The Raid (2)
"How did your private audience with the Family Head go?"
"He caught on. That was why he posted watchers on all of you. Fortunately, out of familial affection, he doesn't seem to have spoken of it outside."
The man listening to Dang Baek-seon nodded in agreement.
"And the patients and physicians?"
"I mixed sleeping poison and qi-dispersing poison into the decoctions and put the patients under. I subdued the physicians as well and gave them the same treatment."
"The patients I understand, but subduing the physicians alone is impressive. Most of them are First-class martial artists, are they not?"
"Even a First-class martial artist is not difficult to subdue if you strike a pressure point through a gap in their guard."
"The more I hear, the more of a waste it seems. If not for a constitution that makes accumulating qi impossible, you would have had the makings of an outstanding martial artist."
"That is precisely why I am cooperating with you gentlemen."
"True enough. Thanks to how cleanly you've handled this, we should have plenty of offerings for the Heaven-Defying Grand Technique."
The conversation between Dang Baek-seon and the martial artists was devastating.
Myeonghwa nearly cried out without thinking, but somehow managed to clamp a hand over his mouth and choke the sound down.
Ever since hearing there was an internal collaborator, Myeonghwa had been watching the people of the Medical Hall with care. Among them, Dang Baek-seon had been the one closest to pure white — partly for his kindly bearing, and partly because he had poured himself into treating patients with genuine devotion as a physician. That was why Myeonghwa had never sensed a thing. To think he had been hiding a heart like that.
The way they talk about offerings, they mean to use the sleeping people for some kind of ritual or procedure. What do I do?
The only one who could move right now was Myeonghwa himself, and he had no weapon in hand. On top of that, the qi-dispersing poison was not fully purged yet, so circulating his inner energy was still difficult. Even if he risked his life on a surprise attack, he could handle one man at best. Taking down the remaining two in a single stroke was impossible. And if they took the people under the sleeping poison as hostages, he would be left utterly helpless.
Time was short as well. The moment they moved to transfer the offerings, the fact that Myeonghwa was awake would be exposed at once.
I have to decide as fast as I can.
Whether to flee alone and report that the Medical Hall had been seized — or to stand against them alone.
Just as Myeonghwa, after agonizing over it, was about to choose, a variable arose from outside.
"It's noisy out there."
"Of course it is. Formations sprang up out of nowhere and the experts got sealed off."
"No — this is a different kind of noise."
One of the spies reinforced his eyesight with inner energy and surveyed the situation outside. Sure enough, people were pouring into the grounds of the Sichuan Dang Family. Martial artists were escorting them, but the great majority were ordinary civilians.
"It's an evacuation column!"
"What, already? Then the assault team has already gone in?"
"No. Looking at how orderly they're moving, that doesn't seem right."
"The experts who should be commanding vanished in an instant. How did they gather people up in that short time and get them all the way to the Sichuan Dang Family estate?"
The unexpected development left the spies shaken.
Originally, people were supposed to thrash about in confusion under the sudden formation while the support force raced in, and the spies meant to carry out the Heaven-Defying Grand Technique in the chaos. But the civilians had fled into the Sichuan Dang Family before the support force could even arrive. At this rate, instead of a free-for-all brawl, it was far more likely to turn into a siege. Naturally, people would start coming to the Medical Hall seeking aid — and once that happened, the truth of the barely secured Medical Hall would come to light.
"What do you intend to do? If we stay like this, exposure is only a matter of time."
"Don't worry. I prepared a contingency for exactly this. The greatest advantage of the Heaven-Defying Grand Technique is that it can be performed anywhere so long as suitable offerings are ready."
"So we take only the minimum number needed for the ritual and get out. Understood."
They had prepared so thoroughly for this day, and still another variable had sprung up. Even so, Dang Baek-seon judged the situation coldly. If he clung to what he had prepared out of regret and failed to move in time, he might not even recover his stake — and if he could receive the Heaven-Defying Grand Technique, he could finally escape that loathsome Heavenly Affliction.
As for offerings to take, the physicians should be enough.
He had considered taking promising young disciples of the great sects as well, but judged it better to create a gap in personnel by carrying off every physician. Together with the spies, Dang Baek-seon began preparing to flee.
Watching them, Myeonghwa's eyes lit up.
This is my chance.
Because of the upheaval outside, they had decided to leave the Medical Hall. The number of people three men could move was limited. If he could only pin down their location properly, they could be taken in a single stroke.
So I'll trail them just like this.
If he let them escape now, it would clearly take time to catch them again. What might happen to those dragged away in the meantime, no one could know. Someone had to follow and leave a trail. It was a choice only Myeonghwa could make, able as he was to move quietly by adapting the Wind-Cloud Divine Form.
I'll leave a letter for the others.
While the men prepared to depart, Myeonghwa found paper and ink and scrawled a letter. He hid the finished note suitably in the sickroom where he had been, then began secretly trailing the three men as they moved with a cart in tow.
Cheonhwa joined forces with the people of the Sichuan Dang Family and the Nine Sects and One Gang to evacuate everyone into the estate. Of course, that was not the end of it. Evacuation was only the beginning.
First they needed to allocate personnel properly — those who would care for the evacuated, those who would stand watch around the estate, those who would investigate the formation, and more. The work that had to be done at once was endless.
"For now, the Sichuan Dang Family will take charge of settling things inside. Once we've put things in some order, we'll also lend a hand with the perimeter watch."
The Sichuan Dang Family side stepped forward first to care for the evacuated. Since they were on the Dang Family's own estate, those who knew the layout best were the right ones to divide and protect the people properly.
"Our Jegal Family wishes to take the lead in investigating the formation. We have some depth of learning in arts of this kind."
Next, the Jegal Family offered to examine the formation. Among the Five Great Noble Families their martial might might rank lower, but they were masters of every craft and scholarship, from formations to mechanical arrays. It was a choice worthy of the name Divine Mechanism Jegal.
With the Jegal Family at the fore, they were still recruiting people to go out and investigate the fog when a servant of the Sichuan Dang Family came running hard, whispered something to Dang Sowol, and handed her a sheet of paper. After checking its contents, Dang Sowol's face twisted as she spoke.
"…I am sorry, but it seems we will need to form one more team."
"What has happened?"
"It appears the Medical Hall nearly fell into enemy hands."
At that answer, the crowd reeled in shock. The Medical Hall held countless patients from the Nine Sects and One Gang all the way to the Five Great Noble Families. Having that place seized was no ordinary disaster.
"How in the world does the Dang Family manage its own house?!"
"In the middle of this chaos, a hole opens in the Medical Hall? Unbelievable."
"Damn it — my junior brother is there! I have to go check whether he's safe right now!"
Denunciations burst out from every side. For Dang Sowol — a direct descendant of the Dang Family and, at this moment, the Family Head's proxy — the words were bordering on outright rudeness. It was simply that their own kin or sect brothers and sisters were in danger, and reason had slipped for an instant.
As the atmosphere grew steadily uglier—
Crack!
A clap of hands laden with inner energy rang out like thunder. Every gaze snapped toward the source — and there stood none other than Cheonhwa.
"Everyone, please calm yourselves. It is not too late to hear Lady Dang Sowol through to the end before you judge."
At his words, the assembly fell quiet. These were not just anyone's words, but those of the martial artist who had defeated the Tyrant Dragon and the Heavenly Sword Dragon. On top of that, the aura he briefly unleashed cowed them into closing their mouths of their own accord.
Cheonhwa looked at Dang Sowol with a gaze that urged her to continue. Bolstered by that, she took up the words she had not finished.
"First, regarding the patients' condition: they have only lost consciousness to sleeping poison and qi-dispersing poison, and every one of them has been confirmed unharmed. The group that occupied the Medical Hall fled the moment we entered the Sichuan Dang Family grounds. At present, Daoist Myeonghwa of the Zhongnan Sect is said to be tracking them."
So saying, Dang Sowol showed everyone the letter Myeonghwa had left. At the mention of the Zhongnan Sect, eyes gathered on Cheonhwa once more. He could only feel bewildered; he had never expected Myeonghwa's name to come up here.
That was not the only shock. The letter Myeonghwa had left recorded that the internal collaborator was Dang Baek-seon, and that he had taken the Dang Family physicians with him for some kind of procedure.
"The pursuit of the traitor Dang Baek-seon will be led by the Sichuan Dang Family."
Dang Sowol stated her will without hesitation. The situation was chaotic enough already, and a traitor had emerged from her own house. For the sake of the Five Great Noble Families' dignity alone, the clan needed to handle it directly.
Senior brother Myeonghwa of my own sect is on the trail. Our school can't sit this out either.
Thinking that, Cheonhwa was about to step forward and declare that the Zhongnan Sect would join the pursuit as well—
KROOOOOAAAAAR!
A beast's roar rolled across the grounds. It echoed from far away, yet every sense in his body snapped taut under the threat of it. At that howl, every face present went rigid.
Right after, a martial artist of the Sichuan Dang Family burst in shouting.
"Disaster! Beyond the fog formation, a pack of unidentified fierce beasts has appeared! They're advancing in a straight line toward the inner citadel!"
The Dang Family martial artist reported what he had discovered while on watch. His deathly pale face and trembling voice were proof enough that what he had seen was grave.
"How large is the pack?"
"The fog makes identification difficult, but the number confirmed by eye alone exceeds a hundred. Among them are monstrous things more than twice the size of the rest."
The answer came at once to Dang Sowol's question. Where a host of beasts that size had come from, no one could say — but one thing was certain: they no longer had any margin left.
"We are out of time. Let us form the teams at once and move."
No one opposed Dang Sowol's words. Everyone knew every second counted. So the assignment of personnel proceeded swiftly.
A traitor-pursuit team centered on the Sichuan Dang Family. A formation-investigation team centered on the Jegal Family. And a beast-interception team centered on the remaining forces.
Naturally, the bulk of the numbers concentrated on the interception team — and Cheonhwa, along with the rest of the Zhongnan Sect, was assigned there as well. In his heart he wanted to join the traitor-pursuit team to help Myeonghwa, but stopping the beasts' assault was more urgent. If they failed to hold the line, the people of Dang-ga-ta in the inner citadel would be slaughtered to the last.
Senior brother Myeonghwa — please, stay safe.
Inwardly fretting over Myeonghwa's safety, Cheonhwa headed outside the inner citadel with his sect brothers. Through the milky fog he could make out the shadows of countless animals closing the distance toward them — a scale that would indeed have made the sentries go pale with dread.
Among the animal shapes were human shadows as well. Upper bodies draped in beast hides called mountain bandits to mind. Those, no doubt, were the ones driving the beast pack in an assault on the Sichuan Dang Family.
While the martial artists kept their eyes fixed on the beasts and the raiders, someone spoke in a trembling voice.
"Those… those look like martial artists of the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace."