This Is My Power (2)
After reading the letter to the end, Lin Yan-Qing wiped away her tears.
The letter was the very one Number One had delivered along with the box sent by the organization.
Her front had been soaked by the tears that had flowed down. Even while crying, she had been careful in case tears fell on the letter and tore it.
Only after reading the letter repeatedly several times did she finally fold it carefully again and put it into the envelope.
Then she opened the wardrobe and took out a small box. Inside the box were letters she had received before, packed tightly. She placed the letter she had just read at the edge of them. Then she closed the box again and placed it back in the wardrobe.
At that moment, Number Seven’s voice was heard from outside.
“May I come in?”
“Come in.”
Number Seven opened the door and entered.
“I brought your meal.”
On the tray were rice and several neat dishes.
“Then please enjoy your meal.”
As she turned to leave, Lin Yan-Qing said to her,
“Let’s eat together.”
“Yes?”
“I don’t want to eat alone.”
After hesitating for a moment, Number Seven nodded.
“Understood.”
She went out again and brought her own tray. But the number of side dishes placed on it was different. Lin Yan-Qing had five or six, while Number Seven had only two.
“Why so little? Is it perhaps because of me?”
“No. Please do not misunderstand. I simply find it comfortable to eat this way.”
It was an eating habit that had naturally formed while undergoing brutal training. Except for special occasions, she ate as simply as possible.
The two began eating.
However, just as she was about to take a spoonful of rice, Number Seven put down her chopsticks. Then she took a handkerchief from her chest and handed it over.
“There are tear marks left on your face. Please wipe them.”
“Thank you.”
Lin Yan-Qing received the handkerchief and wiped the corners of her eyes.
“Earlier, some dust got into my eyes, so I shed a few tears. I will wash this and return it.”
“No, it is all right. Please give it to me.”
Number Seven took the handkerchief back as if snatching it. Lin Yan-Qing obediently returned it. With that personality, she must have thought for a long time before handing over the handkerchief, so Lin Yan-Qing could not make the other person uncomfortable just to make herself feel at ease.
“Now I have become curious.”
Lin Yan-Qing guessed what she meant, but pretended not to know and asked,
“About what?”
“What you, seonbae…”
“I told you to call me unnie.”
Pretending not to have heard, Number Seven asked,
“What you, seonbae, are trying to do. What on earth are you trying to do with those objects full of demonic energy?”
“To be honest… I do not know for certain either.”
“You do not know?”
“I only know that a great rite is going to be performed. I am only in charge of one part of the rite. I do not even know how many people are gathering to do it. The most important part will probably be done by someone else.”
“I see.”
“But it is certain that it is an enormous and dangerous great rite. It will not end in a day or two either. I do not know whether it will take months or years.”
“Thank you. For telling me honestly.”
“In that sense, shall we go see that person again? Do you not want to see Strategist Byeok?”
At the words she had not expected at all, Number Seven was startled.
“I do not want to.”
“Why?”
“I simply do not want to.”
“I want to see him, though.”
“Then please go by yourself.”
Lin Yan-Qing pretended to rise, then sat back down with a smile.
“There is loyalty between us, so I cannot do that.”
Number Seven raised her head for a moment and looked at Lin Yan-Qing. Her two eyes contained the question of whether there truly was something like loyalty between them. Reading her heart, Lin Yan-Qing firmly nodded once.
Number Seven still could not understand Lin Yan-Qing. Why was she treating her so well?
But at the very least, she felt that it was not with bad intentions. Well, even if it was with bad intentions, so what? In any case, the only thing she had to lose was this one body.
At any rate, this time with Lin Yan-Qing was very enjoyable.
Without realizing it, Number Seven smiled slightly.
Lin Yan-Qing made a fuss as though she had discovered something great.
“Huh? You smiled! You just smiled!”
“I did not smile.”
“You look pretty when you smile.”
“I did not smile. I absolutely do not smile.”
“Why? Why do you absolutely not smile?”
For a moment, Number Seven could not answer. She had never told anyone that she did not smile, nor had anyone ever asked her why.
Lin Yan-Qing turned her head toward the window. The clear sky was tempting them to hurry outside.
“What kind of life in the world is like that? Smile. The more shitty the world is, the more you have to smile. You have to smile to win.”
But tear marks still remained on her face.
Lin Yan-Qing sprang up from her seat.
“Let’s go out. Let’s go out and have a drink in broad daylight.”
Without waiting for an answer, she strode toward the door.
To Number Seven, who was still hesitating and looking down at the tray, Lin Yan-Qing said,
“Are you going to clean that up? Or are you going to come drink with me?”
The Black Darkness Bone-Saw Formation became more and more complete.
Regrettably, it could not be completed perfectly. There were some essential materials that could not be obtained.
I had asked Gong Su-Chan to obtain them, but there was no telling when they would be found. For now, it was being made with the things we had obtained first.
If I compared the completion level of the formation, it was currently at the stage where quite a bit of flesh had been attached to the skeleton.
In this process, I gained an unexpected harvest. Because I had watched the production process from the beginning all the way through, my understanding of formations had deepened much more. I was not merely learning the method to break them; I had come to understand clearly how formations were made.
“My lord, you are truly intelligent.”
At Gal Sa-Ryang’s admiration, I smiled awkwardly.
“It is all thanks to you, Strategist.”
“I only did my own work.”
“Is it not thanks to learning by looking over your shoulder?”
“That is why I am saying this. Because no one else in this Jianghu could learn like that by looking over someone’s shoulder.”
It was not only because I had memorized the Ghost Gate Evasion Book. It was possible because the experience and knowledge of my previous life had been combined with it.
“My lord… there is something special about you.”
Gal Sa-Ryang stared at me intently.
Yes, perhaps it was only natural that Gal Sa-Ryang would discover something special in me.
“When I look at you, my lord, I keep… thinking of the previous Alliance Lord.”
Having mentioned Cheon Ha-Jin once again, he made an apologetic expression.
“I should be pleased.”
“No. It is absolutely not something you should be pleased about. I swore to serve a new lord. It is not right to be obsessed with the past.”
At his self-reproach, I realized that the time had finally come to tell him one story.
“Strategist Gal, there is a place I would like you to go with me.”
Half an hour later, I was standing with Gal Sa-Ryang on the summit of a nearby mountain. It was quite high and secluded, but I had used Lightness Skill to bring him up comfortably.
Gal Sa-Ryang was inwardly tense, wondering what kind of story I was going to tell.
“From now on, watch everything I show you until the end. After that, we will talk. Do not be shocked.”
“Yes.”
I drew the Asura Underworld King Sword. It was now the moment when Gal Sa-Ryang and I had to take one more step forward again.
Whoooooosh!
The sound of wind began coming from the Asura Underworld King Sword.
The moment he heard the sound of wind, Gal Sa-Ryang’s eyes began to grow wider and wider. If I had not told him not to be shocked, a short scream might have burst out.
I thrust out my sword.
The next moment, the rock in front of me was swept up in the wind of astral qi and flew away as powder.
Hoooooooong!
The sword began creating whirlwinds of astral qi.
One, two, three, four… Countless whirlwinds of astral qi appeared in the air around the cliff.
It overwhelmed the person watching and called forth fear. It truly looked like witnessing the end of the world caused by a natural disaster.
Gal Sa-Ryang’s shock was of a different nature. Since he had seen my Martial Arts several times before, he knew that these terrifying whirlwinds were forms of the Soul-Chasing Asura Sword Art.
Therefore, his shock was not because of their terrifying power, but because of how I knew this Martial Art.
At last, when I withdrew the sword, the whirlwinds of astral qi raging through the air disappeared as if they had been a lie.
Once again, a peaceful scenery spread around us, as though nothing had ever happened.
A heavy silence descended upon that place.
Neither I nor Gal Sa-Ryang said anything.
How much time passed like that?
Gal Sa-Ryang asked in a trembling voice,
“How are you able to perform Alliance Lord Cheon’s Martial Arts?”
At this moment, I truly wanted to confess to Gal Sa-Ryang that I had reincarnated. Gal Sa-Ryang would keep the secret.
But I had made up my mind not to do so. Because I believed it would be going against the will of heaven.
Even if Gal Sa-Ryang came to know it, it should not be because I told him, but because of some other reason, or because he naturally came to realize it himself. That too would only be possible if the will of heaven allowed it.
“I am Alliance Lord Cheon’s junior martial brother. We had the same master.”
At my words that I was Cheon Ha-Jin’s junior martial brother, Gal Sa-Ryang was startled.
I could not say that I was Cheon Ha-Jin’s disciple. Considering my age, in my early twenties, by the time Cheon Ha-Jin could have been expected to pass Martial Arts on to me, Gal Sa-Ryang and Baek Pyo would already have been by his side.
It might have been during the war against the Sima Outer Paths, or it might have been when he was fighting the powerholders within the Murim Alliance.
In any case, saying that he had secretly come all the way to Shandong and passed Martial Arts on to me would have been difficult to believe.
Saying that he had passed it on for various reasons through a chance meeting also made no sense. It was impossible to master it this perfectly just because it was passed down once, and he would not have passed on his unique Martial Arts to a passing connection.
But what if we were martial brothers? After raising Cheon Ha-Jin, our master might have raised another disciple in his later years.
“Senior Brother did not know of my existence.”
I told Gal Sa-Ryang about my master.
I told him exactly the things my previous self had told Gal Sa-Ryang.
Starting from the fact that Master was the thirty-fourth successor of the Soul-Chasing Asura Sword Art, to what kind of person he was, what kind of personality he had, and what he had done throughout his life.
Because these were stories only Cheon Ha-Jin knew, Gal Sa-Ryang had no choice but to believe my words.
Sure enough, after hearing the whole story, Gal Sa-Ryang, still unable to calm his emotion, asked,
“Why did you not tell me sooner?”
“I wanted to gain you purely through my own ability as a person.”
“Ah!”
“Although I inherited tremendous Martial Arts, originally, I intended to live quietly. Rather, I deliberately caused incidents and lived like a wastrel. But then I heard that Senior Brother had died. After that, someone who should not have become Alliance Lord did so. That is why I resolved to enter the Jianghu.”
Since I had begun raising all these organizations after reincarnating, this too was not exactly wrong. It also explained how I had suddenly come to my senses after being a wastrel.
“The reason the Asura Underworld King Sword cried must also be because my Martial Arts are the same as Senior Brother’s Martial Arts.”
“Ah, I see.”
Everything fit together.
Of course, Gal Sa-Ryang was an extremely intelligent person, so one day he might discover something strange.
But even so, he could not help believing my words. Because there were too many reasons to believe them.
“I apologize for telling you late. I sincerely apologize.”
I bowed my head deeply to him.
Gal Sa-Ryang was startled and bowed to me.
“Please do not do that. I am extremely happy that you have told me even now.”
The fact that I was connected to Cheon Ha-Jin as his martial brother greatly delighted Gal Sa-Ryang. He must have finally thought that his revenge and my revenge had become one.
I raised him, who had prostrated himself, back to his feet.
Gal Sa-Ryang looked at me and smiled brightly.
“To think I would see the fifth form of the Soul-Chasing Asura Sword Art again! Ah, now I feel at ease.”
I also smiled at him.
“So you mean you had been uneasy until now.”
“To be honest, yes. That is why I trained formations even more diligently. Now I should stop all of that.”
“Hahaha.”
Because Gal Sa-Ryang’s jokes were not something one could hear often, I laughed loudly.
I had worried that he might feel deeply hurt because I had deceived him. Fortunately, his trust and affection toward me were deeper than I had thought.
I felt sorry that I could not reveal that I was Cheon Ha-Jin, but if it was ever revealed later, I believed he would willingly understand.
When I had first been born as Byeok Ri-Dan, I had been extremely happy to be reborn with a young body.
But now, what made me happiest was all these human relationships. It was when I felt those relationships growing closer.
Even without being the Strongest Under Heaven, even without being the Murim Alliance Lord.
I was happier than back then.
With a happy face, Gal Sa-Ryang made a suggestion he did not usually make.
“Would you like to have a celebratory drink with me?”
“Of course.”
How could I not have a drink?
I had grown closer to Gal Sa-Ryang once again, and moreover, he had been the first to suggest drinking a celebratory cup. Even if he had suggested we drink while dancing, I would gladly have done so.
We came down the mountain and happily headed toward a tavern.
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