Chapter 7
Chapter 7
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 7
Chapter Title: Unraveling
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This life…
At Byeok Taesan’s command, Cheon Gyeongwan left the dungeon and stood guard at the entrance.
He focused most of his senses on the interior of the dungeon.
He was fully prepared to dash inside at a moment's notice should anything happen.
To that end, he continuously channeled his internal energy into his legs and shoulders.
Constantly expending internal energy was not an easy task, but it was better than something happening to Byeok Taesan.
Besides, wasn't Byeok Taesan in a state where he could die at any moment?
His meridians were severed. Severely so.
Dozens of renowned physicians had examined Byeok Taesan over the years.
Strangely, each of their diagnoses was different. But they all agreed on one thing: his meridians were severed.
Combining the physicians' findings, Byeok Taesan's condition was so severe that it was a miracle he was still alive.
So how could he not be worried?
In truth, Cheon Gyeongwan had never believed the saying that all those with severed meridians were geniuses.
The living proof of that was Byeok Taesan himself.
But he was wrong. He had been arrogant. Those with severed meridians were indeed geniuses. The kind of genius who could shatter a solid wall with a single passing remark.
As he focused all his attention on the dungeon's interior, a monstrous scream erupted from within.
“Kuaaaaaaaargh!”
It was an utterly harrowing scream.
Cheon Gyeongwan shuddered involuntarily. This was no ordinary scream.
It was a true scream, torn from the very depths of the soul.
“Ugh! Argh! Kuaaaaaaaargh!”
The screams that followed were just as dreadful.
*Is this what a death rattle sounds like?*
That was what Cheon Gyeongwan thought. He imagined he would let out such a scream at the moment of his own death.
Listening to it, his legs began to tremble.
‘What in the world is the Young Master… doing?’
Could simple torture elicit such a scream? From that vicious bastard?
The man hadn't let out a single groan under Cheon Gyeongwan's torture.
Perhaps Cheon Gyeongwan's methods were clumsy, but they weren't so light as to not even warrant a groan.
What could possibly be done to make such a harrowing scream erupt from that man's lips?
“Kuaaaaaaaargh!”
The screaming continued. It wasn’t a short burst that would then stop.
It was truly relentless.
He was worried the man’s throat would rip apart.
Time continued to pass. Two hours, four hours…
The screaming finally stopped after seven hours.
Incredibly, it had continued until then.
If a person screams like that for so long, their voice should grow hoarse and crack until no sound can come out.
But the man inside had screamed for a full seven hours without his voice growing the least bit hoarse or cracked.
A short while later, Byeok Taesan emerged.
“Are you alright, Young Master?”
Instead of answering, Byeok Taesan glanced back toward the dungeon.
“Go untie him.”
“Pardon?”
Byeok Taesan said no more and walked away, as if he had no desire to repeat himself.
Cheon Gyeongwan scurried into the dungeon.
The man lay collapsed on the dungeon floor, exhausted.
Cheon Gyeongwan first shook him awake.
“Hey, hey.”
He must have been tortured somehow, yet there were no marks on his body.
Not a single scratch. In fact, his skin was smooth and supple.
“Nnngh.”
The man slowly opened his eyes. But his gaze was clouded. It was like looking at a madman.
That wasn't all.
“Huh?”
Cheon Gyeongwan jumped back in shock.
The man’s skin seemed to slide right off. No, that’s just what it looked like.
Upon closer inspection, it was fine.
But something had clearly happened. He wouldn't have had such an illusion for no reason.
“Ughhh!”
The man made an unintelligible sound.
Cheon Gyeongwan first released his acupoints, but he remained on guard.
There was no telling what the man would do once his acupoints were freed.
But once released, the man simply flailed his limbs.
He seemed like someone who was mentally deficient.
“Hey, are you okay?”
The man didn't respond to Cheon Gyeongwan’s question and staggered to his feet.
“Ughhh.”
Making a sound that only a simpleton would, the man began to walk with heavy steps.
Cheon Gyeongwan opened all the doors in his path to let him pass.
The man left the dungeon. He then walked out of the Golden Jade Manor and kept going.
Cheon Gyeongwan hesitated for a moment before following him.
He felt he should at least know where the man was going.
He didn't have to go far.
The man’s destination was the Fragrant Flower Pavilion.
***
Byeok Taesan returned to his room and mulled over what had just happened.
At first, he had been pleased. A soul so corrupted would surely have much to offer.
He was in high spirits even as he extracted the soul and began to strip away and burn the filth clinging to it.
A truly immense power was being absorbed into him.
It would have been great to assimilate it immediately, but his current body would collapse, so he had no choice but to store it inside himself.
To burn meant to purify.
The energy that remained in Byeok Taesan’s body was an incredibly pure power, left after burning and purifying the soul.
But problems began to arise when he was about halfway through.
The man had lived too filthy a life. His soul was too terribly contaminated.
With the courtesans, once their tainted spiritual energy was removed, only purity remained.
But this man was different.
The impure spiritual energy had clung so tightly to his original soul that it had begun to assimilate.
The Soul-Devouring Demonic Arts was a technique that ground down entire souls before burning them to extract power.
Naturally, it was powerful enough to tear off the soul itself if impure spiritual energy had assimilated with it.
So that’s what he did.
As he stripped away the impure spiritual energy, he tore away a part of the soul along with it.
He felt no need for a shred of sympathy for a man who had lived such a life.
The problem was the man's pure soul that had been torn away with it.
Byeok Taesan had discarded it cleanly.
After burning and purifying it with the Soul-Devouring Demonic Arts, he simply let the original, pure soul dissipate.
Hadn't he already experienced it in his past life? The tremendous side effects that pure soul fragments brought.
Moreover, if he were to absorb that power into this trash-like body, he wouldn't even survive a few hours before his body exploded.
Byeok Taesan raised a hand, clenching and unclenching his fist as he observed his inner state.
“Dangerous.”
Even after purifying and releasing it, a minuscule fragment of the soul had mixed in.
In fact, it was such a trace amount that it was almost embarrassing to say it had mixed in.
No, it was merely a faint trace.
But that alone made the absorbed power incredibly violent.
If this were to be repeated, the side effects would likely accumulate without him realizing it, until one day they would erupt.
Byeok Taesan shook his head.
There was only one way. He had to endlessly purify and repurify the stored power before his body could absorb it.
He had to burn away every last trace.
Byeok Taesan’s expression twisted slightly.
“I was careless.”
The power he gained from purifying Danyeong’s soul had made him complacent.
He had never expected that if the contamination was advanced enough, it would mix with the soul like this.
Still, it was a good thing he discovered it at this stage.
If he had done the same thing to a demonic arts practitioner, the side effects might have manifested the moment he stored the power.
“Well then… there’s no other way.”
He had to go to the brothel.
It seemed this life was destined to smell of powder instead of blood.
***
“M-Mistress. I think you should come see this.”
The Mistress of the Fragrant Flower Pavilion glared for a moment at the man who had burst into her room without a sound.
He was another of her capable subordinates. A bit—no, a lot—less capable than the one who was captured.
“What is it?”
“B-Big Brother has returned.”
“What?”
There was only one person he would call Big Brother.
The Mistress’s face twisted into a scowl. She should be denying any connection, so what was he doing showing up here?
And in broad daylight, no less.
“Who saw him?”
“It’s not a matter of who saw him. Everyone is watching him right now.”
“What?”
The Mistress shot up from her seat.
“Are you in your right mind?”
“I don’t think he is, which is why I asked you to come out.”
The Mistress frowned at the insolence in the man’s tone.
*‘These bastards… are they trying to challenge me?’*
But she had no choice for now. With a cold expression, she left the room.
She hurried toward the entrance of the Fragrant Flower Pavilion, where he was said to be.
When she saw him standing in front of the door, the Mistress froze.
And she understood everything the man had just said.
Her cherished subordinate was standing there. But he did not look well.
He couldn't even stand straight. He stood in an awkward posture, staring blankly in her direction, his eyes so clouded that anyone could tell he was not in his right mind.
“Ughhh.”
And the sound coming from his mouth. What on earth had he been through to end up in such a state?
“What should we do?”
Her subordinate, standing beside her, asked. His eyes, too, were filled with confusion.
It was only natural for his composure to be shaken, seeing the man he had served as his superior and big brother in such a state.
“What do you mean, what should we do? Bring him inside, of course.”
At that moment, he made an unintelligible sound and twisted his head. With a sound like bones snapping, his head lolled to the side.
“What are you doing! Hurry!”
At the Mistress’s shout, the subordinate who had been staring blankly at the scene finally moved. He supported the man and brought him inside. They took him to the Mistress’s room.
Once the man was in her room, the Mistress stared at him quietly. She wanted to help him regain at least a sliver of his sanity before finding out what had happened.
She needed to know something to decide how to proceed.
“Stimulate his acupoints to help him regain his senses.”
“What? If it goes wrong, he could become a complete simpleton.”
Annoyance crept onto the Mistress’s face.
“From what I can see, he’s already there. Isn’t it better to at least try?”
The subordinate hesitated for a moment, then shook his head as if he had no choice and approached the man he once called Big Brother.
He lightly stimulated a few acupoints leading to the back of the head.
But at that moment, as if it had been waiting, the man’s body began to collapse.
“Ughhhhhh!”
Skin slid off in sheets, and bones and muscles crumbled with dull thuds.
The Mistress watched the scene with horrified eyes.
“Wh-what is this! What in the world is happening!”
The collapsing man’s eyes met hers directly.
As their eyes met, all the blood drained from the Mistress’s face.
He was coming toward her, one step at a time.
The Mistress’s mind went blank. She couldn't think. There was only fear and terror.
And then, very naturally, one person’s face came to mind.
‘Byeok Taesan!’
Finally snapping back to her senses, the Mistress pointed a finger at him. Her finger was trembling violently.
“Wh-what are you doing! Get rid of it, now!”
Her frantic shout finally spurred the subordinate, who had been staring blankly at the scene, into action.
But there was no need for him to move. Just as the man reached the Mistress, his body completely disintegrated and scattered across the floor.
The Mistress’s legs gave out, and she collapsed to the floor. She struggled to calm her trembling body.
Fear kept welling up from deep within.
“What should I do?”
The subordinate, who had witnessed everything, asked with a grim expression.
“Wh-what else? Cl-clean it up properly.”
“Understood.”
“Ah, and.”
The subordinate, who was about to leave, paused and looked back at the Mistress.
“Wh-what is Danyeong doing now?”
“Weren’t we supposed to hand her over to the Red Dragon Gang Leader today? She is getting ready.”
Of course, Danyeong was unaware of this fact.
The Red Dragon Gang was one of the more influential underworld factions in the city.
Its leader, Wi Jeokshim, was a regular at the Fragrant Flower Pavilion.
By chance, he had seen Danyeong that morning.
He had never paid her any mind before, but he couldn't ignore the Danyeong he saw that morning.
Wi Jeokshim had fallen for her at first sight.
No, to be precise, it wasn’t that he had fallen for her, but an overwhelming desire to trample on Danyeong’s pure image had surged within him.
He felt as if something terrible would happen if he couldn't satisfy that desire.
Recently, a few other courtesans at the Fragrant Flower Pavilion had given off a similar feeling, but it had never been this intense.
The courtesans who had regained their purity thanks to Byeok Taesan had been continuously stimulating Wi Jeokshim’s desire, and Danyeong had made it explode.
Danyeong would surely be broken if she went to Wi Jeokshim.
But the Mistress hadn't hesitated in arranging the matter.
That was how she felt until this morning.
But now, things had changed.
“Cancel it.”
“Pardon?”
“I said, cancel it.”
The man couldn't answer and simply stared at the Mistress. He could fully understand her feelings.
He would have probably made the same decision himself.
But looking at it from a step back, he couldn't possibly support the decision she had just made.
“The Red Dragon Gang will not stand for this.”
The Red Dragon Gang Leader, Wi Jeokshim, would use any means necessary to utterly destroy the Fragrant Flower Pavilion.
The Mistress shook her head.
“Send Danyeong to the Golden Jade Manor. Right now.”
Only then did the man nod.
It was a ploy to redirect the focus of Wi Jeokshim’s anger from the Fragrant Flower Pavilion to the Golden Jade Trading Company—no, to Byeok Taesan.
*‘Will… Wi Jeokshim really fall for this?’*
He was skeptical, but for now, there seemed to be no other way.
Finally, the man bowed his head to the Mistress.
“I will do as you command.”