Volcanic Age

There was no other word to describe it—insane.

Now, Zhou Xuchuan finally understood why Tang Youqi had abandoned his daughter, Tang Hui, like a discarded tool. To him, she was never truly his child, never someone to cherish. She was merely an instrument to be used.

The beginning of Tang Mingren's deviation was most likely…

Zhou Xuchuan recalled Tang Mingren's piercing eyes and soulless expression. Now, he finally understood that exhausted gaze.

"Do you think I'm crazy?"

Tang Youqi saw straight through Zhou Xuchuan’s thoughts.

"In a society that has gone crazy, being crazy is normal," Tang Youqi muttered with a self-mocking expression.

"Ah, I've become more reckless with my words as I get older. I apologize for my lack of tact."

"...it's nothing."

***

Zhou Xuchuan walked beneath the vast night sky. The Tang Family had offered to assign him a servant to run errands, but he declined, thinking it would be a hassle.

Instead, Tang Youqi had arranged for the estate to be cleared, ensuring that Zhou Xuchuan would not be disturbed.

While Zhou Xuchuan was grateful that the Tang Family Patriarch had prevented the general public from visiting him, he felt burdened by the consideration the patriarch had shown him.

During the day, the estate had been bustling with visitors who had heard rumors of his arrival. But now, the only sounds that remained were the occasional chirps of insects.

"Ah."

Ahead, near a pavilion by the pond reflecting the moon, Zhou Xuchuan spotted a familiar figure. A woman sat alone, drinking.

What a snake-like old geezer.

He turned around and changed his destination.

"Tang Hui."

Instead of responding, she just gestured to the side with her chin.

Zhou Xuchuan sat down next to her without saying anything.

Before he could say anything, Tang Hui poured him a drink.

"Since when did you know?"

"About?"

"You're not seriously asking that, right? If you're being sincere, I'll tear your intestines out."

"The day the Divine Monk passed away."

"Did you expect it?"

"I didn't even dream of it."

Zhou Xuchuan smiled bitterly and placed his hand on his chest where his heart was.

"...are you still not well?" Tang Hui asked after a long silence. Her head was bowed, making her expression hard to see.

However, her voice was filled with worry.

"I'm all better, so don't worry."

"You’ve gotten quite cocky since I last saw you, Sword God. If you’re imagining things, why not calm yourself by circulating your qi for a moment? Oh, or has your brain already rotted to the point that even that is impossible?"

"Haha."

"Don't laugh. It's making me like you."

Her glass moved to her thick, shiny lips.

Gulp, gulp.

Gulp.

Tang Hui filled the glass the moment it was empty.

Zhou Xuchuan didn't say anything and just looked up at the moon.

What was he supposed to say at a time like this? No matter how much he searched for the right words, none came to mind.

While he wanted to try to comfort her, he was afraid that he might have been meddling, so he just left her alone.

Dealing with women was difficult.

All he had experienced and learned in his past lifetime was how to fight and how to survive.

"...when I was young."

Tang Hui was the first to break the silence.

"That person… Orabeoni was my pride and my idol."

She began to talk while filling her empty glass with liquor.

Tang Mingren.

Born as the son of the Family Patriarch, the son of the Poison King, he had shown extraordinary talent from a young age. Whether in martial arts or academics, he was destined for greatness.

Unlike most his age, he embodied the five virtues and grew into a promising talent, receiving praise and attention from an early age.

The gap between them was so vast and unattainable that even when she was compared to her brother, the pride inherent in her Tang Family blood never surfaced.

On the contrary, she would always think that she should work hard so that Tang Mingren's honor wouldn't be tarnished, and that she could be of help to him someday.

"I'll work hard with you as my goal, Orabeoni."

They had a great relationship as siblings.

Tang Mingren had been a bright and enthusiastic child, and he was quite mature. He cared for and cherished his younger sister.

Those days had been happy. There had been no problems.

But things changed when Tang Mingren turned ten.

He became quieter. His smile faded. The brilliance in his eyes dimmed, and his expression grew extremely cold.

His younger sister, still young at the time, was bewildered by his sudden change and struggled to adapt.

Eventually, her confusion turned into concern and fear, and in the end, she spent several days without saying a word.

Then, one day, Tang Mingren disappeared.

"Where did Orabeoni go?"

"Isn't your Orabeoni the Little Patriarch? He’s busy with his duties and training. As the one who will lead the Family in the future, he has no time to waste. You should follow in his footsteps."

Only then did Tang Hui begin to understand.

Tang Mingren had simply been… tired. He had studied too much.

Tang Hui’s concerns had never run deep. Though she was exceptionally intelligent, she had been too young to grasp the truth.

I should cheer him on the next time I see him.

However, that thought was never conveyed.

When she finally saw her brother again after about three years, his face was definitely not that of a child.

His eyes were hollow, void of life. His mouth was sealed shut. When she spoke to him, he didn’t even glance in her direction. He ignored her completely.

"I can still vividly see that face. Because, because he almost looked as if he had come back from hell, it was extremely terrifying, to the point it gave me goosebumps."

"..."

"After that, I didn't see him again. It was only after I was educated about the corruption of the Tang Family a year later that I finally understood everything that had happened."

"...what a terrible story."

"Yeah."

Ten years old.

He had only been ten years old.

At such a young age, he had been faced with such a terrible reality.

Moreover, the attitude of their father, the ruthless head of the household, Tang Youqi, had also changed.

"It's time for you to take responsibility and fulfill your duty like your Orabeoni. From today, you should be more diligent in your studies and cultivation, and you should also work on your charm in order to bring a husband to the Family worthy of the Tang bloodline."

Tang Hui's life had also become harsh from her tenth birthday.

She had to be monitored in case she accidentally revealed the Tang Family's horrid secret, and her education was extremely strict.

Fortunately, Tang Hui, while not as talented as Tang Mingren, was able to keep up with the harsh education.

Then came the day she turned sixteen.

"I’ve received a marriage proposal from a promising candidate," Tang Youqi said, his tone indifferent. "He’s thirty-five, which makes him somewhat flawed. However, he has no issues with fertility and should have no trouble producing children."

Tang Youqi looked down at his daughter with a cold gaze.

"However, you're too good of a talent to just be a mother. If you continue to devote yourself to your cultivation and become one of the Five Dragons and Three Phoenixes by the age of twenty, I'll cancel the engagement."

"I will do so."

Tang Hui hated and cursed her fate.

Her pride wouldn’t allow her to live as a mere tool for childbirth, discarded once she had served her purpose.

I will not become like my father or my Orabeoni.

Gritting her teeth, she worked hard. She studied diligently, even reducing her sleep, and devoted herself to her poison arts, eventually becoming one of the Five Dragons and Three Phoenixes.

Although she had been forced to give up on interacting with those around her and lived as if she was a hermit because of that, she didn't care about her loneliness.

Fortunately, Tang Youqi didn't go back on his promise. He canceled the engagement and didn't restrict her movements.

However, she couldn't rest easy yet. She couldn't be satisfied.

The Five Dragons and Three Phoenixes were the best of the younger generation of the Righteous Faction. That meant that the moment she turned thirty, she would lose that status.

When that day came, she would have to live as a tool to give birth to a child because she was trapped by the rapidly narrowing window to marry and bear children. She couldn't let that happen.

"While I struggled to escape my cursed fate, I considered my Orabeoni a loser…"

A bitter smile spread across Tang Hui's lips.

"In fact, it was the opposite."

The liquor dripped from between her delicate fingers. At the same time, the liquor cup also spun around and hit the ground.

Clang!

The clatter was unusually loud because it was a quiet night.

"Really, it's funny. So funny I can't stand it. It's fine. You don't have to worry about me, you can laugh if you want."

Her voice didn't have its usual venom. It felt like she would crumble if he prodded her lightly.

"To think that I had been the one to call him a loser and be so proud of myself… I know I was ignorant, but to think it was to this degree."

The one who had marched ahead of everyone, defying fate itself, had been none other than her brother—Tang Mingren.

He was one of the leaders of a force that not only played around with the Tang Family, but also the Righteous Faction, and even the entire murim at that.

What she had done with her whole life had become meaningless.

"..."

Zhou Xuchuan said nothing.

He did not offer ridicule, nor anger, nor even comfort.

Just silence.

A long time passed.

Tang Hui lowered her head, resting her hands on her knees. The moonlight reflected in her eyes, making them glisten. Her lips parted with difficulty.

"I ask the Sword God to please forgive my previous rudeness. This little one has actually been in love with you since the first time we met.[1] Although I may be lacking, if you accept me, I'll do my best in the future to please…"

"No."

Zhou Xuchuan refused, holding up his palm.

"...if there's anything about me that you don't like, I'll try to fix it…"

"Mmm, no."

Zhou Xuchuan became serious.

"Can… I… ask… you… the reason…"

"You're not to my taste."

"…What?"

Zhou Xuchuan got up from his seat. He kicked the pieces of the cup that were scattered on the ground and blew them far away.

A scream could be heard from the bushes where the pieces had flown.

"Tang Hui."

Zhou Xuchuan looked straight at Tang Hui.

"What do you want to do?"

"You…"

"I said, what do you want to do?"

"…"

Tang Hui opened her mouth to say something, then closed it.

And after thinking for a while, she opened her mouth again.

"I don't want to… lose to my Orabeoni."

He had been someone she admired.

He had been her pride.

Her idol.

Her hero.

That was why she didn't want to just look at his back.

She wanted to walk beside him. She wanted to overcome him some day.

That was why.

Even though it was frustrating, she had been working so hard like this.

"I know."

"Can you not act like a know-it-all?"

"I saw it before. I know."

The way Tang Hui had looked at the door in front of the Poison Institute of the Martial Alliance hadn't been one of hatred. It wasn't one of contempt.

He thought the siblings hadn't been on good terms, but when he met Tang Mingren before, he realized that he had been mistaken.

Her gaze had been one of longing. As if she had been chasing a distant figure.

"While it's obvious, I want to escape this unpleasant and cursed situation. I hate not having control of my life."

Something boiled in her chest.

The feelings that she had been holding back exploded, and the words that she normally would have thought about and organized several times before ever saying out loud strangely blurted out of her life.

"Okay."

'To treat me as a tool for making babies, there's no worse joke than that. It makes me feel dirty to even say it out loud. My father, the Poison King… does that man not know what fatherly love is?"

Tang Hui clenched her fists. Her eyebrows rose fiercely.

"Honestly, he might not."

"I, too, have enjoyed the privileges of the Tang Family since childhood, so I won’t abandon my responsibilities. However, I have no intention of being forced to do so as a sacrifice that deprives me of my free well. That’s nothing more than exploitation. So, as I always have, I’m going to confront it head-on and change it myself."

"Mmm."

Tang Hui stopped her rambling, then took a deep breath and let it out.

"So…"

She reached out her hand cautiously. Her long, slender fingers barely grazed Zhou Xuchuan’s sleeve.

"Well, it'll… be hard to do on my own… so… won't you… help me?"

"Help you?"

"...yes."

"You should've said that earlier."

Zhou Xuchuan laughed.

1. While we don't like using third person references in Korean novels, she's so purposefully speaking down to ingratiate herself that it was necessary here. ☜