Chapter 113. The Blood Demon's Body

"Child of Jin Su."

The Blood Demon warned her with a smile.

"You'd better shut your mouth for a while. I'm debating whether I should tear your lips apart or break your neck to stop your insolent tongue."

So-hwa pretended not to hear and kept talking.

"Ah, that preface you scribbled was amusing too. You said that blood is the origin of all things and a power that flows through time. But blood holds no power."

She openly mocked him, disregarding the Blood Demon's words.

"What flows through time is not the blood of ancestors, but the family line. The land and influence the ancestors protected and passed down—that is the real power."

So-hwa pressed down harder on the Blood Demon's Will beneath her foot.

"A mere body carrying inherited blood has no power. What holds power over time is not a new body, but the accumulated prestige of a lineage."

Crunch.

A small bead shattered helplessly underfoot.

"That's how the system of Central Plains you so desire works. No matter how fine a 'framework,' as you put it, one is born with—without a family to belong to, it's hard to realize one's will. Even if, by luck, one becomes a grandmaster and leaves behind a name, once the descendants disappear, that too vanishes with time. No true power remains."

So-hwa leaned forward and laughed.

"But isn't the child of the Blood Demon just a high-grade blood pouch?"

She lowered her brows and said,

"So once time passes and your flesh returns to the earth, the Blood Sect will vanish. You care only about being worshipped, not about protecting your descendants. Aren't your descendants just graded assets to you? When the owner dies, assets simply fall into someone else's hands."

Suddenly, So-hwa's view rose.

The Blood Demon, grabbing her throat, looked at her with eyes full of pity.

"Did I not tell you to shut your mouth?"

Though she couldn't breathe, So-hwa smiled and added,

"You will disappear in the end."

She scratched at him to the very last.

Mocking him with the very preface he wrote while founding his sect.

"Not as a god, but as a disgusting monst

So-hwa tightly shut her eyes.

It was because the Flame Demon had pounced.

Her breath shortened and her mind grew hazy, but she gathered her strength and forced her eyes open once more.

The pain from the searing heat and biting cold slashing at her skin was unbearable. But she endured it all.

Because she couldn't Young Lady what was being revealed to her eyes.

Light radiated from the Blood Demon's arm.

It was different from the light of Haerak's nae-gi.

The Blood Demon's body was filled with tiny grains of light like the Milky Way.

Some shone as pure white as Haerak's, while others glowed red, blue, or violet. There were even clusters of black smoke, as if demonic energy had coalesced like darkness.

The clusters of light drifted slowly like clouds.

So-hwa, who had been observing the Blood Demon's body, froze.

She had deliberately provoked him to examine his body, but now that she saw it for herself, her mind went blank.

Those specks of light were the internal energy of others that the Blood Demon had absorbed.

There were far too many to count. And this was with just a single meridian opened.

A low voice fell from above her head.

"Child of Jin Su."

The man spoke calmly, suppressing his anger.

"I am not young. So your petty tricks are perfectly transparent."

The Blood Demon exhaled and brushed back his disheveled hair.

"If you were curious about how I cultivated energy, you could've just asked. I was going to hear you out, but your tongue was sharper than I expected. If I listen any longer, I might just break your neck... so watch quietly."

With a deep breath, the Blood Demon flung So-hwa away.

Bang!

"Ugh."

Thrown against the wall, So-hwa let out a low groan.

Though it seemed the Blood Demon had thrown her with some restraint, there was a sound of her spine being crushed.

So-hwa tried to raise her upper body but collapsed again. The intense pain suggested her bones had broken.

Still seated on the ground, So-hwa looked up at the Blood Demon.

Along the path from the center of the palm to the dantian, there were concealed meridians, but the Blood Demon bypassed them and moved the nae-gi directly into the dantian.

The Blood Demon couldn't form his meridians, yet he could still sense nae-gi—just as she could.

Being sensitive to others' internal energy made it easy for him to delicately manipulate the nae-gi stored within his own body.

The nae-gi emerged from a single meridian point and drifted up through his upper body.

As the extended internal energy reached the dantian, his upper body shimmered.

That was when it happened.

The energy flowing from the center of the palm began to lose its glow—perhaps the meridians were closing.

As if he had anticipated the timing of the closure, the Blood Demon quickly drew the remaining nae-gi back before the meridian sealed shut.

The light, drawn back into his hand, vanished completely.

The Blood Demon's gaze slowly dropped to his own hand.

"Did you see it clearly?"

Opening and closing his hand, he smiled.

"As you saw, it's terribly inefficient. I have to keep the meridians open at least until a full circulation is complete to fuse these energies inside me. If I had more time, I could separate them again and return them to their places before the meridians seal. That would prevent loss."

He muttered with a voice full of regret.

"Even though it's a martial art I completed myself, I still can't unify all of this within me. The meridians close before the energy even passes through the dantian."

Looking at So-hwa, the Blood Demon spoke.

"You said with your own mouth that you could make the Blood Prison. Then you must complete it within two days."

His gaze dropped. Seeing the shattered sacred item, the Blood Demon let out a laugh.

"You already took the reward—now you have to earn it, don't you?"

So-hwa couldn't respond. Her voice wouldn't come—perhaps her neck was broken. She closed her previously open mouth.

The Blood Demon gave a dry laugh as he watched her.

"So you can be afraid."

In good spirits, the Blood Demon laughed heartily.

"Don't even think of coming to see me until the Blood Prison is complete. And if you fail to bring it in two days... things won't end as mildly as today."

To the Blood Demon's warning, So-hwa responded with silence.

So-hwa stopped walking as she returned to her quarters.

It was because Haerak was sitting on the windowsill connected to the garden.

At that moment, as if sensing her presence, the Lord of the Scarlet Blood Hall turned his gaze.

"Why aren't you coming in?"

So-hwa didn't respond and headed toward the desk. Her voice still wouldn't come out properly—she hadn't fully recovered yet.

Fortunately, Haerak, perhaps used to being ignored, didn't say anything more.

As she approached the desk, So-hwa furrowed her brows. Tools for preparing medicinal herbs had been stacked there—when they were brought in, she didn't know. But they were all the same ones she had used back at Tang Clan Pavilion.

It seemed the Blood Demon had already prepared everything for making medicine even before calling her.

So-hwa gathered a large basket. She planned to collect herbs from the garden before sunset.

But as she turned her body, she flinched.

Haerak had come up behind her without a sound.

A large hand brushed her hair behind her shoulders. His gaze, which had fallen to the nape of her neck, lifted upward.

"Was it the Blood Demon?"

Without waiting for an answer, he turned to leave, but So-hwa grabbed his arm.

"Why?"

She was dumbfounded that he asked what she should've been asking. What business is it of yours? Voice or not, she was momentarily speechless.

Seeing the unusually quiet So-hwa, Haerak raised his thick eyebrows as if something felt off.

"What is it, you can't talk?"

"..."

"That old bastard really has gone insane."

As Haerak turned to leave again, So-hwa finally opened her mouth.

"Where are you going."

A thin, metallic rasp came out.

When So-hwa frowned, Haerak scowled even more and replied.

"You made a promise to entrust her to me, and yet you took her without a word and laid hands on her, didn't you? That old man's been senile for a long time, but sometimes, you have to flip the table for him to even pretend to keep a promise."

Even as he spoke, So-hwa didn't let go of his arm, so Haerak crossed his arms.

"What, are you worried about me?"

She stayed silent, not wanting to let out that metallic rasp again, and Haerak gave a short laugh.

"Don't worry. Fighting that old man is what I do whenever I come to Jin Yin Mountain. Even if it weren't for you, I've got three years' worth of reasons to visit the Thunder Prison, so don't try to stop me."

"You're the one who's not in their right mind."

At her cracked voice, Haerak laughed.

"Aren't you tired of saying that by now?"

He started his usual teasing, but So-hwa still didn't release his arm.

"You can't beat the Blood Demon."

Haerak gave a scoffing laugh.

"I'm not picking a fight to win. I'm just provoking him to piss him off."

"..."

"Now let go. And stop staring at me like that."

But So-hwa's grip on his clothes only tightened.

With a voice that sounded almost normal, she said,

"I need your help."

Pulling him toward her as he kept looking for a chance to leave, So-hwa continued.

"The Blood Demon told me to make something. If I'm to finish it in two days, I don't have enough hands."

"What does he want you to make?"

"A tonic."

Haerak let out a short laugh.

"A tonic? Tang Clan's alchemy isn't even that impressive—why would he ask you to make a tonic? If he wanted someone from Central Plains to do it, he'd have gone to Shaolin. Ah, wait. So that's why the Lord of the Blue Blood Hall was dressed up as an old monk?"

Following the flow of his thoughts, Haerak arrived at an odd realization.

So-hwa ignored him and stared out at the garden.

"I need to sort out the herbs before sunset. I'm short on time."

Her dark eyes slid toward Haerak.

"You said the maidservant might be a disguised sect member from the Blue Blood Hall. So help me out."

"You're trying to make me your herb lackey, is that it?"

Haerak asked, making a face, but So-hwa calmly nodded.

"I have to finish it in two days."

"And if I help, you'll be able to make it in time?"

"Yes."

"..."

Haerak scratched the back of his head, not bothering to hide his annoyance.

"Getting hit a few times by the old man sounds better than this. I hate getting my clothes dirty."

Grumbling, he still let himself be dragged to the garden by So-hwa. Naturally, he even carried the basket for her.

"I can't tell one herb from another. What exactly can I do to help?"

"There are herbs I need to sun-dry, but I only have one day. If they sit in direct sunlight, their efficacy will drop."

As So-hwa stepped into the center of the garden and knelt down, Haerak reluctantly sat beside her.

So-hwa pulled up root herbs from the dirt and placed them in the basket Haerak held.

"That's why I want you to dry them."

"..."

"Whatever you do, don't burn them. They have to dry naturally, as if they'd been under sunlight for three full days."

Haerak opened his mouth to speak, then hesitated.

"... Just to be sure—are you saying you want me to use my Yeolyanggong to dry herbs?"

So-hwa nodded.

Haerak let out a long sigh.

"So-hwa, martial arts aren't meant for this kind of thing."

"It'll be fine."

She added calmly,

"That way, you'll be helping to kill the Blood Demon too."

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