HDCLSSRS Ch 184
by berryChapter 184 Encounter (8)
The afternoon sunlight gently brushed across his closed eyelids.
Baek Ryeoil sat leisurely in a private room on the second floor of a pleasure house, one that overlooked the street below, waiting for someone to arrive.
At this hour of the day, the pleasure house was empty.
He preferred the silence.
Leaning his head against the wall with his eyes closed…
He looked peaceful at first glance.
But appearances were deceiving.
Beneath that calm exterior…
His heart was a volcano threatening to erupt at any moment.
He had finally found Seong Muyon.
And yet…
Even with him right before his eyes, he couldn’t do anything.
Seong Muyon had abandoned him.
A man who clung desperately to others when he needed them…
Only to throw them away like worn-out shoes once they had outlived their usefulness.
Baek Ryeoil had always known that was the kind of person Seong Muyon was.
And yet…
He had still fallen for it before he even realized what was happening.
I want revenge.
Some people spent their lives being used and cast aside.
Even after being abandoned in utter misery…
They couldn’t even protest.
They simply swallowed their grief and lived on alone.
Baek Ryeoil was not one of those people.
If someone wronged him…
He would pursue them to the ends of hell itself.
Find them.
And make them pay.
Foolishly…
Seong Muyon had chosen the wrong person.
Over the past three years…
Baek Ryeoil had imagined their reunion countless times.
I’ll find him.
And I’ll make him experience every ounce of the anger…
…and emptiness…
…that I felt.
“……”
…And the pain.
What filled the void after Seong Muyon disappeared…
Was pain.
A kind of pain unlike anything Baek Ryeoil had ever experienced.
It tormented him every waking moment.
“Do you really think I ever enjoyed living on Mount Hua?”
Throb.
“Who was it that dragged me there against my will in the first place?”
Throb…
“As long as I’m with you, Daozhang, it doesn’t matter where I go.”
“I’m tired of it.”
Seong Muyon’s final words had become daggers.
Again and again…
They stabbed into his heart.
Having lived his entire life as a martial artist…
Baek Ryeoil understood physical pain.
But emotional pain…
He had no idea how to endure it.
A wound upon the body gradually healed with time.
Its pain eventually faded away.
This pain…
Never lessened.
It simply continued.
Without end.
It was pain born from desperately longing for something he could never possess.
If it were an object…
He could simply obtain it.
If it were martial arts…
He could devote himself day and night until he mastered it.
But…
What if the thing he wanted…
Was a person?
A person…
Who wanted nothing to do with him?
Longing became suffering.
Just as hunger became pain when one couldn’t eat…
Or exhaustion became agony when one couldn’t sleep…
Baek Ryeoil had always lived exactly as he pleased.
He had never learned how to endure.
The fact that he could never have what he wanted…
Made it hurt.
He wanted to reach him.
To see him.
To keep him before his eyes…
And because he couldn’t…
He suffered.
Even worse…
The very person responsible for all that suffering stood right in front of him.
Yet he could do nothing.
That only doubled the torment.
This…
Wasn’t the reunion he had imagined.
There were no furious shouts.
No blood-soaked revenge.
No tearful excuses.
Not even…
Though Baek Ryeoil refused to admit it…
That faint dream hidden in the deepest corner of his heart—
That after years of separation…
The moment they finally met…
They would cast everything else aside…
And seek only each other’s lips.
Nothing of the sort happened.
Instead…
Like some ridiculous farce performed in the marketplace…
They pretended not to know each other.
Deceiving.
Being deceived.
Neither side willing to bring things to a conclusion.
Everything remained suspended.
Baek Ryeoil had believed that merely seeing Seong Muyon again would bring things to an end.
Instead…
Everything stagnated.
Little by little…
It was drying him out.
Nothing had been resolved.
He no longer knew what he should do.
Or what position he ought to take.
It felt as though he had become stagnant water…
Slowly rotting away.
I want this to end.
Just as Seong Muyon had once said.
He was exhausted.
He had no strength left to endure any longer.
He simply wanted this pain to end.
If only…
If only he’d never appeared before me again…
No…
If only he’d never appeared in my life in the first place.
From the very first moment he saw Seong Muyon…
Baek Ryeoil had instinctively felt threatened.
He hadn’t understood why back then.
Now…
He did.
Some instinct deep inside him had recognized the truth.
That Seong Muyon’s existence would eventually destroy him.
How can I escape this suffering?
His gaze drifted blankly through empty space.
Lost in thought.
Would he feel better…
If he destroyed Seong Muyon so thoroughly that he could never rise again…
Just as he himself had been destroyed?
Or…
If he erased him completely…
Would this pain finally disappear?
Beneath thick lashes…
His dark eyes gleamed dangerously.
“Forgive me for keeping you waiting.”
Rustle.
The bamboo curtain hanging over the doorway chimed softly as a beautiful woman entered the room.
“My name is Gyohong.”
She gracefully bowed.
“It is an honor to finally meet you.”
“Daozhang Baek Ryeoil…”
“The Demon-Slaying Blood Shadow.”
With elegant composure…
Gyohong sat opposite him.
She looked no different from a refined young lady who ought to be playing the guqin or writing poetry.
In reality…
She belonged to the Hao Sect.
Courtesans.
Thieves.
Waiters.
Individually…
They occupied humble positions.
But together…
They formed the overwhelming majority of the Central Plains.
Their countless eyes and ears created an intelligence network feared throughout the Murim.
Yet…
Because of their lowly origins…
They were rarely welcomed.
The proud disciples of great sects readily borrowed the Hao Sect’s information whenever necessary…
Yet never considered them equals.
Even the Beggars’ Union, despite its influence, remained outside the ranks of the prestigious Nine Great Sects and One Union for much the same reason.
Baek Ryeoil, however…
Quite liked them.
Gathering information personally required persuading people.
Someone like Jang Hansu, with his easy smile, could probably manage that.
Baek Ryeoil could not.
People usually froze in fear the moment they saw him.
“So the rumors were true.”
Gyohong smiled faintly.
“You really are a man of few words.”
Most people would have found Baek Ryeoil rude for not even offering a greeting.
But…
As someone from the Hao Sect…
She already knew exactly what kind of person he was.
There was no point making an issue of it.
“Although…”
Her eyes drifted toward the wine jar sitting untouched upon the table.
“It seems the wine we prepared wasn’t to your liking.”
The expensive liquor her subordinates had specially arranged remained completely untouched.
Not even the seal had been disturbed.
“As a disciple of Mount Hua who follows the Dao…”
“I understand refusing the company of one of our girls.”
“But if our Hao Sect, whose livelihood depends upon information, has gathered incorrect information about your tastes…”
“That would be deeply concerning.”
Her expression was one of sincere worry.
Baek Ryeoil immediately understood the hidden meaning.
We heard you liked alcohol, so we prepared the finest wine.
If you refuse to drink it now… are you planning to use that against us later?
Whether it was the Beggars’ Union…
Or the Hao Sect…
Baek Ryeoil’s reputation among them was infamous.
He often appeared without warning.
Demanded difficult information.
If the information proved false…
He returned.
Destroyed the place.
Then took back even the information fee he had already paid.
Despite knowing every one of those stories…
Gyohong remained perfectly composed.
She had even prepared everything in advance specifically for his arrival.
She was no ordinary woman.
“I didn’t come here to drink.”
Baek Ryeoil merely shrugged.
“More importantly…”
“The information I asked for?”
Gyohong rather liked how straightforward he was.
No pointless small talk.
No unnecessary politeness.
So he doesn’t actually enjoy drinking?
How refined must his tastes be?
He didn’t seem nearly as eccentric as the rumors claimed.
Working in the intelligence business…
She knew better than most how greatly stories became exaggerated.
She decided not to judge him too quickly.
“As you know…”
“There is never a shortage of incidents in Nanju.”
“The city’s constant flow of travelers ensures that.”
“It took a little longer than expected to separate the matters most likely to interest you.”
She handed him a scroll.
The contents had been organized according to importance.
Without so much as a word of thanks…
Baek Ryeoil immediately opened it.
Every suspicious person.
Every incident.
Every possible trace connected to the Demonic Cult.
Inside and outside Nanju City.
Everything had been meticulously recorded.
Hmm.
He’s even more handsome than I’d heard…
Completely absorbed in reading…
Baek Ryeoil frowned ever so slightly.
His lowered gaze naturally drew attention to his long eyelashes.
Given how terrible his reputation was…
Gyohong had never believed the stories praising his appearance.
Now that she had met him…
She realized it wasn’t merely his face.
There was also that peculiar charm possessed by someone utterly devoted to a single purpose.
“What’s the Black Manor?”
“Hm?”
Gyohong had unknowingly become absorbed in admiring his appearance.
His question snapped her back to reality.
“Ah…”
“The Black Manor is an old ghost story.”
“Several decades ago…”
“The family that owned the estate went bankrupt.”
“They fled in the middle of the night.”
“The manor was abandoned.”
“Eventually strange rumors began to spread.”
“People claimed ghosts haunted the place.”
“The stories grew larger and larger until almost everyone accepted them as fact.”
“They say the ghosts drag people away and eat them.”
“And that countless human skeletons lie buried beneath the estate.”
“And?”
“They’re just rumors.”
“The authorities investigated several times.”
“They didn’t find human remains.”
“Not even a dead rat.”
“The property has changed hands several times since then.”
“Each owner tried to make use of it.”
“But because of the terrible rumors…”
“None of them succeeded.”
“In the end…”
“It was abandoned once again.”
“Hm…”
Baek Ryeoil rubbed his chin.
“Wouldn’t the Qilian Gorge be more likely?”
Gyohong tilted her head.
“The endless cliffs make it almost impossible to approach.”
“It’s the perfect place for people with something to hide.”
“Several herb gatherers have even reported seeing lights there recently.”
“In places no one should ever be able to reach.”
“Perhaps.”
Baek Ryeoil nodded slightly.
“But…”
“I find the Black Manor more suspicious.”
“Hidden quietly.”
“Right in the middle of the city.”
“That sounds exactly like something the Demonic Cult would do.”