9 – Retribution (4)

Words without legs can travel a thousand li overnight.

By the next morning, the rumor that an unidentified master had appeared and slaughtered all the warriors of the Black Dao Gang had spread throughout Anhui City.

Hojeongmun was no exception—it was in an uproar because of this rumor.

“Wow, seriously. A girl I know used to work at the Black Dao Gang as a hostess, you know? And she says all the rumors are true!”

Woo Dongwon, the stable hand of Hojeongmun, was passionately talking to the other boys.

“They say all the servants who survived last night testified the same thing. And that’s not all. People who owed the Black Dao Gang huge debts said their debt contracts all disappeared overnight!”

“Wow. The people who’ve been crying all this time because of the Black Dao Gang’s tyranny must feel so relieved.”

“Exactly. Honestly, even Hojeongmun had headaches because of those Black Dao Gang bastards sometimes.”

“Huh? Hojeongmun too?”

“Yeah. Apparently, at some of the moneylenders where Hojeongmun borrowed funds, the repayment rights were sold to the Black Dao Gang. So they’d come by sometimes demanding absurd interest and causing trouble. But now all of that’s been invalidated, so it’s an amazing thing for Hojeongmun too!”

“Damn—what kind of chivalrous hero pulled off something this incredible? Truly the hero of Anhui City, a hero!”

Woo Dongwon and the other stable hands went back and forth, gossiping excitedly about what had happened the night before.

Then, as Woo Dongwon was shouting and spraying spit, his eyes suddenly turned vicious.

“Hey, newbie! Did you finish cleaning up the horse shit!?”

The target of his yelling was Chui.

“······.”

Chui entered the stable and silently began loosening the fodder.

In truth, he still had not taken out the golden badge that Chief Escort Joo Yehwa had given him before.

If he stayed at Hojeongmun under the identity of a master, there was a chance that the series of incidents involving the Black Dao Gang would become entangled with Hojeongmun.

‘There’s no need to draw attention until I finish dealing with the Zhao family.’

At that moment—

Smack!

A hand struck the back of Chui’s head.

It was Woo Dongwon. He seemed displeased with Chui’s every move and kept picking fights with him.

“Look at this bastard’s face—just because he cleaned some horse shit, he’s already sulking. You gonna wipe that expression off or what?”

“······.”

“So you pick up a homeless beggar like you, give you food and a place to sleep, and instead of saying thank you~ you work with that attitude? Huh!? The only reason you can even work here is thanks to the sect master of Hojeongmun! Work with gratitude! Don’t make a funeral face just because you did some hard labor!”

Woo Dongwon badgered Chui, puffing out his chest.

Every now and then, you had to grab a weakling and yell at him like this to keep discipline in the stables.

But—

“Isn’t the work hard because you dump all the labor onto the kids who came in later?”

At Chui’s calm reply, Woo Dongwon froze for a moment.

“What did you just say? Are you—are you crazy? You really want to die, huh?”

The stable boys approached with menacing expressions.

Looking at them, Chui recalled memories from the past.

The first time he was assigned as a new recruit to a border military unit.

He had been weak-bodied and taciturn, and the seniors had tormented him relentlessly.

Waking up to find all his belongings gone, being beaten every night—those days when such things were normal.

‘That guy really helped me a lot back then.’

Chui remembered Ho Yeyang, with whom he had sworn brotherhood.

His face and body scarred by burns, the metallic rasping sound that came from his burned-out throat.

······At that very moment.

“You all!”

A jade-like voice completely out of place in a stable rang out.

Woo Dongwon and the other stable boys stiffened as if struck by lightning.

“······.”

Chui turned his head toward the voice.

A woman was standing outside the stable.

Ho Yeyang.

Completely different from the Ho Yeyang in his memories, she stood there breathtakingly beautiful.

“Why are you bullying the newcomer? That’s not right. I respect your internal customs, but you should still show consideration to someone who just arrived.”

At Ho Yeyang’s reprimand, Woo Dongwon hesitated and spoke.

“T-that’s not it, miss. This guy keeps talking down to me… I’m obviously older than him. Hehe—”

“He’s still young. He might not be used to honorifics yet, so you should teach him properly.”

“Ah, he’s just a drifter who’ll work for a bit and then leave anyway.”

“Still. They say even brushing sleeves creates a bond. You have to know how to cherish bonds. You never know how people’s lives will turn out. Someday, you might meet again in a faraway land and even become family.”

At the gentle scolding from Ho Yeyang, who wasn’t much older than them, the stable boys scratched their heads one by one.

‘Like there’s any chance we’d meet a drifter again.’

‘It’s not like I’d ever leave for some faraway place in the first place.’

‘And even if we did meet again, there’s no way we’d feel like family.’

Their thoughts were written plainly on their faces.

Regardless, Ho Yeyang gestured toward Chui.

“Hey, are you the one who just joined?”

“······.”

Chui stood still and looked at Ho Yeyang.

Her face and voice were nothing like those in his memories, but······ even so, he knew.

Her eyes were the same.

Clear and upright.

The Ho Yeyang before him was undoubtedly the same Ho Yeyang he knew.

“If anyone bullies you from now on, come straight to me.”

It was exactly like the sworn brother who had always taken him along when he was ostracized by seniors during his days as a low-ranking soldier.

Seeing the image of his brother overlapping before his eyes, Chui opened his mouth.

“You too.”

“······?”

Ho Yeyang, who had been about to turn away, paused.

Her large, lake-like eyes reflected Chui’s figure.

Chui spoke to Ho Yeyang as she faced him.

“If anyone bullies you from now on, come straight to me.”

The stable boys’ eyes widened as if they were about to pop out.

Their expressions clearly said, ‘That crazy bastard doesn’t even know his place!’

But Ho Yeyang herself only blinked her big eyes, saying nothing.

And then—

The corners of her eyes curved into a gentle arc.

“Okay. I will.”

With a spirited smile, Ho Yeyang left the stable.

A moonless night.

Chui quietly climbed over the wall of Hojeongmun.

Retrieving the weapons he had hidden beneath the bushes in a secluded spot, Chui headed straight for the Zhao family estate.

A single dark spear.

And two awls, a hammer, caltrops, a poison jar, and various other items.

Whish—

In the blink of an eye, Chui vaulted over the wall of the Zhao estate.

Security was fairly tight.

Perhaps because of the news that the Black Dao Gang had been wiped out, the guards were especially tense.

Chui quietly drew one of the awls.

Then he passed through the grass beneath the wall and stepped on a guard’s shadow.

“Who’s there?”

The instant the guard sensed something and turned his head—

Pshk!

The awl Chui had thrown embedded itself in the guard’s temple.

It pierced the skull just enough to lightly graze the brain before being smoothly withdrawn.

Gurgle gurgle gurgle······

Blood and brain matter spurted out from the small hole pierced through the solar plexus point of the head.

Chui dragged the corpse into the bushes and stripped off the Zhao family’s uniform, putting it on himself.

Soon, a walkway leading to the inner garden appeared.

Several maids were moving along carrying lanterns.

Chui passed by them calmly.

Behind a wooden pillar, another Zhao family warrior appeared.

He was very tall, his head positioned at a height just out of easy reach of Chui’s hands.

Chui flicked his finger and shot out a caltrop.

Thunk—

The warrior stepped on the caltrop and bent over with a cry of pain.

As he lowered his head to see what had pierced his sole—

Whoom—

Chui pulled out a hammer with a narrow handle and thick head and smashed it into the back of the warrior’s skull.

Crack!

He died instantly, without even letting out a scream.

Drag, drag, drag······

After hiding the corpse in the shadow behind the building, Chui leapt straight up onto the roof.

‘Let’s see. According to the map, the estate lord’s bedroom is······’

In the distance, one building still had its lights on.

Southwest direction—a five-story pavilion.

Several guards were standing in front of it.

One of them glanced around, then pulled something out of his pocket and started eating.

A rice ball.

He was probably sneaking a late-night snack.

Chui threw a strand of fine silk thread toward the roof of the opposite building.

Clatter—

Once the thread tied to the caltrop was firmly secured on the opposite roof, Chui took out a jar filled with poison from his robes.

Splash—

A single drop of black poison slid down the thread.

It soon reached the middle of the long-stretched thread.

···Drip!

Then it fell downward.

Below it was the rice ball the guard was eating.

Sizzle—

The poison seeped instantly between the white grains of rice.

The color was black, but in the darkness, it wasn’t particularly noticeable.

“Cough—!?”

The guard clutched his throat and started coughing.

Then he collapsed on the spot.

The warriors on patrol rushed over from afar.

“What is it? What happened!”

“P-poison!? It’s poison! Poisoning!”

“Go to the kitchen! Grab the maids first!”

“Seal the estate gates! Don’t let anyone out!”

Chaos erupted inside.

The Zhao family warriors scattered in droves to detain the innocent kitchen maids.

Watching this, Chui rose to his feet.

“That’s enough fooling around.”

He leapt from roof to roof.

Leap—thud!

As he sprang upward, he thrust his spear into the wall.

In an instant, Chui reached the height of the fourth floor.

···Crash!

Breaking the window and entering, he found three warriors inside.

“W-who the hell······!?”

“Ass—!”

“Killer······!”

All three opened their mouths, but no voices came out.

Chui was moving the spear with lightning speed.

···Thud thud thud!

Straight scars appeared across the warriors’ throats, while the backs of their necks showed no marks at all.

The spear blade had sliced in, severed the carotid just before full penetration, and withdrawn.

Chui pulled back his spear.

There was no need to fully pierce them—retrieval would only waste time.

As long as he stabbed to a depth sufficient to kill, that was enough.

As he crossed the blood-soaked floor, sounds came from the stairway.

“Who’s there?”

A guard on the fifth floor frowned when he saw Chui.

“Are you assigned to the fourth floor? Why did you come up here?”

“······.”

“Wait. I don’t recognize you. Who are you? And why are you holding a spear instead of a sword—”

Chui was wearing the Zhao family’s uniform, his handsome, almost girlish face untainted by a single drop of blood.

Because of that, the guard seemed unable to immediately judge him as an intruder.

······That hesitation became his cause of death.

Boom!

Kicking off the stairs, Chui hurled his spear.

The crimson aura of the Spear Ghost Art wrapped around the black spear, drawing a straight, dark-red trajectory.

Crunch!

The guard’s heart was pierced clean through and pinned to the wall.

Carrying that momentum, Chui flung the body aside and sprang up to the fifth floor.

“What is it?”

“Hah! An intruder!”

“An assassin is here!”

The three guards on the fifth floor reacted instantly to Chui’s appearance.

But Chui’s reaction speed was even faster.

Having memorized the entire layout of the building, Chui kicked apart the first partition wall he encountered.

The two guards inside, who had been preparing an ambush, were startled.

In a battlefield situation, even a moment’s hesitation meant death.

Slash—chop!

With two swift motions of the spear, Chui separated two heads from their bodies and sent them flying through the air.

Two of the three guards in the corridor drew their swords and charged, but—

“Aaah! The floor—!”

“Aaah! My foot!”

They stepped on caltrops made of nails and collapsed helplessly.

Thud—crunch!

Chui drove his spear into the backs of the two fallen guards.

The last one kicked off the wall and leapt up, swinging his sword—

Smack!

But he was struck in the forehead by the hammer Chui threw, spilling his brains midair as he died.

Drip—drip—drip—

A rain of blood fell inside the building.

Chui kicked aside the caltrops and chunks of flesh scattered across the floor.

Then—

“So noisy.”

A low voice came from deeper inside.

Chui halted.

The voice, filled with powerful internal energy, reverberated through the space beyond the wall.

An aura incomparable even to Gu Yangpo of the Black Dao Gang.

“No matter how unwelcome a guest you are, you should have at least a shred of decency. What is this commotion at this hour?”

Soon, an old man walked out into the corridor.

White hair, thick eyebrows, tall stature, dark complexion, and piercing eyes.

A swordmaster with a long sword nearly twice the length of an ordinary blade hung at his waist faced Chui.

Chui tilted his head slightly and asked,

“Zhao Xiangzi. Correct?”

“You’re a rude child.”

The head of the Zhao family—Zhao Xiangzi.

The root cause that had plunged Ho Yeyang’s life into the abyss.

 

[T/N: Read 30+ advanced chapters on https://www.patreon.com/c/Virion_Arvallost

This novel is at high risk of receiving strikes from publishers. The other group that started translating this novel has already removed it from their site. So, I suggest you all read the chapters quickly before they are removed again. Please support our Patreon and the original author if you can. Those of you who can, read from the original site to support the original author.]