Chapter 145
Chapter 145
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 145
Chapter Title: Sweet Lips, Poisonous Heart [Honey Hiding a Ruthless Heart] (5)
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The blood that had bloomed red in the lake was gradually fading.
The Asura Blood Eels, having gnawed a man down to his bones and completely erased him from existence, swam leisurely.
The Asura Blood Eels still seemed unsatisfied with their hunger. They repeatedly lunged at the people on the shore before retreating back into the water.
"Those things have quite the appetites."
"Heh heh! Tossing in just one person won't even make a dent. You'd have to throw in at least a whole bunch."
"That's what I'm saying—they're still charging like this even after we threw in a bunch."
Bukmyeong gazed toward the center of the lake.
The boats that had filled the lake were nowhere to be seen. They had all sunk. And not a single person aboard those boats had survived; they were massacred to the last.
A great many people had become food for the Asura Blood Eels.
"Dosun, would you mind checking his pulse?"
Bukmyeong turned around as he spoke.
Dosun nodded, then immediately sat down behind Four Thousand Four's back. He pressed his palm to the Gate of Life acupoint and channeled his internal energy for a pulse diagnosis.
Szzzzz!
Dosun's internal energy swirled through Four Thousand Four's body.
"But was all this really necessary? Nam-myeong's long gone from the forest by now."
"There was the Little Shadow Killer."
"Ah! That bastard!"
"The Little Shadow Killer tailed us right to the end. He watched until Poison One hurled the man into the lake, then vanished."
"He saw everything that guy did?"
Poison One asked, his face registering surprise.
Poison One hadn't noticed the tail at all. Yet Bukmyeong had apparently observed it all.
"Not me. Sword Sage was the one watching."
"Ah!"
Poison One nodded.
Bukmyeong had asked him to throw the Zhuge clan warrior—who had died in Four Thousand Four's stead—into the lake.
Poison One had carried out the request. But he hadn't been free of complaints. The fight was already over, so what was the point of tossing a dead Zhuge warrior into the lake?
Especially after switching him with Four Thousand Four.
That implied someone was watching... Who would dare? He'd pushed his internal energy to its peak and scanned the surroundings vigilantly, but no watcher had appeared.
Bukmyeong had predicted the Little Shadow Killer's subsequent actions even before making the request.
That's why Sword Sage had been able to keep watch.
He'd known from the start who would tail them and hadn't taken his eyes off the Little Shadow Killer for a moment. It wasn't that Poison One was inferior to Sword Sage and had failed to spot him. Sword Sage had been monitoring him from the very beginning.
Poison One cocked his head and asked,
"This guy's about to stir soon. Any need to keep him being alive a secret?"
"Hah!"
Bukmyeong merely laughed, offering no reply.
"This guy's a real piece of work."
Dosun spoke as he withdrew his hands from Four Thousand Four's body.
"Two energies are resonating harmoniously inside him. One's unfamiliar, and the other is the essence of the White Phase Horse Fiend."
"The White Phase Horse Fiend's essence?"
"It's the liquefied form after the White Phase Horse Fiend melted, merged with his internal energy. Rather than clashing with his original internal energy, it's in harmony. No exact precedent for this, so I just called it essence."
"Liquid from a melted White Phase Horse Fiend. Heh heh! Just as you say, Dosun—truly intriguing. What's the effect?"
"His life force won't ebb away easily."
"And?"
"That's all there is to it."
"His life force won't ebb away easily..."
"At the very least, his body's not dying from internal wounds."
"Then those injuries will heal soon enough too?"
Bukmyeong pointed to the sword and blade scars etched across Four Thousand Four's body.
Four Thousand Four's breathing had been clearly cut off. Sword Sage had struck with precise precision. Dosun had wielded his blade with iron resolve to kill. Because that's what Bukmyeong had wanted.
Bukmyeong had wanted Namso. But the bastard had declared he'd rape her. Bukmyeong had raged, demanding Four Thousand Four's life. He had genuinely intended to ensure Four Thousand Four died without fail.
Aware of that, Sword Sage and Dosun had held nothing back in their sword and blade.
Sword Sage had severed the Conception Vessel meridians strand by strand. Because Sword Sage had cut the Conception Vessel, Dosun had severed the Governor Vessel.
Four Thousand Four had no way to survive.
Yet he wasn't dying. His body was infused with the White Phase Horse Fiend's essence. As long as a mere handful of internal energy remained, he could live.
He would revive.
"Ah! Don't tell me!"
Sword Sage suddenly seemed to realize something and glanced at Bukmyeong.
Did Bukmyeong... know Four Thousand Four's physical condition? Had he known that even Sword Sage and Dosun at full power couldn't kill him? Was that why he'd asked them to examine him now?
Sword Sage and Dosun had unleashed their full might with sword and blade, and Poison One had hurled his body to the Asura Blood Eels.
Given the circumstances, who wouldn't believe he was dead?
Exactly. The real target was Namso. He was luring Namso into a misconception. But why?
How could anyone guess Bukmyeong's schemes?
Bukmyeong glanced at Four Thousand Four and said,
"His life force is fine even now... but wounds healing faster wouldn't hurt... Slap some golden sore salve on him. That way he'll recover quick and get moving. Heh heh!"
Bukmyeong had acted in a way no one could have anticipated.
He should have kept Four Thousand Four alive, yet he'd killed him. He should have spared him to make the plan work, yet he'd killed him.
Zhuge Soso closed her eyes, replaying the final scene she'd witnessed.
Sword Sage's single strike. Dosun's single strike!
She staked her word on it—they had executed killing blows. The unyielding conviction to slay Four Thousand Four had infused their sword and blade.
Not satisfied with that, Poison One had flung Four Thousand Four's corpse into the lake.
What had prompted such flawless erasure? Why had Bukmyeong gone to such lengths to thoroughly kill Four Thousand Four?
Four Thousand Four was dead.
'No. There's no way he died!'
Zhuge Soso rejected the notion of his perfect death.
A cool-headed look—or even just a glance—made it clear: Four Thousand Four was dead. Every event that had befallen him had driven him straight to death.
Denying such a death wasn't easy.
In any case, if she accepted Four Thousand Four as dead... what could she do? It would be far too wasteful to do nothing with the information Bukmyeong had provided.
She knew the location of the Heavenly Annihilation Division.
She knew their mechanisms and formations, and even how to breach them.
Should she let it all go to waste, or devise some other way to make use of it?
She had the Shadow Agents at her disposal.
If she mobilized the Shadow Agent assigned to her from the Three Shadow Houses, she could inflict devastating damage on the Heavenly Annihilation Division.
"Left Shadow."
She murmured as if to herself.
"Calling us at this juncture isn't wise. You could wait till after the victory."
Shhh!
A voice came first, followed by a figure.
The woman appeared youthful. Yet she was nearing thirty. As the family head's disciple and favored consort, she had inherited the Shadow Agents' supreme arts in full—a true master.
"I'll hand over everything I know about the Heavenly Annihilation Division. Verify if it's genuine."
"The same intel you passed to Four Thousand Four?"
"I've already checked its authenticity once. From what we gathered, it was real. But confirm it again."
"That's tricky. Very tricky."
"..."
"I heard what you told Four Thousand Four. A brutally desolate place, that Heavenly Annihilation Division."
"If you heard everything..."
"But you claim to have verified the intel's authenticity? Nonsense. To check that kind of information, you'd need to infiltrate the Heavenly Annihilation Division—utterly impossible. Who did the infiltrating?"
"What we examined was..."
"Map accuracy, formation layouts, building arrangements, trap lethality. Things like that, right?"
"..."
Zhuge Soso had no reply.
It was the truth. What she'd verified was the plausibility of the information handed to her.
Was the formation sound? With these formations and traps deployed, what level of defense would form? Could it truly repel intruders? Were there any falsehoods mixed in?
Her analysis had concluded the Heavenly Annihilation Division was an impregnable fortress no one could penetrate.
The information from Bukmyeong had been genuine.
"Head-workers like you... Listen, miss. To people like us, that sort of intel is worthless. You only truly know a trap once you've crashed into it with your own body. So verifying the intel means infiltrating the Heavenly Annihilation Division—and that's what you're asking us to do now?"
Stealthily!
Left Shadow had omitted any notion of stealth.
Zhuge Soso had hoped the Shadow Agents would move covertly. Quietly and secretly investigate. Then, once verified, she'd devise a proper plan of action.
The information from Bukmyeong was too valuable to waste.
Yet Left Shadow had rejected stealth from the outset.
It meant they couldn't operate covertly. Investigating the Heavenly Annihilation Division required a full-frontal approach—no hiding in shadows for a discreet probe.
The Shadow Agents were immobilized.
They could attack, but scouting was impossible.
Zhuge Soso's final card was outright assault. No other options were permitted.
Wage all-out war with the Shadow Agents and Zhuge Clan?
The Heavenly Annihilation Division was no pushover. It even held the terrain advantage of its mechanisms and formations.
There was one more place she could turn to.
At the gathering of the Five Great Clans and Three Shadow Houses, propose the extermination of the Heavenly Annihilation Division.
Combining her intel with the Eight Houses' forces, they could settle things with the Heavenly Annihilation Division.
But even this had its limits.
The Eight Houses prioritized safety and preservation above all. They chose peace over aggression. For peace's sake, they'd purge their own ranks without hesitation. Thus... her proposal would fall on deaf ears.
In the end, she could do nothing.
All the information from Bukmyeong was fool's gold—shining but inedible. A pie in the picture.
"Hmph!"
Zhuge Soso let out a low groan.
Now, at last, she seemed to grasp Bukmyeong's true intent.
'The kidnapping's still underway. And Bukmyeong... plans to snare the main house and Shadow Agents in one fell swoop. Four Thousand Four didn't die. He absolutely mustn't die. Killing him... ruins the whole picture.'
She gave a faint smile.
Bukmyeong knew Namso couldn't act rashly as well. Yet he'd leaked the intel anyway... because he wanted someone to infiltrate the Heavenly Annihilation Division. For now, that someone was Four Thousand Four.
Bukmyeong would exploit Four Thousand Four's infiltration to utmost advantage.
First, as a tool to eliminate rivals—releasing certain mechanisms to let Four Thousand Four assassinate key insiders.
Second... use the infiltration to dismantle the Eight Houses alliance.
Bukmyeong had already forged the link between Four Thousand Four and her.
He'd laid traps so that capturing Four Thousand Four would ensnare the Zhuge Clan—and even the Shadow Agents.
If he maneuvered the Eight Houses into expelling the Zhuge Clan and Shadows... the alliance would crumble at lightning speed.
The perfect killing of Four Thousand Four was a ploy to perfectly conceal him.
From the moment they'd left the forest until now, no one had paid Four Thousand Four any mind. Not just her—even the Shadow Agents operating in the shadows had dismissed him.
Because they'd seen him die.
It meant keeping all of Four Thousand Four's future movements under wraps. Ensuring Zhuge Soso's influence wouldn't interfere, forcing him to dance to Bukmyeong's tune.
She now understood Bukmyeong's entire scheme.
"That clears my chest."
"What're you on about?"
"I'll retract the request to verify the intel."
The intel was real. Still valid. And it would remain valid going forward. Because Four Thousand Four had to move.
"Naturally!"
"Just do one thing for me. Find Four Thousand Four."
"What? But Four Thousand Four's already..."
"He didn't die. I'm certain. You might not find him even at full strength, but search everywhere you can. Meanwhile, I'll prepare for the main house's downfall."
Zhuge Soso said, beaming brightly.