The Descent of the Heavenly Horse (Part 1) – 2

The village doctor, Lee Sam, was yawning in the quiet when he was startled by the sudden arrival of Namgoong Soyeon.

A warrior with a sword was demanding he look at someone, so he nervously checked Inho’s pulse.

After observing his condition, Lee Sam explained that he had a fever and needed to rest for two or three days.

“We have a long way to go… Can I carry him on my back?”

“You can, if you don’t mind him arriving as a corpse.”

“Can we stay here, then?”

She quickly changed her attitude and offered money, so Lee Sam opened a room and led them inside.

“Gang Gongja, please get better soon.”

Namgoong Soyeon wiped Inho’s forehead with a wet towel as he weakly groaned.

Thanks to the herbal medicine prescribed by Lee Sam, Inho’s breathing stabilized, and he sweated less.

Namgoong Soyeon stared at his chest rising and falling, then opened the door and went out into the clinic’s yard.

-Whoosh

She put two fingers to her lips and whistled, and a white pigeon fluttered and flew from afar.

“Youngma wouldn’t just stay put after being told not to follow… If I can’t shake off the pursuit, the only way is to call for reinforcements.”

Namgoong Soyeon, having sent a letter to her comrades on the Yunnan front, surveyed her surroundings.

“I know you’re hiding there. Come out.”

She spoke towards a certain direction, but no answer came.

Only the sound of Lee Sam sweeping could be heard in the distance.

“Hehet, I just tried in case. Guess not.”

She lightly bit her tongue and scratched her head a few times, feeling awkward, before returning to the room.

A little further away, on a tree.

“……”

Youngma, who had tensed up at Namgoong Soyeon’s call, sighed in relief and muttered.

“Thunder Sword… sometimes seems like her head is made of muscle.”

-Throb

An unpleasant sensation was felt in his abdomen, and pain surged.

The internal injuries he had suffered from her had not yet healed.

“For the time being, I’ll just have to monitor them from here.”

The White Tiger Squad of the Martial Arts Alliance.

This place, where the most renowned experts of the Orthodox Faction gather, is an organization of promising young masters who will lead the Orthodox Faction in the future.

They were confronting the forces of the Demonic Cult advancing towards the Martial Arts Alliance in Yunnan.

Recently, the Demonic Cult’s forces, led by the Sword Demon, had begun to move in earnest, leaving those responsible for the front line extremely busy.

In the midst of all this, the letter from Thunder Sword put them in a dilemma.

-If Thunder Sword is sending such a letter, shouldn’t we send reinforcements?

She had left on a mission to assassinate the Heavenly Demon alone, but the Heavenly Demon’s appearance had been confirmed on the Yunnan front, so it was already a failure.

She had clearly said she would join them in Yunnan, but why she was in Sichuan was something even those who had been with her for a long time did not know.

-She said she was protecting someone who had escaped from the Demonic Cult. We don’t know who that person is, do we? Given Thunder Sword’s personality, we can’t rule out the possibility that she saved an ordinary person.

The White Tiger Squad’s opinions were divided between sending people to Sichuan and not sending them, and after a heated discussion, they agreed to send two members of the White Tiger Squad and twenty ordinary soldiers.

Four days later.

A village in Sichuan, reached after running all night.

Namgoong Soyeon greeted her long-lost comrades barefoot.

“Alright, Thunder Sword. Just who are you protecting that you thought of calling the White Tiger Squad?”

The daughter of the Tang family pinched and stretched Namgoong Soyeon’s cheeks, and Namgoong Soyeon clapped her hands and introduced Inho, who was behind her.

The expressions of the White Tiger Squad’s comrades and the twenty subordinates who heard the introduction gradually hardened.

As Namgoong Soyeon finished speaking, the Tang family’s daughter sighed deeply.

“Haa… Thunder Sword. The Yunnan front is struggling to maintain the line due to the Sword Demon’s offensive. Yet you called in key forces to protect a mere commoner.”

“But… if he escaped from the Demonic Cult and Youngma is chasing him, wouldn’t he be an important person?”

Namgoong Soyeon said in a subdued voice, sensing the unfriendly atmosphere.

“Youngma chasing a commoner who hasn’t learned any martial arts? That’s too strange.”

“Hmm…”

“It would be more reasonable to think of it as a trick by the Demonic Cult to plant a spy in the Martial Arts Alliance.”

“Be careful what you say. Gang Gongja is not a spy for the Demonic Cult.”

Namgoong Soyeon stopped them, as the atmosphere was turning towards suspecting Inho of being a spy.

However, despite her strong assertion, the suspicion that had arisen did not subside.

“The world isn’t as beautiful as Thunder Sword thinks. Come out here. I will interrogate this man.”

Pushing Namgoong Soyeon aside, the Tang family’s daughter’s hand reached for Inho’s collar.

Or, was about to reach.

“!!!!”

She pulled back her hand as she approached Inho, startled by the sudden Killing intent.

Killing intent spread out as if occupying the space, filling the clinic.

The sound of footsteps on the dirt floor could be heard in the distance.

-Thud thud

A woman’s figure appeared over the small fence made of wattle.

Everyone’s eyes widened at her appearance.

“Y-You are!”

Finally, the woman standing in front of the clinic door frowned as she looked at the group surrounding Inho.

An intangible energy pressed down on them.

Everyone in the clinic was slammed to the ground, and Namgoong Soyeon resisted the energy and endured.

“??”

And Inho, unaffected by any energy, looked around in bewilderment, and his eyes met the woman’s.

“Ah….”

A brief eye contact. A deep smile appeared on the woman’s lips.

“Found you.”

Breathing excitedly, the Heavenly Demon said so.