Moorim Pochang - Chapter 46

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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 46. The Hundred Heroes.

Baek Mun-do held his ground without yielding.
“Why is that my fault? I only reported the number of enemies who attacked the Murim Alliance.”
Tsk.
Dok-go Yeop soothed his burning stomach with a drink of wine.
“Jo Bi-ja and Ma So-hye have grown considerably stronger.”
“I was surprised too.”
Baek Mun-do and Dok-go Yeop were not the men they once were.
With the passage of years, their martial prowess had grown immensely more formidable.
Jo Bi-ja and Ma So-hye had once lagged slightly behind them in martial skill.
Yet now they had reappeared as absolute masters whose strength left the outcome of any clash uncertain.
What in the world had happened to them?
Dok-go Yeop filled Baek Mun-do’s cup with wine.
“I’ll prepare fifty men as well, just like you.”
“We might end up with a hundred.”
“We can’t keep stepping forward until we’re dead and gone, can we?”
“That’s true, but right now there’s no Dae-hyung to lead a hundred men.”
Ahhh……..
Sigh……….
Both men exhaled sighs at the same moment.
Long ago, there had been a towering pillar named Dae-hyung who guided them, inadequate as they were.
But now there was no one to lead a hundred men.
“Perhaps you or I will have to take Dae-hyung’s place.”
“Where could he have gone?”
“He was always a wanderer at heart, so he must be living a wanderer’s life somewhere. But now that the Kangho Martial World faces crisis again, he’ll show himself.”
At Baek Mun-do’s words, Dok-go Yeop shook his head.
“He might already have left this world.”
There was a considerable age gap between Dae-hyung and themselves.
With a difference of some thirty years, they should have called him grandfather rather than by his given name.
“How could a man like Dae-hyung have already passed? He could easily live for two hundred years.”
Chuckle, chuckle, chuckle….
Ha, ha, ha….
The two men laughed, remembering Dae-hyung from years past.
He was someone who couldn’t resist anything good for the body or good to eat.
“Perhaps he’s already undergone Return-to-Youth Rebirth and is living as a young man in some county now.”
“That would be just like him.”
The Dae-hyung of long ago had seemed like a sky impossible to reach.
But now that sky seemed to have drawn somewhat closer.
“In any case, I’m rather disappointed you didn’t die this time.”
Baek Mun-do said this in jest.
At that, Dok-go Yeop’s eyes flashed with fierce light.
“You, you bastard. What do you mean by that? Were you planning to steal my wife if I died?”
As he suddenly flared up, heat rose in Baek Mun-do’s chest as well.
“Talk sense, you fool! Why do you keep dragging up that old business?”
At this, Dok-go Yeop glanced back at the junior members of the Murim Alliance eating at the table.
They were eating while constantly reading the mood, their expressions appearing quite anxious.
‘This works perfectly.’
“You shameless wretch. Last time you brought my wife up in conversation.”
“That was just asking after her welfare, you damned fool!”
Hmph.
“Do you think I don’t know you’re particularly fond of married women? All the demons of the Demonic Sect know that fact.”
Ugh………..
In the face of his retort, Baek Mun-do’s anger surged and left him at a loss.
“This won’t do. I won’t be satisfied until I cut off your head today.”
“That’s exactly what I want, you bastard.”
The Inn was suddenly suffused with a cold, murderous aura.
Gang-jo quickly interjected.
“Please take your dispute elsewhere, honored guests. If two masters of your caliber fight here, how can I expect other patrons to feel safe? My business will be ruined.”
His tone was respectful, but his thoughts were not.
‘They’re determined to destroy my livelihood, absolutely determined.’
Dok-go Yeop and Baek Mun-do were the Inn’s most prestigious guests.
But they were also its most troublesome ones.
Dok-go Yeop fixed Baek Mun-do with a glacial stare and answered his plea.
“Does he intend to keep running this business in front of the Murim Alliance?”
“Yes.”
At Gang-jo’s reply, Dok-go Yeop first withdrew his killing intent.
“Count yourself lucky today, you bastard.”
“That’s what I’d like to say to you.”
Baek Mun-do also dispersed his murderous aura and reached for the wine bottle.

*

Peng Wu-ho and Ak-hwan could barely breathe.
Anyone in Kangho knew the names of the Hundred Heroes.
The younger generation in particular could recite them by heart.
Yet those names had just tumbled from the lips of the Murim Alliance’s leader and the Demonic Sect’s master.
From what they’d overheard, it seemed these two had orchestrated the entire assault.
‘Jo Bi-ja and Ma So-hye were alive? But why would they…?’
Their minds reeled with confusion and dread.
It felt as though they were eavesdropping on something they absolutely should never have heard.
“Braised pork belly.”
Gang-jo set down a plate of braised pork belly alongside vegetables and rice at their table.
Peng Wu-ho and Ak-hwan picked up their chopsticks mechanically, unable to tell if the food was going into their mouths or their noses.
Especially when the Alliance leader and Sect master had clashed with their killing intent fully exposed, they could barely draw breath.
‘Every time they come here it’s like this — how can I expect anyone to return, no matter how fine the cooking?’
Ak-hwan wanted nothing more than to finish eating and leave this place.
Peng Wu-ho felt much the same way.
‘One wrong move and we could be buried by the Kangho Martial World.’
The rumor that the Alliance leader coveted another man’s wife was mortifying even to think about.
And that the Alliance leader was friendly with the Demonic Sect’s master was equally forbidden knowledge.
“H-how much do we owe?”
Peng Wu-ho, who had finished first, asked quietly.
“Two silver taels.”
“Here you are.”
Peng Wu-ho drew two silver taels from his purse and handed them to Gang-jo.
“Thank you.”
Once they had finished, both men bowed respectfully to Baek Mun-do.
“We’ll take our leave now, Alliance Leader.”
Baek Mun-do nodded, but Dok-go Yeop fixed them with a cool, piercing gaze.
“What is your name?”
His eyes were fixed on Peng Wu-ho.
At this, Peng Wu-ho straightened in alarm, clasped his hands, and bowed deeply.
“I am Peng Wu-ho.”
“What was your relationship to Hae-san?”
Peng Hae-san.
He had been one of the Hundred Heroes, and Peng Wu-ho’s uncle.
“He was my uncle.”
Dok-go Yeop nodded.
“A braver man than most. A truly magnificent warrior.”
At these words, Peng Wu-ho felt his chest tighten with emotion.
So his uncle was indeed a true hero, worthy of respect even from the Demonic Sect’s master.
“…Thank you, Sect Master.”
Peng Wu-ho had heard the Demonic Sect’s master was fearsome, but now he saw that fear was not the whole of what he was.
Dok-go Yeop continued.
“Your uncle’s techniques were powerful yet precise. Especially his final form, the Flying Tiger Ascending Heaven—even I found it difficult to withstand. Did he do it like this?”
He moved his hands through the empty air, weaving them back and forth.
Whissshhh…..whisssh…
With each sweep of his hands, space split open and sealed shut, split open again.
Peng Wu-ho kept his eyes wide, burning each movement into his memory.
He couldn’t speak for others, but he knew that technique.
It was a form he hadn’t yet mastered executing, yet he’d never suspected such subtlety lay concealed within it.
When his hands finally stilled, he bowed with deliberate formality.
“I am grateful for your kindness.”
“Go now.”
Ak-hwan and Peng Wu-ho crossed the Stone Bridge and vanished into the darkness.
“What’s gotten into you? Dispensing favors to the Murim Alliance’s junior generation?”
At Baek Mun-do’s question, Dok-go Yeop gave a bitter smile.
“That fellow and I have shared many cups of wine together.”
Peng Hae-san had never held back in a fight.
He charged forward first toward the enemy and bore the weight of countless wounds for it, dying young because of his recklessness.
So he’d been a friend worthy of such sorrow.

*

Gang-jo watched Dok-go Yeop with fresh eyes.
He’d thought the man nothing but cold, yet here was someone whose heart burned hotter than anyone’s.
“Is there no other wine available?”
Baek Mun-do glanced sideways at Gang-jo.
The effect had been so good that when he returned home after stepping out, his wife’s eyes held quiet anticipation.
“Is there no Medicinal Wine?”
Dok-go Yeop found himself in the same predicament.
If he harbored one regret about this Inn, it was its distance from the Demonic Sect’s influence.
“We have none.”
But Gang-jo was resolute.
Truly, there was nothing left.
Even scraping the bottom would yield barely two cups, and only a small stub of Snow Ginseng remained.
“I hear you’ve become sworn brothers with Won-young?”
Thinking matters were hopeless otherwise, Baek Mun-do even brought Baek Won-young forward.
This caught Dok-go Yeop quite off guard.
‘Cunning bastard. He’s even paraded out his own son just to forge some connection with that man.’
He composed himself without a flicker of expression.
“A son is a son, and a father is a father. For the Murim Alliance’s leader to push even his own son forward—that’s not something you should be doing.”
Baek Mun-do felt his chest tighten.
If he discovered that his son had opened the Upper Dantian thanks to drinking that Medicinal Wine, the man would surely fly into a rage.
Mm…
“I wasn’t thinking of putting my son forward. I simply wanted a drink if any were available.”
Gang-jo watched them both in silence.
‘Truly tiresome gentlemen.’
No amount of intimidation would move him to bring out the wine.
‘This one won’t work.’
Catching Gang-jo’s drift, Dok-go Yeop turned to glance at Yang-jeong, who sat quietly.
“You. Go and fetch the Medicinal Wine.”
Yang-jeong’s eyes went wide as coins.
“I…I, sir? No…no, I cannot.”
His nervousness made his answer falter.
Then a cold smile played across Dok-go Yeop’s lips.
Seeing that smile, Gang-jo raised his fist toward Yang-jeong.
“You…stupid fool…”
He should have said there was none, not that he couldn’t fetch it.
In his panic, he’d let slip the wrong word entirely.
“Bring it. The money will come from Mun-do, and he’ll provide it willingly.”
Baek Mun-do felt rage surge hot in his chest.
“Why should I…? Isn’t it your turn this time…?”
Dok-go Yeop didn’t even glance at him.
His gaze was fixed solely on Gang-jo.
“Is there truly no other way?”
Tsk.
Gang-jo had no choice but to retrieve the remaining Snow Ginseng from the wine jug.
‘Might as well finish it all while we’re at it.’
“This is the last of it.”
Once Gang-jo had sliced up all the Snow Ginseng and laid it out, Baek Mun-do reached for his chopsticks first.
But Dok-go Yeop’s chopsticks blocked his path.
“Before we eat, shouldn’t it be time to come clean? What exactly have we been consuming all this while?”
Baek Mun-do looked toward Gang-jo, equally curious.
Gang-jo saw no further point in concealing the truth.
They had likely already guessed as much anyway.
“He Shou Wu aged over a thousand years, and Snow Ginseng. We also added Gong Qing Stone Oil to it.”
Baek Mun-do and Dok-go Yeop showed little sign of surprise.
“As I suspected. But where did you procure such precious things?”
“My master left them for me. I myself don’t know where they came from.”
At Gang-jo’s answer, Dok-go Yeop and Baek Mun-do turned their gaze to Yang-jeong.
But this time, he too was desperate.
If he misspoke now, he would not only be beaten to death by his brother’s hand, but might lose all those precious spiritual herbs as well.
Those herbs had to be preserved for himself and his children, just as his brother had said.
“My brother speaks truly. Our master left them for us.”
With a nod, the two of them finally began working their chopsticks in earnest.

*

“That shameless fool is always so nervous in front of the Sect Leader. What’s that about?”
At Gang-jo’s question, Yang-jeong had already begun preparing his escape.
“Brother, you may not feel it, but whenever I meet the Sect Leader’s gaze, my very flesh trembles.”
Indeed, the Sect Leader’s cold eyes were difficult even for masters to meet directly.
Though they carried no active killing intent, they possessed a power that subdued those who faced them.
“Next time something like that happens, stop cowering and stare right back. Eyes alone have never killed anyone.”
“Understood………..brother.”
Yang-jeong’s reply was hollow.
Then Gang-jo’s voice turned cold, laced with menace.
“And if you lose your nerve again, know it’ll be my fist that kills you, not the Sect Leader’s.”
“Yes.”
At Yang-jeong’s response, Gang-jo retrieved the wine jug and set it before them.
“We’ve only got two cups left. Might as well drink it ourselves.”
Yang-jeong’s face, which had been downcast, suddenly brightened.
“A fine idea, brother. If you and I drink it down, then it’s truly gone, isn’t it?”
With a broad smile, he tilted the jug and poured the wine into a cup.
Glug, glug……
Sure enough, exactly two cups worth remained.
But Yang-jeong did not bring the cup to his own lips.
Instead, he rose and left the kitchen with the cup in hand.
“Where are you going?”
At Gang-jo’s question, Yang-jeong grinned.
“To feed it to the pregnant mare. If we give her something good for her health, won’t she bear a sturdy foal?”

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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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