Survival Guide for the Reincarnated - Chapter 178
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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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Chapter 178
No matter how fast a warrior’s recovery might be, they would need at least a month of recuperation before being able to hold a spoon.
「…Your boldness and spirit are remarkable. Above all, it is truly wondrous that you have already grasped the essence of the Space-Time Sphere.」
“I learned it through the Yeok Geun Gyeong.”
「Then you must already know. The essence of martial arts lies not in form, but in intent.」
“That’s correct. The body’s movements are merely expression; true power comes from the mind.”
The Buddha Statue raised its hand.
「…The test is over. You have passed.」
Woon-hwi asked the Buddha Statue.
“Do you have no regrets now?”
「…What do you mean?」
“You said it was the last time, but it wasn’t.”
「….」
“The reason you gave me the Buddha Hand Seal was to see if I could prepare for serious injury to move forward. I ask you, Master Ji-woon. Are you satisfied?”
The Buddha Statue let out a hollow laugh.
「You are truly perceptive. Am I satisfied? Yes, I am satisfied. You are not the one our predecessor awaits, but whoever that may be, you will surely surpass them.」
Woon-hwi silently gazed at the Buddha Statue.
「May there be compassion in emptiness on the path you walk.」
Soon, light began to spread from the Buddha Statue’s body. The increasingly intense light finally covered the entire hall and disappeared in an instant.
The Buddha Statue was no longer there, but instead a single manual lay in its place.
Woon-hwi approached and picked it up with his left hand.
It read:
“Heaven and Earth Great Return Method.”
He unconsciously tried to flip through the manual with his right arm, but as soon as he opened his hand, he frowned.
Tsk.
After clicking his tongue, he lightly flipped through just a few pages with his left hand.
Filled with dense text, the combination of the words “Great Return” and “Heaven and Earth” didn’t immediately come to mind, but after reading just about two pages, he could understand its value.
It was a Great Return Pill manufacturing method.
Not just any ordinary Great Return Pill, but the Heaven and Earth Great Return Pill.
One that could instantly heal even severe injuries, rapidly increase internal energy, and almost permanently enhance the body’s recovery abilities.
It was even written that it could extend one’s lifespan.
There was one problem.
The ingredients.
The required materials were expensive to an almost excessive degree.
He turned his gaze to look at Seo Hyo.
“…Why… why are you looking at me like that?”
“Just looking.”
He silently tucked the manual into his robes and attached the True Flame Heaven Spirit Sword that had fallen to the floor to his right waist.
It seemed he would have to use only his left arm for a while.
Then Seo Hyo and Seol Ho-ryeong approached.
“…Little brother, I’m really curious so I have to ask, what exactly is your identity?”
“I am Seol Woon-hwi. Elder Brother.”
“…There must be some complicated reason?”
“Something like that.”
Seol Ho-ryeong patted Woon-hwi’s shoulder.
“Thank you. I lived because of you.”
“No. Even without me, you would have survived, Elder Brother.”
“I don’t think so.”
Seol Ho-ryeong turned his head to look at Seo Hyo.
“Well, it’s a bit awkward to say this after going through hardships together, but you don’t have a hobby of stabbing people in the back, do you?”
“…If necessary, I would stab, but right now there’s no reason to strike. I’m someone who knows gratitude too.”
“You sound like a warrior. Before being a merchant.”
It was strange.
“Do you know me?”
“Of course. I have ears to hear with. Your name is Seo Hyo, right? The famous master of Cheon Lim, aren’t you?”
“…You have broad knowledge.”
“It’s broad. Even though I may look like this, I’m the general commander of Cheon Seol Ju.”
Seol Ho-ryeong briefly looked at the door at the end of the hall beyond Woon-hwi.
Bright light was bursting from there—that was the exit.
If they went out there, they would escape from the secret realm and be able to use internal energy.
Even at this moment, Seol Ho-ryeong was pondering whether he should trust Seo Hyo or not, and Woon-hwi clearly resolved it for him.
“It’s fine. Elder Brother.”
“…Are you really sure it’s okay?”
“Yes. Don’t worry.”
Woon-hwi looked toward the exit and said.
“Let’s go out.”
* * *
The moment they walked out through the light, the three felt as if their lungs would freeze.
A blizzard roared furiously, swirling around them.
It was fortunate they could use internal energy; otherwise, this place would have become their grave.
That was right. Visibility extended only a few steps ahead, with everything beyond swallowed by white emptiness.
This place looked like the boundary line between heaven and earth, with no distinction between sky and ground.
Woon-hwi and Seol Ho-ryeong, being from Snow Palace, could immediately tell where this was, and Seo Hyo, who had wandered the country as a merchant, could soon figure out where this place was too.
“…This is my first time coming here like this. I had only heard rumors.”
It wasn’t strange at all for Seo Hyo to say such things.
This was the summit of Ten Thousand Year Snow Mountain.
Ordinary people would die before even climbing up here.
The wind blowing at this terrifying altitude cut flesh like sharp blades, and the air was so thin that even breathing was difficult.
On the ground lay ice and snow accumulated over tens of thousands of years, spread like heaven’s silence.
“…I’ve never climbed up here either… Indeed… this is Snow Mountain.”
Seol Ho-ryeong’s admiring voice quickly scattered in the howling blizzard.
Then he suddenly became curious.
It’s common knowledge that a secret realm’s exit and entrance aren’t in the same location, but isn’t this too extreme?
Of all places, the summit of Snow Mountain.
It was so far removed that it almost seemed to hint at some kind of intention.
This could be seen just by looking at Woon-hwi’s expression.
Though Woon-hwi was also suffering damage from the severe blizzard, his mind didn’t stop working even in this moment.
If it were near the summit, that would be understandable, but this was exactly at Snow Mountain’s peak.
Woon-hwi, who had been trying to look around, spoke briefly.
“Seo Hyo.”
“…Yes.”
“The blizzard is severe, so put up an energy barrier.”
“…So now you’re giving me orders.”
Woon-hwi turned his head and asked.
“Do you dislike it?”
“…I don’t dislike it.”
As Seo Hyo waved his hand after saying this, an energy barrier formed that perfectly surrounded the three of them.
Seol Ho-ryeong and Seo Hyo immediately stopped the bleeding from their wounds and treated them. Woon-hwi also adjusted the balance of his right fingers that had been mangled in the battle with Buddha Statue.
He didn’t heal them completely to allow for natural recovery.
Just then, Seol Ho-ryeong’s eyes sharpened as he took out the Bright King Prayer Beads he had obtained from the secret realm and wrapped them around his wrist.
His gaze turned toward Seo Hyo.
Seo Hyo was a Heaven-Human Realm expert and the strongest among the three present in this place.
However, such things weren’t important to Seol Ho-ryeong. He had hidden cards, and he was confident he wouldn’t easily lose against a Heaven-Human Realm martial artist.
The point about not easily losing – that was what mattered.
If a certain amount of internal energy were to clash, it would spread to the surroundings, and the one with ‘very wide vision’ near Ten Thousand Year Snow Mountain would inevitably detect it.
He would come here in the blink of an eye, and then the situation would be over.
Woon-hwi, who had been watching such Seol Ho-ryeong, smiled mysteriously.
Though they had sorted out their positions inside the secret realm, Seol Ho-ryeong was a more cold-headed and cautious man than he appeared.
Woon-hwi really liked that aspect of Seol Ho-ryeong.
In leading a group, suspicion was truly important.
Even if one accepted and moved on for now, when the situation changed, it was right to look back again.
“Elder Brother.”
“Hmm?”
“You don’t need to worry.”
“Right?”
“Yes, and are you keeping safe the piece of long robe I gave you earlier?”
Seol Ho-ryeong nodded and took out a stained piece of cloth from inside his robes. It was the list of traitors obtained from Yeon Chu-ha, the vice-lord of Baek-ryeon-gak.
“As I told you, return to Cheon Seol Ju and once things are settled, deal with the people on that list.”
“…”
“And become the Young Palace Lord.”
Originally, Woon-hwi had intended to do that work himself, but this was a perfect stage.
An opportunity for Seol Ho-ryeong, the eldest son called a genius, to show his presence and become the protagonist.
“And you must leave Seol-ryeong-gak as it is.”
Woon-hwi had already said this inside the secret realm.
That two of the Seol Gung Triangle had turned against them.
Seol-ryeong-gak and Baek-ryeon-gak.
Among them, the organization Seol Ho-ryeong needed to deal with was Baek-ryeon-gak.
Seol Ho-ryeong gazed at his younger brother for a moment. Even in the blizzard, his eyes were clear.
“Why are we leaving Seol-ryeong-gak alone?”
Woon-hwi smiled gently.
“Enemies that have already been revealed are not threatening at all. What’s important are those who remain hidden.”
“…Those who remain hidden…”
Though Woon-hwi would like to immediately kill those who had turned against them again and again, unfortunately the world wasn’t that simple. There was a time for everything, and the clear masterminds behind it all had been identified.
What was important was that such people had made their own plans and were in the process of executing them, and in this situation, having slight disruptions to the plan versus having the plan completely exposed and overturned were problems of different dimensions.
Right now, Yang Seol-jin and Yu Cheong would probably judge that there were only minor disruptions to their plan.
That degree was just right.
To that extent, the lackeys would tremble in anxiety, situations would be created where they attacked each other, and the main conspirators would have to pour all their attention into appeasing them.
In that process, Woon-hwi would buy time, catch the undisclosed masterminds, train, raise his realm, and drill his subordinates.
While making Snow Palace’s interior even more solid, the tide had already been changing from the moment Woon-hwi began to move.
Their plan was being executed while Woon-hwi’s plan was also being executed.
The result could only be known at the end, but Woon-hwi was confident.
“Elder Brother.”
“Hmm?”
“You must make Cheon-seol-mun especially solid. You must thoroughly control Cheon-seol-mun’s vice-sect leader and Cheon Seol Sip Sam Dae, and you must definitely deal with those who need to be purged. You must use that power to cut off Baek-ryeon-gak as well.”
“…It sounds like you’re saying Cheon-seol-mun must also handle Baek-ryeon-gak’s weight?”
“That’s correct. When Elder Brother becomes Young Palace Lord, naturally Cheon-seol-mun will become Elder Brother’s reliable strength, and Snow Mountain’s forces will align themselves with Elder Brother. Clean house internally and establish your authority. And.”
Woon-hwi’s gaze turned to Seo Hyo.
“Seo Hyo is also fine. If he truly harbored different intentions, he would have already acted. As Elder Brother knows, there were several opportunities. Before coming to the secret realm, and inside the secret realm too.”
“…”
“Seo Hyo didn’t act at any of those moments. I evaluate that man highly. There’s no reason for him to do now what he didn’t do then.”
Seol Ho-ryeong took a deep breath. Then he nodded.
“I understand.”
He approached Woon-hwi and briefly gripped his shoulder tightly. Many things that couldn’t be expressed in words were contained in that single contact.
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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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