NOVEL NEXT WORLD Chapter 105
Chapter 105: A Kiss
The refreshing energy of the Loaded List flowed along the path of energy circulation through my blood vessels, following the Minor Yang Heart Method.
Repeatedly reciting the formula of the Minor Yang Heart Method, I continued the Energy Circulation Method while absorbing all the effects of the Loaded List.
How many times did I circulate my internal energy?
“Phew.”
The effects were fully absorbed.
I opened my eyes with a sigh.
“Gahk!”
Once again, a bloody mass spewed from my mouth.
It was dead blood.
The pain gradually lessened. I felt relieved inside. However, my internal injuries were not completely healed.
‘Is this around the level that emergency treatment is finished?’
I had at least gotten past the dangerous point.
Yet, the deep wounds hiding inside my body remained.
Only after completing the Secret Cave infiltration and receiving proper treatment for over a week would those injuries disappear.
Having assessed my physical condition, I released my meditative posture and stood up.
Next was to clean up this scene.
As a top-tier Warlock, there was no way the Geumhu would believe I had destroyed the magic. But, there was always a possibility.
I needed to manipulate the scene thoroughly and without gaps.
Stumbling over, I saw the headless corpse and the bloodstains of the Blood Zombie under the gleaming Night Pearl.
It wouldn’t make sense if I said I dealt with them all by myself, so I had to create a suitable scenario.
‘The unwanted guests of the Blood Sect perished after falling into traps set in the Geumhu’s Secret Cave. That’ll work. If that happens, the magic will likely be mistaken for the formations set in the Geumhu Secret Cave.’
I expanded my perception. Nearby, I detected a trap mechanism. Carefully, I lifted the headless Blood Sect master’s body and threw it into the trap.
Gurgugugugung!
The ground opened, and sharp spear tips shot up, impaling the corpse.
After throwing all the other bloodstains and body pieces into the trap, I drew on my experience from my time as a Dongchang operative to clean the surroundings meticulously.
Done.
Now, when Geumhu wakes up, he will have no choice but to make judgments according to my crafted scenario.
Lastly, I rinsed my hands and feet in the underground water flowing through the cave walls and gazed at the still-unconscious Geumhu.
Good. With the scene manipulation done, it was time to wake Geumhu for the Secret Cave infiltration…
“Ugh.”
Just as I thought that, my head screamed with a zing and a headache surged.
Soon, an overwhelming sense of weakness and exhaustion enveloped both my body and mind. The backlash from facing the Master of the Boundary of Life and Death began to hit me late.
‘Ah, this isn’t good…’
Swish.
My eyes closed.
My vision flipped upside down.
Before my consciousness cut off, the last sensation I felt was the soft, fluffy chest of Geumhu catching my falling body.
*
“Sangong…! Huh!”
Bling!
Eun Seol-ran’s eyes snapped open.
Finally, her mind returned.
‘What happened…?’
Her memories were a jumbled mess.
She clearly felt the presence of an enemy and entered the enemy’s territory while protecting Sangong. But the memories after that did not come to her properly.
What came to mind was that a malicious darkness was swirling, trying to devour her.
Just before her consciousness was swallowed by the darkness, it froze white and shattered.
And at the center of that…
‘There was Sangong.’
Sangong had been there.
But the way she had seen Sangong then was strangely different from now. Instead of the masculine figure of Sangong, it was a diminutive body resembling a woman, a pale and slender face, and clad in the attire of a eunuch.
However, from such a small frame of Sangong, an overwhelming presence and energy burst forth that even she, a Master of the Illusive Realm, couldn’t help but be astonished.
Following that, the image of a great tree forming into icy snowflakes breaking the darkness surfaced in Eun Seol-ran’s mind.
‘A dream… Is it?’
A vividly realistic scene.
But it had to be a dream. She could think that way, for the next image that floated in her head was of her, naked, wrapped in Sangong’s arms in the Hangshan Sect’s Wol Eun Pavilion.
Sangong reaching out with a smile, as bright as the moonlight shining through the bars, towards her body, round like a giant moon. Sangong with rugged chest muscles and a masculine smile. And then intruding into her…
‘Kyaaa…!’
Eun Seol-ran screamed inwardly as she recalled the dream. Her heart raced. Her face flushed like autumn leaves. Her whole body felt hot.
‘Sangong, if you keep being that intense… I’m going to break!’
Just when Eun Seol-ran was about to laugh and touch her hot cheeks.
She felt a weight on her chest.
Carefully, Eun Seol-ran lifted her head to look at her chest.
There lay Lee Cheol-soo.
He looked tired and was sleeping deeply on her ample chest like a pillow, causing Eun Seol-ran’s cheeks to redden even more.
Thump, thump.
Her heart was racing like crazy.
‘Wh-what should I do? Sangong is using my chest as a pillow… I’m afraid he’ll hear my heartbeat…’
She was scared that her wildly beating heart would be heard by the soundly sleeping Sangong.
But Eun Seol-ran couldn’t bear to separate him from her embrace.
‘Sangong… Is it because my body felt good enough for you to sleep in my arms? Heh. My body already belongs to Sangong.’
The almost fallen Geumhu carefully pulled Lee Cheol-soo closer, affectionately stroking his head.
His clothes were stained with blood.
Wait, blood?
Just as she gently grabbed Lee Cheol-soo’s wrist to check his pulse.
Eun Seol-ran’s face stiffened.
‘Sangong…?’
The pulse check revealed that Lee Cheol-soo had already sustained considerable internal injuries.
Internal injuries, huh.
“How dare…”
How dare someone lay a finger on the man who would be her husband?
It was unacceptable.
Eun Seol-ran naturally restrained the rising energy as it reacted to her thought. Sangong had already suffered considerable internal injuries. If exposed to her energy, it could worsen his condition.
Swish.
Geumhu removed her outer robe and carefully spread it on the cave floor before lying Lee Cheol-soo upon it.
After gently stroking Lee Cheol-soo’s head one last time, Geumhu’s gaze faced forward.
‘A trap… And the Blood Sect goons…’
There were spears and the corpses of the Blood Sect and the remaining zombies.
‘…Was I knocked out the moment I arrived here due to the magical formation?’
Geumhu’s mind pieced together everything she had gathered so far logically.
‘The magical formation set in this passage ensnared all three of us—me, Sangong, and the Blood Sect master… The Blood Sect master perished in that moment alongside the zombies in a trap… And I…’
The image of Sangong, battling against the endless darkness bubble in Geumhu’s mind.
‘…Did Sangong dismantle the magical formation?!’
That was an absolute trap that even a Master of the Illusive Realm had fallen into.
She couldn’t fathom how Sangong had unraveled the formation.
‘…Sangong mentioned he inherited the legacy of the Primordial Sword Technique. The magical formation set in the Secret Cave must be at least as complex as the one set in Geumhu’s Secret Cave, installed directly by the Master of the Boundary of Life and Death… Sangong must have broken through that difficult magical formation in the same way…’
But she could speculate.
Sangong was indeed the successor of the Master of the Boundary of Life and Death. And the same magical formation was set up in Geumhu’s secret cave. Therefore, he was likely able to unravel it first before continuing on.
‘If that’s the case, then that vision wasn’t a dream…’
The boundless darkness encompassing the world, the scene of Sangong fighting against the destructive thunder truly happened?
No, it was different; it couldn’t be just that. The figure she saw differed from reality.
Sangong in eunuch attire with a diminutive body.
Sangong wasn’t weak. She had seen his sturdy muscles and masculine form with her own eyes.
Of course, whatever Sangong was, Geumhu could love him.
‘…I don’t know. But that’s not important right now.’
Geumhu stood up and carefully lifted Sangong.
‘I need to reach the end of the Secret Cave.’
The magical formation from which she escaped due to Sangong’s sacrifice existed.
The enemies had destroyed themselves; all that remains was to find the inheritance of the previous Geumhu.
‘…To carry on the legacy of the previous Geumhu… to continue the unfulfilled destiny of our ancestors with Sangong…’
Just like the ancestors before her, Geumhu had to fulfill the unfulfilled love of the Master of the Primordial Sword Technique and the previous Geumhu through her bond with Sangong.
Thump.
With a pounding heart, Geumhu carried Lee Cheol-soo on her back and headed deeper into the Secret Cave.
*
The remaining distance wasn’t far. There were traps here and there, but they weren’t a level that could threaten a Master of the Illusive Realm like Geumhu.
And then she faced the final barrier.
As Geumhu swung the sparkling Moonlight Sword at the stone wall marked with the pattern of the Moon Maiden Sword,
Grrggggggggggg!
With a thunderous sound, the stone wall opened.
And beyond the wall, finally, the current Geumhu Eun Seol-ran came face to face with the legacy of the previous Geumhu, Baek Chusul.
A wide stone chamber brightly illuminated by the Night Pearl embedded in the ceiling.
There lay the corpse of the previous Geumhu, entombed in a sarcophagus, and beside it stood a sword like a gravestone.
“The Heart of the Divine Sword…”
Geumhu murmur softly.
The snow-white blade exuded a holy aura of Demon-Subduing energy, impressively resembling the Moonlight Sword she held.
It was the legendary sword known to have been lost long ago, the Heart of the Divine Sword.
That wasn’t all.
“One Character Sutra, Buddha’s Light Sword Method, Demon-Subduing Wisdom Sword, Sumeru Avalokiteshvara Steps…”
The secret texts of the Demon-Subduing Techniques that had been passed down through Buddhism, lingering intact after the Blood Zombie Demon had burned the old Sword Pavilion.
Geumhu quietly opened an old letter laid upon the altar.
[I, Baek Chusul, am the Twenty-First Geumhu.]
There, everything that Baek Chusul experienced while roaming the world after the grand battle at Payang Lake was written out.
How she went to Hae-nam-do to retrieve the Heart of the Divine Sword, how she gathered information while wandering the world to find the hidden chamber left by the former masters of the Sword Pavilion, and the fights against the remaining Blood Sect hunters.
It was all written there.
[If I have a final wish… please, I wish to see the figure of the Mugeukja from a distance once more…]
And Baek Chusul’s deep yearning for the Master of the Primordial Sword Technique was also written in the letter.
‘The ancestor was unable to fulfill her love…’
Reading that confession of longing brought tears to Geumhu’s eyes.
The love of the previous Geumhu had ultimately gone unfulfilled.
But she would be different.
‘Yes. Indeed, Sangong and I are the inheritors of an ancient bond… Sangong and I were meant to be.’
Geumhu bit her lip.
‘I will fulfill the unfulfilled love of the ancestor. Together with Sangong, the heir of the Master of the Primordial Sword Technique…’
With that resolve, Geumhu continued reading the letter.
Wounded by the Blood Sect’s remnants and returning to Hangshan in a critical state, Baek Chusul discovered the cave, building the hidden chamber without the Blood Sect’s knowledge, before writing her will and leaving her legacy behind, then she peacefully passed away.
[Oh dear! The fact that you see this letter means you are the descendant of the Sword Pavilion, who has mastered the Moon Maiden Sword and an apprentice of the Hangshan Sect. Please, collect the secret arts and divine weapons I laid aside and one day, return once again to the Putuo Mountain Sword Pavilion.]
[Please cremate my remains.]
[Be cautious of the Blood Sect. Their reason for targeting you is because of how our Demon-Subduing energy interacts lethally with their Magic Arts. If they discover that the Demon-Subduing Techniques have returned, they may target our sect once again.]
[The evil aura of the Recurring Darkness will one day rise again in the sky, so don’t let your guard down just because they have disappeared.]
[Then, I leave the future to you. Dear one.]
Having finished reading the last portion, Geumhu carefully folded the letter and placed it in her bosom.
She then took off her outer robe and laid it gently on the floor, carefully placing Lee Cheol-soo back down before bowing three times toward the sarcophagus containing the remains of the previous Geumhu.
‘Rest in peace, ancestor. I will carry on your legacy, your bonds, and your love.’
It was finally the moment when the sect’s wish was fulfilled.
Geumhu stood up, feeling an indescribable, mysterious feeling wash over her.
In her line of sight was a stone table.
There was a bottle on it. Geumhu opened the lid cautiously.
As she did, a refreshing fragrance brushed against her nostrils. She felt a tingling energy on her skin.
“This is… the Supreme Spirit Elixir?”
Indeed.
The milky white liquid contained within the bottle was the legendary elixir said to be concentrated from the energies of the heavens and the earth over a thousand years in water.
A precious elixir capable of granting ten years’ worth of internal power in a single drop.
With the amount filled to the brim, this small bottle could easily grant a month’s worth of energy.
This tiny bottle was worth more than gold.
Geumhu’s gaze drifted toward the unconscious Lee Cheol-soo.
‘Sangong…’
His internal injuries were quite severe. He needed treatment. And before her eyes lay the peerless elixir.
There was no time to hesitate.
Geumhu picked up the Supreme Spirit Elixir and moved toward where the unconscious Sangong lay.
He was already in a faint state.
He wouldn’t be able to drink the Supreme Spirit Elixir by himself.
So…
She would have to feed him.
Of course, there was a careful way to pour it into his mouth, but that wouldn’t allow for the full absorption of the elixir’s effects. It would inevitably spill. After all, one drop guaranteed ten years’ worth of internal energy. None could be wasted.
The most effective way for someone unconscious to absorb the effects of the Supreme Spirit Elixir…
Would be…
‘A… kiss?!’
That’s right.
The best way was for her to hold the elixir in her mouth and kiss him to give it to him. Geumhu’s face flushed red. Her heart raced.
She had imagined countless kisses with Sangong in her dreams. And even more intense acts had occurred in her dreams.
But this wasn’t a dream; this was reality.
This was clearly a world where men and women had boundaries.
Plus, even now, Sangong’s official status was merely that of a challenger. They weren’t a couple yet, nor were they married.
So this act shouldn’t happen.
But in reality… kissing… just picturing it made Geumhu’s face flush with a sunset hue.
‘Th-this… It’s to save Sangong, so it can’t be helped… there’s no one around to see…’
Geumhu rationalized her feelings.
That’s right.
This wasn’t a lewd act; it was merely a medical intervention. Therefore, it was fine. Sangong’s internal injuries were critical.
To avoid wasting the Supreme Spirit Elixir, she had no choice. So it was alright.
With that thought, Geumhu convinced herself it wasn’t selfish.
She held the elixir in her mouth.
Soon, her soft lips enveloped Lee Cheol-soo’s lips.
‘I’ll make sure he swallows properly…’
Having already kissed, there was nothing more to be afraid of.
Chuup. Chuuu. Chuuwup.
In the quiet stone chamber.
The sticky sound of their lips mingling echoed all around as she continued her tender act of feeding Lee Cheol-soo the elixir, making sure not a single drop of the precious liquid was wasted.
It continued.
This was all happening while Lee Cheol-soo remained unconscious.