Free Web NovelWhen I came to, I was lying on a shabby bed under an unfamiliar blanket.
I blinked blankly, then let out a rough breath as memory came rushing back.
I hadn’t died. I had lived.
Tears of relief poured down my face at once. I could hardly believe I had opened my eyes again.
When I grunted and tried to move my numb body, feeling gradually returned to my hands and feet, and the tip of my index finger twitched little by little.
I fumbled across the bed with one hand, caught the edge, and pulled myself up.
Maybe it was because I had moved too suddenly, but dizziness swept over me in an instant.
I pressed my cold palm hard against my temples, trying to clear my head. My forehead was damp with cold sweat.
At least my dantian seemed intact. Fortunately, it looked like I had narrowly avoided falling into qi deviation.
How did I survive?
Trembling with anxiety, I looked around.
It was a small, old room.
It was not the shack I had hidden in last. There was almost no sign of anyone nearby, so it did not seem to be a crowded place.
I slowly lowered my heavy legs to the floor. A throbbing pain ran through my thigh.
When I glanced down, I saw the wound had been wrapped in clean cloth. Someone seemed to have treated it.
The room was old, but well kept. Human traces lingered in every corner, and there was a faint smell of medicinal decoction.
Something touched my toes, and when I looked, my green robe had been neatly folded beneath the bed. My pouches and silver had also been left there untouched.
I was still glancing around, wondering where I was, when the door opened with a clatter.
“You’re awake?”
It was a hearty voice I had heard somewhere before.
“Still not fully with us, I take it. Young Lady. Should I give you a little more time to rest?”
I stared blankly at the unfamiliar man in the doorway, then realized he was the owner of the voice I ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) had heard before I passed out.
My body tensed on its own. I watched him warily and spoke slowly.
“Who are you?”
“The benefactor who saved you.”
The man gave a crooked smile and tipped his chin as if asking whether he could come in.
With sunlight pouring in behind him, the hair he had loosely tied back glimmered a dark red-black.
If he had bothered to clean himself up, he would have been fairly handsome, but the scar by his left eye gave him a slightly rough, lawless air.
When I slowly nodded, he strode in and set down a tray.
He poured water from a kettle into a cup and held it out to me.
“Drink. I’m not in any position to serve tea, so cold water’s all I’ve got.”
“...Thank you.”
“It’s only water. You just draw it from the well.”
The self-proclaimed benefactor grinned broadly, flashing white teeth.
After hesitating for a moment, I accepted the cup.
Even if it was poisoned, I wouldn’t be poisoned by it, so being suspicious enough to refuse felt exhausting.
I had only meant to wet my parched mouth, but the instant I swallowed a sip, thirst came over me like fire.
When I drained the cup in a rush, the man poured me another. Fortunately, I was calm enough to drink the second cup more slowly.
Maybe it was because it had just been drawn from the well, or maybe because I was so thirsty, but the water tasted sweet.
“Want more?”
“No. I’m fine.”
“All right. Hand me the cup.”
After setting the cup back on the tray, he slowly sat down on the bed.
“How does your body feel? Young Lady, if I’d come even a little later, you would have fallen into qi deviation.”
“How...?”
“Your internal energy had a strange nature. It came at me like it was trying to devour even my own internal energy.”
At that calm reply, cold sweat soaked my back.
He was saying he had gathered up my rampaging energy and guided it.
He was a master.
Helping someone else circulate their internal energy was not something just anyone could do.
And he was not even from the Tang Sect, was he? He possessed martial arts deep enough to see through and handle another sect’s Heart Method.
There was no doubt he was a master far beyond anything I could dare challenge.
What had he saved me for? To hand me over to the Yuzhou Merchant Guild while I was still whole?
I immediately began judging whether my body was in any condition to escape from him.
When my eyes sharpened with hostility, the man waved a hand as if telling me not to be on guard.
“Easy, easy. Calm down. I don’t mean you any harm.”
“What?” frёeweɓηovel.coɱ
“You had this little fellow call me over, didn’t you? If I’d meant to harm you, I wouldn’t have saved you in the first place.”
“Cane? Why are you there?”
Only then did I notice Cane sitting on the man’s shoulder.
I had let him go and told him to run far away, but it seemed he had found someone and asked for help.
“Grrr.”
Cane straightened proudly, as if asking to be praised. Letting out a hollow laugh, I held out a hand.
“Cane. Come here.”
Cane scampered down from the man’s shoulder and ran to throw himself into my arms.
“His name’s Cane? It suits him. He was good at leading the way. Ah, and the spiritual energy from the spirit pill you swallowed—I drew it out and fed it to this fellow, so don’t feel too bad about it. Better than dying, right?”
“Kii!”
Cane nodded as if to say he had enjoyed it. As I stroked him, my eyes flicked aside.
He drew only the spiritual energy out of my body and fed it to Cane?
How was that even possible unless he was using demonic arts?
And why hadn’t he absorbed it himself?
Even if it was no Ten-Thousand-Poison Pellet, it was still spiritual energy of a density anyone would covet.
Weren’t martial artists the sort of creatures who would commit every bizarre act imaginable just to increase their internal energy by even a single grain?
A man with the ability to kill me and take my internal energy without anyone thinking it strange had instead fed it to Cane. That was suspicious.
Seeing the look on my face, he waved a hand as if he knew exactly what I was thinking.
“That doesn’t suit me.”
“What?”
“If I had swallowed that spiritual energy myself, it would have thrown my qi and blood into disorder. Your internal energy was mixed into it, remember? The poison in it was strong.”
I see.
It made sense, and yet it didn’t. Maybe because I had only just woken up, my head was not working properly.
I understood that he was not hostile toward me. But that did not mean I could trust him.
No, I should not trust anyone.
“Where did the little thousand-tael prize go?”
That sickening voice circled through my head, and a heavy headache crashed over me.
I clutched my head and asked, doing my best to stay calm.
“May I ask the name of my benefactor?”
“Yeon Ryang.”
“...What?”
The familiar name nearly made me bite my tongue.
Yeon Ryang.
He was the ill-fated extra in Namgung Under Heaven who had helped Namgung Hwi and died.
*****
In Namgung Under Heaven, there were four great fortuitous encounters Namgung Hwi obtained.
First, the Ten-Thousand-Poison Pellet of Tang Jung, the Poison King.
Second, the aerial stalactite oil and spirit pills found in the secret cave of the Ghost-Hand Divine Therapist.
Third, the inner core of the ten-thousand-year golden serpent.
And last, the secret manual of Zhou Tiangang, the Chivalric Emperor.
Since I had taken Tang Jung’s Ten-Thousand-Poison Pellet, I supposed there were only three now.
Anyway, those four opportunities had all become breakthroughs during moments of crisis and helped Namgung Hwi grow stronger.
Like a true protagonist, he monopolized top-grade spiritual medicines most people would never lay eyes on in their entire lives—not once, but three separate times—and later rescued Zhou Tiangang, the Chivalric Emperor, after he was kidnapped by the Demonic Sect during a Martial Alliance mission.
The Chivalric Emperor, who had no disciple, taught Namgung Hwi his unique martial art in gratitude, and Namgung Hwi blended its mysteries into the Boundless Azure-Sky Sword Art, achieving another leap in martial understanding...
The Demonic Sect helper who made it possible for Namgung Hwi to rescue the Chivalric Emperor in that process—
That was Yeon Ryang.
I remembered feeling sorry over Yeon Ryang’s lonely exit, after he knowingly sent Namgung Hwi and the Chivalric Emperor away to safety and stayed behind to buy them time until the very end.
It had been a pretty memorable death, so he was a popular extra.
So he really did use demonic arts. He’s from the Demonic Sect.
I swallowed hard and stared at Yeon Ryang’s face.
In the novel, Yeon Ryang had been described as middle-aged, but the man in front of me now looked no older than his mid-twenties.
There was no trace of the man from the novel in the bright, open face of this young man.
He was not the gaunt, sharp-edged man reduced to skin and bone by the loneliness of the Demonic Sect. He was healthy and vibrant.
When I faltered, Yeon Ryang blinked at me curiously.
“Young Lady. Do you know me? I’m not famous enough for my name to have reached Sichuan.”
“You know yourself well. It hasn’t.”
At that, Yeon Ryang gave a crooked smile. It seemed that had been his attempt at a joke.
“Seeing as you’ve got enough energy for jokes, you must be getting hungry. Wait here. I’ll bring you something to eat.”
I shook my head. Even though I had gone without food for several days, I had no appetite.
“I don’t really feel like eating.”
“You’d better eat anyway, Young Lady. If you skip meals in that condition, I’d wager my entire fortune you’ll collapse again before the day is out.”
Do you even have a fortune?
I almost snorted, then realized my guard around Yeon Ryang had loosened before I noticed.
Maybe knowing what kind of ending Yeon Ryang would meet made me feel safer.
If he was a man who helped others while prepared to die for what was right, then at the very least, he would not put me in danger.
“...Then just a little.”
“Good choice, Young Lady. Play with the sable. I’ll be right back. Ah, and about your clothes—your robe sleeve was torn. Shall I get you something new?”
Come to think of it, I had torn off my sleeve to bind my thigh and stop the bleeding. I asked carefully,
“Could you get men’s clothing for me?”
“Men’s clothing?”
“Yes. And I’d like the robe sleeves to be wide.”
“I don’t know. I don’t think that’s a very good idea. You’re too small-framed, Young Lady. Even in men’s clothes, you won’t look like a man. You’ll just look like some runaway girl with a story behind her. Wouldn’t it be better to wear clothes that actually fit?”
Frowning, Yeon Ryang rubbed his chin and made the suggestion.
There was nothing wrong with what he said. Nodding, I took a few pieces of silver out of my pouch and held them out.
“All right. Will this be enough?”
“More than enough. I’ll get you a new set of martial clothes too. For the robe—green?” ƒreeωebnovel.ƈom
Yeon Ryang asked as if sounding me out. It seemed he already knew I was from the Tang Clan.
Then again, it would have been stranger if he hadn’t realized after seeing my belongings.
There could not be two sects in Sichuan whose people wore wide-sleeved green robes and carried all kinds of hidden weapons, unknown powders, and medicine bottles packed into their sleeves.
“...No. Black.”
There was no reason for me to keep wearing green.
No—I must not wear it.
I had to become someone with nothing to do with the Tang Clan now.
“Fair enough. If you’re planning to get rid of the clothes you were wearing, give them to me. They’re torn, but it’s high-quality silk. You should still get at least a piece of silver for them.”
“No. They might have poison on th—”
I stopped in the middle of the sentence. I could not feel any poison on the green robe at all.
“Did you eat it?”
“Kyuu.”
Cane puffed out his chest proudly. It seemed that while I had been unconscious, he had cleansed the poison from it.
Slowly bending down, I picked up the torn green robe.
The gold-thread embroidery allowed only to members of the Tang direct line had turned black with dried blood. It looked as ruined as I did.
Suppressing the feeling that rose in me, I muttered,
“Would anyone really buy a green robe? In Sichuan, wearing green is taboo.”
People in Sichuan did not wear green clothes. It was an unspoken rule. They might be mistaken for someone from the Tang Clan.
Those who had seen what happened to people who falsely claimed Tang identity had no desire to invite that sort of misunderstanding in the first place.
At my worried question, Yeon Ryang shrugged as if I had said something silly.
“Young Lady, silk bought like this gets cut up and used to mend other clothes. The original shape won’t leave a trace, so you don’t need to worry.”
“I see.”
I nodded and handed him the green robe. I was in no position to waste even a single coin. If I could turn it into money, it was better to sell it.
“I’ll bring food first, so wait here.”
Still wearing that easy smile, Yeon Ryang waved a hand and slid the paper door shut behind him.
