Chapter 64
Chapter 64
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 64
Chapter Title: Drawn and Quartered
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Se Yeong felt his vision blurring.
"No way... Did you kill the inn's boy?"
The martial artist burst into sobs.
Hic... Sob...
"The Emei Sect disciples told us to kill the boy."
The moment he heard that answer, something snapped in Se Yeong's mind.
The Emei Sect disciples who had been collecting the corpses flew into a rage.
"How dare you pin the blame on us!"
An enraged Emei Sect disciple drew his sword and charged at the martial artist.
But Se Yeong's sword moved first.
Slash.
The Emei Sect disciple's head tumbled from his neck.
The other martial artists, Emei Sect disciples, and even his squad members were stunned speechless.
Terror-stricken, the remaining Emei Sect disciples couldn't even draw their swords.
"Shut your mouths and don't move a muscle."
Se Yeong raised his sword toward the Emei Sect disciples in a low voice.
It was the first time his squad members had seen him this furious.
Even Yeong-gak, who had been blocking his path, stayed silent.
Se Yeong looked down at the weeping martial artist.
Now he noticed the faint bloodstains on the collar of his robe over his chest.
"What's in your bosom?"
The martial artist tremblingly rummaged in his pocket and pulled out a money pouch.
There were bloodstains on the pouch too.
From the bloodstained pouch, he drew out a single silver tael, still wet with fresh blood.
Ugh...
A groan of anguish escaped Se Yeong's lips.
How happy the young errand boy had been when he received that single silver tael.
"The Emei Sect disciples... told us to kill the boy."
The martial artist repeated the same words after taking out the silver tael.
"We never said anything like that."
The Emei Sect disciples then refuted his claim.
The other prostrated martial artists shot back in response.
"The Sword Empress said first that there was no reason the boy could still be alive... and then the Emei Sect disciples told us the same."
"That's not the same as telling you to kill him!"
As the E Mie Sect disciples protested again, Se Yeong let out a chuckle.
Heh heh heh...
Was there anything more grotesque and amusing than this?
"Monk. Even after this... do you still want to spare them?"
Yeong-gak squeezed his eyes shut.
"Om mani padme hum. It's all... this monk's failing. Punish this monk."
It wasn't enough to just let the martial artists go.
He should have at least crippled them by shattering their limbs.
If he had, they wouldn't have shown up here.
The moment he heard those words, Se Yeong's figure vanished.
Swish...
In an instant, Se Yeong severed the necks of the Emei Sect disciples.
Thud thud... Splatter...
Four heads rolled almost simultaneously, and their bodies collapsed.
Crush!
Not satisfied even after decapitating all the Emei Sect disciples, Se Yeong stomped the Sword Empress's head into pulp.
Yet no one dared speak up to stop him.
"No. It's my fault for listening to you."
Se Yeong faced Yeong-gak and said as much.
He was so furious that he ended up killing the Emei Sect disciples too easily.
'This won't do. It really won't.'
They deserved to die in the utmost agony.
What was the most painful way to kill someone?
'No matter how heinous the crime, one must forgive once. And if death comes unexpectedly, kill swiftly to minimize suffering. Yet the courts still carry out drawing and quartering—how tragic is that?'
Se Yeong recalled his father's words.
"Bring thick ropes and tie these bastards up."
The siblings hurried off into the woods.
"Please... spare us... Please, just our lives... Spare us..."
Se Yeong ignored the martial artists' wails.
He simply bent down quietly and picked up the bloodied silver tael.
The siblings returned with thick ropes and bound the martial artists' bodies.
They offered no resistance, meekly surrendering to the siblings.
"Let's go."
As Se Yeong stepped out of the woods, he finally glanced back at Paeng Se Gi, who was just rising.
"The noise woke you up early."
His whole body had been shrouded in sword intent without him realizing, a sign of some major enlightenment.
Enlightenment required total immersion, but the commotion had interrupted him midway.
"I'm fine, Brother."
A satisfied smile played on Paeng Se Gi's face.
"Where's the boy's body?"
The martial artist quickly answered Se Yeong's question.
"Still on the way here..."
They felt considerable relief that Se Yeong hadn't killed them yet.
They assumed he was tying them up to drag them to the authorities.
Se Yeong nodded indifferently.
Seeing that, the martial artists sighed in relief again, but his squad members felt differently.
'Those bastards won't die easy.'
"Did the errand boy have family?"
The siblings knew the boy, as they lived in the same village.
"His father's bedridden with illness, and his mother works other people's fields to survive. He has an eight-year-old little brother and a six-year-old little sister too."
Se Yeong nodded indifferently once more.
"Tell them to wrap up early today and make a stretcher."
At Se Yeong's order, the squad members ran to the workers.
"Stop work for today and make us one stretcher!"
The workers were puzzled but soon set down their hammers and climbed off the roof.
They wove thick poles through burlap sacks to fashion a stretcher.
While the workers made it, Se Yeong went inside and changed clothes.
Blood seeped from the torn and split wounds, but he paid it no mind.
After changing, he opened a chest and filled a sack with gold bars and silver taels.
When Se Yeong emerged, the workers bowed their heads.
"What do you need this for, Young Master?"
"We need to transport a body. Get something to cover it with too."
Their faces paled, and they hurriedly grabbed another burlap sack.
Se Yeong and his squad members left the manor with the workers, heading toward the inn.
After walking some distance, they spotted the boy's severed head and body.
The workers approaching the corpse startled and rushed forward.
"Oh no! Who is this? Isn't it Il-seok?"
Se Yeong gazed quietly at the boy's body.
"Om mani padme hum."
Chanting the Six-Syllable Mantra, Yeong-gak sank to the ground and unwound the prayer beads from his neck, clutching them in his hand.
"All is empty, all is wondrous dharma, hundreds of millions of kalpas..."
As he recited the sutra, the workers bowed their heads repeatedly.
Se Yeong waited for the sutra to end before instructing the workers.
"Take the boy's body home."
"Understood, Young Master."
The workers placed the boy's body on the stretcher.
Se Yeong handed the sack to Yi Cheon Yeong.
"Go with the siblings to the boy's home and deliver this. If his parents ask, tell them the boy's enemies are at the Geumcheon Yi Family's gate."
Yi Cheon Yeong seemed to guess what was in the sack.
"Got it, Hero Han. Where do we go after?"
"To the Geumcheon Yi Family's gate."
Se Yeong had heard rumors spreading in the martial world.
Rumors that Han Se Yeong had forcibly seized the Geumcheon Yi Family's manor and lands.
The one spreading them was surely Yi Dae-in.
'He probably planned to reclaim the manor and land after I died at the martial artists' hands.'
Se Yeong and his squad, leading the bound martial artists, entered the village.
Villagers glanced at the rope-bound martial artists shuffling along.
"The Geumcheon Yi Family head told us... that the manor and land were originally his, seized by force by Hero Han. We were just trying to help the poor Geumcheon Yi head."
Sensing unease, one martial artist blabbered their grievances.
But Se Yeong ignored them completely.
Thwack thwack!
"Spit out something sensible, you bastard."
Instead, Paeng Se Gi vented his anger with blows to the backs of their heads.
"What are we doing with these guys?"
Dang Ok-yi asked with an anxious face.
Se Yeong looked at her and smirked.
"Ever heard of drawing and quartering? It takes four horses."
The Geumcheon Yi Family owned the most horses in the village.
Dang Ok-yi knew what it was; her face hardened.
"Why, too cruel?"
She nodded at Se Yeong's question.
"...Yes."
"No matter how cruel, is it worse than killing a boy and pocketing his bloodied silver tael?"
Dang Ok-yi nodded in agreement.
The martial artists, thinking they were headed to the authorities, turned pale and wailed.
"Spare us...!"
"Please... forgive us just once...!"
"We'll atone for life... please...!"
As they cried out, the villagers stopped in their tracks to stare.
The sobbing martial artists scattered, trying to flee in all directions.
But it was futile.
Thud! Thump!
Paeng Se Gi downed the fleeing ones with punches and kicks in an instant.
"Drag them."
"Yes, Brother."
The Geumcheon Yi Family warriors, recognizing Se Yeong and his squad, rushed inside.
"Big trouble, Family Head! Han Se Yeong brought his Elusive Squadron squad and is invading!"
Yi Dae-in, who had been anxiously awaiting news of Se Yeong's death, limped out of his room.
"What nonsense is this all of a sudden? Han Se Yeong invading?"
"He's walking right up to the manor's main gate, Family Head."
"Damn it. That bastard's dead set on killing me."
Yi Dae-in tried to flee the family grounds in haste.
But with his limp, he couldn't even run.
"Stop him...!"
Yi Dae-in bellowed for his men to block Se Yeong.
"Come out, you coward...!"
But before the retainers could move, Se Yeong's thunderous voice boomed.
Rumble...!
His voice like thunder shook even the eaves of the main hall.
The retainers about to charge out turned fearfully to their family head.
"Family Head... We can't match them."
Yi Dae-in knew that all too well.
He had only sent them out to buy time for his escape.
'How do you fight someone who's reached the realm of Attracting Stars and Seizing Objects?'
Finally abandoning all hope, Yi Dae-in stepped forward with a forlorn expression.
"After I die... take care of the family."
Who in the world wanted to die?
Even now, he yearned to turn and flee.
But in his condition, he'd be caught and killed soon enough.
"Family Head..."
The retainers shed tears.
They too realized their head wouldn't survive.
Creeeak...
The manor's grand gates opened, and Yi Dae-in limped out.
"Greetings to Great Hero Hwang Moo-young."
Pretending ignorance of Se Yeong's true identity, he bowed courteously.
"Bring four horses."
Having braced for death, Yi Dae-in was greatly flustered.
He quickly scanned around and spotted the martial artists tightly bound with ropes.
'Aren't those the ones who came to see me not long ago?'
Quickly grasping the situation, he bowed cautiously.
"Please wait a moment, Great Hero Hwang."
He still didn't know what the four horses were for.
But it didn't seem like Se Yeong had come to kill him.