Chapter 18 Anyone dissatisfied
Anyone dissatisfied?
Buyeon’s younger sister, Bu Yeong-seol, had not eloped with a man because of a liaison.
Heo Sang-do’s legitimate wife, Mo Nan-yeo, from the start did not approve of her husband taking a concubine.
Moreover, Bu Yeong-seol was beautiful in appearance and gentle in temperament, and she monopolized the household’s attention, so that filthy envy and jealousy grew thorns in every mouth.
In the end, Mo Nan-yeo had people sell Bu Yeong-seol to a human-trafficking band.
That, in fact, was the truth.
“Heo Sang-do that old bastard must have known as well!”
Bang!!
Having heard the whole story, Bu-yeon struck down as if to break Da-tak.
From his trembling fist one could tell his anger had reached its peak.
Muk Yeo-jin nodded.
“Torturing the legitimate wife over such a thing would only be spitting on my face, so he must have turned a blind eye.”
“Ah…. Ah….”
Thick drops fell one by one from Bu-yeon’s eyes.
“Three years. A full three years. What hardships my sister must have suffered in that time!!”
Muk Yeo-jin casually turned his head toward the window.
He too thought it would have been better if he could have found Bu Yeong-seol sooner, but he was not in a position to withdraw from Mangdamjeon.
Above all, even Muk Yeo-jin did not know Bu Yeong-seol’s whereabouts before Choseongru.
‘Still, this time I will be able to meet my living sister.’
Under ordinary circumstances, he would have learned the truth about a year from now.
By the time he found his sister then, she would already be a cold corpse, and Bu-yeon would spend the rest of his life reproaching himself for it.
Muk Yeo-jin looked at his friend who, whenever he drank, spent moonlit nights weeping over his sister.
‘In this life, drink with laughter, not tears. Bu-yeon.’
Muk Yeo-jin swallowed those words inwardly and rose from his seat.
“I will depart now to rescue our leader’s sister. What will you do, Bu-daein?”
Bu-yeon, who had wiped away the dampness from his face, spoke.
“Of course I will come with you.”
“Chosongru is not an ordinary pavilioned place but is backed by a black-clan called Gwangcheonmun (狂川門). Your life may not be guaranteed.”
Bu-yeon steeled his resolve.
“I will go.”
Muk Yeo-jin nodded.
He had expected that, in fact.
“Good. It is urgent to reach Zhejiang. Hurry and prepare the carriage. I will take the reins.”
“Wait… I will gather all my guards.”
Muk Yeo-jin raised a hand to stop Bu-yeon, who was about to bring out the flute at his neck.
“The more people, the more considerations there are. Our purpose is rescue, not war, so it is best to keep our bodies light. And….”
Muk Yeo-jin stepped over the threshold and tossed out bluntly:
“One person is enough for baggage.”
Zhejiang Province is a place where Sadochun’s influence is particularly weak.
First, it is very far from Guangxi, Hunan, and Chongqing, where Sadochun’s forces are concentrated.
To manage distant branches requires exponentially more personnel than adjacent locations.
And Zhejiang does not offer advantages worth bearing such burdens, so naturally Sadochun’s jurisdiction there weakened.
Does the Wulin Alliance have strong power there?
Not really either.
To the northwest is the Nangong family (南宮世家), to the northeast stands Putao Hermitage (普陀庵).
In any case, Zhejiang is south of the Yangtze River — in other words, within Sadochun’s territory.
From Baek-do’s standpoint, poking around there would be an empty fantasy with no benefit.
Thus at some point, the lowest scum with nowhere to go began to gather in Zhejiang one by one.
By now it had become an evil territory of a size that could not even be measured.
Creak!
In a guesthouse in Ho-geum County, Zhejiang Province, a man in a luxurious silk jangsam with his face covered by a veil and a warrior wearing a bamboo hat entered.
They were Bu-yeon and Muk Yeo-jin.
When the two entered the guesthouse, the lively interior cooled as if poured with cold water.
The gathered patrons’ gazes fixed on the two.
From their looks — from the way they were built — the eyes of those back-alley ruffians clearly held hostility.
Bu-yeon whispered without making it obvious.
“Why are they staring at us as if they want to kill us, Muk-gongja?”
Muk Yeo-jin replied in a low voice.
『In Zhejiang there is an unspoken rule. Reveal your face, hide your weapons. We show our faces and hide our weapons, so of course we catch their eyes.』
Muk Yeo-jin slightly shook the long sword hanging plainly at his waist.
Bu-yeon gasped.
“You knew this, so why—?”
『This makes it easier to enter Chosongru. From now on, Bu-daein will act like an unknown heavyweight who commands skilled men.』
At that moment, a group closed in around the two.
A hulking man with disheveled hair stepped forward and said.
“Hey, how long has it been since we had such fearless bastards?”
“About ten months, I think, hyung-nim.”
“That’s right. Back then they gathered as some righteous bunch of Baek-do trash. What did we do to those guys?”
“We played with them and then cut all their necks off.”
“Yeah, that’s right. Kuwahaha.”
Crude conversation barely worthy of listening filled the air.
After laughing among themselves for a while, their expressions changed and they exuded an intimidating aura.
“Today I’m in a good mood. Strip off what you have and crawl out naked and I’ll spare your life… ugh!”
The hulking man’s words did not continue.
A lightning-fast punch from Muk Yeo-jin had struck his belly.
Muk Yeo-jin twisted the blow without hesitation — a strike so deep it felt as if his belly had been pierced.
Thud-thud-crack!
“Ughhh!”
From the hulking man’s belly came a gruesome sound of intestines snapping, and he collapsed coughing up blood in the agony of gut-wrenching pain.
Thud.
“Hyung-nim!?”
Clang!
The remnants drew the weapons they had hidden under their cloaks.
Muk Yeo-jin cast a chilling killing intent and stared at them.
“You dare look at us with those filthy eyes. If you all gouge out your own eyes yourselves, I will spare your lives.”
“You madman! Kill him!”
Swords, blades, maces, axes, and daggers flew from all directions.
In an instant, a melee broke out inside the guesthouse.
The chaotic fight was Muk Yeo-jin’s favored battleground.
He quickly sized up the situation.
‘In Zhejiang one must thoroughly conceal identity.’
If he drew on his gong-gi (martial energy), someone might possibly sense the flow of Changgungi.
However, Sanwangmu is an exclusive martial art of his sworn brother Maeng-ak.
It meant he could use his techniques freely without hindrance.
Bang!
He channeled the stored rebound into his right fist with a heavy sinew.
Sanwangmu’s technique — Paesagwon (Smash Fist).
He thrust his right fist that had been at his hip in an instant.
A straightforward attack, nothing special.
One man planted his sword to block and tried to stop the blow, but that was a big mistake.
Muk Yeo-jin’s punch, filled with force, shattered the man’s sword and drove into his chest.
Pow!
The body unable to withstand the power flew and slammed against the wall before coming to a stop.
The man did not utter even a groan.
No — he could not.
At the moment of impact his meridians had all been severed and he had already died.
Those who rushed forward afterward fared no differently.
Turning to the man who aimed at his back with his right foot as a pivot, Muk Yeo-jin used rotational force and smashed the man’s jaw with his elbow.
Screeech!
A spear blade sliced across a thigh.
When Muk Yeo-jin grabbed the spear shaft and pulled it, the startled man was dragged forward.
And what awaited the man’s head was Muk Yeo-jin’s left palm.
Kwahng!
The flying man’s skull was crushed and he was flung to that corner.
Muk Yeo-jin did not draw his sword; with bare striking power alone he strode through the marauding thugs, sweeping lethal weapons as he went.
Thud!
Thump!
The men who let his strikes through were all not breathing afterward.
Every point Muk Yeo-jin struck was a fatal death spot.
A ruthlessly vicious method that left no trace of mercy in his hand.
A deep fear settled on the faces of the ruffians.
Ssssss!
A vivid killing aura rose behind Muk Yeo-jin like a manifested horror.
Bu-yeon, who had been gripping a small dagger inside his long coat in case Muk Yeo-jin got into trouble, swallowed hard.
‘I had forgotten. Muk-gongja is also one of Sadochun’s warriors.’
Not only had Muk Yeo-jin provided information about Bu-yeon’s sister, but the whole way to Zhejiang Muk Yeo-jin had treated him with consistent kindness.
Not like a superior treating an inferior, but like meeting an old friend, trading various petty jokes.
Bu-yeon thought Muk Yeo-jin was a rare, humane good man.
But in this moment that kindly appearance had vanished.
No matter how evil his opponents, Muk Yeo-jin slaughtered them without a blink.
Although that terrible killing intent was not aimed at Bu-yeon, his limbs went numb with fear.
Before long, the men who had been threatening Bu-yeon and Muk Yeo-jin lay in hideous forms sprawled across the guesthouse floor.
Muk Yeo-jin looked around the room once.
There were still quite a few patrons left in the guesthouse.
“Is there anyone still dissatisfied?”
A brief silence followed.
The patrons who had been staring at Muk Yeo-jin soon burst into laughter.
“No way! What a bold man!”
“Damn, that bastard died well! Hahaha!”
The remaining men, as if nothing had happened, resumed loudly chatting and clinking their cups.
Seeing that, Bu-yeon looked at Muk Yeo-jin in a daze.
Muk Yeo-jin gave a short laugh and explained the reason.
“We just caused a commotion and they realized we are powerful enough to ignore Zhejiang’s unspoken rules, so they left us alone.”
“Huh… Even so, for them to calmly drink again in the middle of this chaos….”
“This is Zhejiang, Bu-daein.”
Only then did the cook who had been holed up in the kitchen pop out.
“Come on in, great heroes. Oh my, what a crowd. If you give me ten pun (small coin), I’ll clean things up nice and tidy so you can eat in comfort.”
Even the cook showed that attitude, and Bu-yeon could only force a wry smile.
Plop.
Muk Yeo-jin handed over an entire coin pouch from his bosom.
“My master does not touch cheap food. Serve the finest dishes and wines in this guesthouse. Keep the change.”
What a gift!
The cook’s mouth rose as if to the heavens when he checked the pouch.
“Oh-ho, is there any doubt!”
Soon food and wine were spread across the table.
Muk Yeo-jin told Bu-yeon.
“Rumors spread quickly here, so soon jackals who heard the news will approach. We will use them to join the black spot of Chosongru.”