chapter 01
A small shadow was climbing the mountain alone.
‘So cold…’
Hong Seol blew on her red, frozen hands.
Warm breath barely brushed her palms before cold snowflakes landed first.
“Is this what real snow looks like?”
In Anhui Province, where Hong Seol lived, snow was a rare sight. The only place where it ever stormed was the summit of Mount Daechok.
“So snow… comes with the cold, huh.”
She had never even climbed over the wall of her village before.
There was no way she could’ve known how biting and terrifying snow could be.
Shivering, Hong Seol looked up.
When she first set foot at the base, daylight had been bright.
Now, from the blackened sky, soft, down-like flakes fluttered endlessly.
Cold wind kept slipping through the gaps in her ragged clothes.
“Achoo!”
This wasn’t going to work.
Hong Seol flipped once in midair — and the eight-year-old girl vanished.
In her place stood a small cat, covered in soft pink fur, its nose, ears, and paws tipped in brown.
‘Why didn’t anyone tell me the mountain would be this cold?’
Even in her cat form, the chill pierced through her fur.
The wind slapped her face, and tears began to fall, freezing instantly on her cheeks.
Lick.
Hong Seol licked her frozen paw and tried to wash her face like a cat.
It was useless — the moment she brushed away the ice, her face froze again.
A pang of fear shot through her.
‘Can I reach the peak before all my fur freezes stiff?’
She lifted her head, gauging the distance left.
Through the swirling snow, the summit barely peeked into view.
‘If only I could use inner power, I could leap there in one breath…’
“You useless thing! The shame of the Miao Clan!”
The insult she’d heard all her life echoed in her ears.
Hong Seol hunched her shoulders and trembled.
‘I can’t give up here. If I do, Mother will hate me forever…’
By the time she finally reached the mountaintop, the blizzard that had whipped her face stopped as if it had been a lie.
“Wow!”
Just as her mother said, there was a massive lake spread before her.
“When you arrive, throw a big stone into the lake.”
Hong Seol flipped again, turning back into a little girl wrapped in rags.
She looked around, then picked up what she considered a “big” rock with her tiny hands.
Plop.
Ripples spread across the water — and then a voice echoed from nowhere.
— Ouch. Who dares to throw a stone at me?
“Ah!”
Startled by the sudden voice transmission, Hong Seol shrank down.
She was far too young to know that martial masters could transmit their voices across distance.
So you won’t answer? I should teach you a lesson, then!
The voice barely faded before the lake exploded with a roar.
A white pillar surged up from its center — not a pillar, but a massive serpent.
‘S-so scary!’
Her knees shook uncontrollably.
But she couldn’t turn back now.
Mustering every bit of courage, she squeaked out,
“Are… are you the master of the lake?”
The Poison King, Tang Yimu, was dumbfounded.
He was no ordinary serpent.
A renowned serpent beast-man — the Supreme Elder of the Tang Clan of Sichuan.
Once, people fled just from glimpsing his shadow.
Now, a snot-nosed little girl not only threw a rock at him but dared to speak.
‘Have I been away from the martial world too long?’
He sighed and sent another transmission to the child barely larger than a bite-sized snack.
Yes. Around here, they call me the ‘Master of the Lake.’
“T-then…”
Hong Seol quietly recalled her mother’s words:
“Tell the lake’s master, ‘Give me your inner core.’ That’s all.”
Just thinking about saying it made her palms sweat.
She hadn’t expected the lake’s master to be such a terrifying serpent.
But she couldn’t return home empty-handed.
Her mother would be furious.
“G-give me your… inner core.”
What did you just say?
Tang Yimu was speechless.
An inner core — naedan — was the condensed essence of power from a creature who had lived long enough to transcend mortality.
To ask a living being for its core was the same as saying, “Please die for me.”
And she was saying that to someone at the Transformation Realm?
It was nothing less than a death wish.
‘Someone must have sent this child here to die by my hand.’
With his experience, Tang Yimu immediately grasped the situation.
But the little girl knew nothing.
She only held out her trembling hands toward him.
“Please… give me your inner core.”
At that moment, a booming voice echoed through the air.
“Well now, what an unbelievable sight.”
Hong Seol looked up.
A man was walking toward them, carrying a gourd flask.
His hair was streaked with gray, a long scar ran down his right cheek,
and on his blue martial robe, an embroidered cloud stood out sharply.
Wait— a cloud emblem?!
“Ah!”
Hong Seol gasped and darted behind a tree.
‘Th-that’s a Namgung clansman!’
Her tiny heart thudded wildly.
It was the first time she’d seen one of the infamous Dog Beast-men of the Namgung Clan so close.
‘The Namgung Clan hates cat beast-men! If he finds out what I am, he’ll definitely try to kill me!’
To her, the man before her was even scarier than the giant serpent.
She’d grown up hearing endless stories about their cruelty.
“Because of those vicious Namgung dogs, the Miao Clan’s power dwindled to nothing!”
“Our warriors fell to Namgung’s Changcheon troops — all their throats torn out!”
‘Dog beast-men… they’re terrifying. What should I do?’
In truth, the Namgung Clan were wolves — a proud family of beast-men renowned in the martial world.
But among the cat-clan Miao family, they were mockingly called dogs.
So it wasn’t strange that the young girl believed it literally.
Meanwhile, the Namgung man had drawn close enough for her to see his face clearly.
His tone was solemn.
“Why do you need this serpent’s inner core?”
The moment their eyes met, Hong Seol’s mind went blank.
Her ears buzzed, her vision spun, and her heart pounded so hard it drowned out everything.
‘R-run!’
Without thinking, she flipped into the air.
A small pink cat shot out from behind the tree.
“Wait! That way’s a cliff—!”
The man didn’t even have time to move.
In an instant, the tiny cat tumbled over the edge.
Down, down, endlessly.
Hong Seol plummeted.
Her joints were too stiff from the cold to move properly.
Her small body struck the cliffside again and again until it was broken and bruised.
Thud.
At last, she hit a cold slab of rock.
“Meow…” she whimpered weakly.
‘Mom… it hurts so much.’
I’m sorry.
I couldn’t… get the inner core…
But of course, her mother didn’t answer.
Then — shadows fell over her small, broken body.
Two men stood above her:
the Namgung man she’d seen earlier, and another in green robes with white hair and red eyes.
‘I have to run…’
But when the green-robed man touched her wrist to check her pulse, she couldn’t even twitch.
Only a faint “nyaa…” escaped her lips.
The Namgung man spoke grimly.
“Tang Yimu, how is the child?”
“No hope,” Tang Yimu replied, shaking his head.
“If she’d trained even basic martial arts, that fall wouldn’t have killed her. Step aside. I’ll try channeling my inner energy—”
“Her meridians are severed, Namgung Ho.”
At that, Namgung Ho’s face hardened.
Meridians — the paths where inner energy flowed.
Even the finest carriage can’t move without a road.
No matter how much energy he poured in, she wouldn’t survive.
Namgung Ho sighed.
“So this is the famed first daughter of the Miao Clan. The one who can’t use inner power.”
“Exactly. Whoever sent her here meant for her to die.”
Tears welled in Hong Seol’s eyes as she lay there, listening.
‘It was Mother who sent me to Mount Daechok… Did she really want me to die?’
It all made sense now.
Why her mother hadn’t warned her about the cold,
why she’d said nothing about the serpent in the lake—
‘She didn’t want a cripple like me to come back…’
Her ragged breathing grew weaker.
“…Tch.”
Namgung Ho clicked his tongue and removed his outer robe.
Tang Yimu looked startled.
“Namgung Clan and Miao Clan are mortal enemies. What are you doing?”
“…She’s just an innocent child, Tang Yimu. She knew nothing.”
He gently draped his robe — embroidered with clouds — over her tiny body.
It became her shroud.
“You’ve suffered enough. Rest in peace now.”
He closed her eyes with care.
‘His hand… it’s warm…’
Leaning into that warmth, Hong Seol whispered the name she missed most.
‘Mother…’
And with that cry, the little cat left the world.
Snow fell quietly, wrapping her small body beneath the blue robe.
A faint song echoed in her mind.
‘This melody…?’
It was her mother’s lullaby, from long ago.
Longing filled her heart, and without realizing it, Hong Seol began to hum along.
Then a searing heat flared at her wrist, spreading through her entire body in an instant.
“Ah!”
Her eyes snapped open.
Before her lay the vast lake — and the white serpent.
Wind lashed her cheeks once more.
“This is… Mount Daechok’s summit?”
She touched her face, numb from the cold.
‘But… I fell off that cliff and died… didn’t I?’
She looked down at her wrist — the one that had snapped against the rocks.
Now, it was perfectly whole.
‘What… what happened?’
Had she dreamed it all in the brief moment she’d lost consciousness?
No — it had been too vivid to be a dream.
Then — that familiar voice rang out again.
“Well now, what an unbelievable sight.”
Wait— hadn’t she just heard that before?
Blinking, Hong Seol raised her head.
There, in his blue robes embroidered with clouds, Namgung Ho was walking toward her — gourd flask in hand.
