Chapter 184 – The Thread Was Not Cut (2)

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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Thump!

“Heuk!”

Pa Sa-reuk suddenly came to his senses at the vibration ringing the ground.

“Keueuk!”

As soon as he came to his senses, his breath was choked by the pain surging from his entire body.

“Uwaaaak!”

It hurt.

Truly, there had never been a time this painful. Bugs twisted around the cut-off lower part of his knees and dug into his flesh to eat, and his ruined left hand was swollen blue.

His Dantian was crushed so he couldn’t even dream of operating his internal energy, and his head spun dizzily from excessive bleeding. In the midst of that, the pain was felt clearly, so it was just baffling.

‘It hurts! It hurts!’

Cold sweat flowed down from his entire body.

Normally, it was normal to die when one reached this state. His innately born strong vitality was rather a situation that became poison to him.

At that time, a streak of an eerie voice was heard.

“Does it hurt?”

Pa Sa-reuk was startled and raised his head.

Flash! Flash!

A young man shining a blue eye light was standing in front of him.

A gray-black iron chain crossed diagonally and was wrapped around his upper body. He was resting a tremendous axe on his shoulder peak, and the sight of carrying a weapon the size of a human body on a slender body evoked a bizarre sense of fear.

“Y-You?!”

Yeon Ho-jeong slowly squatted down.

Pa Sa-reuk was startled and flinched.

Yeon Ho-jeong’s figure, spewing an eye light much bluer than him who had the blood of the West mixed in, was like a God of Death.

“Of course it should hurt. I left it alone without taking any measures so that it would hurt.”

“T-This bastard!”

“Shall I slice you more?”

Pa Sa-reuk stopped his breath without realizing it.

Slice him more? Was this words a person could say to a person. Even while living the life of a horse bandit group, there was never a time he talked about slicing a person or not.

It was a remark where one could plainly know how the opponent viewed him. Pa Sa-reuk’s face turned white.

Yeon Ho-jeong smiled.

It was the smile of a ghost.

“I was going to start by pulling out your eyeballs if you babbled bullshit one more time.”

“……!!”

“You are certainly a bastard with an amazing survival instinct. Ah, is that not it either? Since you held out until the end even when we barged in.”

Pa Sa-reuk closed his mouth.

‘This guy is a crazy bastard.’

He could tell from experience. He looked pretty like someone who only read books his whole life, but this guy was a bastard who could mince a person like meat in a butcher shop.

A guy like this shouldn’t be rashly provoked. Pull out his eyeballs? Not to mention his eyeballs, it would be fortunate if he wasn’t made into beef jerky alive.

“You can roughly guess the situation, right?”

“…….”

“The Gray Wolf Squad you lead are all buried.”

Pa Sa-reuk swallowed his saliva without realizing it.

Yeon Ho-jeong tilted his head to the side.

“There’s no reaction.”

It was a remark whose meaning was hard to know.

Pa Sa-reuk, who swallowed his saliva once again, carefully opened his mouth.

“What do you plan to do…… with me?”

Yeon Ho-jeong laughed softly.

His way of speaking was quite polite. When he fought with Murong Yu, every word he spat out was so rough, but at times like this, he absolutely tried not to provoke the opponent.

He was truly a beast. If he trained martial arts to that extent, it was normal for his mental strength to be suitably strong, but this guy was a horse bandit bastard down to his bones.

Thanks to that, dealing with him seemed like it would be much easier.

“What I will do with you depends on what you tell me.”

“……?”

“You know your own condition well, right? Your vitality is at an amazing level. But no matter how persistent your vitality is, you won’t last long in that condition.”

“……!”

“If you answer the questions asked properly, I will treat you and also hand you an appropriate amount of money.”

Pa Sa-reuk’s eyes wavered.

He would treat him and also hand him money? Did that mean he would let him live?

‘That can’t be!’

He also knew from having done it a lot, the act of toying with an opponent with subtle negotiation.

“Will you really do so?”

“That’s right.”

“You said you would treat me and hand me money, you didn’t say you would let me live.”

A hint of laughter appeared around Yeon Ho-jeong’s eyes.

“You are cunning. I didn’t think that far, you see. They say a guy who has eaten food eats well; thanks to you, I learned something good.”

Pa Sa-reuk was not deceived by the opponent. No, the opponent might be sincere, but he had to enter the negotiation thinking it was not sincere.

If he made a slight mistake, his life would fly away. Legs? Hands? Things like that were problems sufficient enough to worry about later on. For now, surviving was important.

“I will answer the questions. Since I will answer, treat me and give me enough money to live without worries. And…… move me to a safe place without inflicting any harm.”

It was an extremely shameless remark.

Yeon Ho-jeong scratched his cheek.

“Goodness me, since you demand so confidently, even I’m getting disheartened.”

“If you don’t do that, I too will not answer.”

There was no way that was true.

If he said he would kill him without hearing the answer, everything Pa Sa-reuk had demanded so far would fly away. Even if Yeon Ho-jeong went out just a little strongly, Pa Sa-reuk would stick his head in the ground.

However, unexpectedly, Yeon Ho-jeong nodded his head.

“Understood. If you answer obediently, I’ll give you money, treat you, and take you to a safe place.”

“You’re not going to come kill me again?”

“Do I look like someone who would waste time to kill a mere horse bandit trash like you?”

“…….”

“Don’t worry. Unless we happen to meet again by chance while strolling through the Central Plains, I have no intention of making the effort to find and cook a guy who is no different from a living corpse.”

Pa Sa-reuk let out a sigh of relief. He read sincerity in Yeon Ho-jeong’s voice.

“……Understood. What is the question?”

It was truly a light mouth.

Yeon Ho-jeong didn’t doubt that the opponent would only answer the truth.

“Why did you come?”

“……?”

“I heard you guys were bastards causing trouble in the areas of Tibet, Qinghai, and northern Gansu. Why did such bastards come all the way to Shandong to run amok?”

Pa Sa-reuk swallowed his saliva again. Even though his mouth was dry and there was no more saliva to swallow.

“Do you know a guy named Yeong Go-wi?”

“If his surname is Yeong, is he affiliated with the Sea Dragon Merchant Group?”

“That’s right. That guy is the younger brother of the Sea Dragon Merchant Group Leader. That guy has siphoned off the merchant group’s goods several times in the past and traded with us.”

Yeon Ho-jeong nodded his head.

“And?”

“The red jade that guy siphoned off was impossible to leak outside of Shandong Province. So we came personally. Because he brought as much as two sacks of top-grade red jade…….”

“Do you want to die?”

Pa Sa-reuk’s eyes widened. Out of nowhere asking if he wants to die, what did this mean.

“W-Why are you doing this?”

“In your eyes, I must look like just a simple crazy bastard?”

“……?!”

“Trying to grasp the opponent with a lie that doesn’t even make sense……. You’re quite something. You have boldness. Playing tricks even when your life is on the line? I see you differently now, horse bandit boss.”

“W-What do you mean! It’s real! It’s real! If you let me face that guy named Yeong Go-wi……!”

At that time, Yeon Ho-jeong took out a small piece of paper from his bosom. With Pa Sa-reuk’s eyes that had lost his internal energy, he couldn’t see the letters on the paper written faintly.

“Gray Wolf Squad Leader Pa Sa-reuk. Originally from Tibet’s Small Thunder Sound Temple. Founded the Gray Wolf Squad after being excommunicated for a certain reason over ten years ago. A self-made figure who built the number one horse bandit group in the Outer-territorial Region over the last ten years. Cruel and cunning, a typical petty person who highly values his own worth.”

“……!”

“For a mere two sacks of red jade, the Gray Wolf Squad numbering a thousand people crawled all the way into Shandong? The great Gray Wolf Squad Leader?”

Yeon Ho-jeong’s pupils, which were shining blue, gradually became dyed red.

Hwarereureuk.

Pa Sa-reuk’s mouth gaped open.

In an instant, Yeon Ho-jeong’s eyes spewing firelight were fear itself. Receiving the murderous intent pouring down like a shower with a body that couldn’t even properly operate internal energy, his breath was choked.

Yeon Ho-jeong opened his mouth.

Was it his mood? Pa Sa-reuk felt that his canine teeth were elongated like those of a beast of prey.

“I will change the content of the deal.”

“Heo-eok! Heo-eok!”

“You will unconditionally be killed.”

“Keoheok!”

“If you want to die cleanly, tell only the truth. The moment you put even a little bit of a lie in that disgusting snout.”

Yeon Ho-jeong smiled broadly.

A creepy murderous intent tightly filled the entire warehouse.

“At that time, I will not kill you. I will rather let you enjoy your natural lifespan.”

It was truly a gruesome threat.

Will not kill? Pa Sa-reuk was not foolish enough to interpret those words as meaning he would let him live comfortably.

Tseutseutseutseu.

A dark red murderous intent flowed into his eighty-four thousand pores.

“Why did you come to Shandong.”

Pa Sa-reuk’s mouth opened on its own. It was a force majeure.

“I, I received a request.”

“From whom?”

“Combat King, the Combat King Yang Cheon.”

In an instant, Yeon Ho-jeong’s eye light became twice as dark.

‘Yang Cheon!’

Saintly Heaven Thirteen Seats.

The thirteen experts who are said to be the most powerful in the Central Plains Murim.

Among them, excluding the Three Lords who could be considered relatively new up-and-comers, the remaining ten people were separately called the Gods, Immortals, Emperors, and Kings, and were revered.

Combat King Yang Cheon was exactly one of those Gods, Immortals, Emperors, and Kings. He was the number one person in practical hand-to-hand combat, employing hand-to-hand combat skills overflowing with destructive power at an age well past his sixtieth birthday.

And he was the most threatening enemy that Yeon Ho-jeong defeated last before unifying the Black Path in the past.

‘Received a request from Yang Cheon? These guys?’

Could that be?

Yang Cheon was a person with strong ambition, self-righteous, and a cruel nature. It meant he was not a character who would make a request to someone. If it was an order, maybe.

In an instant, strength entered Yeon Ho-jeong’s fist.

“Who is it?”

“Y-Yes?!”

“I asked who the person looking after your back is.”

“Heuk!”

“It’s not one person. It’s a group. A certain group in the Outer-territorial Region is looking after your backs.”

Pa Sa-reuk’s eyes trembled crazily.

Yeon Ho-jeong read his wavering eye light and expression in a single breath.

Pa Sa-reuk was the same kind of guy as the trash of the Black Path. Reading the psychology of a guy like this was even easier than emptying a wine cup.

“It shouldn’t be the Small Thunder Sound Temple? Thinking about it, that is strange too. The Small Thunder Sound Temple is a powerhouse counted among the top even in the Outer-territorial Region. There is no way they would just quietly watch the spectacle of an excommunicated disciple going around doing horse banditry.”

“……!”

“Who is it? Who is looking after your backs?”

“T-That is…….”

Yeon Ho-jeong shouted angrily.

“Speak properly!”

Pa Sa-reuk closed his eyes tightly without realizing it.

“I, I don’t know either!”

“What?”

“I, I don’t know their true identity well either! However…….”

“However?”

“That they are…… i-incredibly strong and cruel bastards, I only know that much.”

“How do you know that? Did you happen to make contact with those guys?”

“That’s right.”

“……You made contact?”

Naturally he would have made contact. Because there was no way this petty bastard would have been swayed without knowing the opponent’s capability.

However, apart from that, Yeon Ho-jeong received a shock.

There was a doubt just in case. He thought that just in case, these guys might be related to a ‘certain’ group in the Outer-territorial Region.

But that thought was merely a wish. In reality, the probability of that being true wouldn’t be high, but he hoped they were connected bastards if possible. Because that way it would be easier to find them.

But, it seemed they were genuinely connected.

“Name.”

“Yes?”

“What is the name of that group.”

“I, I don’t know! I really don’t know! They have never once said their organization name!”

Yeon Ho-jeong’s murderous intent became even denser.

Pa Sa-reuk hurriedly continued his words.

“But! Those guys had a characteristic!”

“A characteristic? What is that?”

“They, they were wearing something like a strange cloak! Every single one of the people I met!”

“……!!”

“It felt as if…… they were members of a certain religious group. It’s real!”

Yeon Ho-jeong raised his body.

Woooong! Woooooong!

The warehouse walls seemed to tremble.

“Religious group?”

“That’s right!”

“……Right, so that’s how it is.”

Yeon Ho-jeong lifted his head and looked up at the ceiling.

An extreme joy and severe anger appeared on his face looking at the ceiling.

Bururureu.

His tightly clenched fists trembled as if they would break right away.

Yeon Ho-jeong’s mouth slowly opened.

……I found them.