"Nnnnghhh."
A sickroom in the clinic, reeking of musty medicine. A long groan echoed through it.
Spiky hair and long, narrow eyes.
For now, he was a seventeen-year-old boy lost in delirium and hovering near death, but this was Kang Woo-jin, the Greatest Assassin Under Heaven, who would one day reign as the Slaughter Evil.
"Hm."
And a woman stood before him.
Her name was Tang Seo-rin.
A direct descendant of the Sichuan Tang Clan, and a Class One student of the Righteous Heaven Academy.
Her expression was that of an elegant cat pondering what to do with a half-dead fish.
Understandably so.
"What a mess."
Because no matter how many times she looked, the patient's condition was serious.
"What do you make of it, Old Kang?"
When she casually tossed out the question, the old man who slipped out from behind her recited like a machine.
"This one is a natural-born Tiger Bone. He has twice as many ribs as other people, and despite a beating like this, there is not a scratch on them. The problem is his internal injury...... A blockage has formed at the Jeonjung Acupoint in the center of his chest, and dead blood has congealed there."
"And?"
"His conception vessel has begun to flow backward, and if this goes on, he will either die or become an imbecile."
"The cure?"
"One could place needles in the Jeonjung Acupoint to open a path...... Unfortunately, this one's densely packed ribs stand in the way, which makes it difficult."
"Conclusion."
"It is complicated."
Tang Seo-rin's lips curled into a faint smirk.
"Yes, it's complicated. His extraordinary aptitude, Tiger Bone, is the very thing blocking his way to survival. But it's not as though there's no way at all to save him."
"And what would that be?"
"Poison."
"......!"
"We blast open the blocked Jeonjung Acupoint with poison. Then at least he won't die."
"B-but!"
"Right. The internal qi piled up in the Jeonjung Acupoint won't be able to hold back anymore, and it'll burst through the dam. It will flow along his meridians into his limbs. His whole body will twist, and his bones and muscles will scream. But he can live."
She hadn't told Baek Do-gyeom, but Tang Seo-rin had meant to save the boy from the very start.
Not out of goodwill.
The Sichuan Tang Clan belonged to the orthodox path, but they were people who handled poison for the purpose of killing.
The first immunity they learned was to the screams and agony of the dying. Only then would fear go away.
In other words, they were far removed from any vague sense of pity.
Her reason was closer to practical matters of face.
'He was hurt by a man I've been in marriage talks with. If I see this and just leave it, my family will be tarred with the same brush.'
Because she couldn't just turn a blind eye to the mess Baek Do-gyeom had crapped out.
"He will live as a cripple for the rest of his life. And from the moment he wakes, bitter resentment will take root in him."
She knew. But whatever came after surviving was Heaven's domain. She'd thought her part ended here. She hadn't given a thought to what came next.
But that brat had gotten under her skin.
- I want to save him.
First he turned the boy into a gimp with his own hands, then begged her to save him.
- Would Heaven's Table Ginseng do?
Then he said he'd bring a spirit treasure most people never got to see in their entire lives.
Above all.
- Why, not confident?
He'd smirked and provoked her. A mere scoundrel, daring to do that.
So she made up her mind.
'I'll do as you wish. But if you fail to keep your word, you'll pay the price.'
To rise to his challenge.
"We will not use poison."
"Young Lady?"
"Instead, we burn elixirs."
"......!"
"The spirit qi flowing in through his nose should push back the reversing currents. Then his limbs won't burst apart. And if Heaven's luck is with him and he survives, this might even turn into a fortuitous encounter for him."
"But that is only a stopgap. What use is any of it when there is no way to treat the Jeonjung Acupoint? If we let the moment pass, he could lose his life!"
"Then it can't be helped. It'll just mean one more poor victim died at Baek Do-gyeom's hands. The Baek Clan will have to bear the responsibility for that."
No, what kind of...... But Old Kang couldn't press her any further. Because Tang Seo-rin was smiling far too brightly.
Like a terrifying poison flower that must never be touched.
"Bring every elixir in the storehouse. No, send word to every apothecary nearby. Tell them to bring everything they have."
"Gasp!"
"We save him, no matter what."
So, Baek Do-gyeom.
Come and show me.
Just how far your sincerity goes.
Tang Seo-rin, direct descendant of the Sichuan Tang Clan.
She began to blaze up, beyond anything in the original.
***
Meanwhile, unlike a certain someone fighting desperately to save Kang Woo-jin, Baek Do-gyeom was drunk on joy.
"Dazzling. Absolutely dazzling."
Of course, landing inside a martial arts novel was a mysterious thing in itself.
But the sight of a giant boulder rising above a heap of bones and rotating in the air was a genuine shock.
How should I put it? It felt like I'd only now truly arrived in an unreal, otherworldly place.
"Above all, a spirit nexus is exactly what I need most right now."
Baek Do-gyeom was a guy with no aptitude to speak of, no matter how hard you looked.
A gloomy, haggard guy.
With a body like this, the odds of surviving in this world were slim.
So what could I do?
I had no choice but to get some, even if it meant borrowing the power of a fortuitous encounter.
"Honestly, Kang Woo-jin never needed a spirit nexus. He just never got the chance to find that out. He was born with far more than one or two aptitudes."
What he'd gained here was an aptitude specialized in muffling his presence.
Quite literally, he became able to control the sound of his footsteps and his breathing.
Of course, you might think 'Huh, that's it?' and brush it off as nothing special.
But it became the turning point that changed Kang Woo-jin's life completely.
Because the greatest assassin of the previous generation happened to spot him on the road, recognized his aptitude, and took him in as a disciple.
"......You won't be heading down that road in this life, so relax. I'm taking this one."
In that sense, it was only right, for the world's sake as well, that I claim this spirit nexus for myself.
"Still, I'm not going to end up with something totally useless, am I? There are all kinds of aptitudes. Like doggy paddling. Or holding your breath underwater......"
Just thinking about it took the wind right out of my sails. But I was already scrap-tier with nothing to my name, so what did it matter? Anything would be better than now.
Humming a tune, I strode forward.
But the ground was so covered in animal bones that finding my footing wasn't easy.
Come to think of it, that was a bit of a mystery.
"What's with all these bones?"
When I'd read it in the book, there was no explanation, so I hadn't known, but seeing it in person, it was bizarre.
"Probably just the author's taste. It looks cooler than having it sit in an empty clearing."
That made sense. Brushing it off like that, I approached the spirit nexus.
But right then.
Grrrrr!
"Hm?"
Along with an ominous sound of breathing, two blood-red lights flickered on in a dim corner off to the side.
"What is that?"
Will-o'-the-wisps? No way. I hesitated at the chilling presence.
Grrrrr!
At last, the source of the eerie sound began to walk out of the darkness on four legs.
A body bigger than a male lion's, bristling jet-black fur, and terrifyingly red eyes.
"No way......"
I'd never seen one, but I definitely remembered it.
The terrifying fell beast from the middle of the story!
"A Dark Wind Wolf?!"
That's impossible. It wasn't here when Kang Woo-jin claimed the spirit nexus......?
GRAAAAAH!
With an overwhelming roar, it lunged like a streak of light.
And as I looked at it, I remembered a simple but very important fact.
The law of equivalent exchange.
That in Chronicle of Villains, a fortuitous encounter always came with a price.
Just as Kang Woo-jin had gained the Heaven's Table Ginseng and the spirit nexus at the cost of his twisted limbs.
Whether before or after.
Or whoever it happened to.
A calamity always came along with it, like fate.
Even if it was a transmigrator who'd been dumped into this world without so much as his consent.
THWACK!
I went flying limply, like I'd been hit by a car, and lost consciousness.
***
Crumpled in a corner under a patch of sunlight, I barely managed to open my eyes.
And the first words out of my mouth were these.
"......I'm screwed."
I was screwed, quite literally. Luckily, the Dark Wind Wolf was nowhere in sight.
"I can't feel my legs."
Of all things, I'd slammed back-first into a rock jutting from the wall.
Considering I couldn't feel a thing even with bugs crawling over my legs......
"Looks like my thoracic spine is snapped."
Paralyzed-from-the-waist-down bad ending.
I'd never resented a blue sky as much as the one I could see through the holes riddling the ceiling.
"I took this way too lightly."
Where was this?
Chronicle of Villains, written by a crazy author.
A place where countless fortuitous encounters and calamities were locked together like a pair of cockroaches.
There had never been a single exception here.
"Kang Woo-jin gained power after he was crippled, and Cheon Su-hyeok nearly died after falling into venom before he attained Myriad Poison Immunity."
It was like that from beginning to end.
It got so bad that I spat out curses the whole time I was reading, asking what the hell this garbage was.
Though later on, every time a fortuitous encounter or a calamity struck the Seven Evils, I'd go, 'Here comes another one,' and watch it like I was munching popcorn.
"Who knew that would apply to me too."
I'd been careless. I should have remembered that the author who wrote Chronicle of Villains was a lunatic.
"Still, for a price that hurt to the bone, I've learned two things for sure."
One, what was written in the novel wasn't everything.
This place had been a Dark Wind Wolf's den from the start, and it hadn't shown up when Kang Woo-jin claimed the spirit nexus only because that happened at a different time than now.
And the other......
"To survive in this fucked-up place, I absolutely have to get stronger."
With great effort, I pulled out the medicine pouch hanging at my waist and dropped it onto my chest.
Whooooosh!
A single root of wild ginseng, giving off a dazzling light, revealed itself.
Heaven's Table Ginseng.
A once-in-an-age elixir that sent the body's regenerative power soaring the instant you ate it.
I'd meant to give it to Kang Woo-jin, but at this rate, I'd end up a corpse and never deliver it anyway.
So.
"Me first. I need to live."
Crunch! I took a big bite out of the Heaven's Table Ginseng.
Bitter. Which meant it was that good for you. I chewed hard and swallowed, and a moment later, a heat I'd never felt before in my life filled my body.
"Gasp......"
The damp, cold air suddenly felt as warm as a spring breeze.
"Did it work?"
No, not yet. Something was still missing. Just a little more. I wolfed it down like a boorish mountain bandit.
And right then.
Crack, crackle!
All of a sudden, I began to feel the displaced bones inside my body shifting.
"Here it comes!"
And the moment the severed ends of my spine met.
"Graaaaagh—!"
Everything went black.