The Legend of Red Cloud - Chapter 105
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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 105. Misinterpretation
Yun Yeo-ok’s voice, sharp as a blade, dripped with hostility.
Though both were Milgyo, the Sura Milgyo and the Baramil Milgyo had never gotten along.
More than that—they despised each other far more than they despised Buddhism, which they considered Milgyo’s greatest enemy.
For they followed entirely different gods and doctrines despite both claiming the Milgyo name.
In a word: heresy.
Things that must be burned and destroyed without mercy.
That was how they regarded one another.
It spoke volumes that among the Haenam Geom-mun martial masters most zealously pushing the Baramil Milgyo, the most fervent had been those who defected from the Sura Milgyo to join the other side.
Merely hearing the name of the Baramil Milgyo was enough to set her teeth on edge.
That was why her eyes glinted with killing intent.
“Fine. I’ll grant that those Baramil bastards somehow scraped by a thousand years and crawled back out. But tell me—wasn’t it a picture thief your husband was chasing, not those Baramil wretches?”
Receiving Yun Yeo-ok’s gaze, Yucheon Chu-hon nodded quickly, even as he understood nothing of the Baramil Milgyo.
After all, it was confirmed that Pungryeo had been pursuing the picture thief alongside Gyeongcheon Chu-gwi.
“Yes… that’s correct.”
“So what is it? A successor of the Baramil Milgyo reduced to mere picture theft? Does that make any sense to you?”
Yucheon Chu-hon faltered under the weight of Yun Yeo-ok’s piercing stare.
How could he know whether it made sense or not when he didn’t even understand what the Baramil Milgyo was?
Yet he also knew from bitter experience that shaking his head here would end badly.
So then…
“It wouldn’t. I suspect.”
“Exactly. But here’s what happened. If that Baramil dog had stolen corpses, or rare herbs with strong yin properties, I’d understand. But a picture? It makes no sense.”
Yun Yeo-ok tilted her head repeatedly, genuinely baffled, then suddenly shook it violently.
She snorted hard through her nose and spoke.
“Hmph! Doesn’t matter! Whoever touched what’s mine—I’ll wring them dry when they’re caught!”
As Yun Yeo-ok ranted and cursed about some Baramil sect that supposedly vanished a thousand years ago, Yucheon Chu-hon’s inner judgment was already rendered.
‘People call me mad, but this woman—she’s the one who’s truly unhinged.’
Whether Yun Yeo-ok sensed his appraisal or not, her expression had grown composed, and she fixed him with a steady gaze.
Yucheon Chu-hon flinched, worried his thoughts had been read, when Yun Yeo-ok’s command fell like a stone.
“Find them.”
“We’re already searching for the one who abducted the Mun Chang-so household’s daughter—”
“Not the kidnapper. Someone else.”
“Then who—?”
“The bastard who damaged what’s mine!”
At the phrase “what’s mine,” Yucheon Chu-hon followed Yun Yeo-ok’s brief glance toward the bedside where Ryu lay unconscious, and understood whom she meant. He ventured carefully, “You mean… the Baramil Milgyo?”
“Yes.”
“But they vanished a thousand years ago, didn’t they?”
“That’s right.”
“Yet you want me to find them.”
“I do.”
“Where should I even—?”
“If I knew that, would I be sending you?”
Seeing the exasperation flash across Yun Yeo-ok’s face—as though he were wasting her time with obvious questions—Yucheon Chu-hon wisely bowed.
One more word and something would definitely come flying.
“Understood. I’ll bring them back.”
“Then go.”
The moment Yun Yeo-ok’s command was given, Yucheon Chu-hon left the room in confusion.
He had no idea what he was supposed to find, where, or how.
In the end, deciding he might as well track down the thief, he obtained a few sheets of the Yongmo Pagi—which the Mun Chang-so house had been producing and distributing in quantity lately—and set out.
From a window in the guest quarters where he lodged, Nam On watched Yucheon Chu-hon depart from the Mun Chang-so house, his expression darkening.
Day after day, missives had arrived bearing the Lord’s urgent seal.
They commanded him to recruit that master who had allegedly defeated Yucheon Chu-hon—whether the Eastern Sage or his son—and return to Cheonmyeong Namun with haste.
Evidently, the movements of the Jeong Hae Geom-ga, preparing for their resurrection, were intensifying.
Yet the man Nam On was supposed to recruit, this Pungryeo, had scarcely afforded him a chance to meet face to face.
The household master, So Gwang-yeo, kept putting off his requests for an introduction, and Pungryeo himself rarely left his room.
Now, on top of everything else, the man had taken injury and was bedridden.
Time was slipping away, and Nam On could waste no more. He rose and left his quarters.
With Yucheon Chu-hon gone, this was an opportunity. He would visit on the pretext of paying respects to the injured man and finally meet this Pungryeo.
Standing before the guest room where Ryu lodged, Nam On spoke in a measured voice.
“Is anyone there? I am Nam On. Might I come in for a moment?”
Yun Yeo-ok’s brow furrowed the moment she heard Nam On’s voice from outside the room.
Her thoughts were already tangled enough without this so-called rival poking around needlessly.
A rival.
That’s what Nam On was to her—someone trying to recruit Pungryeo and bring him to the Cheonmyeong Namun.
Either way, she wanted Pungryeo completely under her control, by whatever means necessary.
So she had no intention of letting Nam On in.
“I apologize. I’m changing my clothes.”
Gon-gwi stared at Yun Yeo-ok in disbelief as she spoke those words—something a woman would rarely say to a stranger so casually.
Yun Yeo-ok glared at the bewildered Gon-gwi with an expression that said, “So what?” which only deepened his embarrassment.
Nam On, standing beyond the door, was no less flustered than Gon-gwi inside.
Here was a woman brazenly telling an unrelated man that she was undressing in a room with him standing outside it.
Worse still, inside that room lay Pungryeo, visibly injured and confined to bed.
And according to the servants, some man wearing a Juklip was also staying there.
Put together, it meant Yun Yeo-ok was currently undressing in a room with two men present.
Even in the Kangho, where the lines between men and women blurred more than in the common world, such a thing couldn’t happen in broad daylight so openly.
Especially not when speaking to someone like Nam On, a follower of the White Path.
And so…….
After collecting his thoughts, Nam On steadied himself and called back into the room.
“I’ll come in.”
Before his words had even finished, Nam On pushed open the door and entered—only to see Yun Yeo-ok standing there fully clothed, exactly as he’d expected.
“Ahem.”
He cleared his throat at the sight of Yun Yeo-ok’s glare, then moved toward the bed where Pungryeo lay motionless as if dead.
“Has there been any improvement in his condition?”
Yun Yeo-ok didn’t answer, her face full of displeasure at the question.
Nam On glanced at her briefly and decided her response was unlikely to come; instead, he slowly extended his Ki Gam and began examining Pungryeo’s entire body.
The more he examined Pungryeo, the more Nam On’s expression hardened.
No matter how carefully he searched, he couldn’t find any trace of power strong enough to replace Internal Energy.
Finally, Nam On placed his hand on Pungryeo’s body.
In that instant, Yun Yeo-ok moved to stop him but caught herself, forcing her body to still.
She realized that if she clashed with Nam On here, she’d have to reveal her true strength.
Besides, she could guess roughly what Nam On was thinking, and if he was merely examining Pungryeo’s interior like this, it posed no danger to him—that too factored into her decision.
True to Yun Yeo-ok’s calculation, Nam On carefully infused a portion of his own Martial Power to examine the unconscious Pungryeo from within—and his expression turned completely rigid.
‘The Dantian… is completely sealed.’
It hadn’t been absent from the start.
The Dantian’s scope was incomparably vast and immense compared to his own—it had once contained tremendous reserves of Internal Energy—but for some reason, it had hardened solid.
He’d never heard of such a thing.
How could it be? It was impossible for someone at Peak Transcendence, two ranks below the highest level, to even recognize a technique deployed by the supreme master of the Magyo’s unique methods.
In that moment, Nam On’s mind raced.
He’d heard stories now and then of rare physicians awakening sealed or hardened Dantians with ancient miracle elixirs, but they were all nonsense.
If such a thing were possible, then the Sorim, which boasted superior physicians and possessed the Dae Hwan Dan—a treasure as precious as any miracle elixir—and the Muddang, which owned the Taecheong Dan, would have no masters crippled by Dantian damage. Yet reality proved otherwise.
And so…….
‘He’s useless.’
Nam On withdrew his hand, having reached his conclusion, but the question lingered.
He couldn’t fathom how a man with no Internal Energy and no power to replace it could have defeated Yucheon Chu-hon.
If Yucheon Chu-hon had been an ordinary martial artist, Nam On might have dismissed it as blind luck—but he was different. The man proudly carried his name among the Yeongha Baekwi, also known as the Hundred Experts, and was a true master of the highest caliber.
Defeating such a man through mere chance was no more likely than a camel passing through the eye of a needle.
Nam On himself was among the Yeongha Baekwi alongside Yucheon Chu-hon, so he understood this better than anyone.
That’s why the unsolved question left Nam On’s expression still utterly rigid.
Eventually, as Nam On left in silence with only questions accumulated, Yun Yeo-ok allowed herself a faint smile.
She thought things had worked out well.
Nam On had learned that Pungryeo possessed neither Internal Energy nor any power to replace it—which meant the Cheonmyeong Namun might just withdraw its grasp.
If that happened, from Yun Yeo-ok’s perspective, one competitor would simply fall away.
With that thought, Yun Yeo-ok smiled for the first time in a long while, wiping Pungryeo’s face with a cloth as she murmured softly.
“So wake up soon and let’s leave this place together, my lord.”
After her murmur, Gon-gwi watched as Yun Yeo-ok leaned down and kissed Pungryeo’s forehead—his face filled with the look of someone who’d just seen something best left unseen.
Nam On emerged from Pungryeo’s room with his expression still drawn tight, and there he encountered Yucheon Chu-hon, who was just returning from the Yucheon Cheol-ga.
Since there was something Nam On wanted to confirm anyway, he casually initiated the conversation.
“Where have you been?”
“Why? Do I need to report my whereabouts to you?”
Yucheon Chu-hon, whose mood seemed twisted from somewhere, responded harshly even to such a simple question, prompting Nam On to offer a gentle smile as he replied.
“That wasn’t quite what I meant. But it seems you’ve been up to something you can’t tell me about.”
“What nonsense. If I’m cooped up in my room like you, nothing gets done. Someone has to move. I sent the men out to at least catch the thief’s brat. Satisfied?”
“Is that so? But the thief has nothing to do with the kidnapping, doesn’t he……?”
“I know. I know already! But with that damn… Haedong-gwi lying there like that, someone has to be held accountable.”
“Ah! I thought you didn’t have particularly warm feelings toward the master of that room, but it seems I was wrong. The way you look after him says otherwise.”
Nam On’s remark invited a flood of responses, yet none could cross Yucheon Chu-hon’s lips.
And so…….
“Hmph. Mind your business.”
Nam On’s voice caught Yucheon Chu-hon just as he was turning away with a snort.
“Just one question, if you’ll indulge me.”
Yucheon Chu-hon’s mouth, ready to snap “No!”, fell silent.
It was because Yun Yeo-ok’s Telepathy had arrived, cutting through him: ‘Answer what he asks.’
In the end, Yucheon Chu-hon pouted and stopped, turning to face Nam On.
“What is it? Speak.”
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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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