Chapter 28
Chapter 28
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 28
Chapter Title: Shall I Kill You?
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I headed to the top of the Qingyue Tower with my geomungo strapped to my back, toward the Qingyue Tower Lord—no, the Hao Sect Leader.
I had actually wanted to bring my sword tucked at my side too, but Munseok had blocked me with all his might.
‘Ah… I’m just taking it for self-defense, you know? Self-defense!’
‘Look at your eyes right now. They’re the eyes of someone ready to crush a person…! I’ll guarantee your safety with my life, so please go empty-handed…!’
How did he know…?
Truth be told, the moment I saw the Hao Sect Leader’s face, I planned to smash her temple with the hilt of my sword….
Thanks to Munseok’s pleas, I had no choice but to head up with just the geomungo.
‘Well… if anything happens, I can just smash her with my fist—no, the geomungo.’
With those thoughts, I soon arrived right in front of the Hao Sect Leader’s room.
There were no guards at the door, nor could I sense any hidden escorts, so I wondered if this was the right place….
“Come in.”
…The voice from inside confirmed it seemed to be.
Creak—.
“It’s been a while.”
“…….”
When I opened the door and entered, she greeted me wearing only thin clothes that looked like pajamas. And in front of me….
“Is this a bribe?”
“If I had to call it something, maybe payment for your performance?”
…There was a banknote marked with the value of one nyang of gold.
I pocketed it for now. Then, growling at her, I said,
“Do you think money solves everything that’s happened so far?”
If this were a capitalist society, I might have understood, but this was the martial world.
Fists mattered more than money.
As I raised my fist and spoke, the Hao Sect Leader smiled.
“I apologize for what happened before.”
“Ha! If apologies fixed everything, why would we have fists or vendettas?”
“Haha, you’re as amusing as ever.”
Her face showed this strange certainty that I wouldn’t hit her, which only pissed me off more.
But what could I do?
My right fist was already wailing, begging to be let go.
Step—.
Perhaps noticing my intent only now, the moment I took a step forward, she struck first again.
“Do you remember the Drunken Immortal Wine you had yesterday?”
“…!”
Her words halted my steps.
Yeah. It was definitely called Drunken Immortal Wine.
It was an astonishing liquor that had knocked me out flat, me who hadn’t gotten properly drunk in years.
Smiling as if she could read my mind, the Hao Sect Leader continued.
“The stronger one’s martial arts, the harder it is to get drunk, right? You felt great after your first taste of Drunken Immortal Wine, didn’t you?”
“…….”
“I’ve heard your guqin playing is exceptional. Every day at this time, if you perform for me once, I’ll give you one nyang of gold and one bottle of Drunken Immortal Wine.”
“Phew… Should I accept this or not….”
Truth be told, I had planned to punish her somewhat for using tricks in our duel before.
But her current proposal was seriously shaking my resolve.
The pleasure of drinking Drunken Immortal Wine was definitely an experience hard to replicate.
I pondered for a moment and scrutinized the Hao Sect Leader to probe further.
When we first met, she had been wearing gloves, but now her hands were bare. And those hands….
“…!”
…All her nails were gone, and the beds beneath were dark and blackened.
Hmm… No way, is that…?
Having caught on to the Hao Sect Leader’s not-so-secret secret, I flung the geomungo I’d brought onto the floor and asked her,
“If you’d offered two hundred nyang of gold from the start, I might have accepted. Why bother with that damned duel?”
“I heard from the Sichuan branch manager that you’re very suspicious. If I’d offered two hundred nyang upfront, wouldn’t you have refused? And honestly….”
This time, her face held a touch of sincerity.
“…I didn’t think I’d lose. I admit it. That duel… was my foul play.”
The fleeting emotion on her face was indeed a mix of defiance and shame. It seemed the Hao Sect Leader had absolute confidence in her poisons.
Certain of something now, I sat down and asked her,
“Then, since I won that duel, I can ask my final question, right? I still haven’t.”
“Haha, that’s right. Ask away, and I’ll answer any question. What’s on your mind?”
“Are you from the Sichuan Tang Clan?”
“…….”
At that question, her ever-relaxed smile froze in an instant. Naturally, that expression change alone gave me my confirmation.
No, from the start, she reeked of the Sichuan Tang Clan—did she really think I wouldn’t notice?
As I properly tuned the strings of the geomungo in front of me, I told her,
“I’ve seen someone like you before. He was Tang Clan blood too, and he’d taken in the same stuff as you.”
“…….”
“At first his nails fell out, and later all his hair went, leaving him bald. After that….”
“…You must be talking about my cousin uncle or something like that.”
“Anyway, you’re the same as him, right? Your nails are gone, so it won’t be long now?”
Ironically, only after I said that did the Hao Sect Leader’s expression return to its usual smile-filled one.
“You speak of such cruel tales so casually, sir.”
“You want to die anyway, don’t you? If that’s the case….”
“…….”
“Shall I kill you?”
What I said was utterly sincere. If she asked me to kill her, I was willing.
It would be a kindness to her in its own way.
But even at my considerate words, she just shook her head bitterly.
“…I can’t die.”
“Why? Better to die than live in that pain.”
“If I die, the poison in my body will burst out and kill everyone nearby.”
“Then just go somewhere with no people and die.”
“There’s no place without people. Even if I die there, the poison will corrupt the essence around it and cause harm somehow.”
“Sigh, tsk. Your life’s really tragic.”
In an instant, any urge to smack her vanished.
No matter how annoying she’d been, who’d want to flick the forehead of someone dying of terminal cancer?
Whatever I did to torment her would be a drop in the bucket compared to the real-time agony she was enduring.
And understandably so, for the Hao Sect Leader before me was a Poison Human. A failed one, at that.
A Poison Human was the Sichuan Tang Clan’s human weapon, even appearing in novels. The process to create one was detailed, so I knew it well.
First, Fetal Poison Human Creation.
From the moment the mother conceives, she’s steadily fed poison so that toxic energy settles in the fetus’s dantian.
After birth, the child is taught poison arts and steadily injected with every poison in the world.
Repeating this, once the poison fully takes root even in the innate true energy, one becomes a Poison Human.
But while learning poison arts was one thing, injecting poison from the fetal stage couldn’t be easy.
The process involved immense suffering and killed most subjects.
The one I’d met before somehow survived to adulthood but couldn’t fully adapt his body to the poison and died from it in the end.
The Hao Sect Leader before me was the same.
I didn’t know how she’d escaped the Sichuan Tang Clan’s grasp to become Hao Sect Leader, but the poison in her body hadn’t settled perfectly.
With her nails gone, soon her hair would start falling out, leading to death.
Since she hadn’t become a perfect Poison Human, she was already in tremendous pain right now.
Before playing the geomungo, I asked her one last thing.
“Still, becoming Hao Sect Leader at such a young age means you’ve benefited from the poison arts, huh?”
“…Haha, yes. I’ve killed, deceived, and betrayed many with poison. Thanks to that, I’m the youngest leader in history. But….”
As she turned her head to look at the rising sun outside the window, her expression was completely different from before.
“…I think I’m a bit tired.”
“…….”
Tired.
Was there a better word to describe her state right now?
Pitiful and tragic. That was the definite emotion I felt seeing her now.
But….
‘There are plenty more pitiful than the Hao Sect Leader.’
…In this world, countless people starved to death without food.
As a mere bandit leader, I had no reason to help with her mysterious backstory out of pity.
The most I could do was play the geomungo for her in exchange for a few bottles of liquor.
“I won’t take the gold out of conscience. Instead, five bottles of Drunken Immortal Wine per performance.”
“…One bottle of Drunken Immortal Wine is worth two nyang of gold, and you say it like you’re conceding. Well… I accept anyway. The Sichuan branch manager kept praising your guqin skills.”
“That’s just Munseok hyung being dramatic. So… any tune you want to hear?”
“I’ll leave that to your judgment too.”
“Got it.”
Twang—.
Hearing her words, I began playing the geomungo.
Ting-ting-tang—.
I chose the most lively melody I knew as my own kind of consideration for her, who was even now enduring the pain of her body being eaten away by poison.