Chapter 74. The Demonic Witch is a Sufferer of Men-hating Syndrome
Sunwu Cho Rin, the one dubbed with the title “Demon Witch” and “The Prettiest Woman in The Church” was staring at her father with a hateful gaze.
“Are you telling me to build a good relationship with the Heir? That kid?”
“Yeah.”
The family leader of the Sunwu family, Sunwu Gang Jin (鮮干强震), looked at his daughter with a tired face.
Because his daughter was so straightforward and forceful, he had pretty much let her do whatever she wanted, but he couldn’t let her do that this time.
Now, he wanted to at least borrow the paws of a cat for his family, but..
(TL: Meaning he’d try risky things in order to help his family)
“No.”
It was an immediate rejection. He had expected it already, but Sunwu Gang Jin still frowned.
“You damn girl, you’re rejecting your poor father’s desperate request for help? Shouldn’t you at least pretend to think a bit before saying no?”
Sunwu Cho Rin crossed her arms, and smirked.
“Just what about that was desperate?”
“Can’t you see from this face of mine?”
Sunwu Gang Jin tried to look as pitiful as possible, but Sunwu Cho Rin was unmoved.
“Dad, stop. You’re making a fool out of yourself.”
“…….I raised you wrongly.”
When Sunwu Gang Jin looked up at the sky with a face of regret, Sunwu Cho Rin fondled the whip curled up next to her waist, and opened her mouth.
“You told me that before already. Nothing would change even if you say that.”
“You damn girl…… Shouldn’t you respond after thinking a little, though? Eh? Shouldn’t you do that, at least in consideration for your dear father?”
“I thought about it already.”
“Huh? When?”
“Just now.”
Her relply was filled with too much confidence. Sunwu Cho Rin, who seemed to be thinking about something as she talked, suddenly glared at her father with eyes blazing with a crazy light.
“I never expected you to ask me to do something like this.”
Her face seemed had an expression of deep regret on it. Sunwu Gang Jin looked at this face of his daughter with an astounded expression.
“Can’t you do this for the family just this once? This father’s working so hard for the family……. you should help every once in a while…….”
“You know how much I hate even having to look at men.”
“Wait, how’s that kid even a man? He doesn’t even have a bit of hair on him.”
“I still don’t like him.”
Sunwu Gang Jin made a regretful expression, but his daughter was immovable.
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’That crazy sickness of hers is acting up again.’
His daughter, Sunwu Cho Rin, hated men from a young age. This was what was known as the Men-hating syndrome, alternatively known to Sunwu Gang Jin as the “crazy sickness”.
This was always a problem.
‘I only have myself to blame for it, though…….’
Sunwu Gang Jin looked up at the sky with a sorrowful expression. Sunwu Cho Rin’s beauty could evidently be seen even from a young age.
She was on a different level compared to other girls. Sunwu Gang Jin treasured his daughter because of this, and treated her preciously to an abnormal level.
—Any man other than daddy are wolves, alright? If you manage to let your guard down even a little, they’ll devour you.
He always warned her like so, and whenever he saw a little boy of her age, he would point out each one of them to her and drove his theory into her mind.
‘Isn’t this something that all dads do, though?’
Sunwu Gang Jin knew that he was slightly at fault here for letting his daughter grow like this.
But he never knew his daughter would actually become this way. When he first tried to get her betrothed to someone, she refused. This actually made him happy.
He wanted to get her to marry someone, but he thought that having his daughter in the house would actually make things less boring.
(ED: Wow, dad of the year, right here..)
‘You only like it for the first two times she does it, though……..’
Sunwu Gang Jin released a deep sigh. He had gotten progressively more worried each time Sunwu Cho Rin refused to get married.
So one time, he brought a man to the house without warning. Sunwu Cho Rin knocked the man unconscious with a single blow.
That was only the beginning. A title known as the ‘Demon Witch’ stuck to her because she kept on knocking out every man that came to the house.
And the bigger problem lay in her great martial prowess. Thanks to her talent, Sunwu Cho Rin became powerful enough to even make her father afraid to speak out against her.
Even Sunwu Gang Jin, the leader of one of the four great families, was afraid of Sunwu Cho Rin. Obviously, none of the young men in the entire church was foolish enough to approach her.
“Girl.”
“What?”
It was an extremely rebellious face. It looked like Sunwu Gang Jin’s cute, lovely daughter died a long time ago.
Sunwu Gang Jin’s face turned sorrowful when he realized this, but he immediately steeled his heart and opened his mouth.
“Do you know that the Church is about to move out to Sichuan?”
“Yes.”
Sunwu Cho Rin was the Assistant Palace Master of the Ruling Fire House.
There was no way she wouldn’t know about this. Sunwu Gang Jin nodded with a face that implied that he had expected this already.
“Then you must also know that the Ruling Fire House will be at the front lines of this expedition.”
“……..What?”
Sunwu Gang Jin grinned when Sunwu Cho Rin made a stupefied face.
“It’s been decided just moments ago by the Headquarters. But anyway, the Ruling Fire House is set to get to the frontlines of this mission. They’re trying to make use of the fact that you’re all females. After all, having females would make moving to Sichuan easier by itself.”
Sunwu Cho Rin could understand what was going on now.
People usually didn’t get too cautious about female martial artists. This was probably why the Ruling Fire House was set to be at the front lines.
“That’s why I’m asking you to befriend the Heir.”
“How’s that supposed to be related to all this?”
“Of course it’s related.”
Sunwu Cho Rin’s eyes narrowed in suspicion. Sunwu Gang Jin smiled faintly when he saw this, and spoke.
“The Administrator of this entire operation is the Heir.”
“What? But the Heir is still…….”
Wasn’t he still young? Too young? Wasn’t it too irresponsible to leave the entire operation to a child like this?
Before Sunwu Cho Rin could say anything, her father spoke first.
“This was decided by the Pope himself. Unlike other times, the Pope was very adamant about this.”
“……..”
She had nothing to say.
‘Is the Pope telling me to take care of a child?’
Sunwu Gang Jin opened his mouth the moment Sunwu Cho Rin frowned.
“Don’t look at this mission as a simple babysitting mission. That kid is apparently special enough to get the trust of the Pope himself.”
“…….”
Right. The Pope usually did everything by himself, because he himself was extremely skilled at everything. There was rarely a case where he ever relied on others for anything.
But this time was different. Just what about that kid was special?
“What do you want me to do?”
Sunwu Gang Jin faintly smiled at his daughter’s question.
“Even if you don’t like it, try to build a good relationship with that kid. That should be enough for now.”
Weaknesses and habits would eventually reveal themselves, as long as they maintained a good relationship with the Heir. Sunwu Gang Jin looked at his daughter with expectant eyes while thinking this.
* * *
Cho Ryu Hyang stretched a bit, and looked forward. He then made a surprised expression.
‘He managed to endure?’
Cho Ryu Hyang didn’t know how strong a Harmonious expert was. This was why he didn’t restrain the power of the formation when he set it up, but the formation was still active.
That meant that the person inside the formation was still conscious, and was actively resisting against the formation.
‘It should be the fifth level by now…….’
There are a total of eight transformations in the Eight Gates Restraining Formation. After that, the transformations the formation goes through turns irregular, so not even Cho Ryu Hyang knew what would happen.
Cho Ryu Hyang thought for a while as he rubbed his hands together. If he delayed this further, the person in the formation could actually die.
‘Can I do it?’
A formation separated the real world from the formation world based on its borders. As the person outside the formation, even the creator, Cho Ryu Hyang, couldn’t see what was happening inside.
But he needed to see what was going on. He needed information.
‘I need to keep him near death, but still alive…….’
This was hard. But it wasn’t like he could delay this any longer. There was no time to worry about all this.
Cho Ryu Hyang rubbed his hands a bit with an unconfident face. He then made a determined face, and looked forward.
He carefully observed the area where the formation was laid out. He looked at the borders of the formation carefully, then extended his hand outward.
Voom–
A shock reverberated across his hand along with a cold chill. Cho Ryu Hyang’s eyes shook a little. This was an area unknown to him.
Thankfully, the cold chill he initially got from touching the formation faded quickly. Cho Ryu Hyang let out a sigh of relief.
‘I managed to get through the first problem.’
Things would get important from here. Cho Ryu Hyang wasn’t affected by the formation due to the fact that only a part of his body was in the formation.
Going into an active formation like this was normally extremely dangerous. The formation could actually suck the person touching it inside. That would be the end for that person.
Thankfully, since Cho Ryu Hyang knew the formation very well, he was able to touch the weaker part of the formation. The gamble that staked his life actually succeeded.
This was only possible because Cho Ryu Hyang had extensive knowledge about formations and mathematics, one that was comparable to Jo Gi Chun’s.
Anyways, normally nothing would happen if only a body part entered a formation like this. Cho Ryu Hyang wouldn’t be able to get the information he wanted just by sticking his hand in a formation.
But this wasn’t the end. Cho Ryu Hyang had a secret weapon that no one else had.
‘Faultless View of The World.’
He exhaled slowly, and focused. Then, he slowly started seeing the inner parts of the formation.
‘It worked!’
Cho Ryu Hyang was delighted. Having one of his ideas actually work made him excited.
A vague shape resembling No Jin Nyung could be seen in Cho Ryu Hyang’s eyes. No Jin Nyung was currently trying to punch the giant ice boulder that was falling towards him.
Baang–!
At the same time, Cho Ryu Hyang could hear No Jin Nyung complaining.
“Damn it! I’m not gonna lose! I’m not gonna lose!”
Cho Ryu Hyang grinned when he heard No Jin Nyung’s shout. It appeared seemingly exhausted man, still had some strength left.
White steam billowed out of his entire body. He was trying his best to survive in the formation.
‘So he isn’t a Harmonious expert for nothing.’
It wouldn’t be weird if No Jin Nyung died right now. But he actually managed to survive even when facing a natural disaster like this.
‘The Sea of Extreme Cold.’
Cho Ryu Hyang frowned due to the cold that made his fingers go numb. He then started to focus in order to break away from the effects of the formation.
After getting some distance between him and the formation, Cho Ryu Hyang tried his best to calm his heart. He had experienced the power of the formation indirectly, and this was already enough to begin paralysing his entire hand.
Cho Ryu Hyang looked back at No Jin Nyung. No Jin Nyung was currently moving as fast as he could.
No Jin Nyung had no choice but to do this because of the cold, and the giant ice boulders that fell from the skies.
Tukakaka–!
No Jin Nyung was constantly moving upwards, either by stepping on these boulders or breaking them.
“Damn it!”
There was only a black sea around him. If he fell inside that sea in this temperature, even a Harmonious expert like him would die.
Cho Ryu Hyang came to a conclusion after observing all this for a moment.
‘It should be over after this.’
No Jin Nyung was doing his best to live, but it was obvious that he wouldn’t last. Even a Harmonious expert had limits.
It was amazing already that he managed to survive this long, but that was it. Cho Ryu Hyang began to focus a little. If he was correct, the next transformation should be occurring now. As expected.
Rumble–!
A thunder roared from the dark, cloudy sky.
The sixth transformation of the Eight Gates Restraining Formation.
‘The Spear of the Thunder God.’
No Jin Nyung was currently standing on one leg on an ice boulder floating in the middle of the sea. After surveying the sky for a bit, he frowned.
A sound of a thunder roaring could be heard in the distance, but now it was deathly quiet. The ice boulders that fell from the skies stopped coming, too.
This was not a good sign.
Dokun, dokun–
His heart was thumping crazily.
‘Hooh, haah.’
No Jin Nyung, who was looking at the area near him with worried eyes, licked his lips subconsciously.
It felt like his whole body was going to explode from tension. The moment he wet his lips with his tongue.
Kukwakwakwakwa–!
His sight was filled to the brim with white lightning rods.
“Fuck…….”
No Jin Nyung fainted.