Cheon Kyungwan stood guard at the entrance of the dungeon on Byeok Taesan's orders.
While doing so, he focused most of his senses on the interior of the dungeon, prepared to rush in at any moment if anything happened.
To ensure this, he constantly channeled his internal energy to his legs and shoulders.
Sustaining the flow of internal energy wasn't easy, but it was better than allowing something to happen to Byeok Taesan.
After all, Byeok Taesan's condition was precarious, as if he could die at any moment.
He was afflicted with Severed Meridians Syndrome—severely so.
Dozens of renowned physicians had examined Byeok Taesan over the years, but their assessments varied.
The one consistent finding? Severed meridians.
According to their conclusions, Byeok Taesan's survival was a miracle.
How could one not worry?
Truthfully, Cheon Kyungwan had never believed the saying that those with severed meridians were all geniuses.
The living proof of that disbelief had been Byeok Taesan himself.
But he'd been wrong.
He'd been arrogant.
Severed meridians truly did signify genius—a genius who could shatter seemingly impenetrable walls with a single, offhand comment.
While Cheon Kyungwan was wholly focused on the dungeon's interior, a harrowing scream echoed from within.
"Arrrggghhh!"
It was a scream of utter despair.
Cheon Kyungwan shuddered involuntarily.
This wasn't a mere cry of pain—it was a scream from the depths of the soul.
"Aarrghh! Gahhh! Arrrggghhh!"
The agonized screams followed in relentless succession.
'Is this what a death rattle would sound like?'
That thought crossed Cheon Kyungwan's mind. If he were dying, he felt he might scream like that too.
Listening to it made his legs tremble.
'What on earth is the Young Master… doing in there?'
Could ordinary torture elicit such screams?
From that man, of all people?
That man hadn't even groaned under Cheon Kyungwan's torture.
Sure, his methods might not have been perfect, but they weren't light enough to warrant total silence.
For someone so unyielding to scream like that… What could possibly be happening?
"Arrrggghhh!"
The screams continued, unending.
They didn't pause or break; they just kept coming.
Cheon Kyungwan worried the man's throat might rip apart at this rate.
Time passed.
One hour, two hours…
The screams didn't cease until five hours had passed.
Astonishingly, the screaming had lasted all that time.
Normally, a person screaming for so long would lose their voice, their throat becoming hoarse and torn.
Yet the man inside the dungeon had screamed for five hours without his voice faltering.
Not long after, Byeok Taesan emerged from the dungeon.
"Are you all right, Young Master?"
Rather than answering, Byeok Taesan glanced back toward the dungeon and said, "Go and release him."
"What?"
Byeok Taesan didn't repeat himself.
He simply walked away as if to indicate he had no intention of saying it twice.
Cheon Kyungwan hurried into the dungeon.
Inside, the man lay collapsed on the floor, exhausted.
Cheon Kyungwan shook him awake.
"Hey, you."
The man had clearly been tortured, yet his body bore no marks.
Not a single scratch marred his skin. In fact, it looked smoother than before.
"Ugh…"
The man slowly opened his eyes, but his gaze was vacant, as though he had lost his mind.
That wasn't the only strange thing.
"What the—?"
Cheon Kyungwan recoiled in shock.
The man's skin seemed to sag and drip off his body. Or at least, it looked that way.
Upon closer inspection, his skin was intact.
But something had clearly happened.
Cheon Kyungwan wasn't imagining things.
"Urgh…"
The man groaned incomprehensibly.
Cheon Kyungwan unlocked his pressure points, staying alert just in case.
He couldn't predict what the man might do once freed.
However, the man merely flailed weakly once his pressure points were released.
He seemed… diminished, like someone who had lost their wits.
"Hey, are you okay?"
Cheon Kyungwan's question went unanswered.
The man staggered to his feet with unsteady steps.
"Arrrghhh…"
He mumbled nonsense, stumbling forward aimlessly.
Cheon Kyungwan opened every door in his path, letting him pass.
The man left the dungeon and the confines of the Golden Wall Merchants, continuing to walk without pause.
Cheon Kyungwan hesitated briefly before following him.
He needed to know where the man was going.
It didn't take long to find out.
The man's destination was the Fragrant Flower House.
* * *
Byeok Taesan returned to his room, lost in thought about what had just transpired.
Initially, he had been pleased.
A soul so corrupt promised much to be gained.
When he extracted the soul, tearing away its accumulated filth and impurities, the raw power had flowed into him.
He couldn't absorb it directly in his current condition; doing so would kill him.
Instead, he stored it within himself, layer by layer.
The process of burning impurities also purified the energy.
The energy left in Byeok Taesan's body after the soul was burned and cleansed was incredibly pure.
But problems arose halfway through.
The man's soul was too polluted from a lifetime of depravity.
With courtesans, removing their tainted spiritual energy left behind pure essence.
This man, however, was different.
His impure energy had fused with his soul to such an extent that it became indistinguishable.
The Soul Augmenting Demonic Art was designed to crush and burn souls, extracting power from them.
Naturally, if the impure energy was intertwined with the soul, separating them required extraordinary force.
So, Byeok Taesan had done just that.
He ripped away the impure energy, taking fragments of the soul with it.
There was no need to pity someone who had lived such a vile life.
The problem lay in the remnants of the man's pure soul.
Byeok Taesan discarded them entirely.
After cleansing and purifying the fragments with the Soul Augmenting Demonic Art, he simply released the soul.
His past life had taught him well.
He knew how disastrous retaining those remnants could be.
Especially in his weakened state, absorbing that force would have caused his body to rupture within a few hours.
Clenching and unclenching his fist, Byeok Taesan observed his inner self.
"Dangerous."
Even though he had discarded the remnants, a faint trace of the soul lingered.
Calling it a trace might even be an overstatement—it was just a slight residue.
But even that had made the absorbed energy volatile.
If this happened repeatedly, those traces could accumulate, leading to catastrophic consequences.
Byeok Taesan shook his head.
There was only one solution: continually purify the stored energy before fully absorbing it.
He would have to burn away every last trace.
Byeok Taesan's expression darkened slightly.
"I was careless."
He had grown complacent after purifying Dan Yeong's soul.
He hadn't anticipated how intertwined impurity and soul could become when corruption was severe.
At least he'd realized it now.
If he had tried this on a demonic practitioner instead, even storing the energy might have triggered a backlash.
"Then… there's no other way."
He would have to go to the courtesan house.
It seemed that, in this life, his fate was to reek not of blood but of filth.
* * *
"Madam… you may want to come out and see this."
The Owner of the Fragrant Flower House cast a sharp glance at the man who had barged into her room without a sound.
He was one of her capable subordinates, though far inferior to the one who had been captured.
"What is it?"
"It's… it's the boss. He's back."
"What?"
There was only one person he could possibly refer to as "boss."
The Owner's expression twisted with displeasure.
Just denying their connection was hard enough, and now he'd shown up like this?
In broad daylight, no less.
"Did anyone see him?"
"There's no avoiding it. Everyone's already watching."
"What?"
The Owner shot up from her seat.
"Are you out of your mind?"
"That's exactly why I thought you should see for yourself."
The man's tone carried a faint trace of insolence, and her brow furrowed in irritation.
'These people… are they trying to test me?'
But now wasn't the time.
She masked her displeasure with a cold expression and left the room.
She hurried toward the entrance, where the man in question supposedly was.
When she spotted him standing by the door, she froze.
At that moment, she understood everything her subordinate had tried to convey.
The man she once cherished stood there, but he was far from intact.
He couldn't even stand properly, leaning awkwardly and staring vacantly in her direction. His cloudy gaze alone would tell anyone he wasn't in his right mind.
"Arrrrgh…"
Even the sound he made was horrifying.
'What could have happened to leave him in this state?'
"What should we do?"
The subordinate standing beside her asked, his voice laden with confusion.
It was only natural for him to be shaken; his boss and superior had returned in such a state.
"What else can we do? Bring him inside."
At that moment, the man let out another incomprehensible noise and twisted his neck at an unnatural angle, a sickening crack accompanying the motion.
"What are you standing around for? Hurry up!"
At her command, the subordinate quickly supported the man and brought him inside, leading him to the Owner's room.
Once there, the Owner stared intently at him.
She needed to get him to regain even a shred of sanity to understand what had happened.
She had to know.
Only then could she decide how to respond.
"Stimulate his pressure points to snap him out of it."
"Madam, if we do that and fail, he might become completely brain-dead."
Her face darkened with frustration.
"As far as I can tell, he's already there. Isn't it worth trying something?"
The subordinate hesitated briefly before shaking his head, as though conceding defeat, and approached the man.
He lightly stimulated several pressure points leading to the brain.
At that moment, the man's body began to collapse, as if it had been waiting for this.
"Arrrghhh!"
His skin sloughed off, and his bones and muscles fell apart with sickening cracks and thuds.
The Owner stared in horror.
"What… What is this?! What the hell is going on?!"
The crumbling man's eyes locked onto hers, and her face drained of all color.
Step by step, he advanced toward her.
The Owner's mind went blank.
Fear overwhelmed her, and her thoughts froze.
Then, one face flashed into her mind.
'Byeok Taesan!'
Snapping out of her daze, she raised a trembling finger to point at him.
"What… What are you doing? Get rid of him!"
Her voice, shrill and panicked, spurred her stunned subordinate into action.
But there was no need.
The man's body collapsed completely just as he reached her, scattering across the floor.
The Owner's legs gave out, and she sank to the ground, trying desperately to calm her trembling body.
Fear clawed at her from deep within.
"What should we do?"
Her subordinate, who had witnessed everything, asked grimly.
"What… What else? Clean it up properly."
"Understood."
"And…"
The subordinate stopped at the door and turned back to her.
"What about Dan Yeong? What's her status?"
"You were supposed to send her to the Crimson Dragon Leader today. She's preparing herself now."
Of course, Dan Yeong had no idea.
The Crimson Dragon Sect was a notorious underworld faction in Wuhan, wielding considerable influence.
Its leader, Wi Ryongjin, was a regular at the Fragrant Flower House.
That morning, he had caught a glimpse of Danyeong.
Previously, he hadn't so much as spared her a glance. But this morning, he couldn't take his eyes off her.
To be precise, he wasn't captivated—he was consumed by a desire to destroy her purity.
The urge felt almost unbearable, as if failure to satisfy it would ruin him.
Recently, several courtesans who had regained their purity under Byeok Taesan's influence had stirred similar feelings in Wi Ryongjin.
But Danyeong had ignited something far more intense.
If she was sent to Wi Ryongjin, she would undoubtedly be destroyed.
The Owner hadn't hesitated to make that decision earlier in the day.
But now, everything has changed.
"Cancel it."
"What?"
"I said, cancel it."
The subordinate hesitated, staring at her.
He understood her reasoning all too well.
If he were in her position, he would have made the same decision.
But from a detached perspective, it was impossible to support.
"The Crimson Dragon Sect won't take this lightly."
Wi Ryongjin would use every means at his disposal to utterly destroy the Fragrant Flower House.
The Owner shook her head.
"Send Danyeong to the Golden Wall Merchants. Immediately."
Only then did the subordinate nod.
It was clear she intended to redirect Wi Ryongjin's wrath away from the Fragrant Flower House and toward Byeok Taesan and the Golden Wall Merchants.
'Would Wi Ryongjin fall for it?'
Doubt lingered, but there seemed to be no better option.
Finally, the subordinate bowed to the Owner.
"I'll take care of it."