Abolition of the Wicked - Chapter 91

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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 091

“Ah! What happened to Bingjing?”
“I need your crude strength to find Bingjing. You don’t have a sword?”
“Too much trouble to carry around.”
“A man trained in Sword Technique doesn’t even carry a blade? Wait here.”
Yeon Geum-hong went to Ma-o-ryang’s secret warehouse and returned with the best-looking of three swords hanging on the wall.
“This should do.”
The blade that slid from its scabbard was the color of blood.
“The Hyeol Yeom Do.”
Do Pyeong-su spoke as if it were nothing, but had the Hyeol Yeom Do appeared in Murim, a storm of blood would have swept across the land.
It was one of the Five Great Swords of Murim, yet in Do Pyeong-su’s hands it seemed no different from a crude blade hammered out in some blacksmith’s forge.
Eun Bi-yeon asked.
“Aren’t you both being awfully calm about stealing things from someone else’s house?”
“To be precise, it’s a thief’s house. More precisely still, it’s stolen goods that the thief himself took. Transfer of property with no victim, you might say?”
Thanks to deploying the Lightness Technique at full power, they reached the lake where Bingjing lay in less than a day.
A roar split the air.
The mournful cry of a tiger nearby echoed through the landscape. The beast, bound to keep people away, had finished devouring the wild boar left at its feet and now suffered from hunger.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t think it would take this long.”
Yeon Geum-hong, who would not apologize to humans, untied the rope she had woven strong with vines.
In the meantime, Do Pyeong-su walked toward the center of the lake. Yeon Geum-hong approached and asked.
“You can break through it? There’s something important riding on this besides Bingjing.”
“What?”
“I’ll let you drink that tea Eun Bi-yeon shared with us for the rest of your life.”
The memory of that tea’s flavor made his mouth water.
“I don’t think Bingjing is exactly in the center of the lake, is it?”
Under Yeon Geum-hong’s gaze, Eun Bi-yeon moved to a spot three zhang east of center.
“Here. If you look closely, you can see white bands forming a circle, yes? That marks the center of Bingjing. You don’t need to break all the way to the lake bottom. It should be partway down.”
Since Eun Bi-yeon knew the nature of Bingjing better than anyone, her word would be reliable.
Do Pyeong-su tapped the ice with his sword and spoke.
“Good thing you brought a decent blade.”
Against a person, perhaps not—but breaking ice as hard as steel required a good sword capable of withstanding his tremendous internal power. The Hyeol Yeom Do was perfectly suited for that purpose.
“It’ll be loud.”
Do Pyeong-su drew a deep breath and drew his internal power to its absolute limit. From the fact that Yeon Geum-hong couldn’t break it with her palm strike, one could judge the hardness of this ice.
Do Pyeong-su leaped ten zhang into the air and brought the sword down onto the ice, holding it high above his head.
Crack!
It was not merely loud—an ordinary person’s eardrums would have burst ten times over from the sound.
Splinter and crack!
White fissures tore across the ground beneath Yeon Geum-hong and Eun Bi-yeon’s feet. Do Pyeong-su had expected not to shatter it in one blow, but the impact proved less than he’d anticipated.
“Look at this!”
Launching himself again, Do Pyeong-su soared fifteen zhang high. From the Hyeol Yeom Do extended a blue light a full zhang long—a Sword Aura.
“Heavens!”
Eun Bi-yeon gasped involuntarily. She had witnessed countless masters and fought in countless battles, but never had she seen a Sword Aura so vast and powerful.
Boom!
The cracked ice exploded into the air. At the force of it, Yeon Geum-hong and Eun Bi-yeon hurled themselves clear of the lake.
The power Do Pyeong-su unleashed was a sight seen nowhere else. Blocks of ice the size of houses flew in every direction before raining down like hail.
In a radius of twenty zhang around where Do Pyeong-su stood, the ground lay carved as if a meteor had fallen. Yet Bingjing still remained unseen.
“Just how hard is Bingjing?”
Eun Bi-yeon, snapping back to herself, answered.
“Ten times harder than ice, so you needn’t worry about it breaking.”
Startled by Do Pyeong-su’s martial power, she had unconsciously used an honorific. The remaining force of his strike was still ruffling his wild hair.
In that moment, the sight made her heart quicken.
‘He’s magnificent.’
Do Pyeong-su soared again. Bathed in the sunlight reflecting off the ice cube, in that instant he was a martial god.
The sword carrying its Aura descended, and rain of ice fell. And then, at last, Bingjing became visible. True to Eun Bi-yeon’s word, the Bingjing resting not at the lake’s bottom but somewhere in the middle was a blue deeper than the clearest sky.
The pointed, faceted Bingjing made Do Pyeong-su’s white breath all the more visible.
Do Pyeong-su reached out and grasped the Bingjing.
“Don’t touch it!”
Eun Bi-yeon cried out in alarm, but Do Pyeong-su’s hand had already made contact with the jewel. A cold unlike anything he’d ever felt surged through him. The chill was so intense it was like touching white-hot iron.
Even as he hastily drew up his Fire Energy, white frost bloomed across his palm.
“Vicious cold.”
He couldn’t believe there was still more to discover.
‘I’m holding Bingjing bare-handed and I’m still alive?’
The Bingjing was a cold that even the mistress of the Northern Ice Palace couldn’t withstand.
Yeon Geum-hong opened a box made of Pihan-seok and placed the mysterious jewel inside into her pouch.
“Put it in here.”
Once the Bingjing was inside the Pihan-seok box, it remained cold, but it was a chill one could endure.
“We’ve secured the Bingjing…….”
As Yeon Geum-hong spoke, her gaze shifted to Eun Bi-yeon—but Eun Bi-yeon’s eyes remained fixed on Do Pyeong-su.
“Bi-yeon.”
“Huh……? Yes?”
“This Bingjing. It was yours originally, wasn’t it? Would it be all right if we took it?”
She had to ask—not just anyone, but Eun Bi-yeon herself.
“And if I refuse to give it?”
“Then I’ll find a way to make you.”
Eun Bi-yeon waved her hand dismissively.
“There’s no need to trouble yourselves with any such methods. I abandoned that thing forty years ago. It belongs to whoever finds it.”
“Thank you.”
Yeon Geum-hong tucked the box into the small leather pouch hanging at her side without hesitation.
“That’s refreshing.”
“Let’s go. Ma-o-ryang should be back by now.”
Do Pyeong-su, whose hair ribbon had been torn away by the force of breaking the ice, now wore his disheveled hair cascading down past his shoulders.
Eun Bi-yeon held out a hair ribbon to him. As Do Pyeong-su stared at it blankly, Eun Bi-yeon let out a sharp cry.
“Tie it up already! It’s hideous!”
“All right, all right. Why are you shouting?”
Do Pyeong-su tied his hair up carelessly with the ribbon. Yeon Geum-hong spoke, her face barely suppressing a laugh.
“Pink suits a man after all.”
Do Pyeong-su and the pink hair ribbon made a rather striking pair.
As expected, Ma-o-ryang was already home. But he was not his usual servile self.
“Where in this world is such a thing allowed?”
The moment he saw them, his face flushed crimson and he shouted as if he might collapse from his own fury.
“Well, the Hyeol Yeom Do. You used it well.”
“Ah! Thank you……is not what I should be saying! How can you destroy someone else’s private warehouse entirely!”
Yeon Geum-hong spoke with cool indifference.
“I told you—even if your mouth is crooked, your words should be straight. I didn’t destroy the warehouse. There’s just a small hole in the door.”
“That IS destroying it! And on top of that, you took things from inside……I’m grateful you returned the Hyeol Yeom Do, but that’s not all you took, is it?”
“This?”
Yeon Geum-hong tapped the leather pouch hanging at her waist, and Ma-o-ryang’s eyes went wide.
“What’s that frost around your waist?”
Yeon Geum-hong pulled out the Pihan-seok box and set it on the table. At once the table frosted over, and white rime began spreading across the floor.
“Ack! Put that away at once!”
“Why? I was going to take out the contents and return the box.”
If it was emitting that much cold even while contained in Pihan-seok, the moment it came out, the entire house would turn into a block of ice.
“Don’t ask for it back—just take it with you!”
“Really?”
“Please!”
“I’ll gratefully accept it then.”
Yeon Geum-hong put the box away, and Ma-o-ryang released a long, relieved sigh.
“By the way, was there anything else inside that box?”
“What do you mean?”
Ma-o-ryang scratched his head.
“Well, what indeed? I feel like I put something in there, but I can’t remember. Was there nothing inside?”
It mattered little to Yeon Geum-hong, but since Ma-o-ryang had made a fuss about it, she shook her head out of spite.
“It was empty.”
“Ah, I see. If it had been important, I’m sure I would have remembered.”
Do Pyeong-su leaned in close and asked.
“There’s something really important you were supposed to get for us. Don’t tell me you couldn’t find it?”
“I am Shintu, Shintu!”
Ma-o-ryang opened the safe and pulled out two boxes, setting them on the table.
“I kept them in the vault as if they were my own life. Now about settling the remainder of the payment…….”
Do Pyeong-su produced a banknote for four thousand taels.
“Change.”
“But I also gave you the Pihan-seok Box…….”
Yeon Geum-hong opened the mouth of the leather pouch.
“Leave it. I said leave it.”
“No! Please, let me write you a receipt!”
Ma-o-ryang’s best customer and most troublesome patron was practically shoved out the door.
“Looks like it’s time to part ways.”
At Eun Bi-yeon’s words, Yeon Geum-hong’s face registered surprise.
“You’re leaving? Why not come back to Oseong Jang-won with me instead? The drinking would be better there, at least.”
“No. I’m going to stop drinking.”
Even as she spoke, Eun Bi-yeon kept stealing glances at Do Pyeong-su. An uneasy feeling crept slowly down Yeon Geum-hong’s spine.
“Bi-yeon.”
“Yes?”
“You’re not…… are you?”
“What do you mean?”
“Surely not…… it can’t be. It’s impossible. After being hurt so badly by a man, you wouldn’t repeat that mistake again. Would you?”
“Sister, you’re talking nonsense.”
“That’s right. Nonsense…….”
“Are all men in the world the same?”
“What are you saying? Are all men in the world the same?”
“The man I met when I was young was intelligent, but he was the most contemptible creature on earth. Such a man is hardly common. There must be other men who stand at the opposite pole.”
“Other men? For instance?”
Eun Bi-yeon’s gaze turned toward Do Pyeong-su in the distance, shouting, “Why aren’t you coming? What are you doing?”
“Hey, you crazy woman! Just because there’s no worthwhile man in the world, now you’re setting your sights on Pyeong……!”
Eun Bi-yeon hastily covered Yeon Geum-hong’s mouth.
“Keep your voice down!”
Yeon Geum-hong roughly pushed Eun Bi-yeon’s hand away.
“How can you expect me to be quiet about this? You always said you hated stupid brutes like Pyeong-su, someone who’s only strong!”
“After losing everything to an intelligent, contemptible man, I’ve come to think that someone like Pyeong-su is attractive. Didn’t he look magnificent when he drew out the Bingjing?”
“Brother? Magnificent? You’ve been in seclusion so long, you’ve finally lost your mind.”
“I’ve paid my debt spending forty years alone. Now I want to live as an ordinary woman, just like you.”
“You’re nearly seventy years old. Don’t talk about being a woman.”
“I’m going to do the Reversal of Life Cycle Technique, just like you.”
Yeon Geum-hong stared at her, then asked.
“You crazy woman, what nonsense is that?”
“Did you think I just sat around breathing for forty years with no one around me? With nothing to do, I naturally threw myself into martial cultivation. I almost performed the Reversal of Life Cycle Technique by accident.”
“What? How do you know about that?”
“You’ve experienced it, so you understand the sensation, don’t you? When cool energy rises from the dantian, it feels as though blue needles are shooting through your entire body.”
Yeon Geum-hong was at a loss for words. Eun Bi-yeon described the sensation of her Reversal of Life Cycle Technique with uncanny precision.
“I could instinctively sense that a little more cultivation would allow me to perform it.”
Yeon Geum-hong had also sensed it in that moment of the Reversal of Life Cycle Technique.
“That was seven years ago. At the time, I thought that performing the technique would only prolong my suffering, so I stopped my cultivation right then.”
“If you continued cultivating, you could perform the Reversal of Life Cycle Technique?”
“Yes. I can still feel that energy even now. I’ve thought about it for a long time, but watching Pyeong-su made my decision for me. I look far too old compared to him.”
Eun Bi-yeon’s return to the world would always be welcome. By her own reckoning, forty years was debt enough repaid.
But to fall in love with none other than Do Pyeong-su and perform the Reversal of Life Cycle Technique to emerge anew!
Eun Bi-yeon squeezed Yeon Geum-hong’s hand tightly.
“I’ll probably see you within this year. In the meantime, please look after our brother for me.”
Eun Bi-yeon, who had sent goosebumps across Yeon Geum-hong’s entire body, waved toward Do Pyeong-su.
“Brother, I’ll see you later!”
Do Pyeong-su waved back before he could think.
“Brother? What’s with the sudden familiarity?”

***

After a long journey, they returned to Oseong Jang-won in Hangju.
“Master!”
Se-hwa greeted them with a delighted face. Oseong Jang-won, where people waited to welcome them, felt like paradise.
Of course, that was on the condition that they could cure Geom U-bin’s side effects.
“Where is Seo Seok-san?”
Se-hwa answered Yeon Geum-hong’s question.
“He’s in the Underground Cultivation Chamber.”
It seemed he’d found what he needed. If he hadn’t, he wouldn’t have returned.
“But why are you here? What about the tavern?”
“The tavern isn’t open at this hour anyway. Don’t worry about it—just focus on treating Master’s condition.”
“Understood. Still, it’s reassuring to have you all here.”
It was no mere pleasantry. Besides Hyeolpung Saja themselves, their disciples were the most trustworthy people they had.

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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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