Chapter 22

By now, everyone in the Extreme Poison Sect knew who that “brat” was that Mang-ryo had become so obsessively fixated on.

The masters of the Extreme Poison Sect sighed.

“Elder Mang, don’t you think this is going too far? Is that child some kind of demon? How could someone who fell into the Mixed Spring Ground a month ago have returned, and even if he did somehow return, what could he possibly have done to Bloody Hand?”

Mang-ryo paid little attention to their words.

“Kee hee hee. Think whatever you want.”

Another master asked.

“So where exactly is this brat now?”

Mang-ryo cackled as he answered.

“Triple Mountain Peak!”

Mang-ryo pointed to a distant peak with confident assurance.

“He’s gone to Triple Mountain Peak, where Bloody Hand was guarding!”

Everyone gathered there began to murmur.

“But the incident occurred here, so why would he be at Triple Mountain Peak?”

Mang-ryo answered decisively.

“Only fools who don’t know what kind of person he is would ask such a question. Do you have any idea how tenacious he is? He’s someone who survived a whole month in a cave reeking with poison, who crawled out of the Mixed Spring Ground.”

The face of the master who had questioned Mang-ryo wrinkled in displeasure.

Mang-ryo continued to cackle.

“Recently, I used a slave child from his sect as bait to lure him. Usually, he would have waited patiently for a month, but this time he took the bait immediately. For whatever reason, he was in a great hurry. So would such a tenacious person go to Triple Mountain Peak without any preparations? No. He must have been scheming. So you shouldn’t think he’s still here just because there was an incident here.”

Mang-ryo declared loudly.

“Making noise in the east while attacking in the west! After leaving the Mixed Spring Ground, he secretly poisoned one of the garbage collectors. He arranged for the poison to take effect around this time. So while we’re combing through this area, he’s planning to rescue the people of Hundred Flower Valley at Triple Mountain Peak.”

“But we already sent the Hundred Flower Valley people to the underground tunnels.”

“Of course they’re not here. This is a trap I set. But he believes his people are still alive, which is why he’s doing this.”

Another master inquired.

“Then who was the poisoned person?”

“He was carrying a book called the Hundred Flower Secret Scripture, so it must be that fellow Gwak-o. I gave him that book.”

A master of the Extreme Poison Sect ordered the warriors.

“Find this Gwak-o!”

Mang-ryo clicked his tongue.

“Tsk, tsk, there’s no point looking for him. By now, he’s probably just a corpse lying somewhere.”

“Where could a mere child have obtained such poison?”

“Do you think I didn’t consider that? This is what happens when you underestimate him, just like what happened to me.”

Mang-ryo tapped his cane sharply, as if to show how his eye and leg had ended up in this condition. His expression seemed to ask who had done this to him.

“Even when he left me in this state, I never dreamed he would have poison at his disposal.”

Mang-ryo removed his deerskin gloves and prepared to move.

“Just in case we miss him, strengthen the guards around this area. The rest of you, head to Triple Mountain Peak immediately!”

Though Jin Ja-gang hadn’t intended it, thanks to Mang-ryo raising a commotion and moving the Extreme Poison Sect masters to Triple Mountain Peak, Jin Ja-gang was able to move relatively freely.

After descending for quite some time, he saw a group of people, just as Gwak-o had described, tied together and leaning on each other as they slept.

‘Could these be the people from the Medicine King Sect?’

There were eleven of them in total.

Large carts for transporting them were placed nearby. Jin Ja-gang wanted to hide among them, but the vigilant eyes of the guard warriors were so intense that he couldn’t find an opportunity.

It had been well past midnight when he retrieved the book from Mang-ryo, and while he was waiting, dawn had already begun to break.

At that moment, he saw a warrior approaching from the distance, knocking on doors of quarters and speaking to people.

Jin Ja-gang tensed up and pressed himself closer behind the tree to hide.

The warrior approached the guards watching over the Medicine King Sect people.

“Everything alright here?”

“What’s going on?”

“Something’s happened at the main compound. Someone has escaped or something like that.”

“We’re about to leave anyway.”

“Just be careful.”

With everyone’s attention focused on this warrior, it was the perfect opportunity. If he waited any longer, it would be too bright for such a chance to come again.

Jin Ja-gang crawled along the ground until he reached the captured people. Sweat formed all over his body from the fear of being discovered at any moment. The distance to the cart wasn’t far, just a short run away.

Fortunately, he made it safely to the shadow of the cart wheels. Then he stealthily approached the people, but suddenly felt someone’s gaze on him.

The bound people had awakened from the commotion and some of them were looking at Jin Ja-gang.

Their eyes showed a mixture of suspicion and wariness.

They didn’t say anything to Jin Ja-gang. They had ears too. They had just heard someone mention an escape.

“…”

Jin Ja-gang swallowed dryly. Now there was no way to retreat or flee. He could only hope they would remain silent.

The tense moment passed. If he lost their trust now, he would be discovered.

Then Jin Ja-gang suddenly remembered something.

He whispered to a middle-aged man who was closest to him.

“Herbal Cultivation Method.”

The expression of the middle-aged man, who had whipping marks on his face from severe torture, changed instantly.

Jin Ja-gang opened his garment slightly to show the Herbal Cultivation Method book he had taken along with the Hundred Flower Secret Scripture.

The middle-aged man pulled Jin Ja-gang closer.

He whispered in Jin Ja-gang’s ear.

“Where did you come from?”

“Hundred Flower Valley.”

When the middle-aged man relayed this to the others, some of their expressions darkened.

“Even Hundred Flower Valley…”

They even sighed seeing Jin Ja-gang’s appearance.

“Those wretches.”

But they themselves didn’t look much better. After months of torture, their faces were haggard and their bodies covered with scabs.

The middle-aged man said.

“I am Yong-myeong, the vice sect leader of the Medicine King Sect. The Herbal Cultivation Method is our sect’s secret manual that was stolen by the Extreme Poison Sect. If you’re from Hundred Flower Valley, then you too are from a medicinal sect like us.”

His kind face and tone didn’t seem like those of a bad person, so Jin Ja-gang revealed his name too.

Since it wasn’t a name Yong-myeong would recognize, he didn’t pay much attention to it.

“Are you the one they said escaped?”

Jin Ja-gang nodded.

Yong-myeong told Jin Ja-gang.

“If that’s true, you shouldn’t have come here. We’re about to be taken to underground tunnels in Nanhua. Once we go there, we’ll never be able to return to the outside world.”

“I had nowhere else to go. And here, take this.”

Jin Ja-gang tried to give him the Herbal Cultivation Method.

“We’ve been affected by Energy-Dispersing Poison, so we’ve lost our internal energy. Even if you show us kindness, we can’t help you.”

Jin Ja-gang hadn’t been thinking of asking for help from anyone.

“I’ll manage on my own.”

Suddenly, the guard warriors began to move about busily.

“Shh. Put it away for now.”

Following Yong-myeong’s gaze, Jin Ja-gang saw two masters of the Extreme Poison Sect approaching from a distance. They seemed to be the ones who would escort them to the underground tunnels in Nanhua.

A day in the mountains is short. That’s why they were preparing to leave early in the morning.

Yong-myeong loosely wrapped the extra rope around Jin Ja-gang to make it look like he was tied up.

The two Extreme Poison Sect masters approached. They looked over the captives indifferently and said.

“We have a long journey ahead. Let’s depart.”

“Yes!”

The guard warriors hitched horses to two carts and began loading people onto them. Jin Ja-gang was also placed on a cart.

The carts headed toward the mountain gate.

Due to strict security orders, numerous warriors and masters were guarding the route. However, they didn’t thoroughly check the Medicine King Sect prisoners.

They just gave them a cursory glance before letting them pass.

‘It’s working. I can get out now!’

Jin Ja-gang was filled with emotion as he saw the mountain gate not far ahead.

After months, he would finally be leaving the Extreme Poison Sect.

Now all that remained was figuring out how to escape from this cart.

* * *

Mang-ryo, with one leg and unable to use lightness skills, arrived at Triple Mountain Peak later than the others.

By the time Mang-ryo arrived, it was already mid-morning, and the other masters had already come and begun searching the area.

As soon as he arrived, Mang-ryo checked the brick houses that had been disguised as holding the survivors of Hundred Flower Valley, but they were naturally empty.

“What about Bloody Hand?”

A warrior guarding Triple Mountain Peak came to report.

“It’s been more than two days since he went out on patrol and hasn’t returned.”

“What?”

Mang-ryo was momentarily confused.

“The timing doesn’t add up.”

He had thought Jin Ja-gang had moved yesterday. He assumed that yesterday morning, Jin Ja-gang had climbed out of the Mixed Spring Ground, done something to Gwak-o, and then headed straight here to Triple Mountain Peak.

But Bloody Hand had been missing for more than two days?

Could Jin Ja-gang have come here first?

Unless Bloody Hand had died in some natural disaster, a master of his caliber wouldn’t abandon his duty and flee.

Just then, a long whistle sounded from nearby.

“Found him! We’ve found Bloody Hand!”

Mang-ryo and the masters immediately moved in that direction. It was in the forest, some distance from the brick houses.

There, Bloody Hand Miao Weng lay buried under fallen leaves, a cold corpse. His arm was swollen enormously, and his skin had turned black.

Everyone kept their distance, fearing poisoning, but Mang-ryo approached without hesitation. Wearing deerskin gloves, he examined the swollen hand and inside the mouth.

“It’s exactly the same as before. The fingertips have keratinized, developing calluses. He was poisoned with arsenic.”

The Extreme Poison Sect masters were puzzled.

“Judging by his blackened face, wasn’t he strangled?”

“There are no signs of strangulation.”

“His face is that color because blood couldn’t circulate…”

“There are traces of a dissolved Clear Heart Pill under his tongue. Bloody Hand was a master. The moment he was poisoned, he knew it and placed the pill under his tongue, stopping his own heart to prevent the poison from spreading.”

Mang-ryo gritted his teeth.

“But what circumstances would prevent someone like Bloody Hand from restarting his heart?”

The Extreme Poison Sect masters gulped nervously.

Even when Mang-ryo had been constantly going on about Jin Ja-gang, they had honestly ridiculed him.

But now, witnessing Bloody Hand’s death, presumably caused by that child, they couldn’t help but believe.

How could this be possible?

One master said:

“Perhaps an external accomplice infiltrated…”

Mang-ryo showed them Bloody Hand’s eyes, which were pulled back. The blood vessels in his eyes were completely congested, making them bright red.

“If that were the case, they would have used a more effective poison. Look. There are wounds on his cornea and blisters around his eyes. He blinded Bloody Hand’s eyes with a common plant poison.”

Mang-ryo looked around for plants that could have been poisonous. He didn’t have to look far. He saw yellow flowers scattered abundantly nearby.

“Buttercups.”

While the cause of Bloody Hand’s torment had been found, the question of when Jin Ja-gang had come here remained a mystery.

“Perhaps he’s waiting somewhere for us to leave here empty-handed?”

It was entirely possible with Jin Ja-gang. If that were the case, he might be watching from somewhere.

But if not?

“If he visited here the day before yesterday and infiltrated our main compound last night…”

Thinking about his objectives, there were probably two.

Killing the traitor Gwak-o and escaping from the Extreme Poison Sect.

“Hmm?”

Suddenly, he recalled that the person who was poisoned yesterday, presumed to be Gwak-o, was carrying the Hundred Flower Secret Scripture.

“He tried to bring the book, but it seemed to be coated with poison, as anyone who touched it would be poisoned.”

The Hundred Flower Secret Scripture he had given to Gwak-o was a blank book with no value. But Gwak-o was holding it as he was dying?

At the time, he had thoughtlessly assumed the book had poison on it. But on reflection, Gwak-o wouldn’t have carried around such a useless book; he would have just kept it stashed away at home.

Could that mean Jin Ja-gang had already infiltrated the Extreme Poison Sect when the poison was applied to the book?

Mang-ryo’s thoughts became tangled.

Just then, a warrior nervously approached Mang-ryo.

“Um… I have something to report.”