I Will Become a Phoenix More Noble Than the Emperor - Chapter 25

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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25.

His entire throat burned hot and his neck felt like it was boiling to death.

Just as he began to suspect that Wi Gong-un might actually kill him, Wi Gong-un swiftly extended his hand and gently wrapped it around Seon-o’s neck. Then the deadly poison that had absorbed Seon-o’s throat poison quickly seeped into his hand. Having cleanly removed the poison, Wi Gong-un withdrew his hand from the pale neck.

At the same time, the terrible pain stopped as if by magic, and light returned to Seon-o’s dimming eyes with a flash.

“Huff…”

As Seon-o grabbed his numb throat and let out the breath he had been holding, Wi Gong-un smiled.

“It must have hurt, right? You endured it well. You’re truly as remarkable as the rumors say.”

Only then did Seon-o, who had completely grasped Wi Gong-un’s intention, shake off the hand that was still holding his own in a caressing manner.

“What are you trying to do?”

Even at the sharp question, Wi Gong-un’s expression remained relaxed.

“Hm? What do you mean… I simply provided treatment…”

At that shameless pretense of ignorance, Seon-o’s eyebrows shot up. Seon-o could feel that Wi Gong-un had properly treated him. The persistent thirst had completely disappeared, and even the rash on his neck had vanished.

However.

“I asked if you really didn’t know there was poison lingering in this wound.”

“Ah. You heard that.”

“Yes. You spoke loud enough to be heard.”

“Oh my, I apologize. Next time I’ll mutter a bit more quietly. Please don’t mind it.”

Wi Gong-un smiled brightly as he revealed his true nature. Seon-o looked at Wi Gong-un as if dumbfounded, then spoke coldly.

“Unfortunately, you’ve guessed wrong. What happened at Maehwagak was not a staged act.”

His calm voice flowed out clearly and distinctly.

“I’m not the type to devise sinister schemes like someone else.”

At the added remark, Wi Gong-un’s leisurely eyes faltered. He didn’t know what “type” meant, but he could clearly tell that the added comment was targeting him.

“…”

The smile that had lingered on his lips disappeared frighteningly fast.

“Sinister” was a slander that had been secretly attached to the Wi Family.

Or more precisely, to me as a poison Superhuman.

Poison Superhumans were rare. Thus, there was a false rumor circulating in the world that poison Superhumans were inherently sinister beings who would bring misfortune someday. Because of this, when Wi Gong-un awakened and became a Superhuman, he received no one’s blessing, and when he finally achieved his second awakening to become a Super-Deity, he had to endure the fearful gazes of countless people.

“A poison Superhuman becoming a Super-Deity? This is surely an ominous sign. Good heavens. This shouldn’t happen.”

“Protecting the world with poison – what a ridiculous notion!”

“Now we shouldn’t even buy medicinal herbs from the Wi Family. What if poison is mixed in?”

Because of this, Wi Gong-un, who was sinister and cunning, absolutely hated hearing such words. Seon-o, who had pressed Wi Gong-un’s trigger button that he had learned well from the original work, felt satisfied.

Seon-o slowly rose from his seat.

It was worth seeing how his smug face had instantly hardened completely.

“If I had known you were a sinister physician who threatens patients, I would have refused.”

“…You seem to have misunderstood.”

Wi Gong-un, who had stiffened, replied while trying hard to appear nonchalant.

“The poison has been clearly removed. And I am.”

However, thin veins were standing out on his neck where the button had been pressed.

“Not sinister.”

Wi Gong-un’s calm voice asserted his innocence. At least since Wi Gong-un had become a Super-Deity, no one had spoken such words openly in front of him. Wi Gong-un had been rationalizing this, thinking it was because everyone had come to know that he wasn’t sinister.

Seon-o deliberately looked at him and smiled as if pitying him.

“Self-objectification is an essential part of living. How unfortunate.”

When Wi Gong-un’s lips, which had been trying hard to appear relaxed, completely stiffened at those words, Seon-o felt satisfied.

Since he had no intention of taking Wi Gong-un along from the beginning, as Wi Gong-un was in a position where he couldn’t cooperate with him, Seon-o cleanly gave up on Wi Gong-un right here and now.

After all, his goal was to become a phoenix, not to become friends with the Seven Super Gods.

“In any case, thank you for the treatment. I’ll send someone to pay the treatment fee.”

Having finished speaking cleanly, Seon-o turned around without even bowing. Wi Gong-un, left alone in the separate building, soon let out an incredulous hollow laugh.

“Ha… haha…”

He giggled as if dazed, then suddenly stopped laughing.

Sinister? Me? This Wi Gong-un who was chosen by heaven?

For a moment, cold silence flowed through the room. Within that silence, Wi Gong-un’s eyes, having barely regained his composure, glinted ominously.

“We’ll see who’s really sinister in time.”

He quietly murmured as he clenched the hand that had just caressed Seon-o’s neck.

* * *

Finally, it was the day when the second trial would be revealed.

The audience seats were filled just as they had been during the first trial, and all the candidates had once again gathered in the Great Hall and climbed onto the platform. They all had confident attitudes and relaxed faces, as if they had completed the heaven-sent task.

Everyone on the continent expected these outstanding candidates to pass the first trial without a single one failing, so they weren’t surprised.

There had never been a candidate who failed the first trial in the Phoenix Competition until now, and it was a well-known belief that the real competition began from the second trial.

As if meeting their expectations, the candidates standing in a circle on the platform looked truly impressive.

However, all the spectators’ attention was focused on just one candidate.

“So that’s the candidate called Kang Seon-o? The one who cooperated with the Yawol Sect to beat down those strange guys.”

“Last time she came looking like a beggar, but she’s different from what I heard?”

“Actually, there’s a rumor going around that she’s the real power behind the Yawol Sect. A hidden power, that is.”

“Huh, that makes sense. It was strange how easily the Yawol Sect cooperated.”

“Oh my. Should I change my bet?”

Wi Gong-un, who had taken a front seat just like last time, also stared intently at Seon-o. It was as expected. Seon-o’s changed appearance was more than enough to captivate attention.

Unlike before when she was covered in dust, she was spotlessly clean, and the light blue silk clothes she wore were so dazzling they seemed like a piece of the blue sky had been torn off.

Even without any special accessories, Seon-o looked noble with just her quality silk clothes and the hairpin in her hair. No, rather, her particularly plain appearance seemed to make her shine even more.

“I almost thought she was a different person. They say clothes make the person.”

When I-so whispered, Wi Gong-un replied coldly.

“She seems to be trying to hide something with good clothes.”

Wi Gong-un had a talent for recognizing expensive things and immediately recognized how high-quality the items Seon-o was wearing were. No, even aside from the silk clothes, it was a fact known to all who knew that right after Seon-o participated as a candidate, her family had moved from their shabby house to a palace-like home.

The suspicious one wasn’t him, but Seon-o herself.

“But still. Would she act so obviously? Normally she should hide it, shouldn’t she?”

“Yes, she must be counting on everyone thinking that way.”

Wi Gong-un’s suspicion toward Seon-o seemed to have become even more firm in the meantime. I-so had also heard the news that Seon-o had visited the Wi Family Estate yesterday. When he rushed back to the Wi Family Estate in surprise, Seon-o had already left.

I-so ran to Wi Gong-un, who had met with Seon-o privately, and asked what had happened, but Wi Gong-un gave no answer. He just entered his own space with a gleam in his eyes and experimented with poison all night.

‘Something must have happened between those two…’

I-so frowned as if he really didn’t understand and looked at Seon-o. Was she really a dangerous person as Wi Gong-un suspected?

‘She doesn’t look like she has that kind of face…’

However, Seon-o, who was receiving Wi Gong-un’s intense suspicious gaze, paid no attention and was quietly staring at what was placed in the center of the platform.

In the center of the Great Hall, a giant hourglass was installed.

It was something they hadn’t seen last time, but everyone understood the hourglass’s purpose without explanation.

‘A clock to signal the end of the trial.’

As if proving this, the sand in the hourglass had mostly settled to the bottom. The remaining time seemed to be at most about ten minutes.

That’s when it happened.

“Now, since you’ve all come this far, let me show you something interesting.”

Chae-gyo, who had been standing with her hands behind her back, suddenly turned to the spectators and acted unexpectedly. The candidates’ and all the spectators’ gazes focused on Chae-gyo.

Satisfied, Chae-gyo raised her right hand high. A Yin Stone was placed on her palm.

It was an unbroken Yin Stone.

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