Chapter 235: Wanderers Have Their Own Code of Honor

“Ca-can you truly promise to spare me? Yes, could you swear upon the honor of your sect and your master?” the guard asked.

“See, this is exactly what I mean. If you honestly spill everything you know, then I swear on the honor of my Master and the Divine Maiden Sect, I will let you go unharmed this time. Only this time. You’re not thinking that just because you spill some information, I’ll leave you alone forever, are you?”

Qing added the condition even as she made the promise.

She knew that adding such a caveat, paradoxically, could make her words seem more trustworthy.

“No, of course not,” Yu Sungwang replied. “Uh, first, I am Yu Sungwang, a senior warrior of the second squad, Two-Line Blood Gu Unit, under the command of the Blood Cult’s Revered Gomok.”

“Two-Line Blood Gu Unit?” Qing asked.

“The Two-Line Blood Gu is the name of the Gu Poison with two lines on its body. Our unit handles this specific Gu, hence the name…”

The guard diligently confessed everything he knew.

From the Blood Cult's organization and his unit's structure to his personal details and mission objectives, information poured out haphazardly.

He explained that, given the unit specialized in Blood Gu Poison, their primary purpose was to infiltrate the martial arts world and secure key figures by feeding them the Gu.

However, simply administering the Gu wasn't enough to guarantee control, as there were various ways to remove it.

Therefore, after administering the Gu, a process of mental and physical torture was essential to completely break and subdue the target.

Even if the Gu was later removed, the process aimed to turn them into broken puppets who would obediently follow orders.

“Using these discarded collaborators to administer the Gu to major figures, or extracting information, or securing internal cooperation is—”

“Wait,” Qing interrupted.

Although this wasn't the information Qing was particularly keen on knowing, a certain part caught her attention.

“Discarded collaborators? Doesn’t ‘discarded’ mean thrown away? Is that some term you guys use?”

“Well, it’s the preference of our Unit Leader and Vice Leader…” Yu Sungwang explained.

What followed was utterly horrifying.

The final act in breaking captured prisoners involved turning them over to pigs, dogs, or beggars.

However, direct sexual torture was forbidden until that point. It was the leaders' preference to brutally take away the most precious thing only at the very, very end.

Apparently, once someone endured this final ‘discarding’, whether male or female, they would never disobey again.

Qing offered a simple assessment.

“Hmm. Suddenly, I feel like killing you all.”

“Y-you promised to spare me,” Yu Sungwang stammered.

“The promise holds. I swore on the honor of my sect and Master, so I have no choice. But, Blood Gu Poison? Tell me more details.”

She then received a direct lecture on the Gu Poison from the expert himself.

“So, I’ve told you everything I know,” Yu Sungwang finished.

“Hmm. But I don’t know if you’ve lied to me or not. So wait here a moment. I’m gonna go grab another one and cross-reference your stories.”

“I only told the absolute truth—”

“Enough,” Qing cut him off. “If you lied about anything, this is your last chance to correct it. I specifically said I’d spare you if you told me everything without any lies. But if you deceived me?”

Qing’s pupils constricted sharply.

The whites showing above and below her irises gave her a truly terrifying gaze, and an ominous violet light flickered faintly within them.

The Blood Cult warrior named Yu Sungwang gasped, trembling uncontrollably.

He was utterly overwhelmed by the true nature revealed by the most malevolent major star among all ominous constellations – the Heavenly Slaughtering Star.

“You’ll be begging me to kill you,” Qing continued. “Shall we start by peeling off your skin nice and slow? Last chance. Anything hidden or lied about, is there?”

“Well, actually…”

A few pieces of information were amended, and some other trivial details emerged.

Judging by his desperate expression, it seemed he had finally told the truth.

“So, since I’ve told you everything, now…” Yu Sungwang trailed off hopefully.

“Alright. A promise is a promise.”

Qing nodded and then spoke again.

“By the way, what is your father’s name?”

The warrior gulped.

“Why do you ask that?”

“You didn’t tell me,” Qing stated. “I clearly asked you to spill everything you knew. So you were still hiding things?”

“N-no! My father is…”

Following that, unsolicited details about the rest of his family tumbled out.

“Is that so?” Qing asked. “Then what’s your favorite food? What food do you hate? What can’t you eat?”

“Why suddenly food…”

“What about your hobbies?” Qing pressed on. “Your preference in women? Who are your close friends? Any embarrassing childhood memories? Didn’t I ask you to tell me everything you knew?”

Qing’s eyes narrowed.

“You said you told me everything, so why are there still so many things I don’t know? You planned to deceive me from the start, didn’t you? Unbelievable, trying to trick me? As promised, since you hid things, you have to die, right?”

“That doesn’t make any sen—”

The Blood Cult warrior’s own trousers were shoved into his mouth.

Watching Qing’s bright, blooming smile, he finally realized it too.

She never intended to let me live in the first place.

The demand to tell her everything he knew was inherently absurd, an impossible condition to fulfill.

“I don’t know if this is any consolation,” Qing said, “but you won’t be the only one following this path. So don’t feel too unfairly treated for dying alone.”

Clearly finding no comfort in her words, the Blood Cult warrior struggled frantically.

Then, Qing clapped her hands once, Clap, and spoke again.

“Ah, did you say the soundproofing was perfect? Sorry. I’ll take the gag out. It must be sad enough being in pain. You should at least get to scream a little.”

[Omen, (Unknown)th Crisis]

[You have encountered the wicked objective of the Blood Cult.]

Action required for mission completion

………

……

…

Telling me what I already figured out.

Why act like you're giving me the info when I found it myself?

Qing clicked her tongue, Tsk, and dismissed the newly updated Martial Arts Window.

Still, it wasn’t bad. Tackling a fun task that also happened to be a mission, earning Good Karma, and getting bonus Training Points as a reward – what’s not to like?

If it had explicitly ordered her what to do, she might have felt manipulated, but what was with this attitude of ‘I don’t care whose side you take’?

It was so half-assed, she just couldn't warm up to it.

However, no anxiety surfaced.

Right now, Qing felt more refreshed and relieved than ever before.

Qing retrieved the interrogation cell key from the thing that was formerly a guard and stood up twice.

The reason she stood up twice was that the first time she tried, she staggered and fell hard, forcing her to get up again.

This sensation, the blood rushing intensely to the skin… ugh. It was really, really… wow, driving me crazy. Seriously.

But still. It felt really good. So, good is good, right?

Her eyes exceptionally clear, Qing, covered in blood spatters, opened the interrogation cell door and headed outside.

The guard duty rotated daily, apparently.

It was a very flexible assignment where one could torment the prisoner all day, sleep on a cot at night, or even entertain oneself by preventing the prisoner from sleeping – no one interfered.

Furthermore, since one could rest the entire next day citing fatigue, it was supposedly a coveted duty reserved only for senior members.

Such a familiar culture, Qing thought. Seems like these unit things operate similarly everywhere.

Since Qing had already ensured her own safety, there were no constraints on her actions.

The Gu Poison was just a self-purifying parasite that fed on toxic energy, and escaping was something Qing could do whenever she pleased.

Her only concern was the lifelines of the wanderers who had carelessly ingested Gu Poison along with whatever else they picked up.

Given they were below 100 points even after consuming two pills made from ground-up humans, it seemed right to save them if possible.

As someone once said, You aren't locked in here with me, I'm locked in here with you.

Which movie was that from? Batman? Alien?

The correct answer was neither, it was Watchmen, but Qing couldn't know that. Memories of her Korean life were fading, surfacing occasionally in dreams, leaving only a vague sense of 'ah, there was such a time'.

When she woke up after seeing her homeland in those dreams, the surging fear was often uncontrollable, leaving her trembling for a while.

What if I end up going back?

She was now certain she could never adapt to the modern world again.

Agh, damn it, bad thoughts again.

Still, her body and mind felt so thoroughly relieved that she could shake them off without much difficulty.

Qing pushed open the iron door leading outside.

Creeeak The iron door screamed as it opened.

They really should oil these things; the facility management was terrible.

Qing stepped out of Education Room Two, checked the numbers left and right, then knocked smartly on the iron door of Education Room One. Knock, knock-knock.

A small metal plate resembling a peephole slid open below, and a voice came through.

“What? Who is it?”

Simultaneously, Qing shoved the iron door with all her might.

Creeak! The heavy iron door yielded helplessly to her immense strength before Thud! It hit something, and a strong resistance jolted Qing’s wrist.

Qing quickly slipped inside, closed the iron door, and kicked the peephole shut.

Perfectly sealed. According to the deceased, no sound from inside could be heard out.

Only then did she realize, oops.

The guard of Education Room One lay sprawled on the floor, blood streaming from his head.

“Ah crap, he shouldn’t die. What a waste.”

Qing urgently checked the guard’s pulse.

She enjoyed dismantling the living, but she had no filthy, disgusting, corpse-desecrating bad habits like messing with the dead.

Fortunately, the guard seemed to have just lost consciousness briefly due to a concussion.

Qing stripped him naked, tied his arms and legs to prevent escape.

Knowing the soundproofing was excellent meant there was no need to gag him. Knowledge is power, and the ancestors' advice about the importance of learning was truly meant for moments like this.

Taking the interrogation cell key, Qing opened the cell door. A terrified gasp echoed out from the iron box.

“Eek!”

The voice came from a small iron box in the center of the cell.

Qing's room had one too; she thought it was a toilet, but apparently, it was a torture device.

They forced victims to cram themselves into the tiny box, tormenting them by making the Gu Poison release toxins every time they tried to come out.

Qing sighed deeply and spoke.

“Young Lady? Are you alright?”

“I am not a young lady, I am livestock. I am not a young lady, I am livestock. I am not a young lady, I am livestock…” the voice from the box chanted monotonously.

Hmm. This one’s completely lost it.

Qing scratched her head.

Operation Destroy the Flower.

That was the Blood Cult’s objective she had uncovered.

Compared to the serious-sounding operation name, the content was rather petty.

It was a plan to ruin the Murim Conference and trample the prestige and honor of the Orthodox Murim.

The plan was to capture the most famous individuals right when the biggest event was happening in the city where the Orthodox Murim Alliance was firmly established, then brutally break and display them.

Considering the capabilities of the Two-Line Blood Gu Unit, targeting true masters was out of the question.

Apparently, martial artists at the Unrestrained Realm or higher could simply burn away ordinary Gu Poison along with its toxic energy.

Excluding the masters, the next most famous targets would be the prominent Successors / Rising Generation. Among them, to maximize shock value, they naturally targeted the Five Flowers of Murim, the beautiful blossoms cherished by the entire Orthodox Murim.

Hence, Operation Destroy the Flower – Myeolhwa, destroying the flower.

The initial plan targeted the easy Blooming White Lily.

However, an order came from above not to touch her, so she was passed over.

The Poison Flower would likely be immune to Gu Poison, so she was passed.

The Virtuous Flower didn’t even participate in the Murim Conference.

Therefore, the remaining targets were one or both of the Snow Flower and the Golden Sun Sword Flower.

The Snow Flower was holed up and rarely came out, so they were waiting for an opportunity. As for the Golden Sun Sword Flower, they were observing her when she lost to a wanderer in the tournament. Apparently embarrassed, she tried to leave the city, at which point they swiftly captured her and were currently in the middle of ‘educating’ her.

“Young Lady Murong?[^Murong Jun's big sister, the flat angry puppy one 🤔]” Qing tried again. “It’s me, Ximen Qing.”

“I am not a young lady, I am—” the voice started again.

At the mention of her name, the top of her head seemed to peek out slightly, then the iron box began to shake violently before finally toppling sideways with a clang.

Murong Juhui managed to extract herself – or rather, she spilled onto the floor with a splat.