Chapter 9 – Make a Wish (1)

“Split in half and die.”

I said it, but I didn’t know it would actually happen….

“Ugh….”

As I turned my eyes away from the cruel sight, a virtual rod that pierced through my spine from my forehead to my tailbone disappeared, and my body twisted in pain.

Only then did the pain and sense of relief that I had forgotten until now hit me all at once. The only fortunate thing was that there was still some residual heat…some inner strength left in my body.

For some reason, I couldn’t concentrate on my inner strength, but it was spreading throughout my body, pulling out at least a little bit of vitality.

Thanks to that, even though it hurt so much that I could collapse right away, I didn’t feel like I couldn’t move.

First, I have to do something about the wound on my chest. I tried to tie my upper garment, which had become a rag, like a bandage.

Is it because I’m doing it alone? Or is it because I don’t have enough strength in my body? It’s not as easy as I thought, and I groaned.

“Stay still.”

Hong Yeon-hwa, who had come closer without me noticing, took off my clothes from my hand and put them on the wound.

“You fool. It’s not just a trauma, but also a serious internal injury. Do you know that if you make a mistake, you could lose the use of your arm for the rest of your life?”

“That’s why my arm was numb.”

“This idiot.”

“Ow, ow….”

Hong Yeon-hwa tied the knot tightly, as if representing her emotions. Wasn’t it hard to even speak clearly? Where did she get that kind of strength?

I looked at Hong Yeon-hwa carefully.

Her complexion was paler than usual, her small hands were swollen, her clothes were soaked with sweat, and her legs were trembling involuntarily, regardless of her will.

Even in this situation, she still looked pretty. I don’t know if it’s because Hong Yeon-hwa is amazing or if I’m just being stupid. Anyway, the important thing is that I feel like I’m going to collapse right now.

It’s good that I took down Cheok-an Gum-gwi, but both Hong Yeon-hwa and I need proper treatment.

But with those legs, we won’t be able to go down the mountain path.

After a moment of thought, I turned my back to Hong Yeon-hwa and sat down.

“Get on.”

“Um. Wait a minute.”

Hong Yeon-hwa walked unsteadily towards Cheok-an Gum-gwi’s corpse. Then, she sat down as if collapsing and started rummaging through the corpse.

…Surprisingly, she has a strong stomach, or maybe her face was already pale, so it didn’t show.

Hong Yeon-hwa rummaged through Cheok-an Gum-gwi’s embrace for a long time. Then, she took out an old book and started flipping through the pages.

“What’s that?”

“Probably something that will correct the misunderstanding between the lord and you.”

“What?”

Is it about Hong Yeon-hwa’s martial arts skills that she showed me?

Hong Yeon-hwa leaned against my back without saying anything else. Her upper garment and her sweat-soaked clothes clung to me.

She wrapped her arms around my neck, and I could feel the softness of her breasts against my back. Her unique scent, reminiscent of flowers, wafted over me.

“I was going to talk to you after resting a bit and feeling better…but you’re going to the village like this, right?”

“Yes. There might be some emergency medicine here, but we both need proper treatment.”

Hong Yeon-hwa leaned on me, completely letting go of her strength. A deep sigh escaped her lips, tickling my neck.

Taking it as a signal, I started moving my feet. One step, two steps. When the half-broken house was no longer visible, Hong Yeon-hwa spoke up, still on my back.

“Let me introduce myself again. I am the 7th leader of the Cheonma Shin-gyo, Cheonma Hong Yeon-hwa….I came from a different world than this one.”

“Oh…I see.”

“It’s true. Do you still think I’m a crazy bitch?”

I was momentarily taken aback, but quickly shook my head.

“N-no way!”

“….”

Hong Yeon-hwa was silent for a moment, then pressed her nails into my collarbone, leaving a mark, before speaking again.

“Well, I understand why you didn’t believe me. You probably mistook me for a woman from the Pungyu Upper Class, like that one-eyed woman earlier.”

The rest of Hong Yeon-hwa’s story would have been dismissed as just a setting if it were in the past. But now, I couldn’t do that. She had an incredible martial arts skill, and it was too much to simply call her a crazy person.

Hong Yeon-hwa was really a Cheonma in a world that was very similar to this one, but completely different. She had defeated the corrupt martial arts masters and the incompetent government officials there.

However, she was ambushed by the masters of the orthodox sect and the remnants of the government officials, who were united against her.

She managed to survive, but suffered a serious injury and fell off a cliff…and when she woke up, she was lying in my house with her martial arts skills gone.

Well…it’s a rule that when the strongest person in the world moves between dimensions, they either lose all their power or get sealed away.

“Then what about the mark on your sleeve? Isn’t that the mark of the Pungyu Upper Class?”

“The order was wrong. I’m not insisting that the mark on my sleeve is the symbol of the Upper Class…it’s the symbol that the Upper Class used.”

“Huh? Wait a minute. I don’t really understand what you’re saying.”

“What? It’s a simple matter. The deceased Pungyu Upper Class member was a Cheonma Shin-gyo follower, and somehow ended up here as I did,” Hong Yeon-hwa said in a low voice, reading my confused expression.

“Do you remember what that thug asked me for earlier?”

“He asked you to hand over the hidden inheritance of the Pungyu Upper Class.”

I knew that because of the rumors, I had just gone down to the village and returned. Hong Yeon-hwa continued to feel that something was off during her fight with Cheokan Geumgwi.

I was a little worried that I might have thought Cheokan Geumgwi was strange because of my attitude towards him, even though I lived in the mountains. It seemed like I didn’t know anything about the world.

So I realized that something fundamental was wrong…and in the meantime, Hong Yeon-hwa figured out why Cheokan Geumgwi had risked his life to come here because of that rumor.

“It’s because of the book I picked up. It was written in an unknown language, so I thought it was hiding something important, like a treasure.”

“Ah….”

That’s right. If she had that much confidence, she must have hidden in the place where the Murim League was watching us with their eyes wide open.

“Wait, then how did Cheokan Geumgwi find us?”

Hong Yeon-hwa is not a survivor of the Pungyu Upper Class. There was no reason for her to follow their traces.

Although she mistook her for the daughter of the Pungyu Upper Class, she seemed to know for sure that Hong Yeon-hwa was here….

“He said it was just a coincidence.”

“…Coincidence?”

“Yes, coincidence. He said he was wandering around, avoiding the Murim League’s gaze, and happened to find your house.”

He tried to kill us and use our house as a temporary shelter. He just happened to observe our strength from afar, and in the process, he discovered Hong Yeon-hwa wearing the symbol of the Pungyu Upper Class.

“Anyway, after reading the book, I was sure,” Hong Yeon-hwa said.

“What was in the book?”

“Even I don’t know the contents since I didn’t read it carefully. But all the words were written in the Shin-gyo’s secret language, and the first chapter said it was written for the Shin-gyo followers who might have fallen into this world like herself.”

The book, the symbol, and Hong Yeon-hwa’s martial arts. Even with this much information, I couldn’t just say that Hong Yeon-hwa’s head was messed up.

I, myself, had memories of another world without being reincarnated like Hong Yeon-hwa or the unknown Pungyu Upper Class member. There could be other transfer people like them.

“I understand that. After hearing that, it makes sense. However…”

“Um…what is it? Why are you suddenly being polite?”

“If he’s a real Cheonma Shi, he must be incredibly strong, right?”

“Ah ha? You’re showing respect for my dignity! Of course! If I were weak, the Murim League wouldn’t even attempt to mess with me. Unfortunately, I didn’t reach the full potential of my martial arts, but I did break through the wall halfway. …But there’s no need to show respect…”

Wow! He broke through the wall!

For reference, the Hwakyung is the highest level of martial arts in the present day, and it’s revered as the best in the world.

“Then you must have undergone Hwangol Taltae as well?”

“You can speak comfortably like before…hmm? Of course, I did it when I reached the Hwakyung…why are you so anxious?”

If he underwent Hwangol Taltae, he must be a real deal.

“Then, how about this year’s Chunchoo, sir?”

“….”

“Sir?”

“….”

Hong Yeon-hwa started to pull my hair without saying a word.

“Ow! It hurts! Is this really painful?!”

“I am not that old! This is not a martial art or an Inpyeomeng technique! This is my face! Do you understand?!”

She pulled my nose and ears for a while, but since my body was already injured, I quickly got tired.

It seems like she was struggling with all sorts of rumors during the time of the Jungma War.

Hong Yeon-hwa buried her face in my neck and whimpered, completely exhausted from the sudden outburst.

In fact, the sight of a 150-year-old old woman catching and eating young men to maintain her youth is so cute.

It’s a man’s nature to want to tease her more if she shows this kind of behavior, but if I do, she might really get angry, so I decided to change the subject.

“Anyway, what are we going to do now?”

“Hmm? What do you mean?”

“You said you came from another Murim. Now that we know that, what are we going to do?”

“Well, we have to find a way back, don’t we? I’ve taken care of all the dangerous people, so there’s no rush, but that’s where I belong.”

Of course.

My head became even more complicated as I hugged it and walked, and I saw a group of people running towards us from a distance.

Five men and women dressed like the warriors who investigated my identity in the morning. They are probably the Murim League warriors who were waiting for me to show up.

I realized that we had arrived near the village without even realizing it.

Both Hong Yeon-hwa and I are finally safe.

As I relaxed and thought about it, all the internal energy that was scattered around without being gathered in the Danjeon evaporated like dew in the morning sun.

My vision suddenly became dark, and my body became so heavy that I couldn’t bear it.

Thump.

In the end, I fell to the ground while still carrying Hong Yeon-hwa.

“Uh…?”

As Hong Yeon-hwa’s dismayed voice and the sound of the Murim League warriors’ footsteps grew closer, my consciousness faded away.