Chapter 72
Chapter 72
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Translator: True Detective
Chapter: 72
Chapter Title: Haomen
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In a shadowy alley near the Flower Moon Pavilion.
“Huuk... huuk...!”
A warrior from Tyrant Heaven Fortress—no, a man now exiled from it—glared at the Flower Moon Pavilion with bloodshot eyes.
‘I’ll kill her. I’ll definitely kill her.’
The impudent face of the courtesan So-hye floated vividly in his mind.
How dare she reject me.
A lowly whore like you thought you could make me look like this and get away with it?
The man glanced down at the sharp dagger hidden in his robes.
‘Before I kill you, I’ll carve up that arrogant face of yours...!’
Just imagining turning So-hye’s face into a bloody mess with the dagger brought a sinister smile to his lips.
‘Ah, but of course, before that, I’ll slowly savor that body of yours.’
Even as excitement and rage clouded his mind, the man brazenly revealed his base desires.
Then, for a moment, his face twisted in pain.
“Urk...!”
The man clutched his lower abdomen.
A dull ache throbbed in his dantian.
Yet the internal energy still gathered within him had not dispersed.
Surprisingly, he had not yet lost his dantian.
His former comrades from Tyrant Heaven Fortress, considering their past bonds, had spared him total destruction and merely stunned him enough before casting him out.
Of course, even this was a severe injury that would require days of rest, but instead of recuperating, he had chosen revenge.
‘You think I could just rest while leaving that bitch alone...!’
The fact that Lady Ho-jeong was the one who had punished him had long faded from his rage-filled mind.
Even in his loss of reason, he couldn’t dare touch Ho-jeong?
Yet he had no qualms unleashing his fury on a relatively easy target like a courtesan. What a terribly convenient rage.
The man suppressed the nagging pain in his dantian with his anger and slowly stepped out of the alley toward the Flower Moon Pavilion.
“A fine night, isn’t it?”
Such was he greeted by a beautiful voice, like jade rolling in his ear.
“...Huh?”
The man whipped his head around at the unfamiliar voice from behind, and his eyes went blank for a moment.
A fairy stood before him.
With the sun fully set and moonlight bathing the earth,
a captivating beauty he had never seen before, shrouded in a faint silvery glow, gazed at him with a seductive smile.
Was this what the fox spirit that corrupted King Zhou looked like?
Just facing that enchanting smile melted away his fury toward the courtesan like snow in sunlight.
All that filled his mind now was admiration and worship for the woman.
“W-Who might you be, miss? Please, at least tell me your name.”
“I am Soha. They call me Ye Soha.”
Ye Soha.
The man murmured the name over and over.
While he kept muttering Soha’s name, she slowly approached him.
“...Gasp!?”
Seeing her suddenly right in front of him, smiling, the man recoiled in shock, tripped over his own feet, and fell flat on his rear.
“Oh dear, are you all right?”
As Soha looked down at him with eyes full of concern, the man scrambled to his feet and forced an awkward smile.
“Ah, ahaha! I’m fine. If a man can’t endure pain like this, can he even call himself one?”
“Indeed, you truly are a man among men.”
Soha nodded with a peculiar smile.
Seeing the man tense up even more at her words, her smile deepened.
“There’s something I’d like to ask of a true man like you. Would that be all right?”
“Of course! Anything you say!”
No matter how beautiful, to readily agree to a request from a woman he had just met, whose identity he didn’t even know.
To a third party, it was an utterly unnatural scene, but the man himself never even considered it.
And then, Soha made an utterly bizarre request.
“Then, sir, would you kindly cut off your own right hand and destroy your dantian right now?”
Bizarre. No, an utterly absurd request.
Self-harm out of nowhere? What kind of insane demand was this?
At the request that made one question Soha’s sanity, the man naturally flew into a rage and refused...
“Of course! That’s nothing for me!”
...or rather, he didn’t.
As if it were the easiest thing in the world, without a hint of hesitation, he drew the dagger from his robes and sliced off his own right hand.
-Shunk
Ignoring even the pain in his dantian, he channeled his internal energy into the swing, and his right hand fell away all too easily.
Blood spurted from the severed stump, soaking the ground.
“Urk...”
Having cut off his own right hand, the man let out a pained groan but forced a smile as if it were nothing.
Even after severing his right hand—the second most vital asset to a warrior after his dantian—seeming impressive to Soha was his top priority.
-Puuk!
Finally, he plunged the dagger deep into his lower abdomen, shattering his dantian completely.
Overwhelmed by the immense sense of helplessness as his lifelong internal energy scattered, he collapsed to his knees.
“Grgh...!”
His face flushed red, eyes bloodshot.
With a face on the verge of passing out, he forced another smile.
“H-How’s that? I told you... it’d be easy...”
“Truly, you are a man among men. Allow me to give a gift to such a hero.”
Soha approached the man.
In her hand was a single laurel blossom.
The blood-red petals were placed in his remaining hand.
“Well then, I’ll be off.”
Having handed over the laurel, Soha turned away without a shred of lingering attachment.
“W-Wait...! Please wait a moment! Please, just let me see that face one more time...!”
Dragging his limp body across the ground like a worm, the man chased after Soha.
But his struggles didn’t last long.
The constant bleeding from his right wrist gradually faded his consciousness.
“P-Please... just once... more....”
In the end, the man lost consciousness and collapsed.
In his left hand, he clutched a single blood-red laurel blossom.
Meanwhile, as Soha walked away with her back to the man, she suddenly snapped her fingers.
-Snap!
At that, the silvery glow around her vanished in an instant.
“How was it? The ‘Aura of Enchantment’?”
“It works well enough. Pointless, though.”
As soon as the glow faded, Hong appeared at Soha’s side as if she had been waiting.
Puffed up with anticipation, Hong deflated at Soha’s sharp critique.
“Pointless? You saw it yourself, Sect Leader. That trash-heap of a man grinning like an idiot and doing everything you said.”
“I’ll give you that. But was it really necessary? You could’ve just lopped off his arm in one go and stabbed his gut—done. That would’ve been much faster.”
Soha recalled the man’s self-mutilation from moments ago and made a sour face.
“And honestly, it felt a bit creepy to use. The way he acted was like some black magic... what do they call it here, soul-enslavement arts? It felt like he fell victim to that.”
“H-How dare you compare it to something like that!?”
Hong jumped up at Soha’s words.
“Soul-enslavement arts inject black magic into the mind to force obedience! This spell wraps the target in a subtle, enchanting silvery aura around the caster’s body! The principles are completely different!”
‘Doesn’t look any different to an outsider’s eyes.’
Soha thought so inwardly but didn’t voice it.
She knew from long experience that saying it would only make Hong sulk.
“Anyway, that settles things in Hebi completely.”
“So what now? Are you going after that young master, the ‘Warrior of Prophecy’?”
Hong made a pouty face as she mentioned Ja-seong.
She was still upset that Soha hadn’t told her sooner about him being the Warrior of Prophecy she had sought for so long.
Stroking Hong’s head with an amused smile at her expression, Soha shook her head.
“No, let’s just watch for now. I think I put him on guard from the first meeting, so I need to take it slow and build a connection over time.”
Soha thought of what happened in Daru earlier that day and gave a wry smile.
Her excitement at finally finding the person she had been searching for had gotten the better of her.
She had wanted to playfully startle him and even used the spell ‘Silent Steps’ to approach, only to raise his suspicions.
‘If I’d known, I wouldn’t have bothered with the spell.’
No use regretting it now.
Shrugging her shoulders, Soha stepped onto the main street where the Flower Moon Pavilion stood and donned the robe Hong handed her.
Just then, Cheong appeared silently.
“I’m back.”
“And how was our warrior?”
Cheong had been secretly tailing Ja-seong on Soha’s orders.
She had confirmed him entering the Nangong Clan and just finished investigating how he had ended up staying there.
Cheong explained in detail to Soha what she had learned.
Listening, Soha rubbed her lips and murmured.
“The Nangong Clan... Trying to stop Tyrant Heaven Fortress from taking over Hebi?”
Having already heard all the internal affairs of Hebi from the Flower Moon Pavilion’s master, Soha immediately grasped Ja-seong’s purpose.
But she couldn’t figure out the reason why.
“I’m sorry. It seems there’s some specific reason, but I couldn’t find out.”
Cheong bowed her head with a ashamed expression.
Soha patted her head comfortingly.
“It’s fine. We can uncover it step by step from here. This is more than enough for now.”
Yes. It was more than enough.
Discovering that the Warrior of Prophecy shared the same enemy as them was a hugely encouraging result.
‘If we keep heading in the same direction, our paths will cross someday.’
Anticipating that day, Soha returned to the Flower Moon Pavilion with Hong and Cheong.
And as the seventh watch of the night passed,
the day of the martial tournament that would decide the Nangong Clan’s fate dawned.