NOVPUB‘I have something I can do!’
Not long after the war with the enemy began, Heukho was ordered by Eunho to carry out an important mission.
Eunho said, pointing at the map with his finger.
“I’ll send Baekho to distract the enemy. In the meantime, Heukho, infiltrate the enemy’s stronghold.”
“Okay, I got it! You can hide here, right? Just hide?”
“The enemy’s ecology, the language they use, their gestures, whatever. Just remember as much as you can. I’ll create another gap in two days, so you can escape then.”
Heukho was very excited because it was his first time being given a mission other than chores.
Heukho had never been on the front lines before, so he had no fear of the enemy.
Heukho did not understand how dangerous it was to hide among the cunning and cruel unknown.
Eunho recalled this point, but it did not reach the excited Heukho’s ears. 𝖓𝔬𝔳𝔭𝖚𝖇.𝔠𝔬𝖒
“The most important thing is that Heukho returns safely. No matter what happens, never come out. Put your own safety first. Even if you don’t get any information, it’s okay, so you should continue to hide.”
“Okay, I got it! I’ll hide well!”
In addition to Eunho, his close friends worried about Heukho, but Heukho only thought, ‘I have to see, hear, and remember a lot to surprise everyone!’
Heukho’s excitement ended after he hid in the enemy’s stronghold.
‘I feel sick. Just staying nearby makes my skin hurt. I smell something strange and my head keeps ringing.’
Baekho personally stepped forward and successfully attracted attention, and Heukho succeeded in hiding in the deepest part of the enemy’s stronghold.
When he hid, he was so focused on making no sound and moving quickly that he didn’t realize it, but the enemy’s stronghold was a very disgusting place.
The presence of the newcomers and their friends was always filled with a divine and refreshing energy, so Heukho felt it even more.
The enemy was not simply an invader from outside the Korean peninsula, but something that should not exist in this world.
Heukho barely suppressed his trembling hands and watched the enemy.
‘There are many. They are increasing. What on earth are they doing?’
Heukho almost screamed when he saw what he had caught in the enemy’s hands.
There were the nobles and bears who were said to have disappeared or died in battle, and the humans who lived in the invaded land.
There were some who were still alive, but it seemed hopeless.
The enemy was observing, examining, and imitating the corpses and those close to them.
Heukho had no idea what that meant, and all he could do was not look away and remember what they were doing.
And when the night passed twice, as Eunho had promised, the warriors led by Baekho attacked the base, and Black Tiger managed to escape during the gap.
“Ugh... ... Sob... ... .”
The moment he saw his friends who had come to greet Black Tiger, the tears he had been holding back burst out.
Black Tiger was fine, except for being covered in dust and dirt, but his heart was tattered.
Eunho wiped Black Tiger’s face with a clean cloth and waited for him to calm down before saying.
“Black Tiger, report.”
Black Tiger burst into tears again and rambling, telling what he had seen and heard.
Eunho listened to this calmly, but the expressions of his friends who were listening next to him were filled with surprise and anger.
Some of those who were listening from a step away doubted Black Tiger’s words.
“Come out, you little brat who just said Black Tiger was lying. I’ll reenact the outlaws’ antics.”
“Red Tiger, I’ll join you.”
“You don’t seem to be willing to come out, so I’ll find you myself.”
“Since we’re already doing this, it might as well be training. Those things are targeting rookies, so I can’t just sit still.”
Amid the sudden schedule for reenactment and training, Eunho consoled Black Tiger and praised his hard work.
“Thank you, Black Tiger. Thanks to you, I was able to obtain valuable information.”
Eunho’s sad and apologetic expression only lasted a moment.
Soon, Eunho, who had the face of a chieftain, left to meet the leader of the ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) Ung tribe.
And the next day, the Ho tribe and Ung tribe decided to join forces to fight against the Outlaws.
When the two chieftains asked the heavenly god for mercy regarding the Outlaws, a word came down.
[I will give new strength to those who eat only this and do not see sunlight for 100 days.]
After seeing the twenty sacred mugworts and garlics that came down with the words, the two chieftains decided to choose one warrior each from the Ho clan and the Ung clan to receive strength.
As a result, the Ho clan's greatest troublemaker, Jeokho, and the Ung clan's greatest talent, Ungnyeo, were to undergo a 100-day ordeal.
If you are reading this translation anywhere other than Novelight.net or SilkRoadTL, it has been stolen.
"I'm worried that Jeokho will be able to endure 100 days. He won't be fighting the Ung clan's talent, right?"
"But even so, Cheongho, you don't plan on going, do you? You'll get sick of eating only mugwort and garlic, so we should prepare food to eat when we leave the cave!"
"I won't eat."
While feeling sorry for Jeokho, who was now in a position where he had to eat Hwangho's miserable cooking after only eating mugwort and garlic, Heukho envied him.
In fact, Heukho secretly wanted to gain strength by going through that ordeal.
‘I hate tasteless things like mugwort and garlic, but I can endure it! But I can’t.’
Black Tiger recalled what Young-in had said.
Cheon-shin didn’t like Black Tiger’s color that much.
Black Tiger had to endure it because if he went out and did the ordeal and didn’t receive any strength from Cheon-shin, his strength to deal with the terrible enemy would decrease.
And Cheon-shin, who was impressed by the new person, showed mercy and shortened the 100-day period to 37 days, allowing Red Tiger and Ungnyeo to come out of the cave early.
“I came back after completing the ordeal. It’s been a while since I’ve seen you.”
The Ho-jok and Ung-jok who had gathered in front of the cave were shocked by Red Tiger’s words.
Even the eloquent Shin-in seemed to have forgotten how to speak at that moment.
The strength in White Tiger’s hand, who was holding a greatsword while sparring with Red Tiger after completing the ordeal, disappeared, and the tasteless piece of meat that Hwang-ho had personally grilled fell to the floor.
Black Tiger, who was worried and scared that Red Tiger was using such language, clung to Eun Ho.
“Oh no, Eun Ho. Red Tiger has become strange!”
“Don’t worry, nothing bad has happened.”
After Eun Ho calmed Red Tiger down, he smiled brightly.
“Ungnyeo is wearing a red cloth around her body. Congratulations.”
Red Tiger and Ungnyeo were united in shock.
Everyone focused on Red Tiger who had transformed, but Black Tiger was more concerned about Eun Ho.
Eun Ho was happy to see the two of them together, but he wasn’t surprised.
“Did Eun Ho know that Red Tiger and Ungnyeo would like each other?”
“I thought they would end up together, but I wasn’t sure. It seemed like there were a lot of obstacles.”
Eun Ho looked into the distance and said.
Heukho didn’t know much about reading the weather, but he vaguely noticed that Eunho talked about the weather whenever he looked into the distance.
“... ... If Jeokho and Ungnyeo hadn’t been together.”
“Huh?”
“I would have tried to marry someone from the Hojok clan to the Ungjok leader.”
“Huh? Why?”
Eunho spoke as if making an excuse.
“The Ungjok leader has a pure soul and is wise. If I had to marry someone to solidify the relationship between Hojok and Ungjok, I would choose the Ungjok leader.”
“Really?”
“Yes, since Jeokho and Ungnyeo have been together, this is unnecessary talk.”
Even after the two had been together and gained great power, the battle situation continued to flow urgently.
Countless Hojok clans and Ungjok clans fell to the enemy.
The noble family lost more than just warriors.
‘The number of celestial priestesses is small, and now there’s only one left?’
Another priestess who accompanied the new man died in battle.
When faced with this situation, Eunho was worried that if all the priestesses were destroyed, the relationship between the celestial family and the noble family would weaken, so he decided to hide the priestess.
The new man declared that he would sing without accompaniment, but the power of the song weakened, and the burden on the new man grew.
And the black tiger had more work to do.
“Black tiger, please remember this pattern.”
“This is the priestess’ pattern!”
“Yes, from now on, when the new man needs to sing a long song, I will have Black Tiger accompany him. Please carve this pattern into the ground and play the flute while hiding your appearance as much as possible.”
Black tiger infiltrated and began to accompany the new man’s song.
Eunho was planning to hide Heukho’s existence, so he didn’t seem to have the heart to order her to accompany him unless the conditions were right, but that alone made Heukho’s heart swell with excitement.
Heukho looked into various things to understand the shaman’s performance.
The shaman of the heavens had moved, so the altar was empty, and Eunho had allowed Heukho to enter, so he could come and go freely.
‘The first shaman was the mother of the new and the young!’
Heukho examined the melody that the first shaman had played, and thought back to the miracle that the melody had evoked.
There were many parts in the mural that recorded the first shaman’s activities that were incomprehensible, but he was certain that the performance must have been beautiful.
Heukho roughly arranged the melody so that it could be played on a flute, and practiced drawing patterns on the floor.
“Heukho?”
Heukho raised his head at the calm voice.
It was Unsa.
Unlike Poongbaek and Woosa, who would play pranks on Heukho when there were no other clan friends, Unsa was always gentle.
“Were you investigating the first female shaman?”
“Yeah, I got to play a new person’s song!”
“I see. Eunho doesn’t want to burden you, so he wouldn’t have asked you to do something like this, but you volunteered?”
“Yeah!”
Unsa patted Heukho’s small head as he answered cheerfully.
Unsa also handled energy that was the same color as dark clouds, so the heavenly god didn’t look upon it favorably.
Maybe because they were in a similar situation, Unsa treated Heukho even more affectionately.
“Unsa, what’s wrong? Does it hurt?”
“Huh? No.”
Unsa denied it and acted calmly.
At this time, Unsa was alone, worrying about Poongbaek and Woosa’s true intentions.
Black Tiger knew that Unsa was troubled, but Black Tiger’s words could not tell Unsa’s true feelings.
“Why did Unsa come here? Didn’t you come here to think about something on your own?”
“I just came here to look at the records on this land. The records of Poongbaek, Usa, and me are here. I was curious about what we looked like here.”
Before realizing something, Unsa diverted Heukho’s attention elsewhere.
“But the records of the first shaman are more interesting than our records. I didn’t know that there were activities that could not be observed from the sky.”
“Really? Can’t you see everything from the sky?”
“Yeah, the heavenly gods have a hard time seeing the shady lands. So when they found out that the first shaman had come into contact with a strange being in the shadows, they came down late... ... .”
Heukho was so absorbed in Unsa’s old story that he forgot to ask about his worries.
After listening to his story, Heukho thought about his worries before falling asleep and felt sorry.
And soon after, news of the deaths of Poongbaek, Woosa, and Unsa came.
