TSBIRBV Ch 15

Chapter 15 Baembaem-i(3)

“Alright, Baembeam,* you’re going to follow that horse over there.”

Yegyeol made some hasty adjustments to the scene before climbing onto the horse’s back. He had destroyed the cage that had imprisoned the Millennium Thunder-Horned Python with electricity in order to make it look as though the spiritual beast had escaped on its own.

The Millennium Thunder-Horned Python—soon to be called Baembeam—obediently settled itself on the horse’s saddle at Yegyeol’s command. Though he wished to take them both directly to the Kunlun Sect, both the horse and the snake were far too conspicuous.

While setting the stage, Yegyeol transferred some of his own power to Baembeam. Perhaps because it was an extraordinary spiritual beast, the Millennium Thunder-Horned Python swallowed down the power greedily.

Draining his own strength on purpose, Yegyeol could inflict injuries upon himself—not as severe as the first time he met Je Haryang, but still considerable internal damage.

He then collapsed in the spot he had arranged, as if he had tried to flee and been dragged along.

The horse came closer, snorting in apparent displeasure. But Yegyeol waved his hand.

“Hurry back. Don’t forget to erase the tracks.”

He still remembered how dumbfounded he had been when he saw that the snow showed no hoofprints where the horse had passed.

‘Even beasts can perform tapseol-muhun (踏雪無痕—walking on snow without leaving prints), but I…’

For now, the priority was to get Baembeam out safely.

“There’s some blood on it, but make sure you keep our Baembeam warm with this coat.”

He draped his white sable fur coat over Baembeam, even smearing some blood onto it—deliberately, of course. If Yaryul Hongyeo saw it, she’d be sure to report it to his senior brother.

Think about it—his fellow disciple had sent a flute to be used only in emergencies, and now the coat he’d gifted him was returned stained with blood. And hidden in the saddle was none other than the Millennium Thunder-Horned Python—the very cause of the bloody storm sweeping the Central Plains and drawing countless martial artists to Qinghai.

Even if he had set out deliberately to be expelled from the sect, he couldn’t have drawn a better picture.

“See you soon, Baembeam.”

Waving from where he lay, Yegyeol watched the golden snake’s tail coil and rattle. Whether it was because it was a spiritual beast or because it had been infused with his power, he felt as though they understood each other.

Thinking that the red horse sighed, in the next instant it disappeared into the distance—like a scarlet thunderbolt.

While he had wrapped Baembeam in the coat to ensure success, the cold was slowly seeping into his own body. Having poured so much of his power into Baembeam that he could not even risk going berserk, his body now shook as if he were an ordinary man.

How soon Yegyeol would be found now depended on Baekyang Jin-in.

‘I wonder how quickly Master will come looking for a disciple who’s been gone so long without a word?’

As long as he avoided freezing to death, Je Haryang would find a way to save him—after all, hadn’t he reattached Yegyeol’s very breath after his power had run wild and left him dying?

It wasn’t even a full two hours later when a search party arrived.

“Th-this, what the…!”

The eldest disciple* rushed over, and when the one he thought dead reached out to grab his ankle, he was so startled he stepped on Yegyeol’s fingers.

“Cough… An intruder… has reached the peak of Mount Kunlun…”

With that, Yegyeol let his body go limp. When his hand dropped, the eldest disciple hastily stooped down.

Brought back to the Kunlun Sect, Yegyeol awoke in the medical hall. Judging by the bandages wrapped around his body and the cooled medicinal decoction by his bed, it seemed the physician had visited several times.

Yet no one remained to watch over the battered Yegyeol.

‘Must be chaos out there.’

It made sense—the Yin-Soul Demon and the Millennium Thunder-Horned Python they had been searching for across the entire martial world had been found atop Mount Kunlun. The Yin-Soul Demon had died at the hands of the spiritual beast, and the creature had vanished somewhere on Kunlun.

Now all those who wished to find the missing Millennium Thunder-Horned Python would be gathering there.

The so-called righteous factions, led by the Namgung Clan, were surely clamoring to visit, while figures from the demonic path and unorthodox factions would be trying to sneak in. It was no exaggeration to say the entire Kunlun Sect was on high alert.

No one had the leisure to pay attention to an ordinary disciple.

From the moment he had chosen to rip open Baembeam’s cage with electricity, Yegyeol had envisioned this exact scenario.

‘It would be nice if, when I wake again, I see Senior Brother.’

Drinking the now-cold, more bitter-tasting medicine in swallows, Yegyeol closed his eyes. He had no energy left in his body, but felt light-hearted at the thought that Je Haryang would soon come.

Dreaming of their reunion, Yegyeol did not wake again until the following night. He guessed the medicine must have been laced with a sleep-inducing agent as well as restorative properties. Sleeping deeply was the right course for recovery—but it still felt like having an entire day stolen.

This time, a shadow loomed at his bedside. Baekyang Jin-in was looking down at him.

Perhaps about to leave after watching him for a while, the old Taoist’s brow furrowed when their eyes met.

“Master… it hurts.”

“I’ll fetch a physician.”

His tone was emotionless but not cold.

“Have there been… any messages from Senior Brother?”

Baekyang Jin-in’s lips twisted coldly.

“You still call him Senior Brother—a man who has left Kunlun’s embrace and given himself over to the mundane world.”

“But…”

“I had intended to guide you, yet even now that traitor’s name constantly passes your lips.”

Traitor?

Blinking at the rebuke, Yegyeol listened.

“There’s an old saying: ‘If you live near ink, you’ll be stained black.’ Keep away from filth. No matter that you are my disciple—there are acts that cannot be forgiven.”

The pure-hearted Taoist was sternly admonishing him. To an onlooker, it would seem Yegyeol had committed some grave sin.

Yet Yegyeol only lowered his gaze.

“Disciple does not understand what Master means.”

“I personally took up the body—no, Wen Yegyeol’s body—and cremated it. So, when I heard you had returned alive, I thought that traitor had well and truly lost his mind. Without even a complete corpse for the corpse-reviving arts, how on earth…?”

Yegyeol froze for a moment. Now that he thought about it, he had never wondered what happened to his body from his previous life. Hearing that body had been reduced to ashes, even though he now lived here, felt rather strange.

What mattered was whether Senior Brother knew this.

“I won’t ask who you really are. Most likely, you resemble my disciple and were taken away by that man, brainwashed like a pitiful child. If you will only listen to this Master, I shall save you from his clutches.”

Yegyeol shook his head.

“I am confused, Master. How could you say I have already died? I stand before you alive.”

“Poor thing… pitiful thing… I have observed you for two months, and you have shown no sign of smuggling information about Kunlun to outsiders, so you must truly believe what you say.”

The old Taoist clicked his tongue.

Meanwhile, Yegyeol’s mind was racing.

There was no way Je Haryang would be called a traitor for simply becoming a merchant. The Kunlun Sect was not such a narrow-minded sect.

That meant Senior Brother had done something truly decisive…

If you asked any orthodox martial artist to name one thing more terrifying than tigers or plague, they would all give the same answer:

‘The Celestial Demon Cult.’ (천마신교 — an infamous demonic sect responsible for slaughter in Kunlun and periodic great battles between righteous and demonic factions.)

If Je Haryang had joined the Demon Cult, the current situation would make perfect sense—his expulsion, his permanent ban from Kunlun territory, and Baekyang Jin-in’s contempt.

And hadn’t Baekyang Jin-in himself casually spoken of corpse-reviving sorcery? Under heaven, the sects possessing such forbidden art could be counted on one hand—one being the long-destroyed Mosan Sect, and the other the very Demon Cult that had annihilated it.

Recalling the unusually powerful warriors in Je Haryang’s trading company, Yegyeol lowered his gaze.

“Please grant this disciple some time.”

His voice was faint. Since the other party was already misunderstanding him, there was no need to correct it.

“I find it hard to believe that Senior Brother—no, that man—is as monstrous as you suggest.”

“You must overcome the lies that control you.”

The wrinkled hand gripping his wrist tightened. In the man’s eyes was a strange distortion that Yegyeol had never seen in his previous life.

“…My head hurts.”

Yegyeol let out a feigned groan. Baekyang Jin-in gazed down at him for a while, then set a golden pill on the stand beside the bed.

“If you are at all like the child I once knew, I trust you will make the right choice.”

Yegyeol hid a bitter smile as he nodded slightly.

‘Selling out a former disciple you gave not an ounce of affection for… how slick.’

The man before him was not the kind of teacher to raise a hand against a slow-learning disciple—but he was someone who, when all expectations failed, would simply abandon them. It was all from his past life, something he barely remembered, so he’d intended not to care.

However—if he kept trying to drive a wedge between him and Senior Brother—that was another matter.

Yegyeol’s eyes cooled.

“Guests from the Namgung Clan will be arriving soon, so I may not be able to visit often. Recover your strength and return once the physician gives the all-clear.”

“Yes.”

Leaving that instruction, Baekyang Jin-in departed the medical hall.

Yegyeol deliberately closed his eyes to sort through the tangled mess of his thoughts. But with his mind so jumbled and difficult to untangle, he decided to rest instead.

It was around midnight when the feigned patient opened his eyes. His heightened hearing—still sharp from his earlier fight with the Yin-Soul Demon—picked up the sound of someone approaching.

He closed his eyes again, pretending to sleep, straining to catch the cautious footsteps drawing closer to his bed.

Step, step, step.

Thump, thump, thump.

The sound of his heart seemed to match each pace strangely. Before he knew it, the person was standing beside his bed.

The night visitor touched his cheek with a trembling hand. Even before the person spoke, Yegyeol knew who it was.

“Gyeol-ah.” (An affectionate way of calling someone named Yegyeol, similar to “dear Yegyeol” or “Yegyeol-yah.”)

Footnotes:

• Baembeam (뱀뱀이) — literally “little snake-snake or snakey,” a cutesy nickname given to the golden serpent.

• Eldest disciple refers to the highest-ranking disciple under the same master, known in Korean as “il-dae jeja” (일대제자), often responsible for junior disciples.

• Tapseol-muhun (踏雪無痕) — “walking on snow without leaving traces,” meaning exceptional lightness skill.

• 천마신교 — Celestial Demon Cult, a feared and infamous demonic sect in wuxia/murim lore.

• Gyeol-ah — a familiar or affectionate calling of Yegyeol’s name; “-ah” is an informal suffix used for familiarity or affection in Korean speech.