Chapter 670
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 670
Chapter Title: Chohye, It's Me
Slowly, ever so slowly, the blocked meridians were opening.
Eventually, a mere wisp of energy pierced through the blocked meridian, creating a flow.
After that, it was smooth sailing.
Even a wisp-thin strand of energy had carved out a path to flow.
All that remained was to gradually thicken the energy bit by bit, widening the blood vessels in the process.
“Kyaaaaak!!”
Of course, it came with excruciating agony.
Agony so intense that even Yu Wol-a, who had been gritting her teeth through it, unleashed a heartrending scream.
Heuk Hwa-rin couldn't bear to watch. She squeezed her eyes shut and turned her head away.
This was the most she could manage.
Her entire body was soaked in sweat—foul-smelling, pitch-black sweat brimming with impurities.
The impurities that had clogged her meridians for so long, birthing the blocked meridian syndrome, were gushing out all at once.
And that was hardly the end of it.
Layered on top, the demonic energy that had seeped into those blocked meridians was seeping out through the sweat as well.
He had fully unblocked the meridians, restoring them to normal blood vessels, then incinerated every last trace of lingering demonic energy until it vanished.
Around that time,
Yu Wol-a's pain-wracked screams and groans finally ceased.
“Hngh...”
Instead, a soft sound escaped her lips—one that hinted at faint pleasure.
It was inevitable.
After decades sealed away, the impurities blocking her meridians had been purged. For the first time, she felt energy surging vigorously through her newly opened meridians, coursing freely across her body.
The sheer ecstasy of it was beyond words.
Yu Wol-a herself had no inkling of the sounds she was making. Unwittingly, she left Heuk Hwa-rin blushing furiously.
Heuk Hwa-rin still had her head turned away.
Thus, she remained oblivious to the transformation overtaking Yu Wol-a.
Yet there were those who had observed the entire healing process without missing a single detail.
The Gong siblings: Gong Hae-bin and Gong Hae-jun.
Even amid Yu Wol-a's horrific shrieks, they hadn't torn their eyes away, frightened though they were.
They had watched it all, even through half-lidded eyes.
The peculiar moan from moments ago meant nothing to them—they were far too young to understand.
They simply registered that the pain had passed. What a relief.
And so, the two children were the first to behold Yu Wol-a's changed form.
Ha Seol-ran had been busy soothing Heuk Hwa-rin, arriving later than the kids.
Aside from Ha Mu-baek, the Gong siblings alone had confirmed it.
The escort warriors had all turned their backs, unable to stomach the sight of their lady in torment.
“Eh, eh? Eh, eh?”
Gong Hae-jun gasped repeatedly in utter disbelief.
With the blocked meridians and demonic energy purged, her meridians fully normalized, the tangled qi and blood in her face realigned.
The grotesquely twisted muscles and skin reverted to their rightful places.
The change unfolded slowly, yet miraculous as any divine intervention.
Her nose—twice broken and crooked—snapped back into position.
The wrinkled, furrowed creases on her forehead smoothed away.
Her twisted lips straightened, blooming back to vivid crimson.
Her warped jaw realigned as well.
The lumpy, protruding muscles clustered around her lower jaw stretched taut and even.
Her skin, already porcelain pale, gleamed impossibly whiter.
In a word:
Beautiful.
Unbelievably so.
The epitome of beauty, enough to make one wonder if this was how a celestial fairy might appear upon descending to earth.
“Woo, woo, woooow!!”
Gong Hae-jun bellowed at the top of his lungs.
“Ah, ah, beautiful...”
Gong Hae-bin murmured, utterly entranced.
Around that time,
Yu Wol-a stirred from her euphoric haze, her senses gradually returning.
Heuk Hwa-rin snapped her eyes open at the children's cries and whipped her head toward Yu Wol-a.
And beheld.
“Ah, ah, Lady??”
She muttered blankly, as if she couldn't trust her own eyes.
“Th-that... really you, Lady?”
She repeated herself.
Even staring right at it, belief refused to settle.
Everything but the face was unmistakably her lady's form.
“Hm? What's wrong, Hwa-rin?”
Yu Wol-a propped herself up from her reclining position, cocking her head quizzically.
When Gong Hae-bin had gasped about her beauty, Yu Wol-a had still been lost in a fog, the words failing to register.
Only those nearby had caught it.
Ha Seol-ran wore a beaming smile of delight.
Ha Mu-baek maintained his signature stoic expression.
At Heuk Hwa-rin's outburst, the escort warriors—who had stood with backs turned—craned their necks to glimpse Yu Wol-a.
Then flushed beet red and hastily looked away again.
Small wonder.
Yu Wol-a had expelled a staggering volume of impurities and waste via sweat. Her clothes clung sodden to her skin.
They reeked horribly from the filth,
but worse still, the drenched fabric molded perfectly to her body, outlining every curve.
Paired with her devastating new beauty, those curves were beyond alluring—positively lethal.
For her own escort warriors, it was a sight too bold to linger on.
“Lady!!”
Heuk Hwa-rin threw herself at Yu Wol-a, burying into her embrace.
The stench wafting from her body was overpowering, yet Heuk Hwa-rin paid it no mind.
She simply couldn't accept this reality staring her in the face.
That her lady's true visage had been this breathtaking all along.
That someone like this had endured decades of cruel scorn and mistreatment.
“Sniff, sniff. Sniff sniff sniff. It's wonderful. Truly wonderful...”
“What's gotten into you? Hwa-rin... no, Chief Heuk.”
At the sight of Heuk Hwa-rin sobbing endlessly, even Yu Wol-a shifted from sisterly tones to address her as chief officer.
Yet Heuk Hwa-rin only wept harder.
An utterly perplexing impasse.
Then,
Only now did Yu Wol-a catch the foul reek rising from her own body.
“Hm? Th-this smell...?”
Her delicate brows knitted in distaste.
“Impurities and demonic energy from the blocked meridian syndrome, mixed with years of built-up waste. Best to bathe and burn those clothes.”
“Here.”
Ha Seol-ran shrugged off her wind-repelling robe and offered it over.
Caught off guard by the gesture, Yu Wol-a tilted her head—then her face ignited crimson.
At last, she registered her clothes' sorry state.
She snatched the robe and draped it hastily to shield herself.
Advanced age or no, parading like this was mortifying.
“To your quarters, then.”
Yu Wol-a nodded at Ha Mu-baek's suggestion.
Heuk Hwa-rin took point, the escorts forming a tight ring around her.
She donned her face veil again—the one shed for the treatment.
Heuk Hwa-rin fastened it for her; Yu Wol-a had forgotten.
The intent had flipped entirely.
Once, to hide a face some deemed grotesque.
Now, to conceal her lady's exquisite beauty.
No one else deserved to see it.
Least of all that loathsome cur, Yeon Baek-pung.
The Yeon Clan reeled in chaos from their patriarch's residence crumbling, yet Yu Wol-a's entourage basked in serenity.
Strictly speaking, they belonged to the Gold Cloth Merchant Group—to Yu Wol-a herself.
They reached her quarters. She and Heuk Hwa-rin headed straight for the bath.
Not a soul breathed word of her altered looks.
They hoped she'd discover it on her own.
Gong Hae-bin and Gong Hae-jun nearly blurted it out, but Ha Seol-ran silenced them via transmission.
She understood the merchant group's quiet wish.
Yu Wol-a entered the bathchamber. Moments later—
“Kyaa, kyaaak!!!!”
Her scream erupted.
She had finally spotted the massive mirror tucked in one corner.
The reason was plain.
The bathhouse mirror existed, but she had always sidestepped it deliberately.
Even she found confronting her reflection daunting.
This time, too, under Heuk Hwa-rin's bathing aid, she aimed straight for the tub.
But faltered.
Heuk Hwa-rin had steered her deliberately before the glass.
Horrific torment chased by rapturous bliss.
A consciousness adrift in stupor.
One shock after another—even Yu Wol-a's razor-sharp mind hadn't fully regrouped.
Thus, despite Ha Mu-baek declaring her syndrome cured, she hadn't pondered the implications.
Led by Heuk Hwa-rin to the mirror, she confronted her face.
And her immediate reaction? A shriek.
A strange woman stared back—one she'd never laid eyes on.
“Wh-who is this?! Hwa-rin! The m-mirror—why... what in the world... a d-demon!?”
Hence her absurd outburst.
Heuk Hwa-rin shook her head.
“No, Lady. Look closely this time. Lady—your blocked meridian syndrome is gone now!”
At Heuk Hwa-rin's choked cry,
Yu Wol-a froze.
That declaration finally sank in. She pondered its meaning.
She peered into the mirror anew.
Raised her hand.
The woman mirrored the motion.
She turned her face side to side.
The woman matched her precisely.
A single tear trickled from her eye.
One welled in the woman's as well.
“Th-this... this is me?”
Comprehension dawned: that was her reflection.
“Gr-great hero!!!!”
Yu Wol-a lunged for the door—to thank Ha Mu-baek at once. And glimpsing her radiant new self, her tragic daughter flashed in mind.
But—
“Lady!!!!”
Heuk Hwa-rin seized her in panic.
“Hwa-rin, to the great hero—to the great hero...”
“Lady, you're stark naked right now...”
Heuk Hwa-rin, clinging fast from behind, hissed urgently into her ear.
“Ah?!?”
The words jolted her awake. She halted, gaze dropping to her body.
Not a stitch on her—flawless jade nudity.
Of course.
She was en route to the tub for a soak.
“H-how... such indecency...”
Yu Wol-a's cheeks blazed scarlet.
“And you still reek, Lady. Bathe first, quick.”
Led by Heuk Hwa-rin, Yu Wol-a ducked her head and slipped into the tub, submerging fully.
Top of her crown to toes.
Hastily heated as it was, the water chilled her—but her mind was elsewhere.
Heuk Hwa-rin stoked the fire meantime, warming the bath.
The sequence had inverted, but needs must.
The urgency demanded it.
The water heated swiftly. Steam blanketed the chamber.
Half a shichen passed.
Bathed and flushed, Yu Wol-a emerged into the receiving hall.
Her maids had been hosting Ha Mu-baek's group.
Her sudden appearance startled them rigid.
“Wh-who...?”
Inevitable.
No beauty like this had graced the place before.
“Chohye, it's me.”
The voice—kind, warm, achingly familiar.
Which only amplified their shock.
Impossible.
“Ma-ma-madam?”
Yu Wol-a nodded.
Chohye—the maid so named—nearly fumbled her tray in astonishment.
Heuk Hwa-rin snatched it midfall. No mishap.
“My deepest thanks. Great Hero Ha. How could this happen to me... Miracles truly exist.”
Her voice quavered, on the verge of tears.
She had borne her looks with stoic grace all these years. But beauty restored brought revelation.
She was no different from her daughter.
Pretending acceptance, feigning composure—she too had ached and withered under that hideous shell.
She had merely turned away.
Her stubborn insistence on Yeon Baek-pung for arranged marriage? A cry from that buried pain.
“Merely your innate form, Madam.”
Ha Mu-baek set down his teacup, tone even.
“I scarcely know how to thank you...”
Still doubting, Yu Wol-a brushed her face—and flinched.
Something amiss.
The mirror hadn't clued her in; only touch did now.
Her skin was taut. Too taut.
No lines for her seasoned years.
A qi-cultivating martial master? Perhaps. But she was utterly ordinary, bereft of even a scrap of inner energy.
“Removing the demonic energy purged every impurity from your meridians bodywide. Hence, a touch younger.”
Ha Mu-baek divined her wonderment, dismissing it casually.
“S-such a thing...”
Yu Wol-a trailed off, incredulous.
“Could have spared the waste, burned only the demonic energy... but messier, fussier work. So I cleared it all.”
Ha Mu-baek cracked a faint smile.
For Yu Wol-a, pure fortune from misfortune.
Demonic affliction treated via meridian cure—reclaiming her birthright beauty unseen till now, impurities incinerated, youth renewed.
“Congratulations. You've reclaimed your stolen years.”
Ha Mu-baek spoke from the heart.