Chapter 67
“Hand Seol-ah over to me!”
The moment Namgung Ho placed his fingers on Hongseol’s shoulder, his face darkened rapidly.
“…It looks like Seol-ah used her internal energy.”
Namgung On narrowed his already thin eyes even further, as if he couldn’t believe it.
“Then that means… surely…?”
Namgung Ho nodded weakly. He looked nothing like the man who had just unleashed a thunderous lion’s roar moments ago.
“She drew on every last bit of the power she had. Now all the meridians in her body are in turmoil.”
With trembling hands, Namgung Ho gently patted Hongseol’s forehead.
How could such a little one push herself that far…
He closed his eyes.
This is all my fault.
If only he hadn’t taught her martial arts in the first place.
There were so many things in this world far more important than righteousness and chivalry. He should have told her to live freely and happily, however she wished.
Namgung Ho opened his eyes again, drained.
His voice was heavy, as though his feet were trapped in a bottomless swamp.
“At this rate, Seol-ah won’t survive the day.”
“Don’t stop—run!”
A group of men who had escaped the grasp of the Namgung Clan ran like wild beasts.
Their footwork was so elusive that even the famed warriors of the Changcheon Corps had long since given up the chase.
After running for who knew how long, they reached a stream deep in the mountains. Not a single pursuer was in sight.
“Take a breather and drink some water!”
Only then did the leader allow them to rest.
The men, marked with black feather tattoos, collapsed and gulped down the stream water.
“We lost ten,” the leader muttered after counting heads.
“Even after drawing on our innate primordial qi, those damn Changcheon Corps bastards still caught two of us.”
“You didn’t leave any stragglers alive, did you?”
“Of course not. The moment they fell behind, we finished them with hidden weapons.”
The leader frowned and looked around.
“Come to think of it, where’s Unbong? He was right beside me at the start.”
“Maybe he got taken from behind without us noticing?”
“…I see. Well, only three dead. We’re lucky.”
“What do we do now?”
“What else? We head to another city and gather more children. If we go back without meeting the quota, we’re dead anyway.”
“Yes, sir!”
Suddenly, a shadow fell over the leader’s face. One of the men he was talking to looked up, puzzled.
“What’s that, boss?”
“…Isn’t that a black eagle?”
“Then why’s it circling right over our heads like that?”
“How should I know? Maybe there’s a rotting carcass nearby.”
“But from what I know, black eagles don’t eat carrion like other vultures do.”
The leader, still drinking, snapped angrily.
“Then are you saying that thing sees us as prey?”
At that moment, the black eagle circling overhead plunged down like a bolt of lightning.
“Aaagh!”
Its beak struck true, pecking straight into a man’s eyeball.
Clutching his bleeding eye, the leader screamed out an order through his agony.
“Kill that damn bird right now!”
“Yes!”
The men answered loudly and drew the bows slung across their backs all at once.
Uuung.
The bowstrings were pulled taut, all aimed at the eagle.
Even faced with their fierce killing intent, the eagle showed no fear, continuing to circle in the sky.
Whish!
The moment more than a dozen arrows shot upward in graceful arcs—
the circling eagle began to drop.
“Like hell you’ll escape!”
But the arrows already released were flying straight toward the falling bird.
Just as the razor-sharp arrowheads were about to pierce the eagle’s body—
“Kya-hahahahaha!”
With a chilling laugh, the eagle spun once in midair. In the next instant, a woman’s pale fingers appeared from nowhere, plucking nine arrows out of the air.
Only the last arrow grazed past her shoulder.
It was obvious she had allowed that one through on purpose.
As her torn sleeve fell open, a black feather tattoo was revealed on her shoulder.
Unlike the others, the tip was stained red—the mark of a true member of the Black Vulture Sect.
At the sight, the leader’s face turned ashen.
A Black Vulture Sect member who could transform into an eagle…
There was only one such person in the martial world.
“D-D-Dokbijŏ! How is this possible? Disguise arts?”
“Well… if it were just disguise, would I really reveal my identity so openly?”
From beneath a black conical hat, the woman’s graceful lips curved into a faint smile.
Hearing that, the leader’s face twisted in horror.
“Don’t tell me… rejuvenation? Returning to youth?!”
The legendary realm where one attained enlightenment and reverted to a youthful body.
Witnessing it with his own eyes, the leader looked as though his jaw might drop off.
Dokbijŏ’s sharp gaze swept over them.
“Were you the ones who dared to misuse the name of our Black Vulture Sect?”
“W-Who says we did such a thing?!”
She casually pulled something from her robes and tossed it.
A round object, like a pig’s bladder, rolled across the ground and bumped against the leader’s foot.
“Gah!”
He recoiled in terror.
“Unbong!”
It was the head of the subordinate he had assumed died at the hands of the Changcheon Corps.
“This man said you captured a child of the Namgung Clan.”
“No. I know the faces of the Namgung Clan’s young masters. There was no such child.”
“There was.”
Her certainty made one of the men—who had earlier exchanged blows with Deungsoso—frown.
“Boss… could it be… that cat beastkin?”
“Damn it!”
A cold sweat ran down the leader’s back as he realized something was very wrong.
“For the crime of kidnapping children under the name of the Black Vulture Sect and committing such vile acts, I will not forgive you.”
Dokbijŏ spread all ten fingers wide. At some point, iron talons had been fitted over them.
They were the Sharp Eagle Claws—the weapon she was infamous for.
Seeing them, the men unconsciously stepped backward.
“I’m thirsty. Let’s finish this quickly so I can go have a drink.”
She ran her red tongue along the edge of her lips.
“For defiling the name of the Black Vulture Sect and laying hands on my prey—pay with your lives!”
“Kraaaagh!”
The men’s screams echoed long into the mountains.
Half a day had already passed.
Time slipped away mercilessly at the Namgung Clan estate.
“My child… how could someone so fragile…?”
Bing Yuhwa called out to Hongseol again and again in a hoarse voice.
“My baby… my baby…”
Hongseol lay on the bed in her mother’s quarters, her face peaceful, as if asleep.
Yet the color had drained from her small lips, and her tiny body alternated between burning hot and ice-cold.
“Sob… my baby…”
It felt like reliving the nightmare from three years ago, when she had lost the child in her womb. A grief that tore at her insides swallowed Yuhwa whole.
The clan head, Namgung On, his expression heavy, gently patted her shoulder.
Beside them, Namgung Ho had not taken a single sip of water, clutching his forehead in anguish.
“…”
Namgung Baek shut himself away in his quarters, his face as expressionless as in the past.
“Please… I beg you. Please save the little one.”
“Please save big sister!”
Black and Red went to the shrine within the Namgung estate, bowing their heads and praying over and over.
The vast estate of the Namgung Clan was steeped in sorrow, each in their own way.
The outer training grounds, once filled with the endless sounds of warriors training, were shut tight.
The medical hall, usually bustling with the brewing of medicinal decoctions, now stood empty, not a wisp of steam rising.
Even the kitchen of Changcheon Pavilion, where sweets and red-bean rice cakes had been made for Hongseol, had long since let its fires die.
Everyone mourned the impending loss of the young child.
Just then, a guard stood scratching his head at the doorway to Hongseol’s quarters.
“Um, Medical Hall Master…”
“What is it now?”
It was Namgung On, the clan head, who answered—Bing Yuhwa was nearly exhausted from crying.
“My apologies. Since earlier, two unidentified old men have been causing a scene at the main gate, demanding to be let in.”
At a time like this, to bring up such a trivial matter—
Namgung On’s head throbbed. He was already thinking about replacing the guard.
“If they’re beggars, have the steward give them some food and a few coins and send them away.”
The guard hesitated, then continued.
“They’re insisting on seeing the Medical Hall Master.”
“Yuhwa?”
At that instant, Namgung On felt as if a bolt of lightning struck down his spine.
“Describe their appearance. Now!”
