Abolition of the Wicked - Chapter 220

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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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#220

“Strange. I’ve run into five street urchins now. I should stop by and see you, my friend. Let me visit So Gi-cheon for a moment.”
They quickened their pace toward the shack beneath the bridge. But So Gi-cheon wasn’t there—only four small beggars hunting for lice.
Geom U-bin turned to them as they called out their greetings.
“Where’s Gi-cheon?”
“He left two days ago—he had business to attend to.”
Geom U-bin unwrapped the Five-Spice Jerky, and the children rushed toward him with cries of delight.
“Where did he go?”
“We don’t know. It seemed like the Bang-ju gave him orders to do something.”
“Hey! Didn’t I tell you not to tell anyone about that?”
“Ah, right. But it’s all right with the Hangju lords, isn’t it?”
“I suppose so.”
Geom U-bin asked again.
“Did he say when he’d be back?”
“He said it might take a while.”
Geom U-bin left the shack, abandoning the small beggars to their frenzied meal.
“I thought the Bang-ju had come to Oseong Jang-won to deliver news about the Murim Alliance, but it seems there was a more pressing matter here in Hangju.”
She had believed that nothing in Zhejiang Province escaped Oseong Jang-won’s notice, yet information had slipped through her fingers—a fact that nagged at her.
‘Should I look into it?’

***

Do Pyeong-sun was stepping through the door when a sharp-voiced woman’s scream made him turn.
“Aaahhh!”
“Hehehehe! Stop your whining, girl!”
The man carrying a woman in her early twenties slung across his shoulder, laughing with a degrading rasp, was Dang Gyeong-rak, the Bandit Chief.
Dozens of bandits surrounded him as an escort, their shoulders laden with plunder.
They had just returned from a bandit raid, and the woman thrashing on Dang Gyeong-rak’s shoulder made Do Pyeong-sun’s brow furrow.
Dang Gyeong-rak, spotting Do Pyeong-sun approaching, wore a peculiar smile.
“Ah, the Lord has emerged.”
Dang Gyeong-rak, forty-five years old, had teeth stained black like those of a seventy-year-old.
His breath reeked unbearably.
It was for this reason that Do Pyeong-sun typically avoided conversation with him, but this time he could not let it pass.
“What is that woman?”
Though Dang Gyeong-rak held the position of Bandit Chief only because of Do Pyeong-su’s patronage, Do Pyeong-sun showed him the courtesy befitting his rank.
“The greatest treasure from this raid, my Lord. Hehehehe…….”
“That woman is?”
“She is mine.”
“I said that in cases of necessity, property may be seized and lives minimized, but women must never be violated. Did I not?”
This was an order Do Pyeong-sun had issued to all the Nok-rim hideouts.
Of course, whether this order was strictly observed in other bandit settlements was unknown to him. But at least here, where Do Pyeong-sun himself presided, it had thus far been upheld.
He knew there was discontent, but after all, it was the command of the Lord himself.
Yet the Sub-Chief Dang Gyeong-rak was openly defying it.
“That’s an impossible order, my Lord. You want bandits to live in hideouts with no women, calling their own hand their wife?”
“If you’re truly desperate, go to Hongrak House and settle it there.”
“How can we go to such a distant place swarming with officers? When we can simply bring one back here? Besides…….”
Dang Gyeong-rak stroked the woman’s buttocks as he spoke.
“She is hardly inferior to a pleasure house courtesan, is she?”
Do Pyeong-sun gestured with his chin at the woman thrashing on Dang Gyeong-rak’s shoulder.
“Put her down.”
“I don’t want to.”
“That is an order.”
“I don’t care to hear it.”
Do Pyeong-sun exhaled deeply. From the attitude of Dang Gyeong-rak and the other bandits, he had seen this day coming.
The bandits would never truly accept a Lord that Do Pyeong-su had forced upon them.
This is a world where power is everything.
Do Pyeong-sun knew the atmosphere well enough, but he let it pass rather than fight. Besides, he had no confidence he could win.
He had eaten the Spirit Medicine that Seo Seok-san left behind and diligently practiced the Sword Method, but he still didn’t know how strong he actually was.
Fighting an enemy when I don’t know my own measure is foolish. So he’d let most transgressions slide.
But this crime—assaulting a woman—was something he simply could not tolerate.
“If that’s what you choose, so be it.”
Do Pyeong-sun turned and walked back to his quarters.
Behind him, he heard laughter and jeers calling him a coward.
Do Pyeong-sun went to his quarters to retrieve the sword hanging on the wall.
His gaze, gripping the blade, drifted toward the bed.
More precisely, toward the chest beneath it.
“With the money I’ve saved so far, I won’t starve anywhere, will I?”
A bandit—especially a bandit leader—was never his true calling. He’d intended to watch for an opportunity to quit this life and farm somewhere in peace, but now a situation like this had arisen.
“I’ll settle this one matter and leave. I have money—what’s there to worry about?”
Surely Seo Seok-san wouldn’t pursue him over this. People that strong are always busy.
When he reappeared with his sword drawn, Dang Gyeong-rak’s laughter died away.
Do Pyeong-sun grasped the scabbarded blade like a staff in both hands and bellowed.
“Everybody, listen!”
He’d projected his voice using Internal Power, and it thundered across the entire hideout.
Those nearby clapped their hands over their ears and staggered back, some even falling on their backsides.
Dang Gyeong-rak’s expression hardened visibly.
He’d thought Do Pyeong-sun was just a lucky whelp who’d stumbled into the position of General Bandit Lord, but there was more to him than that.
Nearly three hundred bandits from the hideout streamed into the courtyard.
“I’m sure you all know the two rules I’ve given you until now! Don’t commit murder without cause! Absolutely never assault women! From today, these rules will be strictly enforced! You may raid and fight on bandit raids, but if someone dies, I will investigate thoroughly, and if there is guilt, appropriate punishment will be meted out!”
Do Pyeong-sun’s sword pointed toward Dang Gyeong-rak.
“And anyone who does such a thing—I will personally behead them!”
As Dang Gyeong-rak lowered the woman from his shoulder, those nearby grabbed her struggling arms.
Do Pyeong-sun’s voice continued.
“If any of you don’t like my rules, leave this place at once—or stand behind your Second Bandit Lord!”
He’d expected not many would. But dozens surged behind Dang Gyeong-rak.
So many bandits had harbored resentment against the rules all this time.
Over a hundred and fifty bandits gathered behind Dang Gyeong-rak in an instant, and several more who’d been watching quickly joined them.
Do Pyeong-sun’s expression twisted.
“Damn sons of bitches everywhere!”
Dang Gyeong-rak laughed triumphantly.
“Heheheh! Bandits being wicked is only natural.”
Do Pyeong-sun pointed his sword at those standing behind Dang Gyeong-rak.
“I’m memorizing every last one of your faces, so don’t even think about pretending you weren’t standing there later. You bastards!”
Fuming, Do Pyeong-sun drew his blade.
The chill radiating from the metal steadied his nerves.
“Lord, are you asking us to fight right now?”
Dang Gyeong-rak had dropped all pretense of courtesy. Do Pyeong-sun’s mind raced.
‘Should I insist on a duel? No—fights are about momentum, and that would make me look afraid.’
Do Pyeong-sun was struggling hard not to let his sword hand tremble.
“You cowardly dogs who bully the weak! Come on—all of you!”
At Do Pyeong-sun’s cry, many of the bandits standing behind Dang Gyeong-rak drew their weapons.
He marveled that they’d held back this long before raising their blades against him. Dang Gyeong-rak’s brazen charge must have been the spark that ignited their pent-up rebellion.
‘Damn—are they really about to rush me all at once?’
Not knowing the extent of his own martial prowess, Do Pyeong-sun couldn’t help but feel uneasy.
“Hey, you lot—you think ganging up on the General Bandit Lord is acceptable? Everyone stand back.”
Fortunately, Dang Gyeong-rak stepped forward boldly alone.
If a man had resolved to kill Do Pyeong-sun and become the General Bandit Lord, he had to have at least that much pride.
Dang Gyeong-rak drew the enormous sword strapped to his back.
Though now reduced to thirty-six hideouts, the organization still bore the name Seventy-Two Nok-rim Hideouts. In terms of pure organizational membership, after the Sect, the Nok-rim was on equal footing with the Hao Mun.
Even for a rabble of bandits, if Dang Gyeong-rak was considered the second-strongest among nearly ten thousand bandits, he couldn’t be weak.
In the old days, he wouldn’t have dared breathe loudly in front of Dang Gyeong-rak.
‘If I just crush that bastard, I become the strongest in the Nok-rim, don’t I?’
How much stronger his solo training had made him was unknown, but he’d climbed atop a tiger.
Do Pyeong-sun leveled his sword horizontally with the ground.
The basic forms of the Sword Method that Seo Seok-san taught him amounted to only seventy techniques—remarkably simple.
The sword methods had fewer forms than the grandiose martial arts manuals sold in markets, but that hardly meant they were weak.
In the end, the motions of wielding a blade were all much the same.
What mattered was how much variation you could impose, and how swiftly you could sever an enemy’s life.
Having trained under his father, who’d once run a martial school, Do Pyeong-sun could see as much. In that sense, Seo Seok-san’s Sword Method was a martial art distilled to only the most effective movements.
“Our Lord is so terrified he can’t even move!”
As Dang Gyeong-rak mocked Do Pyeong-sun, who stood motionless in his opening stance, laughter erupted from the crowd.
Not one of them doubted Dang Gyeong-rak’s victory.
“Come on, boy Lord! I’ll give you first strike—so attack!”
First-Strike Victory.
Do Pyeong-sun did not refuse.
With a forceful drive from the earth, Do Pyeong-sun closed the gap of five zhang in a single breath.
Caught off guard by the speed, Dang Gyeong-rak wheeled his blade up to block the strike at his waist.
A sharp clang!
Though Dang Gyeong-rak’s blade was far heavier, Do Pyeong-sun held his ground. His sword rebounded faster than it should have, slashing at the legs; when that was blocked, he drove the point toward the lower belly.
Dang Gyeong-rak was indeed strong enough to warrant the title of Vice-Lord of Nok-rim. His instant reactions to unexpected attacks proved it beyond doubt.
But having surrendered first strike, he could not escape the defensive pressure.
The seventy-two unnamed forms never ceased, driving Dang Gyeong-rak relentlessly backward. It was Do Pyeong-sun’s first real fight, and they had barely exchanged blows.
Yet even so, Do Pyeong-sun could be certain that he had grown stronger. In combat, confidence mattered as much as skill.
The burden of actual fighting had thrown his forms and internal power slightly out of sync at first, but with each swing of the blade, they began to align.
As they did, the power doubled, and Dang Gyeong-rak’s retreat accelerated.
His hands and feet became a blur—he could not hold out much longer.
A wet crunch.
When Do Pyeong-sun’s blade struck Dang Gyeong-rak’s thigh, the Vice-Lord’s center collapsed, and an instant later, blood sprayed from his shoulder.
Do Pyeong-sun had not even fully mastered the martial art Seo Seok-san had given him, yet Nok-rim’s Vice-Lord was no match for him at all.
Clang! Crunch! Clang! Crunch!
As the rhythm of blocking and cutting continued, Dang Gyeong-rak became soaked in blood within moments.
“Stop—! I yield!”
Seeing that the fight was hopeless, Dang Gyeong-rak dropped to one knee and released his sword.
“I wasn’t aware we were sparring.”
“Pardon?”
That brief reply was Dang Gyeong-rak’s last words.
As Do Pyeong-sun’s blade swung, the head that had hung suspended for an instant in empty air rolled across the ground.
Only then did Do Pyeong-sun exhale the breath he’d been holding and speak.
“If anyone else wants to challenge me, step forward.”
Having just witnessed that even the Vice-Lord was no match, not a single bandit would dare come forward.
Now Do Pyeong-sun had to decide what punishment to inflict on those who had sided with Dang Gyeong-rak.
If he let this pass without consequence, the same rebellion could happen anytime. They might even try to slit his throat while he slept.
‘What should I do?’
A voice cut through his deliberation.
“Why is there a headless corpse rolling about?”
“Who dare—ah! Lord!”
It was Do Pyeong-su.
“What happened?”
“I punished one who dared commit revolt against his superiors.”
Do Pyeong-sun stood proud. He had overwhelmed the Vice-Lord single-handedly and severed his head.
By any measure in Murim, he could now be called a first-class master.
“What brings you here, Lord?”
A first-class master should conduct himself as one. So Do Pyeong-sun clasped his hands behind his back and let steel enter his voice.

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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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