Chronicles of the Martial God’s Return - Chapter 74

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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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It was some seven days later when Dan Woo-hyun finally entered Hancheon. He had urged them onward at every turn, and whenever a horse collapsed, he purchased a fresh one and pressed ahead without delay.
After repeating this cycle several times, the distance shrank considerably, and they arrived far more swiftly than expected.
Of course, their condition was hardly impressive.
Kwon Mu-jin’s face was hollow with exhaustion.
He had ridden without rest, day and night alike, scarcely pausing even to eat properly.
He understood the desire to find the treasure and return as quickly as possible, but this felt like cruelty stretched beyond all reason.
Cold sweat dripped down his face as he watched Dan Woo-hyun forge ahead.
The man had already pulled far out in front.
‘Does he never tire……?’
Kwon Mu-jin prided himself on his endurance.
Since childhood, he had trained with discipline many times over what others demanded of themselves, and that had never ceased. Indeed, since joining the Manor, he had only increased the rigor of his regimen, dedicating himself to maintaining his strength.
And yet he could not match Dan Woo-hyun’s pace.
“So this is Hancheon.”
“Gasp…… gasp…… y-yes, that’s…… correct.”
Kwon Mu-jin wiped the sweat streaming down his face and forced his lips open. The contrast between his state and Dan Woo-hyun’s leisurely composure could not have been starker.
It seemed almost remarkable that he hadn’t simply collapsed on the spot. Yet Dan Woo-hyun paid him no mind whatsoever, instead gazing about, taking in the sights of the town.
His eyes wandered here and there before he withdrew a map from his breast and studied it carefully.
He was clearly pointing to something specific.
“The landscape has changed somewhat, but this does appear to be the right place.”
“Th-that’s…… a relief indeed.”
At least they wouldn’t have to travel further.
Kwon Mu-jin forced an awkward smile and breathed a silent prayer of gratitude. If Dan Woo-hyun had announced they needed to go elsewhere, he would have lost consciousness on the road.
“It’s quite large, though. Far bigger than I imagined…… I can’t tell where anything is.”
The terrain did match what he’d expected.
Certainly, somewhere within Hancheon lay the treasure of a man named Geum Wang-su. Yet the map was drawn with considerable complexity, and there was no way to determine which destination they should pursue.
What Dan Woo-hyun now held in his hands was merely a simple map.
There was no trace of any particular marking or annotation.
Knowing this from the start, he had attempted to decode it before arriving, working diligently at the task, but he had still found no solution.
Whoever had drawn this map possessed a cunning mind.
“Hmm?”
As Dan Woo-hyun stared intently at the map, he seemed to perceive something and lifted it above his head. Brilliant sunlight poured down, and as its rays passed through the parchment, he discerned a faint tint of color in one particular area.
“It must be here.”
“You found a clue?”
“When you hold it up to the light like this, this spot alone shows a different hue.”
Kwon Mu-jin gazed up at the map.
The difference in color was so subtle that one could only discern it by staring with utmost concentration. Which meant Dan Woo-hyun’s eyes were of a quality almost beyond belief.
The man was scarcely human.
“Isn’t that quite far to the northwest?”
“Indeed it is.”
Dan Woo-hyun nodded and turned his gaze toward that direction.
The northwest?
The location marked on the map certainly pointed that way. But that place was not Hancheon proper—it was a great mountain. Whether one judged by the cardinal directions or the distance, it was unmistakably that peak the map indicated.
It was quite far.
Even on horseback, it would take perhaps an hour and a half to reach.
Dan Woo-hyun scratched his head and looked at Kwon Mu-jin.
He studied the man’s expression—one that suggested he might collapse any moment—and, as if reaching a decision, gave a small nod.
“You seem fine still. Let’s go.”
“……Eh, yes, ah…… right, we should.”
Kwon Mu-jin nodded with a reluctant expression.
His desperate hope for rest was mercilessly dashed.
Thus, scarcely half an hour after entering Hancheon, the two set off toward the great mountain visible to the northwest. They traveled on horseback, but the distance was so vast that progress seemed agonizingly slow.
Yet after nearly two hours of continuous travel, the two arrived at what could be called their destination—the mountain itself.
Upon arriving, Dan Woo-hyun brought his horse to a stop and examined the map once more.
According to the map’s markings, something lay within the mountain itself. The terrain was treacherous, making ascent difficult; yet Dan Woo-hyun showed no hesitation and began to move.
The prospect of treasure spurred him onward with relentless urgency.
He began climbing along the winding mountain path.
“Gasp…… gasp…… do we have to go…… further?”
“It seems I need to climb a bit higher. Truly, they don’t hide it in an easy place, do they?”
“Huff…… huff…… I…… understand, Dan Woo-hyun, of course.”
Kwon Mu-jin trailed behind, drenched in cold sweat. His desperation to find the treasure as quickly as possible had him chasing after Dan Woo-hyun, who was bounding ahead, and the exertion felt like a year’s worth of training compressed into moments.
He’d made a mistake coming along.
He should have sent that idiot Samtae instead.
Regret at this late hour was useless, but Kwon Mu-jin’s frustration was beyond words. The last time he’d pursued a treasure hunt, nothing had been like this.
It was all because of that bastard’s gold and silver.
Grinding his teeth in agitation, he continued along the mountain path for quite some time.
Then, at some point, Dan Woo-hyun came to an abrupt halt.
Lifting his head to see what had stopped him, Kwon Mu-jin spotted a manor half-crumbled into ruin. The walls had already failed in their purpose; most of the visible structures had collapsed and fallen to decay.
Spiders had woven their webs across every corner, and rats and snakes slithered freely throughout.
No one could possibly live in a place like this.
“Is…… is it here?”
“Yes…… it matches the map, but……”
Dan Woo-hyun’s brow furrowed as he glanced between the manor and the map. The eerie structure before him was undoubtedly the location marked on the map, yet why could he hear human voices from within?
“Hahahaha! Drink up, drink up!”
“The harvest today was excellent!”
The voices drifting over the wall were not only men’s. Women’s high-pitched laughter mingled among them, suggesting exactly what sort of gathering was taking place inside.
“Are they…… bandits?”
“Bandits, it seems.”
Deep in the mountains like this—
An abandoned manor—
It made perfect sense that bandits would take root in such a forsaken, treacherous place where travelers rarely ventured. There was no need to construct a bandit stronghold when they could simply use what was already here. What was left served well enough.
For some reason, this seemed to irritate Dan Woo-hyun.
A troubling thought arose: what if these bandits had taken the treasure?
Dan Woo-hyun stepped slowly into the manor grounds.
Crunch, crunch—
His footfalls were buried beneath the bandits’ laughter, unheard by any. But the moment he crossed the crumbling wall and entered the courtyard, all eyes snapped toward him.
Without warning, he hurled a vicious backhand across the nearest bandit’s skull.
Crack!
“Ugh!”
“Who…… who the hell are you?! Argh!”
“What?! Aaaah!”
Where moments before only laughter had filled the air, screams now erupted. The instant Dan Woo-hyun crossed the wall, he unleashed his fury without a word.
Even Kwon Mu-jin, watching from behind, was left speechless.
At least give them a moment to ask who he was or why he’d come.
Boom-crash-bang!
In seconds, more than twenty bandits went flying in all directions. They tumbled across the ground, crashed into the manor’s rotting frame, and screamed—or tried to—so violently that one might not have realized anyone had fallen at all without seeing it with their own eyes.
All that remained were half-naked women.
They stood trembling, their faces drained of all color.
Yet Dan Woo-hyun’s attention was not on them.
He surveyed the fallen bandits and grabbed the one who possessed the strongest aura. Blood ran steadily down the man’s battered face, but Dan Woo-hyun’s grip on his hair held not a trace of mercy.
Even Kwon Mu-jin, observing from a distance, felt cold sweat trickle down his spine at the sheer killing intent radiating from him.
“Answer my questions.”
“Y-yes, yes!”
“How long has your band occupied this place?”
“Approximately…… about a year, sir.”
The Bandit Leader answered while trembling violently.
Martial experts occasionally attacked bandit strongholds. Most were newly emerged novices from the martial world, and while strong, they’d never subdued more than twenty opponents in such a short span of time.
This man before him was something far greater.
One misplaced word and he’d be arranging his own funeral.
“When you arrived here, was there any sign that someone had lived in this place?”
“No…… there wasn’t.”
“Did you ever find anything here?”
“No…… nothing at all.”
Dan Woo-hyun studied the bandit leader’s eyes carefully. Fear and dread filled his gaze completely. His pupils wavered slightly, yet he showed no signs of lying.
“Get out of here.”
“Th-thank you, sir! Thank you, sir!”
The leader scrambled to his feet and hastily gathered his fallen comrades, bolting from the courtyard with all speed. He had no desire to discover what fate awaited if he lingered even a moment longer.
As one by one they vanished from sight, Dan Woo-hyun’s interest waned, and his gaze shifted toward the women. The moment their eyes met his, they shrank back in terror.
“All of you—be on your way.”
At those words, the women scrambled to gather their belongings and hurried down the mountainside. Descending meant risking capture by the bandits, but it was a hundred times better than staying near this man who had crushed over twenty bandits in a single breath and wielded such menace.
“Won’t you kill him?”
Kwon Mu-jin felt a flicker of confusion.
Never mind the ordinary bandits—the leader should have been put to death. Once they left this place, the others would rally around him again, using him as their rallying point.
Then Dan Woo-hyun let out a soft chuckle and spoke.
“If I’d intended to kill him, none would remain alive. But search the surroundings instead. There’s bound to be a clue somewhere.”
“Ah… understood.”
Kwon Mu-jin nodded and began to ransack the manor thoroughly. In truth, his first thought had been whether there might be treasure hidden here.
A year was a long time for bandits to occupy a place.
It was entirely possible that someone among them had already found it and hidden it away, which made the odds of actually locating this treasure seem rather slim.
‘Am I just going to exhaust myself for nothing and leave?’
Kwon Mu-jin felt cold sweat prickling against his skin.
He’d traveled considerable distance from Honam all the way to Hubei. And though Dan Woo-hyun showed no sign of it, Kwon Mu-jin was utterly drained and miserable even now.
Unless he obtained something tangible, his frustration would never settle.
If he found nothing here, he’d scour the entire Central Plains to track down that bastard Geum Wang-su and grind his hands to dust with his own teeth.
Then Dan Woo-hyun’s voice rang out.
“Here it is.”
“What—! You found it?!”
Kwon Mu-jin’s eyes widened at the sudden words, and he turned his head. Dan Woo-hyun stood at the pond in the center of the manor.
Whether it had been abandoned mid-construction or simply drained long ago, the pond held no water. In its depths sat a peculiar stone statue—lion-shaped—standing alone and silent.
“It’s just… a stone statue, isn’t it?”
“That’s what’s strange—finding a statue in a place like this. And when I tapped it, the interior seemed hollow. I was about to smash it, but something felt off, so I reached inside its mouth, and found this.”
Dan Woo-hyun pulled something free. A map made of leather. So unlike the papers he normally carried, it looked sufficiently worn, and gave off the distinct feeling of being a genuine map marking the location of treasure.
Kwon Mu-jin dragged his exhausted body forward eagerly.
At last, a glimmer of hope seemed to be breaking through.
“Is… is it truly a map to the location of Geum Wang-su’s treasure?”
“I can’t say for certain, but there’s no doubt something has been marked here.”
Dan Woo-hyun unfolded the map and showed it to him. Unlike before, it displayed an area ten li west of the manor, where something had been painted in brush strokes.
“L… lord… what… what is this…?”
Looking at it, Dan Woo-hyun broke into a wide grin.
At last, they were drawing closer to what they sought.

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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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