Chapter 205
Chapter 205
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 58
>Chapter Title: Karma (1)
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Whoosh!
Amid the raging downpour, Seop Chun, captain of the Heaven-Earth Society's Third Escort Squad from the main branch, clicked his tongue.
'Feels like the rain's getting even heavier now that we're by the river.'
At this rate, he wasn't sure if they could cross even with a big boat.
Climbing a hill with higher ground, they could see the river raging like a torrent, which filled him with grave concern.
Just then, the only manor in the village came into view before them.
Compared to the grand estates in the Heaven-Earth Society's inner stronghold, it was downright shabby, but it was clear this was still quite prosperous for a manor in such a small riverside village.
Mong Muyak gazed at the manor and said,
"There seem to be quite a few people inside."
Mok Kyung-un nodded at his words.
Indeed, he could sense presences within the walled compound, and smoke was even rising faintly from between the tiled roofs.
"Probably servants. Let's head in for now."
Seop Chun took the lead and walked toward the main gate.
As he reached for the knocker, he noticed something like a plaque mounted beside the gate and spoke with a glint in his eyes.
"My lord."
"Yes?"
"The owner of this boat doesn't seem to be your average village rich man."
"If he's not ordinary, does that make him extraordinary?"
"Look here."
The plaque Seop Chun pointed to read:
[Meritorious Retainer of the Fourth Rank for Pacifying the Rebellion]
"Meritorious Retainer of the Fourth Rank for Pacifying the Rebellion?"
As Mok Kyung-un read it aloud, Mong Muyak, who had drawn near, furrowed his brow and said,
"It seems the manor's master was once an official who earned merits."
"An official?"
"Yes. Judging by how the plaque is mounted right next to the gate, he might be a retired official who returned to his hometown after his service."
"Good grief. What kind of day is this?"
Seop Chun smacked his lips.
They had already encountered people possibly connected to officials or even the imperial palace at the inn.
If this manor's owner was also a former official, it was an uncanny coincidence.
Of course, unlike their reactions, Mok Kyung-un seemed utterly unconcerned and said,
"Whether he was an official or not, do we really need to care? We just need to borrow the boat and cross the river."
"Well... that's true."
It was a fair point.
It was merely the coincidence of the situation that was odd.
Soon, Seop Chun grasped the knocker and rapped on the gate.
Thud! Thud!
Perhaps due to the fierce rain, there was no response from inside.
Seop Chun shouted while pounding again.
"Is anyone home?"
Thud! Thud!
After several knocks, the gate soon creaked open.
Creak!
As the gate swung open, a woman in her mid-twenties appeared, holding a paper umbrella and accompanied by two sturdy young men.
Mok Kyung-un's eyes gleamed as he regarded them.
'Hmm.'
She didn't seem to be the boat owner the innkeeper had mentioned.
But she was likely connected.
Both the innkeeper and that old man Fan had said the boat owner was on his deathbed.
The woman's face, looking to be in her mid-twenties, was haggard, her complexion dark and listless, suggesting she might be the boat owner's daughter.
"What brings travelers here at such a late hour?"
"I apologize for the intrusion, but might we meet the manor's master?"
"......"
The haggard-faced woman gave no reply to Seop Chun's question.
Instead, she glanced at the weapon on his waist before asking,
"If I may be so bold, are you mere travelers seeking to cross the river? Or have you come after seeing the plea posted in front of the Stone Three Stronghold in the nearby county?"
Seop Chun frowned at the woman's words.
They had come to see the manor's master, yet her questions felt oddly off.
He could understand asking if they were travelers wanting to cross, but what was this about a plea in front of some Stone Three Stronghold?
A plea was, as the name implied, a written request for aid.
Puzzled, Seop Chun was about to say they were the former when,
"We've come after seeing the plea."
Mok Kyung-un suddenly cut him off.
'My lord?'
Seop Chun startled and looked at Mok Kyung-un.
Their goal was simply to borrow a boat to cross the river.
If he claimed they had seen some unknown plea, they might get asked what it was about, leading to unnecessary...
"Ahhh."
At that moment, the haggard woman let out a gasp, her eyes reddening.
'Huh?'
Seop Chun was baffled by her reaction.
She wasn't suspicious?
Then the woman clasped her hands, bowed her head, and said in a trembling voice,
"Thank you. Thank you so much for coming, even if just like this."
'!?'
Her response seemed like that of someone desperately grasping at straws.
What on earth had happened to elicit this?
As he wondered, Mok Kyung-un casually asked her,
"We came because of the plea, but I'd like to see the master first. Is that possible?"
'Ah!'
Seop Chun nodded, finally understanding.
Her tone had been quite sharp when asking if they were just travelers crossing the river.
So rather than bluntly stating their purpose, this roundabout approach allowed them to check if the manor master was truly in any state to man the boat.
In response to Mok Kyung-un's question, the woman lifted her head with a deep sigh and said,
"I can show you my father's condition, but lately he hasn't even been in his right mind. It all seems to stem from that karma of his."
'Ah... so it's real?'
Seop Chun shot Mong Muyak a troubled look at her words.
Mong Muyak looked equally at a loss.
If they couldn't cross the river soon, they might miss the rendezvous deadline.
While they fretted, Mok Kyung-un took interest in something else.
His gaze wasn't on the woman but beyond the gate, into the manor.
'It's thrashing about.'
He could sense a resentful wandering soul's energy from within the manor.
It was chillingly cold and eerie.
Moreover, it had been going on for quite some time, as the entire manor was gripped by this baleful aura, growing heavy and subdued like a sinking ship.
[That household's master is possessed by a water ghost, I tell you.]
'So that's what she meant.'
It seemed the old innkeeper's words weren't mere rumors.
What was strange, though, was that this much baleful energy hadn't been detectable until the gate opened.
It was as if someone had deliberately sealed it off, like at the Blood Valley Cliffs...
'Ho. So that's it.'
Mok Kyung-un's eyes turned to the six talismans meticulously affixed in the gaps of the gate.
He immediately recognized them.
'Six Talismans Four Directions Ritual.'
Whoever did it was a skilled sorcerer.
He could feel substantial incantation power from the talismans.
'And they weren't applied long ago.'
Ever since absorbing the Sea Corpse King's and Three-Eyed Demon's demonic energies, Mok Kyung-un's sensitivity to incantations had reached near-divination levels. Just from the aura emanating from the talismans, he could vaguely tell when they had been placed.
Thus,
"It seems a skilled sorcerer has been here."
The woman widened her eyes at Mok Kyung-un's words and replied,
"How did you know?"
"They seem proficient in talisman arts. Besides the gate's seams, there are probably some on the back gate and the east and west walls too, right?"
"Yes! Yes! I couldn't tell because of your raincoats, but are you a sorcerer by any chance?"
She asked because Mok Kyung-un wasn't wearing the robes typical of sorcerers.
At her question, Mok Kyung-un smiled faintly and answered,
"My skills are modest, but I studied incantation arts under a renowned sorcerer."
'Modest?'
Seop Chun and Mong Muyak inwardly clicked their tongues at Mok Kyung-un's words.
How could he call the miraculous ability to reattach a severed arm "modest"?
It was needless humility.
Unaware of this, the woman simply shook her head gratefully and said,
"What does it matter coming through this stormy night? We are truly grateful."
"Not at all. But do we have to keep standing out here?"
"Oh dear, how rude of me, leaving guests in the rain. Please, come inside."
The woman led Mok Kyung-un and his group into the manor.
As they entered, she introduced herself.
Her name was Woo Hyang, and she was the manor master's eldest daughter.
Perhaps because they had said they came after seeing the plea, her attitude remained friendly throughout.
But the two sturdy men escorting her were not.
They kept shooting sidelong glances that clearly showed their displeasure.
To this, Cheong-ryeong said,
-Those mortals seem rather displeasing.
-Yes.
-Their muscles look well-developed and imposing on the outside, but their footwork is crude. Seems they've only trained in basic martial arts, not true martial arts.
-Yes, doesn't look like they've learned any real martial arts.
-They might have been imperial soldiers.
-Imperial soldiers?
-Yes. Even with their crude footwork, both are unconsciously matching their steps perfectly.
-Hoo. I see.
As the two men walked side by side, their advancing steps were perfectly in sync.
It was too similar in posture to be mere coincidence.
-This suggests the manor master might have been a military officer.
-Ah.
Mok Kyung-un nodded in agreement.
Now that he thought about it, the plaque by the gate—"Meritorious Retainer for Pacifying the Rebellion"—could also mean a contributor to quelling a rebellion.
And with these presumed former soldiers as escorts, it was likely, as Cheong-ryeong said, that the manor master was a retired military officer.
At that moment, Seop Chun sidled close and whispered to Mok Kyung-un,
"My apologies, my lord, but are you planning to help the manor master?"
"We need the boat."
If he were in good health, they could threaten him into rowing, but the situation was the opposite.
"That's true, but..."
"Let's see first. Whether it's really some baleful thing attached to him or not."
"Pardon?"
Seop Chun looked baffled at Mok Kyung-un's words.
He had thought maybe, like with Mong Muyak's severed arm, he planned to use his mystical incantations to help the dying manor master.
But suddenly mentioning checking for some attached baleful entity left him confused.
He cautiously asked,
"What do you mean by that baleful thing exactly?"
"Something like a resentful spirit or a vengeful wraith."
"......"
It only grew more confusing.
Resentful spirits and vengeful wraiths were the stuff of folklore and the bizarre.
He couldn't fathom why his lord would say such things. Then Woo Hyang, the manor master's daughter leading the way, spoke.
"The benefactors who came first upon the plea are guarding the hall where my father is."
"The main hall?"
"Yes. A sorcerer named Yi Mun-hae said tonight is the critical point..."
Mok Kyung-un nodded at her words.
Indeed, the closer they got to the main hall, the more the baleful energy thrashed and intensified.
This level of power was anything but low-grade.
"Ah! There's one of them over there."
Woo Hyang pointed to the main hall building visible beyond the annex.
Mok Kyung-un's eyes gleamed at the sight.
'Huh?'
There was a man leaning against the wall under the eaves of the main hall's tiled roof, swigging from a gourd.
The man wasn't particularly tall, but his muscles were so massively developed that he was twice the bulk of an ordinary person.
Even more striking was his nearly bald head with closely cropped hair and the rosary of broken beads around his neck.
'A monk?'
His attire and appearance evoked a monk.
In a way, he even gave off a vibe similar to the Demon Monk.
Then Seop Chun spoke up.
"Good grief. What is he doing in a place like this?"
"You know him?"
Not Seop Chun, but Mong Muyak interjected to answer.
"He's the Vajra Fist Subduer Jin Geum-jeong."
"Vajra Fist Subduer?"
An unusual moniker.
Vajra Subduer literally meant one who subdues demons.
There was actually a group that used such titles: Shaolin Temple, the birthplace and center of the orthodox martial world.
Shaolin had monks with various precepts and titles, and "Vajra Subduer" was typically applied to warrior monks who trained both in Buddhist doctrine and martial arts.
Yet despite the title fitting a doctrine-practicing warrior monk, the man's aura was rough and reeked of bloodlust.
Mok Kyung-un's doubt was quickly resolved.
"That man is a Shaolin precept-breaker."
"A precept-breaker?"
"Yes."
Precept-breaker.
A monk excommunicated for violating the precepts.
At this, Mok Kyung-un nodded as if it made sense.
"Ah. Must be because of the precept against killing."
The precept against killing.
Monks cultivating the Buddhist path must not take life.
This held true even for Shaolin monks, centered on martial learning.
Mong Muyak shook his head at Mok Kyung-un's words and replied,
"No. He was defrocked for indulging too much in alcohol."
'!?'