"KUUAAKKK!"
A scream filled the car.
The driver and lawyer Lee Hyun, who were in the front seats, couldn't hide their shock.
"Ah, no! Wh-What are you doing?"
"Chief!"
They couldn't understand Chun Yeowun's actions as they didn't know about the 12 hours promise.
-Kiik!
The driver hastily hit the brakes, moved into the road's shoulder, and stopped.
The driver turned back with a rage-filled face and tried to yell at Chun Yeowun.
[Shit. Don't bother. Let's go to the hospital.]
Jo Yu-seong beat him to it and sent a message to the driver.
[Ha, but chief! Isn't he insane?]
Shockingly, it looked like the driver was also trained in martial arts.
The driver responded in an enraged tone.
[But, chief, you went through so much trouble all night to get him out, why would he cut off your hand?]
[I told you it's enough. Start the car!]
The driver hesitated for a moment and looked at the pale face of Jo Yu-seong, and grabbed the steering wheel.
There was no need for him to make Jo Yu-seong, who was in pain, angry.
'I looked down on this man.'
As the driver thought, Jo Yu-seong was suppressing his anger too.
In the beginning, he couldn't compete with his skills and couldn't even speak out due to the hasty process of recruiting Chun Yeowun.
'… a warning.'
Jo Yu-seong thought that this was Chun Yeowun's warning.
The price of taking advantage of other people and breaking promises.
'… maybe he's not a sect-oriented person.'
If he had been a sect-oriented person, there was no way he could act so cold-hearted.
Even then, Jo Yu-seong decided to proceed carefully in the future, considering that this man wasn't an ordinary person.
Tatatak!
As the pain became tolerable, Jo Yu-seong pressed on his left arm's blood points.
The blood, which was gushing out, stopped flowing.
Jo Yu-seong took out a handkerchief and wrapped it around the cut part.
And then tried to pick up the severed hand which was on the car's floor.
Float.
The hand floated and landed on the seat.
Jo Yu-seong was shocked.
He felt it at first sight, but it seemed like he was more than a Superior Master.
'Phew. I need to talk it out.'
They were already on the way to the hospital, but Jo Yu-seong decided to ask for Chun Yeowun's understanding.
"… thank you. I apologize again, but before we go to the head office…"
Chun Yeowun answered before he finished.
"Don't worry about it, and stop by the hospital."
'!?'
For a moment, Jo Yu-seong was confused.
'I remember saying it telepathically…'
There was no way one could hear the telepathic messages of others.
Jo Yu-seong, who thought that it was strange, dispelled his doubts.
'But.'
If he thought about it, isn't it a normal reaction to head to the hospital after someone's wrist was cut off?
He decided that he was overreacting.
Shenyang City Public Security Bureau.
Violent crimes squad 3
"No. What kind of bullshit is this?"
The man, whose voice was so loud that it could be heard outside the office, belonged to Lee Myeong, the team leader of the 3rd squad.
Detective Dan Young-hyeon, a short-haired female detective with bruises on her face, spoke to the team leader by making silent gestures.
"Shh! Team leader, please lower your voice."
"Do you think I can control myself! Kuak… damn it!"
Lee Myeong held his throbbing shoulder.
It had been only a few hours since he got treatment, so the pain remained.
The attention of all the people in the 3rd squad was diverted to Lee Myeong.
It would be strange if they weren't worried for the man who had been shot and ran into the office wearing a hospital dress.
"Firstly, team leader. You're hurt, so please go back to the hospital. We just finished the interrogation, so we also only noticed that now, but there's nothing we can do."
Dan Young-hyeon tried to comfort him.
She could understand why Lee Myeong was angry, but there was nothing they could do about it.
The incident was so significant that every personnel was needed, and even the Special Department of the Liaoning province's Public Security was sent.
"In the end, it's the task for the special team…"
"Special team? My foot! Including the chief, at least eight people from our department have died! How can this be those bastards' task! Does it make sense to release the most likely culprit just because of external pressure?"
She let out a sigh at Lee Myeong's outburst.
Because of his stubbornness, Lee Myeong was known to be the dumbhead in the Public Security Bureau.
'Haa. It's starting again.'
But she didn't hate him.
Although he had a wild mouth and didn't follow the rules, he was still a kind and loyal man.
Of course, that was something only the detectives of squad 3 thought.
Looking at the other detectives, the female detective said.
"Once again, the team leader is acting like this. Take him to the hospital and…"
"I'll talk with the director myself!"
"Huh?"
With those words, Lee Myeong got up from his seat and sprinted outside the office.
The bewildered detectives blocked him, but,
He overpowered them.
Thud!
"Shit!"
"Ouch!"
The male detectives were knocked down with a simple push.
Lee Myeong is a famous martial artist on the team, but he was too strong for a man who suffered from a gunshot wound.
"Are you trying to hurt the patient? And you, do some exercises."
With those words, Lee Myeong ran out of the office.
"Shit! Hey! Hurry up and catch the team leader!"
The detectives of squad 3 were bewildered and followed him.
But Lee Myeong was so fast that he managed to reach the front door of the director's office.
Even though the female secretary stopped him, he still went into the room.
"I'm telling you not now. He's on a business call right no…"
"Director!"
Director Sang Yu-geun, who was on a call, frowned at the sudden actions of Lee Myeong.
Actually, he wasn't shocked.
It wasn't the first time this happened.
Lee Myeong would directly rush into the director's room or deputy director's room whenever something didn't make sense and even call them cowards.
"… moved to University Hospital? I get it. For now, keep your eyes open and watch everything."
Beep!
He immediately ended the call.
The female secretary who followed grabbed Lee Myeong's arm and tried to drag him out.
That was when the director got up from his seat and gestured that it was okay.
"Secretary Lim, you can leave."
"Ah, I understand."
When the lady closed the door and left, the director opened his mouth with an unpleasant expression.
"What are you doing? How many times have I told you to not barge in?"
If it was any other detective, they would have been flustered, unable to do anything.
However, this man, Lee Myeong, is dumb-headed.
"The chief is dead! Director."
"… so, what do you want?"
"Is the director really going to talk like that! If you act like this, how can Public Security be run?"
With a disappointed look, he continued.
"If you have received an interrogation report from my team members, won't you know? Regardless of the CCTV footage, only two people survived. If you think with common sense, he's likely the culprit! If there are no problems after the investigation, it would have been right to let him go, but that isn't the case here."
"…"
Lee Myeong shook his head at the director, who said nothing.
"I respect the director. A true public security officer never gives in to pressure. But in the end, I think I've realized that you are the same as everyone else."
Lee Myeong, who said everything he wanted, turned to leave the office when the director stopped him.
"Stop."
Lee Myeong stopped, wondering what the man had to say.
"Do you see me as someone who would succumb to external pressure and release someone?"
"Sorry?"
The director turned the monitor on his desk towards Lee Myeong.
What Lee Myeong saw made his eyes shine brightly.
Shenyang City University Hospital.
Inside the orthopedic medical examination room.
A middle-aged doctor who was examining the severed left hand sighed.
"Phew… was this really caused by a blade?"
"… roughly similar. But, why are you asking?"
Jo Yu-seong was puzzled by the doctor's question.
The doctor enlarged the cross-section of the arm.
"Ahh…"
There were two photos of the left hand and left arm on the monitor, which had been perfectly cut off.
"Even if it was caused by a blade, the human muscles and bones are so tough that the nerves and blood vessels become haggard and distorted, but that isn't the case here. The cut is so clean as if they were anatomical specimens."
That was why the doctor was surprised.
At that, even Jo Yu-seong admired Chun Yeowun.
Because he used internal energy, he assumed that he had excellent swordsmanship, but he didn't expect it to be that amazing.
"If this is the case, I think we can proceed directly with a single-sided junction regeneration surgery without surgery to align nerves."
Conjugation of the severed parts is a complicated process.
It isn't a single operation, but several operations. However, the doctor said that only joint surgery and regenerative treatment were needed.
"After the operation, you will be hospitalized for three days, and if the result is good, you will be able to use your fingers like before."
There couldn't be more fortunate news than that.
It would be nice to have surgery done right away, but there is still work to be done.
Despite the doctor's recommendation to have surgery at noon, Jo Yu-seong asked for it to be held late in the afternoon and only received first aid.
As Jo Yu-seong left the room, the nurse whispered.
"Doctor, he's a martial artist, right?"
"Indeed, as expected of a nurse who worked here for 8 years."
He worked in orthopedics, so there was no way he was unaware of such wounds.
There wasn't a single person who would be that calm if their hand was cut off except for Murim warriors and Gate Keepers.
"If not from a martial artist, how can a cut like that happen. Hohoho."
The middle-aged doctor, who looked at the monitor and saw the cut, smiled.
"Well. That martial artist who did that must have been through a lot too."
At the same time.
The lobby of the hospital.
An old man with white hair was sitting in a chair waiting to be called.
Compared to the wrinkles, the way the man sat with a straight back was unusual.
And instead of a cane, the old man held a green sword.
Looking at how heavily it was decorated, one could see that it wasn't an ordinary stick.
'Woah. He's a warrior.'
'That old man. Is he a Murim warrior?'
No matter who looked at it, the old man was a Murim warrior.
Perhaps, he was accustomed to it. The old man seemed to be okay with all the attention.
That was when someone rushed over to him.
A man in his late thirties, dressed in a dark blue suit, greeted the old man with clasped hands.
"Moyong Yi-sun greets, elder Peng."
"Oh-oh. Moyong."
Those who knew even a little about Murim would have been shocked by those names.
The direct descendants of the Moyong clan and the Peng clan, two of the five great clans of the Forces of Justice.
Of course, things like clans aren't used anymore.
The man in his late thirties, Moyong Yi-sun, was the managing director of the Yeon Company, the largest corporation in Shenyang.
"Don't call me by that title. Just call me like you usually do."
"Hehehe, is that so? Still, you're the next president of the company."
The descendants of the five great clans, they frequently got to meet each other.
Moyong Yi-sun spoke while looking at the number on the table next to Peng Neung-gyeom.
"I don't get it. If you had informed me about this in advance, my people would have quickly handled the payment. Why didn't you?"
"Huhuhu, that would be too burdensome. I'm here for a simple check-up… ah! Come to think of it, you kept staring at someone as you entered. Do you know him?"
Peng, who had good eyesight, found that Moyong Yi-sun was looking at a certain someone.
A man wearing a cast as he injured his left arm.
If it was just an ordinary person, elder Peng wouldn't have even cared about it, but that man was a Murim warrior.
"Ah yes. He's a business acquaintance."
"Hmm, is that so?"
It felt like he avoided getting into details, so elder Peng didn't pay it much mind.
Because it was none of his business.
"But, elder is really great."
"What do you mean?"
"Did you come here because of the Gate Warning? To come get a consultation despite it being taxing for an 80-year-old."
"Huhuhu, what kind of wording is that? In a world where the gates are open, if old people like me can help, that's more than enough…. Hm?"
At that time, Peng Neung-gyeom's face went stiff.
He was going to ask Moyong Yi-sun about something, but Peng suddenly moved out of the lobby.
"Elder!"
Moyong Yi-sun followed him.
Peng, who escaped the hospital building, was looking elsewhere.
There were a few people.
Woong!
"Looks like there was an accident."
Moyong Yi-sun, who reached his side, spoke.
On the side that elder Peng looked at was a grand RV stopped by a power pole.
It looked like the front tire was punctured.
Shockingly, both the front wheels of the car were torn to shreds.
"Did you come out after hearing the accident?"
At Moyong Yi-sun's question, Peng Neung-gyeom muttered with trembling eyes.
"I just felt a tremendous energy a moment back. Didn't you feel it?"
Moyong Yi-sun's eyes lit up at those words.
Because it was the first time that elder Peng, one of the top 100 martial artists registered in the Murim Department of the Chinese Government's State Council, was shocked like this.
"Maybe one of them?"
Moyong Yi-sun pointed to two men who came out of the crashed RV.
Maybe it was because of the accident, but the two men who got out of the RV had no energy.
At that, elder Peng shook his head and said.
"No. It appeared for a moment and then disappeared."
With those words, Peng Neung-gyeom clenched the sword in his hand.
'Did this Peng Neung-gyeom miss a thunder user?'
He was the master of thunder.
The black sedan left the hospital grounds.
Jo Yu-seong, who had a cast on his left arm, asked Chun Yeowun, who closed his eyes with his arms crossed.
"By any chance, the flat tires of that RV… was that your doing?"
Chun Yeowun didn't deny it.
It was because Jo Yu-seong had clenched his fist.
He knew it, but he still wanted to ask.
And Chun Yeowun stayed silent.
He was frustrated. That was when the driver sent him a message.
[Chief Jo. Even if not for that, I was going to tell you once I confirmed it, but that grey RV. It had been following us since we left the Public Security Bureau.]
[What?]
At those words, Jo Yu-seong's eyes widened as he looked at Chun Yeowun.