Chapter 29 The Black Chamber Raid Incident – 3

Chapter 29: The Black Chamber Raid Incident – 3

The moment our eyes met, my mind went completely blank.

Why is there a person here?

No, more importantly, how could I have failed to sense his presence?

I had to subdue him quickly.

If he made a sound, it would be over.

But he drew his sword before I could charge.

Clang!

Drawing his sword, the bastard shouted softly.

“Who the hell are you?!”

I froze in that moment, feeling puzzled.

He shouted softly? Why?

Shouldn’t he be shouting loudly to call the guards?

Then, the blanket beside the naked man shifted, and a woman, also completely naked, peeked her face out.

She was a beautiful woman with a youthful face.

Seeing me, she gasped in surprise and whispered urgently.

“Sang-rang! Quickly close the door! Someone outside might hear us!”

Huh? Close the door? They can hear us outside?

Hearing that, I suddenly glanced at the door behind me.

Then I distinctly felt both of them flinch.

Huh? Look at these guys.

I slammed the door shut.

Then I could feel the sounds from outside being completely blocked out.

It was perfect soundproofing.

And seeing the man and woman finally relax their expressions after closing the door, I could roughly guess their situation.

The man, now seemingly at ease, thrust his sword forward and shouted at me.

“Who the hell are you?! How dare you wear a mask and break into the Black Chamber’s headmaster’s quarters! Are you a thief?!”

Yeah, I guess I am a thief.

But you guys aren’t exactly in a position to say that, are you?

I chuckled and replied.

“I don’t think it’s any of your business when someone’s getting it on with the Master’s mistress in the Master’s own room.”

At that, the bastard’s face instantly drained of color.

He stammered out a question.

“D-don’t tell me… you’re sent by Father? H-have you known about us from the start?”

Oh my, Father?

So this guy?

I answered with a bitter smile.

“Gomu-sang! Do you know the gravity of your crime?!”

Startled beyond measure, the man stumbled backward and collapsed onto the bed.

He muttered in a dazed state.

“No, no way! How…?”

It was the correct answer.

That bastard was none other than Go Ju-yong’s son, Go Mu-sang.

The very man who, after Go Ju-yong died, flew into a rage and killed Ma Jong-hwan’s daughters.

Hearing that story, I thought he was such a filial son, but who knew he was the one secretly sleeping with his father’s concubine behind his back.

That was the moment.

The woman beside him, who had been pale with fear, suddenly turned fierce and shouted.

“Sang-rang! We haven’t been discovered yet! Kill him! Then there’ll be no evidence!”

Those words snapped Goh Mu-sang back to his senses.

He thrust his sword forward again, glaring at me with blazing eyes.

The woman beside him was screaming.

“Kill him now! Kill him before the people outside notice!”

Before the people outside notice.

That would be too kind, wouldn’t it?

Suddenly, I grinned and swiftly turned, grabbing the doorknob. The man and the woman screamed simultaneously.

“No!”

Gomu-sang desperately lunged forward, thrusting his sword into my back.

“Die!”

Shush!

His skill seemed roughly mid-tier first-class.

If we had clashed head-on, I wouldn’t have been able to subdue him so easily. But since he rushed in so recklessly…

I could only be grateful.

With just a slight twist of my body, I dodged his sword and used that momentum to immediately draw mine.

Shwaaak!

“Gah!”

My blade, thrust with all my strength, lightly grazed the neck of the man who had lunged at me.

The decapitated man collapsed instantly, eyes wide in disbelief at the situation.

Blood belched belatedly from his half-severed neck.

I considered just subduing him, but recalling memories from my past life and judging by his reputation in this one, he wasn’t worth keeping alive.

It seemed better to kill him while he could still be killed.

When I killed Gomusa without hesitation, Go Ju-yong’s concubine froze, her face now frozen in terror.

“You… you… how could you do this to the Master’s son…?”

Then, as if suddenly realizing something, she cried out.

“You… aren’t someone sent by Lord Bang, are you?!”

I was somewhat impressed.

Her mind worked with extraordinary cunning.

Then, as if struck by some thought, the woman suddenly emerged from beneath the covers and sat up.

Her naked, alluring figure was spread out before my eyes.

She immediately smiled seductively and said to me.

“Hey. If you’re not the Master’s man, please take me with you. I was held here against my will. If you let me leave, I’ll become your woman and repay your kindness.”

Her moist eyes as she spoke made her look like a tragic heroine.

I almost fell for it myself.

If only she hadn’t just moments ago been screaming at me to die with that vicious look on her face.

Thud!

The sword I thrust without hesitation pierced her heart. She stared at me with an expression of utter disbelief before collapsing.

Had she shown even a hint of less cunning, I might have hesitated. But I couldn’t possibly spare such a serpentine woman.

Suddenly, I felt relieved that Squad Leader Seolpung hadn’t come this way.

Had it been him, he would have known it was a lie, yet hesitated and failed to resolve it simply because she was a woman, right?

That damn fear of women.

After that, I could descend through the passage inside the room to the private storage room on this floor, designed to be accessible only from this room.

To cut to the chase, I came up empty-handed.

I knew it upon entering, but this storage room wasn’t a place where people could be confined.

But I wasn’t disappointed.

No, I couldn’t help but whistle in admiration.

“Whoa, this is amazing!”

My eyes nearly popped out at the items displayed inside the warehouse.

Inside the warehouse were piles of gold coins, gold bars, jewels, incredibly valuable-looking weapons, and even elixirs.

That bastard Go Ju-yong had hoarded all these elixirs in his warehouse, yet still coveted others’ possessions and caused such a mess.

My eyes sparkled as I surveyed it all.

“Huh, look at this.”

***

Meanwhile, Seolpung, who had headed toward the Brain Prison, found his way without much difficulty.

After all, the Brain Prison was the place with overwhelmingly strict security.

However, precisely because the security was so tight, sneaking in covertly, as Sunwoo-jin had done, was a bit of a challenge.

After pondering for a moment, Seolpung ultimately had no choice but to abandon the idea of sneaking in.

The Prison was a single-story building, but according to intelligence, it was designed to hold prisoners down to three basement levels.

Six guards maintained constant vigil at the prison’s entrance, while four others patrolled the perimeter like gears in a machine, rotating shifts.

Seolpung hid in the shadows, waiting for his moment.

Crouching like a predator, Seolpung finally leaped like a tiger toward the guards at the main gate the moment one sentry rounded the corner.

Thud!

By the time the guards realized something was crashing down on them, Seolpung’s fists were already smashing into their heads.

“What…!”

“That…!”

Thwack!

All six lost consciousness and collapsed in an instant.

Seolpung didn’t stop there.

He charged toward the opposite corner where the sentry had just turned.

The sentry, just rounding the corner, stared in shock, eyes widening.

“What…!”

Thud!

But he too couldn’t utter a sound.

Seolpung knocked him down, immediately rounded the corner, and circled in the opposite direction of the patrol, knocking out all the guards. The entire circuit took a mere three breaths.

Seolpung briefly debated whether to kill them, but soon shook his head and decided to throw them all into the first cell inside the inner prison.

For someone living on the front lines, killing people was far too easy.

Therefore, Seolpung actually made an effort not to kill people unless it was absolutely necessary.

He faced monsters, but he didn’t want to become one himself.

After locking them in the cell, Seolpung asked the others imprisoned on the first floor of the dungeon.

“Are the two daughters of the Demon Lord of Life and Death, Ma Jong-hwan, imprisoned here by any chance?”

The prisoners, who had been watching with wide eyes since Seolpung threw the guards into the dungeon, immediately shouted back.

“No, there are no such people here! Save me instead!”

“That’s right! As far as I know, there are no women here! Who are you, great hero?! This Zhongshanxie, Lao Shangyuan, is a man who looks up to the heavens without a single trace of shame! If you release me, I will repay this favor…!”

“Great Hero!”

“Great Hero!”

The prisoners began to clamor.

Seolpung gave a bitter smile and addressed them.

“If you’re going to make such a racket, I won’t release you. I’ll just walk out.”

At his words, everyone gasped and fell silent.

Seon Woo-jin had said.

On the first floor of the Brain Prison, common criminals would be held, while those who had opposed the Black Chamber would be imprisoned on the second and third basement levels.

When Seol Pung asked what should be done with them, Seon Woo-jin had casually replied,

‘Just release them, right? If the Black Chamber imprisoned them, the ratio of good people to bad is probably higher. Besides, even if they are bad, if the Black Chamber could capture them, they likely aren’t that dangerous.’

For Seolpung, the possibility of potentially releasing bad guys wasn’t exactly a pleasant thought.

But it was certainly impossible to screen them all individually and release them; time simply wouldn’t allow it.

Seolpung addressed the prisoners.

“I will definitely release you all. But I will do so only after checking all the way down to the lowest level. Until I return, I hope you will stay quiet and avoid being discovered.”

The prisoners fell dead silent, and Seolpung descended to the lower floor.

In the end, Seolpung also came up empty-handed.

The two daughters of the Life-Death-Mystery-Goodness were not imprisoned in the Brain Prison.

Instead, Seolpung released all those imprisoned in the third basement level who had been hostile to the Black Shangbang.

Among them was Jong Won-ik, the leader of the Salsanghoe, an organization formed by people who had lost family or suffered ruin at the hands of the Black Chamber.

Zong Yuan-yi shed tears as he thanked Seolpung.

“Thank you! If not for you, great hero, I would have ended my life imprisoned by those Black Shangbang scoundrels, unable to avenge my family! Truly, I am grateful! I will never forget this kindness!”

After freeing everyone on the third basement level, Seolpung ascended and ordered the release of all prisoners on the second and first levels as well.

This was, of course, to free the wrongfully imprisoned, but it was also to throw the Black Robe Sect into chaos.

Amidst all this chaos, the Black Shangbang would never be able to figure out who had done these things.

***

If the righteous factions bestowed the title “Phoenix” upon female masters past their prime in their twenties, the heretical factions often gave the title “Magpie” to young female masters past their prime.

Among them, the Blood-Stained Sparrow, Ya Yunxiang, had been employed by the Black Chamber for six months now.

She hadn’t done much since arriving at the Black Pavilion.

Like her previous employers, Heuksangbang’s master, Go Ju-yong, had hired her not so much for her martial prowess, but because he desperately wanted to spend the night with her.

Yet, though Yao Yunxiang was a free-spirited woman of the underworld, she was no easy woman.

She would never engage with a man unless he truly appealed to her.

So there was no way she would grant herself to a mere old man like Go Ju-yong.

Now that she belonged to the Black Chamber, refusing his persistent advances could have caused trouble, but she wasn’t particularly worried.

She always took payment upfront to prepare for such situations.

If employers tried to pull too many shenanigans, she could simply return the payment and leave without a second thought.

In that regard, Go Ju-yong hadn’t been such a bad employer so far. At least he hadn’t tried to force her into anything.

‘At least, that’s how it had been until now.’

But watching what he did to this life-and-death situation, she finally grew sick of Go Juyong.

Stabbing someone in the back who she’d just been doing business with, then threatening his family? She clearly realized he was someone who hadn’t done anything to her yet, but was fully capable of doing anything in the future.

Though she was a Sapa, she believed there were principles one must uphold as a human being. This was an act she could never tolerate.

So she refused the demand to track down the Life and Death Demon and remained in the Black Chamber.

And she was determined to leave this place.

‘I should leave as soon as Go Ju-yong returns.’

Honestly, she too had considered killing Go Ju-yong and obtaining the elixir of life and death.

But she didn’t want to do the same thing he did—betraying someone she’d just been working for—so she decided to hold back.

Right now, Yawunxiang was moving toward the rear of the Black Chamber.

The reason was that a commotion had erupted near the main gate, drawing everyone’s attention there.

With the room already understaffed, she feared the rear would become extremely vulnerable in this state.

Of course, it wasn’t that she particularly cared enough about Heuksangbang to protect it.

But her own sense of professionalism was that she should at least earn her keep while employed.

That was when it happened.

“Huh?”

A brief commotion from the direction of the prison suddenly caught her ear.

It was only for a moment, but that made it all the more suspicious.

So, just in case, she went to check the prison. The guards who had been stationed at the front were all gone.

Something had definitely happened.

Yawunxiang briefly considered calling for help, but decided against it. There was hardly anyone to call anyway, and the distance was too great. She resolved to go alone.

Just then, people began pouring out of the prison.

They were dressed shabbily, as if they’d suffered hardship—undoubtedly prisoners.

“Hmm.”

He’d suspected it, but never imagined something real had actually happened.

This couldn’t be anything but a nuisance.

She muttered in a languid voice.

“Work is work.”

In an instant, the black ribbon tightly wrapped around Yawunhyang’s slender waist writhed like a living snake, then shot out in a flash, lashing the ground in front of the brain prison.

Swoosh!

“Waaah! What, what is that?!”

“What is it?! What is this?!”

The prisoners who had been running out froze solid in place, unable to move.

The whip’s strike had left a deep, thick gash in the ground, as if a dragon had passed through.

Yawunxiang spoke to them in a languid voice.

“All of you, stop right there. If you don’t move, I won’t kill you.”

The prisoners’ gazes fell upon her face, glistening faintly in the moonlight.

A face that seemed both dazed and mysterious, a captivating figure revealed by her tight-fitting black martial arts robe, and the black energy swirling and writhing around her body as if alive—there was not a single martial artist in the south who did not know her name.

Someone swallowed hard and murmured.

“Blood-Stained Sword Maiden.”

“Blood-Stained Blade, Ya Yunxiang.”

Then she spoke in a languid voice.

“Sorry, but escaping while I’m employed is a bit difficult. If you quietly return to your cell, I’ll pretend I didn’t see anything.”

The moment she spoke, the black shards swirling around her body slammed into the floor again with tremendous force.

CRASH!

The impact was so immense that smoke rose from the deep gouges it left in the ground.

Yawunxiang, who had displayed such overwhelming power as if it were nothing, warned in her characteristic languid voice.

“But if you resist, I won’t be able to help myself.”

Blood-Stained Sword Maiden.

Her appearance was as beautiful as a Western beauty, but the nickname stuck because her black sword was stained with countless bloodshed.

Particularly legendary among the female martial artists of the Jiangnan region, even years later, was the incident where she had wiped out the entire ruling faction of Heigalfang in Yizhou, Guangxi Province—including its leader and his subordinate officers—who had tried to drug and rape her, all in a single night.

As the prisoners, who had been trying to escape in a frenzy, froze in place upon seeing her, a man wearing a black mask slowly stepped out from among them.

It was Seolpung.

Yawunxiang’s eyes flashed with recognition upon seeing him.

“The Black-Masked Man? So you’re the mastermind behind this incident, I see.”

With those words, the black whirlwind swirling around her began to roar once more.

It seemed to have instantly recognized Seolpung as a formidable opponent.

But unlike Yawun-hyang, whose drowsy eyes flashed with competitive spirit, Seolpung’s gaze only grew darker and darker.

Damn it, she was a woman.

Damn it.