Single-Instant Blade

Chapter 82 : Intestinal Ambush (2)

“As expected! I knew I would find it.”

“I was lucky.”

“It’s not luck, it’s skill.”

“I just happened to find the mark with the wax on it. If a little more time had passed, it would have been washed away by the water.”

Ah Geol had found the method of delivering the message tube of the Ghost Gate’s contract messenger, which no one else had been able to find.

Although he said it was luck, it was strictly skill.

Many martial artists had killed the contract messenger. And they had searched the stone cave with their eyes wide open. They had also seen the bamboo tubes that Ah Geol had seen, and the waterway that flowed in a corner of the stone cave. But they had not been able to find the fact that a king bamboo was buried underground on a large scale.

Ah Geol said, “The clue is cut off here.”

“No, there’s still a clue left. Assuming that the message tube is delivered to the Ghost Gate through the waterway… there are those who are watching the contract messenger. There’s still a way to find them.”

“We don’t even know where they’re watching from…?”

Ah Geol stared at Mongseol.

Mongseol said with a faint smile, “Sometimes it’s better to just go step by step, plodding along. Now is that time.”

“We don’t know if it’s ten li or twenty li, and you’re saying we should search all of it?”

“An assassin has an assassin’s intuition. The places where an assassin hides are limited. And even if the search range is a hundred li, a thousand li, we have to find them. Because that’s the only way we can live.”

Mongseol said, looking at the Eighth Elder.

“Did you hear? Please search right now. Very quietly, and without leaving a trace.”

“I’ve found four people.”

The Eighth Elder said.

The one who was monitoring the contract messenger, the one who was confirming his safety!

To find the second line of the Ghost Gate, they had searched the nearby thirty li for ten days.

“Four people? That’s too many. If there are that many, their movements will also be large. We’ll have to keep watching.”

“I’ve already told them to keep watching.”

Mongseol nodded.

Two of the suspects were eliminated.

One was an ordinary woodcutter, and the other was a mountain person who had turned his back on the world and was living in the mountains.

Two suspects remained.

She would watch until she was sure that they were ordinary people.

The standard by which the Drunken Flower Garden assassins watched the two was just one, that they had a bad feeling.

She felt that if that person held a blade instead of the staff he was holding, he could become an assassin at any time. When this thought was broken, he would become an ordinary person like a woodcutter or a mountain person.

Mongseol did not hurry.

“If we don’t move too much, I think we can stay here a little longer. Let’s watch a little longer without being bound by time.”

She just couldn’t get the thought that the two were not assassins.

Nine Drunken Flower Garden assassins took turns monitoring the two. All nine had seen the two.

As a result, the judgment was the same.

“If they just hold a blade, they’re martial artists. I don’t know if they’re assassins, but they’re definitely martial artists.”

Finally, the Eighth Elder monitored the two.

The Eighth Elder’s judgment was also the same.

“Those two, that’s right. They’re Ghost Gate guys.”

The snake catcher and the monk who was practicing wall-facing meditation in a dugout that the Drunken Flower Garden assassins had found became Ah Geol’s share.

“It seems they’re monitoring each other.”

“You mean the two are in contact with the Ghost Gate?”

“The contract messenger came right away, right?”

“Yes.”

Ah Geol nodded.

The day after the contract messenger had committed suicide, another contract messenger had come and had occupied the stone cave.

Of course, before that, the Ghost Gate assassins had rushed in.

Ah Geol suppressed the urge to pursue the Ghost Gate assassins. They would return to the Ghost Gate. Then if he just followed them, wouldn’t he be able to find out which corner the Ghost Gate’s main sect was in?

He suppressed the urge.

The Ghost Gate assassins could be pursued at any time. If he just killed the contract messenger, they would appear immediately.

Before that, he had to secretly find the Ghost Gate’s main sect.

What Mongseol was asking for was to ‘kill the Ghost Gate Master without a trace’.

It meant to kill him so that no one in the world would know, not to kill him loudly.

The ‘no one in the world’ included the Ghost Gate assassins.

He didn’t know why Mongseol was making this request. The reason she wasn’t telling him the reason was because she thought that if he knew the inside story, he would definitely oppose it.

Still, Mongseol was thinking that there was no other way to live than this.

For now, he was thinking of trusting her and proceeding with the work.

He would leave the Ghost Gate assassins alone. There was no guarantee that he would be able to find the Ghost Gate’s main sect just by chasing them. Considering the nature of the Ghost Gate, which was a complete cell organization, it seemed that there would be other variables.

He would follow the snake catcher and the monk in the dugout.

“The elder is watching the snake catcher. Since the elder will pursue one side, you, my dear, take care of the monk.”

“My dear?”

“Why, you don’t like it? I have nothing else to call you.”

“…Call me Ah Geol. That’s easier to hear.”

“I was thinking of doing that, but I don’t want to. Since we have a special relationship, the title should also be different. I’ll just call you my dear.”

“You’re not going to break your stubbornness, are you?”

“No. It’s about time you got used to this, isn’t it? Just accept it.”

Mongseol was gradually changing.

When he had first seen her in the stable, she had been a thoughtless girl, but now she had become the master of an assassin sect.

Did the position or title make the person?

She thought deeply, made decisions as if cutting with a blade, and pushed forward without hesitation.

“Hmph!”

Ah Geol stood up with a smirk.

* * *

“Aigoo! There was a person here! Master, if you live in a place like this, don’t you get any crumbs?”

“Amitabha!”

“Since I’ve seen the Buddha, I can’t just go… take this and exchange it for rice later.”

A peddler took out a jade hairpin and placed it in front of a small Buddha statue.

“Amitabha!”

“Aigoo! This winter will be especially cold. How can you spend the winter in a place like this without a fire?”

The peddler stood up with his backpack.

The monk sat in the dugout and only looked at the Buddha statue. Even when the peddler offered a precious jade hairpin, he only recited the Buddha’s name and did not even look back.

The peddler left busily, as if he had a long way to go.

The peddler stopped by a pharmacy.

“I’ve brought the ring you asked for before. I had a hard time getting this, so give me a good price.”

The peddler handed a jade ring to the shop owner.

The shop owner held the jade ring up to the light and examined it carefully.

A moment later, the shop owner’s mouth split wide and he smiled brightly.

“That’s right! This is it. A pure white jade ring with no impurities. You managed to get this.”

“I told you to give me a good price.”

“Alright. Alright.”

The shop owner, as if very pleased, took out a thick money pouch and handed it to the peddler.

“Haha! I’ll have to have a drink until my nose gets crooked today. If you’re bored, come to the tavern later.”

The peddler did not stay in the pharmacy for even a moment.

As soon as he entered, he took out the jade ring and handed it over, and after receiving the money pouch, he left.

The pharmacy shop owner put the jade ring in a bamboo tube.

‘That again?’

Ah Geol frowned.

He had seen the bamboo tube that the pharmacy shop owner was touching in Sangryang Mountain. It was the same as the bamboo tube that the contract messenger had used.

If so, they were also communicating through an underground waterway like the contract messenger. No one knew if the waterway led to the house next door, or if it flowed for ten li.

Other than digging up the ground and following the king bamboo buried in the ground, there was no way to find out the main sect.

The Ghost Gate, what kind of sect was it?

To do this kind of construction, you had to have great wealth. Also, you had to finish the construction before founding the Ghost Gate, and no one should know about the construction.

‘I thought it was a very simple request, but the more I find out, the more complicated it gets. I hate this kind of thing.’

Ah Geol shook his head.

For him, a sect like the Wind Path Valley or the Sacred Sword Sect was suitable. It was better to rush in with strong force. Moving secretly like the Ghost Gate or the Drunken Flower Garden did not suit his nature.

Anyway, the clue to pursuing the Ghost Gate was completely cut off.

The contract messenger’s side was also cut off, and those who were watching the contract messenger were also just shells.

He had to know what was on the other side of the waterway, but there was no way to know.

“Hmm!”

Ah Geol lay down on the beam of the pharmacy ceiling, using his arm as a pillow.

No matter how many times he thought about it, there was no way to find out how far the waterway continued.

If so, he had to kill the contract messenger again. And he had to clash with the Ghost Gate assassins who would rush in immediately. Now there was only one way left, that way.

* * *

“That’s him.”

The Eighth Elder said.

“You did well to find him. You’ve worked hard.”

“What did I work hard for? It’s thanks to the people who didn’t forget our Drunken Flower Garden and helped us.”

The Eighth Elder laughed.

The Drunken Flower Garden was an assassin group. The Drunken Flower Garden was also called the flower garden of death. But in the world, there were people who were grateful to the Drunken Flower Garden and wanted to help. The people who had been indebted to the Drunken Flower Garden, the people who had nowhere to ask for their grudges if it weren’t for the Drunken Flower Garden.

They were the strength of the Drunken Flower Garden.

The contractors who had requested a killing from the Drunken Flower Garden were now lending their strength to the Drunken Flower Garden.

The man was called Dongseok.

He was a poor fisherman who lived in a hut on a slope at the end of the river.

Although he was in his mid-fifties, he was not married. Because he was so poor, and his appearance was so ugly that you would be scared to see him in a dream, there was not even a woman who would approach him.

He would catch fish in the river and sell them for a cheap price, and he thought it was a relief if he could survive for a day or two with that money. He had no intention of working diligently, nor did he try to save money.

He had no ability to make a living, was incompetent, and was an ugly person who was terribly ugly.

Generally, if you were this ugly, you were likely to be ignored by people. But among the nearby residents, there was no one who ignored Dongseok. There was also no one who wanted to approach him.

Dongseok was a hedgehog that would explode if you touched him.

He was not good at fighting. Whenever a fight broke out, he was usually the one who got hit. But he rushed in so stubbornly. Even if he was bleeding, even if his head was broken, he would cling on, as if to say, ‘you die, I die’.

Anyone who had gotten into a fight with Dongseok would never try to fight again.

Creak!

Mongseol opened the gate and entered.

“Who is it!”

Dongseok, who was sitting in the yard and mending a net, shouted without even turning his head.

Mongseol said to Dongseok, who was mending the net without even raising his head, “Shall I kill you? What’s the point of living like this? You should have died a long time ago, but you don’t have the courage, do you? Do you have to live like this?”

“What?”

Dongseok stood up abruptly with an annoyed expression and glared at Mongseol.

In an instant, his eyes flickered.

Mongseol was beautiful. Also, she revealed a strong energy that could not be seen in the nearby villages. At a glance, she was a martial artist. She was very different from the many people Dongseok had met.

“W-Who are you!”

Dongseok said, his eyes raised like a wolf’s.

Mongseol said with a faint smile, “Baek Jayeong. He was your father, right? I came because I wanted to know how he died.”

In that instant, Dongseok rushed in. But he could not even approach Mongseol and hesitated.

Mongseol had already drawn her sword.

The tip of the sword was aimed at Dongseok. It was not a simple threat. The killing intent in the sword was real. A very strong killing intent bloomed like a flash of light and struck Dongseok’s body.

Mongseol completely wiped the smile from her face. Her eyes became cold. A chill also flew from her tone.

“Baek Jayeong made the Ghost Gate’s waterway. Thanks to that, the Ghost Gate was able to hide, so he deserved to die. Even if he hadn’t died at the hands of the Ghost Gate, he would have been killed by someone. Now, will you tell me about your father’s death? Or shall I kill you now? I don’t mind either way.”

(End of Chapter)