Chapter 171

Hwangbo Chiseung had lived his life in the harsh Jianghu, trusting and relying only on his two fists.

Because of his strong fists, he had been able to take care of many people. Although he had sold himself for money and become a dog of the Heavenly Eunuch Clan, he was grateful that he could feed his family and had served with utmost loyalty.

After all that loyalty, the moment he lost an arm, he was ultimately abandoned.

Hwangbo Chiseung’s heart was filled with nothing but despair.

Hwangbo Chiseung’s eyes, as he looked up at Pyo Wol, were empty.

It was the gaze of a man who had lost everything.

He knew Pyo Wol was in front of him, but Hwangbo Chiseung was so deep in despair that he could barely even register it.

All that was left for him was his severed left arm.

Hwangbo Chiseung carefully picked up his severed left arm.

Only now did it feel real.

That his life as a Martial Artist was over.

The rain continued to beat down on his head and shoulders. Blood flowed from the stump of his severed shoulder, mixing with the rainwater that ran down his body.

He thought it would be better to just die like this.

“Cheonwang… If only I had completed the Three Fists……. Would things have been different if I had pursued Martial Arts instead of money?”

Regret washed over him, too late.

Hwangbo Chiseung closed his eyes and sobbed.

Fortunately, the rain hid his tears.

Pyo Wol watched Hwangbo Chiseung in silence.

He could understand the despair Hwangbo Chiseung was feeling. But overcoming that despair was also up to the individual.

Would he collapse here and now, or would he rise again from where he had fallen?

Pyo Wol was curious about Hwangbo Chiseung’s choice. So he didn’t leave, but watched him.

As the rain began to let up, Hwangbo Chiseung staggered to his feet, holding his severed arm.

Suddenly, Hwangbo Chiseung looked at Pyo Wol.

Only then did he realize that Pyo Wol had been standing in front of him all this time.

On the street everyone else had abandoned, only Pyo Wol was looking down on him.

“What, do you want to mock me to the very end? Do as you please. As you can see, I’m now a one-armed cripple.”

“Losing one arm isn’t a big problem. But a broken spirit is a big problem.”

“What do you know to say something like that? How could you possibly know the despair I feel?”

“Do I have to understand you?”

Pyo Wol didn’t understand.

Why would someone want others to understand their despair?

Fighting one’s way out of the despair one experiences was one’s own responsibility. While the help of others could provide some comfort, one could not fully overcome it without their own will.

Pyo Wol had never once shared his despair with others or wished for their understanding.

He had always struggled to find a way out, racing with all his might to Escape. Having overcome adversity to get to where he was today, the sight of Hwangbo Chiseung, with a look as if he had lost the whole world over this level of despair, was almost laughable.

Pyo Wol turned his body and said.

“It’s not like you’ve lost all your Martial Arts just because you lost one arm. Yet you look like you’ve lived your entire life.”

“Then what do you expect me to do?”

“Learn again from the beginning.”

“……”

“Make the Technique Forms you performed with two arms performable with one, and focus the flow of Internal Energy that ran through the Meridians of both arms into your remaining one.”

“Is that even possible?”

“Are you going to give up, saying it’s impossible? If that’s all you’ve got, then you have no choice but to live like this for the rest of your life.”

Pyo Wol walked away without a second thought.

He hadn’t stayed because he felt any special emotion for Hwangbo Chiseung. He had simply wanted to see if the man could overcome it.

But Hwangbo Chiseung was a man of only that much caliber. It felt like a waste of time to have remained here.

It was then.

Thud!

Suddenly, something flew and landed in front of him.

It was the arm that had lost its owner.

Hwangbo Chiseung had thrown his own severed arm.

When Pyo Wol turned back, Hwangbo Chiseung was on his knees.

“Help me.”

“……”

“You said that because you have a way, didn’t you?”

Hwangbo Chiseung stared at Pyo Wol with a terrifying gaze. The emptiness that had filled his eyes just a moment ago was already gone.

He was desperate enough to grasp at even a single straw.

More than anything, he sensed that Pyo Wol was different from ordinary people. It wasn’t simply because Pyo Wol had stayed to watch him until the end.

The moment he saw Pyo Wol’s still eyes, Hwangbo Chiseung knew instinctively.

That was the gaze of a man who had crawled up from the depths of a despair even greater than his own.

He didn’t know what despair could be greater than his own, but he thought that a man who had endured such a hellish time could show him a new path.

“Why should I help you? What do I have to gain?”

“I will offer you my loyalty.”

“I don’t need it.”

“Then I will offer you my Soul. If I can just recover my Martial Arts, I will willingly accept it even if you take my life.”

Hwangbo Chiseung was sincere.

Being thoroughly abandoned by the world, he realized that pride was utterly unnecessary.

What he needed was a single rope to pull him up from the depths of despair.

If he could just grab that rope, he was willing to mortgage his own Soul.

For the first time, a flicker of interest appeared in Pyo Wol’s eyes.

It was because Hwangbo Chiseung’s appearance reminded him of a face he had long forgotten.

So Yeowol.

The girl who had been trapped in the underground cavern with him.

Her eyes, a woman who had commanded many men as if they were her own limbs, had at first been just like Hwangbo Chiseung’s.

The only difference was that So Yeowol had overcome it with her own strength, whereas Hwangbo Chiseung was asking him for help.

Pyo Wol looked at Hwangbo Chiseung.

He hadn’t even performed proper Hemostasis, and blood was still flowing from the wound. His complexion was pale, and his condition was so dire that it wouldn’t be strange if he stopped breathing at any moment.

Even so, he was pleading desperately with Pyo Wol.

Pleading for him to open a new path for him to walk.

He suddenly became curious.

If he were to open a path, just how far could that man go?

“Follow me!”

Pyo Wol started walking.

Hwangbo Chiseung followed behind him.

He didn’t even glance at the arm he had been holding so preciously just moments before.

His arm was nothing more than a relic of the past.

As long as it couldn’t be reattached, he shouldn’t have any lingering attachments. That was why he had thrown the arm away.

Hwangbo Chiseung staggered as he followed Pyo Wol.

Losing an arm was different from simply losing a part of one’s body.

The human body was a thing that felt pain from even a tiny thorn stuck in a fingertip, and would flinch to alleviate that pain.

The fragile human body achieved harmony through a complex process of mutual compensation. A body whose harmony was broken would move disjointedly, like a toddler just learning to walk.

That was Hwangbo Chiseung’s current state.

He tried to walk as he normally would, but he kept leaning to one side. His head also tilted to one side.

His harmony and balance were completely shattered, making even breathing difficult. Still, Hwangbo Chiseung tenaciously followed Pyo Wol.

The place where Pyo Wol stopped was an abandoned house on the outskirts of Enshi.

The relatively intact ceiling blocked the pouring rain.

“Sit!”

Hwangbo Chiseung sat down in a cross-legged position without a word.

Pyo Wol rummaged through his Dark Dragon Robe and took out Silver Needles.

They were Hidden Weapons that Tang Sochu had made for him.

A Hidden Weapon called Feather Needles, they were as thin as an ox’s hair, making them almost impossible to discern with the naked eye.

Psh-psh-psh!

Pyo Wol stuck the Feather Needles into Hwangbo Chiseung’s body.

It seemed as if he were mercilessly jabbing the Feather Needles in without any order or rule.

“Keuk!”

Hwangbo Chiseung let out a pained groan.

There was no reason to feel pain from needles as thin as Feather Needles being stuck in his body. But Hwangbo Chiseung was feeling a truly hellish pain.

Where the Feather Needles were embedded, he felt a pain as if he had been struck by lightning.

Hwangbo Chiseung was about to scream loudly, unable to bear the pain. But at that moment, Pyo Wol’s cold voice was heard.

“You talk about making a comeback when you can’t even endure this? Even a dog would laugh.”

“Grrrk!”

Hwangbo Chiseung gritted his teeth.

Pyo Wol’s hands moved without hesitation. He stuck twenty Feather Needles into Hwangbo Chiseung’s body. But the places where he placed the Feather Needles were all concentrated on the left side of his torso.

Pyo Wol had completely sealed off Hwangbo Chiseung’s left Meridians.

It was a type of Restriction.

Now, Hwangbo Chiseung’s energy would not flow to the left side of his body.

Hwangbo Chiseung raised his head and looked at Pyo Wol.

“When you had your arm, it was natural for energy to flow that way, but not anymore. It will only cause a useless leakage of energy. It’s better to seal that side off and unify the flow of energy, concentrating it in your right arm.”

“Ah!”

In that moment, Hwangbo Chiseung’s eyes widened as if he had gained a great realization.

Hwangbo Chiseung was an outstanding Martial Artist.

He understood at once what Pyo Wol was trying to say.

To the wide-eyed Hwangbo Chiseung, Pyo Wol said.

“It won’t be easy. But you have to do it. If you can’t even do that, then just cut off your balls and retire from the Jianghu.”

＊＊＊

It was late at night when Pyo Wol returned to the Heavenly Eunuch Clan.

The Martial Artists guarding the Heavenly Eunuch Clan let Pyo Wol in without any particular suspicion. This was because Soma, who had been waiting at the gate for Pyo Wol’s arrival, greeted him gladly.

“Hyung-ah! Why are you so late? I was waiting for so long.”

Soma was the first to greet Pyo Wol.

“What about Go Il-pae and his group?”

“They came back a little while ago.”

“Nothing happened, right?”

“Nope! Except for you being late.”

“Something came up.”

“What was it?”

“I planted a seed.”

“A seed? Like a flower seed?”

“That’s right!”

“Are you farming? Why did you plant a flower seed?”

“We’ll have to wait and see if it becomes a delicate flower or a thick tree. In any case, it’ll be fun.”

“If it’s fun for you, I like it too. You have to take me with you next time you go out.”

“Alright!”

“Heehee!”

At Pyo Wol’s confirmation, Soma smiled with a pleased expression.

“What happened to the banquet?”

“It was postponed.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know! Someone suddenly came and informed us that the banquet was postponed until tomorrow evening.”

“Is that so?”

A peculiar light flickered in Pyo Wol’s eyes.

It was not common for a huge power like the Heavenly Eunuch Clan to postpone a set schedule.

This was because changing the schedule even once consumed a vast amount of money, given the large number of people involved.

Furthermore, it was extremely rude to suggest postponing the schedule to guests they had invited themselves.

‘Is it because of Hwa Ok-gi?’

Hwa Ok-gi’s visit to Yeo Hwa-yeong was probably not planned. She had gone to Yeo Hwa-yeong to pick a fight, and as a result, she had lost Hwangbo Chiseung. It would have been fine if she had at least handled the aftermath well, but she had returned after abandoning the one-armed Hwangbo Chiseung like trash.

In fact, Hwa Yu-cheon had been furious with Hwa Ok-gi.

Hwangbo Chiseung was an Expert he had painstakingly invited. He was not a person to be thrown away like an old shoe just because he lost an arm.

For Hwa Ok-gi, it was an act done without thinking in a moment of great panic, but for Hwa Yu-cheon, it was not such a simple matter.

Although they were currently enjoying a period of great prosperity, the foundation of the Heavenly Eunuch Clan was in fact very weak.

This was because most of the Martial Artists of the Heavenly Eunuch Clan were not raised internally but were bought with money.

If they were invited with the promise of wealth and glory, but were then mercilessly abandoned when injured like Hwangbo Chiseung, who would be loyal to the Heavenly Eunuch Clan?

Hwa Yu-cheon, in a great rage, had kicked Hwa Ok-gi out. He had sternly warned her not to even think of entering the Heavenly Eunuch Clan until she brought Hwangbo Chiseung back.

Because of that, Hwa Ok-gi had taken her Subordinates and gone out to find Hwangbo Chiseung. With things as they were, a banquet was naturally out of the question.

The event of Hwa Ok-gi finding Hwangbo Chiseung and bringing him back to the Heavenly Eunuch Clan would probably not happen.

Pyo Wol was genuinely curious.

In what form the seed called Hwangbo Chiseung, which Hwa Ok-gi had thrown away, would grow.

‘I’ll find out soon enough.’