Abolition of the Wicked - Chapter 87

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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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#Episode 87

I’d expected hunting down a Blood Bear to take considerable time, but I managed to bring one down far more quickly than anticipated.
“This is definitely a Blood Bear, isn’t it?”
All the physical traits matched, but I couldn’t rest easy until I split open its belly and confirmed the Inner Core was there.
The hunters who’d arrived late stood gaping at the sight before them.
“Clean it up quickly and hand over the Inner Core and gall bladder.”
“Is it really all right if we take everything else?”
‘I’ve heard bear paw is quite delicious.’
Seo Seok-san swallowed his disappointment and nodded. The experienced hunters set to work, splitting open the Blood Bear’s belly right there.
“Be especially careful with the Inner Core.”
“Will there really be an Inner Core?”
Even these seasoned hunters had never laid eyes on such a thing.
“There will be.”
Fortunately, my hope proved justified. Nestled within a translucent membrane lay an Inner Core the size of a fist, its color a deeper crimson than the surrounding fur.
The hunters’ blade work as they extracted it was painstaking—they had no desire to incur the wrath of the immortal-like martial artist who’d dispatched the Blood Bear in a single blow.
Seo Seok-san placed the Inner Core into an agarwood box he’d prepared beforehand, and stored the gall bladder in a separate smaller container.
“Now I just need to obtain the Blood Tiger’s Inner Core.”
Wang Se-bang responded to his murmur.
“Did you just say Blood Tiger?”
“You know something about it?”
Wang Se-bang pointed his finger eastward.
“You can’t see it through the mist, but if you travel twenty li in that direction, you’ll find a place called Cheonun Mountain. For the past five years, rumors have circulated about a Blood Tiger appearing there. Since then, this mountain—Cheonseok—and Cheonun Mountain have been spoken of together as the Tiger and Bear Twin Heavens.”
Seo Seok-san asked in an even tone.
“Will you come with me this time, just as you did when we had to scout for new hunters?”
“Will I receive only the Inner Core again?”
When Seo Seok-san nodded, the heads of all five hunters bobbed in unison.

***

Woof! Woof!
A dog barked and bounded toward Yeon Geum-hong, its tail wagging not in aggression but in pure delight as it leaped into her arms.
“Oh my, our Oseong-i has grown so much.”
Save for Eun Bi-yeon, anyone else would have been a stranger to the beast, yet Oseong-i showed no wariness whatsoever. It was a creature that simply loved people.
“Where is your master?”
Yeon Geum-hong pushed open the hut door and peered inside. But Eun Bi-yeon was nowhere to be seen.
She might have gone out foraging, so her absence wasn’t cause for concern. The real problem was the state of the hut itself.
Unwashed dishes piled in the kitchen, dust accumulated in corners as if cleaning hadn’t been done in ages, and the bedding lay in complete disarray with quilts trailing across the floor.
“It doesn’t look abandoned, exactly.”
Stepping outside again, Yeon Geum-hong surveyed the surroundings. When she’d last visited, weeds had been nowhere to be seen, but now they’d grown tall enough to brush her ankles.
“Bi-yeon! Eun Bi-yeon!”
Yeon Geum-hong called out, but no answer came.
Woof! Woof!
Oseong-i barked at Yeon Geum-hong, then bolted up the mountainside. Yeon Geum-hong hurled herself after the beast.
After running a good distance down the slope, Oseong-i came to a halt at a spot where a broad, flat rock jutted out. Eun Bi-yeon lay there in the warm sunlight, sleeping.
Only after confirming she was merely asleep could Yeon Geum-hong let out a relieved breath.
“Bi-yeon!”
Yeon Geum-hong shook her awake, and Eun Bi-yeon’s eyes fluttered open groggily.
“Ugh… the smell of alcohol. Just how much did you drink?”
Three gourd bottles lay scattered around the rock.
“Huh? Geum-hong! It’s you!”
Still not fully sober, Eun Bi-yeon threw her arms around Yeon Geum-hong.
“First, let’s get you clear-headed.”
Only after returning to the hut, drinking cold water, and washing her face did Eun Bi-yeon’s mind fully return to her.
“What happened?”
“What could happen to someone living alone in the mountains?”
“But what’s this state you’re in? You can’t even hold your liquor—why are you drinking?”
Eun Bi-yeon took a sip of tea and let out a long sigh.
“It’s all because of you.”
“What did I do?”
“You threw a stone into a still pond. When I was in seclusion all those years, I lived in peace without a single thought. But the moment that peace turned into emptiness, it became unbearable. I miss you so much—and you only stayed one night.”
It wasn’t really Yeon Geum-hong she missed. Eun Bi-yeon was longing not for one person, but for all of them.
The layers of solitude that had built up over decades were washed away the moment Yeon Geum-hong’s group arrived. Now she found it impossible to bear that loneliness again.
“I’ve shattered your peace, then.”
“Perhaps I was never suited to seclusion in the first place.”
“You were unsuited to it, and yet you lived in seclusion for forty years?”
“Seclusion is too generous a word. Hiding, more like. And I did hide for quite a long time. But what brought you here? You couldn’t have known I’d end up like this.”
“I came to ask you for something.”
“A hermit living in the mountains has nothing but tea to offer.”
“Ice Crystal.”
Eun Bi-yeon’s hand froze as she reached for her teacup.
“Did you just say Ice Crystal?”
“Yes. The Ice Crystal—the Northern Ice Palace’s greatest treasure.”
“You’re cruel. You know what that Ice Crystal means to me.”
“I do. But——”
Crack!
The teacup shattered in Eun Bi-yeon’s hand, water spilling everywhere.
“You say you know? No one knows better than you what happens when you mention the Ice Crystal—it brings back the most horrible memories of my entire life! And still you ask me for it?”
If Yeon Geum-hong had been anyone else, she would have turned them to ice where they stood.
“Hang Ju-sa-ung is suffering.”
Eun Bi-yeon’s rage transformed into shock in an instant.
“Geom U-bin?”
“Yes. We need the Ice Crystal to treat him.”
“What’s wrong with him?”
Yeon Geum-hong exhaled deeply.
“Do you know that each of the Bloodwind Four Lions carries a single flaw?”
“Just one?”
“Yes, they may be full of flaws, but if I had to name one each: Seo Seok-san is losing his hair, Do Pyeong-su is slow-witted, and Jang Man-dok is silent. Actually, it’s not that he can’t speak—he stammers so badly that he eventually gave up trying. Turns out these are all phenomena that manifest when one’s Martial Arts reach a certain height.”
“So Geom U-bin is showing these symptoms? Whose symptoms is he showing?”
“All four of ours.”
“Good heavens! Poor Geom U-bin!”
“Indeed.”
“But all four? What about you?”
Yeon Geum-hong appeared outwardly perfect, untouched by any affliction. Having come this far, there was no reason to hide it from Eun Bi-yeon.
“I have anhedonia.”
Eun Bi-yeon’s jaw dropped.
“Anhedonia? That kind of anhedonia?”
“Yes, that kind.”
“Did you really just say——”
“Say it one more time and you’re dead.”
Now there was a deadly edge to Yeon Geum-hong’s voice. Eun Bi-yeon’s startled expression quickly melted into sympathy.
“There was a time when you were the person I envied most in the world. Turns out you had nothing to envy.”
“You don’t need a man! Your life was ruined by them!”
“You just don’t know the taste because you’ve never tried. But if you ever did——”
“Spare me the disgusting talk. Hand over the Ice Crystal!”
“I can’t have the Ice Crystal. It’s not mine to give.”
“You don’t have it? You took it back from him.”
She’d given him not just her Martial Arts but also the Northern Ice Palace’s most precious treasure. She’d taken it all back.
“Yes. I killed him and recovered the Ice Crystal, but I threw it away.”
“You threw away the Ice Crystal?”
“I didn’t want to keep a single speck of dust that would remind me of him.”
She could understand that impulse. Though throwing away the Ice Crystal was still madness.
“Where did you throw it? Do you at least remember that?”
“Of course. The landmark was so clear, I couldn’t forget it even if I tried.”
“Where is it?”
“I’ll take you there. It’s not far.”
Since she knew where it had been discarded, recovering the Ice Crystal was only a matter of time.
For them it wasn’t far, but an ordinary person would need a full day’s journey to reach it.
They had emerged from the layered mountains and come to a place where human footprints still occasionally ventured.
“It’s gotten cold all of a sudden.”
Sure enough, the green vitality of the trees had faded considerably, and the grass grew sparse.
“It’s the Ice Crystal’s aura, isn’t it? Did you bury it in the ground?”
“Then we could dig it out again, but… that would be terrible for U-bin. We can’t recover the Ice Crystal now.”
Only after going a bit further could she understand what Eun Bi-yeon meant.
For a place deep in the mountains, it was an enormous lake. The lake stretched a hundred paces across, and shockingly, it was frozen solid.
The cold around the lake was so intense that even weeds refused to grow, and the rocks were covered in a thin layer of white ice.
They stood atop the cliff, gazing down at the lake transformed white with ice.
“You threw the Ice Crystal into that lake?”
“Yes. That’s why it’s turned into ice as hard as steel. No one can break that ice.”
Around the Frozen Lake, nearly a dozen people had gathered. Though it lay deep in treacherous mountains where few ventured, this lake—which never thawed even during the scorching summer heat—was quite famous as a scenic spot in the region.
Of course it wasn’t summer now, but still people made the difficult journey to visit.
“We should at least try.”
First they’d need to drive away the people nearby, but they couldn’t use force against them.
“In mountains this deep, there should be at least one tiger.”
Not being a hunter, it wasn’t easy to spot tiger tracks, but her luck held.
Of course, it wasn’t that Yeon Geum-hong found the tiger—the tiger had chosen Yeon Geum-hong as prey.
One couldn’t blame the tiger’s stupidity for lacking judgment about people. Yeon Geum-hong, gripping the tiger’s neck, headed toward the nearby crowd.
The tiger’s anguished cry was loud enough to startle the drunkards gathered for their drinking party near the lake.
The phrase “Tiger Plague” didn’t come from nowhere. Terrified, the people vanished in an instant, and to be safe, Yeon Geum-hong tied the tiger to a nearby tree.
“Sister, give it up. The ice that wraps the Ice Crystal absolutely cannot be broken.”
“I am the Bloodwind Saja’s Mina Strike.”
Standing in the middle of the Frozen Lake, Yeon Geum-hong unleashed her Palm Force downward.
Crash!
A sound like ten thousand pounds of metal colliding erupted, and ice shards scattered in all directions.
She’d expected to hollow out a pit about one pace deep, but only managed roughly one foot. Even that much was remarkable, and Eun Bi-yeon let out an exclamation.
“Truly the Mina Strike!”
“Quiet.”
Yeon Geum-hong drew her Martial Force to its maximum and unleashed a barrage of consecutive Palm Strikes. A sound that numbed the ears erupted, and ice powder swirled around them as if they stood in the heart of a snow plain.
Yeon Geum-hong’s Palm Strike was remarkably formidable, but it still wasn’t enough to shatter the ice encasing the Ice Crystal.
“Give up. This lake is over ten paces deep. Your strength will be exhausted first.”
They’d managed to hollow out barely one pace worth of a pit. Of course, continuing to pour out Palm Strikes like this, eventually she could reach the bottom of the lake.
In the process, just as Eun Bi-yeon said, Yeon Geum-hong’s Martial Force would be depleted, and while recovering it, the pit she’d worked so hard to carve would fill back in with ice.
Faced with a situation beyond her control, Yeon Geum-hong’s fury erupted.
“This Do Pyeong-su, you wretch! What are you doing throwing the Ice Crystal here!”
“Your language is too foul! I know you hate dense men, and yet!”
“Why would you throw the Ice Crystal in a place like this! If you’re going to throw it away, throw it in some ravine! I ought to crack your skull open like Seok-san’s!”
“It’s my possession—why do you rage at where I dispose of it!”
“Brother looks like he’d become bald, blockheaded, mute, and castrated all at once, so does it look like I’m not furious right now!”
“You’d be furious! Fine, you’re furious. But U-bin ending up like that—that’s not my fault, is it?”
Yeon Geum-hong exhaled deeply.

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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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