Chapter 606
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 606
Chapter Title: That Guy
"What is it?"
Dam Mu-hyeon asked Ha Mu-baek as he dashed toward the Beggars' Sect headquarters.
"Something's happened."
At Ha Mu-baek's reply, Dam Mu-hyeon tilted his head in puzzlement.
It was too quiet for anything serious to have occurred.
If a battle had broken out, faint echoes of the clamor should have reached them by now, given the distance to the headquarters.
Yet it was eerily silent.
So he had no choice but to cock his head.
"This is a first for me too."
Ha Mu-baek spoke calmly as he ran.
His senses were still probing the situation at the headquarters.
The more time passed, the more his suspicions hardened into certainty.
The movements of the presences there were far too unnatural.
He had no idea how such a thing could happen, so he needed to hurry and see for himself.
'What trick is he using?'
Myo Su-gae.
His presence felt bizarre.
It seemed to thrash wildly, yet he couldn't muster any internal energy.
As if suppressed by someone.
He'd sensed it right after bursting out of the inn.
And now, more presences were falling into the same state as Myo Su-gae.
No matter how he looked at it, they all bore the signs of being subdued.
Ha Mu-baek and Dam Mu-hyeon arrived at the headquarters in no time.
Among the Beggars' Sect disciples guarding the entrance, the one in charge spotted Dam Mu-hyeon and hurriedly cupped his fists.
"Vice Corps Leader Dam! What brings you here so late at night?"
They seemed utterly unaware of the disturbance inside the headquarters.
"It's urgent!"
On the way here, Ha Mu-baek had quickly explained what he'd sensed, at least in broad strokes.
Dam Mu-hyeon grasped the gravity of it.
That's why they ignored the disciple trying to block their path to verify their identities and plunged straight into the headquarters.
"W-Wait...!"
The startled Beggars' Sect disciple.
No matter that it was Hocheon Vice Corps Leader Dam Mu-hyeon, this was bypassing protocol.
"Halt!"
He hurriedly chased after Ha Mu-baek and Dam Mu-hyeon.
He couldn't just stand by while they blatantly disregarded the Beggars' Sect.
The two pressed on swiftly.
And reached the open clearing.
"Th-This is..."
Dam Mu-hyeon muttered blankly at the sight before him.
Beggars' Sect disciples dangling in midair, wriggling helplessly.
Myo Su-gae in particular kept cycling between pale-faced terror and fleeting relief.
The lower half of his ragged robes was soaked through with excrement.
Bang Sa-uk's gaze, which had been fixed murderously on Myo Su-gae amid the enveloping darkness, now turned toward Dam Mu-hyeon and Ha Mu-baek.
He'd sensed Ha Mu-baek the moment he entered the headquarters.
No other place, but the Beggars' Sect headquarters was under his perfect control.
'Hm. So it's Ha Mu-baek.'
He confirmed the man's identity upon seeing his face.
He'd known Dam Mu-hyeon's presence, but not Ha Mu-baek's.
He'd only registered it as a powerfully imposing force.
Only now, face-to-face, did he realize who it was.
'This strong?'
Bang Sa-uk tilted his head.
The Hocheon Corps Leader Ha Mu-baek in his memories was undoubtedly formidable, but not this overwhelming.
'Was he hiding his power? Has he grown this much in the meantime?'
He couldn't tell.
"So this is it..."
Ha Mu-baek murmured lowly upon assessing the clearing.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?! Even for the Hocheon Corps... H-Huh?!"
The late-arriving Beggars' Sect disciple who had chased them yelped in shock at the scene.
Dozens of his comrades floated midair, clutching their throats and thrashing about.
The sight was downright eerie and grotesque.
Ha Mu-baek extended his hand.
"Over there?"
Palm force shot from Ha Mu-baek's hand.
In that instant, the empty air where it passed rippled.
More precisely, the darkness itself shuddered strangely.
"How did you know?"
Bang Sa-uk revealed himself.
He stared at Ha Mu-baek in genuine surprise and asked.
"Bang Sa-uk. Just as I thought."
Ha Mu-baek nodded.
"Long time no see. Thought you were dead, but to become such a monster... pity."
Ha Mu-baek gazed coldly at Bang Sa-uk as he spoke.
"I'm the surprised one. I knew Hocheon Corps Leader Ha Mu-baek was formidable, but not this strong. So how did you pinpoint my exact location?"
Bang Sa-uk asked with real curiosity.
He truly couldn't figure it out, no matter how he racked his brain.
He'd revealed himself now, but he was still perfectly fused with the darkness.
No ordinary martial artist could sense his energy or presence.
In truth, that applied to Ha Mu-baek as well.
His senses had scoured the area meticulously, and his eyes were already channeling the Infinite Bright Wheel Eye.
Yet he hadn't detected Bang Sa-uk's presence.
The reason he'd zeroed in on his position anyway?
His dantian's internal energy was reacting to the man's existence.
More precisely, the primal energies.
Not just Infinity, Numinous, and Radiance, but the Chaos and Darkness from the Shaolin Sutra Pavilion during the battle with Hyeon Hwang, Dan Mok Un-roe's family martial art, and the Void energy from the pavilion.
All six energies reacted violently.
That's how he'd pinpointed his location exactly.
"Mu-hyeon."
"Yes."
Ha Mu-baek called Dam Mu-hyeon softly.
"Take everyone out of the headquarters."
"Pardon?"
Dam Mu-hyeon blurted in alarm at Ha Mu-baek's words.
Never had he heard such a thing before.
"Dragging that thing out with us would be harder. This place is already his domain."
Bang Sa-uk smirked at that.
"You get it. So there's a good reason you could sense my position? What is it?"
Bang Sa-uk exuded both intrigue and killing intent.
"Enemy attack! Everyone out of the headquarters!"
At that moment.
Ha Mu-baek's lion's roar thundered through the Beggars' Sect headquarters.
Those not on night watch, deep in slumber, jolted awake and poured out.
Beggars' Sect disciples streamed toward the exits leading from the central clearing to various points.
Among them was Elder Hogu Jwa Il-do.
He gaped in shock upon spotting Bang Sa-uk floating midair.
"B-Bang... Senior Brother Bang?"
Hogu Jwa Il-do stared in disbelief, murmuring blankly.
"A-A ghost? How does it have a presence...?"
This looked nothing like the information he'd received.
Word was he'd become something akin to a Dark Blood Jiangshi.
But this? It was more ghost than jiangshi.
"Long time no see. Junior Brother Un Hak-gae. Or should I say Left Elder now?"
At Bang Sa-uk's response, Ha Mu-baek—who had unleashed another lion's roar to evacuate the others and was about to strike—halted momentarily.
Bang Sa-uk seemed intent on conversing with Hogu.
Dam Mu-hyeon, who had been leading people out per Ha Mu-baek's orders, also paused.
Things had felt desperately urgent when Ha Mu-baek roared.
But now Bang Sa-uk had appeared in the clearing and was trying to talk with Hogu.
[What do we do?]
[Watch for now.]
Ha Mu-baek replied briefly via transmission to Dam Mu-hyeon's transmission.
'Shall we see what his game is?'
Ha Mu-baek's gaze shifted to the Beggars' Sect disciples dangling midair.
Given the energy and killing intent the man exuded, he'd have slain him on the spot—but he was toying with them alive, inflicting suffering.
Something was up.
That was his hunch.
Un Hak-gae.
How long had it been since he heard that moniker?
It was Hogu's nickname before becoming Elder Hogu.
Upon becoming Hogu, one sheds the nickname for the given name.
And upon becoming gang leader, a new moniker is bestowed.
Hogu Jwa Il-do blinked at hearing his long-lost nickname.
Bang Sa-uk had used it exactly as he had back when Jwa Il-do was Un Hak-gae.
Junior Brother Un Hak-gae.
His senior brother calling him just as before.
Hogu Jwa Il-do could only look at Bang Sa-uk with conflicted eyes.
"You're definitely the Beggars' Sect's Senior Brother Bang, so why orchestrate this bloodbath?"
Anger-laced words followed.
"Well... Even I don't know why I awoke like that. When I came to, I just wanted to destroy the Beggars' Sect, I guess?"
Hogu Jwa Il-do's face twisted at Bang Sa-uk's answer.
"But now, now I get why. Heh heh heh."
A sinister laugh escaped.
Bang Sa-uk eyed Myo Su-gae, still clutching his throat and writhing.
Hogu's gaze naturally followed.
"Why Elder Myo Su-gae...?"
Come to think of it, among those subdued midair, Myo Su-gae was the only elder-rank figure.
The rest were on headquarters patrol.
So they must have been moving along their set routes inside when they reached this central clearing and got taken like that.
"Why, indeed?"
His voice dripped with viscous killing intent.
"While we're at it, one question. Where's Yi Woong—that is, Jeok An-gae?"
Myo Su-gae, still gasping in agony with hands at his throat, twitched at Bang Sa-uk's question.
Bang Sa-uk felt the reaction fully.
A glint flashed in Ha Mu-baek's eyes.
It didn't fit the situation.
To react like that when his life hung by a thread.
"Jeok An-gae...?"
That's why Ha Mu-baek searched his memory for the name Bang Sa-uk had uttered.
"That guy. The rude Hogu."
"Ah..."
Ha Mu-baek recalled at Dam Mu-hyeon's words.
The truly insolent one, rotten to the core.
"The bastard who rampaged wildly and got himself killed."
A blunt assessment.
Hogu flinched at the words.
And.
Bang Sa-uk heard the mutter too.
Fused with the headquarters' darkness, his senses blanketed every corner inside.
"So he is dead. Shame. I should've been the one to kill him..."
He looked genuinely regretful.
Ha Mu-baek's gaze returned to Myo Su-gae in midair.
"But wasn't that rude master's seat held by this guy?"
Dam Mu-hyeon looked at Myo Su-gae too at Ha Mu-baek's question.
"Seems so."
He remembered the forgotten fact.
Hogu Jwa Il-do shuddered once more.
A hypothesis clicked into place in their minds.
The incident had sparked much talk in the martial world.
Hogu Bang Sa-uk.
Opinions of him weren't just favorable in the Beggars' Sect but across the Righteous Heaven Alliance and orthodox sects.
How could he have learned the Demonic Cult's arts?
No one believed he'd chosen it willingly.
Yet no one answered the question.
The Demonic Cult's curse had clearly afflicted Bang Sa-uk.
Multiple witnesses, and he'd chosen death himself—so the doubts soon sank from view.
But Bang Sa-uk's current state revived those questions.
For Ha Mu-baek, Dam Mu-hyeon, and Jwa Il-do.
Ha Mu-baek's eyes flicked between Myo Su-gae and Bang Sa-uk.
He'd already reached a conclusion.
"This bastard passed the Demonic Cult arts to you. Secretly, no less."
Ha Mu-baek murmured as the full picture emerged.
Just then, as Myo Su-gae's airway cleared, the words hammered into his ears like someone driving them in on purpose.
"Gasp."
Myo Su-gae panicked.
Ha Mu-baek looked at Bang Sa-uk.
"Gonna kill him now?"
"Of course."
"Krrgh! Ack! Hack!"
The moment Bang Sa-uk answered, Myo Su-gae clutched his throat and thrashed again.
"Mind waiting a bit?"
Bang Sa-uk eyed Ha Mu-baek impassively at his words.
"Why should I?"
"This guy's not capable of that on his own. You must suspect as much. Aren't you curious? I'm dying to know."
The scheme that made promising Beggars' Sect Hogu Bang Sa-uk learn the Demonic Cult arts.
No way someone like Myo Su-gae cooked that up.
There was a mastermind.
Ha Mu-baek smelled Blood Cult behind it.
That's why he'd asked him to hold off.
"Even if someone tempted him, he did the deed in the end."
As he replied with veiled fury, the force strangling Myo Su-gae's neck tightened further.
He'd decided to end the play and kill him now.
Fresh excrement trickled from between his legs.
"Grk. Gurk. Guh..."
His eyes began rolling back.
"Tch."
Ha Mu-baek clicked his tongue lightly and extended his hand again.
This time toward Myo Su-gae.
He unleashed a casual palm force, which engulfed the man.
"What the...?"
In that instant, Bang Sa-uk scowled.
The moment Ha Mu-baek's palm force swallowed Myo Su-gae, the darkness Bang Sa-uk had extended to him snapped.