Chapter 139
Chapter 139
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 139
Chapter Title: Hell's Sewer
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The muscular hammer master was sleeping soundly, snoring all the way up to his nose.
Even so, Han Ibi pulled out iron strips from the weapon display rack overhead and bound the two men tight.
"Just in case they wake up... One thing I've learned since coming to the martial world is to be cautious—always cautious!"
Thankfully, it was late, and no one else was around the workshop.
He circled behind the forge with the beggar boy.
The beggar boy said,
"Just as I thought—there's an entrance leading to the manor."
Han Ibi replied,
"Well, of course there is. Otherwise, they'd have to take a huge detour every time they went home."
The two quietly opened the side door leading toward the manor.
"Whoa!"
"Wow!"
Their mouths fell open involuntarily.
Exclamations slipped out on their own.
The manor's interior landscaping was exquisitely beautiful.
Han Ibi said,
"They must've made a killing with their money."
"Yeah. I've never seen such a beautiful garden."
The beggar boy's eyes sparkled.
Han Ibi grinned and said,
"Hey, you're more sentimental than I thought. For a beggar."
The beggar boy abruptly changed his expression and shot back,
"What, you think beggars don't have an eye for beauty?"
Surprised by the boy's sharp retort, Han Ibi quickly changed the subject.
"Oh, right! Speaking of eyes, that reminds me of Protector Ha. Let's search the workshop quick."
Hearing that, the beggar boy unfolded the crumpled note.
Seeing this, Han Ibi said,
"But is that really in Protector Ha's handwriting?"
The beggar boy brought the paper close to his eyes and said,
"No matter how I look at it, it matches Protector Ha's script. It wouldn't be easy to forge it this perfectly."
The boy tilted his head and continued,
"Still, there doesn't seem to be a detailed map... Huh? Where are you going?"
"We have to look for it."
"You know where it is?"
"All of Okyeong Night Hall's money comes from the forge, but human nature is the same everywhere."
"Huh?"
"They've probably stashed it in some corner. Forges are messy places. People always try to hide the dirty parts in the back."
Just then,
a massive black building, starkly different from the manor's other structures, caught their eye.
Han Ibi said triumphantly,
"See?"
The beggar boy remarked,
"Why'd they build it without even one window? It looks suffocating."
"Obvious, isn't it?"
"What is?"
"Trade secrets."
"Huh?"
"To keep their weapon-forging techniques from leaking out. They're hunkered down inside, crafting masterpieces."
Anyone who's worked in a company would get it right away.
"Ah, I see. You're smarter than you look."
"You bet. Smarter than... Hey! Where are you going?"
"We need to find a way in quick. I'm really worried about Protector Ha."
"You think he's here?"
"No way to know, but..."
The two pressed close to the imposing dark building and began scouting it out.
Han Ibi said,
"We have to get inside before the manor folk start wandering around."
"But... how? Where do we even enter?"
Instead of answering, Han Ibi activated Design Analysis.
The building's silhouette emerged, complete with contour lines.
"It's built like a fortress. Could pass for a military installation."
Han Ibi took a deep breath and stepped back.
The beggar boy watched curiously.
"Hup!"
Circulating the Zhongli Pure Heart Method through his dantian, Han Ibi held his breath and suddenly burst forward at full speed.
Zhongli Swift Leopard Step!
He scaled the smooth black wall effortlessly.
His movements were as smooth as running on flat ground.
The beggar boy gaped, watching in awe.
Han Ibi reached the roof in an instant.
He whispered down,
"Don't act so surprised. I know you know. You have martial arts too. Show me some lightness skill."
The beggar boy backed up, then dashed forward and leaped.
Whirlwind Body Technique—the Beggars' Sect's signature lightness skill.
The boy launched his slender frame into the air, trying to follow Han Ibi up the wall.
But perhaps he lacked just a handful of qi.
Gravity struck back before he could take the final step.
Thud.
Han Ibi grabbed the boy's hand and leaned back, using his body weight.
Borrowing the momentum, the boy flipped in midair and landed gracefully like a swallow.
Han Ibi rubbed his sore rear as he stood.
"Hey, who helped you? Don't hog all the cool points."
The beggar boy said smugly,
"This isn't the time for that."
Han Ibi huffed, then activated Design Analysis again.
The boy looked at him and said,
"Why are we just standing here?"
Han Ibi glared and said,
"You're as impatient as you look."
Then, spotting something, he quickly moved.
The beggar boy asked,
"Why'd we climb the roof?"
Han Ibi gave him a look like you don't even know? and said,
"Where are we right now?"
"The blacksmith's workshop."
"Right. Metallurgy needs massive heat, so they have to fire up furnaces."
The beggar boy exclaimed "Ah!" and said,
"So they need to vent the heat and smoke."
Han Ibi snapped his fingers.
"Exactly. But no windows anywhere. So there has to be some serious exhaust system."
"Exhaust system?"
"Yeah, like..."
Han Ibi pointed to where steam and smoke billowed faintly.
"...that."
The two headed toward the spot Han Ibi indicated.
The beggar boy said,
"The chimney's huge."
"Has to be. To dump all that concentrated smoke and heat at once."
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"We go in this way. Hold your breath!"
With that shout, Han Ibi dove into the exhaust vent first.
"Whoa!"
The startled beggar boy.
But Han Ibi was already gone.
After a brief hesitation, the boy squeezed in after him.
Clang! Bang! Thud!
The deafening workshop noises filled the air inside.
Looking down, the boy saw Han Ibi perched on a beam.
Soon, the boy followed suit, landing on the beam the same way.
Han Ibi pressed a finger to his lips.
A signal to stay quiet.
The beggar boy nodded and carefully trailed behind Han Ibi.
A dead end.
Han Ibi leaped lightly from the beam to the one opposite.
Thankfully, the noise inside masked the sound.
Below, countless men—nearly shirtless—were sharpening weapons or tempering metal.
Han Ibi whispered,
"Check that out. Quite the sight."
But the beggar boy averted his eyes from the scene below and said,
"Just tell me what we do next."
"Let's keep going along these beams."
Han Ibi closed his eyes briefly, then opened them and continued,
"The size I gauged from outside doesn't match the workshop space. There's more room beyond it. Probably that way."
The boy whispered admiringly,
"You talk like you built the place yourself."
Heh heh. Sorry, it's all thanks to the frog.
The two crept along near the ceiling.
Finally, they reached a space below that looked like a corridor.
The beggar boy said,
"No one's around. We can drop down."
Han Ibi nodded, hung from the beam, and landed softly on the floor.
The beggar boy, meanwhile, leaped straight down like a butterfly.
But his face twisted upon landing.
"Urk."
Han Ibi grimaced too.
"What a foul stench..."
Indeed.
A horrific smell wafting up like from behind a slaughterhouse.
Han Ibi muttered,
"Feels familiar somehow... Ah!"
"What?"
"This is... almost exactly like the stench from that blind beggar's body."
The beggar boy wrinkled his nose even more and said,
"Then it's definitely not our Protector Ha."
The two ventured deeper inside.
The beggar boy said,
"Good thing no one's here."
"Who'd want to hang around in this godawful smell?"
"Ugh, stop talking about the smell. I'm gonna puke."
Then the boy spotted something and scurried over.
"What's this? Looks like a cart."
Curious, he peered inside.
But he recoiled in horror.
"Gah! What the hell!"
Han Ibi approached and looked at the cart.
A wooden cart.
Its interior, which should have been brown... was instead drenched in red.
And...
"Ugh!"
Han Ibi involuntarily staggered back.
Stuck in the cart's crevices.
It was unmistakably a human finger!
At that moment, Han Ibi's gaze locked onto an iron door beside the cart.
He slowly approached it.
The beggar boy cried,
"No! Please don't open it!"
But Han Ibi placed his hand on the door anyway.
After a brief hesitation, he slowly pushed it open.
And the sight within.
Was this hell's sewer?
Han Ibi felt violent nausea surging from deep inside.
Yes.
Inside were haphazard piles of meat chunks... human body parts, mingled with rotting corpses strewn about.
Behind them loomed a massive furnace, connected to a stone chimney piercing the ceiling.
So this was... a crematorium of sorts.
Han Ibi urgently said,
"Don't come in here!"
The beggar boy, face contorted, replied,
"I wouldn't even if you begged. Don't tell me what you saw."
Just then, Han Ibi recalled the conversation at the inn earlier between Seon Mu-jae and the blind beggar.
[Jiangshi creation is officially banned...]
[There have been mass disappearances in Hubei Province...]
Han Ibi thought,
"No way this place is..."
At that moment.
Voices echoed from afar.
The beggar boy flinched and said,
"Did you hear that?"
Han Ibi nodded.
"Yeah..."
The two headed toward the end of the corridor.
The sounds grew louder.
The beggar boy whispered,
"Sounds like fighting."
As they approached, the noises sharpened.
They crept forward, minimizing their presence, toward the source.
Light leaked from the area.
It was an open structure without a proper door.
So Han Ibi and the boy crouched low and sneaked closer.
Han Ibi craned his neck to peer inside.
And finally...
"Seon Mu-jae!"
Han Ibi spotted him.
But his attention didn't linger even a split second.
An astonishing scene filled his vision.
Seon Mu-jae was locked in a one-against-many battle.
Common enough so far.
But the opponents changed everything.
Seon Mu-jae fought a horde of jiangshi.
And across the fierce battlefield, an old man stood with arms spread wide, chanting loudly.
That must have been the sound they heard.
But that old man...
He looked familiar.
Han Ibi activated Eagle's Eye Technique: Heavenly Vision and focused on the elder.
He knew instantly.
The old man was Ha No-eun—the inn's ragged beggar pretending to be blind.
"Urgh!"
A guttural groan rang out.
A female jiangshi's claws had torn a long gash across Seon Mu-jae's shoulder.
Blood dripping from his body, Seon Mu-jae looked ready to collapse from exhaustion and wounds.
Without thinking, Han Ibi clenched his fist, kicked off the ground fiercely, and leaped forward.
(To be continued in the next chapter)