Chapter 257

Something was crouched on the large beam that ran across the ceiling of Geum Siyeon’s room.

It was clearly a human.

Even in the darkness where the light did not reach, his eyes shone brightly.

“Who are you?”

Geum Usin shouted, drawing his sword.

At that moment, the man on the beam plunged something down like a lightning bolt.

Thwack!

Geum Usin’s mouth fell open as he felt a searing pain in his right shoulder, as if it were being branded by fire.

When the pain is too great, even a scream won’t come out.

That was Geum Usin’s situation right now.

The excruciating pain seemed to paralyze his nerves, and he couldn’t move.

When he finally managed to turn his head and look at his right shoulder, he saw a transparent spear had pierced through it.

Clang!

The sword in his hand fell powerlessly to the floor.

“Guuuh!”

A groan escaped him belatedly.

At that moment, the man on the beam leaped down onto his chest.

Thud!

With a heavy sound, Geum Usin was pinned beneath the man’s feet.

Geum Usin’s mouth gaped open at the pain of his chest seemingly caving in.

Geum Usin couldn’t believe the current situation.

This was Snow Blade Sword Manor’s Guest Reception Hall.

Snow Blade Sword Manor’s martial artists were stationed everywhere, and just outside, martial artists from the Golden Mountain Manor had surrounded the area.

An encirclement had been formed so tightly that not even an ant could slip through, yet the fact that someone had entered Geum Siyeon’s quarters was utterly unbelievable.

“You, who…”

Whack!

Geum Usin’s words were cut short.

The man had struck him in the face with the shaft of the transparent spear.

Teeth shattered, and flesh was torn. But more painful than that was the concussion that made his head ring.

Even in his dazed state, he worried about Geum Siyeon.

‘Si-Siyeon!’

Geum Usin struggled to get up somehow. But it was nothing more than a futile struggle.

Thwack!

Once again, the transparent spear shaft struck his head.

Geum Usin lost consciousness.

Only then did the gaze of the man who had attacked him turn to Geum Siyeon.

Geum Siyeon stared at the man with eyes full of terror.

“Who are you?”

The opponent was an expert who had subdued Geum Usin in an instant.

Although Geum Usin was looked down upon by Geum Shinchung, he was, in fact, an expert who had learned martial arts at the Shaolin Temple.

He was by no means someone who could be easily subdued. But his opponent had taken him down with far too much ease.

It was proof that the gap in their martial arts was that great.

She glanced around, looking for someone to help, but Jang Uiwon was also lying unconscious, subdued at some point.

Geum Siyeon’s face was so pale it was pitiful to see.

“Do, do you know who I am? I’m Geum Siyeon. The only daughter of the Golden Mountain Manor, Geum Siyeon. D-do you need riches? I’ll give you as much as you want. Please, just spare my life.”

Geum Siyeon knelt and begged.

The venomous woman who had just been treating Geum Usin like a cornered rat was gone, replaced by a mess of tears and snot.

No matter how high the mountain of wealth, it was all over if she lost her life.

If she could just save her life, Geum Siyeon was willing to endure any humiliation.

“I-I’ll give you my body if you want it. Just spare my life! Please.”

Geum Siyeon crawled on all fours toward the man. She grabbed his leg and looked up.

The man looked down at her indifferently.

In that instant, Geum Siyeon’s pupils wavered.

She felt as if she had seen the man’s gaze somewhere before.

“You, you?”

Geum Siyeon’s eyes widened.

It was the exact same gaze as the man who had given her the worst nightmare of her life.

Unless they were the same person, it was impossible for their gazes to be so identical.

“It’s, it’s him.”

The man who had killed all her escorting subordinates and gravely injured her.

It was undoubtedly the man she had been cursing just moments ago, vowing to skin him alive and sprinkle salt on his wounds.

Crack!

Suddenly, the muscles on the man’s face shifted, revealing a different face.

It was an ordinary face, one you could see anywhere on the streets.

It was definitely the man who had inflicted the fatal wound on her. But it didn’t end there.

Crack!

The man’s face changed once more. Then, a beautiful face, far from ordinary, was revealed.

At the sight of a face more beautiful than any woman’s, Geum Siyeon forgot her predicament and gasped in astonishment.

The man was Pyo Wol.

Pyo Wol looked down at Geum Siyeon with a numb expression.

Geum Siyeon clung to Pyo Wol’s leg and said,

“Save me! If you just let me live, I’ll even be your dog.”

It was a servile display she would never have imagined in her usual state.

That was how desperate Geum Siyeon was.

She wanted to save her life, no matter what.

She was prepared to become a bitch if it meant she could live.

‘It won’t be too late to get revenge after I save my life.’

Geum Siyeon was not the type to ever forget a grudge.

She would surely repay today’s humiliation a hundred, a thousand times over. But she thoroughly hid her inner thoughts and acted just like a dog. She believed that if she did, she could save her life.

Stab!

That was, until Pyo Wol stabbed her in the heart with his spear.

The spear, made of ice crystal, pierced her heart as softly as if it were tofu.

“Guh! Why, why?”

Geum Siyeon looked up at Pyo Wol with an expression of disbelief.

As Pyo Wol withdrew the spear that had pierced her heart, he said,

“What I need is not a dog, but a sacrifice.”

“A sac…rifice?”

“A sacrifice to fuel Geum Shinchung’s anger.”

“That…”

Until the moment her breath stopped, Geum Siyeon could not believe her own death.

Her body collapsed limply, like a puppet with its strings cut.

Pyo Wol silently watched Geum Siyeon’s form.

“There was a noise inside.”

“Something must have happened!”

Voices could be heard from outside.

It was the sound of the Golden Mountain Manor’s martial artists rushing over, having noticed that something was wrong.

Pyo Wol leaped up onto the beam.

By the time the Golden Mountain Manor’s martial artists burst through the door, Pyo Wol was already gone.

“Miss! Captain!”

The Golden Mountain Manor’s martial artists hurriedly checked on Geum Siyeon and Geum Usin.

“M-Miss has passed away.”

“How can this be!”

“The Captain is still breathing. Quick, call a physician.”

“Jang Uiwon is down too. Dammit!”

With even the physician who was supposed to provide treatment lying unconscious, the chaos and terror reached their peak.

＊＊＊

“What do you mean? Geum Siyeon is dead?”

Lee Yul shot to his feet without realizing it.

A look of bewilderment was plain on his face.

Lee Yul was not one to normally show his emotions. The news was so shocking that he had forgotten to compose himself.

His train of thought never stopped.

Even when his brain, exhausted from excessive thinking, demanded rest, he always thought and thought again.

His body might be still, but except for when he was sleeping, his brain never rested.

That was how much he thought.

Once he latched onto a topic, he would think endlessly, branching out. The branches that spread out would form a large tree.

The tree he created contained everything.

Even a small incident that ordinary people would simply overlook, when he thought about it, he could accurately predict its outcome and the variables it would spawn.

Nothing ever escaped his thoughts. That was why he believed that everything in the world happened within the palm of his hand. But the events of the past few days had all been completely outside his predictions.

It was a very bewildering experience.

He had never once imagined he would have such an experience.

It had only been a shichen since he and Black Tiger had met with Geum Siyeon. For that shichen, Black Tiger and the Black Cloud Corps had been scattered throughout Snow Blade Sword Manor, searching for the assassin. But the assassin, as if to mock him, had killed Geum Siyeon.

‘He didn’t kill her on impulse.’

Lee Yul gritted his teeth.

Now he understood clearly.

The fact that Pyo Wol never moved without thinking.

That even his trivial actions were all thoroughly calculated.

Such a person would not have killed Geum Siyeon without a thought.

To accurately read Pyo Wol’s thoughts, he had to see the scene of the slaughter himself.

Lee Yul hurriedly led his subordinates and ran to the Guest Reception Hall.

In the Guest Reception Hall, the Golden Mountain Manor’s martial artists were collecting Geum Siyeon’s body.

“Sob! Miss.”

“To think Miss would be killed by some assassin.”

The Golden Mountain Manor’s martial artists, their faces filled with grief and indignation, loaded Geum Siyeon’s body onto a carriage.

Leaning against the wall of the carriage was Geum Usin, his wounds tightly bandaged. His subordinates had given him first aid, and he had barely regained consciousness. But he stared at Geum Siyeon’s body with unfocused eyes, as if his soul had left him.

Lee Yul quickly approached Geum Usin and asked,

“What happened?”

“I was attacked by an assassin who uses a spear… sir.”

“A spear?”

“It was an assassin who uses a spear as transparent as crystal.”

The moment he heard Geum Usin’s answer, Lee Yul almost bit his tongue.

There was only one assassin who used a transparent spear.

It was Ice Kill.

He was an assassin Lee Yul had hired along with Black Tiger.

He was a hidden trump card, saved for the future assassination of Jin Clan’s high-ranking martial artists.

There was no reason for him to suddenly go mad and ambush Geum Siyeon.

‘It’s him. He killed Ice Kill and used his weapon.’

With this, it was Ice Kill who had killed Geum Siyeon.

It was useless to deny it.

No one would understand even if he explained.

‘Taking Geum Usin’s life would have been incredibly easy for him. The reason he spared him was…’

In that instant, Lee Yul’s pupils shook violently.

He had realized Pyo Wol’s intention.

‘This demonic bastard!’

Once Geum Siyeon’s body was loaded, Geum Usin immediately ordered their departure.

Lee Yul could not stop him.

He had no justification, and more importantly, Geum Usin had no intention of listening to him.

Before leaving, Geum Usin said,

“This happened within Snow Blade Sword Manor. Snow Blade Sword Manor will have to take full responsibility for this.”

“……”

“What did your side say when we tried to move Siyeon to the Golden Mountain Manor? You said her condition was still critical and we should leave her at Snow Blade Sword Manor to watch over her. And then you said it. Not to worry about Siyeon’s safety. That you would protect her thoroughly so that no one could harm her. But what is this?”

Geum Usin deliberately cornered Lee Yul.

Lee Yul could not answer properly.

Because what Geum Usin said was true.

The measures he had taken to protect Geum Siyeon had turned around to become shackles that bound his ankles.

Geum Usin and the Golden Mountain Manor’s martial artists left Snow Blade Sword Manor with Geum Siyeon.

Grit!

Lee Yul ground his teeth as he watched the backs of the departing Golden Mountain Manor martial artists.

His eyes were so bloodshot that it looked as if blood would drip from them at any moment.

He said to his trusted subordinate, Baek Dokyeong,

“Send the goods.”

“Isn’t it too early?”

“Don’t you get it?”

“Pardon?”

“He’s stirring things up inside.”

“What?”

“Foolish… We could be found out at any moment.”

For the first time, Lee Yul glared at Baek Dokyeong with contempt.

Baek Dokyeong, who couldn’t see the future that was so obvious to his eyes, felt foolish.

“Shut up and just call them.”

“I understand.”

At him master’s anger, Baek Dokyeong quickly bowed his head and replied.

Lee Yul’s worries soon became reality. Geum Shinchung, upon receiving the corpse of his only daughter Geum Siyeon, went on a rampage and declared that he would hold Snow Blade Sword Manor responsible for failing to protect her. Furthermore, he said he would cut off all support and contracts with Snow Blade Sword Manor.

One of the reasons Snow Blade Sword Manor had been able to maintain an advantage in its fight against Jin Clan until now was the enormous amount of Gold Taels coming from the Golden Mountain Manor.

In vulgar terms, they had been able to push Jin Clan into a corner by gaining the upper hand in a money fight. But that was now a thing of the past.

With the Golden Mountain Manor turning its back, Snow Blade Sword Manor’s financial power became similar to, or even less than, Jin Clan’s.

The foundation of the picture Lee Yul had drawn had been miserably shattered.

“So that’s why he deliberately didn’t kill Geum Siyeon and carried her to our headquarters. To pass the responsibility for her death onto us…”

Blood dripped from between Lee Yul’s tightly clenched fists.

The real crisis hadn’t even begun yet.

If the Golden Mountain Manor were to find out that Ice Kill was an assassin hired by Lee Yul, their actions would not stop at merely cutting off support.

If he were Pyo Wol, he would definitely pass the evidence that he had hired Ice Kill to the Golden Mountain Manor.

“Him!”