Book 26 Chapter 20

Enlightenment!

— The Chains That Bound the Phoenix's Wings

"Mother…"

Nayelin, who had been sitting in a cross-legged position on the bed, slowly opened her eyes. Her pure white forehead, like fine porcelain, and her slender body were drenched in cold sweat. This was a phenomenon that could not occur during normal Qi circulation and cultivation. It was another failure.

"As expected, it's no use…"

Nayelin had no idea where she was imprisoned. She had been in a coffin. All she knew was that this place was not above ground, but 'underground.' The only openings were a small window with iron bars and a small ventilation shaft in the ceiling. The cold, damp air flowing in carried the distinct smell and feel of the earth. However, for a prison, the furniture was well-equipped, so it didn't feel desolate.

But she disliked that everything was draped in red silk. It felt like a brothel. However, Nayelin couldn't tell if this was Jianghu Land, Macheongak, or a completely different place. There were no clues. She didn't know where she was, but she could be absolutely certain of one thing.

This place was hell.

Fear and dread were gnawing at her mind every moment, poised to devour her.

Her internal energy, built through arduous cultivation, was completely sealed, leaving her body utterly powerless. And the one who had imprisoned her in this hell was a devil-like being she feared the most. Merely recalling his existence sent shivers down her spine and her heart fluttered with anxiety. He would surely want her to writhe in fear and anxiety like this. The more she struggled, the more she despaired at her situation, the more her soul would be worn away. Such a phenomenon would undoubtedly please him greatly.

But she did not give up. Her will was not yet broken. No, it could not be broken. If she collapsed now, there would be no turning back. She was aware of that. If her mind collapsed, she would be completely defeated by him.

She would be unable to escape the nightmare that had once violated her mind.

"I must escape from here!"

To do so, she first had to do something about this body that was bound and unrestrained. Yes. She had a problem that she needed to solve more urgently than anything else. That was the fact that her Qi was not circulating. She had sat for over an hour, trying to circulate her Qi, but there was no progress.

She had tried dozens of times, but it was the same. She tried to recover her body by circulating her Qi, but it wouldn't flow. It was as if all her internal energy had disappeared. At first, she worried that her dantian might have been destroyed. He was capable of such a thing. However, upon examination, it was not so. Then, she considered acupoint sealing. But even acupoint sealing wasn't a universal solution. She knew various "acupoint releasing techniques." Yet, none of them worked. Since she couldn't detect any sealed acupoints even after using the releasing techniques, it wasn't acupoint sealing.

Then, what remained was…

"Restriction…"

She couldn't feel its presence at all, so it must have been a very advanced restriction. Some form of restriction and shackles bound her freedom.

"What should I do? What must I do…?"

She had tried many times, but moving her Qi was impossible. She was amazed at such a perfect Qi-blocking technique.

A restriction is different from acupoint sealing. It was the ultimate shackles that would last forever, without being released by the passage of time. Nayelin, weakened by her battle with the spirit, was now no stronger than an ordinary girl after being subjected to the restriction. In her current state, if he did anything to her, resistance would be impossible.

"In that case, I'll have no choice but to bite my tongue before my acupoints are sealed."

There were no other options. The situation could be described as desperate. In her current physical condition, even if that iron gate were wide open, escape would be impossible. Even with a sword in her hand, she would be easily subdued by a mere ordinary warrior. Humiliation awaited her.

"Is there truly no way to escape this hell…?"

Just as Nayelin's spirit was about to break, the face of a person always smiling confidently flashed in her mind.

"Don't give up. It's not too late to give up after trying everything. Well, if you fail, you can just laugh it off. Even if all your internal energy is gone, if you have a strong will, you can somehow find a way."

As that face appeared, her chest, which had felt like it would burst from the pressure, strangely calmed down. She placed her white, slender fingers on her heaving chest. Something heavy like stone was being lifted away.

"Yes, nothing is over yet."

She was still alive. Outside, Biryu-yeon was moving for her. Somehow, Nayelin felt an irrefutable certainty of this fact.

"If that person doesn't give up, I can't give up first."

A starlike light twinkled in the depths of her eyes, as deep and beautiful as the night sky. It was too soon to abandon all hope. She had only tried one thing so far. There were still a few more things she could try.

"My Qi is sealed, but my will is not!"

He couldn't even impose a restriction on her mind.

Nayelin, still in a cross-legged position, quietly closed her eyes. And then, she began to concentrate again. On her other power, a power she had possessed since birth, unrelated to internal energy. That was to further manifest the power of her Dragon Eyes.

Sharpening the power of her Dragon Eyes was the only path open to her now.

With her eyes closed, she sank deep into her inner self.

She did not yet know if hope or despair awaited her at the end of this endeavor. Hesitating with doubt about whether this would help at all was also an option. And simply waiting in despair for someone to help her. Hoping someone would lower a lifeline from the heavens.

"I've had enough of that. What will waiting for someone's help achieve? My spirit would already be broken, wouldn't it? I can't please him any further."

As long as there was a possibility, she decided not to give up until the end. If she let go of hope herself, what remained for her would be an endless abyss of despair. So, she vowed to hold onto hope for as long as she could.

Her spirit had been tempered little by little since meeting that person. The time she spent with him was supporting her soul.

"Ryuyeon…"

Because of those warm and precious memories, she couldn't give up yet.

Dragon Eyes!

It was a power she had, somehow, from a certain day.

It was the ability to read people's minds and emotions as if they were visible.

However, it was not a controllable ability. Even when she didn't want to read people's minds, when she didn't want to touch their vile thoughts, she couldn't consciously block the ability. The human mind cannot be declared pure. No, nothing is more easily corrupted than the human mind. Only a few people with strong will could escape that corruption. For a young girl, reading the hidden, vile thoughts of humans was unbearable.

Therefore, her young mind couldn't withstand the swirling vortex of vile emotions pouring in from her surroundings, and she gradually closed her heart and distanced herself from people.

Furthermore, separate from her Dragon Eyes, her constitution, which she could only attribute to being born with it, stimulated the dark instincts in those who looked at her, was a deadly poison to her. Therefore, her ability brought her nothing but pain. Moreover, her constitution, which naturally stimulated the dark desires of men and captivated them, was the worst possible constitution for someone with Dragon Eyes that read human minds.

She wished she could remain ignorant, rather than know. Most people either ignore or deceive themselves about the dark parts of their minds and live on. But the ability etched into her body made that impossible. So, she once cursed these eyes. Along with this impure constitution.

Therefore, she had tried to protect her mind by building walls of ice around it. Until she met someone who could melt that ice. So she couldn't give up in a place like this.

Even if it was just to meet him again.

With her eyes closed, she quietly began to sink into the depths of her mind. To understand what this latent ability within her was. Now, the only thing she could rely on was her Dragon Eyes. She began to face for the first time the ability called Dragon Eyes, which she had possessed since birth.

After sinking deep into her mind for a while, Nayelin reviewed what her Dragon Eyes had read. Many of them went beyond simple mind-reading. Especially when predicting an opponent's attack, she hadn't actually read their mind and dodged it. But she could tell the trajectory of the sword. She had dodged attacks she had never seen before multiple times.

"Then, what have I been reading all this time?"

Nayelin slowly opened her eyes. A starlike light twinkled in the depths of her eyes, as dark as the midnight sky. She began to see things other than people.

Drip!

A drop of water condenses on the ceiling and falls.

Drip! Drip! Drip! Drip!

The moisture clinging to the stone ceiling condenses into drops and falls to the floor.

It was a very strange sensation. The more she concentrated, the more aware she became of her ability. This was not simply a mind-reading ability. Her eyes were revealing something more. It was just that she hadn't recognized it until now, so it hadn't held any meaning.

"All seven places."

Only after realizing that did Nayelin notice something strange. There were no water droplets anywhere in the room where she was confined. What she had just sensed was all happening outside the door.

Nayelin began to concentrate her mind further. Then, the flow of nature became clearer to her eyes. Even though she couldn't see through the thick iron door and stone walls, the information read by her Dragon Eyes was reconstructed in her mind, projecting images as if she were seeing it directly.

Splash!

A water droplet falling into a puddle on the floor creates ripples that spread outward. The sound strikes the surrounding walls. The sound that hits the wall echoes and spreads in another direction.

Whoosh!

Wind blows through the narrow passage. Water falls. And from far away, the faint sound of footsteps can be heard. She could even clearly hear their heartbeats. They seemed to be quite skilled. As expected, they hadn't entrusted the surveillance to just anyone.

There were two guards. Although skilled, it wasn't as many as she had expected. This was proof of their reliance on the restriction. They were located quite far from her room.

"If only I could recover my internal energy…"

She felt she could handle two guards.

She was unconsciously reading the flow of this world. It was a power close to precognition. The ability to see through all phenomena.

Eyes that read signs, not limited to the human mind, but able to read the signs of the world itself. Through the signs that appeared before a great phenomenon occurred, she could understand the phenomenon that would happen next. And by reading the flow of nature, the changes in yin and yang, and the mutual generation and destruction of the five elements, she could see even the invisible.

The true enlightenment of her Dragon Eyes was beginning.

"First, I need to know what kind of restriction has been imposed."

Using the power of her awakened Dragon Eyes, she began to slowly scan her body. Since she felt no particular foreign object just by being there, the restriction imposed on her body must have been very subtle. Perhaps it was smaller than dust. But she had to find it first. Otherwise, she couldn't do anything.

Only when one can observe something can one affect it. It was impossible to remove it without knowing what measures had been taken on one's body.

Nayelin focused her consciousness. And then, she began to observe herself, as if dissecting herself. No matter how small it was, it was a foreign substance that had entered from outside her body. It did not belong to her in the first place. Using that as a clue, she looked inside herself. She began to feel the flow of her bones, muscles, and blood. She observed the muscles she could move with her will and those that moved without her will. She observed her heart beating and sending blood throughout her body. Blood, leaving the heart, flowed towards her limbs and all her meridians. The power of life moved through that blood. Her lungs took in fresh air and exhaled stale air. She observed what breathing was. And understood. The air entering through breathing was carried by the blood to her limbs. That air was delivered to every corner of her body. She didn't know what to call this phenomenon, but she realized that it was something that happened in everyone's body. This was a different process from cultivating Qi. This was the pulse of life.

Her consciousness traveled throughout her body with the blood. It gathered, dispersed, and gathered again.

It circulated, circulated, circulated.

Within the ceaselessly moving pulse of life, she understood the human body. And she began to search. For the foreign substance that had invaded her body. The anomaly that was detached from the cycle of life.

"Found it!"

Finally, her consciousness detected the foreign substance located outside the loop of life's circulation. There were a total of thirty-six of them. Their sheer number surprised her for a moment. Since she could pinpoint their location, she focused her consciousness on one of them. Then, she realized it was a golden needle, as thin as a strand of hair. Their lengths varied, and they were all suppressing her important acupoints. They were like stakes driven into the paths of Qi, hindering their circulation. However, because they were so thin and subtle, she didn't feel pain, let alone a foreign sensation.

"This method, could it be… the Seal of Broken Phoenix?"

Nayelin's phoenix-like eyes widened in shock.

The Six-Six Seal of Broken Phoenix Wing Golden Needle Qi Blocking Grand Technique!

It was the ultimate sealing technique that completely blocked the flow of Qi by inserting thirty-six golden needles, thinner than hair, deep into the body. Once administered, it was said to be an ultimate sealing technique that could never be undone. It was created only for martial arts felons who had committed great crimes in the martial arts world, to permanently seal their internal energy.

"Am I never going to return to my original state…?"

Her throat felt like it was burning, and her head was dizzy. Despair filled her heart. It felt as if a demon was whispering in her ear, "You can never go back to the past." The sudden thought of 'that person,' clad in dark malice, made her feel like vomiting.

"No! Pull yourself together, Nayelin!"

She tried to encourage herself by shouting internally, but it didn't reach her heart, as if someone was shouting from afar. Her spirit was about to collapse again before this cruel trial that blocked her path.

There was no story of anyone ever breaking that seal and escaping from the "Mugan-ok," the martial arts prison where only the most ferocious villains were imprisoned. It was said that even those with strong internal energy became ordinary people once this seal was applied and could never recover their former internal energy. Some even committed suicide in despair upon realizing this fact.

"What am I supposed to do now…?"

If only she could find the shackles that bound her wings, she felt like she could soar again even from the bottom of this dark and cold hell. However, what she found was not a chain binding her wings, but a cruel blade that had broken them.

"Am I truly unable to soar again like this… in this abyss of despair…?"

Her vision darkened, and she felt as if her throat was choked, making it difficult to breathe. Reaching out to escape from the abyss, the ground she stood on only deepened like a bottomless swamp. Her hand, reaching for the light, grasped only empty darkness, failing to reach hope.

Tears welled up in her eyes.

"Am I to be toyed with by him like this? Can I no longer control my destiny with my own hands?"

Just as she was sinking into the depths of despair and drowning, a voice cried out to her.

"—No, Nayelin! Never give up. Because it is human will that moves destiny!"

It was the voice of a man she knew best, Biryu-yeon. She had clearly heard his voice just now. Nayelin looked around the room in surprise. But, as expected, Biryu-yeon's figure was nowhere to be seen.

"Was it a hallucination…?"

However, it was so vivid, as if he were right beside her.

Nayelin had never once seen Biryu-yeon's spirit falter. No power, no force, no background, no custom, no precedent could subdue him. He could be a bit self-willed and reckless, but he resolutely pursued his will against this cruel world. Even if others didn't understand him, even if they pointed fingers at him, he wouldn't bat an eye. Her ability seemed to be reflected in her eyes, just like his appearance and personality.

Suddenly, his image vividly appeared before her. His playful face, always grinning as if he didn't know the word despair. No matter how difficult the situation, even when everyone else gave up, he didn't. He knew how to smile in the midst of despair. And with those hands, he fought against the waves of fate.

So, I will fight back too.

"Am I not alive yet!"

She still held the thread of life firmly in her hand. She had no intention of letting go. And as he had told her, being alive meant that the future, the possibilities, still remained.

"My future is in my own hands!"

She looked down at her hands and then clenched them tightly. She could still feel life within them.

"The moment I give up is the moment I throw away all possibilities. Right, Ryuyeon?"

Even if despair awaited her at the end of this path, Nayelin resolved not to give up until it appeared.

Even if its wings are broken, a phoenix can fly again. For a phoenix is reborn from the ashes and flies again from the fire.

"My soul is not yet broken!"

The flame of her soul, residing in her spirit, was not yet extinguished. As long as that flame didn't go out, the phoenix was not yet dead.

"I will fight too."

She decided to fight to survive even in this hell. She was tired of living weighed down by past nightmares. She wanted to be free. Free from this hell, and from the past.

Nayelin focused her mind and increased her willpower. And using that will, she consciously stimulated and moved the muscles within her body, which should have been unable to move freely.

She also regulated the flow of blood. And then, using fine muscles and blood pressure, she began to push them out. She continued to concentrate her consciousness, as if pulling out thorns embedded in her body.

The important thing was to accurately perceive the size and location of the restriction needles. Only then could she accurately move her muscles and blood to act upon them. Of course, the process was not easy. Above all, she was unable to receive any help from her internal energy at the moment. Normally, the Qi that filled her entire body would help to move the muscle tissues more easily. But now that it was impossible, she had to manipulate her body solely with the power of her will. It was a very difficult, tedious, and concentration-requiring task. But she had decided from the beginning not to give up. Therefore, she continued the tedious and persistent work.

In order to pull out the stakes embedded in her wings.