Three Years of Blacksmithing, Achieving Divine Martial Arts - Chapter 23

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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 23. He had to leave before dawn broke
After confirming the face of the Gwangsabang Lord, So Cheol

remained motionless for a time.
In Noxian, fishermen would lower their voices at merely hearing the name Water Pirate King—and that man now lay dead before him.
The strange feeling lasted only a moment.
So Cheol crouched beside the corpse. A man terrifying in life and a corpse worth looting were two entirely different matters.

“He can’t have come empty-handed.”

There was nothing on his upper body. His waist was bare, and he wore no shoes—the stripped appearance of one who fought in water, shedding anything that might catch or tangle.
So Cheol checked even the remaining clothing, but found nothing.
The opponent who had fought for his life moments ago was impossibly light.

“Could it really be just this?”

The Mysterious Weapon and the mask alone were no meager spoils. Yet considering the name Gwangsabang Lord, something felt off.
Then his gaze caught on the corpse’s abdomen.
A long wound ran below the ribs, stitched shut with thread. The blood was already dry—too dry for an injury taken during this fight—and the flesh around the stitches bulged unnaturally.
When So Cheol pressed with his finger, he felt something inside that was neither hard nor soft like living flesh.

“……Could it be.”

The memory of finding silk scrolls in Hwang Tae-gon’s Annex flashed back.
So Cheol carefully cut the thread with his blade tip. From within the opened wound emerged a blood-soaked silk fragment.
Once washed clean, a familiar illustration appeared.
Water Dragon Swimming Technique.

It was indeed.
More precisely, it was the continuation of the silk scroll he already possessed.
So Cheol’s eyes sharpened.
The existing scroll had cut off after the initial entry stage. This fragment contained the breathing that followed, the body movements, and the methods for drawing power from within water—all rendered in meticulous detail.
The Bronze Cauldron responded immediately.

[This is a fragment of the Water Dragon Swimming Technique.]

[It can be fused with the existing fragment.]

There was no reason to hesitate.
So Cheol retrieved his original silk scroll. The moment the two pieces drew close, thin threads unwound from their edges of their own accord.
The threads wove together as if seeking each other out.
The edges of the torn seam aligned, and the illustrations fitted together as one. Moments later, what had been two separate scrolls unfurled as a single, unbroken length, as though it had always been whole.
Words shimmered above the Bronze Cauldron once more.

[Water Dragon Swimming Technique

· Fragmentary Record]
[Rank: 3rd Rank Ordinary Treasure]
[Contains: From Initial Entry through Mastery of the Lower Scripture]
[Special Attribute: One Flood Dragon’s Power

]

[Upon equipping, you can add approximately fifty thousand jin of additional strength.]

[You acquire training memory of the Water Dragon Swimming Technique and select key memories of the Gwangsabang Lord.]

Fifty thousand jin.
So Cheol read the number twice. He had thought his strength had grown considerably, but this was beyond all comparison. When he placed the Mysterious Weapon, the Fish Scale Armor, and the complete scroll together on three pedestals, the Bone Strength indicated on the Bronze Cauldron rose from “High Upper” to “Peak Upper” after equipping.
There was no time to rejoice. The final line’s memory came surging through at once.
The memory came flooding back.
At first, there was water.
The sensation of lying on the riverbed’s depths, cutting through the current, the way to change direction using the waist and back without kicking with the feet, the movement of channeling internal energy to open distance in a single moment—all of it flashed through his mind.
There was also the movement the Gwangsabang Lord had shown when fleeing just moments before.
After that came memories of a completely different kind.
An unfamiliar mountain lodge.
The Gwangsabang Lord in his youth was cast out the door—this was when he was an Outer Disciple at Jugeom Mountain Lodge.
The memory of how he eventually killed a fellow disciple and stole the Martial Scripture before escaping flashed through him, and the scene shifted again.
A few years after founding Gwangsabang.
When the Official Bureau, the Cheoljang Gang, and other water pirates surrounded him, one man extended his hand.
It was Wang San.
So Cheol’s eyes narrowed.
Wang San had helped the Gwangsabang Lord escape. In exchange, he had taken part of the Water Dragon Swimming Technique. The contact between the two men went through Hwang Tae-gon.
Now it all clicked into place—why Hwang Tae-gon was no simple village thug.
He was someone Wang San wouldn’t dirty his own hands for, and a blade that could be cut away if problems arose.
That was what Hwang Tae-gon had been.

‘So that’s why they knew the same technique.’

The Killing Tiger Assassination Technique, too.
The shared-root techniques he’d witnessed in Hwang Tae-gon and Yeo Ui could no longer be written off as coincidence.
But the memory didn’t end there.
So Cheol suspected Wang San had hidden far more, and the Gwangsabang Lord had believed Wang San would eventually kill him. They had clasped hands, but they trusted each other not at all.
After Hwang Tae-gon disappeared, the situation grew even more tangled.
The Gwangsabang Lord discovered that Wang San’s people were searching the fishing village. He learned that Hwang Tae-gon’s final entanglement was with the So Family Fishing Village, and that an apprentice from the Cheoljang Gang had mastered martial arts on the very day he learned them, then swiftly returned to that village.
It wasn’t hard to deduce who that apprentice was.
It was So Cheol himself.
A chill ran down his spine.
Wang San hadn’t been certain.
But certainty wasn’t necessary.
A Martial Scripture hung in the balance. If there were ten suspects, he held a position where he could investigate all ten.
The Gwangsabang Lord was in the same situation.
His wounds ran too deep to conduct the search himself, so he had used the Rainbow Trout as bait to draw people in. But had he had even a moment’s freedom, the odds were high he would have come for So Cheol.
The final memory flowed in.
The Gwangsabang Lord had released a martial expert from Wang San’s faction and sent a message through him.
He had not killed Hwang Tae-gon.
He wished to deal again.
He would meet Wang San’s trusted lieutenant Hwang Won beneath the Drywood Bridge on the So River four days hence.
The memory ended.
So Cheol could not open his eyes for a long while.
In the cave, there was only the sound of wood burning.
The suspicion that Wang San and the Gwangsabang Lord were connected was no longer suspicion. Hwang Tae-gon had been caught between them.
But what mattered most was something else.
Hwang Won had not yet returned to Wang San.
He didn’t even know the Gwangsabang Lord was dead.
Four days.
That sliver of time was all that remained to him.

‘I cannot face Wang San head on.’

A martial expert approaching the peak of 3rd Rank.
Even with Son Cheol-sim beside him, he could not fight while protecting his family. The moment Wang San grew suspicious, it was all too clear where he would strike first.
So Cheol rose to his feet.

“I have to move Uncle and Aunt first.”

Not tomorrow.
Now.
Before that, he had to gather what he could take from this place.
Scanning the cave again, he noticed the ground behind the hearth was subtly elevated. When he swept away the earth, a black wooden chest lay buried beneath.
So Cheol smashed the box open.
Inside lay several silver and gold promissory notes, along with separate stores of gold and silver.
The promissory notes might leave a record of which battlefield they’d come from, so he left them untouched. Instead, he selected only the gold and silver—and the coin denominations—whose origins would be difficult to trace.
Even this much constituted a fortune.
So Cheol fed the promissory notes into the fire.
The paper curled and blackened.
It would have been a lie to say he felt no regret.
Still, he had no intention of carrying traces of Gwangsabang on his back for the sake of money.
Finally, he picked up the shark-skin mask.
The characters on the Bronze Cauldron surfaced in his mind.

[Phantom Shark Mask

]
[Grade: 3rd Rank Ordinary Treasure]

[Aids in concealing one’s presence and maintaining prolonged breath while submerged.]

[Exhibits high compatibility with the cultivation and application of water-based martial arts]

Another 3rd Rank Ordinary Treasure.
So Cheol gathered the mask, the Mysterious Weapon, and the silk scroll, then swept the cave one final time.
He couldn’t leave the Gwangsabang Lord’s corpse behind.
If word of his death spread too quickly, his agreement with Hwang Won might fall through.
So Cheol moved the body and the shattered box fragments into the deep river. By the time he’d erased all traces and emerged from the cave, the night had grown far deeper.
The Ox Horn Spear hidden by the riverbank remained undisturbed, fortunately.
So Cheol wrapped the fish in his clothing and headed for the fishing village.
* * *
He didn’t knock on the gate.
So Cheol scaled the wall and dropped into the courtyard.
From inside the house, he heard two people breathing in sleep. He hesitated briefly, then rapped on his uncle’s door.

“Uncle.”

A rustling sound came from within.

“Uncle, wake up.”

The door opened and So Won emerged, rubbing his eyes.

“What is it? Back already?”

His face, still bearing the softness of sleep, hardened the instant he saw So Cheol’s wet hair and torn clothes.

“Are you hurt?”
“Nothing serious.”
“Nothing serious, looking like that?”

As So Won raised his voice, So Cheol spoke first.

“Please wake my aunt as well. We need to leave now.”

So Won’s expression shifted.

“Now?”
“Yes.”
“We agreed to load the cart and leave at first light.”
“We must go before dawn.”

This time, he didn’t press for reasons.
So Won watched So Cheol for a moment longer, then turned back into the room.
A short time later, Im Ha emerged, her outer robe still not properly fastened.

“So Cheol, what’s wrong?”
“I apologize. I’ll explain everything once we reach Noxian.”

Im Ha opened her mouth to speak, then caught sight of So Won’s face.
So Won hadn’t even bothered to find his smoking pipe.

“What should I pack?”
“Just money and what you absolutely need. You can leave the bedding and the cauldron. The new house has everything.”
“What about the nets?”

So Cheol faltered for a moment.
Even now, it was the nets.
So Won cleared his throat.

“They’re expensive.”
“Take just one of the folded ones.”
“There are two.”
“Just one.”

So Won nodded, his expression grudging.
That brief exchange, oddly enough, seemed to ease the tension from Im Ha’s face.
The three of them packed without lighting a lamp.
So Cheol turned slowly around the courtyard. Fishing rods leaned against the wall, and the nets hung to dry swayed gently in the night breeze.
Just yesterday, this had been a house they’d planned to leave slowly, in a few days’ time.
Now they had to slip away without looking back.
Their luggage was smaller than expected.
So Cheol led the way, choosing a path through the paddies and low hills rather than the main road.
It was before the village roosters would crow.
When he heard Im Ha’s breathing grow labored behind him, So Cheol slowed his pace. So Won carried the bags in one hand and steadied his wife’s arm with the other.
No one asked why it had to be done this way.
That, somehow, troubled him most of all.
Only after the roofs of the fishing village had vanished completely into the darkness did So Cheol look back.
The sky above the river was beginning to brighten, ever so slightly.
Four days.
That was the time remaining until Hwang Won would meet with the Gwangsabang Lord.
In that span, he had to hide his family away and find some way to turn Wang San’s attention elsewhere.
So Cheol faced forward again.
The road to Noxian still stretched long ahead of them.
After a long while, So Won spoke first.

“Does this have to do with Hwang Tae-gon?”

So Cheol’s pace slowed slightly.
His uncle remembered the excuse he’d made before—that Hwang Tae-gon had been entangled with the Water Pirate King. With rumors already circulating that the Gwangsabang had collapsed, it was only natural he’d grown suspicious.

“It’s not something that’s completely finished.”

It wasn’t a lie.
So Won didn’t press further, only bit his lip—that familiar gesture without the pipe between his teeth.

“I understand.”

That single phrase was all he offered.
Im Ha adjusted her bundle. So Cheol began counting the hours in his mind again.
He had to erase the family’s traces before Hwang Won returned.
After that came the matter of delaying the news of the Gwangsabang Lord’s death as long as possible. He still didn’t know whether Wang San suspected him alone, or if others were under suspicion as well.
The battle had already begun.
But his opponent simply didn’t know that fact.
* * *
When the gates of Noxian came into view, the sky at the horizon was brightening to blue.
People preparing for dawn business began to stir, but So Cheol avoided the crowded streets. Rather than heading straight for Jang Shim Hall, he slipped into the alley behind Son Cheol-sim’s Residence.
The house he had arranged in advance sat pressed against Son Cheol-sim’s estate with only a single wall between them.
When he knocked, Son Cheol-sim’s steward came out in person. Though sleepy-eyed, the man asked nothing upon seeing So Won and Im Ha standing behind So Cheol.

“The young master instructed me to prepare. Everything inside is ready.”
“Thank you for receiving us at such an early hour.”
“Think nothing of it.”

The gate swung open.
Im Ha stopped in her tracks, taking in the courtyard beyond. It was several times larger than the fishing village cottage, with two additional empty rooms and a new pot and firewood already laid in the kitchen.
So Won too fell silent for a moment.
Then he set down the net he’d carried in his arms and muttered to himself.

“Good thing we brought the one we did.”

Im Ha struck her husband’s back hard.

“Now you’re thinking about that?”
“It’s valuable, you know.”

So Cheol smiled faintly at last.
He watched the two of them disappear inside the house, yet he did not leave immediately. Only after hearing the gate close and the bar lock into place did some of the tension drain from his shoulders.
At least his family no longer remained isolated in that remote cottage.
Right beside Son Cheol-sim’s residence. A far more difficult place for Wang San to reach recklessly than before.
But safety and the end of things were not the same.
So Cheol looked up at the brightening sky.
There was too much to do within four days.
And the first of it was to keep secret that he alone knew what memory the Gwangsabang Lord had left behind.

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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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