Chapter 201: Struggle at the Manor

Yong Hwarin was irritated by Eum Sajeok’s calm demeanor despite the situation not being in his favor.

He looked relaxed, as if he had something to rely on.

‘No matter what trick you try, you die here today.’

“Apologies for being late.”

The assassin Yong Hwarin had met at the shabby tea house in Jeongju approached him and spoke.

“If anyone had died, I would’ve blamed you all.”

The assassin noticed the killing intent beneath Yong Hwarin’s calm voice.

“Leave no one alive!”

Feigning ignorance of what he had sensed, the assassin gave a loud order to his subordinates.

He wanted to ease Yong Hwarin’s anger that way.

“Our Division Leader is currently handling another matter and couldn’t come.”

Yong Hwarin hadn’t expected Deuksang to come anyway.

Still, just bringing over fifty elite members of the Blood Green Unit was more than enough. They had done their utmost.

As Eum Sajeok’s subordinates began dying under the assault of the Blood Green Unit, he started searching for a way to escape.

Though the Blood Heaven Ghost Demon Unit was fighting the Blood Green Unit, the tide of battle had already turned in the latter’s favor.

“Damn it, who the hell are those guys?”

“They’re assassins.”

“Did Yong Hwarin hire assassins for this?”

His deputy replied with a troubled expression.

“It seems that way.”

“A clean hit to the back of the head. If that Senior Brother had just kept his promise, those bastards would’ve been nothing. And yet I allied with him, knowing this would happen.”

In truth, he had believed that even without that Senior Brother’s help, the trap set today would be enough to kill Yong Hwarin.

But as Yong Hwarin avoided all those traps and turned the threat back on them, he couldn’t help but resent that Senior Brother for breaking his word.

“That Young Master probably wanted our Lord and Yong Hwarin to destroy each other.”

“Right. And things are going just as he planned.”

As Yong Hwarin approached, Eum Sajeok suddenly pulled a flute from his robes and blew into it.

Piiiiiiiiik!

It was a horn used to command jiangshi. Yong Hwarin flinched and looked around.

But nothing reacted to Eum Sajeok’s horn.

‘Is that a signal for retreat?’

As that thought crossed his mind, Yong Hwarin focused on capturing Eum Sajeok.

“Ora-beoni.”

Seok Unjeong came up behind Yong Hwarin and called him.

“Jeong Mae, it’s dangerous here. Stay with the others.”

Yong Hwarin spoke without turning around. His eyes remained fixed on Eum Sajeok.

“Unjeong, step back.”

The middle-aged Demonic Master, worried that his daughter had entered the battlefield, also called out.

“Ora-beoni.”

“Jeong Mae, I told you not to come. Step ba—”

But Yong Hwarin couldn’t finish his sentence.

A searing heat, like a branding iron, spread through his side.

Puk!

When he finally turned around, Seok Unjeong was stabbing a dagger into his side.

“Ghhk!”

The heat of the metal felt like molten iron being poured onto his body.

“Ora-beoni.”

Seok Unjeong pulled the dagger from his side and raised it high.

“Ghhk!”

Yong Hwarin staggered.

“Unjeong!”

The Demonic Master quickly rushed in and struck Seok Unjeong’s wrist.

“Ora-beoni.”

Seok Unjeong, unaware of what she was doing, continued to mumble “Ora-beoni” while staring at Yong Hwarin.

“She’s under the Soul Reaping Art!”

The Demonic Master glared at Eum Sajeok, who had cast the Soul Reaping Art on his daughter while he had been unconscious.

“You vile bastard! What have you done to a child who doesn’t even know martial arts!”

He placed his hand on Seok Unjeong’s Heavenly Spirit Point and infused her with qi, prompting her to scream.

“Aaaaagh!”

The Demonic Master knew dozens of variants of the Soul Reaping Art. But he couldn’t identify the one cast on his daughter. He had never seen a Soul Reaping Art with a restriction this strong.

Seeing that, Eum Sajeok burst into laughter.

“Ahahahahaha! How dare you compare my grand art to something like the Soul Reaping Art!”

Yong Hwarin sealed his acupoints to stop the bleeding.

But it felt like a fireball was raging inside him, making it hard to even stand.

After the Tai Chi Dantian had reached the Realm of Self-Existence, the qi began healing the wound on its own, and the subsiding pain was the only relief.

“This was a card I originally prepared to kill you, but I didn’t expect I’d use it to run away. Consider yourself lucky.”

As the Blood Green Unit gradually pushed back the Blood Heaven Ghost Demon Unit, Eum Sajeok began preparing his escape.

He had even calculated that that Senior Brother would break his promise and dug a meticulous trap, but Yong Hwarin was such a monstrous opponent that survival alone now seemed a luxury.

“And that girl—without me, you’ll never be able to undo the Dark Soul Dream Grand Art! She’ll have to live like that forever!”

Eum Sajeok smirked and turned his back.

Knowing that if Eum Sajeok escaped, Seok Unjeong and the poisons afflicting Go Ram and Gam Heum could never be cured, Yong Hwarin made a final gamble.

“I’ll give you the Vermilion Bird Blood Chalice and the Black Silk Celestial Silkworm!”

At those words, Eum Sajeok slowly lowered the foot he had raised to flee.

“My lord, we must escape now. Don’t believe anything that bastard says.”

His subordinate grew anxious as the number of warriors from the Blood Heaven Ghost Demon Unit continued to dwindle.

“No, just a moment longer. The Ghost Demon Unit can hold them off briefly.”

Eum Sajeok turned back.

“Fine, give me those, and I’ll restore the girl’s mind too.”

“One more thing, and they’re yours.”

Yong Hwarin raised his sword and pointed at Go Ram and Gam Heum.

“Ah, the antidote! Sure, I’ll give you that too.”

In that brief exchange, Yong Hwarin amplified all the qi in his body through the Tai Chi Dantian.

Right then, what came to Yong Hwarin’s mind was the Nascent Qi he had unleashed while fighting Heaven-Cleaving Saber Gu Hyeong.

The internal energy of Three Gaps channeled through the Tai Chi Dantian surged toward Yong Hwarin’s right hand.

Manifesting Nascent Qi during the battle against Gu Hyeong had only been possible thanks to a streak of fortune.

Because the combined internal energy of Gu Hyeong and himself had surged forth, Nascent Qi had unknowingly come into being.

If he had not, at that moment, already stepped into the early stages of the Inner-Outer Realm of the Tai Chi Dantian, he would never have achieved Nascent Qi.

Though he hadn’t reached the full stage of the Inner-Outer Realm, he had stepped into it. In that moment, as death brushed past, the Nascent Qi burst forth unconsciously.

He now felt that if the power of Three Gaps' energy passed through the Tai Chi Dantian, it could be amplified even further and enable him to unleash Nascent Qi again.

“Here, take this!”

As the energy of more than Three Gaps focused into his sword, Yong Hwarin turned the blade toward Eum Sajeok.

“Huh?”

When the sword tip pointed at him, Eum Sajeok frowned.

The moment he realized he had been deceived and was about to curse—

A small blue spark flared from the sword tip, and even that tiny flash was blinding.

Sensing something was off, the subordinate stepped in front of Eum Sajeok.

No thoughts of pushing him away or fleeing crossed his mind.

All he could do was take a step forward to block with his body the moment that light flashed.

“What is this?”

At the flash of light, an old terrifying memory resurfaced in Eum Sajeok’s mind.

It felt like watching that absolute state the masters occasionally demonstrated.

He remembered the sight of a rock being pierced the moment a master’s sword flashed with light—and he had wet himself in fear.

It was terrifying, yet also intoxicating.

He had fantasized what it would be like to master such martial arts himself, and the thought alone had made him ecstatic.

‘Impossible… How could that bastard…!’

Before the thought even finished, the light flew toward the pavilion’s roof.

Boom!

With a thunderous crash, Eum Sajeok instinctively grabbed his subordinate’s shoulder.

Whoooshhhhh!

When he came to moments later, a wind was blowing upward from below.

Looking down, he saw that except for the spot he was standing on, the roof in front had been cleanly sliced away as if by a blade.

“Subordinate!”

Eum Sajeok was still clutching his subordinate’s shoulder.

But it felt far too light. He looked down and saw intestines hanging like laundry lines below the waist.

The subordinate’s lower torso had been completely obliterated by the Nascent Qi.

Thud!

When Eum Sajeok let go, the upper body fell below.

Then Eum Sajeok, still stiff, also tumbled down.

After the Nascent Qi was unleashed, the manor fell into a deep, eerie silence.

The clamor of clashing weapons and screams had vanished.

Even those groaning in pain as they fell could only stare blankly at the now-vanished rooftop.

Both the Blood Green Unit and the Blood Heaven Ghost Demon Unit, even with enemies right before them, briefly forgot to fight.

“Save Third Young Master!”

As the few remaining members of the Blood Heaven Ghost Demon Unit rushed toward the fallen Eum Sajeok, Yong Hwarin shouted,

“Don’t let him escape this place!”

The moment he spoke, blood burst from two parts of Yong Hwarin’s body.

The blood from his mouth became a mist of red, and the blood from his side spurted out like a fountain.

The Demonic Master quickly sealed Yong Hwarin’s acupoints at his side to stop the bleeding.

The Blood Green Unit chased after the Blood Heaven Ghost Demon Unit and launched a relentless assault.

In the end, the Blood Heaven Ghost Demon Unit was annihilated by the Blood Green Unit while attempting to save Eum Sajeok.

The manor reeked of blood, but there was no time to clear away the corpses.

Treating Go Ram and Gam Heum was urgent, and Seok Unjeong’s treatment was a race against time.

The Demonic Master who retrieved the antidote from Eum Sajeok’s body opened the lids and sniffed various vials.

“There’s no antidote here.”

Yong Hwarin looked at the Sword Poison Sect warriors and spoke.

“Then perhaps the warriors of the Sword Poison Sect may have it.”

The Blood Green Unit searched every belonging of the Sword Poison Sect, but they could not find the antidote for the poison afflicting Gam Heum and Go Ram.

One of the Blood Green Unit assassins muttered.

“Seems like these people didn’t bring any antidote at all. Since they came planning to kill everyone, they had no need for an antidote.”

Now that he thought about it, the man was right. There was no reason for those who intended to kill him to carry antidotes.

The middle-aged Demonic Master offered a word of consolation.

“Still, for some reason, the poison doesn’t seem to be spreading further. That buys us some time. If we can find the antidote before then, we’ll manage.”

Upon hearing that, a certain man came to Yong Hwarin’s mind.

‘Right, that bastard would have the antidote from the Sword Poison Sect.’

He recalled the old man named Jin Pyeong, the Left Protector of the Sword Poison Sect, who now worked as an aide to Hoi Soyu of the Sky Ocean Merchant Union.

Yong Hwarin looked at Go Ram and Gam Heum with eyes filled with apology.

‘Hold on just a little longer. I’ll return to the Sky Ocean Merchant Union and retrieve the antidote.’

Yong Hwarin forced himself up and gave a clasped hands salute to the assassin who had led the Blood Green Unit.

“I thank you for accepting my request.”

The assassin returned the salute and replied.

“No. It was a request, yes, but more importantly, I was simply following the orders of our Division Leader.”

Yong Hwarin looked into the assassin’s eyes and asked,

“May I ask your name?”

“What name would an assassin have? Just call me Baekseom. Our names can only be recovered when we meet that person.”

“I only asked because I couldn’t bear not to know the name of someone who helped me. Please don’t take it the wrong way.”

With just those words, Baekseom understood Yong Hwarin’s heart well enough.

To remember someone’s name meant not to forget that person—Baekseom could feel that Yong Hwarin was genuinely grateful to him.

Yong Hwarin looked at Seok Unjeong, who lay collapsed and asleep, and asked Seok Jamyung,

“How is Jeong Mae’s condition?”

Seok Jamyung glanced at Yong Hwarin, who looked at his daughter with sorrowful eyes, and then stood up and gave him a respectful clasped hands salute.

“Thank you. I haven’t properly expressed my gratitude to Young Master Yong for taking care of my daughter and coming all this way to save her. I sincerely thank you.”

Demonic Master Seok Jamyung was not usually someone to show such courtesy. Like many other Demonic Masters clinging to the merchant factions, the middle-aged ones were generally no different.

But right now, Seok Jamyung was not speaking as a Demonic Master—he was speaking as Seok Unjeong’s father, addressing Yong Hwarin.

“Jeong Mae is like a little sister to me. Even knowing the danger, I couldn’t not come.”

Seok Jamyung couldn’t help but admire him inwardly.

Though he had wandered the murim world for a long time, he had rarely seen true righteous heroes.

He had long believed that the murim had become a place where no one acted righteously unless there was profit to gain.

After witnessing so many hypocritical and pretentious warriors calling themselves heroes, Yong Hwarin’s demeanor came across as genuinely refreshing.

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