Though technically a sparring match, the duel was nearly wrapped up in a friendly manner—until it almost ended in a bloodbath.
“Chang-ryong! You did it!”
“Geombong! I did it!”
Overcome with emotion at Elder Merciless Sword’s approval of Chang-ryong, Geombong rushed over to clasp Chang-ryong’s hands—and nearly ended up punching a hole through his skull.
She had flinched and only managed to grab his hands because she was originally about to hug him.
“...Geombong?”
“Ah. I-I’m sorry, Master.”
Elder Merciless Sword had approved their relationship—but apparently not physical contact.
His sword hand trembled, quivering with fury.
If Geombong had actually gone in for the hug, the sword might’ve really skewered Chang-ryong’s head.
Having ascended to the state of Fire Realm, I could now sense Willforce—the hardened will of martial masters.
And the sword shaking in Elder Merciless Sword’s grip was already impaling Chang-ryong’s skull in that mental realm.
‘Such a fierce Willforce...’
—Crrrk.
“Don’t you think you’re moving a little too fast?”
“S-Sorry, sir.”
Grinding his teeth, the elder was clearly implying: “Isn’t your relationship progressing too damn quickly?”
He looked genuinely worried that his precious disciple’s hands might be tainted by Chang-ryong’s filth—but there was one thing Elder Merciless Sword didn’t know.
Our ship, excluding the crew, provided nearly every passenger their own cabin.
It was a big ship, and private rooms were plentiful. During the journey, Chang-ryong and Geombong had practically been sharing a room.
Sure, they technically had separate rooms, but they'd enter their own at night and be found in the other's come morning—or get caught sneaking out at dawn.
In a Confucian society, this sort of thing was scandalous. But since I was the owner of the ship, I didn’t nag like some uptight old fogey.
Besides, even Hwa-eun was sleeping in the same room as her “kids” every night—who was going to point fingers?
That’s why all of the Three Peaks of the Five Dragons had their own suspicions about how far the couple had actually gone.
Penetration.
There were even bets going around over whether Chang-ryong had “pierced” Geombong with his “spear.”
They'd been in and out of each other’s rooms for days. If nothing happened, he was either Ji-ryong or a eunuch.
‘No way...’
And if that little secret ever got out, would Chang-ryong’s “spear” be shattered for stabbing Geombong?
Actually, it probably wouldn’t end there.
I was thinking along those lines when the next question came.
“Geombong, to grab hands so freely like that... don’t tell me!?”
“...”
Geombong froze up, speechless.
Elder Merciless Sword’s frosty glare locked onto Chang-ryong.
If this line of questioning continued, Chang-ryong was as good as dead.
Fortunately, the heavens must have decided to spare him—because just then, the criminals were brought in.
“Master! We’ve captured the bastards who dared disgrace our benefactor!”
The disciples of the Dianchang Sect dragged in two hooded men and stopped in front of the Sect Leader’s office.
The interrogation of Chang-ryong and Geombong was temporarily postponed.
There were now more deserving suspects to interrogate.
“We’ll speak later. Geombong, let’s hold that conversation for now.”
“Y-Yes, Master.”
“Well done, Seonhak. Sit them down!”
“Yes, sir!”
The two men had been tied together like dried fish on a string.
When the hoods were removed and their gags undone, both of them screamed for their lives as soon as they saw the training ground.
“P-Please spare us!”
“Please, we beg you! Why are you persecuting us? We’ve never had any conflict with the Dianchang Sect!”
The two men shouted that they’d done nothing to warrant being dragged here.
Elder Merciless Sword, hearing this, asked coldly.
“You claim you’ve truly never wronged our Dianchang Sect?”
The fire pits on either side of him flickered, casting a reddish glow over his face. He looked like Yama, King of the Underworld.
The two men hesitated briefly under his glare—then quickly nodded.
“O-Of course!”
“Absolutely!”
But the elder asked again.
“Would you stake your lives on that?”
“...”
Hearing the word “lives,” their eyes wavered. The two of them swallowed hard before replying.
“W-We did sell some shady medicine, but... I don’t think that justifies being dragged in and treated like this by the Dianchang Sect.”
“Exactly! There are plenty of people who sell medicine besides us!”
They insisted that selling medicine wasn’t enough of a reason to get arrested.
Elder Merciless Sword glanced over at me.
“One must not make rash judgments. As they said, they didn’t offend our Dianchang Sect... but they did cross our Sect’s benefactor.”
“Your benefactor?”
“W-What are you talking about?”
The two men were clearly rattled now.
Then the elder turned to me and asked:
“Would you like to question them yourself?”
“I think I will.”
Rather than entrusting this to others, I figured it’d be best to take a step forward myself.
I walked up to the men and stood before them.
“Nice to meet you, gentlemen.”
“W-Who are you?”
“Me? I’m the owner of that shady medicine.”
“The owner of the shady medicine?”
They were confused at first—but when I said I was the one behind it, they flinched and froze.
They started thinking hard, putting the pieces together—and then their faces twisted in panic as they shouted at once:
“W-Wait! Don’t tell me—you’re from the Tang Clan!?”
These bastards knew exactly what kind of counterfeit medicine they were selling.
“It is Tong—communication. I am the very person who created that filthy medicine. The son of the Beast Palace, and son-in-law of the Sacheon Tang Clan. My name is So-ryong.”
As I shouted out the correct answer and introduced myself, the two men turned pale as corpses.
Smiling, I asked,
“Would you mind telling me where you got that filthy medicine?”
“...”
The two of them glanced at each other, wearing the kind of expression that clearly said, ‘We’re fucked. What now?’
When they didn’t respond right away, Elder Merciless Sword turned to his youngest disciple, Seonhak, and gave an order—clearly suggesting he was to prepare for torture.
“It’s been a while since our disciples have had the chance to pierce a man. Get ready.”
“Yes, Master.”
Were they planning to use these two as demonstration tools?
Saying they were going to “pierce two men” could sound very dangerous if taken the wrong way—and as soon as those words left his mouth, a flood of confessions burst out.
“Eeeek! We met in the jungle on the agreed date to make the trade, so we don’t know much! All we did was receive it and sell it!”
“Th-That’s right! It’s the truth!”
As Seonhak walked toward them holding a sword, they instantly opened their mouths.
It was the same answer I’d already heard through the Dianchang Sect disciples before the men arrived: they claimed they didn’t know anything about the creators of the medicine.
Just as Seonhak’s sword touched one of their thighs, I turned to Elder Merciless Sword and said:
“Elder, there’s no need to draw blood. Even a fiercely loyal warrior from the Blood Cult or a puppet of the Five Venoms Sect with brains full of venom couldn’t resist confessing under a certain method I’ve developed.”
Honestly, there was no need to go poking around in their bodies just to get answers.
Because I had a method that had never failed.
“Oh? You have a better idea?”
“Of course.”
I answered confidently and immediately focused my mind.
Soon, I could feel the presence of the children surrounding us.
Though it was winter, Yunnan was relatively warm, so the children hadn’t entered hibernation and were hiding all around.
And since it was night, some of them were already active.
Before summoning them, I turned to Elder Merciless Sword for cooperation.
“Elder, could you instruct your disciples to remain completely still and not move at all?”
“My disciples?”
“Yes.”
“Understood. You all heard him. Remain still—do not move a muscle.”
“Yes!”
I didn’t want any of the children to get stepped on after I summoned them, so I’d taken precautions.
Then, I concentrated my mind and called them forth.
‘Kids, come here.’
—Tsrurururu.
Voices echoed in my mind.
Soon, from cracks in the stone walls and other nooks and crannies, centipedes began to pour out.
Thanks to the warm climate of Yunnan, there were a lot of them.
‘That’s a Lithobius—a stone centipede species. That one’s a Tygarrup, a soil centipede. Oh! A Scolopendra too—the giant ones.
Whoa, is that a Mecistocephalus? There’s Bothropolys as well? Damn, even Cermatobius is here. Yeah, this really is Yunnan.’
Stone centipedes, soil centipedes, giant centipedes—Yunnan had them all.
Just as I was getting excited over the variety, surprised voices burst out around me.
“O-O-gong?!”
“Why are O-gong showing up all of a sudden?!”
“They’re the ones I called. Please be very careful not to move and accidentally cost anyone their lives.”
As centipedes of various sizes appeared and crawled toward me, the Dianchang Sect disciples backed away in shock.
I lowered my hand and let a few crawl onto it—at which point their disciples’ faces turned white.
“How can a person control O-gong like that?!”
“I-Incredible...”
An entire meter-wide ring around me was soon crawling with them.
I brought them forward and stood before the two men.
“I need detailed information about who created that medicine—but I’m getting the feeling you’re lying to me. So I’m going to investigate. You’re welcome to keep hiding the truth.”
Smiling brightly, I continued:
“You’re probably wondering what I plan to do with these kids. But if you were imagining some cliché torture scene where you get bitten and suffer in agony, you’re sorely mistaken. People always assume that when I bring them out—but I don’t do barbaric things like that.”
“No, I’m just going to make a nice, cozy hiding place for my sweet children. O-gong love dark places, after all.”
To make sure they wouldn’t thrash around and crush any of the centipedes, I immediately sealed their pressure points—leaving only their necks free.
—Tap.
Then I snapped my fingers and gave the command.
‘Climb up.’
The centipedes started crawling up the kneeling men’s legs.
Screams erupted immediately.
“Aaaaugh! We really don’t know!”
“It’s true! We swear!”
As the centipedes climbed past their knees, waists, and chests, covering their necks, even the Dianchang disciples shuddered with goosebumps.
When one of the centipedes finally reached a man’s lips, the moment I’d been waiting for arrived.
“We—we really don’t know! But we can tell you the meeting place! We can tell you where we bought it!”
A man had approached us one day out of nowhere, offered to let them sell some great medicine, and they had simply met him regularly in the jungle to buy it—that’s all.
As always, my method hadn’t failed.
It was only natural—everyone has at least a little fear of bugs.
Disciples of the Dianchang Sect and warriors of the Venom Elimination Unit were dispatched immediately to the disclosed location.
***
Later...
Despite dispatching them to the newly revealed location, the next day we received word that the dealers hadn’t shown up.
Even though the capture had been done secretly, it seemed word had spread—because none of the counterfeit drug producers came to the rendezvous point.
Inside the Sect Leader’s office—
I asked about the confusing result.
“Could it be they were exposed?”
“Impossible. We moved silently in the night and laid an ambush.”
“Then maybe they’re just laying low out of caution?”
“It’s strange. Our Dianchang disciples didn’t move personally—we used friendly locals from Dali to express interest in buying medicine and track their movements.”
“Also, those two weren’t the only ones selling. We had others marked as well. We arrested these two specifically because they were drifters—no family in Dali, no connections. Even if they went missing, nobody would be suspicious.”
“Hmm. Then what happened?”
I tilted my head, still thinking it over, when Elder Merciless Sword turned to the two men and growled,
“If you want to live, tell us what’s going on!”
“Eeep!”
One of them suddenly lit up like he remembered something.
“Ah! Th-The guy mentioned last time that they were having trouble getting ingredients! He said we might need to wait a bit longer for the next deal! So they’ll definitely be there next time!”
Damn it—he should’ve told us that earlier.
The leader of the Venom Elimination Unit, pissed off after wasting a trip, smacked both of them on the head.
—Whack! Smack!
“Ugh!”
As they groaned and writhed on ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) the floor, Elder Merciless Sword asked,
“Then when is the next meeting?”
“T-Three days from now!”
“Then we’ll have to send disciples again.”
It looked like Elder Merciless Sword was about to order another ambush to catch whoever showed up—but I stepped forward and offered a different suggestion.
“This time, I’ll go myself.”
Because now I understood something: if we just caught the middleman again and interrogated him, we risked delays—delays that might allow the manufacturers to escape.
But if we let the middleman go and just tracked him, we might find their entire base in one go.
Besides, if Jeokwol covers me from the air in her cloaking form, there’s no chance of being detected.
‘You bastards just wait. So-ryong is coming for you himself.’
First, I’d have to return to the ship and bring Jeokwol and a few of the children along.
