Myst, Might, Mayhem (Novel) - Chapter 76 - Team Leader (2)

Chapter 76 – Team Leader (2)

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Translated by Jinmu

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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Inside the red room lit by candlelight.

This was a pleasure house located on the outer edge of the Heaven and Earth Society’s outer city.

On the table were red and white face powder, brushes for applying makeup, and the like.

There was someone looking at them with a grave expression.

She was Ha Chae-rin, one of the candidates to become sect leader of the Flying Assassin Sect, one of the third-generation assassin groups, or rather Gochan possessing her body.

-Tap!

Gochan clasped his hands together and rested his chin on them.

The face reflected in the bronze mirror was beautiful enough to be called alluring.

However, this was not his own face.

‘……..Do I really have to go this far?’

Looking at the makeup tools on the table, Gochan sank into self-loathing.

How had things ended up like this?

As a shikigami, he was tied to Mok Gyeong-un and had followed him all the way to the Heaven and Earth Society.

In truth, he wanted to run away, but his life and death depended on his master Mok Gyeong-un, to whom he was bound, so he had no choice.

‘Damn it.’

Gochan let out a deep sigh.

Somehow, he had made it as far as the Heaven and Earth Society’s outer city.

But now that he was actually trying to infiltrate the Heaven and Earth Society itself, he had not expected the security to be this tight.

‘Impossible.’

He had occasionally carried out infiltration missions back in his assassin days.

No, to complete an assassination, most of the time it required stealthy infiltration.

But the scale of the Heaven and Earth Society, which divided the current martial world of the Central Plains into three parts, far exceeded imagination, and it was on a completely different level from the small and medium sects he had infiltrated before.

“Haa.”

With trembling hands, Gochan reached for a brush used to apply powder.

The reason he was trying to hold makeup tools like this was simple.

It was to infiltrate the inside of the Heaven and Earth Society.

-Flinch!

The moment Gochan took the brush in hand, goosebumps rose all over his body.

It was because of the deep-seated revulsion buried within his vengeful soul.

Just thinking that he, a man, had come to a place like this and was planning to disguise himself as a courtesan filled him with such intense rejection that it made him shudder.

But there was no other way.

To infiltrate inside, Gochan had wandered around the outer city of the Heaven and Earth Society gathering information.

He had also considered sneaking in by hiding in carts carrying supplies or food, but strict inspections at the Heaven and Earth Society’s gates made that impossible.

In the end, the best method was to make contact with someone from the inside and enter that way.

[Hooh. So the young lady has reached marriageable age and wishes to meet the heroes of the Heaven and Earth Society, is that what you mean?]

[Th…that’s right.]

Even if it was for the sake of gathering information, he had had to say something like that.

Even while saying it, his stomach had turned.

[But if you want to meet not mere low-ranking warriors of the Heaven and Earth Society, but men on the level of team leaders or unit leaders, it won’t be easy.]

[Is there a way?]

[You want to know? Heh heh.]

The man subtly held out his hand.

As expected of a fence who dealt in information, he was extremely greedy for money.

So Gochan placed a silver coin in his hand.

Once he received the silver, the fence smoothly began explaining the method.

[Do you know Crimson Grace House?]

[Crimson Grace House?]

[That’s right. It’s a pleasure house on the eastern outskirts of the outer city, and there…]

-Bang!

[Are you telling me to become a courtesan?]

For a moment, he had been so dumbfounded that he had almost snatched his money back from the fence.

Seeing Gochan like that, the fence soothed him and said,

[Tsk, tsk. Hear a man out to the end. Crimson Grace House may be a pleasure house, but it is not some ordinary brothel.]

[How is a pleasure house any different from a brothel…]

[The courtesans there are not only beautiful, but also excel in learning, etiquette, music, and the arts, and carry themselves with refinement, so even high-ranking people from inside the city visit it.]

[……Is that true?]

[I’ve already taken your silver. Do you think I’d lie? With looks like yours, young lady, Crimson Grace House would welcome you with both arms raised.]

Trusting that, he had ended up infiltrating Crimson Grace House after all.

Just as the fence had said, though he had been worried, he had succeeded in getting in.

When they asked whether he had any performing skills, he remembered how he had once disguised himself as a musician during his assassin days and played the huqin, and they truly welcomed him enthusiastically.

[You can perform? Then as a female entertainer, you are more than welcome.]

They even said that several courtesans had become the favored concubines of unit leaders of the Heaven and Earth Society, leaving vacancies.

‘Favored concubines…..ha!’

So it really was possible to infiltrate the inner city somehow.

Gochan swallowed dryly.

Then, after hesitating several times, he finally picked up the brush and began applying powder to his face.

Not long after, the voice of Crimson Grace House’s matron came from outside the door.

-Are your preparations finished?

“Uh….well, that is…..”

Gochan, who had been applying red powder to his lips, flustered.

Then the matron waiting outside, apparently frustrated, finally opened the door and came in.

-Creak!

“Why is it taking you this long just to put on makeup? Your natural face is pretty, so rough work should do. Let me see. Let’s see how well you did.”

At those words, Gochan looked at his face in the bronze mirror and could not hide his awkwardness.

He had tried to manage somehow by digging through Ha Chae-rin’s memories, but because of the instinctive revulsion, his hands must have trembled too much.

The matron came close and looked at Gochan’s face.

Then she quickly frowned and muttered,

“…….Good heavens.”

He had applied so much powder that his face was white like a corpse.

He had loaded so much ink onto the small brush used to darken the eyes that black tears had run down beneath them, and he had drawn the red around his lips so long that it looked as if his mouth had been split all the way to his ears.

“You’ve made yourself into a truly baleful monster.”

Gochan had become not a beauty, but the face of a terrifying fiend.

At the sight of the matron clicking her tongue, Gochan gritted his teeth.

How had he ended up doing something like this?

‘So much for using a beauty trap.’

At this rate, it might have been better to risk his life and infiltrate by force.

* * *

Mok Gyeong-un stood before the door with a smiling face.

At the sight of him, Yeom Ga was so flustered for an instant that he found himself speechless.

The malice packed full within that smile.

The moment their eyes met, a chill ran down Yeom Ga’s spine.

‘This…….’

The restriction had been lifted, so he could freely use internal power, so why was he being overwhelmed by the viciousness radiating from this bastard?

At that moment, Yeom Ga ground his teeth.

He had been about to go out and turn the bastard into a half-cripple, but because he had appeared so suddenly, even his momentum had been stolen, and it felt like he had lost the initiative.

As his displeasure deepened, Yeom Ga opened his mouth with a frighteningly twisted face.

“What exactly do you mean, the same thought?”

“What other reason could there be?”

“What?”

“I was wondering whether I should take someone who seemed useful into my team.”

-Gnash!

Yeom Ga slowly drew up his internal power as he ground his teeth.

Then he said to Mok Gyeong-un in a heated voice,

“You think you’re going to take me into your team?”

“Yes. In truth, I have wanted to kill you since yesterday, but since the restrictions of this gate include a ban on killing, I thought it would be better to just make use of you.”

Yeom Ga’s eyes turned fierce.

What nonsense was this insolent bastard spewing right now?

He had wanted to kill him, but thought it better to make use of him?

-Gnash!

His teeth ground by themselves.

Now that the restriction on internal power had been lifted, how many boys did he think there were among them who could contend with him?

Yeom Ga could no longer endure it.

-Flash!

Yeom Ga, who had already completed the circulation of internal power throughout his entire body, reached for Mok Gyeong-un’s throat.

With his right hand he intended to seize his neck, and with his left to suppress his acupoints in an instant and drag him inside the room.

But then,

-Thud!

“Ugh!

Before he could even do that, Mok Gyeong-un’s foot drove into his abdomen.

It had happened so suddenly that he had not even seen it.

Veins stood out on Yeom Ga’s face, and his skin reddened as though it were going to burn.

“Y…you bastard……”

“Aren’t legs longer than arms?”

-Pak!

Yeom Ga tightened his abdomen and kicked upward toward Mok Gyeong-un’s long shin muscle.

Mok Gyeong-un folded his leg and retreated slightly.

Not missing that instant, Yeom Ga pushed off with the opposite foot, spun his body, and tried to smash down on the crown of Mok Gyeong-un’s head.

‘Returning Shadow Kick.’

It was the third form of the Crimson Heaven Footwork, the pride of Crimson Kill Valley.

It was a form that deceived the path by using a kicking motion that rose high, then spun the body in an instant and brought the blow down low.

Because it was so fast and mixed with a feint, it was difficult to avoid.

However,

-Sway!

Mok Gyeong-un merely moved lightly by half a step and twisted his body to avoid the Returning Shadow Kick.

‘!?’

Yeom Ga’s eyes narrowed.

He had not expected him to evade that so lightly.

But forms naturally linked together, so the next one was already prepared.

-Papak!

As Yeom Ga twisted his body, he thrust his sword-finger toward Mok Gyeong-un’s Adam’s apple.

Having reached the peak state, even if it was not as sharp as an actual sword, he could form a cutting edge out of qi.

That was called edge qi.

-Slash!

But then,

-Grab!

The edge qi came stabbing in as though it would pierce Mok Gyeong-un’s Adam’s apple.

Yet before it could even reach him,

-Thud!

Mok Gyeong-un’s foot, as fast as a flash of lightning, swept Yeom Ga’s leg.

It was no more than a simple kick, so Yeom Ga did not avoid it and instead sent internal power into his leg to form a rebounding force.

By qi sense, he was superior to this bastard in terms of internal power.

Therefore, if he protected his leg with internal power, he judged that he could easily endure it…

-Thud!

“Ugh!”

The instant his leg was kicked, Yeom Ga’s body spun halfway sideways and his head slammed into the floor.

For a moment, Yeom Ga was stunned.

What on earth had just happened?

He could not understand why he had been unable to avoid this bastard’s kick.

It had been fast, but the moment they collided, his rebounding force had scattered.

‘What in the……’

As he was thinking that, Mok Gyeong-un smiled faintly and said,

“You’re weaker than I expected.”

“You bastard!”

Fury surging to the top of his head, Yeom Ga snapped his arm and pushed himself up, and at the same time aimed a kick at Mok Gyeong-un’s neck,

-Whoosh! Pak!

Mok Gyeong-un dodged it lightly, then immediately grabbed Yeom Ga’s head and slammed it down onto the floor.

-Crash!

The floorboards broke, and Yeom Ga’s head smashed through the floor.

The pain was great, but more than that, Yeom Ga could not bear the humiliation, and so he gathered up all his internal power, trying to raise his head again with full force.

But strangely, the power focused in his neck and head kept scattering little by little, and instead his strength weakened.

‘W-what is this?’

It was difficult to understand what sort of phenomenon this was.

While that was happening, Mok Gyeong-un grabbed Yeom Ga by the hair and yanked.

-Grip!

As his embedded head was pulled free, sharpened wood splinters lodged themselves in the flesh all over his face, and blood streamed down.

Looking at Yeom Ga’s face like that, Mok Gyeong-un sneered in satisfaction.

“Now your face is finally worth looking at.”

“You……what did you do?”

“What do you mean, what did I do?”

“Did you use something like qi-scattering poison?”

“Qi-scattering poison?”

At Yeom Ga’s words, Mok Gyeong-un repeated them with an expression that said he did not understand.

He prided himself on knowing most poisons as long as they were not too obscure, but this was the first time he had heard the name qi-scattering poison.

Qi-scattering poison.

It was a strange poison made by a special method that, once the right conditions were met, caused internal power to scatter.

“Don’t play dumb! If it isn’t qi-scattering poison, then why does my internal power scatter whenever I come into contact with you?”

Every time he collided with Mok Gyeong-un, the internal power in that part scattered.

At first he had wondered whether it was mere coincidence, but after it happened twice, he could think only of qi-scattering poison.

“Hmm. So there was such an interesting poison too?”

‘Is this bastard toying with me right now?’

Fury reaching the top of his head, Yeom Ga soon ground his teeth.

Now that it had come to this, he judged that he had no choice but to use Crimson Kill Valley’s secret technique.

He had been told never to use it except in extreme circumstances, because it was an assassin’s move that would inevitably kill the opponent, but he could no longer endure it.

-Crack!

Yeom Ga concentrated internal power toward his chest.

Then the strange pattern drawn across his upper body began glowing red.

Just then,

-Thud!

“Guh!”

Mok Gyeong-un grabbed Yeom Ga by the hair and jerked his head back, then hammered him with his fist.

But that was not the end.

As though he intended to smash Yeom Ga’s face to pieces, Mok Gyeong-un kept raining down blows with his fist.

-Thud!

“Urk. S-stop…..”

-Thud!

“Kgh….st….”

-Thud! Crack!

Even after the sound of his nose bridge breaking and his teeth shattering rang out, it did not stop.

-Thud! Thud! Thud!

He had no time to use a secret technique or anything else.

Under the continuing blows to the face, Yeom Ga had already lost consciousness.

“Hik!”

At that moment, hearing a sound from behind him, Mok Gyeong-un turned his head while lifting his fist.

There was the boy who had been in meditative breathing, now staring with his eyes open at the noise of the fight.

‘W-what happened here?’

The boy could not hide his bewilderment at the sight of Yeom Ga, his face a bloodied mess, hanging by the hair from Mok Gyeong-un’s hand.

Toward that boy, Mok Gyeong-un waved his blood-covered hand and said with a smile,

“Ah, don’t mind me. Please continue what you were doing.”