The Living Corpse Doctor
Ma Jong-hwan asked me with a worried look.
"Are you alright?"
His gaze was fixed on the black dart from Dong Paekyung lodged in my arm.
I first retrieved the Three-Colored Hourglass and then answered with a smile.
"I'm fine. I've trained in external arts, so my skin is tough. Pain is dulled as well. Thanks to the antidote you gave me earlier, the poison seems to have been neutralized right away. Thank you, elder."
It wasn't just polite words.
The antidote Ma Jong-hwan had handed me while we were running earlier had indeed nullified the poison applied to Dong Paekyung's dart.
Of course, it was only possible because I had already interrogated a lower-ranked warrior earlier and learned in advance what kind of poison they used.
The wound on my arm was no different.
Since it was a hidden weapon imbued with inner force, it wouldn't have been strange if it had pierced not just my arm but straight through my body. But since it had already lost speed after passing through my sword, and because I had trained in external arts, the injury ended up being shallow.
It was fortunate I hadn't used Muk-rang but rather the sword I used in the past—otherwise, he might have recognized me.
And above all, training external arts alongside Bae Jong-hwan had been an extremely wise choice.
Ma Jong-hwan shook his head and said to me.
"It's fortunate, but don't underestimate a wound. Let me see."
He quickly pulled the dart out of my arm, nodded, and applied medicine.
"So it was true you had trained external arts. With this much, the wound isn't serious."
Then he asked me.
"Just who are you? At your age, you already show martial skills at the peak of first-rate experts, display movement arts surpassing grandmasters, have remarkable adaptability, and even trained in external arts. It's stranger that I've never heard of someone like you. Will you reveal your identity?"
I grinned and answered.
"Of course, elder. I am Seonu Jin, a member of the 7th Division of the Flying Dragon Thirteen Units. I happened to be on leave and by chance came across your situation. I suppose it was fate."
He was taken aback.
"Flying Dragon Unit?! Ah, so that's why you weren't known!"
We continued walking as we talked further.
Mostly, it was about how I had saved his children.
Hearing the details, he sighed.
"So that's what my children misunderstood. Well, I did think it was the best choice at the time, but for them it must have been unbearably cruel. Thank you. If it weren't for you, they might have died resenting me."
"That was actually my friend's doing. Strictly speaking, he's the one who saved your children. You should thank him when you meet him later."
While we were conversing, I suddenly stiffened and raised a finger to my lips.
"Wait."
Then I listened carefully—there was movement approaching from ahead.
Not one, but several presences.
"People are approaching from the front. Seems the encirclement has already closed in this far."
I thought it was a partial encirclement, but it turned out to be a complete one.
For a moment, I considered breaking straight through the encirclement.
But I shook my head.
There were likely peak experts among those tightening the net.
With three peak experts still left, it would be reckless to gamble.
In the end, I decided to turn back.
"Let's go back the way we came, elder. I think the side I broke through earlier will be thinnest."
More precisely, the side where my captain was heading would be safest—but I had no way of knowing the exact direction.
"Forgive me, elder, but I'll have to carry you again."
"I'm sorry, to trouble you so."
With the Eccentric Doctor of Life and Death on my back, I once again dashed forward.
This time I aimed a bit further north of where I had killed Dong Paekyung.
I thought the captain would be approaching from the north—but unfortunately, that guess was wrong.
Instead of the captain, I ran into another foe.
"There he is! Catch him!"
Charging from the northwest with a host of underlings was a hulking brute with a beast-like hairy face and a massive iron mace.
He was likely Han Jeok-sam, the Iron Mace of Black Mountain, the third younger brother of Black Frost Hall's leader, Gu Juyong.
Since my path was westward, and enemies were now sweeping in from the northwest, it was awkward to continue that way.
After quickly scanning the surroundings, I turned and ran back the way I had come.
"Don't let him escape! Surround him! Throw the hidden weapons!"
At Han Jeok-sam's shout, the men encircling from the north began hurling their hidden weapons.
As expected, the fool had forgotten the order not to kill the Eccentric Doctor.
Ping! Ping! Whoosh! Whirr!
I swung the Muk-rang Sword in my left hand and deflected them with ease.
Ting! Ting! Ting!
At this level, I didn't even need to look to block them.
Then Han Jeok-sam shouted again.
"He's holding the Muk-rang Sword?! How did this bastard get it?!"
As I thought.
The blade was pitch black, with a wolf's head engraved at the guard—hard not to recognize.
That's why I'd used my old sword against Dong Paekyung earlier, but the blade edge had been damaged by hidden weapons, so I had no choice now.
Looks like I'd gained one more reason to annihilate Black Frost Hall.
I deliberately slowed my pace, keeping the distance just close enough for them to think they could catch up.
Han Jeok-sam, being a peak expert, led the pursuit from the front.
The gap was closing rapidly.
Three zhang… two zhang… one zhang…
"Got you!"
At the instant Han Jeok-sam thought he had me, I suddenly ran straight up the trunk of a massive tree.
Tadadadak!
"What the—?!"
Startled, Han Jeok-sam screeched to a halt, staring up.
By the time he realized, I was already running across the branches like the wind and leaping far toward the west, the direction I had originally intended.
Pah-bak!
"Uwaah!"
"D-Don't let him escape! Throw more!"
Flustered, the Black Frost Hall warriors flung hidden weapons, but they couldn't match my sudden burst of speed.
Ping! Ping! Ping!
The sound of air being torn passed behind me as I dropped my own barrage of darts—taken from Dong Paekyung's corpse—onto the group blocking my landing point.
Fyu-shu-shushuk!
"Graaah!"
"Uagh!"
"Aaaargh!"
Screams erupted as they were struck.
I landed lightly among them and cut forward in a storm of sword strikes.
It was the second form of the Thirteen Seonu Swords—Divine Falcon Soaring Through Blood.
Shuhaaak!
The sword light spread like wings, dazzling, and the blood of Black Frost Hall warriors sprayed in all directions.
Through that bloody passage, I shot forward like a flying beast, running at full speed once again.
Behind me, Han Jeok-sam's enraged roar rang out.
"You bastard! I'll never let you live!"
Strange… we actually had something in common.
Because I felt the same way about him.
In any case, it was no time to be complacent.
The encirclement was tightening much faster than expected. Already, enemies were emerging from the southwest.
"There! The one carrying Ma Jong-hwan on his back! Don't let him escape!"
The one shouting was a swordsman with a sharp, hawk-like face, looking around fifty. That must have been Black Frost Hall's leader, Gu Juyong.
So, two peak experts appeared from the north and south—had I gone east, I might have run into Black Radiance Wheel Gak Ki-hyo.
Seems choosing the west had been the best decision after all.
But that didn't mean the current situation was favorable.
Gu Juyong, the Black Frost Hall Master Swordsman, was rumored to possess nearly ninety years of inner force.
Whether true or not, his pursuit speed was nothing to scoff at.
Even without specializing in movement arts, he was matching the speed shown earlier by Dong Paekyung, the Black Assassin.
Although he wasn't someone specializing in movement arts, he was still showing a speed comparable to Dong Paekyung earlier.
It seemed that relying on movement arts alone wouldn't be enough to widen the gap.
And then—
I suddenly saw that the path ahead was cut off.
Without realizing it, we had reached the cliff where I had earlier climbed up while carrying the Eccentric Doctor.
Back then I had climbed up, but now I had to leap down.
The cliff was about thirty zhang high (1 zhang ≈ 3.3 meters). Carrying the Eccentric Doctor on my back, it would be reckless to jump down.
And it seemed Gu Juyong thought the same.
His voice rang out:
"At the end is a cliff! Spread out to the sides so he can't escape left or right!"
Then, the Eccentric Doctor on my back said:
"Put me down at the edge. I'll buy you some time while you descend. Those bastards will never capture me."
Of course, that could have been one solution.
In my previous life, even without my help, the Eccentric Doctor had at least succeeded in killing Gu Juyong.
But still—
Wouldn't that be far too humiliating?
After coming this far, to just say 'I'm sorry' and set him down before fleeing?
That thought flashed through my mind.
I prided myself that I had surpassed who I was in my previous life.
Yet, I had never truly tested those limits.
I suddenly asked the Eccentric Doctor:
"Elder, do you trust me?"
He answered in surprise:
"You? O-of course I trust you, but…"
Honestly, even if he had said he didn't, I wouldn't have stopped. But since he said he did, I had no more reason to hesitate.
I declared firmly:
"Then please entrust yourself to me."
"Hm? Entrust what…?!"
At that moment, my body suddenly accelerated.
Pah-bak!
The startled Eccentric Doctor cried out:
"Y-you!"
The next instant, my body was soaring like a bird straight off the thirty-zhang cliff.
"Yiaaaah!"
"Wha—! You fool!"
Looking down at the dizzying ground as I rushed forward, it almost felt like I was flying through the sky.
Of course, it was only a feeling—I was in fact plummeting.
The acceleration was terrifying, worsened by the extra weight.
Now was the crucial moment.
Holding tightly onto the Eccentric Doctor, I twisted my body, spinning us together in midair.
Our bodies began to rotate like a ball in freefall.
When I felt the spin was strong enough, I hurled the Eccentric Doctor upward, away from the fall, toward the sky.
"Haaaap!"
Fwhoosh!
"You?!"
His eyes widened in shock as he was flung higher, shrinking from my view.
The reaction threw my body down even faster, hurtling toward the ground like a meteor.
But even then, I kept my calm.
As the ground rushed closer, my nerves sharpened, cold and keen as a blade.
I focused on every instant as the earth approached.
And then—suddenly, it felt as though time slowed.
The world around me nearly froze, leaving me as the lone moving figure, perfectly clear in that suspended moment.
And in that instant, my feet touched ground.
A massive impact threatened to shatter my body.
Yet my sharpened mind remained calm.
I carefully dispersed the shock through my entire body as though descending steps:
First the tips of my toes, then toes, soles, ankles, knees, hips, waist—each joint absorbing some of the force.
As if I had become formless water itself.
And then, in a fleeting moment, I was rolling across the ground like a ball.
I had successfully dispersed the full force of the impact.
A fierce exhilaration welled up inside me.
I almost wanted to leap up and shout with joy.
But there was still work to do.
Rolling to dissipate the last of the force, I sprang back up and looked skyward.
The Eccentric Doctor I had hurled into the air was now falling back down.
Tap!
I leapt up and caught him as he dropped.
"Hhhkk!"
With a dazed look on his face, I smiled and asked:
"Are you alright, elder?"
After struggling to gather his wits, he finally replied:
"If you ever ask me again whether I trust you, I'll answer no. I really thought I was going to die."
I grinned.
"Honestly, even if you had said no, I still planned to jump."
"Good heavens."
Now, at last, I could afford to joke a little.
Gu Juyong stood gaping from the top of the cliff, and ahead lay the path I had already cleared of Black Frost Hall warriors earlier.
All I had to do was run comfortably along that route.
Or so I thought.
For a brief moment, at least…
"Wahahaha! I knew you'd come back this way! Truly, nothing escapes this Gak elder's palm!"
Men who had been lying in ambush ahead now revealed themselves.
Leading them was a sharp-faced middle-aged man wielding a pair of rings—likely Gak Kihyo, the Black Radiance Wheel, second younger brother of Gu Juyong.
This time, I truly couldn't help but be taken aback.
To think they had lain in wait right on the path I had fought through earlier.
As I hastily stopped in shock, Gu Juyong, watching from atop the cliff, burst out laughing.
"Wahahaha! As expected of Gak! Truly well done, hahahaha!"
I quickly glanced around.
There was no escape.
Not back, not forward.
The sides? Perhaps, but their encirclement spread wide, making that option just as dangerous.
This time, I was truly surrounded.
Darkness crept over my vision.