novelraw Chapter 229 : Turning the Enemy Against Me (2)
Chapter 229 : Turning the Enemy Against Me (2)
Chapter 229: Turning the Enemy Against Me (2)
As the heavy wooden door opened, cold air flowed into the conference room, slicing through the silence.
At the sight of the woman clad in a dark-green martial robe, the first to speak was none other than Tang Serin.
“……Why is that woman wearing the Tang Clan’s robes?”
Her voice was filled with sharp vigilance.
She was normally warm and gentle toward patients, but now an unidentified individual from the Ice Palace was standing brazenly beside her younger brother.
There was no way she could let her guard down.
Ha-yeong and Jang Sopyeong were also glaring at the woman with eyes as cold as ice.
They, too, understood the context of the situation and were therefore even more cautious.
Yet the mysterious woman accepted all those hostile gazes without batting an eye.
Then, at that very moment—
“Ahh, Husband, I’m scared.”
“?!”
All of a sudden, the mysterious woman spoke in a coquettish voice and slipped behind Sewoon, clinging to him.
Seeing that blatantly theatrical display, a cross-shaped vein bulged on Ha-yeong’s forehead.
At the same time, Sewoon frowned and placed his hand on his sword hilt.
“Enough with the nonsense, Seolirang.”
“Hehe, you really are a man with no sense of humor.”
“?!?!”
As Seolirang withdrew while shaking her head, her face changed into something entirely different.
The appearance of an ordinary civilian woman with no martial arts vanished completely, replaced by an overwhelming presence.
Shaaah!
At that instant, the aura Seolirang had been concealing surged forth.
Startled by that ominous wave of energy, the three finally realized—belatedly—the name “Seolirang.”
It was a name they had definitely heard before in the martial world.
“……Seol, irang?”
“Wait. That name is—?”
The eyes of the three, including Jang Sopyeong, widened as if they were about to burst.
How could they not know?
That name had appeared countless times in the Murim Alliance’s reports.
A figure designated by the Chief Strategist as a top-tier danger to the martial world.
When all three turned to look at Sewoon, he calmly resolved their confusion.
“That’s right. She is the Palace Lord of the North Sea Ice Palace, the Ice White Snow Empress, Seolirang.”
“!!”
Since this was before she had joined the Blood Cult, Seolirang’s alias had not yet reached the level of “Demon Lord” in the current martial world.
A stunned Jang Sopyeong gaped openly.
He had never imagined that the person he saved would be the Palace Lord of the Ice Palace.
Sss—
For a brief moment, even the air itself seemed to freeze into stillness.
“……The Palace Lord of the Ice Palace. Then why would someone like her…?”
Harin muttered in a low voice.
She looked utterly confused by the situation.
Of course, Sewoon had previously brought another Outer Regions force—the Beast Palace—to his side.
But this was completely different.
Unlike the Beast Palace, which never struck first unless provoked, the Ice Palace was a clear enemy that had caused countless bloody clashes.
“Sewoon, why is she wearing the Tang Clan’s martial robe?”
At that moment, Serin—who had managed her emotions slightly better than Ha-yeong—addressed Sewoon.
“Clan Head, this requires some explanation.”
Jang Sopyeong, his face still drained of color, also spoke carefully.
Looking at them, Sewoon replied in a low voice.
“She will move for my sake from now on.”
“……Pardon?”
“W-What do you mean by that?”
“I mean exactly what I said.”
“B-But, Clan Head—”
“You don’t need to worry. As you said, I haven’t forgotten Seolirang’s crimes either.”
“……Huh?”
As Jang Sopyeong blinked in confusion, Sewoon spoke in an icy voice.
“Turning the Enemy Against Me. I am merely using the enemy of my enemy. Once everything is over, she will pay the proper price for her sins.”
“!!”
Only then did the expressions of the three relax slightly.
They finally understood the situation.
Judging by the circumstances, the Ice White Snow Empress was an enemy of the Blood Cult.
So Sewoon intended to place shackles on her and make use of her.
“Tch, talking about using someone right in front of them. You Central Plains people are really something.”
“Shut up!”
“Oh my, how fierce.”
As Seolirang spoke in a flirtatious tone, Ha-yeong raised her voice.
Ha-yeong’s face flushed bright red as she glared at her.
After exhaling silently, Jang Sopyeong looked at Sewoon and said,
“If that is your decision, Clan Head, I will follow it.”
“Thank you.”
Unlike before the Shanxi battle, Jang Sopyeong accepted Sewoon’s words.
His earlier objections had been closer to concern than resistance.
After witnessing the Blood Cult and the Blood Demon Sewoon had warned about, any lingering doubts about Sewoon’s plans had completely vanished.
Then Sewoon spoke again.
“The treatment for the Peng siblings is complete, but they will need to be watched until they stabilize. Sister and Miss Ha-yeong, please help with that.”
“Very well. Don’t worry.”
“Then what about Young Master Tang…?”
At Ha-yeong’s question, Sewoon looked at everyone and spoke slowly.
“For now, I plan to go to the safe house.”
“……!”
It was a short answer, but everyone understood its meaning.
“It seems you have something to ask Pa-eum Bima.”
“That’s right.”
Sewoon nodded.
After the battle with Pa-eum Bima, the captured man had been imprisoned in the safe house ever since.
Though his condition was incomparably more miserable than before, he was still barely alive.
‘At the very least, I need to extract some clue about the Blood Cult’s next plan.’
At that moment, Jang Sopyeong hurriedly tried to rise.
He intended to accompany Sewoon to the safe house.
“I’ll go with—, khng!”
“Focus on recovering. I plan to go to the safe house together with Seolirang.”
“……!”
Without offering any further explanation, Sewoon turned away.
Seolirang, meanwhile, cast a relaxed smile toward everyone until the very end, then followed Sewoon with light footsteps.
‘No. It’ll be fine.’
Watching that scene, Ha-yeong swallowed back the words that were about to burst out of her mouth.
After leaving the clan, Sewoon immediately took Seolirang with him to the safe house operated by the Jecheon Unit.
The safe house that had been entrusted to Jang Sopyeong’s management was functioning properly.
His orders had clearly been carried out—binding Pa-eum Bima’s limbs after turning him into a cripple, and feeding him nothing but rotten rice and muddy water.
The moment the door leading to the prison opened, a stench so foul it felt like filth had been dumped inside flooded out.
“So you and I share a common hobby. Quite a nicely decorated torture chamber.”
“Shut up.”
Any daughter of a martial family would have retched, but Seolirang, wearing her usual bewitching smile, looked at Sewoon and spoke as though she were enjoying herself.
Step. Step.
As they pushed deeper into the pitch-black darkness, horrific noises rang incessantly in their ears.
“Ghhh!”
“Kill me! Please, just kill meee!”
Those were Pa-eum Bima’s screams, pouring out as he failed to endure the pain.
Revealed by the torchlight, his appearance was beyond horrific.
Nothing remained of his former splendor.
After Sewoon shattered his Dantian and left him alive only to suffer in agony, his body had been reduced to this state.
Now he looked like a living mummy, skin and bones with only a few strands of white hair left clinging to his head.
Yet not a shred of pity existed in Sewoon’s eyes as he looked at the man.
He knew how much blood and how many tears Pa-eum Bima had spilled to create Gu Poison.
“Pa-eum Bima.”
“A-Ah! Aah! Tang Sewoon!! N-No! Sewoon-nim!! You’ve come!! Huuuughhh!!”
At the sound of Sewoon’s voice, Pa-eum Bima screamed as if in a seizure.
He burst into tears, speaking as though overwhelmed with emotion.
At last, Sewoon had come to see him for the first time since imprisoning him—surely meaning his usefulness was over and death would finally be granted.
“There’s something I want to ask you.”
“A-Anything!! Ask me anything!! I’ll tell you everything I know!!”
Seeing that desperate, pitiful state—grotesque to the point of being terrifying—Seolirang was deeply shaken.
From within the darkness, she slowly looked at Sewoon’s emotionless face.
‘……To reduce an enemy to this state.’
Repay kindness without fail, and carve vengeance in blood.
Even she, hailing from the North Sea, knew the creed of the Sichuan Tang Clan.
But this was not the conduct of an orthodox martial artist.
If anything, it was closer to that of a Demonic Practitioner.
And yet—
‘That’s exactly why I like him.’
A vivid light bloomed in her eyes.
It was unmistakably attraction toward the opposite sex, coupled with an overwhelming possessive desire to make him her own.
As she had told Sewoon, Seolirang’s ultimate goals in life were twofold.
First, to surpass the Heavenly Demon through Ice Arts and ascend to a realm beyond humanity.
And second—
‘To claim a man worthy of being possessed by me.’
For countless years, she had rewarded men who merely pretended to be worthy with ridicule and death.
At last, after a long wait, she felt she had found that existence.
Whether she indulged in such thoughts or not, Sewoon paid her no heed and began interrogating Pa-eum Bima.
“The Blood Cult led the forces of the Outer Regions and invaded the Central Plains.”
“Y-Yes, yes!!”
“Tell me the next plan.”
“……What?”
Pa-eum Bima was genuinely flustered.
He was ready to say anything he knew.
But this, he truly did not know.
“S-Sewoon-nim!! I-I’ve been locked up here and don’t know anything about what’s happening outside! H-How could I possibly know that?! I-I can tell you everything else!! The Blood Cult’s troop structure, the martial arts of the other Ten Elders—!!”
“Tsk.”
“!?”
As Sewoon clicked his tongue in irritation, Pa-eum Bima’s body trembled violently.
He had lived among the Blood Cult, where countless demon lords who committed atrocious crimes and massacres gathered—but the Sewoon before him was more terrifying than any of them.
Shraaak!
At that moment, Sewoon drew out a single thread of the Heavenly Net from his fingertips.
The Heavenly Net glowed blood-red, radiating an eerie light.
It was imbued with the demonic power of Qiongqi, one of the Four Fiends.
“You still haven’t come to your senses.”
“H-Hiiik!!!”
Feeling the dreadful demonic energy emanating from the approaching Heavenly Net, Pa-eum Bima convulsed in terror.
As he struggled, the chains binding his limbs rattled, producing a chilling sound.
“I-I don’t know!! I really don’t know!! You bastard!! Aaaah!!! Please, spare meee!!!”
Ignoring his thrashing, Sewoon slowly stepped forward.
From the man’s voice, he knew Pa-eum Bima was not lying.
But—
‘There are memories one doesn’t even know one possesses.’
Murmuring those incomprehensible words—
Thunk!
Sewoon drove the hand holding the needle straight into Pa-eum Bima’s head.
“……!!!!”
Before he could even scream in pain, Pa-eum Bima’s pupils rolled upward.
With only the whites of his eyes showing, his entire body began to convulse.
“Ghk! Ghhrrk!!”
The demonic power of Qiongqi contained within the Heavenly Net flooded his flesh.
Shraaa!
‘Reveal.’
Scenes of the Blood Cult, dyed in ashen gray, reflected in Sewoon’s eyes.
They were the memories he had forcibly extracted from Pa-eum Bima.