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Chapter 53 - Escape (2)
Everyone was shocked by my use of the word spy. Their reaction was natural as I said that the second disciple of the second elder, Seo Kalma, was a spy.
And Seo Kalma was one of the Four Venerable Dignitaries. He looked at me with eyes filled with anger.
“Do you even know what you are saying? A spy?”
The feeling of intimidation wasn’t normal. My heart was beating fast making me anxious but I didn’t lose my composure.
“Why is the bell ringing now?”
It was Baek Ryeon-ha who answered those words.
“Hundreds of people appeared near the mountains, possibly warriors. And those who looked like scouts had entered the mountain region. They aren’t far from the sect.”
This was expected. The role of the scouts was to check around. Since Go Eunjae was a spy the scent that he threw around needed to be tracked. These scouts would surely find this location eventually.
If they are near the mountain then the people will come here in less than 2 to 4 hours and report back too.
“We don’t have time. Tell me why he is a spy…”
Srng!
Tatatak!
Five people surrounded me. They were the five leaders of the Six Blood Valley and Gu Sang-woong.
They already took the weapons out and aimed them. They were suspicious of me too.
Hae Ok-seon’s leader was ready to swing her sword at any time.
“Don’t move from the place and explain. Young master, where have you been?’
Bang!
At that time, Hae Ack-chun slammed the ground below and shouted.
“Are you doubting my disciple right now?”
Shocked by his rage, the five leaders weren’t sure what to do. In the meantime, it looked like he trusted his disciple.
-I see the old man in a new light.
‘Right.’
However, there were people who could ignore him.
“Hae hyung. Your disciple also went off when the bells rang. And going wasn’t enough. He did this to my disciple. This is a situation where anyone will be suspicious of your disciple.”
“What?’
“We aren’t clear if Hae hyung’s disciple had made my disciple like this to blame him for this all.”
Like Hae Ack-chun, this man trusted his disciple too.
“Are you accusing me? Ha! As I thought, talks don’t…”
At that time, Han Baek-ha stopped him.
“Both of you. We don’t have time for this. We need to fix this quickly. So, Young Master, give us a proper explanation if you want to avoid suspicion. Otherwise, the Young Master will also be detained.”
With her declaration, I pointed at Go Eunjae.
“Take the sole from the shoe of the second elder’s disciple.”
“Sole?”
Gu Sang-woong, the commander of this valley, looked cautiously at Seo Kalma. He was asking for permission.
Seo Kalma nodded with an uncomfortable expression. Gu Sang-woong personally took off the shoe from this guy, and when he tore the sole off, a leather pouch of white power was exposed.
‘…!’
Seo Kalma, who saw this, was shocked. And Gu Sang-woong brought it closer to his mouth and smelled it. Then, looking at it, Baek Ryeon-ha and Han Baek-ha had stiff faces as they said,
“Thousand Miles Chasing Strength.”
“Thousand Miles Chasing Strength!”
Among them, there were those who didn’t seem to know about it.
-They don’t seem to know.
As Short Sword had said, the twins were only looking bewildered at this but there was no time to explain.
“Hehe, didn’t I tell you?”
When evidence came out, Hae Ack-chun was alive. Without stopping here, I took out the poison pill in my hand.
“What is that?”
Han Baek-ha asked.
“It was inside tied to his back molar. It has been tied up for a long time, so there have to be other traces.”
At those words, Gu Sang-woong opened his mouth and confirmed it. With a sad expression, he nodded as he touched the molars with his finger.
Seo Kalma was shocked,
“It cannot be. How can my disciple…”
“Elder… I am sorry, but Young Master So is right. If the pill is tied up for a long time it digs into a shape near the gum.”
“How can you know that?”
“For half a year I had infiltrated the Murim Alliance as a spy.”
I didn’t know Gu Sang-woong worked as a spy. But thanks to his words the credibility of my words increased.
“How can this…”
Seo Kalma looked at his disciple with confused eyes. There was anger, disappointment, and despair.
It wouldn’t be a shock if this was someone else, but this guy was his disciple.
“Is there a need for more clarification?”
“… leaders, pull back your weapons.”
At Han Baek-ha’s words, the leaders who surrounded me all pulled back their weapons and bowed to apologize to me.
And Gu Sang-woong asked me,
“But… how did you know this?”
Now again they all looked curious at me. And their eyes were all narrowed but I had prepared my answer.
“I woke up late and tried to head back to my place. Then I saw Go Eunjae leaving his room to go somewhere. Moving away from the main hall felt suspicious to me so he pursued him. He then suddenly stopped and sprayed this powder around.
“You didn’t use internal qi?”
“If I did, he would have run or I would have been killed.”
“Ah…”
Gu Sang-woong realized that his question was wrong.
“I couldn’t think of anything else as it was such a situation. If it hadn’t been for a surprise attack, I would have been killed.”
Go Eunjae crossed the wall of a first-rate warrior. I explained it like this because it doesn’t make sense for me to defeat such a high level warrior in a head-on battle. I pointed to my right hand.
I deliberately stabbed myself in the right side with a dagger to avoid suspicion.
-Well, you are one huge deal man.
Short Sword clicked her tongue.
How long was I a spy? How could I make such a mistake? It wasn’t uncommon to be prepared like this.
“I could have lost my life.”
“You did something dangerous.”
As he said, Gu Sang-woong’s expression softened. Any doubts were now gone.
“Hehe, you should know this guy’s guts!”
Hae Ack-chun praised me. It was to praise the fact that I had managed to catch the spy alone. Thanks to this, the expression of the others changed toward me
And Baek Ryeon-ha came as she said,
“If it wasn’t for the young master we would have never known who the spy was and we would have been caught off guard. Thank you very much.”
Chak!
Everyone around her bowed and showed their gratitude to me.
It wasn’t intended but I was being given merit for what I did. If I didn’t find Go Eunjae by chance, I would have never been able to figure out what happened.
Pak!
At that time, Seo Kalma fell on his knees and pleaded to Baek Ryeon-ha.
“These things happened because I didn’t have an eye to select people…”
“No. We don’t have time to talk about Uncle Seo’s sins. It is time to make an escape route. We will talk about this later.”
Seo Kalma bitterly responded to her words,
“I understand.”
The influence he had on the future was great, so she could not simply throw the guy out because of one mistake. And his guilt could be used.
However, Seo Kalma seemed unable to let this go. He approached his fallen disciple and struck his former disciple’s dantian with his palm.
Crash!
The body shook violently, causing convulsions.
-What is he doing?
‘… destroying his dantian.’
I didn’t expect this extreme step to be taken right away. This action would be to show that this guy was no longer his disciple. That wasn’t the end of Go Eunjae’s misfortune,
“Cut his limbs off too.”
Baek Ryeon-ha issued this cruel command. As expected of the Blood Demon’s descendant. Last time, she let Han Baek-ha cut off her fingers without mercy.
-That is good. You and Baek Ryeon-ha end up doing the same thing.
It was true. I said it, but she ended up doing it.
In any case, not just the dantian but the limbs would also be rendered useless. So even walking would be difficult. Since we had to find out who was behind this, one of the leaders brought by Han Baek-ha would handle him.
Since it was shameful to have a spy with him, Seo Kalma just let everything happen. The issue of the spy got sorted and Baek Ryeon-ha changed the topic,
“Let’s wrap up the story about it and go for the escape route.”
It seems they were discussing this before I came here. And it seemed that they were trying to move by dividing three escape routes rather than going from one place.
The reason was because of Baek Ryeon-ha’s identity. Although her identity wasn’t known to the enemies, they were aiming to distract the attention of theirs.
-Isn’t it better to be together than to go separately?
‘But we don’t know the force of the enemies.’
If there were more warriors who were stronger than the elders on the enemy side it would be tough. For example, the Eight Great Warriors of the central plains…
Perhaps, they came with such a strategy in mind.
“As I said before, the people of the Great Doctor will get escorted first”
“I understand.”
“We will leave soon.”
Second leader Seo Kalma, who had five commanders, decided to let them take charge.
Great Doctor’s people didn’t belong to this place, despite being a small number they couldn’t get involved in such dangerous things. And the next problem was Baek Ryeon-ha.
“Fourth Elder, please escort our lady.”
“You want me to?”
Han Baek-ha asked Hae Ack-chun,
“They might be after the lady. It could be dangerous for us to divide, so…”
“Hmm… okay.”
Hae Ack-chun, who thought her words were true, accepted it. If Han Baek-ha decides to pretend to be the escort of the fake one, then the enemies would be confused.
“It is decided. Then the commander of the Six Blood Valley will have to divide the people.”
“I will do as directed.”
And so the forces in the Six Blood Valley were divided into two.
Half to escort the fake one, and the other half for the real Baek Ryeon-ha. Even though it was fake, they could not let the enemy know.
“There is so much burden. Tch tch.”
Hae Ack-chun clicked his tongue.
He was saying this because there were lower and middle rank warriors being put with them.
“Fourth Elder will have it tough, but please. Now set the flame!”
And the order fell. One of the leaders with other warriors set fire to the oil-soaked buildings around.
Wheik!
The flames blazed and spread around. At this rate, in less than half an hour, everything would be turned to ashes.
And Hae Ok-seon tried to throw something into the fire, it was the shoe of Go Eunjae.
“Wait!”
Gu Sang-woong, who was watching, stopped her.
He looked at Baek Ryeon-ha and said,
“My Lady. How about we do it like this?”
“…?”