Chapter 12:A Promise

"Why would you do that? I had thought that you were my friend," Cho Byeol shouted at the man, who was standing in front of her. She felt extremely aggrieved.

She was lying on the ground, injured. Furthermore, she was this much injured because of the aftermath of the battle earlier. Even though Cho Byeol hadn't participated in the battle, she still got injured. The battle, which had happened earlier, was out of her league, especially after her cultivation level dropped to the early stages. If she had her previous cultivation level, she wouldn't have gotten this injured just because of a battle's aftermath.

"Why would I? Simple, because we need your mother's physique. Yes, that is right that I had considered you my friend before, even though I had befriended you for a purpose. But then my uncle reminded me of our purpose and that this is a cultivation world. We need to be prepared to do anything, in order to achieve our ambitions and goals. Even if that means to kill our own kin, let alone some friends." It was Dong-Min, he stood in front of Cho Byeol, he had an extremely sinister smile on his face. He was also injured, including his uncle Su Zhao and the other two elders of the clan. 

As for Eun Kyung, she was lying on the ground beside Cho Byeol and one of the elders with her had died, while the other was unconscious.

"Capture her already," Su Zhao said calmly to Dong-Min. He was sitting on the ground, meditating, trying to recuperate. Even though they had trapped Eun Kyung and the others, they still got injured and the other two men with him had already died, and their corpses were lying on the ground, not far away from him.

"Ok," With that said, Dong-Min prepared to attack Cho Byeol, who was looking at him with tears in her eyes.

But before Dong-Min could attack Cho Byeol, a blue color light, with the shape of a crescent moon, landed on him. He was sent flying by the light and spat out a mouthful of blood. He fell to the ground and lost consciousness.

"Cho Byeol, I will try to stop them here for as much as possible, while you should run away from here as far as possible. And try your best to return to the clan quickly." Eun Kyung appeared in front of Cho Byeol and was looking towards Su Zhao, who was recuperating. She was severely injured, more than Su Zhao and the others. 

"No, I'm not going to run away. I'll stay here with you. This all happened because of me. I deserve to die, not you," Cho Byeol struggled to stand, with the help of her arms, she pushed herself up. She was staggering.

"What are you saying, you fool!" Eun Kyung shouted at Cho Byeol with anger on her face.

"Nothing happened because of you. Don't blame yourself. You just helped him. It was all Dong-Min's fault, not yours. So, just run away," Eun Kyung said seriously. While she said this, Su Zhao had already attacked.

The battle began again. And Eun Kyung and Su Zhao attacked with all sorts of techniques. It could be seen just how strong Eun Kyung was, from the battle. Even though she was trapped and was severely injured more than Su Zhao, she could still fight with him on par. But this didn't last for long and the battle started to turn to Su Zhao's side. 

This happened because Su Zhao had a territorial advantage. As for the small space, it had already been broken by Eun Kyung and her companions. But Su Zhao was very clever, he had brought Eun Kyung to a place, which could give him more advantage. The surrounding area of many several dozens of kilometers was already in chaos. There were many deep holes in the ground. And he had also recovered a little from his injuries. These were the reasons he was having an advantage in the battle against Su Zhao.

After a while, Eun Kyung lost and fell to the ground. Su Zhao put his foot on Eun Kyung's face and started laughing loudly as if he had dominated the world. Her back was facing the sky.

When Cho Byeol saw this, she tried to run towards Eun Kyung but she also fell to the ground. She tried her best to stand up, but because of the sorrow she was feeling, she couldn't muster any strength in her body. 

"Just run away, please listen to me, "When Eun Kyung saw Cho Byeol struggle so much, she said. Her voice couldn't be clearly heard, because Su Zhao's foot was on Eun Kyung's face.

"No, I would rather die than run away, I don't want to leave you, mom." Cho Byeol mustered her strength and said slowly. She didn't want to leave now and regret it later for the rest of her life.

"Please just run away. Just listen to me this time and I won't ask anything of you for the rest of your life, and I won't tease you anymore either. So, please listen to me and run away," two lines of tears fell from Eun Kyung's face while saying this. She couldn't bear it when she thought that Cho Byeol would die just because of her stubbornness. She really felt helpless at this moment.

Tears fell from Cho Byeol's eyes when she heard Eun Kyung, she subconsciously remembered the moments where Eun Kyung teased her again and again. Cho Byeol only remembered Eun Kyung smiling and laughing, she had never seen her so sad. She remembered Eun Kyung smiling every time they had talked, the love and care in Eun Kyung's eyes whenever Eun Kyung looked at her. But when she heard what Eun Kyung said, she knew that those moments would never come again in her life, if she run now. She knew that Eun Kyung would never return again, So how would she tease her or ask anything of her?

Cho Byeol's heart ached when she saw Eun Kyung in such a condition, she was staring blankly at Eun Kyung, she knew that her mom was in pain, not just physical pain but also internally, she knew the pain Eun Kyung was feeling in her heart, the pain of losing her daughter in front of her. 

"But.." Cho Byeol was going to say something when she saw her mom in this condition, but was interrupted by Eun Kyung.

"Just don't come back or it'll be for nothing," Eun Kyung knew that she had no other choice but to give it a try. She had to do her best and hope that Cho Byeol would listen to her and not come back.

Cho Byeol was confused when she heard Eun Kyung, she didn't understand why Eun Kyung would say this all of a sudden. It's not like Cho Byeol agreed to run away. Even if she did, would Su Zhao let her leave so easily? But when she thought about it carefully, she understood something. Why would Eun Kyung insist on her to run away, when she knew that it was impossible to run with Su Zhao around? If Eun Kyung still insisted, that meant that she had a way for Cho Byeol to get out of this situation. When Cho Byeol thought of all this, her expression changed. 

When Su Zhao heard Eun Kyung, his expression became serious, he also had the same thoughts as Cho Byeol. Initially, he didn't stop Eun Kyung and Cho Byeol from speaking with each other. Instead, he was enjoying seeing them in such a situation and such misery. But after hearing what Eun Kyung said, he became vigilant.

There was a white light, the size of a dot, which couldn't be seen with a naked eye around Eun Kyung's hand. 

"And promise me one thing that no matter what happens, you'll never try to kill yourself," Eun Kyung asked Cho Byeol with a serious expression, and the dot-sized white light moved towards Cho Byeol.

Cho Byeol didn't say anything, she just stared at her mom, she knew that something was amiss here, she knew that her mom was planning something.

"Promise me," Eun Kyung said again, and at the same time, the dot-sized light landed on Cho Byeol's body.

"Just fulfill my last wish, please promise me," Eun Kyung said in a low voice while smiling slightly, tears were falling from her eyes.

Cho Byeol's body started to turn into yellow dots slowly, first were her feet, but her whole body was shining in faint white light, not too sharp. 

When Su Zhao saw this, he tried to grab Cho Byeol, but his hand went past her, even though his methods didn't work on Cho Byeol anymore, and were useless.

"Mom, why…," when Cho Byeol saw what was happening to her body, she couldn't stop but ask her mom.

"Just promise me already, we don't have much time left," Eun Kyung said to Cho Byeol again. She wanted her daughter to promise because she knew that Cho Byeol had never faced sadness in her life and this would be impossible for Cho Byeol to bear. She was afraid that Cho Byeol would not be able to bear this and would do something to herself, even killing herself was not impossible. Eun Kyung wanted Cho Byeol to promise, so that Cho Byeol would not do anything to herself after Eun Kyung.

"Mom, why didn't you use it on yourself, you could have escaped instead of me," Cho Byeol shouted.

"We don't have much time, please just promise me that you'll never try to kill yourself, no matter what happens," Eun Kyung said again.

Cho Byeol's whole body had almost disappeared and only half of her upper body was left, which would also disappear very soon.

When Cho Byeol saw herself, she knew that she didn't have much time left, and she also knew that she might not see her mom again, but she still hoped and said, 

"I promise that I won't do anything to myself, no matter what happens, but I will return here quickly with father and other clan elders, you just wait here for me to return,"

With that, her face also disappeared, and Eun Kyung's expression relaxed.

**********