Looking for the Runaway Heavenly Maiden - 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.

Flames erupted from Gihyeongrang’s blade with a whoosh. The fire stretched toward Hand Ogeong, engulfing him in its embrace. Yet Hand Ogeong showed no sign of disturbance.
“What a fervent welcome.”

“I can make it far more intense.”
“I could make it even more intense.”

But Hand Ogeong possessed a body of indestructible diamond. No attack held meaning against him.
Gihyeongrang clicked his tongue. Of course. This was precisely what made him so troublesome.
With a flash, the vines and flames that had wrapped around Hand Ogeong’s body vanished instantly.
The staff whirled back through the air.
Boom!
A deafening crash reverberated across the space.
Hand Ogeong shook his staff once with a sharp flick, regarding Gihyeongrang. The blade remained unbroken, intact as before.
The distance between them had already widened. Hand Ogeong aimed his staff directly at Gihyeongrang.
The staff elongated in an instant, seeming poised to pierce through him, but it was suddenly blocked by a barrier Gihyeongrang had conjured.
Clang!
The staff struck the barrier. The barrier did not shatter.
It was a barrier that emanated an ominous aura.
Hand Ogeong perceived it. Gihyeongrang’s power now approached that of an Evil Spirit.
He was assimilating rapidly.
Crash! The staff attempted to pierce through the barrier. But in that moment—
The Kaga River. Yeouibong tried to break through the barrier. But at that moment.

“That’s enough playing around. I’m busy.”

Yet the staff had to shrink back pathetically.
But the Yeouido area had to shrink disappointingly.

“…yes.”

Hand Ogeong exhaled a hollow sigh. Gihyeongrang and Yueul had vanished without a trace.
The shattered manor had also restored itself to its original state as if nothing had ever happened.
Even the broken window.
Hand Ogeong moved toward the window. Outside, heavy rain continued to fall.
The fact that Gihyeongrang had come here meant the manor had been left unguarded.
In preparation for Gihyeongrang leaving the manor, I had already issued orders to Yerim as a messenger.
I pulled out my phone to check Yerim’s message.
The contact came faster than expected.

Jeong found. Hidden inside a book with Gihyeongrang’s barrier. Messenger needed.

It was the message everyone had been waiting for.
I had to go to Cheonuyhua.
Hand Ogeong snapped his two fingers together with a sharp click.
Soon, no one remained in the manor.

* * *

How pathetic. Weren’t you so confident just moments ago?

A mocking voice pierced his ears. Yueul, who had been apologizing to him, finally collapsed without resistance.
The yin energy that had filled this place was being absorbed into Yueul.
Gihyeongrang, looking down at Yueul as he entered recovery, soon lifted his gaze toward the Evil Spirit.
The Evil Spirit still hung from the cliff. The aura emanating from it was a deep, pitch-black color.
Gihyeongrang could mock the Evil Spirit just as it had mocked him.

“And you’re not pathetic yourself? The fragment you gave me proved far less useful.”

At Gihyeongrang’s words, the Evil Spirit’s face twisted.
If not for the Spirit Sword, I could have killed Cheonhaerang and Cheonuyhua and devoured the divine beast’s heart.
The divine beast, the White Tiger. That heart, overflowing with spiritual power, was the final heart needed to break my seal.
If I consumed only that heart, I would become a complete Evil God.
And if I devoured this wretch before my eyes, it would be even more perfect.
But again. Again the Patriarch blocked me. He was as detestable now as he had always been.

Without the Spirit Sword, I could have consumed the White Tiger’s heart.
You truly are a pitiful human abandoned by the Patriarch. After all, he didn’t even grant you the Spirit Sword.
Has the Patriarch ever truly given you anything of worth?

“Shut your mouth.”

Crack! Snap.
A sharp shard pierced through the Evil Spirit’s abdomen. Cough—the Evil Spirit spat out black blood.
Yet the gaze fixed upon Gihyeongrang, who hovered in the empty air above me, burned with fierce intensity.
The Evil Spirit twisted one corner of its mouth diagonally upward.

No matter how much you deny it, the truth remains unchanged, Gihyeongrang.

“I told you to shut up. Unless you wish to disappear as you are.”

How laughable. Do you truly believe a wretch like you could do such a thing to me?

“You don’t think I can?”

Gihyeongrang descended leisurely and stood within striking distance of the Evil Spirit. In one fluid motion, he seized its throat.

Gasp!

In that instant, the Evil Spirit felt it.
It was unbelievable. This half-mortal, half-divine creature was absorbing its power.

Cough, you, how, how are you…!

“Did the Nine Hearts belong only to you?”

The Evil Spirit’s eyes widened. Strength drained from its body.
Soon after, the Evil Spirit coughed dryly. The hand that had gripped its throat withdrew.
Gihyeongrang spoke.

“Remember this. If you wish to breathe even a breath of outside air, you must obey me.”

When I first encountered the Evil Spirit in this place, his body was still incomplete.
But that is no longer the case.
The core of newly born, small things.
The malice overflowing throughout this land.
These were the materials that would make him the Evil Spirit itself.
What remained for him now was only a single heart.
The White Tiger’s heart.
On the day he devours that heart, he shall be reborn as an Evil God.

* * *

Hand Ogeong surveyed his surroundings. It was a plain deep within the mountains.
In the pavilion placed at the center of the plain, filled with the sounds of things shattering—crash, crash—Yeonhwa sat.
Upon discovering him, Yeonhwa rose from her seat.
As Hand Ogeong approached Yeonhwa, he nodded lightly.
In her face, which received his greeting naturally, not a trace of worry for him could be found.
I wondered whether I should be pleased that she trusted me so much, or whether in truth she simply had no interest.
Leaning toward the latter, I showed her my phone.

“Yerim has found the Blade of Discernment, it seems.”

Yeonhwa read the message that had come from Yerim.
Her conjecture was not wrong.
Gihyeongrang had not become the master of the Blade of Discernment.
It was only natural, as it was a divine artifact capable of distinguishing good from evil.
The Blade of Discernment had judged Gihyeongrang as evil.
Until when had Gihyeongrang been able to wield this Blade of Discernment?
The original master was Gihyeongrang’s mother, but this Blade of Discernment contained the Patriarch’s will.
At least until Gihyeongrang changed, he would have been able to use the Blade of Discernment.
Had Gihyeongrang changed while in the Human Realm, or did he change after coming to the Heavenly Realm?
Or perhaps he was such a person from the beginning.
In truth, Gihyeongrang’s life may have been ruined by the Patriarch as well.
But there is no sympathy. Everything that brought him this far was Gihyeongrang’s own choice.

“Jade Emperor!”

At the voice calling from far away, Yeonhwa and Hand Ogeong turned their heads. Cheonhaerang was approaching them, waving his hand.

“Are you alright?”

Hand Ogeong gently stroked the heads of the children gathered before me, their worried faces tilted upward as they gazed at me.

“Of course. Who am I? I’m Hand Ogeong.”

Hand Ogeong spoke with unmistakable pride. Only then did Cheonhaerang and Jiho release their relieved breaths.

“Thank goodness. But what happened to Yueul?”

At Cheonhaerang’s question, Hand Ogeong’s expression grew somewhat troubled. He subtly averted his gaze from the two of them.
In the children’s eyes lay a faint glimmer of belief that he might have eliminated Yueul.
Of course, he could have.
Had Gihyeongrang not appeared.
After the war, meeting the demigod Gihyeongrang for the first time in ages revealed how much he had changed since then.
Power bordering on that of an evil spirit.
Now, reflecting on it, perhaps he had not merely become like an evil spirit—perhaps he had become one himself.
The fastest method to achieve such a transformation would be….
I did not wish to believe he had gone to such lengths.
For now, it would be better to discuss this matter separately with Yeonhwa.
Hand Ogeong set aside his thoughts.

“I wish I could meet your expectations, but unfortunately Gihyeongrang appeared. I failed.”
“Gihyeongrang appeared? But are you truly alright, Jade Emperor?”

Jiho’s eyes filled with worry once more. Cheonhaerang was no different.
The supreme Jade Emperor being fretted over by these little ones—yet Hand Ogeong did not find it entirely unpleasant.
Hand Ogeong let out a soft laugh and tousled Jiho’s hair.

“It’s fine, truly fine. Besides, there’s something far more important than that.”

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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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