Chronicles of the Martial God’s Return - Chapter 152

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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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The crooked signboard looked ready to fall off at any moment. Cobwebs hung in every corner, evidence of long neglect.
The desolate landscape was so complete it seemed like the sort of place a ghost from a folktale might inhabit.
This had once been the Ho Yeon-sega, famous throughout Honam and Ak-yang for selling their prized Sohong wine.
The faded glory of those days had long since vanished, yet the family’s grip on Ak-yang’s wine trade had endured so long that the characters on the plaque remained sharp and clearly carved.
“Ho Yeon-sega, then…”
“Yes! This is the place!”
Geum Eun-hak answered while wiping cold sweat from his brow.
He had already heard the story.
They had lost their power struggle against the Chu Mun-sega, and afterward suffered what amounted to an extermination at someone’s hands.
Now it was an abandoned house that no one even bothered to visit.
“You’re certain this is it?”
Dan Woo-hyun asked, his expression doubtful.
He couldn’t make sense of it. He felt no sign of human presence from within.
Even beggars would refuse to live in such a place.
The cold wind seeping from inside carried a chill that spoke of death—anyone lingering here would surely freeze.
“I-I’m certain, sir.”
At Geum Eun-hak’s assurance, Dan Woo-hyun’s expression soured, but with a resigned air he extended his hand and gave the gate—which looked ready to collapse at any second—a gentle push.
Creak—screeeech!
An unpleasant sound scraped against their ears.
The grating noise continued for a moment before the wooden door suddenly dropped with a thud.
……
……
Both Dan Woo-hyun and Geum Eun-hak broke out in cold sweat.
Even a ruined family clan should fix a door or two.
“Is anyone here?”
Geum Eun-hak, who had entered first, called out loudly.
They had come all the way from Ak-yang to Ho Yeon-sega—a considerable distance that had consumed at least a Double Hour of travel. At the very least, they needed to meet someone from the clan.
But there was no sign of anyone inside.
As he was about to sigh at the silence—
Dan Woo-hyun, standing behind him, turned his head.
“Who… are you?”
It was a woman who looked to have only just reached her twenties.
Her long hair hung unkempt, as though untended for a long time, and the clothes she wore were barely better than rags. Her hands were flushed red from the cold, enough to make one wonder if she were suffering from frostbite.
A worn basket hung at her waist as she regarded Dan Woo-hyun with a gaze that seemed strangely complicated.
“Who are you?”
“…I asked first, actually.”
At Dan Woo-hyun’s question, the woman’s expression turned incredulous.
To barge uninvited into someone’s home and then demand to know who the owner is? She wondered what sort of wits he possessed.
“I’m Dan Woo-hyun.”
“I’m Ho Yeon-ji. The owner of this house.”
“…So someone does live here.”
“Your manners are truly lacking.”
Ho Yeon-ji’s brow furrowed.
Admittedly, the place looked uninhabitable from the outside, but beyond the entrance lay a cramped but comfortable enough space where one person could rest.
Surely that was sufficient for living alone?
Irked without good reason, she set down her basket and crossed her arms.
“So, will you explain yourselves?”
Geum Eun-hak nodded at Ho Yeon-ji’s demand.

Deep within what could scarcely be called anything but an abandoned house lay a cramped space barely large enough for one person to lie down.
Since there was no proper place to receive guests, Dan Woo-hyun and Geum Eun-hak sat on the veranda outside.
The woman, finding nothing suitable to offer, brought out two cups of water to greet them.
Dan Woo-hyun looked around and nodded slowly.
This place seemed designed for one person alone.
To others, it would have been an unsightly spectacle, but to Dan Woo-hyun’s eyes, it presented something altogether different.
And everywhere, a scent lingered.
The fragrance of medicinal herbs.
It looked as though every medicinal herb that grew in the mountains and fields had been gathered into this one place.
“A fine location.”
“You’re not going to mock me, are you?”
Dan Woo-hyun let out a soft chuckle.
He hadn’t intended to, but it seemed he’d left a poor impression that had settled in firmly.
“The scent of medicinal herbs is strong here. Are you planning to open a physician’s clinic?”
“Our family originally came from physicians. It’s just that the elders of previous generations were so fond of brewing liquor that alcohol became what we were known for.”
Ho Yeon-ji lifted her shoulders slightly.
The Ho Yeon-sega had collapsed, and she lived alone in a place where she could rely on no one, yet a few of the family’s books remained.
So she was teaching herself Acupuncture and Herbalism to prepare for whatever she might need to do in the future.
It was not an attempt to restore the Ho Yeon-sega’s past glory, but merely an act of survival for herself.
“I see. I came here because of rumors that the Ho Yeon-sega was famous for alcohol.”
“There are plenty like you. Some people even pester me to brew for them. But it’s impossible.”
“Why?”
“Because I don’t make it anymore.”
Alcohol had brought the family to complete ruin.
It had happened when she was young, and at the time she’d understood nothing, but now she knew—it was alcohol that had taken her parents, alcohol that had made it impossible for the family to ever recover.
So much as seeing alcohol made her recoil.
“It seems you don’t know how to make it.”
“Yes, yes, provoke me all you like—it won’t work. I’ll never make it again.”
Ho Yeon-ji laughed softly.
How many people do you think have come to this place?
Wealthy merchants remembering the alcohol they’d once tasted, even high-ranking officials had sent people—so desperate were they to obtain it.
But she had refused them all, never swayed by money.
She knew that if she ever touched alcohol again, there would be no turning back.

“Cut off the hands that brew the liquor. Tear out the tongue that tastes it.”

The voice of a man echoed vividly in her mind.
Though it was from her childhood, she remembered it perfectly—that figure.
The faces of her parents as they screamed in agony.
A man wearing a mask, yet somehow familiar.
That scene remained in her memory still, and it had become her terror.
Ho Yeon-ji’s face went deathly pale in an instant.
“They say the Ho Yeon-sega’s alcohol was the finest in the Central Plains.”
“That was long ago. Now the Chu Mun-sega is the best.”
She dismissed it with an air of indifference, but when she mentioned the Chu Mun-sega, her voice wavered for a brief moment.
“I see.”
Dan Woo-hyun nodded as well, then rose casually and approached a shadowed corner that was barely visible.
There, several Liquor Jars lay broken, and between the fragments, the scent of recently spilled alcohol was evident.
In the moment Ho Yeon-ji gasped in surprise, Dan Woo-hyun without hesitation reached out and drank from it.
“It’s not quite as good as I expected, but it’s decent enough. Though it’s true the Chu Mun-sega’s alcohol tastes better.”
“Ugh…!”
Ho Yeon-ji’s expression hardened.
She hadn’t made it for such an appraisal. She’d brewed it only to offer a cup at her parents’ grave on the anniversary of their death.
She’d broken the jars because she recognized the taste was no longer what it had been.
‘I didn’t make it to be compared to the Chu Mun-sega….’
Yet her pride was wounded, and Ho Yeon-ji turned her head away sharply.
“But there is potential.”
Footsteps—slow and measured.
Dan Woo-hyun approached as though tightening a noose around her heart, coming to stand directly before her face.
Crouching to meet her eyes while she sat, he gazed directly into them.
At the sight of the faint smile playing at his lips, Ho Yeon-ji felt as though she might be drawn into the depths of his eyes.
“What… what is it?”
“Brew the alcohol.”
“What… what did you say? I can’t anymore……”
“If you do, I shall grant you your heart’s desire.”
“……A desire?”
Had she ever spoken of such a thing?
Unless he were a god, how could he possibly read another’s heart?
He let out a laugh that came out in stutters, amazed at his own audacity.
“Heh heh, but do you actually know what my wish is?”
“I do.”
…….
Ho Yeon-ji’s face hardened at his answer, spoken with such certainty.
Her hands, folded neatly on her lap, tensed.
“What is it?”
“I shall exterminate the Chu Mun-sega for you.”
She caught her breath.
“I shall erase the fear planted deep within you.”
A dry swallow made its way down her throat.
‘This man…….’
At first, she had taken him for nothing more than a sheltered young lord from a wealthy house, but that was wrong. He had spoken of exterminating the Chu Mun-sega without the slightest hesitation.
Only those from the Martial World could speak with such certainty.
“The Chu Mun-sega is connected to the Man Geum Sang-dan. And the martial artists who guard that place are all first-rate. You know that if they chose to, they could wipe out any mid-sized sect in a single day, don’t you? Is that why you’re saying this?”
She had not refrained from thoughts of revenge.
She had been unable to entertain them.
The power the Chu Mun-sega wielded was too vast. Even if she earned money and gathered wandering mercenaries, they would be no more than a lamp before the wind in the face of the Chu Mun-sega.
A breath would snuff them out.
Yet this man spoke with absolute confidence.
“Leave everything to me.”
…….
“If you do, I shall grant your wish.”
The sound of another dry swallow echoed in the silence.
Not just Ho Yeon-ji, but even Geum Eun-hak, watching from the side.
As Dan Woo-hyun spoke and the confidence that radiated from him, the strength that gleamed in his eyes — it all seemed undeniably true.
What chilled her most was his promise to fulfill her wish. It sounded as though he were making the same promise to Geum Eun-hak, to herself as well.
To become the greatest merchant house in the Central Plains.
Dan Woo-hyun had said he would make it so.
If only they would follow him!
Watching a scene not unlike the one from not long ago, Geum Eun-hak trembled.
Ho Yeon-ji, who had been silent for some time, fixed Dan Woo-hyun with a sharp gaze.
“Can you truly do it?”
“There is nothing I cannot do.”
Those words stirred something deep within Ho Yeon-ji’s heart.

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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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