Chapter 39
Late at night.
Neung So-so stopped by the stable.
When she stroked the horse’s head and gently caressed its mane, the creature snorted as if pleased.
‘Somehow I feel like your feelings are being conveyed to me.’
It wasn’t just her imagination.
In fact, she had recently become much more sensitive to understanding the horses’ conditions.
Which days they felt good, which days they weren’t feeling well.
And when they would get tired.
When she stroked their manes like this while looking into their eyes, it felt almost like having a conversation.
Neung So-so distributed hay to all ten horses before leaving the stable.
The night air brushing against her cheeks was still cold.
She closed her eyes tightly and began walking.
The wind slipping between her fingers felt different from before.
It was as if thin threads were gently wrapping around her fingers and softly brushing past.
Could this be the feeling of touching the shape of air itself?
Cold air like this had its own characteristics.
It seemed somehow sharp and sensitive in nature.
Touching the wind and attributing personality to it.
Neung So-so chuckled to herself.
Was she treating the wind like a person?
Then again, the expression “touching the wind” was ridiculous too.
But she really was caressing the wind.
As if it were a precious living being.
And when she felt the wind’s nature change slightly again.
“Huh?”
Neung So-so opened her eyes.
‘Something about the air changed.’
This wasn’t her imagination either.
This was close to certainty.
The wind that had been gently wrapping around each finger had become disturbed for just a moment.
When the air behind her approached with a different feeling, Neung So-so spun around.
Seeing the shadow blocking her path, she reflexively stepped back and screamed.
“Kyaah!”
“Oh my!”
The other person also cried out in surprise.
Neung So-so blinked her large eyes as she looked at the other person.
“In, Instructor?”
“Whew, why did you scream like that? You startled me more.”
“Ah, s-sorry! You were suddenly standing behind me….”
“Wait, wait.”
“Yes?”
“I have something to… ask you.”
Mae Seol-lan’s face turned slightly red as she looked away and spoke.
Neung So-so tilted her head.
“Me? What is it?”
“Umm. F-first, follow me.”
“Ah!”
Mae Seol-lan grabbed Neung So-so’s wrist and strode forward.
‘But did this child sense my presence just now?’
Mae Seol-lan thought for a moment as she walked, but soon shook her head.
‘That’s impossible.’
She hadn’t deliberately approached stealthily, but she had habitually erased her presence.
But there was no way Neung So-so, who was just an ordinary student, could have noticed her, right?
Turning around must have been coincidence.
***
“What?”
Neung So-so’s eyes widened in confusion.
Since it was quite late at night, only the two of them were on the first floor of the inn they were using as lodging.
Mae Seol-lan frowned prettily and asked.
“What do you think of Instructor Sa Bigang?”
“W-well… I think he’s a good person….”
Neung So-so replied with her face turning slightly red.
Mae Seol-lan brought her face close to hers.
As the distance suddenly narrowed, Neung So-so panicked and fumbled.
“Why, why are you doing this? Instructor?”
Even so, she couldn’t help but admire Mae Seol-lan’s beauty inwardly.
‘She’s even more beautiful up close. She’s pretty enough to make even another woman fall for her.’
Mae Seol-lan narrowed her eyes and asked.
“Do you… like Instructor Sa? No, do you love him?”
“What?”
Neung So-so’s voice involuntarily rose.
Mae Seol-lan quickly put her index finger to her lips to caution her.
“Shh. Your voice is too loud.”
“Ah, s-sorry! But what do you mean…?”
“Exactly what I said. Are you in love with Instructor Sa Bigang?”
“T-that’s impossible. That’s absolutely not the case! How could I…?”
Neung So-so quickly waved her hands in denial.
“Hmm. It’s okay with me. I’ll understand even if you tell me the truth.”
“No, it’s not. Really. I do like the Instructor, but… ah, of course I mean I like him as an instructor. But I don’t love him.”
Neung So-so’s face turned red every time she mentioned the word “love.”
Mae Seol-lan watched her quietly, then asked again.
“I’m really okay with it, so answer honestly.”
“It’s really true, Instructor.”
“Hmm, then it was just a one-night fling.”
“What? What do you…?”
“Well, that’s possible too. I thought you were the pure type, but you’re more cunning than I thought.”
“I don’t understand what you’re saying….”
“Fine. I’ll pretend I don’t know either, so tell me what method you used instead.”
“What? What method?”
“Stop acting and tell me. From what I can see, you have excellent qualities for me to take as a disciple.”
Of course, that was an excuse.
Mae Seol-lan was simply curious about what strategy Neung So-so had used to knock down the stone-like Sa Bigang and spend a passionate night with him.
Her going this far was also proof of how desperate she had become.
“Instructor. I really don’t understand what you’re talking about. I must be stupid.”
“Are you going to keep this up? Do you think I don’t know what you and Instructor Sa Bigang do in your room every night?”
“Ah, you mean the energy circulation?”
“What?”
“You’re talking about Instructor Sa Bigang teaching me cultivation methods, right?”
“Cultivation methods… you say?”
“Yes. Isn’t that what you’re referring to? But it’s difficult for me to explain specifically what method….”
“W-wait. So you’re saying you’ve been doing energy circulation with Instructor Sa every night?”
“Yes. Instructor Sa Bigang helped me a lot.”
“That can’t be….”
“What?”
Neung So-so tilted her head, but Mae Seol-lan sat there with a deflated expression, staring blankly.
Only then did the conversation between the two that had been embellished in her mind begin to return to its proper place.
‘That was energy circulation? Sa Bigang, just what kind of man is he?’
Mae Seol-lan picked up the teacup in front of her and gulped it down.
***
“Damn it, I never thought Instructor Mae Seol-lan would suddenly appear.”
Gok Bo-ok grumbled.
When they were about to kidnap Neung So-so coming out of the stable, Mae Seol-lan had suddenly appeared.
Mae Seol-lan and Neung So-so were still having a conversation on the first floor.
“It looks like we’ll have to try again tomorrow.”
Gok Bo-ok clenched his fist as he spoke.
Then.
“Wouldn’t that be too dangerous an idea?”
A voice as beautiful as a bird’s chirping flowed into the room.
When Yeon U-gyeong and the other students quickly turned to look, Mok Dan-hwa, who had beauty like a flower, was walking toward them gracefully.
Min Yu-hyang and Baek Mi-ryeong were behind her too.
Though Mok Dan-hwa spoke down to everyone, she couldn’t easily be informal with Yeon U-gyeong and his close associates.
Yeon U-gyeong smiled broadly as he looked at her.
“Then does Young Lady Mok have another method? From what I know, Young Lady Mok doesn’t have very good feelings toward Instructor Sa Bigang either.”
“Of course, there’s no way I could have good feelings toward such an incompetent instructor.”
“Hehehe. So do you have a plan?”
“Kidnapping. Right now, kidnapping is the only good method.”
Gok Bo-ok frowned and asked.
“Kidnapping? Didn’t you just say kidnapping wouldn’t work?”
“We’re not doing the kidnapping, we’re being kidnapped.”
“What do you mean?”
“We’ll be kidnapped by the Black Blade Twin Demons.”
Mok Dan-hwa pointed to herself as well as Min Yu-hyang and Baek Mi-ryeong.
At this unexpected statement, Gok Bo-ok’s mouth fell open and he looked at Yeon U-gyeong.
Yeon U-gyeong thought for a moment, then answered.
“Indeed, it’s not a bad method. But wouldn’t it be too dangerous? If we deliberately try to get kidnapped and a really troublesome situation arises….”
“Of course, we have no intention of actually being kidnapped.”
“Then?”
“We go to an area where the Black Blade Twin Demons frequently appear, then we disappear on our own. What kind of rumors would spread then?”
“Naturally, rumors that we were kidnapped by the Black Blade Twin Demons.”
“That’s right. The Black Blade Twin Demons wouldn’t help but drool over us, would they?”
“Indeed. Completing that rumor would be our job.”
Yeon U-gyeong grinned.
“As expected, Young Lady Mok’s deep thinking is impossible to follow.”
“You flatter me.”
She who had been smiling in response hesitated for a moment.
‘Just now… was there a presence outside the door?’
Mok Dan-hwa quickly opened the door to check the empty corridor, then turned back.
‘Was it my imagination?’
“What’s wrong?”
At Yeon U-gyeong’s question, Mok Dan-hwa replied lightly.
“It’s nothing. I was mistaken for a moment.”
***
Sa Bigang, who returned late at night, left the lodging early the next morning.
‘Where on earth is he going?’
Mae Seol-lan, who was tailing Sa Bigang, frowned prettily and watched Sa Bigang walking in the distance.
From the lack of hesitation in his steps, it seemed he had a clear destination.
By the way, energy circulation.
Did he call Neung So-so every night to help with her energy circulation?
Recalling the conversation she had with Neung So-so last night made her face flush for no reason.
Hadn’t she almost made a fool of herself in front of a student?
‘Hmph, but as an instructor, he was helping students improve their martial arts?’
What a strange man the more she learned about him.
Sometimes he seemed irresponsibly reckless to an extreme degree, but at other times he showed thoughtfulness she never expected.
‘Does this make it more likely that he’s really impotent?’
Mae Seol-lan shook off the complicated thoughts in her head and steadily followed behind.
But Sa Bigang’s pace gradually increased.
‘What? Why is he so fast?’
She gradually became out of breath.
Later, she was gritting her teeth as she chased after Sa Bigang.
But as time passed, the distance between them widened further.
‘Into the mountains?’
What business could he have up in the mountains?
‘I might lose him if I’m not careful!’
Now she was pouring all her internal energy into lightness technique as she pursued him.
Just then, Sa Bigang turned around a corner of a sheer cliff.
‘No!’
If the distance widened any further, she would lose him.
Whoosh!
She flew like a bird and turned around the cliff corner.
But….
‘I lost him!’
Sa Bigang was nowhere to be seen.
She quickly flew up to a tall tree and surveyed the area.
It was the same.
“Tsk! Where did he go?”
Though the distance had widened quite a bit, she never expected him to disappear so completely.
Even when she spread her energy sense, she couldn’t feel anything.
If he had used a lightness technique of that level, it should naturally be detectable.
It was truly mind-boggling.
Now that she really felt she had lost Sa Bigang, anger surged up.
The moment she unconsciously kicked a pebble on the ground.
“Huh?”
Her eyes widened.
‘What was that just now?’
The pebble that flew through the air seemed to hit the cliff wall, then disappeared as if by magic.
Blinking her large eyes, she quickly picked up another pebble and threw it at the cliff wall.
Swoosh.
As if the cliff wall was swallowing the pebble, this time too it disappeared completely before her eyes.
‘Could it be…?’
Surprised, she quickly approached the cliff wall and reached out her hand.
It was hard.
Definitely a wall.
She stepped back again and threw a pebble.
Swoosh.
Without any friction sound, the pebble disappeared straight into the cliff wall.
‘What kind of sorcery is this?’
Mae Seol-lan closed both eyes completely and reached out her hand.
Since she couldn’t trust what her eyes saw, she decided not to look at all.
Swoosh.
Surprisingly, her hand encountered nothing.
However, she did feel a strange, soft sensation different from ordinary air.
As if passing through a thin membrane.
Startled, she opened her eyes to find her hand feeling around the cliff wall as if nothing had happened.
Was this some kind of mechanical formation?
But she had never heard of this type of mechanical formation.
‘Alright, then!’
Mae Seol-lan took a deep breath and squeezed her eyes shut.
Then she slowly stepped forward.
Squishy.
A strange sensation swept over her entire body.
Finally, as she slowly opened her eyes, she couldn’t help but gasp.
“Huh!”
