Chapter 11

“You b*st*rd! So you were hiding in that cave all along!”

Why had he only realized it now?

Mang-ryo hurriedly returned. The door he hadn’t properly closed was slightly ajar.

Mang-ryo grabbed the door and surveyed the room once more.

The room was still in disarray.

If Jin Ja-gang had planned to escape through the hole, there would have been no need to make such a mess. No matter how he thought about it, that hole was too narrow for escape.

So there was only one reason for the mess.

To create a hiding place.

One thing he had carelessly overlooked earlier was the bamboo basket lying in front of the door.

When he had seen it before, steel-scaled vipers were crawling out of it, so he hadn’t thought to look inside further. Moreover, the basket was right in front of the door when he opened it, making it too obvious to arouse suspicion.

He had been stupid. Such a resilient brat might well have hidden inside, even if it meant being bitten by steel-scaled vipers.

Mang-ryo glared at the basket. It was the only thing in the room he hadn’t checked.

“You little…”

Grinding his teeth, Mang-ryo raised his cane.

Both his leg and his eye were throbbing. His left eye was already so clouded he could barely see out of it.

Channeling his rage at the pain, Mang-ryo thrust the tip of his cane into the basket.

The cane pierced through the basket and crushed something soft inside.

Mang-ryo kicked the basket over.

A crushed steel-scaled viper rolled out, twisting its body.

But Jin Ja-gang wasn’t there.

Looking closely, he could see small drops of blood leading from the basket to the door. There were also traces of someone crawling.

If he had examined the scene more calmly, he wouldn’t have missed it. If he pursued now, he could probably catch up quickly.

But Mang-ryo couldn’t do that.

His outburst of anger had triggered the poison again. As his blood flow increased, the acupoints he had hastily pressed came undone, and the poison began to spread throughout his body.

A heavy pain shot through his eye and shook his head and spine. At this rate, even if he caught up with Jin Ja-gang and killed him, Mang-ryo would still suffer severe aftereffects from the poisoning.

For Mang-ryo, it would be all loss and no gain.

“Urgh… AAAAAH! You b*st*rd! Jin Ja-gang!”

Mang-ryo clutched his left eye and cried out in despair.

***

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Translated by Nine Heavens!

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***

Originally, Jin Ja-gang had been anxiously hiding in the bamboo basket until Mang-ryo fled the room.

If Mang-ryo had searched the basket, Jin Ja-gang had planned to release the steel-scaled viper he was holding. But fortunately, Mang-ryo was so confused by the crude bamboo splinter trap that it didn’t come to that.

What Jin Ja-gang had applied to the bamboo splinter was none other than the poison that had dripped from his little finger.

As a result of constantly moving his hand to maintain his energy flow, some of the remaining twin-spotted paradise widow spider venom and the poison from other creatures that had bitten his hand had seeped out through the opened energy channels.

In a normal person, poison traveling through energy channels would have spread throughout the body and been absorbed, but Jin Ja-gang’s energy channels were completely hardened, leaving no way for the poison to spread elsewhere.

Because the opened channels were so thin, the amount of poison that seeped out was minimal, but it was still a mixture of the deadly twin-spotted paradise widow venom and numerous other toxins.

That alone was enough to threaten Mang-ryo’s life.

It was no wonder Mang-ryo had been so desperate.

So when Mang-ryo fled the room, fearing he might be bitten by other venomous creatures, Jin Ja-gang made his move too.

He had no choice but to risk being discovered. That was his only chance to move.

Jin Ja-gang crawled out of the basket and along the floor. With all his might, he made it through the open door. Fortunately, Mang-ryo was about ten zhang away, turned with his back to him, vomiting, and completely unaware of Jin Ja-gang.

He had thought this place must be somewhat remote since he had heard almost no human sounds during his captivity, and he was right. The buildings were spaced far apart. That made sense for a poison sect where distance between buildings would be necessary.

The Extreme Poison Sect’s buildings were uniquely arranged along a winding path that hugged the mountain, built facing outward toward the cliff. Mang-ryo’s hut was located somewhere in the upper section.

Obviously, he couldn’t go down the path. Jin Ja-gang went around to the back of the hut, opposite from Mang-ryo, and descended via the steep slope near the cliff.

He was in excruciating pain from being bitten by so many venomous creatures. Moreover, his elbows, knees, and entire body were scraped and raw from crawling.

Jin Ja-gang crawled while crying from the pain. If he had lost his mind, he might have thought only of escape, but thanks to Mang-ryo’s carefully prepared intelligence decoction, his mind remained perfectly clear.

While crawling, his body became a complete mess from being scraped by dirt, scratched by branches, and struck by rocks.

Yet despite all that crawling, he hadn’t actually traveled far from Mang-ryo’s hut. The distance was only about as far as an adult man could run in one breath.

‘What should I do?’

He had escaped but had nowhere to go. He couldn’t stop, knowing that if caught, he would suffer even worse.

Now he was almost out of strength to move.

Leaving the mountain was impossible; he would have to hide somewhere.

Jin Ja-gang groaned as he crawled along, then caught a familiar smell of rot and blood. Unconsciously, he turned and crawled in that direction.

Then he lost his grip and tumbled down a slope about one zhang high.

Roll, roll.

Thud!

Jin Ja-gang landed in a small pit. The pit was filled with the carcasses of various venomous creatures and garbage.

Looking up, he could see drainage pipes running along the slope. Coincidentally, one of the pipes extended from Mang-ryo’s hut.

This was a waste pit. It collected refuse not just from Mang-ryo’s hut but from other buildings as well.

‘Ugh…’

Jin Ja-gang had fled to make it look like he escaped through the waste pipe. And this is where it led.

Of all places!

Jin Ja-gang thought he should keep moving, but having sunk into the refuse, he lacked the strength to climb out.

After flailing his limbs a few times, he became too exhausted to move.

Strangely, being buried in the rotten garbage gave him an almost comfortable feeling.

His breathing gradually slowed, and his eyes wouldn’t open.

Is this the end?

His body wouldn’t move, but his mind remained clear, making the pain throughout his body still vivid. It was almost annoying.

Just then, he sensed someone’s presence.

A shadow fell over Jin Ja-gang.

It was Gwak-o.

* * *

Gwak-o had betrayed Hundred Flower Valley.

That was an undeniable fact.

However, even Gwak-o had never imagined the situation would escalate to the complete annihilation of Hundred Flower Valley.

Gwak-o, like other young martial artists, had simply wanted to travel the martial world under the name of Hundred Flower Valley.

He didn’t want to live a stifling life deep in the mountains like his master or the others in Hundred Flower Valley. His young blood was too hot for that.

So he had been enticed by the Extreme Poison Sect’s temptations.

“The old folks at Hundred Flower Valley are too old to make sound judgments. How long will you stay in hiding? Now it’s time for young people to step up and bring Hundred Flower Valley out. Honestly, our Extreme Poison Sect is joining the Martial Arts Alliance now, so what reason is there for Hundred Flower Valley not to do the same? Don’t you agree?”

The Martial Arts Alliance!

The representative body of the righteous martial arts world.

Becoming a member of the Martial Arts Alliance was like a dream for young men of Gwak-o’s age.

Gwak-o dreamed of calling other young heroes his brothers, discussing chivalry all night, and traveling the martial world with beautiful maidens, sharing joys and hardships.

“We’ll help you. You’ll become an elder of Hundred Flower Valley and lead it. The old folks might resist at first, but once they see how well you lead Hundred Flower Valley, they’ll have no choice but to acknowledge you…”

Deceived by Mang-ryo’s honeyed words, Gwak-o revealed the way through the defensive formation at the entrance of Hundred Flower Valley.

But what followed was nothing like the future Gwak-o had dreamed of.

The Extreme Poison Sect massacred many of Hundred Flower Valley’s people and plundered all its treasures.

All the medicinal herbs, secret elixirs, and even their formulas.

Having witnessed the Extreme Poison Sect’s cruelty, Gwak-o didn’t dare oppose them.

Terrified, he did as he was told.

And now, instead of being among young heroes and beautiful maidens, Gwak-o had been reduced to a slave, cleaning waste for the Extreme Poison Sect.

By the time he realized that no one wants to use a traitor, it was far too late.

He had no choice but to do as he was told this time too.

Every day was painful.

Especially since the Extreme Poison Sect’s waste was mostly poison-related garbage, cleaning it caused various ailments all over his body.

His whole body broke out in rashes, and his eyesight grew dim.

Not only was his body in pain, but his heart was too.

He had nightmares every night. Images of Hundred Flower Valley members dying after being deceived by Mang-ryo, and his own testimony that Hundred Flower Valley had self-destructed, haunted his dreams.

Testifying against Hundred Flower Valley in front of Jin Ja-gang at the Martial Arts Alliance trial was a truly shameful and cowardly act. He knew Jin Ja-gang would die after the trial ended.

Yet, out of fear for his own life, he had given false testimony, something he could never forgive himself for.

So imagine Gwak-o’s shock when Jin Ja-gang appeared before him again.

Frozen in surprise, Gwak-o only breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that Jin Ja-gang wasn’t moving.

Then he belated retched.

“Urgh!”

Jin Ja-gang, buried in filth, was a truly horrific sight.

He was emaciated to the point of being almost skeletal, naked without clothes, revealing mottled black and red spots all over. One leg was broken and twisted oddly, and his face was especially swollen with necrotic skin, making him almost unrecognizable.

His limbs were swollen in various places like lumps, covered with scabs from bites of various venomous creatures, and every exposed part of his body—elbows, chest—was full of scrapes and tears.

Wiping his mouth with a bitter expression, Gwak-o muttered:

“So you died like this too.”

He had seen many corpses like Jin Ja-gang’s recently. But among them, Jin Ja-gang’s appearance was by far the most horrific.

Gwak-o recalled Jin Ja-gang’s words at the Yunnan Branch of the Martial Arts Alliance months ago, saying they would meet again.

“In the end… we did meet again, just as you said.”

Gwak-o looked up. He could see the experimental hut.

Having heard that Mang-ryo was keeping Jin Ja-gang, it was clear that brutal experiments had been conducted there. And when Jin Ja-gang became useless in death, they had disposed of him.

“It must have been painful, but maybe you’re the lucky one for dying quickly. Otherwise, you might have ended up like me, doing this kind of work for the rest of your life.”

After staring at Jin Ja-gang for a while, Gwak-o picked up his shovel.

As usual, he scooped the waste into a cart. After roughly loading the waste, he dragged Jin Ja-gang’s body onto it.

Then he pulled the cart. He cautiously pulled it down a narrow path.

Ahead, he heard commotion and loud noises.

Gwak-o stopped the cart and moved aside. A group of warriors ran past Gwak-o and the cart.

“Where is he?”

“Run faster!”

“If we’re late, we’ll be punished!”

The warriors saw the pile of waste and the corpse in the cart but merely wrinkled their noses and ran past without a word. Waste and corpses were a common sight.

Gwak-o waited until the warriors had passed, then started pulling the cart again.

Whatever was happening, it was probably something that had nothing to do with him.

As he pulled the cart, a sound that was neither crying nor laughing escaped Gwak-o’s lips.

“Heuuu…”

With empty eyes, Gwak-o muttered:

“You’re dead anyway so you can’t hear me, but you know what? I really wanted our Hundred Flower Valley to prosper. I thought if I became an elder and led Hundred Flower Valley out into the martial world, something great would happen.”

Rattle, rattle.

“But you know what?”