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Chapter 164. Even If I Have to Paint Myself with Lacquer or Swallow Charcoal (10)

“Don’t interfere!” Ah Hee shouted.

“The tea has already been spilled. We’ve already come this far, and the truth is going to come out eventually. You’re only hurting yourself like this.”

Woo-Moon’s words struck Ah Hee like hammer blows.

She knew that he was right, though. Just as he said, the tea had already been spilled. Yeo-Seol’s suspicion had already been stirred after hearing Cho Woo-Yeon’s drivel, which meant that even if she was able to stop Cho Woo-Yeon, Yeo-Seol would find out the truth someday.

Ah Hee stopped trying to interfere as Cho Woo-Yeon continued to speak.

“My junior sister Ah Hee was always less talented than me. However, Master strangely liked her more than me, leaving me feeling resentful. However, it didn’t matter. Since my cultivation was greater, I always assumed that the Palace Lord position belonged to me.”

By this point, the commotion outside had died down. One of the Snow Flowers, who had returned with the other younger generation talents, tried to pass through the soundproof barrier, but Ah Hee kicked her out, telling her not to let anyone in.

“Then, we held the Marriage of the Snow Flowers, and I met and participated with Nang Gun, winning first place. Ah Hee, on the other hand, lost her chance to participate in the Marriage of the Snow Flowers as she had no partner. Two months after the Marriage of the Snow Flowers, she was sent off to the Central Plains on an errand for the Master.”

Cho Woo-Yeon’s gaze quivered as she talked about Nang Gun, while Ah Hee closed her eyes tightly when her senior sister talked about her leaving for the Central Plains.

“And then... she didn’t come back. We all thought that she fled the palace because she’d lost the chance to become Palace Lord. However, she eventually returned after two years. Moreover, her cultivation had also increased, enough to be on par with mine.”

‘What could have happened to her during those two years?’

Before he knew it, even Woo-Moon had grown immersed in Cho Woo-Yeon’s story.

“After a few more months passed, Ah Hee grew so much stronger that she eventually overtook me. A few years later, Master grew fatally ill as the wounds he had received during the previous war against the Cruel Sandstorm Riders were festering. Around that time, a new disciple was brought to the palace. It was you, Yeo-Seol.”

Cho Woo-Yeon glared at Ah Hee with venom in her eyes.

“Sometime after that, as Master was near death, I happened to pass by her room and heard them talking. Talking about the newly arrived disciple! I heard it all, the fact that she was the bastard child of that bitch Ah Hee, whom everyone assumed was a virgin! And Master even said that Ah Hee should take the Palace Lord position over me, even though I came in first place in the Marriage of the Snow Flowers! So yes, I planned a rebellion and carried out a revolt as soon as Master died. Hmph, how was I to know that slut was already an Absolute Master? I had no choice but to flee.”

Putting Woo-Moon aside, everything Cho Woo-Yeon had to say was utterly shocking for Yeo-Seol. As it turned out, she was her master’s daughter!

“Master, is... is she telling the truth?”

Yeo-Seol looked at Ah Hee, her eyes glossed over and pupils trembling.

This was a fact that Ah Hee had hidden for a very long time, but it wasn’t because she wanted to hide it. Even the frosty Ah Hee couldn’t lie to Yeo-Seol’s direct question, and the maternal love she had hidden inside her heart for all these years was boiling over with a passion.

Woosh!

In the blink of an eye, Ah Hee moved in front of Yeo-Seol and hugged her.

“I’m sorry.”

She apologized over and over.

Although tears might have brought her relief, Yeo-Seol couldn’t bring herself to shed them.

She was just confused.

She had believed herself to be an orphan all her life, knowing Ah Hee only as her master. But... suddenly, her master was supposed to be her mother?

“It’s quite an impressive tale, isn’t it?”

Chuckling to herself, Cho Woo-Yeon continued, “Now, tell me, then. Why did you hide the fact that you had a daughter and pretend you were a virgin? There shouldn’t have been much reason for you to do so, which meant... there was something wrong with the girl’s father, right?”

Hearing these words, Ah Hee pushed Yeo-Seol to the side.

“Shut your mouth!”

“What on earth could you be hiding? Who is your daughter’s father?”

Ah Hee looked at Cho Woo-Yeon with a cold gaze.

“You have no right to know. It’s none of your business whether I’m a virgin or a prostitute.”

“It’s important for the Palace’s reputation! The woman who gave birth to a fatherless brat became the Palace Lord! Did you think that the outsiders wouldn’t laugh at us?!

“Oh? And you don’t think they would laugh if they knew someone thirsted for the Palace Lord status so much that she ignored her master’s will and raised a blade against her own junior sister?”

If the North Sea Ice Palace was a Taoist or Buddhist Sect, this was an issue large enough that it could cause the Palace Lord to resign.

However, the North Sea Ice Palace wasn’t like that; on the contrary, they were so open about their need for children that they even openly held a selection process, appropriately named the Marriage of the Snow Flowers.

Of course, having an unmarried Palace Lord with a bastard child was something that would be criticized even within the North Sea. However, it wasn’t so shameful that it would jeopardize the Palace Lord’s position.

Ah Hee had been able to rest and had recovered significantly in the past few minutes. She flicked her hands in the air, and Cho Woo-Yeon and her men all collapsed to the ground with their acupoints locked.

“If you’re really my mother, then please tell me. Who’s my father?”

Ah Hee let out a deep sigh. She seemed to be caught up in great conflict and anguish.

“He was just a wanderer. We met out of the blue, and... we fell in love, and after having you, we lived together for a while. Eventually, we got into a fight, so I left. I had someone bring you to the Palace later. Then, I found out that he was killed during his travels.”

“Then, why did you keep it a secret? You could have just acknowledged me as your child and raised me from a young age.”

“I’m sorry. At first, I lied because I was scared of my master. I couldn’t say that I didn’t return because of a man... Later, when I revealed the truth to Master, I was ordered to keep it a secret as I was next in line to inherit the North Sea Ice Palace. If my lies were to be revealed, then there might have been problems in inheriting the palace.”

“Is... is that it? Did you only treat me like a disciple because of that stupid reason?”

Even to Woo-Moon, Ah Hee’s justification for keeping her daughter close while hiding their relationship was ridiculous, so it made sense that Yeo-Seol would be angry. If anything, he was surprised that she wasn’t causing a scene.

“... I’m sorry.”

While Ah Hee was apologizing, Woo-Moon sent her a voice transmission.

—Tell her the truth. She’s your daughter, not some random child. She has every right to hear the truth from you.

Ah Hee was shocked as she responded to the voice transmission.

—I can’t! Even if she blames me for everything, I don’t want to tell her the truth.

—You will regret it later.

—Well...

Yeo-Seol was overwhelmed, and she finally started to cry.

The surprise of finding out her master was actually her mother, and the excitement of meeting a parent for the first time, made her cry for a long time. Ah Hee held her through that entire time, but the real reason she had pretended not to know Yeo-Seol and the guilt of lying to her daughter felt like a heavy anvil pressing on her chest.

Woo-Moon watched the two from the side with a confused expression.

This scene was a bit strange, in a way.

Yeo-Seol looked to be in her late teens, while Ah Hee looked as though she was in her late twenties. Any random observer would have assumed that they were sisters.

‘Well, Grandpa and I had a massive age difference, but on the outside, we probably looked like siblings, or maybe father and son at most.’

Woo-Moon suddenly felt a pain in his heart when he thought about his grandfather.

***

All those who rebelled were imprisoned in an underground prison.

Now, the North Sea Ice Palace’s biggest headache had been solved. Woo-Moon was somewhat worried that they might spread the story about Ah Hee’s illegitimate child, but in the end, that was her business to deal with.

Yeo-Seol had cried for a long time before collapsing, while Ah Hee calmly organized her confused subordinates.

Due to the current situation, all events announcing the results of the Marriage of the Snow Flowers were canceled, and only the rankings were posted.

As expected, the first place belonged to Woo-Moon and Yeo-Seol, while Jeong Gyeong and Yu Cho just stared at the rankings, more heartbroken and miserable than anyone else.

Later into the night, Woo-Moon went to the back of the North Sea Ice Palace after receiving a voice transmission from Ah Hee.

She talked to him in a completely different tone now—owing to both his power and the fact that he had solved a deadly crisis on her behalf.

“When I left for the Central Plains, there was a famous rapist wandering the gangho.”

“Wait, don’t tell me...”

“That’s right. I had little experience of the gangho’s trickery, and I fell prey to the rapist. However, that bastard didn’t kill me. Driven by revenge, I returned to the North Sea alone. In the process, I found out that I... that I bore the child of the bastard who raped me.”

Her tale was quite a shock to Woo-Moon.

“Cho Woo-Yeon doesn’t know this, but I was always more talented than her. It’s just that didn’t really have any drive to cultivate, and I wasn’t feeling terribly well here. After that happened, though, due to my desire for revenge, my cultivation rapidly increased. About six months after giving birth to Yeo-Seol, I went out to kill that bastard myself... only to find out that it was pointless. When I came out of seclusion, I found out that the Justice Coalition had already killed the bastard. I had spent ever hour of my depression and rage cultivating back then after giving birth to Yeo-Seol, but... Then, I left Yeo-Seol with my relatives as I returned to the Ice Palace.”

Woo-Moon finally understood why Ah Hee insisted on keeping the truth from Yeo-Seol till the very end.

‘What an unfortunate fate...’

Yeo-Seol was Ah Hee’s daughter, but it wasn’t a desired pregnancy, and it wasn’t out of a desired relationship either. Though she did not hold it against her daughter in the slightest, as the Palace Lord of the North Sea Ice Palace, Ah Hee couldn’t have revealed that her daughter’s father was a rapist.

No, putting everyone else aside, she couldn’t possibly reveal that to her own daughter. Thus, she just hid it as best as she could.

“I’ll keep your secret.”

“Thank you,” Ah Hee said.

Then, she smiled.

It was a motherly, kind smile that Woo-Moon had never seen on her face before.

‘The most pitiful person in this entire situation is Lady Ah Hee. She had a daughter through an assault, and although she loves her daughter, she had no choice but to allow herself to be hated because the lie was better than the truth.’

“Aren’t you curious why I’m telling you this secret?”

Woo-Moon slowly shook his head at Ah Hee’s question.

“People always want to tell someone if they feel as though things are unfair to them.”

Ah Hee smiled faintly.

“Thank you for understanding me.”

Although she had suffered a large wound to her abdomen, she seemed fine now.

As an Absolute Master, it was simple to heal such wounds with qi.

“What do you plan to do next? When are we attacking the Cruel Sandstorm Riders?”

“About that... The imperial government will also be joining forces with us when we attack the Cruel Sandstorm Riders. Is that fine?”

Ah Hee frowned slightly. After pondering for a while, she finally nodded her head with a low sigh.

“I don’t like collaborating with the imperial government, but considering the opponents are the Cruel Sandstorm Riders, I guess it can’t be helped.”

“Thank you for your understanding. The exact date of the attack hasn’t been decided yet. However, we plan on attacking immediately after getting the Kunlun Sect to cooperate.”

“Oho, are you planning on involving the Kunlun Sect as well?”

“Yes. That’s the only way to be on par with our opponents.”

Ah Hee’s eyes flashed at this statement.

“Are you saying it’ll still be difficult for us to deal with them even with your level of martial arts?”

“Yes. There are two members of Martial Heaven stationed within the Cruel Sandstorm Riders with cultivations similar to mine.”

“Ha...”

Ah Hee let out a sigh.

Deep down, she had already assumed that Woo-Moon was unrivaled. After all, Woo-Moon had shown a much higher cultivation than herself, and she was one of the most powerful even among Absolute Masters.

However, it was shocking to hear that there were two other people of the same cultivation as Woo-Moon within the Cruel Sandstorm Riders.

“That’s why we desperately need the help. Moreover...”