Chapter 304: Protection (護) (6)

Chapter 304: Protection (護) (6)

Kikiging―

A pitch-black claw tears through the air.

I roll backward swiftly, evading Kang Min-hee's attack.

Shukang―

In an instant, her attack brushes past where I had been, slicing through the terrain of the Cold Yin Marsh.

A chilling blue aura rises visibly where her attack passes.

'Damn it.'

If it hits, I die.

I can feel that clearly.

Even using the Formless Sword and the Mad Lord's circuits with this body only brings me to the Heavenly Being stage.

There's no way I can block someone at the Four-Axis stage.

'Did she realize that I'm Seo Eun-hyun?'

It doesn't seem like that.

I glance at her intent.

'The dark crimson intent of hatred...is deeply submerged.'

If she knew I came as a clone, anger would have flared up rather than hatred.

That means only one thing.

'Did she mistake me for someone else?'

That is the only possibility.

I hurriedly retreat and shout at Kang Min-hee.

"Grand Elder, why are you doing this? Could it be a misunderstanding?"

Kang Min-hee sneers.

"It can't be a misunderstanding. That darkness...this sense of déjà vu...and those familiar actions... You are that being."

"What do you mean by 'that being'?"

"Well, did you ever have a name? I don't really know. I always called you the shadow. Sometimes you mimicked my mother, sometimes my father, sometimes a friend, and sometimes a complete stranger. Isn't that your identity? This time too, you're mimicking someone I don't know."

'Damn it.'

It's clear.

She's mistaken me for someone else, not Seo Eun-hyun.

Someone who bears a darkness as thick as the form of death I wield.

'She's smart, but she sometimes trusts her intellect too much and jumps to strange conclusions. That's Kang Min-hee's flaw.'

Hence, a year and a half before we arrived at Ascension Path.

We fought because of that, and she ended up pushing a project that caused considerable losses for the company.

'Well, thanks to that, I ended up memorizing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, so it wasn't entirely a loss...'

Anyway.

Occasionally, she would make mistakes by relying too heavily on her genius.

This seems to be one of those times.

'Judging by her state, she won't listen even if I explain.'

Kwagwagwagwang!

The slash from her attack flies over Cold Yin Marsh's horizon, exploding in a burst of blue light that dyes the sky.

Ghostly energy and the cold freezes my entire body.

My movements begin to slow.

Kang Min-hee approaches me for close combat, extending her claws to stab my right arm.

At the same time, she shortens the length of her claws, grabs my collar with her right arm, and yanks me towards her.

'This is, leg sweep!'

She seems to grasp the flow of force, and I begin to fall under her force.

Kang Min-hee was capable of everything.

Work, exercise, foreign languages, you name it.

She was a jack-of-all-trades, excluding interpersonal relationships and morality.

One of the famous anecdotes about Kang Min-hee was this:

When Jeon Myeong-hoon was a Deputy, he once visited Oh Hye-seo's apartment where she was hosting a small party with female colleagues.

He tried to subtly sexually harass Kang Min-hee while flirting with her, and the story goes that Kang Min-hee immediately grabbed Jeon Myung-hoon and threw him to the ground.

After that, Jeon Myeong-hoon ended up with a broken ankle and was prescribed six weeks of recovery.

There was a time when that guy hobbled around on crutches and couldn't even glance in Kang Min-hee's direction, making it an undeniable incident.

'Oh Hye-seo told me about this, I think?'

According to Oh Hye-seo's testimony at the time, after breaking Jeon Myeong-hoon's ankle, Kang Min-hee casually smoked a cigarette while hailing a taxi to send him to the hospital.

Jeon Myeong-hoon, embarrassed, claimed he needed crutches because of a car accident, but thanks to Oh Hye-seo, everyone in the department knew the real story.

Kim Young-hoon and Oh Hyun-seok considered reporting it, but since neither side said much, the incident was quietly swept under the rug.

'As expected, she's strong.'

Kang Min-hee is strong.

Before coming to Ascension Path, although couldn't use internal energy as a mortal, she already possessed the skills of a first-rate martial artist..

I twist my body in midair, plant my feet into the ground, and then propel myself towards Kang Min-hee with a double palm strike.

As the Blood Demon Suppressing Sea Light activates, a vast sea of blood begins to form between my double palms and her, allowing me to break away from her.

And then, I realize something.

'Kang Min-hee....'

Tsstss

A thread of her intent aims for my neck.

I break into a cold sweat, hastily evading the following strike of her attack.

At some point, she has reached the peak through her own efforts using the judo she learned back on Earth and her combat experiences involving her ghost claws.

Unlike Kim Yeon, who received my help through Tribulating Heavens Beyond the Path, or Oh Hyun-seok, who has the Unique Holy Body and trained while being beaten into a meatball by Azure Tiger Saint, or Kim Young-hoon, who has a talent specialized in martial arts, she reached the pinnacle realm purely through her own efforts and aptitude.

'Indeed, a genius.'

'This is driving me crazy.'

I click my tongue internally, focusing my consciousness on Seo Li.

An immense situation is unfolding on Seo Li's side, and shocking revelations are pouring out in front of me.

"Are you saying you were engaged to Hon Won?"

"Yes. We were engaged for mutual benefit rather than affection. Although Hon Won has withered since, he was quite handsome when he was younger, so I didn't mind. He also seemed to have considerable affection for me."

Yeon Wei continues her story.

"At first, it was more friendship than affection. Or rather, we realized we shared a comrade's bond after capturing the Black Dragon King. Our compatibility was quite good.... If our relationship had continued, our comradeship might have developed into romantic feelings. Until Hon Won fell in love with another woman."

A bitter expression crosses her face.

"Hon Won told me he fell in love with another woman from the Golden Divine Heavenly Thunder Sect and apologized. I was a bit disappointed but accepted it. After all, a marriage of affection would bring more benefits to the Golden Divine Heavenly Thunder Sect than a political one, so I was willing to break off the engagement. And...I wanted to see who this bold disciple was that stole his heart."

In front of me is the shocking past of Hon Won and Yeon Wei.

On the other side, the relentless chase between Kang Min-hee and Seo Li.

I quickly analyze the situation, trying to understand who Kang Min-hee mistook Seo Li for.

Strangely, my thoughts become unusually clearer, and I feel like I can see the web of relationships among people.

How can I twist these relationships to gain the most benefit?

Such thoughts and plans seem to pour out endlessly.

'A strange feeling.'

I wonder if I always possessed this talent.

I examine this web of relationships and begin to trace back the 'shadow' figure Kang Min-hee kept mentioning.

Then, while backtracking through this network, I feel something strange.

The person she calls the shadow is something that has been with Kang Min-hee since 'Earth.'

That means it's one of the Enders.

But the characteristics she described match 'Seo Eun-hyun.'

Yet, Seo Eun-hyun is different from the 'shadow.'

'What is this? Who exactly is the shadow?'

I instruct Seo Li to ask Kang Min-hee a few questions.

Following my command, Seo Li delivers the lines I had written on the spot to Kang Min-hee.

"Huhu, Colleague Kang. Why are you doing this? Wasn't it just a joke? I guess you disliked the prank I pulled when we first joined the company?"

[You...you really are that bastard. It wasn't just the company. Throughout my entire life! If it weren't for you! By now, I would have...I would have gotten along well with that person!]

Kang Min-hee transforms into a 8-foot ghost and attacks me even more ferociously.

'Judging by Kang Min-hee's reaction, it's someone who influenced her even before the company. Kang Min-hee lost her father, so her mother? No, I once met her mother, and she wasn't the type to say such things. In that case...'

I quickly run through my thoughts and reach a conclusion.

'Kang Min-hee has some kind of mental illness that even I wasn't aware of. Due to this mental illness, she constantly sees hallucinations and tries to explain her misfortunes through them. She's now mistaking Seo Li for her hallucination.'

Until now, I thought I was the one who needed to be treated.

Looking back, it seems like an overreaction, but there must have been a reason for my judgment.

However, now it appears that the one needing treatment is not me, but Kang Min-hee.

Then, I am startled by Yeon Wei's next words.

"The name of the disciple loved by Hon Won from the Golden Divine Heavenly Thunder Sect was Cheon Ra (Heavenly Net). There is no female disciple with the name Cheon Ra in our Golden Divine Heavenly Thunder Sect. I even checked among male disciples who had learned gender transformation methods, but there was no one. I even contacted the main sect in the Head Realm at that time. However, there was no such person in the Head Realm either. Hon Won...had developed a mental illness, creating and loving a non-existent woman."

"...!?"

The shocking revealed truth leaves me dumbfounded.

'So, because of a mental illness, he fell in love with a nonexistent woman from the Golden Divine Heavenly Thunder Sect, and due to this mental illness, he tried to kill me and Jeon Myeong-hoon, claiming we failed to protect the Golden Divine Heavenly Thunder Sect?'

For a moment, I feel a surge of irritation towards Hon Won, but then I sense something strange.

A cultivator at the Integration stage is not simply a powerful monster.

Having a vast and expanded consciousness means perceiving, understanding, and growing mentally just as much.

Reaching the Integration stage means it's not easy to go mad.

Their minds have grown too strong for that.

So, what could cause someone like Hon Won to develop a mental illness?

"Why did he develop a mental illness?"

Yeon Wei looks up at the sky for a while.

From her intent, I sense a hint of bitterness, a trace of regret.

And a touch of fear.

"I searched far and wide to find out why. The process of finding out was so arduous it's hard to describe... But to cut a long story short, I discovered the reason for Hon Won's mental illness when I went to the Nether Ghost Realm."

'Hon Won, who created a nonexistent woman and fell in love with her.'

I feel a strange sense of overlap between him and Kang Min-hee, who is currently fighting Seo Li.

She, too, is hating something nonexistent.

'Maybe there's a clue to solving Kang Min-hee's issue?'

I focus on Yeon Wei's words.

"Why did he develop it?"

"...God."

"God...?"

"Hon Won developed a severe mental fracture by directly facing a great higher being that could be called a god (神). Facing such an overwhelmingly powerful existence, even in a dream, can cause mental issues."

A great higher being.

A True Immortal.

In other words, just like Hon Won, Kang Min-hee's mental illness might be related to a True Immortal.

"And...whether it was due to the influence of that higher being, I'm not sure, but the Bright Cold Realm tried to erase any traces of the Golden Divine Heavenly Thunder Sect and some others. Under the orders of Baek Woon, I erased the Golden Divine Heavenly Thunder Sect with my own hands. Then, using the sacred artifact of the Yin Soul Ghost Sect and the secret arts I learned in the Nether Ghost Realm, I forcibly sealed and treated Hon Won's mind."

From Yeon Wei's mouth, the secret history from 40,000 years ago flows out.

"And the cured Hon Won came to firmly believe that I had killed his true love. His memory was distorted during the treatment process. You know what happened afterward. I used the sacred object of the Yin Soul Ghost Sect to weaken Hon Won's realm and inflicted a fatal wound, forcing him to recuperate at the Heaven-Earth Palace."

This is the truth from 40,000 years ago.

Under the orders of Sacred Master Baek Woon of the Bright Cold Realm, Yeon Wei destroyed the Golden Divine Heavenly Thunder Sect with her own hands and attempted to treat Hon Won.

Although the treatment succeeded, the cost was that Hon Won's memory was distorted, leading him to believe that Yeon Wei had killed his true love and attempt to kill her.

I watch Yeon Wei, whose intent is tinged with bitterness, and think,

'How tragic.'

Then suddenly, a bizarre thought comes to mind.

'Is Hon Won the tragic one, or is Yeon Wei the tragic one?'

For some reason, I feel that Hon Won, whose mind was toyed with by a great existence, to be the more tragic one.

'Damned main body. Kang Min-hee is going even crazier!'

After I said Colleague Kang whatever, Kang Min-hee's eyes completely turned and she charged at me.

'Speaking of which, is Hon Won the tragic one? I feel that Yeon Wei, betrayed by her lover, is more tragic...'

This is a bizarre difference of opinion between the main body and me.

Bo-oong!

Chwaaaak!

Kang Min-hee's ghost claws tear into my belly, gouging out a deep wound.

'This won't do.'

If this continues, I will die.

Dying isn't the problem, but losing the identity I had established in the Black Ghost Valley will be painful.

'I even made an agreement as Seo Li to go to Lofty Dragon True Person's storage scroll. I can't let this opportunity slip away...!'

Absolutely not.

I quickly think.

Yuan Yu's Blood Body is practicing Heaven Tribe methods.

It's possible to use Entering Heavens Formless Sword and the Mad Lord's circuits.

But it hasn't mastered Earth Tribe methods.

'Without the harmony of Heaven, Earth, and Heart, overcoming the two-realm difference is impossible.'

In this situation, how can I win against Kang Min-hee, who is not open to any persuasion?

How

As I ponder this,

I suddenly observe the Ghost King-transformed Nascent Soul within my body.

'Wait, is that possible?'

It seems like a crazy idea, but I somehow feel it might be possible with Seo Li's body.

If overcoming a two-realm difference is impossible, I just need to make it a one-realm difference.

In other words,

'While escaping from Kang Min-hee, I will immediately elevate this body to the Heavenly Being stage!'

Wo-wo-woong!

Absorbing the yin energy around me and the ghostly energy from Kang Min-hee, I quickly begin refining my mind with the formulas for the Heavenly Being stage.

'I'll rise to the Heavenly Being stage!'

Right now, immediately!

Translator Notes: 8-foot ghost (팔척귀신) is a term referring to a ghost from a Japanese ghost story. Basically, the ghost has long hair, wears a wide-brimmed hat, and has twisted joints.

Editor Note: If you're curious, the original Japanese name is 八尺様 (hasshaku-sama). Funnily enough, it looks like it isn't actually from ancient Japanese folklore or anything but rather a thread on 2chan's occult board made in 2008, which I did not expect at all.