Chapter 336

Pop pop pop! Pop pop!

Chopsticks were exchanged dozens of times.

The latticed door was so soaked with splattered blood that it seemed it would tear at just a touch.

But surprisingly, there were only a few holes punched through.

Just enough holes that each other’s faces couldn’t be seen. The exchanges had only gone through those gaps.

“Huff huff.”

Jin Ja-gang exhaled heavily from excitement.

There was a brief lull.

Because there were no more chopsticks left to throw.

Around Jin Ja-gang were countless broken chopsticks or ones embedded in the ground. The area outside the door was probably in the same state.

Jin Ja-gang wiped his bloodied hands on his clothes.

“Now…”

When he raised his hand again, several needles protruded from his fingers.

Jin Ja-gang muttered.

“Just go to hell already.”

Mang Ryo heard Jin Ja-gang’s muttering.

No, it was too quiet to hear clearly, but he understood the meaning.

The final confrontation.

Mang Ryo’s smile gradually faded.

Still, it was regrettable.

After waiting ten years, he had only gotten a small taste!

But Jin Ja-gang probably wasn’t thinking this was as fun as he did.

‘The end?’

Killing intent exploded from Mang Ryo’s entire body.

The moment he felt Mang Ryo’s killing intent emanating from outside the door, Jin Ja-gang raised his Jade Void Nine Lights Five Thunder Toad Art to the extreme. In just an instant, his hair shot skyward and his entire body’s clothing inflated. Jin Ja-gang stretched both hands forward as if snatching.

Not even as thick as chopsticks. The needles made only tiny holes as they shot through the latticed window like lightning.

Ten Flash Severance techniques.

Pop pop pop!

“…!”

Puzzlement appeared in Jin Ja-gang’s eyes.

There had definitely been killing intent, but there was no reaction from the opponent.

Jin Ja-gang straightened his posture and stood.

The rising stars and Woon-jeong were holding their breath and watching.

Jin Ja-gang walked forward and forcefully pushed the door open.

Creak.

Jin Ja-gang’s eyes narrowed.

“Ah… ahh… ah…”

The Yellow Crane Tower woman stood groaning. It was the woman who had greeted Jin Ja-gang when he first came up to the third floor.

Mang Ryo was nowhere to be seen, and only the woman had Jin Ja-gang’s poison needles embedded throughout her body.

“Pl-please save me. Please save me… Please have mercy…!”

Red Extinction Flowers began blooming on the woman’s neck and arms.

Asura Blood had already spread and there was no way to save her. A look of pain appeared on the woman’s face. Her eyes rolled back and bloody foam flowed from her mouth.

“Poison Dragon!”

Woon-jeong shouted.

Jin Ja-gang raised his hand as if he hadn’t heard Woon-jeong’s cry.

Then he struck down on the woman’s neck.

Crack!

The woman’s neck broke and she died instantly. The woman collapsed as if crumbling.

Woon-jeong ran over and screamed.

“What are you doing! She’s a civilian!”

“There was no way to save her.”

“Ahhhhh!”

Woon-jeong’s face flushed red, truly angry.

Woon-jeong knew too. Jin Ja-gang hadn’t done anything wrong. It was the opponent outside who had used her as a hostage.

But on the other hand, he thought that if it was Jin Ja-gang, couldn’t he have noticed and stopped?

Woon-jeong glared at Jin Ja-gang while huffing angrily, then stormed past him out of the room.

Jin Ja-gang looked down at the dead woman and opened his mouth.

“That man… is not a hero. Absolutely not.”

Jin Ja-gang pulled out the chopsticks embedded in his body.

Blood spurted out each time a chopstick was removed.

After pulling out all the chopsticks, Jin Ja-gang followed after Woon-jeong.

The rising stars couldn’t even think to stop him and just stared blankly.

The fight was somehow different from what they imagined. It wasn’t the kind of fight where techniques were displayed and victory was decided.

“Madness…”

One of the rising stars muttered. There was no other word to describe it.

“Madness, that’s quite an appropriate word!”

The rising stars looked toward where the voice came from – not the door but the window.

Through the window, Mang Ryo was entering, his entire body covered in blood.

“Grand Master!”

The person they had originally planned to meet here was Mang Ryo. A Righteous Alliance master and one who had courageously stood against the evil Taoist Haewol.

A hero who had single-handedly confronted the current martial world’s greatest master, the Martial Alliance Leader, excluding the unorthodox sects and demonic cults that weren’t wielding power among the Three Martial Venerables.

Though a death warrant had once been issued against him in the martial world for attempting to assassinate the Martial Alliance Leader, after it became known that he was a hero who risked his life for truth, the Righteous Alliance’s young people began calling Mang Ryo Grand Master.

Even during his time as an advisor to the Martial Alliance’s Governor’s Office, many young people had admired and followed him. Therefore, Mang Ryo easily captured the hearts of the youth.

Mang Ryo entered the room through the window, covered in blood.

Thud.

His prosthetic leg made a rough sound.

“Grand Master… what on earth happened here?”

There was also some suspicion about why he had fled without fighting.

Mang Ryo wiped the blood from his face with cloth and answered with a gentle expression.

“I wanted to show you all.”

“What?”

“What you’re dealing with, what you’ll face in the future. That it’s exactly like those things.”

“Ah!”

Mang Ryo looked at the rising stars with a sincere expression.

“Taoist Haewol and those people aren’t human. They’re monsters. We have to fight against such beings from now on.”

The rising stars trembled, recalling Jin Ja-gang’s expression, killing intent, and madness they had just witnessed.

“There’s nothing to fear.”

Thud.

Mang Ryo walked across the ruined room toward the dead Yellow Crane Tower woman.

“Madness is frightening, those consumed by madness. I know too. Originally, when the world goes mad, everyone tries to go mad to survive. So it seems like only things consumed by madness and gone crazy remain.”

Thud thud.

“But in the end, those who can actually survive are the sane ones. Do you know why?”

The rising stars were still dazed and just stared at Mang Ryo with blank faces.

Mang Ryo stood before the dead woman and looked back at the rising stars.

“Because it means they’re strong enough to maintain their sanity even in a world swept by madness. Only such strong people can survive.”

“I-I see.”

Mang Ryo knelt and looked at the dead woman.

Rip!

Without hesitation, he tore her clothes and examined the woman’s naked body. Red flowers revealed throughout.

“This is… the Asura poison, Red Extinction Flowers created by Asura Blood.”

The legend that one cannot survive once Red Extinction Flowers bloom.

Mang Ryo barely held back laughter and said.

“Truly vicious and consumed by madness. Using poison with no antidote.”

Mang Ryo removed his robe to cover the woman’s nakedness and stood up. Then he looked back at the rising stars with a stern face.

“What you must do now is find those who sympathize with that madness and return them to sanity, together with me.”

“H-how?”

“Using every possible method to prevent more madness from spreading. We must eliminate them. No need for sympathy. They’re mad. For only righteousness to remain in this land, we must prevent madness from ruling anymore.”

Flutter.

When wind blew, cherry blossom petals flew in through the open window.

“Oh ho, cherry blossoms. A good season has come.”

Mang Ryo finally burst into laughter he had been holding back. As if asking what had happened, he laughed and enjoyed himself like a child.

“Yes. Let’s use this for our group’s name. Cherry Blossom Corps. Blooming splendidly like cherry blossoms, most beautifully in spring before disappearing.”

* * *

Woon-jeong returned to their lodging and stayed holed up in his room without coming out.

Though he had grown through various experiences, it was probably because wounds continued accumulating in his tender heart.

Jin Ja-gang washed himself and changed into new clothes, then left Woon-jeong alone and moved by himself.

Jin Ja-gang’s head was also complicated.

Mang Ryo had allied with Baek-ri-jung. And he was plotting something using the rising stars.

It was probably work to bring down Taoist Haewol. Simultaneously, it would be groundwork to put forward Baek-ri-jung as the next alliance leader.

Taoist Haewol had predicted such events.

So was that why he said he would gather and deal with everything at once?

If so, what Jin Ja-gang could do in the current situation was…

While Jin Ja-gang was lost in thought drinking tea alone in a teahouse, someone came and sat across from him.

It was an ordinary man. The man handed over a letter.

“A gift from the young master.”

Jin Ja-gang opened Dan Ryeong-gyeong’s letter.

It contained the analysis results of the ledgers Dan Ryeong-gyeong had seized from the Ningbo merchants.

“Salt?”

“Quite a lot of salt was traded.”

“Isn’t salt a government-controlled item?”

“Yes. It seems they were conducting illegal trade.”

Yunnan uniquely had salt fields along rivers. Strangely, salt water came up from the riverbed. Therefore, salt wells were dug beside rivers and the water that came up was spread on terraced fields built like rice paddies to dry.

Since it was inland rather than coastal, there was room for secret production or illegal trade. So the Ningbo merchants might have extended trade all the way to distant Yunnan for salt smuggling and hidden their ledgers.

But that alone didn’t explain everything yet. Something was suspicious.

“Is there nothing else?”

“If there’s something unusual, there are some medicinal herbs.”

“Yunnan originally produces many medicinal herbs.”

“They didn’t sell from Yunnan to Central Plains, but imported from Central Plains.”

“What?”

That was strange. Yunnan was entirely mountainous and rich in medicinal herbs. But instead of selling herbs, Iron Umbrella Sect had bought herbs from Ningbo merchants?

“Just in case, I wrote down the details separately.”

The man showed him the details.

What particularly stood out was earth essence. Earth essence was ginseng with extremely good medicinal effects that only grew in the eastern extremes. It was one of the herbs unavailable in Yunnan.

“Earth essence, balloon flower root, cassia bark, aster, gleditsia seed, aconite…”

Besides herbs, there were also some medicines like pills.

The quantity was enormous. Jin Ja-gang examined all the herbs one by one.

“This is the formula for Half-Heaven Summer Water, Three Immortal Pills, and bovine bezoar, medicines used for madness. And this is…”

Jin Ja-gang continued examining hundreds of types of herbs.

“Artemisia pills are medicines used for clearing damp heat and transforming turbidity, and bupleurum and cimicifuga decoction is used for clearing heat and detoxifying. These medicinal materials are…”

Jin Ja-gang thought for a long time while looking at the list, then suddenly realized.

“Plague!”

There was one common point. Once he realized that, Jin Ja-gang could read connections in other herbs too.

“Epidemic plague, seasonal plague, four-season plague!”

The man’s eyes widened as he asked.

“If it’s plague…”

Jin Ja-gang answered with eyes flickering as if struck by lightning.

“Epidemic disease. These are all medicinal materials effective against epidemic diseases. Iron Umbrella Sect was stockpiling these materials in preparation for plague.”