The limping woman, clutching her deeply cut belly, leaned her back against the front gate wall.
"This is…"
"You expected this, didn't you, sister Tang? No matter what we saw, it couldn't have ended well."
"Even knowing that, it's sad. Perhaps I'd grown attached in that short time."
Tang So-wol and Seomun Hwa-rin wore gloomy expressions. Seol Ri-hyang, on the other hand, remained calm.
It was because she held a conviction she herself couldn't understand. She still couldn't tell what it was, though.
While the three women were taken aback in their own ways, Cheon Hwi, having spotted the dying limping woman, rushed over like a madman.
He embraced the limping woman and shouted something.
"We still can't hear the conversation."
"There's nothing to be done about it. In exchange, we get to stay here this long."
"…"
Unlike the other two, who looked on with pity, Seol Ri-hyang simply focused on the limping woman.
Just as the conversation couldn't be heard, her features were also blurred as if shrouded in fog, making lip-reading impossible.
Yet, even so, Seol Ri-hyang stared intently at the limping woman.
As if trying to see through something, or perhaps… as if trying to recall something.
Even as they mourned in their own ways, time continued to flow.
Cheon Hwi kept shouting something, and the limping woman kept shaking her head with a sorrowful expression.
Then, at last, Cheon Hwi bowed his head deeply. It was the moment he pulled a single pear from his bosom with trembling hands.
"Ah."
Seol Ri-hyang's world expanded.
No, to be precise, the clarity of the world had risen to a bizarre degree.
The heat radiating from the flames pricked her skin, and even a single grain of sand on the floor was distinctly discernible…
A smell of burning brushed past the tip of her nose.
Tang So-wol and Seomun Hwa-rin, who had reflexively looked around, showed no sign of noticing anything unusual.
If so, this strange phenomenon could only be perceived by Seol Ri-hyang herself.
Judging instinctively that she must not let go of this sensation, Seol Ri-hyang heightened her concentration and opened her eyes wide.
As if she intended to remember every single thing that was about to happen.
Perhaps that was why. After the limping woman received a single pill from Cheon Hwi and held it close to her chest with care.
She was able to hear a voice whispering with a contented air, as if everything had been fulfilled.
— Blood Wolf. You really are a bastard.
"…!"
Never once had she heard anyone's voice. A seal could be circumvented, but never broken.
But now. Only Seol Ri-hyang could hear the voice of the limping woman.
If this world was Cheon Hwi's mindscape, what meaning did this sudden phenomenon hold?
It did not take Seol Ri-hyang long to guess the answer.
It had been engraved. Engraved so deeply and clearly into Cheon Hwi's mindscape that even the seal could not cover it—this very scene.
And the reason it reached no one but Seol Ri-hyang was…
'This. It's my voice.'
A little more mature, a little more wistful—but unmistakably, it was Seol Ri-hyang's own voice.
The moment she realized this, Tang So-wol was able to touch the seal Cheon Hwi had placed on her—the secret hidden within this mental image.
If, at the moment she first met Cheon Hwi, she had been beaten by the Haomun warriors and dragged away without his help.
If she had been forced to learn the Erotic Arts by the Haomun branch head.
If, in that case, she had never met Cheon Hwi, never become a retainer of the Tang Clan, never learned proper martial arts.
A feast of countless what-ifs. Like branches splitting from other branches, among the tangled possibilities, one stood out with particular clarity.
What if Cheon Hwi's discovery of her had not been a coincidence?
What if Cheon Hwi's willingness to risk danger for her had not been a youthful whim?
What if she had come to distrust the world because no one had ever helped her?
It had already happened, and it would happen again, but now it would never happen at all.
After stumbling and discarding common sense time and again, he had finally reached a single conclusion.
Cheon Hwi had no secret about his birth, nor had he been reborn. He had simply turned back time.
Regression.
That single word explained every peculiarity about Cheon Hwi, everything he had seen in his mind's eye.
"It wasn't a past life! This is…!"
The moment Seol Ri-hyang's shocked exclamation was about to burst from her lips—
The lame woman cradled in Cheon Hwi's arms, another Seol Ri-hyang, whispered something faintly, then let her head droop.
And at that moment, a single tear fell from Cheon Hwi's eye.
"…Hnng!"
Suddenly, an emotion that was not her own surged up from within Seol Ri-hyang.
Grief. Anger. Self-reproach. Hatred. Regret. And rising above all of these, Love finally lifting its head.
The overwhelming torrent of emotion made her head spin and her breath come short.
How could a person possibly carry such feelings and go on living?
This time, it wasn't just Seol Ri-hyang who felt it—Tang So-wol and Seomun Hwa-rin were also clutching at their chests with bewildered expressions.
At the same time, the flames around them drew closer. No, they weren't actually approaching, but it felt that way.
The sensation of burning oneself as kindling, rather than the building itself.
The moment she realized this was part of the imagery that sometimes surfaced in Cheon Hwi's martial art.
Tang So-wol, Seol Ri-hyang, and Seomun Hwa-rin—all three of their bodies began to slowly rise into the air.
It felt as though something was pulling them upward—the exact opposite of what had happened when they had entered Cheon Hwi's inner world.
"Huh? Wh-what…?"
"W-wait! How can it end here?!"
"Not yet! There's still an important scene left!"
Cheon Hwi radiated a solemn aura that anyone could see. Swallowing every emotion with a single tear, he drew his sword and strode into the blazing hall.
Anyone could see he was about to make something big happen. I knew because I had been forcibly made to share the emotions overflowing from him.
What was about to happen next was bound to be just as important to Cheon Hwi as what had come before—if not more so.
But the three of them would not be able to watch until the end. Their time to remain in his mindscape was nearly up.
A truly terrifying yet exquisite cut-off point. Seol Ri-hyang's body trembled as her consciousness surged toward the surface like it had been given an acceleration boost.
And then, the moment she finally opened her eyes in the real world.
"Th-this is the Severing Demon Art…!"
"Pardon?"
In the blink of an eye, the Jegal family head, who had been helping with both resources and effort in exchange for a bit of intellectual curiosity, had become a Demonic Cultist.
"And Cheon Hwi, you're a real bastard…"
"…!"
On top of that, Cheon Hwi's face turned pale.
From Seol Ri-hyang's perspective, she had simply blurted out a cryptic remark, a mix of the lingering aftershocks of her emotional surge and her desire to share what she had discovered.
But from Cheon Hwi's perspective, it was like having a painful memory shoved right in his face!
"What did you just… Surely not the Blood Buddha… no, that can't be it… could it be that I'm still inside the illusion…?"
While Cheon Hwi, who had been through so much hardship lately, fell into confusion.
The gazes around him began to focus on Seol Ri-hyang, who had sent the two of them off (?) the moment she opened her eyes.
Tang So-wol and Seomun Hwa-rin also showed clear signs of confusion, but not to the same extent as Seol Ri-hyang, so it was only natural.
Seol Ri-hyang, now under that gaze, flinched once before trying to speak of what she had realized. But—
"…Euk!"
In that instant, her tongue froze. It wasn't for any grand reason. It was simply that she felt a powerful impulse that she must not speak.
Though it was quite some time ago, Seol Ri-hyang had grown up in a gisaeng house. Naturally, she had heard many things and witnessed many things.
The knowledge she had unknowingly accumulated over the years took the form of intuition, and it brought her tongue to a halt.
The reason was simple.
'Tang unni would be hurt, wouldn't she?'
Tang So-wol was generous by nature. And toward the people she had acknowledged—especially Seol Ri-hyang and Seomun Hwa-rin—she was extremely warm and kind.
However, this was only possible because she operated on the premise that she was the legal wife.
That was also the reason she had been most shocked a moment ago when Cheon Hwi had lain with another woman before her.
But what if that woman had actually been Seol Ri-hyang?
The woman who, once she got a hold of you, would suck and lick all day long, who used tools unheard of, and who by the end was howling like a beast rather than a human being—that lame-legged woman was Seol Ri-hyang herself…!
It wasn't a matter of shame. The problem was that even Tang So-wol's heart could waver.
In the worst case… she would distance herself from Seol Ri-hyang and try to keep her in check.
That was the one thing Seol Ri-hyang wanted to avoid, so she couldn't bring herself to voice the truth she had uncovered, and could only whimper in frustration.
…And the people who witnessed this began to misunderstand on their own.
"Hyang-i? Why did you suddenly stop mid-sentence?"
"Wait a moment. Doesn't this feel similar to when Hwi is sealed and can't speak?"
"Just by knowing something, the seal spreads…? Commander, is something like this possible?"
"It's not impossible. It's difficult enough to be nearly so, the conditions are strict, and the seals that can be placed are limited—but that's when it's a person placing a seal on another person."
Starting with Tang So-wol asking Jegal Bu, then Great Master Jeonghyeon and Great Master Gakjeong. And even the Murim Alliance Leader and Tang Jincheon.
The adults who had gathered to help Cheon Hwi began to murmur amongst themselves.
"This is troublesome. At this rate, even if we learn the son-in-law's secret, we won't be able to tell anyone else because of the seal."
"Don't worry, Poison King. Didn't your daughter say so? The White Moon Sword Lord's seal is deeply connected to those three. If so, as long as the parties involved know, we should be able to manage somehow."
"Amitabha… I have a question for you, Benefactor Poison King. Does the White Moon Sword Lord's seal only activate when one tries to reveal its contents? Does it also activate for other actions—for instance, trying to deal with it on one's own without telling anyone?"
"So far, there has been no such case."
"Hmm. Then it's decided. It will be difficult right away, but the Grand Ritual itself can be repeated a few more times. We can simply repeat it until the remaining two children attain enlightenment."
With Great Master Gakjeong's words, the discussion came to a close.
The conclusion was simple: if one becomes unable to speak the moment they realize the truth, then one simply performs the Grand Ritual until everyone has figured it out.
Still, it was the most certain method available at the moment, and everyone nodded in satisfaction.
"Then let us proceed. The Murim Alliance will cover the costs of the Grand Ritual."
"Once my preparations are complete, I'll set aside some time as well. …When that time comes, would it be possible to request other records I could reference?"
"There's no reason to refuse. After all, the Shaolin Temple has already decided to reject the Vajrayana teachings."
"…Thank you all. The Tang Clan will not forget this debt of gratitude."
The matter was settled in an instant. In that warm atmosphere, Tang So-wol and Seomun Hwa-rin patted Seol Ri-hyang's shoulder as if to reassure her. But.
'Ah. It's over.'
Seol Ri-hyang herself could only break out in a cold sweat.
She couldn't bring herself to tell Tang So-wol, but if she kept her mouth shut, everyone would eventually find out anyway.
Of course, even setting aside the matter of the seal that wasn't quite a seal, this was still something that needed to be done.
It seemed that the memories Cheon Hwi needed to see were not limited to Seol Ri-hyang's death alone.
Judging by Cheon Hwi's words and actions, all of this was ultimately connected to the Heavenly Demon.
Having steeled her resolve, Seol Ri-hyang looked at Tang So-wol.
Her elegant appearance. Her dignified bearing. Her background as the Sichuan Tang Clan. And on top of that, a figure that made even another woman sigh in admiration, no doubt the result of a well-fed, well-raised upbringing.
As a woman, she couldn't even compare.
'Though thanks to my Yin Energy, I won't fall behind in the end.'
Adding that one remark inwardly, Seol Ri-hyang made up her mind.
'There's the difference between early and mid stage, but if I'm at Transcendent Peak and Sister Tang is also at Transcendent Peak…'
Then she simply had to become stronger! At least strong enough to withstand Tang So-wol's poison!
…It was a conclusion remarkably similar to Cheon Hwi's resolve to behave himself until he could survive Tang Jincheon's poison.
***
"So? Can you tell me at least a little of what you saw?"
At Tang Jincheon's words, Tang So-wol hesitated for a moment before speaking.
"Young hero Cheon was unfaithful."
"What."
It was an utterly baseless slander.
And for some reason, Tang So-wol, Seol Ri-hyang, and Seomun Hwa-rin all blushed.
…I think I know what they saw.