The Heavenly Demon Wants a Quiet Life

Chapter 73: There’s No Way That’s Possible

The journey back from Yichang to Wuhan was exceptionally peaceful.

Unlike their arrival, where they had used several ships, this time they only used a single vessel. Even though it didn’t carry any special flags, no pirates dared to attack them.

Every time they stopped along the way, the Heavenly Divine Healer and Hwaryeong gathered all the surrounding information. From what they found out, pirate activity had nearly vanished in recent days.

As soon as Byeok Taesan heard this, his eyes gleamed.

“Smells fishy.”

“Right? Someone must be using the pirates to set something up.”

While Hwaryeong assumed Byeok Taesan was referring to schemes or conspiracies, in truth, he was sensing the faint smell of semi-reanimated corpses or his precious elixirs. Of course, he didn’t bother to correct her.

Hwaryeong’s eyes sparkled as she looked at Byeok Taesan.

Since becoming his servant, she had regained her composure noticeably and no longer trembled in fear at every little thing.

Seeing this, Byeok Taesan asked, “By the way, what did you see in me?”

“Pardon?”

“At first, you seemed certain about what you saw in me. But as time passed, it seems like you’re starting to doubt it.”

Hwaryeong hesitated briefly before answering cautiously, “I don’t know why, but I can see the essence of a person through brief scenes.”

“Brief scenes, you say…”

Byeok Taesan found it fascinating. The ability to see someone’s essence was intriguing enough, but to see it through fleeting glimpses made it even more curious.

“Most people are very ordinary. Eating, sleeping, fighting, bleeding, or shouting. That’s what I usually see.”

“Can you discern their essence from that?”

“Yes. From those scenes, I get a clear sense of who they are.”

Byeok Taesan continued to look at Hwaryeong with an interesting expression.

“And what did you see in me?”

“I saw a pitch-black monster devouring the world.”

“Devouring the world?”

“To be exact, it was devouring the living beings that make up the world.”

Byeok Taesan was slightly taken aback.

That’s surprisingly accurate, he thought. After all, he did consume the souls of living beings.

“Do you still see it that way?”

“The strongest impression was when we first met. After that, the scenes became so faint that I could barely make them out.”

“Is that so? Was it that frightening?”

Hwaryeong gave a bitter smile.

“To be honest, I was mistaken. I’ve seen something similar before, so I got confused.”

“Something similar?”

“Yes. It was when I was very young. I suppose I got things mixed up.”

Hwaryeong laughed softly as if it didn’t make sense even to her.

“There’s no way that’s possible.”

“So, who did you mistake me for?”

“Someone extraordinary. Although I only realized who he was later.”

Hwaryeong paused briefly, then spoke with shining eyes.

“He was someone called the Heavenly Demon.”

Byeok Taesan tilted his head as he looked at Hwaryeong.

He had anticipated this. She must have seen him before his reincarnation.

But he didn’t recall anything about her.

“When was this?”

“It was when I was six years old… so, about twenty-three years ago.”

Byeok Taesan searched for his memories.

After being reincarnated, his past memories were so vivid that it felt like he was reliving that life.

He could recall them with remarkable clarity whenever needed.

However, trying to pinpoint a vague time frame like this took a bit more effort.

Additionally, while he could vividly recall techniques, situations, or words, memories of the people themselves often remained hazy.

Perhaps this haziness was the price he had to pay for being reincarnated, he thought to himself.

After a while, he finally remembered the situation.

Naturally, he didn’t recall the little girl who might have watched him from afar.

What he remembered was the situation that might have led to such an encounter.

“The Four Monsters of the Great East… Now it’s coming back to me.”

The events of that time were connected to the Four Monsters of the Great East.

“No wonder the nickname sounded familiar.”

Hwaryeong looked at Byeok Taesan with wide, surprised eyes.

“Do you have a connection with the Four Monsters of the Great East?”

Byeok Taesan smirked.

“Connection? Hardly. I just ran into them once while passing by.”

“Then the scene you saw was likely a fragment of the memories they lost over those twenty-something years.”

Byeok Taesan didn’t respond.

His encounter with the Four Monsters of the Great East had indeed been over twenty years ago.

At the time, they had assaulted and killed a female martial artist from the Demonic Cult.

Though they hadn’t known she was from the Demonic Cult, they had still committed an unforgivable crime.

The Heavenly Demon had personally dealt with the matter.

Coincidentally, he had been outside the Cult on an important mission when the incident occurred. Additionally, what the Four Monsters had done deeply displeased him.

Though the Four Monsters of the Great East were considered fairly strong martial artists, they couldn’t escape the Demonic Cult’s pursuit.

Eventually, they had faced the Heavenly Demon.

During the process, a village had cooperated with him, and Hwaryeong must have been a child from that village.

Back then, the Heavenly Demon had crushed their manhood, ensured they felt prolonged agony, and then smashed their heads to finish them off.

“So they’ve come back to life? In younger bodies, no less.”

Byeok Taesan stroked his chin with a curious expression.

“What are you thinking about so intently?”

Hwaryeong asked cautiously.

“Did they say anything else? Now that I think about it, I recall them mentioning something about a ‘Great Brother’ or some such nonsense.”

Hwaryeong looked puzzled.

“A ‘Great Brother’? No, there was nothing like that. I even checked every angle to see if there were any connections, but there wasn’t anyone matching that description in their memories.”

“Really? That’s strange. It didn’t seem like nonsense at the time.”

Hwaryeong’s expression turned serious.

“It seems like we’ll need to investigate this further.”

It was as if someone had deliberately tampered with or erased the information in the Four Monsters’ minds.

“For now, let’s put that matter aside. By the way, how are the physicians who joined us this time? Did you notice anything about them?”

“They seemed ordinary. I saw medicine and swords.”

“Medicine and swords?”

“Yes, it seems they’ve lived their lives centered around those two things. It’s a scene I’ve often seen among the people from the Heavenly Medicine Pavilion.”

“The Heavenly Medicine Pavilion… They’re not affiliated with the Murim Alliance, are they?”

“There might have been some changes. I’ll look into it.”

“Interesting. That’s a useful ability for someone in Hao Clan. It doesn’t seem like you only see people’s essence either.”

Hwaryeong gave an awkward smile. She hadn’t intended to reveal so much about her abilities.

But she had no choice. When she was in front of Byeok Taesan, it was nearly impossible to go against his words.

Suddenly, Hwaryeong seemed to recall something and looked at Byeok Taesan.

“Now that I think about it, your servants were rather unusual.”

“Who? You mean all three of them?”

Hwaryeong nodded.

“Yes. I saw the same thing in all three of them.”

“The same thing?”

Hwaryeong stared at Byeok Taesan.

“I saw your image in them.”

“Me?”

“Yes. All three of them were the same.”

Byeok Taesan fell into thought. If all six of the servants left with the Golden Wall Merchants exhibited the same, it would mean he had influenced them somehow.

“Fascinating.”

“And the same goes for Young Lady Yeon Harin.”

“Yeon Harin too?”

It was becoming more evident. Byeok Taesan looked at Hwaryeong with growing interest.

However, Hwaryeong seemed hesitant, as if she had something else to say.

“What? Do you have more to add?”

“No, I was just thinking about how to find the pirates.”

Hwaryeong skillfully changed the topic. No matter how she phrased it, she couldn’t bring herself to tell Byeok Taesan that the scenes she saw in the Heavenly Divine Healer and the Needle Master were of him smiling.

“What, I trust you’ll take care of it on your own.”

Byeok Taesan said this and left the cabin.

Hwaryeong let out a sigh of relief internally and began to think of ways to contact the Hao Clan from this area.

The Heavenly Divine Healer and the Needle Master were examining semi-reanimated corpses with two physicians who claimed to be from the Murim Alliance. They were in a cabin set up at the bottom of the ship.

Wanting to test the skills of the two physicians who introduced themselves as being from the Murim Alliance, they had allowed the two to examine the semi-reanimated corpse first.

There were three corpses in total. One belonged to a member of the Four Monsters of the Great East, while the other two were simply no name semi-reanimated corpses .

Among the two semi-reanimated corpses, one was just an ordinary semi-reanimated corpse, and the other had practiced martial arts.

Each type was presented for examination.

The Heavenly Divine Healer, who was watching the two physicians meticulously examine the corpses, nodded and spoke to the Needle Master.

“They seem to have decent skills, don’t they?”

“Your standards have dropped too much. You’ve gone too long without seeing a proper physician. At best, they’re just ordinary physicians who studied properly.”

“Is that so? Well, let’s observe a little more.”

After some time, the two physicians finally withdrew their hands and eyes from the corpses.

“Are you saying all three of these are semi-reanimated corpses?”

One of the physicians asked, and the Heavenly Divine Healer frowned.

“Just tell us what you observed. What do you think we’re doing here with you? We’re assessing your level of skill.”

The expressions of the two physicians stiffened slightly.

“Although we are aware of your reputation as the Divine Healer, our skills are not to be underestimated anywhere.”

“That’s exactly what we’re trying to confirm, isn’t it?”

“We don’t have much experience examining the bodies of the deceased.”

The Heavenly Divine Healer smirked.

“Why are you going on and on just to say you didn’t figure anything out? You could’ve just admitted you didn’t know.”

The two physicians bristled but refrained from raising their voices or visibly frowning.

The Heavenly Divine Healer glanced at the Needle Master.

“It seems you were right, brother. My standards must have decayed while I was in the Medicine Pavilion. At this rate, I wonder if they can even convey anything we teach them properly.”

“We’re not that incompetent.”

As the Heavenly Divine Healer was about to mock them again, Byeok Taesan descended into the cabin.

“What are you all doing in this gloomy place?”

“Ah, Young Master, you’ve arrived. Well… we were assessing their skills.”

“Really? Are they useful?”

“Not at all.”

Byeok Taesan tilted his head and looked at the two physicians.

“Aren’t you from the Heavenly Medicine Pavilion?”

The two physicians’ eyes widened.

“H-How did you know…?”

“Oh, so it’s true?”

Byeok Taesan thought that Hwaryeong’s abilities might be more entertaining and useful than he had initially expected.

The expressions of the two physicians crumpled in disbelief. They assumed that he had made a random guess, but their reactions betrayed the truth.

However, they didn’t have a chance to protest. The Heavenly Divine Healer immediately intervened.

“Didn’t you claim to be from the Murim Alliance? I wasn’t aware the Heavenly Medicine Pavilion had joined them.”

“That’s not the case.”

“Isn’t it? Then are you saying the General Secretary of the Corps Leader lied? And you just stood by without refuting him?”

At the Heavenly Divine Healer’s words, the two physicians quickly waved their hands in denial.

“That’s absolutely not true. It’s just that, for this matter, we decided to cooperate with the Murim Alliance.”

“This matter?”

“The semi-reanimated corpses issue. Since it was said that the Poison Demon was involved, our Heavenly Medicine Pavilion stepped in.”

“Ah, come to think of it, the Heavenly Medicine Pavilion and the Poison Demon are bitter enemies, aren’t they?”

“The term ‘bitter enemies’ doesn’t even suffice. They’re mortal foes.”

The Needle Master chimed in from the side.

Byeok Taesan’s eyes slightly widened, as he was completely unaware of this fact.

“What? The Heavenly Medicine Pavilion and the Poison Demon don’t get along? Why? Was there some sort of incident?”

“Well… a lot has happened, but it all started when the Poison Demon decided to prove he was superior to the Heavenly Medicine Pavilion by spreading poison near their grounds.”

“He’s genuinely out of his mind.”

“Isn’t that why he’s called the Poison Demon?”

The Heavenly Divine Healer laughed as he said this.

However, the laughter was brief. His expression soon turned serious as he glared at the two physicians.

“While it might start like that… in the end, isn’t it inevitable that you’ll end up under the Murim Alliance?”

“That will never happen.”

The two physicians spoke with determination. It seemed they truly believed the Heavenly Medicine Pavilion would never become subordinate to the Murim Alliance.

“Well, we’ll see about that.”

The Heavenly Divine Healer turned to Byeok Taesan.

“But, Young Master, what brings you here? Did something happen above deck?”

Byeok Taesan shook his head.

“No, not that. I’m just starting to check the surroundings.”

“The surroundings of this area?”

“Yes. They say there are plenty of traces nearby.”

“What kind of traces?”

“The Night Blades… I mean, pirates.”

The Heavenly Divine Healer’s eyes widened.

“You’ve already found traces of pirates? That’s quick. Considering how recently we noticed something was off… Hao Clan really works fast.”

Byeok Taesan nodded.

It was clear that having Hao Clan under him was an excellent decision.

He also resolved to support the Owner of White Flower further. Until she fully established herself as the next leader of Hao Clan, he planned to assist her as much as necessary.