The disciple’s lover. Kang Yoon-ho was dragged to the Sichuan Tang Family.
Jeok Na-chal Dan Seo-wol couldn’t hide her bewilderment at the news that flew in from Yichang.
Salmak wasn’t an information organization like the beggar sect or the lowlife Hao-mun. Even if Kang Yoon-ho was the lover of the top assassin No. 5 and the Heavenly Killing Star, they weren’t monitoring him regularly.
Managing the romantic affairs of assassins was a waste of resources. However, they would reach out if something important came up. Jeok Na-chal Dan Seo-wol had merely informed the branch manager of Salmak in Yichang.
“I wrote a novel related to the Sichuan Tang Family and got dragged away. How come?”
Dan Seo-wol learned the cause and effect of her disciple’s confinement, but her mind was overwhelmed with the question, “Why?”
An author is ultimately a learned person. They are respected regardless of the era.
From ancient times, thugs wielding swords never got away with causing trouble for literate people; the common folk and officials alike frowned upon it.
Even bothering a scholar with modest recognition would warrant caution, yet it was strange that a prominent author from Yichang was captured.
Even if the Sichuan Tang Family claimed to be the hegemon of Sichuan Province, the sheer force of their influence was baffling. No, it was even weirder because it was the Sichuan Tang Family.
The Sichuan Tang Family was renowned as one of the pillars of the righteous sects along with the Nine Great Sects & One Alliance. For a family known to be obsessed with their reputation as a righteous sect to capture an author?
Dan Seo-wol, knowing how much the Sichuan Tang Family feared being pointed at, was even more puzzled.
“This is serious.”
They didn’t say they were invited; they said dragged away. That meant they took him even at the risk of damaging the name and prestige of the Tang Family.
“If my disciple finds out, she won’t be quiet.”
Should she inform her? Dan Seo-wol thought of her disciple who had returned as a woman after leaving the main base of Salmak.
Surely, she won’t sit still upon hearing this news.
“If I’m not careful, she could truly become the Heavenly Killing Star.”
A kid who had worried all her life about losing herself to the assassination mindset. Such a disciple had finally found hope to overcome her fate.
Her beloved man was her childhood friend who had known her since they were young, an oppa who played with her in the same village, and a Reverse Heaven’s Decree who could change her destiny. This was truly a pair who seemed destined by heaven.
What if her disciple’s lover dies?
Dan Seo-wol briefly imagined her disciple, who had lost her partner and abandoned all hope, consumed by the assassination mindset and burning down the world.
Should she burn the report?
If she burned the news and pretended not to know, perhaps she could live a moment of peaceful daily life later, even if her disciple would blame her after knowing the truth.
“This is?”
Dan Seo-wol’s anguish could finally end upon seeing a line in a letter inside the report envelope.
It was a letter written by Kang Yoon-ho to Cheon So-hee before leaving Yichang.
————
“Yukiko! I think I found an heir who can absorb all the seduction techniques learned from Dongyoung!”
Seol-ja beamed at Cheon So-hee, who had just finished training.
“I don’t think it helped much.”
Cheon So-hee replied with a sulky voice. Seol-ja’s seduction techniques were different from the vulgar flattery she had imagined, but they also differed from the general enticing techniques she had imagined.
She went along due to Seol-ja’s insistence and the atmosphere. Perhaps receiving training conducted within Salmak would be better, Cheon So-hee thought inwardly.
“How would you know with just what you first learned! Next time, I’ll prepare a secret weapon to make the next enchantress turn her attention to her childhood friend! A famous kunoichi from Dongyoung. I’ll get you a Shiranui-ryu outfit!”
Seol-ja excitedly rambled about what costume would be fitting for the next Heavenly Killing Star.
Cheon So-hee let Seol-ja’s chatter drift by her as she headed towards her teacher Dan Seo-wol’s personal training hall.
“You’re here?”
Dan Seo-wol spoke as she looked at the two who had arrived at her training hall.
“Dan Seo-wol! Is something wrong?”
Seol-ja asked with a perplexed expression at Dan Seo-wol’s dark face.
“A letter has come from Yichang.”
Dan Seo-wol gazed at her disciple with a worried expression.
“Ooooh! Could it be from the man of No. 5?!”
“Yes. An urgent letter from your husband.”
Dan Seo-wol leisurely took a small letter from between her ample breasts.
“Give it to me.”
The Heavenly Killing Star reached out her hand towards the letter. No matter how skilled one was, it was so fast that even the best of them couldn’t detect her approach.
It was enough for Dan Seo-wol to miss her disciple’s movement just once. She avoided her disciple’s hand and returned the letter back between her breasts.
“Why?”
The Heavenly Killing Star asked Dan Seo-wol with a perplexed look.
“I will show it to you if you don’t act recklessly after reading this letter.”
Dan Seo-wol’s serious gaze towards her disciple was filled with concern.
After some contemplation, she decided to inform her disciple. Still, the incident was too serious. Her disciple might be shocked.
First, she needed to prepare her mentally.
“Got it.”
Dan Seo-wol handed the letter to her as her disciple nodded slightly.
Cheon So-hee, her emotions boiling within, carefully opened her brother’s letter without showing any sign.
“I was taken because of a novel I wrote. If you don’t hear from me, find out what happened at Tang Family.”
“Reportedly, they say you were dragged away because you wrote a novel related to the Sichuan Tang Family.”
Dan Seo-wol told her the report she had received as matter-of-factly as possible.
“I’ll go.”
There was not even a moment of hesitation. Cheon So-hee immediately turned her body.
“No!”
“Not gonna happen!”
Yukiko blocked Cheon So-hee’s path, and Dan Seo-wol held her shoulder, firmly but gently urging her to reconsider.
“Let go.”
“Absolutely not! Do you know what the Sichuan Tang Family is like?!”
The Sichuan Tang Family. A family respected in the martial arts world, even the Ami Sect and the Cheongseong faction had to show some restraint before their influence in Sichuan Province.
The hegemony of Sichuan Province. The Sichuan Tang Family. Even if the entire Salmak stood against them, they would be told how foolish that was, yet she still wanted to go there.
Yukiko spread her arms to block Cheon So-hee.
“I’m not going to be poisoned by the Tang Family’s poison.”
Cheon So-hee declared confidently.
That was indeed a valid point. Cheon So-hee was a Heavenly Killing Star bestowed with heavenly talents.
She possessed innate resistance to poison, resistance gained through assassin training, and the technique to dispel extreme poison that intruded through Suratal Myung-gong.
While she might not reach the state of being invulnerable to all poisons, there was no denying she was a martial artist capable of facing the Tang Family’s masters better than anyone in Salmak.
“What about the poison arts? Even if one of the Tang Family members throws a poison needle, No. 5 would be pierced like a pin cushion!”
“I’ll just avoid it. Move aside. Or I’ll cut you.”
“Ugh! If you want to cut, go ahead! Yukiko! Being a teacher cut by her disciple isn’t a bad experience either!”
I expected this. Dan Seo-wol pondered, looking at her determined disciple heading toward Yichang.
Even she couldn’t stop her disciple. Only one person could stop her disciple.
Dan Seo-wol decided to bring up what she had prepared in advance.
“Your brother could die.”
“So I’m going!”
Cheon So-hee said without turning her head toward her teacher.
“That means he could die because of you.”
Only then did Cheon So-hee finally turn to look at her teacher.
“If you go to your lover, the madness will surely strike again. Even if you manage to save him, you will only deepen your hatred with the Tang Family, placing your lover in the life of a fugitive forever.”
The Sichuan Tang Family does not forget. The bitterness of the Sichuan Tang Family will find them no matter where Cheon So-hee and Kang Yoon-ho run away to.
“I can hide him in a secret place.”
“Will you hide him for a lifetime? No, it seems there’s no need to hide him for a lifetime. If your husband just does nothing for a few years, your fate will be written in the stars.”
The Heavenly Killing Star gained an extension during the time in which the assassination mindset consumed her rationality due to the Reverse Heaven’s Decree. However, that day would eventually come.
To prevent that day from coming, the Reverse Heaven’s Decree must shine. If she goes now, all hope could be lost.
Dan Seo-wol boldly touched upon what her disciple feared the most.
No matter how much her disciple wanted to go to Yichang, she would never easily cast aside what she had feared throughout her life. Dan Seo-wol had come to this conclusion.
But she—
Cheon So-hee was no longer the Heavenly Killing Star of her past.
“If I have to watch my brother die, I’d rather go mad myself.”
Her voice was resolute.
Dan Seo-wol and Seol-ja were momentarily silent, shocked by her startling declaration. Particularly, Dan Seo-wol could hardly speak, overwhelmed by unexpected shock.
What kind of man is Kang Yoon-ho, that Cheon So-hee’s top priority has changed so drastically? I want to see his face just once.
A common thought flowed through both of their shocked minds.
“I’ll go.”
Dan Seo-wol’s shock could finally be settled as her disciple tried to take a step forward.
She couldn’t let her last disciple go like this.
“So you plan to betray your brother?”
Dan Seo-wol decided to invoke her disciple’s lover once more.
“Betray?!”
“Reread the letter. Did your brother ask for help? No. He just left a letter in case you worried about him if he disappeared.”
It was truly so.
Kang Yoon-ho did not wish for Cheon So-hee to come help him. The reason he sent the letter was that he didn’t want her to worry about his absence.
“…….”
Cheon So-hee couldn’t deny her teacher’s words.
“Your lover said he would do his best for the promise he made with you. He even left a letter so you wouldn’t worry. But you intend to go to him without faith, potentially ruin all of his efforts?”
“My brother could die!”
“My disciple, a promise is not concluded just because one side keeps it. The other side must also believe. Do you not trust your brother?”
“I trust him. But…”
“Then trust him until the end.”
Cheon So-hee looked into her teacher’s resolute eyes.
Not the unforgiving gaze that had always pushed her harshly, but a parent’s gaze looking at their still naive daughter.
Dan Seo-wol, reading Cheon So-hee’s hesitation, gently continued with her words.
“The virtue of a good wife is to support her husband till the end.”
She never expected the day would come when she would say such words. Dan Seo-wol held back a sigh of her thoughts.
Cheon So-hee’s eyes wavered.
“I want to go to my brother. But I can’t go.”
Her brother could die.
She wants to save her brother. But if she goes, will everything be resolved? Will she not worsen the situation instead?
She didn’t know which was the right choice. But if her brother dies, she will resent herself for the rest of her life.
Her brother would look at her with kindness when she appeared. He wouldn’t scold her and would hug her. But their fates would end there.
Brother Yoon-ho would never regain his fame, and she would walk towards the fated catastrophe.
“You may be overly skilled at killing someone, but you’re still insufficient in keeping someone safe. So it’s time to trust your lover.”
As Dan Seo-wol’s gentle advice rang in Cheon So-hee’s ears, she lowered her head.
Weak and lacking.
She couldn’t go when her brother was in danger. She had received so much from him, but she couldn’t give him anything in return.
The only thing she could give was trust.
She was too lacking to protect her brother or to handle the assassination mindset of the Heavenly Killing Star.
“I’ll enter the training facility and go into closed-door training for a while.”
Cheon So-hee turned her body toward the training hall and spoke to her teacher.
Closed-door training. Saying she was going to lock the door and cut off all contact with the outside world to concentrate solely on training meant that she did not intend to leave.
“You made a good decision. No. 5!”
Seol-ja exclaimed, her face filled with joy.
“If… If I come out of closed-door training and still haven’t heard any news of my brother…”
“Then we’ll go to Sichuan together.”
“…I’ll head to the training facility right away.”
If she delayed even a little, she thought she would head straight to Yichang.
Cheon So-hee headed to the training facility.
—————————
“I’ll be waiting.”
“Stay strong!”
Cheon So-hee watched as the two closed the door to the training hall.
The starlight shone through the closing gap of the door. However, Cheon So-hee soon looked not at the sky but at her hands.
“Fate lies not in the heavens but in your hands.”
Her brother, even at this moment, was advancing to save his fate and the fate of the Heavenly Killing Star.
What she could do now was to believe in her brother and raise her level to avoid being consumed by the assassination mindset.
“Brother Yoon-ho. Stay strong.”
The Heavenly Killing Star quietly muttered, hoping her voice would reach her distant brother.
She would do her best.
Believing in her brother. And closing herself off for training.
If the door opened and news of her brother’s misfortune reached her…
The Sichuan Tang Family would welcome the Heavenly Killing Star.
