Chapter 64: Finally Establishing the Name of a Rascal (4)
The sky was dyed even blacker.
The dark clouds were so heavy that they looked like they would collapse toward the ground at any moment.
Rumble—
A streak of lightning crossed the sky white.
Under the pouring heavy rain, Bi Mu-geuk twitched his torn left cheek.
He curled up his remaining right lip, showing a bizarre smile.
“I loved Junior Sister.”
“…”
“I could do anything for her sake. Even if Junior Sister loved another man, I was minded to cheer her path forward from afar.”
A blue murderous intent poured out from Bi Mu-geuk’s eyes.
“Junior Sister should have been united with that guy, Oh Ja-woon. Only then could she be happy. So I…”
“Poisoned Oh Ja-woon’s wife? So that Junior Sister could connect with Oh Ja-woon?”
Chui cut in.
Bi Mu-geuk nodded slowly.
“Yes. It was for her sake. I could not bear to see Junior Sister’s pretty face wasting away with lovesickness. I dislike that guy, Oh Ja-woon, but… only by being with him could she be revived. I do not regret my choice.”
“Then who was it that violated and killed Junior Sister?”
“Hehehehe… what are you asking?”
Bi Mu-geuk continued speaking as if growling toward Chui.
“On that night. The only ones in the thatched cottage were Junior Sister and I.”
He recalled the past.
The raging wind and rain, the loud thunder and lightning, the thatched cottage creaking as if it would collapse at any moment.
The man who rejected the woman’s heart and left.
The woman who wept mournfully looking at the back of the man who left.
And another man who stole a glance at such a woman from afar.
Bi Mu-geuk rushed inside the thatched cottage.
And he shouted and shouted toward Maeng Yeong, who was prostrate and weeping sorrowfully.
As his torn lip twisted, Bi Mu-geuk’s smile became even more bizarre.
“I killed the guy’s wife, but the situation became even worse. That guy, Oh Ja-woon, was far more stubborn than I thought. Junior Sister was still wasting away to death. That guy drove the final wedge in the cottage that day! Junior Sister tried to commit suicide inside that guy’s cottage!”
“…”
Chui drew back his staff.
Then, he looked at Bi Mu-geuk with a strange expression.
Bi Mu-geuk vomited out his emotions as if he were nauseous.
“Junior Sister went too far! She was too much to me! Even after driving the lives of two men toward catastrophe, she was going to leave this world with a comfortable mind? Then what about me!? What about me who is left behind! What about that guy who lost his wife!? What about that guy who is left behind! What an irresponsible woman she was! If she bewitched a man and made him fall in love, she should at least live happily herself! How could she try to end her own life! Huh!? What on earth is that!”
Did the heavens get angry?
Thunder rolled again.
It fell right next to Bi Mu-geuk.
Crash!
Bi Mu-geuk’s surroundings were instantly dyed white, and a bright red burning fire bloomed from the dead tree next to him.
Regardless of that, Bi Mu-geuk continued to shout, turning his head completely toward Oh Ja-woon’s corpse.
“You and I are the same! We are bodies wrapped in a woman’s skirt who have lost everything! You idiot Oh Ja-woon! You pitiful Oh Ja-woon! I am your brother, Bi Mu-geuk! You are dead over there! But I am also dead over here! Oh! Junior Sister! Junior Sister Maeng Yeong!”
His emotions gradually became more intense.
Bubbling like a wildfire, it looked as if it would explode soon.
At that time, there was a voice that threw cold water on Bi Mu-geuk’s passion.
“I get it.”
Chui tilted his head.
As if he had no interest in Bi Mu-geuk’s story, he was just staring at Bi Mu-geuk with calm eyes.
“Just answer the question properly.”
“…”
“So the one who violated and killed that woman called Junior Sister Maeng Yeong was you, right?”
“…”
Bi Mu-geuk lost his words for a moment.
Then he shut his mouth.
“…”
“…”
The pouring rain. The two silent men.
After another long period of time passed, Bi Mu-geuk’s mouth opened.
“It was not violation.”
“Then what was it?”
“On that night. Junior Sister made a proposal to me.”
Bi Mu-geuk’s eyes gradually became dyed red.
Capillaries had burst, and hot fresh blood was flowing out.
“One night. Just one night. That she would think of me as Oh Ja-woon. To hold her.”
“…”
“And in return… to end her life…”
Bi Mu-geuk’s voice was small and almost got buried in the sound of rain.
It would have been so if Chui had not caught the end of it and made it clear.
“So. I cannot empathize anyway, so stop selling emotions and speak clearly.”
“What?”
“You want to claim that it was done by mutual consent.”
“Yes.”
“How can I believe those words?”
At Chui’s question, Bi Mu-geuk wore a mock smile.
“Then how should I prove it? Should I cut off my left arm like that foolish guy, Oh Ja-woon?”
“So you are saying there is no evidence.”
“Yes. But I swear. There is not a single point of falsehood in my words. I loved her, and I cared for her to the end. I absolutely did not violate her.”
“Let’s say your words are true. However, it seems the mind of the woman named Maeng Yeong, who was placed in such a situation, was not in a clear state. Perhaps her embracing you was also just out of desperation. It is what is called mental vulnerability.”
“Yes. That could have been the case. Among those in the cottage that night, no one was in their right mind. Me, her, and that guy.”
“No.”
“…?”
Chui cut off Bi Mu-geuk’s words and corrected him personally.
“A man who cannot accept another woman out of grief over losing his wife. Normal.”
“…”
“A woman who is pessimistic because the man she loves does not accept her. Normal.”
“…”
“A man who killed a woman as a price after spending a night with her in such a state. Abnormal.”
Chui’s calm eyes quietly stared at Bi Mu-geuk’s trembling eyes.
“Therefore. Everyone is normal, but you alone are abnormal.”
“Fufu… fufufufu…”
Bi Mu-geuk laughed.
His wild laughter (狂笑) mixed with the sound of thunder echoing from the sky.
“Yes! It is! In the end, I am the only one who is messed up! But what of it! The one standing alive here right now is me! Everyone died! Junior Sister too! Oh Ja-woon too! The normal ones all dropped dead, and only the abnormal one lives and breathes here! What a ridiculous thing this is!”
However, Chui did not laugh.
He only raised his head quietly and stared beyond the bushes.
“…You heard it, right?”
At that moment, Bi Mu-geuk’s heart sank upon hearing Chui’s words.
“W-What do you mean hear? What are you saying?”
“I was not talking to you.”
Chui’s answer was even more chilling.
Bi Mu-geuk turned his head to the side slowly, very slowly.
And he shifted his gaze toward the direction Chui was looking.
“…!”
At some point, another person was standing there.
Namgung Yul.
She was looking at Bi Mu-geuk while covering her body with clothes torn here and there.
Her hair had been cut short, leaving it in a bob.
Chui nodded his head toward Namgung Yul.
“Did I acupressure weakly? The acupoints have been released in the meantime.”
“…”
Namgung Yul did not answer Chui’s words.
She only stared at Bi Mu-geuk with a blank expression, as if shocked.
“Daoist Master Nangwa… then you…”
She forced her lips, which would not open, to budge.
It was a voice as if she could not believe the reality unfolding before her eyes.
Bi Mu-geuk also remained frozen for a while.
Eventually, his eyes filled with venom.
Swish—
Bi Mu-geuk swung his sword.
The tip of the sword, shot like a venomous snake, was pointing precisely toward Namgung Yul’s throat.
“Kyaaa!?”
She screamed as she watched the slash fly right in front of her nose.
It was a deadly strike that could never be avoided.
“You cannot do that.”
If not for Chui, who blocked her front like Mount Tai.
Klang!
Chui laid his staff horizontally and struck back the sword tip with the end of the staff, deflecting it.
However, Bi Mu-geuk did not give up.
He shouted fiercely like a beast whose nest had been invaded.
“Move!”
Blue tears of the sword shot out from his blade.
It completely ignored Chui and pointed only toward Namgung Yul.
However.
“Lady!”
Dozens of voices came from behind the bushes.
Soon, the warriors of the Purple Moon Special Task Force rushed over and deflected Bi Mu-geuk’s slash.
Clang, clang, clang!
The warriors of the Namgung Clan shielded Namgung Yul.
Many members of the Martial Alliance’s pursuit team were also included among them.
“…”
“…”
“…”
Everyone stared at Bi Mu-geuk.
Without exception, they were those who had been lying on the ground with their acupoints struck by Chui.
Bi Mu-geuk, facing the numerous gazes directed at him, staggered backward.
“N-No. This is a misunderstanding.”
The cause of defeat was failing to detect the faint vitality felt under the grass because he was concentrated on Oh Ja-woon and Chui.
Also, seeing the swords of his colleagues stuck in one place when he finished regulating his breathing after catching the tiger.
And hastily concluding that they must have already died was also the case.
“It is a misunderstanding! It was all a scheme to break that guy’s composure! It is not true! Really!”
Bi Mu-geuk gestured with his hands, making excuses.
“…”
“…”
“…”
However, the returning reaction was cold.
Even if Bi Mu-geuk’s words were true in the first place, at the point when he deployed deadly strikes toward Namgung Yul several times, he had already crossed the river of no return.
The atmosphere began to turn strange.
The pursuit teams of the Namgung Clan and the Martial Alliance no longer looked at Chui and Oh Ja-woon.
Their gazes were fixed solely on one person, Bi Mu-geuk.
As if looking at a disgusting bug.
At that very moment, Chui raised his staff.
“As I said earlier. In the end, the knot must be untied by the person who tied it.”
Chui’s gaze still flowed quietly like water and pooled on Bi Mu-geuk’s face.
Those including Namgung Yul were also following Chui’s words as if possessed.
Chui cleaned up the situation with just one word.
“I will not intervene any further than this, so from now on, resolve it among the parties involved in the case.”
“Parties involved? Hahaha—who else is a party involved here?”
Bi Mu-geuk asked as if dumbfounded.
However. The answer came from somewhere else, not Chui.
“…I am here.”
A precarious voice that seemed about to break yet continued.
The moment he heard it, Bi Mu-geuk felt the hair all over his body stand on end.
In his eyes as he turned his head as if his neck bone would break, a ghost-like figure was seen.
“…!”
The plum blossom that fell once bloomed newly once again.
Death Plum Blossom Oh Ja-woon.
He stood up leaning on his sword and was facing him.
The face of the real culprit (眞犯) he had chased for such a long time.
Unrivaled Spear Ghost