Chapter 22 Poison Forest 4

Chapter 22: Poison Forest 4

A moment later, Dakam emerged from the hut with a dejected expression.

“My deepest condolences. I never imagined it would come to this. You’ve come all this way, yet I don’t know how to express my gratitude.”

Biseoyoung chuckled softly in reply.

“Well, I suppose I got an entertaining show out of it. Still, seeing the old man so spry, it’s a relief he doesn’t seem like he’ll drop dead anytime soon.”

Following his words, I also spoke to him.

“If you ever need us again, come find us at the Biyong Thirteen. We’ll help you anytime. In return, if we ever need something, would it be okay if we came looking for you?”

At my words, he brightened and nodded vigorously.

“Yes! Of course! I’ll give you anything you need!”

His simple, honest expression made me smile inwardly.

Simply having him in my debt meant I’d already achieved my purpose for coming here.

Building connections I could ask for help finding antidote herbs or guiding me deeper into the jungle. That was my original goal, after all.

The old man’s true identity did weigh on my mind a little, but since he was so adamant, what else could I do?

With a much lighter heart, I told the team leader.

“Then let’s head back, Captain. We’ll have plenty of time if we leave now.”

But Squad Leader Seolpung didn’t respond to my words.

He stared at the hut with a look of deep concentration.

“Team Leader?”

Then he suddenly started walking back toward the hut.

We exchanged bewildered glances.

Sergeant Seolpung started speaking to Dokno in front of the hut.

“Sir, it seems there’s been a misunderstanding.”

Then, from inside, came the familiar angry voice.

“Misunderstanding? What misunderstanding! Get the hell out of here! You damn bastards!”

But Captain Seolpung paid no heed and continued speaking.

“First off, I am indeed from the Biyongdae, but I am not a righteous sect member. And I didn’t come here to rip you off—I came specifically to help you.”

“Shut up, you bastard! Where’d you learn to lie like that?! You’re part of the Biyongdae but claim not to be a righteous faction member?! Might as well say you’re a dog but not an animal, huh?!”

It was a torrent of abuse, yet the captain showed no sign of anger. Instead, he gave a slight smile and spoke again.

“Then how about a wager? If I can prove I’m not a righteous faction, you’ll let us examine your condition.”

“What?!”

“Then I’ll take that as your permission and proceed.”

As the squad leader entered, Qingyan, who had been watching him, asked Biseyoung.

“Wasn’t the squad leader a righteous sect member?”

Bi Sayeong shrugged.

“I’m not sure myself. I’ve never heard anything about his sect.”

It wasn’t just Biseyang; likely no one in the Thirteenth Generation knew the squad leader’s true nature.

At least, not yet.

I suddenly recalled events from my past life.

His true identity, revealed on that day when the front lines completely collapsed…

That identity was nothing short of astonishing.

His eyes, radiating a crimson glow, and that overwhelming aura of power came vividly to mind.

Then, from inside the hut, the startled voice of an old man reached me.

“You… an enemy?! Why on earth are you at the Biyongdae?!”

I had seen the squad leader receive that question in a past life.

Back then, the squad leader had answered thus:

He had fled from himself, yet somehow, precious things had come to be.

A moment later, we were able to enter the hut again.

Inside the hut, the squad leader was already taking the old man’s pulse and examining it.

But his expression was extremely grave.

Beside him, Dakam and the younger brothers watched in silence, holding their breath.

“Hmph! Didn’t I tell you? This isn’t something you can handle! You’re just wasting your time!”

The old man continued to grumble with a displeased look.

Yet I could sense his voice had softened considerably since earlier, and within it, a thread of regret and concern.

After finishing the pulse diagnosis, the team leader let out a deep sigh.

“I’m sorry, sir. As you said, there’s nothing I can do with my abilities.”

As Dakam and his younger brothers looked on with regret, the old man snorted derisively.

“Of course! If even I, who’ve spent my entire life studying medicine and martial arts, can’t do anything about it, what could you possibly do?”

Jo-jang rose from his seat and apologized to Dakam as well.

“I’m sorry, Dakam. My abilities fall short of your expectations.”

“Ah, cr-cr-crun…”

Dakam hung his head in disappointment. The squad leader bowed to the old man and turned away.

“Alright, now we’re really leaving.”

That was when it happened.

The old man smiled with a sly look and asked the squad leader.

“His background, his character—he really is an oddball, isn’t he? You’re not going to tell those guys either, are you?”

When the squad leader turned back to the old man with a heavy expression, he continued.

With words that left us all speechless…

“The fact that I am the Demon Lord of the Blood Sect.”

It was nothing short of a shocking revelation.

Bisae-yeong’s eyes widened as he shouted.

“Wh-what?!”

Bisaeng’s voice trembled with rage.

“You… are the Demon Lord of the Blood Sect?!”

Team Leader Seolpung stared at him with a heavy gaze.

Honestly, I had already suspected as much.

His excessive knowledge about demons and his intense hatred for righteous factions. I had thought it highly likely he was a retired Blood Sect Demon Lord.

Judging by her expression, Young Lady Qingyan seemed to have guessed as well.

But according to Dakam, he had been striving to save the mystics for a very long time.

He was also the protector of Dakam and his younger siblings now.

So, unless he was a truly evil person, she had thought to pretend ignorance of that fact. But for Biseoyoung, whose sect had been nearly annihilated by the Blood Sect, it was only natural that he couldn’t do that.

“Captain, what on earth is going on?! Is that man truly the Blood Sect’s Demon Lord?!”

Seolpung sighed and replied.

“I’m sorry, Sa-yeong. I couldn’t bring myself to tell you, thinking of Dakam and the others.”

Bise-yeong then looked at the squad leader with eyes full of betrayal, before his gaze turned to rage as he drew his sword.

Clang!

“Blood Sect’s Demon Lord! I may not know the squad leader, but I can never forgive you!”

Startled, Dakam and his brothers hurriedly shielded the old man with their bodies.

“Ah, no! I didn’t mean to! Please forgive me!”

“No! Please spare us!”

The old man chuckled, mocking their desperate pleas.

“Yeah, yeah. That’s the faction I know. You’re just a bunch of kids, aren’t you?! The sort who won’t be satisfied until you’ve exterminated demons and destroyed the world, no matter what happens to you, whether you’re left alone or not?! Kha ha ha ha! Exterminate demons and destroy the world! What a laughable notion!”

“Shut it, Madu!”

Biseaeng raised his sword as if ready to strike at any moment, but his hand trembled violently, as if caught in a storm.

Dakam and his younger brothers now clung to his body, begging for mercy.

“Please, brother! Stop!”

“Don’t kill Dokno, Great Hero!”

“No, he’s our grandfather!”

Bisaeng, his face contorted, looked at the old man amidst the children’s desperate pleas.

But the old man was still chuckling, mocking him.

Then, Biseoyoung shouted with a face twisted in rage.

“You demon of the Blood Sect! How dare you mock the righteous factions?! What have you ever done right?!”

But the old man didn’t back down either.

His eyes, too, blazed with fury.

“How dare you ask if I mock you?! Why shouldn’t I mock you?! I can mock you all I want! You hypocrites! I’ve lost everything to you lot, so I can mock you all I want! Think I’ll just mock you?! I’ll wipe you off the face of the earth! Come on then! Even if I’m not at my best, taking down a single bastard like you is no problem at all!”

“Is that so?! Fine! I’ll grant your wish!”

“Aaah! No!”

“Please, spare us!”

Biseoyoung, who had seemed ready to strike down the path at any moment, ultimately couldn’t shake off the children clinging to him, crying.

His expression changed several times in a moment.

Finally, he stared at the children with a twisted face, then let his trembling hands fall limply.

Then he spat out the words.

“I am Biseyeong, the Grand Disciple of the Biseong Sect. Even my own sect has disciples as young as these children. To hide behind such children… you are a coward beyond compare. Well, I suppose that makes you the demon head of the Blood Sect.”

With that, Bi Sa-yeong sheathed his sword with a look of utter disillusionment and turned his back.

“I’ll erase today’s events from my memory. I never saw you, Blood Sect’s demon leader.”

It was then.

An old man, his expression suddenly struck by shock, asked Bi Sa-yeong in a trembling voice.

“The Feather Sect? You mean the Feather Sect of Guangxi Province?”

With his back still turned, Bi Sa-yeong snorted in response.

“Hmph, is there another Biyongmen somewhere else?”

The old man muttered softly.

“The Blood Tomb of the Wuhuang Tomb.”

Those words pulled back the rage Bi Sayeong had been struggling to hold back.

“What?!”

Furious, Bi Sa-yeong turned with blazing eyes and shouted.

“You dare mention that matter in my presence?!”

But it seemed the old man hadn’t spoken those words to provoke Bise-yeong’s rage.

Sighing deeply, he used his one functioning arm and one leg to climb down from the bed, then knelt before Bise-yeong with great effort.

“I lost my family, everything I had, to the Jianchang Sect and the righteous faction scum. I never regret my revenge, but yes. If you are the descendants of those who died unjustly in the Wuhuang Tomb, then you have the right to kill me.”

“…What the hell are you talking about?”

Before Bi Sa-yeong, who asked with a confused look, the old man calmly confessed.

It was a confession beyond anything we could have imagined.

“I was the one who planned the Mu Huang Tomb massacre alongside Muwang. I am the enemy who killed your sect’s elders.”

Boom!

It felt like a drumbeat echoed in his head.

What?

The one who planned the Blood Sacrifice at the Muwang Tomb?

Could the name Wugang just mentioned possibly refer to the Blood Cult’s leader, the Demon of Blood, Zhen Wugang?

We couldn’t close our gaping mouths.

Bisa Yeong asked, his eyes trembling.

“What the hell are you talking about? You say you planned the Blood Sacrifice at the Emperor’s Tomb? What kind of nonsense is that?! Why the hell is someone like that even here?!”

The old man answered calmly.

“You needn’t know my circumstances. I won’t ask for your understanding. Only… I’m sorry. So kill me and vent your hatred.”

Bisea-yeong screamed in fury.

“Shut up! Don’t speak as you please! Whether I understand or not is for me to decide! You speak! Spill everything that happened!”

At Bisea-yeong’s shrieking, the old man looked at him with a heavy gaze before slowly opening his mouth.

The old man’s name was Seok Gyeong-dal. He had been the chief steward of the former Jeon family, once a righteous sect in Yunnan.

He had also been a close friend of Zhen Wuguang, the head of the Zhen family at the time.

At that time, the Zhen family had lost the Zhen Guang Sword Technique, the unique martial art of Zhen Piaosheng, the legendary swordsman who had been one of the Ten Great Swordsmen of the world over a hundred years prior. Restoring this Zhen Guang Sword Technique had been the Zhen family’s long-held aspiration.

After pursuing the restoration of the Zhen Guang Sword Technique for a long time with his friend Shi Jingda, Zhen Wuguang one day discovered the secret training chamber of their ancestors.

And there, he finally recovered the long-lost Zhen Guang Sword Technique.

It was nothing short of a tremendous blessing.

Everyone in the Zhen family was overcome with joy.

But they did not know then.

That it would become the seed of disaster…

The trigger was that the secret training chamber was located within the territory of the nearby Ma Clan.

At the time, Ma Yongcheok, the head of the Ma Clan, had claimed that since the training room was within his territory, the Jeon Gwang Sword Technique also belonged to his Ma Clan.

It was utterly absurd.

So, if the remains of our ancestors were found in their territory, did that mean our ancestors were Ma family members too?

Jeon Moo-kwang dismissed it outright as nonsense.

Ma Yongcheok then brought in the Zhanchang Sect, one of the Great Eight Sects of Yunnan Province, essentially the province’s overlords, demanding they make a ruling.

Even then, Jeon Moo-kwang remained confident.

He believed that even though returning martial arts manuals obtained by chance to their original owners was the way of the martial world, the Dianchang Sect, the pinnacle of the righteous factions, would never side with Ma Yongzhe.

But at that moment, Jeon Moo-kwang did not know.

That Ma Yongcheok’s son, Ma Yuanweng, was the top disciple of the Zhenchang Sect’s leader…

The Pointed Spear Sect ultimately sided with the Ma Clan.

Then they began pressuring Jeon Moo-kwang to return the Jeon Gwang Sword Technique to the Ma family.

It was truly an outrageous turn of events.

Shik Gyeong-dal, who was the chief steward at the time, proposed to Jeon Moo-kwang then.

He would secretly go to the Martial Alliance.

He would ask them to mediate.

With no other options, Jeon Moo-kwang tearfully saw Seok Moo-kyung off. Seok Moo-kyung did his utmost to reach the Martial Arts Alliance swiftly.

But that was as far as it went.

Whether the Jianchang Sect had already intervened, no one would meet Seok Mugeong.

Not even the Grand Master, reputed as the world’s greatest swordsman, nor any of the elders could be met.

His voice was completely silenced.

Seok Gyeong-dal, pacing anxiously, suddenly received tragic news.

News came that the family estate had been attacked by unknown assailants.

Rushing back in shock, he found the Jeon family estate already reduced to ruins.

Zhen Muguang had survived, but none of the other household members had made it out alive.

Seok Gyeong-dal’s family was no different.

As Seok Gyeong-dal wept tears of blood and cried out for vengeance, Jeon Moo-kwang shook his head weakly and said,

They had taken Jeon Moo-kwang’s young daughter.

They warned him that if he didn’t behave, he would never see his one remaining daughter again.

After that, the people Jeon Moo-kwang and Seok Moo-kyung encountered while wandering in search of a way to take revenge were the remnants of the Blood Sect.

They were once public enemies of the martial world, but now they were the only remaining means of vengeance for those men.

Hearing that much, we couldn’t bring ourselves to speak.

For martial artists, avenging a friend was as binding as law.

How could anyone condemn their vengeance, especially when they had lost their entire family and clan?

Sighing at this heartbreaking secret I’d never heard before, I said,

“So that’s why you planned the Wuhuang Tomb blood ritual. You targeted the Jianchang Sect from the start. You knew they wouldn’t resist the temptation of what was happening within Yunnan Province.”

The old man nodded, a hollow laugh escaping him.

“Yes. It was only natural. Those bastards played right into our hands. That’s why I’ve never once regretted it. But…”

He looked at Bi Siying with a heavy gaze.

“I never anticipated they’d drive every martial artist gathered there into the Wuhuang Tomb to kill them all. That they’d try to kill even the powerless, unthreatening ones. But all this is just an excuse. The undeniable truth is that my vengeance ultimately created more like me. So you have every right to despise me. You have every right to kill me too. Now, kill me. Just as I sacrificed your sect elders to settle my grudge, kill me to settle your sect’s grudge.”

His words, spoken calmly, caused Dakam and the children to cling to him.

“Tokno!”

“Grandfather, no!”

But the old man stood as still as a rock.

He simply gazed calmly at Biseyoung.

Biseyeong, staring blankly into space with a hollow gaze, suddenly asked.

“But why is someone so great stuck here like this? Did you get betrayed or something?”

“…I came out. My sole goal was revenge, but in the meantime, it seemed Mugwang had developed another dream. I couldn’t watch it unfold, nor could I stop it.”

Then Bise-yeong asked with a sneer.

“So that’s why you were living here, caring for the Miao children? To atone for something?”

At those words, the old man smiled weakly and shook his head.

“How many lives have I taken? Can caring for a few children truly atone for that? It was just… they caught my eye.”

Hearing this, Bise-yeong began to chuckle.

“Just caught my eye? Heh heh heh, heh heh heh heh.”

Then he shouted angrily.

“Damn it! Do you even know how I lived because of you?! Do you know how my priests live?! I couldn’t leave that place falling apart, thinking of the masters who took me in when I was an orphan! I did everything—shop assistant, errand boy, you name it! And that’s not all?! I even begged! Because the temple ran out of food! I begged so my priests wouldn’t starve! My priests still live like that! And you say it bothers you?! It bothers you?! Why?! Fuck, if you’re a Blood Cult demon lord, you should’ve lived like one to the end! Why did you do that shit?! Why the hell are you living like that?!”

Tears streamed down Biseoyoung’s face as he howled like that.

The old man simply kept his eyes tightly shut and bowed his head.

After staring into the void and weeping for a long while, Biseoyoung suddenly began chuckling again.

“You know what else is really funny? When I met that bastard Joo Tae-kyung, the disciple of the prestigious Jinchang Sect, I told him I was from the Biyong Sect too. Then he asked me where the hell that was. So I told him about the Muwang Tomb. I didn’t expect much. I just wanted to see a look of regret on his face. But that fucking bastard didn’t just mock my master—he tried to kill me. But… now I’ve met the Blood Sect’s Demon Lord, and just hearing the words ‘Biyong Sect’, he knelt before me, saying he’d atone with his life. This fucking… This is… This is just too much, isn’t it? Isn’t this really too much?”

No one, nothing could speak.