Master Villainess the Invincible!

Chapter 7

After my venture through the mountain path, I was looking quite filthy.

Taking a bath was impossible, and the best I could do was wash my hair and wipe my body down, so I needed some time and a place to tidy up.

“Of course. I doubt any would gaze upon you right now and think that you are the Yang Guifei of the Sichuan Tang Clan.”

I threw the spear that was in my hand as I heard Bangshik Yang snicker.

“Oh dear.” He dodged the spear with a tilt of his head and a hearty laugh. His eyebrows shot up in surprise. “My lady, I think you’ve gotten much stronger since the start of the journey.”

Well obviously, since I hadn’t ingested any Shigum-Plant-tainted medicine for weeks. Even I could tell that my body was feeling much lighter.

But since Meijie was watching, I had to respond like I didn’t agree.

“Don’t be ridiculous.”

“We will have to spend the night here. I don’t think it’ll be possible for us to get over the mountain before the sun sets.”

The escorts started a small fire as soon as we arrived at a flat opening.

“I’m going to take a walk.”

“Take care to not go too far, my lady. The sun will set soon!” Bangshik Yang yelled after me, used to my habit of looking around before setting up camp by now.

He never forgot to give me a dagger to protect myself either.

Meijie followed me with a sour face.

“My lady, the escort captain told you not to go too far. We should stop here.”

“Be quiet for a moment,” I said, ignoring her. I could hear the sounds of a baby crying nearby.

The hearty cries of a baby that was born not too long ago.

“My lady, I’m scared. It’s getting dark...” Meijie pulled at me, begging me to return to camp.

“I think there’s a baby near here.”

“Why would a baby be in the wilderness by itself? Even an adult wouldn’t be able to live in these mountains comfortably.”

Meijie made her retorts almost instinctively and pulled at my sleeve, but the cries of the baby continued without stopping.

“It may have been abandoned in the mountains, or something terrible could have happened.”

I started to make my way in the direction of the baby’s cries.

“We should just leave it, my lady! We can ignore it and—”

I grew impatient, as the baby’s crying sounded like it was about to suddenly stop.

“If you’re that scared, you can go back! Better yet, go fetch the escort captain.”

“You think so? You would be more at ease if the captain was here too, right?”

Meijie turned before I had a chance to potentially change my mind and ran out of the forest.

It didn’t seem like she was at all concerned with leaving me alone in the forest as darkness creeped in.

Either that or she didn’t want to be concerned.

To be surrounded by servants like this... You’ve lived an empty life, Haewon Tang.

I clicked my tongue and kept following the sound of crying.

The deeper I went, the worse the terrain got, and I soon had to use the dagger from Bangshik Yang to cut my way through.

“I don’t want to lose my way on the way back...” I started to make small marks on trees on the path for me to find my way.

Even I was getting scared as I made my way through the forest, and my grip on the dagger got tighter.

“Ugh... I hope nothing happens.”

The baby’s voice got louder until finally, it sounded like I was right in front of it.

I quickly cut down the plants that were blocking my line of sight. Immediately, the crying stopped.

“What?”

When I cut the plants down, all I could see was an empty space. There wasn’t anything. All I could see was a long plant with green leaves growing from it.

“Where did the baby go? I could have sworn I heard it crying just now.”

I grew more impatient. Perhaps someone had taken the baby away at the exact same moment.

Right as I was about to enter deeper into the forest past the opening, the baby’s cries started again.

I turned around, in complete disbelief.

“Wait, is the plant crying?”

As I caressed the large leaf growing from the plant, the crying started to get quieter. It was as if it was trying to tell me that it was the one that had been crying.

Could it be…?

I crouched down to dig up around the plant. The soil wasn’t hard, so the dagger had no problems digging up the ground.

Soon I had dug up a ginseng plant with roots that were far larger and harder than any I’d seen in my previous life.

Even though it was still in the ground, I could smell the pleasant scent coming from it.

“Is this edible?”

Without thinking, I put a piece of the root in my mouth. The fresh flavor felt like it was spreading around my head with each chew. I’ve never had something like this before, and it wasn’t bitter like the types of ginseng I’d had before.

“It’s delicious...”

I continued to eat more and more of the root. Each time I ate it, the fresh flavor that erupted in my mouth overtook my senses.

And that was my last memory of the moment.

***

“My lady! My lady...! Why is she all the way out here? Hey! I found her! Halt the search!”

By the time Meijie and my escorts had found me, I was fast asleep in that open clearing.

The next morning, I was scolded by Bangshik Yang, who was looking down on me like a yaksha.

After spending months with this man who had been nothing but smiles and bright laughter, it was terrifying to see him talk to me sternly without even the shadow of a grin.

“Do you understand? If you go off on your own deep into the forest again, this old man will make sure to end his own life. At least that way, I’ll be able to face the clan head without shame.”

“All right, no need to make such a terrifying threat. And you’re not even old enough to call yourself an old man,” I mumbled.

“I thought I was going to age years upon years because of you!” Bangshik Yang shouted.

It would have been better to just keep quiet.

Especially since Bangshik Yang didn’t stop his nagging for almost an hour.

“Fine, I’ll make sure to let people know before I go anywhere.”

“Let one of your escorts know, or at least that useless servant! Do you understand?” With that, he shot a sideways glare at Meijie.

He clearly didn’t approve of her decision to leave the clan’s first born lady alone and return to camp by herself under any circumstances.

It was a good thing, really. He would no doubt report this to Moojin Tang, and that was the thing that Bi Murong would want the least.

“I understand already...”

Even after I waved the metaphorical white flag, Bangshik Yang kept repeating himself until he felt like the message was understood.

When he was finally done and was about to stand up, he halted.

“But, my lady.”

“Yes, what?! What now?!” I unintentionally yelled out my response.

“A moment. Why is your energy suddenly so…?”

“What about my energy?”

Bangshik Yang got closer and placed a finger on my pulse. His small eyes widened in shock.

“Why is it your energy flow is suddenly raging like this?! And what is this amount?! Just what did you do?!”

His screams rang clearly into the open skies.

* * *

“So you ate a random ginseng root? One that cried like a baby, no less?”

Bangshik Yang listened to me carefully with a serious face as I explained what happened.

“I believe the ginseng root you ate is the Thousand-Year-Old Ginseng. That would be the only thing that could possibly explain your sudden increase of energy.”

“Thousand-Year-Old Ginseng? And what do you mean by my sudden increase of energy?”

“Can’t you feel it? Do you not feel any different from yesterday?”

Now that he mentioned it, I could feel something heavy sitting on top of my chest. I was hot, felt feverish, and suddenly had a hard time breathing.

“I feel stuffy and... tired.”

My body felt like it was going through a harsh battle against the flu.

Bangshik Yang nodded his head knowingly.

“I would expect that to happen. The amount of energy that’s entered your body is the equivalent of inner chi that’s normally built over two sexagenary cycles.”

Sexagenary means 60 years, so chi built over two sexagenary cycles would be built over 120 years.

It’s that much?

Bangshik Yang continued with the same wide-eyed look.

“Of course, that’s if this inner chi is properly converted into your own power. And that power and one’s ability in martial arts are two very different things, so even power from a Thousand-Year-Old Ginseng means nothing if you don’t know how to use it.”

“Hmm...”

“I had heard word that the Thousand-Year-Old Ginseng was growing somewhere here on Chiaksan Mountain... To think you would be the one to find it... Why did it have to be our young lady…?”

You were already such a troublemaker without that much energy, so what will you be able to do now...?

He sighed, shaking his head in defeat. “Either way, you’ll need to get your own energy in order to avoid any unwanted conflicts with passing by martial artists.”

He made that very clear.

“You have so much energy flowing in you that it’s leaking all over the place.”