Sunk In Grief (4)

After finishing the matter of the Martial Alliance with the splendid stratagem of killing with a borrowed knife, Neung Je-gang spent his time teaching martial arts to his companions. What was truly excessive was that he had still not seen the emperor’s face. It was a situation brought about by Princess Jang-ok’s stubbornness.

However, something happened that forced Neung Je-gang to return. And it was an incident that made it impossible for Princess Jang-ok to keep holding Neung Je-gang back any longer.

“What? What did you say?”

“Word came from the Regional Military Commission of Zhejiang Province. Among the warriors entrusted by Master Nam Yeong, some went missing, and all of them were found as corpses. They say there were also signs that they had been tortured. They sent people in haste because they were curious about the condition of Antang Mountain, only to find that the place had already turned into ruins.”

It was a shock. Antang Mountain was Neung Je-gang’s only weakness. Whoever it was had very precisely attacked Neung Je-gang’s weak point.

“Survivors, what about survivors?”

“Unfortunately, they could not examine everything. They say poison energy still remained, and even the people who entered without knowing were poisoned and died.”

At the news delivered through the Eastern Depot’s Field Agents Bureau, Neung Je-gang stood blankly for a while. The same was true for the others. Only Gongsun Gyeong-in, who had no connection to that place, was restless.

Tap.

“Captain, you should go.”

Perhaps because Cheong Yeon had no one directly connected to that place, he regained his senses early.

“Ah! Right, I have to go. I have to go and find out which bastard deserves to be torn apart for this. Poison, you said poison?”

Neung Je-gang nearly lost his mind at the word poison. It was probably something that had happened long ago. It would have taken quite some time for word to come from Zhejiang, and even if he ran as fast as possible from now on, it would take at least ten days. That was if he went alone; if they all went together, even a month would not be enough.

He did not know what kind of poison it was, but in that much time, the corpses would all rot. It meant only bones would remain.

“Captain, go first. Go first and at least close our poor master’s eyes.”

Because Ma-jil knew Neung Je-gang’s heart, he urged him first like that. Of course, he wanted to go with Neung Je-gang, but if he did, he would only see corpses with nothing but bare bones left. So Ma-jil steeled his heart and decided to send Neung Je-gang ahead.

“Thank you, Ma-jil. Cheong Yeon, please take care of Ja-myeong.”

Neung Je-gang took Ma-jil’s hand and spoke. He knew that Ma-jil’s heart was no different from his own. But right now, there was no choice. His own heart hurt so much that he had no room to look after anyone else’s.

Neung Je-gang ran. His nearly limitless inner energy was the driving force that allowed him to run without resting for even a single moment. The energy of the Yin-Yang Stone he had obtained in Kunlun’s Bottomless Pit continuously restored his inner power without strain.

He arrived at Antang Mountain. There was no time to hesitate. He ran straight up and entered inside. There was no poison in the world that could do anything to the current him.

Rumble.

The word ruins truly felt real. First, the trees of the forest spread before his eyes had all been destroyed and had withered yellow. Because of the poison, even their roots were rotting away.

The pond was the same. The place where clear water had always flowed was now full of dark-red water. It seemed blood and poison had mixed together. The fact that the water was still dark red meant that someone had released some kind of poisonous substance into the pond.

Neung Je-gang calmed his trembling legs and went inside. At last, he saw the buildings clustered together, and he saw the corpses laid out in the yard.

“Master!”

He could recognize Nam Yeong at a glance. Although he had already rotted away and only bones remained, the Golden Spirit Dagger clenched tightly in his hand told him that it was his master. He also saw Bibun. Though his body was small and frail, the devastated area around him clearly showed how fiercely he had fought.

He could not close the eyes as Ma-jil had asked.

There were more corpses elsewhere. They all seemed to belong to men.

“The women? And the children?”

Neung Je-gang held on to hope, but his senses caught nothing. Still, searching for the last hope, he passed through the tunnel that led to the space beyond the cliff. However, there were no traces that the tunnel they had made had been used.

In the space beyond the cliff, many martial arts manuals and emergency rations seemed to have been prepared by his master. However, the most important thing—the survivors—did not exist. Not a single one.

“Uaaah, aaaah!”

Neung Je-gang’s scream of rage spread endlessly into the sky.

He buried his master, Nam Yeong. The cause of his master’s death was a palm strike engraved into his chest. The bones of his chest had all caved in at once, stabbing into his heart and lungs. That much could be inferred from the bones alone.

Bibun’s cause of death was a sword. Neung Je-gang knew very well the kind of sword that left such sword marks. Kunlun’s sword. The sword marks left by Deung Myeong, who had died by his hand, had been exactly like this. If so, those who had come here were Deung Gak, or Deung Hyeon, or perhaps both of them.

He buried Bibun beside Nam Yeong as well. He buried him together with the corpses of his family that he found in his house.

The other people’s cause of death was also the sword. It was the same as Bibun’s cause of death and traces. In the end, one person who used his hands had killed his master, and another person who used a sword had killed the rest.

“Two. Deung Gak and Deung Hyeon. But there are traces of others here too. Three sets of footprints here. They stood here and did not move. They just watched. Come to think of it, they said nine people appeared in Kunlun and then disappeared. Then that means there are four more.”

Neung Je-gang was gradually finding himself as an investigator again. He no longer merely trembled in excitement.

“This is the place. The poison was scattered from right here. It was not someone who had learned poison arts; they used powdered poison. A proper master of a poison sect. And two more people were also here. The traces left behind belong to three people. Then where is the remaining one?”

Neung Je-gang picked up the remains of a fruit, examined it closely, and muttered this.

After looking around in every direction, Neung Je-gang headed toward the entrance. And there, he found another trace. Disorderly marks where someone had trampled the ground wildly with their feet. Someone had doodled here with their foot, and at the end, had also erased the doodle with their foot.

“They sat here and doodled like this with their foot. In the end, there were nine people. When I heard that nine people had appeared in Kunlun, I should have pursued them. If I had, something this regretful would not have happened…….”

Shwaaa.

Rain happened to fall just then. Neung Je-gang’s lament flowed as rain.

[This is only the beginning. Deung Gak.]

It was revenge identical to what Neung Je-gang had done. After finding and burying the corpses of all the women and children as well, Neung Je-gang saw writing written in blood on one side of the cliff. It was faint writing, almost entirely washed away by the rain, but Neung Je-gang could recognize it. It was because it was the same as the writing he had left in Seon-yeong.

[Come to Tianshan. I will be waiting.]

There was also writing on the wall of Nam Yeong’s house. It was a challenge letter whose final stroke was shaped like a hand, as if they had dipped their palm in ink to use it.

“Tianshan!”

The enemies had revealed their location.

“Fine, I’ll go. Even if only to plunge you into despair, I will surely go to Tianshan. Wait for me!”

Neung Je-gang’s final words were another scream. It was a quiet scream, but one that shook the heart.

Neung Je-gang cleaned up the entire scene, then erased the writing on the cliff and the writing telling him to come to Tianshan. He had no intention of going with the others. This was something he had to do himself.

Deung Gak and Deung Hyeon were the very ones who had destroyed his family as well. He did not want to borrow anyone else’s hand.

He left a letter for Ma-jil. It was a letter saying that he would also avenge Bibun. To Cheong Yeon, he wrote that he should not worry. Of course, Cheong Yeon was not someone who would worry. They already all knew just how strong Neung Je-gang was.

Forbidden arts were martial arts so powerful that anyone who learned them became a public enemy of the martial world. And he was a person who had learned as many as five of them. Worrying about someone worth worrying about was at least a little less unfair.

Neung Je-gang set out alone for Tianshan. To avoid meeting the group coming down from Beijing, he deliberately set his route toward Jiangxi Province. He had told them not to worry, but if it was Cheong Yeon, he was someone who would use even the Eastern Depot to track Neung Je-gang’s movements and rush after him.

Neung Je-gang changed his appearance and set out to avoid even that. No matter how remarkable the Eastern Depot was, it could not know even that he had changed his appearance.

He passed through northern Jiangxi Province and headed toward northern Hunan Province. His original plan was to go straight to Tianshan, but he decided to stop by Kunlun along the way. Neung Je-gang did not know where they were waiting.

Tianshan stretched five thousand li east to west and one thousand li north to south. Searching all of Tianshan alone was no different from saying he would die of old age.

“If they invited me, they must have left where I should go.”

Neung Je-gang believed that it would be left in Kunlun. They were enemies who bore a grudge against him. If they had left no trace at all, then all of the enemies were fools.

He passed through Sichuan. Following the road where the Black Alliance had confronted Kunlun last time, he entered Cheonghae. Barely half a year had passed, yet it already felt unfamiliar. Cheonghae Province, as if it had already forgotten the tragedy of that day, was quiet and peaceful.

It was originally a place where simple people lived. Thinking about it, the calamity of Kunlun was a tragedy caused by people of the Central Plains. If they had not come into conflict with the natives of Cheonghae Province, Kunlun and Deung Gak would not have shown such excessive greed.

No one was living in Kunlun yet. Even if Kunlun’s Taoists had survived, they would not feel like returning. But Kunlun was originally a sacred ground of Taoism. It was said that the qi here was innately clear, making it perfect for cultivating the Tao.

For the Taoists who would return someday, it seemed necessary to organize Kunlun a little. Rebuilding the burned Taoist halls, making stairs in places where ordinary people had difficulty climbing, and so on.

Neung Je-gang stopped by Kunlun and searched it thoroughly. He did not miss the walls of buildings, or even a single tree. However, there was no trace anywhere indicating where in Tianshan he was supposed to come.

“Do I have to search all of Tianshan?”

It was pathetic. The ones who had told him to come and the one going there were both hopeless.

“I feel like I came here for nothing.”

Now there was no helping it. He had no choice but to go to Hami, which could be called the starting point of the Tianshan Mountains. Since there was no trace in Kunlun, there was no other choice.

If he wanted to go to Hami, it would have been more convenient to go through Gansu. To go from Cheonghae to Hami, one had to make a long detour.

Neung Je-gang crossed the Qaidam Basin and headed toward Gansu. It was a long, long road that cut across Cheonghae Province from south to north.

He arrived in Hami. Then, as if someone had been waiting, a person approached him. It was an old man who looked extremely aged.

“Are you going to Tianshan?”

“That is so, but…….”

“Do you not need a guide?”

In Hami, there were people who made a living by guiding others through Tianshan. This old man seemed to be one of them.

“I do need a guide, but the place I am looking for is not somewhere ordinary people live.”

“Hoho! Among the people who live in Tianshan, there is no such thing as an ordinary person. They all entered and lived there with their own stories. If you are looking for someone, tell me who you seek. I have lived in Tianshan my whole life, so I know where and what kind of person lives there.”

“I am sorry, but I do not know their names or appearances.”

“No, if you do not know their names or appearances, how do you plan to find them?”

“All I know is that among them, there is someone skilled at using poison. Would you perhaps know?”

Since there were not many people who used poison, he thought the old man might know.

“If it is someone skilled with poison in Tianshan, there are several, but among the most fearsome are Mushik Poison Demon, Qilian Poison Demon, and Heavenly Scorpion Demon…….”

Unexpectedly, perhaps because he knew the people living in Tianshan well, the old man smoothly listed their names. Neung Je-gang looked at him with unexpected eyes. Even if he knew Tianshan well, it was somewhat suspicious that he knew so thoroughly where martial arts masters lived.

“Among them, is there anyone who recently went to the Central Plains?”

“Among those who use poison, you mean?”

“That is correct.”

“I know that Mushik Poison Demon went to the Central Plains not long ago, but I do not know whether he has returned yet.”

At the old man’s words, a light appeared in Neung Je-gang’s eyes. He did not know whether this old man was involved or not, but at the very least, he realized that he was different from other guides. Along with that, he also learned that the one called Mushik Poison Demon was one of the likely suspects. For now, he decided to find him.

“Do you know where that man called Mushik Poison Demon lives?”

“I do know, but I do not want to go there…….”

The old man was trying to bargain. If until now the old man had been trying to secure Neung Je-gang as a customer, now Neung Je-gang had to work to secure the old man. In the end, it meant he would decide depending on how much money he was given.

“You do not have to go. Just tell me the location. I will give you as much money as you want.”

Neung Je-gang did not want to drag things out. Even if he had to give what the old man wanted, he simply wanted to find the place quickly.

“If you say you will give me as much money as I want, I cannot just tell you in words. I will take you there myself. But how much money do you have?”

The old man grew greedy for money. If Neung Je-gang did not have enough to satisfy him, he would clearly change his words again.

“Will twenty nyang be enough?”

“Twenty nyang of silver?”

The old man was curt. He seemed to think it was far too little.

“Gold.”

Neung Je-gang said with a bitter smile.

“Twenty nyang in gold? Hehehe, of course that’s good. Let us go at once. Ah, but it is advance payment.”

At the word gold, the old man jumped in delight. Ten nyang in gold was money the old man could only obtain after working without rest for several months.

“Here it is.”

Neung Je-gang paid the money first.

“The reason I took the money first is not anything else. Mushik Poison Demon is, just as his name says, rather extremely ignorant. So he absolutely does not leave anyone who goes near him alone. If you happen to die, I cannot receive the money, can I? You understand, yes?”

“I know.”

He did not know Mushik Poison Demon, but among the martial artists hiding in Tianshan, there was likely no one who was not dangerous.

‘Come to think of it, I feel like I’ve heard the title Mushik Poison Demon many times somewhere. He’s probably on the Eastern Depot’s wanted list. Since I’m here, even if he is not the one I’m looking for, I should deal with him.’

Since he had come to Tianshan, Neung Je-gang decided to deal with those whose crimes were grave. There was no need to arrest them. He would simply deal with only those whose crimes were severe enough that they would have no reason to feel wronged even if they died.

He watched the old man’s movements carefully. He was not an ordinary person. He could feel a power unique to martial artists.

He was suspicious after all. This old man, too, might be someone who had committed a crime and lived in Tianshan, or he might be someone leading Neung Je-gang to his enemies.

‘Perhaps he could even be one of those nine.’

Neung Je-gang thought that as he followed behind the old man. In any case, it was certain that he had to observe carefully.

“Would you like to make another deal with me?”

Neung Je-gang spoke to the old man.

“What kind of deal?”

“There are fearsome people in Tianshan who were chased in from the Central Plains, aren’t there? If you tell me where they are hiding, I will pay you for it.”

“Why those fellows? Are you perhaps an official?”

“That is correct.”

In that instant, the old man came to a halt. Then he slowly tried to flee.

“Why? Could it be that you, Elder, also committed a crime in the Central Plains and came all the way here?”

“C-crime? What crime? It is just that, strangely, I do not especially like officials.”

“If you have committed no crime, you do not need to worry. I am not someone who arrests the innocent.”

“R-right. But I cannot make that new contract. If you suddenly die, will that not only make things difficult for me?”

“That could be true. Understood.”

Neung Je-gang had no choice but to give up on that plan.

‘I must make sure to come with someone else later.’

He made up his mind that way.