Book 25 Chapter 2

In front of a mirror

-Back to normal

In a large mirror as clear as a crystal clear lake, a pair of corundum-like eyes reflected a mixture of deep copper and golden colors. The eyes stared into the mirror, but they were looking at something other than their own reflection.

A single drop of water rippled across the mirror's surface, causing the image in the mirror to stir, and then the scenes of their past together began to come to life. The day I first met Na Yerin, when she fell from the sky, the silver dagger she gave me as a gift, the time we met again at the Yun Xiang House, the time we went to the Shaman Mountain and met our enemies, the cave in the torrential rain, her warm body, the time we fell into the cave while taking a test, the time we held each other's hands, listened to the night wind, and looked at the stars, the time they kissed in the volcano, the way she looked at him with watery eyes when he woke up, the way the tears that fell on his cheeks were hot as fire, the way the unsavory food she put in his stomach when he was in prison kept rising and falling like bubbles, over and over again.

As the bubbles of memory rose and fell, pain began to streak the depths of his amber eyes.

You close your eyes, unable to bear the pain.

Then, more vividly than I could have imagined, I saw the last one. It felt real, like I could hold it in my hands, but the reality was more brutal than I could imagine.

* * *

"You'll be back soon, right?"

Na Yerin asked as she lay in bed. Her body hadn't recovered yet, and she struggled just to sit up.

"Sure. I'll be right back, so hold on, I don't know if it's a seven or an eight, but I'm not going to lose."

Yeonbi smiled.

"I'll wait then."

Na Yerin said with a smile. Anyone who could see that smile was lucky. Of course, she didn't say Ryuyeon's name out loud. But that's how it sounded to his ears. No matter how different she looked on the outside, no matter how different her personality was, it never changed her essence.

"Then take care of Lin, Yun MiSojae."

At Yeonbi's playful remark, the timid Yoon Jun-ho-no, Yoon-mi of the Volcano faction blushed and replied.

"Ma, leave it to me."

Na Yerin smiled and gave a little wave. Yunbi waved back.

"Just give me the blink of an eye, and I'll be on my way."

Na Yerin waved goodbye with a gentle smile.

"Take care."

Even though she was suffering from internal injuries, she didn't show it and smiled at me. I was grateful, and I knew I had to come back as soon as possible. I had never seen Na Yerin in such a weak state before. Trying to suppress her anxiety, she left the room.

The door slammed shut behind him. He could still see Na Yerin's plaintive face as she waved through the closing door.

* * *

The black robe falls to the floor with a thud.

It slid over her white shoulders, down her smooth back, and along her long, outstretched legs. Her skin was glossy and smooth, her forearms thin, her shoulders narrow. Her waist was nicely defined and her legs were outstretched. From the back, she looked like a sculpted woman. As she stared at her naked body in the mirror, her amber eyes slowly inhaled and exhaled. With each regular breath, the hollow inside her body began to flow to every inch of her limbs. From the crown of his head to the tips of his toes, his will stretched out in a dense web of nerves.

"Whoosh!"

Take another deep breath, and then,

The will that had been binding the body was freed in an instant.

Woof, woof, woof!

His narrow shoulders widened, and his sleek arms and legs gripped hard, sculpted muscles-not just ballooned muscles, but strong, lean, supple muscles whose strength had been cultivated in each and every one of them. It was almost an art to have a body that could respond instantaneously to one's will. It was these muscles, trained to respond to his will, that allowed him to perform the "axial bone gong," which transformed his body.

I left my old clothes at the Heavenly Martial Arts Academy, so I changed into my new clothes.

The color of the new outfit is also black. However, unlike the one you took off earlier, this one is for a man. The robe is pulled on and cinched at the waist, and the back and sleeves are embroidered with a subtle pattern of bird wings in flight. But because it's embroidered with black silk thread on a black background, it doesn't really stand out, but rather appears and disappears like a mirage depending on the angle of the light. My only regret was that the sleeves lacked the hefty feel of the bido that I had always felt in my hands. But that wasn't a problem the garment solved.

My eyes widened.

Look in the mirror.

Hoanseok's eyes were now glowing a golden color.

"Well, we'll have to cover up…… for now."

Sigh.

My bangs were cut with scissors some time ago, leaving a bit of my eye exposed. I find it awkward, so I cover the eye area with the surrounding hair.

Although he wears it proudly when he's on the road, this eye is quite distinctive compared to his other eyes. This was especially true when using martial arts, so if you weren't careful, someone would notice.

That had to be stopped.

With her hair covering her eyes, she was ready. The black-clad beauty who stood in the mirror was nowhere to be seen, and a sleek-looking young man in black stood there, the very image that those who knew him recognized as Bi Ryuyeon. Returning to his original form, he speaks the name of something precious.

"Yerin……."

She had fought hard enough, to get back what was hers, for her precious sister. She fought as hard as she could, with all the strength she could muster.

He believed that it must have reached the other man, for if even such a heartfelt sentiment could not reach the other man's heart, no heart could reach the heart of another across the infinite divide between man and man.

What if the spirit hadn't lost consciousness at the end? Or what if she had woken up again in front of them? And what about the spirit who has now woken up? What has changed for her?

Yerin hadn't even checked it out yet.

It's so sad to realize how hard you worked, how hard you tried, and not even see the results. It should never have happened.

And above all…….

She wasn't where she was supposed to be. Absent in the only place she was supposed to be, and that fact pained him more than anything else.

Yerin, there was only one place for her to be, not anywhere, not beyond the ends of the heavens and the ends of the earth, not even in the entire universe, but at his side.

That is the right and upright truth of the universe! It is a fact that was determined before the beginning of time, before the division of the yin and yang.

What was happening now, then, was a twist in the universe that shouldn't be there! A twist so severe that it was shaking his world itself to the core.

In other words, it was the end of the world.

"This universe, this world, if God can recognize it, I can't!"

This world is meaningless.

This world is like a giant blank slate.

It's good if the world is meaningless. I can give the white world meaning.

It meant creating your own world and taking responsibility for it.

If so, great.

I will determine the meaning of the world I live in. By my own will, not by anyone else's.

So let the mace of the heavens fall upon the villain who sets his filthy feet upon that precious white paper! Let the thunderbolt fall from the heights to burn the evil! He who erodes my world deserves to die a hundred times, nay, a hundred billion times.

But on my blank page, on my world, there is a stain. A scar made by an unwanted intruder! A fall!

"How dare you do this to me!"

Where Na Yerin was supposed to be, she was not. This was not the way the world was supposed to be. Wrongs must be righted.

He vowed to restore the warped world to the way things should be, the way they were meant to be.

"I will do whatever it takes to protect my world! I don't care what the criminals say. Bark if you must, bark if you must! My eyebrows waggle half a millimeter. I will defend my world, no matter what the stigma. My future for my age!"

He was determined to get her back, even if it meant turning the world upside down, and he had no hesitation in doing so.

"I'll be a ghost, a goblin, a devil, anything for that!"

Whoever that is.

"I will make you regret ever being born into this world, so that you will never want to enter the wheel of reincarnation again!"

To the bane,

Bloody mace!

"You who do not fear the sky, you had better fear me. I advise you to do so for your own good, for you will be more afraid of me than of the sky."

Of course, getting down on your knees and begging won't make any difference to its fate.

"It won't change your end anyway."

Step outside and look at the sky.

Even when she was gone, even when she wasn't beside me, the sky was blindingly blue. I was never happy. This was an undesirable phenomenon.

Put your finger to your mouth and breathe out hard.

Yay!

A sharp whistling sound carried high and far into the sky on the wind.

Some time later,

Food for thought!

Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep!

In a forest on one side of the river, a hawk cried out and flapped its blue wings, soaring into the sky.