Chapter 287 – Escape Attempt (1)

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Translated by Jinmu

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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A symbol in which a single vertical line pierced straight through the center of the character for two.

As Mok Gyeong-un stared fixedly at it, his thoughts became tangled.

This half-burned clue was clearly said to be related to the day of the great catastrophe.

Because it was in fact a partial trace proving that occult arts, in other words spellcraft, had been used, he had thought of it as no more and no less than that. But this was something he had never expected.

‘Did they not say the day of the great catastrophe occurred during the era of the old martial world?’

Then there was only one thing this symbol on a clue connected to the day of the great catastrophe could mean.

‘…Does that mean the organization of the mark already existed at that time as well?’

Mok Gyeong-un’s expression turned strange.

Through the various pieces of information he had gathered, he had already become convinced that the organization of the mark was connected to his grandfather’s death.

But he had not expected that organization to have existed since so long ago.

What in the world were these people trying to do?

They were connected to the Fire Worship Sect, and they were also closely tied to the Heaven and Earth Society.

And though it was not certain, if this clue was genuine, then they were also tied to the day of the great catastrophe, in which countless people had reportedly died.

‘What are they?’

There was nothing particularly strange about some organization having existed for a long time.

But this was not an organization that everyone knew of. It was closer to a secret society.

Moreover, the things this organization had been doing up until now were of an altogether different nature from the activities of ordinary groups.

If this organization was indeed closely tied to the day of the great catastrophe, then they were the ones behind the force that had pushed the entire Central Plains into its worst crisis.

‘Ha.’

Mok Gyeong-un’s lips twitched.

The more he learned, the harder it became to guess either their purpose or their scale.

He had started all this with the simple purpose of avenging his grandfather, but the deeper he dug, the more it felt as though he had only seen the tip of the iceberg.

‘Hmm.’

Mok Gyeong-un stroked his chin.

He had thought all he needed to do was catch the enemy who had killed his grandfather, but now that he knew the scale of the power behind it was beyond what he had imagined, it no longer seemed like something he could approach simply.

‘…I need more pieces on the board.’

When he believed the forces behind it were merely martial artists, he had thought that attaining the level of strength he wanted would be enough.

But the situation was changing more and more.

If the power behind all this was too vast for one person to handle alone, then he too would need to gather pieces appropriate to that scale.

At that moment, So Ye-rin, the Deputy Thousand-Household Commander, spoke to Mok Gyeong-un.

“Young Master Mok. Did you discover something?”

At that question, Mok Gyeong-un held up the symbol and said with a smile,

“It seems the two of us are tied together in more ways than one.”

“Tied together?”

“This is a mark.”

“A mark? That thing?”

“Yes. It is the mark used by a certain organization.”

“Then… does that mean this clue is tied to the organization of that mark?”

“I cannot be certain, but if the clue your father obtained, the one said to be related to the day of the great catastrophe, bears this on it, then it means the odds are very high.”

“What exactly is that organization?”

At her question, Mok Gyeong-un shrugged and answered,

“I do not know that either.”

“You do not know?”

“No. I am investigating the organization behind this mark myself.”

As he said that, Mok Gyeong-un glanced toward the Sacred Fire Leader.

She definitely knew something about this organization.

Otherwise, there would have been no reason for the organization of the mark to secure the whereabouts of the followers of the Fire Worship Sect and then try to learn something through the Sacred Fire Leader.

When their eyes met, the Sacred Fire Leader wore a strange expression.

Then So Ye-rin said to Mok Gyeong-un,

“Forgive me, but may I ask why you are trying to uncover the organization behind that mark, Young Master Mok?”

She too had spent a long time investigating on the basis of clues to the day of the great catastrophe in order to find her father’s killer.

Yet she had discovered nothing to this point, and now Mok Gyeong-un was saying that this mark was tied to a particular organization, which naturally raised questions.

To her question, Mok Gyeong-un answered as though it were nothing,

“Because there is a very great debt that has to be repaid.”

-Flinch.

A strange light entered So Ye-rin’s eyes.

She had not known Mok Gyeong-un for very long, but she had never seen him openly display any particular emotion.

Yet for the first time, she sensed a faint but unmistakable killing aura in his voice.

There was only one thing that could mean.

‘So they are enemies.’

If that was the case, then it was truly a strange coincidence.

They had met for entirely different reasons, yet the lines of their purposes crossed at the same point.

To her, Mok Gyeong-un smiled faintly and said,

“It seems that Deputy Thousand-Household Commander So and I have rather closely aligned interests.”

“…How ironic. I was thinking the same thing.”

If their objective was the same, then it was better to join hands than to oppose one another.

It was then.

-Slither.

At that moment, someone familiar passed through the warehouse building and revealed herself.

It was none other than Blue Spirit.

Blue Spirit approached Mok Gyeong-un and said, sounding utterly dumbfounded,

-What in the world are you doing, sentient being? Why are you still here?

By now, she had thought they would already have moved at least as far as the outside of the outer walls according to plan.

But when she failed to see them, she traced Mok Gyeong-un through their karmic bond and came looking for him.

-I went to the trouble of killing Prince Gyeong and tying up the Embroidered Uniform Guard, and here you are loafing around.

-We were not loafing around. There were some circumstances.

-Circumstances or not, because of the Underground Forbidden Prison, every gate of the outer walls is already occupied by warriors of the Imperial Guard Bureau, and inside the city the eunuchs of the Eastern Depot and the Western Depot have begun their search. If you do not hurry, you really will not be able to get out.

-…We have delayed too much.

-If you know that, then hurry.

-We should.

As he gave that answer, So Ye-rin suddenly frowned and looked toward where Blue Spirit was standing.

She was not the only one.

Dam Baek-ha of the Old Blood Cult’s Six Blood Saints was also looking in that direction with wary eyes.

-Hoh. The intuition of these two is no joke, is it?

Blue Spirit was impressed.

She had nearly reached the rank of a Purple Spirit and had hidden her spiritual power as much as possible, yet the two of them were sensing those faint traces through instinct alone.

Even if they could not see her, something would still grate at their sixth sense, not their ordinary five senses.

-Swish.

At that moment, So Ye-rin drew up her Innate True Qi and tried to move toward where Blue Spirit was.

Mok Gyeong-un stepped in front of her and said,

“It seems we really have delayed too long.”

“Delayed?”

“Yes. Contrary to the original plan, we ran into the Deputy Thousand-Household Commander and stayed here far too long.”

“Ah… are you leaving the imperial palace?”

“As you can see.”

Mok Gyeong-un said, tilting his head toward the Sacred Fire Leader.

From the beginning, his original purpose had been to seize her, since she had been imprisoned in the Underground Forbidden Prison.

“Deputy Thousand-Household Commander So said you will continue remaining here, correct?”

“…Yes. There are things I still have to do.”

“Then it seems we should part ways for now. If either of us gains information worth using, let us meet later and exchange it.”

At those words from Mok Gyeong-un, So Ye-rin nodded.

Just because they shared the same objective did not mean they had to remain together.

Rather, if each of them gathered information from inside and outside and brought it together later, they would likely come closer to their goal.

At that moment, So Ye-rin asked Mok Gyeong-un,

“But Young Master Mok, how do you intend to leave the imperial palace?”

At that question, Mok Gyeong-un looked toward Mara Hyeon, the masked officer of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, who sat cross-legged in meditation.

As it happened, Mara Hyeon seemed to have finished ordering his realization and was slowly opening his eyes.

* * *

-Rattle, rattle, rattle!

Three large carts carrying barrels full of leftover food were moving in a line.

Within the imperial palace, where tens of thousands lived in the outer palace and the inner palace alike, leftovers from meals were sorted and used as feed for livestock or fertilizer for cultivated fields.

For this reason, carts laden with leftover food barrels passed out of the imperial palace many times each day.

Three palace servants were now pulling these carts, and they were none other than Mok Gyeong-un, Seop Chun, and Mong Mu-yak, all wearing human skin masks prepared in advance.

Beside these carts, as though escorting them, walked Mara Hyeon, a masked Thousand-Household Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

After they had been going for some time, the road split.

-Swish.

At that moment, from a place around ten or so zhang away, Deputy Thousand-Household Commander So Ye-rin appeared and gestured to indicate a direction.

At her hand signal, Mara Hyeon nodded and said to Mok Gyeong-un and the others pulling the carts,

“Take the right path.”

So they dragged the carts to the right and moved on.

This was their method.

So Ye-rin would go ahead in advance and guide the leftover carts along routes where there were no search parties from the Imperial Guard Bureau, the Eastern Depot, or the Western Depot.

Originally, Blue Spirit alone would have been enough to play So Ye-rin’s role, but since she had volunteered to help them escape, they simply let her.

-Rattle, rattle, rattle, rattle!

In some of these leftover barrels, the Sacred Fire Leader and Dam Baek-ha of the Old Blood Cult’s Six Blood Saints were hiding.

‘Phew.’

‘Damn it.’

Inside the barrels filled with mixed food scraps, the two of them privately felt as though they were dying.

Because the food scraps were all mixed together, the smell was nauseating, almost like vomit.

But from the perspective of those who had endured every sort of torture and interrogation while imprisoned in the Underground Forbidden Prison, it was not something they could not endure.

-Rattle, rattle, rattle, rattle!

Anxious concern entered the eyes of So Ye-rin, who was moving ahead and guiding them.

For now, she was just barely avoiding the search parties by keeping all five senses and her qi sense sharpened, but before long they would reach the middle gate of the outer palace.

Under normal circumstances, leftover carts would be allowed to pass through without question, but because the entire palace had been thrown into chaos by the Underground Forbidden Prison incident, there was a high chance search parties would be standing guard there.

‘I just hope we are not discovered.’

If there had been no Sacred Fire Leader, then escaping would have been much easier.

But since they were trying to take out an elderly woman who had not even cultivated martial arts and could barely walk without her cane, they had to be extremely careful.

‘The one fortunate thing is that there are no Embroidered Uniform Guard officers among the search parties.’

She did not know why, but no members of the Embroidered Uniform Guard could be seen.

If they too had been among the search parties, it would have been far harder to help them.

What So Ye-rin did not know was that this too was thanks to Blue Spirit.

While possessing Prince Gyeong’s body, Blue Spirit had cried out that the Embroidered Uniform Guard had driven him to his death and then jumped to his death, and because of that, most of the Embroidered Uniform Guard who had been urgently summoned were still detained at the Cautious Mirror Palace.

They had missed the best moment for escape, the time before the search had begun, but because the Embroidered Uniform Guard was still absent, this could still be called their last chance to escape.

-Rattle, rattle, rattle, rattle!

In that way, the leftover carts they were pulling reached the middle gate of the outer palace, the place So Ye-rin had been worried about.

As expected, warriors of the Imperial Guard Bureau and eunuchs of the Western Depot were standing in formation there.

The one commanding them was a Deputy Steward, a rank directly below a Junior Supervisor of the Western Depot.

“Halt.”

When the Deputy Steward ordered the carts stopped, Mara Hyeon, the masked officer of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, stepped forward.

Showing his identity token to the Deputy Steward of the Western Depot, Mara Hyeon said,

“I am Mara Hyeon, Thousand-Household Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard. These are leftover carts. The inspection was completed before departure, and I was ordered to send them out…”

“Please step back, Commander.”

“What do you mean…”

“Not what do I mean. Once the red alert has gone up, every entry and exit must go through inspection.”

“…Understood.”

“Inspect them.”

“Yes, sir!”

At the order of the Western Depot Deputy Steward, the eunuchs of the Western Depot began opening the lids of the leftover barrels on the carts.

With each lid that opened, tension rose in the eyes of Mara Hyeon and of Seop Chun and Mong Mu-yak, both wearing human skin masks.

If they were discovered here, everything would be ruined.

-Click. Click.

The eunuchs of the Western Depot, pinching their noses with their sleeves as they opened the leftover barrels, soon reached the barrels where the Sacred Fire Leader and Dam Baek-ha were hiding.

When the lids came off, the insides of the barrels were full of food scraps.

‘Hold it.’

Inside, the Sacred Fire Leader held her breath and remained as motionless as a corpse.

She had been taught beforehand how to hold her breath, but she was old and had not cultivated martial arts, so she could not endure it for long.

At last, all the lids had been opened.

After inspecting them, the eunuchs of the Western Depot gave a signal to their Deputy Steward that all seemed fine.

It looked as though they had not been discovered.

“There seems to be no problem, so let them pass through the middle gate…”

“No. Not yet.”

“…What do you mean not yet? Is there some problem?”

“Lend me a sword.”

As the Deputy Steward of the Western Depot held out his hand to one of the Imperial Guard Bureau warriors, the man drew the sword at his waist from its scabbard and handed it over.

Mara Hyeon frowned.

‘Surely not?’

It was at that very moment.

The Deputy Steward of the Western Depot plunged the sword downward into one of the leftover barrels.

-Thrust!

‘!?’

The expression of Seop Chun, who had been watching from right in front of him, froze.

Just when it had seemed they might pass safely, the worst situation had unfolded.

The Deputy Steward of the Western Depot did not simply stab the inside of one barrel once. He stabbed all over at random.

-Thrust! Thrust! Thrust! Thrust!

Then,

“Well then, you all saw how I did it. Warriors of the Imperial Guard Bureau, do the same and stab each barrel once.”

“Understood.”

-Shring! Shring! Shring!

The warriors of the Imperial Guard Bureau, understanding the words of the Western Depot Deputy Steward, drew their swords.

Then one or two at a time, they dispersed toward the leftover carts.

At that, Mong Mu-yak and Seop Chun, standing in front of the carts, exchanged flustered looks and hesitated for an instant about what to do.

Had it come to this, did they have no choice but to subdue them?

But there were too many.

There were nearly fifty of them, and if they failed to subdue them all at once, they would blow the small whistles hanging around their necks and call for reinforcements.

-Thrust! Thrust!

However, there was no longer time to weigh that.

They were already stabbing into the barrels with their swords, and if the Sacred Fire Leader were stabbed by one of them, not only would they be exposed, she might die.

Just then, one Imperial Guard Bureau warrior moved his sword toward the barrel where the Sacred Fire Leader was hiding.

‘Damn it!’

Seeing that there was no other choice, Mong Mu-yak finally prepared to step in.

But it was at that exact moment.

-Splash!

A hand suddenly burst up from one of the leftover barrels.

“Hngh! Wh-what in the…”

The Imperial Guard Bureau warrior who had been about to stab into the barrel tried to cry out in shock.

But before he could, the hand that had burst out from the pile of food scraps abruptly flicked its fingers.

-Snap!

The moment that finger snap sounded,

-Thud! Thud! Thud!

The nearby warriors of the Imperial Guard Bureau and even the eunuchs of the Western Depot all rolled their eyes back and collapsed unconscious on the spot.

At that sight, Mara Hyeon, Mong Mu-yak, and Seop Chun all stared with wide eyes.

But just when it seemed everyone had fallen unconscious, there was one among them who had endured.

It was the Western Depot Deputy Steward, the one here with the deepest internal energy.

“Wh-what in the world is…”

-Thwack!

“Mmph!”

Someone suddenly clamped a hand over his mouth.

“You have made matters bigger than they needed to be. It would have been better if you had simply let us pass.”

The one covering his mouth and whispering into his ear was none other than Mok Gyeong-un, wearing a human skin mask.

“Mmph! Mmph!”

The Western Depot Deputy Steward tried frantically to tear Mok Gyeong-un’s hand away.

But before he could do that,

-Crack.

Mok Gyeong-un snapped the Deputy Steward’s neck.

With his neck twisted backward, the Deputy Steward died on the spot.

After laying the dead man down carefully on the ground, Mok Gyeong-un looked toward the hand protruding from the leftover barrel.

That hand with its sharp nails belonged to none other than Dam Baek-ha of the Old Blood Cult’s Six Blood Saints.

As Mok Gyeong-un watched that hand jutting out, interest stirred in his eyes.