Since meeting him, she hadn't been able to forget him for even a single moment. His intense impression had been shaking her heart all this time.
What was the identity of this peculiar heart trembling?
She had been eagerly waiting for him to appear here, wanting to know. That's why she was worrying about the possibility that he might not appear here.
"Huh!? Young Miss, isn't that person the one from that time? The name was..."
Suddenly, Hwa Seon-hyang pointed with her finger toward the Inner Court in the far distance and shouted.
Since Hwa Ye-ji was looking for Jong Ji-hang, she paid no attention to Hwa Seon-hyang's shout and only focused on the area near the reception offices. The Inner Court was a place where only guests of the Nine Great Sects or Four Great Families, or high-ranking officials of the Murim Alliance came and went anyway, so there was no way a nameless wanderer like Jong Ji-hang would come from that direction....
"Jong... Jong... what was it?"
Hm? Jong...?
"Jong Ji-hang!?"
"Ah! Right! Jong Ji-hang! That was the name... Huh. Huh? Young Miss?"
At Hwa Seon-hyang's words, Hwa Ye-ji urgently looked toward the Inner Court.
However, Hwa Seon-hyang's head was blocking her view, making it difficult to see properly.
Thud!
Hwa Ye-ji hastily stepped over Hwa Seon-hyang's head and flew over to the building on the opposite side.
That side had the Jibin Pavilion building for male guests, but she didn't care. Hwa Ye-ji, who usually acted as she pleased even in Mount Hua Sect, had nothing to fear within the sect as the Sect leader's daughter, and that tendency remained the same even when she came to the outside world.
Something like climbing onto the roof of men's quarters.
It was no problem at all for her.
Whoosh—
A splendid gait of Willow Leaf Drift unfolded.
Though Hwa Ye-ji was willful, reckless, and arrogant, her martial arts skills were outstanding enough to be counted as one of the Five Phoenixes.
However!
Whoosh!
Someone suddenly flew up toward her. And there were two people!
One person landed on the roof of Jibin Pavilion where the men stayed ahead of her, and the other person was leaping upward at a timing that matched precisely the moment she was flying up.
"...!"
It was a man with very long bangs. His long bangs were fluttering wildly left and right in the wind as he leaped upward. Through them, his eyes and Hwa Ye-ji's eyes met directly face to face.
Her eyes downward, his eyes upward.
His terribly indifferent yet unwavering eyes grew larger and larger toward her.
"Ah!"
Hwa Ye-ji had already completely deployed Willow Leaf Drift's gait, so she couldn't twist her body in another direction or fly back to the women's Jibin Pavilion where Hwa Seon-hyang was. Such a thing would be impossible even for her father, the Mount Hua Sect leader.
At this rate, she would collide directly with that man, whoever he was!
However, at that very moment.
That man with emotionless eyes very appropriately extended his hand and naturally embraced her. The technique was so mystical that it mixed into her movement without any resistance—no, it melted into it. Normally, his leaping force and the momentum of Willow Leaf Drift should have collided and caused a great incident....
He embraced her body flowing like a willow leaf without any hesitation, and continued his own gait without going against that flow at all.
That rippling gait felt like Willow Leaf Drift... was it just Hwa Ye-ji's imagination?
Whoosh—! Thud.
"Whew—. You really are astonishing. To collide with Willow Leaf Drift's gait, you displayed improvisation in that single moment and imitated that momentum as it was. Heh heh. To think you were doing something like mercenary work with that talent. What a pity, such a pity."
The middle-aged man who had climbed onto the roof first spoke to the man holding Hwa Ye-ji. Surprisingly, the middle-aged man recognized at a glance that the gait she had deployed was Willow Leaf Drift.
What was even more surprising was,
'He really imitated Willow Leaf Drift?'
She couldn't be certain, but since it was words from a master skilled enough to read Willow Leaf Drift after seeing it once, she couldn't not believe it either.
Even in the midst of her surprise, Hwa Ye-ji looked up at the man holding her with curious eyes. His face was already covered again with his hair, so she couldn't see those indifferent eyes like before.
He certainly had quite a handsome face and peculiar eyes.
She looked up like that for quite a while without realizing she was doing so. Just like when she had encountered Jong Ji-hang a while ago.
"Heh-heh. That young lady seems to quite like you. She can't let go of your hands at all."
"...Oh my!"
Only after hearing the middle-aged man's words did Hwa Ye-ji realize she was being held in the arms of a complete stranger.
At that, she hastily let go of her arms.
Thud.
"Oww!"
Whether the man had already let go of the hand supporting her back, she fell directly onto the roof tiles in a defenseless state and landed on her bottom.
The man glanced at her once, then walked straight toward the middle-aged man.
"Hey, you bastard. Should you treat such a beauty that roughly?"
"She was the one who let go of her arms."
"Tsk-tsk-tsk. A typical bad guy. A fellow who'll never properly hold a girl's hand in his lifetime. Hey there, Young Miss."
"...Y-yes?"
Hwa Ye-ji responded reflexively without realizing it. Perhaps because it was such an absurd situation, it was a reply that just popped out while she was dazed. She didn't even know why. Perhaps it was because at Mount Hua Sect, no one ever spoke to her in such an impudent or rude manner.
"I'll apologize on his behalf. This fellow lived in the rough and smelly North, so he knows nothing of manners. Please understand, beautiful young lady."
"...Ah, yes. Yes..."
She just answered roughly, then looked at the man.
But he had already withdrawn his gaze from her and was looking down far below at Central Great Road.
Without realizing it, she moved her gaze in the same direction he was looking. And only then did she remember why she had tried to come over here.
'Jong Ji-hang!'
The man was looking at Jong Ji-hang.
Indeed, having crossed over from the women's quarters roof to this side, to the men's Jibin Pavilion, Jong Ji-hang's overwhelming presence was clearly visible.
And.
'Or is he looking at that woman?'
Next to Jong Ji-hang, a woman so beautiful it was difficult to describe in words was walking together with him.
Since the man's eyes were hidden by his hair and couldn't be seen, there was no way for her to know whether he was looking at Jong Ji-hang, or looking at that woman, or looking at both.
'But is that even human? A fairy?'
The woman walking beside Jong Ji-hang was beautiful. No, the word beautiful couldn't possibly express it.
Dark eyebrows that seemed to resemble a clear night sky, a nose bridge as smooth as if polished by an eternal craftsman, lips with a color like cherries dissolved appropriately in water, a chin that was appropriately round yet not round with clear contours, long hair with a glistening sheen and skin tone with a rosy glow, a long neck and slender figure....
She was a beautiful and perfect woman to a degree unthinkable as a being of this world.
Hwa Ye-ji's face suddenly flushed hot.
The very fact that someone like herself had been called Shaanxi's First Beauty felt shabby. Even the fact that she had taken pride in it felt so embarrassing.
That figure walking gracefully in white-blue silk.
Wasn't she truly a fairy?
A scratch formed in Hwa Ye-ji's chest. Just from seeing her once....
"Hee-hya—. Coming out to the Central Plains, the quality level is definitely different, right? Hey, you bastard. Do you know who that young lady is?"
At the middle-aged man's question, the man looked that way for a moment, then slowly opened his mouth.
"I know. Very well."
The man said while raising one hand to slightly brush aside his bangs.
He, Dong Bong-soo, knew about that woman—no, that fellow wearing a woman's guise—better than anyone here.
"Namgung Hye."
'Do Heo-ok.'
***
Fairy of the Martial World.
It's a term referring to a fairy of the Martial World. Though it seems simple, it's a word that contains many meanings.
Commonly in the Central Plains, the most beautiful person in a region is described in the style of such-and-such First Beauty.
What if the place of this such-and-such contains not a regional name but the word Martial World, meaning the entire Martial World? Moreover, if after that, the word Fairy is used instead of First Beauty?
The Martial World's greatest beauty and talent.
The most beautiful woman in the Martial World who is also excellent in talent. That was precisely the Fairy of the Martial World.
In some ways it was an extremely grand epithet, but there had been several female masters who had received this title throughout history. Then, as female martial artists' activities declined for nearly a hundred years, it was an epithet that had disappeared.
Then recently, a woman appeared who inherited this epithet.
Namgung Hye.
A woman who, on a certain day just before her wedding, lost her entire family and her too-beloved fiancé overnight when her family was exterminated by a surprise attack from Heavenly Demon Castle and the Eighteen Yangtze Waterway Strongholds. [PR/N: Would not be surprised author used the Red Wedding]
A woman who held all the world's misfortune in her body alone.
A natural matter.
An expected foresight, but at first, no one knew she was such a remarkable woman.
Perhaps.
She may have been a remarkable woman from the beginning. It's just that her family was so great and remarkable that her innate talents were obscured....
Before the Anhui Great Massacre, what was known about Namgung Hye was merely that she was Anhui's most beautiful woman, or the kind and virtuous second daughter of the Namgung Family Head.
That was all.
So, when she vowed revenge for her family and fiancé and sought to become an arm of the Murim Alliance.
Someone like you.
Even if you inherited Do Heo-ok's Internal Energy Arts, as a woman how could you use Thunder Clap Blade, a martial art of Extreme Yang?
What could you do with just a pretty face, and so on.
Everyone either tried to dissuade her recklessness or mocked her. No one anticipated her accomplishments.
However,
Namgung Hye shattered the world's natural expectations unnaturally.