Editors: Ytho, LaidBackGuy
Huge thanks to Lepsy is Lost, Gadorach, Phantom Phoenix, and Nyx for sponsoring 9 chapters of Possessing Nothing! (9/9)
Lee Sungmin couldn’t understand the joy that Kim Jonghyun felt. So he kept silent. After a moment of silence, Kim Jonghyun guided Lee Sungmin and Rubia to a room on the second floor.
“I will not interfere with your life. Likewise, please don’t interfere with my life either.”
Kim Jonghyun said as he put on his robes. Where are you going? Those words came up to Lee Sungmin’s throat, but he swallowed the question back down. He had already been told not to interfere with his life.
“I was invited to the party today.”
Lee Sungmin did not ask, but Kim Jonghyun answered first.
“It’s a party for Black Mages. I would offer to take you along with me, but… you are not a Black Mage.”
Kim Jonghyun laughed while shaking his arms in the sleeves of his robes.
“If you want, I can teach you some basic black magic. Are you interested?”
“It’s alright.”
“Well.”
Kim Jonghyun shrugged at Lee Sungmin’s swift refusal.
“Black magic is a very interesting discipline. Let me know if you change your mind anytime.”
Kim Jonghyun left the house after saying those words. Lee Sungmin went up to the second floor with Rubia and looked at the room Kim Jonghyun said he could use.
[I don’t think he’s messing with us.]
“I’ve looked around using magic, but there’s nothing suspicious. The whole house is like that. Normally, a mage’s house would have at least one or two vigilance spells protecting it…”
Rubia muttered as if it was strange. Lee Sungmin thought for a moment and nodded.
“It’s a little rude to leave without saying anything, but let’s just move on.”
“Okay.”
Kim Jonghyun had always been a suspicious figure. Until now, he had never harmed Lee Sungmin directly, but since he came to such a city, he could not believe him unconditionally. He did not know what Kim Jonghyun was thinking. Perhaps he really brought Lee Sungmin to his place as an act of simple courtesy.
But just in case those were not his intentions. Lee Sungmin did not want to be swayed in such a case. It would be better to stay out of it from the beginning. If you get caught up in his work while staying at his house. If it was like that, he did not want to see such a side of Kim Jonghyun.
So he left the house.
He was thinking of leaving the central district. From what he had heard, Geniella seemed to have not only the central district, but the whole of Travia in her palm. In that case, even if he left the central district, he could not escape Geniella’s eyes as long as he was in the city of Travia.
‘The Divine Spirit had directed me to the North. It doesn’t have to be Travia. North…’
Lee Sungmin looked North. Travia was the northernmost city of Eria. But it couldn’t be called the end of the North. Let’s go a little further. Lee Sungmin turned to the North.
“Where are you going?”
“To the North.”
“… You’re not going out of town, are you?”
Rubia asked in an uneasy voice, but Lee Sungmin did not respond. Rubia had spent a long time following Lee Sungmin. So she knew it well. That silence following her question meant that the answer was yes.
“The bed… The bath… ”
Rubia lamented with drooping ears. Lee Sungmin said in a loud voice.
“We just had a delicious meal, so please be satisfied with that.”
* * *
Why am I here?
The man didn’t know the answer. At some point, his memory had started to cut off intermittently, and when he was awakened, he could not recall what had happened. But one thing was certain. When he came to his senses and connected his memories, he was always covered in blood.
‘It’s happened again. Now, where was this again?’
The Crazy Heavenly Demon helped himself up while laughing.
It was unusual. Even though he had just come to his senses, he was not covered in blood. Ever since he had qi deviated, Crazy Heavenly Demon would periodically lose his memory and reason. Whenever that happened, he would always awaken in a bloody state. Thanks to his extraordinary martial arts, he did not feel any pain. It was only that he found it to be dirty. After all, the blood that soaked his body did not belong to him.
‘I can’t tell how long it’s been since I lost consciousness. Snow… winter… Where is this?’
Crazy Heavenly Demon felt dazed as he held onto his head and groaned. What he saw in front of him was a snowfield. The wind was harsh, but there was no snow falling. He saw a huge mountain at a distance. He turned his head again, and soon he saw the city walls.
‘North… A city… Perhaps…Is it Travia?’
No way. He came all this way? Crazy Heavenly Demon decided to sit down and circulated his qi, fixing his meridians just in case.
“This crazy…”
He couldn’t figure out what had happened. There was no way he had rushed to such a faraway city using his inner force. What for? Crazy Heavenly Demon’s eyebrows trembled. So far, whenever he had lost his reason due to the side effects of qi deviation, Crazy Heavenly Demon had indiscriminately slaughtered. That kind of brutal massacre was familiar to him, but this was the first time.
Although it was impossible to remember, Crazy Heavenly Demon still had his martial arts intact. He quickly checked his body. He circulated his inner force and looked through his meridians to find what martial arts he had used. There were no signs of battle. The only martial arts he had used was qinggong. Just what was the reason for him to run all this way without any rest while he had lost his reason?
(T/N: qinggong – also translated as lightness or movement techniques)
Kwaang!
Crazy Heavenly Demon stood on alert at the distant sound. He slowly raised himself up. The sounds didn’t stop. There was a fight going on nearby. He didn’t know what had happened, but he headed in the direction of the sound without hesitation.
‘First of all, I should ask where this is.’
He guessed it was Travia, but he still needed to get confirmation.
* * *
Aine was attacking Lee Sungmin. Lee Sungmin shot his spear toward the five tentacles approaching him from the front.
Kkwaaang!
Aine’s tentacles bounced back with a bang. However, Lee Sungmin did not suffer any damage. The spear force covering Lee Sungmin’s spear bore the brunt of the force, only scattering his hair slightly from the blow.
It hadn’t been that long since he had left the city with the North as his destination. In the meantime, another attack occurred. What jumped out of the darkness was the kid that Lee Sungmin had encountered a few years ago. It was Aine, who had now perfected her use of inner force.
‘I don’t know whether I should say my luck is good or bad.’
Lee Sungmin swung the spear strongly, ignoring his trembling grip. Aine’s tentacles bounced forward once again with a heavy sound. Aine’s attacks were like that. She was not actively attacking. Instead, she was wielding her tentacles in that way, watching Lee Sungmin’s response.
[What the hell is that kid… ?! What did you do for a kid like that to have such a strong grudge against you?!]
Rubia screamed inside Lee Sungmin’s mind. She transformed into a sphere of light instead of her beastkin form and hid inside Lee Sungmin’s sleeves. Lee Sungmin ignored Rubia’s cry and took a few steps back. However, Aine’s tentacles wriggled and shot forward to attack Lee Sungmin again. Immediately, Lee Sungmin intercepted her tentacles using a lightning strike.
“Where is Freskan?”
Lee Sungmin asked while looking at the fragments of scattered tentacles. Aine stared at Lee Sungmin’s face with yellow eyes and opened her mouth.
“In the city.”
Freskan was captured by Vampire Queen Geniella. She hadn’t forced him to do anything since making him join the Predators, but it was still impossible for Freskan to escape the city from under Geniella’s nose.
That’s why he sent Aine instead of moving directly himself. That didn’t mean Freskan wasn’t watching the battle. Several birds floating in the air were watching below.
‘It turned out just fine then.’
He was lucky. Lee Sungmin decided to judge it like that. He was also hoping for a reunion with Freskan. It saved him the effort to find him. If he subdued Aine here, he could pull out Freskan. Lee Sungmin could already feel the gaze of the familiars flying in the sky. He didn’t know why he did not come here directly. Perhaps he was planning something.
It was not that he wasn’t on guard. Lee Sungmin deployed the armor. The armor, which only covered his upper body, expanded greatly and covered Lee Sungmin’s entire body. He positioned himself as he held the spear with both hands.
Without Scarlet’s help, Lee Sungmin would have died on the spot when he was attacked by Aine five years ago. At that time, Lee Sungmin had already entered Peak level, but he was lacking in many ways and had many anxieties. The time that had passed since then was only 5 years at most. However, the time accumulated for Lee Sungmin was not just that.
Aine stopped probing with her tentacles. As long as Lee Sungmin continued in earnest, Aine realized that it was meaningless to continue playing around like that. She retracted the long tentacles into her body.
[That bitch gives a terrible feeling.]
Lee Sungmin also agreed with the words Heoju muttered. The tentacles soaring from Aine’s body would regenerate endlessly even if they burst or broke. Aine narrowed her eyes and stared at Lee Sungmin. Her hands were covered with a black crust, turning her five fingers into sharp black blades.
Uduk!
Dark stalks rose from Aine’s back. It took the form of a deformed wing, and the remaining part of the stalk became a flapping tentacle.
Aine did not obey her father, Freskan, unconditionally. But it was true that she, personally, had some feelings toward Lee Sungmin.
‘It was the first time.’
It was the first time she had felt that much pain. Aine stuck her tongue out and licked her lips. She remembered the feeling of her body being pierced through by a powerful attack. The strange feeling that she had felt five years ago had not changed. Her father, Freskan, had ordered her to not kill Lee Sungmin. It was alright if he didn’t have a few limbs, but he told her to bring him back with his life first.
Aine had no intention of following those orders. Since the moment they met… Aine could feel an intense urge. Even when she saw him five years ago, she had felt the same urge. Back then, she didn’t know exactly what this impulse was.
But now she knew. This was her appetite. She was not hungry. Nevertheless, she wanted to eat. She couldn’t stand it because she wanted to eat him. If possible, she would continue eating even if she had to vomit out everything she ate. Aine could feel her mouth watering. The heart wasn’t the only thing that she wanted to eat.
‘Where shall I start?’
Would it be better to start eating him from his feet and go up from there?
Aine swallowed her saliva while imagining that mouth-watering scene. At the same time, her feet hit the ground. She rushed toward Lee Sungmin at an abnormal pace.
[Her eyes look like she is looking at prey.]
Heoju muttered with a joyful voice. Lee Sungmin could also feel Aine’s predatory gaze on him.
Baang!
Aine kicked the ground and jumped up. A pile of snow beneath her feet soared as if it had exploded. Amidst the scattering snow, Aine swished her long blade-like nails down toward Lee Sungmin.
Lee Sungmin did not hesitate to step aside. He seemed to approach the attack head-on, but he swiftly dashed to the side, leaving afterimages in his wake. Lee Sungmin used the Two-step Calamitous End and ran to one side of Aine. Aine, floating in the air, spread out her wings and quickly changed her stance in midair. She used her tentacle to pierce through the afterimage left behind while the other tentacle came up on her side to attack Lee Sungmin.
Lee Sungmin drew a circle with his spear, ripping apart all the tentacles that touched the vacuum that it formed. But Aine’s hands were still intact. She stretched out her sharp nails and tried to pierce through Lee Sungmin’s chest. Lee Sungmin sped back through the snowfield and recovered the spear that he had thrown.
‘Her reaction is fast.’
He activated his Defense Aura. The Orichalcum-coated armor amplified both the Defense Aura and the spear force of the spear held by Lee Sungmin. An intense aura covered the entire spear, making it look as if it were surrounded by flames.
Before long, it slowly faded away and condensed.
“I know what that is.”
Aine murmured as she looked at the inner force used by Lee Sungmin as her body also began to radiate a fierce light.
“I know how to do it too.”
Aine said with a bright smile.
*****
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