Abolition of the Wicked - Chapter 248

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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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#248

“A commission?”
“I promised the Bloodwind Four Lions I’d steal something for them, but with everything that’s happened, I clean forgot about it.”
“The Bloodwind Four Lions gave you a commission?”
“I told you—I’m rather friendly with them. In any case, I’m in a hurry, so I’ll take my leave. I would’ve liked to spend more time with you, but there it is. You know where to find me, so come calling soon. I’ll buy you a proper drink then.”
Ma-o-ryang hurried away from the spot. Of course, there was no commission from the Bloodwind Four Lions at all.
The real reason he left in such haste was to pursue the old woman. Except she wasn’t old at all—so now lies were piled upon lies, and that was the present reality.
“With such a perfect disguise and those quick hands, only one woman in Murim would have the audacity to target the Palgak-gyeong—Yeon Soo-yeong, the Thousand-Faced Witch.”
The old woman whom Geom U-bin had carried across the valley—Ma-o-ryang could stake his wrist that she was no old woman at all.
Though Jang Seo-yeon was the sort who never ceased to amaze, her shallow experience in Murim revealed its weaknesses at moments like these.
He hadn’t seen the woman in the old guise extract the Palgak-gyeong from Jang Seo-yeon’s bundle with his own eyes.
Jang Seo-yeon had moved too abruptly, and the woman’s hands were far too quick.
Yet Ma-o-ryang was certain enough that he abandoned all hesitation, left Jang Seo-yeon’s side, and pursued the woman he believed to be Yeon Soo-yeong.
Ma-o-ryang wasn’t the only one suspicious of the old woman. Pok-pung-do, one of the Haebuk Samdo, and Jang Seo-bong were also among those chasing after the Palgak-gyeong, and both had seen Geom U-bin help the old woman across the valley.
Yet pursuing Geom U-bin was still mere suspicion, and Ma-o-ryang sensed the presence of four other people in the vicinity.
Though he felt only four auras, there were likely three times as many people pursuing Geom U-bin, who now possessed the Palgak-gyeong.
‘Did that old woman take the Palgak-gyeong after all?’
The only way to be certain was to kill Geom U-bin and search the bundle—but had he been alone, he would have done so already. With so many people converging, to seize the Palgak-gyeong now would be to leap straight into danger.
Geom U-bin, walking the mountain path alone, suddenly stopped as if struck by a thought.
“Wait!”
Geom U-bin frantically rifled through the bundle.
“What? What’s this?”
What Geom U-bin pulled from the bundle was only the same size as the box that held the Palgak-gyeong, but its shape and color were entirely different.
When Geom U-bin opened the box, her face twisted in fury. Inside was nothing but sand.
Geom U-bin shook out the bundle desperately, but it was clear no swapped Palgak-gyeong would appear.
“That old woman!”
Geom U-bin hurried back down the path, and those pursuing her followed in her wake.
The old woman couldn’t possibly still be where she’d been.
“Damn it all!”
Geom U-bin stood at the edge of the valley, lost. With no idea which way the old woman had gone, she couldn’t pick a direction.
‘Fool. To let the Palgak-gyeong slip through your fingers so easily!’
Jang Seo-bong hurled himself toward where the old woman had vanished. Of course, it wasn’t just Jang Seo-bong—all those who had been watching silently cursed Geom U-bin as a fool and disappeared after her.
So many eyes had been fixed on the scene, and now all of them were gone, leaving only Geom U-bin alone at the edge of the valley.
“All gone?”
Straining her senses, Geom U-bin heard only the sound of water flowing in the valley. A faint smile playing at her lips, she gathered the scattered contents back into the bundle and murmured to herself.
“It’s convenient when people volunteer to take the blame. Murim really is a wonderful place.”
The position of the young woman disguised as an old crone could be tracked by the scent of dog-skin that had been embedded in the Palgak-gyeong. Now that the troublesome followers had vanished, Geom U-bin pursued the scent at an unhurried pace.
Faint traces of Ma-o-ryang’s scent drifted on the wind as well. He too, skilled in the art of tracking, was following the woman’s trail properly.
There were quite a few people on this mountain. Occasionally a hunter or a gatherer of herbs passed through, but most had come for the Palgak-gyeong.
Geom U-bin moved carefully to avoid them. If word spread that she had recovered the Palgak-gyeong, all her effort would come to nothing.
After pursuing the scent for roughly half a watch, Geom U-bin spotted Ma-o-ryang crouching among the branches of a tree.
Hunched on a bough above, Ma-o-ryang was watching the woman below.
“Impressive tracking.”
“Huh!”
Ma-o-ryang jumped at the sound of Geom U-bin’s voice and spun toward it, but by the time he looked up, she had already descended onto the branch beside him without his noticing a single sign of her presence.
“How… how did you—”
“Shh.”
Geom U-bin pressed a finger to her lips to silence him, her gaze turning toward the woman some thirty paces distant below.
The woman had by now shed her old-crone disguise and returned to her true form.
Gazing at the woman, who appeared to be in her late twenties, Geom U-bin asked quietly.
“Do you know who she is?”
Ma-o-ryang swallowed hard and answered.
“Yeon Soo-yeong, the Thousand-Faced Witch. The saying in Murim has long held true—the thief goes by Shintu, and the pickpocket by the Thousand-Faced Witch.”
To think that thieves and pickpockets had claimed the name of truth itself. Truth certainly works hard for its reputation.
Ma-o-ryang lowered his voice even further.
“How did you find Yeon Soo-yeong?”
“Would I have handed over the Palgak-gyeong if I weren’t confident of finding her?”
Ma-o-ryang, who had looked startled, soon nodded in understanding.
“You let yourself be defeated on purpose. Why?”
“If I had the Palgak-gyeong, there would be no end to the Murim martial artists who’d come rushing to seize it.”
“You fear them?”
“It’s not that I fear them—it’s that I don’t want to kill them. No matter how accomplished a martial artist may be, I’d rather not accumulate that sort of karma if I can help it.”
Such words could only come from someone possessed of absolute confidence—someone capable of killing anyone who came.
Yet strangely, it didn’t strike him as arrogance; instead, the thought arose: ‘She has a good heart.’
“With skills like that, you must be quite difficult for people to catch?”
“Of course. While I’m undoubtedly superior, even so, I’ve been making a name for myself in the Murim for nearly ten years now.”
“That would make it easy to deceive people’s attention for a long time.”
“I understand what you’re getting at, but recovering the Palgak-gyeong from Yeon Soo-yeong won’t be quite so simple—”
Before Ma-o-ryang could finish, Geom U-bin plucked a pinecone and hurled it toward Yeon Soo-yeong.
Yeon Soo-yeong, struck by the pinecone flying faster than an arrow, crumpled to the ground.
“Easy. Far too easy.”
After descending from the tree, Geom U-bin tucked the recovered Palgak-gyeong into a bundle.
“Leaving her like that, someone will find her soon enough, won’t they?”
“She’ll wake within half a quarter hour.”
“What? You struck her pressure points with a pinecone, and you’ve even controlled how long she remains unconscious?”
“What’s difficult about that?”
It was difficult—very much so. Ma-o-ryang had encountered at least three throwing technique experts whom both insiders and outsiders acknowledged as masters.
Yet none of them had ever demonstrated such extraordinary skill as Geom U-bin. More than that, they hadn’t even known such a realm existed.
“Let’s leave before Yeon Soo-yeong wakes.”
Somehow, Ma-o-ryang found himself traveling alongside Geom U-bin once more.
After Geom U-bin departed, Yeon Soo-yeong regained consciousness at precisely half a quarter hour later.
Her eyes snapped open in surprise, and she assumed she’d merely dozed off for a moment—the sort of drowsy sleep that overtakes one after lunch on a spring day.
“I must have been tired. Ahhhh!”
She yawned broadly and reached for her bundle, then tilted her head with a frown.
“It feels lighter somehow.”
The moment Yeon Soo-yeong opened the bundle’s mouth, her face drained of all color. The Palgak-gyeong that should have been there had vanished without a trace.
“What—what is this? Where did it go?”
She ransacked her surroundings, but found not even a hint of the box containing the Palgak-gyeong.
“What’s happened?”
It felt as though she’d been possessed by a ghost. The sensation she experienced now was one that should have befallen her victims—never herself.
“Have I truly lost it?”
As she muttered to herself, Yeon Soo-yeong realized that losing the Palgak-gyeong was not the end of her misfortune.
Shing!
A chill of cold metal descended upon her head, laden with killing intent. A pickpocket could never rely on swift hands alone.
That she was recognized as the finest in all the Murim was possible only because her martial arts skill supported her thieving craft.
Yeon Soo-yeong rolled forward, and a blade whisked past her back with a hair’s breadth to spare.
After tumbling twice across the ground, she sprang to her feet and faced her attacker.
“Pok-pung-do—Jang Seo-bong!”
“To recognize me at a glance—your eye for detail is sharp indeed.”
“What do you want?”
“You know well enough what I want, don’t you?”
“If you’re after the Palgak-gyeong, you’ve guessed wrong! It’s gone!”
“How unlike the Unpredictable Talent to speak such falsehoods. I watched with my own eyes as you stole it from that foolish Jang Seo-yeon.”
Yeon Soo-yeong bit her lower lip hard. Jang Seo-bong was not someone who would believe a denial.
“Yes, I stole it. But I’ve lost it.”
Of course, Jang Seo-bong didn’t believe that either.
“You offer lies that won’t even hold water.”
Yeon Soo-yeong gestured toward her bundle resting on a boulder.
“Search it if you like—take it if you find anything!”
Jang Seo-bong glanced at the bundle and began moving sideways toward the boulder in a cautious crouch.
The moment Jang Seo-bong pried open the bundle with his blade and turned his gaze to peer inside, Yeon Soo-yeong pushed off the ground.
“You—you wretch! Stay put!”
As a precaution, Jang Seo-bong raked his blade through the bundle. Clothes scattered to the sky in shreds as they tumbled in the quivering blade.
As Jang Seo-bong hurried to pursue Yeon Soo-yeong, he caught sight of a crimson undergarment among the falling cloth.
Jang Seo-bong hesitated, then quickly snatched up the undergarment and tucked it into his robe before giving chase.
Though Jang Seo-bong was no match for Yeon Soo-yeong in terms of Lightness Technique, he knew this well enough—which was why he’d resorted to an ambush, hoping to end things with a single stroke.
Of course, in a fair one-on-one fight, Yeon Soo-yeong would have chosen to stand and fight rather than flee, but the circumstances now were far too unfavorable for her.
Jang Seo-bong was not the only one after the Palgak-gyeong; one misstep could leave her caught between multiple attackers.
Running felt like bitter defeat, but staying alive had to come first.
‘Damn it! This is so unfair!’
The price was far too high for merely catching a glimpse of the Palgak-gyeong.

***

The Chuyeong Order’s backbone had been formed by the Mudang Faction, the Jongnam Sect, and the Mo Yong Clan, but the Mo Yong Clan’s fortunes had declined sharply in recent years.
With the clan head dead along with both his sons, and only a young daughter stepping into the leadership role, the decline was inevitable.
So now the Mudang Faction and Jongnam Sect were joined by the newly ascendant Huashan Faction within the Chuyeong Order.
The Huashan Faction itself was in no better position, with its sect leader’s seat vacant and an elder serving as acting head.
“Is there truly reason enough to risk so much for the Palgak-gyeong?”
The question came from Mun So-je, who currently served as acting sect leader of the Huashan Faction.
He longed to assume the formal position of sect leader, yet each time the elders convened to decide the matter, they merely bickered back and forth, the decision perpetually postponed.
This had made him increasingly pessimistic of late.
“Obtaining the Martial Arts of Hwa-ryong Seonin is no trivial matter.”
The reply came from Byeok Sang-do, sect leader of the Mudang Faction. Gwan Ho-un, sect leader of the Jongnam Sect, took up the thread.
“If we have the chance to seize it and we hesitate, that would be foolish indeed.”
“But without the Cheon-gwang-an, the Palgak-gyeong is worthless, is it not?”
“We have already located where the Cheon-gwang-an is.”
“What? You’ve recovered the Cheon-gwang-an, which hasn’t been seen for four hundred years?”
“We haven’t recovered it yet, but we’ve learned who possesses it. It’s only a matter of time before we obtain it.”
“And who might that be?”
“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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