'Divine object?'She had never imagined that this shabbily gilded bracelet would be the Blood Demon’s divine object.Hae-rak had been right that a madman’s thoughts cannot be understood. In the midst of being mauled like that, she hadn’t thought he would steal something like this.'When in the world did he steal the Blood Demon’s divine object?'The Blood Cult man, terrified, clutched the railing, panting. Sticking only his head out, he asked in a trembling voice,“D-did the Blood Demon truly order you to restore the Blood Jade?”“What profit would I gain by lying to the likes of you.”Looking at the bracelet, for some reason irritation surged, and Sohwa answered coldly. She lifted her head and glared at the Blood Cult man.“Do you know where the medical texts for making the Blood Jade are?”“……”“If you don’t, go ask again and come back.”“I know! I do! N-no, I know! Yes! Of course I know where they are!”White showing in his eyes as if his soul had fled, he shouted.The way he hurried toward her on his knees was grotesque.Sohwa had never been frightened by the Blood Demon, but seeing a strapping martial man grovel like a dog made her afraid. What in the world had he suffered at the Blood Demon’s hands to end up like this?Bowing and scraping, the Blood Cult man hastily guided her.“T-this way, please. The records you seek were all moved to my study, as the Blood Demon recently ordered me to render them into the Central Plains tongue. I am personally working on them, s-so please come with me. I will show you.”“Study? There’s an office here?”“Yes! In the first place, before the House of Compilation is a Bigo, it is a place that gathers and classifies information from the Outland and the Central Plains, so there is an office. We once used an entire floor as a study, but now no one comes and there isn’t all that much work, so we only use half.”He spoke quickly, with honorifics.Sohwa felt a prickle of unease, but she followed him down. In any case, alone she could not possibly read all these books and pick out the medical texts.As he said, there was a floor with desks instead of shelves. But the desks did not fulfill their function. Piled high with books, they were no different from shelves.Whether he remembered the contents of that mass of books, he bustled between the desks and selected a few volumes.“Please read these first. They contain the experiments to date.”“Experiments?”Sohwa examined the records the Blood Cult man handed her.This book recorded the reactions of those who had taken medicines made by the Blood Cult.Sohwa skimmed the record and knit her brow.Every patient had died, and the process by which they died was described in detail.“Why show me this first?”“Did you not say you would manufacture the Blood Jade?”He knit his brows as if he could not understand.“…Have you not heard?”When Sohwa stayed silent, he let out a hollow laugh.“The Blood Jade has no manufacturing method.”Sohwa frowned.She had taken for granted that there would be a method. She thought parts had been lost and that her role was to fill those in. But from the way he was speaking, the entire manufacturing method itself had been lost.Sohwa let out a sigh.“At least the qualities of the internal energy—yang or yin—that is to be accumulated, or a record of the medicinal ingredients used, must remain, no?”“There is nothing. It was completely erased. The maker of the Blood Jade himself came forth and broke it down, so there is not a single clue. Besides, the Blood Jade has no internal energy to be accumulated in the first place.”“No internal energy to be accumulated?”“The Blood Jade is not an elixir that piles up inner energy. It is a method that dissolves the inner energy stored in the body.”“Dissolves the inner energy stored in the body?”An elixir contains energy in and of itself. Those who took an elixir absorbed that energy and stored it in the dantian.But to call something that dissolves inner energy an elixir was absurd.Rather, that was closer to a poison.Sangong Poison.It disperses and makes vanish the inner energy stored in the body.And yet he said the Blood Demon was making the Blood Jade to dissolve the inner energy built up in his own body.When Sohwa stared fixedly, the Blood Cult man gave a hollow laugh.“He gave you a divine object, but it seems he did not tell you everything.”He was about to say more, then sighed.“All the medical texts the maker of the Blood Jade read are here. If you read enough, you should be able to conceive a refining method for the Blood Jade. Starting tomorrow, I will prepare the records in sequence for you to read. For now, please read only these and return.”He pulled out a chair for her and went back to his place.Sohwa sat and began to read in detail the experimental records he had given.***Hae-rak clicked his tongue as he looked out at the garden shrouded in night.“You said to come when you woke up.”When she went down to the Bigo and told him to come to his room, he had thought it odd, and sure enough, the orthodox young lady did not keep her promise.“It feels like more than half a day has passed.”Hae-rak exhaled a sigh.He did not like waiting, but he did not leave; he sank deeply against the chair back.Well, since he had risked his life to come kill the Blood Demon, if she had seen the Blood Cult’s secret texts, her eyes would have rolled back.“Ugh.”As he raised his arm to support his neck, Hae-rak let out a small groan.The Blue Blood Hall Lord, frantic not to lose the Blood Demon’s divine object, had bitten into his nape. The unhealed flesh split and a sharp pain followed.“Not a dog.”Hae-rak pressed the torn wound roughly with his hand and obediently lowered his arm.Rattle.Just then, the door opened and Tang Sohwa came in.“You’re late.”“I stopped somewhere on the way.”Smiling faintly at Sohwa’s joke, Hae-rak straightened his posture.“So, how was the Bigo? Was there much worth seeing?”“There was. I don’t know the Outland tongue, so there wasn’t much I could read.”Sohwa took a clean cloth from the desk and approached the table where Hae-rak sat.“Do you, by chance, speak both the Central Plains tongue and the Great Desert tongue?”“That’s what you’re curious about?”“No.”“Right. I wondered why you were asking something you don’t care about. Did you see something shocking in the Bigo?”Sohwa did not answer. She neatly laid the flowers she had picked in the garden on the cloth.“You even picked flowers? For me?”Tang Sohwa gave a small nod.Perhaps genuinely concerned now, Hae-rak lost his trace of a smile.“What is this, you. What did you see that you’re acting like someone heat-struck?”Ignoring him, Sohwa placed a few small wildflowers, folded the cloth over them, and began pressing firmly.Hae-rak flinched.“What are you doing now?”“Originally, squeezing the juice out works best, but here it’s difficult to find tools, let alone a Medical Hall, so be satisfied with this.”“What?”Sohwa opened the cloth and took the crushed flowers. Without asking, she pulled down Hae-rak’s collar and pressed the flower mash onto the wound.“Ah!”Though his face twisted in pain, Sohwa ignored it and pressed the remaining mash °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° onto his torn ear and cheek.Perhaps the soil was good; the plump flowers held plenty of sap and had good viscosity.Sohwa took the flower-stained cloth and laid it over the mash on Hae-rak’s shoulder.“It will prevent the flesh from necrosing, and the flower’s moisture will speed your recovery. It’s a rare herb that can even let a severed arm reattach; at most, half a day and you’ll be recovered.”Speaking calmly, Sohwa lifted Hae-rak’s collar again to cover the wound.“Where did you get it?”“Picked it up on the way.”“You said it was a rare herb.”“I find it hard to believe too, but the Blood Demon’s garden is littered everywhere with medicinal herbs and elixirs.”Sohwa wiped her hands on another cloth as she spoke.Watching her, Hae-rak asked,“Is this why you were late—searching for this?”“No.”“Right, of course not.”“Now go sleep.”“What, you called me here just for this?”Sohwa nodded.Hae-rak asked, as if dumbfounded,“Aren’t you scared?”“Of what?”“You came into the Blood Demon’s quarters, and you’re not scared? This place is full of people ready to give their lives to the Blood Demon. The Blue Blood Hall Lord alone—whether or not the Blood Demon gives you a nice room—could come at dawn to break your habits.”“Tell him to come.”At her placid voice, Hae-rak let out a deep sigh. He explained in a gentle tone,“Sohwa, the door into the old man’s quarters is called the Middle Gate. Do you know why? Because it lies between the East Gate and the West Gate, it’s the Middle Gate. Do you know what’s attached to the East Gate and the West Gate? The residences of the Red Blood Hall and the Blue Blood Hall are connected. Yes, that Blue Blood Hall Lord who, today, asked that you be sent out from the Blood Demon’s quarters. If I go out, he’ll come to seize you in less than a quarter-hour.”“Let him.”Sohwa seemed not to care at all.While she arranged the writing brush and ink on the desk, she looked at Hae-rak.“Aren’t you going?”“If I leave now, others might come in here.”He repeated himself, more bluntly, but Sohwa sighed as if tired.“I’ll handle it. Go.”Hae-rak gave up on persuading her.He draped over his face the cloth Sohwa had wiped her hands with and leaned back deep in the chair—as if he meant to try to sleep.“I won’t look and I’ll sleep quietly. Do what you have to do.”“You’re a distraction. Go.”“If you die, I die too—why would I be crazy enough to hand you over to those bastards. I’m not leaving without my antidote for the dokgo, so mind your own business.”Sohwa let out a very deep sigh, openly.But Hae-rak did not respond, as if it were none of his concern.The Lord of the Red Blood Hall was as stubborn as she was, and he was the craziest person she had ever seen.Sohwa gave up on persuading him and ground the ink.Before she forgot what she had just read in the secret texts, she had to write it down.His claim that he wouldn’t interfere was true.He only breathed quietly, pretending to sleep.And it was also true that the Blue Blood Hall men were aiming for her.From the garden, the scent of blood surged in and faded, repeating several times.With fresh ink on the stick, Sohwa lifted her gaze and looked at Hae-rak pretending to sleep.“If you’re going to pretend to sleep anyway, you can lie on the bed over there.”Creak.Without a word, Hae-rak got up, went to the window, and lay down on the windowsill.“I said you can lie on the bed.”“I’ve always liked sleeping on window ledges.”She stared for a while, but Hae-rak, eyes closed, devoted himself to pretending to sleep.Sohwa gave up persuading him and ground the ink again.It was the window where the scent of blood had been coming in.Since the Lord of the Red Blood Hall lay there as if daring them to look, the smell of Blue Blood Hall cultists no longer flowed in.Thanks to that, Sohwa could focus on her work.In the silent pavilion where not even the sounds of insects could be heard, only the sound of stealing the Blood Demon’s secret texts and calm breathing rang out now and then.

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