The Lantern of a Thousand Lives
The lantern known as the Flashback was one of the many oil lamps designed to create the illusion of images moving across its surface.
It was sometimes used to symbolize the fleeting nature of time, but its far more famous purpose was as a metaphor for the chance to relive one’s life in its entirety before death.
‘I never believed it.’
Hae-yeon had never bought into that notion.
What on earth could one possibly relive in one’s final moments?
Kurrr! Krug!
The entire research lab trembled as though drained of all its strength.
It felt as if a massive explosion was about to rip through the walls at any second.
Yet, when death’s shadow finally loomed, her life truly flashed before her eyes like a lantern.
– You wretched girl! What kind of studying is that?!
The first image to surface was her father’s furious roar.
His voice was high-pitched and irritable, snarling like an enraged beast.
– You ruined our family’s reputation!
Hae-yeon’s father had spoken those words.
Born into a scholarly family in Beijing, Hae-yeon was what people called a true literary aristocrat.
The difference between a literary aristocrat and a local tycoon lay in one crucial point: power was essential for wealth to multiply and endure.
That was why the imperial examinations held far more meaning than mere tests for a literary aristocrat.
Consequently, her father had wagered everything on his single son.
For the family’s honor as a literary aristocrat to endure, that son had to at least pass the first-level examination.
But that lone son cared nothing for studies.
He lived only for pleasure, games, and indulgence.
In contrast, his daughter Hae-yeon displayed genuine brilliance in her studies.
That was the problem.
Even if Hae-yeon was talented, a woman could never enter government service.
The son who studied and the daughter who excelled—this strange contradiction was twisted in her father’s mind.
– You claim to study yet prance about like a fool, stealing the good fortune meant for your brother?! Burn every last one of those books!
– Burn them all!
Thwack!
Her father ripped every book she had read to shreds and used the pages to fashion torches.
Hae-yeon screamed, but her father listened with a deaf ear.
He only stopped his servant from whipping her after the commotion drew attention.
From that day onward, Hae-yeon believed no one in the world would ever acknowledge her.
That was why she left home.
In that suffocating house, she might have slowly drowned and died.
‘I’ll go to Jianghu.’
There was only one reason she had chosen the martial path.
Beijing was far away, and the reach of her family’s influence ended there.
She wanted to ensure her father or the clan would never find her.
In this way, Hae-yeon stepped into the rivers and lakes and threw herself into the martial world.
It was a simple choice.
If the bureaucratic world refused to recognize her, she would simply enter the one that would.
So she had knocked on the gates of the rivers and lakes.
Those who walked the Dao of the mountains and forests did not look down on a woman.
The place she entered was the Military Department of Sado-cheon.
It suited her perfectly, allowing her to study and grow her abilities without limit.
… Until she caught the eye of Yi Ju, that filthy and ugly bastard.
The moment she thought her life had sunk into a second swamp—
– Will you learn martial arts from me?
Hwang-no had approached her.
Of course Hae-yeon did not trust him.
She had already been scarred by the closest person in her life and was now suffering from a deep distrust of humanity.
– It will help you.
Yet Hwang-no taught her martial arts without asking for anything in return and soothed the wounds in her heart.
Thanks to him, Hae-yeon was able to keep going.
And she gained a realization.
Wounds inflicted by people could only be healed by people.
– Are you all right?
– Rest.
You must be exhausted.
And then she was saved by Jeok-un.
Using Cheonmyeonji on the first person she met, she exerted her utmost to save him, eliminating the fallen enemy Yi Ju who had plunged into the abyss.
That benefactor had left her with a request.
– You can extract salt from waste stone.
– Really? How amazing.
What’s the method?
– I don’t know.
– … Huh?
– From now on, I’ll tell you.
I believe you.
She believed in herself.
He had abandoned her with a ridiculous mission.
Hae-yeon had been bewildered, but rage never came.
Perhaps she had sensed his sincere belief.
‘I wanted to finish it before he came back.’
Thinking of Jeok-un, guilt rose first.
But no matter how far her research lagged, he always said the same thing.
– It’s fine if it’s a little late.
You’re bound to succeed.
The last words Jeok-un had left before leaving were what pulled Hae-yeon back from the lantern.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
‘Pull yourself together.’
Hae-yeon examined the research lab with a self-conscious bite at her lip.
Various tools—elixirs, vials, mortars, and more—lay scattered across the floor.
The central culprit was the large pot in the middle.
A chaotic mixture of all sorts of elixirs and raw materials had been simmered together, but aside from the anomaly, the results were surprisingly good.
Yes, aside from the anomaly.
‘This is dangerous. It’s almost like a Wall Thunderbolt.’
Inside the pot, the elixirs bubbled vigorously, emitting light.
They had been using a new blending formula to create a dissolving solution, but suddenly it had gone into overdrive.
Thanks to that, Hae-yeon had fallen, the desk had shattered, and the elixirs had spilled everywhere.
‘If I think about safety, I should step back right now…’
But she couldn’t.
Without stabilizing this solution, it could still explode.
If it exploded, investigations would follow, and suspicion would fall on Jeok-un at the end.
He was already overly reckless and would be pushed into a corner.
‘I absolutely cannot leave it like this.’
She had not yet repaid the first debt.
In such a situation, she could not allow anything to harm Jeok-un.
‘First, I need to…’
Hae-yeon picked up one of the vials with a trembling hand.
The heat felt as though her skin was burning, but she ignored it.
‘I must stabilize this right here and find a way out.’
So far, no matter what she added to the waste stone, there had been no reaction.
But the fact that a new reaction had occurred meant progress was being made.
They had to end it here.
‘Let me think.
How did the overdrive start?’
The starting point of the reaction and the breaking point of the explosive reaction were the keys.
Hae-yeon recalled every detail of her research with her sharp mind and immediately pinpointed the moment the first reaction occurred.
‘It happened the moment I added the raw material containing yang qi.’
The instant the yang qi-rich material touched the elixir, the overdrive began.
Then, what if she added a material containing yin qi?
First, she had to prevent the current situation from worsening…
‘No.’
Hae-yeon immediately shook her head.
When hot oil is bubbling, adding water does not cool it—it explodes.
‘Then I need to cool the boiling oil.’
Dozens of hypotheses and countless methods swirled through her mind in an instant.
Since the product of hypothesis and method equaled the total amount of methods, there were dozens of solutions to the current crisis.
She could choose only one, and ‘perhaps—no, with a high probability, there would be no second chance.’
So she had to choose carefully but surely.
Hae-yeon pushed her brain to its absolute limit.
‘Yes, this is it.’
At last, one method surfaced.
Without hesitation, she added a piece of the flesh of the fire carp—the yang qi raw material that had caused the overdrive.
‘One more time.’
Yes.
The only way to lower the temperature of boiling oil was to increase its volume.
Thwack!
Hae-yeon added more raw material again and again.
The scorching heat threatened to char her skin, but she did not retreat.
Finally…
Fwuush!
Accompanied by a strange sound like air being sucked out, thick smoke filled the interior.
– Cough, cough!
At the same time, someone entered the lab, coughing.
– Kekek! H-Hae sunbae?
Are… are you all right…?
It was Go Bok-gil.
He had run in the moment he heard the vibration and smelled smoke from the lab.
Go Bok-gil covered his mouth with his sleeve to block the smoke and called out to Hae-yeon, but there was no answer.
Startled, Go Bok-gil feared Hae-yeon had suffocated from the smoke.
‘Absolutely not!’
Go Bok-gil pushed through the smoke, desperately searching for her.
Every breath he took felt as though his lungs were burning, but it did not matter.
To the people of Baekya-dae, Go Bok-gil had already become like family.
‘Damn it! Damn it!!’
How could the martial arts he had learned feel so useless?
He should have trained harder when Jeok-un offered.
If Hae-yeon died because of this, it would be his fault.
Then—
‘!!’
Finally, as the smoke began to thin, he found her.
– Coolk, clup! H-Hae sunbae…?
Go Bok-gil’s eyes slowly widened as he approached Hae-yeon.
Why?
Because in the middle of the ruined research lab stood Hae-yeon upright, holding a large clump of white salt.
– Senior, please call the lord.
– I’ve completed the blending formula.
Despite the smoke still rising, Go Bok-gil’s mouth fell open.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Bang!
Bwaaak!!
– Uwaaaak! It hurts, it hurts, lord!
– You bastard! What did you think was happening?!
Jeok-un shouted in a fury and pummelled Go Bok-gil.
Hwang-no had wanted nothing more than to punch him like Jeok-un, but—
– Ow! Aaaah! W-why the stones?! Aaaah!
Go Bok-gil was wildly dodging, lightly kicking small stones at Jeok-un.
He was running for his life, of course, but he was also chasing Jeok-un as if he wanted to kill him.
– It was tears of emotion!
– Then I’ll give you tears of pain!
– Aaaah!!
Go Bok-gil had to shed tears as salty as the salt piled on the floor.
And while watching the commotion, Hae-yeon smiled with an incredibly bright and radiant expression.