Call Of The Spear [EN]: Chapter 15

Nangseon’s Adventures – Episode 14

As dawn slowly broke, a yellowish light painted the world from the mountain ridge.

Tap! Tap!

A shadow darting through the dew-laden thickets gradually took form.

[Kuh-heuk!]

“San-gun! Are you alright?”

[Feels like I’m… dying!]

‘Couldn’t he at least try to sound a little less dramatic?’ Hwaran thought. ‘Even in times like these…’

Hwaran, despite the seriousness of the situation, subtly fought back a smile before furrowing her brow.

‘It’s worse than I thought.’

San-gun, struck by Doseon’s divine power, was a bloody mess. Dozens of stakes, as thick as wrists, were impaled in him, and it was a wonder he could even stand, let alone run.

[Kuh-euuuh!]

Thud!

Eventually, San-gun couldn’t bear the pain any longer and collapsed mid-stride.

Thud!

The stake embedded in his shoulder blade hit the ground, digging in even deeper. The pain must have been excruciating, as he opened his mouth wide and vomited blood.

“San-gun! I need to pull out these stakes, starting now!”

[Krrr… G-go ahead.]

Pulling out the deeply embedded ones immediately would only worsen the bleeding. Removing the shallower ones first would at least make it easier for him to move.

Hwaran, exhaling a breath filled with tension, glanced around and placed her hand on a stake.

“San-gun.”

[Kuh… What!]

“Do you think Sanbi is alright?”

Cho-ah.

Just before fleeing, she had seen Cho-ah in the carriage.

How the child, who should have been safe in Hwajang Village, ended up there… It was a surprising and bewildering situation.

But San-gun had pretended not to know and ran away.

It wouldn’t be good for the human Cho-ah to be involved with him.

That thought remained. No, it had only grown stronger.

Seeing San-gun momentarily lost in thoughts of Cho-ah, Hwaran forcefully pulled out a stake.

[Kuaaaaaaak!]

The tiger’s deafening scream echoed throughout the nameless mountains.

“This is…”

Hwaran’s face darkened after pulling out just one stake.

It was good that she pulled it out, but the end of it was split like tree roots, digging into his flesh.

“Are you alright?”

[Kuh-heuk… At least, warn me before you pull…]

San-gun’s red eyes blurred.

His focus was off, and his pupils were dilated, on the verge of losing consciousness.

Indeed, since the stakes were gripping his flesh, the more forcefully they were pulled out, the greater San-gun’s wounds would become, and the pain would be tenfold.

Hwaran showed the stake to San-gun and explained the situation from beginning to end.

San-gun, shaking his head against the extreme pain, opened his mouth while trying to hold onto his fading consciousness.

[Pull them out.]

“You might die!”

[But, if you don’t pull them out now, the stakes will… kuh-heuk, dig further into my body, and I’ll just have to wait for my death!]

San-gun’s words made sense.

Right now, the roots were only the size of finger joints, but who knew how much more they would grow if time passed.

“But…”

Pain aside, the problem was what would happen after all the stakes were pulled out.

The swordmasters with fire in their eyes were chasing after them. Could San-gun even move after all the stakes were pulled out?

Hwaran quietly shook her head.

There was no way. He was already on the verge of passing out; there was no way he could shake off the swordmasters’ pursuit.

“San-gun.”

[I know. You’re going to say, what guts does a guy who’s about to die have, right?]

Kuh-heuk!

[Taehwarye. Call the guy’s pill Taehwahwan since it’s his. Take out one of those pills and what you brought with you.]

Hwaran immediately took out one Taehwahwan [a powerful healing pill] and a small square box from Gongjeonggang [her interdimensional storage pouch].

She put the Taehwahwan directly into San-gun’s mouth, and San-gun trembled as he struggled to swallow it.

[That roughly fills my spiritual power… I roughly know what’s inside that, too.]

From the start, the fools of Udunsan were so desperate to steal it, so it couldn’t be an ordinary object.

That’s why he risked his life to hold onto Doseon, and in the meantime, Hwaran wore Mumyeongsa [an invisibility cloak] and stole it into Gongjeonggang.

It was the best plan to screw over not only Udan, who made him like this, but also that Doseon.

“Yes, if it’s something that protects against swordmasters and even Doseon, it must be a Sangseung Seondan [a divine elixir].”

Saying that, Hwaran took out five more boxes with talismans attached from Gongjeonggang.

Six Seondan in total.

San-gun wanted to writhe in pain, but strangely, seeing the six boxes containing Seondan made the pain feel a little less.

Sangseung Seondan.

It was a divine medicine with excellent efficacy in increasing cultivation, made by combining rare spiritual herbs from heaven and earth, and only a very small amount could be produced.

Even with thousands of gold coins, one couldn’t even buy a fragment of Seondan.

“But this can’t heal San-gun, can it?”

That’s right.

Seondan was made by compressing spiritual herbs with rich spiritual energy into a pill.

It was a type of awakening state, temporarily creating a weak unity with nature (物我一體) [a state of perfect harmony with the world], making it easier to gain enlightenment.

In other words, it was difficult to heal wounds with this.

But San-gun smirked.

[It’s okay. If we abandon the unity with nature and only take the spiritual energy of the elixir for healing, it’s possible.]

San-gun was also able to be sure because he had seen it used that way in the Sanhaebalsango [a legendary medical text].

Moreover, it was possible because he was a spirit beast that accepted spiritual energy more easily than humans.

Using it that way was no different from throwing away the Seondan, but even if it was a waste, it was better to use it for healing purposes than to die.

Hwaran hesitated for a moment, then nodded and reached for the talisman attached to the box.

Pajijik!

“Kuh!”

The moment she tried to remove the talisman, a red current burst out, rejecting Hwaran’s hand!

Hwaran, who recognized the phenomenon at a glance, shouted.

“It’s sealed with a Geumje [a powerful sealing spell]!”

Hwaran immediately took out Bumugeom [a treasure sword] from Gongjeonggang and struck down on the talisman.

Pajijijijijik!!

Ting!

Tinggeureureu.

Hwaran was trying her best, but when she couldn’t break the Geumje even with Bumugeom, a sense of despair washed over her.

[A Geumje that can’t be broken even with a treasure…]

If so, the Taoist who cast this Geumje was at least a Biseon [a high-level immortal], or even a Hwanseon [an even higher-level immortal].

Indeed, it was a Seondan that was praised as precious, so there was no way they wouldn’t have taken this much precaution.

San-gun, narrowing his eyes, laboriously placed a claw on the Geumjebu [the talisman with the sealing spell] and triggered his divine power.

Hwareureureuk!

The blue flames touched the end of the Geumjebu and began to burn.

“Heot!”

It was a Geumje that couldn’t be broken even with a treasure, but it was burning with the divine power of a spirit beast!

Hwaran looked at San-gun in surprise, and San-gun focused on burning the Geumjebu, contorting his face in concentration.

Although it was slow, the Geumjebu was slowly being devoured by the blue flames.

About five minutes passed before the Geumjebu completely disappeared, and the medicine box opened with a click!

Strangely, a bitter smell and a foul odor that struck the tip of the nose burst out together.

[Kuh!]

San-gun, sensitive to smell, rubbed his nose on the ground and struggled.

“San-gun, you mustn’t move like that!”

[Eueuk. What kind of stench is this… You’re saying I have to eat this?]

“Didn’t San-gun say he would eat it? There’s no time. We don’t know when the pursuers will strike!”

San-gun looked at the Seondan with a face that said he really hated it.

But if he ate this, he would be in an awakened state and the pain would also be reduced, so he had to eat it to survive.

“San-gun!”

The hesitation was short.

San-gun stuck out his tongue and swallowed it.

[Pull them out! All of them!]

* * *

Tap tap!

“Search! You must search this entire area! He’s deeply wounded, so he couldn’t have gone far!”

““Yes!””

There were a total of three swordmasters who survived the battle of Danggeum.

The escort team was annihilated.

The pursuit team was hastily formed from hunters and martial artists hastily gathered from the village, excluding one swordmaster to protect Doseon, who was seriously injured.

‘To think he would inflict a serious injury on Doseon.’

He didn’t get a good look at the battle scene, but even though the ground was overturned and huge explosions were rampant, he wounded Doseon and ran away.

That alone was enough to know how great his divine power was.

‘No. He must have suffered serious injuries too, so if we can only find Dobonghwan again, one of them might become mine!’

But it wasn’t just him who thought that way; the fellow disciple included in the pursuit team was also shining his eyes.

“Yeonpun. I’ll go to the east.”

“Hmm! Then I’ll go to the west.”

He was relieved in secret.

The problem was that a fellow disciple of the same realm was aiming for Dobonghwan, but he felt much lighter now that he had said it first.

The pursuit teams were also divided into groups of two or three, so if things went wrong, he could kill the pursuit team and take all the credit alone.

But then.

Kuaaaaaawang!!

Yeonpun’s face crumpled at the sound of the tiger’s roar that seemed to tear the mountain apart.

“Damn it!”

He spat out a curse and rushed to where the roar was coming from.

As expected, the fellow swordmaster who had just headed east was also quickly using his lightness skill [a technique for moving swiftly].

Yesterday, they were fellow disciples who laughed and shared a drink together, but now they were no different from assassins aiming for Dobonghwan.

Yeonpun gathered his inner energy as if he were about to die and ran so fast that his eyebrows fluttered.

Kuaawawaaang!!

He was vaguely suspicious of the continuous tiger roars, but there was nothing he could do.

There was a guy running like crazy behind him, so what could he do?

As soon as he crossed one mountain, clear bloodstains led him.

A look of joy spread across Yeonpun’s face.

But that was only for a moment. He stopped walking abruptly.

The smell of blood filling the mountain stung his nose.

‘His….’

Yeonpun’s eyes narrowed as he thought it was the tiger’s. The smell of blood was too strong to be the tiger’s.

He was suspicious, but he could clearly feel the energy of the fellow disciple who had already approached. Yeonpun immediately jumped into the thicket with a strong smell of blood.

“Hot!”

The tiger, as big as a house, was on the verge of passing out.

Looking at the bloodstains on the surrounding bushes and tree trunks, he thought that the pursuit team he had sent earlier must have been killed by him.

He was suspicious that there were no corpses, but he thought that the tiger, with its tongue sticking out, must have eaten them.

Even though he was lying down, he was so huge that he was about the same height as his shoulder, so he could easily swallow a few people.

His leather was pierced in places and he was bleeding all over, but two of Doseon’s Moksinbiso [wooden stakes imbued with divine power] were embedded in his side and shoulder blade.

‘It’s amazing that he ran this far after being hit by that.’

He was big, so he thought that might be the case, but Yeonpun, who knew the power of Nokbongdosa’s Moksinbiso well, was amazed.

“I’ll make you comfortable soon.”

Chaeeng.

He drew his beloved sword, infused it with sword energy, and stabbed it into the tiger’s head in one breath.

But then.

A sword suddenly appeared, scattering sword energy and striking Yeonpun’s sword upwards.

Chaeng!

“I knew you’d be here!”

Yeonpun quickly retrieved the sword that had been struck upwards and spun his body around.

Why would Taegeuk be Taegeuk? It was a sword that used the opponent’s power in reverse to achieve the mysteries of Yu, Taegeuk Hyegum [a sword technique that redirects the opponent’s energy].

She also scattered a quick sword at Yeonpun’s sword strike, which was shot straight away by using Hwaran’s power in reverse.

Chaengchaengchaengchaeng!

A series of continuous strikes. Yeonpun gritted his teeth at the clear sound of the swords colliding.

It was quite something for a Chang-Gui [a ghost] to use a sword. Before he knew it, her surroundings were basically dyed purple, and even the color of the sword energy was reflected in purple.

‘Could it be Jaha Singong [a powerful martial art]!?’

How could such a Chang-Gui have Jaha Singong, which only the head of the Hwasan sect could learn!

But the more he mixed swords, the more he couldn’t shake off the illusion of plum blossoms blooming in his eyes. Her swordsmanship was like plum blossoms falling from the sky.

When he shook the tip of his sword and scattered a fierce illusion sword similar to that of a plum blossom, Yeonpun’s face began to turn white.

‘She’s no ordinary Chang-Gui! If I’m not careful, I’ll die!’

It was gradually becoming difficult to parry with Taegeuk Hyegum, as if he had mastered all the mysteries of the illusion sword.

But then, Hwaran suddenly bit her lip and glared at the tiger.

‘That’s right! Since this year is a Chang-Gui, the Chang-Gui will also disappear if only the tiger dies!’

There was no need to worry.

Yeonpun put his hand into his arms while mixing swords with her and threw a dagger.

Shusyusyuk!

As three daggers flew like rays of light, she frowned her beautiful eyebrows and threw her body.

Pupupuk!

Three daggers were deeply embedded in the back of Hwaran, who had thrown her body.

No blood came out of the body of the ghost, but black smoke rose from her back.

It seemed to be a mass of lies that made up the body of the ghost. No matter how Chang-Gui was, it would be effective if she was hit by a dagger wrapped in sword energy!

“Heo, to think that someone who had learned Jaha Singong was a Chang-Gui.”

He smiled faintly and mocked her miserable downfall.

Seeing her use Jaha Singong, she was clearly a Taoist’s bloodline and a natural person, but he couldn’t understand how she became a Chang-Gui.

A Chang-Gui kneeling next to a tiger with blood.

He was looking at it with his tongue clicking, but suddenly, he turned his body at the sign of someone behind him.

His fellow swordmaster had arrived, whether he had approached it or not.

“Yeonpun. Are you struggling with just a Chang-Gui?”

“What are you talking about! You don’t even need to step in!”

When Yeonpun rolled up his sleeves and tried to finish off both the tiger and the Chang-Gui.

The Chang-Gui, who had already approached the back of the tiger, pulled out the stake in his shoulder blade.

The tiger’s roar, as if his eardrums would burst, erupted. When he hesitated at the roar full of spiritual energy, the Chang-Gui even pulled out the stake embedded in the tiger’s side.

Kuaaaaaawang!

But Yeonpun and the man snickered and laughed.

It was a face that said, what would it matter if he pulled out all the stakes of a dying guy now? The bleeding would get worse and he would die sooner.

“What will you do even if you pull out all the stakes now? Whatever you were when you were alive, you are a Chang-Gui, and that tiger is a monster who harmed Doseon!”

The Chang-Gui, who looked at the tiger in pain with affectionate eyes, suddenly looked at the swordmasters with cold eyes.

“I have now become a Chang-Gui and lost my original training, but I have not fallen so far as to die to the likes of you!”

Saying that, Hwaran looked at San-gun with pitiful eyes and bit her teeth.

“San-gun. It will hurt a little.”

That moment.

Her black eyes were dyed purple, and as if the hidden energy had exploded, a purple aura swallowed the space.