Mistaken for a Fairy
ch8

[Wi Hwa-ryeon of the Mount Mao Sect (1)]

Spiritual Creatures are generally divided into two types.

The first type is far stronger and more violent than ordinary beasts, and even possesses intelligence unlike normal beasts. Every action is filled with murderous intent, and even a master leading a sect would have to prepare for days of struggle to subdue just one.

Of course, their bones, blood, and internal organs contain immense energy, making them invaluable medicinal ingredients beyond comparison.

The second type consists of Spiritual Creatures that are intelligent enough to communicate with humans and possess a gentle aura. Although they may be somewhat weaker in strength compared to the former, they possess Inner Cores condensed over time, making them far more valuable as elixirs.

However, there are occasionally beings that transcend these categories.

For example, Divine Beasts like phoenixes or dragons, passed down only in legends.

The creature before Wi Hwa-ryeon's eyes was one such case.

Kugugung...

The white aura emanating from the White Tiger's body illuminated the night sky like the moon, and White Blossoms scattered and spread throughout the air. The radiance was subtle yet awe-inspiring, as if the entire sky were embroidered with fireflies.

Gulp—

Wi Hwa-ryeon swallowed hard without realizing it.

Her body reacted first. Due to reverence, overwhelming pressure, and a faint sense of fear.

A stream of blood trickled down her jade-like neck.

It was a wound left by Geuk Hon-ja's technique. An attack so swift she couldn't react.

She had resigned herself to death, but Geuk Hon-ja had vanished without a trace at the gesture of the Divine Beast.

Wi Hwa-ryeon quickly concluded.

Resisting means death.

Even if all her subordinates were intact and had cast the Guihonsupbaek sound, the result would be the same. Trying to capture such a being with a soul-woven chain was nothing more than a delusion.

However, one thing remained questionable: why wasn't she dead yet?

There was no way such a being couldn't see through her intentions. It wouldn't be strange if it killed her immediately for finding her intentions displeasing, but for some reason, it was just looking down at her.

Then, in an instant, the Divine Beast opened its mouth and bit down on Wi Hwa-ryeon's neck.

'I'm going to die...!'

Wi Hwa-ryeon's shoulders trembled slightly. Her subordinates, standing beside her, were even more surprised. This could be seen from the fact that they were prepared to step forward, risking death.

However, Wi Hwa-ryeon gestured subtly, stopping her subordinates from acting.

She felt no pain. It bit down so gently that it felt more like she was being lifted than bitten.

-

It doesn't seem to intend to kill me right away. Don't act rashly.

-

But, Great Maiden!

-

I... will return somehow, so you all return to Mount Mao first.

The subordinates bit their lips deeply. They had noticed the Great Maiden's resolve.

They hesitated for a moment, then carefully stepped back, kicking off the ground. As Wi Hwa-ryeon expected, the Divine Beast did not chase after the subordinates. Instead, it simply looked around slowly with a profound gaze.

It exuded a quiet dignity, as if the existence of the subordinates was not even worth considering.

Wi Hwa-ryeon was certain. This Divine Beast had come looking for her.

She thought she was the one setting a trap, but it was the opposite.

Just as a martial artist consumes the Inner Core of a Spiritual Creature to raise their cultivation, the reverse was also not impossible.

The True Qi and Inner Energy of a martial artist, refined with pure True Qi, can also be used as nourishment for Spiritual Creatures.

It was humiliating.

'I won't die easily.'

Wi Hwa-ryeon gritted her teeth inwardly.

She doubted she could even leave a scratch even if she used her techniques, but accepting death willingly was a completely different matter.

At the very least, she had to show the dignity befitting the Great Maiden of the Mount Mao Sect before she died, to have the face to see her ancestors.

The White Tiger started walking somewhere.

Wi Hwa-ryeon secretly gathered her Inner Energy. She intended to twist her True Qi at any moment, turning her body into a potent poison.

No matter how Divine Beast it was, if it ate her, it would have to recuperate for several years, wouldn't it?

It was then.

Saaa—

The space split open with a faint sound of wind.

The formation that Wi Hwa-ryeon had painstakingly prepared was torn like paper, and a woman appeared through the gap.

Hair reminiscent of Celestial Aura from the heavens.

A light pink aura flowed along her hair, swirling through the air, and an extremely pure and elegant wave rippled through the atmosphere.

'……?'

Wi Hwa-ryeon's eyebrows rose sharply. For a moment, she mistook it for a legendary phoenix walking in.

'How can a human possess such energy?'

She even had the illusion that it was a Divine Beast using the Incarnation Technique. No, perhaps it wasn't an illusion.

'Are they going to fight?'

Just when she was having the absurd delusion that perhaps her constitution looked like an elixir of the ages to the Divine Beasts.

"You eat people too, huh."

An extremely calm voice cut through the air.

The tone contained not a shred of tension.

But as soon as those words fell, the surrounding aura rippled semi-transparently and rapidly collapsed. The anger lingering in the atmosphere was so thick and sharp that it seemed like Heavenly Thunder would fall at any moment.

The White Tiger reacted instantly. Without any hesitation, it spat out Wi Hwa-ryeon, who it had been holding in its mouth.

Thud.

Wi Hwa-ryeon was thrown to the ground in an absurd posture.

She couldn't close her dry lips as she watched the White Tiger shake its head as if making excuses.

'It's... afraid?'

An unbelievable scene followed.

The White Tiger lowered its large body and approached the woman, rubbing its huge head gently against her body like a young animal starved for affection.

'……This is a daydream.'

It seemed she had crossed the River of Three Crossings when her neck was bitten earlier.

All of this must be a dream shown briefly before her spirit leaves this world.

Wi Hwa-ryeon fainted.

Seo-yeon lightly scanned the appearance of the fainted Wi Hwa-ryeon.

Her breathing was even, and her chest rose and fell slowly, as if she had fallen into a deep sleep.

It meant she was alive and well.

Seo-yeon suddenly recalled a story she had heard long ago. Among the things called beasts, those that harm people are mostly old and sick animals.

Their teeth are dull and their claws are blunt, so they no longer have the strength to hunt birds or herds of animals, so they target the soft human flesh.

But the White Tiger in front of her was different. What was there to be sorry for such a strong beast to eat people? With one swipe of its forepaw, even a mountain beast the size of a house would be torn to pieces.

Seo-yeon breathed a sigh of relief. No matter how long they had been together and how fond she was of it, she didn't want to get involved with a man-eating beast. That was something she shouldn't do as a person.

'When did it start following me?'

She didn't even feel its presence. On the day she left Anhui Province, she tried to say her last goodbye, but it disappeared without a trace, so she just thought that the relationship had ended there.

But now that she saw it, it seemed that it had been secretly following her all along.

Seo-yeon thought it was a good thing. It was a situation where she couldn't find a place to rest in the mountains well past midnight.

If she rode on the White Tiger's back, she would reach her destination in two days.

But one question still remained.

'If it didn't intend to eat her, why was it holding her in its mouth?'

The companions who were with her had disappeared without a trace, and it was strange that only this woman was caught in the White Tiger's fangs.

Looking closely, her clothes were covered in dust, and there was a clear wound on her neck that looked like it had been cut by a sharp object. Her complexion was pale, and it seemed like she had been poisoned.

Had she lost her companions and was running away, and then met the White Tiger and barely survived? Thinking that way, it seemed understandable.

Seo-yeon pondered for a moment.

She still didn't want to get involved with the Martial World. But that didn't mean she wanted to ignore someone who might die at any moment. That was something she shouldn't do as a person.

In the first place, if she was an evil person, the White Tiger wouldn't have brought her.

If there were pursuers, she would have to think differently, but if that were the case, wouldn't the owl have started hooting right away?

"Is it because she's a martial artist? She's definitely tough."

She muttered quietly and took her hand off her wrist. How much did she have to swing her sword to make her body so tough?

Looking at the White Tiger again, it was blinking its round eyes and looking at Seo-yeon. It had a face that seemed to be asking what she was going to do.

"You brought her, so you have to take responsibility."

Seo-yeon said that and took out an outer garment from her luggage and covered Wi Hwa-ryeon's body.

Then, she stroked the White Tiger's back with her palm and said.

"Lend me your back."

The White Tiger silently bent its front legs and lowered its body.

Seo-yeon jumped up nimbly and climbed onto the White Tiger's back. She carefully lifted Wi Hwa-ryeon onto her back. She held her in her arms to keep her posture from collapsing.

"Let's go."

As soon as the short command was given, the White Tiger's large body began to rush along the mountain ridge.

'Mother.'

Wi Hwa-ryeon had a dream. A dream of a little kid whose baby teeth hadn't even fallen out yet, crying in her mother's arms.

It was as if it was the last afterimage that her soul recalled before crossing the River of Three Crossings.

'It's so futile.'

Twenty years of living the life of a martial artist.

The last memory that pierced through those long years was a fragment of her vague childhood.

She didn't even die as a martial artist. She was bitten to death by a Spiritual Creature she was trying to hunt. It was truly a pathetic end.

She couldn't help but sigh.

'……Wait, a sigh?'

Wi Hwa-ryeon, who noticed the anomaly, gasped. The cold air filled her lungs, and her vision brightened in an instant.

"……!"

Wi Hwa-ryeon suddenly raised her upper body. Then, with her eyes wide open, she groped all over her body. The neck that had been cut by Geuk Hon-ja's sword had a scab.

'I fell asleep?'

How much time had passed? Thinking that, her fingertips touched an unfamiliar sensation as she groped the floor.

Something soft and elastic, like stroking a supreme carpet—

"Heok!"

She couldn't help but scream. It was only then that she realized that what she was leaning on was the back of a huge Divine Beast.

But the real shock came next.

In front of her was a woman sitting with her light pink hair fluttering.

To be exact, Wi Hwa-ryeon herself was being held in the woman's arms.

'What, what is this……?'

It meant that the scene that had unfolded before her eyes before she lost consciousness was not a simple dream.

"You slept soundly for a whole day."

The woman with light pink hair said, raising the corners of her lips.

Her voice was as gentle as the wind, but it was by no means light.

"Seeing you get up like this, it seems that your injury wasn't that deep."

"I, I am. No, I-."

Wi Hwa-ryeon's pupils flickered intermittently, and her words wandered in the air.

It was an unbelievable energy. As if she were the ruler of heaven and earth, she was spreading a huge energy like an intangible barrier in all directions.

And yet, there was not a single flaw in her mind and body.

Incomprehensible. She was no different from a monster in human skin.

Wi Hwa-ryeon's chest rose and fell roughly. Her instincts reacted first. A sense of wariness and fear intertwined, digging into her bones along her spine.

If that woman wanted to, she would die soon. That fact made her spine feel cold to the bone.

"Your breathing is rough. Lie down a little more."

The woman with light pink hair said quietly and raised her palm to gently press Wi Hwa-ryeon's forehead and lay her down.

In that moment.

A warm Inner Energy like autumn sunlight and clear like deep spring water permeated her Meridians. The violent fluctuations of her Qi and blood subsided in an instant.

Wi Hwa-ryeon became even more confused.

It was the woman who spoke again.

"Where did you come from?"

"……Mount Mao Sect."

It was a word that came out after hesitating whether to be polite or to maintain her dignity as the Great Maiden.

When the silence grew longer, Wi Hwa-ryeon hurriedly added as if making an excuse.

"M-Mount Mao Sect is a proper orthodox sect…… Please don't misunderstand."

Soon, the woman nodded. She didn't know why, but for some reason, her eyes seemed gentler than before.

She just thought it was fortunate that it was an orthodox sect, but Wi Hwa-ryeon had no way of knowing.