Surviving as the Villainess’s Servant in a Martial Arts Novel Chapter 120

Chapter 120

 

There is a saying among the people: “United, we live. Divided, we die.”

‘It really is true.’

Those three brothers were exactly like that.

When they came at us in coordination with their bizarre weapons, they were truly formidable.

The long and massive Guigok Scissors, the thin and lengthy iron whip, and the short but highly lethal steel claws complemented one another’s weaknesses, allowing them to move almost like a single organism.

However, because the Inspection Squad and I each took on one of the brothers and disrupted their coordinated attacks, their power was drastically reduced.

Having figured out the secret behind their strength, I deliberately dragged Ilgwi farther and farther away from his brothers. Of course, Ilgwi was looking for an opportunity to regroup with them, but I had no intention of letting him.

Tap!

I kicked toward Ilgwi’s knee as he tried to slip away to the side. Ilgwi hurriedly pulled his body back and swung the Guigok Scissors.

The Guigok Scissors were large, and because of their size, they had one clumsy aspect. It was when opening and closing the scissors. After closing them, there was a brief opening when he tried to swing them again like a sword.

‘Right now.’

I stepped on one of the blades just as the scissors were closing and leaped upward. Then I spun around and kicked Ilgwi’s head with my heel.

Smack!

“Urgh…!”

Ilgwi was knocked unconscious on the spot.

After landing on the ground and looking around, the situation with the other three wasn’t bad either.

Liyeon, who had been fighting Igwi, had held the advantage throughout the entire battle. Then, when the flustered Igwi gradually began to lose his composure, Liyeon struck his acupoints with his Paebaek and brought him down.

Daoist Woonhak and Paeng Mirang were the same. Samgwi had fought fiercely, so the two had initially been evenly matched, but as they calmly cut through the iron fingers of his steel claws one by one, they were soon able to subdue him.

Seeing them pin Samgwi’s acupoints as well, I excitedly raised my hand and ran toward them.

“High five~!”

“Pardon? What’s that?”

I had to personally teach them what a high five was. Even after I taught them, only Daoist Woonhak awkwardly played along while the other two completely ignored me… Still, I wasn’t in a bad mood.

Grinning from ear to ear, I asked Daoist Woonhak,

“So, what are we going to do now? Threaten them? Tell them to spill everything they know?”

“…W-we intend to talk to them first. If we can persuade them as much as possible and obtain information…”

“Hmm, that won’t be easy. Still, if they’re the Ningbo Three Devils, they should have a fairly high position in the Pleasure Pavilion, so we ought to be able to get some useful information. Like where the Pleasure Pavilion is located…”

“Don’t even think about it!”

A shout suddenly came from beside us.

Daoist Woonhak and I turned our heads. Apparently, he’d been listening to our conversation, because Samgwi was now red-faced and furiously shouting.

“What? Get information from me? Don’t talk nonsense! Do you think you little brats can make this old man open his mouth!”

“Really?”

“Of course! No matter what you do, this old man will never, under any circumstances, say a word! Go ahead and do whatever you want. It’ll all be completely usele–”

“Senior, are you really saying that no matter what we do, you won’t talk?”

“What?”

“It won’t work.”

I smiled brightly.

“If it hurts enough to make you wish you were dead, you’ll talk.”

Before Samgwi could answer, I swiftly moved over to him and worked my hands. In an instant, I pressed nine of his acupoints.

Samgwi’s face turned deathly pale. However, when nothing happened for a while, he looked bewildered.

But that didn’t last long… Because Samgwi’s expression gradually twisted.

His face looked as though he was simultaneously laughing and suffering. Then, in an instant, his expression stiffened. His entire body trembled violently, and his muscles began to bulge.

Crack, crack.

When the sound of bones finally came from inside his body, Samgwi opened his mouth.

“Uuugh… AAAAAARGH!”

Samgwi screamed in agony. His cries were so desperate that everyone nearby turned to look. But he had no concern for his dignity, continuing to howl endlessly as he wet his pants.

Watching this, Daoist Woonhak asked in a trembling voice,

“W-what is that…?”

“Something like Bungeunchakgol?”

More precisely, it was the Guangjin Cult’s version of Bungeunchakgol, but I didn’t reveal everything and simply added,

“I struck a total of nine acupoints, each using a different technique. Only I know how to release these nine acupoints, and if they aren’t released, that pain will repeat itself over the course of several days.”

“……!”

“You’ll end up in a state where you can’t die and can’t live. If you endure it for several days like that, you’ll lose your mind and become an invalid.”

At my words, Daoist Woonhak sucked in a breath. I shrugged at him, then suddenly turned toward someone else and asked,

“So, what will you do?”

Straight at Igwi, who was beside Samgwi. Even while Samgwi was suffering, Igwi had merely been silently rolling his eyes beside him. He flinched.

I met his pale face with a grin.

“Are you going to talk or not?”

 

***

 

Igwi eventually confessed everything.

Not because of brotherly affection and an inability to bear watching his younger brother suffer, but simply because he was afraid that he might have to undergo that torture himself.

“The headquarters of our organization is in Sangjuchon.”

“Sangjuchon?”

“It’s a village you reach after heading southeast from here and crossing over a mountain. The village itself is hidden, but if you follow the directions I give you, you’ll find it quickly.”

“I see. There’s one more thing I’m curious about. How did you expand your organization?”

At my question, Igwi hesitated.

He only said this:

“…You’ll find out if you go there yourself.”

And he said no more.

In truth, we could have tortured Igwi as well and made him confess everything, but now that we’d already found the location of the Pleasure Pavilion, there seemed little point.

The Inspection Squad asked him a few more things before finally asking,

“Have you ever seen this object inside the organization? Or perhaps the leader possesses it…”

It was about the Mukho Cheolryeong. Even though I was there, they casually took out the drawing and showed it to Igwi. Their attitude was clearly different from before, when they had suspected me and tried not to show it.

I scratched my head.

‘So I earned their trust by going through life and death together with them?’

Igwi stared at the drawing in confusion before shaking his head.

“I’ve never seen anything like that. I haven’t seen the boss carrying it either. But what kind of object is this?”

Rather than answering, Daoist Woonhak took the opportunity to ask me as well.

“Have you perhaps seen it before, Lord Dan?”

“Not at all. It’s my first time seeing it.”

“I see…”

Daoist Woonhak nodded with a bitter expression, yet his attitude showed not the slightest suspicion toward my answer.

We quickly took care of the aftermath and left.

We were heading straight for Sangjuchon. Normally, we would have stopped at a nearby village and rested for the night, but we decided to hurry in case the boss escaped in the meantime. However, while crossing the mountain, night fell completely.

The mountain at midnight was so dark that we could barely see the road ahead. We could probably make our way somehow with torches, but the faces of the others were already covered in deep fatigue.

There had been more than one person injured in the battle.

Eventually, Daoist Woonhak said,

“It would be better to rest here tonight and hurry on early tomorrow morning.”

The Inspection Squad nodded in agreement. Apparently they had some experience camping outdoors, because they moved with surprising efficiency.

They found a suitable place to rest, went around gathering firewood, piled it in the center, then shook a fire striker and lit the fire.

And while they were busy moving about, I…

“L-Lord Dan. What is this…?”

“Hehehe.”

Pulled out some alcohol!

“Tadaaa!”

Earlier, while the Inspection Squad was cleaning up, I had searched through the Demonic Path bastards’ residences as well. After all, the alcohol I’d been carrying around on my waist every day had run out, so I needed to replenish my supply.

At the time, I noticed a fragrant smell coming from somewhere and followed it, eventually discovering a place where jars of alcohol were gathered.

I opened one of the jars and smelled it. The aroma was extraordinarily sweet, making it obvious that it was expensive liquor.

And expensive liquor like this was meant to be shared and enjoyed together.

So I simply stole ten jars.

The sight of ten jars of liquor emerging one after another from inside my clothes was so astonishing that they were left utterly speechless.

Eventually, Tang Hi shouted,

“No wonder! I thought your body suddenly got fatter, and I could hear something rattling whenever you moved. So that’s because you’d been hiding all this inside your clothes!”

“Haha, what is this, Miss Tang? Have you been watching me that closely? I’m embarrassed.”

“Wait, when did you even…?”

“Wow, isn’t this Shaoxing wine? Lord Dan, where did you find this? It smells great, so I guess it’s been aged for quite a long time!”

“Right? Doesn’t it seem like liquor made specifically for today? When you’ve made it through something this major, drinking good liquor together to celebrate helps relax the tension, restores your energy, makes new flesh grow, heals wounds…”

“No, um…”

While our conversation grew increasingly excited, only Daoist Woonhak looked utterly miserable.

“Drinking during a mission is a bit…”

He muttered to himself, but after seeing our desperate expressions, he eventually squeezed his eyes shut.

Daoist Woonhak let out a deep sigh and said,

“…Just don’t drink too much.”

As though I’d been waiting for those exact words, I lifted one of the jars of liquor and shouted,

“All right, cheers!”