The World’s Greatest Martial Arts Instructor - Chapter 489
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————
Chapter 489. Wh-What, What is it?
As Ha Mu-baek’s figure disappeared into the inn, the thugs began moving again.
As if they had never been scared and pretended otherwise, they started intimidating the people around them.
All of their actions were felt by Ha Mu-baek’s ki sense as he ate his slightly late lunch.
The thug bastards were acting up even more than before.
They picked fights with anyone who even glanced at Sohaeng Inn.
They acted even more viciously toward passersby who had seen them cower in fear at Ha Mu-baek’s appearance.
As if claiming they were such fearsome people.
To Ha Mu-baek, it looked like scared mutts who could only bark loudly.
Even if they were just scared mutts, they were so diligently disrupting business that there could be no customers.
“Tsk.”
Ha Mu-baek clicked his tongue once more.
Still, the fried chicken was delicious too.
‘Well, they said it’s better if I don’t get involved.’
If it were up to him, he would have liked to break at least one limb of those thug bastards.
After finishing his meal, Ha Mu-baek went up to his room.
When had they cleaned it?
It was neatly cleaned, and even the bedding had been freshly washed.
‘Her hands must be very cold…’
Worry appeared on Ha Mu-baek’s face as he imagined Gong Hae-bin doing laundry.
He could have helped with that much out of goodwill, but the reason he didn’t was simple.
In case the children might ask for help after seeing his martial arts.
In case the children would be disappointed when he refused.
He had refrained from showing his martial arts from the beginning out of concern.
Giving hope and then taking it away would make the other party extremely miserable.
It was better not to know at all.
‘I also said I’d be leaving soon. That guy Mu-heun seemed like he’d come up with some plan too.’
Ha Mu-baek sat cross-legged on the bed.
When he met Dam Mu-heun and conversed while thinking of his late father and mother, something had been different.
Unlike before, killing intent toward the Demon Cult and Blood Cult didn’t surge up.
So he was contemplating his inner self.
To find out what kind of change had occurred in the evil spirit within him.
Though he wondered if there could be any change when he had only recently faced this evil spirit, there had definitely been a meaningful reaction.
Ha Mu-baek sank deep into his inner self.
And he faced the evil spirit he had encountered again.
Master had said it was nothing, but to Ha Mu-baek it wasn’t so.
Still, Master’s words telling him to rest had been right.
Finding Sohaeng Inn had been fortunate, and there had been changes while resting here.
There, an evil spirit was crouched.
The very evil spirit that had burst into maniacal laughter and raised its head when killing the last remnants of the Blood Cult.
Now it was hanging its head and embracing its own body.
So he couldn’t confirm its appearance.
When it burst into maniacal laughter, it had taken the form of himself drenched in blood while cutting down the Blood Cult and Demon Cult.
“You are my past self. The me who was mad with revenge, mad with blood. That’s why I cannot eliminate you. Eliminating you would mean eliminating myself. I cannot know the consequences of that either.”
Ha Mu-baek stood before the evil spirit and murmured.
Deep within his inner self, his own mental world.
It wasn’t that there was no way to eliminate this being that had revealed itself here.
There hadn’t been before, but there definitely was now.
The Ten Absolute Mugeuk he had obtained from Mugeuk Investigator.
It could be deployed even in the mental world, and with that power, he could easily eliminate such a heart demon’s evil spirit.
However, that wasn’t a fundamental solution to the problem.
Even if he annihilated the evil spirit that way, he didn’t know when or what trigger might make it raise its head again.
Or perhaps when eliminating the evil spirit, Ha Mu-baek’s own ego might also be annihilated.
Setting aside all such problems, he didn’t want to solve it by simply annihilating it.
Since it was a being created by the bloody path Ha Mu-baek had walked, it was ultimately his own responsibility.
He didn’t want to turn away from his responsibility in such a manner.
Ha Mu-baek gazed quietly at the crouched evil spirit.
“You must have had a hard time too. No, I had a hard time too.”
Leaving those words, Ha Mu-baek turned his back.
As he walked step by step to escape from the mental image world he had created, from his inner self.
The crouched evil spirit slightly raised its head to look at Ha Mu-baek’s back.
Its long bangs hanging down covered its face, and only dim eyes were directed toward Ha Mu-baek.
***
“It’s finished! Damn it!”
Dam Mu-heun shot up from his desk and shouted loudly.
Loud enough to echo throughout the entire Hocheon Corps building.
“That’s great, Vice-Dan-ju.”
A corps member passing by Dam Mu-heun’s office shouted back.
Dam Mu-heun burst open the door and went out.
“Those who finished work today and are off duty! Among them, those who have nothing to do and are bored! Gather!”
Dam Mu-heun grinned, pulling up the corners of his mouth as he shouted.
“What? What’s going on?”
“What, is there something fun happening?”
One by one, they slowly gathered.
Dam Mu-heun looked at them and shouted.
“Company dinner!”
“Ooh!!”
About ten people rejoiced at that shout.
The rest either went their own way with indifferent faces or did their own work.
Dam Mu-heun looked around at the gathered members.
“Is this everyone?”
“It seems so.”
He waited a bit longer, but no one else joined.
“Good. Then let’s go!”
Dam Mu-heun took the lead.
The ten people who liked drinking and having fun followed behind him.
“Do you have a new place you found?”
“Are you paying, Vice-Dan-ju?”
“Didn’t the company dinner budget run out?”
All sorts of questions flew at him.
Those questions were full of anticipation.
In fact, the trip to Sanwol Demon Forest had been a difficult task for them too.
They had been extremely tense and witnessed the tremendous battles of monsters.
The mental and physical energy consumed in that process was enormous.
After returning, they were driven into the paperwork that followed.
So.
From the time they departed for Sanwol Demon Forest until now, there had been no gatherings that could be called company dinners.
So these people were looking forward to it like this.
“It would be better to just rest…”
Someone muttered while watching their comrades.
That was understandable, since the former Dan-ju Ha Mu-baek was called a monster, making the vice Dan-ju seem ordinary, but.
“That guy is actually a monster too.”
If they drank and partied with him, the aftereffects the next day would be tremendous.
The one muttering like this had already experienced it once.
After that, he never participated in company dinners led by Dam Mu-heun.
It was incredibly fun.
But the consequences he had to take responsibility for were too great.
Especially if there was a shift guarding the Alliance Leader.
Just imagining it was terrible.
“There are at least three guys who have to guard the Alliance Leader tomorrow. Tsk tsk.”
Clicking his tongue, he hurriedly headed to the official residence.
He too had to guard the Alliance Leader tomorrow.
Thinking he should rest when he could, he lay down on his bed.
Twilight had already fallen around him.
Since they were that hungry too, the unit members following Dam Mu-heun licked their lips.
The places Dam Mu-heun took them to were always delicious.
Wasn’t Dam Mu-heun the one who knew all the delicious inns, taverns, restaurants, and eateries in Luoyang?
That Dam Mu-heun left the main gate of Jeongcheon Alliance and moved toward the west main road.
“Huh?”
“That direction?”
They forcibly swallowed the words ‘There are no delicious places there…’
The vice Dan-ju knew better than they did.
All the delicious places were clustered in the south of Jeongcheon Alliance.
Yet he deliberately headed to the west main road, and even entered the back roads behind the main road.
It was a place with a poor location even in Luoyang.
Though not far from Jeongcheon Alliance, it was strangely a place with a poor location.
Dam Mu-heun looked around.
Quite a few people were coming and going.
Even though it wasn’t a place without foot traffic, strangely the establishments located here didn’t do very good business compared to other streets in Luoyang.
However, when Jeonga Trading Company offered to buy at market price, everyone sold.
He thought it might be a good location to build an estate.
Since it was a location where business wouldn’t do well anyway.
“Vice Dan-ju.”
Just as someone couldn’t stand it anymore and was about to say something.
An inn’s signboard caught their eye.
The unit members all saw it, and at the same time saw the thugs around the area.
They were desperately averting their gazes and pretending not to notice.
That was because when eleven martial artists poured out moving together, they didn’t have the courage to block their path.
The only martial artists who moved around in groups like that in Luoyang were from Jeongcheon Alliance.
So they pretended not to notice even more desperately.
However, they couldn’t escape the eyes of Hotian Dan.
The unit members had noticed what they were doing.
[Should we clean them up?]
One unit member asked Dam Mu-heun through voice transmission.
[Never mind. Just leave them be.]
[Even so, doing such dirty business not far from the alliance…]
A Hocheondan member answered with a frown.
[Don’t worry about such trash, just think about eating until your stomach bursts today. I caught a big spender.]
Grinning as he headed to Sohaeng Inn, a little child about ten years old came running out.
“Welcome! Every single dish at our inn is delicious! Please come in and try them!”
Gong Hae-jun shouted with a happy face.
The direction they were heading was clearly toward their inn, but he ran out and shouted just in case.
He was just about to go out to the main road to attract customers anyway.
And so many customers appeared.
“Come on, let’s go in.”
Dam Mu-heun looked back and was the first to cross the threshold.
His eyes met Ha Mu-baek’s, who was sitting at a table eating stir-fried pork.
Dam Mu-heun grinned.
[I’ll eat well, Dan-ju.]
Ha Mu-baek frowned.
Because he seemed to understand the meaning contained in those words.
‘Is he telling me to pay?’
Ha Mu-baek clicked his tongue inwardly and nodded slightly.
Since he was the one who made him come here, he would take responsibility for it.
The Hocheondan members following Dam Mu-heun were startled when they discovered Ha Mu-baek.
As if they never expected Ha Mu-baek to be here.
[Pretend you don’t know and come over here. Don’t do things like greetings.]
Dam Mu-heun’s voice transmission rang in all ten members’ ears.
The unit members glanced at Ha Mu-baek as they headed to where Dam Mu-heun sat.
Gong Hae-jun and Gong Hae-bin were already struggling to push tables together.
The unit members sat down awkwardly.
It wasn’t just because Ha Mu-baek was the former Dan-ju.
They kept glancing at the tremendous divine power he had shown in Sanwol Demon Forest.
Meanwhile, Dam Mu-heun was really ordering alcohol and food to his heart’s content.
Gong Hae-jun alone couldn’t take all those orders, so Gong Hae-bin came out too.
The kitchen moved noisily and busily.
“What?”
Jeon Dok-woo was startled by the news that suddenly reached him.
“Eleven people entered that damn place? Damn it. What the hell did Dae-bong do!”
Dae-bong was the leader of the thugs surrounding Sohaeng Inn.
Among themselves they claimed to be a dark sect called Sibu Faction, but they were just third-rate thug ruffians.
“They say they’re martial artists from Jeongcheon Alliance…”
“Jeongcheon Alliance? Martial artists? Why would they be there?”
Jeon Dok-woo asked as if he couldn’t understand.
Jeongcheon Alliance martial artists moved along the south and east main roads.
There were quite a few Jeonga Trading Company businesses in those two places too.
“No, I need to go see for myself.”
He had used connections in the government office and thought it was finally over, but suddenly martial artists were gathering at Sohaeng Inn.
If martial artists kept gathering at Sohaeng Inn, everything would be back to square one.
To prevent that, he needed to know the situation accurately.
Jeon Dok-woo hurriedly moved to Sohaeng Inn and opened the door to enter.
In his eyes, eleven martial artists were eating and drinking in good spirits.
They looked extremely pleased, seemingly satisfied with the alcohol and food.
No matter how much of a Jeon Dok-woo he was, he couldn’t dare intrude on that place.
That was because the martial uniforms they wore were simple black martial uniforms.
There were no letters or markers indicating affiliation anywhere on them.
Jeon Dok-woo knew some of those people, and they were all terrifyingly fearsome individuals.
So he could only watch with an anxious expression, not stepping forward or causing a scene.
“That bastard is….”
His gaze moved, and Ha Mu-baek, who was dining alone and drinking by himself, caught his eye.
That bastard was the problem.
Ever since that bastard started staying here, he had been getting the feeling that things were going wrong somehow.
Gong Yeop-myeong personally brought out the plate with the last dish.
“Hm?”
It was only natural that Jeon Dok-woo caught his eye.
After setting the plate down on Dam Mu-heun’s dining table, Gong Yeop-myeong headed toward Jeon Dok-woo.
As they say, strike while the iron is hot—it seemed better to speak quickly when he had made up his mind.
Thanks to the customers eating so enthusiastically right now, his resolve had almost wavered.
“Wh-what, what is it?”
Jeon Dok-woo stammered at the sight of Gong Yeop-myeong suddenly approaching him.
That was because he got the feeling that Gong Yeop-myeong was moving as if he had those fearsome martial artists backing him.
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————