Chapter 200: Chapter 43. Blue in the Darkness

When I dimly regained consciousness, a long shadow was hanging over me.

My whole body felt unbearably heavy.

My limbs sagged like waterlogged cotton and still refused to move, while my thoughts remained hazy.

I thought I could hear people murmuring somewhere far away.

Then an urgent voice reached me.

“Sohae!”

“Young Clan Head, her wounds... We need to... slowly, somewhere soft...!”

“Sohae! Can you hear me?”

I barely managed to open my eyes.

Someone was leaning over me, shouting something, but my vision was too blurred to make out his face.

Who is that...?

“You can’t... She has to breathe... Sohae. You need to... Spit it out, please. All right?”

Spit out what?

I blinked slowly, unable to understand.

Then he forced my mouth open.

Long fingers swept through my mouth and scraped along the roof of it.

My airway suddenly cleared, and I burst into coughing.

“Khk! Cough, cough...”

Only then did I realize a clot of blood had been blocking my throat.

Leaning against him, I retched up mouthful after mouthful of blood.

“It’s all right. You’re doing well. Get it all out. Yes, that’s it.”

His gentle voice brushed my ear as if to reassure me.

He turned my head toward himself and helped me spit out the clots filling my mouth.

When I sagged weakly against his arm, soft silk pressed against my cheek.

Everything in my vision was red.

The sight of pristine white silk soaking through with blood until it turned crimson felt strangely unreal.

Mostly, I found myself wondering how a person could possibly vomit this much blood.

There ought to have been a coppery stench, yet I could smell nothing at all.

My senses must have gone numb.

I stared blankly at the blood for a while before giving a bitter laugh at myself.

...I’m so weak.

I was too weak to protect Yeon Ryang.

So uselessly weak that I couldn’t even protect myself, and because of that...

Heat surged through my chest as though it were on fire.

I hated my own helplessness.

As ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) if I could vomit out my guilt along with it, I kept coughing up blood.

“Cough, cough!”

“Damn it, the bleeding won’t stop. Jeokroe, right now—!”

“The medicine isn’t working. Miss Tang, calm your heart... You must... If inner demons take hold...!”

The shouting around me drifted farther and farther away.

Even the searing pain in my left arm gradually faded until it no longer felt like mine.

The unfamiliar numbness frightened me.

Am I dying?

Not yet... I can’t. I still have to bring Yeon Ryang back...

“Stand guard.”

“Young Clan Head! You can’t recklessly... someone from another sect... You’ll be in danger too! Even if you... for heaven’s sake, listen to me. This is driving me insane.”

“Sohae, I’m going to... Just hold on a little...”

Someone said something as he pressed close against me, but everything sounded muffled, as though I were underwater.

The only thing I understood was that he had pulled me tightly into his arms.

Who are you?

Even that question faded together with my clouding consciousness.

Soon, the world fell silent again.

Sound vanished.

Sensation dulled.

The presences around me disappeared one by one.

There was only darkness.

A cold that pierced all the way into my bones told me something had gone terribly wrong.

Instinctively, I knew.

If I failed to hold on here, I would die.

I fought desperately to remain conscious.

Then, from somewhere, a fresh, invigorating energy began flowing into me.

I greedily accepted the inner force pouring in, and the crushing tightness in my chest eased.

A blue glow like a clear sky gently wrapped around my body, soothing me.

But the relief only made my thirst worse.

More.

Just a little more.

I lost all reason and clung to it, demanding more.

An enormous flood of power suddenly poured into me.

Brilliant blue soaked into my parched core and straightened the chaotic flow of blood and energy within me.

The unfamiliar force circulated through my body, driving out the remnants of demonic corruption and gradually dyeing my energy channels blue.

At the same time, sensation began returning.

I could hear the heartbeat of the person holding me.

I felt the hand firmly supporting my back.

Hot breath brushed my forehead, and a pleasant scent teased my nose.

When I drew a deep breath, the fragrance of humid summer filled my lungs.

I struggled to move my fingertips and threw myself into that vivid blue sky.

The inner force he gave me tasted so sweet that I did not want to leave his side.

No.

I could not leave.

I needed to take in even a little more of that pure energy.

I had to devour every scrap of it if I wanted to live.

Even as I desperately latched on, he showed no sign of reluctance.

Instead, he tightened the arm around me as though telling me it was all right and continued giving me his power.

I had no idea who was sharing his inner force with me.

But one thing was certain.

He was not my enemy.

The moment I became convinced he would not hurt me, the tension slowly drained from my rigid body.

The shadow of death that had been creeping around my throat began to fade and lose its shape.

I buried my face against his chest and steadied my breathing.

Relief loosened my desperate grip on consciousness.

I wanted to rest.

Just a little.

Just a little while.

Two hours. Just two hours.

Then I’ll get up again...

Again...

...

*****

Jeokroe gripped the hilt of his sword so tightly that he chewed his lip bloody.

Drops of blood trickled from the split skin, but he paid them no attention.

With the stench of blood saturating the entire place, what difference did a few drops of his own make?

He stared at the violently surging flow of inner force and let out a pained groan.

Watching such a tremendous amount of power drain away made his insides burn with anxiety.

His master had gone mad.

There was no other explanation for something this insane.

He was actually pouring his own inner force directly into another person!

Even supreme masters coveted precious medicines because every scrap of cultivated power mattered.

What sort of lunatic in all the world would simply pour his own inner force into someone else?

It was certainly tragic that Tang Sohae had been injured badly enough to hover between life and death.

But that was an entirely different matter from his master risking his own life to save her.

There was not even any certainty that she could be saved.

Even to Jeokroe, who knew next to nothing about medicine, Tang Sohae looked little different from a corpse.

If both of them died right in front of him, how was he supposed to deal with the aftermath?

Jeokroe paced helplessly.

He wanted to tear the two of them apart immediately, but interfering recklessly could put Namgung Hwi in even greater danger.

Yet if he simply stood by, all the cultivation Namgung Hwi had painstakingly accumulated could be reduced to nothing.

Caught between two impossible choices, Jeokroe desperately searched for a solution.

Then his body suddenly swayed, and he dropped to one knee without even realizing it.

A martial artist was approaching rapidly.

The killing intent pouring from the newcomer was so intense that Jeokroe’s entire body locked stiff.

A demonic practitioner?

Pressed down by the terrifying presence, Jeokroe forced himself to remain calm and adjusted his grip on his sword.

At that instant, someone burst in and slammed him to the ground.

Before he had any chance to resist, his vital points were sealed.

Jeokroe sucked in a startled breath at the demonic glare fixed upon him.

Eyes containing dark-blue flames burned with savage fury.

“You bastards are from the Namgung Clan.”

The killing intent was so thick that Jeokroe had mistaken him for a demonic practitioner.

Yet the face was unmistakably familiar.

His voice came out strangled with shock.

“P-Poison King...?”

*****

Gray smoke rose from Tang Jung’s long pipe.

He stared into the empty air, trying to suppress the turmoil boiling inside him.

The cloud-choked sky was as dark and heavy as his own heart.

He lightly shook the pipe as he listened to the faint breathing from inside the room.

Three months had already passed since he had begun spending sleepless nights in fear that those fragile breaths might stop, that the child might finally relinquish her hold on life.

Yet his one and only disciple still hovered at death’s door.

He had used every method he knew.

At best, he had managed to keep her breathing.

There had been no improvement.

With no other choice, he had sent for Im Seoryak.

But that damned old monster must have smeared honey all over the Bamboo Sea, because she still had not shown herself.

Seoryak... Hurry up and get here.

Tang Jung anxiously chewed his lip, then took a breath and suppressed the urge to twist the Clan Head’s neck off.

Who could he blame?

This was the consequence of his own stupidity.

He had protected those shortsighted fools simply because they shared his blood.

Tang Jung pressed hard at the corners of his eyes, forcing down his fury.

Then suddenly he threw aside his pipe and rushed out in a panic.

The presence he had been waiting for so desperately was finally approaching.

“Seoryak...!”

Im Seoryak had been ready to snap at him for summoning her around as though she had nothing better to do.

At Tang Jung’s shout, however, she stopped short and closed her mouth.

The old man who usually looked down on everyone with that aloof, insufferable expression was in a state completely unlike himself.

Seoryak...

It reminded her of that day.

The day he had looked up at her with despair in his eyes while clutching the blood-soaked Jade Ring in his arms.

A ripple spread through Seoryak’s heart as well.

This was a man who would make deals when necessary but never lower himself enough to beg.

Yet he had come crawling to her asking for help.

So this was why.

Damn it.

If it had been a minor injury, he would never have looked like this.

Realizing how serious the situation was, Seoryak did not waste time with questions.

She jerked her chin.

“The child?”

“This way. She hasn’t regained consciousness once. Her condition is bad.”

“Bad enough that even you can’t do anything? Where is she injured? Unless she’s been consumed by demonic corruption—”

Tang Jung’s teeth ground together.

The surge of killing intent told Seoryak everything she needed to know.

She sighed.

The Demonic Sect again.

You really are cursed with rotten luck, old monster.

She decided not to ask for the details.

If she provoked the old monster while he was barely holding on to his reason, he was liable to start cutting people down without caring who stood in front of him.

It would hardly be the first time.

Seoryak quietly opened the door and entered the patient’s room.

The moment she sat on the edge of the bed, her brows drew together.

The child before her was nothing like the lively girl she remembered.

Tang Sohae lay there utterly broken, so badly injured that Seoryak could not help wondering what in the world had happened to her.

And with a face that looked exactly like Tang Hwayeon’s.