Chapter 71
And now… Sahyeon was holding his fallen sister in his arms.
No matter how many times he called out to her, no matter how many times he shook her, his sister did not open her eyes. Rather, her body was gradually growing colder and stiffer. As though her life were draining away, as though she were slowly becoming a corpse.
If this continued, really…
Sahyeon’s voice trembled.
“Unnie, please, open your eyes. Huh?”
“……”
“I-I, Pyeonghyeon, came. Even though you told me, told me not to come, I came. Why, why are you like this, huh? Please look at me…”
“……”
“Unnie, please…”
“Hyeona.”
But the answer came from somewhere else. Sahyeon lifted his disheveled face. At some point, Eom Papa was standing beside him.
“Eom Papa, my sister, my sister…”
Eom Papa silently sat beside Sahyeon and examined his sister. The more thoroughly she checked her, feeling her pulse, placing a finger beneath her nose, and so on, the worse Eom Papa’s expression became.
Soon, a long sigh escaped Eom Papa.
“She isn’t doing well. Just as I feared…”
“……”
“Let’s move her first. This isn’t something we should be doing here. We’ll get a room at a nearby inn, and then…”
Sahyeon had no choice but to follow Eom Papa’s instructions.
The two of them carried his sister to an inn and took the largest room. When Eom Papa closed the door and burned medicinal herbs, the room soon filled with the scent of medicine. Eom Papa went to the bed where his sister was lying and drew the curtain around it. She intended to concentrate on the treatment.
Only Sahyeon sat anxiously at the table and waited. After a period of time that was long if one considered it long, and short if one considered it short…
“Phew…”
Eom Papa emerged from behind the curtain. Her entire body was damp with sweat.
Sahyeon hurriedly asked,
“Eom Papa, my sister…?”
Eom Papa’s eyes darkened.
“Hyeona.”
“……”
“When there is a meeting in this world, there must also be a parting. You may have a hard time, having experienced so many partings at such a young age, but steel your heart and…”
“My sister, my sister is…!”
Sahyeon’s voice trembled.
“Is my sister all right? C-Can you save her?”
“……”
“Right? I… I checked. She was still breathing. Her breathing hadn’t stopped, so if you treat her, somehow…!”
“No.”
In the end, Eom Papa shook her head.
“I can’t save her.”
“That can’t be. It can’t…”
“It’s too late.”
When Sahyeon froze, Eom Papa continued in a calm voice.
“Her body was already in bad shape, and now it has been weakened even further. How much vitality could she possibly have left? And it seems she was injured again when the carriage accident happened.”
“……”
“The wounds that had been healing opened up again. The qi and blood throughout her body have become completely disrupted, and her internal organs have also lost their ability to function, so most of her bodily activity has stopped. She’s practically in a half-dead state. It’s to the point where I can’t even understand how she’s still breathing.”
“……”
“At this point, even the Great Divine Immortal couldn’t save her. She’s barely clinging to life even now, so before long, she will…”
Eom Papa paused for a moment. Then, seeing Sahyeon’s expression, she let out another deep sigh and muttered in a voice filled with lamentation,
“I knew this would happen. From the moment she stubbornly insisted on going with that body of hers, I could foresee a future like this. Still, I thought that if she were lucky, somehow she’d make it through safely. But it seems this child was more unlucky than I thought. To have an accident at a place like that of all places… How could she have traveled with a body like that? She must have been in so much pain…”
Sahyeon couldn’t answer at all.
He didn’t know what to say or what expression to make. Only Eom Papa’s final words continued to echo in his ears.
“She must have been in so much pain. So much…”
Just as Sahyeon stopped breathing, a hellish sentence soon followed.
“Stay by her side as she makes her final journey.”
***
Not long afterward, Eom Papa left the room. She said she was going to buy a coffin.
Sahyeon couldn’t stop her and simply sat there in a daze.
In truth, he wanted to stop her. He wanted to say that his sister wasn’t going to die, that there was no need to buy a coffin. If she brought back a coffin, how would that be any different from his sister actually being dead?
But he couldn’t stop her.
It was because he had seen his sister’s appearance behind the curtain.
“Unnie…”
His sister looked different from before. She had been in critical condition then as well, but at the very least, she had more vitality than she did now.
She was wrapped in bandages here and there, making it difficult to recognize her form, but her chest had been rising and falling steadily, and if one stayed in the quiet room, one could hear her faint breathing. But now, he could barely hear her breathing at all.
Even though the room was this quiet, even though there was no one here except Sahyeon and his sister.
‘Really.’
Did he really have to let her go?
Was he really forced to give up like this?
Did he really have no choice but to watch his sister die so pointlessly?
‘I can’t.’
He couldn’t let that happen. Even if everyone else gave up, Sahyeon, at least, couldn’t give up.
Of course.
His sister had saved his life. She had ended up like this because of him.
‘At the very least, I…’
At that moment, a scene flashed through Sahyeon’s mind.
It was from the time he had been with his father. It had been shortly before his father passed away, and his father spent most of his time lying in bed.
Sahyeon stayed by his father’s side every single day. He wanted his father to regain his strength quickly, and even at such a young age, he had sensed an uneasy premonition and didn’t want to leave his father’s side.
Sahyeon usually read books beside his father. One day, his father asked him,
“Hyuna, do you know what that means before you read it?”
“Father! You’re awake? It’s actually difficult for me too, but there’s an explanation here, so if I read it while looking at this together…”
Sahyeon happily chattered away because his father had spoken to him, and his father listened carefully before saying in admiration,
“You already understand principles like that at your age? How impressive. If you could go out into the Central Plains, you might even have become a scholar.”
“Hehe…”
“Then…”
Suddenly, a strange light flashed in his father’s eyes. His father asked in a low voice,
“Can you memorize the formula I’m about to recite? It’s a very important formula, so you mustn’t get even a single character wrong.”
“Yes!”
From that point on, his father recited a very long formula.
Sahyeon got a few characters wrong at first, but the more he repeated it, the more quickly he memorized it, and eventually, he was able to recite it in front of his father without getting a single character wrong.
Only after he had repeated the same formula three times without making a single mistake did his father smile in satisfaction.
“Good, keep it memorized. You must never forget it. It’s practically an important heirloom of our family…”
“Then do I just have to memorize it? Am I not allowed to tell anyone?”
“You mustn’t tell anyone. Especially not petty-minded or greedy people. If you did, the world could fall into turmoil. Unless it’s a hero…”
“A hero?”
At Sahyeon’s words, his father smiled gently.
“Hyeona, what do you think a hero is?”
At the time, Sahyeon had been deeply engrossed in hero novels. He swung his little fists through the air and shouted,
“Someone who’s super strong! You know, I read that the Number One Under Heaven can split the sea and bring down mountains. Whenever everyone saw that astonishing martial arts, they praised and hailed them as a hero!”
“I see. That’s how Hyeona thinks of a hero. But your father’s thoughts are a little different.”
“Different?”
His father gave the puzzled Sahyeon a soft smile.
“Of course, someone who is strong in martial arts is impressive too. But do you know who is even more impressive? Someone with a strong heart.”
“A heart?”
“Yes. Someone who has the right convictions and strives to uphold them. Someone who doesn’t even value their own life when it comes to doing what is right. No matter how great their power is, in the end, it is people like that who change the world.”
“That’s difficult…”
“Haha, that’s understandable. You’ll be able to understand it when you’re a little older. Yes, let’s do that.”
His father clapped his hands with a clap. Then he stroked Sahyeon’s head and said,
“You remember the formula I taught you earlier? When a hero appears, tell it to them. Tell it to the person whose heart is stronger than anyone else’s, the kind of person I was talking about.”
“Is that okay?”
“Of course. Actually, not just anyone can learn this divine art. The hero Hyuna meets may have a hard time with it too. That’s because they must first die once. And if you recite this formula at the moment their life ends, and if that hero’s soul is one chosen by the light…”
Sahyeon came out of his reverie. And he repeated his father’s final words.
“They can be reborn as the true ‘Light.’”
At the same time, Sahyeon instinctively realized.
This was that very moment.
The formula his father had spoken of… to his hero.
The peerless divine art is said to have been passed down only to the successive leaders of the Guangjin Cult.
The Hoemuseonggwanggyeong.
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