Feeling the cold stone floor against his cheek.
Il-hyang opened his closed eyes and lightly smacked his lips.
‘Come to think of it, it began like this too.’
When he had opened his eyes in this world.
He remembered that the first thing he had been was thrown onto the floor with his arms and legs bound.
By coincidence, his current situation was the same as back then.
‘Even the place is the same?’
When he looked around the dim surroundings, he saw a familiar large room in the shape of a square.
A hollow laugh slipped out of him.
In order to lure the kidnappers.
Il-hyang had exchanged clothes with the Server Po-il, then continued loitering near the well.
Then, around the time the surroundings became almost completely dark, the kidnappers crawled out of the well.
And abruptly sealed Il-hyang’s acupoints, then kidnapped him.
‘No one knew there was a waterway underground too.’
The kidnappers had abducted children through the underground waterway connected to the well and moved a fair distance.
But of all places.
‘To think it would be here.’
A secret base of the Mansi Sect.
At this point, he wondered if it was some kind of fated pull.
Moreover, after quietly listening to what the kidnappers were saying, these bastards really seemed to be from the Mansi Sect.
‘No wonder I felt uneasy.’
How far could Bronze Plaque wanderers move against the Mansi Sect?
No, would they even come to rescue him?
‘They did say they could follow something called Thousand-Mile Tracking Incense.’
But once they realized the opponent was the Mansi Sect, it seemed likely they would end up too busy running away.
‘Then that means I have to try it alone.’
Il-hyang, who had ended up facing a crisis in an absurd manner, first slowly steadied his breathing.
Then he expanded his senses broadly.
Thump, thump—
The broadly expanded senses showed him, as if drawing a picture in his mind, how many people were nearby and roughly how skilled they were through the vibrations of the floor and the tremors of the air.
When a threat to survival approached.
It was the primal awakening of the senses, caused by the instinctive activation of nerve cells throughout the entire body.
A trace of primal savagery that did not suit a mage.
It was a pure talent Il-hyang had possessed even before he became an Archmage.
And.
‘These bastards are careless.’
Il-hyang smiled, slightly baring his fangs.
There were few people keeping watch nearby.
Even their martial arts levels were not very high.
Perhaps because the ones they had kidnapped were only children at most, they were being negligent in their management.
‘However…….’
There was a problem.
The number of children kidnapped here was far too large.
‘It seems they weren’t kidnapped only from Giyang County.’
It seemed they had searched every nearby village they could and kidnapped children from all of them.
At that moment.
“Do you bastards know who I am? Huh? Can you really handle what comes after this?”
One fat. No, one child with an extremely magnificent build lay sprawled on the floor while wearing silk clothes.
And was shouting at the top of his lungs while looking outside the door.
“Hey! You bastards are there, aren’t you? I know everything! Hurry up and come untie me! If you let me go now, I’ll pretend I know nothing and let it pass, so untie these ropes at once! Hurry!”
Unlike the other children, who were sniffling with tears and snot.
This child’s spirit was still alive.
And.
That face was one Il-hyang knew.
‘Oh? It’s the son of the County Magistrate of Giyang County.’
He was lucky.
To think he would meet him all at once like this.
The child looked exactly like the face drawn in the portrait sketch Hak In-bo had shown him.
Those greed-filled eyes and cheeks sagging like a poisonous toad’s.
Even the narrow eyes buried in flesh.
No matter who looked at him, he was certainly the son of the County Magistrate of Giyang County who had supposedly been kidnapped.
‘I did find the request target somehow.’
But he could not estimate how he was supposed to take that fellow out of here.
‘For now, it would be impossible alone.’
While Il-hyang lay there, wriggling his restrained wrists and sinking into thought.
Their son of the County Magistrate was shouting even more vigorously while looking beyond the door, from which there was no response whatsoever.
“You bastards, when exactly is the meal coming! Hasn’t mealtime already passed!”
His way of speaking had become a little more adult.
Come to think of it, this fellow should have been kidnapped two days ago.
Had he really been acting like that from then until now?
“Haah, that bastard’s doing it again. Big Brother. Do we really have to leave him like that?”
“Leave him. Once he gets tired, he’ll stop. Good grief. Maybe because he’s eaten so well until now, his voice sure is booming.”
“No matter how much the higher-ups instructed it, isn’t it a bit much to leave that brat like that?”
“What power do I have? If those above order it, we do as ordered. Didn’t you see the Family Head and all the Elders turn into Jiangshi not long ago?”
“I was away on business and wasn’t at the estate for several days, remember? But is it really true?”
“What is?”
“If the Family Head and the Elders all became Jiangshi, then is the Pyeong Family completely finished? Isn’t this something we should report to the Cheonjung City, the provincial capital , Big Brother?”
“Hoo, Gwan-myeong. I’m saying this because I’m genuinely worried about you, but don’t go around clumsily sticking your neck out anywhere.”
“What did I…….”
“Just shut up and do what the Mansi Sect tells you to do without complaint. That’s how lowly pawns like us survive in this world for a long time. Nothing good comes from thinking too much.”
“……Well, I know that too.”
“The higher-ups know well that things become troublesome without workers like us, so they left us alone. So just stay quiet and do your work. Then nothing special will happen.”
“Yes, Big Brother.”
The murmuring voices coming from the corridor outside gradually grew distant.
Il-hyang closed his eyes and focused all his nerves on his hearing, then slowly opened his eyes and smiled.
‘Things are getting interesting.’
Had they been instructed not to touch the sacrifices?
Or was that fat boy a special management target?
He still could not know anything.
‘Still.’
Perhaps he could create at least one usable variable.
***
“Did you say the Thousand-Mile Tracking Incense connected all the way there?”
“That is correct, Big Brother Hak.”
“Mm…….”
“What should we do?”
Between the cliffs.
A thick stone door cleverly concealed by bushes was visible.
And before it stood one monster.
“That is not human, is it?”
The expressions of the wanderers hiding their bodies behind a distant rock and examining what lay below were extremely poor right now.
“Yes, Big Brother. No matter how I look at it, its movements show the characteristics of a Jiangshi.”
“A Jiangshi that emits such a powerful aura. Could it possibly be a Blood Jiangshi?”
“It would be correct to see it that way.”
“To think the Mansi Sect has moved…… This is not something we can handle.”
Hak In-bo’s judgment was quick.
Because he accurately judged what they could and could not do.
If there was one problem.
“What about Il-hyang? What do we do about that impudent little kid?”
“……We have to hope he is alive by the time we return.”
“Ugh, this will give me nightmares.”
“This is not a problem where the situation will improve if we add our strength. Rather, returning quickly to Giyang County and moving the County Magistrate is the correct choice.”
“No, no! That would be troublesome!”
A strange voice suddenly came from above their heads.
Each of the wanderers turned their heads with startled faces.
Then.
At the end of the cliff, there was a single pine tree.
Where it bent in a soft, slender curve.
They saw an expressionless boy with a corpse-pale complexion hanging upside down.
The blue Daoist robes the boy wore were embroidered with a unique symbol in the shape of a human palm.
The moment they saw it, the wanderers shouted like screams.
“The Mansi Sect!”
“Mm-hmm, correct! But if I let you go here, Si-u will get scolded terribly by Big Sister. So stay nice and quiet, okay?”
Hak In-bo looked at the little kid’s casual way of speaking and his slightly unfocused eyes, then whispered to his companions.
“That thing is a monster. Do not be deceived by its appearance. All of you must flee with everything you have.”
“Scatter!”
At the same time that the wanderers took hidden weapons from their robes and threw them, they scattered in all directions like grasshoppers.
Thus, though Il-hyang did not know it.
Outside, a fierce chase had begun in its own way as well.
“Big Brother! Let us go there first!”
“Where?”
“Do you see that rock shaped like a horse’s head over there?”
The moment Hak In-bo sensed that the pursuer had attached itself to them.
He prepared himself for death.
Gyeong Hap-gi and Go An-jeok, who had fled in the opposite direction, might survive if they were lucky.
“Mm, if possible, I would like your legs to remain intact.”
A chill ran up his spine.
No matter how fast he ran, the youthful voice clinging close behind them.
Never widened beyond a certain distance.
“Will something change if we go there?”
“At the very least, it will be better than now!”
“Understood.”
Yu Jeong-ui was a wanderer who had once been a very famous geomancer official who read feng shui and designed official layouts.
If he said they should do something, there was always a reason, so they needed to follow him for now.
“Now!”
When Yu Jeong-ui panted for breath and leaped straight down from the horse-head-shaped rock.
Hak In-bo followed him without hesitation and jumped.
As Hak In-bo saw it.
The rock they had jumped from was quite high and perfect for setting up a trick.
So Hak In-bo took out a very thin needle from his robe and swiftly embedded it in the middle of the rock.
THUK—
Holding taut the thread connected to the needle as he dropped straight down, Hak In-bo, just before reaching the ground.
Swiftly connected and embedded another needle into the lower part of the rock so that the thread would be set diagonally.
This was the Flood-Dragon Thread, a thread made from crocodile tendon he usually cherished and maintained like a treasure.
Because it was a special thread polished with chemicals so that it could cut through most steel.
If a person knew nothing and fell from above?
They would be split in two just like that.
‘But that is far too hopeful an imagination.’
He could not know exactly how capable the enemy was.
Thus, after setting up an extremely simple yet fatal trap, Hak In-bo did not even look back and simply sprinted toward where Yu Jeong-ui was.
“Big Brother, this way! Hurry!”
When Hak In-bo hurriedly followed Yu Jeong-ui and entered the gap between rocks.
Yu Jeong-ui took several dark Guide Irons , each about two finger joints long, from his sleeve.
Then he embedded them here and there on the ground in fixed directions.
After that, he planted a small flagpole in the middle, smeared blood on his finger, and sprinkled it on the ground.
“This should hold its steps for at least one quarter-hour. It is an Illusory Dream Formation.”
“Excellent.”
The two left behind the smoke that suddenly rose from between the rocks.
And hurriedly escaped through the narrow cave on the opposite side.
After that, Yu Jeong-ui took the lead and guided the path.
Though he had never once come to this place before.
As if he had traveled through it for a long time, he ghost-like identified animal burrows and side paths.
Having survived in this world for so long.
He too had a hidden move.
As they fled without even breathing properly like that.
Around the time they felt they had almost descended the valley.
A chilling voice came from behind them.
“Si-u’s arm got cut off. So it hurts so much. It hurts.”
“……!”
Hak In-bo barely swallowed the scream that had almost burst from his mouth without his realizing it.
That monster had finally chased them all the way here.
Just as Hak In-bo turned his only remaining eye here and there with a deathly pale face, trying to find an escape route.
Yu Jeong-ui, who had been running ahead, suddenly staggered and fell flat onto the ground.
Hak In-bo also curled his body against the ground as if by prior agreement.
And.
THWIP, THWIP—
Together with sharp sounds, from behind a thick tree in front of them.
Go An-jeok and Gyeong Hap-gi, who had first fled to the opposite side, sprang out like shadows and fired crossbows.
“Big Brother!”
“Hurry!”
The moment Yu Jeong-ui and Hak In-bo felt the arrows graze over their heads.
And the moment they heard the sharp warning cries of their companions.
They realized the monster chasing behind them was unharmed, immediately rose, and fled again.
Gyeong Hap-gi and Go An-jeok had also recovered their crossbows in the meantime and were fleeing hard enough to sweat through the soles of their feet.
“That way!”
When a small side path appeared, Yu Jeong-ui led the group there, tore the leather pouch he carried, and threw it onto the ground.
Hak In-bo smelled the oil spreading across the ground, leaped over it.
Then immediately took a fire striker from his sleeve and threw it onto the oil.
“Please just die already!”
FWOOOSH—
A blazing heat rose behind their backs.
Among the four companions fleeing.
Hak In-bo, who was at the very rear, unconsciously turned his one remaining eye backward.
And.
“Ah…….”
He should not have looked.
The monster chasing them was clutching its severed arm tightly in one hand like a toy.
And was chasing them from within the flames, having become a lump of fire.
With both legs pressed together, it bounded like a deer.
“A-ah…… It hurts. It…… hurts so much. Big Sister, Si-u hurts so muuuch—!”
“That monstrous bastard.”
Hak In-bo felt chills run down his spine as he looked at the Jiangshi in the shape of a young child.
But he was a professional who had experienced every hardship in the rough martial world.
He clenched his lower abdomen and ran like mad, finally shaking off the pursuit.
He had run all the way to the official road where Giyang County was visible.
Fortunately, once they reached that place, the pursuer did not follow any farther.
Feeling the unpleasant smell of burning flesh still lingering deep in his nose, Hak In-bo spoke to his younger brothers.
“We must quickly inform the County Magistrate of this.”
“Understood, Big Brother.”
In that way, this request began flowing in an uncontrollable direction.