Moorim Pochang - Chapter 11

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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 11. The Midnight Attacker.

Yang Jeong urged the cart toward the Inn, leaving his home behind.
“Giddyup… giddyup… Come on, move faster, you stubborn beasts!”
His mind raced with urgency, but the horses pulling the cart refused to cooperate with his impatience.
The stallion, in particular, was the problem.
That sickly horse constantly caused delays—it was almost a pattern by now.
‘I need to get there and ferment the medicine soon.’
The medicinal herbs he’d harvested from the mountain came in two roots.
One was nearly a thousand-year-old He Shou Wu, and the other was a thousand-year-old Ginseng.
He’d also carefully packed ten drops of Clear Stone Oil in a wooden vial.
He sat vacantly in the shade, watching the horses graze.
Of the two horses, the feeble stallion at least had a proper pedigree.
Yet it was the weakest of all the post station’s animals.
“Please, just move, will you…!”
The moment Yang Jeong shouted, the grazing stallion promptly sat down where it stood.
Sigh.
He exhaled deeply and stared blankly at the sky—then his eyes gleamed with sudden inspiration.
‘Would the He Shou Wu work on beasts as well?’
It seemed wasteful to give a thousand-year-old He Shou Wu to that pathetic stallion.
But the root was so thick and substantial that he could cut a piece off without regret.
More than anything, he was curious whether the medicinal herb would have any effect on the horse.
He drew a long, thick He Shou Wu from the bundle and cut it in half.
Even after halving it, the remaining root was as thick as a forearm.
Yang Jeong cut it in half again.
Then he brought the piece to the stallion’s mouth.
Crunch, crunch…
The stallion eagerly took the He Shou Wu and swallowed it.
After chewing and gulping down the root, the stallion slowly rose to its feet.
As the horse stood, its eyes gleamed with an eerie, supernatural light.
Ah…
“The effect is remarkably fast.”
Delighted, Yang Jeong climbed onto the cart and grabbed the reins.
Clop, clop…
As the two horses began to move, the cart wheels started rolling.
Yet the pace was no different from before.
“Tch… the medicine doesn’t work on horses, does it?”
Disappointed, he stuffed the remaining piece of He Shou Wu into his own mouth.
Crunch, crunch…
Yang Jeong chewed the root just as the stallion had.
Belch…
But then the stallion pulling the cart let out a long, loud belch.
The moment the belch finished, the stallion suddenly bolted into a wild gallop.
Thud-thud-thud-thud…
Panicked, Yang Jeong yanked hard on the reins.
“What…? What…? Why are you—you beast! Slow down, please!”

*

Gang Jo sat in the kitchen, waiting for the guests who would arrive.
But as evening fell, not a single guest appeared.
“Damn it. I thought at least the subordinates of those middle-aged gentlemen would show up.”
The middle-aged guests who’d arrived late that night were clearly master martial artists of considerable rank.
If so, they should have had many subordinates, but since none had appeared—not even their shadows—it seemed they’d given no instructions.
The sun had already set long ago, and the hour had already passed into the Yin Hour.
Gang Jo, who had waited for guests into the late evening, began preparing a meal from the leftover meat.
“Blast it. What in the world is he doing every single night?”
He’d sold the alcohol for ten thousand silver taels, yet felt no joy whatsoever.
That liquor should have fetched at least a million silver taels, not ten thousand.
Gang Jo set the meal on the table and sat down, picking up his chopsticks.
Whiiiish…….
Then an eerie wind swept down from the Northern Forest.
It seeped through the Residence and into the Inn beyond.
‘What… what is that smell?’
Gang Jo’s nostrils flared and his brow furrowed.
The scent carried on the wind held a sickly reek of decay.
It was only natural that an ancient Residence would smell of rotting wood.
Yet this odor was not from rotted timber.
It was the stench that rises from a freshly buried corpse.
‘Could it be… a ghost?’
Gang Jo went into the kitchen and returned with a dark saber.
They’d said many people had died in this Residence; the appearance of a Vengeful Spirit was perhaps inevitable.
‘I’ve never faced a ghost before…’
Gang Jo felt worry beginning to coil in his chest.
If his opponent were human, there might be ways to contend with them—but against a spirit, there was no method of combat.
Moreover, having never seen a ghost before, he harbored a quiet dread.
As he scanned the Residence, Gang Jo felt his strength suddenly drain away.
Black figures were vaulting over the Residence’s walls—but no matter how he looked, they were no ghosts.
‘One, two, three, four…………………’
Counting roughly, he numbered them at just over twenty.
Gang Jo opened his mouth, his voice measured.
“This Residence and the forest surrounding it belong entirely to me. Leave at once.”
No matter how thick their malevolent aura, he could not simply swing his blade at them without cause.
At that, the black figures crossing the Residence stopped abruptly.
In the same instant, one of them closed the distance in a flash, rushing forward.
Slash—
Gang Jo twisted his body and moved his saber, meeting the chilling Killing Intent that raked toward his throat.
Clang!
As the blade was deflected, the man in the darkness flinched and stepped back.
But as if nothing had happened, he unleashed another strike.
Whoooosh…….
At the same moment, blades poured down from all directions.
Then Killing Intent blazed in Gang Jo’s eyes.
He did not know who these men were.
Yet they had sought to end him, so they would pay the appropriate price, regardless of their identity.
Shwick…..Thud….Crunch…
The blades pouring from all sides severed necks and pierced through bodies.
Whoooosh……..
Gang Jo’s body, run through by the blades, scattered like smoke.
Slash…….Shwick……
And in that same instant, his saber carved through the darkness.
Heads tumbled. Flesh split open.
Ghaaaack…..!
Uuuuugh..!
As final screams tore through the air, those with severed necks and split chests convulsed across the ground.
Crash……Boom……!
A pillar of the pavilion, carved through by the blade, fell with a deafening roar.
Shwick…..Slash……..
The masked assailants threw themselves forward, heedless of death.
Gang Jo did not pause, his Body Technique continuing without cessation.
Gaaaahhh..!
Krraaaagh…!
As Gang Jo swiftly cut down his enemies, he shifted his Body Technique with urgency.
Slash…….
In that moment, a chill swept across his waist like a razor.
Gang Jo’s eyes pierced through the darkness, fixing on the man who had unleashed that saber strike.
The middle-aged giant gripped an enormously large saber in one hand, but his condition was deeply unsettling.
“Kill me…….kill me……..kill me………..”
His eyes showed nothing but whites, and his mouth continued to mutter the same words.
And from his body wafted the sickly stench of decay.
‘Surely…….not?’
Gang Jo suddenly recalled his master’s warning.
His master had told him to be wary of those with eyes rolled back, and this man matched that description exactly.
“Kill me….kill me…..”
The man, still muttering the same words, suddenly fixed his vacant eyes on Gang Jo.
Whoosh——!
In an instant, those white pupils hurtled toward Gang Jo’s eyes.
Slash——
At the same moment, the saber cut diagonally through Gang Jo’s form.
His silhouette split from left shoulder to right flank, scattering like smoke into the darkness.
Swish——
The instant his form dispersed, Gang Jo’s blade was cutting into the giant’s ribs.
But the middle-aged giant was no easy opponent.
Crash——!
As blade and saber collided, their opposing martial forces erupted against each other.
Whoooosh——
The collision of martial force, spreading outward in a circle, swept through the dilapidated structures nearby.
Crack—crash! Bang! Bang!
The pillars of the old buildings, caught in the shock wave of that force, shattered and crumbled.
Gang Jo had never faced a master martial artist this strong.
Even Buk Yeom Ra, whom he had killed years ago, could not have matched this middle-aged giant.
“Kill me…….kill me…..kill me……”
The middle-aged giant continued repeating the same words even as he swung his saber.
Crash————! Bang———!
Each time blade and saber struck, the shock wave rocked the shrouded residence.
Slash——
The moment Gang Jo severed the man’s neck, a massive saber came crashing down from above.
Crash——!
The saber cleaved not only Gang Jo’s body but split the ground in two.
Riiiiip——
As his silhouette tore from head to groin, Gang Jo’s eyes fixed on the giant’s profile.
Slice——
Gang Jo’s eyes and the white pupils of the middle-aged giant locked as he turned his head.
In that instant, Gang Jo’s blade severed the arm holding the saber.
Slash——
Thud……twitch——
The severed forearm fell to the ground, convulsing once before going still.
Crack——!
At the same moment, blood erupted from his ribs.
Yet the middle-aged giant did not even furrow his brow.
Rather, his saber was already slicing toward Gang Jo’s neck.
Crash———!
Gang Jo knocked the saber aside and, as the giant staggered off balance, drove his blade into his chest.
Thud——
In that moment, black pupils seeped into the eyes that had shown only whites.
Ahhhh——
The middle-aged giant let out a long sigh, his black eyes now clear, and gazed at Gang Jo.
“………..thank you.”
Thud——
With those words, his body toppled backward.
Gang Jo stared down at the middle-aged giant with a dazed expression.
Why had the giant thanked him?
And who were those black-masked figures scattered as corpses across the ground?
In any case, the bodies could not be left as they were.
Gang Jo gathered the corpses and carried them into the forest.
“Ah, what a fate. Burying corpses in the middle of the night.”
Grumbling as he dragged the corpses, Gang Jo pulled free the sword he’d planted in the earth.
Crack! Boom-boom-crack!
A few swings of the blade split the ground, and a deep, gaping pit opened before him.
Gang Jo hauled the masked intruders into one grave and buried them.
What remained was the tomb of the Middle-aged Giant.
Though the man had tried to kill him, Gang Jo felt neither hatred nor disgust toward him.
For some reason, he seemed like someone forced to move against his will.
Crack!
Gang Jo swung his sword and began to dig another pit.

*

The moment his eyes opened, light flooded in.
Having finished his Qi Cultivation, Gang Jo rose slowly to his feet.
By the time he’d buried all the corpses, the Yin Hour had already given way to dawn.
It was too awkward an hour to sleep, so he’d begun his Qi Cultivation then, and when he opened his eyes, morning had already arrived.
‘I can’t fathom why they breached the Residence’s walls.’
Lost in thought as he walked, Gang Jo suddenly burst into motion with his Body Technique.
Whoosh!
He soared like the wind and landed atop the Residence’s roof.
Turning his gaze southeast, he made out the towering walls and rooftops of the Martial Alliance in the distance.
When he turned his head northwest, the silhouette of the village came into view.
Only then did Gang Jo grasp the identity of the masked intruders who’d invaded in the dead of night.
“Damn it. This Residence was right on the path to the Martial Alliance.”
The masked men and the Middle-aged Giant had been preparing to assault the Martial Alliance.
Since a forest lay between here and there, it was only natural that those intending to attack the Martial Alliance would pass through this place.
“Master…”
Gang Jo looked up at the sky and cursed his master, who had ascended to immortality.
Of all places, why did he have to leave this one as an inheritance?
“The old fox really knew how to be cunning.”
Still muttering at the sky, Gang Jo collapsed onto the ground where he sat.
His master had worried about the bestial Killing Intent that had dwelt in him since childhood.
To suppress that excessive Killing Intent, the master had driven him mercilessly through Martial Arts training, and whenever the Killing Intent rose, he dealt harsh punishment.
Rolling boulders up the mountaintop had been merely one method to contain it.
Sometimes he’d spent endless hours reading texts and painting.
But what proved most effective was cooking.
When he cooked, he forgot everything else, and the Killing Intent could be suppressed.
Yet that very master had left this place to him as an inheritance.
‘What could his intention possibly be?’
Sunk in thought, Gang Jo cast a glance to the side.
Far down the main road, two horses and a swordsman with a blade at his waist ambled along leisurely.
“That bastard…”

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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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