Chapter 567:
Ja-hong was having an ordinary day.
There were fewer people on the streets than usual today, but that was perfectly understandable.
The commercial districts of every city tend to follow the major industries located in that city. On days when storms blow and ships can’t set sail, don’t the taverns in port cities burst at the seams?
Luoyang was no different.
Luoyang was such a large city with deep history that various industries had developed. But if you had to pick the place with the greatest influence in Luoyang right now, everyone would choose the same single location.
The (Sungcheon Jeongmu Alliance).
The Jeongmu Alliance wasn’t a place that produced anything itself, but it was a place where so many people gathered. You could say that Luoyang ran on the money spent by those who received salaries from the Jeongmu Alliance.
As such, the area around the Jeongmu Alliance was packed solid with shops. They made their living doing business with the alliance members. Ja-hong was one of those people. He was the owner of a fabric shop located at the western gate of the Jeongmu Alliance.
‘Business really isn’t going well.’
It couldn’t be helped.
Normally, this place would also be bustling with people wanting to buy cloth, but right now the Jeongmu Alliance was at war with Baekgeum Castle. Half of the martial artists who should be stopping by the shops had been drafted for the war against Baekgeum Castle, and the other half were staying inside the alliance, watching the situation closely. In times like this, there was no one leisurely enough to stop by shops and buy something.
‘The war needs to end quickly.’
If the war dragged on, there would be cries of death everywhere. The people who had to make their living doing business here to support their families were living each day with anxiety eating away at them.
Getting up in the morning and hurling a bucketful of curses eastward before starting the day had become their daily routine. Of course, those curses were directed at Baekgeum Castle.
“But why is it so noisy today?”
For a while now, sounds like something exploding had been coming from the Jeongmu Alliance.
The Jeongmu Alliance being noisy wasn’t a matter of just a day or two. The Jeongmu Alliance was a place where martial artists gathered, and martial artists naturally came with noise. Training, sparring, drilling while shouting at the top of their lungs was routine.
But today’s noise was beyond the usual level.
‘Is something happening?’
Ja-hong quietly got up from his seat and went outside.
Of course, Ja-hong knew how absurd what he was doing was.
This was the Jeongmu Alliance.
Something happening at the Sungcheon Jeongmu Alliance would be no different from someone attacking the imperial palace. Unless they were madmen, unless their guts had jumped outside their bodies, how could they dare cause trouble at the Jeongmu Alliance?
Maybe they were just testing new martial arts, or perhaps trying out new weapons. With that thought, Ja-hong came out of his shop and cautiously poked his head toward the Jeongmu Alliance.
At that moment, Ja-hong’s mouth slowly fell open.
“What is that?”
A groan escaped.
In Ja-hong’s eyes, he could see green smoke filling the main compound of the Jeongmu Alliance.
He could tell at a glance.
That smoke was not ordinary. This wasn’t a scene created by some mistake or accident.
“Uh…”
Already many people had come out onto the streets and were watching the situation at the main compound. In their eyes, they could see the smoke gradually filling the main compound, then flowing over the walls and spilling outside.
“Th-that…”
They couldn’t decide what to do. What helped the confused Ja-hong was a scream-like shout that suddenly rang out.
“Run away! Right now!”
That voice like a death cry.
Following the voice to its source, Ja-hong turned his head and stumbled backward in shock. From the direction of the Jeongmu Alliance, martial artists from the Jeongmu Alliance were running with foam at their mouths.
Their faces red-hot with exertion, veins bulging on their foreheads, and their hands and feet moving at invisible speed showed just how desperate they were.
“What are you doing! Run!”
“Huh? What?”
The martial artists began pushing the backs of people standing around indecisively and grabbing their arms to run together.
Ja-hong was also caught up in this flow and found himself running as fast as his legs could carry him.
Looking back, he could see the green smoke that had crossed the walls slowly pursuing them. Like floodwater overflowing a dam, it covered everything.
“Hiiiiik!”
He didn’t know what would happen if that reached them. But certainly nothing good could be expected. That green smoke made people feel ominous just by looking at it.
‘F-fast.’
The speed at which the smoke spread was much faster than expected.
‘What’s going to happen with this?’
At least Ja-hong had come outside and seen the smoke with his eyes, and had seen people running, so he could run away with them. But right now there were probably many people inside those houses who didn’t know what was happening outside.
So what would happen to them?
The smoke crossed the walls and passed over the large road surrounding the Jeongmu Alliance. Then it began creeping into the residential areas.
“N-no!”
Just as Ja-hong was about to cry out in shock!
“Huh?”
“What’s that?”
Urgent voices burst out simultaneously from all around.
Something strange caught Ja-hong’s eyes too. Someone had leaped up above that huge green smoke.
“Wow…”
An exclamation naturally flowed out.
He couldn’t see clearly. It was impossible for his eyesight to accurately see the appearance of someone that far away. But one thing was certain.
The sword held in one hand of the person who had leaped above the smoke glittered dazzlingly in the sunlight.
‘Cool.’
It was such a cool sight that he forgot his own situation for a moment and stared blankly. Then a loud voice reached his ears.
“Don’t worry! I’ll take care of everything!”
Manly laughter followed after that.
‘Hero.’
That was the word that came to Ja-hong’s mind. The man who left those words dropped down below, and soon disappeared into the green smoke.
“Ah…”
Ja-hong’s face was colored with worry. But then, as if by magic, the smoke stopped moving.
“Ah!”
Ja-hong swallowed his saliva.
Before he knew it, all the people around had also stopped their feet and were watching that scene. A somewhat cold tension settled among them.
But what they were feeling wasn’t only tension.
Hope that something would be accomplished.
The expectation began to swell that the man they had just seen would solve this situation… no, would do something even greater than that.
‘Hero.’
Ja-hong’s eyes were following someone hidden by the green smoke.
***
“Achoo! Achoo! Achoo! Achoo!”
Wei Yan-ho was spewing tears and snot while coughing continuously.
“Ack! Achooooo! Achoo! Damn, I’m dying! Ugh!”
Tears were streaming down.
The poison had penetrated mercilessly through his eyes and nose. His skin was also stinging.
This was a separate issue from whether the poison could actually poison his body. Before his internal energy could even act, his body was in chaos trying to expel the poison seeping into him.
“Kheuk!”
If he circulated his energy to create a barrier outside his body, it could be easily solved. It wouldn’t be simple for other people, but for Wei Yan-ho now, it wasn’t particularly difficult.
“Anyway achoo! These achoo! sect leaders!”
They were perfectly demonstrating what ‘even in death, they won’t die gracefully’ meant.
“Ugh, I’m dying.”
Wei Yan-ho raised his hand to wipe the tears from his face.
‘This is no joke.’
Though he had reacted calmly, his tension was rising. If a martial artist of Wei Yan-ho’s level couldn’t keep his wits about him, ordinary people who inhaled this poison would die without even showing symptoms. Literally instant death.
‘Let me stop it for now.’
Wei Yan-ho raised his hand. He could clearly see his sleeve dissolving away. The poison was melting even his clothes.
“Nasty stuff.”
Though he was being casual about it, he had never intended to let this vicious poison smoke spread from the beginning. No matter how much this wasn’t his problem, he couldn’t let tens of thousands of people die.
“So then!”
Absorption energy began to be unleashed from Wei Yan-ho’s right hand. As attractive force that pulled everything around was unleashed, the spreading poison smoke stopped with a jerk.
Wei Yan-ho’s eyes urgently followed the air currents around him.
‘This won’t work.’
The range that had spread was too wide. Even with Wei Yan-ho’s ability, he could stop it like this, but he couldn’t pull the poison smoke back.
Sssssss.
The unpleasant sound of poison eating away at his clothes could be heard. It was fortunate that it had stopped for now, but at this rate, Wei Yan-ho would have to hold this poison smoke here for the rest of his life.
He might be freed when the war ended safely and the Dang Family came to detoxify it, but could he expect that?
‘I need to find another method.’
From what he could see, even the Divine Strategist couldn’t come up with any particular solution. That meant there was no clever solution. So it meant Wei Yan-ho had to solve it with his own ability…
‘Easier said than done.’
Wei Yan-ho sighed. The sigh mixed with coughing came out together.
Beating down the Poison Demon had been nothing special. But this aftermath was incomparably more difficult than the fight itself. The aftermath was harder than the beating, and even the great Wei Yan-ho was slightly flustered by this situation he was experiencing for the first time.
‘There’s no one to help even if I whine.’
Complaints and grumbling should be done when someone’s watching. Doing it alone doesn’t change anything. The best he could do alone was to somehow quickly resolve this situation and go out to boast loudly.
Imagining himself sticking out his belly and bragging in front of the great Divine Strategist gave him some strength.
‘Let’s see…’
Wei Yan-ho, who had accurately measured the size of the spread poison smoke, lit up his eyes.
‘Will this work?’
The odds were fifty-fifty.
If it went according to plan, he could resolve it cleanly, but if there was even the slightest mistake, the situation would grow uncontrollably. Should he still try it?
‘Of course.’
If he didn’t want to grow old and die here, he had to gamble. The method to succeed at gambling was simple.
Leave it to heaven and just go for it!
Wei Yan-ho waited.
If the Divine Strategist and other Jeongmu Alliance members had any sense, they would be evacuating Luoyang’s citizens even at this moment. Surely they weren’t standing around like idiots hoping Wei Yan-ho would solve it. If they had brains!
So he needed to buy them that time appropriately.
Wei Yan-ho closed his eyes and concentrated on his absorption energy. Holding back poison smoke of this magnitude couldn’t be easy. Wei Yan-ho’s tremendous internal power, which deserved to be called enormous, hit rock bottom in an instant. Wei Yan-ho waited and waited until his internal power was precariously close to running out.
After holding the poison smoke with absorption energy for a long time, Wei Yan-ho’s eyes snapped open.
It should be enough now.
“Well then…”
Wei Yan-ho withdrew the hand that had been using absorption energy and drew his sword. His white sword shone brilliantly even in this thick poison fog.
“Now, let’s start… Achooooooo!”
With a huge sneeze, Wei Yan-ho charged forward like lightning.
“Even if it goes wrong, I don’t know anything!”
Of course, he had no backup plan until the very end.
