novelraw Chapter 71
Chapter 71
Episode 71. I Am the Eighteenth Sect Leader of the Heavenly Poison Sect!
Blood Flower sat deep in thought.
Won Seung didn’t want to interrupt, so he silently watched the rain.
Creak.
The side gate in the wall opened, and Jong Bi appeared.
He looked unharmed.
‘He made it through safely. Well done, Jong Bi.’
But Jong Bi’s gaze briefly flickered to the tree where the owl often perched.
Could there really be an owl out in this downpour?
From Won Seung’s seat, the tree wasn’t visible.
—Someone’s hiding in the tree by the stream.
Blood Flower, who had been quietly staring ahead, suddenly sent a telepathic message.
What? He sensed someone hiding in a tree in this torrential rain?
Won Seung suddenly saw Blood Flower as some kind of monster.
Did he already reach the first stage of Internal Energy? He didn’t look that advanced, though.
—They’re gone. Looks like they just checked the location and left.
“One Fist Splits Mountain?”
“No. The energy was different.”
“Hmm. Then, did you know One Fist Splits Mountain was hiding and watching us that time?”
Previously, when Won Seung was talking with Blood Flower, Jong Bi had seen One Fist Splits Mountain hiding in the branches as he left for the Heavenly Observation Pavilion.
Back then, Blood Flower hadn’t said a word.
“I knew someone was there. But I couldn’t tell who it was.”
“Still, no one with good intentions would be spying on us.”
Won Seung shot Blood Flower a look that said, ‘You should have warned me!’ but Blood Flower didn’t even turn his head.
Instead, he spoke.
“The one who just came was an assassin.”
He can even tell that? The Assassin Training Center taught how to sense auras, but to use it properly, you needed at least the first stage of Internal Energy.
“How do you even know things like that?”
Blood Flower clamped his mouth shut.
Meanwhile, Jong Bi ducked under the eaves. Even with a rain cover, he was soaked through. He looked exhausted, dark circles under his eyes from the stress. Still, he couldn’t help but smile quietly when he saw Blood Flower sitting on the bamboo chair he’d made.
“Go change your clothes first.”
Jong Bi hurried off to change, then came back and plopped down in his chair between Blood Flower and Won Seung.
Right next to Blood Flower.
The three of them sat side by side, watching the rain fall in the garden.
The pouring rain had a strangely soothing effect.
Each lost in their own thoughts, they watched the downpour...
Thud, thud!
Someone banged on the Hundred Flowers Pavilion’s door.
Won Seung gave Jong Bi a look, and Jong Bi reluctantly got up.
“Who’s knocking on the shop door at this hour?”
He grumbled, then the door creaked open, and a shocked voice rang out.
“Gasp! Master Woo is dead!”
“What?”
Won Seung dashed over.
Ohgu was dumped in front of the Hundred Flowers Pavilion like a discarded animal.
He was lying on his side, his face deathly pale. Rain was pouring down, and blood was spreading across the ground.
“He’s been stabbed.”
Jong Bi muttered, staring blankly at Won Seung.
“What are you doing? Bring him inside!”
Won Seung slapped Jong Bi’s back and moved to Ohgu’s head. Together, they carried Ohgu inside and laid him down.
Ohgu’s whole body was cold and soaked from the rain. Won Seung pressed his fingers to Ohgu’s neck. There was a faint, barely-there pulse.
“He’s still alive. But he might die any minute! Too much blood—he’s lost way too much!”
Won Seung rushed inside and grabbed a Blood Replenishing Pill, a Rapid Recovery Pill, and some wound medicine.
When he pried open Ohgu’s mouth, there was a half-dissolved pill inside. Won Seung sniffed it—it was a type of Emergency Vital Injury Pill.
That explained how Ohgu had survived after losing so much blood.
Won Seung fed him the Blood Replenishing Pill and Rapid Recovery Pill, then opened his soaked shirt.
“Ugh!”
There were two stab wounds in his abdomen—one from behind with a sharp blade, the other twisted in from the front.
On top of that, he’d suffered internal injuries.
“The wounds are deep. Can we save him?”
Jong Bi’s voice was grim as he examined the injuries. Even with immediate first aid, survival was uncertain with wounds like these... and it had already been a while. It didn’t look good.
Won Seung slathered wound medicine all over and bandaged Ohgu tightly.
“We have to save him!”
Won Seung’s face was icy cold.
“Go beat the truth out of the Woo Yang Pavilion gang. Find out exactly what happened.”
They took him out for dinner and brought him back like this?
Jong Bi’s eyes blazed with anger as he nodded and hurried off to the inner quarters.
Won Seung threw a cloak over Ohgu and dashed out into the rain.
He raced down the street and vanished in an instant—a truly impressive Movement Technique.
Blood Flower, who had been silently watching the two, frowned as he saw Won Seung’s Movement Technique.
He’d seen that Movement Technique somewhere before. Suddenly, a thought struck Blood Flower, and he blurted out loud without meaning to.
“Red Blood Mountain!”
There were so many types of Movement Techniques, it could be a mistake. But the feeling of Red Blood Mountain was unmistakable.
Just then, a deep voice sounded from behind.
“That’s quite the Lightness Skill.”
He didn’t even need to turn around to know who it was—Yong Jo-woon.
With light footsteps, Yong Jo-woon approached and stood beside him. There was a strangely serene energy about him.
“I thought he might have learned martial arts. Looks like I was right—it’s the martial arts of an assassin.”
“...”
“Red Blood Mountain is an assassin group, isn’t it? Said to be on par with the Sea Mist Sect...”
“...”
“That’s odd. Those kids... They don’t seem like the type to live as assassins.”
Blood Flower bristled at Yong Jo-woon’s words.
Assassin work?
So I’m the kind of woman who lives as an assassin?
Ah, right. I did try to kill you.
She couldn’t refute the truth... and anger welled up inside her.
Blood Flower spun around and headed for the inner quarters. Yong Jo-woon stared for a moment at the path Won Seung had disappeared down.
His eyes were deep and cold, lost in thought.
*
Thud, thud!
The Gong Family’s Medical Room doors were tightly shut.
Won Seung, in a hurry, slipped around the side and jumped the wall into the backyard.
Through a lit window, he saw Hwang Wu-yun reading a book. Their eyes met, and Won Seung approached.
“Where’s the surgery room?”
“Wh-what’s going on...?”
Pressed by Won Seung’s icy aura, Hwang Wu-yun instinctively looked toward the opposite wing.
“Hurry and fetch Physician Gong.”
Won Seung headed to the opposite wing, where there was a door.
He pushed it open and entered. In the center stood a surgical table waist-high, and sharp knives, needles, even saws hung on the walls.
This was indeed Gong Yi-gwan’s surgery room. That’s why Won Seung had brought Ohgu here—he’d figured Gong Yi-gwan would have a proper surgical room.
Ohgu’s injuries were too much for Won Seung alone. Both wounds needed to be stitched at once.
He laid Ohgu on the table and undressed him. There were countless small wounds, and his shoulder was badly swollen, likely dislocated. But the real problem was the abdominal stab wound. Someone had aimed to kill, stabbing his spleen.
Looking closer, it was a miracle. The stab overlapped with an old wound from when the prison warden stabbed him. Though he’d recovered, the muscle had healed differently, so Ohgu’s spleen sat slightly higher than most people’s.
He’d narrowly avoided a fatal wound, but with so much blood loss, his life still hung by a thread.
“What is the meaning of this?”
Gong Yi-gwan rushed in, shouting.
Barging into the sect’s chief physician’s surgery room in the middle of the night—Gong Yi-gwan had every right to be upset.
“How dare you break into the surgery room of the sect’s chief physician!”
“Silence!”
Won Seung barked, pulling something from his robe and tossing it to Gong Yi-gwan, his expression stern.
“I am the disciple of Ahn Yeon-haeng, the seventeenth sect leader of the Heavenly Poison Sect, and the eighteenth sect leader! Gong Yi-gwan and disciple Hwang Wu-yun, obey my orders!”
*
Woo Yang Pavilion wasn’t far, located at the end of Seohwa Street.
There was a pavilion at the entrance, and that was where Woo Yang Pavilion got its name.
Behind the pavilion was the gang’s main base.
Jong Bi slipped over the wall and paused.
The rain had stopped. The air was thick with the scent of incense.
He circled to the courtyard, where a small shrine was set up on the main hall’s porch.
‘What’s this? Another funeral?’
The spirit tablet on the altar bore the name Hama Cho. Thugs were setting up tents and arranging seats for guests in the yard.
‘What’s going on?’
The guy who took them out for dinner is dead, and Ohgu came back half-dead... Mutual destruction? No, if that were the case, they wouldn’t have sent Ohgu back.
What on earth happened?
The big guy Jong Bi had seen earlier was sitting in the mourner’s seat beside the altar, shouting orders.
“You idiots, can’t you move any faster? Mourners will be here at dawn!”
The thugs scrambled under his glare.
Taking advantage of the commotion, Jong Bi slipped behind the main hall.
He was just behind the altar, but the big guy’s skills weren’t sharp enough to notice Jong Bi’s presence.
Just then, another big guy arrived at the front gate. He, too, was one Jong Bi had seen at dinner. If anything, the one from the gate looked even more brutish.
The brutish one spoke to the seated man.
“Woo Il, let’s talk.”
Woo Il shook his head.
“Yang Il, I know what you’re thinking. But there’s an order to things. This is Woo Yang Pavilion. I’m first.”
“Death doesn’t follow any order.”
Yang Il gave a chilling smile, then shouted to the thugs in the yard.
“All of you, get out.”
The thugs filed out.
Woo Il scowled.
“Let’s handle Jeong Ju’s funeral first, then talk.”
“These things are best settled quickly. If you drag it out, people change their minds.”
Yang Il plopped down a seat away from Woo Il, staring at Hama Cho’s spirit tablet.
“I’m not that disrespectful. I wouldn’t spill blood in front of Jeong Ju’s tablet.”
“Best to be careful in everything. Look at Jeong Ju—who’d have thought he’d go like that?”
“True... He was so happy to join the Council of Ten, and now he’s joined the afterlife instead.”
Yang Il chuckled.
“So you’d better be careful too. I heard something...”
Leaning in as if to share a secret, Yang Il edged closer to Woo Il. In his right hand, dangling at his side, was a dagger.
Swish!
Without hesitation, Yang Il tried to stab Woo Il in the side. But Woo Il was ready, dagger in hand as well. He grabbed Yang Il’s arm with his left hand and tried to stab Yang Il’s neck with his own dagger.
Yang Il quickly grabbed Woo Il’s right wrist with his left hand.
The two grappled, each holding the other’s knife arm, straining with all their might.
“Yang Il, you’re finished. Who’d follow a boss who can’t keep his word?”
“Heh. Don’t worry about that—just go join Jeong Ju.”
Their faces turned red with effort.
Then—
Shwik! Shwik!
Something flew through the air and struck both men in the nape of the neck.
Thud! Thud!
Their eyes bulged like frogs, and their bodies froze.
A moment later, Jong Bi emerged from behind the altar.
“These guys are real thugs. All that talk about brotherhood, then they go straight for each other’s throats?”
Jong Bi looked down at them in disgust, then smacked Woo Il in the mouth.
Blood spurted, and Woo Il’s lips regained feeling.
“Ugh... You bastard?”
Woo Il recognized Jong Bi.
It was the Hundred Flowers Pavilion servant who’d been holding a rice paddle at dinner.