Call Of The Spear [EN]: Chapter 36

Tales of Nangseon – Chapter 35

An Inquiry of the Sun and Moon.

In the pavilion, a woman sat by the window, bathed in the moonlight.

“Haa… damn it.”

The woman, who uncharacteristically cursed, was the Mountain Lord disguised as a female immortal.

He was deep in thought, pressing his temples, his worry stemming, of course, from the Gold Decree.

His proposition wasn’t bad.

If things went south, he could ascend to the Spirit Realm using the guy’s hidden treasure and wash his hands clean.

‘I had to find the April Offering Jar… I had no choice….’

Even so, he couldn’t shake the feeling that he had stumbled into a pointless situation.

-What will you do? Now that it has come to this, you should first consider becoming the Spirit Realm leader. And didn’t the Gold Decree say that it would take care of most things?

-If I become the Spirit Realm leader as you say, nothing could be better. But….

Many meticulously planned schemes still cross a point of no return due to a small variable.

Moreover, this wasn’t just any place, but the Bokjwa Artifact [a sacred artifact], managed by the Sun and Moon Sect.

To think he was being asked to steal it, how could he not worry?

-What good does worrying like this do? You should use this time to find the April Offering Jar. That would be better.

-Alright. I was going to do that anyway.

The Mountain Lord, pouting at Hwaran’s grumbling reply, rose from his seat.

In the first place, he had already agreed to it.

Worrying could wait.

He immediately stepped onto the window frame and jumped down, a pleasant breeze welcoming him.

Landing lightly, he saw the Sword Immortals on guard duty looking at him. They sluggishly walked over and bowed their heads. He casually said he was going for a night stroll, left the Sun and Moon Sect, and walked along the mountain path, examining the ground.

About an hour passed.

Suddenly, Hwaran spoke.

-But Mountain Lord, what will you do with the Golden Silkworm Egg?

-…Well.

The Golden Silkworm Egg was not easily found and could be used in various ways.

First, he could just eat it.

That alone would greatly aid his cultivation, and for the Mountain Lord, who was at the peak of the Nascent Soul realm [a high level of cultivation], it would allow him to reach the Postnatal realm in one go.

‘There’s no need to eat it now.’

After finding the hidden treasure that the Gold Decree had told him about, he could consider each option before eating it.

There wasn’t a suitable place for cultivation right now, so he could postpone it.

-How about making it into a Venomous Insect?

-I’ll think about it.

The second option was to hatch the egg and raise it into a Golden Silk Spider.

The Golden Silkworm Egg was a combination of moss and the eggs of the Golden Silk Spider. If he hatched the egg buried in the moss, a spider called the Golden Silk Spider would be born.

The silk they produced, called Golden Silk Thread, was famous for its toughness and durability, which could not be cut by most treasures.

It was said that making a Natal Magic Treasure [a personalized, powerful magical item] with this would create a powerful weapon.

‘It’s too early to discuss Natal Magic Treasures. I need to be at least in the Spirit Manifestation realm.’

-Besides that, how about using the Venomous Insects you newly acquired to find the April Offering Jar?

This referred to the centipedes that the Three Evils used.

Even the Mountain Lord, who had completely read the “Record of Mountains and Seas” [a comprehensive bestiary and encyclopedia of mythical creatures], had no idea what kind of spirit insect this nameless centipede was.

Since spirit insects could not communicate unless they underwent three transformations and shed their exoskeletons, he couldn’t do anything about it.

‘It doesn’t matter since I’ve performed a new ownership ritual.’

In the Three Evils’ treasure storage, there were various items.

Among them were several Eyes of Insight stones, which contained useful information such as the art of controlling spirits and the technique he used.

The Mountain Lord summoned the Venomous Insects and ordered them to find the jar buried in the ground, then resumed his walk.

Taking out an Eyes of Insight stone from his pocket, he activated it, and letters were projected into the air.

“Severing Zero Golden Eyes.”

He wondered how the Three Evils could easily see through the Mountain Lord’s illusions, and it was all because of this.

Severing Zero Golden Eyes was one of the secret arts that created a third eye, allowing one to see things that were difficult to discern with the eyes.

The difficulty of creating it was quite high, but the Mountain Lord, who had directly experienced it from the Three Evils, vowed to create Severing Zero Golden Eyes without fail.

‘But I can only use it when I reach at least the Spirit Manifestation realm.’

It was a realm that seemed far away for the Mountain Lord, who was a Nascent Soul realm cultivator.

It was a high-level secret art and refinement technique that involved creating one of his inner cores into an eye.

The difficulty was quite high, so he, as a Nascent Soul realm cultivator, could not easily use it.

‘I have twice as many inner cores as others because I mastered the Division Convergence Incantation, but….’

If he refined his inner core into the incantation of Severing Zero Golden Eyes now, his cultivation would decrease, and it would be difficult to form a Spirit Core.

‘Can’t I make it with another guy’s inner core?’

The Mountain Lord, examining the incantation of Severing Zero Golden Eyes in detail, sighed and put the Eyes of Insight stone back into his pocket.

It seemed impossible to do anything in his current state. He had to find a way after reaching the Spirit Realm.

The rest were things that the Mountain Lord could not learn or could only use after reaching the Spirit Realm, so he put them back into his pocket.

While organizing his belongings and searching for the April Offering Jar under the moonlight, the Mountain Lord’s face hardened and then relaxed as a chill mixed into the night breeze.

It felt like a familiar chill.

After walking for about an hour towards the place where the chill was fluctuating, as expected, a Taoist in familiar attire was there.

‘Baekryeon.’

He seemed to be training, planting his transparent long sword into the ground.

Thanks to that, the surrounding area had turned completely white, and the Mountain Lord’s Venomous Insects didn’t seem to be able to explore this place properly.

Just as he was about to open his mouth to say something.

Suddenly, droplets of water began to spring up one by one from the frozen ground.

The droplets, reflecting the blue moonlight, looked mysterious and beautiful, but for some reason, the Mountain Lord felt that Baekryeon, standing alone in the center, looked lonely.

-All the Taoists of the Ice Palace are dead, so it’s understandable.

-Is that so? He didn’t seem to care much.

He didn’t say anything, so it was impossible to know what he was thinking. The Mountain Lord stared at him blankly, then suddenly took a step forward as if he had an idea.

Whoosh!

A stream of Azure Phoenix Flame soared from under his feet towards where Baekryeon was.

As the Azure Phoenix Flame moved at a speed that was neither too fast nor too slow, the water droplets seemed to have noticed it and all shot towards the flame.

Unlike before, the water droplets did not burst.

Perhaps out of consideration for others since it was dawn, they quietly emitted cold air and confronted the Mountain Lord’s Azure Phoenix Flame.

But was the Azure Phoenix Flame a fire that would be extinguished by ordinary cold air? The blue flames slowly advanced, devouring Baekryeon’s cold air.

Then, hundreds of water droplets suddenly merged into one, becoming huge.

It trapped the Azure Phoenix Flame and slowly began to freeze it white.

The water droplet soon turned into ice, gradually shrinking until it eventually turned into a palm-sized ice crystal.

-Amazing divine power. How can you wield such divine power with the cultivation of a Taoist?

As Hwaran exclaimed, the Mountain Lord’s brow twitched.

Crack!

A crack appeared in the ice crystal, and blue flames soared through it.

The Azure Phoenix Flame soon transformed into a blue bird and flew around Baekryeon.

Its appearance seemed to be mocking Baekryeon, and Hwaran sighed deeply.

-When will you grow up?

-What did I do?

Growing up would only make things heavy. The Mountain Lord grumbled and tried to approach Baekryeon.

Whoosh.

A cold wind blew, and the ice crystal that had trapped the Azure Phoenix Flame suddenly blazed white.

The white flames that soared up in an instant turned into a white bird and began to attack the blue bird.

The Mountain Lord controlled the blue bird, touched Baekryeon’s bamboo hat, knocked it off, and stared at him silently.

In just over four years, Choa had grown up like Yeon-ah in Baekma Village.

That small child now had a height that reached his chest.

He had reached the realm of a Taoist and was competing with him in divine power.

Baekryeon didn’t seem to know what was going on and didn’t look at the Mountain Lord with kind eyes.

“Don’t glare at me like that.”

The Mountain Lord composed himself and returned the hat that had fallen to the ground to her.

Only then did Choa, or rather Baekryeon, put it back on and move her lips.

-If you reveal my appearance to anyone, I will kill you first.

Baekryeon transmitted to the Mountain Lord in a sharp voice and pulled out the transparent sword she had planted in the ground, returning it to its scabbard.

“…I’ll pretend I didn’t see anything, so don’t worry. The appearances of the Bloodline Inheritors are mostly like that, so there’s nothing special about it.”

He said with a bitter smile.

It was normal for the appearances of the Bloodline Inheritors to be unusual.

His face had become a little sharper.

He still had a youthful appearance with some baby fat, but it was enough to remind him of the past.

-You seem to have lost a lot of weight. What happened?

-I don’t know.

The Mountain Lord and Choa summoned and stored the white and blue flames.

Choa turned her back on him as if she didn’t want to be with him any longer and hurried away.

Thud!

‘I knew he would fall over familiarly.’

The Mountain Lord raised the Azure Phoenix Flame and instantly melted the frozen ground on the path Choa was taking.

She glanced at him, dusted herself off, and disappeared leisurely into the mountains.

White Flame.

To be exact, White Ice Burning Flame.

It was not a complete flame, but an ice flame where extreme cold had turned into flame.

Unlike the Azure Phoenix Flame, it possessed cold air and was a cold flame that froze and burned the opponent. In the era of the Myriad Gods, it was also famous as a divine power that only the White Blood Demon could wield.

‘Choa is the only White Blood Demon in this world, and if I didn’t know that, I wouldn’t have come here.’

The Mountain Lord stared blankly at the path Choa had passed, then averted his gaze.

-Why don’t you reveal it?

That you are the Mountain Lord.

Why don’t you tell him that you are the tiger he used to follow when he was young?

He was asking that.

“What good would that do?”

Choa had already grown up wonderfully and become a Taoist. They hadn’t been together for a long time either.

They hadn’t been together for even a month.

Now that he had become a Taoist, his memories with him would be too short for Choa, who would live for nearly 300 years.

It was not even a memory.

It was just a brief encounter.

-But why do you have such a face?

The Mountain Lord touched his face and smiled bitterly.

“If Choa wanted to come to me, he would have come to Baekma Mountain long ago. Doesn’t the fact that he didn’t mean that he wanted to live his own life?”

If he had made up his mind, he could have come anytime. The fact that he didn’t meant that he was living his life to the fullest.

-Could it be that you’re sulking?

“Don’t talk nonsense. Who’s sulking?”

He wasn’t sulking.

He was just a little sad.

“Huh?”

At that time, there was something that caught the Mountain Lord’s eye.

It was the place where Choa had fallen earlier. He thought he had fallen alone again this time, but….

“This is….”

For a moment, he thought it was just a stone, but when he looked closely, it had a dark green color.

“Could it be!”

The Mountain Lord instantly forgot about Choa and reached out his hand.

He melted the frozen ground with the Azure Phoenix Flame again, and as the moisture evaporated, the soil softened and was easily dug up.

Digging in the ground like a madman, he took out a stone and trembled with joy.

“April Offering Jar!!”

He had been searching and searching, but to think he would find it in a place like this!

The Mountain Lord was overjoyed, melting the things that had hardened like stones and taking out thousands of cloths from his treasure storage to wipe them clean.

The jar was only about the size of a human head, and on the surface, only the words “April Offering Jar” were written.

From the outside, it looked like just an ordinary jar, but it was a divine object among divine objects that could not be compared to anything else in the “Record of Mountains and Seas.”

“I’m glad. I was worried that that guy might have found it first!”

He was anxious that the protagonist might have taken it first, but he hadn’t!!

The Mountain Lord looked at the jar shining in the moonlight with affectionate eyes and rejoiced, then shuddered.

Immediately putting the April Offering Jar into his treasure storage, the Mountain Lord looked at a crow with a cold face and sent a message.

“……May I know the esteemed name of the immortal?”

Then, the crow’s mouth opened, and the laughter of a young man flowed out.

Flash!

A light flashed, and the crow transformed into a young man.

He was an ordinary-looking young man with black eyes and black hair. But the realm he possessed could not be detected even by the Mountain Lord’s divine sense.

“Well. I don’t think there’s any need to tell you…. Are you a Taoist from the Ice Palace?”

“Yes. That’s right. I am currently staying as a guest in the Sun and Moon Sect.”

Cold sweat dripped down his spine.

Since he was disguised as a female immortal from the Ice Palace, it was natural to ask that.

He tried to make a smiling face, but his facial muscles were twisted, his heart was pounding, and his hands were trembling, making him feel like he was going crazy.

‘Crazy! Crazy!’

He kept cursing inwardly, but the situation did not change.

If he was just an ordinary non-immortal, the Mountain Lord would not have been so nervous.

But the fact that he appeared in this place like this.

And the fact that he had transformed into a crow.

Lastly.

Swish!

“Is that so? That’s strange.”

A folding fan had already been unfolded.

As his folding fan, which seemed to be full of greenery, unfolded, a faint light of five colors was scattered, and a vast spiritual pressure swept through.

With that folding fan, he could immediately tell who the other person was.

An individual at the center of all opportunities.

‘Yujeong…….’

That name was Yujeong, the one called the protagonist of the “Record of Mountains and Seas.”