Failed Possession Chapter-52

## Ch-52

—

So she did hear it after all.

Yuri glared at Haryeong with a crumpled expression.
If you traced back the cause, it was all because that damned Blood Fiend Ghost left behind that dogshit nonsense as his dying words.

“I’m not sure what you’re referring to.”

“Perhaps I shouldn’t have said it through sound transmission. Should I say it out loud instead?”

At those words delivered with a blank face, Yuri’s eyebrow twitched, and Haryeong’s eyebrow twitched in the exact same way.

What slowly approached was unmistakable killing intent.
From the stale killing aura and the faint smell of blood clinging to it, Haryeong could roughly guess what kind of two years that man had lived through.

**Thundercloud.**

Not a nickname famous enough to circulate widely, but within the underworld, it was gradually spreading.

In the light, he hunted wanted criminals.
In the dark, he was known as what people commonly called a “fixer.”

Proxy duels over petty disputes, conflicts between black-path sects—
if it involved fighting, the young martial artist never failed to insert himself.

Third rank, fourth rank—there were far too many of those in this world.

It was a world where only strength let you survive,
and the more strength you had, the more you gained and the more you could do.

Those with some brawn learned martial arts.
Those with some brains learned magic.

Among them, *martial arts* were especially easy to approach.
Even without a proper manual, if you simply grabbed a cheap sword, you could take your first steps as a martial artist.
If you were extraordinarily talented, killing a few people with that blade could bring enlightenment and awaken your internal energy.

Of course, such cases were rare.
The overwhelming majority either scraped by and picked up some cheap techniques, or recklessly bulked up and entered some third-rate sect to learn third-rate arts.

And thus they were filtered out.

Those who truly had no talent stayed stuck at second rank and died.
Those who somehow survived accumulated experience and rose to third rank.
And most spent their entire lives at the so-called limit of ordinary people—the fourth rank.

Just barely past twenty years old, already fourth rank—and a pure martial fighter at that.

The reason black-path sects entrusted Thundercloud with various requests was half to test his ability before recruitment,
and half with the foul intention of crushing him before he grew any larger.

He survived all of that.

The killing intent Yuri now emitted inevitably stirred complicated feelings in Haryeong, who remembered what he had looked like in that estate two years ago.

“I’m not asking with the intention to threaten you, so let’s not release killing intent between friends.”

“That just now sounded like a threat no matter how you look at it.”

“Perhaps it’s because we’re meeting after two years—you seem to have forgotten what kind of person I am. That was just a joke.”

Yeah, probably.

Yuri relaxed his frown and withdrew the killing intent.
If Haryeong had truly intended to threaten him using the Heavenly Demon Divine Art, she wouldn’t have come here alone.

“I don’t think it’s a question I absolutely have to answer. And there’s no reason I should.”

“Keeping secrets between friends is a bit disappointing.”

“You have quite a lot of secrets yourself, Haryeong.”

“Then shall we exchange secrets?”

“You may have many, but I doubt they’re as heavy as mine.”

“Aren’t you curious whether I’m older or younger than you?”

“I’m assuming you’re older. No matter what.”

Yuri still didn’t know her exact age, but seeing that she was fifth rank, he was certain she had to be older.

“Then why don’t you call me noona?”

“Haryeong noona.”

Trying it once, he immediately felt it wasn’t something he could say.
He’d hardly ever used the word “noona” his entire life. The word stuck awkwardly to his tongue, like chewing sand.

“Ugh.”

Haryeong’s reaction wasn’t good either.
Her usually expressionless face openly crumpled.

“Let’s not do that.”

“Yes.”

“But why assume I’m older? Do I look that old?”

“No.”

If anything, at face value, she looked younger than him.

The Vice Leader of the Demonic Cult.

It wasn’t something that came out of nowhere. Ever since the Blood Fiend Ghost left that damned last message two years ago, he’d known that question would someday come.

Among the Martial Zeniths, the one none could approach was the Heavenly Demon.
Even the Demonic Cult itself was powerful enough to rival organizations like the Black Dragon Society or the Orthodox Heaven Alliance, but beyond that, the name *Heavenly Demon* alone carried overwhelming weight.

And that Heavenly Demon had taken a disciple.
No one knew exactly since when, but countless rumors already surrounded that mysterious disciple.

“You said you possessed someone at twenty… after the Black Snake gang was attacked. But honestly, it’s hard for me to believe. No matter how talented a possessor is, reaching fourth rank in less than half a year after starting martial arts?”

There were too many things to consider.

A fourth-rank martial artist couldn’t use qi manifestation.
You could attribute that to the Heavenly Demon Divine Art—but when and how did you even learn such a divine technique in the first place?

“I’ve never lied.”

The killing intent was gone, but his gaze remained sharp.

*I shouldn’t ask any further.*

Something clearly existed, but prying into a past someone didn’t want to talk about was cruel.
Haryeong shrugged.

“I was wrong.”

“You bastards.”

The reply to her apology came abruptly from the side.

The waiter who’d been struck earlier by Haryeong’s bead was glaring at them while leaning on one leg. Around him stood rough-looking men holding weapons.

“If you came to eat, then just shut up and eat. What kind of crap are you pulling here?”

“There seems to be some misunderstanding.”

“Misunderstanding? What misunderstanding!”

“It wasn’t me causing trouble—”

*Sigh.*

Yuri let out a deep breath and stood up.
Even if he protested about injustice or misunderstanding, this wasn’t the sort of situation where they’d politely step back.
At this point, they’d latch onto any excuse to extort something.

So Yuri simply kicked the nearest man’s leg.

“Gah!”

The large body rolled across the floor, clutching his broken leg and screaming.

One scream after another followed.

“Let’s go.”

Haryeong blinked and looked down.

All five who had surrounded the table now each had one broken leg.

“You’ve become rather fiery since I last saw you.”

“This all happened because you did something unnecessary.”

“I never asked you to solve it for me. If you’d left it alone, I would’ve handled it.”

As if it were obvious, Yuri left without paying.
No one in the restaurant tried to stop him.

“Were you always like this? Or did you change over the last two years?”

“I changed.”

“Will you accept my apology?”

“For now. But if you keep this up, we can’t be friends.”

Yuri didn’t want to kill Haryeong.

Though two years had passed, the time he’d spent in Lutran remained precious memories to him.

Even if it had ended in ruin.

“I also want to be close friends with you, so I won’t ask any more.”

If she kept digging, they’d truly become enemies.
Wanting to get closer—at least for now—that feeling was genuine, so Haryeong decided to let her curiosity go.

Asking directly about the Demonic Cult’s vice leader and the Heavenly Demon Divine Art had been a big gamble even for her.
If she wanted a stable relationship, she could’ve simply pretended not to hear it, like two years ago.

But she didn’t want to.

That was something she had learned from the catastrophe two years ago.

Relationships built on accumulated lies never end well.

She didn’t know whether Yuri had learned the Heavenly Demon Divine Art.
She didn’t know where he’d learned such martial arts.
But it seemed like something whose origin couldn’t be revealed.

It was something that needed to be addressed.

If he had pushed her away—what would she have done? She had even come this far to find him.

*Ah, I see.*

Wouldn’t she have just said that and stepped back?

And if he had tried to silence her permanently?

“Yuri.”

She stopped thinking about things that hadn’t even happened.
Lowering her voice, Haryeong walked up beside him.

“I’m actually from the Tang Clan.”

“…?”

It was a sudden confession.

Her face was the same as always. Yuri stared at her for a moment, then spoke.

“I know.”

He had heard what the Blood Fiend Ghost had said to her.

“…What?”

She’d steeled herself to confess, yet this reaction?

“If you knew, why did you pretend not to?”

“You kept it secret for a reason, didn’t you?”

“That’s right.”

“So I didn’t ask.”

“…You’re making me look like trash for prying like that. You’ve really reached the peak of the principle of softness.”

Normally wouldn’t someone at least probe a little?
Haryeong couldn’t quite understand.

*Maybe it’s because he has so many secrets himself that he doesn’t pry unnecessarily.*

She was slightly flustered, but this degree of proper distance was something she also wanted.
Just as Yuri had no intention of revealing the Heavenly Demon Divine Art or his other secrets, she also had no desire to chatter about the Tang Clan.

To Haryeong, the Tang Clan was—

If possible, something she wished she could sever ties with completely.

And yet could never do so.

A hateful, resentful family.

—

—

 

Among the five Zones excluding the central area, Zone 3—where Yuri and Haryeong were—could be called neutral ground.

This place was still lawless, so public safety wasn’t good.
But at least corpses didn’t roll around in the streets.

Among the lower Zones, the absolute worst wasn’t Zone 5, but Zone 4.

Unlike Zone 5, which kept expanding by not driving away migrants with stories of their own, Zone 4 was even more closed off than the central area.

Yuri had managed to enter up to Zone 3, but he hadn’t even been able to step into Zone 4.
They had literally erected walls around the perimeter and rejected outsiders.

Zone 4 could be called a land of evil laws born from a lawless zone.

“I’m seriously exhausted.”

The next day, Guzen’s face looked like a corpse.

“A Zone 4 entry pass isn’t something you can get as easily as you people think. In the first place, supply is way lower than demand. There are more shady bastards wanting to get into that closed-off Zone 4 than you think—”

“Did you ignore what I told you yesterday?”

Since she already knew his origin, Haryeong didn’t bother hiding it anymore.
She openly pulled out assassin’s dagger and waved it in front of Guzen.

“N-no, it’s not that I couldn’t get it. I did get it…”

Guzen immediately tucked his tail.

“But I’m saying I didn’t get this for free either…”

In the end, he was asking for money.

“If I’d cleaned up the shit in Zone 5 for you, would you still charge me?”

“W-well, I’ve got business ethics, so I wouldn’t charge much. Thundercloud, you heard it from Roichi too, didn’t you? Not just anyone can get this pass. Only someone at least at my level as branch leader can.”

Haryeong was about to say something, but Yuri raised a hand to stop her.

With an indifferent expression, he pulled his backpack forward and opened it, rummaging inside right in front of Guzen.

“Quite the ethical fellow, huh.”

Seeing him take out money, Guzen’s face brightened—
but the moment he saw the amount placed on the desk, it crumpled.

At a glance, it didn’t even look like 100,000 cells.

“Are you fucking kidding me? Do you even know how much one pass costs?”

“Yuri, isn’t that too much?”

At those words, Guzen’s head snapped around.

Thud!
assassin’s dagger embedded itself into the desk.

“…”

Guzen swallowed the curse rising up his throat and glared at the dagger.

A thought suddenly occurred to him.
Was that thing even authentic?

Only direct Tang Clan descendants could possess Fang dagger.
Though the Tang Clan was extremely secretive and their lineage barely known, wasn’t it too humiliating for someone of his status to tuck his tail just because of a single dagger?

“Are you doubting me?”

The whispering voice sent chills down Guzen’s spine.
Before he knew it, the woman was standing right beside him.

Authentic or not didn’t matter—
the fact that the woman beside him was a fifth-rank assassin was undeniable.

If he really doubted it, he could just send them off first and investigate later.

“Ah, no. Not at all.”

For now, the problem was getting rid of these thug-like bastards.

Guzen tore his gaze away and opened a drawer.

*

*

“What did you do?”

After leaving the shabby brothel, Yuri held the black coin—the Zone 4 entry pass—up to the light.
The densely engraved intaglio patterns shifted with the light, looking difficult to forge.

“You saw?”

Haryeong’s eyebrows rose slightly, as if surprised.

“You sprinkled something.”

“Your eyes are still sharp.”

Most martial artists wouldn’t have noticed.
Haryeong shrugged.

“Poison.”

“Poison?”

“I don’t like poison much. It’s underhanded. But when it’s necessary, I use it. I’m an assassin, after all.”

She had warned him to take it to the grave, but judging by how he inspected the dagger at the end, he didn’t look like someone who’d keep that promise.

So she used poison.

Fourth-rank One-Eyed Guzen wouldn’t even realize he’d been poisoned and would die tonight.

“I usually avoid killing outside of work, but thanks to you, I broke that rule.”

“Is it fine to kill him?”

“He’s someone who won’t be missed. And considering the area…”

The Hao Sect gathered the despised, but that didn’t mean they shared bonds or loyalty.
If anything, having nothing and being looked down on filled them with malice—they stabbed each other in the back.

Especially here.

This wasn’t even really a city.

From Zone 3 onward, most residents were people who couldn’t live in the light and treated disorder as normal.

If Guzen died tonight, some unknown underling would probably throw a party, thinking, *Guess I’m the new branch leader now.*

“Zone 4 will be more dangerous than here. Want to turn back now?”

“If you don’t want to go, turn back. I’ll go alone.”

“How could I send a friend alone into danger? I, Haryeong, am not that heartless.”

“I’m going to do a lot of dangerous things.”

“You said you’re looking for cultists. Well… that is dangerous.”

“You think they’ll be easy to find just because we’re looking?”

“Exactly. So Yuri, what’s your plan—”

Her words stopped.

Her eyes widened.

“Wow.”

She gasped without meaning to.

Under the hood, Yuri’s face had completely changed.

“Reverse transformation technique?”

“Can’t change the body. Just the face.”

“Even disguise arts are hard to obtain. Where did you get it?”

“I made it.”

Changing his build was impossible, but after more than a year of effort, he’d managed to alter his face.

“Made it…?”

It sounded absurd, but she already knew from two years ago that Yuri’s talent in martial arts was abnormal.

She sighed.

“Unfortunately, I can’t use disguise arts.”

“I’ll teach you if you want.”

“I doubt I could use it right away. I’ll just wear a mask.”

Zone 4 was so closed off that even internal information didn’t leak out. Without a pass, you couldn’t even enter.
In other words, if you had a pass, anyone could enter.

Hide your face or name—it didn’t matter.

“So, Yuri. You came through an introduction, didn’t you?”

“Yeah. A low-level Hao Sect guy named Roichi I used a few months ago.”

“If you learned disguise arts, you clearly don’t want your trail traced. Is this Roichi trustworthy?”

“I killed him.”

“…What?”

“He kept demanding money even though he promised to write the introduction letter. Enough was enough. Why are Hao Sect bastards so obsessed with money?”

Yuri grumbled and pulled his hood back down.

“Wow.”

Killed him and cleaned it up.
The way he said it so casually… it seemed Elena wasn’t the only one who’d changed over the last two years.

“You’ve really gotten fiery.”

—She hadn’t expected this fiery.

Had ten minutes even passed since entering Zone 4?

Haryeong blinked.

“AAAAAH! Fuck!”

“Gghhh…”

It was technically self-defense—they’d blatantly baited them.

A place this excessively closed and lawless meant filth worse than trash pooled here.

Of course there were unspoken rules among the filth, but such rules never applied to newcomers.

An assassin skilled at hiding her presence.
And a fighter whose internal energy couldn’t be sensed at all.

Reaching Return-to-Origin required seventh rank—near the Martial Zenith level. Someone like that wouldn’t honestly enter through the gate with a pass.

Meaning—

These two newcomers were easy prey.

“First time here?”

“Big bro’ll guide you.”

“Relax. Run and you die, yeah?”

Five surrounded them, snickering.

Five more waited at the entrance of the dump they were led to.

Ten pieces of filth total.

All ten ended up with broken legs today.

‘Fifth rank?’

Haryeong herself was fifth rank.

Objectively speaking, she was above average even among fifth rank. Even if she was weaker head-on due to her techniques, in a life-and-death fight where killing was required, she could kill or cripple anyone of the same rank.

‘This is fifth rank…?’

He’d been right next to her.

Since he casually followed the swaggering thugs, she assumed he had some plan and didn’t step in.

The moment the ambushers revealed themselves and the guides blocked the retreat—

Yuri moved.

And she couldn’t follow that movement with her eyes.

By the time her gaze caught up—

a thug’s leg was already snapping.

—