Sowol Inn - Chapter 16

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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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Episode 16
So-wol gnawed at his lower lip, then deliberately slowed his breathing.
Out, in.
Out again. In.
As the surging tide of emotion subsided, reason crept back into his mind.
The name mattered less than finding the child. That was the priority now.
He scanned the courtyard, then dropped to one knee and examined the ground.
Baekya’s hasty footprints led from the Inn and out into the road beyond.
That wasn’t like him—leaving traces so carelessly.
So-wol’s expression darkened.
He pushed himself to his feet and returned to the Main Hall to check behind the cabinet.
Baekya’s sword, which usually hung there, was gone.
Either he’d drawn his blade to fight.
Or he’d fled before it came to that.
The worst scenario flashed through So-wol’s mind, but he shook his head.
It was too early to jump to conclusions.
He studied the wreckage of the Inn once more.
Shards of broken pottery lay scattered everywhere, but there was no smell of blood.
No unfamiliar footprints. No blade marks.
If Baekya had crossed swords with anyone, the place would never be this clean.
It seemed, mercifully, that no fight had broken out inside the Inn.
Then what in the world had caused all this destruction?
Furrowing his brow, So-wol picked up a fragment of porcelain from the floor.
Every shard of the broken dishes had been pushed outward, from the center of the Main Hall toward the edges.
The overturned tables and chairs showed the same pattern.
They’d fallen in different directions, but all had been shoved from the same point—that much was clear.
The cradle.
Something that erupted from the cradle had swept through the Main Hall.
So-wol’s eyes narrowed to slits.
……Did the child use her strength?
Did the Acupoint Sealing break? What in heaven’s name had happened?
Questions cascaded one after another—something that hadn’t occurred since the sealing was placed.
But finding both children came first.
So-wol hurried into the courtyard and set out to track Baekya’s trail.
The tracks disappeared at a slope beyond the main gate, where two paths diverged.
Left led to the Village. Right led to the forest.
He looked between the two roads, then stepped toward the right.
If Baekya had taken his sword, he was more likely to head into the sparse forest than into the crowded Village.
But So-wol had barely taken two steps before he stopped.
His own words came back to him.
“If anything happens, you must call on Neighbor Wang right away. Do you understand?”
……Baekya might have gone to Wang-yeom instead.
So-wol turned on his heel and headed straight for Wang-yeom’s house.
He was nearly running when the gate came into view, and he slowed his pace.
“Phew.”
After a single deep breath, So-wol smoothed the urgency from his face and knocked on the gate.
“Neighbor Wang, are you home?”
“Who is it? Oh, it’s you, Master Yeon?”
The door swung open, and Wang-yeom appeared.
Behind her shoulder, clothes fluttered on the laundry line in the breeze.
Her hands were wet—she’d come in from hanging washing.
Wang-yeom dried her damp hands on her apron as she spoke.
“What brings you by at this hour? What about the Inn?”
“Have you happened to see Baekya?”
“Baekya? No, I haven’t seen her today. Why? Has something happened?”
So-wol shook his head smoothly and offered a casual excuse.
“Nothing serious. I sent her on an errand and she hasn’t returned yet. I thought she might be here.”
“Well, she didn’t come by here.”
“If you see her, tell her to come straight back to the Inn.”
“Of course. But what about the child? You didn’t leave her alone, did you?”
“She’s asleep. Right in front of us, and you’re worried.”
“Goodness, how can we leave a sleeping child? Go on, hurry. Quickly now.”
Wang-yeom waved her hands dismissively, pushing So-wol toward the door.
So-wol turned as if reluctantly.
Creak.
The moment the door closed, the smile vanished from his face.
It hadn’t reached Wang-yeom either.
That left only the forest.
He retraced his steps in one swift motion, then slipped into the woods without hesitation.
Once he passed through the section where footsteps were common, Baekya’s tracks reappeared.
As he began following the footprints, a broken branch caught his eye after only a few steps.
By its height, it looked like evidence of Baekya’s passage.
So-wol stopped and examined the branch carefully.
The broken edge still held moisture.
Not much time had passed since she went through.
He lowered his gaze to study the ground.
One set of footprints.
No trailing steps, no parallel tracks.
Baekya wasn’t being chased, nor was she chasing anyone.
But there was no room for relief yet.
He still didn’t know whether Baekya and Riri were together.
He steadied his breathing, closed his eyes, and slowly extended his Ki Sense.
Countless presences filling the forest rushed in all at once.
So-wol began filtering away the unnecessary ones.
A wildcat stalking prey.
A mountain hare burrowing beneath the brush.
A bird crouched on a branch, insects writhing in the soil below.
With each presence he stripped away, the forest grew a little quieter.
When he finally suppressed even his own breathing and heartbeat.
Two presences caught in his Ki Sense.
Baekya and Riri.
Only then did So-wol exhale the breath he hadn’t known he was holding.
The moment he released the tension from his rigid shoulders.
Riri’s energy convulsed violently.
So-wol’s brow furrowed.
Natural Energy scattered throughout the forest was gathering toward Riri.
It was far more than that small body could endure.
So-wol’s eyes snapped open.
Boom!
At the same moment, a fierce wind erupted from deep within the forest.
Startled birds burst upward from the trees with a thunderous flutter.
“Damn it.”
So-wol swallowed the curse and launched himself forward, pushing off the ground.
A massive whirlwind was tearing through the distance ahead.
He’d seen all manner of things in the Jianghu, but never anything like this.
Crack! Crack-crack!
Trees unable to withstand the wind pressure were torn from their roots.
A massive trunk shot skyward, spinning wildly.
Fleeing beasts brushed past So-wol as they scattered.
He forced his way upstream against them.
Dust sucked into the air obscured the sun, and the sky darkened.
The deeper the wind pulled him, the more savage it became.
Fallen leaves lashed his face relentlessly, and branches tore his sleeves and scraped his forearms.
Red welts appeared across his skin one after another, but he had no time to care.
Even when he loosened just one knot in the binding, Riri had suffered a fever.
But now the entire forest was being inverted.
If left unchecked, Riri would surely enter a Demonic Cultivation State.
He had to act, and fast.
So-wol gritted his teeth and pressed forward.
Soon the trees thinned, and a small clearing opened before him.
The whirlwind was right in the center of it all.
Through the haze of churning dust, a pale figure emerged.
It was Baekya.
Baekya knelt with the child cradled against her chest, her back braced against the wind.
With her free hand, she gripped a sword she’d driven into the ground.
Between strands of white hair whipping past, her jaw was clenched tight.
“Baekya!”
At So-wol’s cry, Baekya lifted her head.
“Form! Come!”
“Are you all right? The child?”
“Child crying! Still crying!”
“Eee-eeeng…….”
A thin wail threaded through the gusts of wind.
From crying so long, the child’s voice had gone hoarse.
When So-wol took a step toward the vortex, the wind rose before him like a wall.
So-wol lowered his stance and dug his toes into the earth.
One step.
Another step.
He forced his trembling legs forward, but the distance between them hardly closed.
Meanwhile, Baekya rocked and soothed the child.
“Form is coming. Coming soon.”
But the child only sobbed, gasping for breath.
“Waaa-aang! Huaa-aang!”
“Little one!”
At the sound of So-wol’s voice, the child’s eyes went wide.
“Ah—ooh!”
The child’s head turned side to side, searching for So-wol.
So-wol called out again.
“Little one!”
Baekya quickly turned the child toward him.
As So-wol’s face reflected in those wet, golden eyes, the sobs caught and stopped.
In the raging wind, the child saw only So-wol.
In that tiny eye of the storm.
The child stretched both arms toward So-wol.
In that instant.
The wind that had been pushing So-wol back grew visibly dull.
The vortex that had held firm as a wall split open along the path of the child’s reaching hands.
So-wol did not hesitate. He stepped through.
A pine cone drifting through the air grazed his cheek, but he paid it no mind.
A name he had swallowed again and again, rolling it in his mouth, rose at last to his throat.
“Riri.”

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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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