Book 26 Chapter 19

Responsibilities and blood ties to uphold

-Wailing (痛哭)!

She, Ye Qing, was lonely.

Her husband, the only one she could rely on, had been forced to leave for the Black Heavenly Blind and was no longer with her. She had no choice but to go along with the search.

'But a Black Panther assassination…….'

It was outrageous for a white daoist to kill a black daoist, let alone a Zheng Tian Ming master. If that were to happen, he could only imagine what would happen afterward.

"All-out war between black and white……."

It was clear as day that the whole country would be involved, that the blood of thousands and tens of thousands of people would be shed, and that a great war would spread like wildfire. So she had to stop her husband, Nabaxian, as one of the warriors. She couldn't risk the whole country for the sake of her daughter's life.

But it was only a voice of reason. Ye Qing was ultimately unable to stop Bai Chen. Her husband was probably on a ship headed there right now, wondering the same thing she was.

If he and his group are unable to rescue Na Yerin in time, so that she can contact Na Bai Chen in time via the only means of communication she has, the telegram, Na Bai Chen will be faced with a painful choice.

'The safety of the entire kingdom, or the safety of your precious daughter…….'

The peace of an entire kingdom or the life of a little girl. She couldn't weigh them on a scale, but she couldn't let go. Neither could her husband. In fact, for now, she was putting off the choice, until the last possible moment.

She wanted to save him from this terrible agony before he was forced to make that choice, but she was at a loss. The only thing she could do now was to wait, and waiting was not in Ye Qing's blood. She was a woman who took action to get things, and she had never been the type of woman to sit back and wait for things to happen.

I'm not good at waiting, which makes this time alone all the more painful. She felt utterly helpless. She tried to tell herself that she shouldn't lose, that they must be facing more painful circumstances than she was, now that they had gone their separate ways. But the more she thought about it, the more she beat herself up. This waiting seemed like an eternity.

"This isn't going to work.

She felt an intense sense of crisis. She felt like she would go crazy if she just stared at the horizon and waited for the boat to return.

But while she had no skill at waiting, she was no less skilled at leaning on others and making weak noises. Normally, even the exalted Martial Lord would tremble before her like a mouse before a cat. Who could she possibly be weak to…….

"Ah!"

Suddenly, a face flashed through her mind.

There it is!

One of the few people she could rely on was the revered and awe-inspiring Kang Ho Rando, who could provide her with the mental support she needed to cope with her restlessness and anguish.

'……grandfather.'

Suddenly, tears welled up in her eyes, a rare occurrence for a woman who rarely showed tears, a sign of her weakness.

Ye Qing hastened to meet him. She knew where she wanted to go: to the Black House, the home of Kang Horando.

* * *

Currently, the old man is staying at a councilor's house, which is a relief compared to other places because of the influence of his presence. More precisely, it's the voice of Gu Tianhua, the master of the Iron Scaffold, who is a devoted follower of the old man. He had once saved the life of the councilor's master.

"What's his status?"

"He's still showing no signs of waking up. But according to Senator Song, he's out of danger. Luckily, the treatment must have been quick."

"That's a relief."

Gu Tianhak stood by the side of Chil-sang-hyeon, the man formerly known as Yi Wan-han, who had yet to awaken from his poisoning. He had not yet awakened from the poisonous attack that had weakened his body and mind. No one who knew him would ever believe that the master of the Iron Scaffold Band, who was known to punish even a crying child, would nurse the sick.

Smart.

Just then, there was a knock on the door from outside.

"They've obviously put up a sign that says 'closed for business,' but who the hell is……?"

Gu Tianhua's body, which had been nursing Yi Yun, picked up one of his favorite spears, the Five Star Silent Dragon Spear, and moved like a wind, pressing itself against the wall next to the door. He scanned the outside with his five senses. Fortunately, there was only one sign of life.

Without a second thought, the door swung open.

Yay!

Gu Tianhak attacked the trespassers with his long spear.

Voila!

But there were no intruders there already.

Land!

With a heavy impact, his spear was knocked aside, and a chilling blade flew out from a completely unexpected angle. It was a sword curved like a crescent moon.

"Cilantro!

Deciding it was too late to stop them, Gu Tianhak turned the tip of his spear and stabbed the enemy. He hoped to deter the invaders with the help of his tongue.

Just as the sword and spear are about to strike the opponent's master!

"Stop both of you!"

A rumbling saber rattling erupted from the old man.

The swords and spears, which had been piercing flesh to flesh, came to a screeching halt. A few more steps and they would have pierced each other's bodies without fail.

"I know the child. Put away your spear."

Gu Tianhak quickly withdrew his spear and stepped back. Only then could he see the face of the intruder.

"Huh!"

The intruder was a woman of surprising elegance, but what surprised Gu Tianhak even more was that she was a familiar face.

"Princess……."

She was none other than Ye Qing, the ice maiden.

"I was just wondering whose spear it was that couldn't even see the shadows properly, and it was the Old Master's spear. You seem to be more skilled at spearmanship than ever."

Despite the sudden surprise, Ye Qing's face didn't show much emotion. Rather, it was Gu Tianhak who was fidgeting in panic.

"Sin, sorry, princess."

In fact, Gu Qianqian and Ye Qing were both traveling to the Heavenly Pavilion at the same time, but whereas Gu Qianqian was virtually unknown at the time, Ye Qing, as a member of the Seven Gongs, was well known within the Pavilion. He was also Gu Tianhua's secret idol.

"Stop calling me Princess, Old Overlord. That was back in the day, when we were all immature, and now we're all old."

"Nope. You're still beautiful."

Gu Tianhak replied, standing still. The tension in his voice was palpable.

"Thanks for the empty words, old master."

Of course, he could barely contain himself as he almost shouted, "I meant it.

"What are you doing here, anyway, and didn't you almost get yourself hurt, and what about him?"

By him, of course, I meant Nabekchun, the master of the Pure Sky.

"I had to run a quick errand to the Black Belt, so I left."

"Business? What business? We didn't talk about anything the last time we met, did we?"

A dark shadow fell over Ye Qing's complexion. Then he slowly opened his mouth.

"The Black Panther assassination."

Even the two of them were stunned by her words, especially Gu Tianhak, who was almost out of his mind and almost swung his spear at Ye Qing again. However, Xu Tianzhong was as calm as she was experienced.

"What happened?"

Asking in a quiet tone, Ye Qingyu looked at Hui Zhong with an ice-cold face.

"My daughter, Yerin, has been kidnapped."

It's the kind of emotionless tone that seems to have been stripped away.

"Kidnapping, how dare you?"

Ye Qing's pupils flickered slightly as she spat out the name, as if she was disgusted to even utter it.

"He's the one."

"……!"

The old man's complexion hardened. He, too, knew who Xu Tian was now. He gestured for Gu Tianhak, who was standing behind Ye Qing's back with his neck stretched out wondering what was going on, to step outside for a moment.

Bam!

The door slammed shut as Koo Chun-hak wistfully walked out.

"He told me to bring him the head of a black blind man if I didn't want to see Ye Lin torn to shreds."

He spoke in a voice as cold and expressionless as the ice of the North Sea.

"Really?"

The old man replied in a grave voice.

"He is the chief in charge of the White Forest. I'm his wife."

Ye Qing still sounded emotionless. It was as if he was merely stating the facts.

"I know."

"People in high places should be held accountable for their positions."

"Right."

"Sometimes you have to be willing to die for the greater good, and I've done that before. I would live my life as a dignified matriarch, worthy of the wife of a zen master."

"You are doing that."

Old man Hyuk-jung said.

"But…… I'm not sure about…… right now, and I can't give up being his mother."

Ye Qing's numb voice began to tremble for the first time. A ripple of emotion began to spread across Ye Qing's cold, rigid face. With his head bowed, the trembling started from his clenched fists and spread to his entire body.

The old man furrowed his brow slightly, let out a small sigh, and walked over to Ye Qing, before wrapping his arms around her trembling body. At that moment, the emotions that had been building up in her heart exploded.

"Grandpa!"

Ye Qing sobbed and wrapped her arms around Hyuk-jung. She sobbed endlessly in front of the only person she could show weakness to.

"That must have been hard."

Hyuk-jung patted Ye-chung on the back like a loving grandfather.

"Yelena…… Yelena…… Yelena…… Yelena……!!!"

She cried and cried and cried.

Hyuk-jung didn't press, and only after a while, when he felt he had calmed down enough, did he speak.

"Say something."

Ye Qing began by telling the story of a single invitation addressed to Nine Heavenly Masters.

How she had accompanied him to Kanghorando and met his daughter and a girl named Yunbi, and how she had been kidnapped when they went to the waiting room after the finals. Yun Mi's testimony, the death of Kunoyi, and the wooden coffin that was sent to Nabaxian, the scrolls it contained, and their contents.

After hearing the whole story, Hyuk-jung clicked his tongue in disgust.

"Tsk tsk. A clash between the children of the Heavenly Palace and the children of the Heavenly Martial Academy is inevitable. No, they're already clashing."

Roughly calculating from the time I started here, if I hadn't been wiped out early on, I would have been in the middle of a fight by now.

"Dost thou know why there are only twelve troops of one thousand and thirty-three, though they are called thirteen?"

Ye Qing shook his head.

"Nope. Wasn't the invisible thirteen just a legend?"

The story of a teenager in the Temple of Heaven was almost a myth. It was not unreasonable, as no one had seen them since the founding of the temple.

"There are thirteen."

In a firm voice, Hyuk-jung said.

"Is that true?"

"What will you do because your father lied to you?"

"Where the hell are they, are they your grandfather's secret army?"

The old man shook his head.

"No, I never raised anything like that. In fact, the thirteen was always there. You just didn't see it."

"It was always there, we just didn't see it, is that what you're saying?"

"Yeah. Well, the ones who didn't realize they were thirteen are just as much of a problem. Tsk tsk tsk."

Old Man Hyuk-jung clicked his tongue, wondering what was so nasty again.

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

In fact, there wasn't a single person around her who knew the secret.

"Think about it, and you'll see."

"Then again, it's been a hundred years and no one has noticed, so maybe you should teach me."

"No way. It's a secret!"

In an exaggeratedly solemn voice, the elder Hyuk-jung said.

"…that's a lie!"

Then he stuck his tongue out, grinning from ear to ear. And then he chuckled.

A look of amusement I never thought I'd see,

"Foot!"

Ye Qingyu couldn't help but laugh. The unexpected behavior of an unexpected being was unimaginable, and the effect was even greater.

"Now you're smiling a little."

The old man smiled with satisfaction. It was the kind of crooked smile that an older man might occasionally show.

"Grandpa……."

Apparently, the old man had brought up this story to cheer Ye Qing up. Certainly, with the legendary old man by his side, Ye Qing's mood stabilized a bit. He felt like he had a glimmer of hope. For Ye Qing, there was nothing in this world that was impossible to accomplish, and the old man was just like that.

"Out of the goodness of my heart, I'm going to tell you. But you must not tell anyone else. Do you understand?"

"Yes, I promise."

Ye Qing replied quickly.

"You know about yin and yang, right?"

"Sure. If you look at the Tai Chi symbols, those are the white little circles in the black and the black little circles in the white, right?"

In the Tai Chi symbol, the black side symbolizes "yin" and the white side symbolizes "yang".

"Yes, they symbolize yin becoming yang when it's old, and yang becoming yin when it's old. It's not a complete dichotomy between yin and yang, but it symbolizes the yang within the yin and the yin within the yang."

"And it's also a symbol that represents the cycle of yin and yang."

"You know what you're doing."

"But what does that have to do with a thousand and thirty-three?"

"Thirteen-year-olds are 'yin and yang'. They are the black and white."

The old man's words were shorter and more terse than I expected.

"……."

Seeing that Ye Qing was still dumbfounded, the old man suddenly spoke up.

"So you thought we had an 'exchange student' system for nothing?"

"The Exchange Program…… white in black, black in white…… no way!"

After thinking about it for a while, Ye Qing was so surprised that his eyes widened. There was a point.

"Yeah, they're the real thirteens in the makeshift thirteenth dorm."

"I can't believe it!"

The Thirteen Thousand and Thirteen was not actually a unit of men from the Temple of Heaven. The invisible Thirteen Thousand were emissaries from the Heavenly Martial Academy, the "white" to the "black" Heavenly Martial Academy.

"This was done so that the Black and White Dynasties could join forces against the Heavenly Demon, but instead of joining forces, they're now at odds with each other……. Tsk tsk."

Yin becomes yang and yang becomes yin, and that cycle is natural. Yin-Yang and Yang-Mid-Yin were transitional periods in the middle of that change, a kind of buffer. It was a buffer between the two.

I wanted to realize that there is no right without left, no yin without yang. There needed to be balance and harmony.

I wanted them to realize that for themselves.

There was no point in an absolute being of gods and goddesses dictating by force; that was not harmony and balance in the true sense of the word.

That's why I experimented and tested endlessly.

But apparently their attempt was doomed to failure.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk, the crisis of the unborn is approaching, and we're falling for the enemy's tricks and fighting each other……."

The old man's heart was not at ease, for the grand plan he had spent a hundred years on had not yielded a good harvest. The intentions he had made with his friend were now weathered by time and had disappeared without a trace, and all that remained were the old pitches between man and man.

The minds of the gods and goddesses who had built the Heavenly Martial Hall and the Heavenly Pagoda had not been passed down to the current era. Over the years, their minds and voices had deteriorated under the weight of human desires and the passage of time, and now there seemed to be no remnant of them left.

They hoped that their intentions and hearts would be passed down through the ages, but it seems to have been a fleeting dream.

"We had hoped that our hearts would reach you across the ages, but apparently that was a fleeting dream."

How lonely it was. Ye Qingyu couldn't help but feel sorry for himself.

"A fierce storm is brewing in the land."

The old man stroked his beard and muttered quietly to himself.

"What would happen if this half of the world faced the looming crisis of untapped oil?

The old man did not want to know the terrible answer.

'They've already started to make their move…….'

A hundred years ago, the Descendants of the Heavenly Beasts hid themselves in the darkness of the Great Lake. Unseen, they still waged their silent battles in unseen places, but their tricks were shrewd, and they failed to seize the tails. No, they caught them, but each time they cut off their tails and fled. Those tails were called "cowries" because they were feathers, not bodies. But the ones that were moving now were different. It was clear that the body had finally begun to move itself.

"That means it's time for a fight.

I couldn't think of a way to avoid it now. It was now impossible to prolong this seeming peace.

"But will those who have lived in comfortable peace for the past hundred years be able to withstand the coming fight?

They've been fed and patted on the back and can't think of anything but their own self-interest?

"How many people are truly uninhabited?

The Temple of Heaven and the Hall of Heaven were meant to stop it, but in some cases, the Temple of Heaven might have to be abandoned.

'No response.

The recent events were like a boulder that started rolling down a mountain. It was too late to stop it.

'I should have sounded the alarm across the land sooner…….'

I was just watching, waiting for them to come to their senses, but it seemed that they would only come to their senses after they had tasted all the bitter and spicy flavors. But by then, it would be like losing a cow and fixing a barn.

"Hah……."

The old man let out a sigh that he rarely did.

He felt as if a thick dark cloud was hanging over his future, and his heart was heavy, but he was not weak enough to be crushed by his worries. Soon enough, the old man returned to his normal self. He looked at Ye Qing and spoke in a gentle voice.

"Yeah, by the way… that looks a little better."

Ye Qing was much more stable than before. He was much more stable than he had been before.

"Yes, and if something were to happen to that child…… then he would know his mother's fear."

That was the decision she could make now.

"It's not time to think the worst yet. This child, Bi Ryuyeon, is more trustworthy than you realize. For now, let's trust and wait."

Trust this child, Bi Ryuyeon, Ye Qing was stunned by the words.

"I can't believe it's my grandfather, not anyone else, who admits to being trustworthy…… What the hell is this kid? He wasn't just a horse bone rolling around everywhere?"

To be trusted by his grandfather was impossible without possessing some sort of ability. His own martial power was legendary, and his eyes for people were unimaginably sharp. As Ye Qingyu was lost in thought, the old man called out from the doorway.

"The three outside, and you too! All of you, stay where you are and don't move!"

When did it become three people when there is only one person at the door?

"Don't you dare think of walking into a pagoda alone, especially with red hair."

Yeomdo, who had been pacing back and forth next to Koo Cheon-hak, not knowing when he arrived, was so upset that he had to put his foot down to run toward the dock.

"Blue guy, you too."

Like Yeomdo, Binggum, who was about to run somewhere, was forced to put down his raised foot.

The two were on an errand for the old man to get some pills for detoxification. The old man and Bi Ryuyeon are probably the only ones who can send a bundle of Heavenly Salt and Ice Sword on an errand.

"Breaking in? I never had that in mind, Noya."

An excuse sounded from outside the door. It was Yeomdo voice.

"Me neither, Noya, I'm not like this guy with a temper tantrum."

The voice that followed was that of a Bing sword that Ye Qing was familiar with.

"Oh, yeah? Well, whatever, don't do it. Don't add to the problem, okay? By the way, did you bring back all the medicines you sent on your errand?"

"Yes, I got them all."

Yeomdo and Binggong replied at the same time, then looked at each other and shouted at the same time, "Don't copy! They had sent both of them away when only one of them needed to be sent away because they were too noisy and would interfere with the patient's cultivation.

"Do all three of you understand?"

Ask again, as if to confirm,

"……Yes."

A grudging reply came from the doorway.

'Yerin, please, please be safe…….'

All Ye Qing could do now was pray and wait, a task that required great patience.