in a place like this.
But what am I supposed to do…? Damn it…
If I channeled more energy, I’d lose consciousness too.
Then she would really die.
Biting down hard, I gritted my teeth and continued pushing, yet my heart didn’t cooperate.
Please… Please…!
I was desperate.
This damn world had never given me a single good hand.
And it was the same even now; we were being pushed to the edge of a cliff.
Just once… just once, can you help me out?
You’ve been so cruel until now, so surely you can lend a hand just this once.
I might be unlucky, but can’t you at least help me once?
Complaining to the heavens was a lost cause—there were no answers.
After all, they’d never been on my side in the first place.
How long has it been? How much life do I have left?
As I felt my life force flickering out…
Pathetic.
My Qi froze, not by my own will—but by another’s.
The voice behind me rendered my body rigid.
Wait, when did this happen…?
There was only one entrance to the cave.
How could I not have noticed someone approaching, even in my frantic state?
…It wasn’t particularly entertaining. I’m not a fan of hide-and-seek, after all.
My breath hitched.
Just being near this presence made every muscle scream, as if all the air had been sucked out of the world.
Shuddering, I turned my head and looked at it.
Despair.
Despair stood where my gaze fell.
Nothing is more pathetic than a human chasing a meaningless hope.
You, what are you…?
You have a sharper tongue than I anticipated…
It was a monster. There was no other way to describe it.
It smiled at us.
No, more specifically, it smiled at me.
I couldn’t tell what it looked like or discern the sound of its voice, but strangely, I definitely recognized that it was smiling.
How amusing that you can still bare your fangs in your current predicament.
Suddenly, the cave that had been engulfed in darkness brightened.
No… it wasn’t brightening at all.
The surrounding darkness was swallowed by an even denser void, erasing all traces of light.
…Shit.
Without realizing it, I cursed.
I tried to shake off the fear creeping over me, but it was unmistakably fear that was invading my body.
This was beyond human capability.
The figure before me spoke while observing the tremors wracking my body.
Did you ever ask who I am?
Within a cave where the very space twisted and turned, a chaotic black wind swirled.
It swallowed the few little hopes I had left.
And it utterly crushed the fragile courage I had managed to muster.
One step.
With just one step, I understood.
This being could take everything from me with just a flick of its finger, should it choose to.
And still, it was merely toying with me for its own amusement.
I am…
I thought my heart had stopped at the slow tone.
My frail spirit, barely holding on, began to slip away.
It was likely around this time…
The Heavenly Demon.
When my world came to a standstill.
It felt like I had run for about half an hour with Wi Seol-Ah on my back.
Thanks to the increased amount of Qi, I could run significantly faster, even while carrying someone.
“Are you okay? I think it’s a bit fast.”
I asked Wi Seol-Ah, who had her face buried in my back.
There was no reply.
“…Did you not hear me?”
I thought she hadn’t heard me at first, so I asked again, but still, there was nothing.
Something felt off, so I decided to stop running for a moment.
What if she couldn’t hear me through all the wind?
“How do you find the speed—”
snore.
“…Hm?”
When I paused, a strange sound came from behind.
Turning my head slightly, I realized with astonishment that Wi Seol-Ah was peacefully snoring.
So it wasn’t that she couldn’t hear me; she just fell asleep.
“You seem awfully comfortable, huh?”
I teased lightly, but Wi Seol-Ah was too wrapped up in her snores to respond.
I briefly considered waking her up due to a slight irritation but decided to just smile and keep running.
After all that running, my energy was still brimming.
In fact, my Qi was regenerating at an alarming rate, faster than I could drain it, which was impressive.
I had heard that the Dao sects based on clean and dense Qi possessed such vitality.
And this kind of Qi felt oddly mismatched for someone like me.
Not that I’m complaining, though.
Honestly, as long as it wasn’t demonic Qi, I didn’t mind at all.
As long as I steered clear of those energies that could turn a person into a lunatic, I was fine with anything.
I picked up speed.
I had already left the Tang clan behind.
Having taken care of my business here, getting to my destination was my priority.
Ah… I should’ve at least shown my face to the Tang Clan’s head during the day of the military exhibition.
Now that I remembered only after putting a good distance between us…
I could practically hear the general scolding me for it.
But hey, at least I accomplished what I set out to do.
I successfully thwarted the Gaecheon clan from acquiring the secret vault.
Looking back on it now, the item that Lord Gaecheon got must have been the marble the snake expelled.
I wasn’t entirely sure if the Qi within that marble could elevate the lord of Gaecheon to fusion rank.
But it seemed probable.
If I were to theorize, that marble was probably the key to achieving something great.
When you looked at it like that, even if I could only absorb half a marbles worth of that energy, it really was quite something.
Though, it would still have been a blessing amongst curse.
Just don’t even think about the moonlight marbles…
As soon as the thought crossed my mind, my Qi faltered. I felt rage bubbling up at the mere mention of them.
Before long, I spotted a village off in the distance.
At this point, tiring myself out further was not an option, so I stopped and set Wi Seol-Ah down on the ground.
“Wake up, we’re here.”
“Hmm…?”
Wi Seol-Ah rubbed her eyes, trying to adjust.
Hoping to rouse her a bit faster, I playfully tapped her head.
“Ow!”
The surprise attack had her eyes snapping wide open.
“A servant sleeping on her master’s back, and even worse; snoring!? What kind of nonsense is this!”
“I-I snored!?”
Wi Seol-Ah stared at me, shocked by what I had just said.
I chuckled at her startled expression.
“Yeah, you were pretty good at it! If someone didn’t know better, they would’ve thought there was a tiger in the woods.”
“N-N-No way!”
“I swear on the heavens that I’m serious.”
Of course, I didn’t mean she sounded like a tiger, but with the way I swore, Wi Seol-Ah looked like she was about to wilt.
I could hear her muttering behind me, “No… that’s not possible… no way…”
Well, who else would have the gall to take a nap while being carried, hmm?
We trudged into the village, needing to locate the members of the Gu clan.
It wasn’t exactly a difficult task.
With my enhanced Qi level, my range for sensing presence expanded.
I only needed to locate Muyeon’s Qi.
And what do you know? It was closer than I thought—getting closer by the second.
“Young Master!”
From a distance, someone in the Gu clan’s attire was rushing towards us.
I didn’t know how he knew, but it was Muyeon.
When Muyeon arrived, his expression was a mix of relief and reproach.
“Where… where have you been for the past few days—”
He suddenly fell silent, instantly noticing the changes in me.
He blinked, confused as he asked,
“…Did something happen?”
I scratched my cheek sheepishly at Muyeon’s question.
“I guess I should say there was a bit of chaos… um, how should I put it…”
His surprise mirrored mine.
I realized just how skilled of a martial artist Muyeon had become.
Holy crap, he’s hit the peak of the first-rate level at such a young age?
I had heard that Muyeon had just crossed the age of twenty, which was quite wild.
It was bizarre to think that such a talented martial artist had never made a name for himself before I died.
And it was even stranger that with him being part of the Gu clan, I had never known about him.
What on earth had happened?
“I’m sorry. I had my reasons for being away.”
“But still! You should have taken me with you. What if something had happened to the Young Master? Do you even know how worried I was!?”
“I’m sorry. But look, nothing went wrong, right?”
That much was true; nothing at all had occurred on our way to or from the vault.
The fact that I ignored him for three whole days was solely on me.
Putting that aside, one lingering question remained.
“Say…”
“Yes…?”
“Can I ask why there are two unnecessary presences here?”
Within the area I chose for our reunion, I could sense two presences that were decidedly unwelcome.
Muyeon stood silently for a second, seemingly puzzled by what I had just said.
“Weren’t you the one who called for them…?”
You mean I summoned those—guests?
“That’s what they told me…”
I massaged my forehead, exasperated.
From a distance, I could feel the familiar presences from the inn.
Namgung Bi-ah and Tang Soyeol were feeling rather familiar.
The presence of those two was unmistakably felt at that location.
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