Chapter 71

“How are you…? You should be dead. Mujeong… Jin-in definitely threw you into a snake pit…”

Jeong Hwa rambled incoherently.

That’s how much the situation before her eyes defied her common sense.

It always took a considerable amount of time for a person to accept something that transcended their common sense as reality.

That was the case for Jeong Hwa now.

Her trembling eyes betrayed her chaotic state of mind.

Drip!

The immense shock destabilized her barely-settled qi and blood, and blood trickled from her mouth.

Jeong Hwa’s complexion instantly turned ghastly pale.

She looked as if she could stop breathing at any moment.

At that moment, Pyo Wol reached out and took her wrist. He then injected his Internal Energy into her. Jeong Hwa’s qi and blood stabilized, and some color slowly returned to her face. But Jeong Hwa was not the least bit happy.

Instead, she glared at Pyo Wol as if she wanted to devour him.

“You filthy Assassin! Whose hand do you dare to hold?”

She shouted with all her might.

She was hoping someone outside might hear her voice. But contrary to her hopes, her voice was incredibly faint.

It was so quiet that no one outside the room could possibly hear it.

Knowing this, Pyo Wol paid no mind to Jeong Hwa’s screaming.

“I’ll kill you even if you don’t scream like that.”

“What are you going to do to me?”

“I told you. I’m going to kill you.”

“If you kill me, me, how will you handle the consequences? Do you think the Emei Sect will let you go?”

“They won’t. Just like they didn’t seven years ago.”

He had already experienced how persistent the Emei Sect was seven years ago. Even then, Pyo Wol had been on the verge of death. Perhaps that was why Jeong Hwa’s threat didn’t feel frightening at all.

Back then, Pyo Wol was much weaker and less prepared. Yet, he had managed to survive.

The him of today was far stronger than he was then, possessed much more, and was also much more prepared.

There was no reason to fear Jeong Hwa’s threat.

“You filthy Assassin!”

“Did you know? That you ended up like this because of me?”

“What nonsense are you spouting?”

“I’m the one who killed Gongseon. I’m also the one who killed the young master of the Thunder Clan.”

“L…ies!”

Jeong Hwa denied Pyo Wol’s words. But Pyo Wol continued, unconcerned.

“It’s the truth. I killed Gongseon in his sleep. At least I sent him off without pain. Killing the young master of the Thunder Clan wasn’t that hard either. Like you said, I’m a filthy Assassin. I enjoy ambushes.”

“Aren’t you, aren’t you ashamed?”

“I told you. I’m an Assassin. You all raised me to be one.”

“Stop your bullshit.”

“You and Guhwa Satae commissioned the Bloody Shadows Guild to assassinate Gun-sang. The Bloody Shadows Guild, having received the request, kidnapped me and other children and raised us as Assassins. In a way, we’re like your children. If it weren’t for you, we would never have been reborn as Assassins.”

“Sophistry…”

“Do you really think so? Does it sound like sophistry?”

Pyo Wol stared intently into Jeong Hwa’s eyes.

For a moment, Jeong Hwa’s body trembled.

It was because Pyo Wol’s red eyes, glowing in the darkness, seemed to be gnawing at her very soul.

Jeong Hwa saw an illusion of a giant snake coiled in the darkness. With every breath the snake took, the darkness seemed to stir.

Pyo Wol was a giant snake.

He was staring at Jeong Hwa with perfectly still eyes.

There was no Killing intent or Poison Qi in that gaze. Yet, Jeong Hwa didn’t even dare to breathe loudly.

Jeong Hwa felt she could understand why a mouse before a snake gives up on escaping.

Because that was how she felt right now.

Just meeting Pyo Wol’s gaze was enough to extinguish her will to live.

Jeong Hwa shouted loudly to shake off her fear.

“What, what do you want from me?”

“I don’t want anything. I just want to tell you something.”

“Tell me what?”

“What will happen to the Emei Sect from now on.”

“…”

“The Emei Sect will continue to fight the Qingcheng Sect to the death. Because Cheong-yeop of the Qingcheng Sect is scheduled to die tonight. The enraged Martial Artists of the Qingcheng Sect will rush here without thinking. No matter what excuses you make, they will never listen. The death of a great disciple of a major Sect like the Qingcheng Sect can never be smoothed over with mere excuses.”

“You, you…”

Jeong Hwa couldn’t finish her sentence, her body trembling violently.

Black blood continued to flow from her mouth.

It was proof that her internal injuries were getting worse.

Jeong Hwa was dying. The fire in her heart had damaged her heart meridian.

The cause was Pyo Wol.

Pyo Wol hadn’t even laid a hand on her, but he was affecting Jeong Hwa.

“Of course, there will be those who are suspicious, right? Wondering if someone else intervened. There’s already someone who thinks so. Your Junior Martial Sister, Yong Seol Lan. She already suspects that someone has intervened in this situation. She’s a woman with really good intuition.”

Pyo Wol smiled as he thought of Yong Seol Lan.

“But it will be useless. Cheong-yeop, who will be assassinated tonight, is scheduled to die by the Emei Sect’s Special Technique, the Drifting Snow Piercing Cloud Palm.”

“What?”

“I found a copy of the Drifting Snow Piercing Cloud Palm in the clothes of an Emei Sect Disciple who died and was left in the underground cavity. So I learned it.”

Jeong Hwa’s eyes widened so much that the corners tore.

Blood from the wound flowed into her eyes, mixing with her tears. It looked as if she were crying tears of blood.

“Coincidentally, your Junior Martial Sister has also learned the Drifting Snow Piercing Cloud Palm.”

“You, you demon-like bastard! You will never rest in peace even after you die. You devil!”

Finally realizing Pyo Wol’s intentions, Jeong Hwa spewed all sorts of curses. But Pyo Wol continued, unconcerned.

“This is the picture I’ve painted in my head. What do you think? It’ll be fun, right?”

“St…op it right now.”

“The Martial Artists of the Qingcheng Sect and the Emei Sect who come to Chengdu will destroy each other. When that happens, the monsters crouching in the mountains will no longer be able to just sit there. Guhwa Satae, Mujeong Jin-in. And all the rest…”

“Gaaah!”

Jeong Hwa foamed at the mouth with blood.

Her rage had reached its peak, tearing her heart meridian. Still unconcerned, Pyo Wol continued.

“I will drag them down from the mountains. And I will carve them out of this world. As if they never existed in the first place.”

Pyo Wol’s last words were the final blow.

Pop!

“Keuk!”

From the excessive anger and heart-fire, a blood vessel in Jeong Hwa’s head burst. Her body could not withstand the extreme psychological pressure.

Jeong Hwa’s breath stopped, her face twisted into the most pained expression in the world. But Pyo Wol’s words were not yet finished.

“It’s terrifying, isn’t it? That something like me exists in this world. I find it terrifying too. That I…”

Pyo Wol’s gaze turned to Jeong Hwa.

In Jeong Hwa’s vacant eyes, which were shedding tears of blood, Pyo Wol’s image was reflected.

Pyo Wol asked the dead Jeong Hwa.

“So why did you create me?”

Yong Seol Lan frowned.

It was a habit that appeared whenever she had a strange premonition.

Although she never showed it to others, her Martial Arts skills had long since surpassed Jeong Hwa’s.

She had simply hidden her true abilities until now, afraid of getting caught up in troublesome matters.

Just as she had always done, she wanted to continue living quietly. But the rapidly changing situation would not leave her alone.

“Hah! This is difficult.”

Yong Seol Lan walked alone in the rear garden of the Hundred Flowers Room.

Perhaps because the Hundred Flowers Room had taken great care in cultivating it, the rear garden was incredibly beautiful.

All sorts of rare and exotic flowers bloomed around the large pond and the rockery. The flowers, bathed in moonlight, each boasted their beautiful forms. But none of it entered the eyes of the troubled Yong Seol Lan.

Walking among the flowers did nothing to calm her troubled heart. Instead, her heart seemed to pound even more violently.

It was then.

“Th-there’s trouble, Martial Uncle!”

A second-generation Disciple of the Emei Sect came running, screaming shrilly.

“What is it?”

“Se-Senior Martial Uncle Jeong Hwa… has passed away.”

“What do you mean?”

Yong Seol Lan wore an expression of disbelief.

She had just heard that although her injuries were severe, she had passed the critical stage.

She couldn’t believe that in that short time, Jeong Hwa’s injuries had worsened and she had died.

Yong Seol Lan rushed to Jeong Hwa’s quarters.

In front of Jeong Hwa’s body, the second-generation Disciples of the Emei Sect and a Physician had already gathered.

The Physician who had been treating Jeong Hwa, in particular, was deathly pale.

It was because Jeong Hwa had died while he had briefly stepped away.

“What happened? Why is Senior Martial Sister Jeong Hwa…?”

“I, I don’t know either. Her condition had definitely stabilized…”

“Was she ambushed, perhaps?”

“No external wounds have been found. Judging by the Fresh Blood pooled around her mouth, it seems her internal injuries relapsed and she vomited blood.”

The Physician hurriedly explained what he knew.

He was afraid of being misunderstood that Jeong Hwa had died because of his own malpractice.

The Physician desperately argued that this had happened while Jeong Hwa had sent him away. His face was filled with fear that the Emei Sect might hold him responsible.

Yong Seol Lan let the Physician’s words go in one ear and out the other as she examined Jeong Hwa’s body.

The dark red blood that soaked her face and chest didn’t even register in her vision.

The only thing Yong Seol Lan focused on was Jeong Hwa’s one remaining eye. In her unfocused pupil, fear and terror were etched.

Jeong Hwa was not one to show her emotions like this simply out of fear for her own death. Something else must have frightened her.

Yong Seol Lan asked the Physician.

“When did you step away?”

“That… was just half a quarter-hour ago.”

A strange light flickered in Yong Seol Lan’s eyes.

‘If it was half a quarter-hour, not much time has passed.’

Yong Seol Lan rushed out of the Hundred Flowers Room.

“Martial Uncle!”

She heard the Emei Sect Disciples calling from behind her, but Yong Seol Lan ignored them all.

Once outside, she briefly looked around.

The street was submerged in darkness, and not a single sign of life could be felt.

Yong Seol Lan climbed onto the roof of the tallest building nearby.

Her Qi Wave unfurled like a skein of thread, spreading throughout the area.

If an ordinary Martial Artist had released their Qi Wave like this, they would have collapsed from exhaustion in no time. But Yong Seol Lan’s Internal Energy was far deeper and more vast than people knew.

Her Qi Wave spread endlessly throughout the area.

It was when bead-like drops of sweat formed on Yong Seol Lan’s forehead.

“Found it.”

Just before her entire body’s qi was depleted, she finally detected a single, dissonant presence.

At first, its presence was so faint she thought it was a small animal like a cat or a mouse moving. But there was no way a cat or a mouse could cover several Zhang in a single step.

‘North!’

Yong Seol Lan launched herself in the direction the presence had moved.

She shot across the night sky of Chengdu like a meteor.

The further north she went, the stronger she felt the opponent’s presence. But at a certain point, as if by magic, the opponent’s presence completely vanished.

“What?”

Yong Seol Lan stopped where she had last detected the opponent’s presence and looked around. But there was no suspicious entity anywhere to be seen.

“Was I mistaken?”

Yong Seol Lan quickly shook her head.

Although it was only for a fleeting moment, she had definitely felt the qi of an unfamiliar being.

It was not a mouse, nor a cat.

It was definitely a human.

Yong Seol Lan narrowed her eyes and scanned her surroundings. But again, she felt nothing.

She felt like she was being haunted by a ghost.

It felt like she was being toyed with by some invisible being.

With a confused expression, Yong Seol Lan raised her Qi Sense once more. But still, there was no suspicious presence to be felt.

In the end, Yong Seol Lan left the spot, disheartened.

Right after she disappeared, someone walked out from the shadow of a nearby wall.

It was Pyo Wol, moving without any presence whatsoever.

Pyo Wol stared blankly in the direction Yong Seol Lan had disappeared.

‘Good intuition.’

Until now, no Martial Artist had ever detected his movements.

Yong Seol Lan was the first person to detect his presence since he had emerged into the world. But even she, when Pyo Wol decided to completely hide his presence, failed to notice him despite being right next to her.

Pyo Wol was now certain that if he deliberately concealed his presence, no one in the world could detect him. He was sure of it after seeing Yong Seol Lan just now.

Pyo Wol began to walk again.

His destination was not far, so there was no need to use his Lightness Art.

A moment later, his destination appeared before him.

Geumcheon Gate.

It was the place where the Martial Artists of the Qingcheng Sect, a member of the Three Clans, were staying.

Just like the Hundred Flowers Room, Geumcheon Gate was under heavy guard. The faces of the Martial Artists guarding Geumcheon Gate were filled with fatigue. But no one let their guard down.

“The Emei Sect could attack at any moment, so everyone stay sharp.”

“Those filthy Emei Sect whores.”

Though dawn was approaching, the Martial Artists guarding Geumcheon Gate were burning with anger towards the Emei Sect.

Yesterday, they had lost many comrades to the Emei Sect.

Even if they had the upper hand in the fight, the sorrow of losing their comrades did not disappear.

Sorrow had turned into rage against the Emei Sect.

They kept their eyes peeled, on guard in case the Emei Sect attacked. But despite that, no one noticed a black shadow seeping into Geumcheon Gate like a snake.