Chapter 59
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 59
Chapter Title: Won't Ask Again
It wasn't just his eyes that gleamed ferociously. A savage aura seeped faintly from Ha Mu-baek's body.
"Are you lot coveting that damned Destruction Art? Do you really think you can handle it?"
Ha Mu-baek's question.
But no one could answer it.
The four protectors and Yeong So-hye.
All of them were gritting their teeth, their bodies trembling as they withstood Ha Mu-baek's pressure.
Yeong So-hye's face flushed red, as if it might burst at any moment.
Bloodshot veins filled her wide eyes, and blood trickled from the corners.
Ha Mu-baek lightly swung his fist toward the nearest protector. It was one of the two he had some acquaintance with.
Bam!
With a deafening crash, the man flew through the door Ha Mu-baek had entered.
"Gasp!"
"What the!"
Those gathered outside the door jumped in shock.
The barrier the four protectors had formed together to block out sound shattered.
"What happened?"
Iron Cane Beggar stepped inside through the broken door and asked.
To think three other old men were with the pavilion lord's son in what should have been his private quarters. Among them, Iron Cane Beggar recognized a familiar face.
"So it was as I thought. Hao Gate... Hah, I had no idea they'd set up a brothel here."
He had suspected as much on his way in and sent a subordinate to check.
But he'd confirmed it with his own eyes before the subordinate returned.
"Iron Cane Beggar, sir. Did you say Hao Gate?"
Pang Do-won asked, his expression darkening unpleasantly.
The place where his son had been lounging like it was his own home was a Hao Gate establishment. How could he feel good about that?
He knew what kind of business they conducted there.
There was a high chance his wastrel son had spilled family secrets while tangled in the skirts of the courtesans.
To think such a thing had happened right under the Pang Clan's nose without their knowledge.
It was heartbreaking.
"It seems these bastards are after the Destruction Art."
Ha Mu-baek said to Iron Cane Beggar in a voice laced with killing intent.
At those words, Iron Cane Beggar's eyes widened.
It was a martial art one should never touch, regardless of the circumstances.
Already, the Pang Clan might suffer a blow that could exclude them from the Five Great Clans over this incident. No, they might not even be called a clan anymore.
"A thirst for powerful martial arts must be Hao Gate's long-cherished wish. That's why they're pulling this madness now."
As Iron Cane Beggar muttered, Ha Mu-baek continued glaring at Yeong So-hye.
"Where is Gun-ho? Instructor Ha."
Pang Do-won asked urgently.
"He killed the signal guard and left, apparently."
Pang Do-won and Pang Geo-yul's bodies stiffened at the response.
The Pang Clan's eldest son had killed a Pang Clan warrior. The boy was already losing his judgment to the Destruction Art.
Pang Do-won ground his teeth.
He might have to kill his own son with his own hands.
Foolish as he was, he was still his child.
How could his son do such a thing?
"Urk."
A faint groan escaped the protector who had flown through the door and crashed into the wall.
Ha Mu-baek's gaze turned there.
"Still alive?"
At those words, the remaining three protectors and Yeong So-hye paled.
It sounded like he intended to kill him.
"I won't ask again. You haven't answered my third question yet. Where is Pang Gun-ho? And where's the Destruction Art manual? If you say you don't know this time, it's over. Choose wisely. If you don't know, I can just unleash the beggars."
Everyone knew who Ha Mu-baek meant by "beggars."
Iron Cane Beggar from the Beggars' Clan was right there.
"Th-that... I don't know! How would we track some deadbeat who snuck out without paying his bar tab at night!"
Yeong So-hye screamed like a madwoman.
Slash.
A chilling slicing sound followed.
"Huh?"
A cool, burning sensation made a puzzled sound escape Yeong So-hye's lips for a moment.
But that was the end.
A red line appeared on her neck, and she looked down at her own body upside down.
"Huh? How...?"
No more voice or thought followed.
She died on the spot.
At the sight, the remaining three protectors' eyes bulged.
She was the daughter of the Hao Gate Leader.
Ha Mu-baek knew that. Yet he beheaded her without hesitation.
"L-Lady Yi!"
One protector cried out in alarm.
Iron Cane Beggar's eyebrow twitched at the shout. So that's why four Hao Gate protectors were here.
Lady Yi—the Hao Gate Leader's second daughter.
"Did you know?"
Iron Cane Beggar asked, and Ha Mu-baek nodded.
"Hah."
Iron Cane Beggar let out a low exclamation. To strike with such resolve even knowing that.
He was exactly as he had been in the last war.
"Ha Mu-baek! How dare you touch Lady Yi... Are you not afraid of Hao Gate?!"
One protector bellowed in rage.
Slash.
His head fell to Ha Mu-baek's sword.
Two left.
Faced with Ha Mu-baek's relentless sword, the pair shut their mouths and eyed each other.
"You two haven't answered yet."
Ha Mu-baek said calmly.
But that calm hid thick killing intent.
The two were stuck, mouths half-open, unable to speak or close them fully.
Ha Mu-baek's sword knew no hesitation.
Slash. Slash.
He beheaded the remaining two as well.
"You..."
Ha Mu-baek's handiwork shocked Iron Cane Beggar and the others.
They hadn't expected him to kill them all without leaving a single one.
"One's still alive over there."
The one who had flown first from Ha Mu-baek's strike.
"Hao Gate's Second Protector, more or less."
Ha Mu-baek said as he walked over.
"Ugh..."
He was groaning.
From just one blow.
"Stop whining."
Ha Mu-baek said indifferently.
He looked down with cold eyes.
"As I said earlier, I can just let the beggars loose. I'll head straight to Chang'an."
The Second Protector froze at those words. His groans stopped.
Chang'an.
Home to Hao Gate's headquarters.
And this madman knew its location. The same one he still remembered.
If he rampaged there, Hao Gate's headquarters would...
Just imagining it soaked him in cold sweat.
"Hey. You know full well how much I hate the Blood Cult bastards. And you're playing games with the Destruction Art?"
"P-please spare me..."
A desperate plea escaped the Second Protector's lips.
He had to survive first. Survive to report back to headquarters.
Lady Yi's death. This madman's madness.
"Then answer me."
The Second Protector squeezed his eyes shut at Ha Mu-baek's words and bowed his head.
Slumped on the floor, head down, no one saw his lips move.
But Ha Mu-baek clearly heard the transmission.
"Don't try any tricks."
With that, Ha Mu-baek turned away.
"Wh-where to?"
Iron Cane Beggar hurried after him.
Ha Mu-baek walked on without a word.
Once everyone was gone.
A faint smile crept onto the Second Protector's lips, relief at surviving plain on his face.
He had successfully hidden one crucial fact.
Thanks to Ha Mu-baek's focus on Pang Gun-ho and the manual.
Not intentional, but by holding out to the end, he'd kept Ha Mu-baek's attention solely on the boy.
Early dawn.
"Gasp!"
Hao Gate Leader Ye Cho-a.
She jolted awake from a horrific nightmare, eyes snapping open.
It was the first such dream since the war ended.
As if she were back on that battlefield.
"To avoid such horrors, Hye-ah, we must succeed no matter what."
Ye Cho-a muttered, wiping the cold sweat from her brow.
"We need power, my dear."
It was unclear if she spoke to herself or her second daughter, Yeong So-hye.
"Hao Gate suffered that persecution in the last war because we lacked power. Used and discarded by the giant sects of both righteous and evil factions alike."
Rabbits hunted once the grass is gone.
In the last two wars, Hao Gate had gathered and relayed intelligence across the Central Plains alongside the Beggars' Clan, enduring every hardship.
How many disciples had they lost to the Blood Cult and Demonic Cult?
Yet after the wars ended, nothing came in return.
Just the same old contempt.
The Beggars' Clan was different.
Their name shone even brighter.
Same sacrifices, different outcomes. Why?
"Power."
Ye Cho-a muttered softly, recalling those times. Rage filled her voice.
The Beggars' Clan proudly held one seat among the Nine Great Sects of the righteous factions.
Not just because of their numbers.
They had martial arts capable of rivaling other sects.
Superior ultimate techniques like Drunken Eight Immortal Steps, Mighty Dragon Eighteen Palms, and Striking Dog Staff Method.
But Hao Gate...
Had none.
It couldn't be helped.
How could pickpockets, gamblers, errand boys, courtesans, and fortune-tellers—those at the very bottom of the world—possess superior martial arts?
If they had such arts, they wouldn't be in those positions.
Still, even such people banded together, pooled their wits and strength, and acquired martial arts worthy of a seat in the martial world.
That was the extent of it.
Just enough to be used and discarded by giant sects.
Why should beggar scum have powerful martial arts while we couldn't even match them? It was unnatural for those scum to have them.
So they needed power.
The cursed Destruction Art, Chaos Blood Destruction Art.
Hao Gate had been the one tracking leads on sects possessing that Destruction Art.
Thus, they knew its existence, terror, and might well.
That's why, during the last war, they'd poured everything into finding leads without informing the Righteous Heaven Alliance or Evil Sea Alliance.
And after being discarded post-war, they regretted it.
They shouldn't have.
They should have siphoned off at least one.
They should have studied that power. Then Hao Gate might have gained strength no one could ignore.
In the midst of such regrets.
They found a lead in the Pang Clan.
They couldn't set up branches or sub-headquarters in the Pang Clan's territory, but they had placed courtesans and errand boys nearby.
They had to monitor the giant sects' movements.
And so, Hao Gate courtesans overheard the Pang Clan's eldest son, Pang Gun-ho, drunkenly blabbing.
The report reached Ye Cho-a, and she knew instantly upon reading it.
Chaos Blood Destruction Art.
It was in the Pang Clan.
Having found it, there was no reason to hesitate. She immediately established a branch and sent her daughter.
And they thoroughly seduced Pang Gun-ho.
It was easy with a wastrel who loved drink. When he suddenly went to the Dragon Training Pavilion, she worried.
But as they say, blessing in disguise. Things snowballed after that, leading Pang Mu-yul to reveal the Chaos Blood Destruction Art to the world.
And that manual was
being copied and en route here.
Pang Gun-ho had brought it from the Pang Clan to the VIP room at Daehaeru.
True to his idiocy, he left it scattered around even while sleeping with a courtesan.
The protectors spied him viewing it via secret passages without him sensing a thing.
They copied it, verified against the original.
To prevent anyone from learning it prematurely during copying, they divided it into parts.
It was a Destruction Art, after all.
They had to analyze and dismantle it, expose the cursed Destruction Art portions, then cultivate it.
Personnel to study the Destruction Art were already prepared.
"Just a little more. A little longer."
Ye Cho-a clenched her fist.
She had sent her own daughter and five protectors. Even the daughter didn't know about the five protectors.
This couldn't fail.
It would succeed.
Then the day Hao Gate escaped its powerless humiliations was near.
At that moment.
A messenger pigeon was flying toward Hao Gate's Chang'an headquarters.