-I don't see why I need to go. Anyway, the Demon Cult plans to lock its doors as soon as we return. Even if all the members of the Murim Alliance and righteous sects knock on the door with determination to fight to the death, it would be difficult to attack the Hundred Thousand Mountains.
-I know. But if the doors are locked from the inside, then we need to make them open the doors. Make them come out voluntarily.
-What do you mean...?
-A poison that condenses mountain energy is embedded in Cult Leader Hyuk Muhyeol's body. He's suppressing his scattering inner power with his heavy and enormous inner force. Every time he uses martial arts, his blood vessels twist and his internal injuries worsen. As this continues, his body will naturally break down and eventually he will die.
-Why are you telling me this now?
-It's simple. My master is not simple. When my master ordered Geum Hyul and the Yeonwi Left Army to attack, he prepared poison in case of unexpected situations. The same poison that's sleeping in Cult Leader Hyuk Muhyeol's body. There may not be much showing now, but when martial arts are used, you'll feel it. That the body isn't the same as before and the power of martial arts has also greatly decreased. Eventually, when the medicinal effects spread, he too will walk the same path as Cult Leader Hyuk Muhyeol.
I slowly opened my eyes. Hyuk Dojin's frozen face came into view. The voice that had been heard until just now rang out again.
-Cult Leader Hyuk Muhyeol is incurable, but Young Cult Leader Hyuk Dojin, whose medicinal effects haven't spread yet, can be treated. So, meet with my master. Unfortunately, this is all I can help with...
I exhaled, erasing Namgoong Seolbyeok's voice that was disappearing like dust.
"The fever in Dojin's body now isn't a simple internal injury or illness like a cold. It's the repulsive force occurring as mountain energy enters the body and settles in the dantian. If martial arts are used in that state, the mountain energy will spread throughout the body, and then the medicinal effects will try to oxidize the inner power."
"What... does that mean..."
"I'll try to get help from Jeok Biwol and Ji Seok first, but... if what Namgoong Seolbyeok said is true, no antidote will work. So, before the medicinal effects spread, I need to meet the Alliance Leader and get the antidote. That's all there is to it."
"But it's dangerous. Have you forgotten what that person did to us? Until just a few days ago, he put us in a crisis that could have annihilated us. Even if such a person waves a white flag and asks to talk, we can't trust him, yet you're saying you'll believe his words and go meet him because he planted poison in my body?"
Hyuk Dojin frowned and stepped forward as if stamping his foot.
"I'll go instead. I'll settle it directly..."
"What the Alliance Leader wants is me. Even if Dojin goes, he won't give the antidote."
"Then send someone else...!"
"Would that man consider our circumstances? He's a person worse than a cunning snake when it comes to his own benefit. He will never let go of the opportunity he has grasped."
I sighed softly and brushed up my hair. There was no other way. I couldn't put Hyuk Dojin in danger like this.
I observed his appearance as he quickly rolled his eyes with a frown as if feeling stifled. In his anxious appearance, I could vaguely see my own shadow.
It was the face that could come out in a frustrating situation where one can only wait, knowing their fate to die.
'Is it greed?'
Perhaps if I had died, this wouldn't have happened. If I had just died and left a last will to Hyuk Dojin telling him to be careful about future events, Hyuk Dojin might not have been poisoned.
There is causality in the world. By not dying, the fate of Moyong Sowol who should have died might have flowed to someone else connected to me. I couldn't guarantee that it wasn't Hyuk Dojin.
"Looking at Cult Leader Hyuk Muhyeol's condition, I can only think it's quite a dangerous poison. Simply giving up martial arts or losing the accumulated inner power as the mountain energy's medicinal effects spread might allow one to live. But for Dojin, who was born in the Demon Cult and lived as the Young Cult Leader, losing his martial arts would be no different from death. The Cult Leader won't be able to protect Dojin either. Then others will bare their teeth and rise up. Dojin won't be able to handle that."
I could protect him, but the greater cause was quite an important issue. That's why I couldn't advise Dojin to give up either.
"There's Lake Poyang in Jiangxi. He says he'll wait for me not far from there, so I'll be back soon. Dojin, please continue moving to the Hundred Thousand Mountains with this group."
"I can't do that. Then let's go together..."
"No. That won't work. If calling me is a trap, I'll have to use martial arts. I could escape if I set my mind to it, but Dojin could be in danger the moment you use martial arts. So, I have to go alone."
I smiled brightly and stepped back. His hand reached out to me pitifully. This situation must be cruel to him, feeling powerless and unable to do anything.
But this was the only way. I took his outstretched hand and pulled myself into his embrace.
The quietly overlapping lips were soft and warm. They were the lips of the person who once protected me, and now the lips of the person I had to protect.
As time passed and I slowly withdrew, his hand fell away.
"I'll be back soon, so don't worry. We'll all return to the Hundred Thousand Mountains, see the soon-to-bloom water lilies, and live together with the child in my womb. So..."
Trust me and wait for me.
After smiling brightly at him, I turned around. Forcibly pushing away his gaze touching my back, I moved my feet towards Lake Poyang where Namgoong Baek was waiting.
* * *
The hand managing the sword by wiping it with an oily cloth was very delicate.
The hand holding the sword tip looked precarious, as if the fingers might fall off in chunks at any moment.
The man watching quietly as the sharp blade emitted an energy that seemed to cut even the air swallowed hard.
"Don't be too scared. Didn't I say I won't harm you?"
The person cleaning the sword was Lee Seonghak, the elder of the Holy Stream League who had caused trouble in the Demon Cult and fled about a year ago. He smiled leisurely while examining the sword blade and rubbing it with the cloth.
"You tried to sell information related to me, but nothing happened, so I have no reason to punish you."
"..."
Although it was a gentle voice, the man didn't fully believe those words. He was a man sent by the Holy Stream League to serve Lee Seonghak a year ago.
At first, Lee Seonghak was cautious and quite quiet, so serving him wasn't difficult, but as time passed, Lee Seonghak became eccentric.
He occasionally showed strange behavior and suddenly got angry. He would pour out anger towards someone, and sometimes he would scream curses like a madman and smash furniture. He even committed murder several times by assaulting strangers.
Because they had to hide, dealing with the mutilated corpses fell entirely to this man's responsibility.
In the end, he tried to escape while serving Lee Seonghak, but was caught by him again. Even after several escape attempts, Lee Seonghak always caught him and didn't punish him at all.
The man wanted to live. He thought Lee Seonghak would kill him someday. So he told a man he happened to meet about the information related to Lee Seonghak. And now this was the situation after that.
"I'm deeply grateful for your devotion and efforts for me. How could I forget that devotion of cooking meals and buying medicine for this useless old man? I don't want to harm you."
"Ju... Just once..."
"So answer me. Who was it that learned my information? Who found out about my information?"
The man raised his head with difficulty and met Lee Seonghak's eyes. His eyes were nothing but cold. The man trembled like an aspen and opened his mouth with difficulty.
"I... I'm not sure... He just asked if I knew any information related to the Demon Cult..."
"So you sold information about me when he asked, is that right?"
"Pl... Please spare me! I just... Eek!!"
The sword that Lee Seonghak had been carefully cleaning plunged into the ground in front of the man who was urgently straightening his back.
If it had been just two finger joints closer, it would have been his head that was split, not the floor.
The man rolled his eyes to look up. Lee Seonghak was looking down with fierce eyes.
"Answer me properly. How did that person react when he heard information about me? Did his eyes flash like an owl's or did he crumple his face as if angry? Or did he smile as if pleased? Hm? What was his reaction?"
"N-No. He didn't show such reactions. Rather, he passed it off as if it wasn't important."
"Not important?"
"Yes. He looked disappointed, as if he was looking for other information."
"Oh? Disappointed?"
Lee Seonghak rubbed his chin and let out an interested laugh.
"Continue."
"Th-That person looked ordinary for someone from the Demon Cult. He seemed to have learned martial arts, but his solar plexus was protruding, so he didn't seem to have learned demonic arts either. If I had to say, he looked more like someone from the righteous sects."
"Righteous sects?"
"Yes! And... Ah! When that person asked me about news related to the Demon Cult, he asked if I had seen a woman with strange hair color."
"...Hair color?"
"He asked if I had seen a woman with snow-white hair and skin. Of course, I hadn't seen her, so I said no... He told me to contact him again if I saw them."
"White hair... Did he perhaps say anything about that person being with someone else?"
"He didn't. He said it was a woman moving alone."
"Oh..."
The man spat out words like a machine gun to save his life. Lee Seonghak listened to his story with an interested face, then slightly hardened his expression and opened his eyes wide.
The man slightly raised his head, thinking Lee Seonghak would spare him now that he had said everything.
Lee Seonghak tilted his face diagonally as he organized his thoughts, then put strength into the arm holding the sword.
The sword that had been stuck in the floor rose up and split the man's body in half.
As if not knowing what had happened, the man looked at him with expectant eyes, then a red line was drawn and he was split in half, dying.
Lee Seonghak stepped aside to avoid the organs, blood, and flesh flowing on the floor, then pulled out the sword. He shook off the blood flowing down the sword blade, then took the cloth again to wipe the sword clean.
"White hair and skin... As far as I know, there's only one such person in the Central Plains."
The corners of his mouth twisted upwards.
"That damned woman is here in Nanchang... Is that what you're saying?"
Eventually, a small, crumpled laugh flowed out between his twisted lips.
Lee Seonghak glanced at the white cloth that had turned red, then opened his palm. The cloth slowly fell and settled on the blood-stained floor. Eventually, it spread into a deep crimson color.
"Heaven is helping me. That weak woman is treading alone on this dangerous land of Jiangxi... It's as if she's come looking for death on her own feet."
He organized the sword and then picked up his clothes. After the incident in the Demon Cult, he had been stuck here for a year, unable to take a single step out.
The Holy Stream League said they would give him a suitable job and call him back someday, but that too turned out to be a lie in the end.
The Holy Stream League had abandoned him. He had to just hide in this small house, unable to go out. It was enough for his anger to become twisted.
"I wonder. Will red blood flow inside that woman's body too? It must be beautiful. When that blood flows out, dyeing the white hair and wetting the cheeks, it must be ecstatic."
His eyes gleamed with slaughter.
"I look forward to how beautiful it will be."