The Little Baby Snake of the Vermilion Bird Family - Chapter 85

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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 85
Flash!
The memories of the Ghost Dragon Fragment rushed into Baeksa’s mind once more.
However, this particular memory felt somewhat strange.
‘This is…’
Her field of vision was incredibly low.
It was even difficult to hold up her neck properly.
Every time she blinked, the person in view shifted rapidly.
It differed completely from the memories she had seen before.
The ones she previously witnessed all displayed a specific situation.
Most of them were moments of dying under a false accusation, or bitter memories of being betrayed.
The most intense moments from life, things that could never be forgotten even if one tried, had remained to flow into the young snake.
Yet this memory was bizarre.
To call it a situation, the surroundings were far too quiet.
Nothing could be seen, and even moving appeared difficult.
‘Was it a sickly dragon?’
There were quite a few such members of the Dragon Race in the Imperial Palace.
She had heard that among the collateral branches of the Imperial Royalty, some could not even budge due to illness.
Was that the case here?
The moment Baeksa blinked in puzzlement.
“Oh dear, she is still asleep…”
Before her eyes, which were blurred white due to poor vision, a Woman’s hand appeared.
She approached and gently lifted the child as if to wake her.
But in the next instant, the Woman’s hands grew frantic as they fumbled over the child’s body.
“Ah, no! Sir, Master Imperial Physician! The Imperial Descendant is…!”
“Imperial Descendant, you must wake up! You must not sleep like this!”
“Ah, she was perfectly fine just a moment ago…!”
At that moment, Baeksa realized what kind of situation this was.
‘She’s dead.’
Even within the Imperial Court, the death of a child was a frequent occurrence.
Young children often die for no reason at all, even without anything happening to them.
There must be countless children who perished in such a manner before even receiving a name.
Hoping against hope, Baeksa waited for the next memory to surface.
But nothing more followed.
That was the end of it.
The young girl was flung out of the dragon’s memory.
She recalled the memory she had witnessed inside the belly of the Ghost Dragon.
The memory of an underdeveloped dragon that looked to be the same age as Baeksa herself.
“How could this be…”
This memory was far more gruesome than that one.
Someone had blended the soul of a newborn dragon into the soul of the Ghost Dragon.
Or perhaps it wasn’t done intentionally, but had somehow been accidentally jumbled together.
Whatever the case, this dragon’s soul did not even comprehend what it was doing.
The dragon, too young to even think properly, had simply entered a physical form that most resembled its body from life.
She already knew the Imperial Palace was a cold-hearted place.
After all, was she herself not a child abandoned by the Imperial Palace?
Yet the more she peeked into the memories of the Ghost Dragon, the more horrific recollections kept emerging.
It was as if the Ghost Dragon was a literal accumulation of the sins committed by the Haeseo Kingdom’s Imperial Court over the passing years.
‘Just who would do such a thing?’
Who could have turned the soul of such a young child into a part of the Ghost Dragon?
Yet this young dragon did not even seem to realize what had been done to it.
That part of it was heartbreakingly sad.
Baeksa pondered the story of the dragon once more.
It was said that when the Dragon Tribe dies, their physical bodies remain on earth while their souls undergo ascension to the sky.
Could the soul of this young dragon ascend to the sky?
“May you enter the Celestial Registry…”
The young girl whispered softly, utilizing her Abnormal Ability as if cradling a baby.
The Supernatural Ability, extending gently like a lullaby, enveloped Je-ryu’s tiny body in an instant.
However, Baeksa hesitated and came to a halt right as she attempted to guide the soul within.
“This is strange…”
She broke off her Supernatural Ability and snapped her eyes open. With a deathly pale face, Baeksa turned to look at Siyeom.
“Siyeom, something is wrong. I cannot feel anything else inside this child’s body besides the Ghost Dragon Fragment.”
Baeksa hurriedly handed the child over to Siyeom. She quickly took the baby into her arms to examine her.
As Siyeom placed her hand over the child’s heart, she felt a thumping pulse and a flowing Spiritual Pulse.
Yet the only Spiritual Pulse she could detect belonged to a ghost.
The ghost’s heart was beating, but the human heart was not.
Realizing this fact, Siyeom’s face turned white as sheet.
“There is no soul.”
She cried out sharply, her voice bordering on a shriek.
“Mo Hyun, that bastard stole the child’s soul!”
***
Mo Hyun stood near the border of Namto.
After walking for a long while, he plopped down carelessly on the spot as if exhausted.
“Ah, I’m exhausted!”
He was a Xuanwu Beastman. This meant he was a snake and turtle Beast-kin.
Naturally, that also implied he was unaccustomed to walking and running. Furthermore, Mo Hyun utterly detested walking.
‘It can’t be helped, since I can’t ride a Carriage right now.’
He shrugged his shoulders.
Once he passed Namto and crossed over to Bukto, he would be able to ride a Carriage from then on.
Mo Hyun stared at the Lantern he was holding.
Inside the Lantern, a crimson soul blazed fiercely, keeping his body warm.
It was the soul of the young child that Mo Hyun had stolen from the house of the Family Head of the Ha family.
Perhaps because it belonged to a young child, the size of the Flame was far smaller than that of an ordinary adult’s soul.
“Sigh, so tiring…”
Mo Hyun shook his head from side to side.
This lamp was one of his ancestors’ Spiritual Treasures handed down through generations in his family, capable of trapping the souls of the living.
Not only that, it was a useful object that could burn ghosts to light the path ahead.
“I am sorry for you, but what can be done? Just think of it as bad luck.”
He pulled out a tobacco pipe and lit it.
“Considering how exhausting it was to follow that Siyeom around…”
He exhaled a puff of tobacco smoke.
Mo Hyun’s arrival here was entirely due to the instructions of his family elder.
‘Siyeom, that crafty woman has hidden her child in Namto. She hid him so thoroughly that I have only just found out.’
‘Her child? If so, are you saying Siyeom broke tradition and did not allow her son to participate in the Succession Test?’
‘Yes, go and bring that child… No, wait. A better idea has occurred to me.’
What Mo Hyun received that day was a Sealed Evil Spirit that even a third-generation sorcerer would find difficult to seal.
It was also a precious Sealed Evil Spirit passed down through generations in a prestigious family of Bukto.
The person who sent Mo Hyun handed it to him and instructed:
‘Go and lay waste to Namto. If you do so, Siyeom will be blamed for bringing disaster upon Namto, her son will naturally perish, and we will gain a justification to intervene in Namto.’
Justification.
Yes, justification.
It was because of that single reason that this entire ruckus was made.
If Siyeom and Doeui died in Namto, the Black Tortoise Family could hold the Vermilion Bird Divine Lord, the master of Namto, responsible in some way or another.
That was precisely the picture they desired.
Mo Hyun pulled the Gourd Bottle containing the Sealed Evil Spirit from his breast pocket.
Because he hadn’t released the evil spirit, it was still contained inside the Gourd Bottle.
‘Well, there was something far more effective than this.’
While traveling alongside Siyeom, he had sent out a sliver of his soul to spy on the Vermilion Bird Family Estate.
Mo Hyun’s specialty was scouting; he was adept at observing or stealing things without catching anyone’s eye.
That was how he happened to see it.
‘That is…’
The Ghost Dragon Fragment sealed by a golden taboo rope.
Since he was also a sorcerer of the Black Tortoise Family, he recognized immediately that it was a Ghost Dragon Fragment.
At that instant, an excellent strategy crossed his mind.
By releasing the Ghost Dragon Fragment and letting it run amok, he could devastate Namto without even resorting to the evil spirit.
In addition, by pinning down Siyeom and letting her and her son handle the matter of Namto, he would create a justification for the Black Tortoise Family to intervene in Namto’s affairs.
It was a flawless plan.
If not for the variable known as the young snake.
When they set off to meet Jangwangshin to resolve the matter of the Ghost Dragon, Mo Hyun felt a sense of anxiety.
If this matter was settled too easily, it might ruin his other plans.
Therefore, he paid a visit to the house of the Family Head of the Ha family, where the Ghost Dragon Fragment was reportedly planted.
Originally, since the fragment was said to be in the body of a female child named Je-ui, he intended to steal that girl’s soul.
Yet, had the fragment not transferred into the body of a two-year-old child instead?
Since a young child has not yet fully adapted to being born and growing in the world, separating the soul from the physical body was much easier.
And that brought him to the present.
He only needed to discard the soul on his way back like this and report that his mission was accomplished.
It was so easy that he wondered if things were allowed to go this smoothly. It felt as though there had never been such an easy task in Mo Hyun’s life.
However.
‘Why do I have this nagging feeling…’
He tilted his head while gazing at the fiercely blazing soul of the young child.

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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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