Chapter 36

“Ugh!”

Jin Ja-gang felt the blood rushing to his head as if his eyes would pop out. Despite desperately flailing and clawing at the warrior’s arms, the warrior didn’t budge. He was simply pressing down on Jin Ja-gang’s neck with his powerful arms.

Jin Ja-gang pulled out a poisoned thorn from his sleeve and stabbed it into the warrior’s arm.

But still, the strength didn’t leave the warrior’s arms.

‘I-I’m dying!’

Jin Ja-gang felt his consciousness fading. It seemed terribly unfair that he, who had poisoned so many martial arts masters to death, would die at the hands of a single ordinary warrior.

‘Ugh…!’

His vision grew blurry. The strength left his body and his limbs began to go limp. Had this continued just a little longer, Jin Ja-gang would surely have died.

But at that moment, bloody foam erupted from the warrior’s mouth.

“Wak!”

The warrior spewed blood onto Jin Ja-gang’s face and collapsed to the side.

Thud.

“Ke-heuk! Kek kek!”

Jin Ja-gang gasped for breath as he got up. The warrior continued to spew bloody foam as he died.

Without even wiping off the blood, Jin Ja-gang crawled to the half-open gate and peered inside.

Fortunately, the inside seemed peaceful. The atmosphere suggested they were unaware of what had happened outside.

Only then could he finally catch his breath.

“Huff, huff…”

After calming his mind for a moment, he observed the activity inside again. The situation was exactly as he had remembered when he had left hidden among the Medicine King Sect prisoners.

On both sides of the path leading inward were earthen houses, guard rooms where the warriors resided. If any problem arose, warriors would pour out of these guard rooms.

Each guard room had torches attached to every wall, and warriors stood with weapons at intervals between the guard rooms, one or two per section.

Once past these guard rooms, Jin Ja-gang would soon reach the side path he wanted. Through this path, he could reach the well without being discovered. If he could just poison the well and hide, the task would be virtually complete.

But passing through here would be difficult. The warriors standing between each guard room were a problem. Even if he poisoned them one by one, the structure made it inevitable that he would be caught.

From Jin Ja-gang’s perspective, this was the most challenging obstacle. There was absolutely no way to pass through quietly without being discovered.

So Jin Ja-gang decided on a frontal assault.

Since he intended to poison the well anyway, it didn’t matter if there was confusion or chaos.

Even with intruders or war, people wouldn’t stop eating. They might skip a meal or two, but eventually, they would cook and eat.

Therefore, the important thing was for Jin Ja-gang not to be captured until he had poisoned the well. After poisoning the well, he could either escape or hide in the Extreme Poison Sect to witness the results.

Jin Ja-gang hid behind the door and observed the inside.

He saw large jars placed at each guard room. They were jars filled with water.

‘There they are!’

Water reservoirs.

These were large containers filled with water in case of fire. They were typically placed under the eaves of wooden pavilions and were commonly found in temples, palaces, and other important buildings.

The reason the Extreme Poison Sect had these water reservoirs was due to their geographical location. Situated on a mountainside, there were no nearby streams or rivers. Even the well Jin Ja-gang was heading for was quite distant. Surrounded by dense forests, they had to be cautious about fire, which is why they had placed water reservoirs throughout.

Jin Ja-gang carefully entered the main gate and hid behind the jar at the first guard room.

He could hear the warriors standing between the guard rooms talking.

“Why aren’t they closing the main gate?”

“I don’t know, what are they doing?”

“Should we go check?”

He needed to hurry.

Jin Ja-gang drew poisonous energy. The Xiaochi acupoint at the tip of his little finger swelled, and poisonous fluid formed.

He put the poisonous fluid into the water in the reservoir and stirred it to dissolve.

After watching for an opportunity, Jin Ja-gang grabbed a torch from the wall when the nearby warriors were distracted in conversation, momentarily letting their guard down.

Then he threw the torch onto the roof.

Thanks to the dry autumn weather, the thatched roof of the guard room made of rice straw caught fire easily.

Whoosh—

The attention of the warriors on duty immediately turned to the roof of the gate.

“Huh?”

The warriors shouted in surprise.

“Fire!”

“Everyone, wake up!”

Soon, warriors who had been sleeping inside the guard room rushed out wearing only their undergarments.

“Bring water!”

The warriors brought out every container they could find and used them to scoop water from the reservoirs to splash on the roof.

The area became chaotic, just as Jin Ja-gang had hoped. During the confusion, Jin Ja-gang moved to the next guard room. There too, he poisoned the water in the reservoir and set fire to the roof with a torch.

“There’s fire over here too!”

“The fire is spreading! Move quickly!”

Without time to think about why fires were suddenly breaking out, the warriors hectically scooped water and ran back and forth.

Jin Ja-gang took advantage of the chaos to poison the water in several more reservoirs and started more fires.

By that time, the warriors began to find the situation suspicious.

Why was every roof catching fire?

It didn’t seem like the fire was spreading naturally, but rather as if someone was deliberately setting fires!

But by the time this thought occurred to them, everywhere was already filled with flames and smoke.

Moreover…

“This damned smoke, why is it so pungent?”

“Cough, cough!”

Coughing was heard from all directions as they scooped water from the reservoirs, but the flames wouldn’t be extinguished. The flames would seem to subside momentarily, only to flare up again, emitting more smoke.

Meanwhile, warriors were collapsing one by one. Those who belatedly realized what was happening shook the fallen warriors in alarm.

“Hey! Hey!”

But they too soon began to clutch their throats and struggle.

“Geurk! Kkeuk!”

The warriors covered their mouths in terror and shouted.

“The smoke is poisonous!”

“We need to put out the fire quickly!”

Thinking the smoke was due to the fire, the warriors continued to scoop water from the reservoirs and splash it on the flames.

But each time they did so, the smoke grew worse, and even the unaffected warriors collapsed after being exposed to it.

Some ran around, some shouted, some collapsed in the smoke while trying to rescue the injured…

The scene was complete chaos.

By now, more than half of the guard room warriors had fallen. Nearly twenty men lay on the ground, writhing in agony.

Even the remaining warriors weren’t unscathed. The skin touched by the smoke developed blisters and bubbles. Some warriors even coughed up blood.

The situation was so bewildering that they couldn’t understand what was happening. There had been a fire, and they had simply tried to extinguish it. But suddenly, everyone was collapsing and dying.

The remaining warriors fearfully retreated further and further back.

“Ugh!”

Though the flames were gradually subsiding, fewer than five warriors remained unaffected.

“W-what is this…”

The warriors were so stunned they couldn’t even think to report the situation, staring at the scene in a daze.

Burnt guard rooms, countless patients sprawled about, dead warriors.

All of this had happened in just a brief moment.

And during that time, Jin Ja-gang had already passed through the guard rooms.

‘Success.’

Jin Ja-gang soon entered the side path. It was a kind of back road, the path used by people like Gwak-o to dispose of waste.

Jin Ja-gang turned onto the back road, moving as if it were his own home.

‘Now I need to reach the well before more commotion breaks out.’

At the end of this back road, where it met the edge of the Mixed Spring Ground, was the well.

Though the cloth wrapped around his burst sole was soaked with blood, Jin Ja-gang hurried on without time to check it.

* * *

Mang-ryo was lying face down, having moxa treatment applied to his back.

A warrior had brought a brazier with hot charcoal and was placing the lit moxa on Mang-ryo’s back.

Recently, Mang-ryo had been suffering from insomnia, unable to sleep properly. Having been forced to withdraw from all official events and live in seclusion because of Jin Ja-gang, he was filled with resentment.

Without treatments like moxa, the resentment in his heart wouldn’t subside. It felt like a stone was lodged in his chest, making it difficult to breathe.

This was an ailment that would never have occurred if not for Jin Ja-gang.

“What is the pursuit team doing that they still haven’t caught them? Those idiotic fools.”

Mang-ryo muttered curses to himself. Though there was no one around to hear him except the warrior applying the moxa, the warrior simply continued his work with a frightened expression.

But at that moment.

In the distance, through the window, bright flames and smoke could be seen.

“Hmm? What’s that?”

The warrior applying the moxa answered.

“It looks like a fire has broken out.”

“Fire?”

Mang-ryo had a strange feeling and stopped the moxa treatment to get up. Leaning on his cane, he went to the window. He could see flames rising from the main gate below.

In the dry weather, it was common for sparks from torches or braziers to cause fires.

However, as Mang-ryo looked at the fire, his heart began to race strangely.

An indescribable sense of unease came over him.

His left eye, lost because of Jin Ja-gang, began to throb painfully. Mang-ryo covered it with his hand.

Whether it was his imagination or not, the area near his left knee, where his foot had been cut off, also began to ache as if stabbed by a knife.

Mang-ryo needlessly tapped the floor with his cane.

Tak, taak, tak, tak!

Mang-ryo was well aware of it himself. He knew he had become obsessed with Jin Ja-gang.

How could he not be obsessed? This was the person who had taken his eye and one of his legs!

But this time, at least this time, it wasn’t paranoia caused by his obsession. All of Mang-ryo’s senses were warning him about that fire.

Three days since contact with the pursuit team was lost.

The continuously spreading fire at the main gate.

Though they seemed unrelated, there was an insanely suspicious smell about it all.

Mang-ryo raised his head with a pained expression. As if possessed, he brushed off the moxa and put on his robe.

Then he limped hurriedly down the mountain, forgetting the sect leader’s order not to interfere in sect matters.

Mang-ryo ran downhill for quite some time until he reached the main gate.

Many warriors had already gathered at the smoke-filled scene. The fire was nearly extinguished, but no one was trying to completely put it out.

Everyone was just watching from a distance, not approaching the burning area.

Mang-ryo saw more than twenty corpses strewn about where the fire had broken out. As he instinctively moved forward to check the bodies, warriors stopped him.

“You must not!”

Mang-ryo glared at the warrior who had stopped him with his bulging eye. Strong anger was etched in Mang-ryo’s gaze, as if to say, “How dare you block my path?”

The warrior felt as if his body had frozen the moment he met Mang-ryo’s eye.

The warrior hurriedly explained.

“The smoke is poisonous, so no one can go near. All our comrades who approached ended up like that. We’ve reported to superiors, so for now, we can only hope the fire extinguishes itself…”

After briefly looking at the scene, Mang-ryo ignored the warrior and took a resolute step forward.

He walked several steps toward the burning earthen guard rooms and stopped, about ten paces away from the corpses. From there, he advanced very cautiously.

The warriors held their breath as they watched Mang-ryo.

Several warriors who had bravely entered to extinguish the fire or rescue their comrades had all collapsed like Mang-ryo was doing now. That’s why everyone else could only stand by and watch.

Sure enough, Mang-ryo began to stagger at one point. He quickly retreated.

“Ugh…”