Chapter 446

The Emei Sect female monks were amazed.

They had known that Baek-won was a spiritual creature, but without Jin Ja-gang, they would never have realized she could distinguish poisons.

“We’ve got a lead. I’ll immediately assign someone to you.”

Abbess In-eun was about to assign a young female monk who hadn’t been poisoned as a guide for Jin Ja-gang.

But suddenly Baek-won bared her teeth and screamed.

“Kkeek! Kkeek!”

The female monk hesitated and couldn’t approach.

Abbess In-eun glared at Baek-won.

“Baek-won! What are you doing!”

Baek-won seemed slightly dejected by Abbess In-eun’s scolding, but she continued showing her teeth to prevent the female monk from approaching. She looked as if she was protecting Jin Ja-gang.

“It’s fine. Baek-won will guide me, so it’ll be alright.”

“Is there nothing else you need?”

“It’s fine.”

Jin Ja-gang bowed in greeting and immediately left the Iron Tile Hall.

Yeong-gwi, who had been waiting, welcomed Jin Ja-gang.

“Kkeek!”

Baek-won shrieked again.

Jin Ja-gang couldn’t hold back his anger.

“Can’t you stop that!”

Then Baek-won looked at Jin Ja-gang resentfully, stomping the ground with her feet. Then she turned her back and looked elsewhere. Even when Jin Ja-gang called, she had no intention of moving.

Baek-won continued looking elsewhere, pouting her lips.

“Kkeuk, kkeuk.”

She seemed to be feeling sorry for herself somehow.

If Baek-won wouldn’t help, the clue to this matter would be lost.

Yeong-gwi shook his head.

“Just leave her be. I’ll follow at a distance.”

When Yeong-gwi backed away from Jin Ja-gang, Baek-won glanced around cautiously, then ran to Jin Ja-gang. She climbed onto his shoulder and waved her front paws while making “kkeek kkeek” sounds.

When the flustered Jin Ja-gang tried to remove Baek-won, Yeong-gwi smiled awkwardly.

“The madam warned you to be careful of Emei Sect’s female monks…”

Jin Ja-gang looked at Yeong-gwi as if asking what she meant.

Yeong-gwi gestured toward Baek-won with his eyes.

“She’s female.”

Gasp.

“Kkeak kkeak!”

Baek-won was cheering without knowing anything.

***

Jin Ja-gang descended the mountain following where Baek-won pointed.

But partway down, Baek-won pointed to a path that turned sideways. When Jin Ja-gang asked why she was pointing in that direction, she seemed frustrated and instead climbed trees and advanced ahead herself.

Jin Ja-gang and Yeong-gwi had no choice but to follow Baek-won.

A spectacle was unfolding of dozens of monkeys following Jin Ja-gang and Yeong-gwi from above in the trees.

Baek-won’s movements were almost like those of a martial arts master in human terms. The other monkeys couldn’t keep up and gradually fell further behind. If Jin Ja-gang hadn’t learned lightness skills, he would have faced considerable difficulty.

The place where Baek-won led Jin Ja-gang after a long while was a small temple.

The plaque read “Soun-am.”

This was the place Abbess In-eun had mentioned.

“Why did she bring us here?”

Jin Ja-gang asked, but Baek-won just looked at him expectantly with bright eyes, as if wanting praise for doing well.

“Let’s look around first.”

Yeong-gwi checked the surroundings, but there were only corpses everywhere. The buildings were intact, but all the people had been brutally crushed to death. They were killed not by poison but by martial arts.

Even though Yeong-gwi had seen many gruesome sights, looking at these decomposing corpses wasn’t easy.

Yeong-gwi muttered.

“This goes beyond horrible to bold. To commit slaughter on Mount Emei. They deliberately implemented complete annihilation.”

Yeong-gwi covered her nose and mouth with cloth and continued examining the corpses. The bodies of monks were everywhere, and the stench of blood filled the air. Due to the hot weather and long abandonment, flies were buzzing around.

Baek-won shook her head while watching Yeong-gwi turn over corpses and search even the ground where bodies had been.

But Yeong-gwi didn’t stop.

“This is strange…”

“Why is that?”

After examining the corpses for a while, Yeong-gwi answered.

“There aren’t even twenty dead. Since this isn’t a large temple, the complete massacre wouldn’t have taken even an hour.”

Jin Ja-gang nodded.

After thinking, Yeong-gwi said.

“If the one who did this was a considerable master, they could have finished the annihilation before Emei Sect noticed. But would it have been possible to come up here without being detected by anyone?”

Emei Sect already knew Jin Ja-gang and Yeong-gwi were coming. If an unidentified outsider had visited, they would certainly have investigated. No matter how skilled this master was, even pretending to be a simple temple visitor wouldn’t have fooled Emei Sect’s eyes.

After thinking briefly, Jin Ja-gang said.

“There were two opportunities. When the rebellion occurred in Emei Sect. And right after Abbess In-eun suppressed the rebellion and left her post to help us.”

“That’s what’s strange.”

Yeong-gwi showed part of a corpse.

Rotted flesh was covered with fly eggs and maggots like sesame seeds. It was a disgusting sight, but neither man cared.

“When you raise poisonous insects, you see many bugs.”

Yeong-gwi said.

“When an animal dies, ants come first. Then flies. But flies don’t lay eggs on fresh meat, so they wait for it to spoil and decompose before laying eggs. That time is usually two or three days after mating. The eggs hatch within a day and spend about seven days as larvae before becoming pupae.”

Jin Ja-gang realized what Yeong-gwi was trying to say.

“Since we can see maggots, it’s already been two or three days, and if we can see pupae, at least ten days have passed.”

“Exactly. But when larvae become pupae, they come out of the meat and crawl into the soil.”

This was why Yeong-gwi had dug into the ground beneath the corpses. She showed the soil she’d dug up in her palm.

Fly pupae were visible. And pupae that had just started hatching and were wriggling were also visible.

“In warm weather, pupae hatch in five days. Exactly like the current weather.”

Yeong-gwi said.

“At least fifteen days have passed since the slaughter occurred.”

A strange look flashed in Jin Ja-gang’s eyes.

It hadn’t been fifteen days since the rebellion in Emei Sect.

Today was the thirteenth day.

This meant the slaughter at Soun-am had occurred at least two or three days before the rebellion!

“The rebellion was just around the corner. Yet they risked being discovered to commit this act…?”

Wasn’t this incomprehensible by common sense!

“If it was before the rebellion, it was when Emei Sect’s guard was at its highest due to the salt convoy. Yet they could come here without being detected… Either they were someone familiar who visited often, or there’s a possibility of an insider.”

Jin Ja-gang stopped speaking suddenly.

“No, wait.”

There was something he’d missed.

Jin Ja-gang looked at Baek-won. The fact that Baek-won had brought him here meant the Five Paths Fatal Poison had been here.

“They brought the Five Paths Fatal Poison and had this temple’s monks pass the poison to Emei Sect, then immediately… killed them to silence them…”

Looking at it that way, it roughly fit together.

But there were still parts that couldn’t be explained.

Jin Ja-gang looked up at the sky. The blue sky was blazing with hot sunlight. The clear sky without a single cloud quickly heightened Jin Ja-gang’s suspicions.

“Why?”

Why!

Jin Ja-gang looked at Yeong-gwi. His eyes were full of doubt.

“If their target was Emei Sect, there was no need to destroy evidence. When the rebellion occurred, instead of destroying evidence, they should have attacked Emei Sect.”

That’s right.

Wouldn’t it have been much more beneficial to attack when Emei Sect was in internal strife! If even one more master of this caliber had joined in, Abbess In-eun couldn’t have held out.

Even while talking with Abbess In-eun, Jin Ja-gang couldn’t shake off one persistent doubt.

The fact that the rebellion led by In-eun’s opposition faction ultimately failed.

Why?

If they instigated the rebellion, they should naturally have made it succeed as much as possible.

Yet why did they leave it to fail… and even destroy evidence before the rebellion occurred, as if they knew it would fail?

Wasn’t this an attitude as if it didn’t matter whether it succeeded or failed!

At Jin Ja-gang’s doubt, Yeong-gwi also felt chills down his spine and shuddered.

“That’s exactly… like the distribution of poisoned salt that the King of Hell had planned?”

King of Hell Tang Qing had planned for over ten years to distribute the Five Paths Fatal Poison mixed with salt. However, the Five Paths Fatal Poison had already been taken outside before then, and Tang Qing’s plan would have been difficult to succeed even if implemented.

The similarity couldn’t be denied.

Yeong-gwi said.

“Certainly the rebellion we’re thinking of and the aspect of the rebellion occurring now are too different.”

Countless fights were breaking out throughout the martial world. From internal rebellions to seize power, to conflicts between sects and factions.

Yet there was no talk of everyone succeeding.

Half succeeded and half failed.

If someone benefited from this, what benefit could they possibly gain?

Jin Ja-gang still couldn’t get even a clue.

Jin Ja-gang showed Baek-won the Five Paths Fatal Poison and asked once more.

“Are you certain you saw the one who brought this here?”

“Kkeek kkeek.”

“Have you seen them somewhere else?”

“Kkeek.”

“Guide us there.”

Baek-won seemed to find it easy as she climbed trees and ran ahead.

Jin Ja-gang and Yeong-gwi soon followed.

Bokho-am… It was a small hermitage where a few monks lived. Nothing had happened there. The monks who saw Jin Ja-gang greeted him with joined palms.

Jin Ja-gang observed them carefully but couldn’t see anything particularly unusual.

Baek-won started running again.

Ohyeon-sa.

A temple built by carving caves at the edge of a cliff, where about thirty monks resided.

There was no problem there either. The head monk who welcomed Jin Ja-gang even asked what the matter was.

“Haven’t you seen any suspicious people recently?”

“We were all worried because ominous things happened at Emei Sect and Soun-am, but we haven’t seen any strangers lately. Namu Amitabha Guanshiyin Bodhisattva.”

The head monk permitted them to look around the temple if they wished. Jin Ja-gang didn’t refuse and thoroughly examined the temple.

There was nothing particularly strange to be seen.

Jin Ja-gang looked at Baek-won with suspicious eyes.

“Are you certain you saw them here?”

Baek-won stamped her feet and threw a tantrum.

“Kkeak! Kkeak!”

Baek-won immediately ran elsewhere. Jin Ja-gang and Yeong-gwi had no choice but to follow her.

After going down the mountain and climbing up another steep peak, they reached Mannyeon-sa.

Built like a fortress on a high peak, it was a place difficult for outsiders to approach secretly. A monk from Mannyeon-sa was already waiting at the gate when he saw Jin Ja-gang coming.

Several monks at Mannyeon-sa had learned martial arts, but they weren’t first-rate masters who could easily kill people. As expected, there were no particular problems there either.

Yeong-gwi suspected Baek-won.

“Isn’t Baek-won misunderstanding our words? Everywhere we’ve gone, everyone says they haven’t seen any suspicious people.”

Baek-won raised her front paws and jumped up and down.

“Kkyaaak!”

Jin Ja-gang showed the Five Paths Fatal Poison to Baek-won again.

“The one who brought this. You remember them, right?”

Baek-won blinked and scratched her cheek. According to Abbess In-eun, this meant affirmation.

“Then do you know where you last saw the one who brought this?”

Baek-won scratched her cheek again. Then she started running as if frustrated.

Jin Ja-gang and Yeong-gwi followed Baek-won down from Mannyeon-sa.

Going down peaks and around mountains, the scenery seemed somehow familiar.

Jin Ja-gang and Yeong-gwi spoke less and less.

They could tell where Baek-won was going.

When Baek-won finally stopped at the mountain summit.

Jin Ja-gang and Yeong-gwi were speechless.

It was Emei Sect’s main mountain.