Chapter 162: Mountain Stronghold (3)
Translator: bjgoofy
I'd hoped the man surely couldn't be the Captain of the Centipede Squad, but as always, the rule that a bad premonition never proves wrong held true once again.
The report of the two warriors who came charging into the cave behind the man made it plainly clear that my hunch was right.
"Captain! The Vice-Captain appears to have been dead for over twenty or thirty days! Judging by the dried skin around her neck stained red, it looks like she took her own life with the Fire Annihilation Poison...."
The warriors' report was clearly referring to the owner of the diary.
Then came the startled shout of another warrior who had cast his eyes around the area.
"Th-the breeding facility, just as I feared! Huh? Intruders?!"
"What bastards dare?"
The two warriors wore startled expressions at the sight of the wide-open breeding pit, then turned to look at us with a cold glint in their eyes.
There was no doubt about it: Hwa-eun and I had become cornered rats.
Only three of them were visible at the moment, but naturally there had to be at least three more among those who'd come back.
[Soryong, what do we do?]
Hwa-eun's tense voice reached my ear.
She had sent a covert Sound Transmission asking what we should do, but with my gaze fixed on the man who appeared to be the Centipede Squad's Captain, I couldn't give her any answer.
Since I couldn't perform Sound Transmission myself, I feared that a whisper or some movement of mine might trigger them into motion,
but I figured that if Cho came back bringing Seol noona, we'd be able to slip out of this crisis one way or another, so I resolved to do everything I could to keep us from being captured before then.
The trip here from the river bandits' water stronghold earlier had taken about half a meal's time, roughly fifteen minutes.
Factoring in the round trip, Cho would arrive if I just held out about a meal's time longer, some thirty minutes, but if we got caught before then, the whole situation would unravel.
Even if Cho came and wiped out all the others, if we were seized and our lives threatened, there was no telling what would happen afterward.
'That so-called Captain is probably around the rank of a Blood Cult elder, isn't he?'
Judging by his composed gaze and the aura he gave off, he seemed to be on the level of the Blood Cult elders I'd encountered before.
Hwa-eun and I probably couldn't do anything against that, but there are no absolutes in a fight.
Snow, Ice, and Dong-i were tucked inside Hwa-eun's skirt, and Hyang and Yeondu were in my arms, so just as I was thinking I'd have to hold out somehow by using them as my trump card, the man looked our way and jerked his chin at the warriors.
"It seems you have no intention of telling me who you are. Bring them to me!"
"Yes, Captain!"
At the command of the man with his arms folded, the two warriors came rushing toward us like the wind.
"Be careful!"
As the two men charged inward, their footsteps echoing off the cave walls, Hwa-eun warned me and dashed forward to meet them.
In the darkness of the cave, guided only by the lantern light glancing off one another's backs, Hwa-eun and the two warriors hurled themselves at each other.
It was the moment when little distance remained between them.
They had charged at one another as if for close combat, but at that moment they reached a range where neither hand nor foot could land, yet they weren't far apart either.
An ambiguous range, but put another way, a range deadly for hidden weapons.
Flying Needles slipped from Hwa-eun's sleeve and shot forward.
-Shwrrrrk.
"F-Flying Needles!"
Caught off guard by the dense swarm of Flying Needles suddenly flying at them, the two men turned pale with shock, but the warriors kicked off against each other's feet and barely managed to cling to the cave walls on either side.
-Tap-tap.
As the warriors clung to the walls, the Bed Bugs came swarming.
-Crunch crunch.
The warriors swiftly flipped their bodies and dropped back down to the floor.
It seemed she'd meant to finish one of them quickly with a vile, no, a covert technique, but the two warriors had dodged it with acrobatic skill.
Hwa-eun clicked her tongue in disappointment.
"Tch...."
And in that moment, the Centipede Squad Captain's voice once again came echoing off the cave walls.
"Flying Needles? You wench, what is your connection to the Tang Family?"
There weren't many sects in the martial world skilled with Flying Needles, so it felt like our identity had been exposed by the needles alone.
There was nothing to discuss; Hwa-eun pressed her lips tightly shut and, with a resolute expression, drew up more Flying Needles between her fingers.
At that, the Centipede Squad Captain let out a soft snicker.
"Heh...."
I wondered what that laugh could mean.
The instant the Captain's smile faded, goosebumps suddenly prickled up my skin.
Killing intent burst from the Captain, spraying out in the direction where Hwa-eun and I stood.
'Heh. Pathetic. Is that what he's saying?'
It was the moment I raised my own energy in answer, so as not to be crushed by the tingling killing intent washing over me.
Enraged by the killing intent aimed at me, Hyang came bursting out from inside my robes.
-Tsrrrr! 『Who's there!』
Demanding to know who dared aim killing intent at her daddy, Hyang rolled her eyes wildly and glared at the Centipede Squad Captain.
'No, Hyang, you're cute and reassuring and all, but you're supposed to be my trump card....'
Hyang was my trump card, yet she'd reacted to the killing intent and revealed herself far too early.
Just as I startled and pushed Hyang's head back down, my name, which I hadn't even given, suddenly slipped from the Captain's lips.
"A Blue-Spotted Centipede? Could it be? Master Soryong?"
'The hell? Why's this guy acting like we're friends?'
I wondered when I'd ever met these Five Poisons Sect people for them to be acting so familiar with me, but I was in a situation where I had to stall until Cho arrived.
For now, I fixed my expression and asked the Centipede Squad Captain in a courteous voice.
"Do you know me?"
At that, the Centipede Squad Captain nodded and gave a Cupped Fist Salute, as though I were his superior.
"First, allow me to introduce myself: Gwon Sam, Captain of the Centipede Squad.
And as for the answer to your question, of course I do. How could I, Gwon Sam, Captain of the Centipede Squad, fail to recognize Master Soryong, the First Poison Lord, no, the owner of the Flying Celestial Centipede, and Young Miss Qingyu's man?"
It was one thing for it to be known that I was the owner of the Flying Celestial Centipede, but now the Centipede Squad Captain was spouting nonsense about my being the goth woman's man.
That woman called Wu Qingyu, it really did seem she'd evolved from goth girl into stalker girl, just like our Bin or Cho had evolved.
"What? Wh-whose man did you say?"
When I asked back, flustered by the Centipede Squad Captain's words, Hwa-eun's expression turned icy.
I was Hwa-eun's, yet ownership of me had been transferred elsewhere without her say, so it was understandable that she'd be angry.
But that was a one-sided claim from their side.
At my question, the Centipede Squad Captain nodded and continued.
"Young Miss Qingyu, I mean. She told me she had clearly given you her real name. Surely you haven't forgotten? Surely it couldn't be so?"
"Ah, Qingyu. That, Wu Qingyu...."
When I answered awkwardly, Hwa-eun stared at me with wide, round eyes.
She was obviously wondering why I remembered the name, but what could I do about the fact that the woman was so insane she'd lodged herself in my memory?
Just as I was thinking I'd have to come up with a good excuse for Hwa-eun later, the Centipede Squad Captain spoke.
"So you do remember after all? What a relief. The Young Miss would nearly have been heartbroken.
Ah, and since Master Soryong is here, then that wench must be the Tang Family's girl. As it happens, Young Miss Qingyu made a request of me, and to meet you both so soon, how fortunate. This works out well."
"A-a request, you say?"
At the words that the goth woman had made some request for my sake, I broke into a cold sweat and asked again.
And no wonder, for it was a request made by an abnormal woman, so it was bound to be abnormal too.
Sure enough, in answer to my question, the Centipede Squad Captain smiled with a chilling expression.
"To seize... no, to escort Master Soryong here, and to put the Tang Family's wench to a shameful death and send her back to the Tang Family."
"Shameful?!"
"Well, a young Master Soryong like you needn't know the details. Heheh. I'd stepped away and come back to find my subordinate had apparently made a grave blunder, which left me flustered, but this has turned out very well indeed.
If I disgrace the Tang Family's wench and escort Master Soryong away, then the effort it took to raise these measly Bed Bugs is nothing...."
As the bastard licked his lips with his tongue and raked his eyes up and down Hwa-eun's body, the two warriors snickered right along with him.
Feeling the three pairs of eyes fixed on her, Hwa-eun seethed with humiliation and rage.
"Y-you scum! Every one of you, please just die!"
From the enraged Hwa-eun's hand, Flying Needles shot out once more, filling the entire cave.
Though not on the level of Grandfather, the Man of Ten Thousand Poisons', Myriad Flower Rain, the Flying Needles filling the passage caught the torchlight and sparkled like stars.
But the Captain flung the torch aside, gave a scornful snort, stepped forward, and swept his hand, and Hwa-eun's needles, unable even to reach their target, flew off and embedded themselves in the cave wall.
The Centipede Squad Captain's triumphant voice rang out.
"Did you really think to take on the great Gwon Sam, Captain of the Centipede Squad, with mere Flying Needles? Haha. Go on, then, struggle a little more. That's what makes it fun."
Unable to contain her fury at the Captain's words, Hwa-eun trembled, and I called her over to my side.
"Hwa-eun, come here."
But Hwa-eun, without responding to my call to come over, kept her eyes fixed ahead and drew vials of poison from her waist.
It was an act fueled by rage, a resolve to kill them even if it meant emptying every poison she had.
In a low voice, I called her name again.
"Hwa. Eun."
At the curt way I called her name, Hwa-eun finally flinched and turned to look at me.
It felt like she'd sensed the change in my mood.
And no wonder, because right at that moment I was very, very angry.
The reason it didn't show was that, just as they say a person who's truly furious can't even let the anger out, that was exactly the state I was in.
My eyes felt like they were rolling back with rage, yet my head, if anything, was growing colder.
My wife was beautiful, so every bug, no, calling them bugs would offend the actual bugs listening in. Every last piece of trash was eyeing her.
Lee Tae had been the same, and every piece of trash who laid eyes on Hwa-eun started drooling, so a proper lesson was absolutely necessary to make sure they'd never covet her again.
So when Hwa-eun, looking tense, backed up to my side, I drew from my robes the mittens woven from Yohwa's silk, the ones made for spreading Hwayang's poison, pulled them on, and spoke to the Centipede Squad Captain.
"Now that I've quietly listened to what you've been saying, it sounds like you'd like to share some Cloud and Rain Pleasure with Hwa-eun, or something to that effect?"
At my question, the Centipede Squad Captain looked momentarily surprised, then broke into a smile.
"I'd assumed someone as young as you wouldn't understand such things, but you're already a grown man, I see?
Then this will go quickly. Hand the wench over and come with us. Young Miss Qingyu will be waiting. She's far better than a wench like that, after all.
And it seems you may be holding out for that Flying Celestial Centipede or the like, but we are the Centipede Squad.
Surely you don't think we of the Centipede Squad have no countermeasure against a Flying Celestial Centipede?"
At that, I smiled and replied.
"Very well."
At that, the Centipede Squad Captain wore a look of surprise, and Hwa-eun looked at me with a startled face.
-Crack!
At the same moment, the box containing the female Bed Bugs shattered under my kick.
I grabbed the five flat, round Bed Bugs that popped out from inside and flung them at the three of them like discs.
At that, the three of them, instead of dodging, swatted them away with their hands.
Three of the Bed Bugs burst apart in midair.
-Thwack. Thwack. Thwack.
The reason they swatted them instead of dodging was that the Bed Bugs had come flying at them like thrown discs.
"What on earth are you doing, Master Soryong?"
The fellow didn't seem to understand why I'd thrown the Bed Bugs, but as you may know, insects communicate through pheromones, and Bed Bugs are no different.
The main pheromone languages Bed Bugs use are fear, assembly, and seduction.
The coriander scent given off by female Bed Bugs is the same as the males', but its effect is entirely different: the coriander scent from the females is a scent that lures the males.
The two still in my hand, I slipped into a mitten, turned it inside out and tied it shut, then tossed it aside, and smiled at them as I spoke.
"Well then, do enjoy yourselves."
When I dropped the torch in my hand to the floor and stamped out the flame, total darkness flooded into the cave.
And from the darkness on their side, the sound of something raining down like hail reached my ears.
-Thud-thud-thud.
Soon after, the three men's screams burst out and reverberated thunderously off the cave walls.
"Gyaaaah!"
"Gyaah!"
"Uwaaaah!"
"Wh-what's happening!? Soryong."
As Hwa-eun, terrified, clung to me in the darkness, I wrapped my arm around her waist and spoke.
"I can never forgive those who insult and covet my woman, so I simply handed them a punishment using the very thing they so love."
"What?"
What did I mean by that?
Bed Bugs are truly bizarre creatures.
Their reproduction in particular is highly unusual: the female Bed Bug has no genitals, and the male Bed Bug can't even tell male from female, or whether another is the same species or not.
As a result, their breeding is carried out in a most violent and grotesque manner: once the female's pheromones are released, the male Bed Bug rams its hook-sharp, enormous genitalia into anything at all and ejaculates.
Stabbing into anything at all and ejaculating, with no regard for female, male, or even species, is precisely how Bed Bugs mate.
The Five Poisons Sect bastards were all piled up together there, so what was I to do?
I had to let them get on with it.
Only this time, the role they played was defense, not offense.
'Farewell.'
The screams of the three Five Poisons Sect bastards echoed endlessly through the cave.
*****
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