Chapter 68: Great problem of Martial arts(武) And Chivalry(俠) (3)

It was a place without any sound. In that place, people were waving their hands towards someone as they silently screamed.

Every single one of them had a shining stick in their hands. Were they angry or excited?

Are they crazy about something? Because they looked happy and crazy at the same time.

All of them had something in common. It was the fact that everyone was crazy about just one person.

There was a beautiful woman with purple hair. Everytime she grabbed the microphone and shouted, every single one of them responded.

Their emotion exploded. Excitement, joy, fevour, enthusiasm,

And…

Looking at the shadow at the end.

“Heok!”

The Prophet Yekaterina removed her hand from the painting.

Flop

She sank into her seat and breathed out.

Today again, she foresaw another disaster.

‘Was it at a concert this time?’

The incident would take place in Korea within a week. Probably, the disaster had something to do with the woman called ‘Hellony’.

‘It’s a disaster that can be prevented if the authorities are warned in advance.’

Thinking so, she slowly rose from her seat.

She was standing in a white corridor. Numerous paintings could be found along the hallway. Every single one of these paintings depicted events that took place in reality. The past, the present, and possibly the future.

She could see the future as vividly as if she were present in that space simply by touching the painting.

This place was the world inside her dream.

To be exact, it was an ‘art gallery’ inside her dream.

When the Prophet Yekaterina dreamt, she always came to this mysterious art museum, and she was forced to see the future. She was forced to look at the paintings even when she closed her eyes or turned her head away.

“Sigh…”

While slowly catching her breath, Yekaterina jerked her head away when she heard a sound from somewhere.

Kung!! Kung!! Kung!!

She was certain that sounds were someone’s footsteps.

When she heard the sound, Yekaterina gulped down her saliva.

This was Yekaterina’s dream world. 

In this dream, in the art museum, where only one must exist, there was someone else living aside from her.

What is that? Who was it? Where did they come from? 

She didn’t know.

However, she knew for sure that she should not be caught by that ‘someone’

‘I have to wake up.’ 

It had been years since she lived together with that strange creature. She was used to it.

Kung!! Kung!! Kung!!

Used to it didn’t mean she was not scared of it.

On the other side of the corridor, the figure of that ‘something’ appeared. A huge figure that was likely to be over 3 meters, with a black charred body that was drenched in water as if it had just come out from water. 

That ‘something’ jerked its head away, and looked at Yekaterina.

Swiik!

A head was a size bigger than the average adult man’s body turns.

And then.

Kung Kung!!

Kung Kung Kung!!

Kung Kung Kung Kung!!!

The mysterious creature started running towards Yekaterina at a fearsome speed.

‘Wake up, Wake up, Please, I need to wake up!’

That day, once again, Yekaterina woke up from her nightmare while screaming.

* * *

Sejong Superhuman Academy, a place where only ultra-elite students gathered.

The academy often held classes that were open to outsiders. They didn’t do it for any class but only during classes that allowed students to exercise their superpowers to their fullest extent, namely, ‘Mock battle’ Class and ‘Mock Dungeon Exploration’ class. This, apparently, created an environment for students to be contacted by guilds.

Apparently, these opportunities gave all parties involved a win-win solution.

For guilds, they reaped the benefit of recruiting talented students. The school was satisfied that their status soared when their students entered prestigious guilds, and for students, they would have more opportunities to be contacted by the guilds.

Of course, it may not be very touching for students who had already been contacted by guilds, but it was also different from the guild’s point of view. It was said to be a matter of pride among guilds, who have prepared to help the students that have already been contracted to perform better or more efficiently in mock trials, dungeon exploration and monster hunting. 

For Yoo Seodam, who had just established his guild, he wasn’t sure about that kind of stuff, because he came to the Academy with the intention of doing something else. Originally, only subordinates would go… but. He was the only one in his guild that could move freely.

Shin Hye-ji, who was beside him, said with a grin on her face.

“Do you know what? My friends are really jealous of me.”

“Really?”

“Yes. At first, my friends ignored me because I signed for an unknown guild without any guild name. But when they knew my guild was Yoo Seodam hunter-nim’s guild and they asked me so many questions.”

It was obvious that she was in a good mood. She kept laughing as she told Yoo Seodam her stories. Once again Yoo Seodam realized that unlike her father, Shin Hyeji was a very talkative and sociable child. 

When Yoo Seodam looked around, he saw quite a few students meeting with guild officials. Maybe pride was a major factor among students for which they competed to enter the best guild.

Amongst all the officials that were present, the best one was definitely the member of a big guild, but Shin Hyeji seemed to have some confidence in her own guild. Although Yoo Seodam’s guild had no name and nothing to show yet, it was showing off its enormous presence just because the ‘ability’ existed.

Of course, he didn’t intend to lead a guild with this ability alone.

“Here, a present. Because you’re relying on your speed, I picked the right ether blade for you.”

“Huh? Whoa, awesome!”

Yoo Seodam could do this much now.

“Huh, This.. This.. isn’t this a second-class ether blade?”

“Correct. I’ve increased the ether ejection power by using a folding blade. The safety device is over there.”

“Oh, my God. I touched a Damascus-style ether blade.”

As a student, it was common to not even be able to use a Class-3 ether dispenser. They were given a Class-4 crappy ether dispenser. Even for Yoo Seodam, second-class Ether blades used to be nothing but a fleeting dream.

However, it was possible for the current him.

“Wow! It says it was manufactured by Cage Industries.”

Of course it is, Cage industries had formally sponsored his guild. Despite the guild not having any notable achievements yet, Cage Industries had boldly decided to support Yoo Seodam with ten second-class ether blades. There were only three guild members in his guild, so it was not a problem giving one ether blade to everyone.

“That’s right. It’s made by Cage.”

“My God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Awesome.”

Even though she didn’t expect much in regards to equipment support, Shin Hye-ji’s mouth opened wide as she received equipment support which was at the level of a large guild. Looking at her fidgety body-language, it seemed like she wanted to show off to her classmates.

“Use the sword for the next mock training.”

If Shin Hye-ji, whose name had risen so much these days, fought with a sword with Cage’s logo on it, Yoo Seodam’s guild would definitely draw attention as well.

“Then why don’t we have lunch and talk about the next mock training?”

“Yes!”

So far, it would seem like Yoo Seodam came to scout some promising talents.

But that wasn’t the real reason.

‘Cheonma and Lee Dong-joon’s track record.’

Yoo Seodam recalled the ‘plot’ that the system showed him not long ago.

The plot did not contain any explicit details, but he could infer a lot from the fact that the Cheonma was trapped in a place where ‘blizzard raged for 365 days a year’.

For now, he wanted to know the location where Cheonma was locked up.

There were many places on Earth that were cold for 365 days a year. For example, the South Pole and the North Pole. But even at those places, snow wouldn’t fall for 365 days a year. No, no place on Earth could have that much snow. 

Except for the Himalayas, where the climate had changed abnormally since the Great War 31 years ago.

In other words, Cheonma was trapped somewhere on the Himalayas.

And why did Lee Dongjoon lock up Cheonma? Probably because she was the main heroine for Lee Dong-joon story. Cheonma’s presence was so high that she was directly involved in the main story of the main character, Lee Dong-joon, and he must have been taking care of her so that she wouldn’t die.

The fact that her Qi core was destroyed would make Cheonma not able to survive alone in a snowy mountain. Lee Dong-joon had to visit Cheonma from time to time to give her some food and other necessities to keep her alive.

In other words, from now on, Yoo Seodam only needed the ‘exact location’ of where Cheonma was and how often Lee Dong-joon visited that place. This was the information that could not be grasped by reading the plot alone.

However, he couldn’t do anything crazy like asking Lee Dong-joon directly, so the only person left was Shin Hye-ji, someone who stayed closest to him.

“I asked my dad to teach me about Sesookyung and he said it shouldn’t be taught to anyone else in the world. Isn’t that too much?” 

“Haha, It must have been because your father is worried.”

When both of them arrived at the restaurant, Yoo Seodam tried to have a normal conversation with Shin Hyeji.

“Oh, come to think of it, how did you know so well about Mugong when you’re not even a DR?”

Dimensional Returnees were forbidden from using Mugong. Shin Hye-ji knew that much. However, Yoo Seodam’s ability was similar to that of a returnee’s Mugong but at the same time different. So, Shin hyeji knew that it was okay for her to reveal her strength to the world.

“I can’t tell you the exact reason, but let’s say that I happened to stumble upon it. But, compared to your father, my knowledge is nothing. That’s why I’m asking for him to teach me.”

Of course, to Dharma, Yoo Seodam wasn’t as precious as Shin Hye-ji. So, the techniques he could learn were, at most, the lowest ranking technique.

Suddenly

Yoo Seodam remembered the story he heard from Geom-hee. Then, he asked Shin Hye-ji.

“Speaking of which, can you tell me about your father’s story while he lived ‘there’? I have a lot of interest in that topic, but I can’t ask him myself.”

“Eung? Mmm.”

She opened her eyes wide and shook her head after a moment of thought.

“I don’t know much either. I asked him to tell me about it, but he didn’t like it. So I stopped asking.”

Of course she wouldn’t know.

‘If I was Dharma, I would never tell my daughter about it.’

‘What did Dharma do in Murim? He was executing everybody.’

Yoo Seodam tried to hide his bitter smile as he recalled Geom-hee’s words. What was wrong with Shin Hye-ji? She just didn’t know anything. But Yoo Seodam didn’t feel any sympathy towards her.

Because,

He was going to use any means possible to kill Dharma.

“Sometimes, when I call your father, he doesn’t pick up the call. Is he busy? Because sometimes I have questions about what he taught me.”

“Really? Oh, did you call him at ‘that time’?”

“That time?”

“Yes.”

Shin Hye-ji said as she drank her cola.

“I think it is two days every month? He goes out on the weekends. I don’t know where he’s going, but… Oh! He often comes home with souvenirs from China. I think he misses his old place sometimes.”

“I see.”

“It must be a very important place for him. Because he never skips it even once.”

Once every month. And he takes two days to travel back and forth between the Himalayas and Seoul. 

‘China, huh? Now I am certain that she is locked up somewhere in the Himalaya. It is only possible to go back and forth between Himalaya and Seoul in two days because he is the supreme Dharma.’

If he wants to begin rescuing Cheonma, he better aim for the time frame when Dharma had just returned from the Himalayas. And the mission’s deadline will be 1 month.

It was simply impossible for Yoo Seodam to rescue Cheonma right now. 

Yoo Seodam needed time to prepare many things, also, there was a lot of work to be done here. However, he couldn’t be too late in rescuing her, otherwise, Cheonma would be completely influenced by Dharma and something beyond Yoo Seodam’s control would happen. 

However, there were plenty of ways to buy time.

‘Didn’t you say that the protagonist’s hunter skill could interfere with the main story?’

‘No matter how far it is or what the duration is?’

‘That’s not a problem.’

Because Yoo Seodam had someone else who shared his ‘Presence’.

‘Spirit, it’s time to work.’

While thinking about someone who was still trapped in the snow mountain, Yoo Seodam talked to the flower pot.

* * *

Whuuuuuuuuushhhh~~

Seol Jungyeon, a woman who was once hailed as Cheonma, barely had anything left with her now.

That woman blankly stared at the blizzard outside the window. The hut where she was in right now was warm thanks to Dharma’s special technique. However, the moment she took even a single step outside from the hut, she would freeze to death.

‘Should I just give up?’

There was a time when she wanted to live even in such a bad state. She wanted to continue this dirty and vulgar life just for one more breath.

But now, everything had become useless.

The Murim Cheonma sect that she remembered no longer existed.

No one on Earth knew that she was trapped here.

Suddenly, Dharma’s word lingered on her mind.

‘Give up the name Cheonma, Then I’ll take you out of here as Seol Jungyeon.’

To give up the name of Cheonma.

It also meant that her life would belong to Dharma.

Was there really any reason not to give up the Cheonma sect? Was there any meaning to be obsessed with the past where nothing was left and abandon the flowery path?

If she put everything down and became his woman, wouldn’t she live a happier life compared to the time when she lived as Cheonma?

These kinds of thoughts were constantly filling her head often these days. It was an unthinkable worry for her in the past.

Those worries were proof that her heart had begun to waver, but she didn’t notice at all. 

No. She just couldn’t notice.

‘Why do I think this way?’

Suddenly, her heart calmed down and her mind cooled down. She finally came to her senses.

Flap Flap.

A transparent butterfly flew through the window.

“What is this?”

Cheonma reached towards the butterfly instinctively. Then, the small butterfly landed carefully on her index finger.

[Skill ‘Flying butterfly of the Silver Spirit Flower’ has activated.]

[Skill ‘Protagonist hunter Lv3’ collides with Skill ‘Charm(SS)’]

[Supporting character Seol Jungyeon’s skill, ‘Cheonma Absolute mind(SS)’ resists ‘Charm(SS)’]

The butterfly was a gift from someone thousands of kilometers away from the Himalaya.

The butterfly waved its wings from her index finger and flew up, turning into a swarm of light before drawing a white colored message in the air.

-I’ll come to you.

The little light brought a small hope to Cheonma who was about to put everything down.