Chapter 46
Chapter 46
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 46
Chapter Title: Parting
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The battle in Jinseom Great Canyon ended with the utter defeat of the Guangzheng Cult.
It was practically a massacre.
The central experts leading them—the ritual leader Pa Gun-do and the Ninth Ritual Leader Shun Mie-gwi—had both fallen, making it an inevitable outcome.
From the start, the martial artists gathered here outnumbered the cultists anyway.
A few attempted desperate escapes after realizing their defeat, but it was far too late.
In the end, only one Guangzheng Cultist made it out of Jinseom Great Canyon alive.
Though whether you could call that "alive" was debatable.
And with that, the Guangzheng Cult's strategy collapsed.
Their plan to secretly dispatch the peak expert Pa Gun-do to eliminate the martial artists in the rear and encircle Mount Hua Sect had drifted aimlessly, without even knowing it had failed.
But none of that was Wi Sowol's concern.
The only thing that truly mattered to her was the well-being of one person.
"Jang Rok…!"
It had been fine up until Hwang Bo-yun came over, grinning ear to ear for some reason, dangling his arm and asking her to reset his shoulder.
That was no big deal.
With his Heavenly King's Body, even if Wi Sowol hadn't done it, Hwang Bo-yun could have managed it himself without any serious aftereffects.
But Jang Rok, who had quietly followed behind him, was a different story.
A very different one.
"I'm fine. Did you pass the spring exam, miss?"
"……Yeah."
"Congratulations. With the victory celebration too, I'll make you some top-grade hotpot. It's a famous dish from the capital."
"…Okay."
For the first time in ages, Wi Sowol felt the sting of regret.
If only she'd moved a little faster.
If only she'd hurried more.
As if shaking off the chain of regrets swirling in her mind, a hand suddenly rested on Wi Sowol's head. It was the Weird Physician.
"Seems it's already too late, but wear this at least. There's ointment inside—rub it on your wound."
It was the Weird Physician's beak mask.
The one Wi Sowol had been wearing had shattered from Shun Mie-gwi's counterattack with the poison needles.
A small scratch had appeared on her face along with it, and the Weird Physician wasn't about to overlook it lightly.
His mention of it being "too late" meant the other martial artists here had already seen her face.
And from the way his gaze shifted to Jang Rok, it felt like he was saying it to him too.
In truth, it wasn't much different.
"You did well."
"No need for that."
"I'll make you some medicine for the road so it's not too rough. I've got the Medicine King's secrets."
Jang Rok shook his head firmly.
He seemed utterly serene now, almost unrecognizable as the man who had just waged a bloody duel with Pa Gun-do and ultimately plunged a blade into his heart.
Wi Sowol studied Jang Rok's face.
It was an utterly ordinary face, like that of a rural villager who knew nothing of martial arts.
Who would believe this man was the seventh-ranked assassin of the Three Paths Assassins' Gate?
Yet to Wi Sowol, he looked more hollow than ever.
Jang Rok had regained his innate ordinariness because all the murderous aura he'd built up over the years had vanished.
No matter how skilled Assassins' Gate techniques were at concealing one's presence.
Fundamentally, they dealt in yin energy, making it impossible to fully hide from Wi Sowol.
It was a matter of elemental affinity.
Wi Sowol possessed the Nine Yin Absolute Meridian, drawing all yin energy in heaven and earth toward her.
But no such attractive force emanated from Jang Rok anymore.
He was like an ordinary person who had never learned martial arts—no, even more so, like a dying old man with few days left.
'His innate true qi…'
He'd used it up.
Burned it all away.
Just as she'd once told Hwang Bo-yun, innate true qi wasn't something you could use whenever you wanted.
Even most peak experts needed immense willpower or special techniques to access it.
But the Assassins' Gate wouldn't lack secret arts for wielding innate true qi.
Thinking of an assassin's role, it would be stranger if they didn't.
An assassin's mission extended to erasing all traces after the kill.
And the simplest way to do that was to perish together with the target.
"I'm fine, Doctor. So is the miss. Instead of this, let's clean up here first."
Wi Sowol was at a loss for words from worry over Jang Rok, yet the man himself was more eloquent than usual.
Under his lead, the martial artists began collecting the bodies and gathering the wounded separately.
Even as the Weird Physician tended to emergency treatments for the injured, Wi Sowol stayed off to the side.
Hwang Bo-yun, who had been by her side, spoke cautiously.
"He's someone really precious to you, huh?"
"…I don't know."
Precious?
Of course, more than a stranger.
But not to the point of losing her reason and raging like she had over the deaths of those beggar kids.
It was probably because she'd changed so much since she was truly young.
Even the vengeance that drove her at the start of this life had stemmed more from a sense of duty than burning rage or piercing grief.
"Still, I regret it."
"Then he was precious."
Hwang Bo-yun said without hesitation.
"Because he was precious. It's looking back on the past and wondering what more you could've done for him. Regret is the legacy left behind by something precious. That's what my master said, so you can trust it."
"Hwang Bo Divine Fist?"
"Oh, you knew?"
"With that kind of talent and a commotion big enough to shake the entire Hwang Bo clan, who else but the clan head's direct line?"
Well, she'd been pretty sure, even if not certain.
Now it was confirmed.
'I'll remember Jang Rok for the rest of my life too.'
Just like her family, and those beggar kids.
Wi Sowol gazed at Jang Rok as he helped support and move the injured martial artists.
For a very long time.
"Don't follow me."
Back in Yeonan County, the Weird Physician issued the stern order to Wi Sowol.
It was a curt command, cutting off any chance for her to speak.
His tone and demeanor were firmer than ever.
Even when Wi Sowol had first met the Weird Physician, he hadn't been this cold.
"Master."
"I'm grateful to you. What I've taught you—my life's knowledge—is far too great a reward for what you've given me. But no more. Go back from here."
In the Weird Physician's hand dangled Shun Mie-gwi like a rag doll.
With severed limbs and a shattered dantian, he was little more than a cripple.
Yet he still breathed.
He was still alive.
Which meant it wasn't over yet.
Now, the Weird Physician was going to put an end to his long, bitter grudge with Shun Mie-gwi.
And he had to go alone.
It wasn't a path he could take Wi Sowol on.
He'd already stained her hands with blood—what right did he have to play the master now?
But for the Weird Physician, this was the final line he couldn't allow her to cross.
"Don't even think about sneaking a peek. Spend the time Jang Rok has left with him. These moments are precious beyond measure. Don't waste them on this."
Wi Sowol hesitated, but the Weird Physician's resolve was unshakable—she couldn't change his mind.
All she could do was bid him farewell.
That was the only thing Wi Sowol could offer her master.
With that, the Weird Physician pressed his lips tight and walked away in silence.
Shun Mie-gwi's body dragged along the ground behind him.
From Jinseom Great Canyon to Yeonan County, it had been hauled the same way, and his feet were already flayed raw.
The acupoint seal from the Dazed Haze Hand must have worn off with time.
Fresh blood began trickling from Shun Mie-gwi's feet again.
It soaked into the trail left by his dragging body, forming a path of blood.
How many such bloody trails had Shun Mie-gwi left on the earth?
A wandering demon who roamed and slaughtered.
True to his nickname, he had razed countless villages, leaving crimson traces in his wake.
But today's would be special.
This blood path was made from Shun Mie-gwi's own blood, the final mark he would leave in life.
Screech.
The Weird Physician's footsteps halted.
Shun Mie-gwi, his mind clouded by pain and despair, snapped to awareness at the soul-corrupting sound.
Squeal—squeal—
Squelch—squeal—
The sound of pigs oinking.
"Hrrgh… ah… aaah…"
A chorus from the reapers come to claim Shun Mie-gwi's life.
Overwhelmed by the foul stench and grating noise, Shun Mie-gwi tried to bow his head and squeeze his eyes shut.
But he couldn't.
The Dazed Haze Hand had fixed his eyelids open, preventing him from closing them.
The Weird Physician remembered.
That day's scene.
"I told you to watch closely."
The sight of them tearing his sister's clothes, pinning her legs, and pressing a blade to her body.
The bastard had forced him to witness it all, laughing the whole time.
Yes.
He would watch.
From beginning to end.
All of it.
"Don't worry. This time, I won't look away."
Whoosh.
The Weird Physician hurled the crippled Shun Mie-gwi's body into the pigpen.
The pigs scattered in panic at the sudden large object tossed among them.
But only for a moment.
True to their curious nature, they soon surrounded him, nudging and probing with their snouts.
Shun Mie-gwi's screams rang out.
Mingled with pleas for his life, begging for mercy.
The Weird Physician ignored them.
He simply watched.
Until Shun Mie-gwi's voice faded forever.
For a very long time.