Tell Me the Answer
Before I heard her answer, I already knew.
Before my regression, Ha Seo-hwa had been a genius among geniuses, one of the Five Dragons and Three Phoenixes.
It was the day my feud with the Blood Sky Demon Sect began. In other words, the day before the Yongbongjihoe.
Of course, Ha Seo-hwa was there as well.
The gathered prodigies of the younger generation who had made it into the Five Dragons and Three Phoenixes were staying at an inn in a village near Xiangyang County.
We were exchanging greetings and enjoying a rare moment of warmth, catching up with one another in good spirits.
That lasted until refugees who had fled from Xiangyang County entered the village.
They brought word that the Zhuge Clan Residence had fallen to the Blood Sky Demon Sect.
There was only one reason the Blood Sky Demon Sect had attacked the Zhuge Clan.
Whenever the war between the righteous and demonic factions broke out, or the war between the righteous and blood factions, the Zhuge Clan had always served as the brains of the orthodox side and carried the war to victory.
The moment that news spread, the villagers all became refugees themselves.
They packed as lightly as they could so they could flee as far as possible, and even beasts of burden like horses and oxen were brought out.
Meanwhile, the martial artists who were in the village gathered in one place, making plans with death in mind.
They were buying time for the refugees to escape.
At the time, I was the only martial artist among them who ranked among the Top One Hundred Masters of the Under Heaven, so I led the plan myself.
Before preparing for the Blood Sky Demon Sect’s attack, I excluded two of the younger prodigies from the operation.
One was Zhuge Yeon-wol.
The Zhuge Clan’s last surviving branch, who had happened to escape the flames by earning her place among the Five Dragons and Three Phoenixes.
I sent her away with the refugees.
“Young Lady Zhuge, flee with the refugees. If you die here as well, the Murim Alliance will truly lose its head.”
“Young Master, but—”
“In the wars to come, you will be more useful than any master here. Don’t forget that you must think of the future. More than that, if you remain here, the Zhuge Clan will truly suffer extermination.”
And the woman I sent away with Zhuge Yeon-wol.
That woman was Ha Seo-hwa.
“Senior sister, you should go too. Bandits and pirates don’t care about the time of day, and the road will be dangerous. Someone has to escort the refugees safely out of here, don’t you agree?”
There was only one reason for that.
Ever since she heard the news about the Blood Sky Demon Sect, she had been pretending to stay calm, but her fingertips were trembling in tiny, visible spasms.
The comrades around us were masters acknowledged by the entire world, and yet none of us could be composed when faced with death.
Everyone was like that.
But Ha Seo-hwa couldn’t even pretend to be composed.
“...I can’t leave all of you behind.”
Even so.
Ha Seo-hwa was shaking with fear, yet she hesitated to leave us.
She was also a disciple of a prestigious orthodox sect.
She was afraid, but she simply couldn’t make herself run away and leave us behind.
And yet a martial artist who has not prepared to face death is barely better than none at all.
If fear swallowed her whole, she could die under the blind swing of a third-class martial artist’s blade. And if one comrade died, the others would naturally be thrown into disarray.
That was how I judged her then: she would only be a hindrance on the battlefield.
“You must go, Senior Sister.”
“I...”
“This is not a request from a junior disciple. It is an order from the future sect leader of Mount Hua Sect. Leave here with Young Lady Zhuge and escort the refugees. Your task is to report the Blood Sky Demon Sect to the Murim Alliance branch as quickly as possible.”
“...”
“Now!”
“...I will obey the order.”
Only now did I understand what I hadn’t realized then.
Ha Seo-hwa feared violence without limit.
Just like the black-clad scoundrels who had killed her parents and shattered the peaceful life she once knew.
A heart demon.
It was the source of the fear that obstructed her progress.
After losing her parents and entering Mount Hua Sect, she had become fanatically obsessed with training.
As a result, she rose to become a master of Transcendence at a young age, and even achieved the feat of having her name written among the Five Dragons and Three Phoenixes.
The battles fought by a master at Transcendence are simple.
Cut the enemy down with sword qi.
That was because opponents who had reached Transcendence were exceedingly rare, even across the whole world.
Even if the opponent was a Peak master seasoned by life-and-death combat, there was no reason to feel threatened.
And yet, because of that, she had no courage to stake her life in resistance against a power she could not oppose.
She had grown strong with a weak spirit, so when the moment came that demanded a truly strong spirit, she reverted to weakness.
After obeying my order and fleeing the battlefield, she must have gained some kind of realization, because she later distinguished herself in several battles.
And yet, before half a year had passed, I heard that she had been killed by an elder of the Blood Sky Demon Sect.
—I’m sorry...
Whenever she returned from war, she always came to the Library and offered an apology before leaving again.
I never knew what she was apologizing for.
Back then, I didn’t have the leisure to worry about her.
I was pouring all my time and effort into finding a clue that could restore the Violet Mist Divine Art.
But after hearing of her death...
I did once regret, far too late, that I should have spoken to her a little more.
We were close in body, and yet our hearts remained far apart.
That was why I could never bring myself to coldly shove away young Ha Seo-hwa, no matter how annoyingly she clung to me.
“Sung-woon.”
“...”
“Sung-woon. Can you hear me?”
“...Yes, Master.”
I opened the eyes I had slowly closed and answered.
Only after hearing my reply did Master remove her hand from my back.
“That will do. You’ve mastered the method of taking the pill very well.”
“I can feel my inner energy increasing, even if only a little.”
“That is the power of elixirs and pills. To think that simply taking one can increase your inner energy—what a tremendous treasure. But as I said before, if you swallow pills recklessly in the hope of increasing your inner energy, you could suffer serious harm from qi deviation. You must always think about what amount you can handle.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
“Take the Nine Yang Pill whenever you think you need it. It was the first pill you earned through your own achievement, so use it as your heart leads you if you want to truly master it.”
Today’s training ended there.
While I was learning how to take elixirs from Master, Ha Seo-hwa had taken the Little Yang Pill she brought with her.
“You may play in the woods if you like, but don’t be late for dinner. You worked hard today.”
With those words, Master entered her room.
I turned to Ha Seo-hwa, who had finished circulating her qi, and said, “Take your wooden sword. Let’s go.”
“Mm.”
“We’re not going to start fighting the moment we get there. I’m going to take the Nine Yang Pill first.”
“...All right.”
“It’ll be different from before, so prepare yourself.”
Ha Seo-hwa picked up her wooden sword and stayed close behind me.
Today, I was going to drive her into misery.
So that she could stand noble even in the face of fear.
As soon as we were deep enough into the woods, I sat down beneath a tree and folded my legs into a lotus position.
Without hesitation, I opened the wooden box and threw the Nine Yang Pill into my mouth.
The moment it entered, the pill began to soften, then flowed down my throat like mist.
I used the Violet Mist Divine Art to slowly dissolve its energy.
The Violet Mist Divine Art was a martial art of extreme yang nature.
It accepted the Nine Yang Pill’s power remarkably well.
As expected of a divine art.
Ordinarily, after taking a pill, one had to circulate one’s qi for more than a full day to dissolve and settle the energy.
Even among elixirs condensed from natural energy, there were rare kinds that could take more than half a year to gradually melt into the body.
Pills, by contrast, were made on the assumption that human beings would consume them, so they only took a day.
But I had seen records stating that the ancestors who practiced the Violet Mist Divine Art absorbed pills and elixirs at tremendous speed.
Was that because even the act of circulating internal energy was an extremely difficult discipline?
In that case, I might be able to absorb elixirs faster than I thought.
The hot, extreme yang energy quickly dissolved the pill’s power and drew it into my dantian.
When I opened my eyes, only half a shichen had passed.
Because I had absorbed it in such a hurry, I hadn’t been able to fully settle all ten years of inner energy.
What I fully digested was seven years’ worth.
The remaining three years’ worth would be slowly dissolved over the next two days.
But this much was already more than enough to break Ha Seo-hwa.
I brushed myself up, stood, and took my wooden sword in hand.
“Have you finished preparing yourself?”
Ha Seo-hwa answered only by nodding in silence.
She raised her sword and took her starting stance.
There was no need for words now.
What remained would be spoken with the sword.
I charged at Ha Seo-hwa.
* * *
The instant our first strikes collided, Ha Seo-hwa was shocked.
Because the strength of the one who had trained for two years less than she had was equal to her own.
“Hngh...!”
We both shoved our wooden swords hard, forcing the other back.
The distance we were driven from the center was almost identical.
She knew the source of that mysterious power was the Nine Yang Pill she had just taken.
This won’t work the way it did before, by simply overpowering him with inner energy.
As the grand-disciple of an elder, Ha Seo-hwa had also taken many pills over the years. Even with Yoo Sung-woon having taken the Nine Yang Pill, she still had the larger total reserve of inner energy.
But she had no intention of turning this into a battle of attrition.
She, too, had gained a realization from watching Yoo Sung-woon’s Falling Blossom Sword Art the day before.
After spending a long time swinging a wooden sword on the training grounds, she had raised the realm of her Falling Blossom Sword Art.
From eighty percent to ninety percent.
The sword advances without mercy.
Ha Seo-hwa’s wooden sword, boosted by her power, moved with exquisite grace.
Falling Blossom Sword Art, fourth stance.
Sword Emerges Without Mercy.
The sword tip drew a level line and rushed at Yoo Sung-woon.
Yoo Sung-woon also met her with the same stance. Their wooden swords traced identical arcs. The blades collided at the same point and cancelled each other’s attack.
Even though I’ve raised my power this much...!
Yoo Sung-woon had somehow matched her inner energy almost exactly.
It was an application of internal energy so precise it was hard to believe this was the same disciple who had just taken a pill.
He did not push her back.
But, on the other hand, he did not yield ground either.
Yoo Sung-woon’s sword was faster, stronger, and more fluid than in their earlier spar.
And yet—
I can deal with this.
She had taken the Little Yang Pill she had been saving after gaining a small realization the previous night.
If she just pushed a little harder, she could win.
The moment that thought crossed her mind, Yoo Sung-woon’s atmosphere changed completely.
His arms seemed to multiply into dozens.
So did the wooden sword in his hand.
The wind raised by the sword skimmed across Ha Seo-hwa’s body three times in the blink of an eye.
If she had had any spare attention, she would surely have broken into a cold sweat.
But her opponent gave her no such luxury.
The lightning-fast sword strikes that her eyes could not follow kept shaking her defense apart without pause.
There was no calculation in that sword.
It was a sword technique wielded for one purpose only: to destroy its target.
A strike to the arm. A strike to the abdomen.
Another attack aimed at the arm; she blocked it.
A palm strike from her left hand, the hand that did not hold the sword; she failed to block it. It slammed into her side.
Lower cut, horizontal cut, rising slash—
Right thigh, left flank, then right shoulder again.
She defended, but he broke through.
She blocked, but he blasted through.
She counterattacked, but he dismantled it.
She created distance, and he closed it again.
Yoo Sung-woon battered Ha Seo-hwa’s wooden sword and body as though he were hacking her apart.
Under the merciless barrage, Ha Seo-hwa had no choice but to take half the assault on her wooden sword and the other half with her own body.
It hurts, it hurts, it hurts...
It hurt.
But more bitter than the pain was the fact that, after training so hard, she still could do nothing at all.
Tears welled in her eyes, not from pain but from frustration.
The dignity of being a senior sister was being trampled.
Even the hope she had clung to—that she might still seize the advantage—had vanished.
Like a small lizard with its tail caught by a child, she was being toyed with and left unable to move a step.
Thinking he had driven her far enough, Yoo Sung-woon suddenly stopped swinging his wooden sword.
Ha Seo-hwa was slightly taller than Yoo Sung-woon.
But even without attacking, he looked down at her as she trembled at the tip of his sword.
When a lizard senses danger, it sheds its tail and flees.
“Your waist is bending more and more.”
At Yoo Sung-woon’s words, Ha Seo-hwa froze.
Without realizing it, she had risen onto her toes and been slowly arching her back away from him.
Like a small animal preparing to flee any danger at any moment.
It’s all right to run, Ha Seo-hwa.
Yoo Sung-woon thought to himself.
Very few people can truly face fear.
Ha Seo-hwa needed to stand before hers.
Now that she knew martial arts, if she kept running from fear, her heart demon would only grow deeper.
Anyway, she could not fight her fear in her current state.
So I intended to drive her until she felt as if there was nowhere left to run.
If there is nowhere left to run, then there are only two choices.
Either she breaks there and then.
Or she draws her sword to overcome her fear.
Yoo Sung-woon deliberately pushed his internal energy into his throat, deepening his voice.
“You can run.”
It was the voice of an adult, a voice no child should have been able to make.
She knew that much too.
Yoo Sung-woon was a boy only slightly smaller than she was.
But as the sun set and darkness spread through the woods, the outline of that figure blurred, and the deep voice reminded her of the black-clad scoundrel who had murdered her father and mother, as if the day her life was twisted beyond repair had risen up again before her eyes.
“If you can run.”
The words had barely left his mouth before Ha Seo-hwa was already running.
This wasn’t life-or-death combat, just a simple spar. But Ha Seo-hwa had no room left in her mind to recognize that. Fleeing was reflex.
She had learned martial arts. This was not the same as that day.
She might not have the courage to resist, but she had built the strength to run.
When Ha Seo-hwa turned her back and sprinted into the woods...
Yoo Sung-woon used lightness skill to pursue her as well.
With trees between them, the two of them raced through the dark forest.
Yoo Sung-woon overtook Ha Seo-hwa in the run, then kicked off the ground.
He sent his body leaping through the air and charged straight at her.
Then, without hesitation, he raced toward a tree slightly off to the side of Ha Seo-hwa’s front.
With a rasping sound, as though fingertips were scraping bark away, he seized it.
He used the tree itself as a pivot and changed direction.
“I said this wasn’t a race to see who could run faster.”
Even after he changed direction, the force of his charge did not break; it was redirected back toward Ha Seo-hwa in full.
It happened so fast that it was hard to evade.
The instant Ha Seo-hwa reflexively raised her wooden sword in front of her chest, Yoo Sung-woon’s thrust landed.
It struck like a spear.
Even though she blocked it, the force drove straight through her sword and body alike.
The impact felt as if it had ripped the breath from her lungs, and Ha Seo-hwa tumbled across the ground in a miserable heap.
She scraped herself against the stones and branches scattered on the ground and wheezed horribly for breath.
Yoo Sung-woon landed lightly.
Though she had fled with all her strength, he stood before her as if he could still chase her down at any time.
He touched the tip of his wooden sword lightly to Ha Seo-hwa’s head.
“...”
Gasping for breath, Ha Seo-hwa slowly lifted her head and looked at Yoo Sung-woon.
She saw a giant wall.
His black silhouette, backed by the dim evening sky, felt like an insurmountable barrier.
At the edge of her vision, Yoo Sung-woon’s eyes met those of Ha Seo-hwa, who was kneeling before him.
He was forcing her to choose.
To fight, or to run.
He was mocking the helplessness of running.
He was urging her to be stubborn.
“Didn’t you say you had already reached an answer?”
Yoo Sung-woon spoke slowly.
“Let me hear your answer.”
It was the voice of a child again.
It was frightening.
And yet her lips would not part.
It felt as though the deep eyes before her were telling her to reach out and grab hold of the wall in front of her.
If I give up like this...
My body will be at ease.
Maybe my heart will be at ease too.
I can simply collapse and be swept along with the current.
After all, I’m being driven this miserably by a junior disciple who has only been trained for half a year.
Maybe it would have been better never to have picked up a sword in the first place.
The moment that thought arose, she remembered her father dying before her eyes, blood spraying from his body.
She remembered her mother being dragged away by black-clad scoundrels.
If I don’t reach out now.
Ha Seo-hwa stretched out her trembling hand.
If I don’t seize it now, I’ll lose it again.
The past terrified her.
The power that had taken her parents from her terrified her.
But if she gave up like this, she would lose the courage to move forward.
And if there was one thing more frightening than anything else, it was that.
At the end of her groping, as though feeling the ground with her fingertips, she touched the wooden sword she had lost once before.
It was the wooden sword she always held and swung; she knew it even without seeing it.
She moved her hand slightly to the right and, without hesitation, closed it around the hilt.
“...Hah.”
A faint groan escaped her on its own.
She used the wooden sword as a support and shoved against the ground with all her strength. She forced power into her toes and thighs as though wringing strength out of herself.
Within the darkness, a figure staggered and rose.
The hand gripping the wooden sword would not stop trembling.
The pain throughout her body urged fear on her, tempting her to throw the sword down at once.
Even so, she did not let go.
Though her vision was blurred and Ha Seo-hwa could not see it, a faint but unmistakable curve appeared on Yoo Sung-woon’s mouth.
The hand holding the wooden sword was still trembling like a leaf in the wind.
And yet she was holding on to the sword until the end, wasn’t she?
Yes. That’s how it should be.
Only that kind of spirit would let her someday become a person worthy of the title of Phoenix.
Ha Seo-hwa’s stubborn, steady training had become a source of motivation for the disciples of Mount Hua Sect.
Though he never said it aloud, Yoo Sung-woon had also been deeply moved by that sight.
“I...”
Ha Seo-hwa, having painfully risen to her feet, slowly extended her wooden sword and pointed it at Yoo Sung-woon.
“...will fight.”
Because she was afraid, she struggled.
To escape the suffering that would not let her run.
For the first time, Ha Seo-hwa charged at Yoo Sung-woon.