Episode 59
'I’d honestly rather be lonely.'
As I ran Ilwol energy through my body and maximized my senses, a faintly glowing head of purple hair caught my eye.
I couldn’t have mistaken it.
I knew that face too well—far too well.
It was Tang Soyeong, the daughter of the Sichuan Tang family.
“I don’t know what she’s doing out this late at night, but it’s getting ridiculous!”
She paced back and forth in front of the main gate, fuming as if she were waiting for someone.
...
Was she looking for me?
For a brief moment, that thought crossed my mind, but I shook my head.
I was being too sensitive.
She had no reason to come looking for me.
If I had to guess...
'Is this about me popping her a few times?'
All I’d done was flick her on the forehead.
If she’d come to settle the score, she’d be grinding her teeth and waiting for a chance to exact revenge, not standing there so openly and boldly.
Tang Soyeong was that kind of woman.
Besides, she’d abandoned me and latched onto Namgung Jin, her new sugar daddy, so she could live comfortably off all kinds of rare medicines and support funds.
What reason would she have to come looking for me at this hour?
Rustle—
Haah—
Faint, ragged breathing reached my ears.
I looked up at the sky.
Let’s just pretend I didn’t see anything.
I’m overreacting, Sojin.
...
Repeating that to myself, I slowly started walking.
Of course, I was headed for the back gate.
There was no point inviting trouble if I could avoid it.
'I just won’t go through the main gate.'
By now, any good student would already be in dreamland.
If she was still wandering around awake at this hour, she had to be a bad student.
And at this time of night, the martial instructors would be making their rounds. If I got caught, it would be a pain in the ass in more ways than one.
'And also...'
Rustle—
There was one more person.
It didn’t seem like they’d leave just because I pretended not to notice them, either.
Let’s wrap this up quickly.
If I hadn’t reached the tenth level, I would never have sensed them.
Come to think of it, I hadn’t even known anyone was there until I amplified my senses.
“Lady Ju.”
Calling out to her, I stared at the bushes that had been trembling ever so slightly.
...
Still no answer.
Was she not planning to come out all at once?
Did she think I didn’t know where she was?
Even the rough breathing had vanished by now.
It was an almost perfect concealment, but the faint residue of internal energy lingering in the air answered for her instead.
“Lady Ju, I know you’re there. Come out.”
Haah—
Rustle—
After I took a few steps that way, Ju Yeonhwa, who’d been crouching in the bushes, slowly stood up with the expression of a cat caught stealing fish.
Why were you so surprised?
What exactly had you been doing?
“You caught me? I thought I was sure not to get found.... Did you know from the very beginning?”
...
I looked at her and smiled without saying a word.
It had been a stealthy approach, stealthy enough that a normal student would never have noticed it.
But I’d amplified my senses. There was no way I could miss her.
Now that my middle dantian had opened, failing to detect something like that would have been a serious problem.
The cute girl with green hair, worn down to her waist, lifted her head.
“Amazing.... As expected, Young Master Cheon always surprise me.”
“I just got lucky.”
“No... there’s no way you could have noticed just by luck.”
As far as I knew, I hadn’t done anything that would get me in trouble with the Qisheng Fortress or the Murim Alliance yet...
But sneaking after me while hiding her presence like this was more than a little suspicious.
'If I’m not careful, this could become a headache.'
Suppressing my caution, I brushed a few leaves out of her hair and asked, “What brings you out here so late?”
“I was just passing by, and...”
“Your dorm is in the opposite direction. There’s no way you just happened to wander this far.”
Cliche.
Tell me the truth.
Ju Yeonhwa flinched, then rolled her eyes around frantically.
“Huh? Ah... well, that’s...”
I could practically see the gears turning in her head.
Is our relationship really only this shallow?
“The night is long. Please calm down and speak slowly.”
Her face turned red like a ripe tomato, and she couldn’t meet my eyes. Instead, she kept kicking at the ground for no reason at all.
Apparently she hadn’t expected me to notice her at all.
...
She looked thoroughly flustered, but in the end she still didn’t open her mouth.
Ju Yeonhwa.
When in a bad position, invoke your right to remain silent. Noted.
“I’m sure you have your reasons. If it’s difficult, you don’t have to tell me.”
Truthfully, I hadn’t expected her to tell me anyway.
Still, this should put her on guard, too.
“I’m sorry. It feels like I’m hiding something....”
After this, it’d be hard for her to keep tailing me like before.
Let’s send her back here.
For now, learning my seasonal techniques and ultimate moves mattered more.
Until then, a relationship that stayed nice and ordinary would be best.
“Aren’t we comrades? Everyone has one or two things they’d rather keep to themselves. Don’t dwell on it too much...”
“No!!”
Ju Yeonhwa jerked her head up and shouted back at me.
She’s got a strong voice, too.
Why are you yelling?
I hastily put up a sound barrier and looked around.
Fortunately, there was no sign of the martial instructors or Tang Soyeong moving, but they had to have noticed something was off.
I needed to get inside before this became a nuisance.
'I should minimize my senses.'
She was a Super Peak cultivator as well, so if she caught even the slightest hint of something, it could turn into a problem.
...
When I stared at her in silence for a while, she finally realized how loudly she’d just spoken and waved her hands in a flustered panic.
“I’m sorry for shouting.... But I want you to know that you’re the person I trust most, Sojin. I’m not hiding anything.”
Even as she said it, she lowered her head again in embarrassment.
Was that some kind of pouch she’d hidden earlier in the day? Or had I imagined it?
Still, I didn’t press the issue.
“I appreciate the sentiment, but don’t worry. I don’t mind.”
“But...”
It was better if my relationship with Ju Yeonhwa kept a little distance to it.
“I trust you too, Yeonhwa.... And everyone has things they can’t say out loud.”
Noticing the change in her expression, I closed my mouth.
“Trust me...? Nothing hidden...? I’m special? Haa—haa—”
Covering her face with both hands, she trembled and muttered to herself.
Her cheeks were flushed bright red. Something was definitely wrong.
“Lady?”
While she continued mumbling under her breath, she suddenly lifted her face with determined eyes.
“Mm!”
She made a tiny, cute sound, and then two large, springy mounds pressed against my chest.
The soft contact immediately made my body react.
...
Damn it, don’t do that. Get off.
Yang energy surged wildly through me, twisting and turning inside my body.
Ilwol Eumyang Singong was an incredibly powerful martial art, but that also meant it came with serious restrictions. I always had to maintain the balance between yin and yang.
Whenever my yang energy grew too strong, I had to draw yin energy from outside.
'Namgung Jin, one. Ma Jin, two. Cheongmyeong, three....'
I clenched and unclenched my fist, forcing myself to stay calm.
At a distance so close our breaths were touching, she whispered, “I’ll just tell you everything...”
A sweet, floral fragrance tickled my nose.
With great effort, I steadied my mind and gently pushed her away.
“You don’t have to go that far.”
“No, I want you to know I’m not hiding anything from you.... I don’t plan to, either.”
Her straight, earnest eyes looked up at me, and there was even a trace of something desperate in them.
This was how it was going to be?
Hidden in those places were all kinds of secret manuals, elixirs, and martial texts.
'If things go well, I might even be able to find out where Seongcheon Forest is.'
Any martial artist’s heart would race at the thought.
...Especially when it came to the elixirs.
Just looking at Ju Yeonhwa—barely an adult and already close to the Transcendent realm—told me everything I needed to know.
She must have been drinking top-grade elixirs like water.
But still—
“If that’s what you want, Lady, would you tell me why you were following me?”
Even if I asked her to tell me where Seongcheon Forest was right now, she wouldn’t.
“Ah! Yes, that was...”
If you rush into eating, you’ll choke. There was no need to panic. The fact that she’d said that much already meant it was only a matter of time before I got the rest out of her.
At that moment, an all-too-familiar voice stabbed into my ear.
“What are you doing there this late at night...? Who’s that woman...?”
'Damn it.'
This was becoming a pain.
Turning my head, I found Tang Soyeong glaring at me with cold eyes, her arms crossed.
She had definitely noticed us after hearing her own shouting earlier.
“Y-you!!”
Like a mother defending her cub, Ju Yeonhwa grabbed tightly onto one of my sleeves and bared her teeth with a growl.
“You’re so rude! ...Hmph!”
For a while, the two women locked eyes and conducted a silent war of nerves.
This could turn into a fight if I wasn’t careful.
That’s how quarrels between female students started—right from this kind of staring match.
“Please, both of you, calm down.”
Only then did they reluctantly look away.
“...Fine. Sojin. I have something I’d like to talk to you about. Could you spare me a little time?”
Her attitude was so different from usual that it caught my attention.
'What brought her here?'
It was a strangely polite tone.
That didn’t sound like her at all.
I had a few guesses, but nothing certain.
“No, you can’t! This woman is out of her mind! She was sneaking around watching you spar by the main gate earlier, and she even tried to sneak into your room! She was muttering to herself and grinning in this creepy way, too!”
“What absurd nonsense...”
“Then are you saying I’m lying?”
As expected, they immediately started bickering while glaring at each other. And at the very edge of my senses, I caught the presence of two martial artists.
'Are they coming this way? We’ll be caught soon.'
“Enough!”
“Sojin, you can’t get close to that woman. She came looking for you today, too...”
“Hmph! I was just standing there quietly! That woman started the trouble first...”
Each of them complained to me as if they were the injured party.
They really were like cats and dogs.
“The instructors are coming this way. Let’s move somewhere else.”
“The instructors? It’s already patrol time! But I still haven’t been able to say...”
I raised a hand and stopped her next words.
“Go back for today. We’ll talk later. Preferably somewhere we can speak calmly.”
When I spoke in a firm tone, Ju Yeonhwa nodded like a well-behaved child.
“Go back.”
“Y-you’re so cold to me, but not to her...”
“I won’t say it twice.”
“...”
Tang Soyeong made a miserable face and ran off in the opposite direction.
Or maybe it was just my imagination, but Ju Yeonhwa seemed to be in a better mood after that.
*
*
The next day
'If I can get into the Hall of Mirror Jade right away, that would be ideal.'
As I was climbing the stairs to meet Master Raeji, an unexpected pair came into view.
A rare handsome boy and a beautiful girl.
'Nothing strange about it, but... they do stand out.'
I approached them and casually raised a hand in greeting.
“Huh?”
“Why are you here?”
Namgung Jin and Namgung Hye both widened their eyes in obvious surprise when they saw me.
But their reactions couldn’t have been more different.
“S-Sojin? Ah...”
The moment she saw me, she straightened her clothes and then lowered her head shyly, her cheeks turning as red as ripe tomatoes.
And the other one—
“Cheon Sojin, you bastard... What are you doing here?”
He glared at me and snapped irritably.
What’s wrong with him?
At that very moment, Namgung Hye, who had lowered her head again, turned and stared at Namgung Jin with murderous eyes.
##