I Possessed a Cultivator Destined to Die at the Hands of the Protagonist - Chapter 80
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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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80.
The final entry concluded with the mention that he had written me a letter.
Scattered throughout were pieces of information that seemed useful in locating Ha Gyeong-un.
“If it’s a song, isn’t that the same as what that bastard heard?”
Eun Hui-gyeom pointed a finger at the sleeping Kang Jin-heon.
Among us, only Kang Jin-heon had heard a sound whose nature remained unknown.
Im So-ha set down the page and murmured thoughtfully.
“That child’s spiritual root is wood. He cannot read the grain of the wind. That he discovered it means….”
“It means he wandered for days.”
Monastery practitioners fundamentally possessed the ability to read the heavenly patterns.
Even those who had not mastered cultivation methods aligned with their spiritual roots could accomplish it given sufficient time.
Ha Gyeong-un had discovered the underground chamber after more than four days of searching through Unbyek Rim.
“Wind… I myself lack confidence in reading the essence of wind.”
“There’s no need to worry about that.”
Eun Hui-gyeom gazed at Kang Jin-heon, bound to the rock and sleeping.
“Oh my.”
Im So-ha belatedly realized that Kang Jin-heon was a possessor of the wind spiritual root.
We stood before Kang Jin-heon, uncertain of what to do.
“But I think waking him should come first.”
“Hmm, there’s no guarantee he won’t thrash about again, claiming he hears strange sounds like before.”
“I have a good idea.”
Eun Hui-gyeom formed a simplified seal, and a massive water droplet materialized in the air.
“Mm….”
“Wait, hold on…!! It looks like Kang the Practitioner is waking up….”
Splash.
“….”
“Pffft… Puh-ha! Cough, cough!”
The water droplet burst, and water poured directly over Kang Jin-heon’s head.
The moment he opened his eyes, Kang Jin-heon looked like a drowned rat, his eyes wide with shock.
“What are you doing?”
“Sigh, Hui-gyeom.”
“Why? There’s nothing better than washing your face to regain consciousness.”
“Pouring water on someone isn’t washing their face.”
When I scolded him, Eun Hui-gyeom turned away, pretending not to hear.
No matter how I looked at it, it seemed like he was using the pretext of waking Kang Jin-heon to vent his usual frustrations—or was that just my imagination?
Kang Jin-heon shook his head, flinging water from his hair.
He belatedly realized he was bound.
“Hey, do you know how much we suffered because you suddenly claimed to hear strange sounds and ran off?”
“Me? I did that?”
“Yeah.”
“…I have no recollection of that.”
“Are you saying we’re lying?”
“That’s not what I mean…. Just untie this first.”
As Kang Jin-heon struggled, Eun Hui-gyeom reluctantly flicked his fingers.
The rope of spiritual energy binding him snapped instantly.
We recounted to Kang Jin-heon everything that had happened after he fell under some form of enchantment, including our encounter with Im So-ha.
“I see. So we need to find a point where the wind from the talisman cannot reach at all?”
“Exactly.”
“Sister, but what if he gets enchanted again?”
Earlier, Eun Hui-gyeom had managed to suppress him by striking him down, but there was no guarantee the same method would work a second time.
“That won’t happen.”
“How can you guarantee that?”
“….”
At those words, Kang Jin-heon’s brow furrowed slightly.
Though Kang Jin-heon rarely showed emotion, his face became remarkably expressive whenever he was with Eun Hui-gyeom.
“Then let’s attach this.”
Im So-ha withdrew a thin spiritual talisman from inside her robe.
It was a talisman drawn on pale green paper with jade-leaf-shaped seal script.
As Im So-ha flicked the talisman lightly with her fingertip, it flew through the air and adhered perfectly to Kang Jin-heon’s forehead.
“It’s a Chui Ok Gok Mun talisman. If anything unusual happens to Kang’s body or if he becomes enchanted, I’ll be able to sense it immediately.”
She added that the Chui Ok Gok Mun talisman also had the effect of stabilizing mind and spirit, so he would be less susceptible to enchantment than before.
“But what if he suddenly runs off?”
“Then we can tie him up again, can’t we?”
I drew out the end of the Yueun Eunhalung in a long strand.
A silvery thread unraveled from my fingertips.
“Kang, give me your hand.”
Kang Jin-heon silently extended his hand.
I wrapped one end of the thread I had manifested with my spiritual force around Kang Jin-heon’s wrist, and the other end around my own.
“This way, even if we get separated, we can find each other.”
“…You’ve made me look like a dog on a leash.”
“I didn’t put it around your neck.”
Eun Hui-gyeom laughed quietly, fingers interlaced behind his neck, clearly amused by the situation.
His expression made it obvious he found the whole thing entertaining.
“Let’s go now.”
As I extended my hand forward, Kang Jin-heon sighed and walked toward the forest.
Though I had bound the Yueun Eunhalung’s thread, I made sure to stay as close to Kang Jin-heon as possible.
Eun Hui-gyeom took the opposite side, while Im So-ha followed at the rear, monitoring the flow of spiritual energy.
Partway through, Kang Jin-heon drew out his steel whip and began swinging it gently, letting it undulate.
Each time he did, I could feel the wind around us ripple and shift.
“It’s certainly strange.”
“Is that so?”
“The wind direction isn’t normal.”
Kang Jin-heon ventured deeper into Unbyek Rim.
Before long, he came to a halt.
“Here it is.”
“Huh?”
“Here?”
The forest around us appeared no different from what we’d passed through so far.
Eun Hui-gyeom walked toward Kang Jin-heon’s position.
“Oh, miss. Look at this. There’s really no sound from footsteps.”
He trampled the fallen leaves beneath his feet without restraint.
Though there should have been the sound of footsteps and rustling leaves, nothing made a sound.
Kang Jin-heon removed the spirit seal from his forehead and the thread from his wrist.
Then he wielded the iron chain lightly.
A circular wind spiraled outward from Kang Jin-heon, sweeping the fallen leaves away in an instant.
Beneath them, the accumulated soil was revealed intact.
Something resembling stone was buried between the soil particles.
As we cleared away the earth, the edge of a stone slab came into view.
It was stone material cut into a rectangular shape.
Though thick moss covered it, the edges were remarkably straight and precise.
Eun Hui-gyeom, who had been examining the stone slab, discovered something.
“There are signs it’s been opened.”
The entrance of the stone slab was slightly ajar.
It appeared someone had pushed the stone slab open just before us.
We didn’t speak it aloud, but we all suspected that someone might be Ha Gyeong-un.
“…This is.”
Im So-ha’s expression hardened as she examined the stone slab intently.
“What’s wrong?”
“See this part here? This is the pattern of the early Chui Ok Gok Mun.”
“Early?”
“I believe it’s a pattern used over a thousand years ago, at minimum.”
Im So-ha said she had only ever seen the pattern in books, never in person.
Moreover, she had never even read about the existence of stone slabs inscribed with patterns from that era.
“That such a place exists in Unbyek Rim… it’s hard to believe.”
“Let’s go inside and see.”
“Very well.”
Im So-ha formed a hand seal while gazing at the stone slab.
The ground beneath us rippled, and root-like structures sprouted around the stone slab.
The roots burrowed beneath the stone slab, lifted it, and pushed it aside.
We leaned our faces toward the opening beneath the stone slab as if we had made a pact to do so.
“Wow.”
As the sealed stone wall opened, a gust of stale air rushed upward with a whoosh.
“I’ll go first this time.”
Im So-ha drew another talisman and slipped it onto her finger before descending the stairs.
The moment the oppressive air touched the talisman, it was instantly purified.
The staircase was shorter than I expected.
After descending roughly a hundred steps, a stone corridor appeared, and at its end stood a door.
When I opened the stone door, what lay before me was the Stone Chamber.
It was barely large enough for a single person to lie down in.
The ceiling was low, and the four walls were hewn from rough stone.
And there, in the very center, Ha Gyeong-un lay motionless.
“Ha, junior!”
Im So-ha, who spotted Ha Gyeong-un first, rushed toward him.
Ha Gyeong-un lay perfectly still with his eyes closed.
There were no visible injuries.
His clothes were undisturbed, and his face bore not a single wound.
He looked peaceful, as if merely sleeping.
I approached carefully and placed my hand on Ha Gyeong-un’s forehead.
‘So cold.’
Though he was clearly breathing, his body was as frigid as that of a corpse.
Just as I lowered my hand to check his meridians—
“Uh, uh?”
Eun Hui-gyeom reacted before I did.
“Sister, look over there.”
Eun Hui-gyeom pointed at Ha Gyeong-un’s collarbone, where his collar had fallen slightly open.
When I pulled the fabric aside, blue threads like strands of silk writhed beneath the skin.
They began as a single strand, then became two, intertwining and unraveling in turn.
“That… that’s not just me seeing things, right?”
“No. I see it clearly too.”
Ha Gyeong-un was absolutely not simply unconscious.
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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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