Chapter 212
Chapter 212
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Translator: True Detective
Chapter: 212
Chapter Title: Joining Hands
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“Were you a physician?”
“Something… like that. I need to focus right now, so could you stay quiet? I’m not all that skilled in healing.”
Ye So-ha brushed off my question vaguely and concentrated on the treatment.
Her fingers swept across the Taoist’s upper body three times, and just like that, it was pristine without a single scar, as if he’d never been injured.
Not bad for someone who claims she’s not skilled.
But the lost blood hadn’t returned, so his complexion was still pale.
Even so, his face looked far more at ease, plain as day.
Seeing this, Ye So-ha rose to her feet.
“This should do it. A few days of rest, and he’ll recover in no time.”
“Phew, what a relief.”
Hong let out a sigh of relief at the fairly positive prognosis.
Ye So-ha patted her shoulder and gave instructions to Cheong and Hong.
“Cheong, you handle nursing the master. Hong, change your clothes, and let’s meet back on the top floor.”
“Yes.”
“Got it.”
After hearing the two maids’ replies, Ye So-ha turned to us.
“Then, shall we head back up? Since we’re cooperating now, we might as well hear the scouting report together.”
No reason to refuse, so we promptly agreed and returned to the pavilion master’s room on the top floor. Soon after, a cleaned-up Hong entered.
“Sorry to keep you waiting.”
“Don’t worry about it. After seeing the state you were in earlier.”
Ye So-ha waved off Hong, who was bowing her head.
Then, with her hands clasped together on the table, she asked in all seriousness.
“So, tell us. What happened on Mount Wudang?”
“…Yes.”
Hong nodded with a slightly tense expression and recounted what she’d experienced on Mount Wudang.
The more we heard, the graver everyone’s faces grew.
*
After hearing Hong’s full story, the sky had already begun to in sunset hues.
“…The sunset makes it look even more ominous.”
“Yeah. It’s almost like it’s spreading even wider.”
As Seol-i remarked while looking up at the sky, the blood-red sunset over Mount Wudang felt all the more foreboding due to the bloody aura spewing from the mountain.
Like it could engulf the whole world in blood at any moment.
Maybe it just felt that way because of the story we’d heard.
I stared up at the sky with a heavy expression when a raucous burst of laughter reached my ears.
-Wahahaha-!
-Kyarr!
“…Seems like down there, they couldn’t care less about the sky.”
A wry smile formed at the carefree revelry of people in the main building of Heavenly Fragrance Pavilion, hugging courtesans and guzzling booze nonstop.
We were currently in the annex of Heavenly Fragrance Pavilion.
Since there were no guests anyway, we’d accepted Ye So-ha’s offer to stay here for the night.
“Shouldn’t have agreed to stay here. How are we supposed to sleep with all that racket?”
“Bear with it a little. It’s not like we’re staying forever. At most… two days.”
I stroked Seol-i’s hair wildly as she glared at the main building and grumbled.
“Ah, cut it out!”
I chuckled at her funny reaction, like a hissing cat, just as Hwa-ryeon and Ye So-ha appeared at the annex.
They’d stayed behind to talk privately, but it looked like they were done.
“You’re back? What’d you talk about?”
“…Nothing much. Just some old connection.”
“Connection? What kind?”
“…It’s a thing.”
Hwa-ryeon averted her gaze at my follow-up.
Something about her subtle embarrassment made me tilt my head in confusion, and Ye So-ha jumped in with an excited grin.
“Want to know? Here’s how it happened…”
“H-Hao Gate Leader…!”
Contrary to her words that it was nothing, Hwa-ryeon lost her composure in an instant and urgently tried to stop Ye So-ha.
Ye So-ha patted her shoulder with the world’s most benevolent smile, as if she understood perfectly.
“I get the shyness, but no need to keep this a secret. Better to share it.”
“Ah, fine! I’ll tell him myself later, so please… not now!”
“Aw, what a shame.”
Ye So-ha shut her mouth with obvious reluctance.
“Anyway, that’s the gist. Hear it from her later.”
“Yeah. Sure.”
I replied offhandedly and gave Hwa-ryeon a puzzled sidelong glance.
“…I’m heading in first.”
Unable to bear my gaze, she fled inside.
I stared blankly at Hwa-ryeon’s retreating figure, when a stifled laugh wormed into my ear.
“Hee hee hee… First impression was total ice princess, but she’s got more bashfulness and charm than I thought.”
“Not thrilled that you’ve discovered Hwa-ryeon’s charms that only I knew about.”
Ye So-ha let out a small sigh at my prickly response.
“Still sulking? I just want to make a good impression on you. Now that we’re allies, isn’t it time to open up a bit?”
“Who’s sulking…!”
I started to snap back in a huff but held it in, letting out a small sigh of my own before asking.
“…Let me ask one thing. Why do you want to impress me?”
“Well, to get friendly with the best in the world, obviously?”
Ye So-ha dropped the bombshell with a perfectly casual face.
I was the one thrown off by her answer.
“Huh? No, what do you…”
“Why so flustered? You must’ve sensed it yourself. That there’s no one in this world who can take you on.”
“…….”
I fell silent at her words.
Having it shoved in my face like this, after trying to ignore it, complicated my feelings in an instant.
Seeing my expression, Ye So-ha smiled faintly and continued.
“Judging by your face, you don’t seem thrilled about that? Unexpectedly the type who enjoys fighting?”
Irked by her analytical tone, I shot back sharply.
“Aren’t you overconfident in what you know? Even Hao Gate doesn’t know everything in the world. There could be some powerhouse out there you’re unaware of.”
This Central Plains martial world was disgustingly vast.
Add the outer regions beyond, and it was even bigger.
In such a boundless world, it was hard to believe—no, I didn’t want to believe—there wasn’t a single person on my level.
Surely somewhere, martial arts preserved even through Yuan’s purge of the martial world existed, and naturally, someone had mastered them…
“Doubt it.”
But Ye So-ha firmly denied my hopeful notion.
“…Why do you think that?”
“I mean, I’m one of the Ten Venerables, supposedly the strongest in the world.”
Ye So-ha pointed at her own face.
As she said, she was the Flame Venerable of the Ten Venerables, the one who’d slain the former Light Venerable and taken his seat.
“When I faced the Light Venerable after taking his Poison Flame Palm, my first thought was, ‘This guy’s insane.’ Instinctively, I didn’t want to get close.”
She shook her head as if shuddering at the memory, then tossed a sudden question my way.
“What do you think my next thought was?”
“…No idea?”
“It was nothing special.”
“Huh?”
“I thought, ‘Nothing special.’ He was one of the world’s top ten strongest, so I had expectations, but honestly? Disappointing. And the other Ten Venerables were no different.”
Ye So-ha said she’d wandered far and wide, so she’d crossed paths with the other Ten Venerables.
“That’s when I realized. None of the current Ten Venerables can hold a candle to me.”
“That’s…”
“For reference, that includes even Martial Venerable Won-gil, the strongest among them.”
I’d heard the name Won-gil Dae-sa in passing before.
The current Shaolin abbot, if I recalled.
Ye So-ha was saying even he was beneath her.
Arrogant words, but her tone was utterly matter-of-fact, devoid of any bluster.
If anything, that made it more convincing.
“But you’re different. I could tell just from your moves at the Hefei tournament. An opponent I couldn’t confidently beat.”
“…….”
I was surprised she’d seen the tournament, but her next words stuck more.
A woman who looked down on even the Shaolin abbot was admitting weakness against me.
I wished it was mere flattery, but her straightforward tone signaled sincerity, just as before.
“…Still the case now?”
“It was then, but even more so now. I can’t even fathom trying.”
With that, Ye So-ha lowered her voice conspiratorially.
“Speaking of which, how exactly did you notice me approaching earlier? That was supposed to be my trump card.”
…She used a trump card just to mess with me?
I stared at her in disbelief before answering with a sigh.
“It’s a technique I developed after much deliberation since meeting you in Hefei.”
“So you created a new martial art because of me?”
“You were the trigger. Quite the shock, someone fooling my senses and closing in.”
Ye So-ha looked at me with a mix of exasperation and astonishment.
Then, an inexplicable joy bloomed on her face.
“As expected…”
“…? What?”
“Nothing… not yet.”
She smirked ambiguously and stepped right in front of me with a snap.
What now?
“Now then, can I finally get your introduction? Shockingly, I still don’t know your name.”
“Didn’t you hear it from Hwa-ryeon?”
“I deliberately didn’t ask. Wanted to hear it straight from you.”
Stubborn in the oddest way.
As I narrowed one eye at her, she urged me on by reintroducing herself.
“I’m Ye So-ha. Moniker’s Flame Venerable, and I lead Hao Gate.”
…Sigh, fine.
I surrendered inwardly and gave her the name she so desperately wanted.
“I’m Goon Ja-seong. No moniker yet.”
“Hmm, that won’t do. The best in the world without a proper title? Want me to come up with a cool one?”
“No thanks.”
I refused flat-out, and she pouted like ‘aww.’
She seemed plenty cheerful and lively on the surface, but instinct told me otherwise.
Beneath that smiling face, she was hiding something crucial.
Even if we were cooperating for this Mount Wudang business, I couldn’t drop my guard carelessly.
Just as that thought crossed my mind, urgent footsteps approached from the main building.
Turning, I saw Hong rushing over in a panic.
“Miss! The master’s awake, and…!”
Her voice alone told me something had happened.
Face hardening, I followed Hong with Ye So-ha right behind to the main building.