Karmic Retribution
Kang Hyun was more than a little rattled himself.
He had known something would go down, but he never expected it to move this fast.
I overlooked how fast cars are.
In Murim, all you had to do was chase the tail of a carriage. In the modern world, it was nowhere near that simple. On top of that, with most of his inner energy spent suppressing Asura’s poison, keeping up had been no easy feat.
So even after tracking Park Dong-cheol through the night, unnecessary bloodshed had still taken place.
Sorry I’m late.
Kang Hyun offered a quiet moment of mourning to the scattered corpses. But what had happened had happened. He did not linger over the dead. He had seen far too much of this in Murim, and there was nothing to gain from staring at spilled water and regretting it.
“W-who the hell are you?”
Startled by the sudden intrusion, Park Dong-cheol asked warily.
“Me?”
Kang Hyun glanced back over his shoulder.
“This gentleman’s son’s professor.”
“Professor?”
Park Dong-cheol’s brow furrowed hard. Hyun-jong’s professor? Of all people?
“How the hell did a professor find this place?”
Kang Hyun ignored the question and continued.
“If you’re going to commit murder, you start by making damn sure the target’s throat is cut. What’s the point of wiping out every last bodyguard and then standing around taking your sweet time?”
“Ha—look at this crazy bastard crawling out of nowhere to lecture me. When you send off someone who used to be a friend, you at least give them a final goodbye. Ever watch a movie?”
“You heard the man, Mr. Yoon Tae-jung.”
“What?”
Yoon Tae-jung had been wearing a dazed expression the entire time. He still could not wrap his head around how Professor Kang, who should have been at the Academy, was standing here.
“What do you want to do? He says a final farewell is in order. Is there anything you’d like to hear from him?”
“This insane son of a bitch keeps running his mouth—”
Park Dong-cheol’s face flushed crimson.
“You must be too drunk to tell what’s what. I’m the one holding your lives in my hands. Hey, William! Shook-shook, shook-shook! Put a hole through his skull! Shooting head!”
He mimed drawing a bow and aimed at Kang Hyun. Only then did Yoon Tae-jung snap fully awake.
“Professor, get down! That man is no ordinary hunter. At minimum, S-rank—!”
Yoon Tae-jung never finished the sentence.
Fwoosh! Thunk!
Arrows left the string and streaked toward both men’s foreheads.
Ah.
Yoon Tae-jung felt death settle over him. Dying himself was one thing—but his benefactor would die with him. His son had raved about the man, calling him a monster stronger than any professor at the Academy. Yoon Tae-jung himself had felt that untouchable presence during their private meeting. But the opponent was S-rank. One of only seven in the entire nation—a walking catastrophe. No matter how formidable a professor might be, he would be A-rank at best. These arrows could not be dodged.
And yet.
Of course the arrows never pierced either of them.
Tap. Taktak.
Kang Hyun plucked them out of the air with almost casual ease.
If I can’t even catch something this simple, that old man Hwangcheon Doksu waiting in the afterlife would be disappointed.
Hwangcheon Doksu—the Yellow Springs Poison Hand. In all of Murim history, no one had ever approached his mastery of poison and hidden weapons. Reach out once, and the target was guaranteed a one-way ticket to the Yellow Springs. That was the origin of the infamous name. The old monster who had once held the Wood Star position in the Chilyojin—the Seven Star Array.
“Let me show you what the real thing looks like.”
Pa-bat!
Kang Hyun flicked his wrists lightly.
Whirrr!
The two arrows left his hands, twisting and curving through the air—
Puk! Pubuk!
—and buried themselves dead-center in the Mingmen points along both men’s spines.
A single, exquisite strike that sealed the acupoints themselves with hidden weapons. Even the most renowned shadow killers of Murim would have been left speechless at a technique that belonged to Hwangcheon Doksu alone.
Thud.
Park Dong-cheol and the foreigner dropped to their knees. Both wore expressions of pure shock. As Kang Hyun approached, they cried out in terror. Their bodies would not move, but their mouths still worked.
“W-what the hell are you?!”
“I already told you. Yoon Hyun-jong’s professor.”
“That’s… impossible. How? William is an S-rank hunter!”
The blond archer, William, was thrashing desperately, trying to force his energy to rise.
Tuk.
Kang Hyun flicked a finger and sealed the Yamen point as well. Now the man could neither move nor speak.
Kang Hyun turned to Yoon Tae-jung, who had followed behind him.
“I’ll need to take this foreigner alive. The Management Bureau specifically requested he be captured.”
Yoon Tae-jung swallowed hard. One casual flick of a finger had completely subdued an S-rank hunter. There were a thousand questions he wanted to ask—who this man truly was, how he possessed such absurd power—but gratitude came first.
“Thank you. Truly, from the bottom of my heart. I will repay this debt.”
“A stationery set won’t cut it this time?”
“Of course not. You saved my son, and now you’ve saved my life as well. Whatever you desire, I will give you more than that.”
At that, Park Dong-cheol began to beg Kang Hyun.
“Please—spare me!”
Just moments earlier, Kang Hyun had casually said he would take the foreigner alive. That single offhand remark had made Park Dong-cheol feel the killing intent. The foreigner would be taken alive. Meaning he himself would die.
“T-Tae-jung! I must have lost my mind! Please, just let me live! My shares—I’ll give you all my shares!”
“You found it so easy to kill others, yet now you want to live?”
Kang Hyun’s cold words left Park Dong-cheol speechless.
“In your next life, if you’re going to be greedy, keep it within your means—and be honest about it. The moment you start staining your hands with blood to take what belongs to others, the world makes sure your own blood is spilled in turn. That’s how things work.”
“Hiiik!”
Park Dong-cheol’s face went paper-white. Instinct told him this man truly intended to kill him.
“W-who the hell do you think you are?! What right do you have to judge me?! Call the police! Call the Management Bureau! I’ll turn myself in—I’ll pay for my crimes—just don’t kill me!”
“I’ve never left poison users or assassins alive. And you used both.”
“Th-that’s—”
Kang Hyun sent a finger wind straight into the man’s heart before he could finish the excuse.
“Keuhk!”
A single choked scream tore from his throat as he clutched his chest and collapsed to the floor. Instant death.
Yoon Tae-jung watched the hollow end of the man who had once been his friend in silence. It was not excessive in the slightest.
He kills others so easily, then the second his own life is on the line he wants the protection of the law?
Even if it had come to that, Yoon Tae-jung would have handled it himself. This was the demon who had tried to destroy his family.
“The massacre that took place here will be pinned on that William fellow.”
Which meant that in the official story, Park Dong-cheol would be recast as a victim as well.
“…Thank you once again for your grace.”
Yoon Tae-jung bowed repeatedly toward Kang Hyun, who was already promising a perfect cleanup.
Kang Hyun pulled out his phone and hit a speed-dial number.
“Yes, Professor! Did you find any leads?”
Lee Se-ah’s voice came through.
“Got him.”
“Pardon?”
“The illegal entrant. I caught him.”
“I-in a single day?”
“If I pin the location and send it, is that enough?”
“Yes, yes, yes! Please send it! I’ll dispatch a team right away!”
With that much done, the Management Bureau would handle the rest cleanly.
Kang Hyun and Yoon Tae-jung rode back to the Taejung Mulsan headquarters in a Management Bureau vehicle.
“Is there anything else you might want from me? You saved my life—I wouldn’t begrudge giving you my entire fortune.”
“That won’t be necessary.”
“Then how about this? Park Dong-cheol wanted half my shares. I will give you half of Taejung Mulsan’s shares.”
“What? Isn’t that going too far?”
“Too far? Without you, Professor, the entire company would have been taken from me.”
“Hoo…”
Honestly, it was startling. Were all people of commercial talent this generous?
Taejung Mulsan was large, but it was an unlisted company centered on the owner’s family. Handing over half the shares was essentially offering up the company itself.
“I’m grateful, of course, but…”
If you think about it carefully, isn’t this originally Hyun-jong’s? Taking something that belongs to the kid I’m teaching feels a little off.
“I know what you’re worried about. But I am a merchant as well. I know how to separate gratitude from profit and loss.”
“Meaning?”
“I am certain that giving you half the company will actually benefit both me and Taejung Mulsan.”
Kang Hyun’s eyebrows rose. That was remarkably frank.
Taejung Mulsan had real technical strength, yet it had never managed to break through. Why? Because it lacked power. Behind most major corporations stood either an S-rank hunter or one of the three great guilds. When those forces moved, information flowed in, capital followed, and danger vanished. Companies without that kind of backing hit a ceiling no matter how good their technology was.
“Taejung Mulsan has survived until now purely on skill and luck. But today’s events made one thing crystal clear: without power, you cannot even protect what you already have.”
Yoon Tae-jung quietly steadied his breathing, then continued carefully.
“And… from what I felt, Professor, you stand far above those S-rank hunters.”
Anyone who failed to see that would have to be a fool. He had just watched the man subdue an S-rank with a single gesture. The way even the rigid Management Bureau treated Kang Hyun was answer enough.
“So you intend to bind someone like me with shares?”
Kang Hyun said it with a light, joking smile.
“Haha. Binding you with shares alone would have been rude—but I did offer the company itself, did I not?”
Yoon Tae-jung made no attempt to deny it and smiled back. Kang Hyun preferred a man who spoke this way over one who hid his true intentions. At least with someone like this, there would be no knife in the back. Unlike Park Dong-cheol.
“Please accept it. The only thing I can offer my benefactor… is to grow this company into the best in the country—perhaps even the best in the world.”
Kang Hyun had no reason to refuse. He had been needing a funding pipeline, and here was a company with a capable CEO walking right up to him. Why look a gift horse in the mouth?
“Very well. I accept the offer.”
Yoon Tae-jung had just made the single best decision of his life. Even a fraction of the information Kang Hyun possessed would let them nearly monopolize the secret manual market. If the man had approached with that calculation in mind, Kang Hyun would have refused. But he had come with genuine sincerity, so Kang Hyun accepted freely.
Nothing in this world is free…
Yet for someone who offered everything he had under the banner of calculation and still knew how to be grateful, Kang Hyun’s way was to give a reward that matched.
“Then I look forward to working with you, President Yoon.”
Kang Hyun rose first and extended his hand. Yoon Tae-jung gripped it firmly, as if determined never to let this opportunity slip away.
“Haha. Now that you hold half the shares, I suppose I should address you as majority shareholder.”
“No need. Just keep calling me Professor. I prefer that.”
After Kang Hyun left, Yoon Tae-jung’s expression hardened. His work was not finished. He would convene an emergency board meeting and cut out every last trace of Park Dong-cheol’s faction. The secretariat would have to be completely overhauled as well. There would be no mercy in the process. He had no intention of repeating the past mistake of showing half-hearted kindness and trying to carry dead weight along with him.