Chapter 43
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 43
Chapter Title: Chapter Nine: Capture [Seizing by the Nape] (3)
First, he was extraordinarily skilled at killing. He was an assassin among assassins, one who had mastered advanced professional murder techniques.
Second, he was adept with poisons.
An assassin was extremely dangerous. Confronting him clumsily would only lead to far greater casualties.
Ten disciples of the New Moon Sword Sect had lost their lives in an instant.
Five in one spot, and another five in a different one.
Those ten knew that a single scream would bring helpers rushing in, yet they stayed utterly silent.
Death had come without even giving them time to cry out.
That was why Zhuge Soso had pushed the One Sword Sect and New Moon Sword Sect disciples outside the outer walls.
She believed that sealing off the manor in the same manner would result in even heavier losses.
It was far more efficient to blockade the outskirts instead.
But how to catch the assassin?
From now on, the merchant guards would comb through the manor using the grid search method.
This search would include Ha Dok-ro and Dang Jung-do as well.
Now that the assassin had been revealed as a poison arts master, they needed ample defenses against toxins.
Zhuge Soso spoke.
"Start laying the grid from the main hall. From the very rear."
The merchant guard raised his spear.
It wasn't for combat. It was for stabbing and prodding.
Poke! Poke! Poke!
They stabbed at perfectly solid ground.
They began in the main hall at the farthest rear of the manor. The innermost rear garden served as the starting point.
Spears plunged dozens of times into a grid one-and-a-half zhang wide and deep.
"Clear."
Hwang Su said coldly.
At that, the New Moon Sword Sect disciples blockading the manor from beyond the walls surged over in a mass.
They filled the newly searched area.
The merchant guard then moved to the adjacent one-and-a-half zhang grid.
Poke! Poke poke! Poke!
Thrusting spears without the slightest gap.
It looked like perfectly solid ground to anyone. Yet they stabbed anyway.
Grid searches required shutting out your eyes and ears.
There can't be anyone underground. There can't be anyone behind a wall.
All such assumptions had to be discarded. Every inch needed meticulous checking, like a blind man groping along a wall.
There was no need to rush.
The perimeter was already sealed tight. The target was inside the manor. He couldn't possibly escape. So they advanced slowly, double-checking even the spot they were standing on.
"Clear!"
Hwang Su yielded one grid square and shifted to the next.
Of course, the square he vacated was locked down tight by New Moon Sword Sect disciples. Not even an ant could slip through.
In that time, Zhuge Soso encountered the assassins in the library.
The library, where the merchant escort had been reading, now held the raiders who had stormed the main hall only to be routed. They knelt bound hand and foot.
Zhuge Soso sat in a chair and gazed down at them.
Her feelings were conflicted.
To think she had yielded the merchant escort to these people. That a master escort of his caliber had fallen to them.
The brief chaos in the inner hall replayed in her mind like a spinning lantern.
They had originally numbered twelve.
All twelve had vaulted the walls in a single wave, but they couldn't withstand the merchant escort's rigid blade.
They were repelled in one clash.
These assassins had come loaded with poisons and hidden weapons too. The moment they leaped into the inner hall, they scattered toxins and unleashed a barrage. Indiscriminately, without even spotting the merchant escort.
The merchant escort had been prepared for such tactics.
Zhuge Soso had been at his side.
The assassins' assault deviated not a hair's breadth from her predictions. Their entry points and attack zones unfolded exactly as anticipated.
Even the merchant escort's counterstrike played out as foreseen.
The exquisitely timed reversal, exploiting the inner hall's layout, struck true without fail.
Even a master like the merchant escort needed some time to fend off fourteen assassins. Yet as she had advised, each counter felled them one after another.
The assassins were swept out in moments.
Everything up to that point had gone precisely to plan.
But then, out of nowhere, some interloper appeared and began slaughtering the assassins. One down, the next, another... three dead in barely one or two breaths.
Left unchecked, he would have butchered the whole dozen in a flash.
That was nowhere in her calculations.
Originally, she and the merchant escort had planned to stay hunkered in the inner hall. No matter what happened, they meant to hold out on defense until noon. Had they done so, the escort would still be alive.
Noon. Once noon passed, the Heavenly Annihilation Division would lose.
Time had nearly run out. Just one da-gyeong—the time to brew a single pot of tea—remained until noon.
'Just one da-gyeong. We only needed to endure one da-gyeong.'
Regret welled up, furrowing her brow.
They needed only to hold for that one da-gyeong... but the intruder who burst into the main hall and started killing assassins had thrown everything off. Because of his reckless meddling, they had abandoned the inner hall.
One regret piled upon another.
That wasn't her only blunder.
She shouldn't have let him walk away so easily. She should have grilled him hard on why he killed the assassins. A single slap and sending him off was a grave mistake.
"Hah..."
Zhuge Soso exhaled deeply.
She had to shake off the remorse. She couldn't stay chained to the past forever.
Come to think of it, losing the merchant escort this time was... peculiar. Everyone gathered to protect him had slipped up at least once. No exceptions.
Zhuge Soso eyed the assassins and said,
"You won't answer if I ask who you are, will you?"
"..."
"Even threats of death won't make you budge?"
"..."
"I know your kind. Some of you were caught by us before. Tortured."
At the word "tortured," the assassins shuddered violently.
They knew of the Zhuge clan's dungeon.
The world called the Zhuge clan's dungeon the "Death God Beyond Death."
The Reaper after the grave.
People say death ends it all. Wealth, glory, suffering—everything worldly concludes with the end of life.
Not in the Zhuge clan. Those who fell into their dungeon didn't finish with death. Even postmortem, they served the dungeon's purposes. Spilled many secrets.
Death meant crossing the underworld's threshold. Naturally. Then facing the reaper. But Zhuge dungeon wardens were those reapers. The very torturers.
It was a phrase that said it all about the dungeon's brutality.
In truth, a plaque reading "Ghost Gate Pass"—the underworld's threshold—hung at the Zhuge dungeon's entrance.
Being hauled in there for torment... it sent chills down the spine. They'd have endured every torture known to man. Unthinkable agonies.
Zhuge Soso continued.
"That's why I planned to kill you outright. I requested clean assassins... but the merchant escort refused."
She paused to eye the assassins.
Silence hung heavy.
Zhuge Soso's face was impassive. The lives of these assassins meant nothing to her.
The assassins contemplated death.
This mission had been doomed from the start. Suppose they lucked into killing the merchant escort. Escaping? Unscathed? A fool's dream.
Death. An assassination fated for death.
No will to survive. Death? Trivial.
As if reading their resolve, Zhuge Soso spoke calmly.
"Still, since we've taken you alive, we ought to hear you out a bit. I know my skills won't pry your lips open. So I'm thinking of shipping you to the main house dungeon. Hope you hold up."
She rose.
The assassins shuddered anew.
Even dragged to the Zhuge dungeon, they'd never talk. They had the resolve. The steel. But enduring that inhuman torment? Fact.
Standing from her chair, Zhuge Soso said,
"Heavenly Annihilation Division squads number six each, right? You twelve, four operating outside. Twenty total. Doesn't add up. Anyone care to explain?"
"..."
"Escort them away."
Zhuge Soso turned on her heel without a backward glance.
That was why she'd urged the merchant escort to finish them. Captives yielded nothing.
Had the escort stuck to pure assassination arts, the triple toxin trap never would have sprung.
The escort had erred too. That error had cost him his life.
As she exited the library, she gazed at the distant mountain.
Six, six, four. It didn't match.
The captives had operated as one. Same target: assassinate the merchant escort. Seamless coordination required.
The outer bait operatives... they were another squad.
The Heavenly Annihilation Division had committed three squads to this hit.
They figured it sufficient. And it would have been. Had the merchant escort not called on the Zhuge clan. The One Sword and New Moon sects couldn't have stopped them.
'But we could have...'
Regret flooded in once more.
She drew a signal tube from her bosom and yanked the cord skyward.
Shuuuw! Boom!
Blue smoke rocketed into the heavens.
The Heavenly Annihilation Division had one squad that moved in eerily peculiar ways.
Those bastards always operated in fours.
Though squads were defined as six strong, one consistently fielded only four, no matter the scrutiny.
Zhuge Soso had marked that squad closely.
It handled missions too tough for a standard squad with ease. Feats no six could dream of, resolved.
A bizarre squad of just four.
Zhuge Soso dubbed it the Monster Squad. Their movements goblin-like, elusive.
The Heavenly Annihilation Division named no squads. The Heavenly Commander issued direct orders to leaders, ignorant of squad counts or rosters.
The Monster Squad left heavy sacrifices.
Nearly every op claimed exactly three.
First sacrifice emerged mid-mission. Success, but one lagged to cover the flight.
Second during pursuit.
Chasing the Monster Squad always met a blocker ahead. That one held desperately.
His death bought a mere one or two hours. Sometimes half. But enough for the rest to vanish into the wilds.
Final sacrifice came three or four days into the trail.
Following tracks led to exactly one last man. Slay him, and all traces evaporated.
That was the Monster Squad's playbook.
Gleaned from compiling cases of the three-assassin kills.
This time, the Monster Squad had mobilized.
The anomalies: recruiting a second squad for support, and no mid-mission dropout.
First op where the Monster Squad sacrificed none.
'Still, you won't escape!'
She glared fiercely at the mountain.
If her hunch held, a second assassin lurked there, ready to trade his life for time. And in three or four days of tracking, another would appear.
Killing him would close the case.
No further pursuit of the Monster Squad. They vanished traceless.
Not this time.
The signal was out... the beaters would move. The Monster Squad would be flushed into the open.
Capture them all. Not one slips away.
The grid search advanced swiftly.
By the time Zhuge Soso emerged from the library, the merchant guards had fully cleared the main hall.
The Eul Sword Sect had the perimeter locked tight.
New Moon Sword Sect disciples flooded each cleared grid the instant it was done. Blocking it solid.
The search net contracted relentlessly.
If the assassin was still inside the manor, capture was only a matter of time.