The Ignored Granddaughter of a Murim Family - Chapter 46

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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 46
At first, I thought it was a mistake, but the sound repeated irregularly.
‘Could it be? Is Father searching for me?’
The probability was high.
Otherwise, who would go around tapping on walls like this?
I sprang to my feet and headed toward the source of the sound. But soon a shelf blocked my path—the same shelf I’d examined earlier, crammed with medicinal pills. After studying it carefully, I noticed dust on the floor beneath the shelf, as if swept in one direction.
‘It looks like there’s a way to open this.’
After pushing and pulling the shelf for some time, I absently picked up a ceramic vessel, and with a sharp click, the wall and shelf slid smoothly to the side.
‘It opened… the smell of blood?’
I reflexively stepped back at the acrid stench.
Should I go in or not?
My deliberation was brief. I couldn’t remain here indefinitely. I had to explore while I still had some strength left.
I swallowed hard and stepped into the darkness.
* * *
Crawling through the darkness, I fumbled my way up the stairs until a Stone Chamber appeared. Compared to the storage room I’d been in moments before, it had a lower ceiling and was considerably smaller.
On a stone table inside the chamber, various objects lay scattered haphazardly.
As I drew closer, I realized my mistake. It wasn’t a table—it was a coffin!
As I approached the stone coffin, my shoe soles felt sticky against the floor. I glanced down reflexively and gasped. Partially dried bloodstains. No—this was a blood pool. The pool had accumulated along the coffin’s edge. Following the trail of blood carefully toward the back of the coffin, I froze.
“…!”
There was a person. Slumped against the coffin with their head bowed low, utterly motionless. The moment my hand touched their skin to check for a pulse, the cold emanating from them announced death before any examination was necessary.
‘They’ve been dead for quite some time.’
The corpse, head still bowed, had already stiffened, a sword gripped tightly in its hands.
I was about to examine the blade more closely.
“It’s… you.”
“…!”
“Don’t… be alarmed. I… called for you.”
It was a voice that sounded as though it might extinguish at any moment.
It came from the wall opposite the coffin, from a place half-shrouded in shadow. Though his face wasn’t clearly visible, his snow-white hair and beard revealed him to be an elderly man.
I asked carefully, making no effort to conceal my wariness.
“Did you call for me, sir?”
The old man tapped the floor silently with his hand.
Tap, tap, tap. The tapping sound I’d heard must have come from this old man.
The old man looking at me opened his mouth.
“Yes, so you are Baek Li-yeon.”
My eyes widened.
The old man coughed and continued.
“Hehe, why do you look so surprised? Weren’t you searching for me?”
“I was searching for you, sir?”
Who was I searching for? The question arose, but the answer came immediately to mind.
“Could it be… Man Shin-ui?”
“Heh heh. Yes.”
I clenched my fists tightly.
‘After all, he was alive…!’
I hurried toward Man Shin-ui. But as I drew closer, his condition appeared quite grave.
“Are you alright?”
I reached out to support him by his shoulder, but suddenly recoiled in shock. My palm was drenched in blood.
“I’ll fetch medicine… treatment right away!”
Man Shin-ui shook his head, barely perceptible.
“It’s done, it’s done. Already, *cough*, *cough*, I’m finished. My spine is broken.”
I found myself gaping.
Man Shin-ui chuckled softly and murmured.
“Truly a cripple of inner energy.”
“What? How did you… And how do you know my name?”
Man Shin-ui’s gaze turned toward the corpse behind me.
“That man was a Namgung Warrior.”
“Could it be… his name was Jo Chung?”
The Namgung Warrior who had vanished after going to Palgwae Village.
“Kekek, well. I had no time to learn his name.”
I bit my lip.
‘If he was a Namgung Warrior, he must have been quite skilled. So who on earth…?’
“Elder, do you know who attacked you?”
Before my regression, there was certainly no such incident. I needed to know who had done this, what had changed and where.
Man Shin-ui answered my question with one of his own.
“The village… what became of the village?”
“Ah….”
Should I tell him?
He already looked in such poor condition that I worried the shock might worsen his state.
Man Shin-ui spoke calmly.
“Tell me the truth.”
“…Everyone is dead. And everything burned.”
“…I see.”
As if he had already anticipated it from my reaction, Man Shin-ui spoke matter-of-factly.
“Oh! That’s right, one person survived.”
“Survived? Who lived?”
“That girl….”
Wait, I almost spoke her name carelessly.
“A mute girl.”
“Is that so? Then that’s fortunate, truly fortunate. That child’s name is So Nok. I called her Nok.”
“I found her hiding in the tree roots. But then a landslide occurred, and I saw my father grab So Nok, though I was swept away and don’t know exactly what happened to them.”
“A landslide. I heard the sound. Your father, you say… Baek Li-ui-gang?”
“Yes.”
“I’ve heard of his character and skill myself. If that’s true, that is.”
“It is true!”
I cried out indignantly.
Man Shin-ui chuckled, spitting out blood carelessly, then asked.
“If he’s so capable, why did he save So Nok instead of you?”
“That’s because…!”
As I tried to explain, I struggled to find the right words to articulate it coherently.
“It wasn’t because of Father’s skill.”
I slowly recalled the events of that moment.
The instant I realized it was a landslide, I grabbed So Nok and Yalyu and ran. I could see Father approaching rapidly from a distance.
But the torrent of earth and rock came in an instant. In that moment of desperation, a question struck me.
Could Father carry three children and escape? Why, in the tale of the Heavenly Maiden and the Woodcutter, couldn’t the maiden fly to heaven while holding three children, and thus couldn’t return?
With that thought, I pushed So Nok and Yalyu forward with all my strength. My last memory was placing them in Father’s arms.
Man Shin-ui’s expression turned peculiar as he listened to my explanation.
“So you’re saying you pushed the two children toward Father, and you were swept away by the landslide?”
“I wasn’t trying to save them. Father only has two arms.”
“That’s the same thing, isn’t it?”
“But if I hadn’t pushed those children to Father, he would have had to choose between me and one of the other two while holding me. How could I make him face such a choice?”
Man Shin-ui’s brow furrowed deeply as he spoke.
“So you dying is acceptable…—cough, cough, cough, cough!”
But before he could finish, a violent fit of coughing seized him. His body, already leaning against the wall, grew increasingly difficult to support and began to slump.
I rushed to catch Man Shin-ui, startled by the cold temperature I felt through my palms. His eyes grew progressively clouded, as if the end were truly approaching.
I asked Man Shin-ui urgently.
“Elder, how do we escape from here?”
“….”
“Elder!”
No! Wake up! You have to tell me how to get out!
At my cry, Man Shin-ui barely opened his eyes. But gazing into empty space rather than at me, he muttered alone.
“…The Orthodox Sect… their duplicity… and yet in the end….”
What was he saying?
Even though he was right in front of me, his words were so sparse I could barely understand them. It seemed as though he were pouring out some resentment. Then suddenly Man Shin-ui seized my shoulders.
“Eld—ugh!”
The strength in his grip was terrifying, as if it came from nowhere.
“You said you wanted to fix your dantian?”
Was I mistaken?
As I gazed at Man Shin-ui’s eyes without thinking, his pupils suddenly gleamed gold.
“There’s no time, so I’ll give you this instead.”
Before I could examine Man Shin-ui’s eyes more carefully, a blood-soaked hand suddenly covered both my eyes and forehead.
“!”
Man Shin-ui muttered something incomprehensible, and despite his hand obscuring his vision in darkness, he felt an intense light emanating from somewhere.
In those final moments before consciousness slipped away, Man Shin-ui’s voice reached him faintly.
“How you wield this gift shall rest upon your will alone.”

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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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