Chapter 241
Chapter 241
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Translator: penny
Chapter Title: To Fujian Fortress (1)
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Thud.
Chu Un-hwi turned away, indifferently gazing down at the Brutal Killing Corps Leader sprawled in a pool of blood.
In his line of sight, Jin-yang trembled, leaning against one of the pillars.
"Are you scared?"
"H-how...?"
"No need to be curious. Nothing to find strange about it."
"A-are you going to kill me?"
Seeming to read the cold detachment in his voice, Jin-yang asked.
"Killing you is an option, sure."
Splash. Splash.
Leaving bloody footprints as he approached her, Chu Un-hwi smiled faintly.
"It's just more convenient to eliminate witnesses."
"Ah... Aah..."
When he stroked her hair with his blood-soaked hand, her trembling transmitted straight to him.
"But I won't kill you. Believe it or not, I'm supposed to be a role model. Slaughtering my own chicks alongside my kids doesn't sit well with me."
"...Role model?"
"Above all, I don't want to see the little one cry."
Gazing at the blood droplet trickling down his hand onto the tip of her hair, Chu Un-hwi withdrew his hand.
"You'll forget everything that happened today. When you wake up, you won't remember a thing."
"......"
"Snap my fingers, and the 'Memory Wipe Technique' activates immediately. Don't resist, or you might end up a vegetable."
As he warned and hooked his thumb with his index finger,
"W-wait a second!"
Jin-yang grabbed his sleeve and cried out.
"What is it?"
"Do you have to erase my memory?"
"Killing you is an option too, but it doesn't seem like that's what you want."
"I-I'll keep the secret, I swear. Could you please let me keep the memory?"
"Why would I go through that hassle?"
His voice dropped low, and Jin-yang stared at her own toes, rambling incoherently.
"M-my family is wealthy! I could reward you, sir."
"Not tempted."
"My family is a renowned house of Lake Dongting, so it could surely be useful later on."
Her desperate clinging, trembling with fear, was quite the sight to stir one's protective instincts.
"Still rejected. My situation isn't so dire that I need power from a pathetic little Pure Sword Sect."
As he raised his finger to snap,
"I-if I lose my memory, Jin-jin will definitely notice something's off!"
"......"
Chu Un-hwi's hand froze mid-motion.
"True enough."
"A-and. And."
Her big eyes rolling frantically, Jin-yang blurted out whatever came to mind.
"I-it wouldn't be so bad if someone remembers you, right? No, more like a memory... or maybe a cherished one. Who knows, we might meet again someday."
Her haughty demeanor from their first meeting gone, she fidgeted with her touching index fingers like a frightened sparrow—quite the comical sight.
"Meet again? Sounds impossible."
"Not entirely impossible."
"But one thing I like."
"......!"
He whispered near her ear, and Jin-yang, who couldn't even meet his eyes, startled and looked up.
"Giving you the will to live again... that regret turned into a memory, didn't it?"
As her face flushed and she backed away, Chu Un-hwi gave her a small smile.
"Tell the little one I said hi."
Snap.
With the flick of his fingers, Jin-yang collapsed like a puppet with cut strings.
Whoosh.
Having gathered and burned the Brutal Killing Corps Leader and the Iron Blood Beast Squad in a corner of the village, Chu Un-hwi shrugged.
"That wraps things up here."
Now just my own business left?
"I left word with Nang Feng-wun that I'm safe, so he'll head back on his own."
They might panic if he vanished with just a short message, but he had no intention of meeting them.
He'd done his duty by saving the future Murim Alliance Leader.
"Now, off to Fujian Fortress?"
The pretext was accepting a commission from the Myo Jin Sect to hunt the Black-and-White Twin Demons, but there was another reason for heading to Fujian Fortress.
Finding someone.
A person who would become a major ally in the future battle against the Heavenly Destruction Society.
"Around now, that guy's probably suffering quite a bit."
Recalling the faded face from his memories, Chu Un-hwi muttered.
"While I'm saving him, maybe give Iron Ghost a slap too?"
Having once tried to ally with the Iron Snake Alliance, Chu Un-hwi knew Alliance Leader Iron Ghost's mindset well.
"Can't let him play it sly and watch from the sidelines to the end like in my previous life."
The Iron Snake Alliance's flip-flopping—siding with the Heavenly Destruction Society one moment, the righteous factions the next—had caused him no end of trouble in his past life.
"Can't get tangled up with that scheming opportunist again."
Thus, he planned to force a decision on Iron Ghost while he was at it.
"With the Killing Corps Leader and Iron Blood Beast Squad wiped out, he can't join hands with the Heavenly Destruction Society just to save face."
But that wasn't enough.
He planned to add one more thing.
"What if a threat to the Iron Snake Alliance Leader's authority appears?"
Not just unable to ally with the Heavenly Destruction Society—he'd make it so Iron Ghost had no choice but to fight desperately.
"You'll suffer for a while, Iron Ghost."
Muttering to himself, Chu Un-hwi turned southeast.
The direction where Fujian Fortress lay in the distance.
Chirp chirp chirp!
The valley training ground, now fully transformed into a practice field.
Jeong Tan approached Nangong Yun-ho, who was immersed in training as usual.
"What's up?"
"Ahh. I'm just a bit worried."
"About Instructor Chu, right?"
Nangong Yun-ho wiped his sweat and leaned his sheathed sword against the side.
"The other instructors have finished their missions one by one."
"Instructor Chu took on a particularly dangerous mission from the start, so it's only natural it'd take longer."
Despite his words, Nangong Yun-ho scanned the empty training ground with a lonely expression.
"Ugh. If we could at least hear some news, it wouldn't feel so stifling."
"I know he doesn't care about trivial things, but being the ones waiting makes it frustrating."
As he sighed, a lively voice cut in.
"Worried about Instructor Chu again? I told you he's fine! Instead of moping, figure out how to handle that water vortex."
Nangong Yun-ho smacked his lips at the drenched Moyong So-hye.
"I hear Fujian Fortress is incredibly dangerous. Doesn't that worry you?"
"Yun-ho's right. The unorthodox warriors there are savage and brutal. Even for Instructor Chu..."
"Savage and brutal? As much as Instructor Chu?"
"......"
The two fell silent.
"No matter the situation, he always slithers his way out, right?"
True enough. Back during that so-called summer training, when he raided a mountain bandit village and caused chaos, even the rootless black道 thugs were appalled.
"...Can't argue with that."
Unlike Nangong Yun-ho, who listened to the emotional positivity, Jeong Tan assessed coldly.
"This time's different. The news from Lake Dongting, where Instructor Chu went, is far from normal."
"Would someone who could swindle the grim reaper and escape even in hell be in 'far from normal' danger?"
"......"
"Maybe we should get an expert opinion on Instructor Chu."
"...Instructor Chu expert?"
Moyong So-hye waved at Baek Ri-seol, lost in thought nearby.
"What do you think, sis?"
Baek Ri-seol, who had been sitting absentmindedly, lifted her pale eyes to glance at the ground, then the sky, before shouting.
"He's got a woman clinging to him!"
"Huh?"
"What?"
"Eh?"
"Instructor Chu has a woman stuck to him!"
Moyong So-hye's gaze turned icy.
"Sis, what's your basis for saying that?"
"A woman's intuition."
"Intuition?"
Moyong So-hye sighed deeply and shook her head.
"I think you're overestimating Instructor Chu, sis. Honestly, unless you've got tastes as weird as yours, who would even glance at him?"
"You forgot what Student Jin Seol-hyang said?"
"She said they were nothing."
"No. There's something there. This is a woman's intuition."
Repeating her baseless claim, Baek Ri-seol began gnawing her thumbnail in earnest.
"It'd be nice if he just stayed home quietly, living off his wife's money. Not easy, though. When he gets back, I have to do something."
"...Normal people don't develop tastes like that easily."
Wondering if Baek Ri-seol wasn't worried at all, Nangong Yun-ho asked, only to get an unexpected reply.
"As if anyone could touch Instructor Chu."
At this point, it was fanaticism.
"More worried about the vixens trying to seduce our diligent, hardworking, upstanding instructor."
"Talking to this woman is pointless."
"Jeong, your mouth is so vulgar. Wanna go?"
Moyong So-hye flailed her arms between the growling pair, struggling for a while.
"Ughhh... I'm exhausted."
As she slumped her shoulders, Nangong Yun-ho looked down at her.
"By the way, 'diligent, hardworking, upstanding instructor'? Compared to Baek Student's evaluation, I guess my trust in him is still lacking."
"Means he's normal. Instructor Chu's only diligent and upstanding when he's being lazy, right?"
Despite Moyong So-hye's point, Nangong Yun-ho dove back into the valley with grim determination.
Turning even his slight unease into mental fuel to conquer the water vortex?
"Waaah! What do I do? Can't sleep worrying about Instructor Chu cheating."
"Ah... This is killing me."
Moyong So-hye teared up as her head whipped back and forth, gripped by the shoulders.
"This place is quite different too."
Having flown in with lightness skill, Fujian Fortress looked nothing like his memories.
"No wonder the Iron Snake Alliance uses it as a stronghold."
The cities around Lake Dongting were sizable, but paled in comparison.
The massive double walls were impregnable, guarded by a substantial force of soldiers.
"Practically a fortress."
Even more impressive was the scale: the enormous walls enclosed mountains on one side and bordered the sea on the other.
"Really nothing like my memories."
Feeling anew that he'd returned to the past, he advanced, spotting familiar characters on the fortress flags.
- Twin Dragon Invincible.
A black and red twin dragons entwined, coveting the wish-granting pearl.
"The Brutal Killing Corps Leader was the Twin Dragon Sect Leader, right? Seems the news hasn't spread yet."
Having rushed here in one go with lightness skill, he had a few days before the Lake Dongting deaths became known.
"Strike first before the Brutal Killing Corps Leader's death leaks?"
Chu Un-hwi soared toward Fujian Fortress with lightness skill.
A small inn at the west gate of Fujian Fortress.
Upon entering, a rat-tailed whiskered waiter hobbled out.
"Hehe. Sir, what'll you have?"
The waiter was an elderly man with white hair.
Not content with the limp, one eye was clouded, the pupil wandering aimlessly.
A sight that would repel most, but Chu Un-hwi paid it no mind.
"Business seems booming."
The waiter's face stiffened slightly at the response.
"Heh. Heh. Sir, it's shabby and empty. Can't even call it prospering as a joke?"
"No customers?"
Thud thud. As he tapped the floor with his toe, the waiter's tone changed.
"May I ask where you're from, sir?"
"Infinite Fortress."
"We've been expecting you."
The old man clasped his hands in salute, his faded gray eyes flickering as he added,
"Hao Gate Fujian Branch Leader. Nang Yeom."