Chapter 120. If You’re Going to Hate Me, Do It Properly.
That lecher tried to dissuade the young woman with kindly words.
“Miss, he is no ordinary madman. Please stop.”
While glaring at me, the young woman replied to the lecher.
“I told you to stay out of this.”
I watched the Left Envoy’s expression for a moment. Even then, the Left Envoy’s eyes were roaming over the young woman’s figure.
I was slightly impressed by the Left Envoy’s inner world.
‘This one’s the real thing. A true lecher.’
The young woman said to me,
“You didn’t fight properly earlier, did you? The same goes for me. Show your true skill.”
With my arms crossed, I answered her.
“Judging by your rather lofty status, it seems you’ve never been beaten properly before. Today, I’ll give you a new experience.”
The fact that I had only flicked her on the forehead meant I had stopped at a flick instead of smashing her head apart.
As the young woman infused qi into the whip hanging at her side, she replied,
“Threats like that don’t work on me.”
The young woman’s hand seemed to move, and the whip, drawing a curve as it arrived in an instant, fell toward my head.
Whoosh!
Moving was too much trouble, so I caught it with my left hand.
Smack!
As the young woman frowned and swept the whip away with her other hand, it instantly pulled taut.
I infused it with the power of the Flame Realm while pulling on the whip with external strength.
The young woman’s body was dragged forward, then suddenly lifted into the air and flew toward me fiercely.
“……!”
In midair, the ill-tempered young woman thrust out her left palm.
The moment I saw the fighting spirit blazing in her eyes, I met it with the palm force of the Flame Realm.
Thud!
While pouring the Waning Moon Ice Art through the left hand gripping the whip, and the palm force of the Flame Realm through my right hand, I glanced sharply at the Left Envoy, who was watching the situation unfold.
Even though I knew the Left Envoy would not ambush me, it was an old habit.
Only then did I examine the young woman’s expression in front of me.
Her face grew redder and redder, as if she was drawing up her internal power with an expression that said she was dying of injustice.
The Left Envoy meddled again.
“Country bumpkin, don’t kill her. Miss, you should stop as well. This will be my final warning. As for the matter of Woldanhwa, aren’t my master and your party already competing down below?”
I watched as the young woman’s eyes gradually turned red.
‘Hmm?’
It seemed she had learned demonic arts.
Surprisingly, in old martial arts, color often manifests.
The color representing the Buddhist sects is gold, while the colors representing the Daoist sects are the blue and red that form Taiji, though blue is the main representative.
On the other hand, the colors of the demonic forces are truly varied.
They may be as dark as black, as ominous as blood, or as murky as gray.
The red energy dwelling in the young woman’s eyes was blood.
Not only her gaze, but also the whip she held was gradually turning red, and her outstretched hand was being wrapped in red palm force as well.
I looked at the young woman with cold eyes, then snorted.
‘Is she from the Blood Demon side?’
Only then did the Left Envoy seem to realize which force’s martial arts they were, and he spoke in a somewhat startled tone.
“Sect Leader, that’s enough. She seems to be of the Blood Night Palace bloodline. Even injuring her will start a war. Lee Jaha! You mustn’t kill her!”
I glanced sideways at the Left Envoy.
“Shut up. I’ll handle it.”
I separated the power of the Heavenly Jade with the Sun-Moon Art and balanced it. Compared to the powerful force of the Flame Realm, the level of my Waning Moon Ice Art was somewhat lacking, but it was enough to torment this impudent young woman.
I suppressed the young woman’s bizarre red palm force as if burning it away with the Flame Realm, while persistently injecting the Waning Moon Ice Art through the whip.
In that instant, blood streamed from the nose of the young woman, whose internal power had not been deeper than mine to begin with.
I grinned as I watched.
Meanwhile, the nosebleed that had been flowing from one side soon became two streams.
I chuckled and said,
“So you were a snot-nosed brat. Look at that runny nose. Sticky, filthy as hell. Maybe I should’ve given you time to blow your nose before fighting. Or did you pick your nose before climbing the peak?”
“Shut up.”
Perhaps because she had quite the temper, the young woman glared at me with a look of indignation.
Even considering that she belonged to the demonic path, I could not understand her inner world. After all, the fact that I had flicked her forehead meant I had spared her despite being able to kill her.
“Listen, I’m not some manservant who bows and scrapes before you.”
Combining internal and external arts, the Flame Realm and ice arts, I pressed the young woman down as if crushing her into the ground.
The young woman’s knees fell with such force that it seemed they would shatter the ground.
After forcing the young woman to kneel, I asked,
“Surrender?”
The young woman replied,
“As if.”
“Good.”
I gave a single nod at the young woman’s bravery, then forcibly crossed her arms to break her balance. The moment I grabbed her by the collar, I infused power and threw her off the peak.
With a shrill whooshing sound, the young woman flew into the air. The moment her scream burst out, it stretched on and on, as if she were plummeting rapidly.
The Left Envoy shouted in rage.
“You crazy bastard!”
Imbuing my voice with internal energy, I spoke to the woman in red who was fighting the Sword Demon.
“Hey, Palace Lord. That young woman who’s your disciple or whatever is falling.”
At that moment, the Left Envoy’s form wavered, and then he hurled himself off the cliff.
“Miss!”
I walked to the cliff with my mouth open and looked down.
“Wow… what sort of madness is that?”
With the level of skill that young woman who had attacked me possessed, she would not die just from falling off the peak. Even in midair, she could pour out palm force to soften the impact, and if she combined that with lightness skill, she could land without much harm.
Moreover, the woman in red fighting below would have heard my voice.
Sure enough, a red figure was moving at tremendous speed, running beneath the falling young woman, while the Left Envoy, falling through the air, was also reaching out toward her.
Was that pure love, or was it psychological warfare serving as a preliminary skirmish for a future conquest?
With one hand held to my brow, I watched the situation unfolding below.
“Well now……?”
The woman in red shot into the air and snatched the young woman, while the falling Left Envoy flipped in midair and landed noisily, blasting both palms toward the ground.
A short distance away, the Sword Demon was approaching at a leisurely pace.
Suddenly, the atmosphere turned chilly, and then the Left Envoy, the woman in red, and the young woman all looked up at me at the same time.
“……!”
Standing on the peak, I spoke to the three of them.
“Unless we’re going to kill and be killed, let’s keep it reasonable.”
“…….”
The Left Envoy spat out a curse.
“That’s for you to say? You country bumpkin bastard!”
The woman in red asked the young woman.
“Are you all right?”
“Yes.”
The woman in red looked at the Sword Demon and said,
“Sword Demon, because you stopped your attack, I was able to catch my disciple. I owe you. I’ll forget about the Woldanhwa, so let’s call it even.”
The Sword Demon replied in an even tone.
“Let’s do that.”
The woman in red looked up at me again.
“But who exactly is that bastard?”
“The sect master of an organization called Haomun.”
“May I kill him?”
The Sword Demon snorted and replied,
“There’s no need.”
“Why?”
“He is an enemy of the Cult Leader. The enemy of an enemy is an ally, so keep it moderate. And knowing the sect master’s personality, he likely did not attack the Young Palace Mistress first.”
The woman in red asked the young woman,
“Did you attack him first?”
The young woman answered,
“Yes.”
“What happened to your forehead?”
“I got flicked.”
“Don’t tell me you attacked him again after that?”
“Yes.”
Only then did the woman in red sigh, as though she finally understood the situation.
“Immature. Utterly immature.”
The woman in red spoke to the Sword Demon as if asking for his understanding.
“I’ve never sent her out into the martial world, so she doesn’t know how the world works. You’ll have to understand.”
The Sword Demon nodded.
“Not at all.”
The woman in red looked up at me and said,
“I won’t kill you, so come down. But you flicked the Young Palace Mistress on the forehead, so I’ll have to settle that before I leave.”
The Sword Demon beside her said with a smile,
“Senior.”
“What?”
“Look closely. Is that not a man who does not know the meaning of ‘moderate’ looking down at us? In any case, let’s end things here for today. He is a junior who will help us in one way or another when we deal with the Cult Leader, so there is no need to push him that far. My disciple even shat himself while fighting that fellow.”
The Left Envoy said with a flustered expression,
“Master?”
The Sword Demon replied with a calm expression.
“Did you not?”
“……That’s not it. I was poisoned, shat myself, and then fought.”
As if they found it difficult to understand what he meant, the woman in red and the young woman were both greatly taken aback at the same time.
The Sword Demon said to me,
“Sect Master, come down and at least greet them.”
I extended one foot into the air and dropped straight down. I descended as if skimming the cliff face, and when the ground drew near, I struck the wall with my trailing foot, spun in midair, and landed.
Ten out of ten!
With my hands clasped behind my back, I approached and said to the woman in red,
“I shall be Lee Jaha, the sect master of Haomun.”
The woman in red replied,
“Names, my ass, you rotten bastard.”
The woman in red suddenly looked at the Left Envoy and said,
“And you?”
The Left Envoy cupped his fist and replied,
“Palace Mistress, I am Mong Yeon of the Pungun Mong Clan.”
The woman in red gave a slight nod.
“So righteousness still remains in the Orthodox Faction. Someday, I will help you and repay today’s matter.”
The Left Envoy smiled faintly and answered,
“Please don’t trouble yourself. I merely did what had to be done.”
The woman in red nodded.
“Then let’s pretend it never happened.”
“…….”
I was folding my arms when the conversation struck me as funny, and I snickered.
The Left Envoy said to me,
“What the hell are you laughing about?”
I replied with a straight face.
“Would this bastard’s way of speaking become more polite if he shat himself one more time?”
The Left Envoy replied,
“Can we stop talking about shit?”
The Sword Demon slipped in as if mediating.
“This is Senior Yu Xiaoling, Palace Mistress of the Blood Night Palace. In her youth, her husband was killed by the Cult Leader.”
The Blood Night Palace Mistress answered,
“Don’t say anything unnecessary.”
“Her husband and I were close as well.”
The Sword Demon looked at the young woman, who was wiping away a nosebleed.
“You, I’m seeing for the first time.”
The young woman bowed her head to the Sword Demon and said,
“Uncle, I’m Qiao Ying.”
The Sword Demon looked at her in surprise before replying,
“Ah, I see. You’ve grown so much I didn’t recognize you.”
A brief silence settled over us.
Now that words fit for human beings were being exchanged, it felt even more awkward.
The Blood Night Palace Mistress asked the Sword Demon,
“What do you intend to do about the Cult Leader from now on?”
The Sword Demon answered,
“I expect Alliance Leader Im and the Cult Leader will clash. If it is a duel between individuals, I intend to stand by and watch, but if their forces clash, I plan to lend strength to the Alliance, which seems likely to be at a disadvantage. And you, Palace Mistress?”
The Blood Night Palace Mistress answered,
“As for me, I am in a position where I cannot live under the same sky as him. However, I cannot help the Alliance.”
“That is a narrow-minded way of thinking.”
“Why?”
“Because if the Alliance falls first, whether it is the Blood Night Palace or the Daoists living in seclusion in the mountains, all of them will be slaughtered by the Cult Leader. By then, it will be too late.”
When the Palace Mistress closed her mouth, the Sword Demon asked,
“Will you at least let us look around the palace? Or shall we part ways here?”
The Blood Night Palace Mistress answered,
“Because of the Cult Leader, outsiders are forbidden from coming and going. Let’s go somewhere nearby, have a meal, and part ways.”
“Let’s do that.”
It struck me anew that even those who belonged to the Demon Path still ate to live. As we all moved together in a group, I said to the Palace Mistress whatever came to mind.
“Palace Mistress, I’m trying to kill the assassins of Saryu Valley. Lend me a hand.”
The Blood Night Palace Mistress ignored my words and asked the Sword Demon.
“Is this man insane?”
The Sword Demon let out a sigh.
“I do not know either.”
The Left Envoy, who had been walking beside us, answered the Palace Mistress’s question.
“He is. Just look at how he threw your disciple off the peak. He is completely insane.”
The Blood Night Palace Mistress asked the Left Envoy.
“Then why are you traveling with him?”
“Exactly.”
I honestly conveyed my feelings to them.
“I seem to be the most normal one here, so I have no idea what kind of bullshit you’re all spouting.”
In an instant, men’s and women’s voices mingled together.
“Shut up.”
“Shut up.”
“Shut up.”
I blinked, then looked at the Sword Demon. With a composed expression, the Sword Demon avoided my gaze.
The Blood Night Palace Mistress spoke in a displeased tone.
“What benefit would I gain from helping with such a thing?”
“Benefit?”
I stopped walking for a moment, then glared at the Blood Night Palace Mistress and said,
“Our reasons may differ, but in any case, don’t you bear a grudge against the Cult Leader? So why are you prattling on about benefits?”
“What bullshit is this?”
“The reality is that all of us, myself included, are weaker than the Cult Leader right now. Thinking you’ll take revenge with martial arts alone is an arrogant mindset. It isn’t very likely, either. Then what should we compete with? We have no choice but to continuously compete with our way of life. Since the Cult Leader looks at the weak like insects, I created a sect that stands on the side of the weak. I kill assassins, and I’m steadily cleaning up the Black Path as well. By doing what the Cult Leader has not done, I’m settling the match. And you think you’ll be able to face the Cult Leader while luring and toying with gangho people using things like treasure maps? If you’re going to take revenge, do it properly. If you’re going to hate someone, you ought to hate them properly. Blood Night Palace Mistress, do you understand what I’m saying?”
I looked at the Blood Night Palace Mistress with a sneer.
“Dreaming of avenging your husband with that kind of soft, wishy-washy attitude—how utterly ridiculous. Are you going to take revenge or not?”
I pushed forward with bullshit.
The logic of my words was slightly off, but that was none of my concern.
If the Blood Night Palace helped me...
In any case, it would benefit me.
A man who sharply rebukes those who put benefit first, while securing his own benefit.
That is me.