The Heavenly Demon Copies Martial Arts - 112
—Pop.
I turned around slightly, lowered my mask, and spat out the bloody saliva mixed in my mouth.
I pulled the mask back up and pressed it firmly over my nose.
Sweat-soaked, messy bangs fell over my forehead as I brushed them aside roughly with my hand.
“So, to answer your third question.”
-Startled.
Everyone flinched at my low, hoarse voice.
“Will you really keep going until the end?”
The entire room was in ruins.
Chairs and tables lay shattered on the floor, pots and broken pottery scattered everywhere.
In one corner, the geisha who had been soliciting customers, mocking me, stood frozen with wide eyes.
Next to her, the point-soi who had been aggressively selling liquor stood there too.
Before me, about twenty men without shirts knelt on the ground.
-Creak.
I sat on the chair, leaning my upper body forward.
In front of the group stood the most rugged and bulky man, Jin Gaseong, kneeling.
I licked my dry lips and said,
“Where is your eldest brother?”
“…I, I’m, that is, my lord.”
“I don’t care about you. Where is your eldest brother?”
At my sharp words, Jin Gaseong’s face turned sullen.
“Th-that. If I go and disturb my lord while he’s training, I’ll die.”
“Haa.”
I scratched my head roughly.
“No. Jin Gaseong. It’s not like I’m going to hurt your brother or anything. Your brother is one of the Oho-samhwa. I’m asking because I want to hear a good story. Not even for a moment, okay?”
“Th-that. My lord will kill me….”
“You won’t do.”
I stood up.
Jin Gaseong’s face turned deathly pale.
“Hic. N-no. Th-that… stop!”
I waved my hand at the point-soi standing beside him.
“Point-soi over there. Bring more onions.”
“N? Onions?”
“Shallots. And one bunch of green onions, please. Also, you heard what I said about the broken pottery? Jin Gaseong here will compensate for it.”
Point-soi nodded.
Jin Gaseong grumbled.
“Hey, you call me without respect, but you use honorifics with that mouse-like point-soi?”
The point-soi’s back twitched as he ran toward the kitchen.
I looked at Jin Gaseong.
“Y-yes, here it is.”
Point-soi approached hesitantly.
In the basket he carried, there were peeled shallots and a bunch of green onions.
I picked up one large, white, round shallot.
I held it in front of Jin Gaseong.
“Eat.”
“P-please, my lord. Please stop.”
I shook the shallot again, glaring.
“Eat, you bastard.”
“Hik.”
Jin Gaseong cried and snotted, stuffing the shallot into his mouth.
-Flash!
The shallot shattered in my fist aimed at his cheek.
“Kuek!”
Jin Gaseong clutched his mouth and rolled around.
“Eh, how come.”
“That was really what those back-alley bastards used to do….”
The group kneeling behind me whispered in fear.
By now, countless pieces of shattered shallot littered the floor around me.
“I feel like beating you to death right now, but I have to ask your brother for a favor, so I’m holding back as much as I can. Do you know how much that noble effort means?”
“Ugh… ugh… you cruel devil.”
“Ha, this brat. Hey, eat. This time a bigger one.”
I held out another shallot in front of him.
-Flash!
With a kick, the shallot shattered again.
“You know who our brother is….”
Jin Gaseong muttered through his reddening nose.
“Yeah, that’s why we’re looking for your brother. And that’s also why you lot are still alive today.”
[That’s right. If the host acted like his usual self, he’d have already pulled out his head, thrown it on the table, and started the negotiation.]
Mumyeong muttered.
“No, that’s a bit….”
I scratched my head.
I was about to snap.
I set down the new shallot and grabbed a green onion beside it.
I lifted the green onion and pointed it at one of the group members.
“Hey, you. The one I met in the mountains.”
“Y-yes! Here!”
The green forest chief, who had met me in the mountains, crawled out on his knees with lightning speed.
“You know where Jin Gaseong’s brother is. I remember clearly when you shouted for help while getting beaten with the five blue death swords earlier.”
“Y-yes! I know where he is!”
Jin Gaseong glared at the green forest chief through eyes misty with the pain and scent of the shallot.
But after the all-out brawl filled the room, the group had only been focused on my words.
“Take this to the person you call your brother.”
I raised the green onion high and whispered to Jin Gaseong.
“You’re going to lie down.”
Jin Gaseong froze.
“Now, other warriors are personally educating your precious little brother. Before the green onion scent completely sticks to his body, come quickly.”
-Wooong.
A faint inner energy seeped into the green onion.
With that alone, the green onion stood straight.
At least it wouldn’t snap mid-swing.
-Crunch.
My body, forged like hell in the hellish training of Amyeondong, gained strength.
My muscles contracted and relaxed, accumulating power until they were ready to burst.
No inner energy entered my body.
No killing power.
Instead, I struck with pure strength, all my might.
-Swoosh!
“Kwak!”
My palm, whipping like a whip, struck Jin Gaseong’s buttock.
“A, I understand!”
The green forest chief kicked the door open and fled.
“What the hell? You use honorifics with the point-soi but call me without? No matter what, it was a green onion.”
Before I swung it three times, the green onion began splitting vertically.
I swung it with all my strength, but it never reached the level to kill a person.
“I don’t discriminate against people. I’m not kind enough to use honorifics on the bastard trying to extort my brother. The point-soi earning his wages by working deserves more respect than you. Who is ignoring whom.”
-Slap! Slap! Slap!
Even my full-power strike couldn’t break the green onion I had infused with inner energy.
The one infused with faint inner energy became as tough as a single whip.
-Swoosh! Swoosh!
“Aaaah! Brother! Gwabok hyung! I’m dying!”
Sweat poured down my forehead.
-Pop!
Mid-swing, the green onion snapped.
I panted and stared at the broken green onion.
“It broke.”
“Master.”
I looked to the side.
Point-soi was smiling brightly.
“I brought an even thicker and sturdier one.”
In the basket point-soi held, there was a green onion the size of a pillar root.
“…Thank you.”
“I’ll peel a lot of shallots too.”
Jin Gaseong’s expression was priceless.
I swung the green onion.
Nodding at the heavy grip, I said to the group,
“As long as your brother’s brother comes, all of you lie down in a line here.”
The entire Parakho group opened their mouths and shouted in turn.
“Ah! M-my lord! Please be merciful!”
“We didn’t know you were a master!”
“Spare us!”
Jin Gaseong, face swollen, also shouted proudly,
“Stop it! We’re men, and if word gets out that we got beaten with a mere vegetable like a green onion, we won’t be able to lift our heads!”
For a moment, the crowd fell silent.
“Really?”
I held the green onion, glancing at Jin Gaseong.
“Wasn’t there something other than green onions? Something bigger and thicker?”
“Ah, th-that. So.”
“A man. I admit it.”
I extended my hand to the side.
Point-soi was already standing there.
“This is the most substantial item I brought in as food today.”
In the basket lay a ginger root as thick as a baby calf.
I grabbed the ginger root and rubbed the tip to smell it.
“It smells like it will heal you.”
“Ah, n-no. It’s not like that!”
The Parakho group glared at the man who had spoken their final words as if about to kill him.
I wiped the sweat from my bangs and said,
“I accept your opinion. From now on, I’ll cleanse you with the scent of ginger. Starting with the leader, you. Lie down.”
“Uwaa!”
I raised the massive ginger root infused with inner energy.
At that moment.
“Stop right now!”
-Kwaaang!
The door to the inn shattered at the same time a sword sheath flew in.
“…!”
It would have been at least a severe injury if it had hit unprotected.
-Kuung!
As soon as I poured inner energy into the ginger root, I swung it.
The sword sheath bounced off and was driven into the ceiling.
The ginger root shattered, spraying ginger juice everywhere.
Thick ginger juice drenched my face and that of the entire Parakho group.
“Ugh! Where’s my brother!”
Wearing blue, unadorned robes.
The man had a horse-tail ponytail tied behind him and unusually long limbs.
“Who dares to touch the blood of the Oho-samhwa, Jin Gwangbok. If even one of my brother’s bones is broken, then immediately…! What?”
The man, spewing killing intent strong enough to flip the inn, was dumbstruck.
Before him stood me holding the broken ginger root, the group drenched in ginger juice, and Jin Gaseong staring at him with a swollen face full of onion pieces.
“Eh… um.”
Jin Gwangbok hesitated, then turned.
The green forest chief was panting as he rushed up belatedly.
“You… you clearly say my brother was beaten mercilessly.”
“Beaten? Maybe even killed! If I’d done anything more, would I have rushed here at full power to tell Hyung Gwangbok?!”
“….”
Jin Gwangbok looked back at us.
He looked at the various food items scattered on the floor.
“So you are the Jin Gwangbok of the Oho-samhwa?”
“Who are you?”
I wiped the ginger juice from my face and said,
“I am Biryu of the Blood Death Sect. I heard your story from your close friend, Cheongunryong. And.”
I tossed the broken ginger root onto the floor and said,
“While developing your own martial arts is important, even if the jianghu is no longer what it used to be and prioritizes money and practicality, if you are a righteous sect that knows the righteousness and benevolence, shouldn’t you properly manage your little brother?”
-Whoosh.
Jin Gwangbok’s face flushed red.
From his reaction, it was clear.
Jin Gwangbok knew of Jin Gaseong’s misdeeds but was turning a blind eye.
“Th-that.”
“What reason is there to exploit the geisha and point-soi for protection money, eat and drink freely, and even collude with the green forest forces targeting outsiders to run rampant like lawless bandits at the village entrance? Even more.”
I wrapped a bandage around my bleeding palm.
“This is not even all the facts I’ve heard from an outsider like me in just a few hours of trying to cleanse you.”
Jin Gwangbok’s face turned bright red.
“There are probably more misdeeds I haven’t heard yet. No matter how remote the mountain, it’s not like the imperial government’s reach doesn’t touch it, but this is too extreme. So I had no choice but to act. If there is any discomfort with this, please let me know.”
Jin Gwangbok had no words.
Below him, Jin Gaseong crawled on all fours, clinging to his brother’s pant leg and sobbing.
“B-brother. Look at me. Your only beloved little brother is… that brat… that brat… beat him up. He’s such a bad kid.”
As Jin Gaseong grabbed his brother’s pant leg, he glanced at me.
In his swollen face, there was a brief moment of relief mixed with a smile of complaint about the great revenge waiting for me.
“Gaseong-ah.”
-Shake.
Jin Gwangbok’s horse-tail ponytail shook.
Jin Gaseong continued without pause.
“What this guy did to me was… he made me eat a shallot even though he wasn’t even a person, made me eat another even though I said no, beat me with a green onion, and finally made me eat a ginger root…”
Blood vessels bulged on Jin Gwangbok’s forehead.
Jin Gaseong, sensing something odd after a long speech, froze.
“B-brother?”
“Th-this wretched brat!”
Jin Gwangbok’s powerful kick, thrown with all his might, landed on Jin Gaseong’s face.
The Heavenly Demon Copies Martial Arts.