The Divine And Demonic Doctor [EN]: Chapter 392

Kadudal, captured by Cho Ak-ryang and brought into Shinma Valley, looked around blankly, utterly captivated.

Even he, who had seen more places than most, had never witnessed such mysteriously beautiful scenery.

“How could such a place exist…!”

Kadudal, who had unconsciously exclaimed, flinched.

He felt a sharp sting on the back of his neck and head. Turning slightly, he met Cho Ak-ryang’s eyes, blazing with anger.

“Welcome. We’ve been waiting for you.”

“Doctor Dan!”

Just then, Kadudal spotted Dan Ak-seon walking out of a building and cried out plaintively.

Everyone looked puzzled at Kadudal’s tearful approach.

They were unaware of the farce that had unfolded at the entrance of Muwi a moment ago.

“What’s wrong with him?”

Bum Gye-wi grinned and nodded towards Neung So-mil, who was tilting his head in confusion.

“I would be too. Anyone would be happy and excited to see Doctor Dan after a long time.”

Judging by Han Seol-hwa’s snort from behind, there was clearly a reason, but Neung So-mil didn’t bother to ask.

Dan Ak-seon had business with him at the moment.

Dan Ak-seon handed Kadudal the folding fan he had left behind long ago.

“Tell me honestly, what is this?”

Kadudal flinched at the sight of the fan.

“Th, that’s…”

Flustered, Kadudal hesitated, glancing around.

After a moment of wavering, he seemed to give up under the fierce pressure and sharp gazes from all directions, and finally opened his mouth.

“…It’s an item of the Cheonma [Heavenly Demon].”

“Huh? Who?”

Bum Gye-wi asked back, thinking he had misheard.

“Cheonma? The one who fled beyond Mount Goryeon?”

“Yes, that Cheonma. Who else in the current Kangho [martial arts world] would dare to call himself Cheonma?”

Everyone present was astonished.

The astonishment grew as Kadudal, hesitant in that atmosphere, explained the detailed story.

“A long time ago, when the final battle took place in Mount Goryeon, I headed to the Demonic Sect alone. I infiltrated the Lord’s chambers, taking advantage of the lax security. That’s where I took this item from.”

“What? Why?”

Kadudal brazenly replied to Dan Ak-seon’s question.

“What reason does a thief need to steal something? It’s just that there was treasure there, so I took it. More than anything, there has never been a thief who stole an item from the Cheonma, so it would be a unique achievement to prove that I am the greatest divine thief.”

“Ha!”

Cho Ak-ryang let out a dumbfounded laugh.

“I knew he wasn’t right in the head from the start, but he’s even crazier than I thought.”

What else could he steal that he had to lay his hands on the Cheonma’s item?

At that moment, Dan Ak-seon calmly continued the questioning.

“Then why did you give me such a precious item?”

“Well… I wanted to give you the best thing…”

“Uncle.”

Dan Ak-seon cut off Kadudal’s lame excuse.

“If you lie, I can’t protect you.”

Kadudal’s face turned pale as he belatedly realized the murderous intent directed at him.

Kadudal hurriedly replied.

“It’s my greatest achievement, so I couldn’t just throw it away anywhere, and I thought the safest place in the Central Plains was by your side.”

He was unknowingly using honorifics, but Kadudal himself didn’t notice.

“Why did you leave suddenly after entrusting it to us?”

“Guys chasing me appeared. So I ran away.”

“Those pursuers must have been members of the Demonic Sect?”

Dan Ak-seon summarized the situation, facing Kadudal, who was nodding.

“So, to avoid the Demonic Sect members who were chasing you to recover the Cheonma’s item, you entrusted it to us and ran away?”

“I thought they would give up and go back after some time. Even if I were caught by them, they wouldn’t be able to kill me easily unless I revealed the location of the folding fan. Just the fact that they chased me all the way here means it’s quite a valuable item.”

Dan Ak-seon sighed softly.

Mistaking this, Kadudal knelt down on the spot.

“Please spare me! No, spare me with all my limbs intact!”

Dan Ak-seon smiled bitterly and helped Kadudal up.

“Thank you for telling me, even now. But it’s best not to leave this place for the time being.”

“…Understood.”

Kadudal replied reluctantly, wearing a tearful expression.

Leaving Kadudal behind, Dan Ak-seon looked around at the group with a heavy gaze.

“The Cheonma’s folding fan, which was originally one of a pair, just possessing one of them makes it impossible to deny that Yoo Gi-jin is connected to the Demonic Sect.”

After speaking, Dan Ak-seon approached a nearby medicine warehouse and opened the door.

“Everyone heard that, right?”

The faces of the Black Dot branch leaders trapped in the warehouse were stained with bewilderment and fear.

Yoo Gi-jin, who might even be the Black Dot Master, was related to the Demonic Sect.

That fact alone was enough to turn them pale.

Dan Ak-seon opened her mouth with a resolute voice towards them.

“I believe you know what decision you must make now.”

“…….”

“Soon, the entire Central Plains will point their swords at the Black Dot. To cut out the Black Dot that has fallen into the hands of the Demonic Sect.”

After exchanging complicated glances for a moment.

Yeop Dan-yeong rose from among the branch leaders and carefully opened his mouth.

“What must we do?”

“You must prove that you are not members of the Demonic Sect yourselves. But you must hurry, because the time given is not much.”

At those words, Yeop Dan-yeong sighed and nodded.

The other branch leaders did the same.

They soon began to reveal all the secrets they had kept hidden until the end.

An hour later.

Dan Ak-seon, who had gathered the desired information, held another meeting with the group.

“It was all his doing.”

Neung So-mil groaned.

“The Black Dot were the ones who directly carried out the large-scale disappearances in the fire field village…”

There, it matched the conditions that the current Beggars’ Sect Leader, Hong Jeok-mun, had mentioned sometime ago.

His prediction that one of the Central Plains’ information organizations was deeply involved in order to manipulate and conceal information was accurate.

Cho Ak-ryang groaned.

“Lighting the lamp right under the stand [overlooking the obvious]. It was a decisive mistake to overlook it because it was so close.”

It was a decisive mistake to unconsciously exclude suspicion because they were maintaining a cooperative relationship.

“Is this the time to be writing letters and being leisurely?”

While stopping Bum Gye-wi, who was grumbling, and Cho Ak-ryang, who was glaring at Bum Gye-wi, Dan Ak-seon opened her mouth.

“The problem is that those belonging to the Black Dot, including the branch leaders, don’t know that they were carrying out the Demonic Sect’s orders themselves.”

It was a disadvantage of a point organization where the identity of the superior could not be known.

Because they only moved according to instructions, even if the superior in the middle changed to another person, the lower-level members had no way of noticing this.

“Yoo Gi-jin didn’t even use demonic arts. It would have been difficult for anyone to notice.”

Neung So-mil received those words.

“Some of them must have noticed the suspicious circumstances. However, it would have been too late to back out, so they had no choice but to follow silently.”

The disappearance of the fire field people, which became the direct cause of conflict between the Beggars’ Sect and the Green Forest.

And through the branch leaders’ confessions, it was revealed that the Black Dot was directly involved in the incomplete demonic art manuals that were spread throughout the Central Plains.

In the end, the Demonic Sect was lurking behind all of the Black Dot’s actions.

They were not simply joining hands, but moving as if they were one body.

“Doctor Dan, shouldn’t we be taking care of the White Society first? If we delay, they’ll cut off their tails and go into hiding.”

Cho Ak-ryang nodded at Bum Gye-wi’s words.

It was truly a coincidence that they had discovered that the White Society and the Black Dot were related.

Jeon Gwang, the leader of Waho Stronghold, who lost his place after the Green Forest Assembly and was expelled from the Green Forest.

The Black Dot branch leaders’ testimony regarding him was decisive.

The one who encouraged Ak Ho-gun to cultivate poppies was none other than Jeon Gwang.

The Black Dot was the one who was in charge of contacting him and the White Society Lord.

The only place that could shake the Central Plains and profit from using poppy powder was the Demonic Sect.

That wasn’t the only circumstance in which the Black Dot was deeply involved in the White Society’s events.

Won Ji-geuk, who recently replaced the Lord and newly ascended as the Lord.

In the process, the Black Dot provided information and secretly supported Won Ji-geuk by mobilizing a large number of assassins, one of the branch leaders confessed.

Dan Ak-seon shook her head.

“Since they are also paying attention to us, if we move, they will notice and immediately hide.”

“Is there another way?”

After pondering for a moment at Han Seol-hwa’s question.

Dan Ak-seon, who had made up her mind, looked around at the group.

“I think it’s time. The Demonic Sect isn’t just our enemy, is it?”

Han Seol-hwa nodded at Dan Ak-seon’s words, and Cho Ak-ryang and Bum Gye-wi frowned.

* * *

Late at night, when even the sounds of insects had stopped.

Won Ji-geuk, who was drinking alcohol repeatedly in his residence with a troubled expression, put down his glass.

Someone had come to find him through the thick night fog surrounding him.

As expected.

Turning his head, he could see a masked man revealing only his eyes in the darkness far away.

It was an opponent who had deceived his senses and approached so closely, but Won Ji-geuk snorted lowly.

“What business does the Sect have?”

“…….”

The masked man remained silent despite Won Ji-geuk’s question.

Instead of answering, the masked man took something out of his arms and placed it on the floor, then slowly retreated and melted back into the darkness.

Won Ji-geuk reached out towards where the masked man had been standing.

Thud.

Won Ji-geuk’s eyes lit up as he retrieved the object placed on the floor using remote manipulation.

“Hmph!”

Displeasure appeared on Won Ji-geuk’s face as he realized it was a small cylinder the size of a finger.

But soon, he opened the cylinder and took out a small piece of paper rolled up inside.

It was a sensitive paper used by high-ranking officials of the Demonic Sect to secretly exchange messages, treated with a special method to react to certain conditions.

As Won Ji-geuk used his hand as he had heard sometime ago, blood-colored letters slowly appeared on the blank paper.

Won Ji-geuk frowned as he checked the contents inside.

“Give up the White Society and return to the Sect?”

Won Ji-geuk was dumbfounded.

“Are you telling me to throw away what I’ve worked so hard to build up and hide again!”

His hand, clutching the letter as if his teeth were grinding just thinking about it, trembled.

It took a considerable amount of time for the murderous intent that filled the room to subside.

Won Ji-geuk, who had barely managed to control his surging anger, sighed.

No matter how displeased he was, the Sect’s orders were absolute.

Now that the order had been given, he couldn’t just ignore it.

Won Ji-geuk got up and left his residence, and his subordinates who were attending to him followed.

Won Ji-geuk, who had gone outside, took his subordinates and found a secluded place prepared in a corner of the main group.

Squeak.

The heavy steel door, reinforced with several layers, screamed loudly as the hinges opened.

But Won Ji-geuk didn’t bat an eye.

Because he had to face the fierce murderous intent raging through the thick poisonous fog floating before his eyes.

Won Ji-geuk hurriedly opened his mouth.

“It’s me, my brother.”

“Kuh… Bro, brother?”

Won Ji-geuk said, facing Won Mu-geuk’s eyes, a pair of eyes flickering in the darkness.

“Let’s go. It’s time to go back.”

“Ha, but I… have to kill enemies…”

Won Ji-geuk smiled bitterly.

As his eyes became accustomed to the darkness, he could see Won Mu-geuk, who was chewing on the poison salt he was holding in his hand and drooling.

“The opportunity will come. It seems like that day is not far off, so if you wait a little longer, you’ll be able to run wild to your heart’s content.”

At those words, Won Mu-geuk shook his body and began to follow Won Ji-geuk silently.

Won Ji-geuk, who had gone outside, gave an order to one of his subordinates who was attending to him.

“Gather all the Sect members.”