Chapter 83. Nine Lands Medicinal Flower
At Jiulong, Sichuan, the area under the control of the Emei Sect, and the area that could be said to be the heart of the Alliance, the Heavenly Demon Church established its Sichuan branch.
This was an extremely shocking event.
The church had extended itself into Sichuan without shedding even a drop of blood.
Wasn’t this truly a perfect example of taking over a castle without shedding blood (無血入城)?
Many storytellers used this event to make fun of the Alliance, but even then, the Alliance didn’t do a single thing about any of this.
’This was expected.’
Cho Ryu Hyang looked down at a document in his hand at the centre of the Sichuan branch of the church, then closed his eyes.
The church had already expected that getting into Sichuan itself wouldn’t be that difficult.
’The problems begin now.’
Cho Ryu Hyang adjusted his glasses.
Although the Alliance didn’t do much when the church provoked them, it didn’t mean that they gave up.
Why would they stay quiet when the enemy was right in front of them?
They were just waiting quietly, since they didn’t have power.
The moment they are given a chance, the Alliance would take up their sword and attack.
The first day the church came into Sichuan.
Everyone was very alert and nervous, but nothing happened all the way till night.
Cho Ryu Hyang, who was sitting with his eyes closed for a bit, opened his eyes. He lifted his head, and looked in front.
“Did you find out?”
“Yes, lord heir.”
The Leader of the Mara’s Heavenly Wind Division.
Lim Hak Gyum faintly smiled towards Cho Ryu Hyang, who found him while he was hidden with ease, and read his report.
[There are no forces from the Alliance within the radius of about half a day’s worth of land.]
“Understood.”
It was as he expected.
The experts of the Alliance weren’t fools.
If they fought now, it was obvious who was going to lose.
There was no way they’d try to fight head-on.
“That’s good. It looks like we can work tomorrow according to the plan. Please tell this to the master of the Ruling Fire House as well.”
[Yes sir.]
With this, all the urgent matters at hand was over.
Cho Ryu Hyang smiled, and stood up.
Then, Lim Hak Gyum, who was prostrating before him, stood up with a confused face.
[Is there somewhere you need to go so late at night?]
Cho Ryu Hyang nodded, then looked out the window.
‘A full moon.’
A full moon was staring down at earth quietly.
What Cho Ryu Hyang was trying to confirm was easier to do at night than day.
“There’s no need to wait. This is a simple task that’ll probably take moments.”
Lim Hak Gyum thought for a bit.
Since the church came into Sichuan today, the area wasn’t very secure yet.
There could be danger lurking anywhere.
‘But……..’
Liim Hak Gyum, who had scouted out the entire area already, thought to himself with a serious face.
‘Since he has two harmonious experts with him, nothing critical should occur.’
Harmonious experts were actually very rare.
Right now, in the church, there were four harmonious experts, if you were to omit Gongson Chun Gi.
Ju Sang San, and Wu Gyuho.
The two guardians had already taken up a spot in the list of the 3 Sovereigns, 5 Emperors, and the 7 Kings.
And the two that were still unknown to the world were Un Hui, and No Jin Nyung.
The ones who would lead the next generation of the church.
‘This truly is the strongest military force the church ever had in history.’
Lim Hak Gyum’s blood boiled in excitement when he thought about the power the church currently had.
Just a single generation.
Was there ever a time the church had so much power in a single generation?
No. This had never happened before till now.
A harmonious expert.
Each of them had power enough to take over a single sect easily on their own.
Two of these experts were with Cho Ryu Hyang as a bodyguard.
Cho Ryu Hyang truly was guarded very well.
‘As expected, the Pope indeed is amazing.’
Lim Hak Gyum was assuming that Gongson Chun Gi was the one who put Un Hui and No Jin Nyung as Cho Ryu Hyang’s bodyguard.
“Then, I’ll be going out for a bit.”
Lim Hak Gyum came back to his senses.
The heir had already prepared, and was ready to go out.
[Please come back before morning.]
Cho Ryu Hyang nodded, and turned away.
Like he said before, he just had to ‘confirm’.
It wasn’t something that would take up much time.
‘What was that?’
He had managed to notice it in a passing moment. Did he really see it correctly?
And Zhuge Liang’s words were weighing in his mind quite a bit as well.
The fact that the man stopped talking after trying to say something bothered Cho Ryu Hyang.
Shf–
While he was thinking about Zhuge Liang, Un Hui revealed himself.
“Is it fine to not take that idiot with us?”
“We need to be as secretive as possible.”
What Cho Ryu Hyang saw was located in the mountain of the Emei Sect.
It was located within the area of the Emei Sect.
There was a need to move stealthily because of this.
‘Right. For now……..’
The situation would change sooner or later.
As the church set its foot in Sichuan, the matters in Sichuan would change in an instant.
Un Hui nodded.
“Understood. It would be better to not take that idiot, then.”
If they were to bring No Jin Nyung, they would become anything but stealthy.
“I’ll take you.”
Cho Ryu Hyang nodded.
Un Hui turned, and sat down with his back to Cho Ryu Hyang.
“Please, get on.”
Cho Ryu Hyang hesitated for a bit, then got on Un Hui’s back.
He knew he had too little power to even talk about humiliation that comes from doing this.
‘I should learn Qinggong in the future.’
When Cho Ryu Hyang was thinking this.
“Where would you like to go?”
Cho Ryu Hyang came back to his senses, and pointed at a single point located deep within the mountain of Emei.
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Un Hui measured the distance for a second, and nodded.
“We’ll leave, then.”
Paan–!
With the sound of air rapidly moving back, Un Hui’s body turned into a single line.
Shuaa–!
Cho Ryu Hyang was extremely surprised at this immense speed.
The air was like a knife moving against his skin.
It was even faster than the carriage he was on.
It was hard to even breath.
‘As expected of a harmonious expert……..’
He really was amazed.
This truly was an amazing speed.
To think it was possible to move at such speeds.
Un Hui jumped, using a rock beneath him as support, and leapt even higher by jumping once more on a tree branch.
After that, he used the tree branches at the top to move even faster.
Sss–
The speed of a harmonious expert was even greater than Cho Ryu Hyang could imagine.
And seeing that Un Hui wasn’t breathing that hard either, it seemed that he wasn’t even that tired.
Cho Ryu Hyang bit his lips as he thought of something.
He had this kind of an expert as his enemy.
‘Yu Sul Bin…….’
The man was probably as strong as Un Hui.
‘Eighty…….’
The talent the man possessed was quite amazing.
After all, it was equivalent to Un Hui’s.
‘But that’s in.’
It didn’t matter how talented Yu Sul Bin was, or how strong he was.
Cho Ryu Hyang would have his revenge.
While Cho Ryu Hyang was thinking such things, Un Hui stopped on top of a single branch.
Shwaa–
The wind that followed them during the trip shook the surroundings violently.
In the distance, Cho Ryu Hyang was able to spot ‘that’ from before.
‘What is that?’
The number that could be seen in his eye was immense.
Its color was red, as well.
Cho Ryu Hyang became hesitant when he felt a feeling of danger creep up on him.
‘Should I go near it…….?’
So far, there were many cases where a number’s numerical value was large, but there was never a case where the number itself was large.
And the value of that number was changing as well.
It really was a strange phenomenon.
“Is it here?”
Cho Ryu Hyang was unable to make a decision, even after hearing Un Hui’s voice.
Un Hui probably couldn’t see this phenomenon.
‘Should I go?’
Zhuge Liang’s words held him back quite a bit for some reason.
After thinking for quite a while, Cho Ryu Hyang spoke as he fixed his glasses.
“It’s over there.”
“Understood.”
Un Hui looked at the direction Cho Ryu Hyang was pointing at, then exerted pressure on the top of the tree he was on with his foot.
The tree bent backwards like a giant bow.
When Cho Ryu Hyang began to feel his body tilt backwards,
Paan–!
Un Hui moved rapidly through the air, using the tree.
Shwiii–!
The distance between Cho Ryu Hyang and that ‘thing’ rapidly closed as Un Hui moved.
Cho Ryu Hyang widened his eyes as they moved through the air.
“Ah……..”
A sigh came out of Cho Ryu Hyang.
Tuk–
The moment Un Hui set his foot on the ground, Cho Ryu Hyang gripped Un Hui’s shoulders strongly.
“My lord?”
When Un Hui made a confused face, Cho Ryu Hyang bit his teeth.
“…….Be careful.”
Un Hui looked around at Cho Ryu Hyang’s words.
But he couldn’t really see anything.
After this, he opened up his senses.
As he was a harmonious expert, his senses were much better than those of a normal man’s.
But he still couldn’t find anything.
While Un Hui was looking around confusedly,
Cho Ryu Hyang was also getting confused.
‘I can’t see it?’
The moment he got closer, the giant number disappeared.
Just what was going on?
Then, something caught Cho Ryu Hyang’s eye.
“Let me down for a second.”
Un Hui kneeled, and carefully put Cho Ryu Hyang down.
Then, Cho Ryu Hyang marched forward, then touched the ground, the stone, and the trees.
His eyes twitched.
‘This is……..’
It was a formation.
If this really was just a normal formation, Cho Ryu Hyang wouldn’t have been surprised at all.
What surprised him was the fact that the formation wasn’t ‘artificial’.
He confirmed multiple times, but found that the formation wasn’t created by a human.
It was created by nature, thanks to having several conditions for a formation being met in the area.
‘So these really did exist.’
He had heard of these in the past from his teacher.
A formation of nature.
It was a formation c/reated after a long period of time, due to the harmony between the trees, the grass, and the rocks.
These formations didn’t really do much harm.
It just warded off intruders, or made people confused.
A normal formation expert wouldn’t have even been able to notice such a formation.
Cho Ryu Hyang was only able to realize this fact due to his sight.
According to his memory, even his teacher, Jo Gi Chun, never managed to see such a formation.
Cho Ryu Hyang began to think again.
Inside the formation, there should be that ‘thing’ he saw earlier.
That was certain.
‘This might really be dangerous.’
Cho Ryu Hyang touched his glasses.
He could feel his heart tighten all of the sudden.
His senses were warning him of danger.
Cho Ryu Hyang couldn’t ignore his own senses.
Zhuge Liang clearly told him before that anything that could harm him was displayed with red numbers.
What was in the formation was bright red, and it was giant as well.
‘But…….’
He was curious.
Curiosity had taken the better of him.
After thinking for a long time, Cho Ryu Hyang took a look at Un Hui.
Un Hui was silently watching Cho Ryu Hyang from a distance.
“…….I’m thinking of doing something now. Can you stay quiet while I do this?”
“As you command.”
“Don’t shout or move too much.”
“Understood.”
Cho Ryu Hyang rolled up his sleeves, and licked his lips.
He decided to look at what was inside.
‘I can’t go back with empty hands, after all…….’
It would be disappointing if he went back with empty hands.
That feeling excited Cho Ryu Hyang’s heart.
And that was why Cho Ryu Hyang decided to be adventurous.
‘Let’s do this.’
It was easy to destroy a formation.
There were formations that required someone to go in first, but that was usually for an extremely complicated formation. A formation like this could be easily destroyed from the outside.
Well, easy for Cho Ryu Hyang, that is.
Paa–!
Once Cho Ryu Hyang touched something on the ground, and broke a tree branch next to him, the world opened up to him.
It was same for Un Hui as well.
It was almost as if the trees in front of him suddenly lost its vibrancy?
‘Amazing.’
He had already known that the heir was a master of formations.
But this still amazed him.
While Un Hui was looking at everything with amazement, Cho Ryu Hyang stepped forward.
There was something in front of him.
And it was dragging him in.
Un Hui slowly followed Cho Ryu Hyang.
How far had they walked?
After a moment, Cho Ryu Hyang stopped moving.
Un Hui stopped as well.
‘What is it?’
There was barely anything in front of him at all.
There was just an empty field.
The fact that there was such a field in the middle of a forest was surprising, but there was a strange flower in the middle that drew even more attention.
Un Hui’s eyes widened as he carefully observed the flower.
‘Nine Lands Medicinal Flower (九地蘭藥花)?’
Was that not the medicinal herb of legends?
When his mouth was about to widen in surprise.
A small, white bunny leapt from the back of the flower.
The moment Cho Ryu Hyang saw this, he began to tremble.
Cho Ryu Hyang spoke with fear, towards the confused Un Hui.
“……..Run.”
“What?”
It was a small whisper.
When Un Hui said this, Cho Ryu Hyang began to move backwards while trembling violently.
“Run, damn it!”
Un Hui’s face immediately changed.
The heir was a master of formations.
There must be a reason why the heir was being like this.
Un Hui quickly grabbed Cho Ryu Hyang, and ran.
But it was already too late.