Light Novel: Volume 17 Episode 2
Manhwa: N/A

A cart could be seen traveling along a path covered in grass.

A man and a woman were riding on a horse-drawn cart.

The man was driving the horse, and the woman was leaning back against the wall of the cart with her eyes closed.

They were none other than Pyo-wol and Hong Ye-seol.

The two were passing through an unnamed mountain range after leaving Poyang Lake.

They didn’t know the name of the mountain, but Yeom Hee-soo had said she had seen someone she suspected to be a divine doctor in this vicinity.

They had been searching the area for days.

Pyo-wol suddenly looked back.

Hong Ye-seol had her eyes closed tightly, enduring the pain.

During their travel, she had been in a precarious situation twice. 

If she hadn’t consumed the poison from the Black Flower Spider to trigger her innate qi, she would have died. Luckily, she ended up surviving, but the after-effects were severe.

Tremendous pain had engulfed her.

It felt as if hundreds of daggers were piercing her body all at once, yet Hong Ye-seol did not let out a single groan.

Pain was something she was all too familiar with, and her pride wouldn’t allow her to succumb to this level of pain and groan.

Pyo-wol didn’t say anything to Hong Ye-seol.

He understood her feelings.

He would have acted the same way if he were in her shoes.

Though they were very different in many ways, they had one thing in common that would never change.

It was the fact that they were born assassins.

Their identity as assassins had been ingrained in them since childhood, and no matter what they do, they would never be able to shake it off. 

Comforting Hong Ye-seol wouldn’t have been of any help.

The best thing to do was to find the so-called divine doctor.

Pyo-wol turned his attention away from Hong Ye-seol and searched for the divine doctor’s traces, but finding the said traces wasn’t easy.

It had been more than ten days since Yeom Hee-soo had seen the divine doctor.

The divine doctor might have left in the meantime.

‘Did he find the divine doctor?’

Pyo-wol thought of Yu Suhwan.

Hong Ye-seol’s situation was urgent, but Yu Suhwan was equally anxious.

The more time passes by, the chances of him fully recovering his martial arts decreases. 

Pyo-wol continued to drive the cart through the grass, searching for traces of the divine doctor. 

“Hmm!”

Suddenly, Pyo-wol’s eyes lit up.

A trace that was completely unexpected appeared before him.

It was a deep and wide groove, as if a huge boulder had rolled across.

Pyo-wol got off the cart and examined the groove. 

The soil was damp.

A sign that the groove hadn’t been there long. The trees and grass in its path had also been trampled all over.

Thud!

At that moment, Gwiya, which had been coiled around Pyo-wol’s arm, came down.

Gwiya flicked its tiny tongue and sniffed the dirt, then it looked at Pyo-wol.

As if understanding Gwiya’s actions, Pyo-wol replied,

“Yes, I know.”

At that moment, Hong Ye-seol opened her eyes and looked at Pyo-wol.

“What’s wrong?”

“I think someone I know is nearby.”

“Is it the divine doctor?”

“No. Someone else.”

“Someone else?”

Hong Ye-seol looked puzzled.

It was because Pyo-wol’s expression was tense.

The Pyo-wol she knew was not someone who showed emotions, no matter the circumstances.

She knew this fact very well, being an assassin herself.

Pyo-wol answered,

“Kyung Musaeng.”

“Kyung Musaeng?”

“The Visitor of Life and Death.”

“You mean one of the Eight Constellations?”

“That’s right. This furrow here is definitely a trace left by the Jiaolong he rides.”

“My goodness!”

Hong Ye-seol was genuinely shocked.

To an assassin like her, the Eight Constellations were as distant as a divine dragon flying above the clouds, and among them, Kyung Musaeng was at the top of the list.

The thought that such a being was in the same space as her suddenly took her breath away.

‘Jiaolong…’

She had heard of it before.

It’s a creature that failed to become a dragon.

But hearing about it and seeing its trace in person were vastly different.

The tracks left behind by the Jiaolong were enormous.

She had no idea that such a gigantic monster could actually exist.

Just looking at the marks Jiaolong left behind made the hairs on her body stand on end.

Pyo-wol muttered,

“The fact that the Visitor of Life and Death appeared here means that the Ghost King is nearby.”

The Ghost King was called the most incomprehensible being in all of Jianghu.

His near-immortality made him the target of many powerful figures. 

Pyo-wol knew to some extent the secret of the Ghost King.

Right now, the Ghost King should be assuming the form of Do Yeonsan.

It was because he had discarded his original body and switched to Do Yeonsan’s body.

By regularly switching to a body similar to his own, the Ghost King managed to stay alive for so many years. 

Pyo-wol would have not normally cared about the Ghost King. 

There was no reason for him, a third party, to interfere in the secret relationship between the Ghost King and the Visitor of Life and Death. But the situation has changed now.

The thought occurred to him that perhaps the Ghost King’s ability could save Hong Ye-seol.

If he was sure he could find the divine doctor, he would have no reason to cling to the Ghost King, but there was no other way at present.

Hong Ye-seol had already been to the brink of hell twice.

He did not know if he could save her again with the poison of the Black Flower Spider if she had another seizure. 

Pyo-wol decided it was time to take a gamble. 

He detached the cart from the horse.

It would be impossible for him to follow the tracks of Jiaolong with a cart attached to his horse.

Pyo-wol put Hong Ye-seol on the back of the horse.

Hong Ye-seol quietly mounted the horse, no questions asked. She assumed that Pyo-wol had a good reason for acting in such a way. 

Pyo-wol led the horse carrying Hong Ye-seol, following the traces of Jiaolong.

Finding the traces of Jiaolong was not difficult. The deep and wide furrows were connected all the way. 

Pyo-wol followed the tracks left by Jiaolong.

The traces led to a nearby lake.

The nameless lake was quite large.

Although it was not as vast as Poyang Lake, where its end could not be seen, it was still quite large that it would take at least half a day to go all the way around it.

Considering the circumstances, Jiaolong seemed to have gone into the lake.

Pyo-wol would have to search everywhere to see where Jiaolong might have crossed the lake and exited, but Pyo-wol was not disheartened. 

He had already anticipated this much trouble.

Pyo-wol led his horse and walked around the lakeside. 

Just as he was close to circling the lake, he suddenly found traces of massive destruction.

The lush reed field had turned into a mugwort field, and nearby, broken rocks were rolling around.

There was also a scale as big as an adult’s palm dropped on the ground. 

It was clear that Jiaolong had gone on a rampage.

There was a high probability that the Ghost King and the Visitor of Life and Death, Kyung Musaeng, had clashed here.

Pyo-wol spread his senses wide and looked around, but he did not feel the energy of the two anywhere.

‘Did they already leave?’

Pyo-wol thought it was a shame.

 He had wasted a lot of time looking for the Ghost King.

The sky was already darkening.

Moving any further would be too much.

With no other choice, Pyo-wol found a spot near the lakeside with Hong Ye-seol and settled down.

After leveling the ground, he gathered dry wood and lit a bonfire.

“Hoo!”

As she sat by the bonfire, Hong Ye-seol let out a sigh without even realizing it.

Her complexion was pale.

Her condition had noticeably deteriorated in the short time that Pyo-wol had been preparing for the night. 

Pyo-wol sat behind her and said,

“Go ahead and meditate, I’ll help you.”

“Okay.”

Hong Ye-seol nodded and immediately began circulating her qi. 

Pyo-wol put his palm on her Mingmen1 and assisted her in her meditation.

After circulating her qi for a while, Hong Ye-seol’s condition improved slightly. However, her pale face still looked precarious.

“That’s enough now. Thank you.”

At Hong Ye-seol’s words, Pyo-wol removed his hand.

He took out some jerky from his pocket and asked,

“Want to eat?”

“Yes!”

Hong Ye-seol did not refuse.

In fact, she was not in a situation to eat anything. She couldn’t taste anything as if her mouth was paralyzed, and she didn’t even feel hungry. Nevertheless, she forced herself to chew the jerky.

To survive, she knew well that she had to fill her stomach, even if it meant chewing on rocks.

Pyo-wol also chewed the jerky beside Hong Ye-seol. 

The speed at which the two chewed the jerky was very slow.

Pyo-wol had always been accustomed to chewing slowly and firmly, and Hong Ye-seol’s physical strength was too low to eat quickly, so the speed at which the two ate was very similar.

“Hoo!”

Only after she had finally finished the last piece of jerky did Hong Ye-seol let out a sigh.

She closed her eyes and rested her head on Pyo-wol’s shoulder.

Pyo-wol looked down at her for a moment before speaking.

“Was Noh Kang-hyun’s assassination ordered by the Hundred Wraith Union?”

“That’s right. It was an assignment given to me by the leader himself.”

“Is such a case common?”

“Absolutely not.”

“So it’s extremely rare.”

“Yes. The leader didn’t even tell me who the client was, even though such information is usually shared among the Ten Blood Assassins.” 

Hong Ye-seol closed her eyes and replied.

Her eyebrows were furrowed, a sign that a lot of thoughts were going through her mind. 

She was afraid that what she had done might start a great turmoil. 

She had accepted commissions and killed people countless times, but never before had the aftermath escalated into a great upheaval.

If Noh Kang-hyun’s assassination really leads to great turmoil, she couldn’t even imagine how she would handle the retribution.

Pyo-wol didn’t ask any more questions and looked at the bonfire.

The fiercely burning bonfire made Pyo-wol imagine many things.

Just as he was staring at the bonfire in a daze for a while.

Suddenly, his senses sensed someone’s presence. 

Pyo-wol didn’t panic, he just looked beyond the bonfire.

A figure appeared without a sound.

The figure suddenly revealed itself as if it had torn through the darkness.

If Pyo-wol hadn’t been a martial arts master, he would have mistaken the sudden arrival of the figure for a ghost.

Pyo-wol stared at the figure in silence.

The figure’s expressionless face was reddened by the bonfire.

His black eyes were devoid of any emotion, as if he had lost all feeling.

Pyo-wol thought that the gaze was very similar to his own. But there was a fundamental difference.

Pyo-wol was deliberately blocking his emotions from showing, while the figure seemed to have really lost them. 

It was as if no amount of happiness or sadness could affect him.

The figure stared intently at Pyo-wol.

Pyo-wol stared back. 

A stifling silence fell over the campfire.

Feeling something amiss, Hong Ye-seol cautiously opened her eyes.

She was surprised to see a figure sitting on the other side of the campfire, but like a seasoned assassin, she didn’t show her agitation.

The figure seemed to be a boy in his late teens. 

His sleeves were rolled up, and his forearms bore faint burn marks.

‘Who is it?’

At that moment, Pyo-wol opened his mouth,

“Ghost King, Do Yeonsan. Which one is it?”

The boy who appeared in front of Pyo-wol and Hong Ye-seol was none other than Do Yeonsan, an apprentice of Cheolsan Workshop. 

The boy who had sold a cow hair needle he had made himself to Pyo-wol and liked it.

The boy who had lost his only sibling, Do Suyeon, to Zhao Yiguang of the Nanjing family, and stained Lake Tai with blood.

Ultimately, the boy got his revenge, but he had his body unfortunately taken away from him by the Ghost King at the last minute. And now, the same unfortunate boy reappeared in front of Pyo-wol. 

Even now, Pyo-wol still has the cow hair needle made by Do Yeonsan in his possession.

The Ghost King, wearing Do Yeonsan’s face, opened his mouth, 

“I remember… you saw me in Lake Tai, right?”

“Are you the Ghost King?”

“Everyone seems to call me that.”

“What happened to Do Yeonsan?”

“I wonder…”

The Ghost King trailed off, his face expressionless.

He was clearly wearing Do Yeonsan’s face, but the aura he gave off was different. He didn’t have the same warmth Pyo-wol had once felt from Do Yeonsan. 

It was clear that Do Yeonsan was only a shell of himself, and that the Ghost King had completely taken control of his body.

Although Pyo-wol didn’t know how such a thing was possible, he couldn’t help but believe it, since it was happening right in front of him. 

The Ghost King’s gaze suddenly turned to Hong Ye-seol.

“The woman, she’s sick.”

“And?”

“I have a way to heal her.”

“Really?”

Hong Ye-seol inadvertently brightened up.

“On one condition.”

The Ghost King’s last words were directed at Pyo-wol.

Pyo-wol asked.

“What is it?”

“Help me.”


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