SYM 77
by Emerlyn“Master. What, what is going on?”
Disheveled clothes, flushed cheeks, and languid eyes gazing at him with a smile.
“What is it? What is so strange?”
Eun-hyeon was lying on the bed, looking at him with a seductive air.
* * *
Cheong-un took the sleeping Eun-hyeon to a nearby Demonic Sect hideout. The hideout was a small manor located a bit away from the village. It wasn’t in great condition as there were no permanent residents managing it, but Cheong-un liked the quietness of the place, as there were no other houses nearby.
The Amhon had finished most of the cleaning before Cheong-un and Eun-hyeon arrived.
Cheong-un advised Eun-hyeon to take a bath first. He planned to prepare a meal and tend to his wounds in the meantime. He was concerned by the severe injuries he could see here and there. After gathering the medicine to coincide with Eun-hyeon finishing his bath, he headed to his Master’s room.
“Master, it’s me, Cheong-un. I’m coming in.”
Cheong-un paused for a moment upon seeing Eun-hyeon on the bed as he entered the room.
Eun-hyeon was lying on the bed wearing only a thin silk robe.
“Are you feeling alright?”
“No. I’m not alright. My feet hurt a lot.”
“…Then let me look at your feet first.”
Eun-hyeon’s atmosphere was strange as he looked at Cheong-un with a flushed face.
If anyone other than Eun-hyeon had acted like that, he would have thought they were trying to seduce him.
But the person in question was his Master, Eun-hyeon. There was no way Eun-hyeon would do that, right?
Cheong-un sat on the bed where Eun-hyeon was lying, trying to hide his unease.
Then, Eun-hyeon lifted his foot. Cheong-un’s eyes flickered briefly.
As Eun-hyeon, wearing only a robe, lifted his leg, his smooth calves and milky thighs were exposed.
For a moment, he couldn’t take his eyes off, even though he knew he shouldn’t.
He swallowed hard. He felt like he was a naive teenager again.
When had he felt this way before?
Even as he looked at Eun-hyeon’s foot placed on his thigh, his lower back grew heavier.
“…Master, your feet are badly injured.”
“Yeah. They still hurt.”
Cheong-un’s voice deepened.
Eun-hyeon seemed to know where Cheong-un’s gaze was directed, and he chuckled, wiggling his foot.
“Aren’t you going to treat me? I’m in a lot of pain.”
“Haa… I’ll apply the medicine first.”
In reality, Eun-hyeon’s feet were so badly injured that Cheong-un frowned as soon as he saw them. But Eun-hyeon seemed calm.
Eun-hyeon was usually good at enduring pain, but this was definitely not normal.
Cheong-un carefully examined Eun-hyeon’s feet.
He sighed as he saw the wounds, where blisters had repeatedly formed and burst, leaving them in tatters. The medicine he had would prevent scarring, but he didn’t know about ordinary medicine. Seeing the body he cherished and carried around in such a mess made his anger towards the Hongbaek Sect rise again.
Cheong-un applied plenty of medicine to Eun-hyeon’s feet and then bandaged them. The wounds were so large that they would need to be bandaged until they healed to some extent.
“You’ll need to take some medicine for a while.”
“If others saw this, they’d think you were a doctor, Cheong-un.”
“I’m better than a doctor. I am the Demonic Sect’s leader, after all.”
Cheong-un deflected Eun-hyeon’s jest with a joke of his own as he examined Eun-hyeon.
He felt a strange sense of incongruity, as if someone else had taken Eun-hyeon’s place.
“Cheong-un… My back and legs hurt a lot. Won’t you massage them for me?”
“Shall I help with Qi Circulation?”
“No. Right now, I’d prefer you to massage me directly rather than Qi Circulation. I must have overworked my body too much when I was affected by that strange sorcery.”
“…It’s not a difficult task, but let’s have a meal first.”
“Ah, I want this first…”
Eun-hyeon lightly rubbed Cheong-un’s thigh with his bandaged foot. Cheong-un’s eyebrows twitched slightly. No matter how much he tried to ignore it, Eun-hyeon’s actions were clearly seductive. But Cheong-un didn’t say anything and helped Eun-hyeon sit up on the bed.
“Bring the meal.”
At Cheong-un’s words, the door opened from outside, and the prepared food began to be brought in one by one. The delicious smell filled the air, and Eun-hyeon’s stomach rumbled.
Cheong-un held Eun-hyeon and placed him in front of the table.
The meal consisted mainly of non-irritating and easily digestible foods for Eun-hyeon, who had been starving for a long time. It had been prepared in a hurry, but everything was excellent.
“Cheong-un, you eat too. Let’s eat together.”
“This was prepared for Master, so you should eat it all. I’ll be back in a moment.”
Cheong-un pretended not to notice Eun-hyeon pouting and stood up from his seat.
* * *
“What happened to that place earlier? Was everything taken care of?”
“Yes. The remnants have all been eliminated, and only those who were kidnapped remain.”
“Are they still in the same state?”
“Yes. They don’t eat or sleep, just sit blankly, so we’ve gathered them in one place. It seems they are in a Semi-Reanimated Corpse state.”
“Did you check if there are any remnants in this area? It seems the Hongbaek Sect is larger than we thought.”
“Yes. We’ve checked all the connected routes, but it will take more time to find those who are scattered.”
“…I see. If you capture any remnants, don’t kill them carelessly, bring them to me. I will interrogate them myself. And has there been any special report from Demon Asura?”
“No. There’s been nothing in particular.”
Cheong-un’s brow furrowed at the lack of a report.
He made a big fuss about creating Undead when he was in the sect, but was his skill actually terrible?
“Tell Demon Asura that if he doesn’t have anything to report by next month, he should send his head instead. It’s embarrassing to think he’s been acting so high and mighty in the Demonic Sect with that level of skill. And tell him to come here and see if he can reverse the Semi-Reanimated Corpse state of the children.”
“Understood.”
“Was there anything else found in that place?”
“I’m sorry, but there wasn’t anything that seemed particularly significant.”
Cheong-un tapped the table with his finger.
“Where could those guys be?”
The Demonic Sect’s biggest weakness was that it was located in a corner of the Central Plains, in the Tianshan Mountains. They were bickering with the Kunlun bastards in the Tianshan Mountains, but geographically, it was difficult to even call it the Central Plains.
Location-wise, Tianshan was as far from the Central Plains as the North Sea Ice Palace or the Southern Wilderness Beast Palace.
To overcome that geographical weakness, Cheong-un secretly created branches of the Demonic Sect throughout the Central Plains. In addition to the branches, he also created hideouts in various places to help the spies’ intelligence activities in the Central Plains. Cheong-un himself roamed the Central Plains more than the Tianshan Mountains.
Thanks to that, the Demonic Sect knew the news of the Central Plains faster and more accurately than ever before. Moreover, they were secretly exerting various influences throughout the Central Plains. Now, they no longer needed the help of guys like the Lower gate to hear news from the Central Plains. Rather, they even knew information that they didn’t know.
But even with the Demonic Sect’s capabilities, they couldn’t grasp anything about the Hongbaek Sect’s affairs.
“It’s impossible with their power alone. Something among the forces of the Central Plains, there is definitely a force helping them.”
Cheong-un’s finger tapped the table again.
Which bastards are helping the Hongbaek Sect?
The current Central Plains was so wary of them that they had codified that the righteous, the evil, and the demonic would join forces when it came to the Hongbaek Sect.
Unless they were as foolish as Madam Hwang, there was no way there would be any idiots associating with the Hongbaek Sect.
“But now and then, there are always plenty of idiots. Tell all the Demonic Sect branches in the Central Plains to prioritize gathering information about the Hongbaek Sect and report it from now on.”
“Understood.”
“Is there any progress on the matter in Xi’an?”
The matter in Xi’an was the pursuit of the person who looked like the dead Eun-hyeon.
“As you ordered, we are only tracking their movements without getting close. They are currently not moving from a manor in Xi’an.”
Cheong-un nodded.
He was convinced that those who were playing with the body of his dead Master were also the Hongbaek Sect. The problem was why it had to be his Master’s body. His Master was neither the best martial artist nor a prodigy. So why was the Hongbaek Sect stealing his Master’s body and doing such things? Moreover, it bothered him that Eun-hyeon kept getting involved with the Hongbaek Sect, even if it was a coincidence.
“And some of the Demonic Sect’s forces…”
“Cheong-un!”
Just then, Eun-hyeon’s voice calling for Cheong-un was heard. Cheong-un stopped speaking and immediately stood up.
“Did you call for your disciple?”
As he entered the room, Eun-hyeon smiled brightly at Cheong-un.
“Cheong-un. My legs hurt. Come and massage them quickly.”
Eun-hyeon lay on the bed and beckoned with his hand like a cat flirting.
The loosely tied waist string came undone, revealing Eun-hyeon’s pale chest and bare skin. The furrow in Cheong-un’s brow deepened. He could no longer ignore it. Eun-hyeon had become strange.