Chapter 36

***

 

“Grandpas!”

 

The snake, which flew over the heads of the elders and spun around like a fly, disappeared in a blink of an eye.

 

Before they could find where they went, two people dismounted in front of the elders.

 

One was a long-awaited child, and the other was a boy holding Jegal Hyun’s ankle, who had fainted.

 

Did the Immoogi transform?

 

The elders looked at the boy with their mouths wide open. The child was proudly showing an important part of the body without any clothes.

 

When he got down on the ground, the child quickly took off his jacket and covered Immoogi’’s body.

 

Then suddenly, she felt his body. It looked like she was trying to make sure he was okay.

 

Fortunately, the child sighed with relief and looked back at the elders.

 

“Grandpas, were you worried?”

 

As soon as I saw the child smiling brightly with a scratched and dirty face, his anger melted away.

 

Worrying so much to the point that my blood dried up, I wanted to teach her a lesson.

 

Everything disappeared as if it had been washed away by water.

 

The elders rushed to the child. They touched her limbs to see if she was hurt.

 

“Kid, what’s going on here! How did you get hurt like this!”

 

“What did your grandfather say? You can’t trust those factionalists!”

 

“How many times has my grandfather told me that not everyone is as good, gentle, good and cute as you are?!”

 

“Oh, how can you live in this powerful world with such kindness. This won’t do. This old man will have to stick right next to you!”

 

“The Poison King has said one right thing in such a long time. I’m gonna have to move to your palace!”

 

“Stop it. The kid must have been surprised. Thank you for coming back, kid. Thank you so much.”

 

The Xi King smiled kindly and hugged the child.

 

The elders kept their mouths shut and hugged the child and whispered thank you.

 

The child, who was being moved around in the arms of the elders, came down to the floor and approached Cheonma.

 

The child fiddled with her fingers and carefully raised her head.

 

“Dad…”

 

“Follow me.”

 

Cheonma turned away with a cool look.

 

The child looked at the elders with big eyes.

 

With a dirty face and a desperate look.

The elders wanted to run right away and embrace her, but they couldn’t.

 

It was because they could guess a little about how Cheonma felt when he was about to go on a rampage.

 

The child with drooping shoulders trudged along. The boy followed her.

 

“Sect Master must be very angry.”

 

“What if my girl gets scolded a lot?”

 

“Why don’t we talk to the Sect Master? Honestly, it’s not her fault.”

 

“Who doesn’t know that? But you can’t come between a father and daughter. Don’t add more oil to a house on fire for no reason, just think of a way to make the lady feel better.”

 

The elders used their brains to soothe the child who was going to be scolded by her father.

The Poison king was the first to raise his hand

.

“I have a very good idea!”

 

“What is it?”

 

The Poison King grinned and whispered with the elders.

 

Until the end of their discussion, Zhugel-hyun, who fainted, had to stay on the ground alone without anyone’s attention.

 

* * *

 

The child smiled since she was restless.

 

“Heh, Dad. You were worried, weren’t you?”

 

Cheonma silently looked at the child. The child started to make excuses as if she had noticed that her aegyo was not working.

 

“Well, I was going to go to the place you told me to go. Jegal’s Young Master fainted. I can’t just throw him away. So I had to…..….”

 

Cute.

 

It was very cute for the child to speak with honorifics at the end of every sentence. Cheonma forced his face to remain blank.

 

“Dad, are you mad?”

 

The child watched the Cheonma’s eyes.

 

It was obvious that she was scared.

 

Cheonma sighed quietly.

 

He wasn’t angry from the start. Even if he was angry, it wasn’t because of the child.

It would be towards the factionalists that put the child at risk.

 

He wanted to exterminate all beings who claimed to be factionalists.

 

First of all, Jegal’s young lord, who had returned beaten up like a piece of dough.

 

However, he was the one who saved the child even at his risk.

No matter how hateful he was, he couldn’t be killed. The child would be sad.

 

“What is that?”

 

Heaven’s horse pointed to Immoogi who was sitting next to the child.

 

Immoogi was devouring dried persimmons with sugar around his mouth.

 

‘A dried persimmon-eating Immoogi, that’s ridiculous.’

 

The child tapped on Immoogi with her toes.

 

Immoogi, who dared to sit in front of Cheonma with his legs straightened out, seemed to be bothered.

 

The child lowered her voice like a ventriloquist.

 

“……stop eating.”

 

“You told me to eat until I was full though?”

 

“Can you read the atmosphere? You can eat later.”

 

“What kind of atmosphere is this?”

 

“…… an atmosphere that you shouldn’t keep eating in.”

 

“But I’m hungry.”

 

The little nostrils of the child holding back her anger flared. Cheonma held back his laughter.

 

“So he can talk.”

 

“Oh, this kid.…… well, I met him in a cave. At first, I thought he was a human. But he was really an Immoogi”

 

Lee Moo-ki cut in while eating dried persimmons.

“I’m not an Immoogi. I’m a snak-”

 

“Anyway! So, Dad. Immoogi is a powerful creature, right? That’s why I decided for him to be my subordinate.”

 

She said that she had a subordinate because Immoogi is strong. But that couldn’t be the only reason.

Immoogi was a unique breed of creature that enjoyed eating human flesh.

 

He was probably trying to eat the child.

 

How dare he! Cheonma narrowed his eyes. Immoogi, who sensed the killing intent, suddenly jumped and distanced himself from Cheonma.

 

“Kuhak!”

 

Immoogi cried furiously. His gray eyes turned into slits, and his quite sharp poisonous teeth were revealed through his open mouth.

 

HIs usual gentle appearance suddenly turned ferocious.

 

However, Immoogi , who had his mouth covered with sugar and held dried persimmons in one hand, looked funny.

 

Cheonma raised the corners of his mouth. He had just laughed, but the rebellious Immoogi suddenly rolled up his tail.

 

Perhaps because it was an animal, he recognized a stronger presence than himself faster than anyone else. Immoogi muttered sullenly.

 

“He’s scary.”

 

“Hey! “He”? Be respectful to my dad.”

 

“I’m scared of your dad.”

 

“That’s not it either!”

 

“Then what?”

 

“You’re not a disciple so.…call him Mr. Cheonma.”

 

“Well, I got it. Tell the Heavenly Horse not to eat me.”

 

“Not Cheonma, but Mr. Cheonma! And my dad won’t eat you. Since you’re my subordinate.”

 

“You just said he was a pet snake.”

 

“Hey! That, that’s… that was a joke.”

 

The touchy child looked at Cheonma’s face.

A pet snake?

 

Cheonma burst into laughter.

 

Her father was almost devoured by dark magic but she was playing with Immoogi as a pet.

 

You are the only child  in the world who would keep Immoogi as a pet.

 

“How did you acquire him?”

 

“With the present that Poison King’s grandfather gave me.”

 

If the Poison King gave it to her, it was likely to be the parasite.

 

He couldn’t believe that the Immoogi had been manipulated by the parasite.

 

The moment that he first absorbed it, he would be affected by the parasite.

 

However, the stronger the cultivation level, the faster the parasite would weaken. One could even use qi to remove the parasite.

 

In other words, this creature does not know these basic facts.

 

Sooner or later, the child will have no control over the creature.

 

She certainly needed a way to put a leash on him.

 

The creature was not free and had to listen to commands. So he couldn’t lie and had to follow all commands. To maximize her command over him, she had to name him first.

 

Cheonma stroked his chin.

 

“Give the creature a name.”

 

“Uh… I was gonna let him go.”

 

“If you don’t let him go right away, you have to name him.”

 

“Well, I got it. I’ll give him a name.”

 

Cheonma smiled meaningfully and spoke sternly.

 

“You will have to testify at the elder meeting tomorrow morning without missing a single thing you’ve been through. Can you do it?”

 

“Yes! I can do it!”

 

A child stood at attention and replied valiantly.

 

Cheonma grinned and waved his fingers.

 

“Come here.”

 

“Uh…… Are you not angry anymore?”

 

“Give me a kiss on the cheek. Then I think I’ll be less angry.”

 

The face of the child, who was cowering heavily, brightened up. The child came running with a bright smile.

 

The moment I felt the weight of the child, my frozen heart melted away.

 

A long sigh burst out of his mouth.

 

“You’ve improved your qi.”

 

“How did you know? When Jegal Hyun’s young master passed out, I wasn’t close to death and there was only a very small crisis. Then I experienced an enlightenment.”

 

Cheonma guessed that the child’s true experience would not be as trivial as she said.

 

If one could gain enlightenment through a trivial ordeal, there would be no need to experience life or death situations in order to advance one’s cultivation.

 

The child must have been driven to the brink of death.

 

“You must have been scared.”

 

The child opened his eyes wide as if she had been caught off guard. Then, her lips trembled and whispered.

 

“……It was actually very scary. I was really scared to death.”

 

“So was I.”