Chapter 243
Chapter 243
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 243
>Chapter Title: Gambling (3)
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Il-mok, Jin Ha-yeon, and Dam Bin split into three directions and stormed into the gambling den.
“What are you bastards!”
The gamblers, caught off guard, put up a resistance, but they were subdued in the blink of an eye.
They were all second-rate or first-rate at best.
Thud!
Instead of killing the gambler mob, Il-mok and his group subdued them just enough.
The gap in skill was so extreme that they didn’t even need to resort to demonic arts.
“P-please spare us!”
As half of them collapsed like leaves scattered by the wind, the rest frantically tossed aside their weapons, dropped to their knees, and begged for mercy.
“Where are you from?”
At Il-mok’s question probing their backing, the men hesitated and glanced at one another.
“Arghhhh!”
After crushing one man’s hand just right, they answered with faces drained of color in terror.
“We’re from the Black Island Gang!”
“Black Island Gang? What faction is that?”
“I-it’s a gang in Guangyuan County!”
Il-mok glanced at Dam Bin at the unfamiliar county name, and she replied.
“It’s a county in Sichuan Province. It sits at the boundary where Sichuan divides into Shaanxi and Gansu.”
At her answer, Il-mok turned back to the gamblers.
“Then who gave you the orders?”
“W-we were just following the gang leader’s instructions!”
“Yeah. The leader sent us here because people were gathering—to make some money!”
They answered while trembling in fear.
‘Tsk. Just small fry who know nothing?’
Il-mok clicked his tongue inwardly and turned to look behind him.
He had sensed a presence from the rear.
“Hold it!”
The ones who appeared saying this wore familiar faces.
Huangbo Yeon, known as Fist Peak, along with the righteous faction later-generation disciples he had seen at the Hall of Arts.
As Paeng Ji-gwang—the fool who had caused a ruckus earlier—tried to step forward, Huangbo Yeon thrust out an arm to restrain him and advanced.
“I am Huangbo Yeon of the Huangbo Clan. We came at the sound of screams and shouts, but who might you be to intimidate these frail folk?”
At Huangbo Yeon’s question, Jin Ha-yeon and Dam Bin looked to Il-mok.
- Shall I kill them?
Il-mok shook his head at Jin Ha-yeon’s emotionless transmission and stepped forward.
He had sensed one peculiar thing in their question.
“When you came to Pingliang County here, did you not hear of us from the Beggar Union?”
“Did you have connections with the Beggar Union? We only heard that they’ve been moving about busily lately, tracking something.”
It seemed the Beggar Union had not gone around blabbing about the Maitreya Divine Cult everywhere in the Central Plains.
‘They said they lacked the manpower to chase the Blood Cult, but they were actually hiding the fact that they were pursuing the Blood Cult.’
Only then could Il-mok grasp the general situation.
If word got out that they were openly hunting the Blood Cult, the enemy might go into hiding, so they were tracking them in secret.
But understanding the Beggar Union’s circumstances didn’t particularly improve things.
He would have to explain the situation from the beginning anyway.
“The people living in Pingliang County here were poisoned with Hwaeopcho by a villain called the Ghost Valley Man.”
Huangbo Yeon cocked her head, apparently hearing the name Hwaeopcho for the first time, at which point a woman from behind spoke up.
“It’s a flower whose pollen causes hallucinations when inhaled, and it has such a powerful addiction that it’s extremely dangerous.”
“Thank you for the explanation, Miss Zhuge.”
Huangbo Yeon gave a fist salute to the woman who appeared to be a daughter of the Zhuge Clan, then turned back to Il-mok.
“Then these are that Ghost Valley Man’s underlings?”
“The Ghost Valley Man is already dead at our hands. The problem is that residents already addicted to Hwaeopcho remain. Thus, our Maitreya Divine Cult has been tending to the people of Pingliang County.”
Il-mok phrased it to subtly convey that Pingliang County was Maitreya Divine Cult territory as he pointed at the riffraff in the back.
“And these scum are gamblers who tried to drag residents who barely escaped Hwaeopcho addiction into the swamp of gambling.”
No sooner had Il-mok finished his explanation than Paeng Ji-gwang bellowed.
“How are we supposed to believe that! For all we know, you lot bullied the weak and made up that story!”
He seemed to fancy himself some wandering hero.
One couldn’t help but wonder if he simply assumed that any time the strong tormented the weak, the strong must be the villains.
The moment Jin Ha-yeon and Dam Bin moved to step forward at his rude attitude, Huangbo Yeon spoke first.
“We can just ask the Beggar Union to verify it, Young Hero Paeng. There’s no cause to act rudely toward them right now.”
“But...”
Paeng Ji-gwang started to open his mouth again, but he clamped it shut under Huangbo Yeon’s steady gaze.
They had interfered with what he wanted to do, yet Il-mok’s first thought was somehow else.
‘Man, they’ve got their work cut out for them.’
Judging from her skill at handling the utter moron, she must have suffered for quite some time.
Having successfully reined in Paeng Ji-gwang, Huangbo Yeon turned back toward the masked man and asked.
“Now that I think of it, the seniors who held that sparring match at the Hall of Arts—what impressive skill they displayed. Could they also belong to the Maitreya Divine Cult, by any chance?”
“That’s right. It was to inspire those who had lost the will to live after being poisoned by Hwaeopcho—we showed them some sparring.”
“So that’s why masters of their caliber resorted to flashy, exaggerated movements useless in actual combat.”
Huangbo Yeon murmured and nodded deeply, as if that had cleared up a question she already had.
She seemed to organize her thoughts in her head for a moment, then offered Il-mok a fist salute by way of apology.
“I apologize for butting in without knowing the circumstances.”
As she indicated as their representative that they would withdraw, the subdued riffraff cried out like they were having fits.
“M-Miss! P-please spare us!”
“W-we’re innocent!”
“Unjustly accused!!”
A sneer curled on Il-mok’s lips at their shouts.
“Innocent?”
A heavy killing intent settled over the gambling den.
“You lot truly have no idea how families ruined by gambling end up?”
The end of gambling addiction wasn’t just some individual losing money.
“Surely you’ve seen it with your own eyes—a single person falling for your pranks causes an entire household to come crashing down? And yet here you are, doing this.”
When a person becomes addicted to gambling, their whole family falls apart. Parents, siblings, spouse, children—all swept away—yet the addict can’t quit.
In a way, gambling was more dangerous than drugs.
An individual gambling might be a mere lapse, but those who entice others and drag them into gambling houses were no better than drug peddlers.
Was it because of the viscous killing intent Il-mok exuded?
The riffraff who had been yelling about their injustice fell deathly pale and trembled, not daring to open their mouths.
Having silenced them, Il-mok turned to look at the righteous faction later-generation disciples who had yet to leave.
“Anything more to say?”
He did not withdraw his killing intent in the slightest.
It was killing intent laced with a warning: interfere any further, and there would be no mercy.
As if responding to that terrifying killing intent, a chill wind blew through the gambling den, fluttering the veil that covered the face of the woman.
It was no wonder she covered her face with a veil—she boasted considerable beauty.
“Whoa...”
“Gulp.”
The riffraff, crushed under Il-mok’s killing intent, couldn’t help letting out admiring sighs or swallowing hard.
At their blatant reactions, the veiled woman startled and snatched at her veil with her hand to cover her face again.
“Now, if we let these debtors go, you’d best worry about how they’ll come at you lot.”
Il-mok spoke as he impassively observed the entire situation, causing Huangbo Yeon and the woman whose face had been revealed to flinch.
“We’ll be taking our leave.”
Huangbo Yeon hurriedly offered a fist salute, said this, and departed the premises. The veiled woman followed right on her heels.
As the two took the lead in moving, the rest of their group also left the gambling den with varied expressions.
Having sent off the righteous faction later-generation disciples, Il-mok turned to look at the riffraff.
What utterly pathetic lives, he thought.
Not only had they led people down the path to utter ruin, they had even squandered their last chance at the precipice of life and death by lusting after a woman.
* * *
After putting some distance from the gambling den, Paeng Ji-gwang belatedly yelled with an infuriated look.
“You really intend to just go back like this?”
The one who had shut his trap under the masked man’s killing intent now seemed to have regained his spirit.
At his question, Huangbo Yeon swallowed a sigh inwardly and answered.
“Then, does Young Master Paeng want us all to die together?”
It wasn’t solely because of that dense killing intent at the end.
Huangbo Yeon. The reason she had restrained Paeng Ji-gwang right after entering the gambling den and dealt with them using honorifics.
“All three of them were masters incomparable to me.”
It was because she couldn’t gauge their level at all.
Had she run into them on the road, she might not even have realized they were martial artists.
But for people who didn’t even seem to practice martial arts to subdue ones who looked first-rate or second-rate at least—that was absurd.
The moment she had entered the gambling den, she had immediately inferred as much.
“How can a righteous hero of the sects turn a blind eye to injustice out of fear for his life!”
At Paeng Ji-gwang’s shout—while he stole glances at Huangbo Se-hee—Huangbo Yeon replied.
“We don’t even know if it is injustice.”
“Lady Huangbo is correct, Young Hero Paeng Ji-gwang. Since they mentioned the Beggar Union, it won’t be too late to inquire with them about the Maitreya Divine Cult and act afterward.”
Even Yunbaek Dojang came out in support of Huangbo Yeon, at which Paeng Ji-gwang ground his teeth with a ‘gnash’ before finally clamping his mouth shut.
Amid the awkward atmosphere, they strolled the streets of Pingliang County.
Sounds drifted from all around—someone playing an instrument here, singing a song there, reciting poetry over there.
The rumors about Pingliang County had drawn musicians, and residents who learned music from the classes at the Hall of Arts were performing on the streets.
In that atmosphere of utter peace, so different from the gambling den just now, Huangbo Se-hee—the one who had been wearing the veil—drew close to Huangbo Yeon and whispered in her ear.
“I’m sorry, sister.”
“What for?”
“You backed off because of me.”
This wasn’t about her veil fluttering in the wind at the end.
To begin with, Huangbo Yeon was not the sort to avoid a fight because life was precious or to call on her clan for aid.
She was the type to step forward even if it cost her life upon witnessing injustice, and she did not fear battle with the strong.
Had she feared such things, she never would have set out on her sparring tour in the first place. If anything, she welcomed spars with the strong.
Had Huangbo Se-hee not been there, she would have issued a challenge then and there—regardless of whether their words were true or not. Simply because they were masters.
At her younger sister’s words piercing straight to her heart, Huangbo Yeon chuckled softly and patted her sister’s head.
“There’ll be other chances for a spar anytime.”
Sisters by blood, yet so utterly different.
One might think she would envy her sister’s beauty as a fellow woman, but Huangbo Yeon had never once thought that way.
She considered herself a martial artist before she did a woman, and she was grateful to her parents for giving her a body sturdier than most men.
Those thoughts had only grown stronger thanks to her younger sister, hailed as one of the Five Blossoms of the Martial World.
Her sister, suited to the phrase ‘a beauty to topple kingdoms,’ had suffered unwanted attention from countless men since childhood.
That was why Huangbo Se-hee wandered the jianghu with her face veiled. There were far too many lecherous men who flew into lust at the mere sight of her face—like back in the gambling den.
No, she didn’t even need to look at them—Paeng Ji-gwang, traveling with them right now, was the same.
Having watched that sort of thing happen to her sister from childhood, Huangbo Yeon had felt pity for her rather than envy.
Huangbo Se-hee smiled beneath her veil at her older sister’s touch, then murmured as if it had just occurred to her.
“Now that I think about it, that guy was kinda strange.”
“That guy?”
“The masked man who talked with you, sister.”
“What was strange about him.”
“He saw my face, but there wasn’t a hint of change in his eyes.”
“Given that man’s level of cultivation, he must have trained himself well enough to keep his impulses in check.”
“...Don’t you remember that Taoist from five years ago who tried to kidnap me?”
“......”
There had been an incident where an old Taoist monk, famous for his ascetic purity, visited the Huangbo Clan as a guest, saw Huangbo Se-hee’s face, lost his mind, and attempted to abduct her.
At the time, Huangbo Se-hee had only been fourteen.
Somehow feeling as if she had stirred up her sister’s frightening memory, Huangbo Yeon gave a fake cough and changed the subject.
“Ahem. In any case, what a truly peaceful village. Makes me almost reluctant to depart for Sichuan tomorrow.”