Surviving as the Villainess’s Servant in a Martial Arts Novel – Chapter 79

Author: Cireng

Chapter 79

[To the young lady I miss.

Young lady, have you been well all this time?

It’s been a while since I wrote you a letter, hasn’t it?

It’s already been five years.

I’ve been doing all right in the meantime.

Sometimes I practice martial arts, sometimes I take care of the affairs of the Cult, and sometimes I go outside.

That doesn’t mean my martial arts training is progressing quickly, though. My rate of cultivation has been getting slower and slower.

To put it simply, two problems have arisen.

The first is that I took it too lightly that I was going to contain two kinds of energy within one body.

The two opposing energies can’t harmonize and are constantly pushing each other away. Sometimes they collide violently as they fight to take possession of my body, and every time that happens, it affects me physically.

There was even a time when I fainted from the pain while circulating my qi. So for now, I’m only training to the extent that it doesn’t put too much strain on my body.

And the second problem is…

One of the important incantations of the divine art has been lost.

Hyeon and I found this out far too late. Hyeon discovered it while wondering if I could learn the final incantation ahead of time after seeing how much pain I was in.

There was a section in the final incantation where the context didn’t connect.

According to Hyeon, it was quite malicious. If I had continued practicing without knowing anything was wrong, I would have either fallen into qi deviation or gone mad because the turbid qi would seep into my brain.

But this is a really important part.

It’s the part about training the Conception and Governing Vessels, because the Conception Vessel and Governing Vessel are the respective pathways of yin and yang. According to the incantation, I have to simultaneously circulate the extreme-yin and extreme-yang energies through them and open up the Conception and Governing Vessels. Only then can the two energies be combined.

But since one crucial passage in the middle is missing, figuring out how to combine the two energies has become impossible.

I felt so hopeless when I found that out.

I’ve already almost finished training all the Six Yang Meridians. The yang energy has grown to be just as strong as the yin energy, so if the two energies keep colliding…

…It can’t be helped.

All I can do is hope that I don’t go mad or die before I meet you.

I’ll do everything I can until then, too. At the very least, I need to still be sane enough to recognize you when we meet again.

So, young lady.

Please appear in front of me soon.

It’s too much to hide away for five whole years, you know? Even when I hear that someone matching your appearance has been spotted, they always turn out to be someone else…

But I won’t give up.

I hope we can meet soon.]

[To the young lady.

Young lady, I’ve been wandering the martial world alone for a while now.

I’m already in my late teens, so I can’t keep relying on Eom Papa forever, can I? I also need to get used to the outside world if I want to find you.

At first, I was a little nervous.

They say the martial world is a heartless place filled with schemes and intrigue. I wondered if I’d get hit from behind the moment I stepped into it.

But people are the same everywhere.

There are good people and bad people, righteous people and cowardly people. Regardless of whether they belong to the orthodox or unorthodox side.

If there’s one difference, I suppose it’s that the justice of those with power ultimately prevails.

Funnily enough, I’m on the powerful side.

To be honest, when I was living in the mountains, I couldn’t tell how strong I’d become, but I… turned out to be pretty strong?

I ran into a few bandits recently, and even though I only used one-tenth of my power, they went flying with a single blow. It feels like just yesterday that I was nearly beaten to death by some unorthodox thugs…

But I’m not happy about it. It’s only half-formed power that hurts my own body by throwing my qi into disorder if I use even a little too much.

So I’ve been worrying a lot lately.

The situation of the Cult is getting worse and worse.

As it turns out, after the destruction of the Xiao Family, similar things happened to several other small and medium-sized sects as well.

So the anger toward the Demonic Cult in the Central Plains is growing increasingly fierce. And they’ll think that ‘the Demonic Cult’ is our Gwangjin Cult.

It really is ridiculous.

The Cult has been living like a dead mouse for years. I know that for certain because I’ve been entrusted with all the major affairs of the Cult. Most of the remaining believers aren’t even powerful people…

Then who on earth is committing these acts?

Who is impersonating the Demonic Cult, and for what purpose, throwing the martial world into chaos?

That’s why I’ve been investigating it lately. Somehow, I feel like if I chase the culprit, I might uncover the truth behind what happened to the Xiao Family at the end of it.

More than anything… wouldn’t I be able to meet you?

If you’ve recovered and learned martial arts, I think you would probably be chasing after the mastermind behind the So Family’s destruction. Though I have a feeling you might also misunderstand and think it was the Cult’s doing…

Still, when we meet again, I’ll explain everything to you. I’ll make sure to explain it in detail so you won’t misunderstand.

I promise.

If only we can meet…]

[To the young lady I miss so, so, so much♥

Young lady! It’s me, Dan Yeonjeong~!

No, no, it’s me, Seo Dan! I’ve been using my alias outside lately, so I keep getting confused about my own name, you know?

Why am I in such a good mood today?

Because, because, because~ I drank alcohol!

Ah, don’t scold me. I’m already twenty years old, you know!

I’m an adult now, so I’ve learned the taste of alcohol~.

I never liked alcohol in the first place, you know? There’s something called soju where I used to live, too, but drinking it felt like pouring chemical alcohol straight into my mouth.

I used to wonder how anyone could drink something that tasted so awful… but I think I understand now.

It makes me feel good when I drink it~!

It’s not like I deliberately tried to figure out what this feeling was. I thought it was water and downed it in one shot, but it turned out to be strong kaoliang liquor.

Wow, but as soon as I drank it, I got tipsy, and the pain gradually disappeared!

The convulsions that felt like my body was being torn apart completely subsided, and I felt perfectly fine. And as if that weren’t enough, my whole body felt like it was floating as though I’d ascended to a celestial realm, and all my worries and troubles disappeared too!

Do you know what the best part is?

You appear right in front of me!

Your face has been getting blurry in my memory lately. I was upset because I couldn’t remember it clearly…

But when I drink, I can see you so clearly! And not only that, you appear right in front of me as vividly as if I saw you yesterday, moving around right before my eyes!

And it’s not just you.

Mother, Aso, Uncle Hwang, Brother Im, the Chief Steward, the Manor Lord, everyone from the Xiao Family, too.

They’re all beside me. They’re right by my side, talking, playing around, and laughing happily as if nothing ever happened!

Look, even now Aso is complaining beside me, asking why I’m writing such a long-winded letter. He’s definitely jealous. He’s probably saying, ‘Why don’t you ever write a letter like that to me?’…

Ah, ah, young lady. Aso is hitting me! He’s hitting poor, delicate me!

Mother, please say something to Aso. Young lady, don’t just laugh like that either; stop Aso… Huh? Since when did you start laughing like that?

You look nice when you smile.

Please keep smiling beside me from now on…]

[To the young lady.

I’m sorry. I made a fool of myself last time, didn’t I?

Sometimes I’m like this when I drink too much.

Illusions appear around me, and I feel like I’m in another world.

At first, I could only vaguely see their figures, but at some point they started moving and even talking to me.

When I watch them, it feels as though I’ve gone back to the time when I lived at the So Family. Back to those happy days, as though I could live like that for the rest of my life…

But it’s all just a daydream.

When I wake from the dream, I’m alone in the end.

Sometimes that fact is unbearably painful, so I keep drinking. Thinking that maybe I can stay in the dream just a little longer.

Haha… Have I finally gone mad?

Am I going to go insane like this and die…?

To be honest, I’m not afraid of dying.

Sometimes I even think that it might be better to die than to suffer through this kind of pain.

But I can’t die because I’m worried about what happens afterward. When I think of you wandering around looking for me without even knowing that I’m dead, I can’t bring myself to close my eyes in peace…

So don’t worry. I’ll endure until I meet you, too.

But please appear in my dreams often.

My tolerance for alcohol has increased lately, so I don’t even get drunk very easily anymore.

There are many days when I don’t dream at all, and even when I do, I wake up almost immediately. It’s already been several months since I last saw you in my dreams.

So I’m a little sad.

A little… tired, too.

Please come to me tonight.

Then I think I’ll be able to sleep peacefully…]

[No matter where I go, I can’t find her.

She can’t be seen anywhere.

No matter how much I stir up the martial world, no matter how much money I scatter to buy up information.

I can’t hear a single thing about the young lady.

Where could she be?

Where is she?

Is she…… still alive?

What if she isn’t?