Chapter 83
Chapter 83
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 83
Chapter Title: Part 3. No Matter How Many Years Pass, Some Things Can't Be Forgotten (2)
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Dam Ho and Bang Jin-bo returned to the West Wind Inn.
"Ugh! I'm gonna die."
The moment they entered the room, Bang Jin-bo collapsed onto the bed and groaned. In just half a day, too much had happened. It was far too much for a young boy like Bang Jin-bo to handle.
Bang Jin-bo fell asleep immediately upon lying down.
Dam Ho sat in a chair and gazed out the window. Suddenly, a glint appeared in his eyes. A neatly folded note was tucked into the window frame.
It definitely hadn't been there when he left the inn at dawn. Dam Ho opened the window and picked up the note.
Just two characters written on it.
Heavenly Pavilion.
Dam Ho clenched his fist and rose to his feet.
Confirming that Bang Jin-bo was in a deep sleep, Dam Ho stepped outside.
Leaving the West Wind Inn, he headed straight for the street lined with brothels. His destination was the Heavenly Pavilion.
At the entrance to the Heavenly Pavilion stood a familiar-faced girl. It was Un-jeong, the one who had called out to him the first time he came here.
When Dam Ho appeared, Un-jeong's expression flickered slightly.
"Where's the madam?"
"She's waiting inside. Follow me."
Un-jeong led the way into the Heavenly Pavilion.
Dam Ho glanced around briefly before following her.
"Come on in."
Gi Ye-hwa greeted Dam Ho.
Dam Ho showed her the note in his hand.
"You sent this."
"That's right. I did."
"Looks like you got results."
"Some, yes. Have a seat first."
"No need. Talk."
"You're as impatient as ever. Still, sit down. It's a long story."
"Then get on with it."
"Just as I expected. I figured you'd react like this."
A smile crept onto Gi Ye-hwa's lips, hidden behind her veil.
Dam Ho stared at her silently. His gaze was intimidating enough to unsettle anyone, yet the smile on her lips didn't fade.
"Seventeen or eighteen years ago, bandits operating mainly in Shaanxi Province. About thirty of them, led by a man in his fifties with a big scar on his left cheek. The people you asked me to find. Right?"
"Did you find them?"
Dam Ho's voice sank low. The air in the room grew heavy with it.
Gi Ye-hwa's expression shifted slightly. The weight of the atmosphere pressed down on her shoulders.
She moistened her lips and spoke.
"The people you're looking for are probably the Black Tiger Band."
"Black Tiger Band?"
"Bandits who ruled Shaanxi at the time. Infamous for plundering villages, abducting women, and rape. They left nothing behind in the villages they hit—like a plague had swept through."
"The leader?"
"His name's Jo Yun-san. Big scar on his left cheek, just like you said."
As Gi Ye-hwa finished speaking, Dam Ho's eyebrow twitched. She didn't miss the change.
For the first time, the emotionless man showed a ripple in his feelings.
"Jo... Yun-san. Jo Yun-san."
Dam Ho repeated the name, as if vowing never to forget it.
The chill in his demeanor left Gi Ye-hwa speechless for a moment.
"Where is he now?"
"I couldn't track his whereabouts."
"Why not?"
"Fifteen years ago, he disbanded the Black Tiger Band and vanished."
"Vanished?"
"Yes. They disbanded out of nowhere and went completely off the grid. No trace of him since."
"So you can't find him?"
Gi Ye-hwa flinched at the words.
The killing intent in his voice made her skin crawl.
If she couldn't give him the answer he wanted, she felt like she'd die right there. Every hair on her body stood on end.
She hurried to continue.
"Fortunately, I do know where one member of the Black Tiger Band is."
"Tell me! Where is he?"
"It's not hard to tell you. But in exchange..."
"Exchange?"
"There's something I want you to do for me. Do that, and I'll tell you his whereabouts."
Gi Ye-hwa proposed the deal. She was sure Dam Ho would listen.
But his response shattered her expectations.
"You're mistaken about something."
"What?"
"I've already paid."
"That's..."
"I hate people who break promises or tack on conditions most of all."
The room's windows were all shut tight, not a breath of wind could enter. Yet the veil covering Gi Ye-hwa's face fluttered.
Shock flashed across her revealed face. She hadn't expected him to unleash his killing intent so suddenly.
"Calm down, Young Hero Dam!"
"Do whatever. Attach conditions if you want, break promises if you want. Then I'll do whatever I want."
Dam Ho stood up.
"Hngh!"
Blood trickled from Gi Ye-hwa's lips. Just his killing intent alone had wounded her internally.
She looked up at him with terrified eyes.
"How many are in here? Fifty? A hundred?"
"Why do you ask?"
"I'll hunt them down one by one and kill them all. Young girls, old women—it won't matter. Until you spill everything you know."
"E-even then, it won't work. Haomen never bows to threats."
Pressed by his aura though she was, Gi Ye-hwa was no pushover. As the branch chief of Haomen's Evil Goat branch, she was seasoned and wouldn't yield easily to intimidation.
But she'd picked the wrong opponent.
Her foe was Dam Ho. Once he set his mind to something, he never looked back or retreated.
"Doesn't matter. If I don't get answers here, I'll go to another Haomen branch. If no answers there, I'll kill everyone there too. Then find the next one."
"You think you can? Headquarters will issue an extermination order. Even you couldn't withstand that."
"I told you. Doesn't matter. Even if I die or lose my limbs, I don't care. Until I die, I'll keep moving to kill as many of you as I can. Try to stop me if you can."
"Ah!"
Gi Ye-hwa was speechless.
She'd never met a man like this. No negotiation or deal worked on Dam Ho. No words could sway him.
Cold sweat ran down her spine.
In his pitch-black eyes, she saw her reflection. Gone was her usual confidence—replaced by a flushed, panicked stranger staring back through his gaze.
She had no time to feel ashamed. His killing intent was growing stronger.
"Miss!"
Seol-hee, who had been hiding until now, couldn't take it anymore and jumped out to block Gi Ye-hwa.
Her stance radiated determination to protect her lady at any cost. But against the monster that was Dam Ho, it seemed pitifully inadequate.
Dam Ho's gaze turned to Seol-hee.
"You first."
Chills ran through her!
Seol-hee instinctively crossed her arms in defense.
Boom!
"Urk!"
With a stifled groan, Seol-hee's body flew backward. Dam Ho's palm strike had landed.
Her arms, flying back, were already swelling.
She'd concentrated her internal energy in her arms just in time—otherwise, they'd have shattered, along with her ribs.
Seol-hee tried to steady herself. But Dam Ho was faster.
Swoosh!
He charged at terrifying speed.
Her black hair whipped in the wind, revealing his dark eyes between strands. In those coldly gleaming eyes, Seol-hee saw her own terrified face.
Her body seemed too frail to withstand the storm of his killing intent.
"Hng!"
Seol-hee squeezed her eyes shut without realizing.
Grab!
Dam Ho seized her by the collar. Her feet lifted off the ground.
Heavenly Strike was about to unfold.
"Wait! I'll tell you! I'll tell you everything, so please stop!"
Gi Ye-hwa's desperate cry echoed through the room.
Whoosh!
The fierce wind that had scorched her skin vanished like a lie. At the same time, Seol-hee's feet touched the floor again.
"I'll tell you. No conditions."
Only then did Dam Ho release Seol-hee's collar and look at Gi Ye-hwa. Fearing he might change his mind, she rushed on.
"Not far from here, in Xiangyin, there's a gambling house run by headquarters. A man who brags about being in the Black Tiger Band frequents it. Find him, and you can track down the rest."
"Xiangyin, huh?"
"You can get there in a day if you hurry."
Gi Ye-hwa explained in detail how to find the gambling house. She feared his mood might shift.
She feared his martial arts, but even more, the man himself. As Haomen's Evil Goat branch chief for years here—and before that, as a courtesan seeing all sorts of people—no one had terrified her like Dam Ho.
A man immune to talk or deals.
For someone like her, who thrived on balancing complex relationships, he was the worst kind of opponent.
"While I'm gone, protect Jin-bo's safety."
"That's..."
"It's not a request."
"Understood."
In the end, Gi Ye-hwa had no choice but to agree. There was no other way.
Dam Ho turned and walked out.
"Cough!"
Only then did Seol-hee hack up dry coughs and slump to the floor.
Gi Ye-hwa stared blankly at where Dam Ho had vanished.
"We need to completely revise our intel on him. His strength, personality, decisiveness, intelligence—everything's way beyond danger level. One misstep, and he could become Haomen's worst enemy."
"Miss!"
"Until orders come from above, cooperate with him fully."
"Is that safe?"
"No choice. Headquarters is far away, but he's right here. To preserve the lives of our 120 at the Heavenly Pavilion, we cooperate."
"Got it."
"Becoming his enemy only after securing a sure way to suppress him. If we even can."
Gi Ye-hwa's voice trembled with unease.