Abolition of the Wicked - Chapter 222

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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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#Chapter 222

Seo Seok-san spotted the woman playing the pipa without much difficulty. She appeared to be around eighteen or nineteen, with blood trickling not only from her plucking fingers but also from between her lips.
Even when he extended his senses across the entire Estate, he felt no other living souls within it besides her.
Whether she was virtuous or wicked, everyone who was meant to die had already died—yet she was channeling Eumgong with enough force to sustain internal wounds. It was a clear statement of her will to end her own life.
The woman noticed Seo Seok-san only after he had stepped into the courtyard, and the music wavered sharply before settling back into its original rhythm.
Because she was channeling Eumgong, she could not open her mouth, but her expression alone was desperately clear: leave at once.
What did it matter to Seo Seok-san if a stranger died? And yet, he decided to let her live.
Partly out of curiosity, but more than that—the woman’s playing was far too exquisite to abandon to death.
It was absolutely not because she was beautiful. Absolutely not.
Seo Seok-san tore off a blade of grass from beneath the courtyard wall and placed it between his teeth.
If she stopped channeling suddenly in her current state, the shock would cause her to cough blood and collapse. He needed to guide her inner breath gently, allowing her to withdraw from the Eumgong naturally.
Tee-tee-tee-tee!
Sound began to flow from the grass flute between Seo Seok-san’s teeth. It interwove mysteriously with the woman’s pipa music, like two snakes swimming toward the same place in tandem.
Their bodies twisted together and parted, collided and merged again, and as they did, the sound drifted exactly where Seo Seok-san willed it.
The violent music slowed and grew softer, then gradually faded away.
“Ahh…”
The pallid woman released a long sigh and lowered her fingers. Drops of blood beaded like dew along the pipa strings where they had been.
“That was the most beautiful performance I have ever heard you play.”
The woman’s voice trembled as she responded.
“Why didn’t you simply let me die?”
“One can always die whenever one wishes—so what matter is there in delaying? I’m not the sort to meddle in other people’s affairs as a rule, but…”
Seo Seok-san gestured toward the corpses scattered across the courtyard before continuing.
“I heard the Eumgong and couldn’t simply pass by. For what it’s worth, I’m no knight-errant, so your killings mean nothing to me one way or another.”
“If you only came because of the Eumgong, please leave now.”
It was unlike Seo Seok-san to involve himself in the affairs of strangers like this.
“I happen to be searching for talented people, and it occurs to me you might be one of them. Good grief, just tell me! Why did you do this?”
Seo Seok-san’s irritated tone naturally inspired fear, regardless of the woman’s condition.
“These men were bodyguards who protected the Estate.”
“They weren’t guarding the building itself, then. And the people they were protecting?”
The woman glanced toward the rooms adjoining the Main Hall.
“They are all… dead.”
“Who were these people?”
“My uncle and aunt, and their family.”
He could no longer hear the word “family” with indifference as he once might have. Whatever happened, Seo Seok-san would never bring himself to kill the people of Oseong Jang-won.
“There’s a story here, it seems.”
“My father passed away when I was young, so I came to live in my uncle’s household.”
Whether it was resignation or a final outpouring before death, she began to speak freely.
She even revealed her name: Yeon Hye-yang.
“I endured harsh treatment from my earliest days, but I bore it. A sudden extra mouth in the house is hardly welcome, after all.”
Seo Seok-san looked around the expansive Estate.
“I don’t know how much you eat, but this household doesn’t strike me as one that would find one more mouth a burden.”
“The cruelty from my aunt and cousin in particular was severe. They burned me with hot irons twice—look at this.”
She suddenly flipped her skirt, revealing dark burn scars across the inside of her thigh.
“I have more on my back too. Would you like to see?”
“Ah, no—never mind. You’re a girl, after all… So then?”
“I thought my male cousin was different, but when I turned fifteen, he began to act strangely toward me.”
“He’s your cousin?”
“That apparently makes it acceptable to him. He didn’t think me completely foolish, either. Then one day, a man in his fifties arrived—I thought he was simply an ordinary guest until my uncle told me to marry him. At eighteen, he sold me to an old man of fifty! An old man who would be dead within a handful of years!”
“Hmph! Fifty is hardly decrepit. So you killed them all because your uncle was selling you to an old man?”
Yeon Hye-yang shook her head.
“If that were enough to make me kill, I would have done it when they first burned me with the irons. Today was when I finally learned why my father died.”
“Are you saying your uncle murdered your father?”
Her head moved up and down in confirmation.
“He came asking to borrow money because we were so poor, but instead of money, he received a beating. That beating was what killed him in the end. An old servant who pitied me told me the truth. I wish she’d told me sooner.”
Tears streamed down Yeon Hye-yang’s face.
“My mother couldn’t see a step ahead her whole life, and after a difficult childbirth, she passed away—but he raised me in her stead…… Sob!”
Her words—”couldn’t see a step ahead her whole life”—suddenly conjured a face in his memory.
“What was your father’s name?”
“Are you planning to hold a memorial service for him?”
“Answer the question I asked you!”
“His name was Yeon Hwang-gil.”
“Yeon Hwang-gil…… Yeon Hwang-gil……”
No matter how many times he turned the name over in his mouth, it felt certain.
“There was a black mole in the center of his forehead, wasn’t there?”
“How—how did you know that?”
“The Eumgong you displayed must have been learned from your father.”
Yeon Hye-yang was too stunned to answer.
“The man who taught your father that Eumgong was me. It was about twenty years ago. I saw a blind man being beaten by ruffians and felt pity—I taught him a little something to protect himself. But the Eumgong you just showed me far surpasses what I ever taught him.”
“I’ve listened to my father’s playing since I was an infant. He practiced ceaselessly. I didn’t need him to teach me anything—I simply awoke to the profound secrets on my own.”
Seo Seok-san exhaled a long breath.
“A karmic bond passed down through generations. Come with me.”
“Pardon?”
“With such a meager Eumgong, you’d struggle even to take your own life. I’ll teach you the true art—one that can kill or be killed in a single stroke.”

***

Anhui Province, Jiangsu Province, and Zhejiang Province, all lying south of the Yangtze, had been celebrated since ancient times for their prosperity. And so when people spoke of Gangnam, they commonly referred to these three provinces.
Among them, Anhui Province lay geographically close to the north and possessed fertile land, making it a region that many lords coveted above all others.
Though its former glory had faded somewhat with time, Hefei, the provincial capital of Anhui, remained as flourishing as Beijing and Nanjing.
The Daeyun Merchant Association held the commercial life of that city in its grip.
Beyond tea and silk, it dealt in everything—even rare seafood brought from the coast, a commodity precious in a landlocked province.
But lately, a thorn had begun to emerge.
At first, a Silk Shop opened on Nanzhu Street, the most thriving avenue in Hefei. More shops meant more opportunities for the Daeyun Merchant Association to supply goods.
For anyone conducting business in Hefei to operate without going through the Daeyun Merchant Association was unthinkable.
Yet that Silk Shop bearing the name “Oseong Silk” received its goods not from the Daeyun Merchant Association, but from the Oseong Merchant Association.
‘What are these people thinking? We’ll see.’
Seeing wasn’t an option.
The Silk Shops didn’t stop at Nanzhu Street alone—they sprang up on Fanyong Street and Sangha Street too, ten locations in all, each bearing the name “Oseong Silk” with a number appended.
One Silk Shop was galling enough, but then five tea houses selling tea, eight inns, three pleasure houses, and two blacksmiths appeared.
All bore the name “Oseong.” And then, at last, the Oseong Merchant Association itself arrived.
All of it materialized in a mere fortnight from the moment the decision was made to wait and watch.
By acquiring existing businesses and hastily renovating them, they were able to open their doors just as quickly.
Ban Pil-seo, the Leader of the Daeyun Merchant Association, asked his Chief Administrator Yeom Ja-bang the moment he entered.
“Is this the Oseong Merchant Association from Hangju?”
“Yes, sir. It is indeed the Oseong Merchant Association from Oseong Jang-won.”
The Oseong Merchant Association, which controlled Zhejiang Province, had finally expanded into Anhui Province.
“They are not to be taken lightly.”
“Perhaps not, but this won’t do for me. Our Daeyun Merchant Association has been rooted in Hefei for a hundred years—a hundred years!”
“I hear the Leader of the Oseong Merchant Association comes to Hefei tomorrow. Shall we meet with him?”
“Is that so? Let’s see what manner of man he is.”
“I shall extend a proper invitation.”
There was no profit in associations warring with one another. War between merchants only meant undercutting prices and suffering financial losses. True, when one association finally collapsed, the survivor could raise prices again to recover those losses, but that was a hard road.
The appointment was set for lunch. Ban Pil-seo’s first impression of the Oseong Merchant Association’s Leader was: ‘What?’
The man, who appeared to be in his sixties, dressed with austere simplicity. His rough hemp-cloth garments and white hair, combed back and tied with a cord, created an image of ascetic plainness. And he was missing an arm.
The “Vice-Leader” who accompanied him was lame.
Ban Pil-seo glanced at Yeom Ja-bang, who had brought them in, with a silent question in his eyes: ‘Are these really the ones?’
As Yeom Ja-bang performed introductions—”Allow me to present Ban Pil-seo, the Leader of the Daeyun Merchant Association you have honored with your presence, and here is Bae Do-sang, Leader of the Oseong Merchant Association, and this is Jo Ja-myeong, the Vice-Leader”—the ordered food began to arrive.
The customary exchanges followed: acknowledgments of the long journey, gratitude for the invitation, and so forth.
Bae Do-sang and Jo Ja-myeong ate with vigor.
Despite having only one arm, Bae Do-sang wielded his chopsticks faster than any man at the table.
‘Have they lost their minds? Where did he dig up these beggars?’
Yeom Ja-bang, as if reading Ban Pil-seo’s thoughts, mouthed silently: ‘These are indeed the ones.’
So not a word of business was spoken during the meal.
“The tea is quite fine.”
It was only after Bae Do-sang’s hunger was satisfied that he finally opened his mouth to speak.
“We sell it at the Daeyun Merchant Association.”
“It must sell quite well.”
“So well that the tea house run by the Oseong Merchant Association collapsed entirely.”
Ban Pil-seo went on the attack immediately.
“Have you perhaps tasted the tea we sell at the Oseong Merchant Association?”
“I’ve never had tea more delicious than what we sell at the Daeyun Merchant Association.”
“I thought as much.”
It was a subtle barb suggesting that Oseong’s tea was superior.
“Still, I had no idea the Oseong Merchant Association lacked such basic merchant propriety.”
“It seems opening without so much as a greeting to the established merchant has left you feeling slighted.”
“Slighted hardly covers it. Opening a dumpling shop right next to another dumpling shop — both will collapse, won’t they?”
“The one with the worse dumplings will collapse.”
This man wouldn’t yield an inch.
“How much did it cost the Oseong Merchant Association to establish this shop in Hefei?”
“What would you do with that information?”
“We at the Daeyun Merchant Association will simply acquire it. Fighting will only harm us both, won’t it?”
“I wouldn’t call it fighting — it’s honorable competition. Whichever sells better goods at better prices survives — that’s the merchant way, isn’t it?”
“So you’re truly ready to compete with us, the Daeyun Merchant Association, here in Hefei?”
“I’ll deliver rice cakes at the opening.”
“Even a cartload of rice cakes wouldn’t cover today’s losses!”

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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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