By Zephyria I need to get out of here. (5)
“Of course, I know I’m not qualified… but it would be even better if you could have a drink with me and listen to what I have to say.”
Drizzle.
A clear liquid filled Baek Ryeo-il’s glass. His eyes, shining like those of an innocent child, were fixed on the glass. His cheeks were flushed, and the muscles around his mouth relaxed. It was clear that he was struggling internally.
Seong Mu-yeon watched Baek Ryeo-il, who seemed almost ready to fall for it, and clicked his tongue inwardly.
‘I don’t understand it at all.’
He had never enjoyed drinking. It always just gave him a headache and made him miserable.
But for Baek Ryeo-il, it was the perfect bait, so the world was truly a strange place.
Baek Ryeo-il suddenly hardened his face and stared quietly at Seong Mu-yeon.
“You didn’t do anything funny with the alcohol, did you? If you thought I was someone who would fall for a cheap trick, you’re mistaken.”
“Of course not! How dare I do such a thing? Here, have a drink.”
Seong Mu-yeon pushed the glass forward. Of course, Baek Ryeo-il was not the kind of person to just accept a drink from a stranger without any precautions. It was something he had prepared for, taking that into account.
“Cough, cough! Since you, cough, say so much, shall I try a taste?”
Baek Ryeo-il lifted the glass with a trembling hand.
He put his nose to the rim of the glass and took a deep breath. After savoring the aroma sufficiently, he carefully took a sip.
Then Baek Ryeo-il’s eyes widened.
His face brightened, and he squeezed his eyes shut before tilting the glass back in one gulp. His Adam’s apple bobbed up and down cheerfully.
Baek Ryeo-il, who had emptied the glass in one breath without even breathing, was dazed, as if his soul had left his body.
“How is it?”
When Seong Mu-yeon asked, Baek Ryeo-il finally came to his senses and solemnly held out his glass.
“One glass isn’t enough to tell. Pour me another.”
“Yes!”
Drip, drip, drip.
A sinister smile spread across Seong Mu-yeon’s face as he filled the glass.
‘The effect is amazing.’
But it was too early to relax.
In the story, some villains had noticed his weakness and prepared good liquor to ensure their survival.
Baek Ryeo-il had smiled then, too, as if his heart was completely melted by the good liquor, and they had been relieved, thinking they had saved their lives.
But when the liquor ran out, Baek Ryeo-il had smiled kindly and said, -Since you did a good deed at the end, you’ll go to a good place… well, not a good place, but a less bad place.
Then he sent them to the afterlife without pain.
‘Going quickly without pain isn’t bad, but I want to live!’
In any case, Baek Ryeo-il was never one to let his guard down. As proof, Il-gwang was still pinned under Baek Ryeo-il’s heavy foot, unable to even groan.
“Kuh!”
Baek Ryeo-il had just emptied his third glass.
“Please have some snacks as well.”
“Tsk! Snacks! They ruin the taste of the liquor!”
Seong Mu-yeon smiled warmly.
“If you like it that much, why don’t you drink it straight from the bottle? How can you properly savor it by drinking one glass at a time?”
“Should I?”
Baek Ryeo-il grabbed the bottle and started chugging as if he had been waiting for it.
Glug, glug, glug.
His Adam’s apple moved excitedly. It was so cheerful that it was exhilarating to watch.
In the meantime, Seong Mu-yeon exchanged glances with Il-gwang.
‘Just a little more.’
Glug, glug.
‘He has to empty the whole bottle. Only then…’
Glug, glug.
“Kya!”
Finally, Baek Ryeo-il emptied the liquor completely.
It was then.
“Il-gwang!”
At Seong Mu-yeon’s shout, Il-gwang fiercely flipped his body and stood up.
“Huh? This guy? How dare you resist…? Ugh?”
Baek Ryeo-il, who was trying to push Il-gwang down again, stared blankly at his own palm. He tilted his head left and right repeatedly, looking foolish.
“I’m sorry, Master Baek.”
Seong Mu-yeon straightened his clothes and calmly rose from his chair.
Il-gwang stood in front of him protectively, and before he knew it, the Black Shadow Unit had surrounded them.
Seong Mu-yeon grinned.
“I can’t die yet, you see.”
“…What did you put in the liquor?”
“Mount Junzi.”
It was a type of poison, but not a drug that killed or harmed people. It was simply a drug that temporarily suppressed the inner force of the user. After some time, it would return to normal without any aftereffects.
Seong Mu-yeon had fed Baek Ryeo-il Hundred Flower Dew laced with Mount Junzi.
“Poison shouldn’t work on me.”
Baek Ryeo-il rummaged through his pockets and took out a small bead. It was a poison-repelling pearl. It was a precious artifact that prevented most poisons from affecting the person who possessed it. The reason Baek Ryeo-il had confidently downed the Hundred Flower Dew in one gulp was thanks to this poison-repelling pearl.
Seong Mu-yeon nodded.
“‘Most’ poisons won’t work, that’s true. But this Mount Junzi is a special drug.”
It was a rare drug specially manufactured by the Demonic Cult, designed to work unless the opponent had reached a state of complete immunity to all poisons.
A colorless, odorless, and extremely potent poison.
He would never know how much the weak Seong Mu-yeon had suffered to obtain this drug.
“You bastard… you must be dying to die.”
Baek Ryeo-il’s face was stained with anger. But he knew very well that he could not defeat Il-gwang and the Black Shadow Unit in his current state, with his inner force suppressed, so he did not rush in recklessly.
“I’ll say it again, I did this because I want to live. I didn’t know how much of the drug to use on someone like Master Baek, so I just threw in as much as I could. So the effects might last quite a while, but I believe someone like Master Baek will be fine.”
Il-gwang supported Seong Mu-yeon’s body and held him.
“Then I hope we never meet again until you die! Goodbye!”
Seong Mu-yeon, Il-gwang, and the Black Shadow Unit jumped out of the window one after another. They glided gracefully against the backdrop of the setting sun over the lake.
“Heh…”
Baek Ryeo-il could only watch them escape with a hollow laugh.
He could not use his inner force, so even if he jumped from this height, he would not be able to catch them. Moreover, he would not die, but he might break a bone or two.
Seong Mu-yeon’s figure grew smaller and smaller, like a dot.
“Hahahaha!”
He thought he could hear a strange laughter.
Crack.
The Hundred Flower Dew bottle shattered, unable to withstand the strength of Baek Ryeo-il’s grip. After briefly controlling his anger, an even thicker smile hung on his lips than before.
“…I’ve been had.”
Seong Mu-yeon and Il-gwang led the Black Shadow Unit and ran for three days without rest.
As they passed through the foothills of a mountain, Seong Mu-yeon was almost dead. He, at least, was not in a healthy enough condition to endure such a forced march.
When Seong Mu-yeon’s coughing did not stop and he even started coughing up blood, Il-gwang had no choice but to stop.
“…I’m going to die.”
Seong Mu-yeon collapsed near a tree root and ate a little of the water and jerky that Il-gwang gave him.
“Why did you do that!”
Il-gwang, who had been focusing all his attention on getting as far away from Baek Ryeo-il as possible, finally exploded in anger.
“You should have been careful! How could you approach a stranger so carelessly! You almost died!”
“I would have died anyway.”
“Yes?”
“Because he already knew. That I was there. How did he know? Did someone leak the information? No one should have known. And why did it have to be Baek Ryeo-il of all people?”
Seong Mu-yeon tore at his hair. His head was a mess.
“He must be angry, right? He must want to kill me, right? He won’t let it go, right? He’ll chase me to the end, right?”
“…Let’s go back to the Demonic Cult now.”
“No, that’s even more dangerous.”
To return to Xinjiang from here, they would have to run northwest. That meant going back the way they came.
To avoid Baek Ryeo-il, who would be tracking them, they could take a roundabout route. But either way, they would converge on one road, and Baek Ryeo-il would be waiting there.
If the Demonic Cult’s base was located in the middle of the Central Plains, it would have been more difficult to locate and therefore safer. But Xinjiang was located at the northwestern tip. Unless they went through another country, they would not be able to return without passing through Baek Ryeo-il.
“The key is how long it will take him to detoxify all of the Mount Junzi.”
“It was the amount he would have been exposed to for thirty days from an expert.”
“…It will take quite a while, then.”
Seong Mu-yeon nodded, gasping for breath. Sweat poured down like rain.
“But I’m still uneasy. He might have recovered his inner force by now and be chasing after us.”
Even as he said it himself, he was so nervous that he kept stealing glances in the direction they had come from.
Everyone in the Central Plains knew how monstrous Baek Ryeo-il of Mount Hua was. His martial prowess, inner force, and recovery ability were all extraordinary. So much so that the martial arts tournament held after his birth was said to begin with Baek Ryeo-il’s name already engraved on the winner’s spot.
“Black Shadow Unit.”
At Seong Mu-yeon’s call, the shadows invariably appeared from the darkness.
“And Il-gwang.”
“Yes.”
Il-gwang bowed his head.
“You guys go back to the Demonic Cult.”
“Young master! What are you saying! How can we leave you behind…! What about you, Young master!”
Seong Mu-yeon shook his head.
“I’m not saying this for your sake. You’ll have to become bait. For me.”
“…I see.”
“You followed me because you were prepared to do that much, right?”
“Of course.”
Il-gwang bowed his head obediently. The Black Shadow Unit did the same. They all paid their respects to him.