Light Novel: Volume 19 Episode 11
Manhwa: N/A
All kinds of rare plants and flowers bloomed beautifully around a fairly large pond with artificial hills. In the center of the pond, there was a splendid pavilion. Inside the gorgeous pavilion sat a beautiful woman.
The woman was sitting in the middle of the pavilion, blankly staring at the artificial hills.
It was a man-made landscape.
Though it had been made to look as natural as possible, one could not hide the fact that it had been touched by human hands.
“It’s well-made, just like me.”
She, too, did not learn martial arts and accumulate achievements naturally on her own. It was forced upon her by someone else.
Of course, she willingly took advantage of that environment to elevate her own achievements. If she hadn’t had those past experiences, she wouldn’t be the person she is today.
Her name was So Yeowol.
So Yeowol stared at the trees as if she were a stone statue.
She only moved when she sensed someone approaching from behind.
Someone was walking across the bridge connected to the pavilion.
A beautiful middle-aged noblewoman, accompanied by four escorts.
The middle-aged noblewoman, whose entire body was adorned with all kinds of lavish ornaments, suddenly stopped walking and looked at So Yeowol.
Her expression turned ferocious.
“Why are you here?”
Her voice was crisp.
The look in her eyes was filled with murderous intent as if she was looking at her mortal enemy.
The unexpected appearance of the noblewoman caught So Yeowol off guard a little, but she quickly returned to her usual cold expression.
“Have you come out?”
“Come out? Do you think you have the right to say that to me?”
“There’s nothing I can’t say.”
“What?”
At So Yeowol’s calm reply, the woman’s eyebrows shot up into the sky. Her face was filled with unbridled hostility.
If looks could kill, So Yeowol would have already been dead. Such was the venom and intent to kill in the woman’s eyes.
A normal person would have cowered under such a gaze, but it was not enough to rattle So Yeowol’s heart.
With a calm demeanor, So Yeowol spoke,
“If you want to rest here, I’ll leave you alone. So, get rid of your anger.”
“You must have lost your mind. What right do you have to say that you’ll let me take your place?”
“You seem to have too much anger in your heart. It would be best to let it go, mother.”
“Who are you calling mother?!”
The woman bellowed.
At her sharp outcry, leaves fell from the trees and the fish swimming in the pond hurriedly hid in the crevices between rocks.
But So Yeowol remained calm.
“I don’t want to call you mother either. But that is what she instructed, so what can we do? Please understand.”
“You brat, you’ve got a slick tongue, don’t you? You’re so insolent!”
“Thanks to you.”
“What?”
“You’re the one who made me this way, Mother, so I will always be grateful to you. I even constantly ponder how I could possibly repay you.”
“Y, You!”
The noblewoman’s face flushed red.
So Yeowol looked at the noblewoman with a cold smile on her lips.
In the past, she had been so afraid of the woman in front of her.
Whenever the woman got angry, So Yeowol would shrink back, and when the woman threw a tantrum, So Yeowol would hide in fear. But after so much time had passed and meeting her again, the noblewoman’s rage meant nothing to her.
Maybe it was because So Yeowol had grown so much, or maybe it was because the noblewoman hadn’t changed at all.
She was still the same as So Yeowol remembered her. She had not grown at all. That might have been why she looked so laughable and ridiculous now.
The woman said to her escorts,
“What are you doing? Hurry up and make that insolent wench kneel! Or else, I will punish her myself.”
Upon her command, the subordinates looked at each other’s faces.
Awkward looks crossed their faces.
It was clear they were hesitant.
However, since the noblewoman had given the command, they had no choice but to obey.
They approached So Yeowol.
The leader among the subordinates said,
“Please understand, we’re doing this because we’ve been commanded to.”
“Understand?”
“You know we can’t disobey orders.”
For a moment, a faint smile crossed So Yeowol’s lips.
The smile was so chilly that the leader’s body stiffened.
So Yeowol muttered,
“I can’t blame a dog for obeying its master. But that doesn’t mean it has no responsibility.”
“Shit!”
Sensing So Yeowol’s unusual mood, the leader signaled the subordinates.
They charged at her with all their might.
“Yaat!”
“Cha-at!”
Swords were drawn from their waists.
Four straight swords flew out, ready to slice through her entire body.
Until then, So Yeowol hadn’t moved. It was as if she had no intention of dodging.
She stared at the flying swords with her eyes half open.
“Hoo!”
She moved just as the sword was about to touch her body.
Swoosh!
She waved her pale hand.
Her movement looked so carefree as if she was chasing away a mosquito or a fly. However, what happened next was anything but peaceful.
Pooh, pooh, pooh!
With a subtle firing sound, the martial artists who had been wielding their swords suddenly collapsed, eyes rolling back in their heads.
There were no screams.
Like puppets with their strings cut, they all fell to the ground and never moved again.
Their foreheads were pierced with silver needles so fine they were indistinguishable to the naked eye.
The needles were as fine as cow hair.
The needles must have been coated with extreme poison, as the warriors’ faces turned black almost instantly. It was the typical symptom of poisoning.
“W, What?”
The woman staggered back in surprise.
She had never expected that So Yeowol, whom she had looked down upon so much, would possess such a fearsome hidden technique.
“You, You!”
She stuttered, unable to form the words.
So Yeowol glanced at the fallen men and then approached the noblewoman.
The closer So Yeowol got, the further the noble lady retreated.
The smile on So Yeowol’s lips grew colder.
Seeing that smile, the noble lady felt a piercing pain in her chest, as if she had been stabbed.
So Yeowol opened her mouth,
“Mother! Ah, I know you don’t like hearing it, but I have no other suitable title for you, so please bear with it.”
“You wretch!”
“I know you hate me because I’m the child of a concubine. But selling me into slavery right after my real mother passed away was too much. I was sold to the Blood Shadow Group and raised as an assassin. Do you know what I thought while I was in a dark underground cell with not a single ray of sunlight?”
“How should I know?”
“I was grateful to you.”
“What?”
“Thanks to you, mother, I was able to cultivate my resolve. I even gained the useful skill of killing people. That place was the optimal training ground for toughening me up.”
Thud!
The noblewoman’s movement stopped dead in her tracks as she was pushed backward by So Yeowol’s momentum. Her face was filled with shame.
The fact that she was pushed back by So Yeowol, whom she had considered insignificant, made her feel humiliated.
The noblewoman shouted at the top of her lungs,
“Why didn’t you just die then?! No, if you survived, why didn’t you hide somewhere out of my sight and live? Wouldn’t it be more comfortable for both of us?”
“You may be uncomfortable, but I’m not uncomfortable at all, mother. You have no idea how happy I am to see your face again.”
“You wretched girl!”
“That’s the highest compliment I could ever receive. Look forward to it. I’ll show you what a real wretch is.”
“You!”
As if to shake off her fear, the noblewoman swung her hand towards So Yeowol’s cheek. But her palm never made contact with So Yeowol’s face.
“That’s enough.”
With a cold voice, the noblewoman’s action came to an abrupt halt.
The noblewoman felt a cold sensation on her neck.
A dagger was being held against her throat.
The owner of the cold blade was Song Cheonwoo.
Before the woman knew it, he was standing behind her like a ghost.
“You? How dare you…!”
“Please show some manners.”
Song Cheonwoo pressed the dagger even closer.
The woman’s complexion turned pale.
“You lowly bastard–!”
“You can insult me all you want, but please refrain from insulting her. As you know, I’m a lowly bastard, so there’s no telling what I might just do.”
Song Cheonwoo’s tone was extremely polite, but the meaning behind it wasn’t so cordial.
He then removed the dagger from the noblewoman’s neck and walked over to So Yeowol’s side.
The noblewoman, who had been looking at So Yeowol and Song Cheonwoo with a demeaning expression, turned her body and walked away.
So Yeowol looked at her back with a cold gaze.
“She would have come looking for you eventually, why start a fight now?”
The woman was the mistress of this huge manor.
Aside from the head of the manor, the woman held almost all the power. But that was a story of several years ago.
Until she was sold to a slave trader, So Yeowol had been nothing but a powerless young girl. However, now, after overcoming a time of hardships, she was a sharp-edged knife, tempered in bitterness.
If she wanted to, she could easily kill the noblewoman. The only reason she had not acted yet was because she was mindful that she would be seen by the lord of the manor.
The man who had given half his blood to her.
He was truly the cold-blooded one. He knew that she had been sold by the noblewoman, and yet looked the other way.
Part of her would have liked to take his life right away, but she had to admit she wasn’t capable of it yet.
That was why she was being patient.
So Yeowol looked at Song Cheonwoo.
Song Cheonwoo’s expression was visibly stiff.
“Relax. It’s not a big deal… she means nothing to me now.”
“It’s not because of her.”
“Then why?”
“Pyo-wol!”
“Pyo-wol? What about him?”
“It seems like he is in Guizhou Province.”
“What do you mean? He slipped out of our surveillance and left Sichuan?”
So Yeowol’s voice naturally rose.
“It seems so.”
“Be certain.”
“We have completely lost contact with the men we have stationed along the roads in southern Sichuan.”
“Are you sure?”
“It’s been days since we’ve received a regular report.”
“Hmm!”
Only then did So Yeowol’s expression become serious.
This was the information network she had worked so hard to build.
The lack of regular reports meant that a serious problem had occurred. If there were even a single survivor, a report would definitely come in.
The fact that no reports had arrived meant that the information network in the southern part of Sichuan had completely collapsed.
Song Cheonwoo continued,
“And there was a clash of absolute masters in Guizhou Province.”
“Absolute masters? Are you sure?”
“I’m certain. Half of Yuqing’s bustling streets were destroyed due to their fight. It’s impossible to do that without possessing the strength of an absolute master.”
“And?”
“One of them might be Pyo-wol.”
“Why do you think so?”
“Just a hunch.”
“A hunch…”
If anyone else had said this, she would have doubted them. However, she knew how sharp Song Cheonwoo’s intuition was, so she couldn’t just laugh it off.
“You said that half of Yuqing’s bustling streets were destroyed?”
“Yes.”
“Who’s close to Yuqing?”
“Ten Thousand Man Slayer.”
“Can he move?”
“Do you intend to use him?”
“If possible…”
“I’ll see what I can do.”
“Hurry!”
“Understood.”
Despite Song Cheonwoo’s answer, So Yeowol did not relax her stern expression.
“So Pyo-wol is coming, huh?”
luna-cave
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