Where Every Story Blooms

    Ha Yeo-un quickly examined Eun-hyeon’s body. He tried to infuse his own energy, but Eun-hyeon’s energy was chaotically rampaging, refusing to accept it.

    It was as if he had reverted to the state he was in when Ha Yeo-un first met him.

    The body he had painstakingly built up with all sorts of efforts had instantly returned to its initial state.

    In this condition, it was impossible for him to even perform meditative breathing on his own. He could barely endure it with Ha Yeo-un guiding his energy, but even that was impossible right now.

    Ha Yeo-un’s brow furrowed.

    “…You bastards, what have you done to the Eldest Young Master?”

    “Hehehehe. What we’ve done isn’t something we’re doing now, but something we’ve been doing for a long time, and you’re only realizing it now.”

    The old man with the scar on his face cackled, distorting the scar.

    Ha Yeo-un’s aura turned chillingly cold, but the old man didn’t care.

    “They say you’re a rising star, and it seems you have more inner energy than is known. But soon you’ll be in the same state as the Eldest Young Master, so there’s no need to look so worried.”

    “…Did you use poison?”

    Eun-hyeon’s symptoms were similar to those Ha Yeo-un had seen in him before.

    “Hehehe. Everything was decided the moment you fearlessly stepped into this formation. Why do you think we waited until now to kill you? We waited until you were sufficiently poisoned.”

    “…That mist. You released poison into it.”

    He remembered the strangely sticky and unpleasant mist.

    Ha Yeo-un’s body was immune to most poisons. Most poisons in the world had no effect on him, which made him insensitive to poison.

    This was why he hadn’t noticed the poison until now. Because it had no effect on him, he hadn’t even considered poison.

    “Hehehe. I was bored to death waiting. You arrogantly thought you came here by your own skill, following the Gate of Life, but all of that was in this old man’s palm!”

    The old man cackled and even clapped his hands.

    “…Poison, you say. I see. Is it the same poison you used when I was at the Namgung Clan before?”

    Ha Yeo-un’s voice was strangely calm. The old man’s face showed interest as he looked at Ha Yeo-un.

    “You recognized it?”

    “Yes. I thought it was strange that the Eldest Young Master Namgung was poisoned in his own home, so I personally detoxified him.”

    “Nonsense! You detoxified the poison I made myself?”

    The old man’s face trembled with anger.

    Ha Yeo-un smirked at the old man.

    “I knew something vulgar was mixed in and flowing after entering the formation. But you’re so arrogant with such a trivial trick?”

    “Trivial? A trivial trick? They call you the Divine Dragon among the rising stars, so you must think highly of yourself. But it’s already too late. You’ve started hearing the bell, so no matter how miraculous your abilities are, there’s no turning back. Hehe.”

    “…What’s so special about that bell sound?”

    “Hehe. Having heard the sound of the Death Spirit, the only path left for you is to become Undead yourself.”

    “…Undead, you say.”

    Ha Yeo-un’s brow furrowed.

    He was confident that he could restore Eun-hyeon to his original state, no matter what his condition was. But if it wasn’t just poisoning but related to Undead Manipulation, he knew nothing about it.

    Ha Yeo-un turned his head and looked at Madam Hwang.

    Madam Hwang had orchestrated all of this and was pretending not to know, gracefully stepping back and drinking tea.

    “Madam Hwang. How can you, as the Madam of the Namgung Clan, commit such outrageous acts? Not only poisoning the Eldest Young Master of a prestigious family, but also Undead? Are you in league with them to poison the Eldest Young Master?”

    “The White-Robed Divine Dragon is very interested in other people’s affairs. Weren’t you taught by your parents when you were young? That you shouldn’t interfere in other people’s affairs. Oh, right. The White-Robed Divine Dragon was an orphan, wasn’t he?”

    Ha Yeo-un chuckled at Madam Hwang’s words.

    The White-Robed Divine Dragon Ha Yeo-un was known to the world as an orphan who was taken in by the head of the White Cloud Gate and learned martial arts. Madam Hwang was pointing that out.

    “As expected of the Madam of one of the Five Great Clans, your words are overflowing with refinement. But does the Namgung Family Head know that the Madam is such a wonderful person? That she even has acquaintances skilled in Undead Manipulation.”

    Madam Hwang, who had been calm throughout, put down her teacup at the mention of the Namgung Family Head. Her eyes, filled with a blue, venomous light, glared at Ha Yeo-un, her murderous intent no less than that of a martial artist.

    “…That also doesn’t seem to be the White-Robed Divine Dragon’s concern.”

    “I don’t know. Would the Namgung Family Head really think so? With his beloved Eldest Young Master in this state.”

    “The Family Head will understand, as it is for the sake of the clan.”

    Madam Hwang rose from her seat and glanced at those sitting around her.

    “What are you waiting for? How long do I have to listen to that nonsense? Get rid of him quickly.”

    A sneer crept onto Ha Yeo-un’s lips. He had probed as much as he could with the conversation with Madam Hwang, and he knew most of the story.

    “You bastard! You’re just a young pup with no manners. You’re poisoned too. It’s just that the Eldest Young Master’s body is weak, so the reaction came out first.”

    Ha Yeo-un chuckled at those words.

    They were going to die by his hand anyway, yet their tongues were so long.

    “I don’t want to waste any more time here. Those who lack skill are usually the ones with long tongues.”

    “You…!”

    Just as the old man with the long scar on his face was about to rise from his seat in a fit of anger, someone who had been silent in the corner rose from his seat. It was a man who was covering his face with a large bamboo hat.

    The man lifted his hat. The man’s eyes were covered with a black string, giving off an eerie aura.

    It was when Ha Yeo-un narrowed his eyes as he looked at the man.

    The man raised one hand. On the man’s wrist was a bracelet with bells. The man lightly shook his wrist.

    “Aaaaaaah! The sound of the bell…!”

    Eun-hyeon, who had been slumped over, screamed, shaking his body.

    “Eldest Young Master…!”

    Eun-hyeon convulsed. Ha Yeo-un urgently pressed several of Eun-hyeon’s pressure points. They were pressure points to suppress excitement and stabilize him.

    “The sound of the bell…!”

    Eun-hyeon shook his head with dazed eyes, saying that he kept hearing the sound of the bell. But Ha Yeo-un couldn’t hear any sound. There were bells on the man’s wrist, but they weren’t making any noise.

    But Eun-hyeon was in pain as if he could hear the sound of the bell whenever the man moved.

    Ha Yeo-un’s hearing was incomparably more sensitive than Eun-hyeon’s. It was not normal that Eun-hyeon could hear a sound that even Ha Yeo-un’s hearing could not detect. It was clear that some kind of occult trick had been used on that bell.

    “Hoo…”

    Ha Yeo-un quickly pressed Eun-hyeon’s pressure points to prevent him from moving, then carefully laid him down on the floor.

    It seemed to be the first time since he was called Cheonma that he had felt so much annoyance and frustration.

    Ha Yeo-un’s eyes turned cold, even expressionless.

    “I don’t know what you’ve done, but it’s clear that you’ve hastened your own demise.”

    “Hehe, you’re quite the silver-tongued devil.”

    As the old man chuckled, the man with the string covering his eyes whistled a long whistle.

    Pweeet.

    With the sharp whistle, Undead surrounded them.

    “Undead, you say. You still don’t know that they’re useless, do you?”

    “You’ll regret it if you think they’re like the Undead that ambushed you from below. Those were failures, but this one is different.”

    “Regret, you say. We’ll have to see who ends up regretting it.”

    A cold smile hung on Ha Yeo-un’s lips, and the clothes he was wearing roughly swelled up.

    The faces of those who were sitting were filled with surprise at the fierce and rough aura that was incomparable to what Ha Yeo-un had shown so far.

    “What is this…! He was hiding this much inner energy until now? Blood Demon, is the formation working properly?”

    “My formation is definitely working properly!”

    “Then how can such a young brat have so much composure! Blood Demon, you said that his inner energy would be depleted after this much time, have you already caught dementia?”

    The old man with the long scar on his face, Blood Demon, turned red in the face at the mention of dementia.

    “My formation is not wrong. It just means that he was subtly hiding his true strength.”

    It was common sense in the martial world not to reveal all of one’s strength, but this young brat was beyond that level. If he had that much inner energy, he was definitely a supreme master.

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