Two New Workers at Baekhwa Pavilion
'Well, assassins can't go trusting just anyone easily.'
Watching U Hui act straight out of the assassin's handbook, Won Seung couldn't help thinking there were lessons to be learned.
Won Seung sprinkled hemostatic powder on the spot where the arrow had pierced, bound the shoulder with cloth, and asked,
"You're Bi Jangno's guard, right? Where's the elder?"
"None of your business."
A trainee daring to ask about an elder's whereabouts.
Arrogant bastard, U Hui thought, then let out a sigh without realizing it.
Bi Jangno was dead...
What the hell was he supposed to report back to headquarters?
Won Seung watched U Hui for a moment, then said gently,
"You've got more than a few sword cuts there. Goodness, this one's deep."
As Won Seung tried to apply hemostatic powder to the sword wounds, U Hui waved him off with a grimace.
"Forget the cuts. Pull out the needles in my foot first."
Three steel needles were embedded in the sole of U Hui's right shoe.
Needles Won Seung had planted in the wall.
Effective. Next time, I'll coat them with poison.
Won Seung pulled them out as he thought to himself.
"Urk!"
A groan escaped U Hui's lips again.
"Take off your shoe."
"No, it's fine."
U Hui felt an odd languor creeping through his body.
"Don't underestimate those little needles. In this summer heat, if it festers, you might lose the foot."
Just then, Jong Bi, who had been bringing a basin of warm water, froze in place.
U Hui and Won Seung looked over, wondering what was up.
Jong Bi's face had gone pale as she asked,
"Steel needles... pierced you?"
Her gaze on U Hui's foot was filled with bewilderment. Sensing something, Won Seung glanced at U Hui, who looked down at his own punctured foot.
Killing intent flared in U Hui's eyes.
"Paralysis poison?"
"Ah, no need to worry. It's just one-hour blood. It'll wear off in an hour."
Jong Bi hurriedly explained.
"Hitting it can dispel it right away too."
The corner of Won Seung's mouth twitched upward.
Oh ho, good girl Jong Bi... when did she coat them with one-hour blood?
Were we brothers in a past life? We sync up too perfectly.
Jong Bi approached U Hui and said,
"Shall I hit it for you?"
As Jong Bi clenched her fist to strike U Hui's foot, Won Seung blocked her.
"Beating a patient won't help."
By then, the poison had spread, stiffening U Hui's body.
Won Seung pulled out paralysis needles and jabbed them into U Hui's cervical and lumbar acupoints, paralyzing him thoroughly.
"Wh-what... are you... do-ing."
The paralysis spread, making it hard for U Hui even to speak properly. Jong Bi stared at Won Seung in shock.
"What are you doing? This guy's a headquarters expert."
"I know. That's why."
Won Seung slapped U Hui across the face.
Smack! Smack!
He'd told Jong Bi not to hit him, but he went all out on the face. It swelled up like a balloon.
As the one-hour blood around his mouth wore off, allowing U Hui to move his lips, he growled,
"What the hell is this? You wanna die?"
"Nah. Doing this to stay alive."
Won Seung went to the medicine room and fetched the agony bruise ointment.
Jong Bi's eyes widened like saucers.
Are you insane?
Ignoring her, Won Seung dipped a brush thickly in the agony bruise ointment and smeared it across U Hui's face.
U Hui, who'd been wary of whatever trick this was, went wide-eyed.
Was there pain like this in the world? It hurt a hundred times worse than the arrow.
"Gaaah!"
U Hui screamed as his face felt like it was burning away.
Jong Bi stomped her feet in her own panic.
Tormenting Bi Jangno's guard! We're dead now! That was her exact expression.
Won Seung grinned at Jong Bi and said,
"Think about it. He's Bi Jangno's guard, right? If the guard's in this state, what happened to the elder?"
Won Seung, who had to return to the mountain soon anyway, was already fretting over Bi Jangno.
Becoming a Ten Perfect Assassin prospect had drawn the elder's attention. Enough to come monitor him all the way to Sangyang.
Even if he blew up the assassin training camp and fled... Bi Jangno knew his identity and would track him down. The best plan was to fake his death in the explosion, but whether the elder would buy it was doubtful.
But what if something had happened to Bi Jangno?
Kuhuhu...
Won Seung, thrilled at the prospect, poured the basin water over U Hui's face.
Miraculously, the pain vanished in an instant.
"What happened to Bi Jangno?"
"Urk, are, are you insane?"
"Heh heh... tough guy, as expected from an expert."
Won Seung dipped the brush again, and U Hui's eyes bulged.
"He's dead!"
Oh ho!
Won Seung felt like dancing a jig.
But outwardly, he let out a grand sigh of "Oh no," made a grim face, and asked,
"Bi Jangno thought highly of me. He came all the way to Sangyang to check on my training. And now he's gone... Who killed him? You?"
U Hui rolled his eyes.
Ah, I see.
So he and that No. 50 bastard were close.
Won Seung wasn't wrong. Bi Jangno had delayed his trip north and come straight to Sangyang because of the three-way duel and the trainee No. 50.
U Hui figured Won Seung had misunderstood him. The agony bruise ointment hurt so bad even experts lost their minds. Throwing caution to the wind, U Hui spilled everything.
"The guy with the massive sword... right, Yong family descendant! The Yong descendant killed him."
Thankfully, he remembered Bi Jangno shouting "Yong descendant" during the fight.
He'd named the real culprit, so he was safe now.
"Yong descendant? Why?"
"We got a branch report that Haeyeonmun's elite assassin Hyeol Hwa had killed Gwancheonbang's leader and was fleeing Sangyang. Bi Jangno pursued. We caught up at the outskirts on the official road and tried to capture her alive, but this Yong descendant showed up, took out Bi Jangno, and whisked Hyeol Hwa away."
Oh, Hero Yong! A true hero. Saving an assassin who tried to kill him!
Won Seung was genuinely impressed.
Jong Bi's eyes went wide at U Hui's words.
They tried to catch Hyeol Hwa?
She snatched the brush from Won Seung's hand, loaded it with agony bruise ointment, and smeared it on U Hui's face.
"Gaaah!"
U Hui screamed again. He couldn't fathom why these kids were doing this.
"It's, it's all true! All true!"
"That's why we're doing this! Say it again. Is Hyeol Hwa safe?"
"Sh-she's safe. Internally injured, but... Jwa Hu got it worse. Argh! Please, pour the water!"
Won Seung doused him with the basin water, washing away the pain. Then, with a face full of benevolence, he asked,
"Where's Bi Jangno's body?"
"On the way back, we ran into soldiers. I saw them recover the corpse."
U Hui had spilled it all.
Won Seung pondered.
Soldiers recovered it? Means it's in the taesu's hands now? Talk about good luck.
Won Seung turned toward the portrait of Gwan Je-sang in the parlor and bowed deeply.
Jong Bi looked where Won Seung had bowed.
Who else came? No one there?
Puzzled, she asked,
"What're you doing?"
"Bow to Gwan Je too. Our great fortune has opened."
"Great fortune?"
"You wanna live as a Jeokhyeolsan assassin forever?"
"No!"
Jong Bi answered firmly.
With the Blood Chain Mountain poison antidoted, she just needed the right chance to vanish... vanish? Her gaze turned to Won Seung.
Won Seung nodded with a smiling glint in his eyes.
Now's the chance!
Ah! Finally getting it, Jong Bi beamed.
With Bi Jangno dead, no one left to suspect any tricks!
Jong Bi's hand shot up involuntarily. Then, soundlessly... she went wild, flailing her arms in a mad dance.
U Hui, seeing Jong Bi suddenly dance mid-sentence, thought these guys are nuts and got chills all over.
Even at headquarters, prolonged missions sometimes drove assassins mad. Just recently, one tried boiling the kitchen head in a cauldron.
What if these kids...
Still young, they must've cracked under assassin life.
They might kill me. These bastards...
Suddenly, mid-dance, Jong Bi stopped and glared at U Hui.
What about him? Bury him? Dump him in the Sang River?
Won Seung shook his head.
"I have a way."
Won Seung pried open U Hui's mouth and dumped in the leftover Soul Oblivion Pills from Yu Bul-gun.
"Urk, wh-what're you—"
He couldn't resist.
Moments later, U Hui lost consciousness.
"Baekhwa Pavilion now has two workers. Take him to the shed first."
Jong Bi dragged the feverish, babbling U Hui to the shed. Yu Bul-gun, already stashed there, was also muttering nonsense from the Soul Oblivion Pill. She laid U Hui next to him and returned.
"What now?"
"The gloomy room!"
Secret talks belonged in the gloomy room.
Won Seung sighed as he entered the next-door house. He'd trashed it to look like a safehouse for Bi Jangno, but with the man gone... the new servants would clean it up.
Won Seung and Jong Bi sat facing each other in the gloomy room next door.
"Listen up. To Bi Jangno and Jwa Hu's bodies, we'll add U Hui's and your decoy body."
"Gasp!"
Jong Bi recoiled, drawing her dagger.
"You gonna kill me too?"
"Snap out of it! Not you—your battered-face decoy corpse."
"Ah!"
Jong Bi nodded but kept a tight grip on her dagger as she sat back down.
Won Seung eyed the dagger and chided gently,
"Put the dagger away."
Jong Bi hesitated, then slammed it into the table.
"Now it's fair."
Sigh.
"But why do we need my decoy? Just cut contact, done."
"Forgot? The Sangyang branch knows we exist."
"Oh, right."
They'd stopped by the branch to pass black society intel and Won Seung's request.
Recalling the Sangyang branch, Jong Bi frowned then relaxed.
"We used human-skin masks. They won't know me."
Jeokhyeolsan rules required assassins using branches to conceal their true faces with human-skin masks or cloth.
Branch staff did the same. This stemmed from the leadership's paranoia: mutual anonymity meant safety. Even under torture, you couldn't betray a face you didn't know.
Superiors summoned inferiors only. Inferiors with reports left Jeokhyeolsan signals, and superiors contacted them on where to go.
These rigid rules were a godsend now.
"Still, better safe than sorry."
"True."
"In a few days, the taesu will announce capturing four bandits, display the four corpses publicly."
"Anyone knowing their identities report to the yamen."
"Right. And those four are Bi Jangno, Jwa Hu, U Hui, and your decoy."
"Yeah. You're thinking straight now. Sharp head on those shoulders."
Praised, Jong Bi nodded proudly with a "Hm."
Sometimes this kid turns into an idiot...
"Of course... no one will report it. The branch might suspect Bi Jangno, but the taesu will lop off the heads, expose 'em, and bury the rest."
"Kuhuhu... so I'm dead then?"
"Yeah. Live as Teacher Song from now on."
"But I like Jong Bi better. No one knows it anyway. At Jeokhyeolsan, they called me Four-Six."
Jong Bi said.
Won Seung gave her a pitying look.
You... came forty-sixth in the first run. How'd you survive?
His gaze filled with more sympathy. Soul Oblivion Pill kids lost memories but clung unconsciously to something.
Jong Bi must've been originally Jong Bi... or had family with that name.
Won Seung was wrong this time.
Jong Bi shrugged and said,
"Bi Jangno named me... but Jong Bi's fine, right? Good is good."
Ah...
Bi Jangno named her to follow him forever.