Abolition of the Wicked - Chapter 149

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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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#149

Eun Bi-yeon led Oseong-i down to the stream and washed the blood from around the beast’s mouth.
“Oseong-i, I’ve told you before — when you encounter a tiger, you should run away. Why do you always have to fight?”
A low rumble of protest.
After cleaning even the wounds on the beast’s shoulders, Eun Bi-yeon rose and spoke.
“Come on. From now on, you’re going to live quietly at home.”
A sharp bark, as if in disagreement.

***

Four dogs were at play, yet even their roughhousing seemed fierce.
They flailed their front paws like cats or collided with their bodies, each trying in its own way to subdue the other, but none of them held clear dominance.
Do Pyeong-su, watching the four dogs, spoke.
“These beasts are just like us. How is it that not a single one of them can rise to the top?”
“If you want to establish a hierarchy, the method is simple enough.”
“How?”
Seo Seok-san grinned wickedly.
“Match their hierarchy to ours.”
Yeon Geum-hong cast a look of contempt toward Seo Seok-san.
“If you want to debase yourself to the level of dogs, go right ahead — but don’t drag the rest of us down with you.”
Just then, all four dogs pricked up their ears and bolted toward the estate’s front gate.
“What’s happening?”
The Bloodwind Four Lions hurried after them and came face to face with an astonishing beast.
Woof! Woof-woof!
The object of the four dogs’ frenzied barking was undoubtedly a dog. The Bloodwind Four Lions had believed there was no dog in the world larger than his own, but he was mistaken.
The newly arrived dog stood a full head taller than the four dogs and was twice as massive.
And beside that dog stood Eun Bi-yeon.
“Wow! Don’t tell me that’s Oseong-i?”
Geom U-bin, emerging from the Main Hall, asked in astonishment, and Eun Bi-yeon offered a slight smile.
“Yes, I only raised him casually, but he’s grown this large.”
The casually-raised dog merely watched with indifference as the four dogs barked savagely at him.
“You lot! Quiet!”
Do Pyeong-su barked the command, and the four dogs lowered their tails.
Seo Seok-san asked.
“What in the world have you been feeding this dog?”
“I haven’t fed him anything special. Since I raised him in the mountains, Oseong-i wandered about on his own and apparently ate Spirit Medicine and things he picked up. Whenever he suffered side effects, I’d apply the Chugung-gwahyeol technique to him, and that’s how he ended up like this.”
“The Chugung-gwahyeol technique?”
“During the Half-Old Return Youth technique, there were times when his Internal Energy would surge and had to be discharged.”
The Bloodwind Four Lions had performed the Chugung-gwahyeol technique on Geom U-bin with great deliberation, yet Eun Bi-yeon had casually applied it to her dog.
“Can Oseong-i live here at Oseong Jang-won?”
Geom U-bin readily assented.
“His name is already Oseong-i, so of course he can stay.”
Eun Bi-yeon spoke to Oseong-i.
“You need to behave yourself. Don’t wander around the neighborhood or go hunting tigers or other beasts without reason.”
A sharp bark.
Geom U-bin asked with a startled expression.
“Oseong-i can catch tigers?”
“Most of the time he’s as docile as a lamb, but occasionally he becomes quite aggressive — especially when he encounters ferocious beasts.”
“There aren’t any ferocious beasts around here, though……”
As Geom U-bin spoke, he glanced at the four dogs.
‘Should I call those beasts ferocious?’
Geom U-bin patted Oseong-i’s head and spoke.
“Get along well with your friends, all right?”
A bark in response.
Oseong-i’s answer was unmistakably ‘no.’ Before even a quarter hour had passed, the Bloodwind Four Lions and Eun Bi-yeon could see five dogs tangled together and fighting in the back garden.
A scene of dogs fighting was common enough to witness any day, but that afternoon something unusual unfolded.
One dog was dominating the other four. Naturally, that single dog was Oseong-i, whom Eun Bi-yeon had brought along.
Hyeolpung Saja inwardly rooted for the four dogs, but Oseong-i’s superior size and strength gave her an overwhelming advantage.
“Tsk, tsk, tsk… Pathetic creatures. Four against one and they still can’t win.”
It was only a dog fight, yet for some reason it left a bitter taste. Once Oseong-i had achieved complete dominance, Eun Bi-yeon finally stepped in.
“Oseong-i! I told you to behave!”
Eun Bi-yeon checked on Boram-i, Do Pyeong-su’s dog, then pinched Oseong-i’s cheek.
“You hurt Pyeong-su’s dog because of you.”
Of course, Boram-i wasn’t the only one injured, but Eun Bi-yeon only seemed to care about her.
“Would you like me to examine Boram-i?”
“Examine what?”
“She’s got injuries all over.”
“Injuries like that heal in no time if they just lick each other clean.”
“Still, she’s Pyeong-su’s dog—how can we just ignore it?”
“Do what you think is best.”
Whatever Eun Bi-yeon had done on her own, it was clear she’d done something special. The next day, the four dogs were at play as usual, but strangely, Boram-i displayed power far superior to the other three.
“What? Boram-i won?”
Three of them wore bewildered expressions, but Do Pyeong-su’s face was smug with satisfaction.
“Takes after their masters—sickly bunch, aren’t they?”
What did it matter if a dog lost a fight?
“At least I’m glad she won.”
Seo Seok-san spoke without concern, and Yeon Geum-hong merely scoffed.
But then Jang Man-dok quietly slipped away with his own dog, Mubyeong-i. Anyone could see he was about to do something to his beast.
They competed over trifles, but dogs felt like crossing a line.
Yet the fact that more than one or two of them thought this way didn’t make the competition disappear.
If it were only Do Pyeong-su, one could perhaps overlook it; but with Jang Man-dok joining in, Yeon Geum-hong and Seo Seok-san couldn’t simply stand idle.
Eun Bi-yeon’s Oseong-i was an outsider’s dog and could be excused, but they refused to watch Do Pyeong-su’s Boram-i and Jang Man-dok’s Mubyeong-i climb above Yeon Geum-hong and Seo Seok-san’s Kkot-nim-i.
‘I’ll have to feed her Spirit Medicine first, then teach her the Chugung-gwahyeol technique!’

***

The journey to Hebei Province proceeded smoothly. They sailed to Yenyun Port in Jiangsu Province, then from there could cross Shandong Province by land to reach Hebei.
Donggwang County, situated at the border between Shandong and Hebei, was where Kang Chan-sik’s younger sister, Kang Jeong-hye, made her home.
At the fork in the road leading into town, Kang Chan-sik parted ways with the Oseong Merchant Association.
“We’ll cross Eori Pass and head toward Imgu County. Allowing ample time, we should return here in four days. Will you wait for us here?”
Seol Do-bok, escort and third-ranking manager of the Oseong Merchant Association, posed the question, and Kang Chan-sik replied.
“I’m still uncertain. If my sister doesn’t receive me warmly, I’ll come out early and rejoin the Association. If not, I may wait here. Either way, I won’t return alone, so we’ll meet again soon enough.”
He didn’t wish to entertain the thought of this long journey back in solitude. At the fork, the Oseong Merchant Association headed toward the sparsely populated route, while Kang Chan-sik turned toward the town.
Donggwang County, for all its claim to being a town, was cramped and shabby compared to Hangju.
The entirety of the commercial district consisted of perhaps fifty paces of market stalls and storefronts.
Ten years had passed since Kang Chan-sik last saw Kang Jeong-hye when she was twenty-four. Back then she’d been selling harvested crops at the market stalls in town, but whether she’d continued the trade until now was uncertain.
Kang Chan-sik walked along the line of stalls, studying the merchants carefully.
A decade should have improved their circumstances; perhaps she’d opened a proper shop by now.
His slow pace halted. Even after all those years, he recognized her at once.
Her pale skin had darkened from the sun’s rays, and the wrinkles time had carved across her face were far deeper and more numerous, yet it was unmistakably Kang Jeong-hye.
Kang Chan-sik stood rooted some distance away, unable to move, watching her.
She was calling out to passersby to buy roasted potatoes and squash, when her eyes found Kang Chan-sik.
She had changed as much as he had. Yet just as he’d recognized her at a glance, Kang Jeong-hye knew him instantly.
“Brother.”
He hadn’t heard it—her voice was so small it would have been easily swallowed by the bustle of the crowd.
He only read it from her lips. Kang Chan-sik moved toward Kang Jeong-hye across the street.
Clatter-clatter! Clatter-clatter!
A cart suddenly appeared and passed rapidly in front of him, startling him into stopping.
Only after catching his breath did he notice the child playing in the dirt beside Kang Jeong-hye.
The child, who appeared to be around five or six now, resembled Kang Jeong-hye so closely that he knew at a glance she was her son.
Kang Chan-sik came to a halt directly before Kang Jeong-hye. The stall was heaped with roasted potatoes, squash, scallions, and other vegetables.
“How much for all of this?”
He could have offered a simple greeting, but instead those words emerged.
“I don’t sell to you, brother.”
Still a chill in her reply. Perhaps she too hadn’t meant for her voice to come out that way.
The yearning that had accumulated over decades had, paradoxically, carved an equally thick gulf of strangeness between them.
“Selling goods as customers leave? You’ll never make a proper merchant that way.”
“I didn’t sweat to raise this business just to feed Triad thugs.”
Heat flared in his chest.
“If you only sell to such good people, why are you still scraping by like this?”
“I eat honestly from money earned with honest sweat. Better than my brother, who lives in comfort by squeezing tears of blood from others’ eyes.”
Kang Jeong-hye spoke with unwavering directness, meeting his gaze—exactly as she always had.
“I’m not in the Triad anymore.”
The words came out with difficulty, and Kang Jeong-hye asked plainly.
“Then what are you doing now?”
“The Oseong Society…… it’s still a Triad, technically…….”
“So it’s a Triad.”
“Not all Triads are the same.”
Kang Jeong-hye started to speak, then simply exhaled a long breath.
“Fine. Why are you here?”
“Just passing through.”
“Then keep passing.”
‘Hard as nails, that one.’
No matter how much he resented it, she was his sister—and after ten years, her coldness raised gooseflesh on his skin.
“How did you become so cold?”
“You’re always like this.”
“Like what?”
“You appear out of nowhere, pass judgment on how I live, then leave after pressing a few coins into my hand. It’s always been that way, and it’ll be that way this time too.”
He wanted to say this time would be different, but there was no way it could be.
“I don’t need your money. Just go.”
The child, nervous at Kang Jeong-hye’s coldness, clung to her skirts, on the verge of tears.
He wanted nothing more than to toss a money purse and leave, but he couldn’t sever ten years of connection so easily a second time.
“Jeong-hye…….”
“Go! What do you want to hear from me? Go!”
As her voice rose, the eyes of nearby merchants turned toward them.
“All right. I’m going.”
They shouldn’t have met like this. Too much yearning, too much resentment—it was impossible to resolve in a single encounter.
Kang Chan-sik flashed a thin smile at his niece and turned away, his face hardening again into that familiar mask.

***

A carrier pigeon from Jegal Hoon arrived at the Jegal Family estate for the first time in ages.
Do Pyeong-su leaned over Geom U-bin’s shoulder to read the letter.
“What does it say, sir?”
“It’s the patriarch’s sixtieth birthday. Jegal Hoon has invited us to celebrate.”
“Really? Then we can go on a family journey again!”
Seo Seok-san’s face lit up just as eagerly as Do Pyeong-su’s.
“Perhaps we should take a different route this time?”
“I think I’ll go alone this time.”
“Alone? Really?”
“The previous patriarch already knows who my disciples are.”
“We can use disguises again.”
“It’s strange to show up in disguise at someone else’s celebration.”
“But who knows what might happen at that household.”
Geom U-bin chuckled at Do Pyeong-su’s worry.
“This is just a sixtieth birthday party, not some crisis.”
“Still…….”
“If I go, Do will follow, and do you really want to bring the lady to the Jegal patriarch’s birthday celebration?”
The Bloodwind Four Lions had their share of interpersonal problems, but Eun Bi-yeon was far worse—certainly enough to cause a major catastrophe.
“Besides, raising four beasts these days has its own rewards. If anything goes wrong, I’ll send a carrier pigeon, so come then.”
Yeon Geum-hong extracted the promise.
“You absolutely must send word if anything happens!”

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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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