Chapter 6

Chapter 6:

“I’ll be going now.”

Wei Su-ryeon finally burst into tears.

“Waaaaaah! Brother, don’t go!”

Wei Yan-ho scowled fiercely.

“You should have been nice from the start! Why are you acting friendly now that it’s all over!”

Smack!

Wei San-ho struck the back of Wei Yan-ho’s head.

“Ow!”

“What kind of harsh words are those to say to your sister?”

“These are harsh words? These? So harsh words aren’t allowed, but hitting your brother’s head is perfectly fine?”

Wei Yan-ho glared at Wei San-ho defiantly.

Under normal circumstances, such behavior would have been unimaginable, but what could Wei Yan-ho see in his current state? Since he was being dragged helplessly to hell anyway, causing a little commotion here wouldn’t change anything.

At that moment, murmuring voices reached Wei Yan-ho’s ears.

“Still, it’s a bit sad that Second Young Master is leaving, isn’t it?”

“Hmph! What’s sad about that lazy good-for-nothing leaving! How many times have you even seen Second Young Master’s face? In the five years I’ve worked here, I can count on one hand how many times I’ve seen him.”

“Isn’t that a good thing?”

“Good how?”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about! I know someone who works at another family, and their young master is such a troublemaker that he causes all sorts of incidents, never giving them a peaceful day. They say their heads are splitting from cleaning up his messes. Compared to that, our Second Young Master is quiet, doesn’t cause trouble, and you barely know if he’s there or not. What a wonderful person!”

“Hmm, now that you put it that way, I suppose you’re right.”

Wei Yan-ho clicked his tongue.

‘They’re having a grand time.’

To think he had trusted such people as his retainers!

It was so unfair he could go mad and jump around.

Wei Yan-ho had to receive individual farewells from the retainers and ignore the tears of Han Sang-ah and Wei Su-ryeon before finally being able to leave the house.

“Second Young Master, please take care and come back safely!”

“Young Master, please take good care of Second Young Master!”

“Second Young Master, you must return as a great person!”

Wei Yan-ho pursed his lips.

‘Great person, my frozen ass.’

Who said staying at home makes you a small person!

Wei Yan-ho looked up at the sky with clear eyes like a cow being dragged to the slaughterhouse.

Why is the sky so overcast today! It’s piercingly cold enough to make one cry!

“My fate…”

Wei Yan-ho looked at Wei Su-ryeon, who was clinging to their mother and crying.

For no particular reason, the tip of his nose began to tingle.

“Still, she did pack snacks for me… She nagged a lot, but she listened well too.”

Still, she was family, and thinking he wouldn’t see her for a while made him feel endlessly sad.

“Let’s go!”

Wei Yan-ho’s head whipped around sharply.

This person clearly didn’t have the same blood flowing through his veins as him.

No, before that, it was questionable whether he had any blood flowing at all.

“We’re going! Go!”

Wei Yan-ho waved his hand at Wei Su-ryeon. Receiving Wei Yan-ho’s farewell, Wei Su-ryeon cried even more sorrowfully.

“Ah, don’t cry! It’s not like I’m being dragged to war!”

“Waaaaaah!”

When Wei Su-ryeon began to wail at the top of her lungs, Wei Yan-ho sighed deeply, dismounted his horse, and patted Wei Su-ryeon’s back.

“I told you not to cry.”

Sniff.

“Brother will return soon.”

“Mm.”

Wei Yan-ho barely managed to comfort Wei Su-ryeon and mounted his horse again.

“…I’ll be back.”

When Wei Yan-ho gave his final farewell, everyone said a word as they saw him off.

“Take care and come back safely!”

“Return as a true man!”

“Brother! You must come back without getting hurt.”

“Second Young Master, please return safely!”

Wei Yan-ho listened to their farewells and ground his teeth.

“I will definitely return! I will!”

The cursing words that should have followed couldn’t continue because Wei San-ho forcibly grabbed the reins and set off. Wei Yan-ho left indefinite words behind and departed for Henan. When the figures of Wei Yan-ho and Wei San-ho became as small as dots, Han Sang-ah let out a deep sigh.

“I wonder if he’ll… be alright.”

When Han Sang-ah wiped away her tears, Wei Jeong-han silently placed his hand on her shoulder.

“Don’t worry. He’s our child, isn’t he?”

“Won’t you remove your hand?”

Wei Jeong-han flinched and removed his hand.

Han Sang-ah embraced the crying Wei Su-ryeon.

“Poor thing. Still, Su-ryeon really followed her brother well.”

Han Sang-ah looked at the departing Wei Yan-ho and sighed deeply.

‘He must stay healthy.’

No matter how lazy and pathetic the child was, a mother’s love showed no discrimination.

***

The journey went smoothly.

From Wei San-ho’s perspective, that is.

If there were any problems, it was that you couldn’t tell whether Wei Yan-ho was riding the horse or the horse was carrying Wei Yan-ho, and that Wei Yan-ho’s face, barely hanging on atop the horse, had turned a deathly pale blue as if he might collapse at any moment, but for Wei San-ho, it was an extremely smooth journey.

The minor incidents of Wei Yan-ho dozing off on his horse and nearly falling off or charging toward cliffs were already anticipated.

Of course, Wei Yan-ho’s perspective was completely different.

His buttocks had been on fire for ages from riding the unfamiliar horse, and even the task of just sitting on the horse without doing anything consumed tremendous stamina.

Thanks to this, Wei Yan-ho had become completely wilted.

For Wei Yan-ho, who was accustomed to a soft bed, the frantically bouncing horse’s back was unbearable agony.

“Ugh…”

Wei Yan-ho grabbed onto the horse’s neck and groaned.

“…Is it far?”

At Wei Yan-ho’s question, Wei San-ho answered in a blunt voice.

“Just ten more days.”

“T-ten days?”

“If you could ride properly, we could have arrived within five days.”

Wei Yan-ho flared up and shouted.

“I told you I’ve never ridden before!”

“I wasn’t blaming you.”

“You’re blaming me right now!”

“I was just answering because you asked.”

Wei Yan-ho ground his teeth, but there was nothing he could do about it. He wasn’t stronger, nor was he higher in rank. Moreover, what Wei San-ho said wasn’t wrong, so however detestable and annoying it was, he had no choice but to endure it.

“Let’s rest for a bit.”

“Resting isn’t difficult. As long as you don’t mind riding faster than now for the remaining nine days.”

Wei Yan-ho made a tearful face.

“Do you know how steep this hill is? Do you know how hard it is? My back is about to break and my buttocks feel like they’re going to burst! Look over there! See how hard it is – even those people are lying on the roadside resting.”

When Wei Yan-ho pointed to the people lying in the distance, Wei San-ho’s face hardened like stone.

“Hurry up!”

“What now!”

Wei San-ho didn’t answer and grabbed Wei Yan-ho’s reins while kicking the horse’s rump.

“Ah! Ahhhhh! Ahh! It hurts!”

Wei Yan-ho bounced up and down on the horse.

Regardless, Wei San-ho spurred his horse and galloped toward the fallen people. As soon as he approached, Wei San-ho jumped off his horse and examined the people with a serious expression.

Wei Yan-ho grumbled as he dismounted.

“What’s so urgent!”

“Be quiet.”

Wei San-ho placed his hand on the necks of the fallen people. Then he shook his head slowly.

“Too late.”

“Too late for what?”

“They’re dead.”

“…”

Wei Yan-ho fell silent.

In front of Wei San-ho lay two middle-aged men.

Looking closely, their complexions seemed a bit pale, but he never imagined they were corpses.

Good heavens, to see corpses on the roadside!

“…You mean they’re corpses?”

“First time seeing one?”

“Yeah.”

“You’ll see them often.”

At Wei San-ho’s matter-of-fact words, Wei Yan-ho’s body trembled. Wei San-ho rummaged through the corpses and then lifted up their shirts.

“Look at this.”

Where Wei San-ho pointed, there was a strange wound. In the middle of the corpse’s chest, there was a strange mark that looked like a fallen leaf, or from another angle, like a red flower bud.

When Wei San-ho lifted another person’s clothing, the same wound was there.

“What is it?”

Wei San-ho said with a hardened face.

“This is a technique called Tamhwajang .”

“Tamhwajang?”

“That’s right.”

“Strange name. Coveting flowers? Enjoying flowers?”

“The original name of Tamhwajang is Jeokhwajang.”

“That’s a much more fitting name, so why is it called Tamhwajang?”

“Jeokhwajang is a palm technique that came from the demonic path. It’s a vicious technique where the heart meridians burst when struck, but at least it was a technique that made a name for itself as a powerful palm method. However, the bastard currently using Jeokhwajang in the martial world is such a filthy scum that he’s even dirtied that name.”

“Filthy?”

“Tamhwaseosaeng Seo Ju-ak. He’s a wicked sex demon. That sex demon bastard uses Jeokhwajang, so the name changed to Tamhwajang.”

“So you’re saying that sex demon is here?”

Wei Yan-ho looked around.

According to Wei San-ho’s words, didn’t that mean there was a wicked sex demon in this area!

It might be dangerous.

“It’s not certain.”

“Hmm…”

“Looking at the state of the corpses, they haven’t been dead long. There’s still warmth left. In terms of time, just about an hour. But for a martial artist, an hour isn’t a short time. He might not be in this area anymore.”

“Then there’s nothing we can do. Let’s just take care of the corpses and go our way.”

“That won’t do.”

“Why?”

“Tamhwaseosaeng Seo Ju-ak never uses their techniques on men.”

“What does that mean?”

Wei San-ho said with a hardened face.

“The reason Seo Ju-ak hasn’t lost his head in the martial world despite gaining infamy as a sex demon is because they have an excellent disguise skills and knows very well how to preserve his own life. Despite being a sex demon, he never frequents places like brothels. Like a bandit, they target women traveling on secluded mountain paths.”

“Is that so?”

“The fact that there are corpses here who died from Tamhwajang means Seo Ju-ak targeted women and ambushed these men. In other words…”

Wei San-ho’s eyes became desolate.

“There’s a woman in danger right now.”

Wei Yan-ho shook his head slowly.

He understood what Wei San-ho was saying, but that didn’t mean there was anything they could do about it.

“So what are we going to do? Do you know where she is? Even if we search this entire area, by the time we actually find her, it’ll all be over, won’t it?”

But Wei San-ho was resolute.

“We can’t just sit here doing nothing.”

“Brother, don’t do that…”

At that moment, something happened that made Wei Yan-ho close his mouth.

He heard some small sound near his ear. It was a very small sound, but Wei Yan-ho didn’t miss it.

A sharp scream that sounded like a woman’s.

Wei Yan-ho and Wei San-ho’s heads turned simultaneously.

Combining what Wei San-ho had just told him with the scream they heard, what was happening where the scream came from was crystal clear without needing interpretation.

The direction was determined.

The distance was…

“Quite far.”

Wei San-ho walked to where the horses were and drew his sword.

“Stay here.”

“You’re telling me to stay here alone with these corpses?”

“I’ll be back soon.”

“Brother!”

“I’ll be back! Stay here!”

Wei San-ho left those words and flew away using his lightness techniques.

Wei Yan-ho watched the scene quietly and then slowly turned his head.

What remained were two horses leisurely grazing on grass.

And two corpses lying on the ground.

Wei Yan-ho sighed deeply.

“I’m screwed.”

Wei Yan-ho was especially sorrowful today.