abcnovels
Chapter 79
Chapter 79
Chapter 79 – Don’t Look Back (3)
Ho Yeon-nam, standing alone in the field, was in a state of great shock.
First, he was shocked by Song Hwa-rin.
It wasn’t because he lost the duel to her. It was because of what she said afterwards.
‘Meeting a master who couldn’t control his lust at the age of twenty. I’ll record it like that in my life.’
Those words pierced his heart like a dagger.
When she finished speaking and turned away with a smile, he felt as if his heart was being torn apart. He felt utterly worthless.
He felt a murderous intent to rush at them and kill both Song Hwa-rin and Byeok Ri-dan. He felt a surge of desire to kill Byeok Ri-dan and rape Song Hwa-rin right there.
‘How much did I love her?’
He had let her go that day without making her his because he loved her.
Just then, a stream of sound transmission flew in. It was Byeok Ri-dan’s sound transmission.
-Yeom Hwa told me to tell you. Withdraw from Shandong immediately.
For a moment, Ho Yeon-nam felt as if his mind had gone blank.
‘What?’
While he was standing there in a daze, Byeok Ri-dan and Song Hwa-rin had left.
Belatedly, Ho Yeon-nam’s face twisted like an evil spirit.
“I’ll tear that bastard to pieces!”
Only then did he realize that all of this must have been orchestrated by the Slaughterer Yeom Hwa.
“So that’s it, of course.”
Otherwise, there’s no way Song Hwa-rin would suddenly ask to meet him and show him such contempt. The Slaughterer Yeom Hwa must have been manipulating her from behind.
“He’s been scheming to destroy me!”
At the same time, self-justification took place.
‘Yes, there’s no way Hwa-rin would do this to me.’
Instead of rational judgment, fiery hatred consumed him.
Having received Yeom Hwa’s message, from his perspective, there was no reason or situation to think otherwise.
A dense killing intent filled Ho Yeon-nam’s eyes.
“I’ll definitely kill that bastard.”
***
I returned home.
I don’t know what results my single sound transmission will bring.
If he makes the right judgment, it will be nothing but nonsense, but if he harbors evil intentions, it will ultimately become a knife that harms himself.
Three days ago, after tailing Ho Yeon-nam who went to the pleasure house, I immediately sent a message to Yang So-bang asking him to send a spy here.
I assigned the arrived spy to monitor both Ho Yeon-nam and Yeom Hwa.
Now all I have to do is wait for the results.
On my way to my room, I met my mother and Jeong Yeong, Baek Pyo’s wife.
The two were chatting amicably like real sisters.
“Mother, Lady Jeong.”
I greeted them politely.
Jeong Yeong’s expression was brighter than when she first came. There was no trace of stiffness or tension now.
“Where’s Myeong-i?”
“He’s studying. The madam put him in a good school with a good writing teacher.”
Jeong Yeong answered with a bright smile.
“I told you not to call me madam, call me elder sister.”
“…Yes.”
Jeong Yeong bowed her head.
Given my mother’s personality, I thought they would soon form a sisterly bond. It seems my mother has taken a liking to her calm and composed nature.
At times like this, I feel renewed respect for my mother. Although I had asked her to take good care of them, what my mother is showing now goes beyond just fulfilling my request.
She is acting out of genuine affection for Jeong Yeong and her son. I could clearly see that this stems from a deep love for humanity.
This wasn’t something that could be achieved just by being old. Even at seventy in my past life, I couldn’t treat people with such warmth.
“If you need anything, please let me know anytime.”
When I said this to Jeong Yeong, my mother interjected slyly,
“I need a daughter-in-law.”
I quickly left the place, pretending not to hear.
I heard the two of them laughing behind me. They would start chatting enthusiastically about my marriage.
***
Three days later, the news I had been waiting for arrived.
It was news about the negotiation between Ho Yeon-nam and Yeom Hwa. Yeom Hwa had refused to negotiate with them, but the Ho Yeon Clan had repeatedly proposed it.
At the negotiation table that was set up with such difficulty, Ho Yeon-nam suddenly drew his sword and attacked Yeom Hwa, turning the negotiation site into chaos.
In the end, Ho Yeon-nam died on the spot, and Yeom Hwa was seriously injured, stabbed by a sword.
Despite his skills being on par with Yeom Hwa and the element of surprise, Ho Yeon-nam ended up dead. It meant he had already lost his mental composure.
If he had repented for trying to violate his young female disciple, he would have returned to his family on the day of the duel with Song Hwa-rin. If he had done that, he wouldn’t have lost his life like this.
But he couldn’t control his anger. He ended his life as a miserable human being until the very end.
Upon hearing this news, I immediately put on a human skin mask and went to the Shandong Night Merchants.
They too must have heard that the negotiations had broken down and the place had turned into a sea of blood, so they would be holding an emergency meeting.
When I said I came from the Heavenly Blade Sect, the men guarding the gate guided me to Ya-cheon.
Ya-cheon asked cautiously,
“I heard you came from the Heavenly Blade Sect.”
About ten men were standing tensely in the reception hall. I knew well that hidden weapon launchers were concealed in their sleeves.
For someone of my martial arts level, it’s only a problem if I’m caught off guard; hidden weapons that I’m already aware of are no longer hidden weapons.
I openly displayed my killing intent.
“How dare you try to play tricks against us?”
As I fully revealed my intentions, the pressure was tremendous. Those with weak nerves might have wet themselves on the spot.
“What do you mean?”
“You dare to bring in the Ho Yeon Clan to attack us?”
“It’s a misunderstanding! I only wanted mediation!”
“Cut the bullshit! That old bastard from the Ho Yeon Clan suddenly launched a surprise attack, and Elder Yeom was seriously injured. Weren’t you the ones who called them in?”
“I never imagined such a thing would happen.”
“Hmph! You call that an excuse?”
As I snorted, Ya-cheon hurriedly asked,
“What do you want from me?”
“You’ll have to pay with your lives. I’ll kill every single one of you without exception.”
A chilling atmosphere filled the room.
Ya-cheon and the men looked at each other, pondering.
They had no idea how to handle this situation.
At that moment, the hot-tempered Gu-cheol made the first move.
“You bastard! You’re the one who should die!”
Boom!
With an ear-splitting explosion, hidden weapons were fired from the launcher Gu-cheol was holding.
Clang!
I lightly swung my sword to deflect them. Instead, the rebounding hidden weapons struck Gu-cheol down.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Hidden weapons were fired in succession.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
But I deflected the hidden weapons with my sword, and the men who had fired them flipped over and fell. To the onlookers, it looked as if they had shot themselves with their own hidden weapons.
“Aaargh!”
The remaining men ran away, clutching their heads with the hands that had thrown away their hidden weapon launchers.
I let them escape. The rumor needed to spread that this was done by the Heavenly Blade Sect.
I walked towards Ya-cheon with my sword drawn.
Ya-cheon prostrated himself and shouted,
“Please spare my life!”
I raised my sword into the air.
“I’ll give you all the money we were supposed to give to the Ho Yeon Clan.”
The sword I was about to bring down stopped above his head.
“You should have said that from the beginning.”
At my words, he let out a sigh of relief.
“Please follow me.”
He led me to his room. When he manipulated a hidden mechanism, the bookshelf opened.
“Please go in.”
“If you try any tricks, you’ll die on the spot.”
“My life is the most important thing to me. There won’t be any such thing!”
Ya-cheon took me down to the basement.
There was a secret storage there.
“You must not move from here. If you make the slightest mistake, poison gas will be released.”
Just as he was manipulating something to open the safe door.
Clank!
Suddenly, iron bars came down around me.
The wire mesh between the bars was so fine that not even a flying dagger could pass through. I could tell at a glance. This was made of ten thousand year cold iron.
Indeed, Ya-cheon became relaxed as if he had become a different person.
“You stupid bastard! How dare you come in here alone and cause a ruckus? Do I look that easy to you? Huh?”
After shouting at me, he actually opened the safe.
It required entering specific numbers, a mechanism on the floor, another mechanism on the wall. The safe would only open if these were pressed accurately in the correct order, with double and triple security.
Inside the safe were promissory notes, gold items, and various documents.
He grumbled as he brought over a large leather pouch that had been prepared in advance.
“Damn! I guess I have to run away after all.”
He seemed very reluctant to give up the Shandong Night Merchants.
“If I lie low abroad for a few years, maybe I’ll find a way.”
While gathering the promissory notes, he looked back at me.
“Do you know how I gathered this money? Once, a pregnant woman came looking for her husband. He had been taken by me for not repaying his debt and hadn’t been heard from since. She begged me to release him, saying he was about to become a father. You know what happened? I kept her until she gave birth, sold the child separately, and sold the woman to a brothel. The husband? He had long since died and become dog food. You bastard, this is how I earned this money.”
“Even hell is too good for you.”
I maintained a calm attitude.
“You idiot! Pretending to be righteous till the end, like some martial arts hero!”
I slowly drew my Asura Bright King Sword.
Swish.
Clang!
Indeed, even the sharp blade of the Asura Bright King Sword couldn’t cut through the bars.
He laughed mockingly and shouted loudly.
“You idiot, that’s ten thousand year cold iron!”
I infused my inner energy into the Asura Bright King Sword.
Zing?
The Asura Bright King Sword, accepting my inner energy after a long time, rang out once.
When the sword rang, Ya-cheon flinched in surprise.
A blue sword aura began to form on my sword. It looked like blue waves rippling. It was truly the first time in a long while that I was emitting sword aura from the Asura Bright King Sword.
Zzzzing!
I started cutting through the ten thousand year cold iron with the sword aura.
“You fool! Sword aura can’t cut through it! If it could be cut so easily, it wouldn’t be ten thousand year…”
Ya-cheon’s words trailed off as his pupils shook.
“Huh? Huh? Huh?”
Sring, sring.
As I kept cutting repeatedly, the iron bars started to be cut away.
“Oh shit!”
Ya-cheon hurriedly ran to manipulate something.
Clank.
Iron plates came down around the bars, blocking all sides.
Hiss, puhahaha.
Immediately, poison gas began to rise from the floor inside the bars.
“Kekeke! If you had just stayed still, I would have killed you cleanly. That poison is the Bitter Agony Death Poison. It’s a poison that makes you feel the pain of all your blood vessels being cut before you die.”
The inside of the iron bars was covered with poison gas.
The next moment, Ya-cheon’s eyes widened.
Zing!
The iron plate split and a sword blade suddenly protruded.
He was watching, thinking it must be a last desperate attempt.
Suddenly, the sword began to move, cutting through the bars.
Sring, srrrring!
Smoke flowed out between the sword blades.
The Asura Bright King Sword was sawing away inside the smoke-filled space. It looked even more terrifying and bizarre because only the sword was visible, moving and protruding, with no person in sight.
“Huh? Huuuh?”
Ya-cheon felt as if he was dreaming. Cutting through ten thousand year cold iron inside the poison gas? Impossible things were happening one after another.
“Aaargh!”
As he tried to run away, he started quickly gathering money.
“Shit! What are you? A ghost? Huh? Damn!”
He cursed as he rapidly collected the money. He could give up everything else, but not this money.
Then, a sound from behind him.
Clank.
The sound of metal falling to the floor.
Ya-cheon turned around and his eyes widened.
Gripped by fear, he fell on his bottom right there.
Of course, he had to be terrified.
The ten thousand year cold iron and iron plates had been cut away, and I was walking out of the poison gas.
Looking up at me as if seeing a ghost, Ya-cheon trembled.
“It was a joke. It wasn’t poison gas, just smoke. Please forgive me.”
I smiled and then blew out a breath. The poison gas that had been lingering in my mouth was blown onto his face.
“I like jokes too.”
Ya-cheon, who hadn’t expected this at all, screamed in pain as he inhaled the poison gas.
“No! Aaaaargh!”
He rolled on the floor, clawing at his entire body. Even in the midst of his writhing in terrible agony, he wouldn’t understand.
Why I didn’t die. How this was possible.
Ya-cheon died with his eyes rolled back after experiencing the pain of all his blood vessels being cut.
My gaze towards his corpse was cold.
“Just like you told me earlier, make a good confession of your past sins before the King of Hell.”
I gathered all the remaining promissory notes that he had been collecting. They were all small-amount notes. It was the fortune he had accumulated over his lifetime. At a glance, the amount totaled several hundred thousand taels.
Many people must have suffered because of this money, and many must have died. I prayed for their souls to rest in peace.
“From now on, this money will be used to save good people. So forget your grudges and I hope you’ll be born in a better place.”
I swept up not only the promissory notes but everything else there. Documents, boxes, gold items, I just took everything.
I also cut the ten thousand year cold iron with sword aura so that I could move it. Although it was quite heavy, it was mostly made of wire mesh, so with my inner energy, I could move it sufficiently.
The documents stored separately were loan contracts for money lending.
Looking at the contents, they were ridiculous contracts requiring repayment of several times the principal after just one year.
I burned them all without leaving any behind.
After today, it will be known that he died, and since all the contracts have disappeared, people won’t have to repay the debts. Those who were suffering from borrowing money from him will be free from debt hell starting tomorrow.
I left the place, carrying a large leather pouch and the cold iron.
As of today, the Shandong Night Merchants have disappeared from the martial arts world.