A man stood before her, dressed in clothes as black as the night.
The moment Dokgo Ryeong saw him, a piercing cold instantly flowed through her eyes.
"Keu-euk!"
When her blindfolded eyes caught sight of the man, her sealed eyelids throbbed as if burned by fire. How could she ever forget the man who had taken one of her eyes? Dokgo Ryeong would never forgive him. The man who had deceived and toyed with her heart! How many times had she gritted her teeth in silence, plotting her revenge against him!
Screeeech.
Slowly, she drew her sword from its sheath. From the tip of the drawn blade, murderous intent surged fiercely, aimed straight at the man's heart. The long-awaited chance for revenge had finally arrived. Yet the man remained calm with a gentle smile, completely unfazed by the killing intent radiating from her sword. Dokgo Ryeong hated that smile more than anything. She felt foolish for having once fallen in love with it. She poured every ounce of strength in her body into the tip of her sword.
"Starting today, I will erase your shadow from my heart forever."
After saying those words, Dokgo Ryeong leaped forward with all her might and thrust her sword ahead.
Thwack!
The sensation of the sword piercing the man's body felt incredibly real. But the man made no attempt to dodge.
"…Why?"
Dokgo Ryeong felt the situation was too easy. Her opponent was definitely not someone who would fall from such a simple attack.
"Kuhuhuh, do you feel at peace now?"
Even with the sword piercing his heart, the man still wore that eerie, unsettling smile. He grabbed the blade that had stabbed through his heart with his bare hand. Only the remaining length of the sword separated the two of them. Blood flowed down the blade onto Dokgo Ryeong's hand. The hand gripping the sword hilt became wet and red. Blood dripped from her hand, forming deep crimson flowers on the floor.
"Huhuhu, even if you do this, you still can't escape my grasp. You belong to me."
He raised his hand and cupped Dokgo Ryeong's chin. Their eyes met. The situation felt extremely strange. He brought his blood-stained lips closer to hers. Dokgo Ryeong tried to resist, but she was powerless, like a butterfly trapped in a spider's web. Their lips slowly touched. The man's blood flowed into her mouth.
"Let go!"
Dokgo Ryeong pushed the man away with all her strength and swung her sword once more.
Fwoosh!
Her sword sliced the man's body cleanly in two. But at that very moment, the man vanished.
"No… This can't be."
She felt like a lost soul. She stared at her blood-covered hands and touched her lips. There was no trace of blood anywhere. Yet her hands still clearly remembered the feeling of the sword piercing a heart, and her lips still tasted the metallic flavor of blood. A chill crept up her spine, and the hair on her body stood on end. She felt as if she had been possessed by a ghost. Haunting memories resurfaced, tormenting her.
'Master! Master! Master!'
She called out desperately to her master, the Sword Empress – Lee Ok-sang, who had become her emotional support.
'I tried so hard to forget…'
It had all been in vain. She realized she was still bound by that incident.
"Have you still not escaped this demonic path?"
She could clearly see the chains binding her. Only then did she realize where she was.
"Is Yerin okay?"
The moment Dokgo Ryeong became aware of her surroundings, she immediately worried about her junior sister. This was a place that revealed the dark shadows hidden deep within one's own heart.
'That's right! I remember Master once mentioned a scent that had this kind of effect on her! Only now do I remember… My heart has been captured by a demonic creature like this…'
"I still haven't trained enough!"
At that moment, a sudden thought crossed her mind.
'What if… what if my junior sister is experiencing the same thing again…'
Her heart suddenly turned cold.
"No! I can't let her go through that nightmare again. Never!"
Dokgo Ryeong's heart fell into chaos. She had to find Na Yerin immediately. She had no time to be trapped in an illusion.
* * *
Deep within the darkness locked inside a person's heart, monsters dwell. Those monsters are sometimes enormous, dark, and terrifying. Just seeing them can shock a person to their core. Unless one can defeat oneself and transcend one's own heart, it is difficult for humans to overcome the monsters living within. One must face that darkness, acknowledge it, accept it, and then defeat it. But the problem is, it is not as easy as it sounds.
"What… what are you doing here?"
Na Yerin kept stepping backward. Standing before her was the man she hated—the one she wanted to forget even in her dreams. The middle-aged man in his forties had the same abnormal eyes as before. Back then, this man also had those red, insane eyes.
Her natural beauty could not be hidden no matter what. Especially since her beauty had already shone since she was a child. Even as a little girl, her beauty held a mysterious allure that made men fall into obsessive lust. She had a fragrant scent even before she fully bloomed. And that scent possessed a strange power that attracted many people. It repeatedly brought danger to her. That mysterious aroma kept drawing insects to the flower.
The man standing before her now was the same person.
The most dangerous moment in her life was what this man had done ten years ago. That incident left extremely heavy psychological trauma on Na Yerin. Since then, her hatred toward men had reached an extreme level.
The person who had tried to defile the pure, innocent girl was none other than her own uncle—the man she had always trusted, followed, and relied on. Usually, her uncle was a highly respected and upright martial arts expert. But on that day, to the little girl, he was nothing but a beast.
"How… how are you still alive?"
She continued retreating as she asked. But there was no answer. As if he didn't care about her question, the man stepped closer, one step at a time, with eyes full of lust and insane laughter.
"Hehehe, your eyes are as beautiful as opium flowers, your smile is more deadly than poison. Your innocent eyes drive me crazy. Your skin as white as pearls, your lips as red as rubies, your pitch-black eyes… hehehe. Yerin, I can't hold back anymore. I can't endure it!"
The same situation from the past was repeating itself. It felt like a nightmare being replayed without permission. Her uncle's eyes gleamed with wicked lust, and his dirty thoughts flowed into Na Yerin's mind through his gaze. Those were the eyes of a beast. Not human eyes. Na Yerin saw her uncle's true nature at the bottom of his heart. An ugly, selfish beast that only thought of its own pleasure and cared about nothing else!
She saw such a beast in her uncle, one of her closest blood relatives. It was too much for the little girl to bear. Na Yerin wanted to escape the situation by any means possible. If she had had a sword back then, she would have killed herself. But at that time, she was still weak and had no physical choice. When the body could not fight back, the mind began to distort reality.
Na Yerin's mind activated its natural defense mechanism. If possible, she wanted to shut down all her senses.
"Come here, good girl. Come here, hug your uncle. My little bird."
'This is a dream… this must be a dream.'
With every step the man took closer, she felt herself shrinking, turning back into the helpless ten-year-old girl. The nightmare she experienced at age ten was replaying before her eyes, and her past self seemed to be projected onto her present self. The hair on her body stood on end. She suddenly felt nauseous.
Thump, thump, thump.
She stepped back.
When the man emerged from the darkness with his dark and ugly desires shining, she had to retreat out of fear. She was no longer a disciple of the famous sword master Bingbaek, nor the successor of the Sword Empress. She was just a frightened ten-year-old girl. Her beloved sword remained frozen in its sheath, with no intention of coming out.
Thud!
Na Yerin's back hit the cave wall. There was nowhere left to retreat. The man was now right in front of her, within arm's reach.
"There, no place left to run. Come here, my little bird."
Those filthy, lust-filled hands began to caress her entire body. She trembled with fear and horror. Disgust and sadness over her weakness as a woman filled her mind. Men in general felt repulsive and terrifying to her.
'Please, someone help me. Help me. Help me!'
She screamed desperately in her heart. Her ten-year-old self had also screamed like that back then. At that time, her father had saved her from the abyss of despair. Na Yerin still remembered that event clearly. It was a painful memory she could never forget.
"What is this! You beast! Today I sever our blood ties!"
Her father's sword, roaring like thunder, flashed with white light and swept across her uncle's eyes.
Fwah!
Crimson blood scattered through the air.
"Kuaaaaaaaak!"
Her uncle screamed like a ghost. Her father's sword trembled with deep rage. The killing intent seemed ready to sever her uncle's head from his body. Her uncle, already drowned in lust, had abandoned all family bonds. Her father could not forgive such a man. Even in his insane state, her uncle seemed to know how foolish it would be to fight her father. He covered his bleeding eyes with his left hand and unleashed a palm strike with his right. It was his signature technique, Mad Wind Palm.
Rumble!
With a thundering sound, the ferocious palm energy raged like a storm in all directions. Taking advantage of the chaos in the room caused by the palm strike, he smashed through the window and fled. Since then, no one knew his whereabouts or whether he was still alive or dead. The incident became a family disgrace and a dark shadow. After that, Na Yerin's hatred toward men reached an extreme level, and Na Baek-cheon became excessively protective of her. The event was then silenced and became taboo— no one dared mention it.
It remained a deep wound in the bottom of her heart. A grudge that had lingered for more than ten years! It seemed she still could not free herself from that nightmare memory.
But had the ghost of the past returned?
'Please, someone help me!'
This was the first time she had screamed for help so desperately. Her uncle's lewd hands drew closer. Like a butterfly trapped in a spider's web, her entire body was paralyzed and could not move as she wished. She curled up with her knees bent, trembling and screaming. While squeezing her eyes shut with all her might, she cried out as loudly as she could.
"Help me! Bi… Bi Ryu-yeon!"
At that moment, a burst of white light exploded before her eyes, sweeping away all the nightmare shadows. She remained curled up for quite a while.
Tap, tap.
Then, a gentle touch landed on her shoulder, like touching a trembling little bird. It was not rough, aggressive, or harsh. Then a voice spoke.
"You called?"
The voice was like a ray of light piercing through the darkness. One thing she was certain of was that it was not her uncle's thick, lust-filled voice. She lifted her head and saw the owner of the voice. It was Bi Ryu-yeon, who always wore a calming smile.
Suddenly, she felt relieved and at peace. Her face, usually cold and expressionless like an eternal ice sword, now brightened. It was an expression Bi Ryu-yeon had never seen before.
"Miss Na, are you okay? What happened?"
Her sorrowful expression, almost on the verge of tears, was so heartbreaking that it made people want to embrace her. But Bi Ryu-yeon no longer needed to worry about that. Because Na Yerin hugged him first.
"Miss Na?"
Na Yerin's hands gripped Bi Ryu-yeon's clothes tightly, as if wringing them. Bi Ryu-yeon could feel her body still trembling slightly. She was still afraid of something. Whatever it was, it didn't matter much to him. What mattered was that she was trembling.
She suddenly felt like she had become a ten-year-old girl again. Bi Ryu-yeon silently embraced her fragile body until her trembling stopped. They remained silent for a long time.
"How did you find me?"
After calming down for a while, Na Yerin finally asked Bi Ryu-yeon. The Demon Illusion Cave was like a labyrinth, making it extremely difficult to even meet each other. Yet Bi Ryu-yeon seemed to have found her easily. She found it very strange.
"Instinct," Bi Ryu-yeon answered proudly.
"Instinct?"
"Yes, instinct. I can find the person I like in any labyrinth. That's the power of love. Muhahahaha!"
Bi Ryu-yeon answered without hesitation. Na Yerin couldn't help but smile faintly at his overly confident reply. But she didn't know that the answer was a lie. The truth was very simple. In reality, Bi Ryu-yeon had placed a Mind-Soul Mantra on the edge of Na Yerin's clothes. He then easily tracked her location by following the mantra. But since he didn't feel the need to reveal it, he simply called it instinct.
Whoooosh!
Suddenly, a strong wind blew in from somewhere. Their hair and clothes fluttered in the gust.
"Thank you."
She said with a gentle smile. A smile that shone like a thousand-year-old ice melting in an instant.
"But aren't you also an illusion, Young Master Bi?"
In this place, it was very difficult to distinguish between illusion and reality.
"Have you ever seen an illusion that feels this real and fresh, Miss Na?"
Bi Ryu-yeon's emphasis on the word "fresh" made her feel as if she were ordering at a sashimi restaurant.
"That's true."
Na Yerin wondered in her heart why Bi Ryu-yeon's appearance gave her such a great sense of relief.