Chapter 105
Chapter 105
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Translator: True Detective
Chapter: 105
Chapter Title: Jade-Faced Yin Demon
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The moment I slipped effortlessly inside the wall without any obstruction, what caught my eye was an alley stretching deeper inward.
Had they planted an illusion midway through this long alley?
I turned around to examine the wall I'd just passed through, wondering how on earth they'd done it, and spotted two talismans stuck to either side of the wall.
“…Talismans? They created the illusion with these?”
Tilting my head curiously, I cautiously peeled one off, and the wall I'd passed through melted away into thin air as if dissolving into nothingness.
“Whoa….”
Awed by the sight I'd never witnessed before, I turned the talisman over in my hands before tucking it into my bosom and pressing onward.
It wasn't long before an old, rundown house at the end of the alley came into view.
Along with the Jade-Faced Yin Demon and the female minstrel on the verge of entering it.
The secret of how he'd emerged from an empty alley was revealed.
In other words, there was no longer anything holding him back.
-Boom!
I immediately kicked off the ground and charged at the lecherous demon.
“What…?”
The Jade-Faced Yin Demon turned his head, belatedly sensing my approach.
His pupils slowly widened.
My reflection in his retinas grew larger and larger.
In an instant, I closed the distance to the demon's face and struck his meridian point.
The moment my finger pressed into the acupoint, his body went rigid….
“Gahhh!?”
“…Huh?”
The lecherous demon tumbled backward with a scream.
I couldn't help but be taken aback by the sight.
I'd clearly hit his meridian point.
Hitting the meridian point should have made his body stiffen rigidly.
Yet this demon wasn't stiff at all—he was flopping around like a freshly caught fish.
What the hell? Why isn't it working?
There's no way I got the acupoint location wrong.
“You! Who the hell are you?! How did you get in here!?”
The Jade-Faced Yin Demon backed away in terror.
Staring at him in bewilderment, I shifted my gaze to the female minstrel slumped limply right beside him.
“Uhn… uhn….”
The minstrel groaned with a dazed, glassy look in her eyes.
She didn't seem to have any obvious injuries, but it would still be best to have a physician check her out.
I carefully laid the minstrel flat on her back, then turned my attention back to the Jade-Faced Yin Demon.
“But first, I suppose I should catch you.”
“S-Stay back!”
I lunged at the lecherous demon as he belatedly scrambled up to flee and kicked him squarely in the back.
-Thud!
“Argh!”
The Jade-Faced Yin Demon face-planted forward in the exact pose he'd been fleeing in.
Watching his pathetic, undignified sprawl, I tilted my head.
What’s going on? Why is he so weak?
The Jade-Faced Yin Demon was supposed to be a terrifying master who single-handedly crushed two squads of the Jeon-ga clan's elite Ho-Cheon Unit.
Yet the guy sprawled out before me was no better than a commoner—barely scraping by as third-rate, let alone second-rate.
Everything from one to ten was one big question mark.
“There’s just more and more I want to ask you….”
“W-Who are you? Who the hell are you to do this to me…!”
“Shut up and take this quietly, you filthy lecher.”
“U-Ugh…!”
The Jade-Faced Yin Demon groaned as he glared back at me, then clenched his teeth and began muttering something in a low voice.
“ས་གཞིའི་སྟོབས་ཤུགས་བེད་་…”
A language I'd never heard in my life.
I didn't know the details, but my instincts screamed that I needed to shut his mouth.
Reflexively reaching for his dumb acupoint, I suddenly realized my mistake.
Oh, right—this guy's immune to acupoint strikes?
Sure enough, even after I jabbed his dumb acupoint, the lecherous demon continued muttering rapidly in that alien tongue without a care.
“Tch!”
If acupoint strikes won't work, I'll just knock him out cold, I thought, swinging my fist.
But before I could, the Jade-Faced Yin Demon finished his muttering, and something strange began happening to his body.
The lecherous demon's form melted away and vanished, just like the wall had after I removed the talisman earlier.
“What…?”
In the blink of an eye, the Jade-Faced Yin Demon disappeared right before my eyes.
I expanded my senses to scan the surroundings thoroughly, but I couldn't detect his presence anywhere.
All that remained in the rundown house was me and the female minstrel.
“Ha… haha….”
I let out a hollow laugh at the absurd reality—I'd let the demon I'd all but captured slip away so ridiculously.
*
“Haa….”
Everheaven Merchant Association, Wuhuan Branch.
Hwa Ryeon let out a small sigh as she paced the courtyard.
‘…Why is he taking so damn long?’
It had already been three hours since Si-woo, who'd dragged Seo-yeon along, told her that Ja-seong had chased after someone suspected to be the lecherous demon.
The sun had long vanished, leaving only faint moonlight to illuminate the ground.
She knew there were precious few in this world who could harm Ja-seong, but when he was this late, worry inevitably crept in.
Had something happened? Was he caught up in something weird?
Hwa Ryeon sighed again, trying to push away the ominous thoughts swirling in her mind.
Someone approached her then.
“Miss, what are you doing out here?”
It was Jo Ha-pyeong, the head of the Everheaven Merchant Association's Wuhuan Branch.
He'd been about to retire for the night after finishing his duties when he spotted Hwa Ryeon pacing the courtyard late at night and came over.
“It's getting properly into autumn now—the night air's turned quite chilly. You should head inside.”
“…Yeah. I'll go in after a bit longer.”
A polite refusal.
Jo Ha-pyeong studied Hwa Ryeon's face and immediately grasped why she was out here in the middle of the night.
“Is it because of Young Master Goon?”
“…….”
Her silence was affirmation enough.
Though he had a rather rigid personality, Ha-pyeong had gone through a fairly passionate courtship before marrying his current wife.
His colleagues often teased him about skipping missions for romance, but that wasn't important right now.
In any case, his experience let him instantly recognize the worry etched on Hwa Ryeon's face and the emotion at its root.
‘…So the young miss has reached the age where she feels affection for someone.’
Ha-pyeong's expression grew complicated.
Relieved in one sense, yet oddly choked up.
Having lost her father before she was even ten, she'd become a fugitive, the forbidden treasure of Paecheon Castle cast out into the world.
Thrown forcibly into the harsh reality by others' malice, Hwa Ryeon gradually changed.
Warmth faded from her face, replaced by coldness, and her emotions buried themselves deep within.
‘I wondered what would become of her when she left Wuhuan….’
Before hiding away in Goon-gang County in Henan, the place young Hwa Ryeon had stayed longest was Wuhuan.
As a Heaven's Net agent dispatched there at the time, he'd provided her group with a safe house.
In short, he was one of the few who'd witnessed her transformation with his own eyes.
That was why, when Hwa Ryeon had left Wuhuan, he'd been deeply concerned in many ways.
‘I feared she might close off her heart forever.’
Fortunately, that worry had been unfounded.
By some twist of fate, in Goon-gang County where she'd hidden to survive, she met someone who reopened her sealed heart.
Silently grateful to Ja-seong for unlocking the bolt in Hwa Ryeon's heart, Ha-pyeong spoke again.
“Understood. At least let me fetch something for you to drape over your shoulders—the night's cold.”
“You don't have to….”
Despite Hwa Ryeon's protests, Ha-pyeong headed back inside.
That was when Ja-seong's voice rang out.
“What’s this? Why are you out here again? The night air’s chilly.”
“Ah…!”
Ja-seong's voice, no different from usual.
Hwa Ryeon's face visibly brightened as she confirmed his entering the branch grounds.
But in a single breath, her beaming expression froze over coldly.
The cause of that abrupt, blatant shift in emotion was the unfamiliar woman cradled in Ja-seong's arms.
‘Oh, oh no…!’
Ha-pyeong shivered as if the temperature had plummeted.
*
I'd been tearing my hair out over the ridiculous situation of letting my sure catch slip away so pathetically, but in the end, I sighed and accepted reality.
Sure, you can't fill your belly on the first bite.
I'd uncovered the demon's bizarre trickery, and above all, prevented another victim.
I'll call it satisfaction for today. Yeah, let's do that.
Muttering that to myself even as I smacked my lips in regret, I rummaged through the house.
Most of the items I found were things I couldn't identify.
Jars filled with dark red liquid (probably blood), books scrawled with strange script, plant seeds, and so on.
The one familiar thing was a bundle of talismans just like the one I'd pocketed, stuffed inside a small box.
I wrapped it all up in a cloth, slung it over my back, scooped up the still-unconscious female minstrel into my arms, and raced back to the Everheaven Merchant Association branch.
Thankfully it wasn't far, and soon the ornate three-story building came into view.
I passed through the main gate into the grounds and spotted Hwa Ryeon pacing outside in the dead of night.
No way—is she waiting for me again?
The night air's pretty cold, though….
“What’s this? Why are you out here again? The night's chilly.”
“Ah…!”
Hwa Ryeon's face lit up as she turned at my voice.
But her gaze drifted slightly downward, and in an instant, it turned icy cold.
“…Who’s that woman?”
…Hmm, feels like I'm indirectly experiencing the heartbreak of a husband caught red-handed with his mistress?
Chuckling inwardly at the thought, I shrugged and answered.
“To put it simply, a near-rape victim?”
“…What?”
Hwa Ryeon tilted her head for a moment before grasping my meaning, her eyes widening.
I nodded to confirm that was exactly right, then headed inside with the minstrel in my arms—only to belatedly notice Branch Head Jo and ask him.
“Any good physicians you know nearby?”
“…Conveniently, there's one I've known for years in the area. I'll fetch him right away.”
“Thanks.”
Branch Head Jo headed out the gate, apparently to go himself.
Glancing at his retreating back, I carried the minstrel inside the building.
To my surprise, not only Seol-i and Master, but even Si-woo were still awake.
Si-woo in particular took one look at the unfamiliar woman in my arms and immediately pieced something together, his face hardening.