novelraw Chapter 130 : Chapter 130
Chapter 130 : Chapter 130
Chapter 130 - Two Villains
“Should we cut off their heads?”
Although the words were clearly playful, the faces of the Ghost Face Gang members turned pale.
They already knew.
The reason they had been kept alive until now was simply because there was no one else to carry the luggage.
Now that they had arrived at Diancang Mountain, porters were no longer needed.
Not only the junior disciples but also the elders of the Diancang Sect were all gathered at the scene.
It meant that the number of people with grudges had increased.
“Holholhol.”
Gulp.
The Ghost Face Gang members each swallowed dryly.
It was truly a nerve-wracking situation.
Their lives and deaths would be decided by a single word from the old man called the Sect Leader.
“Before I make a judgment, I have something to ask.”
Sect Leader Jeokseo slowly moves his feet.
His nose was red as if he had already been drinking since morning, but strangely, his gait was unwavering.
“Pl…… please speak.”
As if sensing that this was the man who held the power of life and death, the man squatting at the very front bowed his head and answered.
“More than ten years ago. Did the Green Killer Squad attack our sect of their own volition?”
“…………!”
The middle-aged man who answered bit his lip.
Because he could roughly guess what the next question would be.
“As far as I know…… it was not of their own volition.”
“Then it means it was done at someone’s instigation. Do you know who commissioned it?”
At Jeokseo’s question, the eyes of the Diancang Sect members glinted.
The ones who took action were the Green Killer Squad, but they had no connection with the Diancang Sect.
As always, they had only swung their swords upon receiving a request.
Then who was the entity that wished for the downfall of the Diancang Sect and commissioned the Green Killer Squad?
Only by finding them and making them pay for their sins could it be called revenge in the true sense.
Gazes full of killing intent were directed at the Ghost Face Gang members.
At this rate, it was hard to distinguish who was from the Ghost Face Gang and who was from the orthodox sect.
‘Damn it.’
If he could, he wanted to spew out even a lie.
But unfortunately.
The man knew nothing at all.
“I know nothing about those who commissioned it.”
“Holholhol. Is that so?”
“Not only me, but even the Ghost Face Four Shadows would not have known. Only the Gang Leader himself knew about the events of that day.”
“Really?”
Biyoung, who had been listening, chimed in.
“I heard that after attacking our sect, Yi Cheon-yu visited a gisaeng house with the Green Killer Squad. Who were they then?”
“I wasn’t at the scene, so I can’t be certain, but…… I believe those individuals were merely liaisons. After the request was completed, there were no further ties with them, and the Green Killer Squad who were at the gisaeng house that day are already……”
Dead.
Because he had wiped out every single member of the Ghost Face Gang who had learned martial arts without leaving a single one.
“Holholhol. Then……”
A sharp, cold light flowed from between his drooping eyelids.
“It means there is nothing to be gained from you.”
“!!!”
The faces of the Ghost Face Gang members turned pale.
Nothing to be gained.
They were already people full of resentment, and it meant they couldn’t even expect mercy.
“S-Sect Leader……!!”
The Ghost Face Gang members prostrated themselves on the ground, as if competing with one another.
“Please forgive us……!! It is true that we are members of the Ghost Face Gang…… but we have only lived our lives writing in ledgers at our workplaces……!! We have never once seen blood on our hands!!”
“Holholhol.”
Jeokseo neither confirmed nor denied, but only let out his characteristic laughter.
Not only the Ghost Face Gang members but also the people of the sect found it difficult to gauge Jeokseo’s intentions.
If it were up to them, they would have cut off their heads right away, but until the Sect Leader made a decision, any action was forbidden.
Wasn’t even Biyoung, who was second to none in terms of being willful, silently waiting for Jeokseo’s words?
“I heard you worked hard carrying the luggage on the way here.”
Was it because they had heard some hopeful words?
The men who had their faces to the ground snapped their heads up.
“Hard work, you say, it was nothing!”
“We were just trying to find a way to atone in some small way!”
“It wasn’t heavy at all!”
‘Well, well.’
Biyoung gave a bitter smile as he watched their antics.
The guys who sighed as if the world were ending with every step they took, and now what?
It wasn’t heavy?
Before long, the faces of the Ghost Face Gang members were a mess of tears and snot.
“If you forgive us just this once, we will live new lives!”
“We are just guys who have only wielded a brush!”
“Please show the magnanimity of the orthodox sect!”
The cunning ones emphasized the word ‘orthodox sect’ and begged for leniency.
Because the so-called prestigious orthodox sects consider showing magnanimity a virtue.
Did their ploy work?
Unexpected words came out of Jeokseo’s mouth.
“You already look like a mess. If you didn’t stain your swords with blood as you said, let us settle our relationship with this.”
“Sect Leader!”
The faces of the Ghost Face Gang members, which had been grim, brightened up, and conversely, the people of the sect were startled.
They had never thought he would send them back so easily.
“We cannot……”
Just as the hot-tempered Uma was about to take a step towards the Sect Leader.
Someone placed a hand on his shoulder and stopped his action.
When he turned his head, it was Biyoung.
“You……?”
Uma’s reaction was one of incomprehension.
Wasn’t this the guy who was more hell-bent on revenge against the Ghost Face Gang than anyone else?
Given his deep-seated hatred, he should have been the one to stop the Sect Leader even before himself.
“You know the Sect Leader’s personality, right? Let’s just watch for now.”
As if in response to Biyoung’s words, Jeokseo gave an order to the Ghost Face Gang members.
“Too much blood has already been shed in Changsha. The Diancang Sect will no longer hold the Ghost Face Gang responsible. As you said just now, I hope you will turn over a new leaf and live new lives.”
“Sect Leader! Thank you so much!”
“But my magnanimity ends here. I do not wish to keep you in our sect any longer. Please leave this place immediately.”
Although the roots were pulled out, the spirit of a prestigious orthodox sect seemed to remain.
The Ghost Face Gang members, who had grasped a lifeline on the brink of life and death, rushed towards the mountain gate.
“Get out of the way! I’m first!”
“Don’t push! You bastards!”
“Oof!”
The sight of them grabbing and tripping over each other, afraid that Jeokseo might change his mind, was quite a spectacle.
“Wow…… those bastards. They still had the strength to move like that?”
Biyoung whistled as he watched the fleeing Ghost Face Gang members.
Then he turned towards Jeokseo.
“At times like this, I think the Sect Leader is also quite frightening.”
“Holholhol. What do you mean by that?”
Several people, including Uma, stared at the two with wide eyes.
He had let them escape without killing them, so how was that frightening?
“The terrain of Diancang Mountain is notoriously rough, isn’t it? In their exhausted state, more than half of them will cross the Sanzu River before they get down the mountain. The nights are cold, and since the mountain is barren, there aren’t even weeds to pull and eat.”
Only then did the crowd look towards the mountain gate with an ‘Ah……!’ expression.
Diancang Mountain was a place that even sturdy men who had learned martial arts would shake their heads at.
It would be an incredibly harsh condition for scholars who had exhausted all their strength.
“Even if they somehow manage to get down the mountain, a new hell will just unfold. Their homes have already been wiped out without a trace, and they don’t have a single penny to their name.”
“Holholhol. Weren’t you the one who worked those fellows to the point of suffocation? And yet you blame me?
“Blame you? I was trying to say you did well.”
“I didn’t want to see any more dirty blood in our sect. Let us leave their lives and deaths in the hands of heaven.”
“It will be a very, very cruel heaven.”
Indeed.
I see.
Only then did Uma understand why Biyoung had stopped him.
Even if they were left alone, most would die, and the survivors would taste a living hell.
From the beginning, Jeokseo had no intention of forgiving them.
‘The greatest despair is to give a moment of hope and then take it away, they say.’
Uma looked at Biyoung with a newfound respect.
As if conscious of his gaze, Biyoung winked at Uma.
“What do you think. Your junior brother’s schemes are quite profound, aren’t they?”
“Schemes, you say. Don’t be ridiculous, you brat.”
Uma bared his teeth and smiled.
It wasn’t a scheme, it was just that the villains’ minds had connected.
He couldn’t bring himself to say it out loud.
Because the other villain whose mind had connected with Biyoung’s was none other than the Sect Leader.
“Holholhol.”
“Kekeke.”
The expression on Uma’s face as he looked at the two villains was one of true satisfaction.
***
“Sect Leader. It is Danseol.”
“Come in.”
Danseol’s face was quite tense.
He had a secret he had not yet revealed.
The secret that he was the son of the Ghost Face Gang’s leader, Dancheong.
Biyoung and the other junior disciples had hoped he would let it be, saying it was all in the past.
No one else knew this fact, and the biggest victim was Danseol himself.
But Danseol had shaken his head.
He had thought that he had to properly confess this fact to the Sect Leader, if no one else.
“Holholhol. The other children are busy recounting their heroic tales, what brings you here at this hour?”
“It is very late, but…… I have come to confess a truth.”
“You mean the fact that you are the kinsman of the Ghost Face Gang?”
“!!!”
It was a good thing it wasn’t visible because of his narrow eyes.
Danseol’s pupils trembled as if there had been an earthquake.
“H…… how did you know? Did my Senior Brother or Senior Sister perhaps already……”
“Holholhol. Are they the kind of children to do that?”
“N-no, they are not. It’s just that I thought there would be no other way to know the truth……”
It was a tattoo he had hidden since he was very young.
Because Danseol was skilled in drawing and craftsmanship, he had been able to keep it hidden for so long.
“You were particularly frail compared to the other children. Do you remember what you did as soon as you arrived in Simao?”
“Yes……”
Danseol answered, looking a little embarrassed.
“As soon as I heard we had arrived, I fainted.”
“Holholhol. Yes. At that time, we used most of the money we had to eat and bathe in hot water.”
“So that’s what happened…… Ah!”
Only then did something click for Danseol.
Someone must have washed him while he was unconscious.
“Do you know now who it was that washed your body that day?”
Jeokseo had known from long ago.
That Danseol was not a person of the Diancang Sect.
“Then…… why did you keep me alive? Considering what the Ghost Face Gang did to the sect……”
“I thought there must have been a good reason for a young child to leave a warm embrace and choose a path of hardship. Besides, wasn’t the road to Simao quite rough? You took good care of the children around you, unbefitting of your age. You even shared a single blade of grass with Solbo.”
“Sect Leader……”
Danseol’s voice was filled with moisture, but Jeokseo’s laughter was no different from usual.
“Not for a single moment did I discriminate against you from the other children. Ah, there was one time I was a little disappointed.”
“…………?”
Then he made a slightly mischievous expression.
“It felt a little strange when you showed a talent for the flexible sword. I thought it might be related to your bloodline.”
“………….”
“But hearing Biyoung’s words, it seems there will be nothing to be disappointed about in the future.”
“Pardon?”
“Biyoung told me. That your skill in making the sword resonate is extraordinary.”
“Did Junior Brother Biyoung…… say such a thing already?”
“Holholhol. He said that the junior disciple who will be the first to reach the ultimate sword of the Diancang Sect is you.”
The emotion in Jeokseo’s eyes was not betrayal or disappointment, but anticipation.
The ultimate sword of the Diancang Sect.
Anticipation for the junior disciple who would reach the ‘Vacuum Sword’.
“You can cast it off now.”
“……Pardon?”
“The burden you have been carrying alone all this time.”
“……Sect Leader.”
At Jeokseo’s gentle voice, Danseol could not raise his bowed head for a long time.