Chapter 51. To Where the Wind Blows (1)

‘Did he escape?’

No matter how many times he knocked on the wall, there was no response. It seemed he had successfully escaped.

Nail moved quickly and naturally.

“Who’s there!”

“It’s me.”

“Ah! You, you almost gave me a heart attack!”

“I’m sorry.”

“Still, why are you here? You’re supposed to be on the east wall.”

“My shift is over. I’m going to relieve someone.”

“Tsk, I guess you’ll know when to come.”

“I haven’t eaten all day. My stomach is stuck to my back.”

“Sometimes I wonder how big your heart is. With the Chief Steward captured, aren’t you even a bit tense?”

“He’s already caught, what’s there to be tense about?”

“Ugh, you. Have you ever seen a spy infiltrate alone? There must be a backup plan.”

“I don’t care about the backup plan. I need to eat.”

“People, give me the badge.”

“Here it is.”

“Be careful. On days like this, your calm nature could be a curse. Eat quietly and go back to rest.”

“Is that all?”

“You’re so clueless. It’s not just anyone, it’s the Chief Steward! Didn’t you see Master Beopin a while ago? His eyes were full of killing intent.”

“Hmm… I guess I need to be more careful today.”

“You’re really unique, you know.”

“Still, thank you. I’ll be going now.”

“Hey, go back and rest.”

Nail clutched his stomach and gently ran away.

A warrior watching his back scratched his head.

“What a strange guy. How can someone be so invisible? Is it because of his calm nature?”

A moment later, Nail entered the dining hall and filled a bowl with cold rice and a couple of side dishes. Then he hurried to his quarters.

Creak.

Nail opened the door to his quarters.

At the same time, his body froze.

‘…?!”

The quarters, which were shared by ten people, were completely empty.

Even though it was the time when four out of the ten should have been asleep.

An inexplicable sense of unease made his hair stand on end.

At that moment,

“Is the rice cold?”

Nail felt a chill run down his spine.

“Do you want to go somewhere that serves good food? It looks like you can pay for it.”

“…”

“If you don’t want to, there’s nothing I can do.”

Yeon Hojeong, emerging from the shadows, laughed coldly.

“A well-fed ghost is a beautiful one. Since no one will perform the funeral rites for you, eat this and die.”

Smack!

A large bowl of rice flew at Yeon Hojeong’s face. At the same time, Nail’s figure shot up to the roof of the quarters like lightning.

“…!!”

Nail’s eyes widened.

Swoosh. Swoosh.

Beyond the roof of the quarters.

Numerous warriors appeared in various buildings of the inner courtyard.

What was astonishing was the places they stood. Each of these spots was marked as a potential escape route in case of an emergency.

Nail’s eyes wavered.

‘How…?!”

These were routes that only spies or assassins could know, paths that even experienced warriors like the Old Gangho had to learn separately.

All these routes were now blocked. Nail felt his vision go dark.

“I don’t want to argue with a rat in the middle of the night. So I’ll tell you in advance.”

Nail looked down.

Yeon Hojeong was standing with an axe on his shoulder. The bowl of rice and its contents were rolling on the ground.

“The contact person you had in the outer courtyard stables was beheaded by the Changyung Captain.”

“…!!”

“Come down.”

You knew about the contact person?

Nail was flabbergasted. In most organizations, using two spies and a contact person was rare.

Raising a contact person was no easy task, and countless examples of infiltration attempts gone wrong were common.

But the contact person planted in the Yeon family was different.

He was a top-tier expert in this field. The very existence of a contact person was less risky and harder to catch than a spy.

Knowing about the contact person was already surprising, but how did you know he worked in the stables?

Swoosh. Whoosh.

Nail descended to the ground.

His light steps made no sound when his feet touched the ground. It was an incredible technique.

“Who are you?”

“Yeon Hojeong.”

Nail’s eyes were filled with killing intent. He had a gut feeling that there was no way out.

But there was one thing he wanted to know.

“Who told you about the contact person?”

“I did.”

“You did?”

“What’s so special about that?”

“Did you, who grew up like a flower, know about spy infiltration and assassination?”

Yeon Hojeong chuckled.

“If you saw the greenhouse I grew up in, you wouldn’t say that.”

Spy infiltration? Assassination? Contact person? These were everyday occurrences in the underworld.

The underworld, which preferred deceit over righteousness and lies over truth, was a place where deception was a momentary affair and killing was a daily routine. There were many people whose skills were several times better than Nail’s, even if their martial arts were inferior.

Yeon Hojeong was the one who had taken control of this chaotic battlefield.

Once you know whether they exist, capturing a spy or a contact person is as easy as swatting a fly.

Nail’s eyes wavered.

“I can’t believe it. Are you some kind of Shadow God?!”

“Is that a new way to insult people these days? Where did you get that creepy guy?”

Bang!

The end of the staff hit the ground. The vibration was so intense that it shook the entire area.

“Kneel.”

Sss.

A strange aura emanated from Nail’s body.

Yeon Hojeong nodded.

“Of course, that’s not going to happen, is it?”

Boom!

Nail charged.

Spies and assassins, due to the nature of their work, are mostly masters of lightness techniques. Their movements were faster than any high-level experts he had seen after his return.

Thud!

A half-fist aimed at the jaw missed.

It wasn’t blocked but deflected. Nail finally realized the truth from the opponent’s response.

‘This guy is a professional!’

The attacks of a spy trained in close combat techniques should never be blocked directly. They always coat their fingernails with a non-detectable poison.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Nail’s attacks continued.

Yeon Hojeong’s martial arts were not one-hit kills. Since a single scratch from the fingernails would render the target combat-ineffective, there was no need to waste energy.

Nail’s attacks were relentless, requiring extreme endurance. It was a high-level assassination technique that, once unleashed, was hard to reverse.

Yeon Hojeong was dismantling this high-level technique with ease.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

‘How is this possible?’

The fast, sharp, and continuous dark fist techniques all missed.

‘How?!!’

Yeon Hojeong’s responses were so concise that they seemed almost careless.

The seemingly careless hand movements deflected the sinister techniques.

Being so well-versed in these techniques, he knew exactly how to attack. If he didn’t know, it would be one thing, but if he knew and couldn’t block, he wouldn’t be the Dark Lord.

‘Damn it.’

Nail felt a sense of despair.

He had planned to knock out the opponent, take a hostage, and escape. But he couldn’t even land a single blow.

‘I can’t win…’

A desperate situation. Attacking a high-level expert who wouldn’t be swayed by a hostage was the worst choice.

Yeon Hojeong’s eyes flashed.

A broken spirit leads to broken techniques. Nail’s dark fist techniques gradually lost their characteristic sharpness.

Whoosh!

Yeon Hojeong aimed a long kick at Nail’s lower body. Whether his spirit was broken or not, it was a hard move to block.

Crack!

“Gah!”

Nail’s face turned pale. His right knee bent inward, breaking.

“Indeed, you were amateurish.”

Nail looked up at Yeon Hojeong.

Yeon Hojeong lifted his axe with both hands.

“Not even the poison will stop you? What confidence do you have?”

Bang!

“Gah!”

A powerful axe swing severed his leg. Nail screamed, trembled a few times, and then fainted.

Yeon Hojeong looked up at the sky with a cold gaze.

The moonlight was clear.

“This side is done, Father.”

* * *

“Huff huff!”

Taekyung’s body, drenched in sweat, ran through the rough forest.

He had cultivated inner energy, but he had hardly practiced martial arts. Still, his running was fast.

‘Faster, even faster!’

Once trapped in a solitary cell, it would take time to get out again.

But there was always a chance. Gambling on uncertainty was too risky given his rough life. He couldn’t relax until he was out of Jiangxia.

‘At least I need to visit the first safe house!’

Fortunately, he was well-versed in the local terrain. No spy is sent without memorizing the map.

How long had he been running?

The top of a small hill was just ahead. Once over this hill, the forest by the main road would appear. There was a safe house built by the Murong family in the forest.

“Huff huff!”

Now it was downhill. He would be much faster.

Just as Taekyung, breathing heavily, was about to start running again,

“Is that all?”

Crack!

The sound of a broken branch was unusually loud. It was the branch Taekyung had stepped on.

Taekyung’s sweat-soaked face turned pale.

“Is this the kind of performance you showed me, deceiving me for nearly ten years?”

Taekyung’s hands trembled.

He slowly turned his head.

Rustle.

A middle-aged man appeared beside a large tree.

Tall and slender, he wore a plain long sword on his left side.

The sword was ordinary, but his eyes were not.

The pinnacle of indifference. The epitome of ruthlessness.

“…Master.”

“Do you still call me Master?”

Taekyung closed his eyes.

‘It’s over.’

Yeon Wei was one of the top martial artists among the seven major families. There was no way Taekyung could escape from a rare supreme expert.

Taekyung looked at Yeon Wei.

The moonlight reflected in Yeon Wei’s eyes was pure terror. Even a predator’s eyes wouldn’t be as terrifying.

“I… I just….”

“Just?”

“I just wanted to reach the top of the world.”

“With such despicable means?”

Taekyung shouted without realizing it.

“To reach the top of the world, does the method matter? Not everyone is like you! Born and raised within the confines of the Yeon family, you can never understand me!”

“I don’t need to understand you.”

Taekyung bit his lip.

“Let me go.”

“I can’t do that.”

“I’m not the only one who joined as a spy! There are others in the Yeon family…!”

“Nail, the prison guard, and Janghak, the stable master.”

“…!!”

“Are there any others?”

“How… how do you know…?!”

Yeon Wei’s eyes deepened.

“You underestimated my son too much.”

Only then did Taekyung realize that Yeon Hojeong had lied to him until the end.

Even until the last moment before heading to the prison, he had been deceived.

“Any last words?”

“T… that damn son of a…!!”

Swoosh!

Taekyung’s head fell to the ground.

Yeon Wei glared at the fallen head with cold eyes.

“I asked if you had any last words, not to insult my son.”