Chapter 114. Goal

Silence briefly settled over the flower garden.

Haerak let out a small laugh.

"What, are you pretending it's an elixir but actually making poison to feed me?"

So-hwa nodded.

Haerak said nothing more. He only looked at So-hwa with eyes that found it absurd.

So-hwa rose to her feet and moved to search for other medicinal herbs. She had no room for ease of mind.

Her steps slowed as she went into a place thick with trees.

Near the hall, a warm breeze blew, but here a cold wind did. Even flowers bloomed between frost-covered rocks. It seemed this was where plants imbued with yin energy grew.

Desert, swamp, and snowy plains. A strange land where fragmented spaces were mixed together. Now she felt she was beginning to understand the structure of the garden.

So-hwa walked between the trees seeking warmth.

Sunlight piercing through the leaves occasionally disturbed her sight, but she did not lower her gaze and continued searching for a fruit.

At last, when a blue fruit entered her sight, she stopped walking.

Yet the fruit was beyond her reach.

The moment she lifted her heels, her vision darkened.

Tok.

Haerak, who plucked the fruit with ease, lowered his gaze.

"How many?"

"Two."

Without a word, Haerak picked two more large fruits and placed them in the basket.

So-hwa turned to walk again.

She had not expected all the needed herbs to be there, yet realized her thought was wrong. In the Blood Demon's flower garden, even strange mushrooms she had only ever read about in books were abundant. Thanks to that, So-hwa could gather more ingredients than expected.

It did take some time, however.

Before she knew it, the sunlight had begun to carry a red tint.

As she plucked black petals, So-hwa asked Haerak.

"You don't look like you're thinking of returning to the Central Plains. Got free time?"

"Does it look that way?"

"You don't look busy."

Haerak, wandering nearby, let out a hollow laugh.

When the sound of approaching steps was heard, So-hwa spoke again.

"Don't come this way. This flower is used in Bone-Melting Powder. If you smell it, breathing will be difficult for a while."

But the footsteps only came closer.

So-hwa thought it would be better to pluck the flower quickly rather than try to bend the will of the Main Blood Hall Lord.

Before Haerak arrived, she sealed the flower in a pouch and moved away from the spot.

"Why not put that one in the basket?"

"If stored together, the other herbs will spoil."

Haerak nodded.

Before long, the basket was piled full of herbs. So-hwa glanced at it and furrowed her brow. A heap of yellow flowers she had not picked was inside. It was the herb she had once applied to Haerak's face.

"Why this?"

"Since I'm here, I'll steal some."

Haerak spoke confidently.

"It works well."

It was not wrong. The deep gash on his face had cleared.

Being one who cared greatly for appearance, it was only natural that he coveted it.

Since it was not her own garden anyway, even if he stole all the herbs here, it would not matter.

So-hwa turned toward the hall to empty the full basket.

But suddenly her hand was lifted upward. Haerak, who had taken her hand as if he knew what she was thinking, clicked his tongue.

"A physician does not even know when her own body is harmed."

Placing the basket on his head, Haerak began to set yellow flowers upon So-hwa's fingers.

Because she had touched poisonous flowers, the skin on her fingers had peeled away. Yet it was already more than half healed. So-hwa found Haerak's behavior absurd.

"Even without this, it will heal soon."

"That doesn't mean you feel no pain. Just because you recover quickly doesn't mean you do not suffer."

"......"

"Did you not say it was to kill the Blood Demon? I am adding strength to your speed. Endure, and hurry to make that poison or whatever it is to cut off the Blood Demon's breath."

At his playful tone, So-hwa smiled.

It seemed Haerak did not believe she could kill the Blood Demon.

"... Why do you smile?"

So-hwa lifted her head. Lightly, as if jesting, she said,

"Do you know this? My birth mother's name was Jin Su."

"Is that so? Your mother must have been rather sparing with smiles, too."

So-hwa nodded.

"They say she was called that because she did not smile, and even the Blood Demon called my mother Jin Su."

"If your mother's name was Jin Su, why is the daughter So-hwa? The daughter hardly smiles either, yet her name means ‘smiling flower’. Strange."

So-hwa, agreeing with Haerak's words, walked with her lips curved.

"My father gave me the name. My grandfather wished to name me Ju-hwa, but he took a character from my mother's name and named me So-hwa."

"Ah, so the Tang Clan Head gave it?"

Haerak, perhaps feeling sorry, changed the subject without reason.

So-hwa let out a small laugh. A sigh lingered in that laugh.

"It seems even back then, there were more than a few Blood Sect members who infiltrated the Tang Clan. It was quite a gutsy thing to use a name that the Blood Demon had given."

So-hwa turned her gaze to Haerak.

"Was your name also given by the Blood Demon?"

"No."

Haerak replied in a voice with no trace of regret.

"Those who receive a name from the Blood Demon are only those who have received his blood, or those acknowledged as believers. Luckily, I am neither."

"No wonder. Your name has a good meaning."

Haerak gave a hollow laugh.

"When you first heard my name, did you not recoil, saying not to mock you?"

"It was you who spoke it, so I thought it was mockery. But if it was given by another, then surely it has a good meaning. Especially if it was given by family."

Haerak stopped walking.

So-hwa, stopping with him, turned her body toward him.

"If your surname were Min, perhaps it would have been given as the name of a ruler. The meaning is so."

Haerak was silent for a moment.

Adjusting the basket of herbs, he asked,

"What is it you want to say?"

A mild breeze flowed, carrying silence.

So-hwa placed her voice upon that warm wind.

"Do you remember what I once said? When I asked if you were a direct descendant of the Great Desert Solar Palace Lord."

"I remember. It hasn't been that long."

"I apologize for such a foolish question. I did not know that all the bloodlines of the Solar Palace belonging to the Blood Sect were descendants of the Palace Lord."

Expression vanished from Haerak's face.

"Then the one who gave you your name must also have been family."

He did not answer.

So-hwa spoke slowly, hoping it would sound sincere.

"I wish to return the land to the Outer Regions' descendants."

"Haha."

Haerak let out a laugh, as if he had not expected it.

It was the sound of ridiculing an absurd delusion, but So-hwa did not laugh.

At the weight of her seriousness, Haerak furrowed his brow. At that moment, So-hwa spoke again.

"Because of the strange schemes of the Blood Demon—whether frame or whatever—it seems the lineage and martial arts of the Outer Regions descendants have been preserved. I wish to help them reclaim their family once more."

Haerak studied So-hwa's face.

Realizing she was sincere, he let out a hollow laugh.

"Why? To set up a battlefield in Outer Regions so that the Blood Sect can't cross into the Central Plains?"

"Yes."

"You mean to make Outer Regions into a shield for the Central Plains? No, setting that aside—"

Haerak shook his head.

"What wind has blown that our orthodox young lady's confidence has risen so high? Do you truly believe the Blood Demon will die from poison or some such thing?"

"Perhaps the Blood Demon might die very easily."

So-hwa turned her gaze toward the garden as she spoke.

"Rather, the greater problem will come after the Blood Demon is dead."

Unlike the Blood Demon, most of the Blood Sect's members must have bodies capable of cultivating qi.

That must be why, when the Blood Demon destroyed Sichuan, he strained himself to separate her from the Tang Clan. She was likely the only one with a body like his.

The Blood Sect members who could seize another's internal energy and absorb it as their own were the problem.

Members of the Blood Sect have limitless potential for growth.

"Hm, did you hit your head? That old geezer seemed to choke your neck, but why did you come back as if your head were broken?"

But Haerak did not think that far. From the beginning, he did not believe So-hwa could kill the Blood Demon.

Haerak reached for her head, but Sohwa ignored him and spoke seriously.

"Haerak."

"... Haerak? Did you say 'Haerak'? Are you really sick somewhere?"

Regardless of Haerak's shock, So-hwa asked in a calm voice,

"Do you know the Blood Demon has no dantian?"

"What?"

Haerak sneered.

"Don't say such nonsense. That old geezer's dantian must be bigger than his body. Overflowing so much that it should have burst already. Do you know how much internal energy the Blood Demon has devoured?"

"I understand you say that because you've seen the Blood Demon plunder others' internal energy. But, paradoxically, the reason he plunders is also because his body cannot cultivate qi on its own."

So-hwa recalled the Blood Demon's body.

His entire being was filled with countless tiny specks of light, like powder.

It was the stolen internal energy of others. The Blood Demon could not digest it, so he concealed it within his meridians.

Even opening a single meridian to consume it once brought forth tremendous power. If he could refine it all into his own qi, no one could guess what sort of monster he would become.

That body, full of greedy desire, was ironically more beautiful than any martial artist's she had ever seen.

Recalling the dazzling rainbow light, So-hwa spoke again.

"The Blood Demon holds a powder keg within his body. Thanks to his natural recovery, he can forcibly unleash unbalanced internal energy and quickly regain stability, but if the stored internal energy collides all at once, even the Blood Demon will not be able to preserve his life."

Especially when that recovery is gone.

So-hwa understood why the Blood Demon obsessed over the Sorcerer of Time.

He intended to use all his meridians as a dantian, to wield infinite power freely.

When he failed to achieve that goal, turning back time was a matter of survival for him.

The failure he sought to prevent, even by reversing time, was death.

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