Book 24 Chapter 15

The sudden appearance of Hyuk Joong-jin

-Any needs

The fight, which had been more intense than she had expected, had drained her of all energy. Now she couldn't even stand up straight. She was wounded. A wound that could have cost her her life if she hadn't reacted quickly enough. A wound, whether physical or emotional, is inflicted in an instant, but it takes tens or hundreds of times that long to heal. Just thinking about that moment still makes her heart race.

Of course, the Yeonbi was trusting Na Yerin, and she was trusting that she could do it. But in this world, accidents happen out of nowhere, with no cause and effect. The unspecified element of chance was impossible to avoid, even for those with uncanny foresight. If that sudden coincidence had happened in a fight just moments before……. I can only imagine the horror of what happened next.

Now Na Yerin lay on a bed in the waiting room with her eyes closed. She was in much better shape than she had been at the beginning, when she was struggling to breathe. Beside her, Yunmi stood fidgeting with a cold towel. Even Yeonbyeon, whose liver was about to fall out, was unable to calm down. No matter how daring he was, he couldn't help but stroke her chest for once.

"Oh, yeah, let me get you some cold tea, Rin. You'll feel so much better when you drink it."

Unable to steady herself, Yunbi stood up, and Na Yerin, who was lying down, opened her mouth to speak. She was only lying there helplessly, but her mind was still there.

"Yanbi, you don't have to worry about that. It's the finals, and right now, all you can think about is facing off against the Seven Deadly Sins. You don't have to worry about me, and I'm so sorry if you do."

But the Yeonbi disagreed. Na Yerin had nothing to be sorry about here.

"There's no need to feel sorry for her, why should she feel sorry for me, if I don't care about her, who will? There's no need to put that kind of pressure on 'us,' and it's not a contest that can be won or lost by a little more mental focus and meditation in my spare time."

Yeonbi didn't accept her apology.

"But……."

The look of regret on Na Yerin's face as she lay there, not yet in a position to get up, was palpable, and the Yeonbi went out the window.

"If you apologize out loud like that, it's just going to put more pressure on you. It's okay, I'm doing it because I love it. I'm doing it because I want to do it, and it's not going to put more pressure on you, right? If anything, I'd feel worse about not being able to do anything for Rin."

"But……."

"Oh, don't worry, I'm ready to fight anytime, anywhere, at any moment. It's called normalcy, normalcy. So, Yun MiSojae?"

"Yes, four, me, me, me?"

Flustered by the sudden call of her name, Yoon Mi stammered, and when she stammered back, Yun Bi clicked her tongue.

"Don't panic over one name, because if you panic over that, you're going to panic over an infinite number of names."

"Ha, but……."

"You can't die of embarrassment, can you? No one can blame you for being a little more confident."

"Well, well, well, but……."

Yunmi bowed her head deeply.

"Oh, that's right. It's Yun Missouzer's power that got us here, not anyone else's, so it's okay to be a little more confident, and out of hundreds of people, only three of us made it up here, and do you know who the other three are, besides me and Lin, that no one else did?"

"……That's me."

That was true.

"Look, you know that, so if that person doesn't have confidence, if that person doesn't stand up for themselves, it's disrespectful to the people that they've stepped on, okay?"

Yunbi asked the last question as if he were a general in an army, and Yunmi reflexively went into a floating position.

"Yes, I see."

And when he saw that, he smirked.

He poked a finger into the center of my chest and asked.

"This place isn't empty. There's a certain swagger and confidence in that Yun smile, and it's there, if you'll just recognize that it's there. I'll vouch for it, and I'll vouch for it for free, and you don't believe me? You're putting your life on the line when you vouch for someone else."

"Well, is that so?"

"Sure."

Yunbi nodded, answering in a firm voice. Then she patted Yunmi on the shoulder and said.

"Take care of Lin, little Yun. Me.so.me. I'll see you then, shhhh!"

Making a deliberate noise with his mouth, he opened the door and disappeared.

Yunmi stared blankly at the closed door, then lowered her gaze to her own chest, as if she might recognize what was inside.

"It's flat……."

All I could see was a cliff.

It was a no-brainer.

There was time until the next bout.

Na Yerin was still reeling from the aftermath of her last match, and I knew a nice, hot cup of tea would make her feel better.

Yunbi went to the teahouse in the arena to buy some ice cold tea and picked up a few more snacks on the way, like a vase and some honey cookies. It was a good idea to pamper herself before the big showdown. A little luxury would be a nice change of pace. Of course, I planned to go it alone for the next match. Just then, I heard applause from somewhere down the aisle.

Bam!

"That was a great game, a great game."

Yeonbi's footsteps came to a screeching halt.

"Rave reviews."

Without turning his head, Yanbi said. He was applauded and praised, but he was not pleased, for the applause and voices were coming from all six directions at once, and he could not locate them.

"Is it hexagonal?

It's quite loud and obtrusive, but it's a very useful technique for hiding your location. Moreover, although he was invisible, his presence was palpable, filling the space. He was adding to the confusion because his presence was consuming the space; he was masking his presence from the senses of the car by adding to it rather than erasing it.

"Who are you? I don't have time to have tea with you, as you can see, I'm pretty busy, and I have an appointment."

Then I heard a muffled chuckle behind me, but I still had no idea where I was going.

"I've heard that voice before.

I thought about Yeonbi for a moment.

"Master?

but I was wrong. Sensei doesn't go to the trouble of doing this.

'"Heh, heh, heh, heh, heh, heh, heh, heh, heh, heh, heh, heh, heh, heh, heh, heh, heh, heh, heh, heh, heh, heh, heh, heh, heh, heh, heh, heh, heh, heh, heh, heh, heh.'

The voice sounded strangely familiar.

"I guess it's fashionable these days to keep your compliments to yourself?"

Yunbi didn't do any of the silly things that make heads turn. Instead, it opened the sensory organs of his entire body, expanding his senses in unison.

"The old man is a bit shy. When he sees a young woman, he blushes and his heart pounds, and he can't live with that, so he keeps a low profile."

"So you're saying it wasn't intentional?"

"Yes, that's exactly what the old man wanted to say. The young lady is smart."

But there was no shyness or excitement in his voice; he wasn't naïve enough to believe such an outlandish statement.

"But if you keep lurking, you'll just become a 'couch potato,'" says…… for example."

Before I could finish my sentence, Yunbi's body spun in a half circle.

Shhhhhhhhhh!

In Yan Bi's hands, Tian Yun flew furiously toward a spot, a shadowy corridor with no particular place to hide. Normally, she would have just added another useless hole to the empty wall. But in the darkness, she stopped dead in her tracks. In the shadows of nothing.

Oooohhhhhh!

The space shimmered around the top of the black umbrella, and a figure emerged.

"That's amazing, I can't believe you found it so quickly. Can I talk to you for a minute, wife?"

The figure that emerged from the shadows startled Yeonbi, whose presence was barely perceptible until it appeared, and once it did, it was as imposing as a towering mountain. It was amazing that he had grabbed her back without making a sound, but this kind of presence could not have been an ordinary person. Not even the Magus of the Heavenly Pavilion was this strong. With all due respect to Lin, even the Martial Saint Nine Hundred Thousand's prayers were not this strong.

Yunbi resisted the urge to run for cover. First of all, it was intimidating but lifeless, and secondly, if she overdid it, it could have adverse effects on her body. Moreover, the most surprising thing was that she recognized the face.

"I never thought I'd know you."

A puzzled look came over the old man's face.

"Huh? Have we met before? Why can't I remember?"

When he had met the old man at the foot of the volcano before, he hadn't looked like this, so it wasn't unreasonable for the old man to have such an expression on his face. However, he smiled with an unwavering expression because that's what people do when they're embarrassed.

"It's called dementia, don't worry. It's something that happens when you get older. It's not uncommon."

"Tsk tsk, Nobu is still young, he's still in his prime."

"Gosh, there's a weird misuse of the word young these days. If the old man was a tortoise that lived for three or four hundred years, he'd be considered young at that age."

The two pupils beneath the old man's bushy white eyebrows narrowed.

"Uh huh huh huh, you're so fearless, are you calling me a turtle?"

This hadn't happened in decades. For decades, no one had the audacity to make fun of him to his face. Everyone knew full well that it was insane.

"No way, it's just a metaphor, a linguistic trick. It's no big deal, don't worry about it."

An even more powerful surge of energy surged through the old man's entire body, but Yan Zhiyi replied nonchalantly, his smile still intact. The old man became slightly less amused.

"I guess your heart isn't made of ordinary stuff either."

I felt like I couldn't win with words. There weren't many people who could make you feel defeated, even if only verbally. It was curious. The old man smiled bitterly.

"But how the hell did you know where I was? I don't think you judged me by the sound of it."

The 'six-voice' was not a six-voice for nothing. It sounded as if it was coming from all six directions [六合], east, west, north, south, and up and down, and it was almost impossible to determine the location of the person who made the sound.

"I found it by sound, of course."

But Yeonbi was a hesitant answer.

"How?"

It was a natural question.

"Everything has a center, just like a ripple, no matter how big, has a point at its center."

"So Nobu's eyes weren't wrong after all."

The old man looked quite satisfied with what had happened.

"What are you doing here, mysterious old man out of nowhere?"

It was none other than Hyuk-Joong.

"I'm here to ask you a favor."

"You can't confess, can you?"

Hyuk-jung looked very disappointed and replied, "I don't think so.

"Why, don't you already have an executive?"

"Sure."

I replied with a gas guzzler.

"Well, that's too bad, but I can't do it, so let's move on to the next one."

"What is it?"

"My dear, don't you want to win the Seven Wounds?"

"I thought the fad of stating the obvious had already passed as cumbersome?"

"So that's why you want to win?"

"Sure, but why?"

It was hard to believe that I was going through all this hassle for no reason.

"I'll give you a run for your money, the man with the seven scars."

"What's the price?"

I wasn't so naïve as to believe that this kind of thing would come for free.

"It's simple. All you have to do is grant me one request in return. How's that for simple?"

Yunbi pondered for a moment, shaking his head from side to side. Then he said.

"No!"

It was clear from the lack of hesitation that this was the answer he'd been planning to give all along.

"Why?"

"We can't split the winnings anymore."

I said in a tone of voice that Yeonbi is a problem.

"A prize? You're welcome. Nobu isn't interested in pennies."

"Wow, they must be really rich?"

"Well, Nobu doesn't count, so I don't know exactly, but he's not poor, and it's not like he needs much money right now."

"So what do you want, seven lives or a grudge match?"

Hyuk-jung shook his head again.

"Life? On the contrary, I don't want him to die, no matter what."

"The kid? Who's the kid? Is it the Seven Deadly Sins?"

The Yeonbi hadn't missed the fact that we had just referred to the scar as "the kid.

"That's right. Nobu has a story he needs to hear no matter what."

"You're a grandfather who likes to tell stories."

The Yeonbi is a little off, said Joe.

"What can I do, that's the stigma of life."

The old man shrugged it off.

"But that's after we win the game, right? Our odds aren't really that good, but that's just what the bookies think, of course."

Most of the gamblers bet on the Seven Deadly Sins. As always.

"So you were going to lose?"

"Of course I'm going to win, you're asking the obvious again."

Then, as if he had been waiting for it, the old man smiled.

"I'm going to help you win. Something that all the bookies say doesn't stand a chance. Only Nobuman can do it!"

Hyuk-jung's tone suddenly changed.

"Wow, you're really good, do you have a winning formula?"

Yeonbi was a bit of a surprise.

"You see. Nobu knows the kid's weaknesses inside and out, and if he teaches you one trick, you'll be able to beat him. I guarantee it."

"I don't think you're that sure about that, are you?"

"You can trust me."

It wasn't a very convincing statement.

"How's this for a promise? If you win, he'll teach you a few martial arts called the Heavenly Secrets. They're on the same level as the Heavenly Sword. I'm not bragging, but it's pretty awesome. You won't lose, not ever."

"Something's fishy here, especially with your own rosy coloring."

Said Yunbi in a suspicious voice. He wasn't usually one to take people's word for anything. For an old man, it was incredible. It was indeed foolish of him to accept such an honor. But he didn't throw a tantrum for the sake of it.

"Believe me, blessed is he who believes, for this is a win-win situation. Now, the old man will tell you the child's weaknesses."

Then Yunbi quickly covered her ears with both hands and said, "I'm sorry.

"No, I don't want to hear it."

"What, you're not going to listen?"

The old man's voice had risen. He hadn't expected to be rejected here.

"Yeah, I don't think I need to hear that."

It was the Yeonbi of covering your ears and hearing everything.

"This is really useful information. You'll be sorry if you don't listen to it."

The old man said, creating anxiety with subtle threats. But Yunbi didn't fall for the psychological blackmail.

"And I don't even know how old that weakness is. How old is that information? Is that information still fresh enough?"

"Hmm…… looks like it's been about a year or so……."

His voice was heavily diluted with confidence.

"If it's more than a decade old, it's already past its sell-by date."

"I said nine years."

"Nine or ten years."

"You're kicking away a chance to win?"

"That doesn't mean it's my only chance, does it? Even without that help, I'll win, I'll win, I'll win, I'll win, I'll win, I'll win, I'll win, I'll win, I'll win!"

With his hands clasped on his hips, he proudly proclaimed that he was fuel efficient. The sheer ferocity of the declaration stunned the old man for a moment, and he couldn't help but burst out laughing.

"Huh… Huh……. That's a lot of confidence, and no tongue twisters. But do you think you can say something like that after hearing the identity of that seven scars?"

There was a subtle pressure in his words, but this time he picked the wrong person to put pressure on.

"Sure. As long as it's only one person."

Yeonbi said confidently.

"Who is that?"

"You know, the world's greatest cheater and drunkard. It doesn't matter, as long as it's him, and he's got a history of weaknesses, and it wouldn't make sense for him to lose."

"You're going to regret this."

The last thing I needed was a reminder to think twice, but I was already listening to Yeonbi.

"I don't regret it, never. I win without you teaching me your weaknesses. But don't worry. I won't kill you, and if there's something you want to say, I'll let you say it, and I'm curious to hear what it is."

"Oh well, I'll save the thank yous for after I win."

The old man was still not convinced.

"It doesn't hurt to get ahead of the game, it's only a matter of time anyway, and I'll make sure I get paid for it, nothing is free in this world, so I'd better get going, I have someone waiting for me, and cold tea doesn't taste good when it's lukewarm."

Yunbi gave a slight nod and turned to leave. Then he heard an old man's voice behind him.

"You must win, Yeonbi 'kun!"

When Yeonbi swung around, there was no one there.