Book 22 Chapter 1

A Thousand Leagues Under the Sea

-Hammer of Penance

The hammer strikes the nail with full force.

Land!

A piercing screech, shattering the silence of the night. The nail twitched convulsively under the force of the blow. Nails were meant to be driven somewhere, but this one had a rather murderous air to it, given its ambitious vision.

Land!

The ignorant hammer struck the nail once more with all its might. So much force, so much power. With each blow, the hammer's power grew stronger and stronger.

The main character with the hammer was even more murderous. She wears her hair long at night and smashes the hammer with all her might. The force of the blow is more violent than that of a man. What's more, the object she's pinning to the wall with her left hand is out of the ordinary.

A creepy puppet made of twisted straw. It's a tee that's roughly tied together with only four distinct limbs. It doesn't look like a great decoration. Moreover, two pegs had already been driven into the doll's heart, making it difficult to remove. The woman with the hammer nodded with satisfaction as she watched the puppet's chest gradually become denser with pegs.

As crude and grotesque as the doll was to look at, it was a rare and precious item in this part of the country. Her use was not well understood, either: she was purchased in secret through the Black Moon of the Black Cross, an organization of all-around loving volunteers.

"It's a magical tool to make love happen. It's foreign. It's from across the ocean. It's really cute, isn't it? And it's super easy to use."

Those were the words of the Black Moon. It was a wonder how she had managed to obtain such a rare item from across the ocean. The price was also exorbitant. In order to get her hands on it, she had to hand over two pairs of gorgeous carnelian bracelets to Black Moon. Still, it was fortunate that she had managed to get them ahead of time, but now was not the time for money.

"Yeonbi bitch, we'll see!"

I don't even know where I came up with the idea that a dog's skeleton would propose to me……. I couldn't ignore it any longer. Nangun was so good at what he did that even in normal times, there was always some sort of mischief, but never before had Nangun asked someone to marry him. What kind of witchcraft had she been practicing……! She gritted her teeth again. They could crush a stone if she chewed on it.

"But if only I had this……!

An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a witchcraft for a witchcraft! I thought about using local products, but I trusted the foreign ones more. For some reason, something that looked like "what the heck!" appealed to her. Since many things that look good are actually ineffective, this shoddy-looking thing must be the real deal! And since it was ten times more expensive than the others, it must be more effective.

"Put your loved one's hair inside the doll and drive a stake through the heart!"

The arrow would then be imbued with the salt of love, and it would hit you straight in the heart like a stake, but it would also have an insecticidal effect that would eliminate interlopers.

"Several people have told me they've seen it work, so there's no doubt about it, and when it's plugged in properly, it's really hot."

She remembered Black Moon's smug smile as he clutched the doll in both hands. It must be a sacred object.

"Believe it, believe it, believe it!

Blind faith was more important than anything else. Unquestioning mind, unquestioning mind, mental unity, mental unity, single-mindedness, single-mindedness, single-mindedness!

Ground! Ground! Ground!

Once again, an angry spark shoots out of the spigot.

In a dingy room lit only by two candles, she is driving a dowel into the heart of a straw doll until sweat beads on her forehead for love, and she is none other than Jang Kang Surochae's daughter, Kyo Rong-mi Haerhwa.

Of course, Haerhua didn't necessarily want to use this cumbersome method to begin with. She had a simple and immediate method that she usually practiced: she would call one of her trusted henchmen and throw in a casual remark. Like yesterday afternoon, when she raised her index finger with a meaningful look on her face,

"Yeonbi is, like, zero. Okay?"

as she had said. As part of her determination to make sure the bitch never got back on her feet, she added an unusual comment.

"You. I know you'll do fine."

He had always been notoriously cruel to women in a strange way, and she had always been cold to him because of it, but now she had deliberately brought him here and told him that he would do well because he was 'you'. There was no doubt what she meant. He swallowed hard at the saliva that threatened to drip from the corners of his mouth. Not one of the women who held a grudge against her was unattractive. Watching his subordinate grin at him, Haerhua smiled with satisfaction.

But just this afternoon, her face was colored with horror.

The henchman he had rushed to in his excitement had returned in a grotesque form. It didn't matter that the word "metamorphosis" was written on his forehead; he was a man whose only personality was fierceness and cruelty, but now that he had returned with unfocused eyes, he had somehow turned into an innocent lamb. As soon as Haerhua saw his face grinning at her with dilated pupils, she shivered with an unknown chill. It was a truly terrible smile.

He rushes over, checks her pupils and pulse, and after a quick examination, shakes his head.

"In layman's terms, you could say that you've fallen into a state of turauma (透羅寓魔), e.g., you've been traumatized by an extremely horrific situation, like encountering a nachal from hell, and you've been possessed by a demon."

"……?"

"Well, in layman's terms, it's like a coin-operated friend."

"How to fix it?"

"……Three months is the medicine, hehehe."

Just like that, her plan had failed. It was clear that Yan Bi was a witch who practiced witchcraft, so she would have to respond with witchcraft! Luckily, she had the witchcraft tools she had been working on for days.

"This time, for sure!

Shhhhhhhhhhhh!

Ta-da!

The hammer, steadfast in its determination, raced forward and struck the peg once more.

Pavat!

Sparks flew again.

* * *

"Boom!"

The man fell to his knees, clutching at his chest in a pain that stabbed at his heart.

'Gahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!'

The women surrounding him screamed.

"Oh, that's okay, I'm fine, all of a sudden my heart feels like it's been stabbed by a nail……."

Kneeling on one knee on the ground, Jagun's complexion was very pale, as if he had been drained of blood.

"Bam, are you sure you're okay, your face is white!"

It should be possible to artificially control the metabolic activity of such a high level of sleep to some extent, but his forehead was now beaded with a thick layer of sweat. He was barely holding it together, but he was obviously in a lot of pain.

"Oh, yeah, that's right, it's like a terminally ill pretty boy, sitting in a white bed, crying at the leaves falling outside the window every time a cold wind blows."

"Alas, sickness……."

For some reason, I could see the woman's face as she spoke. My delusions were running wild.

"Yikes, that's a very attractive look."

Once again, the women went wild. As long as they were entertained, it was probably a good thing, sick or not. He was enjoying the situation in his own way.

"Hoot!"

Ah, he was a sinful man after all. An ultra-beautiful boy like him, even when he is sick and infirm, is sublimated into an aesthetic crystal and captures the affectionate hearts of women at once. Ha, what a sinful life.

"Ahhhhh……!"

A few suddenly hold their noses and stumble to the ground, while others rush to their aid. I wonder if they've been secretly practicing late at night. They look like they've done this before.

If they really got their asses handed to them, they'd all get dizzy and fall over. They might even consider committing suicide. The cause of death, written in red letters, might include "delusions of grandeur. Is this what we mean when we talk about reality being invaded by fantasy? Well-founded or not, realistic or not, for these people, delusions had already become a way of life.

It seems that lies have just as strong a ripple effect on reality as the truth, sometimes even more so.

* * *

"Yuck! Yuck! Yuck! Yuck!"

The woman was breathing heavily, her hammer hanging limply. How many blows had she struck? Her shoulders were stiff with the effort she had put into each blow, but was it having an effect? It was frustrating not to be able to see it right away.

"Eek, what's so hard about this!"

Frustrated, Haerhua threw the hammer she was holding to the ground. Little did she know, it was just about to take effect. Whether it's a dream or a spell, it takes persistence and hard work to accomplish anything.

Her arm throbbed even more at the thought of having to do this for days on end. Besides, according to Black Moon, the results wouldn't be immediately visible.

"I have my own car, but if you're diligent and follow the instructions, it usually works within a few weeks to a month."

As a short-tempered woman, nothing annoyed her more than that.

"It usually works, but what about the people who aren't part of that 'usually'!"

In her belated excitement, she stomped her foot on the hammer that had fallen to the ground. She tried to endure it through the power of love, but on the fourth day, her patience failed her, and she sank to the bottom of the sea, thirty thousand leagues below.

"I don't do it, I don't do it, I don't do it!"

She decided to use her usual and favorite tactic, and one that she knew just how to use. She named it Operation Daddy, Help!

Her father, a man of great power, wealth, and powerlessness, would come to her aid at the drop of a hat or a word of affection. If she didn't use that all-powerful strength now, when would she?

She immediately sat down at her desk and began composing a letter in her notebook. She was unusually diligent about unproductive tasks.

Of course, as a final touch, I didn't forget to add a drop of fake tears to blur the signature.

* * *

Even if it was a lie, the power of a tearful letter is powerful. The Black Dragon King, the ruler of the Yangtze River, was furious and immediately summoned his finest men.

The so-called Zhang Gang's Ten Champions were invincible in and out of the water. None of the men who fought against the Jianggang Surochai were safe from their unexpected visit. They became a symbol of his power. These days, they are rarely summoned, and only a tearful letter can make it happen.

"I have a place to go."

"Where?"

Wherever it was, I was ready to run and wipe it out.

"Skyscraper."

The unexpected name made the ten warriors shudder. No matter how much rainfall they received, they didn't want to touch it. To save face, he hadn't done any business in Dongzheng Lake for years.

"Take care of this one, and come right back."

The Black Dragon King's words were met with a collective sigh of relief. Fortunately, it seemed that Chaiju's head hadn't suddenly reached an irreversible state. However, one question remained.

"Is he the kind of guy who needs all ten of us to step up?"

"I don't know!"

"Yes?"

It was a ridiculous statement.

"If my daughter needs it, she'll need it."

"……."

"What is it, those eyes, is it discontent?"

The Black Dragon King's eyes glinted; he hadn't been generous enough with his subordinates.

"Get out there and clean it up. As surely as you can, as quickly as you can."

They didn't seem to care that their dominance might be weakened by the rainfall. But the ten warriors knew that years of service had taught them that arguing was a losing proposition. What can you do with a subordinate, if the boss is a jerk, so be it.

So they immediately boarded the Hae-Shin, the fastest speedboat in Jianggang Surochae, and headed for the Temple of Heaven.

Twenty oars, rowed in unison by sixty men, flapped like wings.

The sea god crossed the Yangtze as fast as the wind.

The Black Dragon King watched the fading trajectory of the Sea Goddess, and only after the ship was out of sight did he turn around.

"Well, let's take care of this quick assignment."

He recalled a client he had met shortly before his daughter's examination. The request had been simple. The request was simple: stop the ships of the Zhongyang Marking Bureau by any means necessary, and there was only one way to do it: plunder. Upon hearing his words, the client had replied, "I'll do it.

"Good, good, good."

It was an interesting job, an interesting client. Though his face was covered, the Black Dragon King knew who he was: a client he'd seen not once, not twice, but quite a few times over the years. On the surface, he'd kept it a secret, but for the safety of his business, he'd long since done his homework. He was one of the temple swords of the mighty Zhongyuan Clan, one of the most powerful clans in the world. He's a self-proclaimed member of the Zheng Sect, and this place, Jianggang Surochai, was never meant to be a place for people of his ilk.

'It doesn't matter if it's Zhongyang or Zhongyuan, it's enough for us to get some food and drink, but the destination of the marker is Machengak.'

The Black Dragon King frowned and flicked his ears. It was none of his business, but he didn't want to mess with the Heavenly Pavilion's feelings. Even if they were the losers of the Jiang River, it was best to play it safe in business.

You can get away with grooming a girl, but rolling the dice and collecting a mark is strictly "business," so it's tricky to clean up after yourself. However, Jungwon Pyo Guk is one of the regular customers with good pay. …….

"We'll just have to sneak up on them with one of the big ones.

To wrap up his grand plan to get the job done quickly and get paid handsomely, he called his favorite henchman.

"Call for Captain Square!"

There was no one on the water who could match his maneuvering skills when it came to rising and falling. Moreover, his heavy mouth was perfect for the job.

'I'm afraid that even the mackerel will soon be meat. …… For the time being, we'll have to tell our daughter not to eat fish when it's served in her meals. I have a problem with the mass feeding system. They're giving the kids fish that hasn't even been tested to see what it's made of. Eat, bastards!

Before he had even begun, he had already traveled a thousand miles to the Black Dragon King.