Chronicles of the Martial God’s Return - Chapter 165

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Dan So-mi woke early that morning with hunger gnawing at her belly.
Ordinarily she would have pestered Jang Sam-tae into filling it, but since he’d been away, the kitchen had fallen to her and Namgung So-hye to manage.
Yet now Namgung So-hye was absent as well, which left Dan So-mi alone to fend for herself.
She opened her eyes in a hurry, rolled from her mat, and stretched with a great, exaggerated yawn.
“Mmmm-ahhh!”
Maybe that would make her grow a little taller?
Being smaller than the other children her age, Dan So-mi had made it a daily habit to stretch extravagantly each morning in hopes of gaining even a finger’s breadth of height.
Though she never seemed to get any taller for it.
With drooping shoulders, she opened the door and stepped outside.
Jang Yuan was unusually quiet today.
By rights, she should have seen Namgung Cheon or Sa Do-hak, who rose early as a matter of course, but instead an eerie emptiness hung over the whole courtyard as if no one were there at all.
“Hm?”
Patter-patter—
Moving in short, hurried steps, she made toward where voices might be. She could hear something drifting from far off, which suggested someone was around.
As Dan So-mi drew near, she spotted Ho Yeon-ji with hollow, exhausted eyes, busily working on a batch of liquor.
“……”
Should she pretend to notice her?
But if she spoke to Ho Yeon-ji while she was brewing, she’d surely be roped into helping make more.
At first, making liquor had been tremendously fun—even Dan Woo-hyun had praised it as delicious, and she’d made it again in her delight at his words.
But as time passed, her enthusiasm had curdled into boredom.
More than that, right now she had no desire to brew anything at all.
So the wisest course was to slip past quietly and pretend she’d seen nothing.
Dan So-mi made her decision and turned away from Ho Yeon-ji.
“Hmm, where could everyone have gone?”
She trotted off toward the kitchen.
It felt strange to wander through the quiet courtyard alone.
Though the place had never been crowded, it had always been lively; now its sudden silence left her with an unsettling sense of displacement.
As she headed toward the kitchen, puffing out her cheeks, she spotted something odd near the base of the wall.
Dan So-mi tilted her head and walked toward it.
“What’s this?”
Something was caked into the soil.
It was crimson.
Dan So-mi turned her head and glanced about the area.
Strands resembling human hair lay scattered here and there.
Had some beast gotten in?
Peering closely at the wall, she could see marks as if something sharp—a blade, perhaps—had gouged into the stone.
Dan So-mi stared at it for a moment, then suddenly jumped up.
“Nope!”
‘I didn’t see anything.’
There was nothing unusual here at all.
That was the best way to think of it.
This wasn’t the first or second time something like this had happened, and by now Dan So-mi had grown wise to the pattern.
Whenever she was left at Hong Won-chang’s house for a few days and returned to Jang Yuan, there would often be strange things buried or staining the ground.
Each time, Jang Sam-tae would fuss over it and clean it up, so Dan So-mi saw no need to dwell on it herself.
Digging deeper would only lead to trouble.
‘Our house is just weird like this—it happens sometimes.’
With that reasoning, she nodded to herself.
Dan So-mi turned back toward the kitchen and stepped inside.
There was no rice left from yesterday’s meal.
Only scorched rice crust remained, so she picked at that and filled her belly on it.
With no one else around, she saw no point in cooking, and besides, it was rather difficult for a small child to tend a fire properly.
“Did they all go out without me?”
That couldn’t be right, but if it were true, she’d be furious. Puffing both cheeks full again, she walked on.
The first place she went was Dan Woo-hyun’s room.
She’d thought he might be sleeping late.
Though of course that was unlikely.
“Dad?”
She called out in front of the door, but there was no answer.
Carefully pushing the door open to peer inside, she found the room bare and empty.
A table and bed with nothing on them.
Beyond that, there were only the toys that Dan So-mi had brought scattered about in various corners.
Dan So-mi let out a soft sigh and stepped into the room.
“Clean this up!”
She nagged to no one in particular and began gathering up the toys. It seemed she wasn’t thinking about the fact that she herself had brought all these things.
She picked up the toys one by one and arranged them neatly to one side.
Looking at the suddenly tidy room, Dan So-mi pondered something.
It was certainly cleaner, but… the atmosphere felt more desolate than when the toys had been scattered about.
Tilting her head uncertainly, Dan So-mi kicked the toys with her foot.
They scattered and flew about in all directions, strewn across the floor.
Now it finally looked like a room where someone actually lived.
Confirming this, Dan So-mi nodded in satisfaction and left the room.
She had confirmed that Dan Woo-hyun wasn’t in the room, so there was nothing more to check. Moreover, given how quiet everything was, it seemed neither Namgung Cheon nor Sa Do-hak remained at Jang Yuan either.
Dan So-mi, accustomed to playing alone, wasn’t discouraged by this.
She opened the large gate and left Jang Yuan.
The scenery of Dongting Lake spread before her eyes, but now it stirred little interest. It had been quite beautiful at first, but no matter how lovely something is, it grows tiresome if you keep looking at it.
Dan So-mi ran with a burst of energy, traveling quite far from Jang Yuan.

***

She had meant to take a simple walk, but it seemed she had taken a wrong turn.
Dan So-mi furrowed her small face and turned back.
She wouldn’t get lost if she simply retraced her steps. Besides, there were even footprints to follow—what could be simpler than that?
With such thoughts, she looked down at the ground…
But she saw nothing.
A thick fog had settled in around her without her noticing. Since she hadn’t felt the fog at all moments before, Dan So-mi let out a small moan.
“It… it shouldn’t be far.”
She shifted her gaze and examined her surroundings.
No matter how thick the fog, she was near the house. Having lived there for about a year, if she could just properly identify the landscape, finding her way back shouldn’t be difficult.
But the surroundings felt unfamiliar, as if she were seeing them for the first time.
The terrain was also quite treacherous.
Even someone accustomed to such terrain could easily break something if they mistepped. The rocks were sharp as awls, and the trees were gnarled in odd ways, giving off an eerie feeling.
Even the air itself was different.
Was it lighter than usual? Or should she call it clearer?
With each breath, her body felt lighter. Her whole frame was suffused with Qi, and it seemed she wouldn’t tire no matter what she did.
Dan So-mi looked around uneasily.
“Hmm?”
Then something small caught her eye.
About the size of an adult’s palm, its snow-white fur was just like looking at fresh snow.
Golden eyes that seemed to swallow you whole in their beauty.
The creature resembled a small kitten so much that its cuteness shook Dan So-mi’s heart deeply.
The cat captured her attention so completely that the thought of hurrying home vanished from her mind.
“Come here, precious.”
She crouched down in place and held out her hand, calling to it. But the cat simply turned its head away as if mocking her.
“Won’t come? Then I’ll catch you! You’d better watch out when So-mi comes for you!”
Meow.
A small cry sounded.
It seemed to be saying, “Just try.”
Though she couldn’t understand what it meant at all, Dan So-mi felt strangely offended and clenched her fists, blazing with determination.
She had to catch the little creature before it could run away, making her heart race.
Since the ground was already rough to run across, she stumbled frequently, and running seemed perilous with all the thorny trees and jagged rocks in her way.
But Dan So-mi didn’t yield.
She charged forward with nothing but the resolve to catch it.
Fortunately, the creature simply waited, watching as she approached.
The moment she narrowed the distance rapidly—
Swoosh!
With just a single bound, the cat that had been right in front of her vanished.
She blinked her eyes looking for it, but the creature was still nowhere to be found.
“Huh—?”
She looked around groggily, still half-asleep.
Yet the White Cat was nowhere to be seen.
The moment her eyes fully opened, she felt weight on top of her head. At the same time, a snow-white tail dipped into view.
“Agh!”
She cried out sharply and lunged with both hands to grab the cat perched above her. But her hands only grasped empty air, and the cat leaped away lightly, bounding off with effortless grace.
The snow-white cat landed feather-soft upon a jagged rock outcrop.
“Ugh!”
Dan So-mi puffed out her cheeks and stomped her foot against the ground. It was maddening—the cat had been right there, and she’d still missed it.
A small cry echoed again.
Meow.
The sound seemed almost like mockery. Dan So-mi was not one to anger easily, but this time felt different—she bolted forward without hesitation, closing the distance.
Just as she reached arm’s length and made to seize the cat with both hands, it sprang upward, planted a hind paw against her head for leverage, and darted away again to widen the gap.
Meow—!
“Hey!”
She flailed her small fists about, venting her frustration.
The cat was toying with her, and the thought kindled a real spark of anger.
Yet the cat simply stood its ground, watching her for a moment longer, before turning its back as if preparing to depart.
“Wait—where are you going?!”
Dan So-mi cried out in surprise.
But the cat only glanced back at her, rumbled a soft purr, and leaped away.
Dan So-mi reached out and started forward, when suddenly the mist before her eyes dispersed, and the landscape around her transformed in a single heartbeat.
“What…?”
The fog had vanished, and with it, the strange trees and rocks.
Beyond her lay a forest a short distance from Jang Yuan, and the waters of Dongting Lake glimmered in the light.
Dan So-mi stood motionless, blinking hard.
Had what just happened been a dream?
She pinched her own cheek.
But it only hurt.
“Ouch…”
She rubbed her tender cheek and turned around.
‘I need to go back and ask Father about this.’
For a child as young as Dan So-mi, what she had just experienced was far too strange and wondrous to make sense of on her own.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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