Murim Login - Chapter 316

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Chapter 316
Gung Ki-bang carefully placed the silver into his embrace and opened his mouth.
“It is information regarding the Yongbong Escort Agency.”
“The Yongbong Escort Agency? Isn’t that the place we encountered on the way here?”
“Correct. It has now shrunk to Shaanxi Province, but in the past, it was counted among the greatest escort agencies under heaven.”
“The Yongbong Escort Agency was?”
I recalled the memory from two days prior.
Of course, for a mere escort agency, they possessed formidable strength. The agency chief Ju Hwa-ran was a swordmaster of exceptional skill, earning the title of one of the Ten Dragons and Phoenixes, and the escort master Song Il-seom was at least one level above Ju Hwa-ran in ability.
‘If I include that gentleman who looks like he could have written the Dongui Bogam, there are three masters at their peak.’
That much rivaled any mid-tier martial sect.
Yet compared to the glorious past when they were counted among the top three under heaven, the Yongbong Escort Agency I witnessed that day appeared utterly diminished.
“What on earth happened to bring them to such a state?”
“It began right after the Escort King drew his final breath.”
“The Escort King? The one I know?”
“There cannot be two Escort Kings under heaven. The Escort King Ju Gong-san, the Great Hero you know, was the previous chief of the Yongbong Escort Agency.”
The Escort King Ju Gong-san.
Though I did not know his name, I had heard his epithet often. Having spent enough time in the Martial World, I now possessed a reasonable foundation of knowledge.
Moreover, the person who had remained at my side like a shadow for the past year was none other than Fire King Red Sky River.
He was a living witness to history, and occasionally an old man lost in reminiscence of the past.
‘Now that I think about it, that fellow the Escort King was quite something.’
‘He was not your friend.’
‘It has been long since you received the Flame Divine Palm strike?’
‘Please tell me. I will listen with utmost respect.’
The anecdote about the Escort King that Red Sky River had shared that day left a profound impression.
‘It was when the Great Demon War reached its zenith. At that time, the Demon Cult had seized eight provinces including Gansu, Sichuan, and Yunnan, and was advancing toward the Central Plains with one hundred thousand demon soldiers at the vanguard.’
‘When does the Escort King’s story come in?’
‘It has been long since you received the Demon Flame Divine Fist strike?’
‘Please continue. I beg you.’
‘In any case, the Escort King of that era was merely a wandering escort master. Of course, he was already called a renowned escort master for his exceptional skill and righteous spirit, but when the Demon Cult was sweeping through the heavens, would the Orthodox Martial Arts World even pay attention to such things?’
‘Indeed. Strictly speaking, escort masters belong more to the merchant world than the Martial World.’
‘Even the Demon Cult needed financial resources, so they chose to recruit rather than suppress escort agencies and merchant houses. In such circumstances, it was not strange that the Escort King of that time was in Guangdong, which was Demon Cult territory. Everything proceeded smoothly until he encountered a certain pregnant woman.’
‘A pregnant woman?’
‘Within that woman’s womb lay the last bloodline of the Guangdong Chen Family. The Guangdong Chen Family had already been exterminated for resisting the Demon Cult most fiercely.’
‘He would have been discovered immediately.’
‘The Escort King only realized this fact belatedly after encountering the Demon Cult’s pursuit squad. If he did not surrender the woman, he would have to make the Demon Cult his enemy.’
At that time, the Demon Cult had achieved successive victories and swallowed half the world, or so he said.
Moreover, Guangdong Province lay tens of thousands of leagues away from Orthodox territory. It was nothing less than a den of the Demon Cult.
‘What do you think the Escort King did?’
‘If he had surrendered the woman to the Demon Cult then, he would not have been the Escort King.’
‘Correct. He flatly refused the Demon Cult’s demand. His reason was singular: he had already received the escort fee.’
On a certain day when the world was engulfed in turmoil, a young escort bearer began what might be his final delivery run.
Carrying in his bosom an old jade hairpin that the Woman of Guangdong Chen Family had entrusted to him as payment.
‘It took a full two years,’ he had been told.
From Guangdong through Jiangxi and Hubei to Hanan where the Martial Alliance stood.
The young escort bearer crossed half the continent fleeing his pursuers. He scaled mountains, raced across plains, and swam through rivers.
No one knew by what means or how many perils he had overcome, but one thing was certain.
This young escort bearer had completed an unprecedented delivery run in Martial World history.
When the escort bearer’s footsteps finally reached Hanan, the last seed of the Guangdong Chen Family was crying vigorously in the woman’s arms, and the escort bearer Ju Gong-san had become the Escort King.
‘Mu-shin said so himself. That he truly deserved to be called a king. No one raised any objection.’
Jeok Cheon-gang often brought up stories about the Escort King afterward.
Even to Jeok Cheon-gang, who viewed the world with a crooked eye, the Escort King seemed like a reasonably decent person.
‘I heard that after the Righteous Martial Arts War ended, he established an escort agency in his hometown of Shaanxi Province… but I don’t know what happened after that. Perhaps I’ll stop by sometime and share a drink with him.’
As it turned out, Jeok Cheon-gang’s wish would never come to pass.
According to what I had just heard from Gung Ki-bang, the Escort King Ju Gong-san was already no longer of this world.
‘The continent is rather small after all.’
The Yongbong Escort Agency I had encountered by chance two days ago was the very trace of that Escort King.
My gaze, brimming with curiosity, prompted Gung Ki-bang to speak.
“The Escort King Ju Gong-san suffered internal injuries in the Righteous Martial Arts War and couldn’t last long before he passed. A lamentable affair.”
“Then who is the current agency master?”
“The Gentleman Swordsman Ju Ho-gun. The Escort King’s sole blood heir and the spring companion of Ju Hwa-ran.”
“The Gentleman Swordsman—the epithet alone gives off the right impression.”
“I’ve never met him in person myself, but… my master once said he’s a genuinely good person.”
A single character in a person’s description can change the entire impression.
Gung Ki-bang’s master, the Beggar Clan leader, had not said Ju Ho-gun was a good person, but rather that the person ‘was’ good.
‘There’s a whiff of darkness about him.’
I had a premonition that the Gentleman Swordsman’s nature had likely contributed significantly to the Yongbong Escort Agency’s current state.
As expected, Gung Ki-bang nodded, reading my expression.
“Just as you suspect. Ju is compassionate and cannot tolerate injustice, so since taking over the Yongbong Escort Agency, he’s suffered considerable losses in many ways.”
“He was never suited for this path to begin with.”
“My master once said something like this: a righteous wanderer cannot become a merchant.”
True words indeed. One earns the title of righteous wanderer by disregarding profit, and one becomes an excellent merchant by pursuing profit above all else.
An escort agency stands at the intersection of the Martial World and the merchant realm, but ultimately it belongs more to the merchant world.
‘A perfect score as a righteous wanderer. A zero as a merchant, then.’
The Escort King had been able to catch both rabbits and elevate the Yongbong Escort Agency to the top five in the industry because of his renown.
But after the Escort King’s death, such advantages disappeared, and for Ju Ho-gun, lacking the qualities of a merchant, it was simply beyond his capacity.
“When famine strikes, he doesn’t have enough grain from his stores and even buys more at premium prices, only to distribute it all freely. He takes in poor and orphaned children, feeds them, gives them shelter…”
“At that point, isn’t he basically UNICEF?”
“Huh?”
“Never mind, continue.”
“In any case, with more going out than coming in, the Yongbong Escort Agency began to decline gradually. My master even offered advice several times out of respect for the previous generation, but he never heeded it. He says it’s his policy.”
“Tsk.”
He was certainly an admirable and respectable businessman. It was only unfortunate that he wasn’t an exceptional one.
Gung Ki-bang continued, scratching his back vigorously.
“Well, what can you do? With such a Grand Master taking over the escort agency, it’s only natural the operation shrank dramatically in just thirty years.”
“Thirty years? I’ve heard that even a fortune can last three generations no matter how badly it’s squandered.”
“Three generations would have been more than enough. If the Grand Master hadn’t collapsed from Heavenly Demon Possession two years ago.”
“…What are you talking about now? Some kind of Yongbong Escort Agency era of calamity?”
“Considering all the misfortunes the Yongbong Escort Agency has endured over the past two years, it’s fair to call it that.”
“My, they must have suffered greatly.”
For a moment, the spirited image of Ju Hwa-ran flashed before my eyes.
Back then, I’d only thought she was intelligent and beautiful. But it turned out she was a young girl bearing a heavy burden as the head of her household.
And yet…
“There’s a foul stench wafting from somewhere here.”
I’d been listening intently because he’d broached the subject so meaningfully from the start, but the only reek coming from this bastard was his own putrid odor.
Chung Poong and Hyuk Moo-jin, who had been listening with bated breath to my fastball comment, suddenly craned their necks forward.
“That’s right! I don’t smell anything either. I want to smell the foul stench too!”
“So-hyup. When exactly did you last brush your teeth?”
When the one I’d nearly killed and the one who’d nearly died spoke in unison, Gung Ki-bang’s expression twisted sharply.
“You brats, always chattering away so noisily.”
“Enough. Spit it out quickly. And open your mouth less. When did you really last brush your teeth?”
“Four months ago.”
I’d never seen such a filthy creature.
At my gaze, as if I were looking at a beast, Gung Ki-bang flinched and hastily spat out three syllables.
“Zh-Zhongnan Sect.”
“Huh? The Zhongnan Sect?”
“According to intelligence gathered by our branch’s Xi’an division, there are clear signs that the Zhongnan Sect was deeply involved in the collapse of the Yongbong Escort Agency.”
“Hah. Truly. These bastards have their fingers in everything.”
The foul stench in this information was accurate.
The moment I heard the name Zhongnan Sect, the stench became overwhelming.
I wondered if it was because Gung Ki-bang had suddenly opened his mouth wide, but judging by the conduct of the Zhongnan Sect bastards I’d encountered so far, this wasn’t a rumor—it was fact.
“They want to swallow the Yongbong Escort Agency in one gulp. Something like that, I suppose?”
“Swallow in one gulp? Is it delicious?”
“So-hyup, shut your mouth.”
“Yes, my benefactor!”
Gung Ki-bang, now accustomed to all these situations, answered as if nothing had happened.
“It’s highly probable. The Zhongnan Sect does operate an escort agency, but it’s nowhere near the standing the Yongbong Escort Agency holds within Shaanxi Province. To the Zhongnan Sect, alongside the Hua Mountain Sect, it would be a thorn in their side.”
“So they’ve been systematically dismantling it for the past two years?”
“Ju Hwa-ran is certainly a talented individual. But her experience is far too limited. The fact that she inherited her father’s compassionate nature is also a disadvantage.”
In other words, she’s not as clever as she thinks.
Indeed, from what I’d heard, Ju Hwa-ran was only twenty-one years old.
Organizing what I had learned was already overwhelming, and adapting to practical work while leading an escort agency of such scale would have been extraordinarily difficult.
‘Especially if the Zhongnan Sect was scheming behind the scenes.’
No matter how subordinate the Zhongnan Sect was to Huashan, they remained one of the Nine Great Sects and One Alliance.
If the Escort King were still alive, it might be different, but the current Yongbong Escort Agency lacked the means to withstand pressure from the Zhongnan Sect.
They would be gradually eroded away, piece by piece, until they finally collapsed.
“How widely known is this fact?”
“It’s top-secret information that the Xi’an branch chief shared with me.”
“Top-secret, you say? Then Huashan doesn’t know about it either?”
“Well, they might know or they might not. Even if they did know, they could simply pretend not to.”
“Pretend not to know? What do you mean by that?”
Gung Ki-bang hesitated briefly before answering with a sigh.
“Because they’re all part of the Nine Great Sects and One Alliance.”
“…What?”
“Baek Moo-sung of Huashan’s Single Lineage is an upright man. The Sword Saint Mae Jong-hak and So-hyup here are as clear as mountain streams. But remember—it is foolish to judge the whole by observing only one side.”
His words pierced through my thoughts with precision.
I was leaving today anyway. I had intended to subtly inform Baek Moo-sung of this information.
Because he was a good person I knew. And because he held a position worthy of being called the future of Huashan.
But I was wrong.
‘The future is merely the future, not the present.’
I understood once more. The Murim was far more complex than I had imagined.
Even in this world of seemingly ignorant and simple sword-wielders, there were rules and their own hierarchy.
‘So this is what it means for the arm to bend inward.’
As I fell silent, Gung Ki-bang glanced at me cautiously and asked.
“What are you thinking of doing?”
“What can I do?”
“Are you perhaps thinking of stepping in directly?”
“Me?”
I pondered briefly, then shook my head.
The Yongbong Escort Agency was merely a chance encounter. I had my own tasks to accomplish.
“If I happen to meet them before I leave, I can offer a hint. But that’s all I can do.”
Now that Red Sky River had fallen, entanglement with the Zhongnan Sect would only complicate matters.
I shook my head, dispelling the image of Ju Hwa-ran’s face that had suddenly surfaced in my mind.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————