Nobody knew about the deaths of Murong Seojin and Zhuge Taeryong except for the Black Dog and their contractors. Their bodies would rot and die quickly and that was only if they weren’t eaten by monsters first. In the end, only the Zhuge Clan head and the current stand-in leader of the Orthodox from the Black Dragon clan would know of what happened here.
Unaware of their deaths, Lee Sungmin traveled out of the forest as they were guided by the evil spirits lurking around. The good thing was that the forest did not impede them this time as Lee Sungmin had taken care of the monster remnant or ‘monster of immortality’ as others called it. So, the forest was staying still, grateful that the monster was slain.
“How… No, what the hell is he even doing?”, Aladdur spat out in confusion as he saw the evil spirits leading the way for them.
He had never thought of such a possible method being available to them, as it was conventional yet unheard of.
“The handling of evil spirits is something that only a few of the high-quality sorcerers can do. It’s ridiculous to deal with evil spirits that are in the forest of temptation because they’re much stronger than most. Only black magicians would be capable of what you’re doing so how are you doing it?!”, Aladdur spat out at Lee Sungmin.
“I don’t know. I’m not a black magician.”, Lee Sungmin replied curtly.
Lee Sungmin knew though why they were leading him, but chose not to disclose the why and how to Aladdur. The spirits were linked to Heoju’s power and presence, and Lee Sungmin was connected to Heoju through the dantian. Hence, why such an impossible sight was taking place in front of Aladdur.
‘It doesn’t matter.’ , Lee Sungmin thought to himself.
It was only in this forest he would be able to use this method, and he didn’t have any intentions of trying this method anywhere else or approaching more evil spirits in the future.
“I’m so sick and tired of eating and sleeping by the graveyard to learn how to handle evil spirits. How could life be so unfair? Someone who’s talented in martial arts, has great looks, doesn’t need to affiliate himself with any needless trouble and can even do what most sorcerers dream of!”, Aladdur cried out in dissatisfaction.
As the group heard his complaints, Rubia giggled and the Crazy Heavenly Demon nodded inwardly and sympathized with Aladdur. Aladdur didn’t know why the heavens would bless such a man so much! And he was only at the age of twenty-three!
“If you keep blabbering like that I’ll leave you behind, so shut up.”, Lee Sungmin said irritably.
“Ah I’m sorry, I just can’t express how impressed I am with your abilities.”, Aladdur grumbled.
Lee Sungmin only added Aladdur to their group because of the necessity, but after one day of traveling with him he was more or less irritated with him. Lee Sungmin was not the talkative type so Aladdur got along well with Rubia and The Crazy Heavenly Demon as they traveled.
“Aren’t you going in the wrong direction? Are you out of your mind!?”, Aladdur suddenly yelled out after a few minutes of walking in silence and studying his sorceries.
After a while they took a break and Aladdur asked where Lee Sungmin wanted to go as he did offer to help him find another place to travel.
“Fuck! I jumped ship with the crazy idiots to get away from hell, but I’ve only ended up traveling on another ship going straight for hell once more!”, Aladdur cried out as he realized where they were headed.
“No. I’m not saying I’m going to go to the City of Endless Night. It’s just in that direction.”
(T/N: The city where monsters and half humans reside, and where night time is endless/sunrise doesn’t occur. It was mentioned by Heoju when Lee Sungmin was traveling towards Devon in earlier chapters.)
Lee Sungmin glanced at Aladdur, who was shaking visibly as if he had a seizure. Only after hearing that they weren’t heading directly to the City of Endless Night, did Aladdur look a little more relieved. Rubia, who was watching the meat cooking on the fire, looked at Aladdur and asked him.
“What’s wrong with the City of Endless Night? I know it’s a walking freakshow of a city, but it’s not necessarily a dangerous place, is it?”, Rubia asked.
Rubia was right. It wasn’t necessarily a dangerous city, as it was weird. In fact many famous and influential humans hired guards and liked to tour the city for leisure.
Just because monsters naturally didn’t get along with humans, didn’t mean they hunted them indiscriminately. With more time and power, monsters gained more sense of reasoning and were quite amicable with humans. This was the case in the City of Endless Night, or so Lee Sungmin thought.
“Miss Rubia. The City of Endless Night you know, is the city of the past, and not up the date with the current times.”, Aladdur replied waving his hands.
“Oh, of course. It’s a pretty good city for tourists who come and go without any idea of how it really is. The markets and red light district is also nice to see, and it’s fun to watch the plays and circus of monsters they hold there every so often. But, miss… Think about it. It’s a city where so many monsters live, what the hell do they eat?”, Aladdur trembled in disgust as he thought of the answer to his own question.
“…a monster doesn’t just eat human flesh, does it?”, Rubia asked innocently.
“That’s right. Most monsters don’t just eat human flesh. But there are some monsters that need to eat human flesh. Hmm… an example would be a nine-tailed fox.”, Aladdur replied.
Lee Sungmin immediately thought of Kumiho, the ambiguously hidden nine-tailed fox that had a lot of history with the Organization of Predator. He looked to Aladdur who was trembling in disgust near the bonfire.
“The nine-tailed fox changed hosts a while ago, now it’s pulling the strings of Predator’s elders behind the scenes. That sneaky fox-like bastard.”, Aladdur spoke in a low tone.
“Are you saying that Kumiho can only eat human flesh?”, Lee Sungmin interjected.
“It’s highly dependent on it, yes. It depends on the type, but… Kumiho is a monster that needs human flesh to survive. I would think it had liver problems by now but… Oh well.”, Aladdur sighed.
“Hmmm..”, Lee Sungmin murmured to himself.
The legends about a Nine-Tailed fox were famous even in Korea, before Lee Sungmin even stepped foot in Eria. Many regions including Korea, Japan, and China have been told about the Nine-Tailed Fox. Especially in Korea, where Lee Sungmin lived, they had multiple tales of old folklore about the devilish fox.
“It’s not just Kumiho. There are a lot of monsters that depend heavily on human flesh. The human flesh they gather is constantly being supplied to the elders in the upper echelons in Predator. Henemy, the old King of Monsters who ruled Predator before Kumiho, didn’t antagonize the humans to such extent. But since Kumiho has been playing Predator behind the scenes, the amount of missing persons reports in Eria have skyrocketed.”, Aladdur spoke while quivering
“If possible, I’d like to break up with the group before heading towards the direction of the City of Endless Night.”, Aladdur continued and spoke his request.
“What are you so afraid of? They say the number of missing persons has increased, but not everyone is missing. It’s not like Kumiho went out in the open and said ‘let’s go hunt all the humans’.”, Rubia spoke this time, not understanding why Aladdur was scared so easily.
“It’s because I’ve had a lot of shit happen to me the past few days, inside and outside this forest. I just want to get out of here already.”, Aladdur exhaled and let out a deep sigh.
—
As Lee Sungmin and the rest were departing from the Forest of Temptation, Wijihoyeon, who was being escorted by the Sama Order’s guards, came across a huge forest.
“Is this…?”, she muttered to herself.
Wijihoyeon got out of the carriage with the help of the guards and looked around. She had asked multiple times about the destination, but never received a clear answer. As she looked around her eyes widened in shock.
‘Oh. My. God.’ , she thought to herself inwardly shocked.
The forest was full and abundant with natural resources. Originally, it was natural for such a dense forest to have so many resources and thick forestry, but it was not at the level. Every time she breathed, she got a refreshing breath of abundant oxygen and natural, herbal scents. This forest’s resources and beauty were beyond common sense.
“It’s a customer, sir!”, a voice of a young boy shouted out.
“Who is it?”, an old, elderly voice grumbled in response.
“It’s a woman!”, another boy cried out in excitement.
“You’re pretty, aren’t you? Right? You’re not an elf, are you?”, a small girl’s voice was overheard in the crowd.
“You fool, don’t you know from the sight of your small ears?”, a snarky young voice replied.
“You’re the fool, you stupid head!”, the small girl replied in annoyance.
A series of voices approached Wijihoyeon. She looked in the direction of the sounds. Boys and girls, about the size of her palms, were laughing. Wijihoyeon opened her eyes wide, looking at the fluttering wings behind their backs.
“Is it your first time seeing a fairy?”, a voice behind Wijihoyeon approached.
Sima Ryunju approached her from behind, wearing a face mask over himself while communicating to her using a body double. Wijihoyeon furrowed her brows in wariness at the man.
“Well, fairies are rare. If you don’t see them here, you can find them in the Forest of the Elves, but then again, it’s not like anybody would go searching for fairies in the land of the Elves.”
“Elf’s forest? I’ve never heard or been there.”, Wijihoyeon replied.
“Sima always tells stories we don’t know. All we know is this forest.”, one of the fairies cried out excitedly like a child.
“Ryunju, Ryunju! Why did you wear such an ugly mask? You need to wear a cuter mask!”, another fairy chimed in.
As Sima Ryunju appeared, the fairies exclaimed in delight and flew around him excitedly. Some of the braver ones even sat on top of his head and shoulders and tickled him.
“Oh, stop, stop! I was trying to show off my dignity but you’re not helping me!”, Sima Ryunju said playfully to the fairies.
“What is dignity?”, a childish fairy asked.
“I’m talking about being cool, you little fool.”, Sima Ryunju replied with a wholesome smile.
“Is dignity acting cool? It doesn’t look good on Ryunju though.”, another fairy butted in.
The elves giggled. Sima Ryunju slightly pushed the hair-pulling fairy with his hand, and changed his mask to a better appearance to fit the fairy’s requests. Wijohoyeon was speechless at the playful and childish looking mask he put on, but was more speechless at the fact a master of transcendence was acting to the beck and call of these embarrassing little fairies.
“You ruined my first impression.”, Sima Ryunju grumbled at the fairies.
“Was there any inconvenience on your way here? I told the guards to be careful with you. Please let me know if you were uncomfortable in any way.”, he asked Wijihoyeon politely.
“…there was no discomfort.”, Wijihoyeon replied matter-of-factly.
“I’m glad to hear that. Come this way, it’s a little further in, but I don’t want to drive a wagon into this forest. Actually I could, but it’s more of a mood thing. I don’t want such a beautiful forest to be stained with human touch from carriages and machinery.”, Sima Ryunju smiled as he stopped the carriage.
“Oh, is it hard to walk? I can arrange one of the guards to carry you, if your pride will allow it that is.”, he grinned saying so.
“No need.”, Wijihoyeon replied curtly, a bit irritated from his remark at the end.
“You’ve even been carried like a princess in that carriage all this time, you won’t have a guard carry you politely?”, he asked teasingly.
“As you said. This is simply a matter of my mood, too.”, Wijihoyeon replied coldly.
“Then I’ll have to understand. But it’s annoying to keep up with your slow pace. So here’s the deal.”, Sima Ryunju said as he raised his hand.
As he did so, Wijihoyeon’s body floated up in the air. She could have resisted, but her state of body was so pitiful that it wouldn’t be able to resist in full.
“You’ve become weak.”, Sima Ryunju hummed as he trotted along the path.
“I feel quite happy.”, he added.
“I’m not having fun.”, Wijihoyeon replied, glaring daggers at him.
“That’s how you feel.”, Sima Ryunju said laughing.
As Sima Ryunju trotted along the path naturally made by the forest, the fairies followed along gossiping like little children. Some of them came along over to Wijihoyeon, and tried to have a conversation with her, but she outright ignored them.
“It’s a good forest to live in.”, Sima Ryunju opened his mouth after a while.
“Even if the fairies bother you, it’s still better company than having annoying humans who play politics. They may lie, but the lies they speak are out of playfulness and their childlike mentalities, completely void of ill intent or malice”, he noted.
“…what are you talking about?”, Wijihoyeon noticed he was just beating around the bush and had something else to say.
“Well, to put it simply, my main body is in this forest.”, he said jovially.
“I thought… …you were in a state where you couldn’t move. Having a disease, or untreatable wound of sorts.”, Wijihoyeon replied a bit shocked.
“Ha ha! It might look like that. But it’s not the case. My main body is very healthy. I may have lived for quite a long time, but it’s not deterring me in any way. The only reason I stay here is because it’s a comfortable place to reside.”
“Surely so. The natural resources of this forest are great. Just breathing without even meditating is replenishing my internal energy and revitalizing my dantian.”, Wijihoyeon nodded, agreeing with his statement.
“Of course you’d notice. If you’re in the realm of Transcendence there’s no way you wouldn’t feel it. Not only that, but, there’s a fairy queen in this forest.”, he added.
“…A Fairy Queen?”, Wijihoyeon asked confusedly.
“Yes, maybe you can meet them, too.”, Sima Ryunju chuckled.
Sima Ryunju stopped his steps slowly as they had arrived at the destination. The place where they arrived was a small wooden cottage.
“…didn’t you say you didn’t want the humans to stain this forest?”, Wijihoyeon asked mockingly.
“Huh? That is so, but did you expect this old man just to sleep on the floor?”, he replied in a sarcastic manner.
“I did bring you to the cottage as a guest, it’s up to you whether to live here or not. Or course if you do, you’ll be staying here with this old man.”
“No.”, Wijihoyeon said flatly.
“Then stay homeless. When the little Ghost Gun asks why you’re dirty and homeless, this old man will just say he was magnanimous to offer, but the stubborn lady wouldn’t set aside her lowly pride.”, he said cooly, setting down the staggering Wijihoeyeon.
“…you won’t do anything to me?”, she asked skeptically.
“What, did you expect this old man to do something for you? Would you like to be a disciple of the Sama Order’s leader and lord?”, he quipped at her.
“No.”
“Then what? You want me to be as sweet as your Daddy? No lovers though. This old man doesn’t take interest in little girls.”, he mocked her once more.
“Don’t say such disgusting things.”, Wijihoyeon glared at him.
“I mean it from the bottom of my heart. If you feel like you’re going to die, I’ll give you a meal. Well then… live well from now on. I don’t know when the little Ghost Gun will be back. You’ll have to stay in this forest for at least half a year. It’s okay to think you’re recuperating just because this forest has good air.”, Sima Ryunju said turning around.
“I’ll tell you one thing. Just as this old man doesn’t care about you, neither do you. This old man is merciful, but… If you irritate the main me. I don’t even know how this old man will behave.”, SIma Ryunju said, playing along with the fairies.
Half a year.
Wijihoyeon bit her lower lip. She wasn’t used to being in such a state and sighed. She then sat down and started to meditate and cultivate her internal energy. Though, it was hard and painful because of the curse, it was actually possible to cultivate because of the surroundings.
Although she couldn’t cultivate fast or properly, she would make the most of her time here, waiting for Lee Sungmin.