Chapter 813: Our Wish Is Slaughter (4)

“About pharmacology, I don’t know much, but... how could they get a prescription even Lord Physician couldn’t find? Tang—Big Sis, what do you think?”

“It’s not like a prescription only comes out based on how high your medical skill is, you know? If you’re just lucky—say, if someone says they got better all on their own—you could investigate what they picked up and ate.”

“As we saw on the way here, it didn’t seem like the strange plague was spreading around this area in particular. Though whether that’s because, as they claim, the Bai don’t live here is something I couldn’t say.”

The Bai lived around Dali County and nearby, and especially in southeastern Yunnan, it was a region where villages of minorities like the Zhuang, Yi, Hani, Miao, Yao, and so on were clustered together.

“Mm. Or—backwoods endemic diseases tend to have folk remedies passed down with them, too? If you have that kind of material, it’s easier to combine medicinal ingredients and try things?”

“But didn’t Lord Physician say he’s from this region? If it were an endemic disease of Yunnan, he would’ve known first.”

Wow, looking at them blabber like this, they really do look smart.

Of course, Jegal Ihyeon is Fanatic Brain—a muscle guy who’s famous for being smart.

And Tang Nanna... her personality is seriously sharp-edged, and she has no respect up or down, basically living in a permanent state of missing manners, but isn’t she still a doctor and poison specialist recognized by the Tang Clan?

It wasn’t that she looked smart—she really was smart.

Of course, with such a shallow realm, she’d better have a good brain, but still.

And this body is a master.

The martial world’s supernova, smashing through record after record for youngest realm attainment in the Central Plains—also a transcendent martial artist beyond realms, a transcendent Transformation Realm, the Heavenly Flower Sword.

Qing subtly turned her head to look.

Still, San went beyond “face genius” and straight into “face #1.”

Heema was a blockhead, but she was at least a proper master—late supreme pinnacle, with the Transformation Realm right in front of her.

And Jayeo... her talent wasn’t anything special, and she wasn’t on the smart side either, but, well—just grow up healthy. We’ve got money, so it’ll be fine.

Qing’s gaze landed on Seol Iri.

But our Ice Chicken... looking at her like this, again, mm. “Supreme pinnacle” sounds like supreme pinnacle, but she learned ice arts so she’s basically disqualified as supreme pinnacle, she’s dumb, and it’s not like she’s social, either—what do we even do with her...... I feel like I’m going to cry......

“No.”

“I didn’t say anything.”

“It’s not that.”

“Hang in there.”

Qing patted Seol Iri’s shoulder, tap-tap.

A subtle crease formed between Seol Iri’s brows.

“Alright, alright, whatever. Anyway, after going in circles, it’s suspicious, right? If it feels like we won’t reach a conclusion, what do we gain by grinding our heads? We’ll know if we go ask. If your body’s good, you don’t need to spin your brain, right?”

Thinking about it, wasn’t the most important thing the strange plague’s treatment medicine?

First, she had to go and get the prescription for the treatment medicine.

Try buying it at a reasonable price, and if they refused?

Honestly, they obviously weren’t going to sell it. They were using it as a way to secure a stable supply of mine slaves—something you couldn’t get even if you had money.

If they really insisted they couldn’t sell it, then there was no choice.

She’d have to threaten them with a sword.

The drug peddler had already gone around a few cities—by now, he’d eaten enough, hadn’t he?

And so: Gaegu County, Jeong Family Manor.

It was a gigantic estate standing tall all by itself between wide stretches of fields outside the town.

Qing had already emptied her heart.

They said that if you searched for fate you wouldn’t reach it, and if you clung to it by force, the end wouldn’t be good—so if there was true fate, even without trying, you would naturally reach it.

So wouldn’t the slaughter she missed also come naturally someday?

And yet?

“Stop. This estate is not receiving guests at present.”

Qing frowned at the bright-red numbers floating over the front gate guard’s head.

What is it? Why is his evil karma so high? He’s a complete bastard. And both of them, too?

Still, evil karma didn’t guarantee someone’s current state.

It was something Qing had learned after seeing countless numbers.

There was no statute of limitations for evil karma and virtuous merit—only actions increased or decreased them, and they had nothing to do with a person’s present mindset.

Even if a villain from the past turned over a new leaf because of some incident and became good, their evil karma didn’t get reduced with that taken into account.

In other words, even if someone’s evil karma was especially high, it didn’t guarantee they were truly a villain.

Qing sang the same tune every day—I want slaughter, ah, I really want to kill a real villain—but the reason she still tested with words first, instead of swinging a good blade, was because she had to confirm whether they were someone she could kill or not.

Maybe they’d committed a major crime in the past, but fixed their heart and become an honest gate guard.

But even so, her wariness spiked.

Originally, she’d intended to politely reveal her identity and enter as a guest. There were almost no opponents who could refuse a visit from the Heavenly Flower Sword and the children of the Five Great Families.

But the first front gate guards she met had evil karma like this?

“I’m just a nameless knight-errant passing by, but I’d like to see your manor lord.”

“...?”

The front gate guards’ mouths opened and closed, dumbly.

Because it was the kind of thing that choked off speech.

A nameless knight-errant passing by?

That was openly saying she wasn’t going to reveal her identity.

On top of that, she had a face veil covering her face, and an enormous blade at her waist.

Where on earth was there a gate guard who would trust the words of a suspicious person who wouldn’t even identify themselves, and obediently guide them to their master?

So Qing worked her tongue again.

“First, could you send word to your manor lord? I have something to ask about Taepyeongja, the drug peddler who supplies slaves to Jeong Family Manor.”

“Ah—yes. Could you please wait a moment?”

One of the guards said that and went running inside the estate.

And a moment later.

“The manor lord says he will see you.”

Jegal Ihyeon’s eyes sparkled as he immediately understood that whole sequence.

Because the lowest ranks didn’t get to choose.

If you compared it to a hometown military unit, it was like standing guard duty when some stranger approached and said something like this:

Who am I? Not your business. Contact your company commander—I’ve got something to say about that Kim guy in your unit who skims rations.

Then the guard couldn’t just decide on their own, No, you can’t, go back, could they?

They had to pass it up and get instructions on how to respond.

And from the manor lord’s perspective?

Whether it was good news or bad news, it involved him, so it was hard to refuse.

He had to know whether the unidentified visitor’s words were good news or bad news.

That was why, even though it was openly suspicious, she could go meet Jeong Family Manor’s lord right away.

Jegal Ihyeon was deeply impressed.

As expected of Big Sis—very occasionally, you’re a genius.

It was rare, but sometimes, in Qing’s words and actions, some kind of astonishing insight and sharp intelligence would naturally jump out.

She really just didn’t use her head—why waste such a good brain?

Of course, like she always said, if your body’s good, your head can rest—and Big Sis was born with monstrous strength beyond realms, but still.

Anyway, Qing’s eyes rolled around.

Mm. The other servants didn’t seem to have evil karma at all... so were those two just exceptionally bastard sons of bitches by coincidence?

In the first place, duty rosters often paired close friends, and people ran in packs—if bastards clicked with bastards, it wasn’t impossible.

“Manor Lord, we’ve brought the guests.”

—Let them in.

Entering the manor lord’s office, a young man who looked to be thirty at most—very young for a manor lord—lifted his head.

They said he was a young young master, right?

And the moment Qing confirmed his face—

She widened her already-big eyes even more, to the point you’d think her eyeballs were about to fall out.

At the same time, Qing’s heart began pounding wildly—THUMP-THUMP, BA-DUMP-BA-DUMP.

Whoa! Evil karma! A full twelve hundred points!

Four digits of evil karma—those weren’t numbers you saw every day.

Of course, in the Central Plains, the bigger the merchant, the richer they were, the higher their evil karma tended to be, but—

Even so, this blew past the average by miles.

“It’s not much, but I am Jeong Ryujang, and I’m leading Jeong Family Manor.”

Jeong Ryujang? How is a person’s name Jeong Ryujang?

Then if he has an older brother or a younger brother, is that guy named Jeong Station? Or Jeong Stop Platform?

“And the guest is...”

“Enough. You know Taepyeongja, right?”

Qing cut Jeong Ryujang off coldly.

Jeong Ryujang put on an awkward smile.

“You said you were a passing knight-errant. First, I should tell you—this is a misunderstanding.”

“A misunderstanding. What misunderstanding?”

“It’s true that I hired Taepyeongja. But it was only a measure to secure laborers for the mine—never some improper scheme.”

It looked like he thought she’d come already knowing everything, because he confessed without hesitation.

And “confessing without hesitation” also meant he’d prepared excuses to go with it.

“Say it.”

“As you know, there are hardly any who want to work as miners. Even if we finally manage to hire them by paying extra, don’t they quit after only a few days?”

“So you shoved the people who sold their bodies in place of medicine costs into the coal mine?”

“If you say ‘shoved,’ it sounds a bit... We do treat them well, in our own way. We also set generous daily wages, and we’ve even notarized that when the contract term ends, we will pay them whatever remains after deducting ten nyang of gold taels.”

His claim was that recruiting might’ve been rather tenacious, but the treatment was top-tier.

But with evil karma like that, how was she supposed to believe a word?

“It’s true. Would you like to go to the mine right now and confirm? From the workers’ lodging to their meals—you can see it yourself, and you can also ask the workers directly. We only kept it blocked because it’s still too early, but later we promised we would send word to their families.”

“Too early?”

“As you know, while the strange plague is spreading, we can continue recruiting laborers, can’t we.”

“You’re saying you’ll keep using the treatment medicine as bait to pull in miners? Until the strange plague settles? You have the plague’s prescription, and you’re hiding it tight and secretly distributing it?”

“We have no choice. That medicine is not ours. Still, they told us they would reveal the prescription at an appropriate time, and only then will our workers be able to contact their families.”

No—what is this now.

Qing’s expression soured hard.

So the strange plague’s treatment medicine wasn’t made by Jeong Family Manor.

They were getting it from somewhere else.

What is this, a video game quest chain?

Checking off a step, drawing a line through it.

Then Mission Updated and they send you off to another town?

Learn about the treatment medicine at Jeong Family Manor (Complete).

Then what’s next—Disassemble Manor Lord Jeong Ryujang’s limbs and find out where the treatment medicine is going, or something?

“Whatever. So where is ‘they’? Who the hell completed the prescription, and why are they hiding the treatment medicine like that and distributing it in secret?”

“It is a contractual matter, so I cannot tell you. Please consider our circumstances as well. If you take trust away from a merchant, what remains?”

“Ha. Hey. Do you know who I am?”

“How could I? You haven’t told me yet. Then may I ask the passing knight-errant’s honored name? Ah, and for reference—do you think a mining business is possible with only one family’s power? We, too, have several people who assist us.”

The words were polite, but the real meaning was this:

You’re asking if I know who you are? Looks like you’ve got some influence—go on, say it. Our backing isn’t small, either.

Jeong Ryujang formed a smooth, irritating smile.

But only for a moment.

“Wait—you said you don’t know who I am.”

“Then you only need to tell me, don’t you?”

“No, this is suffocating. You don’t get it? Wow. An unidentified sword-wielder is sitting in front of you right now. Here—look over here for a second. Sparkle-sparkle. This is called aura. Can you do this too? Can you blow aura and block a sword stylishly, then use Lightness Art and run away? No—fine, I’ll concede a thousand times over and say you run away. Then what? You’ll go to the magistrate’s office and tattle? ‘Someone barged in and attacked me, but their name? I don’t know. Their face? They covered it, so I couldn’t see. But please find them and punish them anyway’?”

Only then did Jeong Ryujang’s face stiffen.

He finally understood what Qing meant by “Do you know who I am?”

Do you know who I am? You don’t, right?

Then no matter what I do, it won’t come back to bite me, will it?