Chapter 144
The main hall instantly descended into chaos.
The two groups that had been separated by a certain distance became one in an instant. White clothes and clothes of other colors became entangled with one another.
The sounds of sharp weapons clashing cut through the air. Screams could be heard here and there along with curses, and there were already people bleeding as though they had been injured.
I simply watched them.
‘I shouldn’t step in yet.’
Of course, from my perspective, it would be better if the Sacred Flame Cult won. Even setting aside the possibility that the Sacred Flame Cult was connected to the Guangjin Cult, the Pleasure Pavilion was undoubtedly an evil that needed to be dealt with.
But I didn’t know whether they would actually be able to defeat them. At present, the two groups were evenly matched. They were so evenly matched that it was impossible to tell who would win.
At first, the Sacred Flame Cult members had been greatly emboldened by Baek Seol-yeong’s speech and charged in with tremendous momentum, but the Pleasure Pavilion weren’t pushovers either.
Perhaps they had anticipated that a fight like this would break out, because they had brought only the most skilled martial artists from their organization. Although they had been startled at first, they quickly regained their composure and began confronting the Sacred Flame Cult.
In the end, they were evenly matched.
That didn’t mean anyone was letting their guard down. Everyone knew that the outcome here would determine the life or death of their respective factions.
Clang! Crash!
“I will never let you off!”
And if there were two people who stood out among them more than anyone else, they were undoubtedly the leaders of each group.
Baek Seol-yeong and the gang leader. The two were fighting one-on-one in the distance.
Baek Seol-yeong was using the flexible whip she had taken from her waist earlier, and judging from how fierce and sharp its momentum was, she clearly wasn’t an ordinary fighter.
Just as Baek Seol-yeong seemed to flick her wrist, the flexible whip shot rapidly toward the gang leader. The gang leader raised his sword to block the whip. At that moment, the tip of the whip changed direction in midair and immediately lashed toward a vital point at the gang leader’s side.
“Guh…!”
The startled gang leader hurriedly moved his body to the side.
Unfortunately, it didn’t hit his body, but the spot where the gang leader had been standing was struck by the flexible whip, leaving a deep dent and sending dust billowing into the air. His internal energy also seemed tremendous for someone his age.
‘She’s pretty good.’
I praised her inwardly. It might be easy enough to simply swing a flexible whip, but changing the direction of a whip while it was flying through the air was by no means an easy task.
She could control the flexible whip as freely as her own fingers, and at the same time, she possessed the precision to target vital points without the slightest error.
Her skills were better than those of the young masters of most prestigious families. She must have been properly taught by a true master. An ordinary martial artist probably wouldn’t have been able to withstand even a few seconds of her whip.
But…
‘That side isn’t easy either.’
I frowned and looked toward the gang leader.
The gang leader was using swords. More precisely, twin blades. He held two blades, one in each hand. In one hand was a huge black blade, while in the other was a thin golden blade.
Strangely enough, the two blades alternated between attacking and defending. The huge black blade came crashing down toward Baek Seol-yeong with tremendous force. When Baek Seol-yeong dodged and swung her flexible whip, he used the golden blade to defend against the whip’s attack before swinging the black blade again.
Sometimes, he would hold the black blade out in front of him like a shield and use the golden blade to attack his opponent’s vital points. Alternating between the two blades to attack and defend simultaneously made him quite difficult to deal with.
And more than anything else…
Boom!
‘That monstrous strength.’
The gang leader’s strength was truly tremendous. While Baek Seol-yeong was using internal energy to lash out with her flexible whip, the gang leader seemed to be using nothing but his own raw physical strength.
He swung the two blades, which looked heavy just from seeing them, without any apparent effort. Every time he swung a blade, a fierce blade wind blew and the air hummed.
If someone were to be struck improperly by one of those blades, their body would probably be split in half. The power was that terrifying.
‘They’re both incredible.’
As expected of the leaders of their respective factions, both of them possessed extraordinary skills.
But…
‘…Baek Seol-yeong is going to be at a disadvantage as this goes on.’
They seemed to be fighting evenly for now, but I could see it. Baek Seol-yeong was struggling.
There seemed to be a difference in experience. At first, the gang leader appeared flustered by Baek Seol-yeong’s strange and unconventional techniques, but the longer they fought, the more accustomed he became to them, and he began responding appropriately.
By contrast, Baek Seol-yeong was repeatedly having her attacks blocked and was becoming flustered. On top of that, unlike the gang leader, who remained energetic without showing any signs of fatigue, Baek Seol-yeong’s flexible whip was gradually slowing down. It seemed she had expended too much internal energy at the beginning.
‘At this rate, eventually…’
Just as I expected, Baek Seol-yeong was gradually pushed back. Her clothes were slowly being cut, and wounds began appearing one after another on her skin.
Suddenly, Baek Seol-yeong’s eyes flashed. She seemed to flip her body in midair to evade the blade, then immediately flicked her flexible whip.
The tip of the whip shot rapidly toward the gang leader’s chest. As though accustomed to it, the gang leader blocked to the side with his black blade and attempted to strike the flexible whip down with his golden blade.
For an instant, the flexible whip seemed to lose its strength and fell downward. The gang leader looked puzzled and immediately lowered his guard, preparing to swing his blade. But suddenly, the flexible whip shot upward and flew toward his face.
It was a beautifully executed move.
However, it wavered.
Perhaps because it had lost its strength, the flexible whip failed to accurately strike a vital point as it had before. The flexible whip grazed the gang leader’s glabella, leaving a red line.
Blood trickled down his face, but instead of retreating, the gang leader took advantage of Baek Seol-yeong’s momentary confusion and closed the distance.
The gang leader raised his black blade… It was already too late to dodge.
Baek Seol-yeong’s eyes widened.
Just as the blade was about to cut her…
“Ah…!”
***
Sacred Flame Maiden, Baek Seol-yeong.
…That was Ayeong’s true identity.
Baek Seol-yeong was born as the first daughter of the leader of the Sacred Flame Cult.
She had been gentle by nature.
She liked sharing what she had with others, and whenever she encountered someone in difficulty, she liked to step forward and help them herself. Therefore, it was only natural that when Baek Seol-yeong came of age, she immediately joined the cult’s volunteer group and set out to perform charitable work.
As the leader’s daughter and the Sacred Flame Maiden, there were limits to what she could personally provide to those in need. That was why she chose to travel around performing volunteer work alongside the cult members and directly helping people.
Some of the cult members found her behavior unfamiliar at first, but after she faithfully carried out her duties for several years, they naturally came to accept it.
Baek Seol-yeong’s father was also pleased by her actions and would often tell her,
“Even where your father was originally from, it was considered a virtue to live by helping people like this. But at some point, everyone changed. They became blinded by wealth and power and lost their light.”
“Really?”
“Yes. In the end, your father couldn’t do anything and had no choice but to flee… But when that day comes for you, don’t run away. You must strive to set things right according to the natural order.”
“Yes!”
At the time, Baek Seol-yeong didn’t fully understand her father’s words, but now, several years later, she felt that she understood them a little.
Helping others in a foreign land wasn’t easy. Her good deeds didn’t always lead to good results, and just as there were good people in the world, there were truly many bad people as well.
But volunteering was always enjoyable.
Seeing someone in hardship improve even a little because of her help made her feel proud, and seeing them express their gratitude and become happy brought her an indescribable sense of fulfillment.
‘I want to live like this for the rest of my life.’
If, one by one, people could become better through her helping hand, perhaps someday a world of light would arrive, just as her father had said…
“Brother, this can’t be happening… Brother!”
That was, until the Pleasure Pavilion appeared.
The Pleasure Pavilion rendered all their efforts meaningless.
No, it went beyond merely making their efforts futile… it turned everything into an even greater problem.
Baek Seol-yeong still couldn’t forget it.
Someone whom she had seen only a few days earlier, someone who had told her that the leg she had injured had improved greatly thanks to her, and who had smiled innocently as he said he was about to start working again, had suddenly become a broken man.
The moment he saw Baek Seol-yeong, he frantically grabbed onto her trouser leg and clung to her. Then he begged her, saying he would do anything, so please give him just one more dose of the medicine.
At first, Baek Seol-yeong didn’t understand what he was talking about, but before long, she came to realize. The medicine he was talking about was the Pleasure Pill.
The Pleasure Pavilion had ruined him.
And he wasn’t the only one. When she visited the village again, there were more and more people like him. It started with those who were lightly addicted, while those in serious condition had become completely broken, unable even to move around properly.
They were, quite literally, like living corpses, sitting there with nothing but their souls left.
‘Why? How could they?’
Why had they done something like this?
Why had they caused such a terrible thing to happen?
Was there some reason?
Was there something she didn’t know?
Just why…?
“Money. It’s because of money! Those bastards are selling the medicine as a business, you see. But to make that medicine, they need to conduct experiments. So they chose people whose lives wouldn’t matter even if they were ruined.”
And not long after, when she learned the reason, when she discovered that all of this had been done simply to line their own pockets…
‘I have to kill them.’
For the first time, Baek Seol-yeong felt the urge to kill.
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