Chapter 308 : Seeking a Lover

Chapter 308: Seeking a Lover

Tang Cheolgi followed Yong Hwarin’s prior advice faithfully.

“I’ve stayed in Jeongju for a long time, so I know the lay of the land well. This is the safest route compared to the others.”

Tang Cheolgi chose the path that was frequently attacked.

“I’ve heard that some martial households were attacked by the Blood Demon Castle along this path.”

When Seomun Yuwon voiced his concern, Tang Cheolgi admitted it.

“Exactly. That’s why we must take this path. Those bastards will think the rumors have made others avoid this route and will instead lie in ambush along the other roads. That means there won’t be Blood Demon Castle bastards here. Even if there are, they would be spread elsewhere, so their numbers shouldn’t be high. Trust me.”

Still, when others hesitated, Yong Hwarin repeated what he had relayed through telepathy.

“And even if they show up again, what’s there to fear? Wouldn’t it be better if we captured them and rescued the orthodox martial artists who’ve been taken? What are you afraid of? If you’re scared, take a different path. I’m going this way.”

With a nudge like that, pride was sure to rise like a snake lifting its head in anger.

Yong Hwarin had stirred their pride, prompting them to act rashly.

And upon hearing it again, Tang Cheolgi’s reasoning made sense.

“When have we ever been cowards!”

Wi Jiman, who had been somewhat dismissive of Tang Cheolgi, was the first to step forward.

‘When did this guy get so sharp?’

Wi Jiman looked at Tang Cheolgi with surprise.

It seemed like he had changed quite a bit during their time apart.

Tang Cheolgi originally wasn’t someone who could speak this logically and thoroughly.

Though he felt some suspicion, he brushed it off, thinking perhaps he had matured. Tang Cheolgi grinned broadly, pleased that the group was obediently following him.

“Let’s go!”

They entered the region where Blood Demon Castle’s warriors frequently appeared and attacked martial households.

“Once again, prey walks into the web. Hrm!”

Wi Oh, the Division Leader of the Chamryong Blood Sword Division, muttered with a sneer.

As Tang Cheolgi’s group came within view, Wi Oh spoke with excitement in his voice.

“Move!”

At his command, the hundred warriors lined up behind him all sprang into action.

Tang Cheolgi held his breath as he saw the hundred or so warriors from Blood Demon Castle. Surrounded, he looked back at Yong Hwarin.

Then Yong Hwarin’s voice flowed into his ear through telepathy.

–You must fight well enough to avoid raising suspicion. The Tang Clan’s reputation isn’t for show. If you slack off, they’ll grow suspicious.

He ended with words that flattered Tang Cheolgi, lifting his mood.

Tang Cheolgi nodded.

–I’ll have to kill at least twenty to avoid shaming the Tang Clan’s name.

Tang Cheolgi hoped this would be his moment to rise as a hero, so he was eager to stand out more than the others.

Yong Hwarin skillfully used that psychology.

“If you follow quietly, no one will get hurt!”

At Wi Oh’s words, Tang Cheolgi shouted back.

“Where did this girlish bastard come from, spouting nonsense!”

He had a knack for swearing as freely as he lacked thought.

At Tang Cheolgi’s remark, Wi Oh’s expression hardened for the first time.

Even as he fought, Wi Oh usually didn’t lose his smile, but now he let out a continuous sneer as he looked at Tang Cheolgi.

“Hrm! That one’s amusing! Hrm! Attack! Kill the ones you must, spare the rest!”

Tang Cheolgi didn’t back down.

“No one’s dying here today, you eunuch bastard!”

Wi Oh pointed directly at Tang Cheolgi and shouted.

“Bring that bastard to me alive!”

That marked the beginning of a bloody battle between the Chamryong Blood Sword Division and Tang Cheolgi’s party.

Tang Cheolgi unleashed his hidden weapon and poison techniques to their fullest, killing ten of the Chamryong Blood Sword Division’s warriors.

His goal was thirty, but they were too strong—ten was his limit.

He had to expend all his hidden weapons just to take down that many, showing the fearsome level of the Chamryong Blood Sword Division.

The casualties among Tang Cheolgi’s group were severe.

Han Chong, the Small Sect Leader of the Sword Poison Sect, was split in two and killed.

Ten elite members of the Sword Poison Sect also perished and became lost souls.

However, they had also taken down a considerable number of Chamryong Blood Sword Division’s warriors.

Wi Jiman, the Young Master of the Weiji Clan, sustained a severe injury, with only one escort surviving.

That one surviving escort was barely breathing, and it was uncertain when he would die.

Seomun Yuwon, Young Master of the Seomun Clan, was also not in good shape.

Still, being the one among them with the most hostage value, he wasn’t handled roughly, and his injuries were relatively minor.

The women were drawn into the fight but were subdued quickly, sustaining minimal damage.

Only Han Gwiok, left alone after her orabeoni’s death, wept bitterly.

Yong Hwarin felt a pang in his chest.

There were many who would have survived had he stepped in.

Even if it was for the sake of rescuing Jeong Minji, he couldn’t help but feel a trace of guilt.

‘If only I had come with just Tang Cheolgi...’

Yong Hwarin had chosen to bring others because he had one specific concern.

And now, Wi Oh was speaking to that very point.

“Division Leader, where should we take them?”

“If it were just one or two, we could send them to a nearby temple, but with this many...”

After a moment’s thought, Wi Oh said,

“Still, we’ve got some high-value hostages here, so we’ll take them to the manor. From there, we’ll escort them along with the other clan sect leaders to the main castle.”

“Understood. I’ll prepare accordingly.”

Judging by their conversation, the nearby temple seemed to be used for detaining just one or two hostages.

But high-value hostages were taken to the manor, so if Jeong Minji had been recognized, she would surely have been considered one of them.

It was already widely known that Jeong Minji, first of the Three Chivalrous Sisters, had a close relationship with Yong Hwarin of the Heavenly Sword Hero, so she would have been taken to the manor.

Han Gwiok sobbed as she clutched Han Chong’s corpse.

Wi Oh spoke to her.

“Stop crying. If you keep bawling, I’ll tear that mouth of yours wide open.”

Wi Oh was known for his cruelty toward women.

And he wasn’t bluffing.

He then thrust a dagger deep into the chest of the injured escort.

“W-what do you think you’re doing?!”

Seomun Yuwon shouted, and Wi Oh grinned.

“I’m not wasting time on someone who could die any minute. Kill all the wounded!”

Having lost a number of his subordinates in the battle, Wi Oh was venting his frustration this way.

Still, he refrained from touching the valuable martial household hostages, knowing he would be severely punished by Won Hobup Zhao Qiansheng.

Wi Oh felt he could barely handle Zhao Qiansheng.

But if he incurred the wrath of the Council of Elders’ Mad Elder, Ju Namok, who had been dispatched this time, he could have his neck snapped immediately, so he exercised as much restraint as he could.

Even at his age, Ju Namok was a killer consumed by madness. No one saw him as a kindly old man.

He was the very embodiment of the phrase “acts just like he looks.” His face was pockmarked and resembled a toad, which earned him another alias.

That alias was Seom-myeon (Toad Face), and when combined with his existing title of Gwangno (Mad Elder), his full alias became Seom-myeon Gwangno (Toad-Faced Mad Elder).

Tang Cheolgi’s group, having lost all of their escort warriors, was led away by Wi Oh.

They blindfolded all the hostages in Tang Cheolgi’s party with black cloth to disorient them and prevent any thoughts of escape.

Carried by the warriors of the Blood Demon Castle, they traveled for roughly half a si-jin before arriving somewhere with human presence.

Only after locking them in a secret chamber did they remove the blindfolds from Tang Cheolgi’s group.

Then they extended bowls that resembled medicine bowls.

“Drink these! You must drink it in front of me. If even a single drop is spilled, you’ll be cut down where you stand!”

Having witnessed what kind of man Wi Oh was, none of them dared resist and obediently drank the contents of the bowls.

“What is this medicine? Is it poison?”

Tang Cheolgi asked, mustering his courage.

“We wouldn’t poison valuable hostages. It’s a type of San Gong Poison, so rest assured. This San Gong Poison will dissipate in about seven days. I hope no one dies trying anything foolish. Stay quiet and nothing will happen. But if you act rashly, trusting only in your status, you’ll regret it. If we deem you no longer valuable as a hostage, we won’t hesitate to kill you!”

After Wi Oh issued that threat and disappeared, silence fell over the secret room.

After drinking the San Gong Poison, Tang Cheolgi’s group attempted to circulate their qi to confirm their condition, only to erupt in frustration.

“My qi isn’t moving at all. Even with San Gong Poison, there’s usually some flow of qi.”

As Seomun Yuwon muttered with a troubled expression, Tang Cheolgi responded.

“This is the Seven-Day San Gong Poison. It’s the most potent among the San Gong Poisons. Just as that bastard said, your dantian will be sealed for seven days.”

Tang Cheolgi hadn’t expected they’d actually administer the Seven-Day San Gong Poison, and he was caught off guard.

“I heard the Tang Clan carries antidotes for emergencies. Would you happen to have an antidote for this San Gong Poison?”

When Seomun Yuwon asked, Tang Cheolgi shook his head.

“There is no antidote for the Seven-Day San Gong Poison.”

“Ugh!”

Seomun Yuwon groaned in pain.

Then he looked at Yong Hwarin and asked,

“You seem to be the only one among us without a single injury.”

His tone carried a trace of envy.

While everyone else had suffered at least a few sword wounds, Tang Cheolgi’s supposed friend was completely unscathed.

Not that he hadn’t fought.

They had seen him surrounded and attacked by five elite warriors from the Blood Demon Castle.

And yet, for some reason, the same warriors who had effortlessly cut down clan escorts couldn’t even touch Tang Cheolgi’s friend.

Having seen that with his own eyes, Seomun Yuwon began to grow suspicious.

“Ah, this friend of mine has trained in an external inner technique, so sword wounds don’t affect him. But it’s still incomplete, so he can’t launch proper attacks yet.”

Tang Cheolgi gave a vague excuse.

Yong Hwarin, as planned, chose not to say a word.

In the deep hours before dawn, while everyone was asleep, Yong Hwarin awoke.

Looking around, he saw that everyone had collapsed into deep slumber, likely from the aftermath of the fierce battle.

Normally, martial artists with cultivated inner power had greater endurance than ordinary people and wouldn’t fall into such deep sleep.

But after consuming the San Gong Poison, they had succumbed to exhaustion and passed out.

To Yong Hwarin, poison and San Gong Poison were essentially ineffective.

Though not immune to all poisons, thanks to his Tai Chi Dantian, he could gather toxic energy and foreign energies like San Gong Poison into his Yin Dantian to eliminate them.

He neutralized the poison by clashing the energy gathered in the Yin Dantian with the Self-Revolving Inner Qi of the Yang Dantian.

It was a method he had developed through numerous real-life encounters.

As Yong Hwarin sat in a cross-legged position and began to purge the Seven-Day San Gong Poison, he realized that the poison given by Wi Oh wasn’t just ordinary San Gong Poison.

‘As expected, they mixed something else into the San Gong Poison.’

As he dissolved the toxic energy, he sensed that the San Gong Poison had been laced with another type of poison.

To purge toxic energy entirely was impossible unless one’s cultivation had reached the Divine Stage.

Without a Tai Chi Dantian like Yong Hwarin’s, purging toxic energy with the strength of someone at the Three Gaps level was no different from a fantasy. Suppressing it was possible, but dissolving it completely was extraordinarily difficult.

If that weren’t the case, the Tang Clan wouldn’t have struggled so much to establish its place in the murim.

“Urgh!”

Yong Hwarin spat out a clump of blood.

It was so venomous that the expelled blood scorched the wall black.

Afterward, Yong Hwarin immediately activated Dragon Concealment Heavenly Art.

He climbed up to the crossbeam and silently pierced through the roof.

Having already recovered his inner power, it was nothing for Yong Hwarin to break through the roof without making a sound.

Upon reaching the roof, Yong Hwarin expanded his qi perception to the fullest and scanned the manor.

He was trying to find a qi signature he was familiar with.

But there was one thing Yong Hwarin hadn’t considered.

Jeong Minji hadn’t yet formed her Tai Chi Dantian, so she would not have been able to withstand the Seven-Day San Gong Poison.

That meant Yong Hwarin couldn’t sense her energy and couldn’t locate where she was being held.

He was confident in rescuing Jeong Minji and escaping. No one in this place could match him. But something weighed heavily on his heart.

There were at least fifty other people held hostage in this manor.

If he escaped with Jeong Minji alone, there was a high chance the rest would be murdered to cover it up.

That was what weighed on his conscience.

Yong Hwarin approached the warrior guarding the most remote area.

“You’ve worked hard. Time to change shifts.”

When Yong Hwarin spoke, the guard turned around.

“What are you talking about? My shift isn’t over yet.”

The moment the guard looked at Yong Hwarin, he fell under the Soul Capturing Art.

It was worth having learned the Soul Capturing Art from the spirit of the Demon Scholar, even though most people dismissed it as an evil technique.

‘If it strengthens a martial artist, then even if it's a sorcery, it must be learned. What is a sorcery? It’s merely a label the Orthodox bastards use for techniques they themselves are incapable of learning. Sorcery is nothing more than martial arts that exploit the weaknesses of others. If that is sorcery, then all martial arts are sorcery.’

Yong Hwarin found himself agreeing with the Demon Scholar’s view of martial arts.

Had he been indoctrinated in Orthodox martial ideology from a young age, he might never have understood such reasoning. But because he entered the path of martial arts later in life, he was fortunate enough to acknowledge the diversity of martial disciplines.

With such an open mindset, it was no wonder Yong Hwarin’s martial arts progressed so rapidly.

“I’ll ask just one thing. Is there a woman here with the surname Jeong?”

“There is.”

“Where is she?”

“She’s right next to the Elder’s quarters.”

“Where is that?”

The guard pointed with his finger.

It was the room farthest to the left.

“Is she the only one with the surname Jeong?”

“Yes.”

“After counting to ten, you will forget everything that just happened.”

The Soul Capturing Art was a technique that infiltrated the opponent’s upper dantian with qi and engraved commands into their memory.

Therefore, unless one’s inner power was refined and strong, the Soul Capturing Art could not be used recklessly.

Yong Hwarin’s cultivation had already surpassed the Transcendence Realm and reached the Realm of Nothingness, so even first-rate experts could easily fall under the Soul Capturing Art.

“Understood.”

As the guard responded and began counting, Yong Hwarin climbed onto the roof and carefully approached the room on the far left.