Chapter 01
A small shadow was climbing the mountain alone.
‘Cold.’
Hongseol spread out her frozen red hands and blew on them, “hoo—hoo.” Before her warm breath could even thaw them, cold snowflakes landed on her palms.
“Is this really what snow is?”
In Anhui Province, where Hongseol lived, it rarely snowed. The only place where blizzards ever occurred was the peak of Mount Daechok.
“So snow comes together with cold.”
Hongseol had never even climbed over the wall of the Myogajang estate on her own before. She had no way of knowing just how cold and frightening snow could be in advance.
Shivering, Hongseol looked upward.
When she first set foot at the base of the mountain, the sky had clearly been bright.
But now, the sky had turned pitch black, and snowflakes that looked like bits of fluff were fluttering down.
Cold wind kept slipping through the gaps of her shabby clothes.
“Achoo!”
This wasn’t going to work.
Hongseol performed a single somersault in the air. Then, the eight-year-old girl vanished without a trace, and a small kitten remained in her place. Its entire body was covered in soft light-pink fur, with only its snout, ears, front paws, and hind paws colored brown. It was a baby kitten.
‘Why did no one tell me it would be this cold up the mountain?’
Even after transforming into a cat, the cold still pierced through her fur.
Moreover, the icy wind kept slapping her face, making tears flow uncontrollably. Soon, the tear streaks froze stiff along her fur.
Lick.
Hongseol licked her frozen front paws a couple of times and tried to wash her cat-face. But it was useless. Just as she rubbed her fur to shake off the ice, her face froze again. Fear crept in.
‘Can I even reach the mountain peak before my fur freezes solid?’
Hongseol lifted her head and judged the remaining path. Through the swirling snow, the summit could faintly be seen.
‘If only I could use internal energy, I would have reached that place in a single leap.’
“Useless fool! The disgrace of Myogajang!”
That voice she had heard her whole life seemed to ring in her ears. Hongseol shrank her shoulders and trembled.
‘I can’t give up here. If I do, Mother will hate me forever.’
After finally reaching the mountaintop, the blizzard that had been slapping her face suddenly stopped as if it had been a lie.
“Wow!”
There really was a huge lake, just as her mother had said.
“When you arrive, throw a big stone into the lake.”
Hongseol flipped through the air once more. The small kitten instantly transformed back into a young child wearing ragged clothes.
She looked around briefly, then picked up what, in her small hands, felt like a “big” stone.
Plop.
As ripples spread across the lake, a voice echoed from somewhere.
— Ouch. Who dares throw a stone at me?
“Ah!”
Startled by the sudden voice transmission, Hongseol crouched flat.
She had no way of knowing that advanced martial artists could transmit their voices over long distances.
— So you have nothing to say? Then I shall punish you!
As soon as the words ended, a massive splash erupted, and a white pillar shot up from the center of the lake. No—it wasn’t a pillar. It was a giant snake.
‘S-Scary!’
Hongseol’s legs trembled violently. But she couldn’t back down here.
Summoning all her courage, she forced out her voice.
“Ar-Are you the master of this lake?”
Hearing this, Dang I-mu—the Poison King—was dumbfounded.
He was a famed snake-type beast cultivator and a supreme elder of the Sichuan Dang Clan.
In the past, just his shadow alone had made countless people flee in terror.
Yet somehow, this brat—who hadn’t even lost all her baby teeth—had not only thrown a stone at him but was now speaking to him.
‘Have I been away from the martial world for too long?’
Dang I-mu sighed quietly and sent a voice transmission to the tiny child who was barely the size of a bite.
— Yes. It seems in Anhui, they call me the “master of the lake.”
“Th-Then…”
Hongseol carefully recalled her mother’s words.
“When you get there, tell the master of the lake: ‘Please give me the inner core.’”
Just thinking about saying it made sweat form in her tiny palms.
‘I didn’t know the master of the lake would be such a terrifying snake…’
But she couldn’t return empty-handed and disappoint her mother.
Summoning her courage, she spoke.
“P-P-Please give me the inner core.”
— What did you say?
Dang I-mu was speechless.
An inner core was the condensed “essence of power” formed within a spirit beast after long cultivation.
Asking a living being for its inner core basically meant, “Please die peacefully.”
And saying that to a supreme expert like him… was essentially the same as saying, “Please kill me.”
‘So someone is trying to use my hands to kill this child.’
The experienced Dang I-mu immediately understood what was going on.
But young Hongseol had no way of knowing this. She only held out her trembling hands toward him.
“Please give me the inner core.”
At that moment, a voice like thunder shook the heavens.
“How fascinating. What an unbelievable sight.”
Hongseol looked up.
A man carrying a gourd was walking toward them.
His hair was streaked with gray, and there was a long scar on his right cheek. On his blue martial robe, a cloud-shaped embroidery was clearly visible.
Wait—cloud embroidery?!
“Ah!”
Startled, Hongseol quickly ran and hid behind a tree.
‘N-Namgung Clan!’
Her tiny heart pounded.
This was the first time she had ever seen a member of the Namgung Clan, known as dog-type beast cultivators, this close.
‘The Namgung Clan hates cat beast-kin. If they find out I’m a cat beast-kin, they’ll definitely try to hurt me!’
Hongseol found the Namgung man even more frightening than the giant snake. She had grown up hearing endless stories of their cruelty at Myogajang.
“Because of those cruel Namgung bastards, the power of Myogajang has fallen so far!”
“Our warriors were defeated by the Namgung Sky Army! Every one of them had their throats torn out!”
‘Dog… dog beast-kin… scary… what do I do?’
The Namgung Clan was originally a famous wolf lineage in the martial world.
But in the cat clan Myogajang, they were contemptuously called “dogs.”
So it wasn’t strange that young Hongseol misunderstood them as dog beast-kin.
By then, the Namgung man had already come close enough that she had to look up at him.
He spoke in a solemn voice.
“Child, why do you need this creature’s inner core?”
The moment she met his gaze, Hongseol’s vision went dark, and an unknown buzzing filled her ears. Her heart was pounding so violently that her mind turned completely blank.
‘R-Run away!’
Hongseol desperately performed a somersault.
In the next moment—whoosh!—a small kitten shot out from behind the tree.
“Wait, that way is a cliff!”
But before the man could even move, the tiny cat’s body tumbled off the edge of the cliff.
Down, further down.
Hongseol kept plummeting endlessly.
Her joints had stiffened from the cold, making it impossible to control her body. Her small kitten body, already slammed against the cliff multiple times, was bruised and broken in many places.
Thud.
Finally landing on a cold rocky slab, Hongseol let out weak cries.
‘Mom… it hurts so much.’
I’m sorry.
I don’t think I can bring back the inner core…
Even with the dying kitten’s cries, her mother naturally gave no answer.
Then it happened.
Two black shadows descended from the cliff and covered Hongseol’s tiny body.
It was the Namgung man she had seen earlier—and another man in green martial robes with white hair and red eyes.
‘I need to run away…’
Even as the man in green checked her pulse, Hongseol couldn’t move a single paw. Only a faint “nyaa—” escaped her lips.
The Namgung man asked seriously.
“Dang I-mu, what is the condition of the child?”
“There is no hope.”
The man called Dang I-mu shook his head.
“If she had even learned basic martial arts, a fall from this height wouldn’t have killed her. Step aside. I will try to infuse some internal energy.”
“…This child’s meridians are severed, Namgung Ho.”
At those words, Namgung Ho’s expression stiffened noticeably.
Meridians were the pathways through which internal energy flowed.
No matter how fine a carriage road was, if the road was broken, nothing could pass through. Even if internal energy were forced in, she would not survive.
Namgung Ho sighed.
“So this is the famous eldest daughter of Myogajang. The one who cannot use internal energy.”
“Yes. Whoever did this, their intentions are obvious. They sent her here to die.”
Hearing their conversation while lying there, tears filled Hongseol’s eyes.
‘It was Mother who sent me to Mount Daechok… so Mother wanted me to die…?’
Then everything made sense.
Why no one told her how cold Mount Daechok was. Why no one told her the master of the lake was a giant snake.
‘Because I’m a useless fool… they didn’t want me to come back…’
Her trembling breath gradually slowed.
“Tch.”
Clicking his tongue sympathetically, Namgung Ho removed his outer robe.
Seeing this, Dang I-mu spoke in surprise.
“Isn’t the Namgung Clan supposed to be constantly at odds with Myogajang?”
“…She’s just a pitiful child who knows nothing, Dang I-mu.”
A robe embroidered with cloud patterns was gently placed over the tiny kitten’s body. It became her shroud.
“You must have had a hard life. Now rest in peace.”
Namgung Ho carefully closed Hongseol’s eyes.
‘Your hands are warmer than I thought…’
Resting her head against his palm, Hongseol silently called out the one she missed most.
‘Mother…!’
With that final cry, the small kitten parted from the world.
Snowfall gently wrapped around her body, covering it in soft white.
A faint song echoed somewhere in her mind.
‘This song…?’
It was her mother’s lullaby from a distant childhood.
Overcome with longing, Hongseol unknowingly hummed a few notes. Then her wrist suddenly burned as if touched by fire, and that heat quickly spread through her entire body.
“Ah!”
Hongseol opened her eyes at last.
The first thing she saw was the vast lake and the white snake. Cold wind slapped her cheeks fiercely.
“Is this… the peak of Mount Daechok?”
She touched her stinging cheek.
‘I clearly fell off the cliff and died just now…’
She looked down at her thin wrist. The broken bones were completely healed, as if nothing had ever happened. It was unbelievable.
‘What’s going on?’
Did she briefly fall asleep and dream all of that?
But… it felt far too real to be a dream.
Then a familiar voice spoke.
“How fascinating. What an unbelievable sight.”
Huh?
Those were definitely words she had heard before. Hongseol blinked and looked up.
From afar, a man in a robe embroidered with cloud patterns—Namgung Ho—was walking toward her, holding a gourd.
