Side Story 21. Yu Su-rin, Dam Hyun, Guihon Jade (1)

Azure Forest.
Snowflake Hermit Palace.
Mystic Art Research Hall.

The Mystic Art Research Hall was an organization newly established three years ago.
In long-established places like Azure Forest or Shaolin, the organizational structure rarely changed.
But a specific and practical organization like the Mystic Art Research Hall was absolutely necessary.

This was because the world had changed.
To be honest, mystic arts had long been somewhat behind martial arts and often neglected.
If someone said that to the Snowflake Hermit Palace Master, she would surely fly into a rage, but even she herself had been going around saying Snowflake Hermit Palace needed support.

But after the pillar of light rose into the sky.
The barrier separating earth and sky, and even the Yokai Realm and the Underworld, collapsed in an instant.
It was not for long, and the barrier was raised again.
But its aftereffects brought great changes to the world.

Had Yu Jeong-shin described it as, ‘The world became distorted’?
After that, the system of mystic arts also changed completely.
Mystic arts that had once done no more than dampen the ground could now bring rain, and those that had once stirred only a breeze could now produce winds strong enough to shove people back.
The old saying that one became a great sorcerer upon being able to summon wind and rain was now a thing of the past.

The situation demanded that the old mystic art system and education be torn down and rebuilt.
That was precisely why the Mystic Art Research Hall had been founded.
And Yu Su-rin, now a second-generation disciple, was the proud chief researcher of the Mystic Art Research Hall.
At an age when an ordinary young lady would have already married and begun a household, she had devoted her life, like her father, to the study of mystic arts.

“Haa……”

Yu Su-rin, who received the admiring gazes of countless younger disciples, was in a terrible state now.

The research disciples shut themselves up in the hall without regard for day or night, researching new mystic arts, adapting old ones, and writing treatises.
So there were always shadows under their eyes, but Yu Su-rin’s were particularly severe today.

“That damn dog of a Martial Uncle.”

Ah, where had the tearful, tomboyish girl gone.
All that remained in the research hall was one wounded researcher, twisting her face as she cursed Dam Hyun.
Time was that frightening.

“When I get back, I’m going to kill him.”

Even as she said that, her hands moved mechanically.
When she swept a hand toward the cabinet that covered one wall.

Deureureureuk.

Dozens of little drawers slid open all at once.
And the catalysts for mystic arts stored inside them rose into the air on their own.
From ores, to fragments of ancient relics, to internal cores refined from dried fruit-like things.
Yu Su-rin looked over the floating catalysts, thought for a moment, then pointed to several of them.
At once, all the catalysts except those she had chosen returned to the drawers.
The ones Yu Su-rin had selected slid into a silk pouch.
It was an astonishingly natural use of mystic arts.
Even Dam Hyun, when he had fought the Evil Cult several years ago, likely could not have demonstrated mystic art control this refined.

“What, just simple materials? And if I told the Hall Master, he’d hand them right over?”

Dam Hyun, who was stationed a little outside Azure Forest, had left Yu Su-rin with a task.
She was to go to Azure Forest, bring back a few catalysts, and get several talismans from the Snowflake Hermit Palace Master.
She had thought it was nothing more than a simple errand.
After all, Dam Hyun had said he had already informed the Palace and Hall Masters in advance.

But once she arrived, she found that had been a complete lie.
Every single so-called catalyst was either precious or required a painfully difficult synthesis process, and there had been no such arrangement with the Hall Master.
As a result, Yu Su-rin had prepared the catalysts and talismans through the night while getting cursed out every which way by the Hall Master.

She stayed up for three full days and nights and barely made the deadline.
There was no more time to delay.
But Yu Su-rin did not immediately storm out of the Research Hall.

“I really don’t even have time to wash.”

She combed back her matted hair and tied it tightly.
She wet a dry towel and wiped her face.
She carefully wiped away the crust from her eyes and the drool marks at the corner of her mouth from dozing off.
She dabbed powder on her face to hide at least some of her haggardness.
She also reddened her pale lips.

“At least this should make me look human.”

She was planning to hurry straight to where Dam Hyun was.
Could it be that Yu Su-rin wanted to look good in front of Dam Hyun?
Was that why she had dressed herself up like this?
It was not.

Kkiik-

She opened the door to the Research Hall and stepped out.
At once, all the third-generation disciples waiting for her turned their heads.

“Martial Aunt Su-rin!”
“Chief!”

The third-generation disciples, still not rid of their youthful looks, welcomed her.
A few of the female disciples even came forward with tears gathering in their eyes.

“You worked so hard.”
“Are you leaving right now?”

The eyes of the third-generation disciples looking at Yu Su-rin were all filled with admiration.
That was only natural.
If the younger third-generation disciples were asked which second-generation disciple they respected most, the one named first, even ahead of Head Disciple Son Hee-il, was Yu Su-rin.

“You should stay a little longer.”
“Please, do be careful…….”

In both character and ability, Yu Su-rin was more than worthy of their respect.
And she understood her place very well.

“There, there, it is not as though I cannot come back, so do not worry too much.”

Not a trace remained of the woman who had been burning with hatred toward Dam Hyun just moments ago.
She soothed the third-generation disciples with a gentle smile.

“Dam Hyun, that retar—, Martial Uncle Dam Hyun’s group is too much!”
“Yes, but what can we do? They are handling important work.”

Now there was truly no more time to waste.
When she gestured gently, the third-generation disciples hurriedly stepped aside.
As Yu Su-rin extended her hand, a pale wrist slipped out from her sleeve.
A silver bell hung from a red cord around her wrist, and it gave off a soft chiming sound.

“……Fei Changfang has a divine ability.”

A spell flowed from Yu Su-rin’s lips.
At once, her hair floated softly upward.
At such tremendous spiritual power, the third-generation disciples gasped in hushed awe.

“Be a thing thousand li away,”

Dam Hyun was at least a full day’s ride by horse away from Azure Forest.
And the method Yu Su-rin chose to reach him quickly was both simple and astonishing.

“He can shrink the Earthly veins”

It was none other than the Space-Folding Technique.
Yu Su-rin executed that advanced mystic art with ease.
Seeming to have taken only a single step, she vanished as if disappearing, only to reappear a hundred paces away.
And when she took one more step, she disappeared entirely from the sight of the third-generation disciples.

“Waa……”

Someone let out a breathless exclamation.
That was how complete her mastery of the Space-Folding Technique was.
Even the movement arts of a lightness-art master would not compare to Yu Su-rin.

“As expected of Martial Aunt Su-rin.”
“Amazing……!”

A genius who had become a great sorcerer at a young age by mastering two great mystic arts. The hope of Snowflake Hermit Palace.
That was Yu Su-rin’s present standing.

And Yu Su-rin proceeded to maintain the Space-Folding Technique for a full two hours.
To use a mystic art like the Space-Folding Technique, one had to conjure a vivid mental image.
The necessary image was of folding the earth and running across it.
That was why, by taking what seemed to be a slow single step, one could cover a hundred paces at once.

Using the Space-Folding Technique looked very easy at a glance.
One merely glided along with a swish, swish, and it was done.
Did that mean the caster suffered no fatigue?
No, not at all.

“Huuuk, huk.”

It demanded even greater concentration than using movement arts.
If one’s concentration broke for even a moment, one would be flung at the speed of covering a hundred paces in a single step.
She had seen many Taoist Flower Disciples crack their heads open that way.

In any case, thanks to her excellent concentration.
Yu Su-rin soon drew close to Dam Hyun’s location.
It was a signal tower on a mountain peak.
Dam Hyun had made the abandoned signal tower, deserted for over a hundred years, into his base.
The moment Yu Su-rin stopped walking.
She was already standing atop the signal tower.

“Martial Uncle.”
“Yeah, yeah.”

Was it not said that when a person became too angry, they grew calm instead.
That fit Yu Su-rin’s current state exactly.
She asked in a surprisingly even tone.

“What are you doing right now?”
“Can’t you see?”
“I can see just fine.”
“Then why ask? I’m lying down.”

That was right. Dam Hyun was lying down.
In front of the ruined signal tower, he had somehow acquired a bamboo daybed and was sprawled out on it.

“I’m sunbathing. Haven’t gotten any sunlight at all.”

“……”

Amazingly, he really was lounging around in complete leisure.

“No, you little—”

In the end, Yu Su-rin exploded.

“You had me running around like a damn dog! Do you know how much abuse I took and how hard I rushed to get all this ready? You said every moment mattered, so I used up the catalysts I had gathered, drained my spiritual power dry, and practically coughed blood getting here!”

She had been assigned as Dam Hyun’s support.

“You said a Dragon Grade yokai was coming to Misan Valley! You said we could stop it here! You told me to bring those things because we had to prepare!”

Azure Forest was more confident than any great sect when it came to exterminating yokai, but a Dragon Grade yokai was another matter entirely.
When word came that a yokai horde had appeared not far from Mount Heng, Azure Forest dispatched important fighting strength.
That strength was Dam Hyun and Yu Su-rin. The Murim Alliance had even sent over two Transcendent masters.
That was because a Dragon Grade yokai called Gujiram was leading a horde of hundreds of yokai of Wolf Grade and below.

“It didn’t come, right? Damn it, it didn’t come this way, did it!”

Dam Hyun had strongly insisted the yokai would come to Misan Valley.
Yu Su-rin had been doubtful, but Dam Hyun had insisted so strongly that the decision had been made.
Dam Hyun, camped out at this signal tower, had sent Yu Su-rin on errands several times.
This time was no different.

“Three times, I ran back and forth three times! You could’ve just said it all at once! And in the end, it didn’t even come here!”

At last, her speech dropped into plain speech, and just as a vicious string of curses was about to burst out.
Dam Hyun glanced at Yu Su-rin and corrected her.

“It came.”
“What?”
“It came, Gujiram and all those trash yokai with it.”
“What are you…….”
“Can’t you hear it?”

Yu Su-rin listened closely. From afar, she heard heavy thudding and crashing sounds.
Only then did she realize the two reinforcements from the Murim Alliance were nowhere to be seen.
But no relief came to her face.
Then what was Dam Hyun doing here?

“You’re making the two of them fight while you rest here alone……?”

Was this not going far beyond the line?

“No, this is a clone.”
“A clone?”
“You don’t even know about the Clone Technique? You idiot.”

Dam Hyun rose from his seat.
Yu Su-rin felt as though she had become someone who knew nothing at all about mystic arts.
A clone technique that could move completely independently without the caster’s direct control.
Dam Hyun’s clone abruptly swung its fist.

Koong!
“Ak!”

She got flicked on the forehead by Dam Hyun, no, by Dam Hyun’s clone.

“You little brat, how dare you yap at the clone of your heavenly like Martial Uncle!”
“Ugh……”
“You cannot fly using martial arts, so you’re panting that hard from using the Space-Folding Technique? Grab my hand.”

Wary, Yu Su-rin still cautiously took Dam Hyun’s hand.

“I’ll send you straight over the battlefield. Be careful when you land.”
“What? Don’t tell me you’re going to use the Transfer Art?”
“Yeah. Try not to break your neck.”

Transfer Art.
The highest realm among movement-related mystic arts.
No matter that it was Dam Hyun, she had never imagined he would have mastered such a legendary mystic art.

“W-wait.”

He gave her no chance to ask anything more.
Her vision spun, and she felt as though her body were stretching out long.

When her warped vision returned.
She was above Misan Valley.
A valley dyed red. For an instant, she thought the sun was setting.
It was only because of the blood covering the valley below.

But what came to Yu Su-rin’s mind at that moment was neither panic nor amazement at the Transfer Art.

‘If he can even use Transfer Art, couldn’t he have just gone to Azure Forest himself?’

It was that entirely reasonable, obvious, and deeply infuriating question.