Free Web NovelOn the Vice Unit Leader’s order, two cultists ran over and bound the Heukcheon Amgui’s arms and legs.
Because his body was full of embedded hidden weapons, the Heukcheon Amgui flinched even at a small stimulus.
The Vice Unit Leader frowned.
"Tsk tsk, how can you let your body be ruined like this? You were lucky enough to obtain long-cultivated Central Plains inner energy. Ah, come to think of it, I heard there were Tang Clan people who could absorb poisons into their inner energy. It would be nice if the Heukcheon Amgui’s inner energy were that rare."
The cultist binding the Heukcheon Amgui’s hands asked cautiously,
"But what if the poison wears off before we send him to Geumeunsan?"
"Hm, it would be best to poison him again before the paralysis wears off, but after seeing the effect... I am a bit reluctant to open the poison vial again."
The Vice Unit Leader glanced down at the pouch at his waist and let out a short laugh.
"It would be a pity as well."
After pondering, he spoke in a bitter voice.
"If only the Oseoksan had not all run out, I would not be worrying like this... For now, I will take this one to Geumeunsan myself, so you lot clean up the building properly and guard it well until the sorcerer comes."
"Yes."
The Vice Unit Leader unconsciously reached for the pouch hanging at his waist, then flinched. The effect of the poison was more impressive than he had expected, and it frightened him.
It was an extreme poison that caused total paralysis the moment it touched the skin. They said it was a poison that made the soul feel as if it were trapped inside the body, making one forget how to move it.
So the victim did not die and could feel all the pain as it was.
They said it had been developed by the Tang Clan as a torture poison to use on top experts whose bodies were nearly Poison-Impervious.
Looking at the Heukcheon Amgui, who could not even blink, the Vice Unit Leader’s lips curved.
Because the Blue Blood Hall had committed a grave sin against the Blood Demon, they had been watching his mood carefully, but this seemed like it would make a very fine gift.
Recently, after losing all the framework of the Northern Sea Ice Palace and the Great Desert Sun Palace being taken by the Crimson Blood Hall Lord, the Blood Demon was in a state of great fury.
If he absorbed the inner energy of someone brought from the Central Plains, would it not console him, if only for a time?
It was the ultimate reason the Blood Demon sought to devour the Central Plains, so he would surely like this one’s inner energy.
Descending the stairs, the Vice Unit Leader called out in a delighted voice,
"Go bring out the cart."
"Yes!"
The subordinate guarding the first-floor door moved quickly.
The Vice Unit Leader turned his head to the subordinate following behind him.
"Wu-won, you..."
He was about to order the subordinate to bring new clothes to dress the Heukcheon Amgui in.
But at the sound of a sharp wind, he broke off and twisted his body to the side.
Swish.
The flying dagger that grazed past him embedded itself in the subordinate. Because the subordinate was carrying the Heukcheon Amgui on his back, he could not move and simply took the blow.
A finger-length flying dagger had pierced his thigh, but the subordinate’s expression did not change in the slightest.
The Vice Unit Leader frowned as he looked at the hidden weapon.
The qi had been so faint he had not even sensed it—what kind of monster had thrown a hidden weapon at them?
His gaze moved in the direction from which the flying dagger had come.
On the second-floor railing stood a woman who looked to be in her early twenties.
Recognizing her face, the Vice Unit Leader’s lips curved.
He had no reason not to smile. Just as he was about to head to Geumeunsan, the woman the Blood Demon was looking for had ended up in his hands.
"Today is a very lucky day."
The Vice Unit Leader was pleased that he had gained one more prey.
At that moment, an immense energy surged from behind.
When he turned his head, the Heukcheon Amgui, slung on his subordinate’s back, was staring with bloodshot eyes at the Tang clanswoman standing on the second floor.
He seemed greatly agitated, but unfortunately, there was nothing he could do.
The Vice Unit Leader gave an order to a cultist who had just recovered his body on the third floor.
"Tie up that girl as well. We will take her to Geumeunsan together."
The cultists who had finished recovering rushed toward Tang Sohwa without a word.
The Heukcheon Amgui’s inner energy seemed to burst forth once more, sending a fierce wind surging from behind, but the Vice Unit Leader and the subordinate ignored it and continued down the stairs.
Just then, the cultist who had gone outside returned, pulling a cart.
Rattle.
The Vice Unit Leader quickened his pace, thinking only of getting the Heukcheon Amgui out quickly.
Swish. Whish. Swish.
He heard the sound of hidden weapons flying, but the Vice Unit Leader did not take it seriously.
However, the moment he set foot on the first-floor floorboards, the subordinate coming down behind him shot past him.
Crash.
The subordinate tumbled down the stairs and lay sprawled on the floor, his body twisted.
The Vice Unit Leader’s eyebrows slowly lifted.
The Heukcheon Amgui’s paralysis had not worn off.
Having been flung off, the Heukcheon Amgui had struck his head on a table and was bleeding freely from the nape of his neck.
Even so, he was staring intently at the chaotic melee unfolding on the second floor.
The Vice Unit Leader used his foot to flip over the subordinate lying spread-eagled before him.
The subordinate lay with his eyes open and mouth agape.
Frowning, the Vice Unit Leader nudged aside the front of the subordinate’s clothes with his toe. A black line was visible there on his chest.
The black line extended in a straight line down to his solar plexus.
Startled, the Vice Unit Leader dropped to the floor and stripped the subordinate’s clothes with his hands.
Around his heart, several black lines were spreading out.
It was the symptom that appeared when the Blood Demon’s Dokgo killed its host.
"Wh-what is this!"
Without realizing it, the Vice Unit Leader felt over his own body.
But there was no reaction of Dokgo coming from his own body.
He could not understand the situation.
The Blood Demon had said he would strengthen their forces and had personally bestowed blood and Blood Art upon the elites. How could he now wish for their deaths?
Fear crept into the Vice Unit Leader’s face.
Thud.
The frozen Vice Unit Leader started and turned his head to the side.
It was the sound of a subordinate who had been fighting on the second floor falling to the ground.
When he hastily looked up at the second floor, the melee was already over.
Tang Sohwa was tied to a pillar. It seemed she had struggled fiercely; her clothing was torn and there were wounds on her face.
The Vice Unit Leader looked around her and his expression twisted all at once.
The subordinates lay collapsed with the whites of their eyes showing.
Tap.
The Vice Unit Leader leaped up to the second floor.
By a hair’s breadth, he finished untying the ropes binding Tang Sohwa. Fortunately for her, his attention was focused on something other than her.
"No way...!"
The Vice Unit Leader checked the upper bodies of the subordinates lying on the floor. Likewise, black lines had sprouted around their hearts.
Seizing the moment while he was shocked, Sohwa jumped down to the first floor.
Thud.
She went straight to the Heukcheon Amgui and loosened his bindings.
Thud. Thud.
Hidden weapons rained down from above, darts piercing into her back and shoulders. A cultist on the fourth floor who had recovered his body had thrown them.
Even as hidden weapons embedded themselves in her body one after another, Sohwa only furrowed her brow slightly and continued to loosen the Heukcheon Amgui’s ropes.
Even after the bindings were undone, the Heukcheon Amgui could not move.
Detecting the poisoning, Sohwa took out a flying dagger and brought it to his fingers.
"Endure it."
Sohwa immediately cut the Heukcheon Amgui’s finger and put it in her mouth. The moment the blood spread in her mouth, the Vice Unit Leader came to his senses and leaped down to the first floor.
Boom.
Sohwa dodged the Vice Unit Leader’s hidden weapon. Leaping far back, she landed atop a table.
Thud.
Yet her face was cold. For someone who had escaped, she did not look frightened in the least; instead, she seemed extremely angry.
Spitting out the Heukcheon Amgui’s blood, Tang Sohwa asked in a low voice,
"How is Gyeonhonsu (Soul-Pulling Water) in your hands?"
The Vice Unit Leader still wore Namgung Jin’s face, but Sohwa addressed him as she would a Blood Cult man.
The Vice Unit Leader smiled, as if amused by her reaction.
"They said there was nothing you did not know, but it seems you know even more than the rumors say."
"I asked how the Tang Clan’s Eight Ultimate Poisons ended up in your hands."
"If it were me, before asking how I obtained it, I would ask this instead."
With the corners of his mouth stretched all the way to his cheekbones, he spoke in a chilling voice.
"How much of those Eight Ultimate Poisons we have had made."
His voice was like a ghost’s wail, sending a chill down the back of her neck.
The Eight Ultimate Poisons were the Tang Clan’s heirloom, stored in Tang Clan Tower.
There was no way to know how this Blood Cult bastard had smuggled them out.
‘...No, I think I do know.’
A few years ago, the Blood Cult bastards had used Yeolhwachodok (Blazing Grass Poison). At that time, she had realized that a Tang Clan poison had been leaked.
Sohwa curled her hand into a fist.
The Eight Ultimate Poisons—poisons so fearsome that even those with Poison-Impervious Bodies found them difficult to handle.
Thus, the people of Tang Clan Tower had long worked to improve the Eight Ultimate Poisons as they devised extreme poisons capable of breaking through Poison-Impervious Bodies.
Even the method for producing Yeolhwachodok had been Tang Clan property too valuable to hand to another sect, but it could not be compared to the Eight Ultimate Poisons. If they had been smuggled out, they had to be recovered at all costs.
If outsiders went around wasting the Eight Ultimate Poisons, it could become a threat to the Tang Clan.
‘Especially if bastards who can change their faces so freely use Tang Clan poisons...’
For an instant, Sohwa felt a chill.
In her previous life, the Tang Clan had been framed and driven out of the Martial Alliance. Someone had imitated the Tang Clan and annihilated an entire village with extreme poison.
Sohwa rolled her stiff tongue inside her mouth once and barely managed to speak.
"...Have you also smuggled out Chilbodanhonsan (Seven-Step Soul-Severing Powder)?"
Instead of answering, the man let out a laugh. His face was that of someone mocking a fool for asking a stupid question.
Sohwa became certain that the group who had imitated the Tang Clan belonged to the Blue Blood Hall.
Slash.
Tang Sohwa pulled the flying dagger out of her own shoulder. By a hair’s breadth, the arm of a Blood Cult bastard who had approached from behind took its place.
Sohwa stabbed the arm wrapped around her shoulder with the flying dagger. The cultist merely groaned and did not withdraw his arm.
"Ugh, I’ve got her!"
The cultist gripped both of Sohwa’s wrists tightly. freeweɓnøvel.com
One of the Vice Unit Leader’s eyes narrowed as he watched.
Even while bound, Tang Sohwa did not struggle; she only stared at the Vice Unit Leader.
Despite her sharp aura, she submitted to being tied up, and without thinking, the Vice Unit Leader found himself asking,
"Have you given up?"
Tang Sohwa gave an answer that did not match his question.
"All of you are going to die here today."
When a much younger woman boasted again, the Vice Unit Leader could not help but laugh.
Ignoring Sohwa’s threat, he let his gaze slide toward his subordinate.
"Tie her tightly."
"Yes!"
The cultist, who had wrapped the rope so tightly that blood could barely circulate, was just about to tie the knot.
"Urk!"
The subordinate suddenly threw his head back toward the ceiling and stretched his body out in a straight line like a stick. Striking his chest with his hand, he foamed at the mouth and then fell backward.
Thud.
At the sound, silence fell.
The Vice Unit Leader’s eyes returned to Tang Sohwa.
His gaze, which had been on her, shifted to the collapsed Blood Cult men.
In a voice stripped of all laughter, he bored into Sohwa’s eardrums.
"Was this your doing?"
