Chapter 36
Chapter 36
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 36
Chapter Title: Chapter 4. Not All Passing Breezes Are Warm (2)
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Damho knelt on one knee and examined the corpse.
The moment he checked the face, Damho's gaze grew heavy.
It was someone he knew.
‘The merchant who took over the Silver Lotus Merchant Group and left.’
It was the merchant who had become the focal point after Jo Su-gwang's death.
He lay gruesomely slain in the middle of the grasslands.
There was no need to check the other bodies.
“Silver… Lotus? Why?”
Bang Jinbo's voice trembled.
They had traveled together for a year.
He could tell them apart just by their clothing and build.
The ones rolling dead on the ground now were the Silver Lotus merchants.
They were the ones who had been saved by Damho and left separately, yet here they were, unexpectedly dead.
“Brother, why these people…”
“They seem to have been ambushed.”
“By who?”
“Probably accomplices or abettors of those who attacked us before.”
“No way!”
Bang Jinbo's eyes twitched.
They were people who had suffered misfortune but left to try to survive anyway.
Seeing them as cold corpses in the middle of the grasslands was a huge shock to Bang Jinbo.
Damho noticed that quite a few people were missing.
‘They took them captive?’
Damho stood up.
Even after seeing the dead merchants, his expression didn't change.
‘It's deliberate.’
Corpses of these people scattered right on the path Damho and Bang Jinbo would pass.
Someone wanted Damho and Bang Jinbo to see them.
Torture marks on some of the merchants' bodies proved his guess right.
Wounds carved just deep enough not to kill, then salt rubbed in.
Even martial artists would struggle with that pain.
Let alone merchants who didn't cultivate martial arts.
The outcome was obvious.
“Brother!”
Bang Jinbo looked at Damho.
The fear that had vanished while with Damho revived in his eyes.
Damho ruffled Bang Jinbo's hair with his large hand.
“No need to be scared.”
“But…”
“Trust me.”
“Yes!”
At Damho's single word, Bang Jinbo's stiff expression relaxed.
Strangely, a sense of relief washed over him.
Damho patted Bang Jinbo's shoulder and looked around.
All he saw was endless grassland.
But Damho felt hidden gazes.
Somewhere in that green expanse, people were watching him and Bang Jinbo.
A chilling light began to flicker in Damho's eyes.
Bang Jinbo, unaware, looked around.
There was no time to tend to the bodies.
Damho left the corpses by the roadside and mounted Black Ghost.
But Bang Jinbo hesitated to mount up, bothered by leaving them like that.
“Let's go.”
Only after Damho urged him did Bang Jinbo finally climb onto his horse.
“He's just leaving them.”
Kyung Cheonsaeng's lips twisted upward.
He was in the middle of the grasslands now.
Tall grass hid him and his subordinates.
“As rumored, an interesting guy.”
Kyung Cheonsaeng's eyes gleamed coldly.
Tracking the Silver Lotus Merchant Group hadn't been hard.
Their destination was obvious.
He'd found their traces in Torovan and confronted them here.
The result was plain to see.
The merchants had hired escorts in Torovan.
But they were so inferior they weren't even worth loosening up for.
He'd cut them down like rotten straw bales and tortured the merchants.
To find out who killed Dongja-chu and the Blood Wolf Squad.
The merchants couldn't endure the torture and spilled the truth.
What they revealed was shocking.
‘Just one guy?’
He'd thought at least ten, but the culprit was a lone man.
He couldn't believe that single person had caused such carnage.
So he tortured more.
But the answers were the same.
He had no choice but to believe now.
Just one culprit.
And strong enough to pique Kyung Cheonsaeng's vigilance.
He'd dumped the dead merchants on the culprit's path.
To test him.
He thought he'd learn the man's true nature from how he handled the bodies.
If he had any human sentiment, he wouldn't ignore the merchants' corpses.
Then Kyung Cheonsaeng would ambush him.
But Damho's reaction differed from expectations.
No agitation, no tending to the bodies.
At least, not like ordinary people.
Outside the scope of anyone Kyung Cheonsaeng knew.
“Interesting guy. And with a limp leg, no less…”
When he first got the report, he'd thought it a lie.
Blood Wolf Squad and Dongja-chu weren't pushovers a cripple could handle.
A subordinate asked.
“What should we do?”
“If he touched our things, he has to pay the price.”
“Attack now?”
“That'd be no fun if it's too easy.”
“Then?”
“Shake him up. Keep sending gifts.”
Kyung Cheonsaeng turned around.
There was a group of bound people shedding tears.
Silver Lotus survivors.
Kyung Cheonsaeng's lips twisted cruelly upward.
***
“Th-those…”
Bang Jinbo couldn't close his shocked mouth.
More corpses littered their path.
People who hadn't been visible before were now dead.
Someone Bang Jinbo knew well was nailed to a large tree by limbs, dead.
Even in death, denied freedom, blood tears streamed from his eyes.
Damho's gaze grew even chillier.
He instinctively knew this was provocation aimed at him.
They were surely hiding somewhere, watching his reaction now.
They might want to see Damho and Bang Jinbo panic in terror.
Damho said to Bang Jinbo.
“Don't let it shake you, no matter what.”
“But…”
“That's what they want.”
“G-got it.”
Bang Jinbo clenched his teeth and nodded.
Tears welled in his eyes.
Despair filled Bang Jinbo's face.
Damho said to him.
“You have something to do.”
“Yes?”
Under the large tree, Damho shed his black robe.
He handed it to Bang Jinbo, but his gaze stayed on the distant grasslands.
“The guy's?”
“Just leaving.”
“He's just going again this time?”
“Yes.”
At the subordinate's report, Kyung Cheonsaeng rose from the rock he'd been lounging on.
Far away, past the large tree, Damho and Bang Jinbo rode off.
Seeing them leave the corpses behind, Kyung Cheonsaeng slightly furrowed his brow.
It was too far from his expectations.
Even a human should show some disturbance, but Damho showed none.
“Hmm! Colder than he looks.”
“What now?”
“No more gifts to send, so we move ourselves.”
“Finally catching him?”
“Prepare the kids. Things feel off, so tell them to brace themselves.”
“Understood.”
The subordinate bowed deeply.
Murderous intent colored his eyes.
It had been too boring.
Killing kidnapped merchants was fun, but lacked blood-pumping thrill.
“Oh! What about reporting to the mountain stronghold?”
“Later. After we catch him, it's not too late.”
“Understood.”
The subordinate withdrew after answering.
Kyung Cheonsaeng stood.
Time to move.
He lightly checked his condition.
Inner energy flowed smoothly through his body, muscles in top shape.
“Good day for a fight.”
As Kyung Cheonsaeng smiled.
Thung!
A sound like a water drop hitting the surface rang out.
Ripples spread through the air, sharp sonic waves exploding outward at terrifying speed.
The piercing vibration through his mind made every hair on Kyung Cheonsaeng's body stand on end.
“What?”
Kyung Cheonsaeng's face changed instantly.
Unconsciously, his hand gripped the sword hilt at his waist.
Instinct drove him.
“What happened?”
He shouted.
No immediate replies from subordinates who should respond at once.
The air grew heavy, like crushed by a massive rock.
His subordinates were pinned by the weighted air.
Kyung Cheonsaeng dashed to his men.
“Ugh!”
In an instant, his eyes changed.
A man stood at the path to his subordinates, who knew not when.
“When?”
Kyung Cheonsaeng's pupils shook for the first time.
The man blocking the path was a face he knew well.
But he shouldn't be here now.
‘I confirmed him riding away on horseback.’
Black horse, black-robed man.
Damho's most distinct features.
Yet the Damho standing before him wore no black robe.
Only then did Kyung Cheonsaeng realize he'd been tricked by Damho.
‘Tch! Fooled by such a basic ruse.’
Damho had dressed a corpse in his black robe and put it on the horse.
They were just too far to notice.
Kyung Cheonsaeng stepped forward.
“Not bad wits on you.”
He still gripped the sword hilt.
Damho's gaze turned to Kyung Cheonsaeng.
“Ugh!”
A low groan escaped Kyung Cheonsaeng's lips.
From afar, he hadn't noticed, but facing that gaze head-on brought unimaginable pressure.
‘Their words weren't exaggerated?’
He'd thought the merchants overstated.
Still cautious, he'd sent gifts to test Damho.
But the opponent saw through it and struck back.
Moreover, the pressure from his eyes was no joke.
He'd never felt such from even his own lord.
Kyung Cheonsaeng asked.
“Who the hell are you?”
“And who the hell are you lot?”
“We…”
Kyung Cheonsaeng shut his mouth.
Their identity couldn't be revealed yet.
Damho stared straight at Kyung Cheonsaeng.
“Why kill the merchants? If I'm your target, you could've come straight for me.”
“Hmph! Because that's all the value they had.”
“…”
“Everyone has their worth.
They were worth just that much.
People whose existence or absence changes nothing in the world.
That's why they had to die.”
“I see.”
Damho's gaze turned icy.
“Then you'll have to prove it too.
That you lot have any worth living.”