Chronicles of the Mad Demon - Chapter 13

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 13. Something More Important Than Money (3)

Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!

Despite the brutal clubbing, Ga Hang could only let out groans and couldn’t utter a single word.

“Huff huff! You damn bastard!”

From how much he had been beaten, Ga Hang’s body was covered in blood. Many bones were broken, and if left alone, his life would be in danger.

Black Tiger Gang Leader Choi Ho panted as he shouted.

“I praised you for doing well at the scene, and you dared to pull tricks behind my back?!”

“Ugh…”

“Shut your mouth, you pig!”

Thwack!

With one kick, Ga Hang’s front teeth shattered and fell out.

His jawbone was broken and his mute acupoint was ruptured so he couldn’t speak, and now his teeth were gone too. Even if he managed to save his life, he would have to live on porridge for the rest of his days.

Choi Ho, who had been glaring at Ga Hang with murderous eyes, turned his head.

“Ga Suk.”

“Yes, Gang Leader.”

The lean man who now showed signs of middle age looked extremely calm.

“What do you think about this incident?”

“He deserves to die.”

He drew the line coldly.

Even in his confused state of mind, Ga Hang must have heard those words as his eyes widened.

Ga Suk spoke without changing his expression.

“The crime of embezzling our gang’s public funds can only be forgiven by death. Quickly behead him to restore the Black Tiger Gang’s law and order.”

Even though they were blood brothers, he recommended killing him without showing any sign of distress.

Choi Ho’s cheek twitched.

“Why? To bury the fact that you’re also involved?”

“I didn’t know that Ga Hang was committing such acts.”

“He’s your younger brother, isn’t he?”

“That’s correct.”

“Do you think it makes sense that you, who oversees general affairs, didn’t know about your younger brother’s corruption?”

It was a situation that anyone would have to suspect.

Ga Suk bowed his head.

“Upon investigation, the gold items and carved artifacts that Ga Hang embezzled are items that weren’t recorded in the reports. I can say with certainty that I knew nothing about this.”

“You two probably coordinated your stories in the middle.”

“With all due respect, Gang Leader, if I had been determined to embezzle public funds, I wouldn’t have done something as foolish as burying all this money in the ground.”

He was truly confident.

And Choi Ho acknowledged Ga Suk’s words. Ga Suk was indeed smart. If he hadn’t been smart, he wouldn’t have given him the second-in-command position.

Still, Choi Ho suspected Ga Suk.

‘Ga Hang committed such acts alone?’

Ga Hang was a wild dog who would go crazy and devour even rotten meat if you threw it to him.

He had exactly the right temperament to be a site manager. Despite his large build, he was very observant and didn’t do anything to stand out unnecessarily.

Such a guy embezzling the Black Tiger Gang’s public funds? It was like a well-fed stray dog eyeing a house-sized tiger’s prey.

‘This bastard is definitely involved.’

Of course, it wasn’t impossible that Ga Hang had done it alone, but it was much more reasonable to see him as Ga Suk’s accomplice.

Even if Ga Suk wasn’t involved in this matter, he had to push the accomplice angle.

‘I’ve sucked enough out of him.’

Choi Ho found Ga Suk burdensome.

If he put his mind to it, he could cut off his head with a single stroke, but Ga Suk had done too much to help the Black Tiger Gang gain its current reputation for that.

If it were just the two of them, it might be different, but there were many eyes watching. Come to think of it, being able to command so many subordinates was also thanks to Ga Suk. But now there were more people who followed Ga Suk than himself.

He had wanted to get rid of him, and Ga Hang had caused trouble at just the right time.

Being angry was one thing, but an opportunity was an opportunity.

“Cheong Pae!”

“Yes, Gang Leader!”

Cheong Pae, the third-in-command of the Black Tiger Gang, bowed his head.

“Lock Ga Hang up in the barn and call Physician Pyeon to treat him somehow! Tell him that if he can’t save him, Physician Pyeon will die!”

“Yes!”

“And arrest all the guys this bastard used to take around with him!”

“I receive your command!”

Though he didn’t say it outright, it meant he would torture them to get a confession that Ga Suk was an accomplice.

Cheong Pae looked at Ga Suk and smiled coldly. For him, who was constantly eyeing the second-in-command position, Ga Suk’s purge was a moment he had been eagerly waiting for.

Even though things were moving urgently, Ga Suk didn’t even blink an eye.

Rather, he went one step further.

“Since Ga Hang’s position has become vacant, there will be disruptions in collection. We should at least temporarily put someone in place.”

Choi Ho snorted.

“Shouldn’t you be apologizing right now?”

“Gang Leader.”

“Even if you’re not an accomplice, an embezzlement incident has erupted. How could your crime of not properly managing your subordinates be light?”

It was a valid point. In any other organization, it would be normal to kneel and apologize first.

However, Ga Suk remained dignified to the end.

“For me to check the field work one by one…”

“So you’re saying you’re not at fault?”

“Gang Leader.”

“This is why guys who think they’re smart are problematic. They never admit their mistakes even if they die.”

Even though he received insulting words in front of his subordinates, Ga Suk’s face remained expressionless.

As if he couldn’t stand the sight of him, Choi Ho waved his hand dismissively.

“For the time being, I’ll handle the general affairs myself. You just reflect on yourself at your residence.”

“Understood.”

With that, Choi Ho went into the Gang Leader’s Room. Cheong Pae ordered his subordinates to lock Ga Hang in the barn and arrest all of his subordinates.

Left alone, Ga Suk went into his residence.

As soon as the door closed, his face contorted.

“Stupid bastard!”

It was a curse directed at Ga Hang.

“I told you to hide it well, and you buried it in the ground?!”

It wasn’t that he felt sorry about the money. In reality, the money he gave to Ga Hang was only thirty percent, and that much could be earned again.

What really pissed him off was that his younger brother had deceived him.

‘What? You didn’t receive anything separately? This son of a bitch!’

The luxurious carved artifacts that came out of the pit were things he had never seen before either.

In other words, they were items that Ga Hang had obtained in the middle without his knowledge. This bastard had deceived his own older brother.

‘His guts have been getting bigger and bigger. But I never thought he’d even deceive me.’

He was a stupid fool, but seeing this, there were definitely aspects where he resembled himself.

‘There’s no choice.’

Originally, he had planned to overthrow the Black Tiger Gang in the new year, which was less than three months away. But given how the situation had turned out, there was no alternative.

After gathering necessary items from his room and packing them, along with making a bundle, Ga Suk frowned at a sudden thought.

‘By the way, who did that bastard get beaten by?’

Even though Ga Hang had no brains, he was quite well-known for his swordsmanship in the back alleys. Yet he had been severely beaten to the point where his fingers were cut off and his jawbone was crushed.

‘Stupid bastard! Where did you go around blabbing about having money!’

Someone had definitely made full preparations before attacking Ga Hang.

The fact that they left behind only the problematic items and disappeared completely meant that someone well-versed in money flow had been involved.

‘I should investigate, but…’

Ga Suk glanced out the window.

He could see gang members busily coming and going. Since this was the gang’s main base, they were all quick on their feet. More than half of them were those who had learned internal energy cultivation methods.

‘This isn’t a situation where I can ask directly. It would be nice if he just died quietly, but I can’t break through the surveillance.’

Surprisingly, he was regretting that he couldn’t kill his younger brother.

‘Since embezzlement has been discovered, it’ll be exposed within a day or two. For now, I need to flee to the Hong Clan Sword Family.’

He pushed the bookshelf to the side.

Thud.

He pushed the quite heavy bookshelf with one hand without much difficulty. He seemed to have better strength than even Ga Hang, who was large and had learned internal energy.

Behind the moved bookshelf was a small side door.

After opening the door and coming out, he walked with large strides toward the middle gate. Unlike in front of the Gang Leader’s room where chaos was raging, there were surprisingly few people here.

He moved through the shadows of walls and between buildings. Several gang members passed by him, but strangely, none of them seemed to sense Ga Suk’s presence.

A moment later.

“The, the Deputy Gang Leader has disappeared!”

* * *

He hadn’t expected much from the beginning, so there was nothing to be disappointed about, but he couldn’t help feeling amazed.

“…Should I call this clean?”

Martial families and sects have a Martial Arts Library that stores martial arts books.

The Moyong Family was the same, but Moyong Bi emptied his mind from the entrance of the Martial Arts Library. It looked more like a regular warehouse than a repository for secret manuals.

Considering the number of books, it actually felt rather spacious. It wouldn’t be strange to describe this as sparse.

‘Still, it looks like there are about fifty books or so.’

Moyong Bi, who had been examining several martial arts manuals pulled from the small bookshelf, let out a deep sigh.

“These are just third-rate.”

While ordinary people with no connection to the martial world couldn’t easily obtain them, these were martial arts that those with ties to Jianghu could acquire without much difficulty.

From the Three Talents Sword Technique, which was the most basic of basics, to Three Talents Footwork, Six Harmonies Fist, Seven Star Steps, and other martial arts that even small and medium sects wouldn’t teach to beginners for even a full year – over ten volumes.

Among them were also external martial arts like Iron Robe Shirt and Golden Bell Cover, as well as Three Emperors Cannon Fist, which combined basic fist techniques with external cultivation. These were martial arts that the Moyong Family originally didn’t deal with.

“Why would they collect things like this?”

Of the fifty or so books, nearly thirty were commonly available martial arts texts. They were too low-level and known by too many people to be called a sect’s secret arts.

“Hmm?”

Moyong Bi’s eyes sparkled as he pulled out another volume with a troubled mind.

“Single Yang Heart Method.”

Though it received somewhat ambiguous evaluations, this was a martial art of the Moyong Family. It was also the Internal Energy Cultivation Method that Moyong Su Jeong was learning.

Moyong Bi’s face gradually contorted as he turned the pages with a somehow pleased feeling.

“What is this!”

The secret manual’s name was indeed Single Yang Heart Method. The incantations were also generally similar to the Single Yang Heart Method he knew.

That was the problem. They were ‘only’ generally similar.

“Why did the incantations change from the middle part?”

The Single Yang Heart Method was an Internal Family Heart Method that originated from Life Cultivation Art, with its roots in the Taoist School.

Since it could strongly cultivate vital energy and even accumulate internal energy, it deserved good evaluation among non-secret martial arts, but those discussing first-rate techniques considered it mediocre.

However, the incantations written in this secret manual couldn’t nurture vital energy and only focused on increasing internal energy, creating a great risk of accumulating impure internal power, while the amount of energy accumulation didn’t show noticeable improvement either.

“It was already mediocre, but now the balance is completely destroyed. What the hell is this?!”

Unless someone was well-versed in Martial Studies, they could easily be ruined, and such a person wouldn’t practice this heart method in the first place.

Thinking that Su Jeong had learned this made him furious. If she had made a mistake, Su Jeong’s body could have been completely destroyed.

…Though it was already quite destroyed.

Moyong Bi sighed and looked through other secret manuals.

“Huh? There’s Soul Reviving Internal Scripture left?!”

His expression, which had immediately brightened, didn’t take even half a moment to turn sour.

Thud!

He threw the book down and fumed for a long while.

“What kind of Soul Reviving Internal Scripture is this! It’s just soul, just soul!”

He quickly examined the other secret manuals.

“Wait a minute. This one? Th-this too…?!”

While there were no secret martial arts of the Moyong Noble Family, there were still martial arts that could earn a living if practiced well.

But more than half of them were different from the originals that Moyong Bi remembered. And they weren’t even cleverly different. Most were blatantly different from the middle part, or in severe cases, from the early-middle part.

“Good heavens.”

After weeding through them like this, seven normal martial arts books remained.

Even those were martial arts of similar level to Single Yang Heart Method or ones that were classified as basic even in the Moyong Family.

Moyong Bi’s face, pale with shock, gradually hardened with seriousness.

“It’s strange that it didn’t collapse.”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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