The White Tiger Clan’s Baby Cotton Ball - Chapter 232

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Part 2, Chapter 24

Startled.

Seolyeo was shocked by his own actions and trembled at his fingertips.

However, he soon clenched his trembling fingertips tightly and hung his head, unable to look at Soya.

Then he raised his arm to cover his bowed head so Soya couldn’t see him.

Soya’s eyes drooped at the sight of Seolyeo rejecting her.

“Seolyeo, let’s treat your wounds first. You’re hurt and bleeding right now.”

“….”

Even at Soya’s seemingly upset voice, Seolyeo remained unmoved.

He stood in place, making no sound and not moving at all.

Soya quietly watched Seolyeo, then approached him and carefully grabbed his wrist to lower it.

After removing the arm that was covering his face, Soya asked in a disappointed voice.

“Why are you acting like this, Seolyeo? Do you hate looking at my face now?”

“I, I….”

Seolyeo’s gray eyes trembled as they met Soya’s crimson pupils directly.

Soya let out a short sigh and stepped back at his pale face that looked terrified.

“…If it’s difficult for you, I won’t ask anything. But please let me treat your wounds. It hurts, doesn’t it.”

At those words, Seolyeo’s eyes grew hot and his throat began to ache.

Even though he was pushing her away without any explanation, kind Soya didn’t blame him and worried about him first.

‘That’s right. Soya was always this kind of child.’

Faced with her kindness after so long, even Seolyeo, who had tried to pretend not to know Soya, was shaken.

In truth, he had always missed her kind gaze and voice.

Really, very much.

“Come on, Seolyeo.”

“Y, yes….”

It was the moment Seolyeo was about to nod obediently.

Thump…!

Suddenly his heart clenched strongly, and he felt the blood vessels in his body being pulled taut.

‘N, no, this symptom is…!’

Seolyeo knew what this symptom was.

Evil was trying to seize control of his body again.

‘Of all times, at this moment….’

Seolyeo gritted his teeth and let out a groan.

He could feel the evil getting excited and rampaging at the sight of Soya.

It was dangerous.

If he carelessly lost control of his body, evil would harm Soya just like this.

“Seolyeo…?”

Soya, who noticed his condition wasn’t normal, called out to him with a worried face.

“You’re in a lot of pain….”

It was when she was about to wipe the cold sweat beading on Seolyeo’s forehead with her sleeve.

Swoosh—!

At the same time Seolyeo’s pupils contracted, he pushed Soya down to the floor.

“Ugh.”

Seolyeo pressed down on Soya’s fallen body and grabbed her slender nape with one hand.

“Seol… urgh….”

His thick, strong grip began to twist Soya’s neck.

“Hng, urgh…. Seolyeo….”

Soya tried to push Seolyeo away with a pained expression, but his solid body, which had become completely that of a man in the past three years, wouldn’t budge easily.

‘Why is Seolyeo….’

Soya couldn’t understand his sudden change.

But what was even stranger was that Seolyeo’s face, as he choked and twisted her neck, looked just as anguished.

“N, no… I can’t….”

Seolyeo trembled at his fingertips and barely managed to remove his hand from Soya’s nape.

Then he collapsed to the floor with a thud, breathing roughly.

His body creaked as if it had broken down.

Soya, who had been coughing from her suddenly freed airway, realized something was wrong with Seolyeo.

“Seolyeo…? You….”

“Don’t come near me!”

However, Seolyeo violently pushed away Soya who was trying to approach him again.

“Ouch.”

Soya’s body fell to the floor.

Seolyeo was startled and almost approached her without realizing it.

But this wasn’t the time for that.

Before evil tried to harm her again, he had to get away from Soya quickly.

After hesitating, Seolyeo soon squeezed his eyes shut and turned his body around.

Then he ran away, leaving her behind.

The Thorny Rabbit Demons who had been crouching and watching quickly chased after Seolyeo.

“Ah….”

Left alone, Soya stared blankly at the spot where Seolyeo had run away with a shocked expression.

More than Seolyeo pushing her away, something else made her freeze.

‘Earlier, definitely….’

She hadn’t seen it wrong.

When Seolyeo was pressing down and choking her, the black shell visible through the slightly opened front of his clothes.

That was definitely the same thing Soya had seen on Hyeon Rabaek’s body long ago.

‘No way….’

An ominous thought seized Soya.

However, Soya immediately shook her head vigorously.

She didn’t know what had happened to Seolyeo.

She didn’t know why he left them without a word, or where he had been and what he had done for the past three years.

But Seolyeo was her closest friend.

She wanted to hear his story first.

And if something bad had happened to him that was beyond his control… she wanted to help him.

‘Right. So until I hear Seolyeo’s story, I’ll set aside the ominous possibilities.’

Soya thought this way and got up again.

Finding him right now seemed difficult.

‘First, I should return to my family….’

It was when Soya was thinking that far.

“Ugh.”

Suddenly her head throbbed and she felt dizzy.

She felt heat rising over her face.

Had she caught a cold?

But it wasn’t that kind of weather.

Most importantly, unlike her childhood when she had a weak body, Soya had grown up receiving plenty of love from her family at White Tiger Palace and had become very strong and healthy.

Like the direct lineage of the other Four Great Families, she was strong enough not to catch things like colds easily.

‘Let’s go back for now.’

Sensing something wrong with her body, Soya tried to use Beast Transformation to hurry back.

‘Huh…?’

But Beast Transformation didn’t work as intended.

The energy of her Spirit Core felt stifled as if blocked by something.

Her lips parted soundlessly at the sudden situation.

“This, could it be….”

She had experienced this kind of pain before.

At twelve years old, when she suffered her first growth pains, which came a little later than others….

As her mind gradually became hazy, Soya instinctively knew.

That the growth pains she had been waiting for so long had finally begun.

‘No. This place is dangerous. I need to return to Father first….’

It was then.

“Grrrr….”

The demon beasts hiding in the darkness discovered the weakened Soya and approached, drooling.

* * *

Irim was soaking his body in a large wooden bathtub, gazing up at the night sky densely packed with stars.

“Your Majesty, a letter has arrived from Baek Family Head Saeon.”

At the cautiously reporting voice, he extended his arm outside the bathtub.

A eunuch approached, wiped the dripping water with silk cloth, and handed him the letter.

Irim unfolded the letter with an indifferent expression.

Saeon’s neat and orderly handwriting greeted him.

They had discovered evil magic users in the northern lands, caught evidence of their collusion with evil, and seemed to have grasped the location of the evil….

Also, they were soon to meet surviving members of the Xuanwu Clan. It seemed they could obtain clues about the ‘Successor of Black Water’ there….

Irim’s brow furrowed slightly as he read quietly.

“Evil magic users….”

Foolish ones who relied on evil magic due to their naturally weak bodies and spirit core power.

Their foolishness had combined with the late emperor’s greed to create tragedy.

At the memory from his first life that suddenly surfaced, Irim twisted his lips painfully.

Right after ascending to the throne, he had rooted out the evil magic users who frequented the Imperial Palace, but could never find their base.

Because they had hidden themselves thoroughly using the ‘Sealing’ ability they stole from the Black Serpent Tribe.

Even with Irim’s power as the Imperial Dragon, there was nothing he could do, yet to face this old grudge again like this.

‘With their presumptuous greed coveting the power of divine beasts, they must have been struck back instead.’

Irim could immediately grasp the situation from just a few sentences written in the letter.

A chilling smile bloomed at the corners of his mouth.

If the criminals were brought to the Imperial Palace, he had no intention of killing them easily.

How could he possibly do that?

These were the ones who had contaminated even the soul of his innocent young consort, making her suffer.

Even though those things had not happened in this life….

“All the attendants to accompany Your Majesty on this northern journey have been assembled. Preparations are complete to depart first thing tomorrow morning.”

The eunuch who received the letter back from Irim reported in a respectful voice.

Splash—

Instead of answering, Irim stood up.

The eunuchs approached, wiped the remaining water from his body, and draped sleeping robes over him.

As he stared intently at a single black scale that had fallen to the bottom of the wooden bathtub with an indifferent expression.

He froze.

In an instant, his eyes hardened.

“Gasp, huff…!”

“We, we are deeply sorry….”

The eunuchs were startled as if they had seen something they shouldn’t have and bowed their heads.

Irim felt a gentle pain arising and slowly lowered his gaze.

Near his neck, a single golden scale was shining brightly.

In his first life.

The dragon orb he had given to his bride had permeated her body to become a new spirit core.

The existing spirit core the bride had possessed became a golden scale and became his reverse scale.

Thus he and his bride were connected, so if danger befell her, he could always sense it in some way, just like now.

The Imperial Dragon’s companion and simultaneously his one and only reverse scale, Soya.

She was in danger.

As Irim’s eyes flashed sharply, the surrounding air howled fiercely.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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