Midnight Ritual at Jaseondang
Ouyang Qiangang asked, 'And why is that?'
[First, the immediacy of the Crown Prince's assassination. At this very moment, the most urgent priority for them is to eliminate the very future in which you 'fully cure' him, Doctor.]
'So if the Crown Prince dies, my medical skills lose their meaning, and the variable they fear most is cut off at the source.'
[Precisely. It is the most certain and the fastest method available to them.]
'And the second reason?'
[The inefficiency of assassinating you. Even if they removed you, they would still have to contend with the rumors that 'the Life-and-Death Divine Doctor could have saved the Crown Prince' — and with the Emperor's suspicion. Furthermore, with so little intelligence on your martial prowess, the probability of a successful assassination is impossible to predict. A failure, in fact, would only hand them a pretext for your counterattack.]
'They're not the type to make such a foolish gamble. Which means, by your logic — they'll attempt to kill the Crown Prince before they come after me...'
[Correct. And the method will be a quiet assassination, disguised as something else entirely.]
'A quiet assassination?'
[Yes. They will disguise the Crown Prince's cause of death as a worsening of his chronic illness, smear you with the infamy of a failed treatment, and accomplish their goal all at once.]
'Hm...'
[For them, it is the optimal strategy — the least risk and the greatest reward.]
Ouyang Qiangang let out a long sigh.
[Why the sudden sigh, Doctor?]
Akasha's voice echoed through his mind.
'I was just wondering when I'd ever get to rest easy.'
[Pardon?]
Instead of answering, he asked her a question.
'If they're going to assassinate the Crown Prince, when do you think they'll do it?'
[...Tonight. If the Crown Prince dies suddenly this very night — the same night you spoke with him in private — every trace of suspicion will fall naturally upon you, Doctor.]
'That's absurd...'
[You examined the Crown Prince's pulse today. If he dies tonight, your status will be elevated — from a criminal who attempted to defile the Princess, to a arch-traitor who murdered the Crown Prince.]
'Somehow... it feels like I'm being threatened.'
[Surely not.]
'So in short — I get swept into this vortex, and the people around me won't come out of it unscathed either?'
[That is correct. From the enemy's perspective, one might call it killing two birds with a single stone.]
'Akasha, there's no gwangtuh-deck game in this era.'
[Then we shall invent one. It's quite simple.]
Ouyang Qiangang clicked his tongue.
'Like we need to mass-produce gambling addicts.'
As he finished speaking, every trace of expression drained from his face.
'Akasha, I don't think we have much time. Sweep the area. Now.'
[Understood. Scanning for observers within a one-hundred-meter radius.]
A moment later, her report followed.
[A figure is concealed in the shadow of the roof ridge of the hall facing your annex, Doctor. They are watching your chamber.]
'So they've come after all.'
Ouyang Qiangang walked toward his bed.
Then, with his back to the window where the watcher lurked, he lay down on his side and pulled the blanket up over his head.
Utterly motionless, he looked for all the world like a man sunk deep in sleep.
'Akasha — freeze this image for the next two seconds.'
[Understood. Executing the 'Visual Afterimage Lock' protocol. I will distort the photon information reaching the watcher's retinas for two seconds, so that they perceive you as continuing to lie in bed.]
The instant her answer ended, Ouyang Qiangang's body slipped silently off the bed.
In that fractional span of two seconds, he moved with frantic efficiency.
He stuffed a pillow and a bundle of clothing beneath the blanket, sculpting it into the unmistakable shape of a sleeping man.
Then he was out of the room like a bolt of lightning.
[Afterimage terminated. The watcher now perceives the dummy as you, Doctor.]
'Let's go.'
His silhouette seemed to melt as it seeped into the darkness.
It was a windless night.
Ouyang Qiangang became a part of that darkness, flowing like mist toward Jaseondang. Even if a Peak master had widened their eyes and stared directly at his position, they would have found nothing but the rippling curtain of the night itself.
It was around the middle of the Hour of the Pig — roughly ten o'clock by the night watch — when Ouyang Qiangang hid himself in the deepest shadow of Jaseondang's roof.
Concealed beneath the roof ridge, he held his breath and watched every movement surrounding the Crown Prince's residence.
[Wide-area nanobot scan complete. No anomalous activity detected.]
'No suspicious signs on the outside... which means the enemy is inside. But who?'
[At this hour, the only people who could remain in the Crown Prince's residence are eunuchs and palace maids.]
Even at night, five eunuchs and maids took rotating shifts guarding the Crown Prince's quarters.
'So one of them is a lackey.'
[That is the likeliest assumption.]
'They're not moving yet. Waiting for a specific hour, are they?'
[That is a possibility.]
Akasha continued, her voice carrying a faint tension.
[If their aim is to simulate a worsening of the Crown Prince's chronic illness, the most probable tool is the foreign object in his heart. And that object carries a sinister, yin-tinged energy.]
'You're saying they'll make use of yin qi?'
[Yes. The Hour of the Rat is when yin energy reaches its daily peak. If their assassination technique is tied to the object's yin qi, that will be the optimal moment to strike.]
Ouyang Qiangang waited.
He was certain something would happen tonight.
One full hour passed. Then, when the middle of the Hour of the Rat arrived — midnight, when yin energy surged to its height —
[Doctor, a strange disturbance has been detected in the small side hall behind Jaseondang.]
That it escaped even Ouyang Qiangang's senses meant the source lay more than ten jang away from the maids' patrol.
Akasha's voice rang through his mind.
[Three palace maids have entered the hall. And... the heartbeat and brainwave signals of the first maid to enter have just flatlined.]
Ouyang Qiangang's eyes went wide.
'She's dead?'
[It would appear so. Ah — the second signal has vanished as well.]
Ouyang Qiangang's silhouette kicked off the roof in absolute silence.
By the time he arrived at the side hall, a bloody haze seeping through the door seams and a rank, fishy stench stabbed at his nostrils.
The moment he stepped inside and beheld the horror sprawled across the chamber, his eyes twisted with fury.
Two maids, their heads severed.
And a third — the last maid — placing their heads upon a small altar, slicing open her own belly with a dagger and drawing out her viscera.
Blood had flooded the room in every direction, and madness poured from the living maid's eyes.
From her lips spilled an incomprehensible, grotesque incantation without pause for breath.
'No human could do this... beasts would be ashamed.'
Ouyang Qiangang's gaze cooled to ice.
And then, through his mind, a terrible memory from the Blood Doctrine Sect flashed past.
'That altar... that repulsive blood aura... it's exactly what I saw at the Blood Doctrine Sect!'
The instant he fixed his eyes on the altar's incense burner, Akasha's voice turned his suspicion into certainty.
[Doctor! The special energy wave radiating from that bloody smoke matches the signature of the foreign object in the Crown Prince's heart at 99.8 percent! This ritual is a kind of 'energy amplification ceremony' designed to remotely activate the object!]
Ouyang Qiangang suppressed the surviving maid's demonic blood in a single motion.
Her martial skill was merely Second-rate; she collapsed without even managing to resist.
[Doctor, the same brainwave pattern found earlier in Chae-ryeon — the maid who died at Myeonghwa Palace — is present in this woman's brain as well.]
'So she fell victim to the Soul-Seizing Art?'
[That is the likeliest conclusion.]
Even a victim of the Soul-Seizing Art could be made to confess — but that would take time.
Ouyang Qiangang's expression changed.
He could not know precisely what purpose this vile ritual served, but one thing was certain.
'The Crown Prince is in danger.'
He immediately unleashed the Heavenly Meteor Divine Art at full power and raced toward the sleeping hall where the Crown Prince lay, fast as a thunderbolt.
When he reached the front of Jaseondang, where the Crown Prince's quarters stood, a figure barred his path.
It was a eunuch in his thirties — the very man whose face had flickered past Ouyang Qiangang's notice during his daytime visit.
One look into the man's eyes told him this was no small matter.
The eunuch showed not the slightest surprise at the sight of Ouyang Qiangang arriving unannounced in the dead of night.
Only a flesh-searing killing intent rolled off his entire body.
"A eunuch... so you were one of the Amryu's men, too."
The eunuch answered not with words, but by kicking off the ground and closing the distance like lightning.
Heavy fist-force coiled around his knuckles, and a single crushing punch shot forth, so powerful it seemed to compress the very air around it.
It was the strike of an unquestionable First-rate master, backed by at least twelve years' worth of cultivated power.
'A delaying tactic. The Crown Prince is in danger!'
Ouyang Qiangang had no time for fencing.
From his hand unfolded the Exploding Flame King Cannon of the Twelve Forms, laden with colossal mass.
Swaaaaaang—!
His power, exceeding even that of his opponent, condensed into a single blow that collided head-on with the eunuch's fist-force.
BOOOOOM—!
With an explosion that shook the earth, the eunuch's upper body shattered like a smashed jar, and a fountain of blood dyed the night sky crimson.
An instant death — not even a scream.
Ouyang Qiangang wasted not a single heartbeat, piercing through the spray of blood as he shot into the hall like lightning.
The moment he entered the corridor, three palace maids materialized soundlessly at his flanks.
Their gauzy soft-swords curved through the air like living vipers, tracing unpredictable arcs as they flew for every part of his body.
From Ouyang Qiangang's hands, the Gale Linked Ring Fingers erupted in a storm.
Twenty-four finger-forces, too fast for the eye to follow, hammered mercilessly down on the soft-swords' blades.
Tatata-tatata-tang—!
With a chorus of sharp cracks, the soft-swords shattered into dozens of steel fragments — and in that same instant, Ouyang Qiangang's finger-forces struck the maids' chests with perfect precision.
Thud-thud!
"Aaagh!"
Great holes punched through their chests, the maids crashed backward through the doors with brief screams.
Crash—! Clatter-clatter—
'I can't be late!'
Ouyang Qiangang raced past their corpses like lightning toward the Crown Prince's sleeping hall.
A figure guarding the door came into view — Chae Geum, the Crown Prince's most trusted eunuch.
Astonishingly, there was no emotion whatsoever in his eyes. Only an unreadable abyss gazed out from within them.
Blood fog rose like heat haze from both his hands, and his expression was as cold and composed as ice.
Chae Geum spoke in a low voice, his face a blank mask.
"This is as far as you go, Divine Doctor. The Crown Prince's final road... must be a quiet one."
There was no emotion in his voice at all.
That was what made it so chilling.
Because it was not the voice of a servant devoted to his master.
'Chae Geum... even the Crown Prince's own shadow was a traitor...'
Ouyang Qiangang gritted his teeth.
'He hasn't fallen to some Soul-Seizing Art. That look in his eyes belongs to a man who betrayed his master by his own will.'
Swaaaaa—!
Bloody finger-force erupted from Chae Geum's hands and crashed over Ouyang Qiangang like a tidal wave.
But Ouyang Qiangang did not evade.
Instead, he drove straight into that bloody mist and unfolded the Gale Linked Ring Fingers.
Papapapapapat!
Finger-forces fast beyond sight rose like a deluge and shredded Chae Geum's blood fog to ribbons.
Chae Geum's complexion changed drastically.
He had heard the tale of how Ouyang Qiangang had annihilated the Blood Sea's assassins, and so he had never entertained the thought of victory.
Neither, however, had he believed he would crumble in a matter of seconds.
His plan had been to buy time, and slip away the moment the Crown Prince breathed his last.
But Ouyang Qiangang's martial arts sailed effortlessly past anything Chae Geum had imagined.
In the split second the blood fog cleared, Ouyang Qiangang's fist shot toward Chae Geum's arms like lightning, wrapped in prodigious fist-force.
It was the Exploding Flame King Cannon — the crushing of all things.
CRUNCH! CRACK-crack-crack!
"KYAAAAGH!"
With a despairing scream, both of Chae Geum's arms exploded.
Ouyang Qiangang's martial power had already surpassed the Transcendent realm and was sprinting toward the Transformation Realm.
For Chae Geum, a mere Peak master, stopping him had been impossible from the very start.