“This, this isn’t real. Yes, absolutely not…”

“So wait… it really happened? But how…?”

“I have no thoughts. Because I literally have no thoughts… Hiiyaa! I can’t unsee it!”

An utterly shocking scene in broad daylight. The three women’s faces flushed and then turned pale repeatedly as they witnessed something completely unexpected in a very different sense.

They looked like something inside had broken. And indeed, what they had seen was far too stimulating for them.

While Cheon Hwi-da, having just finished his “business,” napped with the limping woman, the three women, finally calmed down, sat huddled outside the door.

“…It seems there’s still some Blood Demon left in his systems.”

“Compose yourself, Sowol. Not just Hwi, but the Shaolin abbot, the former abbot, and even the strategist of the Murim Alliance assured us this would be safe.”

“Th-Then what we just saw… it’s a memory so intense that it’s etched into Cheon Hwi-da’s Heartscape?!”

“Mhm. Intense in a very particular way, wouldn’t you say?”

Seo Mun-Hwarin, her face red from the endlessly replaying scene in her mind, turned her gaze elsewhere.

And where she turned, Seol Lihyang was—

“Hm, it was about this size, I think…”

—measuring something against her lower stomach with her hand spread wide.

“Hyan-ga! Is that really what matters right now?! And how are you so calm, Sister Hwarin?!”

“Eh? Well… there’s Sister Tang, isn’t there? For Sister Seo Mun and me, we had already… prepared ourselves emotionally, you could say.”

“Exactly. Of course, seeing it in person for the first time was still quite shocking.”

“Ah…”

Unlike Tang Sowol, who held the secure position of the main wife, Seol Lihyang and Seo Mun-Hwarin had always known they would be concubines at best, and had accepted that.

Realizing the meaning behind their words, Tang Sowol took a few deep breaths and finally managed to calm down completely.

“…Understood. I’ll suppress my emotions for now as well. There’s something more important to address.”

“Like how to survive the rest of the day?”

Though it was clearly daytime, the sky was already tinged with twilight. Seol Lihyang looked up, and Tang Sowol pressed her temples with her fingers, shaking her head.

“No, we need to find out when exactly this Heartscape takes place—if all our previous assumptions are wrong—and most importantly, who that limping woman is.”

“In that case, I have an idea—hup! I mean, I had an idea!”

“Sister Hwarin? What were you just thinking?”

“I-I wasn’t thinking anything! Definitely not about certain… positions that suddenly came to mind on their own!”

Tang Sowol silently watched Seo Mun-Hwarin flail, her face flushed red.

She looked so small and cute she wanted to scoop her up and roll around with her… but in truth, her age was probably the same as, if not older than, Tang Sowol’s father!

To have discovered that after so long in this manner—it was far from a mild shock.

Resolving to be generous and understanding toward Seo Mun-Hwarin, Tang Sowol straightened her posture proudly.

“Alright, then please calm down. So, what was it that came to mind?”

“Ahem. It’s simple. A past life.”

“A past life—as in, like the reincarnation cycle that Buddhist monks speak of?”

“Exactly. Didn’t the Shaolin abbot mention it? One of those who placed a mental restriction on Hwi was Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva. And Kṣitigarbha is…”

“…The one who saves sentient beings from hell before they are reborn, before their next life.”

“What reason would such a being have to impose a restriction? I believe Hwi remembers events from a past life. And that limping woman earlier… was likely his lover from that previous life.”

“A past life… that would explain the dilapidated state of this place…”

“It would be before the Black Lotus Sect was even founded. So the structure being slightly different, and everything being rundown—makes sense. Maybe the Black Lotus Sect bought it cheaply later and renovated it.”

“But Cheon Hwi-da’s appearance—his height and cultivation may differ, but his face was exactly the same. As far as I know, reincarnation changes one’s appearance entirely.”

“This isn’t exactly a memory, but a Heartscape, and we are viewing it through the Heartscape. If Cheon Hwi-da perceives himself as he looks now, it’s not strange for his appearance here to resemble his current self. As for the age—well, this could just be a time when he was older than now.”

“Hmm… Of all the theories so far, that one makes the most sense. And it explains Cheon Hwi-da’s overwhelming talent as well.”

Before becoming Tang Sowol’s son-in-law, the Tang Clan’s investigation had shown that he’d only been wielding a sword for a year or two.

Yet within that short time, he reached the edge of first-class, able to faintly emit sword qi.

A few years later, he had fully reached Peak Stage, and while others were just entering martial society, he attained Sub-Perfection.

Before even turning twenty, he entered Flowering Stage, and now—past that age—he stood shoulder to shoulder with others who had trained martial arts for decades.

A level of genius on par with figures found only in the annals of murim history.

It was known to be possible, but hard to believe when witnessed firsthand.

But—if he were merely regaining the cultivation he had once reached in a past life—then it would fall within the realm of reason.

“Phew. At least it’s not the worst-case scenario I was afraid of.”

“Now we just need to determine when this moment in time is. If we compare what we see and hear here to past records, we might find what Hwi had to hide!”

Tang Sowol let out a sigh of relief, having long turned a blind eye to Cheon Hwi-da’s oddities. Meanwhile, Seo Mun-Hwarin basked in self-satisfaction (undeserved) at her deduction.

Then, Seol Lihyang cautiously raised her hand.

“T-To be honest… I think Sister Seo Mun’s theory is too forced…”

“What are you saying, Hyanga?”

“If this really isn’t a memory but something we’re seeing through the Heartscape, and even Hwi’s own face appears different because of that, then… wouldn’t the surrounding scenery be meaningless?”

“Hmm. You have a point.”

“Sister Seo Mun’s theory isn’t completely wrong, but I think we should be paying more attention not to what is visible—but to what isn’t.”

Not what appeared clearly, but what was hidden behind the mental restriction. That would be far more helpful in uncovering Cheon Hwi-da’s past.

As the others nodded in agreement, Seol Lihyang continued.

“I think your approach was a good one, Sister Seo Mun. I believe you got close to touching Hwi’s secret. But instead of focusing on Hwi himself…”

“You mean… we should focus on the limping woman he slept with?”

“Yes. Unless someone truly loves themselves, what remains in their Heartscape isn’t the self—but others.”

Seo Mun-Hwarin’s theory, while previously off-base, had now come surprisingly close to the truth. And Seol Lihyang’s correction brought it even closer.

Despite a few missteps, they were finally headed toward the correct answer.

“Fufu. Hyang’s point is valid. Then shall we spend the rest of our time observing Cheon Hwi-da and that woman?”

“Yes! Honestly, something about her felt strangely familiar, and it kept bugging me!”

“Mhm. Now that I think of it, didn’t you say, Sowol, that Cheon Hwi-da’s mental restriction was related to us?”

“That’s right. Right now there’s only one woman, but when I first entered Cheon Hwi-da’s Heartscape, I saw two other white-haired women besides the limping one.”

“White hair?”

Seo Mun-Hwarin idly played with her own hair and grinned.

“Maybe we’ve all been connected to Hwi since our past lives.”

With that bold claim, the three women confidently stepped back into Cheon Hwi-da’s room.

“H-He’s doing it again?!”

“That hand technique… So that’s what he used on me when he interrogated me…!”

“At this rate, they’ll keep going all day!”

It didn’t take long for their curiosity to morph into… a different kind of desire.

Of course—intellectual desire.

***

Quite a bit of time had passed since they decided to focus on the relationship between Cheon Hwi-da and the limping woman.

They had stayed much longer than initially expected—likely because time flowed differently inside the Heartscape.

Not as much as when the Blood Demon had interfered or when Cheon Hwi-da resisted, but still.

Regardless, thanks to that, Tang Sowol, Seol Lihyang, and Seo Mun-Hwarin had been able to observe quite a lot.

The Cheon Hwi-da within the Heartscape was far more stoic than his present self.

He didn’t tease, didn’t provoke, and even when affection was shown to him directly, he seemed to receive it blankly, as if he didn’t understand.

A far cry from a typical romantic relationship.

Instead, it was the limping woman who approached Cheon Hwi-da.

Whenever he spent the whole day swinging his sword, she’d tease him until he got annoyed, forcing a break on him.

During his rest, when he sat there blankly, not knowing what to do, she’d sneak over and poke his side, laughing along with him.

Sometimes she’d even complain about his indifferent tone.

Not that she was particularly adept at dealing with people either.

She had a sharp tongue and often let pride get in the way of rational conversation.

Yet, despite that, the limping woman was always honest with Cheon Hwi-da.

Her affection, though clumsy like a child’s, was pure and uncalculated.

And as she repeatedly confronted him head-on in her awkward way—

Even the emotionless Cheon Hwi-da began to change.

He learned to respond to jokes with jokes, started to care more for himself, and began approaching her first—initiating affection in his own way.

As if he were learning for the first time what it meant to love someone.

Awkward, and still immature—but both of them were clearly growing in a better direction.

“…Now I understand why this everyday life is etched into Cheon Hwi-da’s Heartscape.”

“I once heard from the sisters at the courtesan house… A man never forgets his first love, no matter how many years pass.”

“There were a lot of embarrassing scenes, but watching Hwi slowly change was truly heartwarming.”

The relationship between Cheon Hwi-da and the limping woman was… peculiar.

They mixed bodies fiercely and often, to the point that they knew everything about each other physically.

But once off the bed, they blushed over the smallest things like innocent teenagers.

Instead of heart first, then body, it was body first, and only slowly did their hearts follow.

No matter how many times they watched, the bed scenes never became easier to bear, nor did the presence of another woman feel less uncomfortable. They couldn’t explain why the limping woman felt so familiar.

But at least now, they understood why Cheon Hwi-da was so attached to this memory.

He wanted to keep seeing the version of himself that was slowly changing.

However—

Fwoosh.

Following Cheon Hwi-da’s gaze, the three women saw the world consumed by flames.

And the limping woman… clutching her deeply slashed abdomen, sat slumped against the wall at the main gate.

As always, she had come out to greet Cheon Hwi-da before anyone else.

Even if it was the final moment of her life.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep