Book 25 Chapter 3

Blue Feather's Descent

-Byulyeon Advent!

A healing center located inside the Cylindrical Arena in Kanghorando. This was the place where those who survived the fighting in the arena were treated. This was not a place for losers, but for winners. The place for losers was not a healing center, but a funeral home.

The main gate of the healing center opened and people began to stream out. They were all clearly martial artists, young martial artists in their twenties. Among them was an unusual presence: a beggar, but a strange beggar, with a great deal of energy in his face. The beggar, an unlikely beggar, stretched and opened his mouth.

"Man, I thought I was going to die for once, Gung Sang."

Hyunwoon, who was walking beside him with his arms crossed, nodded.

"You're alive and well. I thought I was finally going to get rid of my friend's invoice today."

Hyun-woon shook his head in disbelief.

"It was a dreadful maneuver, indeed. It was as if he had no rules, and yet he was unable to avoid the courtiers at all. I wonder if all women have one of those tricks? Then again, even the Lord Tang sometimes torments me with unimaginable tricks, tricks that I can't stop, tricks that are as cruel as a mirage."

Tang San recalled the cruel techniques Tang Ling had used to torment him, and his heart sank.

"Qin Lie, Qin Lie, I thought you'd used up all your energy, but where did you get it from? It was like a tiger, ready to tear through the palace at a moment's notice. Did it trigger some sort of latent power?"

"They say women are a liability, and if men let their guard down a bit, they'll send them straight to the three heavens. You're lucky today, because you could have died a dozen times over."

"Aye, that's cutting yourself off at the knees. Even if you were unhappy with the palace, would you have gone to such lengths?"

"It's called the power of rage."

"No, that was more of a 'han' than anger, wasn't it?"

"Han (恨)?"

"It's a fearsome force that, like its namesake in the Qin Rongzao, can bring frost to the Five Elements."

"That's really scary."

"Who was that? That silver-haired lady named Ryu Eun-kyung was amazing, too. She didn't run away from all that bloodshed, and she didn't retract her opinion. Is that a 'han' too?"

"No, that's a 'sentiment'."

Namgung Sansan, who had been watching the men, spoke up.

"Affection? That's a word I don't quite understand as one of the guys."

Hyunwoon shook his head.

"But polygamy isn't all that uncommon, is it? Honestly, it's not uncommon in my country, and the number of offspring in a family means an increase in power. I've already got five wives, despite my flattery. I'm planning to take another one next year, and there's a lot of pushback in the inner court."

Geum Young-ho scratched his double-layered chin and chimed in.

"What do you mean by multi-winged?"

Hyunwoon asked.

"Something like that."

"So the story is that the palace is a stallion?"

Despite being a Taoist disciple, Ming's expression is unflinching.

"He's a member of the leading Southern Palace family, so the quality is already guaranteed. You have a duty to make it thrive, and to do that, you need more than just one wife. I'm thinking at least four."

"Who?"

"Madam, besides, we have a lot of money. Maybe a third wife isn't out of the question. Heroes don't have to have three wives. With the power of money, I can be surrounded by three wives too. ……. Hehehehehehe."

A trickle of saliva ran down the corner of Geum Young Ho's mouth as he drowned in a sea of delusion.

"This is what men are for. So shallow. That said, why don't you do the same thing in front of Jinyoung?"

Impatient with men's frivolity, Namgung Sansan shot back. Then Geum Young Ho's complexion spoke.

"Ouch, Southern Palace Sojae. You'll have to put up with that. I've lost so much weight lately, I'm out of shape and all I have left is leather."

"So I should have been more careful with my words from the beginning."

Nan Gongshan sharply replied. The conversation grew more heated as the Volcanic Snow Jade and the Invisible Triad joined in the debate. Openness's disciple, Noh Hak, who was farther away from marriage than a shaman, stepped aside for a moment, not wanting to be a part of their gossipy conversation. Beside him, the workshop was going on at a deafening pace. The chatter was close at hand, but somehow it sounded so far away that he found his gaze drifting to the distant sky. The sunlight shining down from the blue sky stung his eyes.

"Huh?"

Then, as he squinted and gazed into space, his eyes caught something.

Circling in the blue sky, it was at first just a dot. It was so high up in the sky that no one noticed it. It was Nohak, a beggar in the open and a candidate for the next ark, who first spotted it. It wasn't that he had a particularly strong sense of smell or good eyesight, it was just that he had left the healing center where Namgung Sang was hospitalized and looked up at the sky purely out of curiosity.

"What is that?"

The old man muttered to himself.

"What?"

"That one, that one, that black dot in the sky."

At those words, several of the cast members' eyes followed Noh's gaze.

"I can definitely see a dot."

Hyunwoon said.

"Isn't it a bird?"

Tang San said, consciously focusing his vision.

"But is it just my mood, it seems to be getting bigger and bigger?"

Hyun-woon's eyes squinted even more. It was because he was unconsciously straining his eyes.

"It's not a mood thing, Hyunwoon. It's really growing."

Namgungsansan said, squinting against the sunlight.

"……."

At first it was just a dot, then it grew larger and larger, then it became a plane, and now it was clearly visible. But why did it make me feel so disturbed and anxious the more I looked at it? Where did this mysterious anxiety come from? As the members of the troupe fidgeted with anxiety, the dots grew larger and larger until they formed a single figure. It was a hawk, its majestic wings spread wide to the left and right.

"I've seen it everywhere……."

"Huh? That bird? No way!!!"

It can't be here, where did it come from? Birds with wings like that bluish-black feather were very rare.

"Oh, no……."

Instantly, a scream erupted.

"Gahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

But no one reprimanded her for her frivolity, for it was everyone's heart that wanted to scream.

"Well, that's…… why is that here……."

They desperately denied the reality of the blue wings in front of them.

"Me, I can't believe it! Me, I can't admit it!"

Upon realizing the true identity of the thing that had danced down upon them, the troupe fell into a state of collective delirium.

"Hey, this is a dreamaaaaaaaaa!!!!"

They could not admit that this cruel reality was upon them. Then a quiet voice spoke a word that pierced their eardrums like a spear.

"No, it's real."

Food for thought!

And the blue-winged hawk that flew down, folded its wings in delight and perched on his shoulder. The eyes of the master craftsmen grew as wide as saucers in unison. Some gasped, others clicked their teeth together.

"Big, big, big brother!"

The same words came out of their mouths at the same time.

The man who appeared with the beautiful blue-winged falcon called Haedongcheng was undoubtedly the great brother Bi Ryuyeon himself. How could someone who should be in the probation room of the Heavenly Martial Academy appear here? But the sight before their eyes was undeniably real, a reality that could not be denied.

"It's been a while, kids."

But the mischievous grin that was always on Bi Ryuyeon's face was nowhere to be seen, and that fact added to their anxiety. They wondered if there was something that could take away that fearsome smile.

"Hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, this is Eoin Ilo……."

Hyunwoon mustered up the courage to speak first.

"Why, I can't come?"

Hearing the blunt answer, Hyun-woon stiffened and backed away.

The strangely dark flesh on their bodies prickled their skin like needles.

"Oh, no, I don't think so, I wouldn't do that."

None of them had the stomach to dig in their heels in front of the full-bodied biryun. No matter how strong they became, they would strangely become shabby, weak, and insignificant in front of the big brother.

"Really? I thought it wasn't going to happen again," he says, "I'm going to freak out, and you're going to look like you've been shot with a slingshot."

In fact, I felt like I'd been pierced from the hip to the mouth with a slingshot. I was lucky my heart wasn't sticking out of my throat.

"I've got something you guys can help me with."

Ryuyeon Bi said simply.

"Is there any way that your brother could use our help?"

Tang San and Luo Hak asked in surprise.

"Of course not. You think I'm not even human?"

I got a few blank looks.

"It was a human!

"Really?

'Oh, he's lying. It must be a lie.'

"Right, right, it can't be human, it must be an illusion.

'People think they know themselves, but they don't know themselves very well. By realizing their own existence, the human soul can ascend to greater heights.

"So what's the big brother if he's not human?

'That's…… I don't want to know! I feel like I shouldn't know.'

No one in the group believed her, and overhearing their whispers, she spoke up.

"You guys want to die or get a taste of hell again?"

He seemed to have lost a bit of steam. I felt like I needed to give him a little extra motivation.

"Hiccup! Hiccup!"

The whispers stopped like a lie. Looking around the group of priests and disciples, each as stiff as a statue, Bi Ryuyeon said.

"Okay, enough with the denial, wake up, I'm pulling your people out of here."

The first and last words were significantly less relevant.

"What kind of people?"

Tang San raised his hand and asked.

"To the rescue."

Bi Ryuyeon's complexion darkened a little more. Na Yerin's absence had become a heavy rock, weighing down his heart.

"Who are you rescuing?"

"……."

She couldn't answer that. To say it would be to face this cruel reality once more.

"Big brother?"

Hyun-woon asked cautiously. He'd never seen anything like it before, and it was rather frightening. He'd rather have the old Maknae than something so dismal.

"…… Na Yerin. The one who will be your High Priestess. She has been kidnapped."

Not talking about it, turning away from it, didn't make it go away; his weakness was refusing to accept it. Knowing that, Bi Ryuyeon hated it, but he had to make eye contact with reality once again. It was a very painful process, but he had to endure it.

"Are you Na Yerin Sojae?"

"Kidnapping?"

"When?"

"Is that true?"

The cast members quickly got into an uproar. If it was true, it would be a big deal.

"It's true."

"Have you found the culprit?"

"I'm going to go find it now, and I need you to do it."

There was something off about today's Daeshin. The pupils were almost transparent. They were almost inorganic and inanimate.

There was no hot anger, no cold reason. It was as if something was missing. Something was missing from him now.

"Scour the place. It hasn't gotten out of this powerhouse yet. There must be a tail left behind somewhere."

His voice was as cold as ice, but there was a spark in it.

"Find her! I will get her back, even if it means dyeing this virgin red with blood. Then go!"

"Yes, Big Brother!"

No questions were allowed. None of us had ever felt so intimidated by a big brother before, so we didn't know how to react. We just did what we were told.

Once she was sure everyone was gone, she turned around.

The cough I'd been holding in for a moment broke out.

"Kool-Aid!"

Bi Ryuyeon coughed up another handful of blood. He stared at the blood staining his hands, but felt no emotion.

He wiped the blood from his hands with a "Wham!" and splattered it on the ground, then walked away nonchalantly.

There was still work to be done.

There was no time to sit back and relax.

Na Yerin's screams echoed in his ears like a hallucination.

'We still need more people, so please send your best people to …….'

A few names flash through my head.

'We're going to need those guys…….'

Unfortunately for them, they didn't realize that their name was now floating around in the back of Bi Ryuyeon's mind.