Chapter 1
— — —
A small shadow was climbing the mountain alone.
‘It’s cold.’
Hong-seol spread her red, frozen hands and blew on them, a small puff of warm air. Before her warm breath could even begin to thaw them, a cold snowflake landed on her palm.
“Is this what they call real snow?”
Snow rarely fell here in Anhui Province, where Hong-seol lived. The only place that ever saw a blizzard was the peak of this very mountain, Mount Daechok.
“So snow comes with the cold.”
Hong-seol had never even climbed over the wall of the Myo Clan estate on her own. She had no way of knowing beforehand just how cold and frightening the snow could be.
Shivering, Hong-seol looked up.
The day had been bright when she first set foot at the base of the mountain.
Now, from a sky that had turned pitch-black, snowflakes like her own soft down were fluttering to the ground.
A cold wind kept seeping through the gaps in her shabby clothes.
“Achoo!”
‘This isn't going to work.’
Hong-seol did a somersault in the air. The eight-year-old girl vanished without a trace, leaving a small cat in her place. It was a kitten covered in pale pink fur, with only its muzzle, ears, and paws a shade of brown.
‘Why didn’t anyone tell me it would be this cold on the mountain?’
Even after transforming into a cat, the cold pierced through her fur.
What’s more, the biting wind made tears stream from her eyes. Soon, the fur along her tear tracks froze stiff.
Lick.
Hong-seol licked her frozen paws a few times and washed her face like a cat. But it was no use. The moment she rubbed the ice from her fur, her face froze over again. A wave of fear washed over her.
‘Can I reach the summit before all my fur freezes?’
Hong-seol raised her head to gauge the remaining distance. The peak was faintly visible through the swirling snow.
‘If only I could use my inner energy, I could have run up there in a single bound.’
“You useless half-wit! A disgrace to the Myo Clan!”
The words she had heard her entire life seemed to buzz in her ears. Hong-seol hunched her shoulders and shivered.
‘I can’t give up here. If I do, Mother will hate me forever.’
* * *
When she finally reached the summit, the blizzard that had been lashing her face stopped as if by magic.
“Whoa!”
Just as her mother had said, there was a giant lake.
“When you get there, throw a large stone into the lake.”
Hong-seol leaped into a somersault. In an instant, the small cat transformed back into a child dressed in rags.
After glancing around for a moment, Hong-seol picked up what was, for her tiny hands, a large stone.
Plunk.
As ripples spread across the lake, a voice echoed from somewhere.
- Ouch. Who dares to throw stones at me?
“Ah!”
Startled by the sudden voice transmission, Hong-seol flattened herself to the ground.
Young Hong-seol had no way of knowing that masters could freely and secretly transmit their voices over great distances.
- No answer? I suppose I’ll have to teach you a lesson!
As soon as the words ended, a white pillar shot up from the middle of the lake with a tremendous splash. No, it wasn’t a pillar, but a giant snake.
‘S-scary!’
Hong-seol’s legs trembled. But she couldn't back down now.
Hong-seol managed to squeeze out her voice and shouted.
“A-are you the master of the lake?”
Hearing this, Dang Yimu, the Poison King, was dumbfounded.
He was a renowned snake beastkin and, of all things, the Grand Elder of the Tang Clan of Sichuan.
In the past, most people would flee in terror at the mere sight of his shadow.
But for some reason, this little brat, still wet behind the ears, had not only thrown a stone at him but was now speaking to him.
‘Have I been away from the martial world for too long?’
Dang Yimu sighed softly and sent a voice transmission to the bite-sized child.
- Yes, it seems everyone here in Anhui Province calls me the ‘master of the lake.’
“Th-then…”
Hong-seol quietly recalled her mother’s words.
“Go to the master of the lake and say, ‘Please give me your inner core.’”
Just thinking about saying those words made her small palms sweat.
‘I didn’t know the master of the lake would be such a terrifying snake…’
But she couldn’t go back empty-handed and disappoint her mother.
Hong-seol mustered her courage.
“P-p-please give me your inner core.”
- What did you just say?
Dang Yimu was incredulous.
After all, what was an inner core?
It was the ‘crystallization of inner energy’ condensed within the body of an animal that had lived long enough to become a spiritual beast.
Asking a living being for its inner core was tantamount to saying, ‘Please die peacefully.’
And to say that to a master of the Transformation Realm like Dang Yimu?
That was practically saying, ‘Please kill me.’
‘Someone is trying to use my hand to take this child’s life.’
The experienced Dang Yimu immediately understood the situation.
But young Hong-seol couldn't possibly know the circumstances. She simply held out her trembling palms to Dang Yimu.
“Please give me your inner core.”
At that moment, a voice that seemed to shake the heavens and the earth rang out from somewhere.
“Hah, what an amusing spectacle.”
Hong-seol looked up.
In the distance, she saw a man carrying a gourd flask striding toward them.
His hair was graying, and a long sword scar ran down his right cheek. A cloud-shaped embroidery was clearly visible on the chest of his blue martial arts uniform.
Wait, a cloud-shaped embroidery?!
“Hah!”
Startled, Hong-seol scurried behind a tree.
‘Th-th-the Namgung Clan!’
Her small heart pounded.
It was the first time she had seen a dog beastkin from the Namgung Clan, whom she had only heard stories about, this close.
‘They said the Namgung Clan hates cat beastkin. If he finds out I’m a cat beastkin, he’ll definitely try to hurt me!’
To Hong-seol, the man from the Namgung Clan was more terrifying than the giant snake before her. This was because she had spent her whole life in the Myo Clan estate hearing about their atrocities.
“The Myo Clan’s power has dwindled because of those cruel bastards from the Namgung Clan!”
“Our warriors were attacked by the Namgung’s Azure Sky Brigade! Every one of them had their necks torn out!”
‘A…a dog beastkin, so scary… What should I do?’
The Namgung Clan was originally a wolf clan renowned in the martial world.
However, the Myo Clan, being a cat clan, would disparagingly call them ‘dogs.’
So it was no wonder that young Hong-seol mistook them for dog beastkin.
In that time, the man from the Namgung Clan had come close enough that Hong-seol had to crane her neck to see him.
He spoke to Hong-seol in a stern voice.
“You… Why do you need this fellow’s inner core?”
Facing him, Hong-seol’s vision went dark, and an unknown ringing filled her ears. Perhaps because her heart was pounding so hard, her mind went completely blank in an instant.
‘I-I have to run!’
Hong-seol frantically flipped into a somersault.
The next moment, pfft! a small cat shot out from behind the tree.
“Wait, that way is a cliff!”
The man had no time to lunge. In an instant, the tiny cat’s body tumbled over the edge of the cliff.
* * *
Down, further down.
Hong-seol plummeted endlessly.
Her joints were stiff from the cold, making it impossible to control her body. The kitten’s body, having already struck the cliff face several times, was broken and bruised all over.
Thud.
Finally landing on a cold, flat rock, Hong-seol cried with a tiny meow.
‘Mother, it hurts so much.’
I’m sorry… I don’t think… I can bring back the inner core…
To the dying kitten’s cries, her mother, of course, gave no reply.
It was then.
Two black shadows descended the cliff and loomed over Hong-seol’s small body.
It was the man from the Namgung Clan she had seen earlier, and another man in a green martial arts uniform with white hair and red eyes.
‘I have to run…’
Even as the man in green checked her pulse, Hong-seol couldn’t so much as twitch a paw.
Only a faint ‘nyaa—’ escaped her lips.
The man from the Namgung Clan asked gravely.
“Dang Yimu, how is the child?”
“There’s no hope.”
The man called Dang Yimu shook his head.
“If she had learned even basic martial arts, this fall wouldn’t have been fatal. Step aside. I’ll try to infuse some inner energy.”
“…This child’s meridians are severed, Namgung Ho.”
At those words, the expression of the man called Namgung Ho hardened noticeably.
The meridians were the pathways for inner energy.
No matter how fine an oxcart is, it cannot pass if the road is broken. It meant that even infusing her with inner energy wouldn’t save her.
Namgung Ho sighed.
“So this is the infamous eldest daughter of the Myo Clan. The one who cannot use inner energy.”
“Indeed. I don’t know who sent her, but the motive is obvious. She was sent here to die.”
Lying there, listening to their conversation, Hong-seol’s eyes filled with tears.
‘Mother was the one who sent me to Mount Daechok. Did Mother want me to die…?’
If so, everything made sense.
Why she hadn’t told her how cold Mount Daechok was, why she hadn’t mentioned the master of the lake was a giant snake.
‘Because she hoped that I, the half-wit, would not return…’
Hong-seol’s sorrowful gasps gradually subsided.
“Tsk.”
Namgung Ho clicked his tongue in pity and took off his outer robe. Seeing this, Dang Yimu spoke with surprise.
“Weren’t the Namgung Clan and the Myo Clan always at each other’s throats?”
“…She is just a pitiful child who knows nothing, Dang Yimu.”
The martial arts uniform, with its cloud-patterned embroidery, was draped over the kitten’s small body. It was Hong-seol’s shroud.
“You must have had a hard life. Rest peacefully now.”
Namgung Ho gently closed Hong-seol’s eyes.
‘His hand is warmer than I thought…’
Resting her head against his palm, Hong-seol inwardly called out for the one she still missed the most.
‘Mother…!’
With that final cry, the little cat departed from the world.
The falling snow warmly blanketed Hong-seol’s body, covered by the blue uniform.
* * *
From somewhere in her mind, she faintly heard the sound of a song.
‘This song…?’
It was her mother's lullaby, one she had heard in her distant childhood.
Filled with a sense of longing, Hong-seol unconsciously began to hum a few notes. As she did, a spot on her wrist flared with heat as if seared by fire, and the warmth instantly surged through her entire body.
“Ah!”
Hong-seol’s eyes flew open.
The first things she saw were a vast lake and a white serpent. A biting wind whipped across her cheeks as she stood before them.
“This is… the summit of Mount Daechok?”
Hong-seol touched her stinging cheek.
‘But I’m sure I just fell from a cliff and died?’
She looked down at her own gaunt wrist. The spot where it had been shattered against the rocks was now perfectly fine, without a single trace of injury. She couldn't believe it.
‘What happened?’
Could she have dozed off in that brief moment and dreamt it all?
But… it had felt far too real to be a dream.
Just then, she heard a familiar voice.
“Well, now this is quite a sight.”
Huh?
She had definitely heard those words before. Hong-seol blinked and lifted her head.
In the distance, a man in a martial arts uniform adorned with a cloud pattern was walking toward her, a gourd flask in his hand. It was Namgung Ho.
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