Surgery Without Anesthesia
Jeong Je-ho nodded at Jin Mun-su’s words, his expression showing complete agreement.
“Then it’s settled. But why call for her now?”
It was both a surprising and strangely fascinating story.
The thought came from the simple fact that the leader had never been particularly fond of the Fairy.
It wasn’t that their relationship was bad.
Only that the Fairy’s obsession with the leader had been unusually intense, and the leader had found that fixation burdensome. That was the root of the problem.
They could trust each other with their backs in the heat of battle, yet a subtly awkward current always flowed between them because of it.
Jeong Je-ho let out a low groan and folded his arms.
Looking back, it really was puzzling.
Just by appearance alone, no beauty in the world could surpass the Fairy, yet he had rejected her? As a man, that couldn’t have been easy.
If a woman like the Fairy became obsessed with him, Jeong Je-ho was confident he would fall head over heels in half the time it took to blink.
Hook, line, and sinker.
Jin Mun-su spoke up.
“I don’t know why he called her. It’s true the captain found the Fairy’s full madwoman mode a little burdensome, though… Could it be that his heart has changed after all this time? Why not? Only a block of wood or a Buddha statue could refuse a beauty like that.”
“Hahaha. Maybe so.”
“Hehehe. Well, even I couldn’t stop my heart from fluttering every time I saw the Fairy. Even knowing full well she was a madwoman.”
“Weren’t you the one who said we shouldn’t call her that?”
“Hahaha. I must have lost my mind for a second there.”
Jeong Je-ho and Jin Mun-su traded jokes and burst into laughter.
But the laughter didn’t last long.
A bitter smile soon replaced it.
Whatever the truth was, or however things had turned out, the two heroes who had shone brightest during the most turbulent days since the Nameless Unit’s founding were gone.
The bitter smiles came from the way that fact quietly shook their hearts.
Still, time in the Nameless Unit moved on regardless.
And like it or not, they were the Emperor’s personal shadow organization—the Nameless Unit.
Forever.
One of Hangzhou’s three great inns, the Dragon Gate Inn.
The Sapa expert Ju Chi-hoon was drinking.
With a thoroughly displeased look on his face.
The five men sitting with him wore nearly identical expressions.
One of them roughly drained his cup and slammed it down on the table with a loud crack.
“Brother Ju, are we really just going to sit here and take this? The man who used to rule all of Hangzhou—Brother Yu—is running around the market these days carrying chickens and fish. He’s smearing mud all over Sapa’s face!”
“Shut your mouth. If you don’t think you can beat Brother Yu, keep it closed. Even if Yu Sucheon walks around with fish in his hands, he’s still the greatest expert in Hangzhou.”
“Aish, damn it! Just what the hell is that man thinking, acting like this!”
He didn’t say it out loud, but Ju Chi-hoon felt the same frustration.
He and Yu Sucheon had planned many ventures together.
Dark businesses in the black-society style—exactly the kind of work Sapa men were suited for.
But ever since Yu Sucheon changed, nothing had gone right.
If he had simply retired quietly, they might have let it go.
These days they say he even chats with the market aunties about which vegetables are freshest.
If the Heavenly Lord of the Saheol Alliance heard that, he would faint on the spot.
It was a story that had nearly made Ju Chi-hoon faint as well. The man reeked of domestic life.
The same went for the former Guryong Sect boss Jeon Akgwan.
Their close relationship had been essential for business, yet that crazy bastard was now walking around the market asking people how to pluck chicken feathers properly.
Son of a bitch.
That wasn’t the life of Sapa.
It wasn’t the life of the black path, either.
Living freely and doing whatever one wanted—that was what it meant to be Sapa.
They would never live like Yu Sucheon and Jeon Akgwan.
That firm vow went down the hatch along with the liquor.
Creak.
At that moment, someone entered the inn.
Normally he wouldn’t have cared who walked through the door.
This time, however, he couldn’t look away.
Beau… beautiful!
His eyes widened.
His face flushed red.
Suzhou and Hangzhou were said to be home to the greatest beauties in the Central Plains.
This was Hangzhou, yet he had never seen a woman like her.
No—if it was only about a pretty face, there were women who came close.
But this woman’s beauty was something else entirely.
A clear, pure energy wrapped around her, and somehow she gave off the feeling of warm sunlight.
Slender height and figure, with a small, delicate face.
On that tiny face sat large, painting-like eyes, a high nose bridge, and lips like ripe cherries.
Yes.
This woman was a fairy straight out of a masterpiece painted by a famous artist.
And her voice! Even the way she ordered from the waiter sounded like jade beads rolling across a plate.
“Hangzhou is famous for its stir-fried shrimp in clear oil, isn’t it? I’ll have that and a bowl of somen noodles, please.”
One of the men sitting with Ju Chi-hoon let out a heavy breath the moment he heard her voice.
Get that face out of the way. His breath was reaching all the way over here.
“Huk… huk. Brother Ju, I can’t hold back anymore. That woman is mine.”
“Even cold water has an order. Since when does the youngest get to reach first?”
Ju Chi-hoon picked up the wine bottle and cup and moved to the table across from her.
The woman looked at him with slightly dazed eyes.
With a sly grin, Ju Chi-hoon sat down heavily at her table.
He offered her a cup and spoke in a voice thick with grease.
“Western Phoenix Wine. A fine liquor.”
“I don’t like that kind of drink.”
“Hahaha, no need to be so guarded. My name is Ju Chi-hoon.”
“I’m not used to talking with men, so it’s uncomfortable. Naturally, I won’t be giving you my name either.”
“Oh?”
Uncomfortable talking with men? A woman with pure, untouched innocence! His interest grew by the second.
Playing with and corrupting an innocent girl like this was its own kind of pleasure.
For that, he first needed to look impressive.
“I am a top expert of Hangzhou’s Sapa. I was once considered second only to a fool named Yu Sucheon, but after he started acting like an idiot, I became the greatest expert in Hangzhou’s Sapa. And because my martial prowess is outstanding, many people follow me.”
“How impressive. But I’m not interested.”
“Really? Women who like me form lines. Yet out of all those countless women, you are the only one who has caught my eye.”
Wow.
It was cheesy, but the line was solid.
There were ways to handle rejection.
Ju Chi-hoon reached out and took the woman’s hand.
The hand he gripped was delicate and lovely.
He could feel the five men watching with faces twisted in jealousy.
If you’re so upset, you should have become the big brother yourselves.
“Please let go of my hand.”
“I may be the greatest expert in Hangzhou’s Sapa, but I’m not a frightening man. However… if you keep refusing me, I might become a little scary. Why don’t we start with a drink?”
“I only came to eat and leave.”
“Are you truly wishing for me to become a terrifying man blinded by love for you?”
Ju Chi-hoon raised his internal energy.
Even a tiny amount would make the woman feel fear.
After that she would turn into a gentle lamb who obeyed his every word.
The pleasure of tormenting a trembling maiden! That taste—he could never forget it, even in death.
But soon Ju Chi-hoon’s eyes narrowed.
The woman was still smiling like warm sunlight and showed no sign of fear.
What was going on?
As he wondered, the hand he had been gripping slipped smoothly away.
Ju Chi-hoon gave a sinister smile.
So she knows martial arts. How pathetic.
She was exactly his favorite type.
Women who learned a little martial arts and thought they no longer needed to fear the world.
With their noses in the air, acting as if they were the strongest in the Central Plains.
The joy of breaking women like that and decorating his room with them like flower arrangements!
I’ll make you cry until your eyes are swollen.
The tears that fell after their pride was shattered were always crystal clear.
And once they broke completely and became obedient, he would lose all interest and throw them away.
A woman whose self-respect had hit rock bottom held no appeal.
What he needed wasn’t a wife but a toy.
Ju Chi-hoon raised his internal energy even further.
This time with the clear message: Let’s see if you can endure this.
Suddenly the woman’s movements stopped.
Her pupils had shrunk dramatically; she was clearly terrified.
As expected.
In the blink of an eye, Ju Chi-hoon’s outstretched hand shot forward to seize her wrist.
Thud!
Ju Chi-hoon stared at his own hand with wide, unblinking eyes.
A chopstick had pierced straight through his wrist and pinned it to the table.
There had clearly been no chopsticks in front of the woman.
The waiter hadn’t brought any yet.
Ju Chi-hoon remembered the afterimage he had glimpsed and his eyes widened.
This chopstick had come from the next table.
It had suddenly flown through the air and ended up in the woman’s hand.
Air… Air Grasping?
Could that be possible?
Air Grasping was a technique only the highest experts could use.
There was no way this woman had done it.
Yet this chopstick was definitely his.
It still had traces of the sweet-and-sour pork he had been eating.
Hahaha.
What kind of nightmare was this? The woman spoke.
“Your habit of gripping the sword is flawed. Because of it, chronic inflammation has been digging into the nerves in your wrist. You must have felt a stinging pain there every time you used martial arts.”
His breath caught in his throat.
How could she know that?
Why was a secret he had hidden so carefully pouring so easily from this woman’s lips?
Even Air Grasping was shocking enough.
Crash!
The five men who saw the chopstick embedded in Ju Chi-hoon’s wrist shot to their feet.
The sound of chairs clattering to the floor echoed through the inn.
“You crazy bitch! You think you’ll live after pulling something like this? Boys, grab that wench right now!”
One of the five—Ju Chi-hoon’s closest subordinate—shouted.
In an instant, four men surrounded the woman.
At the same moment, dozens of large needles flew from her sleeve.
Swish, swish, swish!
“Kyaaak!”
“Keok! What the hell is this!”
“Uwaaaak!”
Before they realized it, needles were embedded all over their bodies.
They hadn’t even seen her move, yet the needles had already found the exact spots that always ached, piercing straight into their acupoints.
“The one who looks like a wild dog has a terrible pancreas. You with the slit eyes and panda-like dark circles—your liver is in bad shape. The one who looks like a carp has chronic knee problems. The fat one at the end has an elbow issue, and the one who looks like a jiangshi… well, you’re a complete disaster.”
“Huk? Even so, isn’t ‘complete disaster’ going a bit far?”
She had pinpointed their exact ailments.
The one she called a complete disaster had the most needles sticking out of him.
Whoosh.
The woman’s hair suddenly began to flutter wildly.
Ju Chi-hoon and the five men swallowed hard.
This was insane.
Overwhelming internal energy.
It spread through her body and surged outward like rage, flowing across her entire being.
Her hair rose and fell like furious waves in response.
Pop.
The button holding her skirt hem in place came undone.
The skirt fluttered, revealing her thighs completely.
Her pupils had shrunk even smaller.
And now even those pupils were turning blood-red.
The woman who had looked like a fairy descended from the heavens had transformed into a witch radiating a terrifying aura.
She smiled and spoke.
“Hehe… You all seem to be in quite a bit of pain. How would you like me to perform the surgery? Ah, it might hurt a little, but don’t worry too much. Surgery without anesthesia is my specialty, so you won’t die.”
They flinched.
That laugh.
That tone.
Having experienced it directly, despair flooded the eyes of Ju Chi-hoon and his subordinates.
They realized it too late.
Th-that isn’t a fairy.
A w-witch… No, a madwoman…
It was the Madwoman!
Even with her hair fluttering wildly and her impression grown fierce, her appearance still evoked a fairy from the immortal realm, but she was unmistakably insane.
Offering to perform surgery without anesthesia on perfectly healthy people?
Even if such things were somewhat common in this era, they were only done on patients who actually needed it.
They were slightly uncomfortable, but they didn’t require surgery.
No—beyond that.
Ju Chi-hoon and his men were not her patients.
They were her enemies.
Yet she was going to perform surgery on them? What kind of surgery? What exactly was she planning to do?
Crack.
As they trembled in fear, the woman approached, lightly cracking her fingers, and said,
“Ah, but it’s probably better if I don’t tell you that I tend to make mistakes when I get angry, right? Hehe.”
Then don’t tell us!
As they stared in horror, the woman’s “surgery” was performed across their entire bodies.