Chapter 52
Chapter 52
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 52
Chapter Title: Special Ability (10)
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“Gyeong Sect Leader. Do you think that’s possible in your opinion?”
“What’s stopping it?”
“A sect leader who lusts after women should take responsibility for his words and actions.”
“Oh, you saw everything?”
Gyeong Nambang asked nonchalantly.
Yeom Seoksan didn’t respond. He simply looked up at him with cold eyes.
Gyeong Nambang didn’t waver in the slightest. He continued smoothly, as if reciting from a clear mountain stream.
“Elder Yeom was originally a remarkably refined-looking man. Seeing your disheveled appearance now, anyone might view you with hostility. I understand. But I only provoked her with strategic words because she didn’t seem like an easy opponent. In any case, thanks to me, we fended off that vicious foe, didn’t we? Elder Yeom, you should understand me too.”
“Understand...”
Yeom Seoksan was furious, and that made him even colder.
Gyeong Nambang had blatantly shown lust toward Yeom Seoksan’s daughters. Now he was trying to gloss it over with his three-inch tongue. And while doing so, he’d said he’d place them under the protection of the Gyeong Clan Manor. Could that truly be called protection?
But causing more strife here was impossible.
Yeom Seoksan reined in his superhuman patience and continued.
“I’ll make the effort. But this Yeom doesn’t forget favors or grudges easily. Especially not when things get difficult.”
He’d conveyed his unwillingness clearly.
But Gyeong Nambang didn’t back down easily.
“However, it doesn’t seem like the North Peng Clan has any intention of looking after the elder’s plight. Do you think you can survive alone in this treacherous place?”
His words bordered on a threat.
His eyes conveyed it, and the energy in his voice did too.
Tension spiked in an instant.
As always, Danmun overturned the board.
“Who says he’s alone?”
His voice was soft and polite.
Having shattered the mask he’d been wearing, Danmun now covered his nose and half his face with a scrap of cloth he’d picked up somewhere.
“Who else could it be?”
“Didn’t you see earlier? I’m behind Elder Yeom.”
Danmun replied as if there were no more obvious fact in the world.
Even Gyeong Nambang, who had acted so arrogantly throughout, seemed momentarily speechless. Unable to find a leisurely retort, he infused his voice with anger.
“So, I’m offering to take responsibility for Elder Yeom’s safety, and you’re saying you’ll stand in my way?”
“What’s to stop me?”
Danmun was unflinching.
What use was covering his face so sloppily? It might look comical at first glance, but the red blade casually at his side was anything but funny.
“Hah.”
It was exasperating for Gyeong Nambang.
Danmun continued without even turning his head.
“Elder Yeom, don’t worry. The Dark House tiger has already accepted the commission.”
The situation grew ever more dire.
Danmun showed no hesitation in swinging his red blade.
Gyeong Nambang clenched his fist and said,
“I knew it from the start, but you truly aren’t right in the head.”
Any moment now, blade and fist would clash.
Jung Gwang stepped forward.
“If I may be so bold, this isn’t the time. People are approaching from the north and west. We need to leave this place quickly.”
It made sense.
But Gyeong Nambang was already filled with rage.
“That’s your Peng Clan’s problem. I don’t care who comes. If you’re so eager to run, just take your wounded and go, no?”
“Clan Leader.”
Jung Gwang’s voice lowered. His polite tone turned hostile.
“The North Hebei Peng Clan has no desire to make enemies of the Gyeong Clan Manor.”
Gyeong Nambang had crossed the line first.
His eyes turned murderous in brazen retaliation. But he couldn’t swing his fist.
This was the North Hebei Peng Clan.
The Shanxi Five Strongholds might be renowned only locally, but the North Hebei Peng Clan was one of the six great families nationwide. Youngsters like these before him didn’t matter; clan against clan, they stood no chance.
In other words, Jung Gwang’s words were a threat.
The Gyeong Clan Manor had no desire to make enemies.
Don’t you dare try to make enemies of the North Hebei Peng Clan.
The phrasing differed, but the meaning was the same.
“Elder Yeom, you said you won’t forget. I won’t forget these faces here either.”
He growled through gritted teeth.
Finally.
Danmun added one more line.
“But you didn’t see my face.”
“You.”
Gyeong Nambang pointed at Danmun.
“You, of all people—I’ll never forget you. Next time we meet, I’ll smash that demon-possessed head of yours.”
“You flatter me.”
Gyeong Nambang’s face, which wouldn’t flush even if he chugged a bottle of liquor, turned beet red.
Gyeong Nambang clenched and unclenched his fist three times.
Red hair, mad temperament, unclear identity. Somehow connected to the Peng Clan, but uncertain.
Should he provoke?
Should he kill?
He didn’t know.
He needed more liquor.
If he’d drained one more bottle, he wouldn’t have held back.
It was only because he was the Gyeong Clan Manor’s leader that he lowered his fist.
“I’m in a foul mood, so I’ll go first. No wishes of good fortune.”
He needed liquor.
Gyeong Nambang kicked off the ground and vanished into the forest.
Yeom Seoksan shouldered the incense burner, and the Heaven-Destroying Squad gathered the wounded.
Fortunately, Deungju hadn’t lost his life. His breathing was slow, but better than ragged. The Peng Clan secret art, Heaven-Earth Heart Method, was the foundation of divine skills, possessing numerous wondrous effects on its own.
This case was no different.
To suppress the poison and internal injuries, he’d entered a state close to false death. Concentration of qi. Simply put, with proper treatment, he’d pull through.
Cleanup didn’t take long.
The Heaven-Destroying Squad leaped into the southern forest alongside Yeom Seoksan carrying the incense burner.
Danmun followed behind.
Soon, his figure melted tracelessly into the darkness.
* * *
Oho’s face was hard as stone.
At the base of Salpcheon Gorge, he’d arrived first—and discovered the traces first.
Because he’d run at full speed.
No one in the Stealth Squad could match his lightness skill.
Twilight was receding into darkness, but the sun hadn’t properly risen yet. He’d hurried tremendously. Despite his profound inner strength, he was short of breath.
‘Bloodstains!’
He spotted them on the rocky ground not far from the water.
He steadied his breathing and calmed his heart, but his pulse raced again immediately.
The bloodstains were scattered chaotically.
Stealth Squad members mastered the Four Analyses.
Analysis of battle traces.
Analysis of situational regression.
Analysis of identifying individuals.
Analysis of pursuit tactics.
Every trace at the site of a fight was a clue to infer the situation. From those clues, one could deduce the people present and find ways to track them.
Oho generally had no interest in theory, but the Four Analyses were the Stealth Squad’s fundamentals, so he’d hammered them into his head out of necessity.
He concentrated inner energy into his eyes, enhancing his vision.
‘Diluted.’
Exactly.
The bloodstains had spread faintly. Blood mixed with water looks like this. The trail ran from the water’s edge to a large rock. Even without the Four Analyses, anyone could tell an injured person had crawled up here.
The problem was there were two trails of bloodstains.
Beyond the drops following footsteps, there was another line along the right side of the path. Scattered as if from walking. Blood droplets dotted and dried on the gravel.
‘Severed wound!’
Judging by the range and position, it was the right arm.
Oho aligned his left hand blade with his own right arm to gauge the cut. Nearly to the shoulder, it seemed.
The splattered blood confirmed it. The blood loss wasn’t much. By warrior standards, this amount was moderate. Usually, they seal the acupoints right after severing.
Even accounting for that, it was light. Because it was diluted. It fit.
‘Could they reattach the severed part?’
Oho frowned.
The unnaturally rapid healing of Cheonwi wounds was a fact known since they were very young. They’d known it for years and been through all sorts of ordeals together, but no one knew the limits. No Cheonwi limb had ever been severed before.
He didn’t dwell on the unknown.
Whether it could be reattached was a later issue.
Oho followed the footprints left in water and blood, quickly and meticulously examining the traces.
‘This is very bad.’
They’d staggered a lot, couldn’t stand straight. They were warriors. Unless near death, their gait wouldn’t falter like this.
The trail led to a broad rock.
‘Sat here?’
Oho frowned.
A broken sword lay beside the rock. They’d pulled it from their body here. From the sword’s position, it seemed they’d dropped it right after.
This too was gravely bad. No, catastrophic.
Open gravel terrain, a rock with no cover.
To check wounds, at minimum, it had to be out of sight. Invisible, inaudible. Concealing scent was basic. Covert movement was the foundation of Stealth Squad maneuvers.
They hadn’t even found a hiding spot and just plopped on the rock.
The sword dropping would’ve clanged loudly. If pursuers were around, it was like jumping up and shouting, “Here I am!”
It meant they’d reached their limit, unable even to follow basics.
‘And the blood loss was severe.’
The rock was covered in dark brown bloodstains. Small pools had formed in the crevices.
‘But this...’
One side of the rock had strange marks. Some bloodstains had thinned with water and dried. As if something heavy had been set down.
‘They kept the arm?’
If it was a Cheonwi, possible. Normal warriors don’t carry severed limbs after amputation. Once cut, it’s gone forever. Stealth Squad’s vast intel archives had no tales of warriors reattaching and reusing limbs.
‘And I haven’t even read it all.’
Even among the Stealth Squad, he was known as a fighter.
He was good at intel analysis but lazy on memorization.
Regenerating a severed limb to move normally would fall under bizarre incidents of unclear veracity. Among those, the most outlandish reports were in the quasi-apocrypha storage, nicknamed the Forgeries—full of lie-like intel.
But Oho had never gone there. Not just him—most Stealth Squad members disliked it. Hence the weird nickname. Even confirmed counterintel he hadn’t fully reviewed; that place was truly unknown territory for him.