Chapter 154
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 154
Chapter Title: Long Time No See
Song Ho-shin had led him to a pretty decent tavern.
Perhaps because of the atmosphere on Chang'an's streets today, the place was completely empty, yet the owner was still open for business.
Thanks to that, Ha Mu-baek enjoyed a satisfying late-night snack.
Song Ho-shin filled his own hunger in the dead of night as well. They each paid their own tabs, of course.
When they stepped out into the dark street,
Ha Mu-baek gazed toward one particular spot.
"Looks like they've finally given up."
Song Ho-shin was genuinely curious. Just who exactly was he chasing, and how could he tell his target's movements with nothing more than a single glance?
"How's your lightness skill?"
Ha Mu-baek asked, looking at Song Ho-shin.
"Pardon? Oh... I'm decent enough at it."
In truth, it was his specialty. But the man before him seemed like the type who could bolt off at a speed he'd never match the moment he admitted it.
So he answered as humbly as possible.
"Well, just keep up."
Ha Mu-baek nodded and lightly kicked off the ground.
Chasing after him as he sped away was no easy task.
Song Ho-shin had to unleash his lightness skill at full power just to keep the distance from widening.
There was even a temptation to use this as an excuse to slip away somewhere else.
But he couldn't.
Ryeon's orders were one thing, but now he was burning with insane curiosity that he desperately wanted to satisfy.
This was a rare chance to tag along, after all—a chance to watch him up close without issue.
So Song Ho-shin ran with everything he had.
The place they arrived at.
Song Ho-shin stared at the signboard before him, his face twisting in disbelief.
Wind Blossom Inn.
Four characters on the sign.
Wasn't this the very place he and Ha Mu-baek had set out from this morning?
So they'd crisscrossed all over Chang'an just to end up back here?
"Amusing. Of all places, here."
Ha Mu-baek grinned faintly as he pushed open the door and stepped inside.
Hwang Chan, the innkeeper, stared at them in dismay.
His face was etched with despair.
'He said he'd leave without causing any trouble...'
In truth, when that high-ranking figure had secretly visited earlier, he'd been half-resigned to his fate.
It was clearly a sign that something big was about to go down.
Still, he'd held out a sliver of hope.
Maybe it wouldn't amount to much.
But now, the top-priority alert target from earlier in the day had returned.
His instincts, honed over years of experience, screamed at him.
A massive disaster was coming—one he couldn't handle.
Ha Mu-baek glanced at Hwang Chan and spoke nonchalantly.
"I won't go around smashing everything up, so don't make that face."
Then he strode forward with heavy steps.
Hwang Chan stared at him, momentarily stupefied.
But Ha Mu-baek wasn't heading for the stairs.
He went to the center of the first-floor dining area.
There, he scanned his surroundings.
Song Ho-shin watched quietly from a step back.
How long did he look around?
Ha Mu-baek muttered with a resigned expression.
"Can't find it. No choice, then."
The moment those words left his mouth,
Ha Mu-baek raised his fist and slammed it straight down onto the floor.
Boom!
A massive crash echoed as a hole big enough for two people to pass through gaped open in the floor.
Hwang Chan watched with trembling eyes.
He'd just promised not to smash things, and now he was wrecking the floor right off the bat.
'Martial artists' words really can't be trusted.'
He barely held back tears over his beloved inn being ruined.
Hwang Chan's gaze drifted to the door beside the stairs.
There was a door right there in plain sight, yet he'd smashed the floor claiming he couldn't find it?
In doing so, Hwang Chan overlooked one crucial fact.
He'd momentarily forgotten what kind of floor this was.
Song Ho-shin watched the scene with utter disbelief.
Punching a hole like that in the floor with a casual swing was impressive enough, but he'd heard Ha Mu-baek's words crystal clear just moments ago.
"Why the floor...?"
"Ah, I knew something was down here, but no matter how much I searched, I couldn't find the entrance. What else could I do? Had to make one."
As if hearing Song Ho-shin's mutter, Ha Mu-baek kindly explained.
Then he descended below.
Song Ho-shin hurriedly followed. Who knew where this guy might bolt off to?
"Long time no see, Yeo Cho-a. How many years has it been?"
Ha Mu-baek said, looking toward one side with genuine warmth.
Song Ho-shin flinched at the sudden name.
He had no choice but to.
As an informant stationed in Chang'an, there was no way he wouldn't know that name.
'Damn it. The Hao Gate Leader? What the hell is this guy? Even if he's a top-priority target...'
Calling the Sa Hae-ryeon Leader and Strategist like next-door neighbors? Clearly no ordinary man.
And the one he'd chased all day was the Hao Gate Leader herself.
The Hao Gate was the preeminent information sect among the unorthodox factions. And this was Chang'an, home to their headquarters.
Even in Chang'an, Yeo Cho-a's movements were shrouded in utmost secrecy; knowing her location was something only a handful could claim.
The spot Ha Mu-baek was looking at.
A middle-aged woman glared at him with venomous eyes.
An old man was the only one beside her.
Far too sparse a setup for the Hao Gate Leader.
"How the hell did you find this place?"
To Yeo Cho-a's question, Ha Mu-baek pointed upward with a finger.
"You saw it. I broke through."
Ha Mu-baek's flat reply.
Song Ho-shin followed his finger upward and his eyes went wide.
He'd thought it was a wooden floor that got smashed.
It wasn't.
A solid stone ceiling stared back at him.
At least a full chi thick—about thirty centimeters.
'Insane. He punched straight through that with one casual swing?'
Song Ho-shin briefly reflected on his shortsighted assumption that it was just wood, given how effortlessly Ha Mu-baek had smashed it.
"You ignored the perfectly good entrance and—!"
Yeo Cho-a fumed.
And understandably so—this wasn't merely the basement of the Wind Blossom Inn.
It was a place reachable only after navigating a gauntlet of traps and mechanisms.
That's why she'd chosen it as her final bastion.
But by smashing through the ceiling, he'd rendered all those preparations useless.
"You'd hidden the entrance so well."
As if.
There was a door smack dab in plain view.
She'd meant to lure him in with the mechanisms, but that plan went out the window.
"Did I look like the kind of idiot who'd barge through an obviously suspicious door? Me? Hah."
Yeo Cho-a trembled at Ha Mu-baek's laugh.
"Y-You bastard...!"
"Or did you think some puny mechanisms could stop me? Someone like the Hao Gate Leader?"
Ha Mu-baek's voice turned icy.
Of course, she'd never truly believed they could stop him.
But she'd hoped to slow him down at least.
That would give her time to escape Chang'an via secret paths.
Ha Mu-baek stared intently at Yeo Cho-a.
His Infinite Bright Wheel Eye was active.
"I gave you a chance, but you've gone and cultivated it."
Short words.
"Ah."
Yi Ho-beop let out a gasp at that.
He grasped the meaning packed into those brief words.
"You... so you knew about the manuscript and left it anyway."
That's what he'd suspected.
"That chance was the price for Yeong So-hye's life."
The follow-up.
At those words, Yeo Cho-a's eyes flashed with venom once more.
"Y-You filthy bastard, how dare you threaten my daughter!!!"
A scream laced with pure malice.
Her voice brimmed with the sole intent to curse Ha Mu-baek.
"You're the one who sent your daughter to her death."
"Lies! You could've spared her! But you killed her! Because you're strong! Powerful! You do whatever you please! So we wanted to get strong too!! What's wrong with that?! Why torment us like this!!!"
Rage, resentment, grief, desperation.
Her shout carried every tangled emotion imaginable.
Ha Mu-baek listened silently.
Then he spoke.
"Didn't you do as you pleased with those weaker than you? You know it well. That's the jianghu for you. Even more raw in the unorthodox world, no?"
Yeo Cho-a had no retort to Ha Mu-baek's question.
It was the truth.
The law of the jungle.
One of the absolute truths of the unorthodox jianghu.
"I gave you three chances at least. Thanks to you not properly telling your daughter about me, Yeong So-hye squandered them all. Isn't that right?"
Ha Mu-baek's gaze shifted to Yi Ho-beop.
He'd been there too.
Yi Ho-beop couldn't muster a word.
He'd been the first knocked out by Ha Mu-baek back then. Though he'd still witnessed everything.
"Well? Speak up."
Ha Mu-baek pressed.
Yi Ho-beop answered reluctantly.
"That's correct. You did give chances."
"Once those chances I offered run out, that's it. You should've told her that too. Calling me a madman alone wouldn't clue her in. Your daughter, the Hao Gate Leader's, figured I wouldn't actually kill her and tossed away every opportunity I gave. What could I do? Had to follow through."
Yeo Cho-a shuddered at Ha Mu-baek's words.
That was it.
The leeway only the strong possessed. And the tyranny.
The Hao Gate lacked that.
They knew much, but weren't strong enough.
In the cutthroat unorthodox martial world, it left them endlessly vulnerable.
The Hao Gate was a gathering of the weak seeking strength together, yet their power remained insufficient.
Yi Ho-beop's gaze turned to Song Ho-shin.
"You. You're Sa Hae-ryeon's informant, right? Song Ho-shin?"
Song Ho-shin nodded at the words.
He wasn't particularly surprised.
Given this was Chang'an, the Hao Gate's headquarters, they'd naturally have tabs on Sa Hae-ryeon's informants.
It was like they both knew but pretended not to.
"What were Ryeon's orders?"
"Just to monitor him. Nothing more."
"How?"
"No matter what he does, don't intervene. Just watch from afar."
Song Ho-shin calmly relayed the orders he'd received.
Yi Ho-beop nodded slowly and spoke.
"She's abandoned us. Abandoned the Hao Gate."
His voice rang with utter resignation.
"Should've never gotten greedy for the Extermination Technique in the first place."
Ha Mu-baek said coldly.
"Ugh..."
Then a faint groan leaked from Yeo Cho-a's gritted teeth. Ha Mu-baek frowned at the sight.
"Warning you. Don't. It's not just cultivated—you've already crossed the line. I told you it wasn't something you could handle. Tsk."
Despite Ha Mu-baek's warning, Yeo Cho-a channeled her full inner energy.
Over the past few days,
Tormented by anxiety, Yeo Cho-a made a forbidden choice.
She abandoned the analysis and refinement of the Extermination Technique meant to excise its curse, and simply cultivated the technique itself.
Raw, at that.
The reason was simple.
Terror at Ha Mu-baek's approach, and desperate need to grow stronger.
The two forces intertwined.
"This is why I hate the Extermination Technique."
As Yeo Cho-a fully activated it, her progress appeared in Ha Mu-baek's Infinite Bright Wheel Eye.
Eleventh stage.
Just shy of the twelfth, where one became a Blood Zombie Demon Corpse.
Discover the innate path, charge down it, and depending on talent, accomplishment skyrocketed—turning the cultivator into a corpse puppet. A terrifying art.
Yeo Cho-a's eyes turned vivid blue.
Traces of her efforts to remove the curse. Proof she'd cultivated a Hao Gate-modified version of the Extermination Technique.
Different from the standard version, but that didn't matter.
She had cultivated it, and now she meant to use it.
"Second warning. Don't."
The instant those words fell,
Yeo Cho-a's form vanished.
Leisurely Phantom Shadow Step!
The Hao Gate Leader's signature lightness skill unfolded.
Paired with the Chaotic Blood Destruction Art, its power maximized; the step wove an illusory maze.
Yeo Cho-a lunged at Ha Mu-baek, swinging her sword.
Clang.
But it was caught all too easily.
"H-How...?"
Yeo Cho-a's face twisted in disbelief.
She'd cultivated the Extermination Technique to the eleventh stage and activated it, yet her first strike was blocked.
Even deploying the transcendent Leisurely Phantom Shadow Step.
It was inevitable.
"Not bad progress. You deliberately slowed your advancement at the eleventh stage. Managed to preserve that final thread of sanity, at least. Failed to halt the curse turning you into a Blood Zombie, though."
Ha Mu-baek examined her Chaotic Blood Destruction Art as he spoke.
That minor success was why her eyes gleamed blue, unlike others.
Ha Mu-baek flung his arm, hurling Yeo Cho-a aside.
Crash!
She slammed into the stone wall.
"Kuh..."
A thin groan escaped her lips.
"Final warning."