Return of the God of War - Chapter 73

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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 73. There’s no such thing as a free lunch in this world.
As Muk Yeojin cut across the forest path with his Gyeongong in full bloom, a pleased light danced across his face.
‘Going far better than expected.’
The timeline had contracted far more than he’d anticipated.
Cheon Hwarin happened to be staying near Junggyeong, and he’d run straight into Yang Hui the moment they entered Cheongguhyeon—luck had been on his side.
Meanwhile, the man trailing behind them.
Yang Hui, missing one front tooth, was deploying the Cheonwae Unshinbo with characteristic force.
His expression, however, was utterly unlike Muk Yeojin’s.
His shadowed face brimmed with a single dominant emotion: tension, distrust, and fear.
Yang Hui cast a sidelong glance at the man and woman who hemmed him in front and back as they ran.
‘The son of the Sadocheon Lord and the daughter of the Heavenly Demon?’
He swallowed hard.
If what they’d said was true, this affair was no ordinary matter.
The Sadocheon Lord and the Heavenly Demon.
Among the dangerous figures scattered across the vast Middle Plain, they ranked among the foremost.
An matter involving such towering personages could never be simple.
And now their own children were moving directly?
Whatever else, this was clearly a matter that demanded risking one’s life.
‘I’ve gotten myself into real trouble.’
Yang Hui desperately hoped these two were mere imposters.
But his rational judgment, unfortunately, insisted the odds were slim.
First, there was the man and the woman themselves.
Their martial prowess was bizarrely extraordinary.
As a member of the Bukcheon Yang Clan, Yang Hui had been exposed since childhood to talents said to soar and stride across the realm.
His eye for skill was second to none, wherever he went.
Yet seeing these two for the first time, he couldn’t gauge their abilities at all.
It meant their strength far exceeded his discernment.
Most critically—
Yang Hui glanced backward.
‘That massive stone axe.’
He’d heard of it.
The treasured daughter of the Heavenly Demon’s inner chambers.
The Magical Blossom Cheon Hwarin’s unique weapon—a heavy blade of such savage proportions that even Nok-rim Heroic Figures would concede a move and retreat before it.
‘The Daeseokbu, they called it.’
When she’d drawn it from what he’d taken to be a musical instrument case—a Moksang—he’d genuinely wanted to deny reality itself.
Noticing Yang Hui’s stare, Cheon Hwarin’s brow furrowed sharply.
“What are you looking at? Want me to knock out that last remaining tooth?”
“Ah, no! No, of course not!”
Yang Hui forced out a hearty laugh.
At the sight, Muk Yeojin couldn’t help but let out a quiet chuckle.
‘Same as ever, isn’t it.’
Before the Regression, the dynamic between Yang Hui and Cheon Hwarin had been exactly this.
No matter that Cheonwae Scintu stole wealth to aid impoverished neighbors in hardship, a thief remained a thief.
‘Though he seems to think of himself as a Righteous Bandit.’
To Cheon Hwarin’s eyes, such circumstances mattered little.
Yang Hui was simply one unremarkable specimen among the crowd of ordinary men to her.
Half a day had now passed since they’d set out from Cheongguhyeon.
The result of half a day of running while receiving the edge of Cheon Hwarin’s murderous gaze in the back of his head.
The spirited Yang Hui from their first meeting had vanished without a trace.
In his place stood a pallid, sickly figure.
Muk Yeojin, taking pity on that state, spoke to him gently.
“Once this matter is settled, I’ll tell you the location of the Secret Cave on Daerun Mountain. So don’t make such a gloomy face.”
……!
Yang Hui’s eyes snapped wide with shock.
Today alone, he’d experienced his heart sinking with a thud more times than he could count.
The Secret Cave of Daerun Mountain.
A secret grotto said to conceal the treasures of Myo Geumbyeong, a legendary master thief who’d lived three centuries past.
It was a place that Yang Hui and his master—the legendary thief of his day—had searched for through long years, claiming succession to Myo Geumbyeong’s legacy.
Yang Hui’s face stiffened, then he exhaled with hollow resignation.
“I… never imagined the information network of Sadocheon’s current powers reached quite this far.”
Muk Yeojin smiled faintly and turned his head away.
Of course, this too was something Yang Hui had told him directly before the Regression, but there was no reason to spell it out now.
After another full day of riding like that,
the three of them arrived at Cheongdu, the heart of Junggyeong.
Muk Yeojin entered a decent inn nearby and immediately ordered wine and plenty of side dishes.
Starting with Luzhu Laojiao, a wine of high renown in Junggyeong, premium meats and seafood dishes came up to the table one after another.
Even as delicacies of mountain and sea poured out endlessly, Yang Hui’s face remained dark.
“Is this… like a last supper or something?”
Muk Yeojin refilled his cup carelessly and nodded.
“You could say that. They say a well-fed ghost looks prettier.”
“…… That’s nonsense. I’ll just get full and have trouble swimming across the Samdo River.
“What did you just say?”
“Huh? Oh, no. I just said it looks delicious, haha.”
His identity and secrets were already exposed.
Yang Hui had no other choice.
He could only hold back tears and shove the steaming Tang Choli Cheok into his mouth.
Muk Yeojin too laughed and kept picking up the braised meat.
After filling their bellies somewhat,
he gave Yang Hui a brief account of the Gwangpok Gang and explained what the two of them needed to do.
“Yang Hui, you’ll handle Goyang Tower. And Father, please take Manseong Pyo Bureau. I’ll examine Dongrim Money House.”
“Understood.”
Yang Hui also drained a cup of wine and answered reluctantly.
“…… I understand.”
The three of them left the inn after the meal.
Muk Yeojin stopped at the mouth of a nearby alley and gave his final reminder.
“Remember this: your safety comes first. If danger arises, withdraw immediately. Father.”
Cheon Hwarin nodded silently and turned away at once.
Yang Hui, watching from beside, pouted his lips.
“What about me?”
“You’ll slip away just fine even if I tell you not to.”
Yang Hui’s eyes narrowed.
When had he shown that? As if the man knew everything about him already.
But the problem was that what he said was true, and Yang Hui couldn’t think of a word to say in protest.
* * *
The next day.
Muk Yeojin arrived at Geomgang District, where Dongrim Money House was located.
The sun was still high.
Real work would begin after nightfall.
Muk Yeojin decided to gather information about Dongrim Money House by first circling the marketplace nearby.
After exchanging a few words with merchants, peddlers, and street vendors around the area,
he gained a rough understanding of how the common people viewed Dongrim Money House.
The main source of revenue for Dongrim Money House was high-interest lending.
Those who made their living from high-interest lending were typically seen as unscrupulous merchants and earned the resentment of the common folk.
Yet strangely, the reputation of Dongrim Money House in this place was uniformly favorable.
Muk Yeojin bought a light outfit at a nearby cloth shop and casually asked the owner why that was.
“Dongrim Money House? They don’t even ask for collateral, the interest is practically nothing, and they don’t set a repayment deadline either. There’s no better place to borrow money under heaven.”
Muk Yeojin’s eyes gradually narrowed.
‘No collateral, low interest, no repayment limit…?’
If that were true, there’d be no profit in the business.
Not a charity, but high-interest lending with no margin.
Something reeked from the start.
The saying “There’s no such thing as a free meal” was trite, but it was Muk Yeojin’s conviction that it was truth.
“Why? Are you looking to borrow too, young man?”
“Ah, yes. Life’s been a bit rough lately, so I’m looking around.”
“Well, who isn’t struggling these days.”
The shop owner looked Muk Yeojin up and down before asking,
“You look young—do you have any children?”
“No. I’m unmarried.”
“Hmm…… Then you wouldn’t be able to borrow from Dongrim Money House?”
“So they only lend to those with children. Do you know why they do that?”
The innkeeper scratched his head and spoke.
“Well, I can’t say for certain, but… I’d think it comes down to a sense of responsibility, wouldn’t it? People with children are less likely to default on a loan, that’s the way I see it.”
It wasn’t entirely wrong.
After all, when assessing creditworthiness, lenders considered not only whether a person held a respectable occupation but also how many dependents they had to support.
Yet Muk Yeojin’s unease lingered still.
Once he’d left the cloth merchant’s shop, Muk Yeojin rented a room nearby.
It wasn’t until well after nightfall—around the hour of Zishi—that he emerged from the room where he’d been sitting in meditation, focusing his inner energy.
* * *
Whoosh.
A dark figure descended silently onto the outer courtyard of the Dongrim Money House.
It was Muk Yeojin.
Without hesitation, he slipped his body toward the main beam of the inner courtyard.
He glided across the grass without making a sound, and not a single blade bent beneath his passage.
He had deployed the Gyeongsinsu technique, which rendered the body weightless as a feather.
A high-order skill that reversed the principle of the Cheongeunchchu technique, which made the body heavy as lead.
Though it was an art practiced by professional assassins trained in night raids and ambushes, Muk Yeojin executed it as naturally as breathing.
He infiltrated without difficulty and began to move slowly through the compound.
‘The security here is far stricter than at any ordinary money house.’
The skill level of the guards on patrol far exceeded that of ordinary hired martial artists.
‘There’s definitely something they’re hiding.’
Muk Yeojin moved through the Dongrim Money House like a ghost, evading their watch.
But he was neither spirit nor phantom—it was impossible to avoid the eyes of so many armed men entirely.
“Who—gah!”
Thwack!
Thud.
Before the guard’s cry could fully leave his lips, Muk Yeojin struck the Hunhyul point and rendered him unconscious.
Though he was spotted by half a dozen more guards afterward, he subdued them all in moments and quietly stashed them away in the shadows.
‘Time is running short.’
He had to examine all the key areas of the compound—including the money house master’s office—before the unconscious men came to.
Moving more swiftly, Muk Yeojin managed to survey most of the significant locations before the hour of Chushi drew to a close.
‘I can’t linger any longer.’
He slipped out of the compound.
Though he’d gathered some intelligence, the information from the Dongrim Money House alone wasn’t enough to draw firm conclusions.
‘As I thought… I’ll need to see what intelligence Cheon and Yang bring back before I can identify their weak point.’
With that thought in order, Muk Yeojin turned his feet toward the meeting place.
After leaving Geomgang District, he moved without rest, deploying the Sinbeop technique.
He cut through forest paths and crested mountain ridges.
At last he reached the designated spot—a nameless temple hidden deep in the mountains.
Yang Hui and Cheon Hwarin were already there.
But Yang Hui’s face had turned ashen.
‘Looks like he’s been tormented again.’
Muk Yeojin approached the two with a faint, wry smile.
“Thank you both for your efforts. Now, shall we share what each of us has learned?”
The three laid out everything they had seen and heard without reservation.
Cheon Hwarin, naturally—but Yang Hui too had brought back surprisingly useful information.
And as a result,
the three discovered a shocking truth.

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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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