Chapter 205

Myowol became dizzy and staggered in zigzag steps for several paces before finally managing to steady herself by gripping the wall.

“Urgh!”

Saliva dripped from her mouth. Myowol was flustered.

“Could you wait a moment?”

Mang Ryo brought his face close to Myowol’s face. He even placed his hand on Myowol’s face!

“What are you…!”

Not being ignorant of matters between men and women, but for a man to touch a nun! Myowol was greatly enraged but found it difficult to respond due to her dizziness. However, when Mang Ryo pulled something out from Myowol’s left eye patch, she felt somewhat relieved.

In Mang Ryo’s hand was a bloody needle.

“Wh-when!”

Mang Ryo laughed.

“It seems your left eye has become completely useless. You didn’t know that brat had embedded it earlier?”

Myowol ground her teeth thinking of Jin Ja-gang. There was a reason Jin Ja-gang had aimed for her eyepatch.

“That… that bastard I’ll chew to death!”

“That’s how he originally is. Even when about to die, he never dies alone without struggling.”

“My eye! My eye, kyaaaah!”

Myowol was about to have a fit. For a master like Myowol, losing one eye and completely losing vision on the left side was a great burden. She couldn’t help but be despondent.

Mang Ryo comforted Myowol.

“Well, it’s fine. You’ll get used to it quickly. Seeing the world with one eye also has unexpected advantages.”

“Are you mocking this poor nun!”

“How could that be? At my age, would I enjoy mocking a nun, tsk.”

Mang Ryo pointed to his own single eye and smirked.

“When you see with only one eye, the world becomes very simple. Others say it’s biased, but then let them try having eyes like mine. Don’t try to see what can’t be seen and give up. If you only look at what you want to see, distracting thoughts disappear and your mind becomes peaceful.”

Myowol felt a strange emotion while listening to Mang Ryo’s words. Perhaps because they were similar in age and shared the same affliction? Looking more closely, she even felt wisdom in his seemingly random words.

“Seeing the world with one eye makes distracting thoughts disappear?”

Those were words like a fresh shock to Myowol, who as a disciple of Buddhism constantly struggled between Buddha’s mercy and killing, unable to control herself between killing and not killing.

Myowol’s expression became much more stable.

“Truly… it’s been a long time since I’ve heard words that pleased my heart…”

Tang Ha-ran stood dazed in front of the wall in her room that was completely filled with clothes.

Phoenix Crown and Rosy Cloud Cape.

A crown embedded with various jewels in phoenix patterns and bright red silk clothing embroidered with gorgeous gold thread depicting flowers, clouds and other designs.

“Wedding dress…”

Tang Ha-ran could only stare blankly at the Phoenix Crown and Rosy Cloud Cape.

She had always dreamed since childhood about when she might be able to wear these clothes, and now that matter had become reality.

But would she really be able to properly wear the Phoenix Crown and Rosy Cloud Cape?

Would she even be able to safely hold the wedding ceremony?

She felt stuffiness and sadness at the same time. Depending on Jin Ja-gang’s actions, she might never get to wear these clothes in her lifetime.

Even so, Tang Ha-ran still had lingering attachment.

Tang Ha-ran caressed the dreamlike soft silk sleeves and was lost in sentiment for quite a while.

A maidservant beside her said.

“The King of Hell says to wear those clothes and prepare.”

Jin Ja-gang was invited to dinner.

He was told it was not a banquet but a meeting where Tang Ha-ran’s parents would meet Jin Ja-gang.

Jin Ja-gang wore the martial uniform the Tang family had provided. Light green clothing with a dark jade-colored outer robe worn over it.

Peculiarly, the inner sides of the outer robe’s sleeves had strings and lining attached, so when pulled, the opening of the lining would tighten, allowing items to be safely stored inside.

It seemed the Tang family’s characteristics of using hidden weapons and poison had influenced even their clothing.

Jin Ja-gang checked the shape of the sleeve’s inner pocket once more and stood up to meet Tang Ha-ran’s parents.

A maidservant was waiting outside to guide him.

As expected, he had to pass through long corridor-like paths several times.

After walking more than a li, he reached an inner room of a large hall.

A middle-aged man wearing splendid clothes was waiting for Jin Ja-gang and welcomed him with cupped fists.

“Welcome. So you’re the famous Poison Dragon?”

The middle-aged woman also covered her mouth with her sleeve and smiled with her eyes as she greeted Jin Ja-gang.

“I’ve long heard of young hero’s reputation. I am Ha-ran’s mother. Thank you for coming all this way.”

Jin Ja-gang cupped his fists and lightly bowed his head in return.

His feelings were strange. Upon entering the room, he felt as if he had entered inside a beehive, with all his bodily senses oddly disturbed and becoming dull with a buzzing sensation.

“Please sit. The meal will be prepared soon.”

The three people sat at a square dining table.

Two women came and began bringing food. Various dishes that dazzled the eyes were brought out.

However, Tang Ha-ran was not present.

But Jin Ja-gang didn’t ask anything and remained quietly seated.

Awkwardly, it was Tang Ha-ran’s parents who seemed embarrassed instead.

The man smiled and said.

“As you know, when you come into our family, you’ll need to change your surname. Regardless of what family you belonged to in the past, by receiving the Tang surname, you’ll finally be accepted as a member of the Tang family.”

The woman also said.

“Of course we’ll set the date and prepare the dowry, but if there’s anything else you want, please let us know.”

“There isn’t.”

“…”

“You must have been hungry. Please eat plenty.”

“I’m not particularly hungry.”

The middle-aged couple’s faces soured at Jin Ja-gang’s response.

Even so, Jin Ja-gang was busy tasting the dishes that filled the table. He continued eating the dishes without refusing anything, in case they might contain poison.

It was as if he was possessed by a glutton.

No matter how poorly he had eaten at Qingcheng Mountain, this was excessive behavior.

Thanks to this, conversation kept breaking off and a silent atmosphere continued, but Jin Ja-gang didn’t care at all.

The middle-aged couple’s expressions gradually hardened.

“It seems we’re not to your liking?”

“Not really.”

His tone was strange.

“Please tell us. If there are any uncomfortable points… or things you don’t like…”

“I’m not sure yet.”

Jin Ja-gang was still making strange remarks.

As the atmosphere became odd, the woman asked with a forced smile.

“Could you tell us your birth time? We need it for the wedding, and also for fun we’d like to read your fortune.”

Clack!

Suddenly Jin Ja-gang put down his chopsticks. This was after he had tasted every single dish.

The middle-aged couple’s faces turned red and blue. The middle-aged man, unable to endure any longer, shouted angrily.

“I’ve been watching and watching, but isn’t this going too far!”

Jin Ja-gang stood up from his seat.

The middle-aged couple tensed and stood up simultaneously. Screech, the chairs scraped making loud noises.

But Jin Ja-gang wasn’t looking at them. He looked in turn at the three wall surfaces excluding the entrance he had come through. The wall with hanging scrolls, the wall with a side table holding flower vases, the large ten-panel folding screen with ink paintings.

“Are you listening to what I’m saying!”

The middle-aged man became angry.

But Jin Ja-gang looked around at other places without looking at the middle-aged man and said.

“You told me to speak if anything displeased me.”

“That’s right. If you don’t like something you should say so. For a person to behave so rudely…”

“I don’t like the Tang family’s hospitality toward guests.”

Jin Ja-gang turned around immediately.

Then he tried to leave the room without delay.

But the two women who had been serving had somehow blocked the door.

Jin Ja-gang cracked his neck left and right.

Crack crack.

It was an expression of fighting spirit showing he wouldn’t refuse a fight.

Then at that moment.

“That’s enough.”

An old man’s voice from behind.

At the same time, the middle-aged couple who claimed to be Tang Ha-ran’s parents knelt and prostrated themselves.

And two walls excluding the door and right wall opened.

Screech, screeeeech!

The entire walls had been sliding doors.

Inside the right wall was a large sitting room where numerous Tang family warriors could be seen standing, and inside the wall that had the folding screen in front of Jin Ja-gang, two people could be seen sitting and drinking tea behind hanging curtains.

A white-haired old man with rough hair sticking up like a lion’s mane and a beautiful nun wearing a monk’s cap.

The nun put down her teacup and smiled.

“See? This poor nun said he would notice.”

Hearing the nun’s voice, Jin Ja-gang felt strange. How could a nun’s voice flow so seductively!

The old man also laughed.

“The nun was right. Our house dog will have to go hungry today.”

“No matter what, would Poison Dragon not know the subtle orchid fragrance of the finest Iron Goddess of Mercy tea?”

“No. That brat definitely didn’t know it was Iron Goddess of Mercy. It’s difficult for someone that age to know tea fragrances.”

“Anyway, this poor nun won. Please bring different food for the dog.”

“Hmph. Still, he wasn’t the sort of fellow to just throw dog food to.”

At their unrestrained way of speaking, Jin Ja-gang frowned. That was the reason he had tasted each dish. Though there were no orchids in the room, there was an orchid fragrance, so he had tasted the food wondering if orchid fragrance spices had been used in the dishes.

Sure enough.

The orchid fragrance was indeed coming from the tea those two were drinking.

But Jin Ja-gang had one more question besides that.

Including the old man and nun, plus the warriors in the right wall, about thirty people had been surrounding the room Jin Ja-gang was in.

And from very close range at that.

Yet he had felt no presence at all.

Could this make sense?

Jin Ja-gang opened his eyes sharply and examined the sliding doors. Small black things could be seen attached to and moving on the sliding doors.

‘Insects?’

Jin Ja-gang strode toward the right room.

Even at his sudden action, the warriors didn’t move. The old man and nun only quietly continued drinking tea and saying what they had to say.

“Quite a curious benefactor, isn’t he?”

“That’s why he came all the way here.”

Jin Ja-gang closed one of the sliding doors. Then he grabbed and tore off the wallpaper attached to it.

Inside the sliding door was an empty space where thousands of small insects were crawling about disgustingly. It was as if there was a beehive.

‘Blood-sucking lice!’

Blood-sucking lice were lice. The annoying insects commonly called head lice. The white spots sitting on beggars’ heads were none other than the eggs of these head lice called nits.

The blood-sucking lice had swollen bellies from sucking blood for a long time. Their swollen bellies were dotted black.

No wonder he had felt something strange from the moment he entered the room – this seemed to be one of the reasons.

Blood-sucking lice were clinging to each door, interfering with Jin Ja-gang’s senses.

‘To think of deceiving attention with such methods.’

Jin Ja-gang admired and extended his left hand. The blood-sucking lice swarmed up Jin Ja-gang’s fingers. Though their bellies were already swollen, the blood-sucking lice seemed to want to suck Jin Ja-gang’s fresh blood and busily crawled around looking for blood vessels. However, they hesitated without actually biting. They seemed to be contemplating whether to bite or not.

The old man said.

“Even lowly creatures don’t seem to want to suck Poison Dragon’s blood.”

The nun snorted derisively.

“Lowly creatures indeed. How can poison blood lice raised on the blood of venomous creatures be lowly creatures?”

Jin Ja-gang said.

“They seem full.”

The nun spoke to Jin Ja-gang as if warning him to be careful.

“Poison blood lice digest the blood of venomous creatures but cannot digest the poison. So naturally when they bite to suck blood, they transfer the poison.”

At Jin Ja-gang’s expression looking at the poison blood lice, the old man grinned wider, tearing his demon-like mouth to the sides.

“Why? Do you want to taste the poison blood lice?”