Chapter 122
Chapter 122
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 122
Chapter Title: Chapter 8. A Butterfly's Wings Stir the Storm (1)
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Damho and Bang Jinbo left the inn.
The town of Tongshan was in an uproar from the previous night's incident. People were avoiding going out, and the streets were crawling with Daoists from the Nine Palaces Sect.
The Daoists grabbed and interrogated anyone who looked even slightly suspicious. The only silver lining was that no one approached Damho and Bang Jinbo.
Iron Crown Elder had ordered his Nine Palaces Sect disciples not to approach Damho under any circumstances. So they kept their distance, never drawing near.
Bang Jinbo shook his head at the scorching gazes all around them. He'd grown somewhat used to it from traveling with Damho, but it was still burdensome.
*What if I end up becoming famous too?*
Bang Jinbo glanced at Damho.
Damho was silently urging his black steed onward. No emotion showed on his face.
For ordinary people, nearly clashing with the Nine Palaces Sect would have been a major event. But to Damho, it seemed like nothing at all.
*Brother really is something else.*
Bang Jinbo shook his head slightly.
He'd never once had a smooth journey with Damho. Even so, he didn't want to part ways with him.
"Heh heh!"
Bang Jinbo let out a small chuckle.
Fortunately, Damho didn't seem to notice. He just kept driving the horse forward in silence.
How long had they ridden like that? The two arrived at the official road leading out of Tongshan.
Nearly a hundred Daoists were gathered on the road. Nine Palaces Sect Daoists had taken control of the exit.
They were thoroughly searching everyone trying to leave, especially women of any age.
As Damho and Bang Jinbo approached, the Daoists' eyes turned to them all at once.
One was a warrior in black atop a black horse, the other a plump boy with a massive bundle on his back.
It was a combination that stood out anywhere. Yet not a single Nine Palaces Sect Daoist came forward.
Iron Crown Elder's orders were being followed to the letter here too.
Do not approach. Do not block.
That was Iron Crown Elder's command.
It was then, as Damho and Bang Jinbo passed them and left Tongshan, that two Daoists came sprinting toward them at full speed.
"We've found the witch."
"The witch was spotted about ten li from here."
At their shouts, the Daoists waiting on the road rushed off in a mob. The road emptied in an instant, allowing Damho and Bang Jinbo to leave Tongshan without issue.
Bang Jinbo suddenly asked,
"That lady... did she really inflict a serious wound on the Nine Palaces Sect leader?"
"Probably."
"How do you know?"
"You'll understand once you learn martial arts."
"Really?"
"Yes!"
Bang Jinbo scowled at Damho's words. After thinking long and hard, he finally spoke again.
"Brother, I want to learn martial arts."
Damho turned to look at Bang Jinbo at the unexpected request.
Bang Jinbo's face was utterly serious. It had been a long time since he'd worn such a grave expression.
"You want to learn martial arts?"
"Yes!"
"Do you want to become strong?"
"No."
Bang Jinbo shook his head.
"Then?"
"I want to save people."
"......"
"Learning martial arts lets you build up internal energy, right? I was thinking, if you use that internal energy right, maybe you could infuse good qi into food."
A glint appeared in Damho's eyes.
"Why do you think that?"
"It just came to me one day. Internal energy is so mysterious. It can make you strong like you, brother, and push past human limits. So if you use that qi to make food, surely it could benefit people."
"I see."
"Will you teach me martial arts?"
"No!"
"So I really can't?"
"It's not that you can't. It's that I can't."
"What do you mean?"
"My martial arts are for destruction. They don't match the idea you have at all."
The Dark Phantom Fist, known to the world as the Lone Poison Style, could only be mastered by Damho. To cultivate it required the same murderous intent and venom as Damho possessed.
Bang Jinbo lacked that killing aura. An ordinary person like him could never learn the Lone Poison Style, even in death and rebirth.
"Then it's okay to learn some other martial art?"
"Everyone has martial arts suited to them. There must be one out there perfect for you."
"Really?"
"Yes!"
"If I find one like that, can I learn it?"
"Of course."
Damho reached out with his large hand and ruffled Bang Jinbo's hair. Bang Jinbo smiled happily.
Damho fell into thought for a moment.
Bang Jinbo, whom he'd met by chance in Singang and started traveling with, was now like a blood brother to him.
Unlike Damho, who had killed countless people, Bang Jinbo only thought of making others happy through food.
His desire to create not just tasty food, but food beneficial to the body, stirred something in Damho's heart.
"I'll definitely find a martial art suited to you."
"Thanks, brother."
Bang Jinbo was overjoyed.
Damho was a man who kept his word. Bang Jinbo had never seen him break a promise.
Someday, Damho would surely find a martial art that fit him. He'd promised, after all.
Bang Jinbo quickly lost himself in imaginings of learning martial arts.
Watching him, Damho thought,
*Jinbo would suit a martial art harmonizing the five elements' qi.*
Such arts weren't common in the world. But they weren't impossible to find.
Damho knew that with determination focused on one thing, a person could achieve much.
He himself had grown that way.
Having walked a thorny path first, he could now show others a safer one.
It was then.
Damho snapped out of his reverie and looked ahead. A strong bloody scent carried on the wind had assaulted his nose.
A deep furrow formed between his brows. The stench was worse than expected.
He wanted nothing to do with it, but the problem was that the smell was coming from the direction they were heading.
"Brother?"
Bang Jinbo had also caught the metallic tang and come to his senses.
Traveling with Damho had made him especially sensitive to the smell of blood. His nose might even be keener than many experts'.
The bloody scent grew stronger the further they went along the road. Soon, they saw its source with their own eyes.
"This is?"
Corpses littered the official road. They were Daoists clad in Daoist robes and hats.
"Nine Palaces Sect Daoists?"
Damho nodded at Bang Jinbo's words.
All had been killed cleanly with a single sword stroke. They likely hadn't felt much pain even in their final moments.
The swordsmanship was cleanly precise to a pathological degree.
Countless bodies lay there, but Damho felt no particular emotion. Bang Jinbo was different.
With Damho at his side, he felt some reassurance, but the fact that a slaughter had happened nearby was enough to shrink him.
Bang Jinbo kept glancing around nervously as he rode.
Damho's face, by contrast, showed no emotion. Whatever was happening around them had nothing to do with him.
But the world didn't always turn as Damho wished. Before they'd gone another ten li, they spotted Nine Palaces Sect Daoists fighting a veiled woman.
"Urk!"
"Just a bit more!"
The Nine Palaces Sect Daoists were bellowing and fighting desperately. But the veiled woman facing them was as immovable as an iron wall.
The veiled woman was none other than Eum Yugyeong.
Though the Nine Palaces Sect Daoists pressed her fiercely, Eum Yugyeong felt no great threat.
The Nine Palaces Sect Daoists were certainly strong. But only ordinarily so. Their swords lacked the desperate will to kill.
Her cultivation wasn't so shallow as to fall to swords without that unyielding intent to slay.
The place where she'd been born and raised was a land of the law of the jungle.
Where weakness was a sin, and survival by one's own strength was the norm—a hellish place.
Eum Yugyeong had clawed her way up from the very bottom there.
Her mind and martial arts weren't weak enough to be threatened by these Nine Palaces Sect warriors. The only burden she felt was having to kill them all.
"Witch!"
Iron Crown Elder roared at Eum Yugyeong.
Seeing the grief and rage in his eyes, she shook her head slightly.
She understood his anger.
But anger shouldn't be vented so futilely.
When facing an overwhelming foe, preserving strength was also a form of revenge. A leader who let rage blind him and drive his men into the pit of death could never be a good one.
Thud!
Eum Yugyeong kicked off the ground.
Her figure, which had soared high into the air, came arrowing down toward one spot. Straight at Iron Crown Elder.
"Who dares retreat? Hah!"
Iron Crown Elder glared wide-eyed and unleashed his strongest technique.
Swoosh!
Sword qi erupted from his blade, spreading like a fan. He'd predicted her evasion paths and sealed them off.
Even as the sword qi flew right at her face, Eum Yugyeong didn't blink.
She twisted her waist midair. Her entire body traced an unpredictable curve and spun.
Clang!
The sword in her hand flicked out.
No sword qi gathered on Eum Yugyeong's blade. Yet Iron Crown Elder felt an overwhelming force he couldn't resist upon clash.
"Witch, you..."
Slash!
In that instant, everything was severed.
The sword qi Iron Crown Elder had unleashed, and his chest.
Spurt!
Blood sprayed. Not a great amount. But enough to sever his heart meridian and end his breath.
Iron Crown Elder's swordless hand flailed at the air. But only briefly—then his body crumbled like a sandcastle.
"Elder!"
The Nine Palaces Sect Daoists charged madly. Their eyes were bloodshot, their hearts boiling with fury.
She felt their rage. But that was all.
Rage without power only consumed its bearer.
In any situation, the mind must stay cool, the heart's pounding suppressed.
Swoosh!
Her sword sliced the air repeatedly. The remaining Nine Palaces Sect Daoists lost their lives.
It was utterly terrifying swordsmanship.
Bang Jinbo had never seen anything so fearsome.
Everything about Eum Yugyeong was refined to the extreme.
From the motion of drawing her sword to her breathing. All restrained to the utmost for peak efficiency.
"Guuh... Witch..."
One Daoist not yet dead glared at Eum Yugyeong with venomous eyes. But soon, the light of life vanished from his pupils along with their focus.
"Hoo!"
Only then did Eum Yugyeong sheathe her sword with a sigh.
Suddenly, she sensed two unfamiliar gazes.
In her vision appeared two men on horseback: Damho and Bang Jinbo.
"Have you come chasing me too?"
The icy chill in her voice, like frozen steel, made Bang Jinbo flinch.
But instead of answering, Damho stared intently at her.
Eum Yugyeong flinched at his gaze. It pierced as if seeing through everything about her.
Suddenly, Damho's lips parted.
"So it was you."