Chapter 115
Chapter 115: Opening Eyes (2)
"Ah, hello..."
"Ah, yes. Hello."
Hwa Seon-hyang awkwardly greeted Namgung Hye and walked toward the hall entrance first. She didn't want to stand beside her because of some inexplicable feeling of being outmatched.
In contrast, Dong Bong-soo leisurely folded the application confirmation certificate once more and put it in his chest.
Only then did he turn his body and merely glance past Namgung Hye.
At that, Namgung Hye smiled gently, and Dong Bong-soo simply turned his back and walked toward the door. Though her faint smile was enough to make Li Mi-jeon's mouth drop open, Dong Bong-soo just continued moving his steps toward the entrance.
"I'll carry them. Young Lady Namgung."
"No. I've brought people to help."
Li Mi-jeon picked up part of the mountain of application forms piled high with movements so fresh you'd never know he'd been yawning tiredly, and stood beside Namgung Hye. Namgung Hye's polite refusal already had no meaning.
Whether or not, Dong Bong-soo was slowly walking and leaving the hall.
***
"Wow—Young Lady Namgung is really pretty, isn't she...?"
Hwa Seon-hyang walked beside Dong Bong-soo while glancing back repeatedly and spoke without confidence. Her spirit must have been quite dampened by Namgung Hye's fame and beauty. There was a world of difference between watching from afar and looking from less than a foot away.
Dong Bong-soo answered without stopping his steps.
"She is."
A short and concise answer. It definitively proved he had no interest.
The female immortal of the Murim Alliance.
The appearance of her movements like she might fly away, holding the hem of her white-blue silk robes.
All such things were meaningless.
What he knew, what he remembered was that the 'real Namgung Hye' must never be alive.
On the very day the Namgung Family collapsed, the 'real Namgung Hye' had remained at the top of Seonjoong Mountain. When Tang O, Tang Hwa, and some other survivors jumped down with a hair's breadth of hope, he himself had killed them all.
Namgung Hye was not among those he killed.
So there was a very small probability she could be alive, but if he were in Do Heo-ok's position, he would have killed her. Even if alive, she had no use value and would only be a burden.
So that Namgung Hye couldn't be real.
'Do Heo-ok.'
No room for doubt.
However, his true identity was still unknown.
Where he belonged, what background he had, what his actual age was—everything was shrouded in a veil.
One certain fact was that he wasn't affiliated with Heavenly Demon Castle.
Though Heavenly Demon Castle had been the perpetrator who exterminated the Namgung Family, Heavenly Demon Castle had gained very little from the Anhui Great Massacre.
Looking closely, they had actually only suffered losses.
If they were going to surprise attack the Central Plains Orthodox Faction to deal a blow, there was no reason it had to be the Namgung Family specifically, and if Do Heo-ok were truly Heavenly Demon Castle's real spy, he wouldn't have taken such an obviously transparent approach.
Whatever the exact identity, currently Dong Bong-soo held the advantage over Do Heo-ok. Though he'd have to think more about how to use this information going forward, one thing was certain—he was one step ahead of Namgung Hye.
Because he had recognized Namgung Hye, while she—or he—still hadn't recognized Dong Bong-soo himself.
"Ugh—it's unfair. Why are there so many pretty women in the Central Plains!"
Hwa Seon-hyang burst out in complaint and puffed up her cheeks full of air.
Though that appearance was very cute, Dong Bong-soo's impression was entirely different.
An easy-to-read type of woman.
That was Dong Bong-soo's brief assessment of Hwa Seon-hyang.
Just as he had no interest in Namgung Hye, Hwa Seon-hyang was also outside his interest. The existence called the opposite sex was only that much to him. Of course, strictly speaking, Namgung Hye wasn't even the opposite sex or anything.
Growl—
A sudden sound.
"Huh? What's that sound?"
"..."
Growl—
The sound came from Dong Bong-soo's stomach again.
"Hohoho. Are you very hungry right now?"
Though it was a sudden signal, Dong Bong-soo was actually really hungry. Having starved for close to ten days, it was natural if you could call it natural. Moreover, during that time wandering through Uninterrupted Hell, he'd consumed all the energy in his body. The fact that all his hair had turned white in that short period was probably due to that influence too.
One of the few pieces of evidence he was still human.
Appetite.
"Let's go eat."
Hwa Seon-hyang continued speaking while blushing and lightly rubbing under her nose.
"Together. Hehe—"
“A date invitation?”
Dong Bong-soo murmured lowly to himself. However, it wasn't only her making a date invitation to him right now.
Because it wasn't only his body that had starved for over ten days.
Growl, growl.
Instinct. His nature as a predator was clamoring madly.
That he was hungry. That he felt like dying.
And.
That it was now time to go hunting.
***
Registration for the Heavenly Youth Martial Arts Tournament had closed.
Muhwa Gate was controlled once again, and Zhengzhou City began running even more busily than before. This state would continue to be maintained until Awakening of Insects when the tournament would officially commence.
Zhengzhou City naturally met the peak of its busy season.
Weapon shops, taverns, restaurants, inns, stables, clinics, escort agencies, even the small shops located in corners of the market.
There was no place where business wasn't being done.
Though people were bursting at every step, crowds kept pouring in moment by moment—how could it not be so?
However, that was only for legal businesses.
People doing illegal work were facing an unprecedented depression. To the extent there'd never been such an off-season.
Pickpockets, thieves, Black Groups, and so on.
Those who had to move in the darkness stayed quiet as dead mice. They had no choice because often you couldn't judge at all whether someone was a martial artist or not just by their attire. If you wrongly touched a martial artist for no reason, there was no telling what might happen to you. Moreover, even among the homeless sleeping sprawled on the street, it was full of martial artists...
On top of that, with Martial World Protection Corps members spread throughout every corner of the city and its vicinity for the security of Zhengzhou and its nearby areas, how could they commit crimes carelessly?
A situation where one cannot help it.
Right now, the best course was to stay still without even blinking like hibernating animals. When Awakening of Insects came and animals crawled out of their burrows to resume activity, they could become active again then.
If they just endured until then, only easy marks would remain here to become their meal.
***
Assassins. In other words, killers.
Arrogant types full of bravado who boasted they could kill the Emperor, the Heavenly Demon Castle Lord, or the Murim Alliance Leader if given money.
Though it was itself absurd that such groups existed in Zhengzhou where the Murim Alliance was located, they did indeed exist.
In fact, the Murim Alliance had tried several times to expel assassin groups and killer organizations from Zhengzhou—further, from Henan—but ultimately failed.
The reason was simple.
Because assassin groups uniformly took the form of thorough cell organizations. Even if you found one or two secret lines, it was useless. Like lizards, if they cut off the tail of the secret line and hid, there was absolutely no way to catch even the body, let alone the head.
In the end, the Murim Alliance had no choice but to leave them alone.
And anyway, since assassins were beings who only moved in darkness, as long as the Murim Alliance had its roots planted in Cheongsin Mountain, they couldn't come out into Zhengzhou's sunny side. The Murim Alliance's key figures knew well that if they just left them to operate eternally in the shade like that, they would move appropriately within their bounds. They thought there was no need to overturn the entire cesspit just to catch maggots.
Only during special periods like now were they thoroughly managing the latrines for the guests visiting this place.
So the maggots faced a depression and had no choice but to hide deeper below...
However...
Among such things, there were some that became quite troublesome like the Death Blood Society.
Flies spread throughout all the cesspits under heaven.
Visible to the eye but also extremely difficult to exterminate—such existences.
***
“…My lord…”
“…Master…”
...Society Lord...
"Regional Society Lord!"
"Mmm... What is it?"
At Pal-geuk's continued calls, Hu Jang-rang finally awoke from sleep.
Thanks to the rare consecutive holidays that had come, he had fallen into sweet sleep again today. Especially since yesterday he'd sufficiently released the lust he'd been holding back for a long time, he was even more tired.
If you woke me for something trivial... you're a dead man.
Hu Jang-rang was about to roar at Pal-geuk, making a severe expression and opening his flounder eyes. However, hearing Pal-geuk's following words, he couldn't get angry.
"An order has come in."
"An order?"
"Yes, Regional Society Lord."
Only then did Hu Jang-rang realize that a request letter was held in Pal-geuk's hand.
A real order?
He got up from his spot and practically snatched the request letter from Pal-geuk's hand.
Rustle.
The tightly rolled scroll unrolled and spread out by his rough touch.
In fact, even while opening the request letter, Hu Jang-rang didn't have much worry or high expectations. He just thought it was merely an order that had come in after a long time, not likely to be a difficult task.
Who would make an unreasonable request at a time like now?
Even if they made a difficult request, the Death Blood Society had no reason whatsoever to accept that order. With the Heavenly Youth Martial Arts Tournament right around the corner, if they needlessly committed an assassination that went against the Murim Alliance's sentiments, another headache might arise.
Pal-geuk was an assassin in a position to know such things well. Therefore, the order he'd brought must be just some menial task level.
Under that judgment, Hu Jang-rang quickly scanned the spread-out request letter with bleary eyes.
As expected.
"Nothing special."
Just as anticipated.
The request letter had brief information about the 'goods' and portraits drawn, but they were faces he'd never seen before and figures with backgrounds not worth caring about.
Above all, they were young.
"Milk-reeking brats."