Chapter 62: War Is the Way of Deception (3)

“Absolutely not.”

Cheonjeong strode in, ignoring every courtesy and rule of decorum.

Even as he staggered—his body still not fully purged of the thick killing intent soaked into him.

“Benefactor Cheonjeong. You must still be resting and stabilizing.”

Gong-eop stepped in front of him, trying to turn him back.

But Cheonjeong didn’t listen.

He had a duty.

As Head Senior, a duty to protect and safeguard his junior brother and junior sister.

“Before I die—before I die—I will never let Soyak— kuhk.”

In the end, he hacked out a rough cough and collapsed to the floor.

His body had weakened.

He had taken a through-and-through wound near the solar plexus.

And on top of that, cold killing intent had sunk deep into his bones.

Gong-eop had been breathing the power of Prajna Great Ability into him every dawn, but...

He still wasn’t fully healed.

He would need at least another half-month of recuperation.

Soyak ran to the slumped Cheonjeong.

She slipped his arm over her neck and hauled him up.

“...Head Senior.”

“No, Soyak. No matter what happens to that man’s younger sister, you matter more to me.”

Cheonjeong was firm.

And it wasn’t wrong.

He was the Head Senior of Mount Hua’s Third Generation disciples.

Hand over his junior brother and junior sister for the sake of an Assassin Organization inheritor he didn’t even know, some collateral bloodline of the North Sea Ice Palace?

That was an impossible notion to him.

Something he could never allow.

“...No one said they would offer me in your place.”

“You won’t?”

“I won’t.”

This time Seol Yegang’s face twisted.

He’d said he would do anything.

That he would do anything to help Soyak and her people.

And yet—

Before he could speak, Soyak cut him off.

“Shaolin has already designated the Assassin Organization as a Public Enemy. And Seol Yegang—you know where their base is. Don’t you?”

“...I do.”

“Then tell us. You wouldn’t have dragged your younger sister along every time you went out to kill. If we execute them now, couldn’t we rescue her safely from the other base?”

Seol Yegang fell into torment.

Soyak’s words sounded right, at first glance.

As far as he knew, Seol Yehwa was imprisoned at a safe house in Anhui.

And right now, Night-Heaven Hall’s elite—led by Byeoksa Gok—were staying at a safe house in Henan.

But if the Henan safe house was raided?

That information would surely reach Anhui.

The only leak was him—captured by Shaolin.

If so, then Yehwa would definitely, definitely not escape death.

“But how could you do that? Unless you strike both bases at the same time...”

At that moment, Shaolin’s Abbot, Abbot Gwanggyeong, stepped forward and spoke.

The six rings hanging from his monk’s staff clinked softly.

“Why do you think Shaolin cannot do that, Benefactor?”

“...Surely not.”

“An extermination campaign against the Assassin Organization. Shaolin is not the only one that has designated the Assassin Organization as a Public Enemy.”

And then, someone else opened the door and entered.

It was Jang Hongnak, Branch Hall Chief of the Beggar Union’s northern Henan Branch Hall.

“Abbot! Abbot!”

It was, indeed, beggar manners.

But Abbot Gwanggyeong greeted him with a smiling face instead.

The beggars’ etiquette was goodness.

So long as their intent and actions were good, they were absolved of all rudeness.

“It has been a while, Branch Hall Chief Jang. Namo Amitabha.”

“Word came from the main hall! They said they’ll dispatch a Seventh-Knot Elder for this!”

Everyone’s mouths fell open.

Among the Beggar Union, status and ability were divided by the number of knots.

You started from the true bottom—no knots at all.

And then, one by one, you tied them.

Once you became a three-knot beggar, you rose to the position of a Branch Hall Chief like Jang Hongnak.

The Beggar Union’s leader was Nine-Knot, and the successor was Eight-Knot.

So Seventh-Knot meant—excluding those who ruled the Beggar Union itself—one of the highest and most powerful.

“Namo Amitabha... We must thank the Beggar Union’s leader.”

“No. The leader actually told me to tell you thanks, Abbot.”

When Abbot Gwanggyeong bowed, Jang Hongnak seemed to realize his own rudeness and hurriedly returned it with a full prostration.

Even the Beggar Union’s leader had reason to be grateful.

He had lost his first successor to the Assassin Organization’s hands.

How desperately had he tried, since then, to find the Assassin Organization and smash it apart?

Now everyone’s gaze turned to Seol Yegang.

Only then did he realize he’d been half-trapped.

With things like this, how could he refuse to speak?

More than anything.

More than anything, the odds were high.

At this point, it was worth gambling.

Seol Yegang stood.

His fist clenched tight.

“...Are you truly helping me?”

“Don’t think of it like that. We all have people we lost to the Assassin Organization.”

Jang Hongnak joked lightly.

But the Shaolin monks also nodded.

Not a few of them had lost masters or disciples to Assassin Organization assassins.

There was a reason the Assassin Organization was the most famous assassination group in the martial world.

“All right. Then I’ll tell you.”

Seol Yegang steeled his heart.

If they succeeded—

If they pulled it off, they could save his younger sister forever.

“And you.”

“...Me?”

Seol Yegang pointed at Soyak.

Soyak tilted her head.

“You have a way to melt the Forest-of-All Still-Cold Divine Art’s ice needles, don’t you?”

Just taking her out wouldn’t be salvation.

She’d have to live her whole life with expensive elixirs on her tongue.

They had to remove the root cause—what was embedded in her body, forcing her to suffer Severed Meridian Syndrome.

“That was said to be a martial art drawn from North Sea never-melting ice.”

“That’s right. So how are you planning to melt it?”

“There is a way. Leave it to me.”

He didn’t trust it.

He didn’t trust it, but there was nothing else he could do.

“If you—if you truly free my younger sister from those damned ice needles...”

Seol Yegang’s eyes hardened.

He was someone with clear debts and grudges.

Someday, he would gather strength and take revenge on the Palace Lord of the North Sea Ice Palace.

And...

He would not forget repayment for kindness, either.

“...I will serve you as your attendant for the rest of my life.”

“You don’t have to go that far.”

“No. I cannot live without paying back a debt like this. That is who I am.”

He was straight and rigid.

And precisely because of that, he was swayed by human feeling.

The only blood family he had left in the world was his sickly younger sister.

And that was why—if he received the grace of salvation, he repaid it.

It wasn’t only his own life that had been saved.

He’d been pulled out of the Assassin Organization’s mire.

His younger sister would be pulled from eternal pain.

If they succeeded.

If the safe house raid, the rescue of his younger sister, and the antidote all succeeded...

He would never again receive a grace like this in his remaining life.

“Still... I won’t be comfortable with you as my attendant.”

“Even as your slave...”

“If you insist, then become my friend.”

For a moment, Seol Yegang froze.

A friend?

As in—friend?

Something like that wasn’t enough to say he’d repaid a lifetime of grace.

“This will be my lifelong friend. A friend who won’t leave, no matter what I do or what I say. A friend who will silently walk beside me, forever, always on my side. That would be good.”

Not just a friend.

She wanted an ally.

It meant she needed something from him—at an equal standing.

Only then did Seol Yegang nod.

“If you keep your promise.”

“It won’t take long.”

“And... there’s something I need to tell you.”

“What is it?”

“About what kind of organization we are.”

At that moment, Abbot Gwanggyeong struck the floor with his monk’s staff.

CLANG—!!

He laced inner power into the clear sound and gathered everyone’s attention.

“That story, just in case, should be heard only by selected individuals. Namo Amitabha.”

“Selected individuals—who are you talking about?”

The Flame-Saber Lord, who had been watching in silence, asked in a dissatisfied voice.

Unfortunately, he was not included.

“The parties involved in this incident. Gong-eop, Benefactor Soyak—and that should be sufficient.”

Cheongak, Cheonjeong, and the Flame-Saber Lord, Ak Jupae, voiced their displeasure.

“Then what about me? Abbot—I'm Soyak’s senior brother!”

“You’re saying Head Senior has to not even know who’s targeting my junior sister?”

“Remember this, Abbot. I brought Shaolin’s young disciple back alive!”

CLANG—!!!

With a single action, Abbot Gwanggyeong shut everyone’s mouths again.

Protest was useless.

“Flame-Saber Lord—are you a direct target in this attempted assassination?”

“......”

“If this is something we can hear and still keep secret, I will spread it widely. But there are matters in this world that cannot be treated that way... and surely you understand that better than anyone.”

“...I understand.”

“And a murder attempt occurred on Mount Song. I must know. Do you object?”

“...No.”

Former Heaven-Net Platform Lord.

The Flame-Saber Lord, Ak Jupae, had been the Alliance’s most faithful hunting dog.

He was someone who knew exactly how important it was to control dangerous, sensitive information.

He couldn’t hide his displeasure—but he couldn’t refuse Abbot Gwanggyeong, either.

“Then Benefactor Soyak, and... Benefactor, what is your name?”

“My name is Seol Yegang.”

“Good. Benefactor Yegang, come into the abbot’s room. Gong-eop, you as well.”

Seol Yegang felt something inside his body stir awake.

A parasitic poison Night-Heaven Hall had specially manufactured.

A thing that killed the host if a certain word was spoken.