Abolition of the Wicked - Chapter 54

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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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#054

Upon returning to the Estate, Geom U-bin told the Bloodwind Four Lions about Gong Seong-tak.
“How dare someone try to take our senior martial brother as a disciple!”
They all bristled in anger, but when they heard the name Cheonilmun, their faces darkened.
“Did you just say Cheonilmun?”
“Yes. Do you know of them?”
“It’s quite a renowned faction. While most Murim sects focus on recruiting many disciples to expand their numbers, Cheonilmun follows its name literally—a single-successor lineage.”
“His leg technique looked rather formidable, didn’t it?”
“Did he attack our senior martial brother?”
“No. He was just demonstrating his skill.”
“I see. In terms of martial prowess alone, Cheonilmun wouldn’t fall short of the Gudaemun Faction or the Five Great Families. But mastering Cheonilmun’s Cheonbul Thunder Claw is said to be extraordinarily difficult. I’ve heard that no faction master has perfected it in the past hundred years. Yet despite this, every Cheonilmun master has been treated as a first-class master throughout Murim.”
After Seo Seok-san’s lengthy explanation, Geom U-bin asked.
“How does he compare to our disciples?”
“Ha, not even half as good.”
Do Pyeong-su dismissed the notion, but Yeon Geum-hong thought otherwise.
“That’s only if he hasn’t perfected the Cheonbul Thunder Claw. If he does, even we wouldn’t find it easy to handle.”
“That formidable?”
“It wouldn’t be worthless to learn, but…….”
Geom U-bin shook his head firmly.
“When I don’t even know how long it will take to master what I’m studying now, I have no desire whatsoever to learn that.”
“Of course. Still, it seems a shame. Encountering other martial arts could be beneficial for our senior martial brother.”
That day’s conversation ended with the Bloodwind Four Lions’ regret and Geom U-bin’s resolve.

***

Of the four concealed blades Se-hwa threw, only two struck the hanging target suspended in midair.
Yeon Geum-hong’s expression hardened, and her voice turned cold.
“Your skills aren’t improving—they’re declining.”
“I apologize.”
“I’ve noticed your expression has been troubled these past few days. What troubles you?”
Se-hwa’s tone was unusually serious.
“Master, what kind of life am I meant to live from now on?”
Yeon Geum-hong blinked, taken aback.
“Why are you asking me that?”
“Hah…….”
Se-hwa exhaled deeply before speaking.
“Then who should I ask? I’m bound to this Estate.”
“If you wish to leave, you’re free to go.”
A bittersweet smile crossed Se-hwa’s lips.
“That’s precisely the problem. I don’t want to go back out into the world. I don’t understand why. This place is small, nothing more—out there should be far more delightful things to do—yet I only want to live like this, here at Oseong Jang-won. Look at my skin. It’s roughened like a toad’s back, so hardened that a needle won’t pierce it. Is this what skin on a woman should be? And the training—it’s so grueling I want to strangle myself. Yet a day passes, I do the work again, and I grin like a fool. Then I’m desperate to die from the exhaustion, but when I lay down to sleep at night, something feels right and true……. I’m strange for finding satisfaction in such a life.”
“If you’re satisfied, what’s the problem?”
“The world I left behind troubles my heart.”
Se-hwa spoke of U-hyang and Jin-ha, whom she’d met in town several days prior.
“It feels as though I’ve abandoned those children and only run away myself. My conscience won’t settle.”
“If it weighs on you, bring them here. We have enough food and shelter to spare.”
“That would be mere pity, wouldn’t it? I want to enable those children to fend for themselves.”
“How?”
“Hah…….”
Se-hwa drew in another deep sigh. Never thought I’d be having this conversation. More than that—would Master even begin to understand such feelings? After wrestling with these thoughts, Se-hwa finally spoke.
“Do you know about the life of a ginyeo?”
Yeon Geum-hong’s first memory was of herself as an orphan, the next as a Murim martial artist. Beyond those, her life had been so simple there were scarcely any other memories to find.
Even she had visited a giroo a few times, but that was mostly because of Seo Seok-san—usually to defeat him.
So she didn’t actually know what a ginyeo truly was, nor had she ever bothered to learn.
“How could you possibly know.”
In the trailing sigh at the end of her words lay the weariness of all the women of the giroo.
“It’s a pretty way to phrase it—selling courtesy and all that—but really they’re ginyeo, women who endure the pointing fingers of society. Half of them want to quit a dozen times a day. Some actually do leave, marrying customers they’ve met at the giroo. But more than half come back. Back to the very place they despised so much. Strange, isn’t it? When you have it, you hate it. When you leave, you miss it.”
“Stop complaining and say what you really mean.”
“Master, I want to open a giroo.”
“A giroo?”
“Yes. The establishment is closed now, but I own thirty percent of the Hangho Giroo. I can acquire the remaining shares at a reasonable price. I have enough money now.”
Yeon Geum-hong studied Se-hwa with suspicious eyes.
“Is this because training is hard? Scheming to dodge your duties?”
“No, no! Once the giroo is established and running, there’s no reason for me to remain here full-time! I’ll train just as diligently as before! It’s only that opening and managing it in the beginning will require some time, and…….”
Yeon Geum-hong had known from the start that Se-hwa’s heart was sincere.
What she couldn’t determine was whether opening a giroo was the right choice for Se-hwa’s life.
“I’ll discuss it with my senior brother first.”
In the past, she would have decided to permit or refuse without much deliberation.
But now that affection had grown under the name of “disciple,” Se-hwa’s future mattered to her as well.
Careful consideration was only natural.
Yeon Geum-hong went to find Geom U-bin, who was in the midst of training.
Geom U-bin was drilling fist techniques, sweat streaming down his face.
Every time they sparred, Yeon Geum-hong felt Geom U-bin embodied the meaning of “progress day by day”—growth so tangible it was visible to the eye.
‘How far will my senior brother go?’
He had set the goal of becoming the greatest throughout history, but even the Hyeolpung Saja could not imagine what that truly meant.
Their imagination ended with Hwajuk Mountain, but if Geom U-bin continued to grow at this pace, he might surpass even that.
Watching Geom U-bin train, half a time period slipped away without notice.
Yeon Geum-hong handed water to Geom U-bin as he wiped the sweat from his brow.
“You came, Master?”
Geom U-bin smiled brightly, his face glistening with perspiration, and already the bearing of a man showed through.
‘He’s grown so much.’
The delicate eight-year-old boy she had first seen on Geombong Mountain was no longer there.
“I wanted to discuss something with you—about Se-hwa.”
“Se-hwa?”
“Se-hwa says she wants to open a giroo.”
Yeon Geum-hong explained the reasons that had led Se-hwa to such a decision.
“Se-hwa must be troubled by this.”
“I’m uncertain whether I should permit it. She’d be returning to the giroo after all, and though I don’t fully understand such things, surely life as a martial artist is better than life as a ginyeo?”
“But she said once the giroo is stable, she’ll focus on training again, didn’t she?”
“She says that now, but who knows how people’s hearts might change?”
“And if it changes, that’s not necessarily bad, is it? If Se-hwa decides it, it’s because she wants it. I don’t yet understand much, but I’ve found that doing what you want to do is always best.”
“Then should I permit it?”
“You’re my master’s disciple. Decide as your heart guides you.”
Even as Geom U-bin spoke, he believed Yeon Geum-hong would grant permission.
Though the Hyeolpung Saja had earned a sinister reputation in the Murim, he knew their nature was fundamentally good. It was only fate that had forced them down the dark path.
“Besides, I won’t mind having more free time and less work to worry about.”

***

“Coming to me to complain won’t change anything, will it?”
“Still, you must know Geom U-bin better than I do—isn’t there some way to change his mind?”
Gong Seong-tak seemed quite taken with Geom U-bin.
“That’s Geom U-bin’s choice. If he’s said no, it’ll be difficult. Once he speaks his mind, he doesn’t change it. So stop wasting time and find yourself another disciple.”
Gong Seong-tak heaved a sigh so heavy it seemed the ground would sink beneath him.
“Where in this world would I find talent better than his? Not in a hundred years of searching.”
“Well, at that level of martial skill, wouldn’t hordes of people come running if you snapped your fingers?”
“Exactly. If I set my mind to it, I could probably have a thousand temples offering me reverence.”
“There you have it.”
So Gi-cheon shook his head like an old man, clicking his tongue.
“Why does he have to be so fixated on someone who already has a master?”
He turned to leave, but Gong Seong-tak snapped his fingers.
“Ah! I just had a brilliant idea!”
“What is it?”
“What if Geom U-bin didn’t have a master anymore?”
“Wait—surely you’re not suggesting you’d kill his master?”
“What, do I look like someone who’d just murder anybody?”
“Yes.”
“That’s not it. I’m proposing a sparring match with U-bin on the line. If U-bin’s master truly cares for him, wouldn’t he want U-bin to learn stronger martial arts?”
Not all master-disciple relationships are forged solely on the strength of martial arts. But explaining such reasoning to Gong Seong-tak seemed futile.
“I should go spar with him right now!”
More than anything else….
Before So Gi-cheon could protest, Gong Seong-tak was already charging out the door.

Gong Seong-tak rushed straight for Oseong Jang-won.
He didn’t know who Geom U-bin’s master was, but there was no way they could be stronger than him. After all, he possessed the greatest martial arts under heaven that he knew of—the Cheonbul Thunder Claw of the Cheonilmun.
Gong Seong-tak pounded on the gate of Oseong Jang-won.
He knocked so violently that the gate seemed ready to splinter at any moment.
Gwak Bong, who had been sweeping the courtyard, thought someone was attacking Oseong Jang-won.
“Who goes there?”
“I’ve come looking for Geom U-bin!”
“For the Lord?”
As she opened the side gate beside the main entrance, Gong Seong-tak thrust his face through.
“Yikes! You startled me!”
Gong Seong-tak didn’t wait for an invitation—he simply pushed his way inside.
“How dare you presume to enter this place!”
“Have U-bin—or rather, U-bin’s master—come out, if you would.”
Gwak Bong was flabbergasted.
“Do you even know who the Lord’s master is, coming here like this?”
“I don’t care about that. Just tell them that someone named Gong Seong-tak has come calling.”
To Gwak Bong’s eye, Gong Seong-tak was undoubtedly a Murim martial artist.
There was something slightly clumsy about him, a subtle discord here and there, yet the aura he emanated was far from ordinary.
‘Gong Seong-tak….’
But she had never heard that name before.
“Better yet, leave before we come to blows. This place is more dangerous than it appears….”
“You’re the one who should leave before we fight. Just call U-bin’s master. Don’t whine about your left hand aching because you took a few hits and your right hand being stronger.”
Gwak Bong gripped a straw broom in her right hand as she spoke.
“What do I look like to you?”
“A groundskeeper?”
“Hah! Well, I never….”
Gwak Bong drew a deep breath to center herself, then spoke.
“Today I’ll show you just how fierce a groundskeeper’s broom can be.”
“Really, I gave you fair warning…. Fine, then. If you’re so eager to be hit, so be it.”
Gong Seong-tak halfheartedly swung his palm.
One couldn’t very well throw a punch backed by martial force at a mere groundskeeper, after all.
Crack! Snap!
The broom pushed his hand aside and struck his head.
Gwak Bong, too, wasn’t about to channel her martial force against what seemed like a madman, so the sounds were all that rang out.
After that single exchange, both fighters were startled.
Gong Seong-tak was amazed by Gwak Bong’s speed; Gwak Bong was amazed by his solidity.
“You’re no mere groundskeeper.”
“This fellow’s got a sturdy frame.”
“You! You’ve picked up some tricks, haven’t you? Let me teach you proper manners!”
Gong Seong-tak deployed a leg technique aimed at Gwak Bong’s thigh.
Since he’d come to spar with Geom U-bin’s master, he didn’t want to seriously injure an innocent bystander. But Gwak Bong was no pushover, even with his restraint.
Gwak Bong blocked the leg attack, and her broom came down hard on Gong Seong-tak’s shoulder.
Gong Seong-tak sidestepped and countered by raising his martial force, aiming for Gwak Bong’s ribs.
As the half-hearted exchange stretched past ten seconds, Gong Seong-tak’s astonishment deepened.
‘A groundskeeper of this caliber?’
Gwak Bong, wielding that broom against him, possessed the skill of a first-class master.
Of course, once Gong Seong-tak began employing the Cheonseong Jeolggi, Gwak Bong began losing ground. Against the patriarch of the Cheonilmun, she still fell short.
Crack!
As the bamboo broomstick splintered, Gong Seong-tak charged forward and kicked Gwak Bong’s shoulder.
Driven back several lengths, Gwak Bong barely suppressed a groan.
‘A true master!’
Aside from the Bloodwind Four Lions, Gong Seong-tak had never encountered a Murim martial artist of such caliber.
Gwak Bong hurled the broom away and shouted.
“Stay right there. Don’t move a muscle!”
The skill gap was evident enough. Even if she’d had a sword in hand, the outcome would have been the same. Still, she wasn’t about to accept defeat without a fight. Gwak Bong froze mid-turn, her body pivoting toward where she’d left her blade.
There was no way the Hyeolpung Saja could have missed the noise of such a vigorous scuffle.
“What’s happening?”
At Seo Seok-san’s question, Gwak Bong pointed to Gong Seong-tak.
“This man suddenly barged in and started a quarrel!”
“Who is he?”
“That’s… well, that’s the thing. Who is he?”
Crack!
“Ugh!”
Gwak Bong staggered backward, a cry finally torn from her lips as Gong Seong-tak’s foot connected again and again.
“You fought without even knowing who he was?”
“He was looking for our Master and our Lord, so I thought he was mad!”
The Hyeolpung Saja’s gaze converged on Gong Seong-tak.
The moment Geom U-bin’s name was spoken, one figure sprang to mind.
“So you’re the current Sect Leader of the Cheonilmun.”

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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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