Ch#21
“Whoa! Whoa!”
Is this really me?
I’m actually leaping across tree branches!
I could hardly believe that I was actually doing what I had only read about countless times in novels.
How was this even possible in just a few days?
Am I some kind of genius?
This is the kind of development that usually only happens to the protagonist.
Wow, I’m not even scared anymore.
I was running at a breakneck speed at a height where a single fall would easily send me straight to the afterlife.
Even though a single misstep would spell disaster, I actually accelerated.
I just couldn’t stop myself.
I wanted to test my limits and see just how far I could go.
Every time I unleashed a burst of inner energy from my toes, the landscape ahead blurred and shifted.
It felt as if my body were teleporting.
An emotion surged within me, one I could never have felt back at the Training Grounds.
It was like the first taste of true liberation since crossing over into this world.
I hadn’t been locked in a prison, but it was true that my life as a maid had stifled me.
I want to just run away somewhere like this.
As I ran with abandon, a sudden impulse rose unbidden.
But I quickly shook my head.
There was no way Jeok I-geon would just let me go.
Though he was out of my line of sight, I could feel him. No matter how much I accelerated, he maintained a precise distance, tailing me as if playing the role of an escort.
Even if I was incredibly lucky and somehow managed to shake him off, I couldn’t leave Madam Sin-geum behind.
Although we weren’t related by blood, she was already more than family to me.
When this place eventually turns into a living hell, I will definitely escape with her.
That was the sole reason I had endured until now.
Isn’t it a relief, looking back?
That I could learn such a magnificent lightness technique before then.
Thank you, Senior Demonic Empress. Thanks to you, I think I’ll be able to survive well enough even out in the Murim.
Thank you again, Uncle Heavenly Demon.
For passing down such an incredible martial art to a mere maid like me.
Jeok I-geon, the one I’m most grateful to is you.
Because if you hadn’t opened my Eight Extraordinary Meridians, none of this would have been possible.
Come to think of it, a question still lingered.
How did I end up with sixty years’ worth of inner energy?
Jeok I-geon had said the energy was scattered throughout my body.
He had also asked if I had recently consumed any elixir.
Was it really Madam Sin-geum?
No matter how much I thought about it, the only answer was Madam Sin-geum.
I didn’t know how she had managed to feed me an elixir, but there was no other logical way to explain this.
If so, she must have had a reason.
Madam Sin-geum was not the type to act without purpose.
Then what was it?
Why did she change my body like this without me even knowing?
No, wait.
Is it really that easy to store nearly sixty years of energy inside a person’s body?
Is such a thing even possible in the first place?
I suppose it was possible since it happened to me, but I had never read about a case like mine in any of the novels I’d devoured.
Moreover, Madam Sin-geum was just an ordinary noodle shop owner who knew only a tiny bit of martial arts.
While she was the prime suspect for giving me the elixir, she shouldn’t have had the capability to pull off something like that.
Then who was it?
Digging a step deeper, the thought crossed my mind that it might have been someone else entirely.
Who on earth would do this, and what were they after?
There’s absolutely nothing to gain from me.
My questions spiraled, one after another, for a long while.
And that was my mistake.
A mere beginner who had just learned martial arts had allowed her concentration to slip by getting lost in thought.
Snap!
Too much inner energy channeled into my left foot, snapping the branch beneath me.
My balance shattered. My body lurched, unable to defy the laws of gravity, and I began a rapid plunge downward.
“Grandmaaa!”
Flailing in panic as I always did when terrified, I cried out for her.
At the same time, I frantically recited the mnemonic for the Demonic Sovereign’s Heavenly Flight Technique, trying desperately to right myself.
But due to my lack of experience, it didn’t work as smoothly as before.
I tried to grab onto other branches with both arms, but they all snapped under the momentum of my fall, leaving nothing but scratches all over my face and limbs.
Seol-ha, pull yourself together!
If you fall like this, you’re dead!
Thank goodness I had been so high up; if I had been even slightly lower, I would have hit the ground by now.
I couldn’t give up like this.
After everything I did to get here!
I bit my lip, rushing to circulate my vital energy once more.
But gripped by panic, my body refused to cooperate.
The ground was rushing up to meet me.
Was my life really going to end from a clumsy fall?
“Jeok I-geon!”
In that desperate, life-or-death split second, his name tore from my throat before I could stop myself.
It was a desperate plea, hoping against hope that since he was nearby, he would somehow save me.
Did the heavens hear my prayer?
“Are you alright?”
Instead of the bone-shattering impact of the hard earth, a familiar voice washed over me.
My eyes, which had been squeezed shut in terror, slowly fluttered open as I regained my senses.
Through my messy, wind-blown hair, I saw Jeok I-geon looking down at me.
To my utter shock, I was cradled in his arms, carried bridal-style.
“Kyaaa!”
The moment I realized my position, a shriek escaped my lips.
My relief at surviving vanished in an instant.
A chilling dread washed over me as I realized I had just casually yelled his name.
“Where are you hurt? Your arm? Your leg? Which is it?”
Oblivious to my inner turmoil, Jeok I-geon kept me cradled in his arms as his gaze swept over me, checking for injuries.
“Nothing seems broken… Damn it! To lose focus like that…”
I flinched when he suddenly swore.
He looked so guilt-ridden, one might have thought my near-miss was entirely his fault.
설마, 내가 잘못 본 거겠지.
The shock of the fall had clearly rattled my brain.
Forcing the absurd thought from my mind, I spoke up.
“I-I am alright, Young Master. You may put me down now.”
“You mustn’t move recklessly after a fall. Check yourself carefully. There might be pain you haven’t noticed yet.”
“No, really. I am perfectly fine.”
I brushed the hair out of my face and replied as robustly as I could.
But what was this?
The look in Jeok I-geon’s eyes as he stared down at me was unusual.
Had something displeased him again? He was glaring at me with those terrifying eyes of his.
Why on earth did I bother saving this thing?
Was he regretting his actions?
He was a man whose whims changed like the wind, so I couldn’t help but tense up.
Just as I was plotting how to land safely in case he suddenly hurled me to the ground—
“We are going to the Demonic Medical Pavilion.”
Without another word, Jeok I-geon bolted.
What the—he’s so much faster than me!
And what was with this incredible stability?
Even though we were moving at a terrifying speed, my body barely jolted.
With a bit of exaggeration, I felt like I could have fallen asleep right there.
He truly was a monster.
But why were we going to the Demonic Medical Pavilion?
Before I could even finish marveling at his lightness technique, we arrived at the Demonic Medical Pavilion.
The Demonic Medical Pavilion was essentially the medical facility within the fortress.
Anyone belonging to the Main Cult who was unwell could use it, but I hadn’t set foot in it once during my five years here.
Simply because I had never been sick.
I hadn’t even caught a common cold.
Was that also because of the elixir?
“Where is the Divine Physician?”
The moment we stepped inside, Jeok I-geon immediately demanded to see the Divine Physician.
I was still cradled in his arms, and all my squirming to get free was in vain.
“This way, please.”
Surely I’m not going to meet the Divine Physician looking like this?
He’ll put me down before that. Surely.
Jeok I-geon wouldn’t do this.
But that was merely wishful thinking.
They say first impressions are everything, yet I absurdly had my first meeting with the legendary Divine Physician while trapped in Jeok I-geon’s arms.
The head of the Demonic Medical Pavilion, a middle-aged man widely known as the Divine Physician, was named Pyo Jin-yang.
Hailing from the Ten Thousand Poisons Pyo Family(萬毒)—one of the Six Great Demonic Families of the Demonic Cult—he was highly skilled in poisons and possessed profound medical knowledge.
Though he was a bit of an eccentric, his genuine care for his patients earned him many devoted followers.
“What brings you all the way here?”
Huh?
He’s speaking informally to the son of the Heavenly Demon?
Are they close?
“Uncle, have you been well?”
What? Uncle?
Then Jeok I-geon’s mother is from the Ten Thousand Poisons Pyo Family?
This was never mentioned in the original novel, so I had absolutely no idea.
So Jeok I-geon’s maternal family is the Ten Thousand Poisons Pyo Family.
Is that why he’s so resistant to poison?
The countless assassination attempts by poison that Jeok I-geon had survived suddenly flashed through my mind.
At the same time, I couldn’t help but wonder where his mother—who had vanished without a trace when he was a young boy, only to reappear decades later—might be and what she was doing now.
