In the past, Bu Eunseol had once faced the Mother-and-Child Spear Art, the palace-protecting martial art of the Divine Maiden Palace, because of Palace Master Yeon Jami's unreasonable demands.
At the time, the Mother-and-Child Spear Art had been performed jointly by the three Hall Masters of Water Purity, Fortune Spirit, and Purple Wealth.
That was how he had become acquainted with Yak Ran, the Water Purity Hall Master.
"Hall Master Yak."
Recognizing her, Bu Eunseol immediately offered a respectful greeting.
"It has been a long time."
"Have you been well?"
Yak Ran answered coldly, as though she had never seen him before in her life.
"Please leave."
"I have only come to see the Young Palace Lord."
"I know."
"That is precisely why you may not enter."
After a moment's thought, Bu Eunseol took an invitation card from inside his robes.
"For the sake of our past friendship, would you deliver this invitation card to the Young Palace Lord?"
When Yak Ran did not answer, Bu Eunseol sighed.
"If she receives it and still refuses to meet me, I will leave without another word."
Yak Ran hesitated briefly, then seemed to reach a decision.
"The Young Palace Lord is tenderhearted, so if she receives this card, she will likely agree to meet you at least once."
Biting her lip, she continued in a low voice.
"But what happens after that?"
"..."
"I wish you would stop hurting the Young Palace Lord."
Bu Eunseol asked cautiously.
"Hurting her? I do not understand what you mean."
"In all this time, have you ever once come to our palace of your own accord?"
She closed her eyes, her expression stricken.
"Yet now that rumors concerning the Young Palace Lord have spread through the martial world, you finally come."
Bu Eunseol had no defense.
It was undeniably true.
Even if Yeon Soha's feelings had changed because of the man sent by the Empress Dowager, he had no right to complain.
"I was discourteous."
Bu Eunseol had saved the Divine Maiden Palace several times and was one of the Great Grandmasters who now guided the martial world.
Realizing that she had gone too far, Yak Ran bowed deeply in apology.
"I spoke out of turn."
"Please forgive me."
"Not at all."
"Every word you said was right."
Bu Eunseol lowered his head.
"As you said, I have no face with which to meet the Young Palace Lord..."
He sighed deeply before continuing.
"But this is not about satisfying my own selfish desires."
"I merely ask that she reconsider once more."
"So you insist on meeting her."
Yak Ran let out a sigh.
"Who could stop you if that is your will?"
In truth, if Bu Eunseol wished, he could leap over the walls of the Divine Maiden Palace and find Yeon Soha in secret.
Yet he had committed no discourtesy, had treated even an ordinary gate guard and the Gate-Sealing Envoy with respect, and was now earnestly making a courteous request of her.
"Follow me."
"Hall Master Yak."
Sang Eunryeong, who had been watching, spoke up.
"Not only the Young Palace Lord but the Palace Master herself commanded us never to let the Martial Soul Command Lord inside."
Yak Ran drew a deep breath and answered solemnly.
"It is all right."
"I will take responsibility."
Then she led Bu Eunseol away.
Once inside the Divine Maiden Palace, Yak Ran followed a rough, secluded shortcut.
She wanted to avoid encountering any of the palace disciples if possible.
That alone showed how deeply not only the Palace Master and Young Palace Lord, but every disciple in the palace, resented Bu Eunseol.
Their destination was a small pavilion in the rear garden of the Divine Maiden Palace.
It had once been used by palace disciples when meeting their families, but it was now too dilapidated for use.
"Wait here a moment."
"I will send word to the Young Palace Lord."
"Hall Master Yak."
Bu Eunseol once again bowed to Yak Ran as she turned to leave.
"Thank you for your kindness."
Prepared to face punishment, she had secretly brought him here.
Considering that their only connection was a brief spar in the past, she was showing him an unexpectedly great kindness.
"I am not doing this for you, but for the Young Palace Lord."
Yak Ran sighed deeply.
"If the bond between you is severed with a single stroke like this, it will ultimately leave a deep wound in her as well."
With those words, she turned and disappeared.
How long had he waited?
Step. Step.
With the sound of light footsteps, a woman in palace robes as white as snowflakes slowly approached Bu Eunseol.
She was a peerless beauty whose dazzling eyes seemed visible even from ten li away.
The Thousand-Gold Glance.
Yeon Soha, said to possess the most beautiful eyes among the three greatest beauties under heaven, had appeared.
"Young Palace Lord."
Bu Eunseol offered a courteous greeting.
Because he had ceaselessly practiced the secret methods recorded in the Heart-Captivating Secret Texts, even the natural motion of his bow was elegant, and his gaze was profound.
"Martial Soul Command Lord."
Yeon Soha, however, appeared utterly unmoved and spoke with boundless coldness.
"Our palace has walked the righteous path for generations and is forbidden to men."
"..."
"Why has the successor of Majeon come looking for me?"
Bu Eunseol wore an apologetic expression.
"I am sorry."
"For what?"
"For everything..."
"Is that all you have to say?"
"Young Palace Lord."
"I came only because Hall Master Yak pleaded so earnestly."
A wintry north wind seemed to rage within her eyes.
"If you have nothing else to say, I will go back inside."
Yeon Soha was normally warmhearted, treating even her subordinates kindly.
Now, however, she was distant and merciless.
'Is she so cold because she truly likes the man she is seeing?'
According to the Death Spirit Corps' investigation, Yeon Soha had only recently begun a romance with a man called Young Master Dam.
Then her former lover, a heartless man who had not visited the Divine Maiden Palace even once, had suddenly come running as though his feet were on fire.
It was only natural that she would treat him coldly.
One misstep could spark a scandal and ruin her relationship with Young Master Dam.
'Does she sincerely love him?'
Unlike Princess Hwijeong, whose eyes had brimmed with vitality and love, Yeon Soha's face appeared somewhat gaunt, and her body looked thinner as well.
"Is there something on my face?"
Yeon Soha frowned when Bu Eunseol continued staring silently at her.
In the past, every glance she gave him would have overflowed with pride and affection.
Now there was neither delight nor longing in her gaze.
"I came all this way."
Bu Eunseol casually ventured a joke.
"I was just beginning to feel hurt that you had not even offered me a cup of tea."
Yeon Soha's brows instantly shot upward.
"If you have no business here, I am leaving."
Recalling the Heart-Captivating Secret Texts, Bu Eunseol smiled.
"I came because I wanted to see you."
"What did you say?"
Her eyes became not only infinitely colder but openly furious, and Bu Eunseol hurriedly changed the subject.
"I heard that you had entered a serious relationship with someone."
"What concern is that of yours?"
Only the frigid depths of a winter swept by an icy north wind remained in Yeon Soha's sunken eyes.
'I must open her heart somehow.'
Realizing that her heart was completely closed, Bu Eunseol recalled another passage from the Heart-Captivating Secret Texts.
―'When a woman sees the man she loves show jealousy, she takes it as proof of his love.'
Naturally, this did not mean grave obsession or possessiveness.
It referred to a light complaint showing that he wanted her to look only at him.
'I have never once shown her deep affection.'
What if he showed a little jealousy over her meeting someone else?
Perhaps she would find it gratifying.
"It does concern me."
"Why?"
"Because you are my woman."
"What did you say?"
"Our betrothal was never annulled, so is it not still valid?"
Bu Eunseol spoke boldly.
"I will not permit you to see another man."
Flames erupted in Yeon Soha's eyes.
"Those words are not even worth hearing."
It had produced the opposite effect.
She shot to her feet and shouted.
"Is anyone there?"
Rumble.
As though they had been waiting, dozens of martial artists rushed in from the surroundings with the Water Purity Hall Master, Yak Ran.
"Hall Master Yak! Was this what you meant when you said I absolutely had to see him?"
"I have no excuse, Young Palace Lord."
Yak Ran bowed courteously and spoke in a calm voice.
"I will take responsibility for this."
"I hope your actions follow your words."
"Wait, Young Palace Lord."
Bu Eunseol asked with a somewhat bewildered expression.
"I know you are angry and hurt. But must you truly treat me like a complete stranger?"
"What a strange thing to say."
Yeon Soha stared at him with a gaze that seemed to scatter frost through the air.
"If you are not a stranger, then what exactly are you?"
She then turned to Yak Ran.
"Hall Master, send that man away at once."
After glaring at Bu Eunseol for a moment, Yeon Soha immediately departed.
'Was it truly this bad?'
He had expected Yeon Soha to treat him harshly.
But he had never imagined that she would show so little emotion, as though seeing him for the first time in her life.
"Command Lord."
Yak Ran spoke quietly.
"Please leave, as you promised."
A promise was a promise.
Although he had promised to leave if she refused his invitation card, Yak Ran's kindness had allowed him to meet Yeon Soha.
Now he had to depart of his own accord.
"Very well."
Suppressing his bitterness, Bu Eunseol offered a respectful greeting.
"I will leave immediately."
"Please do."
As if there were no need even to see him off, Yak Ran swept out of the pavilion with her subordinates.
Bu Eunseol could only stare blankly at the distant sky for a long while.
'Were the Heart-Captivating Secret Texts useless from the start?'
Had she shown hatred or loathing, there might at least have been some hope.
But Yeon Soha's eyes had held neither love nor hatred... nor any emotion at all.
"Who can I blame?"
He had merely used the Death Spirit Corps to ensure that she was safe and had never once come to see her.
Now that she had forgotten him and wished to begin anew with someone else, he had no right to interfere or stand in her way.
As he walked desolately toward the gates of the Divine Maiden Palace, someone called out.
"Command Lord."
A very young maidservant cautiously approached him.
"Please follow me."
Then she said something unexpected.
"The Flower-Dissolving Hall Leader has invited you."
After entering the Flower-Dissolving Hall, Bu Eunseol followed the maidservant into a hidden study.
Creak.
When the door opened again, a beautiful middle-aged woman in floral robes slowly emerged.
She was Namgung Un's aunt and the Flower-Dissolving Hall Leader of the Divine Maiden Palace, Namgung Sea.
"Hall Leader."
Bu Eunseol bowed respectfully, and Namgung Sea returned the greeting.
"It has been a long time."
She had helped Bu Eunseol in many ways ever since he first entered the martial world.
Moreover, because she was the aunt of his sworn brother Namgung Un, he treated her with the utmost respect as an elder.
"My apologies, Hall Leader."
Unable to hide his frustration, Bu Eunseol asked a question.
"I had no idea the Young Palace Lord was this angry..."
"Command Lord."
Namgung Sea's expression became extremely grave.
"The Young Palace Lord is not angry."
"What do you mean?"
After hesitating, she lowered her voice.
"She does not remember you at all."
"What do you mean by that?"
"At first, I thought she was merely hurt and angry."
Namgung Sea sighed deeply and shook her head.
"Only recently did I become certain that your very existence has been erased from the Young Palace Lord's mind."
"I was told that the Young Palace Lord ordered the Gate-Sealing Envoy and gate guards in advance to bar my entry."
"That was the Palace Master's will. She deliberately made it appear as though the Young Palace Lord had given the order."
Bu Eunseol stared blankly for a moment before his expression turned grave.
Only then did he understand why Yeon Soha had treated him with such utter indifference.
"Then this was done by the man sent by the Empress Dowager."
"The Empress Dowager?"
"The man called Young Master Dam whom the Young Palace Lord is seeing was likely sent by the Empress Dowager to undermine my foundations."
He calmly explained what had happened and told her about the Empress Dowager.
Namgung Sea listened in silence, then furrowed her brow.
"That is unlikely."
She then revealed something unexpected.
"The Palace Master was the one who introduced her to Young Master Dam."
"I understood that they met by chance."
"They did. Their repeated encounters were coincidences."
Namgung Sea nodded.
"But it was the Palace Master who arranged their formal courtship."
After thinking briefly, Bu Eunseol spoke.
"They may have used even the Palace Master's connections to approach her."
"That is possible, of course. But we found no trace whatsoever that her mind had been influenced."
She continued.
"We invited countless famous physicians and eminent experts to examine her pulse, and we also investigated whether she had been subjected to a grand method that affected the mind. But we found nothing abnormal."
She added an explanation.
"Recently, the Young Palace Lord mishandled her internal energy while cultivating. It is possible that she damaged her brain meridians and lost some of her memories as a result."
Bu Eunseol nodded.
He, too, had examined Yeon Soha's condition himself but found nothing unusual.
"However, the True Demon Palace's methods cannot be judged by the martial arts or medical knowledge of the present martial world. It is also strange that she lost only her memories of me."
Every master of the True Demon Palace wielded a different form of Soul Demon Dharma Energy.
No one could guarantee that her mind had not been touched.
"Without firm evidence, you must never say such a thing to the Palace Master."
Namgung Sea then told him something he had not expected.
"The Palace Master said this might be for the best and has resolved to annul the engagement."
"She intends to annul it?"
"For the Young Palace Lord's sake."
Namgung Sea's gaze sharpened.
"You became engaged to the Young Palace Lord for political reasons, to quell a scandal. But I trust you know better than anyone how the Young Palace Lord feels."
"..."
"She waited for you with unwavering devotion and never uttered a word of complaint, yet you never once answered her feelings."
Bu Eunseol had nothing to say.
"If you offer her warm words and actions, perhaps her heart will melt for a moment. But that would be false warmth, an illusion without sincerity."
Namgung Sea spoke coldly.
"That warmth would linger only briefly. Once it passed... the Young Palace Lord would feel an even deeper cold. Do you understand?"
Bu Eunseol lowered his head.
Not a single word she had said was wrong.
"Everything you say is true. However..."
Bu Eunseol bowed his head.
"During my travels through the martial world, I learned the value of human bonds, and I have never once thought of the Young Palace Lord as merely a political betrothal."
"It is already too late."
Namgung Sea shook her head.
"The Palace Master will soon formally announce the dissolution of the engagement."
"Hall Leader."
"The same is true even if the marriage talks with Young Master Dam go nowhere. As long as the Young Palace Lord does not remember you..."
She spoke firmly.
"Nothing you do will change the hearts of the Palace Master or the Young Palace Lord."
"Hall Leader."
Bu Eunseol respectfully clasped his hands.
"Please give me a chance."
"A chance?"
"I will restore the Young Palace Lord's memories of me."
"Do you believe she has fallen victim to a Mind-Seizing art?"
"Even if she has not, I want to try to win back her heart."
Silence fell for a moment.
Just as Namgung Sea was about to speak again,
Step. Step.
Soft footsteps approached, followed by a low voice.
"Is there truly any need?"
The door opened, revealing an unexpected figure.
It was Yeon Jami, the Divine Maiden Palace Master.
"Our palace is not even powerful enough to stand among the mighty factions cooperating with the Command Lord."
She seemed to have overheard Bu Eunseol's conversation with Namgung Sea as she approached.
"If you do not intend to marry her now, must you win Soha's heart by forcing her feelings to return?"
"Palace Master."
Bu Eunseol lowered his head in a respectful bow.
Yeon Jami swiftly turned aside to avoid receiving it and spoke coldly.
"Why does the future Majeon Lord, who will one day command the Demonic Path, offer me such a profound bow?"
"Circumstances prevented me from visiting for a long time."
Bu Eunseol looked deeply apologetic.
"Have you been well?"
"Fortunately, the Demonic Path did not invade our palace, so we have lived without incident."
Her voice seemed to carry a cutting winter wind.
Yet Bu Eunseol appeared almost reassured by her attitude.
Coldness meant that at least the emotion called hatred remained.
If she treated him with the same complete indifference as Yeon Soha, there would be nothing more he could do.
"Would you grant me one chance, Palace Master?"
"A chance?"
"I will restore the Young Palace Lord's memories."
"And afterward?"
Yeon Jami spoke coldly.
"Soha will savor a fleeting happiness, then spend endless nights exhausted by waiting once again."
Yeon Soha had loved Bu Eunseol since his earliest days in the martial world and had waited for him without end.
But as time passed, the only rumors that reached her were wretched tales of the Martial Soul Command Lord forming bonds with one beauty after another.
From Yeon Jami's perspective, her daughter, praised as the most beautiful woman in the world, could only seem pitiful and forlorn.
"I entered the martial world to avenge my grandfather, and I cannot guarantee my survival until that task is done."
Bu Eunseol spoke firmly.
"I refused the engagement only because I could not build a family before achieving that goal. I never intended to torment the Young Palace Lord's heart."
"Your intentions do not matter. What matters is my daughter's happiness."
"Then I will announce it publicly."
Bu Eunseol's voice was resolute.
"I will summon the elder of my pavilion and announce the marriage. If you wish, I will hold the wedding immediately."
His grandfather and parents were all dead, leaving Bu Eunseol an orphan with no blood relatives.
But he had found a home and a family in Nangyang Pavilion.
The Nangyang Pavilion Master, the Human Demon Ak Muryeong, was the greatest elder Bu Eunseol served.
In other words, he intended to summon Ak Muryeong and settle the marriage.
"An elder of Nangyang Pavilion?"
The image of the most savage and terrifying man under heaven instantly rose in Yeon Jami's mind.
When displeased, he drenched the entire surrounding region in blood, and he had cultivated the sinister and mysterious Mind-Seizing Secret Art all the way to the Limitless Realm.
With nothing more than eye contact, he could seize a person's mind and leave his enemy no room to resist.
That ominous and terrifying great demon of the world.
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