A Miracle in the Blood Valley

It was a miracle. Baek Un-hyeon’s body had caught on a tree branch halfway down the cliff of the Yeon-yeon Blood Valley, saving his life. The poisonous fog made the bottom impossible to see, but the actual height wasn’t that great. A stroke of incredible luck. Yet nothing more was permitted to him.

His body refused to move at all. There was no sensation below his neck. Not even a single finger would twitch. Forcing his fading consciousness to hold on, Un-hyeon scanned his surroundings. The fog was so thick he couldn’t see even an inch ahead. He had clearly fallen from the cliff, so the rock wall should have been right beside him, yet no matter where he reached, there was no stone to be found.

Moreover, every breath felt as if his body were rotting from the inside. He couldn’t tell whether this was proof that he had truly reached the Yeon-yeon Blood Valley or simply that he was dying. The agony was similar to when he had faced the demonic humans, yet somehow different.

Within the fog where almost no light reached, something black was approaching. A nauseating, rancid stench stabbed his nose, followed by a low, rumbling growl. Two red glints leaked out from the darkness—eyes of a beast.

The creature drew nearer, drool dripping from its jaws. Baek Un-hyeon tried to steady his breathing, but a gout of blood burst from his mouth instead. Crimson splattered across the ground. The beast’s eyes flashed. It had realized its prey was dying. Yet because of wariness toward this unfamiliar being, it did not approach recklessly.

It circled him slowly, tightening the distance in a stance ready to pounce at any moment. Little by little. Then, when only a few steps remained, Un-hyeon staggered, unable to hold himself upright. The beast charged with absolute certainty.

Its forepaw slammed into Baek Un-hyeon’s body. A faint groan escaped him, but he felt nothing. His body had lost so much function that he couldn’t even register pain properly. Un-hyeon could offer no resistance and simply collapsed.

Was this how he would die? Without accomplishing anything, simply vanishing like this?

The beast must have thought its prey was truly finished, for it relaxed. It sank its teeth into Baek Un-hyeon’s arm. The wet crunch of chewing followed. Gooseflesh rose across his skin, yet even that sensation was absent.

“Mother… Father…”

He slowly closed his eyes. Had revenge been nothing more than a fleeting dream? A single tear slid down his cheek.

At that moment, the sound of metal clanking echoed from beyond the fog. The beast sprang up in alarm. It tried to drag Baek Un-hyeon’s blood-soaked body away with its mouth, but its jaws apparently lacked the strength. With a reluctant expression, the creature abandoned him and fled into the darkness.

Baek Un-hyeon lost consciousness completely.

A short while later, Un-hyeon opened his eyes amid searing pain. He had been certain this time he would die for good. Yet somehow he had survived again.

The pain was truly excruciating. Especially the right side that the beast had chewed—the sensation made him feel as if he might faint again at any second.

“…”

But sensation had returned to a body that had been completely numb. Un-hyeon wondered if this was the final chance granted by the heavens. He staggered to his feet. At least his legs had not been bitten off. He began walking in the direction from which the clanking sound had come earlier.

Since he could barely see an inch ahead, he had no choice but to rely entirely on sound. In truth, he didn’t even know if this was the correct direction. He simply walked, thinking it must be somewhere around here.

“This is…”

Fortunately the distance wasn’t far. Something soon caught his eye. But it was not what he had hoped for.

“A corpse… I suppose.”

It was a mummified body wearing shackles so thick around its wrists and ankles that they looked like they could crush bone. From the way it sat in a cross-legged position even in death, it seemed the person had died while attempting to circulate their qi. Considering the legends passed down about the Yeon-yeon Blood Valley, they must have fought with everything they had to survive. And yet, in the end, they had met such a miserable fate.

His own body was in such terrible condition that he could no longer circulate internal energy, but instinctively he realized that doing so here would be fatal. Even in perfect health, using inner qi would have caused his body to explode. Conversely, if he simply stayed here, he would eventually succumb to the poison saturating the air.

He had already reached the depths of despair, yet another ripple stirred in his heart. He had thought that whatever had driven the beast away might be a person, but this place held only the dead.

Of course, he wasn’t foolish enough to start trusting people again. Still, the presence of a living person would have meant that this place was not necessarily a tomb. The existence of a corpse, however…

“I cannot give up.”

Even so, Baek Un-hyeon could not surrender here. If he let go of life like this, how could he face his parents who had died so unjustly? He had to return alive, take his revenge, and lay their grudges to rest.

“…This is.”

Then something carved in front of the mummified body caught Un-hyeon’s eye. The engraving had been etched with desperate strength, resisting both the extreme poison and the erosion of time.

Reverse-Blood Fairy Wi Cheong-ran. A title and name he had never heard before. If this ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was carved fifty years ago, then the mummified body belonged to someone from a very long time past.

Un-hyeon continued reading. A brief account explained why she had been imprisoned here and what kind of figure she had been in the jianghu. And then—

The text that followed was far more detailed than what came before. Most of it concerned her insights into the cultivation method. There was not the slightest hint of a desire for revenge over the injustice done to her. Above all, the most striking part of the martial explanation was that this art had been created to withstand the poison of the Yeon-yeon Blood Valley.

Her sect’s core technique had fortunately been compatible with the valley’s poison, and after long years of modification it had been reborn as a method that could perfectly adapt to the extreme cold poison of the blood valley.

“Reverse-Blood Divine Art…”

But there was one problem.

A man full of yang energy would face unpredictable consequences from the bone-chilling cold poison of the valley. Moreover—

“My dantian is already destroyed.”

The price of burning his Source True Qi twice in such a short time. Not only his dantian, but the functions of all his internal organs were clearly deteriorating.

Un-hyeon closed his eyes for a moment. There was no need for long deliberation. The chance of finding anything else here was nearly zero. If he remained like this, he would collapse and die within the hour.

He raised the one arm he still had and performed a deep, respectful bow before the mummified body of the Reverse-Blood Fairy.

“This disciple offers nine kowtows to Master… Please watch over me.”

There was not a shred of hesitation about whether he could learn martial arts with a ruined dantian and broken body. He would simply make this final attempt. If it failed, he would perish. Besides, unlike ordinary cultivation methods, this core technique uniquely used the cold poison within the valley to transform the practitioner’s constitution.

He examined the insights left by the Reverse-Blood Fairy once more, reading them over and over to ensure he had not misunderstood even a single character. Then he sat in the lotus position and began circulating his energy according to her teachings.

“Ugh!”

He ran into a wall the instant he started. His body simply could not endure it. Blood surged up his throat and sprayed out. Un-hyeon clenched his teeth and focused again. He needed to empty his body first, but ironically that was no longer necessary. It was already hollow, his life force scraped to the bottom.

Into a body emptied beyond emptiness, he drew in the cold poison.

“Khhhrgh…!”

He felt the chill pierce straight to his marrow. Soon that cold wrapped around his entire body, becoming countless needles that stabbed every inch of him. They did not merely pierce—they burrowed beneath his skin and danced inside his flesh. It was impossible to maintain focus.

“Aaaaagh!!”

A scream tore from his throat. Blood-mixed saliva poured endlessly from his mouth. He writhed and rolled across the ground. Yet Un-hyeon did not stop absorbing the energy. He twisted his body desperately, struggling to maintain even a semblance of the lotus position.

“Aaaaaaaaagh!!!!!”

His screams filled the entire valley.

“Wouldn’t it be better to study like your father and only experience the martial world in passing? You have a good head on your shoulders—you could certainly rise to a high official post.”

One day his mother had said this. Un-hyeon, who had been training with fierce concentration, wiped away his sweat and glanced at her sideways.

“I told you I’m going to become the greatest under heaven.”

Still young, Un-hyeon had been full of vigor. After easily beating older boys at the local martial school and witnessing the skills of various martial artists who visited the county, he had gained a kind of certainty. His talent was not something ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠that would rot away in a tiny place like Wungye County.

“Mother worries. Martial artists are dangerous people who draw their blades first no matter the situation…”

“If I become stronger than all of them combined, that won’t happen, will it?”

“That’s knowing only one thing and not the other. No matter how strong you become, you will be alone. Our Baek family manor cannot protect you.”

“You stay inside the house all the time. What would you know?”

Irritated by her continued attempts to persuade him, the sharp words slipped out. Only after seeing his mother fall momentarily silent did Un-hyeon realize he had gone too far.

“If I become the greatest under heaven… or at least a recognized martial artist… your thoughts will change, Mother.”

“Perhaps they will…”

Neither of them had been wrong. Not Un-hyeon, and not his mother.

“Haaah…!”

He opened his eyes with a sharp gasp. The moment he did, a violent cough tore out of him. His throat burned as if he had swallowed fire. Clutching his neck, he retched up everything inside. Something kept pouring out endlessly. It was pitch-black blood. Only after spitting out several mouthfuls could he finally breathe.

He wiped his face with both hands.

“…?”

Both hands. Un-hyeon rubbed his eyes and stared at them again. He couldn’t be certain because the sun was obscured by fog, but these were clearly not the scarred, torn hands he had once possessed. They were pale, slender, and delicate—as if they had never been used for labor in an entire lifetime. And both of them were perfectly intact.

Only then did he remember what he had been doing right before losing consciousness. He was alive. Being alive meant—

—that the cultivation had succeeded.

His vision gradually stabilized. His body felt unbearably strange. When he looked down, instead of the firm, muscled chest he had known all his life, he saw something he had never seen before. Parts of it were stained dark red with the blood he had just vomited, yet even so, the soft, unwanted curves of pale skin were unmistakable. It seemed his clothes had disintegrated during the circulation of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠energy.

“What the…”

Forcing himself to remain calm, he examined his body carefully. Sure enough, the muscles forged through years of training were gone, replaced by soft flesh in every place.

Baek Un-hyeon—now simply staring blankly for a long time—finally spoke.

“It doesn’t matter.”

That was all. Recalling his current situation, his face returned to its usual composure.

“In fact, this might be for the best.”

Comforting himself with those words and giving thanks that at least his limbs were intact, he—no, she—rose to her feet.

There was not a moment to waste on despair simply because her body had become that of a slender woman.