Chapter 243
Chapter 243. The First Place She Went
So-hwa had long harbored doubts about Zhuge Ji-hwi's attitude.
She already knew that the Zhuge Clan was on the same side as the Blood Sect. However, he felt different somehow.
Unlike Zhuge In-hwi, it seemed he knew his family's secrets and had even been involved in them.
Even so, it was difficult to assert that he was firmly on the Blood Sect's side.
The Alliance Leader had also said that Zhuge Ji-hwi showed him records of the Blood Sect.
'Why did Zhuge Ji-hwi expose the Blood Demon's hideout to the Alliance Leader?'
As So-hwa continued her suspicions, she heard footsteps.
Step.
When the scent of pine resin mixed into the bamboo fragrance, So-hwa turned her head. Namgung Hyun was walking toward her.
Hiding her puzzled feelings, So-hwa asked,
"It seemed you were having an important discussion. It looks like the meeting ended quickly."
"No. I came out alone. The others are probably still continuing their discussion."
"You came out by yourself?"
"Yes."
The status of those attending the meeting was formidable. It was a place where even opening one's mouth carried great pressure, so she could not imagine how he had managed to leave.
"Your expression didn't look good, so I couldn't stay without worrying."
At Namgung Hyun's reply, So-hwa was momentarily at a loss for words.
"Surely you didn't say that and come out?"
At her half-sarcastic remark, Namgung Hyun answered with a small smile.
"Actually, the Clan Head told me to go out first if I was worried."
"The Namgung Clan Head did?"
Just as she was about to think that the Namgung Clan Head had stirred up her father again, Namgung Hyun said something strange.
"The Clan Head spoke first, but the Tang Clan Head said the same thing."
"My father?"
So-hwa asked back in disbelief.
She wondered if her father had said it sarcastically, but Namgung Hyun was not someone who failed to distinguish tone. He was someone who sensed negative words directed at him with uncanny accuracy, so it must be true that her father had permitted him to leave.
"Actually, the Tang Clan Head also...... knows about me."
Namgung Hyun hesitated as if he was conscious of their surroundings and glossed over his words. Still, So-hwa understood the meaning he had swallowed.
Her eyes widened. If her understanding was correct, it meant Tang Ji-ha knew that Namgung Hyun was a practitioner of dark arts.
Seeing So-hwa's expression stiffen, Namgung Hyun spoke as if offering an explanation.
"I had no choice but to say something, because it seemed the Clan Head misunderstood Young Lady Tang. I was worried about you being in the dungeon...... and since we will be meeting often in the future, I thought I should be honest."
Namgung Hyun bit his lip once, then continued.
"It would be hard on you if you were suspected every time."
"So you revealed everything?"
Tang So-hwa also swallowed her words about the Blood Sect, worried someone might overhear.
"Yes. I don't know why I did so myself. Still, I don't regret having confessed."
Namgung Hyun's face held not worry or anxiety, but relief.
His cheeks were even slightly flushed, making him look pleased.
So-hwa's head ached at the sudden situation, but she soon realized something.
"Then that means my father knows what the young warrior...... is capable of, doesn't it?"
"Yes. The one who showed consideration so that I could stay in Young Lady Tang's room was also the Clan Head."
So-hwa had thought Namgung Hyun relayed the words and that Tang Min had helped her without asking. Yet Tang Min had not persuaded her father after all.
The situation had been urgent, and outsiders were entering the halls, so after leaving the dungeon, So-hwa could not seek out Tang Min to ask what he had discussed with the Clan Head.
After arriving at the Tang Clan, she lost her reason at the flames rising in the inner courtyard and ran to the Nine Turns Pavilion, and after detoxifying Tang Hae-han, she went straight to the Medical Hall to help the Divine Physician. She had no fortunate time to sit with Tang Min and talk about Namgung Hyun.
'Father has learned that Namgung Hyun is a practitioner of dark arts.'
So-hwa, who had been silent, made a strange expression.
She could not tell whether this was a good thing or not.
She muttered as if to herself,
"Then if I disappear with the young warrior, he will be able to guess the reason now."
Namgung Hyun did not understand why So-hwa said such a thing. He only felt glad that Tang So-hwa's once-dark expression had brightened a little.
He replied in a cheerful voice,
"Yes, he probably will. Since he seems to trust me now, Young Lady Tang likely won't be severely scolded."
So-hwa's voice, as clear as her complexion, pierced Namgung Hyun's eardrums.
"Young warrior, there is something I would like to ask of you."
Namgung Hyun waited for her answer. However, instead of speaking, Tang So-hwa stepped close and took his hand.
Tang So-hwa traced letters on his palm.
'Hubei.'
Startled by the word written on his hand, Namgung Hyun looked at her.
"I won't be gone for long. Half a day will be enough."
She had found a way to avoid the Tang Clan Head's suspicion, question Zhuge Ji-hwi, and return. With everyone distracted, it did not seem there would be a problem if she and Namgung Hyun disappeared for half a day.
Namgung Hyun nodded.
"The meeting seems like it will drag on anyway, so even if I step away for half a day, it probably won't be a big problem."
With an inscrutable expression, he added,
"No, our Clan Head would probably be even happier if he knew I left with Young Lady Tang."
Instead of replying, So-hwa hurriedly took him along toward the sparsely populated inner courtyard.
* * *
At the chilling sound brushing his ears, the Master of the Solar Palace moved his eyes. As he lifted his hand, the thick cloth covering the window was drawn aside at once.
It was the worst.
The moon hung in the pitch-black night sky. Thanks to the sand reflecting the moonlight, the world was not all that dark.
Haerak, gazing at the undulating sand dunes, realized the source of the noise.
Shaaahhh.
The wind was moving dunes as massive as mountains.
It was an everyday occurrence, nothing special.
However, as he looked at the reshaped terrain of sand, Haerak's eyes darkened.
Between the moonlit slope and the shadows, a person stood. A tall man, as if a long pole had been driven into the ground, radiated an overwhelming presence even from afar.
Even as the world changed rapidly, the man stood unmoved, like a tree firmly rooted in the earth.
Only his long hair, reaching all the way to his feet, fluttered gracefully in the wind.
Watching the Blood Demon standing upon the sea of sand, Haerak let out an involuntary hollow laugh.
"A spectacular sight."
At that, Min Doyu, who stood beside him, looked his way. The face of Min Doyu, tense to the extreme, twisted instantly.
His gaze asked whether Haerak was in his right mind, yet he could not open his mouth. His body had gone rigid.
The other martial artists in the room were the same.
Merely facing the Blood Demon, who appeared only finger-sized from this distance, made their knees tremble.
Only then did the weight of the freedom they craved truly hit them.
As fear spread, a resolute aura rose to match it, soon filling the Solar Palace. Heat began to boil like a furnace.
The beautiful palace, newly reclaimed by its master, was on the verge of being half-destroyed.
The new owner, who loved beautiful things, felt a pang of bitterness. He had reclaimed the palace as carefully as if handling a baby, fearing it might be damaged, but now that he had met the world's most excellent grinder, those efforts were in vain.
Of course, he had long suspected that the Blood Demon would eventually leave Jin Yin Mountain, so he had expected they would meet someday.
It had simply come sooner than he thought.
And, most honorably, it seemed the Blood Demon had chosen the Great Desert as the first place to visit.
At that moment, someone blocked his view.
Min Doyu stood in front of the window and spoke.
"You must not go."
The Solar Palace Lord, who was practically reclining in a soft chair, asked,
"What?"
Clicking his tongue, he swept Min Doyu up and down with frivolous eyes.
"You acted like you'd do anything to reclaim the Solar Palace, and now you're already frightened?"
"Is there any need to take the first blow? If you withdraw for a moment and let others wear him down first......."
Min Doyu could not finish his sentence.
He had blocked the window because Haerak looked ready to go out, but if he had been able to stop him, Min Haerak would never have reclaimed the Solar Palace in the first place.
The fall of the Solar Palace had not been particularly difficult for them. However, retaking it had been a declaration of war. It meant breaking free from the Blood Demon's grasp.
Cursing inwardly, Min Doyu ran into the desert after him.
The Central Plains and the North Sea both existed. Why had the Blood Demon come to the Great Desert first? He resented the situation.
Still, considering the Blood Demon's obsession with Haerak, it was hardly surprising.
Even more than a decade ago, he had once personally coveted the Solar Palace's vessel. The reason then had been slightly different. The sect members who managed vessels would occasionally report to the Blood Demon if they found a child born with exceptional talent. The siblings of the Solar Palace were, of course, reported to him as well.
As if the Solar Palace's martial arts had been left for them alone, the siblings, born with Extreme Yang Bodies, absorbed their ancestors' techniques and grew at an astonishing rate.
Once a vessel came of age to be absorbed by the Blood Demon, it was moved elsewhere to continue training. Their duty was to cultivate the energy they carried until the day the Blood Demon absorbed them.
Yet, only a few years after the siblings had been relocated, the Blood Demon summoned them to Jin Yin Mountain. He had no intention of absorbing them. The Blood Demon was no fool, and he had no desire to hastily consume the internal energy of vessels whose limits of growth could not be measured.
He desired something else.
On rare occasions, when the Blood Demon took a liking to a vessel, he personally nurtured it, creating a new vessel imbued with his own blood.
The reports about the siblings piqued the Blood Demon's curiosity.
After seeing them in person, the Blood Demon took a great liking to the elder sister and decided to take her in.
However, the Blood Demon did not know that the siblings did not merely resemble the Solar Palace Lord in body.
They had also inherited his fiery temperament to perfection, and the sister went berserk in her attempts to kill the Blood Demon. She raged so fiercely that even the Blood Demon was taken aback.
He valued highly bodies capable of refining yin and yang energy, and there was no one in the Blood Sect who did not know this.
Yet the Blood Demon had accidentally killed the vessel with an Extreme Yang Body whom he had summoned to his own quarters. In a panic, he absorbed her energy before her life completely faded.
Even so, he thought himself fortunate.
A younger brother with talent similar to hers remained. He planned to raise him well and properly absorb his yang energy.
However, after killing his sister while attempting to violate her, and then treating him like a wine jar to be aged and consumed, there was no way a descendant of the Solar Palace would submit to such an old man. The blood-boiling descendant of the Solar Palace lunged at the Blood Demon, vowing to kill him, and this time, the Blood Demon was careful not to make a mistake as he taught the boy the difference in their levels.
Even so, when his spirit did not break, the Blood Demon, for the first time, felt affection for a vessel.
He made tireless efforts to pair Haerak with a child who had received his blood. Each attempt ended in failure, yet he did not give up and frequently summoned Haerak.
At some point, Haerak accepted the fact that he could not defeat the Blood Demon. Still, he did not give up.
Even knowing that the Blood Demon summoned him to assess how far he had grown, whenever he was granted an audience, he seized it as a chance to try to cut off his head.
If it meant getting close to the Blood Demon, he would do anything.
As a vessel, Haerak rose to the unprecedented position of Main Blood Hall Lord.
Despite the Blood Demon's special treatment of him, Haerak never once abandoned his resolve to kill the Blood Demon.
In truth, he had no other choice.
How could the wealth and power given to him be called goodwill?
If one feeds a cow precious grain and lets it roam a clean pasture in order to obtain good meat, can one say the owner cherishes the cow? Especially when he devours its siblings and looks at him with eyes overwhelmed by appetite. How could he serve such a being?
Thus, he had to kill him before being devoured.
Kwaaaang.
From afar, Min Doyu saw a sand mountain shatter.
The one rampaging was his Hall Lord, and the Blood Demon was indulging him.
Kwaang.
Though apparently annoyed, the Blood Demon occasionally attacked in earnest.
Min Doyu climbed another massive sand mountain. When he drew close enough to be struck by the sand they kicked up, a voice reached him.
"Have you come to save the Main Blood Hall Lord with your meager skills?"
At the sound sweeping over his entire body, Min Doyu froze. Unable to withstand the speed at which he had been running, his body tumbled onto the sand.
Thud.
The voice continued without pause.
"Very well, I shall grant you the chance to save the Main Blood Hall Lord."
The Blood Demon's voice, tinged with laughter, swept through Min Do-yu’s terrified heart.
"Go to the Central Plains at once, and bring me Tang So-hwa."
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(T/N): Welcoooome baaack Haerak~