CH 257

Light Novel: Volume 11 Episode 7

Something was crouching on top of the huge beam across the ceiling of Geum Suryeon’s room.

It was obviously a person. His eyes were shining brightly even in the darkness.

“Who are you?!”

Geum Woo-shin shouted as he pulled out his sword.

At that moment, the man thrust an object towards him, like a thunderbolt.

Puk!

Geum Woo-shin felt a burning pain in his right shoulder. He opened mouth but no sound came out. He’s in too much pain to even let out a scream.

He couldn’t even move. It was as if his nerves were paralyzed because of the excruciating pain.

When he managed to somehow turn his head, he saw a transparent spear stabbed through his right shoulder.

Changrung!

The sword he was previously holding tumbled across the floor. He had no strength to hold onto it anymore. 

“Keurgh!”

He groaned in pain.

At that moment, the man crouching on the beam jumped onto his chest.

Thud!

With a dull sound, Geum Woo-shin was crushed underneath the man’s feet.

Geum Woo-shin could only open his mouth wide at the pain that seemed to engulf his chest.

Geum Woo-shin couldn’t believe his current situation.

After all, he is currently staying in one of the guest houses of the Snow Sword Manor. Warriors belonging to the Snow Sword Manor are spread all over the place. Furthermore, they even have their own warriors surrounding where they were right now, right outside. 

The security in Geum Suryeon’s residence was so tight that not even an ant has a chance to sneak in. But how come someone still managed to enter Geum Suryeon’s abode? 

He couldn’t wrap his head around it.

“You, who—?”

Puk!

Geum Woo-shin couldn’t continue his words. 

Because the man hit him in the face with his transparent spear.

His hair was cut, and his skin ripped. But the pain in his head was more painful than that. His head was buzzing. Even in the middle of this assault, he found himself worrying about Geum Suryeon. 

‘Su-Suryeon!’

Geum Woo-shin struggled to get up. 

But it was a futile attempt.

Puk!

Once again the transparent spear struck him in the head.

Geum Woo-shin lost consciousness. 

It was only then did the man turn his attention to Geum Suryeon.

Geum Suryeon looked at the man with fear-stricken eyes.

“W, Who are you?”

The person in front of her is definitely a master given how he overpowered Geum Woo-shin in an instant.

While Geum Woo-shin is often set aside by Geum Shin-chung, it doesn’t change the fact that he is still a warrior who learned martial arts at the Shaolin Temple.

He is someone who is not easily overpowered. But, the person in front of her managed to easily defeat Geum Woo-shin.

That just shows how wide the gap in their martial arts skills were. 

She looked around, looking for someone to help her, but even Doctor Jang lay unconscious on the ground. 

Geum Suryeon’s face, which was deathly pale, was pitiful to look at.  

“Do you know who I am? I’m Geum Suryeon! The only young lady of the Golden Mountain Manor! D-Do you need money? I’ll give you as much as you want! Just spare my life!”

Geum Suryeon knelt down and begged.

The poisonous figure that she had been showing towards Geum Woo-shin a while ago had long disappeared. Her face was running down with both tears and snot. 

It didn’t matter if her wealth piled up like a mountain, it would all be over if she lost her life.

Geum Suryeon could endure any humiliation as long as she could preserve her life. 

“I, If you also want my body, I’ll give it to you–! Please just spare my life! Please—”

Geum Suryeon crawled up to the man.

Then, while holding onto the man’s leg, she looked up.

The man looked at Geum Suryeon indifferently.

In an instant, Geum Suryeon’s eyes shook.

She seemed to have seen that man’s eyes from somewhere.

“Y-You?”

Geum Suryeon’s eyes widened. 

His eyes were exactly the same as that of the man who had brought her worst nightmares.

Their eyes could never be the same if they weren’t the same person.

“I-It’s you–!”

He’s the same man who killed all of her escorts and injured her. 

He is definitely the man who she had just cursed a while ago, screaming that she wanted him skinned alive and have his wounds sprinkled with salt.

Crack! Crack!

At that moment, the man’s facial muscles moved, transforming to another person’s face.

It was an ordinary face that can be seen anywhere on the street. This was the appearance of the man who had fatally wounded her a few days ago. 

But it didn’t end there.

Crack!

The man’s face changed once more. Then a beautiful face, far from the ordinary, appeared.

With a face more beautiful than a woman’s, Geum Suryeon was momentarily shocked. She even ended up forgetting her current situation.

The man in front of her is Pyo-wol.

Pyo-wol looked down at Geum Suryeon with an impassive face.

Geum Suryeon held Pyo-wol’s leg and cried,

“Please spare me! I’ll even be your dog if you let me go!”

She had a servile appearance, far from how she normally presents herself. 

That’s how desperate Geum Suryeon was.

She wanted to preserve her life no matter what.

She was even prepared to become his bitch just so she can live.

‘It wouldn’t be too late for me to take revenge as long as I can save my life.’

Geum Suryeon was not the type to forget grudges.

She will surely repay the humiliation she suffered today a hundred, no, a thousandfold. But for now, she had to be his dog, and hide her true feelings thoroughly. 

She believed that only by doing that would she be able to save her life.

Puk!

But then Pyo-wol pierced her heart with the long spear.

The spear made of ice crystal gently pierced her heart like tofu.

“Keuk! W, Why?”

Geum Suryeon looked up at Pyo-wol with an expression of disbelief.

Pyo-wol drew back the spear that pierced her heart and said,

“What I need is a sacrifice, not a dog.”

“Sa… sacrifice?”

“An offering to stir up the anger of the Golden Mountain Manor.”

“That…”

Geum Suryeon did not believe her own death until the moment she died. 

Her body collapsed helplessly on the ground like a doll whose strings had snapped.

Pyo-wol looked at Geum Suryeon in silence.

“There was a noise inside.”

“Something must have happened!”

Pyo-wol heard the people talking from the outside.

The Golden Mountain Manor warriors had already noticed that something occurred inside the room causing them to rush in. 

Pyo-wol flew over the beam.

By the time the warriors of the Golden Mountain Manor opened the door and entered, Pyo-wol had already disappeared.

“Lady! Young master!”

The Golden Mountain Manor warriors hurriedly checked both Geum Suryeon and Geum Woo-shin’s condition.

“T, The lady is dead–!”

“How could it be!”

“Young master is still breathing! Hurry up and call a doctor!”

“Doctor Jang is also down! Damn it!”

The chaos and fear reached inside the room its peak when even the doctor who was supposed to treat Geum Woo-shin was unconscious.

* * *

“What do you mean Geum Suryeon is dead?!”

Lee Yul stood up without realizing it.

An agitated expression clearly evident on his face.

Lee Yul does not usually show his emotions. But since the news he just received was so shocking, he forgot to control his emotions.

Lee Yul is a person who never stops thinking.

Even when his brain is exhausted from excessive thinking and is demanding for a break, he would always think and think again.

There might be times when his body may be idle, but his brain doesn’t rest. Maybe except when he is sleeping.

That’s how much he thought. 

Once he thought up a topic, he would think about it endlessly. His ideas would continuously branch out until each branch would stretch out and form a big tree.

That particular tree he created, contained everything.

Even when it comes to a small event that people would normally overlook, he would be able to accurately predict the outcome and even derive the variables. 

Nothing could pass him. So he thought that everything in the world was within the palm of his hand. However, everything that had happened in the past few days was completely out of his expectation.

It was a very embarrassing experience for him.

He had never imagined that he would get to experience something like this.

It was only an hour ago when he and Heuk-ho last saw Geum Suryeon. 

He also ordered Heuk-ho and the Black Cloud Corps to scatter throughout the Snow Sword Manor and look for the assassin at that time. But now, the assassin managed to kill Geum Suryeon as if to make fun of him.

‘He didn’t kill her impulsively.’

Lee Yul gritted his teeth. 

He now knows for sure.

The fact that Pyo-wol never moves without thinking.

Every little thing he does is thoroughly calculated.

He wouldn’t have killed Geum Suryeon without thinking.

In order to accurately read Pyo-wol’s thoughts, he had to inspect the murder scene himself. 

Lee Yul hurriedly ran to Geum Suryeon’s guest house together with his men.

In the guest house, he could see the warriors of Golden Mountain Manor collecting Geum Suryeon’s body.

“Keuheuk! Young miss!”

“To think that the young lady would be killed by an assassin–!”

The Golden Mountain Manor warriors placed Geum Suryeon’s body on the wagon with an indignant face. 

Geum Woo-shin leaned against the wall of the wagon with his wounds tightly wrapped. His subordinates gave him first aid so he managed to barely regain his senses. But even then, he was just staring at Geum Suryeon’s corpse with unfocused eyes, as if he had passed out.

Lee Yul hurriedly approached Geum Woo Shin and asked,

“What happened?”

“I was attacked by an assassin who uses a spear.”

“A spear?”

“The spear was transparent like a crystal.”

The moment he heard Geum Woo-shin’s answer, Lee Yul almost bit his tongue.

There was only one person he knew that uses a transparent spear.

Ice Slayer. 

He was an assassin hired by Lee Yul along with Heuk-ho.

He was supposed to be his trump card. He wanted to use him in the future in assassinating the high-ranking warriors of the Jin family.

There was no reason for him to suddenly go mad and ambush Geum Suryeon.

‘It’s him! He killed Ice Slayer and used his weapon!’

As a result, it was ‘Ice Slayer’ who had killed Geum Suryeon. 

No matter how much he tries to deny the accusation, it would be useless. There was no way they would understand him even if he explained.

It was very easy for him to take Geum Woo-shin’s life.

Even so, Lee Yul’s pupils shook greatly at the moment of being saved.

He suddenly understood Pyo-wol’s intention. 

‘You devilish bastard!’

When Geum Suryeon’s body was finally loaded in the wagon, Geum Woo-shin ordered to leave immediately.

Lee Yul could not stop Geum Woo-shin from leaving.

He had no justification to do so, and above all, Geum Woo-shin had no intention of listening to him.

Before leaving, Geum Woo-shin said,

“Since this happened in the Snow Sword Manor, your sect must take responsibility for this.”

“………..”

“When I was about to move the training to the gold mountain, what did they say? They said that it was still in a dangerous state and had to be kept in the snow dojo. But look what happened?”

Geum Woo-shin pressured Lee Yul with determination.

Lee Yul could not answer properly.

Because Geum Woo-shin’s words were true.

The measures he took to protect Geum Suryeon became shackles that held him back.

Geum Woo-shin and the warriors of Golden Mountain Manor soon left the Snow Sword Manor with Geum Suryeon.

Euduk!

Lee Yul gnashed his teeth as he watched the backs of the Golden Mountain Manor warriors getting farther away.

His eyes were bloodshot, as if blood was about to drip down at any moment.

He said to his confidant Baek Do-kyung,

“Send the goods.”

“Isn’t it too soon?”

“Don’t you know?”

“What?”

“He’s been poking around inside.”

“What?”

“You stupid— We’ll never know when we’ll get caught.”

For the first time, Lee Yul glared at Baek Do-kyung with contempt.

He found Baek Do-kyung stupid for failing to see the future that he sees.

“Shut up and call them now.”

“All right.”

Baek Do-kyung hurriedly lowered his head in response to Lee Yul’s anger.

It didn’t take long for Lee Yul’s worries to become a reality. 

Upon seeing the corpse of his only daughter, Geum Suryeon, Geum Shin-chung went crazy and declared that he would hold the Snow Sword Manor accountable for failing to protect her. He also said that he would cut off all support and contracts with the Snow Sword Manor.

Until now, one of the reasons that the Snow Sword Manor has been able to gain an advantage in the fight against the Jin family is the huge amount of money coming from the Golden Mountain Manor. They were able to pressure and push the Jin family by gaining the upper hand financially. 

But that is now a thing of the past.

As Golden Mountain Manor turned around, the Snow Sword Manor’s financial power became similar to, or worse than, the Jin family.

The foundation of the painting Lee Yul had drawn collapsed miserably.

“So that’s the reason why he didn’t immediately kill Geum Suryeon upon seeing her. He brought her to the Snow Sword Manor on purpose in hopes of passing the responsibility of her death to us…”

Blood trickled down in between his tightly clenched fists.

To think their real crisis hasn’t even begun yet.

If the Golden Mountain Manor finds out that Ice Slayer is an assassin he hired then the Golden Mountain Manor will not just stop at cutting off their financial support.

If he was Pyo-wol, he would definitely hand over the proof that he hired Ice Slayer to the Golden Mountain Manor.

“That bastard!”