Chapter 50
Chapter 50
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 50
Chapter Title: Thousand-Faced Ghost Woman
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The top of the Red Shadow Tower was always a place steeped in the somber mood of the Red Lotus Leader.
At least, that had been the case ever since she ascended to the position of tower master and received the title of leader from the head of the Lower Five Gates.
In this vast space where no one ever intruded, gazing alone at Dongting Lake was her most precious time of all.
"You've come? I've been waiting."
That is, until the intruder standing before her eyes now had appeared.
"Haa, why go to the trouble of waiting for me in a place like this when you could just come openly?"
"The procedures to meet a leader formally are far too cumbersome, don't you think? A little understanding between fellow leaders."
"How exactly did you even get in here?"
"Through here."
Yi Sowol boldly pointed a finger at the empty air. It meant he'd scaled the top of the Red Shadow Tower—the tallest pleasure house in Yiyang—using lightness skill.
'Not like he's reached the realm of Void Step, so how does a person climb up and down this height so casually?'
The Red Lotus Leader swallowed her bewilderment inwardly without showing it.
"And I like the view from here."
Turning his head to overlook Yiyang, Yi Sowol's eyes clearly held respect for the place. Red Lotus Leader So Yeonhwa let a faint smile creep onto her face at the sight.
"Yes, indeed. We pride ourselves on this being the spot in Yiyang with the finest view of Dongting Lake."
"I wasn't looking at Dongting Lake. I was admiring the view down there."
So Yeonhwa looked where he pointed, and bewilderment crossed her face.
"I think overlooking the slums counts as a bad hobby."
"Maybe so. But thinking of you standing here, always watching over the slums below, made me want to look too."
Had he struck a nerve? Not even a "How did you know?" escaped her lips. She merely gazed in the same direction he did, with a wistful expression.
"The lowest place of all."
"I suppose so. Did you grow up down there?"
"Yes. A courtesan born and raised in the slums, now looking down on the depths from the pinnacle of the red-light district—what an amusing joke."
In any region, life at the bottom wasn't something worth speaking of lightly. A place where people bought and sold others, where someone died in a back alley and no one cared—that was the slums.
"For those in the Lower Five Gates, a smooth life would be the real joke."
"Do you see me as filthy too?"
"I'm from the slums myself."
She looked at Yi Sowol with surprise. She'd assumed his achievements, beyond his years, meant he'd grown up privileged as the scion of some upper-class family.
"I know the hardships of the bottom better than anyone."
"...I see."
But he too had risen from the depths to here. She felt an inexplicable sense of kinship with him.
"That's why I'm asking: do kidnappings happen often in the slums here too?"
"It's so commonplace it's not even worth calling it 'often.' People vanish and reappear like breathing."
"Then even if one person secretly kidnaps several others, no one would catch on."
"Of course. Who would care about the people in the slums in the first place...?"
Only then did So Yeonhwa realize the point of his words. She stared at Yi Sowol in disbelief.
"No way..."
"Just a hunch for now, but I think the culprit headed there."
Her face twisted. It held anxiety for her old hometown or rage at the criminal insulting everything buried there.
"What's your evidence?"
Of course, what truly fueled those emotions didn't matter.
"The reason he targeted courtesans was simply to hunt high-quality prey. When the food runs out, a beast will devour whatever it finds next—obvious, isn't it?"
"Let's go. I'll come with you."
Whatever the case, she'd already resolved to act.
Yiyang's slums, crammed with thatched huts crudely woven from straw, certainly had a different look from Xining.
Thanks to the lush vegetation from nearby Dongting Lake, houses made of woven straw rather than mud dominated the landscape.
A man passed by those shabby huts, walking onward.
His gaunt frame and dirt-streaked appearance blended perfectly with the surroundings.
The only unusual thing might be his steady stride, atypical for a local resident.
Of course, even that paled compared to the woman walking toward him from the opposite direction.
Her vibrant red attire and beauty that could exhaust every adjective for loveliness made her seem like someone from another world, utterly detached from the scenery.
The man glanced at her once, then kept his distance, wary of trouble.
But the woman never took her eyes off him.
When he sensed something amiss and turned back, her throat quivered. A transmission of voice, unheard by others—sound projection.
Only then realizing the situation, the man prepared to flee.
But her using sound projection meant her ally was nearby.
It was already too late to run.
Slash.
His right ankle, extended forward, had somehow severed from his body.
"Kuaaaaah!!"
A true master of disguise indeed. I'd noticed nothing, yet she spotted the human skin mask with a mere glance.
"Wh-what are you doing? I'm just a resident here..."
Slash.
"Aaaah!"
I severed his remaining ankle too. No ordinary slum dweller would detect sound projection and try to bolt.
"No more lies. Tell me where your comrades are."
"What do you mean? I really am..."
Slash.
"Kuaaaak! Khuk. Wait, just a moment. There's been some misunderstanding..."
"Good, keep your mouth shut like that. Chopping off limbs is far from enough to pay for your crimes."
I sliced off one arm next. The wretch flailing with his last limb finally gave up, glaring at me and the Red Lotus Leader.
"How... how did you know?"
Hah, look at that impudence. Demonic Cult scum never change.
"Did you think I wouldn't spot such a crude human skin mask? You must've peeled it off some living face in a rush to relocate. Filthy and ugly method."
Now that he mentioned it, his facial expressions did look subtly off. Peeled from someone writhing in agony, no doubt.
Gruesome.
"Hah, fuck. You think you'll get away with this? Do you know what it means to touch us...?"
Crunch.
"Aaaah!! Guk. Kek."
I crushed his remaining arm underfoot, then shoved my hand into the screaming wretch's mouth.
I gripped and yanked out his left molar.
"As expected, hiding a poison pill between the teeth."
A common trick among spies.
To prevent leaking info if captured, bite down on the hidden poison pill and suicide on the spot.
Demonic Cult fanatics especially were infamous for throwing away their lives without hesitation.
"Just to be safe, should I destroy his dantian too?"
"W-wait. Hold on. What are you..."
Bam.
I placed my palm on his lower dantian, infused internal energy, and smashed down hard where it should be.
"Guk. Kahak."
With an unpleasant sound, his body convulsed before going limp on the ground.
"...He's not dead, right?"
"I controlled it. Can't let a valuable intel source die."
"Good. He doesn't deserve an easy death after this much."
The Red Lotus Leader glared at the unconscious Demonic Cultist with blazing eyes. A chilling intensity unlike Baek Eunhwa's.
"I'll take him for interrogation."
Interrogation, huh.
For someone called the Thousand-Faced Ghost Woman, so ruthless and merciless, "torture" fit better.
"Do that."
This time, I'd leave it to her.
"Kuaaaaah!!"
In the secret chamber beneath the Red Shadow Tower, a place no one knew existed, an inhuman scream echoed horrifically.
"Now, finally, it's time for the third finger joint. With only one arm left, having to chop them one by one is such a hassle."
"I'll talk! Please, let me speak!"
On the floor rolled teeth, nails, and grotesque chunks of flesh from who-knows-where.
"Bite down hard. Oh, but maybe you can't anymore?"
In the room's center, the Red Lotus Leader wore a bizarre, twisted smile.
She drew a small saw blade and carefully positioned it over the Demonic Cultist's finger—like manicuring nails—with utmost precision.
Over the finger already half-severed.
Rattle.
Then, the door to the supposedly secure room opened, and Yi Sowol entered.
"How's the interrogation going?"
"Yes. Well, I haven't asked anything yet, but seeing him beg, it seems to be progressing well."
"Please, please, let me confess everything!"
Yi Sowol gave the ragdoll-like Demonic Cultist a blank look.
When they first peeled off his disguise, the Red Lotus Leader had been shocked. No one imagined the culprit was a woman.
The Demonic Blood Witch—a notorious figure even in his past life.
A slaughter ghost who killed yin-rich women to steal their vitality and preserve her youth.
The Murim Alliance hadn't caught her for years, never dreaming she was female.
Nearly a thousand women had died by her hand for her vanity.
Now, with her dantian shattered, she couldn't maintain youth; her demonic qi-ravaged body had turned hideous.
"Hey, Leader."
Yi Sowol said in a low voice.
"Yes?"
"That look in her eyes toward me is quite unpleasant."
"Ah, then I'll take care of it."
As if delighted by the request, the Red Lotus Leader slowly approached the Demonic Cultist.
"W-wait! What are you— I'll talk! Everything!"
"Please, just shut up for a bit? I need to pluck those eyeballs, but the stench from your mouth makes it hard to get close."
She grabbed the bound, thrashing woman's hair. Half the already sparse locks snapped off in her grip.
She squeezed the head harder.
"Sorry. I'm begging. Mercy, please..."
"Didn't I tell you to shut it?"
Squelch.
With one motion, the Demonic Cultist's eyes popped out cleanly.
"Huaaaak! Ha, hak."
Only then, satisfied with her writhing in agony, did Yi Sowol step forward.
"Now, shall we hear it? What the Demonic Cult trash were scheming in a dump like this, and where your comrades are."