Chapter 183
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 183
Chapter Title: Martial Arts
"We'll keep a closer eye on things from our side as well. We were already pouring our efforts into tracking down that bastard Gwang Hoe-cheon anyway."
Ha Mu-baek nodded at Byok Ryeok-gae's words.
"Understood. They're Blood Cult scum, after all, so I'll do some digging myself."
Ha Mu-baek rose from his seat.
"Then I'll take my leave."
He turned and exited the shrine.
Byok Ryeok-gae silently watched him go.
After Ha Mu-baek had left.
The beggars gathered back inside the shrine.
"Call back all the kids we sent out looking for Gwang Hoe-cheon."
The beggars immediately picked up on the rage laced in his voice.
The Beggar Clan disciples bowed their heads deeply.
"It seems that rat's holed up somewhere in the Dan-an Merchant Association. Either Muchang or Zhangsa. Highest chance he's in one of those two spots. Search every inch—don't let a single mouse slip through."
"Yes, sir!"
"Understood!"
The Beggar Clan disciples responded with tense resolve.
Byok Ryeok-gae stood and leaped into motion. His figure vanished in an instant.
'Can't afford to step away for a while.'
Arriving at the Dan Mok Clan residence, Byok Ryeok-gae steeled himself with that thought, spread out his straw mat, and lay down on the roadside.
The stars twinkled brightly overhead.
In stark contrast, Byok Ryeok-gae's heart weighed heavy.
"Cheon-seung..."
Murmuring the name of his old friend, Byok Ryeok-gae gently closed his eyes.
Leaving the shrine, Ha Mu-baek slowly patrolled the streets of Muchang.
His senses scanned every corner of the city in detail.
He was especially hunting for traces of Blood Arts.
What schemes were the Blood Cult bastards hiding and plotting?
On top of that, he searched for anyone bearing internal energy similar to those who had raided Dan Mok Un-roe's home.
"It definitely wasn't Blood Arts. Nor was it from any righteous or unorthodox sect."
But that didn't matter now.
He had met them once, felt their energy, and committed it to memory.
The problem was he couldn't tell if they were Blood Cult or Demonic Cult.
Meeting Byok Ryeok-gae had resolved that.
He was convinced they were Blood Cult.
After hearing the story, Ha Mu-baek fully agreed.
So he searched high and low.
But nothing.
The twenty who had met him and chosen suicide.
They were all there was.
'What about outside Muchang?'
He expanded his sensory range.
Now he could cover a fair radius beyond the city without strain.
Still, nothing.
It wasn't easy.
On a hunch, he focused his senses on the Wol-ryong Inn, where the Dan-an Merchant Association had set up in Muchang.
Nothing there either.
No one practicing the Dan Mok Clan's internal energy either.
'He said they were hiding in the Dan-an Merchant Association... Are they somewhere else?'
He couldn't detect Gwang Hoe-cheon's presence at all.
"Hiding real tight, huh."
Ha Mu-baek muttered, frowning.
On another hunch, he swept his senses over the Wol-ryong Inn once more.
His frown deepened immediately.
Because he sensed debauched movements from the top floor of the tallest pavilion.
He had pushed his senses to the max searching for Dan Mok Clan energy and Blood Cult techniques.
Normally, scanning all of Muchang wouldn't pick up such details.
If it did, it'd be exhausting.
Just the brothels in Muchang numbered plenty.
"Lucky bastard. Not like me."
Ha Mu-baek grumbled irritably.
"...!"
His expression shifted in an instant, as if recalling something he'd overlooked.
Yuk Ro was reading the reply to his report.
"Hurry up and finish the Soul-Mixing Poison, huh..."
His eyes were complicated.
"I believe the current version is already usable enough."
His subordinate voiced his opinion.
But Yuk Ro shook his head. The consumption was too high. No control either.
Even so, the Cult Leader seemed fairly satisfied with this experiment's results. Despite the Soul-Mixing Poison being incomplete.
"What a headache."
In truth, Hyeong Ui-cheon had shouldered most of the experimentation, refinement, and development of the Soul-Mixing Poison.
Without him, they wouldn't have gotten this far.
He was currently in Muchang.
"I'll head into Muchang, check the situation, and urge him along."
His subordinate spoke again at Yuk Ro's troubled look.
"You got a death wish?"
That wasn't a place you just waltzed into.
"No matter how great Ha Mu-baek is, how's he gonna find me in that huge Muchang?"
Yuk Ro could only give a wry smile at his subordinate's confidence.
"What about those practicing True Blood Arts?"
He tossed the question instead of answering.
The subordinate hemmed and hawed before speaking.
"Well... Latest report says contact's been cut off..."
"Ha Mu-baek, no doubt."
Yuk Ro said calmly.
Hyeong Ui-cheon hadn't learned Blood Arts, so he was fine. But the others weren't.
As long as that monster Ha Mu-baek was there, Muchang was off-limits for Blood Cult members.
Even True Blood Arts practitioners had fallen.
That's why Yuk Ro himself was staying in Zhangsa.
The Soul-Mixing Poison research had started there to begin with.
The Dan-an Merchant Association's headquarters.
Hyeong Ui-cheon had taken the results from deep in the headquarters' Wol-ryong Inn and headed to Muchang.
For the next phase of experiments, he'd said.
Even bringing up their old pact.
"What if Hyeong Ui-cheon went to Muchang with other intentions? Using Ha Mu-baek to block our approach?"
Frustrated at not being able to go to Muchang easily, the subordinate voiced the sudden doubt.
But Yuk Ro shook his head.
He knew the man well.
"A year and a half ago, he tracked down the people he was after. And he's been prepping to go to Muchang for a year now. Ha Mu-baek arrived in Muchang last month—sudden as could be. Timing doesn't match."
The subordinate shut his mouth at Yuk Ro's response.
"And considering that guy's obsession with his goal..."
He'd gone to Muchang aiming for two birds with one stone.
Still, the Cult Leader—who'd shown little interest in reviving the Blood Cult—satisfied with his research.
It made sense.
Yuk Ro had witnessed that insane spectacle himself.
He clearly remembered Hyeong Ui-cheon's eerie smile as he watched.
That kind of guy would betray his clan, sure.
Anyway, orders were orders.
Yuk Ro headed to the Dan-an Merchant Association headquarters. Someone there could deliver a message pigeon to Hyeong Ui-cheon.
His subordinate followed quietly behind.
The message's content was, naturally, to hurry and complete the Soul-Mixing Poison.
Yeo Hwa was gazing at the night sky from the small rear garden.
Her chest felt stuffy for some reason.
The energy beyond the wall felt off.
She had no special abilities, but it just felt that way.
Especially tonight.
No disturbances, yet it felt restless.
"Hah. Has that guy found us here?"
Yeo Hwa murmured in a small, frustrated voice.
She couldn't forget his face.
Those hollow eyes brimming with obsession.
Like a vengeful ghost.
Clan Head Dan Mok Cheon-seung had held him off, allowing her, Un-roe, and Un-hye to escape.
Recalling that moment darkened her expression.
He was truly terrifying.
Fear of him had kept her from leaving the slum shack.
Even as Un-hye grew weaker by the day with illness, she'd refused Elder Bang's help out of fear he'd find and harm them.
They'd met their benefactor, quietly treated Un-hye, and moved to this proper house.
Yet he remained a frightening existence. A demon who could appear anywhere, anytime.
Lately happy days had let her forget him briefly.
Why this ominous feeling tonight?
"Mother?"
Then Un-roe's voice came.
"It's late. Why are you out instead of sleeping?"
"My chest feels stuffy too."
Dan Mok Un-roe gave a wry smile in answer.
Yeo Hwa's worried gaze turned to her son.
"What do you mean?"
"Just... the air feels heavy, like something might happen. A gut feeling, I guess..."
Her son had sensed something similar.
A deep shadow crossed Yeo Hwa's face but vanished quickly.
She couldn't show that to her son.
"How's your martial arts training?"
She changed the subject.
"It's fun. Hard, though. And frustrating."
Dan Mok Un-roe said, looking up at the starry sky.
"The world seems full of amazing people, countless as those stars. Compared to them, I'm so small. And the martial arts I'm learning..."
Dan Mok Un-roe trailed off.
He knew full well it wasn't time for such thoughts.
He knew how incredible the Three Talents Sword Method Ha Mu-baek was teaching him.
"You did great at the Dragon Training Pavilion's Summer Combat Festival, didn't you? Your mother was shocked. Such an impressive result."
Her encouragement.
Dan Mok Un-roe had reached the top four.
With just Three Talents Heart Method and Three Talents Sword Method.
And he'd only started martial arts less than a year ago, beating disciples from prestigious clans.
"..."
Dan Mok Un-roe's lips were pressed tight.
Among his training partners were Ju Woo-myeong and Baek Ri-pyeong.
And often—really often—Namgung Ji-hu showed up too.
Taiji Radiant Sword, Heavenly Nature Sword Method, Soaring Palace Without Obstruction Sword.
Those were their arts.
Lately, Baek Ri-pyeong was training the new Heavenly Nature Lower Sword Method.
Seeing his friends, Dan Mok Un-roe thirsted for martial arts.
A thirst for new, stronger techniques that wouldn't quench no matter how much he drank.
But all he had was Three Talents Arts.
He couldn't even drink.
That frustration showed plainly on his face.
"Un-roe..."
Yeo Hwa gazed quietly at her son's face.
"I'll head in now. Guess it was nothing."
In the meantime, the eerie atmosphere had lifted, returning to the usual night air.
Dan Mok Un-roe didn't yet know how to expand his senses to check surroundings.
So he didn't realize Ha Mu-baek had cleared everything around their home.
He just felt the heavy air had returned to normal.
Yeo Hwa quietly stared at the spot her son had left.
"Martial arts."
She murmured, touching the worn bracelet on her left wrist.
What her son wanted.
Something only she could grant.
But she couldn't.
Dan Mok Un-roe, the Dan Mok Clan's sole surviving direct descendant.
Yet he hadn't learned even a single form of the clan's martial arts.
It was regrettable and frustrating.
Standing there lost in complicated thoughts for a while, Yeo Hwa slowly made her way to the bedroom.
The place something overlooked had led him.
Back to the Dan Mok Clan, his starting point.
Ha Mu-baek had returned there.
After combing all of Muchang, he'd been heading to the Dragon Training Pavilion when something clicked.
Precisely, when he'd felt that debauched tryst and gotten annoyed.
He recalled briefly sensing something similar back then.
A sense of incongruity.
That's how he'd define the feeling.
He'd shelved it while chasing the fleeing foes.
After failing to stop all twenty from suiciding, he'd torn Muchang apart searching and overlooked it.
But he'd felt it here.
"Faint, but definitely here. Like someone watching from afar—unpleasant, irritating incongruity."
Someone had extended their senses to probe this place.
Sensing that was nearly impossible. No, impossible.
Even when Ha Seol-ran scanned Muchang with her senses, Ha Mu-baek hadn't noticed at all.
But earlier was different.
A sticky, repulsive, bizarre sensation—faint, but there.
He might have missed it otherwise.
Ha Mu-baek himself had nearly forgotten.
If that tryst hadn't reminded him, he'd have gone back to his dorm bed at the pavilion.
Someone forcing their senses beyond their limit?
Ha Mu-baek looked around.
Trying to pinpoint the source.
But it had been so brief and weak he couldn't nail it exactly.
Just the direction.
He turned that way.
The tall pavilion of Wol-ryong Inn loomed in the distance.
'It was the energy of that internal art I encountered before.'
Ha Mu-baek eyed the pavilion intently.
Still, nothing registered in his senses.
Just the presence of those who'd finished their debauchery.
They had no internal energy to speak of.
At least, no one with internal energy felt in Ha Mu-baek's senses there.
There were plenty around.
Dan-an Merchant Association warriors.
True to merchant guards, they practiced all sorts of arts.
But no Dan Mok Clan energy anywhere.
"Definitely Dan Mok Clan energy, if only briefly. The texture was a bit off, but."
Recalling the sensation solidified his certainty.
For that short moment, someone practicing Dan Mok Clan arts had probed here.
Clumsily extending their senses.
Wol-ryong Inn.
A place to watch closely from now on.
Gwang Hoe-cheon, as Byok Ryeok-gae described.
If not him, no one else could use Dan Mok Clan arts now.
He was probably hiding somewhere in Wol-ryong Inn.
"Where are you hiding?"
Ha Mu-baek murmured lowly, staring toward Wol-ryong Inn.