As if I had been doused in cold water, the liquor haze vanished in an instant. I had not been drunk to begin with, but still, my mind snapped fully awake.

The unbelievable sight made my jaw drop.

The wind that had ripped the door clean off was the current of qi Tang Jung had created by circulating his internal energy. He had become the eye of the storm.

So when people said a supreme master was a walking natural disaster, that was not just the usual exaggeration? He was drinking one moment, and the next a typhoon was breaking out?

Dodging flying furniture this way and that, I stole glances at Tang Jung.

He was grinning wide enough to show his fangs.

His sparkling eyes were dyed with blue internal energy and shone brightly, full of life. His cheeks were flushed rose-red, making his excitement obvious.

“Ack!”

I shrieked as I ducked a liquor bottle flying straight at my face, and Tang Geunmyeong rushed over and yanked me backward.

“Do not interfere. He has gained enlightenment.”

I know. I know, but...

The roof is coming off the hall right now! I’m about to go flying with it! 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

“U-Uncle! Please hold on to me!”

I clung to Tang Geunmyeong like he was a life ring and crawled my way out of the hall.

The sight from outside was even more terrifying. A twisting column of wind rose into the air, tiles flew everywhere, and dark blue qi flashed like lightning.

“At this rate, the hall is going to collapse.”

“It will collapse. We will have repairs done for the first time in a while.”

Tang Geunmyeong answered as though he were stating the obvious.

Are you doing the repairs too, Uncle? Please hire actual workers.

Rubbing my goose-bumped arms, I watched Tang Jung reduce the hall to rubble.

If he gains enlightenment twice, the whole estate is going to get blown away.

I was lucky Tang Jung was on my side.

Imagine if he had been some villain on the level of a Demonic Sect bishop instead. The difficulty level of life would have doubled for both me and the novel’s protagonist.

At some point, Cane appeared soundlessly and climbed up my body.

“Grrrrook.”

“Cane, what is it? Why are you here instead of napping?”

“Grrk. Kkyuu.”

“What are you saying? You felt Grandfather’s energy and came running?”

At my question, Cane nodded. It seemed he had been startled awake from his nap by the enormous surge of power.

Patting Cane, who burrowed into my sleeve as if frightened, I looked up at the shrinking whirlwind. The wind was gradually dying down.

THUD, THUD-THUD! CRASH!

The furniture flying through the air lost its force and dropped to the ground with tremendous noise. I stepped backward to avoid the fragments scattering everywhere.

“Yikes. Oh—ah. What a waste. Some of that was expensive.”

That one bookshelf alone could have paid for three months at an inn. Split neatly in half.

Once the wind stopped completely, the pillar that had barely held on finally started to tilt. The roof tiles slid to one side and the hall came down in a collapse, dust billowing out.

RUMBLE!

Coughing /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ in the thick cloud, I waved the dust away with my hand. A figure emerged through the haze.

Tang Jung looked fresher than ever.

His skin, already clear as jade, seemed to glow, and his eyes were sharp and brilliant.

His hair, which had been tied tightly up, had come loose and now swayed around his waist. The wind must have torn away the hair tie.

With his long hair streaming around him, he smiled radiantly.

“Ahahaha, I found it. I found the clue!”

“Congratulations.”

At Tang Geunmyeong’s formal salute and greeting, the whole scene looked like the Demonic Sect Leader emerging from a long seclusion.

Uncle. We are supposed to be the righteous side.

I blinked with a sour expression, but Tang Jung did not seem to notice my face at all.

“You pretty thing. You clever thing. Where in the world did such a creature come rolling in from?”

He swept me right up into his arms and spun me around. I gave a limp smile and humored my overexcited grandfather.

“Waaah...”

“How did you think of it? Hmm? How did you ever think of that? Say it again. Sohae, what do you think flow is?”

“W-well...”

“To ride the flow. Why did this old man never think of that? Something so simple, so clear.”

I stared up at the cloudless sky with the dead eyes of a dried fish.

...I really do not think I will ever adapt to this martial world.

*****

Still excited, Tang Jung immediately grabbed brush, ink, and paper, shut himself inside one room of my annex, and did not come out.

He skipped meals and spent his time writing furiously, then ripping the pages to shreds.

Whenever a new heap of ruined paper appeared outside the door, Tang Geunmyeong would silently gather the discarded sheets and bring fresh paper in.

The light never went out at night either, so it seemed he was sorting through his thoughts day and night.

“Is Grandfather all right? He has skipped meals for four days already. I think he really needs to eat something.”

When I caught Tang Geunmyeong and asked, he looked at me like someone who had just heard something ridiculous. He did not seem to understand my concern at all.

Which, to be fair, made sense. A master who could blast apart a whole hall with internal energy probably was not going to suffer from missing a few meals.

But just because it would not hurt him did not mean he was not hungry. People think better when they eat well.

I kept hovering in front of his door, reaching for the handle and withdrawing my hand over and over.

Should I call him and tell him to eat now?

...No. He would probably hate it if I broke his concentration.

Still, it has already been four days. He should at least drink some water.

Should I call him? Or wait a little longer?

Maybe Tang Jung sensed how troubled I was, because amid the rustling of papers, he let out a faint laugh.

“Come in.”

“Ah! Are you done?”

“Yes. I have sorted it out, more or less.”

I scampered over and opened the door, and a stack of papers came tumbling out like objects packed too tightly into a box. I yelped in surprise, and Tang Jung waved a hand as if it were nothing.

“You may step on them. They are all to be thrown away anyway.”

I carefully crunched across the countless traces of his 고민 until I reached him.

Unlike the chaotic flood of writing all over the room, a fresh sheet of paper on the desk held only a single character, written in a strong hand.

Heart.

Tang Jung looked calmly at the character he had written.

His eyes were extraordinarily clear and deep. The blue internal energy burning in them looked like it held a blue flame.

After blinking slowly, he smiled at me.

“To think that, even at this age, I might yet achieve something new. Life truly is impossible to predict.”

“What is wrong with your age, Grandfather? At your age, you are in the prime of youth. Pure youth.”

“What nonsense? Youth, my foot. I am so old not even a sprout would come of it.”

Tang Jung snorted as though he could not believe my cheek. I giggled and asked,

“You are going to eat now, right? You have been starving yourself for four days.”

“Yes. Let us eat.”

Tang Jung nodded and slowly rose to his feet.

*****

Although he sat down at the table readily enough, Tang Jung could not focus on his meal. His mind was clearly elsewhere.

His irises were still dyed blue. That was proof he was circulating internal energy even while holding his chopsticks.

Watching Tang Jung sit there blankly like a man who had lost his soul, I propped my chin on my hand and teased him.

“Grandfather. You have been thinking about martial arts all day. Shouldn’t you go into closed-door training or something?”

At that, Tang Jung’s face brightened.

“Yes. That would do.”

“Huh?”

“The hall has to be rebuilt anyway, does it not? If I enter closed-door training and come out later, it will likely be repaired by then. To continue following this clue, I need a quiet place...”

Tang Jung was rattling on excitedly when his eyes met mine, and his expression changed as though he had nearly made a grave mistake.

“...Pretend you heard none of that. I cannot leave you behind. This old man misspoke.”

Even as he tried to calm himself, disappointment was pouring off his face. That change in expression had been too strong to pretend I had not seen it.

I smiled and slowly set down my chopsticks.

“Go, Grandfather.”

“Do not talk nonsense. How many years do you think closed-door training can take? If this old man leaves his post, snakes will start hissing at you from every direction.”

Tang Jung frowned and raised his voice.

I understood his concern perfectly well.

But even someone like me, whose martial ability was still shallow, knew what it meant to gain a clue for breaking through a martial barrier.

This was the chance of a lifetime for Tang Jung. The chance he had waited and waited for—the chance he had spent his whole life seeking, all to see the farthest end of martial power.

If I compared it to a game, it was like a limited-time quest that only opened when a pile of special conditions overlapped at exactly the right moment.

If he let this clue slip away, Tang Jung might never get another chance to cross that wall for the rest of his life.

I did not want him to lose it.

I had no desire to become an obstacle to someone who had already abandoned food and drink in pursuit of martial enlightenment.

“I know.”

“The little brat knows that and still—!”

“But you still have to go. If you miss this chance because of me, I will spend the rest of my life blaming myself for having held you back. You do not want that, do you?”

“My child, this is not something to speak of so lightly. Your life is at stake. Your life and this little bit of training—”

“You know better than anyone that this is not just some little bit of training. I am glad to be your joy, Grandfather. But I do not want to become your burden.”

My gentle refusal cast a shadow over Tang Jung’s face.

“My hair-pinning ceremony has already been held, and if I go into the Poison King Hall, Aunt Onjeong will not just abandon me if something happens. You know she likes me.”

“My child...”

“And once I am formally engaged, the Clan Head will protect my life if only to preserve the marriage tie. I can protect myself now too. You taught me how. So please do not worry too much. Uncle Geunmyeong is here too. Do you not trust him?”

“If something happens to you, that fellow cannot step in. No—are you really not afraid? You ought to be clinging to me and begging me not to go, so why do you keep trying to shove this old man into seclusion?”

Tang Jung twisted his face and scrubbed a hand over it.