Chapter: 652
Ugh…
A groaning sound is heard.
It was Woohyuk’s voice echoing in a prison cell where not even a single torch was held.
It hadn’t even been half an hour since Gu Yangcheon started ‘talking’ with Woohyuk.
During that time, what transpired was a succession of events hard to put into words.
Huff… huff…
The sentry guarding the prison sat down in shock from the brutal violence that had unfolded.
It couldn’t possibly be that violent for a tussle between acquaintances.
The space was filled with the sound of bones crunching and the metallic scent of fresh blood.
The lamp that barely illuminated the room had extinguished, at some point unnoticed.
Because of that, all that was visible was darkness, yet even the faint shapes could scare the sentry half to death.
Crack.
A rough sound broke through the silence.
It was the sound of shattered bones being forcibly set back into place.
When Gu Yangcheon saw that, an intrigued spark appeared in his eyes.
What an astonishing sight!
Bones realigning even without any assistance.
“I intentionally broke them so they could be fixed easily, but the performance is surprisingly good.”
Not only do external injuries heal, but internal injuries seem to mend swiftly as well.
Regeneration. It was truly a power that lived up to its name.
“If I pulled out my arm, would it regenerate, too?”
I feel like connections might be possible, but I wonder if Woohyuk could do that.
“I’m curious?”
Gulp!
As I gazed at him with interest, Woohyuk seemed to sense something and trembled.
Ugh… cough.
Woohyuk spat out blood violently.
It wasn’t due to a new injury; it was just part of the healing process for his internal wounds.
“But if it doesn’t heal, that would be a problem. Let’s leave that out.”
I was curious, but it wasn’t something I desperately needed to try.
“If it were my body, I might have tried it.”
Since Woohyuk is the owner of this body, I decided to let it slide. Gu Yangcheon nodded, coming to this conclusion.
“… Phew… phew…”
After shaking for a while, Woohyuk finally straightened himself up and looked at Gu Yangcheon with a tired expression.
“…I’m sorry.”
The first words Woohyuk uttered were an apology.
This wasn’t the kind of thing you’d expect from a guy who had been getting his butt kicked till now.
Seeing this, I let out a deep sigh.
“I thought I’d feel a bit better after venting.”
Instead, I just felt more suffocated and irritated.
Still, I could feel my emotions calming down slightly.
It was likely because he realized that this behavior was ultimately pointless.
I looked at Woohyuk and asked.
“Why did you do that?”
“…”
“Look, no matter how crazy you are, I don’t think you’d do something like that for no reason. So, explain it to me—I want to understand.”
It felt more like a wish rather than certainty. Woohyuk needed to convince himself here.
“A reason…?”
Woohyuk closed his eyes tightly at the question. To recall the reason, he was bound to delve into his past.
“Oh, no reminiscing.”
However, at Gu Yangcheon’s words, Woohyuk carefully opened his eyes.
“Please summarize in three lines, since time is precious. I’m busy.”
“…”
When he spoke as if annoyed, Woohyuk looked at Gu Yangcheon with a dumbfounded expression.
Gu Yangcheon frowned at that gaze.
“What’s up with you?”
“Usually, wouldn’t you wait in times like this?”
“Why should I care about your life story? Just tell me why you did it and keep it short.”
“…”
It did sound right, but it felt oddly scratching.
Even while thinking that, Woohyuk had already come to terms with it.
He’d known from the start that trying to understand this guy was nonsense.
No, perhaps that’s why it felt more comfortable.
Woohyuk awkwardly smiled and said to Gu Yangcheon.
“Three lines might be a bit too much.”
“That’s what I’m saying. Just make it reasonably short…”
“When I was a kid, my father tried to kill me.”
“What a chaotic start. Okay, go on.”
He sighed in annoyance and readjusted his posture slightly.
He collapsed on the floor. The ground was drenched with the blood Woohyuk had shed, but he didn’t mind.
More than that…
“My mother was in secret communication with someone else, avoiding my father’s gaze. My older brother was a homosexual.”
“…”
Gu Yangcheon found the words coming out now to be more discomforting.
He coughed quietly.
It was a harder conversation than expected.
Almost unbelievable.
“Moreover, my father dreamed of rebellion. I was aware of all these facts.”
“Sounds like you were perceptive.”
It wasn’t that he was perceptive; he just overheard things he shouldn’t have.
Woohyuk didn’t see the need to go into detail about it.
“As a child, I didn’t know what I should’ve stayed ignorant of. I carelessly talked about what I had uncovered, and that became my downfall.”
Both his mother’s infidelity and his brother’s secret.
Also about his father’s grand ambitions.
He resented his past self. For failing to endure when he should’ve known better about enduring the intolerable.
Woohyuk was still full of resentment.
“The one my mother had spoken to was killed by my father, and my brother was locked away where no one could see him.”
It was a prescribed ending.
Had it not been exposed, it might’ve been fine. But once it reached his father’s ears, that was it.
Hyung, who was taken away by the warriors, bore resentment towards Woohyuk.
Perhaps this was a secret he would carry forever.
Watching that, Woohyuk realized there were things he shouldn’t voice; however, it was far too late to retract his words.
“After spilling such secrets, I had to live imprisoned in a small place away from my family.”
Gu Yangcheon thought his father likely panicked.
What if he ever found out about his own secrets?
That must have been unsettling.
He’d realized that long ago but had decided to keep quiet.
“A lonely life began.”
These were days that were both quiet and noisy.
“Perhaps…”
[My name is Yuri.]
If there hadn’t been anything to cling to back then, Woohyuk’s life would’ve ended there.
Because he had something to hold on to, he could still strive.
He lived thinking he could somehow manage to breathe.
“There’s a problem.”
“What problem?”
“Yeah. The last wall that allowed me to barely hold on in isolation has fallen.”
“What kind of cryptic nonsense is that—”
“It means I’m not my father’s bloodline.”
“Damn.”
Gu Yangcheon cursed without meaning to.
They said the mother had another commitment, which led to this situation?
“My father, realizing that fact, immediately tried to kill me.”
The wall crumbled.
What he’d barely tolerated vanished, leaving the father wanting to dispose of him without hesitation.
It was an extraordinarily cold yet excessively noisy night.
Screams and horrifying sounds continuously tickled his ears, and Woohyuk had to flee from that noise.
However, how fast can a child run?
There was no way he could escape entirely from the skilled warriors.
Yes, had it not been for someone’s assistance, he definitely would have succumbed.
An arrow pierced his shoulder, blood streaming down.
Young Woohyuk struggled in pain before him.
[Excuse me, is this young master okay?]
A white-haired man stood there, having defeated all the warriors.
His hair, reflecting moonlight, was a bright blue.
And those blue eyes, too.
“Uh… that’s, maybe…”
“That’s right. It was my master.”
That was the moment when Woohyuk first encountered the shaman Namgung Hyung.
And next to Namgung Hyung stood…
[…That’s right. It’s me.]
A young girl with hair much whiter than Namgung Hyung’s.
“…”
Listening to this, Gu Yangcheon subtly nodded.
“Not only did someone from the North Sea come all the way to the Central Plains, but how did they even join the Wudang sect?”
Perhaps the ghost brought her over from the North Sea?
“What was that guy doing in the North Sea?”
Just then, a question floated in his mind. Yet the answer was already known.
“Ah. Was it because of the Thunder Fang?”
It was an easy connection to make when he thought back to what the ghost might have been holding at that time.
Back then, Gueseon possessed the Thunder Fang.
He was capable of hearing Namgung Myung’s voice contained within it.
“… Namgung Myung revealed that the true body still exists in the North Sea.”
If so, that was likely why he had gone there.
Perhaps it was this very thread that saved Woohyuk’s life.
“I roughly understand the circumstances.”
But the real question remained.
“So you escaped to the Central Plains and lived there… So why did you do this?”
He still hadn’t heard the important parts.
Hearing the question, Woohyuk smiled bitterly and replied:
“… It was for revenge…”
But before Woohyuk could finish, Gu Yangcheon hit him squarely on the head.
Bam!
“Ugh!”
“You were doing so well, and now this? Do you want to press your luck?”
I lost my patience with the nonsense that followed.
Revenge? That was laughable. Woohyuk wasn’t the type to obsess over such things…
“If it were me, maybe. But this guy doesn’t fit that mold.”
If someone else were lost in regrets, they might be different. But Woohyuk was not.
“You’re leaving out crucial details in what you say. Are you trying to provoke me?”
Crunch.
Gu Yangcheon ground his teeth and directed his fierce words at Woohyuk.
“Yu-ri.”
“…!”
“Why do you keep excluding her from the story?”
Mentioning the little princess made Woohyuk’s eyes widen.
Gu Yangcheon recognized that Woohyuk had intentionally avoided discussing her.
He understood all too well the desolate and eviscerating life that guy had lived.
While calmly explaining, Woohyuk concealed the essence of the matter.
Others might think he was hiding it well.
“But it won’t work with me.”
It was futile.
The reasoning was straightforward.
“I’ve done that the most.”
Since he had done it the most and was proficient in masking.
“Revenge? What a joke.”
Hiding genuine feelings behind convenient excuses and consistently belittling oneself had been Gu Yangcheon’s lifelong pursuit.
And.
Perhaps Gu Yangcheon would continue to live that way.
The fact that Woohyuk was engaging in such foolishness infuriated him.
This was something he should handle alone.
“You really can’t condense this into three lines? Don’t make me laugh. You don’t even need three lines, you fool.”
“What…?”
“Just get to the point: I messed up because of a woman. I’m sorry. There, just one line, easy.”
“…”
Woohyuk fell silent at the frank remark.
Because it encapsulated everything.
“How….”
“What are you confused about? Don’t play dumb, Woohyuk. Do you really want to take a hit?”
Should I give him one more slap? Earlier, I’d been merely uncomfortable.
It felt like it would feel immensely better to smack him now.
“How did you know?”
What kind of knowing was that?
“Because your actions resemble mine.”
To be precise, they bore a subtle resemblance to actions from my previous life.
“Didn’t you say you had a fiancée? That woman… is she the little princess, right?”
“…!!”
Woohyuk’s eyes bulged wide, resembling lanterns.
If you’re gonna react like that, what were you honestly trying to hide?
“But the little princess seemed to know nothing… Are you possibly in unrequited love?”
“…”
“Look at your expression—it’s obviously true!”
A friend’s secret crush? Just the thought sends shivers down the spine.
“It’s not that.”
“Not that, really? What crazy bastard would launch a war for someone he doesn’t even like?”
I hadn’t realized in my previous life, but upon reflection, it was so obvious.
Boys are, at their core, incredibly simple beings.
To put it plainly.
“That’s reason enough.”
It wasn’t about extraordinary justifications or grand narratives.
One simple, foolish reason sufficed.
“So, I’ll ask one more time, Woohyuk.”
Gu Yangcheon bent closer, meeting Woohyuk’s gaze.
As if there would be no second chances, Gu Yangcheon’s tone was sharp.
“Why did you do that?”
The same question but with an entirely different meaning.
He exuded a force that indicated lying would no longer be tolerated.
“Just be honest.”
There was a strong emotional weight attached to that sentiment, and after a short pause, Woohyuk finally replied,
“… The day the first princess started to go on a rampage, she told me that if I didn’t, she’d kill the second princess.”
There it was: the long-overdue sincerity.
“Kill her?”
“She claimed she could touch the illness afflicting the Ice Palace bloodline.”
Hearing that, I frowned deeply.
“That sounds like it hints at the curse of the Ice Palace.”
This was likely because her connection involved the net.
What did that mean exactly?
“Could the curse placed upon the princess suddenly have worsened?”
That was a valid suspicion.
The more pressing matter was, why had Yoo-seon decided to go and do something absurd about it?
“Really, why?”
Why him, of all people?
“Did you think that using my brother for leverage would actually work?”
The intention didn’t seem malicious, but there was no necessity for it to be Woohyuk.
If he needed a puppet to act as a distraction, someone else would have sufficed better than Woohyuk.
“And consider this.”
I was puzzled about their imprisonment, especially regarding the two princes.
The princess’s health appeared to decline.
Rebellion lurked; the whereabouts of the two sons became a mystery.
Among all these, the only one still around was Yuri—the princess herself.
So then…
“The only one suitable to send to the Central Plains is Yuri. Hence, sending her was a logical sequence.”
It unnervingly felt like he had engineered a way to send Yuri away.
Somehow, creating a rationale to get Yuri out of the North Sea.
It seemed as if it was meticulously plotted.
“But did Yoo-seon really have to do all that?”
After mulling over this further, Gu Yangcheon looked at Woohyuk and said:
“Hey.”
“Huh?”
“Do you know the first princess at all?”
While calling her the first princess felt a bit odd given her demise.
When asked about his relationship with Yoo-seon, Woohyuk tilted his head momentarily and then replied.
“We were a little bit acquainted as kids.”
“Let’s hear specifics.”
“There’s really nothing specific. I just happened to see her with the princess a few times.”
“Really? Wasn’t there anything significant?”
“… Well?”
Woohyuk’s expression seemed genuinely clueless. Seeing that, Gu Yangcheon couldn’t help but nod along.
What could he do with someone so unaware?
“So, that you buckled under pressure and initiated a rebellion, cutting off your teacher’s arm and stabbing your child?”
“…”
At Gu Yangcheon’s blunt criticism, Woohyuk’s eyes shook, revealing his disheveled state.
“Why act pitiful now? Get your head straight!”
An accident was an accident, and I wasn’t about to look at it through rose-colored glasses.
“…I’m sorry.”
“Forget your apologies and explain the reasoning.”
I was probing for a reason all along.
Rather than a futile apology, I found it more important to understand why he had to do that.
“Back then, I believed there was no alternative.”
“And the reason?”
“The master was attacked by the first princess while trying to stop her. The first princess threatened me by wagering my master’s life against the second princess.”
At least he hadn’t directly taken out the ghost himself—thank goodness for that.
“So, to save the master, you believed there was no other recourse?”
“…Just an excuse.”
“Exactly, an excuse.”
This applied just as much to Namgung Bi-ah.
While I was gaining insight into the situation, I already knew much of this without needing an explanation.
Woohyuk had twisted the escape route, making it easier for Namgung Bi-ah to escape.
In that process, it was clear Woohyuk had planned to step in when things faltered.
And then.
“You know that piling on a grand reason for justification won’t change a thing.”
“…”
“That’s why it pisses me off. What? Are you just going to sit there? You’re not planning to return to the Central Plains to pay your dues?”
Crash! Gu Yangcheon swung his hand and seized Woohyuk by the collar. Woohyuk was dragged forward with little strength.
“What dues? Do the souls of the dead in the North Sea even haunt me?”
“…Yangcheon.”
“You’re talking nonsense, Woohyuk. Rotting away in prison won’t redeem you. That’s just running away, you fool.”
Gu Yangcheon continued to glare at Woohyuk with fervent determination.
“If you’re looking for forgiveness, then you should take my head and die right now. Wouldn’t that be more appropriate?”
“…”
“Why? Do you still have attachments? What’s haunting you that you can’t die? Is it that little princess?”
When Yuri’s name was mentioned, Woohyuk’s eyes sharpened.
“So, if you were to kill her, would that resolve your attachments?”
“You—!”
Suddenly, Woohyuk’s aura intensified, and Gu Yangcheon threw a punch, aiming for his solar plexus.
Thud!
“Kugh!”
“So women are precious to you? Enough to forget their mistakes and lash out?”
Gu Yangcheon’s expression twisted in disgust, displeased with Woohyuk’s demeanor.
“I used to be like that, you damn bastard.”
Gu Yangcheon hurled Woohyuk against the wall.
Crash! Woohyuk’s back hit the wall, and he slid down.
“Do you even know who you’re messing with?”
Even though he tried to contain his emotions, they threatened to spill over.
“You don’t know. You’ll never know. There was a time when I was just like you. That’s why I want to reveal this to you. But I can’t, so I’m holding back.”
Heat began to fill the prison room.
Feeling it, Gu Yangcheon steeled himself.
He had to stop the energy from seeping away.
“I’m painstakingly holding back. The only reason I’m not killing you right now is that you’re my damn friend—not out of sympathy.”
He pressed that feeling down relentlessly.
“So if you are seeking repentance, it should be from me, not the nameless folks from the North Sea.”
“… ”
“Can’t you just listen for once? Of course, you won’t. You’re not as malevolent as I am.”
I know it well.
He was well aware that Woohyuk was not like that. Therefore, it needed clearer confirmation.
“So, just live with that. I’ll make it happen.”
“…What does that even mean?”
“From the very beginning. If I intended to abandon you because you didn’t want to get involved, I wouldn’t have wasted my time staging this little drama with the princess.”
Step by step.
Gu Yangcheon slowly approached Woohyuk.
“Woohyuk. Your opinions mean nothing to me. I’m not going to put in the effort to change you anymore. I’ll just keep everything simple.”
Having closed the distance, he bent down to meet Woohyuk’s gaze.
“You’re going to have to help me this time and survive. So just quietly follow along.”
“Yangcheon, let me say it again… I don’t want to stay here—”
“If you don’t follow me, I’ll kill Yuri.”
“What?”
At hearing that, Woohyuk’s voice turned cold.
Though his gaze sharpened, Gu Yangcheon paid it no mind.
“When I took you out of the princess’s hands, there was a condition. Do you know what it is?”
It’d be a lie to say he planned it this way; it was simply how circumstances played out.
“The little princess would be coming to the Central Plains.”
“…!”
“And since I was asked, I genuinely intend to take her.”
No way in hell would he condescendingly play games of friendship or share Woohyuk’s burdens.
Gu Yangcheon felt comfort in doing things his own way.
“If you truly want to remain here knowing that, then by all means. But keep this in mind: If I take the little princess to the Central Plains, who knows what I might do to her in the future?”
He might even dispose of her entirely.
Even as he spoke, a rush of self-loathing sprung forth.
What he was doing to Woohyuk now mirrored what had once been done to him by the Celestial Demon in his past life.
Yet he had to endure it.
After all, he was far beyond the point of losing more dignity.
After delivering his message, Gu Yangcheon stood again.
“You have until tomorrow to think it over. Do as you wish.”
Once he finished speaking, Gu Yangcheon ruptured eye contact with Woohyuk, turning away to exit the prison.
As he walked away, Gu Yangcheon contemplated,
“It’s not easy.”
Whatever it may be,
“Things are never easy.”
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