Chapter 219 - To Keep This From Happening

Watching Ji Saeng being forced to swallow poison, Great Tiger felt a private sense of relief. There was now one more person in the same predicament as him.

'They're treating a subordinate of Yelü Han, the Unorthodox Alliance's second-in-command, like this?'

It was hard to believe even as he watched. Naturally, that raised the question again: Who on earth were these people?

Geom Mugeuk told Ji Saeng, "Unless you take the antidote every day, your organs will dissolve and you'll die. You'll probably suffer the worst pain a human being can experience. So go ahead and shout if you want."

He released Ji Saeng's mute point. But Ji Saeng's mouth remained shut tight as a clam.

He was so shocked and bewildered that his mind seemed to have gone blank. Like Great Tiger, he could think of only one thing.

'Who on earth are these people to do this to me?'

Then a thought flashed through his mind.

'Wait! Could this be a test of my loyalty?'

Now that he considered it, that seemed possible. They would demand the Alliance's secrets and torture him to test his loyalty.

But then his gaze fell on the cold corpses of his four henchmen.

'They'd sacrifice them just to test me?'

That couldn't be. Then why?

Just then, Geom Mugeuk approached and held out an entirely unexpected box.

"Open it."

Ji Saeng opened the box to find three top-quality night-shining pearls inside. These were the pearls Geom Mugeuk had received for saving the Golden Manor master, his daughter, and his grandson.

Ji Saeng couldn't begin to understand what was happening.

Then Geom Mugeuk said, "Take them to the real Ji Saeng. We know your driver is the real Ji Saeng."

The impostor was too stunned to speak.

"You were going to kill us and steal these, weren't you?"

That was true, but he had never imagined receiving them like this.

"You can simply deliver these as we tell you, or you can hand them over and reveal everything that happened here. It's your choice."

"Why are you doing this?"

Why were they giving him a choice?

"Know this before you decide. You won't find an antidote to the poison you swallowed anywhere else. Only that gentleman has it."

The Poison King was sitting in his original seat, gently fanning himself. He paid no attention to what was happening.

"Oh, one more thing. Think about how your master would react if you told him the truth. Would he really risk coming to negotiate with us to save you? He'd expect to have to return these three pearls and give up other things as well."

Ji Saeng's expression remained rigid throughout. No one knew better than he did what choice the real Ji Saeng would make.

"Die loyal to him, or deliver the pearls and live. I'm not telling you to kill him. Just give him the pearls."

"Aren't you planning to harm my master?"

"Wouldn't that be even better for you? Your superiors would probably put you in his place."

"!"

He would be lying if he said he'd never considered such a possibility. Perhaps because this opportunity had come amid the worst possible circumstances, the suggestion sounded all the more tempting.

"Think it over on your way back."

Geom Mugeuk gave him no time.

'They're letting me live? Giving the pearls to my master? Why?'

In his bewildered state, he couldn't think straight.

Practically driven out of the building, Ji Saeng walked toward the carriage in the courtyard. As always, the real Ji Saeng was sitting on the driver's seat, gazing blankly up at the night sky.

The impostor climbed into the carriage.

"Let's go!"

The carriage set off. The real Ji Saeng wasn't concerned by the absence of the personal henchmen who usually accompanied the impostor. He assumed they had stayed behind to dispose of the Four Iron Sword Tigers' bodies.

His voice arrived by sound transmission.

"How did it go?"

"Everything was taken care of."

Ji Saeng passed the box through the small window leading to the driver's seat.

He knew the real Ji Saeng would never sacrifice his wealth to save him. Even if he served him for a hundred years, that truth would never change.

On the driver's seat, Ji Saeng opened the box of pearls and broke into a radiant smile. His eyes looked ready to be drawn into their depths.

Even now, the impostor was still wondering.

'What are they after?'

They were simply giving away the pearls? Why?

But the moment he said everything had been taken care of, there was no turning back.

Even if he revealed the truth now, he would be killed for having entertained betrayal, however briefly.

Carrying the two Ji Saengs and their opposing feelings, the carriage returned to their residence.

* * *

There were moments when Ji Saeng stopped being a driver and became the real Ji Saeng again.

Meeting Yelü Han was one such occasion. This was another.

In a secret chamber beneath the stable, a space of roughly a dozen pyeong held everything he owned.

A small chair stood in the center of the room, with dozens of top-quality night-shining pearls displayed in cabinets on every side.

They represented the wealth he had accumulated over a lifetime.

Ji Saeng added three more pearls to his collection. His hands were trembling. Having amassed so much wealth, he might have been expected to feel indifferent by now, but he loved this moment.

Each new pearl brought him the exhilaration of being alive. Nothing else gave him this much joy. When he extinguished the lamp and watched the pearls glow in the darkness, he sometimes let out wild cries like a madman.

He had lived ruthlessly for this pleasure. Having to pay Yelü Han meant he had to be even more vicious and cruel. A guilty conscience? He didn't think he'd ever felt one. Whenever anyone mentioned remorse, his first thought was: Who told you to live like such a fucking idiot? If it feels unfair, live the way I do.

He was sinking into that same ecstatic pleasure today when he sensed someone behind him.

Startled, he spun around as fast as lightning. Someone stood at the door—the impostor Ji Saeng.

Only now did the impostor understand.

This was why they had given the pearls to the real Ji Saeng. They had been waiting for him to bring them here, so they could discover the location of this secret vault. But how had they learned he collected night-shining pearls in the first place?

The real Ji Saeng was equally stunned.

No one could have guessed that this secret chamber lay beneath the shabby old stable. Who would ever imagine treasure hidden in such a place?

Besides, the door opened only after the concealed mechanisms installed throughout the stable were operated in the correct sequence.

Of course, he had checked and rechecked his surroundings before entering. There had definitely been no one there. The impostor wasn't skilled enough to approach so closely without being noticed. And unless someone's night vision was as keen as an animal's, even watching him wouldn't have revealed what he was doing.

'Damn it! Fuck!'

Self-reproach swept over him. So many uneventful years had made him careless without his even realizing it.

In any case, one thing was certain.

Betrayal!

If the impostor had spent years preparing to steal his wealth, perhaps he could have found a way into this secret place.

Rather than ask how he had entered or why he had come—

WHOOSH!

A dagger flew from Ji Saeng's hand in a surprise attack. He was a master of throwing daggers. Not having to wear a sword or saber had made posing as a driver all the easier.

The dagger aimed at the impostor's throat stopped in midair.

Someone had reached out from behind him and caught it. It was Geom Mugeuk.

Rage welled up inside the impostor.

He had served this man faithfully for over a decade, yet he tried to kill him without a single question. He should at least have asked why he had betrayed him before killing him.

Geom Mugeuk emerged from behind the impostor, followed by Seo Daeryong and Great Tiger.

"You bastards deserve to die!"

Seeing Great Tiger, Ji Saeng mistook the newcomers for the Four Iron Sword Tigers. Under the circumstances, it was only natural. He believed the impostor had conspired with them to steal his wealth.

WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH!

More daggers flew from his hands.

But every one of those daggers, which had always struck its mark, was caught in Geom Mugeuk's hands.

Ji Saeng was appalled. This wasn't an attack the likes of the Four Iron Sword Tigers could stop.

Geom Mugeuk gave him no chance to throw another dagger. Closing in with the Underworld King's Step, he sealed Ji Saeng's paralysis points. His body froze in a flash, and terror engulfed him as he looked at Geom Mugeuk, suddenly standing before his eyes.

"You're not the Four Iron Sword Tigers!"

"Of course not. How could the likes of them possibly take you on?"

Geom Mugeuk walked past him to inspect the display cabinets behind him.

"You've collected quite a lot."

"Who are you? I asked who you are!"

When Geom Mugeuk didn't answer, his fury turned on the impostor.

"You fucking idiot! You imbecile!"

The impostor shouted back.

"I served you like a faithful dog for fifteen years! And you throw a dagger without even asking why? You should have asked first! Asked whether I'd been threatened and dragged here, you... you son of a bitch!"

Their usually excellent relationship shattered in an instant. The master's dignity and composure vanished as well.

"Because you have no business being here!"

"Why not? This filthy fortune was amassed by stealing, cheating, and killing! Why the hell can't I come here?"

"Did I do those things? You did all of them."

"How can you even say that!"

The veins stood out in their necks as they shouted.

"You pathetic fool. Do you think they'll let you live?"

"I'm going to take your place."

"Do you think the Alliance is that gullible? These people won't let you live, but even if you survive, the Alliance won't spare you. Once I'm dead, why leave you around to keep running things with all the doubts hanging over you? They can wipe the slate clean and start again. Just as we were going to rebuild Immortal Debt."

The impostor could find no reply. Ji Saeng had dragged out the fear he'd buried deep in his heart and tried to ignore.

"So I'm being devoured in the end. I was so careful to keep this from happening."

At Ji Saeng's lament, Geom Mugeuk stepped in.

"If you were truly afraid, you should have curbed your greed instead of becoming more cautious."

He sent out a succession of finger force strikes, sealing the paralysis points and mute points of the impostor and Great Tiger as well. It meant they were all to shut up and listen from now on.

"Here's what's going to happen here today. You hired the Four Iron Sword Tigers for Immortal Debt. But they betrayed you. They'd been after your wealth from the start."

Geom Mugeuk looked from Ji Saeng to Great Tiger.

"Of course, there's a difference in your martial skills. But this can solve that problem."

He opened a small vial directly beneath Ji Saeng's nose.

HISSSS.

The vapor emerging from the vial was forced into Ji Saeng's nostrils.

"You've been poisoned with Paralysis Powder. You know it, don't you? Your unorthodox factions use it all the time. It also leaves traces in the body for an autopsy to find. Poisoned, you stagger and fall."

Geom Mugeuk moved the immobilized man like a puppet.

"Then Great Tiger stabs you in the back."

Seo Daeryong likewise manipulated Great Tiger's body. He placed a sword in his hand and moved him, driving Great Tiger's sword into Ji Saeng's back.

Pain twisted Ji Saeng's face, but with his mute point sealed, he couldn't even scream.

"You've been poisoned and stabbed, but you're not one to take it lying down. You fight back by throwing a dagger."

This time, Geom Mugeuk took a dagger from inside Ji Saeng's clothes and threw it.

It buried itself squarely in Great Tiger's heart. He died instantly and collapsed.

"You manage to kill Great Tiger, but the wound in your back is fatal. In the end, you collapse here and die, watching someone steal the wealth you've spent your whole life amassing."

Seo Daeryong actually began packing all the pearls into the sack he had brought.

"You'd hate that even more than dying, wouldn't you?"

Ji Saeng's eyes were bloodshot. He struggled to shake his head, pleading with them to stop.

"This is how you robbed everyone else."

This wouldn't appease the resentment of the countless young people who had suffered because of Immortal Debt, but Geom Mugeuk intended to inflict as much anguish as he could.

"Yelü Han will send people to investigate your death. Eventually, they'll identify the Four Iron Sword Tigers as the killers. Your subordinates will testify that you intended to hire them, and we'll leave Great Tiger's body here."

Ji Saeng looked as though he had much to say, but Geom Mugeuk didn't release his mute point.

"We're taking everything you spent your life collecting. We'll put it to good use for you! Thanks!"

Ji Saeng trembled all over. As he died, he was filled with nothing but rage and a sense of injustice. Geom Mugeuk wanted him to die that way.

Now Geom Mugeuk turned his gaze to the impostor, whose eyes promised he would never reveal what had happened today.

His face was full of hope that he might live and anticipation that he might become the real Ji Saeng.

But Geom Mugeuk shattered those expectations.

"There's one problem with this plan, though. The Unorthodox Alliance won't believe Ji Saeng fell to the likes of the Four Iron Sword Tigers. So we need a plausible mastermind. Someone who knew his identity, could poison him with Paralysis Powder, and could find his secret vault. What do you think, his right-hand man of fifteen years?"

Bewilderment and rage rose in the impostor's face. But the words that followed plunged him into even greater despair.

"Yes, that's right. You'll be the one who fled with these pearls. And they'll never find you."

Geom Mugeuk's fist slammed into his chest, shattering his insides and killing him with a single blow. He had never intended to spare a man responsible for so many atrocities. The impostor would be buried somewhere he could never be found.

The dying Ji Saeng smiled at the impostor's corpse, his expression saying it served him right. His laughter, with blood spilling from his mouth, was grotesque. But he was never destined to die laughing.

Seo Daeryong, who had finished collecting the pearls and was waiting off to one side, gave an affected sigh.

"Is this always how a right-hand man ends up?"

"My right-hand man is clever. I doubt he'd let this happen to him."

"If you keep saying things that make me feel so good, how am I supposed to quit this perilous job?"

"That's how they all get caught—falling for that sort of talk."

After their banter, Seo Daeryong approached the dying Ji Saeng.

"But why do you keep looking over there? When you've already got your hands full dying?"

Ji Saeng was suddenly flustered. Blood gushed from his mouth.

"Now that's really suspicious."

An ordinary glance wouldn't have made Seo Daeryong think twice. But Ji Saeng had been looking at the wall with such intense regret, and it happened to catch his eye.

Geom Mugeuk and Seo Daeryong exchanged a nod, then began examining the wall.

As Geom Mugeuk slowly inspected it, his fingertips caught on something.

CLICK!

A crisp metallic sound rang out.

Ji Saeng sank into despair as though the sky had collapsed. It was even worse than when they had taken his pearls.

With his mute point sealed, no words came out, but his lips were forming them.

'Not that. Anything but that.'

WHIRRRR.

The floor in front of the wall opened, and something began to rise.