So, You Lot Haven’t Ascended After All.

A long beard and fluttering Taoist robes.

From the moment he appeared standing on a cloud, he was the very image of an immortal.

Gyo-ha had guessed the old man’s identity from the moment he appeared.

Someone who sent out those so-called shikigami was not going to give up so easily.

Sure enough, he spoke of exactly that first.

“Do you know how long it takes to make those little ones? And seeing you, I thought you were brats who had just ascended, so I tried to help. Children these days have no manners.”

After grumbling at length, the old man glared at Gyo-ha and went on.

“I meant to ignore you, but I descended in person to hear the reason at least. So why exactly are you killing my shikigami?”

But Gyo-ha had his reasons too.

“My master said it is best not to speak with anything whose true nature you do not know.”

“What?”

“He said there are yokai that bewitch people with words, so you should get rid of them before they can try any tricks.”

At Gyo-ha’s words, the old man stroked his beard.

“There are indeed ones like that.”

Hearing the reason, he could understand it. Just as he was about to nod, he furrowed his brows.

“Do you think it is fitting for those who have ascended to be afraid of some petty yokai?”

“It’s just being cautious. Even a strong man who can topple Mount Tai can still be pierced by a needle.”

The old man had nothing to say to that, so he simply glared at Gyo-ha.

Ah-ryeong at his side was just as surprised.

She hadn’t known Gyo-ha could speak so well.

On top of that, what he said was reasonable.

His face, already red, flushed even deeper.

“Which sect are you from that you show so little respect for your eld— no, wait.”

The old man narrowed his eyes.

“…A ghost? No. A living spirit.”

Soon his expression turned rigid.

“You haven’t ascended. You are alive.”

Gyo-ha and Ah-ryeong only tilted their heads, not understanding. Seeing this, the old man became all the more certain.

“I already thought it strange for newly ascended ones to be out in these borderlands, but to think you would be living humans.”

“Ho.”

The old man let out a sigh of wonder.

“So that is why they…”

The old man muttered something under his breath that they could not understand.

Then he quickly glanced around the area.

“Wait here a moment.”

When the old man waved his hand, everything around them grew hazy.

Gyo-ha realized some kind of barrier had formed around them.

But he didn’t bother to move.

It was because the old man bore them no hostility.

“You should count yourselves lucky you met me.”

It was a line he had heard several times already.

But what followed was different.

“If they learn you are living humans, every yokai in the Immortal Realm will come running. Not only yokai. The other Taoist fellows will come looking too. They will turn you into elixirs to eat or use you for their research.”

The Immortal Realm. It was an unfamiliar term, but Gyo-ha realized it was how they called the Heavenly Realm.

Unlike Gyo-ha, Ah-ryeong’s eyes widened in shock.

“Immortals?”

Ah-ryeong had already realized what the being before them was, which was why she couldn’t help but be shocked.

At her question, the old man let out a chuckle.

“They are even worse than the yokai.”

Fear rose in Ah-ryeong’s eyes.

The being in front of her was an immortal as well.

Noticing her expression, the old man spoke.

“You do not need to worry about me. I have no interest in humans.”

The old man was telling the truth.

He was only observing the two of them as if they were curious oddities.

“Now then, tell me. Why are living humans drifting through this Heavenly Realm without their bodies?”

At his words, Ah-ryeong spoke up cautiously.

True to her quick intuition, she had realized that the old man bore them no malice.

After hearing her story, the old man stroked his beard again.

“Dream Paradise Painting. I have never heard of it.”

At his words, disappointment showed on Ah-ryeong’s face.

But that was only natural. Countless yokai lived in this Heavenly Realm. Even immortals could not know all of their abilities.

However, the old man was not finished.

“But it is not that there is no way.”

Expectation filled Gyo-ha’s and Ah-ryeong’s eyes.

Looking at the two, the old man cleared his throat and spoke.

“There are creatures called Dream Moths. They lead the souls of the sleeping into dreams. Those caught by a Dream Moth can never wake and meet their deaths still asleep.”

It was similar to their situation.

At the dreadful description, Ah-ryeong’s eyes trembled.

“The only way to escape is to find the Dream Moth in the dream and kill it. Then you can wake up. If you had crossed over with your bodies, there’d be nothing even I could do, but since only your souls have drifted here, there is plenty of hope.”

Gyo-ha and Ah-ryeong only blinked. At this sight, the old man clicked his tongue.

“Listen properly. Even a Dream Moth cannot travel between worlds. It only leads a soul into its host’s dreams. Yet right now you are no different from souls. So a Dream Moth can take you and lead you into your own dreams. Dreams are originally something only beings of the lower realm have. They are incomplete beings bound to their flesh.”

Without a body, you neither sleep nor dream.

Hearing this much, the two of them could finally understand.

“So.”

“The Dream Moth can lead us and guide us to where our bodies are, then.”

At Ah-ryeong’s words, the old man nodded.

“More precisely, to the dream that is connected to your bodies. If you kill the Dream Moth that is binding you in that dream.”

“Our souls will return to our bodies.”

This time, Gyo-ha finished the thought.

The old man clapped his hands.

“That’s right. Fortunately, I know where a Dream Moth that has ascended to immortality is.”

The old man smiled brightly. Yet Gyo-ha could tell.

Unlike at first, the old man’s eyes were indifferent.

His claim that he had no interest in humans had been sincere.

It was the look one gave an object, not a living being.

Naturally, the quick-witted Ah-ryeong realized it as well.

There was a reason he was being so kind.

“…Is there something you want us to do?”

At her question, the old man nodded as if it were only natural.

“I have made shikigami using the souls of animals, yet I still don’t know how to command yokai. I have no desire to ask those petty barbarian upstarts either.”

He went on.

Borderlands. It meant this place was the outskirts even within the Immortal Realm.

The reason he had released shikigami in such borderlands.

“Then I thought of bees. They obey their queen’s orders, do they not. So I plan to capture a queen and study it.”

At his words, the swarm of bees rose in Gyo-ha’s and Ah-ryeong’s minds.

“I would like to study the Five Peaks Bees of the Queen Mother of the West, but if I mishandle them it will become a headache. The same goes for their queen bee, needless to say.”

The Five Peaks Bees.

They were the beings that guarded the Queen Mother of the West’s heavenly peaches.

Naturally, even an old immortal like him could not easily approach them.

On top of that, if he touched their queen, others would move.

‘The Queen Mother of the West herself might not step in, but.’

There were countless immortals who wanted to win the Queen Mother’s favor.

They wanted to look good and get even a few scraps of benefit.

So what he had settled on were the bees inhabiting this place.

“However, their nest is larger than I expected. Taking care of the bees themselves is not difficult. Yet if they judge the nest to be in danger, they carry off the queen and move. If they decide moving her is too difficult, they kill her.”

At the unexpected statement, Gyo-ha and Ah-ryeong were startled, but the old man spoke as if it were nothing.

“It’s only natural. Even if something is the leader of a group, if it can no longer fulfill its role, it’s cast aside. Old queen bees are the same. Once a queen bee can no longer lay eggs, the bees kill her and raise a new queen.”

If they decide it’s too difficult to move the queen, the bees will kill her without hesitation and take a princess bee that will become the new queen.

It was cruel, but this too was the law of nature.

The Heavenly Realm and the lower realm were the same.

The same went for the onmyoji from that island country in the east.

Onmyoji who commanded shikigami all met similar ends.

They were killed by the very shikigami they had commanded. They were like bees. That was why the old man had sought out the bees and come here.

“In any case, it is difficult even for me to handle that many bees and recover the queen. If I lose her once, she will be hard to find again.”

Little by little, boredom seeped into the old man’s voice.

He was starting to find the whole matter troublesome.

Gyo-ha and Ah-ryeong kept their mouths shut.

There were things they wanted to ask, but they could not ask any more.

They sensed instinctively that asking further would be dangerous.

It was the same feeling Gyo-ha had gotten from Big Sister Spider.

A monster of a different order.

The reason the old man showed them kindness was because they could help with his work.

‘If I were alone, I would have tried taking him on.’

Of course, he knew how that would end.

Which was why he couldn’t move carelessly.

He already had more than enough enemies to fight.

“So we just have to lure the bees, right?”

“Oh, you catch on quickly.”

The old man’s voice brightened again.

Gyo-ha had no intention of refusing. It was a chance to get out.

“Even if the bees come out, won’t there still be some left behind?”

When they attacked, not all the bees moved.

Some stayed behind to guard the nest.

“I can take care of whatever remains.”

From the old man’s words, Gyo-ha realized one thing.

He had already inspected the hive after the army left.

In other words, it was no coincidence that he had found the two of them.

Gyo-ha’s gaze changed, but the old man didn’t care. He didn’t even pay it any mind.

It was the attitude of someone who didn’t mind being found out.

Yet he held Gyo-ha’s value in high regard.

‘Using mere bait would not be enough.’

There was no way that many soldiers would move otherwise. Now he knew the reason.

Living spirits.

If it was the souls of living humans, those bees would take the risk.

Any yokai would be drooling over them.

“How long do I need to hold them?”

At Gyo-ha’s question, the corners of the old man’s mouth curled up.

“An hour will be enough.”

“Can I do it alone?”

“Gyo-ha?”

Ah-ryeong repeated his name in surprise, but the old man nodded readily.

“It doesn’t matter.”

He had watched them and knew Ah-ryeong would be of no help.

It meant he had come intending to give the task to Gyo-ha from the start.

In that way, their pact was made.

“Sister, please wait here.”

“…Okay. Be careful.”

Gyo-ha immediately set off.

Once the course was set, there was no need to hesitate.

Just as Gyo-ha was about to head out, the old man spoke.

“If you go northeast, you will find some that are out working.”

He had grasped the situation of the worker bees as well.

It was surely thanks to those shikigami or whatever they were.

Gyo-ha nodded.

Then he changed direction.

In truth, he could’ve found the bees without being told.

The scent was riding on the wind. There were bees nearby.

But Gyo-ha moved as the old man had said.

There was no need to show his abilities here.

He ran toward the northeast.

Soon he could see a bee carrying not flowers or fruit, but a bug.

A bug bigger than its own body. Whether it was dead or merely stunned, it was not moving.

Without hesitation, Gyo-ha sprang forward.

His foot slammed into the bee’s body.

Puk!

The bee staggered and dropped the prey it was holding.

The bug that fell to the ground twitched.

It was still alive.

However, it couldn’t move because of the bee’s poison.

The bee only glared at Gyo-ha and didn’t rush in.

Gyo-ha could have finished the bee as well, but he didn’t.

He had a purpose.

Soon the bee’s body trembled faintly.

And before long, the sound of wind came from far away.