Abolition of the Wicked - Chapter 133

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

#Episode 133

“Who is Na Mok-hyang?”
Do Pyeong-su answered Geom U-bin’s question.
“Na Mok-hyang is the master blacksmith who forged the Murong Blade. We met him once, about forty years ago. By then he’d already retired from the craft.”
Noh Dae-sul continued from there.
“It was all because of the Murong Blade. Once Ma Gun-ja had one made, every martial artist under the sun came knocking, demanding swords and blades just like it. He couldn’t bear the pestering, so he finally quit.”
“But why would that craftsman come all the way here and commit such slaughter?”
The question wasn’t Geom U-bin’s alone.
They all scattered throughout the Estate, searching for answers.
When the six of them reconvened a quarter hour later, they’d found no explanation—only a gnawing unease.
“They killed everyone. Women, children—all of them.”
Yeon Geum-hong’s voice carried a chill of fury.
There was one fact they’d established: whoever had massacred the people of the Estate was a master.
The wounds alone made that plain enough.
Noh Dae-sul turned to Hyeolpung Saja.
“For now, it seems most likely that the craftsman with the Murong Blade committed this atrocity. When we find him, should we kill him?”
Hyeolpung Saja’s expression suggested the question was obvious.
“If someone used the Master’s Murong Blade to do something like this, of course we kill him.”
Do Pyeong-su’s reply spoke for them all.
“He might be one of your martial siblings.”
Yeon Geum-hong moved so suddenly that Noh Dae-sul couldn’t dodge—his collar was seized.
“Beggar King, what did you just say?”
“Ack! Ack! No, I—I didn’t mean—”
“There are only five martial siblings under heaven, and that’s us.”
“Of c-course. This old tongue got twisted, just—just misspoke—”
Geom U-bin grabbed Yeon Geum-hong’s arm.
“Elder Sister. That’s enough.”
Yeon Geum-hong’s rough shove sent Noh Dae-sul stumbling backward, coughing dryly.
He swallowed the grumbling that would have come naturally, reading the true anger in Hyeolpung Saja’s eyes. Even a smooth talker like the Sect leader needed to know when to preserve his skin.
“Lord Noh. This man is not one of our martial siblings. When the Master passed, she said clearly that we were five. So please don’t even consider the possibility that he might be one of us.”
“Understood. Understood. If that’s what you say, then that’s how it is.”
“Do you remember the promise you made me last time? That the Sect would grant me any one request, no matter what?”
“I haven’t lost my wits so far as to forget that. Why? You want to use it for this?”
“Yes.”
“Hehehehe! Well, looks like I’m paying off a debt I never saw coming. Of course I’ll do it.”
Noh Dae-sul was already searching with all the Sect’s resources anyway, so granting this was essentially getting something for nothing.
“Four days should be enough, shouldn’t it?”
Geom U-bin wasn’t one to let him off easy.
“Master Geom, couldn’t you give me another day or two? The bastard moves like smoke—he’s devilishly hard to pin down.”
“Four days.”
Whoever held the sword hilt wielded the blade, and Noh Dae-sul had no choice but to be that blade.
“Fine. I’ll find him within four days.”
With the Sect’s intelligence network, it wasn’t impossible.
They were about to leave the Estate when a band of figures vaulted over the wall.
Geom U-bin recognized a few faces and quickly remembered the name: Chuyeong-dan.
“Oseong?”
Du Baek-jin, the lord of Chuyeong-dan, recognized them just as quickly.
“What brings you here?”
Du Baek-jin’s voice carried an edge—his memories of Oseong Jang-won weren’t pleasant ones.
Because Geom U-bin and Hyeolpung Saja were in no mood either, Do Pyeong-su’s reply came out harsh.
“None of your concern.”
To Du Baek-jin, who didn’t know who Do Pyeong-su was, a sudden insult felt deeply offensive.
“Rudeness that reaches the heavens!”
The smile that formed on Do Pyeong-su’s lips wasn’t from joy—just the twisting of muscle.
“You dare speak of rudeness to me? I think I’ll start by tearing that foul mouth of yours to shreds.”
He’d tried to stay out of it, but he couldn’t just stand by and watch people from his own faction die.
“These are the people I called for help.”
As Noh Dae-sul stepped forward, Du Baek-jin’s expression shifted to confusion.
“So the bang-ju is with you this time as well. What exactly is your connection to the Sect?”
“Special advisor to the Sect, roughly speaking?”
“The Sect has such a position?”
Don’t talk as if you know everything about the Sect. Even I, as its bang-ju, don’t know all there is to know about it. Anyway, we’re finished here, so we’ll be going.”
But Du Baek-jin didn’t let them leave so easily.
“Please wait a moment. I’ll confirm that you have no connection to this affair before I let you go.”
“If we have no connection, then you’ll let us go?”
Anger sharpened Noh Dae-sul’s voice.
“You’re saying I need your permission to leave?”
Du Baek-jin didn’t back down.
“Given the gravity of the matter, I hope you’ll understand, bang-ju.”
For most circumstances, the title of bang-ju of the Sect would have settled things, but whether it was the Oseong Jang-won affair or this one, Noh Dae-sul’s name seemed to carry no weight.
“I suppose I’ll have to pay a visit to the Murim League.”
“That’s not possible right now.”
He’d tried a light threat, but it hadn’t worked. Noh Dae-sul could simply endure it, but there was no reason for the Bloodwind Four Lions to do the same.
“We’re supposed to listen to some mere Chuyeong-dan members? A passing bird would laugh at that.”
“A bird? Shouldn’t it be a dog?”
Seo Seok-san corrected Do Pyeong-su’s words.
“A dog? What dog?”
Do Pyeong-su responded with a puzzled expression.
“Not a passing bird—a passing dog. Birds fly away, don’t they?”
“It’s the same thing.”
“How are a bird and a dog the same thing?”
“Are you trying to say birds chirp and dogs bark, so they’re different?”
“No, I mean you should use the exact wording when you’re quoting something.”
“What nonsense. If I want to say bird, I’ll say bird, and if I want to say cow, I’ll say cow. Why do I need to say dog just because?”
“That’s your problem right there. If you’re ignorant, you should at least not be stubborn about it, but you keep flaunting your ignorance like this.”
“You bastard! Do you think I’m ignorant because I want to be? Would you be happy if I called you bald?”
“When did I ever say you were ignorant? And now that you mention it, I’ve been considerate—I hardly ever call you ignorant—but you keep calling me bald all the time!”
“My ignorance doesn’t show, but your hair loss is plain to see! Or rather, there’s so little left now it’s hard to see at all! Maybe I should bring a magnifying glass!”
“Go ahead! Try bringing one! I’ll rip out the eyes that look through it!”
“You’ll rip out my eyes? Go on and try!”
“You think I can’t if you tell me to?”
Seo Seok-san raised his index and middle fingers as if to jab at the eyes, and Do Pyeong-su tried to grab his hand.
That was how their fight began.
At first they exchanged only hand strikes, but soon their inner power surged up, and it escalated to the same level of destruction they’d caused when they tore through buildings at the Oseong Jang-won.
“Today I’ll crack that ignorant head of yours so you can’t think straight ever again!”
“I’ll rip out all your hair—! Oof! There’s no hair left to rip out! You bald bastard!”
Crack!
When the two men’s sword forces collided, a thick old tree planted along the wall was uprooted entirely.
“Everyone, get clear!”
Some scrambled desperately out of the line of fire, but six of the Chuyeong-dan members didn’t make it and were sent flying, skidding roughly across the ground.
With each collision between Do Pyeong-su and Seo Seok-san, walls crumbled and roofs flew away.
Unable to bear it any longer, Yeon Geum-hong threw herself between them.
“Stop it! You idiots!”
“Get out of the way! I’m going to smash that blockhead’s skull in!”
“Watch the wind! Your hair’s still coming out!”
Startled, Seo Seok-san clapped his hand to his head, and Yeon Geum-hong shouted.
“You’ll destroy the body so badly there won’t even be anything to give a proper burial!”
At that, the fierce momentum of both men gradually subsided. These people had connections through Ma Gun-ja and karmic bonds—they couldn’t desecrate a corpse.
“The body is all right?”
Seo Seok-san asked, and Yeon Geum-hong answered coldly.
“Hang Ju-sa-ung and Jang Man-dok collected the flying corpse. Think before you fight, you fools.”
“That guy keeps saying things that make no sense.”
“Shut up!”
“What have you done so well that—”
“Do Pyeong-su! You close your mouth too!”
“Yes.”
While the two were fighting, Geom U-bin, who had gathered the bodies in one place, spoke to Noh Dae-sul.
“Would the Sect be able to handle the funeral rites for these people?”
“Eh? Well, of course.”
“Then we’ll take our leave.”
Hang Ju-sa-ung and the group from Oseong Jang-won departed, but Chuyeong-dan made no move to stop them.
“Lord, are you simply going to let them go?”
Na Chang-dong, the vice-leader of Chuyeong-dan who harbored particular resentment toward Hang Ju-sa-ung, posed the question. Du Baek-jin stepped outside, watching the distant figures depart, and replied.
“And would the vice-leader have us seize them?”
“If you gave the order, Lord…”
“You’d have our disciples hurl themselves into fire? Is that the command you expect from me?”
Na Chang-dong had no choice but to fall silent.
The martial prowess of Hang Ju-sa-ung was far beyond anything they could have fathomed.
Do Pyeong-su and Seo Seok-san, who had engaged him directly, were proof enough—and the martial skill of Geom U-bin and Jang Man-dok, who retrieved corpses amid that tempest of combat, defied imagination.
“For such masters to remain unknown in Murim, despite all the hidden eccentrics said to dwell there…”
Du Baek-jin murmured, his body trembling slightly without his awareness.
Had they forced a confrontation, they would surely be lying cold by now. And only then did he grasp that it was Noh Dae-sul’s restraint—his own wisdom, not weakness—that had spared them all.
‘I find myself grateful to the Lord in new light.’
Geom U-bin and Hyeolpung Saja, who had sent a chill down Du Baek-jin’s spine, had already shed that disquieting feeling as cleanly as morning mist.
“Well done. I never knew Do’s mind was quite so sharp.”
At Geom U-bin’s praise, Do Pyeong-su broke into a broad grin.
“Well, my mind isn’t quite as bad as its reputation, you know. But why mention it now…?”
“You deliberately confused the bird and dog when speaking to Seo, didn’t you? That way, once we displayed enough martial prowess in the fight, Chuyeong-dan wouldn’t dare obstruct our departure.”
Wasn’t this a case of the interpretation being better than the original?
“Ah, well, yes. Surely I wouldn’t confuse a bird and a dog. Hahahaha!”
Seo Seok-san leaned close to Yeon Geum-hong and whispered.
“I’ll wager three hairs from my head he couldn’t tell them apart.”
“Don’t stake your life on trifles.”
Do Pyeong-su pressed on with his bravado.
“But even if they had tried to stop us, nothing would have come of it. I’d have swept them away in a single stroke.”
“True. But why court trouble? We don’t avoid dung because we fear it, do we?”
Seo Seok-san spoke.
“Now that dung’s mentioned, it brings Hang Ju-sa-byeon to mind. I wonder how those fellows are faring.”

***

The place Baek Ryeon-gwang had revealed was Dong-hyang County, about fifty leagues north of Haenung Harbor.
It lay midway between Haenung Harbor and Haeyon Harbor, and with its brisk trade in seafood, it thrived as a busy town.
“What? He left an hour ago?”
“Yes.”
“And there was no word of where he was headed?”
“Would an innkeeper tell such things to a guest?”
Baek Ryeon-gwang’s confession that a second disciple of the leader—one who knew the true base of Ha-o-mun—was staying at the Changseong Inn in Dong-hyang County proved truthful. Yet before Hang Ju-sa-byeon could arrive, that second disciple had already fled the inn.
The plan to strike at Ha-o-mun’s headquarters had been blocked from the start.
“What do we do? Return to Oseong Jang-won?”
O Tong-su took up Go Seo-bang’s words.
“If we head back to Hangju, those Ha-o-mun dogs will plague Haenung Harbor again.”
“Then we come back when they do.”
“They’ve already had a taste of us once. They won’t wait around for us to come hunting. By then, things will only grow more complicated.”
Gal Ma-pyeong spoke.
“What about filing a request with the Sect? The elder is friendly with the Sect’s leader, isn’t he?”
“It’s a decent idea, but we won’t get a swift answer. You heard the rumors about Ma Gun-ja’s past when we came here, didn’t you? The elder and the masters are likely out searching for him as we speak, and the Sect will be busy with that matter.”
As Gang Seo Samak pondered, Se-hwa snapped her fingers.
“That’s right! There are bandits not far from here, aren’t there?”

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