Chapter 70: Who Is Behind This Incident
After Elder Baek Pung-rip moved to organize his group, I sat in deep contemplation for a long time before a problem that had no answer.
“There is no answer…”
If the Demonic Cult had indeed taken action according to my deduction, there was a high possibility that situations like the one in Gohyeon were taking place all over Sichuan.
Then, Sichuan was already no different from a thunderbolt bomb with its fuse burning down.
‘Information… I need information. If I could at least know the faces of those who entered Hell recently through Master Heavenly Demon, it would be of help…’
However, Master Heavenly Demon was busy gathering causality lately.
“Sigh…”
“Why are you sighing like that?”
At my deep sigh, Baek Mu-ho poked at me.
Perhaps because my mind was already complicated, his usual tone did not sound pleasant to my ears.
“Do you think I wouldn’t under these circumstances?”
“So what if you don’t?”
“Huh?”
“Sighing doesn’t change anything anyway. Did you not make an effort? Or did you not work hard? Did you not roll your brain? If things went wrong even when you did everything you could, it’s not your fault, nor is it your responsibility. Don’t try to shoulder realms you cannot take responsibility for. They say man proposes, Heaven disposes. Once you’ve done your duty, leave the rest to that high-and-mighty Heaven.”
“…”
At first, it sounded like just irresponsible words.
But when I tried to open my mouth to refute them, no words came out.
Thoughts chased one another’s tails in my head.
What I gradually felt amidst that cycle of thoughts was the heart of this guy, Baek Mu-ho, trying to support me.
“Haha…”
Only when I felt that intention did I realize.
Until a moment ago, my head had been in such a complicated state that I couldn’t even listen to Baek Mu-ho’s words as they were.
“Not bad, you even know such words?”
“Of course! Even though I look like this, I am someone who has read Chen Shou’s Records of the Three Kingdoms twice.”
The historical anecdote of Zhuge Liang cornering Sima Yi with a fire attack in Gourd Valley, only to lament as rain fell from the heavens and foiled it.
Ruminating on that sentence, it felt like my head cleared up a bit.
“Indeed. Instead of looking only at distant places, I should first try what I can do. Starting from the problems right in front of my eyes, one by one.”
Since I did not yet have the power to sway the heavens, I should at least firmly grasp the affairs of men first.
“First, let us firmly eradicate the source of the poison that is disturbing Gohyeon.”
“Oh!”
Setting aside the matters outside of Gohyeon for now, I should firmly take control of the issues inside Gohyeon.
[Haha.]
[Heh.]
But Master Bodhidharma, Teacher Hua Tuo. Just what are you looking at to laugh so warmly?
Leaving aside the two who let out somewhat strange chuckles from heaven, I gathered the materials I had investigated so far in one place.
“Let me see…”
When I learned that it was not used personally against someone specific but that the damage had spread even to civilians, I had investigated where the stronghold was.
There was a source from which the poison spread.
To grasp that, I had noted the residences and tracks of the poisoned patients.
“Looking at it like this, it seems I might catch onto something.”
Let’s do what needs to be done. Having made up my mind, I requested a map of the vicinity from Teacher Emerald Bamboo, and as I organized it, the vague information became concrete.
When I dotted the places where the poisoned people lived, they were clustered together. Although there were some jagged discrepancies, there was consistency to some extent.
“As expected, it is not near the water source…”
As Teacher Hua Tuo said, had the poison spread through the water source, the distribution of dots would have been far more brutal, and it would not have been strange if the city’s atmosphere had reached a level of literally being paralyzed, unlike now.
I had to find an element that had ripple effects but would not spread on an indiscriminate level.
Considering the level of the ripple effects spreading from the vicinity of the clustered dots, the most likely place.
The tip of my finger landed on a spot on the map.
“It must be here.”
Near this area, there was a slaughterhouse.
Meat had reasonable ripple effects while being perfect for using poison. In the case of grains like rice, because of their unique white color, mixing poison might make them look rotten, so they would not be easy to distribute, but with meat, the story was different.
“Damn bastards. You mean they trifled with food?”
“We’ll know when we get there.”
***
By the time we reached the slaughterhouse, which could be called the outskirts of the city, the sun was already setting.
“Wow, look at that.”
Baek Mu-ho pointed to the slaughterhouse.
As the red twilight of the setting sun loomed over the slaughterhouse where cows and pigs were slaughtered, it exuded a somewhat creepy atmosphere.
“It looks as if a bucket of blood was poured over it.”
Centered around that place, an air that stimulated the five senses could be felt.
A sensation one could feel because they were a martial artist.
“It feels as though they were waiting.”
Something was in there.
[Since they are bastards who play around with poison, if you approach, you’ll probably get doused in poison.]
As if I was not the only one who felt something was there, Teacher Hua Tuo slipped in a word.
‘If the only thing to guard against was poison as Teacher Hua Tuo said, it would be worth trying, but…’
If the person in that place was truly a practitioner of the Demonic Cult, Gohyeon was a deadly ground for him. Gohyeon was the territory of the Unorthodox Faction, and the Unorthodox Faction also did not get along well with the Demonic Cult.
Was he someone who came as a discard who didn’t care if he died, or was he an expert planted to be utilized like a trump card in this region?
‘I will know when I see.’
“Welcome.”
As we approached the slaughterhouse, a man wearing blood-stained clothes poked his face out in front of a half-open window made for exchanging goods. He was a man with a fierce impression and a shaggy beard.
“What can I get you? There is even a freshly caught, fresh one.”
“You don’t mean you caught a human, right?”
“Oh my! Do you think this is some black inn? Don’t go around saying such things anywhere. My sales will drop.”
He was quite skilled at responding with banter to Baek Mu-ho’s subtle probing.
“The sun is setting too. If you came to buy something, buy it quickly and leave.”
While urging us to buy and leave immediately, he leaned his body against the side of the window as if exhausted.
‘His hands?’
Leaning his body against the window, his two hands naturally pointed downward.
The movement of his hands pointing below the plywood, which could easily hold half a cow, was not ordinary.
He held something in his two hands in a position out of Baek Mu-ho’s and my sight.
‘The moment he saw us?’
I had merely made a name for myself here as a physician who treated people well.
Unless he knew that I was the genius of the Orthodox Faction called the Young Heavenly Dragon, and Baek Mu-ho was a rising star connected with the Mount Hua Sect, such a reaction could not possibly occur.
“Do you slaughter dragons here too?”
“Hei. Hei… Hei!”
Crack!
The moment my words ended, the sound of wood breaking was heard from below the plywood.
Breaking through the thin wooden wall below the plywood, a powerful bow arrow flew in aiming for my knees.
Below the plywood where slaughtered meat was placed, a crossbow loaded with arrows had been attached.
“Whoops!”
Because I knew beforehand that he was up to some tricks, I was able to avoid it easily.
Although we avoided the surprise attack, that was not the only thing he had prepared.
“Where do you think you’re going!”
Swish!
The moment I grabbed the pulse of his wrist and suppressed him, yellow powder scattered noisily.
‘Teacher Hua Tuo was right.’
His advice that they would try to use poison somehow because they were bastards playing with poison was correct.
Though now everything was sealed.
Once I finished snapping his joints, the suppression would be complete.
Snap!
At that moment, the sensation of something pulled taut snapping inside the suppressed man’s body climbed up clearly through my hand.
At the same time, like a lie, the man moved his body.
Crack! Snap!
I suppressed the wrist pulse and twisted and snapped the joints. Even so, if he moved his body, his joints could not remain intact.
Regardless of being dislocated, he extended his fist aiming for my head.
As if he had applied poison, his fist was covered in yellow powder.
“Hup!”
The poisonous powder brushed past the tip of my nose as I stepped back.
Although I did not inhale it because I was holding my breath, the fact that the tip of my nose tingled with just a slight touch of the toxic energy made it clear that it was a deadly poison.
However, I felt the process leading up to him wielding that poison-coated fist was even more poisonous.
“How vicious.”
“It is called cutting off pain. I wonder if gently raised young masters like you wouldn’t know of such a method?”
He snapped his own arm. To avoid hesitating due to pain, he had severed the nerves that felt pain on his own.
The fellow, whose body no longer knew pain, giggled and launched a physical assault.
However, that blow did not reach my body.
Slash!
The sword strike swung by Baek Mu-ho beside me sent the opponent’s arm flying.
“Just because it is rough doesn’t make it all good.”
A charge that knew no pain might cloud the opponent’s judgment.
But what was lost was greater than that.
“Without precision, it is a useless effort.”
Even if Baek Mu-ho had not intervened, I would not have been hit by such a blunt attack.
“Krrgh!”
As if he had already lost his sanity, now that he had lost both arms, he rushed at us making a beastly sound as if trying to bite even with his teeth.
Pushing away the jaw of such an opponent with the back of my hand, I kicked his chest.
Thud! Crash!
With a loud crash, the man’s body flew and crashed into the wall on the other side of the slaughterhouse.
“A discard.”
A method like cutting off pain is one that only those who don’t care when they die would employ.
‘I think I know why Master Heavenly Demon, who cries out for the essence, is angry at the Demonic Cult.’
“By the way, how did you recognize me?”
“Fuhuhu. Did you not know? You are quite famous lately. The rising star of the Orthodox Faction who slew the Black and White Twin Demons… Cough! Blegh!”
Although there was no pain, that did not make his body an indestructible diamond. The man vomited a bucket of blood.
At the man’s answer, my brow furrowed naturally.
“The owner of the apothecary who treated the Qingcheng Sect disciples, was his mouth quite loose?”
There was an instance where Baek Mu-ho, to provoke the physician who was intimidated by the reputation of the Black and White Twin Demons, had said they died in my hands without even holding out for ten exchanges.
“Even so, it is somewhat strange that you recognized me.”
With just that much, they would only obtain the information that the Black and White Twin Demons died in my hands and that I had come to Sichuan.
“Hey, demonic practitioner.”
“I’m not? I am of the Unorthodox Faction?”
Ten to one, a fellow who came from the Demonic Cult was calmly lying that he was from the Unorthodox Faction.
It was a response typical of a fellow trying to sow discord between the Sichuan Tang Clan and the Unorthodox forces.
“Nonsense.”
“To be precise, I am an assassin belonging to the first generation of the Evil Path, the World’s Greatest Assassination Sect, the Black Slaughter Squad. Hehe, I received a request to kill you.”
He spoke of the Dahecktian (Great Black Heaven), one of the Sixth Heavens, which were the six renowned gates of the Evil Path that stood as the polar opposite to the Nine Great Sects and One Gang and the Five Great Clans.
Looking at how he employed a technique like cutting off pain and established preliminary methods for assassination beforehand, he certainly smelled of an assassin.
Perhaps because I had seen it before, it sounded plausible.
But deceiving me was impossible.
“Tch.”
Looking at my eyes, which must have been filled with disbelief, the fellow suddenly changed his expression.
“Fine. Since the situation has turned out like this, I must reveal it before I truly kick the bucket. Honestly, I am from the Embroidered Uniform Guard (Jinyiwei). I came here to monitor because I heard Teacher Emerald Bamboo was plotting something bad! Treat me quickly! Or you will become a rebel!”
“…”
This time, I flinched slightly.
Because I was already suspecting that Teacher Emerald Bamboo had not been demoted and pushed out to this place simply.
This fellow’s eloquence is remarkable. He has a knack for linking it subtly to the truth.
If so, does that mean the organization connected with these guys is also keeping an eye on the back of Teacher Emerald Bamboo?
“This guy’s way of talking is interesting, isn’t it? He doesn’t deny a single thing, but he hides his backing well.”
Baek Mu-ho also spoke as if it was interesting.
He did not deny but agreed. He didn’t just agree, but mixed in plausible details one by one.
Instead of keeping his mouth tightly shut and holding out, he led the opponent’s misjudgment by pouring out as much information as possible.
Had I not come with suspicion close to certainty, I might have agonized over whether one of the words he spat out was true.
But no matter how I looked at it, this fellow was indeed a demonic practitioner.
“Say ‘Heavenly Demon is a son of a bitch’.”
“…”
[Pfft!]
[Pffthahaha!]
Well, you two are having a grand old time.
Oh, and Master Heavenly Demon who is watching this, please do not misunderstand. This insult is directed at someone on the ground right now. If you have strange misunderstandings like Master Bodhidharma or Teacher Hua Tuo over there, it will be troublesome for your disciple.
“H-Heavenly Demon…”
“Yeah, I got it.”
Perhaps because it was struck so suddenly, the fellow’s reaction was slow.
This was enough to be certain.
Crack!
I immediately snapped the fellow’s neck.
He was a fellow who had cut off his pain anyway. He was not a body that torture would work on, nor was he one who would spill anything more helpful. Such a fellow even handled poison.
Rather than leaving him alive clumsily only to get stabbed in the back unexpectedly, it was better to just dispatch him quickly.
Because it seemed another guest had arrived.
“Capturing the wrist pulse of the arm seems like the method of the Wudang Sect’s Immortal-Dismounting Pulse, and striking the chin of the charging opponent with the back of the hand seems like the method of the Shaolin Five Fists…”
The voice heard from behind was not favorable no matter how one listened.
“The Young Heavenly Dragon was indeed in Gohyeon.”
In the part where he went out of his way to say ‘in Gohyeon,’ a hint of him being an outsider lingered.
I wondered if he was someone who came after hearing that I was in Gohyeon, but there didn’t seem to be any goodwill in the steps he took to travel here.
‘Just how, from where, and to where did the rumors spread?’