Abolition of the Wicked - Chapter 142

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

#Episode 142

The martial art that Geom U-bin unleashed was the Chui Hwa Nak Su.
A soft yet rapid punch struck Dong Tam Lap squarely in the armpit.
“Ugh!”
The armpit is a vital point as deadly to a Murim martial artist as the solar plexus. Struck by a fist channeling martial force, Dong Tam Lap staggered backward before finally coming to rest with his back against the cave wall.
An uncontrollable tremor seized his right arm, still gripping the blade.
As Dong Tam Lap swiftly shifted the sword to his left hand, Geom U-bin moved as well.
Prolonging the fight served neither Geom U-bin nor Dong Tam Lap any longer.
Dong Tam Lap’s blade, raised to block Geom U-bin’s leg strike, was easily driven back. Without his dominant right hand, and now nursing an injury, he lacked the strength to mount a proper defense.
For someone who had already lost the initiative, Dong Tam Lap held on with stubborn tenacity. Even after fifteen seconds, Geom U-bin could not land the decisive blow.
Crack! Crack!
Fissures spiderwebbed across the cave wall, and the falling stones grew progressively larger. If the impacts continued, the entire cavern risked collapse.
Should the cave collapse, no amount of martial mastery would save Geom U-bin from becoming one more corpse in this vast ossuary.
Geom U-bin drove his fist toward the weak point in the Gui Young Do Beop defense. Dong Tam Lap tried to block with his blade, but his injured arm was no longer swift enough.
With a dull crack, Dong Tam Lap gasped and flew backward, slamming hard against the wall.
As he barely steadied himself from collapse, blood trickled from the corner of his mouth.
A sign of irreversible internal injury.
“Heh heh heh… so it ends like this. Very well—I accept my defeat. But you won’t escape this place alive either!”
Dong Tam Lap roared and stomped the ground.
Even if he gathered every scrap of his remaining martial force and released it in one catastrophic explosion, it would not be enough to kill Geom U-bin.
Bang!
When Geom U-bin’s leg collided with Dong Tam Lap’s blade, a tremendous shockwave radiated outward.
Crack-crack-crack!
The walls and ceiling fractured. The cavern itself began to convulse. Dong Tam Lap’s intention was unmistakable.
“Buried in the same tomb as the enemy’s disciple? That is not so terrible! Kra-ha-ha-ha!”
Blood sprayed from his mouth as he laughed, yet Dong Tam Lap did not stop.
Like a candle spilling bright light in its final moments before extinction, his blade burned with terrible power.
Geom U-bin stepped back from the blade’s impact just as an enormous boulder plummeted behind him.
Stone fragments erupted everywhere, struck Geom U-bin, and shattered into even smaller pieces.
Geom U-bin thrust his arm through the frantically swinging blade. His fist, driven with no great speed but perfect precision, buried itself in Dong Tam Lap’s chest.
For an instant, Dong Tam Lap’s movements ceased.
His eyes widened further, his nostrils flared to their limit for breath, and blood poured from his mouth.
“Krrgh!”
A wet, rattling sound escaped Dong Tam Lap’s throat as he collapsed to his knees.
A boulder the size of Geom U-bin himself fell directly onto Dong Tam Lap’s head.
The stone crushed him.
There was no time to dwell on the sensation of life slipping away beneath his hands.
Geom U-bin began to run, fleeing the collapsing cavern.
Crash-crash-crash-bang!
The roar grew closer, as if about to close around him from above.
Geom U-bin ran through the cave at the fastest speed he could muster. Three passages branched ahead.
‘Which one was it?’
His hesitation was brief.
Better to choose than to deliberate and be crushed by stone.
Rocks began to pour down from ahead as well.
The cavern shook so violently that an ordinary person would have lost their footing.
Geom U-bin ran with every ounce of strength he possessed. He could not be certain the path he was taking was the right one.
‘I must be close by now.’
Light should have appeared by now, but the cave remained a starless void, breathing only stone.
He might have chosen the wrong passage.
If so, he would be buried here alongside Dong Tam Lap, just as the man had wished.
Soon boulders larger than his head began to fall ahead of him. Geom U-bin swatted them aside and ran on.
Dust stung his eyes. He squeezed them shut for a moment, then opened them—and suddenly brilliant light crashed against him.
His body, having torn through the cascade of falling stones, burst out through the entrance through which he had come.
Suspended briefly in empty air, Geom U-bin began to plummet.
Though it was a twenty-zhang drop, the moment his feet touched earth he rolled forward and descended safely.
Crash!
A deafening roar erupted from the hole he’d emerged from, followed by a plume of dust rising thick into the air.
The instant that decided life from death lasted but the briefest moment.
Geom U-bin collapsed where he stood, exhaling a long breath of relief. Never before had death come rushing at him like this.
Today he had witnessed death up close, and by his own hand had dealt it as well.
Geom U-bin looked down at his pale hands.
During the years of training, calluses had formed and peeled away countless times, yet now his hands had grown soft, like those of a scholar.
With these hands today, he had taken a life.
He had always known the day would come when he would claim someone’s life.
Perhaps it had been his destiny ever since entering Baek Rim Mun. He had never given much thought to the act of taking a life, and strangely, he felt nothing at all.
‘Have I become a Murim martial artist?’
Then he heard Do Pyeong-su’s voice.
“Brother! Brother, where are you!”
Back at the inn, Hyeolpung Saja had heard that Geom U-bin had pursued the Mok Ryong Do sect disciple alone.
In alarm, they rushed in haste toward Gyeryeong Mountain.
They encountered two disciples from the Sect, though they could not determine Geom U-bin’s exact location. From that point on, they searched the mountain like madmen.
It was then that they heard the thunderous collapse of the cave.
Geom U-bin sprang to his feet, turning toward the voice of Do Pyeong-su. Soon Do Pyeong-su appeared at the cliff’s edge, and immediately after came Yeon Geum-hong, Seo Seok-san, and Jang Man-dok in succession.
“Brother!”
Without hesitation, they threw themselves toward Geom U-bin.
Descending from four directions as though shielding him, they hurriedly examined him.
“Are you hurt anywhere?”
“I’m fine.”
“Fine? You’re bleeding from your forehead!”
The wound had come from a rock fragment during his frantic flight through the cave.
“It’s nothing.”
“Man-dok! Check his pulse at once!”
Though Geom U-bin demurred, he could not withstand Hyeolpung Saja’s insistence. Jang Man-dok examined him as carefully as if tending to a gravely ill patient, then exhaled in relief.
“Phew! Your pulse is quick, but that’s just from the sudden exertion—everything else is sound.”
“I told you I’m fine.”
“Thank heavens you are, but why did you chase after that bastard alone! It was reckless!”
Yeon Geum-hong’s voice rang out sharply.
At any other time, she would have shouted at Geom U-bin until he wished he were dead, but in that moment Hyeolpung Saja spoke as one, waiting only for his answer.
“Because I was capable of it. I’m not a burden to my disciples, am I?”
“Who said you were a burden to us?”
Geom U-bin smiled softly.
“Exactly.”
That smile melted their hearts like snow in spring.
“I know you’re strong enough, but you must still be careful. In Murim, experience comes first.”
“I’ll remember that.”
“But what became of that sect disciple?”
Geom U-bin turned his gaze toward the collapsed cave.
“There’s no need to prepare a separate grave.”
Seo Seok-san asked carefully.
“You… killed him?”
“Yes.”
Hyeolpung Saja’s memory of their own first kills was hazy at best. Perhaps they had suffered anguish, or perhaps they had felt nothing at all, like born murderers.
But most people—especially someone as goodhearted as Geom U-bin—would feel the weight of their first kill keenly.
So they asked nothing more, simply watching and waiting.
Instead, it was Geom U-bin who, sensing their concern, spoke.
“I’m all right.”
As they climbed the cliff and descended the mountain, they encountered Noh Dae-sul rushing toward them in a fluster.
“Lord Geom! You’re unharmed!”
Jang Man-dok seized him from behind by the neck, while Do Pyeong-su grabbed his collar.
“You wretched beggar-king! Why did you give our brother such information and send him off alone!”
“Gasp! Gasp! This situation… Agh! This old beggar’s life is nearly at an end!”
Geom U-bin managed to intervene, and thus Noh Dae-sul’s elderly life was spared a while longer.
“Damn it. I should cut my ties with these people who try to kill even those who help them.”
Geom U-bin said.
“Come now, there’s no severing of ties between us. Above all, you still owe me a promise.”
“A promise? I found your Miao clan—that’s settled.”
“The deadline was four days. You’ve exceeded it, so the promise remains unfulfilled.”
“Tch… No wonder you’re called the Bloodwind Saja. The way you commit such cruelty with an innocent face makes it all the more sinister.”
“Since you’ll be seeing me again, it should suit you just fine.”
“Suit me? Nothing about this suits me! If not for Gi-cheon, I wouldn’t have set foot in Hangju at all. What cursed fate drives a man to grow savage in his twilight years? But tell me—how did things go with you, Geom Jang-ju?”
Geom U-bin recounted his encounter with Dong Tam Lap in broad strokes. Of course, he left out the tangled threads that lay beneath.
That was a matter not to be revealed, and if it were, it would have to reach the Bloodwind Saja first.
“So he’s dead. What in blazes drove him to such madness?”
Seo Seok-san spoke bluntly.
“He was mad with a death wish.”
“True enough, but here’s the rub—this man mad with a death wish possessed the Mok Ryong Do. However did he come by such a blade?”
“Hmm… It seems something happened before our Master disappeared. But in any case, you’ve settled it, so that’s that. Now then, what’s become of the Murim Alliance?”
“What’s become of them? They’re still running about with their tails between their legs, searching for that accursed Mok Ryong Do.”
Yeon Geum-hong spoke.
“Let them all go mad. Now we should head home. Trouble dogs every step away from hearth and home.”
Do Pyeong-su took up her words.
“Indeed. It’s one crisis after another these days.”
“Rich words from the very one who causes most of them.”
“Fair point. But where are your disciples? Have they finished their business and returned?”

***

Hang Ju-sa-byeon had arrived in Soyang County, Hunan Province, and was conducting inquiries.
Ha O Moon had sustained itself across the long years with no great martial might—through sheer, stubborn vitality.
The identity of its leader remained strictly secret, and the organization moved like a web, making it difficult to uncover its true headquarters.
That Hang Ju-sa-byeon had captured the leader’s second disciple could be called sheer fortune.
But he had to proceed with care.
If he allowed the Ha O Moon leader to slip through his fingers here, the creature would continue to plague him like flies around dung.
The Jeon Yang Estate, which Bae Cheong-uk had identified, was located in the heart of Soyang County.
He had never imagined that the headquarters of Ha O Moon, one of the most secretive organizations in Murim, would be hidden in such a public place.
Hang Ju-sa-byeon stood on the fourth floor of a tea house, looking down at the Jeon Yang Estate.
“So the lord of Jeon Yang Estate is called Jang Do-gang. Could he be the Ha O Moon leader?”
Se-hwa shook her head.
“I don’t think so.”
“Why?”
“From what I’ve learned, Jang Do-gang visits pleasure houses only two or three times a month at most.”
“Not every wealthy man cares for such places.”
“But he does. When he goes, he indulges wildly, I’m told. Yet he doesn’t go often—there must be a reason. Usually it’s either a fearsome wife or lack of coin. But Jang Do-gang’s wife died four years ago. And he certainly isn’t poor.”
“So Jang Do-gang can’t spend money freely.”
“It isn’t his money to spend. In other words, he’s not the true lord of the estate.”
Go Seo-bang grumbled.
“I should have questioned him further. Assuming naturally that the lord would be the Ha O Moon leader, I eliminated him—perhaps that was a mistake.”
“It may not be the only one. Remember when Baek Ryeon-gwang and Dok Jeong-ssang-gwe came to the inn to kill us? That’s when Baek Ryeon-gwang mentioned the Third Agent.”
“That does sound familiar. I said some harsh words to you then. But who was this Third Agent he spoke of? I thought he was the leader’s disciple, but he was only the second.”
“There must be a third disciple.”
It was mere conjecture.
“But that seems odd too. In any case, we need to investigate that as well. If there is no third disciple, then someone else is pulling strings from the shadows.”
“The deeper we dig, the worse my head aches.”
“First, we need to find out who the leader really is.”
Gang Seo Samak watched only Se-hwa as she spoke.
Through this affair with Ha O Moon, he had come to appreciate that Se-hwa possessed a keen mind. With her sharp insight and excellent memory, she seemed destined to become a formidable Murim martial artist once experience was added to her gifts.
“How should we go about it?”
“First, we watch the lord. We look for anyone within the estate he reports to—that will be the true Ha O Moon leader.”
“I wish Sang Nam-jae were here.”
Though their martial prowess surpassed Sang Nam-jae’s, none of them could match his skill at concealment and stealth.
“We’re sufficient for Ha O Moon. Daytime will be dangerous, but we can manage.”
“So we abandon the daytime and watch only at night?”
“We can’t do that.”
Se-hwa answered O Tong-su’s words.
“It won’t be perfect, but it’s not impossible. I’ve come into some valuable information.”
“What kind of information?”
Se-hwa didn’t answer directly. Instead, she studied Gang Seo Samak one by one, and something unsettling began to creep over her.
“Go Seo-bang would be ideal.”
Go Seo-bang’s expression crumpled.
“What’s ideal about me?”
A thought flickered through her mind—this would not go well at all.
“You have a beard.”

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