I Prayed for a Murim Reincarnation, But I Was Born as the Youngest Imperial Prince - Chapter 41

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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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Chapter 41
Seonwu stared at the Leader of Baekwol Sect, Peng Muliang, before speaking.
“Hmm, Junior Disciple.”
“Yes.”
“First, knock the Munju out, and let’s see the Hall Masters too. We’ll knock two of them out, leave just one behind, and then wake them up one by one in turns to get confessions from all four regarding the crimes the Baekwol Sect has committed so far.”
“Ah, so you mean to interrogate each of the four sequentially.”
If we had more people, we could just separate them far apart and question them simultaneously, but since it is just the two of us, we might as well spend the time.
It is not like our Jianghu Journey is particularly rushed anyway.
“And before we subdue them, let me make something clear right now. Whichever of you four confesses to the most crimes most honestly, I’ll show him some special leniency. As for the remaining three, you know aggravated punishment applies, right?”
“……!!!”
The four of them immediately realized what this meant.
Good.
It seems they have at least that much brainpower.
Though it will not matter, because I will not give you lot the time to coordinate your stories via Sound Transmission right now anyway.
“Knock them out.”
“Yes.”
He knocked three of them out right away, and they began the interrogations one by one, starting with the First Hall Master.
“I don’t know how severe the crimes you committed are, but if you want to keep your mouth shut and maintain your loyalty, go right ahead. Let’s just hope the other three are as loyal as you are.”
“No, sir. I will tell you everything.”
The First Hall Master bowed his head frantically.
‘Damn it, I don’t have enough loyalty to die for the Munju.’
The Munju needed hands and feet, and they needed wealth.
That was all.
That guy called the Junior Disciple was so brimming with murderous intent that if his Senior Disciple did not hold him back, he was more than capable of slaughtering every single soul present.
What if they ended up being judged by the laws of the land later?
That must be why he was restraining himself, just as his Senior Disciple said.
But what if they decided to kill about three of the leaders as an example?
‘Even the County Magistrate would have no reason to step in at that point.’
Above all, the confession they were trying to extract from now on would be fatal.
That grinning guy called the Senior Disciple was incredibly sharp.
Even if he did not confess, what if even just one of the remaining three confessed to every single crime committed so far and stamped the document with his thumbprint?
‘The victims… a couple of witnesses… damn it, they’ll be overflowing.’
A confession backed by multiple witnesses.
Once it reached that point, everything would be at the whim of those two.
As for harming people?
They would probably gloss it over by claiming they came to settle a dispute after hearing the pleas of the victims, and when the Baekwol Sect attacked them, they merely retaliated in self-defense.
‘No. Rather, once we are handed over to the government office, a path to survival might open up.’
How long would those two stay here anyway?
They would eventually leave to attend to other matters.
After that, they could offer bribes to the County Magistrate, promise to give even more in the future if it fell short, and manage to get released reasonably well.
For now, he had to get through this moment.
Seeing the First Hall Master rolling his brain, Seonwu merely smiled.
‘Yeah, when villains are cornered, what they think up is all pretty much the same.’
Though it was a slightly different direction from the Wuxia Novels he knew, of course.
‘They talk about Non-Interference Between Court and Wulin and tend to leave the government out of it, but when the government actually gets involved and the law is at stake, typical chivalrous xia face quite a few constraints on their actions.’
Of course, he was the opposite.
In fact, if it ever became truly difficult to solve things by martial force alone, he could just use authority when things went sour.
‘Even if I just flash the identity of the Golden Dragon Guard that I made as a disguised identity, a mere County Magistrate of a local place like this is nothing….’
Furthermore, even for a Prefect, flashing the identity token of a Squad Leader instead of a Golden Dragon Guard director would cause no issues.
If it reached the level of a Provincial Administration Commissioner or a Provincial Surveillance Commissioner who was responsible for an entire province, that would not suffice, but….
At that point, bringing out his true identity would handle everything without a single hitch.
Where on earth would there be a Provincial Administration Commissioner who would not bow his head before the Fifth Prince?
‘Mmm, the government really isn’t non-existent in reality.’
Come to think of it, if the government truly did not exist at all, it would not be easy for the Wulin factions to maintain a reasonable balance in their respective positions like this.
A great Wulin war might have broken out at the drop of a hat.
‘Well, that would be a chaotic age. At least right now it’s an era of peace.’
In any case, the Hall Master readily began to vomit out the crimes the Baekwol Sect had committed so far.
Most of it consisted of stories about using the Yama Debt Ring to seize people and sell them off.
“Hey, you guys intentionally played tricks multiple times so they couldn’t repay on time, didn’t you?”
It was not simply that they could not repay because the interest rates were high.
First, they carried out various underhanded plots behind the scenes to make it difficult for the borrower to repay properly.
It was not just at the level of closing the doors and diving underwater when someone went to repay.
They would pressure multiple merchants so they would not give the person any work.
Or they would stealthily mess with the goods the person needed to do business with.
‘You swallowed up people one by one who were cornered to the point of having to use the Yama Debt Ring in the first place.’
Even though the interest rates were already extortionate on their own.
‘Just looking at the crimes he vomited out, you guys ruined the lives of over a thousand people, didn’t you?’
And they turned them into their own slaves.
Look at these absolute pieces of trash.
‘Now I see why the County Magistrate of Sangdang County said that the Heuksa Sect draws the line reasonably well for an Unorthodox Faction.’
Of course, from the perspective of those whose shops were stolen and whose lives were ruined by the Heuksa Sect, they would be equally wicked bastards.
However, the scale of the victims differed by two orders of magnitude.
‘From the perspective of a ruler, the Heuksa Sect is at least within a manageable range.’
Since they were taught a lesson this time, they would at least be mindful of their behavior.
But what about these guys?
‘They are far too vicious.’
If it were just a matter of collecting protection fees, he would have left them alone too.
In the current situation where the government did not dispatch sufficient martial force and officials down to the local regions, it was true that Wulin provided protection to civilians separately from the government, so the justification of a protection fee or protection tax held some weight.
‘They say even in the rear, Demonic Practitioners, who are essentially terrorists, are running rampant.’
Though he had not seen them directly yet, there would be times when they clashed.
However, going beyond a protection fee to intentionally ruin a shop was malicious.
Still, since the frequency of such acts by the Heuksa Sect was limited, he could understand the realism of the County Magistrate requesting not to ruin them.
But what about these guys?
‘The harm they cause is too great.’
It seems it would be better to root them out and let a new sect take their place.
‘What was the County Magistrate doing instead of keeping these guys in check?’
Of course, even if it was a county, he understood that a county office had to manage several townships with a population close to a hundred thousand.
He also understood that the personnel under his command had their limits.
He understood the structure where no one openly defied the center, yet it was difficult to run the county’s affairs exactly as the County Magistrate wished.
He could comprehend that much by contrasting it with the history of this era that he had studied so far.
But it was not a township far away from the County Office; how could he claim he did not know when things were happening so close by?
‘Even if he couldn’t stop it completely, at the very least, suppression should have been possible.’
If the County Magistrate showed discomfort, the Baekwol Sect would have at least walked on eggshells to a minimum degree.
Seonwu asked the Hall Master, who had confessed all his crimes, one final question.
“You kept a separate record of the bribes you offered all this time, right? Where is it?”
“If it’s the record of buying favors, the Munju manages it separately. It should be somewhere in the Sect Leader Room.”
“Junior Disciple, go look for it. I’ll continue the interrogation.”
“Yes.”
Sending Jeolyeong to rummage through the room, Seonwu tapped the First Hall Master’s acupoints to put him to sleep.
‘It really is convenient that you can put someone to sleep with Acupoint Sealing instead of an anesthetic.’
Next, it was now time to interrogate the Second Hall Master.
Having regained consciousness, he scanned the room warily.
“Are you curious about how far the First Hall Master confessed?”
“Th-That is.”
“You’ll find out soon enough. Though before that, I need to know just how honest you are.”
“Gr-Great Hero.”
“You can’t undo the crimes you’ve already committed, but why don’t you confess them even now?”
With a smirk, Seonwu lightly tapped the armrest of his chair.
‘This is quite gratifying.’
His past life was the exact opposite.
Even when one was scammed, proper punishment was never meted out.
Suspended sentences.
Even if they served prison time, it was only a few years.
While the victim’s life was ruined for decades.
And such victims numbered in the dozens or hundreds.
Yet the state would only claim that severe punishment is actually counterproductive, or whatever.
To make matters worse, in the majority of cases, they could not even catch them.
‘Damned voice phishing.’
It was not Seonwu himself who fell for it, but his late mother had been targeted right before her passing, wiping out tens of millions of won from their already meager livelihood.
But what about now?
I can punish them directly with my own hands and set things right like this.
‘Heh, are you watching? Jun, you asked if I would truly prefer the Wulin, but it’s precisely because it’s the Wulin that I can mete out punishment directly like this, isn’t it?’
If this were the Republic of Korea.
I might be the one going to prison for assault, while these bastards could walk away scot-free.
Executing justice with my own hands truly brings a rush of pleasure.
‘Heh, since I am enacting the reward of virtue and the punishment of vice directly, it feels rather rewarding.’
Seonwu was enjoying the realization of justice, but the Second Hall Master, misinterpreting that smile, trembled even more violently.
To beat people to this state and actually enjoy it.
Is this not an utterly terrifying human nature?
‘Damn it, would that bastard of a First Hall Master really have kept his loyalty and only confessed a little? There’s no way.’
What loyalty could there possibly be among their own kind, and how much of it?
He must have spilled everything to save his own skin.
‘Damn it, is this a battle of memory then?’
Thinking that the other bastards would betray him anyway, he felt no guilt or hesitation whatsoever in stepping forward to spill everything first.
For what reason should he foolishly hold back his words alone, only to get stabbed in the back?
Stab them before getting stabbed.
The Second Hall Master also poured out the crimes committed by the Baekwol Sect one after another.
In the meantime, Jeolyeong returned with the Bribe Ledger and presented it to Seonwu.
While he was at it, he brought not only the Bribe Ledger but also the ledgers that would serve as evidence of unfairly buying and selling people through loan sharking.
“You guys already receive plenty of protection fees, yet you really did a whole variety of things, didn’t you?”
Looking at the protection fee ledger as well, Seonwu clicked his tongue.
These guys are truly wicked, aren’t they?
‘At this point, honestly, it makes no sense for the County Magistrate not to know.’
Of course, if he just sat in the County Office, receiving bribes and chugging liquor, he might not know….
He could understand if the County Magistrate did not know well what the Heuksa Sect was doing.
Since they were bastards who carefully targeted only outsiders with no connections to consume occasionally, and maintained a tightrope walk of keeping a reasonable line against the local natives.
It might not reach the ears of the County Magistrate.
A County Magistrate who looks into even that much would be excellent and capable, but if one expects too high a standard from the bureaucrats of this era, there would be no one left to employ.
‘But they neglected this place to the point of letting it fall into this state?’
The Baekwol Sect is one thing, but the County Magistrate needs to be inspected and punished as well.
‘Hmm, this is… honestly difficult for a mere chivalrous xia to pull off again.’
If it were a master from a prestigious orthodox family who also had connections in the Imperial Court, maybe they could try something?
But fundamentally, the County Magistrate would also have a certain line up to which he regularly offers gifts.
If an accusation backed by clear evidence that he crossed the line comes in, that line might cut the County Magistrate off, but it is not easy.
‘But it’s easy for me.’
For now, let’s finish gathering the evidence.
Seonwu interrogated the three Hall Masters in the exact same manner and confirmed that the contents of their confessions were nearly identical.
‘In the grand scheme of things, the crimes committed are the same, and only the precise number of incidents differs slightly. Rather than telling lies, this should be viewed as missing one or two things due to relying on memory.’
Confessing to dozens of cases while hiding one or two is not particularly more fatal.
It simply appears to be a matter of not recalling everything perfectly.
Then, let’s interrogate the Munju last.
After rendering the three Hall Masters unconscious again, he finally woke the Munju.
The Leader of Baekwol Sect, Peng Muliang, groaned from the pain coursing through his entire body the moment he regained consciousness.
“Ugh.”
“Now that you’re awake, it’s time to confess. You ought to know better than your subordinates, right?”
Looking at Seonwu, who was grinning right before his eyes, he realized that none of this was a dream.
‘Those two bastards really came.’
And his sect had been utterly decimated.
His subordinates must have all scattered to run and hide somewhere, and as for those three Hall Master bastards, did they betray him or not?
‘They absolutely did! Because they are ungrateful bastards who don’t know favor!’
They knew each other well.
Because their interests aligned, they merely shared profits under a single sect, dividing the titles of Munju and Hall Master.
Those bastards were not the type to risk their lives to keep faith with him.
They were his subordinates, but unlike him, their character was a mess.
‘I am the only one in this sect who is a true man.’
However, if one is not ruthless, one is no great man.
Showing mercy to an enemy, the Benevolence of Song Xiang, is nothing but foolishness.
And if you think about it, showing mercy to a traitor is also the Benevolence of Song Xiang, is it not?
‘There is no reason why I shouldn’t discard the bastards who betrayed me and stabbed me in the back.’
Since he knew the most, he would speak the best and survive.
Seonwu smirked because he could see the Leader of Baekwol Sect thinking frantically, his expressions changing in real-time and his eyes rolling about.
He was a bad guy, and he was going to be punished.
But quite apart from that, seeing his petty tricks so transparently from above was amusing in its own way.

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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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