Calming her racing heart, Ryeon decided to first check the status of the boy in front of her.
Name: Synchronization Failed.
Martial Arts: Synchronization Failed.
Aptitude and Comprehension: Synchronization Failed.
Concerns: Synchronization Failed.
Why wasn’t anything displaying properly? Ryeon was flustered. Synchronization failure?
However, seeing as her proficiency in the Mind’s Eye had increased just by looking at the boy, it was certain that he was an extraordinary talent.
At a time when the family’s fortunes were declining and every single person was precious, a talent like this was even more valuable.
The family had to survive for Ryeon to live comfortably. Deciding not to hesitate, Ryeon whispered to her nanny.
“Nanny, wait here. Just a moment.”
“Huh? O-Oh, Young Lady?”
After shoving her nanny behind the chicken coop, Ryeon ran toward the boy and grabbed his arm. A drizzle had started to fall, forming droplets on her eyelashes, but she didn’t care.
“Hey, you!”
The boy, not startled at all by Ryeon’s presence, looked back at her.
“…….”
And in that instant, Ryeon completely forgot what she was going to say.
He looked to be a boy about one or two years younger than her.
With his bony, emaciated frame and worn-out clothes, he looked less like a human and more like a small beast, but his features were as distinct as if drawn with ink.
On top of that, there was a tear mole under his left eye, making for a face that was hard to forget once seen. It felt as if a faint light was hovering around the boy.
The person surfacing in her memories also possessed a remarkably beautiful face.
He also had a tear mole right under his left eye, just like this boy. Who was it?
At that moment, a scene from the future she had experienced flashed by.
A day when the scent of the forest trees was buried under the smell of blood, and the clear sunlight shone heartlessly through the leaves.
When her Spiritual Energy reversed its flow, causing her to vomit blood and stagger, there was a hand that had indifferently caught her.
As she aged, her body had continued to deteriorate, and it was when Ryeon had left Hangzhou to recuperate. She had intended to stay at a small hermitage, but of all things, remnants of the Hyulla Valley attacked the village below.
At that time, Ryeon was in no condition to do anything. Every day, her Spiritual Energy would reverse; on good days she staggered, and on bad days she vomited blood. She knew no martial arts…
Then, just in time, a group of Murim warriors passed near her hermitage.
The leader of the group caught her as she stumbled. Ryeon, swallowing her shame, begged for help, or if that was too difficult, asked them to at least deliver a message to the Zhuge Clan located just below…
— T-Take this ornament. In exchange, there is a large clan over that mountain. If you could just deliver word to them…
She had bowed her sickly body and pleaded, but the gaze of the man looking down at her was distinct.
— We have a long way to go as well.
He looked down at her blankly, as if watching a dog bark, and then left without looking back once.
She fainted before she could even try to stop him again. When she opened her eyes, she was lying on the wooden floor of a house, and the villagers were nursing her.
Fortunately, the people from the Zhuge Clan, who were on their regular patrol, recognized the remnants of the Hyulla Valley and arrived in time to drive them off.
In that instant, as if struck by lightning, the man who had glanced at her and walked away overlapped with the face of this child.
“…Who?”
The boy’s youthful voice was impossible to adapt to. Ryeon simply stared at the boy with a face full of sheer terror.
“Uh, well, you see… that is, I mean…”
She had learned from the Zhuge Clan members that the man she tried to stop was the Young Leader of the Demonic Heavenly Cult.
Back then, she had thought it was actually fortunate that he had just passed by quietly.
As Ryeon stood there opening and closing her mouth silently for a long time, the boy abruptly spoke.
“I already go to a different temple.”
Ryeon, who had been stammering in shock from the unexpected encounter, opened her eyes wide at the boy’s words.
Why was he suddenly talking about the temple he attended…
At that moment, Ryeon’s face turned bright red.
“I-I’m not proselytizing for a cult!”
To think the person who would become the future Young Leader of the Demonic Heavenly Cult was accusing someone of being a pseudo-religious cultist right now!
“Really, I’m really not. It’s not that, it’s just…”
Her mind was in a haze.
When she thought about the fact that the person in front of her wasn’t just a child, but the Young Leader of the Demonic Heavenly Cult…
Who was the Young Leader of the Demonic Heavenly Cult?
He was a figure who shook the Murim world, ascending to the position of Young Leader before even reaching the age of twenty and beginning to control all affairs of the Demonic Heavenly Cult in place of the Leader.
With overwhelming martial prowess, he was known simply by the title ‘Young Leader’ without needing a name or nickname. He was the most unpredictable man in the future Ryeon had seen.
About 30 years ago, he proudly held a pillar of influence within the Murim Alliance—formed by the Black Heaven Alliance, the Demonic Heavenly Cult, and the White Path Alliance joining hands to face the Hyulla Valley. Even while acting as a proxy for the Leader who had gone into seclusion at the main base after the Dongting Bloodshed, it was said he didn’t lag behind the elders of the Black Heaven Alliance or the White Path Alliance…
And compared to that time, he was much younger now. What did the intensity that raised Ryeon’s proficiency in the Mind’s Eye by a whole level just by meeting his gaze signify?
Ryeon could be certain.
This was true talent.
A genius that promised dazzling achievements whether holding a sword, a saber, a spear, or a bow!
Thinking that far, Ryeon’s eyes sparkled like stars.
“What is your name?”
“What’s yours, asking me that?”
The scrawny, small boy was unexpectedly bold and spirited. Ryeon’s eyes twitched.
“I am… Ryeon. And you?”
The boy lightly pressed his lips together and then parted them, examining her face before answering.
“Hwaryun.”
“Um, Hwaryun? Just Hwaryun?”
Since the name of the Demonic Heavenly Cult’s Leader was Cheon Hyedam, it seemed the surname Cheon was something he received after going to the Demonic Heavenly Cult.
Even though she had predicted he would be the future Young Leader, hearing his name made a corner of her heart go cold. He really was the Young Leader.
The boy’s gaze slid up to look at her. It was a suspicious expression, looking at something shady. Ryeon quickly waved her hands.
“Hwaryun, how old are you? I just turned eight.”
“…Maybe six.”
Ryeon paused at that moment.
Six years old?
She had never imagined the Young Leader as a child young enough to count his age on one hand.
Six, six, six…
She never had a chance to speak with him personally, so she had no idea.
His martial arts were so outstanding that she had assumed he was ten years older. Ryeon glanced down at her sleeve. The letters wavered dizzily.
Hwaryun
Martial Arts: Partial synchronization failed.
Aptitude and Comprehension: Partial synchronization failed.
Concerns: Partial synchronization failed.
Perhaps because she heard his name, the name ‘Hwaryun’ appeared, but the rest remained in a state of ‘partial synchronization failure.’
When she died and was splashing around in the Sanzu River, Ryeon had seen and gone through many things.
The places people have long called Heaven, the Immortal Realm, Nirvana, Paradise, and Hell.
And things expressed as the future, revelation, and prophecy.
There, Ryeon was able to know. Everything about the memories during the time she lay sick, the reason she was ill, the future after she thought she had died, the life before this life, how this world was made, the beginning and the end, light and darkness, yesterday and tomorrow, death and life.
The reason Ryeon could obtain information that intuited and interpreted the world was that her soul ‘knew’ it.
However, the reason she could return alive was that she had forgotten most of those things. Because she had erased what she could not handle.
This information she was seeing now was showing her the things she obtained at the end of the world, but only as much as she could digest, in a form that was easy for her to accept.
Furthermore, a faint but distinct golden light shimmered around Hwaryun.
Ryeon, who was lost in her thoughts, only snapped out of it after meeting Hwaryun’s eyes staring intently at her. She examined him again.
Ryeon thought the shabby basket Hwaryun was holding didn’t match him terribly well. It was almost as if he had picked it up for disguise.
Aren’t there occasionally people who loathe being reminded of the times when they were powerless?
To break this awkward silence, Ryeon quickly took out what she had packed in her bosom.
“Ah! Do you want to try eating this?”
It was a random and abrupt change of subject, but the boy seemed to consider it for a moment before deciding to accept.
“What is it?”
“It’s Yakgwa. I got it because I drank my medicinal decoction well today.”
Making an excuse, Ryeon took out the bundle of Yakgwa wrapped in oil paper. At that moment, Hwaryun lifted both hands holding the basket. His hands were covered here and there with dirt and dust.
Seeing his gesture that he couldn’t hold the Yakgwa in his hands, Ryeon willingly brought the Yakgwa to his mouth.
