Chapter 20
In Bloom
“Aaaargh!!!”
As soon as I swallowed the flower seed, it felt like my internal organs were burning and freezing over and over. I collapsed to the ground, screaming.
My whole body was drenched in sweat, and my mind went blank.
‘It hurts so much I can’t think.’
Honestly, it was a miracle I was even keeping my eyes open.
“It’s too late to regret it now. Once you swallow a flower seed, you can’t spit it out,” Geumseon Yeonhwa said in a firm voice, watching me silently.
‘Of course, the pain of my body being torn apart is excruciating, like I’m going crazy….’
“…I don’t regret it.”
I braced myself on the ground with both hands and struggled to lift my head to look at Geumseon Yeonhwa.
Perhaps it was too much to handle the powerful martial arts, but tears of blood streamed down my cheeks, staining the floor red.
“If I need to become stronger to change things, I will save Dad….”
“Byeol-ah, if something dangerous happens to you, make sure to find Dad.”
“Of course. Dad will fly anywhere if our Byeol-i calls.”
‘My Dad, who is a fool for his daughter and only knows me.’
Even with tears of blood flowing, I smiled faintly, thinking of my dad.
“If I can change fate….”
I clenched my teeth so hard my jaw ached, enduring the heat rising throughout my body.
“Even if I die, I will never regret it!”
Geumseon Yeonhwa, looking at me, seemed to have complex emotions.
But I didn't have the headspace to worry about that.
It was then.
The powerful energy that had been coursing through my veins suddenly stopped dead at my solar plexus.
“Cough! Keuk!”
I kept vomiting up mouthfuls of blood.
‘I’m dizzy….’
Just as I felt my vision spinning and my body tilting to the side, golden silk fabric fluttered in front of my eyes like waves, and Geumseon Yeonhwa caught me.
His sharp, golden eyes pierced my solar plexus with their gaze.
“So, the blood energy was blocked by poison, preventing it from manifesting?”
“…Poison?”
‘What is he talking about?’
Poison in my body?
“Yes, a potent poison that can stop a child’s heart with just a small dose.”
Instead of answering, I vomited mouthfuls of blood and looked up at Geumseon Yeonhwa with large, tearful eyes.
‘That can’t be true. I’ve always been with Dad….’
“Judging by the state of the poison, someone poisoned you at birth.”
‘Someone poisoned me as soon as I was born?’
According to the original story, I was born into the Sacheon Tang Clan.
Then, someone from the Sacheon Tang Clan?
Why? To a newborn baby who knows nothing?
Geumseon Yeonhwa’s words were quite shocking to me as well, but I couldn’t continue thinking because I kept vomiting blood.
“You remarkably survived after ingesting such potent poison. It would have been impossible without the intervention of someone’s power.”
Geumseon Yeonhwa’s voice faintly reached me through my blurred vision.
Geumseon Yeonhwa held me and submerged my entire body in the spring water where the golden lotus had been.
My body trembled from the cold energy of the spring water.
“This spring water, imbued with my, Geumseon Yeonhwa’s, energy, not only maximizes martial arts but also heals internal injuries. Find the source of the poison in your body there and heal it.”
Geumseon Yeonhwa’s slender yet large hand covered my eyes.
Then, my body relaxed, and my vision darkened.
* * *
“Waaaaah!”
A moment later, the loud cry of a baby echoed from inside a magnificent building.
‘Where is this?’
Looking around, I found a green flag with ‘Sacheon Tang Clan’ written on it.
‘Sacheon Tang Clan?’
“Lady Seolhwa, it’s a daughter, the first one!”
“Push a little harder, Lady Seolhwa!”
Inside the building, a woman’s painful moans could be heard.
‘Seolhwa? That’s my mother’s name.’
It seems my mother is giving birth inside the building.
Wanting to see my mother’s face, whom I had never properly seen, I opened the door of the building from which the sound was leaking.
Then, in an instant, I became a newborn baby wrapped in swaddling clothes.
‘Huh? Why am I wrapped in swaddling clothes just from opening the door? I want to see Mom’s face!’
“Little one, please stay still. I’ll go quickly and bring a new cloth.”
The woman holding me entrusted me to the maid next to her and disappeared.
As soon as the woman disappeared, the maid quietly looked around before turning her gaze on me.
“Little one, please forgive me. I'm powerless.”
The maid was trembling, tears streaming down her face, looking terrified.
‘Forgive me for what? Hey, lady! Get back here! This woman's eyes are freaking me out!’
“Open wide. That's a good girl.”
The maid fed me something from a purple bottle.
“Waaaaah!”
At that moment, I felt breathless, and at the same time, a sacred green leaf shape sprouted from my solar plexus and wrapped around me.
‘Phew, I can finally breathe again. What did you feed me?’
I wanted to yank that maid's hair out, but my vision blurred, and I couldn't.
‘Whose divine power protected me?’
When I opened my eyes again, I was back in the cave with Geumseon Yeonhwa.
My body, submerged in the spring water, was now covered in vines of sacred green leaves, just like the ones I saw when I was a baby.
"It's the power of a Divine Physician, something that transcends human ability."
“…Divine?”
‘I've never met anyone like that...’
“It’s been a long time, but among the Sacheon Tang Clan’s predecessors, there was a highly skilled physician whose power was said to be like a god, so he was called the Divine Physician. Though his end was tragic. If it’s someone with such power, there’s only one person I can think of.”
‘A predecessor of the Sacheon Tang Clan, the Divine Physician?’
I’ve never heard Dad talk about that.
But above all, isn't the Sacheon Tang Clan known for its mastery of poison?
To be a master of poison, you have to be skilled with herbs, but could someone so talented in healing emerge from a clan like that?
As unanswered questions continued, Geumseon Yeonhwa continued to speak.
“Anyway, all the poison in your body has been removed by what just happened.”
Sure enough, I wasn't vomiting or crying blood anymore.
“Then, is it over now?”
I looked up at Geumseon Yeonhwa with eyes filled with anticipation.
“I said all the poison has been removed. I didn’t say the flower seed has fully settled in your body.”
‘That jerk, why's he getting my hopes up?’
Perhaps because there was no longer poison hindering the power, the explosive martial arts energy spreading from my dantian throughout my body raged like a storm.
‘I have to make this power completely mine. Endure it! Seol Cheonseong!’
“Uaaaaaah!”
I pushed myself with every ounce of strength I had, until I was completely drained. My fingernails dug into my flesh, drawing blood, but I was numb to the pain.
I don't know how long it had been.
Lost between dream and reality, I saw a beautiful golden lotus bloom in my dantian.
“Pretty flower….”
With those words as my last, I fainted.
* * *
“To actually bloom a real flower….”
Geumseon Yeonhwa looked at the seven-year-old child who had fully accepted her flower seed with her own power and was amazed.
‘It's not widely known, but Geumseon Yeonhwa's flower seed is a double-edged sword.’
While the flower seed maximizes power, there are few bodies that can fully accept its power.
‘Even if you are lucky enough to get a flower seed, most of those who eat it die.’
So, Geumseon Yeonhwa made sure that those who weren't worthy couldn't even obtain the seed, crippling them in advance.
It was her way of showing mercy to those who had come this far.
‘Besides, I had no intention of giving such a precious flower seed to someone who couldn't even make it bloom.’
Cheonseong’s case was no different.
‘I didn't just give her the flower seed on a whim, but I never expected her to endure its power with such a small body.’
Her interest in Cheonseong was first piqued when she gave her water.
‘At first, her constant chatter was annoying, but at some point, I found myself looking out of the cave, waiting for her.’
Then, Cheonseong came to Geumseon Yeonhwa again.
And Geumseon Yeonhwa saw it.
The two opposing forces latent in Cheonseong’s body.
And that poison was blocking the manifestation of that power.
“It seems my eye for people is still alive.”
When Geumseon Yeonhwa touched Cheonseong’s golden lotus with a fingertip, the flower dissolved into her dantian.
“I've heard humans die if they're left like this….”
Geumseon Yeonhwa looked at Cheonseong, who was asleep with half of her body in the spring water, seemingly bothered, then sighed and got up.
“I'm too soft-hearted, that's my problem.”
Geumseon Yeonhwa lifted Cheonseong from the spring water and laid her down on the dry floor.
“Heavens! Her body is ice-cold.”
Geumseon Yeonhwa was startled when she accidentally touched Cheonseong's skin and felt her body temperature.
“Humans are so weak.”
Even while grumbling about it, Geumseon Yeonhwa took off her outer robe and carefully covered Cheonseong with it.
“...Should I light a fire? I despise fire; it'll dry out my beautiful skin.”
Geumseon Yeonhwa gazed at the soundly sleeping Cheonseong, cupping her own silky cheek with a delicate hand.
She seriously considered whether to light a fire, even if it meant sacrificing her own perfect skin, just to warm the child.
