Chapter 365: Be the Flame, Hu Bong (2)
Hweeeng!
Ran-yeong was still engulfed in flames as she bowed her head.
Chun Yeowun couldn’t understand the reason behind her sudden change in behaviour.
A person considered to be the hidden power of the Imperial palace and the guardian of the treasure in the Royal Shrine, had suddenly revealed herself to be a member of the Demonic Cult.
“… what the h.e.l.l is this?”
At Chun Yeowun’s words, she lifted her head and said :
“Before that, aren’t there more urgent matters at hand?”
Her eyes, which were burning in flames, looked over at Hu Bong, who was lying motionlessly on the floor.
Yeowun sensed no hostility from her, but he couldn’t guess what she was planning.
‘What do I do?’
The right move would be to defeat her.
However, checking on Hu Bong’s condition came before that.
“Do a good job to get accepted.”
“Please put your doubts aside.”
As she felt the doubt in his words, she gathered the flames on her body.
As the flames left her body, her naked body, covered in red scales was revealed.
With no clothes covering her body, the only thing visible were the red scales that covered her body.
Phat!
She slowly gathered the alien energy emanating from her body, whilst Chun Yeowun quickly moved to Hu Bong’s side.
“Hu Bong!”
He gently turned Hu Bong’s body towards him. Hu Bong’s face was covered in the blood that flowed from his neck.
Blood was gus.h.i.+ng from his mouth, as his entire body convulsed.
Like a person on the verge of death, his eyes were losing focus and his body was slowly growing cold.
“No. Hu Bong.”
“I… I… ugh…”
Hu Bong wanted to speak with Chun Yeowun who was right in front of him, but with his neck being cut, he simply couldn’t.
Placing his hand on the b.l.o.o.d.y throat, Chun Yeoun shouted.
“Don’t speak!”
“Haha…”
His mouth was moving, and Chun Yeowun could understand what he wanted to say.
‘My… my… Lo… rd…’
Even though he was at death’s door, he was still calling for his Lord.
He was Chun Yeowun’s first subordinate, and a man with whom Chun Yeowun had shared his difficulties and hards.h.i.+ps.
There was no way he could let that man die so vainly.
“I can’t let this happen! I am never going to let you die!”
Tap! Tap! Tap! Tap!
After pressing on the blood points to make sure that the bleeding stopped, he gathered internal energy onto his hand.
His intention was to close the wound on Hu Bong’s throat by cauterizing it with heat.
“Hold on!”
Cheeeeeik!
“Kuuuuuak!”
As he touched his throat, Hu Bong released a stifled scream that was filled with pain.
Although he had managed to heal the slashed skin, the dagger had gone too deep.
Chun Yeowun asked Nano.
‘Nano. What is his condition…’
He was going to ask for Nano to scan, when someone appeared beside him.
It was Ran-yeong.
As she approached them with intense energy radiating from her body, Chun Yeowun warned her with a face filled with anger.
“Don’t you dare come closer!”
He was so enraged that he looked like he would cut her down if she took another step closer.
Realizing that she would be pus.h.i.+ng her luck, she hurriedly dropped onto one knee and spoke.
“I know that you can’t suddenly get yourself to believe me. However, since a member of the Cult is in danger, can you please try to trust me?”
Chun Yeowun was racking his brains as he looked at her.
Even if Nano checked his condition right away, there was no guarantee that Hu Bong’s urgent situation could be treated.
Chun Yeowun asked her.
“What do you plan on doing?”
“I will need help from my Lord.”
“My help?”
“We need to hurry, I’ll explain later.”
Ran-yeong moved closer and hugged Hu Bong, who was clearly dying.
If Hu Bong was in his normal condition, he would have gotten fl.u.s.tered at the feeling of a woman’s touch, but with him being almost dead, he showed no reaction at all.
With his breath weakening, it seemed like he would stop breathing any moment.
Phat!
Holding Hu Bong, she headed towards the pond where a huge flame was burning.
As she approached the boiling pond, the scorching heat could be seen visibly surrounding her.
Hu Bong, who was on the verge of death, couldn’t even feel the scorching heat.
Tak!
Ran-yeong laid him down about eight steps away from the pond.
“Please wait a moment.”
She immediately ran to the pond, and without any hesitation, dipped her hands into it to gather the hot water.
Maybe thanks to her fire resistance, the water didn’t burn her in the slightest.
After gathering the water, she rushed over to where Hu Bong was.
Chun Yeowun, who curiously watched all that, asked.
“What is that?”
“Diluted Qilin’s blood.”
“Qilin’s Blood? That is the Blood of a Qilin?”
He thought that it was simply a pond of boiling water.
However, the entire pond was full of Blood of Qilin.
How huge had the Qilin been that its blood could fill the entire pond?
‘Transparent?’
Normally, blood would be red, but the steaming liquid in the pond was transparent.
“This Qilin Blood is too dangerous to be touched. The First Emperor of the Empire used 10,000-year-old snow from the North to cool it down, and this is what it turned into.”
If the pond had Qilin’s Blood, which was diluted in 10,000-year-old-snow, then what was the huge flame in the middle of the pond?
He was in doubt, but the priority now was saving Hu Bong.
“What are you going to do with this?”
“I noticed that Lord used extremely cold energy a while ago. I’d like you to use your cold energy on the Qilin’s Blood?”
This is what she’d meant by needing his help.
It was to cool the diluted Qilin’s Blood.
“Even if the Qilin’s Blood is diluted, it’s still very effective at regenerating physical damage. However, the heat is too strong even after so much dilution, it would be difficult for any man to withstand this.”
It was a side effect of the Qilin’s Blood.
‘If a man with strong yang energy consumed it, he wouldn’t be able to withstand the heat and would instead end up getting injured. As a result, only the court ladies had scales and flames.’
Chun Yeowun, who realized this, asked her in an angry voice.
“Then, isn’t it dangerous for him?”
“It is, but only when taken in huge quant.i.ties, and if cooled, such a small amount can be safely consumed.”
Based on what she’d said, he realized that she hadn’t tried it before.
Although he didn’t fully believe her, there was nothing else that Chun Yeowun could do. The water had to be cooled as shed requested.
Tssshhh!
Chun Yeowun extended his hand, whilst white frost slowly began forming on his hand.
The cold energy was slowly spreading into the diluted Qilin’s Blood. As the steam rose, the blood gradually cooled little by little.
‘Ah! It’s cooling down.’
Ran-yeong’s eyes sparkled.
She was worried about the consequences of the plan failing. Thankfully, the blood cooled successfully.
The water that had been boiling until a moment ago, had grown lukewarm.
“I’ll put it in my mouth.”
Chun Yeowun silently nodded, and she immediately put the Qilin’s Blood into her mouth.
‘Huh?’
She then covered Hu Bong’s lips with her own as she transferred the Blood into his mouth and down his throat.
With him being unconscious, Hu Bong couldn’t swallow on his own, leaving her with no choice but to deliver the blood directly through mouth to mouth.
What if he woke in the middle of the process?
His first kiss had ended up being with a woman whose body and face were covered in red scales.
Gulp! Gulp!
The Qilin’s Blood rushed into Hu Bong’s throat, and then gradually disappeared into his body.
All they could do now was hope that the blood would have the desired regenerative effect.
They didn’t have to wait long to know if it had worked.
“Ah…”
Chun Yeowun gasped.
Hu Bong’s pale face, and his shallow breath had begun returning to normal.
His body temperature began to rise as well.
“Haaa… haaa… haaa”
Even his breathing grew deeper and more stable.
Looking down at his neck, the skin, which had been burnt by Chun Yeowun’s Qi, gradually started changing little by little.
The effects were happening a lot quicker than they’d expected.
‘If this is how effective the diluted blood is, then how great would the real blood be?’
His gaze turned towards Ran-yeong, who was covered in scales.
At that moment, Yeowun began wondering if she had consumed the real Qilin’s Blood.
Ran-yeong suddenly called for Chun Yeowun’s attention.
“Lord. Please step away from him for a moment.”
“?”
“The flames in his body will grow stronger now, I need to control it so that it doesn’t fade away.”
The woman was well aware of the changes that the diluted Qilin’s Blood caused, and its effects, probably because she had witnessed it, when the court ladies had consumed it.
That was clear when she asked Chun Yeowun for help to cool down the blood.
He himself confirmed that Hu Bong was recovering, so he nodded his head and did as she requested. The doubt in his mind had slowly begun to subside.
Tak!
Ren-Yeong then made Hu Bong, who was recovering very quickly, sit cross legged with his hands behind his back.
That was when something pa.s.sed through Chun Yeowun’s mind.
‘The Qilin’s Blood can regenerate a damaged body?’
His eyes hastily turned towards the pond.
The place he was looking at was the spot where the arms of Blood Master had been cut down, and her body had sunk into the pond.
‘Am I just worrying without a reason?’
Chun Yeowun’s eyes narrowed.
No matter how strong the regenerative effect was, would the Qilin’s Blood be able to bring someone back from the dead?
He was in a lot of doubt, but decided not to waste his time thinking about it.
At the bottom of the pond…
The body of Blood Master, whose arms had been cut off, lifelessly sank to the bottom.
With the water so hot, her skin should have been burnt, but her body was completely fine except for her face that was full of red blisters.
Bubble! Bubble!
In a lifeless corpse that showed no signs of movement, a strange and sudden change began to occur.
The wounds from the Air Sword began healing at a rapid pace.
Red scales then also began forming on and surrounding the wounds.
Sususususu!
The change was happening very quickly.
A short while, she slowly opened her eyes.
She was in deep shock.
‘Didn’t I die?’
She had definitely suffered fatal injuries that she wouldn’t be able to recover from, and had been pushed into the pond by the Lord of the Demonic Cult.
How was she alive!?
‘This is?’
She was curious about her current location. She was confident that she was in hot water, however she didn’t seem to need to breathe in it.
Unexpectedly, the hot water was actually very comfortable to her, and she couldn’t feel any damage from the heat at all.
‘Ahhh! I found it! This is Qilin’s’ Blood!.
Blood Master was absolutely convinced that she had found Qilin’s Blood.
She had been blaming herself for dying so absurdly, but she was surprisingly still alive.
She touched her face repet.i.tively to make sure it was all real.
‘My inner energy seems to have improved.’
It wasn’t on a tremendous level, but it was higher and purer than before.
Moreover, she also had fire like the woman Ran-yeong, the guardian of the place.
But the most insanely shocking thing was.
‘My left arm?’
Her left arm, which had been severed, had unbelievably started to regenerate.
Red scales had begun appearing all along her arm.
She had by some miracle sunk to the same location as her arm, and the regeneration ability of the Qilin’s Blood had pulled it over and began restoring it.
‘If I try to approach the right arm, it might be possible to regenerate it as well.’
It was nothing but a hunch.
As her left arm recovered, she swam to the surface in great antic.i.p.ation.
She wasn’t sure how long she had been inside, but a long time must have pa.s.sed for the Blood to miraculously heal her fatal wounds.
‘Chun Yeowun! You thought that you killed me. But I survived. Huh! If I meet You again, I swear I’ll make you pay!’
Phut!
As she reached the top, a big surprise greeted her.
Dum! Dum! Dum!
‘Ah?’
Blood Master’s eyes widened seeing what was unfolding in front of her eyes..
Her eyes lost focus as she looked at 12 Air Swords floating in the air, pointing towards her, ready to end her life at any time.
‘Th-This can’t…this can’t be…’
That was when someone’s voice entered her ears.
“My intuition did not disappoint me, so you are still alive.”
“!?”
There was no way her ears could ever forget that nightmarish voice.
Chun Yeowun.
Her face distorted as she turned to look in the direction of the voice.
“I’ll make sure you die for eternity this time.”
And the death penalty heartlessly fell.
The 12 Air Swords slashed down at her all at once, as if they were waiting for that very moment.
Slas.h.!.+ Slas.h.!.+ Slas.h.!.+ Slas.h.!.+ Slas.h.!.+
Slas.h.!.+ Slas.h.!.+ Slas.h.!.+ Slas.h.!.+ Slas.h.!.+
Slas.h.!.+ Slas.h.!.+