Amidst the faintly glowing gold phoenix embroidery of her wedding garments, Gongsun Dana slowly raised her head.
A faint flush bloomed over her whitely powdered cheeks, and her tightly shut red lips seemed to hold back emotions she could not bear to utter.
Tremble.
When her gaze met the dignified Bu Eunseol.
Beneath the obsidian coronet swaying in the candlelight, her long eyelashes fluttered.
If this had been an ordinary wedding.
It would have been filled with affection and fondness meant to last a lifetime.
Or it would have perfectly captured the overwhelming emotion of the moment their fruits were finally realized.
However, she was trembling.
She had pretended to be resolute to save her master, but she was feeling fear at the suddenly decided wedding.
"Young lady Gongsun."
Bu Eunseol whispered lowly to Gongsun Dana.
"We can still stop even now."
It would have been slightly better if she had harbored deep affection for him like other women.
However, perhaps because she was as pure as a child, Gongsun Dana did not show any particular interest in him.
"Kneel before the gods of heaven and earth and bow!"
At that moment, the first disciple's voice was heard once again.
Then a resolute light flowed in Gongsun Dana's eyes.
"No."
Shaking her head, Gongsun Dana stared fixedly at him.
"I would not have done it if I did not have feelings for you."
Whether it was love or curiosity, it was unknown, but she too had always paid attention to that man who was like a divine dragon.
However, because of her older sister Gongsun Dankyung, she had constantly suppressed those feelings.
"I like you too, Lord."
It was exceptionally sudden, but it was a pure and passionate confession.
Realizing that Gongsun Dana's heart was firm, Bu Eunseol nodded.
And together with her, he bowed once to heaven and earth.
"Husband and wife, bow to each other!"
In a normal wedding, they would have had to bow to their parents and master next.
However, since there was no such person here, it was omitted.
The two looked deeply into each other's eyes.
Then they slowly and respectfully bowed their waists.
"The two of you are now husband and wife!"
The declaration of their marriage echoed loudly through the Fire Soul Land.
Once the ceremony ended, the two shared the nuptial wine poured by the disciples.
The two had now officially become husband and wife.
However, a light like a flash of lightning flickered in Bu Eunseol's eyes after drinking the nuptial wine.
But no one noticed it.
"Go inside."
A bridal chamber had been set up in the pavilion built on the outskirts of the Fire Soul Land.
The One-Eyed Immortal looked at Bu Eunseol and Gongsun Dana with a triumphant gaze.
"Do not even think about deceiving my ears. If you plan to do this as a joke, I will absolutely not give you the spiritual medicine."
"What do you mean by doing it as a joke?"
When Gongsun Dana asked with a pure expression,
"That is..."
The One-Eyed Immortal, whose face reddened for a moment, shouted in annoyance.
"Ask your husband about that."
"Let us go inside."
Feeling embarrassed, Bu Eunseol quickly grabbed Gongsun Dana's hand and went inside the bridal chamber.
Unlike the desolate Fire Soul Land, the inside of the bridal chamber was filled with warm heat.
On the wooden bed draped with red silk curtains, a blanket beautifully embroidered with a pair of mandarin ducks in gold thread was neatly laid out.
On a small table, a pair of red candles delicately carved with dragons and phoenixes burned quietly.
On the paper windows, the character for Double Happiness, blessing their new start, was cut and pasted.
The interior was not extravagantly decorated, but the subtle fragrance and the warmth of the candles warmly filled the room.
However, there was something strange.
Although the furniture and tools in the bridal chamber were kept clean, they looked to be decades old.
Rustle.
At that moment, Gongsun Dana approached behind his back.
Beautifully adorned, she was truly like a fairy descended from heaven.
In fact, if one judged solely by appearance.
She, called the Flower of Eloquence among the Three Beauties of the World, was the most beautiful.
And Bu Eunseol was not made of wood and stone.
No matter how much he did not distinguish between beauty and ugliness, and possessed a personality unwavering before women.
Being in the bridal chamber side by side with a peerless beauty dressed like a fairy after drinking the nuptial wine.
His heart could not help but feel restless.
"Lord."
At that moment, Gongsun Dana looked at him as if afraid.
And soon she mustered her courage and spoke.
"It is alright."
She had just become an adult this year.
And because she was a disciple of the Divine Water Palace, she had never been close to a man in her entire life.
The one who was afraid was rather herself, but she had said those words for Bu Eunseol.
Vwoom.
She raised her internal power and unfolded the Crystal Divine Energy, creating transparent walls in all directions.
"No matter how deep the One-Eyed Immortal's internal power is, she will not be able to hear our breathing."
Upon hearing the words 'our breathing', Bu Eunseol's face turned as red as if it would burst.
"Young lady."
"I will leave the secular world once the Palace Master recovers."
Gongsun Dana said with her eyes closed.
"I will never obstruct the Lord's path ahead."
After catching her breath for a moment, she continued.
"Even if we announced our marriage, if I take refuge in Buddhism, it will surely prevent any scandalous rumors about the Lord from spreading in the martial world."
"What kind of talk is that?"
Bu Eunseol felt his heart ache.
Looking back, she had always cared for others.
After their connection at Mosan, whenever they met again, she had always only cared for Gongsun Dankyung.
For herself, she had never wished for or demanded anything even once.
'Besides, is she not my benefactor?'
Not only had his martial prowess grown further thanks to the Taoist secret formula Gongsun Dana had taught him.
He had been able to save his life from crises several times.
And even now, in the wedding forced by the One-Eyed Immortal.
She was not worrying about her own safety, but only about Bu Eunseol.
"Do not worry."
Bu Eunseol showed a gentle smile.
"Because everything will turn out well."
"Do not do that."
Gongsun Dana jumped up and waved her hands.
"Has the Lord not already made a hundred-year vow with my sister? I can absolutely not do that."
"That is not what I meant."
Bu Eunseol smiled faintly.
"I mean the thing the Lady is thinking of will not happen."
That smile contained a warmth like sunlight, seeming to calmly wrap around the viewer's heart.
"It is strange."
Gongsun Dana blinked her large eyes.
"I suddenly feel strange."
"You must be exhausted."
In the meantime, to cure the Divine Water Palace Master's illness, she had tried every possible means and traveled everywhere.
Moreover, she had not only run in one breath from Majeon to the Fire Soul Land, but had also held an abrupt wedding due to the One-Eyed Immortal's coercion...
The heavy pressure she felt must have been indescribable.
Stagger.
Gongsun Dana staggered, unable to stand properly.
Bu Eunseol supported her and pointed to the bed.
"Close your eyes for just a moment."
Gongsun Dana stared fixedly at Bu Eunseol.
"Please kiss me."
"No, there is no need for that."
As Bu Eunseol shook his head and tried to explain, Gongsun Dana softly pressed his lips with her finger and whispered.
"I feel like I will only be able to sleep if you do."
A red energy was swirling in her eyes.
In that instant, Bu Eunseol felt something strange.
To think that Gongsun Dana's eyes, which had always been as pure as a child's, could turn so provocative?
'Could it be.'
Sensing something strange, Bu Eunseol quickly scanned the surroundings.
Then he spotted dozens of incense sticks burning in the corner and was so surprised his eyes nearly popped out.
Was that not the Sahwa Sect's Spring Fragrance, the Candlelight Passion Ghost Flower, which could supposedly make even a corpse spring up if one inhaled just a single breath?
Slip.
At that moment, something soft slid along Bu Eunseol's body.
Before he knew it, Gongsun Dana had wrapped her body flexibly like a red snake and burrowed into his embrace.
"Young lady Gongsun. Please come to your senses... Mmph."
Gongsun Dana, who was staring at Bu Eunseol with provocative eyes, instantly hugged his neck with both arms and pressed her light pink lips against his.
In an instant, an indescribably ecstatic fragrance and sweet breath were transmitted to his lips.
Bu Eunseol's eyes turned white.
If he had not simultaneously mastered the two absolute arts that had reached the peaks of extreme yin and extreme yang...
He would have been unable to overcome this dizzying temptation and impulse, and would have acted instinctively.
Craaack.
Pure white cold energy rose from Bu Eunseol's body, and in an instant, his entire body became a massive block of ice.
As his spiritual peace crumbled and he reached the point of losing his reason, he had drawn upon the Heavenly Glacial Secret.
Fwoosh, fwoooosh.
At the same time, a crimson flame generated in his right hand, and white smoke rose from Gongsun Dana's entire body.
He had unfolded the Yeolha Great True Energy to instantly burn away the aphrodisiac that had seeped into her body.
Sssssss.
As the aphrodisiac's energy dissipated in an instant, Bu Eunseol carefully pressed Gongsun Dana's sleeping points.
"Phew."
Bu Eunseol wiped the sweat from his forehead.
What if he had discovered the Candlelight Passion Ghost Flower even a little later? He would not have even had the reason left to unfold the Heavenly Glacial Secret.
And he would have caused a huge incident.
Taking another deep breath, he laid the deeply sleeping Gongsun Dana on the bed and covered her with a blanket.
"Rest peacefully."
Bu Eunseol, having taken off his wedding garments.
Changed back into the martial uniform he originally wore and stepped outside.
Then he saw a shadow wearing colorful clothes in the distance.
It was the One-Eyed Immortal.
"I kept you waiting."
As Bu Eunseol slowly approached and spoke, the One-Eyed Immortal glared fiercely and shouted.
"Are you crippled?"
"What do you mean?"
"Why did you not take her?"
As if she absolutely could not believe it, she looked down at her own two hands and muttered.
"How could you leave such a beautiful child alone and come out?"
"Immortal."
"Even the greatest high monk in the world would go mad, unable to suppress his lust, against the Candlelight Passion Ghost Flower mixed with the Drunken Passion Fragrance..."
"I detoxified it."
The One-Eyed Immortal yelled out.
"Why did you detoxify it!"
"How could I succumb to such a fragrance with her by my side?"
"Since you have become a legitimate married couple, what does it matter whether you burn the Candlelight Passion Ghost Flower or the Lust Fire Burning Heart Grass?"
"How can a wedding held under coercion be called a true wedding?"
"Once the rice is cooked, no one can interfere with the relationship between you two, can they?"
"The Immortal is also a woman, so how can you speak such harsh words?"
Shaking his head, Bu Eunseol sighed.
"Moreover, how could I lay even a single fingertip on a noble woman who is trying to save her master by sacrificing herself?"
"Is that not why you held the wedding ceremony?"
"As I said, it was merely a coerced ceremony."
The One-Eyed Immortal began to be unreasonable.
"Are you saying you will abandon her after having a wedding ceremony?"
"I am not saying I will abandon her, but that I will respect her feelings."
Bu Eunseol spoke in a solemn voice.
"Is marriage not something that is achieved when mutual feelings connect?"
"Those damn feelings! Feelings!"
The One-Eyed Immortal burst into rage.
"Is that why your grandfather left after only scattering feelings like that!"
"Immortal."
"When bodies become close, feelings naturally follow! Just get the deed done!"
Her voice echoed loudly, ringing across the Fire Soul Land.
Silence flowed for a moment.
"That is enough."
Bu Eunseol suddenly dropped his stiff tone and unexpectedly bowed with an incredibly polite and friendly voice.
"Aunt."
"What?"
"Since I have done this much, could you not understand this nephew's heart?"
For Bu Eunseol to call her aunt did not fit their seniority and went against etiquette.
However, her personality was only somewhat eccentric.
He knew that she was not only not an evil person in reality, but also had a deep connection with his grandfather.
So through the title of aunt.
He had indirectly expressed that he felt human warmth and affection toward her.
"I know that Aunt holds no ill feelings toward my grandfather, and that you arranged this marriage for my sake as well."
"What nonsense are you talking about?"
"If not, who would offer the Extreme Heavenly Spiritual Water, which cannot be bought even with a thousand gold, as nuptial wine?"
Bu Eunseol had seen through that the liquor brought out as nuptial wine.
Was made by mixing the Extreme Heavenly Spiritual Water with all sorts of precious spiritual medicines.
From that moment on, he had guessed that the One-Eyed Immortal was not plotting this with ill intentions and felt relieved.
"If the Extreme Heavenly Spiritual Water and various spiritual medicines were mixed together, it would have produced a strong liquor scent that you absolutely could not have detected?"
"Fortunately, this nephew has drank the Extreme Heavenly Spiritual Water before, so I was able to notice its unique stickiness."
"Hmm."
The One-Eyed Immortal's face turned red.
She thought she had perfectly deceived him.
But she was ultimately caught because of the nuptial wine she had made to boost his yang energy and nourish his body.
"In fact, that is not all."
Bu Eunseol sighed as he looked at the lavishly decorated ornaments around the Fire Soul Land.
"Who would hold such a sincere wedding ceremony for an enemy's grandson?"
Although the One-Eyed Immortal had said it was a modest wedding ceremony.
The actual wedding ceremony held was a lavish one equipped with all the formalities that could be mobilized in the Fire Soul Land.
Even the bridal chamber had been carefully and elegantly decorated.
If she truly considered him an enemy? She would have trampled on his pride with a shabby wedding ceremony.
There was no need to hold a ceremony filled with such sincerity.
"Why on earth did you do such a thing?"
Realizing that everything had been exposed, the One-Eyed Immortal opened her mouth with a resigned expression.
"Your grandfather lived his entire life with guilt for harming people while traveling the martial world. And he made a habit of saying he had no right to start a family."
The One-Eyed Immortal had an incredibly affectionate and good relationship with the Seven-Finger Demon Blade.
Therefore, when she realized that Bu Eunseol was truly Bu Zhanyang's grandson.
Even if it meant being unreasonable like this, she wanted to fulfill the unrequited love for him.
"But it seems you are trying to walk the same path as him."
The One-Eyed Immortal saw through that Bu Eunseol only harbored a grand cause and did not consider his own happiness at all.
Even with a beauty said to be the most beautiful in the world by his side, far from harboring dark intentions.
He had come to the Fire Soul Land solely with the mind to help her.
Just like Bu Zhanyang in the past.
"Did my grandfather truly damage Aunt's eyes?"
"Has that been weighing on your mind?"
"Yes."
The One-Eyed Immortal smiled calmly.
"That is correct. He plucked out my eye."
As Bu Eunseol's expression stiffened, she showed a benevolent smile.
"But that was to save me. An incurable poison was spreading through my body, and in the end, your grandfather saved me."
At that time, Bu Zhanyang had extracted the poison spreading through the One-Eyed Immortal's body by absorbing it all himself.
However, he could not remove the residual poisonous qi, and eventually the poisonous qi surged up to her head along the Foot Shaoyang Gallbladder Meridian.
Thus, Bu Zhanyang suppressed the poison near the Taiyang acupoint and the Jingming acupoint.
Then he gathered the poisonous qi into her left eye and removed it, thereby saving the One-Eyed Immortal.
"Grandfather."
Bu Eunseol made a surprised expression.
It was already astonishing that his grandfather had reached the realm of the Poison Saint like himself and had absorbed and detoxified another's poison.
And yet he could not perfectly detoxify the poison?
"Just which sect's poison is so terrifying?"
"The True Demon Palace."
The One-Eyed Immortal shook her head.
"There are masters with power beyond imagination there, and the methods they use can never be stopped by the martial arts of the martial world."
"Were you ambushed by them?"
"That is correct."
The One-Eyed Immortal made a pained expression as if recalling memories of the past.
"Because they tried to swallow this land in one fell swoop."
A thought like lightning suddenly flashed through Bu Eunseol's mind.
"Then the reason Grandfather destroyed the spirit creatures and spiritual lands..."
"That I do not know. Only that it was related to the True Demon Palace."
'The True Demon Palace?'
It was an unexpected answer.
Due to the earlier matter of the Sage Forest, Bu Eunseol had thought.
That the reason his grandfather destroyed the spirit creatures and spiritual lands was to prevent the artificial birth of the Heavenly Mechanism Star.
But it was related to the True Demon Palace?
"He always said that the fewer people who know a secret, the better."
At that moment, the One-Eyed Immortal said.
"So he never revealed everything he knew."
An expression mixed with longing and agony crossed her face.
Bu Eunseol nodded faintly.
Because his grandfather's words matched his own beliefs as well.
"It is not always right for the truth to be revealed."
A long darkness fell over Bu Eunseol's eyes as he stared into empty space.
Some truths must be hidden to protect even more people.
If the forces crouching in the abyss and the source of darkness hidden beneath them were all revealed? Only chaos and ruin would remain.
'Could it be that all the spirit creatures and spiritual lands created in the Central Plains were created by the True Demon?'
Was Pahon not living as one body with the Ten-Thousand-Year Black Centipede due to the True Demon's secret arts?
Perhaps the creation of the spiritual lands and spirit creatures as well.
Could be some sort of device for the True Demon to manipulate the world as he pleased.
"Yes, so he took a lot of curses."
The One-Eyed Immortal said with lonely eyes.
"Because he hid many truths, his whereabouts were bound to be unclear, and there were few who knew his true worth."
In that instant, Bu Eunseol almost burst into tears.
Because that single sentence deeply touched his heart.
"Aunt, there is something I absolutely cannot understand."
And for the first time, to someone.
The gruesome death of his grandfather and.
He confessed all the stories he had seen in the masked man's memories.
"...Such a thing happened. So I investigated everywhere named the Drunken Immortals Pavilion..."
"The Drunken Immortals Pavilion?"
The One-Eyed Immortal asked back with a surprised expression as if she had been burned.
"Could you possibly mean that Drunken Immortals Pavilion in Nanchang Prefecture?"
Bu Eunseol opened his eyes wide in surprise.
Just how on earth did the One-Eyed Immortal know of that place?
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