The Legend of Red Cloud - Chapter 20

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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 20. A Spirit Beast? No, a Spirit Pill!
Mo Yong Ji Eun watched the Red Fang Squad members setting up their tents with an expression of disbelief.
To her ears came the voice of Bong Jin, who had cornered one of the Red Fang members and was pleading with him.
“Listen here, Ryu, this isn’t the time for this. We’re in the heart of Enemy Territory, and in a situation like this where enemies could emerge at any moment. And camping, of all things! Not even at dusk—in broad daylight! This is absolutely impossible.”
Ryu, weary of Bong Jin’s persistence, spoke curtly.
“I’m exhausted. Let me rest.”
“Exhaustion is hardly the issue right now!”
The one who pulled Bong Jin away was Lee Song.
“Come here, Squad Leader Bong. Ryu is right—we’re all thoroughly worn out. Because we never properly recovered from yesterday’s battle before being forced to march through the night, the entire squad is in a state of extreme fatigue. A proper battle would be impossible in our current condition.”
“But I tell you, exhaustion isn’t the problem here!”
“It’s far worse than what you imagine, Squad Leader. The battle was savage enough. At our current level of fatigue, we cannot possibly engage in real combat. We must rest now—there’s no choice in the matter.”
“Good heavens! Scholar, now is hardly the time for such leisurely talk. Surely you saw those we encountered earlier. The Black Ghost—the Black Ghost!”
As Bong Jin raised his voice until his face flushed red, Lee Song merely smiled faintly, apparently unmoved by the gravity of the situation. This forced Bong Jin to speak even louder.
“Those creatures will still be prowling this region. And according to her, this area is within the operational zone of the Secret Ghost operatives. Before we encounter them…”
“But who is this woman, that she possesses knowledge of the Secret Ghost’s operational zone in this region?”
Lee Song’s question, interrupting his own words, gave Bong Jin pause.
Mo Yong Ji Eun’s identity was classified at the highest level.
By regulation, he was forbidden from disclosing her identity to anyone until he had delivered her to the Sect Leader.
Yet Bong Jin hesitated because he suspected that revealing her identity might prompt the Red Fang Squad to depart immediately.
Lee Song, noticing Bong Jin’s conflict, gave a slight shrug.
“Well, if you’d rather not speak of it, then don’t.”
As Lee Song turned away with indifference, Bong Jin hastily grasped his arm.
“She’s the Chief Strategist.”
“What?”
“The Chief Strategist—the Blood Ghost Corps’s Chief Strategist herself.”
Lee Song’s eyes widened in shock at Bong Jin’s words.
Nor was that all; the other Red Fang members, who had been busy with their camp preparations, turned their gazes toward Mo Yong Ji Eun in unison, their eyes alight with astonishment.
Yet Mo Yong Ji Eun, the object of all their stares, found her attention captured by Ryu.
The reason was his behavior moments before.
After dealing with the Black Ghost pursuit squad, Ryu had turned his gaze upon her and stood motionless for a considerable time.
Mo Yong Ji Eun, whose beauty rivaled her intellect and who had always commanded great attention from men, was not unfamiliar with such moments.
Yet her reaction stemmed from something in Ryu’s eyes—the light in them as he gazed at her.
It was utterly different from the look she had received from men before.
Of course, it was natural that a man would be startled or taken aback at the sight of a woman defecting to Enemy Territory.
So the surprise and confusion evident in Ryu’s eyes were comprehensible.
But among all the emotions gleaming in his unwavering gaze, the most vivid was longing.
It was not a look one would direct at a stranger, much less at an enemy in the midst of defection.
Moreover, with that gaze, Ryu stood unmoving for some time, gazing at her endlessly.
The look was so pointed that even Mo Yong Ji Eun, accustomed to male attention, had felt compelled to avert her eyes in discomfort.
Of course, that gaze eventually ceased.
It was when Bong Jin had revealed that Mo Yong Ji Eun was the Chief Strategist to convince Lee Song.
While the others were seized by even greater astonishment, all interest had vanished from Ryu’s eyes in an instant.
Once that interest faded, his gaze became as indifferent as always.
Paradoxically, that very indifference drew Mo Yong Ji Eun’s focus.
So it was that she now gazed intently at Ryu, who was setting up his tent with an expression so composed one would never guess he had shown a moment of surprise.
The Red Fang members who had stared at her in astonishment caught sight of Ryu calmly going about his task and soon withdrew their gazes.
They took his behavior to mean that Chief Strategist or not, there was nothing that would change their course.
Thus, the squad members let their astonishment fall away and returned their focus to their work.
Bong Jin, observing the movements of both Ryu and the Red Fang Squad, grasped their intent as well.
Neither Ryu nor the squad seemed inclined to alter their decision, even now that the identity of their escort had been exposed.
Bong Jin stood bewildered by this response, and Lee Song, who had already shaken off his surprise like the others, patted his shoulder.
“You must be tired as well, Squad Leader Bong. Rest yourself.”
Having spoken these words and turned to resume the tent he had left half-finished, Lee Song moved to complete it, leaving Bong Jin muttering in hollow amazement.
“They’ve all lost their minds…”
Yet he could not leave them and depart alone with Mo Yong Ji Eun.
Though the Black Ghost pursuers had been eliminated, he expected that the other two Black Ghost squads remained alive and mobile.
Moreover, they had now entered the operational zone where the Secret Ghost operatives crawled like insects.
For Bong Jin, alone among the Red Fang Squad, to take Mo Yong Ji Eun and move independently would be no better than suicide.
Though, truth be told, the Red Fang Squad’s decision to camp here in the heart of Enemy Territory in broad daylight seemed equally suicidal…
Dong Pil, passing by the anxious Bong Jin standing there, approached Mo Yong Ji Eun.
“There… my lady.”
Mo Yong Ji Eun’s gaze, which had remained fixed on Ryu until then, shifted at Dong Pil’s call.
Conversely, Ryu’s eyes—which had been indifferently focused on setting up his own tent—turned toward Mo Yong Ji Eun with unexpected concern.
Lee Song and Jwa Ryang exchanged puzzled glances at him.
The Ryu they had traveled with all this time was not the sort to show interest in strangers, no matter how beautiful a woman might be.
And to show concern, no less…?
So it was that bewilderment flickered across the eyes of both men as they looked at each other.
From the ears of these two came Mo Yong Ji Eun’s voice answering Dong Pil’s call.
“Me, sir?”
“Yes, my lady. You must be tired, surely?”
The kindness of a stranger—a man she had never seen before.
And beneath that kindness, the wants that lay dissolving.
Faced with a familiarity that was anything but new, Mo Yong Ji Eun let out a soft, misplaced laugh.
It struck her that men were all the same wherever you went.
“I see. Yes, I am tired.”
“If you don’t object, you’re welcome to rest in my tent.”
Expectation gleamed in Dong Pil’s eyes as he spoke.
Yet the lewdness that ought to have accompanied it was absent.
It was strangeness nestled within the familiar.
And that very thing moved Mo Yong Ji Eun to answer, contrary to her custom.
“Perhaps I shall.”
Mo Yong Ji Eun crossed toward his tent without hesitation, and Dong Pil’s face bloomed with a smile as he followed her.
With that bright expression undiminished, Dong Pil helped Mo Yong Ji Eun into his tent and drew the entrance closed behind her.
Even at midday, the Mountain Region still held the biting chill of early spring.
Dong Pil stood grinning, having surrendered his tent, when Jwa Ryang approached and tossed out a question as if flinging it at him.
“What’s this? You’re just giving up your tent and not going in after her?”
“Hush! If anyone hears you, they’ll think I’m a brigand.”
Dong Pil turned, his back to the tent, as if to block the words from carrying that direction—and Jwa Ryang let out a snort of laughter.
“You’re no brigand, that’s true. But a randy dog? Now that fits.”
“Brother!”
“You needn’t shout so. Everyone here already knows I’m your older brother. Regrettably.”
“How is that regrettable—”
“Do you think I’ve had to bail you out after every half-wit stunt you’ve pulled? Count yourself lucky I call it misfortune instead of what it truly is, you wretch!”
Dong Pil had no rebuttal for that—his lips merely jutted out as Jwa Ryang leveled a warning at him.
“So hear me: if you cause trouble this time, I’ll cut you loose. Don’t so much as glance her way again, understood?”
At Jwa Ryang’s gesture toward his tent standing behind him, Dong Pil’s face took on an expression of protest.
“But she’s so beautiful, how could I—”
“This bastard!”
Jwa Ryang released his grip on the tent line and stepped forward, but Dong Pil frantically waved his hands in alarm.
“All right, all right, I hear you. I hear you. Your temperament is—”
“My temperament isn’t without reason, so keep your wits about you!”
It was at this point that Jwa Ryang glanced toward Ryu and realized he had already entered his tent.
Jwa Ryang, bewildered by an action that contradicted none of the concern reflected in his earlier gaze, received Lee Song’s transmission of intent.
The moment you moved to stop Dong Pil, he smiled and entered the tent.
Smiled?
That’s right.
Then something is definitely afoot.
Likely so… for now, let’s pretend we saw nothing.
Jwa Ryang nodded at Lee Song’s transmission and continued speaking to Dong Pil, who was now staring at him with an expression of bewilderment at his sudden objections.
“Not because I dislike looking at you—hear this well: that woman is the Chief Strategist of the Blood Ghost Corps. The Chief Strategist.”
“And what of that? Everyone knows there’s nothing so base as men who judge a woman by her profession.”
“It’s not about her profession! All the eyes of powerful people are fixed on that woman. When they learn you made a move on someone like that, are they going to leave you be?”
“Well, they might trouble us a bit, but enduring hardship to gain beauty is—”
Dong Pil’s words died mid-sentence as his gaze suddenly turned outward, beyond the Encampment.
Jwa Ryang grasped the meaning at once and closed his mouth, dropping the rebuke he had been about to deliver.
Among the company, excluding Ryu, Dong Pil possessed the keenest Spiritual Perception.
His Spiritual Perception had no equal among those at his own realm, and he could sense things that even those in higher realms could not detect.
Knowing this, Jwa Ryang cast his gaze in the direction Dong Pil was looking.
“How many?”
“One. Or perhaps two.”
“Two of them?”
“No. One person and one beast.”
About half a quarter of an hour had passed since Dong Pil finished speaking when Jwa Ryang finally understood what that meant.
A presence was approaching—one he could sense clearly with his own Spiritual Perception.
But the one beast…
Dong Pil spoke to Jwa Ryang, who tilted his head in confusion at not being able to sense the second presence.
“You’ll know soon enough. Its body doesn’t seem that large, but it carries a lot of Spiritual Energy. Could it be a Spirit Beast?”
“A Spirit Beast! Then might it have an Inner Core?”
There was good reason for Jwa Ryang’s eyes to light up at the mention of a Spirit Beast.
He had been stuck at the edge of the Peak Realm for five years now.
Unable to endure the frustration of not being able to take even a single step forward from that place, Jwa Ryang had recently scraped together all the money he’d saved and purchased a single Cultivation Pill, reasoning that he needed help from a Spirit Pill.
Of course, it had turned out to be a worthless fake.
And by then, the charlatan hermit who sold it had already vanished without a trace, leaving Jwa Ryang unable to recover even a single coin.
After that, on days without missions, Jwa Ryang would wander about in the hills and fields near the garrison, searching for Spirit Pills.
Though Lee Song had eventually convinced him to stop such behavior not long ago, Jwa Ryang still hadn’t managed to let go of his obsession with Spirit Pills.
“Well, we won’t know until we open it up and see.”
“That’s… true enough.”
Noticing the cold killing intent that flickered in Jwa Ryang’s eyes at those words, Dong Pil shook his head with an expression that said he couldn’t stop what was coming.
Given Jwa Ryang’s usual temperament in that state, he would likely charge forward the moment he laid eyes on the creature, trying to cut it open.
While Jwa Ryang burned with desire—precisely for the Inner Core that the Spirit Beast might contain—a stranger was spotted approaching the Encampment.
“He doesn’t seem to be an enemy?”
Since everyone in the group had been listening to Jwa Ryang and Dong Pil’s conversation, Hee Jun, who had been following the direction Dong Pil was looking, offered his impression of the man.
The stranger’s countenance appeared so gentle that one could judge him not to be an enemy without any prior experience whatsoever.
But no matter how gentle one’s appearance, the aura one carries cannot be hidden.
Of course, amateurs like Hee Jun, who had only learned a basic Self-Defense Technique, might not sense anything, but Jwa Ryang and Dong Pil were both true masters of the Peak Realm.
There was no way they could fail to read the aura of a man who stood at their own level of mastery.
Yet Jwa Ryang’s attention lay elsewhere.
Having searched about for some time as if looking for something, Jwa Ryang turned to Dong Pil with a plaintive tone.
“Where exactly is the Spirit Beast?”
At Jwa Ryang’s question, Dong Pil chuckled and gestured with his eyes toward a small creature peering around in front of his tent.
“You don’t mean that tiny kitten?”
Seeing Dong Pil’s slow nod in confirmation, Jwa Ryang’s head snapped around, and cold killing intent washed across his gaze.
Chu Yeon Myeo, who bore the title of Spirit Beast, could hardly fail to notice the murderous intent directed at him.
With fur bristling and teeth bared, Chu Yeon Myeo let out a growl as Jwa Ryang smiled with a killing edge to it.
“It’s alright. It’s alright. I won’t hurt you at all when I open you up.”
Did Chu Yeon Myeo sense that the aura emanating from Jwa Ryang, who approached with such utterly unconvincing reassurances, exceeded what he could contend with?
Chu Yeon Myeo turned and fled.
But his escape led to an unexpected destination.

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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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