Chapter 154

Baekrok, who had rushed out of the workshop, hurriedly looked for Tang Sochu. But Tang Sochu was nowhere to be seen.

‘Damn it!’

Baekrok gritted his teeth.

As long as he could kill Tang Sochu, the mission would be a success, no matter what happened to him. But he had failed to kill Tang Sochu, and he himself was gravely injured.

It was a failure that would go down in the history of the Hundred Wraith Union.

He would have no excuse, even in death.

Ever since he started working as an Assassin, he had always lived with death in mind. There was no way he feared death.

But there was something he had to do before he died.

He glanced at the workshop.

Through the window, he could see the poisonous smoke that filled the workshop billowing.

It looked as if Pyo Wol would burst through the poisonous smoke and rush out at any moment.

Baekrok tightly tied a broom handle, which was rolling around nearby, to his severed ankle.

After cutting the end to match the length, he stood up.

He felt a terrible pain from his severed ankle. Even with the broom handle as a support, the pain did not lessen.

No matter how accustomed to pain an Assassin was, it was impossible to move after having an ankle blown off like this.

Baekrok took out three or four small pills from his bosom and tossed them into his mouth.

They were Poison Pills that temporarily amplified one’s vitality.

They relieved pain and caused a temporary explosion of vitality, but their side effects were so severe that they were not used unless it was a crisis situation.

As he took three or four such pills at once, the pain from his wound vanished in an instant, and his whole body overflowed with vitality.

It was a temporary symptom.

He had to get out of this hellish place before the effect of the medicine wore off.

Baekrok ran towards the Retreat Path he had scouted in advance.

Despite using the broom handle as a support, his movements were much faster than when he was in his normal state.

The rapidly spreading effect of the medicine helped, but his fear of Pyo Wol played a bigger role.

Even now, it felt as if the Soul Restraining Thread would fly out and pierce his remaining good ankle.

“Ugh!”

Baekrok let out a groan without realizing it.

He had been active as an Assassin for over twenty years, but he had never felt such extreme terror.

‘Where did such a demon come from…’

That man was by no means a small frog.

He was a giant snake coiled inside a well.

One whose size was impossible to gauge.

The moment that man broke the well and came out into the world, an unbearable disaster would befall the world.

Before that, he had to inform the Hundred Wraith Union of Pyo Wol’s existence.

The information the Hundred Wraith Union had on Pyo Wol was merely the tip of the iceberg. He had to tell them Pyo Wol’s true nature so they could prepare.

Baekrok sprinted madly down the Retreat Path.

He left the main road for an alley, from the alley to a stream, then crossed a bridge and passed through the slums.

All were optimal places to erase his tracks.

No matter how expert a tracker was, it would not be easy to trace the places he had passed through in a short time.

Still, Baekrok did not let his guard down.

Pyo Wol was an expert tracker just like him. If he couldn’t shake Pyo Wol off in the beginning, there would be no place for him to escape today.

Baekrok truly ran with all his might.

As he sprinted like that, he soon arrived at the outskirts of Chengdu.

In the distance, he could see the Min River.

The Min River was a huge river that flowed around the outskirts of Chengdu, and it was one of the four rivers that gave Sichuan Province its name.

Baekrok searched the grassy area near the Min River. He had hidden a small boat there.

Once he got the boat on the Min River, he could breathe a sigh of relief.

Fortunately, finding the boat was not difficult. He had left a mark that only he could recognize.

A look of joy appeared on Baekrok’s face.

He was not one to show his emotions, but this time was different.

The thought that he could finally escape this hellish place made his heart beat faster than usual.

It was when he was about to hurriedly pull the boat out of the bushes.

Kiiing!

Suddenly, a sharp, piercing sound echoed.

“Keuk!”

Baekrok instinctively let go of the boat and stepped back.

Crash!

At that moment, a round wheel flew in and smashed the boat to pieces before his eyes.

Baekrok’s pupils trembled violently as he watched the boat shatter into pieces.

It was then.

Kiing! Kiiing!

The sound of gears turning echoed continuously in the air.

Feeling a creepy sense of crisis, Baekrok twisted his body this way and that. Two wheels grazed past his body.

“Crazy!”

The wheels, as if they were living creatures with their own will, circled in the air and attacked Baekrok again.

Baekrok used his Assassin’s instincts to the fullest to evade the wheels. But the more he evaded, the more the number of attacking wheels increased.

At first, there were only two, but soon four wheels were crisscrossing and attacking him.

Baekrok could no longer dodge and swung his Thin Sword to block the attack.

Kakakang!

The wheels hit the Thin Sword and bounced off. But they soon circled in the air again and attacked Baekrok.

“Damn it!”

A look of despair appeared on Baekrok’s face.

He had never experienced such a demonic wheel technique before.

If his body were intact, he might have been able to put up a fight, but he couldn’t because of his severed ankle.

Thud!

In the end, his remaining ankle was severed by a wheel that flew in low to the ground.

“Keuheuk!”

Baekrok screamed and collapsed to the ground.

Not missing the opening, a wheel flew in and cut off his right arm as well.

“Keok!”

Baekrok’s eyes flew wide open.

If he had fainted, the pain would have been less, but he couldn’t because of the Poison Pill he had taken. The Poison Pill was maintaining his vitality.

At that moment, a small boy appeared silently in front of him as he lay collapsed.

Three or four wheels hung around his neck like accessories.

The clinking sound of the wheels hitting each other had never been so terrifying.

When the boy stretched out his hand, the wheels that had been circling wildly flew into his grasp.

“Ta-da!”

The boy playfully spread his arms as he hung the wheels around his neck.

“Keuk! Who are you?”

“Me? Soma. I was waiting here like Hyung-a told me to.”

“What?”

“Hyung-a said if I waited here, you would show up. It was a little boring because you showed up later than I thought, but you still showed up. Hehe!”

Soma grinned.

“You predicted my Escape route? How did you know?”

“Hyung knows everything. I don’t know how he knows, but Hyung knows everything. That’s why I just have to listen to Hyung.”

Soma smiled innocently.

Baekrok, on the other hand, felt all the strength drain from his body.

To think that after escaping all the way here, he was still just dancing on the palm of Pyo Wol’s hand, even his will to fight disappeared.

‘I’d rather!’

Baekrok felt for a molar with his tongue.

A Poison Pill was hidden in the false molar.

It was a Poison Pill hidden in preparation for failure.

He never thought he would use it like this, but if he just crushed the Poison Pill, his breath would stop without pain. For an Assassin, it was the best kind of death.

It was the moment Baekrok was about to bite down on the Poison Pill.

Thwack!

A Flying Dagger flew from somewhere and lodged in his jaw.

The Flying Dagger, which had exquisitely pierced the space between his upper and lower teeth, prevented his jaw joint from moving. He was unable to bite down on the molar containing the Poison Pill.

Soma was not surprised by the sudden event. Instead, he smiled brightly and stood up.

Because he knew who the owner of the Flying Dagger was.

“Hyung-a!”

Parting the bushes, Pyo Wol was walking over.

Soma jumped up and down and shouted.

“I caught the guy who attacked Hyung, just like you said. I did well, right?”

“You did well.”

“Hehe!”

Pyo Wol passed the delighted Soma and stood before Baekrok.

Baekrok, with both ankles and one arm severed, was writhing like an insect.

One arm remained, but he could do nothing with it alone.

Baekrok wore a look of incomprehension.

‘Is he really Myriad poison immunity?’

He did not know.

That Pyo Wol, having been bitten by snakes countless times, had developed a Poison Resistance to most poisons.

Although the poison he had spread was deadly, it had no adverse effect on Pyo Wol. Pyo Wol’s Poison Resistance had overcome the Poison Qi.

Pyo Wol looked down at Baekrok and said,

“You can’t die yet.”

“Keuuu! The Hun…dred Wraith Union will ne…ver forgi….”

With the Flying Dagger in the way, Baekrok’s pronunciation came out garbled.

Pyo Wol looked at Baekrok and smiled faintly.

“Now, let’s start our conversation.”

“You?”

“For the record, I’d advise you not to endure. No matter how much you endure, you’ll end up telling me everything you know.”

Pyo Wol crouched down in front of Baekrok.

Baekrok now knew what fate awaited him.

‘He’ll torture me to get information about the Hundred Wraith Union. But no matter how much he tortures me, I will never answer.’

Through harsh training, Baekrok had a resistance to torture.

He would rather die than succumb to pain and leak information about the Hundred Wraith Union.

‘You will never hear me scream.’

Baekrok steeled his resolve.

But he soon had to regret his resolve.

“Kkeueuaaak!”

＊＊＊

“Tsk!”

Tang Sochu clicked his tongue as he looked at the ruined workshop.

Poisonous smoke was still billowing inside the workshop.

The Poison Qi was so potent that even from a distance, his head throbbed and his eyes turned red.

If left alone, the Poison Qi would spread outside and contaminate the surrounding area.

Although his workshop was on the outskirts of Chengdu, there were quite a few private houses nearby.

Over time, the Poison Qi would spread to the vicinity and kill everyone.

He didn’t dare to even think about Detoxification.

He had inherited the Blacksmith skills of the Tang Clan, but his knowledge of poison was only basic.

Tang Sochu, who had been silently looking at the workshop for a moment, threw the torch he was holding.

The workshop burst into flames at a terrifying speed.

Not only were there many flammable things, but the inside was bone-dry from the heat of the furnace. On top of that, Tang Sochu had sprinkled White Phosphorus Fire.

It was truly the optimal condition for a fire to break out.

Fwoosh!

The fire burned down the workshop at a terrifying speed.

Originally, Fire Soul Poison had the property of spreading when it came into contact with fire, but that didn’t apply to White Phosphorus Fire.

The White Phosphorus Fire instantly devoured and annihilated the Fire Soul Poison that had filled the workshop.

Pure white flames soared up.

“Fire!”

“The workshop is on fire.”

The nearby residents, who had been sound asleep, were startled by the sight of the blazing light and rushed out.

They carried buckets of water to put out the workshop fire. But it was impossible to put out the workshop fire with just a few buckets of water.

In the end, the workshop burned down completely, leaving only a pile of ashes.

“Is this the only thing left?”

Tang Sochu muttered, gripping the hammer hanging from his waist.

It was the first workshop he had ever built.

It would be a lie to say he wasn’t sad that everything had burned down. But he did not despair.

Because he had memories of getting back up from even more desperate situations.

“I can just start over from scratch, what’s the big deal!”

“I’ll set you up with an even better workshop.”

At that moment, a familiar voice came from behind him.

Without even looking back, Tang Sochu recognized the owner of the voice.

“Hyung!”

The person who approached his side was none other than Pyo Wol.

Next to Pyo Wol was a small child.

“Little Hyung-a!”

“It’s Soma.”

“I caught the guy who attacked Hyung-a.”

“You did?”

“It’s a shame I couldn’t kill him with my own hands. But I still did well, right?”

“You did well.”

Tang Sochu smiled and patted Soma’s head.

“Hehe!”

Soma smiled happily.

Tang Sochu asked Pyo Wol.

“Did you find out who commissioned it?”

A subtle anger was contained in his voice.

Pyo Wol nodded his head silently.