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Chapter 146: Chapter 18, Episode 7: The Returning Battle

The story dated back to decades earlier, when Black Mamba, no, Mu Ssang, was fighting a bloody battle against Chui Do Shik’s group.

Mu Ssang had always doubted Chui Do Shik’s survival, and he had indeed survived. Someone had once said a person fated to die would die by a scratch to the hand, and a person fated to live would survive a hole to the heart.

Chui Do Shik, who was afraid of the evil spirit that followed him with an ax, had run to the best of his abilities. His speed would have caused a racing horse to froth at the mouth. His pressured heart had allowed him to speed up.

Blood spurted out of his sliced arm and neck.

His pouring blood was swept alongside the falling snow blizzard, creating a rainbow of blood. Even if Mu Ssang abandoned the lackeys, he would have had a hard time catching up to Chui Do Shik.

Chui Do Shik looked critical. A pencil-thick stalactite penetrated the larynx and poked out the other side. It looked like the hairpin women wore horizontally in their hair.

If Chui Do Shik’s major vein had been penetrated, he would have died instantly. It was where all the nerves were concentrated. A surgical scalpel was embedded deeply near his dantian. His left arm was missing from the elbow up. His broken ribs, which had shattered from the wooden needle he’d thrown, wasn’t even an injury.

Those were injuries any average person would have died from, but Chui Do Shik wasn’t an average person. He was someone who had been trained in the secret long-living technique of Higashi Hongan-ji.

Chui Do Shik hadn’t died, but he was on the brink of greeting King Yeomla.

He hung onto life as he was desperate to live and executed the ninja’s long-living technique until he took his last breath.

He had stopped the flow of blood in his arm and lower stomach, but there wasn’t a way to stop the blood coming out of his neck. He refocused his concentration from the loss of blood into making full use of his secret pace. The secret pace wasn’t the right technique to use to cover long distances. However, for short distances, it could create an explosive speed within five kilometers.

“Chik-sho! Okyubo-mono!”

Lament left his mouth as he felt the pain of betrayal from his student. Of course, Chui Do Shik was the only one who considered Mu Ssang his disciple. To Mu Ssang, Chui Do Shik was his archenemy.

Energy seeped out of his dantian, where the scalpel was embedded. He hadn’t gone ten li before the explosive speed decreased rapidly. If number 37 came after him, he’d die. His speed continued to decrease despite his desperate heart.

The back of his head tickled when he imagined the blue-tinted ax, which was unlike Mjolnir.

“Kono-yaro, koroshite-yaru.”[1]

Unknown words of rage and curses came out of Chui Do Shik’s mouth—incomprehensible with his harsh breaths. A leopard cat that was searching for food ran away at the sight of Chui Do Shik’s crazed eyes.

“Haa, there’s no such thing as death for Japan’s first-rate citizen!”

Chui Do Shik, who managed to escape to Sang-Nam from Mi-san valley, smiled in relief.

The regional road 451 appeared brightly. A motorbike came into sight around the bend with two uneven roars of the engine.

Vrrrr—

Chui Do Shik, who was standing on the lower bank of the mountain, attacked the bike.

Despite his critical injuries, he approximately landed 10 meters of distance gracefully, like an owl.

Chui Do Shik landed on the motorbike’s handle like a ghost.

Crack—

The rider flew over the edge of the cliff before he had time to process the impact on his chin.

Chui Do Shik, who managed to shatter the rider’s chin with his silent attack, twirled around by the grip of his hand on the handle and landed on the seat. His movements were soft to the point that Namsadang group’s eldest master would have cried.

Craack—

The motorbike, along with its new master, disappeared into the darkness. The poor gas deliverer’s corpse would only be found in spring when the snow melted. A hardworking delivery man who was delivering gas to an all-purpose store and food stop in Sang-Nam disappeared, just like that.

There was a White-White cult’s safe house in Hongcheon’s Gwangwon-ri. A middle-aged couple sold dried fish in a normal two-story slab building in Hongcheon market. The couple had both gone under a willing operation for the White-White cult.

Chui Do Shik arrived at the safe house by the time dawn came, covered in blood. A ninja always prepared his own safe house in consideration of the worst-case scenario. It was a safety measure for unknown dangers.

Chui Do Shik began his restoration project once he arrived safely at his safe house. Basic medicine and surgical tools were prepared there.

The stalactite piercing his neck was his greatest concern. The stalactite, which was as thick as a pencil, had destroyed his cervical spine and airway. Both were strung and skewered together like a mountain bandit. He had stopped the bleeding by pressuring the vein, but the blood had started to flow in reverse, causing internal damages.

The White-White cult arrived one by one after receiving the emergency call while Chui Do Shik was treating himself in the safe house. They immediately took their cult leader to the nearest surgical hospital in Hongcheon.

The nurse who was dozing off at the front desk woke up in surprise as though she was struck by lightning. She didn’t even have the time to scream at Chui Do Shik’s damaged appearance. The bodyguards shouted at the shaking nurse to prepare a surgery room.

Chui Do Shik was a doctor who had graduated from the medical university of The University of Tokyo. He conducted his own surgery by looking at a mirror. The nurse fainted at the sight of the stalactite being pulled out without anesthesia.

The cult members immediately kidnapped the doctor’s family.

Chui Do Shik was treated at the hospital for a month while he held the doctor’s wife and daughter as hostages. The doctor sent out a vacation notice before treating Chui Do Shik under the surveillance of other cult members.

The broken airway was replaced with an artificial airway. When the first round of treatment was concluded on the 45th day, Chui Do Shik returned to his safe house in Gwangwon-ri.

Chui Do Shik wasn’t grateful to the doctor who gave him the treatment. Other humans were nothing more than tools, aside from himself. There was no difference between the doctors and nurses, compared to the scissors and needles. His bodyguards moved the hospital’s equipment and medicines to the safe house. The doctor and his family disappeared without a trace.

There was a cause and effect for everything in the world. Mu Ssang had fought back in order to live. That action had caused a butterfly effect, causing an innocent gas delivery man, a doctor and his family, and a young nurse to die. Who would have guessed the cause behind their deaths!

Chui Do Shik began to treat his internal injuries after finishing up on the visible wounds. Internal treatment lasted longer than surgical treatment. It was due to the blocked ki points, which were damaged from the reverse blood flow.

Grit—

Chui Do Shik gritted his teeth as he honed his mind and body into treating himself. To catch the dog which had bit its owner, he didn’t rest. Both his internal and outer injuries turned for the better, but his rage turned out for the worse.

He had spent over six months using the secret method to treat his internal injuries. He had recovered over 90% of his dantian, but the loss of his left hand impacted greatly. It had been a clean, fearsome shot, which would have cleaved his neck off.

Recalling the rampaging blood lust and lightning fast hand movements of number 37 made his heart freeze over. He lost over 10 years of his life using the Higashi Hongan-ji’s secret long-living technique to treat his internal injuries.

The long-living technique increased the body’s hidden potential using Higashi Hongan-ji’s secret liquid medicine. The telomere grew shorter by forcing the cells to grow.

He recalled the humiliating and threatening events of that day.

There was the benefit of a surprise attack, but he could have killed the b*stard easily. The scalpel that the b*stard had thrown in that brief moment had ruined his dantian.

He had failed to retaliate due to the scattering ki, and had even lost his arm to the b*stard’s ax. It had been a clean shot, fast as lightning and cut through the weaves of air. If it hadn’t been for the minute instinct he’d grown over the years, his neck would have fallen. The b*stard was a genius martial artist who evolved himself constantly.

Coming out of the lotus position, Chui Do Shik stretched his hand and legs. Slicing, bending, shaking, grabbing—his hand and feet began to move more quickly. Wind began to flow within the room.

Throb—

A strong wave of pain welled up from his dantian. Chui Do Shik stopped his warm-up and frowned. His balance shook once his body lagged.

“Phew!”

A sigh escaped. At his current condition, there was no promise as to when he’d fully heal.

Grit—

His teeth gritted automatically. He got angrier the more he thought. The cave he’d named his sanctuary, was equipped with the best conditions. It was a hiding place he’d reinforced with immense amounts of money and people.

One eel had ruined his great plan. His plan to create superhumans within the sanctuary and organize a pro-Japanese faction in the government had fallen to ruins.

He had to give up the sanctuary to Bang Tae San. There was no use for a revealed location. His emotional pain was greater as he had been back-stabbed by someone he considered his disciple.

Cough—

When violent energy rose, a trail of blood came out from his mouth.

He hurried to stabilise his inner energy. Violent changes of emotions only delayed the recovery speed as it badly affected his body.

“To think I’ll be betrayed by the dog I raised!”

He still couldn’t believe that he was ambushed by number 37. He couldn’t imagine how the b*stard escaped the cave.

There was a security device attached to the stalactite cave and its door. When the switch was operated from within the cave, an emergency siren rang, locking the door. Although initially, there was no way number 37 could find the door, he couldn’t figure out why the siren hadn’t rung.

Chui Do Shik couldn’t have known that Mu Ssang escaped from the stalactite cave by the small slot between the rocks, so his questions only ran deeper. Assuming he had escaped from the cave, he couldn’t imagine how the subject approached close enough to land a fatal blow without leaving a presence.

He was someone who’d received the secret ninja techniques of Higashi Hongan-ji.

He could feel a bug approach. But he had been tricked by that b*stard.

Of course, number 37 was someone with impressive abilities. His physical aspects, which were unlocked, were something that overpowered himself. But things which remained unlocked would remain a hidden possibility. A lion was prone to be eaten by wild dogs after all.

Then what happened to the five on guard?

There was no way the five brainwashed guards would leave number 37 alone. Number 37 was rabid. There were five elite guards, but the winning chances were slim. There was a high possibility they maimed each other.

“Ah!”

Chui Do Shik slapped his knee. There was buried gold in the secret room. Number 37 would have had no way of knowing, but worldly matters ran that way. The fact that he managed to escape didn’t make sense.

He needed money to maintain his power and build a future. Chui Do Shik dragged his unstable body and went to search for the gold himself.

Chui Do Shik’s Japanese name was “Sai Dojiku.”

Before he left, he was someone who had established the White-White cult in Busan and Kimhae, amassing the numbers of followers to the point of raising the cult’s prestige.

Chui Do Shik had been abandoned by the Ji-ri mountain’s river, not a hundred days old. A Japanese monk, Takahashi, took him in after seeing the baby turn blue, almost close to death.

Takahashi was Otaniryu’s head leader, an enemy of Japan’s Higashi Hongan-ji. Takahashi had taken the abandoned Chui Do Shik in during his return from visiting Ji-ri mountain’s Cheoneun-sa.

Higashi Hongan-ji was a mainland ethnic group sent from the mainland Hongan-ji during the Sengoku Era, in the year 1244. In 1602, Dokugawa Ieyase ordered a Hongan-ji’s monk, called Kyono, to create ninjas.

When Kyono established a separate temple in the eastern lands that he was awarded, Hongan-ji was divided into Higashi Hongan-ji and Nishi Hongan-ji.

Higashi Hongan-ji became Shinsengumi’s headquarters during the last years of the Edo era, and the main training center for roamers and ninjas. That later developed into tradition, creating a line of ninjas called the Otanipa.

The former called the ninjas, a samurai’s dog.

It was absurd. The ninjas of Sengoku were simply another division of martial artists.

Samurai were Japan’s upper class elites. If there was a difference between them and Korea’s elites, it was that samurais carried a sword, while Joseon elites carried a smoking pipe. Many ninjas became war generals during the Sengoku era. In the end, samurais could be regarded as social rank, while ninjas were martial artists.

When the Joseon era entered the revolutionary stage, and with Busan’s Dharma school at the center, Higashi Hongan-ji immersed themselves in economical activities and the spread of the White-White cult. It was a place that later became the Japanese soldier’s base when Japan attacked Joseon.

According to the ninja’s rule, they had to begin training from their teenage years when the bones were still flexible. When they turned over 15, the bones would have hardened, making it harder for them to train the secret methods.

No parent wished to turn their child over to the infamous, inhumane teachings of Higashi Hongan-ji. However, Higashi Hongan-ji managed to fill in their numbers by kidnapping children or orphans. For Takahashi, it was normal to take in Chui Do Shik.

Takahashi was satisfied after finding out Chui Do Shik had a superior frame. He adopted Chui Do Shik, and raised him as a ninja. Takahashi, who supported the far-right, began to hatch a long-term plan to raise Chui Do Shik into Korea’s Higashi Hongan-ji’s branch head.

[1] “That son of a b***h, I’ll kill him.”