Ten Paths of the Master - Chapter 108

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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 108. Don’t Do Something You’ll Regret
Pae Gang, a man with a harsh face and a native of Hadongdo known as the Evil God, had disliked the youth who resembled a pleasure house attendant from the very beginning.
It wasn’t just his appearance—his actions grated even more.
Baekrang, Hyeoljeop, Gwido, and Miho were rising masters fairly well known in the Ruffian Society, and he had marked them as targets.
On the way to the Baekwol Kingdom, he’d hoped to build connections with them and perhaps form a pact, but the whole plan fell apart because of some unknown kid.
As he stewed in frustration with no one to confide in, the sight of the boy set his body moving on its own.
When he impulsively pushed in front of him, the youth spoke in a sharp tone.
“What do you want?”
In that moment, Pae Gang felt grateful to heaven and earth.
He’d worried the youth might cower and stay silent, but the bait had been swallowed whole.
“Can’t you see? We’re standing in line.”
At this barbed exchange, Ja Yun, Chae Wun, Won Beom, and Seo Hwa turned to look.
A flicker of tension crossed the eyes of all four.
This was Pae Gang, the man known as the Evil God of Hadongdo.
The four were concerned for Dan Yeop, but they did not intervene.
The ronin world had its own basic rules.
The cardinal rule was: “You must clean up your own mess.”
If Pae Gang’s gang had been bullying Dan Yeop en masse, that would be different—but involving themselves in a one-on-one affair seemed excessive when they weren’t even family.
Moreover, doing so might plant the false impression among other ronins that Dan Yeop was weak.
The four didn’t all think alike, however.
Rather, Ja Yun saw this as a perfect opportunity to assess Dan Yeop’s Martial Prowess as a fellow gang member.
He hoped, as the others did, that Dan Yeop had reached some respectable level.
Otherwise, there’d be no point in forming a group at all.
But objectively speaking, Dan Yeop was no match for Pae Gang.
Unknown as he was, his frame was barely half the size of Pae Gang’s.
Just as Ja Yun thought, “Perhaps he’ll dodge after all,” Dan Yeop’s lips parted.
“Are you blind? Or is your nose so keen you’re picking up food scent like a dog, that your eyes have rolled back and you can’t see a thing? The way you behave, is that not exactly why people call ronins dogs?”
Common folk did indeed often compare ronins to dogs.
They growled and bared their teeth at the slightest eye contact.
Stung by so crude a rebuke, Pae Gang’s eyes twitched for an instant.
Then came a rush of blood rising backward, and the thread of reason snapped with a sharp crack.
“You just called me a dog, you bastard? You fucking piece of shit!”
With a curse, Pae Gang’s fist flew toward Dan Yeop’s face.
Dan Yeop caught Pae Gang’s incoming fist with his left hand and drew it gently toward himself.
Pae Gang’s upper body lost its balance and folded forward.
In that instant, Dan Yeop’s left hand whipped out like lightning.
Crack!
With a sharp slap, Pae Gang’s body flew sideways.
It all happened in the blink of an eye.
For a moment, silence fell over the surroundings.
The line had grown shorter, and at last it was Dan Yeop’s turn.
Receiving the food tray that Suk Su handed him, Dan Yeop found a suitable spot, crouched down, and began to eat.
Just as Dan Yeop finished his meal, Pae Gang, who had come to late, rushed at him like a wild boar and bellowed.
“I’ll kill you! You fucking bastard!”
His contorted face and gleaming eyes lived up to his nickname—the Evil God.
But with a wet thud, Pae Gang’s body collapsed on the spot.
Ja Yun, who had been watching Dan Yeop intently all this while, tilted his head in puzzlement.
He’d expected the two to fight with some refined technique, but that wasn’t what he was seeing.
Like a fool, Pae Gang kept bringing his own face to meet Dan Yeop’s hands.
Of course he was getting beaten.
Unable to bear it, Ja Yun found himself muttering without thinking.
“Pae Gang has lost his mind.”
Chae Wun agreed with his assessment.
“Right? It looks like he’s offering his face up to be hit.”
The strange bout between Dan Yeop and Pae Gang ended there.
After finishing their meal, Yi Jin the innkeeper and the manor guards moved out again after a brief rest.
Yang Hak, Pae Gang’s associate, shook the unconscious Pae Gang awake.
“Ugh! You goddamn bastard… huh?”
Pae Gang scrambled to his feet and asked with an embarrassed expression.
“What happened?”
“My brother rushed at that bastard and got knocked out cold.”
“What the hell—that doesn’t even make sense.”
Pae Gang couldn’t believe he’d been knocked unconscious twice.
And by someone who looked too frail to wring a chicken’s neck?
Yang Hak spoke as if he couldn’t fathom it either.
“Brother, what exactly were you doing?”
“Doing what?”
“Why were you doing something so stupid?”
“What did you say? You little—”
Yang Hak cut him off.
“You’re not even fighting back, just throwing your face at his fists over and over. Everyone’s saying you look like an idiot.”
“I did that?”
“You think you passed out twice on your own? Brother, you’re not that weak. You know you’re not.”
“Did I fall for Sorcery or something?”
“That bastard didn’t have time to cast anything. Everyone was watching. What are you talking about? Look, if you’re going to keep offering your face like that, don’t pick a fight. It’s embarrassing just watching.”
“Come on, think about it logically. I’m not crazy. Why would I push my own face into his fists?”
“That’s exactly what you did. We’re going to be late. I’m heading out now.”
Yang Hak quickly mounted his horse and followed the ruffians ahead.
“Damn it, I need to figure out what’s happening so I can do something about it.”
Pae Gang, muttering under his breath, hurried to catch up with the gang.
The vanguard, pushing hard without rest, came to a halt at the mountain foot.
Soon after, the inn’s escort warriors called out “Rest!” as they moved among the ruffians.
When Dan Yeop dismounted, Won Beom approached him.
“Dan, how did you manage that?”
“Manage what?”
“You knocked down Pae Gang twice—they call him the Evil God.”
“He has a reputation too?”
“Pae Gang’s face is a weapon. He looks like even the bandits of Nokrim would back down from him.”
At Won Beom’s joke, Seo Hwa, who’d been listening, burst out laughing.
Dan Yeop shrugged in reply.
“Is that so? He kept shoving his face at me, so I just swatted it away.”
“Hahahaha!”
Finally, Seo Hwa doubled over with laughter.
Chae Wun arrived a moment later and looked at Seo Hwa and Dan Yeop with a puzzled expression.
“Seo Hwa, what’s so funny? Let me laugh too. I haven’t had much to laugh about lately.”
“Well, Won told this one here Pae Gang’s nickname—’his face is a weapon’—and the youngest just said, ‘Oh, so that’s why Pae Gang kept shoving his face at me.’ How could anyone not laugh?”
At that, Chae Wun, who’d been smiling, asked Dan Yeop a question.
“Little brother, did Pae Gang really knock himself out by pushing his face at you?”
“Yes.”
“Is that right? I’d never seen Pae Gang fight before, and something did seem off about it.”
“Sister, I think Pae Gang’s reputation is a bit exaggerated.”
“I’d say so. If he passes out twice without landing a single blow against our youngest, it’s definitely blown out of proportion.”
Dan Yeop tied his horse to a branch and moved into the shade of the trees.
After days of grueling patrols and fights with the masters of Cheonryeon, this brief respite felt like he’d finally earned a furlough.
Then the noise around him suddenly stopped.
Pae Gang was stomping toward Dan Yeop.
Dan Yeop, resting with his back against a tree, lifted his head.
Pae Gang looked down at Dan Yeop and spoke.
“Get up.”
“Why?”
“I’ll admit I was knocked out twice today. I want to fight you properly.”
“Pae Gang.”
“What?”
“If I go all out, you could be badly hurt. Your real opponent isn’t me—it’s Naphae Gate, isn’t it?”
…….
Pae Gang stared at Dan Yeop, as if trying to see through him.
In that moment, Pae Gang felt himself shrinking back.
‘What the hell?’
He, who went by the name of the Evil God, was being intimidated by a boy?
It was every bit as incomprehensible as being knocked out twice.
In that instant, wounded pride seized him, and he convulsively grasped the hilt of the Daedo.
Just as he was about to draw the blade, a firm voice transmitted directly into his ear.
―Don’t do something you’ll regret.
At the same moment, a strange force constricted his entire body.
Pae Gang summoned his inner power to resist the bizarre sensation.
He exerted himself so strenuously that his hand gripping the Daedo began to tremble uncontrollably.
Then, catching sight of Dan Yeop, Pae Gang flinched in shock.
Unlike himself, Dan Yeop appeared utterly composed.
……
Belatedly, a thought flickered through his mind: something was terribly wrong.
Jealousy had blinded him; he’d never stopped to look beyond it.
Dan Yeop was too ordinary, resembling a scholar more than a ruffian.
Nohwa Sunchung? Or perhaps Banbaek Guijin—he couldn’t even be certain.
Excitement and dread quickened Pae Gang’s breathing.
“Haah! Haah! Haah!”
As Pae Gang’s breathing grew increasingly ragged, the honor guard of the station called out from a distance.
“Furlough over! Departure!”
In that moment, Dan Yeop withdrew the intent he’d been projecting toward Pae Gang.
Pae Gang’s shoulders, which had been braced with tension, collapsed inward in an instant.
Shortly after, Pae Gang released his grip on the great blade’s hilt and turned quietly away.
Dan Yeop also rose and untied the horse he’d secured.
The ruffians who had gathered to watch the confrontation scattered in all directions.
Yang Hak strode quickly after the departing Pae Gang and spoke.
“Well restrained, brother. The bastard was so terrified he couldn’t even get up. If we kill him before the job’s done, we won’t get paid and we’ll be driven out. We can kill him later in Jang An Fortress after the work is finished. A gentleman’s revenge—”
“Shut up and find out who that man is.”
“Dan Yeop?”
“Right—how can someone like that be Unknown? It doesn’t make sense.”
“Why not? When you started to draw, he froze in terror. He probably pissed himself.”
“Fool. It was—”
Pae Gang began to say, “I nearly pissed myself,” but stopped.
The front of his trousers felt damp.
‘Damn it, surely not… No, it couldn’t be.’
He mounted his horse, leaving the bewildered Yang Hak behind.
Yang Hak quickly followed on horseback, catching up close behind Pae Gang.
“Brother! What do you mean, pissed himself?”
“Shut your mouth, you bastard!”
Na Bugang, riding at the vanguard alongside Commander Shin Woo, glanced back.
It was not difficult to spot Dan Yeop among the ruffians.
Amid the ragged throng of ronin, he alone stood luminous.
The day he’d sworn sworn-brotherhood with Dan Yeop felt like a distant memory.
He’d cast him out for the sake of Haowen, and now he found himself forced to rely on him.
Had heaven punished him for his broken faith?
Self-recrimination gnawed at Na Bugang as he clenched his teeth and stared straight ahead.
After rescuing his father and restoring the Crown Prince’s honor, he would mend his bond with Dan Yeop again—
But here, at the end, he had no faith in it.
Dan Yeop had made his position unmistakably clear on more than one occasion.
“Haah!”
At last, a heavy sigh escaped his lips.
What did Haowen matter, anyway?
Looking back now, it seemed like nothing at all—yet then, why had he fretted over it as though the sky were falling? It was as if something had possessed him.
“Damn it all!”
Na Bugang, the Crown Prince of Jinbosangbang, who had lived his life shunning profanity, let out a sudden curse without thinking.
Commander Shin Woo, who had been riding alongside Na Bugang and Na Geumryeong at the head of the investigation team, glanced back at him.
The eyes with which Commander Shin Woo regarded Na Bugang were cold and severe.

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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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