Chapter 193
Chapter 193
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 193
Chapter Title: Black Dogs
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Last night, the Orthodox Murim Alliance issued a command to the Beggars' Sect.
‘Find any trace of the villain, Neung Un-bi.’
The Beggars' Sect headquarters swiftly relayed the order to its branches, and the number of beggars flocking to Sanmenxia and Zhengzhou increased exponentially.
It was another inescapable net.
As a result, the forest near Sanmenxia was overrun with beggars. Wielding their dog-beating staves, the beggars of the Sect scoured the forest at set intervals, combing through it as if searching for lice.
"Sniff, sniff..."
A shaggy-haired beggar in patched hemp clothes, Chu-il, flared his nostrils and sniffed the air like a dog.
"Are you a dog?"
The beggar next to him, Heuk-myo, shook his head with an incredulous laugh.
"But I really smell something."
"You're full of it."
"It's true..."
"Tsk, stop with the nonsense and look for tracks."
"Hmph."
Chu-il pouted at Heuk-myo's scolding.
"Haven't heard from the others yet, have we?"
"Nope."
"Then he must be somewhere around here..."
Heuk-myo meticulously scanned the area around them.
Trees, grass, even the stones and the slightest marks on the ground.
"Aren't we a bit too far out? We're pretty far from the rest of our team."
Chu-il frowned, looking in the direction of their comrades. They were so far away they were no longer visible.
"Let them be. Those idiots can search useless places all they want."
"Useless places?"
"Of course. The entire Orthodox Murim Alliance is after him. You think he'd use a well-traveled path?"
"So that's why we're here?"
"Yeah."
At Heuk-myo's reply, this time it was Chu-il who shook his head.
"You're just sulking because the team leader didn't listen to you, aren't you?"
"...No, I'm not."
"What do you mean, no? I saw the look on your face when the leader told you to stop spouting nonsense and just listen."
"Hmph."
It was true.
Heuk-myo, whose tracking skills surpassed even their team leader's, had said they were searching the wrong area. The leader, offended, had reprimanded him in front of everyone.
But Heuk-myo stubbornly insisted, changing their search area to where he thought best, and Chu-il, his friend since they were young beggars, had no choice but to follow.
"Damn it, he's still our leader. You should listen to him. Is it right to act on your own like this?"
"Leader, my ass. He's incompetent..."
"Still, this isn't right. This is insubordination. And what if we run into that guy Neung Un-bi while we're out here alone?"
Just as Chu-il was anxiously looking around, Heuk-myo froze, his gaze fixed on a spot on the ground.
"Huh?"
"What is it?"
When Chu-il asked, Heuk-myo's lips curled into a grin that reached his cheekbones.
"Look at this."
"Hm?"
Chu-il approached and saw the patch of ground Heuk-myo had cleared of leaves, and a wide smile spread across his face as well.
Revealed beneath the leaves was a faint impression, as if something had pressed down on it.
"Chu-il, lift your foot."
Chu-il lifted one foot, and Heuk-myo, who was carefully examining the footprint, nodded.
The ground, shaded by dense trees, was damp with moisture.
Wet, soft earth. Stepping on it should have left an imprint at least half a finger-joint deep, like Chu-il's.
But the footprint they found was barely indented. It was so shallow it wouldn't have been strange to think someone had merely brushed past.
"If this footprint belongs to Neung Un-bi, it means his lightness skill is better than we thought, right?"
"Yeah. He tried hard to hide his tracks. He must have deliberately stepped only on the leaves."
"Looks like it. He's probably capable of Grass-Skimming Flight."
"That means he's more meticulous than we thought. Even after thinking he'd diverted the Alliance's attention, he was still careful about leaving tracks."
"But unfortunately for him, it seems he didn't consider the softness of the ground. On damp earth like this, you leave a trace even if you step on leaves."
"You crazy bastard. You think everyone's like you? It's amazing enough that he deliberately stepped on leaves to hide his tracks."
Heuk-myo laughed at Chu-il's words.
"Hmm, you think so? Damn, if I'd known this would be here, I would've been more careful where I stepped."
"Shouldn't we... report this first?"
"Already?"
"You're not going to?"
"And what if it's not Neung Un-bi? What kind of earful will I get then? We have to be sure before we report. That'll put that bastard leader in his place."
"That's true, but what if he's nearby..."
"First, clear the leaves around here."
"What?"
"You never know, right? There might be other footprints. We need more to be certain."
"Hmph, he could do it himself. Why's he gotta be a pain and order me around?"
Grumbling, Chu-il waved his hands carelessly, as if annoyed.
A faint energy followed his hand, creating a breeze that lifted the leaves covering the ground and sent them flying.
In situations like this, using a breeze created by energy was better than using their hands. They might accidentally erase the tracks themselves.
"Hoh? Just as I thought..."
Heuk-myo wore a strange smile as he spotted faint footprints here and there on the now-exposed ground.
"Sanmenxia is this way, so..."
Following the direction of the footprints, Heuk-myo pictured Neung Un-bi's route in his mind.
In truth, he could easily figure it out just by looking at the shape of the prints.
"The stride is about two zhang, huh?"
"Wider than I thought."
"Hmm... It has to be Neung Un-bi, right?"
"Hmm."
Based on the distance between the footprints, Chu-il and Heuk-myo roughly estimated the lightness skill of the person they were tracking.
They too could cover a distance of two zhang in a single leap.
However, the impressions were different.
To run, leaping two zhang at a time, while leaving a trace so faint you could barely say he'd stepped there at all?
It meant Neung Un-bi's lightness skill was so superior they couldn't even hope to touch his heels.
And then, the last footprint.
"...Huh? It stops here."
"Hmm, so it does. Did he start running on the branches from here? I'll take a look."
Tilting his head, Heuk-myo leaped up to inspect the trees within a two-zhang radius of the last footprint.
Meanwhile, Chu-il carefully examined the shape of the footprint, as if something felt suspicious.
"Huh?"
Chu-il's eyes widened. The shape of this footprint was subtly different from the others.
The track was faint, so it wasn't perfectly clear, but...
"This isn't from running... it's from jumping up?"
As Chu-il slowly raised his head, the sight of a black shadow plunging down was reflected in his eyes.
"Damn it!"
How is it that bad feelings are never wrong?
*Thwack!*
"Guh!"
He guessed the shadow was Neung Un-bi, but Chu-il had already taken a blow to the face and collapsed.
Startled, Heuk-myo hastily pulled a finger-sized flute from his robes.
But before he could bring the flute to his lips, the shadow, now on the ground, straightened its bent knees.
*Pak!*
A footprint, leaving the same kind of mark they had just been examining.
*Crack!*
"Kuh!"
And in the next moment, a fist slammed into Heuk-myo's abdomen.
"You, you bastard..."
Heuk-myo recognized the shadow's face but couldn't manage to say his name.
"You've got good instincts, you bastard."
The shadow, Neung Un-bi, grimaced as he looked down at the fallen Heuk-myo and Chu-il.
A short while ago, after attacking the liaison offices in Mengjin and Yanshi to buy time for Hyang-i and the Lunar Eclipse Squad, Neung Un-bi had immediately run towards the western mountain path.
His destination was Sanmenxia.
He had promised to meet Hyang-i there.
There was no time to hesitate. He had deliberately declared he would attack the Orthodox Murim Alliance, so he had to escape and buy time while they searched the vicinity of Zhengzhou.
But when he reached the area near Sanmenxia, Neung Un-bi discovered hordes of beggars spread out everywhere.
Damn beggars. They called this an era of peace and prosperity, so why were there so many of them?
Then these two had shown up, forcing him to climb a tree to hide and observe the situation.
"The dog pack of the Beggars' Sect..."
If his memory served him right, these men were undoubtedly the Black Dogs of the Beggars' Sect.
No one else could have found footprints hidden beneath the leaves.
"Damn it all."
Convinced the beggars were Black Dogs, Neung Un-bi's lips twisted.
In terms of martial prowess, they weren't much. They posed no threat to a master of Neung Un-bi's caliber.
However, when one was being pursued, there was nothing more troublesome than them.
The Beggars' Sect was a group that made a hobby of digging into others' affairs. And while they were said to have a hundred thousand members, if you included all the roaming beggar gangs and vagrants, their numbers were incalculable.
It wasn't for nothing that the Beggars' Sect was called the eyes and ears of the Orthodox Faction.
And these Black Dogs were the very ones the Beggars' Sect had purposefully trained.
Tracking and lightness skills. They were taught only those two things to the point of death, so their abilities in those areas were beyond question.
"To mobilize the Beggars' Sect's dog pack already... This is much faster than I expected."
Of course, he had anticipated they would see through his ploy. But he'd thought it would be after he reached Sanmenxia at the very least.
Yet not only had the Beggars' Sect been mobilized, but even the Black Dogs were deployed.
Neung Un-bi calmed his mind and began to sort through his complicated thoughts.
He couldn't afford to panic at a time like this.
He had to be cool-headed, utterly cool-headed.
His opponents were the Zhuge. People said to be unmatched in intelligence.
If they had unleashed the Beggars' Sect on his trail, it meant his feint was now meaningless, and they had already predicted his route to some extent.
Furthermore, it meant they knew he was the real target of the two.
So, what should he do now?
Have Hyang-i and the Lunar Eclipse Squad escaped Luoyang and are they on their way to Sanmenxia?
And Yun An-ro?
He had set off by boat a day earlier than him, so he should have already passed Sanmenxia by now.
Of course, this was all just his speculation; he couldn't be certain of anything.
If the beggars were already combing this area, the same would be true for other places.
Would those on the river be safe? Unlikely.
"In the end, I have no choice but to check for myself..."
Neung Un-bi gritted his teeth and looked toward Sanmenxia.
If the Beggars' Sect was involved, they would be digging up every place where he might have left a trace.
They might even hear about a missing fishing boat in Mengjin.
Weren't those beggars meticulous? They were the type not to miss a single piece of information.
If that fact came to light, even the northern waterway could be blocked.
If his path was blocked... he would be isolated. There would be no way to escape the Central Plains.
To understand the situation, he had to enter Sanmenxia. But the Beggars' Sect had already set up a tight perimeter...
"Well, I don't necessarily have to go myself. There are two Black Dogs right here."
It used to be like that. He had wondered how they could find him so easily even after he had erased his tracks.
Only later did he realize it was because of the Black Dogs.
The trackers raised by the Beggars' Sect.
So these two here must be fully aware of the current situation.
Which means, from now on, you two are going to have to cooperate.
Enthusiastically.
If you don't want to get beaten to death.