Abolition of the Wicked - Chapter 221

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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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#221

“You’ve got a real nerve about you.”
“As the Bandit Lord of the Nok-rim Bandits, I’m merely living up to the role—” “Ugh!”
A white flash burst before his eyes, and Do Pyeong-soon, launched backward, didn’t stop rolling until he’d tumbled across the ground a dozen times over.
Do Pyeong-su hadn’t even employed any formal Martial Arts technique. It was unmistakably a chestnut flick.
The forehead that took the chestnut flick throbbed as if it might split open, then began to swell.
‘First-class master, my foot!’
What kind of first-class master gets knocked senseless by a single chestnut flick?
“Are you sleeping? Should I make sure you sleep forever?”
Do Pyeong-soon shot to his feet with the speed of light.
“No, sir!”
As Do Pyeong-su swept his gaze across the surroundings, the bandits all dropped their heads in unison, too frightened to make eye contact.
“You’re actually doing your job as Bandit Lord properly, aren’t you?”
“Of course, sir!”
“And yet your subordinates are committing insubordination?”
“That’s precisely why I disciplined him accordingly!”
He had cut off the man’s head, after all—hardly a lie.
“We need to talk. Follow me.”
Do Pyeong-su turned to leave, then hesitated and asked where Do Pyeong-soon’s quarters were.
“This way, sir.”
As Do Pyeong-soon led the way to his lodgings, he barked out orders to the bandits standing behind him.
“Touch that woman and you die! And don’t even dream of running off! No—all of you, get down and plant your faces in the dirt!”
Had Do Pyeong-soon been alone, it might have been different, but with an expert on hand who could send him flying with a single chestnut flick, the bandits’ obedience was swift.
Two hundred bandits crashed to the ground at once, throwing up a cloud of dust.
Once at his quarters, Do Pyeong-soon wiped down a chair with a cloth and seated Do Pyeong-su, then brought out a warm cup of tea.
“To what do I owe this visit?”
“I’m looking for talent.”
“You came all the way to a bandit den looking for talent?”
“There are plenty of numbers here. How many bandits total if you round them all up?”
“The other Lords eliminated about half the gang, so I’d estimate we have around seven or eight thousand left now.”
“Gather them all.”
“Pardon? You want me to assemble the entire Nok-rim Bandits in one place?”
“That’s right. There must be at least ten useful men among them.”
“With respect, sir—the Nok-rim Bandits are scattered across Zhongyuan. How am I supposed to pull them all together?”
“Why can’t you?”
Do Pyeong-soon’s face fell.
“Honestly, I’m sitting in this position only because the Lords forced me into it, so I’ve got no real authority. I can deal with obvious insubordination when I see it, but if I command them to gather, do you think they’ll obey?”
“Incompetent. What have you been doing all this time that you can’t even control a single band of bandits?”
“I’ve been busy learning the Martial Arts you and the other Lords taught me.”
He left out the part about saving money for an escape.
“I’ll give you money.”
Do Pyeong-soon felt a pang in his chest as he asked carefully.
“Money, sir?”
“Bandits love money, don’t they? If you tell them there’s a million silver coins on offer, they’ll come running with their eyes gleaming.”
“A million silver coins? Do you understand how much that is?”
He didn’t. He’d just said whatever came to mind.
“The bait should be as large as possible.”
“Will you actually provide a million silver coins?”
“That’s your problem to solve. Considering how slowly those lumbering fools move, I’m giving you a month. Get them all assembled within that time. If you can’t, I’ll shrivel your internal organs down to the size of a bean.”
Do Pyeong-su brought his fist up right to Do Pyeong-soon’s nose. Suddenly his internal organs seemed to contract, and his stomach began to ache.
‘I should have run away long ago!’

***

A small hand deftly snatched at the pouch hanging from Yeon Geum-hong’s waist. To an ordinary person, it would have been undetectable, but Yeon Geum-hong was far from ordinary.
She reached for the child’s hand, but the boy’s fingers moved with an uncanny grace, slipping past her grasp.
‘Oh, clever little thing.’
She could have caught him easily enough, but Yeon Geum-hong simply watched as the child vanished into the crowd.
Pickpocketing in the city was impossible unless you belonged to the Hao Mun.
“You’re marked, kid.”
She had time before her appointment with the Hao Mun, and it was nearly mealtime, so Yeon Geum-hong went to a restaurant and ordered lavishly.
After consuming alone what five strong men could barely finish, Yeon Geum-hong went to settle the account only to realize she had no money.
“So I got pickpocketed instead.”
It didn’t trouble her. Before meeting Geom U-bin, this had been a frequent occurrence.
Yeon Geum-hong surveyed the restaurant: the server, the middle-aged woman at the counter, and the other patrons.
As her eyes swept across them, she put pressure on her toes. She mustn’t miss that fleeting moment—that rare instant when all gazes slipped past her.
That instant when even the server, the owner, and the customers’ eyes shifted away from her.
Of course, such moments rarely came. Her beauty was far too striking.
‘Being pretty is exhausting.’
Today, luck was not on her side.
Whether server, owner, or patron, someone was always watching her.
‘I should put a few scars on this face.’
With that thought, Yeon Geum-hong took up a pair of chopsticks. If opportunity wouldn’t come, she’d make one.
Her target was already chosen.
It was the man whose bloodshot eyes had been fixed on her since she entered.
He’d even leered at his companion about her—a hole through the knee was hardly unfair compensation.
She placed the chopsticks beneath the table and flicked them. They flew in a sharp arc, lodging in the bloodshot man’s knee.
“Ahhh!”
The shriek was followed by a bang and the crash of shattering dishes. The sudden pain in his knee made him double over, and his forehead slammed hard against the table, sending bowls clattering to the floor.
Of course, all eyes turned toward the commotion, and Yeon Geum-hong slipped out of the restaurant with perfect composure.
‘It’s been a while. This is actually fun.’
After taking her time to stroll through the town, Yeon Geum-hong made her way to the meeting place.
On the outskirts of So-yang County in Hunan Province, Dongbong Mountain held a fairly spacious clearing—the kind used for festivals or major village events. Today it hosted a grand assembly of the Hao Mun.
Yeon Geum-hong had ordered the Hao Mun Lord to gather every Hao Mun member in the vicinity, making this an unusually large gathering for the organization.
The members summoned—those between fifteen and forty years old—numbered roughly five to six hundred.
When Yeon Geum-hong appeared, Seong Sang-do, the Hao Mun Lord, who had been anxiously wringing his hands, raised his voice.
“Everyone, attention!”
The chattering members fell silent, all eyes fixed on Seong Sang-do.
“This honored guest has business with you all. Open your ears and listen well!”
Yeon Geum-hong stepped up onto the rock where Seong Sang-do had been standing. The assembled members were impossibly diverse in age, appearance, and dress—hardly what one would call a unified sect.
Just as Yeon Geum-hong was about to speak, someone in the crowd shouted.
“There! That’s the woman who dined and dashed!”
Yeon Geum-hong spotted a boy of about sixteen pointing at her.
The restaurant server.
“Lord! This is the woman I told you about! She consumed enough food for ten strong men and then fled!”
She wanted to drive a chopstick through his forehead and silence him.
Once, she would have acted on that impulse before thinking. But now Geom U-bin rose unbidden in her mind, and she held herself in check.
“Silence, you fool! Do you know who this is?”
Seong Sang-do said “Do you know who this is?” but he himself didn’t know precisely.
She was simply the master of absurdly powerful men, which meant she must be far stronger than them—and that was why he obeyed her orders.
As Yeon Geum-hong’s gaze swept across the assembled Hao Mun members, a smile played at her lips.
“That money will be repaid. You—there!”
A boy of about thirteen or fourteen, upon being singled out by Yeon Geum-hong, flinched. He was the pickpocket who had set the whole restaurant incident in motion.
The boy, who had been hiding behind a large man, bolted the moment Yeon Geum-hong pointed at him. Nimble for his age, but escaping Yeon Geum-hong was as impossible as cheating death.
The instant he broke from the crowd of Hao Mun members, his collar was seized.
“Let go! Why are you doing this!”
“Oh? Are you going to deny stealing from my pocket?”
“I never—I didn’t—”
Yeon Geum-hong’s purse dangled before the boy’s eyes.
“Refined taste, I must say?”
Yeon Geum-hong hadn’t known how much was in the purse to begin with—she’d simply brought what Se-hwa had prepared.
But she could tell the weight had decreased significantly.
“Where’s the rest?”
“That—that’s not mine.”
For his age, he had remarkable nerve. An adult would have had his legs broken already, but Yeon Geum-hong found herself oddly drawn to this little thief.
“Sect Master!”
At her call, Seong Sang-do—who had been standing to the side, cold sweat streaming down his face—rushed over as though his feet barely touched the ground.
“I await your orders!”
Yeon Geum-hong tossed the purse to Seong Sang-do.
“Restore it exactly as it was.”
“Yes, Sect Master!”
Seong Sang-do approached the middle-aged man hidden in the crowd and soon returned, the purse refilled with silver coins.
“Not a single coin added or removed. Precisely as it was.”
Yeon Geum-hong took the purse from Seong Sang-do’s respectfully extended hands and spoke.
“Expel this wretch from the Hao Mun.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“What, you think the Hao Mun so desperate for members that we’d keep a pickpocket in our ranks? Is the Hao Mun’s honor worth so little?”
“No, no—I’ll expel him at once!”
Seong Sang-do turned to the small boy still held in Yeon Geum-hong’s grip.
“From this moment forward, you are no longer a member of the Hao Mun!”
Silence fell for a moment before Yeon Geum-hong spoke again.
“Is that all?”
“Pardon? What else would be needed?”
“Nothing else? That’s how simply an expulsion is carried out?”
“When someone is admitted to the Hao Mun, I simply say ‘From now on, you are a member of the Hao Mun’—that’s how it’s done. Expulsion follows the same manner.”
There was good reason why the Hao Mun’s bonds were as fragile as grains of sand. Yeon Geum-hong’s index finger pointed toward Jeom So-i.
“Expel him as well.”
Jeom So-i, startled, protested.
“Why me?”
“You tattled.”
“Sect Master, surely you wouldn’t expel me for something so trivial—”
“From this moment forward, you are no longer a member of the Hao Mun.”
“…So you’re quite serious, then.”
Yeon Geum-hong swept her gaze across the Hao Mun members as she passed, but apart from the pickpocket and Jeom So-i, she saw no talent worth keeping.
As she left, Yeon Geum-hong spoke to Seong Sang-do.
“Next is Haenam Province.”
“Pardon? Should I gather Hao Mun members there as well?”
“Do it. Meet me in Jeongju in four days.”
Yeon Geum-hong departed with the pickpocket and Jeom So-i in tow, vanishing from sight in an instant. As Seong Sang-do watched the space she had occupied, he heaved a long sigh and spoke.
“Everyone, return to your regular business.”
“What becomes of the children who were taken?”
Seong Sang-do wondered the same thing.

***

“Ah, Master, after hearing such splendid music, how could we possibly accept payment? Please, do come again!”
“Kind of you to say. I cannot promise to return often, but should I have reason to pass through here again, I will surely stop by.”
Seo Seok-san left the pleasure house in good spirits, though his smile soon faded into a weary sigh.
“Is the water in Sichuan Province so poor? Whether it’s the Heuksahoe or the pleasure houses, there’s hardly any talent to be found. Perhaps I should head toward Gansu Province.”
Though the hour was late, Seo Seok-san felt little fatigue and decided to walk in the night air.
Having just performed with genuine satisfaction, his footsteps were light as he crossed the low mountain.
The world was vast, and talent surely existed somewhere—there was no need to hurry.
Humming a tune he had set to a poem by Li Bai, Seo Seok-san made his way across the night-shrouded mountain when he heard the sound of music from somewhere ahead.
“Hmm, a reasonably fine performance—no, that’s not quite right.”
Seo Seok-san moved toward the sound only because what he was hearing was not mere music, but Eumgong.
The pipa notes grew sharper as he drew closer, leading him to a grand and ornately constructed estate built on the mountain slope, positioned to overlook an entire village below.
Eumgong was notoriously difficult to master, and few indeed practiced such an art.
‘With power of this level, anyone nearby would be grievously wounded.’
With that thought, Seo Seok-san entered through the estate’s open gate. A faint iron scent hung in the air, emanating from the bodies strewn across the courtyard.
Ten corpses of swordsmen clad in warrior’s garb lay scattered here and there across the grounds.

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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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