Chapter 100: Chapter 100
Gwa-pyeong scowled deeply and muttered.
「Do you have a way to save us or not?」
A way? Was there any other?
「For now… strike!」
Dash!
The two men shot forward simultaneously, each engaging the Flying Dragon Hall’s elite warriors.
BAM!
Gwa-pyeong knocked aside the flat of a sword with his right fist, stepped inside, and drove his left fist into the man’s face.
SLASH SLASH SLASH!
Jang I-seo dropped low, slipped in like lightning, and stabbed his dagger into thighs and ribs three times in the blink of an eye.
“Ugh!”
“Capture them!”
The Flying Dragon Hall’s elite warriors split into two groups as if prepared, engaging Jang I-seo and Gwa-pyeong separately.
SH-SH-SHWK!
Five or six blades thrust simultaneously from every angle, leaving nowhere to dodge.
These weren’t mere members. They were elite warriors with gold-embroidered insignias.
“Kuh!”
Jang I-seo retreated and barely dodged, while Gwa-pyeong curled his body inward, his raised forearms already taking several slashes. If not for his dense musculature, they would have been shredded to ribbons.
Gwa-pyeong shouted with resentment.
「Is this what you call a plan?」
FWIIIISH! THWACK!
Jang I-seo fired White Thunder, embedding it into the leg of a warrior pressing Gwa-pyeong.
Then he urgently glanced up at the rooftop.
Two men lay flat, frozen in shock.
Mao and So-o.
Jang I-seo urgently signaled them. Sign language.
[Prepare horses in front of the north gate.]
If the proprietor of the Bumun Inn was truly a capable information broker, he wouldn’t fail to understand this.
“Hohohoho! Jang I-seo. You’ve completely lost your mind! This is practically admitting you two are on the same side.”
Myo Chae-gyeong’s mockery echoed from afar.
‘The Hall Master won’t step in personally. The more her subordinates are hurt by my hand, the stronger her justification becomes.’
And as he had told himself repeatedly, today Jang I-seo intended to play along with her wishes.
「This way!」
As Jang I-seo retreated into a narrow space between buildings and shouted, Gwa-pyeong scrambled after him.
But it didn’t seem like a particularly good idea.
The Flying Dragon Hall, having anticipated this, had formed a pincer formation front and back.
Nowhere left to run.
「Are you out of your mind?」
「Perfectly sane.」
「What?」
Jang I-seo grinned and pulled from his inner robe three thick iron spheres gripped between his fingers.
And then.
PA-PA-PAT!
He hurled them forward and backward in an instant.
“These are…”
The Flying Dragon Hall warriors who recognized them turned deathly pale.
“G-get back!”
But they were too late.
KWAAAAAANG!
Buildings collapsed with a deafening roar, and smoke billowed high into the sky.
It was the Thunderquake Mine he had used against the Slaughterhouse!
And.
BZZZT!
In that gap, Jang I-seo scooped up Gwa-pyeong and zigzagged up the wall, vanishing from sight.
Like a bolt of black lightning.
In an instant, the scene turned into a pandemonium. The Flying Dragon Hall warriors who failed to escape groaned beneath the rubble of the collapsed buildings.
“Keugh!”
“D-don’t let them get away! After them!”
But Jang I-seo and Gwa-pyeong had already slipped out.
Having barely gained distance, the two ran with all their might toward the outskirts of the village.
Before long, two figures mounted on horses appeared in the distance, waiting.
“Jang I-seo!”
The red-haired, tall Mao.
“Hey, what in the world is going on here?”
So-o, the Bumun Inn proprietor who had somehow understood the sign language.
Jang I-seo and Gwa-pyeong exchanged glances and nodded, then immediately joined the group and mounted the spare horses.
「Let’s go!」
NEIIIIGH! At Gwa-pyeong’s shout, the group kicked up a cloud of dust and galloped out into the wasteland.
Their destination was the Sea of Death, the desert on the southern route.
The Iron Horse Bandits’ stronghold, where Maeng Hwi was being held.
Their bizarre journey together had begun.
And…
“Jang. I. Seeeeeeeeee!”
The Flying Dragon Hall Master Myo Chae-gyeong’s bitter scream echoed across the devastated scene.
*
“Jang I-seo, you wretch I could tear apart and still not feel satisfied. How dare he scatter Thunderquake Mines and flee?”
Myo Chae-gyeong couldn’t contain her fury. Some of her subordinates who had failed to escape were carried out, and all that remained was rubble and blood.
She always knew he was out of his mind, but to actually harm cult members and flee?
“What should we do now?”
When her adjutant, who had joined belatedly, asked, she finally suppressed her temper and snorted.
“It’s a shame we lost him, but there’s no need to rush. He left the cult without a permit, harmed members, and fled. He’s practically confessed to being a spy himself.”
“However…”
As Myo Chae-gyeong spoke, the adjutant surveyed his surroundings and muttered quietly.
“Shouldn’t we go after Gwa-pyeong? At this rate, we have no way to find the Sixth Young Master. If headquarters learns that we knowingly allowed the kidnapping to happen while doing nothing…”
Exactly as Jang I-seo had predicted. The cowardly adjutant licked his dry lips and continued.
“Furthermore, they say the Seventh Young Master slipped out of the Bumun Inn too. He’s presumed to have joined up with Jang I-seo. If he isn’t a spy and simply came out chasing the Iron Horse Bandits…”
“Hohoho! Of course that man isn’t a spy. A wretch who can’t even fight properly and pathetically tosses Thunderquake Mines around, how could he be a spy? He simply came to find the missing Sixth Young Master. Are you telling me you didn’t even know that much despite being an adjutant?”
The adjutant’s eyes trembled.
“Th-then why…”
“Why did I frame him as a spy? Are you seriously asking me that? Because that bastard Jang I-seo is dangerous, so I need to eliminate him!”
The adjutant’s jaw dropped in disbelief. Framing a dangerous man as a spy to kill him? What kind of absurd logic was that? If he was a talent of the cult, they should be nurturing him.
“You fool! I’m saying that man figured out what we did.”
“H-how…!”
The adjutant was engulfed in despair.
How on earth could he have known? Unless someone on the inside spilled it with their own mouth…
“So he is dangerous.”
Reading the adjutant’s expression, Myo Chae-gyeong muttered in a bitter tone.
Ironically, it was she who rated Jang I-seo’s intellect the highest in the entire Demonic Cult.
During the process of exposing Hwan-ik as a spy, had she really just stood by and watched?
She had deployed every means at her disposal behind the scenes to stop it.
She had tried to end the matter internally within the Flying Dragon Hall.
But she had failed.
Why?
Because countless minds couldn’t outmatch that single man, Jang I-seo.
“That man must be killed and erased. Otherwise, we might be the ones devoured.”
At Myo Chae-gyeong’s bloodthirsty words, the adjutant swallowed hard.
Just how far was she planning to go?
He had opposed the strategy of turning a blind eye to the Sixth Young Master’s kidnapping from the start.
But now she intended to frame even the adjutant who had discovered this as a spy.
It was overreach. Her excessive ambition was causing a catastrophe.
‘Moreover, the Hall Master and the Maeng Family Head, the Third Elder, are sworn enemies. If something happens to the Sixth Young Master and headquarters launches an investigation…’
Extreme punishment. Relying solely on the Hall Master would get them all beheaded.
A chilling glint of treachery flickered in the adjutant’s eyes.
Then Myo Chae-gyeong spoke up as if remembering something.
“But it is truly curious. How did Jang I-seo know to come here? The only ones who knew the Sixth Young Master had disappeared were us. Could there be a spy among us?”
Her eyes glared venomously at the adjutant. Anyone could see it was a suspicious gaze. The adjutant leapt in alarm and cried out.
“No! That’s absolutely impossible.”
“If it’s not, then it’s not. Why are you so startled? That’s unlike you.”
“Well…”
“Right. It shouldn’t be so. My eyes were clouded for a moment to suspect you.”
“H-how could I dare…”
The adjutant hastily bowed. The back of his head burned as if it were about to explode. Myo Chae-gyeong was undoubtedly glaring ferociously at him.
It felt like a viper was clawing through his skull. Sweat beaded on his forehead and dripped to the ground. Then Myo Chae-gyeong spoke.
“Adjutant. Do you know why I go to such lengths?”
“M-my apologies.”
“Because he touched the Flying Dragon Hall. Even if we can’t save them, we must avenge them with our own hands. Why? Because that’s the only way you’ll continue to trust and follow orders you can’t comprehend. I’m showing you. That what you’ve done was not wrong.”
Gulp. The adjutant bowed his head and swallowed a lump that barely went down.
Don’t try to understand the orders. Just follow them.
That was what she meant.
Don’t entertain any other thoughts.
“I-I will engrave it deeply.”
“Good. Engrave it. Anyone who touches the Flying Dragon Hall. Anyone who harbors thoughts of saving themselves alone… No matter how long it takes, I will tear them to shreds.”
“Y-yes…”
When the adjutant replied thoroughly cowed, the chill at the back of his head finally lifted. He raised his sweat-soaked face.
Then Myo Chae-gyeong issued a cold order.
“They will inevitably head to the Sea of Death on the southern route. The Iron Horse Bandits’ stronghold is there, that much is certain. We simply need to arrive first and wait.”
Right, that would do. They had to circle around the outside of Cheonsan anyway, while she could simply cut straight south.
The problem was…
‘The sandstorms at the Sea of Death make tracking difficult with our forces alone. If the Maeng Family’s Ghost Horse Cavalry were to assist, it would be easily resolved, but…’
But she and Family Head Maeng Cheol-yong were sworn enemies.
Moreover, the moment he learned that she had knowingly allowed his son to be kidnapped, blades would fly and riddle her body with holes before she could blink.
“First, find out where the information leaked from.”
“Well…”
“What? Do you have someone you suspect?”
“Perhaps Jang I-seo met with the Fifth Young Lady.”
The Flying Dragon Hall was the Demonic Cult’s intelligence arm.
They had already completed their investigation into the fact that the last person the missing Maeng Hwi had met was the Fifth Young Lady.
They also deduced that she was the one who had told him about the Iron Horse Bandits.
They had even confirmed that she had learned about the Iron Horse Bandits on her way back from the breakfast audience with the Cult Leader.
“Right. That could be it.”
Myo Chae-gyeong stroked her chin. Nothing in the world was simple, anyway.
Untangling, twisting, and fabricating such matters, ultimately turning them to her advantage, that was the Flying Dragon Hall Master’s job.
‘She was the one who drove the Sixth Young Master into peril in the first place. But if I weave in the fact that she pushed the Seventh Young Master as well, and shape it properly…’
A smirk crept onto her lips. Then the adjutant asked cautiously.
“But Hall Master… we can no longer hide the Sixth Young Master’s disappearance, can we? There are many who witnessed today’s events. If the Third Elder finds out before we report it…”
“Of course we must report it. Who said anything about hiding it?”
“Huh? But you said we must absolutely keep it…”
The adjutant couldn’t finish his sentence. Myo Chae-gyeong glared at him with a face like a demon. A wordless command to shut his mouth.
“His son was kidnapped. How could a father not know? Of course he must be told.”
“Then…”
“Listen carefully. The Sixth Young Master was kidnapped by Adjutant Jang I-seo conspiring with the Iron Horse Bandits. The motive was… yes. Money. It’s exactly the kind of thing a lowborn Seventh Grade Ghost would do.”
He was losing his mind. Dealing with this crazy woman would drive him insane first.
The adjutant’s throat bobbed heavily.