Chapter 220 - You Have to Do It Your Way

What rose from the floor was a pedestal. On it sat a shallow box lined with green cloth.

Seo Daeryong and I exclaimed at the same time at the dazzling object resting in the box.

It was a night-shining pearl. But it was unlike any of the pearls we had collected so far. It was larger than even the finest-quality pearls and shone with a more magnificent light.

"An ultimate-grade night-shining pearl!"

This was the finest night-shining pearl of all, known as the king of night-shining pearls.

Seeing something that had existed only in rumors, Seo Daeryong's eyes widened in wonder.

"So it really does exist!"

Just then, a groan came from the floor. Ji Saeng's eyes were bloodshot. The shock was so great that he was on the verge of madness. All the other night-shining pearls combined could not buy this one. Not because it shone that much brighter, but because it was the only one of its kind.

I watched his suffering without emotion.

He had not suffered enough yet. He was paying for his crimes, but his victims had been struck by disaster in the midst of perfectly good lives. If he had made hundreds, thousands of lives miserable, he deserved at least this much pain.

For him, dying outright would have been a blessing, but even the last flicker of life before death had come upon him. He had to endure his final agony with a clear mind.

I carefully picked up the ultimate-grade night-shining pearl.

"In terms of value, Pavilion Master, you're probably holding the most expensive object in the world. Please let me touch it just once. Ah, no. I might drop it. I'll just look."

At that very moment, as I gazed at its enchanting light, I tightened my grip.

CRACK.

A split appeared in the ultimate-grade night-shining pearl.

It was enough to make even the dying Ji Saeng leap to his feet. His eyes bulged as though they would tear open, and Seo Daeryong screamed for him.

"Aaaaaaagh!"

He would not have screamed like that even if he had been stabbed.

"I don't need to touch it! Why are you doing this?"

I squeezed a little harder.

CRRRUNCH.

The ultimate-grade night-shining pearl began crumbling in my hand.

"Aaaaaaagh!"

Seo Daeryong screamed again. If this was his reaction, how must Ji Saeng feel? Tears streamed from Ji Saeng's eyes.

Seo Daeryong spoke in a trembling voice.

"However much you want to make him suffer, how could you break an ultimate-grade night-shining pearl?"

His voice shook. His expression said that even so, this was going too far.

"Quick, take off your shirt!"

"Now you really do look like you've gone mad!"

Despite his words, he hurriedly stripped off his upper garment.

"Spread it out in front of you!"

PATTER.

The shattered pearl fragments fell onto Seo Daeryong's garment.

I searched among the pieces.

'There it is!'

I picked up something lying among the fragments.

Black and lustrous as a black pearl, it was a medicinal pill.

The Supreme Divine Pill of Myriad Poisons.

Made by combining all manner of deadly poisons, the Supreme Divine Pill of Myriad Poisons was the greatest medicinal elixir among poisons.

"This ultimate-grade night-shining pearl is a fake. It was made to conceal this Supreme Divine Pill of Myriad Poisons."

Before my regression, I had heard that the pill had been discovered inside an ultimate-grade night-shining pearl. Martial artists of the unorthodox factions had fought over the pearl, and the truth had come to light by chance.

I knew who possessed the real ultimate-grade night-shining pearl, but even I had not known that Ji Saeng was keeping this fake one.

"It's the safest hiding place in the world. No one would have the courage to break it."

Both Seo Daeryong and Ji Saeng looked deeply shocked. It must have been beyond anything they could have imagined.

"How did you know?"

I gave my usual answer to Seo Daeryong's astonished question.

"Is there anything I don't know?"

As always, he shook his head and asked no more.

"If it were any other elixir, I'd share it with you, but no one except me can take this. Only someone immune to all poisons can consume it."

Seo Daeryong was the only person who knew I was immune to all poisons.

"Even if I could take it, you should have it, Pavilion Master."

His gaze turned toward the impostor Ji Saeng's corpse.

"If someone threatened me like they did him, I'd run straight to you and tell you everything. I'd ask you to save me. To take responsibility for me. You'll need to grow stronger if you're going to save me then."

Even if it had been an ordinary elixir, Seo Daeryong would probably have used those words to let me have it. He called me someone who returned ten things for every one I was given. What did that make him?

"I wouldn't have obtained this elixir without you. Thank you, Investigator Seo."

Had he not noticed Ji Saeng gazing wistfully at the wall, it would have remained buried beneath this place forever.

"Why don't you name that elixir 'The Right-Hand Man's Keen Eye'?"

"I'll add 'who also has a keen eye' to your introduction."

"My introduction is so long now that I can't even memorize it."

Seo Daeryong smiled happily. Who could dislike having someone attach so much meaning to who they were? In our lives, even finding a single meaning was difficult.

"I'll stand guard for you, so take it now, Pavilion Master."

I sat down cross-legged right there.

At the sight, Ji Saeng groaned again. He was truly suffering. His agony was worse than having his flesh seared with red-hot iron, yet Heaven would not let him go easily.

I swallowed the Supreme Divine Pill of Myriad Poisons.

I considered it fate that I had become immune to all poisons and then found this miraculous poison pill here.

An energy more fiery and intense than that of any elixir I had ever taken passed down my throat. The pill's energy was so potent that it felt as though all my internal organs would burn away.

I steadied my body through qi-circulation meditation and began assimilating the pill's energy. It raced through my blood vessels, spreading even into the tiniest vessels in every corner of my body. Without the Thousand-Meridian Strengthening Art, which I had brought to its final stage, and my body impervious to all poisons, I could never have withstood it.

Once I had assimilated all the pill's energy and circulated my true qi through one complete cycle, incomparably vast and pure internal energy was added to my dantian.

The fullness I felt in my dantian was different from when I had taken other elixirs. It was not simply a feeling of having a great deal of internal energy. It felt as though I had climbed one step higher and reached the next level of internal energy.

It was as though my internal energy itself were saying that it was now ready to greet a new world.

"Congratulations, Pavilion Master."

"Again, it's all thanks to you. Thank you, my right-hand man."

I felt wonderful. I had to grow stronger. Only by growing stronger could I protect everyone.

Reining in my now clearer, deeper gaze, I neatly folded the green cloth that had wrapped the ultimate-grade night-shining pearl in its box and tucked it inside my robe. As I would learn later, this too was an extremely important object.

Just then, Ji Saeng, whom I had thought dead, opened his eyes wide. He clung stubbornly to life, pleading with a desperate gaze.

He wanted me to release his mute point just once.

He had so many questions, so many things he wanted to say. But I remained firm.

"Have you ever, even once, granted the request of someone who begged you?"

His regret and resentment reached their peak, and then the life faded from his eyes. His lips moved one last time.

'It's all mine.'

With those words, he breathed his last.

He might have realized the futility of greed and put his life in order in its final moments, but he never relinquished his greed. Even in death, he boarded the ferry to the afterlife carrying all his night-shining pearls on his back, chewing and swallowing the Supreme Divine Pill of Myriad Poisons.

This was why. The orthodox factions could never handle this ruthless craving and the malice within it. Someone would be deceived by those pleading eyes and give him another chance. Because he was begging so desperately. Because he was facing death. Because he was still human.

Evil does not simply grow. It grows by devouring the goodwill of others. Absolute evil seeks, even as it dies, to sow seeds of malice in the heart of the person who showed it kindness.

In any case, every villain connected to Immortal Debt had now met their death.

"I don't think I can do what you do, Pavilion Master. I don't know if I can punish villains with such resolve."

"You shouldn't do it my way."

"What do you mean?"

Looking straight into his eyes, I said,

"You have to do it your way."

A faint smile formed on Seo Daeryong's lips.

"Yes. I'll do it my way."

Seo Daeryong picked up the sack of night-shining pearls, and I tucked the impostor Ji Saeng's corpse under my arm.

Looking down at the real Ji Saeng's body, I said,

"Your death is only the beginning."

Everything vanished.

The villains' lives, their greed, their shallow trust, their betrayals, their lingering regrets, the wealth they had amassed over a lifetime—and Seo Daeryong and me as well. Everything that had been tangled together vanished.

* * *

"The Second Young Master is so capable that he has no need of us."

At the Poison King's words, the Wicked Laughing Demon glanced over.

At first, the two of them had found it so difficult to exchange even a single word. Once they had broken the ice, however, they began conversing quite readily.

"Wouldn't you agree?"

Geom Mugeuk had said he would finish things himself and taken only Seo Daeryong with him.

"Did you want to go along?"

"Not necessarily."

In truth, the Poison King had wanted to go. He had wanted to watch how they handled things, and felt needlessly left out when only the two of them went.

"There will be plenty of occasions for us to step in. Yelü Han, in particular, won't be an easy opponent for the Second Young Master to face alone."

Concern flickered in the Wicked Laughing Demon's eyes. The Poison King nodded in agreement. Even if he never ventured outside, there were things he saw and heard as a Demon Supreme.

"You could call Yelü Han the deadliest of all deadly poisons."

The Wicked Laughing Demon's concerns did not end with Yelü Han.

"I've heard there are supreme masters guarding him, separate from his four henchmen. Yelü Han is formidable himself, but those masters won't be people we can dismiss either. We may have to risk our lives then."

Their opponent was the Unorthodox Alliance's second-in-command. He was certain to have hidden blades, and no one knew how sharp they were—or how many.

The Poison King asked the Wicked Laughing Demon,

"Could you truly risk your life for the Second Young Master?"

After a brief pause, the Wicked Laughing Demon answered,

"I enjoy fighting alongside him."

To the Poison King, that sounded like a declaration that the Demon could risk his life for the Second Young Master.

The Poison King was envious. He had no one. No one he could risk his life for, and no one who would risk their life for him.

And so, quite needlessly, these words escaped him.

"As for me, I had no choice but to come because the Cult Leader ordered it..."

The Wicked Laughing Demon silently regarded him. That gaze asked whether it was really true.

The Poison King was about to insist that it was, but paused to reflect. Perhaps it was the Second Young Master's mourning, his efforts, or the pleasure of spending time with him.

It occurred to him that other reasons might have played a part. In the end, he could not answer.

"It's hot today."

For no good reason, the Poison King opened his blameless fan and began fanning himself gently.

* * *

Geom Mugeuk and Seo Daeryong returned to their lodgings.

"Everything has been wrapped up properly."

Geom Mugeuk told the Demon Supremes exactly what had happened there and what they had obtained. He did not have to share all those details, but he honestly told them everything without leaving anything out.

There was just one exception: the ultimate-grade night-shining pearl and the Supreme Divine Pill of Myriad Poisons. Explaining how he had known the pill was inside the pearl would have been a problem, but it was also not yet time to reveal his immunity to all poisons.

"We'll leave early tomorrow morning."

At my words, the Poison King asked,

"Who is our next target?"

"Ae Cha, the man with the black snake tattoo. He's also the superior of the True Poison Recluse, whom you're so eager to meet."

"So I'll finally meet that third-rate poison peddler."

Only the Poison King could have belittled him like that. The True Poison Recluse was not an opponent to take lightly. He was one of the foremost poison-arts masters of the unorthodox factions.

Ae Cha had joined forces with him to sell drugs such as Berserk and Black Consort.

"Have you ever met the True Poison Recluse, Poison King?"

"No."

He shook his head in answer to my question.

"That's fortunate. If he knew your face, approaching him covertly would be difficult. This time, we'll definitely need your help."

The Poison King nodded. He had resolved to help actively with this task, at least. He truly despised the True Poison Recluse for making drugs that caused side effects and selling them on the market. Above all else, this was a matter of pride for a practitioner of poison arts.

"According to Strategist Go's information, the True Poison Recluse is producing Berserk and Black Consort in the deepest part of Ae Cha's residence. Naturally, security there is so airtight that infiltration is virtually impossible."

Just then, Seo Daeryong cautiously asked,

"But aside from Berserk, is it all right to eliminate Ae Cha? Ji Saeng is dead. If Ae Cha dies right afterward, Yelü Han will grow suspicious."

"We'll have to give him a death that leaves no room for suspicion. Make it look like overlapping coincidences."

"How?"

Everyone's gaze turned to me. I had one method in mind, though I did not know whether it would work.

"Since this began with Berserk, I'm thinking of ending it with Berserk."