Mistaken for a Fairy
ch7

[To Henan (2)]

Wi Hwa-ryeon hastened her steps.

Due to the closed-off nature of the Mount Mao Sect, she hadn't spent much time roaming the Martial World, but she was, in name and reality, the Great Maiden of a prominent sect.

She knew the treacherousness and cruelty of the Martial World better than anyone.

'There are definitely others besides us after the Spiritual Creature.'

Hao Gate.

Merchants who would sell even rotten corpses if silver changed hands. What were the chances they only passed the information to the Mount Mao Sect?

'A dog doesn't stop eating shit.'

It was something the orthodox Mount Mao Sect couldn't even imagine—

But the Martial World was inherently a place where betrayal and infighting ran rampant. Even those who shouted for justice hid knives in their backs, so lamenting after being bitten would only get you treated like a fool.

However, Wi Hwa-ryeon wasn't too worried. She was confident that, whatever else, her tracking skills were second to none in the world.

The scent left by a soul doesn't easily disappear, even in a fierce typhoon.

If you just follow the lingering traces of that scent, the target is bound to reveal itself, no matter where it hides.

This was the secret among secrets, passed down only to the legitimate successor of the Mount Mao Sect.

'Even the most famous great sects in the world wouldn't be able to keep up.'

Most of the clumsy fools would be vainly chasing the shadow of a non-existent Spiritual Creature on the outer edges of the mountain range controlled by the Namgung Clan.

Only a very few would vaguely realize that the Spiritual Creature had already vanished, but by then, everything would already be decided.

Wi Hwa-ryeon constantly crossed between rooftops using Light Body Technique.

She leaped silently between buildings while using Light Body Technique, and because she concealed her presence with Hidden Shadow Art, no one noticed her.

Wi Hwa-ryeon soon arrived at the edge of the mountain range where the Spiritual Creature was said to have been discovered. There was only a sparsely grassy path, and because the sun had set, there were few people.

Wi Hwa-ryeon soon caught a faint scent floating in the air.

'It's close.'

The lingering scent of a soul. Left by the Spiritual Creature.

Getting any closer would risk being detected.

To use the Ghostly Wail Soul-Snatching Incantation to capture the Spiritual Creature alive, all of her subordinates needed to be fully conscious. Two of her subordinates who had been using Soul Separation Art had just regained their senses, so she needed to wait a little longer.

"There's a chance we might attract attention, so you guys go and set up a concealment Formation Style around the area—"

Wi Hwa-ryeon was about to say that, but suddenly tilted her slender chin to the side. She felt a subtle sensation of the air being cut.

"……?"

The moment her gaze sliced through the empty air. The neck of a subordinate who hadn't recovered consciousness due to the effects of Soul Separation Art was cleanly severed.

Thud—

Before the severed head could even hit the ground, the heart of the second subordinate was pierced.

Thwack!

A trail of blood drew an arc in the air. A crease formed on Wi Hwa-ryeon's brow for a moment.

She had been paying attention the whole time, but they had still been caught from behind. This meant the opponent's Hidden Shadow Art far surpassed theirs.

"I thought those Hao Gate bastards had tricked this Old Ghost, since you suddenly headed to Henan without even properly searching Anhui Province."

A crooked, black figure slithered out of the darkness.

A face burned black, wrinkles like age spots plastered all over, an ominous aura rising like mist.

"You've worked hard guiding this Old Ghost for the past fifteen days. Now, die!"

The old man's lips curved up strangely.

"Who are you?"

"Looks like you're just an ignorant child. I wonder if you've heard of Geuk Hon-ja."

He was a rogue expert who had made a name for himself as an assassin with the ability to pierce souls in a flash.

Geuk Hon-ja flicked the blood off his sword and slowly examined Wi Hwa-ryeon. She must have been raised preciously, since she was still so stiff even after seeing her subordinates die.

Now that he looked at her, her appearance was quite exquisite. If he crippled her inner energy and severed her limbs, she would be quite entertaining in his later years.

'First, I need to clean up the surroundings.'

The guys he had just cut down were strangely slow to react. He had deliberately revealed his presence to enjoy the thrill of the hunt, but those so-called bodyguards just stood there dumbfounded, as if they were drugged.

Their level was obvious.

That's why he had readily revealed himself.

He was about to draw his sword, thinking that, when an icy voice like frost shattered the darkness.

"……You dare, not knowing your place."

It was Wi Hwa-ryeon.

With two subordinates dead, the Ghostly Wail Soul-Snatching Incantation was out of the question. That old assassin had ruined her plans.

'I'll kill him.'

She immediately took out a talisman from her pocket. The intricately intertwined characters writhed as if alive, and a stream of killing intent leaked from the gaps in the talisman.

'Evil Spirit Soul Return Grand Art.'

Originally, it was a technique that could only be cast with the support of precious sacrifices, a complex Formation Style, and the manipulation of vital energy over a long period of time—

But with two corpses of sorcerers who had been wrongfully murdered without their souls returning to their bodies, it was entirely possible.

It was a technique that most talents couldn't even dream of realizing, but Wi Hwa-ryeon was capable of it.

Swish—!

A red aura flashed and flew from her palm towards the corpses.

The characters on the talisman blazed like blood vessels, the ground vibrated as if collapsing, and soon the two corpses convulsed.

"Hmm……?!"

Geuk Hon-ja's eyes widened.

Corpses that should have been dead were moving.

Kuaaaaaa!

Soon, with a chilling, bizarre scream, the corpses transformed into grotesque forms and charged towards Geuk Hon-ja. Their fingernails were grotesquely elongated, and their shoulders and thighs were distorted like beasts.

"Wh, what!"

Geuk Hon-ja retreated in horror. The stench of rotting corpses filled the air. At first, he thought it was a mind-confusing sorcery, but he realized it when he pierced the skin of the attacking corpse with his sword.

If it were sorcery, it should have disappeared like an illusion, but the corpses were still lunging like mad dogs, wielding sharp claws and teeth.

"Kuk!"

Geuk Hon-ja threw himself backward and shouted. The experience of the Martial World, engraved like scales, led him to one guess.

"You! What is your relationship with the Corpse Blood Grand Master of the Demonic Sect!"

But Wi Hwa-ryeon was silently preparing another technique.

She was furious in her own way.

'How dare he, comparing that evil bastard to our sect.'

Corpse Blood Grand Master. A name that made her blood boil just hearing it. An Old Ghost who had been building a bad relationship with the Mount Mao Sect for over a hundred years, and a vile villain who arbitrarily bound hundreds of vengeful spirits and controlled them as he pleased.

To lump the techniques of this sect with such a person was an insult.

The Evil Spirit Soul Return Grand Art might look like sorcery on the surface, but in reality, it was a method of salvation that gave the dead one last chance to resolve their grievances in this world.

Although the method of resolving grudges was somewhat violent, it was fundamentally different from the evil villains of the Demonic Sect.

"Th…! Those damned Demonic Sect bastards……!"

Chwaaaaaak!

Geuk Hon-ja's sword strikes poured out in all directions. It was a terrifying sword strike. It easily shattered and cut apart the bodies of the corpses, hardened with resentment.

But Geuk Hon-ja's face didn't brighten. Rather, it held even deeper bewilderment than before.

Pu-hwak!

The limbs that had just been cut off grew back as they were. The sorcerers behind Wi Hwa-ryeon were spreading Restoration Talismans, restoring the corpses' bodies in real time.

Geuk Hon-ja's gaze darted wildly from side to side. His vision was distorted, his limbs felt as heavy as lead, and even his inner energy began to twist abnormally.

'It's that bitch's doing!'

The Demonic Sect lackey glaring at him with murderous eyes.

He couldn't escape. From some point on, the space itself had begun to twist strangely. The boundary between what was real and what was an illusion was blurred.

It wasn't an ordinary Formation Style.

If he had time to examine it, he might be able to find an escape route, but even that was impossible because of the corpses attacking him like they wanted to kill him.

Geuk Hon-ja felt death closing in from all sides.

'I can't go alone, even if I have to be resentful.'

He had to take that damned bitch's head with him.

Geuk Hon-ja gripped his sword again. The corpses' fingernails brushed past his shoulder, but he didn't even flinch.

Uuung—

Soul Extinction Form.

The ultimate technique that had elevated him to the ranks of experts. It required a massive amount of inner energy, so he wouldn't be able to handle the corpses after using it, but it would be enough to take that devilish bitch with him.

A bizarre aura emanated from Geuk Hon-ja's entire body. The sword turned red-hot, and a strange resonance, almost like a scream, echoed from its tip.

"……!"

Wi Hwa-ryeon's large eyes focused straight ahead.

It was close.

Kwajik!

The translucent protective barrier shattered in an instant, and the sword, shot like a ray of light, was about to reach Wi Hwa-ryeon's neck.

She felt a huge shadow descending from the sky.

A thunderous pressure.

A terrifying force that made even the air tremble.

'That's.'

Death was so close that she could see it because the perceivable timeline had expanded to its limit.

Even Geuk Hon-ja's ultimate technique, shot with terrifying speed, felt slow, as if it were frozen in front of that shadow.

Kwaaaaaang!

The shadow left a flash of white light in an instant and plunged down.

The ground screamed and was torn apart. The shockwave swept through the area, causing cracks. Geuk Hon-ja's bones and flesh were torn to pieces, leaving not even a handful of remains.

"……."

Wi Hwa-ryeon was silent before slowly raising her head.

Under the pale night sky, a Divine Beast with fur as dazzling as white jade was looking down at her.

* * * * *

The mountains were inherently dangerous.

It was easy to get lost in the dark, and beasts and bandits lurked like shadows in every corner of the dense forest.

But Seo-yeon didn't care about any of that.

Her vision was clear and undisturbed even at night, as if it were daytime.

She had almost been harmed at the inn, so she decided that it was best to get as far away as possible, which was one of the reasons she had climbed the mountain.

She would be in great danger if she encountered beasts or bandits along the way, but Seo-yeon had a way to avoid them.

'It's about time it came.'

Even before she finished her thought, a small shadow quietly landed on her shoulder.

Hoo—

An owl with evenly puffed silver feathers.

It was one of the Spiritual Creatures she had lived with when Seo-yeon was hiding in the mountains near Anhui Province.

The owl gently touched her cheek with its beak, then raised one wing and pointed somewhere.

"We can go that way?"

Hoo—

The owl shook its wings again, as if urging her on. It meant that was the right way.

Its personality was much more picky and sensitive than the White Tiger, but its abilities were truly outstanding.

It not only understood human words, but also had a sense for detecting strange auras or anomalies in advance and warning her, as well as accurately pointing out the way even in the rugged mountains.

It was no exaggeration to say that Seo-yeon was able to climb the mountain without any problems thanks to this guy.

As she moved in the direction the owl pointed, it flapped its wings and soared high into the sky.

It soon became a small dot in the distance, but even then, it occasionally looked down and kept its eyes on her.

Was it worried about its master's safety?

Whether it knew it or not, Seo-yeon was just walking silently.

'I'm starting to want to sleep here.'

As she was walking while having silly thoughts, Seo-yeon suddenly felt a sense of incongruity.

"……."

There was something like a spider web spread out in the air. It was a Formation Style set up by Wi Hwa-ryeon, the Great Maiden of the Mount Mao Sect.

Saaa—

"Hmm?"

But it disappeared as soon as her footsteps touched it, so Seo-yeon couldn't properly confirm what it was.

After walking a few more steps, a familiar White Tiger quietly appeared.

"……Why are you here?"

Seo-yeon was about to ask why, but she couldn't speak for a moment.

Because something was dangling from the White Tiger's mouth.

The woman in black she had met at the inn was hanging defenselessly from its fangs.

Seo-yeon opened her half-closed eyes and opened her mouth.

"You eat people too, huh."

As soon as those words were spoken—

Ptooey.

The White Tiger shook its head as if it were wronged and spat out Wi Hwa-ryeon.