How many times had I walked carrying Seol Ri-hyang on my back—her soft and fluffy, yet agonizing over whether to bite her tongue out of sheer embarrassment?
My stamina was gradually giving out, and even the small amount of internal energy I had recovered was being wrung dry just to keep my feet moving, one step at a time. Finally, I spotted a village where people lived.
Whether it was because the village was fairly large, or because the Blood Flame Fist Demon had prioritized searching for us, the only traces of burning here were the marks of grilled meat—an ordinary village.
"What a relief. I was thinking I'd have to dig into the ground and crawl into a burrow if it came to that."
"Wow, a soft bed… warm food… I'm so relieved…"
"What's wrong? Surely your condition hasn't worsened to the point where speaking is difficult…"
"No. It's not that."
"Then why did you react so lukewarmly?"
"…It's because I'm still embarrassed! Why!"
"You managed to pull your pants down and pull them back up on your own, and you cleaned up after yourself neatly too. What's there to be so embarrassed about?"
"Because you were watching me, Cheon Hwi!"
"I closed my eyes."
"But your ears were open."
"Ears are naturally open…"
If one's ears were closed, wouldn't that be the bigger problem?
As I shook my head, Seol Ri-hyang nibbled on the back of my neck right in front of my eyes.
Of course, since I was exhausted, it was only at a ticklish level.
"Ughk. Ughguhk!"
"Fine. I won't mention it anymore, so stop. Aren't you getting it all wet with saliva?"
"Th-That's not true!"
The moment saliva was mentioned, Seol Ri-hyang clamped her teeth shut. I guess she's feeling a bit better now.
Was it so strange to see an outsider carrying a woman on his back in broad daylight on the street, and even more so, that woman viciously biting the man's neck?
The villagers had been glancing this way, pretending not to, for a while now.
If it weren't for the fact that I was wearing martial robes and carrying a sword at my waist, flaunting them for all to see, someone would have said something to me by now.
I let out a hollow laugh inwardly and headed toward the middle-aged woman closest to me.
A stall displaying crude trinkets. I grabbed a handful of Iron Coins and shoved them at her as I asked,
"I'm looking for a place to stay. Could you tell me the nearest inn, and the pharmacy that carries the best medicine?"
"Eh? O-of course, young master!"
As expected, people become friendly when you hand them money.
I nodded in satisfaction, and according to what she told me, fortunately, the pharmacy was on the way to the inn.
It was an ordinary neighborhood, so there was nothing like a great Spiritual Medicine, but I bought up all the herbs that would be good for recuperation before arriving at the inn.
This Place Was Also a Bit Shabby, but It Was Well Maintained, and the Interior Was Cleaner Than Expected
I rented a suitable room, borrowed a brazier even though it was summer—earning myself a look like I was out of my mind—and finally brought up some easy-to-eat food before heading inside.
The moment I closed the door and carefully locked it.
"W-Wait, you only rented one room?! What are you planning to do to me?!"
Her voice was a strange mix of anticipation and shyness. But given her lack of strength, it came out as little more than a squeak.
Without a word, I laid Seol Ri-hyang down on the bed, placed the brazier I'd already lit close by, then sat down beside her and scooped up a bite of the food I'd brought.
"Eat."
"If you don't react at all, I'm going to feel embarrassed…"
Embarrassed, Seol Ri-hyang chewed the rice I scooped for her. Of course, I was just as hungry, so the next bite went to my own mouth.
And so we finished the meal, alternating bites—one for me, one for Seol Ri-hyang.
After covering the still-coughing Seol Ri-hyang with the blanket, I slipped in beside her and gently wrapped my arms around her from behind.
"…What are you doing?"
"We need to raise your body temperature."
"But there's a brazier."
"Actually, it's because of that brazier that I'm too hot. Holding you like this cools me down just right. I carried you all the way here on my back, so you can play the role of a warming pillow for a while."
"A warming… pillow?"
"With that kind of pronunciation, it sounds a bit strange. I'm a man who already has someone."
"Then don't do things that could be misunderstood!"
"It's fine since it's for treatment."
"What is that…"
Seol Ri-hyang let out a hollow laugh, as if she found it absurd. But whether she liked it or not, a flush of color rose to her pale skin.
…Actually, I knew it well too. Originally, this was also quite dangerous.
However, I had come to know Seol Ri-hyang's heart, and having seen her willing to give her life for me, how could I be cold-hearted?
So, from my side as well, I was expressing the utmost goodwill and gratitude while walking a razor-thin line.
Seol Ri-hyang stiffened for a slightly different reason. Letting her reaction slide past me, I took out the medicinal ointment I had taken from the Blood Flame Fist Demon's pouch and began to apply it to my hands.
The rest of my body wasn't badly hurt, but the hand that had gripped the heated sword had suffered burns.
Of course, this wasn't the first time I was applying it. I had put some on once while we were moving.
However, I had wiped it off earlier when I was eating, so I was applying it again.
After carefully applying the ointment, I used my fingertips to pull out the Blood Flame Fist Demon's letter, being careful not to get the sticky medicine on it.
"Could you open this for me?"
"Huh? Ah, because of the medicine?"
"I went ahead and applied it without thinking. I should have read it first before putting it on."
"I can move this much, so it's fine. Just wait a moment."
Seol Ri-hyang took the letter from me, swallowed hard once, and tore open the sealed envelope.
…And the letter I read over Seol Ri-hyang's shoulder contained some rather shocking contents.
Seol Ri-hyang, who had read it alongside me, began reading it again from the start, several times, as if she couldn't believe it.
Then she asked me in a strained voice.
"Cheon Hwi. Is what's written here really true?"
"It probably is. It's too detailed to be false information, and no one in the Demonic Cult—nor the Kunlun Sect's Heaven's Net—would have expected the Blood Flame Fist Demon to die so anticlimactically."
"Just what kind of people are in the Demonic Cult to come up with a plan like this…"
Seol Ri-hyang hunched her shoulders, instinctively recoiling as if truly horrified.
Anyone with a sound mind who read this content would have reacted similarly to Seol Ri-hyang.
The letter's contents were largely twofold.
The first was a method for killing Peng Woo-jin and Eon Ga-hye, and using that to sow discord between the Paeng Clan and the Eon Clan.
The second concerned some sort of plan to spread Blood Essence Pills throughout Hebei Province.
Of the two, the plan to worsen relations between the Paeng and Eon Clans wasn't all that surprising—I had seen its results before my regression, and this life, too, had already shown me its vague outline.
The original plan written in the letter was a bit more severe than what I knew, though.
Before my regression, Peng Woo-jin and Eon Ga-hye had taken their own lives together, which, while deepening the rift between the Paeng and Eon Clans, had at least ended the immediate conflict.
However, this was the lesser of two evils they had chosen, having realized that death was unavoidable once they learned of the Demonic Cult's plan.
Originally, the Blood Flame Fist Demon had intended to kidnap Peng Woo-jin and Eon Ga-hye, then subjugate Peng Woo-jin's mind with all manner of medicine and sorcery before commanding him to murder Eon Ga-hye in the most brutal way possible.
After that, he would take Peng Woo-jin back to the Demonic Cult and make him disappear, leave behind a half-hearted attempt to burn the area and conceal the traces, then tip off the Eon Clan through a spy planted within their ranks.
What would remain was the corpse of their only daughter, mutilated beyond recognition, the martial techniques of the Paeng Clan carved into the surroundings, and the clumsy traces of arson.
That would be more than enough to drive the Eon Clan head into a blind rage.
No matter how righteous the Orthodox Sects were, any clan that suffered such an ordeal would charge forth demanding a fight to the death.
If this plan had succeeded as intended, one of the two—the Paeng Clan or the Eon Clan—would have faced Clan Extermination.
I supposed that before my regression, Peng Woo-jin and Eon Ga-hye, hounded by the Blood Flame Fist Demon, had worried about this very outcome and decided to take their own lives before either side could fall.
As a member of the Demonic Cult who did not know the martial arts of the Paeng and Eon Clans, they would not have been able to fabricate the traces.
In this era where the Corpse Puppetry Arts had been lost, there was no way to bring the dead back to life. Even the Demonic Cult, so skilled in Sorcery, was no exception.
In the end, all the Demonic Cult could do before the corpses of the two who had taken their own lives was to sow discord through spies, claiming that the death of their children was the fault of the opposing clan.
It was not as effective as the original plan, but it was still quite effective.
"This is a big problem, but… either way, we stopped it, so it should be fine."
"Among the ones we struck down, was there a Sorcery User?"
"No. Sorcery Users are relatively weaker in physical ability compared to Martial Artists, so they probably had them waiting somewhere else while those who had mastered martial arts tracked down Peng Woo-jin and Eon Ga-hye."
"Then that means there are still Demonic Cultists alive somewhere! Those two aren't in danger… are they?"
"That's right. Even if the Sorcery Users waiting elsewhere and the remaining Demonic Cultists were lucky enough to run into Peng Woo-jin and Eon Ga-hye, what could they possibly do with Senior Seomun Hwa-rin right there? At best, they'd just be flailing around to delay their deaths by a few moments."
"True enough. She's someone who could overturn a river single-handedly. Even against foes weaker than the Blood Flame Fist Demon you took down, nothing bad could happen even if they wanted it to."
"It wasn't just me alone — we brought him down together."
"Eep! Why are you suddenly being so embarrassingly nice? …Well, I suppose I should be grateful you think of it that way?"
Seol Ri-hyang grumbled with a grin, but it didn't last long.
That was only natural — as terrible as the original plan had been, the first one was practically as good as resolved.
The second plan, on the other hand, was even more insane than that, and it was still in progress.
Just thinking about it was enough to weigh heavy on one's heart.
"So the second one… what do we do about it?"
"What do you mean, what do we do? We inform the clan heads of the Paeng and Eon Clans, and we inform the Murim Alliance… and after that, we do our best to make sure no one dies."
The second plan. The Demonic Cult had spread a large quantity of a mid-low grade elixir called the Blood Essence Pill throughout Hebei Province.
At first glance, it looked like they were doing everyone a favor, but of course, the Demonic Cult would never do something like that for no reason.
Their ultimate goal was simple. They intended to turn those who consumed the Blood Essence Pill into elixirs themselves.
It sounded like utter nonsense, but reading the details that followed, it seemed theoretically plausible enough.
The Blood Essence Pill was an elixir made by mixing various medicinal herbs with the vital blood of animals, then embedding the heart of a Godok into it.
The internal energy one could gain from it was murky, and there was some risk of Qi Deviation, but aside from that, it was known to be an elixir with no other particular problems — which was why the two clans were currently fighting over the right to monopolize it, weren't they?
Up to this point, it was the truth. In fact, consuming the Blood Essence Pill didn't cause any problems for the user.
It was just that the user who consumed the heart of a Godok would simply become another Godok themselves.
Godok was a type of sorcery where various poison creatures were placed together and made to kill each other, so that the last survivor would be imbued with a special power.
Its nature would change depending on which poison creatures were confined in what environment.
There were Godok meant to manipulate a person's thoughts, Godok that crushed the will to resist by inflicting pain, and Godok that controlled the body independent of one's will…
There were various other kinds of Godok as well, but the most fundamental among them was the Godok that multiplied the poison of the creature in question severalfold.
And the martial artists who consumed the Blood Essence Pill would end up in a similar situation.
When martial artists who had consumed the same Blood Essence Pill fought each other, if one side died, the internal energy of the survivor would increase significantly.
Of course, since it wasn't internal energy built through righteous means, they would soon fall into Qi Deviation and run amok…
It didn't matter. They were destined to become ingredients for the elixir anyway.
We already knew what elixir would be made from them.
The elixir that Gwiyeong Sin-tu had once seen the Demonic Cult create from a person — the elixir the Demonic Cult called the Spirit Blood Pill — was nothing more than practice before refining a martial artist who had become a human Godok.
Naturally, all the high-quality Spirit Blood Pills produced that way would be taken by the Heavenly Demon.
The overwhelming Demonic Qi I had witnessed before my regression was finally beginning to make sense.
In my previous life, the Paeng and Eon Clans hadn't fought each other, so the Godok hadn't ripened… but that was a simple matter — just lead the Demonic Cultists who had consumed the Blood Essence Pills and strike Hebei Province.
They were already fanatics who blindly devoted themselves to the Heavenly Demon. If I could offer them vengeance, these men who would gladly give their lives would never refuse.
This explains why the survivors of the Paeng and Eon Clans before my regression had been so few.
They had all been fattened up as Godok and squeezed dry of their vital blood as ingredients for the Spirit Blood Pill.
"…At least we managed to uncover the Demonic Cult's plan."
If they were plotting something this horrifying, the Murim Alliance would go beyond simple vigilance and take more active measures against the Demonic Cult.
I let out a sigh of relief and tucked the letter back into my pouch.
"For now, we've done everything we can at this stage. Once we rejoin the others, we'll share what we've learned… for now, let's rest well and focus on recovering our energy."
"Yeah. Recovery first."
Seol Ri-hyang nodded quietly with a resolute expression.
I tossed and turned for a while, but before long, both Seol Ri-hyang and I—utterly exhausted—fell fast asleep.
***
The next morning, I was roused from sleep by a familiar voice as the door, which I was certain I had locked, burst half off its hinges.
"Young hero Cheon! You're safe… Huh?"
"…Wait. Hear me out. I can explain everything."
So first, please take your hand out of your sleeve.