The Second Eunuch Regains His Manhood

261st Episode It’s Been A While, Me

“Let’s liberate the two thousand years that the masters of all worlds have lived. Perish beneath the power of the vast universe.”

The Blood Demon’s decree rang out. Two Thousand Middle Heaven World. A mindscape over ten times more intense than the Thousand Small Heaven World bloomed.

This was something that should not happen. The Blood Demon lived for three thousand years, not three thousand lives.

But such a thing occurred.

Wait a minute. All worlds, you say? Surely, it can’t be that the Blood Demon in countless parallel worlds is drawing upon their mindscapes, right? If not, it doesn’t make sense.

My hands shook.

The power of the Thousand Small Heaven World, which we controlled, was swept away like dust in the face of the mindscape’s incoming tide.

The Milky Way descended from the heavens, a tsunami of starlight engulfed us.

Guhk!

I bit my lip. I felt a surge. Blood trickled from my clenched lips. My disciple and I attempted to control the strength of the Two Thousand Middle Heaven World through an imperfect Diagram of Primordial Harmony.

But it was insufficient.

If my hypothesis was correct, it was impossible to stop the Blood Demon’s Two Thousand Middle Heaven World.

Th-th-th-th-th-th!

A thunderous roar echoed. The water and earth that had risen into the sky returned to their original places.

Kwa-gwang!

With a deafening sound, something translucent shattered.

Two Thousand Middle Heaven World.

The two thousand years of struggles the Blood Demon endured couldn’t be managed by the firewall of our imperfect Diagram of Primordial Harmony.

The firewall crumbled. Along with it, the Milky Way of the Two Thousand Middle Heaven World surged toward us.

“Ah, n-no, ah, ah!”

My disciple’s voice stretched like taffy. Clang! She dropped her sword. Perhaps it was true that she was a Heavenly Body, as she moved faster than me.

Hug!

She wrapped herself around me.

“No, disciple.”

My hands trembled. She…

She was trying to embrace me.

Originally, I was supposed to protect her. As a grown man, that was what I should do. But she moved first.

Crack!

Her arms restricted my movements.

She smiled, the corners of her mouth trembling.

“Disciple. I told you before.”

A single tear flowed from her eye. With a quivering voice, she said to me,

“I will protect you.”

“No, disciple. That’s…”

I trailed off.

Disciple.

Yujinhwi.

She always held the obsession of having to protect me because I was her disciple.

And now she was trying to sacrifice herself to protect me.

I had to stop that.

I am a grown man.

I must protect the woman, not let her protect me.

Above all.

I blushed. I stared directly at her.

In my second life, the person I had spent the longest time with was my disciple. She had been with me since I entered the Gongdong Sect. Since she was young, she had liked me.

She is also my woman. So…

I couldn’t just leave things as they were. I looked at my disciple and said,

“…I must protect you.”

“…I’m the disciple. Even if the whole world is against my master, I will protect you. I’ve vowed that. So I can’t step aside.”

She shook her head. Her eyes shone like obsidian.

I looked at my disciple and said,

“Like the Crown Princess, I too have returned from the future to the past.”

She flinched.

Her eyes trembled at my words.

I looked at my disciple and continued,

“So, there’s no need for you to protect me. In this second life, I must protect you.”

Her eyes shook and then calmed down. She smiled.

“You revealed it. The secret.”

“D-disciple?”

I was taken aback by her reaction.

I thought she would be shocked and step aside if I came out as a returnee.

But she didn’t seem shaken. Instead, she looked pleased to have finally heard the secret.

She pulled me close and said,

“I still can’t step aside.”

She smiled.

“Because, regardless of who my master is… even if it’s an elder, I love my master. You’re… my master, and I’m your disciple. So I will protect you. Because you are the one I love.”

The moment my disciple’s face flushed.

Behind her, a desolate gray wasteland spread out. It revealed her Mind’s Martial Arts, Void of Extremes. Gray energy surged from the Void of Extremes.

“I love you.”

My disciple’s lips covered mine. The softness and warmth of her lips transmitted to me.

Thump.

I felt as if the beating of her heart echoed in my ears. My disciple’s face turned scarlet.

She pulled back her lips. My disciple laughed.

That wasn’t the face of someone sacrificing themselves. It was the face of someone in love.

I tried to say something, but no voice came out. My hands trembled. My heart quaked. Tears flowed.

The Blood Demon’s voice echoed in my ears.

“Quite the tearful scene. Moreover, it seems that both you and Juga-yul are returnees. Now I understand why you have the Energy of Reverse Heaven, how the you in the mindscape and the reality have different appearances and mindscapes. All the puzzles are solved.”

The Blood Demon raised a hand. His body was now completely consumed by the universe.

“Since the love of both has touched the heart of the master, I will deal with both fairly.”

Through my disciple’s Void of Extremes, the Blood Demon’s Two Thousand Middle Heaven World encroached. The Milky Way of Reverse Heaven. In the moment a beautiful constellation enveloped us.

Beeeeeeeeeeee!

I bled from my seven orifices.

My head ached.

The world appeared upside down. The sky was below; the earth was above. As pain surged through my body, my vision went dark with a ringing sound.

*

I opened my eyes.

I saw an entirely black space. My body seemed to be endlessly sinking. It was the Mind’s World. Beyond it, I saw a cluster of stars, like viruses, eroding the Mind’s World.

I flailed my arms and legs. I tried to control the Mind’s World. But I couldn’t. The Blood Demon had infiltrated my Mind’s World with a virus; the Two Thousand Middle Heaven World had taken over its control.

My Mind’s World was getting hacked.

Noise began to creep in around the black Mind’s World, and cracks started to form. The Mind’s World was breaking apart. If it completely crumbled, I would lose my spirit and soul, becoming a dead nonentity.

I could do nothing but sink helplessly down to the bottom of the mindscape.

Like this.

Is it really going to end this way?

[No way.]

I heard someone’s voice in my ear.

No way.

Who just said that?

As I turned my head.

Paht!

With a flash, the scenery around me changed. A tranquil path of lush woods appeared. There stood a twelve-year-old boy.

That was me, in my past, just after being struck by a reincarnation truck and transported into the medieval martial arts realm as a child.

Then, I spotted Wang Sam approaching me, wearing a sinister smile.

“Stop!”

Wang Sam.

Recalling his crimes, I rushed to stop him, but my hand passed right through him. It was only then that I realized I had a translucent, ghost-like body.

Wang Sam spoke to me in Chinese, but I couldn’t understand as I had no knowledge of the language, leaving me dumbfounded.

Thus, I was carted off in Wang Sam’s horse-drawn carriage towards the hidden lair in Beijing’s Yungong Zhangxi County. There, they performed a ‘mind operation’ on me, and I became a castrated eunuch.

Once castrated, I was sold to the Forbidden City.

It was then that I realized.

‘This is the light of revelation, isn’t it?’

It had to be the light that one sees just before dying. But the light was reflecting my first life, not my second. Like a fast-forward replay, my past life flickered before my eyes.

From my time in the Forbidden City as a young eunuch, suffering verbal abuse and menial tasks at the hands of my senior eunuchs.

And I finally saw myself being assigned as the exclusive eunuch to the Emperor.

[Your Majesty, it is an honor to meet you. I am Lee Cheol-soo. From today onward, I shall serve you.]

[Leave. You’re not needed.]

I caught a glimpse of the Emperor hiding behind the bed and glaring at me when I entered.

Then, I saw myself trying desperately to get close to the Emperor.

Slowly, the Emperor began to warm up to me.

Then I spotted the Emperor, crying, begging me not to leave when I mentioned my re-assignment to Dongchang.

[W-where do you think you’re going, Cheol-soo? This is an order. Don’t go.]

[Your Majesty, please do not worry. I am going to Dongchang to protect you. I will protect you, Your Majesty.]

[But… I can’t… I… ]

[I will make you the owner of the Hall of Great Harmony. I will seat you on the throne. You shall rise to the seat of Heaven’s Emperor, ruling over all. Then, no one will be able to look down upon you. I will make it happen. Hohoho.]

[Go and return safely.]

Thus, I was reassigned to Dongchang, learned martial arts, and eventually reached the rank of Dongchang’s Head Master.

I concocted schemes to eliminate the First and Second Princes, secured the Crown Princess title from Honggwangje, and finally had the Emperor seated at the Hall of Great Harmony.

[Noya. You’ve lived for me, and now, from this moment, I will live for you. I will do anything for you. If you ask for a kingdom, I shall do it.]

[Your kindness overwhelms me, Your Majesty.]

The scene of the now-Emperor speaking to me played in front of my eyes.

Back then, I had no idea the Emperor harbored feelings for me. I thought that it was simply because I was a trusted aide, someone dear to her.

But now, remembering it all like this, the Emperor had surely loved me from the start.

Thus, I was invested with various titles and rewards, including the powers of cornering and clause revision.

I obtained the Ming Empire.

[This treacherous bastard! Are you trying to ruin the Ming Empire!]

[Oh my, it seems the empire is doomed! The powerless eunuch scoundrel has taken control of the court and sways the government! The Ming Empire’s three hundred-year reign ends here!]

[Hohoho! Such noise! You lot are merely talkative scholars! Your fates end here.]

Naturally, the backlash from the nobility followed. I purged all the dissenting nobility and exiled them.

Thereafter, I used my power to invite the Divine Connection.

Once, no—the disappeared future’s Dang Yeong-ryeong said,

[If you undergo transformation, during the reconstitution of your flesh, there’s a possibility that the lost vitality may be regenerated… Of course, as there’s no precedent, I can’t guarantee the probability…]

[Just get to the point.]

[If you undergo transformation, it might work! Hoho!]

[So that’s what it means. Very well. Let’s proceed.]

After hearing the Divine Connection’s words, I amassed all the celestial herbs, not just from the Central Plains but from outside as well, to prepare for the transformation.

Finally, I reached Hyeongyeong and underwent the transformation, but the lost vitality did not regenerate.

Feeling deceived by the Divine Connection, I was furious.

It was then that Cheonranggaek, the top martial artist of the Imperial Palace, mentioned his retirement.

[Lee Cheol-soo, I shall test your skills. If you win, I will acknowledge you as the top martial artist of the Imperial Palace and retire; if you lose, I will not step down.]

[Hohoho! That sounds good.]

We faced each other in a vacant field near Beijing, using our mindscapes for a serious match.

In the duel, I emerged victorious by a hair’s breadth.

At that moment, even though Cheonranggaek lost, he laughed contentedly and patted my shoulder.

[Hahaha! With your strength, I can retire now! The protection of the Emperor and the Empire rests on your shoulders. I entrust you with the title of the top martial artist of the Imperial Palace.]

So, Cheonranggaek retired.

Time passed. I then learned of the Blood Sect’s Rebirth Great Method. A technique to reincarnate into another body after death, utilizing the Energy of Reverse Heaven.

The success rate was one in a thousand.

But I believed that a life without vitality was as good as a dead life.

Thus, I procured the sacred text of the great method and prepared the Rebirth Great Method by inviting sorcerers through my power.

[Noya. Don’t rely on such bizarre sorcery. I will find a way to save your vitality.]

[Noya. Please don’t go.]

[Noya, don’t!]

During the preparations, the Emperor warned me hundreds of times, but I pressed on. I had already let go of my attachments to this life.

I constructed a large-scale grave and buried precious herbs, gold, treasures, and martial arts secret books as offerings for the new me to use upon reincarnation.

And the fateful day approached.

Building the altar and preparing the formation, I summoned the sorcerers to perform the Rebirth Great Method that day.

The Emperor rushed to me, tears streaming down her face.

[Noya!]

[Why are you trying to leave?]

[Your Majesty…]

[What is it about the Cloud and Rain Pleasure that makes you want to leave me! Why are you trying to depart this world! For what purpose would you perform such a mysterious ritual! Hic! Hic! What could have been lacking that you’d go so far!? I can offer you wealth and power! Noya, please, stop the rite! Hic! Hic!]

[Your Majesty, I have already made my decision. Please forgive the disloyalty of leaving without serving you to the end.]

[Noya… Hic! Hic!]

As we talked, the Emperor fainted.

Back then, I had no regrets about my first life.

But now.

Now.

The image of the collapsed Emperor remained fixed in my view.

Truly.

Did I really not have any regrets about my first life?

In the swirling turmoil of confusion, there were no answers.

[Execute the great method.]

The voice of a eunuch spoke in my ear.

[Understood. Let’s proceed.]

The leader of the sorcerers replied. A moment later, a brilliant light flashed. The Rebirth Great Method was realized. Yes, if this is my revelation, then I should transition to my second life here.

That’s what I thought.

The surroundings darkened. A sparkling light appeared afar, like an exit from a cave, and I walked towards it.

Is it time for the second life? The revelation seems unnecessarily long.

I thought that as I walked through the dark tunnel. Just as I reached the exit.

What I encountered wasn’t the light of the second life.

“It’s been a while. Hohohohohoho.”

A thin boy in the attire of a eunuch, resembling a gisaeng’s brother.

It was the part of my first life I had cast aside while crossing Hyeongyeong’s Wall.

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