Abolition of the Wicked - Chapter 229

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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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#229

“If you insist on being stubborn, we’ll have no choice but to take you by force!”
Baek Do-myeong raised his hand, signaling the attack.
In that instant, wind swept through.
Trapped between walls and buildings on all sides, it churned up dust that blinded the Murim Alliance warriors’ vision in a heartbeat.
Though it lasted only a moment.
Truly, just the blink of an eye.
Yet the man in the middle—Nam Jae-seok—vanished without a trace.
He was no one capable of deploying such Lightness Technique, and they refused to believe that anyone in the world could slip past their eyes like this.
“What—what are you doing? Find him, now!”
By the time Baek Do-myeong shouted, Nam Jae-seok was already far away.
Nam Jae-seok was far more shocked than the one who’d lost him. Like the others, he’d kept his eyes shut against the dust for just a moment.
Then his body lurched suddenly, and a tremendous gust of wind hammered past his ears.
When his eyes opened, there was nothing but darkness.
It felt as though the ferryman of the underworld was carrying him to the next life.
“Ahhhhh……!”
His cry was cut short, and soon his voice was sealed away entirely.
Though it seemed he’d traveled an impossible distance, in truth he’d only crossed from one end of the village to the other.
Do Pyeong-su and Jang Man-dok descended into the rear courtyard of Sunpyeong Inn.
They arrived so quietly that even the horse tethered in the stable didn’t sense their presence.
They looked up at Geom U-bin’s room on this floor.
Geom U-bin had spurred them to hurry, but now that they’d arrived, the night was far too late for an intrusion.
“Should we go back and come tomorrow?”
To Do Pyeong-su’s question, Jang Man-dok’s expression gave no answer. He too couldn’t decide easily.
“Is this something urgent? Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t?”
It depends on how important Hyeol-geom O-gyeon truly is to Geom U-bin.
The figure tucked under Do Pyeong-su’s arm struggled and thrashed.
“Hold still, you.”
When he continued to struggle, Do Pyeong-su raised his hand.
“Keep making a nuisance of yourself and I’ll just go—Whack!”
“If you hit his head with that hand, he’ll die.”
Startled by Geom U-bin’s voice, both men looked up. Geom U-bin was leaning halfway out a window, watching them.
“Oh! Elder brother! You—you’re here?”
Geom U-bin held back a smile at Do Pyeong-su’s clumsy act.
“I’m not sure what this is about, but come inside first. There’s a door, you know…….”
By the time he finished speaking, Do Pyeong-su and Jang Man-dok had already entered through the window.
“We’re fortunate you’re here, Elder brother. If you hadn’t been, we’d have had to search all over the place. Hehe!”
Geom U-bin decided to let Do Pyeong-su’s act pass.
“What brings you here? And who is this man?”
Do Pyeong-su dropped the figure to the floor like a sack.
“He was being hunted by the Murim Alliance, so we rescued him. He claims to be the sole survivor of the Daerim Valley Blood Incident that Hyeol-geom O-gyeon triggered twenty years ago in Sichuan Province.”
Geom U-bin went pale with shock.
“There was someone who survived that incident?”
Do Pyeong-su nudged the crouching man’s backside with his foot.
“Tell Elder brother what happened back then.”
“Isn’t he sealed with Pressure Point Sealing?”
“Ah, right.”
As Do Pyeong-su released the Pressure Point Seal, the man gasped out the breath he’d been holding.
“Hhhhh!”
Geom U-bin offered the man a chair.
“Sit here and catch your breath.”
“Thank you…….”
He’d started to speak down to the young man before quickly switching to respectful speech under the dominating presence of Jang Man-dok and Do Pyeong-su.
“My name is Nam Jae-seok. I was born in Daerim Valley in Sichuan Province, the most peaceful place in the world…….”
Do Pyeong-su cut off Nam Jae-seok’s words.
“There’s no need to recite your entire life story—just tell us plainly about the Hyeol-geom O-gyeon.”
“But wouldn’t it be more convincing if I included some context?”
“We don’t need convincing. We’ve no interest in the Hyeol-geom O-gyeon anyway!”
“Then why did you save me?”
“Well, that was just an excuse to meet my brother again…….”
Smack!
Jang Man-dok hastily struck Do Pyeong-su across the back to silence him, but it was already too late.
“No, what I meant was…….”
Geom U-bin turned to Nam Jae-seok.
“Tell us about the circumstances at the time of the incident.”
“I was ten years old then. I was gathering medicinal herbs in the mountains…… Ah, I’ll spare you the tedious details. At the time, the criminals weren’t the Hyeol-geom O-gyeon as the Murim Alliance announced. About ten masked ones killed all the adults and took children like me. After that, I learned martial arts to avenge them and tried everything to catch the criminals, but I couldn’t find any way to learn their identities.”
“So you’re saying the Hyeol-geom O-gyeon couldn’t be the criminal unless there were a dozen of them?”
Nam Jae-seok nodded vigorously at Geom U-bin’s question.
“That’s right. I was trying to find the Hyeol-geom O-gyeon and join forces. Surely the Hyeol-geom O-gyeon would be better at catching the criminals than someone like me, wouldn’t you say?”
Nam Jae-seok’s testimony matched exactly what Jegal Hoon had investigated.
“I think we should clear the Hyeol-geom O-gyeon’s name.”
“Do we really need to go to such trouble for the Hyeol-geom O-gyeon?”
Geom U-bin asked at Do Pyeong-su’s words.
“Then why did you bring this man to me?”
“Well…… it was for the Hyeol-geom O-gyeon’s sake, of course. Now that I think about it, yes, we should clear the Hyeol-geom O-gyeon’s name. Haha!”
Do Pyeong-su’s laughter gradually faded as he received Jang Man-dok’s glare.
“If we step forward before the Murim Alliance, it’ll only provoke a confrontation.”
The relationship between Oseong Jang-won and the Murim Alliance had already grown strained, and they could become future enemies.
If Geom U-bin and the Bloodwind Four Lions stepped in, even if the Hyeol-geom O-gyeon’s innocence were proven, the Murim Alliance might not withdraw so easily.
“I think it would be better to get help from the Lord of our Sect. They’re already involved in this matter anyway.”
“Noh Dae-sul’s help? Do you know where he is?”
“No. But I know how to find him. Do your disciples have the Oseong Wine?”

***

Noh Dae-sul’s nostrils flared. He was on his way to find the Hyeol-geom O-gyeon trapped in the Murim Alliance’s Heavenly Net, and though his mind knew where he needed to go, his body refused to comply.
“This is definitely the scent of Oseong Wine!”
With flaring nostrils, Noh Dae-sul stopped before an alleyway.
Though many people passed through and the smell of food wafted from scattered restaurants on either side, his keen nose did not miss the fragrance of Oseong Wine.
“That’s the place.”
Ignoring the stares of passersby, Noh Dae-sul leaped onto a rooftop.
There he discovered a small cup filled with Oseong Wine. By the lingering richness of the aroma, it hadn’t been long.
As Noh Dae-sul tasted it, his face flooded with delight.
Just as the flavor of the Oseong Wine began to fade from his palate, the scent of another wine struck his olfactory senses.
“It’s definitely U-bin and the Bloodwind Four Lions.”
And what was equally certain was that they were luring him. Regardless of the reason, he shouldn’t fall for such tricks.
“Hmph! As if they could trifle with the great Lord of our Sect!”
Noh Dae-sul hurled himself forward.
With two leaps, he landed on yet another rooftop, before yet another cup of Oseong Wine.
His reason screamed at him not to be seduced, yet his body was already pursuing the wine.
And in the end, he passed through the window of an inn.
There were Geom U-bin, Jang Man-dok, Do Pyeong-su, and one other unfamiliar young man.
Geom U-bin held out a cup brimming with Oseong Wine toward Noh Dae-sul, who had come through the window.
“Thank you for the trouble of coming.”
Noh Dae-sul’s face twisted oddly.
“Was this trap your idea?”
Though he seemed displeased, the Oseong Wine made it impossible for him to truly show anger, so the upper and lower halves of his face moved independently.
“I wanted to offer you a cup of wine but didn’t know where to find you.”
“There are plenty of my disciples around—you could have simply asked them.”
“Should I have done that?”
As Geom U-bin tried to discreetly move the cup away, Noh Dae-sul snatched it at lightning speed.
“Since I’m here, I ought to hear your business. Ahh! You don’t mean this is the last one, do you?”
“You old fox! You’ve already drained an entire bottle on the way here!”
As Do Pyeong-su shouted, Noh Dae-sul spoke with an air of instruction.
“Good wine is never enough, even if it filled the great sea. I wonder how someone without the soul of a vintner could have created such exquisite wine.”
“I’d throw him in that sea and watch him drown.”
Noh Dae-sul asked Geom U-bin.
“What’s your reason for bringing me all the way here?”
Geom U-bin introduced Nam Jae-seok to Noh Dae-sul and told him the circumstances surrounding the man.
“Actually, I have a book that records the fact that Hyeol-geom O-gyeon might not be the real culprit in the Daerim Valley Blood Incident.”
“You have such a book?”
“Yes.”
Geom U-bin handed over the book he’d received from Jegal Hoon to Noh Dae-sul. As Noh Dae-sul skimmed through it, he spoke.
“Whoever wrote this was clearly obsessed with Hyeol-geom O-gyeon. Such meticulous records. But just because something is written here doesn’t make it all true.”
“Of course not, but if even one thing here isn’t true, doesn’t that cast doubt on everything else?”
“Well, aside from the Daerim Valley incident, there’s at least one other matter where I can personally testify to Hyeol-geom O-gyeon’s innocence.”
“Then we could prove that two of the Blood Incidents attributed to Hyeol-geom O-gyeon were false accusations.”
“Why are you working so hard to clear Hyeol-geom O-gyeon’s name?”
“Isn’t it you who’s putting in more effort than I am?”
“Me?”
“The fact that your sect is searching so intensely for Hyeol-geom O-gyeon—isn’t that your will as sect leader?”
“That’s because the elder’s younger brother was killed by Hyeol-geom O-gyeon…….”
“If you feel the need to make excuses, I won’t ask further. Let’s not waste more time on this.”
Noh Dae-sul shook his head slowly.
“You’re far too rigid for your age. Living that way will exhaust you.”
Do Pyeong-su bristled.
“Don’t worry about our senior—worry about your own decrepit hide!”
“What have I done?”
“Senior found a witness and gave you this book. Now you’re going to save Hyeol-geom O-gyeon. If anything happens to him, I’ll hold you accountable.”
Noh Dae-sul’s face crumpled.
“What have I done?”
“You drank the Oseong Wine. You have to pay its price.”
“You want me to stake my life over a bottle of wine?”
“That bottle of wine? Oh ho! So you’re saying you won’t drink our wine anymore?”
“No, that’s not what I meant—you can threaten me with death well enough, but threatening me with wine is just cruel.”
“Then don’t disappoint our senior.”
“Damn it! This is exactly why you shouldn’t give in to temptation!”
Yet when the allure of Oseong Wine presented itself again, he had no confidence he could refuse.
Noh Dae-sul turned toward the door and spoke.
“Let’s go.”
After three steps, Noh Dae-sul turned back to Nam Jae-seok.
“Well? What are you doing?”
“Pardon? You mean me?”
“Who else is standing here?”
“Where are we going?”
“Your mind is practically…….”
Noh Dae-sul, glancing at Do Pyeong-su, stepped through the door.
“Watch yourself. We’re walking into a tiger’s mouth.”

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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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