Ep440 - I Became a Drunkard in a Martial Arts Novel.

Baek Woo-jin once asked Yeo-hee: "How did you plan to save Yong Seon-ah, trapped in the ice?" She answered him: "I planned to use one of the inner cores you brought." The reason Yong Seon-ah could not awaken from the state induced by a powerful technique of suspended animation was because her energy center was completely empty. Under normal circumstances, through intermittent breathing, she would have gradually regained her inner energy and awakened, no matter how long it took. But the frigid ice was preventing this recovery. So, the idea was to supplement her energy from the outside using a mystical creature's inner core, allowing her to naturally awaken from the technique. Upon hearing her method, Baek Woo-jin praised it as brilliant. Why? Simple. As soon as Baek Woo-jin learned that Yong Seon-ah was alive, the same method occurred to him. 'She thought the same as me, so she deserves praise, hmm.' Such profound self-admiration. Instead of executing this method himself, Baek Woo-jin communicated it to Yongsellan. "This is your final test." It was to observe her actions. If she truly wanted her mother revived, she would use the inner core without hesitation. Otherwise, she would become the villain who sought power and killed her mother. But, as fate would have it, all of that became meaningless. 'Who would have thought she would expose her true feelings so easily?' Holding the ice-encased Yong Seon-ah and sobbing, Yongsellan seemed to be spurred by this sight. She cried simply from guilt. Imagining the suffering her mother endured, trapped alive in the ice. Even while crying her heart out, she completed her task. She successfully transmitted the energy from the inner core to Yong Seon-ah. Crack! Crackle! The reason the ice began to crack was because of this. For Yong Seon-ah, who had regained her inner energy, was waking from the suspended animation and emerging back into the world. However, Yeo-hee mistakenly thought this was an emergence of solitary malice overtaking her body. But once she awakens, such solitude loses all its meaning. 'No trivial thing like malice could ever take hold of a master of her caliber.' Maybe a body drained of inner energy in a state of suspended animation, but not one replenished with the power of a great master. No amount of malice could seize control. They call them monsters in human guise for good reason. Crash! Like shattering glass, amidst the scattering ice, emerged someone as ethereal as a fairy gaining her freedom. An unparalleled beauty that would be hard to believe belonged to a woman nearing her fiftieth year. Proclaiming her status as Yongsellan’s mother, she approached with magnificence unmatched by her young daughter, exuding a unique and resolute aura. Though she appeared almost like an enchantress at first glance, her demeanor was akin to a ruler of cold iron, her voice colder than the surrounding frost. "Are you prepared to pay the price for daring to harm the palace master of the North Sea Ice Palace?" Yeo-hee's raucous laughter ceased amidst this frost-like fury. Confronted by this unbelievable scenario, her eyes widened and took in Yong Seon-ah from head to toe. 'Just how in the world did this happen?' While her mind turned blank at the incomprehensible situation. Baek Woo-jin, who had been holding a blade to her neck, offered an explanation. "You told her, didn’t you? To awaken with the inner core." Simultaneously, her neck turned toward Baek Woo-jin with a creaky movement, like an unoiled door. "But I, I thought she was dead…." Her voice trembling, Baek Woo-jin nodded. "Yes, she was dead." He continued, pointing his finger at her. "And now, you're dead." "You, you!" She finally realized. The talk of her death shared by Baek Woo-jin was all a lie. No, she had indeed harbored doubts. Was it not too convenient that when he checked, she had supposedly stopped breathing? Determined to confirm it herself, she had rushed over just as her feet began to sweat. But the mournful cries of the preceding visitor had dispelled any doubt. The absurdity of her mistake left her in momentary despair. "Mother!" Yongsellan, who had been crying like a child who had lost her parents, now ran towards her mother. Yong Seon-ah chuckled at the childishness in the voice of her daughter, of marriageable age. With her face hardening, Yong Seon-ah commanded without looking back. "Stop right there." Yongsellan came to a halt, just a few steps away. Her face still bore the freshly frozen tears. "Sob…!" How endearing she seemed. The once captivating, elegant woman now shedding childlike tears. Truly precious, wasn't it? With her daughter standing behind, Yong Seon-ah looked at Yeo-hee with an expression of a lost cause and asked: "What is the reason? Why did you betray the palace master?" Her voice was icy, tinged with profound betrayal. It was Yong Seon-ah herself who had taken in the girl from the snowy beast-infested mountains after she lost her parents and became an orphan. Although she never cherished her with false words as if she were her own daughter, she could not deny a certain fondness, more than she had for others. After all, she had personally brought her in, and since she was unusually mature for her age, she assisted both herself and her young daughter well. She trusted her to that extent. Trusted her enough to expose even her defenseless back. To receive betrayal as the price of such trust, it would be strange not to be angry. “Reason, is it… Ha ha.” Yeo-hee laughed as if she had gone mad. Reason. There was no reason not to speak of it. In fact, it might be better to confess honestly before her death. Yet, it might shock the woman before her more than a little. “It wasn’t betrayal.” “…It wasn’t betrayal?” Yeo-hee nodded with a smile at the woman frowning in disbelief. “The palace master sympathized with an orphan who had lost her parents overnight and took her into the palace, but the truth is, that entire scenario was orchestrated.” She was born and raised in the Mountain of Ten Thousand Beasts. She journeyed to the far land of the North Sea, pretending to be an orphan who had lost her parents, all for a mission. Since childhood, she was a spy, ingrained within the North Sea Ice Palace to extract information. This was the task assigned to her by the Demonic Cult. “Do you understand? I have never been a part of the North Sea Ice Palace.” “…….” With purposeful malice, Yeo-hee spewed out her words. Hearing them, Yong Seon-ah felt more pity than anger for the young woman. “You poor thing.” “…What did you say?” “I pity you, for being born in such a harsh place, forced into a life you did not desire.” Yeo-hee’s face scrunched up with frustration. “Don’t—don’t be ridiculous! Everything I did, I chose to do! Only for the Heavenly Demon, for that purpose alone…” “That is precisely what is pitiful.” Yong Seon-ah interrupted Yeo-hee's desperate outcry. “Born into indoctrination, you’ve never lived your life for yourself.” Those born into the Demonic Cult are taught a single phrase from the beginning. For the Heavenly Demon. The reason to learn literacy, martial arts, and many other things is solely for that purpose. It’s a blind indoctrination meant to produce pawns. Pawns willing to sacrifice their lives at the mention of serving the Heavenly Demon anytime, anywhere. “You claim you never felt a sense of belonging at the North Sea Ice Palace?” “…….” Yong Seon-ah shook her head at Yeo-hee, who bit her lip without answering. “That was false.” She had seen it. The joy on Yeo-hee’s face when she finally mastered a cold technique and embraced her comrades. The bright smile she wore when praised by Yong Seon-ah herself. The genuine comfort she offered to Yongsellan, when her daughter was scolded and upset. Those were emotions that couldn’t be fabricated. “Your start might have been with the Demonic Cult, but you truly belonged to the North Sea Ice Palace.” “No, no…!” Images flashed in her mind. The warmth of the people was different from the stony Demonic Cult. They were moments given just for her, Yeo-hee, not for the Heavenly Demon. And with each moment, her poisonous heart melted away endlessly. Thud! Without the strength to deny it, she fell to her knees on the cold ice. In the agony of accepting her realization, she had become the North Sea Ice Palace’s traitor and, upon failing her mission, an insignificant pawn to the Demonic Cult. For Yeo-hee, there was nowhere left to go. “Please…kill me.” She pleaded to be punished as the North Sea Ice Palace’s traitor. Yet, Yong Seon-ah refused. “I refuse.” With a resolute answer, Yeo-hee lifted her tear-stained face. “Palace Master….” Yong Seon-ah knelt down to meet her gaze and continued: “Leave.” Yong Seon-ah’s compassion for her tragic and pitiful life dispelled even the murder in her heart. However, she couldn’t simply let a betrayer roam free. “Remember today’s pain. Do not forget your regret. Let it fuel you to find your rightful place anew. But never repeat the same mistake.” She was still young. Smart and endearing enough to find herself a new home. Yong Seon-ah wished for Yeo-hee to leave her turbulent life and live in peace. Feeling her sincerity, Yeo-hee tearfully asked: “Is there a place for someone as wretched as me?” “There is.” "Can someone as ungrateful as I… find happiness?" "You must become happy. That is the punishment I bestow upon you." Yong Seon-ah's unwavering response prompted Yeo-hee to wipe her tear-streaked face. Her tears, which froze almost instantly, fell and shattered on the ground. Rising from her knees, her eyes were steadier than before. "May this unworthy woman be granted the opportunity to offer one last piece of advice to the palace master?" "I permit it." With her consent, Yeo-hee pointed to the eternal ice crystal behind them and began to speak. "The black stain on the eternal ice crystal isn’t a simple contamination." "…It’s not a contamination?" Yong Seon-ah furrowed her delicate brows and questioned, her gaze meeting Yeo-hee's nodding response. "Yes, in fact, it is…." Just as she was about to continue her explanation. Suddenly! Something pierced through the small gap between Yongsellan and Yong Seon-ah, impaling Yeo-hee's heart. "Khaak…!" Her body crumpled as she spewed blood. "Yeo-hee!" Yongsellan and Yong Seon-ah rushed toward her collapsed form, calling her name amidst the chaos of the sudden incident. Baek Woo-jin stood over the fallen Yeo-hee, his eyes cold and unyielding. The object that pierced her heart was a thin shard of ice. Though brief, Baek Woo-jin had seen it clearly. The thin shard of ice originated from the distant eternal ice crystal, no— a cultivation gem. His keen eyes turned toward the cultivation gem. Crack! With a resounding noise, the shape of the cultivation gem began to swell. The orb grew rapidly to the size of a human torso. It was then that an unfamiliar voice resonated from the gem. "Death is the only fate for traitors." The story ends here, but the writer leaves a promise: I will see you in the next chapter. Thank you for reading as always. Have a peaceful night. (_ _)