The Evil Martial God Chronicles - Chapter 102

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Legend of the Evil Martial God

Chapter 102

 

 

 

Ye Yahyeon, who had suddenly been struck on the back of his head, groaned in pain while frantically rubbing his head.

 

“Are you going to go around making others uncomfortable with that frown on your face?”

“But I’m in a bad mood, so what am I supposed to do?”

“What? Are you talking back to me right now?”

“Ah, no, that’s not what I meant.”

 

When Jeok Wigang glared at him, Ye Yahyeon immediately relaxed his expression and bowed his head – the strongest Commander in history.

The other Golden Guards and Secretary who witnessed this were shocked.

A newly appointed seventh-rank Compiler was treating a third-rank Commander roughly, and the Commander was accepting it as natural.

 

“Hey, what are you looking at? Bow your heads.”

“Yes!”

 

When Ye Yahyeon spoke quietly with a frightening gaze, the two people quickly bowed their heads deeply.

The Golden Guard accompanying Ye Yahyeon was not of low rank either.

He was a fourth-rank Jin Musa.

Originally, such a high rank wouldn’t go on missions like this, but since he was following the head of the Golden Guards, he had stepped forward to assist him.

At first, he had been disrespectful to Jeok Wigang out of ignorance, but after nearly dying at Ye Yahyeon’s hands, he absolutely refused to speak to him.

Here, only one person had a lower rank than Jeok Wigang – the Secretary.

In fact, for a proper inspection, it shouldn’t be just this many people, but at least six, or properly dozens of people should go.

That’s how a proper inspection gets conducted.

But when such a small number of people went, it was often just a formality.

The military also knew this, so they didn’t get particularly upset about it.

Even when called an inspection, they wouldn’t actually go to the battlefield, and most of the time they would just stay in the barracks because it was dirty and smelly, then return.

Occasionally, when someone was overly enthusiastic and tried to conduct a real inspection, the people who came with them would stop them.

It was often the case that everyone agreed it was better to just smile and let it pass.

After all, they would only see each other briefly then, so how often would they meet the Generals in their lifetime?

So in reality, inspections had little meaning.

When the Hanlin Academy sent newcomers like now, the military would also appropriately give them an initiation and send them back.

Most Hanlin Academy Scholars who completed their initiation returned in a dazed state.

But Jeok Wigang seemed like he wouldn’t be like that.

This time, it felt like he would conduct a proper inspection that was neither formal nor an initiation.

An ominous feeling that he would have a big confrontation with the military kept creeping up.

Praying earnestly that they would just return safely, they headed toward Hyeonryong Castle, which was at the front lines.

 

 

 

Heukryong River’s Hyeonryong Castle.

It was a fortress that had to be crossed to enter the Central Plains.

Because it was such an important strategic point, enemy attacks continued endlessly, and as a result, the fortress’s durability had greatly deteriorated, with collapsed castle walls visible everywhere.

Even when they tried to reinforce the castle walls, the enemies wouldn’t give them time to reinforce, so they could only block them temporarily as a stopgap measure and couldn’t properly reinforce them.

Whenever they tried to reinforce, the enemies would take advantage of that gap to push in, so they couldn’t do it properly and always had to postpone it.

But even that had now reached its limit, and the leadership of Hyeonryong Castle, judging it too dangerous, planned to push the front lines back and proceed with castle wall reinforcement construction.

They used all their strength to push back the enemies and built wooden stakes at a place called Heuksu Camp, turning it into a battlefield.

They somehow succeeded in pushing the front lines back, but the problem was the budget.

A budget was needed to repair the fortress, but no matter how much they requested, there was no response.

It wasn’t just the fortress.

Military provisions, weapons, clothes, and all other necessary supplies were running out, but they couldn’t replenish them.

This was because supplies were not being properly provided.

Unhae Castle, located behind Hyeonryong Castle where the Governor was stationed, should have provided supplies on time. But they always used budget as an excuse to keep postponing, or when they did provide supplies, their condition was poor.

The military provisions smelled terrible from how old the grain they sent was, and the armor and weapons were also in serious condition, barely meeting the quantity requirements.

Each time they sent letters and even went directly to appeal, the response that came back was that there was no budget, so it couldn’t be helped.

Finally, unable to bear it any longer, the Hyeonryong Castle Lord went directly to the Minister of War to explain this situation.

The Minister of War, upon hearing this, became extremely angry and told him to go back, saying he would solve it himself, and seeing this, the Regional Commander thought the situation would improve and returned with a much lighter heart.

However, that was only temporary – the Unhae Castle Governor made a fuss, taking issue with the fact that he had bypassed him and reported directly to the Minister of War.

Along with a letter saying that if he ignored him one more time and met the Minister directly, he wouldn’t let it slide, he sent terrible supplies that were practically no different from waste.

His heart was crushed.

He had risked his life to defend the fortress to protect the country.

Even now, countless soldiers on the battlefield were sacrificing their lives to defend the border.

But the Hyeonryong Castle Lord pulled himself together.

If he collapsed here, it was obvious that this place would fall in an instant.

Because there were countless soldiers risking their lives to defend the country, he couldn’t easily give up.

But it was still hopeless.

Knowing that it would eventually collapse like this, he could only endure day by day while deliberately turning a blind eye.

When he was spending such difficult days, hope came to find him.

 

 

 

In Jeok Wigang’s eyes, Hyeonryong Castle could be seen in the distance.

 

“This is serious.”

 

The condition of the fortress was much more serious than what he had heard.

Through the collapsed outer walls visible everywhere, cracked earthen walls came into view.

Above the castle gate was messy with wooden patches stuck all over, and the watchtower above had its roof half blown away with all the tiles broken.

From a distance, it really looked like an abandoned fortress where no one lived.

Everyone was speechless at the miserable state of the fortress.

 

“If the condition is that bad, maybe the Castle Lord embezzled the budget?”

“We’ll know when we go and see.”

 

As they rode their horses toward the castle gate, the soldiers keeping watch from the watchtower shouted.

 

“Stop!”

 

When they stopped, another voice was heard.

 

“Who are you people!”

“We are inspectors who came out to investigate this place under imperial command! Tell your Castle Lord and open the gate immediately!”

 

At the mention of inspectors, the soldiers on the castle walls murmured among themselves.

 

“What do you mean by that? Why should we be inspected?”

“I’ll tell your Castle Lord everything in detail, so open the gate immediately.”

“We cannot carelessly open the gate, so please wait a moment!

 

I’ll bring the Castle Lord right away.”

 

A short while later.

 

Creak—.

 

With a heavy sound, the castle gate opened and a man of enormous build strode out.

 

“I am the Castle Lord of Hyeonryong Castle.”

“Nice to meet you. I am Jeok Wigang, who has come to inspect Hyeonryong Castle under His Majesty’s orders.”

“Did His Majesty truly order you to inspect this place?”

“Yes. From now on, I will inspect this place according to His Majesty’s command.”

“Show me the military tally.”

 

Jeok Wigang nodded and took out the military tally from his chest.

It was carved in the form of five dragons wrapping around clouds on a jade-colored plaque split in half.

When he placed it on a board made to fit the tally’s size, it filled half of it.

When the Castle Lord filled the other half with his tally.

 

Click—.

 

With a sound, the five dragons that had been split in half were completed in their whole form.

The Castle Lord then picked it up and examined it from various angles.

A precisely crafted military tally must not allow even a bit of light to pass through the seam.

After confirming it fit perfectly, he said.

 

“Please come in. You must have had a hard journey traveling so far.”

“Not at all.”

“Let’s go inside for now.”

 

Guided by the Castle Lord, when they entered inside, the castle’s interior was even more miserable.

The collapsed palace halls everywhere weren’t even properly repaired, and the people in the castle had gaunt faces as if they hadn’t eaten properly, with no vitality in their eyes.

 

“The budget hasn’t been distributed for several months, so the castle’s situation is like this. Still, the Minister of War said he would definitely support us this time and told us to wait with hope, and seeing that His Majesty has sent someone like this, it seems the budget has been distributed.”

 

The Castle Lord said with a bright smile.

 

“That’s right. The budget has been allocated. I’m just conducting an inspection before that.”

“Haha! Is that so? Please look around as much as you want.”

 

A bright smile appeared on the Castle Lord’s face.

 

“Now I can buy grain to feed the people and soldiers to their fill, replace various weapons, and repair the castle walls.”

 

Even though someone had come to inspect him, the Castle Lord seemed in a good mood and kept smiling happily.

Jeok Wigang had known from the moment he first saw him.

This person was absolutely not someone who would embezzle the budget.

He was a person with no evil aura at all.

And look at him even now.

Upon hearing that the budget had been distributed, the first things he worried about were grain for the people to eat and military rations for the soldiers.

This place didn’t seem to have any major problems.

Still, he had to do his job properly, so he planned to investigate thoroughly.

 

 

 

Jeok Wigang, who had examined all the account books.

 

“There are no problems at all.”

 

Thud—.

 

The Hyeonryong Castle Ministers were surprised seeing Jeok Wigang put down the last account book.

 

“You, you’ve already looked through all of that?”

“Yes.”

“Without looking carefully?”

“I looked carefully. The content written on page fifty of this book is: Third month, first day of the lunar calendar, two thousand seok of white rice received, fifteen hundred seok allocated for military rations, remaining five hundred seok stored in the relief rice warehouse.”

 

The ministers were startled and opened the account book to check.

It was accurate.

The ministers looked at Jeok Wigang as if they had seen a ghost.

This was different from commonly read classics.

With classics, you read and memorize them daily so you know where everything is, but account books are different.

They’re filled with messily recorded numbers and unfamiliar terms, and this was his first time opening them.

He had memorized it after just one look.

Maybe he only memorized that one part?

They were thinking this, but when Jeok Wigang recited what content was on which page of each book, they threw such thoughts far away.

A monster had come.

They weren’t scared or anxious though.

They had nothing to hide.

Even Jeok Wigang had acknowledged it, hadn’t he.

That there were no problems at all.

 

“It’s amazing that you’ve managed to hold on like this with such a budget. You must have suffered tremendously all this time.”

 

The ministers’ eyes reddened at Jeok Wigang’s words acknowledging their hardships.

 

“The people here were incredible talents.”

“Sob!”

 

Not only did the inspector acknowledge their hard work, but he also called them talents, so the ministers burst into tears as their accumulated sorrows exploded.

 

“Castle Lord, you’ve also worked hard.”

 

The Hyeonryong Castle Lord’s heart also swelled with emotion.

 

“Thank you.”

“I’ll end my gratitude here.”

 

 

 

The day after Jeok Wigang arrived at Hyeonryong Castle.

Ox carts loaded with military rations came rolling in one after another.

 

“Hahaha! How long has it been since we’ve seen grain like this!”

“Now the soldiers won’t have to go hungry anymore.”

“Send the military rations to the front lines immediately.”

“Understood!”

 

Just as the excited ministers were busily moving about to distribute the military rations and send them to the forward positions.

 

“Wait a moment.”

 

Suddenly Jeok Wigang stepped forward.

The fortress lord asked with a puzzled expression.

 

“Is there some problem?”

“There’s a smell coming from the grain.”

“What? What smell… Huh?”

 

They had been too excited to notice, but when they took a sniff, it was just as Jeok Wigang said.

 

“Q-quickly, tear it open.”

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