"What?"
The Vice Unit Leader stared blankly, stunned. The cultist who had bound Sohwa seemed angered by her arrogant attitude and immediately swung a shuriken.
Slash.
Her waist tie was cut, and Tang Sohwa’s long robe fell open. When the cultist stripped off the robe, a thin inner garment was revealed. They did not stop there and cut the cloth around her shoulders and legs.
The worst.
Her arms and legs were completely exposed in the air. Tang Sohwa was not wearing any of the Blood Demon’s sacred relics.
The Vice Unit Leader furrowed his brows.
'If it isn’t a sacred relic, then what is it. A new poison?'
Indeed, if that woman had truly possessed a sacred relic, there was no way she would have endured this humiliation. She would have killed him before the robe was stripped away.
'Damn it... then what on earth is it?'
His mind tangled, the Vice Unit Leader nudged and flipped over the body of the subordinate lying before him with his foot. He had been so focused on Tang Sohwa that he had not seen how the subordinate died.
The Vice Unit Leader’s face stiffened as he examined the subordinate’s condition. A faint black mottling extending toward the nape entered his sight. This one also had black veins rising around the heart area.
Once again, the Blood Demon’s Dokgo had killed his subordinates.
"Ghk."
"Keugh!"
Startled by the screams, the Vice Unit Leader turned his head. The two subordinates who had bound Tang Sohwa collapsed to the floor, clutching their necks and rolling.
In the meantime, Tang Sohwa loosened her bindings and picked up her long robe and put it on.
The Vice Unit Leader scowled sharply. The skin on her palms had peeled away. On the floor lay rotted rope and a broken bottle.
"Don’t tell me, did you even use Bone-Melting Powder?"
She was a madwoman. It made no sense that a martial artist would sacrifice their hands just to free themselves.
Slash.
At that moment, Tang Sohwa hid her hand inside her sleeve. The Vice Unit Leader, eyes bloodshot, lunged at her. Worried she would use poison, he immediately struck at her.
Slash.
But Tang Sohwa was slightly faster. As she extended her hand, pink-colored sand dispersed around her.
The Vice Unit Leader ignored it and leapt high into the air, vaulting over the cloud of red sand.
Thwip.
The moment he landed, the Vice Unit Leader grabbed Tang Sohwa’s arm—and then hesitated. Her arm soaked in blood felt strangely smooth.
Staring at the arm stained with congealed blood, the Vice Unit Leader narrowed his eyes.
"...Did you also learn Blood Arts from the Blood Demon?"
For an instant, all sound within the building vanished. Taking her silence as affirmation, the Vice Unit Leader looked between his subordinates and the woman with a face full of disbelief.
His voice trembled.
"What... what are you? Have you also become one of the cult?"
The Blue Blood Hall Lord had been a man of few words, and his loyalty to the Blood Demon came before anything. He had never revealed Tang Sohwa’s constitution to anyone, not even to the Vice Unit Leader he cherished.
Unaware of the truth, the Vice Unit Leader tightened his grip in fear. The faint trembling passed fully into the woman before him.
Eyes dark like the abyss took him in. Soon, the woman calmly spoke.
"...Now only you remain."
Words of unknown meaning pierced his ears. Then the woman stated her objective.
"The Blue Blood Hall’s line will end here today."
It was a threat so absurd it barely qualified as words. The difference between his martial ability and Tang Sohwa’s was like heaven and earth.
Even so, the Vice Unit Leader could not react at all. He realized he was frozen. It felt like a cornered rat facing a venomous snake.
He could not understand why that woman acted like the predator and why he felt like the prey. To feel fear toward someone so beneath him was humiliating.
To hide his trembling, he let out a hollow laugh.
"Do you really think you can defeat me?"
A voice devoid of any laughter returned immediately.
"The difference in level doesn’t matter."
A corner of the Tang woman’s robe shifted slightly. The Vice Unit Leader’s gaze immediately dropped to her hand. A fist dripping scarlet blood met his sight.
A hidden weapon was gripped in the hand soaked with blood. Tang Sohwa was gripping the blade of the throwing dagger, not the hilt. The hidden weapon was wet entirely with her own blood, not another’s, and the sight made it all the more terrifying.
A cold voice crushed the Vice Unit Leader’s eardrums.
"You cannot kill me, but I can kill you, and that difference is enough."
'All I need is to get a single drop of blood into you.'
Tang Sohwa immediately threw the hidden weapon she held.
Whish.
Naturally, the dagger did not reach the Vice Unit Leader. He lightly knocked the projectile aside with a knife-hand motion.
The Vice Unit Leader released Tang Sohwa’s wrist. A burning pain, as if his palm were on fire, had surged up. When he withdrew his hand, he was horrified.
"Truly a madwoman."
His palm and Tang Sohwa’s wrist had both blackened. The veins had burst and necrosis had set in.
He quickly gathered inner energy to restore his palm. Even though it was his left hand, he was a martial artist who used both hands to throw hidden weapons, and now his strength was cut in half.
Taking advantage of the opening, Tang Sohwa hurled hidden weapons in succession.
Boom.
The Vice Unit Leader twisted his body and let the attack pass instead of countering. Seeing what that woman was doing, it was clear she had used some trick on the hidden weapons as well.
Boom. Thud.
Tang Sohwa, sensing he was recovering his body, deliberately targeted the regions through which his inner energy flowed. He could not understand how she had identified his blood points amid all this.
The Vice Unit Leader needed time. A brief moment to focus on recovery. He wanted to ask his subordinates to guard him, but all of them were...
"Damn it."
Cursing, he leapt high.
Tap. Thwip.
Kicking off a pillar, he used the momentum to vault over the second-floor railing.
Clatter, thud.
Seeing him enter the room, Tang Sohwa also leapt.
The time a cultist spent on recovery was their weakness. She could not allow it to slip by.
Without hesitation, Tang Sohwa crossed the second-floor railing and followed the Vice Unit Leader into the room.
Boom. Boom. Boom.
Violent crashes echoed through the building. The door shattered, and the sharp sound of wind splitting through the air filled the silence without pause.
"Stop it already!"
The Vice Unit Leader’s shout rang out. At times he let out pained screams. Something toppled and broke continuously.
Crack.
After a long while, the sound of splitting wood thundered.
Boom.
The sliding door shattered, and Tang Sohwa fell from the second floor to the first, a red line marking her neck. Tang Sohwa grasped her nape, gasped, and then went back upstairs.
Thwip.
The noise and screams continued without end.
"Aaaaah!"
The horrific sound went on for a very long time.
By the time sunlight reached the first floor, all sound had vanished.
Tang Min’s sclera had turned red. All the blood vessels had burst. His vision blurred from rage, yet he did not give up and continued straining his fingers.
Twitch.
His index finger slowly curled. The paralysis was finally wearing off. He continuously gathered inner energy to push out the poison, but it did not work. He had to wait until the poison withdrew on its own and freed him.
However, the Heukcheon Amgui was not so patient. He did not give up and continued resisting the poison.
At that moment, a small sound split the silence.
Creak.
A door opened, followed by footsteps. They sounded as though each step might falter but barely continued.
Step.
The faint sound drew closer.
The Heukcheon Amgui’s supporting hand raised his upper body. Thin fingers began pressing his acupoints. After pressing his solar plexus and right lower abdomen, Tang Sohwa wrapped his stiff hand in her own.
"Soul-Pulling Water lasts about half a day. If you force your strength, your meridians and muscles will be damaged... and they are already heavily damaged."
She loosened his quivering fingers as she spoke.
"I will give you an antidote... even when the paralysis fades, do not move for about half a quarter-hour and begin circulating your energy first."
The Heukcheon Amgui’s eyes fixed on Sohwa. Her voice was calm, but her appearance was miserable. She had apparently waited for her wounds to close somewhat and wiped away blood before emerging, yet her complexion was corpse-like pale.
Her clothes were shredded to the point they could be called rags, and her long hair was cut halfway on the right, creating an uneven shape.
It seemed she had not had any time to check a mirror; Tang Sohwa had come down in that condition to check on the Heukcheon Amgui.
She did not know what expression Tang Min wore as he looked at her.
With trembling hands, Sohwa took a small wooden box from her sleeve. She took out a yellow pill and immediately placed it into Tang Min’s mouth. Pressing the acupoints of his jaw and throat, she made the medicine pass into his stomach.
When the tension eased, Sohwa let out a small breath. Her vision blurred and her body felt heavy. After fighting for half a day with her life on the line, her strength was completely spent.
'No. Not now...'
Grinding her teeth, she clung to her fading consciousness and turned her gaze toward the interior of the building. She had to find Namgung Jin and bring him out.
But in her current condition, she could not save Namgung Jin. And there was no guarantee that Namgung Jin was even in the storehouse the Hao Sect disciple had mentioned.
Cold sweat formed on Sohwa’s forehead.
'I need to endure half a quarter-hour...'
Until the Heukcheon Amgui was detoxified and recovered, she had to stand guard.
As her scattering consciousness barely held on, a long robe settled over her shoulders. When she lifted her head, Tang Min had already risen and was covering her with his own robe.
"It is best... not to move. If it is an issue of the mind, it may never... recover... permanently."
Without waiting for her answer, he straightened her clothing and tightened her waist sash.
"Sohwa."
Sohwa’s upper body tilted forward. Tang Min caught her in his arms and stroked her back as he spoke.
"Even if you have ties to the Blood Cult, it is fine."
"..."
"Even if you were once part of the Blood Cult, it is fine. Even if you are still one of them, it is fine."
Like soothing a pitiful beast, Tang Min wrapped an arm around Sohwa’s shoulder.
"Whatever burden you carry, whenever it may be, I will fight for you, so do not carry it alone."
At the warm hand stroking her head, her consciousness grew dimmer.
"There are more than one or two adults who can protect you. Why do you try to carry a burden too heavy for someone your age?"
The Heukcheon Amgui’s voice sank into her fading consciousness.
"Please... do not let me lose you without even understanding anything."
Tang Sohwa could not answer and lost consciousness in the embrace of the Tang Clan’s mountain.
