Chapter 171

The manor of Dan Ryeong-gyeong could be seen ahead.

However, the path was blocked.

Two orthodox faction warriors were controlling the passersby. Even a merchant who had been trying to pass through pulling a handcart was stopped by the warriors.

“No, if you block the path where people travel… If I go around another way, it’ll take half a day longer.”

“From here on, there are measures by the Martial Arts Alliance in place, so you can’t pass. If you keep being stubborn, we’ll consider you on the same side as the evil faction members. Understand?”

“I’ve lived my whole life just doing business, what is this evil faction you’re talking about!”

“That’s why you should go back while we’re speaking nicely. Can’t you hear those sounds over there? Do you want to get hit by a stray blade and die while passing by?”

Screams could be heard from far away.

The sound of palm forces exploding with banging noises.

The clanging sound of swords clashing against each other.

All these sounds were coming from the manor ahead.

The merchant had no choice but to turn his cart around.

The merchant looked at Jin Ja-gang who was behind him and shook his head repeatedly. He was gesturing that it would be useless to make a fuss like himself, so he should go back.

The screams that had been continuously ringing out were gradually becoming more intermittent and decreasing. There was no other choice available.

Jin Ja-gang continued walking forward. When Jin Ja-gang didn’t stop and kept coming, the two warriors blocked his path. The bearded warrior showed his sword at his waist threateningly with an annoyed expression.

“Didn’t you just hear? You can’t pass through here. Go back.”

Jin Ja-gang looked up at the warriors and asked.

“How long has it been?”

The warriors frowned.

“What?”

“How long has what been?”

“I was curious how long you two have been here.”

The warriors were dumbfounded and pursed their lips.

“Why are you curious about that?”

“This is a strange fellow. What do you do…”

Jin Ja-gang dropped the bundle he had been carrying in his hands to the ground.

Clatter!

A metallic sound rang out.

“What! What’s inside that makes…”

The moment the warriors looked down at the bundle in surprise, a dagger appeared in Jin Ja-gang’s hand. Jin Ja-gang lowered his body and slashed the shin of the bearded warrior in front.

“Ah!”

The moment the bearded warrior crouched down, Jin Ja-gang straightened his waist and leaped up, stabbing the dagger into his stomach.

“Kugh.”

The bearded warrior’s eyes widened greatly and his face contorted in pain. Jin Ja-gang pulled out the dagger and stabbed it in once more.

Stab!

The warrior standing beside him drew his sword in surprise but couldn’t attack Jin Ja-gang.

Jin Ja-gang stared intently at the frightened warrior and asked.

“How long has it been?”

“You, you b*st*rd…”

Jin Ja-gang continued to pull out the dagger and stab it again.

“Kugh! Keu-euk!”

The bearded warrior who had been screaming at first could barely make any sound. Even his convulsions gradually subsided. Even when stabbed with the dagger, there was no particular reaction. Yet the fact that he continued stabbing with the dagger was itself terrifying.

The bearded warrior couldn’t even stand on his own strength and was now almost hanging on Jin Ja-gang’s arm. When Jin Ja-gang pulled out the dagger, he fell forward and died.

“How long have you been here?”

Jin Ja-gang asked again in a tone so even that no emotion could be felt.

But instead of answering, the warrior chose to flee toward the manor. There were plenty of his allies over there.

“An enemy has appeared…!”

Jin Ja-gang drew a needle from his sleeve with his other hand and threw it.

Flying Thread Twelve Branches!

The needle embedded itself in the buttocks of the fleeing warrior. It was a needle coated with false hellebore poison liquid. The poison causes fever and severe pain in the area where it spreads. The warrior’s one leg became stiff and he tumbled while running.

Jin Ja-gang approached the warrior with the dagger. The warrior turned his body to lie on his back on the ground and swung his sword. Jin Ja-gang kicked his arm to knock the sword away and covered the warrior’s body with his own. Then he headbutted the warrior’s face. As he fell, it became like ramming his nose and mouth, with Jin Ja-gang’s weight fully applied. The warrior’s back of the head was against the ground, so he received the full impact.

Thud!

His nose was crushed and his teeth broke in chunks. In the meantime, Jin Ja-gang even drove the dagger into the warrior’s side.

“Keo… euk!”

The warrior was almost at the point of death. He pleaded with a faintly escaping voice.

“Sp-spare me…”

Jin Ja-gang covered the warrior’s body and spoke into his ear.

“That’s not the answer I want.”

“I-it’s been about one hour since we c-came…”

Jin Ja-gang pulled out the dagger, got up, and stabbed it into the warrior’s chest. The warrior died with his eyes wide open.

Jin Ja-gang stood up and looked around. The merchant from earlier had already abandoned even his cart and fled.

He found the bundle he had dropped earlier and untied the knot. Inside were short swords, sickles, and needles he had hastily prepared from the village blacksmith and acupuncture shop. Jin Ja-gang coated them with poison liquid.

Right now, he had to be grateful for even having these.

And the ten Dengryeo Warming Pills in his chest.

The secret internal injury medicine of Guizhou’s Medicine Gate that Soso had given him.

Jin Ja-gang tapped the oil paper containing the Dengryeo Warming Pills and looked at the manor. The killing intent he had been suppressing boiled up again.

“Whew.”

After today passed, Jin Ja-gang would finally walk a path of no return. He would walk a thorny path dozens, hundreds of times more treacherous while receiving much more serious misunderstandings than now.

However, Jin Ja-gang couldn’t stop.

Without resolving this burning feeling in his chest, he would regret this moment until the day he died.

* * *

“Keu-euk!”

Dan Ryeong-gyeong spat blood from her entire body and staggered backward.

Myowol spun the Non-Killing Sword in her palm. The Non-Killing Sword absorbed Dan Ryeong-gyeong’s blood and glowed even redder.

Dan Ryeong-gyeong wiped her blood-covered face with her sleeve and ground her teeth.

“What a vicious sword.”

“Amitabha. Now kneel and repent.”

Myowol had her monk’s robes torn here and there and had suffered some blows, but Dan Ryeong-gyeong was different. Not only was she missing one arm, but the poisoning was gradually worsening, making her continuously weaker. This had a fatal effect on the fight. The numerous wounds carved on her body were traces of this.

“To make me kneel, it would be faster to cut off both my legs.”

Myowol was indifferent even to Dan Ryeong-gyeong’s venomous words.

“If that is your wish, I shall grant it as you desire. Indeed, it would be faster to cut off both legs rather than persuade the benefactor.”

Myowol attacked Dan Ryeong-gyeong again. The Non-Killing Sword dripped red blood as it sliced through space.

Chaotic Wind Wave Sword.

Sword energy flowed from all directions like chaotically swaying wind.

Dan Ryeong-gyeong countered with palm force.

Bang bang bang!

Myowol deflected all of Dan Ryeong-gyeong’s palm forces while charging forward. Another line of blood appeared on Dan Ryeong-gyeong’s thigh. Dan Ryeong-gyeong bounced her body backward and extended her silk covering. She twisted and coiled the tattered silk covering as much as possible to make it like an awl, then aimed for Myowol’s eyes.

Myowol slightly moved her head to the side to avoid the tip of the silk covering. The silk covering passed by Myowol’s ear, spun around, and aimed for the opposite eye. Myowol smoothly moved her head in the opposite direction. The silk covering continued to circle following Myowol, then wrapped around her neck.

Whirr!

However, Myowol had already pulled her head out. Instead of her head, the Non-Killing Sword was in that position. Myowol forcefully pulled the sword with the silk covering wrapped around it.

Dan Ryeong-gyeong put her weight into it and resisted.

Screech, screeech.

But she was overpowered and dragged, leaving marks on the ground. Dan Ryeong-gyeong was pulled toward Myowol. Myowol continued to wind and pull the silk covering.

“You know better than anyone that resisting is meaningless. Look around you.”

While Dan Ryeong-gyeong was caught by Myowol, most of the manor’s household had been killed or fallen with serious injuries. Even the steward had become a cold corpse lying on the ground.

A few had retreated inside the house and held out, but it was useless. Jeon Woong showed a satisfied expression as the situation was being resolved without incident.

“Drag out all the b*st*rds inside!”

The first one dragged out was Bian Bu.

“Let go, you b*st*rds! Let go!”

Bian Bu was dragged out after having his crutch taken away and was thrown down.

“What did this fortune teller say to us earlier?”

Jeon Woong kicked and trampled on Bian Bu’s face.

“Euk! Eo-euk!”

Bian Bu was helplessly beaten. His lips split and his eyes swelled up.

Next, injured servants and maids were dragged out.

“Ah!”

And finally, the orthodox faction warrior who had been trying to drag out Soso suddenly screamed. Soso had cut the warrior’s hand with a short sword.

The warrior struck Soso’s head with his sword hilt. When Soso fell forward, he grabbed her hair and dragged her out.

Dan Ryeong-gyeong also saw this scene.

“Leave that child alone!”

Myowol dismissed Dan Ryeong-gyeong’s words as trivial. But Jeon Woong of South River Sect was different. He hadn’t forgotten the earlier humiliation.

“Oh ho, so she was a child cherished by the world’s enchanting flower? Bring that girl here!”

Dan Ryeong-gyeong glared at Jeon Woong in fury, but Jeon Woong only flinched momentarily before quickly smiling. After all, Dan Ryeong-gyeong was caught by Myowol.

“Didn’t I say I couldn’t take responsibility for my words? Let’s see if that’s really true.”

The dragged Soso looked up at Jeon Woong with fierce eyes while bleeding from her head.

“Where does a young girl dare to glare?”

Jeon Woong slapped Soso’s cheek.

Slap!

Soso’s head whipped around. But Soso gritted her teeth and continued glaring at Jeon Woong. Jeon Woong raised his hand.

Slap! Slap!

Soon Soso’s tender cheeks swelled up and blood flowed from her torn mouth.

“Eu… ah-eu-eo…”

Jeon Woong drew his sword.

Shing.

Bian Bu struggled and shouted.

“Leave that child alone and kill me, you b*st*rd! That poor child who can’t even speak… eok!”

What came back to Bian Bu was only kicks. Bian Bu was kicked in the stomach so much that he vomited blood several times.

The enraged Dan Ryeong-gyeong tried to release her silk covering and rush at Jeon Woong.

“You b*st*rd!”

However, the moment she tried to release the silk covering, Myowol demonstrated her divine skill and caught it with the Non-Killing Sword.

Snap!

Dan Ryeong-gyeong tried to leap but was caught and pulled by her own silk covering in mid-air.

Myowol grabbed the nape of Dan Ryeong-gyeong who had been pulled in an instant.

“Kek!”

“Trying to run away in front of this poor nun?”

Myowol gripped Dan Ryeong-gyeong’s neck and pressed down. Dan Ryeong-gyeong grabbed Myowol’s hand with one hand and tried not to kneel, but her legs gradually trembled and bent.

While suppressing Dan Ryeong-gyeong, Myowol spoke to Jeon Woong.

“If you’re going to kill, just kill. Weren’t you planning to kill everyone in this manor anyway?”

Jeon Woong answered somewhat obsequiously, overwhelmed by Myowol’s momentum.

“We’ll kill them anyway, but since this girl is also spawn of the evil faction, we’re just going to discipline her spirit before killing her.”

“Amitabha. What would be the point of tormenting one who cannot even speak?”

“Ah, yes…”

Jeon Woong spoke loudly as if for Dan Ryeong-gyeong to hear, like talking to himself, while raising his sword.

“Shandong Enchanting Flower! Watch carefully with both eyes wide open whether I take responsibility for my words or not!”

Dan Ryeong-gyeong drew up her internal energy while her nape was gripped. However, with her neck’s blood channels suppressed, her internal energy wouldn’t rise.

“Kuk, kuk!”

Blood leaked through her clenched teeth and her nose bled. Only the Tang family’s poison lurking in her qi and blood ran wild, while her internal energy couldn’t circulate.

Dan Ryeong-gyeong twisted her neck with all her might.

Crack, the sound of bones twisting came from her neck. When her neck became somewhat freer, Dan Ryeong-gyeong bit Myowol’s hand. Blood trickled from Myowol’s hand.

Myowol looked down at Dan Ryeong-gyeong and smiled.

“Ugly.”

But then.

Ping!

With a sharp sound of cutting through air, Jeon Woong groaned.

“Eu-euk!”

A needle was embedded in the back of Jeon Woong’s raised hand. Jeon Woong’s hand was paralyzed and he dropped his sword.

“I am…”

A new voice that hadn’t been heard until now came from the main gate.

“I am repentant.”