Myst, Might, Mayhem

Chapter 83

[Grandfather. Is our Lee family truly not a family of traitors?]

[Ji-yeom. Is that question related to the scars on your face?]

[……..]

Eleven-year-old Lee Ji-yeom gave no answer to his grandfather’s question.

These things were inevitable while attending the sect’s martial arts academy.

Traitors, a family of betrayal.

He endured all kinds of disregard and harassment.

He tried to ignore it and fought back against their bullying.

However, it was meaningless.

It was a shackle that had come down from his grandfather, who had pledged loyalty to the disappeared Lunar Vein, and it was the price.

[…….Is it not a shackle that our Lee family can never escape from?]

[Ji-yeom…….]

His grandfather looked at Lee Ji-yeom, full of scars, with pity.

Then, embracing him warmly, he comforted him with a gentle yet firm voice.

[Do you remember what this old man told you?]

[Lying on firewood and tasting gall.]

Lying on firewood and tasting gall.

It means to endure hardships for the future by sleeping on thorny brushwood and chewing on bile.

His grandfather would habitually say those words to him.

That was because his grandfather’s honor, who had been one of the Ten Founders of the sect and walked in high places, had fallen to the bottom after that day.

[……..]

[Why aren’t you answering?]

[I don’t know anymore.]

He had tried to endure as his grandfather had said.

However, it was futile to try to mend his increasingly shattered heart.

Why did his grandfather, his father, and he himself have to suffer like this?

Even though it was not a sin they had committed, just because they had pledged loyalty, did they have to be rejected by the sect to this extent?

[Grandfather, why don’t you just pledge eternal loyalty to the Society Leader…]

[Ah!]

That day, for the first time, he saw a terrifying look on his grandfather’s face.

His grandfather, who had never expressed it, was enraged to this degree at the mention of pledging loyalty to the Society Leader and escaping this stigma of a shackle.

Why was he angry at him?

Had he said something wrong?

For the first time, a sense of rebellion arose in his surging heart.

[Did I…did I say something wrong? Why must we, a meritorious family and one of the sect’s founding members…]

[Ack!]

Lee Ji-yeom could not continue speaking due to the ear-splitting pain.

To him, suffering in pain, his grandfather spoke with bloodshot eyes.

[Regardless of the outcome, it is natural for a retainer to trust their lord until the end! Did this old man teach you otherwise?]

[That so-called lord has gone astray, and our family has even been branded as traitors. But what meaning does that have? And didn’t you also accept that fault, which is why you accepted being demoted to a Valley Master and imprisoned in the Corpse Blood Valley for four generations?]

The more he thought about it, the more infuriating it was.

Why didn’t his grandfather strongly assert that he had no connection to that person?

Why were they sharing in that person’s sins?

Because he was a retainer?

‘I can’t accept it!’

After that day, Lee Ji-yeom no longer conversed with his grandfather.

And he gritted his teeth and immersed himself in martial arts training.

He couldn’t endure it without immersing himself in something.

As a result of his immersion in training, he became the first in his family to successfully reach the 5th stage of the Crimson Flame Sword Art’s advanced technique, the Blazing Cultivation, before coming of age.

Lee Ji-yeom became even more motivated by this opportunity.

‘I can do it.’

Among his family’s ancestors, no one had completed the Crimson Flame Sword Art.

Even his grandfather’s limit was the 8th stage.

This was because the more one cultivated the Blazing Cultivation, the stronger the Fiery Yang Qi became, and it didn’t just end with it becoming stronger but also burned the practitioner’s own body.

However, he was confident that he could surpass the 8th stage and reach the 9th and even the 10th stage realm.

And perhaps this excessive desire became poison?

-Do not attempt the 6th stage until the 5th stage is perfectly ingrained in your body.

[Ahhhhhh!]

Ignoring his father’s warning, Lee Ji-yeom’s body burst into flames as he recklessly attempted the 6th stage.

Upon reaching the 6th stage of the Blazing Cultivation, one could imbue the Crimson Flame Sword Art with Fiery Yang Qi, but he had failed and suffered a backlash.

In an instant, the flames engulfed his arm and half of his face, and he couldn’t come to his senses.

The rampaging Fiery Yang Qi had already surpassed the level he could control.

[Ahhhhh!]

Was he going to die like this after being too greedy?

At that moment, someone grabbed him as he was rampaging.

And they absorbed the rampaging Fiery Yang Qi and stabilized it.

‘!?’

The one who absorbed the Fiery Yang Qi from his burning body was none other than his grandfather, Lee Hwa-mun.

Barely regaining consciousness amidst the pain, Lee Ji-yeom couldn’t hide his shock.

Like his grandfather and father, if one forcibly accepted the Fiery Yang Qi without being able to perfectly control it,

-Sizzle!

The fire would turn against oneself.

Thanks to taking away the Fiery Yang Qi, Lee Ji-yeom’s body could be stabilized, but his grandfather Lee Hwa-mun was not the same.

In an instant, his entire body was engulfed in flames.

It was on a level incomparable to Lee Ji-yeom’s.

[Ah, no! No! Grandfather! Grandfather!]

Lee Ji-yeom rushed forward, trying to calm Lee Hwa-mun’s Fiery Yang Qi.

However, Grandfather Lee Hwa-mun used his profound true energy to prevent him from entering his vicinity, making it impossible to approach.

[Grandfather! No, Grandpa!]

It had been nearly four years since they had been this close, and it had to be like this.

Thanks to his profound internal energy, his body was slowly burning, but his grandfather’s flesh had already turned red and oozing.

[Grandpa! Please! Please!]

Lee Ji-yeom tried to forcibly break through his true energy.

Grandfather Lee Hwa-mun slowly shook his head at him with a bitter face.

He could tell from the shape of his lips.

‘Don’t come, my grandson.’

That sight tore Lee Ji-yeom’s heart apart.

Watching his grandfather’s body slowly burn right in front of him, his feelings were utter despair.

He waited for his grandfather’s true energy to weaken and tried to somehow subdue the Fiery Yang Qi, but this was too painful.

[Please! Please!]

He begged his grandfather to withdraw his true energy.

However, his grandfather did not withdraw his true energy until his flesh was completely burned away.

Only when his breath ceased did the barrier formed by his true energy disappear.

[Ahhhhhhh!]

Lee Ji-yeom screamed.

His despair at witnessing his grandfather dying from start to finish because of him was tragic.

If possible, he wanted to exchange his life with his grandfather’s.

However, that was impossible.

[Ugh.]

After wailing and crying for more than half a day, Lee Ji-yeom could only stop when he fainted from exhaustion.

After waking up like that, everything proceeded quickly and in a complicated manner.

It was because he had to hold a funeral for his deceased grandfather.

He confessed to everyone in the family, including his father, that his grandfather had died because of him.

However, no one blamed him.

[Even if you were hasty, it’s not your fault. It’s the fault of all of us for not teaching you properly and giving weak warnings.]

[Please…please punish me.]

His father, who had become the head of the family, shook his head and firmly refused.

It was because his grandfather Lee Hwa-mun would not have wanted that.

[But…..]

[If your grandfather had resented you even a little until his last breath, then do so.]

[………]

He hadn’t.

Even while enduring the immense pain of his body burning, his grandfather never showed it.

He just kept his mouth shut with the most indifferent face possible, as if worrying about him would hurt his heart.

All of that was consideration for him.

Throughout the funeral, Lee Ji-yeom silently shed tears.

After holding his grandfather’s funeral amidst sorrow, Lee Ji-yeom came across a line of poetry left behind by his grandfather.

It was like the deceased’s last will.

-Ah, the day I looked at the black robe and followed behind always lingers. No matter how much time passes, how could I ever forget that time in my dreams?

He thought he had no more tears left to shed.

Yet seeing this, painful tears flowed out as if being squeezed.

Even though he was one of the Ten Founders, most of the executives, including the Society Leader, did not attend the funeral due to the stigma of disgrace, yet he insisted on loyalty until the end.

Did that mean he believed in that person that much?

‘……..’

His heart grew complicated.

Lee Ji-yeom found that person so hateful.

However, after seeing his grandfather’s last words expressing longing for his former lord, he felt conflicted.

That person whom his grandfather had believed in until the end.

The bastard who inherited the Lee family’s orthodox lineage had insulted his grandfather’s loyalty and will.

‘Grandfather.’

At that moment, Lee Ji-yeom made a decision.

His grandfather’s will, which he had upheld nobly until death while enduring everything with patience.

He would inherit that will.

‘This unworthy grandson……will carry on that loyalty.’

Even if it was a terrible stigma.

Even if it was a time of suffering.

He decided to carry on that will in order to restore his deceased grandfather’s honor.

***

‘It can’t……be.’

The master of the Corpse Blood Valley, Lee Ji-yeom, couldn’t hide his shock at the sight unfolding before his eyes.

At first, he thought Mok Gyeong-un was using some bizarre sorcery.

However, seeing that being taking form amidst the blood, he was at a loss for words.

A peerless beauty with blood-red eyes, wearing a crown and holding a long pipe.

That face where arrogance and majesty coexisted.

The moment he saw this, the image of that person his deceased grandfather Lee Hwa-mun had spoken of with a ringing in his ears naturally overlapped.

[Don’t hate that person too much. The master that this old man devoted half his life to serving was not the despicable traitor you think. That person was stronger and more beautiful than anyone else in the sect.]

He had just lightly brushed off his grandfather’s words.

It was because he didn’t think it outweighed the wounds he had received while growing up.

However, the moment he saw her, he understood his grandfather’s words.

They say those who rule are born to do so.

‘Ah!’

The being before his eyes seemed literally born to rule.

Just by looking down as if to subdue, he felt a shudder and even reverence at her overwhelming presence.

Then, Mok Gyeong-un’s voice reached his ears.

“How do you feel after directly seeing that person?”

“That person……..”

Lee Ji-yeom’s heart pounded and raced.

Was this being before his eyes truly that person his grandfather had longed for until the end?

At that moment, Lee Ji-yeom knelt on one knee as if his legs had given out.

-Thud!

It didn’t matter whether the being before his eyes was a ghost or whatever.

He had vowed before his grandfather’s spirit tablet.

To inherit the noble loyalty he had upheld until death.

Lee Ji-yeom bowed his head, clasped his hands together, and paid his respects.

“Lee Ji-yeom, head of the Lee family, pays his respects to the lord, the master of the Lunar Vein!”

At Lee Ji-yeom’s utmost greeting, a glint of interest flashed in Mok Gyeong-un’s eyes.

On the other hand, Cheong-ryeong glanced at Mok Gyeong-un with a triumphant gaze.

‘Did you see that, mortal?’

She had boasted to Mok Gyeong-un.

Even if the other rotten ones were unknown, if it was the blood descendant of Lee Hwa-mun, whom she knew, he would still uphold that loyalty.

At her words, Mok Gyeong-un had inwardly sneered.

A whole century had passed.

Yet it was ridiculous to think that the will of loyalty would remain.

‘You’ve become a vengeful spirit, yet you believe in humans?’

He found it truly foolish.

Even in just a few years, everything fades.

So, thinking that loyalty would continue when the person in question had died and disappeared, wasn’t that just a vain hope?

However, something truly unexpected happened.

‘It turned out differently from my intention.’

Mok Gyeong-un smacked his lips.

He had wanted to see her reaction, unable to hide her disappointment as her vain hopes were shattered.

Yet he had ended up making her elated instead.

‘How unfortunate.’

Well, it wasn’t entirely bad.

The fact that the loyalty had been passed down even after a hundred years meant it was worth using.

Just as Cheong-ryeong was about to open her mouth,

-Long…..

Right at that moment,

-Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap!

Mok Gyeong-un formed a hand seal with one hand and extended the wooden doll towards Cheong-ryeong.

“Forbidden seal, formless figure, two names become one, quickly obey and seal!”

As soon as the incantation ended,

Her spirit body, which had barely emerged, was instantly sucked into the wooden doll.

With that, the blood-stained Ghost Realm formed by Cheong-ryeong disappeared, and the office instantly returned to its original state.

-Shudder!

Noticing this change, Lee Ji-yeom frowned and raised his head.

Where had that person who was there just a moment ago disappeared to?

Of course, Cheong-ryeong was inside the wooden doll.

-Squirm!

The wooden doll wriggled, and Cheong-ryeong’s voice echoed in Mok Gyeong-un’s ear.

-You damn mortal bastard! What the hell are you doing?

She had barely revealed her spirit body and confirmed his loyalty.

Then, she should have drawn this fellow in and given him orders, but why was he suddenly sealing her back into the wooden doll?

Meanwhile, Mok Gyeong-un spoke.

“Did you see? That person has become a vengeful spirit with lingering resentment and is with me.”

“You bastard……..”

Lee Ji-yeom stood up and looked at Mok Gyeong-un.

That person’s appearance just now was definitely not an illusion or anything like that.

Lee Ji-yeom asked Mok Gyeong-un.

“Where is that person?”

“I just told you. That person is with me.”

“…….Then let me see that person again. I have so many things I want to ask.”

At Lee Ji-yeom’s request, Mok Gyeong-un pointed at himself with his thumb.

“Isn’t that person right in front of your eyes?”

“What?”

At Lee Ji-yeom’s retort, asking what he was talking about, Mok Gyeong-un smiled brightly and said,

“I am that person’s vessel of possession. It may be difficult for you to understand, but when that person possesses me, that person and I become one.”

-Ha!

At Mok Gyeong-un’s words, Cheong-ryeong inside the wooden doll was dumbfounded.

He had barely shown her form, so why did he seal her back inside this?

Mok Gyeong-un’s purpose was clear.

‘That loyalty spanning generations. I’ll take it for myself.’