Chapter 77
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 77
Chapter Title: A New Mission (1)
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‘Why is that man here?’
The one who had suddenly appeared was the Mad Demon, who should have been within the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.
Could it be because he might have accepted the old man's offer?
At the sudden appearance of the Mad Demon, Jinmyeong felt his body freeze.
“I heard the Vice Cult Leader of the Demonic Cult was on the move, but I didn't expect it to be here.”
“Haha. I, too, never imagined someone like you would be after that child.”
“I understand that child is not the Vice Cult Leader's disciple, but you seem to hold him in high regard.”
“Not exactly high regard, but I am something of a guardian to the boy.”
The old man and the Mad Demon were conversing calmly, but Jinmyeong, listening between them, felt as if he were suffocating.
That was how much the two were subtly exuding their energy, pressing down on each other.
“Think carefully. It will be better than staying with the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.”
Perhaps because the Mad Demon had appeared, the old man seemed ready to withdraw.
“By any chance, can you tell me about the state of my body?”
“Hmm? What do you mean?”
“Is my body like this because I truly lack talent, or is it...”
“Are you talking about something like a curse?”
Jinmyeong quickly nodded at the old man's words.
“If you have no talent, then there is no one in the world who could be called a genius... no, not even gifted.”
The old man held Jinmyeong's talent in that high regard.
‘If my body isn't like this because of a lack of talent...’
It meant someone had placed such a curse on his body.
It was frustrating not knowing who could have done it.
“Now, let's be on our way.”
“Huh? Ah, yes, sir.”
The old man, as if his business was truly finished, turned sharply and spoke to Gang Muhwi.
“Did you retrieve the item?”
“Ah, that is, not yet...”
“Tsk! You can't even run a simple errand properly!”
The old man clicked his tongue and began to walk away slowly.
He was clearly walking slowly, yet his figure vanished in an instant.
“Ah, are you the agency master?”
As the old man disappeared, Gang Muhwi hurriedly approached the agency master, Gi Cheolhwan.
Gi Cheolhwan, not understanding how the situation was unfolding, blankly nodded his head.
“There should be a package that came in under the name Gang Muhwi. Let's go.”
“Ah, wait a moment...”
“There's no time to wait. If that man gets angry, an escort agency like this will vanish in an instant! Let's go, quickly!”
Gang Muhwi tried to quickly lead the agency master into the Unjeong Escort Agency, but Gi Cheolhwan forcefully shook off his hand.
“There will be someone inside.”
Gi Cheolhwan ignored Gang Muhwi and immediately prostrated himself before the Mad Demon.
Gang Muhwi stared blankly at Gi Cheolhwan before having no choice but to enter the agency alone.
And amidst the sudden chaos, Maeng Yo let out a deep sigh and scratched his head vigorously.
“The mood is ruined. We should stop.”
“...I suppose we should.”
Great Master Gongeun had no choice but to agree with Maeng Yo.
Of course, he wasn't backing down because the mood was ruined like Maeng Yo.
‘The Vice Cult Leader of the Demonic Cult has appeared.’
He was curious about the identities of the suddenly appeared Gang Muhwi and the old man, but what was most important to him now was the Mad Demon's appearance.
He wondered if the words the master of the Odang Escort Agency had spouted to summon them—that the Demonic Cult was preparing to invade the Central Plains—might actually be true.
“I'm just here on business, so don't worry too much.”
“...I understand.”
Great Master Gongeun couldn't help but flinch, as if the Mad Demon had used mind-reading.
“If you have no more business here, you may leave.”
“……”
It was a statement to leave if he had no business, but it was no different from an order of dismissal.
However, Great Master Gongeun was overjoyed to hear the Mad Demon's words.
After all, didn't it mean he was being allowed to leave just like that?
“Ah, and remember. I dislike troublesome things. Shaolin wouldn't want things to get noisy either, would it?”
“...I understand.”
Faced with the Mad Demon's threat, Great Master Gongeun bit his lip tightly but had no choice but to nod in agreement.
“Let's go.”
“Yes?”
“I said, let's go!”
Great Master Gongeun said to the bewildered master of the Odang Escort Agency.
Odang had no choice but to retreat in a daze, following the hurried Gonghyo and Great Master Gongeun.
‘What in the world just happened?’
When he had brought Great Master Gongeun and Master Gonghyo, he thought he could resolve the matter easily.
He had planned to use their names to apply some appropriate pressure on the Unjeong Escort Agency.
But then the King of the Green Forest suddenly appeared, and Gonghyo, said to be the foremost among the Fifteen Divine Dragons, was brutally defeated by that young brat.
Then a young man suddenly appeared and saved Gonghyo, and then an old man showed up, and the fight fizzled out.
With the Vice Cult Leader of the Demonic Cult also appearing in that situation, Odang no longer knew who he was or why he was even there.
‘Why did they even come?’
And Jinmyeong was just as confused about the situation.
He had no idea why Gang Muhwi and the old man had suddenly appeared.
“Hey!”
“...What is it?”
That's why Jinmyeong called out to Gang Muhwi, who had reappeared.
“Let me ask you one thing. Why did you really come here?”
“...For this.”
Gang Muhwi was holding a large bundle in his hands.
“What's inside?”
“I don't know. The elder simply told me to fetch it.”
“Then why did you interfere? You could have just taken what you needed and left.”
This was what Jinmyeong found hard to understand.
He couldn't figure out why Gang Muhwi had interfered.
“...I don't know. But for some reason, I felt that the Shaolin monk shouldn't die.”
“Then what about what you said, that Shaolin is always right?”
“……”
Seeing the silent Gang Muhwi, Jinmyeong realized he wasn't a complete fool.
It was possible he'd thrown a tantrum like a child because he knew he couldn't win an argument with Jinmyeong.
“What's your relationship with that old man? He didn't seem like your master.”
“...He is a close friend of my master. More importantly, why are you so curious? Are you really planning to become the elder's disciple?”
Gang Muhwi was suspicious of Jinmyeong's interest in him and the old man.
“It's not like that, so don't worry.”
The Mad Demon didn't react to Gang Muhwi's question at all.
But Jinmyeong frowned and waved his hand dismissively.
“...The next time we meet, it won't end like this.”
“I'd prefer if we never meet again.”
But Jinmyeong knew.
He was bound to keep meeting Gang Muhwi.
‘I still don't know the old man's identity.’
He tried to guess the old man's identity through Gang Muhwi, but he couldn't come up with anything.
‘Is he a character who never appeared in the novel?’
In any case, it was certain that he was a master so powerful that even the Mad Demon couldn't treat him lightly.
‘What would have happened if I had become that old man's disciple?’
The old man might have really been able to heal his body.
‘Then what about the Central Plains?’
He didn't know what kind of being the old man was, but he was probably a reclusive master.
In any case, without Jinmyeong, the novel's plot—where the Heavenly Demon and the Mad Demon die, Mok Jagyeong becomes the Cult Leader, and the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult is destroyed by Gang Muhwi—could have come true.
‘Then the Righteous Alliance and the Heretical Alliance would go to war again...’
Just like in the novel, the emperor might move to eliminate the martial world.
In any case, events would unfold as they did in the novel, with the Central Plains falling into chaos.
‘Would I be safe then, staying with that old man?’
No matter how much he thought about it, he didn't know.
‘If I just stayed hidden, I'd probably be safe, though.’
He hadn't thought of this before. No, he had thought of it, but he couldn't act on it.
He had thought that even if a powerless Jinmyeong left the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult, he would eventually be swept up in the turmoil of war.
“What are you thinking so deeply about?”
“...It's nothing.”
Had he been thinking too deeply?
Jinmyeong didn't even notice the Mad Demon approaching.
“Is it because of what that old man said?”
“...It would be a lie to say no.”
Lying here would only get him caught eventually.
So, Jinmyeong honestly nodded his head.
“I was tempted when he said he could fix this cursed body of mine.”
“……”
The Mad Demon didn't reply to his words.
After all, he couldn't heal Jinmyeong's body with his own power.
“More importantly, what brings you here?”
“I went to the branch office and was told you were here.”
Of course, this Unjeong Escort Agency was also one of the Hunan branches, but the place the Mad Demon was referring to was the Namga Merchant Guild.
“But why are you here?”
The place the Heavenly Demon had entrusted to Jinmyeong was not here, but a gisaeng house.
And it wasn't as if Jinmyeong was doing anything important here.
“I was just killing time.”
There was no special reason for Jinmyeong to be staying at the escort agency.
He was simply lending Maeng Yo's strength to help with escorts and continuing to receive payment for it.
“You must want to see Lady Shin, so let's go together.”
“……”
At the mention of Shin Yehyang, the Mad Demon pressed his lips shut.
But Jinmyeong sensed a strange anticipation from the Mad Demon.
“And I heard you've been seeking out the Underworld Sect quite often.”
“...Yes.”
“They may be lowly scum, but their information network cannot be ignored.”
The Mad Demon's words were completely different from what Jinmyeong had expected.
“It will probably be a great asset.”
“It will.”
In reality, the Underworld Sect was already proving to be a great asset to him.
And even now, they were handling a request from Jinmyeong.
“That one is the fellow called the King of the Green Forest.”
“That's right.”
Although his fight with Great Master Gongeun had ended anticlimactically, Maeng Yo did not complain about it.
He was only watching the Mad Demon with caution.
“He seems quite useful.”
“Yes.”
“Is he your subordinate?”
“...Not yet.”
“He'll be a great help to you, who has no faction of your own.”
“Yes.”
Of course, he planned to eventually gain the faction of the Sword Demon, but for now, as the Mad Demon said, he was as good as having no faction at all.
To such a Jinmyeong, the existence of Maeng Yo and the Green Forest was a great source of strength.
“What are you going to do?”
“What do you mean?”
“I have to go to the Myeonghwaru, so I'm asking what you plan to do.”
“I will follow.”
Maeng Yo's words, that he would go with them while still being wary of the Mad Demon, were unexpected.
“But this is the first time I've seen you not pick a fight with someone.”
“I, too, value my life.”
The moment he saw the Mad Demon, Maeng Yo had realized the gap between them.
If he had charged in challenging him to a fight as usual, his head would have been severed before long.
“Is it that bad?”
“It is. He isn't called the strongest of the Ten Kings for nothing. Among the Ten Kings, that man is the closest to the Three Sovereigns.”
Hearing that, he once again grew curious about the identity of the old man who had seemed to be on par with the Mad Demon.
“Are you not coming?”
“Yes, I'm coming.”
Jinmyeong glanced at the agency master, Gi Cheolhwan, who had been prostrating since the Mad Demon's appearance, and then began to move with the Mad Demon.
‘Come to think of it, I never even asked why this man came.’
He had been so flustered that he hadn't managed to ask why the Mad Demon had come here from the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.
‘He'll probably tell me when we get there. More importantly, Yang Jeon is going to freak out again.’
Thinking of Yang Jeon's reaction to seeing the Mad Demon, Jinmyeong let out a small chuckle.