Book 16 Chapter 19

Ahn Myung-hoo opens his eyes… and…….

-accusation

The man was running through the darkness.

"We need to tell the higher-ups about this without delay.

"Volcanoes are dangerous.

"Captain, leave this to us!

'Don't worry. You'll have to keep your promise to buy me a drink instead!'

Boom!

Boom!

Crack!

He covered his ears and kept running through the darkness. All he could think about was getting away.

Degurrrr!

Something rolled in front of him. The man stopped in his tracks and looked at it as it rolled in front of him. It was… it was… the neck of his subordinate, Gakko.

Flash!

Su Yuan's eyes flashed open as he lay on his side.

The man screamed, his pupils pitch black. Blood dripped from the hollow pupils.

'Captain… take your grudge… take your grudge to …….'

Tens of millions of centipedes and maggots began to crawl out of that empty darkness and quickly covered the man's body.

"Ouch!"

Ahn Myung-hoo screamed and his eyes flashed open. At first, it was just a blur, like a thin film on his retina. Only after squinting for a while did the image of things begin to form clearly. Where am I? The ceiling was unfamiliar. A ceiling of rounded, rough stone, not in a room, but in a cave. I broke out in a cold sweat and my back was damp.

"Why am I here……."

His body felt heavy, as if it were weighed down with lead. He felt like his body wasn't his own. She tried to wiggle her fingers, but it didn't work. Where am I? Why am I here?

"Ah, you're awake, are you alert?"

A woman's voice I'd never heard before spoke next to me. He turned to see a gorgeously dressed woman, well-made up and smiling, kneeling somewhere in the middle of the room.

"Who… who……."

"Oh, I see I didn't introduce myself, we're meeting for the first time, my name is Kyo-Ok."

The woman smiled and replied.

With the help of the woman who was nursing him, An Ming-hu barely managed to sit up. He had been awake for about an hour when he asked the woman where he was. She replied that he was in a cave in the mountains at a volcanic ash testing site.

"So you're saying this is a volcano?"

"Technically, yes, but it's a bit far from what we'd normally call a volcano. Although they are connected by a mountain stream."

"Is the volcano… is the Great Wall of China safe?"

He asked with a serious face, his eyes filled with impatience.

"Yes, we're good to go for now."

Stunned by the power of the words, the woman calmed down and replied.

"If so, please call someone."

"People?"

"Yes, the volcano is dangerous!"

"I wish I had just stayed and lost my mind……."

The woman muttered in a low voice. Her voice was so low that An Minghu couldn't make it out.

"Yes?"

"I'm sorry, but you need to go back to sleep."

The woman spoke softly, her voice almost a whisper. An Minghu politely declined, saying that now was not the time. He was becoming impatient. All the more so because he didn't know how much time had passed since he'd lost consciousness.

"Ah, as you can see, the body is fine, but the person! I have something urgent to tell you."

"What do you have to say?"

"Yes, it's about a vast conspiracy."

"Conspiracy?"

Ahn Myung-hu spoke at a rapid pace about what he had seen, heard, and experienced. At first, the woman looked very surprised, but her complexion soon recovered. A smile spread across her red lips.

"You've been through a lot, then you need to get yourself together. It's time to go to sleep."

"No, I appreciate your concern, but I'd like to take care of this first, and then I'll let you know if you'd like to see……."

The woman shook her head, interrupting Ahn Myung-hoo.

"I don't like children who don't listen to me, so let me sing you a lullaby, a lullaby that will allow you to dream eternal dreams called the Lullaby!"

"Yes?"

The Scourer!

Something sharp grazed the carotid artery in his neck.

Puhhhhhhh!

Without even flinching, a gush of fresh blood erupted from his neckline.

"Why is this? I need to get the word out quickly… Why?

My vision went black, like a black curtain, and the sounds grew more distant. I tried to speak, but my tongue was paralyzed. Deprived of his senses and floating in his mind, he realized something was wrong. Something absurd had happened to his body. With great effort, he managed to spit out a word.

"Why… why……."

The woman spoke quietly, her vision blurring and narrowing.

"You've seen things you shouldn't have seen, heard things you shouldn't have heard, and have a light mouth, so I guess that's reason enough to go to the other side. You've done a good job, now rest in peace."

The voice was so gentle and soft that I couldn't imagine it belonging to someone who had committed such a brutal act. It was like he was possessed by a ghost.

The Reaper's smiling lips, last seen through a shower of red blood, were the color of a pomegranate.

Gahhhhhh!

A high, slender woman's scream echoed across the mountain. It was from the cave.

"What's going on?"

Returning to the cave at the sound of the screams, Bi Ryuyeon frowned at the strong smell of blood. Na Yerin, who had met her at the entrance, tried to block the unpleasant smell of blood with her sleeve, but soon realized it was useless and stopped.

One after another, the crowd gathered, including the Duke and Duchess Bi. For a moment, Ryuyeon and the Grand Duke's eyes met. I still don't know what he's up to, she thought.

Two people were lying in a pool of blood. One was the unconscious patient she was protecting. I rushed to examine him, but his carotid artery had already been severed, and there was no hope of resuscitation. The other was the bloodsucker nursing him. She was unconscious and lying in a pool of blood, but at least she was still breathing. She wasn't even wounded; she had simply passed out.

"That's terrible!"

Someone muttered.

His bulging eyes were staring into thin air. He was so angry that he couldn't even close his eyes. His bulging eyes seemed to still contain his grief from before he died.

"That's some pretty immaculate workmanship."

The cut through An Myung-hu's carotid artery was smoother than a razor's edge. It was certainly not the work of a man of ordinary skill.

"Chet, I can't believe you got caught, you were so off guard, you probably didn't even realize your life was being cut out, you must have been caught by surprise."

Bi Ryuyeon chewed and spat it out. Honestly, he had a bad taste in his mouth. This was a chance to get a clue about what he was investigating these days - most of the labor being done by his priests. A moment's lapse in vigilance would have irreversible consequences. It was a clear mistake to fail to take appropriate action, even though he knew that this was by no means a safe place. I had to admit that my vision was limited. After all, this was going to upset his dreams.

"I think it's time to start playing tag."

Bi Ryuyeon muttered quietly to herself.

Bi Ryuyeon, Hyorong, and Jang Hong were silent for a long time, staring at An Minghu's face. His eyes were wide open, unable to close even in death, whether from shock or resentment. The smell of blood wafted through the cave, and Hyorong frowned. This was indeed not a pleasant situation.

"This is horrible, who did this atrocity? Why? For what reason? Who is this person?"

Hyo-Ryong said in a somber tone.

"What was the secret he was harboring?"

It's a conundrum that Jang Hong is currently struggling to solve.

"At least one thing is clear."

"What is that?"

Jang Hong and Hyorong echoed Bi Ryuyeon's words.

"That his secret was so important that it had to be sealed, even by the extreme measure of assassination."

He had a point.

"But what good does it do now? The man who had something to say can never open his mouth again; the only clue has been cut off."

Jang Hong sighed ruefully.

"I wouldn't necessarily say that, it's too early to jump to conclusions."

The recipient of the words was, surprisingly, the Grand Duchess.

"There's something weird about that!"

The Grand Duke Rain, who had already entered the cave, looked at An Minghu's body and said. Bi Ryuyeon looked at him with an unpleasant expression on her face.

"What's wrong?"

asked.

"So you're saying you're not weird?"

It sounded like he was mocking her for not being able to recognize such a thing. Bi Ryuyeon saw no need to respond, so she kept her mouth shut.

"Why did the man who murdered this man so brutally spare Gyok? Wouldn't it have been better to stop them both?"

"Because you don't like senseless killing?"

Jang Hong replied dryly.

"I can't imagine a culprit this neat would have such a kind heart."

"So, you're saying you're onto something?"

Rain nodded. He had been taking control of the situation ever since he entered the cave. By now, everyone had become bystanders who could only stare at his mouth.

"'He' means someone who would be in a lot of trouble if she died."

"Isn't it too easy to assume the culprit is a man?"

The Grand Duke, however, dismissed Bi Ryuyeon's remarks and continued to speak.

"He obviously didn't kill her for some reason, which means he needed her. He probably sneaked up behind her back, grabbed her blood transfusion, and cut the lobe, which means he was skilled enough to fool her, or maybe he was just someone she felt comfortable trusting."

"That doesn't make sense. If you're using her friendship to get to her, you should have shut her up, too, because if she opens her eyes, she'll quickly realize who you are."

Bi Ryuyeon saw the flaw in his reasoning and pointed it out. She was right, in that case, they should both be dead. The Grand Duke looked displeased for a moment at Bi Ryuyeon's vomiting, then spoke again.

"Maybe he's drugging her. He sneaks up on her and slips it into her water or food. He watches her take it, falls asleep or passes out, and then goes about his business."

It made a lot of sense, and a few people nodded in agreement.

"So, what do you mean, if she dies, you're in trouble?"

"Trouble? I hope you haven't forgotten the rules of this Volcano Covenant Chapter."

Archduke Bi's sharp gaze swept across Bi Ryuyeon's face.

"If any member of each group fails, the group is disqualified."

Chu Myung spoke again and again in a blunt voice. It was clear that his plausible words were resonating with the Chinese.

"The drug is him!

Bi Ryuyeon cursed him inwardly.

"Seriously… you're telling me we have a culprit in Section 7?"

Archduke Rain nodded once, lightly.

"Bullshit! What evidence do you have for that? Isn't what you're saying one of many theories anyway? I don't know if it's him or her, but I can think of a hundred reasons why she couldn't have been killed, or maybe she's the killer herself!"

His voice was shaking with rage, and the rain spoke back in a cold, heartless voice.

"No matter how much you want to hide your crimes, why would you use a shameless, vulnerable woman as the culprit?"

Now," said Bi, in a tone that seemed to point to Bi Ryuyeon as the culprit.

"There's no motive, and the evidence is thin."

Bi Ryuyeon grumbled.

"So where were you when you heard the screams, was there anyone with you?"

"That… that's……."

He was alone at the time, and there was no one to testify to the fact. The Grand Duke smiled a smile of conversion.

"Do you happen to know that dead people can sometimes talk? He seemed to be holding something in his clenched right hand, and that might be a clue!"

At the Archduke's words, all eyes turned to the dead man's fist. Sure enough, he was clutching something, a string slipping through his fingers. Bending down, Rain forced it open. It wasn't easy, given the ongoing postmortem stiffness, but once it was in his hands, it was a piece of cake. What emerged was a small wooden plaque. With a look of great interest on his face, Rain picked it up and spun it around for all to see. There wasn't a person in the room who didn't recognize the object.

"처… 천율패……."

An exclamation of horror erupted from the crowd. A shiver ran down my spine as I realized that the culprit was among us!

"Okay, so you can tell who it is by looking at the name written here, go check it out!"

Rain thrust the blood-soaked paddle in front of Bi Ryuyeon's nose. For once, even the master of indifference couldn't help but be surprised.

"This… this can't be……."

It read

Volcano Covenant Branch, Zhongtou Hall, Group 7, Astronomy Hall, Bi Ryuyeon 男

"Now, do you still have something to say about this?"

Archduke Rain demanded in a sharp voice. The gazes of the people who had been puzzled had now turned to wariness and hostility, and the glances they were giving him were cold. Of course, the unjustly accused Bi Ryuyeon had a lot to say.

"You wouldn't believe me if I said, 'That's the one I lost last time!"

The pathetically weak answer left her discouraged. She couldn't convince others to believe in an excuse she wouldn't believe in herself. Only a fool with a good heart would believe such an excuse, no matter how true it was.

"Of course not, who would believe such a blatantly obvious excuse?"

Of course……. Although I wouldn't admit it out loud, I couldn't help but admit it in my heart: sometimes an exaggerated lie feels more real than a simple truth. Truth is sometimes like air, you don't really feel it until it's gone.

"But I don't think I'm the only one who's been robbed or lost here, and it's not out of the realm of possibility that those silver masks could have stunned him and then drawn a random card and placed it in his hand. Isn't it entirely possible that it was mine that got caught? A trick of some sort. I think that's more realistic than the idea of me committing murder with no motive?"

Bi Ryuyeon looked around and spoke in a cold voice. He could feel a few people frowning. Those who had been attacked by the Silver Mask seemed to be recalling their nightmares from that time, and some even seemed to agree with him. But Grand Duke Biman was unfazed. He shook his head resolutely and said.

"No, that's wrong, you've never been beaten by them, and the only people who have 'lost' are those who have been knocked unconscious by them!"

"Right, right, right, now that I think about it, that's certainly true. How can a subject who hasn't even been defeated by the gems be deprived of the Heavenly Ruler?"

Even some who had briefly leaned toward Bi Ryuyeon leaned back toward Da Gongzhi.

"Is it so great a boast to be knocked unconscious by heroes and begged for one's life, and to have a wooden plaque taken from you instead of one's life?"

Bi Ryuyeon was sarcastic, and he wasn't wrong, but his behavior was throwing gasoline on the fire. In an instant, the hostility toward him had tripled. Jang Hong and Hyorong had to rub their temples at their friend's behavior. What little remained of their friendly opinions were quickly switched to the other side. It was now harder for them to imagine the possibility that Bi Ryuyeon was not the culprit.

'This is bad…….'

Jang Hong thought, his body tensing up. The odds were stacked against him.

"People seem to trust my opinion more than yours."

Roused from her reverie, Bi Ryuyeon raised her head and scanned her surroundings. Almost all of the humans were looking at her coldly and dispassionately, with a wary glint in their eyes. Her only consolation was the sight of Na Yerin's eyes looking at her with unwavering concern. And thankfully, there didn't seem to be any fools among the cast members who believed the Archduke's words. If they fell for such a simple trick, it would be more than just a lesson. Of course, to do that, I'd have to clear my name first……….

A huge wall of suspicion had already been erected between Zhongzheng and himself. Perhaps the Grand Duke did not care whether he was the culprit or not; his purpose was simply to sow the seeds of doubt. And the seeds of doubt he planted in the people quickly grew and bore fruit in the form of their usual grumbling, complaining, and belittling. Bastards with no sticks and no heads…….

"Is this what you call bullying?

Bi Ryuyeon inwardly cursed and thought so. By nature, he had no intention of playing a tragic character. Still, he was an optimist. His pride wouldn't allow him to stoop to this level, and he had no intention of doing anything nutritious like blaming foolish sentient beings.

'Confucius the Great…….'

I couldn't let my guard down.

"If no one believed me, I wouldn't have to be here, but I must clear my name!"

His lazy mind and body felt a long-overdue surge of fighting spirit, and his finger suddenly pointed at the Archduke Bi's brow.

"I'll warn you, you, I'll make sure you regret bothering me!"

Then he turned and headed out of the cave, through the cold stares of his former comrades.

"Wait! Stop! Are you insane, do you think you can get away with this?"

Shhhhhh!

Six Zhang Zheng formed a siege line, blocking Bi Ryuyeon's path. Each of them held their own weapons and looked as if they were about to die. There was a common consciousness that the culprit-already imprinted in their minds as Bi Ryuyeon-would not be allowed to escape. One of them shouted out.

"Obediently accept the spanking, and… I'll take my time and make you confess slowly and thoroughly!"

His shoulders slumped slightly forward, his head half bowed, and a low, quiet voice emanated from his mouth.

"Are you… trying to… stop me?"

It was a far cry from his usual voice, a double-twisted, triple-twisted, judgmental voice.

"Of course!"

The men shouted indignantly, and a low, echoing taunt answered their fury.

"Cough, cough, I feel very dirty right now. I haven't felt this dirty in a long time, so I'm warning you, if you don't want to get hurt… get out of the way."

So far, so good. But…….

"How dare you think you can stop me!"

Immediately, a tremendous amount of flesh erupted from Bi Ryuyeon's body. It was a terrifying life force that seemed to swallow everything up, like the Yellow River flooding during the rainy season. It pierced through the hearts of the six in an instant. Six's body stiffened. This feeling… he remembered. It was the same feeling he had felt when he stood face to face with the silver mask and the sword. It was the same feeling they'd felt when they'd stood face to face with the silver mask and the sword, when their hearts had seemed to freeze and they'd been unable to lift a finger, like frogs before a snake, the same feeling they called fear.

Still feeling uncomfortable, Bi Ryuyeon closed her mouth and passed between the six of them in silence. No one even moved.

"If you move, you die!

It was a common thought in the minds of six pale, sweaty heads.

'Is it her…….'

As expected, the most suspicious person was the Blood Heart Sect.

Swollen, voluptuous breasts, a trim waist, shapely legs stretched out. No man would think that a young, beautiful woman with a voluptuous figure (I admit it) and a body so full of grace and color could have committed such a heinous act, but I don't blame them for their lack of imagination. It was far more reasonable for them to sharpen their arrows of condemnation and their spears of suspicion on a slug of unknown origin, of uncertain identity, who seemed to have little use for the priesthood, who was incapable of submitting to authority, who had no idea what she was talking about, and who sought to break the mold of society in every single one of her actions, than on a ghostly woman whose mere sight made them salivate. Moreover, there was no need for them to hesitate, as there was quite plausible - to them, conclusive - evidence.

Their brains had been drenched in the sweetness of the paltry authority guaranteed by society, and they had been so used to acting foolishly that their brains had been candied. There was not a hair's breadth of hope for these blind fools, whose eyes were nothing more than ornaments.

"Where do we go from here? Is the play over?

Bi Ryuyeon left them, not sure where to go. It wasn't long before he realized that someone was blocking his path. He looked up and saw the person's face. To his surprise, it was Na Yerin.

"Why do you want to go somewhere alone?"

She greeted him with a faint smile, one that was rarely seen.

"Uh, was that a wait? Or goodbye?"

asked.

"You're wrong, I should go with you, I can't go alone, we're coworkers."

"We?"

Then the grass on the other side stirred, and several people walked out. Jang Hong, Yoon Jun-ho, Hyo-ryong, Lee Jin-sul (she was following him more for Hyo-ryong's sake than her own, but let's move on!), and Mo Yong-hui. They were all a little embarrassed. It was Jang Hong who spoke up.

"We believe in you, so we're going to follow you."

Mo Yonghui wasn't even in the same group, but he was going to join him.

"What's the point in joining them? They'll ostracize me from the mainstream, and we're not even in the same group, so our chances of winning might be gone forever."

Ryuyeon Bi said.

"What the foolish majority makes isn't called mainstream. History decides which ones become mainstream, and which ones become the right direction. Besides, the championship is already a foregone conclusion, as the Silver Mask has stolen most of the Heavenly Ruler. If we don't get them back, we won't even be in the top ten, let alone win."

Jang Hong answered for him.

"By the way, you look like you've got your back against the wall this time. It's not going to be easy to get out of this one, is it?"

Jang Hong clicked his tongue. He was of a different race from those whose brains were pickled in sugar water. And he knew what friendship was, enough to shed a tear when he read Han Yu's poem on the death of his cousin Twelve Lang.

In ancient times, it was said that a man who reads Gong Ming's The Book of the Departed and does not shed a tear is not a loyal servant; a man who reads Li Mil's The Book of Chin Chung and does not shed a tear is not a filial son; a man who reads Han Yu's The Book of the Twenty-Two Rites and does not shed a tear is not a friend.

Therefore, Jang Hong firmly believed that his friend Bi Ryuyeon was not diligent enough to commit such a troublesome act.

"Chet, I can't believe you let this body get to this point……. You caught me off guard!"

"What are you going to do now?"

"First, I need to clear my name. I don't think it suits me. I'd rather give that unnecessary hassle to someone more deserving."

"How? It can't be easy, can it? It's not that it's hard to prove your innocence, it's whether they'll accept it straight away. You've made too many enemies, and there's no shortage of people who hold grudges. Besides, the recent sword-for-sword confrontation has put them on high alert……. Everyone is desperate to get their hands on you. If you let your guard down a bit, a flock of vultures will tear you apart."

"You can talk to fools, but they'll close their eyes and ears and imagine whatever they want, so you have to show them the results."

"How?"

"Let's start with the ones we suspect the most."

"You mean them?"

"Yeah, the silver masks. You're the one I'm most suspicious of."

"Sure, but……. Where do you find them?"

"There's a way."

With a confident voice, Bi replied.

"……?"

"I left a skein of yarn untied!"

"Thread?"

"Yes, the thread, wherever they are, that thread will guide me!"

Boom!

Bi Ryuyeon smiled and raised her index finger, a thin silver line glowing transparently from the tip.

"Okay, friends, let's go!"

"Oh!"

With a mighty shout, they walked down the road. Their own path, their own way, with a pure will that came from within them. Because of this, they could have no regrets, and a trust that bordered on faith. The red sunset hugged their backs. And…….

They didn't come back until the end of the cemetery.