Chapter 165
Chapter 165
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 165
Chapter Title: Tag
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Black Cicada shouted.
"You are Three-Eyed Buddha...!"
"You? What an ill-mannered bastard."
Three-Eyed Buddha struck the top of Black Cicada's head.
Thud. An excessively loud sound echoed out, one that hardly seemed to come from a human skull.
Black Cicada nearly lost his life right then and there, but Three-Eyed Buddha eased up at the last moment, allowing him to avoid a broken neck.
Three-Eyed Buddha let out a sigh of relief.
'That was close. Almost killed him.'
Three-Eyed Buddha wasn't accustomed to pressure points, so sealing the acupoints of someone like Black Cicada wasn't an easy task.
But as a reflexive action, it had worked without him needing to fumble around trying to hit the points. A good outcome.
'That said, why is this guy here?'
In truth, Three-Eyed Buddha hadn't known the person on his roof was Black Cicada and caught him on purpose.
Three-Eyed Buddha had just gone to bed a little earlier.
And right as he was about to drift off, he sensed a faint presence on the roof and woke up.
Even considering the whole of Chengdu, Namgung Myeong was the only one who practiced martial arts and roamed roofs at night. Naturally, Three-Eyed Buddha assumed Namgung Myeong had returned to Chengdu.
That was the simple reason he grabbed the man's ankle and yanked him down. His sleepiness had fled thanks to the presence, so he figured he'd play a little prank.
But the one dragged down wasn't Namgung Myeong.
In fact, it was someone he could roughly guess at.
The attire, the inaction. No matter how he looked, it seemed like one of Nightshade Lord's underlings.
Three-Eyed Buddha scratched his bristly hair.
If Soul-Shaking Elder had been there, he'd have instantly figured out why this guy was here, but Soul-Shaking Elder was wandering the Central Plains.
Instead, Three-Eyed Buddha stepped outside and looked around. The two Demonic Cult followers had come from the cult and were wiping blood from their swords on the assassins' corpses.
Three-Eyed Buddha asked.
"Who are those guys?"
"They seem to be assassins. We thought it was Namgung Myeong and went out to grab him, but it wasn't, so we cut them down."
People's thoughts were all much the same, it seemed. Three-Eyed Buddha clicked his tongue.
"Everything's fine, but don't accidentally slash Namgung Myeong by mistake."
"We have eyes, so we won't mix that up. Anyway, what should we do with the corpses? It's been so long since we killed anyone."
"Bury them in some deserted mountain. They're in black uniforms and killed with a single stroke, so even if discovered, there won't be much gossip, but it's better to avoid any hassle."
"Understood."
The two Demonic Cult swordsmen dragged the corpses away somewhere, and Three-Eyed Buddha returned to his house.
Then he slapped the cheek of the still limp Black Cicada. Slap!
Black Cicada woke up with a bewildered expression.
Black Cicada couldn't comprehend the situation, merely rolling his eyes about.
'...Was that just a dream?'
Of course, he'd thought it was a nightmare. Peak experts popping out one from each of three rundown houses, and a transcendent expert from the fourth? Ridiculous.
The biggest problem was that this was reality.
He'd been utterly unlucky. It might've even been more likely for lightning to strike and ruin things.
'...Is this place some kind of demon den?'
Even more incomprehensible was that the transcendent expert was Three-Eyed Buddha. Wasn't he the one who'd tried to drag Dang Mujin off to the Demonic Cult?
It was odd enough that Dang Mujin had escaped the Demonic Cult unscathed, but Three-Eyed Buddha living next door to the Dang Clinic was even harder to fathom.
Black Cicada racked his brains busily. But the situation was so surreal that nothing came to mind no matter how he thought.
In the end, Black Cicada had only one course of action. To prostrate himself flat to preserve his life.
"Three-Eyed Buddha, sir. Please spare my life."
"Hmm. Begging for your life right away like that. Does that mean you came here with intentions dirty enough to warrant begging for your life?"
As Three-Eyed Buddha seized on that, Black Cicada paled in fright.
"That's not what I meant...!"
"Quiet."
Three-Eyed Buddha's fist slammed into the top of Black Cicada's head once more. Thud.
Blood trickled from Black Cicada's nose as he went limp again. Three-Eyed Buddha bound him tightly with rope and hung him from the eaves, pondering.
'I don't know what's going on, but it might be best to show him to Dang Mujin.'
Three-Eyed Buddha went back to bed.
*
It took seven days and nights for Dang Mujin's group to leave Liangyang and return to Chengdu.
Hyeon-gong glanced around busily while pretending not to.
Hubei—especially around Wudang Mountain—had no city as large as Chengdu. Compared to Liangyang, the largest nearby, Chengdu was at least five times bigger.
'Not an ordinary clinic. For it to be the most reputable clinic family in a city this size, it's not bad at all.'
As the four trudged through Chengdu, a familiar face appeared from afar.
It was Yellow Spirit Master, the branch leader of the Qingcheng Chengdu Branch.
Yellow Spirit Master approached Dang Mujin and spoke.
"I heard you went out of town on business. Coming back now?"
"Yes, sir."
"You've had it rough. I'll send Jin Song later, so if you have any zhi qu zi, bring a handful. I need to decoct it and drink it little by little."
"I'll bring it personally, so no need to send anyone."
"That would be appreciated. See you later."
As the brief exchange ended, Hyeon-gong observed Yellow Spirit Master closely. The robes. The bearing. And considerable skill. No mistaking it—a Qingcheng Daoist.
Once Yellow Spirit Master left, Hyeon-gong approached Dang Mujin and asked.
"He seems like a Qingcheng Daoist. What's he doing in Chengdu?"
"Yellow Spirit Master, sir? He's the leader of the Qingcheng Chengdu Branch."
"Hmm. You two seemed quite close."
"The Dang Clinic has deep ties with Qingcheng originally. We've served as physicians right next to their branch for generations."
Hyeon-gong nodded. Not a Daoist of Qingcheng himself, but indirectly connected, wasn't he?
'One point added.'
After walking a bit along the wall of the Qingcheng Chengdu Branch, the Dang Clinic came into view.
However, it failed to capture Hyeon-gong's attention. Not because he wasn't curious about the Dang Clinic. There was something even more concerning.
There were an unusually high number of martial artists around the Dang Clinic's civilian homes.
The one spreading aged rice in the sun to pick out rice weevils and pebbles was a first-rate expert, and the one sitting on the porch next door twisting cords was a peak expert. They didn't even look like Qingcheng Daoists.
'Anyone can see something's off.'
There was no reason for experts who'd surpassed the peak wall to live in such ordinary homes.
With that level of skill, they could settle in any decent city, establish a sect, gather a few disciples, and strut around.
Even the most prominent sect in Liangyang, the Great Righteousness Sword Sect, had a previous sect leader at peak level, but the current one was merely first-rate, wasn't it?
Moreover, they kept glancing at Dang Mujin repeatedly. Not warily, but as if on friendly terms.
Finally, unable to hold back his curiosity, Hyeon-gong asked.
"Who are those people? They don't seem like Qingcheng Daoists."
Dang Mujin hesitated a moment. How should he introduce them?
Demonic Cult remnants? Demonic Cult escapees? No phrasing sounded good.
In the end, Dang Mujin mumbled vaguely.
"Somehow, they ended up living around our house. Just neighbors."
"Ah... I see. Neighbors."
Clearly, a great deal of information had been omitted, but Hyeon-gong wasn't in a position to pry into Dang Mujin's affairs. He'd learn such things naturally while staying at the Dang Clinic anyway.
As the four entered the Dang Clinic, a woman who had been dozing off in one corner of the courtyard jumped to her feet.
Her skin was tanned, her eyes sparkled brightly. And she somehow resembled Dang Mujin.
Hyeon-gong's eyes gleamed.
'Dang Mujin's younger sister? Brother-in-law gets three points added.'
The next moment, the woman rushed to Dang Mujin and wrapped her arms around his waist.
"I told you to come back within a month, but you filled the whole month on purpose? I was worried you'd be late again."
"Sorry. I tried to come earlier, but unexpected things kept happening."
Dang Mujin, unashamed of the onlookers, spread his arms and hugged Dan Seolyeong tightly.
It didn't look at all like a brother embracing his sister, so Hyeon-gong deducted three points from Dang Mujin again. All things returned to their proper place.
Dan Seolyeong asked.
"Is the work all done?"
"Mostly."
"Can you tell me what happened?"
"Now?"
"Of course now. Shall we go to the annex and talk slowly?"
"Yeah, probably should."
As the short exchange ended, Namgung Myeong and Hong Geolgae spat in disgust.
Ignoring their reactions, just as Dang Mujin took Dan Seolyeong's hand firmly to head to the annex, someone spoke from outside the clinic. A booming voice.
"Dang Mujin! Before you go in, talk with me a bit."
"Ah, yes. Coming right now."
Dan Seolyeong crossed her arms with great displeasure.
Beyond the Dang Clinic's low wall stood a massive man.
The massive man asked Dang Mujin.
"That young man beside you is new. Who is he?"
"He's Hyeon-gong from Wudang Sect."
"Every time you go out of town, you pick up people so well."
"It just ended up that way."
"Well, I can't say much. I'm one of those people too. Haha!"
The most confused person in this situation was Hyeon-gong.
The massive man's appearance outside the Dang Clinic was far too distinctive.
This was Hyeon-gong's first time leaving Hubei. But he couldn't not know Three-Eyed Buddha's looks.
There was only one monk in the world with gray skin, countless scars, and a gigantic build.
Moreover, Three-Eyed Buddha spoke to Dang Mujin with great familiarity.
Hyeon-gong fell into deep thought. Three-Eyed Buddha was one of the greatest demonic heads in the world.
Was familiarity with a demonic head a plus or a minus?
'This place is weird in all sorts of ways.'
Hyeon-gong stopped thinking.
*
Following behind Three-Eyed Buddha, Dang Mujin discovered a man bound tightly and hung from the eaves, passed out. An unfamiliar face.
He had been hanging there for quite some time, his limbs deprived of blood flow, making his hands look not just dark red but pitch black.
"Who is this?"
"A few days ago, this guy climbed onto my roof."
"...Isn't that too harsh for a petty thief?"
"No. He was in black robes with a mask. Hard to tell now that he's out, but his skills are decent enough. And look at this."
Three-Eyed Buddha tore open the man's upper garment, exposing his chest. A vivid black butterfly tattoo was visible.
"My guess is he's one of Nightshade Lord's men."
Dang Mujin recalled the Nightshade Lord subordinate he'd encountered recently.
Though it had been a dark night and he was in black robes, the build was similar to this man's, and the slightly upturned eye corners resembled a bit.
Dang Mujin took a deep breath and swung his sword.
The rope suspending the man snapped, and he rolled pathetically onto the ground.
The man let out a gurgling sound, then sluggishly raised his body.
He slowly massaged his numb limbs, which lacked circulation, and looked around.
Then, the moment he saw Dang Mujin's face, his entire body stiffened.
Dang Mujin bared his white teeth in a grin.
Dang Mujin wasn't one to smile little to begin with. But this smile was a bit different from usual. The last time he'd smiled like this was when he'd entered the Je Yeon Baek family estate and killed Baek Chaseo.
Unlike when killing other assassins, an intense thrill and excitement he could barely contain surged through his body.
Black Cicada pointed at Dang Mujin.
"You, you!"
"We met recently, right? Nice to see you."
Yes. Learning the Taiji Sword and heading straight back to Chengdu had been the best decision.
No sword art was better suited for piercing this guy's heart than Heart-Piercing Sword.
Dang Mujin's hand trembled faintly. He wanted to punch a hole through his heart right then.
But ending it so simply would be a waste. Dang Mujin raised his sword and deeply stabbed both of Black Cicada's thighs.
The poison released from Dang Mujin's body flowed through the sword into Black Cicada's.
Dang Mujin took a step back.
"Hey, you know tag? Run away with all your might."