NOVEL NEXT Chapter 27
[Near midnight, in front of the Mo Yong Family Medical Hall, an open area by the main gate leading to the Medical Hall.]
Unlike sects with hundreds or even thousands of disciples, a ‘family’ like this one can only operate within its own bloodline unit.
At this time, the collateral branches other than the direct descendants mainly take on roles like elders or disciples in other sects.
Thus, most of the martial artists tasked with protecting the family are often ‘Mo Yong’ as well.
Moreover, even if they are not from the Mo Yong family, there are cases where a child born from a woman of the Mo Yong family and another martial artist resides within the Mo Yong family.
Here, a young man symbolizing the Mo Yong family’s martial artists, dressed in a white martial arts robe embroidered with stars—
“Hey, Mo Tae Bok.”
The one called Mo Tae Bok is no exception.
“Aren’t you feeling uneasy?”
“What do you mean?”
“At this level of mastery, you could easily create your own sect out there, but here you are, playing guard for the family.”
“Are you provoking me?”
Mo Tae Bok gritted his teeth as his subordinate, Mo Yong Ak, approached him.
“People outside are already talking carelessly about the Mo Yong family, and now you join in?”
“Being too kind is the problem for this Mo Yong family.”
Mo Yong Ak pointed to the green star embroidered on his martial arts robe.
“World’s number one. Hero of the Martial World. Such an elite force of the Martial World has walked only the righteous path to reach this martial prowess.”
“Then what exactly are you trying to say?”
“Just checking if this is indeed correct.”
Mo Yong Ak pulled out a piece of paper from his pocket.
Upon seeing that paper, Mo Tae Bok’s eyes widened in surprise as he quickly scanned the surroundings.
“Hurry and burn it…! Didn’t the sub-head say to destroy it immediately upon seeing it?”
“I just had something I wanted to say. No need to burn it.”
Mo Yong Ak stuffed the thin paper into his mouth and swallowed it whole.
“Inside this is written the incidents and situations that will occur in the future. To be precise… the true… cough, cough.”
“Don’t laugh and keep talking.”
“Oh, right. The ugly and terrifying plans of the Demon Cult, so deep in scheming that even those who tremble at the mention of the Demon Cult will jump out of bed in fear if they knew.”
“Are you mocking me?”
“Who knows? For now, the legendary great thief, the Flying Shadow God Stealer, who would weep blood in his grave if he knew that his successor—the one who should inherit my vision—has fallen to such a state!”
“That’s true for the Flying Shadow God Stealer, but the same goes for the Demon Cult itself…”
Whoosh.
A flame shot up into the sky.
Somewhere, a signal flare lit up the night sky as the two men tensed and surveyed their surroundings.
“Are they really going to do it?”
“My word. This is the first time I feel pity for the Demon Cult.”
The two men struggled to suppress feelings of despair, pity, and embarrassment.
“…As befits the Mo Yong blade.”
“By the order of the sub-head.”
And with that, they steeled themselves, turning into iron-blooded swordsmen with no change in expression.
“…Huh.”
But the trembling emotions couldn’t be quelled after accepting the mission, no matter how many times they tried.
“What’s the world coming to?”
“It’s going crazy. The head must clearly be confused to the point of madness.”
“Huh. Enough. They’re coming.”
As the two men gulped, they fixed their gazes on the firmly shut door of the Medical Hall.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
A frantic knocking sounded from outside.
“What is it?”
As Mo Tae Bok stepped forward to inquire through the door—
“Pl-please save me…!”
A young woman’s distressed sigh wafted in from the other side of the door.
At that moment, what should the Mo Yong family’s swordsman do?
Holding back a sigh that threatened to erupt from the sight of Mo Yong Ak covering his face with his hands behind him, Mo Tae Bok promptly opened the door that had been tightly shut.
“What—”
“Great Hero!!”
Thump.
A woman, one of those who had entered the Mo Yong family to nurse Yu Giyeon, the daughter of the Purple Sword Gate, rushed at Mo Tae Bok.
“Wha-what?!”
“S-someone gave us… Spring Medicine…!”
The woman was not in her right mind.
Her face was flushed bright red with heat, her whole body radiated warmth, and she swayed unsteadily, struggling to maintain her composure.
“G-great hero…!”
“Wha-what is this…?”
Is this truly a scheme of the Demon Cult?
Did they forcibly intoxicate a woman with Spring Medicine to distract the guards and carry out their plot in the meantime?
—Everyone knows, but if someone is at risk of being harmed or uses extreme poison, they may respond immediately.
The sub-head had already issued a warning beforehand.
Since Mo Tae Bok was a reasonable person, he would have preferred that this woman secretly carried a dagger coated in poison and stabbed her own heart.
After all, that would have at least been the wickedness of the Demon Cult’s predecessor, the Sun-Moon Cult, which his parents dreaded endlessly.
But.
“G-great hero!”
The moment another woman burst out and clung to Mo Tae Bok’s back.
Thump.
As they embraced him from both sides, the intense presence felt even beyond a Thousand Piece made Mo Tae Bok nearly lose consciousness.
—Well, if those women were truly willing to throw themselves at me… Ha. I won’t say you’re responsible, but please just keep it together.
The words of the sub-head echoed in his mind.
—Demon Cult members must not view righteous paths as anything, leaving those innocent women with no experience of men to carry out their schemes.
At that moment.
Mo Tae Bok asked.
—Why would those women go so far for the Demon Cult? …They’re shadows from our generation.
The sub-head nodded in understanding, exhaling heavily as he spoke.
—The vengeance of their parents. Those whose parents were killed by the White Path martial artists are working for the Demon Cult.
At least, this much he could understand.
“G-great hero…! Please, please do something for me…!”
“Hah, somehow please alleviate our current suffering…!”
Desperate to take vengeance for their parents, they themselves were willing to become intoxicated by Spring Medicine to bind the feet of the White Path martial artists.
—Since it can’t be done through martial arts, they aim to exploit your sense of righteousness and good heart.
And the anger towards the Heavenly Demon, who only knows how to use these people’s bodies and minds, is palpable.
“Calm down, please…!”
“G-great hero, we, that is…!”
Mo Tae Bok felt his heart sink at the tears of the woman looking up at him.
“I won’t say you’re responsible, so please save us…!”
Thump.
The caregiver woman took Mo Tae Bok’s hand and placed it on her chest; in that instant, Mo Tae Bok quickly glanced somewhere.
In the distance, on a fairly high rooftop, a man—the sub-head—was watching the situation.
He made a large circular gesture with his hand, and Mo Tae Bok shut his eyes tightly.
“Come this way, ladies.”
* * *
Third floor of the Medical Hall, physician’s office.
I lay on the bed with the blanket over me, ears tuned to the outside situation.
‘Scary, the Demon Cult.’
It’s not like I’m reading the sensations through the walls or floors like a supreme master.
But I’m sensitive to the scent of ‘medicinal herbs’ that flows in the air, and with traps set throughout the Medical Hall, I can’t help but be alert to the enemy’s intrusion.
Creak.
Stepping on a certain floor would soak the floor materials beneath it with the herbs.
The scent of specific herbs spread in a closed space from the sealed door grows closer.
The scent of herbs flowing in from the open window grows stronger.
In short, I understood that someone unknown had crossed a certain floor and passed through a specific area, then entered my room from the window of the Medical Hall’s third floor.
‘They’re either slobs who can’t even smell the herbs, or they might be used to the scent of the herbs stuck on their bodies like a follower’s fragrance.’
‘Follower’s fragrance’ is a powder with a very distinctive smell that is applied to the body or clothes of a target, allowing one to track them from miles away.
To me, that’s the scent of medicinal herbs and elixirs from mountains and fields.
So I could tell—
“Giyeon.”
“Yes, Father.”
Crap.
The two intruders tossed my reasoning into the trash in an instant.
“The Mo Yong family only has strong defense at the main building of the family, but when it comes to here, there’s really nothing the Mo Yong family can do.”
“Isn’t it thanks to the Flying Shadow God Stealer?”
“That’s right. Hah. In terms of covert movement, no one can keep up with ‘us’.”
Personally, I believe that the reason the Demon Cult was defeated was because such people went around carelessly blabbing everything.
‘At least the grand princess didn’t do that.’
The grand princess of the Demon Cult didn’t even mention her own injured parts.
She was someone who understood how important information concealment is.
If she were to become the unrivaled entity of the Demon Cult, and if the Sword Saint were to die and vanish, the Demon Cult might truly dominate the Central Plains—but—
‘At least those guys would all be purged.’
There’s no way the grand princess would let someone like the Flying Shadow God Stealer or Yu Giyeon blab about being part of the Demon Cult.
Not a chance.
“Giyeon. This man is now yours.”
“Thank you, Father. Ah, Physician Seok….”
Chit-chatting in front of a target they wish to abduct.
“Now let’s take Physician Seok and hide him, and start producing Extreme Yang Reversal indiscriminately.”
“If we treat all the patients suffering from Sickness of Absolute Meridians in the Demon Cult, their future will definitely be far brighter than that of the White Path’s. Then our Purple Sword Gate… can return to the Heavenly Mountain.”
They blatantly discuss their desires like this.
“Huhuhuh…. The sight of women suffering from Sickness of Absolute Meridians begging for Extreme Yang Reversal… Ugh…!”
“Extreme Yang Reversal is an all-encompassing remedy for Sickness of Absolute Meridians, so it’s bound to be worth a lot. We’ll be rich!”
They raise their voices.
No, this can’t happen.
I must endure.
This is the vile plot of the Demon Cult.
They aim to make people break and shatter their emotions, throwing everything about them into chaos to disrupt their performance.
‘Calm down, my heart.’
For how long must this isolation in my heart run rampant, as if my heart is treating its chambers like a bed, raving around like it’s nested in blankets.
‘They’ve already gotten trapped in their own scheme.’
With no need to even reach the grand princess, they are fools unaware that the sub-head has already devised a counter-plan based on their schemes.
For example.
“By the way, Giyeon, why do you want to take Physician Seok?”
“He’s too good a man for that crazy woman.”
Oblivious to the fact that they’ve just said something that would lead to their deaths, they blab away, believing they’ve really succeeded.
“He’s far too precious for the number one villainess of the Central Plains.”
“Someone who stole a man from the First Flower of the Martial World isn’t content just with that?”
“Huhuhuh, Father…?”
“It’s nothing. Now go ahead. No matter how much the Mo Yong family seems to have no response, if we delay too much, we’ll have to act.”
“Yes. Huhuhuh, even while sleeping, it’s cute.”
Yu Giyeon’s face drew closer.
The rustling sound is certainly the noise of her hair being brushed behind her ear.
“Then, let’s—”
The moment Yu Giyeon gently pulled the blanket down.
“Uh?”
Perhaps, she saw it.
Next to my waist, curled down, was the presence hiding beneath the blanket.
“Why are you here—”
Shick!
Mo Yongseol swung her sword directly at Yu Giyeon.