You Don’t Know (3)
The expression on Jo Byeok’s face hardened as he surveyed the scene before him.
It was far more serious than he had anticipated.
When he first received the report, he assumed it was just one of the bodyguards accompanying the old men who had caused trouble. He had heard that Samyeong was present, so he expected they would have subdued the culprit.
Samyeong could easily handle most skilled fighters.
But there lay Samyeong, a lifeless corpse, and the old men were groaning, half-crippled.
In the midst of it all stood a man Jo Byeok had never seen before.
“Who are you?” Jo Byeok’s voice trembled. Even he would struggle against Samyeong’s combined assault. This meant the stranger was stronger than him.
“I’m just someone who happened to stumble upon this filthy place.”
I answered this way for future convenience. It was best if this place was seen as having been wiped out by an unknown wanderer.
Jo Byeok tried the most basic, yet often effective, tactic.
“Do you know who stands behind me?”
I chuckled at his threat. “Does the person behind you know about this filthy place?”
Jo Byeok froze.
If Sima Qian found out about this place, it would be disastrous. The profits from here went straight into Jo Byeok’s pocket. Sima Qian would likely tear him apart.
I was smiling at him.
But you don’t know.
You don’t know how furious I am.
You have no right to exploit these children. You are less than the dirt beneath their nails.
The thought of these pure souls being trampled by someone like you enraged me. The fact that Baekpyo and his family were almost endangered by this scum infuriated me.
If I can’t protect and care for the children, the least I can do is ensure they aren’t harmed.
“What do you want? Money?”
Their imagination only stretched that far. If someone attacked a place like this, it must be for money.
When I didn’t respond, he seemed to take it as a positive sign.
“I’ll give you a share of this place. Two percent? Three percent? Whatever you want. Look at those girls!”
He glanced at the young girls, and they shrank back in fear. It was clear how he usually treated them.
“There are countless children in the martial world. And plenty of old men who want them. We could make a fortune!”
I still said nothing.
He grinned slyly. “And if a child is rescued, I’ll give you the first taste. It’ll rejuvenate and invigorate you.”
This man was the lowest of the villains I’d encountered.
I smiled slightly.
“You asked what I want?”
“Just say the word!”
“What I want… is a bit hard to explain with words. Let me show you.”
I strode toward him. Jo Byeok cursed and drew his sword, knowing I wasn’t approaching for a handshake or hug.
“You bastard! If you don’t want the chance, just die!”
Swoosh!
Jo Byeok lunged with his sword. It was a swift and deadly attack, befitting Sima Qian’s right-hand man.
I evaded the flying sword using the Crane’s Flight technique. It was distinctly different from my usual martial arts, and I executed it with clear awareness of the difference.
Allowing him a few initial moves made Jo Byeok overconfident.
“You’re nothing special!”
He unleashed his most powerful attacks.
If it were just the two of us, I might have used him for practice a bit longer, but I worried the sword energy might harm the children.
I dodged the sword aimed at my vital points and closed in on him.
Thud!
My fist spun Jo Byeok’s face around.
As he staggered, I was about to strike again when he threw something from his hand.
Whoosh!
A handful of powder was flung at my face.
Jo Byeok retreated, holding his breath desperately, indicating it was a deadly poison.
I inhaled, drawing the powder in. I couldn’t let it drift toward the children.
Seeing this, Jo Byeok smiled with satisfaction.
“You fool! Do you know what that poison is? Just one breath and your body’s energy channels will be blocked, leading to a painful death… But… why aren’t you dying?”
I laughed at his fading smile.
“Looks like you bought a defective product.”
I finally realized I was immune to all poisons. The poison was less effective than flour in hindering my fight. At least flour would have obscured my vision.
I launched myself at him.
This time, he threw a series of hidden weapons.
Swish, swish, swish!
I deflected the flying daggers with my bare hands. Three daggers embedded themselves in the wall. The technique of deflecting flying weapons without injury was part of the Crane’s Flight style.
He thrust his sword again, but it lacked the sharpness of before. He was intimidated by my skill in deflecting the daggers.
I easily dodged his attack and twisted his wrist.
Crunch!
His wrist twisted completely, bending backward.
“Aaaaargh!”
He screamed, clutching his dangling wrist.
I leaped up and struck his side with my knee.
Thud!
His pelvis twisted, and his screams grew louder.
The girls watching showed a hint of joy. Their expressions in this brutal scene revealed how much they had suffered.
Yes, this won’t heal everything, but watch closely.
Thud! Thud!
The first punch flattened his nose, and the second shattered his remaining teeth.
“Please… spare me…”
Jo Byeok pleaded with a broken voice, but it was a futile request.
Crack!
I stomped on his shin, breaking it.
“Aaaaargh!”
His scream was filled with excruciating pain.
I was inflicting as much pain as possible. I wanted the children to remember this moment clearly.
Whack!
My elbow struck his jaw. His shattered jaw dangled.
He wanted to collapse but couldn’t. My fists kept flying.
Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!
The children couldn’t see clearly due to the speed, but with each punch, a bone broke, and Jo Byeok felt the pain.
His entire body was reduced to a limp mass as his bones shattered.
The light in his eyes was fading.
I stepped back, then charged at him.
Boom!
The final blow.
Thud!
His face caved in with the impact.
He slowly toppled backward. By the time he hit the ground, he was already a cold corpse.
“Share your profits with the demons of hell.”
Of course, the profits would be in the form of divine retribution and suffering.
Then something caught my eye. A necklace around the fallen man’s neck had slipped out.
I tugged it free and examined it.
It was an arrowhead-shaped pendant, designed to open by twisting the tip.
Inside was a small rolled-up piece of paper. It contained numbers and letters, a code I couldn’t decipher.
It seemed important, so I kept it.
The girls looked between me and the corpse. Gratitude shone in their eyes when they looked at me, and satisfaction when they looked at the body.
I walked over to the table. Piles of notes, brought by the old men for the auction, were stacked on five tables.
I gathered them all and handed them to the girls.
They accepted the money with fearful expressions.
“This isn’t to forgive them. This money is yours.”
One girl pushed the money back at me.
“It’s dirty money!”
“They’re the ones who are dirty. Money is just money.”
“I don’t want it! Seeing this money will just remind me of the past I want to forget.”
She threw the money to the ground.
I picked it up and pressed it into her hand.
I looked into her eyes and spoke gently.
“No. Even without this money, the past will haunt you.”
Tears welled up in her eyes, filled with resentment.
Yes, how could anyone forget what happened here?
People can never forget even the smallest things that pierce their hearts.
“So take it. If you really can’t use it now, bury it somewhere. If you still hate it when you’re older, then you can throw it away.”
This money would help them in the future. It was a rightful and necessary compensation for the pain and suffering they endured.
The children gathered around me.
“In life, you’ll meet both good and bad people. You just happened to meet the bad ones first. But good people are waiting for you.”
I could only hope they would overcome these scars and live well. If there is a heaven, I pray it watches over these children.
I felt sorry for them. As an adult, I was deeply sorry.
Half an hour later, I watched from a distant tree as the martial alliance’s warriors escorted the people from the place.
The girls would be sent home, and the old men would be imprisoned.
Their crimes were too great to escape with money and power. My strict rules, especially regarding crimes against those who couldn’t defend themselves, like children, were unforgiving.
Ma Bong-gi might have been corrupt, but the Martial Alliance was still intact. It was the organization I had nurtured for decades. Ma Bong-gi had only been the leader for less than a year.
Sima Qian would never investigate Jo Byeok’s death. Far from investigating, he would be too busy worrying about any potential connection to himself, seething with betrayal at the thought of someone running a place like this behind his back.
With this, Baek Pyo and his family were safe.
A few days later, on a night so dark even the moon had hidden away, a man scaled the wall of the manor.
This was Jo Byeok’s secret hideout, and the man was the very one who had conducted the auction just two days prior.
He was the one who had alerted Jo Byeok about the intruder, and the only survivor among the guards that day.
After the Martial Alliance’s investigation concluded, the place had been shut down. As someone who had managed the site, he skillfully descended into the underground through a secret passage.
The main hall, with its broken tables and dried bloodstains on the floor, was a stark reminder of what had transpired.
He passed through the hall and exited through the back door, entering a room in the corridor. It was a storage space for brooms, mops, and other miscellaneous items. The floor and walls were filthy, and the air was filled with a foul stench.
The man pushed aside a stack of boxes. As he felt along the wall, it opened to reveal a door with an abacus-like mechanism attached.
He entered a code, and the door swung open.
The man grinned slyly. “Heh heh heh. It’s all mine now.”
This was the secret vault of the hideout, where money and various valuables were stored.
His satisfied smile slowly faded as he turned his head back.
His face turned pale with fear.
Because standing behind him was me.
”…Did you know I would come?”
I nodded and stepped inside.
“Jo Byeok couldn’t have come to collect the money every day.”
Jo Byeok was busy with various tasks under Sima Qian. He wouldn’t have been able to come here daily to collect the earnings.
He would have come once a month, or every two months, to gather the money.
That’s why I suspected there would be a secret place here. They needed somewhere to store the money. Naturally, someone had to be able to open it.
“He came every two months to collect the money.”
Of course. Jo Byeok wouldn’t have completely entrusted it to someone else.
“Please, spare me.”
“I already did, didn’t I?”
“What?”
“If you hadn’t been greedy and left this place, you could have lived another fifty years.”
Swish! Thud!
My sword pierced his heart.
The man collapsed, dead.
“I spared you the pain as a reward for opening this place.”
I had anticipated he would return here, which is why I was waiting. Otherwise, I would have killed him that day. Why would I let the man who conducted the auction live?
Inside were various items and ledgers. I gathered the ledgers first.
The money there amounted to eighty thousand nyang.
Eighty thousand nyang in just two months. The man must have stashed more money somewhere else.
The code in the necklace could lead to another stash, or it might be hidden elsewhere.
I packed all the money into the bag I brought.
Since this was an illegal operation, the ledgers were small denominations I could safely use.
There were also a few miscellaneous items.
There was a well-crafted box of throwing knives. They were finely made, with no maker’s or user’s mark.
I took those as well. Although I didn’t need to use throwing knives often after mastering the Crane Art, it was reassuring to carry a few for emergencies.
Next were some high-quality medicines for internal and external injuries. True to his nature, the man had stocked the best medicines. I took them all.
I had enough medicine from Ma Jeong-su’s vault for myself, so I planned to distribute these to Gwangdu and the sword unit members. They were too expensive for anyone to buy on their own.
With two hundred thousand nyang from the battlefield, my total wealth now stood at two hundred eighty thousand nyang. Nearly three hundred thousand nyang was no small sum, especially excluding the funds managed by Gong Su-chan.
It wasn’t just about the money. I had become immune to all poisons, my internal energy had increased, I had learned new martial arts, and new allies were emerging around me.
I was growing stronger.