[Long]
A day back.
Inside the dark prison surrounded by an iron wall.
Bang! Bang!
Baek Hye-hyang was doing her best to break out of the wall. She hit the iron wall with palm technique making a dent in it. However, breaking it down seemed like an impossible thing to do.
“Haa… haaa….”
Looking at the wall which didn’t seem like it would break, she gasped for breath. And after some time, hit the wall once again for half an hour.
It was natural for her to be tired.
“Damn it.”
A harsh sound emerged from her mouth as she slumped down.
She wasn’t the type to regret anything but this time she considered her actions to be stupid.
‘I was too rushing into it.’
After coming out of the closed training she came to Shaanxi province to persuade the Third Elder to side with her.
And she failed to complete her goal because the person sided with Baek Ryeon-ha.
[I will follow the rules of the sect, lady.]
It was impossible to convince Gu Jae-yang to side with her and with this, three elders sided with Baek Ryeon-ha.
The Blood Demon Sword was also not important anymore. With the three elders on her side, Baek Hye-hyang had already lost.
In the end, she returned without much results but on the way she heard a nice story.
[It is said that one of the Eight great Warriors in the Dual Martial Forces is seeking a successor.]
And when she heard that any person, regardless of their origin would be given a chance at this she felt moved.
She had been feeling stuck, unable to cross the wall. And she tried to get over it by closed door training, but she achieved nothing.
To reach a higher realm, she thought that the teachings from Eight Great Warriors would help her out. And so it would be a bonus to learn another martial art.
She considered it to be a worthwhile challenge and immediately moved.
But not everything went as she planned
“Martial Heaven Sword!”
Her teeth were clattering as she didn’t not expect this.
On the second day with the first test done, she was stuck in here and couldn’t move.
“AHHHHH!”
Bang!
She felt enraged at the thought of it and went crazy hitting the wall again. It was to the point when the shape of the wall changed and a bulge was visible from outside.
As soon as she stopped, she heard a voice.
“So foolish, Miss. Do you think that you will escape from this prison?”
It was the voice of Kang Mu-hyuk the disciple. Baek Hye-hyang stood in front of the wall and spoke with cold eyes.
“I promise that the day I emerge, I will tear that tongue of yours and the eyes right away.”
“Hahaha. Do tell such bloody jokes in these situations.”
“Sounds like a joke? Kid.”
Bang!
The voice which she heard from outside stopped for a moment and then continued.
“Miss, chances like these do not come so easily. My master didn’t promise to accept you as a disciple and ask about your past when you entered this place with that mask.”
“I said, I won’t.”
Baek Hye-hyang met with Chun Mu-seong, and she knew his greed at first sight alone. That person used her and blocked the path, there was no way he would help anyone.
“You are being stubborn now.”
Baek Hye-hyang smiled.
“I will give you a chance.”
“Chance?”
“If you open this gate right now, I will stop with only gouging your eyes out. This is your last chance to live like a human.”
“HAHAHA. To threaten me, when your own fate is unknown”
There was anger in the voice of Kang Mu-hyuk as he laughed.
“I also want to say something. Maybe there will be a chance for you with your legs spread open.”
“What!”
“If you spread them now, maybe I might open the door. Hahaha!”
“You!”
Kwang!
Baek Hye-hyang felt humiliation rise up to those words and then suddenly smoke rolled out from the walls.
“You think you can put me to sleep with something like this!”
“Of course not. But this smoke is not the kind to put you to sleep. The moment you take this, you will turn as weak as a normal human.”
“Shut up!”
Bang!
And then Kang Mu-hyuk’s presence couldn’t be felt. She held her breath for as long as she could but with time strange things happened.
The scene before her eyes changed.
‘…!?’
A house adorned with red lanterns. This was a familiar place to her. The beautiful woman with makeup and red lips appeared through the smoke ahead.
Baek Hye-hyang’s eyes trembled.
“You!”
Tears of blood flowed from the eyes of the beautiful woman. The sight was so horrifying.
The woman glared at her with resentment, making Baek Hye-hyang move back. She tried to hit the woman away but nothing happened and the woman grabbed her neck with both hands.
Shhh!
Baek Hye-hyang fell down, losing strength in her body. She thought it was an illusion, but when the woman grabbed it felt horrible.
“Eik!”
Even if she waved her hand nothing changed, but once the smoke went down things changed and the woman with bloody tears shouted.
-All because of you. If you had been born a man he would have accepted me too!
Baek Hye-hyang’s expression went stiff at those words. As if she was back in the past.
Recalling the childhood that she didn’t want to remember.
-Die! People like you are useless to me! Just die!
As the woman strangled her, her breathing stopped.
“Huk…Uhk….!”
She thought it was all in her head, an illusion playing out but the pain was too much.
She waved the hand at the cheek of the woman who was crying blood. But she turned into smoke as her hand passed through.
-Die! Just die!
Baek Hye-hyang opened her mouth with a cold tone to the woman who was strangling her.
“Is it not a sin to live for your greed in that red light district? If not for your actions would I have been born like this!”
-Right, you should have never been born. A wench like doesn’t deserve to be born! Just die!
“… You are a woman too”
-Die! Die!
The woman continued to cry blood and kept screaming the words ‘die’. The eyes of Baek Hye-hyang turned red. She spoke in a voice of despair.
“A wench like you has no right to call herself a mother either.”
The woman who was resenting Baek Hye-hyang this horribly was her own mother.
“Baek Hye-hyang?”
The person in the iron prison was none other than the other candidate for the Blood Sect?
I never thought she would be the one here, and she looked at me mumbling.
“So Wonhwi?”
I had a mask on, so I was shocked when she figured out my name. Could she have remembered my voice?
Thinking so, she suddenly shook her head like she wasn’t thinking straight.
“Euk!”
Something didn’t seem right. The veins in her eyes and the feeling of her movement felt like she was drunk.
What was with her?
“No. No. there is no way he is here. This is a illusion. All illusion.”
Illusion?
What was she talking about? I was right in front of her.
She looked confused.
“Are you fine?”
She shook her head at my question and then began to strangle me with a sudden yell.
“You wench!”
I was shocked.
“You woman again!”
“Kuak! Why… are you like…?!”
I tried to shake her hand off, but seeing the red eyes and tears I felt confused.
The selfish, greedy woman who was full of confidence. So I couldn’t understand the sad face she held.
Clench!
Clenching my throat she said.
“A wench like you is not my mother. Why do I have to be born! Who do you have to be hated by you till the end!”
‘Mother?’
The voice of hate. And tears fell down her face, biting down the lip she said.
“Watch me. You wench, you only tried to kill me. You only wanted a place next to him and everything the person had.”
What was she seeing right now?
It was like she was looking at someone else and not me.
Her face was determined but the voice seemed sad.
Clench!
“Kuak!
I knew this would continue and wanted to shake her hand off but I couldn’t do much.
So I opened the mid dantian.
The warm qi spread through the body and the innate qi which was not that great compared to the one in the upper dantian, arose.
Clench!
I grabbed her hand and pulled it off my neck.
And when she had her hand removed her eyes trembled.
Pak!
I didn’t miss the chance to kick her in the stomach.
Her body got pushed back but it wasn’t done right considering how she responded right away.
She avoided it. Despite not being in her right mind, she wasn’t letting anyone hit her.
It was then, Iron Sword said.
-It seems the poison used in smoke is eating into her thoughts, Wonhwi.
Poison?
Then was there a way to get her back to normal?
-Judging from the fact that she remembered your voice, it seems like she isn’t fully down, but it is dangerous to take the chance. Maybe a shock to the heavenly blood point would work.
This didn’t seem easy.
She was insanely strong and while I was thinking back on shocking her back, Baek Hye-hyang rushed at me.
I tried to strangle her again but it was that she wasn’t sane.
Then…
Chak!
I threw the string into the iron bars in the prison and when it caught it, I avoided her hands.
She tried to catch up with footwork, but I avoided and circled around her.
‘Thank god.’
She didn’t see the string at all.
I did it just in case because I saw her as a completely different being, yet I wasn’t sure that the string would stop her.
Pat!
‘Huh!’
I lost my guard for a moment and she changed her direction of movement before she attacked me.
At that moment, I pulled the silver string back and it wrapped itself around her putting pressure onto her arms and body.
Shhhh!
‘Now!’
I rushed at her to shock her.
But she, who was tied up with the silver string, raised her feet up, spun and kicked me in the head. I immediately raised my left arm to block her.
At that moment, the body was pushed slightly to the side.
Shhh!
‘The force she has is like a monster.’
Even though this is a fight with just the mid dantian open, I could feel that her strength went way deeper than mine.
Be it because of her body which was unique or she had pills, it was clear that she was a monster. Fortunately, there wasn’t much gap between us now.
Besides, she wasn’t sane now.
Pat!
I pushed myself away, lowered my body and kicked her on the leg. And with that, she fell down.
I immediately climbed on top of her without hesitation and struck the heavenly blood point.
Pang!
“Ack!”
She groaned at this. Even though I controlled the qi which was used, it seemed like it caused enormous pain to her.
She looked at me with blank eyes. It was going to be hard to come to senses right away and I thought so, but the life in her eyes returned.
“… Who are you?”
She was staring at me with an eyebrow raised, but the sorrowful face she had vanished and now was looking at me with arrogant eyes.
I asked just in case.
“Are you back?”
Baek Hye-hyang looked at me and then spoke with a mischievous smile.
“… You… So Wonhwi? Is that a human skin mask?”
‘Ah.’
I should have altered the voice but I was so focused on getting her back that I forgot. But she was so smart.
Despite seeing this face she only needed the voice to figure out my identity.
“… I am glad you are back.”
“How long do you want to stay on top of me?”
“Ah! This….”
Clench.
At that time, Baek Hye-hyang wrapped her legs around my waist and then twisted the body so that she got on top of me.
Licking her lips, she said.
“I am someone who needs to be on the top.”
“…”
-Is she the same person?
Short Sword clicked her tongue.
She climbed on top of me and looked at the string which tied her arms.
“You have such tastes?”
“… You were out of mind so I had to tie you down.”
Her eyes widened at those words. But then, she pretended like she didn’t.
It seemed that she lost her memories when she was unconscious, but her expression changed as she said.
“You… Are you here to save me?”
She was expecting it. Sorry to disappoint but–
“It is a coincidence.”
“Coincidence?”
“I fell because the Martial Heavenly Sword attacked me.”
Baek Hye-hyang looked at me with narrowed eyes like she was disappointed.
This was pretty annoying. Even though she was imprisoned because of being hit.
“If you don’t want to stay locked here, get up.”
Perhaps she recognized the annoyance in my voice, she sighed as she got off me. Shrugging her shoulders she pointed to the string and winked.
And I said to her–
“I don’t really believe in releasing you.”
She was a pretty dangerous person. To my words, she replied.
“Wouldn’t it be better to take it out with your own hands than me tearing it down?”
“You think I will let you do that?”
“Your confidence grew. Is that because your martial arts have increased?”
I too remembered our small fight. She acted like she didn’t remember it but she probably knew it.
“This isn’t a situation for us to argue.”
I infused qi into the string and began to unwind it, this made her smile and she said.
“Wise choice. You understand that the enemy of your enemy is your friend.”
“Lady must be the same.”
“I never thought of you as an enemy.”
Saying so she licked her lips.
“…”
It sounded like she hadn’t given up yet. This was the scary part about her.
She didn’t seem to know that I was the Blood Demon, and I wondered if she would react the same if she found out.
-I say don’t talk about it, Wonhwi.
I agreed with Iron Sword.
In any case, I decided to cooperate with the most dangerous person as my ally.
Kang Mu-hyuk hurriedly led four warriors down the underground.
After hearing that the people he ordered didn’t come up yet, he came to see if there was a problem.
It would be difficult if things went wrong after how confident his master was being.
‘It is normal to be awake for more than half a day since the poison seeps into the body.’
But he felt anxious.
When he came down, the black iron prison was still firmly closed. Seeing how quiet the place was, it seemed like the woman was down.
‘Not far.’
Kang Mu-hyuk smiled slightly. The other one was the problem
Seeing that two people who were sent down weren’t around, the problem might be serious.
‘But there is no huge gap between our skills.’
He thought that if he teamed up with four more first rate warriors he could subdue them in no time.
Headed to the passageway connected to the shrine’s trap.
Upon entering that specific isle, he saw two fallen warriors.
‘No’
Kang Mu-hyuk couldn’t hide his shock. He looked around but he couldn’t see anyone else apart from that.
He remembered closing the black iron door to the prison, and it couldn’t be opened from the inside, then how?
‘There is no presence.’
He opened up his qi senses and tried to concentrate but nothing could be felt. Where could they disappear to?
‘Damn it! This is bad.’
If this happened, he would be the one punished for the mistake. And for some reason, it seemed like something was indeed happening.
Kang Mu-hyuk led the four warriors into the secret room of the trap.
“See if he is dead or not.”
“Yes.”
It was the moment when the warriors approached the fallen.
Tak!
Kang Mu-hyuk hurriedly turned his head at the sound.
‘What?’
He didn’t know where they came from but So Wonhwi and Baek Hye-hyang were blocking the entrance to the room.
“How are you people here?”
They were the ones who should be locked up and passed out. To Wonhwi, Baek Hye-hyang asked.
“Lend me a sword.”
“Sure”
Wonhwi smiled as he handed one to her. And with the sword in her hand, she said.
“I surely said I would gouge your eyes and tongue.”
