Chapter 132
After sparring to my heart’s content, receiving guidance from Seo Mun-Hwarin, and even, albeit dazedly, grasping the thread of Willpower, I had been in a rather good mood.
That is, until I entered my room—only to find Tang Sowol, panting heavily, pinning Seol Lihyang beneath her.
“What are you two doing? In my room...?”
“P-Please listen to me for a moment! I can explain everything!”
“...Is that so? Is that how it is?”
“W-Why do you sound convinced?! You’re making me seem like some kind of weirdo!”
Tang Sowol practically shrieked as she jumped to her feet and strode over to me, grabbing my hand.
“Hyang kept running away, so I had no choice!”
“So when someone runs, you just pounce on them... then what happens if I run away now?”
“I’d collapse on the floor and cry my eyes out.” “Well, that would be a problem.”
With a faint chuckle, I sat down on the edge of the bed. I then reached out and gave the cheek of Seol Lihyang—who still looked dazedly at her own arm—a gentle tug.
Streeetch.
“W-What was that for?!”
“Jealousy.”
“Why take it out on me?”
“Well, I can’t exactly pull Tang Sowol’s cheek, can I?”
I looked over at Tang Sowol. She was in the middle of dragging in Seo Mun-Hwarin, who seemed to be debating whether to stay or leave.
After a brief hesitation, Tang Sowol tightly closed her eyes and stuck her face forward.
“I’m ready now. A little’s fine!”
I stared at her determined expression, then slowly extended my hand and—
Boop.
I grabbed her nose instead of her cheek.
“Ehh??”
Tang Sowol looked confused, speaking in a nasal tone. I simply shrugged and said,
“Isn’t it more fun to grab something unexpected? Besides, I never thought anything actually happened. I’m sure there’s a story—just like there was with me.”
“Y-Yes! That’s right! I really had no choice but to take her down forcefully!”
I looked over at Seol Lihyang again. She seemed a bit guilty, shrinking her neck and glancing at us with a sidelong gaze.
“So there was something. Now I’m honestly curious—what exactly happened?”
“Well...”
Tang Sowol trailed off and began explaining what had happened earlier today.
***
While I was sparring with Seo Mun-Hwarin, as expected, Tang Sowol had been chasing down Seol Lihyang, who had been avoiding us lately.
She went to Lihyang’s room, searched around places she might visit, and even asked the servants where she might be hiding. Eventually, she found her in a surprising place—near the old training hall of the Yeon Clan.
It was the old hall from the days when the clan specialized in jiangshi techniques, with a completely different structure from the current martial training ground.
Though now closed off, it still bore the traces of the Yeon Clan, and so outsiders were not permitted entry.
“She was sitting alone in a corner not far from the hall. Just quietly, with a troubled-looking servant beside her.”
“What’s that about...?”
I turned to look at Seol Lihyang, who averted her gaze and spoke, looking into empty air.
“I didn’t realize it when my body wasn’t normal, but once I got better, I could tell—circulating internal energy became unbelievably easier.”
With that, she lifted the whip from her waist. It shimmered with frost-white qi as if covered in ice, and faint white haze rose from its surface.
Though the output was weak, the flow of sword qi was stable. It wasn’t forced—she had clearly reached Peak Stage.
“I see. So the reason you’ve been avoiding us, and seeking places filled with demonic aura—or more precisely, yin qi—was to sort through your enlightenment. But if that was the case, why didn’t you just tell us? I spent the whole day sparring with Senior Seo Mun-Hwarin for the same reason.”
I nodded with admiration.
I already knew, better than anyone, how talented Seol Lihyang was, even in my past life.
With the right martial arts and the right environment—and though it was a bit reckless, she had gone through an experience that shattered her limits—it wasn’t surprising she had broken through the Peak Stage barrier so suddenly.
Even before, she had reached Peak Stage at a young age using self-taught martial arts and a half-finished cultivation technique focused only on inflating her internal energy.
However, her next words caught me off guard.
“No? I just... woke up and could do it. I was drawn to that place because of the yin qi and went there to cultivate, but I had already sorted through my enlightenment by then.”
Back in my past life, when I first reached Peak Stage and awakened sword qi, I spent three sleepless days and nights swinging my sword nonstop, barely eating, in an attempt to internalize the feeling before it disappeared from my fingertips.
That allowed me to reach a fully realized Peak Stage quickly—but it seemed Lihyang didn’t even need to go through that.
Her natural constitution really was something else. Feeling a surge of bitter jealousy, I pinched her other cheek—a little harder this time.
Streeetch.
“Ow! What—what was that for?!”
“You just piss me off.”
“You—you’re saying that?!”
Seol Lihyang stared at me in disbelief. I just shrugged and steered the conversation back on track.
“If it wasn’t to sort out your enlightenment, then why were you avoiding us?”
“I needed time to sort out... something else.”
I didn’t need her to say it—I could guess.
Maybe she thought she hadn’t been obvious, but since the Dragon and Phoenix Summit, Seol Lihyang had been more openly showing her feelings toward me.
Considering the time we spent apart after the ship flipped and I was separated from the others, and everything that happened after I defeated the Blood Flame Sword Demon...
She was probably feeling exposed—maybe even frightened by how obvious her feelings had become.
It seemed I wasn’t the only one who thought that. Sitting beside me, Tang Sowol spoke in a serious tone.
“Hyang, I—”
“No.”
She was cut off immediately by Seol Lihyang.
Lihyang shook her head, turned to face Tang Sowol directly, and said,
“I can already guess what you want to say. You’ve hinted at it before, even if you never said it outright.”
She added,
“But what I want to say is a little different.”
Then she summoned a chilling cold over her palm.
“When I was lying there, sorting out my enlightenment—I thought about what pushed me to that point. And the answer was simple.”
She clenched her fist, and the swirling cold air gathered all at once. Then she turned to face me.
“It was when I saw Cheon Hwi being overwhelmed by the Blood Flame Sword Demon. I suddenly thought... he might die.”
A faint gleam flickered in her eyes—sharp like a blade, cold like a winter wind.
It was the look I knew well from the Demonic Sound Witch.
“I was scared of losing Cheon Hwi. Much more than I was afraid of dying myself.”
Though it wasn’t directed at anyone, the sincerity behind her words was tinged with something close to killing intent. Everyone in the room went still.
Now I understood.
Why Seol Lihyang had gained enlightenment so suddenly. Why her atmosphere had become more like it was in the past life.
Those who have faced the deepest depths of life often develop a peculiar intensity, a kind of aura of despair.
And apparently, I occupied a larger place in her life than I’d thought.
As the tense atmosphere lingered, Seol Lihyang softened her expression and gave an awkward smile.
“Hehe... Once I realized that, it kind of scared me. I felt like I had to step back and sort out my thoughts, at least once.”
“So while Sowol and I were taking turns looking for you, you were desperately running away—because she decided to drag you back by force this time.”
“Yeah. I got strong enough that unless Sister Tang used her full power, she couldn’t catch me. What you saw earlier was me getting caught after a long chase.”
Seol Lihyang gave a self-deprecating shrug and smile.
Before her fight with the Blood Flame Sword Demon—back when she captured a demonic cultist and still hesitated, unsure if she could kill...
That same girl had now been willing to risk her life, without hesitation, to kill someone.
The sudden depth of her emotions probably frightened even herself, prompting her to take some space.
For her, I wasn’t the only one. Tang Sowol was also someone who had saved her.
Tang Sowol, who had been quietly listening, finally opened her mouth in a low voice.
“Since Hyang told her story, I’ll share mine too... just briefly.”
“Sister Tang’s...?”
Seol Lihyang looked confused, but Tang Sowol seemed more nervous than anyone. She looked to me for reassurance, then took a deep breath and said, with a serious face—
“The truth is... I may not be able to bear children.”
“Wait. I thought we already talked about this.”
Three years ago, even before I became Tang Sowol’s fiancé, I had shared with her a special chant—a Secret Art—created by the Poison Queen in her previous life and verified by Tang Jincheon in this one.
A technique meant to mitigate the effects of the Poison Spirit Constitution, which worsens fertility as one’s martial cultivation grows and internal poison intensifies.
At my words, Tang Sowol flinched like a child caught hiding something and spoke cautiously.
“I didn’t tell you before, but... there’s been a problem.”
“What kind of problem?”
“It was fine at first. But as I advanced and mastered the chant, I started feeling... something was off.”
“That’s impossible.”
That chant had been designed by no one other than Tang Sowol herself, tailored to her own body. It shouldn’t be wrong.
But her next words made it all make sense.
“After I absorbed the Purple Flower Poison Enhancing Grass, the poison inside me grew much stronger. The chant alone can’t control it anymore...”
“Ah.”
The chant was fine. But unlike in her past life, this Tang Sowol had absorbed the Purple Flower Poison Enhancing Grass—a rare and potent herb potent enough to alter the very nature of her condition.
Even if she fully mastered the chant, it might not be enough to suppress the side effects.
Tang Sowol bit her lip and sighed.
“It’s not like I don’t want to monopolize my fiancé. But there’s already someone in his heart—even if she’s no longer in this world. And with my condition unresolved, how could I greedily cling to him without any plan?”
“That’s...”
“Thankfully, Hyang is a very good person. That’s why I mentioned all this to you before.”
So that’s what it was. I’d assumed the infertility issue had been resolved.
Knowing how much it bothered her, I was lost for words—but before I could say anything, Tang Sowol acted first.
She got up, sat down in front of Seol Lihyang, and gently took her hands.
They didn’t exchange any words. Only small, soft gestures and eye contact passed between them.
As the atmosphere grew unexpectedly tender, I found myself wondering if I should reach out and join their hands too—but then—
“I-I have nothing to do with any of this...!”
Seo Mun-Hwarin, who had unintentionally heard a rather delicate conversation, looked like she was about to cry.
“Why am I even in this room...?”
She looked like she wanted to go back to her own room. But it was too late—she’d already heard everything.
I shrugged and whispered quietly.
“I’ll let you go after dinner.”
“…!”
Seo Mun-Hwarin’s eyes filled with betrayal.
Three days after Tang Sowol and Seol Lihyang made up—
The long-awaited Yeon Clan Head and Paeng Clan Head finally arrived.
Even Tang Jincheon, who now looked ten years older, had come with them.