By Zephyria 
HF 47
===
How could there be such selfish conditions? However, Ho-yeon couldn’t argue; he could only stare at the sword aimed at him with anxious eyes.
“Then my body will wear down. I have to use you for a long time.”
How painful it was until he lost consciousness… yet the sword remained razor-sharp.
“How about… a maximum of twice a day?”
Ho-yeon could not retreat any further.
“It’s not that I won’t do it more, but that I can’t. And… if you want, I can embroider as many dragons as you like, and I’ll play the seven-stringed zither for you.”
Ho-yeon rambled on. Aside from embroidery or playing music, he had no other strengths to pitch. But in reality, wasn’t his yin energy what Mu-gyeong needed most? Ho-yeon considered lying, saying that in exchange for doing it twice a day, he would try to unlock as much of his sealed dantian as possible.
Then, with a short clink, the sword fell from Mu-gyeong’s hand to the floor. Was it a silent permission? Ho-yeon still didn’t let his guard down. Then, Mu-gyeong reached out.
“What about singing?”
“You said… I was bad at it.”
Ho-yeon thought he might be dragged toward him just like that, but his body remained in place. Mu-gyeong still wore an indifferent expression, but it was as if he were telling Ho-yeon to come and offer himself.
Ho-yeon paused for a moment before slowly walking toward him. At the end of his cautious steps, his nape was suddenly seized. Forced into a position where he had to look up at Mu-gyeong, Ho-yeon’s blue-gray eyes trembled slightly.
“Surely, not right now…”
Ho-yeon’s blue-gray eyes met the eyes shimmering with a quiet, reddening crimson light. Ho-yeon realized that when Mu-gyeong expressed the heat within him without blocking it or used demonic energy, his eyes turned into crimson eyes. Of course, since his demonic energy was already pure, no contamination occurred within Ho-yeon.
“Right now.”
Lowering his face, Mu-gyeong whispered as he inhaled the scent of Ho-yeon’s nape. The heat felt from the right hand gripping his neck was intense.
While Ho-yeon was sensitive to the cold, he did not suffer from frost energy unless he used internal energy; however, Mu-gyeong seemed to be burning with the fire demon every single moment. Since a pain great enough to cause fainting came to him whenever he used internal energy, Ho-yeon could empathize with his agony to some extent.
Had it been Mu-gyeong, his benefactor, he would have gladly helped even while enduring the pain, but as long as he was Cheon Mu-gyeong, this was nothing more than exploitation. Still, it was something he had to endure if he wanted to leave the hundred thousand great mountains with his body intact.
Ho-yeon closed his eyes first, slowly. His nape was still gripped firmly. He concentrated deeply to awaken his dantian, which felt as if it were frozen solid.
As he continued the flow from the lower dantian to the middle dantian, the chilling true qi circulated through the blood paths of his body. The principle was similar to meditative breathing, but this was a release rather than a gathering of the blood paths.
“Who did you learn martial arts from?”
The whisper made his nape tickle.
“…I’m self-taught.”
In truth, he had learned from the ice dragon, but Ho-yeon glossed over it. However, he realized his mistake the moment the words left his mouth. Was it plausible for the child of a Palace Master to learn ice art through self-study?
“That’s why it was the worst.”
Fortunately, Mu-gyeong didn’t add anything further. However, Ho-yeon couldn’t help the grumbling that rose within him. Compared to Mu-gyeong, he had never properly learned martial arts, so it probably was the worst. It was a truly mean way of speaking, especially since he wasn’t planning to teach him.
Before long, a bluish aura frosted over Ho-yeon’s body, and white frost seemed to quietly settle around where he stood. Mu-gyeong suddenly pulled Ho-yeon’s waist toward him. Even in Ho-yeon’s short, sharp gasp—ugh—frost energy leaked out.
Ho-yeon’s yin energy was being swallowed whole by Mu-gyeong’s yang energy. As the frost energy settled into the blood vessels that had been pulsing as if to shatter his right arm, the pain that had been one with his body gradually faded.
Ho-yeon let out a pained groan as the frost energy he released was rapidly depleted. Like snowflakes vanishing in the air due to heat before they could even touch lava, his energy was exhausted moment by moment.
Cheon Mu-gyeong was being greedy.
“…Stop, stop it.”
Ho-yeon clawed at his shoulder. As Mu-gyeong took a deep breath, his chest expanded, pressing down on Ho-yeon’s body.
Mu-gyeong exhaled as if grinding his teeth, hugging Ho-yeon’s body as if to crush it. It was not easy for him to control and consume the snow that had come to a body that had suffered from thirst throughout a hundred lives.
I must use you for a long time, a very long time.
Muttering this, he dragged out his vanished patience and forcibly suppressed his fire energy once again. Within Mu-gyeong’s strong embrace, Ho-yeon’s body collapsed.
In his fading vision, Ho-yeon looked at the crimson eyes staring down at him and thought: He will never use me for a long time. He intended to leave the demon sect no matter what. By any means necessary, somehow.
Mu-gyeong cradled the completely unconscious Ho-yeon in his arms. As the jade silk ribbon came undone, Ho-yeon’s hair fluttered down.
“Bring everything belonging to Wi Ho-yeon from the Wi estate.”
“Everything belonging to Wi Ho-yeon” included Abok, who had been assisting him. Jangun, who had been bowing his head to the floor, only then looked up.
Only today did Jangun realize why the Sect Leader was keeping Wi Ho-yeon by his side. The misunderstanding that the Sect Leader might have developed feelings for Wi Ho-yeon was also resolved.
However, Mu-gyeong’s touch as he held the collapsed Ho-yeon was very strange. It would be enough to just suppress the heat through Wi Ho-yeon; was there a need to handle him so delicately? If he had just thrown him anywhere, Jangun could have simply cleaned him up.
“What foods are good for replenishing yang energy?”
Jangun almost asked “Pardon?” but forced himself to swallow the question. Since there was no way the Sect Leader was looking for food good for yang energy, it was naturally a question for Wi Ho-yeon.
“I shall prepare the dragon-phoenix bath.”
“It would be better without the heads.”
Mu-gyeong, holding Ho-yeon, chuckled. Jangun retracted his thoughts once more. Between letting Wi Ho-yeon’s arrogant remarks slide and this, Wi Ho-yeon was the only person the Sect Leader had shown this much interest in.
However, he wondered why the heads should be missing. How delicious are the heads of chickens or carp… but Jangun merely shouted his obedience.
* * *
“Young Master Wi, please have at least one more spoonful.”
Despite Abok’s pleas, Ho-yeon kept his lips tightly shut. A few days ago, Abok had come to the Heavenly Demon’s shadowless pavilion carrying the Ji-u mountain and the seven-stringed zither. Since they had parted that way at the hall of ten thousand demons, Ho-yeon had been concerned, but he also felt a sense of betrayal toward Abok.
If Cheon Mu-gyeong was the peak of betrayal, on a level comparable to the hundred thousand great mountains, then Abok’s betrayal was about the size of the bowl of rice seen here. Still, it was difficult to be cold to Abok, who was only about fifteen or sixteen years old. He wondered if Cheon Mu-gyeong had intentionally sent Abok, knowing that he was soft on children. Having come to doubt everything about him, Ho-yeon only muttered quietly.
“What’s the point of eating when I’m just being fattened up to be eaten?”
That was how much food good for yang energy arrived with every meal. In particular, the dragon-phoenix bath never missed a turn. Ho-yeon looked at the dragon-phoenix bath, with oil floating on top, with a look of disgust. The only saving grace was that the heads of the carp or chicken were missing.
Over the past few days, Mu-gyeong’s visits to the shadowless pavilion had been irregular, and the act of taking energy from him was also inconsistent. It was the opposite of his expectation that Mu-gyeong would suck it out whenever he needed it. Come to think of it, yesterday the room was so filled with intense fire energy that it was hard to even breathe, yet he did not take his yin energy.
Surely he wasn’t protesting or trying to evoke sympathy in front of him, but Ho-yeon couldn’t hold back his curiosity and asked.
“Don’t you need it?”
“I do.”
Then was he telling him to do it voluntarily?
“To the point where it would be troublesome if you broke.”
If he used it whenever he needed, he would indeed break, just as he said. However, since he would be in pain every moment he didn’t receive yin energy, Ho-yeon couldn’t fathom the limit of his patience. He knew he shouldn’t feel pity for him, but knowing the terrible cold he had experienced in the depths of the eternal snow mountains, his heart felt heavy. Even if he suffered from a nature opposite to his own.
Because it was different from his expectation that he would be ruthlessly squeezed, Ho-yeon was simply bewildered. However, Ho-yeon ultimately did not perform the act of handing over his energy.
Because of Abok, who pleaded with him to eat even a little more, Ho-yeon ended up taking a couple of sips of the dragon-phoenix bath broth. While doing so, he peeked under the bed. Recently, Ho-yeon had been looking for a space to hide while Mu-gyeong was away. It was a necessary rehearsal for an actual escape.
Using the ghost breath method was put on hold for now. If Mu-gyeong thought he was dead, he might think “Good” and devour his inner core. Then he would actually die.
Ho-yeon planned to first hide somewhere in the shadowless pavilion and then observe Cheon Mu-gyeong’s actions. The key was how he would react when he disappeared. Only then could he devise a meticulous escape plan.