Chapter 21
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Translator: Wjin
Chapter: 21
Chapter Title: Paid Service (2)
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After being ambushed by mysterious black-clad assailants on the first night, Kang Moo-jin made a point of stopping by an inn every evening to spend the night.
"Innkeeper, one bowl of thin noodles and a flask of baekju."
"One thin noodles and one baekju, please."
"Thin noodles. Baekju. Thanks."
Yet even after staying at three different inns, the black-clad figures never showed themselves.
There were no attacks, no poison slipped into his food or drink.
Hell, Kang Moo-jin didn't even run into the classic rite of passage for young righteous sect wanderers: picking a fight with some evil faction thugs inside an inn.
Most righteous warriors had stories of clashing with evil faction scum in an inn during their first travels, then handsomely putting them down over drinks.
Kang Moo-jin didn't even have a chance to make such a tale.
'No way those guys can even control the evil factions' street rats, right?'
If that were true, this secret escort mission was several times more dangerous than he'd imagined.
It would take something on the level of the Nine Evil Sects—rivaling the power and influence of the Nine Great Sects and One Gang or the Eight Great Families of the righteous factions—to command the rabble of the evil factions.
'Is that really the case?'
His thoughts racing that far, Kang Moo-jin widened his eyes and scanned the inn's patrons.
There were ordinary commoners, but among them were a few evil path warriors subtly emanating that murky aura unique to their kind.
"Hey, avert your eyes. Look down quick!"
"Gasp! Don't meet his gaze. If they pick a fight, we're dead."
The evil path warriors who locked eyes with Kang Moo-jin hurriedly looked away, whispering among themselves.
"W-Who is that? From one of the Nine Evil Sects?"
"Beats me, you idiot. Keep it down. He might kill us if he hears."
"Damn it. Why's a big evil faction boss like that in this backwater!?"
"Right?! I'm scared to death!"
"But... that monster's really evil faction, right? Not some righteous guy or something?"
Hearing that, one evil path warrior shot his buddy a look of utter disdain.
"Didn't you see that build? He could rip a man apart! Where's a righteous guy with that kind of bulk? Name one righteous fighter who rips people apart."
"…."
Kang Moo-jin stared at the evil path warriors, who had ducked so low their jaws nearly hit the table as they gossiped, wearing an incredulous expression.
...These guys?
They were just scared of my size and avoiding me?
It was so absurd that all his previous worries felt utterly pointless.
"H-Hey! W-We're screwed! He's looking this way."
"Eyes down! Quick! Whistle and pretend not to notice!"
"…."
Kang Moo-jin clicked his tongue at the evil path warriors, pale-faced and trembling in terror, then headed out of the inn.
'Evil faction punks these days got no spine.'
Disappointed at drawing nothing after all that, Kang Moo-jin left the inn and headed out of town.
"Almost there."
He gazed at the wooded hill and stepped forward.
Cross this mountain path, and Shaanxi Province lay just ahead.
The Mount Zhongnan Sect—one of the Nine Great Sects and One Gang, and the secret escort's destination—was right around the corner.
"Hm?"
Walking the mountain path, Kang Moo-jin halted at an unfamiliar sensation.
It was the honed instincts from countless battlefields in the Linked Qi Realm, dancing on the edge of life and death, that stopped his feet.
Ssshh—
The moment Moo-jin's steps ceased, ash-gray mist began to rise along the path.
'...A formation!'
Kang Moo-jin sharpened his senses against the illusory mist that looked utterly real to the eyes but registered nothing to his instincts.
'Deploying a formation, no less.'
He cautiously surveyed his surroundings.
Illusion-generating formations were rare; aside from the Zhuge family, few could wield them.
Yet one had been set right in his path.
'Is the secret escort really the target? Or am I?'
Heavenly Thunderbolt followed by an illusion formation. Whoever they were, they weren't amateurs.
"Kill him!"
"Attack the bastard!"
As the gray mist shrouded his vision, dozens of black-clad figures charged at Kang Moo-jin.
Each emanated power rivaling the Crimson Flame Gang Leader.
'Can't see them.'
He could sense their auras clearly, but nothing appeared in his sight.
Whatever formation this was, the damn gray mist had completely blocked his vision.
"Hah!"
The first black-clad attacker shot forward like an arrow and swung his sword at Moo-jin.
Whoosh—!
The razor-sharp blade arced toward Kang Moo-jin's neck.
Even as the bloodthirsty edge closed in, he still couldn't see the strike.
But.
Clang—!
The blade stabbing at his neck bent on impact, leaving the black-clad man stunned.
"There you are."
Thwack—!
Pinpointing the foe's position, Kang Moo-jin drove his pot-lid fist into the man's gut.
"Gaaack!"
Ribs shattered, organs ruptured—the pain blacked out his vision.
"You monster!"
Another black-clad figure sneaked up silently and thrust his sword at Kang Moo-jin's heart.
Sstab—!
A thinner, sharper ceremonial sword pierced into his windbreaker robe.
"Haha, you're dead... Huh?"
Victory assured, the man's face twisted in shock.
Drip—!
The keen blade had sliced the robe... but failed to penetrate Moo-jin's skin and snapped.
"You little...!"
Glaring at the hole in his windbreaker robe, Kang Moo-jin's face contorted like a wrathful demon.
"My robe...!"
It had endured the Heavenly Thunderbolt intact, and now this.
A hole... in my robe!
Fury boiled to the top of his head.
These assassins should've gone for the head like proper killers. Why stab the heart and ruin his clothes, you idiots?!
Why?!
"You tore my robe, you damned bastard!"
Kang Moo-jin swung his rage-filled fist at the black-clad man's face.
"Vengeance for the windbreaker robe!"
Krunch—!
His fist pulverized the skull of the man who'd holed his robe. Kang Moo-jin snorted in satisfaction.
"You're all dead today."
"Eek! Sp-Spare...!"
Thud—!
Overwhelmed by Moo-jin's killing intent, the black-clad man's head spun a full circle, ending him instantly.
"Snap out of it! He can't see us!"
The apparent leader calmed his rattled subordinates.
"We can win! The guy's blind!"
"Yeah. Come on."
Kang Moo-jin kicked away a black-clad man stabbing at his throat, grinding the ribs to powder, and bellowed.
"Come at me, you bastards!"
Against mere vermin like these, sight was irrelevant.
If he couldn't see them, he'd grab and smash.
Their attacks couldn't harm him anyway.
Crack—Crunch—Snap—!
After a quarter hour, only Kang Moo-jin stood on the path.
The black-clad attackers lay sprawled as cold corpses, each having taken a fair hit.
"Next."
Moo-jin called lazily for the next opponent.
But the gray mist filling his vision offered no reply.
"No more? That's it?"
Sensing no further foes even with his qi extended, he lowered his gaze to his windbreaker robe.
Thankfully no more damage after that, but the small hole near the heart still stung.
"Damn it."
He glared murderously at the gray mist.
This was all that accursed formation's fault.
Because of it, he couldn't see, and his robe had taken "damage."
"You damned... formation!"
Boom—!
Kang Moo-jin channeled dormant inner energy from his dantian into the Yongquan point on his sole and stomped.
BOOM—!
Each earth-shaking stomp spiderwebbed cracks across the ground, shattering the earth bit by bit.
Raising his right leg knee-to-chest, he poured inner energy into his foot and slammed down again.
BOOMMM—!
A roar dwarfing the Heavenly Thunderbolt erupted. The ground within three zhang flipped and pulverized.
Like an earthquake had churned the soil into rags.
"Whew. That did it. Feeling better now."
Satisfied as the formation dissolved with the upheaved earth, Kang Moo-jin smirked.
An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.
They'd spent a fortune on that formation; smashing it felt pretty good.
'Oh yeah, I forgot to ID those attackers.'
His vision clouded by rage over the robe, he'd killed them all without checking. He paused.
"Eh, whatever."
Figuring out who they were wasn't crucial anyway.
Just deliver the secret escort and get paid.
"Alright, let's go."
With lighter steps, Kang Moo-jin left the path behind.
"…."
"…."
The two old men, hiding and watching Kang Moo-jin's fight, wore baffled expressions.
"...What the...?"
"No... way."
Though they'd lived long lives, this absurdity left them speechless.
Tongues numb from shock.
"C-Can you really dispel a formation that barbarically?"
The once-Zhuge apostate gaped in disbelief.
Smashing the ground to break a formation?
He'd never heard or seen such a ridiculous method.
What lunatic smashes the earth to wreck a formation?!
"My... my money...!"
Tears streamed from the eyes of the Third Apostate, who'd defected alongside him.
Formations delicately twisted heaven and earth's harmony using spirit relics.
These relics, infused with qi and reactive to natural energies, were priceless—mountains of gold barely bought them.
And four had shattered to pieces.
Because of that... monster.
"That brute! Do you know how much that cost?!"
"Sam, that's not the point! You fool!"
The First Apostate sighed heavily, hair a wild mess from ruffling it.
"The job's failed. We're done for!"
"Can't be helped! How do you beat a monster like that?!"
The Third Apostate stood defiant in failure.
They'd done their best; no fault there.
How do you overcome a beast that smashes peak masters' heads like watermelons under a Chaos Yin-Yang Formation blinding all senses?
The job was impossible from the start.
Easier to sneak into the palace and steal the emperor's chamber pot.
"So what now?"
"Hell if I know."
"Hey, maybe we just... quit?"
"What?! You wanna bail now—"
The old man about to retort glanced at the monster—no, Kang Moo-jin—fading into the distance.
"...Maybe?"
It didn't sound half bad.
Not because of the lost relics. The thought of facing that thing again darkened their future.
"Ha! Thirty years at this, and now."
"Lucky you never met a monster like that in thirty years. See him crush those skulls? That's our future."
"Yeah. Let's quit. Head to the countryside, farm or something."
The two elders once feared as the Yin-Yang Illusion Guests turned and headed straight home.