Chapter 47
Chapter 47
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 47
Chapter Title: Moon Maiden Ha Ah-rin - [1]
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Mount Manyueol, stronghold of the bandit den, had been completely overrun by the police.
The bandits of Manyueol Mountain Fort had all either fled or been locked up long ago, and every piece of evidence from that lair had been seized. Still, who knew if some body they had buried in the woods might turn up somewhere.
They needed to make up for the criticism over their inadequate initial response on the day of the incident. Officers from the Incheon police force trudged through the mountains with weary, bloodshot eyes.
One group ventured into the deep woods where no hikers ever went.
Something blocked their path.
Something gleaming.
At first, they thought it was bandit remnants armed with guns or knives. Inspector Kang Jun-man freaked out and shouted.
"Freeze! Hands up!"
But what emerged from behind the tree wasn't a bandit. It wasn't even human.
"What the...?"
The two officers who recognized its true nature felt their brains freeze for a moment. They couldn't process the scene before their eyes.
"A sword..."
That's right. It was a sword.
The sword hovered in midair before the two officers.
If they had been experts in historical artifacts, they would have recognized it as the Joseon royal family's ceremonial sword.
One side of the blade bore Taoist incantations, the other the 28 constellations. In the dark woods, the stars gleamed faintly with captured sunlight, twinkling like real stars.
The dots representing the stars felt like eyes. The two officers had the illusion that the sword was locking eyes with them.
"I think I've seen this in a historical drama."
Inspector Kang Jun-man muttered.
"The Moon Maiden's..."
It was too bizarre to comprehend. The two officers, not known for their imagination, processed information a beat too late.
So they didn't move even as the sword flew toward them.
The O Family Manor was crawling with police and reporters.
High-ranking officials connected to the O family spanned Incheon City Hall, police headquarters, the National Assembly, and even the courts, but none could cover this up. They were all scrambling to distance themselves from the incident.
In the end, the centuries-old noble house was designated a criminal organization. The O Family Manor was finished.
Not everyone from the O Family Manor had been imprisoned, though. Young Mistress O Eun-rim was one of those recently released after questioning.
O Eun-rim said,
"I can give you 2.6 billion won."
Yi Pung didn't bother making it sound polite.
"You joking?"
O Eun-rim fell silent. Yi Pung kept pressing her.
"Our tax-saving master went to the scene himself, took a few bullets, ended up in a hospital bed, and barely avoided jail. And you're offering a measly 2.6 billion?"
O Eun-rim didn't argue. She didn't point out that she'd tried to stop him from going. Instead, she said,
"I know it's nowhere near enough compensation. Of course we'd have to pay more, but the O Family Manor just doesn't have the money."
"No money? Then we're done here?"
"I have something else to offer."
Yi Pung raised one eyebrow.
"Something else?"
"My internal energy. I'm not talking about handing over some valuable elixir—we don't have that anymore..."
"Then?"
"I'll transfer my internal energy to you."
Yi Pung blinked.
"Isn't the O Family Manor lord in jail right now? You think he'll get out and do the transfer?"
"No, we can't count on when he'll be released... I'll do it myself. The internal energy transfer."
Heo Pung-gae, who had been listening silently until now, spoke up.
"You mean you'll give your internal energy to me, miss?"
O Eun-rim replied,
"Yes. My market value has gone up lately—around 20 billion won now? So my internal energy transfer should be worth at least double that. Fair enough, right?"
"Internal energy transfer is something old masters do when they can barely move anymore."
"I know."
"And most don't live long after. Qi isn't just for martial arts—it's vital for health too. Giving it away young shortens your lifespan and accelerates aging."
"I know."
"Plus, giving away your internal energy—does that mean you're abandoning martial arts too?"
O Eun-rim nodded.
"Yes. I'm going to wash my hands of it in a gold basin."
The gold basin hand-washing ritual literally meant washing one's hands clean. It was a declaration of retirement from the martial world and gangster life—no one should come looking for business or revenge.
Yi Pung hadn't seen that coming. He jumped in, flustered.
"Why? With your skills, you could make a fortune overseas. At your age, you've got a bright future. Plenty of foreign sects would welcome you..."
"I'm sick of it all."
"Sick of it?"
O Eun-rim said,
"Now that things have turned out like this, revenge for my father is impossible. And yet I went around torturing middle and high school kids, handing them over to the mines, all in the name of revenge. Looking back, I don't even know why. It was all going to fizzle out anyway."
"They didn't expect the cops to make a fuss after shooting at us, did they? Sparing their lives was already merciful. If we'd handed them over, we'd all be screwed."
"My house is already screwed."
Yi Pung dropped the demands for money and started trying to dissuade her.
"Still, if you want revenge for your father, you have to try harder, right? To get revenge, you need to get stronger. Train your martial arts, eat elixirs—even if it's tedious, you have to stay in the martial world..."
"Revenge?"
"Yeah. Ultimately, that Heavenly Demon's the one who flooded Korea with guns. To take her down..."
"You want me to take down the Heavenly Demon, who makes guns explode just by looking at her and shoots energy bullets from her sword? How?"
"No way to know if it'll work unless you try. It might take time, but until it does..."
O Eun-rim sighed.
"I'm not that obsessed with revenge. I want it, but not enough to devote my life to it. And now, I think it's time to give up."
"So..."
"I'm leaving. The martial world, Korea—all of it."
Yi Pung let out a deep sigh and turned to Heo Pung-gae.
"What do you think? Call it even with her internal energy transfer?"
Heo Pung-gae replied,
"No thanks. It'd be embarrassing to receive it from a young expert."
"I can do it secretly."
"No. I'd be ashamed of myself. Besides, I don't need her internal energy. At this level, purity of qi matters most. Taking in qi from someone with a completely different training path would just muddy mine."
"Then what? As I said, the O Family Manor has no money left. I have some personal savings, but I can't give those away—I need them to survive overseas..."
"Forget it. Do I have the right to collect a clan debt from someone retiring with a gold basin ritual? If anyone's paying, it's the O Family Manor. Not some girl quitting the life."
"Still..."
As O Eun-rim hesitated, Heo Pung-gae said,
"Anyway, good decision. Quitting the gangster life and starting fresh is the human thing to do."
O Eun-rim smiled awkwardly.
"Didn't expect praise from an active martial artist. Thought you'd hate the idea."
"I'm sick of it all too. My dream is to chuck it all and live alone in the mountains."
"That doesn't sound too impossible. Why not?"
"Tried it. Turns out it's no way for a human to live."
"You tried?"
"Taoist priests are supposed to hole up alone in the mountains, right? I learned the hard way it's nonsense. Farming alone is tough, so you need supplies from the village. Training requires expensive herbs... Even the elders at the sect warned against cutting ties with the world and going hermit—said it'd just make you sick. Only immortals can truly sever worldly bonds and live solo. That's why I need to become one soon."
O Eun-rim took the last part as a joke, but to Heo Pung-gae, it was dead serious.
Gangster work was humiliating, facing people exhausting. How wonderful it would be to live like the hermits in old tales, holed up alone in the mountains. True peace would come then.
Heo Pung-gae asked,
"Need a guarantor for your gold basin ritual?"
"Yeah, probably."
"Put me down as one."
"Sorry, but I can't pay you now. My savings are what I live on, and paying someone of your caliber feels like too much..."
"I won't show my face, so no fee. Just use my nickname and name. It'll help."
"If you're sure, thank you so much..."
"Don't blow the money."
"I won't."
"You probably have enough for life, but still—find odd jobs overseas. Burning through savings without earning leads to broke old age fast. Young martial artists have no money sense; they spend wildly even after they can't earn..."
"What are you, an old geezer all of a sudden...?"
O Eun-rim laughed.
"Anyway, thank you truly. I've been nothing but a burden to the end."
With that, she bowed deeply and left.
On the way back, in the car, Yi Pung looked at Heo Pung-gae's face and asked,
"Why the long face? Pity you didn't get the money or energy?"
"No."
"Then why so glum?"
Heo Pung-gae didn't answer, just frowned.
Why glum? Because he was depressed, obviously.
He recalled the Moon Maiden's recent proposal.
Moon Maiden Ha Ah-rin. Over 120 years old, yet she looked twenty-something. Thanks to the pure qi flowing through her body.
What if she gave that qi away via transfer?
Doubtful she'd even survive. And even if she did, the youthful beauty she'd maintained since reaching peerless heights would vanish in an instant, leaving only a wrinkled old hag.
The thought horrified him. To clear his tangled mind, Heo Pung-gae regulated his breathing in the car and fell into meditation.
Back at the office, Yi Pung gathered his two employees and declared,
"We're retiring."
Park Seong-cheol's eyes widened.
"Pardon?"
"We're going to the Mosan Sect."
"Right now?"
"Not right away. Gotta wrap up business here, gather more investors there—latest half a year? You'll get severance, of course. Seong-cheol, you've seen I'm not stingy with it. So don't feel too bad."
As he spoke, Yi Pung glanced at Yi Do-hyeok. No shock or panic, thankfully. But just in case, he added later,
"I'll give you extra severance, man."
Yi Do-hyeok nodded blankly.
After the employees left, Yi Pung grinned.
The deal with Mosan Sect hadn't fallen through after all. He was immensely relieved.
"Should pay respects to the Moon Maiden before we go. Wonder when that'll be possible."
"Sometime, sure."
"Doubt we'd see her if we went now. Last time, couldn't even make contact."
Heo Pung-gae's eyebrow twitched.
"You went last time?"
"Had to ask for her help when it looked like you were done for."
"Who said you could—"
"No point griping now. She wasn't there anyway."
"Wasn't there? Why?"
"Beats me."
Terauchi Masatake's mansion was heavily guarded. As the prime minister's residence, it had to be. The soldiers around it stayed vigilant, no slacking or chitchat.
Ha Ah-rin didn't care. She was about to assassinate the prime minister inside and his right-wing cronies.
There was a decent teahouse nearby. She took a seat with a good view out the window.
Her Japanese was grammatically flawless, if not perfectly accented. She ordered tea.
The tea arrived. As she sipped, the sword she'd left far away at the teahouse began its task.
"Assault!"
The sword shattered a window and burst into the mansion. It identified targets and began its deadly dance.
Blood splattered the prime minister's windows.
The distance between teahouse and mansion was far enough that screams didn't carry. But the commotion was obvious.
With her upper dantian open, she could see qi. The self-flying sword had sliced through Terauchi and all secondary targets.
Ha Ah-rin took another sip.
The tea was good. Not as sweet as the coffee she'd shared with His Majesty the Emperor, but...
People poured out of the mansion, dodging the dancing blade.
Through the window, Ha Ah-rin scrutinized the escapees. She'd killed plenty of Japanese since infiltrating Tokyo, but not indiscriminately.
She was no mindless butcher—she was the royal avenger. She couldn't tarnish that name.
Even being selective, there were more than enough to kill.
The Genyosha thugs behind Empress Myeongseong's murder and the annexation, army and navy generals, notorious right-wingers—she'd tracked and slain them all long ago. Nowadays, finding new targets was harder than killing.
Maids and cooks rushing out? Spared.
Soldiers swinging guns wildly and screaming? Slashed...
Police burst from the mansion too.
Just civil servants—spare or not? In Tokyo, who knew, but in Joseon, police symbolized invasion.
Killing felt off, but ignoring them too. She opted for a light punishment.
The sword flew. So fast, the officer couldn't even try dodging.
The jagged blade pierced skin effortlessly, ripping into flesh.
The stabbed officer groaned, choking.
"Urk..."
Inspector Kang Jun-man's hand was soaked red. The ceremonial sword that pierced his hand glistened with blood.
"Fuck, sh—argh..."
As Inspector Kang flailed to clutch his wound, the other inspector neither helped nor fled. The shock locked body and mind.
The sword pulled free from Kang's hand. It spun in midair, blade aimed at the other inspector.
The flying ceremonial sword pierced that hand too.