Chapter 28
Chapter 28: Third-rate Martial Family Becomes the Best Under Heaven
A young child deserves nothing less than tenderness, warmth, and unreserved affection.
That is the natural order of things. Under no circumstance should a tender youth be regarded with any darker sentiment.
…There had been a time when Zhuge Seolha knew such grace.
A fleeting time.
The Peach Blossom Body (桃花之體). A physical vessel and spiritual disposition granted solely to a maiden greeted by the celestial influence of the Peach Blossom Star (桃花星) at birth.
Because the peach blossom qi chose to settle deep within her upper dantian, this singular physique was essentially a celestial curse disguised as a gift.
The upper dantian resided nearest the Baihui acupoint, revered across the world as the spiritual conduit through which mortals converse with heaven.
Those who succeeded in unlocking their upper dantian typically walked the paths of seers, shamans, or mystics.
Brimming with transcendent energy, they perceived subtle truths hidden from mortal eyes and accomplished feats far beyond mortal capability.
With the peach blossom qi taking root within her own upper dantian, Zhuge Seolha inherited extraordinary gifts of her own—a reality that first came to light when she was merely five years of age.
“Seolha, as a daughter of the Crouching Dragon family, the day has arrived for you to take your opening steps along the martial path.”
Most martial lineages introduced their offspring to internal arts as early as age three, yet the Zhuge family stood apart.
Their ancestral laws strictly forbade any child of the direct lineage from attempting martial training prior to turning five.
The justification was straightforward.
The bedrock supporting the true martial legacy of the Zhuge noble house was the Harmonious Heaven Primordial Art.
Hyeon-won (玄元)—a profound, primordial source.
Jeon-dan (全檀)—a sacred tree rooted firmly atop the ceremonial altar.
In essence, the Harmonious Heaven Primordial Art was an esoteric internal discipline focused on gathering and refining the spiritual essence within the upper dantian.
It was this very art that endowed every scion of the Zhuge noble house with exceptional intellect, alongside their peerless mastery over mystic formations and intricate mechanisms.
“The upper dantian is a perilously delicate vessel. Guard your thoughts with utmost vigilance as you circulate the Harmonious Heaven Primordial Art.”
“I will, Father!”
It was meant to be nothing more than the customary rite of passage undergone by every descendant of the primary Zhuge bloodline.
The catastrophe lay within Zhuge Seolha’s dormant constitution, whose presence remained completely unsuspected.
When the Harmonious Heaven Primordial Art—designed specifically to awaken the upper dantian—collided with the latent Peach Blossom Body, it manifested as an unmitigated disaster for young Zhuge Seolha.
“Aaaagh!”
“What is—Seol… Ugh!”
The instant a shriek saturated with raw peach blossom qi echoed across the chamber,
Zhuge Seolha bore witness to horror.
She watched her father’s gaze, usually overflowing with tender love, twist into something unrecognizable within a fraction of a heartbeat.
Child that she was, she could not name the dark impulse she saw, yet it chilled her to the marrow.
What Zhuge Seon did next caused Zhuge Seolha to cry out in renewed terror.
Right before her eyes, her father drew his blade and thrust it violently through the center of his own palm.
Thwack!
“Aaaah! Father!”
Overcome with distress, Zhuge Seolha lunged forward, throwing her small frame into Zhuge Seon’s embrace.
Crimson droplets pattered onto the floorboards, gathering into a crimson pool.
As her father wrapped his arms around her and gazed downward, his eyes were once more cleansed, filled with nothing but paternal warmth.
“It is all right, Seolha. Everything is well. Pay it no mind.”
It was the violent eruption of the Peach Blossom Body, ignited by the Harmonious Heaven Primordial Art.
Three full years had drifted by since that harrowing day.
Three agonizing years.
The once-radiant, cheerful child had retreated into absolute muteness, reduced to a fragile girl who dared not venture beyond the safety of her father’s shadow.
All because of the grotesque truths she had witnessed, the terrible realizations she had accumulated over that span of time.
I am a blight upon everyone who comes near me.
Driven mad by her voice, her father had impaled his own flesh simply to drown out impure desire with sheer agony.
When she later crossed paths with her elder brother, she had carved an incurable wound across that kind, protective boy’s soul as well.
Countless others had fallen victim to that wretched charm—collapsing into self-loathing and shame after realizing they harbored lustful inclinations toward a mere child.
Every scrap of that misery was her fault.
I must never be around other people again.
From that point on, Zhuge Seolha refused to face anyone. She barred the gateway to her soul.
Aside from her parents, who had gradually built an immunity against the peach blossom qi by carving dozens of self-inflicted wounds into their own bodies, she shunned every living soul.
If she hoped to shield the world from harm for the remainder of her life, self-imposed isolation was her only recourse.
Such was the vow she forged.
She had genuinely resigned herself to living out her days in that manner.
—Zhuge Seolha.
—Regardless of the reason, stop hiding behind it.
The presence of peach blossom qi within her upper dantian had endowed Zhuge Seolha with a peculiar sensitivity.
Foremost among those boons was the uncanny capacity to perceive the emotional landscapes of others—in essence, the mental images projected by their minds.
A rugged stone scarred across its surface, yet entirely unbroken. A mountain that will never crumble.
That had been her impression when she observed Yanghwi’s mental landscape.
The internal presence Yanghwi projected was so immovable and staunch that it defied belief for someone of his tender years.
Next to someone like him… what am I…?
A sudden realization struck Zhuge Seolha.
Though a thick fabric had veiled her features and she had never uttered a single word,
she could detect not the faintest hint of carnal desire within Yanghwi’s mental image.
Even after spending successive days in close quarters with her, bathed in the continuous, subtle release of her peach blossom qi.
Could it be… that he can truly withstand the influence of the peach blossom qi?
Thump!
Her pulse quickened. By what means could a youth accomplish such a feat?
In the eyes of young Zhuge Seolha, only a single explanation seemed plausible.
A resolve forged of cold iron, incomprehensible for a child of his years.
The very fortitude she completely lacked.
Merely to keep from hurting those around her, she had sealed her heart away.
She had cowered, fled, and hidden from the world.
Had that boy stood in her place, she was utterly convinced he would never have surrendered to such cowardly choices.
At that moment, the desperate longing she had buried beneath years of silence rose violently to the surface.
…I refuse to endure this existence forever.
Zhuge Seolha took another glance at Yanghwi’s mental presence.
A towering monolith, weathered by countless scars, yet utterly unbroken.
She then shifted her gaze toward the other figure inside the tavern room,
toward the person whose mental presence was in total contradiction with her modest, ordinary guise.
“…….”
It was an endless expanse reminiscent of Dongting Lake, celebrated as the most vast water under the heavens.
Serene and fathomless, its tranquil surface rippling in harmony with an ethereal melody.
She is no simple tavern girl. She can only be…
For an entity possessing such a transcendent spiritual image to appear in these circumstances,
her true background was unmistakable.
Zhuge Seolha slipped free from her father’s grasp.
Taking hesitant, fragile steps across the floor, she approached the rippling expanse of water
and dropped to her knees.
Sound Empress-nim.
Her mouth shaped the syllables, but no voice emerged.
She had remained silent for far too many seasons.
The serving maid looked down upon her without a word.
Right then, Zhuge Seolha understood that she needed to summon greater fortitude, to give unmistakable voice to her conviction.
And so,
Zhuge Seolha cast aside the veil shielding her countenance,
revealing a beauty so devastatingly exquisite that it felt unnatural for a child of her tender age.
“Sound Empress-nim.”
How many years had passed since she had produced a vocal sound?
A fierce burning tore through vocal chords that had lain dormant through the years.
Yet deriving a strange, thrilling solace from that very pain, Zhuge Seolha bowed her forehead low in reverence.
“This humble girl, Zhuge Seolha, implores Sound Empress-nim to accept her as a disciple.”
“This humble girl, Zhuge Seolha, implores Sound Empress-nim to accept her as a disciple.”
The moment Zhuge Seolha’s voice rang out, waves of intoxicating peach blossom qi surged through the room.
Yanghwi instantly circulated the Harmonious Heaven Primordial Art.
Astonishing.
Any ordinary person would have been stripped of all sanity, falling hopelessly under Zhuge Seolha’s thrall right then and there.
She was indeed the future Soul-Stealing Demon Empress. Her innate constitution carried a frightening potency.
To their side, Zhuge Seon stumbled toward his daughter in utter bewilderment.
“Seolha, you… you can speak…?”
The shock of hearing his child’s voice after years of silence shook him so deeply that the name she had called the tavern maid never even registered in his mind.
However,
Zhuge Seon was brought to an immediate halt.
“What in the world is this pressure…!”
An invisible, crushing barrier radiating from the serving maid made any forward step impossible.
“…….”
The tavern girl—nay, the Sound Empress—silently scrutinized Zhuge Seolha from above.
As the quiet lingered endlessly, Zhuge Seolha lowered her head once more, pleading from the depths of her soul.
“Would Sound Empress-nim graciously permit this disciple into your tutelage?”
Once more, a sultry, feverish peach blossom qi poured outward.
Yet neither the Sound Empress nor anyone present showed the slightest sign of succumbence.
The intangible pressure radiating from the Sound Empress formed a sphere around Zhuge Seolha, completely suffocating the spread of her peach blossom qi.
Yanghwi’s sensory perception mapped the phenomenon with absolute clarity.
A telekinetic force so refined it can bind formless energy itself!
The craft of telekinesis was fundamentally the art of moving tangible matter across distances using concentrated qi.
Yet the Sound Empress’s mastery had attained a realm where she could snare and domesticate formless energy waves through sheer force of will.
She truly lived up to her reputation as one of the Ten Paragons Under Heaven. Even so, Zhuge Seolha’s discernment was equally astonishing.
The girl had displayed supernatural insight from the moment they first crossed paths.
Yanghwi had harbored his suspicions, and indeed, she seemed to have unmasked the inn girl’s true identity the moment she laid eyes on her.
Which meant Zhuge Seon was the lone fool in the room who remained entirely oblivious to the Sound Empress’s presence.
Right, I need to keep up the charade of not knowing anything.
Yanghwi hurriedly rushed to Zhuge Seon’s side, adopting a flustered expression.
“Uncle, did you catch what Seolha just said? Addressing the inn maid as the Sound Empress… what could she possibly—”
Yanghwi’s feigned confusion was abruptly cut off by the Sound Empress.
“You may cease your performance, young master.”
“…I beg your pardon?”
The tavern maid exhaled a gentle sigh.
“Young master, at my level of cultivation, very little escapes my notice.”
In that fraction of a second, Yanghwi realized
he had severely underestimated the depth of the Ten Paragons Under Heaven.
She saw through my disguise right from the start.
Even with full awareness of the situation, the Sound Empress had willingly continued the tavern maid farce simply to observe how Yanghwi and the others would carry themselves.
“…I ask forgiveness for my discourtesy, Sound Empress.”
“As I was the one who initially engaged in deception, I shall overlook your impertinence.”
Hearing their dialogue, Zhuge Seon muttered in total disorientation,
“Sound Empress… The Sound Empress herself…? Seolha, Yanghwi, how could you two have known… Just what is going on here…?”
Paying no heed to Zhuge Seon, who was still struggling to piece the truth together, the Sound Empress returned her tranquil gaze to the young girl.
“Heaven is indeed ruthless, saddling so precious a child with such a cruel affliction.”
Only then did Zhuge Seon’s mind snap back into sharp focus.
“Sound Empress! I am overwhelmed with gratitude for your presence, and though my conduct is unpardonably bold, I must make an earnest request.”
He dropped straight to his knees.
“I beg of you, take Seolha under your wing and liberate her from this heavenly affliction!”
“…….”
In sheer desperation, the esteemed young lord of a renowned martial house had cast his dignity aside to kneel on the floor.
Yet the Sound Empress looked upon the sight without a flicker of astonishment.
Such was the awe-inspiring authority wielded by the Ten Paragons Under Heaven across the contemporary Jianghu.
The maiden observed the kneeling patriarch for a brief silence before gently parting her lips.
“Alas. Becoming my disciple will not magically cure her heavenly affliction.”
“Even so, the unrivaled legacies of the Sacred Sound Jade Spirit Gate could surely prevent her peach blossom qi from bleeding into her speech!”
The Sacred Sound Jade Spirit Gate. A veiled sect passed down through a solitary successor across countless centuries.
Living up to its prestigious name, it was an esoteric school that pursued ascension to the immortal realm through the vehicle of sound.
“I will not dispute your claim. However, I have no desire to instruct any youth unless their future path is bound for absolute righteousness.”
Zhuge Seon snapped his head upward.
“Seolha is of our Zhuge bloodline!”
The Zhuge noble house stood as a primary pillar among the Five Great Houses of the realm.
By definition, they were stalwart champions of the righteous sects, proudly flying the banner of justice and honor.
The Sound Empress offered a solemn shake of her head.
“Walking the orthodox path guarantees no inherent goodness. Even less so for a noble house deeply tangled in power.”
“…….”
It was a sharp, undeniable reality. Though Zhuge Seon and Zhuge Seolha were individually benevolent souls, the Zhuge family was an aristocratic political power pursuing secular gain, inherently incapable of pristine purity.
“…Sound Empress.”
Possessing the keen intellect expected of the young lord of the Zhuge noble house, Zhuge Seon recognized that dry debate would never sway her mind.
And so, he put forth a drastic condition that shattered all propriety,
his fists clenching white, his words shaking with violent emotion.
“I will… I shall sever all family ties with Seolha. So please, I beg of you…”
“Father! No! You cannot do that!”
A panicked Zhuge Seolha flung her arms around Zhuge Seon, but wearing a hardened countenance, he steadily pushed her away.
He pressed his forehead flush against the floorboards once more.
“I beg you, accept Seolha as your disciple.”
“…Haaah…”
The Zhuge father and daughter continued their desperate appeals, yet the Sound Empress merely let out an extended sigh, showing no sign of relenting.
An oppressive quiet descended upon the tavern room.
Yanghwi realized that the moment had arrived for him to intervene.
“If that is the dilemma, what if we approached the matter like this?”
The Sound Empress, Zhuge Seon, and Zhuge Seolha simultaneously turned their eyes toward Yanghwi.
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