Chapter 129: Chapter 129

Jeok-sein ran straight to the second floor stairs without a word. Behind her, a bit late, Jang Geon and Son Gwang followed. Up until climbing the stairs and reaching a guest room door, there was no waste in her movements, let alone any hesitation or lingering.

Seeing that, Jang Geon could feel that her martial arts were superior beyond expectations. Leaving aside high or low internal energy, whether one could properly handle one’s own body was a representative realm dividing masters.

Jeok-sein’s foot kicked open the guest room door. The situation inside the small room was visible at a glance.

“…What are you doing?”

“Ow! That old man bit my ear!”

The situation inside the room did not look very critical. San-ho, standing back on one side of the room, was clutching his left ear, where at a glance the earlobe could be seen ragged and bleeding. And Namgung Cheon, who seemed to have bitten that ear, was sitting on one knee beside the bed. It seemed his strength had given out while getting up from the bed.

Panting for breath, he looked at the door kicked open and the three people beyond, and smirked as if feeling hollow. His expression said it was hard to die with trouble after trouble.

Looking at such Namgung Cheon and huffing San-ho, Jeok-sein, confirming the situation was not bad, looked down at Namgung Cheon who was supporting the floor with his single remaining arm and catching his breath, and opened her mouth:

“Get up. You regained consciousness earlier than expected.”

However, Namgung Cheon could neither get up nor answer her words. Rather, as if breathing was becoming harder and harder, he made wheezing sounds, lowered his head, and curled his body up. Seeing that, Jeok-sein let out a small sigh and approached him. San-ho, who had been grimacing heavily and clutching his ear, saw that and said hastily:

“W-Wait a moment, Senior Jeok!”

At that moment, Namgung Cheon, who had been huddled up almost as if bowing, abruptly raised his body. Simultaneously, his single remaining right hand targeted Jeok-sein’s neck in a claw shape like a beast’s.

“…I considered preparing a carriage for escorting to New Sichuan, but seeing you move, it seems there will be no need.”

While Jeok-sein spoke calmly, Namgung Cheon contorted his face and exerted strength to extend his abruptly stopped hand further forward. However, his right hand caught by Jeok-sein merely trembled violently and could not advance forward even a bit. His eyes glaring at Jeok-sein turned beyond the room door.

There stood Jang Geon, leaning his shoulder against the doorframe with arms crossed, looking over here with sullen eyes.

“…Internal energy does not move in my dantian. It doesn’t seem to be the Martial Alliance’s meridian-blocking technique. Did you do it?”

“It is acupoint striking. Since your qi channels were severely injured, you were in a situation where you would die alone if left as is.”

“Isn’t acupoint striking something physicians do by inserting needles?”

Jang Geon shrugged his shoulders.

“Needles or fingers. It’s one and the same.”

Namgung Cheon heard his words and laughed chucklingly, then flashed and slammed his forehead toward Jeok-sein. Jeok-sein stepped back a pace to dodge that attack, and using that moment to regain his caught right hand, Namgung Cheon also quickly stepped back. Jeok-sein tried to advance again as much as she had stepped back to subdue Namgung Cheon, then stopped dead.

Namgung Cheon’s gaze was already fixed on Jang Geon. Seeing that, Jeok-sein quietly cleared the space between Namgung Cheon and Jang Geon. For information to come out, he had to first open his mouth and speak. Dialogue with the one who defeated him would easily cause emotional escalation, and then naturally more information would be spewed out.

Thanks to her stepping aside, Jang Geon leaning at the doorway and Namgung Cheon staggering with bandages wrapped around his arm and body could look straight at each other.

Namgung Cheon seemed to find even standing arduous due to his movements moments ago. It was natural. Less than half a day had passed since his left arm was severed and a large wound was engraved across his upper body. Rather, that he could move like that alone let one know his will exceeded ordinary.

However, even amid suffering pain, only his two blue eyes were looking straight at Jang Geon.

“…Do you think you can extract the Palace’s information from me? Even if internal energy does not move, I can die whenever I want if I wish. Among our Namgung Family’s specialties, there is sorcery. Though I didn’t learn it diligently, dying by myself is not a difficult matter…”

“Yet you are still alive.”

Namgung Cheon’s mouth, which had been babbling on and on, shut tight. Jang Geon straightened his leaning body, uncrossed his arms, and stepped a pace into the room.

“I know nothing about that so-called sorcery. So I mean even if you take your own life right now, I cannot stop you.”

As Jang Geon slowly stepped inside, Namgung Cheon involuntarily flinched and stepped back. And realizing himself that he had stepped back like that, he contorted his face.

“…Are you saying it doesn’t matter even if I die?”

“Your death is yours. Since the period marking the end of life is not stamped by someone else. If you wish to place that mark, do so.”

Jang Geon’s steps stopped. It was a distance where hands could be extended to trade moves.

“…Are you not curious about information of the Palace?”

“It is fine to know, and doesn’t matter if I don’t. Since I am merely a single wanderer.”

Namgung Cheon looked up at Jang Geon with a staggering, huddled body. Just as in the basement before losing consciousness, though standing at the same height, Jang Geon was looking down from a high place. He was still his own emperor. Unlike himself who had become wretched upon losing internal energy. Even if internal energy vanished from Jang Geon, it didn’t seem that spirit would collapse.

Looking up at him, Namgung Cheon ultimately let out a deep sigh and flopped down onto his knees. Perhaps due to the movements moments ago and that impact, blood flowed in a stream from the corners of his mouth. However, only after kneeling like that did he look at Jang Geon with a truly relieved expression.

He spoke slowly:

“…The defeated general may be cursed as shameless and wretched, but fine. Yes, in truth I want to live. Only when I live do family and grudges exist. If it were the Namgung Patriarch, he could die grandly right now, but I am not loyal to family and grand scheme to that extent. Regardless, if the Namgung surname prospers and increases, isn’t that for the good of the family?”

“I understand.”

As Jang Geon answered, his expression turned even clearer.

“Once it becomes known that I failed in the plan at Gowon City and was captured after being defeated by you, the Palace will try to kill me to silence my mouth. Can you guarantee my safety until reaching New Sichuan, reaching the Martial Alliance?”

“What about after arriving at the Martial Alliance?”

“After that, it is again a matter for me to negotiate with them. As you said with your own mouth, are you not a single wanderer? I won’t ask you to protect me beyond that.”

Seeing his relieved face, Jang Geon smirked.

“For words spoken while kneeling, you are quite confident. Were you not intending to die crushed under collapsing debris?”

“However, thanks to you, am I not alive like this right now? Then I must live again. As you said, if I wish to stamp the mark of my life with my own hands.”

Hearing the answer, Jang Geon slowly nodded his head.

“Good. I will guarantee your personal safety up to the Martial Alliance.”

Hearing his answer, Namgung Cheon nodded his head as if satisfied, and soon collapsed with a thud.

Jang Geon looked at him having lost consciousness again and thought. Sometimes a relation where both clashed their martial arts, life and death wildly just once upon first meeting could be more comfortable than a relation known for several years. Because they were martial artists whose lives diverged in an instant, it might be even more so. Of course, not all martial artists would be like that, but at least Namgung Cheon seemed to think so. Otherwise, he wouldn’t entrust his personal safety to Jang Geon who killed many of his subordinates.

Jeok-sein approached beside Jang Geon and looked down at Namgung Cheon like him. Looking at him for a moment, she turned her gaze to Jang Geon and asked:

“…Will it be alright, Martial Artist Jang?”

As Jang Geon’s eyes met hers, her words continued:

“This man also would not have obtained the position of General for nothing. A powerful demonic practitioner is bound to commit terrible deeds proportional to that power. Contrary to his words, he might covertly leave traces for the Palace and dream of escape. Depending on the situation, we might have to give up this man’s life.”

“Since I promised, I will merely do my best. And wasn’t judging those terrible deeds the job of the Martial Alliance?”

Jeok-sein heard Jang Geon’s calm answer, slightly twitched her lips, and hesitated with her words. It was an appearance different from moments ago when she unhesitatingly climbed the stairs and kicked open the door. However, she soon nodded.

“Indeed, such words will be meaningless. Since to know the secrets of the Palace, we must keep him alive… At any rate, we came to go together to New Sichuan, Martial Artist Jang. I look forward to working with you.”

Jang Geon merely bowed his head slightly without a word. Seeing him, Jeok-sein pulled up the corners of her mouth to smile faintly. It was a light smile sent to a companion joining for a while. Despite the large scars crossing her face, that smile looked quite gentle.

At that moment, San-ho, who had been standing in a corner of the room clutching his ear all this time, said sullenly:

“…Then I’ll go call a physician. Since that old gentleman dripping blood from his mouth doesn’t look like he’s in good condition. As a bonus, to stitch up my ear too.”

The group looked at him as if having forgotten until now. Receiving that gaze, San-ho left the room casually as if feeling even more self-loathing. Son Gwang followed behind saying he would guide the physician.

Jang Geon put Namgung Cheon, who had fallen on the floor, back onto the bed and lightly checked his qi channels. The seal on his dantian was intact. There was also the method of simply destroying his dantian, but in Namgung Cheon’s current physical state, he wouldn’t endure it. In the end, there was no choice but for Jang Geon to continuously check and manage him for a while.

A moment later, a physician visited and prescribed internal and external medicine. Stitching up San-ho’s ear was a bonus.

Namgung Cheon regained consciousness the next day, and the three—Jang Geon, Jeok-sein, and San-ho—immediately set off on the road heading west.

* * *

In a dark warehouse where not even a single torch was lit, corpses were laid out on the floor.

They were the demonic practitioners who died at Jang Geon’s hands at the tea house. Native alliance warriors could not find a place to dispose of these corpses right away and dumped them on the Gowon City undertaker, and the undertaker gladly took the corpses. Because even if native warriors were few, they paid coffin fees.

The undertaker, who liked alcohol, went out to drink alcohol first once money became available. At any rate, they were corpses of martial artists with no relatives to be found, so it was fine to dispose of them leisurely. Thanks to that, right now his house was filled with corpses lying in abundance.

At that moment, a bell chimed inside the warehouse with a tinkle.

Whether clouds cleared in the middle of the night, faint moonlight seeped through the loose plank walls of the dark warehouse. Thanks to that, inside the dark warehouse grew slightly brighter. Faint moonlight stretched long over corpses wrapped in straw mats. At the end of that moonlight entering deep into the warehouse, someone was caught.

That someone, when moonlight touched his hand, twitched that hand. Thereupon, a bell chimed with a tinkle once more.

Simultaneously with that sound echoing, one of the corpses wrapped in straw mats twitched. As if saying he was not dead yet. The owner of the bell slowly approached that corpse. His movement was exceedingly strange. It moved sliding on the floor as if having no legs.

Arriving before the corpse like that, the owner of the bell extended a pale hand. At his fingertips was a small iron bell, and soon made a tinkling sound like earlier. This time the straw mat did not twitch. However, the owner of the bell tucked it into his bosom as if that bell’s work was finished, and unraveled the straw mat.

Inside was Murong San-san.

“Have you awakened?”

[…Yes.]

The owner of the bell had a gruesome voice like scraping iron, and the answering voice of Murong San-san hummed as if echoing in a deep valley at dawn. Murong San-san’s face was clearly that of a pale corpse, but in her eyes a strange radiance sparkled, and her mouth was moving, albeit slowly.

“Report.”

[…Gowon City plan discovered… primary stronghold… six Black Envoys… one Red Envoy… White Snake… one person dead… stronghold destroyed…]

“The cause?”

[…Cause… Jang Geon… after that they must have moved to the secondary stronghold… probably fought General Namgung…]

“How the secondary stronghold?”

[Because I told them…]

Inside the warehouse fell quiet for a moment. The bell owner’s mouth opened after quite a while passed.

“Explain that man named Jang Geon.”

[Can see through the Transmutation Art… With martial arts, snakes couldn’t put up much resistance… Seeing that you came, General Namgung couldn’t beat him either…]

“…There was no corpse of General Namgung. It seems he was captured… Is there anything to report regarding that?”

[He said it was himself who interfered with the plan in Gamsan… He ruined things back during the Nine Yin Evil Blood seizure in Salt Lake City too… Seeing back then, he seemed to know the Princess as well… If he has ties with the Imperial Army… already… an irrevocable crack has formed with the Palace… Ah, before that, I should have shared a drink…]

The owner of the bell, when an unrelated story came out to his question, pulled out the bell he had tucked into his bosom. And he stopped the hand holding that bell above the face of Murong San-san whose mouth alone was moving while pale. Immediately after, a tinkling bell sound echoed.

[Ah…]

At that single bell sound, light vanished from Murong San-san’s two eyes. As a tinkling sound made once more, her body twitched just as it had at first.

Just as the owner of the bell was about to finish the Three-Polar Soul-Returning Acupoint, Murong San-san’s voice echoed out:

[To father… that I don’t resent him…]

“…Did you use the Soul-Returning Acupoint for that? Just to convey that one line to the Murong Patriarch?”

Murong San-san did not answer. Watching her pale face for a moment, the owner of the bell chimed the final bell. Thereupon, the strange energy resting on Murong San-san’s face completely subsided. Simultaneously, whether dark clouds gathered in the night sky outside, the moonlight that had entered deep into the warehouse through plank gaps began to slowly recede. Inside the warehouse quickly grew dark again.

In that darkness, Snake Lord, hiding the bell in his bosom, raised his body. In the dark warehouse, his head slowly moved toward the west. Though all that was seen inside the warehouse was darkness, his eyes were turned toward the west beyond, somewhat far away.

“Jang Geon… Jang Geon.”

At that moment, with a clattering noise, the warehouse door opened. The person swaying with a small lantern intoxicated with alcohol was the undertaker, owner of this warehouse.

“What bell sound… Is someone there?”

The undertaker, having plenty of alcohol in him and knowing no fear, entered unhesitatingly inside and thrust his lantern here and there to inspect the warehouse. However, the owner of the bell sound from moments ago was not to be seen.

“…Should I cut down on alcohol…”

Tilting his head, the undertaker soon discovered the corpse with disordered straw mat and quickly straightened it out. Afterward, scanning the warehouse once more, he burped with a hic, locked the warehouse door to take one more drink, and departed.

Inside the warehouse after the undertaker departed was merely dark and cool.