Rescue Operation
The sleeping poison was among the toxins the Tang Clan handled only under the strictest restrictions, its leakage beyond their walls forbidden for a simple reason: the consequences were too far-reaching.
"You have sleeping poison with you, don't you?"
There was no poison more effective—and less lethal—than sleeping poison.
Dang Seol-yong looked at Seo Joo-cheon.
"You think I have it?"
Seo Joo-cheon already knew why she was so eager to rescue Baek I-jin. The poison that had felled the Mount Hua Sect Daoists in their fight against Macheonchong's martial artists had been sleeping poison. If anything happened to Baek I-jin, the Tang Clan would not escape Mount Hua's wrath. They might not know it yet, but once an investigation began, the poison's identity would come to light.
Dang Seol-yong was here for two reasons. The first was the sleeping poison that had leaked from the Tang Clan. The second was the same reason Daoist Gojin of the Qingcheng Sect had come.
Seo Joo-cheon had written the setting himself: a Tang Clan traitor leaking sleeping poison to Macheonchong, so the two factions would be set against each other.
In a way, I might be the one who leaked the sleeping poison.
He had created the setting. Moral responsibility was inescapable.
"It's the most useful poison there is. There's no chance Miss Dang wouldn't have it."
Dang Seol-yong let a slow, lingering smile spread across her face—the first in quite some time. Fondness and competitive spirit were mixed in it in equal measure.
"The more I learn about you, Hero Po, the more fascinating you become."
Hearing that, Seo Joo-cheon decided he ought to watch his words. He knew those remarks meant her obsession was deepening.
"I think it would be wise to prepare a poison that can incapacitate even a First-Rate master in a single dose."
"Is there a formidable master here?"
"To use an estate like this as a hideout would have taken enormous effort and investment. Wouldn't some remarkable master be standing guard?"
"Now that you mention it, that does make sense. Preparing one wouldn't hurt. I have a poison that can bring down even a Peak master. Don't worry."
Seo Joo-cheon thought to himself, That Peak master is in that manor. A master so strong that even if we all charged him at once, we'd struggle to take him down. The reason I brought Daoist Gojin along was to use him as a sacrificial pawn.
According to the novel's setting, a formidable master was guarding that place.
The Undying Demon, Hyeok Chung.
A Peak master who occupied one of the twelve seats among Macheonchong's Twelve Demon Lords.
Seo Joo-cheon had written that Hyeok Chung was staying briefly at the hideout to join the storm currently sweeping through Xi'an, so of course he knew. He had also written that the Undying Demon Hyeok Chung was a notorious flower-plucking deviant with a taste for beautiful women.
Looking back now, that was a plot point better left unwritten. For the sake of narrative entertainment, he had made Hyeok Chung a flower-plucking deviant so he could put the heroine in danger and have the protagonist, Jang Hyeon-nam, rescue her. Now all he felt was dread.
If Baek I-jin is violated by that bastard, that's on me. If I lose Baek I-jin—who was supposed to be Jang Hyeon-nam's—the story could go completely off the rails.
That would mean departing from the main storyline, and even the original author wouldn't be able to predict how the novel would unfold. What Seo Joo-cheon feared most was a scenario that left the original work behind. If that happened, his greatest advantage—knowing the story in advance—would vanish, and he could no longer be certain of surviving to a natural death in this brutal Jianghu.
The difference between controlling every thread of the story and losing that control was enormous. It was the difference between playing a game with cheat codes and playing without them.
That's why I have no choice but to rely on the Tang Clan's poisons. Still, having Dang Seol-yong here is a great comfort.
In the original setting, Dang Seol-yong should have been in Xi'an, not here. For some reason her journey had been delayed, and that delay had created a point of contact with Seo Joo-cheon.
Then again, cause and effect are all connected. The reason Dang Seol-yong's journey was delayed is that she was tracking Macheonchong's martial artists to investigate the sleeping poison, and when they attacked Baek I-jin and Baek Seol, she joined the fight.
Seen that way, it made sense that Dang Seol-yong was in Weinan instead of Xi'an. As time passed, he was coming to understand that the story shifted, little by little, according to realistic chains of cause and effect.
He watched as Dang Seol-yong and her two escort warriors climbed onto the rooftops around the Gwak Family Manor and released the sleeping poison according to the direction of the wind.
"I don't see why we need to go through all this. We should just charge in. All this fuss to attack a handful of demonic-path scum."
Daoist Gojin wore a look of thorough dissatisfaction. Kang Chu-mi couldn't hold her tongue.
"Daoist Gojin says that because he's never fought Macheonchong. He has no idea what they're like."
Go Jin glared at her.
"Is this humble priest being compared to Third-Rate Unorthodox rabble?"
Kang Chu-mi let out a short laugh at the open contempt.
"I really can't deal with hypocrites."
"What did you just say? This priest already stains his name by associating with Unorthodox martial artists, and you dare speak so freely? Do you truly wish to die? This priest has been holding back out of regard for Orthodox honor!"
Irritation surged through Seo Joo-cheon, and he snapped.
"Shut that mouth of yours before I kill you."
"What? So the Unorthodox nature finally shows itself!"
Daoist Gojin despised the heretical and demonic paths more than anything—ever since his martial junior had died. That hatred had gone too far, twisting him into an extremely narrow-minded man.
You run into people like this even in modern Korea. I suppose they exist in every era.
Daoist Gojin looked ready to draw his sword then and there. But when Dang Seol-yong finished dispersing the poison and arrived on the rooftop, he took his hand off the hilt. Venom still poured from his eyes.
Dang Seol-yong ignored him completely and spoke to Seo Joo-cheon.
"The poison has been released. We only need to wait a quarter of an hour."
Seo Joo-cheon nodded.
"You've worked hard. After a quarter of an hour, we'll attack from the four directions as discussed."
They had chosen to strike from the four cardinal directions, each team taking one side. The Shaanxi Four Heroes would take the front—the heaviest responsibility. Five martial artists gathered from the inn would join them.
A quarter of an hour later, the teams moved out.
Once they had scattered in four directions, Seo Joo-cheon looked back at the martial artists standing tense behind him. Warriors of Second-Rate and above had been mobilized for Baek I-jin's rescue. They were extras; he felt no need to use Character Search.
Probably none of them will survive this place. Not with the Undying Demon here.
As he scanned them, one of the warriors smiled and answered.
"Don't worry so much, Hero Po. We can take care of ourselves."
Seo Joo-cheon turned away with a bitter smile.
"Once we rescue Miss Baek, we withdraw immediately. Avoid any unnecessary engagement."
He said it hoping, perhaps, that they might live.
"Let's go!"
"Yes, Big Brother."
Seo Joo-cheon didn't forget to warn his two younger siblings as well.
"You two must not leave my side. Follow my instructions."
"Big Brother, you've said that more than ten times now. Why are you so worried?"
Kang Chu-mi scolded him, and Seo Joo-cheon nodded.
"Right. I suppose you've heard it enough."
Seo Joo-cheon approached the main gate of the Gwak Family Manor.
"Halt!"
As a group of martial artists drew near the gate, a man who looked like a sentry shouted. The instant the shout left his mouth, Kang Chu-mi's whip coiled around the sentry's throat.
Whiiir!
"Ghk!"
A dying gasp, and the sentry went limp. The whip work had a weight to it that hadn't been there a few days ago—proof that her inner energy had grown that much.
And while Kang Chu-mi strangled the sentry with her whip, Ham Cheon-yeong smashed another sentry's skull with the blade of his broadsword.
Thud!
The sentry died instantly, the crown of his head caved in by the blade. The brutality of it made the martial artists behind them flinch.
"Second Brother. Open the gate."
"Yes, Big Brother."
Ham Cheon-yeong sheathed his broadsword, planted himself before the great doors, and pushed.
"Is that even going to budge? Even Xiang Yu would have trouble with that."
One of the warriors behind them muttered, as if Ham Cheon-yeong were a fool. Ham Cheon-yeong had always been born with monstrous strength, and now that his inner power had increased, that strength had doubled.
Craaack!
The bracing timber set against the inside of the gate shattered, and the doors swung open.
"Who goes there!"
The moment they smashed through the main gate, the martial artists inside the Gwak Family Manor shouted. That was the signal. Attacks poured in from the other three directions.
"Intruders!"
As cries rose from every side, Seo Joo-cheon charged inside and drew his sword.
Seo Joo-cheon surveyed the manor grounds. The sentries outside had escaped the sleeping poison and were unharmed, but more than half of Macheonchong's martial artists inside the estate had collapsed from it.
Is sleeping poison this powerful? No modern gas could match this.
There was a reason the Tang Clan held one of the great pillars of the Jianghu.
Martial artists whose inner energy ran deep enough to resist the poison came charging in.
"Big Brother, it's them. Macheonchong."
They were using the same martial arts as the group that had attacked the Mount Hua Sect disciples.
"Show them no mercy."
"Yes, Big Brother. I'm not so generous as to spare the ones who took Third Brother's arm."
Kang Chu-mi went further.
"You sons of bitches. I'll wipe out your entire bloodline."
The martial artists behind them shuddered. The fighting spirit and killing intent rolling off Kang Chu-mi made every hair on their bodies stand on end.
The Macheonchong warriors already poisoned by the sleeping toxin couldn't last more than a few exchanges against Seo Joo-cheon's White Snake Sword Technique. They crumpled. Ham Cheon-yeong and Kang Chu-mi poured out every ounce of the rage they felt for what Dokgo Ho-in had suffered. In the wake they left behind, not a single corpse had all its limbs intact.
When the enemy attacks thinned, Seo Joo-cheon sprinted toward a single destination.
"Follow me!"
The most likely place Baek I-jin would be held was a bedchamber. The building at the very center of the estate was the manor lord's sleeping quarters.
Seo Joo-cheon had thrown the Qingcheng Sect and the Tang Clan out as bait. While they raised a commotion, he would head straight for the bedchamber and rescue Baek I-jin.
That's the fastest route to getting her out. If we wander around, they could spirit her away or kill her.
That was why he had deliberately proposed attacking from four directions. While the other teams tore through the manor searching for Baek I-jin, Seo Joo-cheon would go to the bedchamber and save her.
The Undying Demon Hyeok Chung was more than capable of laying hands on Baek I-jin to satisfy his lust. There was nowhere else she would be but the bedchamber.
"Big Brother, this looks like the sleeping quarters?"
Ham Cheon-yeong spoke up, thinking they had taken a wrong turn.
"There's a high chance Miss Baek is in the bedchamber. Search every room."
"Here? Not a basement or a dungeon?"
A reasonable question from Ham Cheon-yeong.
"They'll know Miss Baek is a valuable hostage. Would they treat a hostage like that carelessly?"
"That makes sense. Big Brother really has gotten smarter."
Kang Chu-mi marveled at him once again. Lately every word out of his mouth carried a sagacity that reminded her of a deeply cultivated Daoist.
Seo Joo-cheon was briefly thrown when he found dozens of rooms in the sleeping quarters. Then he found a locked door. He tore off the lock ring, opened the door—and his body went rigid.
"Damn it!"
Baek I-jin lay naked on the bed, her limbs bound wide with silk cloth at the corners of the frame. The sight was so raw that Seo Joo-cheon frowned. And the greater problem: her eyes were wide open and alert. The moment he entered, she trembled violently, her pupils shaking.
I described the Undying Demon Hyeok Chung as a flower-plucking deviant, but I never wrote him as a pervert. I didn't expect him to treat Baek I-jin like this.
Footsteps approached the room.
"Don't come in. Don't let anyone into this room."
The one approaching happened to be Ham Cheon-yeong.
"Yes, Big Brother."
Seo Joo-cheon approached the bed and asked in a calm voice. His mind was not so weak as to be undone by a woman's body. He had known plenty of women in the modern world, and Po Un, already thirty, had no shortage of experience either. He was relatively unmoved.
"Miss Baek."
She couldn't even answer.
"Have your pressure points been sealed? Blink if they have."
Baek I-jin blinked at him repeatedly.
"There aren't any traps in here, are there?"
She blinked again.
"Then I'll dress you. Bear with me a moment."
Seo Joo-cheon took Baek I-jin's clothes, neatly folded on the side table, and began dressing her from the lower garments up.
"Forgive me for laying hands on your body. We don't have the luxury of calling another woman to dress you."
Baek I-jin knew that as well as he did, and blinked. She watched Seo Joo-cheon's eyes as he put on her underclothes. It was easy to tell there was no lust in them. He looked as though he were thinking about something else entirely. He was not looking at her naked body.
In truth, Seo Joo-cheon was thinking something completely absurd.
If the readers of my novel could see this scene, they would have loved it. I probably would have described it with every elegant flourish I knew. Slender jade fingers. Ice-bone jade flesh. Beauty that sinks fish and drops geese from the sky. A face like the moon, a countenance like a flower. One glance to topple a city—every four-character idiom I could remember.
But this was reality, and unfortunately there was no room to describe a woman's body. The thought almost made him laugh. A body as if carved from white jade right in front of him, and he was thinking about his novel. Even Seo Joo-cheon found himself ridiculous.
And through it all, Baek I-jin watched every shift in his expression with careful attention.