Retying The Knots of Regret

Roh Ki stood there solemnly, staring at the system window in shock. His mind was racing as he thought, 'The Beifang Jade crystal that the system is talking about, couldn't be the same Beifang Jade crystal right?'

The reason Roh Ki was the way he was, was mostly due to his horrible childhood. There was only one person who showed genuine kindness to him, and that was his stepmother. However, she died before she could erase all the remnants of his earlier trauma. He didn't quite remember much about her now, but the thing that stood out most on her was the jade crystal that hung around her neck most of the time. When she died, he took it as a memento of her, but it was stolen from him while he was sleeping, and pawned off by hoodlums who often picked on the homeless orphans on the street.

He had thought he would never see the rare jade crystal obtained from the Beifang mines, were many expensive rare gems were gotten. If the reward from the system was really the Beifang jade crystal he had lost all those years ago, then he was more than willing to put all his life on the line to complete the mission.

'Description,' Roh Ki voiced in his head. The system did as ordered and displayed the description of the item.

+

{Beifang Jade Crystal}

-A memento of Xu Meilin.

-Once Roh Ki's most cherished object.

-Holds healing, and curse expelling properties.

+

'Xu Meilin,' Roh Ki repeated in his head. 'It really is the same one!'

Roh Ki didn't know if he should jump for joy or shed tender tears of nostalgia. But he was definitely ecstatic and relieved. He was not expecting a reward he would want to acquire this much. His fists tightened, as his eyes glistened with determination. He was absolutely going to obtain this item, no matter the cost.

*

The next day, as soon as the sun rose up in the sky, shining above the vast but comparably small mountain, Roh Ki's party flew to the far east side of the the foot of the mountain where the hunted forest was located on their flying swords. The purification of the forest definitely could not be finished in one day, so the mission would be carried out over the course of several days. A week at most. First, they would simply scout and eliminate any viscous ghosts wandering the border between the town, and the start of the forest.

Since the assignment was difficult but didn't require a great number of cultivators to handle, Roh Ki assembled just two of his core disciples- Ryu Man-Shik and Pyeong Dong, and elder Beom Hajoon. Roh Ki had four core disciples, two of which were with him, and one who was ordered to stay behind and recuperate from his injuries. The last, and his very first and most trusted disciple was currently away, receiving tutelage from a master at an allying sect. Occasionally, in the Tian-Zhi Ai mountain sect, the peak leader's of each mountain peak would send one disciple to receive further teachings from their ally sect Yue-ningshi, and they would do the same, as a show of good faith.

The master Roh Ki sent his favored disciple to had yet to take a disciple under his wing, so it hadn't been a complete exchange. But it was still a good opportunity to improve his skills, so Roh Ki accepted the his disciples request to study under another master.

'Come to think of it,' Roh Ki started to think, reminiscing of his past adventures when he had just brought his first disciple under his tutelage, as they landed in the outskirts of the forest. 'He should be returning soon.'

Just as planned, they spent about three days eliminating viscous ghosts around the edge of the forest, scouting for a more accurate idea of their numbers, and making preparations to set up the demonic dispersion array.

By the fourth day, all preparations had been set, and Roh Ki was growing a little impatient the more he had to wait to get his hands on the Beifang jade crystal. Still, he had no intention of putting the lives of his disciples in danger, no matter how vile they could be, so he held off and made sure everything was in order. He was going to perform such a large scale spell with his meridians still out of order, so he needed to make sure everything was ensured for success.

They landed in a wide clearing in the center of the forest where they had made the preparations to set up the demonic dispersion array. All he had to do was cast the spell to activate the circle, then completely purify the forest using the heavenly yin energy dispelling spell.

He sent Ryu Man-Shik, Pyeong Dong, and Yong Kyubok, who had insisted on coming with them this time now that his injuries were mostly clear, to the end of the clearing so they could directly intercept any ghosts that attempted to make their way to the array while he was still casting the spell.

As Roh Ki readied himself to start casting the spell to activate the array, Beom Hajoon said casually with a small smile, "Peak leader Roh Ki. In all honesty, you'll wear yourself down before even casting the purification spell at this rate. Please calm down. You don't need to stress yourself so much. Your anxiety will only make your meridians clog up and cause you to act unusually."

Beom Hajoon had a good reason to be concerned. These past four days, Roh Ki had been running himself down with work, and the anxiety from wanting to have his stepmother's jade crystal necklace in his hands so badly. Beom Hajoon understood the severity, and the stakes of the mission he was on, but felt it was not something Roh Ki had to stress himself to the point of exhaustion for.

In truth Roh Ki felt the same way, and knew what he was doing was unreasonable, but he still couldn't calm himself down. He let out a sigh filled with frustration and pent up air, before breathing back in and calming himself. "You are right elder Beom. I'll keep your word in mind."

He breathed in again, and started the spell. The array lit up and glowed softly as he started casting. Elder Beom Hajoon took a defensive position beside him, and gripped the hilt of his sword tightly, as the moaning sounds of the viscous ghosts became louder as they closed the distance.

Soon, the sound of swords could be heard. Yong Kyubok, Ryu Man-Shik, and Pyeong Dong had engaged the viscous ghosts in combat, stopping most of them from advancing any further. Elder Beom Hajoon stood ready by his side, as a few ghosts slipped through the thick line of trees and darted across the clearing towards them.

Beom Hajoon sliced at each one without much effort, and lopping their heads off with ease. Even as he felt the number of viscous ghosts in the area reducing greatly at a rapid speed, and watched as Beom Hajoon cut down a good number of them that slipped past, he couldn't shake the feeling that something wasn't right, but continued the spell on the array.

In a moment, Roh Ki had successfully finished the array that spanned from the center to the entire forest, halting the motion of all the viscous ghosts within it. This made it easier for Yong Kyubok and the other two disciples to finish off the stationary ghosts.

Roh Ki gasped for air as he wobbled and slumped down, leaning on a tree to gather his strength. He wasn't in any kind of pain, but was a little dizzy from the sudden loss of a huge amount of qi, and he hadn't even started on the purification spell yet. He didn't want to fully admit it, but he really wasn't in top form. At this point in time in the novel, there should've been nothing wrong with him, and still retained his position as the second strongest cultivator within the Tian-Zhi Ai sect. But he didn't regret regaining the memories of his past life, because now he somewhat knew the events of the future.

The whole idea of a being reincarnated into a world foretold in a novel was still being processed within him, as he had already lived a quarter of his life as Roh Ki, but he accepted it and moved on anyways. He understood the idea of a past life very fine, but still struggled with the thought of reading a novel that gave him insight of the future to his current life. That was the part he was still ingesting, as would anyone, however, he chucked it under the thought that it was just a way of karma repaying him back for all the bad luck he's had in life. He didn't even want to begin processing the existence of the so called system that helped him recall his past life, and wasn't about to spend his time looking into it.

Though Roh Ki's life moto was 'complete understanding', his life's view as Rim In Ho was once 'take what you get and use it anyway you can'. It was totally opposite and made him feel like he had two souls within him, but they balanced each other out. While Roh Ki was pained and didn't care much for everything, Rim In Ho looked past his suffering and attempted to always move forward. Indeed, they balanced each other out perfectly even though they were basically the same person with similar but different life experiences.

It was because of his personality in the past life as Rim In Ho, that he had such hope of changing his (Roh Ki) future, and becoming a better person, so as to avoid Yong Kyubok's wrath. The only thing that bothered him with the concept of two souls, and two personalities in one was the fact that himself in the past life (Rim In Ho) was undoubtedly gay. There was nothing to balance out since in this life, Roh Ki had never really looked or taken an interest in women or things like affection towards anyone in general. So, didn't this mean that, his past self as Rim In Ho had now made his current self as Roh Ki... gay too?

Roh Ki waved those thoughts out of his mind every time as soon as they appeared. He didn't dare open that kind of Pandora's box. Besides, whether or not he was or wasn't, his practice as a peak elder was the 'way of abstinence'. Which meant his sexual orientation didn't matter. That gave him a bit of comfort at the end of the day.

"Are you okay Peak leader Roh Ki?"

Roh Ki lifted his head to look at Beom Hajoon who had just asked him that question. Elder Beom Hajoon had made his way beside Roh Ki and placed his arms around him, helping him steady himself.

Roh Ki breathed out a sigh before answering, "Mm. Yes I'm fine. Thank you elder Beom. The viscous ghosts are paralyzed now. Go and help the disciples get rid of the remaining ghosts."

Beom Hajoon stared at Roh Ki for a while then nodded, and asked, "Will you be okay by yourself?"

With a slight wave of his hand, Roh Ki responded. "I am not so weak. I will be fine. In a moment, I will continue with the purification spell."

"Mm," Elder Beom Hajoon hummed in response with a small nod. "My apologies, I will leave it to you then."

Beom Hajoon stood up and left towards the area Roh Ki's disciples where. As he watched Beom Hajoon disappear quickly into the thick of trees, he breathed out a sigh before standing up as well and moving to the center of the clearing.

He stood and joined his hands together, slowly breathing in and out as he gathered the surrounding qi in the area around him. He was getting ready to cast the 'heavenly yin energy dispelling' purification spell. Just as he was about to start the spell, he caught a glint of light from the corner of his eyes.

Reflexively his eyes traced where it was coming from, but stopped at the figure of a limping depraved ghost. His eyes widened as the source of light flew with speed towards them and crashed just inches away from the ghost. It was Yue Haneul, elder Beom Hajoon's sword.

Roh Ki turned his gaze back to the groaning ghost that was now closing the distance between him and it. He was scanning every inch of the ghost that he thought resembled a viscous ghost at first but soon began to rethink. It's aura was more fierce and Roh Ki was unsettled by the amount of yin energy he felt coming off the ghost. 'Ah!' A gear in his mind finally clicked as the ghost leapt up into the air towards him.

He parted his lips and let a word slip out. "Shit."