Book 28 Chapter 7

Mothers

-Genius (玄女) Chuse (出世)

Muhua sat in a rosewood chair with a broken handle, staring at the ceiling, unmoving. She couldn't remember when she'd been brought here, and hadn't for some time.

Then the fragmented memories began to come flooding back.

As she struggled with her grief, death energy flowed from her, withering the green forest. With the darkness came a great rain, but the forest remained black and charred. In the center of the forest, she was drenched in rain, sinking into an endless black, cold, static-filled abyss of despair.

How much time has passed.

She felt something touch her on one shoulder. She turned and saw a blazing flame burning in front of her. She blinked once, and it was the red hair of a woman in a frenzy, a red-haired woman shaking her shoulders in a frenzy, then wrapping her arms around her. She shuddered as the woman wrapped her arms around her, seemingly unconcerned by the flesh of the figs that were blackening the vegetation. No, she wasn't floating, but her body was ringing with the effort of chanting something.

Mu Hua watched the woman's lips unconsciously.

Un…… big…… sound…… sister…….

As I stared blankly at the shape of the segmented mouth, it turned into a fever and approached.

"…… big sister……! big sister……! can you hear me, please…… please……!"

Shoot, shoot, shoot!

Suddenly, the frantic pounding of the rain mingled with the woman's cries, filling her eardrums to bursting. A cold chill made her shiver, and the rough, matted hem of her clothes mingled with the mud, invading her unpleasantly.

"Second…… brother……."

As she pursed her lips, which were parched even in the rain, the red-haired woman who had held her and cried out caught her breath.

"Now…… now you can hear it!"

The woman with the red color on her body, similar to Gal Hyohong's but burning much deeper, the second sister Danhye, who was usually so energetic, enthusiastic, and full of laughter, was crying piteously toward her, tears streaming down her face.

"What are we supposed to do if you go down all alone, Big Sis? I'm…… I'm terrified…… I can't bear to lose that child, but if I lose you too…… we're…… we're left with…… how are we supposed to live with that pain, Big Sis!"

Maybe it was the chills that suddenly shot through me, or maybe it was the second cry of agony.

She, the fig, shuddered convulsively.

"Stop…… me…… and let me go……. Such terrible words……. I have not…… lost that child, I have not lost……! I am not like a mother left behind……! I have not left that child, I have not left that child……!"

Unaware of what she was saying, she spewed out her heartbreak in sobs. Knowing that she had already lost her child, that she had already become an abandoned mother, but screaming with all her might that she wasn't.

But Dan-hye held on to her with all her might, as if she would never let go, and cried out at the top of her lungs.

"Yes, yes, we won't let him go either! He came into the world from his big sister's body……! Isn't he the child we raised together with our own hands……! Isn't he the son we wouldn't waste our flesh to feed him! Isn't he the mother of more than just one big sister! So if you want to go……, come with us! Please don't just ask me to let him go, big sister!"

Mu Hua's eyes glazed over at the searing cry, and he felt something like hot iron trying to rise from his twisted lungs.

Just then, something like a downpour of rain seized her left hand, and a rush of coolness ran through it, slowly calming her blood, which had been burning with grief and threatening to explode.

She looked at her left hand.

Then an elegant woman with hair the color of deep, clear water took her hand and looked at her with dark, clear eyes. The face of the third brother, Saran, was so blank and dull that it was impossible to tell whether it was tears or rainwater running down her cheeks.

Saran spoke in a tranquil voice, transferring a steady stream of cool energy to Muhua.

"Quench the deep fire that burns your heart and focus your mind. You shouldn't be wasting your energy. You must think of the future."

Saran's voice was barely above a whisper, but his words pierced through the harsh pounding of the rain and Danhye's sobs. The voice seemed to wash over him, and as he awoke, he felt his vision blurring into a film of transparent water again.

"The future…… The future……. Sarai, my third brother……. Tell me, then, what do you think lies ahead for me? Will it be woe? Will it be lamentation? Will it be a nightmare from which I shall never wake? I cannot think! I cannot look ahead!"

To Muhua, who was fuming, Saran said, sending her a clearer aura.

"Let me ask you then, my third brother Saran, do you mean to say that we are all so blinded by grief that we have already forgotten what we should have done before we fell into heartbreak, what we should have given him, our last gift to him?"

Sobbing, Danhye and Muhua turned to look at Saran with bloodshot eyes.

"The last gift……. Tell me, wise Saran, what can we give the child?"

At Muhua's confused question, Saran replied in a deep, calm voice.

"It is a censer to be made from the skull of the beast that harmed the child, and a fire of incense to be burned by tearing its body into a thousand prongs."

* * *

The black-clad woman, Mu Hua, quietly looked around the hall.

The first rays of dawn, peeking through the small window above the hall, bathed the empty hall in a bluish hue.

The sun was going to rise again today.

She suddenly felt like laughing. She hadn't been able to shed any more tears before she'd burned the "incense" for her son herself, and now she felt like she needed to laugh to release what was overflowing inside her.

But when has laughter ever been so hard?

She couldn't stop smiling, even when the stone floor of the temple finally caught the morning light and glowed a dull white.

She gave up the futile endeavor and closed her eyes tightly, trying to compose herself.

Was the sadness washed away in the cascading rain of the night?

When she opened her eyes once more, her dark, deep eyes blazed with a sage-like light.

Finally, she picked up the dragon head book lying beside her and stood up, walking out of the hall with heavy steps.

Outside the hall, her two sisters and eight children were already waiting, armed and dressed to the teeth. They were all dressed in black robes, the color of death. None of them wore white robes, as if they were determined not to let 'him' leave just yet.

The more senior of the two women, the one with hair as red as a blazing flame, spoke with formal courtesy.

"The second wife of the Shinmaga, Dan-hye, stands with the third wife, Saran, leading eight children, awaiting the command of the patriarch."

In Dan Hye's eyes, anger and determination clashed and burned like flames.

Mu Hua didn't even have to give them orders. They were sisters who had been together for decades, serving the same man. Needless to say, they had everything in place.

Because of the mysterious and mysteriously obscure nature of Gal Zhonghyeok, who had no concern for his family, the influence of women over men in the clan was overwhelming, and it was here that the women gathered, women who could not even allow the Black Heavenly Lord Gal Zhonghyeok to properly cultivate his qi.

So they're not used to waiting. It was their role to take action rather than wait. After a quick look at the group of servants gathered in the backyard, Muhua's tightly closed mouth opened.

"Blood washes blood. No matter who the opponent is, even if it's a Jade Emperor instead of a Spiritual Emperor, this blood debt must be repaid. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Gamo!"

Everyone nodded in unison and answered in hushed tones.

"Are all the children of Shinmaga ready?"

"Yes! All eight of them are already ready and waiting for their orders."

The woman standing at the head of the eight, her black breastplate and white tiger skin draped over her shoulders, answered: Galhyo, the eldest of the eight. She was more famous as the Tiger Maiden than her real name.

Mu Hua nodded once, heavily, and then opened his mouth.

"I will personally inflict a thousand punishments on the four hundred beasts. As for the rest of you, let's tear the beast to pieces and burn it before we think about it again. From this day forward, everyone must stop crying, not even the slightest sob will be tolerated. Those who have not sought revenge deserve no tears, and no one should even disturb their makeup until the job is done! The women of Shinmaga must not show their tear-stained makeup to their enemies!"

A few women with tears in their eyes hurriedly dabbed their sleeves over their eyes. And then everyone smoothed their hair impeccably.

"The path you walk from now on will never end, until the day of vengeance! Do you understand?"

"Yes, Gamo!"

The women answered in unison. Their makeup fixed and their clothes pressed, they had an eerie gleam in their eyes. Their pupils glowed with a fierce determination, as if they were martial artists.

The woman in black nodded heavily before declaring.

"I'm leaving."

Shinmaga's mistress has taken matters into her own hands. To avenge her son's bloodshed with her own hands.

It was the kind of thing that would have sent the whole of Black Island into a frenzy.