Chapter 53
Chapter 53
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 53
Chapter Title: Chapter 5: Extraordinary Ability (11)
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‘There was at least one occasion worth stepping into.’
Upon reflection, that was true.
He hadn’t been indifferent, exactly—just hadn’t actively sought it out.
That was Oho’s nature.
These days he lived as he pleased, but there had been a time of intense self-exploration even for Cheonwi.
Why did Cheonwi possess such abilities?
And why did he himself have such deficiencies?
Cheonwi himself had undoubtedly pored over every falsified report.
The reason Cheonwi had joined the Espionage Division might have been rooted in a thirst for high-level intelligence.
But even after proving his exceptional intellect and gaining access to most of the Espionage Division’s Counterintelligence Office secrets, Cheonwi had found no answers about his own body. That failure had shaped the Cheonwi of today.
‘No matter how recklessly he lived, he should have been more cautious at a time like this.’
Even as prolonged contemplation swept through his mind, his two eyes, scanning for traces, remained sharp.
He halted thoughts of the distant past and focused on reconstructing the sequence of events.
Enemies had appeared behind the rock.
At least three—no, more.
The gravel field behind was splattered with blood everywhere.
An enormous amount of blood had been sprayed about. These weren’t marks from stabbing weapons like swords or spears. It looked as if limbs had been torn off. Brutal, yet devoid of human emotion.
With this much blood spilled, not a single corpse was in sight.
It couldn’t have been the enemy survivors who cleaned up. This wasn’t a scene where anyone survived. Blood mixed with filth flowed between the pebbles. Bits of flesh that hadn’t been cleared away were visible too. Whoever had been here had been annihilated. If the bodies had been recovered, it must have been by pursuers who arrived afterward.
‘How?’
Doubts overlapped in an instant.
Cheonwi must have been near death, unable to respond properly to the ambush. And yet, the area was covered in dried blood.
Even if superhuman strength had surged in a moment of life-or-death crisis, this was beyond that.
Cheonwi always produced unimaginable results, but the Cheonwi he knew possessed no such ability. It had to be a newly appeared figure who killed the pursuers. An extremely powerful expert.
‘An expert?’
Chewing on the word, it felt off.
‘Is this what you call an expert?’
An expert referred to a martial artist who had deeply cultivated their arts to a high level of mastery.
This scene was too savage to be the work of an expert’s refined techniques. It was piercing, tearing, and smashing. Like a hundred bare-handed blows. Perhaps they had overdone it deliberately to conceal their martial origins? It wasn’t impossible. As for who... he had no idea.
There was something else unknowable.
Cheonwi’s whereabouts.
If forced to choose between alive or dead, it was the former.
If dead, the body would be here.
The pursuers’ reason for recovering the body was easy to guess. No matter the group, they weren’t the type to parade around in broad daylight. They were people who’d be in trouble if their identities were exposed—and that was separate from the absence of Cheonwi’s corpse.
If dead, they could have just left it here.
Cheonwi’s status was merely a thug from the Peng Clan, a back-alley fixer in Taewon Prefecture. From that perspective, his corpse wasn’t particularly valuable. If dead, someone had bothered to carry it off, but unless they knew of Cheonwi’s unique physical traits, there’d be no reason for the effort. And few in the Peng Clan even knew about his body.
He considered alternatives.
Perhaps a passerby elder luckily intervened, allowing Cheonwi to escape on his own. Of course, a slim possibility.
There was a clear purpose at play. Ultimately, it was right to assume the ally who slew the pursuers had secured Cheonwi. Whatever their intentions or actions, Cheonwi wouldn’t have had the capacity to resist.
The key question was why they saved Cheonwi.
It was hard to imagine good intentions. Cheonwi’s mind held many secrets. If they’d rescued him aiming for those, the situation could spiral uncontrollably. He didn’t even want to think about the consequences.
And the strangest thing was something else entirely.
The fact that a battle had occurred here at all.
Cheonwi had thrown himself into the Sapcheon Gorge, and was discovered shortly after climbing ashore and sitting on the rock.
The timelines didn’t match.
Oho himself had received the report on Cheonwi and rushed here as fast as possible. Of course, he’d detoured via Ryu Hang. He’d had to bypass a long distance—no helping it.
But the enemies had pinpointed Cheonwi’s location almost immediately. Cheonwi wasn’t a fool. Even if he’d foolishly rested atop that exposed rock, once he recovered even a bit of stamina, he’d have gone into hiding right away.
The enemies hadn’t given him that chance.
They’d spotted Cheonwi the moment he crawled out of the Sapcheon River.
It meant they’d been waiting.
That led back to how? Doubts piled up there. Had they anticipated the leap from Sapcheon Gorge and searched downstream in advance? Neither Oho nor even Cheonwi had foreseen that. Well, that’s why he’d sat there dumbly like an idiot.
‘It’s not impossible.’
Oho shifted his thinking.
The moment he’d heard Cheonwi had climbed to the top of Sapcheon Gorge, Oho had known he’d jump. In that situation, it was the only escape route, no exaggeration. In other words, anyone could have predicted it.
But there was a difference between it being predictable and actually reading it in that chaotic melee last night. It meant someone, upon seeing Cheonwi head up the gorge, had immediately dispatched search teams downstream. That was the only theory explaining this ambush.
Who among last night’s tangled battlefield commanders had such decisiveness? Racking his brains yielded no suspects. No matter how lazy he’d been, he hadn’t overlooked memorizing key figures.
‘The one who orchestrated the fight.’
Back to the beginning.
The one who’d set Daedong Merchant Guild and Taehaeng Gang at each other’s throats. Instinct told him so. Anyone painting this big a picture wouldn’t mark minor dots carelessly.
Whoever it was, they couldn’t have wanted the Great Dong-Tae War or Tae-Dong War to end like this.
They’d drawn out a one-on-one duel between leaders—and botched it.
They’d tried to preempt prolonged chaos in Shaanxi with one grand upheaval.
Cheonwi, Danmun, and what he’d done.
That’s why they targeted Cheonwi.
They’d target Danmun too.
Since they’d ruined the plan.
And.
Oho raised his head.
Who would arrive first searching this spot where Cheonwi had vanished?
Himself.
“Damn it.”
The bastards had been waiting for Cheonwi here downstream in advance.
Just like that—they were doing it now too.
Killing intent welled up here and there.
They’d hidden well.
In the dawn forest, black-clad figures began revealing themselves one by one.
‘Those guys.’
Black scholar robes.
Swords at their waists.
The ones who’d stormed right up to Gold Merchant Cheonwi’s bedside. He’d caught the traitor who’d escorted the two young ladies then too.
Srrrring.
Oho drew his black-and-white sword.
Even a well-prepared ambush couldn’t easily fool the Espionage Division Branch Chief’s senses. And they hadn’t been weaklings that time either.
“Come.”
Oho said.
There was still distance.
He could flee now without clashing blades. Worst case, throw himself into the Sapcheon rapids.
Oho chose battle.
Even when fleeing, he needed to know who these bastards were.
The Espionage Division’s core in wielding force wasn’t the immediate crushing of enemy forces.
The goal was always intelligence gathering.
He fought to know.
Oho’s stance shattered the gravel.
Thung!
Fierce enough to shatter teeth, far beyond mere curiosity.
His body lunged like a tiger stalking prey.
* * *
Cheonwi thought.
He was Espionage Division.
To assess the current situation as Espionage Division, he needed to prioritize friend from foe.
He was no longer the boy unsure of who or what he was.
He cleared his mind and focused his spirit.
Through his mind’s eye, he delved into memories. He flung open the intelligence reports stored deep in his brain.
‘Black Old Woman, first sighted during Peng Clan’s Mid-Autumn Festival downtown parade. Displayed monstrous strength by snapping a patrolling guard’s wrist when he tried to block her approach, but was subdued moments later by five Paecheondaesa members. Spoke a far-western tongue, rudimentary Central Plains speech making communication impossible. Showed no hostility after capture. Suspected foreign elder expert with clouded mind from head trauma or senility. No matches in existing Jianghu records.’
He rifled through reports, shifting to another document.
‘Silhouette spotted scaling walls at the southeasternmost outskirts residential area, a woman in black. Pursued by patrol guards. Foreign features, spoke western language. Movement art from unknown origin sect. Clashed three exchanges with one patrol guard. Said guard testified to raw superhuman strength without forms. Pursuit failed. Appears in her twenties outwardly, but considering bare-handed deflection of patrol strikes and untouchable lightness skill, deemed inner force expert in her thirties or older. Identity and purpose unknown. Believed to speak same language as black-clad old woman who appeared in downtown three years prior during Mid-Autumn Festival. Possibility of master-disciple or blood relation. Verify if reappears.’
There was more.
‘North of Wuan, Espionage Division downtown unit spotted the black-clad woman from one year ago scaling the main family’s southeast outer wall near the ruins of the Zongtai. Fortunately nearby, Tuno accompanied. Questioned reason for prior Peng Clan intrusion before force, but no answer. Instead of responding, fluently stated in Central Plains tongue lack of intent to fight. Reiterated queries on origin and name, again no answer. Escaped without clash. Effortlessly evaded Espionage Division tracking with unknown sect lightness skill. Profiling on hold. Does not appear harmful to main family, but review classification upon reappearance based on behavior assessment.’
That made three.
It had been a very long time since he’d recalled them.
Perhaps he’d known even from very early childhood.
She had always been by his side.
She appeared in dreams whenever he was about to forget, and in reality, she lingered not far away.
The Espionage Division had treated them as separate individuals, but now Cheonwi was certain.
The old woman and the woman were the same person. Rejuvenation to half-immortal state was exceedingly rare, but confirmed cases existed as bizarre tales. Moreover, inner force at Flower Realm wasn’t the only way to alter appearance. Age could be faked sufficiently with masks.