A Bird in a Cage (2)
It was a tedious and disgusting time.
The Great Hall, where the Elders' Meeting was being held, was filled with nothing but the musty breath of old men.
I sat slouched in the chair of the 1st Elder, positioned directly below the Sect Leader's high throne.
Normally, my pretty Unni would be sitting up there on that high seat.
Resting her chin on her hand with a cold, indifferent expression, looking down at these insect-like humans.
To be honest, I couldn't care less about the agenda of this meeting.
My mind was completely consumed by the defenseless face of Unni that I had seen this morning.
That pale skin, trembling slightly and glistening with moisture.
Those red lips, gasping for breath and twitching every time my hand touched her.
She was so lovely, so adorable, that just thinking about it now sent a sharp, tingling sensation through my lower abdomen.
I wanted to end this useless academic debate as quickly as possible.
I needed to return to my pretty cage, wrap my arms around Unni as she lay there listlessly, and roll around with her.
"1st Elder."
An unpleasant voice shattered my thoughts.
Turning my head, I saw the 3rd Elder, a lackey of the old establishment faction, stroking his beard and staring at me.
"Hmm? What is it, dear 3rd Elder?"
"Did you say the reason the Sect Leader is absent from today's meeting is due to a sudden illness?"
"That's right. I'm sure I delivered the message quite nicely this morning. Have you gone senile already?"
Despite my sarcasm, the 3rd Elder didn't bother to hide his displeasure, holding his head high and stiff.
"I cannot believe it. The Sect Leader has not suffered from a single illness in the past ten years."
Several old men sitting behind him nodded in agreement.
"Could it be that the 1st Elder has played some trick and confined her noble body?"
"Watch your mouth."
"If you wish to dispel our doubts, we shall go to her bedchamber ourselves to see and verify her condition."
Instantly, my eyes turned ice-cold.
How dare they.
How dare these filthy insects try to disturb my pretty Unni's sweet rest.
How dare they step their dirty feet into the perfect cage I built so carefully, without my permission?
Murderous intent surged within me.
I wanted to tear myself from my seat this very instant and snap that old man's neck.
Just as I was about to release my aura.
I caught a faint, relaxed sneer brushing across the 3rd Elder's wrinkled lips.
Something felt off.
Why would these old snakes provoke me so openly, knowing full well how I would react?
No way.
Cold reason flashed in my mind.
Ah... These bugs are holding me back to buy time.
While they provoked me to stall, they must have already sent something to her bedchamber.
Rats, sent to confirm if the Sect Leader's illness was real and if her martial prowess had truly waned.
The moment that thought crossed my mind, my vision flashed red.
Thud!
I kicked the ebony chair I was sitting on and stood up violently.
The chair shattered into pieces, rolling across the floor of the Great Hall.
"1-1st Elder! What are you doing?!"
"Shut up, you insects."
I bared my teeth and growled at the elders.
"If there is even a single scratch on my Unni's body, I will flay all nine generations of your families alive."
The moment the words left my mouth, I kicked open the doors of the meeting hall and bolted.
Pushing my lightfoot technique to its absolute limit, I flew toward her bedchamber like a madwoman.
The person I love.
My only world, the one who pulled me out of that hell and saved me.
How dare those worms touch her?
That was a privilege only I was allowed to enjoy.
Breaking Unni, making her cry, making her bleed—those were things only I could do.
No one else dared lay a finger on what was mine.
My heart pounded as if it were about to burst.
Please be safe, Baek Seol.
No.
Do not surrender your life to anyone else until I get there.
I felt listless.
Left alone in my bedchamber, I rolled around on the spacious bed, wrapped tightly in a thick cotton duvet.
My body still felt incredibly heavy and stiff, but thanks to the warm energy circulating in my dantian, I barely felt any unpleasant pain.
Instead, my stiff joints felt pleasantly relaxed.
I turned my head to look at the table.
A single red flower, which hadn't been there yesterday, was placed in a small, pretty vase.
Sowol must have left it.
Whether it was a chilling warning directed at me or just a whimsical prank, I couldn't tell.
But whatever it was, it didn't matter right now.
"Ah... I feel alive."
A silly mutter escaped my lips without me realizing.
I didn't have to look at the mountain of documents waiting for approval.
I didn't have to get a headache mediating the power struggles of the old men at the meetings.
Even to myself, I looked incredibly pathetic and lazy.
For the Heavenly Demon, the ruler of the world, to be so helplessly disarmed by a single day of rest.
Yet, this perfect isolation—where no one targeted my life and there was no pressure of responsibility—was incredibly sweet.
Because the only one threatening me was Sowol.
At least inside this room, I could completely forget about the outside world.
I buried my face deep into the duvet and curled up.
My eyelids grew pleasantly heavy, and just as I was about to drift back into a deep sleep...
Rustle.
The air in the room rippled ever so slightly.
It was different from the wind seeping through the cracks of the window.
It was an artificial, foreign flow, clearly laced with human body heat and murderous intent.
My closed eyes snapped open.
Yet, I remained completely still beneath the duvet.
I even maintained my usual shallow, regular breathing rhythm.
Beyond the firmly shut window, footsteps with completely suppressed presences were approaching.
One, two.
No, three.
Even without identifying the owners of the footsteps, I could guess their purpose.
Along with the faint sound of the window frame opening, presences slipped into the room.
They had likely been sent to spy and see if the Sect Leader's illness was real, with secret orders to slit my throat on the spot if I was truly weakened.
I could feel their energy secretly communicating in the darkness.
A wave of unpleasant emotion washed over me—they were assessing my state, feeling relieved, and silently mocking me.
They were probably certain that I was too sick and frail to even notice their presence.
And here I thought I was finally getting some proper rest.
To think they would disrupt this hard-won, sweet rest so thoughtlessly.
Shring—
Although my vision was blocked by the duvet, my senses, heightened to the point of feeling like they touched my skin, caught the cold sound of metal.
The faint friction of a short blade being drawn from a robe.
The presence of one of the assassins drew right up to the bed.
Soon, I felt the trajectory of a sharp blade, carrying unhesitating murderous intent, plunging vertically down toward the bundle of blankets.
Thud!
But it wasn't my body that the blade pierced.
Right before the blade struck the duvet, I twisted my body to create a tiny opening.
Then, gathering my remaining strength, I kicked the duvet away with all my might.
Flap! Thud!
The duvet billowed out like an explosion from my kick, striking the face of the assassin holding the dagger.
"Gah!"
His vision blocked, the man let out a short shriek and stumbled backward.
Seizing the opening, I lightly leapt off the bed and landed on the floor.
Because my stiff muscles hadn't fully loosened up yet, my ankle wobbled slightly.
However, my eyes had already regained the cold temperature of the days when I dragged a trail of blood behind me.
"You are noisy."
I spoke in a low, chilling voice that seemed to freeze the very air in the room.
"You are disturbing my sleep."
The three assassins, tossing aside the torn duvet, flinched and backed away.
Panic was written all over their faces.
It was only natural, considering the prey they thought was asleep had stood up perfectly fine and counterattacked.
Yet, I could feel their eyes scanning my body up and down.
I, too, knew that my current condition was far from perfect.
Despite making only a single move just now, uncontrolled, ragged breaths were escaping my lips.
I could clearly feel cold sweat trickling down my forehead and onto my cheek.
My face was likely as pale as a corpse, drained of all color.
Seeing my pathetic state as I gasped for air, the assassins' eyes gleamed with cunning.
They had realized that although I had woken up and retaliated, I was indeed weakened by illness.
"Kill her!"
At the hand signal of the one in the center, the three assassins lunged at me simultaneously.
Blue-gleaming blades thrust from all directions, aiming for my throat.
I quickly ducked to avoid the first strike, then twisted my waist to let the blade coming from behind slip past.
My body was definitely heavy.
Normally, I could have shattered those crude swords with a flick of my finger.
But because the aftermath of my twisted energy pathways from last night still lingered, the connection between my movements and internal energy kept faltering.
Slash.
A blade I failed to completely dodge tore through the thin martial robe on my left shoulder.
Along with a stinging pain, red blood trickled down my white skin.
It was a very shallow scratch, but the faint scent of blood was enough to boost their shallow morale.
"Heh. The rumors were true."
The one who had wounded me let out a nasty chuckle.
It was a blatant display of looking down on me.
At that moment, the thread of patience that had been coldly submerged in my mind snapped.
It was an emotion closer to sheer annoyance and irritation rather than anger.
"How insolent."
I muttered dryly, glancing down at my bloodied shoulder.
"You must think the Heavenly Demon is an easy target."
I blinked slowly and regulated my breathing.
I instantly drew up the hot Yang energy that Sowol had forced into my body, which I had kept suppressed in my dantian.
My original cold energy and Sowol's throbbing energy intertwined, generating an explosive power.
Hum—
The air in the room vibrated heavily.
The assassins' faces instantly filled with horror.
They instinctively realized that the tables had turned completely.
But it was already too late.
I kicked off the floor and lunged forward.
With an overwhelming speed that made me seem to vanish from sight, as if my stumbling form from moments ago had been an illusion.
"Gasp!"
Before the assassin standing in front of me could even raise his sword, my hand snapped his wrist.
Crack!
With the sound of bone dislocating, his arm bent at an unnatural angle.
Without giving him time to scream, I reached out with my free hand and gripped his throat tightly.
Then, concentrating strong internal energy into my grip, I crushed it.
Crunch.
Without even a death rattle, his body collapsed onto the floor.
The remaining two turned pale and scrambled backward.
It was clear they had lost their will to fight and were trying to flee.
"Where do you think you are going?"
I brushed the dust off my hands and turned my head.
The second one made a desperate struggle, swinging his dagger wildly at me.
I lightly swatted away the crude blade with my bare hand and drove my fist straight into his solar plexus.
Thud!
A heavy impact echoed through the bedchamber.
As my powerful internal energy penetrated his chest and ruptured his heart meridians, he coughed up a mouthful of bloody foam and flew back, crashing into the corner of the room.
Now, only one remained.
The owner of that unpleasant chuckle, the one who had wounded me first.
He threw his weapon aside and crawled frantically toward the door on trembling legs.
I walked over at a leisurely pace and grabbed him roughly by the back of his hair.
"Spare... Spare m—"
His desperate plea was cut short.
Gripping his head, I slammed it mercilessly against the solid ebony pillar nearby.
The pillar cracked loudly, and the room shook violently.
With just that single impact, his consciousness was completely snuffed out.
I tossed his limp body onto the floor without a second thought.
The situation was resolved in an instant.
To think they sent such pathetic weaklings as assassins against me.
How much had they underestimated me just because I was bedridden?
A wave of displeasure washed over me at the thought that they were stepping out of line, forgetting their place just because I hadn't shed blood in a while.
"Haa..."
I let out a rough breath and brushed off my clothes.
Because I had overexerted myself just now, my dantian throbbed with pain once again.
But what irritated me even more was the mess before my eyes.
"What a hassle."
The freshly laid, fluffy duvet and the clean wooden floor were now stained with unpleasant splatters of blood.
I didn't even need to see it to know how much of a fuss Sowol would make when she saw this.
"It's going to be a pain to clean."
It was then.
From the distance, the sound of shouting and clashing metal began to drift in.
A massive commotion was unfolding at the heart of the sect.
And numerous footsteps were approaching my bedchamber without hesitation.
Boom!
With a deafening roar, the firmly shut doors of the bedchamber shattered and blew inward.
Amidst the flying splinters of wood, the triumphant face of an old man thrust forward first.
It was the 3rd Elder, who had recently taken a seat on the council and had been expanding his power and ambition.
Behind the 3rd Elder, the elites of his private force, the Black Slayer Unit, stood in tight formation, completely filling the view.
Of course.
There was no way these old snakes would stop at sending just three assassins.
They had clearly launched a full-scale rebellion with the intention of overthrowing the entire sect.
I doubted Sowol would have sat idly by, though.
"Bwahaha! That wench Sowol put up quite a struggle! Now that the Heavenly Demon has died of illness—"
The 3rd Elder's voice cut off abruptly as he confidently stepped into the pavilion.
His gaze darted back and forth between the three gruesome corpses scattered on the floor and me, standing right in the middle of them.
Standing there listlessly, blood dripping from the tears in my martial robes.
I simply wiped a drop of blood from my cheek with my sleeve, looking thoroughly annoyed.
"What?"
My cold voice echoed through the room.
"Is this your first time seeing a corpse?"
The 3rd Elder's wrinkled face turned pale with shock.
Because I was standing there perfectly fine, covered in blood, welcoming them.
I lightly stretched my stiff neck and shoulders, curling the corners of my lips upward.
It had been such a sweet, hard-won rest.
"Since I have to clean up anyway, I might as well sweep everything away at once."
It was time to wipe out the traitors who had crawled in on their own two feet.