Chapter 347

Gong-eup simply lowered his sturdy-looking arms and continued looking down at Jin Ja-gang with a smile.

Jin Ja-gang took out two short clubs from behind him, holding one in each hand.

Folding Sickle Blades.

Jin Ja-gang spoke in a low voice toward the smiling Gong-eup.

“Keep smiling carelessly like that and you’ll die.”

Jin Ja-gang gripped the short clubs tightly and struck their ends together.

Clang!

Blue-black blades sprang out, becoming sickles.

Jin Ja-gang lifted the ends of the Folding Sickle Blades and pointed them at Gong-eup. The sneer at Gong-eup’s lips deepened.

But then.

Several human silhouettes suddenly revealed themselves on walls in all directions.

Six Arhat monks stood on the walls, surrounding Jin Ja-gang in the estate like an encirclement! All had massive frames with bulging temple points and sharp gazes filled with energy.

With the Arhat monks surrounding and looking down at Jin Ja-gang, the pressure was considerable.

Including the one who had died earlier, the Arhat monk by the main gate, and Diamond Monk Gong-eup in front, there were nine in total.

The number nine (九) represents perfection in Buddhism.

No wonder it seemed strange that they would attack Physician Bell Healers with so few people. Indeed, many more had already been mobilized to completely annihilate Physician Bell Healers.

Jin Ja-gang raised his Jade Void Nine Lights Five Thunder Toad Art internal energy.

Whoosh! His clothes inflated, wrinkles disappearing as his hair shot upward.

Gong-eup shouted as if welcoming this.

“You bring disaster upon yourself! I will purify you and lead you to righteous law!”

However.

At that moment, something completely unexpected happened.

A shadow appeared behind Gong-eup on the roof, then legs wrapped around Gong-eup’s waist while slender arms coiled around his neck, which was thicker than an ordinary person’s thigh.

“Hm?”

Gong-eup was startled and tried to turn his head, but An Ryeong, who had attached herself behind him, pulled her arms tight and fixed Gong-eup’s head in place.

Gong-eup snorted and tried to remove An Ryeong clinging to his back. He gripped the ankles of the legs wrapped around his waist and tried to pry them apart. Since Gong-eup’s hands were so large compared to An Ryeong’s thin legs, her ankles caught in his grip seemed ready to break at any moment.

He should be able to easily break free from this.

Not only Gong-eup himself, but most observers thought similarly.

But An Ryeong’s legs didn’t come loose.

Surprised, Gong-eup used more force. But the legs wrapped around his waist still wouldn’t budge. They didn’t loosen at all.

“Mmm!”

Gong-eup’s eyes contorted. She was stronger than expected.

An Ryeong ground her teeth behind Gong-eup’s head. Her eyes were red with clear traces of tears.

“Master Gong-eup… I’ll collect Brother Bang’s blood debt here and now.”

Gong-eup shouted with a greatly angered face.

“How dare you!”

An Ryeong wrapped both arms firmly around Gong-eup’s neck, completely tightened her legs around his upper body in close contact, and bent her waist backward with all her strength.

Gong-eup’s neck was strongly choked.

“Grrk!”

Veins bulged all over Gong-eup’s neck. Gong-eup hastily raised his internal energy and activated Iron Cloth technique.

The robes around his waist, where legs were wrapped and squeezing, inflated. An Ryeong’s legs were inevitably pushed away.

An Ryeong gritted her teeth and squeezed her legs even harder.

“Eeeee!”

An Ryeong’s hair began rising upward eerily. Amazingly, her legs gradually dug into the golden orchid robe infused with Iron Cloth. The golden orchid robe was being crumpled.

Crunch, crunch.

The golden orchid robe crumpled like thin iron plate and rolled inward. Her legs completely penetrated the golden orchid robe and squeezed Gong-eup’s waist even harder than before.

Gong-eup’s face contorted. His ribs were being compressed and seemed ready to break any moment. He was barely holding on with Iron Cloth technique, but not only his ribs but his neck was also a problem.

Even swinging his arms backward, he couldn’t grab An Ryeong’s body.

Gong-eup finally grabbed An Ryeong’s arms. But he couldn’t remove her thin forearms that weren’t even half… no, not even a quarter of his size. Gong-eup decided to put strength in his hands and crush An Ryeong’s forearms with his grip.

“Grrraaahhh!”

An Ryeong’s forearms caught in Gong-eup’s hands were crushed as clothes and flesh began tearing together. Skin was pushed aside and blood flowed.

But because she wouldn’t release her grip to the end, Gong-eup’s face also grew redder and redder. Arms dug into his neck, pressing blood vessels and compressing his throat. His throat was pushed back, and blood formed at the corners of Gong-eup’s mouth as if his neck was injured.

Gong-eup used all his strength to crush An Ryeong’s forearms. Flesh was pushed aside as blood continued flowing. Because of the flowing blood, the arms choking his neck became slippery.

An Ryeong shouted once more, raised her internal energy, and pulled her arms.

An Ryeong’s forearms, with tremendous force applied, were so taut that blood vessels and muscle fibers could be seen in detail. It looked like what you’d see if you peeled off human skin thinly.

“Ahhhhh!”

“Grrrk!”

An Ryeong’s arms dug nearly halfway into Gong-eup’s incredibly thick neck.

Gong-eup’s face was now not just bright red but darkly bruised. His eyes gradually bulged and separated left and right, while his whites filled with bright red blood vessels. Bloody tears formed, and bright red blood began flowing from his nose.

Crack!

A sound of displaced bone came from Gong-eup’s ribs. Iron Cloth shattered and An Ryeong’s legs squeezed his ribs even tighter.

Crunch!

With an even worse sound, An Ryeong’s legs were completely buried in Gong-eup’s robes, squeezed so tight they couldn’t even be seen.

Thud!

Gong-eup fell to his knees. His upper body tilted and he had no choice but to let go of An Ryeong’s arms and support himself on the roof floor with his hands. His completely darkened face had worm-like blood vessels prominently protruding.

“Gak, grrk…”

Gong-eup gripped the floor with his hands as if clawing from pain.

Crush!

The roof tiles caught in Gong-eup’s hands crumbled to powder.

An Ryeong used all her remaining strength to bend backward and pull her arms.

“AHHHHH!”

Crunch!

Finally Gong-eup’s tongue protruded and his neck broke as his head stretched out. Gong-eup’s head was caught on An Ryeong’s arms, with his neck extended more than a span and a half while still attached to his body.

An Ryeong twisted his neck once more to completely confirm death.

Then she staggered and barely loosened her legs to stand up.

An Ryeong bent her waist and half-raised her body while looking around the courtyard. Sweat poured down like rain from her blood-covered face.

“Huff… huff huff.”

The estate was filled with silence and quiet.

It was difficult for anyone to speak first.

Even the Arhat monks found it hard to believe what they had seen with their own eyes.

Vajra Monks were one of the military forces that Shaolin Temple as a martial sect proudly displayed externally. They were selected only at the age of forty when external martial arts reached their peak.

Yet such a Vajra Monk had been overpowered by a young lady’s brute force and died with his neck broken. Even his Iron Cloth technique had been shattered.

Woon-jeong also just stared blankly at An Ryeong on the roof with his mouth open.

He hadn’t known An Ryeong possessed such powerful strength.

Though it was a previous generation, thinking of the fight with Master Beom-mong before, being able to kill a Vajra Monk like this was nearly impossible.

“Miss An Ryeong… are you alright?”

Woon-jeong finally came to his senses and asked. Though she had overwhelmed the Vajra Monk with superior strength, An Ryeong’s condition wasn’t very good either.

Gong-eup’s handprints remained clearly on both her forearms. Through the tattered sleeve fabric, the flesh where Gong-eup had squeezed was torn and bleeding.

An Ryeong couldn’t move her arms properly and couldn’t even bend her fingers correctly.

“Ah… I’m fine. This much is…”

Whir.

A ring spun in a large circle around An Ryeong. An Ryeong belatedly raised her hands to defend. But it was already too late. Her stiffened fingers wouldn’t move and there was nothing she could do.

“Ugh!”

An invisible thread wrapped around her neck.

Jin Ja-gang pulled his arm.

Whoosh!

An Ryeong fell from the roof to below with her neck bound by Black Thread.

Thoom!

Raising dusty soil, An Ryeong fell to the ground and struggled.

Jin Ja-gang walked toward An Ryeong.

An Ryeong tried to untangle Black Thread. Jin Ja-gang pulled Black Thread to make her unable to move.

Jin Ja-gang looked down at An Ryeong with cold eyes and asked.

“What are you doing?”

An Ryeong ground her teeth and said.

“What! I said I’d collect the blood debt.”

Jin Ja-gang pulled Black Thread again.

“Ugh!”

An Ryeong had to half-raise her body as she was dragged toward Jin Ja-gang with her neck choked by Black Thread.

While the Arhat monks watched without moving for a moment, Woon-jeong ran over.

“Poison Dragon, stop it. Miss An Ryeong is injured. Why are you suddenly doing this to Miss An Ryeong?”

Jin Ja-gang coldly retorted.

“Why do you think we came here?”

“Well…”

They had come to find clues from Physician Bell Healers. But Physician Bell Healers had been massacred.

Jin Ja-gang showed the torn flag cloth.

“Vajra Monk Gong-eup knew the meaning of this character. And I was about to get an answer from him.”

But Vajra Monk Gong-eup was dead with his neck pulled out and tongue protruding.

An Ryeong answered.

“Sorry. I didn’t think that far. I was only thinking about repaying Brother Bang’s blood debt…”

Jin Ja-gang pulled Black Thread harder.

“Ugh!”

Black Thread’s cord dug into An Ryeong’s neck and small drops of blood formed.

Jin Ja-gang’s gaze was cold.

“Don’t lie. If you could kill a Vajra Monk by pulling off his head with bare hands, you could have killed him from the front without ambush.”

“Hmm.”

Suddenly An Ryeong laughed while her neck was choked by Black Thread.

Jin Ja-gang bared his teeth. Killing intent gathered at the corners of his eyes, bringing up a reddish aura.

“Laugh once more and you die.”

An Ryeong raised the corners of her mouth higher.

“Kill me. Hurry up and kill me. I guarantee that if you don’t kill me now, you’ll definitely regret…”

Deep killing intent moved in Jin Ja-gang’s eyes.

“Ahhhhh!”

Woon-jeong was startled and put his hand in An Ryeong’s mouth, forcibly making her look like she was crying.

“Mmph! Mmph mmph!”

An Ryeong was flustered and looked at Woon-jeong as if asking what he was doing.

“When Poison Dragon says he’ll do something, he really does it! There are other times to be prideful. Why are you both acting like this!”

An Ryeong shook her head to remove Woon-jeong’s finger.

Woon-jeong said with a troubled expression.

“So why did you do that? If you had just waited a little or been patient…”

“Wait my ass.”

An Ryeong laughed bitterly.

“What if I know the meaning of that character?”

Jin Ja-gang’s brow furrowed.

“Do you know?”

“Of course I do.”

Woon-jeong also widened his eyes and asked.

“Miss An Ryeong knows?”

“I do.”

“How?”

Instead of answering how she knew, An Ryeong answered with the missing character.

“Shaanxi (陝). The complete characters are Shaanxi (陝西).”

“Shaanxi is Shaanxi Province, so you mean a region?”

An Ryeong didn’t answer that far.

Instead she closed her mouth briefly, stared quietly at Jin Ja-gang, then asked.

“You’re searching for the secret behind the medicine sects’ destruction that happened about ten years ago. To get revenge. Right?”

Jin Ja-gang only looked at An Ryeong without answering.

An Ryeong smiled with a deeply empty expression and said.

“I’ll tell you the real culprit behind all the events you’re searching for. So listen carefully. And the moment you hear it, don’t hesitate – act and kill.”

Jin Ja-gang’s killing intent deepened. His gaze became increasingly intense.

“Speak.”

Finally An Ryeong answered.

“I am your enemy, Poison Dragon.”