Chapter 986: Lost Soul.

“What the?”

I scowled, looking at Cheonma, who suddenly approached and started sniffing.

What’s wrong with her now? She shows up out of nowhere and clings to me annoyingly. I try to push her forehead away because it’s bothersome, but…

…she keeps clinging as if she doesn’t even care.

“Ah! What are you doing!”

“……”

I tell her off, mixing annoyance into my words, but Cheonma doesn’t back down.

And why is she so strong?

After struggling for a while, I eventually gave up and relaxed my strength.

Alright, fine. Go ahead and sniff all you want. Leaving her be with that intention, she really sniffed endlessly.

Time passed.

“Hmm.”

Cheonma backed away as if satisfied. Seeing that, I made a dumbfounded expression and said,

“Hey.”

“Yeah?”

“You, honestly. Whatever you were trying to check finished a long time ago, didn’t it?”

“……”

She shouldn’t be sniffing for this long. Thinking that, I asked. As expected, I saw Cheonma’s expression change subtly.

Subtle is an understatement. She’s usually expressionless, so the change was obvious.

That was definitely the face of someone caught.

“You…”

“Ah… I’m sleepy. I’m leaving.”

“You crazy…”

She suddenly says she’s sleepy and turns around to leave. What am I supposed to do with that lunatic?

Unable to say anything, I just stared at Cheonma’s small back.

Suddenly.

Cheonma, who was walking, suddenly stopped. And glanced back at me.

What is it? Is she trying something again?

As I watched her warily, Cheonma’s purple eyes brightened, and she said to me,

“…Or… I don’t like it.”

“What?”

She spat out the incomprehensible words and then leaped away, disappearing.

Watching her receding back, I had to let out a sigh of exasperation.

“What the heck was that?”

She was alone all day, then suddenly appears and acts like this. Why?

As I stood there blankly, staring in the direction Cheonma disappeared,

“Tsk tsk…”

Shin Noya, who had been watching this, clicked his tongue briefly.

“No matter how I think about it, it’s strange…”

His voice sounded completely baffled.

Hearing that, I asked Noya,

“What is?”

“Even looking at it a hundred, a thousand times.”

“Yes.”

“You don’t exactly have the face to be popular with girls… so where are they all coming from?”

“……”

Hearing that really hurt my feelings.

I’ve heard teasing like that before, so I could usually let it slide, but…

‘…That damned old man. He’s serious?’

His expression showed he genuinely didn’t understand. That really pissed me off.

‘Besides. Who is he to talk about someone’s face…’

I tried to think, but it only made me more annoyed. I hate to admit it, but Shin Noya is good-looking.

The fact that he looked like that despite appearing over seventy meant he must have been quite handsome in his youth.

That’s why it’s even more annoying.

“Why are we even talking about that now?”

I spat it out, pouring my emotions into it, but Noya didn’t seem to care at all.

“Well, rare things are always in demand… I guess it’s better to understand it that way.”

“…What?”

“Forget it. Let’s just go with that.”

“No, why is this old man convincing himself?”

“Yeah, let’s go with that.”

“Go with what? You deaf old geezer-!”

Kwakwakwakwak—!!!

“Whoa, fuck.”

I twisted my body and dodged the sword strike. It was the same level of speed as before. If I had been even a moment late, my head would have been severed.

“…Hmm. Looks like you can dodge this level now. What a shame.”

“Noya… Have you really lost your mind?”

“That’s praise. Praise.”

“Praise my ass.”

As Noya said, it was a speed I wouldn’t have been able to dodge normally.

The feeling that I could now dodge this much,

And the fear regarding Noya, who could casually unleash sword strikes at this speed, coexisted.

“Hoo…”

I let out a sigh and brushed off my clothes.

As I did, Noya looked at me and said,

“Rest for now. We have plenty of time until sunrise.”

He spoke, then began slicing through the surrounding weeds with his hand.

He carried a sickle at first, but it seems he doesn’t need that anymore.

No, he never needed it in the first place.

It was probably just for show.

‘This guy could probably cut a rock with his bare hands if he wanted to.’

If he just coated his hand edge with sword energy, there’d be nothing he couldn’t do.

‘…Is it okay to use Sword-Body Union for something like this?’

The state of Sword-Body Union, the dream of all sword cultivators.

Noya, having reached that state, continued his farming work in the dead of night as if he were enjoying it.

I unconsciously swallowed hard at the sword energy blooming from his hand.

‘Fearsome.’

The higher one’s realm, the more discerning one’s eyes become.

I could tell how fierce that small sword energy blooming from Noya’s fingertips was.

“What are you looking at? Why? Want to help a bit?”

“…Help with what? Farming?”

“Forget it. If you did it, it’s obvious you’d burn the whole field down.”

“…I wasn’t planning on helping anyway.”

I shook my head and sat down on a nearby rock.

Swish. Swish.

The sound of Noya cutting grass continued to be heard.

Listening to it, I tilted my head up and looked at the empty air.

Only one moon hung in the sky above Mount Hua Sect. But I knew it probably wasn’t like that outside this place.

“……”

I recalled the events of today.

A lot happened, like a whirlwind.

It’s like that even now.

What is this situation, coming out of nowhere?

Thinking of that, I closed my eyes.

‘Ah. I feel dizzy.’

It’s incredibly complicated. So I just closed my eyes.

When I close my eyes, my thoughts fade a little.

And then, a face would surface above them.

The face I thought of whenever things got tough.

Thinking of her, I let out a breath.

I miss her.

Rather than thinking about various things and the problems I need to solve,

Right now, that thought suddenly came to mind.

---

Day broke.

In the sky slowly regaining its color and the subtly changing air,

I opened my eyes, which had been closed.

Swoooosh-!

As I opened my eyes, the energy circulating in my body stirred slightly, creating a breeze. It was because I had been using my energy all night, checking my body’s condition.

‘Hmm.’

Just as I was about to savor the feeling of my energy being recalled,

Swoosh.

“Huh?”

Suddenly, I felt a change in my body.

My body, which had felt light all day, grew heavy. My ears and tail began to move on their own.

Just as I wondered what was happening now,

“Wha–?”

I widened my eyes. The ears and tail that had been attached until just now disappeared.

My body had become heavy. No, it wasn’t that it had become heavy, but rather…

‘I’ve returned to the original feeling.’

My body before becoming a Moonlit Wolf Tribe member. I had returned to the senses I had as a dragon.

Before I could panic about the current situation, I looked up at the sky.

It was daytime, and the sun was out.

The moon had completely set as well.

No way.

“…Does that mean I become a Moonlit Wolf Tribe member when the moon is out?”

It was a reasonable suspicion. There was nothing else to explain my current situation.

‘…This is absurd.’

A dragon by day and something else by night?

How could a body be this bizarre?

Having nothing to say, I just let out a hollow laugh,

“…What the…”

Noya, who approached me, wore a similar expression and said to me,

“Have you returned to normal?”

“Yes. It seems so. I think the fact that it’s daytime is the issue.”

“Hoho…?”

“I don’t understand it either.”

As I spoke, I stood up from the rock I was sitting on.

At the same time, I twisted my body, checking my muscles here and there.

‘I’m completely healed.’

My body had returned to how it was before sustaining internal and external injuries. It was overwhelming regenerative power.

“Seeing you in that state, I suppose I need to see that turtle fellow.”

“Can we go now?”

Since the sun was up, could we go now? As I asked that, Noya replied,

“Yes. Let’s go.”

At my words, Noya started walking. Watching him, I asked,

“Huh? Are you coming too, Noya?”

Weren’t you just sending me? Noya didn’t stop walking and said to me,

“Yes, I have business there anyway.”

He casually turned his face and glanced down at me.

“And besides, I have something to say to you.”

“……”

Hearing that, my expression hardened.

Because I could see an unknown worry flickering in Noya’s eyes as he spoke.

---

As soon as we arrived at the teahouse, the door opened and Turtle came out.

He had an expression that suggested he already knew we were coming.

“…What annoying faces to see first thing in the morning.”

“Good morning.”

“Have you been well?”

“It’s neither a good morning nor have I been well.”

“Noya, let’s go inside. He’s welcoming us like this.”

“As expected. There’s no one quite like Turtle, is there?”

“…You damn pests?”

Ignoring Turtle’s reaction completely, we pushed our way inside. The funny thing was,

“What the? You’ve already prepared tea?”

It was that three cups of tea were already placed on a table inside the teahouse.

Seeing that, Noya chuckled.

“Khkhkh. You’re such a stickler, as always.”

“…Shut up and just sit down.”

At Turtle’s words, I immediately sat down at the table. Judging by the aroma from the tea, it seemed to be plum tea.

As I carefully lifted the cup to take a sip,

“That business last night. That was you, wasn’t it?”

Turtle spoke to me.

What business? As I pondered what he meant, Noya, who was beside me, answered instead.

“It was this guy, alright. Was the barrier okay?”

“Okay? Hardly. I got yelled at for cleaning up the mess first thing this morning.”

“I figured as much. Khkh.”

Hearing the word ‘barrier,’ I realized what it was.

‘Even when I came in yesterday.’

Thinking about how Shin Noya suddenly attacked me by surprise,

It seemed like my very entry into the Mount Hua Sect had caused a problem.

“What exactly happened?”

Turtle asked.

Noya began explaining briefly. His summarized words contained all the important parts.

“‘A tree and a fruit…'”

Hearing that, Turtle…

“…You…”

He said to me, as if realizing something.

“You ate the Divine Fruit (神果) from the owner’s Sacred Tree.”

Divine Fruit.

At those words, my ears perked up.