Ch. 35
He was a really funny guy.
I had a fundamental perception that if Pae Maseong and I competed, I would always be inferior to him.
I knew he was the strongest in the world, so I thought that if I were to compete, I should compete with someone I could compete with, and how could I dare to compete with Pae Maseong?
It wasn't that I felt inferior; it was just that he was such an incomparable opponent that I didn't even think of comparing us from the beginning.
But lately, I felt something different in Pae Maseong's gaze when he looked at me.
The way Pae Maseong looked at me was a little similar to how people looked at Pae Maseong.
Should I say it was like looking at an existence outside the standard?
The times when Pae Maseong looked at me with eyes that seemed to ask, 'How is that possible?' were increasing.
Am I, perhaps, someone with a special ability regarding poison?
At times, I even had that thought.
At first, Pae Maseong seemed to be just amazed, but later he said seriously.
"Socheong, could it be that you're like that? Like a constitution that is immune to all poisons. No matter how I look at it, this really doesn't make sense."
"Really?"
If so, isn't that a really good thing?
Even I thought that I was good at enduring.
When I was bitten by the things that Pae Maseong threw at me and suffered from pain and paralysis, it just felt like being bitten by something like a centipede while passing by, not like being hit by something very dangerous.
"When this is over, let's go to Nether Shadow Valley first."
I was also thinking that.
Come to think of it, Nether Shadow Valley was not something to be left alone.
The Cho family would continue to need it to train assassins, but knowing how Nether Shadow Valley was run, I couldn't just leave it as it was.
They were catching children and openly committing murder, and knowing that, I couldn't turn a blind eye forever.
Since the subjugation of the mountain bandit strongholds was also coming to an end, it was not something to be postponed forever.
The members of the Silver Wind Force had entered closed-door training, so I didn't know how they would handle the security escort requests from the Danli family in the future.
If there was nothing else to do, they might be able to do that well, but right now, it was more urgent to save the children who were dying in Nether Shadow Valley without getting a helping hand than to expand the Danli family's business.
"Pae Maseong, I think you'll have to work with me one more time after this is over."
"You mean Nether Shadow Valley?"
The guy was easy to talk to.
"Yes. We can't just leave those kids like that."
Even after saying it, I wondered if Pae Maseong would accept my words.
Right now, Pae Maseong belonged to the Cho family, and Nether Shadow Valley was an important organization that supported the Cho family.
It seemed that Pae Maseong might say no, and if he did, I was thinking of going alone.
But Pae Maseong nodded.
"Then we'll have to move quickly from now on. Or maybe it's better to change the order. Wouldn't it be much easier to steal the poisonous creatures from Nether Shadow Valley first and then use them to subjugate the mountain bandit strongholds?"
It seemed that might be the case.
Above all, it seemed that there would also be children who would die in the meantime while we postponed the matter of Nether Shadow Valley.
"Is there any instructor in Nether Shadow Valley that you must save, Pae Maseong?"
Now that Pae Maseong had probably made many connections within the Cho family, I asked that, and Pae Maseong shook his head.
I hesitated a little, thinking that there might be an instructor like Yeon Cheongha in there.
But it seemed that I would be able to tell once I went there and saw how people acted.
Just as Yeon Cheongha had done to save Pae Maseong and me, if someone stood in the way with their body to save their disciple, they would not kill them.
"How do we get inside? There's a formation around it."
At my words, Pae Maseong smiled proudly.
"What do you take me for, Socheong?"
I was glad that Pae Maseong was here.
"As expected, there's never a quiet moment when I'm with you, Socheong."
"Isn't it good to have a chance to use what you've trained in a real battle?"
Even though I said it shamelessly, Pae Maseong nodded and was really grateful.
"Should we go right now, Socheong?"
"Now...?"
The only problem with Pae Maseong seemed to be that the kid didn't know how to get tired.
And he thought that if he wasn't tired, the person next to him wasn't tired either.
I, who was next to him, felt like I was going to die, but this monster didn't even think about such things and had already used his lightness technique.
If it weren't for Pae Maseong, I couldn't even enter Nether Shadow Valley alone, so I had no choice but to chase after him with my life on the line.
What was really strange was that my internal energy could handle and endure it every time.
Even though it seemed that I had already reached my limit and my dantian was buzzing.
What am I, really?
Wasn't the character of Ya Socheong a huge foreshadowing that was not recovered in the novel?
As time went on, such thoughts came to me, but for now, it was more important to use my lightness technique without losing Pae Maseong.
* * *
How long has it been since I came to Nether Shadow Valley again?
I had never thought that I would come here again.
There was nothing like feeling new emotions.
It was just disgusting.
The memory of the day I was dragged here with Pae Maseong came back vividly.
If it weren't for the centipede that had entered my shoe then, I wouldn't have become so close with Pae Maseong.
Those memories came back as if they were just yesterday.
I was really young then...
It felt as if I could clearly hear the cries of the children who were dying around me.
At that time, I couldn't do anything to save the children, but now it was different.
Before entering Nether Shadow Valley, we rested and recovered our internal energy.
If I had my way, I would have wanted to go in right now, but since I could die a dog's death if I did that, I tried to maintain my composure from now on.
I had dragged Pae Maseong into this, so I couldn't let him die because of me.
We protected each other, focused on recovering our internal energy, and when we were ready, we entered Nether Shadow Valley together.
"Should we break the formation?"
At my words, Pae Maseong shook his head.
"I can undo it, so I don't think we need to go that far. Let's save as much internal energy as possible from now on."
"How about we take the poisonous creatures in the underground cave and attack the Valley Lord and the instructors?"
When I said that, Pae Maseong looked at me.
"It would be great if it were as easy as it sounds, but I don't think it will be. We could get poisoned, and if we're not careful, we could die."
Hearing those words, it seemed that he was right.
"Then we can just push them into the underground cave."
At that, Pae Maseong brightened up and said that that was a great idea.
It would be a problem to lure them to the underground cave, but if we could just do that, it seemed that we could effectively take revenge after that.
Wouldn't that be a proper revenge?
I remembered the days when I was scared, wondering if I would die at the hands of the poisonous creatures in the underground cave for upsetting the instructors while staying in Nether Shadow Valley.
Those guys knew how scared we were, and as if to mock us who were scared, they killed the children as an example.
At that thought, I felt bad.
I also thought that I should have come here a little sooner, but in the end, I shook my head.
That was probably not it.
It was because it was now that I could try it, and even a month ago, I probably wouldn't have even dreamed of such a thing.
The subjugation of the mountain bandit strongholds had also been a great experience for us, and I felt that we had used all our time productively to get here.
"Should we move separately from now on?"
When I asked Pae Maseong, he nodded.
"I'll lure them. If I say that poisonous creatures have come up from the underground cave, they'll believe me."
Pae Maseong was taking a great risk.
I had nested in the Danli family, but he belonged to the Cho family.
There was a high possibility that the Valley Lord and many people here would continue their relationship with Pae Maseong somehow, and I didn't know how dangerous Pae Maseong would become if even one of them escaped.
Now that it had come to this, I couldn't rashly show mercy to anyone.
"Is there anyone you want to save?"
Although I had already asked once, I thought I had to check one more time, so I asked, and Pae Maseong shook his head without any hesitation.
"I'm really looking forward to it."
It seemed that I had forgotten for a moment that Pae Maseong was a madman.
* * *
I made a plan to ambush the instructors when Pae Maseong brought them.
At first, Pae Maseong would pretend to be helping them, then he would drive the instructors towards the underground cave, and after that, Pae Maseong would also reveal his true nature and push them into the underground cave together.
The plan was simple, but I didn't know if it would really go as planned.
Since it was a plan made on the spot, there could be holes, and I didn't know where a variable might come out.
The Valley Lord and the instructors might not be in the same place, and a few people might be in another place and come later to attack us.
But we decided to deal with such trivial problems later and first made a plan in a large framework and then put it into action.
When Pae Maseong brought the Valley Lord and the instructors, I was waiting for them on a tree.
Then I held my breath until they came as close as possible.
The underground cave was called an underground cave, but it was similar to a well.
It was so deep that I couldn't see the end, and I didn't know in detail what was inside.
I didn't even want to imagine falling in there by mistake.
Falling into the underground cave had been my nightmare for a long time, and after having that dream, my whole body would be soaked in sweat.
Thinking that today was the day I would say goodbye to that nightmare, I watched the people who appeared with Pae Maseong.
"Is it true that poisonous creatures came out of the underground cave, Pae Maseong? How deep is the underground cave, and how did they come out of there?"
The Valley Lord asked, unable to shake off his suspicion, and Pae Maseong, without a change in his expression, quickened his pace and led the way.
"Isn't it because you've been thinking so complacently and managing things carelessly that something like this has happened? I will definitely tell the family head about this. If I hadn't seen it, how many poisonous creatures would have escaped from the underground cave? Don't you know how much the martial artists of the main family have suffered to get those poisonous creatures?"
"But we shouldn't just jump to conclusions. We don't even know where it came from. It might not have been originally in the underground cave. Poisonous creatures also attract other poisonous creatures. It's possible that a strong poisonous creature from another place came to eat another's poison and become stronger."
The Valley Lord, as if to appease Pae Maseong, was busy explaining with all his might.
(End of Chapter)