Chapter 227 - I'm the Kept Man's Friend

“Get out of the way, you fucking bitch!”

Yeo Bulgae flew into a frenzy and began beating her. Even as the blows fell, the middle-aged woman wrapped her arms around another woman to shield her. Merely satisfying his lust had not been enough for him; his torment had become so perverse that she could no longer bear to watch and had stepped in to help. Having suffered the same herself, she knew all too well how agonizing and humiliating it was.

Yeo Bulgae grabbed her by the hair and flung her backward. He might be called the King of the Night, but in a rage he was nothing more than a thug. No, it would have been better if he had simply beaten people like an ordinary thug. Yeo Bulgae tormented them relentlessly.

“Admirable. Truly admirable. An old bitch has to make herself useful somehow to survive among the rest of you, doesn't she?”

Yeo Bulgae forced internal energy into her body to inflict pain.

“Aaaaagh!”

Unable to endure the agony, she screamed.

“Bear it! You stepped up to sacrifice yourself, didn't you? Or were you only pretending to stop me?”

The young woman she had tried to protect stepped forward and pleaded.

“I'll do it! I'll do it! Please stop!”

Tears streamed from her eyes. The other women watching bowed their heads and wept as well.

Their captivity was not the only reason they were powerless against Yeo Bulgae.

He threatened the lives of their families. Some had children, others siblings or parents. Whether they resisted, fled, or killed themselves, he threatened to hunt down their families and murder them. He had actually brought back the family of a woman who had escaped and brutally killed them before her eyes.

What saddened them still more was that they were growing accustomed to this degrading, bestial existence.

“You're nothing but lumps of flesh that exist for me. What business does one lump of flesh have protecting another?”

The middle-aged woman squeezed her eyes shut. Tears trickled down her cheeks. Every day she wished she were dead, but she could not even die because of her son. If she killed herself, Yeo Bulgae would surely bring him here and murder him in front of the women as an example.

'Please! Someone save us!'

Her desperate gaze turned toward the distant blue sky beyond the window.

'Please!'

Just as her desperation must have reached the very edge of heaven, a subordinate reported from outside.

“The Black and White Sabers and the mistress of Thousand Flowers Pavilion have arrived.”

As though he had been waiting for those words, Yeo Bulgae hurriedly opened the door and stepped outside.

The mistress of Thousand Flowers Pavilion was entering the spacious courtyard. Behind her came the Black and White Sabers, their bamboo hats pulled low. Of course, they were Geom Mugeuk and the Wicked Laughing Demon.

They had expected numerous obstacles getting inside. Geom Mugeuk had steeled himself to improvise on the spot, but things proved unexpectedly easy.

One of the martial artists guarding the entrance had escorted them all the way here as though it were routine. The Black and White Sabers had brought women here so often that no one suspected these two were impostors. And they must have behaved so terrifyingly in the past that, far from inspecting them, no one even dared meet their eyes.

That was how easily they had reached Yeo Bulgae.

The instant he saw the mistress of Thousand Flowers Pavilion, Yeo Bulgae exclaimed in admiration.

“Oh! What a stunner!”

He liked the air she carried. She was refined yet haughty. Was there any greater pleasure in the world than breaking that pride and making her his slave?

He went back into the room, then dragged the middle-aged woman outside by her hair and flung her down mercilessly.

“Look. This is a place where bitches that beautiful are brought. You could lick my toes all day and it still wouldn't be enough. Who do you think you're protecting?”

Yeo Bulgae had no intention of making a favorable impression on the mistress of Thousand Flowers Pavilion. Instead, he meant to instill fear in her.

He flung the door wide open, revealing the place that was his pleasure palace and the women's hell. A woman kneeling, another sprawled in a corner, another lying on the bed—all raised their heads to look at the mistress of Thousand Flowers Pavilion.

“They used to run pleasure houses, just like you.”

Her expression hardened the moment she saw them. She rarely grew angry, but now her face showed genuine fury.

“You! Taking their pleasure houses wasn't enough. Now you're trying to take their souls as well.”

Yeo Bulgae laughed delightedly.

“Even the way you speak is refined! I like you. I'll love you most of all!”

The women in the room looked at her with pity.

The mistress of Thousand Flowers Pavilion spoke calmly.

“I'm rather good at seeing people's futures.”

It was one of those moments when someone grows calmer precisely because they are truly furious.

“Can you see mine, too?”

“You're being lowered into a pit of fire, your skin stripped off and your body impaled on an iron spike.”

She was describing him cast into the Hell of Unending Torment, said to be the most agonizing of all hells.

His expression stiffened for an instant, but then Yeo Bulgae smiled nonchalantly.

“Even the King of the Underworld wouldn't take me. He'd say I'd foul up hell.”

After delivering his usual line, he sneered at her.

“Only weaklings prattle about hell. Does imagining me falling into a fiery pit make you feel good?”

“You're a coward. You act bold on the outside, but you're a coward who fears death more than anyone.”

“Those bitches over there were all like you at first. Full of pride, talking big. They had no idea what they'd be reduced to in just one watch, or what they'd be begging me for. You think you'd never end up like them, don't you? You think someone will come and save you? Yes, that's how people's minds work. They can't see even a step ahead.”

At that very moment, something he had not seen coming unfolded.

Hwang Yeom appeared with a group of experts. They moved in front of Yeo Bulgae, shielding him as guards would.

“Who are you people?”

Hwang Yeom coldly questioned the mistress of Thousand Flowers Pavilion.

Only then did Yeo Bulgae realize that these were impostors posing as the Black and White Sabers. Entranced by the mistress's beauty, he had failed to examine them closely.

“Impostors? You crazy bastards!”

His heart lurched at the thought that he had nearly been caught off guard, and fury surged through him. Then he brought himself under control.

Yeo Bulgae snapped his fingers. The women rushed out of the room, dropped to their knees, and prostrated themselves with their chests pressed against the ground.

He sat on them, using them as a chair. It was neither because he needed a seat nor because he wanted to flaunt his power. It was so he could use them as hostages if necessary. That was the kind of man Yeo Bulgae was.

“If those two are impostors, then that bitch must be one, too.”

“Does it matter whether I'm the mistress of Thousand Flowers Pavilion?”

“Of course. The world is full of beautiful women. But there's only one mistress of the place I've taken.”

“I am the real mistress of Thousand Flowers Pavilion.”

Yeo Bulgae believed her. Women who could carry themselves like that were hardly common.

“Then those moronic Black and White Sabers must already be dead.”

“My kept man has quite a temper, you see.”

She laughed, apparently amused by her own words. The sight made Yeo Bulgae burn with desire. She was exactly his type. He had seen countless women, but never one who drew him in like this.

His gaze shifted to the Black and White Sabers.

'So she came here trusting those two.'

At a glance, they looked like nothing special.

“If you're really the mistress of Thousand Flowers Pavilion, why did you come here?”

“I heard you were looking for me.”

“And what do you think?”

“Ugly, insignificant, and pathetic. I shouldn't have bothered coming.”

Yeo Bulgae's expression instantly turned cold.

“I don't know what you're counting on, coming here and pulling this shit, but if you thought the Black and White Sabers were all I had, you've made a grave mistake.”

Yeo Bulgae was not anxious. No, even if he wanted to be, he could not.

For a start, the three subordinates standing ahead to his left were the Three Crows of the Dark Night. They were his longtime henchmen, experts a cut above the Black and White Sabers. Beside them stood a man holding a long spear, another trusted henchman: the spear master Blood-Crying Spear. These four, together with the Black and White Sabers—those six experts had enabled him to become the King of the Night.

But today he had more. After Ji Saeng and Ae Cha died, he had brought in outside experts as well. The Five Warriors of the Evil Shadow, whom he had hired for a hefty sum, were notorious even among the unorthodox factions. Though he had never seen them fight himself, their reputations were formidable.

And above all, there were the two who gave him the greatest reassurance.

A man and a woman sat on a rock in front of the flower garden. Both wore such bizarre makeup that it was difficult to tell which was the man and which the woman.

They were the Yin-Yang Demons.

They were fiends who used strange sinister sorcery to drain their opponents' internal energy. Naturally, the male Yang Demon had learned an evil art that absorbed women's yin qi, while the female Yin Demon absorbed men's yang qi.

They loved fighting as much as they loved absorbing vital essence. Their internal energy was so immense that all but the strongest experts would be thoroughly toyed with before dying, their vital essence sucked dry.

Moreover, they were cruel and vicious by nature. If someone displeased them, they slaughtered that person's entire family or traveling party as well—a truly insane pair. They caused so much trouble that even the Unorthodox Alliance was reluctant to employ them. In a situation like this, however, no one could be more dependable.

So who, exactly, was there to fear? Yeo Bulgae was utterly confident.

“So you're angry that I tried to have you brought here, and you've come in person to take revenge?”

Yeo Bulgae grew even more sexually excited. Hwang Yeom, by contrast, felt an inexplicable unease, but he never intervened when Yeo Bulgae was engrossed in a woman—not since the time he had done so and nearly been killed. Other matters were one thing, but women were an area he must never touch.

Instead of answering, the mistress of Thousand Flowers Pavilion addressed the women prostrate on the ground.

“Close your eyes, all of you. When you open them again, you'll be able to go home.”

Their eyes wavered at her words.

Looking into her calm, gentle eyes, they felt it might truly happen. They all closed their eyes and prayed to heaven. Please, let them go home.

The sight only filled the old lecher with greater lust.

“What an utterly charming bitch.”

Yeo Bulgae addressed the Five Warriors of the Evil Shadow.

“Would our five heroes kindly kill those men and prove their worth?”

In short, he was telling them to earn their pay.

As the Five Warriors of the Evil Shadow stepped forward, Geom Mugeuk came out to meet them. While the mistress of Thousand Flowers Pavilion had bought time by talking to Yeo Bulgae, he and the Wicked Laughing Demon had already devised their plan through sound transmission: how to fight these men, how to protect the mistress, and how to rescue the captive women.

Yeo Bulgae asked Geom Mugeuk,

“If that one's the kept man, what are you?”

Geom Mugeuk answered,

“I'm the kept man's friend.”

The gathered martial artists burst out laughing. Not one of them was tense.

“No matter how much you like your friend, should you really follow him all the way to hell?”

“I'm fond of that pillar of hers myself. He's a pillar of my life, too.”

Hidden from the others beneath his bamboo hat, the Wicked Laughing Demon's eyes shone with a clear light.

Geom Mugeuk's composure gave Yeo Bulgae an inexplicable sense of foreboding. So he issued his command all the more forcefully.

“Break every one of those fucking pillars!”

The moment Yeo Bulgae gave the order, the Five Warriors of the Evil Shadow drew their swords in unison.

Geom Mugeuk walked slowly toward them, as though taking a stroll.

He easily evaded the Third Warrior's attack, the first to reach him, and drove a fist into his abdomen.

THUD!

The Third Warrior crumpled. Geom Mugeuk twisted and drove a fist into the face of the Second Warrior, who was thrusting his sword at him from the side.

An effortless dodge, a light tap.

It was the sort of fight that left spectators wondering, 'What is this?'

Attacking from behind, the Fourth Warrior leaped over the crumpled Third Warrior to strike. But Geom Mugeuk had already accounted for that movement.

Leaning backward, he smoothly plunged a dagger into the man's heart.

Stabbed in midair, the Fourth Warrior hurtled onward with his momentum. With him now serving as a shield, the First Warrior abandoned his attack and twisted aside.

But Geom Mugeuk had anticipated which way he would dodge, and his fist slammed into the man's chest. The First Warrior crumpled. As Geom Mugeuk turned back around, the Fifth Warrior fell clutching his throat. A dagger was embedded in it, though no one knew when it had flown there.

Geom Mugeuk had combined the Fist Demon's fist art, Wind God's Four Steps, and his dagger-throwing art to deal with them. His martial skill was so supremely advanced that it was actually difficult to recognize.

There were no complicated movements, no dazzling footwork. He was simply fast and precise. His movements showed not a trace of strain.

That was why, to everyone watching, it looked as though they had arranged the fight and were merely acting out their falls. Even those who seemed to have taken only a light punch could not get back up.

Yeo Bulgae was bewildered. The Five Warriors of the Evil Shadow looked like utter novices, yet their opponent also looked like an extraordinary master. He had never seen a fight like this.

It was the Yin-Yang Demons who assessed their opponent most accurately.

They were smiling at each other. They had recognized Geom Mugeuk as a formidable enemy at a glance, and were delighted rather than troubled. The stronger the opponent, the more internal energy he would possess. The Yin Demon was already impatient to taste it.

It happened just then.

BOOM! RRRUMBLE!

Thunder sounded overhead. Black clouds darkened the surroundings, looking ready to unleash rain at any moment.

The Wicked Laughing Demon walked slowly forward and stood beside Geom Mugeuk. In a flash of lightning, his white mask gleamed brightly beneath his bamboo hat. Geom Mugeuk knew just how furious he was with Yeo Bulgae.

“You wretched old lecher.”

The Wicked Laughing Demon spoke for the first time since arriving. He did not want to exchange so much as a word with Yeo Bulgae, so what followed was his final statement, leaving nothing further to be said.

“You talk about hell every time you open your mouth. I'll send you to the real thing.”