Chapter 265
Chapter 265
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 72
>Chapter Title: Clue (4)
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“That Baekhwa cultist received a revelation from something called the Holy Fire and could foresee the future.”
‘!?’
At those words, Mok Kyung-un raised one eyebrow and tilted his head.
“Foresee the... future?”
In response to Mok Kyung-un’s question, Deputy Command Inspector Sang Ik-seo replied.
“Yes... I don’t know if it’s true or not, but it caused quite a stir among the higher-ups.”
“Foresight...”
Foresight of the future.
Was such a thing even possible?
Setting aside whether it was intriguing or miraculous, Mok Kyung-un saw it as utterly impossible.
If it had truly been possible, the Baekhwa cultists wouldn’t have faced persecution without being able to prevent it.
‘But... if we assume it is possible, it’s a power anyone would covet.’
Knowing what was to come was an incredible ability.
It granted the advantage of preparing for future events.
‘This is confusing.’
Was the Assembly Leader targeting the Holy Fire Pavilion Lord because they were in league with the marked organization, or because of this foresight ability? It was ambiguous.
A foresight ability was valuable enough for anyone to desire.
There was one thing to point out here, though.
“But didn’t you just say they could foresee the future?”
“That’s right.”
“That sounds like they can’t do it anymore.”
“........”
Sang Ik-seo inwardly clicked his tongue at Mok Kyung-un’s words.
He missed nothing, no matter how small.
“Isn’t that so?”
“.......Yes. Whether they lost the ability after having it or were faking it from the start, that person cannot foresee anything now.”
“How do you know?”
“At first, we thought it might be a deception, so we tested them multiple times. For instance, distinguishing between a poisoned cup and a safe one, or other life-threatening trials. Even then, they showed no sign of true foresight.”
“That made all those efforts pointless.”
“Yes. But thanks to that, the higher-ups deemed the Baekhwa cultist worthless and lost interest. Almost completely.”
“Hmm. And yet they’re still imprisoned? Just in case?”
“Probably. If there’s even a slim chance they find that treasure珠 they desperately hid, the foresight might return... Urk.”
Mid-sentence, Deputy Command Inspector Sang Ik-seo clutched his abdomen and groaned.
His face paled, tinged with purple—his condition was dire.
This was the symptom of poison spreading from his organs throughout his body.
He looked like he couldn’t hold out much longer.
“Guhk.”
Perhaps as a result.
Sang Ik-seo vomited black blood along with bile.
A foul stench rose from the black blood splattering on the floor.
“D-Dying... P-Please... save...”
“Hmm.”
Sang Ik-seo, vomiting blood, crawled on the floor and gazed up at Mok Kyung-un with pleading eyes.
Mok Kyung-un looked down at him with impassive eyes, shook his head slowly, then cut his own finger and pried open Sang Ik-seo’s jaw.
“Drink this.”
-Drip, drip!
Mok Kyung-un’s blood fell into Sang Ik-seo’s mouth.
Suddenly being told to drink blood was bizarre, but driven by his will to live, Sang Ik-seo swallowed it as instructed.
Then the burning pain throughout his organs and body began to subside.
“Ah?”
“You’ll be fine for a while.”
“For a while?”
“If you don’t do this periodically, you’ll have another seizure like this and die, right?”
Strictly speaking, this wasn’t a true antidote.
It was the principle of using poison to counter poison.
Deputy Command Inspector Sang Ik-seo’s expression hardened at Mok Kyung-un’s words.
“Y-You’re not detoxifying me?”
“I never said I was.”
“What do you mean!”
-Grip!
“Mmph!”
Mok Kyung-un grabbed Sang Ik-seo’s cheeks with both hands and smiled.
“There’s a strict difference between ‘saving your life’ and that.”
‘Th-This guy!’
He never intended to detoxify him from the start?
As shock from the deception set in, Mok Kyung-un whispered in his ear.
“You used poison to control someone else, so being controlled in turn isn’t so bad, is it?”
At those words, the image of Brocade Guard Thousand Commander Mara-hyeon flashed through Sang Ik-seo’s mind.
Sang Ik-seo had used poison to manipulate Mara-hyeon.
Now, he himself was poisoned and about to be at this man’s mercy.
This was karma, pure and simple.
* * *
Having finished his business, Mok Kyung-un moved stealthily, lost in thought.
He had gained far more information than before, but much remained unclear.
Especially around Grandfather’s death—new details he hadn’t known were emerging, raising more questions.
‘What exactly was Grandfather’s connection to them?’
Why had the marked organization targeted Grandfather?
And who had truly killed him?
The one key figure who could unravel all these mysteries was the Ghost Sword.
‘Ghost Sword...’
Everything converged on him in a strangely fateful way.
To make contact with him, contacting the Assembly Leader was the top priority.
And here was another strange coincidence: the Holy Fire Pavilion Lord.
The marked organization had targeted the Holy Fire Pavilion Lord, just like Grandfather.
Or more precisely, they seemed to want the Pavilion Lord’s ability.
‘Foresight.’
He still didn’t believe it, but if possible, it was a rare power anyone would pursue, marked organization or not.
The Holy Fire Pavilion Lord, with such an ability, could provide clues to some of the mysteries.
Regardless of whether the ability was real, the Pavilion Lord surely knew exactly why the marked organization was after them.
‘If I learn that reason, they’ll have value.’
The Assembly Leader, the marked organization, the Baekhwa Church.
All of them were after the Holy Fire Pavilion Lord.
Securing the Pavilion Lord first could give him leverage to obtain everything he wanted.
He might even uncover their hidden connections.
* * *
Brocade Guard Six Divisions Office.
Masked Brocade Guard Thousand Commander Mara-hyeon paced the office anxiously, hands behind his back.
What on earth was that Mok Kyung-un doing?
He’d gone to talk, but what could he possibly be up to?
‘Should I have followed him?’
If things went wrong, he’d lose his life to the poison.
He never imagined entrusting his life to someone else would be so nerve-wracking.
But if he’d gone along and been caught, it might have backfired disastrously.
Either way, there was nothing he could do.
As he anxiously circled the reception table, Mara-hyeon’s wall-eyed pupils trembled.
-Throb!
A sudden intense pain in his abdomen.
This wasn’t mere pain.
Something was gnawing at his gut. Startled, Mara-hyeon clutched his stomach and dropped to one knee.
-Thud!
“Hnngh.”
Pain radiated from his dantian, accompanied by a twisting in his intestines.
Instinctively, Mara-hyeon knew it was the poison acting up.
‘D-Did something go wrong?’
There was no other explanation for this agony.
Had trusting that bastard been a mistake?
Mara-hyeon gritted his teeth.
If the guy failed and Sang Ik-seo triggered the poison, he was as good as dead.
If he was going to die anyway, he had to try everything.
The pain was so severe he wanted to roll on the floor clutching his stomach, but with superhuman endurance, Mara-hyeon bore it and assumed a cross-legged position.
‘I’ll drive out the poison with qi.’
It was the only thing he could do now.
Fortunately, unlike Sang Ik-seo’s threats, the poison hadn’t touched his dantian yet, so he could muster his qi.
“Hoo.”
Mara-hyeon circulated his qi and sent it toward where the poison raged.
He moved it as delicately as possible to control the poison.
-Crack!
The moment the qi neared, the poison thrashed wildly, injuring his internal organs.
Even wounds alone hurt, but this was poison—extreme venom spread the instant it bit.
“Grrrrrgh.”
Mara-hyeon, trying to endure with superhuman will, soon broke his posture and writhed.
He couldn’t control his qi delicately in this state.
-Crack!
Even as his mask fell off, he was too lost in pain to notice.
His wall-eye rolled back, his body convulsing.
Purple veins bulged on his face; his condition deteriorated rapidly.
‘Am I... dying like this?’
As consciousness faded, Mara-hyeon sensed his end.
In his final moments, his life flashed before him like a lantern.
[Your father... came from a far-off place in the west on a mission. Don’t resent him too much.]
He recalled his mother’s last words about that damned man before she died.
Why did it surface now?
With nothing accomplished, facing death filled him with emptiness.
At least he hadn’t burdened his master, Sixth Commander So Ye-rin, too much.
With this evidence, the clever her would catch Sang Ik-seo.
“Ughhhh.”
Consciousness drifted further.
It was then.
-Swish!
Someone placed a hand on Mara-hyeon’s abdomen and the crown of his head, the Baihui acupoint.
Something surged into his body.
‘!?’
Mara-hyeon’s eyes snapped open.
His pupils shook.
The energy flooding in wasn’t like ordinary restorative inner power.
It wasn’t the qi he knew.
It evoked the abyss—an endless darkness pouring in.
And within that darkness,
-Roooar!
Something ferociously savage, near despair-inducing, lurked.
‘Wh-What is this...’
Captured by this unknown ferocious energy he’d never felt, Mara-hyeon felt a strange sensation.
He should reject this dangerous force, yet shivers of familiarity grew.
No—better to say it rapidly eroded him.
-Sss...
At some point, black demonic energy began seeping from Mara-hyeon’s entire body.
It was demonic qi.
[End of Chapter 72: Clue (4)]