The Heavenly Poison Witch Remembers
Dokgo Rin would remember this moment. The instant I heard the name Dokgo Rin, it felt like someone had slammed a hammer into the back of my skull. And for good reason—The Heavenly Poison Witch was the murim novel I’d been obsessed with as a high schooler, the one I’d read over and over until the pages practically fell apart. She was its main character.
‘Wait… did I seriously just transmigrate into a trashy murim novel?’
When everyone around me started speaking Chinese, I’d simply assumed I’d been dropped into ancient China. It had never once crossed my mind that this was the exact world from the novel I used to devour. Still, dying and waking up inside my favorite book felt way too convenient to be real. But now that I was looking at her, the girl staring back at me had features that were anything but ordinary.
In The Heavenly Poison Witch, Dokgo Rin was described as an unparalleled beauty. Her hair was supposed to shimmer with a jade-green glow under sunlight, but since she hadn’t started cultivating her poison arts yet, it made sense that it was still pure black. That was why I hadn’t recognized her right away.
“Um… may I ask you one thing?” I spoke carefully.
Even though the current Dokgo Rin was around my age—or possibly even younger—something about her made it impossible to speak casually. It was as if there was an inherent difference in status, like I was talking to a wise elder despite her youthful appearance.
“We’ve only just met. I don’t understand why you’re suddenly telling a complete stranger to speak comfortably with you.”
At that, Dokgo Rin covered her mouth with her dripping wet sleeve and smiled demurely.
“Your joke is going too far.”
“And what if it wasn’t a joke?”
…….
An awkward silence fell between us. Even the maid standing beside her looked shocked, which told me this wasn’t the kind of thing the girl normally said. I fumbled for the right words before finally managing to speak.
“This might be rude, but… if I turned out to be a bad person, what would you do? Why say something like that so easily?”
After all, in the original novel, Dokgo Rin was portrayed as consistently cold, calculating, and ruthless. There was no reason her personality would be any different just because she was still a child.
But as if to mock my expectations, Dokgo Rin looked straight at me with eyes as dark and clear as obsidian.
Her gaze felt like it could pierce straight through a person’s soul.
“…Never mind. I didn’t save you because I wanted anything in return. I’ll be on my way now, so please make sure you get home safely.”
Instinctively sensing danger, I decided to leave immediately. Something told me I absolutely shouldn’t get entangled with her any further. In the original story, her family—the Dokgo Clan—was completely wiped out on the day of her fourteenth birthday by first-class assassins from the Salmun sent by the Murim Alliance Leader, Wiji Cheon. Just being near her meant a high chance of getting dragged into deadly trouble.
Meeting the protagonist of the novel I’d loved so much was certainly exciting, but I had no intention of throwing away this hard-earned second life so carelessly. I had a solid goal now: to live much harder than I had in my previous existence.
I bowed politely and hurried back toward the house. From behind me, Dokgo Rin watched with a mysterious expression before suddenly calling out.
I didn’t turn around. The moment I reacted to those words, I had the eerie feeling they would come true.
‘Today’s luck is completely cursed.’
When I get home, I should probably scatter some salt outside the door.
The Heavenly Poison Witch, Dokgo Rin. In the final moment before her death, the face that rose in her mind was that of her loyal servant, Lee Chilbok.
‘I can finally meet you again. Chilbok.’
The first time she had met Chilbok—the boy who would become her devoted servant—had been eighteen years ago, when she was twelve years old.
‘I went out for a walk with my maid and fell into the water.’
She barely remembered that part of her childhood anymore. Because her father had cherished her so much, most of her early years had been spent confined inside the house. For her, those once-a-month walks had been one of life’s irreplaceable joys.
That day, Dokgo Rin had been especially excited as she strolled through the village. While crossing the stone bridge over the inner stream on her way home, it happened. Still young and careless, she had been running across the bridge when she slipped on some moss.
Splash!
It was over in an instant. The young Dokgo Rin didn’t know how to swim. The one who saved her was none other than Chilbok, who had been passing by on his way home.
‘Looking back now, it was inevitable. That was when I first became conscious of Chilbok.’
It wasn’t simply because he had saved her life. It was because he had rescued her without any calculation or ulterior motive, and even after seeing her face, he treated her like any other person.
When her father learned of this, he immediately summoned Chilbok to the house. Since the boy had lost his parents and had nowhere to go, he was personally taken in as a member of the clan.
That must have been the moment her previously gray life slowly began to gain color.
After becoming her personal servant, Chilbok stayed by her side through everything—both happy times and sad ones. What began as simple affection gradually blossomed into love. Dokgo Rin had always kept men at a distance because of her striking appearance, with the sole exception of her father. Yet Chilbok, who treated her like an ordinary person, became someone truly special to her.
Then tragedy struck.
On the day of her fourteenth birthday, assassins sent by the Murim Alliance Leader Wiji Cheon stormed the clan and slaughtered everyone inside the Dokgo household. She later learned that the reason they had wiped out her family was because of her. The beauty that had been praised as heavenly since childhood had ultimately caused their downfall.
When she tried to rush out in grief over her family’s deaths, it was Chilbok who stopped her. He told her she mustn’t go out now, that she had to endure and live for revenge. After losing everything and becoming a vengeful demon, Dokgo Rin wandered the martial world with Chilbok.
If she had been alone, she might have had to sell her body to survive, but Chilbok refused to allow it. He worked grueling manual labor to feed her and constantly encouraged her to focus solely on avenging her family.
Thanks to him, she was able to master the Dokgo Clan’s supreme sword art, the Nine Palace Matchless Sword Art, at a very young age. She became an absolute master capable of storming the Salmun alone, slaughtering every assassin inside, and escaping with critical information on Wiji Cheon.
All of it was possible because of Chilbok, who supported her with everything he had.
But it seemed heaven itself refused to let her be happy.
While traveling the martial world with Chilbok to catch the tail of their enemy Wiji Cheon, he was captured by the man’s subordinates. He endured brutal torture but never revealed anything about her, ultimately dying without uttering a word.
Consumed by grief, Dokgo Rin began learning every ruthless and demonic technique she could find, no matter how vicious. She cultivated poison arts that endlessly generated toxins inside her body, blood-sucking techniques that stole inner energy by drinking an opponent’s blood, and hidden weapons that used invisible steel threads to shred enemies apart.
Yet she sealed away one of a woman’s greatest weapons—the art of seduction. Because the only person allowed to touch her pure maiden body was already dead and buried.
She trained for another ten years, honing her skills and accumulating immense power through countless fortuitous encounters. At the young age of thirty, she had gathered enough inner energy to equal six cycles of the sixty-year cycle. Finally, she succeeded in a mutual destruction with Wiji Cheon—the enemy of both her family and Chilbok.
Using the ultimate technique of the Nine Palace Matchless Sword Art, the Heaven-Breaking Form, she sliced Wiji Cheon in two. Then, to avoid being caught in the Murim Alliance’s inescapable net, she chose to leap from a cliff.
But she had lost too much blood. As she fell, she lost consciousness. When she opened her eyes again, the face before her was that of a young Chilbok—exactly as he had looked in his childhood.
“What in the world…”
She couldn’t understand it. What had happened? She had clearly finished avenging her family and Chilbok. She had thrown herself from the cliff to prevent her pure body from being defiled by Wiji Cheon’s subordinates.
Yet when she came to her senses, the person in front of her was the young Chilbok.
‘Could I have returned to the past?’
Her chest suddenly felt tight. She felt grateful to the god who had always seemed so cruel to her—because he had given her another chance to start over.
‘…No, this isn’t the time for that.’
Regaining her composure, Dokgo Rin spoke to the still-dazed Chilbok who was staring at her.
“Huh? Ah, yes.”
Only then did Chilbok seem to snap out of it. He nodded hurriedly. The sight was so adorable that she wanted to pull him into her arms and stroke his hair, but she suppressed that desire with all her might and spoke in a slightly pouty voice.
Chilbok answered with a tense expression.
“My name is Lee Chilbok.”
‘Aaaah~ He’s so cute~’
Thanks to the effects of the Great Void Mind Method she had mastered, her thoughts and words were operating on completely separate tracks. It seemed Chilbok hadn’t noticed anything strange yet. Finding even that innocent side of him lovable, Dokgo Rin smiled brightly and said,
In her previous life, she had failed to protect him. But this life would be different. This time, she would protect him until the very end and enjoy a long life together with him.
‘Wiji Cheon, clean your neck and wait for me.’
So first, she would assassinate her future enemy.