120 – Heavenly Fortune

I don’t like you now.

That was how it sounded to Cheon Mu-gyeong. However, for him, that was a past that did not exist. He was even skeptical as to whether such a past actually existed at all. It was surely nothing more than a dream of Wi Ho-yeon, yet it felt as if an ice pick were piercing his chest, casting a thin layer of frost around him.

“From the start, didn’t you act as if you were seeing me for the first time?”

Cheon Mu-gyeong’s voice, which had been rough, was now thick with emotion.

“To say you remember the past me is a sophistry. Now of all times?”

Ho-yeon, who was held in Mu-gyeong’s arms, tightly gripped the cloth covering his back. There was not a single flaw in Cheon Mu-gyeong’s words. He, too, had not remembered him, and only after being trapped again in the cave of the eternal snow mountains did the forgotten memories return; it was only natural that Mu-gyeong found it hard to believe.

It might have been more correct to say that he had simply had a dream, a fleeting spring dream.

“I… had forgotten too.”

However, Ho-yeon did not want to dismiss the Cheon Mu-gyeong he remembered as a mere dream.

“I’ve only just remembered now.”

It was an answer that could be seen as truly brazen, but since it was the truth, it was not an excuse. If the roles were reversed and Cheon Mu-gyeong had said the same thing, would he have been unable to believe it?

No, he would have believed him. Not because he was trusting. But because it was Cheon Mu-gyeong, he would have been even more certain that they were truly destined.

“Do you clearly remember everything after the subjugation of the fire dragon?”

The tears soaking Mu-gyeong’s clothes gradually subsided, but Ho-yeon’s voice remained wet.

He remembered up until the subjugation of the fire dragon and consuming the inner core, but the process leading up to waking up in the cave had vanished entirely. He assumed his memories had simply faded due to the ninety-nine repeated regressions.

“It is a memory so old that I cannot even recall it.”

“Even so, it’s only been ten years.”

He had slept for a very long time in the space created by the ice dragon, [visit our [unauthorized copy]stolen contentwm: unauthorized copy -->site]but for Mu-gyeong, it had been a mere ten-odd years.

“To me, it is no different from a thousand years.”

“…….”

Even if there was a carved-out past, he didn’t seem to care. Since the person who had actually lost the memories showed no will to find the erased time, no conversation could get through.

Ho-yeon shifted his body to the side, trying to escape his embrace. He thought Mu-gyeong would hold him tight so he couldn’t move an inch, but he did not hold onto Ho-yeon as he slipped away. Curling his body as much as possible against the wall of the bed, Ho-yeon pulled the blanket over himself, covering him completely up to the top of his head.

He felt a presence behind him. However, Mu-gyeong did not leave; he simply remained sitting on the bed. If he had left just like that, Ho-yeon wouldn’t have been able to bring himself to stop him, but since he was by his side, he gathered courage once more.

Slowly lowering the blanket that had been puffed up, he turned around and stared at Mu-gyeong’s back. He was a truly large man, as if he were carrying the hundred thousand great mountains on his shoulders.

“When we met before, you told me that your mother… had passed away.”

Even at Ho-yeon’s low voice, Mu-gyeong did not move an inch.

“That she was… poisoned.”

Only then did Cheon Mu-gyeong turn around to look at Ho-yeon. That was not a story Wi Ho-yeon should have known. Even Chief Han or the guardians never mentioned that matter.

“And you said your father had passed away too. But your father is the previous cult leader, so he would have been alive then. So it doesn’t make sense… Is this all really my dream?”

Ho-yeon looked desperate, pressing down on the bed with both hands.

“I have no father, so even when he was alive, he was as good as dead.”

For a while now, Cheon Mu-gyeong had been suffering from a pain that felt as if it were splitting his head in half. Furthermore, the soft, faintly scattering voice repeatedly overlapped with Ho-yeon’s actual voice.

Looking at Cheon Mu-gyeong anxiously, Ho-yeon could glimpse the demonic energy shimmering around his shoulders. He was suppressing his essence for Ho-yeon’s sake. Forcing his dantian, which had been wide open because he had run without a moment’s rest, to close.

Ho-yeon had never seen him sleep properly. Although he said his body, having reached transcending demonicity, did not necessarily need sleep, he had released a considerable amount of internal power, so he must need rest. He was disappointed and deeply upset that Mu-gyeong didn’t remember and had made such a harsh joke, but he wanted the man who had rushed to him out of worry to rest.

“How many days did you run?”

The flow of time, where the sun rose and set, was meaningless to him.

Ho-yeon remembered that it took nearly fifty days when he first headed toward the demon sect with the snow shadow guards, and roughly fifteen days when he headed toward the ice palace with Cheon Mu-gyeong. Even then, if it hadn’t been for him, the time could have been shortened further.

“I believe I saw the moon five times.”

Ho-yeon slowly crawled on his knees and hugged Cheon Mu-gyeong. Mu-gyeong watched him, moving only his eyes.

“You’re quite fast.”

It was close to a short scoff, but it wasn’t a sneer.

“A long time ago, you crossed over through the barrier at flame mountain, and after that, you were with me. You grilled icefish from the pond for me because I said I hated fasting pills. But because I became so sick after eating those icefish… I don’t remember how we came to be separated.”

“I hate fasting pills.”

“Still, icefish are a no-go.”

“Why, are you afraid I’ll eat them and get sick?”

Normally, there was no reason he couldn’t grill some icefish from the pond. However, even if they were trapped forever by a landslide and ran out of food entirely, he had no intention of giving him icefish.

“It’s not normal that the water here hasn’t frozen; do you think the things living there are normal?”

“You said it would be fine if they were grilled…”

“Who said that?”

“…I don’t know.”

He wondered if the ‘who’ he asked about might actually be himself. It was absurd, but Cheon Mu-gyeong pulled Wi Ho-yeon, who had approached first, into his arms as if to melt him completely.

“Even if you don’t remember, the fact that we met does not change.”

Wi Ho-yeon was always transparent. Was it because he hadn’t spent many days living among people? He didn’t know how to beat around the bush when saying what he wanted to say, and even in moments when he should have been angry, he did not forget his heart for others.

“I want to sleep now. I sleep a lot.”

Despite having slept so much, Ho-yeon said he wanted to sleep again. Not alone, but while hugging Cheon Mu-gyeong, Ho-yeon lay back down on the bed. Mu-gyeong also faced him on the bed, still staring at Ho-yeon.

It wasn’t that Ho-yeon truly wanted to sleep. Rather, he wanted Mu-gyeong to rest, so he clumsily pretended to be sleepy.

Cheon Mu-gyeong stared at Ho-yeon for a long time as he leaned his face against Mu-gyeong’s forearm and closed his eyes tightly. He closed them so tightly that his trembling eyelids were clearly visible.

However, Cheon Mu-gyeong fell into the slumber of the sleep demon even faster than Ho-yeon fell asleep. The man who had forgotten how to sleep deeply gradually sank into a deep, clear ice pond, forgetting the heat in the comforting warmth provided by his other half.

I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you.

To catch the voice scattering through his muffled ears, Mu-gyeong stopped descending further into the pond that was pulling him in. He separated his body and spirit, as if resting his body on the surface of the water.

The voice that had been hovering around him scattered into the air.

I am the Incarnation of the Ice Dragon.

* * *

“Are you truly going to take the Demonic Beast Seed?”

In the depths of the Hall of Ten Thousand Poisons, Do-gyeon reprimanded Chief Han with his arms crossed. As Chief Han, who held a small jar that could easily be gripped with one hand, hesitated, her husband Mu Seong-pyeong, who was beside her, spoke solemnly to Do-gyeon.

“It is the Cult Leader’s order.”

The reason Mu Seong-pyeong, the number one ranked demonic master, was polite to Do-gyeon was simple. It was because he knew better than anyone that if Do-gyeon truly exerted his power, he could not win.

“Do you really believe the Cult Leader intends to plant that in Young Master Wi?”

“Even you, Lord Do-gyeon, cannot defy the Cult Leader’s order.”

The Poison King, the master of the Hall of Ten Thousand Poisons, emerged from the darkness. The Hall of Ten Thousand Poisons was the department in charge of all martial arts and knowledge related to poison within the cult. The Poison King rarely showed himself to the outside world, but he was the one who stepped forward more than anyone when it came to matters involving the Cult Leader.

As the Poison King approached, Mu Seong-pyeong moved Chief Han behind him. The Poison King’s skin was bluish, and a foul stench emanated from his body.

Mu Seong-pyeong loathed the Poison King, who used poison. Believing that only demonic Read on Read BL Novelsunauthorized copyon Read BL Novels -->arts and the Way of the Tyrant represented the divine cult, he regarded the Poison Art used by the Poison King as a mere trivial trick.

“Seong-pyeong, whenever you see me, you’re so anxious that you can’t hide your wife.”

“It is because our Chief Han must not suffocate from your smell.”

The Poison King raised his forearm and sniffed his own scent. Then, he shrugged his shoulders.

“It’s enough as long as I wash before having an audience with the Cult Leader. In fact, Lord Do-gyeon, I was just about to speak with the guardians to request an audience with the Cult Leader.”

The Poison King requesting an audience with the Cult Leader was something that happened perhaps once or twice a year. That was why he only washed once or twice a year.

“For what reason?”

Do-gyeon, knowing that Wi Ho-yeon and the Cult Leader were staying at the shadowless pavilion, spoke in a tone that suggested he would not let it slide if it was a trivial matter.

“Has the Cult Leader perhaps reopened the demon-taming cave?”

At the sudden question, Do-gyeon almost stepped toward the Poison King but ins[stolen content]style="position:absolute;left:-9999px;font-size:0;">[visit our site]tead took a step back.

“Reopened the demon-taming cave?”

Chief Han, who had been breathing only through her mouth, suddenly stepped forward in front of Mu Seong-pyeong.

“I am asking because I find that strange as well. Not only that, but all the poisonous insects and bugs of the demon-taming cave have completely disappeared. Furthermore, not a single demonic beast is in sight.”