After somehow resolving Bing Yerin's misunderstanding, we followed the courtesan who had first guided us to the Haomun Leader, heading toward a small room in the corner.
Given that the venue was a pleasure house, the noisy sounds that had been coming from all directions gradually diminished, and by the time we stood before the room, they had reached a level that was barely audible.
"How curious. It doesn't seem like a separate formation has been installed, yet the building itself seems to produce a similar effect."
"What are you talking about, Cheon Hwi? A formation?"
"Exactly what I said."
I continued speaking while examining our surroundings more closely with my Heaven's Eye.
"I don't know the exact method, but the flow of energy is being artificially twisted along the building's structure. The distortion isn't severe, so it can't accomplish anything grand… but it seems capable of at least lightly isolating this area."
Unless someone had come knowing exactly where to look, or was a master who scrutinized every detail even while walking casually, finding this place wouldn't have been easy.
The reason the sounds felt distant was probably because we had entered a place removed from perception.
"This is where the honored guests stay. We've taken care to make it a quiet place to rest. …By the way, I didn't know that the White Moon Sword Lord, the Great Hero, was also well-versed in formations."
"Don't lie to me. Would Haomun lack even that much information?"
"My apologies. But I only knew that you were either familiar with countermeasures or, even if not, could cut through them with your sword. I didn't know you could see through them entirely."
"So this is how information leaks."
"If you wish, I'll make sure only myself and the sect leader know about this."
"That's fine. I plan to leave as soon as this business is done—just have a good bottle of wine ready for the road, and we'll call it even."
After all, once the full-scale war with the Demonic Cult begins, this information will come to light soon enough. There's no need to demand anything excessive.
"I shall convey that to the sect leader. And this is where the young lady Cheong-eum Binghwa's guest is waiting."
Standing before the innermost door, the courtesan stepped aside as if she had no intention of entering, bowing her head politely.
Seol Ri-hyang passed by her and slowly opened the door.
The place seemed well-maintained—the door opened smoothly without so much as a creak of its hinges, revealing the interior.
Unlike the modest door, the inside was spacious and lavish. Yet it wasn't overdone. Just enough to put one at ease.
The atmosphere was different, but she was briefly surprised to find it a guest chamber that rivaled those of the Murim Alliance or the Black Alliance.
But no matter how fine the room, it meant nothing if the person staying in it couldn't make proper use of it.
Even considering that this was a borrowed room, the lack of any signs of daily life was strange—but only for a moment. The moment I saw the old man lying on the bed, I understood everything.
"He's barely holding on to life."
"Ah, Father?"
Seol Ri-hyang approached the bed with a cautious voice.
As she drew closer to the old man, more details came into view.
The bed was enormous, large enough for three or four people to sprawl across, yet at its center lay a withered, shrunken old man.
He lacked even the strength to move his body, merely gazing this way with barely open eyes—and his features bore an uncanny resemblance to Seol Ri-hyang's.
There was no need to confirm anything further. The moment I laid eyes on him, I knew. That old man was Seol Ri-hyang's father.
"…Ah."
His eyes, which had been wearing a dazed expression like someone just waking from sleep, gradually regained their focus.
"You really came, Hyang-ah."
"Don't misunderstand. I didn't come because of some blood-ties sentiment at this late hour."
"…Right. What right do I have to hope for that much? I'm just grateful I got to see your face one last time."
He wore a faint smile as if truly satisfied, then turned his gaze this way.
"Then this one is the…"
"Cheon Hwi. I go by the alias White Moon Sword Lord."
"Indeed… I am Seol Du-ho. It's not my place to say this, but I thank you for taking good care of my daughter."
"It truly is not your place to say that."
I hadn't meant to say it, but perhaps it was because I knew how much Seol Ri-hyang had suffered—both before the regression and in this life. The sarcasm slipped out before I could stop it.
But he laughed it off as if nothing had happened, or as if it were only natural, and bowed his neck with a creaking motion.
"Still, gratitude is gratitude. But this person here… might this be the young hero of Flying Butterfly Poison Peak?"
"Mind your words! I am Bing Yerin. I belong to the North Sea Ice Palace and… I came here at Miss Seol's request."
"A request, you say…?"
"Seeing as you had no particular reaction even upon hearing the name North Sea Ice Palace, you truly seem to know nothing, but allow me to explain simply…"
Bing Yerin explained that the North Sea Ice Palace was home to five noble houses bearing the surnames Eom, Dong, Seol, Baek, and Bing, and that in practice, the Palace Lord was chosen in turn from among these five houses.
Seol Du-ho, who had been listening blankly, blinked and asked.
"S-so, does that mean I actually carry the blood of a prominent family of the North Sea Ice Palace?"
"That was my thought. Miss Seol's peculiar constitution. And I couldn't simply overlook such a rare surname. …The possibility is low, but I thought there might be someone in a similar situation."
"If… if such a person existed, what would you have done?"
"Well, without proper measures, they would die young, so I would have taken them to the North Sea Ice Palace and administered appropriate care. Is there perhaps another child besides Miss Seol?"
"No. There isn't. I have no other children. But…"
Seol Du-ho closed his eyes tightly at that point.
"My sister, who died long ago, had the same constitution as Hyang-i."
"…What? Is that true?"
Seol Ri-hyang's eyes flew wide open. Urged on by her, Seol Du-ho spoke slowly, as if dredging up old memories.
"I never thought it was true. After all, in this line of work, hiding one's name and concealing one's identity was commonplace."
With those words, the explanation began.
Seol Du-ho's grandmother—that is, Seol Ri-hyang's great-grandmother—had a saying she always kept on her lips.
She said her child carried the blood of a noble person from the North Sea Ice Palace, and that one day, that person would return to find her and the child.
"I thought it was nonsense. I truly did. How far away is the North Sea Ice Palace? Why would anyone from there come down to a small town in Guangdong Province? And even if they did, what were the odds they'd leave their child with a mere courtesan? What were the odds they'd actually come looking for that child? Isn't it just too absurd a story?"
So Seol Du-ho, and his father before him, had dismissed the grandmother's story as nonsense—or at best, as the folly of a young woman deceived by a smooth-talking scoundrel. After all, there was no token or proof to substantiate it.
But after Seol Du-ho's sister died, he said he had no choice but to recall his grandmother's words he had once dismissed as nonsense.
"Even in the middle of summer, her body was as cold as ice. We fed her medicine we could barely afford, but there was no improvement—she only grew weaker and weaker… In the end, she couldn't last a single year and passed away."
What if it wasn't a simple illness, but the bloodline of his grandfather? What if one day, like his sister, his Yin Energy would run rampant, and he would waste away and die?
He was plagued by such worries for a while… but afterward, nothing happened, and he remained healthy, so he forgot about it again.
That is, until his daughter Seol Ri-hyang was born with a Yin Energy far stronger than his sister's.
"Unlike my sister, Hyang-i never fell seriously ill. But the people around her were a different story."
Seol Du-ho's wife, who gave birth to Seol Ri-hyang. Because she had carried such excessive Yin Energy, the harmony within her body was shattered, and her health deteriorated drastically from then on.
Not long after, she died, complaining of symptoms similar to Seol Du-ho's sister.
"I don't blame Hyang-i. If you look at it that way, it's a problem on my side of the family, so isn't it my responsibility as well? That's been my thinking all along."
But the emptiness was unavoidable.
His wife had died because she gave birth to a child who carried his blood.
Consumed by such thoughts, Seol Du-ho did nothing for a while, just staring blankly and drinking.
But one day. Seeing his young daughter Seol Ri-hyang waiting for him when he returned home late at night, drunk, he became aware of his responsibility. And he changed.
Unfortunately, it wasn't a change in a positive direction.
"I was afraid and burdened. I only wanted to run away, but the money I'd spent on drink wasn't coming back."
So it wasn't just drinking—he'd gotten his hands into gambling as well.
It was an incomprehensible way of thinking, but one thing was certain.
"He was trash."
"Indeed."
"…"
Seol Du-ho, receiving the sharp gazes of Bing Yerin and me, hung his head low.
Seol Ri-hyang, for her part, merely watched calmly… but Seol Du-ho continued, watching her expression.
"You two are right. At first, I deceived myself with the justification that I needed money to feed my child, but in the end, I got my priorities backwards and sold my daughter for gambling. What can I even say in my defense?"
"Then why didn't you just cut ties completely? Why come looking for me only now?"
"…Because of the last words your mother Hyang-i left behind."
"Mother's?"
Cough!
Seol Du-ho spat out a cough tinged with blood, then struggled to raise his upper body and opened a small drawer within arm's reach.
Inside it was a small ring carved from jade.
"It's something she wanted to pass down to you when you eventually married. This was the one thing I couldn't bring myself to sell."
"Mother…"
Seol Ri-hyang picked up the ring with trembling hands. Naturally, it was old and rustic, and the quality of the jade was nothing special.
It was exactly the sort of thing a poor commoner might scrape together their entire savings to buy for a major occasion.
The current Seol Ri-hyang could easily obtain ornaments hundreds of times finer than this, but…
Some things simply couldn't be measured by their material worth.
Holding the ring in her hand, Seol Ri-hyang clenched her fist gently, yet firmly. As if she would never let it go.
"Yes, I remember. Mother used to wear it whenever something good happened."
Seol Du-ho watched her lost in sentiment for a moment before carefully speaking up.
"I know it's shameless of me to ask this now. I also know that, as we've done all along, living as if the other doesn't exist would be for the best. …Even so, there's one thing I'd like to ask of you. Would you hear me out?"
"…I'll hear you out first."
Seol Ri-hyang answered in a tone that was still grumbling, yet unmistakably softened, and Seol Du-ho gave a faint smile.
"Just once would be enough. I'd like to see you wearing the ring."
"That much is… well…"
Seol Ri-hyang nodded with a complicated expression. She lifted the jade ring she had been holding and slipped it onto her finger.
The jade ring sparkled under the light on her white finger.
Watching her, Seol Du-ho continued, still wearing his smile.
"I was a man unworthy of being a father."
However, it didn't take long for that smile to twist.
"So I don't feel particularly sorry about this either."
The moment those words left his mouth, a violent surge of Demonic Qi erupted from the ring Seol Ri-hyang was wearing.
"…What?"
Startled, Seol Ri-hyang resisted with all the internal energy she could muster, but the Demonic Qi was so overwhelming that even her reserves and control couldn't possibly block it.
I reflexively drew my sword and slashed at the ring amidst the suffocating Demonic Qi, but…
"You've lost your mind."
Whoosh!
The Demonic Qi burst forth even more violently, as if a levee had collapsed.
It was utterly incomprehensible that such an ordinary-looking object could contain this much Demonic Qi, but one thing was certain.
I might be able to withstand it, but others could not.
So instead of cutting through the Demonic Qi again or fleeing the area, I grabbed Seol Ri-hyang's hand firmly. And then.
"I almost forgot."
I stabbed the thigh of Seol Du-ho, who had been slinking away.
"Kuaaaak!"
He was already weakened to the point of near-collapse, so with an injury like that, he would either die soon or, even if he barely survived, escape would be impossible.
The Demonic Qi filling the room seemed irregular, yet it wove a strangely familiar flow. I observed it through my Heavenly Eye and gripped Seol Ri-hyang's hand tightly.
Then I watched Bing Yerin, sensing something was wrong, reach out toward me and Seol Ri-hyang—but unable to do anything more than that.
"Hah."
Even if work piled up so high I wouldn't get a proper night's sleep for three days, I should have just brought the Illusion Witch instead of Bing Yerin.
Before Bing Yerin's hand could reach us, the Demonic Qi swallowed the entire view.
***
When I opened my eyes, the world was in ruins.
Only, it was ruined in a way I didn't recognize.
"Surely not…?"
It was the memory of the Heavenly Demon.