- #1
"In reality, living wins."After finding out that the Demon Blood Cult Master manipulated her into being his disciple & plotted to kill her & her own family, MC Seolhwa gets a second chance to return to her Clan and vows to protect her clan from the Blood Cult.I read about 120 chapters so far with MTL.I love how MC is strong & cool & resourceful with foresight, but also complex as she is flawed & she still has some learning, which makes me hopeful for more character development, besides seeing her being a badass in fighting.Some side characters have their own motivations (some hidden) and not one-note.... though there are some simple characters, but I feel they fit their role in the story and still serve a purpose.There is some foreshadowing with the worldbuilding, clans/sects are complicated organizations with external & internal conflicts, so you'll see traitors and hidden plots as things are not all black/white.Though this is tagged Romance, initially this is more of a story with action & character focus development....I consider this slow burn / side romance, as where I am currently at -- this is more focused on the clan struggles with no romance, however there's probably more familial love in comparison due to the main character still being young, though I can't really say this story oozes with familial love due to the nature of the story.There is no love-at-first sight scenario but definitely building of an inkling of who the potential future romance interest is.Spoiler
I'm guessing it's the Mount Hua / Hwasan/ Blossoming Sect's genius child Yugang; he declared that he will beat MC seeing her as a rival but still wants to be seen as reliable Oppa to her.
Honestly their interactions have lot of my favorite moments. So far my favorite is chapter 89, Seolhwa beats Yugang in a bimu/ exchange of blows:
(Yugang) "In Hwasan, I am the strongest among my peers."
Seolhwa's eyebrows were strangely curved. "Why do you look for enemies among your peers?"
(Yugang) "huh?"
"That's why you can't do it." Seolhwa placed a sword in his hand. She turned her back without regret. "Come back stronger."
[collapse]Overall, I feel like the author keeps purposely leaving out details maybe hinting at a larger picture, but we're only at the introduction of the story so this might be a long action-packed story.