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Brought to you by Valir Scans! To support our team and enjoy the latest releases, please read directly on our official site: valirscans.org
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Chapter 1
A small shadow climbed the mountain alone.
'So cold.'
Hong Seol opened her frost-bitten hands and breathed warm air onto them with a soft "hoo." But before the warmth could thaw her palms, ‌‌‌icy snowflakes landed there first.
"Is this really what ‌‌‌snow is?"
In An Hui Province where Hong Seol lived, snow rarely fell. The only ‌‌‌place where blizzards raged was the ‌‌‌peak of Dae Chuk Mountain.
"So snow comes together with the cold."
Hong Seol had never even climbed over the walls of Myo Ga Jang by herself. There was no way for the young girl to know how biting and terrifying snow could be.
Trembling, Hong Seol looked up.
When she first set foot on the mountainside, the sky had been bright.
Now, from the darkened heavens, fluffy snowflakes drifted down in a gentle dance.
Cold wind kept seeping through the gaps in Hong Seol's tattered clothes.
"Achoo!"
This wouldn't do at all.
Hong Seol somersaulted through the air. In an instant, the eight-year-old girl vanished, replaced by a small kitten. Her entire body was covered in soft pink fur, with only her muzzle, ears, front paws, and hind paws tinged brown.
'Why didn't anyone tell me the mountain peak was this cold?'
Even in cat form, the cold pierced through her fur.
The frigid wind lashed her face, and tears streamed down. Soon her fur froze stiff along the tear tracks.
Lick.
Hong Seol licked her frozen paws a few times and groomed her face like a cat. But it was useless. The moment she rubbed away the ice, her face froze over ‌‌‌‌again. Fear gripped her.
'Can I reach the peak before my fur freezes solid?'
Hong Seol lifted her head and gauged the remaining distance. Through the ‌‌‌‌swirling snow, the mountain peak was faintly visible.
'If only I could use my inner strength, I could bound up there in ‌‌one leap.'
"Curse this weakness! Shame upon Myo Ga Jang!"
The words she'd heard her whole life echoed in her ears. Hong Seol hunched her shoulders and shivered. ‌‌‌
'I can't give up here. If ‌‌I do, Mother will hate me forever.'
* * *
The moment Hong Seol reached the summit, the blizzard that had lashed her face stopped as if it had never been.
"Wow!"
There, just as her mother had said, was an enormous lake.
"When you arrive, throw a large stone into the lake."
Hong Seol flipped a ‌‌‌somersault. The small kitten instantly transformed back into a ragged child.
After ‌‌‌glancing around for a moment, Hong Seol picked up what she considered a large stone with her tiny hands.
Splash.
As ripples spread across the lake, a voice echoed from somewhere.
- Ow. Who dares throw stones at me?
"Oh!"
Startled by the sudden voice transmission, Hong Seol crouched down flat.
Young Hong Seol had no way of knowing that masters could transmit sound from great distances with perfect secrecy.
- No answer? Then I shall have to teach you a lesson!
The moment the words left her lips, a tremendous spray of water erupted from the center of the lake, and a colossal white pillar surged upward. No—it wasn't a pillar at all, but an enormous serpent.
'S-so terrifying!' ‌‌
Hong Seol's legs trembled ‌‌uncontrollably. Yet she could not retreat now. ‌‌
Hong Seol forced the words from her throat with great effort.
"A-are you the master of this lake?"
The Venom King, Dang Yi Mu, who heard these words, was utterly astounded.
A legendary serpent-human of renown, and ‌‌‌‌no less than the Grand Elder of the Sa Cheon Dang Family itself.
In days past, most would flee at the mere sight of his shadow, their souls scattered in terror.
Yet somehow, this barely-fledged child—not content with hurling stones—now dared to speak to him.
'Have I truly been away from the martial world for so long, resting in seclusion?'
Dang Yi Mu released a quiet sigh before sending a transmission of sound to the insignificant child before him.
- Indeed, it seems all in An Hui Province call me the "Master of the Lake."
"Th-then...."
Hong Seol carefully recalled her mother's words.
"Go and tell the Master of the Lake: ‌‌‌'Please give me an inner core.'"
Merely thinking of such a request caused sweat to bead upon her small palms.
'I never imagined the Master of the Lake would be such a terrifying serpent....' ‌‌‌
Yet she could not return empty-handed and ‌‌disappoint her mother.
Hong Seol summoned her courage ‌‌with great difficulty.
"P-please ‌‌‌g-give me an inner core."
- What did you just say?
Dang Yi Mu was dumbfounded.
What in the world was an inner core?
It was the crystallized essence of inner force, condensed within the body of an animal that had lived long enough to ‌‌‌become a sentient being.
To ask a living being for ‌their inner core was tantamount to saying: 'Please die gracefully for me.'
And to make such a request of a master of the Transformation Realm like Dang Yi Mu?
It was nothing less than saying: 'Please kill me.'
'Someone has borrowed my hand to take this child's life.'
The experienced Dang Yi Mu immediately grasped the true nature of the situation.
Yet the young Hong ‌‌Seol could not ‌‌‌‌possibly understand. She merely pressed her trembling palms together and extended them toward Dang Yi Mu.
"Please give ‌me an inner core."
In that moment, a voice like thunder echoing ‌‌across heaven and earth rang out ‌‌‌from somewhere.
"Well, what an extraordinary spectacle I have witnessed."
Hong Seol lifted her head.
From a distance, a man carrying a gourd bottle approached with heavy footsteps.
His hair was streaked with white, and a long scar ran down his right cheek. Upon the chest of ‌‌‌his blue martial robe, cloud-shaped embroidery gleamed distinctly.
Wait—cloud-shaped embroidery?!
"Eek!"
Startled, Hong Seol bolted and hid behind a nearby ‌‌‌tree.
'Th-the ‌Nam Goong Family!'
My small heart pounded wildly.
This ‌‌‌‌‌was the first time I had seen a dog-form humanoid from the Nam Goong Family up close, though I had heard tales of them my entire life.
'The Nam Goong ‌‌‌Family despises cat-form humanoids, or so I've been told. If this person discovers I'm a cat-form humanoid, he'll surely try to harm me!'
Hong Seol found the Nam Goong Family far more terrifying than the massive serpent before me. A lifetime spent in Myo Ga Jang hearing accounts of their atrocities had instilled this fear.
"Those cruel Nam Goong Family bastards have diminished Myo Ga Jang's power to nothing!"
"Our martial artists suffered at the hands of the Nam Goong's Changjeon Brigade! Every last one of them had their throats torn out!"
'A dog-form humanoid, a dog-form humanoid... I'm so frightened. What ‌‌‌‌should I do?'
The Nam Goong Family was originally a wolf clan renowned throughout the martial world.
Yet within Myo Ga Jang, a cat clan, they were deliberately called "dogs" as a slur.
So it was hardly surprising that young Hong Seol had mistaken them for dog-form humanoids.
In that moment, the Nam Goong Family man had drawn so close that I had to look up to meet his gaze.
He spoke to me in a stern voice.
"You there—why do you need this creature's inner core?"
The instant our eyes met, my vision darkened and an inexplicable ringing filled my ears. My heart thrashed so violently that my mind went blank in an instant.
'I... I have to escape!'
Hong Seol tumbled frantically through the air in a somersault.
The next moment, with a soft pop, a tiny kitten burst from behind a tree.
"Wait, that direction is a cliff!"
The ‌‌‌man had no chance to throw himself forward. In an instant, the minuscule cat's body plummeted over the precipice.
* * *
Down, ever downward.
Hong Seol tumbled endlessly through the void.
The cold had stiffened my joints until I could no longer control my body. The kitten's frame, having struck the cliff face multiple times already, was broken and bruised in countless places.
Thud.
At last, Hong Seol landed upon a cold stone slab and cried out in pain.
'Mother, it hurts so much.'
I'm sorry.
I won't be able to bring you the inner core...
But the dying kitten's cries received no answer from her mother, as was only natural.
Then it happened.
Two ‌‌black shadows descended the cliff face and loomed over my small body.
One was the Nam Goong Family man I had seen moments before, and the other wore a green martial robe with white hair and crimson eyes.
'I need to escape...'
Even as the green-robed man ‌‌‌checked my pulse, I could not twitch a single paw. Only a faint, pitiful "meow" escaped my lips.
The Nam Goong Family man asked gravely.
"Dang Yi Mu, what is the child's condition?"
"There is no hope."
The man called Dang Yi Mu shook his head.
"If the child had ‌‌learned even basic martial arts, a fall from this height would not be fatal. Step aside. Let me try channeling some inner force into her."
"...This child's meridians are severed, Nam Goong Ho."
At those words, the man called Nam Goong Ho's expression visibly hardened.
A blood vessel is the pathway through which inner force flows.
No matter how fine a cart might be, if the road is severed, there is no way to pass. It meant that even infusing inner force would not revive it.
Nam Goong Ho sighed deeply.
"So this child is the eldest daughter of ‌the notorious Myo Ga Jang. The one who cannot use inner force."
"Yes. Whoever sent her, their intention is transparent. They deliberately sent her to die."
Lying still, Hong Seol listened to their conversation, and tears pooled at the corners of her eyes.
'Mother was the one who sent me to Dae Chuk Mountain. Did Mother wish for my death...?'
If that were true, everything made sense. ‌‍‌‌
Why she ‌‌‌had not been told how bitterly cold Dae Chuk Mountain was, nor that the lake's master was a colossal serpent.
'Because I am half-crippled, she hoped I would never return....'
Hong Seol's ragged, sorrowful breathing gradually grew shallow.
"Tsk."
Nam Goong Ho clicked his tongue with pity and removed his outer robe. Seeing this, Dang Yi Mu spoke with surprise.
"Are the Nam Goong Family and Myo Ga Jang not constantly at each other's throats?"
"...She is but a pitiful, innocent child, Dang Yi Mu."
A martial robe embroidered with cloud patterns draped over the ‌‌‌‌small body of the kitten. It became Hong Seol's burial shroud.
"What a harsh life you must have lived. Now rest ‌‌‌‌‌in peace."
Nam Goong Ho carefully closed Hong Seol's eyes.
'His hands are warmer than I expected....'
With her head resting against his palm, Hong Seol's heart still called out to the one she missed most.
'Mother...!'
With that ‌final cry, the small kitten bid farewell to the world.
The falling snow gently wrapped the body of Hong Seol, covered in the blue robe, in its warmth.
* * *
From somewhere deep in her mind, a faint melody echoed.
'This song...?'
It was Mother's lullaby from those distant childhood days.
Seized by longing, Hong ‌‌‌Seol found herself humming a few notes of that song. Then her wrist suddenly burned as if touched by flame, and that heat surged through her entire body in an instant.
"Ah!"
Hong Seol's eyes finally opened.
The first thing that met her gaze was an enormous lake and ‌‌‌a white serpent. The biting wind lashed fiercely against Hong Seol's cheeks as she stood before them.
"This is... the summit of Dae Chuk Mountain?"
Hong Seol touched her numb cheeks.
'I was certain I fell from the cliff and died just moments ‌‌‌ago?'
Hong ‌‌‌‌‌Seol gazed down at her skeletal wrist. The place that ‌‌‌had shattered against the ‌‌rocks was completely intact, without a trace. It was utterly unbelievable.
'What has happened?'
Had I simply fallen asleep and dreamed during that brief moment?
Yet... it felt far too vivid to ‌‌‌‌be merely a dream.
Then, a familiar voice reached her ‌‌‌‌ears.
"Well, what a remarkable spectacle this is."
Hm?
It was a voice I had heard before. I blinked and lifted my head.
In the distance, a man in a martial robe embroidered with cloud patterns—Nam ‌Goong Ho—approached, cradling a gourd flask in his hand.

---------------
Brought to you by Valir Scans! To support our team and enjoy the latest ‌‌releases, please read ‌directly on our official site: valirscans.org
---------------