Heaven-Defying Hero - Chapter 103
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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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#103
“Excuse me. Could we perhaps meet tomorrow instead?”
Even knowing it was useless, Gye Ju-man asked with a glimmer of hope.
“You might open your eyes in the afterlife tomorrow, you know?”
“Ah! Then we should meet today. How should I tie my wrists today?”
“No. Let’s go somewhere quiet to talk first.”
Gye Ju-man pinned his last hope on this.
“Hyehwaru over there is good for quiet conversations. It’s famous as a place frequently visited by martial arts experts.”
“Martial arts experts come all the way to Shanxi Province to visit a giru?”
“That, that’s a bit much, isn’t it?”
“I don’t like lies.”
“Ah! Then I’ll escort you to a quiet place.”
Gye Ju-man finally gave up his lingering hopes and turned around. But he couldn’t help looking back repeatedly as they left the giru alley.
“You must have had an important appointment.”
“No!”
“Why are you shouting?”
When Ja-gang-cheon lowered his voice, Gye Ju-man realized his mistake and lowered his voice too.
“I’m just happy to see you again, young master.”
“Is that so?”
“Of course.”
“You even passed information to Salmak telling them to kill me, so you wouldn’t be surprised that I came back alive. Right?”
Gye Ju-man had a feeling tonight was going to be quite long.
The place they arrived at was a closed tea house.
It was a small tea house at the market entrance. After removing the boards blocking the entrance and going inside, three tables came into view.
They took seats at one of them, facing each other, and Gye Ju-man asked with a serious expression.
“What do you want?”
Ja-gang-cheon didn’t answer immediately and looked around. He thought he needed to understand the layout.
“There are many people here.”
Those words echoed hollowly in the space that contained only the two of them.
“I understand you’re prepared. But I should give you a warning.”
He had already experienced this at Hao-mun. Since he had come to their stronghold, he had expected this much.
“Don’t even make a sound. One person’s mistake could get all six people here killed.”
Ja-gang-cheon had accurately identified the number of people listening from the ceiling, behind the walls, and outside the building.
Hearing this, Gye Ju-man straightened his shoulders confidently rather than being flustered.
“Now you’ve removed your mask.”
“What do you want?”
Gye Ju-man, whose tone had also become stiff, stared into Ja-gang-cheon’s eyes.
“I need the current locations of these people.”
Ja-gang-cheon held out a list he had prepared in advance. Gye Ju-man slowly scanned through the list.
There were twelve names in total. But as Gye Ju-man read through the list, his eyes began to waver slightly.
“You know what this list is.”
“How do you have this?”
“It was written on the belt of the assassin I killed.”
“You killed him?”
“Otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to see you again.”
Ja-gang-cheon smiled. Gye Ju-man had a question that kept circling in his mouth.
‘What happened to those who were pursuing him?’
Surprisingly, neither Ja-gang-cheon nor anyone else had been caught in Heukjeom’s information network.
“What do you intend to do after finding these people?”
“Do I need to reveal that too?”
Ja-gang-cheon said while taking out a promissory note from his chest.
“Give me the information I want and take the corresponding money. Isn’t that how it usually works?”
Gye Ju-man couldn’t answer.
The list he had given included Salmak assassins that Heukjeom had identified. That’s how he realized these were the assassins’ personal details. Since Ja-gang-cheon had directly mentioned the list, there was no room for doubt.
‘Helping him find their locations would be no different from directly attacking Salmak.’
As he pondered, Ja-gang-cheon said something.
“Is this really something to worry about?”
“It’s not an easy decision.”
“That’s not what I’m talking about.”
“Then…”
“You’ve already seen the list.”
Gye Ju-man felt such a shock that the back of his head throbbed.
Heukjeom secretly gathering information and actually seeing the list had completely different meanings.
“You’ve now seen the list of Salmak assassins too. Do you think Salmak will stay quiet if they find out?”
The list was what Salmak’s very existence depended on. That’s why the sect leader kept it personally.
What would happen if they found out Gye Ju-man had seen it?
Bang!
“You dirty bastard!”
Gye Ju-man couldn’t contain his anger and stood up, hitting the table.
Even if Ja-gang-cheon was a rising dragon, Gye Ju-man hadn’t reached the position of Heukjeom branch leader through an easy path either.
Even if he couldn’t defeat Ja-gang-cheon in martial arts, he believed there were plenty of ways to kill him.
“I gave you such high-grade information and you’re cursing at me?”
“That wasn’t information I wanted!”
“If you only wanted to do what you wanted, you shouldn’t have gotten involved with something like Heukjeom.”
“You…”
Ja-gang-cheon’s eyes turned cold.
“Don’t waste too much of my time. Two hours. Decide within that time.”
Ja-gang-cheon stood up from his seat.
“I came to a tea house but couldn’t even drink tea before leaving.”
As he walked out through the open door, Gye Ju-man remained standing in place.
And silence settled over the tea house.
“Son of a bitch!”
Even thinking about it again made him angry.
Whatever relationship Salmak and Heukjeom would have in the future, it should be Heukjeom that decided it.
“I need to meet the Heukjeom leader.”
Ja-gang-cheon had said two hours.
Fortunately, the Heukjeom leader was not far away, so he left immediately.
The place Gye Ju-man arrived at was the oldest inn in Taiyuan.
It was a place with only four tables and just two guest rooms, and even those rooms weren’t operated.
It was a place that only briefly served meal customers during lunch time, and since it was run by an old man over sixty by himself, everyone just accepted it as it was.
Even so, the food was good, so it was a place that attracted quite a few customers from lunch until evening when it closed.
Gye Ju-man entered through the back door of the inn that had closed for the evening.
“I’m here.”
After saying that and waiting for a while, a bell hanging on a string swayed.
Ding.
Only after hearing the sound did Gye Ju-man enter inside. Then in the empty inn, he saw an old man drinking alone with only one candle lit.
“Will you have a drink?”
It was a voice mixed with a sharp, metallic sound.
“No. I came because there’s something urgent I need to discuss.”
“I thought you’d be panting around Ye-hyang’s skirts.”
Though he was an old man drinking cheap rice wine alone, he knew everything that happened in Taiyuan.
“What did Ja-gang-cheon say?”
As expected, he even knew about the meeting with Ja-gang-cheon.
‘Is there anywhere in Taiyuan without his eyes and ears?’
Since he never intended to deceive him from the start, he told him everything without lies.
“He brought a list of Salmak members.”
The old man’s hand stopped while pouring wine. Even for him, this was shocking.
“How many names were written on it?”
“Fifteen names. I memorized all of them.”
“We had identified six, wasn’t it?”
“Seven, if we include one of the Osalsaeng.”
“The Heavenly Flame Arrow we had identified died at the entrance of Mt. Hang.”
The old man downed a cup of wine.
“Ja-gang-cheon asked us to track down the whereabouts of those on the list.”
“He wants to make us accomplices.”
“That’s right.”
The old man spoke while refilling his empty cup.
“Do as he wishes.”
It was a much simpler decision than Gye Ju-man had expected.
“But if we do that, our relationship with Salmak will be completely over.”
“They’re already gone. Is there any guarantee he’s only showing that list to us? Ja-gang-cheon has connections not only with Hao-mun but also with Gae-bang. Once that list reached him, Salmak was already finished.”
“But the list of Osalsaeng wasn’t there.”
“Jeok Hwa-sal-seong died while moving together with Ja-gang-cheon.”
“What?”
“That bastard found without any hesitation what took us ten years to identify. And Jeok Hwa-sal-seong willingly moved together with Ja-gang-cheon.”
“You mean he might have the list of Osalsaeng too?”
“Salmak is already finished.”
The old man reached a cold conclusion. This was the foundation that allowed Heukjeom to rise as Shanxi Province’s top organization even in harsh conditions.
“Take the most profitable action in the current situation. Choose whichever side benefits you, even if it’s just one coin.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
Having finished his deliberation, Gye Ju-man bowed and withdrew.
Just one hour after parting, Ja-gang-cheon and Gye Ju-man sat facing each other.
Without being told, he had found the exact inn where Ja-gang-cheon was staying.
And he boldly handed Ja-gang-cheon a piece of paper.
Surprisingly, it contained the current locations of everyone on the list Ja-gang-cheon had given him.
“I apologize for my rudeness earlier.”
As Gye Ju-man smiled leisurely, Ja-gang-cheon said,
“I’ll decline the apology. I was quite upset earlier.”
“Ah…”
Ja-gang-cheon rarely said what was expected.
“In my life, exactly two people have spoken to me like that. Gu Dong-gu and Hwangbo Taesan, and they’re both dead.”
“That’s because you trapped me first.”
“Is that so? Fine. Then let’s bury it for now. But if you lose your manners one more time, I can hold you accountable for this incident too, right?”
It was a very polite threat.
“So be it.”
Gye Ju-man didn’t back down and accepted the proposal.
“Now. Shall we settle the account?”
“Three hundred taels of silver.”
It was an expensive price, but Ja-gang-cheon handed over the promissory note without complaint. Even after giving three hundred taels, the bundle of notes remained unchanged.
‘Just how much is he carrying around?’
Such a question arose, but in fact, Ja-gang-cheon didn’t know either. He had just found three hundred-tael notes and handed them over.
Though he had paid the price of an inn through two transactions with Heukjeom, what mattered to Ja-gang-cheon was the reliability of the information.
“There shouldn’t be any wrong information.”
“You don’t need to worry about that.”
“Good. And I have one more request.”
“Please tell me.”
“There’s someone called Manor Lord Lee in Henan Province. Seo Iwon was the lord there, so please find out what relationship he had with Salmak.”
Initially, he had planned to request this from Hao-mun, but he didn’t because of the continued surveillance. It would be like revealing someone from Hao-mun.
“Is it a problem because it’s Henan Province?”
“Of course not. No problem.”
“Then please find out as quickly as possible. And from now on, even if you put surveillance on me, don’t get too close. You might get confused with Salmak. If my hand moves by mistake then, don’t blame me.”
Ja-gang-cheon didn’t bother hiding what he was planning to do.
“And keep a distant watch on my companions too.”
As those words ended, the door opened and two people entered.
It was Mugyeong and Han Dae-woong.
Having already heard the news on the way to the inn, Gye Ju-man wasn’t particularly surprised.
“You successfully rescued them after all. Congratulations.”
“Remember their faces. And please make sure to follow the precautions.”
“I will.”
As Gye Ju-man left, Mugyeong and Han Dae-woong took his place.
“I got the list. Our goal is to deal with everyone on here.”
“Understood.”
“We’ll disband Salmak and return to the manor. You absolutely cannot get hurt until then.”
Having completed their treatment over the past ten days, they looked full of energy.
-If even one member of Salmak survives, our manor people could be in danger. So I’ll deal with them all. You two should return first.
Upon hearing those words, Mugyeong and Han Dae-woong made one request.
-Please give us ten days. We’ll all recover and move together with you, Lord.
In the end, Ja-gang-cheon accepted, which is why they were together.
“I’ll go to this place.”
Ja-gang-cheon chose the farthest location.
Most weren’t far from Taiyuan, but the farthest required riding through the night.
“I’ll go to the distant places.”
“I have Byeokseong, you know. I can go and return quickly.”
“Ah. I understand.”
“Safety comes first above all. Avoid the night and go meet them when the sun rises.”
There was no need to deliberately fight assassins at night.
“Now. Let’s begin.”
They scattered, each taking their respective lists.
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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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