Book 9 Chapter 14

My bad!

- Ryu-yeon Bi

"Off……."

She was at a crossroads.

The circumstances around him kept urging him to make a decision.

Now we're running out of time.

I needed to make a quick decision.

"What are you so worried about?"

This came as a surprise to Jang Hong, who had always thought of Bi Ryuyeon as someone who was about 20,000 li away from worrying.

What could possibly have caused him such distress?

"You know, that……."

Bi Ryuyeon struggled to speak. Judging from her troubled expression, it must take a lot of courage to speak up! Jang Hong nodded vigorously.

"Tell me, anything I can do to help!"

But Jang Hong soon regretted saying it.

"What are you going to do now?"

Jang Hong asked probingly. This was not the same Jang Hong who had been counseling her earlier, like a big brother with a big heart. In Jang Hong's eyes, no matter how hard he tried to be nice, Bi Ryuyeon was acting too pitifully.

"Not once, but twice……."

Jang Hong didn't look happy either.

"ughhhh……."

When he couldn't think of an obvious solution, he grimaced. His face, which had never raised an eyebrow at anything, was contorted to the point of distortion.

"Alas! I'm torn……."

Bi Ryuyeon sighed, her face somber.

"That's why I told you to think and act more carefully!"

Jang Hong was genuinely angry; he couldn't forgive Bi Ryuyeon for her insensitivity.

"umm……."

Once again, Bi Ryuyeon groaned. As she crossed her arms and remained silent, traces of her struggle were evident throughout her body. She didn't seem to need to argue.

"I'm sorry, I was wrong, I'm deeply remorseful!"

The word "remorse" came out of the mouth of Bi Ryuyeon, who seemed like she would never apologize or reflect.

"You can't, you brought this on yourself!"

Jang Hong said harshly.

"That's the way it's supposed to be, right?"

Bi Ryuyeon was devastated. She hadn't meant to cause such a disaster. Feeling sorry for her, Jang Hong said with a sigh.

"That's why I told you not to eat too much, even if you have a big stomach, two specialty delicacies is too much, usually even four people can't finish it!"

"Whoops… I'm remorseful too, I'm really remorseful!"

There was still so much food to eat.

"It would be such a waste of money to leave it behind, wouldn't it?

All that mattered to him now was the food in front of him, and the military sake lord Maha Ling and the Chinese New Year sake lord Yong Tian Ming, who had caused trouble during the day, were not within his defensive range.

"Is there some kind of monster nesting in this human brain?

Jang Hong has been thinking about it a lot lately.

The urge to crack his head open and see what's inside has been a recurring theme lately, but one thing I can guarantee is that it's not going to be anything like a normal human brain or head.

"If it's the same, I can't do that when I wake up from the dead!

In any case, it was clear that he needed to be properly informed about the Mach number. The ship had already left the harbor, but I just needed to make sure I didn't lose my footing and drown in the harbor.

After three days of nonstop talk about the big event, night still came, as if there was nothing wrong with the change in nature.

In Bi Ryuyeon's room, three men with serious faces were huddled together.

Their expressions were grave, the most serious of which was Jang Hong. Of the three of them, Jang Hong was the one who most clearly recognized the gravity of what Bi Ryuyeon had done today. Every time he saw Bi Ryuyeon go head-on into areas that others avoided because they were dirty, he had to check his heart to see if something was wrong.

"Ryuyeon, are you crazy?"

Jang Hong asked bluntly.

"Why, it's perfectly normal, you know it when you see it!"

The answer was straightforward. Of course, my doubts were not completely gone.

"Seeing is believing!"

Jang Hong shouted at the top of his lungs. It was rare for him to raise his voice. This time, he was working himself up into a frenzy over the absurdity of it all.

"Do you even realize who you've just touched?"

"A spoiled brat who was just walking by!"

Jang Hong's shoulders sagged at Bi Ryuyeon's answer.

"Then yes! You can't do something like that if you know what you're doing. They say ignorance makes you brave, and that's exactly what you are."

Jang Hong first worried that his sigh would cause the earth to quake.

"What does it matter to me if she's a warlord or not?"

Like it's no big deal!

"You… you… you… you know it!!!"

Jang Hong was horrified. Right now, he wanted to split Bi Ryuyeon's skull in half and examine his brain structure and mental state.

"No, you mean I have to go out of my way to argue with people based on who they are or how good they are, and how can I possibly divide my attention between all of that? How can I possibly spend all of my time worrying about people's backgrounds and statuses when I don't even have a seat at the table?"

"Still, shouldn't we try to avoid flatlanders?"

"Was she really that great a woman, judging by the way she behaved? Whoever her father was must have had a very bad upbringing."

It's a blunt assessment from Bi Ryuyeon.

"Speaking of his father, ……."

Jang Hong cautiously opened his fortune. As he expected, he hadn't known everything.

"Huh?"

"Does she know that her father is the Guanzhou Iron Fist Magistrate of the Heavenly Martial Academy here?"

"……!"

"Ho-o"

While Hyo-ryong was furious, Bi Ryuyeon was only scratching her head. For a moment, Jang Hong couldn't help but doubt her reading comprehension skills. It was comforting to see her react to his words like a normal human being.

In order to fulfill Hyo-ryong's expectations, Jang Hong had to add an afterword.

"It is not yet time to be so alarmed; her maternal grandfather is the great swordsman Hahu Shik, whose name is known to all, and whose name no one dares to utter lest he commit blasphemy; she is the only granddaughter of the city, and the successor of his progress!"

Jang Hong's celestial words no longer surprised Hyorong. His friend had unwittingly touched a giant without thinking twice.

"…So you shouldn't have any trouble getting your way. I'm certainly intrigued to see what kind of martial arts prowess you have, one who has made such progress in the city and the Iron Fist, though it remains a mystery how such a woman was subdued by you……."

Jang Hong glanced at Bi Ryuyeon with a warning. If he had any conscience at all, he should have looked more surprised, but he was too vivid compared to Hyo-ryong, who was blushing over something that wasn't his business. Jang Hong didn't want to lose this funny, eccentric friend just yet.

"You need to understand the gravity of the situation!!! You fucking idiot!

Jang Hong's cries were only an unanswered echo, resonating only within his boiling guts.

"I'm not intimidated by a person's background or power, other than their skills… so get a life, you worrywart!"

But Jang Hong, with his normal, normal mindset, couldn't do it.

"Anyway, be careful!"

"When I remember!"

The nonchalant Bi Ryuyeon replied.

The light of the blazing torch flickered across the cold hilt of the sword. The ghastly sharpness of the blade illuminated a ghastly face. An eerie aura of anticipation flashed throughout the blade. It was his own beloved sword, the Ghost Soul, which had given him the title of Ghost Sword. It was also a comrade-in-arms who had lived and died with him for dozens of lifetimes. How much blood, sorrow, and anguish had flowed through this sword…….

Gao Yan held his sword in his left hand and a white cotton cloth in his right, and with a stern face, he slowly, slowly cleaned his sword. The flesh on his sword grew darker and darker, as if responding to his mind.

"幻魔洞이라……."

This was a very surprising decision, not to mention a nasty one.

"Is that side so strong that even Fang Ma Dong has to be opened?"

It's unlikely that Mazinger would have made such a decision without thinking about it - he's not one of those people who walks through the world without thinking! It must have taken him quite a while to come to this conclusion.

"Will it survive?"

The light from the blade felt like red blood.

"Hoo hoo, I'm looking forward to it……."

A magical gateway in the middle of a revolving door that will test your mind and body! It is said that if you make a mistake, your mind and body will be ravaged and you will eventually go insane. The Gate of the Dead, once sealed because it was too dangerous, is about to be reopened.

"A place with a lot of casualties, right?"

"Even if you die, it's only an accident… If you can't rise above that, how can you win the fight!"

In order to get something, you have to pay for it.

"Because the world… hates free stuff……."

Sometimes the world was cruel, but often it was surprisingly fair. I set down the cheesecloth I'd been carefully wiping with and put Guihon back into the sheath.

Click!

With the sound of sword and scabbard engaging, Guihon was sheathed again.

I have a sneaking suspicion that tomorrow will be even busier.

"Do you have anything on your mind these days or not?"

"Sorry!"

"I need a living person, not a dead corpse."

An ugly, abstract shout fell like a thunderbolt.

"Hyorong!"

"Yes!"

"Are your eyes open? Your cultivation is so poor these days. It's not enough to keep your mind as sharp as a sword, but you have such a weak mind……. There's no excuse for you to be killed by a sword flying at your back while you're asleep."

"What's wrong with him lately?"

Bi Ryuyeon shook her head. To slip up on such a simple sword path? It wasn't like him at all.

These days, he felt like a lost man. Everything he did was full of mistakes, and nothing he did was ever done right.

"Is that the cause?

Bi Ryuyeon was a little worried. Ever since the incident at Mudang Mountain, she hadn't seen much of the life-giving elements of Hyo-ryong, such as vitality and motivation.

"Do you know where you're going from here?"

When everyone replied that they didn't know, a cold smile crossed his lips. What would the children's faces look like? It was a thrill to imagine.