Chapter 75
『Translator: RainTL』
༺ Hua Ran (1) ༻
There was once a girl called Ran. She was an unlucky girl who couldn’t even walk outside on her two feet due to a long illness of hers.
“Dad! It’s been a while! Huh? Sister Yuhua! You’re here as well?”
“Hi Ran. How have you been?”
Ran had a family that loved her. She had friends and neighbors.
If not for her incurable disease… or in fact, if not for her father never giving up on elongating her life and if he instead stayed with her… Ran’s life would have had a happy ending.
“Ahh… Ran. Ran.”
“D… dad?”
Over time, the illness restricting her started to rapidly crush the happiness surrounding the girl.
Ice Yin Constitution.
It was a body constitution type that was only spoken of in the legends. An infinite source of Yin was suppressing the Yang energy inside her body, and was thus creating an imbalance and disharmony.
Ran’s father, Kang Yu, looked for all sorts of ways to cure his daughter. However, all the methods known to cure Ice Yin Constitution were close to being impossible, and Ran’s early death seemed unavoidable.
“Ran…”
Sacrificing the time he should have spent with his daughter, Kang Yu went around searching everywhere. He went to the mountain peak of a mountain range and requested the help of the lord of the mountains, the Heavenly Tiger, and even gained an elixir after helping the hermits of Mount Tai.
Crossing to other continents, he looked for his old friends and received their help to look at regional spells that could cure his daughter.
14 years.
Ever since the birth of his daughter, he wandered all around the world looking for ways to cure her body, but none of those were effective on Ran.
Slowly, the end was approaching them. His desperate attempts were almost about to come to an end.
“D… dad.”
“Ran. Your father will definitely bring you back to life. I can do anything in the world, if it means I can save you.”
She had a happy and affectionate family but there were two pieces of misfortune in her life.
One was that Ran was born with an incurable disease,
And two was the prodigal talent of Kang Yu, who was known as the best spiritualist of the time.
He searched everywhere to look for a strong source of Yang that could put a stop to the infinite source of Yin in her body.
However, the legendary body constitution that had been told down from times immemorial was too much for a mere human to resolve so… he had to change his line of thought.
If he couldn’t find enough Yang to suppress the Yin, maybe he could instead look for ways to consume all that Yin energy in her body.
That was why he relied on the organism that was born from Yin. They were beings that he was very familiar with as a spiritualist, whose job was to send poor souls of those who died on a foreign land back home.
Kang Yu turned his alive daughter into a Jiangshi.
That was the birth of the living Jiangshi, Hua.
****
A small wooden cuckoo made from the country of ice and snow shouted at the world of giants.
- Coo! Coo!
9 am. The bird of the vintage clock cried out loud to notify people of the time as Hua Ran instinctively raised her body. Her movement was like that of a creaking machine. Subconsciously, her arms were facing the front in a straight angle as she quickly lifted herself up from the bed.
“...”
With a glare, she gazed around. Her room was as dark and lifeless as always - the only furniture inside the room was a small wardrobe and a large urn.
The urn for gold coins that she brought after selling everything that belonged to her in the eastern continent was being filled up at a rapid speed. That was proof of how the business of the boy who liked poking his nose into other people’s affairs was faring smoothly.
Going past the urn full of gold coins which acted like a piggy bank, she walked to the wardrobe. The chains restricting her body jingled with each of her movements.
- Creak!
She opened the wardrobe, which had nothing but a bunch of black nun clothes inside. Even though she was a probationary nun of the New Faith, her wardrobe was still way too barren considering how most sisters of the religion had a few modern clothes or two.
“Clothes.”
Her chains loosened slightly as soon as she said that. These specially crafted chains from the chapel of Zeon reacted to her inner energy and she could tighten and loosen them at will. They were there as a restricting device to stop her from having a fit but they did show respect to her daily life through seemingly trivial features like this.
It had already been about a year since she had been wearing these nun clothes. After she wore the sparkling rosario as well as the nun headpiece, the chains slowly crawled back up and restricted her body again.
They were tight enough to crush a normal human body, but it felt like just another piece of clothing to the Jiangshi with an Unbreakable Vajra Body.
- Clomp! Clomp!
Climbing down the stairs to the dining room, her nose picked up a faint scent of butter. Today’s breakfast menu appeared to be toasted bread with ham.
“Hua Ran.”
“Josephine.”
In the kitchen, Senior Professor Josephine of Merkarva Academy was awkwardly toasting bread on a frypan.
“...What are you doing?”
“Hmm. I was trying to make the ‘Isaac Toast[mfn]TLN: Isaac Toast: A Korean street food. Similar to the given description.[/mfn]’, which is apparently famous in the east but…”
After putting butter on a heated frypan, all you had to do was put the bread on top and cook it. Even Hua Ran, who was from the eastern continent, wasn’t sure how this had anything to do with the east but simply glossed over it because it was one of the dishes that the pony-tailed boy introduced while saying it was from the east.
“That’s too much butter.”
“Ahht… Really?”
Unfortunately, Josephine wasn’t the best at household chores.
“I want mackerel sandwich…”
“A mackerel sandwich?”
“He made it. Cooked mackerel.”
“...Student Korin. Where did he learn such eccentric dishes from?”
Josephine, who was also repulsed by raw fish, apparently couldn’t understand why you would put cooked mackerel between slices of bread.
“Fish is supposed to be cooked and served by itself. It is not supposed to be eaten inside bread.”
“Booomer.”
“Booomer? What do you mean by that?”
“He said that’s what you call inflexible people.”
“Looks like I must seriously consider the eviction of Student Korin.”
While murmuring how he was nothing but a bad influence, Josephine flipped the bread on the frypan. Unfortunately for her, it was charred black.
“Anyway, please go wash yourself before we eat.”
“Don’t want to.”
“Go. Wash. Yourself.”
Her eyes were very sharp. Washing once in the morning, and once at night before going to sleep - this bothersome routine was a very tedious one to follow for Hua Ran, who used to live a lawless life.
“Hmm…”
There was a PDHPE[mfn]Personal development, health and physical education[/mfn] lesson about how washing was to get rid of bacteria or whatever, so that meant the goal was to ‘get rid of bacteria’ right?
Fortunately, the chains and the clothes on her body were all specially crafted items that could hold off against most things in the world.
Shortly after that, Hua Ran returned to the dining room with black ashes all around her body.
“W, what have you done?”
“I burned myself.”
“???”
“Don’t bacteria die from fire?”
“Go right now and wash yourself. With water.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Now!”
She was still only 3 years old. Even though Josephine wanted to give her a flick to the forehead, she knew her hand was the only one that was going to suffer so instead, she decided to give more health-related lessons.
****
Annoying.
Hua Ran thought to herself.
Because of the request of the Old Faith and Senior Professor Kang Ryun of Purple Hawk Academy, she had to unwillingly attend the festival.
The one she had to join was the individual event. At least it was better off because it could be done by herself.
“Hua Ran. You cannot be serious against them.”
“...I don’t understand.”
She had read the festival rules already, and also knew how this boisterous festival was a contest for competing students.
“I can’t hit them?”
“It’s not like you can’t retaliate but…”
Josephine reminded her with a serious look on her face.
“Most things in this world are weaker than you. Treat them like you would with a little twig, and that would be enough for you to win.”
Hua Ran reflected on the ones that she had to be a little serious with, like the noisy potato-lover and the spearman who pretended to be an adult.
“How weak are they compared to him?”
Josephine knew that the person Hua Ran mentioned was almost always ‘that boy’ and easily realized who she was comparing them to.
“Right. Compared to Student Korin…”
About 1/10. Thinking that should do, Josephine assigned that as the outline.
“Remember. There are a lot of people that are trying to find faults with your existence itself in this place. Please try to pass this festival as smoothly and quietly as possible.”
The individual event soon began.
“Uaahkkk…! Why! Whyy!!”
“Ah please! I can’t even shake her!”
“Why can’t I even cut her hair??!”
The individual event of Merkarva and Purple Hawk’s festival became a pandemonium of chaos.
Whenever the rounds began, Hua Ran would stay still without doing a single thing, and simply stood there looking at them.
Her opponents would swing their weapons but whether it be a sword, an ax, or a mace, none of those weapons could harm a hair on her body.
Even though she was just a small girl, she appeared like a large mountain firmly standing its ground.
“I, I give up.”
Facing the unsurpassable wall, the students couldn’t help but admit defeat.
Fortunately, there weren’t any casualties despite Josehpine’s concerns, but there were still a bunch of young teenage girls and boys whose hearts crumbled at the face of an unbreachable wall. However, that was inevitable the moment Hua Ran joined the festival.
“Boring.”
Even the punching lessons she had with the boy were more interesting than this.
『You start from the small basics.』
If you give your very best to everything, you’ll learn how to be caring.
Learn how to be caring, and it will leave a mark on your personality.
If it leaves a mark on your personality, it will show on the outside.
And if it shows on the outside, you will become brighter,
If you become brighter, you will move other people,
Move other people and you will change.
And if you change… you’ll become mature.
She condemned him saying that he only knew how to talk big but… it might have left a big impression on her.
The punching skill that the boy taught her, which she diligently practiced so that she wouldn’t lose again, had become attached to her body after practicing it every day.
It went… something like this.
❰Eight Poles: Punch of the Descending Dragon❱
- Boom…!
………
The stadium immediately turned silent as Hua Ran realized her mistake. She had accidentally used the punch that she had learned from the boy.
As a result, her opponent, who had been swinging a battle ax at her, flew across the venue like a dove and landed in bloody tatters while the weapon got demolished into molecules.
“U, uaahh…”
It was her umpteenth opponent. He seemed like one of the famous 4th year students or something, but he was visibly appalled after seeing that only the handle part of his battle ax was remaining after her attack.
“M, monster…”
“...”
That was nothing new.
She wasn’t even upset because she had been hearing it all the time but… for some reason, her chest ached a little bit more than usual.
Before long, it was already the 8th round.
That was the last round of Group C where she was in, and this time, her opponent was a student from Purple Hawk Academy.
She thought it would be the same thing as always but soon, when she saw the boy walking towards her in large strides, she got a feeling that he looked familiar.
“We meet again.”
The boy with ominously white hair, Sa Jinhyuk, was standing in front of her.
****
The combination of bleached white hair and the black eyes of those from the east was definitely not harmonious by any means.
However, it was still vivid enough to leave a strong impression so Hua Ran still remembered the boy called Sa Jinhyuk.
‘Doesn’t change anything though.’
“Haak… Haak…!”
Was he strong? Probably. He was about as strong as her unpleasant housemate, and was within the category of ‘strong’ in terms of humans.
However, that was in the standard of humans.
A living Yaksha’s standard started from 10,000. Telling the difference between 10 and 100 was… frankly, quite difficult for her.
“Doing more won’t change anything.”
It had been 5 minutes since the start of their fight. Without doing anything in retaliation, Hua Ran calmly accepted the opponent’s attacks.
Each and every one of those attacks were rapid and heavy.
Heavenly Windmill, Killing Moon Flash Kick, Battle Hound.
Those consecutive kicks were menacingly fast. His legs traveled at the speed of sound and burst the air to attack the Unbreakable Body.
“Damn it…!”
However, the unmovable fortress remained firm. It did not move a single inch.
“Try stopping this!”
His left foot rotated in a clockwise direction on the spot as his heel began to face Hua Ran. Rooting that leg firmly into the ground, he twisted his waist and spun with his right leg.
❰Spinning Axle❱
That kick contained even the shapeless form of aura and was almost like a falling comet.
“Huh?”
Even the crowd was befuddled by that attack.
Heavenly Yaksha Hua Ran. Some of her contenders mixed in killing moves during the festival but the crowd didn’t think much about it.
They had seen over the consecutive rounds of the individual event that no attacks worked on this monster of absolute defense.
However, this one was a bit different. Something in it was different - the aura condensed inside his kick even oppressed the atmosphere nearby and was evidently different from other attacks.
It was a comet - a comet that destroyed everything in its path.
- Kwaaaaaang!!
The comet landed on Hua Ran. Until the very last second, she did not move an inch and…
“...Fuck.”
The comet screamed with a profanity.
“Done?”
Despite seemingly speeding through space and striking at the fastest possible speed, the comet lost its power at the face of an immense star.
Unbreakable Vajra Body.
No blade in the world could cut through the skin, nor could fire or water leave any mark on the body. It was on a whole different league to normal defensive spells that were supported by aura and the inner qi.
That constitution was the one sitting at the epitome of unfairness, and the ones attacking people with the Unbreakable Vajra Body were the ones that had to suffer damage. Sa Jinhyuk was the one who gained fractures from that attack.
“You damn monster.”
“...”
He uttered the same insult as others but this one was different. Rather than fear, it was backed by rage and hatred…
“Give up. Doing more is not going to change anything.”
“Haha…”
She was trying her best to follow Josephine’s words that she shouldn’t hurt other people, but it seemed to have sounded absurd in the ears of her opponent.
“Stop pretending to be nice all of a sudden. It’s too late to act kind and merciful.”
“...What do you mean.”
“You should have used that mercy of yours before killing my family.”
『I will kill you! No matter what, I will definitely kill you with my own hands!』
His eyes overlapped with the eyes of the person who glared at her after losing his mother and sister.
It was then. A burning city appeared before her eyes. Corpses were everywhere.
That was a scene of massacre.
“Huh?”
『Hua. Kill all the humans of this land. There should not be anything living left behind in this place.』
“You are a monster, Hua. A monster far from being human. You’re pretending to be a human this far in, and it’s so disgusting I feel like throwing up.”
“No…”
“And what about your body? You are not Ran. You’re just a monster that stole Ran’s body.”
“N… no. This is mine… My body…”
The corpses that had been scorched in the pit of flames started to move again. The dead crawled towards her. Corpses with brains, guts, and limbs ripped out hoarded towards her from all around.
Thousands and tens of thousands of dead people cursed while approaching her. The hair of the boy which used to be black turned white as tears of blood flowed down his cheeks. He screamed while reaching his arm out.
『Die, monster. Someone like you shouldn’t have been born!』
『Die! You monster!』
『Please die. We’re begging you.』
『We have shredded the limbs of your father to death. We will now subjugate you in the name of the Royal Palace.』
—-—-—-
Flames consumed the air, leaving nothing for breath and the disgusting scent of corpses clogged her throat. More than anything…
『Give me my body back!』
That voice alone was so frightening and scary, that even the red eyes of the monster quivered after hearing it.
“This is mine… Mine! This body is mine!!”
I have the right. I have the right to have this body!
『You shouldn’t have been born!!』
“Be quiet…!”
It was then. Red aura began to soar in all directions with Hua Ran at the center.
Crimson aura started to surge through the air, as if it was contending against heaven itself. The aura emanating out of the body of a Yaksha, one that far exceeded the norms of humans, demolished the arena in less than a second and—
- Chiriririk…!
Her chains of restriction swallowed her aura and stretched out to no end. In place of the scorched talismans, the restricting chains turned large enough to cover the arena and suppressed her with their might.
“Haak… Haak…!”
Only after being restricted by chains that were now several kilometers long did Hua Ran realize that the things she had been seeing and the voices she was hearing were gone, and that was the biggest relief for her.
Thank goodness. I didn’t lose my body.
—————!!
There were a lot of grumbles and noisy chatters all around but the relieved child soon went to sleep.
****
“I knew that monster was going to do something like this!”
At the Chairman’s office of the Academy, Chairman Eriu and Professor Josephine couldn’t do anything but quietly listen to the denouncement of spit-splattering Bishop Renault Lusignan.
An incident had occurred during the individual event of the festival. Hua Ran going berserk would have led to a huge catastrophe without the chains of restriction, which was why they had no words to say in response.
“We will carry out a detailed investigation as to why Student Hua Ran…”
“Investigation! What investigation?! We don’t know when that monster would start going around killing people, so why should we watch that happen from the side? We must kill that monster right…”
“That is way too extreme an argument, Bishop Lusignan.”
Chairman Eriu said with a sharp glare at the excessive comment.
“Hmph. In the first place, it was you, Chairman Casarr, that wanted to take in that wicked demon. You will have to take your due responsibility.”
“Of course. However, we must first observe Student Hua Ran and the state of the restriction spell.”
“Yes. Looks like those chains made by the protestants worked pretty well, but the problem is that the talismans made by the pagans of the east were burned, is it not?”
“The talismans that are supposed to settle Student Hua Ran’s mind have been burned. We are planning on inviting spiritualists from the east to create new talismans but…”
“Is there a need to go that far?”
“...What do you mean by that?”
“Do we not have a spiritualist already? One that came from the renowned academy of the eastern continent.”
“...”
Chairman Eriu and Josephine thought of the same person. They thought of the senior professor of the eastern academy, the best formation expert of the east who was also a first-rate spiritualist at the same time.
“Professor Kang Ryun will be returning soon after the end of the group event, right? Let’s request Professor Kang Ryun to hurry up and create talismans for us. We never know when that evil demon is going to go berserk again.”
It was something they couldn’t refuse.
****
In a dark and small room with no sunlight, all she could see were stone walls and the moss growing on those walls.
“...”
Hua Ran thought about the things that recently happened to her.
She remembered the forgotten past, and the original owner of this body had once again tried to take it from her.
『This is my body! Give it back! Give it back to me, you monster!』
Born as the personification of the Unbreakable Vajra Body, she had nothing to fear but that voice was the only one she feared. It had continued from the very moment of her birth and that fear was thus very difficult for her to overcome.
“This is mine… This is my body…”
“Is it really though?”
Someone refuted the mumbling self-justification of Hua Ran. She looked for the owner of the voice with emotional eyes.
“You…”
“I am the uncle of Kang Ran, the original owner of that body which you have control of.”
Kang Ryun.
He was the senior professor of Purple Hawk Academy, and the older brother of Kang Ran’s father, Kang Yu.
He was most certainly one of the ones who hated Hua the most, since she had taken over the body of his niece, Ran.
“I am not… giving it back. This is… mine.”
“Oh no no. Hua. You’re misunderstanding me.”
Kang Ryun consoled her with a benevolent voice like an adult dealing with a child. Hua Ran recalled hearing his voice somewhere… It went like…
『Hua. Kill all the humans of this land. There should not be anything living left behind in this place.』
“Hua. Do you want to have full control over that body? I can help you with the process if you want to.”
“...What?”
The whispers of the venomous serpent slithered up the neck of the child. The poisonous apple was too sweet for a child to refuse.
『...Hua.』
And a girl was silently watching all that happen.
『You can’t. Don’t listen to him.』
The girl’s voice did not reach her. From the start, it had never reached her even once.