Abolition of the Wicked - Chapter 77

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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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#077

The sudden nature of what had happened left Sang Nam-jae unable to even say thank you.
As he crossed the estate, it wasn’t only Gal Ma-pyeong who had given him something.
“You’re an assassin, aren’t you?”
‘Yes. I’m one of those common, ordinary assassins.’
Sang Nam-jae answered only in his mind.
Se-hwa pressed the Hidden Needle Gauntlets into his hands.
“Master said to use these in an emergency, but now that you’ve grown strong enough that you don’t need them anymore, I’m giving them to you. Here’s how you use them…….”
The Hidden Needle Gauntlets worn on both wrists were devices that fired needles through hand movements. They could fire thirty needles at a time, for a total of fifteen volleys.
After helping him practice over the course of the day, Se-hwa left him with the words “Please come back alive,” and disappeared into the distance.
This time, he couldn’t just let her go without a word.
“Wait.”
“Yes?”
“Why are you helping me like this, when we’ve only just met?”
“Because you’re guests of Master and Master’s teacher. That makes you family too.”
Se-hwa replied as if he’d asked something obvious, then hurried away with quick steps.
Ever since he could remember, he’d received training as an assassin, spending half his life killing others.
He’d believed that the only family he had was Go Shin-ji and the child in her womb. Yet the word “family” that he’d heard from Se-hwa didn’t feel unfamiliar in some strange way.
“What on earth……?”
He had no place among that family.
But he could feel clearly that their sincerity was genuine. With that understanding came the conviction that Go Shin-ji would be able to live safely and warmly here at Oseong Jang-won.
‘Coming here was the right call.’
It was the second wisest decision he’d ever made in his life—the first being when he fell in love with Go Shin-ji.
This was the most peaceful day of Sang Nam-jae’s life.
A day without anyone to kill, without fear of death from Seobaegsalmun—such a day had been rare indeed.
But good times always pass quickly.
Before long, the sun had begun to set, and Sang Nam-jae’s steps turned toward the blacksmith.
“Perfect timing,” Gong Seong-tak said.
He held out a sword.
The grip was the same, the scabbard unchanged. Its weight was similar to the sword he’d used before.
But when Sang Nam-jae drew the blade from its scabbard, he let out an involuntary exclamation.
He’d seen many fine swords, and the one he’d used for fifteen years was a decent blade in its own right. But this sword that Gong Seong-tak had just handed him possessed a quality and firmness he’d never encountered in his entire life.
“The weight should be nearly identical, but practice with it whenever you can find the time. Since I don’t know much about sword technique, that’s about all the advice I can offer.”
“There must have been an original owner. Are you sure it’s alright to give it to me?”
Gong Seong-tak scratched his cheek with his index finger.
“There was someone I originally planned to give it to. But it turns out that person’s weapon is a saber, not a sword.”
“I see?”
“Rather than let it go to waste, I’m giving it to you. Don’t burden yourself with it too much.”
Sang Nam-jae bowed deeply toward Gong Seong-tak as he turned to leave.
“Thank you.”
“Don’t give her a fatherless child. Come back alive, without fail.”
“I will.”
That became a promise.
A promise to himself, and also a promise to everyone at Oseong Jang-won who had supported him.
In the room, Go Shin-ji sat in a chair, dressed cleanly and waiting. She held her expression deliberately calm, but the hands resting on her knees trembled faintly.
Sang Nam-jae knelt on one knee before her.
“I’ll come back. I promise.”
That promise stilled her trembling.
He had never promised to return before. The possibility of keeping such a promise had been nearly zero, so Sang Nam-jae had never spoken those words. And so Go Shin-ji had never asked.
But today, Sang Nam-jae made her that promise—that he would come back.
Perhaps that was why the tears came.
Understanding his heart, she had held back the tears that would have weighed down his departure—until now, when they finally wet her cheeks.
“Our child—if you make him a fatherless boy, I’ll kill you.”
“Even if you kill me, it’ll be by your hand.”
Sang Nam-jae spoke the words against her swollen belly.
“While your father is away, don’t give your mother any trouble. Be good, all right?”
He kissed her belly once, then her lips.
“I’ll be back.”
While Sang Nam-jae and Go Shin-ji shared their parting moment, Gang Seo Samak was closing out twelve lives.
Crack!
The masked assassin whose neck O Tong-su had snapped crumpled like a bundle of straw.
“How dare these petty killers from the Seobaegsalmun sniff around Oseong Jang-won.”
The twelve assassins from the Seobaegsalmun who had pursued Sang Nam-jae and Go Shin-ji vanished quietly into Gang Seo Samak’s hands.
Once they had cleaned up even the bodies and returned, Do Pyeong-su asked a question.
“You’ve cleared out all that murderous stench?”
“Yes. We’ll have an easy road for a while. But Master…”
“Why do you have that desperate puppy face?”
Go Seo-bang spoke carefully.
“Couldn’t we help Sang Nam-jae? He’ll almost certainly die, and if we didn’t know that… isn’t he and that girl too pitiful?”
“Those twin sword demons from before—if they’d been stronger than you lot, would they have come begging us for help?”
Of course they wouldn’t have asked for help or even hoped for it.
“A man must cut his own past away himself.”
They didn’t bother to see Sang Nam-jae off as he left Oseong Jang-won. He bowed deeply toward the estate with no one there to witness it, then stepped through the gate and dissolved into the darkness.

***

“The Triad in Hangju has been completely eliminated. The Jaryong Gang, who’ve been backing the Hangju Triad and collecting protection fees all this time, are nothing special—I can handle them alone, so you needn’t worry…”
Gwak Bong, who had been reporting at length, noticed that Geom U-bin’s attention had drifted elsewhere.
“Lord. Lord!”
“Yes?”
“Are you even listening to my report?”
“Ah, you’re doing fine on your own, I’m sure. Just one moment.”
Geom U-bin left the room and hurried toward the Back Garden.
“What’s going on?”
The moment the question left her mouth, a baby’s cry echoed from somewhere.
“It’s born!”
“Waah! Waah!”
Hearing the baby’s wailing, Gwak Bong nodded vigorously.
“I heard a heavily pregnant woman came to the estate as a new member a few days ago—she’s given birth. That lusty cry suggests a future general has arrived.”
One of the midwives coming out with a washing basin saw Geom U-bin and said,
“It’s a beautiful girl!”
“A general?”
“Well, someday a female general will be born too. Ha ha ha!”
The Bloodwind Four Lions and the staff gathered round one by one.
“I never thought we’d hear a baby crying in our estate!”
Gwak Bong sidled up to Se-hwa and spoke softly.
“If we’d only hurried a little, we could have beaten that baby to it… Oof!”
“That baby’s got quite a set of lungs.”
Seo Seok-san, muttering to himself, called out to the midwife returning to the room.
“Are the mother and child both healthy?”
“Yes, Lord. She delivered well despite it being her first birth.”
“Thank goodness. The baby’s crying shouldn’t disturb anyone’s cultivation practice.”
“Is there any way to stop the baby from crying? High Martial Arts won’t do a thing against a baby, after all.”
“Babies are too much trouble. So many hands needed—how are we even going to raise her?”
The Bloodwind Four Lions, each offering a word or two, scattered as if the matter didn’t concern them.
“Se-hwa, when can we see the child?”
At Geom U-bin’s question, Se-hwa made an awkward face.
“Since I’ve never given birth before, I’m not really sure…”
“So you should have… with me long ago… Argh!”
Se-hwa, having sent Gwak Bong flying, turned to Geom U-bin.
“By the way, I haven’t seen Gang Seo Samak all morning. Where did he go?”
“He said he had something to settle in Gangseо Province because of a matter from ten years ago. He left at dawn.”
“I see. Now that you mention it, I don’t hear the sound of forging today either. Even the leader of the finest craftsmen eventually has to close the blacksmith door.”
“He said he needed to find some special metal and left a double hour ago.”
“Just four people missing, yet somehow the estate feels empty.”
“It’s probably emptiness in Se-hwa’s heart. And I shall fill that void completely……. Ugh!”

***

When Bae Do-yang opened his eyes that morning, he’d thought the Heuksahoe in Hangju was his greatest problem. But as noon approached, the leader of Jaryong Gang realized that worry paled beside what now faced him.
“The…… the Cheolhyeol Faction’s leader came looking for us?”
Murim contained dozens, even hundreds of smaller and larger Dark Path sects. Among them existed factions that rivaled the Orthodox Faction’s great schools and the Five Great Houses—and Cheolhyeol was one of them.
They had operated under the Dark Path banner for eighty years in Haenam Province where Shaolin Temple stood, which spoke volumes about their power.
Even if Jaryong Gang became thirty times stronger than it was now, they would be no match for Cheolhyeol.
That such a formidable faction’s leader would come seeking out a mere minor Dark Path sect in Anhui Province—it seemed impossible.
“Why? Why would the Cheolhyeol leader come here?”
The question answered itself the moment Bae Do-yang met Go Dae-bang, the Cheolhyeol Faction’s leader.
“Your Jaryong Gang has quite a bit of land.”
Go Dae-bang had grown a thick beard down to his chest, claiming Guan Yu as his most revered figure.
“My late father left us considerable holdings…….”
“Perfect size for us to relocate to. Good buildings too.”
“You’re…… moving here? To Zhejiang Province?”
“That’s right. Here, to Jaryong Gang.”
His words were gentle, but what he meant was clear: he intended to seize everything.
“But we’re both Dark Path sects. Surely you wouldn’t…….”
“Precisely because we’re both Dark Path—that’s why I’m speaking so civilly. Haenam is useless with all those damned monks cluttering it. A man needs proper territory to conduct real business.”
In other words, Cheolhyeol had been driven out of Haenam by Shaolin’s dominance and was relocating their base here to Zhejiang.
The strongest sect in Zhejiang Province was Dong’s House, which couldn’t even approach the Five Great Houses in power—which meant Cheolhyeol had found fertile ground to flourish.
“My late father left other properties. Couldn’t you relocate to one of those instead?”
“As large as this one?”
“Somewhat smaller.”
“With as many buildings?”
“Those would need to be constructed.”
“Why would I go somewhere so inconvenient?”
Bae Do-yang wanted to scream: ‘Because this is my land, you bastard!’ But in that moment, a swing of that enormous blade would part his head from his shoulders.
“Since you’ve willingly surrendered the land and buildings to me, I’ll grant you the position of deputy leader.”
And so Bae Do-yang went from being the Gang Leader of Jaryong to becoming deputy leader of Cheolhyeol.

***

The sixtieth and final hidden needle from the Hidden Needle Gauntlets pierced through the eye of the man before him. Then, spinning and drawing his blade horizontally, Sang Nam-jae severed the neck of the twenty-second assassin.
“Gasp…… gasp……”
Sang Nam-jae, breathing in ragged heaves, leaned his collapsing body against his sword.
Had he fought them head-on, he never could have slain so many.
He was Seobaegsalmun’s finest assassin, and darkness transformed what seemed impossible into reality.
Of course, without the Fine Sword that hadn’t lost a single tooth through dozens of clashes, and without the Hidden Needle Gauntlets Se-hwa had given him, he couldn’t have endured this long.
No more assassins came at him, yet Sang Nam-jae knew it wasn’t over.
His blade hadn’t yet cut through the heart of Neng Seo-mok, the Seobaegsalmun leader.
“A dog I raised turns and bites his master. Is there any pain greater than this?”
From the darkness emerged Neng Seo-mok, his face corpse-pale.
Ordinarily, Neng Seo-mok would never appear before Sang Nam-jae.
True to his role as Seobaegsalmun’s leader, Neng Seo-mok was an assassin to his very bones.
An assassin’s supreme virtue lay in moving through darkness, approaching the target unseen, and severing their life in a single stroke.
That was how Neng Seo-mok should have killed Sang Nam-jae.
Yet he could not grant such an easy death to the man who had single-handedly toppled the Seobaegsalmun that Neng Seo-mok had built across a lifetime.
For the first time, he felt emotion toward someone he wanted to kill—and that person was Sang Nam-jae.
Sang Nam-jae raised his sword toward Neng Seo-mok.
The Fine Sword, cradling moonlight rather than blood, gleamed with a pale yellow radiance.
The blade holding the moon’s light trembled faintly.
“Your sword wavers. Your strength is spent.”
“I have strength enough to kill you.”
Sixteen wounds. Among them, the wounds to your flank, back, and chest—if left untreated, they’ll claim your life within the hour. I need only wait.”
“Then why show yourself if you’re content to wait?”
Neng Seo-mok closed the distance between them.
“I didn’t know…… I’m only human, it seems.”
Neng Seo-mok drew closer, his voice growing sharper with each step.
“An enraged man who wants to see his master’s four legs severed, his belly torn open, and that final, gasping breath.”
Sang Nam-jae kept his sword raised, waiting for Neng Seo-mok to come within striking distance.

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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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