The Introverted Heavenly Demon - Chapter 70

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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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The Introverted Heavenly Demon Episode 070
A Woman of Mysterious Charm
I had no desire to eavesdrop on the conversation between two strangers meeting for the first time.
My own troubles loomed so large that I had neither the time nor the inclination to concern myself with the affairs of others.
Yet the Tavern was remarkably quiet, and their table sat directly beside mine, so their voices reached my ears whether I willed it or not.
“This will be the last time we meet.”
“I understand. From this day forward, I, Jwa Mak Dong, shall trouble Miss Jin no longer. I ask only for this final opportunity.”
At first, it seemed as though the woman was attempting to end a romantic entanglement, but as their exchange progressed, I realized the situation was far more complex.
“As for this Jwa, I have never tasted defeat in combat throughout Maehwa Village. My father operates the largest textile merchant house in the region, so our family lacks for nothing in standing or influence.”
“And what of it?”
“Perhaps Miss Jin has heard unfavorable rumors concerning me….”
“It is not a matter of rumors. How many times must I tell you that I have no interest in you?”
“….”
“You had people follow me, appearing wherever I went, making unwanted advances. Such behavior is unbecoming of a man and ill-suited to winning a woman’s heart. Do you not feel ashamed?”
“….”
From what I gathered, this man Jwa Mak Dong had harbored an unrequited affection for the woman for quite some time.
Pressed by his relentless persistence, she had apparently granted him this final conversation.
Yet even now, he continued his one-sided advances while she remained coldly dismissive throughout.
With each rejection, his face flushed crimson, and I could sense him struggling to contain his mounting anger.
It seemed as though something unfortunate might yet occur.
‘This is none of my concern. Where in the world are those Lower Five Gate people?’
Time continued to slip away, and the members of the Lower Five Gate I was meant to meet had yet to arrive.
My noodles had grown cold, and the white rice wine I had ordered as cover for my presence sat untouched upon the table.
The quarrel between the two had begun to subside, and for some time now, little more passed between them.
Yet at some moment, the man broke the prolonged silence with a voice that carried the weight of firm resolve.
“Very well, Miss Jin. Let us do this.”
“Do what now?”
The man withdrew a small bottle of wine from within his robes and placed it before the woman.
“This is ten-year-old Shaoxing wine—a spirit I have wished to share with you since the moment we first met.”
“….”
“Let us drink this together one final time, and then I shall release you from my heart entirely.”
As he poured the wine into a cup and offered it to her, the woman’s expression grew distinctly displeased.
“Can I trust your word on this?”
“Of course. I am not a man who speaks with two tongues.”
She studied his hardened features for a moment, then, as if resigned to her fate, lifted the cup.
Without hesitation, she drained it entirely and set the empty vessel back upon the table.
“You gave me your word? That you will never appear before me again?”
“I swear it.”
At last their conversation concluded, and the woman rose without ceremony, moving past the table.
Yet in that very instant, something extraordinary occurred.
The woman who had been walking toward the tavern’s entrance stumbled after just a few steps, her frail frame swaying before she collapsed with a faint groan.
What unfolded next was far more grave.
“Bring her inside.”
Jwa Mak Dong glanced down at the collapsed woman before gesturing toward the tavern entrance.
Two men who appeared to be his servants then strode in, seized one of the woman’s arms to lift her up, and carried her straight back out of the tavern.
Every patron in the tavern—even the servers carrying plates of food and drink—wore expressions of utter bewilderment at this spectacle.
“What are you all gawking at? Mind your own business and get back to work!”
But when Jwa Mak Dong bellowed this command in a thunderous voice, not a soul dared to object.
It was absurd.
Even for a ruffian with no regard for propriety, to drug a woman and drag her away in broad daylight in the middle of a tavern was extraordinary.
Moreover, the fact that he had his servants prepared beforehand suggested this had been meticulously planned.
I could scarcely believe such a thing was happening before my eyes.
I exhaled slowly and looked at the empty seat across from me.
My appointment with the Lower Five Gate… it seemed I would not be able to keep it.
“Young scholar, where are you going?”
I placed a few coins on the table for my meal and was about to follow the men who had just left the tavern when a middle-aged guest sitting alone near the entrance stopped me.
“I understand your youthful passion, but do not invite trouble through misguided righteousness. Jwa Mak Dong is a notorious ruffian in these parts. And that woman…”
“…”
“From her features, she bears the mark of peach blossom fate—destined to suffer misfortune through men, whether she wills it or not. Your intervention will change nothing.”
Perhaps the middle-aged man’s words held truth.
I knew that some things in this world are beyond one’s control, and in this harsh and unjust world, such things occur with particular frequency.
Besides, I did not even know who that woman was.
She could well be an even greater villain than the man.
It was almost certain that waiting here for someone from the Lower Five Gate was the more important matter for me.
“Perhaps. That remains to be seen.”
Yet turning a blind eye to wickedness unfolding before me, blaming a cruel world, was not my way.
I had no intention of justifying it with talk of destiny.
Even if I were to suffer loss as a result.
To do what I believed was right, within the limits of my power—was this not a vow I made from the moment I opened my eyes in this world?
I left the tavern and began walking swiftly in the direction Jwa Mak Dong had gone.

* * *
The Woman who had lost consciousness was supported between them, and their pace was unhurried.
I followed at a distance behind Jwa Mak Dong and his two servants.
The moment we left the street where the Tavern stood, a Martial Artist appeared from nowhere and walked alongside Jwa Mak Dong as his escort.
He appeared to be the Escort Martial Artist that Jwa Mak Dong typically kept with him.
Judging by the aura I sensed, Jwa Mak Dong seemed to be at best a third-rate martial artist in his later stages, while the Martial Artist who appeared later appeared to be around second-rate in his middle stages.
I regretted not carrying the Heavenly Demon Slaying Sword to maintain my appearance as a scholar, but given my martial prowess, it would hardly matter.
Not long after the group entered a sparsely populated Alley, Jwa Mak Dong came to an abrupt halt.
He turned around to face me, scrutinizing my appearance carefully before speaking.
“I wondered who had been following me since the Tavern, and it turns out to be some wet-behind-the-ears Little One.”
I had deliberately not hidden my presence and followed him from the start, so he was only now realizing I was there.
Jwa Mak Dong approached me with a sinister smile, taking a step forward.
“Did you also develop romantic feelings upon seeing Miss Jin? Did you wish to compete with me for her?”
At Jwa Mak Dong’s words, not only the Martial Artist but the servants burst into laughter.
I suppressed the tension rising in my chest and approached them.
“I have no interest in Miss Jin or anything else. I simply cannot bear to witness your shameless conduct with open eyes.”
“Ha! So you’re a scholar who can read a few characters? You dare call it shameless for a man to make effort to win a woman’s heart?”
“What you are doing is nothing more nor less than defiling a woman’s virtue.”
“Now I see you’re a madman. Very well, if you find it unbearable, what will you do about it?”
I glanced at the Woman and felt her struggling to open her drowsy eyes, looking toward me.
Due to the intoxication, she appeared unable to control her body, but it seemed her life was not in immediate danger.
“Release the Woman and disappear. Then you may walk away on two legs unharmed.”
They listened to my words with sneering expressions before bursting into raucous laughter.
“Puhahaha. Seung Dun! There’s no need to leave this to you. I shall handle it myself.”
Jwa Mak Dong ordered his Escort Martial Artist to step back, then walked forward and stood before me.
The distance between Jwa Mak Dong and me was barely three steps.
At this point, my tension actually subsided, and my mind became calm.
I had known from the moment I decided to follow them that this could not be resolved through conversation.
“You reckless Little One!”
Jwa Mak Dong’s burly frame surged forward, his back leg extending sharply as he swung his fist at me with brutal force.
True to his nature as a thug who wielded considerable strength in the Back Alley, the attack carried a formidable momentum.
‘How slow.’
Even before considering the disparity in martial skill, such a transparent attack could never land on me.
I simply stepped back half a pace and easily deflected Jwa Mak Dong’s fist.
The moment I confirmed his stance and aura crumbled, I swept my right arm.
There was no need to draw upon my inner energy, nor any need to employ martial techniques.
With a light strike of my hand blade to the back of his neck, Jwa Mak Dong screamed and tumbled forward, his head crashing into the ground.
“…!”
Nothing but a brief scream echoed through the Alley.
The eyes of the two servants widened like lanterns as they beheld Jwa Mak Dong sprawled motionless on the ground.
However, the Escort Martial Artist called Seung Dun was clearly no mere recipient of unearned wages. His eyes had grown sharp and lethal, quite unlike before, as he approached me and slowly opened his mouth.
“I see now that you have cultivated martial arts to a considerable degree. What is your name?”
“….”
Of course, I had no intention whatsoever of revealing my identity or name to such a creature.
When I offered no response, Seung Dun likewise fell silent.
He simply drew the sword at his waist and leveled it toward me.
Whoosh!!
Seung Dun’s blade came thrusting forward with considerable speed, infused with genuine inner power.
Yet with the practical experience I had accumulated and the insights I had gained into combat itself, I could read his stance alone and envision precisely what attack he would launch and how I should counter it.
I swiftly rotated my body clockwise, allowing the blade’s tip to slip past me.
‘It is presumptuous of him to draw a weapon, certainly….’
Considering the gap between us, there was scarcely any need to exert myself.
As I evaded the tip of his sword, I drew upon only about five stars of power from the Hyeon Ma Nae Hyang Sim Gong and delivered a light strike to Seung Dun’s jaw with my right fist.
I had intended merely to make him understand the disparity in strength and render him unconscious enough to end this affair.
Surely that was my intention….
Crack!!
‘What…?’
The crisp sound of bone shattering echoed out, and Seung Dun’s body flew backward.
The sword he held clattered to the ground with a metallic ring.
I gazed down at Seung Dun with a sense of bewilderment.
‘Did I use too much force?’
His jawbone was completely shattered, and he lay sprawled out limply, his body trembling once before falling still.
He did not appear to be dead, but it was certain he would be unable to swallow food through his own mouth for months to come.
‘I should have used only three stars.’
I shook my head at my own excessive restraint and slowly turned my body, casting a sharp glance toward Jwa Mak Dong’s servants.
“Eek!”
Having witnessed their trusted master and escort martial artist fall in an instant, the servants—untrained in martial arts—had nothing they could do.
“Take him and disappear at once.”
Before my words had even finished, the servants carefully lowered the woman to the ground, then hoisted the unconscious Jwa Mak Dong between them and fled with the speed of an arrow.
I watched their figures depart, and once they had vanished from sight, I approached the fallen woman.
“Mm.”
The woman lay with her eyes closed and her brow furrowed, a strained moan escaping between her crimson lips.

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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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