Abolition of the Wicked - Chapter 22

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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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#Episode 022

“Brothers, that’s the house.”
Se-hwa pointed across the river.
Though darkness had settled thick, three lanterns burned bright enough that spotting the dwelling proved simple.
“So all we need to do is chase him out of Hangju?”
Gal Ma-pyeong, owner of eyes so narrow it was impossible to tell whether they were open or shut, posed the question.
“That’s right. Stroll around town, throw out a few gestures and flourishes, and pocket a hundred silver coins each—not bad work, is it?”
Go Seo-bang, his face framed by thick, unkempt whiskers, reached over and gently wrapped an arm around Se-hwa’s waist.
“What I want isn’t money—it’s something else entirely.”
As always, Se-hwa deftly slipped free of his grasp with a subtle turn of her body.
“Business comes first. Catch a woman’s scent before the job, and you’ll invite misfortune.”
O Tong-su, pale-skinned with thin lips, spoke in a tone as cold as winter frost.
“Don’t let your guard slip. A tiger gives its all even hunting a single rabbit. The Hangju Sasons didn’t earn their name for nothing—stay sharp, all of you.”
“Hehehehe… nothing but frogs in a well. This is our chance to taste some of that famous Sagi Wine.”
Se-hwa seized on Go Seo-bang’s words with a knowing look.
“Exactly. Compared to the Gangseо Samak, the Hangju Sasons are barely past their infancy.”
“Once the job’s done, you’re mine for the rest of the night. Understand?”
Despite two years of effort to win Se-hwa into his arms, Go Seo-bang had never managed to break that particular flower from the Kiru.
Not just him—no man in Gangseoseong had ever claimed to have held her. That she was a courtesan artist rather than a common prostitute was already exceedingly rare.
“Finish the job first. And don’t forget the terms—if you kill the Hangju Sasons, there’s no payment. Understood?”
“Don’t worry. We’ll just break a few bones and call it done.”
Making such bold pronouncements, Go Seo-bang launched himself toward the river first.
The technique with which the Gangseо Samak propelled themselves upward off the water’s surface never ceased to strike Se-hwa as wondrous.
‘If I’d been born just a few years younger, I might have studied martial arts myself.’
Once she saw the Gangseо Samak disappear across the river, Se-hwa turned away.
There was no reason for her to linger here. Better, in fact, to put distance between herself and whatever was about to unfold.
If by some chance the Hangju Sasons ended up dead, she’d need a clean alibi.
“Thanks to the Hangju Sasons, I’m walking away with twelve hundred coins for nothing. Hehehehe!”

The Gangseо Samak, unaware they were doing someone else’s dirty work free of charge, strolled across the courtyard at a leisurely pace.
The moment they stepped inside the house, they encountered a bizarre scene.
Three middle-aged men and one young woman were crouched on the floor, their heads bent close together.
“Now it’s my turn to draw the line.”
“Make sure it covers the lower part well.”
“What if this line overlaps with the others? We’ll have to redraw it.”
“Shh! The senior is sleeping. If you wake him up, we ruin everything.”
“Ah, this time around, the senior can’t say anything about it. They came to kill us. If they’d come to steal brewing secrets like last time, that’d be one thing—but since they came to murder us, it’s fair game!”
“They definitely came to kill us, right? The senior made a promise with someone, so if they didn’t come to murder us, then it’s a bit…”
One of the middle-aged men glanced sideways at the three newcomers as he spoke.
“Look at their faces. They’re the killing type, no doubt about it. So relax—don’t worry. Hehehehe…”
Go Seo-bang, the first of the bewildered Gangseо Samak to find his voice, opened his mouth.
“What are you people doing—”
“Shh!”
The young woman furrowed her brow and cut him off.
“Didn’t you hear? The senior is sleeping. Keep quiet. We’ll be done soon.”
Though her tone was threatening, Go Seo-bang found it rather charming.
‘Oh! This is exactly my type. Hehehehe… If I play my cards right, I might get both the pheasant and the egg.’
Gal Ma-pyeong started to speak, but Go Seo-bang nudged him on the shoulder.
“They look busy. Let’s give them a moment.”
“This fool loses his wits whenever he sees a pretty woman—he forgets they ever come back.”
The middle-aged man with receding hair spoke with grave certainty.
“Now we begin.”
The middle-aged man’s finger traced along the line drawn on the ground.
The lower half of the messily drawn line was covered by cloth and hidden from view.
Go Seo-bang leaned close and whispered a question to O Tong-su.
“Isn’t that a Ladder Lottery?”
“Wonder what wager they’re making.”
“What kind of bet matters so much they’re ignoring an uninvited guest showing up in the middle of the night?”
The moment O Tong-su finished speaking, three hands shot up.
They made no sound, but their mouths fell wide open and they bounced up and down with visible delight.
The man with his head bowed, hair half-fallen from his scalp, wore the expression of someone who’d just heard of his parents’ passing.
“Seok-san, keep watch over our friend. Don’t let anything happen to him.”
“Couldn’t you give up one leg bone or so?”
“Heheheh… don’t talk nonsense. I’d surrender my own bones before I’d give up theirs.”
“Disloyal bastards.”
The Gangseо Samak couldn’t understand what they were saying.
In any case, the wager seemed to have concluded, and so Go Seo-bang spoke.
“We came to meet the Hangju Sasonae. Are you them?”
The man with hook eyes and rough whiskers answered.
“We’ve somehow ended up being called that lately, whether we like it or not.”
“You may have heard the name—we’re the Gangseо Samak.”
At this point, he expected a gasp of alarm and faces going pale. Instead, the Hangju Sasonae merely glanced at each other.
“You heard of the Gangseо Samak?”
“Am I supposed to go around listening to every blood-soaked epithet floating around? I just hope their bones are sturdy. That’s what makes breaking them so satisfying, you see. Tsk!”
A woman whose beautiful face belied the saliva running from her mouth’s corner drew near.
“So you can do the Pressure Point Sealing too?”
“Huh? How did you—did you see?”
“See? I can tell just by listening. Should we go somewhere quieter?”
It was the first time something felt wrong about a beautiful woman’s suggestion to find a quieter place.
Before O Tong-su stood the man with hook eyes and thick, disheveled whiskers. He nodded and walked past them, heading out through the gate.
It was clearly a sign to follow.
“Come along while I’m being civil. If you make a fuss here, you won’t even get to draw another breath.”
“What are you bastards plotting—!”
O Tong-su’s shout was cut short as his breath suddenly caught. The taciturn man had grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and hurled him forward.
‘This crazy bastard!’
The legendary Gangseо Samak couldn’t be dragged away by their scruff like this. He tried to counterattack, but his limbs suddenly went rigid.
With one hand holding his neck, the man had sealed his pressure points.
‘What kind of monster is this!’
The other two fared little better than O Tong-su.
Thud! Bang! Crack!
Pain shot through them as they struck trees, earth, and stone, but with their vital points sealed, they couldn’t even scream.
Something had gone terribly wrong.
They’d heard it was a simple contract—chase off some wine-making thugs with a bit of martial skill. The hundred silver coins each seemed like a windfall.
That Se-hwa girl! Who the hell did she send us to!
They must have been dragged nearly ten li.
They stopped in a fairly open clearing in the mountains where three tombs stood in a row.
“This far out, even if they scream, the boss won’t hear a thing.”
They threw the Gangseо Samak onto the ground without ceremony and each claimed a tomb to sit upon. Those tombs could well become the Gangseо Samak’s own graves.
“Walking right into our arms like this. Such obliging fellows.”
The woman patted the back of the taciturn man, who wore an expression of profound satisfaction.
“Man-dok. I know your heart. When was the last time we went so long without killing anyone? It goes against every instinct of the beast.”
The rough-whiskered man cracked his knuckles—pop pop pop.
“I can’t hold back anymore. Time to get my hands working again.”
“Fool. We’ve prepared such fine material—why rush to ruin the seasoning?”
“What do you mean?”
“Shouldn’t both hands and ears enjoy themselves at once?”
“Ah! That’s right!”
The Gangseо Samak’s pressure points were released simultaneously.
Releasing the vital points made sense, but why free up the full-body sealing as well?
‘Maybe I can escape after all.’
Just as O Tong-su was thinking this, Gal Ma-pyeong sprang to his feet.
“You bastards—if you knew who we are! If you’ve luckily sealed our pressure points with a sneak attack, you should have ended it right there! You’ll learn firsthand just how fatal a mistake it was to release them!”
The three figures stared at the shouting Gal Ma-pyeong, then burst out laughing simultaneously.
“Hohoho! Look at that spirit! That one’s mine!”
“These mad creatures! Just because they’re called the Hangju Sasonae, they think they’re immortals themselves!”
The man with ring-shaped eyes suddenly stopped laughing.
“You’ve heard of Hangju Sasonae but never of the Hyeolpung Saja?”
The Hyeolpung Saja.
Spoken of in the same breath as Ma Gun-ja and known as the Murim Geumwon-o, they were demon beasts one should avoid far more than Ma Gun-ja himself.
It wasn’t some stale proverb about avoiding making enemies—rather, the absolute warning was that if you wanted to live long, you simply did not meet them. They had all heard this before.
But then…….
Despite the Gangseо Samak swaggering about so openly in Gangseoseong under that name, they had never once encountered the Hyeolpung Saja.
Whether to count that as fortune or dismiss it as mere rumor…….
With such thoughts on their minds, the Hyeolpung Saja had suddenly appeared in Hangju?
The woman drove her elbow into the man’s ribs.
“Idiot! What if you’ve given away our identities?”
“Does it matter? They’re dead men anyway.”
“It matters. There’s always the one-in-a-million chance.”
“No such thing exists. And it shouldn’t!”
Gal Ma-pyeong snorted as he listened to the three of them talking.
“What nonsense they spout.”
O Tong-su let out a horrified cry.
‘No, no…… you madman!’
“You’re selling the name of the Hyeolpung Saja here—the very ones who vanished years ago, and no one knows if they’re dead or alive? I’ve never seen such crazy bastards!”
―Shut your mouth, you fool!
Even at O Tong-su’s telepathic rebuke, Gal Ma-pyeong did not cease his reckless speech.
“Damn it! Since we’ve already spoken the name of the Hyeolpung Saja, let’s see if their skills match that reputation!”
They’d already proven their strength by overpowering us effortlessly and dragging us all the way here, you thunder-struck fool!
Fine, let’s give credit where it’s due—the man has nerve.
Gal Ma-pyeong charged forward.
Crack!
And the woman slapped him across the face so hard he flew back a full length and crashed into the ground with a thud.
“Ho ho ho! Such firm skin for one so young!”
“I, damn it all!”
With courage to match his durability, Gal Ma-pyeong charged again, and the other side of his face bore fresh handprints.
“This is it! This is the taste! Ho ho ho!”
The situation had to be prevented from deteriorating further. O Tong-su dropped to his knees and bowed his head to the ground.
“My unworthy juniors have dared commit rudeness before your esteemed presences! Please, we beg your forgiveness!”
The woman spoke.
“Why seek forgiveness when you could run instead? We’ve even released the pressure points.”
But there was no sign of escape in O Tong-su, with his head pressed to the earth.
“How could we possibly escape the hands of the Hyeolpung Saja? Even if we trained our Lightness Technique for a hundred years, it would be hopeless!”
“Ah, just run. You can even deploy the Back-Striking Method, so your Lightness Technique must be passable. It’s been ages since I’ve enjoyed toying with those who try to flee.”
“Ah! I see. Well then, you lot—try running away.”
How could anyone run hearing such words? The Gangseо Samak simply pressed themselves flat against the ground.
“Please, please spare our lives!”
Gal Ma-pyeong, his senses finally returning after two slaps, at last confronted reality.
“You can keep crying for mercy all night if you want. Will you beg for death instead?”
“Since you came to kill us, there’s no shame in dying to us, is there?”
At Do Pyeong-su’s words, Go Seo-bang waved both hands frantically.
“N-no, that’s not it! We never meant to harm you se—”
“We never had juniors like you.”
“I’m sorry! That is to say, you gentlemen—”
“You’re saying we’re old?”
“No, that’s not what I meant…… Then what should I call you?”
Yeon Geum-hong waved her hand dismissively.
“Just call us seniors.”
“We never meant to kill the seniors. Our contract was simply to drive you out of Hangju.”
“A contract? Who hired you?”
The Gangseо Samak rushed to reveal the full details.
With their lives hanging by a thread, they had no loyalty left to protect.
“The proprietors of Kiru—the ones who couldn’t receive their shipment of Sagi Wine—hired you for this?”
“Yes. I swear, there was not even a mosquito’s worth of murderous intent.”
“Ah, hearing your epithet, you’re no ordinary villains at all. So you wouldn’t have simply asked us politely to leave, would you? Isn’t that right?”
“W-well, the approach was perhaps a bit rough.”
“Right. Rough words get thrown around, sometimes things escalate to blows, and in that chaos someone can die. Not every killing is premeditated from the start. You two know each other well enough—so why this?”
O Tong-su shook his head stubbornly.
“Absolutely not, sir! No matter how fierce the fight became, we swore we had no intention of killing! When we took the contract, the condition was absolute—we were never to take a life. We did not accept that lightly!”
“Demon beast! You break into someone’s home in the dead of night with no intention of killing? That doesn’t make sense.”

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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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