Chapter 536
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 536
Chapter Title: Who is Your Master?
“Tch. Talk about getting on the wrong side of someone big.”
Chil Hwa-gae grumbled to himself as he pushed his feet into a frenzy of motion.
His lightness skill carried him along like the wind, astonishingly fast.
There, far ahead, was Seobok.
He'd been lounging around Anbok, biding his time without a care, when Ha Mu-baek had suddenly dropped out of the sky.
Honestly, Chil Hwa-gae didn't know much about the man called Ha Mu-baek.
He'd never fought alongside him on the battlefield during the last war.
That said, he'd often seen the elders above his branch leader rank fly into fits or grind their teeth at the mere mention of Ha Mu-baek.
And their common refrain was always the same: an insane lunatic not worth dealing with.
For such a man to show up at the branch where he was the leader...
And not just show up, either.
He'd arrived bearing the legitimate title of Fierce Dragon Corps Leader from the Righteous Heaven Alliance.
Not long ago, the Fierce Dragon Corps had been nothing but meat shields for the Demon-Sealing Corps, but things were different now.
The information about what had happened in the Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest had already spread to every Beggars' Sect branch leader across the region, so Chil Hwa-gae had a decent grasp of the situation.
“What makes it such a bad matchup?”
The sudden voice from beside him forced Chil Hwa-gae to slam his feet to a halt.
Ha Mu-baek stood there, half a zhang away.
“Wh-when did you...?”
Chil Hwa-gae's face went slack with shock.
He stared at Ha Mu-baek in utter disbelief.
The garrison where that man was supposed to be was still a long way off. Far off, in fact.
So how had he known Chil Hwa-gae was coming and appeared here of all places?
And why hadn't he sensed the man's presence at all?
The monster was every bit the monster they said.
Chil Hwa-gae hadn't quite crossed the threshold to peak realm, but he'd always prided himself on his lightness skill and senses.
Yet here he was, feeling utterly powerless.
“Impressive, isn't it?”
Ha Mu-baek just smiled faintly.
“You said you'd gotten on the wrong side of Corps Leader Ha.”
“I'm not such a bad guy, you know.”
“That's just what you think.”
Chil Hwa-gae grumbled in exasperation and pulled a bundle of documents from his robe.
“Here's what you asked for.”
Ha Mu-baek took them and glanced around.
It felt awkward standing there reading, but there was nowhere suitable to sit.
“Let's head to Seobok. There's nothing here.”
It couldn't be helped.
This was just a road leading toward Seobok.
And so the two unleashed their lightness skills and soon arrived at a suitable teahouse in Seobok.
Ha Mu-baek sat down and began scanning the documents.
“Hmm. Maehyang Gate, huh...”
“Their gate leader, Ban Yun, is a sly one. Strong, too. He reads the currents well and knows how to play them.”
Ha Mu-baek tilted his head.
A man like that should have made a name for himself in the last war, but the name didn't ring a bell.
“Ah, he sat out the war with one excuse after another, holing up in Sangnam the whole time.”
Ha Mu-baek instantly understood the character's temperament.
And the meaning behind Chil Hwa-gae's words.
The documents detailed the situation in Sangnam.
There was plenty on Yu Gwi-gwang, too.
A truly heartbreaking tale. Though in this vast martial world, who didn't have one?
Even Ha Mu-baek and his siblings had it far worse.
If not for luckily encountering their master and receiving salvation...
Ha Mu-baek's thoughts stopped there.
Recalling that time stirred the thing lurking inside him, trying to peek its head out.
He frowned without Chil Hwa-gae noticing and nodded.
“Might get a bit noisy.”
“You bet it will. Ban Yun of Maehyang Gate has been eyeing Yuun Martial Hall for a while now.”
Chil Hwa-gae answered, recalling his time in Sangnam.
Then he asked, ever so subtly.
“You heading to Sangnam?”
His true wish—that he would go—dripped from every word.
“Why would I?”
Ha Mu-baek shot him a look like he'd said something ridiculous.
“Didn't you have me look into it because you were going?”
Ha Mu-baek shook his head.
“Just curious.”
“Ha...”
A sigh like a lament escaped Chil Hwa-gae's lips.
So he'd run himself ragged, sweating through his soles, just to satisfy this man's curiosity?
“Oh, and about that Haomen branch manager...”
“Ah.”
Ha Mu-baek let out a small exclamation, as if it had just come back to him.
He'd meant to ask the next time he saw someone high up in the Beggars' Sect who might know, but he'd forgotten.
He couldn't exactly leave his post again right away to investigate the man's identity.
And it wasn't urgent or important anyway.
“I casually asked my master, and he knew.”
“Who is your master?”
“Iron Cliff Beggar.”
Ha Mu-baek looked at Chil Hwa-gae in surprise.
Iron Cliff Beggar—wasn't that the Beggars' Sect vice leader?
The disciple of quite the high-ranking figure.
But for someone like that, his martial prowess...
Chil Hwa-gae caught the look in Ha Mu-baek's eyes.
“Damn it. It's because my potential is too damn vast!”
His reverse scale, perhaps?
Chil Hwa-gae bellowed in fury.
That was why he wandered far from headquarters, to Sangnam and now this remote Anbok.
The vice leader's direct disciple, yet lacking the talent and skill to match the position.
His inferiority complex kept him roaming the outskirts.
“What did I say?”
Ha Mu-baek asked innocently, though he'd hit the mark.
“You think I haven't gotten that look once or twice before?”
A sharp retort.
Sensitive one.
And understandably so.
But the real issue was his sharp, keen senses—able to pick up on it at all.
“So what did Iron Cliff Beggar say?”
Ha Mu-baek changed the subject.
Chil Hwa-gae was stunned by how casually Ha Mu-baek referred to his own master—the Beggars' Sect vice leader—like a neighbor's buddy. But he remembered his master's advice.
That's just how the guy is, so let it slide.
“He's the master of the Haomen Lord.”
“Huh?”
“More precisely, the master of the previous Haomen Lord, Ye Cho-a.”
“Huh? So that would make him the one before that?”
Ha Mu-baek's slightly surprised question drew a headshake from Chil Hwa-gae.
“Not quite.”
“What does that mean?”
The master of the Haomen Lord, but not a Haomen Lord himself?
“Haomen's lord selection process is a bit complicated. Usually, the lord's disciple succeeds them, of course. But Ye Cho-a was different. Back then, she was an elder in Haomen. Name's Mae Baek-hwa—probably over sixty. Martial skill unconfirmed beyond peak realm. Nickname: Spicy Hand Poison Lady.”
“Hmm.”
Ha Mu-baek nodded at Chil Hwa-gae's explanation.
Now he understood her sharp-edged reactions.
As the Haomen Lord's master, she'd know about the mess at Haomen caused by Ha Mu-baek.
No, not caused by him.
Ye Cho-a had brought it on herself with her misguided greed and twisted methods.
“Peak realm, right at the edge. On the verge of entering superhuman early stage.”
Ha Mu-baek shared what he'd sensed of her skill that day.
A small token in return for fulfilling his request.
Chil Hwa-gae jumped in shock at Ha Mu-baek's words.
He hadn't expected her to be that far along in peak realm.
“Too strong and it surprised you? At her age with that appearance, you should've guessed at least that much.”
True enough.
A sixty-plus-year-old looking middle-aged meant she'd either cultivated some youth-preserving art or held her aging at bay with peak-or-higher skill.
“Tch.”
Chil Hwa-gae smacked his lips, at a loss for words.
“If anything else comes up, I'll owe you another one.”
Ha Mu-baek stood from his seat.
“You won't get more than this even if you go to Haomen yourself.”
Chil Hwa-gae brimmed with pride.
Ha Mu-baek didn't reply and left the teahouse.
He returned to the garrison first, informed them he'd be stepping out briefly again, and headed back to Anbok.
If the Beggars' Sect had compiled the info, Haomen would surely have finished their investigation too.
Ha Mu-baek found the Haomen branch as before.
His second visit went smoothly, no friction, and he soon met the info broker.
“Right on time. Here's the information you requested.”
The courtesan dealing with Haomen knew exactly who the man before her was.
Yet she faced him with a calm smile, eyes crinkling playfully.
“The Beggars' Sect doesn't know everything. You'll find value here worth every coin you paid.”
Her voice carried a flirtatious lilt.
But Ha Mu-baek showed no reaction, simply examining the documents.
“Indeed, it is.”
He said indifferently.
The Beggars' Sect report had mentioned Sangnam's underworld faction, Black Veil Hall.
But Haomen's was far more detailed and precise.
Especially this.
A third-rate underworld faction's vice hall leader is a peak realm master...
It was about Vice Hall Leader Gwan Po.
Even how he'd come to lead Black Veil Hall as a nobody was laid out in detail.
“Still pricey, though.”
With that, Ha Mu-baek left the brothel.
He glanced up at the top floor.
He felt eyes watching him from there.
Ha Mu-baek smirked once, then kicked off the ground and vanished.
“What a monstrous bastard...”
Branch Manager Mae Baek-hwa muttered softly, her face drained of color.
“So... you want us to hand over nine-tenths of the revenue we make in the eastern district?”
Seon Gyu stared at Sa Hoon in disbelief as he asked.
“That's right.”
Sa Hoon confirmed.
“That's why I told you. Better to just give up.”
“No way. That's insane. Utterly insane...”
Seon Gyu muttered, but his expression showed he was deep in thought, contrary to his words.
His thick skull was doing some mental arithmetic, weighing the profits and losses.
Black Veil Hall's main revenue streams were two.
Income from the southern pleasure dens.
Protection money squeezed from brothels, taverns, and the like.
Maehyang Gate's influence didn't reach those spots yet, so eight-tenths of the protection money came from the eastern district.
If they had to give nine-tenths of that eight-tenths...
Seon Gyu scowled.
His brain couldn't crunch the exact numbers.
“Seven-tenths and six parts of our total protection money.”
Sa Hoon, having calculated quickly, told him.
“That's a lot.”
“Too much.”
Way too much.
“But... if we take Yuun Martial Hall, couldn't we squeeze even more protection money?”
True, that too.
“It'd still be less than now.”
Sa Hoon insisted the status quo was far better.
“Hmm.”
Still, Seon Gyu wanted out of the brothel life.
Calling courtesans every day for fun was satisfying, but for a martial faction to lack a proper base and squat in brothels?
They'd be no better than a gang of street thugs and ruffians.
Seon Gyu's honest desire was to become a true underworld faction.
And join the Unorthodox Alliance.
Underworld meant unorthodox.
Yet third-rate groups like Black Veil Hall weren't admitted.
Not for any other reason.
They lacked a proper base, so no martial world faction recognized them.
Treated as little more than a ruffians' club.
The Beggars' Sect and Haomen classified them as an underworld faction due to their size, but the Unorthodox Alliance did not.
I can just bring along two or three courtesans I like.
His mind kept tilting toward devouring Yuun Martial Hall.
“We could build our base somewhere else.”
Sa Hoon hurriedly spoke, reading Seon Gyu's eyes.
“The pleasure dens. Always packed, right?”
“So I've heard.”
Sa Hoon despised brothels. He rarely meddled there.
“Let's make another one.”
If revenue drops, create a new source.
Seon Gyu's thinking was straightforward.
“Maehyang Gate won't sit idle.”
“Let 'em come. It'll just be for show.”
Likely.
“Brother, this won't do. It's not just handing over nine-tenths of the revenue. Even if we take Yuun Martial Hall and the eastern district with their help... we'll just be their hunting dogs. No, worse than that—we might end up as yard dogs not even worth that.”
“Hmph. Once we're a proper faction under the Unorthodox Alliance's wing, even Maehyang Gate won't dare touch us.”
The Unorthodox Alliance.
That was the object of Seon Gyu's desire.