Book 10 Chapter 21

Escape

The sudden impact caused the channel to burst, and Na Yerin and Bi Ryuyeon were swept into the current.

The water was rougher than they expected, and at first they couldn't control their position.

But Bi Ryuyeon was used to being in and out of the water as he practiced his thunderbolt. Staying afloat for half an hour was no big deal to him; he was a master of the craft. It was Na Yerin who came as an unexpected surprise. For her, manual labor was a rat's nest. She excelled at everything else, but there was one thing she was not good at, and that was manual labor. Na Yerin's weakness for manual labor had more to do with her environment than her talent.

For a woman of Maitreya's stature to show off her body in a bare, clinging robe was tantamount to a murderous plot to brain a thousand men. And it was too risky for her, too: there were wolves everywhere who wanted to see what they could do with her. She couldn't trust anyone, not even her own guards.

So she never had the opportunity to learn handicrafts. Her family never allowed it. So she was weak in handwork. The long dives took their toll on her. Na Yerin had trouble breathing and soon lost consciousness. There was still a long way to go to reach the end of the channel.

"Oops!

Bi Ryuyeon swam desperately, holding on to the unconscious Na Yerin's hand. The problem wasn't her, it was Na Yerin, and they had to get out of this channel before she suffocated.

"I'll never let you die, never!

Bi Ryuyeon began to swim with full force. Thanks to the muklong rings on his limbs, his swim was more like a treadmill than a swim. His 'magnetic veins' pushed him forward, kicking the bottom with each sinking stroke.

Time was now his most powerful enemy.

One day, Mr. Kang, a fisherman who had been fishing for 30 years in Payang Lake to make ends meet, was treated like a madman by people. He was treated like a mentally ill person for telling the truth, which drove him crazy.

"Well, I'm telling you, there are dragons in Lake Payang, I've seen them with my own eyes!"

But the villagers ignored Mr. Kang. No one was willing to listen to him.

"Hey, Joe. I swear I saw a dragon in Payang Lake yesterday. I swear!"

Even Mr. Seok, a 30-year veteran, didn't believe Kang's story.

"You've been working too much lately and you're tired. Go home, wash your feet, and get some rest. You'll feel better in a few days."

While Seok's advice was kind, it was clear that he didn't believe it.

"I saw it! I have seen, with my own eyes, that a dragon and a fairy live in Lake Payang!"

He cried out, but no one listened to him. Mr. Kang sank to the ground and muttered to himself.

"I saw it… obviously……."

It happened last night, when the moon was full and bright. Mr. Kang was casting his net into a black lake and fishing at night.

"Phew!"

A human head rose above the black, undulating surface.

"Heehee!"

Mr. Kang, a fisherman fishing by moonlight in Lake Payang, was frightened out of his wits. He lost his balance and almost fell into the water, but his 30 years of experience as a fisherman saved him. At first, he thought it was a ghost. But when he saw the beautiful woman he was hugging, he was relieved to realize that it wasn't a ghost. What he did know was that Lake Payang was inhabited by a fairy, and that fairy was not a good swimmer.

The man emerging from the water raised a hand to greet him and said, "Hello! Good night!" Mr. Kang hesitantly bowed and returned the greeting. When he straightened up again, there was no sign of the man or the fairy.

"Huh? Huh? Huh?"

Mr. Kang looked everywhere for their whereabouts, until finally he saw it. A long, massive body swimming across the moonlit surface of the water! It must be the dragon of legend. Otherwise, there was no other explanation for its long, lanky body. Mr. Kang was chilled with fear. The fear of being eaten gripped him. Luckily, that didn't happen: the dragon was swimming out to sea, not in the middle of the lake. It seemed to be chasing after them.

It wasn't until long after the dragon's shadow was out of sight that Mr. Kang was able to sit down on the boat and thank the dragon king that he was safe from the encounter. What he didn't realize was that it wasn't a dragon at all, but a mulin blood net, and that he wasn't alive, but already dead, being dragged away by Bi Ryuyeon's brain spirit. It was not easy for Bi Ryuyeon to abandon the network, which would be worth a fortune if disassembled and sold, citing the difficulty of the situation as an excuse.

Bi Ryuyeon dragged the unconscious woman to the water's edge and laid her down on dry land. She put her hand to her nose, but there was no sign of breathing.

At this point, the only options were tongue-in-cheek and artificial respiration.

Once he had her flat on the ground, he tilted her graceful neck back to clear her airway. Having survived dozens of near-drownings, consuming more than a dozen buckets of water while learning how to cook a grenade, she was also an expert in artificial respiration and first aid.

Normally, artificial respiration requires compressing the heart with enough force to break the ribs, but martial arts master Bi Ryuyeon didn't have to break Na Yerin's ribs; he simply placed his hand between her "plump breasts" and gently blew qi into them.

Eek!

Bi Ryuyeon slowly brought his hand between her breasts. He was about to take the first step, or rather, the first hand, into a sanctuary that no one, no man, had ever dared to violate.

Thump!

Suddenly, Bi Ryuyeon's face began to flush, as if her heart was beating faster and her blood was rushing.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, what's going on?

Although she didn't like the unique physiological phenomenon, she did what she had to do.

She placed her palm on Na Yerin's chest and blew qi into it. The purpose was to compress the heart through the qi. To the surprise of those who knew him, he didn't move his hand to the side for a moment in disbelief. He wasn't the kind of bastard to do something like that without permission.

The next thing he had to do was to get air into his lungs through his mouth and mouth into his lungs. Naturally, a kiss was inevitable, and in his vision, the carnelian lips of the unconscious Na Yerin came into view. Bi Ryuyeon involuntarily gulped and swallowed.

Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump, thump, thump, thump.

I felt like my heart was beating about two and a half times faster than before.

"What's wrong with this, are you sure you're not going to die of a heart attack? It didn't used to be like this.

But the abnormal beating of her heart was not enough to stop her from doing what she was doing. Bi Ryuyeon's and Na Yerin's lips pressed together.

Boom!

Bi Ryuyeon reverently pressed her lips to his and blew air into them. Of course, he didn't forget to cover her nose.

Once, twice, three times.

She alternated between compressions and exhalations. According to the original textbook, the ratio of compression to exhalation should be fifteen to one. But because she is a martial arts master, she was able to greatly simplify the process.

Chest fondling (?) and artificial respiration… Artificial respiration is next in line for……?

"Of course I'm going to talk about it!

Bi Ryuyeon shouted in her mind. Of course, there was no such procedure for artificial respiration. She was just making up her own extra procedure.

"Kolok Kolok!"

Na Yerin coughed and coughed up water, and soon her breathing returned. For a moment, Bi Ryuyeon's face lit up, and it was pure joy. He was not, by any means, harboring any genuine dissatisfaction at not being able to perform his own additional procedures, but there was a hint of regret.

"Yerin, Yerin, wake up, Yerin!"

Bi Ryuyeon continued to call out Na Yerin's name. It took some time for his voice to penetrate the abyss and reach the surface of her consciousness. Fortunately, Bi Ryuyeon had the patience to wait for that slight delay.

"…Ryuyeon?"

Her eyelids fluttered open, revealing black jewel-like eyes that seemed to hold a cluster of stars in the night sky. Bi Ryuyeon's face was reflected in the lake of stars.

"Are you awake now?"

With a smile on her face, Bi Ryuyeon said.

"Did we survive?"

"Sure. I'm not going to die for another three or four hundred years."

"That's good to know."

Na Yerin, still in his arms, smiled softly. It was a smile more beautiful and impressive than any precious jewel. It was the kind of smile that could mesmerize a man's soul in an instant.

"You always make me smile when I see you."

Na Yerin felt like she had smiled more times since meeting Bi Ryuyeon than she had smiled in her entire life, a fact she didn't want to admit but couldn't deny.