An attack?
The unexpected word suddenly echoed in my ears, and I looked back at the servant in dismay.
“An attack, you say?”
“Several masked individuals have jumped over the monastery wall. The Taoist priest guarding the building where the young master and young ladies are staying said to inform the others!”
The priest guarding the building…
‘Could that be Ha Hyun?’
I felt dizzy for a moment.
No, the problem didn’t end with finding the eldest son; something more is happening. What’s going on that has caused such an uproar? When I left the volcano, I never thought it would be like catching a bus.
‘Hold on, let’s get a grip.’
The situation had taken such an abrupt turn that I unwittingly began to avoid reality.
I bit my lip hard, then released it and nodded at the servant.
“We need to go there.”
“I know the quickest route. Follow me!”
My earlier plan was now scrapped. I quickly followed the servant who led the way.
But how far had we run?
As my confused mind began to clear due to the sudden news, my rationality gradually reclaimed its place. Sensing a newfound sense of danger, I slowed my pace and surveyed my surroundings.
I didn’t know the entire layout of the monastery, and I had wandered quite far from the core while looking for the eldest son, which made me somewhat careless.
‘I trusted him because he said it was a quicker path…’
I realized too late.
The servant was leading me towards the outskirts of the monastery.
‘How long has it been since I felt any signs of life?’
Come to think of it, even the torches that had been burning here and there throughout the monastery had vanished from sight. The moon, too, was hidden behind clouds, making the surroundings dark.
I slowly stopped walking.
When I did not follow, the servant ahead of me also stopped. Besides the faint sound of wind from afar, all was silent.
‘Even if he used provocative words… to fall for such a scheme.’
Inwardly sighing deeply, I tightly gripped the handle of my sword.
My heart began to race faster. The burden coming from the fact that my opponent was a person, and what I was holding could take a life depending on how I used it.
But dealing with enemies emotionally is problematic in this world. I had to gain the upper hand.
The moment the servant turned around.
‘Now.’
I lunged forward and swung my sword horizontally with all my might.
Bang!
The servant, as if anticipating my move, barely managed to block my sword with his hand.
Even after blocking the swung sword with my inner power, a hefty noise rang out instead of my wrist flying off. It meant that the opponent was also capable of manipulating inner power at least as well as I could—a master in his own right.
‘Is he originally a practitioner of inner arts?’
I had never faced a practitioner before.
‘No, this is actually my first real fight.’
My senses were on high alert. However, due to only practicing through sparring, I wasn’t quite sure how to distribute my inner power. I tried to maintain as relaxed an expression as possible; there’s no point in showing tension, but I wasn’t sure if I looked convincing.
The opponent, who had backed off considerably, was mumbling as he fiddled with his own hand.
“Hmm, not bad.”
The voice sounded familiar.
As if to further assure me, just then, the clouds that had been covering the moon moved aside, and moonlight poured down onto the earth. The face illuminated underneath…
“I was surprised. Already at the peak level? You’re quick.”
It was the fake eldest son I had seen a few hours ago.
“So that’s your true form?”
“Isn’t it decent?”
Due to my opponent stepping back, my sword was also pushed slightly to the side. Maintaining my guard so I could attack at any moment, I watched him intently.
Contrary to me, who was tense, he seemed as relaxed as when he was standing in front of the Four Hundred earlier.
“Guess you don’t match the taste of the honorable Daoist. That’s going to be a problem for me, too…”
I let him babble while I observed him.
‘He said I’m advancing quickly, but he’s at least on a similar level to me.’
Even among martial artists of the same level, the difference arises from the skills they’ve learned and their experiences. Unlike me, who was experiencing a real fight for the first time, he seemed comfortable in this standoff.
“Don’t want to mix words with me?”
Why was he so chummy before?
“…Because you only speak worthless words. Where are the Four Hundred?”
“Ahh.”
He grinned.
“I guess you consider that valuable conversation. Well, they’re probably trapped in a formation by now. I’m also looking forward to how quickly they can escape.”
Listening to him, it seemed he had lured the Four Hundred into a formation and returned here. However, I had no idea why he would bother to do that. Was there still something he had to do in this battlefield?
‘Or perhaps.’
Is confronting me like this his “task”?
Male lead is a Divorced Husband
She said to him: “Tell me, what makes you like me? I’ll change it!”
Liu Changning transmigrated into a female cannon fodder character in a female-dominant novel.
After reading the first half of the novel’s plot, the first thing she did upon transmigration was to divorce the Pan Jinlian-style male protagonist she had just married.
She indulged herself, pretending to be ugly and poor.
But as time passed, the way that man looked at her became more and more unusual…
Liu Changning was dumbfounded: Tell me, what makes you like me? I’ll change!
――
This lifetime, Pei Yuanshao was rejected by the same woman twice!
The first time, she drove him away. Forced by the situation, he endured the waves of anger in his heart, yielding and humbling himself.
That person lay slanted on a rocking chair, her sallow face emotionless: “If you don’t want a divorce, go cook!”
Pei Yuanshao’s face was dark and gloomy: “You!”
The second time, after the crisis in Jinling City was resolved, the new emperor sent someone to pick him up. He turned around, stammering: “I… I have to go. If you keep me…”
That person lay on the kang bed, her back to him, as if she had long anticipated this day, crisp and clear: “Goodbye!”
Pei Yuanshao was so angry his fingers trembled: “You… you!”
The mission of family and country made him restrain himself, averting his eyes and turning to leave this broken household.
Two years later, they met again. Seeing her ethereal face, his body shook like a sieve.
“She was originally a ‘she’!”
At the Qionglin Banquet, the top scholar of the imperial examination, a talented person with exceptional speech and conduct, all the unmarried young gentlemen from aristocratic families looked at her with shy and timid eyes.
The peerless imperial official Pei Yuanshao felt the anger in his heart erupt. He pointed at the woman surrounded by the crowd at the Qionglin Banquet, his thin lips slightly curled: “Little sister, I wants that person to be the wife-master of my Mingde Prince Manor.”
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