Chapter 111
The sick scholar replied, "They will die without being able to live or die. But as I said, I believe the Honored One is very logical and humane, so he would not do such a terrible thing."
The sick scholar, not wanting his jaw to be broken, stealthily praised Baekji. Then, he glanced at the hostages and said, "In case you misunderstand, those people are not hostages. It is just that we have taken the minimum measures in case there are people who act rashly before the Honored One answers."
As soon as he finished speaking, a group of people emerged from the end of the dark road.
Wang Qishan, the leader of the Martial Alliance's inner hall's Five Elite Squad, stood at the forefront.
"What a clever turn of phrase. I didn't know that the head of the Four Shrines Heaven, the sick scholar, was a master of sophistry."
From the opposite side, people also rushed out. Xiong Yangqian, the leader of the outer hall's Iron Blood Unit, walked at the forefront and shouted, "How dare you lowly brats of the Black Path try to persuade the Alliance Leader's disciple! You have a lot of nerve."
The inner hall's Five Elite Squad and the outer hall's Iron Blood Unit were the elite of the elite of the Martial Alliance. Because of that, the competition between them was also fierce.
Xiong Yangqian looked at Wang Qishan on the other side and said, "The Iron Blood Unit will catch these brats."
"Leader Xiong, remember that I came first."
The two seemed to not even treat the sick scholar as an enemy.
Baekji said, "Hey, didn't you hear what that sick scholar over there said?"
"..."
At Baekji's words, Wang Qishan and Xiong Yangqian closed their mouths.
They were the ones who had seen Baekji's martial prowess directly.
They did not dare to talk back.
"That sick body led me here to deliver the Heavenly Lord's message. So he's my guest."
At Baekji's words, a look of admiration appeared on the sick scholar's face.
"As expected! The Honored One is logical and humane. That's what I'm saying."
"Of course, he's also a shameless brat who insists on going even though I don't want to..."
The sick scholar closed his mouth.
Wang Qishan said, "We will punish the brats who have been rude to the Young Alliance Leader. Please trust us and leave it to us."
"The fight with the Four Shrines Heaven has always been led by the outer hall's Iron Blood Unit. It is only right that the Iron Blood Unit should take charge."
Baekji looked at Wang Qishan and Xiong Yangqian and said, "You guys are also being annoying. Do you think I'm an Alliance person just because I'm the Alliance Leader's disciple?"
"What?"
"...!"
Wang Qishan and Xiong Yangqian looked at each other's faces, thinking they had misheard.
"How could the Alliance Leader have told me to take care of things... 'Please take care of the Martial Alliance', 'Erase the Blood Sect'... instead of giving such orders, he told me to take care of it, right?"
Baekji sighed lightly and then said, "The Alliance Leader knew that I was a free spirit. That I was not a person to be tied down to the Alliance. My soul whispers to me. To go where the wind goes."
Wang Qishan and Xiong Yangqian had expressions that said, 'What kind of absurd nonsense is this?'
It's not working well?
As expected, martial artists lack sensitivity.
"...Don't try to understand. Just go back and convey my will. The Martial Alliance and I have nothing to do with each other... let's live as if we don't know each other."
Baekji then said to the sick scholar, "I know that your Heavenly Lord likes to drink and socialize. But I don't really like alcohol. It means I have no reason to go all the way there to drink. Tell him to find a drinking buddy nearby."
"Ah, no... actually, the alcohol is secondary. The Heavenly Lord's deep meaning is to discuss the state of the world at this critical time when the Blood Sect has arrived."
"Hey. Look at me."
"..."
"Isn't this the time when I'm just starting to open my eyes to the opposite sex? I'm busy chasing after girls, so what interest would I have in the state of the world?"
Even the sick scholar, who was good with words, could not answer Baekji's words.
Baekji stood up, holding his bamboo staff.
"Since you've come, let's all get hit thoroughly and famously. Then you won't think of chasing me again, right?"
"J-just a moment... did I do something wrong... are you really going to drive us to our deaths..."
"You know me, right? I don't kill, but... you should know that I beat people to death. Whether you live or die is for your Heavenly Lord to decide."
Wang Qishan and Xiong Yangqian were also surprised and retreated.
"We have not been annoying. It's just that those brats seem to be annoying the Young Alliance Leader..."
"Shut up and grit your teeth."
Baekji's figured disappeared.
And from all sides, the sound of bamboo staves striking heads began to be heard.
Thwack! Peopeok!
"Keo-heok!"
"Keok!"
Since it was dark, neither Baekji's figure nor the bamboo staff could be seen.
Only the figures of people staggering or flying through the air after being hit by the bamboo staff could be seen.
Peo-eok!
Whether they were from the Four Shrines Heaven or the Martial Alliance, they were hit fairly.
Cheolkeok!
The sound of weapons being drawn was heard from here and there. It was an instinctive attempt to defend, but it was useless.
"The brat who draws his sword will have his arm broken."
Bba-gak!
"Keu-ak!"
Cheolkeodeok, seuk―!
The cunning ones pushed back the swords they were about to draw and just fell down.
But it was useless.
He found them out like a ghost and hit them fairly.
"Run!"
Unable to endure, they scattered in all directions.
A situation where the Martial Alliance members and the Four Shrines Heaven were running away side by side occurred.
"Hmph, the ones who run away will have their ankles broken."
Peopeok!
Bba-gak―!
The sound of ankles really breaking was heard.
They could not even run away.
"Aaaak!"
"Keuk!"
The elite of the Martial Alliance and the Black Path of the Four Shrines Heaven were helpless.
'Did I learn martial arts for this?'
The pride of a martial artist who had trained for over a decade and had entered the ranks of the first-rate disappeared like a bubble.
Thwack!
Baekji kicked the ones who had been hit and had fallen, and piled them up in front of the inn.
Peopeok!
They were hit by the bamboo staff and flew, and were kicked and rolled.
A mountain of people was piled up in front of the inn.
"Ugh..."
The ones who had been captured by the Four Shrines Heaven stood there, unable to move, and watched the terrifying scene.
Although they were unable to move because their blood points had been hit, they could see with their eyes and hear with their ears.
Peo-eok!
The sound of the bamboo staff striking, and
Bba-gak!
The sound of bones breaking,
"Keu-aak!"
Along with screams, it echoed from all sides.
Hongyan clicked her tongue.
'Could this be hell?'
"Keu-heuk!"
The sick scholar, Wang Qishan, and Hong Yangcheon, who were at the top of the roundly piled mountain of people, fell and marked the peak.
"We're going to die. Please save us."
The ones at the bottom were on the verge of being crushed to death by the weight of the people.
A bamboo staff struck the head of the brat who was shouting.
"You couldn't even handle this much weight, and you were brandishing a sword?"
Baekji climbed the mountain of people and approached the sick scholar who was lying at the top.
The sick scholar was lying there with his eyes rolled back.
"Hey, don't pretend to be fainted!"
When Baekji grabbed the sick scholar's cheek and pulled, the human-skin mask came off.
"What? You were pretending to be sick?"
When the human-skin mask of a person with a sickly complexion was removed, the face of a man with a slightly thin and pale impression appeared.
The sick scholar said with an embarrassed expression, "It is true that I am sick. Cough, cough. I have a chronic illness... Please step back a little. It's contagious."
"You, you're a really strange brat."
Baekji laughed, dumbfounded.
"If you come after me one more time... then I'll break both your ankles. That's a sufficiently logical and humane measure, so you can accept it, right?"
"Yes, yes... I understand."
Baekji looked at Wang Qishan and Xiong Yangqian, but the two pretended to be fainted and did not move.
"Well, I believe you all understand."
Baekji walked down the mountain of people and stood in front of Hongyan.
When he raised his bamboo staff, Hongyan closed her eyes.
Thwack!
When he hit her head, her blood points were released as if by a lie.
"Follow me."
Baekji entered the inn.
Hongyan glanced at the mountain of people and then followed him.
"They say there's poison in the food here. Clear it all away and bring a new spread."
"I can't cook."
"You run a brothel and you can't cook?"
"There is a separate cook."
"Figure it out somehow."
Hongyan was in a difficult situation.
The waiter was not seen.
"That brat is a fake. He's somewhere over there. So you'll have to do it."
It seemed the fake waiter was also stuck somewhere in the mountain of people.
When Hongyan went to the kitchen, the chef, the inn owner, and the real waiter were tied up.
"Hurry up and cook. Don't put any poison."
"We don't put things like poison in our customers' food. Those brats did that."
The chef grumbled.
"I know, so hurry up."
A moment later, Hongyan came out with food.
"Take some food and bring it to the women on the second floor."
Hongyan sighed inwardly.
For her, the great aunt of the 'Hongmeng Brothel', to be acting as a waiter.
As her anger flared up, the mountain of people came into her eyes.
Baekji had piled them up without distinguishing between men and women, so the few women were in an even more dire situation.
'It's better than being in there.'
Hongyan placed the food on a tray and went to the Mado master and disciple.
When she knocked on the door, Cho-hye opened it.
"I'm not eating."
Mado's voice was heard from inside the room.
Cho-hye, 'gulp', just swallowed and closed the door.
Hongyan, in a difficult situation, placed the tray in front of the door and came down the stairs.
"She said she's not eating now, so I left it in front of the door."
"Go and tell her. That it was bought with legitimate money."
Hongyan went up and then came down again.
"She said she won't eat another's things for free. She also said she won't do things like killing people."
Baekji, after thinking for a moment, asked Hongyan, "How much is the 'Heaven-Shattering Divine Saber' worth?"
Although he had insisted it was the price of scrap metal last time, the 'Heaven-Shattering Divine Saber' could be called a treasure that could not be valued with money.
Hongyan, of course, knew its value.
Because it was the sword of the Demonic Cult's Northern Divine General, Madeng.
"It is a sword that cannot be exchanged even for ten thousand taels of gold."
"No way..."
"That's for the owner of the sword. In my opinion, I think it would be worth at least ten thousand taels of silver."
"Hmm. Then go and tell her. I'll hold this sword as collateral, so she can eat up to ten thousand taels of silver... no, right? The cost of the food and clothes so far, and the price of the horse, all add up to about two hundred taels of silver, so there's nine thousand eight hundred taels left."
Hongyan went up and came down again.
"She said she'll eat."
Sigh. It's hard to even feed Mado.
"Let's eat too. Bring some alcohol."
He even craved alcohol, which he couldn't even drink well.
The world really doesn't go as one wishes.
Is the Alliance Leader alive? What is the level of Mado's martial arts? Where are the so-called absolute masters holed up...
He had gone to the Martial Alliance to get a few pieces of information that were really no big deal, in addition to receiving the reward.
In a few days, he had experienced all sorts of things.
The result of running wild like a madman was the unwelcome hypothesis that he was likely from the Demonic Cult, and the fact that he had become the protagonist of an absurd scam... that he was the Alliance Leader's disciple.
The fact that the Blood Cult Leader was a more terrifying brat than he had thought.
And he had been taught a lesson by Mado.
Although it was just one word, it kept pricking his conscience.
Seeing the Mado who did not know the ways of the world, he was reminded of when he had met Yang Soryeong in Xi'an.
Mado had realized the value of money, but her subsequent actions were completely different from Baekji's.
Baekji had taken Yang Soryeong's iron coin and had gone to buy dumplings.
Mado said she would starve because she didn't like free food.
Baekji thought he knew why the Alliance Leader had not revealed Mado's background.
Just because one learned the martial arts of the Demonic Cult did not mean that everyone was a demonic person.
There was no one as upright as Mado.
Baekji, who was drinking, asked Hongyan, "What do you think about me temporarily borrowing the assets of the 'Hongmeng Brothel'?"
You bad brat, is that borrowing?
Hongyan hesitated for a moment, gritted her teeth, and then said, "May I be honest?"
(End of Chapter)