The Legend of Red Cloud - Chapter 87

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 87. An Unexpected Encounter
“They say they flay captured prisoners alive and use them as test subjects for poisons…….”
The nasty rumors clinging to the Dang Family Estate were so prolific that even Jwa Ryang, not just Dong Pil, found himself muttering such things.
Dong Pil groused at Jwa Ryang in return.
“I’m the one infiltrating. Why are you worrying about that?”
“If you get caught, I reckon you’d spill everything the moment they dangle a woman in front of you. That’s why.”
At Jwa Ryang’s words, Dong Pil muttered ‘Well… yeah,’ and the tension that had been wound tight loosened a fraction.
Watching the team members snicker to themselves, Jeok Sa spoke.
“According to plan, Dong Pil and I handle the infiltration. Min Soo and Hee Jun secure a safe house as backup. In case of emergency, the Blocking Unit is you and Jwa Ryang. Clear?”
The team members nodded at Jeok Sa’s words.
Once he’d confirmed their understanding, Jeok Sa continued.
“Any unforeseen developments—you act on your own judgment.”
After confirming the team members’ nods once more, Jeok Sa and Dong Pil slipped out of the inn and vanished into the darkness.
The moment the two departed, the remaining team members dispersed to their assigned positions.
Sacheon, especially its hub city of Seongdo, saw such constant traffic of travelers and merchants that no one paid any particular attention to the movements of the Jeok Sa Jo operatives.
True to its standing as a first-rate faction, the Dang Family Estate had security positioned densely both outside and inside its walls.
Not that Jeok Sa and Dong Pil were the sort to scale walls without leaving a trace.
The two moved lightly over the wall and, once inside, made directly for the Inner Court as their preliminary reconnaissance had indicated.
The security within the Dang Family Estate was as stringent as the perimeter defenses along the outer walls, but not enough to stop the two.
Running through the darkness, the two suddenly ducked into cover.
At a subtle gesture from Jeok Sa, Dong Pil responded with sharp reflexes.
Fortunately, the woman emerging late from kitchen duties passed by obliviously, hurrying toward her quarters in quick steps.
In infiltration work, ordinary civilians posed as much danger as armed guards.
Unlike martial artists who’d cultivated their qi and naturally projected presence, ordinary people made no perceptible aura—and without that, detecting them from a distance was nearly impossible.
Only after extending his Qi Sensing fully and sweeping the area did Jeok Sa confirm no one else remained. The infiltration team resumed movement.
Fortunately, Jeok Sa and Dong Pil reached the wall dividing the Inner Court without triggering the estate’s security net.
But the real challenge lay directly ahead—the Inner Court wall itself.
According to the intelligence report, that wall was blanketed entirely by a Death Energy Barrier.
Scaling it was impossible.
So they followed their backup plan: Jeok Sa and Dong Pil concealed themselves where they could watch the Yuehl Winter Gate leading into the Inner Court, and waited.
After a brief wait, figures approaching the Inner Court entrance appeared, exactly as expected.
Timing their movements according to the arrivals’ pace and estimated arrival time, Jeok Sa and Dong Pil launched themselves simultaneously.
Moving with such speed that they reached the gate before it closed, Jeok Sa and Dong Pil seized the armed guards stationed on either side of the Yuehl Winter Gate and dragged them inside.
They also encountered the people who’d been entering just ahead of them.
Jeok Sa rushed forward like a flash of lightning, pressing Acupuncture Point Strikes on each of them before a single scream could escape their lips.
They carried no aura and wore shabby clothes—clearly estate servants with no reason to be killed.
After restraining them and hiding them in the darkness, Jeok Sa and Dong Pil eased the door shut and melted into the Inner Court.
What had come before wasn’t easy, but the true difficulty of this mission started now.
They had to locate the quarters of the person holding the item they needed to secure.
Even the strategists of the Cheol Hyeol Maeng—called the brain of the organization for commanding all the world’s information—had failed to pinpoint it. This was because the suspicious family head of the Dang Family kept several chambers and designated different ones each night as he pleased.
So Jeok Sa and Dong Pil, now inside the Inner Court, had to find their target by observing the people present and listening to whatever conversations took place.
The best approach would have been to rely on conversation.
But because they’d infiltrated late at night to use darkness as cover, most people would already be asleep—and that was the problem.
As expected, it was quiet. No halls where conversation echoed.
Left with no better option, they decided to check each sleeping figure one by one and find someone matching the description. They split up.
Since they had to search through countless halls within the Inner Court, they divided the area to search simultaneously from opposite ends and save time.
Even this meticulous work of checking the faces of sleeping people in each hall consumed more time than anticipated.
Identifying faces in dark rooms, especially with quilts covering them, was far from simple.
Still pressing ahead, checking hall after hall, it was at just that moment—
“Kyaaaaaaah!”
A woman’s scream, torn from her throat, shattered the silence of the night.
At the sudden cry, both Jeok Sa—who was just entering a hall to check it—and a woman standing at the doorway of that very hall preparing to leave, jumped with equal alarm.
The eyes of the two locked directly.
The woman’s own hand flew to her mouth faster than Jeok Sa could reach to stifle her scream.
At this unexpected turn, the face of the woman Jeok Sa stared at in bewilderment felt familiar.
……!
It was Yi Hwa, the female disciple of the Huashan Faction he’d once met inside Saja Hall.
Realizing that the other person had recognized her as well, Yi Hwa asked.
“What are you doing here? How did you…? Did you come to kidnap me?”
There was no time to answer Yi Hwa’s bewildered question.
If the scream just now had come from Dong Pil’s mistake, he would be in danger.
Sure enough.
Clang-clang-clang-clang-clang.
The clamor of the Emergency Bell erupted from all directions at once.
It meant the Dang Family Estate’s security network was mounting a full response.
True to their reputation, they were remarkably alert even in the dead of night.
In such moments, the best course was to take the woman before him hostage and carve out an escape route.
But……
Seeing Ryu hesitate and falter, Yi Hwa suddenly rose to her feet and drew her blade.
For a moment, it seemed blood would have to be spilled because of his indecision.
But then, unexpectedly, Yi Hwa pressed the blade to her own throat and swiftly threw herself into Ryu’s arms.
In that instant.
The door flew open.
A group of Dang Family warriors poured through.
The scene looked exactly like a hostage situation.
Understanding Yi Hwa’s intent, Ryu seized the blade from her grip and cried out as though threatening her with it.
“Fall back. Or I’ll cut her down without mercy.”
Ryu’s threat worked—the bewildered Dang Family warriors slowly retreated.
Maintaining distance from the withdrawing warriors, Ryu stepped out of the chamber only to find the corridor packed thick with armed Dang Family men.
Among them, a middle-aged man in ornate formal robes pushed through urgently.
“Wait, wait! I’ll give you whatever you want—just don’t harm her!”
“If you don’t approach, I won’t harm her.”
At Ryu’s words, the man in the robes nodded his head vigorously.
“G-good. What… what is it you want?”
“Only that we leave quietly.”
The man in the robes nodded emphatically once more.
“All of you—stand back!”
His authority was evidently considerable; at a single command, the Dang Family warriors fell back a great distance.
Moving through the opened passage, Ryu was able to escape the hall that had so nearly trapped him.
The moment Ryu stepped outside the hall, his breath caught in his throat.
The warriors he’d glimpsed inside paled in comparison to the sheer multitude of Dang Family fighters crowding before him.
So many stood arrayed, their eyes blazing with killing intent, that even a master of the Hwa Realm like Ryu could never hope to slip through alive if he were caught.
And among them, Dong Pil stood locked in a similar standoff, holding a woman hostage as well.
-You alright?
Dong Pil answered Ryu’s transmission.
-Something struck my leg, and now my entire body is moving slower and slower. I can’t even see what’s embedded in me.
Ryu’s eyes narrowed sharply at Dong Pil’s transmission, thick with alarm.
The Dang Family wasn’t renowned only for their Formation Techniques and ingenious mechanisms.
They shared fame with the Baek Ui Ryeon as one of the world’s two great schools of Mystical Poison Arts.
So if Dong Pil’s leg wouldn’t obey him, he’d almost certainly been struck with something coated in poison.
Whatever that poison was, simple escape would no longer suffice.
Once his resolve hardened, Ryu sent a transmission to Yi Hwa, whom he held against him.
-I don’t know why, but since I agreed to help you—help me one more time.
Before Yi Hwa could even comprehend his meaning, Ryu dropped his blade and released her from his grasp.
Even as Yi Hwa turned back in shock, Ryu raised his hands and slowly retreated—and the Dang Family warriors descended on him like a pack of hounds.
***
When the Emergency Bell suddenly wailed from within the Dang Family Estate and the night blazed bright as day, those of the Jeok Sa Jo waiting outside knew something had gone wrong.
Yi Song and Jwa Ryang, tasked with the Blocking Unit’s duties, stood fully prepared—but Ryu and Dong Pil never appeared.
Yi Song shook his head at the anxious look in Jwa Ryang’s eyes.
“Given Ryu’s abilities, he shouldn’t be unable to escape. Let’s wait just a little longer. Just a bit more.”
Both Yi Song and Jwa Ryang knew that Dong Pil might not manage the same, even if Ryu could.
They waited desperately, praying the worst wouldn’t come to pass—but even Ryu failed to appear before the quarter hour elapsed.
Since they’d positioned the Blocking Unit to spot anyone fleeing the Dang Family, they couldn’t even comfort themselves with the thought that he’d escaped in another direction.
The Dang Family warriors now pouring forth were in plain view—they surely would have seen him if he’d gone another way.
“We need to fall back.”
Jwa Ryang followed Yi Song’s word.
Stubbornly lingering would help neither Ryu nor Dong Pil, who might already be captured.
They rushed toward the place where Min Soo and Hee Jun were surely securing a retreat route.
True to Yi Song and Jwa Ryang’s expectations, Min Soo and Hee Jun waited fully prepared.
Thanks to their readiness, Yi Song and Jwa Ryang vanished completely into shadow the moment they arrived.
Before long, the Dang Family’s warriors descended upon the area, combing through the earthen hideaway where Yi Song and the Jeok Sa Jo members lay concealed, then withdrew without finding anything.
Once the commotion subsided, Min Soo lifted the covering slightly to peer out, and only then did the Jeok Sa Jo members emerge from the hideaway, confirming that the Dang Family warriors had gone.
“What’s happened?”
At Min Soo’s question, Yi Song shook his head.
“I don’t know. Something has clearly gone wrong—neither of the two has emerged.”
At Yi Song’s response, Min Soo gazed toward the distant Dang Family Estate and let out a troubled sigh.
“Mm……. Then the two of them are right now…….”
All the Jeok Sa Jo members stared at the Dang Family Estate that Min Soo was looking at, their faces etched with worry.
***
Despite having searched every inch of the Dang Family Estate and the entirety of Seongdo without discovering anyone suspicious, the Dang Family lifted the emergency alert and returned to normal operations.
By the time most of the Dang Family’s warriors had sought their beds, hoping to squeeze in whatever rest remained.
Ryu, having been shown into a guest pavilion, found himself at a loss—the situation was unfolding in a manner entirely different from what he had anticipated.
When the Dang Family warriors first rushed at him and bound him with restraint, he had braced himself for considerable torture; yet Ryu suffered no harm whatsoever.
They had even loosened the restraint that had bound him so tightly he could scarcely move his hands.
And now he had been shown to this pavilion.
Surveying the space slowly, the pavilion consisted of a small sitting room and a single chamber.
The furnishings, bedding, and even decorative pieces adorning both the sitting room and the chamber appeared to be luxury goods of considerable value.
Bewildered as to why he had been brought to such a place, Ryu’s attention was drawn to a man entering the chamber carrying a small liquor table.
Both the aura that flowed from him and the sword at his hip marked him as a warrior, not a servant.
The man set the liquor table before Ryu and withdrew with a respectful bow, then spoke.
“The Family Head said he would come to visit once daylight breaks. He thought you might find the time tedious, and has sent this liquor table for your comfort.”
Even in this unexpected turn of events, there was only one matter of importance to Ryu.
“My companion—he needs treatment!”
“Yes, I’m aware. During the conflict, he was exposed to the Chilhon-dok. He is being treated as we speak.”
“And his life……?”
“The Great Hero’s swift decision meant the treatment began quickly. He will recover.”
The man spoke those words and withdrew.
Ryu had confirmed that Dong Pil had been detoxified, and with only his weapons taken but his internal energy unrestrained, escaping would have been simple enough.
And yet Ryu decided to wait.

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