The Ignored Granddaughter of a Murim Family - Chapter 294

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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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Chapter 294
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Rat-a-tat-tat—boom, clang—thud-thud-thud-boom!
The stone door, which had shown no trace of damage despite being hammered for over half a shichen, suddenly burst open with a deafening roar.
Blood-soaked figures, worn and exhausted, stumbled backward in shock. Their eyes fixed upon the stone door gleamed with both wariness and greed.
A pale, wispy smoke poured forth through the widening gap like a torrent. People waved their hands and coughed.
After the smoke that had filled the chamber like fog dissipated, a vast cavern came into view.
Upon a ruined altar, barely recognizable in its shattered state, stood a single figure.
The woman who had been gazing into the luminous void turned her attention toward them. Her downward gaze, standing motionless, carried an ancient weight. Merely the direction of her eyes brought such oppressive pressure that breathing became difficult.
Perhaps due to the atmosphere, everyone belatedly recognized the woman’s identity.
“…Miss Baek Li?”
Baek Li-yeon. The Cheon-ma’s granddaughter.
The people instinctively drew their blades.
Yet no one stepped forward, only exchanging wary glances.
“….”
Then someone, lacking both tact and patience, cried out.
“What in the heavens is happening here?”
Eyes darted frantically across the vast cavern and the shattered altar.
“Baek Li-yeon—why is this woman here? This was supposed to be it, wasn’t it? The divine technique? The treasure!”
As the saying goes, the first step is the hardest; the second comes easily. The crowd erupted like a broken dam, voices overlapping in chaos.
One of them attempted to rush into the cavern, but Taego Jinperson, standing at the forefront, blocked the way.
At that moment, Baek Li-yeon spoke.
“Taego Jinperson, where is Ryu-cheong?”
“I haven’t seen him.”
She tilted her head slightly and asked further.
“And the Left Envoy?”
“It seems you haven’t heard the news. The Left Envoy fell to the Namgung Family Head’s hand long ago.”
“Mm….”
Baek Li-yeon let out a low hum, her gaze dropping slightly.
Those who reflexively followed her eyes only then noticed that someone was gripped in Baek Li-yeon’s right hand. It spoke volumes of how overwhelming her presence truly was.
Baek Li-yeon spoke.
“The Cheon-ma is dead.”
“What!”
“Did you kill him?”
“No.”
Baek Li-yeon addressed Taego Jinperson, whose expression had hardened.
“Heaven’s fortune did not follow him.”
A withered corpse, desiccated beyond recognition, clung to Baek Li-yeon’s right hand before collapsing entirely to the ground.
The deteriorated remains, crumbling into dust, presented a sight so grotesque that even the hardened warriors of the Jianghu recoiled in revulsion.
“Spread word of this, and touch him no further.”
“Gasp!”
“Huff!”
The moment the words left my lips, everyone in the chamber experienced a vivid hallucination of their own death.
Gripped by terror from the murderous aura that felt like invisible hands strangling their throats, they instinctively stumbled backward. Then, realizing they had just been frightened into retreat by a young woman barely past her coming of age, their lips trembled with indignation.
Some refused to acknowledge their fear and deliberately began to protest.
“What manner of speech is this? Are you claiming that repugnant corpse is Cheon-ma? Preposterous!”
“Agreed! How could we believe such nonsense? Is this not a scheme to monopolize the divine technique? We should not heed the words of that woman!”
Boom!
The man who had been shouting suddenly flew backward as if struck by an invisible force, crashing against the opposite wall before sliding down to the floor.
Everyone held their breath, eyes darting in confusion. No one could comprehend what had just happened.
By all appearances, Baek Li-yeon should have done it, yet she hadn’t moved a single finger.
Baek Li-yeon spoke with perfect composure.
“It was too loud.”
The moment she descended one step from the platform, everyone flinched and retreated further.
Then, turning toward the only person who had not moved, Baek Li-yeon asked.
“Taego Jinperson, will you come in?”
“….”
A prolonged silence enveloped the cave chamber and the corridor beyond the stone door.
Taego Jinperson finally spoke.
“Everyone, withdraw.”
“Taego Jinperson!”
“What are you saying?!”
Taego Jinperson’s voice thundered.
“All of you, fall back now!”
At that moment, an incomprehensible force of tremendous power hurled the clamoring crowd backward.
Brief screams erupted as people tumbled across the floor, and the stone door slammed shut with a heavy thud before them.
* * *
The instant the stone door sealed, all sound vanished as if nothing had ever disturbed the silence.
I could no longer suppress the blood welling in my throat and spat it out in a violent gush.
Blood dripped onto the platform. In the now-silent cave chamber, only the ragged sound of my own breathing remained.
The power of Cheon-ma that I had absorbed—the lingering consciousness within it—thrashed violently through my body as if refusing to accept its fate, tearing and convulsing with each moment.
Every muscle and meridian in my body was being shredded and twisted beyond their capacity to contain Cheon-ma’s power.
Cheon-ma’s consciousness raged within me as if to kill me, then whispered seductively—was it not unjust to die like this? With your current strength, it is possible. Let us turn back time.
I understood why Cheon-ma had waited here for Cheonma Jibo to fall into his grasp.
Cheon-ma was no longer the omnipotent supreme master of old. By turning back time again and again, he had already expended far too much power—what could be called the very essence of his soul.
That is why he sought to reclaim Cheonma Jibo. To harness the power that still remained within it.
Having absorbed both Cheon-ma’s power and Cheonma Jibo, I could indeed turn back time as Cheon-ma had suggested.
But this time, I would become the central axis of regression, not Cheon-ma.
Cheon-ma would become a regression without memory. However.
‘I’m not going to do it, so shut up for a moment.’
Cheon-ma’s consciousness surged violently once more.
I coughed up blood again and drove Cheon-ma’s consciousness into the corner.
My legs gave out as I stumbled forward, and I collapsed onto the ground without any grace.
‘Damn Cheon-ma. I never thought he couldn’t detoxify it.’
But that’s precisely why I could win.
In the end, I failed to achieve one of the reasons I abandoned my escape and came all the way to the Heavenly Demon Grand Vault.
But that should be fine.
‘Now that things have improved between Grandfather and me. With me gone, there’s nothing more he’ll have to strain himself over.’
When the internal poison finally flared up inside the Heavenly Net of the Demonic Cult, my heart nearly stopped.
Starting with memories of the Heavenly Net, everything I’d experienced flashed before my eyes like a lantern show.
‘Should I have left a final message?’
I decided it wasn’t necessary.
Anyone who heard it would call it childish and twisted, but I didn’t want to leave any trace of my existence in this world.
Until now, I hadn’t even understood my own heart, but in this moment, I finally grasped it.
I had resented my father.
My father, who died for reasons I never knew and returned as a corpse, who left me alone in this world—I had despised him deeply.
So it seemed I wanted him to experience the same pain I had endured. You could call it revenge.
‘How foolish.’
It was truly a childish thought. I acted so clever, doing everything myself, yet here I was no better than an idiot.
‘This is probably the end. I should have said a proper goodbye.’
What did that resentment matter?
I wish I had at least left a single line of apology before going to meet my father and grandfather.
I had plenty of chances to say goodbye to Namgung Wan and Seo Ha-ryeong, but I didn’t.
And Ryu-cheong.
I’m grateful I never accepted Namgung Ryu-cheong’s feelings.
I’m truly grateful I never discussed a future with him.
‘He said he would wait.’
I was sorry for breaking that promise.
But it should be fine. Didn’t he say it himself? That he’s never lost to anyone but me.
He couldn’t possibly lose to the Left Envoy. He would have found a way through somehow.
If I had died or been gravely wounded, Taego Jinperson wouldn’t have come this far without seeing Namgung Ryu-cheong. So I wasn’t worried. I had no regrets.
But there was someone filled with nothing but regret.
Yalyu.
‘I’m sorry.’
I wish I hadn’t been so cold. Even if I couldn’t understand him, I wish I had told him it was okay.
At least his actions for me in this lifetime were genuine.
For him, who has so many days left to live, I wish I had left him good memories so he could spend his remaining time in happiness.
It was all truly meaningless.
I collapsed completely, falling onto the altar that still retained some semblance of form.
Brilliant light poured down in a straight line from above my head. I turned my face away as if to escape the radiance.
‘I should have just lain on the ground. Feeling like a sacrificial offering is unbearable….’
My consciousness drifted away listlessly.
And at the far edge of my dimming vision, a white figure drew near, wavering like a mirage. Even through the haze, I could recognize it.
‘Gyeol-i.’
I squeezed out my last ounce of strength and reached out my hand.
My powerless hand stretched forward only to fall limply to the ground.
Through the numbness of my fading consciousness, I felt someone grasp my hand with crushing force. Against my cooling palm came a searing warmth, burning like flames.
Who is this? Whose hand is this? How did they get in?
I struggled and fought to pry my eyelids open. But in the end, I could not.
“That wasn’t it.”
It was a familiar voice.
They hadn’t left after all?
“I was simply….”
I felt the turbid demonic energy ravaging my body flow through the hand that held mine. It was the Absorption Technique.
‘This can’t be happening.’
But against my will, my consciousness only grew more distant and obscured.
Beyond the fading haze, the voice grew distant.
“Only when I’m before you do I feel like I’m not a worm.”
With those words, my consciousness shattered.
“Yeon! No, don’t, don’t, don’t!”
“Great Hero!”

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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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