Vol 1 Chapter 2 – Heedowon Part 3

Yeonjin stepped forward to wipe the sweat from Woo’s face. But just as she reached for him, his arm lashed out in a fevered twist and struck her.

“Ah—!”

His strength, fueled by fever, was greater than she expected. Knocked back by the force of it, Yeonjin lost her balance and fell to the floor. The bowl of water and cloth she had been holding scattered beside her.

“Step aside. I’ll do it myself.”

Kang Oh had arrived at that moment and pointed toward the door. Yeonjin, still startled from being pushed, quickly got up, bowed, and left the room. A moment later, the door slid shut behind her.

Kang Oh strode over to the bed. As he crossed the room, something caught against his foot. Looking down, he saw the familiar coarse blanket.

It wasn’t just tossed aside. The way it was wrinkled, as if someone had been lying on it, caught his attention.

Don’t tell me…

His expression darkened. He had learned to never ignore gut instinct. The blanket wasn’t just tossed aside. The way it was creased, as if someone had been lying on it, unsettled him. That moment in the mountains, the image of Woo clutching the axe, had left such a mark that even this was enough to bring it all back.

Fortunately, Woo was lying on the bed. Kang Oh checked his complexion. His clothes were drenched in sweat, soaked through. There were traces that someone had tried to wipe him down with water. Kang Oh called to the attendant waiting outside and instructed her to bring warm water and a soft cloth. Then he sat down at the edge of the bed.

His face was red, and his fever had left him delirious, murmuring things that made no sense. Just yesterday, he had appeared fine. Kang Oh couldn’t understand how he had deteriorated so drastically overnight. He could only guess that maybe, now that the tension had worn off, his body had finally collapsed.

“Ordinary people really do require more care.”

Kang Oh murmured to himself. Most of the people around him were martial artists. Even a bad cold was rare. The members of the Honamdan, for instance, claimed that running laps at the training hall until they broke a sweat was enough to recover from most ailments without medicine. Surrounded by such warriors, and being remarkably healthy himself, Kang Oh had hardly ever witnessed someone falling this ill.

The first time had been Woo. And now, again, it was Woo. It felt like there truly was some strange thread tying their fates together.

“Get better soon. I’ve received Master’s word that he won’t lay a hand on you.”

Even though the listener was clearly lost in confusion, Kang Oh spoke anyway. Somehow, he couldn’t bear to stay silent. If he left that man alone, it felt like he might disappear to some faraway place and never come back.

“No one will hurt you if you return. And even if someone tries, I’ll protect you.”

As he spoke, Kang Oh dipped the cloth the attendant had brought into the water.

“So don’t wander too far. Just come back.”

—

Burning with fever, Woo wandered through a half-dream.

“Paeng…?”

It was the last day he had spent as the Lord of Baekragung. He had just arrived in Gansu after reviewing the recently uncovered document. Disguised as a casual outing, he had only taken his closest aides, Paeng on the journey.

Mount Qilian in Gansu, though not one of the Five Great Peaks of the Central Plains, towered as if it had been carved by blades. Auspicious energy pulsed through its slopes, as if a reclusive master had once lived there and left behind divine martial arts. But thinking back now, it all felt like a carefully painted trap.

After ingesting the white grain pill he had prepared for the occasion, Woo headed toward the sheer cliff wall and began to feel a strange sensation. His qi was starting to scatter.

At that moment, Paeng stepped in close behind and asked, “Is something wrong, my lord?”

Woo instinctively tried to defend himself, but it was already too late. Whether it was because of the poison or something else, his qi wasn’t flowing as it should. The attacker had come from the start with the intent to kill.

It was a small mercy that the sword meant to pierce his heart had only skewered his shoulder.

“Paeng…..? You.. how could you…”

Paeng had served his father, the former Lord of Baekragung, from the beginning. She was the most loyal of all. Everyone knew she was upright, someone who would rather break than bow.

That was why he trusted her, and let her close.

Never once had he imagined her blade would be aimed at him from the start.

“I’ve waited a long time for this day.”

Woo turned and pushed away the hand that had tried to grab his collar. He felt something at his fingertips. As if he had touched real flesh. A living person.

He could no longer tell if this was a dream or reality.

Words poured from Paeng’s mouth, each one more impossible than the last. Nothing she said matched anything he knew. How could she speak such devastating things so plainly?

He shook his head, but his mouth remained closed. Because what she said connected too closely with the doubts he had been carrying all along.

“Let me tell you something interesting. The former Lord of Baekragung died because of you.”

Her cold voice pierced through him.

He tried to say it wasn’t true. That his father had died in an accident. But as soon as the words left his lips, they were drowned out by thunder. Misery burned through his chest.

“You were nothing more than a puppet. A tool Seol Bu Yeong used to swallow Baekragung whole.”

Paeng led Woo toward the edge of the cliff on Mount Qilian.

“Dan Woo Hyo, you were born from sin.
Did you enjoy climbing so shamelessly into the seat of Baekragung’s Lord? Did wealth and glory taste that sweet to you?”

The shout came from the subordinate he had once believed loyal. Her eyes were burning with rage and hatred. How had she managed to bury that hatred all this time while still serving him, day after day?

I… I…..

Woo’s hand clawed through empty air.

His face, swallowed by the nightmare, looked hollow. Fever had flushed his skin a strange color. His contorted features twisted into something monstrous, like a demon come to life.

Kang Oh sat quietly at his side. He dipped the cloth in water and wiped the sweat from Woo’s face, frowning.

In that moment, a voice laced with curses rang through Woo’s mind.

Die, son of Seol Bu Yeong!

The sword crashing toward him came down like a bolt of lightning. Already poisoned and wounded, Woo clenched his teeth and deflected her blade.

They clashed at the cliff’s edge, rolling and stumbling as sword and hand struck, blocked, and pushed back in turn.

They had sparred more than a dozen times in the past. Each knew the other’s technique inside and out. Their fierce exchange lasted far longer than expected.

Swords stabbed not at flesh but into the ground or sliced through empty air. Their hands collided, then tore apart. Paeng yanked at Woo’s long hair, and he kicked her shin in retaliation. Whatever elegance a spar might have held had been thrown aside. This was a dirty, brutal fight.

And in that mess, it was the seasoned Paeng who gained the upper hand.
She had survived countless battlefields against Hyeolgyo, and now she threw everything she had at Woo, without restraint.

Though Woo’s inner strength and cultivation were leagues above hers, the poison in his body and the wound in his shoulder made controlling his martial power difficult.

And worse, the doubts Paeng had whispered in his ear, and her carefully placed betrayals were breaking his focus apart piece by piece.

Physically and mentally, Woo had been pushed to the edge.

“My Lord!”

He saw the boy he had left at the inn at the foot of the mountain running toward them.

Little black chick, why are you here?

Why now? Of all times… when I’ve just found you?

Woo threw himself around the boy who had rushed in to shield him. Because of it, his back was pierced again. For the first time, a pained groan escaped his lips, and Paeng let out a laugh. Her voice soaked in madness.

“The former Lord of Baekragung is waiting to punish you.”

Dragged to the cliff’s edge by Paeng, Woo convulsed violently in reality.

Kang Oh, who had been tending to him, pushed down on him to restrain him.

Most of the time, Woo could barely hold himself upright, like someone who hadn’t eaten in days. But right this moment, he summoned a strength fierce enough to beat down a wild beast. Still, with his eyes rolled back and his whole body trembling, there was no doubt… something about him was not right.

“Get a hold of yourself!”

Kang Oh pressed down on his shoulder and shouted. Woo’s body jolted again.

“Get a grip. Are you going to let the fever eat you alive?”

A broken sob escaped Woo’s lips. Kang Oh’s urgent shouts didn’t reach him. They melted into the thunder rumbling through his dream.

The nightmare that had taken hold of Woo’s fever-ridden body was rushing toward its climax.

Just as Paeng seized Woo by the collar and dragged him to the cliff’s edge, the boy he had called little black chick came running. He sank his teeth into her arm and clung to her.

“Let go of him! I said let go!”

“Get lost.”

Paeng struck the boy, sending him flying. Woo clenched his jaw and tightened his grip on her arm. She, in turn, squeezed harder around his throat.

He saw the boy staggering back to his feet and coming at them again.

No. No—

Even as blood streamed from his shattered forehead, the boy hurled himself forward to save Woo. Woo clenched his teeth and gathered what little strength he had left.
Some of it came from his innate energy, the force that sustained his life.

The moment the boy slammed into Paeng, Woo twisted her arm and threw himself forward in a flip, shifting their positions in midair.

Considering he had not yet reached the realm where stepping through air was possible, the maneuver was nothing short of miraculous. Paeng’s force faltered for just an instant, and Woo used her as an axis to flip his body midair. The moment he applied strength, pain ripped through his already-pierced shoulder as if it were being torn apart.

A furious scream tore across the sheer cliffs of Mount Qilian. Her voice, twisted with rage, did not rise out of fear for her own death, but because she had failed to drag Woo down with her.

As Paeng’s final burst of fury tore through the cliffside, the ground began to give way. Feeling the tremor that spread from the edge, Woo immediately pushed the boy toward solid ground. He could have tried leaping on his own, but the unstable ledge was already beginning to collapse. He chose instead to save the boy.

And just as he feared, the earth gave a deep rumble and began to split apart beneath them.

Woo felt a pulling sensation near his core. He was falling.

But just as he dropped, the boy’s arm caught him at the edge of the cliff and held on.

Instead of running away, the black chick was sprawled on the ground, using his whole body to cling to Woo and pull him up with everything he had.

“Please… please, my lord. I still don’t have a name. I don’t even know how to write. You promised you’d name me… please…”

The boy leaned half his body over the edge and rubbed his face against Woo’s cheek. Tears dripped steadily from his eyes, soaking Woo’s face. Woo understood then that the boy revered him. And it wasn’t just admiration for a protector. What the boy felt for him had already begun to turn into affection.

He had planned to let go. If what Paeng had said was true, then it would be right for him to die here. The seat of Baekragung’s Lord would pass naturally to his martial sister. That alone would be enough.

He had never once confronted his mother for the truth. Or rather, he had never wanted to confirm whether Paeng’s words were true. If Seol Bu Yeong ever said yes, then his world would collapse completely.

Once praised as one of the sharpest minds in the martial world, he had become weak and afraid. The foundation that made up who he was had begun to crumble, and the person he had been was quietly falling apart.

As if in answer to his desperate cry, the ground began to collapse.

The boy’s trembling voice shook with fear. Then with a dull crack, the earth gave way, and he was left hanging by the edge once more.

Woo had been about to let go, but the boy’s outstretched arms clung to him.

“Little black chick…”

Woo managed a faint smile as he whispered. He had to convince the boy to let him go. To run. Run as far as he could, and never look back.

“Let me go, and keep going. Your uncle should be waiting for you.”

It was a small mercy that, at the very least, the child could distinguish between truth and deception in what Paeng had revealed.
Woo thought, If I die falling from the same cliff, the grudge will be buried with me. That should satisfy her.

“You said you’d be my family…”

Sensing Woo’s resignation, the boy shouted through clenched teeth. He didn’t ask why he was being sent to an uncle he didn’t even know. He just held on desperately and pulled with all his strength.

His arms trembled from holding the weight of a man much larger than himself.

He knew he would not last like this for long. A firm resolve took shape on his face.

He pulled harder, hoping the recoil would lift Woo upward.

He had decided to die.

Just like when Woo had switched places with Paeng and used the momentum to rise, the boy now resolved to become the stepping stone that would let Woo survive.

The moment their positions reversed, the boy moved his lips slightly.

“You have to live.”

Then, he let go.

Unlike Woo, who had failed, the boy had succeeded. If there was a tragedy in this, that was it.

Woo clawed at the air.
The moment his mind cleared, he hurled himself over the cliff.

His body, worn out from recklessly drawing on his inner force, jolted with strain. His core cried out. Even his fingertips looked like they were starting to shrivel.

He pushed off toward the cliff wall, adjusting his descent to match the speed of the boy who had fallen first.

The boy, who had calmly chosen to sacrifice himself, shut his eyes tight.

The tears he shed floated upward, rising toward the sky, toward that high place above.

Woo pulled the boy into his arms.

Startled by the sudden contact, the boy’s eyes widened. His pitch-black eyes were filled with shock. He couldn’t even scream. His parted lips trembled with fear, but the shake of his head said everything he couldn’t voice aloud.

“I won’t let you go alone.”

Woo understood what the boy was trying to say and answered him plainly.

Not letting even a strand of hair slip free, he held the little black chick tightly in his arms.

Though the poison had taken hold, he wrapped his entire body in what little inner force and qi he had left. He regretted not having achieved Vajra Body ¹Indestructible body achieved through high-level cultivation.

Without it, his internal organs would be destroyed, but…

If I can save you with this sinful life of mine, then that will be enough.

Feeling the warmth of the child in his arms, Woo closed his eyes. His lips brushed the boy’s forehead.

He regretted returning that stolen kiss far too late.

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  Indestructible body achieved through high-level cultivation