Rebirth of the Thunder God

-Thud, thud, thud!

The person who suddenly ran in was a woman, and despite her disheveled hair and dripping sweat, she possessed considerable beauty.

Eyes that seemed to hold a lake.

A slender jawline like an egg.

Red and alluring lips.

A sharp nose that looked like it could cut a hand.

All of this was blended in an exquisite balance, making one wonder if she was crafted by a heavenly god.

Namgung Hui was quite surprised by the appearance of such a beauty.

Because she was so beautiful?

That wasn't it. It was because the woman was someone he knew.

Her identity was none other than.

‘The young palace mistress of the Moon Maiden Palace. Her name was Baek Seolhwa, right? By the way, why did she come all the way here? How on earth did she know the location of the Thunder Sect?’

"Squeak. Squeak! (Get a grip. It's an intruder!)"

It didn't seem like something Chichi, who was once an intruder himself, should say, but it was true that the other person was an intruder.

Namgung Hui, brought to his senses by Chichi's shameless advice, asked Baek Seolhwa.

"Why did you enter someone else's sect without permission?"

Baek Seolhwa, after catching her breath for a moment, narrowed her eyes and said.

"This is your sect?"

"That's right."

Namgung Hui had just removed his disguise, but Baek Seolhwa didn't seem to recognize him.

When they first met, he had been disguised as a country farmer, so there was no way she would know his original appearance.

Besides, his body shape had even changed due to the bone transformation, so it would be difficult to see him as the same person unless one had a considerable eye.

"But as far as I know, the master of this sect died a long time ago."

‘Did the former Moon Maiden Palace mistress tell her that I died? But that's strange. She shouldn't know the location of the Thunder Sect.’

If it was the Moon Maiden Palace mistress who had a friendship with the Thunder God of his past life, she could have told her that the Thunder God had died.

But she didn't know the location of the Thunder Sect at all.

Only his sworn brother, Namgung Cheonhu, who had a connection with him, knew the location of the Thunder Sect.

There was no way that he, who was tight-lipped, would have told someone else the location, so there was a sense of unease in the young palace mistress's words.

‘Well, that's not what's important. The fact is that the young palace mistress is an uninvited guest for now.’

The Thunder Sect prided itself on being a mysterious sect.

Chichi, being a spiritual beast, was not someone who could go around leaking the location of the Thunder Sect, so it didn't matter, but the young palace mistress in front of him was different.

"I don't know how much you know, but I'm the master here for now. So get out when I'm being nice. And don't even think about leaking the location of this place."

"What if I don't want to? No. I can't."

"What is this……."

Just as Namgung Hui was about to continue, another presence was heading towards the Thunder Sect.

The sound of footsteps was thumping, as if a bear was running.

But seeing that there was more than one, it didn't seem to be a bear.

"Could it be that you're being chased?"

"Yes. For now, since you're the master here, let me impose on you for a while."

A shameless spiritual beast and a person had gathered in one place.

Of course, it wasn't as if such cases didn't exist, but Namgung Hui was very displeased that it had to be the Thunder Sect.

As soon as Namgung Hui harbored such a complaint, this time, shameless men rushed in.

They boasted voices as loud as their footsteps.

"Uahahaha! Young palace mistress. The place you ran to was just a corner mansion in a mountain like this? I don't know whose house it is, but it's built in a truly remote place."

At the word "ran," Namgung Hui realized that things were not going well.

First of all, her physical condition was vastly different from before they parted.

The male disguise she had been wearing was long gone, and seeing that she, a master, was sweating so much, her insides didn't seem to be fine either.

The young palace mistress's realm was a unique realm among the rising stars.

For her to be chased by those who looked like bandits.

‘She seems to be poisoned. Seeing that she can barely use her internal energy, she must have been hit by a skill-scattering poison.’

Namgung Hui turned his head and looked at the intruders.

The young palace mistress had clearly faced the elder of the Heretic Alliance called the Blood Hand Old Claw.

If so, it would make sense for the ones chasing her to be the pursuit team of the Heretic Alliance.

But the opponents looked like they were saying, 'I'm a bandit,' and they seemed to be from the Green Forest.

Why was she being chased by the Green Forest and not the remnants of the Heretic Alliance?

And how did they know that she was the young palace mistress?

"Hmph! You bandit scum can't even live up to your size. Can't you even handle one woman without ganging up like that? Just cut those off and enter the imperial palace."

"That wench. She speaks so sharply. Even though she looks like that, her beauty is still amazing. Uahaha!"

"Hehe! Vice-chief, let's hurry up and see if she can still be like that on the bed."

"The bed. Good! Boys! Kill the man and capture the young palace mistress alive!"

About twenty bandits rushed in as a group.

As Namgung Hui had also deactivated the formation, they rushed into the Thunder Sect without hesitation.

Would bandits enter someone else's house quietly?

They broke down the main gate and pushed in violently.

-Crack! Crash!

Namgung Hui could not stand still at the sight of his sect being destroyed.

With anger, he gathered his Thunder Ki.

He unleashed the Explosive Thunder Palm.

-Rumble!

A blue flash erupted from Namgung Hui's palm.

A flash of lightning flew with an intense sonic boom.

The energy that flew like that fell into the middle of the bandits.

As soon as it fell, a loud roar was heard.

-Kwaaang!

The size of the Explosive Thunder Palm was not that large.

At most, it was the size of a fist.

But the tragedy that was revealed made the word "at most" seem colorless.

"Keoheok! My leg!"

"Shit! Where did my arm go……!"

It was a mess. The limbs of about ten bandits were torn to shreds by the energy of the Explosive Thunder Palm.

At the tragedy of the Explosive Thunder Palm, the bandits who were fine stopped in their tracks and stared at Namgung Hui with wide eyes.

Their faces showed that they couldn't believe this situation was real.

The vice-chief, who had belatedly come to his senses, frowned his thick eyebrows at Namgung Hui and said.

"Are you the master of the house? Do you dare to be hostile to our Green. Forest. Alliance? Living in a mountain like this, you can't not know us."

He tried to intimidate Namgung Hui with the name of the Green Forest Alliance, trying to remain calm, but his voice was trembling slightly.

It seemed he was somewhat scared after seeing the power of the Explosive Thunder Palm.

"You really are a guy who can't live up to your size. You barge into someone else's house like this, and all you can do is sell the name of the Green Forest Alliance?"

"Our Green Forest Alliance is not a place to be taken lightly enough to be called 'all you can do.' You little hero of the mountain corner have some guts."

"Who's the one with guts? You're still saying that after seeing what just happened? Is your head just for decoration? Your long beard is a truly splendid decoration."

The bandit leader trembled with rage at Namgung Hui's ridicule.

But after seeing the Explosive Thunder Palm earlier, he didn't dare to attack.

All he could do was stand in a standoff with the remaining ten subordinates.

In that standoff, Baek Seolhwa opened her mouth.

"Hey. Are you going to leave the bandits like this? Why do you think they're stalling for time like this?"

"It means more bandits are coming. Alright. I'll take care of it."

Namgung Hui nodded and steeled his resolve.

First of all, it was right to get rid of the bandits to hear the truth.

And if they were from the Green Forest, they were quite vicious among the bandits.

If he let them live, they would only cause harm to the surroundings.

The Mount Huang area was the territory of the Thunder Sect and the Namgung family anyway, so it would be better to clean up the trash.

Namgung Hui began to draw up his Pure Thunder Essence in earnest.

Having reached the 6th star of the Divine Thunder Art, a blue tangible energy undulated around him.

Baek Seolhwa's gaze, who was watching this, changed strangely for some reason, but Namgung Hui didn't care about her gaze.

He only stared at the bandits he had to face.

As the Pure Thunder Essence soared to its peak, Chichi, who was still on Namgung Hui's shoulder, cried out.

"Squeak! (Go!)"

Namgung Hui was the one performing the martial art, but Chichi was taking the credit.

Namgung Hui let out a chuckle at Chichi's appearance and extended his palm towards the bandits.

-Rumble! Kwa-kwa-kwang!

A more intense explosion than the Explosive Thunder Palm he had unleashed earlier rang out.

It was only natural that he would become more proficient, thanks to the more familiar application.

Of course, the bandits wouldn't be able to get used to it.

"R-run!"

The bandits screamed and tried to scatter in all directions.

But would the Explosive Thunder Palm be an easy palm technique to avoid?

It wasn't for nothing that Namgung Hui had reduced its use on the battlefield.

-Kwa-kwa-kwang!

When the Explosive Thunder Palm fell, about seven or eight bandits died on the spot.

Since they had died in an instant, not even a scream was heard.

Only the sound of the surviving vice-chief and a few stragglers swallowing their saliva could be heard.

Well, the condition of the surviving stragglers was not very good either.

Their skin was scorched by the Thunder Ki, giving off a pungent smell.

"H-hey. Young hero. Please spare my life. Then I'll tell the alliance……."

-Flash!

A blue flash pierced the vice-chief's forehead.

The bear-like large body collapsed on the floor, raising a cloud of dust.

The straggler next to him tried to run away in a hurry, but the result was no different from the vice-chief.

Well, the only difference was that this time, he was hit in the back of the head with a Flash Thunder Finger.

"Is it okay if I take care of the rest?"

Baek Seolhwa asked, looking at the bandits who were still crawling on the floor.

It seemed she wanted to take revenge, and Namgung Hui had no reason to refuse since she was offering to clean up.

"As you wish."

As soon as Namgung Hui's permission was given, the young palace mistress drew her sword.

Seeing her arm trembling finely, her physical condition did not seem to be normal.

The reason she was drenched in sweat was probably not because she had been running for a long time, but because of her abnormal body.

-Slash! Slash! Gush!

Baek Seolhwa mercilessly cut down the bandits as if she had met her mortal enemy.

A deep-seated emotion was clearly felt in her sword strikes.

It seemed she had been tormented by the bandits for quite some time.

While the young palace mistress was cleaning up, Namgung Hui was looking at the collapsed main gate.

‘The Explosive Thunder Palm is really not something to be used often.’

In fact, the part that was destroyed by Namgung Hui's Explosive Thunder Palm was much larger than the main gate that the bandits had broken.

The wall had collapsed without a trace, and the main gate, which had been lying down, was also shattered to pieces.

It really seemed like he had to hire an architect to fix the sect.

As Namgung Hui was staring blankly at what was once the main gate, the young palace mistress, who had finished cleaning up, wiped the blood from her sword and said to Namgung Hui.

"Thanks for now."

"What? For now? Alright. I didn't help you expecting thanks. Now, will you explain the whole story?"

* * *

Namgung Hui led Baek Seolhwa into the Thunder Sect.

First of all, he couldn't just leave the poisoned Baek Seolhwa standing there.

"Is this the only way the Thunder Sect can treat a guest?"

And because of her shameless attitude, he had no choice but to let her in.

As Baek Seolhwa said, an uninvited guest was still a guest.

Namgung Hui, having nothing to offer, placed only a glass of cold water in front of her and said.

"It's been a long time since I've returned to the sect, so I have nothing to offer. By the way, how did you get poisoned?"

"We've met before, haven't we?"

Namgung Hui was about to make an excuse for a moment, but seeing that she seemed to know him, he nodded and said.

"Yes. For now, I'd like you to answer my question."

"Alright. If you're the person named Nam Hui who was with that Cho Hyeyeon as I thought, then it's a problem you should know about too."

Seeing that Baek Seolhwa still knew his name and Choyeon's name by their aliases, Namgung Hui immediately corrected her.

"My real name is Namgung Hui, and that child's name is Choyeon. Of course, we're not a married couple either."

"Namgung family? Ah. No wonder……."

Baek Seolhwa nodded her head with a look of understanding.

"Then. I'll explain what happened in Dongling after you left. First, you left without cleaning up properly, so I took care of the Daexiong Gang guys. It was annoying up to that point, but it wasn't difficult."

"I was injured at the time, so I'm sorry about that. What happened after that?"

"As I feared, the Heretic Alliance was the problem. Those guys didn't chase me right away, but waited for me on the path I would appear on. And with poison in the food at that."

Did she not expect poison, being the young palace mistress?

When one was being chased, it was only natural to be careful when drinking water, let alone eating.

It was a very common thing for Unorthodox Faction members to put poison in food and drink.

"You must have learned a lot from this incident. So, the reason you were chased by the Green Forest?"

"Where is the main enemy of the Moon Maiden Palace? Bandits and thieves, right? The Heretic Alliance guys probably leaked information to the Green Forest instead of dealing with me directly."

"The Heretic Alliance's specialty was profiting from conflict. But how did they know you were the young palace mistress? Ah. The martial arts of the Moon Maiden Palace were very distinctive."

The Moon Maiden Palace was one of the very few sects that could handle yin ki.

Yin ki itself was not up to the level of Thunder Ki, but it was a very difficult energy to handle.

Therefore, there were not many sects in the Central Plains that used yin arts.

No, in the current generation, it was safe to say that the North Sea Ice Palace, an unorthodox martial art from outside the Central Plains, was the only one.

There was Sosu Mahu of the destroyed Demonic Cult, but her lineage was not continued.

If so, the Moon Maiden Palace would be the only one in the Orthodox Faction.

‘Energy that is biased to one side is dangerous and lacks stability. Well, its power is strong, though.’

And above all, since it was widely rumored that the young palace mistress of the Moon Maiden Palace had run away from home, even the ignorant Green Forest would have easily guessed.

"Then the Green Forest members will come flocking again. This has become troublesome."

"Why? This place is not known to the world, right? Isn't it perfect for hiding?"

"No. How did you know and come here? And I don't know if you saw it outside earlier, but the axis of the formation is broken. If it's not repaired, it will be exposed again for sure."

Because of the Explosive Thunder Palm that Namgung Hui had unleashed, the cracked axis of the formation had been further damaged.

He really had to either learn the formation or bring a formation expert, one of the two.

"Then what are you going to do about this place? Isn't it a precious place to be given to the Green Forest members?"

‘The concealment formation may be broken, but the sealing formation probably isn't. It should be fine if I activate that and leave. Of course, I won't be able to come back unless I achieve the great completion (10th star) of the Divine Thunder Art.’

Since he had already taken the Thunder Core, there was no need to come to the Thunder Sect for a while.

Namgung Hui was now only of age, so there was no need to hurry and forge a Thunder Core for his disciples.

And there was no need to learn martial arts at the Thunder Sect.

Because it was all in his head already.

"There's no problem since I can seal this place. Instead, your poisoning seems to be the problem. Can you detoxify it on your own?"

"Hey, you've been speaking informally since a while ago."

"You were the one who started speaking informally."

"I'm the young palace mistress of the Moon Maiden Palace, you know? Aren't you just the youngest son of the Namgung family?"

The young palace mistress of the Moon Maiden Palace was of a similar rank to the young lord of the Namgung family in its heyday.

Of course, now that the Namgung family had fallen, the young palace mistress's authority would be slightly ahead.

On top of that, Namgung Hui, being the youngest, was about half a step behind the young palace mistress in terms of seniority.

"So you want me to be polite? You were the one who wasn't polite first, so it's tit for tat. Let's just speak comfortably to each other. And we don't have time, so just answer whether you can detoxify or not."

They had to activate the sealing formation and leave before the Green Forest members came flocking again.

No matter how familiar Namgung Hui was with the geography of Mount Huang, the enemy were bandits who lived in the mountains.

They might be more familiar with the mountain paths than Namgung Hui.

It would be better in many ways to leave quickly.

Baek Seolhwa, as if she agreed with Namgung Hui's words, nodded and opened her mouth.

"Can you stand guard for a quarter of an hour? I think I can detoxify it in that much time."

The power of skill-scattering poison gradually weakens over time.

She must have been tormented by the pursuit for quite a long time, so the effect of the skill-scattering poison would have weakened.

Now, it would be quite possible to detoxify it on her own.

When Namgung Hui nodded, Baek Seolhwa sat in a cross-legged position and gently closed her eyes.

A moment later. A blackish liquid flowed from her fingertips.

At the same time, a pungent smell pierced his nose.

"Squeak! (Smell!)"

Chichi, who had a sensitive sense of smell, screamed first.

Baek Seolhwa seemed embarrassed by Chichi's appearance and scratched her cheek.

"The detoxification is over. Let's go out now."

And so, Namgung Hui and Baek Seolhwa were about to go out.

-Thud.

Suddenly, Baek Seolhwa collapsed on the spot.

(End of Chapter)