The Choice (2)

After biting his lip for a moment, Seonu Jin decided to try persuading her first.

“Lady Tang, I don’t think that’s right. We still have time, so let’s think about this together. If the two of us kill each other, we’ll only be playing into that man’s hands.”

However, Tang Yeo-eun, whose eyes were emitting a crimson glow, refused to listen.

“There can’t possibly be another way! Don’t you understand?! If both of us die here, Mak Ujeon will learn the Radiant Sword’s secret art! Can’t you imagine how much harm that would bring to the world?!”

Of course, she might have been right.

However, Seonu Jin was certain that was not why she was acting this way.

The crimson glow radiating from her eyes was growing increasingly intense.

He tried to persuade her with a sorrowful expression.

“My lady, you need to regain your composure. You’ve been swept up in madness and can no longer make sound judgments. So hurry and circulate the Great Lotus Mind-Purifying Art again…!”

However, Tang Yeo-eun refused to listen any longer.

Her eyes grew redder as she shrieked desperately.

“Draw your sword! If you don’t, I’ll attack first!”

She screamed madly with the expression of an evil spirit.

The sight was so unlike the Tang Yeo-eun Seonu Jin knew that he could hardly associate the two.

Seonu Jin had no choice but to accept that he could no longer reason with her.

“Haaah.”

Seonu Jin finally gritted his teeth.

It seemed there was no other choice.

Clang!

He finally drew his sword.

He intended to subdue her first and then search for another solution.

Tang Yeo-eun’s eyes sharpened, and she charged first.

“Haaaaap!”

Shing!

It was a lightning-fast strike, a thrust aimed in earnest as though she intended to pierce straight through Seonu Jin with one blow.

A vivid green blade aura shone from her sword.

It was even faster than the swordsmanship Seonu Jin had known her to possess.

It was likely an effect of the madness.

However, Seonu Jin did not move even as he watched it approach.

He merely stood still and observed Tang Yeo-eun’s incoming sword.

Seonu Jin’s eyes became half-lidded, and his vision began calmly observing the entire situation.

His mind grew increasingly tranquil.

Her sword had unquestionably become faster than before.

However, Seonu Jin could see it.

Although faster, the sword’s path had become correspondingly simpler.

‘It’s fast, but it travels in a straight line. There are no variations.’

Therefore, he could do it.

No, he had to.

So that both of them could survive.

The instant Tang Yeo-eun’s lightning-like green blade aura entered his range, Seonu Jin thrust out his sword like a ray of light.

The first form of the Four-One Sword Method.

One Breath, One Kill.

“Hap!”

It was the same method Black Wolf had once used through his body—piercing the attacking enemy’s wrist to collapse the offensive itself.

Seonu Jin had judged that he could not waste time repeatedly exchanging blows with Tang Yeo-eun, so he had decided to gamble everything on ending the fight in a single strike.

Whoosh!

Seonu Jin’s sword became a ray of light and precisely pierced the axis of Tang Yeo-eun’s swinging sword.

This time, however, he targeted the sword guard rather than her wrist.

Clang!

“Agh!”

With a clear metallic ring, Tang Yeo-eun’s sword was knocked high into the air.

Seonu Jin’s gamble had succeeded.

“How… could this be?”

Tang Yeo-eun stared blankly at the hand that had lost its sword after a single exchange.

Her eyes were filled with disbelief.

“Haaah.”

After knocking Tang Yeo-eun’s sword far away, Seonu Jin sighed with a troubled expression, sheathed his sword again, and approached her.

Blood flowed from her torn palm.

“Give me your hand.”

Seonu Jin took out a handkerchief and carefully wrapped her injured palm.

Because her eyes remained stained crimson, he stayed alert for any sudden actions, but she merely lowered her head blankly and stared at her hand.

She reacted the same way even when Seonu Jin carefully reached for the pulse gate on her wrist.

Only after restraining Tang Yeo-eun’s wrist meridian could Seonu Jin relax slightly.

With her wrist meridian restrained, she would no longer be able to raise her internal energy and attack him.

“Haaah.”

Now somewhat relieved, Seonu Jin kept hold of her wrist meridian and looked around the lava lake again.

He had temporarily resolved the problem concerning her, so it was time to consider their current situation.

Dealing with her madness was urgent, but that would only matter if they survived first.

It happened then.

Tang Yeo-eun, who had been hanging her head dejectedly, whispered.

“I’m sorry, Young Master Seonu.”

Seonu Jin smiled at the sudden apology and answered.

“It’s all right. Your condition isn’t good right now…”

At that moment, Tang Yeo-eun raised her head and looked at Seonu Jin.

Her eyes were far redder than before, and an alluring smile spread across her face.

The inexplicably chilling sight prevented Seonu Jin from continuing.

She smiled bewitchingly and spoke again.

“The reason I apologized was because of the Formless Poison.”

Formless Poison?

Poison?

Seonu Jin’s expression stiffened.

Tang Yeo-eun continued whispering with a smile.

“All direct descendants of the Tang Clan carry a small amount of Formless Poison to protect themselves at the very end.”

It happened at that instant.

Agonizing pain struck Seonu Jin’s abdomen.

“Ugh!”

The pain began as a brief prickling sensation, then rapidly became so severe that it felt as though his internal organs were being torn apart.

Seonu Jin looked at Tang Yeo-eun in bewilderment.

“Ugh! L-Lady Tang?!”

Tang Yeo-eun smiled seductively and spoke.

“Formless Poison is a colorless, odorless, and tasteless lethal poison. The only antidote was the one I already took. Unfortunately, Young Master Seonu will no longer be able to survive.”

Seonu Jin’s complexion turned pale.

He could now clearly feel it as well.

He had been poisoned.

And it was a deadly, highly toxic poison.

His vision was gradually becoming blurred.

Seonu Jin could not believe that death had descended upon him so suddenly.

To die in a place like this, and by Tang Yeo-eun’s hand at that.

He stared at her blankly.

Then tears streamed down from her eyes.

Tang Yeo-eun whispered.

“I’m sorry, Young Master Seonu. I’m truly sorry.”

Her expression was exceedingly strange.

One side of her face carried an alluring smile, while the other showed sorrow, as though the two contradictory emotions of joy and grief coexisted at the same time.

It was as though a single strand of her original mind remained while madness consumed the rest of her….

Seonu Jin suddenly looked down at the hand still gripping her wrist meridian.

Since he had restrained it, her life was effectively still in his grasp.

He could kill her immediately if he wished.

In fact, she might die before he succumbed to the poison.

However, the fact that she had poisoned him despite surely knowing that meant she was completely incapable of rational judgment.

“Lady Tang….”

After staring at his hand for a moment, Seonu Jin ultimately released her wrist meridian.

Surprise appeared on her face.

He had simply released the person who had caused his death without taking any revenge.

Unable to understand his actions, Tang Yeo-eun stared at Seonu Jin with a bewildered expression.

Even as his consciousness faded, Seonu Jin forced himself to smile and spoke to her.

“Lady Tang, what you did just now wasn’t truly your doing. You were merely swept up by an evil energy and lost your senses. Like having a terrible dream. So… don’t blame yourself too… much. Please….”

Blood streamed from Seonu Jin’s nose as he spoke.

Blood also surged up his throat, making it impossible for him to continue.

Thud!

Seonu Jin eventually dropped to his knees.

He no longer had the strength to remain standing.

As his body collapsed and his consciousness faded, Seonu Jin prayed.

He hoped she would not come to hate herself too much because of what she had done.

He prayed that she would overcome the madness and continue living strongly.

Then he finally breathed his last.

It was the second time he had experienced death.

He did not feel afraid.

Rather, the thought that he could finally rest seemed to bring him a slight sense of peace.

Then he muttered blankly.

“What… happened?”

Seonu Jin examined his body with a bewildered expression.

He could not understand what was happening.

Only moments earlier, he had unquestionably been dying.

No, he had been certain he was dead, yet in the very next instant, he was suddenly standing in place with a perfectly healthy body.

The situation had changed so abruptly that he could not collect himself.

One thing was certain: he did not seem to have died and become a ghost.

This was unmistakably his living, healthy body.

He could clearly feel every current of internal energy flowing within him.

“Then what was everything that happened just now…?”

A voice suddenly came from behind him.

“It was a trial. My second and third trials.”

“!”

Seonu Jin whipped his head around.

The man was standing there.

Jeong Myeonggang, the Radiant Chivalrous Sword Eccentric.

“S-Senior?”

Seonu Jin stared at him in shock.

He was unquestionably the Radiant Sword.

However, Seonu Jin felt as though he were seeing him for the first time, and the man’s unfamiliar appearance left him speechless.

“S-Senior, what in the world is going on…?”

Jeong Myeonggang had exactly the same face and wore the same clothes as before.

However, he seemed completely different from the man they had seen until now.

He had withdrawn every trace of the storm-like killing intent he had radiated and was smiling at Seonu Jin with a benevolent expression.

He spoke in a kindly voice.

“My apologies. I deliberately acted harshly in order to test you. Please forgive my discourtesy.”

“Y-Yes? Ah, yes. O-Of course….”

Seonu Jin was truly overwhelmed with confusion.

‘That was all an act and a test?’

The sight of the Radiant Sword apologizing for his discourtesy was so unfamiliar that Seonu Jin did not even know how to respond.

However, after quickly collecting himself, Seonu Jin urgently asked the Radiant Sword.

“T-Then Lady Tang, who came with me…?”

Tang Yeo-eun had been nowhere to be seen since he returned to life.

If everything he had experienced had been a trial, as the Radiant Sword said, then she was probably….

The Radiant Sword smiled brightly and nodded.

“The woman from before was merely an illusion created using your subconscious. The real woman is safe. And… she passed every trial, just as you did.”

Seonu Jin’s face immediately brightened.

“Ah! So that was it!”

Seonu Jin felt profoundly relieved.

The fact that she had not truly fallen into madness and remained safe made him even happier than hearing that he had passed all the trials.

The Radiant Sword watched Seonu Jin with a pleased smile.

It was a smile that seemed to show he understood everything in Seonu Jin’s heart.

He suddenly stepped to the side and snapped his fingers.

“Now, it would be better to see for yourself than merely hear me explain.”

Snap!

She suddenly appeared opposite him.

It was Tang Yeo-eun.

She wore an almost completely dazed expression.

Her blank face showed that she could not understand the current situation at all.

Startled by the sudden change in her surroundings, she turned her head from side to side before finally discovering Seonu Jin.

Then she gasped and covered her mouth with her hand.

“Gasp!”

Her eyes trembled ceaselessly as she looked at Seonu Jin.

They carried a complicated mixture of wariness and relief, joy and resentment.

Seeing that adorable reaction, Seonu Jin became certain.

This was the real Tang Yeo-eun.

“Lady Tang!”

Seonu Jin called her name and ran toward her.

Tang Yeo-eun watched him cautiously with anxious eyes and asked.

“Are you really… Young Master Seonu?”

At her question, Seonu Jin tore the human-skin mask from his face and smiled brightly.

“Yes, I am. It’s really me, Seonu Jin! Lady Tang, you’ve truly endured a great deal!”

Tang Yeo-eun’s eyes gradually reddened, and tears eventually streamed down her cheeks.

She weakly struck Seonu Jin’s chest with her fists as she sobbed.

“You’re awful. You’re truly awful.”

Seonu Jin quietly watched her with warm eyes.

Judging from her reaction alone, he could imagine how much anguish she had suffered.

Although their experiences might not have been completely identical, Seonu Jin could sufficiently guess what she had gone through.

If she had passed through the same trial as him, then she must also have encountered a Seonu Jin who tried to kill her.

And she had probably also refused to kill him and simply accepted her own death.

The thought that she had made such a choice filled him with pride and gratitude.

Seonu Jin slowly raised his arms.

He felt a powerful urge to embrace the crying woman tightly.

However, he hesitated midway, then raised his hands only far enough to pat her shoulders.

“You did well. And thank you, Lady Tang.”

For now—and at this moment—this was all he could do.