Chapter 43

Whoosh!

Mang-ryo flew right up to the front of the mansion and stopped.

His crutches sank deep into the ground, sending up a cloud of dust.

Gulp.

The household members swallowed nervously as they stared at Mang-ryo. He quickly surveyed them and frowned.

“Aish, I’m too late.”

Mang-ryo’s voice was so hoarse it was unpleasant to hear, similar to the sound of a rake scraping an old tree.

Soon Mang-ryo sniffed the air.

“What’s this manure smell?”

Mang-ryo raised his crutch and pointed at one of the servants. The servant, intimidated by Mang-ryo’s frightening appearance, answered:

“Earlier, some madman carrying manure passed by and spilled it in front of the gate.”

“Spilled manure?”

“Y-yes, that’s right.”

“Then you closed the gate?”

“We cleaned it up, but the s-smell remained… so naturally we closed it.”

Thud, thud.

Mang-ryo hobbled on his crutches to the gate. Indeed, there were patches of manure still visible in front of the gate.

“Since the gate was closed, Seo Gil-pung must have knocked when he returned from work?”

A strong young man among the household members grew angry.

“Don’t speak so casually about my father!”

“Just answer me. Unless you want to find the murderer.”

“Eek!”

As another household member restrained the young man, the servant who had first seen Seo Gil-pung answered:

“That’s right. He knocked using the door knocker.”

Mang-ryo, still holding his crutches, took a small vial from his sleeve. He opened the lid and sprinkled the liquid inside onto the bronze door knocker.

Hiss.

Though faint, something reacted and bubbled, creating a transparent vapor.

“Hehehe. Just as I expected.”

The household members’ eyes widened. Even without understanding what it was, they could tell something was wrong.

Mang-ryo showed the vial to the household members.

“This is lye. When you apply it to the poison he uses, it produces gas.”

Mang-ryo summarized the situation again.

“He spread manure in front of the gate to coincide with Seo Gil-pung’s return time. When the gate was closed due to the smell, he set up poison on the door knocker. And when Seo Gil-pung touched it, he was poisoned and died.”

Mang-ryo gestured to the doctor and said:

“Without even checking, I’m sure it’s arsenic poisoning.”

The doctor was surprised and opened his eyes wide.

“Y-you’re right.”

The young man, Seo Gil-pung’s son, shouted at Mang-ryo:

“Who exactly is this person!”

Mang-ryo answered with a satisfied smile:

“Jin Ja-gang.”

“Jin… Ja-gang?”

“A demon-like being who can kill hundreds of people without batting an eye.”

“W-why would such a person target my father!”

Mang-ryo was no longer listening to the young man.

“His methods are becoming more and more meticulous. He’s becoming accustomed to killing people with poison! Kuhehe.”

“Excuse me!”

Mang-ryo turned to the young man with an annoyed expression.

“My father has just passed away! The murderer might still be nearby.”

“So?”

Mang-ryo was indifferent.

“Please go after him and catch him!”

Despite the young man’s desperate cry, Mang-ryo just snorted.

“Once, you know. Several masters led twenty subordinates in pursuit of him. Do you know what happened to them?”

“I-I don’t know.”

“They vanished. In just one day. They probably ended up like this.”

Mang-ryo gestured with his chin toward the dead Seo Gil-pung, leaving the young man filled with indignation but unable to respond.

“To catch him, you shouldn’t chase after him. You need to anticipate where he’ll be and wait for him.”

“Ah…”

“If you’re really determined to catch him, you should petition the Martial Arts Alliance. Though those fellows probably won’t believe you anyway, hehehe.”

Mang-ryo had claimed several times to the Yunnan Branch that Jin Ja-gang was the culprit who had annihilated the Extreme Poison Sect. However, the Yunnan Branch had dismissed his words.

From the beginning, the idea that a ten-year-old boy could annihilate an entire sect was incomprehensible.

Even the Extreme Poison Sect hadn’t believed Mang-ryo’s words until they experienced it themselves. Instead, they had pointed fingers at him, calling him insane.

In any case, since the Petition Supervisor was dead, the Martial Arts Alliance would certainly investigate. But they would waste time searching for non-existent hidden forces or conspiracies.

Mang-ryo couldn’t afford to get involved and waste time with them.

‘He came looking for Seo Gil-pung, who knew the location of the mine, so his next destination will likely be the mine where the prisoners from Hundred Flower Valley are being held.’

Mang-ryo could easily predict Jin Ja-gang’s target.

‘The Martial Arts Alliance is out of the question, but I do need some pawns… I guess I have no choice but to rely on the power of a poison sect.’

Mang-ryo looked around. There was nothing more for him to do here.

“My business here is done.”

As Mang-ryo turned to leave, the young man desperately called after him.

“W-wait!”

But Mang-ryo paid no attention and departed.

Thud—thud!

With each thrust of his crutches, his body advanced swiftly.

Mang-ryo’s internal energy had nearly doubled compared to six months ago.

This was thanks to having sole access to the remaining elixirs after the Extreme Poison Sect’s downfall.

He had searched through Miao Ligoujao’s hidden vault and the elders’ rooms to find elixirs, killing anyone who got in his way by any means necessary.

As a result of consuming all those elixirs, Mang-ryo had survived like this. Though he had lost the use of both legs due to the aftereffects of poison, he had gained an enormous internal energy reaching nearly two gapja.

Of course, due to the mixture of various elixirs, his body’s balance was poor. Occasionally, when seizures occurred, he would writhe in pain for days.

But this was rather like lying on firewood and tasting gall—the ancient Chinese idiom about enduring hardship to achieve revenge.

The deeper and more intense his pain became, the deeper his anger and desire for revenge against Jin Ja-gang grew.

‘Just wait, you b*st*rd!’

Mang-ryo smiled with a face full of murderous intent, thinking of the joy of the day when he would tear Jin Ja-gang to pieces…

* * *

Jin Ja-gang fled as far as possible from the mansion and crawled into a dilapidated temple.

“Whew.”

He felt somewhat better after escaping the cold wind. He finally managed to stretch out his legs and sit down.

Winter had come soon after he had left the Extreme Poison Sect.

Faced with the arrival of winter while his body was in such a terrible state, Jin Ja-gang felt helpless. Revenge or not, he was on the verge of freezing to death on his way to the Yunnan Branch.

Therefore, Jin Ja-gang had no choice but to stop his journey to the Yunnan Branch and spend the winter along the way.

Living near a village, he begged for food or used poison to hunt animals for meat.

Focusing primarily on surviving the winter, he finally reached the Yunnan Branch only about half a month ago when the weather improved.

Since then, he had spent all his time gathering information about Seo Gil-pung.

He learned everything from Seo Gil-pung’s commuting schedule and the location of his home, to the route he took and the number of escorts. He also discovered that no matter how busy he was, Seo Gil-pung always returned home.

After learning that he had a strong attachment to his family, Jin Ja-gang immediately formulated a plan.

That’s why he carried out his scheme near Seo Gil-pung’s home.

Because of this, even though his plan had succeeded, he didn’t feel particularly satisfied. Rather, he felt somewhat conflicted.

‘No. I can’t let my heart weaken. They are the enemies of our Hundred Flower Valley.’

Jin Ja-gang recited mantras to calm his mind.

‘Externally, train the muscles, bones, and skin; internally, train the breath of qi…’

This was from the internal energy cultivation method in the Hundred Flower Secret Scripture.

The Hundred Flower Secret Scripture, the secret manual of Hundred Flower Valley, wasn’t particularly valuable as a martial arts manual. It contained just one internal energy cultivation method, instructions on how to use internal energy, and a few hand techniques and methods.

Meanwhile, the Medicine King Sect’s secret manual, Herbal Cultivation Method, contained internal energy cultivation methods, acupuncture techniques, herb combination methods, and elixir production techniques. Excluding martial arts, the Herbal Cultivation Method was actually much more useful for everyday life.

Since the content was too difficult to fully understand, Jin Ja-gang diligently memorized the mantras and burned the books. They could be stolen by others, and it wasn’t easy to carry two books with his disabled body.

Jin Ja-gang recited the mantras every day to ensure he wouldn’t forget them.

‘When one thing moves, nothing remains unmoved; when one thing stops, nothing remains unstopped.’

Though he didn’t understand the meaning, reciting them somehow made him feel more at ease.

Jin Ja-gang fell asleep after reciting the mantras for a long time.

When dawn broke, he would have to embark on the long journey to Tuanshan Village.

Eventually, he would need to punish Baek Li-jung as well, but that would come after rescuing the survivors of Hundred Flower Valley.

For now, he could only hope that the survivors of Hundred Flower Valley were still alive…

**”

Two warriors and the Petition Supervisor had been poisoned to death.

Naturally, the Yunnan Branch of the Martial Arts Alliance was in an uproar.

The attack on members of the Martial Arts Alliance was an even bigger incident than the annihilation of the Extreme Poison Sect.

Due to being far from the Central Plains, the Yunnan Branch was merely a nominal outpost. However, this was still a matter of honor and pride for the Martial Arts Alliance.

Especially since they had recently been struggling with the issue of admitting poison sects, this had the potential to develop into a more complex problem.

Opinions were divided on whether it was the work of evil sects, poison sects, or an insider.

There was no disagreement that it was the work of a significant force, particularly when considered alongside the annihilation of the Extreme Poison Sect. However, the testimony that Mang-ryo had previously given to the Yunnan Branch was deemed worthless and completely ignored.

It took a full month for the Yunnan Branch to inform the Martial Arts Alliance Central Headquarters in Jiangxi Province about the incident and request the dispatch of masters, for the Central Headquarters to form an investigation team and send them out.

Just as Mang-ryo had predicted.

Naturally, Mang-ryo was no longer at the Yunnan Branch by then.

By the time the Martial Arts Alliance was organizing its investigation team, he had already arrived at Jianshui County in Nanhua.

Mang-ryo went straight to the Stone Forest Gang, which managed the mines in Jianshui County. The Stone Forest Gang was one of the Five Great Poison Sects of Yunnan and was in charge of managing the prisoners from the medicinal sects.

The leader of the Stone Forest Gang, Jia Hei, welcomed Mang-ryo. Jia Hei was surprisingly ordinary-looking middle-aged man.

“I’ve heard about the Extreme Poison Sect. It’s truly unfortunate. Tsk, tsk, who would have thought that Brother Miao would depart like that.”

Mang-ryo gruffly accepted Jia Hei’s greeting and then spoke:

“I want you to entrust me with managing the mine at Tuanshan Village.”

Jia Hei looked Mang-ryo up and down and then chuckled.

“I can’t just agree to such a request out of the blue. It would put me in a difficult position. There are people already in charge there.”

Mang-ryo took out a book from his bosom and handed it over. It was the secret martial arts manual of Miao Ligoujao.

“I have nowhere to go and want to find temporary lodging. A person needs to work to live, doesn’t he?”

“Well, even so…”

Mang-ryo added a few gold nuggets to the offer.

Jia Hei’s eyes gleamed with greed.

* * *

Mang-ryo was assigned to manage one of the many mines in Tuanshan Village.

The pretext was that, as a former Grand Elder of the Extreme Poison Sect, he deserved proper treatment. However, he wasn’t given command of the Stone Forest Gang’s masters; instead, he was given moderate treatment with around a dozen guards and warriors under him.

But for Mang-ryo, that was enough.

His goal wasn’t to run the mine but to set a trap for Jin Ja-gang.

Mang-ryo entered the mine to inspect the prisoners.

He noticed the survivors of Hundred Flower Valley and a few other minor medicinal sects.

This was because the attack on the medicinal sect faction wasn’t carried out by the Extreme Poison Sect alone but by all poison sects in a coordinated effort.

‘Five survivors from Hundred Flower Valley, sixteen prisoners from other medicinal sects.’

There were fewer survivors from Hundred Flower Valley than expected.

But Jin Ja-gang would still come.

Mang-ryo smiled with satisfaction.