Chapter 153 : Jaseung, Wakes

Chapter 153: Jaseung, Wakes

The Demonic Toad took Mujin and Mook Young out of the underground secret chamber and headed for the rear garden.

Whether he had sent word ahead or not, there were no warriors guarding the rear garden.

At last, in a secluded corner of the garden, Demonic Toad brought the two and looked up at the sky.

“It’s the perfect weather to die, isn’t it.”

At the killing intent pouring off Demonic Toad, Mujin asked with a frightened face.

“You’re not planning to kill us, are you?”

“Then did you think I’d let you live?”

“Didn’t you see the Alliance Leader swear on his name to spare us? If you disobey that order, the Alliance Leader won’t forgive you.”

Demonic Toad let out a loud, scornful laugh.

“Hahaha. Do you also believe, like that naive woman, that the Alliance Leader would really spare you two? After you infiltrated the underground secret chamber of the Alliance Leader’s hall and made that mess?”

Wearing an incredulous expression, Demonic Toad added,

“Naive and stupid. Is that your clan’s tradition?”

With a gloomy face, Mujin asked,

“Let me ask one thing before I die.”

“What is it?”

“What happened to our senior brother?”

“Fine, you’re going to die anyway, so I’ll tell you. When we first found him, he’d already passed out in that condition.”

“So it wasn’t by your hands huh.”

“I suppose not.”

Mujin glanced at Mook Young and gave a crooked smile.

“I knew it. He’s not someone who would go down that easily.”

All at once, Mujin’s expression brightened. So completely different from a moment ago that Demonic Toad felt a twinge of unease.

Demonic Toad clenched his fist and advanced. In any case, two punches would finish it.

Mujin stuck his head out.

“Please! Kill me in one blow, without pain.”

“That much I can grant.”

Demonic Toad brought his palm down toward Mujin.

In that instant, Mujin’s body pivoted left like a lightning strike.

Demonic Toad’s palm missed.

Shiiiik!

Mujin’s dagger sliced through the air.

Swish!

Demonic Toad twisted away, but Mujin’s blade carved deep across his waist.

“You little bastard!”

Startled, Demonic Toad hurled another palm strike.

Mujin evaded again. Demonic Toad couldn’t understand this speed. With their Qi sealed, they shouldn’t be able to move so fast.

And something unbelievable was happening behind him as well.

Thud!

A dagger tip burst out through Demonic Toad’s neck.

From behind, Mook Young had driven his blade mercilessly into Demonic Toad’s throat. Mook Young’s movement wasn’t that of someone with sealed Qi either.

Staggering, Demonic Toad reeled backward.

Shwik. Thud!

Mujin rushed in and stabbed him through the heart.

Wearing a look of incomprehension, Demonic Toad collapsed on the spot.

The two men clearly had their Qi sealed.

But at the same time, they had taken a pill that could release sealed meridians.

When they handed over their weapons earlier, Baek Seolyoung had given them that medicine.

Before coming here, when they were about to get down from the carriage, Dan Woobin had handed something to her.

What he gave her was a small leather pouch.

Inside were the things Lee Jaseung took whenever he went on dangerous missions.

Top grade Luminous Pearls, antidotes, and things to keep one alive.

And one more.

There was a pellet that released sealed acupoints. Of course, for the medicine to work, the method of sealing had to be slightly different. Since that method wasn’t difficult, she had easily learned it from Dan Woobin.

No one else could possibly notice. The way of sealing acupoints differed slightly by sect. What mattered was whether the Qi at the Dantian was properly suppressed.

Having received the pills, Mujin and Mook Young had calmly allowed their acupoints to be sealed, and though they knew Demonic Toad meant to kill them here, they went along quietly.

Growing cold, Demonic Toad would never know the truth.

And so, the two men leaped back toward the Alliance Leader’s hall.

* * *

The Three Kings stood shoulder to shoulder before the door.

Given their level of martial skill, no one could pass inside.

A wine table had been set in the room.

Jang Wonso stared with heated eyes at Baek Seolyoung, who silently gazed down into her cup.

To lust after a woman in a situation like this was laughable.

The room with the map had been breached, Lee Jaseung lay unconscious, and his disciples had even invaded.

An aggravating, infuriating situation.

Perhaps that was why he wanted all the more to possess her. It might have been a kind of escape from reality. To abandon himself to a woman’s body and forget the present for a moment.

If it were any other woman, he might not have felt it, but Baek Seolyoung was different.

She was so beautiful. From the first moment he saw her until now, he had wanted to have her.

“To confess now, the reason I tried to keep your husband at my side was all because of you.”

It wasn’t entirely because of her. There had been many matters, including the intent to check against Ban Yeo. But deep in his heart, that feeling was certainly there.

“Thank you greatly for thinking kindly of me.”

Baek Seolyoung sounded composed, but her heart was truly tangled.

She couldn’t decide what to do.

There was only one thing left she could trust. Hidden in her sleeve was a concealed weapon, a palm sized cylinder.

If fired within ten paces, it would surely kill the target, the deathly secret weapon,

Light of Certain Death within Ten Steps.

Its only weakness was that it could be used only once.

It was one of the items in the leather pouch Dan Woobin had given her.

Could she kill Jang Wonso with it?

Even if luck was with her and she killed him, how would she deal with the three standing outside? In the end, she would die at their hands.

She watched and waited for her chance.

For the moment when Jang Wonso was most off guard, when his heart loosened.

She put on a bewitching smile. She imagined Lee Jaseung before her. She thought of acting cute for him.

At that, Jang Wonso grinned foolishly and raised his cup, and in that very moment,

Swaaaash!

The Light of Certain Death within Ten Steps was fired.

A fist sized hole appeared in one wall. The weapon should have pierced Jang Wonso’s heart and then punched through the wall beyond.

But it pierced only one thing.

A chilly smile curved Jang Wonso’s lips as he slipped aside. It wasn’t that he dodged with pure skill. He had anticipated that Baek Seolyoung would attack.

“I figured this would happen.”

Baek Seolyoung sensed her plan had gone awry.

“How did you know?”

“A thought struck me. Something I had forgotten for a moment, bewitched by your beauty. What does this woman intend to gain by even offering her body? Ambition? No. You came to save your husband. If you came here alone, it means you staked your life, so would a woman like that easily give up her body?”

Baek Seolyoung realized the flaw in her performance.

She should have made her ambition more convincing, or else shown she would do anything, no matter what, for Lee Jaseung. But her thoughts were too tangled, and she ended up showing something in between.

“You came to kill me. For the sole purpose of killing me to save that man.”

Everything had been found out, but Baek Seolyoung did not give up.

She would not die for nothing. Even if she died, she would die after doing everything she could to kill him.

Her eyes went to Lee Jaseung, lying to the side.

She had no regrets.

Meeting him, she had felt and learned so much.

She truly liked him and… she loved him.

It would have been wonderful to spend more time together, but if this was all the time Heaven allowed, she would accept it.

Baek Seolyoung gripped her sword hard.

She would do her best until the last moment.

She thrust her blade at Jang Wonso. Her skill had grown to the point that no one could treat her lightly.

She was fast, strong, and sharp.

But it still wasn’t enough to kill Jang Wonso.

Thud!

Before thirty exchanges passed, Baek Seolyoung’s body flew backward under Jang Wonso’s strike.

She hit the wall and coughed up a handful of blood.

She sensed the end.

Her eyes turned to Lee Jaseung again.

“I’m sorry. Truly.”

She had wanted so badly to save him.

Killing intent surged from Jang Wonso’s eyes.

“Pitiful, truly pitiful.”

That killing intent was born of jealousy.

“I’ll violate you right in front of him.”

Jang Wonso strode forward.

Baek Seolyoung resolved to take her own life. With the odds of saving Lee Jaseung so slim, she could not bear at least that outcome.

I’m sorry, I’ll go first and wait for you.

Just as she moved to cut her own throat, Jang Wonso moved a step faster.

Swish, swish!

Two gusts of palm wind sealed her acupoints.

“You bitch of a woman! Did you really mean for me to deal with a corpse?”

It was language and conduct utterly unfitting for the Alliance Leader. His true nature was already exposed.

Swish, swish!

Palm wind flew again and sealed even her mute point. He had blocked her from biting through her tongue to die.

Jang Wonso approached slowly. To Baek Seolyoung, he felt like a snake slithering toward its prey. The thought of having her body taken by him was unbearable.

Jang Wonso slowly reached out his hand. His hand trembled. He had teased and defiled countless women, but never had it trembled like this.

His hand gripped the hem of her robe. Just as he was about to rip it away,

Clamp.

Someone seized Jang Wonso’s arm.

Startled, Jang Wonso turned. Lee Jaseung was looking at him. Sometime while no one noticed, Lee Jaseung had awakened and caught his arm.

No one in the present knew it, but at that same moment, a great rainbow arched over the Verdant Mountain, and it would remain for the next seven days.

With a calm gaze, Lee Jaseung spoke.

“What are you doing to my woman?”

Baek Seolyoung’s eyes flew wide. She was so shocked that she couldn’t speak, but the rapture that sprang from her heart spread across her face in an instant.

She had so much she wanted to say, but with her mute point sealed, no words came.

Jang Wonso was just as shocked. He never imagined Lee Jaseung would wake up and stop him, and at the very moment he was about to violate the man’s wife.

“U-Um…”

Slash.

Jang Wonso launched a merciless attack. It was a brutal strike meant to kill Lee Jaseung.

Clamp.

Lee Jaseung caught that arm.

Jang Wonso’s eyes bulged.

“How?”

“How did I dodge your attack? Because I’m stronger than you.”

“What?”

Lee Jaseung released both arms he was holding.

Not missing that instant, Jang Wonso threw a counterpunch.

Swoooosh!

It was the fastest attack he could muster.

But Lee Jaseung was much faster.

Thud!

A dagger sank into Jang Wonso’s chest.

Jang Wonso gagged blood.

He tried to speak, but Lee Jaseung clamped a hand over his mouth as if he didn’t want to hear a single word.

Then he whispered so only Jang Wonso could hear.

“I’m busy now, so I’ll let you go easily this time. But when we meet again in hell, I’ll carve you up properly then.”

Jang Wonso’s eyes bulged.

The next instant,

Thud, thud, thud, thud, thud!

Asura drove in without mercy at Jang Wonso’s neck and heart and the lower half he had used to torment so many women.

Lee Jaseung allowed him not even one last word. He had no desire to hear the fiend’s excuses or replies.

Slice.

Finally, he drew a long cut across his neck.

Before anyone could even catch the lolling head, Jang Wonso’s breath ceased. He pitched forward.

Lee Jaseung looked down coldly at the corpse, making a blood pool at his feet.

He had intended to kill him someday.

It just happened to be today.

When Lee Jaseung turned his head, Baek Seolyoung was standing there, staring at him with trembling eyes.

Lee Jaseung spread his arms wide.

“I’m sorry. For letting you be put in this situation.”

Baek Seolyoung ran into his embrace. Somehow, he had already released her sealed acupoints and mute points.

Tears streamed down her face. The joy of his awakening was overwhelming. She was happy. Not even coming back from the dead would bring such joy.

The two clung to each other so tightly it stole their breath.

The two shared the same thoughts.

Thank you, truly, for surviving