Abolition of the Wicked - Chapter 107

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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#Chapter 107

“Five of them deployed the Deng Ping Dushu and boarded the ship?”
The man’s imposing presence made the captain’s spine curve respectfully.
“Yes, sir. They appeared to be masters from the Murim…….”
The captain trailed off as he spotted Geom U-bin and Hyeolpung Saja, his mouth snapping shut.
The portly man in gaudy silks followed the captain’s gaze and turned his head.
Do Pyeong-su leaned toward Geom U-bin and whispered low.
“Look at that crude getup—he might be a merchant from the Dongyeo Association. If word of us reaches their ears, it won’t do us any favors. Should we just get off here?”
“But we need to take this ship to Haenyeong Harbor to meet Yeon Geum-hong.”
“Right. Anyway, he keeps telling me not to cause trouble, then goes and creates all the important problems himself.”
Seo Seok-san jabbed Do Pyeong-su in the ribs.
“Don’t you recognize that fellow from somewhere?”
Do Pyeong-su studied the portly man who was staring at them.
“I’m not sure.”
“Try pulling those sagging cheeks together and merging those two chins into one.”
“Hm?”
In that instant, the portly man’s face registered the same shock as Do Pyeong-su’s, and he spun around sharply.
A memory had surfaced in Do Pyeong-su’s mind, and the portly man had recognized them just as surely.
The man froze mid-step at a single name spilled from Seo Seok-san’s lips.
“Man Wang-chil.”
The frozen man began to tremble violently—shaking so hard that if he’d truly been made of ice, he would have shattered into powder.
Do Pyeong-su stepped toward Man Wang-chil and spoke.
“Why are you shaking? We should be the ones trembling. A man dead thirty years is standing right in front of us—you must be a ghost.”
“Let us see your face. Do we have to walk all the way up to you?”
Man Wang-chil needed ten shuffling steps just to turn halfway around.
“I…… I am n…… not a person called Man Wang-chil…….”
“Should we trim those cheeks and chin down a bit?”
“A…… Ah, yes. Yes, I am Man Wang-chil. B…… Bl…….”
“Say that name and you die.”
Man Wang-chil’s teeth clenched hard enough to crack as he snapped his mouth shut. Do Pyeong-su croked a finger, and the man’s enormous frame moved with surprising speed.
Fear rigid in his limbs, yet the desperate will to survive made him move as swiftly as any Murim master.
“Thirty years dead, and yet your complexion tells me you’re no corpse-ghost, no twin either. So the only conclusion is that we were deceived.”
“No, no! I never deceived all four of you!”
“Then how do you explain yourself standing right here before us?”
“That…… well, yes, it was dec…… deception, but I truly didn’t know who you were back then. I only found out much later. Yes, that’s the truth.”
“If you’d learned the truth, you should have turned yourself in.”
He couldn’t bring himself to say the words: ‘But you’d have killed me if I had.’
Geom U-bin asked.
“How do you know these people?”
“This man cheated us boldly once. We were searching for someone, and he sold us that person’s location in exchange for a Night-Sight Pearl. A pearl five times larger than the eyes about to be torn from his skull.”
Man Wang-chil instinctively squeezed his eyes shut as he spoke.
“I still have that pearl. I…… I will return it!”
“A Night-Sight Pearl? Why would we want that back now? We’re not that petty.”
Do Pyeong-su draped an arm across Man Wang-chil’s shoulders, and Jang Man-dok stepped in front of him. By the look of it, Jang Man-dok seemed the most furious of the three.
“We have quite a lot of questions for you…….”
Do Pyeong-su glanced around. Being scrutinized by this many eyes was always uncomfortable for the Bloodwind Four Lions—unless those watching were corpses soon to be made.
“We need somewhere out of sight. Though I doubt this ship has such a place.”
Geom U-bin spoke.
“Let’s get off the ship first.”
The atmosphere suggested this wouldn’t end quietly. They couldn’t let Man Wang-chil’s pathetic form be seen by this entire crowd.
Seo Seok-san turned to Jang Man-dok.
“Someone has to wait for Yeon Geum-hong, so you stay on the ship.”
Jang Man-dok shook his head stubbornly.
“I know whose business this is. That’s precisely why you need to step back. Don’t get excited and beat him to death. We’ll find out where he’s been hiding, so you wait here on the ship for Yeon Geum-hong.”
Jang Man-dok turned away with a sullen expression, but ultimately yielded.
“Why don’t you stay on the boat with Man-dok as well?”
“No. I’m coming too.”
“You might see something rough.”
“I’m not worried about that.”
In the end, Geom U-bin’s accompaniment was decided, and Jang Man-dok was left alone on the boat.
As they disembarked, a densely wooded wilderness mountain rose up beyond a short stretch of shingle beach—an ideal location for an interrogation.
Man Wang-chil never imagined a day like this would come.
He’d managed to slip free from the Bloodwind Four Lions’ grip and had been living quite comfortably since, yet here he was in this predicament again!
‘Even if you’re riding on a tiger’s back, you can survive as long as you keep your wits about you!’
He’d escaped once before, so escape a second time was possible. Man Wang-chil forced himself to shake off his fear.
The Bloodwind Four Lions hardly seemed human at all, yet they were still human, weren’t they? As long as they were human, they couldn’t be absolutely flawless, and in that brief time, he’d managed to discover their weakness.
‘This boy calls himself “senior,” but there’s no way he’s actually the real senior.’
He couldn’t imagine any other possibility, but frankly it didn’t matter. What mattered was that the Bloodwind Four Lions couldn’t make a move against this child for some reason.
If he could only get his hands on this kid, an escape route would be as clear as a main road.
‘The question is how to get him in my grasp……right?’
But a child like that—if an opportunity came along, he could handle it easily enough.
“Oof!”
Man Wang-chil, busy scheming to himself, went sailing through the air and was hurled to the ground. He rolled dramatically across the dirt, making a show of his suffering.
“First, let’s solve the mystery of how you managed to stay alive. I clearly saw your corpse with my own eyes.”
Man Wang-chil scrambled up, narrowing the distance between himself and Geom U-bin.
“I took a drug called Geunsa-bun—a poison that induces a coma state. When you take it, your pulse can stop for about half a mark, and you fall into that suspended state.”
If Jang Man-dok had been there, he would have explained all about such drugs through his expressions.
“What about the wounds on your body?”
“Those, those were self-inflicted, sir.”
Seo Seok-san let out a hollow laugh.
“Your efforts were impressive. You should have used that same effort to find Ji Cheol-seok.”
Ji Cheol-seok was precisely the person the Bloodwind Four Lions had been searching for.
“If I could have found him, I would have……but there was no way to find him, so I had no choice but…….”
Seo Seok-san cut off Man Wang-chil’s excuses.
“Enough. Tell me about the Dongyeo Merchant Association. What’s the name of its leader?”
Man Wang-chil’s eyes darted about before he spat out the name.
“A man named Jang Dae-bong. He’s called the Water Dragon King.”
“Everyone’s a dragon these days. Poor dragons having such a hard time abroad.”
Geom U-bin asked a question.
“Where is it located?”
Man Wang-chil’s eyes rolled once more before he picked up a branch.
“It’s a bit difficult to explain with just words.”
As he began to draw in the dirt, Geom U-bin stepped closer. Before long, he was within arm’s reach.
‘I’ve heard there are five masters who use the Deng Ping Dushu……but surely this little one doesn’t, does he?’
Even if he did, he couldn’t withstand a surprise attack. That’s precisely why assassins can kill masters.
Man Wang-chil threw his entire body at Geom U-bin.
If he could just pin him down and hold the branch to his throat, it would be over. But what he landed on wasn’t Geom U-bin—it was a rock.
Geom U-bin flicked his hand lightly, and Man Wang-chil went flying to the left, crashed into a tree, and tumbled onto a boulder with a dull thud.
“Uuuugh…….”
Do Pyeong-su hoisted the groaning Man Wang-chil up and hung him on a nearby branch.
“Well, well…….”
Seo Seok-san scratched his head and added a comment.
“Can’t tell if you’re clever or stupid. Either way, this settles it—you’re going to die in considerable pain.”
“But, but don’t you want to know things from me? Like the location of the Dongyeo Merchant Association…….”
“We’ll find it on our own. No need to hear it from you.”
“Still, knowing it ahead of time would save us time.”
Geom U-bin stood before Man Wang-chil like an elder, hands clasped behind his back.
“Explain it as clearly as you can for me.”
“If you tell me my life will be spared…….”
“My master will decide that.”
“Ah, no! Finding the Dongyeo Merchant Association isn’t difficult! There’s a rock called Bear Rock in the middle of the canal! It got its name because it looks like a bear—quite simple, really. There’s a small side stream behind that rock, and if you follow the side stream, you’ll find it in no time.”
As he spoke, Man Wang-chil kept watching Do Pyeong-su’s face for signs.
“Thank you. Now you need to tell me the leader’s name.”
“What? But I already told you that just now, didn’t I?”
“Did you? My memory isn’t very good. Would you mind telling me again?”
“I see. The proprietor’s name is……, Jang, Dae……bong……. Yes. Jang Dae-bong.”
“Hmm. But you said Jang Dae-bong just a moment ago.”
“Pardon? Ah, I have poor pronunciation…….”
“No ordinary person at all, just as Master Do said. Even now, you’re lying. But unfortunately, I can tell at a glance when someone’s being dishonest. Would you like to talk with Master Do for a while? Or would you prefer to make this easy on yourself?”
Geom U-bin smiled thinly at the end of his words.
Man Wang-chil found that smile from the small figure before him to be the most terrible he’d witnessed in his entire life.
He was no mere child.
The man had dodged his ambush as easily as brushing away sleep, and grasped the lie in an instant.
The child whom the Bloodwind Four Lions called their senior.
‘Did he use the Banno Hwandong?’
The sensation that he had was overwhelmingly strong. Perhaps his mind had been turning things over for too long.
Geom U-bin spoke to Do Pyeong-su.
“I think you’ll have to be the one to handle this.”
If he fell into Do Pyeong-su’s hands, even death would find him in the most agonizing way possible.
“It’s Ji Cheol-seok! Ji Cheol-seok!”
At that name, both Do Pyeong-su and Seo Seok-san were startled.
“What? The Ji Cheol-seok we’ve been searching for?”
“Yes, sir. That Ji Cheol-seok.”
Now all that remained was to speak as honestly as possible and beg for mercy. But even as he sought to grow more candid, there was nothing more that Do Pyeong-su and Seo Seok-san wished to know.
Unexpectedly, he had found a man lost thirty years ago, and he had also revealed the location of the Dongyeo Merchant Association.
The two of them were satisfied, but Geom U-bin still harbored questions.
“I understand the Dongyeo Merchant Association is quite far from here. Why would one of the Five Kings be in this place?”
Now that he’d resolved to be honest, the words flowed out smoothly.
“There’s a cultivation ground for Jeogeum Herb nearby. The Dongyeo Merchant Association engages in five major enterprises beyond plunder, and I oversee the Jeogeum Herb among them.”
Seo Seok-san’s brow furrowed.
“Jeogeum Herb — isn’t that the raw material used in making elixirs and aphrodisiacs? I understand it’s terribly difficult to cultivate. The poison that emerges as the flowers bloom is so vicious that ordinary people can’t endure it at all.”
Man Wang-chil looked down, avoiding Seo Seok-san’s gaze.
“How many people do you use to cultivate the Jeogeum Herb?”
“A, around twenty…….”
“Master Do, this man is lying again.”
Geom U-bin’s casual remark collapsed Man Wang-chil’s composure all too easily.
“Three hundred. Three hundred people.”
“So three hundred people will die soon?”
Do Pyeong-su spoke.
“How many have died so far?”
“This is the first cultivation…….”
“Master Do.”
“The third time. No — the fourth.”
“So a thousand? Fifteen hundred?”
“No, that’s not it. Around six hundred…….”
“Well, you really are extraordinarily wicked!”
Do Pyeong-su nodded as though acknowledging the fact and spoke.
“Even we’ve never simply killed on that scale.”
As Seo Seok-san and Do Pyeong-su moved to kill Man Wang-chil, Geom U-bin asked again.
“Where is the Jeogeum Herb cultivation site?”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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