The Little Baby Snake of the Vermilion Bird Family - Chapter 54

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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 54
In the next instant.
A sharp cry rang out!
Something round burst from within Baeksa’s body, intercepting the colossal hand.
Baeksa recognized it immediately.
‘Light……?’
The small, bird-shaped light she had absorbed from the Detached Villa.
Mother’s power.
It was desperately shielding her from the enormous hand.
Wings of light blocked the space between Baeksa and the hand. Then the black fingers moved as though to grasp the light itself.
In that moment, Baeksa understood instinctively.
‘Ah.’
It’s not targeting me.
This unknown force was hunting for the power of her mother that lay sleeping within Baeksa.
As the hand closed around the White Vermilion Bird-shaped light, she watched it dim in an instant.
Baeksa clenched her fists and cried out sharply.
“No!”
Without anyone telling her, the girl understood.
If she didn’t flee now, she would lose that light completely.
And then.
‘I’ll never see her again.’
She would never see those wings again.
Baeksa’s face went pale. The baby serpent rose calmly to her feet.
‘I have to run from here.’
That’s how I can protect Mother’s power.
I have to escape this place by any means necessary. Baeksa fumbled through the absolute darkness.
In that moment, a thought struck her like lightning.
The girl pressed her small hands to the ground and murmured softly.
“Can I absorb it?”
Baeksa’s Supernatural Ability could even absorb Songra’s Blessing. She could devour any force that existed in this world indiscriminately.
So perhaps.
‘Okay, I’ll try.’
Standing still won’t solve anything. The girl brought her trembling hands into the darkness.
And very slowly, she used her Supernatural Ability.
The terrible, greedy Ability that devoured everything.
***
“Damn it, Yeona!”
Hwanya shouted at the fleeing shadow. The long, undulating form was already soaring high into the sky.
“W-wait, Brother, what do we do about Yeon? Let me go quickly…….”
“No, Hwaryeong, you head home. And tell Father what’s happened.”
Hwanya issued the command calmly. Even as he spoke, the form that had seized Baeksa was disappearing beyond the clouds.
The Marketplace had descended into chaos. The Beast-kin watching from between the stalls gazed anxiously at the spot where the inexplicable thing had emerged.
Everyone there had witnessed it snatch the baby serpent and vanish.
But there was nothing anyone could do. It moved like lightning—swift and vicious. No one could respond.
“And Doeui, you come with me. I’ll pursue it by air while you track it on foot.”
“Yes, Young Master.”
Doeui nodded.
Hwaryeong stood at a loss, staring after the direction Baeksa had been taken, before steeling himself and transforming into his Beast-kin form.
Pop!
A small bird with a slightly reddish tail appeared in the air.
Hwaryeong had not yet achieved complete Vermilion Bird transformation, so his flying speed was markedly slower than Hwanya’s.
But he couldn’t simply return home—someone had to pursue the creature, didn’t he?
‘Calm, calm yourself, Hwaryeong. You can do this.’
Just fly back as fast as you can.
Speaking to himself like an incantation, Hwaryeong suddenly shot upward into the sky.
Behind him, Hwanya stomped his foot, and white smoke swirled as a crimson Vermilion Bird unfurled its wings within the mist.
It was a perfect Vermilion Bird—far grander than Hwaryeong’s transformation moments before. Flames blazed across its entire body.
The Beast-kin of the Marketplace gasped in awe and reverence at the sight. As the enormous wings of fire spread overhead, everything nearby shimmered and sizzled as though it would be roasted.
Without hesitation, Hwanya soared in the direction the creature had fled with Baeksa.
He didn’t know what had taken her. He didn’t know what had become of the girl he carried away.
All that filled his mind now was the need to retrieve Yeon at any cost.
A piercing shriek split the air!
The colossal Vermilion Bird tore through the sky, pursuing the creature at terrifying speed.
The Marketplace that had been filled with laughter and chatter moments before had already transformed into a battlefield.
***
Doeui could not fly, so he had to chase Hwanya and the creature on foot.
It seemed impossible, but for Doeui, it was far from it.
It was because of his Supernatural Ability.
Once he had left the Marketplace and reached a quiet place, Doeui slowed his pace and opened his eyes.
His left eye then glowed with an eerie, brilliant green. Simultaneously, the image of a wraith flickered across his clear pupils.
The handsome boy spoke a command in a sharp, authoritative voice.
“By order of the Lord, spirits heed the call.”
At once, black wraiths crawled forth from all directions and stood before Doeui.
Some were grotesquely warped, others bore two legs and arms like men. Spirits of every shape bowed their heads before him.
He drew a talisman from his pocket.
It was identical to the one he had given to Yeon.
Twin talismans, made together at the same time.
He had never told Yeon, but those talismans held something special.
“Soul.”
As Doeui commanded, a black spirit crawled from within the talisman.
It was a fragment of Doeui’s own soul.
Those with the Supernatural Ability to command spirits fundamentally possessed the power to manipulate souls freely.
For this reason, it was possible to splinter one’s own soul into a thousand pieces, or to sever and preserve a portion of it.
So when Doeui created the pair of talismans, he had severed a fragment of his own soul and placed it within each.
Souls are drawn to one another.
That way, should the baby serpent ever face danger, he could instantly know where she was.
“Find your kin.”
At Doeui’s command, the soul seeping from the talisman tilted its head as though searching, this way and that.
Then at last, as if it had found something, it lifted its head sharply. The spirits summoned by Doeui turned in unison toward that direction.
“Chase.”
With the command given, the spirits surged forward as one. Doeui began walking in the direction they had gone.
To any onlooker, he would appear to be doing nothing, but his mind was focused and his Supernatural Ability burning at full strength.
His Ability was not merely summoning wraiths. It extended to commanding them as well.
Which meant he had to maintain control over all of those countless spirits.
His head felt as though it might split. His heart raced in sharp bursts and dizziness swept across his vision.
Still.
‘I can’t stop.’
He didn’t know what had seized the baby serpent.
But in that brief moment, he had felt an overwhelming sense of dread—a darkness vast enough to blanket this entire land.
Which meant.
‘I have to find her as quickly as possible.’
Doeui ignored Ju Jeokseo’s warning not to overuse his Ability and pushed it to its absolute limit.
The boy’s pupils expanded and contracted repeatedly. At one moment, they dilated so wide they seemed to double in number.
As his Supernatural Ability reached its peak, the Ghostly Wailing that had always echoed in his ears grew even more vicious.
Until now, the Scale that Baeksa had given him had shielded him, but the Ghostly Wailing had become so overwhelming and violent that even the Scale could no longer protect him.
Blood trickled from Doeui’s ear. The boy clenched his eyes shut, then opened them.
He drew a small Scale from his pocket—one he had received from the baby serpent.
It had turned black. As he gripped it hard, the powerless Sacred Object crumbled in his hand.
This too was a sign of grave danger.
“Find her as fast as you can.”
At Doeui’s command, the spirits scattered in all directions with redoubled speed.
***
When Hwaryeong arrived at the Vermilion Bird Family Estate, everyone there could only gasp in shock.
His wings and vital energy had suffered severe damage from covering such distance in so short a time. Yet Hwaryeong paid no mind and dove directly through the window of his father’s Office.
“……Hwaryeong?”
Before Ju Jeokseo could even register surprise, Hwaryeong collapsed into his father’s arms, gasping for breath.
Bang!
The boy whose transformation had released gripped his father’s collar and spoke with difficulty.
“F-Father, Yeon, Yeon has……!”

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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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