Chapter 22 : Chapter 22

Chapter 22. So That Was There (2)

Han Cheong-un's mouth corners slightly went up.

‘I thought he was still far off.......’

It was a miscalculation.

Even if martial prowess and experience are lacking, it seems the essence of the person itself does not change.

Dang Jin's rebuke steadied Han Cheong-un's heart that was about to collapse from guilt.

Just as he had done many times before.

“The Vice Sect Leader’s words are right.”

“Of course.”

“I can’t give up like this. I will try until I can.”

“That is exactly it.”

When Han Cheong-un showed motivation again, Dang Jin nodded and said.

“So. What will you do now?”

“Military strategy says to shoot the horse first to catch the general.”

“So?”

“I am thinking of making a personal deal with the Mount Hua Sect.”

“A deal? Personally with the Mount Hua Sect?”

Dang Jin was puzzled.

To make a deal with a huge sect like the Mount Hua Sect, ordinary conditions wouldn't even stand a chance.

“Do you have any good leverage?”

“I do.”

Han Cheong-un's mouth corners slightly went up.

“Leverage they absolutely cannot refuse.”

* * *

After sending Han Cheong-un back.

Baek Sua thought.

‘I am sorry. I....... I can no longer be with you.’

The moment she saw Han Cheong-un again.

Her heart trembled.

How could she forget?

How could she forget the man who stole her heart?

If it were up to her thoughts, she would want to follow him and be together again right now.

However.......

She cannot do that.

This moment, having regressed against time.

Because something she must absolutely protect has arisen for her.

“Sua.......”

“Master.”

Baek Sua hurriedly turned her body at the thin voice coming from behind.

There, a precarious old woman who looked like she would crumble if touched was standing with difficulty.

It is Elder Hyun Yuseol, Baek Sua's master and one of the elders of Mount Hua.

Baek Sua hurriedly ran and supported her master.

“The wind is cold.”

“It is fine. It is stuffy being only inside.”

“.......”

“Please support me up to there.”

Baek Sua silently held her master's hand and assisted her.

A plum blossom tree about ten steps away.

Although her master struggles just to go beneath it, she was once a swordsman counted among the best even in Mount Hua.

And she was the grateful person who raised her, who had been abandoned even by her parents as a child possessed by a ghost.

* * *

Baek Sua.

She was an existence born with this ability called the Dragon Eye.

And that heterogeneous power took away a normal life from her.

A child who looks into others' minds.

She is too heavy a partner for an ordinary person to accept.

Even if that is her parents.

When Baek Sua turned six.

Her father carried her on an A-frame carrier and climbed the mountain.

The place they arrived after walking for a long time was deep in the mountains where there were no traces of even a path walked by humans.

Her father, who put down the daughter he brought there, spoke.

“Sua. Stay here. I will come to pick you up soon.”

She knows.

Those words of her father are a lie.

Her father's emotions were clearly visible in her eyes.

Fear and love-hate, a little guilt, and relief that surpassed it.......

“.......”

She did not bother to open her mouth.

For in her experience, every time she opened her mouth, her parents' minds were crumbling.

She just quietly watched her father's back receding with quick steps.

And when her father completely disappeared from view, she sat on that spot, gathered her knees, and crouched down.

Now she just has to stay here.

If she stays here, things will flow as her father wants.

After a few hours.

The sun sets and darkness covers the mountain.

It is the time when wild hunters move.

A young child left defenselessly in the mountain is not even prey to the beasts of the mountain.

It is fitting to call her an offering.

And what came to take this offering was.......

-Grrrrr.......

It was a huge bear.

Even at the appearance of a huge bear the size of a house, Sua was not scared.

She just thought.

‘I hope it won’t hurt much.’

That was all.

Since she was someone who shouldn't have been born in the first place, dying is the right thing.

It was just a wish that it wouldn't hurt too much.

-Grrr.......

No emotion was contained in the eyes of the young girl facing the slowly approaching death.

They were just empty.

Eventually, the moment the bear opened its mouth wide to bite off the girl's tender flesh in one bite.......

Slash!

-Roaaar!

Along with a flash of light, the bear screamed in pain.

“How dare a lowly beast try to harm a person?!”

A clear and ringing shouting voice.

When Baek Sua raised her head, a woman with an elegant figure was glaring at the bear under the moonlight.

On the sword held in her hand, a faint scarlet Sword Qi was fluttering like plum blossom petals.

“Pretty.”

A dreamy beauty seen for the first time in her life.

Baek Sua opened her mouth without realizing it.

Eventually, the bear retreated.

It realized through wild instinct that it was an opponent it could never win against.

And when the bear retreated, the killing intent disappeared from the woman's body as if washed away.

And then.......

“Are you alright? Child.”

The woman reached out her hand to Baek Sua who was behind her.

And then.......

“Is there any injured place? Why are you alone in such a deep mountain?”

“.......”

“I will take you to your parents. Do you know where your ho...... Huh?”

It was then.

Baek Sua jumped into the arms of the woman in front of her eyes without realizing it.

The moment she saw a person showing complete benevolence and love towards her for the first time in her life, she jumped into that embrace due to an uncontrollable impulse.

And then.......

“Waaaaah.......”

She cried.

She just cried endlessly.

The woman was flustered seeing such Baek Sua but soon slowly stroked her back.

The woman who saved Baek Sua that day was One Blue Flower Hyun Yuseol, an Elder of Mount Hua.

As a result of heading home with Baek Sua, she found out the truth and decided to take in the pitiful child herself.

Like that, Baek Sua became a disciple of Mount Hua.

After becoming a disciple of Mount Hua.

She tried to hide her ability as much as possible, but it was soon found out.

However, her master accepted even such a self.

“It will be hard to live mixed in the world. Until you control the ability yourself, it would be better to live at a distance from the main mountain.”

And the master left the main mountain of Mount Hua.

She took her, built a thatched cottage in a place with few people on the main mountain of Mount Hua, and lived there alone with her disciple.

While doing so, she taught martial arts to the disciple and also made her practice controlling the ability herself.

Baek Sua felt peace and happiness for the first time in her life.

However.......

“Cough.......”

“Master.”

Misfortune comes suddenly.

Her master fell ill.

Originally, martial artists are supposed to live much longer without illness than ordinary people.

Especially if one becomes an Elder of Mount Hua, unless killed in battle, the average lifespan easily exceeds one hundred years.

But even such martial artists occasionally contracted serious illnesses.

She hurriedly called a physician to check the condition, but the physicians didn't even know the cause of the illness.

They tried using spiritual medicines from the Medicine Hall, but it was useless.

Eventually, in the year she reached the age of twenty.

Her master passed away.

Is the death of parents commonly called Sky Collapse?

She cried sorrowfully feeling as if the world was really collapsing.

After finishing the three-year mourning for her master.

She intended to spend the rest of her life in the thatched cottage filled with memories of her master.

However.......

“Senior Sister, it is a summons from the Sect Leader.”

“What is the matter?”

“The Orthodox-Unorthodox Great War has broken out. All disciples of Mount Hua enter wartime posture from now on.”

The world did not leave her alone.

Taken in as a disciple of Mount Hua, she was swept away by the huge wave called the Orthodox-Unorthodox Great War and fought on the battlefield.

And she saw him there.

“If we retreat here, who protects the civilians? Evacuation? They are farmers who live by tilling the land. Do you not know that telling them to abandon their hometown and leave is no different from telling them to die?”

At first, she thought he was a peculiar person.

Seeing a person who was at best a low-ranking warrior of the Murim Alliance snapping back at a superior, she thought it was absurd.

But it was visible in her Dragon Eye.

‘It is...... sincere.’

He is different from those who just recite what they learned without thinking.

He is different from those whose words and actions do not match.

That man was sincerely throwing away his life for Chivalry.

'People call someone like that a Chivalrous Warrior.'

Such a thought occurred.

The first meeting was interest and admiration.

But that was all.

The second meeting was at the Second Orthodox-Unorthodox Great War after some more time had passed.

From a nameless low-ranking warrior, he had now become a figure making quite a name in the Jianghu.

Did they say he attained a new realization in the northern regions and completed a unique martial art?

The Murim Alliance entrusted him with one armed unit.

It was said that he was the first person since the establishment of the Murim Alliance to rise from a low-ranking warrior to the Grand Master of an armed unit.

And.......

“I am Baek Sua of Mount Hua. I have been ordered to enlist in the Evil-Annihilating Squad.”

“I look forward to working with you. Lady Baek. I am Han Cheong-un.”

Like that, the second connection began.

As they were members of the same armed unit, the connection deepened.

“Lady Baek, are you alright?”

“Retreat. I will handle this place.”

“Stick close behind me. Do not look at anything else, just look at my back and run.”

There were many times she was saved by him.

Since when was it?

The feelings towards him slowly changed.

The emotion that started from interest became trust, and trust became a more special emotion as time passed.

She wanted to honestly confess those feelings, but.......

“Oh my, Sister Baek, were you five years older than the Grand Master? I didn't know. You look so young.”

“Lady Baek, what a coincidence. What are you doing alone with the Grand Master?”

“Grand Master. Spar with me today....... Oh my? Lady Baek was here too. I am sorry. I didn't see you. I didn't disturb you by any chance, did I?”

There were too many interrupters.

Even thinking about that part again makes her grind her teeth.

If only those didn't exist, it would have certainly worked out well.......

‘Well, the opponents probably thought similarly.’

Although not a libertine, he was a man overflowing with luck with women enough to tell a considerable playboy to go away.

If falling for such a man is a sin, it would be a sin, but.......

Anyway, she couldn't confess her heart to him until the final moment.

The final battle.

It was reckless.

But even knowing it was reckless, we did not run away.

Because we believed in the decision made by the Grand Master, we willingly followed.

‘Failed miserably? Perhaps.......’

The resentment and condemnation she expressed in front of him were not her true feelings.

Even while lying on the ground and vomiting blood at the final moment, she did not resent Han Cheong-un.

It was just regretful.

If she knew this would happen, she should have at least confessed her feelings.......

Spring wind dances with falling plum blossoms.

I wish you would think of my embrace.

When spring comes and the season of scattering plum blossoms arrives, I hope you remember me at least then.......

Watching his receding back, she quietly closed her eyes.

That was the last thing she remembered.

However.......

“Huh?”

She regressed.

At the same time Han Cheong-un came to his senses, she also realized that she had returned to the past.

It took some time to realize reality, but she eventually accepted it.

And.......

‘What do I do? What should I do?’

She agonized.

She doesn't know the reason.

But what is clear is the fact that she grabbed a chance once again.

If it were up to her thoughts, she wanted to run to where Han Cheong-un was right now.

However.......

“Cough....... Cough.......”

“Master.”

“I am fine. But why is your face so full of worry?”

“.......It is nothing.”

She couldn't do that.

The point in time she returned to was now, when her master's illness had already progressed deeply.

According to the original history, her master's lifespan had a little over a year left.

Leaving her master who might pass away soon?

She couldn't bear to make such a choice.

Eventually, she remained in Mount Hua.

‘Even without me, he has many people. But Master has only me.......’

It was a conclusion reached amidst anguish and conflict.

And that conclusion shook for an instant when he appeared in front of her again, but.......

‘It can’t be helped.’

She firmly pushed him away.

Because her master was as precious as Han Cheong-un.

It would be a lie to say there are no regrets, but the choice is already made.

Now everything will flow into the past.......

* * *

The next day.

Baek Sua received the Sect Leader's summons and went to visit.

Waiting for her at that place was......

“Nice to meet you. Lady Baek. I am Han Cheong-un, the Sect Leader of the Ultimate Path Gate.”

“I am the Vice Sect Leader, Dang Jin.”

Why are these humans here?

With Baek Sua wearing a bewildered expression in front of him, the Mount Hua Sword Immortal spoke with a solemn expression.

“What I say from now on is a matter that must be kept strictly confidential. Do you understand?”

“Yes. I will keep it in mind.”

“Good. Disciple of Mount Hua, Baek Sua, listen.”

“Please command.”

“You are to help these two people, explore the Secret Cave of the Shadowless Divine Thief, and retrieve the Purple Mist Divine Sword inside.”

“.......!”

Secret Cave? Purple Mist Divine Sword?

In that instant, Baek Sua thought.

‘I’ve been had. So that was there.’

Tip: Tap/click the left or right side of the screen to go to previous/next chapter.