Chapter 124

Jin Ja-gang naturally knew that Zhuge Yan would show such a reaction.

“As expected, I knew you wouldn’t believe me.”

“From the beginning, you’ve been spouting nonsense about Medicine Sects and telling lies with absurd stories?”

But Jin Ja-gang was serious.

“Earlier you said you believed me, but now you don’t. If you don’t believe my words, do you think others will believe me if I follow you?”

“I would believe if you said something that made sense. How can I believe when you’re spouting nonsense that doesn’t even sound like words?”

“Misunderstanding is your freedom, but now please go back.”

Sneer.

Zhuge Yan showed naked mockery with an angry face.

“You cowardly used poison on our warriors without any warning, yet you dare speak of Hero Baek this and that?”

“I’ve never particularly used poison.”

“What an amazing liar! Then did our warriors go crazy? Are they vomiting blood for no reason?”

“If you had really come with good intentions, I wouldn’t have refused.”

“What does that mean?”

“Before leaving the house, I crushed the stems of a plant called pinellia and placed them at the gate. The roots contain poison, but pinellia stems only have a very severe smell.”

Zhuge Yan and the warriors remembered the rotten smell from the gate.

“So?”

“Even if someone was about to enter a house without the owner present, if such a smell came out, anyone would stop first. They might wait for the owner to come. But you just barged in anyway. And then.”

Jin Ja-gang picked up taffy from the basket and chewed it.

Crunch, crunch.

“You searched the house without permission and even touched the taffy I made. If you had basic manners, if you had come looking for me with friendly intentions, you absolutely wouldn’t have done that. Isn’t that right?”

“Thinking of the lives of the Yunnan orthodox faction people you killed, you’re someone who deserves to be torn apart and killed right here.”

Zhuge Yan mocked Jin Ja-gang.

“But when looking for a murderer who massacred hundreds of people, you want us to be polite? Do you know what’s in your house? Moreover, you talk about manners just because we ate some of that tasteless, worthless taffy?”

“It wasn’t made to be delicious. It was made to punish those like you who are rude and full of hostility.”

“What kind of sophistry are you spouting!”

“The smell of pinellia stems was a warning. If you ignore the warning and come in, if you don’t stop at just entering but even touch other people’s belongings, then you’ll become uncomfortable like now. For example, if you carelessly eat other people’s taffy.”

“What?”

“Pinellia stems and taffy have very bad compatibility, so taking them together causes stomach discomfort. In severe cases, bleeding can occur. That’s all it is.”

Zhuge Yan was dumbfounded again. Come to think of it, for being poisoned, there were no particular symptoms other than discomfort. The warriors who had been spitting blood also looked fine now.

Jin Ja-gang completely erased the smile from his face.

“Other than what you brought upon yourselves, I haven’t caused you any harm. So please go back. This is the last warning. I showed you kindness once because you didn’t harm the patient in the room.”

“Pfft!”

Zhuge Yan openly laughed.

“Kindness? You arrogantly say you showed kindness?”

“That’s right.”

“If I don’t go back, you’ll use poison on me? No, you already have.”

Zhuge Yan’s mockery deepened.

Jin Ja-gang answered by not answering.

Even before entering the house, Jin Ja-gang had eaten pinellia to accumulate poison. And when he came in and ignored Zhuge Yan’s group while moving around the house, he had also set up poison in various places.

His opponent was said to have deeper internal energy than Shadow Bureau’s Goe Song. If they were to fight, Jin Ja-gang would have no choice but to use poison.

Zhuge Yan looked at Jin Ja-gang with complete mockery.

“You don’t care about our family or the name of the Martial Arts Alliance? Ah, you’re showing great spirit just because you killed a few poison sect nobodies in Yunnan. Then how about this?”

Zhuge Yan shouted sharply.

“Bring them!”

One warrior immediately ran out the gate.

And not long after, something happened that Jin Ja-gang had never expected.

The warrior returned with another warrior, dragging two people tied with rope.

The moment he saw them, Jin Ja-gang’s eyes widened greatly.

“P-please save us. Dad!”

“Honey! Honey, are you okay? Are you safe?”

With heart-rending screams, the people the warrior dragged through the gate were none other than Mr. Jang’s wife and daughter Rangrang.

Jin Ja-gang was confused about how the two who had supposedly gone to relatives’ house were captured here, but what made him even angrier was their condition.

They were clearly bruised from being beaten, their lips were torn and bleeding, and even their clothes were in disarray.

Mr. Jang’s wife and Rangrang were startled to see Jin Ja-gang, but soon looked away.

Jin Ja-gang, with eyes wide open, was momentarily so angry that he bared his teeth. Blood rushed backward. His fists naturally clenched and trembled with strength.

The long-faced warrior who brought the two reported to Zhuge Yan.

“They’re stubborn ones. No matter how much we beat them, they won’t tell us what they know.”

“Hmph. Those who protect evil faction members all deserve to die. Do you know how many people that b*st*rd massacred?”

At Zhuge Yan’s words, the shocked Mr. Jang’s wife and Rangrang cried out.

“We don’t know anything. Please save us!”

“Why are you doing this to us!”

The long-faced warrior kicked them.

“Be quiet, you things. Do you know whose presence you’re in?”

Zhuge Yan looked at Jin Ja-gang with mockery.

“They’re the wife and daughter of the man in the room. You seem to care for the man in the room greatly? Let’s see if you can use your specialty poison in front of these two.”

After learning that Jin Ja-gang was here, Zhuge Yan had investigated information about the Jang household. And mobilizing people to capture the fled Mr. Jang’s wife and Rangrang was no trouble at all.

Jin Ja-gang forced out a voice that wouldn’t even come out and asked.

“Why?”

Zhuge Yan answered much more leisurely.

“Evil faction should be treated appropriately for evil faction.”

“What did I do?”

“You carried out a large-scale massacre at Poison Valley. Not only poison sect members who joined the Martial Arts Alliance, but all the orthodox faction members too. Among them were people our family had friendships with.”

“I’ve said several times that it wasn’t something I did.”

“Again, again the same nonsense! I’m tired of hearing that now!”

Zhuge Yan pointed at Mr. Jang’s wife and Rangrang and shouted.

“Make those things talk! Make them tell everything they know!”

The warrior made cracking sounds with his fist. Fear appeared in the eyes of Mr. Jang’s wife and Rangrang.

“Tell the truth.”

“We don’t know anything…”

The warrior brought down his fist.

Thwack!

Mr. Jang’s wife was struck in the face and fell.

“Mom! Mom!”

“Aah! Please save us, please save us!”

“If you want to live, spill everything you know!”

Rangrang covered Mr. Jang’s wife with her body to prevent further beating. However, the long-faced warrior kicked over them.

“For Snake Scorpion Poison King, you’re too insignificant?”

Zhuge Yan mocked Jin Ja-gang again.

“If you want to save those two, either follow us, or if you want to live, hurry up and use poison. Is this all Snake Scorpion Poison King amounts to?”

However, Jin Ja-gang was no longer looking at Zhuge Yan.

“…will cut it.”

That’s what Jin Ja-gang said.

Jin Ja-gang’s eyes, narrowed like a cat’s, were glaring at the long-faced warrior past Zhuge Yan.

Chilling killing intent was emanating from Jin Ja-gang. The long-faced warrior felt the cold and hunched his shoulders while looking at Jin Ja-gang.

Jin Ja-gang spoke with a beast-like face.

“If you touch them one more time… I’ll cut off that arm.”

The long-faced warrior looked around, then seeing Zhuge Yan’s angry glare, raised his fist again. Then he beat Mr. Jang’s wife and Rangrang.

Thwack! Thwack!

“Aah! Ah!”

Hearing the screams of Mr. Jang’s wife and Rangrang, Jin Ja-gang’s killing intent boiled. Something hot surged from his stomach to the top of his head with rage.

Daily life was crumbling.

The daily life that had been Jin Ja-gang’s only comfort was being destroyed.

He was sad.

That the peaceful daily life of the Jang family was broken because of him.

He hated them.

Those who broke the daily life of the innocent.

The destruction of daily life was the same as destroying the life Jin Ja-gang had longed for.

Was this the ‘loss’ that Dan Ryeong-gyeong had spoken of?

That Mr. Jang’s wife and Rangrang were caught in their hands?

If Jin Ja-gang had listened to Dan Ryeong-gyeong’s words, would such humiliation not have come to Mr. Jang’s wife and Rangrang?

Jin Ja-gang realized something was about to snap in his head.

The appearance of the murderer who had craved blood when he first came out of the mine shaft was about to be revealed. The efforts of countless days when he had repeatedly told himself he wasn’t a murderer were about to come to nothing.

“Chivalrous Family Zhuge.”

Jin Ja-gang muttered.

“Heavenly High Wisdom, renowned family under heaven, Chivalrous Family Zhuge.”

“Huh?”

Jin Ja-gang bared his fangs.

“You people are not qualified to use that name.”

Jin Ja-gang exploded the anger he had been holding back.

“Uaaaaaaah!”

He accepted internal energy. The internal energy generated in his already heated body raged wildly.

Thud! Thud-thud-thud!

Sounds of blood vessels being damaged and bursting inside his body could be heard, and the blood vessels inside Jin Ja-gang’s one eye that had been injured by Wei Zong burst again. Jin Ja-gang’s eye became dyed with blood, turning bright red.

With one eye turned bright red, Jin Ja-gang bared his teeth and growled like a demon.

“Since you took it from me, I too will deprive you of your daily life!”

At the terrifying killing intent Jin Ja-gang emitted, the Zhuge family warriors froze for a moment. It was more viscous and terrible than any killing intent from demon heads or villains they had experienced.

However, Zhuge Yan was leisurely.

‘Oh ho, now you’re revealing your true nature?’

The killing intent Jin Ja-gang emitted was rough. Certainly, it wasn’t at a level that ordinary warriors, no, even warriors who had received proper training from the Zhuge family could endure.

But at Zhuge Yan’s level, such rough killing intent wasn’t frightening.

True masters emit refined killing intent.

So this was a low-level person.

It was just the final struggle of a somewhat troublesome low-level opponent.

Having seen countless masters at her family and the Martial Arts Alliance, Zhuge Yan even found Jin Ja-gang’s killing intent laughable.

There are typically three types of killing intent.

Visible killing intent, visual killing intent, and observational killing intent.

Visible killing intent refers to when the emotion of murderous intent shows in the eyes. Killing intent appears in expressions, such as eyes rolling back with anger or eye corners turning red. Even ordinary people who aren’t martial artists show visible killing intent when anger reaches its peak.

Visual killing intent is the aura emitted by those who have experientially killed people. Murder is against the way. Those who have entered the path against the way no longer hesitate when killing people, so they take murder lightly. Therefore, it has a different sense of intimidation from visible killing intent, emitting killing intent that makes opponents shrink.

Observational killing intent is at the extreme of killing intent but is killing intent that has already transcended killing intent. It’s a realm where murderous intent becomes natural through enlightenment of one’s true nature after much experience and deep insight. They know that if you want to kill someone, killing intent isn’t particularly necessary, and simultaneously, because they have the ability to kill people with killing intent alone, killing intent itself becomes meaningless.

Killing intent that negates killing intent through paradox.

That was observational killing intent.

In Zhuge Yan’s view, Jin Ja-gang’s level was the lowest.

‘At most visible killing intent!’

It’s killing intent that only amounts to expressing that he’s angry. He’s just revealed emotions of anger, nothing more.

‘How arrogant.’

Zhuge Yan became annoyed at having to scuffle with such a low-level person.

‘Acting like Snake Scorpion Poison King.’

She felt like she should catch whoever gave him such an inappropriate grand title and beat them up.

Zhuge Yan grasped the handle of the soft sword at her waist.

She had learned up to the seventh star of the Flying Wing Sword technique, known to be difficult even within the Zhuge family. The moment she unleashed one sword, she could make up to eight holes in vital points throughout the body.

It was the perfect sword technique to show what’s what to Jin Ja-gang, who was emitting killing intent strand by strand but showing nothing but openings.

But then.

‘Huh?’

Zhuge Yan couldn’t draw her sword.

No, she wasn’t even gripping the handle of the soft sword to begin with. She thought she was gripping it, but it was just an illusion.