novelraw Chapter 191
Chapter 191
Chapter 191: Midnight Hostage Crisis
There was a proverb passed down among the Divine Thieves of past generations.
‘A thief who fights is a novice.’
If bloodshed broke out, it meant the theft had been clumsy from the start.
And the Fifth Divine Thief of Xiangyang. She too had treasured those words like sacred wisdom, since her master had died after becoming entangled in the grudges of the Jianghu.
But when she came to her senses, she found herself standing right in the middle of a battlefield where flashing sword light ran wild and explosions and fragments whirled through the air.
Boom!
A deafening roar that made the ears ring. Trees that had stood densely packed toppled one after another, flames surged upward, and sharp metal fragments rained everywhere.
From within the flames, the figure of Venerable Huiyin appeared. Faced with a blazing fire that could not be cut down with a sword, she protected her entire body with Enhanced Qi, a defense that consumed enormous amounts of Internal Energy.
The gentle demeanor she usually carried was nowhere to be seen. Madness and killing intent gleamed across her face.
As thick smoke spread through the area, the androgynous woman who had introduced herself as Muhong burst through the haze with flashing sword light.
Blue energy and white energy clashed within the wrecked battlefield. Sword Flux filled with killing intent tangled in the air, whipping up violent waves of energy.
The earth split open, and shattered wooden debris scattered in every direction.
“This isn’t theft at all…!”
Caught in the terrifying battle, Xiangyang cried out in shock.
At that moment, Geumhong pulled a cylindrical tube from her robes and yanked the cord attached to it.
With a loud bang, countless poison needles shot sharply toward Venerable Huiyin.
Venerable Huiyin immediately tried to leap away, but Muhong trapped her footing with mysterious footwork and movements.
“You despicable wretches…!”
In the end, Venerable Huiyin gritted her teeth and once again spread Enhanced Qi across her entire body.
Clatter! Clink!
Silver poison needles fell uselessly to the ground.
Having suffered extreme Internal Energy depletion twice, she glared at Muhong and Geumhong as if she would kill them.
Xiangyang had been staring blankly at the flowing chain of attacks, but suddenly snapped back to her senses and shouted.
“Just what are you people?!”
At that moment, Muhong ripped off the Human-skin Mask and wig from her face.
Under the moonlight appeared sharp features and handsome looks.
The person she had thought was a woman revealed himself in a deep voice.
“Beijing Troubleshooter, Dog-Beating Dragon Dan Mujin!”
Crack. Crunch.
As the Bone-Shrinking Technique reversed his skeletal structure, the beauty with an androgynous charm instantly transformed into a robust man.
“…This is insane!”
Xiangyang’s mouth fell open in shock as she watched the woman turn into a man.
Then she seemed to recall the name Dan Mujin from memory and clutched her head while letting out a scream.
“Wait—Dan Mujin? Isn’t that the lunatic who causes massive trouble everywhere he goes?!”
It seemed she had dropped her young lady disguise, because her tone had already become rough and curt.
“Hey now, calling me a lunatic? That’s a bit harsh.”
Dan Mujin grumbled while pointing his sword at Venerable Huiyin.
“So let me get this straight. A master at the Transcendence Realm shamelessly disguises herself as a woman and sneaks into a Male-Forbidden Domain… and you’re saying that’s sane behavior?”
By the common sense of the Central Plains, it was completely incomprehensible.
The kind of action only someone labeled a ‘strange eccentric’ by their alias would commit.
“I merely do my best for my client.”
His calm tone, insisting he had done nothing wrong, only made Xiangyang more dumbfounded.
Sneaking into the Emei Sect in female disguise and throwing Thunderburst Bombs at the Sect Leader.
No matter how much it was for a job, this was even more outrageous than theft.
“…Your head must be completely broken!”
Xiangyang shouted angrily.
At that moment, Venerable Huiyin, who had been silently listening, brushed the soot from her scorched white robes and spoke.
“If you are Dan Mujin, you must be the Beijing Troubleshooter Gi Hyo and Jeong Yo hired… Why did you return here in disguise?”
Her tone demanded to know why he had abandoned their request if he valued commissions so much.
“I don’t discriminate when it comes to requests, but I do discriminate when it comes to bad people.”
Dan Mujin explained that while he lived within a moral gray zone, he did not accept the requests of hypocritical villains.
At the remark that she was a villain, Venerable Huiyin’s face hardened and her eyes narrowed.
As if reading her expression, Dan Mujin shrugged and continued.
“What you’re doing right now… isn’t exactly a good deed, is it?”
“…I am merely doing this to survive. To maintain my sanity, I need Latent Energy or the Energy of Stars.”
Venerable Huiyin bit her lip as she continued.
Dan Mujin tilted his head at the phrase “Energy of Stars.”
“Think about it in the long term. Between a bizarre troubleshooter like you sneaking into a sacred women’s domain, and the Sect Leader at the Blazing Flame Realm who carries one pillar of the Nine Sects One Gang… which one surviving would benefit the Murim more?”
The Sect Leader of the Emei Sect claimed that the number of villains she had cut down exceeded five hundred, presenting her own justification.
Dan Mujin snorted.
“Oh? A utilitarian, are we? Not long ago, you told me about Self-Purifying Righteousness—that the motivation behind actions mattered more than the result.”
“….”
If your heart is pure and upright, then that itself is goodness.
Dan Mujin returned the exact words of encouragement she had once told him at the training ground, adding a crooked smile.
His gaze said plainly:
You’re doing this because you don’t want to die, so why pretend it’s for the Murim?
“…Silence, you troubleshooter who betrays his clients. If you had quietly captured Venerable Huiyul and delivered her, at least the two beside you would still be alive…!”
Her killing intent began rising again, provoked by his disdainful gaze—and by the faint look that suggested he almost understood her reasoning.
“Hey, thief. Looks like she’s coming again. Help out.”
Xiangyang shuddered and stepped back when he asked her to fight.
“I’m not a thief, I’m Xiangyang! And why the hell should I get involved in your fight?!”
“Didn’t you hear what she said earlier? She’s going to kill all three of us.”
Xiangyang had heard it.
At the current momentum, the Sect Leader of the Emei Sect looked ready to silence her as well.
Left with no choice, she angrily pulled a short sword from her waist.
“Why did I have to get tangled up with someone like you…! Ugh, I hate this!”
“Hey, I’ll take that as a compliment.”
The moment Dan Mujin finished speaking, the Blazing Flame Realm martial artist lunged forward with eyes blazing with murderous madness.
The fierce Sword Flux bound to her blade split the earth as it shot toward them.
Dan Mujin and his companions leapt away in alarm.
In the blink of an eye, Venerable Huiyin closed the distance like a ghost and swung a sword radiating eerie purple energy.
Her strikes tore through trees, split boulders in half, and repeatedly slammed down the Iron Sword blazing with pale Sword Flux.
Boom! Boom!
Though it was the clash of metal, the sound echoed like bombs exploding.
Each collision sent white energy and purple energy crashing against each other, pushing the combatants apart.
Every time their swords met, the Starfall Heart Cultivation Method inside Dan Mujin reacted violently, making his insides churn.
Even while shocked, a strange thought crossed his mind.
Yes—this feeling was like opposite poles of a magnet touching.
“…You Yin Fiend! Quietly become a sacrifice for the Moonlight Heart Cultivation Method!”
Trails of killing intent spread in every direction.
“What Yin Fiend…! And what the hell is the Moonlight Heart Cultivation Method?!”
A life-and-death duel unfolded in the dead of night.
Enormous energies clashed savagely, as if trying to tear each other apart.
Night watch duty was always boring.
After falling out of favor with Venerable Huiyin, two disciples of the Emei Sect had been forced into unreasonable labor.
Standing idly, Gi Hyo and Jeong Yo began chatting while gazing at the stars filling the sky.
And since they lived isolated in the mountains, their topic naturally turned to the newly recruited Lay Disciples.
“That Seo Muhong kid… there’s something charming about that androgynous vibe.”
Jeong Yo mentioned the Lay Disciples worth noticing from the current intake.
She seemed slightly anxious, saying a few other Emei Sect disciples had already taken interest.
“You really are something else… You sound just like Venerable Huiyul.”
Gi Hyo shook her head with an exasperated expression.
“But she’s polite, you know? She even complimented us. Don’t you like her?”
“Come to your senses. If you keep clinging like that and get caught, this time it won’t end with simple confinement.”
“…That’s true, but still.”
They were idly passing time with meaningless chatter when—
Boom!
A powerful explosion and tremor echoed from deep within the mountains.
Startled, both women jerked their heads up.
The location seemed to be the training ground used by past Sect Leaders of the Emei Sect.
“Are they training…?”
But the explosion had been far too violent for that.
“Let’s go check. Just in case.”
If they ignored it and something happened, they would be blamed.
So Gi Hyo and Jeong Yo began climbing the mountain toward the source.
At the end of that path, they witnessed a brutal battle of explosions and Sword Flux.
A woman wearing the Emei Sect’s Daoist Robe and three suspicious figures.
“A man?!”
“That’s the clothing of a Lay Disciple—what kind of absurdity is this?!”
They reacted angrily at the outrageous sight.
They drew their swords to finish them immediately.
But there was still one shocking thing they had yet to see.
“S-Sect Leader…?”
It was exactly as Venerable Huiyul had feared.
Venerable Huiyin had lost her reason, consumed by sinister energy.
“T-This can’t be!”
“What—what in the world is happening here?!”
When I heard a familiar voice behind me, I glanced back.
Then I saw familiar faces.
Gi Hyo and Jeong Yo, the ones who had visited my office in Beijing to deliver the Emei Sect’s request.
They looked completely lost as they stared at the devastated training ground and the madness radiating from Venerable Huiyin.
She regained her senses for a moment, then lost them again.
From the rambling words she muttered after my provocation pushed her over the edge, it seemed she had lured us here for one reason.
She couldn’t bring herself to absorb the Latent Energy of the disciples she had raised.
So she accepted Lay Disciples from outside, selecting suspicious outsiders she wouldn’t mind killing.
That must have been the final line she refused to cross, even subconsciously.
At that moment, I thought of a method to briefly restore her sanity.
“Gi Hyo! Jeong Yo! I didn’t expect to meet you again in a situation like this, but do you remember my face?!”
They flinched and looked at me.
“Ah! You!”
“The Beijing Troubleshooter! W-Why are you here?!”
They looked utterly bewildered.
“It’s a long story! Venerable Huiyul was right! Look at the Sect Leader!”
I chose a method far more effective than a hundred explanations.
Seeing the Sect Leader spewing madness and killing intent like a demon, Gi Hyo and Jeong Yo bit their lips.
Normally they should have helped the Sect Leader repel me for entering the Male-Forbidden Domain.
But they were completely shaken.
So I whispered through Telepathy to guide them toward the right decision.
‘I have a method.’
From the things that terrifying woman had muttered earlier—
Energy of Stars… and the Moonlight Heart Cultivation Method, which suspiciously resembled the naming style of the Starfall Heart Cultivation Method.
I didn’t want to kill the Sect Leader of the Emei Sect on Mount Emei, where countless Emei disciples lived.
When I told them I wanted to try something, the two Emei women nodded with difficulty.
They had already sensed something was wrong with their Sect Leader.
“Then excuse me.”
The moment they gave permission, I turned around and immediately took Gi Hyo and Jeong Yo hostage as human shields.
Facing Venerable Huiyin, I pressed a blade against their necks and shouted.
“Drop your weapon! Otherwise these poor women will die!”
When I tightened my grip, a thin line of blood trickled down Gi Hyo’s neck.
The message was clear—if she came even one step closer, I would cut her throat.
Venerable Huiyin, who had been charging forward with eerie energy, suddenly stopped.
The madness clouding her eyes faded slightly.
“You despicable coward…! Taking defenseless women hostage… Have you no shame?!”
Just as expected, she treasured her disciples dearly.
Even though she had tried to drain the Latent Energy of others’ disciples like a Demonic Practitioner.
“Let’s talk, Venerable Huiyin.”
At last, the Sect Leader who had been charging like a wild beast seemed ready to speak.
Enduring the killing intent that felt like it pierced my skin, I calmly continued speaking.