Myst, Might, Mayhem (Novel) - Chapter 167 - Variable (2)

Chapter 167 – Variable (2)

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Translated by Jinmu

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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Originally, Wi So-yeon came from a prestigious martial clan under the Heaven and Earth Society.

The Heroic Spear Wi Family.

Born as the second daughter of a martial clan that handled the spear, she had been frail from birth and always had to lie in bed sick.

Because the family head of the Wi Family had been born with little martial talent and his martial prowess had reached only the level of mature absolute peak, he thought his second daughter Wi So-yeon was simply weak-bodied from an ordinary severed-meridian illness.

Thus he told her not to learn martial arts and to live an ordinary life.

However, having inherited the blood of a martial clan, she wanted to learn the family’s martial arts just like her other siblings.

It was far too painful merely to lie in bed and watch.

So despite her sickly body, she secretly practiced martial arts without her father or family knowing.

But there was no way it would be easy for her, born with Celestial Yin Severed Meridian, to learn martial arts of her own will.

In the end, her Celestial Yin Severed Meridian rampaged.

[Aaaaah!]

Unable to control the rampaging force within her, Wi Hyeon, head of the Wi Family, took Wi So-yeon to the inner castle with the tally tablet his grandfather had received as a reward for merit.

That was because he believed only the physicians and executives in the inner castle could save her.

Yet something coincidental happened there.

[I, I pay my respects to the Society Leader!]

[Ah. Enough of that.]

The Society Leader, who had been receiving treatment in the inner castle, came to them himself.

The Society Leader, whose face even her father had supposedly never once seen, had come to find her…

That Society Leader stared fixedly at her face, then stroked her head once and muttered words she could not understand.

[As expected?]

Expected what?

Even amid her pain, she found the words puzzling, but then even more astonishing words came from the Society Leader’s mouth.

[Do you wish to save this child?]

[Y-yes, I do.]

[Then hand this child over to me.]

[Pardon?]

[Did you not hear? Hand her over to me.]

And so, once she caught the Society Leader’s eye, she was taken in as his disciple on the spot.

The Society Leader, who had an interest in the strange severed-meridian illness called Celestial Yin Severed Meridian, in which true qi was generated endlessly, accepted her as a disciple and tried to cure it.

However, even he, one of the Six Heavens who stood at the summit of the current murim, could not cure Celestial Yin Severed Meridian completely in the end.

Ultimately, all he could do was suppress the force trying to run wild with a qi-circulation method that temporarily blocked the route of the severed meridians.

This qi-circulation method of the Forbidden Gate Secret Manual, created by the Society Leader, was extremely excellent and effective.

But as the rampage of Celestial Yin Severed Meridian grew stronger day by day, she had to suffer periodically from pain as if all the blood vessels in her body would burst and kill her.

[Aaaah!]

With every passing year, the cycle of that pain grew shorter.

At first it came once every few months, then after two years once every couple of months, then after another year once every month.

Wi So-yeon was gradually sensing it.

That if the cycle grew any shorter, one day her life would be in danger.

‘Can the curse of Celestial Yin Severed Meridian truly not be cured?’

Did she truly have to accept fate like this?

No, from the beginning they had said that by fate alone she likely would not even live past twenty.

Yet she had passed twenty.

That too must have been because of the Forbidden Gate Secret Manual her master had created.

As the cycle of rampages shortened and she sensed ever more clearly that the end was approaching quickly, Wi So-yeon grew colder and colder and even lost her smile.

It would be truer to say that she was losing all special desire for life.

Then one day, a thought came to her.

If she died like this, what in the world would she leave behind in this world?

‘…Would it just become a meaningless death?’

In the end, it would amount to nothing more than barely prolonging her life only to die.

Because of that, she came to a decision.

If this life had little time left anyway, then she would spend it trying everything she possibly could.

And that one goal was the Society Leader, the summit of the Heaven and Earth Society.

[Cough, cough. You ask that I give you a chance as well?]

[Yes.]

Wi So-yeon went to her bedridden master and made her request.

Since she had resolved to try everything she could whether it worked or not, she had nothing to lose.

[You have not yet been able to do anything even about your own body, and you say you wish to become Society Leader?]

[…Yes.]

As expected, was it impossible?

But then,

[Hahahahahahaha. Cough, cough… how very amusing. The one who always stared with dead eyes as though the world might end at any moment suddenly speaks of becoming Society Leader… indeed, just as was said, you resemble… cough, cough.]

[Pardon?]

[Nothing. Fine. Do as you wish. If the aptitude is there, anyone can have the qualifications of a Society Leader. Try challenging for the succession.]

In that way, the Society Leader declared it publicly.

That all three disciples possessed the qualifications of a successor.

Because of that, the competition among the three disciples began in earnest.

In her life, she had intended to stake and burn everything on this competition as her last act.

That was because she believed it to be the one thing she could leave behind in the world after being born.

And yet,

-Thump! Thump! Thump!

A miracle happened in the life she had given up on.

Thanks to the man before her eyes, the door of the life she had thought had little time left had opened wide again.

‘Why is my heart acting like this?’

As she looked at Mok Gyeong-un, more than embarrassment, her heart pounded strangely.

And her face grew so hot it felt like it was burning.

What in the world was this feeling?

It was completely unfamiliar.

After staring fixedly at Mok Gyeong-un’s face for a long while, she unknowingly brought her hand toward his cheek.

-Slide!

Because of that, Mok Gyeong-un, who had been looking around the area, turned his gaze to her.

‘Ah?’

What had she just done?

Startled for an instant, Wi So-yeon fidgeted awkwardly.

Mok Gyeong-un stared straight at her.

The moment their eyes met, Wi So-yeon swallowed dryly.

‘Why… why is he staring at me so intently? If he stares like that, it’s too…’

Perhaps because she was naked, or perhaps because his gaze itself felt burdensome, her heart began to pound even harder.

Unlike her, Mok Gyeong-un’s thoughts were turning in a different direction.

‘What should I do?’

Things had gone differently from his original purpose.

It was certain now that Blue Spirit had not possessed her, whatever the reason her aura had gone away.

If that was the case, then even if she came back, it was hard to know whether she would succeed or not.

‘If possession won’t work, then all of this was a pointless act.’

It might actually have been better to let Wi So-yeon’s force run wild and kill her.

Or he should have gone to second disciple Jang Neung-ak before Wi So-yeon.

The plan to possess both of them and then unite the two factions had already gone awry at the very first move.

Mok Gyeong-un stared straight at Wi So-yeon.

‘I can’t kill her either.’

If he killed her right now, the problem would grow far too large.

Since he needed to obtain clues from the Society Leader, he could not yet turn him into an enemy.

Nor was he yet able to oppose him.

‘I’ll have to change the plan.’

Another method was needed.

If possession would not work, then should he instead turn Wi So-yeon into a living corpse demon through the Six-Person Spirit Descent Art?

However, he had no confidence that it would work.

After breaking through the blocked force inside her body, Wi So-yeon’s once unstable force had calmed and her martial prowess had instead risen far above before.

The Six-Person Spirit Descent Art might not work on her at all.

He needed some way to control Wi So-yeon somehow, but what would be best…

Just then.

Wi So-yeon, who had been placing a hand against Mok Gyeong-un’s cheek, summoned her courage and spoke.

“Y-you… can keep your promise.”

‘!?’

A promise?

Had there been some promise like that?

While thinking that, Mok Gyeong-un retraced what she had said and then remembered it.

[You want to have me? Then break even this cursed power.]

‘Hm?’

Was she talking about that now?

While he was still finding it odd, Wi So-yeon, her face bright red, turned her head away because she could not meet his eyes and said shyly,

“You are… the lifesaver of my life.”

“Lifesaver?”

“T-that’s right.”

“…”

Mok Gyeong-un stared at her.

Because he stared so directly, Wi So-yeon, unable to read his feelings, grew even more flustered.

It had already been so embarrassing just to say these words, so why was he only staring at her without saying anything?

Had he not said with his own mouth that he wanted to have her, and had he not risked his life to help her overcome even Celestial Yin Severed Meridian like this?

So she had said she acknowledged it, and yet why was he taking so long?

Or could it be that he wanted to hear some other words?

As she fidgeted, Wi So-yeon at last cleared her throat and said,

“Ahem. I… I too… do not think I dislike you…”

“…”

At those words, a peculiar light appeared in Mok Gyeong-un’s eyes.

Mok Gyeong-un was not without perception.

He could sense that the feeling coming from her was now distinctly different from before.

This woman was now seeing him as a man.

‘Emotion…’

It was still an unfamiliar realm.

However, this feeling was something fully worth handling.

It was a concept somewhat different from loyalty bound by mere words.

The corner of Mok Gyeong-un’s mouth twitched.

Then,

“If you do not dislike me, then that means you like me.”

“What? N-no. It is not quite that…”

It was right then.

Mok Gyeong-un wrapped one hand around her slender back.

And then pulled her firmly into his embrace.

Because of that, the bare skin of the two naked bodies pressed completely together.

“Hik!”

Wi So-yeon cried out without meaning to.

She was bewildered by Mok Gyeong-un’s sudden action, but she also no longer knew what to do.

She had heard bits and pieces about relations between men and women from Gi Ok-ryeon and others around her, but there was no way such things had really entered the ears of someone living on borrowed time.

Yet now those words she had once let pass lightly were all suddenly coming back to mind.

‘…I can’t handle this.’

Wi So-yeon felt as though her face might burn up.

Into the ear of the trembling girl, Mok Gyeong-un whispered,

“Then will you become my woman?”

“Y-your woman?”

At those words, Wi So-yeon’s eyes trembled.

She had never once imagined becoming someone’s woman.

And already she was feeling a strange emotion toward Mok Gyeong-un, so after hearing words like these her face felt not just hot but as if it might melt away.

To her, Mok Gyeong-un said,

“Why are you not answering?”

“…”

“If you do not answer, then I will take that as meaning you do not want…”

-Slide!

With those words, Mok Gyeong-un began to loosen the hand wrapped around her waist.

Then Wi So-yeon hurriedly threw both arms around Mok Gyeong-un’s neck and, at the peak of embarrassment, said,

“W-who said I disliked it? I… I only mean it is too fast. We still barely know each other…”

“Then we can get to know each other starting now.”

“What?”

It was at that very moment.

“Haak!”

At the first sensation of its kind she had ever felt from below, a groan burst from Wi So-yeon’s mouth.

Flustered, she trembled at the waist and did not know what to do.

‘It… entered.’

It had been far too sudden.

For her, who had long endured the pain of severed meridians, this did not even belong to the category of pain.

She was simply bewildered beyond measure.

It was so completely different from what she had heard.

She thought there was supposed to be a gentler process first, yet he had entered her so directly.

“Haa… haa… you… too suddenly…”

“You said we should get to know each other.”

-Flush!

At Mok Gyeong-un’s words, Wi So-yeon trembled and at a loss buried her face in Mok Gyeong-un’s chest.

Why was this fellow far more direct and beast-like than he looked?

It was far too embarrassing.

Though they were the only two still conscious in the surroundings, what on earth was this, suddenly doing such a thing in the middle of the courtyard?

“What is wrong? Surely you are not embarrassed. It is only the two of us anyway.”

-Slide!

With those words, Mok Gyeong-un moved his waist.

“Hngh.”

At Mok Gyeong-un’s movement without any warning, Wi So-yeon’s face trembled and she bit down hard on her lip.

It was hard to suppress the sound that was about to burst from her mouth.

“You… you really…”

You terrible man.

She had said she allowed him, but why was he pressing her so hard?

Wi So-yeon whispered as though pleading,

“Please, inside…”

At those words, Mok Gyeong-un gave a faint laugh.

Then, still in that state, he rose from his place and carried Wi So-yeon in his arms into the main hall.

Before long, intense cries of passion burst from within the main hall.