I Decided to Give the Contract to the Male Vassal - Chapter 26
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 26
“Miss, please don’t cry. The family head in Seolsan will be saddened.”
“Life in the Yeomhwa Family won’t be easy, but you have us with you, Miss.”
These were memories of the two maids who had followed Chung-rin from Seolsan.
They were like real sisters to Chung-rin. Among them, Yuhwa was similar in age and was no different from a close friend.
The maid who had been like an older sister died from a sword wound while standing up to Yeonhopyeong who tormented Chung-rin, and only Yuhwa remained by Chung-rin’s side to care for her.
When there wasn’t enough firewood supplied to the residence, they relied on each other’s body heat to overcome the cold, and when food was scarce, Yuhwa gave her portion to Chung-rin to help her endure.
Yuhwa was Chung-rin’s only family.
However, she was falsely accused of stealing jewelry from the main house and was dragged away from the residence.
After that day, Chung-rin never saw Yuhwa again.
She asked other maids, but no one knew whether Yuhwa was alive or dead.
Time passed in that state.
Only longing for Yuhwa accumulated in her letters.
Around the time when word came that the wedding ceremony would finally proceed, Yeomnhoryeong came to visit Chung-rin.
“Chung-rin. Don’t you want to see Yuhwa? I can arrange for you to meet her.”
Yeomnhoryeong knew of Chung-rin’s heart that longed for Yuhwa.
Chung-rin, who had kept the door to her heart locked until then, finally ended up listening to his voice.
“There’s a small cottage by the lakeside. Wait there tomorrow at noon (11 AM to 1 PM). I’ll give you a letter from Yuhwa.”
Chung-rin accepted his proposal out of her desire to see Yuhwa.
Using the secret passage that Yeomnhoryeong had told her about, she came out to the lakeside, and saw a cottage not far away.
Though she had come out earlier than the appointed time, she went straight into the cottage at the thought of being able to meet Yuhwa.
She eventually found a letter written in Yuhwa’s handwriting inside the drawer of an old wardrobe.
Upon seeing Yuhwa’s elegant writing for the first time in five years, tears welled up in Chung-rin’s eyes.
I, Yuhwa, am doing well.
Miss, please don’t worry about me and stay healthy.
Next time we meet, I definitely want to sing you the lullaby of Seolsan.
The moment she saw the expression “lullaby of Seolsan,” Chung-rin felt her heart drop to the ground.
This was a metaphorical expression used in Seolsan Jeokga to indicate that someone was on the verge of death.
Yuhwa was telling Chung-rin.
That she would die soon.
Her hands trembled.
This letter was probably one that Yeomnhoryeong had forced Yuhwa to write in order to threaten Chung-rin.
Yuhwa was certain she would die, and in the short letter, she announced her own death.
It was a warning to absolutely not listen if Yeomnhoryeong used Yuhwa to threaten her.
Chung-rin didn’t know what Yeomnhoryeong would have wanted from her using this letter.
However, the moment she realized Yuhwa’s death, she thought everything was meaningless.
Yuhwa’s letter had yellowed paper.
Perhaps Yuhwa couldn’t even last five years and was killed early on.
The moment she realized that fact, Chung-rin wished her own heart would just stop.
What bloomed in place of her dried-up emotions was terrible despair.
For her, who had forgotten the will to live and was merely existing, a reason to die had emerged.
Along with the emptiness that Chung-rin felt, the waves of memory receded like low tide.
It felt as if a hole had been drilled in my heart.
But this was an emotion that Chung-rin, not I, had possessed.
I realized why she had easily let go of her lifeline when she faced Yeonhopyeong at the cliff.
It was because she had learned of Yuhwa’s death.
The moment I felt dejected, I could feel the needle inside my body stirring.
Right, now I must focus on the mental technique to remove the needle rather than sympathizing with Chung-rin’s despair.
Following the formula of Chimmwolsimbub and concentrating, I finally succeeded in extracting the needle.
As the needle came out of my body, a cold energy surged through my meridians.
The internal energy accumulated in my dantian was minimal, but the qi that passed through the meridians was seeping into various parts of my blood vessels.
It was a terribly cold energy.
Befitting someone from Seolsan, it seemed to be internal energy of a cold nature.
From the moment the needle came out through my skin, I circulated my internal energy and attempted a full circulation.
But at some point, the airflow surrounding me changed.
The poison that Wicheonso had fed me began to activate.
The poison’s energy was as cold as the internal energy I had emitted.
‘Even if I don’t know the type of poison, it’s definitely from the cold poison category.’
The cool silver internal energy’s flow had somehow changed to cold air and was being released externally.
Suddenly, I retched up a fishy blood clot outside my mouth.
I had suffered internal injuries due to the extreme cold.
With the cold air and cold poison combining, if I made a mistake, the qi and blood inside my body could become twisted.
However, this was also the one chance to absorb the Bloodstone Flower.
I took out the Bloodstone Flower I had prepared in advance.
Bloodpact Formula.
Based on the information obtained from Sangteon-dang, I placed the Bloodstone Flower on my palm and dropped my blood on it.
The hot energy of the Bloodstone Flower rose like a heat haze.
To absorb the demonic energy contained in the Bloodstone Flower, I had to fuse extreme cold and extreme heat.
As the Bloodstone Flower emitted red currents, red color was painted over the silver-white currents spread around me.
My qi and blood surged instantly.
‘Let’s not reject that heat but accept it.’
As extreme cold and extreme heat collided, crimson light seeped into the silver-white currents. My meridians trembled, and my internal energy changed from silver-white to pale red, then to deep crimson.
The moment the Bloodstone Flower’s demonic energy penetrated deep inside my body, the formula of Chimmwolsimbub fished up part of my memories once again.
“If you want to meet Yuhwa directly, I can arrange for you to meet her.”
“To prevent the wedding ceremony with my brother, I will take Miss Chung-rin and flee to a distant place. How about living there together with you, Miss, and Yuhwa?”
The words Yeomnhoryeong had left behind confused my mind.
He had wanted Chung-rin.
However, if you asked whether he loved her enough to run away with his brother’s fiancée, that probably wasn’t the case.
When questions circled in my mind, I soon stopped thinking.
Because vivid pain came crashing over me.
My dantian twisted as if it would tear apart, and my vision turned white in an instant.
My qi and blood swelled as if they would burst, and my fingertips grew numb with cold.
I could have died like this.
Still, I couldn’t retreat.
As the cold poison’s cold air and the Bloodstone Flower’s heat collided, silver-white mist and red flames tangled together inside me.
I had to accept everything without rejecting it.
My meridians vibrated madly, and two types of currents crossed inside my body.
As the heat was completely absorbed, the silver internal energy gradually turned red.
The formula of Chimmwolsimbub bridged the heterogeneous boundary between body and soul, and the cold poison suppressed the extreme heat of the Bloodstone Flower.
Blood poured out of my mouth again.
But at the same time, I realized.
Thanks to the cold poison activating, I could definitely prevent the Bloodstone Flower’s demonic energy from exploding outward.
In a way, you could say I was lucky.
The moment I carefully opened my eyes, the inside of me became quiet.
My body had completely changed from before.
A cool and sharp energy spread from somewhere inside my body. It was a sensation as if the area under my skin was freezing, and every time I breathed in, I felt as if frost was forming deep in my blood vessels.
Though it wasn’t a complete transformation, some of the waste materials inside my body had evaporated along with the cold air.
When everything was finished, the Bloodstone Flower rolled and fell with a clacking sound.
‘I have completely absorbed the Bloodstone Flower’s demonic energy.’
All the demonic energy shattered into pieces and seeped into my Blood Meridian.
In this state, even if Yeonriri were to check my Blood Meridian, she wouldn’t notice any changes.
I looked down at the red Bloodstone Flower.
Though it was an empty shell with all its energy drained, outwardly it looked no different from when I first brought it.
The sun had not yet risen and it was quiet outside. I didn’t feel like anyone was watching me either.
I quietly exhaled and carefully picked up the Bloodstone Flower.
I wrapped the crystal that had lost its demonic energy back in silk cloth and burned incense to mask the cold aura and blood scent.
Then I resolved to return this Bloodstone Flower crystal to where it originally belonged.
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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