Chapter 159
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 159
Chapter Title: Seo Dohee (2)
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"Alright, I can walk now."
"Still, please stay on my back, Master."
Watching the silent back of Geum Sihyeon as he carried Seo Dohee piggyback style, Baek Liyeon suddenly felt a question rise in her mind.
Throughout their journey together, Geum Sihyeon had clearly called her Instructor Seo.
Yet not only had the form of address abruptly changed to "Master,"
but judging from the two of them now, their relationship seemed extraordinarily close.
Rather than feeling deceived, she grew curious about how a relationship of master and disciple had formed between Seo Dohee, once the leader of the unorthodox sects, and Geum Sihyeon.
But it was no story she could ask about in this situation.
After a stretch of heavy silence, they arrived at the spot where she had suffered under the Illusion Demon just moments before.
And then.
"Hold on a moment, Liyeon."
"Baek Li... sigh, yes."
She was about to snap at him for the brazen act of arbitrarily shortening the names of people with full surnames,
but figuring it pointless, Baek Liyeon gave up and took hold of Seo Dohee.
And then.
Bwoooo...
As Geum Sihyeon drew up his inner energy, the surrounding air began to swirl into a vortex.
The phenomenon itself looked ominous, but the inner energy contained within was so pure that
a soft, comforting sensation wrapped around her body for a moment, and the ground began to vibrate strangely before slowly shifting.
What soon revealed itself was the entrance to an underground passage.
"Wow..."
Facing what could truly be called a serendipitous opportunity for the first time, Baek Liyeon couldn't hide her admiration.
But Geum Sihyeon wore an utterly nonchalant expression, shrugging his shoulders as if it were only natural, before taking Seo Dohee back into his arms.
"Let's go."
"Me too?"
"Of course, Junior Sister as well."
...Is this normal?
Even if he cherishes his junior, sharing a serendipitous opportunity like this?
With complicated feelings, Baek Liyeon took a step forward.
But.
"Ugh, urgh...!"
Baek Liyeon felt a sudden headache crashing in, along with a sensation as if the entrance itself was repelling her entry.
Amid the skull-splitting pain, a voice rang out like a hallucination.
- Descendant of the Heavenly Killing Star, you cannot pass.
"Ah..."
Fate?
That damn fate again.
"Master, one moment."
Geum Sihyeon briefly leaned Seo Dohee against the wall and touched Baek Liyeon's forehead with a worried look.
A cool energy surged, suppressing the killing intent that welled up in an instant.
But.
"...I'll wait out front."
"Feeling unwell somewhere?"
"Honestly, yeah... Going underground feels a bit..."
Even as she offered the lame excuse,
"Claustrophobia, hmm... That can happen. I'll make sure to grab your share, so hug the wolf pup tight and rock back and forth. It'll bring peace to your mind and body."
"Kyau!"
Geum Sihyeon nodded readily, picked up the wolf pup, placed it in Baek Liyeon's arms, and stroked her head.
The sensation of warm heat parting her hair.
...A bizarre feeling where warmth seeped in instead of hatred and killing intent.
"Come back safe, Senior Sihyeon."
"Got it."
Baek Liyeon
had spoken her senior's name for the first time.
It had a nice ring to it.
Though Geum Sihyeon had provided meticulous emergency treatment, Seo Dohee could still feel her strength slowly leaking out from within her body bit by bit.
"Get down now."
But
how could she, as a master, continue to exploit her disciple's broad and sturdy back?
This was a matter of pride.
"Geez, at your age."
"You wanna die for real?"
"Eek!"
After smacking the top of Geum Sihyeon's head hard with her pride, Seo Dohee planted her feet on the ground.
"Ugh..."
Of course, pain assaulted her, but compared to the fierce battle earlier, it was practically nothing.
Fresh admiration welled up for the Divine Doctor and Geum Sihyeon's medical skills.
The gash on her thigh had been neatly stitched, enough that she could walk on her own two feet, even if limping.
"Anyway, old folks just get stubborn──"
"One more word and I'll cleave you with an axe."
"Yep."
Stuffing the mouth of her insolent disciple, whose manners deteriorated in proportion to his rising realm, Seo Dohee took the lead.
No particular sense of threat,
but in such ancient secret realms, traps were par for the course, so wasn't handling danger the master's duty?
.
.
.
After descending the stairs for quite some time,
a single stone chamber appeared before their eyes.
The Yin-Yang Chamber.
Opening the intricately dragon-engraved door and entering with Geum Sihyeon, the sound of the door thudding shut behind them soon followed.
And what appeared before them was
"Hmm."
"Hmmm."
an artificial pond encircling the stele,
and the tightly shut door on the opposite side, presumed to be the exit.
Engraved on the stele were eight characters.
Yin-Yang Harmony: Enter the Center to Exit.
"..."
The moment Seo Dohee read the eight characters, her mind went blank white.
Are they insane?
Is this place insane?
How could such a ridiculously lewd phrase be inscribed here?
Having long enjoyed browsing the Murim Wiki, Seo Dohee was well-versed in widespread rumors and all sorts of dubious hearsay of unclear origin.
Those characters she read,
combined with her knowledge,
meant this was a "room you can't leave without copulating"!
No, already? So absurdly?
It's not that bad, but she still had distance from the promise she'd made with herself, he was merely at the super peak, she could suppress him fully powered in this state, no, with that explosively terrifying martial art, his potential alone already surpassed hers, no, he'd sweated buckets, bled profusely, must smell, ah, so the pond's for washing, ugh, then in the pond, that's too lewd──
As fireworks of panic exploded nonstop in Seo Dohee's head, gradually dyeing the white pink,
"Hmm, easy."
Geum Sihyeon stepped up to the stele, pressed both palms against it, and drew up his energy.
Red and blue.
As extreme yang qi and extreme yin qi harmonized, dyeing the stele,
Crack──!
Rumble, grooo...
the crisp sound of the stele shattering was followed by
the heavy rumble of the opposite door opening.
"..."
"Lame for a trap mechanism. Come, Master. Let's go."
Seo Dohee briefly debated biting her tongue and dying on the spot or just killing the oblivious bastard.
There were two more chambers.
The two chambers failed to present any trials or hardships, crumbling all too easily under Geum Sihyeon's hands.
...Good things are good.
Seo Dohee resolved to rationalize it.
And the final space they entered.
"Wow..."
An involuntary exclamation escaped Seo Dohee's lips.
The moment they passed a training hall bearing traces of someone's cultivation,
a treasure vault came into view.
It brimmed with priceless treasures beyond monetary value.
A note stated only one could be taken, but even that single item was enough to sustain a green forest band's yearly operations.
Weapons all brand new.
Immortal elixirs whose mere scent promised transcendence.
Even exquisitely beautiful accessories.
"Hmm... nothing special. But why only one?"
At Geum Sihyeon's indifferent remark, Seo Dohee felt the urge to smack her awful disciple for the third time that day.
...Well,
with the Ten Thousand Gold Treasury Fortress's wealth, this might indeed be "nothing special."
Seo Dohee bristled, recalling the superiority complex she'd seen on the Murim Wiki.
While etching once more the reliable back of her awful disciple—who ignored the treasures to pull some strange booklet from a chest and read it—
Seo Dohee wandered the vault.
And among the nameless spirit elixirs, she picked up the one that smelled most fragrant, largest, and most potent.
Just in case, she held it out to Geum Sihyeon.
"Top-grade item. Effective for soothing internal injuries too, so you should consume it now. Shall I help circulate the energy?"
"Hmph, trying to at super peak level? I'll handle it myself, so grab yours."
"Hmm..."
Uncharacteristically, her disciple licked his lips slightly, confirming it was indeed a fine choice.
She slipped out to the adjacent training hall, promptly tossed it down her throat, and assumed the lotus position.
Now was the time to get serious.
Earlier,
to seize the clue for her next step from that extreme crisis.
Seo Dohee closed her eyes.
.
.
.
How much time had passed?
She had lingered at the entry to the Aura Realm for ages without finding a path forward,
but blessing in disguise—Seo Dohee sensed she had advanced a step.
Her three dantians felt more harmonious, her torn and twisted meridians perfectly restored, like being reborn.
A sensation akin to her first marrow cleansing.
She opened her eyes.
"Congratulations, Master."
A bit infuriating, perhaps, but the voice of her proud disciple rang in her ears—he who had given his all despite their master-disciple bond, shattered the illusions from spaces she couldn't see, and devoted himself fully to her until the end.
And.
Her disciple had slightly turned his head, holding out the robe he wore.
"First, some clothes..."
Hearing that, Seo Dohee looked down.
What she saw was
her body returned to its primordial state,
and the skin, somewhat darkened from roaming mountains, now utterly gone—replaced by reborn, pristine white flesh.
"..."
Avoiding Geum Sihyeon's face as much as possible, she snatched the offered robe and wrapped it around herself.
Right after.
Her hearing, now even more acute than before,
caught her disciple muttering lowly in a slightly sullen tone.
"...The tanning lines... are gone..."
Tanning lines?
Come to think of it, she'd seen it on the Murim Wiki.
Some bizarre beauty trend where people deliberately exposed their skin to the sun, incomprehensible from her perspective, was popular.
...Which meant.
"Disciple."
"Yes?"
"Today, just die."
Her freshly whitened skin paling in comparison as her cheeks flushed red.
"Argh! Aaagh! Oppose violence!"
Seo Dohee whirled Geum Sihyeon's robe, pummeling its owner mercilessly.
And she resolved.
...Later, properly research this tanning thing and tan her skin again.
"Ah, you're back─"
After a long wait, Baek Liyeon happily greeted Seo Dohee and Geum Sihyeon's return.
But upon taking in their appearances, her expression inevitably hardened.
Seo Dohee, flushed and awkwardly draped in Geum Sihyeon's robe,
and Geum Sihyeon's slightly swollen cheek, vivid nail marks on his neck and chest.
In truth, scratches from breaching the traps and a beating from Seo Dohee,
but on the surface,
at least in Baek Liyeon's eyes, it looked interpretable in another direction entirely.
And.
Though she'd lived isolated for long, Baek Liyeon wasn't so dull as to miss what those traces universally implied.
Her expression turned icy in an instant.