Chapter 55
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 55
Chapter Title: That Saved the Pang Family
"Heh, well now..."
At Ha Mu-baek's shout, a single old beggar scratched his head and shuffled out into view.
Pang Do-jam's eyes widened upon seeing him.
He had seen the man once before.
"You're as lively as ever. Heh. Hahaha. Well, I never thought I'd be able to fool your sharp eyes and stay hidden anyway."
The beggar laughed good-naturedly, speaking as if he knew Ha Mu-baek quite well.
Pang Do-jam eyed him suspiciously. Where had that piercing gaze from their previous encounter gone? Now the man just wore a friendly, genial smile.
"Long time no see. Iron Cane Beggar."
"It has been a while. But didn't you know it was me? Why call for me indirectly by yelling 'beggar'?"
"Does that mean the others aren't beggars?"
"Ah, haha, no, no. I am a beggar. A beggar through and through."
Iron Cane Beggar, vice leader of the Beggar Clan.
After Pang Mu-ryang had visited the headquarters, the gravity of the situation had prompted him to follow personally.
Ha Mu-baek was heading off to fight, after all. He needed to track the man's whereabouts himself.
He had brought ten subordinates along and tailed him, witnessing an unbelievable scene just moments ago.
Yet he couldn't dispatch even a single subordinate.
Because Ha Mu-baek had zeroed right in on them.
He'd jumped out first to stop one of his hot-blooded underlings from charging out in a huff at being called beggars.
"You've been tailing us since headquarters?"
"Just as I thought. You knew our route all along."
Iron Cane Beggar nodded knowingly. Pang Do-jam's eyes grew even wider at his words.
Their movements had been top secret, even within the Pang Family. They had worried Ha Mu-baek might flee if he caught wind. Of course, how absurd that worry had proven to be—he'd just experienced it firsthand, teeth chattering in fear.
"That saved the Pang Family."
Iron Cane Beggar nodded in agreement at Ha Mu-baek's response.
"So it turned out that way in the end."
"You saw everything, of course?"
Iron Cane Beggar nodded again.
Even on a second look, the man was terrifyingly strong.
Last night, as he'd unleashed that barrage of arrows, how terrified they'd been of getting hit themselves. That's why they'd trailed him from afar, nice and slow.
But Ha Mu-baek was Ha Mu-baek, through and through.
He'd targeted only the Pang Family warriors with ruthless precision. It was uncanny how he distinguished them so perfectly.
And then the duel with Pang Mu-ryang.
If it could even be called a duel—it had been pure, one-sided brutality.
He'd half-expected as much.
But what he hadn't anticipated was Pang Mu-ryang's martial arts.
To think he'd witness that cursed technique here of all places.
"Then I'll trust you to handle the rest. I'm taking this one back to the Pang Family."
"Mind if I tag along?"
Iron Cane Beggar asked cautiously.
"Do as you like."
Ha Mu-baek knew exactly what kind of man Iron Cane Beggar was. They'd been comrades in the last war, after all.
His name might suggest otherwise, but the man had guts the size of a pea.
That caution had saved his life more than once, delivering crucial intelligence.
With his experience and savvy, Ha Mu-baek figured there'd be no issue if he came along.
In the meantime, Iron Cane Beggar had transmitted orders to his subordinates via inner force message.
The moment his transmission ended, four carrier hawks and four carrier pigeons took flight, scattering in different directions.
"Let's go."
Ha Mu-baek mounted up and set off down the path the Pang Family warriors had taken to reach them.
The same path where he'd loosed arrows and hurled daggers all through the night.
The Pang Family martial artists, their dantians shattered and sprawled on the ground, glared at his retreating back with resentment.
Pang Do-jam hesitated for a moment before following. Since they were heading to the Pang Family, he figured at least one family warrior should go along.
Once they were gone, three beggars emerged.
"Tsk tsk. Didn't our vice leader warn you to be more careful? At least no one died."
The Beggar Clan division member's consolation rang utterly hollow. What good was surviving if they could no longer be called warriors?
The Beggar Clan members bustled among the despondent Pang Family warriors, their faces like the world had ended.
They were carrying out Iron Cane Beggar's orders to the letter.
Ha Mu-baek's group numbered five in total.
Ha Mu-baek, Pang Mu-ryang, Pang Do-jam, Iron Cane Beggar, and one young beggar.
Ha Mu-baek didn't spare the young beggar so much as a glance.
Stung by the snub, the young beggar's face flushed red.
Iron Cane Beggar patted the back of his head.
[Don't get cocky when you don't know your place.]
The follow-up transmission only deepened the young beggar's flush, but Iron Cane Beggar's increasingly firm taps kept his anger in check.
'His skills are monstrous, sure... but to treat our mighty Beggar Clan with such disdain...'
The slight was personal, yet the young beggar took it as an insult to the clan itself.
Thus, he kept shooting Ha Mu-baek dirty looks. Ha Mu-baek couldn't possibly miss them.
"Iron Cane Beggar."
Ha Mu-baek, walking in silence, finally spoke.
"What's on your mind?"
"The Beggar Clan still has no knack for picking rear guards, I see."
Iron Cane Beggar merely chuckled heartily and looked off toward the distant mountains.
The young beggar, however, was far from amused.
His face turned from red to purple, as if he might explode.
"Easy now. He's young and foolish. But his sense of justice is the best in our Beggar Clan."
Rear guard.
The Beggar Clan's equivalent of a rumor keeper in other sects.
The designated next Gang Leader.
That was the rear guard.
His sash bore the same eight-knot tie as a vice leader's. Normally, he wore it without knots, tying them only for official rear guard duties.
The young beggar's sash currently had no knots.
"Sense of justice... That sense of justice got three of them killed ahead of schedule. Though one was an old fogey type, to be fair."
Ha Mu-baek muttered flatly.
The Beggar Clan had suffered heavy losses in the last two wars. As the righteous world's intelligence network, beggars were relentlessly targeted on sight.
Three rear guards had died.
Appoint a new one, he dies; appoint another, he dies too.
Prideful and justice-driven types always took the role, refusing to bow when they should and paying the price.
One of them, as Ha Mu-baek noted, had been such an arrogant old fogey that he'd gotten himself killed.
"Heh heh heh."
Iron Cane Beggar gripped the rear guard's neck as his face boiled red, chuckling all the while.
"This one feels like another old fogey in the making."
As the rear guard twitched on the verge of snapping, Iron Cane Beggar swiftly struck his pressure point.
"Iron Cane Beggar. Honestly, I think someone more like you might be better suited."
Ha Mu-baek fell silent after that.
Iron Cane Beggar.
His liver wasn't just pea-sized now—it was downright nonexistent.
This damned rear guard punk had no idea who he was messing with. He could end up like the Pang Family if he wasn't careful.
Looks like tonight called for some serious discipline.
Urgent news via the Beggar Clan reached the Righteous Heaven Alliance Leader's chambers and the Elder Council.
It was news that turned the Alliance upside down.
An emergency council convened immediately, with the Leader and elders assembling.
"Heavens... What a tragedy..."
One sigh prompted another elder to bow his head.
It was Pang Mu-rin.
The Pang Family head had mastered that technique.
As the family's representative elder in the Alliance, he couldn't bear to lift his gaze.
"Then his reckless outburst last time must have been that demonic art's influence."
Not long ago, the man had stormed the Alliance demanding Ha Mu-baek's head.
Everyone remembered it vividly.
"That fellow has a real nose for sniffing out such curses."
Yeon Ja-kyeong, head of the Hubei Yeon Clan, spoke calmly, and the others nodded.
"As the Grand Elder says, he's been unearthing that accursed art since the last war."
The Emei Sect's Jeong Yu-sa-tae chimed in agreement.
"Enough. The key issue now isn't that—it's how far the Pang head has progressed."
Seon Cheong-woo of Huashan redirected the discussion.
"He's reached the tenth stage."
Alliance Leader So Hwi-woong stated matter-of-factly.
"That's a relief, at least."
"Fortunate in misfortune."
Sighs of relief rippled through the room. The carrier message from the Beggar Clan had all the details, but in the hasty summons, not all elders had read it fully.
"Tenth stage is before the curse fully manifests."
"Just shatter the dan tian. Did he?"
So Hwi-woong shook his head at Seon Cheong-woo's question.
"Seems he's handling the Pang Family matter first. He applied restraints and headed there."
Various reactions followed So Hwi-woong's reply.
"Tch. What if he hits twelfth stage and it fully awakens?"
Yeon Ja-kyeong clicked his tongue in disapproval.
"He's tangled with the Blood Cult's dark blood stiff corpses plenty. He'll manage."
So Hwi-woong defended Ha Mu-baek with a smile, though deep down he seethed at Yeon Ja-kyeong.
One of the White Path Assembly's three leaders was Yeon Ja-kyeong himself—Grand Elder of the Alliance and third in seniority.
He meddled in everything, especially So Hwi-woong's affairs.
He'd been the biggest voice pushing Ha Mu-baek to the Dragon Training Pavilion.
Chaos Blood Demon Destruction Art.
The true purpose of the technique the Blood Cult had secretly spread through the righteous world: crafting stiff corpses.
Upon reaching the twelfth stage pinnacle, the dan tian and inner power transform perfectly for the Blood Cult's secret dark blood stiff corpse ritual.
The inner power then breaks free of the user's will, overrides their mind, and turns the practitioner into a stiff corpse.
Hence the name: Destruction Art, for it destroys the one who cultivates it.
Disguised as the plausible "Primal Chaos Flowing River," a pure and mighty technique.
The true nature emerges gradually from the ninth stage.
Temper flares; the art's inner power subtly interferes with the user's other techniques.
To mass-produce dark blood stiff corpses quickly, it plants exploitable flaws throughout.
Talented practitioners spot them, advance faster, and turn quicker.
Seduced by Primal Chaos Flowing River's power, they chase the shortcuts—straight to twelfth-stage completion and stiff corpse transformation.
Such dark blood stiff corpses had been a massive headache for the Alliance in the last war.
Respected masters from famed righteous sects suddenly turning, wrecking their own schools.
Even recalling it now sent shivers down spines. A true nightmare of an art—and corpse.
And among the Blood Cult's horrors alongside iron stiff corpses, dark blood ones packed the worst punch.
The elders shuddered at the memory.
"So, what's the Pang Family's stance?"
Yeon Ja-kyeong's question flew at Pang Mu-rin.
Pang Mu-rin trembled faintly.
With the family head in that state, there was no position to take.
He'd only just learned himself. The Pang Family might not even know yet.
"No word from headquarters yet..."
That was all he could say.
Displeased glares stabbed toward Pang Mu-rin from all sides.