Chronicles of the Martial God’s Return - Chapter 11

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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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“Damn it… Damn it!”
Curses tumbled ceaselessly from Jang Samtae’s lips as he swept. The moment he understood that escape was impossible, he felt like Sun Wukong wearing the golden fillet—bound and helpless.
“Hell, what’s this business about him being Buddha?”
There are limits to how much nonsense a man can tolerate.
Nowhere else to turn for comparison, so they resort to Buddha—but Dan Wuhyeon was a demon. Not merely an evil spirit, but one so vicious that he’d pale even an Asura by comparison.
‘Extorting the money I’d scraped together with such difficulty!’
And he’d do it with an unbothered expression, grinning all the while.
He didn’t even seem to feel regret.
Worse still, he’d work a man like a slave—truly, three silver coins a day for dawn-to-dusk labor. Granted, for a servant it was generous pay.
But.
“That’s the problem—it’s all my money!”
If not for Dan Wuhyeon and that scrawny slip of a girl, he’d be living high and lavish by now. And that was precisely why Jang Samtae’s fury burned so hot.
His resentment surged and wouldn’t subside, so the sounds pouring from his mouth were far from pleasant to hear.
His voice was loud enough that even Hwa Somni, playing in the courtyard, caught wind of it.
“Hmm?”
Hwa Somni looked up, staring blankly at Jang Samtae. A month had already passed, yet the two of them had not exchanged a single word.
Not Jang Samtae, and not Hwa Somni either.
Though they occupied the same space, Hwa Somni and Jang Samtae were like strangers.
Jang Samtae snorted and turned his head away.
“He’s gone hunting… and I’ve got to….”
Head to the Marketplace District.
He’d abandoned the idea of running away. Despite fleeing several times over the past month, he’d never succeeded even once.
Now there was only one reason he ventured into Anyang.
To buy the things they needed.
Though Dan Wuhyeon and Hwa Somni foraged most of the ingredients from the mountains, fields, and Dongjeong Lake, items they couldn’t find there had to be purchased.
Rice, spices and seasonings for cooking—things like that.
“Ah, such is my wretched fate!”
Jang Samtae grumbled his complaints as he began his preparations.
The road to the Marketplace District was considerable, so he needed to pack carefully. Using Lightweight Qinggong would cut the time, but he preferred not to shorten the hours spent away from the Estate.
And so he left the Estate, heading toward the Marketplace District. The journey was about two hours on foot, so he resolved to take his time.
……
Some way into his walk, Jang Samtae sensed something amiss. He kept hearing rustling from behind him, accompanied by ragged breathing.
As someone who’d cultivated Internal Energy and walked the Martial path, he wasn’t at Dan Wuhyeon’s level, but he could detect a Presence well enough.
Jang Samtae furrowed his brow and turned.
Whoosh—!
A small figure darted quickly into the brush and vanished. Jang Samtae exhaled heavily. In a remote place like this, a figure so small could only belong to one person.
He pressed his fingers to his temples, fighting off the headache, and approached the thicket.
Peering through the foliage, he spotted Hwa Somni crouched down, hiding.
“What are you doing here?”
His tone was curt and sharp.
Since the entire mess had begun with Hwa Somni in the first place, his manner toward the child couldn’t help but be hostile.
Looking down at her, the girl lifted her head slightly, meeting his gaze. Then she broke into a smile.
“Don’t smile. Don’t follow me, and get yourself back inside. If anything happens to you, my head won’t stay on my shoulders.”
But Hwa Somni showed no intention of returning. Without a word, she rose to her feet and gripped his sleeve firmly.
“Being alone… I hate it.”
‘Where does this whining come from? Just—agh!’
He wanted to shout it aloud, but he held back.
A single scratch on the girl and he’d be a corpse. Jang Samtae finally sighed and shook his head slowly.
“Do you know where I’m going?”
“…To the Marketplace District.”
“I can’t take you to a crowded place like that. If anything happened to you, that cursed self-proclaimed Buddha would never let it rest.”
“I’ll stay right beside you.”
Dan Wuhyeon would probably return soon from his hunt, but the girl showed no sign of going back willingly. And sending her away by force wouldn’t work either.
This area was a well-trodden path where wild beasts frequently appeared.
With nearly an hour’s distance from the Estate to this point, he couldn’t just send the child back alone.
Taking her along would only create more trouble.
In the end, there was only one conclusion.
Jang Samtae exhaled a long breath and opened his mouth.
“Stay close to me.”
At those words, Hwa Somni broke into a bright smile.
“Yes!”

***

When Dan Wuhyeon returned to the Estate, he found it empty.
He’d sent Jang Samtae on an errand, so Hwa Somni should have been there, yet the sprawling manor held only a hollow chill.
Sitting alone in the vast rooms, Dan Wuhyeon felt an inexplicable unease settling over him.
“Was it always this large?”
He let out a quiet, involuntary laugh.
He’d built this place with his own hands—how could it feel so vast?
The absence of just two people was enough to conjure an emptiness he’d never noticed before, hanging thick in the air.
There was a time when solitude felt natural to him, inevitable even. Now, somehow, he found himself assuming the opposite—that having someone beside him was the way things ought to be. The shift struck him as peculiar.
After butchering the game he’d caught and storing it away, Dan Wuhyeon settled onto the veranda and drew a long breath.
“The Marketplace District must be in turmoil by now.”
They’d captured Jang Baek-san, the tiger whose notoriety had spread across Honam, and beyond him, even the Black Merchant with the greatest influence among those shadowed dealers. The common people might tell themselves they could finally live with some peace of mind, but those who’d followed such men were gnashing their teeth, scouring the roads for vengeance.
Revenge—that was what drove them.
Jang Samtae, who’d brought back those problematic Royal Household goods, would certainly be a target.
Ordinarily, Dan Wuhyeon wouldn’t have given it much thought, but seeing that Somni was absent from the Estate meant she’d almost certainly followed Jang Samtae.
If that was the case, he needed to go—before things erupted.
Dan Wuhyeon rose from his seat and took a measured step forward.
Whoosh!
In an instant, his form vanished.

Worse, figures emanating a murderous aura stood motionless in alleyways throughout the district, and they seemed to be searching for someone.
‘Surely not…?’
Unease gnawed at Jang Samtae, but he pushed it aside.
One thing did prick his conscience, though.
The capture of that Black Merchant—one of the great powers of the Central Plains.
But hadn’t that merchant already lost his head?
He’d been caught trafficking Royal Household goods; his execution was inevitable.
‘What?’
Then what of himself—the one who’d sold those goods?
From the merchant’s perspective, Jang Samtae was the source of all this calamity. His subordinates would have every reason to harbor a grudge.
He stopped abruptly and turned his head with care.
Sharp, concentrated gazes converged on him from every direction.
Jang Samtae’s heart lurched, and he spun his head sideways in panic.
“What?!”
The child should have been there—she wasn’t.
Hwa Somni, who’d been clinging to his side until moments ago, had vanished.
The instant his eyes widened, a man emerged from an alley.
One hand clamped over Hwa Somni’s mouth, the other wielding a blade pressed against her throat.
“You damned bastard!”
Jang Samtae roared.
But the man paid no mind, merely smirking. Then, dragging Hwa Somni along, he deployed his Lightweight Qinggong and fled. It was a trap laid bare before his eyes—but he couldn’t refuse it.
It was Somni, after all.
Even if he’d abandoned her, Dan Wuhyeon would surely come to her aid—but in doing so, Jang Samtae himself would forfeit his life.
“Damn it all! What a cursed existence!”
How was it that nothing ever went right?
Just thinking about it set his teeth on edge.
“I’m an idiot for bringing her along in the first place!”
Jang Samtae threw himself forward with speed. When it came to Lightweight Qinggong, he yielded to no one. Trap or not, if he could catch them before they got away, he’d have Somni back.
In one bound, he leaped high and gave chase.
The fleeing man grew steadily closer.

“Hey, you bastard! Put the kid down!”
“Hmph!”
Jang Samtae ground his teeth, watching the man snort derisively.
He wanted nothing more than to throw a punch, but the situation was far from favorable. Skilled fighters had appeared from nowhere and were closing in from behind.
Within moments, he found himself trapped between them and the man ahead.
When they finally stopped in an empty clearing where few people ventured, a group emerged from all sides, drawing their blades and cutting off every escape route.
“You’re Jang Samtae, aren’t you?”
“Why ask if you already know?”
“The thief who handed stolen goods to the master a month ago……”
“Yeah, that’s right.”
Jang Samtae stayed alert.
As long as they held Hwa Somni, he had to recover the child before making any rash moves.
Being beaten held no terror for him. Death itself frightened him far less than watching that small child die before his eyes.
“You damned fools! Got nothing better to do than kidnap children?”
“We’ll do far worse than this for the master’s vengeance.”
“Lunatics! You’re laying hands on someone you should never have touched.”
“Hmph, you’ve committed a far greater sin, Jang Samtae.”
“You’re a funny one.”
Jang Samtae drew his short dagger.
Theft was his greatest skill, but if truth be told, he possessed considerable martial ability.
He would not go down easily.
The problem was that these men were stronger.
Counting them, there had to be at least twenty.
Not that he’d ever planned to fight them head-on.
Whish—!
Jang Samtae hurled his dagger at the man holding Hwa Somni. Confident in his Hidden Projectile Technique, he watched the blade arc toward the man’s brow with perfect precision.
“Not so fast!”
Clang—!
The man with the sword flicked the dagger away as if it were nothing.
Jang Samtae seized that instant, pouring every ounce of Lightweight Qinggong into his dash. The distance collapsed in a heartbeat, and he snatched Hwa Somni into his arms.
Now all he had to do was escape with her.
“Damn you!”
Thud—!
“Ugh!”
But nothing went as planned. A vicious blow to his ribs drove the air from his lungs in a strangled gasp.
Still clutching Hwa Somni, he pulled her close to his body.
He rolled across the ground as he fell.
Whack-whack-whack—!
The man’s kicks came relentlessly.
Each blow hammered his entire body until his vision swam and his mind began to fray.
Yet he gritted his teeth and held on.
He would protect this child—no matter what.

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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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