Chapter 47 …
The body of Jashin, stripped of his Yin energy, surged violently like a tidal wave and was thrown into the churning lake. Seon-oh and Cheong-eum, barely escaping the tsunami thanks to Seon-oh’s barrier, scrambled to the one remaining cliff to take cover.
But there was no time to relax. The ripples across the now-expanded lake, caused by Jashin, were running rampant.
—Whoooosh—
The Yin energy, fierce enough to change the color of the sky itself, summoned a torrential downpour and whipped the waves into a frenzy, turning the lake into a scene resembling a storm-lashed sea. Gale-force winds struck, and Seon-oh’s face showed his alarm.
“Wait…!”
Breaking through the wind and rain, Seon-oh ran to the cliff, dropping to his knees, peering precariously downward. At the center of the lake swirled a massive vortex, with Jashin’s body spinning wildly within it. This was a natural whirlpool that Seon-oh had never created.
“P-please… save me!”
Seon-oh tried desperately to suppress his own energy to help, but it was futile.
The Yin energy he had just unleashed was far too powerful, and combined with the lake’s inherent Yin energy, it had created this extraordinary phenomenon. Even Seon-oh could not control the enormous tsunami of Yin energy.
Still, he tried with all his might to save Jashin. But the swirling spiritual energy prevented him. The sudden surge of Yin energy excited the Blood Maw, which opened wide, and Jashin’s body was violently sucked in.
“Gah…!”
The powerful suction even shook Seon-oh, who had clung to the cliff. Cheong-eum, rushing forward, grabbed Seon-oh and rolled backward. At that instant, the cliff beneath Seon-oh crumbled, and Jashin’s body was fully swallowed by the Blood Maw.
Finally, the Devourer, having consumed a satisfactory offering, calmed the tumultuous Yin energy, and the tsunami-like waves gradually subsided.
The torrential rain abruptly stopped, and the winds that had threatened to uproot every tree on the cliff vanished. The disaster-stricken lakeside returned to its usual quiet.
“Huff…”
Seon-oh collapsed alongside Cheong-eum, swallowing a strained groan as he slowly rose. Crawling once more to the cliff’s edge and peering down, he saw the water’s surface astonishingly calm.
Jashin’s traces were gone from the now-shrunken lake.
In other words…
“…”
Jashin was dead.
A chill ran down Seon-oh’s spine at the terrifying truth.
Even more frightening, however, was the Yin energy surging powerfully within him. He could vividly feel the intense Yin energy that had just flowed somewhere inside him after killing the monster.
‘It’s real.’
It was indeed possible for one superhuman to seize another’s Yin energy.
Of course, it required extremely potent Yin energy, like the kind Cheong-eum had shared with Seon-oh just moments ago.
A low voice sounded from behind.
“…How did you do that?”
Seon-oh turned at the icy tone, incredulous.
Cheong-eum, who had barely escaped the tsunami, looked completely disheveled. Gone was the pristine, intimidating appearance he had shown in the Grand Hall, the kind that sent chills down one’s throat. He was drenched from head to toe.
Yet his eyes remained sharp, and in a voice full of suspicion and caution, he murmured:
“My Yin energy was linked to yours.”
Seon-oh remembered from the original account that when one superhuman’s Yin energy is linked to another’s heart, it can be temporarily harnessed.
In a moment of crisis, Seon-oh recalled this information. As expected, Cheong-eum’s Yin energy had only been temporarily blocked; it remained latent inside him. Hence, it was fully shared with Seon-oh—a stroke of fortune.
Using Cheong-eum’s energy, Seon-oh escaped Jashin’s trap and even absorbed Jashin’s spiritual energy.
For a moment, he could vividly feel Cheong-eum’s Yin energy flowing throughout his body. Yet even that level of energy could be suppressed, which made his heart feel as though it had dropped to his feet.
“How did you know this method? Answer me.”
Cheong-eum, certain that Seon-oh was not the one who had suppressed his energy, was still confused, unable to understand Seon-oh’s actions. Even as a high official and a superhuman, he had never known that Yin energy could be shared in this way.
After Seon-oh harnessed Cheong-eum’s energy…
‘My Yin energy feels clear again.’
Cheong-eum swallowed his bewilderment. The unstable energy of the past few days had been completely purified and calmed.
To fully dispel his suspicions about Seon-oh, Cheong-eum needed to understand how Seon-oh knew all of this. It was a critical matter.
But instead of answering, Seon-oh suddenly rose, stepped toward Cheong-eum, and grasped his neck. The unexpected touch froze Cheong-eum’s entire body.
‘No way…’
Ignoring Cheong-eum’s reaction, Seon-oh examined his neck, where the blue veins once glowed, and let out a short sigh.
The blue veins were gone.
“When did this start?”
At Seon-oh’s sharp question, Cheong-eum’s heart, which had been tightly clenched, sank in shock.
Seon-oh could see them—the blue veins that only Cheong-eum himself had ever seen from childhood until now.
When Cheong-eum did not answer, Seon-oh grabbed him by the collar.
“Answer me.”
Seon-oh’s eyes gleamed fiercely, and Cheong-eum, slightly startled, slowed his breathing.
He sensed a familiar desperation in Seon-oh’s eyes—a kind of intensity that felt like his life itself was being held hostage.
Cheong-eum’s stiff lips hesitated before speaking.
“…Since my first awakening.”
It was a secret Cheong-eum had never revealed to anyone.
Cheong-eum’s first awakening occurred at age five. As a member of the Seolga line, which had produced high officials for generations, it was inevitable.
But from that moment, he had noticed the blue veins appearing on his neck. Whenever they showed, his Yin energy became severely limited.
No one could visually see his blue veins, and Cheong-eum never spoke of them again. He simply kept it secret while waiting for his second awakening. Until then, the blue veins appeared infrequently and never caused serious problems.
The real problem began after his superhuman awakening at fifteen. Cheong-eum realized he could not perform Yonghwa—the signature ability of his kind.
No method could enable him to do so.
And the cause was clearly these blue veins.
Without Yonghwa, the most powerful proof and identity of a superhuman, he could not truly be considered a superhuman. Cheong-eum scoured ancient texts and even the secret archives of the Grand Palace but could not determine the cause.
Meanwhile, the oracle descended, and the Phoenix Competition began. If all superhumans did not complete Yonghwa before the final gate, the phoenix would not be born—a rule set by heaven.
The intervals between the appearances of his blue veins shortened, leading up to today. Yet he had never experienced his entire Yin energy being blocked as it had just now. Cheong-eum was in despair.
He was cornered, trapped in an inescapable, hopeless situation.
“Ha…”
Seon-oh exhaled a short sigh, recognizing the severity of the situation.
‘This wasn’t in the original story.’
That one of the seven superhumans could not perform Yonghwa, and that this superhuman was a high official with the clearest lineage of all, was unimaginable.
Now he understood why Cheong-eum had followed him. Cheong-eum’s suspicion was justified and urgent. Unlike Gongwoon, who had been embarrassed by a trivial insinuation and chased him to Cheong-pa River, this was fundamentally different. Cheong-eum needed to uncover the source of this suppression by any means. He understood everything.
The problem was that Seon-oh was not the one who had blocked his Yonghwa and thus had no solution for this predicament.
The even bigger problem was that, from this moment on, Cheong-eum’s problem had become Seon-oh’s problem.
‘This is insane.’
The headache came as if crossing one mountain only to find another, taller one looming ahead.
Finally, Seon-oh released Cheong-eum’s collar, ran his wet hair back, and murmured.
