The Little Baby Snake of the Vermilion Bird Family - Chapter 38

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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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The round bead glowed with light, instantly absorbing everything in its vicinity.
Baeksa had no time to stop it or even retrieve the bead.
The meager contaminated energy of Jeokryusan was drawn into the bead like a rushing river.
And at the exact same moment.
“Ah, kyaaaah!”
The bead’s power struck Ahee.
And in that split second.
Swoosh.
The bead’s power absorbed Ahee’s power.
But what it absorbed was not the Flame, the Supernatural Ability Ahee had previously displayed.
“……What is that?”
Hwaryeong muttered blankly.
As the bead absorbed Ahee’s power, her face changed completely.
The face that had resembled Ju Myeongyeong vanished without a trace, and an unfamiliar young girl appeared in its place.
Her white hair turned brown, and her red eyes dyed black.
Staring at Ahee’s completely altered appearance, everyone gaped at the child in a daze.
Belatedly, Ahee checked her transformed hair.
“Uh, uh……?”
Clutching her brown hair, she froze in place.
“No, it’s not, this is…….”
Baeksa stared blankly at Ahee.
Her own Supernatural Ability was strictly limited to absorption.
She lacked the power to change someone else’s appearance.
Which meant Ahee had been using an ability to conceal her true self.
And that very ability had been entirely absorbed into Baeksa’s bead.
Coming to her senses a little, Baeksa folded her hands politely and held them out.
“Bead, come back.”
Then, as if it truly understood her words, the bead came rolling back through the air and settled into her palm.
“Kyaaaah! You, what did you just do to me!”
‘You, you……! What is the meaning of this!’
The screams of Songra and Ahee overlapped in an instant.
Baeksa received the bead with trembling hands.
Amidst the chaotic, jumbled mess of contaminated energy filling it, she felt a foreign presence mixed in.
‘This is Ahee’s ability.’
The power the bead had absorbed.
Perhaps because she had been using her Supernatural Ability so diligently and learning to control it?
She was now much more adept at handling her power than before, to the point where she could distinguish the absorbed ability inside the bead.
Baeksa quietly examined Ahee’s ability trapped within the bead.
It was a sinister energy, very similar to the contaminated energy.
Perhaps that was why the bead had drawn in Ahee’s aura.
“Family Head, Family Head! That child turned my face into this hideous shape! With that sinister ability of hers!”
“No, Ahee.”
Having calmed down slightly, Baeksa stepped out of Hwaryeong’s embrace and spoke evenly.
The young girl took a deep breath and looked around.
Just a moment ago, she had been gripped by the same terror she used to feel back at the Imperial Palace.
She had almost lost consciousness because of it.
‘Is it because the Family Head, Master Hwaryeong, and Doeui came for me?’
Her breath was no longer short, and her heart didn’t beat frantically like before.
Baeksa swallowed hard.
‘I must learn to say I didn’t do the things I truly didn’t do.’
She couldn’t live as a timid, pathetic little snake forever.
Hiding beneath Hwaryeong’s shadow and Doeui’s shadow would have to end soon.
Instinctively, the little snake realized that to live on her own, she had to overcome all the terrible things she had endured.
And this was her very first step.
“I didn’t change your face. My Supernatural Ability only absorbs things…….”
As she rolled the bead in her hand, it glowed with light and floated gently above her palm.
“Because you were hiding your face with another ability, my power simply caused your true self to be revealed.”
“No! What do you know? I’ve had white hair since the day I was born! I am definitely, definitely, Myeongyeong’s biological daughter…….”
Wailing loudly, Ahee turned back to Song Hyun.
“Song Hyun, Song Hyun! You clearly told me I was Myeongyeong’s biological daughter. You said if we did this, no one would ever find out!”
“A-Ahee! What on earth are you talking about!”
Song Hyun bellowed at her, but Ahee only burst into a fresh fit of sobbing.
Baeksa touched the floating bead with her fingertips.
Perhaps the bond between her and the bead had deepened, for she could feel it responding to her will.
‘Bead.’
Baeksa scanned her surroundings.
‘There might be others who changed their faces just like Ahee did.’
Then, she whispered softly.
‘Absorb all the bad things and take them away, please…….’
Baeksa’s Supernatural Ability was different now from when she first arrived at the Vermilion Bird Family Estate.
Having used her power hundreds of times since then, she had finally figured out how to absorb only the bad things.
She no longer feared that her ability might harm the innocent.
As the young girl whispered, the bead hummed once in vibration, as if responding to her voice.
Suddenly, a white, glittering wind swept across the entire area.
Simultaneously, lotus petals began to flutter down from the sky.
And in every pond the white wind touched, elegant and beautiful white lotuses bloomed into life.
White, for Baek. Lotus, for Yeon.
It was a Supernatural Ability perfectly suited to the child’s name.
The startled Beast-kin murmured among themselves, staring at Baeksa.
“This is impossible…… the contamination is being absorbed!”
“This is Lady Baeksa’s Supernatural Ability?”
“Isn’t that a Cintamani? Is she actually from the Dragon Clan?”
A white radiance bathed the surroundings, and the scent of lotuses warmly enveloped the people’s hearts.
Wherever the lotuses bloomed, the contamination vanished, the waters cleared, and new sprouts broke through the earth.
During all this, no one else’s face or hair color changed like Ahee’s had.
Ju Jeokseo was watching Baeksa unleash her Supernatural Ability in a daze when suddenly—
Flutter!
The Feather Fan Spiritual Treasure resting in his robes moved of its own volition, slipping out from his embrace.
And in that exact moment.
Flutter! Swoosh!
The Feather Fan Spiritual Treasure fanned a breeze toward Baeksa. At that, the lotus fragrance and petals drifted even further, creating an even more auspicious atmosphere.
Ju Myeongyeong’s Feather Fan Spiritual Treasure.
The faces of those who watched that Spiritual Treasure emit a sacred light to assist Baeksa turned pale with shock.
‘The Spiritual Treasure reacted.’
That meant only one thing.
“Could it be……?”
The white snake was Myeongyeong’s flesh and blood.
The Namto Beast-folk had been right all along.
It had only been a matter of time before the Feather Fan Spiritual Treasure reacted to Myeongyeong’s daughter.
Except the one it reacted to was not Ahee, but the white snake.
In that instant, an old whisper echoed once more in Ju Jeokseo’s ears.
‘It means a clean, pure hope that blooms even in the lowest places.’
Myeongyeong’s voice tickled his ears.
‘That is the kind of name I want to give my child…….’
Perhaps Myeongyeong had faintly known back then.
Exactly who her daughter would be.
What kind of Supernatural Ability she would be born with……
***
Ju Jeokseo couldn’t believe it.
Neither the sight before his eyes of fluttering lotus petals, nor the Spiritual Treasure that had flown over to react to Baeksa.
‘Then, it really is…….’
Is Yeon truly Myeongyeong’s daughter?
A Spiritual Treasure responds only to its master or their direct bloodline.
Therefore, the fact that the Spiritual Treasure had reacted was irrefutable proof that Baeksa was Myeongyeong’s biological daughter.
Faced with such clear evidence, everyone stared at the white little snake in utter bewilderment.
The child carried the bloodline of the Imperial Family.
She was the princess abandoned by the Emperor.
Which meant…….
‘Myeongyeong…… is in the Imperial Palace?’
The auspicious wind from the Spiritual Treasure swirled around the tiny snake.
This was undeniably the reaction of a Spiritual Treasure recognizing its ‘master.’
The Ha Clan Head was the quickest to bow her head deeply before Ju Jeokseo.
“Divine Lord! I offer my congratulations on finding the master of the Spiritual Treasure!”
As she shouted in a booming voice, the Beast-kin who had been watching blankly all bowed their heads and echoed her words.
“Divine Lord, we offer our congratulations on finding the master!”
Ju Jeokseo, who had been standing frozen, took a few staggering steps toward Baeksa.
He had felt it from the very first time he saw her.
That the child somehow resembled Myeongyeong.
It wasn’t just that their hair colors were similar; there was something about her that constantly brought Myeongyeong to mind…….
Looking back now, it was only natural.
Remembering a mother upon seeing her daughter was the most natural thing in the world.
“Are you truly…… Myeongyeong’s daughter?”
Ju Jeokseo had spent a very long time searching for Myeongyeong.
His younger sister had vanished suddenly one day. He had searched for her all this time based solely on the belief that she would never leave without a word to him.
Yet the princess he had happened to pick up in the snowfield turned out to be Myeongyeong’s daughter.
If Ju Jeokseo hadn’t gone to the snowfield that day.
Or if someone else entirely had discovered this tiny snake.
If his luck had been just a little worse than usual, and Yeon had stopped breathing early in that freezing snowfield…….
Helpless and overwhelmed, Ju Jeokseo gently stroked the little snake’s cheek.
His touch was remarkably tender, as if he were handling fragile glass.
And at that very moment.
Flying over wildly on its own, the Spiritual Treasure nestled snugly into Baeksa’s arms.

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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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