Book 10 Chapter 15

The Shackles of Na Yerim

- Psychological Trauma

The man stood before her, dressed in clothes as dark as the night.

As Dokko Ryong saw him, a chilling cold flowed through her eyes.

"Keu-euk!"

The moment she saw the man, Dokko Ryong's blindfolded left eye throbbed as if seared by fire. How could she ever forget the man who had taken one of her eyes? Dokko Ryong could never forgive him. That man who had deceived her and toyed with her heart! How much had she gnashed her teeth in her heart, plotting revenge against him!

Screeeech.

Slowly, her sword was drawn from its scabbard. From the tip of her outstretched sword, killing intent emanated, aiming for his heart. The opportunity for the revenge she had longed for had finally come. But he continued to smile, unperturbed by the killing intent from her sword. Dokko Ryong hated that smile with a shudder. She felt so foolish for having fallen for that smile once. She channeled all her inner strength into the tip of her sword.

"From today, I will erase your lingering image from my heart."

Having spoken, Dokko Ryong leaped with all her might and thrust her sword forward.

Thwack!

The sensation of the sword piercing his body was vividly conveyed to her. But he made no move to evade it.

"…Why?"

Dokko Ryong felt as though the situation was unfolding too easily. Surely, her opponent was not a man who would fall so easily to such an attack.

"Kuhuhuh, are you at peace now?"

Despite having a sword through his heart, the man wore a surprisingly strange smile. He grasped the blade that pierced his heart with his hand. Only the remaining length of the sword now separated them. Blood flowed down the blade to her hand. Her hand, gripping the sword hilt, became stained red. The blood dripped from her hand, painting a deep blood flower on the floor.

"Huhuhu, even if you do that, you cannot escape my grasp. You are mine."

He raised his hand and lifted Dokko Ryong's chin. Their gazes met. It was an indescribably strange situation. He brought his bloodied lips to hers. Dokko Ryong tried to resist, but she was as helpless as a butterfly caught in a spiderweb. Their lips slowly met. The man's blood surged into her mouth.

"Let go!"

Dokko Ryong shoved the man away with all her might and swung her sword again.

Fwoosh!

Her sword split his form in two. But by then, the man had already vanished.

"No… This can't be."

She was like a lost soul. She looked at her bloodstained hand and touched her lips. There was no trace of blood anywhere. Yet, her hand clearly remembered the feeling of her sword piercing his heart, and her lips remembered the metallic taste of his blood. A chill ran down her spine, and goosebumps erupted. She felt as if she had been possessed by a ghost. The haunting memories resurfaced, tormenting her.

'Master! Master! Master!'

She desperately called out to her master, Geomhu Yi Ok-sang, who was the pillar of her heart.

'I tried so hard to forget…'

It seemed to have been all in vain. She realized she was still bound by that incident.

"Have you still not escaped that demonic path?"

She clearly saw the chains that bound her. And she realized what kind of place this was.

"Is Yerim okay?"

As Dokko Ryong realized what kind of place this was, she suddenly worried about her junior sister. This was a place that showed the dark shadows within her own heart.

'Right! I heard Master mention a scent that had that effect on him! To only now recall it… To have my heart captured by such a demonic being…'

"I am still not fully trained!"

At that moment, a thought suddenly flashed through her mind.

'No way! What if my junior sister experiences that again…'

Her heart suddenly turned cold.

"No! I cannot let her go through that nightmare again. Never!"

Dokko Ryong's heart grew frantic. She had to find Na Yerim quickly. She had no time to be caught in illusions.

In the darkness sealed deep within a person's heart, monsters reside. These monsters are sometimes unimaginably large, dark, and terrifying, and merely seeing them can cause immense shock. Unless one overcomes oneself, unless one transcends their own heart, humans find it difficult to defeat the monsters living within their hearts. One must face the darkness, acknowledge it, accept it, and then overcome it. But the problem is that it's not as easy as it sounds.

"Wh-what are you doing here?"

Na Yerim kept backing away. Before her stood the man with whom she shared a fated enmity that she tried to forget even in her dreams. The eyes of the middle-aged man in his forties were not normal, just as they had been then. Back then, this man had also had those bloodshot, deranged eyes.

Her innate beauty was something that could not be hidden by any means. Moreover, her beauty had shone from such a young age. Even as a child, her beauty possessed a mysterious charm that plunged men into obsessive lust. She had a fragrance even before she bloomed. And that fragrance held an inexplicable power that attracted many. This repeatedly brought danger upon her. The mysterious fragrance kept attracting insects to the flower.

The man standing before her now was the same.

The most dangerous moment for her was what this man had done 10 years ago. That incident left Na Yerim with severe psychological trauma. Since then, her misandry had reached an extreme.

The one who had tried to stain the pure, unblemished maiden was none other than her own uncle, whom she had always trusted, followed, and depended on. Normally, he was a martial artist as righteous as to be respected. But on that day, to the young girl, he was nothing more than a beast.

"How… how are you still alive?"

She continued to back away, asking. But no answer came. As if unconcerned by her question, he approached her, step by step, with eyes full of lust and a crazed laugh.

"Hehehe, your eyes are as alluring as poppies, and your smile is more fatal than poison. Those pure eyes drive me mad. Your pearly white skin, your ruby red lips, your ebony eyes… hehehe. Yerim, I can't bear it any longer. I can't stand it!"

The same situation as then was unfolding again. It felt as if a nightmare was being replayed without the audience's consent. Her uncle's eyes gleamed with wicked lust, and the evil, twisted thoughts coiled into a malevolent intent flowed into her mind through her eyes. They were the eyes of a beast. They were not human eyes. Na Yerim saw the true nature of her uncle, residing at the bottom of his heart. The ugly, selfish nature of a beast that thought only of its own pleasure and considered nothing else!

She saw such a beast in her uncle, one of her closest blood relatives. It was too much for the young girl to bear that shock. Na Yerim wanted to escape this situation by any means necessary. If she had a sword, she would have killed herself. But at that time, being weak, she had no physical options. When the body doesn't obey, the mind distorts reality.

Her mind began to activate its instinctive defense mechanism. If she could, she wanted to shut down all her senses.

"Come here, good girl. Come, embrace your uncle's arms. My little bird."

'It's a dream… this is a dream.'

With each step he took closer, she felt herself getting younger, returning to the helpless girl she was at ten years old. The nightmare she had experienced at ten was replaying before her eyes, and the self from that day seemed to be projected onto her present self. Goosebumps that sent chills down to her bones erupted. She suddenly felt nauseous.

Thump, thump, thump.

She took one step back.

As he approached from the shadows, his dark, ugly desires glinting, she had to retreat in fear. She was not the disciple of the renowned swordsman Bingbaengbong, nor the successor of Geomhu. She was simply a scared ten-year-old girl. Her beloved sword remained frozen, showing no intention of being drawn.

Thud!

Na Yerim's back hit the cave wall. There was nowhere left to retreat. He was now right before her eyes. Within arm's reach.

"Well, there's nowhere left to run. Come here, my little bird."

His lust-filled, ugly hands began to caress her entire body. She trembled with fear and dread. Disgust and the sorrow of female weakness consumed her mind. Men in general were repulsive and terrifying.

'Someone please help me. Help me. Help me!'

She cried out desperately in her heart. Her ten-year-old self had cried out the same way. Back then, it was her father who had saved her from the abyss of despair. Na Yerim still remembered that incident clearly. It was a painful memory she could not forget.

"What is this! You beastly wretch! I will sever our ties today!"

Her father's sword, screaming like thunder, flashed with a white light, sweeping past her uncle's eyes.

Fwah!

Red blood scattered through the air.

"Kuaaaaaaaak!"

Her uncle let out a wail like a ghostly shriek. Her father's sword trembled with deep rage. Killing intent, as if about to behead her uncle, emanated from her father's sword. Her uncle, succumbing to lust, had abandoned his familial ties. Her father could not forgive such an uncle. Even in his completely irrational state, her uncle seemed to know how foolish it was to fight her father. He covered his bleeding eyes with his left hand and unleashed his palm strike with his right. It was his signature move, the Mad Wind Palm.

Rumble!

With a tremendous sound, fierce palm energy like a storm raged in all directions. Taking advantage of the disarray in the room caused by the palm energy's power, he broke the window and fled. His whereabouts and whether he was alive or dead have not been confirmed since. That incident was a disgrace to the family and a dark shadow. After that, her misandry reached an extreme, and Na Baek-cheon became pathologically overprotective of her. Afterward, the incident was hushed up and became a taboo, with no one daring to mention it.

It remained a deep wound in the recesses of her mind. A lingering resentment in her heart for over 10 years! It seemed she still couldn't shake off the memory of that nightmare.

But had the ghost of the past returned?

'Please, someone help me!'

This was the first time she had ever desperately called for help. Her uncle's lewd hand was coming closer. Like a butterfly caught in a spiderweb, her entire body was paralyzed, and she couldn't move as she wished. She huddled with her knees drawn in, trembling, and cried out. Clenching her eyes shut with all her might, she shouted at the top of her lungs.

"Help me! Bi… Bilyu Yeon!"

At that moment, a white flash burst before her eyes, sweeping away all the shadows of the nightmare. She remained crouched for a long time.

Tap, tap.

Then, a gentle touch on her shoulder, like that of a little bird trembling. It was not a rough, aggressive, or violent touch. And then, a voice was heard.

"Did you call?"

The voice was like a ray of light piercing through the darkness. One thing she could be sure of was that it was not her uncle's voice, thick with lust. She raised her head and looked at the owner of the voice. It was Bilyu Yeon, always wearing a comforting smile.

Suddenly, she felt a sense of relief and peace. Her face, usually cold and expressionless as if mistaken for an immortal ice sword, was now bright. It was an expression Bilyu Yeon had never seen before.

"Miss Na, are you alright? Is something wrong?"

Her sad expression, on the verge of tears, was so pitiable that it made one want to embrace her. But Bilyu Yeon no longer had to worry about that. Because the one who embraced him first was surprisingly Na Yerim.

"Miss Na?"

Na Yerim's hands tightly gripped his clothes as if wringing them out. Bilyu Yeon noticed that her body was still trembling slightly. She was still afraid of something. What it was didn't matter much to him. What mattered was that she was trembling.

She suddenly felt like she had returned to being a ten-year-old girl. Bilyu Yeon quietly held her frail body until her trembling stopped. They remained silent for a while.

"How did you find me?"

After a long while, Na Yerim, who had finally calmed down, asked Bilyu Yeon. The Illusionary Demon Cave was like a labyrinth, and it was difficult to even run into each other. Yet, Bilyu Yeon seemed to have found her without much difficulty. She found it very strange.

"A sense."

Bilyu Yeon replied proudly.

"A sense?"

"Yes, a sense. I can find a person I like no matter what labyrinth they are trapped in. That is the power of love. Muhahahaha!"

Bilyu Yeon answered without hesitation once again. Na Yerim couldn't help but smile faintly at his overly confident answer. However, she didn't realize that his answer was a bluff. The truth was very simple. In reality, Bilyu Yeon had attached a Mind-Spirit Charm to the hem of Na Yerim's clothes. He had then easily found Na Yerim's location by following the charm. But since he didn't feel the need to reveal that fact, he simply said it was a sense.

Whoooosh!

Suddenly, a strong wind blew from somewhere. Her hair and clothes fluttered in the wind.

"Thank you."

She said with a gentle smile. It was a radiant smile, like the brilliance of a thousand-year-old ice melting in an instant.

"But aren't you an illusion too, Young Master Bi?"

It was very difficult to distinguish between illusion and reality here.

"Have you ever seen such a vivid and fresh illusion, Miss Na?"

Bilyu Yeon's emphasis on "freshness" made her feel as if she might be ordering at a sashimi restaurant.

"That's true."

Na Yerim had to wonder in her heart why Bilyu Yeon's appearance had brought her such relief.