Chapter 91: Xi'an (3)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 91: Xi'an (3)
Cheon Yeo-hwa hated winter.
She hated the winter that stole all warmth from her.
And it was a feeling no one could ever understand.
Cheon Yeo-hwa was the Second Young Lady of the Heavenly Demonic Cult and the sixth successor to the Moon Spirit Demonic Art.
One of the Ten Great Demonic Arts of the World, the Moon Spirit Demonic Art had a unique trait: the denser the yin energy, the more efficient one's qi cultivation became.
For a successor of the Moon Spirit Demonic Art to hate winter, the season when yin energy was densest—who would believe it? It was like a pure-white arctic fox claiming to hate the snow.
Despite this common perception, Cheon Yeo-hwa hated winter.
Those who practiced the Moon Spirit Demonic Art developed a resistance to the cold due to the dense yin energy, but their bodies became unable to feel warmth.
However, this didn't mean they became numb to the cold as they did to warmth. The chill simply couldn't harm their bodies, but the raw sensation of coldness remained.
Some might say:
-"You call that an advantage? What nonsense.”
On a cold winter day, even if a biting wind whipped against them as if to tear their skin, a practitioner of the Moon Spirit Demonic Art would not freeze to death.
But in that cold, they would lose the sense of being alive. Though their heart still beat, their entire body felt as cold as a corpse.
Even if she wrapped herself tightly in a thick blanket before a roaring fire, the warmth she craved would never come.
That was why a demonic art was called a demonic art.
It twisted even its few advantages, preventing them from being purely beneficial.
Of course, there was a time when she, too, had fallen asleep blissfully, enveloped in cozy warmth.
The warmth she could feel from no one else, she could feel in the arms of her mother and her wet nurse. When she fell asleep in their embrace, even the cold winter wasn't so bad.
But even that small happiness was not permitted to her.
-"Mother...?”
Her mother died, caught up in some incident, and her wet nurse was murdered by an unknown assailant.
Though the young Cheon Yeo-hwa had no clear proof, she was certain the 1st Young Master was behind all these atrocities.
From that day on, Cheon Yeo-hwa lived for revenge.
Using her position as the Second Young Lady, she aggressively gathered talented individuals and trained in the very Moon Spirit Demonic Art she resented.
With her snow-white hair flying, she slaughtered martial artists of the Orthodox Faction. She rampaged through the conflict zones between the Orthodox and Evil Factions almost daily. When the blood on her hands would no longer wash away and the number of people she had killed became uncountable...
Cheon Yeo-hwa inherited her master's title and became the sixth Moon Spirit Witch.
As a result, her fame within the cult grew day by day, and at some point, she became a candidate for succession, rivaling the 1st Young Master.
But that was as far as she got.
A betrayal by a close aide caused her faction to collapse in an instant. Poisoned with a potent toxin, she became a fugitive overnight. To survive, she had no choice but to leave the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains and head for the distant Central Plains.
Half a year passed as she shook off countless pursuers and wandered without a destination.
She walked through a deserted forest.
The sunlight filtering through the leaves looked warm, but Cheon Yeo-hwa could feel nothing.
The Heavenly Heart Extreme Yang Flower Poison Lotus corroding her dantian was scattering her internal energy and slowly eating away at her life.
Her thirst for revenge against the 1st Young Master remained, but her will to live was fading.
What was she running for?
Unable to give even a meager answer to that question, she was making her way through the forest with lifeless eyes when a small lake appeared.
The lake was so clear it reflected the clouds in the sky.
‘...I’m a mess.’
When she bent down to drink, she saw her own haggard reflection. Dark circles hung heavy under her eyes, mud stained her everywhere, and her tattered robes gave off a foul stench.
Even if her spirit was broken and she had lost the will to live, Cheon Yeo-hwa was still a woman.
Sensing no one nearby, she carefully undressed and submerged herself in the lake.
It was still far from summer, so the water was cold.
An ordinary person would have shivered violently, but Cheon Yeo-hwa began to bathe nonchalantly. She washed the mud from her body and gently shampooed her dust-filled hair.
‘What... what am I even doing?’
She wasn't rushing about trying to find an antidote for the poison, nor did she have a clear destination.
She was simply moving forward, aimlessly, endlessly.
Eventually, she would either be killed by the pursuers who found her, or she would collapse and die somewhere remote when her strength gave out.
She felt that was the only future assigned to her.
Cheon Yeo-hwa quietly looked up at the sky.
Unobscured by trees, the clear, beautiful expanse of the sky was reflected in her eyes.
‘Perhaps this is the place...’
To put an end to this miserable life...
Snap-
“?!”
At the sound of a twig snapping, Cheon Yeo-hwa's head whipped around.
“...Hello?”
A man with a dazed expression stood there, waving his hand.
That was her first meeting with Kang Hyun-woo.
*
So much had happened since she met him.
At first, she thought he was just another common pervert. When she fell into a bandit's trap while chasing him, she assumed he was one of them.
But it didn't take long for her to realize it was all a misunderstanding.
He rescued her and even provided a warm bed and a meal. It was the first kindness she'd received in a long time, but she couldn't easily let her guard down.
Even besides her pursuers, countless martial artists had approached her with lustful intentions.
But he was different.
He would occasionally glance at her chest, but she didn't feel any of the slimy revulsion typical of a lecher.
Furthermore, it was hard to believe he was an assassin sent by the 1st Young Master. He'd had several chances to kill her, but he never tried to harm her.
She grew more and more confused.
Why is he being so kind to me?
Because he's a martial artist from the Orthodox Faction?
Impossible. Many of the martial artists who'd lusted after her were from the Orthodox Faction. Besides, he wasn't even a martial artist.
When he suggested they travel to the nearest city together, she was suspicious, but one look at his goofy face and she was convinced.
She walked through the forest with him.
Just having someone by her side after being alone for so long gave her a strange, indefinable feeling.
She even found herself talking more.
Normally, she wasn't this talkative.
Suddenly, her instincts sounded an alarm.
They were screaming at her not to get any more involved with him.
-"...I cannot explain the details, but you will be in danger if you travel with me. I can tell you the way to Xi'an, so how about we part ways here...?”
He was a rare, good person.
She didn't want him to get caught up in the cult's conflicts.
-"Though our meeting was born of a misunderstanding, I owe you a great deal for this short time. I can't let you...”
The words were caught in her throat.
Once she sent him away?
She would once again be wandering aimlessly, wherever her feet took her.
What lay at the end of that path?
Suddenly, she was afraid.
She thought she had no lingering attachment to life, but it seemed she was wrong.
-"Sorry, but I can't do that. I have a terrible sense of direction. Even if you tell me the way, I'll get lost before long and probably fall off a cliff or something.”
At his reply, she had to clasp her hands behind her back to hide their trembling.
She was so grateful for his playful pretense.
For a moment, she felt the illusion of warmth spreading from her heart.
Ever since losing her mother and wet nurse, she had never once felt anything like it.
-"...Thank you.”
The words, a sincere sentiment with not a hint of falsehood, escaped her lips, but an unease still lingered in a corner of her heart.
If she truly cared for him, if she wanted to repay his kindness, she had to let him go.
No, she had to force him away, even if it hurt.
The 1st Young Master was a man like a viper.
He would never give up the chase until he saw her head.
With her dantian deteriorating from the poison, there was no way she could protect him from the pursuers.
-"Your name.”
But her selfish self couldn't do it.
-"We haven't even properly introduced ourselves, have we?”
He told her his name was Kang Hyun-woo.
Hyun for 'appear,' Woo for 'help.' Did he appear before her because she was a woman in need of help?
A faint smile spread across her lips without her realizing.
After that, with his help, she was able to live like a human being for the first time in a long while. A warm bed and delicious meals breathed a faint spark of life back into her dying body.
But that was all.
-"Pant, pant, pant...”
-"Cheon Yeo-hwa!”
The poison of the Heavenly Heart Extreme Yang Flower Poison Lotus began to rage inside her body once more.
Her body, having overcome countless crises, knew.
She would not survive the night.
Amid the pain of her dantian tearing apart and her heart feeling like it would burst, Cheon Yeo-hwa could smile.
Once she was dead, he could leave this place without any lingering attachments, and his life wouldn't be threatened by the cult's pursuers.
It bothered her that she couldn't properly repay the benefactor who had given her hope in her final moments, but that was the kind of woman she was.
Despite her harsh words and how roughly she treated her subordinates, they had risked their lives to help her escape.
All they had asked for was one thing.
For her to survive. But their worthless master couldn't even grant them that final wish.
-"...Huh?”
She was sure she had closed her eyes, thinking that.
But she was alive, and the poison's virulence had subsided.
Before she could even wonder what had happened, the memory of Kang Hyun-woo's face made her own flush so hot it felt like it would explode.
In that moment, even the side effects of the Moon Spirit Demonic Art were powerless.
It had been warm in her mother's and wet nurse's arms, but this was a different kind of warmth.
She could hardly even look at his sleeping face, and every time his lips moved slightly in his sleep, a corner of her heart ached.
She quietly snuggled into Kang Hyun-woo's embrace.
He mumbled in his sleep and fondled her bottom, but she didn't feel repulsed.
In fact, she wanted him to touch her more.
However, when another woman's name escaped his lips, rage surged through her, and she almost froze everything.
Now, she had to admit it.
He was a kind and charming man. It was inevitable that women would be drawn to him.
Even the Cult Leader himself had five wives and twice as many concubines.
The difference in their power was not even worth discussing, but in terms of pure charm, he was even more wonderful than the Cult Leader.
It was the moment a new goal appeared in her blank-slate life.
She had no experience with men, but she managed to successfully join with him in his embrace.
Of course, his stamina was beyond imagination, and she ended up fainting, but she could say she was happier than ever.
And that happiness reached its peak when she woke, lifting her heavy eyelids to the brilliant morning sun.
The warmth enveloping her entire body, just like when she was in her mother's arms, made her snuggle deeper into his embrace without thinking.
-"It's cold...”
Her body, which couldn't feel the cold due to the Moon Spirit Demonic Art, was lying without a change in expression. It was a happiness that made her do so.
Just as she was wondering if she was allowed to be this happy...
-"...Hm?”
She caught the scent of another woman on him.
It was strange.
They had been entangled all night, so it made no sense for him to smell of another woman.
-"Hyun-woo, you smell of another woman.”
-"...”
-"I believe we need to have a talk... What do you think?”
The result was beyond her imagination.
The ability to travel between worlds... Of course, she was a little angry when she heard he'd been with other women using that ability, but she had no intention of blaming him.
After all, it was only natural for a great man to embrace many women.
In fact, with his ability, he could have any woman he wanted. But he had fewer than ten?
When she heard that, she could feel the corners of her own lips twitching. Moreover, she even felt grateful that he had chosen her among so many women.
However, as time passed, her happiness turned to anxiety and impatience.
They trained together, sweated together, and walked through the city together. It wasn't fancy, but they could drink and eat delicious food at a lively inn, spending what might seem like trivial moments, but were happy times with the man she loved.
Perhaps this was the very life she had always longed for.
When some riffraff from the Hundred Flowers Sect shamelessly hit on her, he didn't hesitate.
Her heart pounded as if it would burst when he declared she was his woman.
But, was this really okay?
The poison had lost its virulence and gone dormant, and even if the neutralizer he gave her would prevent attacks for a while, it would soon reawaken and consume her body.
Wearing the clothes he'd gifted her, walking through the crowded streets guided by his hand, she felt it more clearly.
This was a future that was not yet permitted to her.
The 1st Young Master's demonic grasp would only grow more vicious by the day. Even if her body returned to its peak condition, she was certain that trials and tribulations she couldn't withstand would come.
In the end, it would lead to ruin for both me and Hyun-woo.
In that case.
“...Hyun-woo, let's part ways here.”
“What?”
*
Cheon Yeo-hwa's shocking words instantly changed the atmosphere in the room.
“...Why?”
“...If you stay with me, you'll become unhappy too.”
“You think that's a good enough reason?”
As I took a step forward, Cheon Yeo-hwa took a step back.
“You don't know. You don't know how cruel and relentless the 1st Young Master is.”
“That's fine-”
“No!”
Cheon Yeo-hwa's voice rose.
Her eyes, looking at me, were trembling faintly.
“I'm sorry for deceiving you until now, but I am the Second Young Lady of the Heavenly Demonic Cult.”
I already knew that.
“And the one trying to kill me is the 1st Young Master, the man closest to becoming the next Cult Leader.”
“...”
“For now, the pursuers might not be that strong, so it may seem fine. But what if an elder he's won over comes for me later? What will you do then...? They are the kind of people who would chase me to the very ends of the Central Plains...!”
Her tear-filled voice echoed throughout the room.
Seeing Cheon Yeo-hwa trembling so pitifully made a corner of my heart ache.
“...If they find out you're associated with me, you will be killed too. So please...”
Cheon Yeo-hwa, who had been shouting as if begging, finally broke down. She collapsed to the floor, her long hair spilling around her as she pleaded with me.
“...Fine, I'll leave.”
I drew Gilenium from my waist and threw it on the floor. The sword clattered loudly as it rolled to a stop in front of her.
“But you have to kill me first.”
“...How could I possibly do that...?”
Finally, Cheon Yeo-hwa let her tears fall.
The pearl-like tears dripped down, staining the wooden floor.
I watched her quietly for a moment before slowly approaching and pulling her into an embrace.
“Yeo-hwa, do you know something?”
“...What is it?”
“It took me less than a month to get this strong.”
Of course, if you count the time I spent in other worlds, it's been more than a month. But in terms of time passed in each world, it hasn't.
I have no doubt that I'm getting stronger faster than anyone in the past or future ever could.
“Before that, I was basically a normal person. The only sword I'd ever touched was a kitchen knife, and I was probably weaker than the people walking around outside right now.”
“...You're lying.”
“You don't believe me?”
I gently caressed the cheek of Cheon Yeo-hwa, whose head was bowed low. Only then did she look up.
Her eyes were red-rimmed and filled with tears.
“What about another month from now? Or half a year? Or a year?”
“...”
“No matter who comes for you, you won't die. And neither will I.”
Even if I have to spend decades in another world and then return.
“So, are you going to ask me to leave again?”
Cheon Yeo-hwa slowly shook her head.