A Proper Fight
“You’re really going to bring it to me?”
“That’s what I said. We’re going to be late. I’ll head out first.”
Yang Hak quickly mounted his horse and followed after the rogues.
“Ah, fuck. How am I supposed to come up with a plan if I don’t even know what’s going on….”
Grumbling to himself, Pae Gang hurriedly joined the group of rogues.
The riders at the front, who had been galloping without rest, finally came to a stop at the base of a mountain.
Soon after, the upper guards moved among the rogues, shouting, “Rest!”
As Dan Yeop dismounted, Won Beom approached him.
“Brother Dan, what the hell did you do earlier?”
“Huh? What do you mean?”
“You knocked down Pae Gang—the guy they call the Fierce Ogre—twice!”
“He had a nickname like that?”
“Pae Gang’s face is his weapon. He looks so vicious that even the Green Forest bandits would back down at the sight of him.”
At Won Beom’s joke, Seo Hwa, who had been listening, burst out with a “Pfft!”
Dan Yeop shrugged his shoulders and answered.
“Is that why? He kept shoving his face at me, so I just slapped it.”
“Hohohot!”
Seo Hwa finally clutched her stomach and laughed outright.
Chae Un, who arrived a little late, looked at the two of them with a puzzled expression.
“Seo Hwa, what’s so funny? Let me in on the joke too. I haven’t had much to laugh about lately.”
“Oh, you know how Brother Won was telling our youngest about Pae Gang’s nickname, saying his face is a weapon? So the youngest goes, ‘Ah, so that’s why he kept shoving his face at me,’ and how could I not laugh?”
Chae Un let out a small chuckle, then asked Dan Yeop.
“Youngest, did you really hit him because he shoved his face at you?”
“Yes.”
“I see. I saw him fight for the first time today, and it did seem a bit strange.”
“Sister, doesn’t it feel like the rumors about Pae Gang are a bit exaggerated?”
“Definitely. If he couldn’t even land a single blow on our youngest and passed out twice, the stories must have been heavily inflated.”
Dan Yeop tied his horse to a tree branch and walked into the shade.
After days of intense patrolling and fighting against the experts of the Thousand Lotuses, this rare moment of leisure felt like he had earned a proper vacation.
Just then, the noisy surroundings suddenly fell silent.
It was because Pae Gang was striding straight toward Dan Yeop.
Dan Yeop, who had been leaning against a tree and resting, lifted his head.
Pae Gang looked down at him and spoke.
“Get up.”
“Why?”
“I’ll admit that I was… taken down by you twice today. I want to have a proper fight with you.”
“Brother Pae.”
“Speak.”
“If I fight you properly, you could get seriously hurt. The one you should be fighting isn’t me—it’s the people from the Naphae Gate, isn’t it?”
“…….”
Pae Gang stared at Dan Yeop as if trying to discern his true intentions.
For a moment, Pae Gang felt himself shrinking back.
‘Fuck, what the hell is this?’
The man known as the Fierce Ogre, feeling intimidated by a pretty boy?
It was just as incomprehensible as the two times he had fainted.
His pride stung, and he reflexively grabbed the handle of his great blade.
Just as he was about to draw it, a firm voice transmission pierced his ear.
—Don’t do anything you’ll regret.
At the same time, a strange energy constricted his entire body.
Pae Gang drew on his inner energy to resist the bizarre force.
He exerted so much strength that the hand gripping his blade began to tremble violently.
Then, when he looked at Dan Yeop again, he flinched in shock.
Unlike himself, Dan Yeop looked completely at ease.
‘…….’
The belated realization that something was wrong flashed through his mind.
Blinded by jealousy, he hadn’t been able to see beyond it.
Dan Yeop looked far too ordinary—closer to a pale-faced scholar than a rogue.
Was it no-hwa-sun-cheong? Or perhaps even ban-bak-gwi-jin.
Excitement and thrill made Pae Gang’s breathing grow ragged.
“Haa! Haa! Haa!”
As Pae Gang’s breaths became increasingly rough, the upper guards in the distance shouted.
“Rest over! Move out!”
In that instant, Dan Yeop withdrew the intent he had been projecting at Pae Gang.
Pae Gang’s shoulders, which had been tensed with power, suddenly slumped.
Finally releasing the handle of his blade, Pae Gang quietly turned and walked away.
Dan Yeop also stood up and untied his horse’s reins.
The rogues who had gathered to watch the fight scattered in all directions.
Yang Hak followed after Pae Gang, who was striding away, and said.
“You held back well, Brother. That guy was so scared he couldn’t even stand up, right? If you kill him before the job is done, we won’t get paid and we’ll get kicked out. It’s not too late to kill him after we finish the job and reach Chang’an Castle. A gentleman’s revenge…”
“Shut up and find out who that bastard really is.”
“You mean Dan Yeop?”
“Yeah. It doesn’t make sense for a guy like that to be a nobody, does it?”
“Why not? The moment you looked like you were about to draw your blade, he froze up and couldn’t move a muscle. He might’ve even pissed himself.”
“You crazy bastard. Piss…”
Pae Gang almost said I nearly pissed myself but stopped.
For some reason, the front of his pants felt damp.
‘Fuck, no way… it can’t be, right?’
He mounted his horse, leaving the puzzled Yang Hak behind.
Yang Hak quickly got on his own horse and hurried after him.
“Brother! What about the piss?”
“Shut up, you idiot!”
Na Bu-gang, who had been riding at the front with the Sinwoo foreman, glanced backward.
Finding Dan Yeop among the rogues wasn’t difficult.
Among the shabby-looking rogues, he alone shone brightly.
The day he had sworn brotherhood with Dan Yeop felt like a distant past.
He had shaken him off because he was from Haomun, yet now he had no choice but to rely on him.
Was this heaven’s punishment for abandoning their bond of trust?
Self-mocking, Na Bu-gang gritted his teeth and stared straight ahead.
After rescuing his father, restoring the eldest young master’s identity, and then… his relationship with Dan Yeop.
By the time he reached that last part, he had no confidence.
Because Dan Yeop had made his position on the matter very clear multiple times.
“Haa!”
In the end, a heavy sigh escaped his lips.
What did Haomun matter anyway?
Looking back now, it really had been nothing, yet at the time he had made such a fuss as if the sky was falling. It was like he had been possessed.
“Damn it—!”
Na Bu-gang, the eldest young master of the Jinbo Merchant Guild who had lived his life avoiding profanity, unconsciously let out a roar.
The Sinwoo foreman, who had been riding alongside Na Bu-gang and Na Geum-ryeong, glanced back at him.
The look in the foreman’s eyes as he stared at Na Bu-gang was cold and chilling.
Chapter 109. Is Dan Yeop Better Than the Blood Emperor?
Five days ago.
Chang’an Castle.
Some undisclosed location.
The Blood Maitreya, Hong Jin, bowed respectfully at the bottom of the pavilion stairs.
“This disciple, the Dharma Flower Master Blood Maitreya Hong Jin, greets Your Highness.”
“You’ve come a long way. It must have been tiring.”
“Not at all. Compared to Your Highness, who works day and night for the sake of the Thousand Calamity Mystic Buddha, this is nothing.”
“What happened in Henan Province?”
“The leader of the Gwangpunghoe, Seok Je-hwan, said, ‘I have no interest in the matters of the lower realm.’”
“That greedy bastard refused to become the king of the three lower provinces (Hadong, Habei, and Henan)?”
“Yes. He kept spouting strange nonsense about how the throne of the three lower provinces was nothing compared to the blessings of the heavenly realm.”
“It is because the Seok Je-hwan family originally belongs to the Mysterious Sects that cultivate the heavenly path. Even so, he never used to say such things before. How strange.”
“I secretly met with one of the Thousand Buddhas who is embedded within the Gwangpunghoe in Bongrae. He said that Seok Je-hwan and his left-hand strategist have been behaving in ways they never have before.”
The followers of the Thousand Lotuses were everywhere—from the imperial palace to the streets.
It was only natural that some existed within the Murim factions as well.
The follower Hong Jin had met in Bongrae was one such person.
“Behaving in ways they never have before?”
“Yes. They secretly left the Gwangpunghoe and then returned.”
“Hmph! So his illness has flared up again.”
“Did he have a chronic illness?”
“That man is cultivating one of the bizarre arts of the Mysterious Sects.”
Hong Jin tilted his head. The old man had first said his illness has flared up, then he is cultivating a bizarre art.
“Then is that illness like a deviation from the path, a kind of…”
The old man cut off Hong Jin, who was making a wrong guess.
“When an imugi cultivates for a thousand years, it becomes a dragon and ascends to heaven. Likewise, if a human cultivates for about a thousand years, they too can ascend. But with a human’s short lifespan, that is impossible. Therefore, to make up for the insufficient time, they consume the inner cores of spiritual beasts or immortal pills.”
“Ah……”
“The inner core of a spiritual beast is superior to an immortal pill. And superior to even that is a human’s primordial spirit, which the Mysterious Sects call a living pill.”
“No way……”
A person whose primordial spirit was stolen would naturally become a mummy.
Shocked by the wickedness of it, Hong Jin swallowed dryly.
He knew the Gwangpunghoe was an unorthodox faction, but he never imagined Seok Je-hwan would cultivate such an extreme art.
At that level, he deserved to be called a public enemy of the Murim.
The saying you can see ten feet into the water, but not one foot into a person’s heart felt painfully real.
To think that the famously generous leader of the Gwangpunghoe, Seok Je-hwan, harbored such a secret!
Noticing Hong Jin’s shocked expression, the old man naturally changed the subject.
“Anyway, what happened when you met Dan Yeop?”
Hong Jin set aside the matter of Seok Je-hwan and spoke about his encounter with Dan Yeop.
“……He said that if I bring him the Blood Emperor’s head and beg for forgiveness a hundred times, he would consider improving his relationship with the Thousand Lotuses.”
“Hah! That young brat really has quite the mouth on him.”
“Other than that, he said he holds no particular grudge against the Thousand Lotuses and would withhold judgment for now. I will follow whatever decision Your Highness makes.”
The old man thought for a moment before asking.
“What did you think after meeting him? Is Dan Yeop better than the Blood Emperor?”
“How could Dan Yeop possibly be compared to the Blood Emperor? Perhaps in fifty years or so, but the current Dan Yeop cannot even reach the Blood Emperor’s heels.”
“Fifty years is too long.”
“Unfortunately, that is the case.”
“Try to persuade him one last time. If he still refuses to change his mind, then personally send him to nirvana with your own hands.”
“Understood.”
Present day.
Geomnam Province.
Geommun Mountain.
Early evening.
The Dharma Flower Master of the Thousand Lotuses, Blood Maitreya Hong Jin, looked down from the middle of the mountain.
A group of Murim warriors was camping in the gorge below.
It was the investigation team from the Jinbo Merchant Guild that had set out from Chang’an Castle.
He had been following them for six days since they left Chang’an.
‘This is so tedious I can’t stand it anymore.’
It seemed he would have to settle things here at Geommun Mountain.
Suddenly, Hong Jin let out a long whistle toward the base of the mountain.
Whiiiiiiiiiii—!
Down below.
The rogues sitting around the campfire jerked their heads up.
A strange whistling sound had suddenly come from above the mountain, and their faces were full of surprise.
The upper guards moved around, shouting.
“Everyone stay in your positions and remain on guard!”
“Do not scatter!”
“No individual actions!”
The Sinwoo foreman ran over to the guard captain So Kang-mu and asked.
“What is that sound? It couldn’t be the Green Forest bandits, could it?”
“It is not the Green Forest, so do not worry. With the Geom-gak right nearby, what madman would dare commit banditry here?”
“Then what is that whistling sound?”
“It could be a master from the Geom-gak passing by and giving a warning.”
“To us?”
“It seems to be telling us not to cause a disturbance in the territory of the Geom-gak.”
“I hope that’s all it is……”
“Judging by the depth of the energy behind it, it must be a master from the Geom-gak.”
So Kang-mu had no choice but to think that way.
“Then shouldn’t we put out the campfire and go to sleep early?”
“There is a chance it might not be someone from the Geom-gak, so it is better to leave things as they are.”
Geommun Mountain, made up of seventy-two peaks, was practically an entire mountain range.
Since the mountain stretched over two hundred and fifty li (roughly one hundred kilometers), it was possible the whistler was not from the Geom-gak.
“Haa! Has something like this ever happened at Geommun Mountain before?”
“This is my first time as well.”
“Good grief! Who on earth would be whistling in the middle of the night like this?”