Chapter 169. Hair Fluttered in the Wind.
“Sect Leader, I’m here.”
“Doctor, welcome.”
Murong Bai, who had appeared after two days spent examining Bi Jian, looked far more haggard than I had expected.
Feeling sorry for the look on Murong Bai’s face, I asked.
“Have you not slept?”
Murong Bai sat down beside me and let out a short sigh.
“I was so focused on a difficult matter that I couldn’t sleep at all. I thought I would discuss it with you first, Sect Leader, and then get some rest.”
Not a report on the patient’s condition, but a discussion?
I realized there had to be some story behind it, but I shut my mouth and waited for Murong Bai to speak.
Murong Bai first asked for my understanding.
“I’m short on sleep, so my words may get a bit tangled.”
“It’s fine. Mine are always tangled.”
“Yes.”
Only then did Murong Bai study my face from side to side and ask.
“Were you unable to sleep as well, Sect Leader?”
“I did some qi circulation and breathing. When nothing’s happening, I have to cram it in. Since I never know when I’ll have to fight, even sleeping feels like a waste.”
Murong Bai looked at me with a pitiful expression.
“We truly are fellow sufferers.”
“Tell me about it.”
“Even so, you must sleep properly. There is no medicine for lack of sleep.”
“Doctor, you should say that to yourself.”
“Indeed.”
The two of us let out short sighs at the same time. Murong Bai abruptly said this.
“……I’m suddenly getting angry.”
I felt a slight pang of guilt.
“Most people are like that when they can’t sleep.”
After taking a deep breath, Murong Bai asked me.
“Very well. How far did I explain?”
I answered in a calm tone.
“Mm, if my memory serves me right, you haven’t explained anything yet.”
“I see. Then, I shall begin.”
When I nodded with my arms crossed, Murong Bai continued his report.
“On the first day, I told Bi Jian not to say anything to me. I began the examination without having any information at all. With only the single assumption that he had been poisoned.”
“A reasonable approach.”
“I spent an entire day checking Bi Jian’s condition through various tests, but I could not determine whether he was poisoned.”
“You mean his body is fine?”
“Yes, despite using every method I know. For the time being, I declared my defeat on the very first day. If this is a poisoned state, then it means there is someone far superior to me.”
“I see.”
“From the second day onward, I gathered information. I listened in detail about the poison and the antidote, his condition when he took each of the two, the differences, sensations, changes, mood, and so on. He took the poison once at the beginning, and then took the antidote at intervals of thirty days. He says he receives three pills of the antidote at a time. In other words, if he does not receive a new antidote within ninety days, he dies horribly. Sect Leader, does anything seem strange up to this point?”
As I listened to Murong Bai, I asked a question.
“By any chance……”
“Yes.”
“Did he say he saw that man who died horribly with his own eyes?”
“Yes.”
“Good. I’ll only confirm up to that as well. Keep going.”
“The condition of the man who supposedly died because he could not take the antidote was, astonishingly, that his body burst apart and he died.”
“Is that so?”
Murong Bai nodded.
“I will tell you my conclusion. Bi Jian’s story does not add up. First of all, the poison he initially took was likely not poison.”
I asked in a calm tone.
“Then was the antidote the poison?”
“It is a little more complicated. To explain, it was not an antidote, but a highly addictive drug. In other words, if I judge the situation from the symptoms, the initial poison was a drug that induced hallucinations. The antidote he took at thirty-day intervals gradually caused addictive symptoms, and if he failed to take it on time, he would suffer fear, visions, and extreme psychological agony. It is a drug designed to make him completely dependent on the organization.”
“They’re even more wicked than we expected.”
“They are. It seems that for those who show loyalty to the organization, they do not merely give three pills, but pretend to be generous and provide five or six pills in advance. Then they can take them with peace of mind.”
I looked at Murong Bai’s expression.
“Then what we need to confirm is the exact cause of death of the fellow whose body supposedly burst apart.”
“That is correct.”
“Confirming that will be difficult, won’t it?”
“Yes.”
Only then did I roughly grasp the situation.
“So your concern is that all of this may remain nothing more than your conjecture. If that happens, Bi Jian is as good as dead.”
“That is correct. It likely means that if he cannot continue taking the antidote, Bi Jian may harm himself due to withdrawal symptoms, betray us, or run back to the organization and cling to them while crying and begging.”
I rubbed my forearm.
“Wow, those bastards give me chills. In any case, it is poison. The problem is that Bi Jian himself wants that poison.”
“Yes.”
With my arms crossed, I looked at Murong Bai’s haggard face. He must have suffered immensely to figure out this much.
“If Bi Jian is driven that far psychologically, he’ll resent us terribly.”
“He will.”
Murong Bai spoke with a grave expression.
“I feel as though I have glimpsed a new domain of poison. It has made the body desire the poison. How terrifying a poison is that?”
“If one has to refuse to eat it, only then would it be called poison, but since he wants to take it, the term medicine is more fitting. If we were to give it a temporary name for the sake of communication, we could call it a narcotic.”
“That is an appropriate expression, Sect Leader.”
After pondering something for a while, I asked Murong Bai.
“Was there perhaps another basis that led you to this inference?”
Murong Bai answered with a somewhat surprised expression.
“Yes. In other words, this is a matter of production efficiency. It seems there are quite a few martial experts in the jianghu who are taking it. But if they had produced such a large quantity of a poison so exceptional that I could not detoxify it, that would mean they possess truly enormous financial power.”
“They would.”
“But you said the organization is gathering money, did you not? It is a strategy that does not make sense.”
“If they gather money only to spend it all in the end on making that extraordinary poison…… then it wouldn’t be profitable.”
“Precisely. On the other hand, they are continuously providing the narcotic disguised as an antidote. Ultimately, that means the cost of producing the narcotic is cheaper than the poison. They must already have mass-produced it and secured a sufficient quantity. That is why I inferred that the greater problem lies with the so-called antidote.”
I nodded.
“Correct.”
I came to the same conclusion myself. I let out a brief sigh, then looked at Murong Bai. What sort of fight would I have been fighting if not for this genius?
Murong Bai said,
“I have more or less grasped the situation, but I had nothing I could say to Byeokgeom. So I came to discuss it with you, Sect Leader.”
“How long did he say he has before he must take the antidote?”
“About ten days remain, he says. It seems he had been promised that if he attacked and dealt with you this time, he would be given the antidote in advance. What will you do?”
“Master Murong.”
“Yes.”
“This time, I don’t have any clever plan either.”
“Mm.”
“When there’s no clever plan, I think the only way is to tell him everything honestly. Tell Byeokgeom, this is our conjecture. What you took was not an antidote, but a drug that continues to cause symptoms of poisoning. If you stop taking it, you will suffer terribly. There is even a possibility that our conjecture is wrong. We have to tell him all of it.”
Murong Bai nodded.
“Of course, when Byeokgeom is in his right mind, he will understand what we say. But once he is in a state where he cannot take the antidote, it is difficult to predict how he will react. This is only my guess, but the man whose body burst and died likely died after taking some other poison. Something meant to make him feel overwhelming terror when the withdrawal symptoms began.”
“They’re absolute villains.”
There was no way to confirm whether the Third Young Master would survive and later become one of the Five Evils. But with methods like this, he was more than wicked enough to become one of them.
He was the Cult Leader’s child. What would he shrink from?
The old Cult Leader, who had at least fought over succession, might have had more humanity in him. If the children taught by such a Cult Leader after he had abandoned his humanity were like this, then it was entirely possible villains worse than their own father had been born.
Just looking at what they were doing now said as much.
Because these were atrocities in which one could find no trace of the principles of the jianghu or the honor of martial artists.
“These bastards are truly of the demonic path too. Even that damned maternal clan of theirs.”
“Yes.”
“Where is Byeokgeom?”
Murong Bai pointed toward the main hall and said,
“There was no meaning in treating him, so I brought him along with the guards.”
“Tell him to come in. And you, go get some sleep. No matter what decision is made, I’ll share the news with you.”
“Understood.”
Murong Bai rose, then let out a sigh.
“Sect Leader.”
“Hm?”
“I am very angry as well. This must be the emotion called rage, yes?”
I comforted Murong Bai in as calm a tone as I could.
“Master, anger like that is a normal reaction. Once you learn how things are going, it’s only natural to be furious. There’s no need to worry too much. I’ll smash them to pieces somehow, so you look after your own body first.”
“Yes.”
“How have you endured all this time, Sect Leader? Amid emotions like these.”
“Me? You helped me, didn’t you?”
Murong Bai nodded.
“I see.”
I watched Murong Bai’s back as he walked away, drained of strength, then called him to a stop.
“Master……”
“Yes.”
“Don’t fall too deeply into emotions like that. You’ll end up like me.”
Only then did Murong Bai smile faintly and reply,
“Understood.”
***
Byeokgeom was coming in with a tense expression, so I scratched the back of my neck. I pointed to the seat where Murong Bai had been sitting.
“Sit.”
“Yes.”
I studied Byeokgeom’s face for a long while before asking,
“What did Master Murong say?”
Byeokgeom answered with a tense expression.
“He only kept sighing. I did not hear anything in particular.”
Byeokgeom’s manner of speaking had become more courteous than before.
“I see. I’ll explain it to you clearly. That bastard, the Third Young Master or whatever he calls himself, has gifted you hell.”
Byeokgeom glared at me.
“Do you mean it cannot be detoxified?”
I shook my head.
“I’ll tell you by combining Murong Bai’s opinion with my own conjecture. What you first took was a drug that temporarily causes hallucinations. In other words, you never needed an antidote.”
Byeokgeom’s complexion turned pale.
“The antidote you received and took afterward is, instead, a highly addictive drug. If you stop taking it, it becomes excruciating. You don’t need an antidote. It’s just that you’re in the shitty situation of having to keep taking the antidote. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
“Yes.”
I asked Byeokgeom for the solution to this situation.
“So…… what do you want to do?”
“Pardon?”
“I said those bastards gifted you hell. I’m asking what you want to do.”
“Is there no chance…… that it truly is poison?”
“Very low. Because of money. They must have mass-produced the antidote and fed it to you. You said most of the things they made you do were to earn money.”
“Yes.”
“Then your value was lower than money. They didn’t treat you as people, but saw you as tools that brought in money. To them, you probably weren’t worth feeding expensive poison to. I’m sure they secretly killed those who became addicts and wrecks from the antidote. Or else they pinned crimes on them and disposed of them that way. Or, as an example, only then did they feed someone real poison and show you their death.”
Madness entered Byeokgeom’s eyes, and he smiled with a strange expression.
“I truly want to kill them all.”
“Do you? So do I.”
Byeokgeom looked straight at me.
“Sect Leader, please help me.”
I nodded, then said to Byeokgeom,
“I have quite a few subordinates, but for this operation, it will be most accurate for you to decide. Think of the most efficient method. I’ll help you.”
Byeokgeom said,
“The White-Faced Young Master will come to give me the antidote. Whether we capture and torture him, or secretly track him, we must find their base. They will be mass-producing the antidote there. We kill them all and burn everything.”
I nodded, then said,
“Even if we handle all of that, the pain that will come upon you is a separate matter. Honestly, I can’t predict how much you’ll suffer. According to Murong Bai, you were in terrible agony even when you took it just one day late. I heard that interval has been growing shorter and shorter as well.”
Byeokgeom crossed his arms and looked at the table with a powerless expression.
“I will try to endure it.”
The man who had said he would try to endure soon began to shed tears with a stony expression. Though there was no change in his expression at all, tears kept pouring down. It seemed he had recalled the pain he felt when he failed to take the antidote on time.
Byeokgeom looked at me.
“Sect Leader, I’ll try to endure it. It would be too unjust to go down like this.”
“Don’t be too frightened. I’ll ask Mr. Murong to…… reduce your suffering, even if we have to use poison to suppress poison. How many days are left until the withdrawal symptoms?”
“I can still hold out for more than ten days.”
I swept my hair back, then, without realizing it, ended up tearing at it.
“First, we have to catch the White-Faced Young Master.”
When I glanced down at my palm, quite a lot of hair had come out.
“……Hey, at this rate I’m going to go bald.”
As I had confirmed in my previous life…….
It had already been a life where normal beauties showed me no favor, but if I ended up bald on top of that, I had a feeling hell would unfold for me as well. A man losing his hair while dealing with the demonic path—that was me.
“Byeokgeom.”
“Yes.”
“I’m not the only one angry. While tending to you, Mr. Murong became extremely angry as well. I hear he hasn’t slept for two days.”
“Is that so? I was sleeping on and off, so I didn’t know.”
“No matter how things turn out, get along amicably with the people of Haomun from now on. That’s an order.”
“Understood.”
With my arms crossed, I murmured.
“……The crime of feeding drugs to people of the jianghu, disturbing Mr. Murong’s sleep, and making my hair fall out. I’ll gift those bastards hell.”
On the day my hair fluttered away.
Peace like a river had passed me by.