The Introverted Heavenly Demon - Chapter 50

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

The Introverted Heavenly Demon Episode 050
Assassination Attempt
Eight people in total were engaged in combat across the open field.
They were divided into two groups of four each, but distinguishing between the two sides proved effortless.
The group appearing to be assailants wore dark night clothes with their faces concealed by hoods, while the other group under attack displayed the distinctive merchant attire I had grown weary of seeing since arriving in Chengdu, complete with bundles strapped to their backs—clearly merchants.
Hye Woon grasped this distinction at a glance and, even as we continued running, called out to me with unmistakable clarity.
“It appears the merchants are under attack. What do you intend to do, Protagonist?”
I answered without hesitation.
“Protecting the weak is the way of the Murim. Though I do not know the precise circumstances, surely we must aid the merchants first, should we not?”
Hye Woon, leading the way ahead, glanced back upon hearing my response and offered a faint smile.
As if to say he harbored the same intention.
“The situation does not permit much leisure. Will you take the left side, Protagonist? I shall handle the right.”
“Understood.”
Since we had rushed over the moment we heard the commotion, the actual duration of their combat could not have been long.
Yet as Hye Woon said, the tide of battle had already turned decisively in one direction.
In truth, the battle was already over.
Three of the merchants lay bleeding on the ground, and only one man—Jang Han, wielding a sword—remained standing among them.
Meanwhile, all four of the night-clothed assailants stood unscathed.
Even now, one of the attackers pressed his blade toward Jang Han, who swayed precariously as if about to collapse at any moment.
Hye Woon employed his movement technique and rushed toward them like lightning.
“What—what is this!”
As Hye Woon closed in on the assailant who had been wielding his sword at the merchant in front, the mysterious man startled and reflexively swung his blade.
The sword carried considerable force, moving with impressive speed and menace.
Yet it was only in the midst of actual combat that Hye Woon’s movement technique revealed its true nature.
His form flickered once in the air, and in the next instant, he had evaded the assailant’s blade and closed to within inches of the man’s face.
Hye Woon wielded no weapon, as if to demonstrate that weapons were unnecessary—he merely extended his palm lightly.
Yet the force contained within that palm was anything but light.
The assailant struck by Hye Woon’s palm strike staggered backward three or four steps, clutching his abdomen.
A thin stream of crimson blood spilled from the man’s lips before he collapsed to his knees and fell forward onto the ground.
Next came my turn.
Arriving at the battlefield slightly later than Hye Woon, I picked up a fallen sword from the ground rather than drawing the Heavenly Demon Slayer Blade at my waist.
The martial prowess of the night-clothed assailants did not appear particularly formidable compared to my own.
At best, they seemed to be at the late third-rate or early second-rate level.
There was no need to employ the Cheon Ma, the Heavenly Demon Slayer Blade, or any technique.
I simply maintained distance and swung the blade diagonally downward.
It was the opening move of the first form of the Thirteen Lunar Strikes—the Transcendent Lunar Flash.
Whoosh!
Though my blade did not touch the assailant on the left, it was sufficient.
As my strike cleaved through empty air with a sharp whistling sound, the mysterious man startled violently and stumbled backward, his legs giving way as he fell hard on his rear.
That alone was enough to shatter their will to fight.
The group of mysterious men lifted up the man who had collapsed from Hye Woon’s strike and retreated a considerable distance from us.
“Who are you people?”
Then, one man who had withdrawn to the very back of their group shouted at Hye Woon and me with a panicked voice.
It seemed this man was the leader commanding their group.
His face was concealed beneath a cloth wrapping, with only his eyes exposed, and when our gazes met, I could see he was quite flustered.
And those eyes were strangely familiar to me.
But then.
Cough!
One of the merchant group members who had been standing last stumbled and collapsed to the ground.
A bucket’s worth of dark blood poured from his mouth, and he fell forward, unable to move any further.
From his condition, it appeared he had already been attacked and wounded before we arrived.
“Protagonist, please observe the situation for a moment.”
“Yes.”
Hye Woon spoke to me urgently, then approached the man, crouching down to examine his condition.
“It appears he was struck by a poisoned hidden weapon.”
In Hye Woon’s hand was a thin flying needle that seemed to have been extracted from the man’s body.
“Protagonist, please be cautious.”
Following this, Hye Woon’s brief warning carried a tone of contempt toward the mysterious men.
Hidden weapons, especially those coated in poison, were considered dishonorable tactics even in the ruthless world of the Murim.
Now I could see that the merchants who had collapsed earlier also bore no major external wounds yet spewed black blood from their mouths—they too appeared to have fallen victim to the same method.
I remained in a state of maximum vigilance, carefully observing their movements, uncertain when they might hurl their hidden weapons.
“I was mistaken… he is already dead.”
Hye Woon muttered in a panicked voice, then abandoned the collapsed merchant and rose to his feet.
The merchant lying on the ground had limbs and head hanging limp, no longer capable of movement.
By then, one of the mysterious men had begun reaching into his garment to extract something.
The motion appeared to be drawing out a hidden weapon, but the leader of the mysterious men stopped him.
“Stop.”
Then, with a gesture to his subordinates, he had them help the collapsed man to his feet and began slowly retreating backward.
Their objective had been the merchants from the start, and with all the merchants dead, there was nothing more to accomplish.
And since formidable opponents had appeared from nowhere, they had decided to withdraw without risking further danger.
“Should we not pursue them?”
Watching them gradually disappear, I asked Hye Woon, but he simply shook his head.
“Those with vicious poisoned weapons are unpredictable in their depravity. I cannot expose the Protagonist to such danger.”
Hye Woon’s voice seemed to reach the mysterious men as well, and confirming our lack of pursuit intent, they turned in earnest and rapidly disappeared.
Soon, their figures vanished beyond the Bamboo Forest and were seen no more.
“Yo-, ah, no, brother! Are you alright?”
Young Ho Bin arrived belatedly just then, and upon witnessing the carnage that had unfolded here, his expression turned to shock, but he soon released a relieved sigh after confirming I bore no injuries.
I left Young Ho Bin behind and examined the corpses of the merchants and their belongings, lost in thought.
In the meantime, Young Ho Bin asked.
“Attacking merchants? Are these the deeds of bandits?”
I shook my head as I answered.
“It couldn’t have been about theft. If they were after valuables, there would be no need for poison and throwing knives. Besides, they didn’t even touch the merchants’ belongings.”
The more I considered the Mysterious Men’s actions, the harder they were to comprehend.
It didn’t seem they were after wealth, nor did it appear to be the work of those who harbored a grudge against these merchants.
They had simply used poison-coated throwing knives to swiftly claim lives.
Moreover, only the last man to fall had been threatened without the use of throwing knives before being murdered with a poison-coated blade at the final moment.
This suggested their purpose wasn’t merely to take these lives.
‘Perhaps they were trying to extract some information from them.’
It was while I was thinking this way.
Hye Woon had been kneeling before the last man to collapse since moments ago, kneading his body this way and that.
I had found it strange what he was doing with an already dead person.
“Mm-hmm.”
Astonishingly, from the lips of the man Hye Woon had declared dead, a faint groaning sound escaped!
“Monk, is that man alive?”
“Indeed. I merely sealed his pressure points to prevent the poison from spreading.”
This meant that in that brief moment, Hye Woon had sealed this man’s pressure points to render him immobile and prevent the poison from spreading, while deliberately making him appear dead to the Mysterious Men.
It was truly remarkable acupoint-striking technique.
After answering my question, Hye Woon patted the man’s cheek and asked.
“Hey there! Are you coming to?”
“Ugh….”
And from the lips of the man emitting groans from a semi-conscious state, unintelligible words spilled forth.
“Secret… fire….”
However, Hye Woon’s complexion changed instantly, as if he understood the meaning of those words.
Then he hurriedly thrust his hand into his robes and withdrew something.
What emerged from a small paper pouch was a black pill no larger than a thumb joint.
Hye Woon immediately shoved it into the man’s mouth.
As the pill entered his mouth, the man’s face contorted, his body trembled once, and then he remained still with his eyes closed.
However, seeing his previously unstable breathing stabilize and his darkened complexion regain some color, it seemed he had overcome the crisis of death.
The pill Hye Woon had given him was an antidote….
As time passed, the situation grew increasingly complex, and inexplicable questions accumulated.
Who were the Mysterious Men, who were these merchants, and what were the Mysterious Men trying to extract from them….
And what was the true identity of this monk Hye Woon, that he acted as though he had foreseen this very situation?
While I was contemplating, Hye Woon lifted the man’s body and rose to his feet.
“Protagonist, this man is someone I have been searching for long ago, so I must take him with me. I hope you understand.”
“Of course. But who exactly is he? And those Mysterious Men from before….”
I asked despite not truly expecting an answer.
As expected, Hye Woon slowly shook his head and spoke quietly.
“I cannot explain everything clearly given the circumstances. However, the throwing knives used by the Mysterious Men appear to be the exclusive weapon of the Tang Sect of Sichuan.”
“Ah…!”
Upon hearing the name Tang Sect of Sichuan, both Young Ho Bin and I let out involuntary exclamations.
The Tang Sect—isn’t it one of the Five Great Families of the Sichuan region, renowned for poison and hidden weapons, whose influence rivals even the Ten Major Sects?
“Therefore, it would be safer for you Sect Leaders to refrain from involving yourselves further in this matter.”
Hye Woon was speaking with the intention of keeping us out of danger.
I too wished to distance myself from such perilous affairs, yet an ominous premonition that this mission would not unfold so easily continued to grow stronger within me.
“Then, I shall take my leave.”
And so Hye Woon departed, hoisting the unconscious man onto his shoulders.
But then, as if remembering something forgotten, he halted his steps and turned back to face me.
“Since matters proceeded smoothly thanks to the Protagonist’s considerable assistance today, I shall ask no further questions regarding the Tang Chor Liche.”
With these parting words, he smiled faintly and walked away, leaving me unable to formulate any response.
Only when his figure vanished from sight did I smile to myself and mutter under my breath.
“That was mine to begin with, you damned monk.”
And we even paid for what you ate at the tavern, on top of that.
Such shamelessness from a defrocked Buddhist.
“M-Minor Sect Leader. Actually, that was….”
Then Young Ho Bin, uncharacteristically hesitant, opened his mouth with careful deliberation.
“There was apparently a small issue at the tavern. The Tang Chor Liche that was served earlier was actually the order that the monk had placed first….”
“What, what did you say?”
“The Tang Chor Liche that I ordered couldn’t be served because the ingredients ran short….”
Wait, so that means just now….
Had I truly stolen and eaten the monk’s Tang Chor Liche?
Though entirely unintentional, I—now a shameless thief who had pilfered a monk’s meal—felt beads of perspiration forming on my brow from sheer mortification.
“Ha, haha. What an extraordinary coincidence.”
“….”
Maintaining the dignified appearance of a Minor Sect Leader in such circumstances was truly no easy feat.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————