Murim School Record - Chapter 28

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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 28: Simultaneous Departure (1)

A carriage approached the main gate of the Jeoksan Escort Bureau, and two escorts stopped it in its path.
“Ji-un, you’ve had it rough.”
The escorts nodded in greeting toward Suk Ji-un, who sat on the driver’s bench.
“This Escort Leader is…?”
Snore—
Snoooooore—
From inside the carriage came the thunderous sound of someone snoring.
Whoosh!
One of the escorts walked to the back, pulled aside the curtain, and peered in.
Lee Mo-baek was sprawled out flat, sleeping like the dead.
“This is too much, really. Even if he’s the Escort Leader, surely he could take a turn? Ji-un looks worn to the bone.”
“No, brother. Didn’t our Escort Leader here drive all the way to Seongpyeong?”
Seongpyeong was fifty li away.
“Seriously?”
“Why would I lie?”
“You’re sure? I believe you—it’s just, this Escort Leader scares us so much we’d never dare make things up.”
“Listen to this bastard, bringing that up now.”
That was when Lee Mo-baek, still sleeping, kicked the face of the escort peering in.
Smack!
“Ow!”
The escort cried out and crumpled to the ground, blood streaming from his nose where the kick had struck dead-center.
“Tch.”
Lee Mo-baek sat up abruptly, stuck his head out of the carriage, and stared down at the fallen escort with a scowl.
“Seok Du-sang.”
“Y-yes, Escort Leader!”
The escort scrambled to his feet.
“Listen. I can’t stand people who abuse their rank to torment those below them. You understand me?”
“I apologize. I’ll watch my mouth from now on.”
“Quit your whining.”
With a grunt, Lee Mo-baek climbed out and stretched his arms high overhead, working the stiffness from his shoulders.
“Come on, Ji-un. Let’s go.”
He pulled the carriage curtain closed again.
Suk Ji-un sat on the driver’s bench and urged the carriage forward.
Seok Du-sang, blood dripping from his nose, watched the carriage rattle away into the distance. Lee Mo-baek was still visible through the curtain, watching him—so he didn’t dare let his expression change. He simply stood there.
Only when the carriage had vanished from sight did he finally burst out.
“Lee Mo-baek, just you wait.”
Seok Du-sang ground his teeth audibly, wiping the blood from his nose with the back of his hand.

Once a year, or sometimes in spring and autumn as needed, the bureau selected new escorts, but an unscheduled recruitment like this hadn’t occurred in the past thirty years.
Fifty or so new escorts had been hired.
There were many martial artists from the Jianghu who wished to enter the Jeoksan Escort Bureau.
The greatest reason was the generous salary.
It was said that along with the Sahaejeonjang—the most money-touched organization in the Central Plains—the bureau offered the highest compensation. A newly hired escort’s monthly salary was twenty silver taels.
Compared to the monthly salary of a head chef at a famous inn or a county magistrate—also twenty silver taels—it was exceedingly generous compensation. Thus, whenever recruitment happened, people flocked in like clouds.
Thud!
Crack-crack-crack-thud!
Each time a fist struck the boulder, the hard rock shattered outward like breaking glass, cracks spreading in all directions.
Rumble-rumble!
The rocks collapsed.
It was as though a quarry—a tall cliff face now bare, its raw insides laid bare to the sky.
This was a secluded valley on Myeongbong Mountain, which cradled the Jeoksan Escort Bureau within its slopes.
By Lee Mo-baek’s fists alone, a vast cliff face was being carved away.

“Escort Leader! Escort Leader!”
Suk Ji-un rushed over, calling out.
Lee Mo-baek stopped his fist work and turned around.
Whoosh!
He wiped away the sweat streaming down his face with his sleeve, then looked at Suk Ji-un as if asking what the matter was.
“It seems there’s going to be an Escort Leader meeting soon.”
“An Escort Leader meeting.”
The Jeoksan Escort Bureau maintained numerous escort units.
Each unit operated anywhere from two or three to as many as twenty escort members, and the person who took charge of transporting the shipment and commanded from the front was called an Escort Leader.
Lee Mo-baek knew of at least thirty Escort Leaders.
Of course, he was included among them.
Because things were so busy, directives and changes were almost always communicated by letter rather than gathering the Escort Leaders in person to convey instructions or hear their opinions.
But the fact that they were summoning the Escort Leaders meant something extraordinary was happening.

Lee Mo-baek walked down a small ravine to the side and splashed cold water on his face.
Splash-splash-splash!
He washed away the sweat with a loud commotion, then settled onto a rock in the ravine.
“What’s going on?”
Suk Ji-un sat across from him with the ravine water between them, tilting his head repeatedly.
“Remember how we hired new escorts recently? People say this is the first time in thirteen years we’ve needed to quickly replenish personnel outside of the regular spring and autumn recruitment.”
“You dug into it? Did you find out why?”
“Not yet. But the atmosphere is definitely strange.”
“How strange?”
“The way things are moving feels off.”
“Something’s happening, but you can’t figure out what?”
“Exactly.”
“Let’s go!”
Lee Mo-baek stood up.
“When is this Escort Leader meeting supposed to happen?”
“It’s not exact, but it sounds like it’ll be within two or three days. Oh, and there’s talk that our unit will get new personnel added.”
“Really?”
Lee Mo-baek, who had been walking ahead, glanced back.
“I’m sure of it. When I stopped by the Director’s office just now and asked when he’d add people to our unit, he frowned—but then said there’d be good news by today or tomorrow. The Director wouldn’t lie about that.”
“You trust what the Director says? Every time I see him, he tells me to just wait a little longer, that personnel are coming soon—and it’s been over a year already.”
Lee Mo-baek had been rescued and taken in by the Jeoksan Escort Bureau, and with nowhere else to go, he had volunteered to become an escort.
Fortunately, Wei Qing-cheon, the Escort Leader who headed the unit that rescued him that day, thought well of him, and he was able to settle in without difficulty.
At first, he was assigned to escort shipments as an ordinary escort.
As time passed, he began to catch the attention of his superiors, and he became especially fascinated by martial skill, the most important ability for an escort.
Of course, he never revealed his true capabilities, showing only as much as was necessary in each moment.
He devoted himself to practicing the Baekbo Divine Fist whenever he had spare time, and now he prided himself on having reached a level he was satisfied with.
Three years passed this way, and a year ago he became an Escort Leader.
Not just anyone could rise to the rank of Escort Leader.
The rivalry among escorts was ruthless.
One had to demonstrate exceptional ability to become an Escort Leader, and this meant that escorts not infrequently came to see their colleagues not as family, but as obstacles blocking their own path.
An Escort Leader had to be able to navigate this complex competition and friction among escorts skillfully, pulling the group forward.
At any rate, he had become an Escort Leader, but he had no escorts.
Strictly speaking, he had no escorts willing to follow him.
Every escort wanted to work under an outstanding Escort Leader.
It was only natural that no escort would follow someone who had suddenly arrived in their midst and merely shown a bit of diligence.
An escort’s fortunes depended on their Escort Leader’s abilities.
Suk Ji-un was the only one who had stepped forward to follow him.
At first, they transported simple cargo.
With few hands and as a newcomer who had just taken the Escort Leader position, Lee Mo-baek couldn’t be entrusted with important shipments.
But as he began safely completing escorts day after day without incident, the weight and value of the cargo he was assigned grew gradually, and he began to earn trust little by little.

The Jeoksan Escort Bureau was divided into two major organizations.
The White Dragon Team and the Blood Eagle Team.
Under each team were fifteen escort units respectively.
Lee Mo-baek belonged to the Blood Eagle Team.
The moment they stepped into Blood Eagle Hall, to their surprise, a dozen Escort Leaders were already waiting.
“What’s this Escort Master doing, showing up so late?”
“You mustn’t lose sight of your principles.”
The senior Escort Leaders each offered their reproach.
Lee Mo-baek apologized with a lowered head and took a seat to the side.
He turned to the Escort Leader sitting beside him, Jong Do-yong.
“What is this about, Jong? Why did they summon all the Escort Leaders on such short notice?”
“I don’t know either. They just said everyone was to stand by at their posts except those out on escort missions—so I’m doing as ordered.”
His expression made clear he was just as bewildered.
Then the door opened and a man in his mid-forties, wearing a crimson long robe, appeared. A massive sword scar ran down his left cheek, giving him the look of an enraged wolf.
It was Jeok Gun-u, leader of the Blood Eagle Team.
Most of the Escorts among the ranks were former martial artists of repute, but Jeok Gun-u’s renown was exceptional.
Solo existentialism—
he had wielded his blade freely, belonging to no sect or faction.
Judged strictly by his path, he walked close to the Demonic way, but when rumors spread that the Martial Alliance kept watch over him, he vanished from sight.
And then one day he reappeared as the leader of the Blood Eagle Team at Jeoksan Escort Bureau, living a second life.
“Is anyone absent?”
“All present except for Shi and Dan, who are currently out on escort duty.”
Wei Qing-cheon, the highest-ranking of the Blood Eagle Team’s fifteen Escort Leaders, answered.
Lee Mo-baek’s gaze lingered on Wei Qing-cheon.
The man who had saved his life—his benefactor.
Yet what came after was intriguing.
One would think that after saving someone’s life, he might at least buy them a drink in jest, or show some pride in the deed. But Wei said nothing of it.
Whenever they passed and exchanged greetings, he would simply raise a hand in light acknowledgment.
Jeok Gun-u slowly surveyed the seated Escort Leaders.
Finally, his gaze fixed on Lee Mo-baek.
“Lee.”
“Yes, sir!”
“How did it go? You completed the Shaolin shipment escort safely and well, I hear?”
“I was fortunate.”
“That’s your problem, Lee. Excessive humility in a person is not always a virtue. You must understand—fortune is a reflection of skill.”
Lee Mo-baek broke into a slight smile.
“Tomorrow night, we will deliver something. The complication is that there is not one item, but many.”
The Escort Leaders who failed to grasp his meaning blinked.
“The important thing is that all of us must depart at the same time with the goods loaded.”
“Forgive me—if multiple wagons are to depart simultaneously, then perhaps—?”
Wei Qing-cheon posed the question.
Jeok Gun-u narrowed his eyes.
“Your suspicion is correct, Wei. The goods are so valuable that many would seek them. The Master’s judgment is that we must employ a strategy to scatter the enemy’s attention.”
The Escort Leaders murmured among themselves.
Such shipment deliveries did happen from time to time.
There are no secrets in this world.
No matter how strictly information was guarded, secrets leaked, and those who sought them appeared.

The Escort Leaders who left the meeting bore hardened faces.
All wore an expression of unease.
People often compared the martial strength of Jeoksan Escort Bureau to the masters of the martial world.
Many renowned martial artists from the rivers and lakes now serve as Escort Leaders and Escorts.
Naturally, the more valuable or precious the goods, the more clients entrust them to Jeoksan Escort Bureau.
Naturally, there are far fewer incidents of loss compared to other escort agencies.
But what could be so delicate and extraordinary that thirteen separate escort units would share the cargo and depart together?
“Escort Leader!”
Suk Ji-un came running toward Lee Mo-baek.
“The new Escorts have arrived. When I went to the quarters, four strangers were standing there. I asked who they were, and they said they’d just been recruited as Escorts.”
“I see.”
Lee Mo-baek too was taken aback.
“What’s your impression?”
Lee Mo-baek asked.
“How would I know? You should see them yourself, Escort Leader.”
One cannot refuse an assigned escort simply because one dislikes them.
The assignment must be accepted unconditionally.
Of course, if the tension between an Escort Leader and an escort grows severe, the two will be summoned to air their grievances, and a decision will be made whether to reassign or proceed as is.
It was a single-story building.
Though it could accommodate twenty people, Lee Mo-baek’s experience and standing were not yet prominent enough to warrant better quarters, so he had been given the most modest quarters available.
As they stepped through the door, four men were seated inside.
“This is Lee Mo-baek, your Escort Leader.”
Suk Ji-un announced.

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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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