IBGVMW~10

~CHAPTER 10~

“…Junior Sister, do you think I’m some kind of sorcerer? That I can stare at a corpse and magically figure out every single thing that happened between the dead?”

He wasn’t wrong — but the way he said it made her want to punch him.

As always, Yeong-ho was useless.

Woo-hee glared at him with eyes sharp as blades, and he sighed in resignation.

“These men weren’t professional assassins, Junior Sister. And they didn’t even bother to hide their identities halfway through. They probably intended to perform salin-myeolgu on just this one person — kill the target and erase all traces — but instead, they ended up salin-myeolgu-ed themselves, Junior Sister. Who could’ve predicted that, out here in the mountains, they’d run into something more unfortunate than a hundred-year-old bear or tiger, Junior Sister?”

Yeong-ho added Junior Sister to the end of every sentence with that hollow, mocking tone — like he was teasing her for being a walking natural disaster worse than any ancient beast.

Woo-hee snorted, brushing off his pettiness.

“So, what are they then? You already know, don’t you? You felt it right away, didn’t you?”

“If you want to sharpen your perception, you should try deducing things on your own—”

“Oh, come on! I literally left home for the first time in my life. You have to tell me what it is first so I can remember and use it next time!”

Surprisingly, that was… a pretty reasonable point.

“Ah, well. I suppose that makes sense.”

To her surprise, Yeong-ho nodded and began to explain quite earnestly.

“As you can see, these sword wounds reveal the nature of their sword forms. In this case… among their rough, bandit-like quick sword styles, there’s a surprisingly delicate touch. The patterns are structured, yet contain irregular shifts. The techniques used are similar but with differing variations. There’s a mix of real strikes and feints. Perhaps one of them hesitated at the final moment, but I can’t be certain.”

Every single word was useless.

“I didn’t ask you to analyze the wounds, you idiot! You saw their sword forms when we fought earlier, didn’t you?!”

“Hmm. Telling you that directly would feel a little too generous.”

“Fine. Then for every hit I land on you, you give me one clue.”

“Moyong Clan.”

A short silence fell.

“Are you kidding me?!”

Her shriek shattered the air.

Even if Woo-hee was ignorant of Central Plains politics, she still knew what kind of power the Moyong Clan wielded.

She might have been aiming to become the greatest villain under heaven, but dragging the Moyong name behind her would be nothing but a headache.

“How rude of you, shouting like that at your senior brother. Where did you even learn such language?”

Yeong-ho’s dry sarcasm flew at her just as her mood plummeted.

“From your precious Senior Sister. Got a problem with that?”

The word Senior Sister — sajeo — made Yeong-ho flinch immediately. There were people in their sect whom he absolutely did not want to be entangled with, and that woman was one of them.

“I… wasn’t criticizing, merely admiring your impressive use of profanity.”

The compliment came out meek and pitiful. He had no intention of picking a fight that would turn his life into a field of thorns.

“Damn it. Even I think the Moyong Clan might be a bit much…”

“I don’t really want to know, but since we’re probably going to get dragged into this together, I’ll ask. What exactly about the Moyong Clan is the problem?”

“Can I take down the Moyong Clan by myself?”

Woo-hee blinked innocently, her tone light — as if she were asking whether she could finish a meal alone.

Yeong-ho almost cursed out loud. Watching her was like watching someone gleefully shove his life straight into a dung pit.

“Take… them down? You mean, you’re planning to wipe them out alone?”

He was trying to make it sound like it was her personal business so he could stay out of it, but his voice cracked halfway through.

“If they were going to do salin-myeolgu and I picked up their target, doesn’t that make me part of it? Besides, we already salin-myeolgu-ed them, didn’t we? We’re already neck-deep in this! No escape now!”

No. No, she was completely wrong.

Turning an opponent’s salin-myeolgu back on them with murder was perfectly acceptable by martial world standards. There were no grudges, no debts — only power.

Even the righteous sects wouldn’t draw their swords first and then complain after losing. That would be too humiliating.

So in reality, there was only one problem left.

“You’re seriously planning to take that thing with you?”

Yeong-ho stared at the half-dead body lying nearby. He had no idea what she intended to do with it — and frankly, he was afraid to ask.

Woo-hee, biased as she was against orthodox sects, hadn’t helped out of kindness. She’d just wanted a good fight.

Now that it was over, she should’ve just left. But instead, she crouched down beside the nearly lifeless man, her fingers pressing and prodding.

The body didn’t move, but it wasn’t gone yet. The soul hadn’t crossed the River of the Dead.

That was enough for her.

“Alright. Decision made.”

She said it lightly, as though she’d just decided what to eat for lunch.

Yeong-ho’s expression darkened with despair. Woo-hee poked the fallen man again, then quickly pressed his pressure points to stop the bleeding.

“He’s even bigger up close.”

Without hesitation, she hoisted the man — who was two heads taller and twice her size — up into her arms. Literally picked him up.

“My rational mind can’t comprehend why you’d carry around the root of all evil,” Yeong-ho muttered, voice drained.

If they traveled with someone hunted by the Moyong Clan, they’d be hunted too. It was idiotic — even worse than killing the Moyong men to begin with.

“Look at him! He was being hunted by the righteous sects and the Five Great Clans. That makes him our kind. Black paths should help black paths!”

“No, no. I’m pretty sure the rule is: stab your fellow black-path, loot him, and leave him for dead.”

“Wrong. My rules are whatever I say they are.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Yeong-ho wisely decided to stop talking.

At this point, he wasn’t even sure she was human anymore.