The Thousand-Slayer Swordsman Association-Episode 18
〈 18Tue 〉 Accompanying Samjang, returning home (3）
* * *
The battle wasn't long.
No, it ended so quickly that it could be said that it was an instant..
Shhh.
The person in question was cut exactly in half and died..
The body's outer layer had all melted and its head was crushed as if it had been hit by something..
The melted scar was created because it could not withstand the poison of Danghwaseo, even though it was named Yeongmul, and the split into two parts was, of course, caused by Mokriwon..
Danghwaseo took a deep breath and absorbed the remaining poison of the human face in the air..
‘excellent.’
It's almost the first time I've drunk this thick poison since I escaped..
It took some time to get used to it, but eventually I was able to increase my strength..
That's it.
Myeonmyeonjiju is clearly a spirit creature with poisonous glands..
If the poison glands were removed and processed separately, it would be quite a worthy feat..
Danghwaseo, who was continuing his thoughts, burst into laughter..
‘Even though you resent them so much, you still use their martial skills well..’
Why did it feel contradictory to pour out resentment toward the Tang family while making full use of their martial arts skills?.
However, Danghwaseo did not feel ashamed about it..
This is because I know best myself that they are not people I can deal with out of pride..
‘Everything that can be used must be used..’
After organizing his thoughts, Danghwaseo looked at Mokriwon..
“Okay!”
Before he knew it, Mok Riwon, who had his sword ready, was looking at him with sparkling eyes..
Even though his mouth was full of blood poison, Danghwaseo somehow felt like he knew what he was trying to say..
‘Also, what are you talking about about that guy’s martial arts skills from a prestigious family?.’
How did he feel when he found out that he was a member of the Tang family?.
Didn't we continue to ask mind-boggling questions for three hours?.
This time will also be an extension of that..
‘Pidogju is working really hard..’
Danghwaseo smiled brightly..
Seeing that, Mo Liwon waved his arms and gave a thumbs up..
There was one reason.
As Danghwaseo expected, he was once again impressed by her martial arts skills..
“I know you want to make a fuss, but I'll leave it at that for now. Isn’t there something you need to take care of??”
“town!”
“I will pull out the naedan and the poison gland. Go far away and wait..”
Mok Riwon gasped and ran towards the cave entrance..
Wondering how all his emotions could be revealed just by looking at his running back, Danghwaseo shook his head at the sight of Mokriwon and went about his work..
*
As they left the cave, the two were greeted by the musty, smelly air..
While sitting at the cave entrance and resting for a while, Danghwaseo showed Mokriwon the inner altar he had saved from the cave just before..
It's exactly the same size as the sweets Mok Riwon ate before coming here..
“I'll give it to you..”
“Okay?!”
Mokriwon was startled and shook his head..
Then he waved his arms here and there and appeared to be feeling guilty..
Should I say that it's really characteristic of him to take care of his conscience in a situation like this?.
Danghwaseo chuckled and forced the inner altar into Mokriwon's hand..
“For me, poison glands are enough. In fact, the medicine made by processing the venom glands is more helpful to the body than these medicines. And isn't it a spiritual creature that would never have been discovered if it weren't for the Mok Sohyeop in the first place??”
Even though I was naive, I was too naive..
Any warrior should know how to take care of his fair share, but with such a soft heart, I wonder if he might get scammed somewhere..
“Okay? The more things like this, the more thorough the calculations must be..”
“Okay…!”
An expression of being moved appeared on Mo Ri-won's face..
Seeing Danghwaseo's eyes sparkle, an idea inadvertently occurred to me..
‘…mutt.’
I thought Mok Ri-won was like a mutt whose eyes lit up and his tail was wagging even when he was thrown a bowl of rice..
rude thought.
Danghwaseo made that decision and quickly erased his thoughts..
Meanwhile, Mok Ri-won, whose eyes were constantly sparkling, spat out poisonous liquor and said:.
“Thank you, Soger! Even if my whole life goes by, I will never be able to repay this favor! Always with a grateful heart…!”
“with my heart?”
Tick, tsk, tsk.
Mok Ri-won couldn't think of anything to say and thought for a moment, then gave an answer..
“I will try to become a great thief.!”
Anyway, it was because I thought that nothing would be better than seeing the other person's good will return with even greater good will..
Danghwaseo burst out laughing at that absurd answer..
“Okay, now let's get up. From now on, you will have to move really diligently..”
“Okay!”
Mokriwon's answer, with poisoned liquor in his mouth before he knew it.
The two began walking through the bitter valley again..
*
The atmosphere was heated by the unexpected income..
Danghwa-seo was in a great mood with the poisonous glands stored in his arms, and Mok-ri-won was also very excited as he had an experience that seemed like something out of a story..
As long as we get out of the valley like this, it's over..
There was something the two of them hadn't thought of as they were only thinking about such a happy future..
This is the valley of residual blood.
20A place where countless civilians were sacrificed in a bloodbath several years ago..
And a place where no group has entered since the blood death..
The village where the two arrived still retains the horrors of that time..
“….”
Mokriwon’s expression, which had been excited the whole time, darkened..
The same goes for Danghwaseo.
Her expression contorted at the sight of such cruel traces that she could tell what had happened here with just a cursory glance..
‘It's terrible..’
It was completely different from the corpses of warriors I had ever seen..
ruins.
The rotten shantytown, it would be better to say, was completely covered in black blood..
It wasn't just that.
The bodies were all turned into white bones with their backs to the center of the village, like people who tried to run but failed, and somewhere in there, there were white bones embracing each other or rolling with their backs turned..
It would be correct to describe it as the scene of a one-sided massacre..
Danghwaseo frowned, looked at it closely, and then looked at Mokriwon..
“…Small cooperative?”
I called out to see if he was shocked by this sight, but there was no answer..
Mo Ri-won just watched it all with a sinking face..
Jeopuk.
Mokriwon took a step forward..
For some reason, Danghwaseo thought that she should not stop him, so she quietly followed him..
‘What are you doing??’
Mok Ri-won looked at the white bones closely and looked around..
I looked around the village, checking all the unidentifiable marks, half-destroyed shacks, and rusty farm equipment that had fallen somewhere..
It was like that..
Mokriwon was picturing in his mind the events that had happened here..
One day, when I was a little older and turned 13, I thought back to the story of Janhyeolgok, which I had additionally heard from Mok Seon-oh..
Did you save the civilians there??
…I saved as much as I could. But, we couldn't save everyone..
then….
Mok Seon-oh laughed bitterly that day..
Mo Ri-won, who had always been a proud charlatan, knew when he rarely showed that kind of expression..
It was a time when I felt sad about something I couldn't do anything about on my own..
Do you know, Won? There are people in the world who are driven to the edge of a cliff to the point where they have no place to escape. There are people who want to give up because they can't see any way to survive even if they run away..
Were those civilians like that??
Yes, they were the ones who ran away to the mountains because they couldn't even get crops to pay taxes on. So they had nowhere else to go.
Evacuation….
I couldn't do it. No, they didn't want that. Because there was no longer anywhere to run to..
It was childhood.
So there was a question that came to mind.
Shouldn't we have fought back?…?
I guess I should tell you this too..
yes?
Mok Ri-won looked at the front yard where leaves were falling that day and thought back to what Mok Seon-oh said..
Not everyone in the world can resist the hardships that come their way..
Why??
Because they are the weak. Since even resisting requires strength, they have no choice but to cry. But….
But?
…Even though they are such pitiful people, the world does not listen to the voices of the weak..
*
Mokriwon tirelessly looked around the village, looking for traces of each and every one of them..
‘This is a dry goods store..’
Is it correct to say it is a dry goods store?.
All that was there was leather and scraps of cloth, rags that would be a waste to even describe, but seeing them rotting on display would make it more accurate to describe them that way..
When you turn your head, what you see is a table that looks like a cash register..
And underneath, a black, dry substance that cannot even be distinguished from what it originally was..
Probably grass or herbs.
Maybe this is the concept of currency here..
In the middle of the dry goods store, there was a white bone with the cervical vertebrae hanging out..
They were probably trying to protect this shabby store..
Mo Ri-won looked at it for a while, then took another step and headed towards the butcher shop next to it..
The reason I was sure it was a butcher's shop even though there wasn't even the slightest trace of meat was because of the white bones lying there..
It was a butcher knife held over the sprawled, white-skinned hand, and the thing hanging on the wall was a hook that was probably used to hang meat, so I couldn't think of anything else..
‘I guess this person was also trying to protect his store..’
Mokriwon’s steps continued..
Passing through a few shantytowns that appear to have served as stores, to a private house, and then back to the outskirts..
Danghwaseo watched Mokriwon with concern..
The man's steps, picturing the tragedy in his mind, did not stop, and the woman who was watching eventually uttered these words:.
“Neck narrowing, no more….”
I need to stop and get on my way..
I understand that the tragedy here is heartbreaking, but if you delay and get caught up in those feelings, all your plans will go astray..
I was just about to say those words..
Jabak.
A sound was heard from far away.
It was so blatantly artificial that it had to be said to be the sound of footsteps..
Two warriors with sensitive senses looked at the source of the sound..
and they witnessed.
“girl?”
girl.
They couldn't understand it, but what was in front of them was a young girl hiding behind a building and sticking her head out..
widely!
the girl ran away.
It was so instantaneous that even facial features were not distinguishable..
But does it really matter?.
Mokriwon turned to face that place..
Danghwaseo stopped him like that..
“Wait a minute, I'm suspicious..”
Danghwaseo glared straight at Mokriwon..
“There is no way there is a girl here. It is a ruined valley already 20 years ago, and as Mok Sohyeop also feels, this place is full of fraud and malice, and the common people cannot enter. There's definitely something there.”
Mok Ri-won looked at Danghwaseo quietly and spit out the blood poisonous liquor he was holding in his mouth..
“But it was definitely a girl.”
“To be exact, it might be a girl..”
Mok Riwon’s eyebrows narrowed slightly..
“what is that….”
“What did we see before we came here?.”
“…It's a spirit thing.”
“That's right. It's a spirit thing. It can't be here.”
Tang Hwa-seo told him the reasoning that came to mind based on the strange cause and effect that was only now felt..
“It's only been 20 years. It is not long enough for a spirit to arise and grow to that extent. Before I saw that girl, I thought it was a spirit that had moved.….”
The girl I just saw.
It pointed to one clear fact.
“…Someone may have moved the spirit object there. To protect this place.”
“That means….”
“It may not be a girl. No, it may not be human. Just like spirit creatures.”
Danghwaseo thought.
There is a secret here that someone wants to hide, and it is a secret that is not worth finding out..
“What are you if you're not human?.”
“There are things to expect.”
Danghwaseo’s gaze was directed to the back of the building where the girl disappeared..
“This is a land filled with fraud and poison. All there is is a human corpse. And there was something in the shape of a man.”
Mokriwon also realized what Danghwaseo was trying to say..
“…Jiangxi.”
she was talking.
That girl may be a jiangshi created by the special characteristics of this ghost song..
*
The standoff was long.
Danghwa-seo prayed that he would not show his strange curiosity this time, and Mok-ri-won was so deep in worry that he could not meet her gaze..
tense moment.
The prayer that Danghwaseo continued with his eyes tightly closed did not come true in the end..
“…I have to go too.”
“Neck narrowing, please!”
“It's not like it might actually be a girl. She put her foot wrong here.”
“Then you would have asked for help.!”
“They might have viewed us as evil..”
“…stop!”
Danghwaseo shouted and thought like that..
‘We have to come out strong..’
Actually, I can't say that there is no possibility at all, but it is a possibility at the level of 'not impossible'..
If I listened to this person's stubbornness here, I might end up in unnecessary danger..
“We must leave this place. Since we've already killed the personage lord, if we stay here, we might run into the person who brought the spirit object here! No, the appearance of that girl-shaped thing itself could have been his bait.!”
It goes without saying, but there is an absurd difference in difficulty between simply handling a spirit object and moving it alive..
At the very least, we must not rule out the possibility that it is the end of the transcendental peak, or that it is a warrior at the transcendental peak..
“Neck narrowness and romance are good, but you must always keep them in mind. The things we need to be most careful about in Gangho are none other than the elderly, women, and children..”
“….”
“answer!”
Mo Liwon’s mouth was still tightly shut..
Hwa-seo suddenly felt the back of her neck being pulled..
Even as Danghwaseo, who usually listened to his stubbornness, I couldn't back down this time, so the moment I was about to speak again..
“What Sojeo said is morally correct..”
Mokriwon said so.
“However, as a charlatan, I was wrong..”
rattly.
Danghwaseo’s body stopped..
Now I was so upset that I almost burst out laughing..
“what….”
“Soser, I've always been curious..”
Mokriwon passed Danghwaseo and walked slowly in the direction where the girl disappeared..
“You know, I know what Sojeo says. Is there anything more terrifying than a villain disguised as the weak? Who can be as vicious as them? It is true that we must be wary of them..”
“neck….”
“But... Then it doesn't sound weird..”
Mok Ri-won said that and stopped walking..
“A charlatan protects the weak. And Io is the shield of the weak. If such a charlatan is a charlatan, then if you follow what Sojeo said, it doesn't mean that such a charlatan should be wary of the weak..”
Mok Ri-won recited what came to mind..
It wasn't a question I had for a short time..
This worry was something he had always had since the moment he decided to become a knight and heard various martial arts proverbs from Jiewang..
“A charlatan protects the weak. But what a charlatan must be careful of is the weak. If so then.”
It was a question that could not be easily solved..
“If you are wary of those who should show cooperation, then for whom is that cooperation??”
Mokriwon looked at the Danghwaseo..
It was a bitter smile.
Danghwaseo suddenly stopped..
I had a lot to say right now..
Since this situation is a special situation where those words cannot be substituted, what you said could easily be a statement defending an evil enemy..
Not only that, but such romance does not hold a lifeline, etc..
However, Danghwaseo had no choice but to swallow the dozens of words that came to mind at this moment..
The reason it has to be that way is because that is the correct theory..
This is because I am also a person who was saved by such a correct opinion..
All the words that came to mind were words that never came out, so Dang Hwa-seo pursed her lips, sighed, and continued to ask another question..
“…There is a greater than 90% chance that it is not human..”
“1I guess Hal has potential..”
“9There is a high probability of going into a limb..”
Danghwaseo’s fist was clenched..
It was an irrational question, even in my own opinion, but Danghwaseo asked it nonetheless..
“…What would you do if it were a trap??”
Mok Riwon’s eyes got bigger..
Then it folded again into a crescent shape..
It seemed like he understood the meaning of permission..
Ironically, he was dazzlingly beautiful even at this moment..
“It doesn't matter.”
The words that come out are also.
“It is a charlatan to take on such threats, and it is a charlatan to develop strength to do so..”
This time, it was the correct opinion..
“Isn't that why we polished the radish?.”
* * *
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