episode_0013

“Mountain.”

“What’s wrong?”

The dawn light shone through the dim, acrid smoke. The stars were still sparsely visible in the blue sky, and I looked into Sanyeo’s eyes with a wet face. Sanyeo’s eyes were wide open as if she hadn’t slept at all, and she was holding her knees with her handcuffed hands.

She was barefoot. I looked back and forth between the shoes I was wearing and her bare feet. Sanyeo said, wiggling her toes.

“I’m fine.”

“I know.”

Since I had no intention of making her wear shoes, I accepted Sanyeo’s specifications at face value. Sanyeo narrowed her eyes and looked at me, and I pretended not to see her gaze and said,

“So, where should we go now? Should I just go to any town and get in trouble?”

I brought some money with me on the way out, but it wasn’t enough to spend extravagantly. Since there was one more mouth to eat, we had to use it sparingly. Sanyeo, who saw the money coming out of my pocket, closed her eyes and said.

“First, let’s go to the village where the [Hongryun Sect] is located. The important thing is to secure a base.”

I also roughly knew about the Hongryun faction. Chae-ju occasionally mentions that it was an evil sect that exploited young people who wanted to learn martial arts by charging an initiation fee. Chaeju used to use the Hongryun faction as an example and say that if he had not joined Sanchae, he would have started a faction like that and raised money.

[If I hadn’t become Chaeju, I would have become a person like that Hongnyunpa Munju guy.]

Even now that I think about it, he was a man with a poor imagination, to think that even after leaving the mountain, all he did was become a third-rate man who took money from his nose.

I stopped reminiscing about the Hongryun Sect and asked Sanyeo.

“After hearing about the thieves, they don’t seem to be of that high quality. Is that okay?”

“Then it’s better.”

Sanyeo said so. I couldn’t figure out why it was good news that they were of poor quality. Experts with deep skills seemed to see the world in a different way than ordinary people.

Anyway, since I didn’t have a set destination other than where she told me to go, I followed her as she led the way toward the village. She was walking with long strides, and her steps were very smooth and fast, despite the dirt floor.

Even though she was trapped in a living cell, she seemed to know exactly where the village where the Hongryun Sect was located. I asked Sanyeo, who was moving forward without hesitation.

“Do you know where that village is?”

“Of course. This mountain chae sometimes did business with the Hongryun faction. In exchange for the Hongryun Sect giving a certain amount of money to the owner every month, this Sanchae does not attack merchants carrying the Hongryun Sect’s flag. The Hongryun faction sells the flag of the Hongryun faction to merchants.”

“So that means the level of Munju of the Hongryun faction is similar to that of Chaeju?”

“You don’t know that, right? Even if he is a powerful person who crushes the borrower, he chooses coexistence depending on his business skills. No matter how expert you are, going up a mountain trail like this is a hassle. Moreover, if you catch one of these bonds, it costs at most a few pennies, but if you save that bond and use it for business, you can make several times that amount, right?”

After saying that, Sanyeo looked at me again. Her eyes were shining red and she quickly scanned my entire body as if trying to figure out my intentions.

“What do you think? Making a living from this business.”

I laughed and answered.

“Are you just thinking about it?”

Sanyeo did not answer. She was staring at me with a smile on her face. We made eye contact and I shook my head and said,

“That’s not fun. Living already. You should have more power. How can you live in this rural clan, making a living with thieves and taking a pittance of money?”

That’s not life. After all, life is all about eating and eating other people and climbing up until there are no more people to eat. My dream is to sit on a chair at the top of a goal tower. My goal was to seize power.

“You have to use it as a foundation, but you have to work hard to move towards a higher place.”

One munpa was too small to satisfy my bowl.

“That’s right. That’s not life.”

Sanyeo turned around again. I looked at her back and started walking again. Because she was a woman whose intentions were truly unknown.

[Hongryunpa]

Before we even entered the village, there was a sign made of old boards guiding us. It seemed to mean that starting from this version, it was the territory of the Hongryun faction. Sanyeo said to me after seeing the roofs sticking out at the end of the road that followed the sign.

“Look over there. There is a village.”

“By the way, is it okay if I leave it that way? Would it attract attention?”

Sanyeo shook her head and stretched out her wide sleeves. Then the sleeves flapped and covered both hands, making it look as if they were walking with their hands together. Sanyeo showed me the figure and said.

“How about it?”

“It’s okay.”

As I walked lightly in front of my eyes, surprisingly, I didn’t feel any discomfort. When I nodded, Sanyeo nodded with a satisfied expression.

“I will go later, so go first.”

I straightened my back and took a deep breath. Since the owner of Green Forest Vegetables died and the mountain vegetables were destroyed, everything I had figured out so far was gone. Starting again from the beginning, I needed time to learn about the Hongryun faction.

“What is that?”

However, leaving Sanyeo first did not happen.

“Hurry! Move quickly!”

Because a group of people were busily running in the direction we were coming from. They were either sweating profusely or talking urgently, pointing at the smoke.

In the middle of the group, a man with a long beard like a cult leader held a red scroll in both hands and looked like he had been bitten by a bug. He passed by me, actively showing signs of discomfort.

After everyone had passed, Sanyeo, who had been hiding in the shadows of the forest, took a step forward and spoke.

“That person just now must be the head of the Hongryun Sect.”

Unusually for her, the tone of voice was not definitive. I questioned the guess.

“Have you never met Moonju in person?”

“Because I have never been to the wild vegetables in person. We may have met before I came, but that doesn’t mean anything now, right? Still, he was wearing clothes with the Hongryun faction emblem on them, and he was the highest ranked person in that group, so he must be the lord of the clan or someone in a position equivalent to that.”

It is meaningless whether one has a relationship with a dead person. Sanyeo asked, nodding in the direction the group left.

“Wouldn’t it be nice to go there once?”

I agreed with what she said. Even though the village was just around the corner, it seemed like it would be a good idea to see what the Hongryun Sect’s leader would do in the mountains. Just by seeing the person in person, you can get more information than hearing it from the side.

“What level was that guy with the long beard just now?”

“Just achieved second-rate status. A little stronger than Chaeju.”

One of the techniques I learned during the two years in the cave was to hide my energy and hide, so no matter how sensitive my energy sense is, I cannot capture myself from far away at that level. I hurriedly walked in the direction where they quickly disappeared.

******

The living quarters I returned to was reminiscent of hell. Burned and bloodied thieves were lying around in the collapsed building as the fire spread, and some of those with intact limbs were lying on the floor from exhaustion, breathing heavily.

The warehouse where the wealth was stored and the tents of the borrowers and borrowers were destroyed and unrecognizable, and the corpses that were lying facing each other were so charred that they were difficult to recognize.

Even from afar, the smell and smoke of burning corpses were so strong that one could not help but grimace, and the people of the Hongryun Sect clicked their tongues while turning their heads back and forth.

Munju of the Hongryun Sect stroked his beard and frowned, then looked at the thief whose limbs were still intact and said.

“What kind of mess is this? A living vegetable being destroyed overnight, is it possessed by a ghost?”

The rogue shook his head. He blinked and looked truly fascinated. His face was stained with ash and blood, and his body was full of stab wounds. Each member of the Hongryun Sect took a stance or held a weapon, nervous as to whether the bastard would make an unexpected move.

However, the thief just said this in a relaxed tone, like a person who has been liberated.

“….I don’t know. Overnight, it became like this, as if I was possessed by some kind of ghost.”

“You mean they all killed each other?”

“….I really don’t know. Suddenly, the creditor and the debtor got into a fight, and the debtor died, and suddenly the creditor also died after being attacked by our child. Then, they fought each other to be the boss, and the quick-witted guys took everything that could make money and ran away.”

“It’s like a ghost crying.”

Munju of the Hongryun Sect frowned and clicked his tongue. The way he clicked his tongue showed a deep sense of regret and irritation. The thief looked at Munju with empty eyes and said.

“Please save me. I’m hungry… .”

But his words did not continue any further. As Munju swung his hand at high speed, light flashed and the thief’s neck was cut diagonally. The other thieves looked at Munju with wide eyes, and Munju threw the fist he was holding with all his might like a boomerang.

Kwon spun around and sequentially cut off the heads of the bandits who were sitting or standing.

The thieves did not know what was happening until the head of the one nearby was cut off, and Munju stood still with his hands outstretched, as if he knew where Gwon would return.

The circle, which was spinning as if it were connected by a thread, stuck to Munju’s hand with the handle facing precisely, and the heads of the living thieves fell like fruit harvesting.

Munju said, shaking off the blood on the weapon.

“Take everything that can make money.”

His men were searching through the corpses as quickly and accurately as a band of bandits. Munju tilted his head and started talking to the large man.

The giant spoke in a low voice.

“What should we do now, Moonju? If there were no thieves, our business would also suffer.”

Moonju shook his head and said.

“It wasn’t a business that would last long to begin with. How long are you going to run a business with second-rate people? I need to talk to the person above me, so I think I need to leave some space.”

“Are you taking your daughter with you?”

Moonju frowned as if he was disgusted by those words, then shook his head and said.

“That bitch keeps the ledgers, so where does she go? Keep a close watch so they don’t escape.”

“Yes. I understand.”

My eyes sparkled.

You have a daughter?