Chapter 32

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-Lihua!

-Lihua, where are you?

“Huk!”

I opened my eyes suddenly. A small light appeared in front of my eyes.

“How long…?”

How long was I out for? I blinked my eyes blankly and became wide awake.

This is not the time for this. I had to go to the place I promised with Cheonma.

“First I’ll do some healing cultivation… huk!”

I tried to move as soon as possible, but my back and ankle hurt so much. It looks like I got hit somewhere while I was falling.

I clenched my teeth and forced myself to cultivate. My dantian was empty, but my twisted meridians were corrected.

Did my enlightenment have a good effect on me?

The pace of gathering has increased and the amount I could accumulate also increased.

As soon as I gathered some qi, I uncrossed my legs and rummaged through my clothes. Fortunately, the pouches were intact. I took out the Golden Medicine and spread it on my back.

After that, I rolled up my pants and found my ankle. There was a black bruise on it.

I squinted my eyes as I tried to apply some medicine over the bruise.

“…handprints?”

The bruise looked like a handprint. Like someone grabbed my ankle.

Did Jegal Hyun try to grab onto my ankle and pull me?

The size of the bruise was small to say so. It was similar to or slightly larger than my hand. After I examined my ankle, I looked around.

Where is Jegalhyun? And…

“Where am I?”

It was neat without even a stone out of place in the large space. I couldn’t even see pores on the smooth stone wall.

Though I apparently broke through the floor, there were no holes in the ceiling. I don’t know what happened, but it certainly wasn’t where I fell. I thought the cave was just a maze of roads… but there was a place like this in the cave.

“Wait.”

I lowered my eyes to my ankles again. At the same time, a sharp realization penetrated my head.

There’s someone here.

He must have dragged me all the way here. That’s why my back hurts.

I can imagine someone grabbing me by the ankle and dragging me.

The back of my head cooled.

It’s dangerous.

I don’t know if he’s a villain, but he’s not a good man. Even just moving a fainted child like a piece of luggage wasn’t enough that he just threw me away on the ground.

He can’t be a good man.

I felt for something instinctively on the floor. Then I realized that there was something really important that I was missing and opened his eyes wide.

“Bae, Baekha… “

Did I lose it? Where? My heart sank at the thought of losing my only weapon.

“I  need to get back to where I fell.”

Just as I was about to stand up while rambling, I could sense a movement behind my back.

Just as I was rambling to stand up, I could feel a movement behind my back.

I quickly turned around and stepped back. Someone that was standing at the entrance tilted his head at me.

“……… a child……?”

About my age? It was a girl with milky skin and delicate gray eyes.

I can’t believe it. How could a child be in a place like this…

She was strange, too.

She was dressed in clothes that were so big and worn out that I could see her white skin. I also could see her little toe at the end of her ragged pants.

‘You didn’t even wear your shoes…’

Huh?

Isn’t this a plant spirit that I’ve only heard of?

Plant spirits are one of the sect’s most popular experiments.

It was the upgraded version of it that takes the appearance of a child after surviving for ten thousand years.

Come to think of it, I felt a different energy from the child compared to regular humans. It looked extraordinary but I asked carefully.

“Hey, are you human?”

Shake shake.

The child suddenly shook her head.

Oh! You must really be a spirit!

I sighed with relief and grinned. Since humans were unfamiliar to them, the priority was to have her relax.

“Will you come here?”

“Big sister isn’t a bad person. I’ll never hurt you. I swear.”

“For real. You can come closer because it’s okay.”

The child standing slowly approached. Maybe it was because of the elixir, but I couldn’t even hear my footsteps even though I was barefoot.

I waited until the child came closer and reached out my hand. The child’s gray eyes stared at my hand. I reached out very slowly and stroked the child’s head so that he wouldn’t be surprised.

The child’s long hair slid through my fingers like black silk thread.

The child’s eyes, which had been somewhat stiff, slightly loosened. He seems to like the stroking.

“Oh, pretty. Kind.”

I brushed the child’s head over and over again and carefully asked him.

“Do you know how to speak? Like people speak.”

The child nodded.

I can’t believe you’ve mastered human speech! As expected of a plant spirit!

“I’m Chun Lihua, what’s your name?”

The child who was feeling my touch with his eyes open finally opened his mouth.

A clear voice like the color from a ripe fruit leaked from her red lips.

“No.”

Hmm…

It was a more neutral voice than I thought, but it was full of energy.

“Oh, right. A spirit can’t have a name……so you brought me here?”

“Yes.”

“Thank you very much for your help. I would have been in trouble if it wasn’t for you. But when did you start living here?”

“I don’t know.”

Well, you wouldn’t remember it if you had lived for more than 10,000 years.

It was fortunate that she did not run away as soon as she saw a person like any other cultivator would.

If you didn’t like people, you wouldn’t bring me here.

“Have you been alone all this whole time?”

“Yes.”

“Oh, you must have been lonely.”

It may not be the same as a human being, but I was worried since she took the shape of a child. I patted the child on the cheek.

“What have you been doing alone?”

“I slept.”

“Since when?”

“I don’t know.”

“How did you wake up?”

“The floor shook.”

Monk Jeonghyeon’s suicide which shook the cave greatly must have awakened her while she was hibernating.

“You must be very hungry because you woke up in your sleep. Hold on a second.”

I don’t know if I can give her dried persimmons. Well, it’s a fruit, so it’ll be okay.

I opened my pocket and took out the dried persimmon that I had kept aside for Aku Ryun and handed it to the child.

“This, do you want some?”

“……”

The child only looked at dried persimmons. I slapped my forehead when I saw the child who wasn’t responding.

What a fool, there’s no way she knows what dried persimmons are when she has lived in a cave.

“It’s called dried persimmons, but it’s food. Here, look. Like this.”

When I bit the end of the dried persimmon, the child stared quietly at my lips.

I chewed and swallowed on purpose and laughed softly.

“Oh, it’s really sweet. Do you want to try it?”

When I put dried persimmon on the child’s mouth, the child opened his lips slightly.

“Is it good?”

She nodded.

“Come on, you can eat it all.”

I watched the child eat and asked quietly

“By any chance… was there anyone else where you found me? A tall, slender man…do you know what a man is?”

“I know.”

“Oh, you have some knowledge. That’s a relief. Anyway, that guy. He must have been very injured. Did you see him?”

“I saw him.”

“Really? Then what about a white branch? There is a pretty flower at the end of a branch that is a little longer and thinner than my forearm. Did you see that, too?”

“No, I saw something transparent. I didn’t see anything white.”

“Transparent……”

Suddenly, I remembered the scene where the white bark peeled off like dead skin cells and evaporated when using Baekha sword qi.

Did something happen to Baekha?

I became very anxious when I thought of Baekha, who had not reacted as if it were asleep, and of Jegal Hyun, who was dying from his injuries.

“I’m sorry, but can you take me there? I have to find both.”

“Okay.”

“Wow! You’re so nice!”

I hugged the child and stroked her head. I thought it was too much contact at first sight, but the child seemed to like it. Her cheeks were red.

The child blushed and ate dried persimmons. I waited calmly for the child to finish the dried persimmon.

‘……her fangs are very sharp.’

Every time she opened her mouth, the fangs I saw were as sharp as a snake’s fangs.

Looking at her red lips, I felt strange as if I was looking at Dracula.

.’Come to think of it, she looks a little weird. I’d believe that she isn’t a plant spirit but a monster…!’

Wait a second, where did Aku Ryun get the Imoogi core from? (TL note: Imoogi literally translates to “this weapon”)

Aku Ryun’s first big accomplishment was his life-or-death struggle against the Imoogi, who had been trapped for 3000 years.

The problem was that even though I remembered the contents of the fight, I couldn’t really remember the place.

It’s because the place where the event happened wasn’t very noteworthy.

‘It was definitely a dark, complicated maze… Oh, yeah! It was some kind of underground cave in the mountains! A strange place full of glowing crystals on the ceiling.’

I raised my head without realizing it. A glowing crystal that was stuck in the ceiling sprinkled light over me.

Crazy! Was it here? The Imoogi that Aku Ryun killed didn’t take the shape of a human being but of a snake. Even worse, I didn’t know it was a female.

So I couldn’t even imagine that this girl was Immogi.

As soon as I guessed the child’s identity, I got goosebumps all over my body and my shoulders shrank back.

It wasn’t because I hated snakes as much as bugs.

It was because I couldn’t eliminate Immogi even if I died and came back to life.

Aku Ryun who was close to the Third level of Qi Condensation almost died while fighting the Imoogi.

‘So there’s no way I, who has just had her first enlightenment, could win!’

The child finished eating dried persimmons and was quietly watching me.

‘To think that you have a meek personality…’

Clear gray eyes. It didn’t look like a monster that ate people.

‘Did I get it wrong?’

Come to think of it, it was weird.

There’s no reason for the Immogi to be transformed into a human form, is there? It was a snake in the original story.

Yeah, I think I’m mistaken. I swallowed my saliva. And then I moved my strangely shaky lips.

“Well, excuse me, you are a plant spirit right?”

“Plant spirit?”

“I’m talking about a spirit. You know what a spirit is right?”

“No, I’ve never heard of it.”

“The- then, what are you?”

The child answered politely.

“A snake.”

Oh, God.