Not once until now had the bead ever moved on its own.
But the Bigwe was reacting to the bead.
*Wooooong.*
‘It’s real energy.’
It was unmistakably the same energy the Bigwe had absorbed all this time.
But there was no way the bead those bastards had brought contained any goodwill.
“We must put it back.”
The moment Geom Mugeuk carefully raised the box, trying to return the bead—
*Fwoosh.* The bead shot toward Chairan.
Without even a moment to hesitate, Chairan caught it.
The thought that she shouldn’t catch the bead and the thought that it mustn’t break came to her simultaneously, yet her instincts made her receive it.
It was a bead she had carried in her bosom all this time, a bead she was supposed to return, so her instincts did not choose to avoid it.
Startled, Geom Mugeuk tried to draw his sword, but Chairan raised her hand, signaling that it was alright.
The bead rested on her palm. She had only ever seen it inside the box; this was her first time touching the bead like this.
She had expected a horrifying sensation, but it was not. An indescribable, mystical feeling transmitted through her palm. She did not know it, but it was Jeokjeong’s energy.
Geom Mugeuk extended the box toward her again.
When she quickly tried to place the bead back inside, this time too, the bead reacted first.
*Chararararak.*
A strand of red energy flowed out of the bead like thread and coiled around her wrist.
“I’m fine.”
For now, the energy was benevolent. It did not seem it would harm her at all.
The red thread wound around her wrist began slowly climbing up her arm from her wrist, as if exploring her.
Chairan raised her internal energy and slowly drew her dagger.
Geom Mugeuk also prepared to draw his sword at any moment, while his other hand was ready to snatch the bead from her hand.
If anything happened, he intended to sever the energy connecting the bead and her in a single stroke.
When the energy climbing up her arm passed her shoulder and tried to coil around her neck, she pushed it aside with her other hand.
She did not mind it wrapping her arm, but having it wrap around her neck felt wrong.
At that very moment—
The thread-like energy that had flowed from the bead swelled up as if enraged.
*Suuuuuuk!*
The energy that had wrapped around her arm extended further and coiled around her waist and thighs like a snake. It happened in an instant.
And it was still connected to the bead. As if its roots had to remain planted in the bead.
Even now, it was fine. The energy was still benevolent, after all.
The problem was that there was something inside that energy.
*Swish.*
Geom Mugeuk and Chairan saw it.
Something swimming quickly through the red energy.
*Swirl.*
This time, they could clearly see what had circled back around through the red energy.
To their surprise, it was a snake. A real snake was moving through the red energy that wrapped around her body like a snake.
It was a very small snake, the length of a finger, and its color was red like blood. The snake swam through the red energy as if through water.
As the red snake emerged, the nature of the red energy wrapped around her body began to change. The exceedingly soft red energy seemed to heave greatly once—
*Kwaaaaak.*
—and began to constrict her.
Chairan slashed at the energy with her dagger.
*Saaaak.*
But the energy was not cut. The blade simply passed through as if through smoke.
‘I have to catch that snake!’
She aimed at the swiftly passing snake. It was so fast that cutting it was not easy.
‘Next pass, I’ll cut it!’
*Shiiik! Slash!*
The dagger accurately cut the snake as it passed through the energy wrapped around her waist.
*Ssssss.*
But the severed snake instantly merged back together, returning to its original form and swimming through the red energy.
Geom Mugeuk spoke to her with a grave expression.
“It’s no use. That is a snake that is both real and fake.”
Geom Mugeuk knew what this was. Because among the things he had studied and investigated in advance upon learning his opponent was the Amheukgung, this martial art had been among them.
“That snake is a Biheolsa (飛血蛇).”
It was a term referring to that snake, and also a term meaning a secret art.
The Biheolsa of the Amheukgung.
It was a unique secret art of theirs that infiltrated the human body and controlled the mind.
The methods of controlling a person’s mind were largely divided into Seophonsul and Godoksul (蠱毒術).
But Biheolsa was a secret art that combined those two.
In short, a living secret art.
If gu poison infiltrated the brain to control a person, Biheolsa entered the heart to control them.
Gu poison did not work on those with poison immunity, and moreover, if one knew what kind of gu it was, it could be eliminated.
But Biheolsa was different. It could not be blocked even by Mandok Bulchim, and no antidote existed.
Furthermore, since it was not merely sorcery, it exerted powerful might even against opponents strong against sorcery.
Truly, a secret art that held the greatest effect against Geom Mugeuk had been unleashed.
Of course, creating a Biheolsa was a task so difficult it bordered on impossibility.
It was known to be so difficult that one could not create a single Biheolsa even with a lifetime of effort. The creation process was too arduous and required enormous funds, and even if one succeeded in creating it, it was said to be even more difficult to keep it alive.
It was said to be a secret art that only a prodigy of demonic martial arts could create, and yet—
surprisingly, that very martial art had appeared.
Chairan did not know exactly what a Biheolsa was, but one thing was certain.
“Don’t come near me! It’s a trap!”
There was no way they would try to kill her. She could tell instinctively. It was to lure Geom Mugeuk in.
They must have predicted this situation from the moment they entrusted the bead to her.
Even as this happened, the red energy wrapped more tightly around her body.
“I will kill you. Run away now!”
She thought that if this unknown energy were absorbed into her, she would kill Geom Mugeuk. She would be consumed by madness and wield tremendous internal energy. Since it was a scheme to deal with the Sogyoju, its power would be immense.
*Kkwak.*
Her expression grew more distorted. The red energy pressed against her body with enough force to crush it.
Then Geom Mugeuk said something unexpected.
“You are the one who must flee.”
Chairan could not understand what Geom Mugeuk meant.
The moment Geom Mugeuk approached her again, she recalled what Hwa Domyeong had said to her earlier.
‘You will be persuaded by the Sogyoju. Just as Akgunhak was persuaded.’
He had known that she would join hands with the Sogyoju.
‘This plan has all been calculated.’
Yes, he had definitely said that.
And he had calculated even this.
‘That the Sogyoju would save me too!’
Hwa Domyeong had undoubtedly entrusted her with the bead knowing that Geom Mugeuk would save her.
Knowing that Geom Mugeuk would not willingly absorb this bead. To make him absorb it inevitably.
The words she had spoken to Geom Mugeuk half-jokingly had become reality.
‘…I really was their tool.’
The reason her face was contorted was not merely from pain.
The gradually intensifying pressure was reaching its limit. She could not block it with her Hosin Ganggi. It felt as if her entire body would burst at any moment.
Chairan threw back at him the same words he had once said to her.
“I’ll go to hell first and wait for you.”
At the same time, without a moment’s hesitation, she plunged the dagger into her own neck.
*Shiiik.*
She had broken her own principle of never taking her own life.
In the moment of death, she was grateful that she was someone who did not fear death. It had been the same when she sensed death from the Sado Maengju, and it was the same with this death now. Yes, she thought, if it was this kind of death, it was not so bad.
But of course, Geom Mugeuk was not someone who would stand by and watch.
The dagger stopped before her neck. Geom Mugeuk had halted her dagger with Heogong Seopmul.
“…Let me die for you.”
Of course, it was a request that would not work on Geom Mugeuk.
“Have you forgotten what would happen then? Hey, you’re supposedly the Sogyoju of the Magyo, yet you couldn’t save a single woman who likes me? What the hell have you been doing? I say, my other half.”
Gazing into her eyes, Geom Mugeuk spoke.
“Believe in me.”
As soon as he finished speaking, Geom Mugeuk grasped the red bead in her hand.
At that, the red energy emanating from the bead vibrated even more intensely and constricted her.
Geom Mugeuk placed the bead into his bosom.
To Chairan, that sight looked as if he was taking the bead to his own heart. Because it looked as if he was saying he would make the sacrifice, she cried out anxiously.
“No! Please… no.”
But the bead did not touch his heart; it touched the Bigwe he kept in his bosom.
At that very moment—
The bead, which had extended its energy far, vibrated greatly once.
*Ssshhh.*
The energy wrapped around Chairan loosened and began returning to the bead.
The bead had begun retracting all the energy it had sent out. The red snake was also carried along with that retracting energy.
The Bigwe in his bosom vibrated violently and rose into the air. Geom Mugeuk’s body rose with it.
The Bigwe began to melt the bead’s energy as it always had. Though the energy had originally been moving in and out of the bead, now it began to melt it away without a trace, as if refining it anew.
Thus, the energy that flowed out from the Bigwe began seeping into Geom Mugeuk’s body. Geom Mugeuk accepted it without avoiding it.
The energy that passed through the Bigwe was completely absorbed into Geom Mugeuk’s body. The Biheolsa that had been dissolved in the energy merged back into the form of a snake and was absorbed into Geom Mugeuk’s body along with it.
After all the energy was absorbed, he felt the bead pop out of the Bigwe with a tap.
Geom Mugeuk knew.
That they had used Jeokjeong in order to plant the Biheolsa in him.
If they took control of his mind, they would probably try to retrieve all the energy in his body by any means necessary. They would never give up on this energy.
Anyway, thanks to this, Geom Mugeuk had even succeeded in obtaining Jeokjeong’s energy.
There was one problem: the Biheolsa that had entered his body!
The energies within his body simultaneously awakened and began rampaging. He could tell it was a rejection response to the newly entered Biheolsa.
Now the Biheolsa was also among the five streams of energy coursing through his blood vessels.
The Biheolsa, like a living creature, looked for any opportunity to somehow burrow into Geom Mugeuk’s heart.
Geom Mugeuk circulated his internal power, struggling to block it.
He suffered immense pain fit to steal one’s consciousness, yet Chairan did not faint.
She struggled to rise and tried to help Geom Mugeuk, but stopped.
“Sogyoju!”
She could feel it. That Geom Mugeuk was currently fighting that red snake inside his body. It was not a situation for an outsider to recklessly intervene.
“Overcome it!”
It was then—
*Tap.*
Someone suppressed her mahyeol from behind. And whispered in her ear.
“The Sogyoju can never win.”
The one who appeared behind her like a ghost was none other than Hwa Domyeong.
Having just been freed from the constricting energy and being focused on Geom Mugeuk, she could not block Hwa Domyeong’s surprise attack.
“So the Sogyoju really knows how to absorb energy.”
He made an expression as if he could not believe what he was seeing with his own eyes.
Hwa Domyeong’s gaze turned back to Chairan.
“Good work, friend.”
Chairan glared at him in silence. Hwa Domyeong opened his fan as if frightened and hid his face behind it. His words flowed from behind the fan.
“Because of the Cheonma Hoshingong, there was simply no way to implant the Biheolsa into the Sogyoju’s body through ordinary means. So we decided to cast a large bait as well.”
That bait was Chairan, and also the bead containing Jeokjeong’s energy.
“No matter that he is the Sogyoju, he cannot block the Biheolsa.”
Hwa Domyeong peeked his face out from behind the fan.
Various emotions were mingled in Hwa Domyeong’s eyes as he looked at her.
On the other hand, Chairan’s emotions looking at him were clear.
Contempt and rage.
“You brought up Akgunhak on purpose too, didn’t you?”
Hwado Myeong was the one who had first brought up the story of Akgunhak to her.
To naturally draw her closer to the Sogyoju through Akgunhak.
A satisfied smile formed at Hwa Domyeong’s lips. It was a smile of affirmation.
“The Sogyoju is not someone who would stand by and watch a person who abandoned a contract even at the cost of giving up everything die before his eyes.”
Chairan felt fury and despair. But now was not the time to blame herself.
“Look here, friend.”
“Sorry, but you still call me friend?”
“If not others, you shouldn’t do this to me, should you?”
“Didn’t I tell you earlier not to meet the Sogyoju?”
Is that all the excuse you could think of?
Chairan suppressed the urge to spit out those words.
“Why couldn’t you trust me? You pretended to refuse the contract while trying to kill them all. You should have given me a chance.”
Hwa Domyeong smiled at her. It was a clear sneer.
“This Sogyoju is truly something. To see you tell such lies for him.”
So the reason you fanned yourself so frivolously by my side all this time, calling me your friend, was for this day?
She held back the words she wanted to say once again.
“If it ends like this, I can’t close my eyes even in death. Let me carry out my last contract with my own hands.”
She intended to save Geom Mugeuk somehow. Even at the cost of her own life.
But it did not work on Hwa Domyeong.
“Don’t look at me. Look over there. It is the moment the history of the martial world changes.”
Geom Mugeuk stood with his eyes closed. His eyeballs moved violently beneath his eyelids. It was clear he was fighting a desperate battle against the Biheolsa inside his body.
“If the Biheolsa completely controls the Sogyoju…”
Words that should not have been spoken flowed out.
“The Sogyoju will kill the Sado Maengju.”
*Swoosh.*
Hwa Domyeong opened his fan and gently fanned her.
“Your contract is a success.”
Chairan looked at Geom Mugeuk, who was fighting that desperate battle with his eyes closed. His last words came to mind.
Believe in me.
I even gave up the contract because of you, so I have to believe. Yes, she thought, I can give up the contract, but I won’t give up on you.
“A successful contract, you say?”
Chairan asked with a captivating smile.
“I don’t have to return the money, right?”