An Unexpected Ally
“I won’t fall for that twice!”
Tang Ak quickly drew a dagger from his wide sleeve.
He had been an opponent I’d finished off in a single stroke at the Martial Tournament, but perhaps because I was far more exhausted now, or perhaps because Tang Ak had grown stronger in the meantime, my draw cut was blocked.
It didn’t matter.
Because I had more than just a draw cut.
As I twisted my body and spun forward, Tang Ak, who had apparently not watched the entire Martial Tournament and had gone back to the Tang Clan early, looked thoroughly flustered.
It’s over.
The moment I thought that, a variable entered the field.
The Japanese sword, already battered by the relentless chain of attacks, gave a dry crack and snapped in two. The blade remained embedded in Tang Ak’s leg, failing to cut all the way through before it broke.
“Agh!”
I had inflicted major damage, but not a fatal wound.
While Tang Ak howled in pain, I threw away the Japanese sword, leaving only the hilt behind, and drew my dagger.
Damn it. I’ve never really fought seriously with a dagger before.
“I’ll kill you no matter what!”
Tang Ak glared at me with bloodshot eyes.
Still, with his leg injured, he didn’t dare rush me recklessly.
He sent out hidden weapons from time to time, but they were at a level I could deflect with my dagger.
At this rate, the fight would never end.
There was no telling whether Tang Ak’s ally would arrive first, or whether the Tang Clan’s reinforcements would get here first.
We held each other at bay for a while like that, until the laboratory door opened and someone stepped inside.
Is it the Tang Clan? The ally?
The person who entered was wearing a dark red robe.
He didn’t seem to be Tang Clan reinforcements.
That’s bad.
Facing two opponents at once in this condition was close to impossible.
Seeing the mysterious man, Tang Ak’s face lit up.
“You’ve come at the perfect time.”
Tang Ak seemed to finally think help had arrived, and some of the tension left him.
I have to finish this while one of them is still distracted!
The moment I thought that and prepared to charge Tang Ak, something unexpected happened.
“From the looks of it, the jiangshi research was more or less successful. I don’t need you anymore.”
Without warning, the mysterious man extended his hand toward Tang Ak.
Blood-Sucking Demon Art First Stance: Blood Absorption
Blood began draining from Tang Ak’s wound and being pulled into the man’s palm.
“Agh!! This isn’t what we agreed on!!”
I kept my guard up, completely unable to make sense of what was happening.
Tang Ak drove his inner power up, trying to resist the blood absorption.
“Don’t waste your strength. Just give up quietly.”
“As if.”
But because of the wounds I’d inflicted, the blood kept getting sucked out regardless.
Then I heard a lot of movement outside.
That had to be the Tang Clan’s reinforcements.
The mysterious man must have noticed it too, because he stopped the blood absorption and shoved Tang Ak away.
“Damn it. They’re gathering faster than I expected.”
The only fortunate thing was that the mysterious man and the Tang Clan didn’t seem to be working together.
He pulled several volumes from a bookshelf in the corner of the lab and tucked them into his robes before moving to the side and fiddling with the wall.
The wall split open, revealing a secret passage.
Tang Ak looked completely stunned, as if he hadn’t even known the passage existed.
The mysterious man disappeared into it without hesitation.
For the moment, I released Sohui from her restraints.
Tang Ak looked as though he’d already been drained to the bone; he was sprawled on the floor, barely able to move a finger.
“Are you hurt?”
“I’m fine.”
Sohui answered my question with tears in her eyes.
Thankfully, it didn’t seem like she’d been in any real danger until I arrived.
“Good.”
Sohui pulled out the silver needles that had been stuck in my left arm.
Then the door opened, and Tang Seonyak and Tang Jin came in.
“Are you all right?”
“Yes. Tang Ak is still alive, too.”
With a sigh of relief, I slumped down onto the floor.
“The ally escaped through that passage over there. He uses a demonic art that absorbs blood.”
At my words, Tang Seonyak immediately gave orders to the troops who had followed him, telling them to pursue the man.
“You arrived just in time. You saved us.”
“Thank goodness. If Young Master Han and Miss Jegal had been badly hurt, I wouldn’t have had the face to see the Alliance Lord.”
Tang Seonyak looked at Tang Ak with a bitter expression.
Tang Jin hesitated for a moment, then carefully began to apply emergency treatment to Tang Ak before binding him with rope.
It seemed he was at least stabilizing him for now.
“For now, let’s return to the Tang Clan. We can talk in detail later.”
And so we were able to return safely to the Tang Clan.
Exhausted both physically and in inner power, I spent the entire day lying down and sleeping.
Meanwhile, Sohui’s anxiety from the kidnapping incident had become severe, so she moved her quarters to the room next to mine and stayed in my room whenever she was awake.
The next day, after waking up, I went with Sohui to Tang Seonyak’s office to sort out the situation.
Perhaps having heard that I was awake, Tang Jin entered the office soon after.
“First, I want to apologize for getting you involved in such an unfortunate incident because of Ak.”
Tang Seonyak bowed his head to Sohui and me, his voice full of bitterness.
“It’s all right. In the end, we’re safe because of my older brother.”
“From the Tang Clan’s side, we’ll make separate apologies to the Martial Alliance, the Jegal Clan, and the Ice Palace. I’m sorry once again.”
“There’s no need for that. We were able to come through safely thanks to the Tang Clan’s support.”
Even with my attempts to dissuade him, Tang Seonyak refused to change his mind, and in the end it was settled only when he promised that, if we ever needed help in the future, he would do everything he could to assist us.
“Then I suppose we should start by sorting out the facts of the case.”
“I’ll speak first.”
Sohui began to explain what had happened that day.
“After Yugang oppa and Young Master Tang Jin headed toward the village near Sichuan Province, I stayed behind in the laboratory and kept investigating. That’s when I found traces of inner power flowing through the blood vessels, even though the corpse was that of an ordinary person who had never cultivated a shred of inner power in life.”
“An ordinary person, yet traces of inner power flowing through him?”
“That’s right. Just then, Young Master Tang Ak came into the laboratory, so I asked him about it, but he said he didn’t know anything and left. Then that night, he came secretly into my quarters, drugged me with sleep incense, and kidnapped me. When I woke up, I was bound inside the laboratory in the cave.”
“Then I’ll continue. When I arrived at the cave, jiangshi were guarding the entrance. At that point, they were little more than moving corpses, so they had almost no combat ability. But the deeper I went into the cave, the stronger the jiangshi became, both in attack power and in defense. It seems they were gradually creating more powerful ones.”
“As for that, our Tang Clan investigated the jiangshi left behind in the cave and learned a few things. It seems jiangshi are made to move by injecting the master’s inner power instead of blood, circulating it through the body like blood. We couldn’t determine exactly how they are controlled freely. But if we infer from the structure, their strength may depend on the corpse’s abilities in life and the inner power that is injected into them.”
“I see...”
“We searched the laboratory, but there was no journal recording the details of the jiangshi. It must have been the volumes that the ally who came through just before us took away. I think we can uncover the specifics once Ak wakes up.”
“So, what we’ve established so far is that Tang Ak created the jiangshi, but the research itself was stolen by the person who had been working with him?”
“Exactly.”
“And judging from the martial art that ally was using, the culprit who was turning people into shriveled corpses like mummies is likely the same man. It was a demonic art that sucked out blood.”
Unfortunately, because the ally had not been captured, what we ultimately learned was only this: someone was using a blood-absorbing demonic art, and Tang Ak had been researching the creation of jiangshi with his help.
We first reported the situation as it stood to the Martial Alliance.
A few days later, Tang Ak woke up, but he had nothing else to say.
He seemed half-mad, claiming the ally was a precious benefactor who had recognized his talent and invested in him.
He kept his mouth shut about both the method and the principles behind making jiangshi.
After receiving our letter, the Alliance sent Jegal Jinhyeon in a hurry to the Tang Clan.
He must have been so shocked by the news that Sohui had been kidnapped that he came in person.
“Sohui, are you all right?”
“I’m fine.”
Once again, Tang Seonyak apologized repeatedly to Jegal Jinhyeon.
Jegal Jinhyeon seemed ready to let it go, since Sohui was safe.
With the matter settled for the time being, Sohui returned to the Jegal Clan with Jegal Jinhyeon to recover her peace of mind.
Since I no longer had business in the Central Plains, I decided to return to the Ice Palace as well.
Tang Seonyak packed a number of medicinal pills for me before I left for the Ice Palace.
They were obviously valuable, and I intended to refuse them, but he looked as though he might not let me go to the Ice Palace unless I accepted.
So, with no real choice, I took the pills and finally headed for the Ice Palace.
I hadn’t been away from the Ice Palace for all that long since I’d left the Central Plains, but it still felt like I was going home after ages.
Still, with Sohui missing from my side throughout the journey, I felt quite lonely.
Lost in that feeling, I hurried my steps and reached the Ice Palace before long.
“Dad, I’m home!”
Since I hadn’t sent word ahead from Sichuan that I would be returning to the Ice Palace, everything was as quiet as usual.
But at my shout, a hearty laugh rang out from somewhere.
The doors of the main hall opened, and a massive shape flew toward me.