The Legend of Red Cloud - Chapter 109

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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 109. Abandoning the Beauty and Digging a Trap
There was nothing to be done.
The martial techniques of the Suramil Church that Yun Yeo-ok had mastered were of the Yin school, if one had to categorize them by Yin and Yang.
But because of the sorcery she had learned alongside it, Yun Yeo-ok’s power was founded not on Yin Qi—that is, on Yin-type Internal Energy—but on Ghost Qi.
So she had no use for Yin Qi at all.
When she thought of giving it to someone else, there was simply no one suitable.
She would have wanted to give it to the Haenam Geom-mun master who also held the position of military commander of the Suramil Church, but he possessed extreme Yang Internal Energy, so Yin Qi would be poison to him.
Though she had no intention of letting him meet her anyway, Feng Liu would gain nothing from it either.
For someone with not a shred of Internal Energy, the Yin Moon Body Technique—meant to purify Yin Qi—would be as dangerous as a lightning strike.
The four Yin-Yang Spirits, including Gon-gwi, were the same.
They were useless to Yun Yeo-ok, who refined Ghost Qi—what then could the Yin-Yang Spirits, meant to purify Ghost Qi, possibly accomplish?
So even if it were completed, it would be of no use.
No use to anyone, anywhere.
Still……
“…Ah! This one needs to stay here so that the slippery bastard will come back! I’ll catch that wretch and strip off his skin, salt him, and hang him in the sun to dry.”
At Yun Yeo-ok’s hastily constructed reasoning, Gon-gwi licked his lips with the tongue in a manner that suggested regret.
“I see. Still, it seems a waste to keep her here…”
“A corpse lamenting over a living woman? If so much as spit flies from your mouth, I’ll pluck out your eyes and cut off your limbs to toss to vengeful ghosts. If you want to live eternity in agony, suit yourself.”
At Yun Yeo-ok’s savage warning, Gon-gwi’s eyes of longing dimmed.
No matter how coveted her beauty was, he had no desire to willingly walk into eternal suffering just to possess it.
To such a Gon-gwi, Yun Yeo-ok spoke.
“For now, you stay here.”
The distance between this place and the Mun Chang-so Family Residence where Yun Yeo-ok stayed was not merely a hundred paces—it was dozens of miles.
So if he were that far away, he could not maintain his physical form.
It meant he could have neither food nor even that fine wine he enjoyed.
As if regretting this, Gon-gwi asked.
“Why is that?”
“Should I just leave her here alone? Or entrust her to the one outside? If I handed her to that bastard, wouldn’t he charge in even if I told him to kill her?”
At Yun Yeo-ok’s words, Gon-gwi could only nod as he recalled the greasy face of the portly aide.
To such a Gon-gwi, Yun Yeo-ok continued.
“Besides, the Mun Chang-so family already seemed suspicious of you staying here constantly, so let’s kill two birds with one stone—guard her from here. When that slippery wretch returns, report to me at once. I plan to rush right over and smash that bastard’s spine.”
Neither Yun Yeo-ok, who spoke thus, nor Gon-gwi even considered for a moment that the woman might be the daughter of the Mun Chang-so house.
What Yun Yeo-ok had pursued was not the one who kidnapped the daughter of the Mun Chang-so house, but the one who had made Feng Liu into his current state.
The relationship between them was not Yun Yeo-ok’s concern.
Moreover, the Mun Chang-so house had never once mentioned that their missing daughter was such a beautiful woman.
Most critically, nothing had ever been said about the Yin Moon Body Technique.
Had they not discussed what would be the most crucial clue while searching for their lost daughter, she would have been suspicious—but she had not heard of it, so she suspected nothing.
Therefore, hearing Yun Yeo-ok make no connection whatsoever between So Cheon, who was said to have been kidnapped from the Mun Chang-so house, and the woman before her eyes, Gon-gwi could only nod with a regretful expression.
Watching him thus, Yun Yeo-ok smiled grimly, recited an incantation difficult to parse for a moment, then formed a seal—whereupon Gon-gwi’s spectral form scattered and vanished into black mist.
Yet the ghost, Gon-gwi, remained standing right there.
Though invisible to the eyes of others, to Yun Yeo-ok’s eyes, Gon-gwi standing thus was still visible.
“Keep watch well.”
Leaving Gon-gwi, who nodded at her words, Yun Yeo-ok moved toward the entrance and began searching through the remaining belongings again.
She wondered if there might be something that could serve as a clue.
***
While Yun Yeo-ok was thus searching through the cave, at the Mun Chang-so Family Residence, Nam On was entering Feng Liu’s chamber.
With Yun Yeo-ok, who usually made his eyes wary, mercifully absent, Nam On felt easier than usual, and with the resolve to uncover yet another possibility in Feng Liu this time without fail, he took a seat right beside the bed and crossed his legs in meditation.
Today he intended to use the secret transmission of the Cheonmyeong Namun itself—the Yunqi Yoosang Method, which took considerable time—to thoroughly examine Feng Liu’s interior.
It was to confirm whether there existed something else unknown to him that had given Feng Liu the strength to defeat Yucheon Chu-hon.
If that could be confirmed, Nam On resolved to employ every means at his disposal to recruit Feng Liu and bring him back.
To that end, he had even resolved to offer his granddaughter as a bride to make Feng Liu his son-in-law.
His granddaughter, known as one of the Three Beauties of Haenam.
She possessed beauty surpassing even Yun Yeo-ok, and though he had not seen her himself, she was a girl of incomparable quality to the daughter of the Mun Chang-so house—he was certain Feng Liu could not refuse her.
Because he was considering even this ultimate measure, discovering Feng Liu’s true nature was paramount.
Nam On, calming his mind gradually, cast the secret transmission of the Yunqi Yoosang Method, gathering his spirit and qi to his fingertips as he grasped Feng Liu’s wrist pulse.
Then he slowly began to channel his own Internal Energy into Feng Liu’s body.
The beginning was no different from before.
Before his Dantian had hardened, Feng Liu appeared to have possessed considerable Internal Energy—his vital pathways and qi channels were extraordinarily clean.
It would have been perfect if he still possessed Internal Energy, but as before, Nam On felt no Internal Energy whatsoever in Feng Liu’s body.
Because these qi channels and vital pathways were ones he had explored over days and days, this time Nam On infused more of his own Internal Energy to begin examining the muscles.
He recalled hearing stories, now and then, of methods to store Internal Energy within muscle tissue.
Though they were little more than legend, when the opportunity presented itself, he’d wanted to verify them.
As Nam On examined Feng Liu’s musculature slowly and carefully, he detected something very small, and distinctly unusual.
Cold, damp, and eerie.
‘What is this? Not Yin Qi, but not cold energy either. Viscous, sticky, unpleasant. How could such a filthy aura be lodged within a human body….’
Puzzled, Nam On tilted his head and pressed his Internal Energy closer to probe the mysterious aura, but it yielded no response.
That displeased him.
Nam On honed his Internal Energy to a razor edge and stabbed sharply at one point of the aura.
It was reckless, frankly.
Attacking another’s aura with one’s own Internal Energy from within their body was taboo among taboos.
One misstep could inflict irreversible internal damage upon the other.
Yet Nam On, who had only been wasting time in uncertainty, resolved that today he would lay bare Feng Liu’s secret completely, even if it meant crossing certain lines.
Besides, no one was here to stop him if he went too far.
He harbored the thought that it wouldn’t matter if Feng Liu suffered grave harm and was destroyed as a result of his actions.
If he couldn’t uncover the hidden power, they couldn’t bring him to the Cheonmyeong Namun.
If they couldn’t use him, it made no difference whether he broke.
That was what gave him the audacity.
Yet Nam On, unable to pierce through the strange aura cleanly, repeated that perilous act again and again.
Twice, three times… five times… on the twelfth attempt, he achieved a small breakthrough.
Crack.
He’d managed to open a tiny fissure within that filthy aura.
In that instant, something cold and clear flowed through Nam On’s form and rushed into the gap.
It was unmistakably different from his own Internal Energy.
And then something began to happen.
Cold, clear aura came surging in from without, flowing through Nam On’s body and into Feng Liu’s.
And the volume began to swell exponentially.
Only after vast quantities of aura had poured through him did Nam On realize what it was: wind.
Whether it was wind or anything else, the fact that it was flowing through his own body caused Nam On sudden dread, and he tried to pull his hand away.
But the hand that held Feng Liu’s Vital Pathways would not release.
And worse still—the moment he tried to withdraw, Nam On’s own Internal Energy began to be drawn in, sucked into Feng Liu’s body on the tide of wind.
“Ah, ah!”
Alarmed sounds escaped Nam On’s lips.
***
Hyeol Yeong Ma-jon, walking through the inner courtyard of the Tang Family Residence, glanced up at the clear sky.
“The wind aura is moving? Surely not already!”
An elderly man walking beside him, his eyes wide with surprise, asked with a puzzled expression.
“Wind aura… you mean the Wind Acupoint, do you not?”
At the sound of the old man’s voice, Hyeol Yeong Ma-jon winced inwardly.
The man to whom he’d given the Windless Secret Art—the one he called the Wind Demonic Grade—was none other than the Family Head of Danli Se standing beside him now.
The Danli Se Family Head’s assessment of the Windless Secret Art had been quite harsh at the time.
“It is a Demonic Grade that blinds the warrior’s eye and thrusts them into an inescapable abyss.”
He’d added as reason that it was a secret art that seemed within reach, yet remained forever unattainable.
Even Hyeol Yeong Ma-jon, who had actually trained in it, understood what he meant.
But there was one thing the Danli Se Family Head did not know.
If one could shatter the harsh boundary of the Windless Secret Art and face its true form, then it would become the supreme secret art under heaven.
The reason Hyeol Yeong Ma-jon, once merely one of the rising talents of the Demonic Cult, rose in a single breath to the position of its master was precisely because he’d been able to face the true form of the Windless Secret Art.
That was also why he showed forbearance toward the worthless schemes of Ma-ryeong, a disciple of the Danli Se Family.
It was a kind of gratitude.
Unable to know any of this, the Danli Se Family Head watched as Hyeol Yeong Ma-jon laughed and deflected.
“Not Wind Acupoint—wind aura. Wind aura. I merely meant the qi of the wind is particularly clear today.”
“Ah… I see.”
The Danli Se Family Head nodded as if in agreement, but Hyeol Yeong Ma-jon could read the deep suspicion that had settled into the man’s penetrating gaze.
‘This could become troublesome if I’m not careful.’
Once the people of Danli Se began to bite and gnaw at something, there were none more relentless under heaven.
Now that the leader of such a clan had taken suspicion into his heart, it wouldn’t simply pass.
Yet Hyeol Yeong Ma-jon took it lightly.
After all, that Windless Secret Art had already left his hands.
Whether it would become soup to be drunk or flourish and soar freely depended now on that fellow Ryu on the Saja Plain.
A faint smirk crossed Hyeol Yeong Ma-jon’s face, and in his eyes gleamed anticipation.
It was not mere anticipation born simply from the wind aura stirring.
The Danli Se Family Head did not miss that glint in Hyeol Yeong Ma-jon’s eyes.
After finishing an impromptu stroll with Rim-ju, the Danli Se Family Head had returned to his quarters provided by the Tang Family Residence and summoned one of his subordinates.
“Get word to Ma-ryeong at once. Find the Windless Secret Art.”
“The Windless Secret Art—isn’t that the Demonic Grade technique you gifted to Rim-ju years ago, sir?”
“Yes. Tell him to find it. I want to know who has it now, what progress they’ve made learning it—everything you can uncover.”
“As you command!”
The subordinate bowed and left, and the Danli Se Family Head began drumming his fingers anxiously on the table.
Tap-tap-tap.
He had never given that gift with good intentions, to be honest.
It had been a kind of trap—a scheme to topple one of the Demonic Cult’s rising prodigies, someone with the ability to glimpse the future.
But the result was that he had sidestepped the trap entirely, seized control of the Demonic Cult as its master, and even claimed Rim-ju.
It had been a modest attempt to slow, even slightly, the momentum of the Demonic Cult swelling in Gunma Rim—a rising sun at dawn. He had not despaired at the failure then.
There had been no reason to lament over every failed snare.
At that time, the Danli Se Family Head himself had been locked in blood-soaked intrigue with his brothers, wagering the seat of Family Head itself—hardly a period to dwell on every setback.
So he had forgotten about it.
He had never once heard that Hyeol Yeong Ma-jon had employed any martial art related to wind.
But this one comment had changed everything.
Especially the way he had deflected the question—that was far too suspicious.
It was possible it meant nothing.
But if he had gained something from the Windless Secret Art, and if that something was not insignificant, then there would be no reason for Hyeol Yeong Ma-jon to hide it as he had just done—not for someone of his character.
It simply was not in his nature to conceal trivial matters.
‘What if Rim-ju’s current achievements rest upon the foundation of the Windless Secret Art?’
As that thought took hold, the Danli Se Family Head’s expression hardened like stone.
The loss of the Windless Secret Art was secondary.
Though he held the seat of Family Head, the internal strife within the clan continued unabated.
If word spread that he had allowed a secret technique of ancient origin—capable of training masters of Hyeol Yeong Ma-jon’s caliber—to slip outside the family, he could never hold his position.
He might not even survive to keep his life.
The world believed the Tang Family possessed the harshest family tradition. They were wrong.
As far as the Danli Se Family Head knew, it was the Danli Se Family that harbored the coldest, most ruthless tradition.
The first lesson one learned from birth was: ‘Abandon the useless without mercy, blood relation or not.’
So he had to find it first, before anyone else.
And if he could not find it again, he had to bury any evidence that the Windless Secret Art had been important enough to seek.
That was why the Danli Se Family Head’s gaze grew even heavier.
The target of this search was none other than Hyeol Yeong Ma-jon—a man who stood nearest to the title of best under heaven.
Yet he could not abandon the effort.
The Danli Se Family Head’s eyes glinted with a chilling light as his fist clenched tight.
***
Feng Liu had stood alone for quite some time atop one of the Saja Peak summits, submerged in darkness.
The scene was familiar, yet everything differed from memory.
The pine tree that had once offered him a comfortable place to rest his back was nowhere to be seen, nor the small stone where he had honored the spirits of fallen comrades.
Most of all, the cool breeze that had once calmed his restless heart did not blow.
Instead, the surrounding space was thick with Ghost Qi, as dark and deep as shadow itself.
From encountering an aura identical to this in his final remembered battle, Feng Liu could dimly surmise that he had fallen victim to the opponent’s attack.
At first, he believed his Vital Pathways had been sealed.
His cognitive function was completely locked away, yet his mind remained clear—that was why.
But as time wore on, he began to suspect it was not his Vital Pathways that had been trapped.
If sealing the Vital Pathways had imprisoned his awareness, it could not have lasted this long.
All Acupoint Seals naturally release after a certain interval unless reapplied.
Yet he had endured in this state far longer than any seal should have lasted.
And there had been no subsequent external attempt to reseal the acupoints.
His senses would have caught any such effort.
This meant some force maintaining the seal was being naturally supplied to his body—something tangible touching him continuously.
Yet no matter how tenaciously he focused his consciousness, he could neither sense nor locate any externally entering power.
He had to consider the possibility that he had fallen victim to something other than Acupoint Sealing.
Amid these suspicions, Ryu came to understand he needed to pay careful attention to that foul Ghost Qi surrounding his will.
Now that he realized this, he wondered why he had overlooked it until now.
‘Could it be…?’
He carried a memory—something he had heard long ago through the mouth of a Buddhist monk who had drifted into Saja Plain.
The Ghost Qi wielded by those called the Suramil Church—a sect that had long since vanished from the world—could sometimes penetrate an opponent’s interior and confine their will deep within.
As that memory surfaced, he began to consider whether the Ghost Qi surrounding him now might be exactly that, and whether he had indeed fallen victim to it.
‘The solution was…….’
Simple enough.
Break through the opponent’s Ghost Qi, trapped inward beneath their will, with Internal Energy stronger than theirs.
The problem was…….
‘I have no Internal Energy.’
That was the truth.
Ryu, as he was now, possessed no Internal Energy.
Or rather, he did—but it lay sealed within his Dantian, locked away by a binding curse.
In his current predicament, it was maddening, yet he couldn’t simply remain passive, waiting to be overwhelmed.
Rather than despair over what he lacked, as he always had before, he resolved to attempt whatever lay within his power—and so the cross-legged figure of Ryu, seated within his own consciousness, decided to try every method available to him right now.
What he attempted first was, inevitably, breath cultivation.
He tried it on the faint hope that his sealed Internal Energy might respond.
Yet despite days upon days of effort, the Dantian that Hyeol Yeong Ma-jon had sealed refused to budge, and not a single thread of Internal Energy answered his call.
He had no choice but to seek some other method he could attempt at once.

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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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