I Possessed a Cultivator Destined to Die at the Hands of the Protagonist - Chapter 82

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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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82.
Eun Hui-gyeom’s brow furrowed deeply.
His expression made it clear he disapproved of me going.
“That doesn’t make sense.”
“What doesn’t?”
“If someone has to do it, why does it have to be you? I’m here, and Kang Susa is too! Don’t talk like you’re the only one capable of handling everything!”
“….”
“Eun Susa.”
Kang Jin-heon placed a hand on Eun Hui-gyeom’s shoulder to calm him.
An awkward silence settled between us.
“If someone has to go, then I should be the one….”
“No. It has to be me.”
“Sigh, Sister.”
“I’m not talking about sacrifice. Kang Susa’s cultivation method is Wind, and yours is Water.”
“What does that have to do with anything?”
Eun Hui-gyeom fell silent, clearly struck by the point.
“Ha Susa’s body is filled with Wood energy—it’s taken root inside him like tree roots.”
Wind shakes trees.
It breaks branches and strips away leaves.
If Kang Jin-heon’s energy mixed with Ha Gyeong-un’s, it would only produce the opposite effect.
Kang Jin-heon seemed to understand what I was about to say, and he gazed at me quietly while gripping the iron chain.
After all, the practitioner themselves knows their own nature best.
“And you?”
I shifted my gaze from Kang Jin-heon to Eun Hui-gyeom.
“Water nurtures Wood. If you go in, you’ll only strengthen the energy inside Ha Susa’s body.”
Eun Hui-gyeom’s lips trembled slightly.
He wanted to argue, but had no counterargument.
“Then you….”
“My nature doesn’t lean heavily toward any particular attribute. So right now, I’m the most suitable.”
At my persuasion, Eun Hui-gyeom furrowed his brow and glared at me.
I couldn’t tell if he was angry or about to cry.
After staring at me for a long moment, he abruptly turned his head away and muttered.
“…If you don’t come back, I’m really going to be angry!”
“I will.”
“I’m not joking.”
“I know.”
The decision was made—I would be the one to go.
In the meantime, Im So-ha had placed spirit seals to the north, south, east, and west around the sleeping Ha Gyeong-un.
“From the moment your consciousness enters, your soul will be connected by only this single thread.”
Im So-ha completed the binding seal and brought her fingertips to my wrist.
A crimson thread-like object slipped from my wrist.
“If that thread snaps while you’re inside, your soul will become lost in that child’s mindscape and never escape. So no matter what happens, you must not lose this thread.”
Im So-ha tied the end of the thread emerging from my wrist to her own wrist.
“I can’t promise how much time you’ll spend in there. Everyone’s mindscape is different.”
“Does that mean… time flows differently between reality and the mindscape?”
“Exactly. It could be a mere instant, or it could be several years. Or perhaps…”
“That’s fine.”
I quickly cut her off, already understanding what she was about to say.
However long it took, I would bring Ha Gyeong-un back out.
“Don’t worry.”
I swept my gaze across not just Im So-ha but also Eun Hui-gyeom and Kang Jin-heon, reassuring them all.
Im So-ha brought my hand—the one bound with the crimson thread—to Ha Gyeong-un’s forehead.
Then, forming a hand seal with her other hand, she began to chant an incantation.
“O wretched soul wandering lost in the mist, I shall willingly become a stream of jade light flowing into your distant mindscape.”
As she chanted, the end of the thread stretched long and seeped into Ha Gyeong-un’s body.
Simultaneously, strength drained from my body and my eyes closed of their own accord.
***
I opened my eyes.
A forest.
I stood in the heart of the forest.
A verdant forest.
Endless canopy stretching in all directions.
Moss clung beneath my feet, and when I lifted my head, layers of leaves obscured the sky.
Light filtering through the gaps scattered like dots across the ground.
Yet something felt wrong.
Only after standing there in a daze for some time did I realize it.
‘There’s no wind.’
Not a single leaf trembled.
Not a blade of grass, not the hem of my robe, not a single strand of hair moved—as if I had stepped into a frozen painting of a forest.
No birdsong, no insect chirps, no sound of flowing water existed.
The world was silent as if it had stopped breathing.
‘Let me move forward anyway.’
I began walking slowly.
Despite treading on moss and fallen leaves, I heard no sound whatsoever.
It was an eerie experience.
I pressed deeper into the forest without direction.
Familiar tree formations passed by.
Gnarled ancient trunks, branches split in two, moss sprouting beside the roots.
“Hm?”
Something suddenly came to mind, and I stopped in my tracks.
“Unbyek Rim?”
I lifted my head and surveyed my surroundings.
I stepped backward to examine the ancient tree once more.
It was no trick of perception.
The Unbyek Rim I had seen outside had been transplanted here intact.
‘A forgery? No, it’s the opposite.’
I understood instinctively.
The Unbyek Rim outside was imitating this forest.
This forest was the original, and the Unbyek Rim in the outer world was a mirror image drawn after the original.
That explained why there existed a point in the outer Unbyek Rim where wind could not reach.
‘Because there was no wind in the original.’
The Stone Chamber where wind did not exist was the place where the mirror image and reality coexisted.
‘Does this even make sense?’
My jaw fell open as understanding crystallized.
Whatever this being was, it meant their inner world contained an entire forest from the outer realm.
And that someone’s consciousness had been projected onto the outer world like a shadow, becoming Unbyek Rim.
This was impossible even for Im So-ha, a Monastery adept of the Gyeoldan-gi.
Yuan-ying realm? Or perhaps something beyond—the thought sent chills cascading down my spine.
‘I have no choice but to continue forward.’
Collecting myself, I moved in what I presumed to be the forward direction.
With each step, the light grew progressively dimmer.
I could not tell if the foliage had grown denser or if the light itself was fading.
The fragments of light upon the moss became increasingly sparse.
And the moment I emerged from the forest.
Light poured forth, revealing a narrow Clearing.
Ha Gyeong-un lay in the center of the Clearing.
“Ha Susa.”
Yet I could not approach him.
Ha Gyeong-un rested peacefully asleep upon the lap of a woman.
She was someone I had never seen before.
I slowly lifted my gaze to regard her.
She wore pristine white garments from head to foot.
The hem of her robes cascaded to her feet.
Long hair of jade-green hue draped across her shoulders.
Her form hung before me without the slightest stirring of wind, yet it seemed less like a living being and more like a painted portrait.
‘I cannot discern her face.’
It was not that her face was absent.
But where her face should have been, a dense mist coalesced.
My mind, my very instinct, seemed to refuse to perceive her visage, rendering it obscured and hazy.
She caressed Ha Gyeong-un’s cheek as he rested upon her lap.
Tree roots had surfaced around Ha Gyeong-un, binding his limbs in their wooden grip.
That woman.
The master of this forest, the one who held Ha Gyeong-un’s soul captive.
I took a step toward her.
The moss yielded softly beneath my foot.
A sound that had been inaudible until I arrived now echoed through the silent Clearing with startling clarity.
The woman’s form turned her head slowly at the sound.
“You.”
Her voice resonated across the Clearing.
It seemed as though the entire forest was speaking through her.
“Who are you.”
Her voice was neither deep nor high.
I could not discern her age.
I clenched my fists, drew a deep breath, and opened my mouth.
“…I’m Yoo Yeon-seo. Yoo Yeon-seo.”
“Yoo… Yeon-seo.”
The woman slowly repeated my name.
Soon her voice resonated through the forest once more.
“You are not of this forest.”
“No.”
The woman looked at me, then gently caressed Ha Gyeong-un’s cheek with her hand.
In stark contrast to her tender touch, the tree roots constricted his body with crushing force.
He broke into a cold sweat, his face twisted in agony.
“Have you come to take this child away.”
“Yes.”
…
Fear gripped me, but I could not retreat now that I had come this far.
“Please release him.”
A violent wind swept between the woman and me.
It felt as though all the wind that had been absent until now suddenly erupted at once.
“You…”
I stood firm against the gale, my eyes fixed on the woman.
Leaves thrashed mercilessly between us.
Though I could not see her face clearly, something in her voice had changed subtly.
Through the torrent of leaves obscuring my vision, the woman became visible.
“Are you also one cursed with a short life.”
Her unexpected words made my shoulders flinch.

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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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