Chapter 410. Our Reunion.
While treating Left Envoy Wei, Murong Bai showed him a small medicine bottle and said,
“It is anesthetic powder. It is closer to poison. It can lessen your current pain, but after one shichen, the pain may suddenly surge in and cause you to faint, so please keep that in mind. I will sprinkle it on now.”
Left Envoy Wei, who was drenched in cold sweat, merely nodded. Even after losing a hand, he had not let out a single scream, so Left Envoy Wei was no ordinary hard case either.
The surroundings were quiet while the anesthetic was sprinkled and the wound was stitched. By now, Left Envoy Wei’s eyes were bloodshot, and his face was completely covered in sweat.
We watched the end of a defeated martial artist from beginning to end.
As he watched his arm being completely wrapped in cloth, Left Envoy Wei asked Murong Bai,
“How should I repay you?”
Murong Bai answered in a whisper.
“It is all right.”
“Even so, tell me.”
Murong Bai, who had been arranging the knot in the cloth, suddenly raised his head and gazed at Left Envoy Wei.
“From now on, could the Left Envoy’s family refrain from harassing those who have not learned martial arts? If you do that, I will consider myself repaid.”
“I will make an effort.”
“Then I shall consider myself repaid.”
“You said your name was Murong Bai?”
“Yes.”
“Thank you.”
Perhaps worried that he might have offended the Cult Leader, Murong Bai bowed his head slightly to him, then withdrew.
“……”
The Cult Leader said nothing for a while, then looked at Left Envoy Wei.
“Left Envoy Wei.”
“Yes, Cult Leader.”
Left Envoy Wei’s complexion was pale, but when the Cult Leader called him, he rose and approached as if he had no choice. It was the kind of atmosphere where, had his legs been cut off, he would have had to crawl over.
The Cult Leader looked at the wound wrapped round and round in cloth, then asked Left Envoy Wei,
“Why did you lose?”
Left Envoy Wei stared at the Cult Leader. He seemed about to say something, then closed his mouth.
“Hmm.”
He was a clever man, so he probably knew very well the cause of his defeat.
Of course, not only the Cult Leader but we also knew where victory and defeat had been decided. Yet because the Cult Leader was deliberately asking the reason in a situation like this, Left Envoy Wei appeared at a loss for words.
But the Cult Leader was not a man who talked to himself.
Left Envoy Wei eventually opened his mouth.
“I realized too late that the sensation from the spot where my palm force struck was strange.”
“And?”
“I judged in that instant that the Sword Demon’s shoulder had been shattered or that he would be unable to use one arm, so I prepared a decisive technique. But all those expectations were overturned, and a swift counterattack came. That led directly to my defeat.”
It was a fairly cool-headed analysis.
Eldest Brother’s left arm was nearly impervious to blades and swords, and the fact that he had figured even that much out showed that Left Envoy Wei was not a complete fool.
In any case, what on earth did the Cult Leader think about as he lived?
Without a single word of comfort or even the slightest reaction of pity, he looked at Left Envoy Wei. Since I had also been curious about how the Cult Leader had treated his subordinates all this time, I looked at him as though I were listening to a scolding alongside him.
The Cult Leader said,
“That was your last chance. You had chances to win before that as well. It is a fact both you and I know, so why did you fail to seize them?”
Left Envoy Wei suddenly seemed to feel pain creeping up from his severed arm, and he answered with his face twisted into a deep grimace.
“I truly do not know. Please instruct me.”
I was slightly bewildered too.
Did Left Envoy Wei have a chance to defeat Eldest Brother? Of course Left Envoy Wei had been at an advantage, but there had been no moment when he drove Eldest Brother as if he were about to lose immediately.
The Cult Leader said,
“Aside from the final battle of minds, you were evenly matched in your exchange of techniques.”
“That is so.”
“If you had settled the match from the start with the resolve to sacrifice one arm, you would have won.”
As if he thought those words utterly unconvincing, Left Envoy Wei looked at the Cult Leader.
“My arm?”
“Why? Was it not a fight worth going that far to win? And so where has that one arm of yours gone now?”
Was this teasing, or was it mockery? Was it a rebuke?
Perhaps it was all of them.
I looked at the Cult Leader and swallowed my words inwardly.
‘Still, isn’t that a bit much to say to someone whose arm just got lopped off?’
Left Envoy Wei’s face gradually turned bright red. Even in such a state, did he think the Cult Leader was mocking him?
But the Cult Leader employed words and conduct utterly devoid of mercy.
“Do you think the Sword Demon cannot distinguish between the position of your arm and the position of your neck? That he did not cut off your breath at the end was the Sword Demon’s choice.”
Left Envoy Wei looked at the Sword Demon with the expression of someone left alone in the world, then spoke like a man half out of his soul.
“Thank you for sparing me.”
Eldest Brother answered bluntly.
“Do not mention it.”
This time, the Cult Leader looked at the Sword Demon.
“Why did you spare him?”
“Those who are to die will die by the Cult Leader’s hand, so there is no need for me to involve myself.”
Only then did Left Envoy Wei kneel before the Cult Leader and close his mouth with his head slightly bowed.
Was he saying he had no intention of killing himself, so the Cult Leader should kill him?
Even if the Cult Leader unleashed a palm strike on the spot and killed him, it would not be strange at all. And even if he left him alive just like this, that would not be particularly strange either.
The Cult Leader said,
“Return to the Wei family and reflect on yourself in seclusion.”
“Pardon?”
“Do you want to return and continue as Left Envoy? If you return in that state, the subordinates of the War Demon or the Saber Demon will not leave you alive. I never expected you to be able to defeat the Sword Demon in the first place. However, now that you have lost an arm, you should be able to correct that habit of thinking like a merchant.”
“What do you mean by the habit of thinking like a merchant?”
“The Sword Demon has more experience than you. Overwhelmingly more, most likely. Yet you tried to win perfectly in order not to suffer any loss and were defeated, so did you not lose because you acted like a merchant desperately scraping for profit? In a fight where lives are on the line, how can a merchant defeat a martial artist in a contest of tactics? If you intend to make deals and bargain in a fight, do so with your neck on the line.”
“Yes, Cult Leader. I will keep it in mind.”
Perhaps Left Envoy Wei read the order to leave from the Cult Leader’s expression, for he rose and walked away while holding his arm.
The Blood Cult Leader, who had been watching all this time, said with a snicker,
“Serves you right, you disgusting bastard.”
Left Envoy Wei looked at the Blood Cult Leader.
“It seems the next turn is yours. I wish you martial fortune.”
“You’re the one who should have wished for martial fortune earlier, you bastard. Hahahahaha.”
The Cult Leader, seemingly uninterested in the two men’s bickering, looked at Murong Bai.
“That Wei bastard held out well. Your poison must be exceptional.”
Murong Bai answered in a respectful tone.
“Yes, Cult Leader. Even so, in a little while the pain will be considerable. Left Envoy Wei endured it well. It is no easy feat.”
“You’re a physician, yet you studied poison too?”
“Poison and medicine are originally not separate things, so I studied them together. If medicine is used excessively, it becomes poison, and prescribing medicine that does not suit the patient is also poison. When one removes pain, poison is usually used.”
The reason I found myself thinking anew that the Poison Demon from my previous life was impressive was because the Cult Leader still seemed to have taken a liking to Murong Bai.
Perhaps poisonous bastards simply had something in common with one another.
Only after Left Envoy Wei had disappeared did I ask the Cult Leader.
“……Was there some particular reason you spared Left Envoy Wei?”
The Cult Leader looked at me.
“He’s a man who brings in money. Is there any need to go as far as killing him? In any case, before coming here, he would have appointed the successor to his clan and made thorough preparations for what comes after. If I’m not going to wipe out the entire clan, killing him or letting him live is the same.”
It was clear enough in its own way, yet cruel.
Because his attitude toward Left Envoy Wei was: you lost because you’re a merchant, but I spare you because you’re a merchant.
Suddenly, the Cult Leader seemed strange to me.
Now that even Left Envoy Wei had left, there was no one around who could be called his subordinate.
The Blood Cult Leader was not his subordinate; he was merely like some lunatic from the neighborhood he happened to know sitting beside him. As for subordinates, the coachmen waiting outside were all he had.
Even the Ilmajo had not appeared with such a simple retinue.
If, by any chance, the White-Robed Scholar and Cheonak arrived now as well……
The reality the Cult Leader was facing would be no different from being surrounded by the Ten Great Masters of the Jianghu.
Because the insane Blood Cult Leader could change at any moment and attack him.
And yet the Cult Leader acted as if Plum Blossom Manor were his own cult.
“Right Envoy.”
The Blood Cult Leader pointed at the Cult Leader with his finger.
“Right Envoy is an old title.”
“You don’t seem injured, so choose your opponent.”
The Blood Cult Leader nodded.
“Then I’ll make a suggestion too. In truth, it would be proper for me to face the Chief Strategist again. But in the earlier chase, I already lost three or four times. It might have been different if I’d had the Great Cloud Sword. Even the beggar’s foot-wrap of a weapon that bastard Pagoda King left behind was turned to rags by the Chief Strategist’s sword. Meaning it won’t be easy even if we fight again. As it happens, the Chief Strategist seems to be the disciple of the Divine Sword, and the previous Cult Leader was killed by the Divine Sword, so why don’t you, Cult Leader, face the Chief Strategist yourself? Of course, I’ll choose my own opponent separately.”
One thing lunatics out of their minds had in common was that, every so often, they returned to their senses.
The Blood Cult Leader had slyly arranged a duel between the Chief Strategist and the Cult Leader.
The Cult Leader said,
“Fine. Choose an opponent other than the Chief Strategist.”
In any case, it seemed stirring up a fight had not worked at all. Still, the Blood Cult Leader must have been quite pleased to avoid the formidable Hall Master Kuai, because he grinned and looked at each of us in turn.
Only after my eyes met the Blood Cult Leader’s did I come to realize why people disliked fighting madmen.
Was this what they called learning from a negative example?
Even if you won, there was no particular honor in it. No pride or sense of reward either. But the danger was immense.
‘So this is why people avoided me from time to time.’
To think enlightenment would come in this way……
Come to think of it, Shitpants and Eldest Brother had already fought once. It was obvious that whoever stepped forward, myself included, would be somewhat exhausted after facing the Blood Cult Leader.
The Blood Cult Leader stroked his chin and chose his opponent as if taunting us.
“Young Master Meng is injured. The Sword Demon just fought.”
The Blood Cult Leader looked at me.
“I don’t want to fight a madman either.”
“…….”
The Blood Cult Leader looked between the Plum Blossom Manor Lord and Murong Bai, then said,
“Hey, I won’t kill you, so one of you two challenge me. It’s fine if both of you come at me together. How about it?”
I cut in.
“How about what? You’re out of your mind. Pick someone on your level.”
“Sect Leader, are you looking down on those two? They may look weak now, but they are men in whom I can glimpse the aptitude to claim a place of their own later. If the fighting here is not a battle of killing and being killed out of resentment, then even in defeat, they will gain much.”
At that moment, a voice came from outside Plum Blossom Manor.
“Choose your opponent from among the three of us.”
“…….”
We all looked toward the collapsed wall at once.
Three people appeared side by side, clad in white, black, and a gray robe. In order, they were the White-Robed Scholar, Cheonak, and the Ghost Demon, and appearing all at once, they made for a rather fitting combination.
The three looked around, then joined us where we were.
Several reunions took place.
As if there were an order to reunion greetings, Cheonak looked at the Cult Leader.
“Cult Leader, it’s been a while.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. Under heaven, Cheonak was probably the only person who would greet the Cult Leader like that.
The Cult Leader who received that greeting also answered with his chin propped in his hand.
“Welcome.”
Next, the White-Robed Scholar looked at Gongsun Xin.
“You came? Unexpected.”
Gongsun Xin nodded.
“It is unexpected for me as well.”
Lastly, the Ghost Demon said to Eldest Brother,
“Eldest Brother, I’m here. Are you hurt anywhere? Why are you covered in so much dust?”
Perhaps that was the closest thing to a normal reunion greeting.
Eldest Brother smiled faintly and said,
“I fought Left Envoy Wei and swallowed a bit of dust.”
The Ghost Demon looked around.
“I don’t see him.”
I answered in his place.
“He got done in by Eldest Brother and lost one arm. He probably went to look for it.”
We Four Great Villains looked at one another and, for the time being, each laughed wickedly once. That served in place of the miscellaneous greetings.
The White-Robed Scholar looked around, then said to the Plum Blossom Manor Lord,
“Are you the owner?”
“Yes.”
“Water.”
In that instant, a vein bulged on the Plum Blossom Manor Lord’s forehead. When the White-Robed Scholar looked at him with a puzzled expression, the Plum Blossom Manor Lord bowed his head slightly and said,
“I will bring it.”
Now the people surrounding the Cult Leader—Shitpants, me, Eldest Brother, the Ghost Demon, White Robe, Cheonak, and even Hall Master Kuai—made for quite a lineup.
Such is the nature of people.
When allies increase, it is close to instinct to swagger.
We did not show it, but in that sense, everyone was looking at the Cult Leader. The Cult Leader looked around at us, and perhaps because he was in a good mood, he smiled faintly.
The Cult Leader spoke as if stating his impressions.
“Thanks to you, Sect Leader, many of my horses have disappeared.”
Even as he said the words had disappeared, the Cult Leader smiled. Had the Cult Leader been a man who smiled so easily?
Unexpectedly, the Cult Leader looked at Baekui Seosaeng.
“At last we meet, Baekui Seosaeng.”
Baekui Seosaeng smiled as well and answered.
“Do you know me?”
The Cult Leader nodded.
“Whenever my subordinates caught a spy and cut off fingers and toes, your alias would come up often before they were all severed.”
Baekui Seosaeng nodded.
“My training was lacking. I apologize. By the way, the manor looks far more intact than I expected; just what sort of atmosphere is this?”
Baekui Seosaeng asked me.
I explained today’s atmosphere to the newly joined experts.
“The seat that decides the best in the world.”
Baekui Seosaeng answered with a sour expression.
“I came for nothing.”
“Furthermore, the seat that decides the Five Unrivaled Under Heaven as well.”
Only then did Baekui Seosaeng smile faintly.
“Then I cannot miss out.”
Cheonak, who had brought a chair from somewhere, sat beside the Cult Leader and asked.
“Have you been well? Looking at your face……you haven’t aged a day. What good things have you been stuffing yourself with? Have you mastered Tongzigong anew?”
In all my life, this was the first time I had seen a man who dared badger the Cult Leader.
The Cult Leader nodded.
“I must have eaten better things than you, who only stuffs yourself with chicken.”
“…….”
Cheonak, struck by a retort that felt like a sharp slap to the cheek, looked at me. Since our eyes had met, this time I called out to Cheonak.
“Senior.”
“What.”
“You’re losing the war of words to the Cult Leader, aren’t you?”
While Cheonak glared at me, everyone’s gazes scattered as if wandering. The Blood Cult Leader, utterly excluded from the exchange, spoke.
“……So who is my opponent?”
The second brother looked around at the people and answered.
“It’s me.”
The Blood Cult Leader stood up.
“Another swordsman. Come.”
We silently watched the second brother’s back as he walked after the Blood Cult Leader. Perhaps because he had suffered much at Cheonak Sanjang, his shoulders and back had grown quite broad. But most of the experts here could easily tell that the second brother would be defeated.
What mattered was.
How he would be defeated.
Because Gwima, too, had become far stronger than before.
Perhaps Gwima had challenged him knowing full well he would lose. The atmosphere was quite solemn.
Gwima asked the Blood Cult Leader, just as the eldest brother had.
“Would it be alright without a sword?”
The Blood Cult Leader stopped in a wide-open area, turned around, and answered.
“I think I can do without one against you.”
Gwima answered, drawing his sword.
“I do not see it that way. I was furious with you back at Tongcheonbang; now I can finally vent that anger.”
The Blood Cult Leader laughed, shoulders trembling.
“I shall spare your life today, so train a few more years and challenge me again.”
“Blood Cult Leader.”
“Speak.”
Gwima said.
“Where is tomorrow for a martial artist?”
The Blood Cult Leader suddenly wiped the smile from his face, looked at the second brother, and nodded.
“……You are right.”