Fainted Blood Person.
Then, the Iron Blood Rat, staring at me blankly.
What should I do in this situation?
It’s true that I need to extract information from the fainted Blood Person, but if I wake him up recklessly, I can’t imagine what sort of chemical reaction might occur with that Iron Blood Rat.
Squeak!
I don’t even know why that guy isn’t attacking me.
I have a suspicion it’s related to my maternal family’s bloodline…
Anyway, unless I deal with that Iron Blood Rat, I can’t do anything, so I decided to approach it.
Having already smashed the Blood Person, it’s ridiculous to be scared and not move now.
Life sure has its fair share of odd experiences.
I never thought I would need to communicate with the enemy’s spirit.
The Iron Blood Rat wasn’t backing off this time, unlike before when it seemed to notice I had something to discuss.
We might not communicate verbally, but I guess it’s deciphering my intentions through action.
I slowly stepped closer and touched its fur. The hair, thick as my finger, was as hard as steel, just as I expected. I carefully watched its reaction, but it didn’t seem to like or dislike it.
Was I thinking too simplistically?
It’s not a pet, so expecting it to be happy just because I’m petting it might have been an overestimation.
Squeak?
The creature stared at me intensely, wearing an expression that conveyed it had no idea what my intentions were.
“Hmm.”
Where exactly do I need to touch a rat for it to show favor? And do rats even enjoy being touched in the first place?
As I was aimlessly petting it, it just sat down, curled up, and started resting.
Right, I can save the spirit communication diary for later, but first, it’s about the Blood Person.
I drew the sword I had enchanted to calm the Iron Blood Rat, feeling its gaze on me.
Swish!
The sword stopped right before slicing the Blood Person’s neck. Even though I swung it, the Iron Blood Rat showed no reaction.
Hmm.
With this much, maybe I can move around without worry.
Tap. Tap!
I touched the Blood Person’s blood to wake him up.
“Ugh… Ummm!”
“Are you coming to your senses?”
“Ugh..! You brat!”
“You still can’t snap out of it.”
“Shut up..! I’ll kill you!”
“Get your wits about you.”
I put on a demeanor of disappointment as if I were a superior disappointed at a junior’s antics.
“Fool. Do you still not grasp what it means that the Iron Blood Rat is not attacking me?”
“What… No way!”
His eyes went wide.
“Did you just realize that?”
“Bullshit! Then why did it attack me?”
“Did you think I’d overlook that foolishness? Idiot.”
I pressed down on his injury with a cold gaze.
“Aah, aaah!!”
The Blood Person’s scream caught the Iron Blood Rat’s attention for a moment, but upon confirming my face, it lowered its ears once more. The hope that had been in the Blood Person’s eyes wavered drastically.
“Still not comprehending the situation?”
Grrr.
“Aah! I-I’m sorry!!”
“Tsk. I heard there was a ruckus in the Shengsu Faction, so I came to check… only to find you making a fool of yourself?”
“P-Please forgive me!”
The Blood Person begged for mercy, his face clouded with confusion. My behavior right now was utterly nonsensical. If I’m a senior from the Blood Sect, then why would I knock out a Blood Person and confuse him?
Yet, no matter how nonsensical my actions were, I had to trust the Blood Person.
Right in front of me was undeniable proof that the Iron Blood Rat wasn’t hostile towards me, how could I just ignore that?
“I was passing by on another task when I heard about this ruckus and came urgently. How have you handled things to cause such unprecedented chaos?”
“I’m sorry…! I didn’t expect a person named Moyong Mo, being a member of the faction, to openly rebel against it!”
For now, it seems he has no idea about my identity.
“That excuse doesn’t matter. Just tell me what happened.”
“Well…”
He began to trail off at the end of his sentence. It seems my identity was still a lingering suspicion for him.
The more I was caught off guard, the more shameless my expression became as I stared at him.
Ultimately, it was the Blood Person who lowered his tail in this battle of will.
“Moyong Jin-gyeong is nearly complete with the Great Method. However, the completion rate of the other three is only about 50-60%.”
“That’s underwhelming.”
As I said coldly, he quickly added,
“I-I did my utmost! We didn’t spare any of the Iron Blood Rat’s blood, yet the three couldn’t achieve satisfactory results! Perhaps there’s a personal aptitude for the Great Method!”
What on earth?
You injected the essence of the spirit’s blood?
Did you extract the Qi flowing in the spirit’s blood and inject it into the four people?
It was an unbelievable bizarre act, but if that were the case, it would explain why the Iron Blood Rat was here.
“What are the external results?”
“Eh?”
“Tsk. I mean how much stronger have the Master of the Faction and the Seniors become?”
“Ah! Yes! Setting aside the progress of the Great Method, I have taught them Blood Explosion and Martial Arts Method. Having received a blood transfusion from the spirit, their internal power has increased significantly, making them much stronger than before.”
So, it’s true that they actually became stronger. The Master of the Faction, Moyong Jin-gyeong, is an expert, and the Seniors are peak stage experts as well. Those skilled fighters have now received something unusual from the Blood Sect and their combat power has increased.
Could Moyong Mo and I subdue Moyong Jin-gyeong?
Hyeok Gi-rin is also an expert, but I wanted to avoid having Hyeok Gi-rin stand in front of Moyong Mo as much as possible.
At least I know him, while I wouldn’t be able to gauge the mysterious female expert’s true identity at all.
If I’m not careful, Hyeok Gi-rin’s real identity might be exposed.
I needn’t worry about peak stage combat power; there’s enough of it. Both my companions and Moyong Yeon-hwa, as well as Moyong Mo himself, can be mobilized.
To get a more detailed estimate, I needed more information.
Particularly, I needed to find out the details about that Great Method, which reeked of danger.
To do that, I first needed to ease the Iron Blood Rat’s suspicions.
Indeed, this is where compliments are necessary.
“Though it fell short of expectations, it’s still an achievement. I can make use of it.”
Upon my positive affirmations, the Blood Person’s eyes widened in surprise.
“Even though I wasn’t pleased with your antics today, it’s not logical to suddenly replace personnel in this situation… tsk. You got lucky.”
The glimmer of hope was very evident in the Blood Person’s demeanor.
“If this goes well and the technique spreads throughout the Central Plains, you might just get recognized for your contributions.”
“Eh? I was told this was merely part of the experimentation…”
Our eyes met.
Oops. Did I go too far?
While throwing around empty compliments, it appeared I had contradicted some information he had.
Still, I pressed on with a nonchalant facade.
“…The higher-ups are considering a widespread implementation.”
His eyes narrowed suspiciously.
“No way can there be another like the Iron Blood Rat.”
“The Blood Sect’s strength is beyond your reckoning.”
“If so, could you please tell me the name of this Great Method that was implemented?”
“I haven’t heard it.”
…The suspicion etched into his face deepened sharply.
“If you’re my superior, you must know the name of the initial technique I displayed. Would you kindly tell me?”
“Mountain Soul Iron Binding!”
His face twisted in an instant.
“You! You liar!!”
“Sorry.”
“You bastard! You’re a scoundrel!”
Despite his broken shoulder, he was shaking with enough rage to drive him completely insane.
I calmly tried to reason with him.
“Friend, think calmly. Now that you’ve spilled the secret and become a traitor, why not tell me what the Great Method is? Then I can give you the best leniency possible. Depending on the information, I might offer various benefits.”
“Shut up! You son of a bitch!”
Unfortunately, my kind offer was kicked away by him.
Well, it couldn’t be helped.
It seemed I needed to cool his head before continuing our conversation. I pressed my palm onto the mixed blood of his broken shoulder.
Swoosh!
But instead of the sound of his head hitting the ground, I heard a sharp slicing sound.
Instinctively, I recoiled, narrowly dodging the Blood Spike that flew over my head.
I hadn’t expected him to unleash a Blood Spike with his broken right shoulder, so I barely managed to avoid it.
As I distanced myself and drew my sword, he rose up like a zombie.
“I’ll kill… you… I’ll kill… you!”
Blood trickled from his mouth and tears of blood streamed from his eyes, unmistakably a sign of using an irreversible forbidden technique.
He swung his broken right arm without any restraint, so I was sure to maintain my distance.
The so-called Mountain Soul Iron Bindings whipped around erratically, which was quite tricky to handle, but no matter how much blood he used, the further the distance, the weaker its impact became. As I kept retreating, I found it wasn’t too difficult to dodge.
“Graaah!!”
He unleashed the Mountain Soul Iron Bindings with even more intensity, but unfortunately for him, his broken right arm wasn’t moving as deftly as he projected. Ignoring the pain with some special technique doesn’t heal broken bones.
I could sense the Blood Person’s momentum dwindling.
Phew!
Was that his last gasp?
He lunged at me and spat out blood. Was the medium for infusing his power not his hands but rather his blood? So, could he infuse his strong energy into the blood that was spat out?
In the form of shotgun-like splatters, the blood shot out.
For the first time, I realized I couldn’t dodge and raised my hands to cloak my body with protection Qi.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The impact from the blood splatters on my upper body was quite strong.
I involuntarily let out a groan.
If several more attacks came afterward, I might have faced a dangerously precarious situation.
“Graah… I… die…”
The Blood Person muttered just before collapsing.
No longer could I feel any Qi from the fallen Blood Person.
I cautiously approached to check his pulse, and he stopped breathing.
“Phew…”
I sighed and looked down at the Blood Person’s corpse.
I lost my lead.
If I could have kept him alive, I could have gathered information about this situation and even about my maternal grandfather.
I shook my head to rid myself of lingering regrets.
Having such a means to burst out like that while repelling the Blood Drawing Technique wouldn’t let me keep him for long.
I wondered if there might be any response from the Iron Blood Rat and turned to look, but it had lowered its head and curled up again after the commotion ended.
Earlier, the Blood Person mentioned having used the Iron Blood Rat’s blood repeatedly.
Perhaps the Iron Blood Rat had lost all attachment due to being drained for such a long time.
Knowing it had been repeatedly drained, I felt as if it had no energy left.
“Hmm…”
How should I deal with this?
Moyong Jin-gyeong and the three Seniors have learned the Blood Sect’s martial arts. The Blood Sect was already an organization pointed out as a martial world legend back in the day, so simply revealing that would immediately dismantle the Shengsu Faction…
But thinking about my actual goal, such a situation wouldn’t be beneficial at all.
My original purpose for diving into this matter was to leverage the name of the Moyong Clan. But if it became known throughout the Central Plains that the Shengsu Faction had learned the Blood Sect’s martial arts, it would be plain as day that the status of the Moyong Clan would plummet like a stock about to be de-listed.
In such a case, if the Moyong Clan declares they support me, the losses could far outweigh the gains.
This is not something I can decide alone.
I decided to tidy up the scene for now. I can’t clean it up perfectly, but since this is the dwelling of the Iron Blood Rat, it’s filled with traces that don’t make sense according to ordinary logic, so I thought I could cover it up to some extent.
It’s much better for the traces of the Iron Blood Rat and the Blood Person to disappear than to leave them behind.
Squeak?
As I nudged my behind, the Iron Blood Rat lifted its head as if it found it bothersome and wiggled its tail. Yet, it seemed to understand my intent as it got up rather promptly. I lightly tapped its backside and indicated the direction with my hand, and it started moving along.
Heading toward the exit, which I presumed was on the opposite side of my entrance.
Although a missing Ho Cheon-an incident would occur, there was no other way. I couldn’t leave the Iron Blood Rat here, and there was no way I could return to the faction dressed in blood-soaked clothing.
I would just have to say I was trying to sneak out to see Moyong Yeon-hwa at work.
With the Iron Blood Rat in front and carrying a corpse on my shoulder, it was quite a peculiar situation indeed.
I began to move toward the exit, which I assumed would be deserted.
