WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
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Episode 23: Corpse-Blood Valley Lord (3)
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[Grandfather. Is our Lee Family truly a traitor clan?]
[Ji-yeom. Is that question related to the wounds on your face?]
[...]
Eleven-year-old Lee Ji-yeom gave no answer to his grandfather’s question.
Such things had happened countless times while he attended the Society’s martial academy.
A traitor. A clan of betrayal.
He had heard every kind of insult and endured contempt and bullying.
He tried to ignore it, and he fought back against their harassment. But none of it mattered.
It was the shackle and price passed down from his grandfather, who had sworn loyalty to the vanished Moon Vein.
[...Is this not a shackle our Lee Family can never escape?]
[Ji-yeom...]
His grandfather looked sorrowfully at the wounded Lee Ji-yeom.
Then he pulled him into a warm embrace and comforted him in a gentle yet firm voice.
[Do you remember what this old man told you?]
[Sleep on brushwood and taste gall.]
Sleep on brushwood and taste gall.
It meant enduring hardship for the future, sleeping atop thorny brushwood and chewing on gall.
His grandfather said it as though it were a habit.
After all, his grandfather had been one of the Society’s ten founders, a man who once walked through the skies. Yet after that day, his honor had fallen to the very bottom.
[...]
[Why do you not answer?]
[I do not know anymore.]
He had tried to endure as his grandfather told him to.
But no matter how hard he tried to piece together his increasingly shattered heart, it was useless.
Why did his grandfather, father, and he all have to suffer like this?
They had committed no crime. Was the Society truly going to reject them so thoroughly merely because they had once sworn loyalty?
[Grandfather, perhaps we should swear eternal loyalty to the Council Head...]
[Enough!]
That day, he saw his grandfather’s terrifying expression for the first time.
His grandfather, who had never shown such emotion before, was this furious merely because Lee Ji-yeom suggested swearing loyalty to the Council Head to escape this branded shackle?
Why was his grandfather angry with him?
Had he said something wrong?
Emotion welled up inside him, and for the first time, he felt rebellious.
[Did... did I say something wrong? Why must our family, which helped found the Society...]
[Insolent child!]
A tearing pain filled his ears, and Lee Ji-yeom could not continue.
His grandfather spoke to the suffering boy, veins bulging in his eyes.
[Regardless of the outcome, it is only natural for a retainer to trust the lord they swore loyalty to until the end! Is that how this old man taught you?]
[That lord took the wrong path, and our Clan was even branded as traitors. What meaning does it have, then? And did you not accept that wrongdoing yourself, agreeing to be confined in Corpse-Blood Valley for four generations and demoted to Valley Lord?]
The more he thought about it, the more resentful he became.
Why had his grandfather not firmly denied any connection to that person?
Why did they have to share in that person’s crimes?
Was it because they were retainers?
‘I cannot accept this!’
From that day onward, Lee Ji-yeom no longer spoke to his grandfather.
Instead, he gritted his teeth and devoted himself to training in Martial Arts.
He could not endure unless he immersed himself in something.
As he focused on his training, he became the first in his Clan to bring the divine art of the Crimson Fire Sword Technique, the Awaiting Flame Art, to the fifth level before reaching manhood.
That achievement ignited Lee Ji-yeom’s ambition even further.
‘I can do this.’
None of the Clan’s ancestors had ever completed the Crimson Fire Sword Technique.
Even his grandfather had been limited to the eighth level.
The more deeply one cultivated the Awaiting Flame Art, the stronger the blazing Yang ki became. Yet it did not simply grow stronger. It also burned the practitioner’s physical body.
Still, Lee Ji-yeom was certain that he could surpass the eighth level and reach the ninth, then the tenth.
Had that excessive ambition become poison?
-Do not attempt the sixth level until the fifth has completely settled into your body.
[Aaaaaargh!]
Ignoring his father’s warning, Lee Ji-yeom forcibly attempted the sixth level, and his body burst into flames.
Upon reaching the sixth level of the Awaiting Flame Art, one could infuse the Crimson Fire Sword Technique with blazing Yang ki. But he failed and suffered a backlash.
In an instant, flames raced up his arm and engulfed half his face, leaving him unable to think clearly.
The raging blazing Yang ki had already exceeded what he could control.
[Aaaargh!]
Was he going to die because of his greed?
At that moment, someone seized him.
That person absorbed the raging blazing Yang ki and gradually stabilized it.
‘!?’
The one who absorbed the blazing Yang ki from his burning body was none other than his grandfather, Lee Hwa-mun.
Lee Ji-yeom barely regained his senses amid the agony and could not hide his shock.
Neither his grandfather nor his father could perfectly control the blazing Yang ki within their bodies. If they forcibly took it in,
Fwoooosh!
the disaster would turn upon them.
Lee Ji-yeom’s body stabilized because his grandfather took the blazing Yang ki away. But Lee Hwa-mun himself did not.
In an instant, flames covered his entire body.
It was on a completely different scale from what Lee Ji-yeom had suffered.
[N-no! Nooooo! Grandfather! Grandfatherrrr!]
Lee Ji-yeom rushed forward to calm Lee Hwa-mun’s blazing Yang ki.
However, his grandfather’s profound life energy prevented him from entering the area around him, and he could not approach.
[Grandfather! No, Grandpa!]
After nearly four years, they were facing one another again like this.
His grandfather’s profound internal energy kept his body from burning away too quickly, but his skin had already turned red, and fluid seeped from it.
[Grandpa! Please! Please!]
Lee Ji-yeom tried to force his way through the life energy.
Lee Hwa-mun slowly shook his head with a bitter expression.
Lee Ji-yeom could read his lips.
‘Do not come, my grandson.’
The sight tore at Lee Ji-yeom’s heart.
The pain of watching his grandfather slowly burn before his eyes was unbearable.
He waited for his grandfather’s life energy to weaken, intending somehow to suppress the blazing Yang ki. But it was unbearable.
[Please! Please!]
He begged his grandfather to withdraw his life energy.
But Lee Hwa-mun did not withdraw it, even as every scrap of flesh burned away.
Only after his breathing stopped did the life energy forming the barrier disappear.
[Aaaaaaaaargh!]
Lee Ji-yeom screamed.
The grief of watching his grandfather die because of him, from beginning to end, was a tragedy beyond words.
If he could, he wanted to exchange his life for his grandfather’s.
But he could not.
[Ugh...]
Lee Ji-yeom screamed and wept for more than half a day. Only when exhaustion overcame him and he fainted did it finally stop.
After he awoke, everything unfolded quickly and chaotically.
They had to hold his grandfather’s funeral.
He confessed to his father and everyone in the Clan that his grandfather had died because of him.
Yet no one blamed him.
[Though you were hasty, it was not your fault. It was the fault of all of us, who failed to teach you properly and did not warn you strongly enough.]
[Please... please punish me.]
His father, now the Clan Head, firmly shook his head and refused.
He said Lee Hwa-mun would not have wanted it.
[But...]
[I will do so if your grandfather resented you even the slightest bit at the moment he died.]
[...]
He had not.
Even while enduring the horrific pain of his body burning away, his grandfather had never shown it once.
As though he feared Lee Ji-yeom would be heartbroken if he showed concern, he merely kept silent with as calm an expression as possible.
It had all been consideration for him.
Throughout the funeral, Lee Ji-yeom shed tears without a word.
After holding his grandfather’s funeral in sorrow, he saw the lines of verse Lee Hwa-mun had left behind.
They were like the deceased’s final words.
-Ah, ah. That day when I followed behind the black-robed figure always flickers before my eyes. No matter how much time passes, how could I forget those days, even in my dreams?
He thought he had already shed every tear he possessed.
Yet when he saw those words, painful tears flowed again, as though squeezed from him.
Though he had been one of the Society’s ten founders, most of the Society’s executives, including the Council Head, did not attend the funeral because of the disgraceful brand. Yet his grandfather still insisted on his loyalty until the end.
Did he truly trust that person so deeply?
‘...’
His heart grew complicated.
Lee Ji-yeom hated that person.
Yet seeing his grandfather’s words, which revealed longing for his former lord even in his final message, left him conflicted.
That person whom his grandfather trusted until the end.
This fool, the grandson who carried on the Lee Family’s direct lineage, had insulted his grandfather’s loyalty and will.
‘Grandfather.’
At that moment, Lee Ji-yeom made up his mind.
He would inherit his grandfather’s will, the will that had endured everything, even surrendering honor through sleep on brushwood and taste gall.
‘This worthless grandson... will carry on that loyalty.’
Even if it was a cruel brand.
Even if it meant years of hardship.
He resolved to carry on that will, if only to restore his deceased grandfather’s honor.
* * *
‘This... cannot be true.’
Lee Ji-yeom, the Valley Lord of Corpse-Blood Valley, could not hide his shock at the sight before him.
At first, he thought Mok GyeongUn had used strange sorcery.
But he was left speechless when he saw the being taking shape within the blood.
A peerlessly beautiful woman with blood-red eyes, wearing a ceremonial crown and holding a short-stemmed tobacco pipe.
That face held arrogance and majesty at once.
The moment he saw it, the image of that person, whom his deceased grandfather Lee Hwa-mun had spoken of until his ears hurt, naturally overlapped with her.
[Do not hate that person too much. The lord this old man served for half his life was not the vile traitor you imagine. That person was stronger and more beautiful than anyone in the Society.]
He had simply dismissed his grandfather’s words.
He believed they did not weigh as heavily as the wounds he had suffered while growing up.
But the instant he saw her, he understood his grandfather’s words.
They said those destined to rule were born that way.
‘Ah!’
The being before him truly seemed born to rule.
Just the sight of her looking down on him sent a shiver through his body, stirring reverence within him.
Then Mok GyeongUn’s voice reached his ear.
“How does it feel to meet that person in person?”
“That person...”
Lee Ji-yeom’s heart pounded wildly.
Was the being before him truly the one his grandfather had longed for until the end?
At that moment, one of Lee Ji-yeom’s knees dropped to the ground as though his legs had given out.
Thud!
It did not matter whether the being before him was a ghost or something else.
Before his grandfather’s spirit tablet, he had sworn to inherit the loyalty that Lee Hwa-mun had upheld nobly until death.
Lee Ji-yeom bowed his head, clasped both hands, and paid his respects.
“Lee Ji-yeom, Clan Head of the Lee Family, greets my lord, master of the Moon Vein!”
Mok GyeongUn’s eyes gleamed at Lee Ji-yeom’s devoted greeting.
Blue Spirit, meanwhile, cast Mok GyeongUn a triumphant glance.
‘Did you see that, mortal?’
She had confidently told Mok GyeongUn that while the others might have decayed, the descendants of Lee Hwa-mun from the Lee Family she knew would surely still uphold their loyalty.
Mok GyeongUn had scoffed inwardly at her words.
A hundred years had passed.
The thought that such devotion would remain was laughable.
‘You have become a vengeful spirit, yet you still trust humans?’
He considered her truly foolish.
Even in just a few years, everything could fade.
How could she expect their loyalty to remain after she herself had died and disappeared? It was nothing but futile hope.
Yet something truly unexpected happened.
‘This did not go as intended.’
Mok GyeongUn smacked his lips.
He had wanted to see her shattered expectations and disappointed reaction.
Instead, he had made her even more smug.
‘What a shame.’
Still, it was not entirely bad.
The fact that their loyalty had endured for a hundred years meant it was worth using.
As Blue Spirit began to speak,
-For so long...
At that very moment,
Pak! Pak! Pak! Pak!
Mok GyeongUn formed a hand seal with one hand and thrust the wooden doll toward Blue Spirit.
“Command of the Forbidden Woman, Formless Void, Two Heads and Two Names, Hurry, Hurry, Act According to the Law, seal!”
The moment the spell ended, her spirit body, which had only just emerged, was sucked into the wooden doll.
The blood-soaked Ghost-Intent Domain that Blue Spirit had formed vanished, and the office instantly returned to normal.
Flinch!
Noticing the change, Lee Ji-yeom furrowed his brow and raised his head.
Where had that person, who had stood there just moments ago, gone?
Of course, Blue Spirit was inside the wooden doll.
Crackle!
The wooden doll wriggled, and Blue Spirit’s voice rang in Mok GyeongUn’s ear.
-Mortal, you damned bastard! What do you think you are doing?
She had gone to the trouble of revealing her spirit body to confirm his loyalty.
They only needed to bring him in and issue commands. Why had Mok GyeongUn suddenly sealed her in the wooden doll again?
Mok GyeongUn then spoke.
“Did you see? That person is a vengeful spirit burdened by resentment, and she is with me like this.”
“You bastard...”
Lee Ji-yeom rose to his feet and stared at Mok GyeongUn.
The image of that person from moments ago had certainly not been an illusion.
Lee Ji-yeom asked Mok GyeongUn,
“Where is that person?”
“I just told you. That person is with me.”
“...Then let me see that person again. I have so much to ask.”
At Lee Ji-yeom’s request, Mok GyeongUn pointed to himself with his thumb.
“Is that person not right before your eyes?”
“What?”
Lee Ji-yeom asked what he meant, and Mok GyeongUn smiled.
“I am that person’s possession vessel. It may be difficult to understand, but that person has possessed me. That person is me, and I am that person.”
-Hah!
Blue Spirit was dumbfounded inside the wooden doll.
She had wondered why he sealed her back inside after showing her appearance.
Mok GyeongUn’s purpose was clear.
‘That loyalty which transcends generations. I will claim it myself.’
23: Corpse-Blood Valley Lord (3) End
© Han Jung Wol-ya
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