Chapter 18 : Fifteen Years Later (3)

Hee hing!

The sound of a horse neighing was heard.

“The Black Dog is here.”

The old man said with an amused expression.

The horse’s neigh came from a distance. It would still be a while before it reached the stable.

But the two of them heard the sound of the Black Dog running.

It was a sound that could not be heard with the ears. The trembling of the ground… it could only be felt with the shaking of the five limbs.

The stable boy did not move.

He just stared at the moonlight with his brow furrowed.

The day had not yet broken. It had just passed the hour of the ox. So it would be another two two hour periods before the day broke. Tonight was longer than any other night.

The wind was also unusually cold. The moonlight was also chilling.

“That Black Dog, he’s amazing. The Living Sword Sect’s Overlapping Formation wouldn’t have gone easy on him just because he’s a horse. Haha.”

The old man, the old servant, said cheerfully.

The old man called the black horse ‘Black Dog’.

It was because it understood words well and was as cute as a puppy that performed tricks.

“My eyes were right, weren’t they? I told you this one would be a great help.”

“…”

The stable boy just stared out the window. He looked at the clouds obscuring the moonlight without a word.

Hee hee hing! Dududududu!

The black horse was charging at an amazing speed.

Now, the sound of the horse’s neigh and the sound of its galloping hooves were transmitted to both ears. It was getting closer.

At that moment, the old man slammed his palm on the stable floor.

Thud!

The ground trembled.

Then the Black Dog stopped neighing. It didn’t run either. To be precise, it muffled the sound of its hooves and walked slowly. It did not awaken the night.

The fact that the Black Dog had come to the stable meant that the woman had been hit. If she hadn’t been hit, she would have gone somewhere else.

“I hope she’s not dead…”

The old man muttered to himself.

“…Now tell me. That woman, who is she?”

“Let’s check if she’s dead or alive first. There will be plenty of opportunities to talk, so let’s get ready first. I’ll take care of the Black Dog, you check on the woman.”

“You’re really not going to tell me who she is!”

“Later. Later. We don’t have time to chat leisurely right now.”

The old man patted the stable boy’s shoulder and then walked to a corner of the stable. And he lifted the rice straw for the horse feed and took out a small jar hidden inside.

Clop! Clop! Clop!

The sound of horse’s hooves rang out from outside the stable.

The stable door was open. The yard was as bright as day. But the Black Dog was not visible.

The Black Dog had walked along the wall instead of crossing the yard.

“It was worth teaching that one. At times like these, he’s smarter than a person. Much better than you.”

The stable boy left the giggling old man behind and walked towards the door.

Just then, the Black Dog was just entering the stable.

The black horse was carrying a limp woman on its back. Her body was barely held on by a single belt. It looked like it would snap if it ran too hard… but it had managed to carry her.

“This woman is not ordinary either, is she? She recognized that the horse was good. That’s why she tied herself up even in that situation.”

The old man, who had approached the Black Dog at some point, said.

“Aigoo! This one, he’s badly injured. If you’re in this state, the Living Sword Sect’s Overlapping Formation is not to be underestimated.”

The Black Dog was covered in wounds.

There were more than one or two cuts from a sword. The flesh was split and blood was flowing.

The Black Dog looked at the old man. It looked at the jar the old man was holding in his arms.

Hee hee hing!

The Black Dog, as if it knew what was in the jar, let out a long neigh and stepped back.

“Stay still, you rascal. What’s bitter to the mouth is good for the body. There’s nothing better than this for a blade wound.”

Hee hee hing!

“I told you to stay still, you rascal!”

The old man opened the jar.

Inside, it was full of leeches.

The old man, without any hesitation, put his hand in and picked up a handful of leeches.

The leeches stuck to the old man’s hand. And they immediately began to suck his blood.

The old man attached the leeches to the horse’s wounds.

Then the leeches immediately moved to the horse. They stuck to the wounds where blood was flowing.

Hee hee hing!

The horse thrashed around as if in pain.

“You’ve suffered. You’ve suffered. Just endure it for a little while. It will be okay soon.”

The old man gently stroked the Black Dog’s head.

The black horse stuck out its tongue and licked the old man’s face.

The stable boy continued to examine the woman.

She was cut long from her left shoulder blade to her waist. He would have to check to see if her spine was injured. If the bone was injured, it might be better not to treat her at all.

The wound on her side was also deep.

One shallow cut, one deep stab. She had been hit twice.

The problem was the deep stab among the two hits… looking at the sword wound, it seemed that the sword had been aimed downwards. It was a sword that had been struck down from above. Then her kidney might have been damaged.

The stable boy laid the woman flat and only examined her with his eyes. When the wound was severe, it was better not to move as much as possible.

‘One hit on the thigh. This can be ignored… Armpit? If it was stabbed under the armpit, the lungs…’

The stable boy stood up.

Back, side, under the armpit… there were three fatal wounds.

It was better not to touch her. Even if she was treated, she would likely live as a cripple for the rest of her life. She would be reduced to a vegetative state, unable to move and having to live on medicine.

The woman was an assassin.

Since the assassin was so badly injured that she could not recover, it would be better for her to die.

The stable boy stood up.

“Why? Are you not going to treat her?”

“It would be better for her to die.”

“Still, it would be better to treat her, wouldn’t it? Try to save her somehow.”

The old man’s tone was strange. He was just talking as usual… but it strangely scratched at one’s heart.

“Are you still not going to tell me who this woman is?”

“An assassin from the Drunken Flower Garden.”

“You have a lot of money. Did you put in a request to the Drunken Flower Garden? But unfortunately, it’s a failure. This woman will die soon, so I won’t have to clash with the Living Sword Sect… When you do something like this, consult with me. I’m the one who has to risk my life and fight.”

“You rascal, are you the only one risking your life? I’m going to die. What’s it to you if I want to die quickly? And that woman… is Bia.”

“What!”

The stable boy was so surprised that he whipped his head around. He glared fiercely at the old man with blazing eyes.

“That woman… is Bia. Bia. Your woman, Oh Bia.”

“You’re crazy!”

The stable boy shouted. But he had already turned his body and was taking off the woman’s blood soaked clothes.

“That’s what I told you. It would be better to treat her.”

The old man said with a grin.

The stable boy did not hear what the old man was saying. The stable boy’s entire mind was focused on the woman.

The stable boy took off the woman’s upper garment.

Her blood soaked naked body was revealed in the moonlight.

The cloth covering her chest had also been cut when her back was cut. When he took off her upper garment, the black cloth flowed down helplessly.

The stable boy did not even glance at the woman’s naked body.

He spread the wound open with both hands and looked inside.

“For now, the spine is safe…”

It couldn’t be safe, but it was safe. They had left some mercy in their hands. They had intended to capture her without killing her. It seemed they were confident that they could capture her.

The Living Sword Sect had overlooked the Black Dog.

They probably didn’t know how clever it was, that it knew how to avoid most hidden weapons. They had no way of knowing that it had been trained to even perform movements to avoid sword forms, bending and straightening its legs…

If they had known that, they would have executed a killing move at once.

The same was true for the wound that had gone deep under her armpit. He had stopped in the middle of stabbing with the sword.

Even so, the woman was still seriously injured.

Even if she was treated with great care, she could only be kept alive, and her movement could not be thought of.

Because the sword qi had cut her meridians, her true energy could not circulate. She could not stand up.

The stable boy took out a leech from the black jar and attached it to the wound.

The leech not only sucked blood, but it also prevented infection. While sucking blood, it secreted a green juice that sealed the flesh.

Green Gland Leech!

It was the best first aid medicine in the world, known only to the people of the Single-Instant Sect, which they carried instead of golden wound medicine.

The Black Dog had been hit by a sword in a fleshy area, so just attaching the Green Gland Leech was enough. But a person was different.

The stable boy placed his palm on the Mingmen acupoint on the woman’s back.

Chiiiiit!

His true energy rushed in like a flood. It entered the woman’s meridians and began to heal the cut wounds.

The Heavenly Net Heart Essential Great Art!

It was a Single-Instant Sect internal injury treatment method that was said to be able to save even a person on the verge of death as long as they had a single breath left. But the person who performed it would lose more than half of their own true energy.

“Aigoo! That precious true energy… how did you train it.”

The old man muttered with a long sigh.

“To think that Bia became an assassin of the Drunken Flower Garden. How did you find her?”

“Can I say it? The loss of true energy will be enormous, wouldn’t it be better to circulate your energy and regulate your breathing?”

“How did you find her?”

“Kikik! I’m good at that, aren’t I? To someone who is looking for someone with their life on the line, they can be seen no matter where they are hidden.”

“So you looked… and you found her.”

“I did go through a lot of trouble. Who would have thought she would be hidden as an assassin?”

“It doesn’t seem like it was our master’s idea?”

“I think the same. I think our master’s wife probably did it. It’s a good thing she’s alive, even if it’s like that. By the way… how come you don’t even say a word of thanks? I found your woman for you?”

“If you found her, you should have returned her nicely. What is this?”

“You have to walk a path of blood from now on, so you should take this kind of hardship as an appetizer. Don’t you think so?”

The old man looked at the stable boy with a grin.

“If it’s a request from the Living Sword Sect… could it be Kang Jo?”

“Kikik! Is there anyone else in the Living Sword Sect who would put in a request? The one who was supposed to die died.”

“Pfft!”

The stable boy laughed.

Kang Jo was a notorious scoundrel.

He had a bad drinking habit, and when he got drunk, he would beat up the people around him. He would punch women, children, without discrimination. Breaking their arms and legs was a common occurrence.

He was also a lecher.

If he saw a woman with a pretty face, he had to have her in his arms to be satisfied. He didn’t care even if she was a married woman. He had even raped a Buddhist nun who was practicing in a temple.

In the end, the nun had hanged herself. No, people were convinced that it was Kang Jo who had killed the nun. They believed that he had not just made the nun commit suicide, but had even killed her after raping her. Or they thought that after Kang Jo had raped the nun, his followers had cleaned up the mess.

He was a bad person, an evil person, someone who deserved to be punished. But he was someone who had not yet committed an evil deed. He had committed countless evil deeds, but they had never been revealed to the outside.

Kang Jo was a guest of honor of the Living Sword Sect.

The only son of the Kang family of Yeocheon, who was said to be responsible for half of the Living Sword Sect’s annual budget, had entered the sect to train in martial arts. The only son of a man with a million seok of land had entrusted his body to them.

So, at least in Dongseung, if not elsewhere, all his misdeeds were hidden.

It was a fact that everyone in Dongseung knew.

Someone had put in a request to the Drunken Flower Garden. They had paid a fee and asked them to kill Kang Jo. And they had killed him. The assassin who had killed the scoundrel Kang Jo was lying in a corner of the stable.

“Grandpa. Are you relieved? Anyway, it has begun.”

“It’s not necessarily that I’m relieved… I just thought it was time. If it wasn’t for this, I felt like I would just settle down forever. I thought, what’s wrong with living like this, but then a face would pop up from time to time.”

“You know my martial arts are terrible.”

“I know.”

“If I start now, it’s a dog’s death, isn’t it?”

“Kukukut! Don’t you think you’ll feel that way no matter when you start? You’ll be scared even if you start ten years from now. No, I think you’ll be even less able to do it then. If you don’t just close your eyes and start like a madman, you won’t be able to do it.”

“It’s easy for you to say that because you’ve lived long enough, grandpa.”

“You rascal… you rascal! Who has lived long enough! Try living for a thousand years! You’ll still hate dying. I’ve put my life on the line too, you rascal!”

“I know. I know. I know.”

The two looked at the moonlight.

The moonlight had no interest in what was happening in the world. It flowed indifferently.

“Those people, when will they appear?”

“Worry about them later, and put out the fire on your own feet first. The Living Sword Sect guys will be here soon. Get ready.”

The old man walked across the moonlit yard.

(End of Chapter)