Chapter 212

Mang Ryo had been in a good mood until ten days ago, but now he was feeling restless.

It was because Tang Qing had put Jin Ja-gang in the Library Pavilion. He was told to find secret manuals and come out.

“Does it make sense that the Tang family’s secret manuals would be placed in something like the Library Pavilion?”

The supreme secret manuals are oral transmissions passed from mouth to mouth. However, martial families with long histories like the Tang family worry more about martial arts being lost or future generations being incompetent and unable to learn them properly than about others stealing them.

Therefore, even if they skip a generation, they create secret manuals for transmission to prevent martial arts from being learned incorrectly or leaving room for misinterpretation in the incantations.

Of course, such secret manuals would never be placed in the Library Pavilion where everyone can see them.

Nevertheless, putting Jin Ja-gang in the Library Pavilion to test him had various meanings.

Whether it was really testing him to make Jin Ja-gang into a Tang family member, or simply having a hobby of tormenting him.

Whichever way Tang Qing was thinking, this could never be an easy test. In the worst case, Jin Ja-gang might die during the test.

Then what would he become?

Wouldn’t he just become like a dog that was chasing chickens!

Although he had orchestrated this affair with the purpose of making Jin Ja-gang a Tang family member, he didn’t want Jin Ja-gang to die. He didn’t want to let him enter dangerous tests without any safety measures.

Nine days had already passed. Tomorrow, some kind of conclusion would come no matter what.

Mang Ryo needed a safety measure. So that Jin Ja-gang could survive no matter what situation arose!

Mang Ryo couldn’t sleep and kept worrying.

But then… suddenly his left eye throbbed.

“Hmm?”

Then suddenly a commotion could be felt.

An unusual commotion that couldn’t happen in the always quiet Tang Family Great Compound could be felt.

Mang Ryo’s heart pounded and he opened his room’s window.

He could see smoke rising up into the dark night sky.

And the smell of burning too.

The pain felt in his eye intensified. But Mang Ryo’s mouth turned up as if it would tear.

“Kek kek kek kek! Kek kek!”

It’s Jin Ja-gang! That bastard has done something again!

He didn’t think “surely not.” If it was Jin Ja-gang, he was the type who would set fire to the Library Pavilion and then some.

Mang Ryo was looking at the smoke when he suddenly came to his senses.

From now on, he would be busy. There wouldn’t be a moment’s rest.

Mang Ryo dressed himself and immediately ran out of his room. Then he ran to the workshop of the craftsman who made hidden weapons. It was the workshop of the old craftsman who had made Mang Ryo’s prosthetic leg and installed hidden weapons in that prosthetic.

The workshop’s fire never goes out during all twelve hours of the day. The old craftsman who was tending the fire saw Mang Ryo and stood up in surprise.

“How, how at this time…”

“It’s urgent, urgent. How about what I asked for last time?”

“That will take time to get out…”

Mang Ryo frowned and looked around the workshop. On one side was the old craftsman’s dull-looking disciple.

Mang Ryo immediately ran to the old craftsman’s disciple and kicked his shin.

Crack!

The shinbone broke immediately and the disciple collapsed.

“Uaaaaah!”

“Next is the right foot, then the left arm, right arm. I’ll give you one double-hour. There’s no time. Don’t ask or question, just bring it.”

“Look here! What right do you have to do such a thing…!”

The old craftsman shouted in surprise, but Mang Ryo kicked the disciple’s right foot. The foot broke again and the disciple shed tears in agony.

Mang Ryo glared and urged.

“Just now I deliberately broke it so the bone would heal well. Say one more word and I’ll stomp and crush it completely.”

The disciple couldn’t bear the pain and fear and fainted.

The old craftsman swallowed bloody tears and asked.

“Al-alright. Wh-what exactly do you want?”

“I told you. Poison that could even kill the Three Martial Supremes.”

Mang Ryo waved the King of Hell token in front of the old craftsman.

“One double-hour. If you’re late, this fellow’s life is gone.”

[TL NOTE- One double-hour is basically two hours.]

The old craftsman gritted his teeth and went outside without asking more.

A little before one double-hour was up, the old craftsman came in sweating profusely, holding a bottle about the size of a finger.

“Sit and extend your prosthetic leg.”

Mang Ryo sat in a chair and extended his prosthetic leg.

“See, it works. You could do it but pretended you couldn’t.”

The old craftsman silently injected the poison into the prosthetic leg. Then he carefully closed the lid and sealed it. Only then did he wipe his sweat and catch his breath.

“What about the antidote?”

“There isn’t one. This is a poison without an antidote.”

“What’s the poison’s name?”

“Absolute Yellow Corpse Poison!”

“Oh ho, quite a nice name.”

“Rotting Sinew, Putrid Blood… If this poison grazes the skin, muscles rot and fester, and if it touches blood vessels, the blood rots.”

“Enough with such explanations.”

Mang Ryo asked again.

“The Three Martial Supremes, can you kill them or not?”

“Can kill…”

The old craftsman looked at the fainted disciple. His legs were broken and hanging in directions they couldn’t be twisted.

The old craftsman swallowed his grief and answered.

“It can kill them.”

“Good.”

“If you got what you wanted, leave now!”

But Mang Ryo didn’t leave immediately and received the poison, opening the lid.

“Wh-what are you doing?”

“I was fooled once, so I need to check whether it’s real or not.”

Mang Ryo grabbed the back of the old craftsman’s neck and pulled.

“Don’t, don’t do it!”

Mang Ryo didn’t care that the old craftsman was screaming in terror and dropped one drop of yellow poison liquid into the old craftsman’s mouth.

“That’s why you hesitated to answer. It’s not trustworthy.”

“Kuk! Keok!”

“One, two, three…”

The old craftsman held his throat and glared at Mang Ryo who suddenly started counting. Soon the old craftsman’s face turned red and blue, then holes appeared in his lower jaw and neck as bloody pus began flowing down.

The old craftsman went to the inner part of the workshop and opened a small box with a key.

“Te-ten, eleven…”

Mang Ryo just kept counting with his mouth regardless of what the old craftsman was doing.

The old craftsman took out a round ring from the small box and tried to put it on his hand. However, he couldn’t put it on his hand properly and his hand trembled as he dropped the ring.

Clang.

The old craftsman was already not in a condition to use his hands properly. The old craftsman looked at Mang Ryo and his disciple alternately with resentful eyes, then collapsed and struggled before dying.

Only then did Mang Ryo’s counting end.

“Twenty.”

Mang Ryo’s expression frowned.

“Damn. How can this kill the Three Martial Supremes?”

But there was no time now, and this was the best for the moment. Mang Ryo kicked the corpse of the old craftsman whose face was almost completely melted and rotting.

“I told you. If this fails, you all die. You’ll have to see in hell whether my words were true or not.”

Mang Ryo even spat on the old craftsman’s corpse. Then he picked up the ring the old craftsman had tried to put on his hand and left the workshop.

At that moment, a shadow blocked Mang Ryo’s path. It was a warrior dressed in black night clothes all over his body. He seemed to be a warrior patrolling the workshop area.

“What was that sound from the workshop just now…”

Mang Ryo struck the shadow’s head with his hand blade without any words. It was tremendous speed. The moment the warrior in night clothes reacted, the hand blade was already embedded in his head.

Crack!

The head split in half and the shadow staggered.

“I’m busy, so move aside.”

Mang Ryo kicked the warrior with his prosthetic leg to push him away and quickened his pace.

The smoke rising outside had become thicker than before, and the people’s murmuring had also become much more severe.

Tang Ha-ran had been pacing in her room for quite a while.

An unknown atmosphere was circulating within the Tang Family Great Compound.

Something that only she didn’t know.

And the one who knew the full picture of the current situation was none other than Mang Ryo.

‘I should go find him!’

Going to find Mang Ryo was something that hurt her pride. However, at this time when she was excluded from all missions, she couldn’t know anything without going through him.

Tang Ha-ran left her room.

But the outside atmosphere was somehow unsettled. A smoky burning smell wafted over as if there was a fire somewhere.

“Fire! There’s a fire!”

Shouts that there was a fire could be heard from all directions.

‘Noisy. I have a bad feeling.’

Then there was a presence from the garden side.

Thud-thump, thud-thump!

A shadow entered the garden near Tang Ha-ran’s quarters.

It was Mang Ryo appearing with a crutch on one side and something wrapped in a bundle on the other side.

Tang Ha-ran looked at Mang Ryo coldly and said.

“You came at just the right time.”

“Were you looking for me?”

“I’ll ask directly.”

“No, before that.”

Mang Ryo threw the bundle to Tang Ha-ran. The bundle was stained with blood. No, not just the bundle but blood was splattered all over Mang Ryo’s body. There were also sword cut marks here and there.

“You…!”

Mang Ryo grinned.

“Flies were swarming.”

Tang Ha-ran opened the bundle. Inside the bundle was one side of an arm guard made like a round ring to be worn on the wrist and several small bottles. Tang Ha-ran immediately recognized the arm guard.

“Soul Seizing Thread!”

Since there was blood on the Soul Seizing Thread too, it wasn’t something given by someone!

Tang Ha-ran glared at Mang Ryo with killing intent.

“I know the Soul Seizing Thread was left for repairs, so why is it in your hands? You… did you dare commit murder and theft in our family?”

“Ah, this is called Soul Seizing Thread? The old man had hidden it deep in the workshop, so I took it thinking it might be something good.”

Soul Seizing Thread was one of the Tang family’s Ten Great Strange Weapons like Tang Ha-ran’s Blood Scale Whip. In the Tang family, the Ten Great Strange Weapons were items worthy of being called divine weapons even in the martial world.

“Good timing. Give it to that bastard.”

“That bastard?”

“Poison Dragon.”

At the mention of Poison Dragon, flames ignited again in Tang Ha-ran’s eyes.

“What exactly are you scheming!”

Mang Ryo only said what he had to say.

“The bottle next to it has antidotes for various poisons and Muscle Strengthening Heart Liquid. I didn’t have time to write labels, so distinguish them well and feed them to him.”

Tang Ha-ran tried to take out her Blood Scale Whip. Mang Ryo raised his hand to stop Tang Ha-ran’s action.

“Now is not the time for that.”

“What?”

Whoosh!

Behind Mang Ryo, flames could be seen rising in the distance. The smoke had also become much worse than before.

“If you don’t go now, that bastard will die.”

“…!”

“This is also the only time you can save Poison Dragon while avoiding grandfather’s eyes.”

“…”

“And this is the only chance I can help. I’m going to leave like this. No, I have no choice but to leave.”

When Tang Ha-ran only glared at Mang Ryo without answering, Mang Ryo shrugged his shoulders.

“If you don’t like it, do as you please.”

Only then did Tang Ha-ran ask.

“What do you really want?”

Mang Ryo’s answer was completely unexpected, something Tang Ha-ran had never thought of.

“I want Poison Dragon to be happy.”

Tang Ha-ran examined Mang Ryo’s eyes. However, Mang Ryo was serious.

“A-are you sincere?”

“I’d like him to have a family, have children, and be well raised in a household. Ah, of course since there’s no household left, I hoped the Tang family would take good care of him, but…”

Mang Ryo pointed to the increasingly fierce flames.

“As you can see, he did this. No matter how much the King of Hell likes him, I don’t think he’ll forgive someone who burned down the entire Library Pavilion.”

“The Library Pavilion…”

If Jin Ja-gang had burned down the Library Pavilion, no matter how much the King of Hell cherished Jin Ja-gang, he would absolutely never forgive him. Even if there were no supreme secret manuals, the Tang family’s history was there. All of the Tang family’s history would be gone!

“The person who put Poison Dragon in such a place to try to break his spirit was wrong to begin with. Tsk.”

Mang Ryo looked at the flames with regret, then turned his head.

“Anyway, that’s my sincerity. Understand?”

“Don’t talk nonsense!”

“If you don’t believe it, there’s nothing I can do, but… ah right, before leaving, let me mention one thing I saw while coming here: I saw a nun. Demon Buddha… what was it…”

“Demon Buddha?”

Mang Ryo, who had deliberately trailed off, smiled.

“Right, Demon Buddha. That very nun was wandering around looking for Poison Dragon.”