Prelude. (6)
After parting with Gu Jeolyeop and Elder Yi,
I immediately took Wi Seol-a out to the town.
For some reason, staying in the clan had begun to feel stifling.
‘The steward’s gaze was a little bothersome, but it should be fine.’
Since I was scheduled to enter seclusion, I had thought they would not allow me to leave the clan.
Contrary to my expectations, however, I was granted permission so smoothly that I could not help but be surprised.
I had even thought of other ways in case they told me not to leave, but all of that had become pointless.
“Young Master! Over there, over there!”
“Wait… No, try taking some strength out of your arm!”
Almost dragged along, I was led around town by Wi Seol-a.
Perhaps it was because we had come out together after such a long time.
Wi Seol-a was so excited that she dragged me around like an enraged bull.
Mu-yeon should have come along as well, but he said he had grasped the foundation of his enlightenment.
Since simply walking around town would be fine, I ordered him not to follow us and left him behind.
‘It’s not as though I need a guard right now.’
Besides, if Mu-yeon had truly grasped enlightenment,
then that was more important.
“Chicken skewers!”
“Yes, yes….”
Even though we had come out to town, what we ultimately did was eat.
…As always.
‘What are the others doing?’
Before leaving, I had looked for Namgung Bi-ah and Dang So-yeol, but
Namgung Bi-ah had left to train, as usual,
and I heard Dang So-yeol had gone out, perhaps because she was busy.
‘Come to think of it, isn’t Dang So-yeol going back?’
Namgung Bi-ah practically lived at the Gu Clan by now,
but with the Dragon-Phoenix Gathering over, Dang So-yeol was supposed to return to Sichuan.
‘…I heard quite a few letters have been arriving as well.’
The letters sent to Dang So-yeol from the Tang Clan had piled up to a considerable extent.
Of course, she did not seem to be reading them.
While being dragged around by Wi Seol-a, I glanced toward the alley ahead.
It was the alley leading to the Hao Clan.
‘I should go there.’
It had been a long time, and I also needed to visit regarding the sect master, but
the situation was not exactly ideal right now.
So for the moment, wandering around with Wi Seol-a was probably the better choice.
[Have you decided to slack off even in your training?]
‘Soon enough, I’ll be sick of training whether I want to or not. I’m going to slack off for just one day.’
[How impressive.]
‘Thank you for the compliment.’
I let Elder Wi’s words pass in one ear and out the other.
As always.
“The dumpling shop is closed….”
“Young Master… You look sadder than I’ve ever seen you.”
“This is a serious matter, you know?”
“The dumpling shop being closed?”
“Yes. It’s the same as the chicken skewer shop you like being closed.”
At my words, Wi Seol-a made a horrified expression.
“T-That really is serious…. Their food is delicious.”
“Exactly. That’s how I feel.”
“…That’s incredibly sad.”
“Right?”
The dumpling shop I often bought from had closed down.
It was one of the more shocking things I had experienced since regressing.
[All this over a dumpling shop…?]
‘A Daoist who only eats grass wouldn’t understand.’
[Listen to this rotten brat. Mount Hua eats meat too.]
‘Daoists eat meat…? As I thought, Mount Hua isn’t a proper Daoist sect.’
[You…!]
I took out my frustrations on Elder Wi.
Though he shouted as if piercing my ears, it had become little more than familiar background noise by now.
‘There isn’t really anything else I can buy on the way back, then.’
I always bought some snacks whenever I went in,
but this time, I could not.
Because there were no dumplings.
“I guess I can’t buy anything to take back this time….”
I was about to say this while looking at Wi Seol-a, but she was staring at something.
I wondered what she was looking at and followed her gaze.
“Hm? What did you say, Young Master?”
“Nothing.”
“Where should we go next?”
Wi Seol-a trotted over, wrapped both hands around my arm, and began dragging me along again.
At that moment, however, I took in the place she had been looking at, if only for a brief moment.
“…Hey, what’s the point of asking me if you’re just going to drag me along?”
“Hehe!”
“Look at you trying to brush it off with a laugh.”
Unable to help myself, I laughed aloud at Wi Seol-a’s sly behavior.
******************
By the time we returned to the clan, night had quickly descended.
Immediately after returning, I was summoned by the steward and informed of my upcoming schedule.
I would enter seclusion in approximately four days.
They said they would put me in the Gu Clan’s Hwarun Cave. I had no objection to that.
‘It’s about time I sorted things out anyway.’
The various energies in my body, the middle dantian I had pierced upon reaching the Peak Realm, and so on.
I planned to organize all of those things during this period of seclusion.
I had gotten myself into this mess, but if I was going to do it, I might as well put it to good use.
I was told that after my seclusion, my schedule would be arranged, after which I would be drafted into the Sword Corps and sent to the front for a year.
Gu Hee-bi, the commander of the Five Swords Corps and the officer in charge of the front, was currently bedridden.
When I asked what would happen if she did not recover,
I was told that if it was not Gu Hee-bi, then the deputy commander of the First Sword Corps would lead the unit.
‘…So they’re saying they won’t give me any way out.’
In any case, it seemed I would be dragged to the front.
‘What a pain in the ass.’
It was not that I was afraid of the front now,
nor was I afraid of being put through the wringer by Gu Hee-bi.
‘…Though the latter is a little frightening.’
In my previous life, the time I spent being worked to the bone by Gu Hee-bi had been at a level where I might not even have been considered First Rate, but Third Rate.
That was because my body had been pathetic from never training even a little.
But at least now, I was not in a situation where such things could wear me down.
‘It’s simply that my instincts reject being under Gu Hee-bi.’
It was like an instinct embedded in my body from a bygone day.
‘A year….’
A year at the front.
That meant losing far too much time, so I needed to figure out what I would do from here on.
‘The Heavenly Demon. The Black Night Palace.’
There were all sorts of other situations unfolding as well, and I could not afford to miss any of them.
Yet I would have to throw away an entire year in the middle of all this.
‘Should I really run away from home?’
It did seem like the best option.
I had been planning to leave the clan someday anyway.
But—
“Tsk….”
I could not leave just yet.
There were definitely things I needed to do inside first.
‘That’s just how my life is.’
It would be strange for a life in which nothing ever went right to suddenly fall into place.
Tap.
I moved carefully, allowing my inner energy to spread around me.
For this very purpose, I had waited until darkness had fallen as deeply as possible.
‘First escaping from my own home, and now having to sneak around inside it.’
What a spectacular series of things I was doing.
The place I carefully snuck into was none other than Gu Hee-bi’s residence.
Members of the Five Swords Corps were standing guard around it,
and only members of the Gu Clan’s bloodline and divine physicians were permitted to enter and leave.
Even so, I had to sneak into Gu Hee-bi’s residence.
I intended to purify the demonic energy binding her.
As a member of the bloodline, I could have entered openly during the day,
but I did not want anyone to see that I could purify demonic energy.
‘The divine physician probably knows.’
Even the divine physician himself did not clearly understand demonic energy.
Although the Black Night Palace Lord’s inner energy was said to be the most similar to a demonic cultivator’s demonic energy,
it was somewhat different in quality from the ‘demonic energy’ that the Sword Empress had possessed.
He would not notice it properly.
So I wanted to handle things secretly.
‘It worked out, since I needed to gather demonic energy before entering seclusion.’
I would be entering seclusion for two months.
I needed to put demonic energy into my body so that its energies would not run wild again.
And as Gu Hee-bi happened to be poisoned by demonic energy, the circumstances were favorable, in their own way.
‘…So far, everything is going smoothly.’
Fortunately, I succeeded in entering Gu Hee-bi’s room.
Gu Hee-bi was sleeping in her bed as though she were dead.
Judging by her breathing, she was in a deep sleep.
Her body had weakened from the demonic energy, and she could not use her inner energy.
Thus, she did not notice even when I approached her.
‘Just in case, should I put her into a deeper sleep?’
It would be troublesome if she woke midway, so I sealed her acupoints once more, putting her to sleep.
‘Hm?’
Had I imagined it?
When I checked her pulse, it somehow felt as though Gu Hee-bi had not been asleep.
‘It must be my imagination. If she had been awake, she would have noticed me and immediately flown into a rage.’
Surely Gu Hee-bi had not been pretending to sleep.
I dismissed the thought as nonsense and erased it from my mind.
I extended my hand toward the area where Gu Hee-bi’s dantian was located.
‘There’s less than I expected.’
It was a far smaller amount than the demonic energy that had destroyed the Sword Empress’s body, but
when I considered that even this much was destroying the body of a martial artist like Gu Hee-bi,
I could understand just how vicious an energy demonic energy was.
‘Come to think of it, where did the Sword Empress go?’
I suddenly wondered about the Sword Empress, who had apparently traveled with them to help confirm Gu Hee-bi’s life and rescue her.
According to Gu Ryeong-hwa, letters continued to arrive regularly.
‘Didn’t they say she had suddenly gone to Henan?’
The moment she heard the news that Gu Hee-bi had been properly found and rescued,
I heard that rather than returning, she had headed to Henan.
‘I heard her health had recovered somewhat, but she started wandering all over the country the moment she did.’
Perhaps because of that, Gu Ryeong-hwa had been staying at the clan for increasingly longer periods.
The Plum Blossom Immortal’s heart was probably burning a little more as well.
‘Thanks to that, she seems to have grown closer to Zhuge Hyeok.’
Crack.
A physician from the Medical Hall had told me that the two had recently been spending a lot of time together.
But what could happen just because a couple of kids were always together?
‘That’s exactly how trouble starts.’
I felt that I needed to have a heart-to-heart talk with Zhuge Hyeok in the near future.
Whoom.
I steadied my body and activated the Heavenly Demon Absorption Art.
Immediately, the demonic energy blocking Gu Hee-bi’s dantian was sucked in through my palm.
‘So this is the Heavenly Demon’s power.’
I had thought it was merely a demonic art that had been bestowed upon me.
But after learning that the Heavenly Demon Absorption Art, which had changed in this life, was in fact one of the Heavenly Demon’s complete powers,
my perspective had changed somewhat.
‘The power to interfere even with another person’s energy.’
Though it was not inner energy, it was a power that allowed one to envelop the body in special energies without causing a clash.
It was truly a terrifying power.
It did not take very long to absorb all of Gu Hee-bi’s demonic energy.
Only with demonic energy on the level of what the Sword Empress had possessed had I needed to endure the pain throughout the night.
‘The Palace Lord’s demonic energy isn’t a small amount, but this much is manageable.’
That only made me more curious.
Just where had the Sword Empress become poisoned by demonic energy of that magnitude?
‘…The Heavenly Demon?’
There were too many questionable aspects for that to be the case,
and too many gaps in my knowledge to make a definite conclusion.
I thought it more likely that it had happened somewhere else.
‘Then what if…?’
For an instant, scenes I had encountered in the Demon Realm in my previous life came to mind,
but I immediately erased them. I did not think that could possibly be the case.
After absorbing all the demonic energy from Gu Hee-bi’s body,
I quickly rose to my feet.
Gu Hee-bi would wake around sunrise,
and I needed to get out before then.
Before leaving, I looked at Gu Hee-bi and thought,
‘If I hadn’t saved her, I wouldn’t have to suffer at the front.’
If I had not purified her demonic energy,
Gu Hee-bi probably would not have gone to the front, and I would have gone as planned with the deputy commander.
That might have been easier on me mentally, but
‘I couldn’t do that.’
She might have been a cursed blood relative, but I could not do that to Gu Hee-bi.
No matter how foul-tempered she was, she was still my sister.
‘Thinking of it that way, I should probably go see Gu Yeon-seo too.’
Gu Yeon-seo, the second daughter of the Gu Clan and my younger sister.
I had not properly seen Gu Yeon-seo since the Nine Dragons Gathering.
I had encountered her a few times from afar, but Gu Yeon-seo had avoided me, so I had never gone out of my way to speak with her.
‘I should go patch things up with her sometime.’
I could not keep living like this forever.
I watched Gu Hee-bi sleeping peacefully, then turned around and immediately left the residence.
Sneaking in had been difficult,
but getting out was relatively easy.
Keeping my presence completely concealed, I returned to my residence at a brisk pace.
If I quickly went to bed, it would have been a perfect plan.
But—
“Hm…?”
Someone was sitting on the wooden veranda in front of my room.
In the middle of the night.
I confirmed who it was and immediately spoke to her.
It was strange for anyone to be sitting there at this hour.
“What are you doing there?”
The person sitting on the veranda and gazing at the moonlight was none other than Wi Seol-a.
“Why aren’t you asleep—”
I stopped midway through speaking.
Could it have been because of the moonlight?
The reason was that when Wi Seol-ah turned her head this way, her eyes seemed to flash gold for some reason.
Of course, perhaps it had only been a momentary illusion.
When I looked again, her eyes were their usual black.
‘Am I really that tired?’
Perhaps it was because I hadn’t gotten any proper rest. I seemed to keep seeing things that weren’t there.
“You should be sleeping at this hour. What are you doing out here?”
“What about you, Young Master?”
“As for me, I had some things to take care of.”
“I also… have something to do.”
“What?”
“I’m watching the sun.”
“What sun could possibly be up in the middle of the night?”
It was a night when a crescent moon proudly hung in the sky, illuminating the surroundings.
There was no way the sun could be seen in this dark night.
When I asked what on earth she was talking about,
Wi Seol-ah answered me with a faint smile.
“It’ll rise tomorrow.”
“Then you should watch it tomorrow. Why are you watching it now?”
“I suppose you’re right.”
What was she talking about?
Was she tired too?
Perhaps from wandering all over Hyeon today, Wi Seol-ah wasn’t quite in her right mind either.
“Play around a little longer and then go to sleep. Otherwise, Elder Wi will scold you tomorrow.”
“…Mmm, I don’t really like that.”
“Honghwa will scold you too.”
“Ugh, I really don’t like that…!”
At my words, Wi Seol-ah looked horrified and hurriedly got to her feet.
She seemed intent on returning to her room and going to sleep right away.
Seeing this, I stopped her.
“Wait a moment.”
“Yes?”
Wi Seol-ah looked at me as if asking what was wrong.
I placed the object I had been keeping in my robes into her hands.
“Huh…?”
Wi Seol-ah’s eyes flew open as she looked at the object in her hands.
Her eyes were already large, but when she opened them even wider, it was astonishing to see that they could become so enormous.
“This…?”
“You were looking at it earlier, so I thought you might need it.”
“Ah, no… It wasn’t that….”
“If you don’t need it, never mind. I’ve already bought it, so use it.”
What I had given her was something like an ornament to attach to the hilt of a sword.
It was also the thing Wi Seol-ah had stared intently at, if only for a moment, in Hyeon.
Most swordsmen didn’t bother attaching such things, considering them cumbersome.
But it should be fine for Wi Seol-ah.
“Whether it’s the sword or whatever, if you’re going to do it, give it your all. If you lose interest halfway through, you can always quit.”
“...”
In the end, if she had decided to take up the sword,
I wanted to stop her, but I thought perhaps I should let her continue for the sake of what lay ahead.
At the very least, she needed enough skill to protect herself.
Having even that much, I thought, would help Wi Seol-ah maintain a peaceful life as well.
Looking at Wi Seol-ah’s widened eyes, I said,
“I’m going to bed. You should stop dawdling and go to sleep too.”
I roughly tousled her hair before entering my room as well.
Thud—the door closed.
Left alone, looking at the ornament in her hand,
Wi Seol-ah gazed at the quarters Gu Yangcheon had entered and whispered softly.
“…I was wrong after all. The sun really is shining just fine.”
Clutching the ornament tightly to her chest,
Wi Seol-ah whispered those words.