Chapter 644
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 644
Chapter Title: Thuggery Like No Other
Ha Mu-baek headed to the inn first.
Unexpectedly, far too much time had passed.
By the time he arrived at the inn, it was late lunchtime.
Ha Seol-ran and the rest of the group were just finishing their meal in the first-floor restaurant.
The restaurant was fairly quiet, as expected for that hour.
“Ah! Master!”
The first to spot Ha Mu-baek was Gong Hae-bin.
Of course, Ha Seol-ran had sensed his presence long before that.
“Did you manage to resolve the matter you went out for?”
Ha Seol-ran asked, her expression tinged with slight worry.
And with good reason—she hadn’t sensed the presence of her brother, who was always darting about busily.
“Somehow or other?”
Ha Mu-baek replied as he took a seat at an empty spot.
“What happened?”
To Yeon Ha-min’s question.
“Eh, just the usual power plays.”
Yeon Ha-min gave a small nod at Ha Mu-baek’s cynical response.
Her face said she’d half-expected it.
Gong Hae-jun tilted his head at the sudden grown-up talk.
“You two didn’t skip training yesterday and worked hard at it.”
Ha Mu-baek smiled warmly at the children.
The seething anger he’d felt toward Discipline Hall Lord Un Hak-ja had subsided thanks to his disciples.
“Ah, yes. Big Sis helped us out a ton.”
Gong Hae-jun answered with a glance toward Ha Seol-ran.
“Lady Yeon paid a lot of attention to us too.”
Gong Hae-bin chimed in next.
“Good work, both of you.”
Ha Seol-ran and Yeon Ha-min smiled at Ha Mu-baek’s words.
“Helping Bin-i and Jun-i with their training? Piece of cake.”
Watching the two kids lifted Ha Seol-ran’s and Yeon Ha-min’s spirits as well.
In fact, nearly everyone in the Fierce Dragon Corps felt the same, which was why the corps members had been looking after the pair, whether consciously or not.
In the meantime, the dishes Ha Mu-baek had ordered arrived.
The other four had already eaten about half their meals.
As Ha Mu-baek picked up his chopsticks and dug in, warriors from the Righteous Heaven Alliance’s Nanchang Branch entered the inn.
They spoke briefly with the innkeeper, who soon bowed deeply to them.
The warriors waved a hand dismissively before hurrying off.
They truly seemed pressed for time.
‘Looks like this place got shaken down too.’
Ha Mu-baek knew exactly what those men had been up to.
To be precise, it was something he himself had set in motion.
The other four, oblivious to it all, watched the scene with wide-eyed curiosity.
Yeon Ha-min alone suspected it had something to do with Ha Mu-baek.
After all, the old man he’d dragged off yesterday was the Righteous Heaven Alliance’s Nanchang Branch Chief.
Ha Mu-baek focused on his meal.
By then, the other four had finished eating.
As Ha Mu-baek wrapped up his own meal, they were the only ones left in the restaurant.
Perfect timing, he thought. He raised a hand to summon a server.
“What can I do for you, sir?”
The server hurried over.
Ha Mu-baek pulled a coin from his pocket and pressed it into the server’s hand.
The server’s eyes went wide.
“What’s this about…?”
The server’s posture shifted as he asked again.
He bowed a bit deeper, his tone more deferential.
“What was that about just now?”
The server tilted his head at Ha Mu-baek’s question.
“Which thing, sir?”
“The warriors who came looking for the innkeeper.”
Realization dawned on the server’s face. He glanced cautiously around.
There was no one else in the first-floor restaurant besides their group of five, but he was still careful.
“W-Well, I don’t know the full story, but… looks like the branch warriors came to return the protection money the branch chief had squeezed out of him. Word is the branch chief got a taste of his own medicine from some mysterious expert at Dengwang Pavilion yesterday. Karma’s a bitch, huh?”
The server’s expression was one of pure relief, like a century-old indigestion had finally cleared.
“The Righteous Heaven Alliance branch chief was extorting protection money?”
Ha Mu-baek asked in a lowered voice, feigning surprise.
“You bet. He came in person, too. Acted like a regular customer at first, ordered food, then summoned the innkeeper… and walked off with the cash instead.”
“Heh!”
Emboldened by Ha Mu-baek’s reaction, the server’s words came faster and more freely.
Of course, Ha Mu-baek slipped him another coin in the meantime.
“And it’s not just here. He probably bled every merchant in Nanchang dry. Everywhere except places like Dengwang Pavilion where martial artists hang out.”
“Thuggery like no other.”
“You said it. Outrageous stuff.”
“Didn’t you report it to the Righteous Heaven Alliance?”
“We did. But someone must’ve buried the news midway—no response at all.”
Ha Mu-baek’s face twitched ever so slightly at that.
He hadn’t expected the reporting chain to be in such a state.
“Um, so… did they at least provide protection in exchange for that money?”
Yeon Ha-min slipped in quietly, having listened so far.
“Protection? It’s called that, sure, but… there aren’t any thugs, ruffians, or beggars in Nanchang. No need to pay for protection in the first place.”
Yeon Ha-min was dumbfounded by the server’s reply.
Protection money where there was nothing to protect?
“Ah! There was that one time something needed protecting. When was it… A bunch of warriors from the Four Seas League rolled into Nanchang, flags flying high and all.”
Ha Mu-baek gave the tiniest start at those words.
He knew exactly when.
Come to think of it, he’d been in Nanchang then too, though he’d known nothing about Discipline Hall Lord Un Hak-ja at the time.
“With the Four Seas League invading Nanchang, you’d think the Righteous Heaven Alliance branch would step up, right? Fat chance. They hunkered down deep in their hole and didn’t show their faces. Damn bastards.”
If they weren’t inside the inn, he looked ready to hawk a loogie on the floor.
Yeon Ha-min and Ha Seol-ran stared in disbelief at the server’s indignant rant.
To think the Righteous Heaven Alliance’s branch chief was such a man.
Ha Mu-baek deserved the beating he’d given him, they thought.
“More curiously, you’re saying there aren’t any beggars in Nanchang?”
Ha Mu-baek asked as if the thought had just occurred to him.
Now that he thought about it, there really weren’t any.
Even extending his senses, he couldn’t detect a single Beggars’ Sect presence.
It was just as the server said.
“It’s the boatmen, see. They can’t stand seeing folks laze around begging on the streets, so they round ‘em up and put ‘em to work. Pay’s generous, too.”
Ha Mu-baek looked like he’d taken a solid hit.
He’d never imagined a place like this.
“Some of those beggars who drift into Nanchang want work but can’t find any, so they end up as boatmen to get by. The lazy ones who just wanna beg? They’ve all shipped out elsewhere.”
Now he understood why there were no Beggars’ Sect members.
They’d moved on to other places.
Not that any had joined up as boatmen.
‘Even so, not a single one…’
As that thought crossed his mind, Ha Mu-baek’s senses picked up a lone Beggars’ Sect presence.
It came from a boat returning to port after fishing on Poyang Lake.
‘They left just one behind?’
Or maybe a few more. They might not be in Nanchang right now, just out on boats drifting somewhere on Poyang Lake.
“Then why no thugs or ruffians?”
“The Four Seas League’s doing.”
Ha Seol-ran tilted her head at the answer to her question.
The Four Seas League had come up out of nowhere.
This was Righteous Heaven Alliance territory, after all.
“Sure, it’s Righteous Heaven Alliance turf, but… the Four Seas League has always kept a close eye on it.”
Ha Mu-baek nodded faintly.
The Fierce Dragon Corps hadn’t come to Subok for nothing.
The Four Seas League’s ambitions on Jiangxi Province stretched from long ago to the present.
“The Four Seas League hates thugs and ruffians. Says they drag down the unorthodox world’s reputation.”
The reply came from Ha Mu-baek.
“Yes, exactly. Their experts drop by now and then to smash the ruffians flat, so they’ve naturally cleared out.”
Ha Seol-ran and Yeon Ha-min tilted their heads at that.
They had their reasons.
They’d heard about the incidents in Shangnam from Squad Leader Gwan Ha-kyung.
“But Squad Leader Gwan Ha-kyung said that in Shangnam…”
“That’s a place the Four Seas League’s reach doesn’t extend to.”
Ha Seol-ran’s confusion deepened at Ha Mu-baek’s answer.
“Thanks for the good story.”
Ha Mu-baek pressed another coin into the server’s hand.
“No, thank you, sir. Have a great time.”
Three coins richer, the beaming server bowed and withdrew.
“See? The righteous can be filthier than the unorthodox. It’s not about clean or dirty. It’s just whether their arts are orthodox or unorthodox. Though even in Four Seas League turf, who knows about spots beyond their grasp.”
Ha Mu-baek gave a wry smile as he spoke.
“Truth is, the Four Seas League acts this way here for a reason.”
The ambition to fold Jiangxi Province into their sphere of influence.
Winning over the common folk made the process that much smoother.
“We leave tomorrow.”
He’d roughly decided Discipline Hall Lord Un Hak-ja’s punishment while chatting with the server.
If even a lowly server trembled like that—not to mention the innkeeper himself.
And tampering with the communication lines to boot.
Hubei Province, Tongcheng.
A city jutting out between Hunan and Jiangxi Provinces, right on their border.
In other words, where Hubei, Hunan, and Jiangxi met.
One might expect a prime location like that to be bustling.
But it wasn’t.
The treacherous mountains strayed from the Yangtze River routes.
To regular folk, it was an inconvenient backwater.
Of course, that was only for ordinary people.
For martial artists who wielded lightness skills freely, it was a different story.
One such martial artist scowled in a Tongcheng inn.
No word.
All the other territory lords had reported in.
Everyone except one.
Only the Sichuan Nine Territory Lords remained silent.
“What the hell’s going on? Tch. He should’ve sent word from Nanchang by now… If that’s where it went dark, something must’ve happened there…”
He muttered irritably, drumming his fingers on the table.
What to do?
Everything was fine except they were short on manpower.
A drawback of prioritizing secrecy.
Move another territory lord? Or handle it himself?
As he drummed away, a thin black glove covered his left hand.
“Hm? Ha Mu-baek’s in Nanchang?”
Gong Ya Jang-cheon grinned at Mun In Baek-song’s report.
He knew the Nanchang situation well and could guess Ha Mu-baek’s reaction.
“Last time, the young miss kept him from properly scouting Nanchang. But this time’s different.”
Gong Ya Jang-cheon nodded at Mun In Baek-song’s reply.
“Yeah. That place has no beggars, so even the Beggars’ Sect lacks solid intel. Heh heh.”
Gong Ya Jang-cheon chuckled in amusement.
No Beggars’ Sect, but the Hao Clan ran pleasure houses there, letting the Four Seas League gather detailed info on Nanchang.
“Come to think of it, Discipline Hall Lord Un Hak-ja showed up in Nanchang right after Ha Mu-baek left for the Dragon Training Pavilion, didn’t he?”
“The Righteous Heaven Alliance was in an uproar about it.”
Mun In Baek-song answered Gong Ya Jang-cheon’s question.
“Hm.”
Gong Ya Jang-cheon tapped the armrest of his grand seat.
“Heavenly Secret Network, was it? Those guys?”
“Well, we don’t know much ourselves.”
True enough.
They only knew about Nanchang because the Four Seas League had eyes on it.
Still, they always kept tabs on the Heavenly Secret Network.
An anti-Righteous Heaven Alliance force blooming right under their noses.
The enemy of my enemy is my friend.
That was reason enough to watch.
“Anyway, pass that info along quietly. They’ll know up to the line that ran through Nanchang. The debt we owe them ain’t small.”
But something weighed heavier.
The favor from Ha Mu-baek.
As long as Gong Ya Jang-cheon led the Four Seas League, they might clash with the Righteous Heaven Alliance—but never with Ha Mu-baek.
“Understood.”
Mun In Baek-song bowed at Gong Ya Jang-cheon’s order.