Chapter 243
But how was she supposed to run away?
āIām just a small and precious ordinary person.ā
Until she turned nine, Ara had grown up under her parentsā excessive and noisy overprotection. There was nothing she did alone.
Even when she took a nap, someone was always with her. Even inside Ihwa Palace, her residence within the Sacred Palace, at least two maids were always assigned to her. Even when she couldnāt see them, there was always a guardian standing watch within a distance where they could sense her presence.
When she thought of it as protection, it felt incredibly comfortable and reassuring, but once she started thinking about escape, it felt completely suffocating.
And even if the surveillance disappeared, that would be another problem.
The Sacred Palace of the Heavenly Demon Divine Sect had been built in the deepest part of the Thousand Mountains.
It was an impregnable fortress that had never fallen even once.
Which meant that there was no way Ara could simply walk out with her insignificant, slow feet.
Ara had learned agile martial arts, but being just a little faster on her feet wasnāt enough to escape that impregnable fortress or the treacherous mountains. She briefly looked out the window.
The scenery she had seen every day for nine years was beautiful, but the moment she thought about escaping through it on her own two feet, it looked like a living hell.
Sheer cliffs and bizarre rock formations were only the beginning, and beyond them, the cloud forest spread out like a sea with no end in sight.
āThis is insane. Why would anyone even come here.ā
But she had to leave.
Even escaping the Sacred Palace would not solve everything. Below it were villages where the disciples lived. And there wasnāt just one or two.
āThe region where our Demonic Sect is located would be the far western edge, if I compare it to my past lifeā¦ somewhere around Xinjiang, right?ā
Ara, who had been about to spread out paper and draft an escape plan, grew momentarily solemn.
Was it really true that to get to Korea in this life, she would have to cross the entire Asian continent? It was too far.
She also considered a route heading west. The era in martial arts novels was usually a mixture of the Ming and Qing dynasties. There were no airplanes or cars, and printing didnāt seem well developed, so it was safe to assume neighboring countries were at a similar level. But she ran into a major problem.
āI donāt know English.ā
Ara wasnāt fluent in English. She didnāt even know if the English she had learned in her past life would work here.
āFor now, letās move within China.ā
At least she needed to be able to communicate to survive.
Ara decided to head for Luoyang.
The reason was simple.
Because it was the hardest place for the Heavenly Demon Divine Sect to reach.
The headquarters of the Murim Alliance was in Luoyang.
And around Henan Province, where Luoyang was located, there were many of the leading orthodox sects. From the Shaolin Temple to Mount Hua Sect, Zhongnan Sect, and the Wudang Sect.
āEven after living as a cult member for nine years, I still feel a bit resistant.ā
Ara let out a small laugh.
She had never once seen a member of the orthodox sects since she was born.
The only thing she had heard was the elders she adored occasionally muttering among themselves, āCowardly bastardsā, and āTwo-faced hypocritesā. The guardians didnāt seem to like them either, and although they tried not to speak about it in front of young Ara, the occasional tainted energy that slipped out suggested there was deep resentment.
Ara liked the elders and the guardians. So she wanted to dislike what they disliked too. Because those people caused suffering to the ones she cared about.
But precisely for that reason, there was no better place for Ara to run and hide than Luoyang.
āIf I manage to escape by luck, no matter how powerful our Demonic Sect is, it wonāt be easy for them to tear through Luoyang like the back of their hand.ā
Ara pursed her lips and let out a sigh.
With the body of a nine-year-old, there was nothing she could actually do. No matter how much she thought about it, for now she could only decide on her destination and goal.
āFor now, Iāll just focus on agile techniques like my life depends on itā¦ā
At the very least, she needed to reach the level of a first-rate expert.
Ara clenched her fist tightly and steeled her resolve.
* * *
Five years passed after that.
Ara, who had been diagnosed by her parents as having a weak constitution, trained so diligently that it was as if she had become a different person.
As if responding to her determination, her parents, the Council of Elders, and the Guardian Corps brought her all kinds of rare elixirs, like a swallow feeding its chicks.
In the year she turned eleven, under her fatherās guidance, Ara opened her Ren and Du meridians. The internal energy she had built through the Taiji Internal Method was pure but limited in quantity, but the internal energy she gained from the elixirs was abundant.
As a result, she became a half-baked first-rate expert, possessing a large amount of internal energy but lacking true enlightenment. In terms of sheer internal energy alone, she surpassed even peak experts.
āItās not good to take too much.ā
āYouāre talking like Iām some kind of pig.ā
āWho said youāre a pig. Iām saying it could become poison, so itās enough if you only take what I give you.ā
Sa Yihyeon grinned.
Ara glared at him in disgust.
āDonāt you have anything to do? Why do you keep coming here and bothering me?ā
āIs it a problem if I come to see my fiancĆ©e?ā
āWell, if you slack off on your training and someone else ends up becoming my fiancĆ©, that wouldnāt be so bad either.ā
Ara muttered indifferently.
If you stop being the male lead, that might actually be better. Then I wouldnāt have to act sharp and hurt this innocent boy. Of course, if that happened, Iād have to do the same thing to whoever became my fiancĆ© insteadā¦
āWhoever it is, I just hope itās not Sa Yihyeon.ā
