The World’s Greatest Martial Arts Instructor - Chapter 493

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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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Chapter 493. What Sophistry

 

 

Ha Mu-baek returned to Sohaeng Inn.

The first floor restaurant was bustling with noise.

He already knew through his ki sense who was there.

It was Hocheon Corps.

They were different people from those who had come last time.

Having heard stories from their comrades who had come and gone, those who were off duty this time had come and were eating and drinking merrily.

There wasn’t much alcohol left, so it seemed Eun Cheong-seon and Gong Hae-bin had hurriedly bought some.

When they spotted Ha Mu-baek, they only gave a small nod and pretended not to know him.

It seemed they had already heard.

Ha Mu-baek ordered and ate his last dinner at this place from a corner seat.

There was no alcohol today.

Was it because of what he had seen while observing Luoyang?

He didn’t feel like drinking.

Even drinking alcohol to cool his anger when fury rose seemed like a luxury.

He just silently focused on his meal.

Though they were people who had given up on their own lives and wished for others’ lives to be ruined as well.

He pondered why they had been driven to such extremes.

No answer came at all.

Ten people, ten colors.

Everyone has different natures and characteristics.

Someone would make desperate efforts even in hopeless situations.

Someone would just give up.

Someone could wish for not only themselves but the entire world to be ruined.

Each person could only live their own life in their own way.

The Demon Cult bastards had interfered in that.

They were secretly growing their power by touching the desires of people who wished for the entire world to be ruined.

While wearing the strange mask of the Sesegwaneum Cult.

While he was lost in thought and eating slowly, Hocheon Corps ate and drank even more merrily.

Since they were selling so well, he could probably provide travel expenses as Dam Mu-heun had said.

After finishing his meal, Ha Mu-baek went up to his room.

He spent his last night at Sohaeng Inn like that.

The next day.

After having a simple breakfast and exchanging farewells with Gong Yeop-myeong, Eun Cheong-seon, Gong Hae-bin, and Gong Hae-jun, Ha Mu-baek left the place.

And the place he headed to was a safe house on the outskirts of Luoyang.

Since it was a place Ha Mu-baek had personally prepared, no one knew of this location.

Not only Hocheon Corps but even Cheonmok Pavilion didn’t know of this place.

At least when Ha Mu-baek had prepared this place, he had moved that secretly.

If strangers passed by this area, they would think it was an abandoned house where no one lived.

It actually looked eerie, and with rumors of ghosts appearing in the vicinity, even beggars didn’t come near this place.

When it was first prepared, vagrants and beggars would frequently enter and stay, but after Ha Mu-baek repeatedly knocked them unconscious and dumped them on distant streets several times, such incidents stopped.

The rumor among beggars that it was a ghost house arose from such circumstances.

When he entered the building in the deepest separate building.

The Demon Cult messenger with his limbs bound was standing there drooling.

His eyes were full of drowsiness, showing he hadn’t slept a wink all night.

That was natural, as the moment he fell asleep and dropped his head, his forehead would be pierced by a small chestnut-like needle ball placed below, waking him from sleep.

Since pain-intensifying medicine was applied to the needle tips, the messenger had to keep his head up no matter what, and thanks to that, he hadn’t slept a wink all night.

“Still holding up well?”

Ha Mu-baek asked with a snicker at that sight.

“Uuuuu.”

The messenger let out incomprehensible mumbling.

However, if you listened carefully, you could tell it was that same incantation.

After checking the messenger’s condition, Ha Mu-baek headed to the main building.

It was full of dust with spider webs everywhere, and mice and insects were crawling around.

Even though it wasn’t a place for people to stay, Ha Mu-baek sat cross-legged anywhere.

He fell into meditation and faced the evil spirit inside himself.

The evil spirit raised its head and looked at Ha Mu-baek.

Those two eyes were filled only with confusion.

The hatred and killing intent toward the Demon Cult and Blood Cult remained, but confusion had mixed into it.

“I am also confused.”

Muttering so, Ha Mu-baek didn’t turn away from the evil spirit within but faced it directly.

A day passed while facing each other like that.

It was the day when the family of Sohaeng Inn would hand over the inn and leave.

Ha Mu-baek checked the messenger’s condition once more and then headed to Sohaeng Inn.

He was worried that the head of Jeonga Trading Company might pull some trick.

The transaction was completed normally.

The Gong Family, having properly received the sale proceeds in promissory notes, left the inn like that.

Ha Mu-baek looked at Jeon Dok-woo.

‘What reason does that bastard have for joining the Demon Cult…’

Though the world was full of people who resented the world, he wondered what grudge the head of Luoyang’s greatest trading company could have against this world.

 

***

 

“Whew.”

Late at night.

Jeon Dok-woo let out a deep sigh.

On his desk lay the land deed for Sohaeng Inn.

It belonged to Jeonga Trading Company, no, to himself.

Now he just needed to demolish the inn and build an estate by combining it with the surrounding land as planned.

That estate would become a dagger aimed at the throat of Jeongcheon Alliance.

That day.

When the day promised by the sect arrives.

“Until the day when all martial artists in the world disappear…”

It was a mutter filled with all kinds of emotions.

“When all martial artists in the world disappear, what do you plan to do then?”

At the sudden question, Jeon Dok-woo turned his head toward the source.

Ha Mu-baek was sitting naturally at the tea table.

He looked comfortable as if it were his own room.

“Who are you?”

Jeon Dok-woo asked in a calm manner while maintaining his composure.

“A martial artist.”

Ha Mu-baek answered briefly.

“So it’s that guy. You were a martial artist?”

Jeon Dok-woo quickly remembered Ha Mu-baek’s appearance.

He had dredged up the fact that he had seen them at Sohaeng Inn from his memory.

“Did you come to vent your anger? That’s right. You martial artists are all the same kind of people. Just because you have power, you trample on those without it.”

It was a mocking remark.

Ha Mu-baek chuckled at Jeon Dok-woo’s words.

“That’s not something I should hear from a merchant who tramples on those without money just because he has it, is it?”

“It’s merely business according to legitimate contracts.”

“Cunning contracts, I’m sure.”

“It’s simply taking responsibility for not properly checking and understanding the contract terms.”

“So is that why you joined the Demon Cult, a group of martial artists?”

Jeon Dok-woo flinched at the mention of Demon Cult.

“Seseegwaneum Temple. That is the name of the great sect. It’s not a sect that some lowly martial artist should call by such a derogatory term.”

“So I’m asking if that great sect you speak of isn’t also a group created by martial artists. Right now.”

“To bring down the world of martial artists, such power is necessary. It can’t be helped.”

“What sophistry.”

At Ha Mu-baek’s response, anger began to well up in Jeon Dok-woo’s eyes.

“They’re martial artists who swing the world around as they please with their inhuman power called martial arts! To punish them, we need power stronger than theirs! That is simply the power of the great sect! What does a filthy martial artist bastard know to dare speak of the great sect!”

It was a completely different appearance from when he met the sect messenger.

Even though Ha Mu-baek was gradually releasing his aura, he wasn’t intimidated in the slightest.

“Hmph! Just like a filthy martial artist. Are you trying to do something to me with force after all?”

Though he didn’t know exactly, Jeon Dok-woo spoke thus, feeling the oppressive aura from Ha Mu-baek.

“You seem to harbor deep resentment against martial artists.”

“Of course. Not only did they forcibly take my wealth under the pretext of waging war, but the ones who killed my son and daughter who tried to stop them were martial artists!”

Resentment flowed out in streams.

“Because of that, my merchant guild, which aimed for one of the eight great merchant guilds under heaven, ended up stuck as merely the Luoyang First Merchant Guild. Hmph, such things don’t matter anymore. Since everyone I could pass it on to has disappeared, the guild can go however it will. My only goal is to make all martial artists under heaven disappear.”

Jeon Dok-woo’s eyes gleamed.

“So, even if all martial artists in the world disappeared like that, martial artists would still remain in the Demon Cult, wouldn’t they? Aren’t they martial artists?”

“They are sacred messengers who follow the principles of the great sect. Not immoral martial artists.”

“I think a merchant’s money would be more immoral to common people than a martial artist’s sword, though?”

“Merchants are those who move according to contracts.”

“So you fed them money to prevent customers from going to other inns? Did you use thugs to prevent customers from entering the inn? Isn’t the thugs’ violence an immoral force?”

Ha Mu-baek asked.

“….”

Jeon Dok-woo couldn’t answer.

What he had done to Sohaeng Inn wasn’t according to contracts.

Rather, it was trickery to force Sohaeng Inn into making a contract with him.

“I suppose you’d say such trickery was also according to contracts?”

Ha Mu-baek’s question seemed mocking.

“Shut up! It was for carrying out the great will of the great sect!”

“It would be for the Demon Cult’s wicked purposes.”

At Ha Mu-baek’s retort, Jeon Dok-woo trembled all over.

“How do you even know whether it was the Demon Cult, Blood Cult, or Jeongcheon Alliance that killed your children in the first place? Your merchant guild in Luoyang would have been safe during the last war under the Jeongcheon Alliance’s protection, wouldn’t it?”

Two great murim wars.

Luoyang was one of the few cities that avoided the ravages of war.

This was possible because the Jeongcheon Alliance’s main corps was stationed there.

If his children had lost their lives to martial artists during the last war, it would have been somewhere else outside Luoyang.

Then it was more likely to have been the Blood Cult or Demon Cult rather than the Jeongcheon Alliance.

“They were struck down by orthodox martial arts!”

“The messenger of that great sect who came to find you also used orthodox martial arts.”

“Ugh….”

Jeon Dok-woo couldn’t make any retort.

“It seems you have nothing more to say.”

Ha Mu-baek rose from his chair and slowly approached Jeon Dok-woo.

Jeon Dok-woo looked at Ha Mu-baek with angry eyes.

Thud.

With one light punch, he lost consciousness immediately.

After subduing him, he headed straight to the safe house.

After roughly throwing Jeon Dok-woo into another separate building, Ha Mu-baek went back to find the Demon Cult messenger.

Blood was streaming down from his forehead.

It seemed he had dozed off again and hit the bedding.

“How about it? Are you ready to have a conversation now?”

“Ugh, ughhh….”

It was a different kind of groaning than before.

Rather than continuously chanting incantations, these were truly groans from being unable to resist drowsiness.

He was in a state between sleep and waking, on the verge of losing consciousness.

Even though he was under a spell, even that spell wasn’t working properly.

The guy was now in a state where he couldn’t distinguish whether he was awake or asleep, whether this was reality or a dream.

“Where did you come from?”

He didn’t think the guy would know the location of the Demon Cult’s main branch.

But if he held a position high enough to call himself a messenger, he thought he could at least know the center of the conspiracy called Seseegwaneum Temple.

“Yu, yu, Yung….”

He got that far before dropping his head again and getting pricked by the needle.

He jerked his head up in surprise, but his eyes were still full of sleep.

“Yungzhong… Mountain….”

After answering thus, he still couldn’t pull himself together.

Ha Mu-baek frowned.

It was because of the messenger’s answer.

Yungjoong Mountain.

It was a place Ha Mu-baek knew all too well.

It was where he alone had defeated two hundred elite warriors of the Blood Cult, and where the Zhuge family, one of the five great noble families, was located.

That Yungjoong Mountain had flowed from the messenger’s lips.

Saying that he had come from there.

This was why Ha Mu-baek frowned.

Since Yungjoong Mountain was the Zhuge family’s territory, it would be impossible to raise such people there while avoiding their eyes.

“The entire family couldn’t have turned.”

The person who came to mind immediately upon hearing about Yungjoong Mountain was Zhuge Ming.

Given his appearance at Gyoryong Hall, the entire Zhuge family wouldn’t have joined hands with the Demon Cult.

Then perhaps some of the retainers had joined hands with the Demon Cult.

Previously, he wouldn’t have understood the reason for their such behavior.

But not now.

Yesterday, from his experience examining the common people who had devoted themselves to Seseegwaneum Temple, if some retainers of the Zhuge family had betrayed them, he could at least understand the reason.

He could now think that the betrayers, also resenting the noble family and the world, might have joined hands with the Demon Cult with the sentiment of wanting it all to be destroyed.

Of course, understanding the reason for their betrayal didn’t mean he would understand and forgive them.

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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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