Chapter 200
Chapter 200
-----------------------------------------------------------------
>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 57
>Chapter Title: Water Ghost (1)
>-----------------------------------------------------------------
"Now, there shouldn't be any problems resuming the mission."
'T-This!'
Mong Mu-yak's expression hardened in an instant.
He had been inwardly thrilled that the sensation in his severed arm was returning.
But there was something he had completely forgotten.
Now he had no choice but to carry out the confidential mission with Mok Kyung-un.
'Damn it!'
He had planned to use his injury as an excuse to head straight back to the Heaven and Earth Society and report this guy's dangerous nature to his father, the Vice Leader. But that plan was going completely awry.
As he panicked, Mok Kyung-un spoke up as if he had just remembered something.
"Ah! And I have one more gift for you."
'A gift?'
In his distraught state, when Mok Kyung-un said he had something to give him, Mong Mu-yak looked at him with a face full of suspicion.
Mok Kyung-un then pulled something from his bosom.
It was a bracelet made of chains.
'Huh?'
Was he really giving him a gift?
To the puzzled Mong Mu-yak, Mok Kyung-un lifted the corner of his mouth in a sly grin.
"It's nothing special, but I'd like you to wear this."
* * *
-Shooooaaaah!
It was a late afternoon of pouring rain.
A government official with a pointed mustache was leading someone through the dense forest.
The man he was guiding wore a bamboo hat like those of the executioners, and in one hand he carried a pitch-black sword that looked charred.
The official glanced suspiciously at the mysterious man.
He clicked his tongue in amazement.
Over an hour of trudging through the muddy mountain path in the downpour, and the man showed not the slightest sign of fatigue.
'Martial artists are something else.'
"Haa... haa..."
In contrast, the official— a local born and raised here—was exhausted, his breathing ragged.
The weather was chilly too, his breath coming out in thick puffs.
Mountain trekking in weather like this was sheer madness, but that damn money was his nemesis.
'How much silver was in that pouch.'
The amount of silver coins in the pouch the man had shown him was too much to count.
A government official's salary was barely enough to keep body and soul together, so how could he not be tempted?
Put simply, it was too much money to turn down.
Besides,
'Just show him the spot and get paid this much—what's not to like?'
They had been pushing deeper into the forest for about fifteen minutes when the official spotted red cloth strips tied to several trees and spoke up.
"Here it is, my lord."
He pointed to a bare patch of ground between trees where red cloth strips were tied, a spot where not a single blade of grass grew.
It was an eerie place.
The soil was a dark crimson, and a chill hung in the air all around.
The sun hadn't set yet, but with the pouring rain, it was darker than any time he'd been here before.
It sent an involuntary shiver down his spine.
At that moment, the man spoke.
"Dig up the ground."
"Pardon? Dig the ground?"
"That's right."
"Whoa, I'm just supposed to guide you to where the executed prisoners are buried..."
"I'll pay you extra."
At the man's words, the official eyed the mud-caked earth soaked by the rain.
Wet ground was harder to dig than dry.
And digging up a grave alone gave him the creeps.
But,
'Aw, whatever.'
He couldn't resist the temptation of the silver.
For about an hour, the official dug.
Since it was an officially designated burial ground for prisoner corpses, there were tools like pickaxes nearby, so he didn't have to do it barehanded.
'Damn it.'
This was too much.
Sure, he was getting paid, but he'd figured the man would help out since it'd take forever alone.
But the guy just stood there with arms crossed, watching.
In the end, he did it all by himself.
-Thunk!
'Ah!'
The official swallowed hard as he swung the pickaxe.
That feel just now wasn't dirt.
Soon after, several corpses came into view.
"Ugh."
He felt like vomiting.
With the rain pouring, the stench of rotting flesh assaulted him even more fiercely.
'But with the bodies this decayed, how's anyone supposed to identify them?'
As he thought that, the bamboo-hatted man who had been watching with arms crossed approached and inspected the decomposing corpses.
If they'd been in coffins, the decay might have been less, but as prisoners, they'd just been buried in the dirt, reduced to a state impossible to recognize.
"Hmm."
Even so, the man continued examining the bodies.
Then he stopped at one.
Unlike the others, this one had only a head—no body.
The face was rotted beyond recognition.
The bamboo-hatted man asked upon seeing it.
"Why is this corpse just a head?"
"Ah..."
The official, who had seen the corpse, hesitated on how to handle this.
It was a body whose existence had been ordered sealed by the magistrate.
He'd only been asked to guide here and dig, so he had no obligation to reveal sealed secrets.
"I'm sorry, but I don't really know."
"You don't know? It's not been years—barely a month and a few days. You can't remember that...?"
"I truly don't know. I'm just a lowly official..."
-Swish!
"Hek!"
Before he could finish, the black sword was at his throat.
One thrust and there'd be a hole in his neck.
Panicking, the official blurted out.
"W-What is this?!"
"Ever had a hole in your neck?"
"The m-magistrate ordered us not to speak of it."
"I see. But I need to hear it. So tell me."
"Threatening an official like this..."
"Would it matter if your corpse got mixed in with the prisoners'?"
Killing intent flowed from his words.
'Eeek!'
Terrified, the official spilled the truth.
"I-I'll tell you."
"Do it."
"A-among the condemned was a vicious criminal called the Sickle Murder Ghost."
At those words, the bamboo-hatted man's lips curved faintly.
He'd finally found it.
A trace of the bastard.
It had taken quite some time tracking down an official with no relatives who could be bought off.
The bamboo-hatted man said to him,
"And?"
"But before the execution, there was an incident in the Golden Prison."
"An incident?"
"Yes."
"What kind?"
"Someone with a grudge against the Sickle Murder Ghost must have done it—his throat was slit overnight, and he was dead."
"...Dead?"
"Yes, but his body vanished completely—everything but the head."
The bamboo-hatted man's eyes narrowed.
Someone had infiltrated the county office's Golden Prison and killed a condemned prisoner.
And the body—minus the head—had disappeared?
This wasn't something to overlook.
"But why did the county office let it slide?"
"W-Well, he was going to be executed anyway, and if word got out..."
"Ah."
The bamboo-hatted man waved his hand.
No need to hear more.
The magistrate's position would have been jeopardized.
So he'd hushed up the intrusion and murder in the Golden Prison.
This information meant nothing to him anyway.
What mattered was,
'Not the head, but the torso was taken. That means...'
His suspicions were more than justified.
Investigating Timber Sword Manor would provide the answers.
At that moment, the terrified official cautiously spoke up.
"Uh, you can just pay me what you originally promised, so please..."
"Ah. The fee?"
"Yes."
"Fine, I'll pay."
"Ah!"
The official's face lit up.
He'd worried the man might stiff him and leave, but relief.
But then,
-Puke!
"Gahk!"
The black sword pierced the official's throat.
With a dying scream, the sword withdrew, and the staggering official collapsed into the pit he'd dug, face twisted in agony.
-Splash!
The pit was pooled with rainwater turned muddy, now staining red.
"I'll toss in enough for your funeral rites."
-Ting!
The bamboo-hatted man flicked a single silver coin into the pit.
Then he left.
* * *
-Shooooaaaah!
The rain was so heavy it obscured vision.
A proper deluge.
Three men were pushing north through it.
Mok Kyung-un, Seop Chun—the third guard captain of the Heaven and Earth Society's main branch—and Vice Leader's son Mong Mu-yak.
The rain had been falling nonstop since the day before yesterday—now on its third day.
Even martial arts masters found travel difficult in such a downpour.
Bringing up the rear with lightfoot skill, Mong Mu-yak glanced at his splinted left arm.
Sensation was slowly returning; his fingers moved properly.
'Whew.'
But now, it brought him no joy.
If anything, it was like giving poison and then the antidote—now that his severed arm was healing, he was stuck carrying out the mission.
'Damn it.'
Maybe it would've been better if the arm stayed gone.
Then he could've gone back and reported everything to his father, the Vice Leader.
This guy was scarier than anyone he'd ever seen.
Not just his inhuman traits, but his mastery of martial arts plus all sorts of bizarre skills made him terrifying.
A prime example being,
-Swish!
This chain bracelet on his right wrist.
[Since you've decided to pledge loyalty, wear this chain on your arm and swear to me.]
It had felt off at the time, but what harm could one bracelet do? So he'd complied.
But after the oath, he realized.
He could no longer refuse anything Mok Kyung-un said.
He'd once considered fleeing midway, but the moment the thought crossed his mind, the chain dug into his flesh, nearly costing him his right arm.
Now, he couldn't even harbor disloyal thoughts.
He was little more than this guy's slave.
'Damn it.'
All he could do was curse inwardly.
As he grumbled to himself, bemoaning his fate,
Mok Kyung-un and Seop Chun, leading through the downpour, suddenly halted.
Wondering why, he looked ahead.
"Ah!"
A dismayed exclamation escaped Mong Mu-yak.
Ahead lay a river swollen by the flood.
-Shooooaaaah! Rumble!
Seop Chun spoke in a troubled tone.
"This... crossing the river's going to be tough."
The current was too fierce for swimming, even for martial artists.
And it wasn't a distance you could swim anyway.
The river wasn't as vast as the Yangtze, so normally—even in rain—a ferry or raft could've made it.
But now, the torrent risked sweeping them away.
"I worried with all this rain, but yeah, crossing right now seems impossible."
"Indeed."
Mok Kyung-un nodded in agreement with Seop Chun.
Before the might of nature, even martial masters were mere mortals.
"For now, my lord, we should rest in that nearby village and wait out the rain."
Mong Mu-yak cut in at Seop Chun's words.
"Hey. You already forgetting?"
"Hm?"
"The top priority of this mission is hitting the rendezvous on time. One day's delay makes it nearly impossible."
Seop Chun sighed.
"True, but how do you plan to cross a flooded river?"
Floods were acts of heaven, not man.
No human effort could overcome it.
But,
"...We need a way to cross."
Mong Mu-yak was adamant.
With only ten days to Anrok in Henan Province, ordinary folk couldn't make it.
But as super-elites, with minimal rest and constant lightfoot, they could just barely.
"So how?"
"Uh, well..."
-Swish!
Mong Mu-yak eyed a nearby village not far from the riverbank.
Villages by rivers usually made their living from it.
Mok Kyung-un, staring intently, spoke.
"I see ferries moored at the village edge. And that boat over there..."
A large vessel was moored near the flooded bank.
Not a ferry's size.
"Looks pretty big. That should handle crossing, right?"
"Ah! Yeah, might work."
Mong Mu-yak nodded in agreement.
Small ferries or rafts couldn't buck this current, but that big one could drift downstream with it.
But another problem arose.
Seop Chun raised it.
"My lord, a boat that size needs ferrymen and laborers to handle."
A simple raft, they could row—clumsily, but doable.
But that one seemed beyond their strength alone.
They'd need the owner-ferryman.
"In this weather, doubt the owner'll launch it."
"He keeps a boat like that to make money, so pay enough fare and he'll sail."
"Eh..."
Seop Chun responded half-heartedly to Mong Mu-yak.
They had ample travel funds for fare.
But the rain was torrential, current deadly—one mishap and the boat could capsize.
"No matter the pay, would he risk his life on that gamble?"
To Seop Chun's doubt, Mok Kyung-un smiled faintly.
"He will."
"Pardon?"
Why was his lord so sure?
As he puzzled,
"Better than refusing and getting his head chopped off."
"........."
Mok Kyung-un already planned to threaten the man into sailing.
End of Chapter 57: Water Ghost (1)