Abolition of the Wicked - Chapter 243

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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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#243

To Ha Sang-du, the existence of Geom U-bin had transformed from a thunderbolt out of a clear sky into a windfall from that same clear sky.
Ha Sang-du had finally found what Geom U-bin wanted.
Creak!
The gate swung open and Geom U-bin stepped into the courtyard. Ha Sang-du wore a broad smile, already thinking that the hinges would need some oil.
“You’ve arrived at precisely the right moment.”
Geom U-bin’s gaze swept across the three buildings that stood on the property, then fixed itself upon Ha Sang-du.
“I see only your men here, though.”
“Ah, yes—these fellows are just my errand boys. If they offend your eyes, I’ll have them clear out at once.”
Ha Sang-du sent five ruffians, who had been standing like a folding screen, inside. Given Geom U-bin’s martial prowess, his subordinates might as well have been scarecrows stuffed with straw.
“Wait just a moment, and someone will appear with the Golden Buddha Statue.”
It would have been ideal if Jeon Hwang-gil himself showed up, but even a secondary lead would help unravel the thread—hardly a poor outcome.
But as always, problems never resolved themselves easily.
Bang!
The door burst open roughly, and one of the ruffians called out Ha Sang-du’s name at the top of his lungs.
“Boss!”
“What is it?”
“The Golden Buddha Statue—it’s been stolen!”
“Stolen? The Buddha statue was stolen? That’s absurd!”
“It vanished without a trace!”
Judging by Ha Sang-du’s bewildered expression, it didn’t seem like he was playing some trick.
“What should we do?”
Ha Sang-du turned the question to Geom U-bin instead.
“First, let’s go to whoever had the Golden Buddha Statue.”
It was necessary to confirm whether it had truly been stolen.
“But that person doesn’t wish for their identity to be revealed, which creates a difficulty.”
Geom U-bin’s expression froze, turning cold.
“If you don’t tell me who this person is, who do you think will find themselves in the most difficulty?”
A chill ran down Ha Sang-du’s spine.
“Just give me the name. I’ll handle the rest myself.”
That was as far as Ha Sang-du could hold out.
“Do you happen to know the Gil-myeong Estate?”

***

The lord of the Gil-myeong Estate, Gil Sang-do, lay bedridden. Despite all his caution, he had still been robbed.
‘Should I report this to the magistrate?’
Gil Sang-do had jolted upright, ready to swing out of bed, but he shook his head.
“What’s the use? Those incompetent officials will never catch the thief—they’ll only try to squeeze money out of me. Damn it all.”
There were two possible suspects. One he could not catch; the other he could catch only by taking a great risk.
“Risk or not, I can’t simply let this pass.”
Just as Gil Sang-do was about to leave the room, a strange feeling made him turn around. His heart nearly stopped.
“Who—who are you?”
A man in his mid-to-late twenties sat in a chair in the corner of the room.
“I apologize for arriving without notice. The circumstances prevent me from moving openly. I am the person who arranged to purchase the Golden Buddha Statue today.”
Both the sudden appearance and the identity startled Gil Sang-do.
“You’re the one?”
“The Golden Buddha Statue has been stolen, you say?”
Gil Sang-do steadied his rattled nerves by drinking the cold water that sat on the table.
“How did you know I was the ‘seller’?”
“Ha Sang-du told me.”
“When did he tell you?”
“A quarter hour ago.”
“Is that so?”
A faint smile played at the corner of Geom U-bin’s lips.
“So you suspected me of not being the one who stole the Golden Buddha Statue.”
Only a handful of people knew that Gil Sang-do possessed the Golden Buddha Statue, so suspicion was warranted.
“But it wasn’t me. There’s no reason to steal something you can simply buy with money.”
“Money matters to everyone.”
“Unless the real criminal is caught, I can never fully clear my name. That’s why I’ve come to apprehend the thief.”
“And how do you propose to do that?”
“It seems to me you must suspect more than just me, my lord?”
Of course he did. But Gil Sang-do couldn’t decide whether it was wise to tell Geom U-bin as much. After all, he had no proof that Geom U-bin wasn’t the culprit.
As if reading his thoughts, Geom U-bin spoke.
“Once I recover the statue, I’ll return it to you without asking for anything in exchange.”
“Nothing at all?”
“I simply want to clear my name. Of course, there is one small thing I must ask, but it’s so trivial it hardly counts as payment.”
Gil Sang-do wanted to hear more about this “trivial” request, but Geom U-bin continued at once.
“Who knows that you possess the Golden Buddha Statue?”
“Only my wife and the innkeeper who brought the item.”
“Truly just those two?”
“Yes. My wife, whom I’ve lived with for forty years, doesn’t even know all the treasures I own.”
The fact that he called them treasures suggested he owned more than just the Golden Buddha Statue.
Whatever else Gil Sang-do possessed was irrelevant to Geom U-bin—all he cared about was the statue.
“Where did you keep the Golden Buddha Statue?”
“Originally, in my treasure vault——”
When Gil Sang-do stopped mid-sentence, Geom U-bin flashed that characteristic pleasant smile of his.
“I’m not interested in treasure vaults. What matters is understanding how secure your protection was. That’s how I can narrow down who the thief might be.”
“If the statue had been in my vault, even Shintu wouldn’t have been able to steal it.”
“Shintu?”
Gil Sang-do exhaled heavily.
“I heard rumors that Shintu had his eye on the Golden Buddha Statue. That’s why I was in such a hurry to sell it to you.”
Shintu, also known as the Shadowless Thief because he left no trace behind, was a notorious burglar—so famous that even Geom U-bin had heard of him.
“How could Shintu have known the statue was here?”
“I couldn’t say. But as Shintu, he would have found out one way or another.”
Shintu had reached such a pinnacle of mastery in the art of theft that he inspired exactly this kind of belief in those around him.
Yet it seemed unlikely that Shintu would have discovered this on his own.
“So the theft happened while the statue was outside the vault?”
“Yes. I didn’t take my eyes off it for more than a quarter hour at most.”
“And only you and the innkeeper knew you were selling the statue?”
“That’s correct.”
If the secret had leaked, it was most likely through Ha Sang-du’s end.
“Do you possess any other objects that might attract the attention of ambitious men?”
He couldn’t reveal secrets to this near-stranger that he hadn’t even told his own wife.
Geom U-bin drew a banknote from inside his robe.
“How about this—I’ll entrust this banknote to you, and you entrust your treasure to me?”
In Geom U-bin’s hand lay a banknote worth one million silver taels—an amount equal to the statue’s value, more than enough to astonish Gil Sang-do.
“You possess something worth this much?”
Of course he did have a few such items. But not everything he owned commanded its price the moment it found the right owner—most pieces, like the Golden Buddha Statue, couldn’t be valued so precisely.
“Why would you need something like that?”
“To catch fish, you need bait. If you have such an object——”
Geom U-bin placed the banknote on the table and slid it across.
“I’ll leave this banknote with you and take that object with me. If I lose it, you can keep this banknote as compensation.”
By Geom U-bin’s logic, Gil Sang-do stood to lose nothing.
“I do have something—though it’s worthless to some and utterly useless to others.”
“What is it?”
“Are you a Murim martial artist?”
Geom U-bin nodded without hesitation.
“You could say so.”
“Then you must have a keen interest in martial arts.”
“What are you thinking of giving me?”
“Have you ever heard of the Palgak-gyeong?”
It was a name he’d never encountered. When Geom U-bin shook his head, Gil Sang-do continued.
“It’s no wonder you haven’t heard of it. This thing dates back five hundred years. Do you happen to know who the Supreme Martial Master was five hundred years ago?”
“That’s too long ago.”
“No one would dispute that Ma Gun-ja is the foremost master in the Murim today.”
The fact of Ma Gun-ja’s death had not yet been made known.
“Five hundred years ago, the Murim martial artist who enjoyed Ma Gun-ja’s present station was Jeon Cheol-yang, the Hwa-ryong Seonin. Called the Sword Saint, he may well have been a greater master than Ma Gun-ja himself.”
Though she had never witnessed Ma Gun-ja’s martial arts directly, the memory of the Hyeolpung Saja made those words seem impossible.
“I’ve never heard of such a master existing before.”
“That’s because the Hwa-ryong Seonin left no successors. He had several disciples, but his sword technique, the Hwalyong Pacheon Sword, was so obscure that not even one of his students reached the fourth stage. Despairing at this, the Hwa-ryong Seonin withdrew from the world in his final years, and it’s said that the essence of the Hwalyong Pacheon Sword lies in the place where he secluded himself.”
“If a martial art can only be mastered by one person, it’s worthless.”
“But one person did master it, so it’s not impossible to learn. If one could master it, they would become a master equal to Ma Gun-ja—there is no greater treasure than that.”
“Is this Palgak-gyeong a map, then, showing where the Hwalyong Pacheon Sword is hidden?”
“In fact, it’s a part of a map. Something is missing, but what that something is remains unknown.”
“It’s beginning to seem like a useless object. I’m not sure it’s worth a million nyang at all.”
“If the Palgak-gyeong were a complete map, it would be worth fifty times a million nyang, not merely a million. Even incomplete, any Murim martial artist would rush toward it like a moth to flame.”
“Between the Golden Buddha Statue and the Palgak-gyeong, you seem like a collector of rare objects, my lord.”
“I’m merely an ordinary person who appreciates unusual things.”
“Can I see this ‘Palgak-gyeong’ you speak of?”
Gil Sang-do glanced at the banknote lying on the table. Geom U-bin, who had picked it up and extended it forward, snatched it back just as Gil Sang-do reached for it.
“The Palgak-gyeong must be exactly as you’ve described it. I’m someone who absolutely despises deception, and I have the ability to punish it.”
“I’m a greedy man, perhaps, but I’m no fraud.”
Gil Sang-do took the banknote Geom U-bin handed over, left the room, and returned a quarter hour later.
In his hands was a brown wooden box, its original lock already removed.
“Let’s open it.”
When Geom U-bin opened the box, an object whose appearance matched the name Palgak-gyeong appeared.
At the center of an octagonal plate about a foot in diameter was a hole. Rather than a circle, it had sharp points as if three stars were overlapped, and the lengths of these sharp points varied.
The mirror-like surface bore hundreds of lines resembling those of a go board.
The Palgak-gyeong, thick as two finger joints, was quite substantial in weight. As Geom U-bin examined it, she asked.
“This is only a part, then?”
“It is.”
“And you don’t know where the rest is?”
“In truth, I don’t even know what else is needed. I can only guess that something must fit into the central hole.”
Judged by this alone, it was a useless object in every way.
“Is there anyone who would still consider this a treasure?”
“You seem to be a Murim martial artist yourself, so I’ll wager that any martial artist would seek it at the cost of their own life.”
To another martial artist, perhaps—but to Geom U-bin, the object seemed far less valuable.
The Hwa-ryong Seonin’s martial arts could not possibly have been stronger than Ma Gun-ja’s, regardless of what legends were passed down.
‘I can’t judge value by my own standards.’
Gil Sang-do, perceiving Geom U-bin’s thoughts, spoke.
“To be honest, if you’d asked me to sell it, I would never have accepted a million nyang. So take it back, return it to me, and go find your million nyang.”
“Understood. I’ll catch the criminal and return both the Golden Buddha Statue and the Palgak-gyeong to you.”
With the Palgak-gyeong in hand, Geom U-bin went directly to find Ha Sang-du.
The path through which information about the Golden Buddha Statue had reached Shintu was likely through Ha Sang-du’s circle.
Judging by Ha Sang-du’s reaction when she heard news of the theft, he was not the criminal.
‘Someone close to Ha Sang-du must have conspired with Shintu.’
She went to Ha Sang-du’s residence, but did not seek him out immediately. Geom U-bin waited until Ha Sang-du sat with his three closest subordinates, then appeared before them.
Ha Sang-du, startled, stood up hastily and even made the mistake of overturning the teacup on the table.
“Y-your lordship… how did the matter proceed?”
“I’m told that Shintu was the one who stole the Golden Buddha Statue.”
She spoke to Ha Sang-du, but Geom U-bin’s gaze encompassed all four people in the room.
“What? Shintu?”

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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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