I Will Become a Phoenix More Noble Than the Emperor - Chapter 9

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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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9.

Wi Gong-un agreed with I-so’s words and raised the corners of his mouth with interest.

Bu So-yoon, who handled Fire Power, was the eldest daughter of the great Bu Family and was well acquainted with Wi Gong-un, the young master of the Wi Family. He still remembered the spirit she had shown when she wrote about the phoenix as her future aspiration during their school days.

“Second candidate, Cheon Ga-jin of the Cheon Family.”

As Cheong-eum called out the name, I-so added an explanation.

“Miss Cheon’s participation is a bit unexpected. She’s quite shy, so I thought she would hate this kind of thing.”

Indeed, Ga-jin was a timid and delicate woman who seemed ill-suited for such competitions. However, Wi Gong-un didn’t bother to add that truly timid people wouldn’t enter the Demon Beast Cave as the second to claim it. Wi Gong-un didn’t view such deep ambition negatively. Of course, he didn’t expect Ga-jin to make it to the final stage of the competition.

“Third candidate, Wi I-ryeong of the Wi Family.”

Finally, it was I-ryeong. I-so clapped enthusiastically, but Wi Gong-un looked at his cousin sister with unimpressed eyes. I-ryeong, who handled the rare ability of Air Power, was as ambiguous and questionable as her ability itself. While Wi Gong-un had great interest in this competition, he held no expectations for its outcome. The ending was predetermined. The Wi Family would help I-ryeong, and I-ryeong would become the phoenix.

“Fourth candidate, Yang Chae-gyo of the Yang Family.”

At Chae-gyo’s call, I-so groaned in disgust and grabbed his crown. As brilliant light emanated from Chae-gyo’s entire body while she waved to the audience, I-so’s face became even more pained.

“That lunatic.”

Wi Gong-un also remembered the incident where the center of I-so’s crown had been completely burned by her scorching light due to a quarrel with Chae-gyo at school, so he let out a chuckle. Indeed, the woman who perfectly fit the brief description of “lunatic” was smiling with sparkling eyes as if she was dying of joy from this situation.

“Fifth candidate, Gwak Gi-rim of the Gwak Family.”

As the fifth candidate was called, the atmosphere changed instantly.

“She would be the strongest opponent.”

Wi Gong-un agreed with I-so’s whisper. Gi-rim, who handled Wood Power, was fair and just, righteous and well-mannered, and her skills were also great—truly a woman like a hero of this era. Gi-rim was an amazing person who devoted all her strength to dealing with demons for the sake of poor people and donated all the Yin Stones she obtained from doing so.

As several audience members stood up and bowed to Gi-rim, she also bowed her waist in return. That calm woman who already had the support of countless people would be I-ryeong’s strongest opponent.

But it would be a worthwhile competition. All five candidates were the expected ones, and I-ryeong was not inferior to them.

Swallowing his quiet excitement, Wi Gong-un looked at Cheong-eum, who had stopped while holding the Divine Scroll.

“Why is the High Priest acting like that?”

Those who noticed Cheong-eum’s frozen appearance began to murmur quietly. Wi Gong-un also watched the motionless Cheong-eum with one eyebrow raised.

After a moment of commotion, his lips finally moved.

“…The final sixth candidate.”

At those words, Wi Gong-un’s brow, which had been holding his breath, furrowed.

What?

“Kang Seon-o of the Kang Family.”

Cheong-eum’s voice announcing the final candidate was unbelievably calm.

A moment of silence passed, but Cheong-eum neither retracted his words nor tried to cover it up as a joke. Eventually, the hall erupted in great commotion.

“A sixth candidate?”

“What are you saying now…? Weren’t those five all the candidates?”

“There have always been five phoenix candidates!”

“Wait, if it’s Kang Seon-o… isn’t that the second daughter of the Kang family who sells rice wine in the marketplace?”

“What? That ruined family?”

Selling rice wine? A ruined family? At those words, Wi Gong-un’s face became even more bewildered. A superhuman capable of participating in the phoenix competition should already have reached a level of mastery in their skills. Those five candidates proved that. A superhuman of that level couldn’t be poor even if they tried. Just selling the Yin Stones from demon beasts killed to preserve their lives would be enough to accumulate silver and more.

Then there were only two possibilities.

Either Cheong-eum had made a mistake, or that woman named Kang Seon-o had just recently awakened.

No, that couldn’t be.

How could a recently awakened beginner participate in the phoenix competition? She would surely have melted completely the moment she entered the Demon Beast Cave.

“The sixth candidate is not visible! Where is she!”

“If she doesn’t come, she’s disqualified! Disqualify her!”

As the commotion grew, Cheong-eum shot blue fire around the platform to suppress the disturbance.

“The sixth candidate, please come forward and show yourself.”

Even breathing subsided in the quieted hall. All candidates had to climb onto the platform of this Great Hall to receive the first task. If they didn’t comply, they would be disqualified according to the laws of the competition set by heaven.

It was just when Cheong-eum was about to move his lips to call out the first disqualified candidate.

The tightly closed doors of the Great Hall moved, making heavy clattering sounds. The doors of the Great Hall were 30 feet tall and couldn’t be opened or closed by ordinary human strength without superhuman power, yet those doors were moving and opening by themselves.

At that strange noise, everyone’s gaze turned to the doors of the Great Hall. As the two doors slowly opened a gap, the silhouette standing behind them was revealed.

The woman appeared to have run here without rest, her entire body soaked in sweat and disheveled. Some audience members frowned at the sudden appearance of a phoenix candidate in beggar-like condition, but two men who had been watching the door for some time were different.

A man wearing a black bamboo hat and sitting among the audience slightly lifted his hat with one hand to look at the woman more closely. Baek-ryu, who called himself a wandering superhuman, had seen that woman at Bujin Pavilion not long ago. Seon-o, who had awakened by stabbing her own heart.

That crazy woman was the sixth candidate of this competition.

“….”

Somehow, he didn’t dislike that fact, and he quietly raised the corners of his mouth.

Meanwhile, there was one more person who quietly welcomed this sudden development. It was Hwan, the sect leader of Yawolbang, who had personally witnessed Seon-o conquering the Demon Beast Cave.

“….”

Hwan watched with a leisurely expression as Seon-o finally entered the Great Hall and walked steadily toward Cheong-eum. In this moment when everyone’s gazes were focused entirely on her, crushed by the strange atmosphere and not even daring to breathe, Seon-o felt like the owner of this space.

If she was to be the woman who would become his master, shouldn’t she naturally possess such a presence?

Of course, the verification wasn’t over yet, and Hwan was ready to gladly watch Seon-o prove her qualifications.

Finally, Seon-o climbed onto the platform, reached Cheong-eum’s presence, and opened her mouth.

“I am Kang Seon-o.”

At those words, Wi Gong-un’s eyes narrowed like a snake’s.

“What, what could this be? What do you mean, a sixth candidate?”

Even I-so’s flustered, stammering voice couldn’t reach Gong-un right now. A sixth candidate? It was a variable he had never even considered.

However, Cheong-eum was merely gazing at Seon-o intently without showing any sign of surprise.

Soon, Seon-o took out what she had carefully brought in her bosom and presented it.

“It really is a Yin Stone, isn’t it…?”

Having proven that what she brought was indeed a Blue Sound Stone that could only be obtained from the Demon Beast Cave created for the competition, Seon-o grasped the stone again and turned around.

The gazes of the five candidates pierced into her fiercely, but Seon-o paid no mind and walked to an empty spot, taking her place between Chae-gyo and Cheon Ga-jin. The contrast of shabby Seon-o between the two candidates in beautiful silk clothes and already adorned with splendid decorations like phoenixes was so stark that scattered laughter broke out here and there, but Seon-o simply held her head up calmly.

“Huh? Somehow… she’s shameless?”

As I-so muttered in disbelief, a laugh like wind blowing came from behind him. When I-so turned around, he saw a man in a black bamboo hat skillfully looking elsewhere, completely feigning innocence.

I-so looked over the somewhat blurry face with an uncomfortable expression, then whispered to Gong-un again.

“Isn’t something wrong? Doesn’t this mean there was a sixth demon lair? Until now, there have always been exactly five phoenix candidates.”

Gong-un was equally unprepared for this situation. A sixth candidate? One more candidate added? And an eccentric woman whose identity was unknown at that.

Gong-un stared at Seon-o as if to bore through her. When he saw the unwavering, solid eyes within her face dirtied with dust, his heart strangely fluttered.

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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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