Chapter 47: Even if You’re Caught in a Tiger’s Den (5)

The cruel queen who rules over souls, Kim Sojin, gazed coldly at the world.Beneath her, the traces of the tiger’s escape were spread out.

“She dodged this?”

It was rare for her full-power attack to miss. Had this ever happened with anyone other than Yoo Hajin?

She had cast the attack with the intention of finishing her off.

From what she could see with her soul-reading eyes, it was an undodgeable strike.

“Did she become stronger in that instant?”

Kim Sojin had more combat experience with spiritual abilities than anyone her age.

She knew the tiger hadn’t had much experience in fights between the truly powerful.

That’s why she was confident in her 30-minute victory.

Yet, for the tiger’s combat sense to rise to the point of dodging her full-power attack in an instant...

Even Kim Sojin, who predicted everything in this fight, hadn’t foreseen this.

“Should I chase her?”

But Kim Sojin couldn’t chase the tiger.

Where the tiger had fled, there was a man.

Kim Sojin sighed as she looked at the tiger’s blood on her hand.

“I didn’t want to show... this side of me...”

She had inflicted dozens of fatal wounds. And each one bore a powerful curse.

No matter how strong the tiger’s vitality, she wouldn’t last ten minutes.

With that, Kim Sojin turned back, leaving a sense of unease behind.

****

I had no choice but to carry Baek Yoorin on my back. Because if I wasn’t touching her, her wounds kept reopening.

“Why do the wounds keep reopening?”

Seeing as the wounds remained still when I was in contact with her, it seemed like they were caused by spiritual abilities.

It made sense. To injure someone as powerful as a tiger, you’d need someone with comparable spiritual abilities.

I carried the tiger on my back and stepped outside the mansion.

It was curious how the servants were never around at times like this.

“Even if I take her to the hospital, they won’t be able to treat her, right?”

If that’s the case, then there’s only one method left.

I had to pray that method would work.

So, I ran down the street wearing only my underwear.

Judging by how my back was getting soaked, the amount of bleeding was no joke.

There was no time to find pants and change from the mansion.

“Ugh... Why...”

Baek Yoorin murmured from my back.

She asked why I was doing something so foolish.

I didn’t know the reason either.

The word hogu (‘호구’) means ‘tiger’s mouth.’ It also refers to a dangerous situation, as if you’re in the mouth of a tiger.

When used for a person, it means someone so gullible they might as well crawl into a tiger’s mouth themselves. Just like me now.

Although it has a slightly different meaning, here I was trying to save the tiger that had tried to devour me.

No one could be more of a fool than me.

“Are you... trying to save me... A monster like me...?”

“You’re being too loud.”

I quieted the patient and gathered my thoughts. Jamsuni had asked me if I wanted to understand the world or believe in it.

But I couldn’t decide because of my indecisiveness.

So, I decided to do this:

When my heart wants to believe in the world, I will believe in it, and when my heart wants to understand the world, I will seek to understand it.

In short, I would do whatever I felt like doing.

And right now, my heart wanted to save Baek Yoorin.

Baek Yoorin was a Celestial Immortal of Cheonji. It meant she was a powerful person.

Moreover, she had promised to grant all my requests.

So, if I could save Baek Yoorin, it would be beneficial.

Various thoughts flashed through my mind.

<The warmth felt for the first time in six years...>

<Mom... it hurts...>

<Celestial Immortals Baek Yoorin, defeats the demon king appearing overseas...>

No, let’s be honest.

I would have saved Baek Yoorin even without those reasons.

And so, I arrived at the electric scooter I had abandoned.

I looked around.

There was no one in sight.

It was hard to believe I was in the middle of Seoul.

Probably, if I took her to a hospital, the hospital would look like this area.

“No hospital will accept you.”

“...”

“So, I have no choice but to treat you myself.”

I opened the duffle bag hanging on the electric scooter and took out a black rod. It was the Black Sheath.

“Is there anywhere I can lay you down?”

There was an abandoned bench in a secluded corner.

I spread my coat on the bench and laid Baek Yoorin down.

“Ugh.”

Baek Yoorin’s right arm, left arm, right leg, and left leg were all horribly broken.

There were deep cuts on her waist and a puncture wound on her solar plexus.

And there were many bruises.

Even those bruises were blood bruises.

“Who did this?”

If Baek Yoorin were an ordinary person, these wounds would have killed her dozens of times over.

But Baek Yoorin was faintly but definitely breathing.

She even looked at me with sad eyes.

To be conscious with such injuries…

Could this treatment method work?

“I’m starting the operation now.”

I held Black Sheath in my right hand.

Black Sheath. According to the lab director who was destroyed by Kirieon, it was made from the scabbard of a heavenly demon and could nullify all physical phenomena created by spiritual abilities.

Then, could wounds inflicted by spiritual abilities be considered physical phenomena created by spiritual abilities?

Let’s consider the wounds on the body as physical phenomena. What would happen if Black Sheath touched those wounds?

I had to find out.

So, I brought the Black Sheath to Baek Yoorin’s right arm.

“Ugh!”

For a minute, nothing happened.

The bleeding just slowed down a bit.

“As expected, is it impossible?”

As I murmured, the bleeding completely stopped and the bones started to realign slowly.

The broken bones retracted into the skin, and flesh began to fill in the gaps.

“Ah, is this... your... ability?”

I didn’t answer Baek Yoorin’s question.

There was still a lot to think about.

Black Sheath recognized wounds caused by spiritual abilities as physical phenomena and nullified them. But why did it take so long to nullify them?

No, no.

I had misunderstood.

When Black Sheath nullified the physical movement of the meteor at Big Hand Casino, the meteor just lost its physical force and fell to the ground.

It didn’t restore itself to its original state or anything like that.

Then what is this situation now?

A thought flashed through my mind.

“Ah, I see. It’s the time difference.”

Back then, I had only briefly touched the meteor with Black Sheath. It was probably in contact for about 0.5 seconds. But now, Black Sheath had been in contact with Baek Yoorin’s arm for several minutes.

Initially, only the bleeding stopped; it didn’t feel like healing. It was after a minute or so that the healing started.

Does this mean that if Black Sheath is in contact with inanimate objects for a long time, the parts destroyed by spiritual abilities could be restored?

For some reason, this hypothesis seemed useful.

But thinking too much made my head hurt.

“Ughhhhhh.”

I let out a groan mixed with pain.

Baek Yoorin, startled, murmured.

“A-are you okay?”

“I’m fine.”

I nodded and brought Black Sheath to the most dangerous-looking wound on his solar plexus.

“It might hurt, but bear with it.”

“Ah! It doesn’t, it doesn’t hurt much. Ngh! Ugh. It doesn’t hurt.”

At first, the bleeding stopped.

Then, after a few minutes, the flesh started to regenerate. sᴇaʀᴄh thᴇ NƟvelFɪre.ɴet website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of nøvels early and in the highest quality.

Watching human flesh regenerate was fascinating.

“Phew.”

I completely healed the visible wounds.

Then, I lifted Baek Yoorin onto my back.

“Ah, um.”

“What?”

“Thank you. I, I was going to do something bad.”

“So you know it was bad.”

“I must have been crazy then.”

Well, what could I do if she was crazy?

Considering she was a mighty tiger capable of beating me up, I had to take that into account.

I carried Baek Yoorin and got on the electric scooter.

The streets were very quiet, and so were the roads.

People were all afraid of the tiger.

At that moment, Baek Yoorin cautiously spoke.

“C-couldn’t you live with me?”

Live with a tiger.

It didn’t seem like a bad idea.

Baek Yoorin was a Celestial Immortal, so she must be wealthy. Plus, Baek Yoorin was strong, so she could protect me in this crazy world.

“Really, I can do everything for you. I’m good at cooking. I learned a lot from children’s programs when I was young. And I can sing lullabies for you when you sleep. And, and...”

But I was Mara Papias.

According to my younger sister, it was something so dangerous to spiritual ability users that they would kill it as a baby.

And the tiger was a powerful spiritual ability user. If we met occasionally, it might be fine, but if we lived together, she would eventually find out about me.

That I couldn’t see ghosts.

So, I dropped Baek Yoorin off in front of the mansion.

“Here, go in.”

“Really, really can’t you?”

Baek Yoorin clung to my sleeve with tears in her eyes. I was reminded of the moment my sister had clung to me, making my head spin.

I swallowed and could barely utter a single sentence.

“Ha, I’ll come see you when I have time.”

“Really? Really?”

“Yes.”

Suddenly, she smiled brightly like that.

I guess I am a man after all.

I can’t be cold when a pretty woman smiles like that.

So, leaving those words behind, I hurriedly got on the electric scooter.

How far did I go down the road?

Only then did I feel a breeze on my legs.

“Oh, right. Pants.”

When I looked to my side, I saw police officers in a patrol car watching me intently.

I smiled at them.

“Wait, officers. I have an explanation for this…”

And so, I ended up spending today’s part-time earnings on a fine.

Lesson of the day:

Even if you’re caught in a tiger’s den, always wear pants. Ugh...

****

Deep within Cheonji.

There were several gigantic seminar rooms capable of accommodating hundreds of people.

But right now, only two people were using one of those seminar rooms.

One of them was called Celestial Immortals Gamlo. Gamlo stood beside the blackboard, filling it with her elegant handwriting.

She spoke slowly.

“The child you faced is a Kim Sojin.”

“Kim Sojin? Is that the same Kim Sojin you explained yesterday?”

“Yes..”

Hearing this, Baek Yoorin nodded.

After that, she diligently took notes on Gamlo’s explanation.

“By the way, tiger. Why did you suddenly become so eager in your training?”

“Because I found a reason to become stronger.”

“Well, I won’t ask for the reason. As long as you follow the training, we’ll do everything we can for you.”

After finishing her notes, Baek Yoorin raised her hand.

Gamlo, who was teaching her, nodded.

“What do I do when one’s physical body gets hurt after their spiritual body is penetrated?”

“Just restore it through Yang energy... Ah, you must have gotten hurt beyond your life force while fighting a Kim Sojin. It’s a miracle you survived. As expected of a tiger.”

“Just give me the answer…”

Gamlo pulled out a long pipe from her sleeve and spoke.

“We psychics often fight using our physical bodies, but ironically, it’s most dangerous when we’re hurt to the point we can’t heal ourselves.”

“Why is that?”

“To heal the physical bodies, we have to penetrate the spiritual bodies. And penetrating the spiritual bodies requires destructive power. Using such destructive power while simultaneously applying restorative power to heal the physical body?”

Gamlo exhaled a puff of smoke.

“That’s a tough task. A really tough task. For weaker psychics, it might not take much effort to penetrate their spiritual bodies, so it’s not a big deal. But for strong psychics like us, it requires using our Heavenly Fortune through medicine food, and vows.”

Gamlo shook her head.

“Vows...”

“Yes, for Vows, it usually involves sacrificing something precious. For example, your lifespan.”

As soon as she heard this, tears welled up in Baek Yoorin’s eyes.

Gamlo, flustered, asked if she was okay, if the smoke was too strong, but Baek Yoorin just shook her head.

– – – The End of The Chapter – – –

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