Chapter 73
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 73
Chapter Title: What Do You Mean Sudden?
"Just one more day to go."
Dong Ju-san was utterly exhausted. He had run at full speed the entire way.
He could have taken a boat heading up the Yangtze toward Yi-chang and traveled comfortably.
But that would have taken too long. It meant going against the current and following the river's winding path.
Dong Ju-san couldn't afford that, so he had dashed in a straight line from Wu-chang to Yi-chang.
He had expended every ounce of his internal energy to unleash his lightness skill at maximum power.
Three days had passed without proper food or rest.
The express pigeon must have already arrived.
As the thought struck him that Yi-chang was now just a day away, fatigue crashed over him like a wave.
Just then, a small roadside inn came into view.
"I'll rest there tonight."
Even he couldn't push any further.
More than a bath, he craved a warm bed.
He had made up his mind to sleep first no matter what and pushed open the inn's door.
At that moment, a savory aroma teased his nose.
Two men were eating dumplings and fried chicken at a single table. The smell was so enticing that, against his initial plan, Dong Ju-san sat down at a corner table.
"Welcome."
It was late at night, so the elderly innkeeper greeted him personally.
"One plate of dumplings and a flask of baijiu. And is there a room available for the night?"
"We'll have it ready while you eat."
The innkeeper brought tea and headed to the kitchen. The errand boy, who had been resting in a corner of the kitchen, went upstairs to prepare the room.
The dumplings arrived quickly, along with a flask of baijiu.
Once again, the fragrant smell assaulted his senses. Dong Ju-san snatched one dumpling and devoured it in an instant.
The taste surpassed even the enticing aroma.
It was satisfying.
Deciding to stay at this inn had been the right choice.
"Do you know about that?"
At that moment, whispers from the other table drifted into Dong Ju-san's ears.
He could have heard them earlier, but he had been too focused on his food to pay attention.
They looked like merchants anyway.
"What do you mean?"
"The new info that came into the network."
The man glanced around suspiciously. Their voices dropped even lower.
They were wary of Dong Ju-san.
That only sparked his competitive spirit. He deliberately channeled his internal energy into his ears.
It wasn't at the level of Thousand Ears Mastery, but his line of work demanded it, so he could enhance his hearing considerably with qi.
"Ha Mu-baek. His weakness."
The topic made his eyes widen. Ha Mu-baek, out of nowhere.
How would merchants know that name?
It was impossible.
Dong Ju-san took a sip of his liquor while reexamining the men's attire.
He had thought they were merchants, but the moment Ha Mu-baek's name came up, they couldn't be.
They were jianghu folk.
And well-informed ones at that.
Not even every prestigious orthodox sect knew of Ha Mu-baek's existence.
"Hmm. Why him?"
"Remember that incident last time? The sect that got flipped upside down."
It was a faint whisper.
Dong Ju-san racked his brain. He had information on most major jianghu incidents stored in his head.
A recent sect overthrow...
'The Peng Clan.'
But not them.
The Peng Clan incident.
The news of their destruction by a mysterious master had spread widely, but that was small potatoes.
There had been something bigger.
'Extermination Campaign.'
Dong Ju-san was in a position to access info that the Peng Clan had dabbled in the extermination campaign.
He had been the young master of the Hubei Yeon Clan's closest confidant.
Thinking of the extermination campaign brought another sect to mind.
'Hao Gate.'
The Peng Clan had tried to siphon off extermination campaign goods and lost several protectors and the sect leader's daughter to Ha Mu-baek.
Information from the Beggars' Sect.
Putting those pieces together and scrutinizing the men, much became suspicious.
They didn't seem like ordinary merchants.
They were disguised.
'Hao Gate.'
Dong Ju-san immediately heightened his senses to maximum. To gauge their martial prowess.
If they were Hao Gate, their level was predictable, but confirmation was necessary.
As expected, nothing impressive.
Dong Ju-san's hands and mouth moved busily. This was no time to leisurely eat dumplings.
"I'll head up to my room now."
He paid for the food and room, then followed the errand boy—who had finished preparing the room—upstairs.
The moment he entered the room, he locked the door, slipped out the window stealthily, and activated his stealth technique to the utmost.
He needed to hear their conversation properly.
The old innkeeper was dozing off, and the errand boy had returned to the kitchen.
Thanks to that, the men's voices had grown a bit louder.
"So, the Peng Clan clashed with Ha Mu-baek because their wastrel heir molested his little sister, right?"
The man nodded at his companion's question.
"The sister's his reverse scale. That's why the sect leader's watching. He has to get revenge."
"Heh heh. If that's his reverse scale, won't it just make that madman even angrier?"
"That's why we have to plan carefully. Make it so he can't dodge or avoid. Plus, we completed a commission digging up that weakness."
"Ah! The Yeon Clan?"
"Jeez. Who'd have thought she'd be in the Fierce Dragon Corps... We turned over every brothel in the land."
"Well, we found her, so it's done. We're entering Yi-chang tomorrow—hurry and finish the commission, collect the rest of the pay."
"But will he admit it so easily? Word is he's heading to the Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest with Ha Mu-baek right now. And his sister too. Even Han Seol-bing. No idea what that madman's thinking."
The man took a swig from his cup.
"If we could figure out what that madman is thinking, he wouldn't be mad."
The man chuckled at his companion's words.
Soon, they shifted to other idle chatter.
Dong Ju-san slipped back into his room.
He had heard too much information. It confirmed they were Hao Gate.
But was this coincidence?
'Too contrived.'
If they were resting at the inn while heading to Yi-chang to report their commission results to headquarters, it was plausible.
But running into him?
And talking about Ha Mu-baek as if for his ears?
He couldn't help but suspect.
They had leaked this info to him on purpose.
If so, what was their goal?
'Borrow a knife to kill.'
Use the Yeon Clan's blade to eliminate Ha Mu-baek. Especially since she was with him.
[If you're prepared to end up like the Peng Clan, come to the Dragon Training Pavilion, he said. Pass that along too.]
Those were Yeon Baek-jin's parting words, transmitted mentally as he turned his back and stormed off.
How arrogant.
Hidden in that arrogance was a willingness to fight the Yeon Clan to protect Yeon Ha-min.
To take her back, they'd have to fight him anyway.
The Hao Gate surely knew that.
Yet they fed him this info.
'A warning not to rush in half-heartedly?'
There was much he didn't know.
Things the Yeon Clan, blind and deaf to the Dragon Training Pavilion, couldn't grasp.
Han Seol-bing was definitely one of the Hocheon Corps' vice leaders. There was info she'd left the corps, but who would've thought she'd join the Dragon Training Pavilion and move with Ha Mu-baek.
Missing the movements of such a heavyweight because of the pavilion...
It was a problem.
Now he had to pay attention to the Dragon Training Pavilion too.
It was a massive hole in the clan's intelligence gathering.
Yeon Gong-hu must have spotted that hole early and hidden Yeon Ha-min there.
"Whew. No time for sleep."
The info he'd urgently sent via express pigeon had too many gaps.
He needed to return to headquarters as soon as possible and deliver accurate intelligence.
He unlatched the door's bolt and leaped out the window.
He'd missed sleep, but with a full stomach, his feet hit the ground with renewed strength.
Deep night fell once more.
All the disciples were sound asleep today.
Han Seol-bing was on night watch.
They had traveled a good distance, and the disciples were worn out, so she had volunteered.
Truth be told, with Ha Mu-baek there, night watch was unnecessary.
She had experienced his ghostly senses enough during the last war.
But the real reason for standing watch was different.
To have a quiet talk with him.
"How far are you planning to take this scheme?"
She plopped down beside Ha Mu-baek, away from the campfire, and asked.
"......"
"I know you're awake."
Han Seol-bing looked down at him with an exasperated gaze.
"What scheme? I'm just handling things as they come."
Ha Mu-baek replied without opening his eyes or sitting up.
"You're moving too openly out of nowhere."
The Righteous Heaven Alliance's top strategist was naturally Elder Gong Son.
He had proven it countless times in the last war.
But in Han Seol-bing's view, her former corps leader—pretending to sleep with that shameless face—was also a cunning schemer.
He never did anything pointless.
Even his madman antics were the result of meticulous calculations.
She had lost count of how many times she'd been impressed.
Her past experiences kept making her ponder his intentions.
Hadn't he even had a long talk with Yeon Ha-min the night before? Of course, he'd blocked it with his qi, so she didn't know the contents.
She'd exchanged mental transmissions with him before, but this didn't feel quite right for Ha Mu-baek.
Given his personality, he'd weave in more threads.
"Out of nowhere? This is how we get Young Lady Yeon moving."
"Sure, but is that really all? With your personality, you're aiming for something else too."
Ha Mu-baek rolled onto his side.
Han Seol-bing narrowed her eyes, glaring at his back.
There was definitely something.
But she couldn't guess it. And rightly so—this wasn't wartime.
The jianghu was at peace, so there were no obvious enemies for him to assume.
This whole thing was to protect her disciple, Yeon Ha-min.
"No specific group I'd call enemies... Ah!"
Trailing off, Han Seol-bing remembered one.
There was.
A place that could be called enemies.
Or rather, a grudge.
"Hao Gate."
As Han Seol-bing murmured softly, Ha Mu-baek's shoulder twitched slightly.
She looked down at him pitifully.
"Exactly. Why stir up that mess? I really can't figure you out sometimes, Corps Leader. One moment you're calculating everything precisely, the next your eyes roll back and your fists fly first."
"......"
Ha Mu-baek gave no response.
"Back then too, with the extermination campaign—your eyes flipped when you cut down Young So-hye, right?"
Still no reaction from Ha Mu-baek.
"You acted without thinking when rage over the extermination campaign blinded you. Now it's starting to worry you? Seol-ran."
His shoulder flinched again.
She had hit the mark.
Back then, fury over the extermination campaign had made him overlook one crucial fact.
He shouldn't have.
Seol-ran was at the Dragon Training Pavilion.
He'd created a grudge with the world's sneakiest, most info-savvy Hao Gate scum.
At the time, it had been unavoidable to find the extermination campaign goods.
They refused to talk even on pain of death.
Just like his Hocheon Corps Leader days: refuse to talk even in death? Then die.
But the situations were different now.
"So you're testing how the Hao Gate reacts this time?"
"That's why if you just stayed at the Dragon Training Pavilion, there'd be no issue."
Irritation laced Ha Mu-baek's eventual words.
Seol-ran had the world's most reliable guard, but minimizing variables was best.
Yet Han Seol-bing following him had added one.
At his words, Han Seol-bing pouted.
"I didn't think that far. You're right—I was careless. Thanks. But whose words to whom is this?"
Ha Mu-baek rolled back over at her question.
"Tch."
Han Seol-bing clicked her tongue shortly.
"......"
Ha Mu-baek said nothing more.