Chapter 104
Just as I was about to speak…
BOOM!
“What, what was that?!”
I jumped to my feet in surprise. The floor shook violently, as though something had exploded nearby.
Suddenly, I caught a pungent smell at the tip of my nose. It smelled like something burning, or perhaps charcoal…
‘No way?’
The beauty’s words flashed through my mind.
“…I heard you purchased a large quantity of gunpowder along with all sorts of illegal drugs. What were you planning to do with that gunpowder?”
“Gunpowder!”
The moment I shouted, another explosion rang out.
As if that first blast had been the signal, the explosions continued several times. Even directly below us.
There was no time to figure out what was happening. One-third of the floor on the eighth level collapsed, and flames suddenly burst forth.
I hurriedly looked at the beauty and shouted,
“We need to go up first!”
Without even waiting for an answer, I threw myself toward the stairs.
The ninth floor, the topmost floor of the pavilion, was a storeroom. Unlike what I had expected, it was not Bang Chang-seung’s private quarters… it was filled with all sorts of objects. There were several chests, various precious items, and piles of gleaming silk.
‘Is this some kind of private vault?’
But there was no time to leisurely look around. I hurriedly surveyed the surroundings, but there was nowhere to hide and no apparent way to escape this place.
There was only a wide-open window in the wall. I ran to the window and looked down.
Then my eyes widened. The pavilion was engulfed in flames.
“Captain, Flower-Glutton! You need to come down quickly! The pavilion is collapsing!”
“You idiot Taoist! How are we supposed to get down from there?! The fire has already spread below, and if you jump from that height, your body will be smashed to pieces, and you’ll die!”
“Then what do we do? Oh no, this is bad. This is really bad!”
“I know it’s bad too, so will you shut up?!”
Down below, Paeng Ga and the Taoist were shouting frantically at each other, but both were looking up with worried expressions.
Then a calm voice came from beside me.
“This is troublesome.”
The beauty was standing beside me, looking down as well. Yet his expression looked like the exact opposite of someone who was troubled.
I was in trouble too. If I fell from the pavilion, I would really just smash my body to pieces and die. But if I waited until the pavilion collapsed and jumped at the same time, I risked being crushed beneath it.
Just in case, I cautiously asked the beauty,
“Do you have any ideas?”
“Perhaps.”
The beauty thought for a moment before pointing somewhere outside the window.
There was a large tree there.
“There’s a tree across from us. If the distance were shorter, we could jump out and send the pibak flying, then hang from one of its branches. Unfortunately, the tree is too far away.”
“It would be difficult to reach the tree in a single jump, right?”
“That’s obvious.”
“Then we can make several jumps. If it’s only that much, it’s worth trying.”
“That… what?”
The beauty looked at me with an incredulous expression. It was the first emotion I had seen appear on that ice-cold face.
I smiled brightly and glanced behind me. By now, the fire had spread all the way to the stairs. I briefly searched the surroundings for something suitable, then went to the place where the precious items were piled up.
I grabbed several bolts of silk and returned to the window.
The beauty looked at me with a puzzled expression. I handed the silk to him and continued speaking.
“Now, I’m going to hold you and jump out of that window.”
“…What?”
“Of course, you have something to do as well. I can’t fly through the air, so you’ll need to create footholds for me. Throw these bolts of silk one at a time according to my signal.”
“What kind of absurd…”
“Ah! But don’t just throw them randomly. Throw them with just the right amount of force, at a place where I can land. A master of your level should be able to do that, right?”
“…”
The beauty accepted the silk almost reflexively, still looking utterly incredulous. Somehow, he also seemed hesitant.
Then…
BOOM!
Gunpowder exploded on the floor below again, shaking the building.
The beauty’s gaze shifted away from me.
I didn’t miss that moment. I quickly slipped in beside his waist. By the time the beauty realized what was happening, I had already slipped an arm beneath his knees and lifted him into my arms.
The beauty cried out in surprise.
“You…!”
“Oh my, you’re lighter than I expected for someone your height. Do you watch your weight too?”
“Put me down!”
“Now, now. You remember what I said, right? Then, here we go…”
I placed one foot on the windowsill.
I glanced back. It seemed there was a smell of gunpowder coming from somewhere in this room as well.
I channeled my internal energy into my foot and kicked off the windowsill with all my strength. At the same moment, gunpowder exploded directly behind us.
BOOM!
“Let’s gooo~!”
***
Woonhak was regretting it as he stared at the pavilion engulfed in flames.
‘I should have gone down with them…’
This whole situation had gone against the natural order from the very beginning. Originally, they had planned to discuss the matter of Yongcheok Stronghold only after all five members of Inspection Unit Fifth Squad, who had been scattered because of their previous mission, had gathered together.
Unlike the Enforcement Division, the Inspection Unit wasn’t a group that directly confronted the Demonic Cult. They were a group that gathered evidence of the Demonic Cult’s activities. Since they could end up arresting innocent people if they made a mistake, they had to be cautious with every action they took.
But then, after hearing about the mission, Young Master Paeng had gone ahead to Yongcheok Stronghold on his own.
[Daoist Woonhak! Brother Paeng got angry, saying, “What if they wait and escape?” and left ahead of me. There’s a limit to how much I can stop Brother Paeng by myself, so please come to Yongcheok Stronghold quickly!]
Woonhak felt as though the world were spinning before his eyes when he received the secret letter sent by Young Master Jegal.
Wanting to discuss what they should do about this, he immediately showed the letter to the captain. But instead of rushing over, the captain told him to send a letter to the Murim Alliance.
“We’ll inform the Alliance and request support.”
“Support? Doesn’t that mean starting an all-out war with Yongcheok Stronghold?”
“If Young Master Paeng has gone there, he’ll probably charge in recklessly. If that happens, a fight with Yongcheok Stronghold is inevitable. All we can do is hope he’s been captured safely without being killed.”
Considering Young Master Paeng’s fiery personality, there was some truth to those words, so Woonhak followed the captain’s instructions.
Fortunately, they were able to discover evidence on the way to Yongcheok Stronghold. They had ambushed the bandits while they were transporting goods and discovered gunpowder residue among the cargo.
That alone wasn’t enough, but it should have been sufficient to interrogate the chieftain. So they made thorough preparations and headed to the bandit stronghold, only to…
‘Who would have thought Flower-Glutton would be there.’
At first, he hadn’t realized that the man was Flower-Glutton.
He had been flustered upon seeing the two people who were supposed to be in the prison collapsed inside the pavilion, while the man casually watching the situation didn’t seem particularly unusual.
Of course, he had sensed that the man was no ordinary person when he stopped the young lady from taking her own life. But he never imagined the nickname Flower-Glutton would come up…
Opinions of Flower-Glutton were divided in two.
Some considered him a villain because he chased after every beautiful woman he encountered.
Others considered him merely an eccentric, since despite his obsession with women, he had never actually harmed one.
Woonhak didn’t know what judgment to make, but it was true that he had felt somewhat uncomfortable around him.
However…
“…It’s unfortunate that her younger brother died, but shouldn’t the living continue living? Perhaps if she keeps living, better days will come again.”
The Flower-Glutton he met in person was different.
After saving the young lady’s life, he seemed genuinely concerned about her.
Woonhak realized.
‘Perhaps I’m the one who was trapped by prejudice.’
Hadn’t he been wary of him and branded him a villain despite never having met him personally?
That was why, feeling ashamed, he had also come down from the pavilion as quickly as possible…
“I was foolish.”
He shouldn’t have done that. Just as he came down and was putting things in order, gunpowder suddenly exploded inside the pavilion.
When he saw the middle floors catch fire, Woonhak was horrified. He hurriedly tried to enter the pavilion, but the gunpowder exploded several more times, and in an instant, the pavilion was engulfed in flames.
It was clearly a malicious act.
Who on earth had done such a thing…?
But there was no time to think deeply about it now. The pavilion was gradually collapsing, and the captain and Flower-Glutton were still on the top floor.
‘What should I do? What am I supposed to do…?’
But no matter how hard he racked his brain, he couldn’t think of a solution. And just as a sense of helplessness surged through him at realizing there was nothing he could do…
“Uh, what’s that?”
People pointed somewhere. Woonhak raised his head and looked in the direction they were pointing.
The first thing he saw was a pure-white fluttering shape. White fabric fluttered in the wind.
It was the captain.
And wasn’t Flower-Glutton carrying the captain in his arms?
Woonhak stared blankly with his mouth open. Something even more astonishing happened next.
The captain, who was being held in Flower-Glutton’s arms, threw something into the air.
It was silk. The shimmering silk spread wide through the air.
Just then, Flower-Glutton fell onto the broadly spread silk. Then, lightly kicking off the silk, he leaped upward again.
More silk continued to spread out. Beautiful waves of multicolored silk rippled through the sky. Flower-Glutton was flying upon those waves.
Watching that sight, Woonhak recalled something.
“Do you know why Flower-Glutton was given the nickname Flower-Glutton?”
“Isn’t it because he’s obsessed with women?”
“That’s part of it. He was given the name ‘Tamhwa,’ meaning ‘coveting flowers,’ because he is obsessed with women. But there’s no reason for the ‘jo’ at the end. If he were an ordinary demonic villain, there would probably have been a more vicious animal attached to the end.”
“Then why…?”
“Because of his qinggong.”
The voice of a heavily drunken man came to his ears.
“Flower-Glutton’s qinggong is exceptionally remarkable. Once, when he was escaping from the Emei Sect, he jumped down from a tall pavilion. But instead of falling, he flew through the sky. Countless swords were rising beneath his feet, and when people saw him flying over them with his sleeves fluttering in the wind, they shouted–”
“…”
“‘Flower-Glutton is flying.’”
Only now did he understand what those words meant.
Woonhak murmured blankly,
“How beautiful.”
(TL Note: “Flower-Glutton” can also be read as “Flower-Seeking Bird.”)
Comments (0)