This Isn't the Picture I Had in Mind...?
The mountain path leading out of Zhejiang and into Anhui.
In front of my eyes stretched a colossal mountain range, rising so sharply it looked ready to pierce the vault of heaven, unfurled like a folding screen.
"Cheonmok Mountain. It's been a while."
The lofty name was given because the pond at its summit resembled an eye gazing reverently at the sky. Yet what the people of the Central Plains felt toward this mountain was not reverence, but a terror that sent chills down their spines.
Jagged rocks sharp as spears, sheer cliffs that gaped open like black maws waiting for someone to fall—this was the most treacherous of all treacherous lands.
The only path through this rugged terrain was a narrow plank road that clung precariously to those terrifying cliffs.
Yet the reason merchant caravans continued to flow through this dangerous mountain without interruption was clear. This plank road was the surest shortcut between Zhejiang and Anhui.
For merchants who measured time in coins, a detour of several days was an unaffordable luxury. To them, the plank road of Cheonmok Mountain was the only choice.
However, there was a separate reason why even those hardened merchants—who feared neither thousand-foot abysses where a single misstep meant your corpse would never be found—shuddered and called this place a true demonic realm…
'The terrain is so fucking awful it can't help but attract bandits.'
In a way, it was an inevitable fate that bandit groups infested this mountain. It was too rugged for large government forces to enter, yet it was a critical choke point that every merchant caravan and traveler in the world had to pass through.
And the bandits who ruled this optimal location, equipped with every condition for running wild, could never be mere petty thieves who only robbed travelers' bundles.
Cheonmok Heokpungchae, one of the Green Forest Ten Tyrants.
Among all the mountain fortresses belonging to the Green Forest's seventy-two strongholds, it ranked among the top ten in power, boasting martial strength comparable to an entire Murim sect. They were the uninvited guests who had occupied Cheonmok Mountain.
A bandit fortress coiled like a stronghold atop heavenly-gifted cliffs above sheer gorges and dense pine forests. Cheonmok Heokpungchae housed seven hundred bandits permanently stationed at the main base alone. When including the outer outposts and branch fortresses scattered across the foothills, it was a massive force nearing a thousand men.
I wondered if Zhang Yan's Black Mountain bandits, who had rampaged at the end of the Later Han, had been this formidable.
"Right then. Shall we go?"
Yet here I was, walking straight into this kingdom of Green Forest bandits that even the government army hesitated to provoke.
There was only one reason.
Because in the deepest, most secret corner of that blood-and-liquor-stinking den of scoundrels, one of the Twelve Yo-hwa I sought was being held captive.
Step. Step.
"Huff… this damn mountain is ridiculously tall."
I roughly wiped away the beads of sweat that had formed on my forehead after climbing the mountain path for quite some time.
In the end, a thousand men or not, bandits were still bandits.
No matter how many there were, most were rabble who hadn't even learned a proper internal art. At best, the stronghold master and his deputy could imitate high-level experts. With my current martial prowess, slaughtering them would be easier than cutting rotten straw, no matter how many there were.
Yet what truly held me back wasn't their numbers or their crude martial arts.
—Shaaaaa—
A fierce mountain wind blew past as thick fog began to drape over my vision like a curtain.
'Mistwood Illusion Forest. Even after all this time, it's still a shitty place.'
A demonic forest that dulled the eyes and ears of intruders and showed them illusions. It was the greatest barrier I had to break through to meet the first of the Twelve Yo-hwa.
The dense mountain mist that covered the area around Cheonmok Ridge year-round, combined with the terrain resembling a concave spout that trapped all the moisture from below, had created a natural formation.
Pine and cedar trees shot up so densely they blocked even a single ray of daylight. This place was quite literally a maze crafted by nature itself.
'It's no less impressive than those sneaky Zhuge clan bastards' bizarre formations.'
An illusion array created by nature over thousands of years.
Trees that all looked identical and fog that numbed the senses. The moment you set foot in this white labyrinth, the four cardinal directions lost all meaning.
The sound of wind brushing branches distorted into the wails of vengeful ghosts, and the ground—covered in thousand-year-old moss and rotting leaves—made every step treacherous.
If you entered recklessly, you'd wander in circles until you starved to death or slip and become a ghost at the bottom of a cliff. This was a deadly place. The Mistwood Illusion Forest.
'No wonder those bandit bastards act so cocky.'
They had probably reigned as kings of the mountain for years, trusting this natural barrier and laughing at even the government army.
But still.
"If the road's a piece of shit, you just need to find a guide…!"
I stepped into the fog-shrouded forest and deliberately released the presence I had been hiding until now.
Rustle. Rustle.
Not only did I drop my concealment, I exaggeratedly fluttered my sleeves, crushed dry leaves underfoot, and snapped nearby branches, making as much noise as possible.
In this silent forest, that much noise would surely catch the attention of anyone who wasn't deaf.
"Oh… oh no…!!"
After making a suitable commotion, I pretended to be startled, staggering as I looked around. Then I poured inner energy into my dantian and let my voice ring clearly through the depths of the forest.
"Wh-where am I?! I definitely heard it was this way-y-y-y!!!"
My bloodless lips trembled, and my eyes shimmered as if tears might spill at any moment.
The white skin scratched by rough branches and the dirt-stained hem of my robes told the story of how desperately this lone woman had wandered through the forest, even without words.
To anyone watching, I looked like a pitiful lost lamb separated from my companions.
"What do I do? This is terrible!! I think I'm lost!!!"
My plan was simple and clear.
First, act like a lost maiden to lure in the bandits patrolling the area. Once they kidnapped me and took me to their base, I would comfortably cut their throats and seize the stronghold.
It was a two-birds-one-stone strategy that saved me the trouble of finding the place myself and even provided a guide.
'No need to wander through this complicated maze. Just get escorted. This brings back memories.'
In truth, this tactic hadn't sprung from nothing. It came from bitter experience during my days as Wi Yeon-seol. They say experience is the best teacher, don't they?
In my green days, shortly after obtaining the Heavenly Color Illusion Art and stepping into the Jianghu, when my martial arts were barely at the entry level of first-rate, I had fallen into these bandits' encirclement in the Mistwood Illusion Forest. I was struck from behind, knocked unconscious, and dragged all the way to their base.
'I really thought I was going to die back then.'
After they stripped me of everything I owned, I had nearly become an unnamed ghost in an absolute crisis.
But perhaps heaven helped me, or perhaps the stronghold master took a liking to my handsome features and decided to sell me as a wealthy family's slave or male prostitute. Either way, I kept my life.
And the person I met in that damp, dark prison was none other than her—one of the twelve flower buds.
The humiliation of that day, being dragged along tightly bound in ropes as the bandits' plaything, and the memory of rolling in the dirt like an animal were still burned vividly into my mind.
But even if history repeats, if the helmsman steering the flow is different, the shore where the boat lands will be different too. To me now, that dark history was nothing less than the perfect manual and secret text for reaching the enemy's heart.
'The table is set. Come and take me already!'
Rustle—.
A short while later, the sound of dry leaves crumbling reached my ears.
Beyond the fog, within the shadows of the dense pine trees, I felt sticky gazes.
'One, two, three… Four of them.'
I cheered inwardly while outwardly pretending to be terrified by the sound, stumbling backward.
"Wh-who's there?!"
"Hehehe…!!! What a lucky day."
At my near-scream, four scruffy men slithered out from behind the trees with obscene laughter, as if they'd been waiting.
A foul stench as if they hadn't washed in days.
Yellow teeth revealed between patchy beards.
With rusted axes missing teeth or crude clubs tucked into their sashes, they were unmistakably low-ranking bandits no matter who looked at them.
"Whoa…!!! Are my eyes playing tricks? A fairy goddess in a remote mountain like this?"
"Did you lose your way, miss? Shall these big brothers help you?"
They closed in, baring their yellow teeth as if surrounding me.
Their blatantly filthy gazes crawling over my entire body were exactly like those of beasts that had spotted their prey.
'Good. They've taken the bait.'
Just as planned. Now if I trembled and begged for my life, they would tie me up and take me to the stronghold!
"Hic… P-please don't hurt me…"
I hunched my shoulders tightly and let tears glisten in my eyes, driving the nail in with a pitiful voice.
"I'll give you everything I have. Just spare my life…!! If you just show me the way home…"
The sight of me offering my bundle with trembling hands was that of a pitiful woman driven to the edge of a cliff.
-Smack!
But from that moment, the situation began to twist in a strange direction.
"Hehe, everything you have?"
The pockmarked man who seemed to be the leader roughly swatted away the bundle I offered and reached out with a thick, crude hand to grab my wrist.
"What we want from you isn't some lousy bundle like this."
"……Huh?"
What was this? This wasn't in the script.
"Hey, brothers. If we take a prize like this back to the stronghold, it'll obviously end up with the deputy chief. When else are we going to get a chance to see a beauty like this?"
At the pockmarked man's words, the others' eyes began to gleam.
"Kekeke! The boss is right! When else would trash like us get to taste a peerless beauty like this? We should enjoy her before we die!"
"Strip her now! Let's finish this right here!"
"W-wait, have these bastards lost their minds?!!!"
In the unexpected situation, a curse slipped out before I could stop it.
Even rootless bandits usually had some rules. Especially a large stronghold belonging to the Green Forest Ten Tyrants.
—Women are tribute. Do not lay a single finger on them until permission is granted. Deliver them to the chief in the best possible condition.
This was an iron rule I had heard directly from bandits during my days rolling around in the Unorthodox Path. Breaking it was a grave crime that would result in immediate execution by the chief's hand...
"Hurry up and strip her! Let's finish before the deputy chief finds out!"
"Perfect! The forest is deep—who's going to hear her scream? Gahaha!"
In their eyes, clouded with lust and bloodshot red, the chief's stern orders no longer seemed to exist.
-Slide.
The sound of someone hastily undoing a belt reached my ears.
"W-wait! Don't do this! Stop it and just take me with you, you bastards!!!"
I screamed desperately, but my words no longer seemed to reach their ears.
"Khehehe, haa!"
The panting of beasts.
The pockmarked man roughly pinned my shoulder down, slamming me to the ground, while the rest grabbed my ankles with lecherous laughter.
'I'm screwed.'
This was nothing like the picture I had in mind.
Only after my back hit the dirt did I finally realize the fatal flaw in this plan.
'I was too beautiful.'
I had overlooked the fact that this body—Seol-hye's beauty—was simply too overwhelming.
When a peerless beauty fell before men starved for women, it was only natural they would try to ravish her on the spot.
"Stay still! I'll treat you nicely!"
"Haa, what a scent! Look at that soft skin!"
The moment those filthy hands reeking of desire rushed in to tear my clothes, the thread of my reason snapped.
"You fucking bastards…!"
"…What?"
The pockmarked man who had been about to climb on top of me froze with a stupid expression at the curse that could never have come from a pitiful beauty's lips.
-Slice—
Instead of an answer, a chilling tearing sound rang out as a silver flash wrapped around his throat and passed through.
-Whoosh!
A bright red fountain of blood erupted from his neck.
His severed head spun through the air and rolled across the ground, eyes wide open.
"……!"
A sudden silence fell over the forest. The remaining three men holding my legs froze on the spot, unable to even scream.
-Tap. Tap.
"I told you to just take me with you. You fucking bastards."
I shook the blood from my clothes, then swung my coldly gleaming sword straight at their necks.