I'll Never Forgive You, Even in Death!
Lee Yeok returned to the inn where he had left An Eun-chae.
She was fast asleep, blissfully unaware of the world. Tear stains stood out clearly on her face, which was smeared with dirt and dried blood.
"Hey, miss. Wake up. We need to go, now."
The moment An Eun-chae opened her eyes and saw a face looming right in front of her, she reflexively tried to scream. Lee Yeok clamped a hand over her mouth just in time.
"Miss, it's me. Your hired man, Lee Yeok. Get a grip."
Only after a long while was An Eun-chae able to recall the events of the previous night and grasp her current predicament.
"Hurry and get ready, miss. This place won't be safe for long."
Lee Yeok tossed her the clothes he'd been carrying — Jeom So-i's outfit, quietly swiped from the next room over.
Whether from fear or nerves, An Eun-chae simply hugged the bundle of clothes to her chest and trembled.
With a sigh, Lee Yeok silently studied her. Come to think of it, this was the first time he'd really looked at her face. Even smudged with dust, her flawless, luminous skin seemed to give off a glow of its own. She could rightly be called a peerless beauty.
Feeling his gaze, An Eun-chae's face grew paler still. It wasn't hard to guess what she was thinking.
"Don't get any strange ideas. I get you safely to Jinseong, and you pay me the money you promised. Nothing else is going to happen between us."
An Eun-chae seemed slightly reassured, but she still just sat there clutching the clothes. Only a beat later did Lee Yeok realize what the problem was.
"I'll be waiting downstairs. Don't waste time, miss."
A short while later, as Lee Yeok waited below for An Eun-chae to come down, a fine carriage passed in front of the inn. He bolted out the door in an instant.
"Honored guest, Lady So-on! What a long and arduous journey you must have had!"
The carriage was caked in dust. It was clearly on quite a long trip.
"And your horses look fair worn out, if you ask me. Leave them to us — we'll see to the animals and give this carriage a thorough dusting while we're at it. Why not rest at the inn a spell before moving on?"
The coachman stole furtive, pleading glances at the carriage's interior. He, too, plainly ached for a chance to rest. A composed voice drifted out from within.
"Very well. We shall rest a moment."
Color bloomed across the coachman's face, and he hopped down to open the door. Out stepped a young nobleman, flicking his folding fan lazily.
"Leave the carriage to me, sir!"
At the same time, Lee Yeok bellowed toward the interior of the inn.
"An esteemed guest has arrived!"
Jeom So-i — the real one — had been dozing in a corner of the inn, and jolted awake to go receive the guest.
Just then An Eun-chae came down the stairs, her steps awkward thanks to the oversized men's clothing. Lee Yeok rushed over, seized her by the wrist, and pulled her out the door. He bundled her into the carriage in a flash, leapt up onto the driver's seat himself, and cracked the whip. The carriage shot away and vanished.
Only after a fair stretch of time did the coachman's furious roar drift faintly from behind them.
"Yaaargh, you goddamn carriage thieves!"
Lee Yeok drove the carriage out of the city walls in the blink of an eye. The horses, like the carriage itself, seemed fit to count among the finest mounts — despite looking exhausted mere moments ago, they had plenty of stamina left. If he sold both carriage and horses when he reached Jinseong, it should fetch him a tidy sum.
It was 1,300 li to Jinseong. At this pace, they would arrive within days. His grandmother's birthday fell on the Day of Parinirvana early next month, leaving him ample time to collect the promised payment in Jinseong, find a decent gift, and make the return trip.
Going home was the last thing he wanted, but he did intend to at least let his grandmother — the only family he could truly call his own — know that he was alive and breathing. Just thinking about his parents and the rest of his family made his stomach churn, but for his grandmother's sake he resolved to grit his teeth and endure those few days.
The carriage didn't slow down until well past noon.
"Let's take a short break, miss."
He handed An Eun-chae some dried jerky he'd bought inside the city walls and unhitched the horses to let them and the carriage rest. Whether she'd lost her appetite or simply couldn't stomach such coarse food, An Eun-chae just buried her face in her knees and sat there slumped.
Lee Yeok drew the Blue Sky Jade bottle from his breast. Part of the reason he had rushed was worry that the Shadow Unit, the men who'd attacked An Eun-chae, or the carriage's owner might come after them — but above all, he had needed to buy himself the time to take the immortal pill the old man had given him as a gift.
First he circulated his Soju Stream once using the Eunbaek Shinhon-gyeol technique, then pulled out the pill from the Blue Sky Jade bottle. The Heavenly Origin Immortal Soul Pill. By the old man's account, it was one of the three great immortal pills of the immortal realm.
Whether one was a martial artist or an immortal, blood qi was the foundation of all power. And the immortal pills were exceptionally effective at refining it.
Refined blood qi, upon reaching the True Harmony stage, transforms into true qi. True qi, refined further, becomes spirit qi; and spirit qi, in turn, becomes immortal qi.
Go further still — let divine blood circulate through the entire body — and one gains immortality itself, able to rise again from a single remaining drop of blood. Though Lee Yeok had never once in his life seen anyone reach that realm.
The moment he swallowed the Heavenly Origin Immortal Soul Pill, heat began to boil up from within his body. His heartbeat quickened noticeably.
Blood was the wellspring of life, bound inseparably to blood qi: the blood moved following the qi, the qi moved following the blood, and together they endlessly tempered bone and muscle.
Inside his body, his blood surged like molten lava. Thousands of veins knotted together into cords like rope, gradually becoming a dragon of blood that churned through his insides. Wherever the dragon passed, not a single impurity remained.
His bones and muscles grew far stronger than before. Then the blood qi gathered from his four limbs converged on the Sea of Qi acupoint. The Sea of Qi trembled, and the true qi within it surged back out through his whole body, flowing along the Eight Extraordinary Meridians and the Twelve Primary Channels.
Where bone met bone came a sound like beans roasting in a pan, and from his muscles rang a tone like a stringed instrument being played. Like a bowstring drawn taut, he stood poised to unleash tremendous power at any moment.
The color of his skin darkened visibly, turning a red so vivid it could hardly be called merely blood-tinted. And still there was no sign of the pill's effect waning. If anything, it only grew more intense.
The Heavenly Origin Immortal Soul Pill was a far more potent drug than he had imagined. Dozens of times stronger than expected — no, hundreds.
'That cursed old geezer...'
The old man's way of thinking was anything but ordinary, as expected. To hand over, without a second thought, a drug so dangerous that one wrong step could make his body burst apart and kill him.
Lee Yeok squeezed his eyes shut. His veins swelled as though they would burst, and thunder seemed to rumble through his insides. It was the phenomenon that appeared when blood qi reached its extreme.
The pounding of his heart grew so loud it reached An Eun-chae, a dozen paces away. She stared at him with anxious eyes.
Though she had never trained in martial arts, she was no complete layman either. And to her eyes, Lee Yeok was in grave danger. If he died like this, she would hardly be safe either.
Deep furrows creased the space between Lee Yeok's brows. The blood flowing without pause was hot as lava, and as the moisture in his body drained away, it was growing thicker and stickier by the moment.
In the blink of an eye he had broken through the Proud Blood stage and arrived at its late phase. His blood was hot as lava, and his blood qi moved with the vigor of a dragon.
Had it stopped there, all would have been fine. The problem was that it wouldn't stop. There was not the slightest sign of the pill's potency diminishing!
If this went on, forget his martial arts — simply staying alive would be a struggle. Lee Yeok hurled every curse he knew at the old man one more time.
'You damned old wretch! Me — me, who survived all those years in that den of thieves, the Birido — dying this pathetic, meaningless death? I haven't even made a proper name for myself yet! If I die like this, I'll cross over to the underworld and kill even King Yama himself!'
An Eun-chae, who had been watching his condition, hesitated — then rose and came over. She rummaged through Lee Yeok's breast and pulled out the jade tablet he had been given as a contract payment. Rage flared in Lee Yeok at the utterly unexpected act.
'Look at this? This sly little vixen? Damn it, pretty women really can't be trusted.'
Crack!
An Eun-chae smashed the jade tablet down onto a stone on the ground. At the sound of it splitting in two, Lee Yeok weeped tears of blood.
'My money!! You cursed girl!! What do you think you're doing?!'
His consciousness gradually dimmed. But what filled Lee Yeok's heart was not the fear of death.
'Stealing my property, are you? Damned woman. I'll never forgive you — not even in death!!'