Chapter 125: Wronged Ghost Summons Calamity (2)

It was a morning like any other.

Soyak rose early, folded her bedding, and stacked it in the corner.

Cheonhwa was still rubbing her eyes.

“I will go on ahead.”

“Mmm......”

Soyak gave a quiet bow, changed clothes, and straightened herself.

Then she fastened Falling Blossom Tranquil Edge at her waist.

She combed her hair neatly down, put on her shoes, and stepped into the corridor.

Eldest Brother was already in the corridor.

Waiting for Soyak.

“You could take some time to recover from the journey, yet you are out early.”

There was no fatigue from the journey.

Of course there wasn’t.

She had received the Medicine Sage’s treatment along with all the internal energy Elder Jeonggang had built across his entire life.

Her realm had already reached the final stretch of Transcendent Apex, to the point where crossing one more threshold would let her glimpse the entrance of the Transformation Realm.

Could her physical condition be any better than this?

Though she was still young, Soyak was feeling what it meant to have been born anew.

But that was not purely a good feeling.

The fact that it was the result of her Grand Master’s sacrifice left her heart heavy, even if her body was not.

Soyak quietly lowered her eyes.

“......I am all right.”

“This is not something to call all right. When strain builds in the body, it bursts in the end.”

Cheonjeong looked down at Soyak with concern.

But Soyak only fiddled quietly with her hair and nodded, her gaze still lowered.

Cheonjeong chuckled.

What he had just said meant that, if she skipped training for a day, he would explain it properly on her behalf.

But Soyak did not seem to have any intention of doing that.

Judging from her reaction, it was not that she had failed to understand him entirely.

She was simply being stubborn.

Still, her complexion was not dark, nor did she look weak......

So Cheonjeong decided to respect Soyak’s wishes.

“Then you must tell me at any time if you think you are overdoing it.”

“I will.”

“Good. Let us go.”

*****

It was a day like any other.

In other words, a dawn no different from before they had gone to the Zhuge Household.

As always, Cheonjeong and Soyak came out to the training ground first and began warming up.

And when the sun poked its head between the mountain ridges in the distance.

When the burning scarlet glow of dawn rose red across the sky, the other third-generation disciples began waking one by one.

Once the training ground filled with people like that, Cheonjeong would count heads once, then send each disciple to their respective master.

Today should have been such a day as well......

But a sound unlike usual reached their ears.

RUMBLE......

Cheonjeong and Soyak quietly furrowed their brows.

It was a faint sound.

But a truly faint sound and a sound that was enormous yet faint because it came from far away were different.

And this was clearly the latter.

It was the sound of something collapsing.

Soyak and Cheonjeong quickly looked around.

But no building was collapsing.

Besides, this sound was so small that one would miss it without listening carefully......

The third-generation disciples of Flower-Haze Hall, who were likely making noise as they rustled around and cleaned their rooms, almost certainly had not noticed it at all.

The problem was not the sound, however.

It was something else.

*****

It was something no one had expected.

Sect Leader Jeongyang realized in an instant that something had gone wrong.

And he immediately burst out of the Red Tile Pavilion and raced toward South Peak.

His instinct was accurate.

The underground lightning prison beneath South Peak.

That cave was shaking.

There was only one person inside.

Eunbyeok, whose mind had melted away and who had been devoured by the Young Cult Leader’s left arm.

He had been steeped in Demonic Energy far beyond the limits his body could accept......

And had become a beast soaked in Demonic Energy.

The Martial Alliance called such beings Demonic Beasts.

They were not even called human, but beasts.

“......I did not expect him to collapse the lightning prison.”

Jeongyang lightly landed at the entrance of the underground cave beneath South Peak.

How many times had he blinked?

Myeongjeok, who had also grasped the situation, arrived behind Jeongyang.

“Is it Eunbyeok?”

“It seems so. It appears the time has come to let him go.”

“I will do it.”

“Yes, you should.”

Jeongyang was the Sect Leader and had passed the entrance of the Transformation Realm.

On top of that, he had mastered the Purple Haze Divine Art, so if he stepped in, this would end in an instant.

But he had no intention of doing so when he had a disciple who had reached the end of Transcendent Apex, close to an absolute master.

Myeongjeok, the Plum Blossom Sword Lord.

One of the Seven Lords within the One Sovereign, Three Emperors, and Seven Lords.

Their Ninefold Heaven Plum Sword would be enough to dispose of Eunbyeok, who had become a Demonic Beast.

“......Then I will go.”

Myeongjeok kicked off the ground and rushed into the trembling cave.

The pure internal energy of the Primordial Origin Clear-Heart Method, raised to a distant height, would protect their dantian and mind from the Demonic Energy.

......Probably.

*****

Eunsong ran to Elder Jeonggang’s residence early in the morning.

He had definitely heard a troubling sound along the way......

But to him, the safety of his Great Grand Master was more important than such trivial things.

All the more if it was something tied to his own disciple.

“Are you not going too quickly?”

“......How could I be leisurely, Master?”

Despite Myeonggon’s words, Eunsong hastened his steps even more.

Even though he already could not use lightness arts any faster.

Myeonggon sighed and ran beside Eunsong.

Soon, the two arrived at Elder Jeonggang’s residence.

And from the atmosphere of the house alone, they realized it was different from before.

“......There is quite a lot in the yard.”

Fallen leaves, branches rolling across the ground......

They were things difficult to see here normally.

Elder Jeonggang was a person who woke earlier than anyone.

And he was also someone who swept the front yard of his own residence more neatly than anyone.

Though he was so old, and though his position was that of a Mount Hua elder and even the Sect Leader’s martial brother.

He still held a broom of bush clover twigs and personally swept the front yard.

But not now.

The yard was dirty, and Elder Jeonggang was nowhere to be seen.

Since they could sense someone’s presence, he was clearly inside the house.

But why had he not risen by this hour in the morning?

It was a time when, normally, he would already be awake and sweeping.

Myeonggon and Eunsong glanced at each other, then began thinking about what to do.

In the end, Myeonggon stepped forward first.

“......Master, are you awake?”

At Myeonggon’s low voice, an answer came from inside.

But it was not the firm, forceful voice they remembered.

“Yes...... Myeonggon, you have come. Eunsong must be with you as well.”

A voice half-hoarse.

And he could not even come out beyond ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) the door.

Myeonggon realized that something was unfolding in no ordinary way and slowly crossed the yard.

Then he opened the old wooden door.

“......What in the world is this?”

Elder Jeonggang was still lying in bed.

With an extremely haggard face, no less.

Myeonggon’s pupils began to tremble.

Eunsong was the same.

“What in the world happened to you, Master? I heard Soyak killed the Dark Emperor, but......”

“Listen carefully to what I am about to tell you. Absolutely, absolutely do not show it in front of Soyak......”

Elder Jeonggang weakly pulled one hand from beneath the blanket and beckoned Eunsong as well.

It meant for him to come closer and listen.

Only then did he rise from the bed and begin explaining what had happened.

Soyak, who had exhausted every last trace of Innate True Qi.

The circumstances of the Reverse Heaven Society, which had left them no choice but to stake everything on Soyak.

And even the fact that he had no regrets, because he had saved a talent who would one day surely surpass the Sword Sovereign.

Rationally, his judgment had been right.

Elder Jeonggang was a man who had already reached the final act of his life.

There was almost no possibility that he would gain further enlightenment from here and surpass the Sword Sovereign.

He had already obtained nearly all the enlightenment and achievement an ordinary human could gain and arrived here.

But compared to him, what of Soyak?

She was still only fourteen.

And yet, she possessed the talent to have entered the beginning of Transcendent Apex.

If a little more time passed, if she accumulated years of training, if she gained enlightenment......

How could she fail to become the blade that would strike down the Sword Sovereign?

The age of old men was now gone.

The future of the Central Plains rested on the shoulders of the younger generation.

Every old man carried those words on his lips......

But Myeonggon and Eunsong had never seen anyone truly put them into action.

All of them only said that while trying to instruct the young.

They only tried to rule over them, blaming their lack of effort.

But Elder Jeonggang was different.

He had truly burned away his entire life and passed it to Soyak.

In return, he had been allowed only three months of time in this world.

“Three months......”

Myeonggon smiled bitterly and sighed.

It was truly like his master.

A master who had spared no support for talented children.

A man who had endured any opposition to take in a child with aptitude as his disciple.

That was why he had done this absurd thing.

No matter that the Medicine Sage had created a forbidden secret art for transferring Innate True Qi through cross-body power transfer.

Even if he knew of such a method......

Choosing and deciding to do it required a different level of resolve.

“You do not seem to regret it, Master.”

“Of course. When have you ever seen me regret something I have done? And you there, Eunsong. Listen.”

“Yes? Ah......”

“I must make one last cruel request of you.”

Jeonggang chuckled and slowly rose from his seat.

Then he took the sturdy branch Soyak had picked up for him and gripped it like a walking stick.

“For the time being, until I ascend, send Soyak here.”

“What?”

“That child has roughly reached the edge of Transcendent Apex now. We must help her cross the barrier of the Transformation Realm.”