Chapter 138

Bian Bu tilted his head and said.

“Ah, you mean why did I kill him without asking who he was? Well, it’s obvious even if you ask. He’d be either a spy from the Martial Arts Alliance or the Zhuge family. This village is controlled by such spies.”

“That’s not what I meant. Why did you suddenly kill that man?”

Only then did Bian Bu grin as if he understood why.

“Ah, that’s what you meant? Well, watch carefully. Sometimes you need to know how to handle affairs this cleanly.”

“There was no need to kill him.”

“If we left him alive, he’d go around the whole neighborhood talking about you and me, wouldn’t he? If you want to die, then sure, we could have left him alive. You do look like someone who wants to die.”

“No one fights wanting to die.”

“Well, everyone has their own circumstances, so I’ll think of it that way. But now that you’re also being called a member of the dark path, you should at least know how dark path people behave.”

Jin Ja-gang answered with a dark expression.

“Let me make this clear. I have absolutely no intention of becoming part of the evil faction.”

“That’s your thinking.”

Bian Bu chuckled.

“Your identity and inclinations aren’t decided by you. They’re decided by those esteemed elders sitting in high positions of power over there.”

“Even if I say I’m not?”

“So you saying you’re not doesn’t have much meaning, does it? Unless you’re strong enough to overturn the existing order of the martial world. You’re at most just a rising assassin from the frontier, so who would believe your words?”

Bian Bu shrugged as if there was nothing more to say if he didn’t understand this much.

Jin Ja-gang frowned and asked.

“Aren’t you afraid of me?”

Bian Bu pointed to the dead men and asked back.

“What? You mean those guys who cut the tendons in both my feet to make me a cripple and tried to torture me to death? Or the person who makes people shit liquid diarrhea with laxative poison? In some ways, you are scarier. But I’m not sure about that.”

Jin Ja-gang had nothing to say.

Bian Bu spoke again.

“You said you fight to avoid dying? But there’s a big difference between people who fight to live and people who fight to avoid dying. And people who fight to protect something are different again. Do you know who’s the scariest among them?”

Jin Ja-gang couldn’t answer. Bian Bu continued as if he expected this.

“People who fight to protect something. Ah, lest you misunderstand, I don’t mean people who fight to protect family or beliefs, things like that. Those folks throw away their lives too carelessly. When they die like that, only the remaining people suffer cleaning up the mess.”

Jin Ja-gang unconsciously felt anger surge as he thought of Yong Myeong and the Medicine Sect people who had died protecting him.

“Are you saying such deaths are worthless?”

When killing intent entered Jin Ja-gang’s voice, Bian Bu frowned slightly.

“I didn’t say they were worthless. I didn’t say they were useless either. I didn’t say they weren’t scary either. I just said it’s hard to count them as the scariest people.”

“Then who is the scariest?”

Bian Bu wiped his blood-stained beard with his sleeve and said.

“For instance, those who try to protect things like power, honor, and wealth are the scariest. Those guys never risk their own lives. Whether cowardly, sinister, or despicable, they use every means at their disposal to protect what they have, regardless of method. Because they never stop as long as they’re alive, such b*st*rds are the scariest.”

“What meaning is there in protecting things that way?”

“The one doing the protecting would know. What’s it to us to know their thoughts? I’m just telling you to keep it in mind. Because the guys you’re fighting are that type.”

Suddenly Jin Ja-gang remembered what Shin Yung had said in the cave.

“You… how have you been fighting against such people? Those who dare attack the Zhuge family…”

Jin Ja-gang had misunderstood the meaning of his words. He had taken it to mean whether he was fighting such strong people.

But thinking about it now, that should have been understood in the meaning of what Bian Bu had said.

The Zhuge family doesn’t tolerate provocations from others to protect the family’s honor. They mobilize all resources to retaliate. Literally, if you touch them, they fight to the death.

If there was someone who had launched a surprise attack against such a Zhuge family, what kind of person would that be?

They must either have backing powerful enough not to care about the Zhuge family, or be a force with that much power.

Shin Yung had asked Jin Ja-gang in that sense whether he had made such a tremendous force his enemy.

As Jin Ja-gang quietly fell into thought, Bian Bu chuckled.

“You asked if I’m not afraid of you? Hehe, then become a truly scary person. Scary enough that they think you’re frightening. Then perhaps someone might listen to your words a little.”

“Even so…”

Jin Ja-gang looked at Bian Bu and answered firmly.

“I won’t borrow your people’s power or ask for help. I’ll act and take revenge according to the standards I think are right. I won’t become the same as them.”

Bian Bu shrugged.

“Who said anything? Do as you please. If that’s your priority, I have no intention of persuading you right now. The Lord seems to be keeping an eye on you and wants to keep you alive somehow, but for me, taking care of my own life and surviving here right now is more important.”

Since that was the case, Jin Ja-gang had no need to argue further unnecessarily.

“I understand. But thank you for the words.”

“No need to thank me for words you have no intention of accepting. As I said, if you really want to thank me, help me survive, even by a penny’s worth.”

Bian Bu had an unexpectedly resolute personality.

“Then I should think of ways to survive now.”

Bian Bu immediately began searching through the bodies of the dead spies. However, nothing particularly helpful for information came out.

There were bamboo tubes containing gunpowder that could produce colored smoke, writing instruments for carrier pigeons to send urgent signals, and unidentifiable powder, among other things.

“Hmm.”

While Bian Bu was opening the lid of the bamboo tube containing gunpowder to smell it, Jin Ja-gang was holding the poison pill that the peddler had dropped.

Then he put the poison pill in his mouth without hesitation and chewed it.

Seeing this scene, Bian Bu was startled.

“Hey! Why are you eating that! Are you hungry?”

Jin Ja-gang answered nonchalantly.

“I want to check something. There’s something suspicious.”

Bian Bu stared blankly at Jin Ja-gang in bewilderment. Jin Ja-gang really seemed to be savoring the taste of the poison pill, rolling it around in his mouth before swallowing it.

Bian Bu looked at Jin Ja-gang with an anxious face. Jin Ja-gang frowned and showed a slightly pained expression, then quickly became fine.

“It’s not the poison I thought it was.”

The poison that Zhuge Yan and Shin Yung had consumed seemed to have somewhat different effects from this. The fact that the poison Zhuge Yan had consumed was different from the poison pills these spies carried was very significant.

In any case, he needed to remember this taste now. If he tasted poison pills when meeting other spies next time, he would eventually be able to distinguish them at important moments.

This was probably a method of distinction that only Jin Ja-gang could use.

Jin Ja-gang also tasted the powder that Bian Bu had found on the dead spies’ bodies.

“It’s paralysis poison.”

“Seeing that you’re fine, it doesn’t seem much like paralysis poison.”

Jin Ja-gang tasted everything suspicious by type without answering. From the side, it was sickening to watch.

“Well… whatever you do is your business, but…”

Bian Bu scratched his head vigorously.

“You really are Snake Scorpion Poison King after all. Or maybe you’re a possessed beggar king.”

* * *

Jin Ja-gang moved the bodies to a place where they wouldn’t be easily seen, then took Bian Bu to a shabby shrine where they could avoid people’s eyes. Since he had been observing the surveillance routes, he moved without hesitation in avoiding surveillance.

“Wait a moment and I’ll get medicine.”

“No need. My tendons are cut anyway, so I can’t walk properly. And I have medicine.”

Bian Bu took out round pills from his belongings and grinned.

“Now, what is this? This is the universal cure-all medicine that I received directly after serving and attending to the Three Dragon Hermit, the 25th generation disciple of Hua Tuo, for thirty years! Not only external and internal injuries, but also pediatric and gynecological diseases – a universal famous medicine under heaven that cures all big and small ailments! Even people whose spirits had crossed the Sanzu River and had Primordial Heavenly Venerable and Maitreya Bodhisattva coming and going before their eyes would return to their right mind like being struck by lightning with just one packet of this medicine, and even healthy people, if they dissolve it in water and drink it, their urine stream will pierce rocks and overturn chamber pots! It doesn’t come every day, so if you need it, just say the word. I’ll give it to you at half price just for today!”

“…”

At Bian Bu’s sudden imitation of a medicine peddler, Jin Ja-gang looked at him as if asking what was going on. His eyes seemed to wonder if his head had gone strange from the pain.

Bian Bu grumbled with an embarrassed face.

“What an unfunny fellow. Come on, laugh a little. When someone deliberately puts on a show, you should respond. People who are too serious are useless.”

“I’m sorry.”

Jin Ja-gang apologized in a tone that didn’t sound very sorry and checked Bian Bu’s foot.

“Ahhh, touch it gently. It hurts.”

“The tendon isn’t completely severed. If we fix it well, it might heal.”

“Oh? Really? Then put some of this medicine on it.”

Bian Bu took out black ointment instead of oral medicine and handed it to Jin Ja-gang. Jin Ja-gang received the ointment and stared at it quietly, then smelled it.

Bian Bu said incredulously.

“That one is effective, so don’t bother eating it. I may tell fortunes and sell medicine while traveling, but I don’t sell fake medicine.”

“I understand.”

Jin Ja-gang applied the ointment to Bian Bu’s heel and tied tree branches to fix it firmly. He removed the flag from the flagpole Bian Bu carried and made it usable as a walking stick.

Watching this scene, Bian Bu asked.

“What do you plan to do now?”

Jin Ja-gang couldn’t answer Bian Bu’s question immediately. Having conversations and sharing thoughts with someone wasn’t familiar work. He didn’t know yet if this was someone he could let his guard down around, and if he had good intentions, he didn’t want to cause him harm because of himself.

Losing Yong Myeong of the Medicine King Sect and causing harm to the Jang family still remained as wounds for Jin Ja-gang.

Bian Bu quietly looked at Jin Ja-gang, then spoke as if understanding Jin Ja-gang’s concerns.

“Four of them died. They’ll think their identity has been exposed now and won’t hide anymore. What I was trying to warn you about was that the Zhuge family would come down to Lan Family Village soon, but since the spies were caught, they’ll move even faster. As you heard earlier, they’ll burn this entire village. When that time comes, not a single person will be able to escape this village alive.”

Jin Ja-gang quietly listened to Bian Bu’s words.

“So the only chance to escape is today.”

Jin Ja-gang thought for a moment and asked back.

“Is it possible to escape?”

“There are Zhuge family people in the southern forest direction, and there’s another Zhuge family armed group behind. Actually, escaping isn’t as easy as you’d think either.”

“There’s an armed group?”

This was the first Jin Ja-gang had heard of this. However, naturally the Zhuge family wouldn’t have left Jin Ja-gang alone without such preparations.

“According to what we’ve found out, when they departed from the Zhuge family, the number exceeded two hundred. But the amount of food supplies sent to Chae Ridge Mountain was for one hundred and fifty people. Then where would the remaining fifty be? They’re probably waiting at the entrance to Lan Family Village. There might also be support forces from the Martial Arts Alliance. We couldn’t find out that far.”

But Jin Ja-gang still had doubts.

“To be honest, I still can’t believe that the Zhuge family would attack this village. There are clearly people living in Lan Family Village – are they saying they’ll make this place a battlefield?”

“It won’t be something they did.”

Bian Bu pointed at Jin Ja-gang with his finger.

“It will be known to the world as something you did.”

“You’re saying a prestigious orthodox faction like the Zhuge family would use such methods?”

Jin Ja-gang asked back with uncertainty. He couldn’t help but ask.

“Prestigious orthodox faction…”

Bian Bu stroked his beard and spoke in a reminiscent tone.

“Maybe that was true about ten years ago. Yes, come to think of it, I think there was such a thing as prestigious orthodox factions.”

Bian Bu’s tone was strange.

Bian Bu showed his teeth and laughed while revealing contempt.

“But there’s no such era now.”