Chaeeum Boyang (2)
“I can’t wait any longer. I’m going to Master.”
As the sky began to dye itself in sunset hues, Yeon Wol could bear it no more. She knew her master wasn’t the type to be this late. Of course, Baek Jincheon was a grown man and a martial artist. Worrying over him not returning home by evening was overreacting, plain and simple. And Yeon Wol knew that all too well, especially since she turned hypersensitive about anything involving Baek Jincheon.
On any normal day, she wouldn’t have been this frantic if Baek Jincheon was just running a bit late in Cheonbaekhyeon. But this wasn’t a normal day.
Baek Jincheon hadn’t gone down the mountain to Cheonbaekhyeon for groceries or errands like usual. He’d gone to call off the engagement with that woman he’d met yesterday. It shouldn’t have taken long at all—just a few words, open mouth, close mouth, done. Yet the man who’d left in the morning hadn’t returned by evening? Something had definitely gone wrong. And it was something that boded ill for Yeon Wol.
That woman wasn’t just some ordinary person. She was a martial artist. A pretty damn strong one, too. If a master like that pounces on Master...
Yeon Wol raced through the air, using tree leaves as footholds, her mind conjuring the absolute worst scenario for Baek Jincheon. Master’s the handsomest man in the world, and just as kind. It’s not weird at all for a woman to fall head over heels at first sight.
She tried empathizing with the woman she’d seen Baek Jincheon meeting yesterday, dashing through the sky as she did. But if Master tells her in that situation, “Let’s never meet again”...
Ugh. Oh god. It’s horrifying just imagining it.
Just picturing Baek Jincheon saying those words to her made Yeon Wol break out in cold sweat, her heart pounding like a drum. If she heard that from him, she’d pounce right then and there, make sure he could never leave her. Just like last night.
Could another woman not do the same? “If I could do it, then any other woman could too. Master’s a man worth it.”
Only then did it hit Yeon Wol: she’d sent Baek Jincheon alone into a den of venomous snakes coiled and ready to strike.
I let my guard down after taking his semen and easing my tension. I shouldn’t have let Master go alone. I should’ve gone with him...!
To her, he was a fragile master, a precious soul she, his fully grown disciple, had to protect.
“Hurry... I have to hurry. Before it’s too late...!”
As night crept into the sky and the air grew chill, Yeon Wol’s heart turned ice-cold. She sprinted down the mountain at full speed, arriving in Cheonbaekhyeon just as darkness fell.
When the villagers told her Baek Jincheon had headed to Jinhyup Gaekjan, it felt like every drop of blood in her body froze solid.
An inn? Master went to an inn to meet that woman?
Inns had rooms. Rooms had beds. What if innocent Master heard her say, “Have some tea before you go,” and followed her inside?
Yeon Wol bolted straight for Jinhyup Gaekjan. She didn’t know where it was—she’d been away on her journey through the martial world—but that was fine. In this backwater like Cheonbaekhyeon, a nine-story inn stood out anywhere.
If Master drinks tea laced with an aphrodisiac and groans, “Ugh... Miss, something’s wrong with my body. My chest is suddenly burning, my heart racing. Please, call a physician...”
Then that woman giggles, “Ufufu, young master. I know the cure. Don’t worry—just leave your body to me,” and slowly peels off his robe from the top. Starting with those firm shoulders, his collarbone, that solid chest, savoring every inch...
“N-No! That absolutely can’t happen!”
Yeon Wol ran faster than ever, reaching the grand entrance of Jinhyup Gaekjan in a flash. The sign boldly proclaimed it an affiliate of the Murim Alliance, but her crimson eyes had no time for such trivia.
“Where? Where’s Master? Focus. At this distance, I can find him.”
The moment she imagined Baek Jincheon getting ravished by some strange woman, Yeon Wol’s senses sharpened to their limit.
The lip marks she’d left all over his cock that morning still lingered, infused with her qi. Her honed senses picked up on that trace of her own energy clinging to his manhood.
She snapped her head up, staring at the ninth floor of Jinhyup Gaekjan.
“...There.”
Pop!
The instant she pinpointed his location, Yeon Wol vaulted over the wall, scaled it like a spider, and reached his room on the ninth floor in seconds.
Creak!
She yanked open the closed window, leaped inside onto the sill, and what she saw made her freeze.
“...Ha?”
That damned bitch was stripping the pants off her unconscious master, staring down at his cock.
“...You crazy slut!”
The scene burned into Yeon Wol’s red eyes, and snap—the thread of her reason snapped.
※
“Get off him, you filthy whore!”
Crash!
Bursting through the window, Yeon Wol thrust her qi-charged fingertips at Jin Seoryeong without hesitation. A piercing strike that could skewer a thick Cheonbaeksan oak in one go—pure destruction.
Jin Seoryeong, the target, was in the midst of trying to mount Baek Jincheon, kneeling beside the bed in a vulnerable posture. Defending against a sudden ambush like this was a terrible position.
Thud.
But as if the disadvantage meant nothing, Jin Seoryeong effortlessly grabbed Yeon Wol’s wrist.
She had the skill to turn any unfavorable situation in her favor.
“Ugh?!”
“White hair... red eyes. Baek Jincheon’s disciple?”
“L-Let go!”
Smack!
Yeon Wol surged her inner energy, shaking off Jin Seoryeong’s grip, and quickly put distance between them. A single clash was all it took for her genius talent to gauge the gap.
The woman before her, Jin Seoryeong, was undeniably stronger. By an endless margin.
“Nngh...”
For Yeon Wol, who’d never faced anyone stronger, Jin Seoryeong was her first true wall. No hope of victory flickered in her mind. But she had a reason to win—she had to defeat Jin Seoryeong to protect her beloved master.
As Yeon Wol racked her brain for a way to topple the enemy before her, Jin Seoryeong spoke.
“You... I heard you left on a journey through the martial world three months ago? Just got back?”
Jin Seoryeong had eyes on Baek Jincheon, so she knew he had a disciple—and that the disciple had left three months back.
But that disciple had just burst into her room and launched a killing blow? It was only natural to find it odd.
“...What?”
But to Yeon Wol, those words rang differently.
“How do you know that?”
“Huh?”
“That I left on my journey three months ago. You just met Master yesterday—how would you know?”
“...Oh.”
“You’ve been stalking us?”
From Jin Seoryeong’s words, Yeon Wol pieced it together: this woman had been spying on her and her master—especially her master.
That much was true. Jin Seoryeong had been watching Baek Jincheon.
“While I was gone, you tried to steal Master away? Trick the innocent man, fuck him, and keep him as your boy toy!”
“Uh, yeah?”
But from there, it was all lies. Well, half-true at best.
Jin Seoryeong did want to marry Baek Jincheon. But she had no intention of snatching him while Yeon Wol was away. To her, Yeon Wol was just Baek Jincheon’s disciple—nothing more, nothing less.
“That’s not it. I just wanted Baek Jincheon...”
“Don’t lie! You’re trying to fuck him right now!”
“Ah...”
Jin Seoryeong tried to explain, but Yeon Wol’s shout left her speechless.
From an outsider’s view, yeah—this looked exactly like Jin Seoryeong trying to rape a sleeping Baek Jincheon.
But Jin Seoryeong was five years older than Yeon Wol, an adult who could talk her way out of this.
“Hey, Baek Jincheon’s disciple. Hear me out. Right now, Baek Jincheon is...”
She tried to calmly explain the situation, but Yeon Wol cut her off.
“Shut up! Don’t you dare say my master’s name with that filthy mouth!”
“...Ha?”
Her rage-filled words halted Jin Seoryeong cold.
How the hell do I even unravel this? It’s a total misunderstanding, but anyone would think the same...
As Jin Seoryeong grappled with the tangled mess, Yeon Wol branded the woman before her an enemy. One who’d spied on her and her master, tried to steal him in her absence. Rejected by him, she’d knocked him out to rape him—a depraved whore.
This woman was the enemy. To live peacefully with her master, she had to be eliminated.
And as clear killing intent bloomed in Yeon Wol’s chest...
Crack—crackle!
Something inside her shattered.
“...This energy.”
For the first time, seriousness clouded the blue eyes of Jin Seoryeong, which had held only leisure and annoyance until now.