plumnovel Chapter 250
Chapter 250
“Never lay a hand on the Tang Clan again.”As if he had expected it, the Blood Demon was not surprised. He merely nodded and agreed.
"Very well. I promise I won't lay a hand on the Tang Clan anymore."
However, So-hwa added one more condition.
"And give me the administrator stationed in the Black Pavilion's archive."
"That's not possible."
The Blood Demon refused flatly.
So-hwa stepped back, as if retreating, and changed her demand.
"Then give me five volumes of the Black Pavilion's secret records."
"The secret records cannot be taken outside."
"Copied records will do."
After falling silent for a moment, the Blood Demon's eyes lifted upward.
Judging whether that much was acceptable, his gleaming dark-red eyes lowered back to her.
"Let's make it five copied volumes."
"One per person."
"One per person?"
"There's no way you'd be satisfied with just one, is there? You captured blood kin from the Outer Regions, turned them into a farm, and thoroughly humiliated them."
Tang So-hwa's voice was cold.
"You wanted the vessel of the Main Blood Hall Lord badly enough to even say you'd give up the Solar Palace. Until you grasp a vessel you like even more, you'll keep taking more."
The Blood Demon's lips split wide as they curved upward.
"You're not wrong, so I have no grounds to refuse. Once you produce a vessel that pleases me, and if afterward I come to covet the vessel between you and the Main Blood Hall Lord, would five volumes really matter? I'll increase the number of secret records you can take per person."
Meeting his red gaze, So-hwa spoke,
"Even after all this talk, it means nothing if the Main Blood Hall Lord is dead, so I'll check the Hall Lord's condition."
"Mm, his condition probably isn't very good."
With a calm face, So-hwa stared down the endless corridor.
"Are there only the two of you in the Solar Palace?"
"The ones with any sense all ran away. Do you really think it's necessary to kill those who fled into the desert just to survive?"
"They were vessels you cherished in the Solar Palace, so you couldn't bear to kill them. You can always capture them later."
The Blood Demon let out a soft laugh.
"Tsk, you really don't know how to gild someone's face with words. In any case, there's no one here to attend to things, so you'll have to move on your own. Even fetching water will be your job."
So-hwa recalled the sound of water she had heard on this level. As if he had read her thoughts, the Blood Demon mentioned it himself.
"There's a place on this level where groundwater comes up. I left Haerak there, so find it yourself."
The Blood Demon closed his eyes. It seemed difficult for him to resist the drowsiness pouring over him.
So-hwa was about to step away, but disliking the sight of him falling comfortably asleep, she roused him out of spite.
"Is there a Medical Hall as well?"
"I've never been there, but it's a palace in name, how could there not be one?"
Just as she was about to leave, something caught at So-hwa, and she turned back.
"Then what are you planning to do here, in a place with no attendants?"
She found it strange that the Blood Demon remained in a palace where he had to do everything himself. No, it was strange that he had left not a single attendant behind. A sense of unease crept in.
Soon, the suspicion gnawing at her drilled into her ears.
"As the owner, I intend to watch the breeding of the pets I've raised so carefully."
"Are you afflicted with some illness that kills you if you speak decently?"
"Haha, that's not something you should be saying, is it?"
There was no expression on So-hwa's face, but her eyes were filled with disgust.
"I have no intention of doing anything like that in front of you. I won't even allow you to sense it."
"Hm? Then how am I supposed to know whether you're making a vessel or not?"
"I don't see why you need to know that in the first place."
"I do need to know. Who's to say you won't trick me, pretend to copulate, and then run away?"
So-hwa replied in an icy tone,
"If I have to bare everything to you, then let's call the whole thing off. I have no intention of allowing a perverted old man to voyeuristically watch. I'd rather be confined to Jin Yin Mountain for the rest of my life."
"Do you not realize that once you've already appeared before me, you have no choice?"
The Blood Demon said so with his eyes closed.
At that, So-hwa let out a hollow laugh.
"Do you really think copulation is everything? If I don't cooperate, you can't obtain a vessel from me. Even if you use whatever means to forcibly make me and the Main Blood Hall Lord copulate, if I give up, the vessel will never come into this world."
The Blood Demon opened one eye halfway. He seemed to understand what she meant.
As if to confirm that thought, So-hwa warned him,
"Remember this well, at least for nine months, the one without a choice won't be me, but you."
"Mm."
The Blood Demon scratched his chin, as if pondering.
Soon, a drowsy voice followed.
"But then, how would I know if you've conceived a child?"
"You only find out once there is a child."
So-hwa looked at him as if asking whether she really had to explain something like this. And then she realized.
The Blood Demon was holding back laughter.
He had been spouting absurd nonsense just to toy with her.
"I didn't think you would show me either. Haerak, even less so. I'm someone for whom only the result matters as well, so as long as you place a child in my arms, I don't care. I have no interest whatsoever in your Haerak."
As if still short on sleep, the Blood Demon closed his eyes and reclined into the plush chair.
So-hwa turned away, biting the inside of her lip. She felt humiliated, but she soothed herself with the thought that the day she would repay it in kind was not far off.
Climbing back up to this level, So-hwa stopped in front of a window.
Shraack.
Her eyes narrowed for a moment at the suddenly opened view, but soon adjusted to the light. After opening a window, she turned her head toward where the sound of water had come from. Then she flinched sharply.
The Main Blood Hall Lord was sitting there, slumped against the wall, looking as though he was either unconscious or dead.
So-hwa understood then why she had not sensed Min Haerak's presence here. Stakes had been driven into his body. Wooden posts seemed to have sealed his meridians.
So-hwa approached him and pulled out the stakes embedded in his body one by one.
Perhaps there was still blood left to spill; from the large holes, bloody fluid slowly seeped out.
His appearance was a wreck, but they were injuries he would recover from quickly once he regained consciousness. After all, there was no way the Blood Demon would kill Haerak, so he would not have put his life in danger.
'If the meridians blocking the Extreme Yang energy are released, the pain will be horrific, though.......'
So-hwa gathered the blood-soaked stakes to one side and slipped her hand into her sleeve.
She checked her belongings with a faint hope, but inside her sleeve, there were only lethal poisons and antidotes. Since Min Haerak had not been poisoned, all of them were useless.
So-hwa looked around.
The outlines of areas still submerged in darkness were faintly visible. Vessels that looked like large jars were stacked on one side, and beside them, dry cloth had been neatly folded.
So-hwa walked over in that direction.
Shraack.
Pulling the cloth aside further, the interior became clearer.
In the center of the room was a small fountain. Where the water surged upward and fell, there was a long basin like a bath, its end connected to a window so that the water spilled outside.
Plants had been planted around the waterway. It seemed they were cultivating vegetation using groundwater.
So-hwa hesitated over whether to clean Min Haerak's body now, then decided to look for medicine first and went down to the first floor.
As expected, the Solar Palace also had a Medical Hall. Like any Murim power, they would often be injured.
The Solar Palace's apothecary had an especially large number of salves. So-hwa applied them one by one herself or put a little in her mouth to identify what each was.
She gathered medicines that would prevent wounds from festering and aid recovery. She also wrapped several medicinal ingredients she recognized in cloth.
There was no distiller in sight, but since there was a human distiller on this level, she would be able to decoct things in a similar way.
As So-hwa climbed the stairs again, she frowned. Min Haerak was sitting unconscious on the landing.
Behind his massive body, she could see bloodstained footprints on the stairs. It seemed he had crawled out, unable to endure it any longer, and then collapsed.
Seeing how he tried to go to the Blood Demon with that body the moment he regained consciousness, she could understand why he was called a mad dog.
Unlike the Blood Demon or herself, Min Haerak needed time to recover.
Letting out a sigh, she supported Min Haerak. At that moment, Haerak's hand slackened, and something fell to the floor.
Thud.
So-hwa seated the Main Blood Hall Lord back on the stairs and picked up the small object.
A thin line formed between her pale brows.
It was someone's finger.
So-hwa held it up to her own hand to compare. It looked like the ring finger of someone with large hands. Soon, So-hwa's dark eyes grew heavy.
She had guessed what it was.
The Blood Demon's ring finger.
Her gaze fell back to the Main Blood Hall Lord.
So-hwa grasped the situation.
The Blood Demon would never have willingly given up his finger—no, the Yang energy of the Solar Palace he held—so Haerak must truly have fought at the risk of his life.
She now understood why the Blood Demon had driven stakes into Haerak's body to pin him down.
If he tried to crawl out even while unconscious, it was easy to imagine what he had been like when he was fully conscious.
So-hwa held her breath for a moment and closed her eyes.
The Blood Demon seemed to be sleeping fitfully. Like waves, the wind carried an abhorrent stench to her, then withdrew, over and over.
The rotten blood scent and the presence of another that had groped at her for so long gradually faded. Still, there was no telling when they might return.
Opening her eyes again, So-hwa quietly supported Haerak and returned to where the water was.