Monochrome Sovereign [EN]: Chapter 1312

“……”

Yeon Ho-jeong silently gazed at the distant, towering mountain.

“That’s Mount Tai.”

Heo Baek said, bowing his head.

“I will go and investigate the information network in Shandong.”

“No need.”

“Pardon?”

“While we were coming here, not a single one of our Black Path informants approached us. They too must have been taken down by the unidentified enemies.”

“……”

“Even if they weren’t all taken down, it’s clear that their information network has been disrupted. Even if we go and interrogate them now, we won’t gain anything.”

Heo Baek couldn’t disagree with that.

Yeon Ho-jeong looked up at the sky.

“Commander Ho-jong.”

“Yes, Lord.”

“Let the guards rest. I need to rest as well.”

It was an incomprehensible order.

They had traveled a long way to prevent the chaos in Shandong, yet now that they had arrived at what could be considered a battlefield, they were taking a rest. It wasn’t entirely strange, but considering Yeon Ho-jeong’s usual personality, it was quite unusual.

Unlike Heo Baek, who was expressing his doubts, Han Jung-myeong’s response was immediate.

“Understood.”

He spoke to the members.

“Prepare a resting place. Have these members find some food.”

Their movements were swift and orderly.

Yeon Ho-jeong placed the Gwangryong Sword on a flat rock, then sat down next to it in a lotus position.

‘It’s there.’

Mount Tai was visible.

A majestic and mysterious mountain. The essence of the most renowned mountain under heaven, praised as the foremost of the Five Great Mountains of the Central Plains, quietly made its presence known.

‘Now I understand. Why I came here, why I keep feeling a sense of unease here.’

Was it the will of heaven, or fate?

Destiny, coincidence, or just a terrible, twisted fate?

Tsutsutsutsu.

From the vicinity of the summit of Mount Tai, which emitted an endlessly heavy and profound essence, an unknown demonic energy could be felt.

The essence of Mount Tai, accumulated and refined over thousands, tens of thousands of years, was in itself close to divine energy. Yet, that heavy divine energy was subtly, very slightly, writhing and disappearing.

‘Someone is doing something.’

Instinctively, he felt that something big was happening.

At the same time, he also felt that there was no need to climb up there.

Woo woong.

Clear energy, like that of Mount Tai, gathered in Yeon Ho-jeong’s eyes.

Strangely, anger did not surge. Nor did his body tremble with excitement.

He was just endlessly calm and composed.

It wasn’t thanks to the Yellow Dragon Divine King Art. It was the emotion, the state of Yeon Ho-jeong himself.

A composure that he himself found surprisingly unusual.

Yeon Ho-jeong closed his eyes.

‘This is strange.’

He naturally raised his hand and touched his chest.

He could hear the sound of his heart beating. The throbbing vibration was clear in his hand.

‘Can I really be this calm?’

It felt as if his heart rate had slowed down even more.

Conversely, the senses of his entire body were as sharp as blades. His senses, beyond the five senses, were as sharp and dense as needles.

It felt as if he could see everything in the world, and that he could influence everything that his senses captured. Although it wasn’t actually possible, he felt as if he could fly up and freely soar, feeling the heavenly energy pouring down from the sky.

‘Whatever it is, it’s a relief.’

Before encountering his formidable rival, Yeon Ho-jeong felt relief rather than a burning desire to win.

If the person, or people, here had appeared in the East Sea area of Jiangxi Province, it would have been a real disaster.

Of course, he had ordered the Black Imperial Castle forces to prepare for that. He had ordered them to engage in battle if they thought they could win, but to retreat like the Black Path [a network of spies and assassins] if an overwhelming force appeared.

However, even if he had ordered them to retreat, they would not have retreated without a fight. After all, the leader of the Jiangxi martial world was his father. They would have moved in an orderly fashion according to his father’s orders, so they would not have retreated without a plan.

‘They didn’t appear in the north. That’s why I was so anxious, but if we were destined to meet like this anyway, I can focus on this moment.’

Woo woong.

The yellow dragon coiled in his middle dantian [an energy center in the body] roared quietly.

The vast field of the middle dantian was a lake where the yellow dragon resided. The water in that lake was astonishingly clear. The depth was the same as before, but the degree of clarity was different.

‘It’s as if not a single speck of dust has settled.’

The yellow dragon’s roar was a roar of tension, but also a roar of satisfaction.

Suddenly, Yeon Ho-jeong wanted to focus on himself.

It wasn’t the right time, but he was true to his feelings.

Whoosh.

Suddenly, his body felt as if it had shrunk to one ten-thousandth, one hundred-thousandth of its size.

He felt as if he was being sucked into a vast darkness, and then, before he knew it, he was back in the past, held by his memories.

‘Huh?’

He had focused to observe his state and mind, but somehow he had returned to a day in the distant past.

The scene unfolded naturally.

The enlarged upper dantian showed a detailed and vivid scene, as if he were actually there.

“Oh my, did you see that just now?”

“Huh?”

“Ho-jeong smiled!”

Yeon Ho-jeong’s eyes trembled.

A scene from his memory, a happy and harmonious family, was visible as if he were a third party present there.

‘Mother.’

That’s right.

His mother was there. She looked haggard, perhaps not fully recovered from childbirth, but the bright smile on her beautiful face was like a painting.

That mother was holding a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes.

“Look closely! This little one, this little one.”

His mother poked the baby’s cheek.

Then the baby laughed loudly. The baby, who didn’t have any teeth and was as big as an adult man’s forearm, blinked his eyes, which were not yet fully open, and laughed.

“See! He laughed, didn’t he?”

“Hahaha!”

A man much younger than now clapped his hands and laughed.

‘Father.’

He didn’t have the neatly trimmed beard he had now. His smooth jawline and wrinkle-free face were incredibly handsome.

“Try touching him. Go ahead.”

“Huh? C-can I really?”

His mother laughed, making a “pfft!” sound. Unlike her elegant face, her laughter and tone were full of playfulness.

“He’s your son, what’s there not to do?”

“H-however, my hands……”

His father raised his hands with a troubled expression. His hands, calloused from years of practicing swordsmanship, looked very rough.

“If I stroke that delicate skin, it’s obvious I’ll hurt him.”

“Who said anything about stroking? I said hold him.”

“Oh? Ah, right. That would work.”

His behavior was a world away from his current self.

He hurriedly washed his hands in warm water, straightened his clothes, and even took a deep breath. He was such a fool.

His mother frowned.

“Are you about to deliver the final blow against a mortal enemy? Why are you so nervous?”

“I-I’m not nervous.”

“Your voice is cracking.”

“It’s because I haven’t had any water. Wait a moment. Let me just get a drink first……”

“Stop being so silly and just hold him.”

“Ahem!”

His father held the baby with trembling hands.

Uwaaah!

Suddenly, the baby burst into tears.

His father was utterly distraught. He skipped past embarrassment and confusion and looked as if he was about to stop breathing.

“W-wife! What do I do? What do I do?”

“The baby is crying because you’re holding him so stiffly! Relax your body. You’re always talking about relaxation to the castle guards, so why are you so stiff?”

“Ummm.”

The baby’s crying grew louder.

His father patted the baby awkwardly. He shook the baby with stiff movements, saying that he might drop the baby if he relaxed his body.

The baby cried even more, and eventually, his mother clicked her tongue and took the baby.

The baby stopped crying immediately.

His father, who had been sighing in relief, grumbled.

“He doesn’t care about his father. He likes his mother better.”

“Go do some exercises. Any baby would cry if you held them like that. You, do you know how funny you are?”

“I might drop him if I relax.”

“You can set up an iron ball with your fingertips, and you’re saying you’ll drop a baby if you relax a little? You’re really funny, you know?”

“You never know.”

“You can even dodge hidden weapons flying from behind. If he falls, just catch him.”

“Wife! That’s too harsh! The baby might fall, how can you be so carefree!”

“Stop being silly and go get some water!”

His mother, who was yelling, had a playful smile on her face.

His father grumbled and left the room. Even as he left, he looked back at the baby several times, his face full of affection and happiness.

Yeon Ho-jeong smiled.

‘So, there were memories like this too.’

It was said that people lose their memories of their infancy as they grow older.

However, Yeon Ho-jeong, who had trained his upper dantian to the extreme, was able to revive forgotten memories of the past.

‘Mother.’

His mother in his memory was truly more beautiful and dignified than any woman he had ever seen.

Despite being so beautiful, she was also warm. Seeing his mother, who was younger than before Ji-pyeong was born, and his father, who was worthy of being called a prodigy anywhere in the world, he couldn’t help but feel proud to be their son.

Yeon Ho-jeong suddenly wanted to hold his mother’s hand.

Of course, he couldn’t.

This was the past in his memory. He was glimpsing the past with his extreme spiritual power, but because it was the past, he couldn’t change it. If his mother reacted to him, it wouldn’t be a memory but a mere fantasy.

‘Mother. Mother.’

Yeon Ho-jeong closed his eyes.

And when he opened his eyes again, the atmosphere around him had changed.

“Madam!”

“Sob sob! Madam!”

“Mistress!”

Everyone, from the swordsmen to the servants, was kneeling and wailing.

It wasn’t raining, but the sky was dark.

Under that dark sky, there was his mother in her burial shroud and his father, staring at her with empty eyes.

Behind his father was himself, with wide eyes. He was a three-year-old child who didn’t understand what was happening.

And next to him was a nanny, holding Ji-pyeong, who was still a newborn, and crying.

‘It’s the day my mother passed away.’

Yeon Ho-jeong looked at his mother’s face.

His mother’s face, who had passed away after giving birth to Ji-pyeong, was surprisingly full of only warmth.

Even though she knew she was going to die, her face showed no regret. Rather, she even looked happy. Perhaps she was satisfied because she had poured everything she had into her children?

Yeon Ho-jeong felt a pang of sadness.

Unexpectedly, tears did not come.

And his father did not cry either. His father’s eyes, who had now started to grow a beard, were empty, but his posture was upright.

Yeon Ho-jeong could tell. Although he didn’t cry outwardly because everyone was watching, his father’s heart was filled with wails.

Srrr.

The memory sped up slightly.

After his mother passed away, his father became cold and taciturn. There were many days when he didn’t say a single word.

And so, time passed, and another day came.

‘Huh?’

A smile returned to Yeon Ho-jeong’s face.

He saw himself, covered in dirt, holding a He Shou Wu [a medicinal herb] and running towards the doctor.

“Oh? Young Master?”

“Huff huff! Is this it?”

“Yes? Oh? Isn’t this He Shou Wu?”

“Will this make Father better? Right?”

His own clear smile was very unfamiliar.

The doctor, who had been staring blankly at him, smiled brightly and nodded.

“This is enough. Young Master, you’ve done a great job.”

“Hehe.”

“However, the decoction is already finished, so it will take time to make it again with He Shou Wu. It would be better to wash it well and eat it raw. I’m busy, so would you do it for me, Young Master?”

“Yes! Of course! I just need to cut it so it’s easy to eat, right?”

“Hahaha, that’s right.”

His own smiling face blurred again.

And then.

Darkness came.