The Revival Of The Heavenly Poison Grove (1)

After Go So-jeong went off grumbling to her room, Neung Je-gang prepared to move in secret. It was risky during the day, but precisely because it wasn’t night, vigilance would be looser.

His target was the Ten Thousand Sounds Pavilion’s intelligence archive.

If the Pavilion’s skill matched its reputation in the martial world, it should have uncovered something. Yet the Pavilion Lord seemed intent on hiding it.

Behind the great plaque of the Pavilion Hall, Neung Je-gang concealed himself and listened.

The place bore the name “Ten Thousand Sounds Pavilion” because it claimed to hear all the world’s sounds. Now Neung Je-gang was here to listen for such sounds himself.

“The sound is coming from below. Do they store information underground here too?”

He gauged the presence of others. When he first met the Pavilion Lord, he had sensed two hidden figures — and even now, he felt the same two presences.

“Couldn’t at least one of you take a rest during the day?”

Muttering his annoyance, he quietly pried open a panel behind the plaque and slipped soundlessly into the building.

The interior was far darker than outside. Black cloths had been hung to deliberately block light and create shadow.

Likely it was to conceal the watchers hidden inside, but for one trained in illusion like Neung Je-gang, the darkness was ideal.

He moved from shadow to shadow, descending into the basement.

“Damn. Wrong place.”

Instead of an intelligence archive, the underground chambers turned out to be a dungeon.

“Aaaargh!”

Just as he turned to leave, a scream tore through the air from deeper within — a scream of someone’s innards being ripped apart. Someone was being tortured.

And strangely, the voice wasn’t male.

“A woman? Could it be one of those who were with the dead heirs?”

He had heard they had learned nothing from the women — or rather, that the women knew nothing.

“Yet they’re still torturing them? When there’s nothing to learn?”

The situation did not match what the Pavilion Lord had said. Neung Je-gang turned toward the screams. He had time — even if someone realized he had slipped out, it wouldn’t matter.

The torture was happening in the deepest cell. As he expected, four women were stripped and bound to the walls, while two men leered as they prepared their instruments.

“P-please…”

Of the four women, three already hung unconscious, their bodies limp from earlier torment. Only one still clung to awareness, her tear-streaked face twisted with terror.

From the look of them, they had been tortured daily since capture; there wasn’t an unmarked spot left.

“I-I’ll do whatever you want. Please, stop…”

Having witnessed the others’ ordeals, the woman was already broken. She knew what awaited her and had long since given up resisting.

But the men did not stop.

“Keh keh keh! Woman, doing as you’re told is only natural. But isn’t it unfair if the others all suffer and you alone are spared? Just wait — I’ll make you faint soon enough too.”

One man gripped a tool and approached her.

“What? She’s already fainted.”

The woman had collapsed from sheer terror.

“Click! What now — should we still torture her?”

“Keh keh keh! Wake her up. It’s no fun if she passes out before we even start.”

They splashed water from a jug onto her.

Splaash.

“Uuugh…”

She jolted awake at the icy water — only to regret it instantly.

“Aaaahhh!”

When she saw what one man held, she screamed and struggled.

A thin black-threaded needle glinted in his hand.

“You know what this is for, don’t you? Keh keh! Thinking of biting your tongue and dying?”

The words struck her like lightning. That was indeed the last resort — the way to escape further pain.

She had often wished to die. Only fear for her family — the men’s threats to kill them — had kept her alive. But now, even that didn’t matter. If her family died because of her, she would meet them in the underworld and beg forgiveness.

She stuck out her tongue between her teeth. If she clenched hard enough, death would come.

Thunk!

But suddenly, the man jabbed a point, and her jaw went slack.

“Stupid wench — you really meant to die. Don’t care about your family anymore?”

Tears streamed down her face. To be denied even the right to die was unbearable.

Swish. Thud.

Neung Je-gang stopped watching. A gust of wind struck, and the two men collapsed unconscious.

The woman’s eyes widened in shock.

Neung Je-gang appeared before her. The door had never opened, yet suddenly another man was in the cell. Terrified, she trembled violently.

Tap.

He released her acupoint.

“Were you the women who were with the three dead heirs of the sects?”

She nodded, unaware her points were freed, still thinking herself unable to speak.

“Your points are released. You can talk.”

“Ah… y-yes. We were there.”

“Tell me what you saw.”

“All I saw was men suddenly charging at us while we drank…”

“You didn’t see the men die?”

“No. I didn’t see it.”

“There were four men only? No one outside?”

“Four only. Outside was an old man — a servant, they said.”

“One last question. When the men attacked you, did all four attack? Or only three?”

“All four did.”

“You are certain?”

“Y-yes.”

Her torture had primed her to confess anything instantly; she answered without hesitation.

Neung Je-gang finally had the answers he sought. Unless she lied, he now knew what the Pavilion Lord had been hiding.

“What do you wish me to do for you?”

“P-please, save me.”

She wanted to live — to escape this pit of torment. She had revealed all she knew, yet the torture never ceased, with humiliation added besides. She couldn’t bear it any longer.

“Freeing you now is impossible. I am not of the Black Alliance and lack the authority. Later I may save you, but not yet.”

“Truly? Truly, you will save us later?”

“Truly. If you endure until then, I will rescue you.”

“I-I can endure. If there is hope, I can endure anything.”

She glimpsed hope at last. This man’s very expression differed from those who had come before. She chose to believe him — she had to, to survive.

“But no one must know I was here.”

“I understand. Thank you. Thank you.”

Neung Je-gang vanished again.

Swish, swish.

He struck the woman’s acupoints again and released the men’s blood seals, then disappeared.

The two men slowly woke. Uneasy, they looked about. Someone had been there — they could feel it.

Yet nothing had changed. The cell door was still locked. The women were as before.

“Click! What the hell happened?”

“Keh keh keh! A ghost must have passed. Let’s get back to work!”

“No, something’s wrong. Someone was here. We’d better report it. If we’re asked later why we didn’t…”

As they muttered, Neung Je-gang slipped upward into the Pavilion. Time was short. Before they reported and defenses tightened, he had to uncover what intelligence the Pavilion held.

“If not underground, then it must be near the Pavilion Lord’s quarters.”

Truly critical information was always close to its master. Luckily, the Pavilion Lord was absent.

Neung Je-gang searched his office. For such matters, nothing would be left lying carelessly about. He checked until he noticed the bookshelves were double-layered.

Too thick for mere books.

“A mechanism?”

No — merely a crude concealment. The front books hid what lay behind.

Inside, he found dozens of scrolls. Pressed for time, uncertain when the Pavilion Lord might return, he checked them one by one.

“There it is.”

What he sought was there. The Pavilion Lord had indeed hidden his true face behind courtesy and excessive politeness.

“Banwon, the Escaping Demon… so they already learned the fugitive servant’s identity. Why conceal it? Perhaps the Black Alliance intends to resolve the case alone?”

It was possible. For a man of the Pavilion Lord’s rank, relying on outsiders might be shameful.

Though forced to accept Neung Je-gang’s help under pressure from the three sects, he might yet aim to solve it himself.

“Then he may be less an ally than a rival. If he conceals the truth, why should I reveal all I know?”

If they withheld, so would he. Memorizing the details about Banwon, Neung Je-gang restored everything and slipped back to his quarters.