36: Ha-ryun (2)

‘… Sometimes I really can’t tell if young master Mumu is naïve or not.’

Hae-ryang bit his tongue when he looked at Mumu holding his arm while smiling brightly.

Ha-ryun’s body was twisted.

Mo Il-hwa hastily covered his mouth with her hand, so he wouldn’t scream.

“Sh! Stay silent.”

“Kuaaah!”

“Wah. I thought that my brother was the bad one, but wow, this guy really brings pain to people.”

Mo Il-hwa grinned as she looked at Ha-ryun in pain.

Jin-hyuk thought that something was off about the situation.

Actually, this Ha-ryun was probably the one working behind the scenes trying to hurt Mumu, but now, it looked like Jin-hyuk, and the rest of the group were the villains.

To Jin-hyuk, Mo Il-hwa said,

“Jin-hyuk. Do you know how to seal blood points?”

Sealing blood points.

It was a method to suppress or stimulate the opponent’s blood vessels, points through which the energy flows throughout the body.

Basically, to seal them meant immobilizing the body of the opponent, or closing the specific points where the energy moved. Certain blood points can make people even cry or laugh as well.

“I know the point of paralysis.”

Blood point of paralyzing.

A point that when pressed, paralyzes the entire body.

Pointing to Ha-ryun, she said.

“Good. Now go do it on him.”

“Alright.”

Jin-hyuk concentrated energy onto his fingers and then went for Ha-ryun.

And then he poked Ha-ryun’s body at a specific spot, and then Ha-ryun went still.

“Puahahaha!”

Mo Il-hwa held onto her stomach at the ridiculous appearance.

She was surprised to see the man go numb.

“Ah, he really went stiff? How did that happen?”

Jin-hyuk responded to it in a slightly triumphant tone.

“If you learn martial arts, then you can do it too.”

“Can’t we just knock him out?”

“Then how do you plan on interrogating him? Please think and then talk.”

“Ah…. Right.”

Ha-ryun, who was listening to them, grunted through his teeth.

Grunt!

‘These… these bastards!’

It was fortunate that he could no longer feel the pain of Mumu breaking his hand, but he couldn’t stand the shame.

He didn’t think that they would seal his blood points when he was in such a ridiculous state.

But that was just for a while, and it was a really embarrassing time.

So, he pretended to faint, but the situation now was so weird, that he decided to try and endure it.

‘How much longer will it take now?’

Jo Mae-hee still hadn’t come back yet.

Now that this happened, the needles memorized with the Tang family’s techniques wouldn’t be of much use.

‘Damn it!’

He couldn’t find any way to escape from this situation.

Fortunately, he managed to hold off certain blood points being touched when Jin-hyuk came for him.

‘I could aim for the gap.’

But at that moment, Jin-hyuk bent towards him and asked.

“Are you the one who threw the powder onto me last night?”

At that question, Ha-ryun deliberately rolled his eyes.

“I… it is…. Hot… so hot… today.”

Seeing that, Mo Il-hwa frowned.

“What is with him? Why is he talking like that?”

“Hun… hungry…. Giv… give me… something to… eat.”

Ha-ryun kept spitting out useless words.

There were some people in the White Valley who often acted dumb to get away from a situation.

Ha-ryun was following them.

“Frog… frog… hehehe.”

He drooled saliva and showed a passionate performance.

It would be strange if they weren’t deceived.

Hae-ryang looked at Ha-ryun and said,

“It seems like the needle, which was stuck to his brain, did something, Miss.”

“Is that so?”

“If not, do you think he would act like this? That would be weird.”

Jin-hyuk looked at Ha-ryun and frowned.

He was trying to figure out what he did to Mumu, but he couldn’t.

“Now that the assignment of dorms is done, let’s take him…”

At that moment, Mo Il-hwa stopped Jin-hyuk.

“Let me check on something before that.”

“Huh?”

“Mumu. Just like before, hold him tight.”

‘!?’

Ha-ryun, who was showing a passionate performance, quickly became flustered.

He fully understood what she wanted to check and confirm.

However, it would be crazy for him to try and endure the tight grip of Mumu once again.

“Can I hold him that tightly?”

“Yes.”

“But if you hold it tighter, then he might break so…”

“If he has something wrong in his head, I doubt he could remember this, but hold him.”

At Mo Il-hwa’s words, Ha-ryun cursed at her in his mind.

‘This woman, she acts like she has some kind of grudge against me!’

Shhh!

And Mumu tried to grab him.

In that instant, Ha-ryun turned his head.

Thinking of the past experience he had to go through, he decided that he couldn’t stand that pain once again.

Ha-ryun…

“Stop it!”

Eventually, he stopped acting.

Mo Il-hwa shuddered at that.

“Oh my, his mind is back to normal.”

He really wanted to kill this woman, and just this woman, if possible.

Ha-ryun, suppressing his anger, opened his mouth.

“Why are you doing this to me? What sin have I committed for you to surround me like this?”

Ha-ryun changed his way of speaking.

As long as this was the case, he had to make sure they didn’t doubt him.

To that, Jin-hyuk spoke in an angry voice.

“Are you pretending to not know? Didn’t you, Ha-ryun, throw that powder into Mumu’s room last night?”

“I don’t know.”

“The same powder is in your belongings, and you still don’t know?”

“Yes, I don’t know.”

Ha-ryun remained silent.

Jin-hyuk grabbed him by the collar and said.

“Mumu was lucky enough to avoid it, but because of what you did I almost got hit by the people who were expelled from the academy today. And you are still saying that you don’t know? Are you acting smart and faking your innocence?”

“Didn’t I say that I don’t know?”

“Even till the end, this bastard…!”

“Ha? Will you hit me again? Would a person who entered the Heavenly Martial arts Academy, who is required to have nice principles, immobilize their opponents in such a manner and frame them afterwards?”

Jin-hyuk clenched his teeth at Ha-ryun’s words.

He was furious.

Despite them having such condemning evidence, he wanted to give Ha-ryun a strong blow to his face for acting so innocently.

However, as the guy said, sealing his blood points was something that they shouldn’t have done.

And that made him enraged.

To which Mo Il-hwa said.

“Yah, why are you caring so much about what this one is spouting? If he did something like that, he would be forced to leave. Let’s just hand him over to the management of the academy.”

Ha-ryun frowned at those words.

Now, this was tough.

The situation would be more difficult if he was handed over to the management.

As Mo Il-hwa said, the worst-case scenario for him was being expelled.

And if he had to go back without achieving what he came here to do…

‘If I get expelled, then Master Heo will kill me.’

And that had to be stopped.

Somehow, he had to wait till Jo Mae-hee came back.

Ha-ryun hurriedly spoke.

“You people are asking the wrong person.”

“Wrong person?”

“The real culprit is there, so why are you holding me and threatening me?”

At those words, Jin-hyuk said.

“Don’t try to fool us.”

“Fool you? Ha. Right. Then hand me over to the management. Even though the criminal is someone else, you are unfairly framing me, and I will be expelled despite being innocent.”

“Innocent?”

Jin-hyuk frowned.

Even though there was obvious evidence, it was becoming questionable that he was acting so boldly.

At that, Jin-hyuk relaxed his hand on Ha-ryun’s collar.

“Then who is the real culprit?”

To his question, Ha-ryun then pointed to Hae-ryang.

“Isn’t that guy holding the evidence that the criminal left?”

“Evidence?”

Everyone looked at Hae-ryang’s hand.

In his hand was the needle belonging to the Tang family.

‘The Tang family is the culprit?’

Jin-hyuk narrowed his eyes.

Ha-ryun did say that, and he also had doubts about why the Tang family’s needle was here.

And Hae-ryang whispered to Mo Il-hwa.

“It isn’t an unreasonable story. The Tang family also knows about poison and medicine.”

“Is that so?”

“You. And even more than that, this guy too, didn’t he have this needle inside him?”

“Ah…”

Ha-ryun’s eyes twinkled at those words.

He was worried about it, but seeing their reaction, he knew he could push in this direction.

‘It is fine if I push it onto that woman.’

Well, Mumu had passed out, so he couldn’t even have known what had happened.

Besides, Jo Mae-hee would come back after killing Tang So-so soon.

And then he could pretend that all of this was done by Tang So-so.

‘Even if we can’t kill Mumu right away, we can avoid their doubts right now.’

On the contrary, this seemed better.

Later, he could use this excuse too.

Once he organized the story in his head, Ha-ryun opened his mouth.

“Yah, I didn’t think you were stupid. You’re right. That girl from the Tang family did this.”

“A girl from the Tang family?”

“Right. Jo Mae-hee and I were beaten by that girl.”

“What do you mean?”

“I have a personal relationship with Jo Mae-hee. But Jo Mae-hee acted indifferently, so I pursued her, and there I saw Mumu being seduced.”

There was something important about the lie.

It was clever to use the truth, which he partly knew.

80% of the truth with 20% of lies.

And that worked.

‘What? Really?’

Jin-hyuk was confused.

This seemed plausible.

Since there was truth in there, and that confused them more.

“So, what happened?”

“Likewise, whether it was because of poison or not, Mumu suddenly attacked Jo Mae-hee. Can you see those marks?”

“…”

“I thought she might have died, so I tried to stop Mumu.”

“Stop Mumu?”

“Right. Somehow, after Mumu passed out from exhaustion, Jo Mae-hee tried to subdue him when Tang So-so of the Tang family appeared.”

Hearing these words, Hae-ryang gulped and asked.

“So, she did this?”

“I didn’t notice it. Because on the way, Jo Mae-hee lost, so I came in to fight her, and then this was used on me.”

Ha-ryun felt a sense of bliss inside.

It was a perfect acknowledgment of his innocence.

He thought the people present there would be confused with the story he made.

Mo Il-hwa pointed to the pouch and asked.

“Then what is this? This was in your sleeve.”

“It’s not mine. Can’t you see? Maybe the girl from the Tang family put this on me to frame me for this.”

Mo Il-hwa shut her mouth.

To simply dismiss this as a lie was difficult.

It seemed like the guy was telling the truth.

‘Why won’t they believe this story?’

Realizing that they were being suspicious, Ha-ryun said.

“Do it in moderation and release me. Otherwise, the management will tell you that you caught an innocent person…”

“That’s a lie.”

Mumu said.

At Mumu’s words, Ha-ryun snorted.

“What is the lie?”

“These small pouches smell of you.”

“What?”

“When things are with someone for a long time, the smell of the person will take time to fade from the object, and that doesn’t smell like So-so.”

Ha-ryun couldn’t hide his shock.

Even before it was like this, was he some kind of dog? How can a normal human do something like recognizing faint smells?

“You, how can you know what Tang So-so smells like?”

“Because I talked to Tang So-so.”

Mumu had talked with Tang So-so before.

And he remembered her smell, and the pouch with Ha-ryun didn’t smell like Tang So-so.

As if it was ridiculous, Ha-ryun said.

“Are you sure you can believe this guy?”

At his question, M Il-hwa said,

“Yah. Don’t you feel like you have forgotten something?” 1

“What?”

“That Mumu was able to figure out the scent of powder in the pouch?”

Jin-hyuk said with a tone that he understood.

“Your words indeed sound plausible, but I trust Mumu more.”

‘These jerks!’

At those words, Ha-ryun started losing it.

He made the best story to portray his innocence, but now it was thought to be a lie because of this dog-like bastard!

Towards Ha-ryun, Mo Il-hwa clicked her tongue and said.

“This bastard’s mouth will only spit out lies. Let’s not listen to him anymore and hand him over to the management with the pouch.”

“I unconditionally agree with the Miss.”

Hae-ryang added.

When once again they were talking about handing him over, Ha-ryun clenched his teeth.

There really was no other way.

Somehow…

Phat!

And then he heard a popping sound.

Judging from the direction the sound came from, it must have been Jo Mae-hee.

‘She is coming now.’

There was no need to talk with these people anymore.

Ha-ryun began to release the seals which he had covered with his own energy to fool them.

And once it was done.

Pak!

Jin-hyuk, who was holding the collar, was pushed away by his kick.

When Jin-hyuk was pushed back, Da-ryun said,

“Damn bastards. I’ll see that you’re done for today.”

“Done for today?”

‘!?’

Hearing the voice from behind, Ha-ryun turned his head, clearly bewildered at the voice he heard.

But what he saw was Tang So-so and not Jo Mae-hee, who was standing there.

“How are you here?”

When did she appear?

“So-so!”

Mumu greeted her with a waving hand.

At that, Tang So-so waved his hand.

“Mumu!”

‘What?’

He couldn’t figure out why Jo Mae-hee, who was supposed to be here, didn’t come.

Despite being injured, he thought that she could handle Tang So-so because she was very skilled.

But suddenly, the one he saw was Tang So-so.

‘No?’

Mo Il-hwa was surprised and said,

“Senior So-so, that hand?”

“Ahh. What was that wench’s name? Was it Jo Mae-hee or whatever? In the Sacred Heavenly Martial arts academy, our… hmm, she tried to aim for the life of my precious junior who was unconscious.”

Tang So-so was flustered as she spoke.

The arm she was holding belonged to Jo Mae-hee.

The goal of Jo Mae-hee was wrecked.

‘How did this happen?’

Ha-ryun was dumbfounded.

Does this mean that Tang So-so defeated her?

That meant, Jo Mae-hee’s injuries must have been more serious than he had predicted.

‘Shit!’

Now it didn’t matter.

The only option he had now was to run away with all his might.

Ha-ryun concentrated his energy into his entire body. And his body suddenly moved to an empty place.

Pha!

“We can’t let him go!”

Mo Il-hwa shouted.

At that moment.

Bang!

The sand on the ground surged like waves, and Mumu moved.

And in an instant, Mumu blocked Ha-ryun’s path.

However, Ha-ryun, who expected this to some extent, had used his energy to the peak.

‘Pretentious people! Absolute movement, 7th formation.’

A crack appeared on his right hand, but he endured it.

As Mumu swung his fists, the sand hit his body.

Papapak!

Mumu, shocked at the form he had witnessed for the first time, crossed his arms.

And the fist went straight for Mumu, who was blocking it.

‘I see a gap.’

As expected.

Seeing Mumu fight with Jo Mae-hee, he found out the loopholes he could use to fight Mumu.

Compared to his immense strength, Mumu hadn’t mastered any martial arts, so his moves were all over the place.

So, in front of a proper technique, he couldn’t respond.

Papapak!

Ha-ryun flew through the gap.

Mumu’s clothes were ripped with the constant hits, and he was pushed back. Each and every fist of the technique coming for him was targeting him with the aim to kill.

Since the attacks were filled with internal energy, no matter how strong a person was, they couldn’t avoid taking damage.

‘I will keep pushing until you fall!’

Papapak!

Dozens more fists went for Mumu.

Mumu was pushed back.

‘He surely is amazing. But that is the end now.’

As Ha-ryun saw the internal energy digging into Mumu’s body, he thought that Mumu would soon collapse.

“You are annoying like a fly.”

“What?”

Did this guy, someone who was being beaten up like this, call his opponent a fly?

With his hands crossed, Mumu turned the dial on his right hand.

Kiiirk!

The number on the dial was changed from 8 to 5.

At that moment,

Kwak! Ack!

Mumu’s right arm muscles expanded.

‘This?’

It was the same change that had happened when he had fought with Jo Mae-hee.

Ha-ryun, who sensed an incoming crisis, hurriedly tried to distance himself from Mumu.

However, Mumu’s fist was much faster.

Mumu swung his right arm, with his hand balled up into a fist, towards Ha-ryun,

‘N-Need to move!’

Ha-ryun tried to block Mumu’s fist, and at the same time, tried to let it flow by using the grafting flower technique.

However,

Pak!

“Ugh!”

Whatever it was, the palms of both hands of Ha-ryun bounced off without being able to do anything, and Mumu’s fists dug into his chest.

Ha-ryun clenched his teeth in an instant and gave strength to his legs.

‘I need to endure this.’

He raised the internal energy to the peak.

No matter how powerful Mumu was, Ha-ryun thought that he could block this hit.

However,

Puck! Crack!

“Kuak!”

It was a huge destructive force.

At the moment of being hit, he made sure to defend his body with internal energy, yet his breastbone cracked, and Ha-ryun was pushed back.

Bounce!

After a while, he stopped.

Just looking at the ground, which now had two deep lines following the path he was pushed back, made him faintly grasp just how strong the power he endured was.

Ha-ryun knelt down and coughed up blood.

‘N… no way!’

Even though he raised the internal energy to his maximum, he couldn’t withstand this destructive power.

It was beyond common sense.

He didn’t understand how such a monster could have existed.

Step!

He was in agony when he heard Mumu step closer to him.

Ha-ryun raised his head.

However, his eyes, which were looking at Mumu, saw something else.

‘… tha, that?’

On Mumu’s neck was a flat jade plaque hanging from his chest in a pattern that Ha-ryun recognized.

An unusual pattern that had two lines drawn on a triangle.

What he had heard a few months ago ran through Ha-ryun’s mind.

Ha-ryun, who passed the last gate in White valley, asked his mentors.

[As promised, tell me. If we do succeed in the world, who will lead the 8 families? Is it our White Valley?]

[No.]

[Then is it the Thousand Peaks Valley or Demon Blood family?]

[No.]

[Then Teacher, who is going to assume the role of the Lord ?]

As a response to that, the man, his mentor, drew something on the ground with a stick.

It was a peculiar pattern, two lines drawn within a triangle.

[Engrave this pattern in your mind.]

[What is this?]

[If you meet a person with this pattern on jade, unconditionally…]

Ha-ryun, who looked at Mumu’s jade with trembling eyes, fell to the floor.

And then slammed his head three times to the ground.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

And he began to bleed.

It meant absolute loyalty.

[… swear allegiance with your life.]

[Allegiance? No way!]

[Right. That person is the true heir and Lord of the Eight families.]