"How about we lay low and live in hiding together for a while?"
"Wh-what? Huh? Eh? Hic?!"
Seol Ri-hyang suddenly let out strange sounds. She couldn't even properly exhale after inhaling, and her arms and legs wouldn't stay still, squirming restlessly.
Even so, her gaze kept sweeping over my upper body.
I let out a hollow laugh at her seemingly broken state and shook my head.
"It's a joke. Don't take it so seriously."
"Hey! Who makes jokes like that?!"
"Did you think I was serious?"
"…A little?"
Perhaps because she had shouted her lungs out, Seol Ri-hyang had calmed down somewhat. She let out a deep sigh and sat down, leaning her back against a nearby rock.
It looked as if she was facing me. However, with her eyes closed as if exhausted, she continued speaking.
"Given the situation, it makes sense. I know that even if you look reckless, Cheon Hwi, you actually have a plan in mind. I was prepared for at least a month or two, if not a lifetime. …The Blood Flame Fist Demon will come chasing after us. Right?"
"There's a high probability of that. To gain an advantage over Senior Seomun Hwa-rin, he has no choice but to take one of us hostage."
Perhaps because his nature was so easy to read. Slowly, Seol Ri-hyang was beginning to understand the Blood Flame Fist Demon's way of thinking.
I couldn't say whether he would be able to find us or not, but one thing was certain—he would thoroughly search every path leading downriver.
Whether Seomun Hwa-rin or the Blood Flame Fist Demon would find us first, and how long we could stay hidden—that would be the key to this whole affair.
I nodded and spoke playfully.
"Are we screwed?"
"Not yet, so keep your mouth shut! Don't you know that words have power?"
A conversation that gave off a strange sense of déjà vu. Seol Ri-hyang, apparently not the only one who felt that way, reflexively let out a shriek.
Then, as if she had something weighing on her mind, she chewed on her lips for a long while before finally speaking.
"What if. What if the Blood Flame Fist Demon finds us first."
She continued, her tone carrying the conviction of someone who had thought things through properly, not just a momentary impulse.
"Then just use me as bait."
"What?"
"You're going to get stronger, Cheon Hwi. You have a lot to do. But I'm not like that, right? Besides, I already owe you my life."
"…"
"The Blood Flame Fist Demon has been at Transcendent Peak since we were crawling around as babies. I know you've got one foot in that same realm. But realistically, it's still dangerous, isn't it?"
"…"
"So if that time comes, just abandon me and go. If there's only one hostage, it's harder for them to kill me. You'll come back with Seomun unni to rescue me, right?"
"…"
I listened to Seol Ri-hyang's words without answering. Only after mulling them over in my head for a moment did I slowly rise from my seat.
"W-what? But it's because Seomun unni was there that we escaped—she's supposed to be really strong and vicious. Rather than both of us getting caught, or one of us dying from bad luck, it's better to just…"
Perhaps she sensed something unsettling in the way I suddenly stood up. Seol Ri-hyang hurriedly added more words.
I covered her mouth with my hand.
"Mmph?"
The soft touch of her lips against my palm, the tickle of her breath. The warmth that should have calmed someone down was having the opposite effect now.
I took a deep breath to momentarily suppress the emotions churning inside me, so tangled I couldn't make sense of them.
Then, with a hint of resentment, I grabbed both of Seol Ri-hyang's cheeks with my hands and pulled them apart.
Stretch. Streeetch.
"Ow! That hurts! I said it hurts! Why are you suddenly doing this?!"
"That's exactly what I want to ask you."
I kept pulling Seol Ri-hyang's cheeks as I continued speaking.
"Fine. I did say something a little weak. The current situation isn't exactly great."
And though I couldn't say it out loud, I had already challenged the Blood Flame Fist Demon several times before the regression and lost every single time.
"But what does that have to do with anything? If I was the type to get scared beforehand and think about running away, leaving my people behind, I wouldn't have picked up a sword in the first place."
Swinging a sword around at any given moment is an eyesore, but failing to draw it when it needs to be drawn—isn't that just being a fool?
I don't want to become that kind of person.
"So don't give me that nonsense about leaving you behind. Got it?"
"…No. I don't get it."
Seol Ri-hyang, still in the pose of having her cheek pinched by me, reached out and pinched my cheek in return.
She continued, her eyes sharpened with hurt.
"Then you want us all to die together? At least one of us has to make it back alive!"
"If we went back like that, do you think we'd be able to sleep with our legs stretched out? I know I wouldn't."
"That's true. But do you have a plan? If there's no way, then we have to at least steel ourselves!"
"Then we just win. If we win, it's over."
"So how exactly are we supposed to win?!"
"That's something we figure out from here on."
"So you're saying you have no plan at all!"
Seol Ri-hyang yanked my cheek even harder. I stretched her cheek out in return, and we went on pinching each other like that for a while.
Then, suddenly realizing what a ridiculous sight we must have made, I let go of her cheek.
"Hoo…"
"What's with you all of a sudden?"
When I let go first, Seol Ri-hyang also withdrew her hand with an awkward tone. I shook my head at her.
"It just makes me wonder what I'm doing at this age."
"…At eighteen, it's barely acceptable, isn't it?"
"…"
Before the cautious claim of a real eighteen-year-old, the fake eighteen-year-old had no choice but to keep his mouth shut.
Instead, I let out a deep sigh and sat down beside her.
Seol Ri-hyang, who had been touching her flushed cheek, stared at me silently as I sat next to her, then let out a small chuckle.
"Somehow, this reminds me of the old days, doesn't it?"
"If it were the old days… ah, right, we did have a similar conversation when we first met."
It was during the time I had snatched Seol Ri-hyang right out from under the Mistress of Honghua Pavilion and was shaking off the Haomun disciples chasing after us.
As I was gradually growing weary, Seol Ri-hyang had said something similar to me.
She drew her knees together and rested her forehead on them, speaking in a slightly subdued voice.
"…Actually, I feel the same way you do, Cheon Hwi. I decided to learn martial arts because I didn't want to be a burden at times like this."
"So that was the reason?"
"Yeah. I thought that if I got strong enough, I could be of help like Sister Tang. But it's not easy."
"That's how the world works—things rarely go the way you want them to."
"Do you know that sometimes you talk like an old man, Cheon Hwi? Like right now."
"…"
She doesn't know about my regression, so that's probably not what she means, but why do I feel like I just got hit out of nowhere?
When I glare at her instead of answering, Seol Ri-hyang doesn't look away—she just stares right back at me. If I look away first, it feels like losing, so I hold my ground.
As we continue this sudden staring contest, I look into her black pupils and a thought suddenly comes to mind.
"Could you focus cold energy into me using your Yin Art, but make sure it doesn't harm me?"
"Huh? You just want to feel cool? I do that for you all the time."
Perhaps because Seol Ri-hyang hasn't been in the martial world for long, she's learned martial arts but isn't bound by the common sense of a martial artist.
Unlike the martial artists of the Orthodox Sects, who hesitate even to cut a piece of meat, claiming their sword is meant for martial arts, not for becoming a Head Chef.
Seol Ri-hyang, on the other hand, would use her martial arts anywhere and everywhere if the need arose.
On hot days, she'd sometimes come into my room or Tang So-wol's room and blow out cold air to lower the temperature.
When drinking water, she'd casually infuse it with her internal energy to float a thin layer of ice on top.
And when the heat was so unbearable that sleep wouldn't come, Tang So-wol would hug Seol Ri-hyang and fall asleep — not just once or twice, but many times. That says it all.
But that's not what I'm talking about now.
"It's similar, but different. Until now, you've been adjusting the power to make it pleasantly cool. But this time, I want you to try to freeze me with everything you've got — while keeping that cold energy only on the surface, not letting it seep inside."
"Hmm. Like clothes, you mean?"
"That's exactly the feeling."
I've never once beaten the Blood Flame Fist Demon.
But that doesn't mean I'm absolutely weaker than him. It's closer to saying I couldn't withstand his Yang Gang energy.
Fundamentally, Natural Qi is a stable energy. In other words, it means Yin and Yang are in proper harmony.
A Mental Cultivation Method is about taking in that Natural Qi and making it your own. Naturally, most internal energy takes on a nature that doesn't lean toward either Yin or Yang.
But there are rare martial arts that selectively accumulate Yin or Yang energy, and the Glacier True Energy Seol Ri-hyang practices or the Blood Flame Death Cultivation of the Blood Flame Fist Demon are exactly that.
Originally, energy has a nature of seeking harmony and stability, but forcing it to lean to one side artificially creates side effects, big and small.
Unless you're born with a special Constitution like Seol Ri-hyang, or you're willing to accept the side effects like the Blood Flame Fist Demon, it becomes an incredibly threatening martial art.
Isn't it that the internal energy itself becomes a sharp awl? The Yin or Yang energy that digs in the moment you let your guard down will wreak havoc on the opponent's body.
That's also why Seol Ri-hyang was able to perform so well against those with superior skill at the Dragon Phoenix Gathering.
And that's also the reason I was pushed back the entire time, even though my sword wasn't inferior to the Blood Flame Fist Demon's fists.
A single moment of carelessness leads directly to internal injury, and no matter how much I protected myself with Sword Qi, the sword would heat up until it was hard to grip properly.
On top of that, merely drawing up internal energy radiated so much heat that even the slightest movement left me exhausted in no time.
I couldn't display my true skill, while the Blood Flame Fist Demon showed off all his power, so there was no way I could handle him.
After all, why would Martial Artists hide their martial arts and teach them only to their disciples or blood relatives in the first place?
Because once a martial art becomes known, countermeasures emerge to deal with it, and once countermeasures exist, no matter how much power the martial art retains, there's no one left who will fall to it.
Rare martial arts like the Yin-Cold Energy Cultivation or the Yang Gang Qi Skill are rarely exposed, so no proper countermeasures for them are known.
That's why, even knowing what the problem was, I hadn't been able to respond properly.
But now, right beside me, there's Seol Ri-hyang.
Even if her realm is lower, she is the owner of a Pure Yin Constitution whose Yin Energy's purity and quantity yield to no one.
That Yang Energy and Yin Energy cancel each other out when they meet is common knowledge to anyone who has even a little martial arts training.
If I fight at the front and Seol Ri-hyang shoots Yin Energy from behind to support me, it's worth a try.
"So that's why I'm saying this. Can you do it?"
"…I'm trying it now, but since I've never done it before, it's a bit difficult."
True enough. It's practically the same as saying: swing the sword at full power, but stop right before cutting the opponent.
That wouldn't be easy for Seol Ri-hyang in her current state.
As I nodded inwardly, Seol Ri-hyang scratched her head with a slightly subtle expression.
"You're trying to block even a little of the Blood Flame Fist Demon's energy with my Glacier True Energy, right? I get what you're thinking, Cheon Hwi. But even if we somehow manage to pull it off, you won't be standing still—you'll be moving around fighting everywhere. I don't think I can keep up with that movement."
"Ah."
I hadn't thought that far… but she's right.
No matter how genius Seol Ri-hyang is at handling Yin Energy, keeping up with my pace and the Blood Flame Fist Demon's speed while concentrating Yin Energy only around me would be difficult.
After all, it's practically asking her to match a Transcendent Peak martial artist's battle with her energy arts. If she could do that, she'd have reached Transcendent Peak herself.
After a moment of thought, I voiced the other solution that had come to mind.
"Then we could just inject Yin Energy into me from the very start."
"…Uh, how?"
Seol Ri-hyang swallowed hard as she asked back. I shook my head at her.
"Perverted. It's probably not the method you're thinking of."
"How would you know what I was thinking, Cheon Hwi?!"
"Since you haven't trained in the Erotic Arts, an Exchange wouldn't change much anyway."
"Ha, Exchange! I wasn't thinking about that at all?!"
Even as she said that, Seol Ri-hyang covered her face as if she were dying of embarrassment. I let her half-hearted excuse go in one ear and out the other, and continued.
"It's just a matter of placing my hand on your back and channeling it in. All I need to do is feed you the purest Yin Energy while avoiding your Meridians. I'll handle the rest."
"…If that's how it is."
Seol Ri-hyang nodded, her eyes still squeezed shut.
***
For days afterward, we traveled along the river, practicing this and that using Seol Ri-hyang's Yin Energy.
The Blood Flame Fist Demon blocked our path.