Mistaken for a Fairy
ch18

[I Can't Help but Worry]

What is the most fundamental difference between the Righteous path(Baekdo) and the Heretical Path(Heukdo)?

The Heretical Path prioritizes self-preservation above all else. That's why they gather every possible ally when cornered. To put it nicely, they use any means necessary; to put it harshly, they are cowards.

On the other hand, the Righteous path values honor more than life. They consider joint attacks or rotations shameful, and even asking for help is seen as disgraceful. Many sects have fallen to ruin trying to uphold this honor. To put it nicely, they possess a noble spirit; to put it harshly, they don't know their place.

Of course, Shaolin was different. As soon as the Abbot went into Seclusion, Shaolin's first action was to ask the Martial Alliance for help.

This was the reason why Martial Alliance members were dispatched to Henan.

Sending too many members might seem like looking down on Shaolin, and sending too few might be seen as a lack of sincerity. Therefore, the Martial Alliance sent an entire team.

The Baekdo was such an ignorant and frustrating group.

And Jangsan was the leader of a team within that ignorant and frustrating group.

Although the number of ten might seem small, the Martial Alliance members dispatched to the field were seasoned experts who had weathered the storms of the Martial World for years. They were skilled enough to shut down a small gang in a single day, so their capabilities were considerable.

Even if the world is at peace and the imperial court's power soars, how could there be no Heukdo?

The Martial Alliance Lord once said that the Heukdo is like weeds, spontaneously appearing out of nowhere over time. Therefore, the Martial Alliance members spent their days wandering the Martial World, pulling up the seeds of the Heukdo.

Usually, they crossed swords with the Heukdo, sometimes they fought with people belonging to the Evil Alliance, and very rarely, they engaged in bloody battles with the Demonic Beings of the Demonic Cult.

The team led by Jangsan had just finished a fight with the Evil Alliance and rushed to Henan upon receiving orders.

Tired and weary, but what could they do? This was the fate of a Martial Alliance member.

Jangsan originally intended to head straight to the Shaolin Temple upon arriving in Henan, but he encountered an unexpected problem and was unable to move for an entire day.

It started when one of his team members triggered the Myriad Image Severing Formation while crossing Mount Taishi.

The Myriad Image Severing Formation was confined to the foothills of Mount Taishi, so they could have easily reached the Shaolin Temple by detouring around it.

But Jangsan couldn't do that. He hadn't been informed that such a formation was set up near Shaolin.

What if a group of unorthodox martial artists were hiding inside the formation, preparing to run rampant?

He had to see it through to the end here.

He didn't believe that those inside the formation belonged to the Righteous Sects. If they did, Shaolin would have informed him in advance.

So, while he had a team member with some knowledge of formations trying to figure out how to break it, a woman, presumably a master, brazenly entered the formation. And she was accompanied by three porters and a child.

"...What the hell is this?"

It was understandable that such a frustrated remark came from his team member.

She was the only woman in the Martial Alliance's Seventh Team, and she had confidently stepped forward, saying she would show the true colors of the Zhuge family as soon as she saw the formation. After struggling with the formation all day, a woman passed through it as if mocking her, so it was understandable that her emotions exploded.

"Team Leader. I've brought the youngest."

"Any injuries?"

"He's fine."

The youngest, who had followed Seo-yeon into the Myriad Image Severing Formation, looked exhausted. He had run all the way from the other side of the formation to this place.

"Could it be that Shaolin asked for help because of this?"

Jangsan shook his head at the words of one of his team members.

"If that were the case, they would have told us in advance."

"You never know. Maybe Demonic Cult bastards are holed up inside."

Jangsan shook his head again.

"Did anyone properly sense the presence of the woman who passed by just now?"

"...I didn't sense anything."

"Me neither."

"As far as I know, the only woman in the Demonic Cult with that kind of skill is the Barehanded Demoness."

What did that mean?

If those inside were from the Demonic Cult, then that woman must have been the Barehanded Demoness, and if it was the Barehanded Demoness, she wouldn't have left them alone. The Martial Alliance's Seventh Team would have all died in the mountains without even leaving a corpse.

"Then who the hell is she?"

"How would I know?"

"..."

"I don't know anything else, but I know she's related to the one who created the formation. She doesn't seem to have a twisted personality either. But since she deliberately created a formation next to Shaolin, I can't shake off the unease."

Until he was dispatched to Henan, Jangsan had been planning to help maintain public order and stability and get some rest. Jangsan sighed inwardly and selected three team members.

"You guys go to Shaolin Temple right now and ask what's going on."

"Should we buy dinner on the way back?"

"Did you come here to play?"

"..."

"Buy it. With meat dishes."

"Yes."

Jangsan watched his subordinates disappear, then leaned back against the bonfire. Being trapped in the mountains all day without any preparation was already making him sick of it.

"But Team Leader."

"What?"

"Do you think the inn will be open at this hour? I hope they don't wait until morning to buy us food."

Jangsan sighed slightly. It seemed likely that they would.

The Baekdo lacked flexibility, and the Martial Alliance members were particularly inflexible among the Baekdo.

"Damn it."

Jangsan even felt like he was about to develop a Heart Demon.

Perhaps that's why he didn't notice the silver owl watching them like a shadow from the tree branch above.

Hwa-ryeon asked Seo-yeon with concern.

"What are those people doing there?"

In Hwa-ryeon's opinion, the martial artists they had just met were not ordinary people. They might not have been able to break the formation, but such skilled people wouldn't belong to just any group. If they went up the chain of command, it wouldn't be strange for a master capable of breaking the formation to appear.

"It'll be alright, so you don't have to worry too much."

Hwa-ryeon nodded at Seo-yeon's calm words.

"Yes."

If they had something to hide, they wouldn't have let them go so easily, and they would have already put on masks. Seo-yeon said that because she knew that fact.

Of course, she couldn't completely rule out the possibility of something happening, so she planned to stay up all night. But she had no intention of explaining even this to the young Hwa-ryeon.

Children need to sleep to grow. Worrying is for adults.

At that moment, one of the porters from the Ilwol Merchant Troupe cautiously asked.

"Um, where should we put these?"

"Ah, those go this way."

Seo-yeon realized that she had completely forgotten about the porters. She led the porters to the workshop and storage room. The porters skillfully organized the clay lumps, which were as big as their torsos, and then turned around.

Since it wouldn't be polite to just watch, Seo-yeon brought out a basin of cool water and shared it with them.

"Don't you carry weapons separately?"

One of the porters shook his head and replied.

"We usually don't carry them when traveling such a short distance. It often leads to unnecessary misunderstandings and bloodshed."

Martial artists would start fights just because they were carrying a sword.

"Then what will you do when you go back?"

"We were planning to go back the way we came."

Seo-yeon received the emptied basin in the blink of an eye. Perhaps sensing the worried look on Seo-yeon's face, the man added.

"What can we do? If we take a different route and get caught and interrogated, it will only complicate things further."

The atmosphere instantly turned cold. Seo-yeon could clearly imagine what would happen next, so she couldn't bring herself to ask any further.

If she were to ask, "Are you really alright?" the man would surely answer, "What can we do? We have no power."

The man, who had experienced countless instances of such subjugation, seemed to have lost even the strength to be angry at the injustice. He looked as helpless as someone who had resigned himself to everything, and he seemed to accept it as a natural order.

And the man would add with a nonchalant expression.

"That's why I'm going to send my son to a well-known sect as a lay disciple later. That way, he won't have to go through what I'm going through when he grows up."

Then Seo-yeon would say, "It's alright, stay the night."

But the men would refuse even this. If they didn't return to the merchant troupe by dawn, they would lose their jobs, and even their humble wish for their children to live a better life would be shattered.

These burly men were nothing more than powerless commoners in the ruthless Martial World. Even if they suffered unfair treatment, they had no one to turn to, and the wealth they had earned through hard work was often snatched away by the strong.

Would they really send their children to a sect to make them successful? Just because they didn't carry a sword didn't mean they couldn't be struck by one. In the end, the only way to survive in the Martial World was to become strong.

Seo-yeon stared at the men in heavy silence for a long time. Then she slowly opened her mouth.

"What are your names?"

The men blinked at the sudden question and then spoke in turn.

"I am Odu, that one is Machil, and the one on the right is Yusam."

Seo-yeon took out some fruit she had bought from the market and handed it to the men.

"I am Seo-yeon."

The men accepted the fruit with awkward expressions. They had been working as porters for decades, but such kindness seemed very unfamiliar to them.

Soon, they descended the mountain one after another.

"Master. Sleep peacefully. I will go to my chambers first."

After the porters from the Ilwol Merchant Troupe left, Hwa-ryeon went straight to bed. Seo-yeon had said that everything would be alright, so everything would be alright. She had been told to sleep, so she would just sleep.

How easy.

Hwa-ryeon closed her eyes and fell into thought.

'Tomorrow, I should practice swordsmanship all day.'

Strictly speaking, it was sculpture, but Hwa-ryeon had never really considered it sculpture. Even she, who was practically a novice at swordsmanship, couldn't help but be amazed by the Sword Intent contained within it, so how could she consider it sculpture?

Perhaps because she had some talent, she had been able to easily cut off the branches for a month. Now she knew how to control her strength.

Seo-yeon, watching Hwa-ryeon fidgeting with her fingers, quietly said.

"Go to sleep quickly."

"Yes."

As Seo-yeon stepped out of the house and took a few steps, Baek-ho jumped out of the darkness as if he had been waiting. Baek-ho yawned loudly, purred at Seo-yeon's touch, and then sat down obediently on all fours.

Seo-yeon gazed in the direction the porters had descended.

'I can't help but be concerned.'

They were the ones who had followed her on the night road. If something happened, she would have to bite their necks and save them.

Seo-yeon climbed onto Baek-ho's broad back, stroked his white fur, and whispered.

"Let's go for a night walk for the first time in a while."