Seol Ri-hyang, tense as could be, stepped before the examiner with stiff, creaking movements.
It seemed that sparring with someone else, especially in front of such a crowd, was impossible not to be conscious of.
With Seol Ri-hyang's skill, there was no need to be this nervous.
As I shook my head, Tang So-wol, once again perched on my shoulder, waved her hand broadly.
"Hyang-i!"
She didn't say to cheer up. She merely called her name and waved.
Seol Ri-hyang, turning around reflexively, looked at Tang So-wol's face and wore a blank expression for a moment, then broke into a bright smile and waved back.
With her face buried low, she raised the corners of her mouth into a sly grin toward Seomun Hwa-rin, who had already drawn up to the seat beside her.
"You didn't have to react like that. Are we really that embarrassing?"
"…To be honest, I'm still quite embarrassed right now, so if you could just pretend not to notice for a while, I'd be grateful."
"Oh dear. I thought we'd grown a little closer over this time, but it seems that was just my imagination."
"I-It's not a matter of closeness!"
Seomun Hwa-rin puffed out her cheeks as if she had much to say but was determined to hold it in, then let the air out with a sigh.
She was the type to react this intensely over something so small.
If she had made it to the finals and her identity was exposed before the Murim Alliance Leader in front of a massive crowd, what would she have done then…
As I let out a long sigh, Seol Ri-hyang, having regained her composure, was performing a fist-and-palm salute before the examiner.
"Please take care of me."
"Hmm! By the way, young lady, are you also part of this group?"
"They are all people far too good for me, one and all."
With that brief exchange, the two settled into their stances.
It seemed the examiner would switch with someone else if he grew tired, but against Seomun Hwa-rin, the match had ended before he could even try anything, so it looked like he was just going to continue.
Though both were first-rate, the examiner was a seasoned Martial Artist who had reached first-rate at least ten years ago. He was probably rich in real combat experience.
Seol Ri-hyang, on the other hand, had raised her realm in a short span of time, and this was likely her first sparring match with anyone outside the Tang Clan, let alone real combat.
Ordinarily, Seol Ri-hyang would be at a severe disadvantage. But I didn't think that was necessarily the case.
It was true that Seol Ri-hyang had only been practicing martial arts for three years. And even her best weapon, the whip, wasn't quite at a level befitting a first-rate master.
However, when it came to talent for handling internal energy, Seol Ri-hyang was second to none among the geniuses I knew.
And that woman had now learned a proper Mental Cultivation Method — the Glacier True Energy, which wielded Yin-Cold True Energy itself like a weapon. With a gap like that, she ought to be able to put up a decent fight.
I briefly averted my gaze from Seomun Hwa-rin, who was watching me with eyes that held no threat whatsoever, and focused on Seol Ri-hyang instead.
Seol Ri-hyang let the whip she had drawn out hang long, then stepped forward half a pace and swung her arm in a wide arc.
"Hup!"
The movement rippled fluidly, as if the whip had become an extension of her arm. The motion carried all the way to the tip of the whip.
Whiiish!
The whip, which had clearly been tracing a gentle arc at first, suddenly surged with ferocious speed, flying toward the examiner at a pace too fast for the eye to follow.
A fairly decent strike. However, it wasn't enough to rattle a seasoned martial artist.
He calmly extended his spear and brought it directly into the path of the whip.
Crack!
The whip coiled around the spear shaft in an instant. At the same time, the spear tip rotated in a direction that went with the force rather than against it.
The examiner, having deftly displayed the art of the lance—one of the two fundamental spear techniques—swung his arm outward in a wide arc.
With the spear already spinning and the whip wrapped around it beyond Seol Ri-hyang's intent, what do you think happened when he swung his arm like that?
"Ugh!"
Seol Ri-hyang's body, having tried to pull but instead being pulled, staggered and swayed.
She hadn't let go of the whip, but in a contest of strength between the two—where the difference between man and woman was obvious, let alone the gap in their External Arts training—the outcome was plain to see.
Before long, she would either lose her grip on the whip or her stance would completely collapse along with it.
This wasn't real combat, just a sparring match, so that would be enough to call the match.
Her first strike had been quite fierce, so she could still receive a decent evaluation from this alone… but.
If Seol Ri-hyang were the kind of person to be satisfied with that, she would never have risen to the middle ranks of the first-rate in just three years, nor would she have stepped into these preliminaries—not even the main tournament—with so much tension.
A cold gleam flickered in Seol Ri-hyang's eyes, which had been feigning fluster.
This time, it was the examiner's turn to be flustered. And this was no act—he was genuinely taken aback.
"Ice Arts…!"
The examiner's eyes went wide as he readjusted his grip on the spear. Before he knew it, not only Seol Ri-hyang's whip but even the shaft it was tightly coiled around had become tinged with white frost.
At this rate, the Yin-Cold True Energy transmitted through the touching weapons would soon reach the examiner's hands.
As if refusing to let that happen, the examiner gritted his teeth and began to squeeze out his internal energy.
But with the internal energy of an Orthodox Sect, which had no particular sharp edges, it would not be easy to block Seol Ri-hyang's Yin-Cold True Energy, which protruded like an awl of Yin Energy.
In the end, all he could do was pour out internal energy that could rival Seol Ri-hyang's and forcibly drive out the Yin-Cold True Energy, shaking off the whip in the process.
So intensely did he concentrate his internal energy that her garments fluttered on their own, and the spear shaft began to vibrate finely.
It seemed he was even thinking of switching with another examiner after this sparring match.
Perhaps it was because he was so focused on pouring out his internal energy without reserve. The examiner failed to notice Seol Ri-hyang's mouth opening.
"Ah————!"
It could hardly be called a song. It was merely a simple vocalization, drawing out a pleasant voice at length.
But the internal energy Seol Ri-hyang had infused into it pierced the examiner's ears along with the sound.
"What!"
The examiner, who had been pouring all his energy into the spear shaft, had little internal energy circulating through his own body. His body began to stiffen as if frozen solid.
If things continued like this, he would either fall to the Yin-Cold True Energy flowing in through the spear shaft, or suffer internal injuries from the Yin-Cold True Energy that had burrowed into his body along with the sound.
In the end, he released the spear with his own hand and circulated the remaining internal energy throughout his entire body to expel the cold that was creeping in.
Then, with a complicated expression, he spoke.
"Enough! The sparring match ends here. I admit defeat."
"Ah."
"This is quite an eye-opening feeling. Thanks to you, I now understand well why the Blazing Yang Art and the Yin Cold Arts are so threatening."
"Th-thank you!"
As soon as the sparring match ended, Seol Ri-hyang released the icy, frost-laden expression she had worn moments before and offered a polite fist-and-palm salute.
The moment she raised her head, she came running toward me and began hopping up and down in front of me and Tang So-wol.
"Sister Dang! Sister Dang…!"
She seemed to want to say something but couldn't get the words out.
At that, Tang So-wol spoke in a gentle voice.
"Well done, Hyang-i."
"…Yes!"
"I'm sorry to interrupt while you're clearly brimming with excitement, but wouldn't it be better to have that conversation after you get down from my shoulders?"
"Young hero Cheon, you really can't read the room. At times like this, you should at least say a word of praise to Hyang-i first."
"That's right, that's right. Praise me quickly. Tell me I'm amazing, tell me I did well, right now!"
"…"
I wondered if this was my fault and looked at Seomun Hwa-rin, but she was busy giggling away at something or other on her end.
In the end, it was only after taking a deep breath that I gave Seol Ri-hyang the answer she wanted.
"Fine, fine. You did well."
"That lacks sincerity! Say it again!"
"…When you see a whip flying at you, the standard is to cut it down as it comes, and if possible, wrap it around your weapon and snatch it from your opponent's hand. Turning that against them by infusing it with Yin-Cold True Energy was a clever choice."
"A little more!"
"Concealing part of your skill to draw out your opponent's carelessness is one of the fundamentals of surviving in the martial world. Today, you were a Martial Artist beyond any doubt in anyone's eyes."
"Oh! Anything but that?!"
"…"
Seol Ri-hyang's eyes sparkled with mischief. I looked down at her quietly, then shook my head.
"It wouldn't be so bad to just head back like this."
I turned around with Tang So-wol still seated on the horse, and she urgently tugged at my hair.
"Young hero Cheon? You're not really planning to ride all the way to the inn like this, are you…?"
"Cheon Hwi! Hey! It's not like I'm asking for much, just one more time! Are you really going?"
"…"
Instead of answering, I quietly moved my feet. It was my principle to avoid fights I was bound to lose whenever possible.
***
That was how I returned to the Gold Flower Inn. Our strange appearance, mine and Tang So-wol's, seemed to be stirring up a bit of gossip, but… that wasn't really important.
Everyone had passed the preliminaries, so all that remained was to wait for the main tournament to begin.
I wasn't quite as eager as Seomun Hwa-rin, but I too held great expectations for the Dragon Phoenix Gathering.
Where else could I witness such a variety of martial arts in one place, especially the martial arts of the Orthodox Sects, which were unfamiliar to me?
For someone like me, who learned various martial arts, combined their strengths, modified them to suit myself, and gradually developed them, the Dragon Phoenix Gathering was nothing less than a well-prepared feast.
And though our paths differed somewhat, others were looking forward to the Dragon Phoenix Gathering just the same.
Before I left the Tang Clan, hadn't Tang Jincheon said it himself? Under the rules of the sparring match, it would be the first time a winner of the Dragon Phoenix Gathering came from the Tang Clan.
We had often received the alias of Dragon or Phoenix, and it wasn't as if the Tang Clan's prestige would suffer for lack of a winner… but still, it was true that he held great expectations for me.
Tang So-wol and Seol Ri-hyang held similar expectations. They were already worrying about how to introduce me to those they usually interacted with closely once the Dragon Phoenix Gathering was over.
…But I had something even more important than that.
Seomun Hwa-rin.
I couldn't let her throw herself into the Black Alliance in this life as well.
She was born into the Orthodox Sects and ended her life as one of the Unorthodox Sects — don't I know well how much she longed to live a humane life until her very last moment?
What Seomun Hwa-rin left behind is here. She still lives and breathes within me, defying time itself — how could I just stand by and watch her?
Even as I swung my sword out of habit and went through Qi Circulation Cultivation, I kept agonizing over the problem.
No matter what I did or how I did it, there was no way to prevent the Murim Alliance Leader and Seomun Hwa-rin from crossing paths.
What could I possibly say to the Murim Alliance Leader, asking him to come a few days later? And I couldn't exactly talk Seomun Hwa-rin out of it either.
I had posed a subtle question the other day, and in response, Seomun Hwa-rin had resolved to risk the danger and use this Dragon Phoenix Gathering as the chance to start a new life.
Like most masters, once she set her will, she rarely bent it — knowing her temperament, it would be difficult to make her reverse that decision now.
Even if I confessed that I knew Seomun Hwa-rin's identity and that the Murim Alliance Leader was certain to see through her, nothing would change.
Because she had already made up her mind to attend, fully prepared for the possibility of being discovered by the Murim Alliance Leader.
The goal was clear, and the conditions remained unchanged. There wasn't much I could do.
To obtain something, one must either possess power strong enough to overturn the board, or be willing to give up something else.
And so the main tournament began, with me having set down one thing after another. Whether it was luck or misfortune, my opponent in the bracket was Seomun Hwa-rin.
I moved my lips slightly toward her, letting my white hair flutter in the wind, and sent a Voice Transmission.
"Baekbal Nachal, Seomun Hwa-rin. Kidnap me."
This was the best I could come up with.