Childhood Friend of the Zenith - Chapter 65

༺ Immortal Healer (2) ༻

– Slam-!

– Slam-!

Deep inside a cave, the sound of metal clashing echoed.

The sickening smell that lingered was so pungent, it made him frown.

Baechong walked deeper into the cave with shaky legs.

After he followed the torches that had been hung up on the walls of the cave, he found a large man on an even larger chair.

Besides the chair, rested a giant sword that boasted a size similar to the average adult male.

Baechong walked towards the colossal man and slowly kneeled before him.

The owner of the giant sword looked at Baechong unhappily and then spoke to him.

“Our tail was caught?”

He spoke with an incredibly dissatisfied tone.

Baechong gulped down his saliva and responded.

“Yes sir... I believe the Mount Hua Sect is onto us.”

“Hmm... I guess it was too greedy of us to kidnap the Tidal Sword, huh.”

A Plum Blossom Swordsman, the Tidal Sword, Shinchung.

After they had kidnapped him when the opportunity presented itself, their tail was caught.

Unfortunately, the Mount Hua Sect noticed sooner than they had anticipated.

“It’s probably too risky to capture more of their clan members after they had noticed a change.”

“I will report it to the main palace.”

“Don’t be late, you saw what happened to the guy that got his arm chopped off because he was late, right?”

“...Yes, sir!”

The large man took out a letter and threw it at Baechong as he chewed on fried scorpions.

“Baechong.”

“...Yes, sir.”

“I heard that another problem occurred in Yeoncheon, do you know what it is?”

“...I heard that the Racoons appeared.”

“Racoons? How did they know?”

Racoon was a derogatory term used to describe the Hao Clan.

They caught on to us at that place out of all the places. I get that the Hao Clan was known for possessing an extensive information network, but I couldn’t understand this situation.

“Hmm... is there a traitor?”

They couldn’t be sure that there wasn’t one in their midst, but it was hard to believe that they had a traitor that worked for a clan like the Hao Clan and not a group like the Murim Alliance.

The large man’s hand stopped moving.

It was because he ran out of fried scorpions to eat.

Baechong who quickly noticed, spoke to the man.

“I will tell our guys to bring in more.”

“I like how quick-witted you are.”Visitt novelbin(.)co/m for the latest updates

The large man stood up with a smile.

His huge physique was enough to overpower the average person.

Baechong continued to speak.

“There was an order from the main palace.”

“Go on, I’m listening.”

“The Immortal Healer is said to have appeared in Shaanxi.”

The large man’s eyes widened at Baechong’s words.

“The Immortal Healer?”

“Yes, sir.”

“I heard that he was in Anhui last time, and now he’s in Shaanxi? That man has quite the energy for being so old.”

“We sent some people to find his exact location.”

To Baechong’s words, the large man showed off his yellow teeth.

The threatening aura that came from the large man shook the entire cave.

“Baechong.”

“Ye-Yes! Sir...!”

“I don’t remember ordering you to send our guys to find him?”

His hand reached for Baechong’s heart.

Before it reached his heart, Baechong quickly spoke.

“The leader gave the order himself...!”

After he heard Baechong’s words, the man’s hand stopped, and the threatening aura slowly disappeared as well.

“Really?”

“Yes... Here is the letter that was directly sent to me.”

Baechong handed over the letter with shaky hands, and the large man took it and opened the letter.

In the letter, there was a stamp that the Lord marked himself.

Because of this, the large man’s expression became dissatisfied.

“For him to send a letter without telling the branch manager, I get that the leader is a busy man, but that hurts a little.”

“...Right! He must have been busy.”

It’s because you suck at your job you pig!

Baechong thought to himself.

Baechong couldn’t actually say this out loud, so he gulped the words back down his throat.

“So, what am I supposed to do, kill him?”

The order and its details were all written in the letter, but it was annoying how he barely read the contents of the letter.

However, Baechong couldn’t do anything about it.

“...To capture and imprison was the order.”

“...Hmm, imprisonment again.”

“Yes, the leader ordered us not to harm the hands or the eyes no matter what happens.”

“Lame.”

The large man made an unhappy face after hearing Baechong.

Baechong cooled down the anger he felt.

It annoyed him how that man was given the branch manager position.

But his strength alone was reason enough for him to become the branch manager.

The Giant Oni, Ya Hyeoljeok.

His strength was enough for him to belong in the main palace.

It was the clan head’s’s place.

“Oh, everyone else please stay outside besides that kid.”

The Celestial Plum Blossom said as he pointed at me.

I stopped in my tracks at his words.

I was surprised at first, but I followed him into his place after telling the escorts I would be fine.

Namgung Bi-ah seemed a little disappointed, but nothing could’ve been done about it since it was the head’s order.

It was rather empty inside the building of one of the heads of the Ten-Sect-Alliance.

The only things inside the building were the things he needed.

In the middle, the Celestial Plum Blossom started to brew tea.

Oof, this was more uncomfortable than I expected...

“This old man has nothing to serve you besides this plum tea...”

“I like plum tea.”

“Oh... that’s good, it seems like most young men nowadays don’t like plum tea.”

I didn’t really like it, but I didn’t dislike it either.

The plum tea the Celestial Plum Blossom brew himself had a pretty dense scent to it.

After taking a sip, it was much sweeter and sour than I had expected which I liked.

Wi Seol-Ah would like this as well.

Even at a time like this...

I was reminded of Wi Seol-Ah by something as simple as sweets now.

I started to become more aware of how much I thought about Wi Seol-Ah.

“It seems like it’s to your liking.”

The Celestial Plum Blossom smiled.

Did I take that many sips?

“I would like to give you something to chew, but I have nothing else besides this.”

“It’s no problem. The tea you gave me is good enough.”

After drinking a bit more, I carefully handed him the box I brought.

It was the box that held the treasure inside.

The Celestial Plum Blossom opened the box and unwrapped the cloth.

Then a shining light along with the scent of plum flowers filled the room.

“Whew...”

The Celestial Plum Blossom let out a sigh after seemingly being relieved.

Then he wrapped it in cloth again and flung the-

He threw it!?

– Thump!

The box that held the treasure inside landed in one of the corners of the room.

“...Whaa?”

“Thank goodness... The Elders won’t nag at me anymore now that I had gotten the stone back.”

...Can he really treat the stone like that? Isn’t that the treasure of his Sect?

Elder Shin, is this really—

Elder Shin?

I kept calling him, but Elder Shin didn’t respond.

Huh?

Since when did it start? Elder Shin hadn’t talked at all for the past few minutes.

It didn’t seem like he was being quiet on purpose either.

“First.”

I was woken up from my thoughts after hearing the Celestial Plum Blossom’s voice.

He had something to say.

“I thank you for bringing me the treasure, child of the Gu Clan.”

He spoke in a serious tone that was filled with respect.

I too, also fixed my posture.

“It must have been a difficult trip for you to come all the way here.”

“Not at all, My Lord.”

“I already sent my thanks to the Lord of the Gu Clan, but please tell him again directly that this old man is truly thankful.”

“Yes, I won’t forget and will deliver your message.”

The Celestial Plum Blossom took out a letter.

He marked the letter with a symbol in the shape of a plum flower.

This officially ended the mission of bringing the treasure to Mount Hua.

When I was carefully putting the letter in my pocket, the Celestial Plum Blossom spoke to me.

“Kid.”

He was back to his usual tone of voice after finishing the business between the two clans.

“Yes, Lord.”

“Since we finished our business with the treasure, let’s now talk about the thing you have inside you.”

“...”

The topic finally came up.

Cold sweat started to flow down my face.

I expected to be caught...

But to be caught so quickly was unexpected.

While I looked at the Celestial Plum Blossom with shaky eyes, he was just sipping on his tea.

Was he letting me speak first?

What do I do, should I just pretend that I didn’t know about it?

While I was engrossed in my thoughts, the Celestial Plum Blossom started to speak.

“The thing I feel within you is definitely that of Mount Hua’s.”

...Shit, I don’t think I can lie now.

I guess even with Elder Shin suppressing the power of Mount Hua, it wasn’t enough to be hidden from the Celestial Plum Blossom after all.

“I’m curious as to why that’s inside you.”

It would be nice if Elder Shin was here to help me at a time like this...

But I couldn’t hear Elder Shin. I wasn’t sure if it had something to do with the Celestial Plum Blossom.

I couldn’t think of anything to say.

I wasn’t confident enough to deceive the eyes of the Celestial Plum Blossoms.

In the end, I took a deep breath and started to tell the Celestial Plum Blossom everything that had happened on my way to Mount Hua.