Chapter 128

“Cough, cough, cough!”

Shin Yung woke up feeling suffocated as if his throat was completely blocked by blood.

Inside the damp and dark cave. He was sitting leaning against the wall.

Zhuge Yan was lying beside him.

“Young… Young Lady…”

Shin Yung tried to move but felt terrible pain and clutched his stomach. His internal organs felt like they were being torn apart. His dantian was in ruins as expected. It was damaged to the point where he could barely use internal energy.

Dizziness washed over him and his mind became hazy.

“Urgh!”

When he retched, pitch-black blood clots the size of fingernails came spewing out.

“Huff, huff…”

“It’s been two days.”

At the suddenly heard voice, he raised his head with sunken eyes and saw Jin Ja-gang.

Jin Ja-gang was coming in with a blade of grass in his mouth and a bunch of medicinal herbs in his hands.

Jin Ja-gang set down the herbs in front of Shin Yung.

“If you chew them, the pain will lessen somewhat.”

Shin Yung didn’t even touch them.

“Young Lady is…”

“Alive. For now.”

“Why… didn’t you kill us?”

“I’m not the one who poisoned you.”

Shin Yung thought Jin Ja-gang was still spouting nonsense even in this situation.

“Ridiculous. If Snake Scorpion Poison King denies using poison, you expect me to believe that…”

“I don’t know what poison you were affected by. That’s why I intend to save you.”

“What nonsense!”

Shin Yung ground his teeth and glared at Jin Ja-gang, then suddenly understood the meaning of what Jin Ja-gang was saying.

“Don’t tell me… you mean someone else tried to kill me and Young Lady?”

Jin Ja-gang didn’t answer, but Shin Yung could understand that it was sufficient agreement.

“Why?”

“That’s what I’ve been waiting to find out.”

“Someone targeted us? Who would dare target people of the Zhuge family!”

Shin Yung’s voice trembled with anger. But after shouting, he coughed and vomited blood.

“Cough, cough!”

It was unfortunate, but this wasn’t something Jin Ja-gang could answer for him.

“Since you’ve awakened, I’m thinking of going down to the village now. I’m considering calling a physician.”

Shin Yung, who had vomited blood once more, asked incredulously.

“You’re saying you’ll call a physician for us… cough, cough.”

“If we’re lucky, someone in the village will see me, and then contact might reach the Zhuge family so you might survive. Even if not, if a physician comes, your chances of survival will be much greater.”

Since watchers were spread throughout every village, that would naturally happen.

But Shin Yung was thinking something else.

If there were people who were determined to kill them, they wouldn’t just let Jin Ja-gang call a physician.

They would surely try to clean things up somehow before that happened.

“While leaving us here like this?”

“I won’t leave you unprotected.”

“I’m fine either way. But Young Lady alone…”

Jin Ja-gang set down a sword that the Zhuge family warriors had been carrying in front of Shin Yung.

“What’s this?”

“After I leave, you’ll have to take care of things yourself.”

At Jin Ja-gang’s firm words, Shin Yung gritted his teeth.

“What exactly… are you? What are you to be doing such absurd things?”

“I already told you. A descendant of Hundred Flower Valley.”

It was an answer he’d heard several times.

“I don’t understand. How someone as weak as you got involved in something like this. How you could have done such things to the poison sects! No matter how messed up the poison sects were, it doesn’t make sense that they died to you.”

“By your standards, I’ve never fought an enemy weaker than myself until now.”

Shin Yung gritted his teeth from pain and continued speaking.

“With that level of skill, you would have died a hundred times over not just at Poison Valley but even at Shadow Bureau.”

“Of course luck helped too. But even with luck on my side, I had to risk my life every time. I could only kill my opponents and survive by pushing myself to the limit.”

“Didn’t you kill them cowardly by putting poison in food or something?”

Jin Ja-gang stared directly at Shin Yung.

“Would that not be allowed?”

“What?”

Jin Ja-gang looked at the bewildered Shin Yung and said.

“Isn’t the division of strength and weakness by martial arts alone just the standard in the martial world?”

“What sophistry.”

“Before being a martial artist or someone of the jiangh, I was in a relationship of enmity where I had to kill or be killed by my enemies. Besides surviving, do I need to prove my strength in any other way?”

Shin Yung silently stared at Jin Ja-gang.

He had no choice but to acknowledge Jin Ja-gang’s words.

In martial arts, Zhuge Yan and himself were several times stronger than Jin Ja-gang, but now and later, the only one who could stand intact was Jin Ja-gang alone.

Whether that was because he had fallen into someone’s scheme or not.

This time Jin Ja-gang asked.

“Did you think you were strong?”

“What do you mean?”

“While thinking I was strong enough to annihilate Poison Valley and Shadow Bureau, did you think you were strong enough to come capture me with just this number of people?”

Shin Yung frowned and answered.

“Even so, Yunnan is just a frontier martial world. If we just watch out for poison…”

“So you took hostages. To prevent me from using poison freely.”

Shin Yung was too ashamed to answer. It was something he had continuously thought orthodox faction people shouldn’t do.

“Where did the Poison Avoidance Pills you ate come from?”

“Those were issued before departing from the Alliance.”

Shin Yung’s eyebrows contorted.

“What are you suspecting? Don’t tell me what you said about Hero Baek was true?”

Jin Ja-gang sensed a strange nuance in Shin Yung’s tone.

“Do you have reason to suspect Baek Li-jung?”

“Hmm.”

Shin Yung pondered whether to speak or not, then said.

“Originally, Young Lady and Hero Baek’s eldest disciple Baek Li-gwon admire each other.”

“But why did you think Baek Li-jung might have done harm?”

“The Baek family… originally had someone else in mind as Baek Li-gwon’s match.”

“In the Central Plains, is it okay to just kill people if you don’t like their arranged match?”

“That can’t be! What do you think the martial world is…”

“A hungry ghost hell.”

Shin Yung closed his mouth at Jin Ja-gang’s chilling statement.

Jin Ja-gang continued.

“I can only hope it’s not. Even if it makes my revenge somewhat more difficult.”

“You’re insane.”

Instead of answering, Jin Ja-gang wore a bitter smile.

“After I go outside, you may flee if you want, or just stay. Either way, do as you please.”

Shin Yung closed his eyes.

He was lost in thought.

Jin Ja-gang waited until Shin Yung finished thinking.

After a long while, Shin Yung opened his eyes and asked.

“I’m ashamed to ask, but I’ll request this. If you want to save Young Lady… what would be best?”

“If it were me, I would stay here. But I can’t guarantee even that.”

“What should I do?”

“Try your best.”

“At what?”

“To survive.”

“To survive…”

When would someone from the Zhuge family have heard such words? The fact that he was cornered enough to have to fight to survive came to him with skin-piercing reality.

“I understand.”

Shin Yung, who had answered, coughed. Blood appeared at the corners of his mouth.

Jin Ja-gang looked at Shin Yung briefly, then left the cave as he was.

* * *

Eyes glinting in the bushes followed Jin Ja-gang’s movements.

It had been two days since the masked person had been watching Jin Ja-gang’s actions from here.

Seeing that Jin Ja-gang wasn’t carrying a bag unlike usual, it was certain he wasn’t going to gather herbs. With light attire heading toward the village below the mountain, he was probably going to call someone.

Then he wouldn’t return in a short time.

Now was the time to carry out the order.

The masked person confirmed Jin Ja-gang’s figure disappearing down the mountain, then stood up.

Walking carefully without making footsteps, he went to the cave entrance.

It was bright outside and dark inside the cave, so the interior wasn’t visible. In such cases, one could be ambushed, so entry had to be cautious.

Hesitation.

The masked person suddenly stopped walking. A terribly rotten smell was rising from beneath his feet. It was a smell like decaying animal carcasses.

‘Poison?’

Various grasses were scattered on the floor of the cave entrance, and the smell was rising from there. The masked person immediately drew up internal energy and blocked his breathing.

That Jin Ja-gang had scattered poison before leaving was not a bad sign. It was proof that Zhuge Yan and Shin Yung were still alive. He could take this opportunity to kill them completely.

‘To think he didn’t kill them but kept them alive.’

The masked person, who had been thinking briefly, moved his head left and right making cracking sounds.

Then he just strode inside. Since they were opponents who couldn’t move properly due to poisoning anyway, he thought there was no need to waste too much time.

The moment he entered the darkness of the cave, a sword came flying.

Swish!

The masked person saw the brief flash of sword light and quickly used footwork. He twisted his body diagonally and stuck to the cave wall.

Slash! Shin Yung’s attack barely missed. Since it was an attack with all his strength, it was very threatening even though he had anticipated it. If he had been a little late, his stomach would have been split.

Shin Yung gasped for breath and retreated.

“Huff, huff! Huff… huff!”

The masked person also briefly closed and opened his eyes to accustom them to the darkness. Shin Yung had fled to the inner part of the cave, and behind him, Zhuge Yan could be seen lying down.

“To be able to move this much when all five organs must be damaged is impressive. Is it thanks to the Spirit Capturing Pill?”

The masked person was speaking when he felt the rotten smell again and closed his mouth. The cave was full of an unidentifiable rotten smell. Rather than doing the stupid thing of getting poisoned by talking unnecessarily, he decided to keep his mouth shut entirely.

“You… who are you!”

Shin Yung ground his teeth.

He had been half-believing Jin Ja-gang’s words. But an assassin had really appeared to kill Shin Yung and Zhuge Yan.

“Was sending us here planned from the beginning for this?”

The masked person approached Shin Yung without answering. Since he was holding his breath, he was thinking of finishing this as quickly as possible.

The masked person extended his fist toward Shin Yung.

“I won’t die quietly!”

Shin Yung forcibly drew up internal energy. The poison that had been quiet flared up, twisting his internal organs and causing blood to flow backward up his throat.

It wasn’t healed but just barely holding back the poisoning.

Shin Yung’s body swayed as he vomited blood clots.

Thwack!

The masked person’s fist struck Shin Yung’s shoulder. The fist was driven into his shoulder.

“Kheuk!”

Even in the midst of this, Shin Yung switched the sword to his other hand and swung it. The masked person stepped on the cave wall and leaped, avoiding the sword and reaching down from above. Shin Yung’s head was caught in the masked person’s hand.

If the masked person applied just a little force to his hand, Shin Yung’s neck bones would snap immediately.

Then Zhuge Yan opened her eyes.

Zhuge Yan sprang up like lightning and swung her soft sword toward the masked person hanging upside down in the air.

“Die!”

Clatter clatter clack!

The masked person couldn’t kill Shin Yung and did a backflip. The masked person put his hand in his chest while in mid-air and pulled it out.

Ping!

Three thin thread-like lines crossed the cave. Shin Yung fell backward like sitting down hard to avoid them. The thread-like line grazed past his nape.

However, Zhuge Yan couldn’t avoid it. The thread-like lines pierced long into Zhuge Yan’s thigh and forearm.

They were definitely poison needles. But Zhuge Yan disregarded her own injuries and charged at the masked person.

“Die! Die!”

“Young Lady!”