Gap Chan and the other men were watching the entrance of the cave.
To be honest, they were desperate. Although they couldn’t use their internal qi, the monster within was so strong that when 7 of them entered only 3 managed to survive.
So they knew that even with martial arts, it would be tough to handle it and this contributed to their anxiousness.
Step! Step!
They rose from their seats at the sound of the movement from the cave.
‘No.’
Everyone ran into the cave and saw someone drenched walking from within.
It was So Wonhwi, walking with his left eye closed and holding the one armed man.
“Young lord So!”
“You really succeeded!”
“Both are back alive!”
At that moment, everyone shed tears of joy.
Three days had passed by since my return and they made a medicinal drink out of the herbs.
Surely the herbs managed to work as it was known to be one which controlled the heart.
On the first day, the body spasms had disappeared and on the second the skin turned from purple to normal.
As his grandfather was a swordsman, Ha Seong-wun hadn’t woken up yet. After recovering the internal qi and innate qi, I managed to infuse it in equal amounts into my grandfather to help his body recover.
‘Make sure to be alive.’
I desperately wished for him to be alive. He was the only other blood-related person except for my sister. I couldn’t let him die.
After confirming that there was no crowd around, I opened the blockage.
And a warm qi began to spread in the heart as my left eye tickled.
-The more I see the more interesting this is.
There was a reason behind Short Sword’s words. It was because the left pupil had turned gold and it was confusing at first. To the point where I had to keep it closed.
However, after sending people outside and transferring innate qi there, the eyes color went back to normal.
-Why though?
Well.
I was curious too. The only thing I could guess was that it had something to do with the golden eye man.
-Strange eye. With that eye, can you detect the flow of energy?
I nodded my head at the question of Blood Demon Sword. After I found out that my eyes had changed, I was worried about it too much.
Then, I discovered it while operating the innate qi to heal my grandfather.
The world seen with the right eye and left eye were different.
When I looked from the left eye, I could clearly see the energy flowing through the human body. the qi movement and the shape it held.
The internal qi was white while the innate qi was blue.
What I found out through this was that normal people had innate qi gathered near the heart. My grandfather too had innate qi stored in his heart.
What was different from me was that their innate qi reserves were too small.
Innate qi infused through the back moved along the blood vessels. And I could see it from my left eye.
-Interesting. Doesn’t that mean that anyone can see the path of another person’s qi with these eyes?
Right.
Come to think of it, one could use it in many ways.
-Wonhwi. It seems like a great ability if you can use it well!
Iron Sword said, seemingly excited. As the sword said, perceiving the flow of qi meant like being aware when the opponent was going to use a technique.
Of course, one needs appropriate experience to compliment it.
-You can go and check it out.
‘I don’t know if it can be used like that.’
-Why?
Why?
It was more of a cautious thing to use than the Blood Demon authority. I couldn’t just reveal the golden eye and get called by other names.
-Ah!
It was being kept confidential but the people in Murim alliance, the stronger sects and more knew of this golden eyed man. And if I revealed mine now, it would only call in more trouble than I am able to handle.
-This is trouble. So, will you choose to close one eye?
That should be it.
-Tch. Such a joke. You have power and yet you have to hide it.
Blood Demon Sword chuckled.
He was messing with me but carelessness was unacceptable with a power like this.
The fortunate thing was that when I was confined in that stone coffin, something similar to a change in bones had happened and the internal qi and innate qi had advanced.
Now, the internal qi at the top dantian was at its peak. Even if not in the middle, it felt like I was a lot better than before.
-Yes, but without a proper understanding, it is on a limit.
The Blood Demon Sword uttered.
As he said, I did gain a lot of improvement with respect to internal and innate qi, but it wasn’t because of any enlightenment. Thus, I couldn’t bring out their capabilities at all. It was like being blocked by a wall.
It seemed like the martial arts would turn difficult and extensive the higher one climbed. It was when I finished infusing innate qi into my grandfather.
-But Wonhwi, I have a question.
‘Uh?’
-That golden eye man’s hands grew in an instant.
‘You couldn’t…’
-Even if you have just one golden eye, you have the same body as his, why don’t you try it?
‘You want me to cut off my hand?’
-It will be a mess if you fail right?
They say that when the hands didn’t belong to you, nothing was scary. And while I was shocked, Blood Demon Sword added.
-Can you do a minor wound then?
A minor wound…
I normally hated hurting myself.
-Are you scared?
‘No, I am not.’
-Coward.
Anyway, it was okay that they made fun of me. Thinking I pulled out Short Sword and drew it on my palm.
All of a sudden, my palms felt itchy. If the golden eye man could recover then so could I, right?
When I was staring at my palms–
‘Uh?’
I felt a tickle, like an ant crawling and veins began to creep up and connect. The wound was progressing to heal.
‘No.’
I wasn’t sure about this but the healing of the wound was very quick.
-Slower than that man though.
-Well, looks like that to my eyes, human.
As they said, the wound was healing but not as swiftly as the man with golden eyes. He had healed it so fast that I thought of him to be more of a monster.
-This growth is good enough for you to be called a monster, Wonhwi.
As Iron Sword said, it was certain that the recovery speed was shocking compared to normal people. It seemed that I was moving away from humans in terms of recovery.
‘I want to give this healing speed to two people.’
I looked at my passed out grandfather and the unconscious one armed man who accompanied me to the cave.
There was not much I was able to do. Everyone disinfected his wound with hot water and put the herbs on it, despite holding on, his situation was a dangerous one.
‘Can he hold on?’
-I think it will be difficult without proper treatment.
This was the most annoying situation. After recovering my martial arts, I tried to find an exit by digging through the cave.
But there was no way to get out of here.
Just in case, I even used the silver string and let myself be drifted by the water. But it was just an endless pit.
-Human. It is possible if you can endure your breathing and get out.
It was the Blood Demon Sword’s words.
‘But it would be me alone.’
The one armed man and my grandfather wouldn’t be able to escape, and with their dantian destroyed it wasn’t like they could hold on for even a couple seconds.
No matter how strong the martial arts were, a human was a weak animal in front of nature.
‘Damn it! What do I do?’
He was a man who risked life for his grandfather. It was impossible to not care when he was dying. The entire situation was frustrating.
“Hey”
A hoarse voice and when I turned my head my grandfather, Ha Seong-wun, was looking at me.
“Grandfather!”
I rushed over to him and waited for him to be comfortable to move.
“Are you alright?”
“Cough cough. I don’t know what this is. But I am still alive?’
He was the one who had collapsed in shock after hearing the news about my mother. Of course, it wasn’t like he fell because of that.
I briefly explained what had transpired in the cave with herbs.
While thinking about it, I decided to hide my golden eye.
“Kangbu! You fool!”
My grandfather looked at the one armed man with a bitter face.
His name was Kangbu. And with that, my grandfather turned back to me.
“Why did you and Kangbu proceed with such a dangerous thing?”
“How can the sight of my blood dying be accepted?”
He was in tears.
“Kid. If something happened to you, this old man could have never looked into the eyes of your mother.”
I held his hand.
“I have no intention of leaving my maternal grandfather first.”
“You went through so much for this man.”
I was thrilled.
“Do not talk like that. Shouldn’t you be ready to see your only granddaughter?”
“Granddaughter?”
“I have a younger sister.”
Although our father was different, she would have the same grandfather since he was on our maternal side.
Ha Seong-wun frowned.
“Did Ryeon remarry?”
‘Ah…’
From the point of view of her father it surely must have been shocking for him. Since she ran away with a child in her stomach, he seemed to be curious as to how I lived.
“Re… marry she did.”
I told everything I knew about my mother.
What kind of life she had lived. And hearing that his face only turned dark and confused.
“Sigh. To think that my child lived like that… I do not have the confidence to face you siblings. All this old man did was bring trouble.”
“Do not say that.”
I didn’t share it with him, only for him to blame himself. I could say that my mother lived a happy life to help ease his thoughts but that was a lie and I didn’t want to hide the truth to my only surviving blood relative.
He had a complicated expression like he wasn’t sure on how to respond and he held my hand as he said.
“No! It is the fault of us adults. I know very well what kind of life you had to live to come here.”
He struggled and tried to raise his upper body.
“Grandfather. Lie down…”
But before I could say more he hugged me,
“When I think about you who grew up not knowing anything about your mother, my heart breaks. It is so torn like it will never be fixed again.”
“Grandfather…’
I was holding back tears. My grandfather, who was hugging me, pulled my arms.
“My poor child. How did you end up here?”
I was a bit unsure about explaining this to him. This was more complicated to speak than my mother’s life and when I hesitated he added.
“If it is embarrassing to speak about, you don’t have to say. If you were here by the hands of that Wicked Moon Sword then there wouldn’t even be much of a reason.”
‘Ah…’
He seemed to have some misunderstanding.
Come to think of it, the people of the cave only knew that I was thrown in by Sima Chak and I have to speak the truth to my grandfather at least.
Before I could even speak, he spoke first.
“If your father knew of your existence you would have never been here, so unfortunate.”
“My father?”
To this he sighed and continued.
“I bet you grew up not knowing anything about your real father. This truly has to be some odd fate.”
I had always wondered who my real father was and my grandfather spoke like it was a pity.
“If your father was in the same position then neither your mom nor you would have had a hard time like this.”
I didn’t get what it meant.
Then, did this mean that he was an influential person? Or was I assuming it.
“Grandfather… is my father a member of Dual Martial Forces?”
“Yes.”
“Can you tell me who?”
My voice was trembling.
Actually, after learning that my mother was a member of the sect, I came to know that my father was someone else. No matter how publicly the situation happened, it was clear that he had failed to protect my mother till the end.
My grandfather shook his head.
“I know your heart. However, your father was just a minor lord and he did his best to protect his family but he couldn’t help being branded as a man of the Blood Sect.”
“Still my human mind cannot help it.”
“I fully understand how you feel.”
He patted me on the shoulder and spoke in a serious voice.
“Still, how can you not know about your biological father? Your father’s name is Jin Song-baek. He is the head of the Storm Shadow Eight Classes clan.”
‘…!!’
For a second I was shocked.
-What is it?
As Short Sword questioned, I couldn’t speak right then.
I had predicted my father to be a member of the Dual Martial Forces, but this–
-It is irritating that you are this surprised!
‘He is one of the Eight great Warrior, the Infinite Wind God, Jin Song-baek’
-What!
This wasn’t the only shocking thing. This identity was the problem.
The man who would soon die and cause a change in the workings of the world.
