Chapter 131: Wronged Ghost Summons Calamity (8)

A sense that something was wrong.

It referred to the unpleasant feeling caused by some atmosphere or presence that differed from usual.

Soyak was feeling exactly that.

Her reason told her it was simply because she had been away from Mount Hua Sect for quite some time.

But her intuition was clearly warning her that before long, some problem would erupt.

The problem was that no one knew how long she would have to wait before that problem surfaced......

And that it might already have happened.

The night she returned to Flower-Haze Hall after receiving her first day of instruction from Elder Jeonggang.

Cheonhwa had already surrendered to her drowsiness and fallen asleep, but......

Soyak sat with the wooden window wide open, looking up at the night sky.

“......Something is strange.”

It was definitely strange.

When had it started?

The dawn when that strange rumbling had sounded from somewhere far across Mount Hua?

It seemed to have been around then.

She looked up at the stars in the sky, but unfortunately, Soyak had never learned how to read the heavens.

Those who read fate and the future through the movements of the stars often sensed approaching danger in advance.

Soyak sighed, lamenting that she had no connection to such a talent.

“At a time like this......”

At that moment, one person’s image crossed her mind.

A memory that had surfaced because she had been dwelling on that sense of wrongness.

It was......

Eunbyeok, standing in front of her and Eunsong, blocking their path.

“......He definitely wasn’t normal.”

For no particular reason, Soyak hugged Falling Blossom Tranquil Edge to her chest and sank into thought.

Eunbyeok was Eldest Brother among the second-generation disciples.

He was also Myeongjeok’s disciple, and Myeongjeok was the next Sect Leader.

That made him a powerful man, and a man with considerable authority as well.

There were not many people in Mount Hua Sect who could harm him.

If she had to name anyone, it would be Elder Jeonggang or the other elders.

And even they would not go out of their way to touch someone directly backed by Elder Jeongyang.

In that case, his atmosphere had not changed because of someone’s scheme.

Nor was it likely that someone had tormented him into that state......

But it was also strange to think he had become that way all on his own, without anything happening, without any trigger at all.

Soyak rose from her seat.

It seemed she would not find an answer by sitting still and turning thoughts over in her head.

She had to confirm through experience every suspicious, strange premonition she had felt.

Eunbyeok’s residence, perhaps, or somewhere on South Peak where that strange sound had come from.

For now, Soyak launched herself out the window toward Mount Hua’s South Peak.

She accelerated until the scenery around her blurred pale.

Feeling the touch of thin branches beneath the tips of her feet, Soyak grasped it to some extent.

Her current internal energy had increased far beyond what she had possessed when she faced the Dark Emperor.

Her heart ached.

The price of the life Grand Master had paid was what had widened her vessel and then filled it.

Whenever she thought of it that way, her shoulders kept growing heavy.

“......He said it was all right.”

Muttering with effort, Soyak took the next step.

When she landed on the slope of Mount Hua’s South Peak like that—

Soyak felt the lingering trace of a strange energy.

“......Demonic Energy?”

Faint traces of Demonic Energy remained.

Jeongyang had felt that all the Demonic Energy had vanished in an instant.

But that was because he had been standing in the middle of energy so dense it overwhelmed the senses.

A martial artist with keen sixth senses could feel the faint traces of Demonic Energy still lingering here.

Soyak sharpened her senses and began walking along the marks left behind by the traces of Demonic Energy.

As if a Demonic Cult member had passed through, the trail clearly formed something like a path.

“There shouldn’t be anyone from the Demonic Cult in Mount Hua.”

That was common sense.

Whether it was an object of the Demonic Cult or a person of the Demonic Cult—

There was no reason for either to exist in Mount Hua Sect.

As Soyak continued following the lingering traces of Demonic Energy......

At last, on the slope of South Peak, she discovered a large cave.

“......What is this......?”

From inside, she could feel a fairly sticky presence of Demonic Energy.

Compared with the Demonic Cult bastards or Demonic Beasts she had encountered until now, the amount was infinitely small and thin.

But it could not deceive Soyak’s five senses, not when her internal energy had risen and she had been born with such keen perception in the first place.

Soyak debated for quite a long time over whether she should enter the cave or turn back as she was.

Even if she turned back now, there would be no problem.

Jeonggang and Eunsong would handle it on their own.

By common sense, turning back here was the right thing to do.

By common sense.

But Soyak stepped into the cave.

Whether that was childish curiosity—

Or the fate of one bound and drawn by some karmic burden, no one could know.

*****

“You’re not going to stop her?”

Cheonju glanced at Cheonjeong.

The two were having an open conversation almost for the first time.

All the other children had already fallen asleep......

Or perhaps were pretending to sleep.

But it was not as if they were discussing anything the others must not hear, so he paid it little mind.

Only, Cheonju was curious about Cheonjeong’s intention in leaving Soyak alone even after seeing her fly across the training ground toward South Peak.

“That’s right. I won’t stop her.”

“May I ask why?”

The Cheonjeong of ordinary days was a man of principles.

His motto was that following the proper line would leave no trouble behind, and he had indeed behaved that way for a long time at Mount Hua.

But these days were different.

More precisely, perhaps, since he had gone to the Shandong Ak Family with Soyak.

To begin with, neither Eunsong nor Elder Jeonggang were people who particularly valued principle.

Great Grand Master Myeonggon was a slight exception, but......

Was that not why he suffered, caught in the middle?

It was not strange for a disciple like this to emerge under such a master.

Only, the reason somehow seemed likely to be Cheon Soyak......

That was Cheonju’s inference.

“What would stopping her accomplish? I would not be able to block her anyway.”

“You know she isn’t that kind of child.”

“Yes, I know......”

Cheonju was right.

If he, as Eldest Brother, stepped forward and blocked her, telling her not to go—

Soyak would not force her way through by using her strength.

But Cheonjeong had begun to wonder whether making that choice would truly be right.

All the more since hearing about the Reverse Heaven Society from Eunsong.

Soyak was......

The sword of the Reverse Heaven Society.

From what Eunsong had told him, Cheonjeong now knew.

Elder Jeonggang, Myeonggon, Eunsong, the Zhuge Household, and martial artists he did not know besides them......

Quite a few people were preparing to resist the Sword Sovereign and the Martial Alliance system.

It was an undertaking on a scale he had never expected, suspected, or even imagined.

His master and a young woman of the Zhuge Household, not even very different from him in age, were carrying it out without hesitation.

Soyak was the same.

Though her direction differed from theirs, Soyak too was someone who had already surpassed even the category of genius.

“And I know that child is more than whatever I can imagine.”

“......I see.”

“If she acts like that, she must have a reason for acting like that. Besides, if she had to receive my permission for every action she took, how suffocating would that be? You all occasionally stray from the rules as well.”

Though their eyes had surely been closed, Cheongak and Cheongu both flinched.

Cheonjeong and Cheonju glanced at the two of them, then smiled faintly and looked out the window again.

“That would be true, I suppose.”

“That is how it is.”

“I understand.”

He said he understood, but Cheonju probably did not understand everything completely.

There was much information he did not have.

He did not know what had happened between Grand Master Jeonggang and Cheon Soyak.

Nor did he know about the Reverse Heaven Society.

But Cheonjeong had a rough guess.

Eunsong had been gathering talented people to draw into the Reverse Heaven Society.

And they were “disciples” like him.

And the standard was......

Innate talent.

And powerful resentment and resistance toward the current Martial Alliance system.

If the standard he had inferred was correct—

Someday, Eunsong would reach out his hand to Cheonju and Cheonhwa as well.

He would tell them to join him in accomplishing the great work of overturning heaven.

He would ask them to become wheels in the grand design.

And they would probably not refuse.

After all, they owed Eunsong a debt of gratitude that was no different from a life debt.

“Eldest Brother.”

“What is it?”

“There is one more thing I want to ask.”

Cheonjeong turned his head and looked at Cheonju.

Cheonju was gripping his sword sheath as if he might crush it.

And what showed in his eyes was......

Clear unease.

“As her fellow disciples, we will not hold her back, will we?”

He said we.

Not I, but “we.”

That meant even to Cheonju, Soyak’s talent and skill stood above all the rest of her fellow disciples combined.

The reason he could say that even with his Eldest Brother, who ranked above him, right in front of him—

Was because it was already, for all practical purposes, an established fact that everyone acknowledged and accepted.

Cheonju too could vaguely sense Soyak’s change.

Of course, even before going to the Zhuge Household, she had been a powerful figure he could not measure.

It was not a matter of wondering how he could win.

Even if he wondered how he could last longer, he could not find an answer.

But Soyak after returning from the Zhuge Household was different.

It was not that she was difficult to measure.

Measuring her was impossible.

Seeing the unease in Cheonju’s eyes, Cheonjeong quietly patted his back.

Then he answered in a bitter voice.

“We have to work hard.”