Dokmaeuiseon - Chapter 162
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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 162
Not even half a day had passed since Jung Myeong returned to the Medical Clinic, and the rumors had already swept through all of Hangzhou Castle.
It was only natural since everyone’s attention had been focused on it.
“Did you hear? They say the Geumho Faction Leader is dead.”
“Who died?”
“They say Poison Demon Physician Jung Myeong cut him down personally.”
“Huh. Does that make sense?”
“What’s there that wouldn’t make sense? They say it already happened.”
“What in the world….”
At first, everyone was skeptical.
It was none other than the Guild Leader of Geumho Guild.
Who was the Guild Leader?
A Skilled Martial Artist who had reigned over the Hangzhou Martial World for decades.
Even if he was an unorthodox Skilled Martial Artist, he was like a pillar of the Hangzhou Martial World.
Such a person was cut down by the Physician Sage?
No matter how much the Physician Sage constantly stirred up trouble, this was something that didn’t make sense.
However, the rumors soon took shape and moved even faster.
“They say he cut down the Guild Leader with a Single Sword Strike.”
“Does that even make sense?”
“There were many witnesses. And they say the Guild Leader drew his sword first, but he cleanly cut him down.”
“Huh…! So Late Strike First really works?”
“That’s right! They say the Guild Leader’s sword shattered in a Single Sword Strike.”
“Then what about the Guild Leader?”
“They say he was cut in two.”
“Huh….”
Eyewitness accounts were added, and hearsay was piled on.
At this point, the facts couldn’t be denied.
In the end, everything came down to one statement.
The Guild Leader lost to Jung Myeong.
That one statement was enough.
It was the same everywhere on Market Street.
Whether it was taverns or tea houses, it didn’t matter.
Even in front of medicine shops, that was the only topic of conversation.
“So now, aren’t all the remaining sects in Hangzhou just worthless ones?”
“That’s right. At least Geumho Guild was still breathing, but even that’s ruined now, isn’t it?”
“They say the Vice Guild Master is still left?”
“Is he as good as the Guild Leader!”
The conversation naturally shifted to Hangzhou’s power structure.
Then eventually, all eyes focused on Jung Myeong personally.
“Isn’t Jung Myeong now Hangzhou’s number one?”
“He even cut down the Guild Leader, what more needs to be said?”
“He’s not a Physician Sage but a Sword Sage, a Sword Sage.”
“Then would he become the Poison Demon Sword Sage?”
“Hmm… I don’t think he’d want that himself.”
What started as jokes gradually became serious talk.
“Anyway, isn’t he Hangzhou’s number one!”
“That’s right!”
The emergence of Hangzhou’s number one.
“Was there anyone who could be called Hangzhou’s number one?”
“No. Even if there were, they died quickly!”
“The Physician Sage doesn’t seem like he’ll die like that….”
“That’s also true. Since he’s not alone.”
How long had it been since this happened? As far as they could remember, it had never happened.
At this, someone shook their head.
And someone else laughed quietly. Because the situation was far from ordinary.
The atmosphere of Hangzhou Castle was noticeably changing.
* * *
It was a change in atmosphere that even Common People unrelated to Murim could notice.
How could Strange Madman not sense it?
He had no choice but to feel it even better.
After all, the Beggar’s Sect Hangzhou Branch itself was close to the Physician Sage’s Medical Clinic.
“Huh….”
Strange Madman sat perched at the edge of a shabby abandoned house’s wooden floor, staring blankly ahead.
He had placed beside him a bottle of alcohol that he usually didn’t even like to touch.
Rolling a chipped empty cup in his hand, he endlessly cast his gaze toward Jeongjin Medical Clinic where the Physician Sage stayed.
“What’s the matter?”
Originally, all the beggars of Bunta had withdrawn.
During the time when he should have been alone, there was a visitor.
It was Successor Candidate.
“I’ve come. You seemed to be drinking alone, so I came.”
“Drinking alone, what drinking. There wasn’t even any alcohol.”
“Even a few remaining drops are still alcohol.”
Successor Candidate who came to find Strange Madman had a smiling face on the outside.
“Then could the little remaining competitive spirit also be called competitive spirit?”
“I’m not sure about that either.”
Where does the competitive spirit that Strange Madman speaks of point to?
The Physician Sage.
Strange Madman had asked the Successor Candidate. As the Beggar’s Sect’s Successor Candidate, could he harbor competitive spirit toward Jung Myeong, the Physician Sage?
To this, the Successor Candidate neither affirmed nor denied.
In truth, even that became an answer.
“You lost?”
“…Yes. I lost cleanly without even fighting.”
In the end, the Successor Candidate acknowledged his defeat without even fighting.
“Hehe. A Successor Candidate shouldn’t acknowledge defeat so easily….”
“But I can’t deny reality, can I?”
Strange Madman tried to reproach him, but the Successor Candidate’s words were right.
He couldn’t deny reality.
“They’re saying in Market Street. That Hangzhou’s number one has emerged.”
“Hangzhou’s number one. That’s right.”
“I don’t think he’ll end at just Hangzhou?”
“Haha. Does that even make sense?”
“When has anything that fellow does ever made sense?”
“….”
The problem was the aftermath.
Would Jung Myeong’s reputation truly end within Hangzhou?
Impossible.
Wasn’t Jung Myeong already someone who had made a great name for himself in the Anhui Province Blood Temple incident last time?
It was only because the Orthodox Sect Members controlled the spread of that fame that it was contained, but in truth, if not for that, he would have had even greater renown than now.
But now he had done something that couldn’t be stopped.
‘What a waste. Such a waste.’
Strange Madman couldn’t help but feel regretful inside.
“Damn it. We should have caught him when he was a wandering Gangho Physician!”
It was regret for not catching Jung Myeong when he was wandering just a few years ago.
For someone who had neither material desires nor desire for fame, this was the first moment he felt something was a waste.
“Ah. Then I couldn’t have become the Successor Candidate.”
The Successor Candidate tried to joke about this.
“Instead, the Beggar’s Sect would have become the world’s greatest.”
But Strange Madman didn’t play along.
“Hah. Do you desire to be the world’s greatest? You, who lives having given up everything?”
“…Tsk.”
Only after the Successor Candidate hit the core issue could he swallow his clicking sound.
‘The Successor Candidate is right. Let me abandon useless desires.’
The Successor Candidate was right.
It wasn’t as if he could bring the Physician Sage now.
In this situation, his job was to teach well the remaining Successor Candidate at least.
“Did you see it?”
“I saw it.”
“It was Late Strike First. Easy to say, but hard to see even in actual combat.”
“Yes. But he did it against another Super Peak Level Skilled Martial Artist.”
“Crazy thing to do.”
“Right. It was crazy. And he pulled it off.”
“Did you gain anything?”
“I think so, but it might be an illusion. Did you gain anything, Elder?”
Instead of answering, Strange Madman moved his hands.
His hands, swung as if gripping a club, drew a strange curve.
“!!!!”
Swooosh-
Seeing this, the Successor Candidate’s eyes widened in surprise.
Even if he himself didn’t know, he could tell that at least Strange Madman had gained a thread of enlightenment.
Surely this was something to celebrate.
However, the Successor Candidate was still bothered by something other than congratulating Strange Madman’s new thread of enlightenment.
“Now he might be at the same Super Peak Level. Is he even at Super Peak Level? I couldn’t tell. What about you, Elder?”
“…I don’t know that either.”
“Oh my. Both our eyes must be off.”
What bothered them was ultimately Jung Myeong’s level.
‘I can’t gauge it at all.’
‘How on earth did he produce such power?’
That brief sparring match. Strange Madman had watched it from very close.
The Successor Candidate was the same. Countless Martial Artists had watched their duel.
Thus everyone knew that Jung Myeong had killed the Guild Leader with the mystery of Late Strike First.
The problem was the intent contained within it.
Where Jung Myeong’s intent was directed, how deep it was – this couldn’t be gauged at all.
That was the problem.
‘It feels like the same Super Peak Level… but that depth is similar to the Transformation Realm… no, it could be said to be beyond that. I have no idea.’
A Martial Artist whose limits cannot be gauged.
Could there be another existence as frightening as that?
But unfortunately, that existence is a Physician Sage.
“…Maybe my eyes have really gone bad.”
He muttered lowly.
The Successor Candidate who had been watching the Strange Madman for a while only lifted the bottle to drink.
The Successor Candidate was just pretending with the liquor that didn’t have even a single drop left, just as the Strange Madman had said.
Even with that incomprehensible movement, the Strange Madman quietly gazed only in the direction where the Medical Clinic was located.
* * *
“Now the word ‘balance’ is over.”
With the Guild Leader dead, there was no force in Hangzhou that could withstand Jung Myeong.
The same went for the Beggar’s Sect.
There was a place that felt even more urgency than the Beggar’s Sect.
It was the Golden Tiger Gang, where only the Vice Guild Master had survived.
“The direction of power has completely tilted to one side… Ha. The Jusan Archipelago must have flown over to that side too.”
“So what are you going to do?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know.”
“Well, the Vice Guild Master never knew he’d become Guild Leader. If you knew what comes next, you’d be a god!”
“Kekek. Right. That’s correct. You didn’t know you’d become Vice Guild Master either, did you?”
“That’s true too. Kekekek… Damn it….”
In fact, this wasn’t just the concern of the Vice Guild Master who had become Guild Leader.
Everyone belonging to the Golden Tiger Gang was feeling it.
A tremendous sense of crisis was gripping them.
“You felt it too, didn’t you?”
“What?”
“He didn’t use a sword, he set up the board.”
“Oh my. Are you acting learned just because you became Guild Leader?”
“Stop joking around!”
“Damn. I know. He set up the board. A board where we can’t do anything about it.”
“…Hoo.”
The Main Hall of the Geumho Faction was filled with the Guild Leader’s sighs.
The one who had now become Vice Guild Master watched this quietly and asked.
“But how long are you going to burn that incense?”
“Should I put it out then? When Senior Brother is dead?”
“That traitor bastard died. What Senior Brother.”
“Shut up!”
“Hya… What’s the point of keeping loyalty now? Don’t you feel it?”
“Feel what?”
“That it’s busy outside there!”
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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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