Chapter 110. They Say the Turtle Great Duke Has Achieved a Great Feat
Won Seung had already connected eight pairs of yin-yang acupoints. He considered mentioning it but decided to heed the jianghu's advice to keep one's martial prowess a secret.
"I'll tell you once I've linked them all."
If Yong Jo-un had known Won Seung had already connected ten pairs, he would have been utterly shocked.
It was on par with the speed of the Musanggok genius himself.
"Don't forget about mental cultivation."
"Ah, right, mental cultivation. Of course. I'm heading out now."
Won Seung called out toward the room where Hyeol Hwa was staying.
"I'm off!"
The sweltering summer sun dipped low. Bathed in the fiery glow of the sunset, Won Seung entered Jungyang County.
"Yi Eon-pae... looks like he has to die by my hand after all."
With Hyeol Hwa injured, he couldn't ask her to step in. He'd leave the favor of saving her as a debt for now and handle it himself first.
Yi Eon-pae was someone who needed killing regardless of the Jeokhyeolsan practical mission. Reporting him to the authorities would be pointless—the bastard's father was Jungyang County's local tyrant, so he'd be out in no time.
Won Seung checked into an inn, soaked in a bath, and pondered his options.
'Poison? Or a rain of arrows? A crossbow? But shouldn't I at least tell him why he's dying? That way, he can reflect on his life of villainy while crossing to the Yellow Springs.'
As various ideas swirled, he settled into training the quintessence of Musanggyeol. Won Seung found linking corresponding yin-yang acupoints endlessly fascinating.
After refining his spirit core in the mountains with Clear Mind Heart Technique, this was his first profound mental cultivation. Every night, he aimed to connect one more pair.
Won Seung harbored no greed for martial arts. Free of impatience and filled only with enjoyment, his progress came remarkably swift.
He trained until the midnight hour, successfully linking yet another pair, then drifted off to sleep.
The next day.
Won Seung rose leisurely and headed downstairs to the eatery for breakfast. After ordering, he sat by the window gazing out at the street, where the atmosphere felt off.
Warriors with drawn swords roamed everywhere, turning the place upside down.
"What's going on?"
He asked the waiter. They were always the best source for jianghu gossip.
"Oh, sir! The Yi manor is in chaos."
The waiter approached with a grin like he'd won the lottery, lowering his voice to a whisper.
"The Yi manor's young master got himself killed."
'Huh?'
I didn't do a damn thing. Had I reached the realm of heart-kill, where mere killing intent slays from afar?
"The Yi manor's young master... Yi Eon-pae?"
"That's him. Total scumbag son of a bitch. The Turtle Great Duke finally took him down."
"Turtle Great Duke?"
Who the hell was that?
"For months, the Turtle Great Duke's been declaring he'd kill Yi Eon-pae. Everyone in Jungyang County was waiting for that day... and last night, he finally pulled it off."
That day, Hyeol Hwa had been on her way to Jungyang County to repay her debt to Won Seung. But after Bi Jangno's ambush forced her to stay at the Yong family ruins, she'd contacted Haeyeonmun via support team.
Haeyeonmun's assassins, under the vice leader's orders, infiltrated Jungyang County immediately.
Yi Eon-pae had dismissed the Turtle Great Duke's murder threats as a joke. A real killer wouldn't send advance notice like that.
But his father, Yi Sang-jo, didn't see it that way. As the threats kept coming, he grew worried for his only son and forbade Yi Eon-pae from going out.
Stuck in the manor for a full month under his father's strict orders, Yi Eon-pae itched with boredom despite his wife and concubines. He craved the brothel girls and wild parties.
Then, the monthly threat letter failed to arrive on schedule.
Won Seung and Jong Bi had been swamped with the three-way duel, leaving no time to send one. Yi Eon-pae figured the sender had given up.
Elated, he headed straight to the brothel.
Killing a drunken Yi Eon-pae sprawled out in a pleasure house was child's play for a Haeyeonmun assassin.
'I was the Turtle Great Duke!'
He'd only drawn a baby turtle on the threat letter to mock them, and somehow he'd become Jungyang County's beacon of hope...
But he hadn't killed the guy himself.
He'd only been planning it.
"So the Turtle Great Duke really killed Yi Eon-pae?"
"Of course. Even drew a turtle on his chest."
Who poached my practical target?
Hyeol Hwa was at the Yong ruins, so not her... Unaware she was Haeyeonmun's vice leader, Won Seung was just puzzled.
Anyway, two of his practical targets were dead.
Hwa Cheon-gang and Yi Eon-pae...
Choyang County's magistrate wasn't a bad sort, so no reason to kill him.
Thus, zero out of three targets completed.
Won Seung sighed. He had no intention of becoming an assassin anyway... but scum like Yi Eon-pae, he wanted to handle personally.
'Yi Eon-pae, you okay dying on your own terms?'
Having failed his assassin mission in Jungyang, Won Seung headed straight back to the assassin training camp.
His route took him through Choyang County.
Upon entering, he ran into a funeral procession.
The mourning banners read... Choyang magistrate dead.
"Why'd the magistrate die so suddenly?"
Stunned, Won Seung asked a man watching the procession.
"He was always frail."
The man replied glumly, but another chimed in gruffly.
"Hmph. Chasing skirts at his age? Death by exhaustion's no surprise."
"Shh! Not in front of the kid."
"What's it matter? That's how I wanna go."
The onlookers chimed in one by one.
Won Seung was dumbfounded.
'Death by exhaustion...'
Unbelievable.
All three targets dead without him lifting a finger.
Am I some emissary of the King of Hell now?
They keep dropping like flies.
Won Seung left Choyang County deep in thought.
The mountain assassin training camp remained unchanged.
Peak midsummer. In the wooden huts buried amid fierce greenery, the kids who'd returned from practical assassin missions passed idle days.
Won Seung, back after a full six months, was the last trainee to return.
When Sa Gyo-du got the report, he gnashed his teeth.
"Where the hell's this bastard been? Crawling back now?"
Thirty-eight trainees went out on practicals; five died.
The last one had been missing... and now showed up.
Bi Jin-dong had ordered special watch on No. 50. With him safe, Sa Gyo-du relaxed.
Thirty-three trainees ready for release.
'Not bad at all. Four top-grade prospects, they said. Package 'em nice for headquarters... heh heh.'
News of Bi Jin-dong's death hadn't reached this remote camp. Sa Gyo-du smugly recalled the elder's promise.
'Come winter, I'll ship out to a branch—brothels and booze galore.'
Sa Gyo-du took a swig from his bottle and bellowed outside.
"Call all the instructors! Time to grade practical scores!"
The kids' faces, fresh from their first real taste of the world in a decade, shone with excitement.
It was like seeing it anew. At six, their "world" had been snot-nosed begging for scraps. Then ten years locked in these mountains.
This glimpse of the outside was like another realm entirely.
So they chattered nonstop.
"So-ho was just like the old texts. So poetic."
"Hah! Comparable to Huangshan Secret Realm?"
"Nonsense! The Yellow River's majesty is the world's greatest spectacle."
Each insisted their sights were the best.
The thought of escaping this stifling camp for the world again thrilled them.
The shackles of Swolhyeol San tempered the joy... but heading out still stirred their hearts.
"Jeokhyeolsan... what a bunch of idiots."
No matter how he looked at it, Won Seung thought this mountain camp was a fool's errand. The kids were exceptional after ten years of training, sure.
But they knew nothing of the jianghu's treachery. Five died this time alone.
Influenced young by his scheming father and seasoned by Sangyang's intrigues, Won Seung saw the kids as... just children. Most would die on real missions.
Jong Bi said over half perished in apprentice runs.
'You won't end up like that. I'll set you free.'
But he couldn't just release them. The practicals showed how dangerous they were. Ten years of killing drills... loose in the world, bodies would pile up.
Even Jong Bi defaulted to murder. Sent to gather intel, she killed the Black Water Gate Lord and returned like it'd been a fish catch.
People aren't fish.
"Stuck tight under the bridge in the slum. Waited two hours; when he came, stabbed him from below."
Guys like that needed watching.
Won Seung eyed No. 13, surrounded by kids bragging away. He'd cleared easy, medium, and hard targets.
No. 13 strutted, beaming with pride over his tales.
Instructors stressed secrecy, but braggarts like him couldn't help it.
No. 13 wasn't alone. Rumors swirled of kids who'd offed all three targets.
'Plenty of wrongful deaths there.'
Ignoring warnings to kill indiscriminately meant they enjoyed it. Raised like this, their future was obvious.
Won Seung realized blowing up the camp just got way harder.
'Might not have enough Soul Oblivion Pills.'
He'd planned to slaughter instructors and head instructors outright. But meeting Hwa Yeo-wol in Sangyang and Yong Jo-un changed his mind.
They deserved death, but dozens? Becoming a mass murderer would haunt him. No good life carrying that baggage.
So he'd mass-produced Soul Oblivion Pills. Tested on Yu Bul-gun and U Hui—perfect success.
Plan: Dose the instructors, wipe memories, sell as miners.
Mountain lovers? Dig till they drop.
But seeing the kids, he realized they needed it too. Erase the assassin training entirely.
Problem: Not enough pills.
'Gotta get into Dok Sabu's hut...'
Making more required herbs buried in the back garden.
Once like his own home, now he couldn't even climb the upper dorms as a trainee.
'Hmm... leave memories intact for a few?'
Like Jang Chil... Dosing him would erase their bond too. That'd suck.
Won Seung asked Jang Chil beside him.
"How many missions did you complete?"
"One."
Jang Chil picked his nose, nonchalant.
Oh, as expected. You're good people.
"Who was it?"