Abolition of the Wicked - Chapter 242

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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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#242

If they knew who these men were and still blocked their path, it meant they were confident of victory. Even without extensive experience in the Murim, anyone could sense they were in grave peril.
“I’ll handle those two. You just make sure they don’t escape.”
The man’s unusually thin lips curved upward into a smile. The 108 Arhats of Shaolin Temple were regarded as first-rate masters by name alone.
Yet this man openly dismissed them, drawing his sword.
“Let’s see how strong Shaolin martial arts really are.”
Rage surged within him at this man’s brazen treatment of Shaolin gongfu as mere spectacle.
―I’ll draw his attention. The moment you see an opening, run!
Seo Won hurled the telepathic communication toward Ban Won. His anger burned, but he refused to ignore reality.
―Senior, we cannot do this!
―This is no time for personal sentiment! No matter what happens, we must report this to Shaolin!
The man’s voice cut through their telepathic exchange like a blade.
“Planning your escape, are you? Why not give it your all against me instead? Hehehehe…….”
The man laughed as he stepped toward them, his sword tip angled toward the ground, showing no hint of wariness.
Despite Seo Won’s telepathic warning, Ban Won attacked first, swinging his staff at the man.
The iron-banded staff descended toward the man’s head—a technique that exemplified and perfected the essence of the Shaolin Staff Method.
Clang!
Blocking a staff with a sword was as futile as a mantis stopping a chariot. Yet Ban Won’s staff was stopped cold by the man’s blade.
“You’ll need to put more power behind it than that.”
Ban Won gritted his teeth and swung again, his strength capable of shattering stone and his speed approaching that of lightning.
Yet the man’s sword sealed every one of Ban Won’s attacks, as if he were toying with his opponent, able to strike him down at any moment.
Seo Won, who had been watching for others, had no choice but to join the fight. This was not a time to concern oneself with honor.
Yet against this man, they could gain no advantage. The force transmitted through the staff made his palms burn with numbness.
This sensation was not merely the result of being overpowered.
‘Demonic Qi!’
He recognized the distinctive aura that emanated from those who had cultivated deep demonic cultivation.
“I expected much from Shaolin martial arts, but I’m disappointed.”
The man stepped back and drove his sword toward Ban Won’s chest with a speed incomparable to before. Seo Won cried out.
“Look out!”
Ban Won, receiving the blow, felt the terror more acutely than Seo Won watching from the sidelines. He desperately swung his staff to block the sword.
But the man’s blade did not strike the staff—instead, it coiled around like a serpent, rendering the defense useless.
The sword’s edge cut through Ban Won’s sleeve first, tearing it to shreds. Blood sprayed from the back of his hand, and a long gash tore across his forearm.
Seo Won rushed in desperately to attack. If left unchecked, a hole would be bored through Ban Won’s chest.
But his hasty attack to save Ban Won only plunged Seo Won himself into danger.
The man twisted his body, easily evading the staff, then shifted his sword’s trajectory to target Seo Won. With no defense in mind, Seo Won could only panic.
The injured Ban Won could not help, and Seo Won, caught by an unexpected attack, had lost his ability to block.
The man’s sword tore through Seo Won’s chest. As his garment disintegrated to powder and a sharp sensation pierced him, suddenly a piercing sound erupted.
Clang!
The sword meant to pierce Seo Won’s chest was knocked aside, and the man staggered backward.
Seo Won, who had thought himself surely dead, stared in shock at the man regaining his balance.
“Who are you!”
As the man shouted toward the forest, a figure emerged from the trees.
He was a man in his late twenties with deep wrinkles around his eyes and a neatly trimmed short beard.
“As a faithful disciple of the Buddha, I could not ignore witnessing monks being harmed, so I took the liberty of intervening.”
Bae Jeong-gwak, who had nearly claimed Seo Won’s life, glanced down at his sword.
What had deflected his blade was unmistakably a pebble no larger than a thumbnail. That this man had thrown it with such precision to strike his sword was remarkable enough, but to actually knock it aside was extraordinary.
Whoever this was, he was clearly a master of hidden projectiles—yet his name did not come readily to mind.
“This is not your concern!”
“But I am already involved, so I must know the truth. If you are doing righteous work, I shall apologize and withdraw.”
“Hmph! If you insist on throwing yourself into death, I’ll gladly oblige!”
Bae Jeong-gwak spoke boldly, but he instinctively sensed this was no easy opponent.
The precision of the hidden projectiles and the force behind them testified that this man was a rare master of the art in the Murim.
With a glance from Bae Jeong-gwak, his disciples surrounded Seo Won and Ban Won, ensuring the Shaolin monks could not escape while he fought.
Bae Jeong-gwak, sword drawn, studied the stranger’s hands carefully. The man’s hands, hanging at his sides, appeared to carry nothing.
‘Still, a master of hidden projectiles demands caution.’
When fighting a master of hidden projectiles, distance is life itself. The closer the distance, the more perilous projectiles become—yet that very closeness is also the domain the sword commands.
Bae Jeong-gwak narrowed the space between himself and the man slowly. Any master of hidden projectiles would naturally retreat as he advanced, working to reclaim distance.
But the man neither moved nor reached for a projectile.
The distance shrank from five paces to four, then three. Now, if he attacked, he could slash the man’s throat faster than an eye could blink.
‘Arrogant bastard!’
Bae Jeong-gwak believed the man was overconfident. There was no other reason—at this distance—that he wouldn’t have drawn a projectile.
Thud!
Bae Jeong-gwak pushed off the ground. His blade thrust forward, ready to parry any projectile that came flying.
But as the sword reached toward the man’s throat, no projectile came.
‘I’ve won!’
He was certain of a victory far easier than expected. Yet the sensation he should have felt in his hand never came.
Instead of that familiar feeling of cleaving flesh and bone, there was only the emptiness of cutting through air.
Somehow the man had shifted sideways, drawing near like a phantom.
Crack!
The pain in his neck was brief. And in the eternal darkness that followed, Bae Jeong-gwak understood.
‘Damn! He’s not a hidden projectile master at all!’
Geom U-bin had broken Bae Jeong-gwak’s neck with casual ease. Bae Jeong-gwak’s fixation on projectiles had contributed, but even without it, the outcome would have been the same.
Geom U-bin hurled himself immediately toward another Huashan disciple. There was no reason to waste time here.
The startled Huashan disciple swung his blade, but it didn’t even graze Geom U-bin’s sleeve.
Bang!
Before the man struck in the chest could even hit the ground, Geom U-bin was already targeting another.
Dispatching Huashan disciples was as easy for Geom U-bin as breaking a child’s wrist.
They died before they could even unfurl the demonic cultivation they’d learned—necks snapped, or sent flying by his fist only to perish on impact.
The final Huashan disciple’s scream, his spine shattered against a tree, echoed long through the surrounding air.
“Haah!”
Geom U-bin’s breath came out long and hard as he finished the fight.
“Are you all right?”
Geom U-bin asked, looking toward Ban Won, who was bleeding from his arm. Ban Won, snapping to his senses, answered.
“Only the fabric is torn.”
“Might I take a look?”
Geom U-bin withdrew supplies from his bundle. His hands, as he applied wound medicine and wrapped the bandage, were as skilled as any seasoned physician’s.
“I’m sorry to show you such ugliness, honored monks.”
At Geom U-bin’s apology, Seo Won and Ban Won both waved their hands in protest.
“You saved our lives—such words only shame us.”
“But tell me, what trouble brought you monks to such a predicament?”
Seo Won answered after a brief sigh.
“I’m sorry, but I cannot speak of it to even our benefactor. Please forgive me.”
“No, I shouldn’t have asked.”
Geom U-bin surveyed the corpses scattered about and picked up a branch.
“Evil though they may be, I cannot leave them as beast fodder.
Seo Won spoke to Geom U-bin, who was about to dig.
“Forgive the imposition, but might we search their belongings? We need to understand who they were.”
“I have no reason to stop you.”
Seo Won and Ban Won searched the Huashan disciples, but found only a handful of silver coins. Yet Geom U-bin could not reveal their identities.
To the two thoroughly disappointed men, Geom U-bin spoke.
“You two should leave first. I’ll dispose of the bodies.”
“No, we couldn’t impose such labor on you. This trouble arose because of us—we’ll see it through to the end.”
With Seo Won saying such things, Geom U-bin had no reason to insist.
“Then I’ll be on my way.”
“Wait. Surely it would be shameful if we didn’t even know the name of the benefactor who saved our lives. Would you tell us your name?”
“It was only chance. Think nothing of it.”
“But a karmic bond born of salvation is no ordinary bond. When I return to Shaolin and make my report, if I don’t even know my savior’s name, my master will be most displeased.”
Pressed so far, he couldn’t refuse to give his name. Of course, the name Geom U-bin had to be kept secret.
Geom U-bin nearly spilled out the alias he’d used once before: Five Immortal Kings.
No matter how poor his naming skill was, he couldn’t use that name again.
In truth, he’d been deliberating over which name to use, but hadn’t decided yet. Now that he had to speak, his disciples came naturally to mind.
Geom U-bin racked his brain and borrowed one character each from the names of the Bloodwind Four Lions.
“My name is Jang Seo-yeon-do.”
“Jang Seo… yeon-do?”
The moment he spoke, he realized how strange the name sounded. So he tried to smooth it over.
“No, it’s Jang Seo-yeon.”
“Jang Seo-yeon? Could that be a woman’s….”
Ban Won’s words died as Seo Won jabbed him in the ribs.
‘If he says no one more time, he’ll get suspicious.’
Geom U-bin couldn’t afford to change the name again.
The name “Jang Seo-yeon” itself was disappointing, and “Jang Seo-yeon-do” was positively grotesque. In the end, Do Pyeong-su’s “Do” had fallen away entirely.
‘It’s worse than Five Immortal Kings.’
With a self-deprecating sigh, Geom U-bin left the two of them to clean up and returned to the inn.
After eating a late breakfast and heading back to his room, someone came rushing over and called out to him.
“Young Master! Young Master!”
It was one of the thugs who’d been with Ha Sang-du, the Heuksahoe boss. He’d hoped to hear that the statue had been found, but the thug’s news disappointed him.
“Could we have one more day?”
“Yes, the boss told me to ask you for that.”
“So he didn’t come himself but sent an errand boy instead? I’m afraid I made a mistake. Tell Ha Sang-du to come see me within this hour. And tell him if he’s even a moment late, I’ll come find him.”
Fortunately, Ha Sang-du didn’t force Geom U-bin to go looking for him.
“I had urgent matters to attend to, so I sent a subordinate. I apologize for the blunder….”
Before Ha Sang-du could finish speaking, the bean seed wedged between Geom U-bin’s thumb and middle finger whistled through the air.
“Gasp!”
As Ha Sang-du doubled over from the hit to his belly, two more bean seeds buried themselves in both his shoulders.
After being struck by bean seeds on both knees, his arms, and ankles, Ha Sang-du crawled across the floor on his belly.
“I’m—I’m truly sorry.”
“Then you shouldn’t have given me reason to apologize in the first place.”
“This will never happen again.”
“One more day?”
“Yes. Whether it’s Jeong Pil-seong or the statue, I’ll deliver results.”
“If you disappoint me, this won’t end like today.”
A bean seed grazed past Ha Sang-du’s ear and lodged itself deep in the wall.

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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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