I Am This Murim's Crazy Bitch-Chapter 236: Even a Ronin Has the Loyalty of a Ronin (9)

“Oh no. Lady Moyong, are you alright?”

“W-Why did you only come now?!”

Moyong Juhee threw herself at her, shouting.

The stench of whatever hell she'd been through hit Qing hard, making her flinch for a second before she sighed deeply and gently stroked the woman’s trembling back.

“Why... why did you only come now? I-I wanted to die. I still want to. But I was scared. It hurt so much. I hate pain. So why... why did you take so long?”

Truth was, Qing had only just learned through a casual investigation that Moyong Juhee had been captured.

But obviously, she couldn’t exactly say: “I had no idea you were taken, and no one else up there seemed to know either.”

Thankfully, Qing hadn’t come from the Central Plains originally. Even if people were just as barbaric in modern Korea as they were here, she at least had a broad and utterly useless store of random knowledge.

Qing wrapped her arms tightly around Moyong Juhee and whispered into her ear.

“I’m sorry I came late. You went through so much, didn’t you? But you held on. You made it this far. Thank you. You did great. That’s incredible. I was late, it’s all my fault. You did nothing wrong, not one thing. I’m the one who should be sorry...”

Show empathy, offer comfort, affirm the victim’s experience, and present a constructive outlook.

Or was it don’t offer solutions, just listen?

Her Psych 101 class—one she’d ended up taking by accident thanks to a scheduling mishap—was such a distant memory that even the basics had gone fuzzy.

“Ugh...”

Moyong Juhee finally broke down and cried.

Even then, she tried to stifle her sobs, sniffling through clenched teeth, which somehow made her look even more pitiful.

This chapt𝒆r is updated by frёewebηovel.cѳm.

Qing held her like that for quite a while, saying nothing, just letting her fall apart in her arms.

“...So. You're Ximen Qing?”

“Lady Moyong? Are you feeling a little better now?”

Only then did Qing slowly loosen her grip. Moyong Juhee leaned back and looked at her face, her dazed eyes widening.

Then, like a mask-switching opera performer, her expression twisted—flaring with hatred in a heartbeat.

“You—what the hell? Why are you so pretty?! Why do you have everything? Why do you get everything, and I—how could you do this to me?! It’s all your fault! You... you ruined me...!”

Suddenly she exploded, pouring out her resentment like water bursting from a dam. Her voice twisted from the crying, so it came out as a garbled mess, but the meaning was still clear.

After that humiliating defeat at the Dragon-Phoenix Assembly, she’d thought the only way to reclaim her honor was to crush Qing in the Rising Dragon Duel.

But she’d lost—lost to some no-name vagrant—and became a joke.

Even worse, she’d overheard her own posse whispering behind her back on the stairs of the Phoenix Conference.

Thinks she’s all that, just ‘cause she’s sword-blessed or whatever... and still lost to a nobody? Honestly, if you look at her, she’s not even that great. Makes you feel better about yourself, right?

Eventually, overcome with self-loathing and bitterness, Moyong Juhee left a letter behind saying she’d return home early... then ran away in the middle of the night.

Qing was baffled.

How the hell is any of that my fault?

Sure, she was a young lady of one of the Five Great Noble Houses, and supposedly a skilled martial artist, but this was Murim. Wandering off alone in the dead of night? The Blood Sect must’ve thought a fat roast pig had rolled right into their trap.

And if she left a note saying she went home early, wouldn’t her clan just assume she made it back safely?

“Lady Moyong, try to calm down a bit. Your face is sunken in. That bastard must’ve had food...”

Their shifts lasted twelve full hours, so the guards usually brought a full day’s worth of food with them—hence the mystery of the six rice balls.

As Qing spoke and began to rise to her feet, Moyong Juhee suddenly clung to her legs, crawling over on her knees and wrapping herself around them.

“D-Don’t go! Please don’t leave me! I’m sorry—I didn’t mean it—thank you for saving me. Please don’t abandon me. You can’t. Take me with you!”

“I’m not leaving you. I’m going to beat that filthy... that damn... no, that disgusting son of a—”

“I’m not disgusting! I didn’t do anything shameful! I held out! I held out the whole time—I didn’t let them—I swear I didn’t! So please don’t leave me, if you do—!”

“Shit—what the hell! Let go! Get off me, goddamn it! What the fuck is this?!”

“Aaaahhh!!”

Right then, the prison guard suddenly woke up and yelled. Moyong Juhee let out a shrill scream and collapsed face-first to the floor in terror.

“You pig bitch! That’s it! You’re fucking dead tonight!”

“No! I’m sorry! Please! No! Agh! Aaaaah! Ugh! Guh- Ack!”

Moyong Juhee thrashed like a fish dragged out of water. Her eyes rolled back, and snot and spit streamed from her face—she was about to pass out from panic.

Shit. I should’ve removed the Gu parasite first.

Qing launched herself forward.

One hand locked around the guard’s throat, slamming him to the floor, while the other jabbed clean through the skin of his upper belly.

The guard gurgled and writhed, but there was no resisting Qing’s brute strength.

She ignored his struggles, focused instead on feeling around with her fingertips inside his guts.

Warm blood wrapped around her fingers and dripped down her hand. She could feel the thrum of his heartbeat against her skin—thud, thud, thud.

Her whole body shivered as if electrified.

Focus. Focus...

Finally, Qing’s hand emerged.

Between her fingers, the Gu parasite—black-bodied, with two telltale red stripes.

She flung it to the floor and stomped it into pulp.

“Haaah... ha... huff... gasp...”

Inside the dungeon, she could hear Moyong Juhee’s ragged breathing.

Qing pressed harder on the still-twitching guard’s neck until he went limp, then turned and approached Moyong Juhee again.

“I-I’m sorry... I’m sorry...”

“Lady Moyong. You’re safe now. It’s alright.”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry...”

Yeah. She was in really, really bad shape.

Qing looked down at her awkwardly, watching her bow with her forehead to the ground, hands rubbing together as she repeated her apology like a broken record.

Pain breaks people.

Back when she got the shit beat out of her by that bastard—the self-proclaimed Supreme Seeker—Qing had lost her mind too.

But now? Even remembering it didn’t make her feel particularly angry anymore.

She understood why.

“Lady Moyong. Could you come here a second?”

“I’m sorry. Please. No more pain.”

“Come on now. You’ll like this part.”

Qing lifted her into her arms and carried her out of the dungeon.

As they crossed the threshold, Moyong Juhee suddenly shrieked and started thrashing violently.

It was a little awkward, but Qing stood still and hugged her tightly, until the girl’s panic started to fade.

“C-Can I really go outside? Livestock... we’re not supposed to leave. I... I’m not supposed to.”

“Lady Moyong. I’m Ximen Qing.”

“But I... I don’t want to be hurt anymore.”

“It’s okay. Look—see that bastard over there? He can’t hurt you anymore. Now... now it’s your turn to get revenge.”

“...Revenge.”

Moyong Juhee’s eyes gleamed with venom.

And just like that, her gaze came sharply back into focus.

“That son of a bitch! That fucking bastard!”

She shoved Qing away and launched herself at the guard, hands going straight for his throat.

Startled, Qing quickly stepped in to stop her.

“Lady Moyong? That’s not the way.”

“Why not?! That fucker—because of him—Let go! I’m going to kill him!”

Qing grabbed both of her wrists and spread them apart.

She tried to fight back, but compared to Qing, she had the strength of a child. Resistance was hopeless.

“Why?! He deserves to die! If you’re going to talk about forgiveness, just fuck off! I—!”

“Lady Moyong. Killing him with strangulation would be such a waste, wouldn’t it? He’s already dying anyway—the poison’s leaking since I pulled the Gu out. Might as well make it count and really make him suffer.”

“What?”

“Here. Let’s wake him up first. Watch carefully, okay?”

Qing flipped the guard [N O V E L I G H T] over, undid the knot binding his arms, then gripped both of his shoulders firmly—

Crunch.

It wasn’t a loud sound, but when paired with the image of his shoulders crumpling like crushed paper, it may as well have been thunder.

“GRAAAAGH!”

The scream tore out of him like a blade through his throat. One shoulder shattered, and even though his arm hung limp, he still twitched and flailed in useless defiance. Pathetic, but determined.

Qing casually wrapped a strip of cloth around his mouth as a gag.

“I like hearing screams, personally. But you’re too loud, so I’ll muffle you for now. Lady Moyong, would you like to start by pulling out a fingernail? Technically, you’re supposed to wedge a splinter underneath first and then rip it out, but hey—we’ve got time to enjoy ourselves.”

“Huh? I mean, I—”

“Now now. No backing out.”

Qing moved behind her, wrapping her arms around Moyong Juhee’s and guiding her hands gently, almost like teaching her how to play an instrument.

“Grip it here, pull up... that’s it. Give it a bit of pressure this way... nice and slow. The angle’s important—there, you see it? Pop. Clean and tidy.”

The guard’s body jolted violently.

Moyong Juhee flinched at the sensation under her own fingers—but then stared, transfixed, as he writhed in pain.

“See? Not so bad, right? He’s nothing special. Just some worm who knew how to poke around with a Gu. Without it, he’s less than nothing.”

“Mm...”

“Are you still scared of someone like that?”

Moyong Juhee shook her head.

“Good. Now let’s take our time. Start with the fingers, the toes—work your way up the limbs. Look here, where the nail used to be. Press your thumb in like this... feel that twitch?”

Honestly, Qing was having a little too much fun.

It’s human nature to want to share the things we enjoy.

“It’s kind of loud, but I actually recommend removing the gag. You get to hear the screams, the begging... all sorts of creative things come out of their mouths. Want to give it a try?”

It was the kind of suggestion that, in the Central Plains, would make people call her a monster—and in Western terms, a demon.

And Moyong Juhee? She nodded, spellbound.

****

By now, Qing was more or less a semi-expert on Gu parasites.

A mid-rank officer in the Second Blood Venom Squad had given her a crash course—granted, one where her life was literally on the line.

The lesson had been frantic and incoherent, but Qing’s retention was still above average—enough to make her a passable semi-pro.

She could remember things well, if she actually made an effort.

Her aptitude stat, after all, had long since surpassed human limits.

But like most people, her brain was only as effective as the idiot using it.

It was like buying a top-of-the-line gaming PC... and then using it to play Minesweeper.

Still, she had paid attention to that one lesson on Gu ecology.

Gu parasites were a total pain in the ass.

Technically, they weren’t designed to kill.

Parasites—at least most of them—don’t want to kill their host.

That would be counterproductive.

Instead, when threatened, the Gu secreted venom.

Depending on the species, the pain could vary... but generally speaking, it was enough to send a person into convulsions on the floor.

The real killer wasn’t the venom—it was something called the Venom Gland.

It was a special organ that produced a toxic compound known as final venom—a desperate, last-resort attack right before death... or even postmortem.

The guard had explained that up to that point, the Gu was just like any other venomous creature.

It lived inside the body, but followed the same rules.

The weird part was its hierarchy—and its resonance.

Gu parasites had a rank system based on the toxicity of their Venom Gland.

And when a higher-ranked Gu was stimulated, it could send that signal to every lower-ranked Gu in the vicinity.

In other words, the way the guards inflicted pain using Gu was to carefully prod their own parasites with inner energy, triggering a network of sympathetic reactions.

That’s why Gu handlers were all vegetarians.

They avoided spicy or pungent ingredients too—anything that might provoke the Gu into producing venom.

After about two years of feeding it this bland, passive diet, the Gu’s toxin production would slow to a halt.

Eventually, there’d be no venom left to secrete.

Just signals—sent out like pulses through the air.

That was the principle behind how the Second Blood Venom Squad used Gu.

And honestly? Qing thought the whole thing was fucking absurd.

Going your whole life eating boiled weeds and flavorless slop just to babysit some poison worm?

Sure, power had a price. But that price?

That price was stupid.