"Do you know that?"
"That?"
"Yeah. What the monks say."
"What do they say?"
"That even if people's clothes just brush against each other, it's because of a connection from a past life."
"I don't know."
"You've never heard of it?"
"No."
"A super famous monk in the world said so. That all the people who meet, it's because of a connection from a past life. But we met you, and my dad helped you, right?"
"Yeah."
"Then we must have had a huge connection in our past lives. Right?"
"...?"
"Think about it. They say that even if just the hem of your clothes brushes against someone, it's because of a connection, but my dad treated your grandfather and we're talking like this. So it must have been a huge connection. I'm sure of it!"
"Yeah."
When Eun Soso said it was certain, Cho Myung agreed without thinking.
Then Eun Soso smiled bashfully.
"So, since we have a huge connection, it's like we're real brother and sister."
"I have an older sister at home."
"You can have two or three older sisters."
Since that was true, Cho Myung just nodded.
"Good. From now on, you're my little brother. Got it?"
"Um... okay."
"Even if you go back home later, you must never forget me. Got it?"
"Yeah."
"Once a sister, always a sister, even after death. Got it?"
"Yeah. I like it."
There was no reason for Cho Myung to refuse having a pretty older sister like Eun Soso.
When Cho Myung said he liked it, an even brighter smile appeared on Eun Soso's face.
Cho Myung stared blankly at that pretty smile.
He had never seen such a pretty face and smile in his hometown.
"One more thing."
"What is it?"
Cho Myung wanted to grant any verbal request from Eun Soso, who had become his older sister and was being nice to him.
"There's this girl named Okdang who fights with me whenever we meet, and whenever we meet, she brags about her older brother. Her older brother is a bit cool. But it's annoying when she brags whenever we meet, right?"
"Right."
"So, my little brother, you have to become cooler than her older brother later."
That was the reason Eun Soso wanted to make Cho Myung her little brother.
"...!"
"Did you understand what I said?"
When Eun Soso asked, Cho Myung stared blankly and then looked down at his own body.
A small frame and shabby clothes.
Cho Myung soon scratched the back of his head.
"I'm not cool..."
"That's just for now."
"...?"
"My mom said so. That if a woman thinks pretty thoughts, she becomes pretty, and if a man thinks big thoughts, he becomes a great man."
"A great man?"
"Yes, a great man. You have to become a great man. A bigger and cooler great man than Okdang's older brother. That's how I can brag that you're my little brother."
"I'm..."
"My mom said so. That if you think big thoughts, you become a great man. It's what she said when she passed away, so it can't be a lie, right?"
Sadness clouded Eun Soso's face.
Cho Myung stared blankly and then just shook his head. He agreed that it probably wasn't a lie.
"I try to think good thoughts, pretty thoughts, just like my mom said. So you have to try to only think big thoughts too. Got it?"
"Yeah. I'll only think big thoughts."
He didn't know what big thoughts meant.
But it felt like he had to answer that he would, so he answered first.
"Now, promise."
Eun Soso held out her pinky finger.
Cho Myung looked back and forth between the pinky finger and Eun Soso, then rubbed his hand on his shirt to clean it and held it out.
"It's a promise."
"Yeah."
When Eun Soso hooked her pinky finger and shook it, Cho Myung smiled brightly and nodded.
At Jeok Yorap's words that he had a favor to ask, Eun Yijeong made a troubled face.
"A favor... I'll listen to what it is, but as the leader of a caravan, I have many restrictions."
It was a roundabout way of saying that he couldn't carelessly get involved in someone else's grudge.
Jeok Yorap read Eun Yijeong's wariness, but he didn't want to miss this opportunity.
Although they had only exchanged a few words, in Jeok Yorap's eyes, Eun Yijeong seemed like a very good person.
Good enough to entrust Cho Myung to.
"As you know, sir, I can't go far with this body. Until now, Myung has been carrying me, but we can't go on like that forever."
Eun Yijeong, who had been nodding at the words that he couldn't go far, opened his eyes wide at the words that Cho Myung had been carrying him.
"Did you just say that this child has been carrying you?"
"That's right. It may be hard to believe, but that kid is as strong as an ox. If you just feed and house him for about ten years, he'll be a great asset to the caravan."
"...!"
Eun Yijeong's face, which had been looking at Cho Myung with a half-believing, half-doubting expression, hardened slightly.
He had realized what favor Jeok Yorap was about to ask.
'He probably didn't carry him, but supported him.'
He must have exaggerated because he wanted to leave the child with him.
He understood that feeling completely. The situation was serious, so he must have wanted to ask for the child's care even by doing so.
But knowing the ways of the martial world well, he couldn't carelessly accept.
'This is difficult.'
Eun Yijeong was unable to hide his bewilderment, not knowing what to do.
"Sir, he is still a very young child. He needs the care of adults. We are not related by blood, but I am helping this child to act like a human being. The situation has become strange, and I have become a burden instead... If my body were well, I would not have asked for such a favor."
Jeok Yorap spoke with all his sincerity.
'Not related by blood?'
Eun Yijeong's heart wavered.
A person who raises a child cannot easily abandon another child's difficulties.
Eun Yijeong was the same.
Rationally, he should have refused, citing the ways of the martial world, but because of the emotions rising from a corner of his heart, he kept looking back at Cho Myung.
In that situation, when Jeok Yorap spoke like this, he couldn't just turn away.
"Sir, please take Myung with you. This is also a connection, so please show mercy so that an old man who is not far from death can close his eyes in peace. I beg you like this."
Jeok Yorap not only clasped his hands respectfully but also forced his upper body to rise and bow.
"P-please don't do this."
Eun Yijeong was about to quickly support Jeok Yorap.
"I don't want to!"
Cho Myung ran over in a flash and shouted.
When Jeok Yorap raised his head, Cho Myung had run close and his eyes were brimming with tears.
Even though he was quite far away, thanks to the Immortal Demonic Aura, his hearing had developed, and he had clearly heard the conversation between the two.
"Myung..."
"I don't want to be separated from grandfather!"
"Grandfather is very sick."
"If I'm not here, who will carry grandfather?"
"If I rest a little, grandfather can move on his own."
"Liar!"
Cho Myung, who had shouted, quickly ran over and lifted Jeok Yorap onto his back.
A look of surprise appeared on Eun Yijeong's face at the sight of him lifting him up as lightly as an adult would lift a child.
But that wasn't the only surprising thing.
"Thank you for your help."
Cho Myung bowed to Eun Yijeong and then started to run.
The sight of a small-bodied child running while carrying an adult much larger than himself looked very unrealistic.
And he was a child who looked to be only four or five years old.
"Is that grandfather okay?"
Eun Soso asked from the side.
Only then did Eun Yijeong come to his senses and chase after him for a few steps, shouting.
"Go to Sichuan! If you can just get to Ya'an, go there and find the Hua Family Clinic! Then your grandfather will be able to live!"
To get to Sichuan, you have to cross Qinghai Province.
It's a journey that takes nearly a month at the speed of a caravan.
The reason he told him to go there was because among the doctors Eun Yijeong knew, only the Hua Family Clinic had the medical skills to save Jeok Yorap.
But it was too far to get there.
Eun Yijeong's face hardened again.
'I'm sorry.'
He felt as if he had made a big mistake.
The fact that he couldn't even take in a young child and a patient who couldn't even move his body remained as a heavy burden on his heart.
It was at this moment that Eun Soso, who had followed him, cupped her hands and shouted loudly.
"Myung, don't forget me! Let's definitely meet again!"
Eun Soso's shout echoed for a long time.
Eun Yijeong sighed inwardly as he heard the echo.
'Hah! I also hope we meet again.'
***
"Now go slowly."
At Jeok Yorap's words, Cho Myung stopped running and walked.
Jeok Yorap patted Cho Myung's head.
"I'm sorry."
"Does it hurt that much?"
"It does."
"Can you live if we go to Sichuan?"
"This grandfather has also heard of the Hua Family Clinic. They say there is a person there who is famous as a divine doctor."
"Then let's go there."
"It's too far. It takes at least a month."
"We can just keep running."
"Nonsense. Grandfather is fine, so let's go to a place where you can be safe, Myung."
"I don't want to. I'm going to Sichuan with grandfather."
Cho Myung, who had clenched his mouth, stubbornly started running again for the first time.
Jeok Yorap was about to stop him but gave up.
It was because he would have no choice but to stop when he got tired anyway.
***
Mount Tai, Shandong Province.
Changcheon Sword, Nangong Hwang, received the urgent report that had flown in from Kunlun and entered the Jade Emperor Shrine.
"A message has come from Kunlun."
"From Kunlun?"
At Nangong Hwang's words, the hunchbacked old man made a puzzled face.
Nangong Hwang looked around at everyone with a seriously hardened face and said.
"They say they found a child named Cho Myung in the desert lands of the Western Regions, but they lost him."
"He went all the way to the Western Regions in that short time?"
"It would be possible at the speed he left this place that day."
"Hah...!"
As everyone's faces hardened with worry, the hunchbacked old man asked.
"By any chance, what was the child's condition?"
"He seemed like an ordinary child, but when he was stabbed with a sword, he turned ferocious as if possessed by a demon."
"Hah! I warned them to be so careful...!"
"They used a local dark sect to find the child, and they say that since they had been wronged by the child, they stabbed him in retaliation."
"Tsk, tsk, tsk!"
"Anyway, it's a relief that it's been proven that the Immortal Demonic Aura subsides over time. If we prepare accordingly, we should be able to catch him."
The hunchbacked old man said.
At those words, everyone nodded in agreement.
Nangong Hwang also nodded.
"Now that we've found the child, let's gather as many available personnel as possible and send them to Kunlun. We must find him, even if we have to cast a net that covers heaven and earth."
When Nangong Hwang said this, looking at the map of the continent hanging on one wall, everyone looked at the map and said a word.
"To think he's in the land of Xinjiang, he's gone far."
"Look at the map. Xinjiang is a very large place, adjacent to Gansu, Qinghai, and even Tibet. I don't know if we can even cast a net that covers heaven and earth."
"Still, we have to. If he enters the Central Plains, it will be even more difficult to find him."
"I don't know if he hasn't already entered. At the speed he went to the Western Regions, it's quite possible."
"It will take time for the Immortal Demonic Aura to fully settle, and it will also need the stability of the body. He had just changed bodies here and must have fled blindly because he was wary of us. If there is no danger like us, he won't bother to run far."
"Are you saying he's still in the land of Xinjiang?"
"Undoubtedly."
"Hmm, then how about we go there too?"
"Let's do that. If we find him before the Immortal Demonic Aura fully settles, we can kill him with our own strength, so if we hurry, we can put the disaster to rest in advance."
"Then let's leave immediately."
"Does anyone have any objections?"
They looked at each other, but none of the masters belonging to the Ten Orthodox Heavens raised any objections.
However, one person, the Sect Leader of the Maoshan Sect, expressed a different opinion.
"How long are you going to just chase him?"
The masters of the Ten Orthodox Heavens frowned.
Although they had mobilized sorcerers because the Immortal Demonic Aura of the Immortal Divine Demon, Dugu Wujung, was so bizarre, the masters, who did not hold sorcery in high regard, did not look favorably on the Maoshan Sect Leader stepping forward.
But the Sect Leader of the Maoshan Sect paid them no mind.
"The Great War between the Orthodox and Demonic factions is over, and the evil factions are trying their best to expand their power. I am deeply concerned about what will become of the world in the future if the people who should be leading the Orthodox Faction are just sitting on their hands like this."
At the Maoshan Sect Leader's words, everyone withdrew their disapproving gazes.
It was because what he said was true in a way.
"The Ten Orthodox Heavens, no, the six of you who are now the Six Orthodox Heavens, must reorganize your respective sects and train the next generation for the peace of the Orthodox Faction and, furthermore, the world. In such a situation, how long are you going to just chase after that child?"
"Then what do you suggest we do?"
"While we form a dedicated organization to continuously pursue the child, we must also prepare for the case that we ultimately fail to find him."
Forming a dedicated organization is not a bad idea.
But the idea of preparation made them tilt their heads.
To ultimately lose him means that another Immortal Divine Demon will be born. What kind of preparation could they make?
Everyone, with that thought, didn't even bother to reply.
The Maoshan Sect Leader, unconcerned, brought out his opinion that he had been thinking about for the past few days.
"Looking at the situation so far, it seems that the Immortal Demonic Aura is not activated unless harm is done to the child's body. Therefore, I will research a stronger sorcery to subdue the child's spirit. So, the rest of you, please raise a joint successor in preparation for the time when another Immortal Divine Demon appears in the future."
"A joint successor? Are you saying we should raise a disciple jointly?"
"Yes. If the people here teach with one heart and one mind, wouldn't we be able to raise an unprecedented new master who can match the Immortal Divine Demon even if he returns alive? And if we also train disciples to help that new master, no matter how hard the evil factions try to expand their power, it will be nothing more than the wriggling of hideous worms. Moreover, if the dedicated team finds the child, the six of you will be in one place, so there is also the advantage of being able to move at once."
At the Maoshan Sect Leader's words, everyone looked at each other.
Absolute masters who acknowledged each other.
In their eyes, which were filled with firm trust, an unconcealable hope arose.
What if they discovered a new talent with outstanding aptitude for martial arts, both mentally and physically, and everyone here joined forces to teach him?
What if they mobilized the elixirs possessed by each sect, including Shaolin and Wudang, and even had him learn the secret ultimate techniques of each sect?
Wouldn't an incredible new star be born, one that transcends the long history of the martial world that has been passed down for hundreds of years?
Such a new star would be no match for a second Immortal Divine Demon!
An unconcealable expectation appeared on the faces of everyone looking at each other.
The Maoshan Sect Leader watched the Six Orthodox Heavens and smiled.
'The disciples you will train will become the unparalleled divine sword and treasured saber of the world. And I will manage the world by holding that divine sword and treasured saber!'
(End of Chapter)