Chapter 33 The Strange Doctor of Life and Death – 3

Chapter 33: The Strange Doctor of Life and Death – 3

Ma Jong-hwan asked me with a worried expression.

“Are you alright?”

His gaze was fixed on the piece of Dongpaekyeong’s sword embedded in my arm.

After retrieving the three-colored needle first, I answered with a smile.

“I’m fine. I’ve trained my external skills, so my skin is tough. The pain is also somewhat dull. Thanks to the antidote you gave me earlier, the poison seems to have been neutralized immediately. Thank you, Elder.”

It wasn’t just a polite remark.

Thanks to the antidote Ma Jong-hwan had handed me while running earlier, the poison applied to the Dongpae-gyeong’s water seal had no effect whatsoever.

Of course, this was possible because he had already known the type of poison the lower-ranked warrior used when he struck him earlier.

The wound on his arm was the same.

It was a hidden blade imbued with martial energy; it could have easily pierced through his body, let alone his arm. However, the blade had slowed upon piercing the sword, and thanks to his training in external martial arts, he only sustained a relatively shallow wound.

It was fortunate he had used his old sword instead of Moolrang, lest the enemy recognize it.

Above all else, training in external martial arts alongside Bae Jong-hwan seemed to have been a truly wise choice.

Ma Jong-hwan shook his head and said to me.

“It’s fortunate, but you mustn’t take the wound lightly. Let me take a look.”

Ma Jong-hwan simply pulled the needle out of my arm, nodded, and applied medicine.

“So you really did master external martial arts. At this rate, the wound isn’t too bad.”

Then he asked me.

“Who exactly are you? At your age, you already possess martial prowess that seems top-tier, divine techniques surpassing peak masters, astonishing improvisational skills, and you’ve even mastered external martial arts. It’s almost strange that I’ve never heard of someone like you before. Can you reveal your identity?”

I grinned at his question and replied.

“Certainly, sir. I am Seon Woo-jin, a member of the Seventh Division of the Boryong Thirteen. I happened to be on leave when I unexpectedly came across your story. I suppose it was meant to be.”

He looked startled and asked back.

“The Boryong Division?! Ah, so that’s why it wasn’t known?!”

We resumed our walk and continued talking.

Mostly about the process of saving his children.

Listening, he sighed and said.

“So the children had that misunderstanding. Yes, I thought it was the best course, but it must have been terribly harsh for them. Thank you. If it weren’t for you, they might have died blaming me.”

“Ah, that was my friend’s doing. Come to think of it, it was that friend who saved your children too. If you ever meet him later, please give him my thanks.”

As we were talking, I suddenly gasped, covering my mouth with my finger.

“Wait!”

Then, listening intently, I sensed something approaching from ahead.

Not just one, but several people.

“People are swarming in from the front. Looks like they’ve already closed in on us here?”

I had thought we were only partially surrounded, but it seemed we were completely encircled after all.

Suddenly, the thought crossed his mind: Should he try to break through the encirclement like this?

But I quickly shook my head.

He suspected the advancing forces also included peak masters.

With three peak masters still remaining, I couldn’t take such a reckless risk.

In the end, I decided to turn back.

“Let’s go back, sir. I think the direction I came through might have the loosest encirclement.”

To be precise, the direction the squad leader was coming from seemed the weakest and safest, but there was no way to know that direction for certain.

“I’m sorry, but I’ll carry you again, sir.”

“My apologies. I’m sorry to cause you such trouble.”

With the old man on my back, I began running faster again.

The route was slightly north of where I had killed Dong Pae-gyeong earlier.

I had chosen that route thinking the squad leader would be coming from the north, but unfortunately, that assumption didn’t quite pan out.

Instead, I encountered another bastard first.

“There he is! Catch that bastard!”

Shouting thus, the one charging from the northwest with countless subordinates was a burly man, as big as Bae Jong-gwan, with a dark, hairy face wielding a massive iron mace.

He was likely Han Jeok-sam, the third younger brother of Go Ju-yong, the leader of the Black Pavilion, known as the Black Mountain Mace.

My intended route lay to the west, but with men closing in from the northwest as if encircling me, continuing straight ahead was problematic.

After briefly scanning the surroundings, I turned and began running back the way I had come.

“Don’t let him escape! Encircle him! Throw your daggers!”

As Han Jeok-sam shouted that, the real ones closing in from the north started hurling daggers at me.

That bastard Han Jeoksam really was simple-minded and ignorant; he seemed to have forgotten that you shouldn’t kill someone in a life-or-death struggle.

Ping! Ping! Whiz! Whoosh!

Holding the Moolang Sword in my left hand, I easily parried the projectiles.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

I could easily block these without even looking.

Then Han Jiksam shouted again.

“That bastard’s holding the Moolang Sword?! How the hell did he get that?!”

Just as expected.

It was a peculiar sword, entirely black with a wolf’s head engraved on the guard, so the enemy must have recognized the Mokrang as well.

That’s why he’d used his original sword when facing Dong Pae-gyeong earlier, but the blade had been damaged by the dagger, leaving him no choice.

It seemed like one more reason had been added to destroy the Black Fang Clan.

I deliberately controlled my speed, maintaining a distance just enough for them to barely keep up.

Even so, Jeongjeong Gosu, the most skilled among them, took the lead and pursued me.

The distance between us was steadily closing.

Three lengths, two lengths, one length.

“You bastard! Gotcha!”

Just as Han Jeok-sam thought he had me, my new form suddenly began sprinting vertically up a large tree ahead.

Thud, thud, thud!

“What… what?!”

Startled, Han Jeok-sam screeched to a halt and stared at me. In an instant, I had already ascended high up, dashing along the branches like the wind and leaping far toward the west, my original destination.

Thud!

“Whoa!”

“Don’t, don’t let him get away! Throw your daggers!”

The flustered Black Shangbang disciples hurled daggers at me, but keeping up with my rapidly accelerating speed was impossible.

Ping! Ping! Ping!

Hearing the whistling of daggers flying harmlessly past my back, I hurled daggers at the Black Robe Cultists at my landing spot. They were the black daggers taken from Dong Pae-gyeong’s corpse.

Pssshhh!

“Gwaaah!”

“Gah!”

“Aaaah!”

As the ones hit by the projectile barrage screamed, I landed lightly among them and charged forward, unleashing my sword technique.

It was the second strike of the Sunwoo Thirteen Swords: Shin Eung Pyeok.

Shwaaah!

The sword light spread out fantastically, like wings unfurling, as the blood of the Black Shangbang disciples splattered in all directions.

Darting out like a tiger through that bloody corridor, I began sprinting at full speed once more.

Behind me, Han Jiksam’s scream-like shout echoed.

“You bastard! I won’t let you live!”

That bastard, it seemed we had something in common after all.

Because that was exactly my intention.

Anyway, this was no time for complacency.

The encirclement was closing in much faster than I’d anticipated. Enemies were already appearing from the southwest.

“Over there! The man on that bastard’s back is Ma Jong-hwan! Don’t let him escape!”

The sharp-featured bandit in his fifties—that man was apparently Heuksangbangju Go Ju-yong.

Two peak masters appearing from the north and south… Had we continued east, would we have encountered Heukgwangryun Gakgihyo?

Choosing the western route had indeed been an excellent decision.

But that didn’t mean the current situation was any less daunting.

Rumor had it that the Black Shadow Swordsman, Go Ju-yong, was a master with nearly ninety years of cultivation.

Whether that was true or not, the speed at which he was pursuing us was nothing to be taken lightly.

Even though he wasn’t known for his footwork, he had just demonstrated a speed comparable to that of the Black Arrow Dong Pae-gyeong.

It seemed impossible to gain distance relying solely on lightness skills.

That was when it happened.

Ahead, the path was cut off, coming into my view.

Somehow, he had already reached the very cliff we had climbed up earlier, carrying the Life-and-Death-Defying Weapon.

Earlier, I had climbed up, but now I had to jump down.

The cliff was roughly thirty zhang high (1 zhang ≈ 3.3m). Carrying the Life-and-Death Weirdness on my back and jumping down seemed impossible.

And it seemed Go Ju-yong had come to the same conclusion.

His voice rang out.

“That end is a cliff! Spread out on both sides to prevent escape!”

Then, the man on his back spoke.

“Set me down at the end. I’ll buy you some time while you climb down. Those bastards will never catch me.”

Of course, that could be one way to go about it.

After all, in my past life, even without my help, the Life-and-Death Demon had succeeded in killing Go Ju-yong.

But still.

Wouldn’t that be too humiliating?

To come all this way just to say ‘I’m sorry,’ drop him off, and run away?

That thought suddenly occurred to me.

I was confident I was in a better state than my past self.

But I hadn’t yet tested that limit.

Suddenly, I asked the old man of life and death.

“Elder, do you trust me?”

He answered, flustered.

“You? Of course I trust you. But…”

Even if he said he didn’t trust me, I was prepared to act. But since he did trust me, there was no reason to hesitate.

I declared boldly.

“Then leave it to me.”

“Huh? Entrust what…?!

Just then, my new model suddenly accelerated sharply.

Thud!

The startled Shengshiguai shouted.

“Hey, you!”

In that instant, my body was leaping forward like a bird toward the edge of a thirty-foot cliff.

“Yeehaw!”

“Aaargh! You!”

Looking down at the seemingly bottomless ground below as I moved forward, it felt as if I were flying through the sky.

Of course, that was just how it felt—I certainly wasn’t actually flying.

My body had begun to plummet downward.

Whether due to my weight or not, the perceived acceleration was no joke.

This was the crucial moment.

I grabbed the body of the creature of life and death and spun together with it.

Then, our two bodies began spinning like a ball in midair.

Then, when I felt enough rotational force had built up, I threw the Life-and-Death Demon with all my might toward the sky, away from the direction it was falling.

“Haah!”

Whoosh!

“You?!”

His startled eyes were rapidly growing distant.

The recoil from throwing him caused my body to plummet downward even more rapidly.

I was crashing into the ground like a meteor.

But even in that moment, I didn’t lose my composure.

Watching the rapidly approaching ground, my nerves sharpened like a razor-sharp blade.

I watched the ground draw nearer with every passing moment.

Then, in one instant, I suddenly felt a strange sensation as if time itself had slowed.

As everything around me slowed to a near standstill, I felt like the sole protagonist, calmly observing the world.

And in that instant, my feet finally touched the ground.

A tremendous shock was bearing down on me, threatening to shatter my body into pieces.

But my nerves remained cold and sharp.

I began to calmly distribute the impact throughout my entire body, step by step.

First the tips of my toes, then my toes, the soles of my feet, my ankles, knees, hips, and waist. I dispersed the shock little by little through each joint.

As if I had become formless water.

And after a mere instant, I was rolling fiercely across the ground like a ball.

I had finally succeeded in completely dispersing the shock.

My heart filled with fiery joy.

I felt like leaping up and shouting in triumph.

But there was still work to be done.

Having rolled enough to offset the shock, I immediately sprang up and checked the sky.

The life-and-death weapon I had hurled upward was now falling back down.

Thud!

I snatched the Life-and-Death Orb as it shot skyward and plummeted back down.

“Whoa!”

I smiled and asked him, who looked dazed.

“Are you all right, sir?”

Then, as if he hadn’t quite regained his senses yet, he managed to open his mouth and reply.

“If you ever ask me again if I trust you, I’ll say no. I truly thought I was dying.”

I grinned back.

“Honestly, even if you said no, I was still planning to jump.”

“Whoa.”

Now it seemed he could joke around with a light heart.

Go Juyong stood gaping on the cliff, watching. And this front part was where I’d come earlier, clearing out the Black Shadows.

All I had to do was run back the way I came, comfortably.

I had thought that once.

For just a brief moment…

“Hahahahaha! I knew you’d come back this way! You’re still right in this old man’s palm!”

Those who had been ambushing ahead revealed themselves.

Particularly, the man who seemed to be their leader was a sleek-looking middle-aged man wielding a pair of wheels—likely Heukgwangryun Gakgihyo, the second younger brother of Go Ju-yong.

This time, he couldn’t help but be truly flustered.

I never imagined they’d be ambushing me from the very direction I’d just broken through.

As I stopped abruptly in shock, Go Ju-yong, watching from the cliff above, burst into laughter.

“Hahahahaha! You’re truly Gak Ijeo! Well done, hahahahaha!”

I suddenly looked around.

There was nowhere to go.

Not behind me, nor in front.

If I were to escape at all, it would be to either side, but the enemy’s encirclement was spread wide, making that route no easy task either.

This time, he was truly surrounded.

The future looked bleak.