Moorim Pochang - Chapter 1

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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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Episode 1. Masters and Disciples.

“I am the lord of Pyoguk, the greatest house under heaven, and my older brother is the Greatest Under Heaven—the ultimate master of martial arts. You ask how he became the Greatest Under Heaven? Every master in the Jianghu and Murim acknowledges it, so take it as truth. My older brother wasn’t the Greatest Under Heaven or the ultimate master from the start. He began insignificant, but eventually he reached the pinnacle and looked down upon the world from that height. The reason my older brother could become the Greatest Under Heaven was because I supported him with everything in my power. So… you should understand that my master and I deserve more than half the credit. If I had met my master before meeting my older brother, I would have been the Greatest Under Heaven instead of him… it’s a bit regrettable. When my older brother and my master first met, it was the depths of winter, with snow swirling fiercely. Wait… or was it the height of summer, when mosquitoes were at their worst?… Anyway, they met.”

*

Guttural laughter erupted—cackle upon cackle!
Deep, booming guffaws echoed out!
The coarse laughter carried beyond the wall and spilled into the street.
Yet the street, which should have been crowded with passing traffic, lay silent and hollow.
Among the sporadic bursts of male laughter, a handsome young man stepped into the street.
He walked without hesitation toward the estate from which the sounds of merriment emanated.
There were no guards at the gate—no one to watch the entrance.
The young man paused before the half-open main gate.
Once he passed through that threshold, he would commit his first murder.
Not just one—he would have to end many lives.
Yet he felt no fear at the prospect of that first killing.
If anything, the murderous intent he had suppressed for so long began to seep upward, like smoke rising from a smoldering fire.
The young man resumed his stride and approached the estate.
‘Ten years of hardship cannot have been in vain.’
If his master’s boasts were lies, this estate would become his grave.
Creak…
As he pushed through the half-open gate, bandits came into view.
They sat scattered on the ground in small groups, drinking and tearing into meat.
“That woman was incredible—shame she died so quickly.”
“At least you got to taste her first.”
The bandits’ eyes gleamed with vile, blood-red light as they traded obscene remarks.
Snicker, snicker, snicker…
Ha, ha, ha, ha…!
In the corners of the laughter-filled estate, corpses lay scattered.
Among them were both men and naked women.
And among those naked women lay the body of a small girl, no more than ten years old.
The moment the young man’s eyes fell upon the child’s corpse, his gaze flickered with dangerous intensity.
The crude remarks and laughter that had filled the estate ceased in an instant.
The bandits had recognized the arrival of an intruder.
They grasped their weapons and slowly rose to their feet.
“Who are you?”
“What gives you the right to enter this place?”
The bandits’ voices were rough, but their eyes were sharp with caution.
In the Jianghu, to live long and in peace, one must never drop one’s guard—no matter how defenseless an opponent appears.
Those who survived in the brutal Jianghu for any length of time had earned their cunning through blood and necessity.
“Is Buk Yeomra here?”
The young man’s voice emerged clear and sonorous, yet carrying an edge of darkness.
The Jianghu warriors exchanged glances.
Buk Yeomra meant “the Yama King of the North”—an epithet for the master they served.
He had appeared in the Jianghu only four months ago, but he was rapidly expanding his power through terrifying martial prowess and brutal savagery.
The moment the name Buk Yeomra left the young man’s lips, one of the younger bandits drew his blade with practiced speed.
Zing!
“How dare you speak our lord’s honored name! I will take your head and offer it to our master!”
The enraged young bandit immediately shifted his body into motion.
Whoosh!
Closing a distance of seven or eight paces in an instant—his martial arts were clearly of considerable skill.
Yet in the young man’s eyes, that movement seemed impossibly slow.
As the young bandit closed to within one pace, he thrust his blade toward the young man’s chest.
Thud.
The blade pierced through the young man’s chest.
No—it looked as though his blade had pierced straight through.
Crack.
The moment the young bandit realized something had gone terribly wrong, his head was already rolling across the ground.
Splurch… thud.
Blood fountained from the headless neck as the corpse sprawled across the cold floor.
“Strike…!”
At the same instant, the bandits who had been waiting for their opening surged forward as one.
The young man dove into their ranks without hesitation.
Slash… crackle…
Each time his blade flashed, heads sprang skyward and chests split open.
Retch…!
Gurgle…
The bandits collapsed to the ground with anguished, final shrieks.
The young man swung his sword to intercept a saber thrust aimed at his neck.
Clang!
When blade struck saber, the impact sent the saber spinning through the air.
Slice.
He severed the bandit’s neck and moved with fluid grace, ripping open another’s abdomen.
Scream…!
“Stop…!”
Then, with a thunderous roar, a broad-shouldered middle-aged man came charging out from the rear pavilion.
His voice was laced with Internal Power so great that even the pavilion’s roof trembled.
Crack… slash…
Yet the young man, as if deaf to the cry, continued severing limbs and throats.
“You bastard…!”
Enraged, the massive man unleashed his Body Movement.
Whoosh…
His enormous saber descended from the sky, tearing through space and sending waves of force rippling outward.
Crash!
The saber split not only the young man’s body but the very ground in two.
‘An afterimage?’
Touching down, the middle-aged man whirled his great saber and cleaved the space to his left.
In that instant, the young man’s blade and his saber collided.
Boom!

No matter how refined one’s Martial Arts, true combat always caught one off guard at first.
Yet the young man showed no such hesitation.
If anything, he felt intense exhilaration and a savage delight.
Slash.
The moment he severed a bandit’s throat, an enormous saber burrowed toward his waist.
Crash!
As blade and saber collided, the middle-aged giant smoothly shifted his stance and retreated.
The impact transmitted through the saber told him this young man was no ordinary opponent.
Even as he fell back, the young man carved through the chests and necks of his remaining underlings.
Slice.
The giant reset his grip on the Great Saber.
‘How can one so young be so seasoned? Could he be Moyong Se?’
The way he severed his men’s necks was so efficient, so clean, that it sent shivers down the giant’s spine.
There was only one man in the Murim young enough and skilled enough to display such mastery—the Murim Alliance Leader’s first disciple, Moyong Se.
Yet Moyong Se was in his mid-twenties, and this young man’s face was still fresh, barely twenty.
Scream…!
Gasp…!
‘At this rate, all my valuable men will be dead.’
The middle-aged giant seized his moment and moved into a swift stepping pattern.
The Baek Hwan Step—
a technique that, taken to its Extreme Skill, could split the user into dozens of images in an instant.
Whoosh…
The dozens of middle-aged giants launched their sabers at the young man in unison.
The space filled with so many saber strikes that the young man’s body seemed about to be carved into a thousand, ten thousand pieces.
Yet his sword, too, had multiplied into dozens.
Crash—crash—bang…………………!
The blade shards that had been rising were scattered and deflected by the sword.
Shhhh…
The middle-aged giant shifted to his right, his feet tracing out a swift pattern of movement.
‘It’s finished. This one is done.’
Having spotted an opening, he closed the distance in an instant and drove his Great Saber into the young man’s waist.
But the blade passed clean through the young man’s body.
Startled, the middle-aged giant quickly slashed left and right.
Yet nothing caught on the blade.
Screech..
As the giant prepared to retreat using his footwork, the world suddenly tilted.
No—the world truly was tilting.
Thump..
Only after he fell to the ground did the pain arrive, as if his flesh were being carved away from his legs.
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh……………………….!
The middle-aged giant let out a scream that tore from his throat.
At that cry, the surviving bandits scattered in all directions and began to flee.
“Buk Yeomra has fallen……….!”
“Run………!”
But they could not clear the Estate’s wall.
The young man pursued them, driving his sword through their backs and severing their necks.
Gack..!
Ugh….!
Those with pierced backs rolled across the ground, their anguished groans fading until breath ceased.
The young man turned his attention back to Buk Yeomra.
As he walked, he suddenly looked down at the rent front panel of his robe.
It seemed the blade of Buk Yeomra’s Great Saber had torn it open during the struggle.
“Master’s delusions deserve some credit, I suppose. Always boasting that he has no equals in the Jianghu, yet all I get is a ruined robe.”
His master bragged several times a day that his martial arts were the Greatest Under Heaven.
But now that even such a weak opponent’s blade had torn his clothing, the master’s claims seemed like pure delusion.
At that moment, Buk Yeomra hurled the saber he’d been gripping with all his remaining strength.
Whiiizzzzzzzzz……….
Clang……………!
As the young man swung his sword, the blade of the saber was deflected away with an ear-splitting ring of metal.
Having batted away the saber, he looked up at the sky and laughed mockingly.
“It does fly far.”
Having squandered his last chance, Buk Yeomra lay flat on his belly.
Blood still flowed from his severed legs.
“Spare…me. Please, just spare my life, Great Master. If you would spare me, I shall surrender all my wealth to you.”
“I can kill you and take it anyway. But tell me—how many ranks would you say you hold in the Jianghu?”
Buk Yeomra did not immediately understand the young man’s words.
“I beg your pardon……….”
The young man frowned.
“How strong are you?”
Now grasping the meaning, Buk Yeomra spoke hastily.
“I…I am…terribly weak in martial arts. So please…spare my life, I beg you.”
When he first ventured into the Jianghu, he had been confident that his rivals numbered fewer than five.
But now, with his legs severed, he understood that confidence to be mere arrogance and folly.
At his answer, the young man’s face twisted into an ugly grimace.
“So…my master was a liar after all.”
Buk Yeomra’s ears did not register the young man’s muttering.
What mattered now was saving his own life.
“Please, spare me………..Moyong Great Master.”
At those words, the young man’s face twisted even more hideously.
“Why would I be Moyong? You bastard! My name is Gang Jo!”
Schwick…..
As he spoke, the young man severed Buk Yeomra’s neck.

*

Whoooosh………whoosh……….
The distant landscape rushed toward him in a blur, only to recede behind his back moments later.
Two more days of travel, and he’d be home.
‘I hope Master hasn’t been skipping meals.’
Gang Jo picked up his pace, worry gnawing at him for the master he’d left alone at home.
Whoooosh……..
He’d been running like this for hours when a sound reached his ears—a groan drifting from the forest ahead.
Gang Jo stopped his Light Body Technique and veered into the woods.
There, sprawled on the forest floor, was a strikingly handsome young man, writhing in agony.
His face was so beautiful that even drained of color, luminosity seemed to emanate from it.
He clutched a sword in one hand, his entire body smeared with blood.
‘He won’t last long like this.’
Gang Jo could see at a glance that the young man’s condition was grave.
He adjusted his Body Movement and turned to leave the forest, but hesitation seized him.
No matter how handsome a man’s face, he could still be a ruthless villain.
“Save him or let him die?”
After a moment’s contemplation, Gang Jo turned back toward the handsome young man.
“If he stabs me in the back, I’ll just kill him again.”

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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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