Abolition of the Wicked - Chapter 140

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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 140

Maeng Seo-pil, the Lord of the Cheongseong Faction, rose to his feet.
“I’ll have to handle this myself.”
Baek Jong-dan, the Lord of the Huashan Faction, and Sa Do-bang, the Lord of the Jongnam Sect, exchanged startled glances.
“You mean personally?”
“This is the man who destroyed the Hyeggeom Sect single-handedly. Unless one of us steps forward, he won’t be easy to suppress.”
“That may be true, but…”
“We need to finish this before the Bloodwind Four Lions get involved.”
Otherwise, matters could spiral beyond their control.
“Since it’s already a public matter, there’s nothing strange about me taking action.”
“If you take the field, we can rest assured.”
“To Gyeryeong Mountain is well within reach—we can cover it in a quarter hour. The two of you return for now. I’ll take full responsibility for handling this.”
There was no benefit in letting other martial artists discover the three of them gathered in one place.
“Very well. We’ll trust in you and take our leave.”
“Please, take care.”
Baek Jong-dan and Sa Do-bang shot eastward from the cottage while Maeng Seo-pil headed west.

***

The messenger had come to inform Noh Dae-sul, but only Geom U-bin was present.
“The Lord should arrive within half a time unit.”
Geom U-bin spoke generously, but Jeon Chu-yang, the Bangyeong Organization man who’d come to deliver the news, bore an urgent expression.
“We don’t have that much time.”
“What’s the matter?”
“I was instructed to inform you if the Lord wasn’t available, so I’ll deliver this now. We’ve just located the man carrying the Mok-ryong Sword. But the Murim Alliance has already discovered him and is currently pursuing.”
“What? Where is he now?”
“About ten li north of here, at the foot of Gyeryeong Mountain. One of the Sect disciples there will give you the exact location. The Lord really needs to know this as soon as possible.”
Geom U-bin had no time to wait for Noh Dae-sul or the Bloodwind Four Lions.
“I’ll go ahead first. Tell the Lord when he arrives.”
Geom U-bin left the inn without waiting for Jeon Chu-yang’s reply. The foot of Gyeryeong Mountain that he’d been directed to reached in less than a quarter hour.
There, Geom U-bin found a disciple from the Sect.
The disciple, having received the same instructions as Jeon Chu-yang, readily revealed the location of the man carrying the Mok-ryong Sword.
“There was a clash with the Murim Alliance—numerous martial artists from their ranks were struck down.”
The disciple pointed him toward the new location.
Gyeryeong Mountain was not a hospitable place.
The terrain was treacherous, cliffs dotted the landscape, and before reaching the middle slopes, the paths carved by human hands had vanished entirely.
As Geom U-bin passed a boulder that resembled a tiger, he stopped. Three corpses lay abandoned in the forest.
Judging by their attire, they were unmistakably from the Murim Alliance—all with their chests torn open.
After moving perhaps a hundred paces further, another disciple from the Sect was waiting for him.
The disciple indicated the location of the man carrying the sword, then spoke.
“I’m the last guide. From here, you’ll have to continue alone. You might move faster by following the traces left by the Murim Alliance.”
“Thank you.”
Having bowed, Geom U-bin launched himself toward the mountain’s peak. As he climbed, the bodies of Murim Alliance warriors continued to catch his eye.
With each corpse, his heart grew heavier.
Murders committed by one bound to Ma Gun-ja could only weigh on the conscience.
As Geom U-bin climbed in search of traces, he came to a halt.
“Mm… mm…”
That low sound was unmistakably a groan.
Even in haste, he could not pass by someone who was injured.
Geom U-bin rushed toward the sound on his left.
After pushing through dense brush for roughly fifty paces, he found a man groaning. Yet at a glance, he was clearly no Murim Alliance warrior.
Nor did he appear to be a herb-gatherer or hunter.
“Are you all right?”
A middle-aged man started at Geom U-bin’s sudden appearance and gripped his ankle.
“M-my leg seems to be sprained…”
The middle-aged man’s ankles were badly swollen.
Geom U-bin steadied the man’s ankle with a twig as she asked him a question.
“How did you end up out here and get injured?”
“Would a herbalist complain about rough mountain terrain?”
Because of Geom U-bin’s youth, the middle-aged man spoke to her with casual disrespect.
“A herbalist, you say?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“You must be quite skilled then. Gathering herbs without a hoe or basket.”
“Ah, well—those were lost when I got hurt.”
“Your shoes don’t look suited for climbing either, and your hands look like they’ve never touched soil a day in your life.”
“Why would I lie about that? You’re a strange young person, aren’t you!”
Once the middle-aged man finished his treatment, he pushed Geom U-bin away and picked up a stick that lay nearby.
With a makeshift splint and a walking stick, he could manage a passable gait. Geom U-bin watched him intently.
She’d stake her life on it—he was no herbalist.
A liar who’d been injured on a mountain where someone with the Mok-ryong Sword was being hunted. A face came to mind.
Someone else besides Dong Tam-rap who had been at the Hyeggeom Sect when it was destroyed.
The one who had written “I am Hyeolpung Saja” in place of Dong Tam-rap.
“You’re the one who was with Dong Tam-rap, the one who carries the Mok-ryong Sword.”
Geom U-bin spoke this aloud.
The startled middle-aged man stepped back, lost his balance, and fell.
“No, no! That’s not me!”
She had been half uncertain, but his denial confirmed everything.
“Where did Dong Tam-rap go? Why are you alone?”
“I told you it wasn’t me!”
Geom U-bin crouched before the fallen man.
“I could turn you over to the Murim Alliance. Then you’d be captured alongside that Dong Tam-rap. What do you think happens after that?”
The middle-aged man’s eyes darted back and forth.
It was fear, and calculation about what would come after Geom U-bin’s words.
Geom U-bin didn’t give him long to think.
“You could die here.”
Crack!
When Geom U-bin applied force, the stone in her hand shattered into small pieces. The middle-aged man’s options narrowed, and in truth, only one path remained.
“W-who are you?”
“I only need to find that Dong Tam-rap. Tell me where he is, and I won’t care where you go.”
Geom U-bin pressed the hesitant man.
“Decide quickly. I don’t have much patience, and time is short.”
“That man is in the Ancient Tomb! In very old times, the people here didn’t build graves—they had a custom of holding funerals in caves. I guided him to that tomb and then I fled!”
“But you don’t seem to have trained in martial arts. How did you manage to escape?”
“The Ancient Tomb is a maze! Because I had reasons to live in that maze for days at a time since childhood, I knew its passages well!”
The middle-aged man didn’t appear to be lying.
“How did you come to help that Dong Tam-rap?”
“I had no intention of helping him.”
The middle-aged man, Geum Dae-bang, told Geom U-bin the story behind his entanglement with Dong Tam-rap.
Like a natural storyteller, his narrative was orderly, and she could grasp everything from a brief account.
“The sect leader of the Cheongseong Faction came all the way here?”
“If Maeng Seo-pil hadn’t shown up, Dong Tam-rap wouldn’t have been injured. That’s the name of that tribesman—Dong Tam-rap.”
“How badly is he wounded?”
“Nothing too serious—just one sword cut to the shoulder.”
“Tell me what you know about Dong Tam-rap.”
“What would you have me say?”
“Why he’s been killing innocent people.”
“He’s searching for Ma Gun-ja. Ma Gun-ja killed not only Dong Tam-rap’s parents but his entire tribe, or so he said.”
“What?”
Geom U-bin’s expression darkened, so Geum Dae-bang spoke quickly.
“But Ma Gun-ja didn’t massacre them without reason. Dong Tam-rap’s tribe worshipped the Hyeol Cult, I’m told. It seems Ma Gun-ja exterminated them because of that. And Dong Tam-rap’s younger sister was killed in the process.”
“Did he tell you this himself?”
“As we came this way, I spoke to him trying to keep him alive by any means, and he ended up telling me every detail.”
Geom U-bin found Geum Dae-bang’s story difficult to believe.
Ma Gun-ja might have a grudge against the Hyeol Cult. But no matter how much they deserved it, Ma Gun-ja wasn’t the kind of person who would kill children.
At least, the Ma Gun-ja that Geom U-bin knew was not.
“Are you certain?”
“I saw it clearly—Ma Gun-ja standing over his sister’s corpse, a bloodstained blade in his hand. That very blade is now the Mok-ryong Sword that Dong Tam-rap carries.”
“But how did Dong Tam-rap survive if Ma Gun-ja was there?”
“The slaughter happened while Dong Tam-rap was away, running an errand for his parents to a neighboring tribe.”
“If Ma Gun-ja killed everyone in the tribe, it’s strange he didn’t kill Dong Tam-rap too.”
“Exactly. When Dong Tam-rap found Ma Gun-ja, he came at him without thinking—just a child of eight years old. And Ma Gun-ja, for some reason, simply took the blows and kicks. When the exhausted boy finally collapsed, Ma Gun-ja built graves for all those tribespeople he had slain.”
“Perhaps Ma Gun-ja wasn’t the one who killed them after all.”
Geum Dae-bang shook his head.
“No. Ma Gun-ja himself confessed to Dong Tam-rap that it was he who murdered the tribe.”
“He admitted it with his own mouth?”
“Yes. After building those graves, Ma Gun-ja left. Then three months later, he returned and began teaching Dong Tam-rap martial arts.”
The world operates on common sense.
And so one can usually infer the general shape of events without hearing every detail. But the story of Ma Gun-ja and Dong Tam-rap defied all logic—nothing about it made sense.
“When did this happen?”
“About thirty years ago. Dong Tam-rap was so young he doesn’t remember the exact number of years.”
“How long has Ma Gun-ja been teaching him martial arts?”
“Two years, he said. During those two years, there were periods of two or three months when Ma Gun-ja would disappear, but he taught diligently nonetheless. Then suddenly he gave Dong Tam-rap the Mok-ryong Sword and told him to master martial arts and come seek revenge. Then he vanished as if something was chasing him. Dong Tam-rap used the word ‘fled.'”
“Ma Gun-ja couldn’t have fled from anything.”
“Of course not, but it shows how urgently he left.”
Something had clearly happened to Ma Gun-ja around that time.
‘If the Master killed the tribe thirty years ago, and taught Dong Tam-rap for two years, that makes twenty-eight years ago… twenty-eight years!’
That timing nearly matched when Ma Gun-ja was captured by the Baeklim Sect.
Something must have occurred in the interval between leaving Myo Kang and falling into the Baeklim Sect’s hands.
If Ma Gun-ja hadn’t suffered some calamity, he would never have been captured by a sect like Baeklim. Yet he had never told Geom U-bin how he came to be their prisoner.
He had left only one instruction.
―I will carry the burden of my own making. So you who remain—do not concern yourselves with my sins. Walk your own path.
When she first heard those words, she didn’t know who “you” referred to.
But looking back now, it meant Geom U-bin and the Hyeolpung Saja.
Ma Gun-ja had seen the future even then.
Yet even if Ma Gun-ja had left her with such a warning, the Hyeolpung Saja would not simply let this matter rest if they learned the truth.
They would unearth the facts of what happened twenty-eight years ago and tear through the Murim again.
‘Just like when I searched for the Master, I’d spend my life trapped in the Master’s shadow.’
That must not happen again. With that thought, Geom U-bin asked Geum Dae-bang:
“Where is the Ancient Tomb where Dong Tam-rap is?”
“It won’t be easy to find…”
“If I can’t, I’ll come back and bring you with me.”
“I’ll give you directions as clear as I can.”
Climbing this mountain again would be Geum Dae-bang’s worst nightmare.
Geum Dae-bang even drew a map on the ground to show the location of the Ancient Tomb.
“When Dong Tam-rap entered the Ancient Tomb, he blocked the main entrance. Of course, there’s more than one way in. The cliff side there is easiest to spot. You’ll have to climb twenty zhang up the cliff face—dangerous, certainly—but since you’re a Murim martial artist, you should manage.”
After hearing all the directions, Geom U-bin spoke.

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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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