Chapter 116
Translator: Vine
Chapter: 116
Chapter Title: A Chance Encounter in Yueyang
Go Un-hyo spoke to me.
“Brother, what should we do with this man?”
“Do as you please.”
Gyu-wi, his face contorted in despair, pleaded.
“Gwi-ryong, n-no, Un-hyo, please spare me.”
Go Un-hyo nodded.
“Alright. I’ll let you live.”
“Th-thank you!”
“But I will cripple your martial arts.”
At that, the color drained from Gyu-wi’s face.
“You son of a bitch! You might as well kill me!”
“And I’ll cut off one arm and one leg, and pluck out one of your eyes.”
Go Un-hyo wore an expression of immense satisfaction as he spoke.
“You… you…”
Gyu-wi’s body trembled uncontrollably.
Go Un-hyo let out a cold laugh.
“Finally, just as you did to me, I will carve up your face.”
Gyu-wi suddenly launched himself at Go Un-hyo.
“Die!”
Though both his legs were broken, he was still a master with seventy years of cultivation. As he channeled all his strength into his fist technique, a fierce whoosh cut through the air.
*Whoosh!*
In that instant, Go Un-hyo’s Blood Shadow Sword flashed, unleashing a crimson light.
*Slice!*
“Kugh!”
Gyu-wi let out a groan and collapsed to the ground.
His right arm and left leg, cleanly severed at the elbow and knee, fell to the floor.
“Ugh, huhuhuhu…”
Gyu-wi’s whole body shook.
Go Un-hyo spoke coolly.
“Gyu-wi, how does it feel?”
“Graaah! You bastard, I’ll tear you to pieces…”
“This feeling you’re tasting now is what I felt when you carved up my face.”
“Shut your mouth!”
Gyu-wi shrieked as if coughing up blood.
***
I brought the people from the Flying Dragon to the Nu Family Manor.
The cook, Ha Mong-un, used the ingredients brought from the ship to prepare a lavish feast.
Everyone gathered around the table and began to eat. Of course, the stable master and his wife joined us.
Go Un-hyo asked the stable master.
“Master Ma, how have you been managing all this time?”
“The manor lord gave me twenty taels of silver when he left, and we’ve been living on that.”
“When was that?”
“That was eight months ago.”
The Blood Shadow Sword Venerable had died in Dong-ro County five months ago. He must have given Master Ma only twenty taels of silver, not knowing he was going to die.
“You must have run out of money. How did you get by?”
“I sold the vegetables we harvested from the fields.”
Selling vegetables harvested from the fields outside the main gate would have only earned them a pittance.
During the meal, I said to Go Un-hyo.
“Un-hyo, give Master Ma some money.”
“Yes, Brother.”
Go Un-hyo handed a heavy money pouch to the stable master.
“Master Ma, use this to live on.”
Master Ma cautiously opened the pouch and gasped in surprise.
“This is too much!”
“It’s one hundred taels of silver. Take good care of the manor. I’ll send more money in a few months.”
I spoke to Master Ma.
“Change the manor’s nameplate to ‘Un-hyo’s Manor’.”
“Pardon?”
“I’ll stop by the Yueyang County Office and register Un-hyo as the new owner of the Nu Family Manor, so don’t worry.”
“Ah! I understand.”
Go Un-hyo looked at me with a grateful expression, but I feigned ignorance.
***
The Flying Dragon departed from Pyeonsan.
The stable master and his wife came out to the wooden bridge, bowed deeply, and waved until the Flying Dragon was out of sight.
In a corner of my cabin sat three iron chests brought from the underground chamber of the Nu Family Manor—no, Un-hyo’s Manor.
The three chests contained gold ingots, jewels, and ledgers with loan documents.
It seemed best to leave the enormous amounts of gold and treasure where they were originally found.
Before reaching Yueyang City, the Flying Dragon briefly stopped at the lakeshore.
Go Un-hyo hoisted a heavy sack over his shoulder, crossed the lakeside hill to the main road, and upended the sack.
*Thump!*
A bloodied person, missing an arm and a leg, tumbled out of the sack.
“Hnngh…”
He squirmed on the ground like an insect. It was none other than Gyu-wi.
Go Un-hyo hadn't stopped at just cutting off one of Gyu-wi’s arms and legs. He had also plucked out an eyeball, torn out his tongue, carved up his face with a knife, and crippled his martial arts.
Passersby on the road stared in shock, but Go Un-hyo paid them no mind. He looked down at Gyu-wi for a moment before turning and walking back over the hill.
“Hnngh…”
Left alone, Gyu-wi writhed and groaned, but none of the passersby dared to approach him.
***
Go Un-hyo and I went to the Yueyang County Office to change the ownership of the manor in Pyeonsan to Go Un-hyo.
The official in charge was curt, insisting that Nu Jong-won, the owner of the Nu Family Manor, had to come in person to sign the transfer documents. However, after receiving ten taels of silver, he processed it without another word.
Thus, the Nu Family Manor became Un-hyo’s Manor.
While the cook Ha Mong-un and the maid went shopping near the Yueyang port, Go Un-hyo and I entered a nearby tavern.
From our seat by the window, we could see the Flying Dragon anchored in the distance.
Go Un-hyo fumbled with something under the table, then placed it on top and pushed it toward me.
“Here, Brother. Please give this to Sister Ja-un.”
“Isn’t this a hairpin?”
I had seen Go Un-hyo buying something from a stall near the port earlier; it turned out to be a hairpin.
“Please, give it to Sister Ja-un for me.”
“You bought it, so you should give it to her.”
“You should do it, Brother.”
“You, do you like Ja-un?”
Go Un-hyo replied, looking slightly dumbfounded.
“Brother, you really underestimate me.”
“What? Underestimate you?”
“My apologies.”
During this trip, Go Un-hyo and I had grown quite close. I hadn’t changed much, but he no longer seemed as intimidated by me as before.
I nodded.
“I’ve never seen a man more handsome than you, so I haven’t underestimated you.”
“Brother, that’s not it…”
Now that I had hit the mark, Go Un-hyo was flustered.
“Ja-un is pretty, but she’s not on your level, is that it?”
“Besides, Sister Ja-un is two years older than me. I’m not really into older women.”
In the end, Go Un-hyo had essentially confessed that, in terms of both beauty and age, Ja-un was not a match for him.
“Sister Ja-un hasn’t been coming out of her room at all, so I went to check on her.”
“And?”
We talked while eating our food and drinking.
“She was just pacing back and forth in her room. She wouldn’t go outside.”
“Why is that?”
“I think Sister Ja-un is trying to avoid running into you, Brother.”
“Is that so?”
I hadn’t given Ja-un much thought, but hearing Go Un-hyo’s words, I thought I knew why she was acting that way.
When the masters from the Coiling Dragon Syndicate attacked the Flying Dragon, Ja-un was gravely injured. To treat her, I had no choice but to remove her outer clothes.
If I hadn't treated her immediately, she could have died, so it wasn't a situation where I could be concerned with propriety.
Ja-un had been awake while I removed her clothes and treated her, and she had been terribly embarrassed. That must be why she felt too awkward to leave her cabin. Of course, she had been wearing her undergarments.
*Swoosh!*
Just then, amidst the bustling noise of the tavern, I heard a peculiar sound, like the rustle of clothes.
A moment later, a loud clatter erupted from one side of the tavern, but I paid it no mind and tilted my cup.
Go Un-hyo refilled my cup and said.
“Brother, it’s the Ten Heavens of the Unorthodox Path.”
I looked over and saw three figures in light armor sprawled on the floor amidst overturned tables and chairs.
The fallen men wore the uniforms of the Unorthodox Path warriors, and their pained groans filled the tavern.
Two women, who appeared to be a mother and daughter, were repeatedly bowing to someone eating in a corner of the tavern, expressing their gratitude.
The younger of the two, a girl, was quite pretty. It seemed likely that the Unorthodox Path warriors had been harassing her until the person in the corner, unable to watch any longer, had intervened.
As the mother and daughter finished their thanks and turned away, the person sitting in the corner came into view.
He was a man in his late twenties, dressed in a simple but clean blue robe. He had the refined appearance of a scholar and carried a longsword on his back.
However, the distance between the man in the blue robe and the fallen warriors was about twenty feet, quite a gap.
The three warriors grimaced as they got to their feet, each clutching their right shoulder, blood seeping through their fingers. They glanced fearfully at the man in blue before leaving the tavern.
‘Finger wind.’
The sound I’d heard earlier, like rustling clothes, must have been the sound of the man in blue unleashing his finger wind. It had been so faint I’d thought I imagined it.
Since I only heard the *swoosh* once, it meant he had fired a single blast of finger wind and struck all three men in the shoulder simultaneously.
To strike three men in the same spot on their right shoulders from twenty feet away while eating was a sign of a formidable master. He had to possess at least two cycles of cultivation—one hundred and twenty years’ worth.
As a waiter righted the overturned tables and chairs, the man in blue continued his meal with quiet grace.
***
“Brother, look over there. It’s that man from before.”
As we left the tavern, Go Un-hyo pointed to one side.
In the wide plaza leading to the port, about twenty masters from the Ten Heavens of the Unorthodox Path had surrounded the man in the blue robe.
The three men who had been struck by his finger wind must have run back to the Yueyang branch of the Unorthodox Path to tattle. Hearing their story, the branch must have determined the man in blue was a great master and brought enough experts to subdue him.
Yet, the surrounded man appeared completely calm, as if oblivious to his predicament.
The leader of the Unorthodox Path masters, the Vice Regional Master, clasped his fist in a salute and spoke.
“Who might you be?”
The man in blue returned the salute.
“I am Yong Hyeon-jung.”
The Vice Regional Master had never heard the name Yong Hyeon-jung, so he assumed the man was of no consequence and adopted a more domineering tone.
“Why did you harass the subordinates of our branch?”
“Were those three ruffians who were harassing a young girl in the tavern your subordinates?”
At the mention of harassing a girl, the Vice Regional Master frowned. His subordinates hadn’t mentioned that part.
Still, he couldn't just take the man's word for it and retreat. Something didn't feel right.
“If what you say is true, then my subordinates were in the wrong. But how can I believe your words?”
“The people in the tavern saw it. They are the witnesses.”
The Vice Regional Master looked at the people coming out of the tavern and asked.
“It is said that warriors of the Ten Heavens of the Unorthodox Path harassed a girl in the tavern. Did anyone see this?”
At the mention of the Ten Heavens of the Unorthodox Path, the people remained silent. The Unorthodox Path held great power in Yueyang, and getting involved in such matters would almost certainly lead to trouble later.
When no one stepped forward, the Vice Regional Master shrugged as if he had expected as much.
“As you can see, there are no witnesses.”
“But what I said is the truth.”
The Vice Regional Master’s tone became more forceful.
“You will have to come with us to the Yueyang branch headquarters.”
Yong Hyeon-jung pointed toward the port.
“I must catch a ferry, so I do not have time for that.”
“Then we will have no choice but to use force.”
“Do as you please.”
The masters of the Unorthodox Path all gripped the hilts of their swords and sabers, the air crackling with tension. They would attack the moment the Vice Regional Master gave the order.
“I saw it.”
At the quiet but clear voice, everyone turned to look at me.
Go Un-hyo, standing beside me, spoke with equal calm.
“I saw it too.”
The Vice Regional Master frowned and looked at us.
“What did you see?”
Go Un-hyo answered.
“Inside the tavern, three warriors dressed in the uniform of the Ten Heavens of the Unorthodox Path were harassing a young girl, and that man taught them a lesson.”
“And who can prove that you were in the tavern?”
The people who had come out of the tavern began to slowly disperse. They were afraid of the Ten Heavens of the Unorthodox Path.