Chapter 3
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 3
Chapter Title: What a Headache
Hut.
Yeah, it was more like a hut than a house—this ramshackle place.
It was where Dan Mok Un-roe and Ha Mu-baek had brought four other trainees to their lodging, carrying bundles of food.
Dan Mok Un-roe entered the hut—no, the house—with a smile lighting up his entire face.
Ha Mu-baek watched from a short distance away, his expression one of utter disbelief.
"Mother! Un-hye!"
"Un-roe, my boy. How did you end up coming here...? Didn't you say you couldn't leave for the first three months?"
It was a choked voice, thick with emotion—his mother's.
Ha Mu-baek's keen hearing caught every word.
"Big brother! Big brother! What's that?"
A young girl's innocent voice rang out too.
'Ten years old, was it?'
Ha Mu-baek recalled the family details from the personnel records.
Dan Mok Un-hye. Dan Mok Un-roe's one and only little sister, who had just turned ten this year.
His mother and little sister.
That was his entire family.
A family so dirt-poor they were scraping by.
Dan Mok Un-roe had truly sold his life to enlist in the Fierce Dragon Corps.
"Wow! What's this? We can eat something like this?!"
Dan Mok Un-hye's voice burst out in pure delight.
"Roe, my son. What on earth is going on? Where did you get such precious food...?"
His mother's voice, by contrast, brimmed with worry.
How could her son possibly bring home cuisine this fancy?
"Oh, the instructor treated us since it's the first day of training."
Dan Mok Un-roe gave a casual reply.
He had no idea if it was really because it was the first day, but he knew saying so would keep his mother from fretting.
"Mmm, delicious! Can food in this world really taste like this?"
Dan Mok Un-hye's eyes went wide as she cried out, then wolfed it down greedily.
Dan Mok Un-roe watched his little sister with warm eyes.
A moment later, he stepped back out.
"Let's go."
Ha Mu-baek said curtly.
"Th-thank you. Instructor."
Who knew when she'd appeared? Dan Mok Un-roe's mother had come out the door and was bowing deeply toward Ha Mu-baek's back.
Ha Mu-baek turned and gave a slight nod in return. In doing so, he spotted Dan Mok Un-roe's little sister Un-hye clutching tightly at her mother's skirt hem.
'That kid...'
Ha Mu-baek turned back toward the Dragon Training Pavilion. Dan Mok Un-roe followed behind.
"My family was originally from a clan."
Dan Mok Un-roe spoke up as they walked in silence.
"When I was eight, and Hye was still in Mother's belly..."
About ten years ago, give or take. That was right when the martial world was in the thick of war, chaos everywhere.
Numerous sects vanished overnight, while just as many sprang up in their place.
"We got caught up in the war, and our clan was wiped out. Mother barely managed to flee here to Wuchang with me in tow."
"......"
"It was a long, perilous road. Long enough that even I still remember it clearly."
Ha Mu-baek said nothing.
"Do you know what's the most absurd part? Our clan was destroyed because of betrayal from within. That's why I joined the Fierce Dragon Corps. It's not just about the money. I need power. But no sect would teach martial arts to a kid like me. The Fierce Dragon Corps is my one slim hope. So please, don't tell me to go home."
"And your sister's sick too?"
"How did you...?"
Dan Mok Un-roe's eyes went wide at Ha Mu-baek's question.
Did this guy even know why his sister was ill? Ha Mu-baek had only caught a glimpse, but nothing escaped his sharp eyes. It was the Infinite Bright Wheel Eye kicking in out of habit.
Seven Yin Severed Meridians.
A cursed constitution—if not properly treated, she wouldn't live past twenty. And Dan Mok Un-hye had been born with it.
"Have you seen a physician?"
"They can't figure out the cause. That's why I need strength and money even more. Please, don't tell me to go home."
"......"
Ha Mu-baek made no reply.
By then, they had arrived near the main gate of the Dragon Training Pavilion.
It was well past midnight.
The gate guards stood watch with eyes wide open.
"Ah."
Ha Mu-baek stopped dead in his tracks.
Now he remembered what one of the gate guards had said when he'd dropped off the four trainees and headed out again.
'All entry and exit forbidden after midnight?'
He glanced up at the night sky.
Midnight had definitely passed.
Meaning entry was prohibited.
"What a headache. Damn it."
"What's wrong, sir?"
Dan Mok Un-roe asked cautiously.
"It's past midnight."
"What?!"
Dan Mok Un-roe instantly grasped the implication, his face draining of color.
"I-I'm sorry. I stayed at home too long..."
He bowed deeply.
"Forget it."
Ha Mu-baek waved a hand to silence him. Then he pondered.
Go straight through the front?
Or flank from the side?
Suddenly, he recalled the bold words he'd thrown at Pavilion Lord Pang Do-yul.
'I'll keep a low profile.' Damn. Embarrassing.
Storming the front gate would clash with the guards for sure and kick up a huge fuss.
And right now, Ha Mu-baek had a tagalong to boot.
'No choice. Don't like it, but...'
Ha Mu-baek opted for the flank.
"Your dorm's the same room as Dang Jin-san, right?"
"Y-yes?"
Ha Mu-baek nodded, then swiftly struck Dan Mok Un-roe's motion and pressure points.
"?!?"
Dan Mok Un-roe's eyes bulged as he froze solid.
Ha Mu-baek hoisted him over one shoulder and leaped into motion.
No sound, no vibration, no trace left behind.
He slipped past every warrior guarding the Dragon Training Pavilion without a soul noticing, arriving at the Fierce Dragon Corps dorms in a flash.
Without hesitation, he found the room, pried open the window, and tossed Dan Mok Un-roe inside.
Job done, Ha Mu-baek headed to his own quarters.
"Damn. Sneaking over the wall on my first day on the job. What a lousy look. Speaking of Dan Mok... probably from the Dan Mok Clan, huh?"
Xi'an in Shaanxi Province.
Ha Mu-baek muttered to himself, thinking of a clan that had once shaken the area with its fame.
Dawn broke.
Early hour of the fourth watch.
Five people stood rigidly at attention in the training grounds.
Ha Mu-baek sauntered in with a face full of annoyance.
"Yawn."
He stretched his mouth wide in a massive yawn right in front of the trainees.
"I went to bed late last night thanks to one of you. Cut me some slack."
Dan Mok Un-roe's face flushed beet red.
"Anyway, not the point."
Ha Mu-baek eyed each of the five one by one.
"You really not going home?"
All five averted their gazes slightly.
Meaning no.
"Argh, seriously. Go home already. I'm telling you to go. You know what this place is?"
"Yes, sir!"
The five barked back in unison.
"Hey, Dang Jin-san."
"Yes."
"Wouldn't it be way better just to keep being a punk in Chengdu?"
Dang Jin-san's expression flickered at the question.
"You think this place takes just anybody?"
"Yes. Seemed like they took dogs and pigs alike."
Dang Jin-san smirked as he replied.
Ha Mu-baek was momentarily speechless.
True. Anyone who applied got in.
But.
"Still, this is the Dragon Training Pavilion. They do check if you're from a doghouse or a pigsty."
The five's faces hardened a bit.
"But you two don't belong here."
Ha Mu-baek's gaze shifted to Dang Jin-san of the Sichuan Tang Clan and Baek Ri-pyeong of the Zhongnan Sect. Then he glanced briefly at Yeon Ha-min.
The two said nothing.
"You'll just be a burden to the other three if you stick around. A nuisance."
Now his eyes swept past Yeon Ha-min to Nak Woo-jin and Dan Mok Un-roe.
Plain as day meat shields, good for nothing else.
'Though that Nak Woo-jin punk's hiding something.'
Dan Mok Un-roe looked flustered, glancing back and forth at the three.
"It's Father's orders. If we go home, we'll get beaten black and blue and just come back next cohort."
Dang Jin-san, repeating much the same as he'd said the night before.
"Orders from the sect leader."
Baek Ri-pyeong replied with a straight face.
"Sigh."
Ha Mu-baek let out another deep sigh.
"So you'll stay here even if it kills you, then go die in two years?"
The two nodded solemnly despite Ha Mu-baek's mocking tone.
"You know what kind of place you're headed in two years?"
Ha Mu-baek asked with dead seriousness.
"Beyond the Mountain-Crossing Great Wall, to the Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest."
"Heard we have to wipe out the Blood Cult remnants and the demonic beasts they've spawned."
Baek Ri-pyeong and Dang Jin-san's answers.
"And you know what those remnants and beasts are like?"
"......"
"Uh......"
"......"
No replies.
How many even knew the truth? Damn few.
Rumors in the martial world just called it demon beast territory.
Those in the know added that the Fierce Dragon Corps survival rate was abysmal.
"One cohort of the Fierce Dragon Corps has a five-tenths survival rate. Five out of a hundred come back after two years. One squad out of twenty. And who knows if they return intact or crippled."
The five stirred at Ha Mu-baek's words.
They'd heard it was dangerous, but never with hard numbers like this.
"How many of you think you'll be in that lucky five?"
No one answered.
Ha Mu-baek had solid reasons for trying so hard to dissuade them.
Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest.
He'd personally charged into that cursed land during the Blood Cult War.
The Blood Cult Leader was dead, but the curse lingered.
'Those damn Elder Hall fossils.'
Ha Mu-baek cursed the ones who'd always pissed him off back at the alliance.
Post-war, purging the Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest.
It was a mission pushed hard by the Elder Hall, assigned to the Nine Great Sects and Five Great Clans.
To check the upstarts and the Alliance Leader's faction.
With the cult's top brass already slain, they figured it'd be easy.
Total miscalculation.
That cursed land was no joke.
To truly purge it, even the Nine Great Sects and Five Great Clans would've paid dearly.
They weren't about to.
In the end, it got swept under the rug. Now the Demon-Sealing Corps—one of the Righteous Heaven Alliance's armed units—managed the Mountain-Crossing Great Wall.
Of course, an Elder Hall crony was in charge.
Hence the endless supply of Fierce Dragon Corps scapegoats.
"Listen up. The Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest. Why do you think it's called demonic? It's a bona fide cursed land."
This was news to all five.
No one had told them. It wasn't public knowledge.
"The Elder Hall's rotten geezers are hiding it tight. Everyone up high knows, though. The damn lot of them."
Ha Mu-baek's gaze turned to Dang Jin-san.
"Your dad included."
Dang Jin-san's father was the current head of the Sichuan Tang Clan. The fourth son had no business being here.
"Kuh."
Dang Jin-san let out a small groan.
"I'm spilling secrets now. No idea what sorcery the Blood Cult worked on that land, but dead stiff corpses keep popping up nonstop. A comrade I buried yesterday blocks my path today as one. Pure curse. Not just people. Animals turn into them too. And it's not just dead stiffs—blood stiffs, poison stiffs, every damn kind of stiff corpse. Real demonic spawn."
"......"
"......"
Silence.
Someone swallowed dryly.
Stiff corpses.
Creatures from mere rumors.
In a forest where they spawned endlessly?
"And you lot? You're there to shield the Demon-Sealing Corps bastards so they can fight those stiffs easy. You'll drop dead in the process."
"H-how do you know all this, Instructor?"
Dang Jin-san asked in a slightly trembling voice.
A fair question.
How would a mere Fierce Dragon Corps instructor know secrets reserved for great clan heads?
"I know because I know. Not the point. So, going home? Or staying?"
Ha Mu-baek asked once more.
Still, no one said they'd go.
Just that Dan Mok Un-roe looked pale as a ghost.
"You. Really not going home? Gonna make your mom and sister weep blood in two years?"
"If I go home, I might be weeping blood before then."
Images flashed of his gaunt mother and sister. Dan Mok Un-roe's own health wasn't great either.
If he left the Fierce Dragon Corps, his family might starve before two years were up.
"You idiots."
Ha Mu-baek muttered at the five.
"Fine. Hate home? Stay then. I'll feed you well, house you, even pay you for two years. But I ain't wasting my time on morons dead set on dying. Train yourselves."
"Pardon?"
"Self-training. Self-study. You know what that means?"
With that, Ha Mu-baek left the training grounds.