Chapter 4
Cheongun gritted his teeth and stopped all movement. The object that was about to go down his crotch was now climbing back up his thigh.
The man in the bamboo hat also took a step towards him.
Cheongun held his breath and, as slowly and with as little movement as possible, as quietly as possible, pushed his body deeper into the crevice of the rock.
Then he clutched the black jade bead necklace hanging around his neck on a worn leather cord. It was a necklace left by his mother.
His mother had once said that someone might recognize the necklace someday. She had also said that if someone recognized the necklace, it was highly likely that they were of her bloodline.
Whenever Cheongun had a hard time or felt miserable, he would hold the necklace and think of his deceased mother and the words she had left behind.
Then his heart would be at ease. He could overcome any difficulty, no matter how hard.
'Mother, please help me.'
At that moment, the Jinyiwei on the cliff shouted loudly.
"I will surely repay today's grudge! If I survive, I will find all of you and tear you to shreds!"
Then the two of them jumped down into the waterfall below without hesitation.
The man in the bamboo hat turned around again, rushed to the place where they had been standing, and looked down.
The bottom of the waterfall was full of huge foam, and it was dark, so nothing could be seen.
Only a deafening roar that shook the eardrums could be heard.
Gritting his teeth, he shouted to the back.
"Find them! Confirm their life or death! If they are dead, bring back their bodies!"
After some time, Cheongun crawled out of the crevice in the rock.
After looking down the mountain with eyes blazing with the fire of anger for a long time, he turned around and left the place.
The rain, which had become lighter, was becoming heavy again.
* * *
Rumble-
CRASH!!
Thunder and lightning shook the heavens and the earth. A blue bolt of lightning tore the sky apart.
Along with the pouring rain, thunder constantly roared from all directions as if the world was being created anew.
At that moment, an old shrine with one wall tilted to the side came into Cheongun's eyes as he was carefully walking through the deep mountains.
The roof of the shrine had long since collapsed. A large rock could be seen inside the torn entrance.
Suddenly, he remembered hearing from someone a long time ago that there was such a place deep in the mountains.
'Ah! This must be the Blood Emperor's Tomb.'
It was a place known to have existed for two or three hundred years. But it was said that even beasts were reluctant to come because of the eerie energy of the surroundings.
Of course, for Cheongun, it was a grateful place where he could take shelter from the rain.
Cheongun, who entered the shrine, curled up in a corner behind a large rock with a red rope wrapped around it.
Every time the lightning flashed, his body trembled.
But from his two eyes, a cold light flashed, so much so that it made the lightning seem pale.
'Hyeokryeon Hui! I will never forgive you!'
An unbearable anger surged. It felt as if his heart would burn up.
Hyeokryeon Hui had failed the palace examination. Considering his skills, it was nothing short of surprising.
He had thought he would at least become a Tanhwa.
'You son of a bitch! How could you try to kill me, even after all that. To kill so many people!'
Suddenly, he thought that his father might have suffered in a similar way.
After hearing Hyeokryeon Hui's words, he had looked into not only his father's death but also Hyeokryeon Hui's father, Hyeokryeon Jongdo.
The two were said to have been like friends for a long time.
They had encountered bandits on their way to take the civil service examination, and in the process, his father had returned as a corpse without even taking the exam.
On the other hand, Hyeokryeon Hui's father, Hyeokryeon Jongdo, had become a Tanhwa and returned home in glory. Although he quit being an official and became a merchant less than three years later.
People who knew that fact were said to have thought Hyeokryeon Jongdo's passing was surprising.
Hyeokryeon Jongdo was not a man of such great learning as to become a Tanhwa. But he passed, while Lee Jeong, whose learning was far superior to his, could not even take the exam.
'In the end, it's highly likely that Hyeokryeon Hui's father drove my father to his death out of jealousy.'
Cheongun had planned to build up his strength and take revenge after becoming the top scorer. That was why he had stayed in the imperial palace and tried to catch the emperor's eye.
But instead, he was attacked by the man and almost died.
The fortunate thing was that he had saved his life. As long as he was alive, there were plenty of opportunities for revenge.
Never! I will never forgive him!
As time passed and it became the hour of the rat, the sky slowly began to take on a reddish hue.
The rain gradually subsided, and the thunder and lightning also slowly lost their power.
By the time the hour of the rat ended, the clouds covering the sky were all dyed red.
And something of an unknown identity, a blue light, began to swirl within the red clouds.
A growling sound was heard from the sky.
As the growling intensified, as if a blue dragon were playing above the clouds, Lee Cheongun, who was hiding behind the rock, slowly raised his face.
The sky could be seen through the collapsed roof.
The still-growling sky was very angry. It seemed to be holding a lot of dissatisfaction.
'The sky is strange.'
Cheongun, who was crouching and fiddling with the black jade necklace, stared blankly at the sky at the strange phenomenon he had never even seen in books.
The red clouds were gathering in a circle as if in a whirlwind. But between the red clouds, a blue energy flashed ceaselessly.
"Is it lightning energy?"
At that moment, something caught his eye due to the blue lightning.
Something was stuck inside the red rope wrapped around the rock. It was a wooden board with its corners worn down, as if it were very old.
There were letters written on the wooden board, but they were not clearly visible because of the red rope.
In the midst of it all, Cheongun, whose curiosity was piqued, untied the red rope and tried to pull out the wooden board. But the wooden board did not come out easily, and as he tried to pull it out by force, the rope broke.
Cheongun looked at the wooden board without paying attention to the broken rope.
Flash! CRASH!
As the blue lightning flashed, the letters written on the wooden board became visible.
Three characters were written in seal script.
[Do Not Cut]
Did it mean not to cut the rope?
But the rope was already broken.
Cheongun gave a bitter smile.
Was this the time for him to be concerned about a wooden board?
Cheongun threw the wooden board to one side.
At that moment, the blue energy between the swirling red clouds exploded.
Jjeojeojeojeojeong!
With a powerful flash that lit up the world in blue, a powerful bolt of lightning struck the ground.
CRASH!
But the lightning happened to fall on the Blood Emperor's Tomb where Cheongun was hiding. It directly hit the large, dark red rock that was known to have the Blood Emperor sealed in it.
Because of that, Cheongun, who was next to it, was also engulfed in the blue lightning energy. A bluish glow swallowed his body.
In a fleeting moment, the past flowed by like a revolving lantern.
'Ah, no...!'
He wanted to scream from the great pain. But he couldn't breathe.
Cheongun couldn't even lift a finger and fell to the floor with a thud.
At the same time, the bluish glow that was flashing as if to burn his entire body with a sizzling sound was quickly sucked into his chest.
For a moment, the black jade necklace protruding from his chest was dyed with a blue light.
After some time.
[Kekekeke.]
A disgusting laugh was heard from somewhere.
Cheongun, who barely opened his eyes, was startled by the cold, sticky, deep darkness that dug deep into his chest.
'W-what is this?'
The red rock next to him began to shake from side to side with a growling sound.
Jjeok jjeojeojeojeok-
A hairline crack that started from the top of the rock was transmitted down and continued for a long time. A red light seeped out from the hairline crack that ran exactly from top to bottom.
As the red rock vibrated, the hairline crack began to widen, and soon, with a crack!, it split in two.
Kuuung!
Hwaaaak!
A red light exploded in all directions. It was a tremendous light that was enough to illuminate the entire shrine area.
The intense light subsided in the rain and then sank into the pitch-black darkness again.
Nevertheless, only one place was still bright.
The place where the red energy that had been directly hit by the lightning was gathered.
[The seal is finally broken!]
As if a humming sound was heard, something red stood tall in the center of the place where the split red rock was.
A red haze like fog swirled around. The red haze swayed in all directions as if dancing with joy.
[But... what is this weak-looking guy?]
The red shadow muttered as it looked down at the fallen Cheongun.
A cold voice hummed and echoed around.
As if something was so displeasing, the haze that was wrapped around its entire body emitted a sharp momentum.
A red haze extended from the shadow and wrapped around the fallen Cheongun's body.
Cheongun, who was slowly floating into the air, still couldn't move his body.
[What, his body is a mess from being struck by lightning?]
Cheongun, who was attached to the red rock, should have been burned to a crisp or his body should have exploded from being struck by lightning.
But by a stroke of luck, he did not die on the spot and was still breathing.
[Damn it, he's going to die soon.]
His appearance was fine, but his blood vessels had burst and become blocked at will. It was a wonder that he was still breathing and not dead.
Perhaps the last lingering attachment remained in his gasping breath.
But the shadow wrapped in the red haze was not interested in the dying body.
[I'll have to find a new body.]
The red hazes exploded in all directions. Long, thin streams of light stretched out endlessly.
After some time, the streams of light that had been stretching out for a long time returned.
[Damn it, this is troublesome.]
There was no desired body nearby. There should have been at least a slash-and-burn farmer or a medicinal herb gatherer, but no one was to be seen.
No, in fact, it wasn't that no one was seen.
He had found a few humans.
Three stooped old women and two old men who were nothing but bones and about to die.
But... no matter how urgent it was, he couldn't live in such a body, could he?
[Damn it. This has become a headache.]
The seal was broken, but there was no body to occupy.
Slowly, the red light of his eyes turned downwards. The soon-to-die Cheongun was taking his last breath.
Again, the red haze wrapped around Cheongun's body and lifted him up.
Just in case, he examined Cheongun's body here and there.
[Should I just use this guy?]
But no matter how much he looked, his body was in such a mess that it was a wonder he hadn't stopped breathing.
[Hmm. The body can be fixed... the problem is the lightning energy...]
The energy of lightning, which was said to hold the power of exorcism, was his nemesis.
But there was no other alternative. Other than the dying Cheongun in front of him, there was no proper body within the soul's range of action.
[Is there no way?]
If he had a lot of time, he would look for another body, but he couldn't do that.
If he failed to occupy a body within the set time after the seal was broken, his soul would be extinguished.
The same goes for receiving sunlight.
The sun would rise soon...
[I have no choice but to save this guy.]
Seueueuk.
The red haze wrapped around Cheongun's body.
The haze became thousands of strands of thread and wrapped around Cheongun's body.
The figure of the person who had been wrapped in the red haze gradually became clear. It was the state of a faint soul, a middle-aged man wearing a red robe embroidered with a golden dragon.
A strong impression that would not budge even if the sky fell.
He looked down at the cocooned Cheongun with eyes glaring like a great tiger of the Heavenly Mountains.
The cocoon flickered like a firefly and emitted a red light.
The flickering time gradually quickened.
When the flickering reached its peak, the middle-aged man's right hand slowly rose.
From the tip of his finger, a thick, blood-colored stream of light extended to Cheongun, who had turned into a cocoon.
The moment the two were connected, the middle-aged man's soul also began to flicker. As it turned on and off repeatedly, the middle-aged man's form gradually became blurry.
Eventually, the middle-aged man's soul and the red thread connecting the two scattered in the wind.
Hwiiing.
The cocoon of light that was wrapped around Cheongun still flickered with a red light.